Car Seat Safety Series

For those who do not follow my other blog (The Pistachio Project), I just finished up a month long series all on car seat safety.

Did you know that 3 out of 4 car seats are installed wrong? That's huge! No wonder why America has such high death rates for kids under 4 from car accidents!

I just wanted to share the series with all of you in case you wanted to brush up on car seat safety. It's always a good thing to know and there is so much to know about car seats that it's very easy to forget something or install a car seat wrong.


Here's the link to the series schedule which will then take you to all the posts that I wrote.

For the Love of Squash

It is officially fall finally and the weather has finally changed as well. With the change in season and temps, we are officially in soups and gourds mode.

We recently received a ginormous squash from Grandma (Justin's Mom....like I mentioned before I don't want to mention last names so there will always have to be clarification, I guess). This squash was huge. First we did just a basic roasted squash which sadly I undercooked because, go figure 1 hour was not enough for the massive beast! However, it was nonetheless apparent that Everly LOVES squash!

Today, I made the second half of the squash. This time I cooked it too much to be used for roasting so I just scooped it all out and made Smashed Squash (talk about fun to say!) Now normally I time things pretty well so that lunch is ready at 12:00. Today I didn't. Today, food was done before 12:00 and I was trying to hold the troops back while we watched the clock. Besides the smashed squash was still pretty hot. The boys of course are totally ok with that; they like their schedules enough that they have no problem waiting for the proper lunch time. Everly however, is another story. It's one thing for her to have to wait all through the cooking process but it's quite another when she can tell that food is done and it's not being placed in front of her.

I decided to hold everyone off with a bit of zucchini soup (zucchini was yet another thing we received from Grandma and it's making its way into everything) It wasn't much, just some leftover soup from a batch that I had frozen. (I'm stocking up for when #4 comes). The boys thought it was great to have a little appetizer....

Yes I know the picture is crooked.
I just want you to see that she was
getting every last bit of squash.

Everly..... "Squash. SQUASH!!!!" Crying and wailing proceeded. There was no denying that the girl wanted her squash. It didn't matter that I explained to her that she was going to get both zucchini AND squash, (and she likes zucchini too!) she wanted her squash and she wanted it NOW!

I finally decided to just remove the soup and give her the beloved squash. Instant smile. The girl started digging into her squash like there was no tomorrow.

Then she asked for seconds. "Mo, squash?"

Then she asked for thirds!!!! Seriously, who eats THAT much squash???!!!

I believe we have found Everly's new favorite food.

Sadly as easy as smashed squash is to cook and for as well loved it is to eat, it makes for a very messy toddler. Needless to say, Everly had to have a bath afterwards.

One Smashed Squash Happy Girl

Happy Grandparent's Day

Happy Grandparent's Day!

Normally I would be making and sending a new scrapbook page for the Grandparents to put in the album I gave them....ummm yeah, it kind of slipped away from me this year. However, considering we'll be having another baby in November (in which case, the Grandparent's also get the "new baby" page) I think, we'll just wait till Christmas and then I'll give you both. (so long as you don't mind) I know that tends to be my habit with my parents as I"m always worried about mailing a 12x12 sheet anyway...and Justin's side...well you're moving so I figured hunting down a photo album probably wasn't the smartest thing right now.

So yeah, Christmas.... you'll get your 2012 Grandkids page and Baby #4's page.

For now, here's a recap of this last year (from Sept - Sept)

Out of the Mouths of Bloggers

I've seen similar "You know You're a Blogger..." lists before and naturally they always line up pretty well. To give you a glimpse into my blogging life (and the life my family now enjoys/tolerates) I thought I'd write one of my own.

Things You'll Hear The Blogger in Me Say:

"Dinner will be done once I take a picture"

"We need _____, who should I pitch to?"

"No I didn't get all this stuff for free, I worked for it."

"Hold on, I've got to update the blog/facebook/twitter/pinterest."

"How'd that taste? Does it need something? Is it blog worthy yet?"

"No you can't actually use this product right now, I just need you to look like you are using it for the picture."

"Can you guys just look happy for this blog photo? I know we've taken 50 pictures already but none of them are just right....just one more...really."

"No package? Where are those review products?"

"I love ____. I did a review for them and they are really great. You should get some, here's my affiliate link."

"Sorry you can't wear that diaper yet, I need to take clean pictures of it before we take the action shots."

I'm sure there are tons of other horrid blogger quotes that I say... these are just some of the big ones. Keep in mind that there's a good side to being a blogging family too... like free stuff. I mean I won't need to buy anything for baby #4 (not a new car seat, not new diapers, etc) because of my blogging. So there's good and bad...and even the bad I don't think is too horrible.

Quotable Logan

Logan is eating an orange in this picture in case you are wondering.

I think it's safe to say that my kids are notorious for saying some ridiculous stuff. The other day, Logan said something rather funny... I didn't think it was ALL that funny...but Justin literally laughed out loud (not a common occurrence) and has since proceeded to laugh about it at least 3 times over the course of the last few days. So it must be good.

Logan: "I don't know why it stinks but I do know you farted, Ransom."