Easter re-cap

The bunny came by bright and early on Sunday morning and left a nest in the backyard. It was a little bigger this year, because it was for Maddy, too. But it contained all the usual things: clothes, books, toys, and of course, CANDY.

JT wasn't too sure about going out to the nest because he was "chilly." The mention of candy was enough to lure him outside anyway. We warmed up afterwards with Aunt Becka's homemade cinnamon rolls. Mmm, mmm.

After breakfast, I reached another Mommy Milestone. I forced my kid to wear a tie and sweater vest for a holiday. I also had to wet his hair down to keep it tamed for church. Coaxed by a few jelly beans, he eventually wore the whole outfit most of the day. Yay!

Bill, Theresa, and Maddy were looking darling on this sun-shining day. Can you believe Bill picked out Maddy's Easter dress? Excellent choice. She looked so sweet and classy in her green dress and white sweater.

After church, Aunt Memaw and Uncle Papa joined us for Easter dinner. We had "Vermonte" Cristo sandwiches (made with VT white cheddar cheese & syrup), 7 layer salad, and Nana's deviled eggs.

After lunch we played and took more pictures. As challenging as it is to get JT to sit still, we were able to trick him into sitting near Maddy for a picture. Unfortunately for her, our attempts to engage him meant that she got Easter grass on her head or was otherwise knocked over by her cousin.
But I think she doesn't really mind all the attention so much...

spring arrives!

Inspiring me today, as we approach Easter weekend. Flickr favorites, click for sources:

Flowery edgers for digital scrapbook layouts:


Perseverence (photo by me):


Easter morning excitement:

And amazing love:

fall romance

I got some slouchy calf-high boots to wear with skirts. What do you think? I'm not sure I'm a boots with skirts kind of gal, but it's certainly comfortable and these boots are so warm... I'm going to love them when it's cold out.

The fall color was just phenomenally beautiful last week. I don't know if it was a combination of activities, weather, and trees... but it was such a scenic and romantic time. Monday morning first thing I noticed was the missing colors from the leaves that had fallen. And then there's the lack of sunlight making my mood more somber. It has been an amazing fall for us. I have so many pictures still to process and share with you. In time... there will be plenty of winter for picture play, right?

One of the wonderfully romantic things we did last week was to take a nighttime walk around our neighborhood to see the Halloween decorations. (Sorry, no pics!) JT fell in love with an inflatable kitty he dubbed "Roof Cat". He has talked about the spider webs, witches, elephants, and tractors a lot. Yeah, I saw a witch and a cat, he saw an elephant and he won't let it go. Who am I to argue? He also saw a tractor where I saw none and there was apparently something hiding behind it. Ok, if you say...

Well, today he asked if we could go see Roof Cat, the witch, and the spider webs. I told him they were taken down already. He got tears in his eyes an his lip started to quiver. Oh, the fancy talking I had to do to defuse that puddle of tears.

So now we'll look forward to the excitement that Christmas will bring. It is going to be an amazing, wonderful holiday season.

How about you? What has been lovely in your world? What are you looking forward to?

Easer Bunya

A couple months before each holiday, I start thinking, "this would be a good holiday to make my crafty holiday." I dream up all the possibilities, fill my inspiration journal with pictures of cool things I could make, and maybe even sketch something cool. And then life happens and it never transpires. The holiday gets nearer and I end up doing the same thing as last year, or very little to nothing to note the special day.

This year I wanted to make JT's Easter bunny. Easter is a good time to make something crafty, right? It's just one bunny. I should be able to knock that out, yeah?

Well, I did it!

JT calls him "Easer Bunya".


He's a little wonky and a lot whimsical. Which is my way of saying, "look, it was an experimental first attempt at making a softie."

But never mind that. JT went running to his Easter basket and pulled Easer Bunya out first thing! He got a lot of love until JT realized there was also chocolate in the basket...

It fills my heart when he loves on Easer Bunya.... and then asks for candy.

new year celebration

We hosted New Year's Eve at our house this year. It happens when you're big socialites like us. You say, "we are absolutely not leaving our house," and other folks say, "well, how about if we join you there?" Haha! So Mom, Dad, Bill, Theresa, and Bailey (JT pronounces BAY-YEE) stayed with us on New Year's Eve.

I'm typically not much of a hostess... it stresses me to have to cook for people with expectations. I mean, I had my son's first birthday party catered for goodness' sake! But I sucked it up and pulled off a few good things. You can't go wrong with cheese, cheeseball, crackers, veggies, and dip, so those were a must.

I have been craving salsa - real, fresh salsa, so I made some of that. My salsa recipe is actually an Avocado, Tomato and Mango salsa recipe. But I've used it the past couple times with corn and beans instead of avocado and mango and it works just as well. (Though... if you can get perfectly ripe avocado, mango and garden-ripe tomatoes all at the same time... DO IT. You will dream about that salsa!) Since we are pretty far away from garden fresh tomatoes this time of year, I went with canned diced tomatoes rather than fresh. I figured they offered just a bit more flavor and less prep time. Must have been good salsa... because it was gone pretty quickly!

After snacking and playing with JT, we got down to business. The business of Beyond Balderdash, the classic bluffing game. (Holy cow, it's $129.99 on Amazon... John is chanting, "sell, sell!") We love Balderdash. I think we love Balderdash more than the rest of the family. Dad made a good contribution with his movie plot for Expresso Bongo: A comedy about a monkey grinder and his monkey riding a train across the Congo. When I read them off I changed "monkey grinder" to "organ grinder" to increase the chance that anyone would believe it. Good times ringing in the new year with lies, lies, lies.

Mid-way through the Balderdash game, we had our second round of eating: spinach and artichoke dip. I doubled the recipe from 365 Days of Crockpotting. We ate about half that night and John finished what was left by the weekend. Fresh spinach and shredded block cheese made it taste delicious. It re-heated well, too.

Then we watched the ball drop and went to bed at 12:30am. We aren't getting any younger in '09, that's for sure.

more... and more

JT got the hang of opening presents as we went through our extended Christmas holiday. Here he is amidst a pile of wrapping paper and presents asking for more. And then packages kept coming in the mail after Christmas, so now he checks under the tree every morning to see if Santa came AGAIN.

Yesterday JT got a package in the mail from For Bare Feet. Aunt Memaw ordered JT about 6 more pairs of their socks! Now he has crabs, lobsters, hiking, and puppy socks to go with his favorite tractor socks.

The kid is rarely without socks. Last night he pulled off his socks just before bedtime. The floor felt so funny under his feet he went walking around in a little scoot on all the different surfaces. I allowed it for the 5 minutes before bedtime only... I am a major proponent of warm feet year round. Thank my acupuncturist. :)

boys' toys

I managed to make one digital scrapbook layout while we were still at my parents' house for Christmas. So if I never get around to scrapping the other 296 pictures I took over the holidays, at least I'll have this...

The guys were seriously thrilled with their gifts. It's the first year my dad didn't tell us, "you really shouldn't buy me anything." John LOVES the gps. We call her Roxy. And JT loooooves trucks. If you didn't know that already, perhaps I have been remiss in mentioning it here.

mama, Mama... MAMA!

I mentioned that I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pictures during Christmas, right? Do you know there are exactly 3 of me with JT (or just of me anyway). This is the best of those three.

Once again, John was chided for never taking over the camera. At some point, even a bad photo is a good photo when it's all you have. And shame on me for not handing over a camera to other family members. I had two cameras with me the whole time anyway...

So if I saw you over Christmas and you have pics of me... please send my way. Please.

And this red-headed boy I am holding in the photo? He sure loves his Mama. I couldn't even go to the bathroom without him running around yelling, "mama? Mama? MAMA?!"

holday wrap-up

Christmas came and went with a flurry of activity and traveling. We visited John's family in St. Clairsville for Christmas eve and Christmas day. Most of John's family looked like they had seen a ghost when they saw JT. They say he looks exactly like John did.



We spent Friday night with Aunt Joan and Uncle Wayne in Canton. JT spent the evening amazing them with all the tricks and new words he has learned since Thanksgiving.

On Saturday we visited with my Grandma and my dad's family in Akron. JT was more attracted to GG's tree than any others he has been around. But his Grandpa was sure to keep the tree safe...



When we got home on Saturday, we started opening all the new toys and checking them out. The fun continued into Sunday. I think by now we have opened everything and all toys are in their new locations ready to go. Here are John and JT trying out the Tonka race track:



I think I have something like 300 pictures from the holidays... will share more soon.

celebration, round 1

This morning was Christmas with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. Luckily, Santa knew where to find us today...


JT didn't want anything to do with the presents until he had some breakfast...


It took a while to get all the presents open because JT had to play with each as he opened it. Of course, once everything was opened, the combination of presents got a little awkward (well, awkward for some of the other presents)...


Grandpa also quite enjoyed his Christmas present... not sure where Santa was with the wrapping on this one... he just hid it in the back of our car!


We took a break mid-gift-opening to have some breakfast. Grandpa made pancakes for everyone... and yes, JT ate AGAIN...


Uncle Bill and Aunt Theresa got JT a big dump truck. It took him a bit to figure out if he was supposed to ride in the back of the truck or just push it around. Turns out this is a toddler-powered truck...


Finally after bugging Grandpa all day, JT convinced him to go for a walk. Grandpa found out that JT is not so much about holding your hand on a walk. He's a big boy and can walk, er run, on his own, Grandpa...

decking the halls

We spent Saturday rearranging the furniture and putting up the Christmas tree. It's always a major, messy production. But this year was much easier since it's the second year with our artificial, pre-lit tree.



JT didn't actually help much with the decorating. Although, on the plus side he also hasn't been too destructive since we got it finished.



He took a THREE hour nap, even through all the noise of furniture-moving and cleaning. We really liked how pretty his hair looked when he woke up.



And here we have it... Christmas at our house.



What do you think of the furniture arrangement? I think it's cozy and more conversational. It's screaming for a fire in the fireplace. I need to get rid of a chair that we just don't need and some other clutter. I also still need to come up with a shelf storage solution to get stuff off the floor and to be better organized. AND we also want to replace the tv with a flat screen. But I think I like it this way. We'll see how it works for us after Christmas before I make it permanent.

How is Christmas coming along at your house?

gratitude

Hope your Thanksgiving Day was full of turkeys...


sweets...


and gratitude.


Ours sure was...

blog analyzed

Some analysis of my blog reveals that I am type ESTP, a "Doer":

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Oh, I get it. I like dream up and start projects, but not finish them. Sounds about right. Find out what type you are.

My blog is gender neutral, with a slight preference for female. Predictable, since I mostly talk about babies and scrapbooking (with the occasional post about basement remodeling or composting).

It is written at a college reading level. I think that means "unnecessarily complicated sentence structure" or "can't form a cohesive thought" or "too many run-on sentences that are technically correct grammar."

And it's worth about $2258.16. Bah... not going to retire on that.

Happy Thanksgiving. I leave you with a pic from last year... whoa. What a difference a year makes when it comes to babies!

time to get up

Most years for Memorial weekend, you can find us with the family in West Virginia. We have very busy plans of doing nothing all day long punctuated by bonfires at night. This year was no exception.

Our "cabin" is my dad's hunting hideaway. The women get to visit when there isn't any game in season. It's barely a two room shack with bunk beds and an outdoor toilet. But it's pretty nice as far as shacks go.

But when you stay in a one bedroom shack with a baby, you're pretty much bound by baby's schedule. If JT napped, we stayed on the porch. This probably helped keep us from overeating much since the snacks were inside and he napped about 3-4 hours each day. If JT was awake, everyone was awake because he isn't very quiet.

Here he is patrolling the bunks for sleepers:


Aha! He spots some!


Wake up, Aunt Theresa and Uncle Bill. Wake up! "No, no... go away," they say.

Having no luck with his aunt and uncle, JT moves on to Grandpa. "Here's your water, Grandpa. This will ease the cruel blow of morning. I heard you were up pretty late."


"Oh good, you're up. I've been dying to know which is harder, this block or your head. Lean down here and let me find out."


"Uh-oh. Do you think he'll still make us breakfast?"

easter happiness

John and I got baptized this morning! We both accepted Jesus into our lives a long time ago, but just made it official today. It's also our 2 year anniversary for attending our church.

My dad was here to celebrate with us. He and JT spent a lot of time playing.

The Easter bunny got into our house somehow and left a nest for us in the living room. Here is JT checking it out... wearing a sweater Aunt Joan knitted for him:

Later in the day, JT actually spotted the Easter bunny passing through the back yard!

After a sensible lunch, we let JT sample the peeps the Easter bunny brought. The jury is still out on those.

We colored eggs. Well, really, I colored some eggs. And I will probably spend this week eating them. I feel some egg salad coming on.

Joy of joys, the sun appeared today and it wasn't quite so cold outside. So we went for a walk at the park and played at the playground.

It was a great weekend... maybe the best Easter ever. :-)