'Tis the Season to Give!

Black and Blue Christmas

Dear Grandparents, Great Aunt, Aunts & Uncles and Godparents,

Please accept this I.O.U. for one professional picture of the boys as their Christmas gift to you. The photo will not arrive by the 25th of December.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Bittyman and the shiner he received when his head collided with the bed frame two days before our scheduled appointment at Kiddie Kandids. (The picture does not do justice to the injury in spite of Bitty's 'tough guy' face.)

Blessings this Christmas Season,
Vicki

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Chicken & Cheese Quesadillas
Tuesday: Italian Sausage Subs, Caprese Salad
Wednesday: Pizza
Thursday: Bruschetta Chicken Bake
Friday: Pasta and Bean Skillet

It was a crazy busy weekend for me and I only had menus planned through Wednesday. A big thanks to Sharon at The Bird's Nest - I'm borrowing two of your recipes to round out my week!

If you're looking for menu ideas there are at last count 157 other Menu Plan Monday participants at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!

St. Nicholas of Myra (4th century)
Nicholas was a priest, an abbot, and a bishop of Myra. Once, he helped a poor family by dropping bags of gold coins in a window, landing in a stocking hung up to dry. Thus, the story of Santa Claus was born. He was known for his holiness, zeal, and astonishing miracles–even raising people from the dead.

Happy Hanukkah!

(Thanks, Sharon at The Bird's Nest!)

Random Photo Post

Picture that won't be making the Christmas webpage.

Itty 1, Squash 0

Daddy & Bitty's Handiwork

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Crock Pot Saucy Cheeseburger Sandwiches, Green Beans
Tuesday: Broccoli Fettuccine Chicken
Wednesday: Leftover Buffet
Thursday (St. Nicholas Day): Pancakes, Sausages, Home Fries
Friday: Pizza, Veggies & Dip

Last week's Italian Sausage Egg Bake was a huge hit... with the adults. Not so much with Bittyman. I'll just stick with pancakes for Christmas morning! Speaking of pancakes, this Thursday is the Feast of St. Nicholas and by coincidence Daddy is off. So after opening our stockings, we'll enjoy a hearty leisurely breakfast. That evening we'll be touring an outdoor festival of lights so dinner will probably be of the drive-thru variety afterwards!

Feliz Navi-Toss!

Merry Tossmas!

First Sunday of Advent

If you need a break from perusing those sales fliers in the Sunday paper:

Watching and Waiting by Danielle Bean.
The True Meaning of Advent by The Curt Jester. (He also created the Advent wreath graphic above - thanks, Jeff!)
St. Rita Parish Weekly Builletin. Scroll down to the bottom for the article written by the Parochial Vicar of St. Rita, Fr. Paul Scalia. (Scalia - sound familiar? As in the son of Supreme Court Justice Scalia.) Fr. Scalia is the consultant priest to a Catholic Mom's message board I belong to and he serves in the Diocese of Arlington where I grew up.
A Catholic Life: Advent and Christmas Compilation. Matthew has stopped blogging since entering the Seminary, but A Catholic Life continues to be one of my favorite reference blogs.

Foto Friday

My favorite photos from our Thanksgiving trip to Green Bay:


Dan and the boys with their Great-Grandmother, Mary


Itty with his Godfather and Uncle, Damien


The Desert Dwellers in the Lambeau Field Atrium

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Cheesy Pizza Meatloaf, Green Bean Casserole
Tuesday: Italian Sausage Egg Bake. (Test run for Christmas morning)
Wednesday: Alton Brown's Grilled Cheese, Soup
Thursday: Pizza for the Packers Game
Friday: Veggie Quesadillas, 7-Layer Dip

A common theme to this week's menu? BelGioioso cheese. Two of Dan's brothers are cheese makers so we were blessed to return from the Frozen Tundra with 10 pounds of award-winning cheese!

Mama was not so blessed to return with one heck of a cold. So forgive me for light blogging for a few days.

Giving Thanks

We're heading to the frozen tundra to spend Thanksgiving with Dan's family. There will be a 30F drop in temperature from our desert home to Green Bay. The boys will keep warm playing with the 11 first-cousins who are in the area (the boys already have 19 first-cousins total) and Dan and I will keep warm partaking in some of the fine beverages brewed in Wisconsin. I'll also get to have lunch with K, my Maid on Honor, who I haven't seen since either of us had children.

We hope to return with a Packers win over the Lions and without any traveling horror stories or cold virus'!

Wishing all of Bitty's & Itty's fans a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Want A Blog Like Mine?

Lindsay, the gal who created my fantastic blog template after I won first place in her last Custom Template Giveaway, is in the holiday giving mood! So head on over and enter for a chance to have your blog look as cool as mine! No blog? She also creates custom holiday photo cards at very reasonable rates so check out her portfolio.

Foto Friday

Bedtime tonight. (Better late on Friday than never!)

Charity Begins at Home... Computer

FreeRice.com

Menu Plan Monday

We're heading over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house next weekend to spend Thanksgiving in the frozen tundra. So the goal of this week is a zero grocery bill and to clean out the fridge/freezer. (Helps that Daddy has gigs three nights - Guess which meals are geared towards Bittyman?)

Monday: Brats & Baked Beans
Tuesday: Veggie Burgers
Wednesday: Pancakes & Eggs
Thursday: Chicken Nuggets
Friday: Pizza

Foto Friday

Enjoying our record-high heat this week.

(Well, not enjoying having to turn our AC back on because it was 85F inside the house... and not really enjoying arguing with Bittyman that he should put on a short-sleeved shirt and shorts before walking to the park - and you can see from the picture who 'won' the argument... then not so much enjoying the part where Bittyman complained of being TOO HOT the entire time we were at the park... oh, and finally also not really enjoying much the part about trying to stretch a short-sleeved onesie to fit Ittyboy since he's outgrown all this summer clothes.)

Sure, we're enjoying our record-high heat.

Made in the USA

Lead-tainted paint, date rape drug coated beads - what else do the Chinese have in store for our kids?

It's going to be an only American made toy Christmas at our house. More books, games, clothing and less crappy plastic that might harm my little heroes.

Fox News - Buy American: Toys Made in the USA
Fat Brain Toys
our green house - American made
Gile Toys
Toys Made In America
US Made Toys

And with Al Qaeda eyeing mall attacks over the holidays, all the more reason to shop for American made toys from the comfort of my home office.

Dear Dr. Sears,

Is it bad parenting to take a preschooler to the Grand Opening of our city's first Dunkin' Donuts and call it lunch?

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

I'm In!

Comment registration is open at Michelle Malkin! (Michelle only opens registration once in a blue moon to keep the trolls away.)

Thanks, Grandmai for the heads-up. Now to think of something clever and pithy to write. Might need coffee first... and a return of the IQ points I lost during pregnancy.

What Level of Education is Required to Understand this Blog?

Now don't ya feel smart? I must write pretty good well!

Pssst... Want to Know a Secret?

'Tis already the season for Starbucks Holiday drinks! As of yesterday you can order holiday drinks even though they won't 'officially' be advertised until November 8! A very kind Barista shared this tidbit with me today. (Too bad I had already ordered my Tall (nonfat) Cafe Mocha when she divulged this secret!)

Daddy is out of town this weekend so methinks I'll treat myself to a Gingerbread Latte tomorrow... and a Peppermint Mocha after Mass on Sunday!

Blood Sugar Crash on All Saints' Day

After putting on a few miles trick-or-treating then stuffing ourselves silly with miniature candy (and chocolate-flavored Mama's milk in Ittyboys's case), Bittyman, Itty and I all slept in, missing 8:00am All Saints' Day Mass with Daddy.

So Mommy will be attempting 7:00pm Mass with the boys. Not a problem for Bitty who really is an angel in church. (Have I blogbragged that he can now recite the Apostle's Creed? And Father was so impressed by this feat that it became a part of his homily that week?) But 7 is a challenging time for Itty who is usually fighting sleep.

Seminarian Matthew has a great page all about Saints and why Catholics honor them: A Catholic Life: Saints

Mama is needing a hair of the dog that bit her... now where did I hide Bitty's treat bag... there's a Snickers in there with my name on it! (Bitty, when you can read this post, I owe you a candy bar!)

Happy Halloween!

Taken at Sunday's Halloween Festival. Tonight Spiderman and a Pea Pod will be trick-or-treating in our friend's more kid-friendly neighborhood. (Our community is a bust when it comes to handing out candy for some reason.)

Have a safe Halloween!

Halloween Fun

Ignore those kiddos knocking at your door and play some online Halloween games instead.

(You know you want all those miniature Reese's for yourself anyway!)



Pumpkin Carving

Halloween Games

Ghoulish Games

Bashing Pumpkins

For Daddy

Highlights from last night's Packers win in OT against the Broncos. (Game-winning touchdown is at -0:48.)

Brett Favre does it again. Daddy is one happy Cheesehead today.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Crock-Pot Chicken Cacciatore
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Miniature Milky Ways, M&M's, Twix, etc.
Thursday (All Saints' Day): Pizza
Friday: Chinese at Pei Wei

Easy week for Mom. Between Halloween trick-or-treating, All Saints' Day Mass Thursday evening and Daddy going out of town Friday morning for the weekend, it's all about quick, easy, and next weekend more dining out than usual as I'll be doing the solo parenting thing for 3 days.

Thanks to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting. (Go check out Laura's new and improved site!)

On Being Catholic At Halloween

Lots of posting among the Catholic bloggers about Halloween. Ma Beck says everything I'd have written if I wasn't down a few IQ points from pregnancy, childbirth and baby rearing: WardWideWeb: Obligatory Hallowe'en Post

(But we do have one major philosophical disagreement - who the heck eats Butterfingers? My candy d'Halloween was Milky Ways before Bitty received a 'super silver tooth'. Now our house is a sticky-free candy zone. Dark M&M's in our treat bowl. Butterfingers? Oh, the horror!)

Foto Friday

Reintroducing, The Adventures of Bittyman and His Sidekick, Ittyboy!

WOW is right! (You said WOW! when you loaded the page, didn't ya?) Is this not the coolest blog template EVER?!?

When I won first place in Splat Creative Designs' contest for a custom blogger template I was just hoping for a cute header in a comic-book font. Actually that's about all the direction I gave Lindsay - I'd like a comic-book theme to go with my blog's title and my two 'superheros' are blond.

Holy cow, Bittyman, did she deliver!

I can not thank Lindsay enough. She is such a super-talented gal! Besides blogger templates she does custom headers, logos, buttons, business cards and much more. So go check out her portfolios and treat your blog to a new and improved look!

Blogs Worth Blogging About

Organized Christmas

Cynthia at Organized Home has begun her free six-week Countdown to Christmas. (WHAT? CHRISTMAS IS IN SIX WEEKS?!? Simma down, now! Take a deep breath. Christmas is NINE weeks from Tuesday.)

The six-week plan will let you enjoy a stress-free Advent season with the goal of completing all your Christmas planning and preparations by the first weekend in December. (Or give you three more weeks to accomplish what you should have done already!)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Tater Beef Bake
Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner (Scrambled eggs with cheese & veggies and homefries)
Wednesday: Italian Sausage Subs
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Fish & Chips

The weather has FINALLY cooled off enough where I can plan on using my oven each night. (From May through September it's just so darn hot in our part of the country that I only do meals that can be grilled outside, cooked in the Crockpot, or made on the stove top.) So for the next few months I'll be doing casseroles on Monday instead of slow cooker recipes. The Tater Beef Bake is a new recipe from simple & delicious magazine. I'll report next week on its success or failure!

Foto Friday Flashback

Bittyman at 6 Months

Scroll down to my last post and you'll discover my little men still look like twins birthed four years apart - but fraternal, not identical. Bitty had a lot more hair than Itty, who only now has grown some little blond wisps, and Itty's eyes are a much brighter shade of blue than Bitty's were.

Happy 6 Months, Itty!

How far you've come!
And from a fellow blogging Mom, a
6-Month Breastfeeding Award for my sidebar!

Not Hailing the Redskins

I'll be eating crow all week after the Redskins' loss to Daddy's Packers, so no Menu Plan for this Monday.

But to reward those who surfed by, some pictures from the weekend:

Yay! I can sit in the highchair!

Foto Friday

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas
Tuesday: English Muffin Pizzas
Wednesday: Baked Ziti
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Grilled Basil, Tomato & Cheese Sandwiches and Soup

It's a gorgeous fall day so I'm off to the park with the boys. I'll link to the Chicken Fajitas recipe during nap-time.

Thanks, as always, to Laura at Organizing Junkie for hosting!

Happy Birth Day, Vinnie!

The boys cousin Vinnie was born to Aunt Cristie and Uncle Tony early this morning. Vinnie, although over two weeks early, weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long!

Vinnie has a touch of pneumonia and is on IV antibiotics but the prognosis is for a speedy recovery and he should be heading home with Mommy on Wednesday.

Congratulations, Aunt Cristie, Uncle Tony and big sister cousins Evelyn and Tori!

Foto Friday

Do not adjust your Outlook calendar. Halloween is still almost 4 weeks away. But don't bother telling Bittyman that.



Ittyboy is our mild-mannered alter-ego. He was going to wear the pea-in-a-pod costume that Bitty wore at that age, but I may do a superheros theme and get this costume instead.

I WON!!!

I'm so excited... and I just can't hide it... I'm about to lose control...sorry, former cheesy production-singer side coming out!

I won First Place in Splat Creative Designs' contest! Many thanks to Lindsey for generously donating her time and talent!

Look for a new and improved Adventures of Bittyman and His Sidekick, Ittyboy, soon!

Contest Time!

Splat Designs is generously giving away custom blog template designs. So if you're a blogger and would like a fancy new look, check it out!

I really want my blog to have a theme like this. Yeah, how cool would that be? So I either need to win this contest or come up with the funds to pay for a custom job - and sadly there is no budget category for 'Blog Templates' in my Quicken program.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Taco Soup
Tuesday: Caesar Rotini
Wednesday: Veggie Burgers
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Picnic Dinner w/Friends (Probably fried chicken meal from Albertsons!)

Last week's Saucy Cheeseburger Sandwiches was a new crockpot recipe and a huge hit. (Huge hit defined as a meal where Bittyman asked for seconds!) No new-to-me recipes this week but two family favorites with links included.

Side dishes are a starch and vegetable/salad - whatever I have on hand. So unless it's some fantastic recipe worth blogging about I won't be posting sides on my Menu Planner.

Good eats to all!

Foto Friday

More pictures from last weekend's classic car show:

Brotherly Love


Spiderman PT Cruiser


Teething Baby Boy

Pachelbel Bedtime

Oh. My. Gosh. I haven't laughed this hard in months! Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday

Menu planning is the only New Year's resolution for 2007 that I've actually kept. I was tired of walking into my pantry at 6:00pm every night and trying to figure out what to make. Not only was it stressful but I fell back on the same dishes - so I also resolved to try at least one new recipe a week. Now I'm less stressed, have a greater variety of meals and as a bonus, our grocery bill has decreased at least 20%.

I've gotten delicious ideas from Menu Planning Monday, hosted by Organizing Junkie. I've decided start participating in hopes of organizing my menus and recipes. So with that said, I introduce:











Monday: Saucy Cheeseburger Sandwiches, Corn, Coleslaw
Tuesday: Vegetable Quesadillas (Thanks, Bird's Nest!)
Wednesday: Italian Sausage & Pasta, Spinach Salad
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Fish & Chips
Saturday: Steaks on the Grill, Baked Potatoes, Fruit Salad
Sunday: Pizza

I plan and do my grocery shopping on Friday so we're stocked for the weekend (and thus less likely to eat out because the cupboard is bare). Monday is my Crockpot night and Thursday is always leftovers because Daddy works late. Sunday during football season is pizza and other finger food that we can eat while watching the Redskins and Packers play.

So what's on your menu this week?

Foto Friday

Taken today at our local classic car show - how cool is that?

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Itty is:



And a Bitty flashback:

Happiness is...

fitting into your pre-pregnancy jeans!

What's in the Water?

Between myself and my local Mommy friends, we have 12 sons and 4 daughters.

Bittyman's preschool class? 16 boys, 4 girls. (God bless his three teachers!)

If you'd like a bottle of XY-fortified drinking water shipped to your home, please use the PayPal donation button in the sidebar!

Bitty's First Day of School

After having such a blast at Vacation Bible School this summer, Bittyman was constantly asking, "When do I get to go to school again?"

We hadn't planned on doing preschool - frankly I don't think Bitty needs it from an educational standpoint. He is working on phonics, can count to 100, does basic addition and subtraction, works the computer better than Daddy does... (yeah, yeah, we get it, Vicki - the kid is a smarty pants.)

But gosh, does he love being around people. I can't take him anywhere without him chatting up everyone he meets. (Cute, but not when you're trying to get through Costco quickly knowing that Ittyboy has a limited window of sleeping in the carrier.)

So when we learned that our city parks and rec department offered a state licensed preschool program (i.e. excellent curriculum, student-teacher ratio AND affordable) we joined the hundreds of other parents in our community trying to vie for a spot. Application packets had to be postmarked not before a certain date and classes were filled by the order received. So we were at the post-office late one night, Priority Mailing our packet one mile to the rec center, praying for a spot.

Our prayers were answered and Bittyman is now attending preschool Tuesday & Thursday from 12:15 - 2:30pm. Today was his first real day. (We all had 'orientation' last Thursday night. More for the parents than the kids I think!) As I signed Bitty into class he took off without even a wave goodbye, sporting his brand new Star Wars Lego shirt. He immediately found a classmate who was also wearing a new Star Wars Lego shirt and they got to work discussing the video game and movie.

Mommy stood outside the doorway with the other Moms as we all fought back tears. I'm proud to say I made it to the minivan before breaking down. Didn't want to embarrass the Bittyman.

God Bless America

Foto Friday

The best thing about having a second child is seeing the bond between the siblings. Itty absolutely adores his big brother - no one can make him smile bigger or laugh harder. Especially when big brother 'plays' with him as they were doing in this picture. For almost 30 minutes, Itty sat in the corner of the chair mesmerized by Bittyman's antics.

(Remind me of these days a year from now when Bitty is throwing a fit because Ittyboy has destroyed his Thomas the Train layout...)

Not Again

Mattel Inc., Recalls 800,000 Lead-Tainted Chinese Toys for Third Time

This is getting ridiculous. And we have yet to receive the forms we're supposed to fill out and return with the Go Diego Go toys from Mattel's first recall.

Anyone care to join us in a Mattel boycott?

Ironically, as I was typing this post, I received an e-mail from the RC2 Corporation (makers of Thomas the Train), updating me on the status of Bitty's recalled Thomas trains. One click and I was directed to a web page listing all of the toys we had returned and the scheduled shipping date for their replacement. (In the meantime Bitty has received a complimentary train AND a refund check for the return postage.)

Mattel could learn a few things about customer service from RC2.