Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 - A Year in Pictures

Here's to 2011 and all everything that our family did. Here are a few highlights

2011 Started off with lots of snow in NC
My first baby ornament in the stocking 1/6/11!

One of my fav Papa and E pics

We/Lee renov-ed the kitchen

And made it AMAZING in 8 days

We had our 1st Valentine's Day as a fam of 3

Papa and E took swim lessons

Grammy and Grandpa Joe had their Marti Gras party!

We trekked up to NJ to visit my grandparents (and so glad/blessed we did)

Cousins!

                         We had a baby shower for Noah's Mama. Good think Noah's cousin L was there to help celebrate!                                                   (L and E at the baby shower - waiting to meeting Noah!)

Don't think words are necessary.

Easter 2011 - Fam of 3!

We celebrated E's 1st b-day.

And she got her first taste of chocolate!

We actually celebrate twice!

And learned about gravity this time around!

We got some new teeth

E is very excited about all the food options she has now!

We celebrated!

Grammy and Grandpa Joe's 30th Anniversary (with a surprise par-tay!)

E loves spending time with her cousins - especially when they read to her!

We found out we are going to be a fam of 4 in 2012!!!!

E has gotten lost in the laundry

and LOVES to read (and destroy books)

We've made friends and mama-friends at MMO!

E shocked us all and was a super trooper at an evening wedding

We gave to St. Nicholas and he brought us some great things in return!

E is very obsessed with shoes - and not just hers!

E enjoyed Christmas this year!

Christmas fam pic at 33 weeks!
We are moving! and did not get a big live tree this year : (
We have gotten so big and learned so much!
 Here's to the Amazing, Beautiful and Crazy adventures of LIFE in 2012!

Christmas Post Part Two

Let's see where did I leave off from the Christmas Post numero uno... After we got E in bed after her fun filled first day of Christmas soon it was time for the second day. She got up at about the same time as she always does - I think it would not matter if we put her in bed at 10 pm or 7 pm she would still be up around 7 am (which is why bedtime is most definitely before 7 pm). Anyways, it was off to Jibbe's house for Christmas with Lee's side of the fam. Lee had to be there early (of course) because he was heavily involved in meal prep (shocker : ). Before all the craziness no no no cousins got there we opened some presents.


E checking out her stocking... Only to find yogurt puffs which are her fav!

Very excited about Goofy
 Probably should do a side note here... E has had little exposure to the Wide World of Disney (which I am sure she will have more eventually - but on the diapers that are at Jibbe's house Mickey and others are on the diaps. We get the Sam's Club brand diapers which just have wildlife scenes on them but the Pampers (I think) have Mickey and his crowd. So E knows who Goofy is (why she picked him out of Mickey and Pluto and Minnie - I do not know) and hence the large Goofy stuffed animal.

Obligatory bag dump

New little bike for our great new driveway

I have no idea who she looks like in this pic!

Helping Mama unwrap (just to prove I was there)
 Then the rest of the fam started coming which was awesome because E loves her cousins. Especially S - who oddly enough is 21 months older than E (which is how far apart E and baby K #2 will be). Also, she and AR (love to color) - it must be a girl thing.


Ms. Barbara. Family friend... Soon to be godmother of baby #2...

S and E on the toybox.

Snuggling two great things - the NiNi and the toybox!
Cousin pic from 2010!!! Oh my goodness they are getting so big!!!

100% Obligatory cousin pic
The above photo was 100% necessary and we have 1.5 hundred outtakes of this pic. Why? Because The three older cousins, R, S #1 and W had a similar pic take maybe 8ish years ago. Thus E and S #2 needed this pic. AR is a bit too old now to find getting in the toybox fun so unfortunately we missed out on her toybox pic. Now, about this getting in the toybox. We were over at Jibbe's the other day and E is banging on the top of the toybox and pointing and saying 'in in'. Big cousins teaching little cousins about the necessities in visits to Jibbe's = love that E has cousins her age!

To wrap this post up, dinner was a success. Sweet potatoes were a much needed improvement from Turkey Day, beef was great even though there was some confusion surround the temp probes and the cookies that we made for the 12 days of Christmas were a big hit. I let E have one (without the Hershey kiss) but in its place I loaded her up on some whip cream which she proceeded to lick off and ask for more (and more and more and more). I am proud to admit she definitely got that from me!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Stay at Home Papi... For the Day

Lee had the awesome/unique (well not really) chance to stay home with E the other day. Things at Swimworld are insanely busy for this time of year - which means that there is actually work to be done on a daily basis - rather than nothing at all so we are thankful for that!

Anyways, things at the Global don't really slow down for me - there is always work to be done and since I only work in the office 3 days a week I really am compelled not 'take vacation' not like I get any - but really how many employers let you bring your kid to work for the first 9 months and are insanely flexible - ummm... MINE! So off to work I went leaving E to fend for herself with her Papa.

So not much to my surprise... the living room/toy area looks like a warzone. Pretty typical and with our 'we only clean up toys once a day' policy this is not shocker. However, both E and her Papi are still in there pajamas???? Its 4 in the afternoon! Lee assured me they did not 'go anywhere' so he could not justify taking her out of the super cute pajamas? Whatever, I have bigger bones to pick : )


Also, Lee gave me the full rundown/review of a few of the Sesame Street episodes that we had DVRed for E. He is convinced that Sesame Street should be renamed Elmo's Street. He does not like that most of the show is animated and that the classic characters - Oscar, Bert and Ernie etc etc are not on a very frequent basis. Lee cannot stand the fairy portion of the show to the point where he fast forwards past them. You really have to know my hubby to appreciate the fact that he is fast forwarding through Sesame Street!

I guess we'll have to dig up some old episodes of Sesame Street DVD so we can play the 'classics'. Any ideas where to get DVDs of the full seasons? I have checked out Amazon without much luck...

Here's to days when you stay at home with papa!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

PB & J - The wisdom of a 19 month old!

For breakfast not too long ago I gave E a PB&J toast sandwich. She loves all three elements of the sandwich the bread, the PB and the J. Not to my surprise she took the sandwich apart and gave each piece a full inspection. Then what does she do? Takes a bite out of the PB side and then a bite out of the J side!




Love that she is creating the same effect of a PB&J in her own toddler way of doing things!

Christmas Post Part One...

All the craziness of Christmas started about 1:45 on Christmas Eve as we ritualistically loaded up the car and was about 5 minutes behind schedule for leaving for church. E was a good sport about not napping and ended up sleeping through 2/3 of vespers for the Nativity.

Obligatory fam pic!


After vespers we shared the last Advent fasting meal at church. You would be pleasantly surprised by all the really tasty meatless dishes one can make - though I am not about to go veggie or vegan. My favorite is always the Chopino soup! I think E ate more bread than anything- shocker! Then it was off to the races with the other kids at church! E is one of the younger ones so I am sure she is learning lots of good tricks from the big kids. Like chasing the 3 ft exercise ball down the hallway! : )



We made it to Grammy and Grandpa Joe's at a reasonable hour. After the intense playing with the kids at church - not to mention 2.5 seconds with Uncle Kev - we had to let E wind down before bed. She was excited to see the presents under the tree and was not horribly upset that she had to wait until after her night nights to open them.

Side note, I am pretty much obsessed with her Christmas pajamas : ) Thank you Hanna Andersson for the amazing cuteness.


Helping open and pass out presents on Christmas

So much easier to just dump the bag!

Getting some much needed assistance from Grammy!

E definitely enjoyed opening presents this year. More so than last. Though this year she was more interesting in getting all the wrapping paper off the presents then the actually presents. Last year she just liked the boxes : ) By the end of the day she could get some form of presents out - which was super super cute!

Checking out some of Uncle Kev's presents
After present opening it was on to my mom/ Grammy's famous coffeecake and breakfast bake. So good let me tell you. Also, general consensus among the group was the coffee cake was possibly the best if not one of best yet- I think it is because it was cut about 10 minutes after being out of the oven. Breakfast bake = amazing Guyere cheese + ham = excellence! Then it was off to church that morning.


Another obligatory fam pic.
I could not resist.
Commentary about the pics above two pics.
1. I think I look pretty dang good for being 33.5 weeks prego!
2. Lee always does something weird with his hand and it makes me smile
3. Could not resist the toddler in front of the tree pic and I think there is a similar one of me. Though I am super disappointed I cut off her left foot - but really this is the only one that she does not have a horribly fake cheese smile : )

BGE Chiminea courtesy of Uncle Kev... love my little bro


After church, E unwillingly crashed out for a for hours. The guys got Dad's Big Green Egg Chiminea fired up. Mom got dinner going... Uncle Kev requested lamb - which is the typical Easter dinner but Mom decided we could have it for Christmas too and it was so so so tasty! No pics of dinner prep but trust me. My aunt and uncle and cousins came for dessert and among other things we had our first cookie of Christmas available. They were super good - I will have to do a separate post about them. Then it was time to pack up and head back to the Mount. I think E stayed awake the whole time and talked about her 'books', 'presents' and 'cookies' : )