MORE trunk pics!

Editing to say I bought a bunch more animals this morning. I'm still not sure if it will be enough to cover everything, but it gives me a little more variety. I also mixed back up the other shapes and I will resort when I get my latest shipment!

Last night I went and picked up a different blue to make the trunk itself darker, so I painted it (in the pics I had not painted the very bottom). Luke is in Atlanta so I had nothing to do anyways. I also got the rest of the wood pieces I ordered so far, so I started arranging them. It takes a LOT of wood pieces to fill up a chest, let me tell you (and its getting pricier than I imagined!)! I really only have enough to fill up the top and front. I'll show you what I have temporarily done with the sides and back.

Top:
The orange is actually growing on me more with the darker blue. I think with the trunk being a brighter blue it wasn't so hot, but now its ok. I should do John's name all one color though right? Sorry, there are going to be a lot of questions, apparently I need a lot of hand-holding for this project! And, shoot I just noticed the two T-Rex dinosaurs on the top. I'm trying not to duplicate on the same side, gotta find something else to fit there!
Front:
Do the things at the bottom look lame? I may buy a few new smaller animals to put down there instead.

Sides & Back:
Would it be lame if I didn't fill up the sides and back? I think I'm going to order a few different animals for these areas and maybe some more flying things, but would it look lame if its not totally filled up? Or should I just spend the money and get a bunch more animals?

Updated Animal Trunk Pics!

So, should I use orange or not? And, should I go darker navy blue on the trunk itself?

How do you know John is really sick?

He gets himself ready for bed and tells you he is ready! He has been pretty miserable today with a runny nose and cough and even took his nap. Tonight I ran out to wal-mart after Ruthanne went to bed figuring I would be back in time to put John to bed, but when I came home he was getting his teeth brushed and was rushing Luke to let him go to bed. Luke even tried to get him to rest out in the living room, but John said he wanted to rest in his bed! Poor boy, he must be really sick, because he will fight sleep like crazy normally!

Some recent kid pics

The kids were so happy I found them Atlanta Falcons shirts for $2.25 each!Ruthanne listening to the Valentine card Mamom sent.
John chilling in his underwear with his Mamom card. These are the soft underwear (Gerber trainers). Apparently the cool character underwear I bought are not as soft. I guess its because boy underwear has really thick elastic around the waist.

Animal Trunk - Phase 1

So, I bought the trunk and paints yesterday and have been seriously coating the trunk in paint. I have three coats on it now and may go for one more to make it more navy (in the picture the trunk only had two coats). So, I am waiting for the animal pieces, some are due in on Thursday but I will wait until I have all of them. I have the paint colors I picked, but I am thinking of leaving out the orange. What do ya'll think? Or should I go with different colors all together?

Oh, and Christine the company Martha links to for the animal pieces has lots of cute things, even a princess category, so your sister could do a seriously cute girly one if she wanted!

New Project

I saw Martha Stewart the other day (no, I don't sit around watching tv!) and happened to see her make this cute chest/trunk. Ruthanne has that fabulous trunk Frances made for her but John doesn't have anything. I figured I could do this. I bought a bunch of animal cutouts this morning and am going to Michaels today to get the chest (yay for a 50% off coupon!). This will be John's birthday present, but I better get going now, because I'm sure it won't get worked on in the month of May! I think I will paint the trunk navy blue and then do the animal shapes in solid colors of greens, blues, browns, etc. I'll try to update my progress, maybe that will keep me accountable!

Mexican Lasagna

Mexican Lasagna (this is what my family calls it, the original name is Soft Tortilla Bake or something)

8 soft taco size flour tortillas, cut into 1-1.5" squares
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup salsa
1.5 cups grated cheese
1 lb ground beef, browned with onion & bell pepper, if desired

Combine cooked ground beef, salsa, milk, tomato soup, and about half the cheese. Heat and stir until combined. Add in tortilla squares and stir to coat. Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350, covered. Take out of the oven and top with additional cheese then put back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

1 lb of ground beef or turkey
some chopped onion of you want
16 oz of tomato sauce
8 oz of cream cheese (light is fine)
12 tortillas
1.5 cups of grated cheese
2 tsp taco seasoning (to taste)

Cook ground beef with onion until brown. Drain beef. Add in tomato sauce and taco seasoning.
Meanwhile, spread a thin layer of cream cheese over each tortilla and then roll very tightly and put into a 9x13 casserole. Put the ground beef mixture on top and then top with grated cheese. Bake in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes, or until bubbling and cheese is nice and melty!

Rolls

Update to the update: I have gone back to making the recipe typed below and not the allrecipes.com one. They are both good though, can't go wrong either way!

Update: I don't really make this recipe anymore. Instead my go-to white roll recipe is:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-Dinner-Rolls/Detail.aspx The only thing I do differently is I don't use the 1/4 cup butter when shaping the rolls.

Dinner Rolls
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
2 T instant yeast
1 tsp salt (although I think it could use more but I don't know what that would do to the recipe)
2 eggs
4+ cups of flour (all purpose or bread flour, or you can sub in some whole wheat flour to make it more healthy. Luke says it tastes too healthy with the wheat!)

Mix water, sugar, and yeast and let sit for about 5 minutes. Mix in salt, eggs, and 3 cups of flour. Continue adding flour until it is smooth and dough pulls away from the sides of the mixer (but still sticks just a little bit to the bottom). Remove mixer attachment and let rise in mixer bowl covered for 30 minutes. Knead with a little more flour and shape and let rise for 30 more minutes. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Asian Peanut Butter Pork

This was sooo good! The sauce was great with rice. It came from http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

1.5-2lbs pork tenderloin
1 onion, sliced in rings
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used La Choy; it's gluten free)
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons water
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts (garnish; optional)
1 lime, cut in wedges (garnish; optional)

The Directions.

Use a 4-6 quart crockpot. Put onion slices into the bottom of your crockpot. Put the pork on top. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, garlic, and peanut butter. No need to stir--the peanut butter needs to melt before you can do so. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-6. The pork will be more tender the longer you cook it. 1 hour before serving, flip the meat over in the crockpot to allow the other side to soak up the peanutbuttery goodness. Garnish with chopped peanuts, and serve with lime wedges. The lime juice mixed with the peanut butter is delicious.

Dare I say we are close?

I better not! But, yesterday, no pee accidents! Today, so far so good! I have not reminded him to go potty constantly and he has kept his pants dry! We even went out to the park, were gone about 1.5 hours and no accidents!

I really wanted to give up that first day, but I'm glad we didn't! Now we will have to tackle the eventual pottying on a public potty, pooping, and eventually naps and bedtime.

Day 3 - Better Still!

The trip out of the house went well. He didn't pee in his underwear. We ran to the post office and then drove over to Grandma's house. He successfully used Grandma's potty seat over there. He had a nap then I let him have a snack while still in a diaper (hoping he would go #2). He did in the diaper. Then he ran around naked and peed on the carpet a little. So, I had him go sit on the potty. He was there for a while and started going poop again! He freaked out and got off and told me. I had him sit back down and then we wiped and cheered! He got a hershey kiss and then put a bigger sticker on the potty chart! He was pretty excited. I know we still have a long way to go, but we have significantly reduced the amount of wet clothes, so that is good. It is hard to get him to stop doing something to go sit on the potty though!

The kids have to go with me to the ob/gyn today and I think I will definitely put some pull ups on John for that. I know he won't go without his potty seat(just the adapter for the big potty, we are not doing the little seat that you have to constantly clean with him) and I don't really want to carry that around!

Day 2 - Maybe better?

Well, once I started making him sit on the potty every 30 minutes! Ugh! I'm hoping that will inspire confidence! I think we only went through 4 pairs of underwear and pants. I did buy him a potty watch (based on Frances' review). Maybe it will get here later this week/early next week. Maybe me ordering it will mean that he will potty train before we get it? Kind of like insurance? I doubt it, I'm just not good at the potty training thing!

Today, we have to go somewhere (the post office) and then we are going to play at Grandma's. I hope he likes Grandma's potty seat! I'm not sure what I will take him in, pull-up or underwear? Don't worry Grandma, I won't let him on your furniture and he is wearing sweat pants, so it never even makes it on the carpet! Wish me luck!

Day 1 - Not so hot!

We went through five pairs of underwear (and five pairs of pants). I did not make him sit on the potty much (and he didn't want to). He did pee a couple of times in the potty.

I tried to get him to run around naked today but he didn't like that much. We've already been through 1 pair of underwear and pants. I think I'm going to have him sit on the potty every hour today. Anyone have some good tried and true tips to share?

I HATE POTTY TRAINING!

John has on underwear

Wish me luck! I think he will do ok in the pee department, since he has done that frequently on the potty. I told him if he needs to poop he has two choices, 1-go on the potty or 2-ask for a diaper. That is going to be our struggle I think.

So, he is not allowed to sit on the couch (until he can prove himself somewhat trustworthy). I don't think we are going anywhere today or tomorrow necessarily so he will be near a potty. I guess I should buy some pullups so we can go somewhere and I won't have a mess on my hands!