Diets

No this post is not about some fad diet that I have jumped on. I was thinking the other day about my kid's crazy picky diets and thought I should document it because hopefully someday they will branch out and our menu will consist if a few (a lot) more choices!!

Maddox
He is our pickiest eater at the moment. Lately it has gotten extremely frustrating. He has gotten to where if even his favorite foods have a slight variation (burned a little, has bread crumbs on it, is broken etc) he will not eat it. Im sensing a touch of OCD in him. We do not cut or pour any sauce on anything without asking first because it very well may result is a huge fit and refusal to eat. Anyways, here is his list of likes and dislikes:
Likes:
*Pasta but he is very particular about the sauce. Most Alfredo he will eat. Occasionally he will eat red sauce but not often.
*Ramen Noodles are one of his favorite things
*Green Noodles aka Pesto Cavatappi from his fav restaurant Noodles & Co.
*Fruit Loops
*Brown sugar Poptarts
*Hamburger but only if its plain!! And usually he only eats the meat.
*Hotdog also plain and with no bun.
*Gogurt Sticks
*Ice Cream
*Fruit snacks

Dislikes (as in will not eat ever)
*Cheese- he HATES it and flips out if it is on anything at all!!
*Fried chicken including chicken nuggets.
*most veggies

Addison is hard but for another reason. I've posted before about her food issues so that makes feeding her more difficult. I'm certain now she is allergic to apples and am pretty sure dairy bothers her even though she doesn't seem to have a full blown allergy to it. Anytime she has something with apples in it she almost immediately breaks out in a full body rash. When she has dairy she tends to get pretty fussy a few hours later. We try to stay away from both but when her big brother has a big bowl of ice cream it's just really hard to tell her she can't have some at this age. I think there may be a few other things she doesn't tolerate because she will randomly break out but I haven't figured out any other specific things at this point. But here is what we have found that she likes and doesn't like right now.
Likes:
*pasta. All kinds with whatever sauce is on it. The child loves her noodles.
*Hotdogs she has them at least once a week and usually more. (I use turkey dogs at my house)
*chicken nuggets she will eat all 4 almost every time and especially loves being able to dip them. I have found though that BBQ sauce has something she is allergic to because she breaks out really bad when eating it.
*Blueberries
*Mini muffins
*Poptarts
*Fruit snacks but I have to find ones without apples.
*Turkey sandwich meat
*Pretzel rods are her go to snack

Dislikes:
*hamburgers
*Milk she will not drink milk straight out of a cup and never has she takes one sip then refuses to drink it
*any fruit besides blueberries and strawberries
*most veggies

Those are the main foods I can think of. Of course they will both eat some other thing and won't eat some other things. The likes in their lists def dominate our menu. I really wish I could find some other healthy foods they would both eat but I know they are both at ages where picky eating is common. But between her dairy intolerance and Maddox's refusal to eat cheese we've knocked out a lot of the common kid foods: grilled cheese, quesadillas and pizza. Olive Garden and Noodles & Co are both of their favorite places to eat but we (Collin and I) prefer to eat more than just pasta :).

I will definitely be glad when they decide to branch out a little more and eat a wider variety of foods. I would love any suggestions, ideas and recipes that your kids like and eat well if you would be willing to share!!!

The Big Move

Well, this may come as a surprise to some of you because we have kept it under the radar a little bit, but a week and a half ago we packed up our house and moved across town to a condo we are now renting. For a while Collin and I had been talking about the possibility of selling our house and down-sizing some. We finally decided to put our house on the market and give it a try in late November. We spoke with our agent and got the house ready and officially on the market December 1. We had already planned on being in Texas starting the 4th so we would have just a few days of showings with us here before leaving town. Well little did I know those few days would be absolutely crazy. We had like 7 showings in 3 days and boy was I exhausted because every day they happened during nap time. I was more than ready o get out of town an leave the house free for unlimited showings without any inconvenience to me. While we were gone we have a ton more showings and after only 9 days on the market we got 2 different offers. We accepted one and were under contract on December 10. We were thrilled and nervous that it happened so quickly! I really had to get on finding somewhere for us to live thought because we were set to close January 15. The whole process went very smoothly and yesterday we signed the papers and handed over the keys to our first house. It was a bittersweet day for us. A relief to be done with it all but sad to leave the house that we had so many memories in. We brought both of our babies home to that house. Celebrated both of their 1st birthdays there. Had friends over. Had family and friends from out of town stay with us. And many many more things we will always cherish.

I am so thankful I have found a really great condo to rent that is just perfect for us!! There is plenty of space for our family of 4 but not all the excess we had in the house. We are saving so much money by living here because of all of the fees we were able to cut out like lawn care, HOA fees, lower bills etc. and we have some great amenities like a work out room, pool and playground just a short walk from our front door.

We have gotten all settled and unpacked at our new place and are really enjoying it!! I am looking forward to all the fun memories we will make here as a family!! Sometime soon I will take some pics or do a video your of the new place :).

Sick...again

Well germs have been traveling around our house yet again. The Friday morning before Christmas Maddox woke up wheezing and croupy so I gave him a dose of steroids and that seemed to help him. However, on Saturday he woke up at around 11 pm coughing and congested and crawled in bed with us. Sunday morning he was not feeling good at all. We went to church but I ended up taking him home just after service started because he was feeling so crummy. He ate a little an then fell asleep laying on my chest. He napped for a good 3 hours but still wasn't feeling great. We had planned on all going to eat fondue that night but called in a last minute babysitter (thanks D) to keep the kids since he still wasn't any better. He thankfully woke up on Christmas Eve feeling and looking much better and was able to enjoy all the Christmas festivities that followed! He still has a lingering cough but that's normal for him with croup.

Now just 2 days after he has recovered sissy is running fever and coughing non-stop. She hasn't sounded croupy at all but her cough is pretty yucky. I went ahead and tried putting the Vicks vapor rub on her feet but it doesn't seem to be helping much. I really just hope she can get a good nights sleep and wake up feeling better in the morning!!

I hate having sick babies. They are just so pitiful and I feel so helpless. I love the extra cuddles but I want my sweet baby girl feeling better!!

Christmas

We had a fabulous Christmas this year! Collin's parents, brother and brother's wife came and stayed with us starting the Friday before Christmas. The guys went skiing on Saturday and the 6 of us (without the kids cuz M was sick) went and at fondue downtown on Sunday night. But other than that it was pretty low key. We spent a lot if time just hanging out at the house. We went to church on Sunday and Christmas Eve service on Monday night and just enjoyed having them in town.

On Christmas Day we got up and opened presents and made and yummy roast dinner (which was originally supposed to be lunch but took longer than expected to cook). We were all happy to have a white Christmas, especially Maddox who was thrilled to shovel an play in the snow with Collin!

I did a horrible job of taking pictures and didn't even get my camera out but I did snap several on my phone to document the day!! Here are the ones we got between all of us on our phones...

What "CRACK" Ups!

So here is a picture of Maddox from Nov. 20, 2011 and an almost identical one of Addison from this past week.  I found it absolutely hilarious that I caught them both in the same pose almost exactly 2 years apart!!

This Past Month

So I've done it again and gone an entire month without posting.  Whoops.  SO here goes my catch up post...

I last posted just before Thanksgiving.  We spent Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving with The Davis family like we have for the past several years.  We were planning on spending Thanksgiving day in the mountains with the Rogers but I unfortunately caught a stomach bug so we ended up spending the day at home just the 4 of us. But a few days after Thanksgiving we got the Christmas decorations out which is always fun!

The kids got their ornaments for this year.  Maddox got a baseball and Addison got a Minnie Mouse ornament.

Maddox helped me decorate the tree and was so proud of the completed product!

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The week after Thanksgiving I celebrated my 29th birthday.  I had an uneventful day with the kids and then Collin and I met some of our best friends for dinner at my favorite place PF Change!!  I so thankful for sweet friends to celebrate with.

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December has already been a busy month and we are only half way through!!  We had our Christmas FX and Frosty Themed Dinner with Santa (which I was in charge of organizing) at church on Dec 2.  We had an amazing turnout and felt like a really successful evening.  Collin and I were both a part of FX and then we got to enjoy the rest of the evening with our kids!!

Ready for FX Live to start!

Sissy did not care for Santa this year :D

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We all boarded a plane on Dec 6 and headed to Texas for several fun events.  On Sunday, Kent, Anne-Marie, Collin and I ran in the Dallas Marathon.  Kent, Anne-Marie and I ran the 1/2 and Collin ran the full.  The weather was not great, it was hot and humid but we all finished and are super proud of our accomplishments!!

Waiting for the race to start...so early in the morning.

So many people running!

Here we go...about to cross the starting line.

The Trinity Bridge.

Running over the bridge!

Excited to see the family cheering us on!!

We can see the finish line...

And we made it!!

Collin finished too!!

Excited to have our kiddos there to cheer us on!

We did it!!!

We spent the rest of the week hanging out with our families!  On Thursday evening we went to my sister, Morgan's, pinning as part of her Nursing school graduation!!  Then on Friday evening we got to watch her graduate!! I am so proud of my baby sister and can't wait to see all the exciting things she gets to do as an RN!!

Accepting her award!!

On Friday morning before graduation we had Christmas with my family since we will be in Colorado this year for Christmas day.  We made the full blown Christmas lunch and opened presents!!  It was a great morning!

On Saturday we took the kids to see the Trains at Northpark Mall.  I think they enjoyed it!!

We went to church and lunch with our family on Sunday and then headed home on Monday morning.  As always, we had a blast hanging out with our family!!  We miss them a lot but are thankful we get several opportunities a year to see them!

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We have been back in Denver for 3 days now and have gotten all the christmas presents bought and wrapped, hung out with friends, and had several inches of snow which we enjoyed playing in today!

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Now we are waiting for Collin's family to get here to spend Christmas with us.  They are driving in tomorrow.  We are looking forward to spending the next several days with them celebrating Christmas!!

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So kudos to you if you stuck around for this entirely too long of a post.  I always say I'm going to do better next time but let be honest this will probably happen again at some point!!  Oh well, such is life with 2 small kids!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!