The A-Priori Mommy

Ace's Valentines

2012-02-15T13:30:00.002-06:00

With Ace in school it means that he gets to participate in a Valentine's Day party which means making Valentines for all of his classmates and passing them out. Which also means for this mommy one more creative outlet! Ace really has been into pirates lately. He loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates, he loves to dress up like a pirate, and let's not forget the 3rd birthday party that was pirate themed! So when I came across Mer Mag's post with such cute little pirate themed Valentines I couldn't resist (she's got super cute girl pirates too!)
I printed them out, cut them out, and then put Ace to work writing the "A" in his name. I didn't want to force him to write his whole name. After all this is his first exposure to Valentine's of this nature and I didn't want it to seem like work - I wanted it to be fun. So without hesitation Ace sat down and wrote his "A" over and over 12 times. He did a great job. It honestly was the first time he has sat down and done something like this. Although I school him regularly on various things - we haven't really started practicing writing his letters - so now that he's got the A pretty well down - I think we might start to practice with some of his other letters.

After he finished his portion of the Valentines I got started doing the rest. I sewed on the little felt heart eye patch, wrote "You're GRRReat!" on all of them, finished writing out his name and eventually sewed a bag of M&Ms (Ace's choice) to the back of each one using a nice wave pattern.

His Valentines were a hit (and the only 'homemade' ones) He was very excited to tell me all about how they walked around with their Valentines and put one in each of the kids folders that were attached to their chairs. I was glad he was so excited to share his treats. :)

Now for a side note... I don't seem to recall candy being as so much of a Valentine's Day thing - I remember a lot of little cards with various characters - but not so much the candy... anyone else remember the same from 'our' childhood or was I just among an unpopular crowd of stingy candy givers? ;-)

Ten on Ten - February

2012-02-10T22:21:00.001-06:00

After a very long week of illness - and a day yesterday that I hope never to repeat - today was looking brighter, happier, sillier, and more peaceful. While I still required a drive thru to feed our family for one meal - we didn't for all three and THAT is a big step toward returning to the land of healthy!

8:00am - I can't tell you how hard I laughed after snapping this picture.

9:00 - I spent some time working on a shot for my 'Warmth' entry - I ultimately went a different route.

10:00 - Still playing in the warm clothes box that was consequently next to the shoe rack,
the boy was showing me how to stay warm.
Although here he's trying to keep ~~his~~ my boot on.

11:00 - Mae was looking out the window.
This was after giving herself a shiner by falling off the couch,
which she got onto by balancing on her bike.

12:00 - Before we had lunch we first had a tea party! These were a few of our guests.

1:00 - We finally are dressed! Time for some reading before naps.

2:00 - Mae decided she didn't need a nap since she took a car-nap, so while brother was
~~sleeping~~ stalling like nobodies business from his nap... she had another tea party.

3:00 - A new puzzle arrived for Mae! Her brother is obsessed with his floor puzzles, but she just gets told 'no' a lot around those and so I thought it only fair to get her one of her own - and she loves it. I got it here.

4:00 - Ace and Mae spend the better part of the hour running around the living room chasing one another.

5:00 - Time to start dinner with some butternut squash ravioli and organic spinach that was steamed and then tossed with chopped garlic, sea salt, and toasted sesame oil. The meal took ten minutes to make, no lie.

To see more 10 on 10 stop by a bit of sunshine

Warmth

2012-02-10T12:38:00.000-06:00

I loved all the entries from last week's challenge - such talented photographers out there! Warmth is this week's challenge and I had a lot of ideas run through my head on how to portray 'warmth' in fact I took a couple - there are so many ways to stay warm in the winter - depending on where you live that could in fact mean SUN! Sadly our sun and warmth has retreated again and we're left to find other ways to make ourselves warm. This week has been a week of indoor solitude with a melody of coughing fits to keep us company. Yes we've been quite sick - but hopefully we're on the mend!

"Winter is the time for comfort,

for good food and warmth,

for the touch of a friendly hand

and for a talk beside the fire:

it is the time for home."

~Edith Sitwell

Also linking up for Favorite Photo Friday

Gray Hair

2012-02-08T17:31:00.001-06:00

I think gray hair comes with the territory of motherhood. Not just as a sign of aging, but also diligent parenting. My daughter is going to ~~give them to me soon~~ only give me more as she grows up. Mae's antics are certainly going to have them growing full force! Confused? Thought Ace would be the cause of my gray hair? He is 'the boy' after all - they do all sorts of wild crazy stuff. While true - Mae seems to be a bit more daring earlier... She also has a streak of naughty. Yes, naughty... what on earth do I mean? Well a picture (or several) are worth 1000 words... enjoy!

Why, yes that IS her scaling a gate - this was when she was 11 months old

All chairs must be pushed in. Thanks for the reminder, Mae!

Trash can lid needs to be fully closed...

She waited until mommy's hands were covered in raw chicken and then went to the cabinet and got out the cherrios and proceeded to dump them, consume them, and smile at me so proudly.

The next day wondering where they all went - having taken this out of the recycling box...

Mae certainly keeps us on our toes! Whether she's climbing some where or getting place she should not go - she's just so darn cute it's impossible to be mad at her, but trust me she is never out of sight for long for fear of where she might venture or new height she might scale!

Look at that smirk! She's plotting something, I just know it!

We love our little cutie and even amid her climbing, curiosity, and antics - she is worth every gray hair that forms on my head. They are badges of honor that I've kept this little joyful explorer from harm! :) I'll take them and cherish them. Although if she'd stop climbing places that'd be ok with me too!!

Sick

2012-02-07T22:30:00.000-06:00

She is emoting our sentiment.

We. Are. Sick. Bleh! Two sick kiddos awoke on Sunday morning... coughs began and Ace ran a fever. We skipped church and hunkered down at home. Humidifier cleaned and working. Half the night in our room and half in Ace's room.

He sat on that bean bag 'playing' with his remote control car and watching Disney movies without budging for three hours...

Monday, Ace awoke still feverish and asked to go to the doctor to get medicine so that he'd feel better. Very sweet and sad. :( Mood wise Mae was pretty happy. Ace was a bit more static for the first half of the day.

Mae didn't quite understand why her brother wasn't up playing around the house. Eventually with some prodding by his sister (that top picture is after all her sitting ON him screaming) he found a bit more strength and decided to work on a puzzle.

While the two of them were low key - I was busy learning new things with focus, camera settings, etc and enjoyed that time to shoot the kids. ;-)

And yes, there was major retouching done to 'wipe' his nose.

Today though was a different story... Mae's cough sounds worse. I woke up with a faucet for a nose and not feeling well. at. all. I finished an entire box of klennex. Ace's nose was a medley of colors and we called in sick to preschool. They are sleeping now - and I'm headed there myself... hoping for forward progress out of the illness. But man is M's cough sounding terrible...

A Sunny Day...

2012-02-06T16:03:00.000-06:00

A little lunch before we start playing!

She loooved to swing! Brother even helped push her a little. :)

They played together a lot! M loved to climb around!

Shadows

2012-02-05T12:44:00.001-06:00

Tis the season of shadows... sort of. Of course we're all aware that February 2nd was Groundhog Day and that every year we all wait in a sense of ~~anticipation~~ apathy to hear if Phil is going to see his shadow. However, the wonder of it does become a bit more exciting with a three year old. Ace learned about it in school and because of these lessons on Phil, his shadow, and learning how to make shadows in school - the excitement continued at home and thanks to the beautiful and unusual February sunshine the fun has been extended.

Someone who is mostly unaware of shadows is little Mae. We lived this past summer in a very sunny area, but she was still very young and since we really haven't seen warmth and sunshine since the end of October... it's understandable for her to forget her shadow. :)

So these past few days where there has been sun - we've been taking the opportunities to walk outside barefoot, to touch our shadows, to make shadow puppets in the sunlight that peeks in through the windows, and go to the park! It's been a wonderful glimpse and we look forward to more in spring - which according to Punxsutawney Phil is in 6 more weeks. So pay attention NW you wouldn't want to prove the large rodent turned seasoned prognosticator wrong!

The Piñata Playdate!

2012-02-04T23:30:00.000-06:00

About three weeks ago, Mae had her first birthday party and at the same time is when the snow began to fall that remained for about a week around here in the NW. It was pretty epic, both party and snow... but there was a lonely little owl piñata that sat unused. It was decided a playdate would be scheduled for the party guests so that the excitement could still be had. As it worked out delaying the piñata fun was a good idea, because two extra friends were able to be in attendance that would have missed the party regardless of the snow! V strung up the piñata, decided the order and away we went!

There were enough strings to be pulled that everyone was able to go twice - in fact even after all the strings were pulled all the loot had to be shaken out. You see the loot that was in the piñata wasn't candy (that tends to have some weight) but more crowd friendly items for the 3 and under crowd. AKA non-choking hazards! It was filled with party themed rubber ducks, plastic slinkies, star shaped sunglasses and mini Frisbees. All were great hits and just enough loot for the little ones to care about.

There was a decent enough frenzy when it was time to collect the loot that it was amusing, especially as some of the younger ones (my daughter and the twins) were enjoying putting other items like fridge magnets, etc..into their loot bags. :) Lots of fun was had with all the items in the piñata - and a few that weren't.

Ace decided after some time had passed, while everyone was busy playing with their loot that he'd go survey the piñata and take inventory to see if there was anything left in the piñata - and he scored himself an extra pair of sunglasses. :)

It was a great afternoon filled with lots of kiddos playing together, running around the house, and for a moment all being seemingly healthy! Seven kids all able to be in the same room together - hooray! Although both of mine today now have icky coughs, so I apologize if the other five are developing them too and we were the carrier monkeys - I suppose it's nearly impossible to avoid, but hooray for symptom free piñata playdate!

We joked it looks like Mae is thanking everyone for coming. :)

Solitude

2012-02-03T12:36:00.000-06:00

As I said in Shutterbug Resolved I am going to try and better enhance my skills as a photographer. That means not only bettering my understanding of photography and my camera, but also finding new photographic challenges. Over at Sweet Violet there is a photography challenge entitled 'Poetic Winter' and the theme for this week is 'solitude' - how fitting... (that's all I have to say about that.) Here is my entry.

Favorite Photo of January

2012-01-30T19:17:00.000-06:00

It certainly is hard to choose one favorite photo of January - I ~~took~~ kept 566 pictures from this month and officially I still have one day left, so odds are pretty good that number isn't static. However, on the 13th of January, God gave us the most beautiful sunset! This is SOOC, no editing or enhancing. I love all the textures the sky had that day!

Stop by Click it Up a Notch to see other favorite shots of January!

Oh So Silly!

2012-01-30T16:54:00.002-06:00

Ace has been very good with me in allowing me to try out new and different settings, angles, and lighting with my photography. He's often a willing participant and is good to tell me "I'm all done taking pictures, mom." when he really is ALL done. How he keeps himself entertained while I'm busy capturing varies, but one of his favorite is to make faces... this one I've only see him make once, but the moment I snapped it I burst out laughing. It's certainly not pretty, but it is oh so silly!

50mm, 1/90s, ISO 400, f/2.0

To see more 'Oh So Silly' enteries stop by iheartfaces.

Shutterbug Resolved....

2012-01-29T02:37:00.000-06:00

I read some where that 45% of New Year Resolutions fail by the end of January... so this year I decided to give myself some momentum into the new year. Recover from the holidays, get myself into a new pace of regular life before then heaping a new challenge onto my plate. I think if more people did this - perhaps those grandiose endeavours, ideas, and goals might have a better success rate. Start in February! After all the year is still pretty darn new and we're only really getting out of the holiday haze anyway.   I digress...

I've been thinking about what I want to focus and challenge myself on this year - I wanted to do something that wasn't just focused solely on me, but something that my family could also be involved with - yet still focused and presented me with the challenge.    It didn't seem too difficult to decide what that challenge, goal, endeavor would be for me: photography.   Last year I acquired some of my main tools of the trade in order to become a 'contender' in the art of photography.    I've always had the passion for a great shot, last year I got the tools for a beautiful crisp shot, and now this year I want to enhance my knowledge (and implementation) to achieve those shots.   This is my goal, my passion, my resolution for 2012.

I've always been a shutterbug. I recall my first camera - it was a sleek long skinny blue rectangle that held the small film cases, I had the 5 bulb pop flashes that affixed to the top... ha! I even found one for sale on eBay when I went looking just now. In high school I would expend excessive amounts of film goofing off with friends. I remember the anticipation of being able to rush to the store to see what had developed.   I used film all through college, it was only half way through college that I got my first digital camera.    How did I ever live so long without it? My world of megapixels has only grown since then - my cameras went from big, to smaller and smaller, back to relatively big. :) Last year I embarked further into more equipment beyond just the point and shoot into the SLR world and further into the world of development and enhancement on the computer with PSE and Lightroom.     I am excited to challenge myself to learn more, take more photos (I can hear my husband groaning now!) and really try to capture life in the best light possible - and with sharp focus to boot! ;-)

So this year you'll see a lot more photography themed posts, more photo challenges participated in, and perhaps even though we're 4 weeks into this year, I might just catch up and participate in a Project 52 series.   We shall see. But for 2012 I hereby resolve to sharpen my shutterbug skills.

Ace's Latest Antics

2012-01-25T10:46:00.001-06:00

It's been a bit of time since I've blogged about what Ace is doing and saying. It's been quite an adventure let me tell you! The threes truly are his time to shine and challenge and while we are loving this new chapter in Ace's life - it certainly has presented the biggest challenges as well.

Things that Ace currently loves: PUZZLES! And he's good at them too!! We have a few floor puzzles and they are 48 piece puzzles that he will do entirely on his own. He prefers help and company, but he's capable and we're so proud. I also have a few smaller table-top puzzles that are roughly 25-30 pieces and he loves to just do it over and over and over - so one day his father presented him with a different challenge - do it upside down and he did...and does. :)

He loves to wave goodbye when his dad leaves for work, and is very disappointed when he is unable to. He wants to call his dad to say hi "all day long" and recently asked for a real cell phone for Christmas next year, so that he could call people and talk to them.

I find Ace to be a lovingly typical boy who loves guns, sticks, fighting monsters, and shooting and sword fighting! Lots of great things flow from his imagination. Ace enjoys wearing his Halloween costume regularly and protecting his identity!! He also loves to be silly! He makes the greatest faces!

He still is sticking with the future job of 'nothing' - he just wants to be an adult when he grows up. We try to impart on him the fact he'll need to make money to support his wife and kids - but he doesn't seem terribly interested in that right now. Which is fine - although I'd love for him to want to explore his options! So far his job list has included: nothing, paleontologist (for a brief aspiring few weeks this past summer) and we are currently back to 'nothing'. Well ok then...
Ace has started to eat a lot more these days, but still during meal times often takes fooooreeeevver or requires a lot of reminding, prodding, timers... etc to get him to eat the food. He's currently on this kick of wanting to graze all day long - and wanting 'snacks' rather than actual meals at meal times. It's a work in progress, but gone are the days I worry too much about calorie intake with him.

Humor has really started to sink in around here with him. He occasionally will tell jokes and his biggest kick right now is to say "Hi Bob" and you are required (and if you don't - corrected) to respond "Hi Larry" - Yes Veggie Tales are a big hit in our house currently. :) He'll also switch it up and say "Hi Larry" prompting you to say "Hi Bob" and he'll go back and forth and try to trip you up. It's amusing 75% of the time. In a similar twist all in his own making he's taken on an alternative "bag" and "baggage claim" - I have no idea where he got it or why - but the game typically involves saying "Hi bag" and/or "Hi baggage claim" most of the time he's baggage claim and he has the bag (even though I am the bag?? I don't know...) but then he asks me to ask for something in his bag. He's had (imaginary) tuna, pickles, diapers, towels, my kindle... all sorts of things have come out of these "bags" that he has. Often we play this game while driving in the car. It's silly and time consuming but it really makes him excited - so we play.
Ace has also really started to memorize a lot of things - I've been practicing with him Bible verses - but the other morning he came in and surprised us with his knowledge and memorization of a flip book about Moses. Now when he 'read' it to us he had it 100% correct. When I had him do it again for the camera there were a few flubs - but still CRAZY impressive! The Moses book is not one that we typically read a lot, recently certainly, but it's not like Cuddle was every night for months on end. We are still a ways off from officially reading, but he's doing great memorizing things!

He loves his sister - but she is starting to wear on his patience some. There is a lot of gritted teeth "NO SISTER!!!" He still tries his best, but she is a little sister and really wants to be anywhere and everywhere that her brother is and because of this she is a follower, a snatcher, and a loving pest. :) We're trying our best to help Ace find better ways to help redirect the negative and embrace the positive and their loving moments still far outweigh their fighting ones.

I made them a car to sit in to watch a movie

Sleep? He's sleeping through the night - bed time is frustrating - it involves a lot of stalling, bathroom breaks, water requests, etc... on the litmus test of toddlers - he's right on track. :-/ We're hopeful that bedtime can be less stalling and more sleeping in the near future. However, we are really not complaining on his sleep once he IS asleep! We began potty training the Monday after he turned three and for some time now - he has been fully day time potty trained. We haven't had an accident in the day in about a month. At night he also is getting up and going potty in the middle of the night if he needs to and as a result of that we will cease the use of pull ups at night when we are at home. If we are traveling or staying the night else where for a few more months we'll still use the pull up. He's a bit nervous about that, but I'm amping him up to be excited about it. :)

Overall, Ace is doing great - he's a month away from his half birthday - 3.5 when on earth did that happen? I just can't believe it. He's loving school, goes to Sunday School without fuss (although still met with an initial anxiety and protest in the car on the way there) and he's just overall a great kid! Can't wait to see what the near future holds for him!

One Last Swing...

2012-01-24T22:00:00.000-06:00

Snoozing away, 5 months old

If you recall when Mae turned 11 months old - I was having a mini-meltdown regarding her swing and the fact that she had grown out of it. Today I sold the swing and I won't lie - I'm ~~a bit~~ overly saddened by the finality of it. It's silly really - but honestly the swing really is for me the close of Mae being a baby. She really is headed full steam ahead into toddler!

She LOVED that swing. For the first 8+ months of her life aside from when we were in the hospital, out of town or moving I can say I am fairly certain that she was in it every day - multiple times a day. When she was really little it rarely was on - the part she loved then was the mobile and the mirror. She would stare at it for so long and only fuss when the timer was up on her birds spinning around.

10 weeks old

11 weeks old - the day she came home from Children's

That swing gave mommy some sanity, two free hands! She slept so well in it and until she really got to crawling she loved to just be in it even after she'd awake from a nap, be content to play with a toy and observe and giggle at her brother as he played or did something amusing. Most of the time it didn't even have to be on!

27 days old

A comfort when we moved to a new home in Mississippi - 15 weeks old

16 weeks old

5 months old

She really looks like me when I was a baby in this picture - 5 months old

7 months old

7 months old with her brother

She always looked so cozy when she slept from the first day we brought her home, until the very last time she slept in her swing only a few days before she turned 1. She certainly has grown and changed in this last year and though the swing is gone - it provided a nice cradle of memories and comfort in our little girl's first year.

2 days old

25 days old

6 weeks old

6 months old

9 months old

Her final sleep in the swing 4 days before her first birthday...

I think she knew her mama needed her in the swing one more time, because on one average afternoon where normally (and consistently for the previous two months) she would have instantly awoken if I had dared attempted to put her in the swing after she was asleep - I gently placed her in the swing and she snuggled in. I gave it a little push and watched my baby sleep in her swing for the last time. She's growing up - and one day she'll roll her eyes and my overly ridiculous sentiment for a standard piece of baby equipment. :)

On a lighter note - I would like to point out in the final picture her feet look HUGE,

but she wears a tiny size 4 shoe with plenty of room, funny camera angle I guess! :)

Rainbow Chard

2012-01-22T23:56:00.004-06:00

Until Saturday I had never heard of 'rainbow chard' - sounds harsh and bizarre. In fact it is a green leafy vegetable that arrived in our organic vegetable box. They really are quite pretty, but what on earth do I do with them? I mean they're a leafy green so there are some pretty basic things that can be done, but will they be good? So to the internet I went and I found a recipe to give me some guidance. I came across Lemon Garlic Rainbow Chard and that was my inspiration.

I had one bunch of rainbow chard and decided to modify the recipe to what I wanted and what best fit my family. I skipped adding the stems and red pepper flakes. Instead I started with some olive oil, 3 cloves of sliced garlic and ground pepper and sauted up the garlic over a medium heat. I rarely measure anything when I am cooking things like this - so go with what 'feels right' to you to saute garlic and pepper to taste. :)

After that was sufficiently sauteed I tossed in the chopped up greens and covered the lid for 5 minutes. Leaving the medium heat on - in retrospect - I would decrease the temperature just slightly next time, the bottom greens did get a tiny charred (which honestly did add another flavor to it, but they could have quickly gone south just the same.)

I then dumped all the contents into a bowl and drizzled lemon juice over the greens... again no measuring - it wasn't drenched, it wasn't mere drops - but it was just enough. They were delicious! Now are they terribly different than other leafy greens? Depends - I'd say yes, different than spinach in that the rainbow chard are more bitter, more like kale... maybe? Overall - I certainly will enjoy them again! Time wise this is a quick dish to make - total chop, saute, steam, drizzle and serve time was under 20 minutes. :)

Loving Husband and I give the dish two thumbs up. Ace wanted to spit it out, but managed to choke it down without too much drama. Mae was spared the taste test. One bunch is certainly enough for two people, but if you're making it a family size side dish, I'd recommend 2 or 3 bunches to really make it a true side to a meal. Happy cooking!

The Planet Box

2012-01-22T16:32:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted about Ace's schooling with mom - honestly because it's been a while since we've done much of it. We moved back to the NW, then sickness and holidays arrived, and preschool began - so we're just now getting back into the swing of things with our new routine.

I have been putting together some continent boxes for Ace to begin to understand and learn about geography and then different areas of the world. I am working to have a relatively extensive box for each continent that talks about: plants, animals, foods, and landmarks that are indigenous to those continents. Various things to expose him to the cultural eccentricities of the various places of the world. It's rather ambitious endeavor - one that is currently a significant work in progress. However, in order to understand all that - he needs to get the big picture first and thus we have "The Planet Box"

I began with one of my favorite resources ETC Press and downloaded their free nomenclature cards for: Continents, Oceans, and Cloud types. They can all be found here. I dabbled in sewing a container for them, others I simply used a pencil pouch to hold them in. I then acquired a few books from the Rookie Read About Geography Series (which I love!) They are really simple, but informative and great for my 3.5 year old to help him understand just enough information for now. I got The Seven Continents and The Four Oceans. The third book actually was acquired from Chic Fil A. Also in the planet box is his passport - which I got at a school supply store - it basically is just blank pages awaiting stamps. I ordered a 7 continent set of rubber stamps similar to this, I got mine off eBay. Each of his continent boxes will contain the corresponding stamp - and we'll always have the 'Planet Box' with us when we study each continent so his passport can get stamped each time we study. :) Toss in a $1 blow up globe (a favorite) and the final item to complete the Planet Box is the VTech Spin and Learn Adventure Globe which I got for a steal of a deal around Christmas time. :)

Ace is always excited to do school and to learn things - he is really excited to learn more about Australia. That seems to be the one he is most fixated on - I'm not entirely sure why. Mostly what he's learning is that there are seven continents and a simple fact about each one. He knows we live on North America and thanks to his loyal fans who have sent him post cards from literally around the world, he is able to explore where those postcards have come from as well. The VTech globe is great for telling him about music from other cultures, where places are, and even sports that are often played in those places and if nothing else - he loves to push all the various buttons!

We use the nomeclature cards for matching, putting them in size order, and various other things to help instill the facts about the continents. I am looking forward to introducing him to the North America box soon (figured it was best to start with the one he lives on!) after that it sounds like we'll dive right into Australia - as it's the favored one. :)

I love putting together new fun and exciting 'school' type things for Ace. He really enjoys to play and learn - and says that doing school with me is one of his favorite things - which really makes me smile because it's one of my favorite too!

Linking up to: Imagination Tree, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

2012-01-19T18:49:00.001-06:00

It began on Saturday at Mae's party and more or less has just kept on coming. Any time now it is 'supposed to stop' and turn to freezing rain, followed by the regular kind of rain and wash away our winter wonderland, but in the meantime, we are enjoying it!

First thing Sunday morning we stripped down to our underwear for our traditional deck dive, which once again Grammie was present to enjoy our antics. Ace was so excited to participate - in fact the second it started snowing on Saturday he wanted to go out and deck dive! Pop Pop would be so proud!

After that festive wake up we went out to breakfast and then came home and after naptime went out to play, this time all bundled up and had a great time! Mae enjoyed it a little bit, but mostly was a spectator. She had 'boots' fashioned out of ziplock bags. Ace and his dad had a great time having snowball fights with the other kids. Later Loving Husband and Ace built a staircase/snowman. It was a good time had by all.

While brother napped, Mae went onto the porch to explore a little

Grammie and Loving Husband had a short snowball fight...

Note Mae's 'boots' :) They worked really well!

Monday rolled around and the related males in this family took to upping the anti on the traditional deck dive. It began with Loving Husband deciding to roll across the snowy backyard and film it - the 53 second video ended with "Your move old man"

Later that day we were provided with an email and a link to a 2 minute and 53 second video to the tune of 'Eye of the Tiger' that opened with "Flawless Victory. Age and Treachery, my Dear Boy, Age and Treachery." Enjoy these screen shots, what isn't show is Pop Pop doing the backstroke in the snow across the yard, Gran wheeling a wheelbarrow across the yard full of snow and dumping it on him and a refusal to get into the hot tub.

Of course something MUST be done to out do this... and so much thought and pondering and choreographing was set into motion.... below are a few screenshots of that madness (yes that is my husband pouring ice cold water on himself and yes that is me turning the hose on him, hehe)... although if you really want to see the whole thing - venture here. The kids waited patiently nearby and Ace waited for his cue to go for his part in the excitement. At the moment there has not been a response.... but I have no doubt one is coming.

So we've stayed busy this week with the snow. Thankfully we have a vehicle that allows us to get around the area and not be totally snowed in. I personally am not driving it - because I don't trust the greater populous to handle the roads. The kids enjoy going out and running around in the near FOOT of snow that we now have on the ground and in theory it is all going to start washing away in the next day or so when the rains come. We shall see - in the meantime - we're enjoying it, knowing it won't last forever!

Mae's First Birthday

2012-01-18T12:12:00.000-06:00

Hooray Saturday was the day! The day that this mommy plots from early on in her children's existence. Yes, the famous 'First Birthday' party. Since our little girl from day one has been referred to as Owlie due to her head that turns extremely far and her big eyes that she can make - it only seemed appropriate that that be the theme. As it turns out - there is a HUGE market for a certain owl-themed 1st birthday set - so my inspiration began there.

Decorations and such were all obtained or made this past week or so and the execution took place on Friday. I made the cakes on Saturday morning - above you are looking at 3 tubs of frosting there. The little owls were made out of crafting foam that I traced and put together with hot glue. They made for excellent decor for the cakes.

Across the mantle I strung her month photos - along with a photos on top of it of Mae when she was 10 days old and one that I took on her birthday in a similar pose. The circle garland are just a lot of felt circles cut out and just sewn together. The strands of lights have little cupcake wrappers on them as little lamp shades. The wreath I made using a foam circle that I wrapped with yarn and then hot glued another foam owl I made along with some of the circles. I ordered the balloon, plates, and pinata in the official line of 'Whoo's Turning 1' themed stuff. The pull string pinata is stuffed with toys (all of non-choking hazard size) for the 3 and under crowd to enjoy! With everything in order the party was set - food was set out (forgot to snap that picture) and let the merriment begin with snow falling in the background!

The birthday girl was ready to party in her special outfit. I got her shirt from BowDaciousBaby and it's darling! Although I won't lie - I do have a complaint, they didn't preshrink the shirt before doing the applique/embroidery and so it's not totally flat now. Hmmph. Still darling and she looked too cute for words in it! She had a great nap before the party and was ready to enjoy the festivities!

People began to arrive as the snow continued to fall. Grammie had thankfully avoided any issues arriving from her flight here that morning, so she was busy helping me get everything ready. Ace was so excited for the snow and was itching to go outside. He had fun throwing snowballs at the window for the party guests to watch.

With snow hampering some guests' arrivals and the urgency for our current guests to get home - we began opening presents. Mae got a lot of cute things. She loved the stroller, but really thought it should be for her to sit in and not for the doll.

A family picture was obtained (see the snow falling in the background?) before the cake festivities began - Mae was distracted by something to her left, that was far more interesting than the camera.

With Mae in place the cake was set in front of her to grab a picture before we lit the candle and sang happy birthday. Well she wasn't interested in any lit candle, in fact it was the first thing she grabbed - so with the formality of it over and this picture snapped we let her have at it - while we sang Happy Birthday.

I'm done with this.

After she had sufficiently and timidly smashed the cake to her liking we grabbed a few pictures with friends, so they could get on the road... as we had a few other guests arrive during cake festivities to say the roads were getting pretty precarious out there. Pop Pop arrived to say he'd be sticking around a while because of it - and another friend of ours arrived having had a small fender bender and left after consuming a slice of cake and dropping off a present (he had driven close to an hour to attend too!) Dern that snowy weather! We also decided to skip the pinata and decided to save it for a play date when all the little ones could attend and participate.

Next up was bath time, followed by a few more presents, and little bit of time with the grandparents that were around for the festivities and then the party was over! What fun she had! Cake was consumed, presents were opened and she spent the remainder of the evening playing with all her new loot (along with Ace who very much enjoyed playing with all the new toys!) Thanks to all her fans who ventured out in the snowy NW weather to attend her special day!!

Books of 2011

2012-01-14T13:30:00.000-06:00

This post is to document as I have for many years now what I read this past year. There was a LOT that went on this past year and as a result of that - I really didn't read much AT ALL. In fact the first book I read wasn't until July. A new baby, illness, a move across the country all contributed. I still love to read, but it doesn't always get to be a priority. Here is my extremely meager 2011 list:

Silver Sparrow
The Hunger Games
Shepherding a Child's Heart
Catching Fire

Falling Together

One Year

2012-01-11T12:10:00.000-06:00

Happy First Birthday, Mae!

It seems impossible that one year has passed since my little girl was placed in my arms. She's still pretty tiny, but she's far more mobile, expressive, and if possible more adorable as when she entered this world.

Mae's 12th month brought more firsts:   first time sleeping in her own room, first Christmas, first allergic reaction, first 911 call, first bout of bronciolitis, first New Year's Eve.

Let's start with Mae's chomper count: 3 total for her first year. Her second top tooth has broken through the gums, but since it isn't truly visible we will leave the total count at 3.   She's doing well to use them on appropriate things. Although she does bite when she gets really mad. Doesn't bode well for preschool, so hopefully she out grows that tantrum.

Mae is putting those teeth to good use in the food department and has started to eat things like sliced turkey, cheese, and even her first McDonald's nugget! She does drink a little goat's milk daily, but nothing terribly measurable and she does so in a sippy cup. We've skipped bottles entirely - in spite of the $ that I dropped on several fancy ones. Ah well. She still eats like a baby bird and relies mostly on mama milk. I think she's going to trend like her brother on the very little food consumption for a bit, making her mama count calories and be nervous.    She is growing though.  She weighs 16.14lbs (2.02%) and is 26.52" (1.70%) so while she's nearly off the charts she is gaining weight, in spite of illness.

Yes, this last month has been quite the challenge for Mae Mae.   She had a cold when she cut her tooth that seems to be pretty normal for her teething routine it seems, but after the cold (or during?) we discovered she had an allergy and had to go through the process of handling that, allergist appointments, and carrying around epi pens. After the immediate reaction we followed up with her doctor who diagnosed our little girl with bronciolitis because she just sounded so junky in her lungs. By New Years she was feeling much better and when the allergist listened to her lungs, she was totally clear and over it (a week later.)

I mentioned earlier that Mae slept in her room for the first time, and to date, the only time. She developed her cold right after that and this mama bear likes her baby close when she's got a cold. After that it was the allergy, then the bronciolitis, and well now to be honest, her room needs to be cleaned and reorganized again before we can place her in there again.   :)    In general Mae's sleep is not ideal.   She's doing decent napping - sometimes we'll get 90+ minutes out of her - that seems to be once every 5 days.   She is pretty much down to one nap sometime in the afternoon.   She does car nap pretty consistently though.   Her nighttime sleep though is quite dramatic. As in it takes forever to get her to sleep. No routine, lighting, or mood can get her to become unconscious unless she a) wants to or b) screams until she's unconscious in our arms.   The doctor yesterday said that is most likely a separation anxiety issue and should pass with time.   Here's hoping sooner than later!

Vocabulary wise we don't have much more official words.   She really doesn't say 'mama' much anymore unless she's upset and reaching for me (and even then it often is only one 'ma' and that is milk)   Although her 'ma' for milk is morphing into 'meee' so she's getting closer to actually getting the real word out.    Same with 'brother' - it often still is 'ba' but she is on occasion says 'bru da' - she still utters 'up' but mostly she just reaches her arms up and fusses.   We try really hard to not automatically give her what she wants so that she does need to exercise the language skills.    I have been working with her to say 'please' in sign language and what's really cute is that she signs 'please' on me when she wants it - which for her is just waving on my chest back and forth.    It's sweet.      She is very good at waving hi and bye and on occasion she will say both of those words.

Development wise, she sort of knows the color red. I'd say 70% of the time she can show me something red if there are three choices to choose from.   She does really well at eye contact and seeking my approval or disapproval on her actions (or the actions of others.)    She can also put things in and out of a container.     She loves to follow her brother and play with him.   They are starting to get into a bit of a tussle every now and then over a toy, as Mae seems to find it her right to simply take anything and everything her brother has.   He does ok with the process most of the time.     Mae also has started to shake her head 'no' some times when we ask her to do something.   It's cute (currently.) Mae most of the time is adorably happy, big smiles and giggling. However, she does have quite an explosive 0-100% mad gauge. She has easily moved into tantrums without much issue. Whole body going stiff, beet red, and mad mad mad. She recovers quickly, but my goodness she can express her displeasure like no other.

Mae is fully walking now and has some decent speed with it too.   She climbs everywhere she can get to and even tries to climb some places she can't. While cute- she certainly is going to make me go gray.    She is now quite proficient at climbing up and down the stairs - which makes me much happier that she's mastered these skills. She still on occasion likes to stand right at the top of the stairs and dance - which is cause for a mild-heart attack by this mama, but overall she has avoided tumbles and mishaps. But this little girl's guardian angel does certainly work overtime!

Toys and play: Mae still loves her little baby doll, and her Sophie giraffe (which lives in the car), and she loves baby dolls and soft stuffed animals. She likes to carry them around and play peek a boo with them.   She also really loves to put blankets, pants... anything on her head and walk around that way.   Also LOVES to put anything around her neck that she can fashion into a scarf... she really is my danger child.   Trust me, she's never out of my sight in light of these 'hobbies' of hers.   She's adorable though when she's behaving safely.     Mae really hasn't taken an interest in any particular show or movie. She for the most part couldn't care less when the tv is on, other than her interest in climbing up onto the table the tv is on.    She still loves to chew on things, but has moved past putting EVERYTHING into her mouth... but she still puts plenty in.      She loves to play the 'upside down' game with her dad, playing he her room with her brother, and poking noses with her mama.    She's just so happy. Mae also likes to sing along when we sing songs with "ahhhhhs" in various notes. Pretty cute!

It's so hard to believe that a whole year has gone by! I can't believe it. It feels it went even faster than Ace's first year.    She's so special, and is certainly developing into her own personality in this family and we love to watch her do so.    Happy Birthday, Owlie! Mommy, Dad, and Brother all love you so much!!

Another Anniversary

2012-01-07T10:57:00.000-06:00

I think for the first time in six years the anniversary of my dad's death was not looming when I went to bed last night.   In fact, I didn't think about the date at all.   It's so interesting how people deal with death, even more interesting how the same person deals with different deaths.    You see, my grandfather and dad died within two months of one another. It was a brutal blow for me - mostly though I was grieving over the loss of my father.   But I've said all of this before - what I haven't talked about as much is the looming anniversary dates. My husband often asks me when I'm in an 'off mood' is this some date of something bad?    It's true I often go into a funk or bad mood on the anniversary dates of negative events.

Time heals ~~all~~ most wounds and as time went by I started to skip over November 10th (the day my grandfather died) being a specific day to be sad and mourn - in fact I think it was year three, at most year four.   For my grandma's anniversary of her death last year, I was beyond preoccupied with life and the living to be in mourning.   However, it was not lost on me that the day I rushed my daughter to the ER, transported her to Children's and admitted her to the hospital was the two year anniversary of my grandma's death.    Grum certainly would have wanted no time lost in mourning of her anyway - she is perfectly happy where she was.    While I can't say exactly what I'll be thinking come this March 16th this year, I'm guessing the impact of that day won't be as big as they were with my father's 3rd anniversary of his death.

Every year since my dad's death - I've stared at the calendar on the 6th knowing what the 7th meant. Knowing that it was the anniversary of my dad departing this earth.    Last night when I looked at the calendar, for the first time in six years... the 7th was just another number. I wasn't lost in grief or memories..     I woke up this morning to see my uncle's note about six years gone by... and realized what day it really was.    I know grief isn't textbook, every person you grieve for isn't missed in the same ways - but for some reason this absence of remembering the night before, the absence of the looming dread of the 7th rolling around on the calendar - marks further healing in my loss.

Life has continued on these last six years.    Many things have taken place, all of which I know my father would have loved to be a part of - and maybe he's looking down watching from a better place than we are, I don't know.   What I do know is that he is absent and that I miss him. He's missed so much... but his legacy certainly lives on.

Elephant in the Room

2012-01-05T01:04:00.001-06:00

It's funny how life can change so quickly. How one incident can result in a life-shift in not only behavior, but mindset, mannerisms and more. Our journey into allergies began on Christmas day with a phone call to 911. Our little girl was in mild distress and covered in hives after consuming a certain food. We knew that even after that shot of benadryl by the paramedics that further doctors would be examining her and tests would be run. I knew it was just the beginning...

On Tuesday afternoon my little girl and I headed to the allergist. She was a picture perfect patient. She was happy toddling around the room awaiting the visit from the doctor and she happily cuddled up against her mommy as the nurse did the test on her back. She didn't even budge from my chest to see what was going on. She didn't fuss one bit. Then we waited and she happily tore apart my wallet while we waited for things to unfold.

15 minutes later it was confirmed that Mae has allergies and that Mae would be prescribed an Jr. Epi Pen.   We went over procedures, check lists of when and if to use it,  what foods to avoid, what were ok. Having had allergies pretty much my whole life all of this wasn't that overwhelming to listen to.   It is however the catalyst to paranoia: What's in that?  Ace you can have that but Mae can't. Mae can have this as a substitute. Her cheeks are rosey, did she get into something? and on and on it goes.

It's a whole new and enduring world - allergies.    It causes you to really have to stop and analyze everything that a child consumes.   As an adult I have one food allergy to pineapple - I read a lot of labels - I find it exhausting because I never read a label once. I read it three times before consuming anything that remotely might contain pineapple - and I can recall many missteps I've had in consuming pineapple unsuspectingly and the consequences for that.   It's frustrating, but I'm in control. I know what's the result of my intake of pineapple.   It's another whole world when it's my job to read the labels for my daughter, to insure that she is safe.   It is also my new job to carry the benadryl and the jr. epi pen.

Epi... they make it sound so simple. Not like the big scary word of epinephrine, a jolt of adrenaline.   The reminder from the pharmacist that it "only buys you about 15 minutes of time, so be sure to seek immediate emergent care" is reminder enough that it's not so simple. The demonstration of use alone is jarring... nevermind that if I have to administer it - it won't be in the adult's thigh that it was just demonstrated on but my 16lb (nearly) one year old instead.     But as traumatic and scary as it all sounds - I'm honestly not afraid. I just feel that this Jr. Epi Pen sits there is like a giant elephant is in the room.   This undertone of heavy weighted reality that I have a child with a moderate allergy and a this elephant that sits on a shelf awaiting a reaction.

I don't live in fear, but I do feel a heavy weight carrying around this pen (no not literally.)   However, I don't let it consume me. I know that life is not in my control, but God's and whether this be a life long challenge for Mae or a shorter one mostly for her parents - it will be used for His glory and within His protection. I pray that the allergy discovered is it, that there are no more to be discovered by traumatic means. I pray that she outgrows what she has.   I hope one day to be rid of the elephant in the room, and my purse, my car... and soon to be in a couple of other places as well. After all elephants are quite cumbersome.

Ace's First Day

2012-01-03T16:42:00.002-06:00

Last night I went to bed and set my alarm... for the first time in a long time. Since I quit work the only time that I officially needed an alarm was in the event that we had a doctor or dentist appointment. It's been nice for the last 4 years, I must say. Today dawned a new era of the return of the alarm clock (2 days a week!) I got up at 7 and got myself ready to go, then went into Ace's room and he was mostly awake. He asked "When is it time to get up? Is it time for preschool?!" He was sleepy, but excited!
I got him partially dressed, grabbed him some cereal and apples for breakfast, and grabbed the scissors do to a bit of maintenance on his hair that has gotten quite shaggy. He was less of fan of that. We grabbed his shirt and finished getting him dressed. Got his coat and backpack on and he posed for his first morning of school picture in front of the door. We left Mae with Mo who was still here visiting us, said goodbye and the three of us headed on to school.

We arrived at school and he was so excited to get out of the car, did great going in, and met his teacher Miss Megan. After meeting Miss Megan he shied into his father's shoulder. We met a new friend who also was having his first day and we all walked upstairs together with Miss Megan. Ace and his new friend got to pick their cubbies to hang their coats and their backpacks. Ace shied away and said "I don't want to do it." I helped him get it all put in and as we're doing this he asks "When are you coming back to get me?" I assured him we would be back in a few hours and that he'd have a good time.

We went into his classroom and he got to look around and he and his new friend went over and checked out some toys with his teacher. Us parents hung back and after a few minutes went over to say goodbye. Which he barely acknowledged - so we headed out.

Fast forward a couple of hours in which time we had breakfast, Mae had a short nap, and I made Ace a lunch - it was time to go collect him. Mae came this time and was having a lot of fun playing as I looked around for Ace. Most of the kids were in the main play area and Ace was busy walking around in the classroom busy as can be. He came out and smiled really big, and gave me a hug. He went to grab his stuff and I talked to the teacher who gave a glowing review for his first day.

We hopped in the car and I gave him his lunch which he was VERY excited about and he scarfed. In fact as I was driving home he was done and wanting more... so we swung through McD's where he consumed 4 nuggets and fries. I drove us around as he told me about his day "I played for 'thirty hours!', did a project, sang about shapes, played with Matthew, and didn't go do the race (?) outside because it was too cold, and my teacher turned out the lights when she talked to us."

As soon as we got home he showed me his project and showed me his book fair flyer (and so it begins!) so we looked through that before nap time (which he ultimately he did not take,...) and marked the end of his first first day of school which he says he's excited to go to again on Thursday!

The Beginning

2012-01-02T23:00:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new adventure in our family.   Ace starts preschool! He's ready, he's excited, and I am preparing myself for the car shuttle shuffle for the next decade+ - but even more than that I am preparing myself for letting go, just a bit.   I joked with Loving Husband that starting tomorrow we'd never really know for sure anymore if he was telling lies.   Up until now he's had very little exposure away from us.    He only sporadically stays in Sunday School, we've had very little babysitting, and all playdates for the most part I am in attendance for. So if he created a story or a fib, it was pretty easily known if it hadn't happened.    Now we start a whole new adventure of several hours away from mom and dad.   Into a whole new world of school.

I am so excited for him and I am so thankful that he's so excited to start.   I pray that enthusiasm remains when we go to say goodbye and leave him in his class.   That it remains as the days of the week continue and he realizes that this isn't just a one time adventure that this is a couple days a week, every week, all year long.

I won't lie - even as a I write this I'm misty eyed.   It seems impossible that we're already embarking on the adventures of school for him.   Yes, him and I have done 'school' together for over six months now - but this is truly the beginning of it all.   Soon he'll move to a 5 day program, then he'll go onto kindergarten, elementary, extra curriculars will be developed... more car shuttling will happen and more and more time out of my care I will be entrusting him to someone else.   I won't lie - that's a little scary.  I won't lie - it's a huge milestone that I've been waiting for him to experience - and I hope he loves it.     I won't lie - the last 3.5 years have flown by.    Where has this baby gone?

So while tomorrow's adventure is for Ace and what he's experiencing - it will certainly have just as big of an impact made on the rest of us - especially this mama. Ace will make friends, learn new things, and experience life from a whole new perspective.   I just pray that it's a good experience for him and pray that to date we've done a good enough job preparing him for the outside world.

I look forward to his adventure tales, his insights, his new knowledge and excitement he finds. And again, I won't lie - I will look forward to when he comes home - because even on the worst days he's my first born, my ~~baby~~ big boy, and I love to see his precious face, see his excitement, hear his perspective on the world, and give big hugs!     So yes, I'm sappy - I'm trying to get a good portion of that out before tomorrow morning so my toddler isn't rolling his eyes at me in embarrassment.

Here's to a great first day at preschool, Bear!   I'm so proud of who you are and can't wait to see where you go in life - this is just the beginning!

Best of 2011

2012-01-02T02:12:00.000-06:00

Best Event: The birth of our daughter
Best Movie: Arthur Christmas
Best Over-Played Song: Kokomo (strikes again!)
Best Book: The Hunger Game Trilogy
Best New-ity of 2011: Mae (what a great year of changes we've had!)
Most Shocking News of 2011: Our friend Katie's discovery of Stage 4 colon cancer

MW's Word of the Year: pragmatic
Jo's Word of the Year: car (between road trips, broken ones, and shopping for them...)

Events of 2011 in no particular order:
1. Epic Pirate themed 3rd Birthday Party for Ace
2. Road trips to MS and back the NW
3. Disneyland Trips!!
4. The South
5. Mae's week long stay in the hosptial
6. Christmas Day 911 call for Mae
7. Becky's baby shower & birth of Ben
8. Ace's School with Mom
9. Annoucement of Kaylee getting a sibling!
10. New cars!

Ringing In...

2012-01-01T16:38:00.002-06:00

It was another low key year for us in this household. Two little ones and no babysitters available means we have a stay at home celebration, with one nice exception - my friend Mo came to visit us! We've been having a nice time the last few days playing tourist and showing her around the area, yesterday her and I went and saw a movie (New Years Eve, which we both really liked in spite of ~~bad~~ abysmal reviews) but for NYE festivities we stayed close to home.

I made some tomato bacon bites, we had some cheese and crackers, and other munchies to graze on through dinner and the evening. Ace was allowed to stay up until New York New Years. To pass the time we played a half a game of Candy Land before Ace had a anti-establishment meltdown and earned himself a timeout. We moved away from structured playing, I broke out the party hats and the noise makers, put on a movie and later on he did one of his floor puzzles all by himself (very proud!) partially with an audience. :)

Mo and Loving Husband played War. Loser takes a shot (beer for LH or diet coke for Mo) - I made a booze run mid-game. A few beers and sodas later we moved to the living room, called Grammie via Skype and rang in NY New Years (4 minutes late) with Ace. We missed any official countdown or ball drop - so we faked it via an old video online of last year's ball drop. :) Hugs and happy new years were said and Ace went off to bed, after observing some fireworks that neighbors were setting off.

Mae was a happy and wide awake girl. She rang in EST New Years, CST, and MST... She was a busy girl, playing peekaboo with my scarf, walking around the house, playing horsey with her dad, and in general just was WIDE awake and having fun. She finally made it to sleep about 20 minutes away from the new year PST.

After Mae went to sleep, the adults headed over to the dining table for a game of Dutch Blitz, which after remembering how to play we had to pause mid-second round to toast in the new year and 5 minutes later Mae was awake again! We called it a night on the game - and LH headed to bed. Mo and I headed downstairs to enjoy a little more tv and I got Mae asleep on me. We called it a night and headed to bed around 2:30am. It was an excellent although tame NYE!

Can't wait to see what 2012 brings us! Happy New Year, everyone!!

2011 in Pictures

2012-01-01T16:06:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas

2011-12-26T15:29:00.000-06:00

First let me say we had a WONDERFUL Christmas. In spite of many things...

We began our morning in prayer and then head downstairs. Ace was so excited! He just couldn't wait to get down there and get into everything. His excitement was infectious. :) Mae, still battling a cold and not really understanding was content to go along for the ride.

Downstairs we went and it was a frenzy of wrapping, stockings, and excitement! Mae enjoyed a cautious observation, but was quite happy with things in her stocking. I got her a wallet of her very own - and she pulled the cards in and out. It was adorable. Ace was SO excited about everything. I loved it. His smile was genuine and his joy was present. I love the 'magic' of Christmas.

We all opened our presents from Ace - mine were beautiful flowers that I had already received the day before. Ace chose them especially for me. Ace picked out a pair of flashlights for his dad so that he and his father could go for walks in the dark with them. For his sister he got her some weebles. Excellent choices as she absolutely loved them and played with them repeatedly throughout the morning. He did a good job choosing with some guided direction - inexpensive (roughly $5 presents) for his family members.

Another exciting present was from his Auntie Dawn... a few weeks into Christmas a catalog arrived in the mail and he was flipping through it and came upstairs going on and on about how he didn't want a camera or a swarmfire (gasp!) but that he really wanted THIS: a remote controlled car. He probably stared at that picture for a solid ten minutes, taking in every angle, every picture (all 4 of them) and I'm sure just imagining the possibilities - his Christmas present had already been purchased by us though, so I shot his Auntie an email and she happily made his Christmas wish come true and the reaction was so great!

Mae was adorable and very observant and watching everything that was going on. She participated in paper unwrapping with curiosity, but she was certainly more interested in the item within the wrapping than the actual paper. She wanted whatever was under that wrapping and she wanted it out of its box for her to manipulate/play with right away. She got books, dolls, puppets, and a tea set and she has since played again with them all, but her favorite by far was that wallet.

Ace all month has been showing us various things he has been wanting - but one stood out over all others: the Nerf SWARMFIRE gun! Yes, literally - he had a hawk eye for it in the stores, he could find it without fail in any advertisement, and he was so excited by it. When I asked him what he thought his dad would like for Christmas his answer was "A swarmfire!" Um No. Same thing was his answer when his father posed the question a few days later about what to get for mom. Amusing and quite smart! No fret young anxious one... His Aunt and Uncle bought it for him and remained 'hidden' until the end of unwrapping this morning. It was quite exciting!

Now this Christmas I seemed to be batting a 1000 in the prepared department - on Christmas Eve minutes before it was rolling over to Christmas, Loving Husband asked where the other part of Mae's ladybug was that he was supposed to blow up. What are you talking about, LH? Apparently, there were two pieces of Mae's present and I failed to get the main portion of it. Siiigh. Oh well, she had her stocking, and a sad deflated ladybug 'mat' for the time being. Then after all the excitement of the swarmfire: the build up, the opening, the unwrapping.. I grabbed the C batteries... all four that I had gotten for the gun that required six! Are you kidding me???? Sheesh. Our calls to the neighbors turned up nada - the boy and his dad would have to head to the gas station to get the other two. Siigh. Oh well funny memories for later... Later.

After presents were unwrapped, Loving Husband got to cooking and we enjoyed some breakfasts and phone calls with various friends and family members. After that, around 11 we got a bit of excitement - about 30 minutes after breakfast Mae broke out in hives and coughing - 911 was called - paramedics arrived - her and her mommy were carted off in an ambulance to the hospital for monitoring - and 90 minutes after that we were headed home! Oh yah! No lie. It was quite the ordeal - she's ok and we'll have some follow up appointments with the doctor this week. What a way to make a statement for your first Christmas, baby girl!

After that it was a low key afternoon - nap times for both kiddos while LH played video games and I watched some Christmas movies with a sleep healthy Mae. Followed pretty closely by dinner and then we gathered around to watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas one last time before Ace's bedtime to close out Christmas on Ace's 4th Christmas and Mae's 1st. And what a sentiment to close on - on a day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the joy of family, and the health and safety of our little girl. Merry Christmas indeed!

Our Christmas Eve

2011-12-26T01:18:00.001-06:00

Our Christmas began on Christmas Eve when we ventured over to Gran and Pop Pop's to have Christmas with all the family. It was a lot of fun to watch Mae explore the presents around the tree, watch all the kids play together, and enjoy a lot of fun, food and family.

Is this one mine, mama?

He had SUCH a blast!

There is so much going on in this picture, but Ace is my favorite!

A Merry Christmas, Eve with lots of family!

The Adventures of Holly

2011-12-26T00:37:00.000-06:00

We had quite the merry and adventurous Christmas day in our household, but more on that in another post. This post is about Holly and all her antics that she's been up to this fine month of December. Who is Holly? Well she's our elf of course! We had a lot of fun finding new and different places for her to hide and I must give most of the credit for Holly's hiding spots to Loving Husband - who sometimes even got out of bed and grabbed the camera to go tuck Holly into a new nook... sometimes having to seek her out of Ace's daytime hideout for her -where ever that might have been. :)

Both kids enjoyed Holly being around. Ace did great not touching Holly until we said it was ok - and he was especially amused the morning he woke up and Holly was above his head. Mae enjoyed Holly too - but mostly to chew on. She did love toting her around after Ace had discarded her.

There were a couple of days he was stumped as to where Holly was... specifically the one in the car and amusingly enough the one where Holly was hiding (and covering her eyes) amid the pile of stuffed animals. One night we simply forgot - Holly laid on the kitchen floor all night where Ace had left her before. No picture was taken... Ace found her pretty easily - we sorta passed it off as that's where she hid. He didn't seem to care too much. Another night we forgot before bed, so the next morning LH quickly hid her away so Ace would think he thought he was still looking - so after dinner I quickly hid her on the scanner and wala Ace found her when we suggested he go look. :)

It was a lot of fun and a silly nightly game. Last night Holly was perched on top of our Christmas tree to watch all the excitement of Christmas morning - and tonight I plucked her down for her to sit with us and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas with us for her final night of festive fun until next year.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T18:24:00.001-06:00

So much to share, but for now we will just say Merry Christmas! We hope yours is wonderful too!

Women's Christmas Dessert

2011-12-17T00:53:00.001-06:00

Every year my holiday season is started off with a gathering together of some of my favorite women and celebrating the season with candlelight, Christmas pageantry, holiday songs, and cheer. :) This year was no different and just as magical... well I had one complaint - they could have made it much darker so the candlelight really would have made the statement. I suspect this was for the elderly attending, my suggestion for next year is for flashlights to be provided for those that needed extra lighting. Perhaps some of the men can serve as ushers instead of waiters. I digress.. aside from too much florescent lighting above, it was a beautiful night! Bri, D, and Jackie and Dana all got into the creative spirit on tables this year and they turned out wonderful!

Bri's table, Dana & Jackie's table, and Danielle's table

One of my favorite things was the tree that Bri had on her table. It was so delicate and caught the light so nicely. :) I enjoyed staring at it while I consumed way too many tiny desserts.

It was a nice night to celebrate the start of the season and to see some friendly faces we don't get to see too often. It's hard to believe that it's already been so long ago and that Christmas is in less than 10 days now!

A Giving Spirit

2011-12-16T11:47:00.000-06:00

Christmas is a time for sharing.   It's a time for giving.   It's a time for spreading the good news.    But it is often a time for greed. Frustration. And consumerism.    Yes, I said it.     Christmas gives (most) people a wonderful feeling - it really is a time to be merry!   We don't just say "Merry Christmas" to piss off the politically correct "Happy Holiday" folk (gasp, did she really just say 'piss off' in a Christmas post? Yes I did. )   It really is because people (in general) are more giving, loving, kind during this holiday season.   But it really is a double edge sword and a fine line to walk... ok enough with the cliche statements what am I getting at??   Giving! I don't want Christmas to become about greed and consumerism.   I want our focus to be on Jesus and giving.

God gave the ultimate gift to all mankind when he gave us Jesus.   The reason we (all should) celebrate Christmas.    The wise men brought gifts to ~~baby~~ toddler Jesus to show adoration, love, thanksgiving.   We give to each other to show that we love and care for each other.    I've talked about this before, last year.   These are grand topics that cause people to reflect on the true meaning of why they give, how much they give, are their motivations correct and in line with the real meaning of Christmas... but this year it isn't about me or my motivations for giving - this is about creating a good foundation in Ace for the season of giving.    Teaching him that it isn't about presents, it's about Jesus.   It's about helping him celebrate the season and Jesus and not getting lost in the consumerism.    Not lost in the greed of "more more more!" Teaching him that there are others less fortunate than him that he can choose to help rather than have "more!"    It's my biggest and most rewarding challenge yet.

I set out to come up with a list of 25 various ways we can share, help, give to others.   I was going to set it up in sort of an advent style - but I'll be honest, I never got that going and off the ground and as it is now dawning on the 16th day of December, it just isn't going to happen.   Instead I've just been mentally ticking off the list of things that I have come up with to help Ace understand a more giving side of Christmas.     To be honest some of the concepts are quite abstract for a three year old. I can only explain so much that we're giving toys to other kids that don't have any money to buy them. He sees the toys, but he never sees the other kids - he also doesn't understand the concept of money just yet either - but I think we're on a good path for understanding in the long run (I hope.)

We started off getting a tag off of an Angel Tree.   We chose as a family a tag for a 7 year old girl whose father's hours at work had been cut and she wanted an easy bake oven.   He helped me ordered it on Amazon and was very excited to see it arrive at the house.    We talked about the little girl and the limited information we had on her situation.    We said we were helping to make her Christmas that much more special - but it wasn't for us to feel good about ourselves for doing something good - but that we should thank Jesus that we were in a position to help others.

Another way we're teaching him giving was Toys for Tots. I made the decision this year to not send out our Christmas card to the masses. There are so many people that I regularly communicate with on social networking sites, that I figure why spend $30 on stamps, plus the cost to print each of the cards, when that money could be put to a better purpose. We had already planned to donate one toy for TFT, but with the decision made to reduce our Christmas cards - we went to the store and planned to get 4 presents to put in the box. It just seemed like a better way to spend our money this year. I explained to Ace that these toys were for kids who otherwise wouldn't be able to have toys. This motivated him. We walked through the store and he was very generous - I had to scale back his generosity just a little - again since he doesn't understand the concept of money. In the end we decided on a two toys for younger kids and two toys for slightly older kids, one of them Ace exclaimed "I would really love this on December 25th if it were for me, so other kids will too!" We checked out and then we walked over and put them in the box. That is the only thing we purchased in the store, even though I did need to get other things. We left the store with nothing, because I felt it would make the best impact on him. After we got to our car we said a prayer for those that would receive the toys and for others that have needs and wishes that might still not be met, and again thanking God for our ability to help others.

In days to come we will donate some food to a food bank, some of his toys and mom and dad's clothes to charity, bring a poinsettia to a friend, and have him read his sister a story. I want him to see that helping others doesn't have to be just giving to strangers or giving money, but also giving of his time and that doing something nice for someone else is giving as well. So while he's excited for Christmas and excited for presents, we are hoping to help him keep his focus on what truly matters: Jesus and that we can point to Jesus and share Jesus with others by giving, sharing and helping others. I leave you with a story that really touched my heart, such a wonderful example of selfless giving - and while it might not have been done in the name of Jesus it is an excellent reflection of the giving spirit.

Ten on Ten - December

2011-12-11T23:30:00.000-06:00

This month I did things a little different. Normally the general idea was to take ten pictures, one every hour... I was a bit more 'as the moment' struck me style and with that we have the following.

To see others stop by A Bit of Sunshine

Eleven Months Old

2011-12-11T00:58:00.001-06:00

I am not sure why but my baby girl turning eleven months old is freaking me out.   I had a mini-meltdown and internal struggle with the idea of getting rid of her swing... one that I have not fully completed mind you. I am in a bit of a power struggle of sorts with myself on that one.   Logically, she doesn't use it anymore. In fact only twice since we returned to the NW. But she might, right? :(   She used it every day, multiple times a day, for months and months.   I have wonderful memories of looking at her peacefully asleep in there... sitting up smiling and playing with her toes... she can't be done with it?? (See that's just a small glimpse at my nuttiness on this subject.)   Perhaps I'm having this freakout now because I know that when she officially turns ONE YEAR OLD! (gasp!) I won't have time for this ~~mourning, sadness,~~ craziness. It will be a time of celebrating and being excited that my little girl has achieved such a milestone! But that's in another month, so I choose to embrace my sadness over the quickly slipping away baby in my little girl.

New things for Mae this month: walking, shoes, Black Friday shopping with her mama, her first Christmas tree, a top tooth, and a three day fever followed by roseola.

Mae in the mobility department is more interested in ascending heights than traveling on foot.   Yes, our little girl is a climber, part monkey really.   She has scaled the baby gates, climbs up onto chairs, boxes, coffee tables, anywhere she can get to. She's a pro at the stairs and VERY quick especially if she knows she's not supposed to be climbing up them.    She also would happily climb into the tub if we let her, it's amazing how high she can kick that little leg up! In the walking department she is still pretty wobbly but can cross a floor without falling down 6 out of 10 times.   Her speed is increasing and if she follows the couch line she really can move fast! Mostly I think it's confidence, so she just needs more practice. :)   In light of this mobility Mae received her first pair of shoes - and she does well to keep them on for the most part.

Sleep still is sub par in my opinion. She wakes regularly and often takes until 10pm or later to go to sleep.    I think it's partially due to teething, but a greater deal with habit that she's formed in spite of our efforts.   I suspect the new year will bring along with it some sleep training.   We'll see.  I really don't want to talk about it...

In the illness department - Mae has now been able to check off another high profile childhood illness: roseola.   Yes on Friday morning she began running a fever of 100.6 and it persisted all day Friday and Saturday, it spiked to 102.5 in the middle of the night on both nights, but I suspect being too cuddly in blankets and next to her mama was mostly the culprit of that. I refrained from too much tylenol, as we're advocates of fevers being the body's natural remedy to fight illness and over the course of her three day illness I gave her 4 doses of tylenol. Twice to bring the temp down and twice for her comfort. Sunday morning around 5am she woke up and threw up everywhere. Thankfully I had a blanket that caught most of it. I called the doctor and one came out to the house to check on her. Prior to that I was almost certain it was roseola. Which by Monday it was proven to be just that - but the vomit threw me off.   Tuesday she woke with a cough that sounded tight - so to be safe we took her in. I don't take chances with coughs anymore. The cough turned out to be nothing and didn't even linger much past that day.   So she had a rash for about 2 days and by the third day it was gone.    I will say that her rash was much milder than her brother's was when Ace had it at 10 months.

Mae now officially has three teeth. She is slowly starting to eat more solid food each day. Mostly still baby food jars, but she also enjoys puffs, and LOVES french fries - I know not the best but still cute. She also enjoys steamed carrot quite a bit and the freeze dried apples and pears that I have as one of Ace's snacks.   She will also eat a lot of food if her dad baby birds feeds her.

Mae also loves to play. She tries to play peek-a-boo still by raising things over her head, although she is getting better about putting things in front of her eyes to do it.   She laughs at her brother doing silly things and loves to climb up on his bed and the two of them play together in his room. She is waving 'bye bye' very well now and smiles the biggest smile when her dad walks in the room.   She wants to play the game with her hand and making noises on her mouth regularly too.   Vocab wise - she still mostly just has: mama, dada, bruder, up.   Sign language - the only one she really ever uses is 'all done'.

This last month all the holiday decor has come out and Mae has enjoyed exploring a whole new world of exciting colors, lights, and new toys. She is fascinated by the tree, but is doing a decent job for the most part letting it be.   She loves the fisher price nativity set and is enjoying chewing on them. ;)   It's such a magical time of year and I'm so excited for her first Christmas and can't wait to see her experience everything for the first time!    Hold on tight we're headed full speed ahead toward ONE!!

A girl and her shoes...

2011-12-09T15:00:00.001-06:00

Most women are shoe-obsessed, or at least have a good appreciation of their art beyond just function. I am a shoe-obsessed woman. I have waaay too many of them and I love to buy them. While I am not going to try and instill an obsession in my daughter, I won't lie I was excited to get her first pair of shoes. I was excited to get Ace his first pair too, but not in quite the same way. Boy shoes are just that: shoes. But for girls, even tiny girls, they are such adorable fashion statements. :)

Now that Mae is walking a bit more it was time to get her first pair of walkers. I probably would have waited a couple of more weeks, but she doesn't like to keep socks on and so shoes were more necessary to keep her feet warmer than anything else. So we headed to Nordstrom in mid-November and were off to find her some shoes.

Her brother joined us on this adventure and he did very well watching the process of finding his sister shoes. Mae did well getting her foot measured: two little feet measuring a solid 3.5 shoe size. Which meant we went with a size 4 shoe for a little bit of room to grow.

We found a pair of little mary janes that would go well with most of her clothing and have a bit of sparkle to them to boot. Bonus they were on sale! So for $19.95 we had Mae's first pair of shoes. Can't beat that - I think Ace's first pair was closer to $50 for basically the same boy equivalent shoe.

Since this was Mae's first pair of shoes, she was gifted a little Nordy to take home with her and she was very much into snuggling with her Nordy. Ace received a balloon and we were on our way home!

Mae did very well to not try and take off her shoes - she was curious about them, but was even willing to walking on her feet with them on. She's officially a stylish walker with her cute mary janes. Congrats on your first pair of shoes, baby girl!

The Tree Decorator!

2011-12-08T00:00:00.000-06:00

"Mom, can we decorate a little?" This is the question that has been posed to me every day since we got out the tree. I try to accommodate - as it is true we are slow to complete the decoration process, but I mostly find it amusing that he's so excited to decorate for Christmas. I asked him one night what he thought Christmas was about and he said "decorating!"

I had to stop and pause and have a discussion with him that went something like this...

Me: Do you understand why we decorate at Christmas time?
A: No.
Me: Well remember when we decorated for your aunt's birthday party?
A: Yes, we put up balloons and streamers!
Me: Yah, that's right. We did that to help celebrate her birthday.
A: Oh ok.
Me: Do you know that we celebrate Jesus' birthday on Christmas?
A: YAH!! (said with animated jumps and glee)

Me: Well, we decorate for Christmas to help celebrate Jesus' birthday, and Jesus is the most important of all and so he gets the most special decorations and that is why he gets so many, because we really want to help celebrate his birthday!
A: ((excited and jumping)) yah and that's why he gets a TREE!
Me: Yep you're right! So while it is fun to decorate for Christmas, the reason we do it is for Jesus and the reason for celebrating Christmas at all is because...
A: We want to celebrate Jesus being born! (Said with a big grin!)

Amen!

Subway Art found here.

Mae's First Tree

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

This is Mae's first Christmas. I love that everything is so new and exciting. She loves to look at and explore the tree, the Nativity, the Christmas stuffed animals that I have amassed over the years... it's just so fun to see her seeing it for the the first time.

When we first got the tree got the tree out and up (which she watched with little bit of awe - and a lot more distraction of racing back and forth on the couch) she wasn't quite sure. She and her brother walked around it touching and poking at it. I then went and broke out the stuffed animals and both kids had a lot of fun with those. She particularly enjoyed some peek-a-boo with them.

I love to watch her fascination as she looks at the lights and touches them. I chuckle as I hear her brother say "No, sister you're not supposed to touch them!" as I gently remind him that he's not the parent but that it's nice he's looking out for his sister's well-being. :) She also likes to play peek-a-boo around the tree. Her brother did as well when he was little.

Another favorite past time is taking ornaments off the tree. Once again this year's tree is completely shatterproof. Breakable ornaments are still on the tree. Including that one that's got in her hand. Ace broke him 2 years ago. Super glue fixed little elf-elmo right up, but after Mae discarded the little guy, I moved him higher up in the tree - he's suffered enough and has graduated to a safer zone. :) I try not to encourage too much removal, but at the same time I don't nag and prevent it too often.

Besides, look how happy it makes her. I love this time of year, but watching my children explore the wonder makes it all that more cheerful and magical!

Elf on the Shelf

2011-12-06T15:09:00.001-06:00

As I've stated before Santa doesn't come to our house. Ace of course knows who he is, he's seen him in the mall, he squeals when he sees giant inflatable ones on Christmas tree lots. We just never informed him that Santa delivers him presents.  Ace knows that presents come from mom and dad.   So we haven't specifically spelled out to him that Santa is a fictional character, etc.. so really Santa still remains a part of Christmas and exists still about the same as Mickey Mouse. With that said that also means that we do not participate in leaving milk and cookies out for Santa, or writing Santa letters, or other traditions that go along with him (which does make this mommy a tiny bit sad, because I have fond memories of those things.) However, I still wanted him and Mae to have some festive fun and merriment that comes when one believes and that's where I thought of the elf on the shelf.   If you're unfamiliar here is a good synopsis.

I decided that I didn't want to lie to him and give the elf magical powers - saying that the elf moves in the night like the story says. Since there is no reason for the elf to report back to Santa since Santa is not a factor in Ace's motivation to stay naught or nice. Ace has been taught Jesus is the reason we should stay nice and not be naughty and Jesus doesn't need a elf to help Him establish that fact or not.     So we just make it an exciting game of hide and seek each morning.   Every night when he goes to bed, I go and hid the elf in some new place. In the morning when he wakes up he gets to go find the elf, but he's not allowed to touch it until mom or dad find it with him later. Mostly because I didn't want him scaling great heights when I put the elf on the fridge or something.  He absolutely loves it - and very excitedly comes in each morning saying he's found the elf. Or one morning, very disturbed being unable to locate the elf anywhere! (She was hanging from the shower curtain... that sounds more dark than the actual situation, see picture below.)

Now of course Ace's imagination is a good one and so it's still fun to make it seem like the little elf has been busy playing, reading, or having fun while everyone sleeps.   We let Ace's imagination dictate what he observes, rather than us telling him. So while I don't see anything wrong with others telling the tales and creating the magic in Christmas, we simply go a different route. I do know Ace is approaching an age where we're going to have to explain to him that other kids believe something different and he won't be able to spoil it for them.   At this point he doesn't realize there is anything to spoil.   I suspect that conundrum will be coming next holiday season.   :)   For now - we are happily making memories of hiding a silly elf that we picked up at Target on November 30th and that we named Holly. Here's a few places that she's been.

Black Friday - 2011

2011-12-05T18:05:00.001-06:00

Another year is here and I have conquered another Black ~~Friday~~ Thursday.   Yes around 10:30pm Vanessa, Mae, and I ventured out.   Yes due to the late -middle of the night- hours that I was going to be gone. Mae had to join us on our adventure. Seem backwards? Perhaps in most families, but my child at 10.5 months does NOT sleep through the night and we figured only doom would come if she woke in the middle of the night to find her food source decidedly absent!   So she joined us.

We headed out to Toys R Us first, with the primary mission to obtain Mae's Christmas present - one of those little foam chairs that they have for 50% off on Black Friday.   TRU had been open since 9pm and we had to wait outside for about 15-20 minutes to allow for other people to leave the store, because of course they were at max capacity inside. Mae was wide awake and happily cuddled against me in the Ergo, wondering what was going on!  We get inside and were on the hunt for the chair to make sure we grabbed them, mostly concerned they'd been to complicated to grab if we had other stuff.   Glad we went that route first because upon finding the chairs - I was sadly disappointed in their quality this holiday season. 2010 models were GREAT, Ace got one last year and it's of good quality and holding up well. This year they were super cheap!   I passed.   Vanessa went looking for the one thing that was a "worth it" item and came up with nothing and so we looked at the rest of our lists, assessed the mad line and said "let's bail!"

Our next stops were Baby Gap and The Disney Store.   Sadly Baby Gap's sales weren't as great as last year (50% off the whole store) but I still was able to snag a few deals and was the first people in line, so no waiting. Next we headed over to the Disney Store and acquired all the good loot that was on our lists.   Mae was still wide awake and taking it all in.   We finished up and headed out.   We were done by 1am.

Myself not having had a huge stuffing of a meal, requested a stop at the drive thru for a 'midnight' snack and then we headed home.    Vanessa and I chatted in the driveway for nearly an hour - with M sleeping cozy in the back.   I went in and M and I went to sleep until a little after 9am.    I then quickly got dressed, leaving Mae with her dad and brother and went to Fred Meyer to get their 50% off socks!   All in all it was a successful and far more muted out as compared to our all nighter last year.

Upon coming home - one would have bet that it was time to deck the halls of our house in festive merriment - but honestly I just wasn't feeling it.   I had no desire to set up the tree, I was just kind of in a funk.   I finally pulled myself out of it by Sunday and on Sunday evening we set up the tree and placed the first ornament on the tree as a family. And we kicked off the holidays and Morgan's first Christmas season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T15:22:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we took the time as a family to trace all of our hands and then Ace and I spent sometime writing down what he was thankful for.   The first thing out of his mouth was excitedly "Jesus!" Next up were things like: toys and movies and then he was 'done' - and I said what are you most thankful for and that confused him.   I asked him to think if he were to sleep and woke up with only what he had thanked Jesus for the night before and everything else was gone what would he thank Jesus for and he promptly smiled and said 'everything!'   Smart boy.   I prompted again with a little more specifics and asked what people he was thankful for and the names started to pour out.

As he named each of them their names were written on the hands that I had cut out and placed together.   The project really was going to be a turkeys, but it evolved into something more simplistic and meaningful: thanksgiving.   He continue to elaborate and include things that surprised me like: love and blankets; and things that didn't surprise me like: Disneyland, his tiger, and books.   Overall, I thought it was a very memorable event and a good way to kick of Thanksgiving.

On this day I choose to reflect on what I am most thankful for: I am thankful for a loving God, for my husband, my two children, my expansive family of blood and 'adopted' individuals... because some of my friends that I have known for decades are a part of my family and are so much more than friends to me.   I am thankful for my friends, the military and the opportunities it has afforded my family.   I am thankful for the job(s) my husband has.   I am thankful that I am able to be a SAHM.    I am thankful for the ability to dabble in many hobbies including sewing, crafting, and photography and I am very thankful that Loving Husband puts up with all of them and funds them. ;-)

I took the opportunity the other day to indulge in a little photography.   Christmas is coming and I needed to get some photo-related gifts ordered while the deal was still good and so I needed to get some Christmas photos done of the kids. So I broke out the studio, lighting, and props and got to work. The kids were mostly compliant and afterwards I had (and still am having) fun editing the selection of photos that I gathered of the kids.    Enjoy a brief glimpse into our holiday selection of photos - more to come!

Thankful

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000-06:00

During this week leading up to Thanksgiving it is easy to be reminded to be thankful for what we have. We can only hope that those holiday reminders course through our veins and truly helps keep our perspective on what we should be thankful for all year long. My friend Katie is not only someone that I am thankful is in my life, but I am thankful that I get to witness her inspirational attitude on life.

If you are a follower of this blog, you know her story. Today marks her second scan in her battle against stage 4 colon cancer. I will be praying for good progress and continued signs that the chemotherapy is working for her. On Wednesday she will also start another round of chemo which will continue over the holiday break. While some would be upset and lament to the vast audience (and completely justified!) over the crummy timing on top of the crummy curveball life has thrown at her, Katie does neither. She simply says 'oh well, I can't eat most of those foods anyway' and went shopping this weekend with her daughter. There are lessons to be learned here and I love Katie's attitude.

In honor of today and to reflect on a happy moment, I provide you with a thematically tinted picture from Dana's baby shower last year, where all three of us ladies were pregnant with now: Kennedy, Ethan, Kaylee & Mae. :)

30 weeks (with one), 28 weeks (with two), 9 weeks (with one)

A Professional Cut

2011-11-19T00:44:00.001-06:00

Ace has had several haircuts in his short existence. In fact his first came far to early in this mommy's opinion - but we're past that. For a long time I just used the little manicure scissors and that did the trick for a while. Last winter I invested in a pair of haircutting scissors and that was good. I'm not too bad at the job. However, in the last few months haircutting became an extreme exercise in patience for both mom and boy. Him asking every 2 seconds "Are we done yet?" wore on my nerves and on his ability to sit still. That's when I decided that it was time to hand over the job to a professional!

I took Ace to a small shop that is designed for kids and after some explanation of how it would all work out - he was excited and set. He got to choose the seat, a movie, and away he went!

He wasn't a huge fan of the clippers and the noise they made near his ears, but aside from needing a bit of reminding to sit of straight a few times - he did great.

Sides are done, now onto the top!

All done!

Overall he did very well and I think we'll return - although probably not every month. I think I'll do some maintenance with the haircutting scissors and go in when he needs the clippers :)

Ten Months Old

2011-11-17T13:29:00.001-06:00

Double digits!!!   They've arrived!   ::whimper::   I'm so proud of how well she is doing!

Firsts for the latest month: first steps! A new state visited: AZ, Disneyland with Dad, waving and clapping

Mae took her first steps at 9 months and 15 days old - she is up to 5 steps in a row, but still very much prefers to crawl all over the place. She also enjoys climbing up and onto things.   She's taken a few spills this months as a result, but she recovers pretty quickly.

Mae in the way of communicating is going well - she hasn't added any more vocabulary but she's becoming more deliberate with her words. 'Mama' has officially morphed into her want for milk. Which at least she knows what she wants and since I'm the only one that can give it to her, I'll take it to mean she wants me. ;-)    She also says "up" when she wants up - but often only if we prompt her to.  'Dada' is also in the vocab and 'baba' still is around as well.   She also is waving - which is more sticking her hand straight up in the air at you. :)   It's pretty cute!

Our little girl did very well on the second road trip. She enjoyed the trip to Disneyland as well.   She did exercise her screaming a little bit, boy can she get loud, but overall she did great.    Mae has a bit of a fiery personality. She certainly voices her opinion and lack of satisfaction with a situation. She's in a state of hating to be seated. She prefers to spin in circles while someone holds her.   This makes going to restaurants particularly complicated and we are looking forward to when she moves past this phase.

Solid food has been reintroduced and better received lately.   Some days she ravenous for it, and other days she's content to just drink milk.    She is getting better biting and chewing even though she still only has the two bottom teeth. Mae does have 2 top teeth that are nearly in.

Mae Mae is certainly a smiley giggly girl who likes to play with everyone in the family. Her and her dad have a fun game of bopping her hand on her mouth and making fun sounds - which is really cute to watch her try and do on her own. :)    She loves to climb all over her brother and smiles really big at just about anyone that smiles at her.   However, she isn't fond of going to anyone else right now. Separation anxiety has fully set in, which is ok. I'll enjoy the clinging baby while she lasts!

Can't wait to celebrate the upcoming holidays and more fun firsts for Mae!

She's seconds away from pushing herself up into the standing position.

Ten on Ten - November

2011-11-10T23:00:00.000-06:00

Surveying our delivered produce!

Yummy apples!

Bath time!

I'm 10 months old today! Hooray!

"Where did all the other fish go, mom?"

Pretty cool to get to do the pumping himself!

I love fall here!

Mae Mae took a very long snooze after the doctor's appointment

Let's go pick up dad from work!

Beautiful sunset!

To see others stop by A Bit of Sunshine

The Mouse House

2011-11-09T11:13:00.000-06:00

We're Going to Disneyland!!

2011-11-09T01:10:00.000-06:00

I couldn't have asked for a better reaction than this to our telling Ace about where we were going. We drove 2000 miles and made a stop at The Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland! We kept it a secret from Ace, partly for the fun - but mostly in case we decided to bail on the idea... and this was his reaction. Priceless! Stay tuned for a post all about the adventure we had. :)

Hotel Life

2011-11-08T17:17:00.002-06:00

We took another long road trip back to the NW. Overall it was a very pleasant journey, we had a few road bumps along the way but it was a nice trip and we were certainly glad to make it home. We stayed in several different hotels along the way ... here a few of my favorite pictures from those stays. :)

Team Katie

2011-11-06T15:18:00.000-06:00

Today many friends and family of Katie gathered together to participate in the Get Your Rear In Gear 5k.   Together we formed the largest team: Kickin' The Stink Out Of Colon Cancer!   With the kids in tow, I headed out early on this chilly Sunday morning to join everyone dressed in purple to walk.

Our group gathered together with Blake setting out with the twins to run the race, while the rest of us took a nice stroll through the course. We joked that it was fitting that we were at the back of the race pack. :) The kids did pretty well - Mae rode in the stroller for about half. My friend B helped push the stroller for about 2/3rds of the race (thank you!) Ace did pretty well, but his hands were pretty cold.   He was pretty excited when he got a GIANT leaf to hold for a while.

We finished the race just as the kid's dash was beginning - which means we finished at just about 55 minutes after we began.   We jogged in - Mae was a bit unnerved by mommy jogging with her in the Ergo carrier, but she did ok.    Afterwards we stayed for the award ceremony - where Katie was awarded a pretty 'legit' (her husband's word for it) plaque for having the largest team (27 adults with several babies not included in that number!)   We grabbed a few pictures of the whole group, and with my camera we snapped this shot of our portion of the group. :)

We were glad we were able to come out and support Katie in this way through her journey and help raise money and awareness on colon cancer. To continue to support Katie, please stop by her CaringBridge site and sign her Guest Book.

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-02T14:31:00.000-05:00

This was Mae's first Halloween and Ace's fourth (gasp!) with the move looming we were a bit at a loss as to how best to handle the whole event. Do we carve a pumpkin? Here or there? Do we have costumes? Simple or elaborate? Pack them or ship them? There was a lot of uncertainty on our arrival home - but in the end everything worked out well. We went to the Pumpkin Patch in Biloxi and decided that we would carve our pumpkin there too.

Ace once again helped decide what kind of face the pumpkin should have and helped dad cut open the top. Ace agreed this year that the pumpkin could have a scarier face, but not too scary. Dad did most of the dirty work scraping out the innards of the pumpkin while Mae watched quite curiously as to what he was doing.

We had a few nights left in Biloxi where we were able to light up our jack-o-lantern before we donated him to the neighbor and headed on our journey across the country home. Ace was very excited to see the pumpkin lit on the nights we remembered to do so.

Their costumes were proving to be tricky - we didn't want to carry anything large or bulky in the already overstuffed vehicle, and not knowing if we'd be home in time for Halloween also precluded us from mailing costumes directly to the house at our arrival destination. So I found a solution of some matching skeleton fun for the kids. Basically glow in the dark pjs. :) Which they wore on Saturday to a party.

However, after that afternoon party it was clear that neither of those costumes would cut it on the crisp night in the NW. They would have been completely bundled and nothing would have been seen! I had already broke down found a cute monkey costume that did make the cross country trip with us for Mae. I just couldn't resist! The baby costumes are just so darling! So I knew I needed to find something for Ace. So on Halloween we headed to Target to hunt for something festive and there it was a size medium (way too big) Incredibles costume. He wanted nothing more - so we made it work with a few tucks, rolls, and binder clips. :) The sun began to set and the kids got ready! Ace was very excited for trick or treating!

"Protecting my identity is the most important part, mom" Well ok then!

I added a festive Halloween bow to Mae's monkey costume for a girlie touch!

We kept telling him he could yell 'Trick or Treat!' and he said "I like to say it really quietly..."

Ace did great with the scary stuff and loved going up to the door by himself. Afterwards we came home and Ace enjoyed eating candy before bed!

Mae only got to enjoy the outside wrapper of the candy this year... but enjoy it she did!

First Steps!

2011-10-25T23:01:00.001-05:00

My baby girl took her first official steps today. For the last week Mae has been taking one step and then plopping down... today she took three steps, we reset her and she did it again! So we 'called it' little Mae has taken her first steps at 9 months and 15 days old! This mommy and her dad couldn't be more proud. Even her brother is excited for her. :)

She's been a very good stander now for a few weeks and has been getting more and more steady. She still has a pretty wide stance so walking will still take some practice with balance and footing - but I suspect within the next month she'll be on the go. For now she still very much enjoys toddling around with an impressively fast crawl!

There's no stopping her though - my baby is on her way! In fact she actually climbed up onto a box the other day without even hesitating... her brother didn't start climbing heights until much later. Siigh. She's growing up too fast, but it's an exciting adventure!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-18T21:47:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday we ventured as a family to the pumpkin patch nearby. It was a fun experience to see Mae see so many pumpkins at once. She was instantly excited by all the fun orange things that she could climb up on. Ace had a great time jumping off the hay bales and picking up and carrying the pumpkins around.

It certainly was a first for Ace to experience a pumpkin patch 'hot' - even when we visited a pumpkin patch in Cali a couple of years ago he was still in long sleeves. :) Here he was complaining he was hot in his black tshirt.

The kids had a lot of fun playing with the hay and putting it onto each other. It's really cute to see Mae start to mimic playing. She and her brother spent a few minutes putting hay on each other, before we moved onto other activities.

We left with a little pumpkin awaiting carving. Ace was "really excited!!!" :) Mae had a good time and loved to pick up pumpkins - which she was in fact able to lift up that little one that she's got in the above picture. Overall a very fun outing as a family!

Our little pumpkin weighing in at...

2011-10-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

Mae weighs 15lbs 13oz (10%)

She is 26.25" tall (10%)

Her little pumpkin head is 44.2cm big (25%)

The South Rises Again...

2011-10-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

The Jefferson Davis House has been something we've driven on a regular basis since we moved here. It was on my list of 'to sees' before heading out, but it wasn't ever a huge priority. On our final weekend here we decided to finally look up the information so that we could go and we discovered that there was going to be a whole event this weekend: 25th Annual Muster Weekend.

We headed out around 9am as we were warned that the parking would be difficult, but we ended up having no issue. We gathered our tickets and a few souvenirs and headed out to where all the festivities where. It was quite expansive. Over 300 period reenactors were participating, with demonstrations like a blacksmith, old fashion photography, and live canon fire. Most people were actual camping there and even cooking their meals on real wood fires. It was like stepping into a different time and Loving Husband and I were fascinated and Ace was excited to learn about everything.

We walked around and saw the various sites, were surprised by a cannon or two. Ace did pretty well with the noise. He enjoyed seeing the horse trotting around the area pulling wagons and canons. Loving Husband stopped and spoke with one of the reenactors who was quite passionate about the confederacy.

They began to do formations and marching around the area and practicing all of that in preparation for the battle that was to take place at 1:30, we left the camp area and headed up to the house to check it out. It had been restored from Katrina and was quite pretty. Although my favorite part was certainly the front porch and the rocking chairs. I took the opportunity to get Mae to sleep in her carrier and stayed there while the boys went and got a few things at the car.

The boys acquired themselves some confederacy hats and we all enjoyed trying them on. After a quick stop to grab some cash and grabbing some lunch, we headed to the area to watch the battle reenactment. Both kids did pretty well with the noise. Overall, Mae was more hot than bothered by the noise. It was a cool event to experience and certainly was as a nice way to round out our last weekend in the south.

To Miss...

2011-10-15T08:06:00.000-05:00

We've only been here in the south a short time and in some ways we are itching to get back home, but in others we're really going to miss our time here in the south - and not just the weather! I truly love living here, the people are friendly, military life is pretty good, and well the weather is just amazing. Even in the dead of summer when it was tipping 120' it was tolerable (we didnt' leave the house too much... but still with AC you can handle any temperature!)

Weather

Not only will I miss the sunny and bright blue skies coupled with comfy temperatures, but I will really miss the amazing lightening and thunder storms that we were privileged to enjoy much of this summer. Ace did great with the thunder, we were a bit concerned it would scare him, but he looked forward to it just as much as us. We enjoyed some great moments of waking up Ace just so he could see an amazing electrical storm in the sky. We were blessed enough to avoid any true hurricanes making their way into the Gulf while we were here. There were no crazy evacuations that were required, and for that we are thankful. We however did get to enjoy and experience Tropical Storm Lee and a taste of a good storm. Unfortunately I was quasi in the middle of it while driving over the bridge and I was not a fan of that situation! The storm was powerful and amazing at the amount of rainfall, wind, and storminess there was.

Food!

Things that I will miss include sweet tea. It was the one thing that I was seriously craving from the moment I knew we were coming to Biloxi. I was salivating over it and while I know I can learn to make my own - I cannot order when I go out - and NO McDonald's "sweet tea" is NOT the same thing (gag!) I will miss food that I cannot have back home: Cracker Barrel and Chic Fil A. Honestly I am NOT a fast food chicken fan, but Chic fil A made a yummy exception to that rule - and their lemonade is delicious! Finally, I will miss the Beau Rivage Champagne Brunch. It was a fun family outing and a good time to try various foods, chat and enjoy mimosas with the husband (which by the way when I asked what he'd miss when we'd leave he chimed in with "mimosas".) :)

Military Life

While I will appreciate not having to drive 15mph every day to get back to my house, I will certainly miss military day to day life. I know that Ace will miss 17:00 every day when the Star Spangled Banner is played. Every day that we were home he would await that 5pm hour for the notice to sound and for the music to begin. He learned quickly to stand still and quiet and wait for the song to come on and put his hand over his heart and be respectful. He rotated between singing it and asking us to sing it. I will also miss Loving Husband being able to come home for lunch. He didn't do it all the time but it was a nice luxury for us. Also his ability to come home pretty early in the day was a great perk to counter his 6:30 start of the work day for him.

"The music's starting!!"

I will miss our neighbors that we grew the closest too. They are fine folk and it will be sad to leave them. Ace will miss their little boy that he plays with. He loves that our friends have lived so close to us. I will miss the warm evening walks, the very close playgrounds in every direction, and the ability to have the kids play in the water at any time of the day.

Activities and Surrounds!

I will miss living so close to the ocean. While Biloxi beach is never an ocean we wanted to swim in, it was still a very beautiful piece of scenery to drive by on a regular basis. I will miss having white sand beaches less than 3 hours away to go to. I will certainly miss the sun.. I know I already said that... a few times! I will miss the iconic light house and casinos that we drive by nearly daily.

Kidwise - I will very much miss the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center and Bear Cub Club. We went almost every week to Bear Cub Club and Ace (and eventually Mae too) had a great time there. Just last week my neighbor introduced me to Excel by 5 - a great resource for kids that Ace had a lot of fun at - and if only we were here longer I am sure would be come a weekly adventure for us.

At the Children's Museum

I will miss our church. We unfortunately didn't discover it until we were more than halfway through with living here, but since we have we've really enjoyed it. Mae stayed a handful of times in the nursery successfully and Ace himself even has learned to adapt well to going to class there. The people are great and like I said - we will really miss it.

What we missed...

While we did do a lot, there are things that we did not get to for various reasons. We never took a ship cruise, didn't make anywhere further north to visit various friends and family that are pretty close as compared to where we are typically in the NW. I never went to the mall, I went to the outlets a few times, but never the mall. I never personally ventured inside a grocery store or the commissary (thank you, Loving Husband!) I don't leave here with many regrets, only that we didn't have more time with the friends that we made.

Overall, I think we all consider ourselves very blessed to have had this glimpse of another part of the country. Where on banks they quote Isaiah 41:10, where there are commercials dedicated to talking about Jesus, where people are overall relatively hospitable. It's been a lot of fun, albeit a challenge with loneliness for me at times, I am sad that it is drawing to a close. We met great people and experienced a lot of new things, but now we're looking forward to returning to the NW and the fall like weather!

After breakfast (hence Mae's new shirt decor) on our final trip to Pensacola

Now the real question... do I have an accent? ;-)

School - Fall Themed

2011-10-13T10:46:00.000-05:00

Ace is loving this latest installment of school: fall! We're learning about pumpkins, leaves, skip counting, and a smattering of other fun filled things along the way. He's really enjoying all the colors!

One of Ace's trays is sorting. He has leaves and pumpkins and he puts them into their respective bin using the tweezers. It takes him a few tries to really be able to do it properly with the tweezers but he's working on that fine motor skill with great determination. Always has his tongue sticking out while he works. *All these supplies can be found at Hobby Lobby*

Ace really enjoyed the matching game last month and so I wanted to reincorporate that into this month's trays as well and along with the simple matching game I wanted to pair it with some science and teach him why the leaves change color, so I ordered Why Do Leaves Change Color?. It is a bit too detailed for him, but he can grow into the book and understanding - which I prefer to an over simplistic version. I then found some free leaf printables from PreKinders (along with a lot of other great resources!) They were a bit more detailed and Ace had to pay a bit closer attention to really match up the different ones.

We took a walk that day and also gathered leaves to look at the various color (which here in Mississippi isn't a terrible color variation since it doesn't get very cold around here.) We collected them and brought them home and decided to see if we could match them to the ones in the book. On another day we did some leaf rubbings and that was met with minimal excitement. Well I enjoyed it. ;-)

We are also learning about how pumpkins grow and in general how things grow from seeds and into plants/flowers/etc.. I located some nomenclature cards for the life cycle of a pumpkin via The Wonder Years and the cards are free from Montessori for Everyone. I coupled that with the book From Seed to Pumpkin - which was more at Ace's level of understanding and he really enjoys that story. I wish that we were staying here longer so that we could plant a seed and watch it grow. Perhaps we'll do this next year!

Our focus on 'math' this month was on skip counting - getting Ace one step closer to counting to 100. He can do 1-10 pretty easily and 11-19 are a bit touch and go. So this month I introduced to him to counting by tens - he figured out pretty easily how it works which is why he after saying 'forty' says 'fivety' and 'one-y' (100) He's not got them memorized but he's doing well. He's not quite got that once he's got those down that counting to 100 will be a breeze, but he will. :)

There are other fun items still to come including an introduction to the mayflower and the first Thanksgiving! Looking forward to being back in the NW for a more colorful backdrop to our fall themed school!

Nine Months Old

2011-10-11T09:08:00.001-05:00

In about a half a second that headband goes flying!

Little Mae is nine months old! She is a chatter box that is increasing her free standing, her acrobatic twists and twirls, and still isn't a huge fan of actually consuming solid food.    Yes, she loves to snack on her milk though and hardly looks like she misses a meal.     She's a happy beautiful girl who is very smart (all parents say this, I know!)

Mae's newest experiences this month: free standing, a visit inside a lighthouse, waving, clapping, test driving a new car (ok riding in one), and the word 'bah bah' (brother.)

Yes, Mae has really begun to babble a lot and she uses the 'lalalas' now and still is very into the words of 'mama' and 'dada' and in the last couple of weeks she has added in her other favorite person 'bah bah' her brother.   She talks to him and even asks for him in the morning when she wakes up. It's very sweet and I love that she loves her brother so much.    She is signing pretty well and certainly understand a lot of what we say. She mostly still only signs 'all done' and 'milk' but we're working on her with 'please' 'more' and 'eat'.

Speaking of eating - she's not terribly interested most of the time. I try to get her to eat solid food while her brother does it - but she doesn't want much. She will consume the puffs and french fries if we have those, she'll gum up a cucumber, and obliterate an orange slice, but actually consuming baby food or even any 'people' food for nutritional value seems to be of little interest to her at this point.    I'm not too concerned. She's still growing pretty steady and she's not looking like she's missing a meal so she's doing fine.   She'll get there eventually. :)   We don't have stats until next week... so stay tuned.

Sleep for Mae and the rest of us is sub par - I feel we've declined even more than last month.    She's just not sleeping long stretches, she's flipping over and CRAWLING in her sleep!   She's very squirmy and squirms herself awake.     It's mildly frustrating so we'll see what the weeks to come hold for us. With our moving soon it doesn't bode well for much.

Activities for Mae include tackling her brother, eating paper, and chewing on just about everything else. She loves to play along side her brother and Ace does a great job to accommodate that.   She however just loves to eat paper and she can find it anywhere. She's so excited to consume it! I don't get it - we try to avoid it, but she continues to do it. Siigh.

Mae is doing very well with her free standing - just in the last few days she has gotten better and better with balance and standing for longer times. Mae has also started to wave 'bye bye' and 'hello' and also has started to clap - all of these things are just super cute and we love that she has the biggest grin on her face while she does it.

This was quick month and I suspect this next month will go even faster as we get ready to move and make a road trip again.   Mae is doing wonderful and is a joy even if she is a little terrorist when it comes to sleep. :-/ We have officially entered the phase of pictures that make it crazy impossible to get the typical shot. Last month it took the whole family. This month it was Aiden and I doing our best to get her to smile AND sit still... wasn't happening - enjoy some outtakes! :)

She just rotates over and over in a circle like a little tornado!

So proud of herself!

Smiling at her brother!

Free standing and sooo happy about it!

To see Ace at 9 months click here.

Ten on Ten - October

2011-10-10T16:50:00.001-05:00

Good morning, mama! I let you sleep in it's 7:40!

This is the flower Ace bought for me last week. :)

Checking out mama's phone!

Outdoor playtime!

Test drive!

Beautiful sky today!

After lunch 'exercise'

Yummy lemonade!

She did this off and on AFTER her nap for almost the entire 3 o'clock hour... super.

A little time for mommy now....

To see others stop by A Bit of Sunshine

Great Heights - Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T10:50:00.001-05:00

Linking up: Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Two of a Kind Working on a Full House, and 5 Minutes for Mom

Phonetic ABC Box

2011-10-04T16:07:00.000-05:00

Ace is getting really good at recognizing his alphabet thanks to the moveable alphabet box. However, that is only one part on the road to reading; he needs to learn what sounds those letters make. I came across another great idea via Pinterest on Pink and Green Mama to create an ABC Box. I knew that Ace would love it.

What is essential to make an ABC Box is ~~choking hazards~~ small items easily identified and we had quite a few around the house. To kick start the box (which I got from Amazon for $15) and I ordered a bag of doodads from HighPie on Etsy. She also has a listing for 26 doodads that are every letter of the alphabet, but I chose a 50 piece set for more - that and I'm a sucker for grab bags. :) Between the grab bag and previously owned item I was still coming up short on some letters the standard Q, X, and Y and to my surprise A, I and J. This is when I got to searching on Bing for images of things, printed out a sheet of various items. I then laminated and cut them and they were ready to go in each of the boxes.

A, a: alligator, avocado, ant, anchor, axe, acorn, arrow, apple

P, p: penguin, puzzle piece, polar bear, pom pom, purple peanut, paperclip, pencil

S, s: stamp, scissors, sun, snowflake, star, shell, stingray, soda, shark, stroller, sandal, snake

Things that I used for other hard letters included a lot of Bing images but I did have some items: I,i: igloo, ice skates, ice, and ice cream; J, j: jar, jacks, and jam, Q,q: queen, quail, quarter and qtip; V, v: velcro, vase, vacuum, violin, and volcano; X,x: xylophone, and xray; Y, y: yak, yarn, and yo yo; and Z,z: zebra, zigzag, and zipper.

I bought a sheet of scrapbook alphabet stickers and put them on each of the drawers and with my son we began to sort in various sittings through the different items. Helping him from the get go to see what items sounded like. A few items I let him decide what they were: the cup with the straw could have been a coke, a soda, a drink in his eyes and so I wanted him to tell me so that I wasn't fighting the title of the object in the middle of a phonetic lesson. With everything sorted I then grabbed one lower and upper case of each letter from his moveable alphabet box and put them each of the drawers. Finally his alphabet box was ready to begin working with.

He LOVED it from the start - in fact he was loving it so much that he would sneak down in the morning before we were awake and 'do school' with it. Which would be ok except for the choking hazard items and while I had a good idea on what was in each box I wasn't totally positive of each item. So that created the need to create a cover for it - which has proven to be just what I hoped it would be 'out of sight, out of mind' and so he only does it when I am around and working with him.

One of the ways Ace enjoys working with his ABC Box is that we take out two drawers and he sorts through them on his felt and he place them under the correct letter. He enjoys this - and even does well when certain letters switch sounds like C for cat and C for chalk.

Overall it's been a good tool that he's enjoying using and as I find new items (those miniature erasers are GREAT for these boxes) we'll continue to add, replace, and change up the various items in his box. Start up costs for our box: $15 for the box, $3 for the letter stickers, $5 for the doodads, and another $2 for a set of erasers that I picked up. A grand total of $25. Well worth it - we've certainly gotten our money's worth already.

Linked up at: Living Montessori Now, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Imagination Tree, and Classified: Mom

Sunny Skies

2011-10-03T15:09:00.001-05:00

The closer we get to going home the more and more I am enjoying and appreciating the sunlight! I love the NW and I even love the overcast chilly days and often don't mind the sun being absent for days and in the fall/winter weeks at a time. However, I've been spoiled. I've now lived in the south going on six months and I have seen the sun, probably every day with the exception of maybe two days.

The whole family has nice sun kissed skin - tans! Little Mae even has white crease lines where her little rolls didn't allow sun... all of these features are soon to fade as we venture back home. As it is - no one will be too overtly jealous of our tan skin as they hardly will see it since we'll be bundled up freezing our tushies off (yes tushies) since it's barely dropped below 75' since our arrival here.

This morning for the first time since our arrival it was colder here than back home. It was only by a couple of degrees and within a few hours we had reclaimed our role as the hotter city, but nonetheless fall has arrived both here and back home and while a sweater here would send me into a fit of heatstroke, still it is chilly for Biloxi, but the sun is still shining in the beautifully blue clear sky.

I will miss the bright blue skies that are sometimes filled with gorgeous clouds or sometimes just a vibrant blue clear sky. Somehow I really think it is blue-er here. It's gorgeous! It truly has been a great time to enjoy the sun, the beach, the warm weather - even in the fit of the awful heat this summer it was an overall pleasant experience.

I'm sure Ace will miss it as well - not that he still won't run around outside and have a blast doing so in more layers - but he likes to be 'naked' (aka wearing only underwear.) Often the first thing he does when we come home from being out and about is strip down to his undies. Even here in our 72' house he complains he's 'cold' so he'll have a rude awakening when he returns to the NW to our house that we used to keep at 65' in the winter months. :)

If you look the right of the photo you'll see this was a double rainbow! Beautiful!

It's been a beautiful, sunny, and warm place to live these last six months and we've enjoyed it!

Fall Themed Sensory Box

2011-10-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

My favorite time of year is fall. I love all the rich colors of leaves and decor - the new crisp days (at least in the NW) and the falling of the leaves. Which is why I was so excited to make Ace's latest sensory box. It also works out perfectly, as it will last us for the entire fall season - since with a move in the middle of our school time - I won't be making a new box until December.

Inside this box is: hay (I bought a small size bale of hay, but the 'craft' size would have been more than sufficient,) a fake pumpkin, felt squash and felt leaves, silk leaves, foam turkeys and chipmunks, and foil confetti leaves. A lot of similar items, yes - but in different shapes and textiles. Provides plenty of opportunity to sort, sift, count, identify, etc.. Overall this box cost about $12 - although the felt leaves and squash (which were also coupled with felt pumpkins) were used in one of his trays so I suppose that I could not factor those into his box cost in which case this sensory box would be under $10 :)

Ace is enjoying this box - as is his sister. We knew that it was only a matter of time before we'd have to rethink the best way to play with the sensory box now that sister is standing up and very proficient at mobility. Yes Mae WANTS that box. She wants whatever is it. :)

Ace is of course a very patient and loving brother and doesn't care if sister is touching it as long as mom is nearby. He's a smart kid to know that mom will keep track of her and that he doesn't need to worry. He also knows if she tips it over it isn't his fault. hehe.

Dear Daughter...

2011-09-28T10:44:00.001-05:00

Dear Mae,

It seems like just yesterday you made your arrival on a chilly January afternoon.   It's hard to believe that you're a mobile, squeally, communicative almost 9 month old now!   Where does the time go?   I love that you light up when you dada enters the room. I love that you ask for 'mama' and look for me in a room.

You have started to try out waving 'bye-bye' although I think you're still trying to decide if it's for you or not.   You are walking along the couch and go after what you want.   You have a sixth sense (I swear!) to ferret out paper and try to eat it. In fact it is a guarantee if you find paper it will be in your mouth.

You love your brother and love to play with him and you giggle when he chases you. You watch your brother all the time because you know he's your key to success.    Just a moment ago I watched as you craned your neck past mommy to watch as your brother skirted past the gate blocking the stairs. You watched intently to observe what he had done and after he had completed this mission you signed with urgency 'all done' (which is your cue for mommy to put you down) and you were off to mimic what you had just observed. Now that you are taller and standing, your brother is finding it more difficult to retreat from your persistence. At the moment he still has a safe haven of the couch, but he's running out of places to run from you. I hope you are kind to him once you recognize your powers more and more.

Now that you are standing you're so happy! You love playing at the water table and splashed until you are soaked.   So happy that you could finally do it after observing your brother doing it for so many weeks.     Although you do have the same stubbornness that runs in the family and we are constantly telling you 'NO!' when you attempt to climb up and touch the tv.   We tell you 'no' and you get the biggest grin on your face. Naughty!  (But adorable, I won't lie.)

You have lost your 'good sleeper' title - now you're more average and like your brother at this age. That's ok, I know I'll miss waking up to feed you in the middle of the night whenever you do choose to sleep through the night, so I'll enjoy our time while we have it. Although a few hours break between wakings is greatly appreciated.

Mae you have an appetite for anything that we are eating - but you never want to eat much. I usually can get about a 1/3rd of a jar of baby food in you - and you're otherwise happy to just sorta chew on the food we have whether it be gyro meat (which you love!) french fries, cucumber, or pasta - you just want to explore and that's ok.

Your family loves you very much and we love that you're on the move, exploring your world, and smiley EVERY morning.   It's such a joy to wake up to that smile.

All my love,
Your mommy

A Southern Belle

2011-09-25T12:24:00.000-05:00

Mae is pushing nine months old - three quarters of a year old is just around the corner. It is crazy how much time has gone by. We've now been in the south for five months. When we arrived Mae was just a little over three months old. Which means she has officially been a southern belle for over two months! Yes our little girl has spend more of life in the south than in the NW. She's adapted to her role of a southern belle nicely.

Mae loves to crawl around outside - although often gets timid in the grass and prefers to stay in one place unless she is chasing her brother. She does very well to leave a hat on if one is presented to shade her.

Like her hat? B from The Ravenna Girls made it for her!

Dresses (another southern belle staple) won't slow her down either. No matter her attire - whether dress, skirt, and just a diaper - she can crawl with great speed and efficiency if she so desires. It's impressive! Occasionally a dress will thwart her because her feet get stuck in it - but she merely does a little foot maneuvering and continues along without much fuss.

Sunlight also is great for Mae... doesn't she look pretty? ;) She loves to play in the sunshine and when it peeks in the house through the windows, she likes to chase it and tries grab it. It's really adorable to watch as she crawls after the sunlight and trying to track it down.

Probably one of my favorite pictures of her to date!

Overall this little southern belle is doing wonderful and I know she will miss the warmth and sun after we leave (we all will!) But I am sure she will enjoy exploring all the other neat things that the NW affords us that the south does not... like snow! Brr!

Cloud Viewing

2011-09-23T09:03:00.000-05:00

Living in the south we are privileged to have a sky full of beautiful clouds. All the various kinds of clouds are a part of our daily viewing pleasure and where better way to teach Ace about the different types of clouds.

As part of his school we take time every now and then to review the types of clouds. I printed out Cloud Type lesson kit for free from ETC Press. It included the nomenclature cards and and a few other helpful tools to help show Ace about the various types of clouds. He's still pretty young to really absorb a lot of the science - but the visuals are great.

While on Pinterest I came across a great idea of a view window for the clouds, although when I clicked to obtain it - it was for a classroom and cost over $30 for the kit... so I decided to make my own (if you'd like a copy for personal use only please email me and I will send you the PDF.) It took a naptime to get everything lined up and all the clouds properly identified. It's not perfect, but it is accurate and for my toddler it is a fun way to 'hunt' for clouds. :)

Ace had a lot of fun trying to find the different type of clouds. I think that he'll really enjoy this activity when he's a bit older and can read for himself. For now he likes to use the view window to poke his head through it and look for clouds that way. It makes me smile.

So while I don't think he's learning a lot of the accurate names, he's having fun looking at the sky. We also started to make up the shapes of clouds and that is probably the most fun of all!

Linking up on: Living Montessori Now, Sun Scholars, It's Playtime on The Imagination Tree, Preschool Corner on Homeschool Creations, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas and Classified: Mom.

Biloxi's Lighthouse

2011-09-22T21:46:00.001-05:00

I think one of the things that I am going to miss the most about living in Mississippi is the lighthouse. It really is the iconic 'centerpiece' of Biloxi and it is beautiful no matter the time of day or night that you drive by. I love to photograph it and I've loved learning about its history.

This lighthouse is a cast iron light house built in 1848 and originally stood relatively close to water. It now exists as the only lighthouse in the middle of a highway and also Mississippi's only remaining lighthouse. Biloxi's waters receded a bit and eventually put in a man made beach in the 60s. This lighthouse survived both Camille in 1969 and Katrina in 2005 (although all the brick on the inside washed out after Katrina and extensive remodeling was required to reopen it to the public.) To read more about its fascinating history click here.

We were able to take a tour of it last weekend and go inside and the light in it is beautiful. The view is pretty gorgeous too. I was wearing Mae in the ergo and toted her up the spiral staircase and up the 8 rung ladder into the top. It was a bit precarious but we managed.

If you notice the pale blue line - that is where the water reached with Katrina, Camille's water level is significantly lower.

It was a lot of fun to be able to go inside, learn a bit about the history, and to see how the lighthouse really works. It was also neat to learn about the history of why it is now in the middle of a highway - probably its most unique quality.

Circa 1901 - Photograph from Library of Congress and obtained from here.

Standing and Stairs

2011-09-22T14:47:00.000-05:00

Mae has been pulling herself up into standing now for a few weeks and is starting to adventure into free standing. Although mostly just to cautiously lower herself to the ground, but still she's working on feeling it out. She's gathered a lot of independence (including signing 'all done' when she's done with mommy holding her. sniff sniff) and is enjoying her different perspectives that come with all her standing.

Upon achieving her newest skill we broke out the table for her to play with and she loves it - as does her big brother who remembered the fun that he had with it 'back in the day.' Us parents remember it too, although not as fondly... I've been really pleased with how well Ace and Mae are doing playing together. Ace is a very patient big brother as his sister mauls him, climbs on him, and even slims him. He's very gentle and giving when she snatches stuff from him. I hope as they grow older they both continue to be loving toward one another.

Mae loves to play at the table. Her twist on it though that we never really saw Ace do is to try and eat it. She wants to sample everything - and will even get on her tippiest tiptoe to try and reach something to consume... although I have yet to capture that on film.

She pulls herself up on everything now - using the fridge, drawers, walls, couches, or perhaps even the chair her brother is sitting in. She doesn't mind and her patient brother continues to allow the silliness.

Other skills Mae has been mastering with or without the help of her family is climbing the stairs. Yes, she often can be found ascending the stairs (or at best sitting at the base of them thwarted by the gate.) Her big brother is trying to teach her how to descend the stairs safely. She just smiles at him and continues upward. She has a few times managed to break a barrier and climb the stairs on her own. She's doing pretty well with it. Although I'll be happier when she learns how to go down the stairs and not just up. :-$

Walking is up next! Although its hard to say when walking will occur, she's still very cautious and takes her balance very seriously by lowering herself slowly to the ground... but one thing is for sure - she wants to go places. She might skip walking and go straight for climbing... watch out world Mae's coming!

A Superhero!

2011-09-20T21:29:00.002-05:00

Ace's imagination is exploding! He plays with the idea of flying over the edge of the couch arm. He flies various superheros around by tying a string to them and swining around. He talks about dreams of flying with a jet pack or a rocket ship and flying to the moon. I love that his imagination is coming to life and currently regularly involves flying.

And what does a boy need more than anything when he wants to fly? A cape! I saw on Jolly Mom today a free template for a superhero cape which was the inspiration to create one for Ace. I eyeballed it, but she has a free pattern for download if the thought of just going for it isn't your style. It was super easy and the boy was very excited about the idea of something to help him be a superhero and (pretend) to fly!

Ace also is currently obsessed with The Incredibles and while it is almost ironic to brand a cape with their logo (remember "No capes!" as it is the demise of many wanton superheros) but aside from the objection of the logo should be on the 'front' Ace was super excited about it and had a blast running around the house in his Incredibles cape!

The project took about 15 minutes total to cut and sew. Seriously not a lot of precision went into it. No pinning either (which is why the logo is a bit off centered in the back) the stitching is wobbly and if you ever looked closely the felt is puckered in a few places... but the boy loves it.

And I love watching him fly away!