Snapshots Around the House & An Easy Recipe

Hannah and Claire's coloring and art supplies were beginning to take over my phone table.  So last weekend we went and got a few things to help organize them.  I made a space in my pantry for these files, and now they are organized by coloring books, Hannah's workbooks, and construction paper/scrap paper to cut.  Much better.

These bows were delivered that I ordered from Jill's Bow Boutique.

They are for me.

Just kidding.

I did buy these for me though...

and these...

and I really wanted these...

but I want to be able to wear them to work, and the material looked like hair would stick all over those boots like nobody's business. So I refrained.  But I might not for long, I really like them. 

Anyway, back to my pictures... sorry, I got a little side tracked.

I made P Dub's meatballs with some cheesy mashed potatoes and a side salad for dinner on Saturday night.  They were so good. Claire and Mr. Hass and I loved them. Hannah is a bit pickier, but I was just happy one of my kids ate them.

On Sunday I pulled the crock pot out to make lime chicken tacos.

If you're looking for a tasty easy recipe to make, let this be it.

-Simply throw chicken breasts in crock. (I used 3 and we had a lot of chicken leftover.) Season them to your liking (I used sea salt, cracked pepper, and garlic powder)

-In bowl combine 2 tbsp. chili powder with the juice of about 4 limes. Whisk together and pour over chicken in crock.

-Cooke on high for 5 to 6 hours.

-Then simply shred chicken using fork, and add frozen corn (1 cup or more if you'd like) and salsa (I used about 1 and 1/2 cups of Pace)

-Stir to combine and put crock to warm for about 30 mins.

Then place chicken mixture on a couple of corn tortillas and dress them up with cilantro, avocado, sour cream, and whatever toppings your taste buds desire. Yum and seriously so easy.

The girls played "mommies" while I got ready one morning.

Hannah said to me:

"Mom- God gives you kids and Jesus gives you babies."

Then she said:

"Look, it's like we are real mommies."

I think she got that idea from Max and Ruby.  There is an episode where they pretend Max is their baby.  Gotta love Max and Ruby.  It's rivoting.  Really.

We've been playing with the pig skin.  Gearing up for game day.

Only 5 more days.  The game is at 5pm.  Mr. Hass took the day off for the big event.  I am not allowed to watch it.  Well, really, kids are not allowed to annoy/yell/make noise/breathe/bother him while watching it.  It's that big of a game. So he's watching the game with my Dad at his place.  Which means I will be at home feeding children and then bathing children.  While Mr. Hass watches the big game.

Go BSU!

Guess what else?

 Pumpkin spice lattes are baaaaack!

A Little Blue Pill

Last Saturday while Grandma Hass was still here, I had to work.

That morning I was pouring a cup of coffee and Hannah, Mr. Hass, Grandma Hass and I were waking up downstairs.  Hannah was crouched down behind a chair in the living room where Diane's luggage was.  We told her to get out of her Grandma Hass' things, and she said it was fine.

In the next moment I heard Hannah coughing and gagging, and heard Mr. Hass yell, "What is in your mouth Hannah?"

I ran to their side and Hannah was choking and spitting out something blue.  She had gotten into Diane's pill pack and we did not know what she had put in her mouth, or how many...

Mr. Hass was shouting to his Mom, "What did you have that was blue? How many blue pills did you have?"

At first she said it was an aleve, and then said no it was a lunesta (sleeping pill).  In the panicked state that I was in, I practically yelled at her "Well how many did you have?! How many blue pills were in there?!"

Meanwhile, Hannah is crying and gagging and continuously spitting the remnants of the blue pill (or pills?) out of her mouth.

Diane said she was positive that there was only one lunesta in her case.  We asked Hannah over and over again, "Did you take any more than that? How many did you put in your mouth?"

Through her tears she assured us that she only took one, and that she thought it was candy.

Sure, why not.  Our kids don't see us take pills, we don't leave pills anywhere that they might see them, so of course a little blue pill might look like candy to a three year old.

Before we were sure exactly what Hannah took, Mr. Hass was very concerned with getting as much of it as we could out of her mouth.  He asked her if she needed to be sick so he tried sticking his finger down her throat as she cried and gagged over the bathroom toilet, but she wouldn't throw up.

Later when we were pretty positive that she just put one in her mouth (why would she put more than that after she chewed that first one and realized that it most certainly was not candy?), we were much less concerned.  Well, really, Mr. Hass being the pharmacist, was much less concerned, and I still had a somewhat panicked look on my face.  I was ready to call 911 but he assured me that if he had to choose a pill for Hannah to swallow, that would have been it.  He said nothing would happen other than she might get sleepy.  Considering how she spit most of it out, I was not too worried after that.

However, it was a good lesson for us all.  Diane felt bad, and it was not her fault at all.  It was an accident that was no one's fault, but it sure made me think what I can do to prevent it in the future.  As soon as Claire is old enough to have that talk, we will explain to her about medicine and pills, and teach her that they are not candy.  Hannah was pretty embarrassed afterwards, and later said that she will not ever ever take grown up'd medicines again.

There Are No Words

Sometimes there really are no words adequate enough to describe the love I have for both my girls.  It is a love that I knew nothing about before I became a mother myself.  And then suddenly, I understood.  Suddenly I understood exactly what it means when my mom says "I love you".  Suddenly I understood exactly why she wanted to know the exact names of the streets that I would be driving on to get to Taco Bell with my friend Kelly, and why she wanted me to call her the minute that we arrived at our destination.

Now I understand.

I will admit that as much as I sometimes long for the day when both my girls will be in school and I will have a bit more time of the day to myself again, I also wish I had the ability to keep them small for as long as I wished.  Not always of course, but on nights like tonight I especially wish I had that power.

After Mr. Hass returned home from work this afternoon, Hannah and I left the house for a special date.  The date did not go exactly as well as I had hoped, but that's just life.

I was inspired by Mel over at The Larson Lingo to have a date with Hannah.  I know it is important to spend one on one time with my kids, and while I've spent that one on one with Hannah at home while Claire is napping, I have never really gone somewhere special with just her.  Mr. Hass has taken Hannah out a couple of times, and I figured it was time I did as well.

Of course we couldn't leave Claire Bear out of all the pictures.

Poor thing, being the mama's girl that she is, threw a fit when she realized that Hannah was leaving with me and she was staying with Daddy.  Sorry Claire, you will get your turn.  I promise.

Our first stop was the local library.  Shamefully, I do not have a library card, so we thought we would go get ourselves some cards and some books to borrow.  Once we pulled up I saw that the parking lot was empty and thought oh no.  Sure enough, they were closed.  The hours are very limited now and I wonder if it is due to the bad economy.  I thought it was so sad.  Hannah was very upset because she wanted to go the the library just like Caillou (her new favorite show) does.  I promised her we would go soon.

Then we went to Chick Fil A.  She took two bites of her food and that's only because I practically forced her to.  Then she wanted to go play.  There were some very rough and rowdy boys running amok in the play area and Hannah was scared of them.  She finally got brave enough to go play and one of them practically knocked her down while he was running around like a wild baboon with no parent in sight (of course).  Hannah started crying and that was that.  She didn't want to leave, but she didn't want to play with those boys in there. 

We left and went to Golden Spoon to get dessert for us and some to bring back for Daddy and Claire.

I was disappointed that our date wasn't as great as I had envisioned, but I know we will do it again soon.

What got me so emotional tonight, was after I took a bath I went into Hannah's room to turn off her night light and kiss her goodnight.

What I saw just melted me into a million pieces and I sat down on her bed and started to cry.

My sweet Hannah.
So anxious to grow up and go to "hike school".
Asleep with the back to school Target catalog in her bed, and her toy Woody in her hand, and Woody's hat on the tip of her sweet little girl fingertips.

All I could think is that one day her room will be covered in posters of boys and rock bands, and notes from her friends.
There will be no more Woody, no more night light, no more nie nie.
I know it will happen so fast.
So I really am trying to take it all in.
(And trying to see the computer screen because now my eyes are filled with tears)

I wish I could slow this one down too.

She wants to be so grown up.

She thinks she is almost four, not almost two.

Oh how I love these little girls.

Part 2 of our time with Grandma Hass

After Claire's nap last Friday we packed up a few essentials...

and went to the beach.

I love love love the beach.

I can never get enough of it.

It's been so hot here

and the beach was beautiful.

A bit chilly even.

The girls got busy right away.

Claire did have cute little flower clips in her hair, but she ripped them out in the car.

It sure was nice to have Mr. Hass home last weekend.  He works this weekend and I just know the time will not pass as quickly as it does when he is around. 

Hannah loves the beach too, but Claire is still a bit unsure about all the sand.  She likes to be held and she wraps her legs around your body with a death grip.

I really liked this one of Grandma and the girls too.

There was a lot of activity going on in the water when we were there.

People were swimming, a man was paddleboarding, huge pelicans were flying overhead and diving for something, and we even saw a seal swimming right up close in the waves.

I never got a good picture of him.  He swam off too far and I did not have a good zoom lens with me, but  I promise we saw him. or her.

Check out this cutie bustin a move while building a sand castle.

Life is good when your toes are in the sand.

It is always crazy to me to see how much the kids have changed in just a few months.  The picture on the left was taken in March when we went to Laguna with Dusty, and on the right taken by Diane (Grandma Hass) on Friday.  Both girls look so much older.  We do too even. Yikes.

The beach seemed to clear out pretty quickly and soon it looked like we were the only ones there.
Once our stomachs started to growl we packed up and went across the street to eat dinner at Johnny Rockett's.
It was goooood.
Or maybe we were just starving.
It was a fun day at the beach, and nice to enjoy it with Grandma Hass too.


One more thing...

I know technically this picture is overexposed and all over the place, but I love it because Mr. Hass looks so handsome and rugged.

Did you know that there are only 11 more days until Boise State's first football game of the season?

It's a huge game.

Did you know that?

They are playing Virginia Tech.

They are a big school, and really good team.

If Boise State beats them it is gonna be HUGE.

Big news for BSU.

Did you know all that?

I wouldn't have either if it wasn't for the fact that Mr. Hass gives me updates almost daily.

He has a countdown for the big day on his phone, and he checks the website often.

He's a big fan.

Huge.

Good luck BSU!

Grandma Hass' Visit... Errr, Kind Of...

Hi there.

I was going through my pictures of Grandma Hass' visit, and realized that the first half of em had nothing to do with Grandma Hass.  So, this post is kinda off topic. 

Last Friday morning while Grandma Hass was here, Mr. Hass and I told her we're outta here.  Well, really we asked if she'd mind if we went to Home Depot without the kids and she said not a problem.  So off we went.

It was fun.

Alone in Home Depot at 10am.  It was like a morning date in a man store.

It didn't take long to fill up our large man cart.

We bought a vanity that Mr. Hass is going to install in our half bath downstairs.  He has to take out the pedastal (spelling?) and put this one in.  I can't wait to have the storage and counter space in that bathroom.

We also bought new hardware for the kitchen and a new faucet that desperately needed replacing.

And some paint to sample in the girls' bathroom.

The top left picture is the old and ugly brassy hardware, and the right is the pretty new hardware.  What a difference it makes too.

Although, now I look at that pretty hardware,  and see these ugly ugly oak cabinets.  They just don't look good with the red paint and we really don't want to gut the kitchen and replace them.  Staining them is an option but such a big project.  We'll see what happens.

This is the old faucet...

This is the new.

Do you want a peek inside my cupboards?

I took pictures of these cute dishes that my Mom bought for me a while ago and never posted them.

They are melamine and I just love them.

Whenever I do my Mom's hair she always gifts me somehow because I do not charge her for her appointments. 

She should not do this every time and I ALWAYS tell her, but she doesn't listen to me.

We love these and get so much use out of them.  The colors just make me smile.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Day 2 with Grandma Hass.

I promise Part 2 has pictures of Grandma and the kids! 

Another Hass in the House

Did I get you with that post title?
You didn't think I was going to say that I was pregnant did you?
I'm not.
I meant that we had another Hass in our House last weekend.

Grandma Hass!

Mr. Hass picked Grandma Hass up from the airport Thursday afternoon.

We had spaghetti for dinner and Pioneer Woman's olive cheese bread.

And muffins just cause...

Cause they had chocolate in them.

The girls were super excited to see Grandma Hass.

They had her playing with them and all their toys right away.

We had a nice visit and I took lots of pictures.

I will post more soon.

For now, I will leave you with a couple pictures of our new couch.  The purple/cranberry couch was exchanged for the right color and we are very happy with it.

I had to re-arrange the furniture a little bit to accomodate for the larger couch.  The set up we had before just wasn't working.  Now I need a new corner table between the two couches, the one I have there now I moved from upstairs and it is just temporary until I find what I want.

Another view.

My new pillow that I found at TJMaxx.

I love it.

Mr. Hass hates it.

He says we have too many damn pillows on the couch and there is no room for him to sit.

I say too damn bad.

I like the pillows.

Ha.