I'm a survivor: my new cross country travel musts for young ones.

The end of this summer we made the 24 hour drive TO and FROM Utah to see family when my sister Annie returned from serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
We drove straight through both ways and needless to say I was pretty anxious about how my 28 month old and 14 month old were going to handle SUCH long drives.  

almost there: "peace out car".

I asked around a lot for advice and researched tips online and came up with my own plan of attack.  Some things worked better than I'd hoped, some flopped and some were in between. (pretty typical)

So having made a trek myself I've come up with my own list of FOUR suggestions as well as a list of some of the things that worked best to entertain the boys.

SURVIVING THE DRIVE:

1. Get NEW things for the time spent traveling and make sure you wait until you're on the trip to show them to your kids for the first time. 
(My mom did this with us back when I was little and we trekked from Texas to Utah and we were old enough that she even wrapped ours up as gifts, my boys aren't old enough to care about that part)

If you are traveling for more than one day, save some new things for each day. Or if you're like me and going straight through, try and space new things out so you don't run out in the first few hours.  

I would also suggest getting/having a few different things for the ride back. I ended up making a last minute run to the dollar bins at Target and the Dollar store before we left Utah to come back home just to be safe. 
**MY LIST OF MY FAVORITE TOYS IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.**

2. Go into restaurants to order food and take the whole family.  We always got our food to go so we still ate in the car but the boys got to run around for a bit while we ordered and waited for our food.  Also the perfect diaper change time. We got the boys out every time we stopped for gas too. It worked really well to get the wiggles out. 

3. Get exciting or special treats/snacks for the car.  It was really nice to have some of the things that Lee and Drew LOVE that we don't have very often in the car.  Having plenty of healthy snacks that don't make everyone feel gross is important too.
*have good snacks to keep the drivers alert too.  :)

4. Have a few shows or movies for the kids to watch and new apps for them to play, technology today can be SO nice and such an amazing tool.  We only had 3 shows and 2 movies but it was plenty for Lee.  Be prepared to get REALLY sick of theme songs though. :)  Shows/apps were my last resort and they really saved us a few times with Lee.

(We didn't have anything to hold our iPad in the car like a tv screen but we really liked the one we got through Amazon Prime, it's $25.99 now.) 
*It isn't annoying, sticky or itchy for the person sitting in the seat in front of the screen AND you can access the power button and volume controls without ever taking the iPad out.

These were the shows we had (all but Curious George were free and CG was one of the cheapest kid shows to buy) and we only have digital files for these two movies but it was PLENTY for Lee:

Finley the Fire Engine.

TRAVEL TOYS FOR TODDLERS:  
(I'll list what we used in order from MOST to LEAST successful, though I'd imagine this varies a bit with personality types.)
One of the things I love about all of these toys is that now they are used as church toys for Sundays, so we just keep getting our money's worth out of them. Which is a big deal for me, especially since some of them were not super cheap.

1. Magnet travel tin.  
Lee played with this for hours and hours and hours, he requested it ALL THE TIME. There are tons of different themes but I designed on Disney's CARS since Lee LOVES Mater. (even though he's yet to sit through the movie) It's a simple magnetic metal tin that opens up to reveal a scene and about 30 magnetic cars.
*I got mine through Amazon Prime for $9.

2. Melissa & Doug Water Wow! coloring book. 
This thing is awesome. You fill the "paintbrush" it comes with with water and the water reveals all these different scenes. (I picked a car one...bet you can't tell what my 2 year old is obsessed with right now...) Creativity-wise obviously not as cool but good CLEAN fun for the car, perfect. 
*I got mine through Amazon Prime for $4.99.

3. Melissa & Doug Fishbowl fill and spill.
This was the most expensive toy I got, ironically because it's pretty straight forward, unfortunately it's listed for a bit more than I got it for this summer right now too. But it was also the ONLY toy I got that was for sure age appropriate for my 1 year old. (this age is SO much harder to entertain.) The boys both ended up loving it, and I knew they would throw the pieces but they are plush so no harm no foul.  Each piece makes a different noise, which I thought both my boys had grown out of but...they both loved that about it.
*I got mine through Amazon Prime, now $21.91.

4. DK First Word Cards: touch and feel.
These cards are similar to those touch and feel books with furry animals and shiny objects.  (the jelly is actually sticky, it's my personal favorite...) The boys both enjoyed looking through these cards and talking about the objects but they definitely didn't hold their attention nearly as long as some of the other toys.  
I got mine through Amazon Prime for $5.52.

5. Melissa & Doug Magnet Animal Puzzle.
This is a magnetic puzzle book of all different kinds of animals. I know I put this one in last place but that's mostly because it was more difficult to use in the car so Lee preferred more Car magnet tin time to using this quite as much. Course it's a huge favorite now that we're home for both boys and one of my favorites for church.
I got mine through Amazon Prime for $16.99.

Overall the trip went much better than I'd anticipated and the boys were really champions, even though neither slept well on the way out especially.  That being said, it may take about a year before I'm ready to make that kind of trip again,  I am still sick of the car. :)

treasure the moments.

The past few weeks have felt particularly intense and exhausting partially because Kevin was really sick for a week, Drew hasn't been sleeping for several weeks and the boys both got sick this past week.

In the midst of all the cooped up madness we decided to take advantage of an uncommonly cool Saturday morning and walk the boys to a park to play for a while.  It is usually way to easy for me to make weekends primarily about our lengthly to-do list of things to clean and get done around the house but I'm always glad when we remember to get a little family time in there first.  It's amazing how good it is for all of us, to take a step away from the list of things (that will always be there) that should be done and just be.

(someone forgot to tell Papa he was in the picture...)

We had the park to ourselves that morning and the boys were in heaven.  Lee has gotten so old and Drew is insistent that he try and follow Lee around wherever he goes.  They had been such troopers really, having Papa be under the weather and being inside almost constantly, it gave my momma heart so much joy to see how happy they were to have us play with them without life's distractions.  I need to be better at doing that so much more frequently, balance between raising little ones and having life/adult responsibilities is a tricky one for me to pull off. One day at a time, right?

Here's to celebrating our kids' childhood a little more often.
Happy Saturday.

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies: hello fall.

I've really been craving a bit of fall in my life ever since I got back from visiting my family in Utah. The weather was just getting gorgeous and I'll openly admit, I miss having a real fall living in Texas. It's kind of summer until the middle to the end of October and then the winter is, admitedly beautifully mild.

But there is no sweatshirt crispness in the air or beautiful splash of fall leaves during the fall months even though I live in a forest.
So I try and substitute other fall staples like gourds and sunflowers and pinecones all over my house and every dish I can think of with squash or pumpkin in it... and I pretend I could wear a sweatshirt.


When I needed to make a treat for a activity with the 14-15 year old girls I get to work with in my church congregation earlier this week, it gave me a perfect excuse to make my first pumpkin treat of the "season".

One of the easiest cookie recipes I know and completely delicious, this was the pumpkin cookie recipe I grew up with in my house.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 c shortening
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 c pumpkin filling
1 c nuts (optional: I never add the nuts, still a kid at heart when it comes to nuts in cookies)
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 (my oven is a bit cold so I did 380)
2. Combine sugar, eggs, shortening, pumpkin and vanilla, mix.
3. Add add all the dry ingredients but the flour and chips, mix.
4. Add flour gradually, mix.
5. Mix in chocolate chips.

I use parchment paper on my cookies sheets to cut out clean up.
Use a spoon to place dollops of the cookie dough on the cookie sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.
Let cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

best buds: love that Papa.

I absolutely love the relationship our boys have with their Papa. They completely adore him and he's earned it really.
When he walks in that door in the evening he is right there with them, if you know what I mean. And man, do their eyes light up when they hear the garage door open and see him walk in.
He does all those things that this Momma gets exhausted by too quickly for their liking;
wrestling and tumbling,  building and fixing and climbing and jumping.
Papa is just a different kind of fun than me and I am so grateful.

While we were at our family cabin (post here) Papa got to spend some special one on one time with our Lee boy who, despite his generally cautious and fearful reaction to new things (which we are working on), loved riding the jet ski with Papa without a second's hesitation, as fast as it could go.  I could watch Kevin with the boys all day long, seriously.

This time on the lake was one of "those moments" I wondered would ever happen for Kevin and I when we struggled with infertility and wondered if we'd ever get to have children, before our miracle Lee boy came to us.

Did I mention how much I love this place??

Every time they passed me Lee would call out, "hello Momma!"

I get to teach the 14-15 year old girls in our church congregation on Sundays and in preparation for a lesson this past Sunday I read this talk from Jeffrey R. Holland and this quote reminded me of just how beautiful and sacred an opportunity it is to be a parent and how important that becoming a parent happen in the appropriate time and circumstance;

"One aspect of that divinity given to men and women is the use of His power to create a human body, that wonder of all wonders, a genetically and spiritually unique being never before seen in the history of the world and never to be duplicated again in all the ages of eternity.  A child, your child- with eyes and ears and fingers and toes and a future of unspeakable grandeur.

Of all the titles God has chosen for Himself, Father is the one He favors most, and creation is His watchword-especially human creation, creation in His image.  You and I have been given something of that godliness, but under the most serious and sacred of restrictions."

Such a blessing and opportunity to be a parent to our children with their wonderful father by my side. I am so grateful that during the moments of complete insanity and those moments of pure joy that come with parenting that I'm not alone, that Kevin, in my case, and God, in every parent's case, are right there with me through it all.

Al and Lex family photo shoot.

We got to do a little family photo shoot for my brother and his wife's cute family while we were visiting family in Utah, though we actually took the pics when we were visiting our cabin in Idaho.
They have three adorable children, all bursting with personality...and the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.  How we got all three of the kiddos (3 and under) to even sit still for two seconds I still don't really know.... :)  (you can check out my SIL's blog (of all things mom of little ones) here.)