Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

We had a long and fun filled 4th of July weekend! You can bet your britches that I absolutely did NOT allow my 4 small children to survive off of hot dogs and chips all.weekend.long!

I also did not let them eat candy all.weekend.long that they gathered from parades . What kind of mother would do that? A sensible one would have tucked it all away to hand out for Halloween. ;)

I never would have allowed my husband to do something like this..

over and over and over again to my sweet, sweet little lad. I also didn't have a panic attack every.single.time he did it! Oh, and C surly didn't enjoy it, not one little bit!

Exhausted and so not ready to get up this morning I most certainly didn't climb back into bed after waking with my dear husband to iron his work clothes just to catch another hours sleep.

I also absolutely did not give my 14 month old a tray full of Fruit Loops. Not to eat of course but to throw all over the floor so that I could have just a few more minutes to take care of other household chores.

And I am most certianly NOT going to bypass that sink full of dishes to take my kiddos outside to play!

Wordless Wednesday

With toddling near...

One thing that I've learned through the last 7.5 years of mommy hood is that no matter how hard you try to remember the silly things that your kids say and do, it is always best to get photographic/video proof.

I've been meaning to get evidence of this ridiculously silly crawl for quite some time and was finally able to get it yesterday. Oh how I love this little man.... ape crawl and all!

And that's all I have to say about that ;)

Weekend Update!

A new baby!

6 week old bundle of fluff.

Also known as Bridget :)

Super cuddly, amazingly soft and oh so cute!

Super yummy farm fresh eggs.

From a super, amazing momma and friend.

Filled with Omega 3's and lots of love!

Rummage...

Fortunately for me, and I suppose for my dear husband as well, our kids love rummage/garage sales just as much as I do. Yesterday we ventured out to a huge rummage sale that a local church conducts every summer and hit the jack pot ;-) The kids found lots of little knick knacks and I fell into vintage kitchen heaven!

I am madly in love with my $4 Oster blender! This thing puts any new model to shame! It was just screaming for me to use it so I ran out and picked up my supplies to make fresh salsa. And what better excuse to brag on this super easy recipe that came from a sweet girl that my mom works with! You must try it! It knocked our socks off the first time we gave it a whirl and has become a staple food that I make on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.

First gather your ingredients and make sure they are all clean.

2-3 handfuls Jalapenos
2-3 handfuls Tomatillos
1 bunch fresh Cilantro
4-5 cloves Garlic
A dash of salt

Next, remove tops of Jalapenos and toss into pot of water. Bring to a boil.

If you have any little hands available enlist them to remove the husks from the tomatillos. We throw all the scraps into a container that we later take out to the compost bin. Once the husks have been removed you bring them to a boil in a separate pot of water.

While the jalapenos and tomatillos are boiling you can get your cilantro and garlic ready. Slice the bunch of cilantro right above the stems and peel the outer layer off of the garlic cloves. No need to chop either of these any further.

Once the jalapenos and tomatillos are finished they will each have turned a different shade of green. The jalapenos will be a brighter green and the tomatillos will be lighter in color.

Remove the jalapenos from the water and place them in a blender. Blend them until they turn into liquid. Next throw the cilantro, garlic and dash of salt in. Blend at 20 second intervals for a couple of minutes. Finally, remove the tomatillos from their water and place in blender. Again, blend at 20 second intervals for a couple minutes.

Place in container.
Allow to cool in the refrigerator for a few hours and serve. Yum-tastic!

A year late?

Boy, time sure flies! Things in the Silveus household aren't much more than an organized chaos these days. P just wrapped up 1st grade. L sadly (only in her eyes of course) finished pre-k and will be moving into the world of elementary school. E is going to be making her way into the pre-k circut in the fall. C just recently turned... GASP... one! He's still not walking and doesn't have much to say at this point but sure knows how to melt our hearts with his 3, yep THREE, sets of dimples!

Our home is a busy place and it seems that someone is always getting hurt. The emergency room staff is starting to know ALL of us on a first name basis and I swear, which I shouldn't, that next time one of the kids has an accident I'm going to send them in with daddy because, quite frankly, I'm tired of going. During our most recent trip which happened to be last night, I made E promise me that next time she decides to do a running nose dive over the swings and smash her face into her hand shoving her beautifully large front teeth through every layer of skin exposing muscle tissue that it be during normal doctor's hours, or at the very minimum, urgent care hours. She was happy to concede and many tears, lots of EWWWWW and several Popsicles later we made our way home to the rest of the gang. Today is a much better day and I must proudly announce that I didn't once have to take anyone to a dr's appointment, urgent care of the emergency room.

Summer is getting into full swing and it's pretty apparent by my flourishing garden! Hooray! This is the first year that I've done a garden and of course I wasn't able to tread into it lightly. I had Aaron build two square foot garden boxes and we went to town. We started nearly everything from seed and have seen fantastic results! I'm so thrilled to teach the kids about organic gardening and how important it is to keep our foods as close to their whole state as possible. We also jumped into vermicomposting and have a pretty rockin pile full of hundreds of VERY happy red worms.

Summer time also means outside play time and it didn't come a moment too soon! There's nothing better than letting all 4 of the kids have a squirt gun fight to cool off, burn off some energy and wear themselves out!