five years and counting

i'm prefacing this with an apology. my posts have been very very light on the photos lately... my camera is on its last leg and frankly i'm just not excited about using it.... while out of town i used one of chris's new cameras but he doesn't have the images off of it yet so i don't have anything to share.... however even that camera was giving us fits too.... so hopefully some of my photos came out and i'll be able to share them very very soon.

next up: your regularly scheduled blog.....

we're back! our weekend without the kids was spectacular! i missed them heaps but really enjoyed the much needed couple time. we hiked, we relaxed, we ate, we talked (and were not interrupted 27 times during one sentence). it was glorious!

here's a link to where we stayed, it's got the hokiest name ever.... it's called the love nest but we prefer to call it the awesome nest! the awesome nest has a hot tub, a queen sized bed, pool table, fire place, deck, full kitchen and positioned on a very private lot and only sleeps two. it was perfect. it was tastefully decorated and not cheesy in the least bit (as the name might suggest). the owners were very helpful and stayed out of our hair and only helped when needed. we think they lived on the property too but it was a large chunk of land so we never saw or heard from them.

we left thursday around 1 pm and headed to the hocking hills area located just south of columbus, near to athens (ohio u.) and south of lancaster. the drive took us nearly 4 hours, due to a little traffic near lancaster it was about 4:30 and was rush hour i suppose... once we got there, we checked in with the owners and asked about a quick pizza place. we placed our order then had to drive about 15 minutes to pick it up (no delivery to the awesome nest). we also grocery shopped at a nearby local grocery store. we picked up some steaks and veggies for dinner on saturday, some breakfast foods and some munchies.

we got back to the awesome nest, ate our pizza and decided to relax in the hot tub. something we had both been looking forward to for a while. ahhhhhh, it was so enjoyable!

the next day we got up, had some breakfast, took a quick dip in the hot tub and headed out for our day of hiking and exploring. first we headed to cantwell cliffs state park, it was very pretty, the fall color was sorta dull since a lot of their trees had turned then they had a few hard frosts and the color fell but there was still some green left... within the time that we were there, the green leaves turned and were gorgeous by saturday afternoon. after this small hike we headed to the town of logan ohio, it's a small historic town, lots of antiques and a few places to eat. we ate at the spotted owl, we had some good wraps, pretty tasty.

after lunch we headed to rockbridge nature preserve. it was a short hike in until we saw a natural rock bridge that we could actually walk on. quite amazing and not something that you typically see in this part of the country verses oh lets say utah... granted it wasn't as spectacular as natural bridges utah but it was still pretty amazing for southeast ohio.

the weather started to get cloudy and we knew that it was supposed to start raining. so we headed on to our next destination, cedar falls state park. the falls were dry, i guess they had a very dry summer.... the area was very pretty though. it started to drizzle a bit while we were there. on our way to our next stop, it started to full out rain. our next stop, ash cave state park. we put on our coats, had a snack under the back hatch of our jeep and started to walk the path to the cave. wow! what a sight! a huge cave, rock overhang that made a perfect rain shelter. we were only one of a few other families there. the cave was huge though and really could have provided shelter for more than 150 people. the view out of the cave was beautiful too, the color was just perfect, and it was raining. it was really great!we hiked up to the top of the cave, it was very pretty up there too.

we then left the area, so that we could head back to our awesome nest, to get cleaned up for dinner. we had reservations at the grouse nest for 6:30. the grouse nest is a very nice restaurant tucked into the country side and part of hocking hills resort about a 45 minute drive from our cabin but very close to the last attraction that we had just seen.... so we drove a bit much that day and back tracked but it was worth it. we both had venison meatloaf with a sweet potato and veggie of the day which happened to be mushrooms that were picked on the resort property. man was it gooood!!!! it's not every day that you see venison meatloaf on a menu. we headed back in the rain for a soak in the hot tub.....

the next day we had set aside for just relaxing. we had planned on not leaving the cabin and it's property. however the day was gorgeous, it had cleared and it was a bright and sunny day. we decided to head out to see a few other sights that we wanted to catch before we left the area. we had a late breakfast, then headed to old man's cave state park.... however, before we got there we passed rockhouse state park, so we stopped. i'm so glad that we did! this was my favorite sight of the weekend. it's a cave that has a few small slot entrances to a totally secluded "house". it looks out into a ravine. and it absolutely amazing! the hike takes you from the top rim down a path down some steps that have been carved out of the existing rock in the hill side. there are steps all around this area that we believe were carved and created during the great depression by a group called the Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.). apparently during the depression, in an effort to keep people employed the government employed people to do manual labor at the parks, thus creating some amazing rock architecture. the C.C.C. still exists today but in a bit of a different structure. they still maintain the parks but they use wood instead of rock. a bit less back breaking i suppose. regardless the rock structures are just amazing! i plan on doing a bit more research on the c.c.c. and the service they provided to the area.

after rockhouse we headed to old man's cave. again a huge system of rock carved steps and tunnels. truly amazing and beautiful.

after old man's cave we headed back to the cabin, we relaxed for a bit in the hot tub then cooked our steaks, asparagus and salad. then relaxed a bit more in the hot tub and watched the stars.

sunday morning we knew it would be clear, so we set the alarm for 7 am, (before the sunrise), made some coffee, and enjoyed it in the crisp morning air in the.... hot tub. a bit of a reoccurring theme here huh? it was so enjoyable!

after the sun came up, we had breakfast, cleaned up and headed home. our drive home took only 3 hours. we then stopped at my parents to pick up the kids, we missed them terribly! they missed us too but apparently were very good little boys. they slept well and ate well too. and no one had any problems :)

i feel so much more relaxed and refreshed since taking our little break. i love my kids dearly but i think we ALL needed a little vacation from each other. however seeing the families there with kids were were about 7 yrs old and up seemed to be having so much fun exploring with their kids. i can't wait for that! i hate to feel like i'm wishing life away but really, that's going to be a fun time!

gha! an overdue update.

i've been soooo out of the loop for the past two weeks. i had a bit of a meltdown with my laptop, it's been in the shop for a week and a half.... plus i was just super duper busy prior to that happening thus, no update for.... oh my god, almost a month.... so sorry!

well, gosh, since sept 17th, i really can't even remember what all we've been up to.... that's horrible. well, with a quick glance back at my calendar for the past few weeks i see that a whole lot of nothing interesting has been happening but a whole lot of working has been taking up a lot of our time. and really that's not going to stop for the next two weeks.

chris has a photographer/friend coming to stay with us this saturday through thursday, he's going to be doing some presentations and will have an photo exhibit while here. this all means that we'll have a house guest, first one since my good friend valerie stayed with us when i had my baby shower (while pregnant with max)! so i need to get some things done around the house before he gets here saturday, we still aren't sure of his arrival time.... he then will be staying with us until the following thursday, which coincidentally is the same day that chris and i leave for our little 3 day vacation without the boys!

we're headed to hocking hills ohio to stay in a little cabin in the woods. we'll be relaxing, hiking, eating, relaxing hot tub style, relaxing, sleeping, eating... and basically just getting some much needed couple time. we can't wait and have been counting down the days since the beginning of october. (full review to follow)

as for knitting, FLS is in a bag in the corner... i have a small mistake that i need to fix on the 1st arm, it's not hard, but i need brain power to fix it, and that's something i'm laking these days. i really want to take it to ohio with me, finished... i need to get going on this. i also bought an extra ball of yarn for her, the arms would have been a bit too short without it.

i also attended a workshop provided by Yarns Unlimited, Jared Flood was the presenter. it was really fun and very inspiring. it was also great fun to get together with two good friends and have some good greek food for lunch too! i plan on using the techniques that he discussed on a sweater for chris. although i will probably not be starting that until after the holiday season. maybe a bit before if he's lucky.

for the past few weeks, little things will happen with the kids and i'll think, 'ooh i have to blog about that' or 'this'. i never kept a running list (must start listing these thoughts) and now i can't remember most of them.

one of them is that max has started to sing, he's always sorta singsonged a bit but he has recently started to sing the theme song to bob the builder, it's super cute. he also sings his abc's, but it sounds more like "bee dee dee" lol, it's funny. he's very interested in letters and numbers and writing too. he has a small doodle pro and his drawings recently went from be swirly curly circles to little symbol-like/letter-like scribbles. he knows that letters make words and is really into the tv show Super Why! on pbs. in fact it's actually slowly taking over his love for curious george, george is his old stand by and good buddy and he still asks to watch that show but there is so much more to learn in super why so i've been suggesting that in place of george and he is happy to watch.

andy, well, let's see, teeth 5 & 6 have emerged. number 6 is actually still emerging but i think that it's broken the skin but i just can't quite feel it. i expect to be able to tomorrow or friday. he's been a biting fool. shoulders, knee caps, fingers, legs, noses, cheeks, really anything that he can! it's pretty funny. he's also cruising.

the weather has been perfect, fall is upon us! i just love all the color outside and the kids love to watch the leaves fall to the ground. max exclaims, "uhno!" and andy watches in wonder. this is an amazing time!

hmmmm, not sure what to put here

how's about a list?

1. i'm obsessed with facebook these days. in the past two weeks i have found (or they have found me) two roommates from slippery rock. one i had totally lost contact with. the other reads this blog regularly (hi carrie!) and has a hard time replying to emails (*wink*) so it's great to be able to see what's up in her life with her and her FOUR kiddo's! it's no wonder she doesn't have time to email! glad we're back in touch!

2. i cleaned out my knitting stash. it wasn't totally overwhelming or anything but nothing was organized and i had patterns just strewn all through my knitting basket in the living room, lost in the half dozen totes that i use to transport my knitting. needles were out of their cases and just not organized at all. i put everything into ziplocks and now it somehow takes up half the space as it did before. yay! i also logged all of my needles on ravelry and printed out the little needle chart to put into my purse so that i don't buy duplicate needles AGAIN....

3. i've stalled out on feb lady sweater. i think my lack of organization was contributing to that... i need to sit down with her again. i'm making a date with her tonight! i hope i stick to it! it's nearing sweater weather and really i could have used her these past few mornings.... i need to get knitting.

4. max had a cold last week.... i had thought it was allergies but now that andy is a cranky pants with a boggerific runny nose, i'm now convinced i was wrong. sorry if we made anyone sick at playdates... it's apparently a very slow moving cold since it's been a week and a half since max started to show symptoms. and andy is just today showing signs of this cold. poor kid starts to cry before his little butt even touches the carpet when i go to set him down... ugh... i have yet to get it and same with chris.... which totally sucks because even if i would have caught it prior to andy then i could at least be giving him some antibodies through nursing and his go at it might be a little bit better but... what can ya do?

5. coffee. i'm obsessed! i don't know why i never realized this before but coffee can make a totally shitty day (read: cranky kids makes a cranky mama) turn into sunshine and puppydogs! i'm serious! i've found that most days by mid afternoon, i'm totally done with being a mom. my kids make me crazy and i have considered running away (ok, we all know i won't follow through so don't report me). but if i have some coffee, i'm a completely different person! i have energy to deal with whining and crying and multple shitty diapers within an hour! it's great! it doesn't seem to mess with andy and his sleeping either so that's a great thing! i've been on this iced hazelnut latte kick! i have hazelnut coffee, i brew an entire pot, use some of it that day then save the rest in the fridge for the rest of the week. i pour it over a lot of ice, mix in a bit of milk and hazelnut syrup and i swear it tastes just like i've stopped at my local coffee shop and spent $4 for the same thing! but really i've spent about $.30! woooo!!!

ok, i'm off to clean up the kitchen aka disaster area and do a little bit of photo work.

makin' baby food

ok, so the title of this post is cracking me up and really could be taken a FEW different ways....
1. makin' baby food - bow chicka bow wow... i guess this would be maybe strawberries, whipped cream and champagne maybe some dark chocolate syrup, cherries... ok, you catch my drift right?
2. makin' baby food - not a pretty picture here but making food out of babies... you know the kind of babies that you could just eat up because of their cuteness right? err....
3. makin' baby food - just what it says. making baby food. food for babies!

this post will be about option number three :)

i've ventured into the rhealm of making baby food, heehee.... i didn't make pureed foods for max, i just bought jarred and felt the convenience was priceless. one it was easy to crack open a jar, feed the kid and even make an outing out of going to the grocery store on a weekly basis for more jarred foods (we could only fit one weeks of jarred foods in our cupboard). well, these days running to the store every week with two babies for jarred baby food isn't so convenient. so i've opted to just keep a small stash of jars on hand for out of the house feedings but make my own and freeze it from fresh veggies from our garden, farmers markets and the grocery store.

wowee is it fun! i documented my last batch "P Dub style" for your viewing pleasure. this batch is carrots, i've done sweet potatoes, zuchinni and sumer squash too. but carrots are soooo pretty and i just really wanted to catch their beauty and share it with you. so enjoy!

i purchased these carrots (with their pretty green tops on i might add) from the ambridge farmers market. they were a $1 a bunch and for whatever reason i only got one bunch.... while chopping i tasted a raw piece, i stopped dead in my tracks, turned to andy and told him, "andy, you are ONE lucky baby, these are the best damn carrots mommy has ever tasted!" i plan on heading back to the farmers market next week to try to score some more of these.... they were just fantastic! and really were how carrots are supposed to taste! no further text is needed, this is how it's done folks!


once into the ice cube trays, i wrap in saranwrap and freeze then i pop them out of the tray and into a ziplock. this will be about 5 meals... sadly. i really should have picked up more than one bunch. also for a ratio tip, i learned that one large sweet potato makes up one tray as well. next time i'll be doing two at a time...

also, i have found the greatest invention of our time, the mesh feeder! ha! with max i saw these things in the stores and immediate thought, yuck, what a mess this would be, who would use one of those? well, this time around, i thought what the heck and threw caution to the wind and bought one so that andy can enjoy some farmers market cantaloupe on his own. he LOVES it! i do too! it's more than a way for him to "eat" or suck on something but it's a fun toy! i filled this with a nice juicy piece of fruit for him, put him in his high chair in the kitchen and made his baby food and he was happy as a little clam the entire time! impressive! look how cute he is:

happy (belated) birthday little man

i'm soooo behind!!!! i can't believe that a week and a half have already passed since my little man turned TWO! yay max! you're TWO! he can say two, in fact he knows one, two and three and can hold up that many fingers when asked! (but only when he feels like it). he's also learning his letters and knows a handful, mostly m, a & x but also knows d (for daddy of course).

he's growing like crazy too, he's into larger sneakers and has almost grown out of his summer sandals. thank god because they are quite stinky these days....

we had a small party for him, it was just family. his big gift from us was a really cool train set. the kind with the wooden tracks and the little magnetic cars. he loves to play with it and was super excited when he opened it. he loves choo choo's :)


i also ordered a YUMMY cake from my neighbor who bakes cakes as a side business. she brought us cupcakes when andy was born and man oh man were they outstanding!!!! so i ordered the same chocolate batter and buttercream icing for max's cake and was NOT disappointed. i had her put curious george on it for max since he LOVES his "georgie".

max got some fun new toys to play with, one new itemis play-doh. we had a few tubs already but when we tried to play with it about 6 months ago, max was still wanting to just eat it. so i put it away... well, we got the new stuff out the other day and this is what we did:


so much fun! i haven't played with play-doh in forEVER! max enjoyed it too, i got some cookie cutters out and we made stars and snowmen and kitty cats and moon's and all sorts of fun things, then i built an actual snow man and then pink worm. max likes to watch me work the play-doh, he's not quite into doing it all himself yet.... but that's soon to come i'm sure! his favorite thing to do is to get it out of the tub and then put it back in. over and over and over again...

overall it was a nice day, i took it easy food wise, i ordered a sandwich ring and made two salads, an Asian coleslaw salad from annie's cookbook and a fruit salad with all sorts of fresh summer fruits in it. everything was tasty and super easy! which is how i like everything these days :)