Meatless and other things

A week ago, Dan decided that he didn't want to eat meat for the rest of the month. I still eat meat, but it's no fun for Dan to just pick the meat out of whatever meaty thing I decide to make, so I've been trying to accomodate his meatless lifestyle. So far we've had homemade pizza with red onions, green peppers, and feta cheese; homemade foccacia bread w/ roasted zucchini, squash, peppers and onions; marinated corn and black beans on tortillas w/ cheese and sour cream; spaghetti w/ roasted broccoli in it; and grilled cheese. Saturday we got pizza from Papa John's because it was buy one get one free. We had the leftovers Sunday, too. I am pizza'd out. And I am obviously running out of ideas. If you have any vegetarian dishes that you love, please feel free to pass them along to me! And leave a link.

In other news, we went shopping at the outlet mall this past weekend because it was the sales-tax holiday. It was also sheer pandemonium. I'm glad we made it out alive.

And now for random pictures that were on our camera.

 Storytime with Daddy.

Caught in the act.

Coming to get me. This little lady is a momma's girl.

Some pictures from when we watched Carter and Wendy on Friday. Dan has this nail toy thing from his teenage years. I used to want one back in the day. Kids love it for some reason.

Total Kirk face.

A normal way to watch T.V.

This is a bad picture of the new TV console that Dan built. It's perfect! And can you guess what the kids were watching?

And yesterday we gave Sam an ice cream cone. He loved it. He has yet to master the "lick and turn" approach, but he's working on it.

He was also a little tired.

And here's Afton with her beautiful blues.

Sorry I'm Lazy

My parents came to town and we had lots of fun. We went bowling, to a bounce house place, swimming, shooting (the men), shopping (the ladies), and Chuck E. Cheese. I actually liked Chuck E. Cheese a lot more this time than the last time I went.

 Highlights from bowling: The angry man who worked there. We were one of the first groups to come and he was already acting totally annoyed with everyone. When Sam rolled a ball too slowly down the lane, it eventually came to a stop about halfway down. My dad straddled two gutters and went out there to give it a big push. The angry man got on the loudspeaker and told everyone to stay off the lanes. He was looking at dad.
Another bowling memory was that 80% of the arcade games didn't work and just ate quarters. No wonder they had a sign that said, "No refunds. Play at your own risk."

 Sam dressed himself that morning. Can you tell?

Sorry your eyes are half-closed, Dad.

 Run for your life, kid! I'm going to get you!

I failed to mention that one night all the adults got to go out to a fancy dinner. That was really nice, too. I love having my parents here. It's nice to have someone to visit with during nap times and play with the kids during the day. My mom is also amazing at cooking/cleaning/anything and wears me out with her energy. Thanks so much for coming! Can't wait to see you again soon.

Weekend fun and a birthday

Dan spent the first half of Saturday working on a new TV console. He's almost done. It looks great. Pictures to come upon completion. After he showered and the kids napped, we headed out with Kirk and Gretchen to the greatest show on earth.

It was pretty fun. They did some really cool stuff. We especially liked the acrobats/contortionists and the motorcycle guys in the big spherical cage. After a while, I thought it was too much like Chuck E. Cheese - major sensory overload. Dan and I would be content never going to another circus again, but we may eat our words one day.

The kids really liked it. Afton clapped a lot, Sam clapped some and also spent a good amount of time trying to annoy Carter.

And some more pictures because I'm a picture-loving fool.

After the circus, we went over to K&G's for dinner and cupcakes. Then we watched Wendy open her presents.

She got this sweet helmet. Carter had to try it on first.

It was fun to celebrate Wendy. I can't believe Afton's birthday is up next!

What Sam Wore Some Random Days

There are lots of women who have blogs with posts titled "What I Wore Wednesday" (or Tuesday or Monday or whatever). They take pictures of what they wear EVERY DAY and then post the pictures once a week. (Look here, or here for examples.) I can't imagine taking pictures of what I'm wearing every. single. day. For many reasons. The biggest being that if I took pictures of what I wore, every week you'd see the same clothes. Five pairs of shorts and various plain t-shirts.

But anyway, I thought it would be fun to take pictures of what SAM wears because he picks out his own clothes and he can have quite a unique style. Of course, as soon as I decided I wanted to take pictures of his outfits, he chose pretty run-of-the-mill clothes. But he's cute, so I'll post some of them anyway.

Dentist

Now that I have recovered from making the world's longest blog post, I will tell you about taking Sam to the dentist this morning. This being his first visit, we have talked it up quite a bit at home.

"Oh, you get to go to a special place called the dentist's office where a nice lady is going to look at your teeth!"
"You will get to tell the dentist what all the letters of the alphabet say while she brushes your teeth!"
"If you're good at the dentist, you can have fruit snacks when we get home."
"The dentist's office is such a special place!"

I dropped Afton off with a friend and Sam and I headed over. Upon arriving in the office he found a basket of toys and proceeded to play with them. Happy and ignorant. He even told me that he would tell the dentist "Aaahhhhh..." as she looked in his mouth. Then the hygenist came and called his name.

He looked down and reluctantly followed me back to her area. When I tried to place him in the special chair, he did the limp fish thing and tried to squirm out. So at first I sat on the chair too, facing him and trying to hold him still. But when the hygenist tried to look in his mouth, he turned his head and body and closed his mouth. So she switched sides and he just turned the other way. I knew that wasn't going to work, so I sat in the chair and held him firmly on my lap. I had to hold his head in place. He cried. She attempted to brush. She tried to get him to look at her and open his mouth. It worked a little bit. Then he gagged. Fortunately, he didn't throw up, but he's got a crazy gag reflex (thanks to me) and didn't like the brushing. He kept saying he wanted to go home. Torture. For both of us.

When the dentist came, she had me hold Sam on my lap facing me and then we laid him down so that his head was in her lap. He cried some more, but she was finally able to see his teeth. All clear. When he was done he acted like nothing had happened, gave me a high five and then told the dentist, "Thank you." (I told him to.) And he got a prize from the treasure box. (A little plastic bus with messed up wheels.) Hopefully he'll forget about the dentist before his next visit 6 months from now. Hopefully I will, too.