My baby boy is TWO!

Can it really have been two years ago when I gave birth to the cutest little red head? Time really has gone so quickly! Jack turned two last Friday. He had no idea why every one kept saying "Happy Birthday!" to him or asking him how old he is. We didn't do anything special on his actual birthday, although he did get to stay up way past his bed time due to date group. Instead we had a little party on Sunday with some cupcakes and ice cream. Jack got some fun gifts, including home made blocks, a Racin' Ramps Garage, a Disney Cars plane and a Snow White doll. Apparently Jack's crush on Snow White is more well-known than we thought. These are the cupcakes Adam and I made. We decided to have a "manly" theme going on to maybe entice Jack away from princess dolls and Barbie movies. Adam actually made the cupcakes while I frosted them.Jack was way excited about all of his presents and all of his friends. Olivia was really funny. Whenever he opened a present (or had "help" opening a present) she would say something like "This is so exciting" and "Oh my goodness that is so fun" and was sometimes more excited than Jack was.

Here are some Jack facts for you all:

He is exactly 30 lbs and 3 feet tall.

Loves: Blocks, anything in the sky like airplanes or helicopters, swinging, going to the park, binkys, raisins, chicken nuggets, giving hugs, watching movies, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, cars, dogs (from a distance), trains and busses since they are the same thing to him, taking medicine, taking baths, McDonald's and getting into things he's not supposed to.

Hates: Having water dumped on his head, being told what to do, going to bed at night, when Olivia goes to preschool, sharing his toys (although he is getting better at this), hamburgers, anything hot (temperature, not spicy), being held down, sprinklers, being shut out of Olivia's room, salad, pretty much any sauce like ketchup or BBQ sauce, most vegetables.

Call me lazy

My new favorite little thing? A cocoa maker. Olivia was more excited about it than I was. How much lazier can I get, having a machine make my cocoa for me (well, I have to add the milk and cocoa powder)? Oh well, it's delicious and well blended... and did I mention it makes the cocoa for you?

We live on a farm...

Or at least Jack thinks we do. He is up and ready to go for the day at 5:30am every morning. Yesterday he was up at 4:30am! Seriously, even if we lived on a farm, I don't think the rooster is even up that early. The sun isn't even up! It's a good thing he is so cute or I'd have to give him away until he learned to sleep until at least 7am like his sister!

I looked online for some "advice" which turned out to be the opposite of advice. They all say to put your kids to bed early and they will sleep longer (this is what "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" says too) but for Jack that is impossible. The kid will cry and talk and sing for at least an hour after I put him to bed "early" so in actuality he is going to bed pretty late, like almost 9pm lately. Other "advice" says to put him to bed later so he will sleep later, but isn't that what I'm technically doing anyway? He is supposed to get around 10-11 hours of sleep each night, but he is getting closer to 8, and no, he doesn't make up for it with his nap. Jack has his windows covered in foil (white trash, I know, but it keeps out the sunlight for now and is obviously not working as well as it used to) and sleeps with a fan for white noise. What else is there to do?

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Has anyone else been through this? I'm tired of being tired and need some serious help!

Olivia's New 'Do

I really have not liked Olivia's hair lately. It just had no body and was so limp, even if I tried to do something with it. Even though I loved her hair long before, I also really liked it how we cut it at Christmas because it was really easy to do.

So I took Olivia to my cute friend Stacey who cut her hair sooooo cute!

Here she is before the hair cut. I asked her that morning if she wanted her hair long or short. She said she wanted to cut it like we did at Nana's house (which was where we were when we cut it short at Christmas). She also said she didn't want any "nuts" in her hair (aka "knots").

During the hair cut. It only took about 20 minutes and she was really good about sitting still and doing what Stacey told her to.The finale! It is way cute and way easy to do. Stacey added some layers so when it grows out this time it won't be as heavy on the bottom and maybe lay nicer.

The End of Summer

For me, summer always ends when school begins. And in Cleveland, I am all about fall starting. Not winter. Just fall. I love the crisp air, the smell of rain, and the cooler and non-humid air! Anyway, Adam started school the second week of August, but he was in school all summer anyway so it wasn't a big deal. Olivia, however, started preschool this past Tuesday at Onaway Elementary. She was so excited to be in preschool again. She had been asking over and over when she got to go to school again, although preschool to her is at Miss Jenn's house with her friend Ben. Once we got the phone call letting us know she was accepted into the pre-k program at the elementary, I had to break it to her that this was a new preschool with new friends and new teachers.

For those of you who don't know, Onaway's pre-k program is for kids with special needs and then they add children as "typical peers" into the program. Olivia was screened as a typical peer a couple of weeks ago. I felt like she was auditioning for something and kept telling her before she went into the classroom full of people with clipboards that she had to share and be nice to the other kids. She got into the morning class with an awesome teacher and is gone from Monday through Thursday mornings. Jack was very upset when she left and seems to not know what to do with himself when she's gone.

Olivia loves her class and is so excited to go every day. She loves playing on the play ground, eating snack, playing in the "centers" (like blocks, dramatic play, art, etc) and the fun things they color and glue and paint. Last week she came home with paint on her dress every day, but she had fun and it was washable. She also got to pick out a new backpack because every day her teacher sends home a folder with stuff they made that day as well as things for me to sign or be aware of (like picture day being the second day of school!) and her mini backpack wasn't cutting it. Her new backpack is Disney Princess (of course) and is almost as big as she is- seriously, it goes from her neck to her knees! While she's at school, Jack gets free reign of her room and all the toys, which he loves, but as soon as she gets dropped off he cries and points to her carseat and gets as giddy as a kid in a candy shop when we pick her up. Oh, and Olivia was one of the few kids who didn't cry when I dropped her off (in fact, she kept telling me to leave), but was the only one who cried when I picked her up because she didn't want to go home. She was fine after I told her that she gets to come back to school pretty much every day of her life, and I really hope this "I love school" attitude continues through high school!

Labor Day Weekend

So, off the subject, but my last post was my 100th post. For some people it's a big deal to reach that milestone. I really could care less, but for those of you who care, you can celebrate for me :)

Anyway, we had a fun Labor Day weekend. We started out with the Taste of Cleveland. Honestly, there was a point during the day that I did not think we would actually make it to the Time Warner Amphitheatre where the Taste was being held. We rode the train downtown with the Halls and Monsons and proceeded to ask directions to the amphitheatre. Online it said that it was part of Tower City so we assumed it would be easy to find. We were wrong... and so were the nice people outside the mall, the police man who pointed us in the opposite direction, the people in the restaurant, the other police man who didn't know at all where it was, the utility man and the taxi driver. Apparently no one in Cleveland actually knows anything about Cleveland. Finally we found out that after walking for almost 40 minutes in the baking sun that the amphitheatre was right outside the mall and there were even shuttle busses taking you down to it!

It was worth the fun, though. For $20 you got 16 tickets to "spend" on different things. There were over 30 vendors there and we had fun choosing what we wanted to try. Adam had a gyro, the kids got sliders from White Castle, I got a teriyaki bowl and a spring roll from this awesome place in Golden Gate Plaza (right next to Old Navy so I will totally be hitting them up for some take out!), then we got an eclair, the kids split a cake, and Adam got sushi from the place I got my teriyaki. All for $20! We also let the kids jump around the bouncy castle, bought many bottles of water, and the kids got to meet Dora and Boots. Seriously, Jack was in love. He wouldn't leave her alone and whenever he saw her again he would run to her and just stare and smile at her. The kid is obsessed. It was cute though. And Olivia had to have the chocolate cake. She saw Ben and Molly eating one and was hooked on looks alone, which was fine with me since that meant I got to eat my eclair all by myself. Another cool thing is the Air Show was going on and we got to see a lot of the action from where we were. Jack loved seeing the planes but wasn't too thrilled with the noise they made.

The kids meeting Dora. We had to peel Jack away from her so other kids could get their picture taken with her. Olivia just yelled "Look! It's Dora!" to anyone who was within earshot.

The Blue Angels in one of their formations. I would have taken cooler pictures, but I kept losing them on my camera screen to all I got was blue sky!

Jack definitely enjoyed the cake... or at least the frosting.

We also went to a BBQ at our friend's house with a ton of other people on Monday. My kids are in heaven at their house because they have a ridiculous amount of ride on toys and a slide and anything else you can think of that puts our boring little yard to shame. We then headed to the dental school where we met up with the others in our Couples Fantasy Football League for draft night. We ate some yummy food, brought some ride on toys for the kids to play with, and Adam and I (or Chandler and Monica as we are known in the league) drafted an awesome team. I think the boys need more days off of school. We had lots of fun and it was a downer when Adam had to go back to school.

Recipe Requests

I have had a couple of people ask for some recipes and I finally got some time to post them. The Broccoli Salad is for Kendra's pregnancy craving. The Veggie Pizza is for Crystal who isn't pregnant anymore but craves this now that she's had it (and I crave the salad and the pizza all the time now!)

Broccoli Salad (Essential Mormon Cookbook)

2 bunches fresh broccoli (about 1 lb), cut in small flowerets
1 medium red/purple onion, finely chopped (I use 1/2 onion)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (pre-shredded works best)
6 strips bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled
1/2 cup sunflower seeds or raisins (I use a handful of Craisins)
1 recipe Broccoli Salad Dressing (see below)

Broccoli Salad Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

FOR THE SALAD: In a large bowl combine broccoli, onion and cheese. Refrigerate (it's best cold). Just before serving, stir in bacon. Add sunflower seeds or raisins (or Craisins) if you want to. Pour desired amount of dressing over salad. Stir to combine and serve same day (although leftovers are just as delicious!). FOR THE DRESSING: Combine all ingredients and chill at least one hour before tossing with salad.

Veggie Pizza

2 pkgs refrigerator crescent rolls
**Unroll and spread on ungreased cookie sheet. Press edges together to form a rectangular crust and pat down evenly. Bake at 375 for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown (mine always takes longer, more like 7-8 minutes so just keep your eye on it). Cool.

2- 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
1 package ranch dressing mix
**Mix together and spread on cooled crust.

Veggies: (you can use any that sound good. I pick mine so there are lots of colors, but I definitely don't use all these together. I used the ones that are starred)

*1 small head cauliflower
*2 stalks broccoli
*3 green onions
*1 green pepper
10 fresh mushrooms
1 can olives
*tomatoes
*shredded carrots

Chop vegetables fairly fine (I used my food processor to make them look more like veggie "confetti" so they mixed together more). Layer in any order (I mixed my veggies together in a bowl and added it on top of the ranch mixture, except the tomatoes which I added last). Sprinkle lightly with seasoning salt. Wrap with plastic wrap and press down firmly so the veggies stay on the pizza. Refrigerate at least 8 hours to let flavors blend.

**Hope this helps any one who wanted these recipes. Even if you didn't want them, you should try them. They are so yummy and I love to bring them to BBQs and get-togethers. The pizza makes a ton and I usually double the broccoli salad recipe if I am bringing it somewhere with lots of people. Enjoy!