I have so much blogging to do and so little motivation :)  There will be more posts this week for sure.

I know it sounds crazy- but I wake up every morning to the sun shining in through our windows and I get all sad inside.  Where or where is my snow?!  where is my winter?!  where are my gloomy days?! I need them. If we skip winter altogether- I may get depressed.

We've gotten a few light dustings- but it is NOT enough. And it all melts immediately.

The kids are pretty disappointed, too.  Zeb has been dying to make a snow angel.  

The boys LOVE the binocs that Kent got me for Christmas. We get to bird and squirrel watch in the back yard every day.

We had preschool at our place last week and we learned all about bodies.  Hearts, lungs, brains, our senses, the digestive system, and more.  We even did all sorts of exercises to match.  Brain exercises were learning and matching games, heart and lung exercises were races and the game 'hullabaloo'- and we even did digestive exercises at snack time :)

Zeb and the other kiddos LOVED doing full body tracings of themselves and then decorating their organ systems!  I did this very same thing when I taught junior high :)

Zeb is going to school next year for reals and I can't believe it.  Full day kindergarten!!  any suggestions on making full day the best experience?!  I'm pretty confident that he'll absolutely love it- but I don't want him to get too tired or burnt out!

Kent is on a rotation at the Air Force hospital so he isn't getting free food everyday- and that means I've been making a lot of food so he can take leftovers for lunch every day.  I've included four great and pretty easy ones here so I can add them to my rotation.

None of the pictures are mine. I've been really lazy with the camera lately!

PF changs lettuce wraps from 'the culinary life'.  The recipe has intense wording (not including it all here!)- but it's actually super easy to make.  They were delish.

 Chicken Florentine by me.  Picture by Paula Deen- but mine looked pretty darn close.  I used a bunch of recipe ideas and then made it all my own.  Kent LOVED it.  I liked it.  It's pretty creamy.

Mix:
 1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 c milk
2 large crockpotted/shredded chicken breasts
1-2 cups mozarella cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 container (4 oz) italian herb cream cheese creamy stuff.  You could do reg cream cheese or sour cream with italian seasoning.
1 bag of fresh spinach chopped and sauteed with an onion
10-14 oz al dente bowtie pasta


350 degrees. 30 minutes.


Mexican Lasagna.  From Sugar and Spice.  Super easy recipe and super tasty. I even used 1 can cooked chicken to make it faster and easier!  I topped it with chopped lettuce, guac, salsa, and sour cream.

Crockpot cavatappi and broccoli Mac n cheese.  I read a zillion recipes and came up with my own.  It was CRAZY easy and pretty tasty.

picture from Blake's All Natural

8-10 oz half cooked cavatappi pasta
1 can evap milk
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup mixed asiago/parm/romano cheese
2 eggs
1/4 c milk
Mix it all together and throw it in the crockpot for 2 hrs high or 4 hrs low.  I added the broccoli at the end already cooked.  And added some bread crumbs on top for the last hour.

the dark side

We've been so lucky with health the past few weeks. I feel like everybody around us is sick and we've managed to stay clear of the germs. Although Kent caught some nasty bug that left him with a sore throat for ten days- but I steered clear of him for that long and I seemed to have escaped whatever he had.  It's pretty easy to avoid him when he's never home anyway!   I really don't want to get sick in this last homestretch.  I feel like if I get sick now I won't be able to recover until post baby.  Less than six weeks now. I can't figure out how eight months flew by. I'm terrified for this baby to show up. We are in such a good happy place right now. My kids are so self sufficient. They sleep in. They feed themselves. They dress themselves.  They entertain each other all day.  I can shower and eat and even read without being bombarded by needs.  Two adults, two kids.  Life is too easy.  WHAT ARE WE THINKING?!

Post Christmas life has been pretty normal.  Preschool, gym, meijer, the library, and home.  That's what we do around here.

 Here's Ike and his ritual of a pb and syrup multigrain waffle for breakfast.  While watching cartoons of some sort.  I loved watching cartoons while eating breakfast growing up. I hope that's a not a terrible tradition to pass on to my kiddos.

Also- in the past three weeks I have amassed more Star Wars knowledge than I have in my previous thirty years of life.

Since we got married Kent has been saving his collection of old Star Wars figurines to give to our kiddos.  Last Christmas the boys got light sabers but were only mildly interested in them so Kent didn't get out his old toys.  This year Kent prepped Zeb by showing him youtube snippets of Star Wars movies for a few months- and now all the boys are hooked.  Zeb asks NONstop questions about characters I've never heard of. We scour library shelves for books about Star Wars.  He asks me at least seven times a day why Darth Vader wants people to join the dark side.  I don't have any of the answers to his questions.  He does however regularly inform me that right before Darth Vader dies- he decides to choose the right.  I honestly had no idea until he told me.

And we FINALLY have enjoyed a little snow!  I want winter!  good cold snowy winter. Maybe we'll have to put in for Alaska on our next air force assignment.  These boys are getting to wear their angry birds hats around and they love them! thanks again, gma Pat!

last of the visitors!

 For the remaining days that the whole Oswald fam was in town we partied. Kent had five straight days off and that made it even better!! We got babystitters two nights and went out kidless to great Thai food and barbecue, went to the children's museum, saw the 'Muffets' movie, swam at Nannie Annie and Gramps' pool, and spent hours at the air force museum, and played with new toys.

We love the children's museum here! although I seem to lose a kid every time we go.  The crazy slides connect all three levels and it's really easy to lose children when they zip down a slide and you can't see at all where they've gone.

Zeb thinks the best part of my parents visiting is definitely the hotel pool benefit.  Everybody had a blast at the hotel!!

We went and saw the muppets movie.  The three rugrat boys (and clair) partied it up in our new swagger wagon.

and I've got a gazillion pictures from the air force museum. I can't believe that this place is free. It's a little boys dream come true- and keeps visitors entertained for a day!!

Have I mentioned how funny this Milly girl is? Plus she has GREAT clothes that will be hand me downs if we have a girl.

Daysa the astronaut.

And Zeb, too.  You know- this is a real space suit.

 Ike is obsessed with Clair.  After they left- Ike got sick and kept asking if Clair could hold him!!

Here's the turkey pushing clair around in his stroller.

The whole fam dam got to ride in the simulator. Except for me.  The man wouldn't let me on because of my 'condition'.  Seriously.  I went skydiving pregnant - I think I could have handled the simulator.

As much as I miss my family being close- living far away sure does make it exciting when they come and visit!!

family pictures.

The day after Christmas we all got together for a big family photo session!  It's not often that we are all together in the same place- so we had to take advantage of the opportunity.  I wasn't uber excited about it all considering I really don't like to see myself pregnant (call me vain if you'd like- I just don't like my pregnant belly!)- but I survived! I am surprised how smoothly it all went.  We seriously spent less than thirty minutes and got some decent shots!   I have a beautiful family!

 My dad appears to be a floating head in this one- but everybody else looks good :)

 Best sisters ever.

a day late- but just as great!

 Christmas Evening was our Christmas eve this year and it was splendid.  After we picked up Gramps, Nannie Annie, Daysa, Metta, and Clair from the airport- we all feasted on a fabulous Christmas dinner.  And then got busy with our traditions!

Best tradition ever is the christmas eve pixie pal gift exchange.  Every body picks a secret pixie pal back in October or December and has to home make a gift for them.  And then we take turns guessing who has whom.  I am so glad we were all together this year to do the exchange! much easier than via skype :)  I only got this one picture of the event- but Laney is holding the gift that she crafted for me.  Some amazing red flower felt accent pillows. Loved them.

Christmas morning was also just perfect.  Christmas is definitely one of the things that gets better with kids!  we all slept in until eight and then made our way downstairs for the chaos.  I made Henry and Zeb pause for a picture.  They were still pretty tired since Ike decided to wake them up because he couldn't wait any longer.

Here's our 'before' shot of the gifts. Can you guess what our little rugrats wanted for Christmas?  Cars stuff.   With a splash of Star Wars for Zeb.

I love their little faces here.

coolest hats ever that Grandma Pat made and sent!  Zeb has been buzzing around like an angry birds bomb since Christmas!

I loved the excitement of these rugrats as they inspected each new gift.

all of the cousins comparing cars.

Zeb kept looking for this one until he opened it.  We've watched it several million times since that Day.

and this little Milly goat takes after her mom, Laney.  She's all about clothes and hair and accessories.  She wouldn't take off her sparkly new boots ALL day.

All of the kiddos were pretty interested in the adult gifts, too.  Thanks Mom and Dad for the Kindle Fire!  Each of the daughters got one- and I think I'll even share mine with Kent :)  I've had to remind Zeb and Ike on numerous occasions that this was Kent and Leisy's gift- not theirs!!!  They both call it the 'candle fire'.

I am so so so so glad that my family was able to come and visit for Christmas this year!! definitely one of my favorite Christmases ever.

Zeb and Ike were equally as excited to have everyone in town!  I think I would have been a lot grumpier having Kent gone the whole week had I not had my family around :)

Thanks for the great Christmas, Mom and Dad!!

the christmas eve that really wasn't.

 Kent's holiday schedule wasn't nearly as torturous as I'd anticipated.   He worked Christmas Eve and Christmas day- but the days ended up being shorter than scheduled and I had extra friends and family around.

Christmas Eve he was home by four and Laney and Taylor were in from Buffalo!  we celebrated with half of our normal Christmas eve festivities  We did our 'takeout' smorgasbord and had chinese, pizza, subs, breadsticks, famous Cincinnati chili, shrimp, and lots of other fabulous stuff.

We also had the elders over for the fun-

 and our good friends, the Stewarts!

 Since Kent had to go to work early Christmas morning - we just postponed it until the next day.
I was a little worried that Zeb was going to freak out or wake up thinking Santa had skipped us- but he just ended up thinking that Santa comes the night of Christmas- so it all worked out.  Next year depending on Kent's schedule we'll have to make some changes- but this year was perfect!

Christmas day we went to church- and spent the afternoon staying busy making a full Christmas dinner of turkey, potatoes, pie, and everything else.   Plus- Zeb and Ike had cousins to play with and I had my sis and her husband to keep me company.

Having Laney's little girl, Milly, around really did get me a little excited for the fact that we may have a girl.  I've kind of been set on the idea of another boy since mine are so great- and I already have everything I'd need- and I really do love little boys- but Milly was just so darn cute and fun. Maybe I could do a girl. and I'll totally put birds in her hair wear to church.

 I still have no idea if ours a boy or girl- and it's pretty exciting to think that we are just eight weeks from finding out!  I am not excited for a newborn baby- but I can't wait to see what it is.  That's really the main reason I don't find out gender- it gives me something to look forward to :)

I think that our family is ready for three.  The van sort of cemented it.  And Zeb and Ike really are excited.