Little Artist

While I was cooking dinner last night, I gave Andrew some crayons and a picture to color to occupy him. (Jaxson had the iPod Touch and was watching Sponge Bob movies.) For awhile, they were both perfectly content. Then, as dinner was ALMOST finished, I heard something scraping against the wall. I asked Jaxson, "Are you coloring on the wall?!?!"..... "Yes!" was the immediate answer. I ran around the corner and found......

AND......

Poor Andrew was still where I left him, as happy as can be, completely oblivious to his brother's antics. As usual.

Thank god, the markers were washable.

Recipe Review: Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken

I absolutely adore my slow cooker. What else is easier than dumping in some ingredients, turning it on, and then a few hours later.... dinner is done! This recipe seriously couldn't be easier. And it's SO GOOD!  I found the recipe on Pinterest, and the original source can be found here.

I modified my recipe slightly, but the original recipe calls for:

• 24 oz jar salsa
• juice from 1 lime
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1.25 oz package of taco seasoning
• 2 jalapeno peppers chopped (optional)
• 6 chicken breasts

I only had an 18 oz jar of salsa, so I mixed that with a can of crushed tomatoes and added an extra half packet (that I already had opened) of taco seasoning. Stir this together with the lime juice, cilantro and jalapenos. I omitted the cilantro, since my husband doesn't like it. I also did not add the jalapeno so the kids would be able to eat it as well.

Once mixed, I layered the salsa mixture and the chicken into the slow cooker.

I covered and cooked the chicken on low for about 5 1/2 hours. The last hour I uncovered and turned on high. The salsa mixture was a little watery so I wanted some of the liquid to cook out. It turned out great. The chicken was so tender it literally fell apart as I was removing it from the slow cooker.

As a side dish, I prepared some rice with taco seasoning. I chopped and sauteed some green, yellow and red bell peppers to add in.

I served mine with some sliced avocado and sour cream. It was delicious!

Enjoy!

Picasso's in Training

I was at Target the other day looking for craft ideas for the boys. I found some washable finger paint from Crayola and decided to give it a try.

I was a little nervous, I wasn't sure just how "washable" it would actually be. I removed the boys clothing just in case and laid down a towel.

Jaxson was very careful not to get it anywhere other than on the paper.

Andrew on the other hand, was more interested in painting his belly.

I was pleasantly surprised at how neat Jaxson was with the paint. I figured he would want to paint the walls and furniture.

Once they were finished we headed into the bathroom to wash hands. Or in Andrew's case, his whole body. But the paint came off so easily! The boys loved it, and I love that it wiped right off of Andrew's highchair, and his arms, and his belly and his legs.... you get the idea. It was such a hit, that Jaxson wanted to paint again first thing this morning.

Never Ending...

Is it just me, or does one remodeling/redecorating project turn into at least 7? We have done so much work to our home over the past 2 years or so, and I thought we were in the homestretch. I suppose we are, in the sense that several of the big projects are completed, but now my attention is being drawn to all of the little projects that I never even thought about before. I think I am going to have to go room by room and make a list of projects that still need completed. In the meantime, here are the major projects that we have managed to cross off our list, along with a few that still remain:

• Convert Sun Room into new Master Bedroom
• Convert Old Master into Devin's room
• Replace Hardwood Floors through out house
• Remove existing Hardwood floors in bedrooms and replace with carpet
• Replace Roof
• Paint each bedroom
• Remove weird partition above kitchen cabinets and open up the wall above  the cabinets
• Paint Kitchen Cabinets
• Install Wainscoting around Kitchen Island
• Install crown molding through out house

I could keep going, but maybe I should just list it room by room in separate posts. I wish I had known I would be starting a blog, I would have taken before and after pictures. But I do have some "during" pictures of the bedrooms that I can share.

Old Master now Devin's room.

 This wall was added, to close off the room from the new hallway extension. We added the closet to this wall as well.

Jaxson checking out the new carpet.

Andrew's room, painted yellow. Not much was done to this room, just a new wall color, painted the trim white, installed a new ceiling fan, door and closet doors.

After the carpet installation. I promise the room isn't bright yellow, I took these pictures with my camera phone, so they aren't the best quality. Again, Jaxson had to check out the new carpet.

Playing on the carpet while Mommy and Daddy put the new furniture together.

Andrew's crib bedding

Jaxson's room, painted bright green.

I love the color of his room, it's so vibrant without being blindingly bright.

 It took me FOREVER to find dinosaur bedding that would still fit a crib mattress. We have since converted his crib into a toddler bed, but still use the same mattress. I literally found ONE dinosaur crib set, but didn't like the colors. It was dark brown, dark red and yellow. Very dull. I bought it, hoping it would be better in person and it wasn't. Luckily I never opened it and was able to return it once I found this set. 

Since this is rather long, I will show the picture of our master bedroom in a separate post.

Friday was my stepson's field day so all of us piled into the car for the 3 hour trip to cheer him on. As luck would have it, I had to take Jaxson to the doctor that morning. (His feet have been peeling and he says they hurt.) We got some ointment, came home to get Daddy and Andrew and took off. Traffic was horrible, should have known since it's Bike Week here. We ended up getting to Devin's school about an hour after field day ended. Awesome.

I felt bad dragging Jaxson and Andrew on a 6 hour trip for nothing, so we stopped at Chuck E Cheese on the way home. Just FYI, it takes FOREVER for 4 kids to spend 100 tokens. (Yes, I included Manny in that count.) Poor Andrew (who refuses to sleep anywhere except his own bed) was beyond exhausted.  He and I ended up sitting in the car, watching The Wiggles, and waiting on the other boys to finish up and pick their prizes.

This car was by far, Andrew's favorite ride seat. He loved it, as long as I didn't insert a token and make it move. Even though he was STARVING, he refused to leave this, even for food. For him, that's a big deal. He's an eater.

He tolerated the movement when Devin and Jaxson joined him. But just once.

At least the other two thoroughly enjoyed themselves:

Another tip: Join Chuck E Cheese's email club to receive coupons. I did this in the parking lot before we went inside and ended up saving $10 off of our package PLUS 20 free tokens. They also send coupons around your child's birthday.

I don't think there are many things that are worse than having a sick child. Poor Andrew has croup, at least according to the doctor, although I'm not 100% convinced. His cough is only slightly barking, he's more just stuffy, congested, snotty... that sort of fun stuff. Whatever it is, he's miserable, and when he's miserable he wants nothing but held 24/7. Which normally I don't mind, but when he's waking up once an hour all during the night, wanting me to hold him so he can sleep, then I sort of have a problem with it. Add in to the mix Jaxson who has been having bad dreams at night, waking up scared and crying, and it means I am getting very little sleep at all. Last night going from room to room, consoling them both I seriously was a zombie. And I'm even more of a zombie today. Tuesday's are my bathroom cleaning days, and they seriously need cleaned, but my eye lids are getting heavier and heavier and I'm going to have a hard time getting up out of this chair. Let's just hope Andrew's steroid kicks in soon and get rid of whatever this sickness is. Let's also hope no one else in the house catches it. Fingers crossed!

At least he's not too sick to torment the dog.

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