Some Videos and Thanksgiving

So I'm adding some videos here... because they're long over due.. and Killian's just so darn cute!!!

Our Thanksgiving was eventful and quiet.... Killian's been having "vacation" with this dad this week, so he was gone from Sunday afternoon until Thanksgiving morning... so of course I was SOO happy to see him. Right after I picked him up, we went to the Turkey Trot in Appleton (a 2 mile run/walk). My dad met us there and we walked the 2 miles in 35 min... and that included quite a few stops for someone who wanted to be carried by his mama (and it wasn't my dad!). When Killian saw the small pie we received for walking, he said: "mmm chocolate pie" I said "no, it's pumpkin pie". Killian's reply: "mmm chocolate pumpkin pie" He was unable to accept a world where pies do not have chocolate in them.
After some play time at home, we headed to my moms. Killian's Gigi was there (great grandma), and he had a blast showing off :) He DEVOURED the turkey and mashed potatoes, and then sat around playing with pound puppies and polly pockets and didn't want pie. We asked, 3 times and he said "no, play".
We came home to more playtime, and finally snuggling while watching the movie UP. Some how.. I didn't get photos of this thanksgiving? Hm... but I have alot to be thankful for. Killian is of course #1 and my family. We are all (mostly) healthy, and we are all (mostly) close enough to see each other often enough. I am so thankful that I can finish school so that I can support my family and community throughout my life.

I'm excited to report that Killian's play kitchen is almost finished :) We should be finishing up tomorrow or next week. I will be posting photos of before and after when it's finished... but here's a sneak peek!:

Obviously we have to put on nobs and stove burners and we're hanging a curtain on the left side... but that's about it for this kitchen! And then we're fixing up the microwave and a fridge/freezer... All photos to come (hopefully tomorrow).

Christmas Cards

So thanksgiving is almost here, and it's my holiday tradition that the day after thanksgiving is spent decorating the house for Christmas with the family, instead of shopping. AND, soon after we put up the tree, comes CHRISTMAS CARD PHOTOS!!!! This year, I'm very excited , because Shutterfly is hosting a free 50 Christmas card gig for bloggers. I looked over their selection, and I'm excited about these cards:

In the past, I've used walgreens, but their selection is far less than shutterflys! I saw about 20 that I liked... out of 805 to chose from!! Yes... shutterfly is the way to go! My sister made calendars last year for the grandparents through shutterfly, and everyone wants another one this year! She's also getting a mug for my dad for this year for christmas. It's so great, because their shipping rates are cheaper than USPS, and since they live in Alaska, shipping is always a must. :) I'm very excited to use shutterfly this year!

Riding home...

The title of this post is because on the way home from Milwaukee today, Killian was being SO funny, and I wanted to write it down here. However, before I get into the ride home... I should probaby get into what we've been up to this week:
Pretty much relaxing and enjoying the warm weather in the first half of the week. Killian rode his bike for an hour on Tuesday, and peed on the potty on Wednesday at his dad's. (he's still not going ANYWHERE near consistently.. I think wednesday made the 4/5th total time in 5 months that he's peed on the potty.. but at least there's some progress). Thursday I didn't have night class, so we did a little plant shopping, and then went to the Fire in Appleton, to paint Salt and Pepper shakers for my dad for christmas:

 He really LOVED painting the shakers... but got upset when I wouldn't let him paint with the black paint, which I was using to write "Salt and Pepper"... It was a lot of fun though :)
Today after music class... we headed down to Milwaukee. Killian fell asleep in the car on the way down. The first thing he did in the Children's Museum was drive the "city bus"

 Then he found the car service station... here he's deciding what he wants to do:

 Then he decided to take the tires off.... with the air compressor

 He loved playing with rocks/conveyor belt... putting the rocks in a bucket, dumping it on the conveyor belt, and turning the wheel. This was 20 min. process... he loved it.

 The museum had a "mr. potato spud exhibit".. which he LOVES

 He made a doctor potato head

 Lastly, he was talking on the walky-talky in the jeep

He was sad to go... but afterwards we went to culvers to meet my grandparents and aunt and uncle and cousins. Killian loved it, because he was given TOP attention. :)

SOO... on to the title of the post... the car ride home:

First, Killian watched Toy Story, and while he watched it, he was repeating every single thing said on the movie after the characters said it... for the WHOLE movie. He even laughed when the characters laughed.
Then, when the movie was over, Killian decided to ask me to make up songs. Here were the topics:
Mary (aunt mary)
Snuggling with Mama
Dada
Stinky
Stella
Little Bear
Night-night
city bus
Making yellow
Gammie
Pick-up trucks
Water
Nemo
Dorrie
For each topic, he'd say, "mama sing a ____ song" (fill in the blank with a topic from above). I'd make up a song on the spot about the topic, and he'd quickly come up with another topic. He was cracking me up. I don't know HOW he came up with topics so fast!
Finally, right as we were pulling into our house, he burped. Then he said "suce me *excuse me*" I was so proud of his manners (which for a 2 year old is hard to remember), so I told him how happy it made me. So then he continued to "burp" (fake burping) and say "excuse me" and then say "my mama so happy!" Oh my child is wonderful <3

It's been a year...

Wow! I can't believe it's been a year since I started this blog! I have a binder FULL from the print-outs of the past year for Killian and I to read through when we're much older. :) I guess it's time to start ANOTHER binder too huh?

So what have we been up to since Halloween? Killian's been back and forth between my house and dad's house. We went to Funset for a playdate. Killian LOVED climbing through all the tubes... me- not so much. We've been relaxing alot at home as well. Last Sunday, Killian wore underwear all day! The morning he didn't have an accident- though he didn't pee on the potty either. Then for nap I put a pull-up on. When he woke up, he hadn't gone in the pull-up, so I immediately sat him on the potty. YES! He peed! Lots of praise and a toy later, he wet his pants (it was the entire day's worth of pee). THEN, about an hour later, poop in the underwear. Finally, around 5 pm, another pee accident and it was into the bath and a diaper for bedtime. I'm still thinking he won't be potty trained until 3ish. He knows what he's supposed to do, but I think he feels so uncomfortable on the potty, he won't allow himself to relax enough to go.

I've been crazy busy with school... but only 5 more weeks! And only 1 1/2 more weeks of preschool, and then I get my tuesday and thursday morning back :)

Killian and I made Turkey hand prints.. but the finger paint only made a green/blue.. so Killian kept calling them ghosts (he's still stuck on Halloween. Right around the time that he finally gets thanksgiving, we'll be talking about Christmas).

SPEAKING of christmas... I'm getting excited!!! You might remember that I give Killian a present advent calendar. So EVERY day of December he gets a small present. (YES, he's spoiled). Last year he started understanding a little after about half way through December. I have a feeling that this year he'll pick up on it quickly. :)

And on top of that, my mom and I purchased a used (PINK) wooden kitchen set. Killian got a small plastic kitchen last december from me, but he's gotten frustrated with how small it is. SO... over Thanksgiving break, my mom and I are going to do something like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mycrayonbox/3725115829/in/photostream/

I found blogs where these crafty women took old nightstands/entertainment centers and created kitchens. Well.. we're starting with a kitchen, but we're going to re-do it to make it boyish and add some neat things. :) We're also going to take a bookcase and turn it into a fridge. (DON'T WORRY, PICTURES WILL COME) :)

Halloween Weekend

We had an exciting Halloween weekend. On Saturday, we went up to Greenbay after nap, and saw my Grandma. We stopped at a park before hand:

He had alot of fun at the park. :) Then we went to "gigi"s house (great grandma... my grandma). He was excited to play with her.
After that, we went to the New Zoo for Zoo Boo and we met Killian's dad and step-mom there.

 Sitting on the lion in his bee costume

Jumping the in the jump-house in his bee costume. :)
He really enjoyed seeing all the animals again, getting candy at the zoo, jumping in the jump-house, and seeing all the scary decorations.
On sunday,  after nap Killian went to his dad's for 2 hours for trick-or-treating, then he came home with me. He was so funny... walking around to the doors saying "knock knock, trick or treat" before they even opened the door. Then when they did, and we said, what do you say killian? He'd say "candy please!"

 Mama's a beekeeper and Bean's the bee :)

 He loved the hat... so he had to wear it

 Ringing door bells... he was very happy about that, since he's normally not allowed to.

 Gammie helping Killian ring the bell.

He found leafs... so he had to stop trick or treating to jump in the leafs. :)

He was tired but had a great day! He's saying "trick or treat" and "happy halloween" all the time now. :)

My food journey

As I sit here eating lunch, I thought about how much I love whole, homemade foods. And then I thought back to myself pre-Killian. I know this is strange, but I see my life in 2 part... 1. pre-killian me and 2. Killian-me. Killian came along and suddenly all the pieces of my life fit together, and I became a vastly better person. I suddenly realized everything I want out of life, and alot of it is very different from before. Before I had Killian, I ate as cheaply as I could, with alot of processed stuff. Sure I tried "homecooking" of hamburger helper and stouffers. But I didn't put alot of thought into what I ate except for a. if it tastes good and b. if it was cheap. After I had killian, I made all his baby food, and I wanted to learn how to cook. So off I went to my grandma's house where I learned the basics... and I felt OVERWHELMED. I thought I'd never get the hang of cooking.. that having all the ingredients for recipes was hard and required so much work. I learned a few recipes and made more homemade foods, but again, they were made from traditional "american food" such as hotdogs, graham crackers, etc.
My sister had been cooking for a while, and had ventured into eating whole foods. That is.. starting with basic foods such as vegetables, flour, water, eggs, etc. and making meals instead of starting with things like hamburger helper. She was talking to me about cooking with whole foods and it seemed to overwhelming to me. I was still in my beginning stage.
Then, after I had about a year of cooking under my belt, I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it changed the way I look at food. I started eating whole, local foods. I started preserving foods, buying my meat local from GOOD farmers. I started making food from scratch, even making my own cheese (which is actually pretty simple! Don't believe me? I'll post on that later) and I can't believe the difference that I found. I feel GREAT! I don't get stomach aches, I don't have irregular bowls (unless I load up on junk), I feel good about putting food in my mouth because it's nutritious and made with love. Killian helps me in the kitchen as much as possible, and he knows more about food than an average american does now.
I urge every one to give it a try. If you've been cooking for a while, try making the change. If you're just starting out, I know it seems like I'm crazy and you'll never get there. But trust me, you will. I don't even know any other way of cooking now.
And right now, I'm enjoying a delicious homemade mac n' cheese with peas I shelled myself this summer, a bowl of strawberries I hand-picked and froze this summer. And a yogurt I made a few days ago with honey from a local farm and strawberry juice from said berries. Almost everything in my lunch (except the pasta) came from within 25 miles of my home and I feel great about it. AND it's much better for me than if I was eating kraft mac n' cheese, strawberries with no flavor from california where they were sprayed with pesticides, and yogurt made 15 days ago and filled with preservatives so I could enjoy it at my leisure. Yup, that's my food journey and where I'm at today. And I feel good about where I'm at. I feel good about the food I'm feeding Killian... knowing that I'm fueling his body with the BEST food possible.

On a last note.. here's a little tip that my Gma gave me and I'm very excited about. If you're a small family (like mine), but you like to have dessert on hand (Killian gets a chair out when we're cooking to get a cookie  from the cookie jar)... here's a tip. Make a double batch of cookie dough, roll it into a log, wrap with tin foil, and stick it in the freezer. TAH DAH! You now have frozen cookie dough (cheaper and healthier than the kind you buy at the grocery store) and you can cut off cookies as you need them. I LOVE it. Even when we make a dozen, sometimes cookies go to waste. Now they won't , and I can give Killian dessert without too much hassle. :)