toddler tip of the day....

sorry daddy, no pics today! we had a super busy day of running all over the place, and the camera sat on the kitchen counter untouched!



so today i will share a quick and easy toddler tip that has transformed our mornings. The girls are EARLY risers. The usually make their way over to our room around 6 a.m. For several weeks when we first got to colorado it started to get earlier and earlier, and we were seeing 2 smiling faces standing at our bedroom door at the ridiculous hour of 5:30 a.m. Finally, enough was enough, and we had to do something to maintain our sanity.

Cris (aka super hero daddy), connected their lava lamp to a simple outlet timer from home depot. The lamp comes on at 7 p.m. every night, and turns off at 6:15 every morning. if they wake up and the lava lamp is on, they have to stay in bed. if the lava lamp is off, they know they can come over to our room. it is a genius master plan, and we we are really on our game we change the timer to 7 a.m. on the weekends!!! ahhhh...sleep is a beautiful thing. and they actually seem to like the system because it helps them grasp what time it actually is.



well, today was busy. this mama is tired. Had a nice day at work. saw some very cute and sweet little pregnant ladies, then came home to 2 excited little girls who were VERY happy to see their mom. We headed over to our tuesday night run club at Jack Quinn's Irish Pub. I have been very diligent about running with the run club on Tuesdays. Not only do i appreciate the motivation to run 3.5 miles every week, but i also get a FREE Jack Quinn's t-shirt after 10 runs. And as Grandma Kavanagh alway said "whatever is free, take lots of it" (that is a little inside joke for my youngstown college buddies!). but cris can attest that i live by this motto of Grandma Kavanagh (who i am not even remotely related to, for the record). I particularly annoy my handsome husband by enjoying every single free sample at Costco during our shopping trips. ahhhh i am laughing to myself just thinking about cris grumbling as we fight through the crowds of carts to get that tiny bite sized microwaved philly cheessteak sandwhich. haha.



anyway, back to the events of the day. 2 weeks ago Laura and I braved the afternoon colorado rainstorm to complete our run. then last week it was 97 degrees, then this week, we were back to rain. but i bundled the girls up, and ran anyway, and it was great. Pushing 70 pounds of toddlers for 3.5 miles is not fun, BUT, i do enjoy the weekly run. I especially enjoy the running motivational narrative from Nova. "Are we going to win it today mom? Are we? I think we can win it. You are doing some SERIOUS running today, mom. great job.". However, as we started coming up the big hill about 2 miles into the run, she started into "mom, you have to run SUPER FAST or we are not going to win. i'll show you". So out of the stroller she comes, she sprints for all of about 20 seconds, just to demonstrate how i am SUPPOSED to be running, and then hops back in the stroller and cuddles up in her beloved "brown blankie" and gets back to the motvational speeches. ahhh....sooooo much fun!!! :)



anyway, i am off to bed, then wake up and do it again!

the new norm (again!)

after i wrote the title of this post..."the new norm"....i realized how many "new norms" we have had over the last 3 years! haha! so, i gues this is technically the new, new, new, new, new norm!

Today was our first official day with daddy in hawaii and mommy back to work....and the verdict is.....i think we are going to be able to pull this off!



juneau and i spent a little time working on her reading after i got home from work today. She learned the word "the" today, and then was able to read, and then write the entire phrase "cat in the hat" with very little help! she was VERY pleased with herself! Now it is MY turn to take pictures of the girls skyping!! They have been SUPER excited to skype with daddy. and i am SUPER excited to have a skype connection that actually works (it got a little old to get cut off every 30 seconds in afghanistan!). Cris took the computer all over the house with him, and the girls absolutely loved getting to see their bed, and their toys, and their dogs! Daddy found one of their favorite books (a gift from the Alfords) called "Nova the Robot", and cris read it to them over skype! they had a blast!

Helping daddy read the book via the webcam!

so....we we are off and running with the year. hoping for a smooth 2 months until we all head to hawaii for a good long visit in October!

aloha daddy

well, we have survived the first 48 hours without daddy. it's a rough transition. not only do these girls adore their daddy, but they have such a special and unique relationship. Cris has been the primary caregiver for the last 2 years, and it was really, really hard to send him to Hawaii alone this weekend. I think it was probably a good thing that he had a 6 a.m. flight, which meant he caught a 4:30 a.m. shuttle from the airport hotel, so we didn't have to have a traumatic airport send-off.

we spent the day in denver on saturday, and checked out the Denver Botanic Gardens....which were really amazing.

Saturday night at about midnight Nova started crying, and when i went into her room she just said "look, mom!", and pointed to their bed.....and a giant pile of partially digested spaghetti noodles. She had perfectly aimed her vomit to be sure that both of their mattresses were involved in the mess.....so i tossed nova in the shower, transferred the girls to my bed, and stripped their beds. Nova had been in my bed for about 45 minutes, when round 2 of the spaghetti vomit made it's appearance. At which point i realized my novice mom mistake....no vomit protection in the clean bed. I tried to catch the spaghetti in my cupped hands, haha, which did not go well, so now my bed, nova, and myself, are all covered in puke. So back to the shower, stripping and remaking my bed (now thorougly covered in giant beach towels), and back to bed. poor little thing couldn't fall back to sleep, so we snuggled for a few hours until she finally drifted off.

Not sure if she caught a little virus, or if it could possibly be the fact that i had caught her ealier in the day drinking out of a baby bottle that she had filled with water from the wading pool that had been standing in the sun for 2 weeks and had bird feathers (and i'm sure LOADS of bacteria) floating around in it.... (i know!!! just the thought of that makes me want to vomit right now!!!) We'll just chalk that one up to beefing up her super-human immune system :)



so, enough puke talk!!! on to the pictures.



The girls were the lucky recipients of this super cool jeep that one of our friend's kids had outgrown and passed on to us. They definately grasp the concept of the gas pedal, but steering still needs a little work!

Do you see future 16 year olds in this picture??!

later this afternoon we headed over to our little local park for some "energy expenditure" before bed. The park has a ton of sand, which makes nova really happy!

Gogurt always hits the spot! The girls have been having a blast on their tricycles lately. I have been trying hard to get them to use their new balance bike, but they are still pretty obsessed with the trikes...we will keep working on the transition!

super busy work week ahead. A full week of clinic, then 12 hour shifts all weekend :( But once i gt the crazy work week out of the way, it is off to Ohio for my little sister's wedding!!! Can't wait to see the Ohio fam!

crazy but fun....

i thought Laura might think i was just a TINY bit crazy, when i brought up the idea of taking the girls to the "Pixie Class" at the roller rink today. Luckily, Laura is just as crazy as i am, and thought it was a great idea! haha!! so, she loaded up the girls, and bravely headed to the roller rink. and it was a success!!! :)

Don't you just love the classic roller rink carpet!!! It apparently took a while to figure out how to keep her legs from getting all twisted up... Nova seemed to think the best technique was to just shamelessly cling to the wall.

There were clearly some spills taken!

But they caught on!!!!

By the end of the day, Nova seems to have mastered the "Squat and roll"

And they evne tried the Limbo bar!

I think they were pretty wiped out by the end of the morning!

Can you tell that Nova adores "Miss Laura"?

Juneau told me "mom! they even knew that i LOVE the Lion King because they played Hakuna Matata for me!"

Finally, I have to finish off this post with my new very very favorite thing. I REALLY want this amazing globe chandelier. There is a perfect spot in our house for it, and hopefully Cris is prepared for me to be collecting vintage globes (i need 15!) so he can figure out a way to string them up in some sort of fancy chandelier arrangement :) isn't it cool?!

weekend getaway - Boulder!

We are running out of time around here! I feel summer's clock ticking quickly....I am anxious to squeeze in lots of summertime fun before our first snow fall! Also, this is the last weekend before Cris officially heads back to the Aloha state, so we really have to cram in some super fun over the next week!
Juneau is totally down with the idea of cramming in lots of fun!!! the best part of any hotel stay is jumping on the bed! love all that shiny black hair!!! :)

We (and by "we", i really mean cris and juneau) spent lots of time in the hotel pool. Nova and I preferred the hot tub...the pool was REALLY cold!

Nova spent most of the pool time playing with her babies "Sweetie Baby", and "Tiny Little Baby"

She did take a break for a quick kiss from Daddy

Juneau has been mastering some new pool tricks....This one is the Balancing Trick.... see...it's COLD! Juneau's blue lips are evidence!

This trick she calls the "cottonball" (aka Cannonball!)

Finally...on to some climbing pics. We headed up to the Eldorado Canyon to try some world famous climbing routes. We met up with our good friends Justin and Dee and baby Luca. Luca (at a mere 7 months old), was a trooper, and actually made it all the way up the approach with us, but the sun was intense, and there wasn't much of an area for a 7 month old to chill out, so Dee and Luca explored the town a bit, while the rest of the gang spent some time at the Crag.

Don't you just love that little dimple!

cutie pie j-bug....

So, this is our challenge for the next trip to Boulder....We will have to either find a babysitter, or wait a few years until the girls can climb up this multi-pitch 5.8 route...I tried to talk cris into just putting them in a haul bag and hauling them up with us, but he didn't seem to think that was the greatest idea :)

Nova found this little boulder at the bottom of the route we were climbing, and she must have climbed the boulder 15 times. She named it "Princess Rock"

We found a great little place for the girls to climb...they loved it!

Juneau reflecting on the route :)

Cris and Justin climbing...

Of course we have to include the inevitable picture of Nova looking dirty and forlorn!

This morning we headed up to the Flatirons area for a little hike. The hike started out rough, wiht lots and lots of whining and fussing that they didn't want to do it, but it didn't take long for the girls to get into the groove of the hike, and they really had a fantastic time once they got used to the idea. We probably hiked a litlte over a mile round trip, but there was a decent elevation gain, so it was a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, the trip highlight was finding the ACTUAL woods where Snow White escaped from her wicked stepmother (at least it was the ACTUAL woods according to Nova!)

Juneau showing us her "heart" Mommy and the girls halfway up the hike

Flatirons All in all it was a really fun weekend. We planned to finish the trip with a stop by the new Denver Ikea. I have NEVER set foot in an Ikea, and I am not even kidding when i say i actually had butterflies in my stomach as we turned off the exit to the gigantic blue and yellow building. It should have been a warning that there was actually a traffic back-up to get off the exit, but somehow i didnt expect that there woudl actually be turnstiles outside of the store, with a huge line of people waiting in 96 degree scorching sun to get into Ikea! can you believe that?!!! so, we decided to postpone my first Ikea trip for a few months until the madness clams a bit. Oh well, that will just give me something to look forward too!

my very first recipe post...

i love work potlucks....i really really do!!!! i mean, what could be better than random collections of food, sitting in the break room for hours, prepared in the homes of people you really don't know all that well (and you just KNOW there has to be at least one cat lady in the group...you've seen them on hoarders...100's of cats with thousands of their babies just roaming around the house, and underneath the stacks of litter boxes there are probably a couple of disinegrating carcasses).
but i SERIOUSLY love them...in spite of the tuna casserole the cat lady brings.

But often i forget about the potluck until about an hour before i go to bed when i am making mental preparations to remember to bring a pair of scrubs to work that actually includes a top and a bottom (today i ended up with 2 pairs of pants and no shirt). And then i remember the potluck. So the google search starts. "easy potluck recipes" usually brings up a couple of winners, and i start creating the usual kitchen mess that my husband adores me for :)

today, however, i had the brilliant plan to make chocolate dipped strawberries with the overflowing tupperwares of strawberries from our recent costco run.

and now, my friends, i will share the delightful completed product. brought you by your very own Paula Deen of the OB/GYN world.....

lovely, aren't they?

I thought i would share a few tips from my newly aquired expertise in chocolate dipped strawberries.
The supplies:
Strawberries
toothpicks (i had to use kebab sticks because for some odd reason i have kebab sticks but not toothpicks)
some sort of styrofoam device (i ended up using plates, but a block-type thing would work better)
chocolate chips
cooking oil
dipping delicacies (so, here i had to improvise. Upon first glance through my....ahem....rather oddly stocked kitchen, I came up with Fruit Snacks, Cheezits, hot dogs, and gummy vitamins. after much digging around I found some more appropriate dipping options).

i do, however, like this recipe because it requires very little from the pantry. As my own mother can attest to from her recent stent at our house, we have an odd pantry. Looking for flour...probably out of luck. But i do have 2 commercial size cans of Pam....so do with that what you will. we run things kind of strange around here.

anyway, back to this very easy recipe.

Melting Chocolate. Do NOT, and i repeat do NOT use a double boiler system. Double boilers are a thing of the days of Yore, and completely unnecessary since the invention of the ever popular Microwave Oven. One sidenote. Do not try to multitask while melting chocolate in the microwave. If at all possible, remove all 3 year olds from the kitchen as well. You WILL burn the chocolate (unless of course you have discovered the little miracle pill all multi-tasking moms need called Adderall). I, however, do not have the little miracle pill. And I burn chocolate in the microwave unless i stare at the microwave the entire time i am melting it. Melt it for 20 seconds at a time, and then stir. when it is all melty (but not burny) take it out and add just a tiny little bit of oil. it makes it silky smooth and shiny, and easier to dip.

Here is a true pearl of wisdom. Dry the strawberries completely before dipping. Water and melted chocolate make clumpy chocolate (as my own mother had informed me MULTIPLE times in my 4-H days, when we did use the old fashioned double boiler, and the boiling part got a little out of control, causing the boiling part to mix with the melty part, and i ended up with a big bowl of clumpy).
so now you have a very dry strawberry. stick the toothpick in the stem part, swirl it around, and stick the whole thing in the styrofoam. The old styrofoam-toothpick trick is the magic that keeps you from getting the flat side to the strawberry. words of wisdom here friends. write that one down.

before you stick it in the styrofoam you can roll it around in your chopped up hot dogs, or whatever dipping delicacies you found around the house.

( for real, though, i used crushed up pretzels, crushed oreos, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, and some regular old sugar with a couple of drops of red food coloring)

When they are all chilled, you can put them on the wax paper and voila....a lovely and delicious treat.

now for my REAL creative side.. I decided to give some chocolate dipped raspberries a whirl. Now, the secret to these little beauties is to dip them one.at.a.time. I am not kidding here. These are how adorable they are dipped individually. Here you can see I used my particular gifting in patience (stop rolling your eyes, husband!) if, however, your patience begins to run out, and you decide to just dump the rest of the berries in the chocolate you end up with this....

i guess i kind of have a thing for clumpy. edible...of course!

presentable....i think not.

so, there you are, my friends. your first recipe post from your friendly OB/GYN.

enjoy!

'tis so sweet....

today was what sundays are all about :) The Girls, Laura and I got up early (a bit too early for me...but the girls 6 a.m. internal clock ticks strong!!!) and headed to church. I'm not much a "hymn" type of gal, but lately I have really been loving when there is a good old fashioned hymn thrown into the mix. We sang "'tis so sweet to trust in jesus" today, and I have been humming it all day long, and just really feeling an overall thankfullness about so many things in my life. It started out with the little old couple sitting in front of me in church, holding hands, and singing with their whole hearts. It made me so thankful for my own Grandmother, who until the day she passed away really represented all things beauitful. It made me thankful for Mammaw and Pappaw Stickley, who have represented the same to the Stickley family. Having these truly beautiful people in our lives, who have shaped the generations below them, is one of the things i am most thankful for.
After church we made our usual Costco Sunday grocery run (always a highlight!), and then headed back home for some SERIOUS play time! It was a "play in the pool in your underwear" kind of day around here! I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that the girls spent pretty much the entire afternoon running around in the backyard (it's fenced! so the neighbors won't be juding us!!) in their underwear, having an absolute blast with eachother. The girls played sooooo happily together today, and watching them play so well together was really what i needed to refresh me before i start into another busy work week.

it seemed like a perfect time to pull out the paint and paintbrushes, and the girls quickly created a little art studio!

they LOVED playing with the paint (this is really the first time they have gotten into painting), and it was so fun to watch them create tons of pictures!

a little bubble time thrown into the mix.... after playtime came bathtime, and then Laura and I took the girls over to a beautiful little park with a lake for a jog. I had never been to this park before, and it is really, really a nice place to spend the afternoon. Our jog wasn't really very fast (or long!), the altitude has been severely limiting my running (and my motiviation since it is pretty much PAINFUL to run!), but it was nice to spend some time outside on a Sunday afternoon.

Another thing i have been so thankful for today is that in the face of a very difficult year, I have found not only an amazing childcare provider, but also a friend. Laura has transitioned perfectly into our family, and if I had a big, gigantic list of all the things i was hoping to find in someone to help me with the girls this year, she would meet everything on my list and more. I am so thankful for her committment to helping the girls through this year, and also for our developing friendship.
anyway, after our run we came home and made salmon, with spinach ravioli, which was totally delicious, and the girls and I snuggled up on the couch and watch Aladdin (which is actually kind of scary, by the way! i totally forgot about all the scary stuff!)

I've had to totally readjust our bedtime routine (and my own mindset about bedtime) after several truly terrible nights with j-bug. the girls have always been ridiculously good at bedtime. we tuck them in, turn out the lights, and they just go to sleep. as i mentioned in an earlier post this week, however, Juneau has been having a really hard time at night. I finally decided that we would just throw our old bedtime routine to the side, and I have been laying down with them until they fall asleep. I think this is already making a huge difference for Juneau, and that she really needs this time to be close to me, and reassure her, and I'm really glad that I didn't try to stick to my guns about bedtime. It's a tough time for their little 3 year old minds to grasp (mommy's gone for a long time, then mom comes home, and then dad is gone). Last night I asked Juneau what would help her to keep from crying at night she said "just give me a hug, and then snuggle me for 10 minutes". Well, that pretty much sealed the deal!
So, we had a great little snuggle time tonight, and a great end to the weekend.

All in all, there is a tough year ahead, but there are so many things to be thankful for! I know there are some rough days ahead, but i am glad to have some wonderful days like today to help get me through the tough ones.