The hot mess we call....the pantry

Our pantry is a disorganized mess..I can't stand it! There is stuff literally just STUFFED in there...I can't get to what I want without pulling out 20 other things and if you know me....I like organization, typical Type A personality, thats me :-)

So now that we have the basement door finished, next on the list is the pantry, WOO HOO!!!!! I think we have a pretty good plan worked out for what we want, nothing fancy or expensive but it should keep things a little more organized which I will love love love love!

Here is the hot mess I am referring to.....

See what I mean? Marcin will probably yell at me for posting this pic LOL But just wait for the 'After' pic! I don't know about you but I love 'before/after' pics :-) hehe
After we get the pantry finished, we get to do the foyer light!!!!!! bye bye ugly builder brass fixture :-P

National Infertility Awareness Week!!! April 24-30

{ a couple days late but I started this over weekend and forgot to pick back up, story of my life lol)

http://www.resolve.org/national-infertility-awareness-week/home-page.html

This is very close to my heart as we struggled getting pregnant and staying pregnant. When we started trying we never imagined we would have problems. After months of thoroughly tracking my cycles nothing happened :-( I explained all this to my OB and she referred us to a specialist. I was terrified....what was wrong with me? A million 'what if...' questions ran through my head daily.  After all the tests, we still didn't have an answer to what the issue or issues were, we were diagnosed as 'Unexplained Infertility" Thankfully we found some solutions and have 3 beautiful sons but it wasn't an easy road.

We were sent to Dr. Jeffrey Russell and what a wonderful doctor he is :-) And his staff is amazing! When we first started going to his office, I was amazed at the age range of women in the office....everyone from us, at that time 25 to 40 or 50. At the time, it was assumed that only older women had fertilty issues, I learned very quickly it was all ages from all walks of life.

If you know anyone with fertility issues, just be there for them and listen. I know for me, I didn't need answers for what we were experiencing, I just needed to vent and someone to listen. Everyone has the best intentions but a person can't really understand this until they have been through it themselves. I would never wish this on anyone to experience but it is so scary and intimidating when you start the fertilty treatments, the endless amounts of doctor appointments, the medicines, etc. It is impossible not to stress, not to worry...so many people would tell me, "Don't worry, it will happen.' While great advice, that is impossible when you have to keep track of everything little thing to make sure you get to the doctor on time to start your 'cycle' with them, 4-5 doctor appts/week, monitoring of the meds so that you don't overstim, when do to the baby dance and when your not allowed, hormone levels, daily injections, what time to take medicines, etc. And once you get pregnant...will it stick?

So if you have family or friends experiencing this, just be there for them. I am so glad this topic is coming out in the open. When we were trying to get pregnant the first time 3-4 years ago, no one talked about  it. I have since seen more about infertility in magazines, on the news (not the octo-mom, she is crazy) and just more resources in general which is fabulous :-) People dealing with this shouldn't have to go through it by themselves, they need support :-)

I have always been open about our issues, it is nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean look at our 3 handsome boys....it was alot of missed work, alot of money (thank goodness for awesome health insurance!) and many stressful days/nights but all completely worth it!

What a fun weekend!!!

And week! Last week my Dad and Gay were here ALL week :-) It was so fun to have them here! Gavin loves his Pop Pop and Gigi and J&K had a great time smiling and laughing at everyone :-) Gay and I got out one afternoon for some much needed shopping....I <3 the Loft! And especially their 40% everything sales, I found some really cute stuff and good deals! Surprisingly so because clothes just don't fit the same with the 'twin skin' hanging around my middle but thats a story for another day :-P

While they were here Marcin and I got a date night too, WOO HOO!!! And I finally got the swagger wagon maintenance done :-P

Then this weekend we had the Easter basket blessing on Saturday morning that Gavin and I went too. It is a Eastern European tradition that Marcin's family introduced me too and it is so much fun! Basically you fill your basket with some of your favorite foods and other foods that are symbolic of various things and we added the boys blankies, peanut butter crackers (Gavin's fav) and some of J&K's baby food, hehe. There are only about 20 or so people at the service but its fun because everyone shares their heritage and how they came to this tradition. While it is primarily Eastern European there were people there from India, Spain, Brazil and Albania who have come to learn this tradition and decided to join in :-)

Saturday Agnieszka and Kalina took Gavin to see Elmo which he seemed to love...whether he loved the actually show or all the SPEAKERS and lights is hard to say but he had fun :-)

Sunday was church in the morning and all 3 boys did fabulous in church! Even though they started 30 minutes late...RRRRR That irks me because its not OUR problem people can't show up on time...mass was same time as it is every sunday, hmph! Then home for naps and off to Marcin's parents house to eat.

Today Gavin went with Marcin to work for a bit and I stayed home to clean up and hang out with J&K and then to the grocery store. I took Jakob with me to the store, he smiled at EVERYONE whose eye he caught...too cute :-) He wasn't quite ready to sit forward in the cart...still needs his legs to balance him out, but he had fun all the same!

While Jakob and I were at the store, I get a text from Marcin (who I left with Kaleb awake and Gavin going to sleep). When I left Marcin was going out on the deck to get some sun and was taking Kaleb. I said it might be fun for Kaleb to hang out in the duck for a bit in the cool water. Marcin said Kaleb didn't like sitting in the duck so this was his solution.....

Yes I know....you all warned me LOL

Happy Easter!!!

We are having a great Easter weekend so far! Unfortunately due to weather we had to do our easter egg hunt indoors but Gavin had fun hiding them...then Marcin and Jakob went off in search of them all while Gavin ran off to do something else. What? I was surprised he even hid them all before running off...his attention span is very short LOL

There will be no Easter Bunny pics with my our boys. The Easter Bunny is just creepy....I always have to wonder who is behind that costume :-P Could be a perfectly nice person but still....just creepy :-P When and if the boys ever ask us to go see the Easter Bunny, we will be happy to take them :-)

Sometimes Santa is creepy too...I am trying to single out the Easter Bunny, just saying :-P
Here are some pics from our weekend so far!



Dying some eggs....he was amused until he learned he had to wait for them to turn color lol



Marcin and Jakob on egg hunt!

 

I was trying to get pic with all 3...but they did NOT want to cooperate, silly boys :-P



see?!?! still not cooperating.....so much fun these boys:-)



my goodness I love this face so much!



Door is finished!!!

I LOVE it!! We talked about doing this when we were finishing basement but well....we got a little busy finding out we were having twins after we finished basement and never got around to it. We are finding that we have some time to do projects so this was our first one :-) I feel like it gives the basement a little more light down there which is needs since there are only 3 small windows and the walk out door gives a little more light.

Marcin did a fabulous job with his three assistants :-) Jakob and Kaleb are fabulous supervisors and Gavin was very helpful with the painting (read: making a mess and freaking out when his hands got 'DIRTY' with paint on them)

hmph...and Marcin stole my thunder, I was trying to get Gavin to help me do Easter Eggs but he would rather help Tata (Marcin) paint...like that is more fun than sitting and watching eggs turn colors :-P

What do you think?

geez...teething with two babies is TOUGH!!

add a toddler with endless amounts of energy and I am ready for months vacations (not that I could leave them but I would miss them entirely too much but the idea sounds nice :-P)

Kaleb had a couple rough days with his 2 teeth cutting & he is working on a 3rd. Kaleb never woke at night with his teeth, so far at least. I thought Jakob wouldn't be quite as easy...boy was I right, the child is miserable and we ALL know it : / Over weekend he was up at nights as soon as pain meds wore off. Thankfully last night he was just up once. And his naps are hit or miss but if he doesn't nap, he is even more miserable as we found out on saturday, sheesh that was a LONG day. I hate it because I would like to just take the pain away from them both.

I should probably get used to this having 3 boys...I see alot of broken bones, various injuries and plenty of trips to the ER but I hate seeing my kids in pain as I am sure all parents do.

We are excited because my dad and Gay are coming for the week, WOO HOO!!! what perfect timing for a visit!!! I can use the break with Jakob being so unpredictable with his routine and Gavin is super excited!!!!

"You never take as many pictures of your 2nd child"

All those that said this to me were incorrect :-P I am definitely my mothers daughter, LOL I can't even count how many pictures she took of me and 100's of me just sleeping. I completely understand why she couldn't get enough pictures of her child...they are so precious!

I did a little Easter outfit fun with J&K while Gavin was napping and there are a couple from Monday when we were outside with Gavin :-)

These boys are too much fun!!!

do you see how Kaleb is ignoring me? lol

See what happens when the Michalski's go out in public....

...I can't say I wasn't warned before I married him, hehe!! (just kidding babe...you know I love you lots!) , The Garver's hosted a fantastic and yummy BBQ yesterday. We had EIGHT kids under the age of 3, sheesh! Talk about craziness but fun craziness, especially once all the older ones went outside to play LOL We had such a great time! Here are a few pics for you lol We can all thank Chris&Hillary for Marcin's sexy apron LOL


me and my boys!!!



there isn't much to say here....are you surprised? lol

 

Jakob enjoyed his Yuengling hehe



147 days....

...until I will be throwing ALL bottles away :-D I cannot wait! But that also means its only 147 days until Jakob and Kaleb are ONE year old! seriously...how is this possible? I remember counting down the days in until my scheduled c-section with those two :-) It could not come soon enough lol

I just finished washing the bottles from today, I don't really mind it but I am ready to be done with them! And formula! Thankfully J&K do great with the Costco Kirkland formula and compared to Similac saves us about $200 a month! Milk is not cheap but still cheaper than formula. We have been discussing where we will keep all this milk when they do start milk because we already go through 2 gallons a week! I would guess we will be adding another 3 gallons to that, sheesh :-P Then Marcin was at Home Depot last weekend and purchased a very nice refrigerator for his bar, guess what will be going there with the beer? yep...milk!

Kaleb has already decided he needs to cut back on his bottles, lil stinker :-P Since he started cutting his teeth, he hasn't wanted his mid-morning or afternoon bottle, so I just give him solids. He seems to be pretty happy with that :-) He is still taking about 20oz formula/day with oatmeal cereal so I am not worried about dehydration or lack of vitamins. And let's face it...the child does not need to worry about losing weight LOL

Speaking of my big boys...it is time to move them into their 'big boy' seats!!! YAY!!!!!! I had Jakob in his today, so cute and he looks so big! When did those two get so big?! I got a great deal a few months ago on Britax Marathons on Albeebaby.com so now we just need to figure out how to configure it best in the swagger wagon...I am hoping putting J&K in the 3rd row and leaving Gavin in the 2nd row will work. That would be ideal but we shall see :-)

Jakob's turn!

Jakob got his turn to try some pizza crust...he was more interested in studying it, intently, then eating it. A few times he dropped it and was not happy, hehe! And of course there is Kaleb trying to take it from Jakob...Kaleb is always trying to take things from Jakob and then of course Jakob will cry and cry and cry, so cute!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

My mom would have been 54 today and I know she would have so much fun with her grandsons :-)

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her and I know she is looking down on us each day, smiling.

For those that don't know, my mom lost her battle to breast cancer when she was just 33 years old. The same age I am now. I was 12 years old when she passed. She was diagnosed when she was 29 years old and put up a great fight but after many rounds of chemo and radiation treatments the cancer made it to her liver. I remember her as a strong, fearless, funny and loving mom. She had great family and friends who she loved to spend time.

When I turned 33, I looked at my three boys and I can't imagine how she stayed as strong as she did knowing she wasn't going to be around to watch me grow up. I hope that if I am ever faced with such an obstacle in my life that I can portray her strength.

I get my yearly mammogram and I even went for genetic testing after Gavin was born, thankfully the genetic testing came back negative. I do not carry the breast cancer gene which was a huge relief to me but at the same time made me realize I have to keep up a healthy lifestyle not only for myself but my family. I may not carry the gene but as the doctor explained to me, that doesn't mean I am in the safety zone. However it was a huge relief and weight off my shoulders to know that I didn't carry the gene.

Like every day, I will be thinking of my Mom on her special day :-)

Yummy and EASY dinner recipe! ~ Quesadilla Casserole

I am always looking for easy and quick meals to make! This one can be made well in advance, in stages...whatever works for you! And it freezes pretty well, enjoy! I would take a picture like all those cute recipe blog sites but I don't have time for all that! Although I am making this for dinner tonight.....maybe later I will post pic but trust me...its yummy! Especially topped with some sour cream and salsa!

Quesadilla Casserole

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup onion
2 cans 8oz tomato sauce
1 15oz can black beans rinsed
1 8.75oz can of whoel kernel corn
1 can chopped green chilies, 4.5oz
6 flour tortillas
2 cups shredded cheese....I use mozzarella and cheddar
2 tsp chili powder
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

Brown the beef, add rest of ingredients and stir, simmer for about 10 minutes.

Spread beef mixture in bottom of dish, top with tortillas until covered, layer of cheese and repeat until you run out of beef mixture.
Bake@350 for 15-25 minutes :-)

Our first official 70 degree day!

Yesterday was gorgeous...especially after this long winter and sick children for what seems like forever! I was outside with one or all of the boys at some point enjoying the weather! Gavin had his side walk chalk on the driveway, J&K got to use their swing for the first time and it was just so nice, it even brightened my mood to be out in the fresh air :-)

I know this will surprise you but after about 5 minutes of swinging...Kaleb fell asleep lol

A new door!!!

We have a quite a list of house projects and finally got started on one of them! My husband is brilliant, hehe!
Our first project was to replace the door leading to the basement. The door is hung, it still needs to be painted and a door knob but it already looks so much better, I LOVE it!!! And Marcin switched the sides for the hinges so now the door opens towards the family room instead of the foyer. That never made any sense for it to open towards the foyer....must have been Capano's (the builder) brilliant planning :-P
Next on our list is a storm door for the front door and a new foyer light...if I can ever decide on one, there are FAR too many choices for lighting, geez!
I love house projects and I am even more excited that we now have time again to work on them :-) I have to say there was a time....say oh 6-7 months ago that I thought we would never do anything again LOL

WOW Happy 7 months J&K!!!

I seriously cannot believe how quickly they are growing! I can remember last spring/summer so clearly and the difficulty of my pregnancy with them. Around this time last year we were in South Carolina for my Dad and Gay's beautiful wedding :-) I was barely showing but the feelings of pregnancy were there, sheesh! Little did I know just how hard it would be to carry two precious little ones :-)

J&K are learning so fast! Kaleb went from sitting with assistance to not needing us at all within a week! He is reaching out, scooting around to get his toys, rolling both ways when he feels like it, dumping out containers and throwing blocks lol And he is fascinated with Marcin and Gavin, his entire face just lights up when he sees them :-) He is starting to play with Gavin's toys which Gavin isn't entirely crazy about but we are constantly reminding Gavin he has to share lol
Kaleb has one tooth through on the bottom and the other bottom one is cutting as we speak, which means probably no bottles for a couple of days, good thing he can eat solids!

Jakob is too funny! He is sitting by himself...still a bit of a weeble wooble but getting stronger everyday! Also scooting around to get what he wants, rolling both ways when he wants to and just giggles all day long! He doesn't throw like Kaleb. He is still 'gentle jakob' as we like to call him. I can give him a container of toys (that Kaleb would dump and throw) and Jakob will take each one out one by one and examine them, lay it gently on floor and get another one.
I would have to guess that Jakob is getting his top eye teeth first! hehe how cute, our little vampire! I can just feel them under the gums so it won't be long!

They are also starting to like napping with their lovies :-) Kaleb has a monkey and Jakob has a blue elephant. And Marcin and I have 2 of each for back ups....just in case :-P Gavin has a tiger that his cousin Christopher gave him when he was little and he takes it everywhere! So much that I ordered an extra one but then he discovered the extra one and now has TWO tigers, hehe

They are both fabulous sleepers! They are still working on the 40 minute cycle but sometimes I feel like it partly my fault : / Sometimes I miss their sleep window and if I miss it, that is usually when the 40 minute naps happen. But you know, its busy around here so sometimes I can't get upstairs :-P Even with their teeth cutting, they are sleeping pretty well....I love these kids! When I was pregnant I was so worried one or both of them would be awful sleepers because Gavin has always been a good sleeper.

And our biggest baby, Gavin, is going to be 3 in just 3 short months...how is that possible? He is the funniest kid I know! The things he says crack us up! And he loves his brothers so much! He is always giving them kisses, trying to figure out why they are crying and just loves on them! He will be starting preschool in the fall...I am going to miss him, lol Yes I know it is just 3 short hours and with J&K home with me that time will pass in a blink of an eye :/

We are seriously so blessed to have these three....our days are crazy, chaotic and sometimes we lose all patience but all the laughs, silly moments and incredible memories make it all worth while!

Here are J&K 7 months pics, hehe

I love a good bargain!

Last night I got to shop at the Moms of Multiples resale before the big sale today, it was SO nice to just leisurely walk around and get what I needed for the boys! Being a member has its perks :-) That past fews years I have gone, people start lining up super early to be the first in the door. I can't blame them because there are lots of good things there for great prices, thanks FSMoM!

I was hoping to find some more stuff for Gavin but the 3T/4T wasn't much to pick from. There were plenty of things for J&K, which was great because I really needed some more 12 month PJ's and 18 month summer things. After going through Gavin's 12 and 18 month clothes, we have alot of 12 month summer which should be perfect for Jakob but not so many 18 month summer clothes for Kaleb. As some of you know, Kaleb is currently in 12 month (yep he is just 7 months in size 12 month clothes and size 5 diapers, hehe!). Jakob is in mostly 9 months but slowly transitioning to 12 months because he is so long, hehe!

So I found what  needed! Some more Carter 12 month PJ's and cute Gap, Old Navy and CP 18 month, YAY!!!! And a few other fun things but only ONE toy! There were a lot of toys but if you have been to my house you already know we do NOT need anymore toys!!!! sheesh....I already get overwhelmed with the toys all over the house and I cannot pick them up enough. Of course as soon as I put them away, they get pulled out again, eh.

Happy weekend everyone!!! The forecast for Delaware is looking good for next week, I am thinking a morning at the park? Temps should be in the high 60's with some rain here and there but I'll take it! Come on spring!!

We just can't get enough of these smiles!

I seriously LOVE watching Gavin, Jakob and Kaleb interact together! Gavin doesn't usually sit still long enough for me to capture a moment so for now I take lots of pictures of J&K because well...they can't get anywhere too quickly, yet. My days are definitely numbered :-P

Here are a few pics of our bath time fun last night, needless to say J&K are getting too big to take baths together in the duckie, hehe! Soon enough they will be able to sit in the big tub though! AH!