Va-cay

Brian is still on vacation for the holidays. It's great to have someone else around to grab the camera and catch some of our everyday moments. Here is one that we see about 30 times each day. These girls are teeth brushing fools. They LOVE it! It helps that their Aunt Lin gave them these cute little stools so they can actually brush on their own now.

Kendall is still very proud of her independent dressing right now. She only requires a little bit of intervention on my part to ensure she gets clothes that match somewhat. Picking out clothes for the appropriate season is also a bit of a challenge. She wanted to wear a short skirt and Crocs to run errands with Brian this morning (there is currently snow on the ground).

We were invited to (insert city name here) Club for New Years Eve but we were not able to find a baby sitter so we'll be home tonight after all. I think that I will ring in the new year scrapbooking. I haven't done any since I finished our December album (on the 24th). I'll post the rest of those pages later.

Honey Do List

We're slowly marking off our to-do lists. Actually, I didn't give Brian a list we just each have our own that we are working on. Brian crawled out on the roof to clean out the gutters yesterday. Kendall was a bit worried. She asked me why we had to watch and I had to explain that we wanted to watch so that if he fell we could tease him about it for the entire following year. Lucky for him he held on by his toes though.

I've completed a few tasks of my own...less perilous ones. I cleaned out my recipe binder. Man, I got rid of a bunch of them. This afternoon I cleaned out both of the girls closet. Last week I cleaned out my closet. I'll have the mother of all garage sales in the Spring.

Tonight we went out to eat. The girls behaved so well, it was a really nice time. At one point Brian looked over at me and said, "I don't think Kate needs to wear this shirt anymore, we don't need to emphasize the Buddha belly." It was looking a little round, the sweet little monkey. I guess I'll put it with all the other clothes that she has grown out of.

I wasn't going to post these pictures but Brian loves them and wants me to. Twice now the girls have disappeared and I have found them like this. This is not of my doing, I am in no hurry for this. They are completely on their own. If Kendall potty trains her though I wont mind.

Oh, and tonight Kendall told me again that she wants a little brother. Dani, you're in trouble, I believe it was you that put this idea in her head.....months ago.

P.S. Day three without caffeine, the first day without a headache. But, I never hit that afternoon slump, ya know the one that makes you need to consume more caffeine.

Operation Healthy Chick

Lot's of laying around and snuggling going on here. The weather has been great, lots of sunshine and some warmer temperatures. Kendall has realized that she is capable of dressing herself now. The problem is that she doesn't undress herself first. Yesterday as we got ready for bed I pulled FIVE shirts off of her. She just kept coming downstairs all day with a new shirt piled on.

We've done our part to stimulate the economy...particularly JCrew and Crewcuts. Can't wait to get the next box in the mail.

Yesterday was my first day completely without caffeine. I went to bed at 8:15 (yes, seriously) and woke up this morning at 7:15. A nice solid 11 hours! This morning the whole family will be heading to the gym together. Pre-move I was at the gym about 4 times a week and I just haven't gotten into that habit since the move here. But, back to the grind now. Operation Healthy Chick is under way.

Yumminess

I found this recipe on a blog. The first bite is tart but then you're addicted.



SUGARED CRANBERRIES
Adapted from Cooking Light
Makes about three cups cranberries
Ingredients:
· 1 1/2 cups white sugar
· 1 1/2 cups water
· 1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
· 3/4 cup superfine sugar
OR 3/4 cup regular sugar ground fine in food processor or blender (this is what I did and it worked fine).
1) Rinse and drain cranberries. Pick out stems and any soft or mushy cranberries. Have a medium bowl ready nearby.
2) Cook sugar and water in medium pan over low heat. Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Bring liquid to a bare simmer so that bubbles lightly break the surface. DO NOT BOIL. Remove pan from heat. If you accidentally boiled the liquid, let it cool for a few minutes.
3) Add cranberries to pan and stir. If any cranberries split, don’t despair. Pour the cranberries and the liquid into a medium bowl. Place a saucer on top of the cranberries to help keep them submerged. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
4) Put half the superfine sugar on a rimmed tray or shallow pan and break up any lumps. Drain cranberries in a colander (over a bowl, if you’d like to save the liquid for cocktails or to reuse it for the same recipe) and shake them well to remove all the liquid. Dump the cranberries onto the sugar. Shake the tray or pan to coat the cranberries and sprinkle the remaining half of the reserved sugar onto damp berries that need more coverage. Use all the sugar. Carefully separate any cranberries that stick together and let dry for a few hours.
5) Serve immediately or within a few days. The sugar coating becomes more dry and fragile with time, so they’re best early on when they’re at their prettiest.

Being Still

Homemade White Chocolate and Hazelnut Mocha.

Playing with new stamps.

She is wearing the apron that my mom made for me when I was in Kindergarten. It has my name across the bottom, should I make her one of her own or just let her be?

P.S. I wish it would snow.

Oh Blog

Too often my feelings on this blog are on the fence. I fear that it isn't an accurate portrayal of life for us, does it seem too idyllic? Because we have plenty of temper tantrums and time outs. Sometimes I feel I say too much and sometimes I fear I censor myself. Other times I just take it for what it really is to me, a savings account of my memories...but does it need to be public? Until I can hop off this fence and finally make a decision I'll just keep riding and typing...

We had our family Christmas on Sunday. I am sincerely overwhelmed by every ones generousness and thoughtfulness. We may never be able to top this one for the girls...doll houses, baby doll strollers, train sets and tables, Dora bikes, matching adorable step stools...the list goes on and on. I am very touched by a gift I received that I have never put on my list although I have wanted one for about six years. Brian's family has heard me mention that I wanted one and they went together to buy a Kitchen Aid standing mixer for me. LOVE it. I haven't used it myself yet, I just make detours through the kitchen to look at it or fiddle with it.

Really there is just too much to catch up on. I'll let the pictures speak for me this time. I hope each of you has a joy filled day. We'll be spending the day tomorrow celebrating Jesus' birthday. No more presents to open here...just the gift of a Savior.

The Reason

Please, take a break from your hustle and bustle just to take a small moment to go listen to this. Remember the real reason that we're celebrating.

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

Kendall has had a hard time falling asleep the last few nights. I feel pretty certain that she is just needing to get out energy. It's hard for us to spend time outside when it is so cold and Kate gets pretty ticked off out in the cold. I took the girls to play in an indoor play area at our gym to burn off some steam.

I love how the girls have the ability to laugh at themselves when they do something clutsy. We laugh a lot.

I'm trying to do some last minute decorating. We don't keep a lot of stuff, on top of that we just moved into a house that is significantly bigger then our last one. I like a lack of clutter but sometimes it seems to border on baron so I'm trying to dress things up a bit.

Finally, our special guests arrive tomorrow. We're so excited to see Gram and Pop (Brian's parents). Susan and Ron, we have things ready for you, the house has been cleaned but I can't make any promises about this:

I'll try my hardest :)

A New Word

Kate picked up a new word, I love to hear her say it.

December Daily

I'm leaving out just a couple because of last names and one of them shows an envelope with our address. Safety first folks.

Our Day So Far

Today we are just hanging out at the house. We've worked on a tiny Tinkerbell puzzle, we've been listening to this CD, and had a little seated dance party during lunch. Sorry if the camera is shaking, I was dancing too.

I have been keeping up with the December Daily album, I'll post pictures later.

Last night we had a really yummy dinner:

Bake chicken breasts with a little seasoned salt, the last 10 minutes of cooking time top with feta cheese. Saute red, yellow, green peppers with onions and sun dried tomatoes (I used the oil that the tomatoes were packed in). All served over jasmine rice. There isn't one ingredient in there that I don't like.

Trouble

She's a tub of trouble. If the house is quiet it means that Kendall is either reading to her stuffed animals or coloring a picture. If Kate is silent you better start to worry. She is getting into something, playing in the toilet bowl or crouched in a corner gnawing on a crayon. If she isn't quiet chances are pretty good that she is shrieking in a very high pitch. She also has a fake cry. It may start off real but it soon fades to this unrealistic cry. Thankfully all you have to say is, "now, that's enough" and it shuts right off.

Today, I've been cleaning.....everything...including the windows. While I was folding laundry I saw Kate take a sip of her "meal-ulk" then press her milk filled mouth against the window. Why, I ask you, why?!

Have I mentioned that I love this smile?

And I love how if you lay on the ground she runs at you full speed to sit on your stomach. Then she proceeds to bounce up and down.

Speaking of her running, I have realized that she can move it move it...faster then Kendall can. I know this because I have seen her run from Kendall (usually holding something of Kendall's and man is she fast.

So fast in fact that it is nearly impossible to get a picture of her that isn't blurry. Here is a picture of her black eye yesterday.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Nothing to see here. Only a sound that I love to hear...

I spent all day in the kitchen, I cleaned it, I loaded it with groceries, then I made these Lasagna Primaveras to deliver to the neighbors (with a bottle of wine) for a little holiday cheer. Then I cleaned the kitchen again.

And a little 'A lease dah bee dah' for you too.

How do you like that wiggle?

Three Pair of Pantyhose Later...

And now, the rest of the story.

Yesterday morning Kate and I ran out to pick up pantyhose. I was very concerned about picking out the right color so I studied each of the selections very carefully. I finally found one that I was satisfied with , we picked up Kendall from school and spent the rest of the day at home. Just a couple hours before the sitter was to arrive I unpacked my bag and looked once again at my new hose, it was at that moment that I noticed the size. It was wrong, so very very wrong. Wrong as in the smallest weight it would fit was about 240....roughly two of me. Back out we went to exchange them.

The girls played while I dressed and I eventually ran into a bit of a shoe dilemma. The ones I normally wore with my 'little black dress' were incredibly dated and they made me feel dowdy. I spied a shoe box at the top of my closet and was excited to find my super cute Calvin Klein shoes that I got for Mother's Day. I put them on and realized that I would need to paint my toenails peeked out a bit. I sat on the bathroom floor to accomplish my task and two little girls wandered in an sat very close to my toes. In the room fell an awed silence. They were so impressed that when they found they had to speak it was in a whisper, "oh, isn't it pretty Kate?"

This morning as I was fixing breakfast Kendall was questioning me about our night, what did we eat and so on...then, "Did they like your toes Mommy?" Yes honey, I think they did.

On the way to our dinner I noticed that my hose had a run in them so I had to make a mad dash into the store to pick up my third pair and change them in a too small bathroom. Unfortunately the last time I wore my super cute Calvin Klein shoes I didn't wear hose so I didn't realize that with the slippery hose those suckers would not stay on. I'm sure I looked like quite the moron (or a little drunk) since I had to take baby steps all around the party to avoid tossing a shoe in the punch bowl.

While I was contorting myself to get said hose on in the too tiny bathroom Brian received a call from the sitter. Evidently Kate had bumped her head on the carpet. Brian said Kate wasn't even crying and the sitter just iced it and all was well. When I saw her for the first time this morning I realized it wasn't her head at all, it was her face and she even has a little black eye! Poor little monkey, Kendall showed us the scene of the accident and we think she must have bumped on the exercise equipment in the basement.

That about covers the night! Look what I got in the mail from a cutie blog reader. A fabulous scarf that I absolutely love and a PIG ornament! Very fitting for this year don't you agree?

One more thing. After nap time I get a good solid 30 minutes of this. Look at what a chunk she is becoming. I walked past the mirror holding her and I couldn't get over how big she looked.

Super Quick

We just got home from Brian's work Christmas party and we had such a fun time. They had a Mardi Gras theme with stilt walkers, jugglers, palm readers...the only spot I visited was the hand writing analyst. The lady that was analyzing works with the FBI and she was pretty spot on. She had us right her name, a sentence of our choice and then sign our name. She said I was creative and artistic but that I like security (which generally doesn't fit with the artistic fields). She said that my life currently centers around the home, that I am very intelligent and that I am not into frills and lace (that my home would reflect that). She also said that I am very careful about not losing my identity, or that it was important to me to not lose my identity (she told this by how I wrote my name). Oh and she said that I should consider writing because I would be good at it. And that I would enjoy caligraphy, ha.

She asked if I had any questions, and my only one was how she knew all of that so she actually pointed out bits and pieces of my handwriting and it all made perfect sense.

I also got to spend a lot of time with one of the other wives that I really like (I met her at the Santa lunch). It was such a fun night.

Sneak Peak

I actually have all the pieces ready. I just need the headbands from the teacher to assemble the nose/ears. The question is this: Should I paint on mud splotches or not?

December Daily

Here are days 7 and 9. I'm not going to show 8 because it is really just our Christmas card and I don't want everyone to see it on here before they get it in the mail (not that it is in the mail yet...or even addressed at this point). I have no idea why Blogger keeps turning the pictures.

Carpet Angel

I don't know which is funnier the "snow angel" or the bow afterwards?

Check

I love marking things off my to-do list! These ladies now have faces and shoes (mary janes but you can't really tell from the picture). Now they're just enjoying a little rest on their window seat before they get all wrapped up for Christmas.

My mom sent this adorable Nativity set to the girls. It doesn't stay up long because Kendall loves to pack them all up in the manager and tote it around.