LET THERE BE PICTURES!!!!!!

Its not much - but Eli is 5 months old now and that realization made me break out the camera for a few snap shots!

Eli

I love bedtime at my house...not because its quiet (well maybe a little) but because I get to rock both Eli and Noah before we but them to bed. Eli just lays there looking up at me with this expectant look on his face - just waiting for me to teach him something or show him something new. He loves to reach up and explore my face while I let him grab my nose and poke at my eyes and make silly noises to him. That, of course, usually catches the attention of Noah and he just wants to come sit next to us and rock with us while we wind down for the evening.

Tonight Noah actually suggested that I put Eli down so I can go ahead and take him to bed - he MUST have been tired! Though he will suggest that I put Eli down for many things he thinks is more important! That is the main reason why I love bedtime so much - its the one time of day that I actually get to HOLD Eli without being on Noah patrol too. I sometimes wish we could bottle these times and save them forever ya know? Tatoo them to the back of our eyelids for that warm fuzzy feeling every night when we finally close our eyes for bed.

Last night I had some MOMS CLUB friends over for movie night - we talked most the night about our kids - funny how that happens. We didnt really get into a good movie but I did get really into a bottle of wine...........................it was great. It wouldnt hurt to bottle those times either! HA!

Still no pictures.....

Dont get all excited - I still dont have any pictures...

I just wanted to tell you about my very ambitious dinner. Well it really wasnt all that difficult in itself - its just the events that surrounded it that taught me a few very important lessons

1) One little oven full of smoke will completely fill up a 2200 square foot home
2) The above event will set off every smoke alarm in the house
3)Little kids really dont like smoke alarms

4) and this is the big one - I will never attempt to cook a new recipe without Kevin home to help me with the kids

It all started with some serloins that I found in the freezer - then I remembered a 20 pound bag of potatoes (yep - 20 freeegin pounds) that we bought from costco that we needed to eat - so Steak and Potatoes right?? Well - Im not a grilling machine so I went to the internet for a serloin recipe that I could do in the oven - found Alton Brown's broiling method and thought - BROIL!?!?! HECK I CAN BROIL!!! I'll JUST PRESS THE BROIL BUTTON - IT WILL BE LIKE MAGIC!! So I set myself to marinate the steaks - all with a 2 year old watching my every move from his beloved steps that he backed up to the counters so he can see whatever is going on up there. After washing his hands about 15 times from touching the raw meat - the steaks were ready to just sit for a little while and get all flavor blasted from the marinade. On to the potatoes - I wanted to scallop potatoes for a nice little change so Noah (again) watched me cut the POH-TA-TOES and had to smell almost every slice and declare it smelling good enough to fling across the kitchen floor to be licked up by the dog. Which he thought was the funniest thing to watch a dog try and lick up a flat sticky piece of potato from a tile floor. It took about half of a potato for him to get bored of that and start sticking his fingers in the butter.

So I had to turn on the TV in order to save his life

The pototoes baked for about an hour - then I hit the magic BROIL button for the steaks - Altons recipe said to put a sheet of tinfoil down on the bottom rack of the oven to catch the drippings - then place the steaks directly on the rack above it - broil for 5 minutes on each side simple enough. done....

By the way - you ever try to re-roll tinfoil after someone (not mentioning any names but Im sure you can guess) decides to UNROLL the entire brand new box of reynolds wrap? Its not an easy thing to do and apparently time consuming....First of all - it was the length of my hallway! I was impressed!

Kevin walks in from work - we start to say hello but then his phone rings - business call - of course....Kevin paces when he is on the phone so he is doing laps around kitchen talking about webpage design....and Im starting to wonder why I smell smoke...

Thats when ELI woke up and decided that being held was the only thing on Gods green earth that would even come close to comforting him - so here I am...trying to sautee onions through what looks like smoke billowing out from my oven while holding a 5 month old.

I open my oven (yes I put Eli down and yes he immediately started screaming) and expect to see flames come shooting straight for my face - but it was just smoke.....lots of smoke...I wonder if this is normal so I just flip the steaks and keep on cookin

I Pick Eli back up since Im getting the look from Kevin - ya know, the "Im on the phone please do something with that screaming kid" look....

Hold whimpering Eli and stir stir stir the onions and then the smoke alarms go off - Eli about jumps out of my arms and pinches me so hard on my neck I swear I will have a bruise tomorrow and Noah is holding his hands over his ears and I think thats when he pottied in his pants - and Kevin is still trying to talk on the phone.....sigh....

Anyway - after we had every window and door open with every fan on high - FINALLY the smoke is not burning our eyes and Noah has stopped coughing - we sit down to eat dinner. It wasnt bad...but after all that hard work stupid sauteed onions were my favorite. Im gonna have to re-read that recipe to see of the billowing smoke is part of the show - the cooking experience to add just a hint of that missing charred flavor that only a GRILL can provide....

Noah threw most of his food to the dog and only wanted to cry about playing outside - Eli loved his applesauce but then spit it all up - twice - then decided it was bathtime immediately now or we would all perish a painful firey death. So after about 4 bites of my dinner I just gave up. Kevin offered me a swig of his beer but I was thinking more along the lines of a shot of something a bit stronger.

I took the boys to the bathtub and let them declare this evening a victory.

Crazy Kids - 1
Insane Mommy - 0

Quick Update

It has happened - the very thing that we digital cameral users dread! I lost my pictures. Of COURSE my media drive went wacko on me - nothing else did - nothing else was lost - nothing but my THOUSANDS of pictures that were NOT on a flash drive or other external storage device. My first reaction was "Dont Panic" - and then I cried. HA!

Well - all hope is not lost yet. We are still going to try and take that drive to someone who may be able to save most of my pictures. So pray for me! lol

I just wanted to let you all know how the kiddo's are doing. (of course I have no pictures to post at the moment - sniffle) Eli is such a happy little guy - he just loves to be looked at and smiles SO BIG when he sees another persons face....I dont think he cares who it is as long as he gets to stare at someone he is all grins. We started some solid foods - he is taking a bit longer to get used to eating than Noah did. Eli gags on everything so far.....except peas - he loves peas. ?? Fine by me, it just makes for intersting and artful diapers. His big accomplishments are: Rolling over, belly laughing, and just being a delightful happy little baby!

Noah - the kid amazes me. He pretty much can carry on a conversation with you - about almost anything really. He will tell me that he needs more juice and that I should put Eli down to go get it for him. He will tell me that he wants to play with a certain toy and that I should put Eli down and go get it for him. He will tell me that he wants to go outside and I should put Eli down and go out with him...do we see a pattern? LOL But he loves Eli and still showers him with kisses and hugs - even when Eli is crying he will come tell me that we should go see whats wrong with him. There have been many times I may be busy and hear Eli crying on the floor and then all of a sudden its quiet - my first thought is of Noah holding a pillow over his face or something but I look around the corner and see Noah holding Eli's bottle for him or helping him replace his pacifier. Its really pretty special and we are so proud of him. :0)

Another HUGE HUGE HUGE thing for Noah is - he is WELL on his way to being potty trained!!! We had ONE tinkle accident this morning - but that was after a whole weekend of wearing a diaper while we had company - I put his big boy pants on him this morning and reminded him that we dont potty in them (or on the floor, or on his toys, or outside - YES I have to list them out like that to cover all the exceptions or they WILL be tested!) and he was good and dry all day long! AND it has been a week since he POOPED in his pants - he has made it to the toilet everyday like a PRO! WE HAVE A PRO POOPER HERE PEOPLE! And after he poops he runs out of the bathroom buck naked and announces to everyone that he pooped in the toilet and we all have to dance and rejoice. He cracks me up...

Brian, Angela, Caden and Paxton came to visit us this weekend. Caden and Paxton are around the same ages and Noah and Eli so the older boys had a BLAST with eachother. (once again, no pictures to share yet) They will be good buddies we can tell - they spent most of their time chasing each other or the dog and just had a great time being boys and doing boy things - jumping on the beds, playing in the sand box or slip n slide or swimming - it was really great! Thanks to Brian and Angela for taking the time to visit us - I know the boys had a great time and so did Kevin and I! :0)

Well, thats all for now - I have to hybernate and try to regain my energy from this weekend!