Come Play With Us

2010 in Pictures

January:  Our sweet baby E joined our family on January 17, 2010.  She was born 9 days overdue, the day after her Daddy's birthday.  She was a big girl, 9lb 5oz, 21.5 inches.  She was a very calm, observant, and physically strong little thing.

February:  C took on the role as big sis very easily and loves her little sis feircely.  C loves giving E kisses and love, and E can't take her eyes off of her big sissy.

March:  E is very strong and has been sitting propped up for a month already.  She is already showing us her personality, which is independant and curious.  Our family has all been home together since E was born because Daddy had the opportunity to take a voluntary lay off from work.  It has been so nice to bond as a family of 4.

 

April:  I lost my dear, sweet Gram in April.  She was the strongest, kindest, sweetest woman I have ever known. 

May:  Grandma and Grandpa G love to come down and visit us, and we love to have them.  The girls really enjoy their time with them. 

June:  Before we had E, I had so many fears of how being a parent of 2 would be and how would I have enough love, energy and patience to go around.  To me, there is nothing better than watching my two girls together and seeing how much the love each other.

July:  C turns 2 this month, and E is 6 months old! 

August:  We took an ill-fated (literally) vacation to my family's lake cabin.  The only person that didn't get a 4 day stomach flu was me. 

September:  We spent some time in my hometown, visiting and playing with friends.  We did several family outings in September, and had lovely fall weather.

October:  Halloween was the highlight of October. We went trick or treating around our neighborhood and had a blast!  Also, E started walking in October, at 9 months.  

November:  The girls spend a lot of time with their Daddy and we all love him so much.  I couldn't have asked for a better partner for me and father for my girls. 

December:  December was filled with Holiday festivities.  We enjoyed all of it, the girls really got into the beauty of the season, opening gifts, spending time with friends and family, and that was so fun to see.

 I realize that all but one of these pictures are of my girls, but hey, that is what my year consisted of!! 

 

 

Happy New Year

I stopped making New Year's resolutions in college, because I never followed through on any of them.  I decided this year, I am going to make some "goals" for my 2011 year, for myself and my family.

1.  Money: The hubs and I are working on debt reduction plan.  We don't have a ton of debt, but we would like to have none (besides our mortgage).  We have already started working on it, by eliminating our one vehicle payment and paying off all of our credit cards.  It already feels great!  We are loosely following Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in our quest to be debt free.

2.  Home Improvement: We have two big home improvement projects that need to get done in 2011.  We desperately need new windows in our home, and need new insulation in our attic as well. 

3.  Get Fit:  Both Andy and I would like to lose some weight, become more fit and improve our diets.  We would like to be better role models for the girls when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle.  We are starting P90X tonight!

4.  De-Clutter:  I feel like I am constantly battling clutter in my home.  I am going to work on one area a week (closet/cabinet/room/etc) and de-clutter/organize.  This weekend I organized our entry closet.  Andy built a shoe rack and it looks so neat and organized after I got rid of about half the contents.  I even have  a spot for my purse IN the closet now!

5.  Blog:  I am making it a personal goal to post more regularly on this blog.  I am aiming for 3 posts per week.  It has been a nice outlet for me, and I am hoping to continue with it throughout the year.  Things I would like to post about:  General family happenings, cooking exploits, and organizing before/afters.

Happy New Year filled with blessings, health and family to everyone in 2011!

Worries

Today the hubs called me at work to let me know that he had given the girls some cottage cheese at lunch, and had just given E a bunch on her placemat.  So she kind of got it all over the place when eating it.  He said that everywhere the cottage cheese touched her skin, she got hives.  She has had cottage cheese a few times before with no noticeable reaction (spoon fed).  

A couple weeks ago while the girls were having lunch, E got a hold of C's glass of milk and spilled it all over herself.  The same thing happened where every place the milk touched she got hives.  These hives last about an hour and then go away.  

I put a call in to our pediatrician to see if we should get her tested for a milk allergy.  

I have heard a lot of kids have the allergies to milk, and grow out of it by the time they get a bit older. Hopefully that is the case if she does have the allergy.  

 

 

MTM

It is Muffin Tin Monday at our house today.  The theme this week is Thanksgiving.  I decided to just do a mini Thanksgiving dinner for our muffin tin tonight.  I have been thinking that C isn't going to be overly thrilled with Thanksgiving dinner this weekend, so I thought I would give it a trial run.

1. Green Grapes (have nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but I knew she would eat them)

2. Craisins (representing cranberry sauce)

3.  Green Bean Casserole (I have never been a fan of this myself)

4.  Pumpkin Fluff (canned pumpkin mixed with Cool Whip)

5.  Leftover Turkey Meatloaf (I swear it tastes better than it looks in this picture)

6.  "Stuffing" (wheat toast with butter and garlic)

Soooo, looking at this picture, I don't think I would have eaten much of this plate if someone set it in front of me.  It looks pretty gross.  I guess C had the same sentiment.

And here is what was left:

Well, you win some, you lose some.

Take note of the banana chunk in the meatloaf.  She wouldn't eat any more of it after she dropped it in there because "my banana is SO dirty, Mama".  

And because I was not in the mood to be stern Mommy, making little girls try everything on the plate, C actually had for dinner:  a banana, some more grapes, some corned beef, and three slices of cheese.  

And my non picky eater, E, ate all of the rest of the green bean casserole, a bunch of the plain canned pumpkin, and some wheat toast for dinner.  I can't believe how open she is to new foods and textures.  I hope she continue to be that way!

Don't forget to click the link at the top of the page to see lots of other fun Thanksgiving theme meals!

 

 

Handy Andy

Andy made a small bookshelf for cookbooks and whatever else.  He said he was just going to "slap something together".  

We are thinking about painting it.  What do you think?  Or should we just leave it?

Honorable Mentions

We have had a few *firsts* in the last few weeks that I felt were worth mentioning.  

I did french braids in C's hair the other night.  This marks the *first* time she actually sat longer than 30 seconds for me to do something to her hair.

Here she is running to the mirror to check them out.  

Here is her reaction.  I think she was yelling "I like em, Mommy!  I like em!"

Other big news, E got her first tooth last Friday!  We have been waiting for it to come through, and she has been having a little bit of a tough time with it.  Yay!

I don't think you can really see it in this picture.  But it is there!  The smile is darn cute, though.

E also figured out how to pull herself up on stuff.  I quick snapped a picture before she stood herself up because I didn't want her to crash and burn, but she can actually get all the way up and standing.  At 8 months, EEK!  

It is a little bittersweet that this is the last time I am going to get to experience all of these wonderful first moments.  But of course I love getting to see them!

MTM

Today's Muffin Tin Monday was a "no theme" day.  I had so much fun doing the movie theme meal a few weeks ago, I decide to try another.  I chose Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland.  This has been one of C's favorite movies for about a year.  

I always have these great ideas for things and then when I try to put them together, they look really terrible.  Case in point:  the Cuckoo Bird.  I first tried to make him out of olives and pretzel sticks, which was a disaster.  So then I had to try grapes (of course I didn't have green ones), and that turned out slightly better than the olives, but not much.  Then I did a naan and ketchup clock, chocolate milk (Goofy's Chocolaty milk party), then a cheese question mark (the mystery mouskatool), Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets, and yogurt with magical shrinking sparkles. 
I let her watch the movie while she ate, as a special treat.

Even Miss E got into the mix!  Pureed apples for her today.  I am excited for when she gets a little bigger and can join in the fun more.  Mostly she wanted to chew on the muffin cup!

This is what was left.  C ate most everything except the clock.  Oh well.  I even ended up giving her more nuggets.  

 

Pre Butterwoodpeat

The girls and I are heading up to Cromwell this weekend for Harvest Fest (aka Butterwoodpeat).  I am really looking forward to this weekend, as my group of high school girlfriends has added 4 babies since last year, and also we haven't had ALL of the 9 kids together yet.  This is our kid group from last year

Now add 4 babies!  Should be a fun time.

This will be Cora and Elin's third parade this summer, so they are parade professionals now.  Here was my favorite float from last year's parade.

  Yep.  A cow.