Thursday, October 29, 2015

TastyKakes!

A while back, I joined a thing online called Influenster where I review products and occasionally get free products in the mail to try and review. Our first box was full of TastyKakes Minis, little chocolate cupcakes. Elijah, needless to say, was thrilled. That boy loves him some cupcakes.

I've always wanted to try TastyKake because of the Stephanie Plum books. THese did not disappoint. They do have that processed taste like most prepackaged snack cakes, but the mini size was great. It was just a bite for me and Austin and fit perfectly in Elijah's hand. There could have been more cream filling but it wasn't too bad, overall.

We don't usually buy stuff like this to have around the house because we would eat them and we don't need to, but that's really the only reason I wouldn't buy more. Austin and Elijah and I all enjoyed them. And Asher likes so little, he's not really an indicator of anything. Overall, we'd give them 4 out of 5 stars!




Tuesday, October 6, 2015

All's Quiet on the Home Front

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the long delay, but again, there's nothing to report on Eden. It gets redundant saying that, but it is what it is. I choose to see this as a good thing.

On the family front, Austin and Elijah both had birthdays and are now 32 and 3, respectively. We spent the weekend of Austin's birthday at a hotel so the boys could go swimming because they didn't get to swim nearly enough this summer. It was fun, though they were wiped out and slept most of Sunday and Monday once we got home. That Sunday, Austin flew to Canada for work for a few days. He had an adventure getting to Ottawa, but it was simple getting home, so that was nice. We four had a good week: I went to Dittos and finished out Eden's winter wardrobe and got some extra shirts for the boys as well as a couple Christmas presents for them.

Thursday,  I took Elijah out for lunch for his birthday and he had a blast running and playing at Chik-Fil-A with no brother around to boss him around. Asher was upset about not getting to go so this Thursday I'll take him to lunch by himself. Eden doesn't seem to care, since she gets lots of one-on-one time with me anyway.

Saturday was the Abilene Heart Walk. We got up and went to show our support, though we didn't raise any money. Asher cried and whined the whole way. Eden was fine, Elijah was great. Austin and I could have done a couple laps but because of Asher, we packed it in after just the one. Next year, we'll try to be more on top of things. Maybe bring the wagon or another stroller for the kids.

All through September, we asked Elijah what he wanted for his birthday, what dinner he'd like to have, how old he was going to be. We always got the same answer: two cupcakes. So he got two cupcakes for his birthday. Don't worry, we got him a couple small things. He's 3, he doesn't need a lot of presents. Besides, BB and Papa took care of that: he got a pile of books (that Asher commandeered), three trains for his collection, a plate and bowl set that match his backpack, and a Fisher Price record player. He ignored everything but the trains....which he's already attempted to flush down the toilet. So that was fun. After his birthday, we asked him how old he was and he said "Inspector Gadget" so...there's that.

Asher has been doing great with his bowel issues. He's even back in regular underwear during the day! This is huge. He still has discomfort when he goes to the bathroom, but not as bad as before. And he's USING the toilet and feels that he needs to. He went a whole week with no accidents so he got a special treat: a dvd he'd been wanting for a while. Luckily, I got it for free in a giveaway, but he doesn't care.

Eden is doing great. Her weight gain has slowed down a lot but she's not stalled or going backwards so I think we're ok on that front. She was going to slow down anyway. She's currently got a little cold or something so is a bit irritable, but not too bad. She's mostly got a runny nose and she hates having her nose wiped but her oxygen sats haven't decreased so we're mostly just keeping an eye on it. She hasn't had any fever so I'm hoping its maybe some kind of allergies or something.

She's got two teeth now, though not showing a ton of interest in using them. She doesn't want to be fed anything, she only wants to feed herself, which severely limits what I give her. She isn't terribly interested in the baby food frozen drops I made her (pour a jar of baby food in a baggie, snip a corner, squeeze it onto a cookie sheet in drops and freeze) but she loves the Gerber puffs and cookies and soft breads, basically things that all but dissolve. I've started just giving her tiny pieces of whatever we're eating and she sometimes eats it, sometimes looks at me like I'm crazy. She's going to be the oldest person still on formula.

She's still not crawling or pushing herself into a sitting position, but she manages to scoot around anyway. She always ends up underneath furniture, which is getting to be amusing. She'll get up on her hands and knees and kind of bounce her butt, then she'll go back to her tummy. I keep thinking any day she'll start crawling, but we thought her tooth would pop through any day and it ended up being two months. She's really happy just being carried.

I think she likes being a baby. Cute clothes, someone gives you food that's easy to eat, people carry you everywhere, what's not to love? Really, the only thing she doesn't like is being alone in a room. She likes to have a family member nearby.

Mostly, we're just a family doing things. Nothing terribly interesting, either. The kids go to day care twice a week, we go to church once a week, Austin goes to work five times a week (though now that it's October it'll be six times a week), I read books and cook food and do whatever shopping and errands need to be done for the family to get by. I take the kids to MOPS and the library and sometimes to lunch to play. We think about the zoo (but ugh) and the park (double ugh) but stay pretty close to home because I'm lazy.

All is well here. Nothing new to report, nothing exciting going on. Kind of like a family without a heart baby.


Under Oma's couch. Because that's where the baby goes, right? 


She gave up halfway through and went to sleep. Gotta love the baby butt in the air sleeping position. 


Elijah's birthday lunch. Too busy eating to take a decent picture, this is the best I got. 


Elijah's birthday breakfast. When they heard it was his birthday, they gave him a free donut!


Asher only wanted donut holes. 


Eden was willing to help anyone who might want to lose a donut her way. No one did. 


Me and Elijah on his birthday. It's hard to get him to sit still long enough to get a picture. The back lighting doesn't help. 


Asher with his new dvd!


Walking in the Heart Walk


Asher is screaming about being tired or something. Elijah's excited to be outside walking.


Asher declined having a picture taken with the helicopter.