30 Days of Christmas – Project 22

I did quite a bit of sewing for gifting this year.  I found this and this adorable puppet theater on Pintrest. 

I am all about imaginative play and knew my kids needed one.  It was so easy for me to put together I actually made a second for my nephew.

I used a combination of new and on hand fabrics and trims.  I then picked up a couple of tension rods.

Now all we need are some puppets…  though my kids are pretty entertaining without them.

It’s the Little Things in Life

My father-in-law spent an hour at our house yesterday giving the kids a big surprise.

It involved a bit of work but we finally got it up there.

After a quick trial run to make sure it was safe (or so he says – I think he just wanted to swing.  ;-), we let the kids at it.

 

Monkey loved it.  Little Man doesn’t “get” it…. yet. 

It reminds me of my childhood days spent behind my grandparents house with my bestest friend in the whole wide world, swinging away on the big old tree back there.  (Luckily for me, the kids can’t climb this one because I remember having to go after her mom once when she got stuck in that big tree.  *giggle*)

A huge thank you again to my father-in-law. 

The kids are going to get years of entertainment from your [our since I did get roped into helping – hardy har] hour of work.

Tissue Paper PomPoms

Monkey’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks.  She’d like a flower party.  I started working on our DIY party decorations this morning.

Martha Stewart has these awesome tissue paper pompom flowers I’ve been seeing pop up all over Blogland.  They’re adorable and girly – perfect for a flower party.

We gathered our supplies,

folded our tissue,

and tied a length of wire around the center.

I then trimmed the edges (Good Lord I need a manicure – and Monkey needs her nails trimmed!),

and carefully started spreading the tissue out (Monkey photography).

Hmm.  Not nearly as pretty as the ones I’ve seen in Blogland.  This looks like a big bow.

My second attempt wasn’t much better.

For my third attempt, I cut three sheets of paper into quarters.  I then did the same as above, in a smaller version.  (She loves both equally)

Much better, yes?

The trick?  Don’t be cheap and use more stacks.  (My first was only five sheets, my third and smaller version had twelve sheets).

Now I know the trick, I’ll be heading back to the store for a bit more colored tissue paper.

Sleeping Beauty

Remember my new ride?

The weather has finally warmed up and dried up enough for me to pull it out – hopefully for good!

I took the kids out this weekend for a ride on the recreational trail in town.  I wanted to scope out the levels on the river so wore my camera.  I’m so glad I brought it!

My Little Man loved the ride but hates his helmet.  He whined about it the entire ride.  (He’s since gotten a little better about it, but still not pleased to put it on).

See?  Happy boy.  Loves his new wheels.

 

What’s Monkey doing in there, you ask?

Yep – she’s having a snooze.

This makes it official.  My kids can sleep anywhere.

Monkey’s First Sleepover

My little girl is having her very first sleepover at my parents tonight. 

Sleepover as in just going to spend the night and not because Mommy & Daddy needed a sitter.

Little Man cried and cried as his big sister left (and for about 40 minutes afterwards).

He soon got over it.  When we called to say good night we found out Monkey is getting ready for the royal wedding.

Yep.  She’s going to get up bright and early with Grammy to watch.

What’s a royal wedding without a crown?

 

Queen for a day!

Momma’s Got a New Ride

We’re in town now – close to everything. 

I told T I’d be willing to run errands on bike this summer. 

Obviously, we needed a way for me to bring the kids along.

The trailer finally arrived yesterday.

Monkey loved it (Little Man was having his nap when T put it together and has yet to try it).

*cue Wicked Witch music*

We’ll be able to leave both vehicles parked much of the time (he mostly uses his motorcycle in the summer months – weather permitting, of course).  The kids and I don’t really go very far.  I think this is going to be a great thing.

(I love that I’m wearing my painting clothes – but had on nice jeans to run to the grocery store.  HA!  Real life, people.  Real life.)

PS –Yes, we have helmets.  This was an impromptu quick turn a few houses down to give it a try.  They’ll be finding their way into the kids cubbies by the door  in a few days  - when it’s warm enough to take them both out. 

Cooking with kids

A friend asked me today how I cook with two kids.  She makes dinner every night with her son clinging to her legs.

I decided to give you a glimpse into dinner preparations in our household.

It usually starts off with Little Man in his high chair with a toy or two.  He was getting unhappy by the time I took this picture.

While Little Man is otherwise occupied, here is what Monkey is up to.  Hear the scraping of the chair being pushed across the floor.

She can’t very well help from the floor, right?

 

After a quick cooking break to give Little Man some sweet potatoes and a bowl of cereal, he went to play on the floor a bit.  Monkey wanted to entertain him a bit so joined him while I cut up raw chicken (she’s not allowed to help with raw meat, obviously).

He played alone a little…

while Monkey made “pancakes.”

Little Man then ended up back in his high chair and decided to take a nap (I didn’t dare take his picture for fear of waking him with the flash!) and Monkey went on to “wash” dishes.

 

So there you have it.  This is what happens here during dinnertime preps.

Come back tomorrow for a big announcement!

Random update

I'm still pregnant. Very very VERY pregnant.

We're trying to enjoy the start of summer. This rain SUCKS. Though Monkey has been able to enjoy her 50 cent yard sale Elmo sprinkler a few times.


Speaking of this rain sucking - our garden needs some sun. Very badly.

We had a lovely Father's Day. Monkey and I made T some homemade blueberry waffles for breakfast (and made a bunch extra to freeze). We spent the day meandering about. I made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce to freeze and made a sling for New Bean (my first ever sewing project, start to finish, with a pattern and ZERO help! I was - AM - quite proud of myself.).


We later ended up at Treworgy's for ice cream and to feed the goats. One of the baby goats decided to give Monkey a haircut (I caught it eating her hair through the fence!). Luckily, very minimal damage was done (you can't even tell) and we got an excellent laugh out of it. After feeding T some grilled steaks, grilled scallops, grilled portobella mushrooms, boiled asparagus and twice baked potatoes (nom nom nom), we went to a field down the road to fly our Elmo kite.

Our chickens have yet to lay eggs. We do expect it anytime in the next couple of weeks, though. And are these the laziest chickens ever or do all chickens lounge around like this? The sprawled out legs crack me up.


Ok. That's all I have time for today. I figured I should let my loyal readers know there is still no baby. And all of this relaxing crap being forced on me has my blood pressure WAY back down to normal.

Hopefully, my next update is to introduce you to New Bean. Momma's ready!

My baby girl is 2

We had a big birthday party this weekend for Monkey. Our parents, my brother and Scooby (my nephew) all came down to celebrate with us. We kept things pretty low key and as inexpensive as possible.

Monkey loves Elmo, so I decided to go with an Elmo themed party.

I kept decorations at a minimum - just enough to say. I got the streamers and balloons at Dollar Tree. It ran about $10, including the red napkins, 2 party hats and pack of party horns I picked up. The Elmo "Happy Birthday" banner was a "splurge" from IParty ($3.50ish). I had originally picked up some Elmo party horns and Elmo party hats, but I'll be returning them when I found fun red ones at the Dollar Tree. Red was enough Elmo themed for me for the price difference - and Monkey had fun either way.

I bought a Wilton Elmo cake pan at JoAnn's with a 40% off coupon. I picked up a tube of black frosting at the same time because I didn't think I'd be able to get frosting black enough on my own. I used Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Golden (what? I'm ready to pop a kid out - shortcuts shortcuts shortcuts!). It's your basic yellow cake but calls for butter instead of oil and for box cake, it's unbelievably tasty. I used a full batter and half of another (the remaining was made into cupcakes and tossed in the freezer - without frosting - for later consumption). I made buttercream frosting from scratch and used crayon candles on the edge of the base - and for her to blow out (because Elmo loves his crayons!).

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. And Monkey was thrilled! (I need to invest in a nice cake platter - I have a great round one, but this obviously didn't fit).

Lunch was a turkey that's been in our freezer since T received it for Christmas at work. Turkey isn't exactly a summer time food in my mind, so to keep it from feeling like a Thanksgiving dinner, my Mom made a potato and egg salad, I threw together a veggie packed pasta salad and T pulled some corn on the cob from last fall out of the freezer. Simple and quite a bit more summery than mashed potatoes and gravy.

A couple months ago, we found Elmo Live in the Target sales flyer for half price. At $30, we decided we couldn't pass it up (we never would have paid full price because that's just highway robbery). I will say this is the absolute most annoying toy in our house, but she loves it so it's worth it. I've never heard so many squeals as I did when she was opening it. T couldn't get him out of the box fast enough. hehe

And because filling the kids with cake wasn't enough, we went on an outing to Treworgy Orchards for ice cream and the petting zoo later in the day. Twigs is one of our absolute favorite places and I was very glad to finally get to share the fun with my parents, brother - and most importantly, Scooby!

Monkey's actual birthday was on Tuesday. We saved a small Elmo themed gift to give her on the actual day - a Beta fish named Dorothy (Elmo's goldfish is Dorothy - we went for a Beta because they're so low maintenance). T pulled a few of the extra cup cakes out of the freezer and I had saved a small amount of extra frosting so we blew out candles again last night. We then took another trip to Twigs for more ice cream and playing with the goats to have a special family celebration. (I paid for all that sugar when trying to get her to bed last night! haha).

It's so fun to watch her grow and learn, but she's not my itty bitty baby anymore.

What a very bitter sweet moment.

Oh, baby baby!

We took another side view picture last week, just to show my new girth. This is at 30 weeks pregnant. I guess I should mention that I was barefoot, in my front yard WITH a baby on my hip! 'Cause I'm a redneck woman... Ok. Sorry. The song gets stuck in my head when I see this picture.



This week, I went for another ultra sound. While pregnant for Monkey, I didn't have one after the "big" one at 20 weeks. Then, with about a month to go, I found out she was breech and was devastated because I'd need a c-section. (The surgery scared the hell out of me - I'll admit it).

So when my OB suggested an ultra sound to verify all was well, I agreed.

All IS well. New Bean is at an estimated weight of over 3 pounds. And, most importantly, he is HEAD DOWN! Barring any unforeseen complications, I should be a go for an attempted VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). This makes me extremely happy. The thought of having to have surgery again freaks me out - terribly. Not to mention wondering how I'd manage a 3 week recovery (that's how long I was off my feet for Monkey) with a newborn AND toddler? I don't want to think about it.

Without further ado - New Bean!

Unfortunately, we couldn't get a clear enough shot to count the little toes (the arrow is pointing to the bottom of the heels, for those of you who can't make out ultra sound pictures):

But look at that adorable face! All puckered up and ready for kisses:

We're now at 9 weeks and counting. YAY!

It was bound to happen sooner or later

T & I went to bed at 9 last night, as we do most nights. Around 11:15, we were awakened by a loud *BANGTHUMP* and then some major wailing.

Monkey fell out of bed from all of her tossing and turning.

Other than giving all of us a little scare (and causing me to leap from bed in a manner a pregnant lady should NOT be doing), she was fine. But it did require some major Mommy snuggles to calm her down.

I guess falling out of bed is better than pulling a hammer off a counter onto your face, right? Because she did THAT last week.

My poor girl is having it rough.

Meet New Bean!

I had an ultrasound this morning.

Everything looks fantastic.

New Bean is about 10 oz.

He didn't cooperate for a face shot.

He also didn't show Mom & Dad a money shot (though when I asked the tech, she verified that she DID see male or female).

And, without further ado, New Bean:

I need to vent.

This weekend, we ended up at Target on Saturday night to stock up on a diaper sale ending that day. We decided to look for a plastic sled (the kind to go down a hill - not pull a kid around in)while there. All summer outdoor toys are already out. There were a few kiddo snowboards, but the snow toy selection was slim. And there were no sleds.

So we made a pit stop at Walmart to check them out. Same deal.

We had to get home at this point because we were pushing Monkey's bed time as it was. T made a bunch of phone calls yesterday.

Not a sled to be found.

I called my Mom this morning and asked her to hit Miller's department store in Fort Kent on her lunch break.

Guess what?

She got THE LAST ONE.

It is the beginning of February in the State of Maine. Where are all of the sleds? We'll have snow in this area for at least another 6 weeks - and probably another 3 months up north.

So completely and totally irritating.

And thank goodness for Grammy. They are coming to visit this weekend and making a delivery. Monkey is going to get to experience sliding down a hill with her Daddy this winter!

Another LLBean steal of a deal

LL Bean is having a sale all week long. They change the item every hour.





This hour's sale happens to be rain coats for infants and toddlers.


Find it here.


So, if you want to spend $15 on a rain coat and you're seeing this early enough, here you go.


Yes, Monkey is going to have a funky rain coat... to go along with the funky winter coat I bought from LL Bean this fall.

The tree is gone

I put in nearly 7 hours of time for work yesterday. Since T was home, I figured I'd rather get a good chunk of work done now and have most of the weekend free for family time that doesn't involve travel!

Afterwards, I had just enough time to take the tree down so T could haul it outdoors before I had to throw dinner together. I thought he'd hauled it to the back of the house, so I was quite surprised to see it lying on my front steps this morning!

Christmas just doesn't want to leave my house. I've been trying to find a place for all of the new toys and books Monkey received. They're still scattered through the living room and her bedroom. I attempted to tame some of it last night by tossing them all into a laundry basket so they aren't all over the floor, at least.

It's time for me to think about some creative storage. Monkey's bookshelf is already full, but with some creative solutions, I'm sure we can fit more on it (even if it requires putting the Little Golden Books into the closet where she can't reach them.. which isn't a bad thing because they are too easy for her to rip apart!). Ideas would be appreciated.

And I haven't even unpacked the clean clothes from my suitcase from last weekend yet!!

It's going to be a busy day.

A Christmas recap to start the New Year

NOTE: I give up on the formatting. Blogger keeps screwing with it. It looks ok in the preview screen but is messed up after posting. Sorry.

Catching a snooze on the couch before it's time to get ready for Santa

Work and traveling have prevented me from recapping earlier.

Writing a letter to Santa

One of the best things about being a parent is getting to do all of those parent type things. You know, writing letters to Santa and leaving out cookies and all that fun. T was like a kid in a candy store on Christmas Eve because he'd been looking forward to it so much. I'll admit, personally, I was looking forward to Christmas morning and was too exhausted to get super excited on Christmas Eve. I just wanted to go to bed (this is something I want too much of lately.. haha).

Even a carrot for Rudolph!

T's sister and her husband alternate Christmas between their families (his are in the area and hers are up north). This year was their year down here so they came to have dinner with us on Christmas day. Originally, I didn't really want to cook and would have loved to have done Chinese take out. Alas, that would have required a drive into town - if anything was even open. And then I found out we were getting company, so I opted to toss together a lasagna and put together a salad. It was yummy, easy and didn't require a ton of cooking. We didn't have to attempt a self-portrait in front of the tree this year, either.

Christmas 2008 family portrait

We really had a lovely Christmas.

After T went in to work for a few hours Friday morning, Monkey and I picked him up to head up north to celebrate with our parents. Monkey's "big" Christmas gift this year was a portable DVD player (Santa brought a dual set in anticipation of New Bean). It came in handy when, with an hour to go, she had had quite enough riding. I pulled it out, strapped it to my headrest (she sits behind me) and put in some Elmo's World. The look on her face was priceless. And I even managed to snag a nap because she didn't need me to attempt to entertain her. Well worth the money!

We spent Friday night and Saturday with T's parents. Saturday night, we packed the car and headed another 15ish miles up to my parents house. Santa was making a special trip because he knew it wasn't really Christmas until the kids were together! He's a good guy, that Santa.

Watching their Pa plowing the driveway

I love getting the kids together and wish we could do it more often (Monkey had just pulled off her pants before that picture - she's always loved being naked and luckily hasn't figured out how to take off a onesie yet).

Monkey loved the toy cars Santa brought just as much as C did

Our trips up north are never long enough, as far as I'm concerned. The travel bit is a pain, though.

Now to pack it all up and think of next Christmas.

Explanations necessary

So, I'm sure many of you noticed a big slump in my posting starting the first week of November. I said I was busy, blah blah. Well, that was only partly true. You see, I have a big mouth. I have an extremely hard time keeping secrets. And I had a big secret in need of keeping.

Now Christmas is over and the secret is out, so it's time to explain myself.

Rewind to Halloween. After an evening of trick or treating with T and Monkey, I finally plopped my exhausted body into bed. T and I started talking about our day and for some reason, a calender image for the month of October popped into my head. I began mentally counting weeks and realized something was missing from my week. So the following morning, I pulled the spare EPT out of the closet.

Sure enough, positive - immediately.

So there you have it, my dear readers. I am 13 weeks pregnant today. We managed to keep it a secret for 2 months!

Our parents were obviously ecstatic. I think my Dad's response was my favorite, though. Monkey is a moving target and he was trying to read her shirt. "I'm.... going.... to.... be.... a..... big..... sister. Really?? REALLY?!?!" My Mom already had an idea it was coming (how I kept morning sickness from her for 2 weeks while she was with us in November is beyond me).

I've decided I'm having a boy just because of the morning sickness. I wasn't sick a day for Monkey. Not so this time. For the record, I was convinced Monkey was a boy until about 2 weeks before I had her when I found out she was breech - then I had my doubts because up until that point, my entire pregnancy had been the same as my Mom's for me was. Breech baby just cinched it! We'll see how good I am at guessing this time.....(Stubborn from the womb is what my Mom likes to say about me - I think we'll be able to say the same of Monkey).

For ease of typing, I will be saying he and him. We will not be finding out if we're having a boy or a girl, though. This is one of life's greatest surprises! So remember that when you see me talking about him.

For the purpose of blogging, I'll be calling him New Bean for the time being (I called Monkey "Bean" while I was pregnant for her).

I'll probably be a little quiet for a few more weeks. I need to clean up from the holiday's, I'm fighting first trimester fatigue (hopefully over with very soon!), and it's the year end at work so I have W-2's to prepare and paperwork to get together for the accountant.

If I don't manage to log on again this week, have a very Happy New Year! And be safe if you're out partying on New Year's Eve!

Holiday baking

Monkey loves helping Mommy in the kitchen. Thanks to my nice new kitchen chairs (I bought a set of 2 as a present to me and my parents gave me an early Christmas gift and had another set of 2 shipped to me), she can help every day (the old chairs were from the 70's and were on wheels - not exactly safe to let a toddler stand on - and these look so much nicer, too!).

We decided to attack a batch of Snickerdoodles yesterday. By we, I obviously mean me. If you don't know what a Snickerdoodle is, let me try to explain. They are a cookie, similar in taste to a sugar cookie. However, you roll them in a cinnamon sugar mixture before baking. This makes the exterior sugary and crusty - and the inside remains moist and chewy. I only make them during the Christmas season even though they are my favorite cookie.

I let Monkey help pour flour and sugar into the mixing bowl. Then, when I turned around to wash my hands, this is what I found:

She had already gotten a glob of cookie dough into her mouth and decided she liked it enough to reach for more. That's my girl with the sweet tooth!

So, we set the dough in the fridge to chill. It remains there until I have time to bake it this afternoon. If you leave to chill more than the recommended hour, be sure to cover the dough well so it doesn't dry out.

Yesterday, I promised to share the recipe. I don't know the history of it because it has been in my Mom's recipe box for as long as I can remember. If I had to guess, I'd say it came from my Great Aunt Violet's recipes because she was great with baking.

Snickerdoodles
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. cream of tarter
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

2 tbs. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix butter, shortening 1 1/2 cup sugar and eggs. Blend in flour, cream of tarter, baking soda and salt. Chill for 1 hour. Mix 2 tbs. sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon together. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and then roll in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes.

I also mentioned an Amish Friendship Bread in need of baking. I was given the batter by one of T's coworkers along with three instruction choices. I chose this one because it didn't require my doing any dishes after mixing it every day (squeeze the bag? I can do that!).

This is how T entertains Monkey while I'm trying to get in and out of our hot oven without her underfoot. Unfortunately, it caused more clawing at my leg than anything. Yes, I'd have been scared of that, too.


Sorry ladies. I snatched him up already. You can't have him. hehe

Back to the bread. I've seen Friendship Bread numerous times before but had never been given one (I usually said thanks but no thanks to anyone offering). It was supremely easy. A child could easily do it on their own (they obviously need reading abilities - or an adult to read the instructions for them, of course).

I toasted a couple of slices for breakfast. It tasted like cinnamon toast!

I'll definitely be making it again.