The Crafts

In less than two weeks I will be racing for my first time since CJ was born. I can't wait! The Snow Shuffle 5K is set for Saturday, December 14th on the trails of Cedar Falls. Now, I'm not exactly itching for snow to accumulate for the winter but if it could snow enough to make the race entertaining and then immediately melt...well that would be a-okay with me. When I registered for the race I had set a goal for myself of 30 minutes. However, I need to set myself a new goal because I'm just too darn awesome. Not really, but I'm trying to keep myself pumped up. Tonight I ran a 5K in 27:30. So I think my new official goal for the Snow Shuffle is going to be 27:00. That may be kind of steep but this race is very weather dependent. I can't wait!! Oh, and I'd like to put in a little plug for Under Armour. Matt and my mom bought me some awesome Under Armour cold weather running gear and that stuff really works! Tonight it was 39 degrees, I wore nothing more...

My Grandma Holthaus gave me some turkey leftovers from this past weekend's family gathering. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I could easily make sandwiches but I decided to attempt to be creative. So I made Thanksgiving Pizza. Looking back, I should have taken a picture but instead you will have to use your imagination. First I made a homemade pizza crust in the oven by itself. While the crust baked I threw together and heated up the chopped turkey, cranberry juice, craisins, chopped celery, chopped apples, kosher salt and pepper. After the crust finished baking I sliced it up into squares and scooped the turkey creation on top. I LOVED it. Delicious! So if you are looking for something out of the ordinary to try with your leftover turkey, consider making a Thanksgiving Pizza.

The other day I was tending to CJ when Kate came sprinting into the room. She was anxious to share with me her latest etch-a-sketch drawing. Ho-hum...yes, Kate is wonderful and talented and I love her to pieces but I have seen a lot of squiggly lines lately. But when she turned her etch-a-sketch around and displayed her latest creation I was in awe. My little artist didn't draw a line or a squiggle or a blob...she drew a face! An actual, recognizable face. I was so thrilled I exclaimed, "don't erase your picture I want to take a photo of it!" Kate was all smiles. Her favorite people to draw are DadGrandpa Craft, Grandpa Smith, Great Grandpa Smith, Great Grandpa Holthaus, Uncle Ryan and Uncle Mike. I hope none of the women relatives take offense. Kate posing with one of her masterpieces. Kate looking cute while I was taking pictures of her drawings. A video montage of Kate's drawings. Most faces get eyes, eyebrows, a nose, mouth, and cheeks. Occasionally she will a...

Late last week I dug out the Bumbo for CJ to try out. A Bumbo is basically a teeny tiny chair for kiddos no larger than 18 months. Since CJ won't even attempt tummy time I thought sitting her in the Bumbo may force her to try to use some neck muscles. I pretty much have to hold her head the whole time so she doesn't roll around like an intoxicated Stevie Wonder, but she is improving. In the first pic she almost looks like she is enjoying the Bumbo. But then she gave me the look of death which I interpreted as, "get me the heck out of this thing before I scream!"

Now that I am basically done with my Real Simple recipe fun we have started a new meal plan. Throw things together and hope they taste good. Let me explain. We decided we have a lot of food stockpiled. It was completely unintentional. When we make a trip to Walmart or Sam's Club and there is a great deal...well, it is hard to pass it up. We have therefore collected a large supply of canned goods and various frozen foods. So the plan for as long as possible is to eat as much as we can from what we currently have stored. And as a result, I haven't been to the grocery store in over two weeks and counting. I do, however, visit the store when we need milk or fresh fruits and veggies but for the most part we are simply eating what is at hand. The cupboards and freezers are slowly emptying and Matt is loving every minute of it. He spends at least 5 minutes each morning and 10 minutes at night taking a mental inventory of what we have eaten and what we have left to consume. ...

Kate has been coming up with some funny stuff lately. She started this morning with a whopper of a tale. Here is her story: "Last night, my sleep in my bed and my hear a big bang. So my walk out my room and find Backo (Baxter the cat) in hallway. Kitty get sick all over floor and my clean up and then go back to bed." Sure you did. And just this afternoon I got another good laugh. I was putting Kate down for a nap and turned on her fan. We began using the fan when she was a baby to drown out noise and we haven't given it up since. Anyway, I turned on her fan and it wouldn't start up. I received the fan as a gift from my parents while in college and we have used it about 14 hours a day since Kate was born...and I'm sure our energy bill has suffered as a result. So I told Kate the fan wasn't working. She threw herself on the bed and began bawling. Me - "Why are you crying, Kate?" Kate - "My fan no work!" Me - "That's OK, we c...

Since taking this video CJ has moved beyond cooing. She is now squeaking at various high pitches and she spends half of her awake hours attempting to fit her entire fist in her mouth. Somtimes she actually attempts to fit both fists in. Enjoy the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiFsS7o3kCU

This post is extremely late... but better late than never, right? My kids were really cute for Halloween. Kate dressed as Super Girl this year. Actually she was Super Girl last year too but the costume still fit and she LOVES it, so she wore it again. This was Kate's first year trick or treating. We practiced knocking on the door, saying trick or treat and saying the all important 'thank you.' I don't think she really understood the whole concept until we actually went door to door. And once we were out she didn't want to turn back. She seemed thrilled beyond words that all you had to do was knock on someone's door and they give you candy. What really warmed my heart was when I thought she had collected enough candy and I told her we had to go home to help Dad pass out candy. She happily accepted and when we got home she tried giving away her candy to kids at the door. So sweet. She also dumped out her Halloween candy on the living room floor and started div...

Help! Does anyone else out there have Windows Vista? I have been searching online for help on how to resize photos using the Windows Vista operating system. I've read lots of great information but none of it applies to me! The Windows website tells me to simply go to the file menu and select resize. I don't have a resize option! Ugh. Any suggestions?

Can you guess the significance of these times? 11:30 p.m., 1:30 a.m., 3:45 a.m., 5:15 a.m. These are the times I rose out of bed for CJ. And unfortunately 5:15 a.m. is the time she is up for the day now. We shouldn't be doing this at 2 months old. But I guess this explains why I have been sick so many times in the last three or four weeks. I just got over a cold I've had since last weekend only to awake with a new one beginning this morning. Yuck! OK, I'll stop my pity party now. Just say a little prayer for me that I find a way to get through today and hope this third cold runs its course quickly. Although it is difficult to stay too upset when little CJ is smiling and cooing at me. I think my best medicine at this point is to thrive off her cuteness.

Again, I am behind on my blogging. SO...here I am catching you up on my fun new recipe adventure. A couple of weeks ago I tried out five adventurous items. Creamy rice with roasted salmon: Weird. But that is because I made a HUGE mistake on this dish. The arborio rice was to be cooked in a dry white wine. I, however, in my rush to get dinner on the table misread the dry white wine ingredient and instead used white wine vinegar!! Matt and I actually ate it but Kate would have enjoyed cat poo more than she enjoyed the rice we put on her plate. Oh, and I didn't even notice my mistake until just now. Yep, I was looking over the ingredients as I began typing this post and just now noticed my big, fat mistake. Haha! I guess you have to learn to laugh at yourself! :) Goat cheese omelet: Matt and I have never had goat cheese before and now that we have, I believe we will be eating goat cheese again in the future. Kate did not enjoy this meal...at all. In fact I gave her a tas...

I'm more than a little behind on my blog. Since my last post CJ has turned two months old, we attended our first ISU basketball game as a family of four and I put on my mom pants and pulled them up to my neck. Yep, we bought a minivan. Whew, a lot can happen in a week's time. Here is CJ's 2 month picture. She obviously has some work to do on holding her head up, but she is getting there. She smiles and 'talks' all the time! It is wonderfully adorable. I have a great video of her talking and will have to post that sometime soon. The night before Halloween Kate and I made 'Spider Cookies' and a 'Bubbling Cauldron' for dinner. Through this project I have learned that while neither of us will ever be food artists, we had a blast trying. Here is what the Spider Cookies are supposed to look like. And here are our Spider Cookies! I forgot to buy licorice for legs and my 2 year old decorator decided to add her own touch. Despite how they look, they wer...