2008 IN REVIEW

Filed Under Bailey's Birthday, Christmas, Cloth Diapering, Daddy, Disney Vacation, Eighteen Months, Eleven Months, Fifteen Months, Firsts, Fourteen Months, Hair, Halloween, Nineteen Months, Play, Professional Pictures, Seventeen Months, Sixteen Months, Ten Months, Thirteen Months, Twelve Months, Twenty Months | 4 Comments

We were so blessed with a wonderful year. No major catastrophes, no deaths in our families, a daughter who has stayed healthy (with the exception of a few colds) and continued to grow and learn and amaze us… Here are the highlights of our year.

January- please note her lack of hair, compared to now

February- and Bailey is walking!

March

April- happy first birthday, Bailey!

May

June

July

August

September- Jonathon and I went to Disney World

October

November

December

Happy New Year!

Christmas

Filed Under Christmas, Gifts, Twenty Months | 2 Comments

I should probably write a nice post about our Christmas and tell all the details so that I have them in my head for later. But at this point I’m not so concerned about it anymore. A few quick highlights-

-Bailey loved to pass out the packages to everyone, and watch them open. Much more than she liked opening her own gifts. She is so generous and did not have that “I want it all for me” kid mentality. She was content with one gift and was almost annoyed when I wanted her to open more.
-I tried to read the Christmas story to her from her Jesus Storybook Bible but she wanted nothing to do with it. I had all these visions of us having this family storytime… right….
-She does not like sleeves with elastic in the cuffs.
-She will eat any kind of cookie, sometimes ice cream, never cake. She will not eat watergate salad or ambrosia even if I tell her its ice cream.
-My grandma was coughing all day and finally went to the hospital on Friday to be diagnosed with pneumonia. I am glad she wasn’t contagious!
-Jonathon got me a GPS, my parents got me a tennis bracelet (white gold to replace the yellow gold one I have from college graduation), my grandparents got me a sewing machine.
-Jonathon forgot to buy anything for my stocking.

My Brother In Law

Filed Under In-Laws, Twenty Months | 1 Comment

He’s in town for only two days. So what are they doing? He’s napping on the couch and Jonathon is downstairs on his computer. Quality time, morons.

Wait, you really just wanted to see pictures of Bailey? Oh good. Well here are a few of her eating a chocolate cookie the other night. And the sugar high that followed.

Meatloaf and Twice Baked Potatoes

Filed Under Cooking/Baking | 4 Comments

I have been trying to cook a lot more lately. (I got motivated by my friend Jen and her Tasty Tuesdays). I have always been the type of person to consider dumping bags and boxes onto plates, to be cooking. I never made anything that wasn’t from a mix or half made already. Like the crock pot dinners, and boxed dinners where you add chicken… I know, it’s sad. Other than that we ate a lot of grilled chicken and baked chicken. I decided it was my goal to learn how/start actually cooking better meals for my family.

I am in love with the website www.allrecipes.com. You can search for a recipe by keywords, category, cooking style, ethnicity, etc. Then once you find one that you like, you can add it to your online recipe box. You can create a shopping list by clicking meals from your recipe box. It automatically puts them into your shopping list with the right amounts of each ingredient. Part of my issue with cooking is finding good recipes and then shopping for all those dang ingredients, so this cuts out that problem. Also, you can choose to find recipes with photos, so that you can see what you’re supposed to be making. I prefer those.

All this is leading up to me telling you about the dinner I made tonight. I did two things for the first time- meatloaf and twice baked potatoes. I know, meatloaf, ew. It was so random and while I don’t think I would make it again for a while, it was edible and tasted okay. I just hadn’t had it in years and was curious.

Here is the meatloaf recipe:

* 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (Use a lean ground beef or your meatloaf will be greasy/soggy)
* 1 egg
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 cup milk
* 1 cup dried bread crumbs (I used Contadina Three Cheese Bread Crumbs)
* salt and pepper to taste
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar (I just eyeballed the amount because I didn’t feel like looking for the measuring spoon, it was fine)
* 2 tablespoons prepared mustard (eyeballed this one too)
* 1/3 cup ketchup

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, milk and bread OR cracker crumbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place in a lightly greased 5×9 inch loaf pan, OR form into a loaf and place in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking dish.
3. In a separate small bowl, combine the brown sugar, mustard and ketchup. Mix well and pour over the meatloaf.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour.

The second new thing I made was the twice baked potatoes. This, I will definitely do again. It took about five minutes longer to prepare than regular baked potatoes, but tasted so much better!

For this one I kind of looked at a recipe and modified it. The whole issue is that I don’t like to measure. Any recipe that I can just throw in a little of this and a little of that, it’s a keeper. So here’s what I did:

-Bake two whole potatoes at 350 for about 45 minutes
-Take them out of the oven (I used toaster oven since meatloaf was in big oven) and be careful not to burn your hands when cutting them! Cut the top 1/3 off each potato and then scoop them out, leaving about 1/4 inch of potato inside the peel. They’ll look like you are going to make potato skins.

-Put the scooped out potato (and also scoop out the top 1/3 to use) and mash it up in a bowl. Add enough milk to make it mashy, butter, and I also chose to add Greek seasoning and cheddar cheese.
-Scoop it back onto the bottom of the potatoes as pictured, and then put back in the oven for another 15 minutes. You can use some type of cake decorator/squirter to make it pretty, but I was in a hurry at this point.

Here is our dinner! It’s not the most exciting looking thing ever, but it tasted decent and our bellies got full.

Christmas Eve

Filed Under Christmas, Church, Twenty Months | 3 Comments

We are trying to make sure that Bailey knows why we celebrate Christmas- that it’s Jesus’ birthday- and not just a Santa Claus holiday. We also want to do all the fun Santa stuff, too. So we are kind of trying to find the happy medium in all of it.

Every year, we go to Christmas Eve service at church. This year, we went to the 5:00 service. I wanted Bailey to join us for part of the service. I brought crayons and puzzles and other quiet activities for her. She would have done really well if she could have seen her toys. However, they decided to have the whole service in the dark so there was no way for any of the kids to stay busy. There were a lot of antsy kids during the service. They offered nursery for kids under 3, so I took B to the nursery partway through but it was full and we couldn’t leave her. I was really frustrated, we probably would have just stayed home if I had known that she couldn’t go to childcare.

After church, we went over to my parents house. It was just the five of us. In the past, we used to open our stockings on Christmas Eve and then play games and eat lots of snacks. Obviously it’s not the same anymore, but it’s so much more fun with a little one around than with just a bunch of adults.

We decided to make a tradition of doing a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve after church. Bailey got to open one gift (a coloring book) and when she is older we will probably play a game or something. Also the kids might get Christmas jammies! This year, we just did a cake. Note the Little People Jesus on top He had to take a break from sledding down the roof of the nativity in order to appear on the cake. (If you haven’t heard, Bailey thinks Jesus likes to sled and/or slide down the roof of the stable. She says “Wheee, swide!” and then when he lands on the floor, she says, “Cwash!”

Thanks for the new coloring book! It’s time to go to sleep so Santa can come bring more toys!

Two Days Post Christmas

Filed Under Christmas, Cooking/Baking, Gifts | 2 Comments

It is now December 27th. The Christmas madness had died down and I have a lot left to blog about. First I want to tell about my gifts, though! Guess what I got? Jonathon gave me a TomTom GPS thingy! I had never really considered getting one, but it makes sense because I hate driving and I get lost ALL THE TIME. (Can it be a business expense for delivering my Avon orders? LOL)

We took it out that night and used it to find some houses where we wanted to see Christmas lights. One of them was Christmas On the Hill, which I recommend going to see if you live close enough. The lights themselves aren’t that spectacular, but they have the whole thing set to music (you tune in on the radio) and it’s a cool show to watch.

My grandma got me a sewing machine. I have been wanting a sewing machine for a long time, even though I basically have no idea how to use it. Jen, we are going to have to get serious about sewing classes! I don’t even know how to thread it. But I am really excited to learn how to sew! I have a bunch of things I want to try and make.

Jonathon got a digital picture frame (from my parents) for his office at work. It holds up to 4000 pictures and can also do video and music. He had been wanting one of these for a while. I got him a grill light and grill cookbook from Avon, hamburger storage containers for the freezer, a cd, and some Best Buy gift cards and guess what he did. He has been griping that all of his hard drives are full so he went and bought another freaking hard drive. And a card reader thing for an SDHC card he got for his birthday. So now he can boot his computer off a memory card or something? I’m not really sure but he told me all about it.

I baked a lot before Christmas. I made five kinds of cookies and a loaf of banana bread. This is the first time I have ever made a loaf of bread (I swear) and I didn’t even use a mix! I am trying to learn how to cook more.

Santa Came Early (Dec 23rd)

Filed Under Christmas, Gifts, Toys, Twenty Months | 5 Comments

We decided that Santa was going to deliver one of the gifts early to our house. Bailey is one year old, she has no idea how many times Santa is supposed to come and let’s face it- she doesn’t remember from one day to the next whether he’s been here already or not. Since I needed to get a lot of baking and cleaning done, and I was excited for her to get her kitchen, we gave it to her the morning of the 23rd when she got up. She was SO excited.

It’s the Step 2 Lifestyle Partytime Kitchen. Try saying that five times fast. Originally, I was going to get her a much smaller kitchen. But we decided that it made more sense to get something she could use for a long time instead of having to replace it in a year or two. This one is a little too big for her now (she can’t really reach the microwave, etc) but there is plenty for her to do anyway. Also it’s big enough to have a friend play too. It’s so sturdy that I think it will hold up well, and it got good reviews. We got it on sale and it seemed like the best kitchen for the price.

Bailey’s favorite things to do with the kitchen are to cook her Little People and to cook an ice cream cone. We just got her a small set of food for it. She also likes to warm up her baby’s bottle- my mom showed her how to do that. The burners even light up and make different bubbling/sizzling noises depending on what pot you put on them. The microwave makes noise and you can press a popcorn button to hear popcorn popping.

No kitchen is complete without a phone! It has more realistic ringtones and stuff than some of her other play phones. She will only call Grammy (Geenay), Grampa (Popock) or Santa Claus (Kee Claush). Her conversations usually go, “Hallo. Hi. Good. Toys. Bye!” She also paces while she talks- it’s funny the stuff you learn about yourself from watching your kids!

She also loves to explore all the cabinets and drawers and stuff. There are little slots for the plates inside the top cabinets. I tried to show her how to put the silverware in the drawer but she thinks it is for “binks” (a.k.a. her binkies, which she would NEVER use as a baby but is now obsessed with playing with them).

Thank you, Santa Claus!

Merry Christmas!

Filed Under Christmas, Nineteen Months, Professional Pictures | 2 Comments

Colored Lights

Filed Under Christmas | 2 Comments

You are Multicolored Lights

Your holidays are a time for cheer and excitement. You love so much about the holidays, and everyone perks up a little from your happiness. You try to be grateful for what you have this time of the year. Even if things have been tough, you can’t help but be joyful.

Highchair Recall- Evenflo Majestic

Filed Under Recalls | Leave a Comment

I just found out our highchair was recalled because it’s not safe. It’s the Evenflo Majestic- here are the details of the recall:

Name of product: Evenflo Majestic™ High Chairs
Units: About 95,000
Manufacturer: Evenflo Company Inc., of Miamisburg, Ohio
Hazard: Plastic caps and metal screws on both sides of the high chair can loosen and fall out, posing both fall and choking hazards to children. Plastic caps and screws that become loose and fall out can cause the seatback to suddenly fall back or detach from the high chair. Children can fall out or collide with objects and suffer broken bones, abrasions, cuts and bruises. Detached plastic caps and metal screws also pose a choking hazard to children.
Incidents/Injuries: Evenflo has received 140 reports of seatbacks reclining, falling back and/or detaching unexpectedly, which resulted in at least 47 reports of bumps and bruises to the head, two reports of broken bones, and at least 45 reports of other injuries including abrasions, cuts, and bruises. Evenflo has received more than 1,000 reports of plastic caps and screws falling out of the high chairs, including seven incidents in which caps and screws were found in children’s hands or mouths but were removed before choking occurred.
Description: The recall involves Evenflo Majestic™ high chairs made before January 23, 2007. The recalled high chairs have the following model numbers: 3001395A, 3001583, 3001633A, 3001669, 3001700A, 3001713, 3001713A, 3001730A, 3001732, 3001732A, 3001733, 3001742, 3001742A, and 3001756. The model number and production date can be found on a white label on the seatback. “Evenflo” is printed on the label and on the push button on the front of the tray.
Sold at: Juvenile product and mass merchandise stores nationwide, including Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Burlington Coat Factory and Shopko, and on-line at walmart.com from January 2006 through May 2007 for between $80 and $110.

We will be contacting Evenflo for the repair/replacement kit this week! Click here for more information.

Christmas Tree Shirt Painting

Filed Under Christmas, Crafts, Twenty Months | 6 Comments

The other day, my friend Casey invited us over to make Christmas shirts with her and her daughter, Addison. We had been talking about how we didn’t get the girls Christmas shirts this year, just dresses. So she had this cute craft idea and we decided to try it out.

Bailey loved painting. I thought that she would flip about having paint on her hands but she didn’t seem to mind. We have been working on doing more sensory stuff, so hopefully it’s been helping. She also loved these little puffy ball things and kept wanting to hold them all. She would take one and rub it on paper and tell me she was painting. So I’m not really sure that she grasped the definition of “paint.”

Yes, she has eyeshadow on in this picture. You might have to click on it to see it bigger in order to actually SEE the eyeshadow and paint. She kept bugging me about mind so I told her to close her eyes and she let me put it on. She also likes to wear powder and lip gloss. Kids these days Anyway i thought this picture was funny because you can see the eyeshadow and also the paint she got all over her face. We also learned from this experience- if you are doing an art project with one and a half year olds, and it has the potential to be messy, it’s better to let them do it one at a time so you have another adult for backup help. Otherwise you are both messy and have a kid covered in paint, and no spare hands.

Here is the finished shirt. It turned out cute but I wish it didn’t have the random smears of paint on it. That’s what you get when your kid makes it themselves, though. But I have always told myself I am not going to be one of those moms who does their kid’s art project FOR them. I know you know the kind I mean. You go to a class and the mom is all “No honey, let mommy color it for you.” Who cares, it’s their art, not yours. And I guess everyone will be quite aware of that on Christmas day this year when she wears her shirt!

This last one is from after we got home that day. Bailey likes to put stuff in this little Christmas tin. She is also starting to get really excited about Santa. She tries to say Santa Claus but it comes out “Kee Claush.” If you ask her what Santa brings, she says “Toys!” and if you ask her what else, she says “Shishens.” She is getting a play kitchen for Christmas so we keep telling her maybe Santa will bring a kitchen.

Not Me Monday

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Because it’s December 22nd and I am frazzled and trying to avoid blogging/doing stuff/cleaning house/baking, I figured I could at least manage a Not Me Monday. It’s my favorite. So here goes:

This week, I did not bribe my daughter with candy, cookies, or chicken nuggets. Speaking of chicken nuggets, she does not refuse to eat any other form of meat.

I did not finish a pint of ice cream and then put it back in the freezer empty so that Jonathon wouldn’t know I ate it in one night!

I did not figure out where my Christmas presents from my inlaws were purchased. Because I do not have any plans to return them! I really never return gifts…

I did not tell Jonathon to stay out of the Christmas cookies and then eat one after he left the room.

I did not just try to convince Jonathon we should get a PS3 for Christmas at the last minute.

I did not just buy The Bodyguard on VHS at the library the other day. For a quarter. Because really, who buys VHS movies anymore? Not me!

So when we were at McDonalds today, Bailey did not climb up into the top of the playplace and not come down. I did not have two different big kids try to convince her to climb down. She does not love to hide. Nope, not my kid.

And while we’re talking about hiding- I do not ever pretend that I don’t know where Bailey is so that I can get a few minutes of quiet! She does not like to hide in her closet and be completely quiet in an attempt to trick me. I don’t find her when she eventually starts laughing and says “Beelay hiding!” (Beelay = Bailey)

I do not still have Christmas presents to wrap, stockings to stuff, and cookies to bake. I DO NOT PROCRASTINATE.

Yeah… maybe I should get going on some of that. But why don’t you tell me about what you did not do this week. And for more “Not Me Monday” stories, head over to MckMama’s blog.

Restaurant.com

Filed Under Frugal | Leave a Comment

It’s one of my favorite sites- right now they have a great deal where you can get a $25 gift certificate for $2. I have used this site a bunch of times and I promise it’s totally legit. I just printed three $25 certificates (valid on purchase of $35 or more) for our favorite Mexican restaurant, for a total of $6, and also some other random restaurants that we are going to try. Normally the $25 certificates are $10, so this is even more super than usual! Use the code “SANTA” to get this special deal. It ends tomorrow, and some restaurants in my area are already sold out.

FYI- these would make good gifts but they don’t send you a real gift certificate or anything, it’s more like a coupon you print off the internet. But it doesn’t show what you actually paid for it! It just says “25 gift certificate” and the name of the restaurant and terms of use. They expire a year from the day you purchase them.

I am going to need to take diet pills after all this eating!

Let’s Say Thanks to Our Troops

Filed Under Patriotic | 2 Comments

Go to www.letssaythanks.com to choose a Christmas card to send to a soldier. The site is sponsored by Xerox and they will print the card you choose and send it for you. You can sign it and choose from several messages to include inside.

Yes, it’s real. Check it out on Snopes.

Science Center

Filed Under Friends, Nineteen Months, Outings | 2 Comments

Last week we went to the Science Center with my friend Eileen and her son Gabe, and another friend of hers who I met for the first time there. The kids really had a lot of fun. Most of the learning stuff is beyond them, but they loved running around and looking at everything. We will definitely be going there again.

They loved a section with giant foam blocks:

The boys were a little hesitant about the giant dinosaurs, but Bailey loved them. They are these huge, moving dinosaurs that roar. The triceratops is laying on its side with blood gushing out but I told Bailey he was sleeping.

I love taking pictures with natural lighting. My camera sucks and that is the only way I can get a really good halfway decent picture. I still had my mom’s camera when we were at the Science Center so I took these with hers- and now she made me give it back so I am waiting for Best Buy to return ours. Anyway I like these, but they are a little blurry, and her eyes are so much bluer than this in real life.

Since that day that we played with Gabe, Bailey asks about him almost every morning. If I mention anything about seeing her friends, she’s like, “Gape? Gape?” Already obsessing over cute boys.