What's Up Wednesday 8.26.15

How in the world is it already the end of August?  How did that happen? I am linking up today to share a little of "What's Up" in our world.

What we're eating this week

Pizza Twists

Ranch Chicken

Freezer Crock Pot Meal

Beef and Snow Peas

Tacos

What I'm reminiscing about 

Our trip to Disneyworld.  Lyle was the same age Aria is now, and it is fun to have a milestone to compare them at.  Lyle got his first haircut at Disneyworld (after already trimming his bangs) and poor Aria looks like she has hardly any hair at all from the front!  We were dreaming about a Disney cruise this weekend in another few years when everyone is older.  We might have to save A LOT of pennies to make that one happen! ;)

What I'm loving

S'mores Oreo's.  Have you tried them?  The cookie part is graham cracker and they are soo good!  And we finally found Brownie Batter Oreo's.  Oh my goodness.  

What we've been up to

We had a crazy August.  Crazy.  Full of our county fair, Aria being sick, Zach trying to get into the fields to get them worked, and a trip to Kansas City to see our new baby niece!  In between we have been cuddling lots of babies, putting together a ton of puzzles, making robot costumes out of boxes, and I've been making hundreds of kids cry as they get their back to school shots.  I'm such a meanie!
 

What I'm dreading

Having to feed Lyle breakfast in the morning!  I know it sounds crazy, but right now the kids eat breakfast at daycare and it makes it so easy!  On the days Lyle goes to preschool, he will go with Zach to work for a few minutes before going to class.  So I either need to feed him at home or send something with him to eat.  He is not the easiest boy to get up in the mornings, so we'll see how it goes!  I have a feeling that prepping everybody's stuff the night before is the only way we will get anywhere with what we need!

What I'm working on

Baby Quilts!  Look at this adorable fabric I have for Aria's quilt.  I'm in love!

What I'm excited about

We got family pictures taken last week, and I am loving the couple of sneak peeks she has posted.  I was convinced we were not going to have any of all of us looking, much less smiling.  I'm excited to see the rest, and I want to get some huge canvases printed of my favorites. 

Photo Credit melissa jane photography

What I'm watching

All our shows are about to start!!!  A couple fun ones we have been watching this summer include So You Think You Can Dance and Last Comic Standing.

What I'm reading

The Kindness Diaries.  This man's goal is to make a trip around the globe on his motor bike, depending completely on the kindness of strangers for his food, gas and lodging.

What I'm listening to 

Whenever we road trip, Zach and I listen to an audio book.  We are almost finished with the King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry.  In our car we have a USB port we can plug our phone directly into and listen over the car speakers.  We took Zach's parent's van to KC this weekend, and tried to use an old school player that you tune to a fuzzy radio station.  Everyone remember those??? It was driving us absolutely crazy, so we busted out the headphone splitter and listened through headphones the whole way.  We're awesome, I know. ;)

What I'm wearing
Loving that I can wear jeans now instead of dying in shorts and a tank top.  Bring on the fall weather so I can wear my scarfs and boots again!

What I'm doing this weekend

My car is scheduled to be serviced on Saturday, so I need to figure out what we will do while we wait.  The weather is finally not hitting 100 everyday, so I'm thinking a trip to the zoo with the cousins is in order! Sunday we have meetings at church in the evening, but I'm thinking a nap for the whole family sounds mighty nice!

What I'm looking forward to next month

We have a family wedding in September (that we don't have to pack bags and travel to...whoo!), and several ladies from our church are planning to go to the Beth Moore conference.  Hoping it will be a great time.

What else is new?  

Lyle starts preschool in September.  I think he is going to love it!  I can't wait to see him learning and growing.  

Baby Kaia

Welcome to the world, Kaia Christine!  Our newest niece was born on Wednesday, to Zach's sister Kodi and her husband Shawn.  We left Friday after work to drive to Kansas City, and were so excited to meet her!  It was so fun to see their new little family and to love on them all!

When we told Lyle about his new cousin, he said, "She's not a duck??"  "And she's a GIRL??"  HAH!  He had decided  "Donald Duck Jr."  was a good name for the baby, and had been calling it that forever.

We stole lots of baby snuggles.  They are the absolute best.

Aria did lots of climbing.

 

And karate chopping...

 

Lyle did a little horse riding.  It was FREE at Hy-Vee...how awesome is that!?!  We also took him to pick out tennis shoes for preschool.  He was pumped. 

Lyle spent the rest of our time entertaining everyone.  He thought it was hilarious that they could all fit in this bathtub!

Aria chewed on a pickle. 

We met my brother Jeff for lunch!

And the kids took naps on the way home.  They did awesome until we stopped to pick up food in Wichita, then all bets were off!  At least 3/4 of the trip was peaceful!

And now we are back at it!  Wishing for a nap and a decent night of sleep.  If someone could pass that message on to Aria, I would be forever grateful!

Quilts for Two

I am over a year late, but I thought I would share the quilts I made for my twin niece and nephew.  And a little about how I designed them.

There are a lot of ways to pick your pattern and fabric, including books, magazines, quilt shops, and the internet.  I tend to go with the internet option, simply for convenience sake.  Seeing fabric in person is very helpful though, and can give you some great ideas.    I usually start on Pinterest and Etsy, or more recently Craftsy looking for inspiration.  Sometimes I have found fabric that I love and look for a pattern that will do a good job featuring it.  Other times I find a pattern and go the opposite way.  Most patterns include what fabric they use or you can even buy them as kits all together.  I think I have only used the original fabric intended for that quilt on my very first project.  Since then I have had fun picking fabric that matches the coming baby, nursery theme, or special interests.    

I do not claim to be an expert, or even really that good at quilting (don't look closely at my corners!), but it's been a fun project to do for new nieces, nephews, and my own babies. 

For the twins' quilt we knew they were having a boy and girl.  I had a hard time deciding whether to do the same pattern in different fabric, or different coordinating patterns.  I had loved these chevron patterns for quite a while, and ended up using the same pattern, but switching out different colored stripes.  

I think these have been my favorite quilts to make so far, mostly because I found the most perfect fabric!  Some of it was even an exact match for fabric they used in their nursery without even knowing it!  I had fun using bikes and cameras (both passions of my brother-in-law) and plenty of polka-dots, stripes, and beachy themes for my sister.

 Look how little my model was!

 I pieced the quilts together, then had them machine quilted by a local gal.  In all this was a really simple pattern to do, and the contrast of the white stripes helps the color stand out!

I used the Ziggy Baby Quilt Pattern and bought it on Etsy.  One of my favorite sites to look for fabric is Fabric Worm.  They have some of the cutest lines!  Once I pick the fabric I like, I usually do a bit of price-shopping, looking at other sites like  fabric.com, Cedar House Fabric, and occasionally Etsy or ebay. 

Here is a list of the names of the fabric I used for these quilts.  If you pick fabrics from the same designer or manufacturer, you can mix and match lines a little bit easier.

Weston's Quilt: 

Orange-

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Dottie color Orange 

    Birch Organic, Safari Soiree, Ele Train Orange 

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Birdie Spokes Orange

    Birch Organic, Marine Too, Urchin Forest Sunset

Mixed-

    Retro Bike

    Birch Organic, Frolic, Frolic Boy

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Elli Fam Multi 

    Birch Organic, Just for Fun, Camper Multi

Grey Stripe-

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Abacus Shroom

    Birch Organic Mod Basics, Elli Fam Shroom

    Birch Organic, Next Stop, Captured

    Birch Organic, Elk Grove, Knot Dot

Green-

    Birch Organic, Ipanema, Flora Stripes Grass 

    Birch Organic, Eiko, Stamp Stripe Grass 

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Birdie Spokes Grass

    Birch Organic, Just for Fun, Skinny Chevron Grass

Teal-

    Birch Organic, Ipanema, Birds and Clouds Blue

    Birch Organic, Ipanema, Bossa Ukes Teal

    Birch Organic, Charley Harper, Twig fall teal

    Birch Organic, Ipanema,  Main Teal

Summer's Quilt:

Yellow-

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Dottie Color Sun

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Birdie Spokes Sun

    Birch Organic, Ipanema, Rio Geo Sun

    Birch Organic, Double Gauze, Poppies Sun

Mixed-

    Birch Organic, Frolic, Frolic Girl

    Birch Organic, Safari Soiree, Toucan Tango

    Birch Organic, Ipanema, Birds and Clouds Multi

    Birch Organic, Avalon,  Her cruisers

Grey Stripe-

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics, Abacus Shroom

    Birch Organic Mod Basics, Elli Fam Shroom

    Birch Organic, Next Stop, Captured

    Birch Organic, Elk Grove, Knot Dot

Coral Stripe-

    Lotta Jansdotter, Mormor Collection, Blomster Cora

    Michael Miller, Tile Pile Coral

    Birch Organic, Just for Fun, Skinny Chevron Cora

    Birch Organic, Mod Basics 2, Knotty Bois Cora

Teal-

    Birch Organic, Ipanema, Birds and Clouds Blue

    Birch Organic, Ipanema, Bossa Ukes Teal

    Birch Organic, Charley Harper, Twig fall teal

    Birch Organic, Ipanema,  Main Teal

   

I have a couple more projects in the works, and I am loving them so far.  Aria will get her quilt one of these days, bless her heart!

A Day in the Life

I love getting a peek into a normal day in someone else's life!  Each stage of life brings different schedules, projects, and routines.  I think I will enjoy being able to look back at this time, and see what our "normal" was.  Also....this day I documented was two or three weeks ago.  That shows you how on top of it I am, just getting it posted now! :)

This was a Friday, so a work day for me.  Due to my job as a nurse, there are certain details about who I see or what I see them for that will have to be left out or remain vague.

6:20-I finally make myself get out of bed.  I have been hitting the snooze for waayy too long.  That means the hair is going up in a pony tail today!  I get ready in the bathroom while the rest of the house is still sleeping.

6:45- I go and get this sweet girl up and dressed for the day.  Sometimes she wakes up earlier, then plays while I get ready.  After she is dressed we sit in the rocker while she nurses and I read my devotions.  I pump after she is done eating to get a bit extra to send to daycare with her.

7:00-Lyle wakes up and comes in with Aria and I.  This is NOT typical.  I literally lift him out of bed each morning and carry him to the bathroom to get him up and awake.  Once I am finished pumping, we go to the kids' bathroom so Lyle can go potty, take his allergy medicine, and brush his teeth.  Then Lyle picks his clothes and we read a quick book at his request.

7:20-Downstairs to find shoes, pack milk for Aria, and breakfast and lunch for me.

7:30-7:40-  Everyone is out the door to their respective places.  Zach drops the kids off at daycare since I have a longer drive to work.

8:00-Time to work!  The first hour is usually checking email, looking at the schedule for the day, and making a to do list.  And of course a cup of coffee helps.  Today I ate breakfast in the car, but most of the time I bring oatmeal or something and eat it at my desk.

8:30-First appointment of the morning and a bit of charting afterward.

9:30-Time to pump!  I like having something to read to make the time go faster..right now I am reading this...

9:50- A few appointments in the schedule got moved around, so it's time to work on a course.  And have a snack.  Have you heard of Graze?  It is a subscription box with snacks!  I got a free sample and was really tempted to keep my subscription, but saving money won in the end.  The snacks were all really good though.  The boxes I signed up for were 8 snacks every two weeks.  If you want to try it, use the code KIMB93Z9B and you can get a sample box for free and your 5th regular box free. 

11:15-  Immunization appointments for the rest of the morning.  Poor babies.

12-Time for lunch (while I'm pumping), then I typically go to the park for a little fresh air.  I usually read, but today I watched a little Gilmore Girls on Netflix.

1-Back to work.  We have a mix of appointments this afternoon.  Some shots, a TB test to read, and a few family planning clients to check in with.  In between clients I work on updating our OB/GYN referral list.

4:15- TGIF!  The weekend is here!  I get to leave a few minutes early today, because I ended up with extra time on Wednesday for meetings. I tried going to our church community garden to pick zucchini to make bread this weekend, but I only found one tiny one!  I headed home to water the plants before the rest of the family made it home.

5:10- Everyone is home!  We play for awhile and I feed Aria.  I start supper and Lyle watches Spiderman on Netflix with Zach.

6:30-  Aria is ready for bed early, so I put her down and get supper out of the oven.  I made pizza twists which were a new recipe.  They were good, but a bit spicy, so Lyle had waffles.  And he dipped them in the ranch that was already on his plate.  GROSS.

7-Time to relax.  Lyle plays with his toys and watches a couple shows on his iPad.  Zach and I have started watching Psych, so we watch a few episodes of that.  I might have fallen asleep on the couch.  MIGHT.

9-Upstairs to put Lyle to bed.  He brushes his teeth, I put lavender in the diffuser, and we read a couple books.  His favorites right now are The Big Book of Blaze and Polar Bear's Underwear.

9:30-Aria wakes up and is ready to eat again.  I feed her, then head to bed myself.  Not sure why I am so tired from the week.  Zach stays downstairs to watch another show before he heads to bed.

Just another day in the Bauer house. One of my favorite places to be.

Life with Lyle

I am trying to get in the habit of writing down conversations I have with Lyle.  Often they make me laugh, other times I am amazed at how sweet and caring and SMART he is!  And silly, so absolutely silly!  Aria gets her monthly updates, but today, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse at how AWESOME life with Lyle is!  

"How was your day at work, Mom?"
     Lyle often asks this with complete seriousness when I get home.  It is the sweetest thing.

You are awesome at puzzles.  You can do small jigsaw by yourself in no time at all. But you love it even more if someone will do it with you.  
 

"Oh, that makes sense." 
     After asking how something works.  

Zach and I like to binge watch shows on DVD or Netflix. Lyle doesn't watch them with us, but he is aware of the show's names and does little things like dance to the theme song to Psych (like will stop what he's doing and come in the living room to dance), sing a song Zach made up to Bones, and ask "Is that Michael Weston?" while we were watching Burn Notice.  A while ago we were watching a show called "Bar Rescue."  One day he said he wanted to watch Bar Rescue, when it started he was really confused, and asked me, "Where are the planes?"  Turns out he was actually saying that he wanted to watch "Planes: Fire and Rescue."  We had a good laugh, and then were glad because Planes is much more age-appropriate for a three-year old! 

 

Everything is make-believe right now.  In the picture above you were playing Santa Claus.  You were sitting on the sleigh, saying "giddy-up!" to the reindeer, stopping at people's houses (including Auntie Koko, The Avengers, and Umizoomi's house-which is beside a monastery apparently), going down the chimney and leaving specific presents under their tree.

Who is your best friend at Paula's?
 "Trenton.  He tells me, "Lyle, I need your help."
     He is always so sweet and quick to help!

When he saw an American Flag flying:
"Look!  It's Captain America's flag!"

Lyle: Mom, I think we need to get you some medicine.
Me: Why?
Lyle:  So you can run faster, and keep up with me.

You were playing "vet" upstairs and came down patting his head saying, "This is a nice dinosaur."

He loves loves to sing songs and nursery rhymes.  He thinks it is even funnier if you exchange the last word in the line for "toot."  This apparently is the funniest word in all the land.  I guess that is what is in store for me as the mom of a boy.  I try to limit these jokes to only at home.  If he forgets, he will usually try to cover by saying, "Mom, I wasn't talking to you.  I was talking to the fan."  Nice try buddy!  

Helping Dad look for something. 

[I had asked Lyle to wait to talk until Grammy had finished her story.]
Lyle: MOM. (Dramatic pause) Listen.
Me: (laughing) To what??
Lyle: To the people's questions.

[Bringing me a tower built of LEGOS]
Lyle: Here you go Mom!
Me: Oh, thank you! Is it a tower?
Lyle: No, it's ice-cream poo-poo
Me: Oh my! I'm not sure I want that!
Lyle: Don't worry!  It's just pretend!


Lyle: Mom, Sparky (his big stuffed cow) was eating his sandwich and hurt his leg.  So that's why he is laying in my bed resting.

Lyle:  I will do you a favor if you do me a favor.....

Lyle:  Mom, that is ridiculous. 

Lyle, you are my most favorite boy.  Life is such a joy with you around!