Finally FRIDAY!!

Finally Friday!!  I swear Friday should have been on Wednesday.  We've had a LOT going on, so you think it would be going fast.  We started this week with Madison getting a little cold.  It's the 3rd one in 5 weeks.  Annoys me I think more than her.  She got very stuffed up, wouldn't eat very well and naps would be in my bed propped up on pillows so she can breathe.

Monday's are laundry days so it was a good day for Madison to be a little under the weather because we weren't going anywhere.  Unfortunately she required a bit more attention than usual and my laundry finally got finished up yesterday.  And now come to think of it... poopers.  I'm pretty sure there is a load in the dryer!  Ugh!  

Tuesdays are gymnastics day!  These mornings typically start good, but don't end well.  We will be all ready to head out the door and Makenzie either ends up nudy again or Madison has pooped and needs to be changed.  This Tuesday was a poopy morning.  Quick changed it, headed outside to see that I had to brush the truck off because there was about 3-4 inches of snow on the windshield.  Great!  This would be no big deal for most, but little me (even with a snow brush) can't reach most of the windshield.  Then as I was brushing what I could reach, the wind blew the snow right back into my face and into my jacket and down my shirt.  Brr!  Then I hopped into the seat that ended up getting covered in snow.  Brr! Off we went!

Of course with our delays we got there right at ten, when it starts.  Makenzie was hesitant to head in, we had last week off for spring break, is she that set on a schedule??  A quick kiss and I love you and I walked her in the room and left.  Whew.  What a fiasco that can be sometimes.  It's a 45 min class and most of the moms sit at tables outside the room until it is done, most of them know each other and spend the time gossiping and comparing their lives.  I take Madison aside and we quietly play.  Love those moments just one on one with her.  I'm not at home struggling with the fact that I may have something else that needs to be done too.  So I can sit in peace, not worrying about a thing!

 There are two little windows for me to peek through... so we take little peeks to see what Big Sister is doing!

I think this boy was bothering her!  He was in her space a LOT!
You tell him Makenzie!!  :-)

Tuesday evening Matt worked late while the girls and I had dinner.  Boy those evenings that he works late go FAST.  By time he comes home and eats it's time to get the girls ready for bed.  Matt plays hard with Makenzie and I have definitely noticed this week that she is SO restless... bouncing off the walls.  Seriously!  (Like Seriously, Makenzie keeps saying!!)  She's going so crazy that she keeps getting hurt and it takes a good 30 seconds before she realizes that she got hurt because she is going so fast.  

Wednesday morning we headed off on a playdate!  I wanted to snap a few pictures but they have a newborn in the house so I forgot everything else :-)  I certainly am getting my baby fix lately!!  

That evening the girls and I swung by my Grandma's to pick her up and bring her to my dutch dance practice.  I figured she could watch the girls and watch us dance while Matt was at home working on painting some trim with OUT interruptions.  Practice ended up being a hoot.  As usual it seems that most of our group doesn't show up, so Makenzie came in and "helped" a bit!  Ha!  What a stinker she is.  She was catching on pretty good for a 3 year old.  Clapping and kicking her legs here and there!  I'm sure my Grandma loved watching her and she was certainly having a good time being goofy with Madison on the side lines.  

On the way home I had to stop at the grocery store for a few items while Grandma stayed in the car with the girls.  Poor Grandma... Madison gave her a run for her money, and of course it took me longer to get out of the store because they were short staffed and lines were extremely long!  It was bedtime tho and Madison was certainly ready for bed and we weren't even home.  

Thursday was a LAZY day.  We didn't get out of pj's until almost 11!  It was SOOO nice.  Although this little girl that you see right here....

decided that it was time for Mama to clean!  After a diaper change I decided she could lay nudy for awhile, she LOVES it and is SO happy.  A few mins later she pees on the floor.  Well, it's not like she's going to go again, right!  She pooped already and peed.  NOW we are good.  No, we were not good.  After I clean up the pee I go to get the camera to snap a few pictures of her backside while she was sitting up playing.  (Can't get enough of the baby bunners!!)  I take a picture and I thought I saw something out of place.  Look closer... oh yeah.  She had poo coming out of her crackers!!!  For real!?!?  Now I have POOP on my floor!  Oh goodness.  Well, now we HAVE to be good.  I get all the cleaning supplies out to clean the floor, set her off the rug.  Yup she peed again.  :-)  

While Madison napped Makenzie and I worked on letters and numbers!

Practicing writing letters.

Number time!

I asked her to tell me what numbers we have learned.  Haha,
she recited them off this way :-)  Guess the letter D was
the freshest in her memory.

We finished last night off with a church service that went past the girls bedtime. The third time in 4 days for having a late bed time.  At least naps have been good!  

My Friday morning started with this little peanut all smiles!
So we cranked out a bath in hopes to be done before Makenzie woke up.
Instead Mkz got up and climbed right into the bath too :-)

Now today is finally Friday.  I've got some major housework to do but am not going to do it.  With all this work going on inside the house its just impossible to keep it clean.  So I'm not even going to bother, as much as it DRIVES ME TOTALLY CRAZY!!!  We are going to play, paint, play outside and then have dinner tonight with my cousins.  Should be a fairly relaxing day... IF I put my blinders on to my house :-)

Spring? Or Winter? Does anyone know?!

What cRaZy CrAzY weather we are having!!!  Saturday we were watching the neighbors working in their yard pulling out their lawn mowers starting some spring yard clean up.  Makenzie cruising around on her tricycle when a nice spring rain started followed by a small thunderstorm.

Sunday we had a cookout and were OUTSIDE playing in the yard and eating.

Tonight.  It's snowing.  Windy and snowing.  For real.

Saturday & Sunday Shinanagins

It's 8:45, Sunday night, it's raining... really raining!  I absolutely love it.  The smell of spring rain, the sound!  Perfect.  

I am TIRED.  We had SUCH a busy week last week, followed by a very busy weekend!  Seems like all week I've been one direction with the girls and Matt's been elsewhere.

My crazy husband and brother in law got up extremely early Saturday am to go fishing.  By extremely early I mean they were leaving by 4 am!!!  4 AM!!!  I definitely wasn't too thrilled about him going.  Why?  Because that boy needs his sleep... if he doesn't get it he turns into a cranky zombie.  And two, being a zombie on the roads just makes me really nervous.  Well, he didn't come home with any fish, and he wasn't cranky!!  Lose/ Win, I guess.  (Or win win for me because I don't like fish).

While Matt was fishing I headed over to my parents house.  My Dad was making omelets and whoa, that's just not something you want to miss out on!  Mom also had stuff all set up for us to do some egg decorating.

THEN, I packed the girls up and quickly headed home to get them fed and changed into their Easter clothes for pictures to be taken.  We had an appointment just after lunch to have their pictures taken with a bunny and baby chicks!!  Off we went to that!

Perfect time to kick back and gnaw on her shoes!

Boy was that cute!  Typical fashion for these two, they totally clam up when someone new comes along.  Both had such serious faces I couldn't get them to hardly crack a smile.  They had the cutest little bunny next to them and baby chicks hopping around... SMILE!!  Nope.  The photographers looked and me and asked me if I could get them to smile.  Well yeah, I thought, if you guys left!  I gave it a try, didn't happen.  I thanked them and went to go pick up my girls and boom... they were smiling!!  Take it Take it!!  One of the photographers yelled.  I haven't seen the picture yet, but they said they got the girls and part of me :-)  Great, thankfully they can edit me out. 

Once we got home I put Madison down for a nap and Makenzie in front of a movie so I could find my kitchen again.  Totally not kidding... my counters had disappeared!  Major attention was needed.  As I'm rushing in there, Matt working on the trim, Madison wakes up after just a half hour of sleeping.  Pooper.  It took all afternoon to clean that kitchen up and by time it was clean I had to make dinner and it got messy again.  :-/ 

As I'm wrapping up dinner I call Miss Makenzie back home, she was next door at the neighbors making mud pies.  Holy Moly Miss Makenzie!!!! 
 

 

She was NOT happy about me taking the pictures!!  LOL, loved how she had to walk with her hands way out in front of her.  She told the neighbors that it was a good thing I am good at laundry!  Oh boy. 

Sunday morning was interesting!  During church Madison had a major spit up which went all over the pew in front of us.  I totally panicked!  I rushed to get wipes out and it all cleaned up before the people in front of us sat down.  Ek!!  Then Matt ends up spilling his coffee mug!!  Boy oh boy. 

After a quick lunch, Matt and Makenzie went to work on taking more trim down and putting more trim up!

 

Finally, the weekend ended with a burger fry in celebration for Matt's Mom's birthday! 

All the kids were busy running around the yard, kicking the ball, hitting the ball with the bat.  Balls were flying everywhere... haha!  The boys were here!!  We were trying to win the race against mother nature and of course as soon as the burgers were done the rain started.  7 kids in that family,  6 running around playing... just LOVE to watch that.  So good to have them all around and seeing all the cousins chasing each other playing ring around the rosie and the siblings chatting!  The rain pushed us in, but didn't dampen the mood.

 

Like I said busy weekend.  L    O     N     G  post huh?  ;-) 

This is for you Matt!

Last week we bought a laptop.  Something that I have been on almost every evening since then and my husband has not seen a new blog post.  So... this one's for you babe!


Here's a quick update on what's going on at our house!

-  We are under construction!!  Trim throughout the WHOLE house is being taken down and replaced as well as all interior doors.  Typical us fashion... we are doing it ourselves.  Matt mostly... I get all the grunt work :-D  Just joking.  (Kind of)  Spent two hours sanding window frames and an hour priming.  Not the fun-est (new word folks!) way to spend your afternoon childless. 

We started with a closet we turned into a mudroom... here is an almost finished picture:

- Madison is 8 1/2 months!  Where in the heck has the time gone!?!?  Really!?!?!  Friends of ours had a baby yesterday and she looks like a GIANT compared to little Hensley!  Madison has had a major change over the past few weeks.  I can walk out of a room without her crying and she has been very very playful!!  Loving it.  We are getting lots of laughs AND she is pert near sleeping thru the night!

- Our mountain of snow on the side of our house is ALMOST gone.  We shoveled and raked the rest of our snow banks away.  I have tulips starting to pop up!  Spring is here!!! 

- Makenzie and I planted seeds to start our garden last week in a mini greenhouse hubby got me for Christmas.  Everything is popped up and growing already!

-I swear I have been doing endless laundry.  What's up with that?? 

- I had 5 post typed up and ready to go onto the blog that I had saved on my thumb drive!  Something happened and my thumb drive broke and I lost everything on there...  that made me really really sad.  And MAD!!  And to be honest I really don't want to retype them.  :-/

Time for bed!  Matthew, hope you enjoyed this, even though you already know all this!

Go Fish!!

Few Saturdays back we dropped Miss Madison off at my mom's house, picked up my dad, and the 4 of us (Matt, Dad, Mkz & I) headed out ice fishing again.  We were going to a lake that my Dad grew up on and I spent a good chunk of time at as a kid as well.  It's been a long time since I was out there so I was anxious to see it!

(Not the greatest pic with my phone but you can see shanties to the
left and right, golf cart in the center!)

Last time we went fishing we were the ONLY ones out on the lake.  This time there was a village out there!!  Never seen anything like it!  Those little ice fishing houses were popped up all over the place, people were walking all over, there were snowmobiles, quads, golf carts everywhere.  How cool!?!?  People were grilling out there even.  I was telling Matt if we had some of those toys I could stay out there all day... grilling on the ice sounds like a ridiculous amount of fun, we could do breakfast food then lunch.  Most of the ice shanties had portable heaters in them to warm up a bit (not that I was cold because we were so bundled up). Cruise around on the snowmobile for awhile, socialize with others, catch fish!

Makenzie was in charge of picking out a spot.  Which got poo-pooed by Matt & Grandpa twice.  Seeing as how we only caught two fish right at the very end... I think you boys ought to listen to Makenzie next time!!

We packed lunch so we could have a wintery picnic on the ice.  My dad had this handy heating cushion that would warm up when you sat on it.

 

Slow day.....  kind of like last time... Matt caught a little dinky fish and I soon caught a little dinky fish after that.  But as usual... we had fun!

 

St. Patty's Day!

Two years ago we were packing up our old house getting ready to move.  We had all the windows open, were picnicking on our deck, 15 month old Miss Makenzie was happily wandering around and had just learned how to open the doors to let herself out! She was wearing a green & white plaid shorts overalls outfit, still totally bald.  This was the first time that she was able to walk outside by herself since learning to walk and had a LOT to explore.   The temperatures were in the 70’s and low 80’s.  That was so cool to have a brief “summer” before we left that house!  And certainly nice to use that huge deck!!

Flash forward two years…
We still have LOTS of snow around… the high was in the 20’s!  We stayed inside all day. We are in a new house, which we are looking to do some remodeling in.  Makenzie has hair now… not a lot… but some.  (A little less since attempting to cut her hair a few weeks ago.)  She dressed herself in green: tinkerbell pj pants with a dark green sweatshirt!  It was laundry day, while I was advancing the laundry she was “playing” with baby #2.  Really, she was trying to carry her to put her in the laundry basket to push her around.  She dropped her.  Madison was ANGRY, which I don’t blame her one bit.

We had a leprechaun sneak into our house and got into some trouble.  Our milk was green… and so was our cottage cheese!!

Makenzie almost didn’t want to eat her cereal because she wanted to keep the green milk!  She was pretty excited to say the least.  When she saw Madison’s milk she was pretty disappointed that her milk wasn’t green too…. Sorry hunny!  Haha, Mama doesn’t make green milk!  We would probably have some serious problems if that happened!

At the beginning of the month we made a sensory bin of “Leprechan’s Clover Seeds & Leprechan Gold”.  We had 24 lettered clovers that were hidden in there that Makenzie had to find.  Then she had to match them up.  She loves playing in it and she’s learning too!  Win win!  Even Madison got to play in the seeds and LOVED it.  It made a gigantic mess…. But she loved it       . 

Honey Dijon Chicken

I've now made this dish a few times and have got to share!!  It is SOOO yummy and one of those meals that taste like you put a lot of effort into it, but really didn't!  It's low fat and has a good chunk of honey in it which is full of antioxidants, that help boost your immune system.  Can't go wrong!

Honey Dijon Chicken, Lemon Garlic Asparagus and Baked Sweet Potato

Honey Dijon Chicken:  (Baked or Crockpot)

Ingredients

3/4 Cup Honey
1/3 Cup Dijon Mustard
2-3 teaspoons of curry powder (depending on how much you like it!)
6 Tablespoons of Melted Butter
Dash of Salt & Pepper
Sprinkle with Red Pepper Flakes (totally optional, yes mom, I did add this when you had it!)

Bag of Chicken, bone in breast, I think it's 3-4 lbs worth.  I got 8 pieces ;-)

(I don't totally thaw the chicken before I start working with it!  Just enough to where I can pull up the skin and pour some of the marinade between the breast and skin.)

Directions

Place chicken in 9 x 13 baking dish bone side down. If you remove the skin or are doing boneless chicken pour marinade over all the chicken.  If not.... use tongs to pull the skin away from the breast and pour some marinade in each pocket you've made!  Once you've done that to each breast, pour the remaining marinade over the top.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and let marinade for at least an hour!  (I typically throw mine right in the oven to finish thawing and set the delay start timer on the oven.)

Bake 375 for 45 mins WITH FOIL ON! 

After 45 mins of baking, pull foil OFF and continue for another 30 mins. You could make this in a crock pot too.  But you won't get a nice crispy top like you do if you bake it.  BUT I am sure it would still taste just as good.


This makes great leftovers too... enjoy!