Kids Say the Darndest Things

Every time my kids do or say something funny, people tell me to "write it down". I don't always do a good job with that, but since this blog has become more like a journal/story my kids will have for the future, I think I'll try to do a better job of putting those funnies in here.




1.)
This past Saturday as we were riding the train home from Chicago, Jaxon was talking the ear off of the little boy behind us. The boy was probably a few years older than Jax and didn't have a whole lot to say, but he was patiently listening to Jaxon recall the entire air show. After awhile, Jason and Jaxon left to find the snack car. While they were gone, the little boy's dad asked me what our daughter's name was. When I replied, "Dakota", he said, "Oh that's our son's name." That didn't surprise me one bit. Most Dakota's we've seen are boys, in fact a lot of the personalized gifts you find in gift shops have the name, Dakota, on the masculine items.

When Jaxon returned from the snack car, I asked him if he had asked his friend what his name was. When he said, no, I told him, "Dakota." I waited for the expected response, "But Mom, that's a girls name." I was ready to have the conversation about names that are appropriate for both genders and don't assume and names are chosen by parents and don't tease people based on names...you know, the typical "Mom lecture". But to my surprise, he responded, "But Mom, he's not a baby!" I just about fell out of my chair I was so shocked. I don't even remember what/if I responded because I was blown away by his response. Too funny!




2.)
Last night, Jaxon was petting our dog, Cooper, backwards. It made his fur stand up and Jaxon said, "Look Mom, I'm mowing Cooper's grass!"






3.)
Ever since we've gotten home from the train ride to Chicago, it is about all Jaxon has talked about. He continuously relives the experience with ALL the details. Last night, he told me that he was going to his room to pack for Chicago. I was on the computer at the time and didn't think much of it. When he didn't come out for several minutes, I decided to go check on him. Here's what I found:



His little suitcase was full of about 30 t-shirts. He had me grab two pairs of socks and two pairs of "big boys" (underwear) and then he shoved four pairs of shoes in. It was quite humerous. We kept it packed and lined it up in the hallway so we wouldn't forget it the next day when leaving for Chicago. Sure enough, once Sissy was down for her nap today, Jaxon and I "went" on a train ride to Chicago. We drug his suitcase all over the house, I mean train, then drug it through the streets of Chicago until we reached the hotel. And wouldn't you know, we found the snack car on our train and got some candy! What an imagination.






4.)
Cute Sayings:
As Jaxon was learning to talk, we always repeated him with the correct pronunciation of words. Over time he has come to correct his "cute" mispronunciations and now they are almost non-existent. Although I'm proud of our little grammatically correct chatter-box, I miss the cute little funnies. Here's a list (and their definitions) of some things he has not corrected yet, and we're hoping to hold on to for as long as we can.

~ belt seat = seat belt

~ kamote = remote (control)

~ pockulcicle = Popsicle

~ bikelcicle = bicycle


~ And I must also throw in here; he calls one of my dear friends, Jessica, Uncle Jessica. She adores it and hopes that he will call her this forever.

Chicago

We went to Chicago this past weekend, and it was an interesting experience. The first half of the weekend made us think we had made a huge mistake in planning to go! The last half was wonderful. We literally prayed about the unforeseen circumstances we faced and God chose to answer our prayers. We are grateful for the fun memories we got to make!

We planned to go up Friday and come back Saturday night. The annual Air and Water Show was this weekend and since we really enjoyed it last year, we wanted to go again. After doing some price comparison, we decided it was time to take the train up. We've been wanting to try this (and since our little man LOVES trains - and anything else that goes), we knew we needed to try it. I've never ridden the Amtrak and Jason has only done it once, about 15 years ago. I could really drag this story out, because it made for a loooong weekend, but I'll save you some time.

Our plan was:
1. Take the 11:10AM train to Chicago, arriving around 2:00. Eat lunch on the train.
2. Spend the afternoon at Navy Pier.
3. Eat some Chicago-style pizza somewhere in the city for dinner.
4. Take a boat taxi or boat tour through the river in the evening.
5. Retire to the hotel for the night and possibly have time to swim.

Here's how Friday went:
1. Arrived in Bloomington, IL at 10:30 to board the train and learned it has been delayed 3 hours.
2. Discussed getting a refund and driving to Chicago, but decided that would break Jaxon's heart and what's a few hours anyway?
3. There's a wonderful children's museum across the tracks from the Amtrak station, so we decided to spend a few hours there, eat some lunch, then head back to the station to catch our (late) train.
4. Got back to the station a little before 2:00 and learned that it would be another hour before the train arrived (making it 4 hours late).
5. ARGHHH!!
6. Nothing like napless kiddos in a tiny train station.
7. Waited an hour in the station and learned it would be about another hour before the train arrived (making it 5 hours late).
8. It did finally arrive just a little before 4:00PM. We got to Chicago a little after 6:00PM, checked in to our hotel, walked to the nearest pizza restaurant, got back to the hotel around 9:00PM and all of us passed out!

And that was just Friday!





Here are a few pictures from the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, IL. I said this on here last year, but it really is one of the best children's museum's I've been to. There's so much to do for all ages.



The cute cashier who checked me out in the museum's grocery/nutrition section.



Sissy LOVED the toddler area.



I'm not sure which of my three kids liked the floor piano most!




CHICAGO (finally):

We tried a new pizza place, on the recommendation of our hotel concierge (the free dessert coupon she gave us helped make up my mind); Lou Malnati's. We may have found a new favorite! Excellent, friendly and efficient service.


It had been a very long day for both kids. Sissy is used to a 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon, and on Friday, she only napped in her stroller from the Amtrak station to our hotel (about 30 minutes).


They ate well though! I guess they had worked up their appetites with the long day.





Jaxon got a hold of my camera and I thought you would enjoy a few pictures from a 3 year olds perspective.







We were excited to wake up Saturday morning and looked forward to the Chicago Air and Water Show. We took our time getting around and decided on one of our new favorites; The Corner Bakery Cafe for breakfast. We chose a cute little table outside and sat down to enjoy a relaxing breakfast. Jason started noticing the clouds coming in and decided to check the weather, where he learned that the 0% chance of rain was now a 50% chance of rain. Just about then, Jaxon said, "Dad look, there's an airplane!" Sure enough, it looked like the air show had started early and we were still a 30 minute cab ride away. We quickly finished our breakfast, loaded up on water bottles at the nearest Walgreens and hailed a cab. We decided to get dropped off at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a zoo with free admission and its location is perfect for watching the air show action. As we are approaching the zoo, Jason and I both notice rain drops on the windshield. By the time we got to the zoo's entrance, it was nearly pouring.

We ran from the cab to the seal habitat, because it's in doors. We spent some time there, then dashed to the Lion House, another indoor exhibit. We would spend the next (almost) 2 hours in the Lion House. Our poor children. We aren't scared of a little rain, but it was a down pour, we had no extra clothes for the rest of the day, plus it was lightening off and on. Our kids were amazing though. Sissy actually fell asleep in the stroller for about an hour and Jaxon loved watching the animals and shopping the gift shop. Once the rain let up a tiny bit, we dashed to a cafe for some lunch and that's when the rain stopped! We were really starting to worry, thinking we had come all this way and wouldn't get to see the air show! So off to North Beach we walked and the four hour air show was crammed in to two hours, but it was wonderful.

The train ride home was a wonderful experience and after all that, the weekend was a success. We really enjoyed the train and plan to utilize it a lot more. We're planning some day trips in the near future, on the train.


My awesome little family in front of the jaguar:




Chicago Air and Water Show:
Once the Thunderbirds took to the sky, she fell fast asleep.



Jaxon had the best seat in the house.




Boeing was handing out these great fans that doubled as sunglasses.



My favorite guy in the world (under 4 feet).





Our cuties looking out the window on the train ride home:


Jason's son reacting to the air show performers:

PICKLES

My in-laws have been spending a lot of their free time fixing up and remodeling my husband's grandmother's home, as she just lost her husband almost a year ago. Many of you have gone to your parents or even grandparents' homes and done this same thing. And you know that it involves a lot of work. But you also know that there's a lot of reward in going through, sorting and organizing, their things. The rewards are found as you discover family treasures, such as letters, recipes, artifacts, china...

One of the treasures they found was this canner:


My mom canned a lot when I was a child (green beans, beets, tomatoes, okra). Her mother canned a lot when she was a child. Her grandmother canned a lot. I never imagined that I would have an interest in canning, but when I was asked by my in-laws if I wanted Grandma's canner, I didn't hesitate to answer, yes. So, our first attempt at using our canner began...




My help:

Heating/sterilizing the canning jars as we prepare the veggies.



The cool thing about receiving treasures like this canner is the other treasures found in the box.

Look at this jar lifter and cookbook/instruction manual:



And as I opened this old book, Grandma's handwriting could be found in different recipes.


On the first page, she wrote the dates that she changed the lining ring:



Here she underlined important steps in the recipe and made a note to herself saying, "air vent usually rises during this time."





Have you ever grown cucumbers? I never have, but I'm sure my parents and grandparents have. If you grow cucumbers, you better LOVE them, because you'll probably get a lot. After picking several cucumbers and not being able to keep up with eating them, we started picking them early, when they were too small to eat fresh. Once we had enough collected, we decided to turn them in to pickles.

The produce:



Some of the bigger cucumbers we cut in to spears:




Jamming them in to the mason jar:




Using Grandma's jar lifter made it extra special:



The final product:



For best flavor, it is suggested to wait 4-6 weeks before eating them. The longer they sit in the brine, the tastier and crispier they'll become. I can hardly wait that long!! But I will.

Born To Be Wild

Since bringing Jason's motorcycle up here last month (we had been storing it in my mom's garage for the last year), Jaxon has been obsessed with sitting on it and even asked if he could ride it when he's really bigger. Jason decided he would give Jax a joyride by taking him for a VERY slow ride in a VERY empty state park.

Jaxon could not contain himself he was so excited. He watched his daddy put all of his safety gear on and headed to his closet to try and find some identical clothes for himself. He ended up with snow boots and a hoodie to match his daddy's riding boots and leather jacket.

Daddy getting him on to the motorcycle.




Ready to ride!



His face says it all!





I had to get this picture because his helmet size is so dis-proportioned to his little body. He insisted that he be "safe" and to him that means wearing a helmet. We don't plan on buying a children's helmet in the near future, so he wore mine (adult size small).


We don't plan to make this a regular event, but it was the best 10 minutes of his day and only took 30 minutes of ours. He was talking about it for the rest of the night!

Sphaghetti Sauce

As you loyal followers know, we have had some success with our little garden this summer. Last week, we picked several of these:




We've been eating sliced tomatoes with nearly every meal and putting them on deli sandwiches, BLT's, cheeseburgers, and anything else we can think of. But we still have a ton! Yay!!!

Growing up, my mom never once bought a jar of Ragu. I honestly didn't know you could buy jars of spaghetti sauce until I was well in to my high school days. Nope. In our home, we had a huge deep freeze in the basement and it was always packed full of Mom's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce. Once I got on my own and didn't have the luxury of walking to the basement to grab a tub of spaghetti sauce, I actually had to buy a jar at the grocery store. I tried several brands and flavors and none could satisfy like mom's. After Jason and I bought our first house in Kansas, I planted some of my stepdad's tomato plants and grew a bunch of tomatoes. My mom came over that summer and helped me stock my freezer with spaghetti sauce. Then we moved to Mississippi.

I must confess that my mom brought spaghetti sauce to us a few times (that is how much I LOVE it). I think she may have smuggled some on to a plane once when she flew down to Mississippi to visit! Bringing it to Arkansas and Illinois was a lot easier because she drove and just packed a cooler.

Now we are settled again, we have a garden with lots of tomatoes, but my mom is not here to watch over my shoulder! Jason and I went for it the other night and had some success. We forgot to taste it before putting it in to containers to freeze, so we'll see how well we did the next time we have spaghetti for dinner.




THE INGREDIENTS:




I do not claim to be a food blogger, but I would love to do some food blogging from time to time. I'm hoping that by doing posts like this, and taking these pictures, we will get motivated to buy ourselves a better camera!!

That being said, step one is to saute the onions and garlic until soft.








Mmmmm...all ingredients are in and ready to simmer for next hour.
I cannot think of anything that looks better than this:





The final product:



We made 6-7 tubs of sauce, which is 6-7 meals! We probably don't even eat spaghetti 6-7 times in one year, but now that we have enough, we can use the sauce for lasagna, meatball subs, and any other Italian casserole dish that calls for a jar of spaghetti sauce.

And by the way, my house smells divine. I like to tell people that have come over the past few days that our home smells like Italy.

And by the way, I picked another large bowl full of tomatoes yesterday. I'll be making another batch of spaghetti sauce tomorrow!

VBS

This past week was Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church and Jaxon had a blast! There were over 60 preschoolers (3-5 year olds) each night and he was a bit overwhelmed by that chaos, but he still begged to go each night.

One of the VBS songs Jax learned had an electric guitar and each night four kids were chosen to go up on stage and "play" the guitar. Here's Jaxon the night he was picked to go up on the porch (as he called it).





A bit of video of Jax the night he was playing the guitar. He becomes a bit distracted with the VBS gorilla appeared on stage:







We got home from VBS very late each night, but I was able to convince him to sing a few songs for his daddy one night while they were still fresh in his head. And for some strange reason, I feel the need to explain the diaper you'll see peeking out from under his jammies. I guess it's the need to not feel like a failure-mom that is forcing me to make this a longer paragraph than necessary. Anyway...he is fully potty-trained and has been since February. However, he still struggles with naps and nightime, so he wears a nighttime diaper at night. Phew - glad I got that off my chest. Now for the videos:

Fon du Lac Farm Park

Our friends called and asked us to go to a petting zoo with them one day while our daddies were on a trip together. Fon du Lac Farm Park was the perfect little petting zoo to spend a few hours last Wednesday.



Here's Ali "riding" the horse.


And Aiden...


Sissy! She wanted down just about as quickly as she got up there.


Ride 'em cowboy - YEEHAW!!



Here's Jax sitting at a desk in the old schoolhouse.

All the kiddos ready for school!


Jax, Ali and Dakota






Jax loved feeding the animals and wasn't afraid one bit. He just stuck his hand right out there with food in it.