August Monthly Update

Who does not love a homemade popsicle?

As it gets insanely cold here over the next few hours, here's some pics of the warmer days

Lee's bday dinner

R being silly

Silliness with Grandpa Joe

St. Louis for our Godson's Holy Illumination / received into the Church

 Baptism + Chrismation + Communion

Yogurt anyone?

Silly yogurt face!

Pieroghi + Kielbasa = Awesome

Pretty Patter-killer

Inspiration for the Caterpillars soccer team!

The sisters!

Swinging at Pullen for my birthday

Spidey web!

R loving the slide

Happy birthday to Mama!

On the Choo-ch

Bedtime stories with Jibbe

Not loving the Metro

Nats game for Papa's birthday present

E is excited

R is happy

And we visited the National Zoo and took the Metro and lived to tell about it

Family time outside Holy T in McLean for the Food Festival!

Wisdom of Chesterton - Loyalty

"We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty"     ~ G.K. Chesterton

So getting M to use a bottle was a bit challenging the other day. Getting breastfed babies to use a bottle can be a process of teaching. One time M fought it, one time she took it with no problem but Papa is going to be responsible for M for a few hours in a few weeks while I'm working so M needs to be on the bottle-taking train ASAP.

Sunday I went running and I came home to a frustrated M and Papa because someone was screaming at the bottle. I got M calmed down - she likes sitting in the bouncy seat while I take a shower? (yeah I don't get it either) - and then I sat on the couch with her and the bottle and we had a little heart-to-heart that went like this:

M - {whimpering at the bottle}
Me - It is okay; its the same stuff (I had pumped)
M - {screams a little}
Me - {smiling trying to make eye contact}
M - {gnaws on bottle, makes silly faces}
Me - M, it is okay. You aren't cheating on me

Fiercely loyal? M, I am flattered. Yeah we are in this whole motherhood boat together. So does that make me the captain and M (and E and R) the sailors?

After a few more minutes of fighting the bottle M took the bottle without too much of a fight. We'll be having bottle practice times every night for the next few weeks!

While I'm on my M soapbox, she is so cute and getting so so so big! I cannot even believe it. She can be super smiley and coos when you make eye contact with her. She loves it when I say, 'Did you make a stink'? She thinks it is super silly and that gets big grins out of her!

7 Quick Takes... On Sunday Evening

Randos... maybe I'll get around to doing an in depth post soonish... 

--- 1 ---

Best thank you card ever... curiousity of none other than Uncle Kev. Complete with stickers and drawings on the envelope and card. MUST. SEND. MORE. THANK YOU NOTES!!! As soon as I get down with the Christmas and baptism batch it will be time to write them for R's bday!

--- 2 ---

Ant bites on toddler feet

Speaking of that nearly two-yr-old (cannot believe it)...when it was 70 degrees in December the crazy girl decides walking through an ant hill in the yard would be a fantastic idea. I semi-freak out and rush her inside to get her feet washed, put her Crocs back on and release her into the wilderness of our front yard and what does she do... WALK THROUGH IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! Bad plan girl, bad plan 

--- 3 ---

The last few weeks/days of Advent were an activity flop (thanks to me!) and I need to recap it and announce my grand plan for Advent next year!

--- 4 ---

E - Mama, I finally got a scooter!!!

Uncle Kev in shorts when it is 2.5 degrees outside

Oh and I owe the blog-go--sphere a Christmas post and a M baptism post so look out for those!

--- 5 ---

I baked for Christmas... Notes on my one baking project... Get Christmas M&Ms early because Wallys does not have them the 31st of December... I settled for Hershey's looking M&Ms. Also, unwrapping the Hugs and Kisses is way time consuming. Finally, I need to let the Hugs and Kisses melt a bit more in the oven. 

--- 6 ---

R and Papa

E

And it is swim class time. Papa's favorite activity EVER. We did decide that getting out of the house is really good especially since we aren't going outside much these days. Anyhow, R is in the parent-tot class and E is in the big kid class. And if by class I mean private lesson because they are the only ones signed up which is AWESOME because private lessons would have been twice as expensive

R had a fantastic time and E semi-patiently looked on. Then E was up to bat while Papa and R went to the store. She had a blast. Swim time = generally good naps which is an added bonus. 

--- 7 ---

E went to a birthday party over the weekend... Kids were getting their faces painted and I totally did not want to be the mom that said No. I seriously thought about saying no because I was more concerned about the fallout during the bath that would occur later that evening. E was sketched out by the clown doing the face painting at first so I thought I would not have to worry about it but then she totally was into it... Butterfly wings to complete the look. 

We got home and I told her that it was tub night and that she needed to let me snap a pic of her face paint so she could remember it. She did. Then I told her to look in the mirror and tell her face paint goodbye and she did and then that was the end of it. 

Oh man, what a week we will have...

                                                  

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

                               

Cottonelle Fresh Care Review

Awhile back I read about BzzCampaigns and I signed up to be a BzzAgent soon after. This review is all my opinion (and some of my opinionated family members) and I received a free pack of Cottonelle Fresh Care wipes and the dispenser and some coupons - so leave me a comment if you want to give these a whirl and I'll mail you a coupon : ) 

Nice and compact dispenser

Bathroom before Cottonelle Fresh Care wipes

Bathroom before Cottonelle Fresh Care wipes

Looks a bit different, don't you think? The baby wipe bag was there really for E and any others who demand an occasional wipe. The girls bathroom has a pack of wipes ALWAYS but when E started taking rests in our room, she decided to start patronizing our bathroom which was not always equipped with wipeys. 

Box Top!

We LOVE a good Box Top around here so we cut it out and added it to our collection. 

Fresh Care wipes loaded and ready for use

Loading them was super easy

Now for the good stuff...

I was a bit skeptical of the Fresh Care wipes. Are they really necessary? Would they really be that much better than the baby wipes. I soon learned yes for a few reasons. 

A. The Fresh Care wipes have a nice clean fresh - not too scented - which baby wipes do not have.

B. The Fresh Care wipes dispense much easier than the baby wipes. The opening on the Fresh Care dispenser only allows one wipe to come out at a time. With the baby wipes sometimes you have to dig around for the next wipe and depending on the day you might get more wipes than you need. 

C. The Fresh Care dispenser is more ascetically pleasing than the wipe bag. Not that I am horribly concerned about how the back of our toilet looks but you know it is true!

D. The Fresh Care wipes are the perfect moist-ness. When you get to the end of the baby wipe bag the wipes are increasingly wet - not the case here. 

To be honest, I have gotten used to having the Fresh Care wipes around our bathroom that I kind of miss having them available in other bathrooms - not to say I use them every time, but they are a nice option to have. I will definitely continue using them and I am hoping that Sam's Club carries the refill packs. 

Here is what the peanut gallery had to say about them:

Papa - He is a fan of them for sure. He definitely appreciates the dispenser more than the bag.

E - I asked her if she liked them and she said yes because they smell like deodorant. Not sure why she thinks she knows what deodorant smells like but I cannot argue : ) 

Also, I will have to do some investigating on the baby wipe side but I don't know if baby wipes are technically 'flushable' because they may or may not have stopped up the girls potty a few times a while back. The Fresh Care wipes are flushable so that is another added benefit!

Theme Thursday - Ridiculous(ly) Awesome Christmas Baking Rockstar!

{Go check out Cari for some over Theme Thursday greatness}



Since I am all about keeping with traditions year to year I wanted to DEFINITELY having a Christmas baking tradition... which I decided to start this year. A few years back I had this brilliant 12 Christmas cookies of Christmas. We made it to 3 cookies PLUS this year and in years past and present and future we do not need dozens upon dozens of cookies heaped up to add to our (ehem) waistlines.

This year I HAD to bake something for the people who gave us cookies so I decided to set the standard insanely low with the most non-bake Christmas treat on the planet. Pretzel-hug-M&M crunches? Super easy and nearly fool proof. RIGHT. UP. MY. ALLEY!

The most difficult/time consuming part of the process was unwrapping all the hugs (and kisses) - because Wally's only had mixed bags of hugs and kisses. E helped and only ate a few. You have to do the hugs and kisses on different turns in the oven because the chocolate melts a different rates - now you think I'm a really expert baker now don't ya!

Don't be fooled!

All lined up.

Baking away

Making sure the squirrels don't get them as they cooled. I got the hankering to do these crunchies 1.25 hours before we needed to leave for Mass on New Years Day (it was being offered for Lee's dad) and I realized that they were not cooling at a fast enough rate so Lee did a power freeze on the first batch and the second batch (of kisses) sat out until we came home. 

I wish I had more pics but I was totally up against the clock and then when we got home I took a nap - seriously. Going to Mass (novas ordo) is a penitential act with R. Next time I am staking out the best seat in the house in the basement with the video monitor and forgetting the rosey idea she might actually behave for the entire Mass in the pews. And forget it if it is a trad Mass. After church,  

Lee -was that R I heard throughout the Anaphora

Me - Yep

Lee - I figured it was but was hoping it wasn't

Me - Yep... we were in the basement too

Guess she set the bar SUPER low for her 2014 church behavior and can only go up from here. Just like me and my baking skillz {wink}