BOUNCING

Towards the end of January we really started to realize that Olivia wasn't as amused by being in her swing or bouncy seat anymore, so we pulled Trevor's jumper out of the attic and set it up for her.  She has been a crazy bouncing fool ever since!  And OH MY GOODNESS, how that girl can bounce!

January Snow

This January, we had snow dumped on us two weeks in a row, more or less shutting everything down for a couple of days each time.  The kids had a great time getting out and playing in it, which was nice, but we are all looking forward to warmer weather.

okay, so Olivia is not amused by the snow at all.  She's a summer baby through and through.

Cold Weather Eats!

The snow is falling here in southeast Virginia (gasp, shock and awe!) so for dinner we knew we wanted something hot and delicious to keep us warm as we watch the snow fall.  [True story, T-rex is under the weather-ish and Olivia is always clingy after travel, so I needed a plan that didn't involve me being in the kitchen all evening making dinner]

SO, for dinner we had this:

(imagine with a lot more spinach, that i couldn't help eating before getting a photo)

It was inspired by a Pinterest recipe found here.  I used chicken sausage that I cut up and browned as the recipe suggested.  I added a TON more spinach than the recipe suggested (probably about 5 ounces) and wish I had added the whole 9 ounce bag because it wilted down so much.  Because my crockpot is large and burns hotter than most I think, I reduced the chicken broth to 1.5 cups.

It was delicious.

You're welcome.  :)

a nice morning surprise!

Last night I had one of my super tired days....barely any energy left as I waked out of the office to go pick up Trevor and there was no second wind as we got home and started stuff around the house.  [God, I hope that doesn't mean I am getting sick!]  After swim lessons, meal planning, grocery shopping, feeding dinner and then getting the kids off to bed, I found myself pulling on my pjs and doing the same.  It was all of 8:30.  While I was catching some ZZZs like a two year old, Shaner cleaned the kitchen, made bottles for Olivia for today, organized the chaos in the fridge from said shopping trip and straightened up the living room.

After sleeping a glorious 9.5 hours, I woke up to still sleeping kiddos and a spotless kitchen and living room.  Win!  Thanks Shaner!


AND he did this before a duty day. Duty days never go smoothly for him.  You'd think that resting while he could would have been at the top of his priority list.



only downside to today is that I just looked at my planner and realized T-rex has a dentist appointment this afternoon.  World War III may commence when I let him know about that at school pickup.  :)

Weekend Wahoo

This weekend was one of those weekends where we just move from one thing to the next, somehow still manage to get decent rest and are ready to slide into Monday and the new week yelling 'wahoooooo!'  Well, maybe I wasn't yelling wahoo when Shane left for work before 5am today and felt the need to have a super long involved conversation with me.  While. I. Was. Still. Trying. To. Sleep.

Anyway...

Friday evening we attended Shane's command holiday party.  It was a great chance for us to get all dressed up and for me to see my Kearsarge Fab 5 ladies again!  You don't realize how much you really leaned and depended on each other until you are reunited after not seeing and talking on a daily basis for three months.  [well, there have been some sightings...Emily.]

Saturday we tacked the mountain of laundry, the mountain of clutter and the remains of Christmas in our house.  We got to deal with a super fun storm--who doesn't love the NWS texts that tell you there is a tornado warning and to take cover immediately?  Of course, Shane decides that it was best he hang out on the front porch [crazy person] as it blows in.  Upside to being stuck inside with nasty weather?  Olivia found her feet.  So most of the day was spent like this:

Sunday was a whirlwind day for me at work in the morning--so crazy that my beautifully pedicured toenails were stripped of their polish by all the running up and down the stairs I did.

Sunday evening, Trevor's friend Chase came over and the boys donned their aprons to make dinner for us all!  The pizza making did result in an epic mess to clean up, but it was so worth it to see what a great time they had.

yes, the boys are wearing aprons.  :) 

Top the weekend off with a little rice cereal, and it was just about perfect!

Sidenote:  Once Olivia realized that nighttime was for sleeping [and I discovered the amazing Swaddle Strap] she has always been an amazing night sleeper.  While we haven't had one bit of trouble getting her down to sleep, she would cry out several times during the night and we'd have to go help to settle her back to sleep.  Taking it as a hint that she may be done with the swaddle [profuse tears] we tried her with one arm out last night.....and it was silent bliss from 8pm to 6:30am.  Ugh, she is growing up.

a few days late and my pinterest attempts...

So, my post for the beginning of the week is a little late (hello Friday!) because on Monday I snagged myself a MacBook.....and have slowly (and mostly unsuccessfully) been learning how to use it.  I think [keyword think] that I have figured out how to at least get on here so I can throw a post up pretty fast, but we'll see how that works for the long haul.

Last weekend, I spent a bunch of time playing on Pinterest and then pulling together some Pinterest-inspired crafts and kitchen creations for the catechist brunch that we throw at work every Epiphany.  

My one Pinterest Success:  Instead of purchasing gifts this year, I made outdoor seed ornaments for everyone, and packaged them up all pretty.  Trevor was all about helping until he realized that it meant he had to get his hands covered in a gelatin/flour/birdseed mess.  Child does not like to get his hands dirty, so that lasted about five minutes.  Wait, I mean, child does not like to get his hands, or anything else on his person, dirty unless he isn't supposed to be dirty.  Then we may as well call him Pigpen.  I digress....Our ornaments were inspired by this and came out looking like this:

I like it.

For the brunch portion of the event, I decided I wanted to contribute a DIY waffle bar to the morning.  Great in theory, not so much when you want to feed 15 people with one waffle iron.  Inspiration came from here.

Lessons learned, have multiple irons, as pre-cooking waffles for many does not ensure the best waffle in the world.
Red Velvet waffles are amazing.
Don't run out of time, because then the brown paper only serves the purpose of protecting your table linens from red velvet batter spills (helloooooo stains).  Cute-ness and genius factor is not fully achieved unless you have written on the brown paper.

A good time was had by all.  Except for Amy who had to cook all the waffles solo while I was in Mass, without setting off a fire alarm.  Mea culpa.


.....off to transform myself from cardigan loving mom of two, to cocktail attired classy lady ready for a night out.  We'll see how that goes.

Resolutions 2014

Not that I will ever reach all of these in one year, I feel that it is important to still set goals, and to set the bar high.  If I don't, I know I will just scrape by and do the bare minimum to check stuff off the list come this time next year.  If I set the goal up in the sky, at least I will end the year still reaching for it.

So, in 2014...

--Be present.  This really paid off during the Christmas season, and I felt that we ended up with a holiday season that was more meaningful than it ever had been.  Let's try for a year of good memories!  While the kiddos are awake and are asking for undivided attention [ok and maybe the husband too]---they get it.  The working from home, schoolwork, and sadly, the blog, can wait until after bedtime.

--Make, and stick to, a budget.  While we never have any money issues per-say, I can't say that it is because we pay super close attention to our finances.  Truly, we do so well because 90% of the time I am a complete cheapskate.  Not one that you might see on that television show, but usually, a trip to the mall with me goes something like this...I see something I like, I say I'll think about it and walk around the store.  While walking I come up with a million and seven reasons that I don't truly want or like said item.  Go back and look at said item.  Repeat all reasons I came up with.  Walk out of mall empty handed.  Every time.  Effective?  Yes. [money stays in bank account]  Beneficial to our long-term financial goals?  No, not really.

 --Better myself.  I am on track to graduate with my Master's in May, but I don't want my learning to end there.  The pretty (and pretty expensive) piece of paper that will end up framed on my wall definitely helps to showcase the hard work that I have put in, but there is always more to learn, workshops to attend and knowledge to gain [that will one day hopefully turn into wisdom] that can help me to continue to help others through my work, so I can't give up.  And I don't want to!

--Take care of myself.  No secret that I lost a lot of weight this year [thank you pregnancy diet!] but I want to maintain!  I want to continue to make time to work out and eat healthy.

--Document.  Take pictures--and be in some as well for once.  Blog twice, ideally three, times a week--as long as it doesn't interfere with being present.

--Be happy.  It was a very tough, nasty patch for a good six weeks after Olivia was born, and the car accident in November didn't help in the healing department [helloooooo setback].  It is still super easy for me to go back to that sad and anxious place, but I KNOW that I don't want to be there.  I want to spend my year being happy and satisfied with my life instead of scared and upset.


So there you have it.  Bar is set.  Let's see where we go!

Happy New Year!

Since I always
a day late.......






and a dollar short......







Here we are, better late than never....


are you ready for your big surprise?



The Chapman Family blog is NOW.....[drumroll please!]

Take a look at your address bar up at the top of your window and update your happy little blog feeds.  

We're moving on up in the world.  

(that, and the two hypens were still throwing people off even after five years)