Christmas and snow!

Christmas morning!

Baby like's Daddy's new "toys" too!
"Wow! Look at this train!"

"Hmm, mom I don't like this cold wet stuff!"

From scratch Gingerbread House!!

I did it- i finally did! I made my very own Gingerbread House from scratch! These are the steps. I guess it's best to wait a week before construction, after baking. My lovely neighbor gave me the recipe and said to let the pieces dry for a week or so before putting them together. So above and below: day 1

Below: day 5- I couldn't wait any longer! She also suggested using melted sugar to glue the pieces together. This isn't for the inexperienced (that's why I had such a hard time!) it makes a mess and eventually burns even off the heat. But it really does stick well! My other addition would be to use a knife or other straight cutting tool when cutting the pieces from dough, then straightening them once they are cooked and before they are dried out. My house was so lumpy!
Day 6- Gave up on the melted sugar and put the roof on with Royal frosting once the sides had dried. Dont try to put the roof on before the sides dry! What a mess! :) it doesn't take a day, i was just lazy~
Now the decorating! I made this a family event. Much more fun that way! Baby wasn't much help, but did enjoy the candy! Hmmm, we are bad parents! :)
The finished product! Yay! See our family in cookies? We had a lot of fun!

Listen to mom

Make way!

Don't get in this kiddo's way when he's on his new trike- he waits for no one! :) He LOVES this thing! And he is GOOD at it! He can turn and maneuver through the halls and rooms of our house! Unfortunately he did take a tumble today, outside (there have been many tumbles inside) :( Poor baby! But he just keeps getting back on!

Laughter is the best medicine

Cutie update! :)

This sweet kid just keeps growing up! I like to update our screen background with a collage of his faces, so I figure I'll put it on here too! This shows his faces, plus his fun Hungry Caterpillar costume that he wore for the baby contest, and his "Mama's Little Allstar" red outfit! :)

Dinosaur Museum!

We decided to brave Two Buck Tuesdays at Thanksgiving point-- I think it was worth it! Fun! We got to go with a little of both sides of the family. So many babies!

"Um, Mom?? Can't you see what's behind us?!?" :)

"I can!"


Cousins!

Binkie babies!

Fun at the farm too! Baby getting his fingers nibbled on by goats
Time to go home! :) Long, fun day!

Seriously???

So, I have a "salsa garden", thus I will make salsa! Well, all the websites with wonderful recipes have comments on them like, "I made a double recipe of this today and I'm going to make another tomorrow!" "They are such great and easy gifts for friends" etc. Well, I'm not sure who these people are but they are probably the same people who say things like, "oh, my hair just looks like this when I wake up!" and "My house is always this clean!"

This was my experience of making salsa....

Day one:
Lug 5 gallon bucket of Roma tomatoes inside.

Wash in large colander-fulls and get the water boiling for some peeling fun! (turn off water, go get crying Baby, nurse, feed snacks in high chair, start water again...)

Start putting tomatoes through peeling process, actually quite fun! (stop, get Baby out of high chair, put in walker, talk and sing repeatedly while peeling and chopping)

Tomatoes look disgusting once peeled!

Day 2
Realize that half a bucket-full isn't going to make even close to 7 quarts of peeled, chopped and de-seeded tomatoes-- go and pick everything that resembles red in garden.
(put baby to bed)
Start process again. Peel, cut, core, chop, wait for water to boil, chop onions, cry, chop garlic, (stop, get crying baby, nurse, put in high chair... etc) peel, cut, core and chop more tomatoes---realize that these are not getting even close to 7 quarts- divide the recipe by 4/7 (that's fun!)
(put baby to nap-- two hours have passed)
Chop jalapanos, burn fingers (even with gloves!) try to nap through burning fingers, get frustrated. Start throwing everything in chopping machine, get frustrated after 6 hours of salsa... husband comes home and takes baby then helps cook and can all....

4 quarts of salsa. Yes, seriously.

See what I mean?

Can he get any cuter?? :)

Adventures of July. Yes, these pictures are straight from the camera with no touch-ups. Even that huge scowl in the top center! :)

Our Memorial Day celebration- we were all sick, so we took a walk down the street to a little plot of grass called "Little Chicago" and enjoyed the outdoors for a minute. We are really exciting! :)

Baby's favorite place to be- in his Bumbo, sitting up high so he can see what Mommy is doing!
(yes, very dangerous, but he screams on the floor, so we watch him carefully!)

Look at how this baby has grown!

Just a few pictures...

I just thought I'd update with a few new pictures. This is Baby with his cute new outfit from our renters! They are so sweet to us! And below he is doing one of his favorite things- standing! He can't do it alone of course, but he loves it when we stand together! Plus he is getting pretty close to sitting on his own! He's such a tough guy! (yes, my hair is looking really special here...)
And he LOVES food! We've just recently started giving him 'solids', a little baby cereal and such, but he loves to sample the things we eat and has become very good at GRABBING EVERYTHING! :) This is a fruit leather- he makes a mess, but screams when we take it away! That's our sweetie! :) 5 months!!

New hair!

The time has finally come... the after effects of pregnancy (and my sisters) have convinced me that I need a new hair style for awhile! So, after over a decade of refusing to have anything but long hair I've taken the plunge and chopped off my hair! I had my doubts the whole time, and of course I don't know yet if I'd do it again, but here it is! It's a fun change!



Of course Jessica had to do a little photo shoot after she chopped my hair, so the above photos are from the photo shoot, the below photo is my first attempt to do my own hair! :) Plus I took it on my phone camera so it's got funny coloring.

Kudos to Jessica of course for the amazing job she always does with our hair!!! :)

It's never too early...

To make sure the guys have some bonding time...To take your baby to the Easter Bunny...or to the Easter egg hunt...
(especially when they really enjoy it!)
and it is definitely never to early to teach your kids the importance of listening to the apostles!

Roll Over!

Well, as we were having a little fun tummy time Baby suddenly fell over, or so I thought! So I tried it again, this time without any pillows under him. Low and behold- he has rolled over! :) I have limited memory on my camera so the clip is short.

House

ok, by request I have posted some footage of our new home. It's a mess and the video isn't the greatest but here ya go! At least it worked!
Maybe later I'll get some of outside.

Yes? What can I do for you? :)