Home improvements.

We've been really busy with home renovations lately. It's tiring, but awesome to see the transformation. By the end of November we will have a brand new house!

My latest craze is to brighten up the closets. Their all drearily magnolia and in need of color and organization.

This is the hall closet, now bright orange and fresh :)

 

The downstairs loo had new granite top and sink. So we freshened the paint and got rid of the red walls. I never liked the red, we just used up our spare red paint at the time. This new paint is beautiful! It's called "A weekend in the country" so now when you go to the loo in our house your going for a "weekend in the country" :)

It's very calm in the restroom now.

Here is out Kitchen when we moved in, UGLY!

after paint on the walls, doors, new appliances, and granite its a whole new space. We will tile too eventually.

We extended the counter to create a bar space. The boys love it! And it's so nice to have extra counter space.

Just a reminder of the hideous before!

The wider counter.

Those adorable boys again!

Another closet makeover. This closet was so bad before I forgot to take a picture. It was a huge space with a miss match of shelves.

I'm in love with this space now! A place for everything. It's a locker, pantry, storage dream! !

We also had the terrible sliding doors replaced, and every other ugly door in the house.

New back door to the garage, and side doors are to the new cupboard above.

We had the old 80's medicine cabinets removed, and new granite and sinks in the upstairs bathroom too.

The painters are still finishing painting the trim. I'm decorating the dining room, laundry room and then basement and play room.

We're having plantation shutters and carpet. Then I'll tackle the remainder of the closets and some storage issues in the basement.

I'm keeping busy for sure!

We're loving our house too. Just not having workmen in every day.

 

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Winner!

Marathon Matt finally won a race.

I say finally because he's ran so many, and I knew he had it in him!

We're so proud of Daddy Matt, although I have to say the kids kind of expect him to win lol

Matt ran the Emerald City race here In Dublin. He chose to race the 1/4 marathon. A nice short distance built for speed.

Here he is at the off.

Off they go!

We managed to see Daddy at 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 miles as the route lapped around. Then we dashed back to the finish. Trying to get both boys to the car, into car seats and drive to the finish and get there in time to see the finish was tough! But we made it with 2 minutes to spare :)

Here he comes!

The WINNER!

 

He came in at 36:02 which is a course record.

That's a 5:30 minute mile pace.

Crazy.

Second place was a whole 2m30seconds behind!

Well done Marathon Matt! Now let's win some races with prize money ;0)

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What a difference.

Almost 4 years ago we planted a new tree in our back garden.

A pretty little flowering cherry.

Here it is. See how skinny and short it is.

Just a fraction taller than the large shrub behind on the right.

This is it now. It's almost twice as tall, and twice as bushy!

It's such a. Beautiful tree, especially when in bloom.

Everyone comments on how it's thrived and how big it has become, so I thought i'd do a comparison.

 

I guess this tree grows like my kids :)

 

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Slacking!

I've been seriously slacking in my blogging lately! I have so many blogs spin ing around my head I need to get them all here soon. So many things to blog about.......

 

-Harrison's 4th birthday.

-Harrison's 4 year annual check up.

- Auntie Jules visit.

-Grandad's visit.

-Uncle Gary and Mattais visit.

-4th of July.

-Fathers day and Daddy's birthday.

-Beach vacation.

-Grammy's birthday.

-update on Allister.

-Pre-School.

-Random stuff.

I'm sure there's more too!

So please bare with me while I catch up and expect lots of posts in completely random order :)

Thanks for being patient! it's been busy round these parts.

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Ice Storm 2010

There was a massive storm across the USA this last week. Some places were due 20 or more inches of snow, we just got ice. Freezing rain is probably something I had never heard of till I moved to the States. Its either, snow, rain or Hail right?

Well no, freezing rain falls as rain, and then lands as ice as soon as it touches something. Your car, the road, house, trees, everything. I have no idea why it doesn't fall as ice, but there you go!

Anyhow.....

It lands on trees and power lines, and gets so heavy they can snap, but its very pretty!

We were lucky enough to escape a power out, but many people in Ohio (150k I think) did lose power.

Here are some photos and a little video.

In the photo below everything looks shiny and wet, its not wet its Ice!

Yes that's the road that's shiny with 1/2 inch of ice.

And those tree branches are pretty much touching the ground, they are normally 7ft off the ground. That's a guess, but we can walk under those branches I know that!

Its our anniversary.....

Matt and I got married 4 years ago today.

I have never been so happy.

I love you Matt Blake!

Heres to the next 60 years or so......

Play room.

I did a little re-organizing of the play room to get ready for Christmas and all the extra presents that will need a new home!

And I finally made a home for all of Harrison's pre-school art work!

Cute eh :)

6 Years ago today........

...I met Matt in a VERY crowded bar, and there was fireworks!

Literary :)

Happy day-I-met-you anniversary to the man who makes me happy every day.

And Happy Guy Fawks night to everyone else.

Go Cincinnati!

Here's Matt and I at the Bengals game today. It was hot and sunny and we scored some awesome last minute tickets from a tout. Now we are going back so I can watch our boys and Matt and the rest of the gang can go watch the Reds. Let's hope they don't throw the game away like the Bengals.

7 months old today!

Wow that went fast!

We are on our way to Cinci right now so no photo of the un-birthday boy just yet!

This weekend we are celebrating Pooh-Bahs retirement, and Matt is going to see the Reds in the play-offs Sunday night. We were all going to go but the game is at 7pm so it won't finish till 10-11pm which ends up too late for the boys!

Let's hope they win- Go Reds!

Claire

Sent from my iPhone

Happy Anniversary :)

To the Blake family Blog!

Its 2 years old today, and were almost at 500 blog posts!

Aaaaaaaaah that's better :O)

We have a new car!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited, and I LOOVE it!

For those who don't know, this is what out other car is.......

We love it too, but theres not much room for two boys and two BIG car seats back there! Thats without climbing in the back and trying to fasten everyone in, and then theres fitting in the double stroller, and groceries, and then when I was pregnant climbing in and out.....

Anyhow, trouble no more! This is our new lovely.....

1,2,3,4, yup it has 4 doors and a huge boot! (Trunk)

I can fit the stroller in the back AND groceries, and it has a huge moon roof, satnav, leather, oooh its just gorgeous.

Look.

Its like new (apart from some wear on the arm rest)

And its so so nice to drive, and my back is feeling better already!

Thank you Husband for my shiny new (to us) car!

Now we don't have to fight every morning over who gets to drive the Acura to work, because, believe it or not, getting the kids in and out of the back of a two door is better than driving the old banger that was our other car :)

Lazy.

I feel like I am only just getting my grove back. Allister is now 5 months old, and I feel like since the last trimester of my pregnancy I got lazy. Not completely lazy, but I dropped my standards on things that are important to me. Things that made my life easy while heavily, uncomfortably pregnant, and having a newborn and a 2 year old. But now I want to try and get back to how it used to be.

The main areas I have slacked in are food and TV.

Food

Ive been buying chicken nuggets! The good ones, yes, but still, I can make them just as easy without all the crap in. And there's no excuse as Harrison will eat anything I put in front of him, the good stuff and the bad. When Harrison was a toddler, and generally for Matt and, we rarely ate processed foods. I made as much as possible from scratch, and I enjoy it. It's better for us and I want to be that kind of person. I don't want to be a Mum who gives her kids chicken nuggets and processed foods all the time. Have you seen the ingredients in that stuff? Heck, I cant pronounce half of it, and instead of a list that comprises chicken, bread crumbs, and spices, there's a whole list of stuff. I want to get back to basics! I want to get back to cooking, I love to cook! I have been experimenting with menu planning and new recipes lately and really enjoying it. We have also been eating more vegetarian dishes as a family, more grains and less of those (sugar laden, starchy yummy) potatoes.

I think, even now in my lazy phase, I cook from scratch more than many people. But I want to do it more. And I am going to make my own chicken nuggets and tatter-tots, my own pizza crust, maybe even my own crackers! I'm not sure where I am going to get all my free time from, but I am hoping with Harrison out 2 mornings a week I will have a little more free time? And now he is napping again, I'm catching up and getting the house sorted again, a few weeks of letting it slip and the house looks like its not been cleaned forever, at least to me! And the basement, well, I wont even go there! Harrison is even at an age where he will enjoy cooking, and he can help me too. Ive been reading a lot of food blogs, and they have inspired me to get more healthy food wise. There wont be an overnight ban of all the processed stuff, but slowly I will try and introduce more completely home made foods, and when the kids are a little older and at school I hope to have more free time to maybe take it a step further.

Of course we will always eat take-out pizza, chips and chocolate, and nothing will ever be banned food wise in this house, but If the kids get used to less of the bad stuff, and more of the good stuff I hope they will be able to make better choices later in life.

Ill keep you posted :)

TV

We are working on watching less TV. Its very hard! Once you get used to it anyway. Again when Harrison was little we didn't watch TV. He didn't watch an TV till he was a year old, and even then very little. And then I got pregnant with Allister. And I felt sick, and tired, it was easy. You switch it on and it entertains them, and you can slob on the couch and feel better about yourself and worse about your kids! Don't get me wrong, I don't think TV is all bad. Especially the educational stuff. Harrison knows at least half of his alphabet thanks to Word World. I love that show! He may even spell a word soon. But again, I don't want the TV to be a baby sitter. That's my job. Sometimes the TV is the only thing that will keep a toddler still, and entertained long enough to get a job done. But sometimes, I'm learning, that job can wait. I'm enjoying playing with the kids more again. Harrison will come up to me and say

"Mummy play cups!" His new favorite game, we stack them, make them into "Castles" and play hide the man- Harrison has to guess which cup I place his little man under.

Instead of being too busy, cleaning or doing laundry I stop, and we play. These days will be gone so quickly, before you know it he wont want to play with his mum anymore, and there will still be laundry and cleaning and ironing to do tomorrow! I find it hard to leave that stuff, but, no matter how much cleaning and sorting I do I still always feel like my house is never as clean and organized as I would like! So why get all hot and bothered about it!

Matt and I are also working on Family time. Harrison is forming memories, and we know how fond those memories are later in life. Its funny how much stuff comes back to you, from your own childhood, when you become a parent. I get flashbacks. I sometimes look down at my hands and see my Mums, seriously, I have her hands! And I hear her voice in mine, and when Harrison is riding Matt like a horse, or running around in the park I see my Dad.

Being a parent is such a big responsibility, and I think we all mess it up in some way. We cant do everything right, but if we think very consciously about what we are doing, we can do our best to be the best we can be. Like shouting, its so hard not to shout! I have very little trouble not spanking, its just something that's not for our family, even though I have weakened once or twice, I am ashamed to admit! But it is very hard, with a mouth like mine, not to shout. I actually think I do a pretty good job of not shouting! But shouting doesn't get you anywhere, it becomes more and more powerless the more you do it. And you don't want your kids to remember your yelling and screaming at them, its no punishment, and it has no more power or effect than saying the words. But it sure does get out your frustration! That's why its so hard. Sorry, this post has gone off on a tangent and gone all serious! That wasn't my intention!

Anyway, eat healthier, watch less (and less) TV and no shouting.

That's my new rule!

I'm off to vacuum and make baby peaches, yummy!

Another lock situation......

We had another unintentional lock-in at our house.

This is the third time recently that one of has been locked in or out! As you may remember a while back, we all (excluding Allister) got locked in our bedroom, then one day Harrison and I were out on the porch to clean the patio door glass, and we both got locked out there! Thankfully the garage door was open so we walked round in our jammies :)

So this week I put Harrison down for his nap, and then went about my business. After about an hour I could still hear him playing so I went to go get him up. When I tried the door it was locked. We don't have a key, or if we did I have no idea where it went! And it wasn't one of those locks that you can poke a screwdriver in, nope. No hole, no screws to remove it, nothing!

So I call Matt in a panic, and he rushes home. In the mean time I try and get Harrison to open the door.

Me "Harrison can you unlock the door?"

Harrison" Ok Mummy"

"Turn that little circle thing in the middle"

"Ok Mummy"

I hear fiddling with the door.

Me "Can you do it?"

"Yes"

"Go on then, open the door, turn the lock that you turned"

"Ok mummy"

fiddle fiddle.

This goes on for the 20 minutes or so it takes Matt to arrive.

We try and pry the cover off the door knob, but it doesn't budge, and with no other solution Matt kicks down the door.

Harrison screams.

Then he announces in a very proud voice

"We did it!"

Thats my boy(s).

Baby food.

Ive been busy making baby food for Allister.

I don't like store bought stuff, that's just me. In fact, in England pretty much everyone makes their own baby food. Like a friend of mine said, you wouldn't live off off ready meals or TV dinners would you!

Its oh so simple to do, here's how I make the stage 1 foods. Once these single foods are introduced we get a bit more adventurous with say, roasted veg or something.

So, pick your fruit or veggie, rinse thoughtfully.

Depending on what you make, most foods need cooking so chop up and put in a pan, bring to boil then simmer till tender.

Prunes just need soaking, and ripe pears and other soft fruits like bananas and peaches don't need cooking at all, just blitz, add water if required, and your done! No excuses there right?

Here's my prunes soaking. Reserve the water, its full of goodness.

And here are my carrots cooking.

Once cooked, soaked, chopped whatever, stick in a blender and blitz. Add reserved water from soaking and cooking till the right consistency is reached. Don't use the reserved water for carrots, they have too many nitrates. I make my apples first, then use the apple water for the carrots. Makes them extra yummy!

Then spoon into ice cube trays, or little containers and freeze. Once frozen put in zip-loc bags and then you can just pop out one or two in the morning for each meal.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I found these awesome baby food pots with lids, they will be great for travel, and also for when I make more exotic frozen meals as apposed to plane purees.

So thats pretty much it!

When your ready to use, pop out a cube (or two) add your cereal and microwave for about 15 seconds, then allow to cool till the right temperature.

When you blitz the purees make them a fraction thicker than you want as they will be a little more runny once defrosted.

You can then add say, pears to bananas, or apples to squash and cereal and make your own combinations. Its a lot cheaper and so much better for baby.

Why better? Well here's my opinion:

Home made baby food has a lot more flavor and texture. Try it, you'll see. I have done side by side taste comparisons myself, allot of baby foods taste so bland. Even the good organic, good quality stuff. They have to be cooked at such a high temp for safety reasons (killing bacteria when mass produced) that they lose lots of flavor and nutrients. I think this can make a child a more picky eater, because they are not used to strong flavors. And also some kids get used to lack the of texture too, home made food is not as smooth as store bought, and you can increase the thickness and texture more gradually than just going from stage 1-2-3 etc.

You can also introduce a wide variety of flavors, like zucchini, rutabaga, parsnips, avocado. things you don't always get in the store.

And when you begin to introduce more "real life" foods you can just omit the salt, and blitz or finely chop whatever you eat.

With Harrison I made a ton of home made baby foods, turkey sausages, fish cakes, pasta dishes etc. I do think that's why he pretty much eats anything you put in front of him, and he will eat a new food either right away, or after seeing it 2 or 3 times. I hope Allister is the same! I would hate a picky eater. I am not cooking more than one (or 2 with a veggie option!) dinner choices!

The down sides, it takes more time, and I guess if your not hygienic you could introduce bacteria. I cant think of another down sides. Mess maybe?