The Clayton Clan: January 2010

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ketchup Mom

Today I made Kaden a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. He ate about half of it and then said ketchup please mom. I must admit I thought that ketchup with a ham and cheese sandwich would be disgusting and ignored his request and kept on with whatever I was doing at the time. After he made this same request about 4 times, each with increasing urgency I decided to comply. I got out a small plate and squirted a small pile of ketchup on it. After I put the plate down in front of him he looked at me with the most annoyed look and said "MOM... hot dog???" oh of course silly me I should have known that when he was demanding ketchup with his sandwich he was really asking for a hot dog instead. Now I will know for next time.

A few nights ago Chris and I were laying in bed with Kaden, I leaned over and gave him a kiss which he wiped off with the back of his hand and said "GROSS MOM" I almost cried. He is 2 for crying out loud.

Dear Kaden,
You are 2 years old. I am your mom. I am allowed to cover you in kisses all I want right now and you are not allowed to wipe them off or call them gross. When you are 20 we can discuss this matter again but for now this is the law.

Love,
Mom

Apparently kisses for Taycee aren't so gross

This is how they look at each other most of the day. This look usually comes before they are about to do something really nice like give a kiss or a hug or do something really naughty like steal a toy and tackle the other one to the ground.

My babies that aren't babies anymore.

Dear Taycee,

You slept in your own bed last night for the first time in a month. You didn't wake up once from 8 pm til 7 am. Thank You. Now if you will please do me one more favor and stop growing up. I am not going to have a baby for a long while sill so I need you to stay little and sweet and cute for a few more years.

Thanks!

Mom

This is the newest Taycee expression. She will throw her binki or her cup and then look at you with her hands up and say "where go?"

Love em'

This is Kaden sending me off to my first day of school. He really is a crack up these days. When he is suppose to be asleep but he wants to get up and play he will sneak to the outside of the door of whatever room we are in and throw things in to the room. I have no idea why he does this or what he is trying to accomplish but it is pretty funny. All of the sudden small puzzle pieces or binkies or toys will come sailing into our room from out of no where.

He has also started to quote movies. His new favorite is Happy Feet. One of the penguins says "I knew it" all excited with his finger in the air and then hangs his head and says " it was all a lie" Kaden does this several times a day. He finds himself quite amusing.

Kaden has also taken a liking to a small electronic cat. It is the kind that walks and makes noise. It hasn't had batteries for a very long time but Kaden carries it around and hugs it. He pets its fur and asks it if it is ok. Sometimes he will set it on the ground and say "come here kitty kitty" it is pretty cute.

First day of school... it is true, I am a student again. Full time. After one week I have decided it is do-able. Hard but do-able. My two energetic children take most of my day as it is.. adding in classes and homework make each day a juggling act. BUT I am doing it and I am enjoying my classes so that's something.

Sunday I decided to make Can't Leave em Alone Bars which are fabulous. I got out the white cake mix added in my eggs and oil and started stirring. As always I took a taste of the batter and immediately stopped stirring. The cake mix was not white... it was lemon. How in the world did a lemon cake mix get in a white cake box? Well I couldn't continue with my recipe because lemon cake definitly would not go well with my chocolate fudge center so I started to contemplate what I would do next. I couldn't make a cake because I had already ruined it with the eggs and oil I had put it. I decided I would invent something new. I opened my cooking cupboard and pulled out some flour and powdered sugar. Then I looked in the fridge and saw a can of whipped cream, this peaked my interest so I pulled it out as well. Chris was watching all of this with some curiosity wondering what I was going to make. What I did next about made his eyes bug. I shook the can of whipping cream and then squirted about a 6 inch pile on top of my cake batter. I really really wish I had had a camera at this time Chris literally about fell over. "What are you going to do with that" "You can't bake that now that you squirted all that whip cream in it" "What were you thinking" He thought the situation was quite comical. I told him not to worry that I had it under control. He said " what are you going to call them? Who in the heck thought that would work bars" he thinks he is really funny. I added some flour and sugar to my batter and decided to make them cookies. the problem was I couldn't get the batter as firm as I would have liked it so I decided to roll them in powdered sugar before I put them in the over. I slid a tray of 24 cookies into the over at 350 for 13 minutes and this is what came out....

In Chris's words " THESE ARE AMAZING" He loved them. He ate about 15 of them before the night was over. I have decided to name them lemon puffs. So if any of you ever end up with a white cake box with lemon cake inside... give these a try. :) And have people around when you squirt the whip cream in... it makes for a great reaction.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

January Blues

January seems to be a slow month for us. The rush of the Holidays is over, school starts and brings with it schedules and homework and stress. I lose my umph to do much of anything. If you think about it that is rather ironic considering that January is suppose to be the month of new resolutions and goals. I do have my new years resolutions... I just don't have the energy to do them.
I am suppose to be starting school this week again however I have been back and forth in limbo about it for a long time. We have been waiting on my financial aid to come through and today it did. A whoppin 787 dollars. Unfortunately that doesn't even come close to to covering the 2300 dollars tuition costs not to mention the cost of books. I do have the option of taking out student loans to help cover the cost, unfortunately I will also have to start paying those loans back in a year when I finish school. I am pretty sure in a year from now I will still be home with my kids and Chris will still be in the middle of his Chem E PHD which means we will be in no situation to be paying back loans. What to do.... what to do...?? I am not sure. So for now I am going to classes until I decide.
The kids are feeling my lack of energy and are trying to compensate by being overly energetic. Kaden spends most mornings running circles around me... literally... he puts his arms out like he is a plane and runs circles around me saying "run run run" as I am carrying Taycee trying to get breakfast ready. Kaden has started saying his own prayers... unfortunately they are completely garbled and I can't understand most of what he says. Every once in awhile I catch a Heavenly Father, grandma, Taycee Lynn, and Amen. It is pretty cute. He has also picked up on little things like saying "sure" when you ask him something or "of course". Yesterday when we were in the doctors office for Taycees check-up she ripped the paper lining on the table and Kaden let out a very exasperated "OH MY GOSH"
Taycee is still not 100% back to normal. She isn't sleeping well at night which means Chris and I spend most of the night trying to rock her back to sleep. She is also very very needy. She wants to be held all the time and cries over everything. That doesn't help with the no energy thing. I think the hospital must have traumatized her because she refuses to let anyone hold her or get close to her. Every once in awhile she perks up... it is usually over food. :) I made apple crisp the other night and Chris and I both had a bowl of it while sitting in the living room. She would walk back and forth in between us to make sure we were both sharing with her. Chris didn't want to share anymore so while she was turned walking toward me he tried to hide. She is one smart cookie, she wasn't fooled for a second. He tried this several times hiding behind couches jumping over counters... no matter where he went Taycee found him in seconds. She made him share with her til every last bite was gone.
This is what I came home to Saturday night after teaching dance.....

Not exactly the welcome home present I was hoping for. This is a black sharpie marker all over my front door. If anyone has any great suggestions for taking marker off doors let me know. :D So far we have tried hand sanitizer, fingernail polish remover, WD40, and MR Clean Magic eraser ( All Internet recommendations). The hand sanitizer worked the best but also took the paint off.

Who could be in Kadens tunnel with their feet sticking out one end and their hands the other....

Oh its our 6'7" daddy.

The girl cousins at Mckells baby shower

Taycee was excited about something

She loves to cover her face/head with things and play peek-a-boo

This is Kadens new trick he goes to do a somersault and then lifts his arms in the air

Please tell me he will never be big enough to fit in this coat.

This is what happens when we have spaghetti

Taycee has recently decided she is big enough to feed herself... I am pretty sure I never gave her permission to get this old.

Here are some fun pics from Mckells baby shower. She is expecting a boy in February.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Latest Photo Shoot

Thursday I was able to take pictures of this cute girl for her Fourth Birthday. It was a crazy blizzard outside so we had to make do with a sheet as a background. There were so many cute pictures it was hard to pic just a few to post.