Magnolia and Boothe

Henry's First

2012-02-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

For our most important pictures we always use our friend, Eileen, at Traditions Photography. These are Henry's first photos there. Just precious. The next 3 posts are also pictures from the last couple months taken there.

Magnolia @ 4

2012-02-04T08:37:00.000-08:00

Boothe @ 2

2012-02-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

November 2011

2012-02-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

We had some pictures taken at Traditions Photography last November of the girls together, our family of 4.5, and some maternity portraits. We used some of them for our 2011 Christmas card. Our pictures from there always turn out so beautifully.

O Henry

2012-02-03T17:49:00.000-08:00

These are just a few random pictures from the past couple of weeks. My cousins came to visit and meet Henry. Jonah on the right is 9 months older than Henry and Raife in the middle is 4.5 months older than Henry. Michelle, Brooke and I grew up together and it will be fun to watch our boys grow up together.

After church one day I took some pictures of the kids. Days are so busy hectic that I forget to take as many pictures as I should. It's also really hard to get a decent photo of all 3 at the same time. Thank God for professional photographers!

Taking pictures of a newborn is really hard. It's hard to get a smile caught on tape and it's hard to get an angle that isn't of them laying down or slouched down while trying to be sat up. I remember when Magnolia was a month old thinking that there is nothing better to take a picture of. Now I look forward to days when Henry's baby pictures don't all look the same!

Snowman and Sledding

2012-02-03T17:40:00.000-08:00

Although we had hardly any snow in January, we did have a couple of decent snowfalls and were able to enjoy it a couple of different days. One Saturday Dan took the girls out front to build a snowman. Magnolia wanted to recreate Frosty the Snowman, but the quality of snow didn't really cooperate so they had to make a big pile of snow and shape the snowman out of it. It ended up looking more like Melty the Snowman. The girls were thrilled though and would always look out the window to check on Frosty. These days the snow is all gone and Frosty has gone to a better place.

On another Saturday we piled in the car with a couple of sleds and headed to a nearby golf course for some sledding. Neither of the girls had ever gone sledding before, and they had a ball. Took a couple of times down to warm up but after that they didn't want to stop. Dan turns back into a adolescent boy when you get him near a hill covered in snow. Each time Dan went down he would yell to the girls to watch him and then he would do some kind of trick like going down the hill standing up on the sled or doing summer saults all of the way down to the bottom! I stayed in the car with Henry and had fun watching and taking pictures.

My #3

2012-01-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

Our little boy. I love newborns. Yes, they keep me up at night, but all day you can't get any more precious. He is already changing and looking less like he did when he was first born. How fast these last 2 weeks have gone. How fast these last 4 years have gone. Just over 4 years ago, I had 0 kids, now I have 3! I am so blessed.

My #2 is Little Miss Mommy and always helps with diaper changes, always runs to him when he cries and gives him more kisses in a day than one can count.

I have 2 very proud big sisters who couldn't love their little brother more.

I think they love each other a little bit too!

Snow

2012-01-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

After a snow-less Christmas and a very warm December that didn't allow for much more than an inch or 2 of snow at a time, we finally got a couple days of beautiful snowfall last week. The girls headed out to play a couple of different times and then would come in to warm up with some hot chocolate. Henry kept me company inside and I'm so glad that I can send the girls outside together to play in the backyard. I love to "spy" on them playing together. It melts my heart.

I love the snow! Especially when I can stay inside and watch it falling without having to go anywhere. It's so peaceful and relaxing.

Christmas Crafts

2012-01-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

I know it's a bit after Christmas but I couldn't post some of these projects since I made them to give away as gifts for Christmas to people who read my blog.

Magnolia and I made these reindeer cookies to share, eat and leave for Santa. Super easy and super cute. Just make peanut butter cookies, roll into balls, press flat slightly and pinch bottom have to make that part thinner. Then while still warm, but after you have removed them from the cookie sheet, place M&M eyes and nose and chocolate covered pretzel antlers. Santa approved!

This simple craft was a good one for the girls to help out with. We all strung different shades of green buttons on a green pipe cleaner to make wreath ornaments. Then when we each had enough buttons on the pipe cleaners I tied them up with a ribbon. We gave them away to the grandmas for Christmas. I found this idea on Pinterest pinned from Martha Stewart.

The next homemade gift was sugar scrubs for the shower. These were also given to the grandmas. I used the easiest recipe ever and it is absolutely wonderful. I made myself some and am so happy with how it feels on my skin. You mix equal parts white sugar and brown sugar depending on the container size you are using. then you stir in a little olive oil at a time until you have the consistency you want. Feel free to add a few drops of essential oils to give it a scent if you'd like. I also glued on some cute scrapbook paper to the lids to dress them up a bit.

Lastly, I attempted some homemade candles. I used the crock pot and it was so easy! I will definitely do some again as I need them. I used these Directions but made one change. I got beeswax pellets because it was easier and when I added the wick I curled it around a stick that was at least as long as the width of the jar (mine was a broken skewer) to have better control of the placement of the wick. I obviously wanted it centered.

A Few of the Little Guy

2012-01-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

This past week has flown by. Dan heads back to work tomorrow or Tuesday after being off for 2 weeks. Real life is about to set in....

This little guy just gets cuter every day. I could just sit and look at him and do nothing else.

A part broke in our furnace sometime yesterday. We noticed that it was chilly going to bed last night but didn't think anything of it until this morning when it was freezing. Luckily we have THE BEST furnace repair man who came out 10 minutes after calling him this morning and fixed it. Seriously if you need any work done on your heating or AC and you live in South Bend, call K&B Appliance. We were all bundled up in hats and sweatshirts this morning before he came out.

Here are just a couple pictures we have taken in the last couple days of Henry.

I love feeling his soft skin, smelling his newborn scent, listening to his soft sounds and looking at his sweet face. I see him and am reminded of this great quote which due to my postpartum hormones also makes me weep...

Cleaning And Scrubbing Can Wait Till Tomorrow, For Babies Grow Up We've Learned To Our Sorrow. So Quiet Down Cobwebs Dust Go To Sleep I'm Rocking My Baby And Babies Don't Keep

12-26-2011

2011-12-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas with the Corys took place the day after Christmas. Dan's brother, Pete, and his daughter, Ayla, joined us this year which made for a merrier Christmas.

The 3 girls enjoying breakfast together.

After breakfast, it was time to open presents! Magnolia passed out a gift to each of the girls to rip into but not before a picture in front of the tree.

Boothe wore this headband (her crown, pronounced frown) like this almost all day.

Pete and Ayla unwrapping some gifts.

Magnolia enjoyed passing out the gifts this year. I remember when I first joined Dan for Christmas with his family, he was the one passing out the gifts.

By day 3 of gift opening, Magnolia is a pro.

Ping-pong break. They had their own made up game going and came upstairs sweating!

Dan was playing peek-a-boo with Boothe in the playhouse in the basement and got some really cute pictures.

The girls love to take bubble baths in Mimi's big tub so what a perfect way to end the day.

Just the guys...I think Dan was taking the picture or he would be right in there with them.

My beautiful baby boy. Three days old in this picture. I still can't believe how special it was that he arrived right before Christmas and have him with us during all of the celebrations.

After their bath, the girls sat in front of the fire to dry off and warm up. Boothe loved it even when she said "the fire is burning my back."

Boppy with the kids.

That was the end of our Christmas traditions. This past week Pete and Ayla were here so we visited with them some more, took Henry to his 1 week check up and tried to stay home and keep up with laundry and the business that comes with having 3 kids. Henry was up a couple ounces from his birth weight at 1 week, 9 lbs. 13 ozs. Healthy baby and so far such a good baby. It hasn't been hard going from 2 to 3 kids. It's just the business that increases. Seems there is always at least 1 child that needs something all the time. Next week Dan heads back to work, but the kids and I don't have anywhere to go or any plans so it will be another transition week before we get back into our normal routine the following week.

12-25-2011

2011-12-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

Santa visited our house this year and brought the kids a train table. They were thrilled! I love watching their faces as they come around the corner into the living room and see what Santa has brought. I remember the feeling as a child so I know what they are thinking.

Santa ate all of the reindeer cookies we made for him. They were delicious!

The girls dug into their stockings and found that Santa left them not only a train table but some candy, movies and card games.

Little Henry even got some things in his stocking and Magnolia and Boothe loved showing him his gifts.

After playing with Santa's gifts for a bit and having some breakfast it was time to dig into all of those presents under the tree.

The girls got some books...

and Little People toys...

and Play-doh tools.

The last gift they opened was their favorite but I didn't get a very good picture of that one. I got them a cute little tea set to share. They have been having tea parties every day and play so nicely together when they do.

I think Dad made out the best this year with his gifts. He takes good care of us but we take extra good care of him.

After lunch we headed over to my parent's house for our Christmas celebration with them, my sister and her family, my brother and my aunt Kathy. We opened gifts and then had a nice dinner together.

Before everyone went home we set the timer on my camera to get a group shot like we did last year. We had some new and very new additions to the family.

My sister, Brooke, her husband, Ryan, and their son, Raife (4.5 months).

My 3 munchkins.

The 4 grandkids. Two boys and two girls now.

Our family of 5.

Mom and Dad with their grandkids.

Mom and Dad with just the boys.

Being silly.

My little mommy, Boothe. Every time Henry cries she comes over and says "It's ok, Henry. I'm here. Don't worry." She melts my heart.

Gramma Kath with my babies.

Gramma Kath with just the boys.

Gramma Kath with all the kids getting sillier....

and sillier...

and sillier!

And finally uncle Ty with all our silly kids. You can only ask a 4 and 2 year old to smile for so long. After that you just have to be happy that they stayed in the picture.

We had a wonderful Christmas Day and headed home that night to get enough rest to celebrate Christmas the next day with the Corys.

12-24-2011

2011-12-29T19:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was also Going Home day. The previous night Dan took the girls home so they could all 3 get a good night's sleep in their own beds. They came back over to the hospital the morning of the 24th with a nice big Starbucks for me! It was so nice to have our little family together for the morning having breakfast. I had missed them the night before. Henry and I were released from the hospital at about 11am so we were all back home again less than 24 hours after he was born.

Who does this little guy look like?

Wearing his going home outfit. Mimi, Dan's mom, knit this 2 piece little outfit before Magnolia was born and now all 3 of my kids have worn this outfit to come home from the hospital. Henry barely fit so if we have any more kids they better not be any bigger than this little guy.

Making our way to the car. Boothe wanted to hold Henry's car seat with daddy and Magnolia wanted to ride in the wheelchair with me.

Just getting home. Boothe wouldn't stand with them for a picture but we caught her for the next picture in front of the door.

My 3 children. Wow, how my life has changed in just over 4 years. Empty house to Full house!

A handsome little man.

After we got home we had a few family visitors for the afternoon and then went to the Christmas Eve service at church. Everyone at church couldn't believe I had just had a baby the day before and was there but Henry was almost 10 lbs...I felt better with him out than I did with him in!

These 2 all dolled up and ready in their Christmas dresses.

Magnolia was an angel for the children's live nativity for the Christmas Eve service and she was the angel assigned the job of carrying the baby Jesus to Mary. Henry was slated to play the important part of the baby Jesus if he had arrived earlier.

She did such a good job kneeling and worshiping at the manger. Magnolia is the angel on the left right next to Mary in blue.

Boothe said she wanted to play the part of a sheep that night but by the time the children made their way to the front of the sanctuary she had changed her mind and just sat with us. For the Time with Our Children part of the service she went up with the rest of the kids who weren't a part of the nativity and from there on she stole the show. The first thing she did when she got to the front was head right to the manger and play with the straw. Another little girl who had been instructed to not play with the straw apparently told Boothe she wasn't suppose to play with that. So in the middle of the lighting of all the advent candles, Boothe yells "Hey mom, her said I can't play with that." I was laughing so hard my body was shaking! Then after Time with Our Children all the kids were to come back and sit with their parents. Magnolia headed right to us, but no Boothe. She was the last one up there and had decided to pick up the baby Jesus doll and carry it down the aisle. No big deal except she was then determined to put it in the manger...which was at the front of the church! Back up she heads with Miss Linda and Pastor Rebecca to place baby Jesus in the manger, cover him up and tuck him in. Since that service she has wanted to play "baby Jesus" with Magnolia. They put blankets on their heads and play Mary and Joseph with one of their dolls being the baby. What an eventful evening thanks to our little Boothie!

Then back at home the girls took off their Christmas dresses and got to open 1 gift under the tree which I selected. We always open a new pair of pajamas to wear Christmas Eve night. They were excited to open the gift...but something upset Boothe....

Here is the sequence of Boothe that night opening her new pajamas...

Magnolia just excitedly opened her gift, loved the nightgown and happily put it right on.

Aaaaaaaaand.....she's over it!

That night, Christmas Eve, was Henry's first night at home with us. You can't get much more special than that. We spent the evening after the girls went to bed waiting for santa, watching It's a Wonderful Life and being in awe of this little guy sleeping in our arms.

12-23-2011

2011-12-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

Our son was born 2 days before Christmas this year. He was due on the 21st but we never thought he would stay in for so long. Both of my girls came about 2 weeks early so we had been expecting him to come any day for about 3 weeks. What a Christmas miracle he is.

I had a doctor's appointment at 8:40 Friday morning. Dan had been off work for the week since we had expected a much earlier delivery so the 4 of us headed to my appointment. I knew since I was overdue that the doctor would discuss induction and I wanted Dan there to help make a decision. And at that point I really didn't want to be having a baby on the 24th or 25th and missing Christmas with my girls. The doctor suggested inducing on the following Tuesday the 27th. I knew if I didn't have that baby today he was going to make his appearance exactly when I didn't want him to! So I asked if we could do it then. The hospital is just right across the street anyways! I had been 3 cm the week before so I asked if I had progressed further if we could go ahead with it. I was 5 cm with a bulging water sack...so he sent us over. Yippee! But also surreal as it always is when you are about to have a baby and still can't believe you are going to be having another baby.

I was hoping all the doctor had to do was break my water and contractions would begin on their own. I was having hardly any contractions at all up to this point which was discouraging when you are 2 days overdue. I was right about my body taking over once my water broke. I really didn't want to use pitocin and feel very lucky that I didn't have to. The only intervention was having my water broke. The doctor broke it at about 10:10, contractions began about 20 minutes later, was checked again 25 minutes later and was at 7.5 cm, asked for an epidural and received that about 30 minutes later and was completely dilated by the time the epidural kicked in and I wasn't feeling the contraction. The delivery doctor was at another hospital so we had to wait for her for 20 minutes but I think he was coming down a little on his own without me having to push so it wasn't wasted time. Dr. Nevel arrived and 20 minutes later Henry Daniel Cory was out. All 9 lbs 10 ozs of him! That epidural was a great decision as he wasn't the easiest baby to push out being so big, especially his shoulders.

He was born 2 hours and 15 minutes after my water was broken. Another fast delivery but so much more relaxing and less frantic than my delivery with Boothe. Best delivery so far.

These 2 girls were so excited to meet their new little brother.

The 2 cousins, only 4.5 months apart.

My whole family was there when they brought Henry back from the nursery where you got his assessment and bath. They were all gathered around looking at him as soon as the nurse left. I had to get a picture.

Special Holiday Delivery onesie that the hospital dressed him in. It really was special having him so close to Christmas.

Baby Henry wanted to girls to have a special gift. Matching cross necklaces. Magnolia whispered to my mom or aunt or someone "I know baby brother didn't get these because I saw mommy wrapping them"! ha

Mimi brought some cute gifts for Henry to the hospital. A handknit sweater, handknit blanket and ND onesie.

What a wonderfully busy couple of days we have had. So much going on from the 23rd to the 26th. I'll get those other days of Christmas activities posted soon. Yesterday we had to take him to the lab to have his newborn screening done since he left the hospital before he was 48 hours old. Today we didn't have anywhere to go. And tomorrow he has his first doctor's appointment. Other than that these days are restful and relaxing. Getting used to 3 kids, a family of 5 and trying to figure it all out before Dan heads back to work next Monday!

Christmas Lights

2011-12-18T10:32:00.000-08:00

Among our yearly Christmas traditions is driving around a local neighborhood, Winding Brook, looking at the Christmas lights. The whole neighborhood goes all out as a fund raiser for different local charities. It's nice that it gets dark so early so we can go early to see the lights and still get back in plenty of time to get the kids to bed on time.

So 1 week until Christmas. No baby yet. I can hardly believe it. My due date is 3 days away and I've never been this pregnant. Dan is taking the next 2 weeks off. We had planned it to be his paternity leave but I feel like I can barely move so having him home now before the baby is born is working out just as well. Now I'm getting a little nervous that this birth could change our Christmas plans a little bit!

39 Weeks

2011-12-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

And I'm still here and baby brother still isn't. I hope this is the last picture taken of me pregnant. I'm done!

Christmas Baking

2011-12-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago Magnolia and I spent an afternoon baking for teachers, neighbors and of course ourselves. Dan kept Boothe in the living room and Magnolia was such a great help measuring and pouring and unwrapping candy canes and putting them in the food processor to grind up. Here are the treats we made along with a link to the recipe.

These cornflake wreaths are easy to make but hard to handle. They are so sticky and are trouble when you are trying to shape them with your fingers. I used an ice cream scoop (greased) to make balls and then just pressed a thumb in the middle to make the wreath shape. I could only handle making 1 batch of a dozen of these.

These buckeye pretzels were very easy to make. I rolled little balls of the peanut butter mixture and Magnolia squished it between the 2 pretzels. A few ingredients and I simplified the recipe even more by using chocolate covered pretzels instead of melting chocolate and dipping them. I made about 5 dozen using a single batch of this recipe.

We love fudge around the holidays so I decided to try peppermint fudge this year. This was the favorite treat of Magnolia and Boothe that we made that day. Dan preferred the buckeyes. This fudge is so pretty looking too and added some nice color to the treat bags we put together. This recipe makes 36 pieces but is very rich so I got about 45 peices.

And last but definitely not least, my favorite, these soft gingerbread cookies are awesome. I may have to make these again before the end of the year. I got about 4 dozen from this recipe.

I found all of these recipes via Pinterest. Such a good way to find new recipes. Most of mine happen to be sweets! Here are 2 others I tried over the past month that are worth trying and making again.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

and

Chocolate Coconut Bars

Church Advent Festival 2011

2011-12-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

Every year we have an Advent Festival at our church to sing carols, decorate and eat a pizza dinner together. We always organize lots of crafty Christmas ornaments for the kids to do. Like last year the girls made some cute and easy decorations for our tree.

While singing carols they froze up and didn't sing any of the words to the song they requested. Fingers went immediately into their mouths and they just kind of eyed the audience. Magnolia is singing with the preschoolers and kindergarteners tomorrow morning at church. Hope we don't have a repeat performance!

The first craft we did was pipe cleaner and clear bead snowflakes. Just twisting the middle of several silver pipe cleaners together and stringing any number of beads onto each "stem". They really look like ice when they are finished.

Next we made pine cone Christmas trees. Another easy one. Turn a pine cone over, place a small amount of clear glue on random "branches" of the pine cone and stick on a very small puff ball. We used only red and white, but you could do any color or colors you like.

Angel clothes pins were our next stop. Magnolia loved drawing the face on the "head" of the clothes-pin-soon-to-be-angel and gluing on a piece of gold pipe cleaner in a circle on top. All that was left to do was glue 2 white feathers onto the back to become wings.

Boothe and daddy enjoying the Christmas spirit!

The last craft we did that night were these felt candles. Cut a small piece of yellow and orange felt and glue it to one edge of white felt about a foot long and 6 inches wide. Then roll up the felt and glue to edge down. The ribbon glued to the top on the outside of the felt gives the effect that the candle is actually glowing and you can use the ribbon to hang the candle from the tree.

And today, 12/10, I'm thankful for our church and the children's program that has taught my girls so much these past several weeks about the Christmas story. Our family can relate especially well this Christmas season as we not only prepare for the birth of our Savior but for our own baby boy as well. The waiting and the anticipation for 2 births this Christmas has taught me so much more this year.

Some Christmas Crafts

2011-12-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Like I said in my last post, we have been doing a lot of Christmas crafting the past several weeks. Most are gifts but we made 3 easy ones to decorate the house that turned out great. The first is a wreath for the front door. I hung it on the inside of the door since it's made of candy and I would imagine it would melt or run if it got wet outdoors.

The supplies you need for this wreath are:

A flat floral wreath
Red ribbon (nothing fancy)
3 large bags of Brach's Starlight candies
A nice red wire ribbon

I used 3 spools of red ribbon to wrap around the floral wreath and secured them with stick pins. This covers the green or white color of the wreath and also prevents the wreath from melting under the heat of the glue gun. Next I hot glued the candies around the wreath. 3 rows on the front and 2 rows each on the sides. The girls were able to help by unwrapping the candies and eating any broken ones. After letting the glue cool and dry I looped the decorative wired ribbon around the wreath to hang from a nail and tied a bow to the loop. That's it! I was really happy with how it turned out and hope it stores well to be used for future Christmases.

The next project we did involved some pinecones, red and white spray paint and some glitter. Since I didn't want to be around the spray paint fumes, I sent Dan outside with the spray paint and Magnolia out with the glitter. Dan sprayed on the color and Magnolia sprinkled on the glittler. Fun for all!

Then I arranged them around some candle sticks and...

added some fresh cut holly and greens from outside and some red candles. I love how this turned out to use as a centerpiece in the dining room.

Lastly, we made candy Christmas trees. I hot glued candies to styrofoam cones that I got from the craft store. I've seen this done with other candies like gumdrops and and any other green, white or red candies. Maybe before the end of the season I'll add some more to the mix.

So today 12/05, I'm thankful for little fingers and minds that love to create. Making something beautiful and purposeful out of nothing. Wait until I show you the cute Advent crafts they made at church this year.

Pajamas, Tree and Gifts

2011-12-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

After Thanksgiving it's fair game to bring out the Christmas pajamas. We love Hanna Andersson pajamas for kids and love them even more since we have a Hanna Andersson outlet only about 45 minutes away that we get over to a few times a year. My mom and I went last Saturday for the morning to try and find some last minute baby boy sleepers before baby brother arrives and scored 4 different prints in a couple different sizes for $5 (!) each.

Our tree was fully decorated the night the girls first wore their Christmas pajamas and all my Christmas shopping was done and wrapped under the tree. Everything is done and ready this year by the 1st of December. Usually I don't even start doing Christmas shopping until December. Such a great feeling since baby brother could suprise us any day now. This year I wrapped all our gifts in shipping paper, some red and white twine and to/from stickers. Then I let the girls decorate the packages with some red and green crayons. Cute and simple and 100% recycleable. We have been doing a lot of Christmas crafts aroud here but since most of them are for gifts, I won't be able to show you until after the gifts have been opened. There are a couple projects we did for around our house that I'll post about next and I have been knitting like crazy and have some baby boy sweaters to show.

I would like to post more often but our computer is hooked up to our tv, which comes in very handy a lot of the time, but makes for a very uncomfortable way to do actual work (like blogging is work or something!).

So today 12/01, I'm thankful for Christmas pajamas, Christmas lights, hot chocolate and snuggles while reading Christmas stories or watching Christmas movies. I love how cozy December is. The only thing I'm not looking forward to about baby brother arriving this month is having to spend some of those December days in the hospital.

Oh, Christmas Tree

2011-11-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving we went and got our Christmas tree. Dan wanted to cut down his own this year so we looked into tree farms nearby and decided to try Pinecrest Farms in Galien, MI to see how we liked it. It was quick and easy and we all enjoyed the horse drawn wagon ride out to the trees. We have had absolutely beautiful weather this fall and have been able to enjoy some last of the year outdoor activities before the snow and frigid cold set in. I'm ready for snow anytime now as long as the date on the calender is December 1st. Glad that we had a basically snow-free November.

Dan snuck baby brother into this one:

Sawing the tree we picked out.

All cut down and ready to be bound and taken home.

Magnolia did the honor of cutting the string that held the tree.

Boothe was a little shocked as the tree sprung to life.

Pulling out the decorations and ornaments without pants. It's kind of her thing. I'm so used to it that sometimes people come to our house selling things or delivering packages and I won't even notice that Boothe isn't wearing pants until they are already gone. I'm at the point where I'm satisfied if she is at least wearing underwear.

Ho Ho Ho

Magnolia had the honor of placing the star. Our tree took 2 days to finish decorating because we had some light issues. Dan didn't even get frustrated when he had to try and replace the bulbs that weren't lighting up...ahem.

Boothe took her turn with the star too.

Nutcracker Tea

2011-11-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

To kick off the holiday season, I took Magnolia the Nutcracker Tea. Since she has been taking dance lessons I thought she would enjoy seeing some of the ballet, meeting some real live ballerinas and spending a fancy afternoon with mom. She loved it more than I even expected she would. I thought 30 minutes of performed scenes from the Nutcracker would be just enough but Magnolia was upset that we weren't going to see the whole thing! And with all of the dancers in such a broad array of costumes running around during the tea, she was in heaven. There were some simple crafts for the kids; hot tea, iced tea and lemonade; and some killer desserts. This was the first year we have gone. It is a big fundraiser for the dance company where Magnolia takes lessons, Southold. I am already looking forward to taking both of the girls next year.

Trick-or-Treat

2011-11-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

My little Strawberry Shortcake and little chick took to the streets on Halloween night like champs. They went door-to-door for an hour before Boothe started to lose it and Magnolia was ready to get back too. They even trick-or-treated at our house twice before the 5pm start time just to get some practice. I was proud of how often they said thank you for the candy at our neighbor's and neither was shy about going up to most houses and saying trick-or-treat. After every house Magnolia would run back to me and show me the exact candy she had got and when we got home she dumped her bucket and counted each piece. All the candy was gone within a week. I think I helped out a little too much, but baby brother made me do it.

And now the count down is on for Thanksgiving and less than 6 weeks before baby boy arrives!

Halloween Spirit

2011-10-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

The girls have been wearing Halloween inspired nailpolish on their toes this week. They have thought it was so cool to have a pattern on their toes. We tried it on their fingers but they put their fingers in their mouths too often and the polish didn't last long on most fingers.

I will be back soon with costume and trick-or-treat pictures.

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-31T09:26:00.000-07:00

The kids and I carved a couple pumpkins this weekend. I think Boothe has found her calling in life...a gooey pumpkin gut extractor. Couldn't get enough of the slimy stuff between her fingers and wanted to do it all herself. Magnolia on the other hand wouldn't touch it. Once was enough then she washed her hands and didn't want to get her hands dirty anymore. She enjoyed the design part but not the messy part.

After they were done, we carried them upstaris and put glow sticks inside instead of candles and the girls have used them as their nightlight for the last couple nights. Guess which one Magnolia designed and which one Boothe did.

Halloween Cookies

2011-10-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Twice a year we decorate cookies; at Halloween and at Christmas. Not sure why those 2 holidays make us feel like eating cookies with frosting and sprinkles, but that's just the life that we live. I made some whole wheat sugar cookies that were very good but not too sweet. Adding the sugary frosting and sprinkles makes them perfect. Orange frosting, sprinkles and candy corn = happy kids and delicious cookies.

The girls placed their candy corns upright and called them birthday candles.

Mom's creation:

Dad's self portrait...but I think he is being a little bit generous with his hair line...

I can remember when it was more likely to see Dan holding a beer bottle like this, now this is as crazy as we get!

In the past we have baked a couple dozen cookies, decorated them all at once and then not ended up eating all of them. This year I baked the cookies and we each decorated and ate 1 per day for a couple days. Everything is fresher this way and spreads the fun out all weekend!

A Very Special 4 Year Old

2011-10-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Magnolia turned 4 last Saturday, the 22nd. We had a little birthday party for her at the South Bend Chocolate Cafe downtown with family and some of her friends from the neighborhood and from church. It was a nice day and there was plenty to keep the kids busy between playing on the indoor playplace to having lunch to playing some more to having cake to playing a little bit more.

Here is the birthday girl pre-party.

Magnolia and some friends playing inside the playplace.

Caged animals or 4 year olds...or both...

Boothie having fun with her Gramma Kath at the party.

Blowing out 4 candles. I can't believe this is the 4th time we have celebrated the birth of our beloved child.

Time for presents!

Lots of Strawberry Shortcake toys, their favorite right now. That stuff has been played with non-stop this past week.

Magnolia graciously let Boothe help her unwrap a lot of her gifts and didn't care one bit when Boothe began hoarding them in this bag which she titled "my bag".

Raife slept almost the whole time, but when he did wake up...

he was immediately smothered. Ryan with the girls and mini-me (Raife).

I did a mildly polka dot theme for the party. Her dress, cake, balloons, wrapping paper and it just so happened that the room we rented had polka dots on the walls.

We do a family picture at each birthday party. Some of them turn out better than others. This one reminds me of a bad passport photo...the white-ish background and bad lighting.

How blessed we have been these past 4 years. We are constantly amazed at how smart you are and learn so much from your kind spirit. We couldn't love you more, Magnolia!

Kiddie Craft

2011-10-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have been letting the girls get more crafty lately and play with glue and stickers; ink and paint; and beads and strings. After baby brother is born in December we will probably be spending 5 days a week hunkered down indoors at home until April. Thats a lot of time to get bored and watch plenty of movies. So to combat that a little bit I am trying to find artsy activities that the girls like. Some favorites so far are stringing large beads onto pipe cleaners to make bracelets and necklaces for their dolls, drawing faces on paper and gluing on googlie eyes, cutting anything and pasting anything and stamping anything. I saw this idea on Pinterest and we tried it out. I got an ink pad with many different colors at a craft store. I couldn't find anything that said washable but this one did say "could only be used on fabrics if blah blah blah..." so I figured it must wash out of fabrics pretty easily and it did. White pants, blue ink and good as new. We gathered a couple of unsharpened pencils and used the erasers as stamps. Easy, colorful and interesting. The sky's the limit with the number of patterns you could make with circles. This would be especially great of older kids who could make some impressionist style prints.

Fall is here

2011-10-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

Fall has arrived and is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. We had a good week of about 80 degree temps recently and while I tried not to complain about it too much, the pregant part of me is welcoming 60 degree days (as long as the sun is still shining). The hotter temps did allow for some nice outdoor fall activities however.

Look how amazing these colors are. I wish I could say this was my backyard, but then I probably wouldn't be writing this post since I'd be outside enjoying a mug of hot cider surrounded by the beauty.

We have broken out the spooky glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas to get ready for Halloween. Boothe is dressing up as a baby chick and Magnolia is obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake.

We've taken some walks around the neighborhood to see all the changing leaf colors and brought back home a collection to make into leaf art. Seriously, give a kid a glue stick and 2 things to glue together and they are happy as clams. I think their art turned out pretty good.

Magnolia has been wanting to take lots of pictures lately. This one of Boothe turned out pretty cute!

The girls were having a ball playing ring around the rosie in the leaves. Serious belly laughs. Can you tell?

And last night we made carmel apples. It was getting close to their bedtime so we couldn't wait for the carmel and chocolate to cool and harden a bit before eating so we were left with a gooey yummy mess which was thoroughly enjoyed. They were seriously so good.

Indianapolis Zoo

2011-10-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

The last time we visited the Indianapolis Zoo I was pregnant with Boothe. Now Baby Brother (as we call him) got to experience his first trip to the zoo in utero. This time the girls and I spent most of the day at the zoo while Dan was attending some CLE (continuing Legal Education) classes in Indy. I was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel room and fortunately I was able to get both girls to nap which hasn't happened in months and months and months. All the pictures below are "Magnolia and Boothe in front of a shark", "Magnolia and Boothe in front of a giraffe", etc. So instead of labeling all the pictures see if you can tell what animal the girls are getting a picture with...

Pumpkin Picking

2011-10-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Another fall tradition that we can check off our list this year is a visit to the pumpkin patch. The one we go to has a fun playground for the kids, a petting zoo, lots of produce besides pumpkins and a hayride around the farm. We have good luck at our outdoor adventures this fall weather-wise. Lots of sunshine and not-too-cold temps.

Of course my camera battery ran out at the end of our outing so I wasn't able to get a couple of pictures I had hoped for. Mainly one of the 4.5 of us. Next year I'll be better prepared.

65 Pounds of Apples

2011-10-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is also our third year going apple picking at Springhope Farms. It was an absolutely beautiful day to pick apples. We have the routine down and can pick about a bushel in about 15 minutes but like to stay for a bit longer to enjoy the outdoors and fall and the orchard. The girls are to the age now where we can have fun without any major breakdowns.

Here's a look back at 2010 and 2009.

Open Book Festival at the Library

2011-10-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

I think this is the third year we have gone to the annual open book festival at the downtown library. Some friends joined us this year. Boothe was absolutely smitten by all the characters except for the Cat in the Hat. She wouldn't go near her/him. Looks like a woman but I had always thought the Cat was male. Maybe this character looked a little too human for Boothe because she couldn't get close enough to all of the others. We also saw a puppet show that morning and wanted to see a little bit of the Jim Gill (children's singer) performance but the ND game that day started at noon so we had to hurry home.

Here is a look back at 2010 and 2009.

Preserving Carrots

2011-09-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share how we keep the abundance of carrots that we grow in our garden for most of the winter. I didn't blog much about my garden this year because 3/4 of it was carrots. We had a couple rows of sugar snap peas that did OK this year and 4 pepper plants but other than that our little plot was covered with carrot greens. And weeds. But mostly carrot greens. We pulled them earlier this year (mid-September) because last year we waited until October and they were TOO big. When they get too big they taste more bitter. I used them just fine in stews and pot roasts over the winter but they didn't taste quite right raw. This year we pulled them at just the right time and they taste great.

To store carrots during the winter months all you need is a container large enough to hold everything, some moist/damp sand and your carrots. You'll want to layer the sand and carrots until you run out of carrots and then cover it all up with one last layer of sand. I took this picture before the final layer. Then you just remove carrots as you need them. Keep a lid on the container to keep out bugs and store in a cool, dark place such as a basement or a garage.

Some important things to keep in mind as you are placing your carrots into the sand is to keep about an inch of greens at the top, don't break or cut off any of the thin root extending from the bottom and watch for bruised or split spots. Any damaged ones can just be placed in the refridgerator to be used within the month. Not following these guidelines will cause the carrot to eventually rot. It won't affect any of the other carrots in the bin so if you miss something a find a rotten carrot a few months later, just toss it and use another one.

I have actually read that stored carrots increase in their nutritional value during the first 6 months in storage. So "aged" carrots are actually a bit healthier to eat.

Two little rabbits with their carrots.

I will have another post soon about the other foods I have preserved this year. I like to keep a count of jars or bags of each type of fruit and vegetable that I put up each summer so I have a better idea of how much we go through during the winter and how much I will need to do the following summer.

A Project for a Rainy Day

2011-09-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Pinterest awhile back and thought it was so cute. We have a ton of broken crayons so I knew I had plenty of supplies. One rainy, gloomy day we decided to try it and add some color to our day.

First we gathered all of our broken crayons and removed all of the paper.

I then took a regular kitchen knife and cut them up into small pieces. My cutting board still has a slight rainbow effect.

Next I filled a chocolate mold with the bits and pieces of crayon. I used the heart shape, but I would think that any shape would work.

I placed the tray in the oven at 250 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. I just kept checking on them and peeking to see that there were no more obvious chunks of crayon. So I didn't set a timer.

And this is what we are left with once the wax has cooled and the new crayons can be popped out. They are fun to draw and color with as they produce a color changing effect on paper.

Magnolia loves doing arts and craft activities so I've been looking for new things for her to try this winter when we will be spending most of our days indoors.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2011-09-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Our Denver to Chicago return trip wasn't quite as charming as the Chicago to Denver leg of the vacation. Just to add another element to the chaos, we had Dan's cousin's 3 year old with us. His mom met us in Chicago to pick him up. Turns out she could have driven to Denver to pick him up just to save some time...

So where to start...how about at the beginning...

First of all, thank God for the internet which allowed us to know ahead of time that our 7pm departure time was going to be delayed until 11pm. Frustrating but I didn't really let it bother me. We all took naps that afternoon and the kids fell asleep in the car on the ride from the Lane Guest Ranch to the train station in Denver. We arrived at about 10pm to wait for our 11pm train only to find out the train wouldn't be arriving until at least 1am. Ok, sitting in a train station for 3 hours with 3 kids under 4 in the middle of the night wouldn't be my first choice in vacation activities, but there was nothing I could do and we made the best of it. The kids were so so good and for the rest of the day people complimented me on how well behaved my kids were...all the time thinking ALL 3 were mine plus I was obviously expecting another! Anyways, we got onboard at 3am. Three o'clock in the morning. Closer to the time we usually wake up than the time we usually go to bed. Plus with the time change, it was actually 5am back home. Lord have mercy. Needless to say no one brushed their teeth that night. We barely made it into pajamas before falling into our beds in our sleeper car. This was 3am.

At precisely 8am we are awoken by this:

Now granted, we didn't know exactly what "this" was. We just thought the conductor had made a very hard stop as our car was one of the last on the train and remained on the tracks and upright. The kids actually all slept right through it. We heard the porter talking out in the hallway and he said we hit a crane. Being only half awake at this point, the only thing that I could think of was that we had hit a bird "a crane". I was confused about why we possibly had to stop just for hitting a bird. Was it an endangered species? Within the next 20 minutes we learned that we had to deboard with all of our belongings,3 car seats and 3 kids who had only been asleep for the last 5 hours. The scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles came to mind when they are schlepping their heavy bags across that huge field.

This is the crane we hit. No it is not a bird.

Luckily when we got off the train TONS of rescue workers and volunteers were on the scene to help out. We didn't have to carry anything but the kids and my purse. They fairly quickly loaded us onto school buses and away we went to the high school gym. Where unbeknownst to us we would remain for the next 8 hours.

They fed us as much as we could eat and were very accomodating, but sitting in a hot gym with a couple hundred people after a 5 hour train station wait and only 5 hours of sleep with, let me remind you, 3 kids under 4 got really old. I hit my breaking point somewhere around hour 5. Before then, I had remained positive with a "it could always be worse" attitude. After leaving the guest ranch at 8:30pm and as I sat in a Nebraska high school gym in the middle of no where at 1pm I began to wonder if things COULD get worse? The closest car rental company was about 2 hours away so we didn't have many options. We knew that United Limo type buses were going to pick us up and so we waited.
I guess Boothe is dancing here. Seriously check out those moves....

They brought toys over from a nearby preschool for the kids to play with.

And so at 4pm we loaded up onto a bus that would take us halfway across the country during the next 18.5 hours getting us into Chicago at 11:30am. Only 21 hours late. Bringing our total travel time to just under 40 hours. Never had I been so happy to get into our own car.

Lane Guest Ranch

2011-09-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

The day after my birthday, a couple weeks ago, we traveled out west to spend a week with family in northern Colorado. Near Estes Park in the Rockies there is a wonderful all-inclusive ranch that is perfect for all ages making it a great spot for family reunions. Check out their website here. It was definitely a neat place to spend a week.

We took Amtrak from Chicago to Denver and loved it. The girls and I had never rode on a train in the US and we all thought it was really a great way to travel if you are in no hurry to get anywhere. It's just relaxed. It was suppose to be a 17 hour trip and ended up being about 20 hours, but we had decided the traveling was going to be part of the vacation. Usually the travel days of a trip are dreaded, long and stressful whether you fly or drive. We wanted the train ride to be part of the fun and it really was.

The girls in Union Station, Chicago.

The girls settled in on the train.

Night time on the train was really cool. Everyone slept well in their own bed and I thought it was relaxing (for the most part) to sleep while in motion. I love to sleep in the car!

Arrival in Denver. Off to meet uncle Pete who picked us up from the station.

The girls in front of the sign for the ranch.

Three out of 4 of the girl second cousins. Hailey 8 months, Boothe 2, Magnolia 3.5, Ayla 2.5

Pierce, 3 years.

Magnolia getting on the train in Chicago. Somehow this picture got out of place...

Cayden, 4 years.

This was either breakfast, lunch or dinner at the Lodge. Some Hughes and some Haynies.

Guess who...

We swam everyday before and after lunch. The pool was great. Lunch was served at the Cafe next to the pool.

All 5 of the girl second cousins. I wonder which one is the BIGGEST ham?

Enjoying the nice weather on the deck of the house.

Play-doh kept the kids entertained for awhile one day.

Magnolia and Boothe's only 1st cousin on Dan's side. Ayla is 4 months younger than Boothe.

Baby Harper 15 months, with her mommy, Erika.

A family picture before dinner one night.

Pete and Boothe obviously really enjoying themselves at dinner! :)

This place is amazing with kids. Counselors just for kid stuff. They took the kids pony riding. Took us all on a easy hike. Kept the kids at Kid's Camp to do arts and crafts and just play. Came to the house to babysit. Were essential to this trip feeling relaxing and like a vacation to us parents. Priceless.

Magnolia and Pierce waiting to ride their pony, Salt.

Pete and Ayla waiting for her turn.

Most of the horseback riders. Harper came over to the corral late and LOVED the horse so they actually took her on a short ride and then another with she said "more, more, more"!

Magnolia and Salt. What a big girl.

Beautiful backdrop at the corral.

Then it was Boothe's turn. She was ecstatic! Only rider who wanted to go again once everyone had gone. Fearless.

Tried to get a nice family picture in front of the scenery but the sun was RIGHT in our face so Magnolia didn't want to look towards the camera and Boothe was cheesing it with her eyes closed so she could get some candy (bribery).

Feeding the pony apples.

These little guys are in great supply around the ranch. They are EVERYWHERE!

Boothe on round 2.

Group picture. Only missing uncle Frank. Here's the lineup: Justin and Lowry and their 2. Ken and Erika and Harper. Aunt Mary. Aunt Susan and Pierce. Us and our 2. Pete and Mis and Ayla.

Another dinner shot, from a different angle.

Almost everyone from the group went along for an easy short hike one afternoon with the children's counselors. It's actually a kid's hike but being pregnant and already having a hard time breathing because of the altitude and dry air, I wanted to do something but nothing AT ALL strenuous or even long. This was perfect and ended up being perfect for everyone, the kids and parents.

Magnolia led the way for the first part of the hike.

We walked to a beautiful waterfall.

The kids throwing stones into the river.

Another picture that somehow got out of place when I uploaded them.

Next the kids went fishing with the kid's counselors. Dan and Justin were there too but this fishing trip was for the kids. The guys all took an early morning fishing excursion and caught....nothing!

Does it matter if you don't catch anything while fishing when you have scenery like this?

The counselor caught a very small fish that they all got to touch.

Simply perfect.

We took the train home from Denver to Chicago, but had a slightly different experience on our return trip. I have to save that for another post.

Welcome, Raife

2011-08-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

On August 1st, Brooke and Ryan welcomed their firstborn into the world. Here are some first pictures of him while still visiting the hospital.

In case you haven't heard...

2011-08-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

We have BLUE on the brain.

Magnolia and Boothe will soon have a baby brother! Still working on the name, but we have until December to decide on that. Christmas will be a whole lot merrier this year.

August 19th, 1981

2011-08-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

That's when it all began.....

And today I turn 30!!!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

So...where was I?

2011-08-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

Now that the end of August is approaching, I thought I should wrap up the rest of what we did in July...

We picked blueberries a total of 4 times this summer. Picking just under 50 pounds! I froze a bunch once and the rest of the time we picked 6-10 pounds just to eat for the week. And now the season is over and we will move on to fall raspberries, peaches, pears and apples.

The last 3 times we picked the girls each brought a very small bucket of their own to fill and add to our larger buckets or to fill and eat. Boothe added berries of any and all colors to her bucket and then used more discretion when eating them, but this kept her from stealing the picked berries from mine and Dan's buckets.

Having her own bucket actually motivated Magnolia to pick and fill her bucket with BLUE blueberries! She ate some but mostly just wanted to fill her own "Sal" sized bucket. Have you read Blueberries for Sal? It's one of our favorites.

Their great-aunt Susan (Dan's mom's sister) sent the girls backpacks with their names embroidered on them. They rarely take them off. We are headed out to Colorado on the train (!) tomorrow for a family reunion and their backpacks are all packed with activities and snacks to take.

Then one night at about 9pm, I was in the kitchen working on something, probably meal planning and Dan was painting the basement. We decided to paint the playroom in the basement yellow and absolutely loved how it turned out. Anyways, I heard squealing tires from outside, close by. Our house sits about 5 houses away from a busy road/intersection so I hear squealing tires frequently as people are going too fast when the light turns red. We also live right on a curve so cars also take the curve too quickly sometimes and tires will squeal. But this night it was a little longer and louder than usual. It was also followed by a substantial bang. So I went to the front of the house to look out of the window and saw a car on it's side leaning up against a tree. Moments later a police car showed up followed by about 7 more followed by police officers getting out of their cars and some of them running, chasing someone, pointing towards the direction of our house/backyard! So of course we go out on the front porch to see whats going on. The police were bringing in a police dog so we went out back to make sure our dogs weren't outside. At first they thought the guy was in our garage but the dog led them through our backyard to our neighbors' yard behind us who happened to be out of the country for the summer. Anyways, as we are standing on our back porch still spying on all of the action, they catch the guy in our neighbor's large outdoor trash can! We couldn't see it, but we heard it all. It was quite the exciting night. I may have forgotten some details here so if so, Dan fill in the holes, please!

This night of cops and robbers happened a few nights after we caught a mouse in our kitchen that didn't get caught in the trap but knocked completely silly by the trap and was now stumbling around in a circle in the middle of the kitchen floor. Luckily Dan was home so we scooped him into a box and him and Boothe delivered him back to (as Boothe put it) "his mommy" who happened to be the neighbor's cat. And the mouse incident happened a few days after we lost electricity for 3 days after a bad storm during hot July! Monday morning 9am-Wednesday evening 6pm we had nothing. Then the next day after a night of gorging ourselves on electrically we had the electricity shut off the next day from 9am-6pm because they were trimming trees along the power lines. Two days later while out running errands my neighbor calls me and informs me that the transformer behind our house has caught on fire and caused a power outage once again plus a melted phone line and burnt toxic grass. Luckily that was fixed within a few hours.

We took one, much less exciting than the rest of our July, trip to Silver Beach and the splash pad there. So fun!

Dance Camp

2011-08-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

This summer I signed Magnolia up for 1 activity a month. June was Vacation Bible School at church, July was Dance Camp at Southold and we are in the middle of Tennis Camp at Leeper Park right now. At the end of the week of dance the girls put on a short recital of all the things they learned during the week. It was pretty cute even when Magnolia sat on the floor before running over to me during the first dance! ha She must have had stage fright.

I love this girl!

My little monkey who wants to be involved like her big sister so bad!

I love this girl too!

Little Girls

2011-08-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

My kids love 3 things. Well maybe not ONLY 3 things, but on this Saturday night they were happy as clams with their baby dolls, Lawrence Welk and pretending to go to sleep on the rug. They don't love to actually go to sleep, but they love to play "going to sleep".

Blueberry Adventures

2011-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

We picked blueberries last Monday and it was HOT! The last 2 years we had cooler weather and more shade so the girls lasted much longer. This year Boothe crabbed the whole time, but Magnolia was a big help and actually picked a fair amount of berries and put them in the bucket. We picked a little over 28 pounds and we ate lots and lots and froze 20 quarts. We ran out of berries to eat by the end of the week and picked about 6 more pounds on Saturday morning. Those were gone by yesterday afternoon so it looks like we'll be picking more this week to eat and I'd like to freeze 5 more quarts. With temperatures in the mid 90s this week, it's going to be rough picking!

Here are pictures from our first outing.

We were cooling down the girls by pouring water on their heads and necks and Boothe decided she didn't like her shirt being wet so off it came. If she would have had her way, the pants and underwear would have been off too.

Sun, Water and Birthday Fun

2011-07-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

For my dad's birthday on the 10th, we traveled up to the beach for the afternoon. This was our first time to the beach this year, but hopefully we will sneak a few more trips in before summer's end. It's always great weather at the beach and the water felt great.

We had dinner at the PumpHouse up in St. Joe. We love that place. Makes you feel like you are on vacation!

Then headed across the street to Kilwins for a birthday treat.

The girls had their first taste of Superman ice cream. Wasn't that the coolest ice cream as a kid!

4H Fair

2011-07-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

I have always wondered if the 4H fair/county fair thing was just a midwest thing or does everyone everywhere have the fair during the summer for a week every year. I will have to look that up. Well last week was the St. Joseph county fair and like every other summer we spent a few hours walking around, eating the usual fair foods, looking at the livestock, riding a few rides and wondering where all of these interesting people spend the rest of the year since the only time we cross paths is at the fair in the summer. We got the usual elephant year and after taking 1 small bite and watching the rest of us eating this "ear", Boothe stopped and said she wanted an elephant ear for in her ear not in her mouth. We went on the wrong day (any day is the wrong day that isn't $1 rides day) and the rides were so expensive we could only let the girls choose 2. Luckily they both chose the sames ones, but Boothe kind of does everything Magnolia does these days anyways so it really isn't that surprising. I love going to the fair, but one day a year is plenty. Then I look forward to next year. I hope my girls will be involved in 4H as they get older.

Magnolia thoroughly enjoying her dinner of grilled cheese from the dairy barn.

Boothe was a fan of the strawberry milk, Magnolia not so much.

The animal petting tent was our favorite part and we spent the most time in there holding, feeding and petting all of the animals.

This wheel was as big as our car, maybe bigger. We need one.

As in the previous post, here is a link to last year's trip to the Fair.

4th of July 2011

2011-07-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

Our Independence Day began with our annual neighborhood children's parade. Magnolia especially enjoyed it this year and kept looking back at me saying "This is so much fun!". She thought it was so cool to be riding her bicycle on the road. We decorated the bikes with blue balloons and streamers this year and before we could add the decor to Boothe's tricycle we had to remove last year's adornments...oops. Last year it was decorated with a star garland that held up very well through a year of riding the trike and weather but the stars were more pink a baby blue than the patriotic colors they had started out as.

Magnolia before the parade all ready to go!

Boothe before the parade all ready to go!

And they're off!

Making the curve with the antique fire engine in the background.

Loving being in the parade.

I just realized that Boothe had to hold her legs up the entire time as they don't reach the pedals! Oops, the second child gets forgotten about once in awhile. Just wait until she is the middle child, then we will probably forget her bike all together! ha

Enjoying a post parade patriotic donut with the neighbors.

After the parade and brunch with the neighborhood, we headed once again to Crown Point, IN to my cousin, Sandy's, home and went swimming for the afternoon.

Here's a link to last year's 4th of July post if you want to check it out. We do the same routine every year and have a blast! Parade and Pool Party

Look Who's 2

2011-07-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

Back on the lovely evening on Friday, July 1st, we had a family birthday party for Miss Boothe. I can't believe she is already 2 years old. She is so tiny, not that she is smaller than other 2 year olds, but she has so much personality...such a BIG personality...that I forget how small she is. So here is the birthday party for the biggest little girl I know.

Magnolia is now strong enough to pick Boothe up and they both think it is the most fun thing.

Before the party:

Pez, it's classic and probably their favorite candy.

Ready for the big show.

Yummy cake!

Very yummy cake!

One bite wasn't nearly enough.

She got her very own Bitty Baby. Now her and Magnolia each have their babies when they are playing. Magnolia likes her baby, but Boothe LOVES her baby. What a little mommy she is.

Giving baby her teddy bear.

Rocking baby.

One of the best pictures ever taken of Boothe. I just love it!!!

The beautiful big sister enjoying the party. She was such a big help when it came to opening gifts, but a little to quick sometimes at opening the present and not letting Boothe have much to do! ha I kind of felt sorry for Magnolia that she was so excited about the gifts when they weren't even for her. I like Christmas better than birthdays since everyone gets presents then!

I love these family pictures. Not because we all look great by any means, but because we have a family picture from every birthday party since Magnolia turned 1.

Another Shower for Brooke

2011-07-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

A million years ago, before I took over our computer desk as a sewing desk (it is actually my grandma's antique sewing maching table) and hooked up our PC to our TV; before we lost power for almost 3 days (had to buy dry ice to save our frozen foods) and had no computer, internet, iPad charger, cell phone charger, etc.; before I got lazy and never uploaded pictures off of my camera to the computer (or did that happen before Brooke's shower?)...I threw a baby shower for my sister with the help of my mom. We had it at my church in a great little room used for all kinds of meetings and small events. We had a great time. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

And now she is 37.5 weeks along and we all are prepared to meet him anyday, especially the new mom and dad. I say he arrives on July 26. Due date is the 30th. What's your guess?

Happy Birthday, Boothe!

2011-06-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

Happy 2nd birthday to our little Boothie. I can't believe it's been 2 whole years since you were born. What a blessed 2 years it has been!

If you can't beat them, join them

2011-06-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

It's almost the end of June and we have yet to be able to go to the pool or the beach. We did visit the splash pad one morning with friends, but with all of the rain, we have been spending way too much time indoors. On Saturday after Brooke's shower, it began raining...pouring. And it was still so hot outside. I ran and got the girl's swimsuits and told them to have at it running in the rain drops and puddles. I originally thought it would only pour for maybe 15 minutes tops, but the rain continued for much longer and they got bored of the rain before it even stopped. Then yesterday we discovered that we had gotten so much rain that our basement had turned into a wading pool. Next time I'll just send the girls downstairs in their swimsuits.

Boothe stepped off of the porch and said, "I'm getting all wet!"

They were soaked within minutes and loving it.

Dan joined them outside with an umbrella and the video camera for awhile.

Magnolia had VBS this morning and so Boothe and I ran some errands together during some more torrential downpours. This time it wasn't nearly as fun in jeans and flip-flops while trying to get in and out of the car and stores. Rain is on the forecast for the whole week. Let's hope we get a bit of summer come July.

Indianapolis Children's Museum

2011-06-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in June we drove down to the children's museum in Indianapolis for the day. It was a fun but long day and I was exhausted by the time we left. Luckily with the girls being so young we could skip a couple of the exhibits that were geared a bit more towards older kids. They still found plenty to do and play.

This was a blown glass exhibit. The entire ceiling was made of layers and layers of different shapes and colors of blown glass. Although most of the activities associated with this were older-kid oriented, Magnolia was having fun playing with the plastic replicas. Moving them around the room to make different designs.

Up next was the Barbie room. Right up my alley about 20 years ago, but still really cool today. Boothe and Magnolia had fun dressing up and coming down the Barbie runway. I had fun looking at all of the old Barbies and accessories on display.

Boothe put a little red sticker on her face during the car ride and it lasted there below her eye all day.

And by far the favorite time spent at the museum was at the Dora exhibit. I don't know what it is about Dora, but my girls love her. I'd take Barbie over Dora anyday, but I had my fun in the Barbie room already. It's very geared towards the preschool crowd with lots of active play.

Boothe met a new friend. She was hugging him and didn't even know his name. I told her people will get the wrong idea about you...

Out of the Dora room into the play and discover area. Water tables, sand boxes, blocks and play gyms.

Dan and the girls went on the carousel thats housed on the top floor of the museum. It has a really neat history and I would share it with you if I could remember what it was. I read about it as the rest of my family enjoyed their ride. This carousel went really really fast. It was pretty scary. Or maybe I was just playing with my camera and took a picture with the shutter open for a long time.

Very fun day!

Strawberry Pickers

2011-06-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday afternoon we visited Rosey's Strawberry Patch in Michigan City. We used to have a U-pick strawberry farm in South Bend but that closed and I don't know of any farms closer than 45 minutes from our house. This one, although not officially, is organic and unsprayed so we went with Rosey's. We picked for about an hour and had just over 22 pounds of berries when we were done. The strawberries are $1/lb which is really cheap compared to how they are priced anywhere else. The girls had fun and an hour was just about the perfect amount of time that Dan and I could stand to bend over to pick the fruit and the girls didn't get bored.

We ate several pounds that day and the next, but I had enough to freeze 25 pint sized bags for this winter. I will buy a few more pounds from the farmer's market to eat and make into jam. If we would have picked 30 pounds that would have been perfect. But I don't mind buying some already picked to accompany our labor.

You can tell this farm doesn't spray their plants as most of the green you see in the photos are weeds!

Boothe got right down to business picking berries...

...right out of Dan's box and putting them into her mouth.

Magnolia had more fun running up and down the rows.

Taking ownership over one of the 2 boxes of strawberries we picked that day.

I wonder if they ate any straight from the vine???

GUILTY!!!

Who, me?

Rainy Day Women #12 and #35

2011-06-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

We have had a ton of rain here during the last few weeks. Lots of thunderstorms and completely wet and rainy days. A couple friends and I have been planning a garage sale and have been rained out twice now. We have a 3rd date set and rain is forecasted for that day as well. It will happen eventually. Our garage is FULL of stuff and I'm ready to get rid of it and make some extra money.

We love to watch the rain as it comes down, especially when it's raining hard. Boothe usually gets a little to close to the rain and them complains that she is all wet. She looks so BIG standing on the porch in this picture. Her 2nd birthday is in less than 2 weeks and I can hardly believe she's been around for that long. Seems like she was just born.

Baby Shower for Brooke

2011-06-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago Kathy threw Brooke a baby shower in Valpo for family and friends over in that area. She got a lot of nice things and is on her way to being ready for baby when he arrives next month. This weekend I'm having a shower for her and invited friends from the South Bend area. Next weekend Brooke is officially done with work, they are moving from Muncie to South Bend and hopefully will close on their house. This could be their busiest weekend ever. Let's hope Raife doesn't make an early appearance this weekend too! haha

We love an excuse to get (and eat) a cake from Strongbow's!

Some of the kids from the shower. Addy, Boothe, Avree, Josie and Magnolia.

Brooke with the gift that the girls and I gave her.

Opening gifts...

Brooke and Kathy, the hostess with the mostest.

Sorry about the balloon string in the face, Brooke, but it's worth is when both the girls are smiling so well.

Me, Magnolia, Brooke, Boothe and Mom after the shower.

Why have I all of a sudden after more than 2 weeks without blogging decided today was the day to get caught up? We went strawberry picking on Sunday (post to come soon) and I'm trying my best to put off putting up the 22 pounds of strawberries by doing everything else on my to-do list first!

Visiting the Kinfolk

2011-05-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my aunt, the girls and I drove down to Murfreesboro, TN, just outside Nashville, to visit some family. It was a great visit and went by much too fast. The girls had a ball playing with their 4 Tennessee cousins. Most of our activities involved entertaining the kids while sitting and chatting.

We swung on the tree swing, taking turns with the other kids. Magnolia just loved this swing. Wish we had a tree that we could hang a swing on in our yard.

Boothe even got her turn to ride the swing.

It rained one afternoon for a couple hours so we popped some popcorn and watched a movie.

We played dress up. A neighbor came over to visit and Sydney put her crown on the neighbor's head and gave her her wand. The neighbor then playing along waved the magic wand and asked Sydney what she wished for. Sydney answered, "actually, I wish I had my crown and wand back." haha

We did this. Whatever this is.

She really got her boxing skills down in no time.

We ate ice cream with chocolate and strawberries. And got ate up by mosquitos, but it was worth it!

We wasted no ice cream.

We laughed.

We had a night of balloon blowing, popping, flying silliness.

We made interesting uses for kitchen tongs.

We waited to see what Jason had up his sleeve and was always pleasantly surprised with his ideas.

We ate popsicles.

We played with water balloons. This is Boothe before squeezing her balloon....

This is after it popped.

Sydney pretending to be sweet and not about to throw that balloon full of water onto anyne.

Best buddies.

The biggest water balloon....ever.

Boothe got quite attached. And...

was a bit upset when it popped all over her.

Trying to pop a balloon that doesn't want to pop.

Here it goes...

And one more for good measure...

Phyllis, Kathy and Delbert. My mom's sister, Kathy, whom we traveled to TN with and brother.

Most of the Tennesee crew. See you all at Thanksgiving. It's your turn to come to Indiana!

Ballet Class

2011-05-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

Magnolia finished up her semester of ballet class last Thursday. We got to go in and watch the class. There was one other observation day in the middle of the semester and I could tell so much improvement from then until now. All the girls look so cute in their pink tights and tutus. Magnolia seems to really like it so for now, this will be our winter activity. I just signed her up for tennis this summer, which will be our summer activity if she likes it.

She is taking her classes from Southold Dance Company. I mainly picked it because their studio is just a few blocks from our house and it's a quick trip there and back. We have really been happy with everything about our experience. Boothe is DYING to join in and participate but she'll have to sit out one more year until she is 3, poor thing. Must be hard being a younger sibling (I was the oldest!) ha.

Shedd Aquarium

2011-05-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Dan took the day off work on a Monday a couple of weeks ago so we could take a day trip into Chicago. We had been wanting to take the girls to the Shedd Aquarium and decided to also stop by Trader Joe's and Ikea.

We had a wonderful day. It was nice for Dan to get away from work for a couple hours. I enjoyed having an extra set of hands with the girls. And we all liked seeing all of the fish, dolphins, sting rays, etc.

Having taken Magnolia to the Indianapolis Zoo while I was pregnant with Boothe and now having visited the Aquarium, I think we'd rather do the zoo. And probably not just the Indy Zoo, I'm sure there are fabulous zoos all over, but we have only been to the ones in South Bend and Indy. It's just nice to have some aquatic exhibits as well as other things. We all were a bit bored of looking at fish by the end of the day. And being all indoors, the Shedd was so crowded with school children, that it was a bit overwhelming. We have a Indianapolis Zoo/Children's Museum trip planned for this summer now!

Boothe wanting to hold the turtle.

Magnolia's favorite part of the day was the Dora 4D show. It was a short 3D movie but with seats that shook, blew air and smelled like bananas.

This was the best picture I would get of the 2 of them together. Thank God for professional photographers. I don't know how they do it!

And that was our Chicago trip. I'll be posting pictures from our Tennessee trip last weekend soon!

Easter Time Doings

2011-05-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it already been almost 2 weeks since Easter? And even longer since I have been able to sit down and post! We had a wonderful Easter with lots of things going on to post about. We are still trying to make a dent in all of the candy that showed up at our house during that weekend.

There was a Easter Egg hunt for young kids downtown that we took the girls to. Friends of our also came out and the kids raced to gather as many eggs as they could before another hunter found them.

Kaelyn and Magnolia going for the same egg...

Boothe with her basket that is almost as big as she is (she has high Easter egg hunting expectations).

On Good Friday we traveled to Valparaiso to meet my cousin's newest little one. She lives in Indy and was home for Easter so we had the perfect opportunity to make a quick trip to see them. Lots of other cousins and family was there are we had a fun time.

Boothe, Carter, Magnolia, Jonah and Cora

The day before Easter, we colored eggs with the girls (mostly just with Magnolia as Boothe wasn't too into) for the first time. Magnolia got a kick out of it and we didn't even do anything fancy to them. Just soaked them in the dye and Magnolia added stickers afterwards.

We went from 2 perfectly well working cars to 0, yes ZERO, in a matter of a couple weeks. Both of the transmissions became non-working. Can't really plan or budget for that so in the meantime we are down to borrowing one of my parent's cars and getting used to being a 1 car family. We are looking for the right car but for now are just staying home a lot. The car seats have been in and out of cars a lot these past several weeks and they are much more fun to play in when NOT in a car.

Easter morning+Easter Bunny=2 spoiled girls. I think he forgot to leave baskets full of gifts for Dan and I...

After naps on Easter, we did an egg hunt in the backyard as we have done the past 2 years. They were both very excited about this one and I think Boothe ended up getting 1 more egg than Magnolia did! ha

Happy Belated Easter! But we are still very much in the 50 days of celebrating the Resurrection so I'm really not too belated....

Winter or Spring?

2011-04-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we planted our Sugar Snap Peas in the garden. We were barefoot and playing with the water table. The sun was warm and bright.

This weekend, it snowed. Not enough to stick, but snowflakes were in the air and it was sooooo cold! Enough already. We had to turn our furnace back on!

The grass we planted did so well and the girls loved to watch it grow every couple days. Each shell is full with tall green grass. It makes me wonder whether one could plant vegetable seeds in egg shells as indoor starts and transplant later. Are egg shells good for plants? I would imagine you could just crush the shells slightly before putting them right into the ground. Maybe next year I'll try it.

Trying to plant the peas. One little helper helped, the other one didn't. Guess which one is which...

And then there was one...

We planted 4 rows. One of the rows contains the seeds I saved from our "crop" last year. If they turn out well, I will save all of our seeds for next year. It's a little intimidating.

Boothe has graduated to a big girl swing. And does very well. I'm much more scared that she will fall off than she is. But even I'm not too concerned as the swings are very low to the ground.

And of course Boothe can't just like to swing. She has to love laying back and scaring me half to death.

So since last weekend, we have some tiny pea sprouts. Yesterday I noticed them mostly around the outer edge of the garden which gets the most sun. Hope this crazy weather doesn't effect the little seedlings.

Boothe sings the Beatles (pretty much)

2011-04-17T09:42:00.001-07:00

Magnolia the artist

2011-04-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

I'm impressed. Wish I could hang it on my fridge. Saddest part is that it had to be erased since it was drawn on a magna-doodle. She is definitely in a coloring, drawing, writing phase. Always has her pail of crayons and stack of coloring books.

Spring is in the Air

2011-04-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

Although we have had terrible weather so far this spring (cold, gloomy and rainy), there have been a few sunny days when we have been able to get outside for a bit. Yesterday it was actually 80 degrees here and very hot and humid. We were outside all afternoon and the girls were getting soaked by their water table. These pictures are from a day last week when we went for a little walk around the block. We had to cut it short after Boothe peed her pants and I had to awkwardly carry here home trying not to get too wet myself.

It hasn't been a good year for flowers. Apart from this day, our crocus bloomed and died without us being able to enjoy then. My daffodils aren't looking so great either and time will only tell how the hyacinths do.

Boothe collected all the sticks she could carry.

We slept last night with our windows opened and the ceiling fan on...bliss. The perfect temperature. Then to add to this nice sleep, it thunder stormed which is so relaxing especially when falling asleep. And to top off this great night of sleeping conditions, both of the girls slept until 7am without waking up once during the night. I woke up this morning so rested, so thankful and ready to tackle my to-do list. Here's to a good night sleep and a productive day!

Lawrence Welk

2011-04-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what you all do on Saturday nights, but nothing could more fun or exciting than watching reruns of the Lawrence Welk show on PBS. We discovered it one night a couple months ago and have been watching every Saturday night since. The girls like to dress up and dance and love to watch the dancers and especially the tap dancer. I have grown to actually look forward to watching it together. We are making memories and that's the best part of it!

Eggs

2011-04-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

Our life has been revolving around eggs these days. First my parent's chickens started laying and these days they get 5-7 eggs/day from 7 layers. Scrambled eggs have become almost a daily staple at either breakfast or lunch. We all love them so I don't think we will grow tired of them anytime soon. This picture is of their very first egg that one of their hens laid about 6 weeks ago. They begin smaller and as the hens begin laying more and more they eventually get bigger.

Boothe holding the egg which she proceeded to accidentally crack minutes later. Our fault...we gave a 1 year old an egg!

Once it was cracked we had to eat it! ha Maybe it was no accident that Boothe cracked it...she does love to eat eggs.

Onto other egg news. This Easter/spring we decided to take advantage of all of the egg shells we now had and plant grass in them. This is just the beginning of the process with the dirt and seeds in the shells, but in a couple weeks they should look like this on my friend, Leah's beautiful blog.

I have also been knitting Easter Eggs for the girls to hang. They are so fun and quick to do! I am using the pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits. It's fun coming up with different patterns and color combinations to try. Magnolia has even decided on the color combos she would like me to make. These are the Easter/pastel colors I have been using minus the blue which somehow didn't make the picture.

And here is how they have turned out:

And now that I have several done, I need to find a branch to use as a make shift tree to hang them from.