Monthly Archives: December 2011

Goodbye 2011.

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To celebrate the coming new year, I thought I’d share with you my Top 12 Pictures from 2011 - one from each month and a little recap of all the things 2011 brought us. It’s been a crazy year!

January

her again. on 365 Project

January started with a trip to Dan’s office for our annual family photo extravaganza. When I wasn’t crafting with the kids or playing in the snow, I participated in the L.M. Montgomery reading challenge and fell ridiculously in love with the Anne of Green Gables series. MM started going to the Y with daddy to learn how to swim and did awesome!

February

happy inesbayvalent! on 365 Project

February was all about Valentines Day! MM was fascinated by the whole idea and spent a lot of time writing Valentines to everyone he could think of, but mostly me. :) No complaints here. February also brought a LOT of snow, a little sick and some sweet memories. Dan and I made a pretty homemade doll for little BB that has miraculously survived the year in our house. Not bad!

March

hello, hello baby, you called, i can't hear a thing... on 365 Project

In March MM began swim lessons at the Y and continued to do really well. I took on several major cleaning & organizing projects with Simple Mom’s Project Simplify. We took down BB’s booster seat and began using just a kaboost to make her chair a little taller and MM had his kindergarten screening and made his momma super proud!

April

a backyard of their own. on 365 Project

In April we bought our first house!!!! The day after MM’s 5th birthday!!!! It was crazy!!!! Before the big move, we kept our nerves at bay by taking lots of nightly walks together. After getting settled in we threw MM a dinosaur race car pizza party to celebrate his birthday. He also got a pet dragon. That’s going to be tough to beat. Oh and there was that thing with the toilet and the giant holes in our kitchen ceiling…

May

my first born. again. on 365 Project

The month of May brought grilling and playing outside, baking and coloring inside, pretty flowers and finding the perfect park! For Mother’s Day I got a great photo mug from Dan with cute pics of the kids on it. At the end of the month Dan’s family came to visit and we got to show off the new house!

June

extra: bunny health is so important these days on 365 Project

In June we had a picnic at the park, played in the sprinkler and flew homemade kites. I read The Help and was just as blown away by it as everyone else who’s raved before me. I spent an entire week offline and lived to tell the tale. We played a few games of Hallway Hopscotch and went camping in Baraboo.

July

extra: from a distance on 365 Project

July was all about the barbecue! We threw a cookout on the 3rd with friends and had such a great time – it was one of those perfect parties where everything just came together and went how I’d envisioned it. When does that happen? We spent the 4th at the beach which turned out to be a bit of a let down but got ice cream afterwards and salvaged the day. We watched fireworks from our backyard, played outside some more, discovered Picnic Point, participated in our library’s summer reading program, went to the company picnic and celebrated BB’s 2nd birthday with a tea party with friends!

August

another morning walk at Picnic Point on 365 Project

In August we beat the heat with water gun fights. Dan and I celebrated our 5th anniversary with a trip to The Melting Pot (a first for both of us and a new OMG favorite). We gave some friends a tour of Dan’s office before they moved back to the West Coast. BB got her first tricycle and I took her to the zoo.

September

First Day of School on 365 Project

September was all kinds of monumental as MM started kindergarten! As predicted, he absolutely adored school from the beginning and was thrilled with the whole thing. BB and I kept busy apple picking, taking walks with friends, lingering at the bus stop together in the afternoons and discovering my new favorite place: The Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I had several arguments with my computer and even used Windows 7 for awhile! ::shudders:: Oh and we painted the side of the house. And by we, I mean I took pictures.

October

Halloween Sneak Peek: The Catty Kitten. on 365 Project

October was unseasonably warm and I wasn’t complaining! Dan and I had another wonderful date night with dinner at a really nice little restaurant and a movie at one of those theaters that only grown ups go to (score!). BB and I took more walks with friends who were very patient with silly Jen and her constantly clicking camera. I fell in love with some tiny kittens at Schusters Playtime Farm and we almost adopted some cats, but then didn’t because yes I’m still allergic. Oh and we took down BB’s crib!! And did I mention Schusters and corn mazes and OMG? We seriously love this place. MM started getting homework and our Team Trivia group won their first game! Oh, and Halloween happened, too! BB was a pretty kitty and MM was Woody from Toy Story!

November

Raking leaves with daddy on 365 Project

In November I switched back to wordpress.com after a random snafu with my self-hosted blog made me realize it just wasn’t worth it any more to be self hosted. Still very happy with that decision. MM and Daddy went to one of the Home Depot Kids Workshops together and the boys fell in love with being handy builders together. The weather could not make up its mind. A neighbor we barely know gave BB a pair of rain boots one day and we were just blown away by the kindness of strangers. MM wrote a letter to Santa asking for a Sid the Science Kid coloring book, a toy car and 3 socks. MM and Daddy raked leaves together. We celebrated daddy’s birthday and Thanksgiving and then pretty much immediately leaped into the Christmas spirit, trimming the tree, making a holiday Mix CD and crafting an Advent Activity Box (which went over really well BTW).

December

The fragrance of bokeh. on 365 Project

In December I made a vague attempt at vowing to losing some weight. Ok it was slightly less than vauge – but also slightly less than successful. Still, if it weren’t for my feeble efforts, I might have gained more weight. I took a photography class for three weeks that wasn’t entirely what I hoped, but also not a complete wash. I took a ton of bokeh pictures of the Christmas tree. We made our own papier mache star for our Christmas tree. I got really into beading my own jewelry. We took the kids to see Santa and to see the train exhibit at Olbrich Gardens. I baked way too many cookies and had MM make Christmas cards for his teacher. And then we all got the stomach bug while celebrating Christmas. But other than that, Christmas was awesome – great gifts, my parents came to visit and it was just a nice, small Christmas. Take out the stomach bug and pink eye and it would have been awesome. Oh yeah, and I had a birthday.

It was really hard narrowing it down to just 12 pictures as I took so many that I just adore. Our 2011 photo book should be chock full of beautiful, amazing memories. Here’s hoping 2012 brings more of the same!

“So what did the kids get for Christmas?”

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Now that I’m feeling a little healthier, I thought I’d make up for lost time and try to get some pictures of the kids playing with some of their new toys from Christmas.

When I came into the room BB was playing with her dollhouse – not a new gift. I asked her if she knew where Elmo was, trying to goad her into cooperation using her boyfriend as bait.

She happily grabbed Elmo and was looking gorgeous to boot that day, but she had absolutely no interest in paying attention to mommy or being cooperative.

Luckily this one likes playing along – “You can take my picture, mommy!” (side note: when did he get SO big?)

He did a great job modeling this kaleidoscope for me, which was a lot of fun to photograph.

Then he got BB to play the new xylophone with him. I feel like this picture captures the two of them perfectly – him concentrating studiously, trying to perfect what he’s doing ; her relaxing and making everything she does look effortless.

About this point, I realized that a lot of their Christmas presents were apparently in another room, likely upstairs in their bedrooms. My motivation was waning as they began to lose interest in the whole photo shoot. I looked up at our bookshelf and was all “ah ha!” The kids got a ton of great books for Christmas. So I pulled a bunch down and we read them together and I took some pictures of the kids reading, too.

Some of my favorites that they got this year.

I was about to leave the room when I noticed a few more things to share with you.

Like this.

And this face.

And that one.

Sorry, don’t mind me, I just got lost in their cheekbones and eye lashes and perfect hair and …

Obviously that wasn’t all the presents they got this year, I’ll try to photograph more later. Thank you notes are going to be tough this year as my memory of Christmas Day and who sent  what is now awfully foggy thanks to that bug, but rest assured – the kids and I are very thankful and happy and blessed.

Christmas 2011 in review.

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You know I had an interesting Christmas when I tell you this was the only picture I took Christmas Day. Seriously.

It all started on Friday morning. MM woke up with a nasty stomach bug and had to stay home from school, starting his Christmas vacation a day early. He was not pleased about missing out on Pajama Day at school, much less seeing all his friends one last time before winter vacation. But all things considered, we figured the timing was ideal as Dan had the day off and we were able to stay home and treat his fever and other flu-like symptoms and luckily he didn’t get sick again the rest of the day.

That night my parents arrived to visit us for Christmas. Since the kids were feeling better, we spent the next day out and about a bit with grandpa and meme as we got ready for Santa’s arrival. The next day being my birthday of course. Dan made me a root beer float chocolate bundt cake which was amazingly delicious and the night went well until poor BB came down with the same bug that night and kept us all up that night.

By Christmas morning I’d come down with it, too, and I spent most of Christmas in a trance, struggling to stay awake and present to enjoy the day with my family. The kids were doing a bit better by then, especially MM who it turns out was very lucky to be sick two days before so he could enjoy his Christmas Day.

Highlights I can vaguely remember:

  • MM got two chairs built by daddy and a toolbox, scrabble junior from mommy and a toy car from Santa – other big hits included a plush Woody from Toy Story, a plush Perry from Phineas and Ferb, five of the Piggie and Elephant books by Mo Willems, a Crayola Glow Dome and a US Map floor puzzle.
  • BB got an Elmo doll and a piglet doll (and a million other stuffed animals), several awesome picture books including Ladybug Girl, Knuffle Bunny and Tickle Monster; awesome new headbands and scrunchies, a xylophone, a hand knit (or perhaps crocheted) tea set (seriously) from her amazingly talented Auntie and other wonderful things I can’t remember that she adored.
  • The family got Michael Buble’s Christmas CD, a Holiday collection of Charlie Brown DVDs, the new Winnie the Pooh movie and a rum cake from grammy.
  • Between my birthday and Christmas, I received a laminator, some Rachel Ray bakeware, Bananagrams, a beautiful snow globe, a flour shaker from Pampered Chef, and copies of Seriously I’m Kidding by Ellen Degeneres and Bossypants by Tina Fey (Squeals!!!).
  • Dan got a router table and bits, an assortment of 3D puzzles to put together with MM, a sun dial and other things I can’t remember. Did I mention I was half delirious that day? My point is, the family was feeling very happy and blessed in between bouts of nausea.

That night I had Ramen Noodles for dinner while the rest of the family ate a delicious (I’m assuming) Maple and Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin with veggies and homemade dinner rolls. Shortly after I went to bed.

The next day I was feeling a bit better and MM had come down with pink eye. Hurray! In between resting and cleaning eye balls and my husband being kind of my hero for taking care of the family for so many days, we browsed around a few more stores, went to Olive Garden for a dinner I barely ate but still enjoyed and spent time with my parents.

That night while we watched random things on tv, Dan began to feel the first pangs of the illness and by Tuesday morning he was down for the count and I got to don the role of Healthiest Person in the House – I was finally able to get a prescription for MM’s pink eye and begin treating it, and I started doing dishes and organizing the toy room and doing laundry. We watched lots of movies and said goodbye to grandpa and meme in the afternoon when they left for their flight home.

It was now my turn to eat sort of delicious looking food while Dan ate english muffins and ramen noodles and drank lots of water and slept most of the day. We’d come full circle I suppose you could say.

The good news is, this morning Dan was feeling well enough to go to work, MM’s pink eye is responding well to medication, we somehow got enough housework done over the weekend that my home is not completely trashed and in spite of all that craziness, we still had a nice Christmas weekend and enjoyed our time with grandpa and meme while they were here. I just don’t have a lot of pictures to show for it.

How was your holiday weekend? Hopefully less chaotic than mine!

We wish you a merry Christmas…

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

We wish you a merry Christmas!
We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy holidays blogiverse! Hope you and yours are having a wonderful day together. Right about now the kids are probably running downstairs to see what goodies Santa has brought them – I hope they made the nice list (I hope I did, too!).

Goals for today include: taking sweet pictures, snuggling my children, spending time with my family and eating delicious food together. And most of all, staying in the moment and enjoying these precious times. I hope you do, too!

(And to those of you celebrating a birthday this week like me (X-Mas Eve Baby) enjoy this XKCD comic which always makes me smile:

XKCD Merry Christmas Comic 2009

Merry Christmas again and Happy Birthday to anyone else in my shoes!

It’s almost time…

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twinkly lights. on 365 Project

Christmas is nearly upon us and I am bursting to the brim with holiday cheer – or at least with egg nog and rum cake! Tomorrow is my birthday (I’m going to be ALMOST OLD) which makes Christmas Eve extra super special around these parts, so I’m anticipating little time spent online over the weekend. Words With Friends will simply have to wait!

Hope you have a happy holidays bloggy world!

Fall into Reading ’11: Wrapping it up.

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Fall into Reading @ Callapidder DaysWell it is December 22nd and the Fall into Reading Challenge at Callapidder Days is officially closed. I am currently halfway through reading Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, which brings my total tally for completed books to : 6 which is actually the number I predicted I’d read from the beginning, though my goal had been 8 books.

I will say, that I’d originally guessed that I’d be just squeezing in that last book this week so the fact that I’m well into what would have been book number 7 is some small consolation and really regardless of the outcome I’ve had a terrific time and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge once again. It’s always nice to occasionally organize your reading pile and really try to get through the chaos of books vying for your attention.

Here are the books that I read this fall:

  1. Finding Aster by Dina McQueen – Finished September 26, 2011 - I enjoyed this book which describes Dina’s experience adopting a little girl from Ethiopia – from the series of events that brought her to the decision to adopt, through to the actual process of international adoption. Though the story is filled with personal details, it reads a bit more like practical information that would be good to know if you were planning to adopt yourself. And though I have no plans for adoption, I still enjoyed this book and found it interesting.
  2. A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth – Finished October 8, 2011 - I’ve always been a fan of Kristin Chenoweth’s acting skills but knew basically nothing about her aside from what I’ve seen on screen. This memoir certainly took care of that! I loved this book and getting to know Kristin and her life and what led her from growing up in Oklahoma to gracing the sets of Glee and Pushing Daisies or the stages of Wicked which I’ve never seen but want to SO badly some day. This book is funny and thoughtful and entertaining and wonderful. Loved it.
  3. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (October Book Club Pick) – finished October 22, 2011 - There were some things that I really liked about this book – the author’s descriptions of life at Hailsham and how he only reveals just so much information at a time, keeping you out of the dark about things until just the right moment. In some ways I’d say this book was remarkably well done and most of my minor complaints with the book are the type that can be commented away with, “but the author probably did it that way intentionally,” for better or for worse.
  4. The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent - finished November 14, 2011 - This book, though often slow going, was a truly fascinating story that I am sure will stay with me for a very long time. A perfect fall read, I’d recommend this to any lovers of historical fiction or those with interest in the Salem Witch Trials. Very good.
  5. Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster – Finished November 29, 2011 – I just loooooved this book and I’m so glad I finally read it. I adore Jen Lancaster’s writing style and humor and could relate to this humorous memoir on dieting a little too well! It was one of those books that I feel I read at exactly the right time and I’m now feeling extra motivated to start eating better and exercising! I highly recommend this one.
  6. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin - Finished December 10, 2011 - I thought the premise of this story was unique and interesting and I was impressed with how the characters were easy to relate to and root for, especially the main character, Rachel. Although at times I got irritated with her decisions and for awhile hoped for a different outcome altogether, I was happy in the end with the story and enjoyed reading it. Chick lit at it’s best.

Here are the books I attempted reading but chose not to finish:

  • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (November Book Club Pick) – I feel kind of guilty abandoning this one but my heart just isn’t it, I can’t stand the main character and frankly I just want to read something else instead.
  • Little Bee by Chris Cleave - I was utterly in love with the first chapter, but the second chapter was so horribly sad that I found I could not bring myself to pick it up and read chapter three. I may try it again another time.

And the books I haven’t gotten to yet:

And now for a little bit of fun:

Best Book of Fall 2011: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster really does win by a landslide. It’s the book that I picked up when I put down Major Pettigrew and man am I glad I did! I’m surprised this book did not make it to my original FIR list as I’ve been trying to find time to read it for ages now.

Worst book: Well I suppose that would be Major Pettigrew as it annoyed me so badly in those first few chapters that I put it down and never looked back. I know some people who really liked this one, but I disliked the main character so much that it just got tedious – and it was boring.

Thanks for hosting the challenge again Katrina, it’s always a good time!

A Simple Christmas Gift for his teachers.

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I’ve been debating teacher’s gifts for a couple months now. Pinning things on pinterest, contemplating crafting, considering gift cards or office supplies. I couldn’t make up my mind and I also had no idea what the school’s policy is on presents and didn’t want to trust MM with bringing in anything expensive.

This afternoon I read this post at The Happiest Mom about taking the stress out of teacher gifts. The big picture idea in the post was about keeping in mind WHY you are giving them a gift – what the important part is.

And I realized that it wasn’t about me buying them some random object that would show them what a good mom I am – it was about MM having an opportunity to say thank you to them and show his appreciation – and that doesn’t have to cost a dime.

I immediately pulled out some construction paper and ribbon and put him to work making each of his three teachers a Christmas card – MM loves all things crafting and writing and he adores his teachers so he was all over this and painstakingly drew and colored and wrote out messages for each of his teachers.

On the inside of each card he drew a picture of that teacher and wrote a Christmas message to them. I thought this was a great opportunity for him to work on his writing and letter recognition.

He spent a good hour working on these cards – far more time than I would have spent buying a gift card or a pack of post-it notes – not that there is anything wrong with those gifts ; I am sure they’d be put to good use.

But for now, for us, this just felt right. I loved that MM was involved from beginning to end in this project and that it’s simple and heartfelt and frugal. Perfect.

Let’s just hope he remembers to take them out of his backpack to give to them!

Another Trip to Olbrich Gardens.

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This weekend we also took the kids to Olbrich Garden so that Dan and MM could see the holiday toy train exhibit. It was actually the first time either of them have been to Olbrich at all, but I am certain it won’t be the last. The whole family has kind of fallen in love with this place.

Watching for the trains

They have a few different trains running through the room. The more you look at each train car, the more fun details you’ll see.

Above the train tracks are lots of pretty flowers and some gorgeous bird houses. Some of the coolest I’ve ever seen.

This was my favorite one. I showed you some other pretty ones last week.

And one of the pretty flowers displayed in the holiday express area.

After both kids (and Dan) had had their fill of trains, I took them to the indoor conservatory which BB and I have become very well acquainted with by now.

Dan’s first comment was on how warm and steamy the indoor garden is – it feels like you are stepping into a rain forest.

A few feet in of course and I was lost to the world, busy taking pictures of some of the amazing plants they have. I cannot get over how just taking pictures of leaves here can be fun for hours (if I only had that much time there) with so many different shapes, sizes, colors, textures to see.

I took over a hundred pictures that morning, giving myself time to wander the indoor gardens to my hearts content since I had Dan with me to help chase children and came home with some pictures I’m frankly pretty proud of.

I think I discover new things to love every time I go to Olbrich. I’d like to move in. Seriously, I’m planning to visit these gardens regularly in 2012. Brace yourself for an onslaught of nature photography next year!

Here’s my favorite picture from the day, saving the best for last:

Fit Momma Check-in: December 19th

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Better late than never, right? I forgot to check in on Friday with my weight loss progress, or lack thereof.

It’s now been a little over two weeks since my declaration to start dropping some pounds. I told you guys that I would be checking in with you on Fridays to let you know how my weight loss journey is going – in an effort to hold myself accountable and record my ups and downs.

Even though I forgot to blog my progress, I didn’t forget to weigh in. Unfortunately the results weren’t very good. I gained about 3 pounds which frankly seems rather high, but I double checked a few times over the weekend and the number hasn’t changed. So. That happened.

What went wrong? I think it has been a combination of not getting in all my workouts (what’s up with that?) and the entrance of way too many holiday goodies into our home – plus a few too many instances of going out to eat and indulging in deliciousness. I know it’s the holidays and this is normal for most people, but if I can gain 3 pounds in one week before Christmas even gets here, it’s obvious that I need to be careful.

So what do I do with a kitchen bursting with rum cake, marzipan stollen, peppermint Joe Joes, ice cream, snickerdoodles, gingerbread cookies, peanut butter blossoms, peanut butter buckeyes (and some cake mix cookies coming soon)? Not to mention the girl scout cookies we still have?

Well to begin with, I stuck most of the cookies in the freezer to dole out a bit at a time and at some point I’m going to send about half the cookies to Dan’s office and probably give some away to friends also. I am still attempting my small bowl method to at least stick to normal portions of said goodies.

And you know, I’m probably going to gain more weight. But hopefully by exercising regularly (must do this!!!) and eating well as often as possible, I’ll be able to minimize the damage until all these amazing goodies have left the house. And then I need to try not to turn every day into a holiday in 2012. :OP

Anyone else trying the hellish task of dieting during the holidays? How’s that working out for you?