Sunday, January 31, 2010

Congratulations, D!

H was so excited for you to be baptized that she wanted to sing a baptism song for you.

Know we love you and wish we'd been able to be there to share in your special day!

Loves,
Uncle S, Aunt R, & Cousin H

Saturday, January 30, 2010

We have to learn patience...

R and I kept calling to H to hurry-up so we could get her ready to play in the snow. She finally walked in the kitchen and gave R this little speech:
Mama, you have to use patience. When I am busy doing something you have to wait. When I do things like changing the baby or feeding the baby, you have to be patient. Okay?
I had a very difficult time not laughing while being lectured and R couldn't stop.

Friday, January 29, 2010

SNOW!!! LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of SNOW!!!!!!

We're getting a real snow! It's BEAUTIFUL!!!

How could that be better?
It's PERFECT PACKING SNOW.
Snowman making, here we come!!!
(Okay, so tomorrow morning that is. . . .)

(There really are nice-sized flakes falling, I promise!)


Weather forecasts predict 5-10 inches in our area. Happy day!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

My Baby's Turning FOUR!!!

Just wanted to take and upload some picts in case life gets in the way next week--when she will really be turning four. She was dressed cute and the lighting was pretty good outside, so why not take 5 min. and see what we could get?

Actually, I think S would have preferred I had not taken those 5 min. as I was supposed to be picking him up. My bad. However, last year, H's birthday picts never happened. We had to consider her Easter pictures as being her 3rd year ones--and I wasn't even busy preparing for another baby that spring! Maybe he'll forgive me later. . . .



Oops, got a bit of her puffed sleeve there at the bottom. . . . have to fix that.
Aw, this one would have been really cute if I'd just had it focused right and had there been just a little more light on her face! That's how pictures of children go, though, eh?
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Seen these cabinets???

Our first real home improvement project is hopefully soon to be the installation of our dishwasher. However, S realized that before he installs the new dishwasher (okay, so the $15 dishwasher we picked up at Habitat for Humanity's Restore!) he needs to put in the replacement cabinetry. This requires a 12" base cabinet, preferably one that matches what we already have. Lowes doesn't have them (at least anymore), Home Depot doesn't have them (at least anymore), but we did see them while waiting for our food order at Japan Express!!! :D

Craigslist has been our friend for a long time, and we are really hoping that it continues to be, esp since this has all got to be done before baby comes!

CuddleBugs

Mitzie's taken to sleeping with H while H's been recovering from a stomach flu. I think it's pretty cute.

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8 wks left!

ignore the messy hair, I'd just thrown it back and obviously needed the assistance of a mirror ;P

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Yummy!

Last night, my fantasticly amazing husband threw together a recipe for lentil beef stew that I'd compiled based on my cold winter day cravings and ideas from some other lentil stew recipes I found online. I'm so happy to say that it turned out delish!!! I'll have to share the recipe, maybe a pict, etc. later on, but as I sat here eating a bowl, I just had to share my delight. :) Hope I get my post up so that you can enjoy it as well!!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

LDS Humanitarian Services in Haiti



I love what the First Presidency wrote:

Our hearts are filled with sadness as we have watched the suffering in Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake. We turn to the example of Jesus Christ who reached out to “lift up the hands which hang down” and “strengthen the feeble knees.” We are keenly aware that many in America are dealing with economic challenges caused by the recession. However, we are appealing to members to donate to Church Humanitarian Services as their means allow in order to help our Haitian brothers and sisters. Many have already contributed and others are anxious to do so.

Money is not the only need in Haiti. People are frightened, bewildered, and wholly uncertain about their future. In addition to what people can do in helping with food, water and shelter, there needs to be a calming influence over that troubled nation. We invite our people everywhere to supplicate God for a spirit of calm and peace among the people as urgent aid and reconstruction efforts continue.

(emphasis added)


Thursday, January 21, 2010

Music Videos

So, my friend J posted a couple of her fav music videos on her blog. They cracked me up! I just had to share. The first one below is similar to her first fav, which song I wasn't familiar with, etc. The one posted here was mentioned by a mutual friend, and I nearly died laughing because I'm such a sucker for Andrews and the S of M. The second one below is the second one she shared. Enjoy!




Saturday, January 9, 2010

This Week's Commentary

Funny or interesting moments from this week:

I peeked into the bathroom the other night to see what Daddy & H were up to. Supposedly Daddy was helping H get ready for bed. This is what I found. . . . (The hand holding thing H has picked up from watching The Sound of Music last week.)
Daddy enjoying some free time tonight. :)
I just have to insert how much I love my husband and what a great blessing he is in my life. He's such a huge help--with everything! He listens to me as I blab, vent, laugh, and cry. He's a great sounding board, even if I don't take his suggestions 100% of the time. ;) (Probably 65% of the time, though!) He puts up with having Mitzie around, and he even pampers her by giving her his leftover cereal milk in the mornings and letting her sit on his lap if he's at the computer at night--all despite the fact that I was supposed to find her a permanent home months ago. (Now that we have a digital camera, I don't have much of an excuse for not having submitted her info to a Maine Coon Rescue group like I said I'd do. I guess I'd better get on with that, huh. Sigh. . . . Sad will be the day when Mitzie leaves!!! She's been such a great cat for us I hate to pass her on!) He helps out with the Mommy chores or the Daddy chores, just whatever needs to be done. He dutifully washes dishes every night just because I hate washing dishes! On weekends he helps out with errands, chores, and laundry, or takes on home maintenance and improvement projects.
Here's what he's done this past week:
- hung up a toy sorter in baby's room, H's heart hook in her room, and the hand vac for me in the kitchen.
- figured out how to fix the side door's doorknob that's been falling apart and got it working again!
- did some more research on how to get our dishwasher installed (goal is having it installed & working before baby comes).
- surprised H & I by taking down the Christmas tree while we were napping today
- took time off work to go to my 7-mo prenatal appt
- took time off work to attend another dr appt with me and then helped out with a couple errands afterward
- helped me find a time for us to attend the temple today--the first time in about 7 months that we've been able to go together--and my first time to go in that same period of time!! I think that's the longest we've ever had between visits, and hopefully that's the most we ever have between visits again, but I guess who knows how things will work out in the future as our family grows and all that. With H sick so much this fall, and with me sleeping through the months before that, opportunities have been few and not well taken advantage of.
- he also grabbed some returns I'd meant to do this past week so that we could return them after we went to the temple. :) What a thoughtful guy!
Anyway, I just love my hubby. :)

Tonight as Daddy was taking a well-deserved break playing his retro Nintendo games, I heard H singing a sweet, little song. She said she made it up for Primary. :)
H wanted to take pictures too. Here's one of Daddy's game. The following are cropped versions of additional pictures she took.
Mommy working on picts, Daddy playing games, and Mitzie just hanging out, probably wondering why we're not all paying attention to her. ;)
She insisted on taking a pict while Daddy was playing "in the day time".

And here's a better picture than I took of my ever so delicious birthday cake S made me earlier this week. I said in a previous post that crumbs were all that were left. Well, that was all that wasn't totally true: as you can see in another picture, there was plenty of cake left! I just didn't get the camera out until after we'd eaten our pieces and only crumbs were left on our plates. I finally got around to packing some up for the freezer today. There wasn't much of a play group this week to help me finish it off, but maybe I'll remember to pull some out of the freezer for everyone next week. :)
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Happy Birthday to Me!


Well, here's how the cake looked after we finally got working batteries in the camera.

Little after dinner entertainment

H decided that a cake can still be incredibly tasty even if it isn't chocolate.

Wish you could have seen her before dinner, toting around a box of brownie mix, begging and pleading with me to have it for my birthday instead of carrot cake--my mom's amazingly scrumptious carrot cake that I very easily may not have had for an entire decade. Right, girl. Like I'm going to change my mind!

And the Man who made it all possible!

THANK YOU, S, for giving me such a great birthday!!! I love you!!!

Welcome, Wren!

I got a niece for my birthday! How fun is that? I'm so excited that Baby Boy will have a cousin close to his age to play with!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam!

Here's our proud little Sunbeam!

Apparently, H overheard me joke with S about taking a pict of her on her first day of Sunbeams, like is often done on the first day of school. Well, this morning, she came into my room and helped me pick out my clothes to wear for pictures! She even told me the kitchen was a hair salon and let me--gasp!--get her hair wet (something not usually done without a fight or LOTS of patience and persuasion). She actually laughed when I was rubbing in the leave-in conditioner to define her curls! I couldn't believe how excited she was to go to Primary!

We've really worked hard to prep her on the new experience of attending Primary because we knew with our church's time change (11a.m. instead of 9a.m., so Primary's right during nap time) it could either be a great experience or a disaster. We talked about all the different things that would happen as well as what kind of behavior was expected. S's teaching CTR 5, so he was the lucky one who got to watch her reactions to everything. How'd she do? Great! Once Sacrament was over, she told us she wanted to go to Primary all by herself. S followed, of course, and in she went on her own. (As she's been doing with nursery for a while now, sometimes grabbing a friend to accompany her, which is always cute to see.) Daddy says she did a great job staying in her seat, and if a question was asked, she at least raised her hand before shouting out the answer with everyone else. :) Sounds like there's just a little to work on, rather than a lot. I'm grateful the Primary counselor would focus on the children who stayed sitting with their arms raised AND who didn't shout out the answer. :) It's great to hear good behavior is being re-enforced! I like starting out on the right foot much more than having to re-teach bad habits. It's always so much easier!

S's new CTR 5 class (previously labeled CTR 6) went well. (His kindergarten mom's response to that comment was something to the effect of, "Yeah, it's the honeymoon period!) He has nine children in his class: four girls and five boys. Although he's been working with the 8-12 age group for the past three or so years between being the Cub Master and a primary teacher, he was able to substitute this group of kids twice last year, so at least he's familiar with most of them. He's hoping to survive the upcoming months as the kids get more used to him, and thus more relaxed in their behavior! He says he's just taking it one week at a time, which is definitely what I've learned to do with all the changes we've had in nursery the past six months!

As for nursery, its dynamics were quite different today. I had the new Sr. class--all girls! (I'm sure next year the incoming nursery kids will be all boys. It's aways interesting what kind of gender patterns develop within a congregations as new babies arrive.) Being all girls, there wasn't as much running around and toy dumping as typically went on with H's class (was it half girls and half boys? pretty close to that, I think, depending on the week). The blocks weren't even touched until the substitute helping me started playing with them and one of the girls, but I think even then not much was built. However, the dolls were definitely fought over by the end. There were just two dolls and one doll blanket for the whole class. I'm grateful only five girls were there today, with the end of the holidays, rather than all nine or ten of them. We just might have to borrow some dolls from H's toy box for a while! Oh, and unlike with the almost four-year-olds I was working with just last week, sharing is definitely still being learned with this group! :) I didn't mention that I worked with all but one of these girls for a few months (Aug, Sept/Oct?) but then was moved up to work with the Sr. kids, who being a year older I have to honestly say were a breeze--almost boring, in fact! ;P It'd be interesting to see how these girls change over the next year. Too bad I'll only be in nursery a few more months with Baby Boy on the way. . . . not that it's all bad to be released as that time draws near. ;) Nursery's just one of my favorite places to be.

A friend of mine's 18-mo-old joined us since she's more used to me (and JW, too, really) than the teachers and kids in her class, so that was fun. It's probably been over a month and a half since I last babysat her, so although she just saw me Thu at playgroup, she unfortunately wasn't quite as quick to calm down for me as I had initially hoped. When she first saw me she cried for me as though she were saying, "R! Save me! Take me to my mom!" But then when she realized I wasn't going to, she refused to be comforted! :) Poor kid. She didn't even want the snacks I snuck out for her! I noticed she'd calm down whenever changes were happening, so I tried to stay standing and moving around, which did help. By the time we pulled out snacks for everyone, she decided she wanted some too. :) Of course, if anyone came into the classroom, and especially if anyone left, she'd start crying again, but at least she'd calm down after a moment or two. One time, though, when JW left briefly, she turned to me with her big elephant tears and practically wailed, "Hey! She gets to go--why not me???" I couldn't help laughing at that!

By the end of nursery (2p.m.) the kids were so tired from missed naps that within probably two minutes of pulling out our--supposedly--last activity of the day, hardly even two of them were paying attention, and one of them was the Sunbeam son of one of the teachers! Bubble blowing, the number one favorite nursery activity, is always saved for the end because it's so good for keeping the kids content while waiting for parents to arrive. When I saw that fail to keep their attention, I nearly panicked! I'd never seen the golden ticket fail before!!! I tried the favorite song "Popcorn Popping"; I think I had three kids singing it at the beginning and then two kids half singing it and the other four were all over the place by three-fourths of the way through. From an earlier question a teacher asked regarding a song about a bunny going to sleep (inspired by a couple of the kids playing with the room's light switch), I made up a story with actions for the kids to do about a tired bunny who laid down to sleep. Suddenly, I had every child laying still on the floor. It was naptime, alright!!! (How grateful I was for that teacher's comment!!! Phew!) When parents arrived, the kids were generally content and ready to go. :) Perfect ending to a busy day!

As a side note:

My friend JW brought over a stroller she didn't need, and apparently Mitzie thought it was a pretty comfy place to be.
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