emily's photo blog

February 12: The Night before Vacation

2012-02-12T19:47:00.000-08:00

Our vacation doesn't begin until tomorrow, but we are getting an early start on sleeping away from home tonight:
When we came home from church this morning, we immediately noticed a hot, burning smell in our house, accompanied by a light hazy smoke in the air. We searched the house and pinpointed the furnace as the source of the burning smell and smoke.

The motor to the fan broke on our furnace, so while the heat was being produced, it was not being blown into the house. Rather all the heat remained in the furnace, getting hotter and hotter and hotter...thus the burning smell and smoke.

The furnace repair guy came to take a look, but he could not fix it because he needed a special part that won't be available until tomorrow. Our house is cold when the furnace is running normally in the winter. When it is not running at all, it gets chilly quickly, especially when the temps are in the 20s outside.

So...we decided to camp out in our church nursery for tonight. It has heat and a crib for Isla and a crib mattress for Audrey. And it is just down the block from our house, so I could easily go back home and pack after the girls were in bed. All we had to do was bring down our air mattress and some pillows and blankets, and we are ready for bed!

We had several kind friends offer their homes to us, and while it would be fun to have a slumber party with our friends, Daniel and I both have a lot of work to get done tonight. The church (so far at least) is working great as a little home away from home for our night tonight.

It is a bit annoying to be dealing with this the day before we leave for vacation! Kind of like a few years ago when we discovered a gas leak in our house the day before we left for vacation. Why do these things have to happen at such inconvenient times?

Actually, we are grateful that this did happen before we left for two weeks though. If it had happened while we were gone, then the house could have burnt down. Or the pipes could have frozen and caused flooding. It could have been much, much worse. We are grateful for that!

Now it's time to finish my work and get some sleep! Florida, here we come!!!!

February 9: Our Favorite Shoes

2012-02-09T19:27:00.003-08:00

Back in 2009, the first year of this blog, we did a favorite things theme. There have been several blogging ideas that have popped into my mind lately revolving around some of our current favorite things. So, I think I will start an ongoing favorite things theme here, with occasional posts about some of the things we are loving right now.
For today: let's talk about my favorite shoes for the girls. Pedipeds!

My friend Kellie first introduced me to pedipeds. While I was initially intimidated by the high price tag, I eventually ordered a pair for Audrey and loved them. Here is Audrey in her first pair of pedipeds back in April of 2010.

Regarding the high price tag: there is rarely a reason to buy these shoes at full price. They regularly hold sales, and you can often find them for 50% off or more. That puts some of the shoes at the same price as Payless or somewhere, and these shoes are way better.

I don't buy pedipeds for every pair of the girls' shoes, but there are a few times when I think they are worth the extra money.

I especially think these are good shoes to buy for the early walking stages. They claim to help kids walk as if they are walking on bare feet, which is the best way to learn how to walk. Since Isla should be walking by this summer, I just got this pair for her (for only $13!):I also think they make good sandals for older kids. I have bought cheap sandals for Audrey before, and they give her blisters on her feet and just looked uncomfortable. The pediped sandals are super cushiony, and while I have never actually worn them, they look comfortable too. Here is the pair I got for Audrey this summer (for $23):(If you think those sandals look exactly like the sandals that Audrey wore last summer, you would be correct. I was late ordering in this sale, and these were the only sale pair of sandals left in Audrey's size. But we liked the sandals a lot last year, and I'm sure we will like them again this year too!)

February 8: Phone Pics of the Day

2012-02-08T18:22:00.003-08:00

Super Audrey wore herself out trying to save the world today and crashed on the couch this afternoon. She doesn't nap very often, but when she does, it usually looks like this. She is out cold and very difficult to wake up. Why can't she sleep like this all night long?
Daniel and the girls have been playing catch the past couple of days (though it's really more like passing the ball to each other). Both girls love it, especially Isla who squeals and kicks her feet every time it is her turn to hold the ball.
Tonight, they were sitting like this and Audrey said, "Look, we are a Christmas tree!" Then she pointed to how they were sitting in a triangle shape. She comes up with the funniest things to say!

February 7: Ready for Florida!

2012-02-07T19:59:00.003-08:00

We leave for our Florida vacation in less than a week! I am most definitely ready for some warmer weather. So far, the weather forecast in Florida is looking good. The first three days we are there, temps are supposed to be in the upper 70s. It is going to be hard to top the weather we had on last year's Florida vacation. It was in the 80s and sunny every single day. I am hoping for a repeat of that this year!

Audrey needed some warm weather clothing, so I bought her a few things this week. Everything is going to be a little baggy on her, because I want these clothes to fit her all the way through the summer. We tried everything on today, and she looks like she is ready for some fun in the sun!

She is such a goofball and insisted on a silly pose for each picture!
Now it's time to start packing. I don't like to pack and always wait until the last minute. I really don't want to do that this trip, so I need to start now. I may need to blog about our packing process just to motivate myself to get it done! =)

February 6: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

2012-02-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had a mini freezer cooking day. I always think it sounds like such a good idea to do one big cooking session, get a bunch of meals made and then freeze the food to eat later. I just don't get around to doing it very often.

On Saturday, I set out to make homemade spaghetti sauce and dinner rolls.
I started with this sauce recipe, but I ended up changing it quite a bit. I'm going to write down the recipe I used, so that I will remember it for the next time I want to make it. It was really good!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

1/3 cup olive oil
3 onions, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely grated
1/3 cup chopped spinach
4 cloves garlic
3 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (12 oz) can tomato paste
2 T. basil
2 T. oregano
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup sugar
1 T. salt
1/2 t. black pepper

Heat oil in skillet on stove. Saute onions, pepper, carrots, spinach and garlic on medium heat until the veggies are tender.

In a large crockpot, mix together the sauted veggies along with the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low 2-3 hours, stirring frequently. Freeze in gallon zipper bags.

According to Daniel, it was the best spaghetti he has ever had. I don't know about that, but it was quite tasty. Next time, I might think about omitting or substituting something for the sugar. I also might try to sneak in some more spinach to trick the picky eaters in my house (aka ME!) into eating more veggies.

We had this for dinner on Saturday night, and then I had five more bags to put in the freezer. With this meal, I added ground turkey to the sauce, but we thought it would be really good as just a marinara sauce.

For the dinner rolls, I used this recipe with a couple of changes. I substituted sucanat for the sugar, and I replaced half of the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour. The rolls were also really good. I cooked a few for dinner on Saturday, and then put about 30 more rolls in the freezer.

It is fun to have a few homemade things in the freezer ready to go for future meals. But, by the end of the day, I was questioning if it was worth it. Saturday was a rough for day for our girls; they were both really fussy. Daniel and I both had work we needed to get done, and it was stressful to try to fit in all the cooking as well. This is what my kitchen looked like when I was done (and this was after I had cleaned up a lot of things!).On one hand, I really enjoy cooking from scratch and eating better quality, healthier foods. On the other hand, it's a lot of work! When I think about how much time we spend preparing, eating and cleaning up food, it is a big part of our day. All four of us eat pretty much every meal at home (with the exception of Sunday lunch when we always go out). That is a lot of food to prepare and clean up. Sometimes I think it would be easier if we just didn't have to eat at all! Think of how much more time we would have!

February 4: The Rest of Yesterday's Post

2012-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the rest of yesterday's post. I am feeling much better tonight.

My friend Lindsey asked me on Wednesday if I would be willing to host a preschool book club at my house. Of course, I said yes...I'm always game for anything with "book" in the title. Lindsey was writing an article about fun things to do with little ones in the winter, and one of her ideas was a preschool book club. She thought she should actually try out a preschool book club before she wrote and told the world it was a fun activity.

So, she sent out some last minute invites and invited some friends over to my place. On Friday morning, we had eleven kids here for our book club. Hello, craziness!! Lindsey read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, then the kids got to make a caterpillar craft, and then they had a snack (a fruit salad made with all the fruits the caterpillar ate in the book). It was a bit chaotic, but I think the kids had fun. Except for Audrey who does not do well in crowded, crazy groups of kids.It has been a rough week for me and Audrey. Normally, you go to bed and get refreshed and wake up with patience and energy to start a new day. Our nights this week were so rough with Audrey getting up that I used up all my patience and energy during the night. I woke up grumpy and exhausted and spent. So I was not in a good mood most of the week, and Audrey was grumpy too, partly because she was tired and partly because she was responding to my bad mood. It just wasn't a very good week.

SO...I thought Audrey and I needed a fun bonding activity. I took her to the store to pick out some fingernail polish. I have never painted her nails before, and I thought she would really like it. She got to pick out two colors (in the 99 cent section), one for her fingers and one for her toes. She picked out two different shades of purple.
She thought it was so much fun to have her nails painted. She did a great job sitting still and letting me paint them. But it was probably a mistake for me to choose the cheap nail polish. Next time we are going to use a quick dry kind, because it was really hard for her to be patient and wait for her nails to dry! She loved it though and has been talking all weekend about how she is going to show her beautiful nails to all her friends at church tomorrow.

February 3

2012-02-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

I have some pictures and stuff to post, but I'm not feeling the greatest tonight. So it's going to have to wait until another day.

Just wanted to record that Audrey stayed in her bed all night long last night! She woke up around 11:30 and was crying, but she didn't get up. Daniel went in and talked to her for a minute, then she went back to sleep and slept until 6:00. Whoever thought I would be excited about her getting up at 6 am, but I was very excited today. 6:00 is early, but it is much better than 4:00 am!

We rewarded her with lots of praise. And M&Ms.

February 2: Preschool Decisions and Sleepless Nights

2012-02-02T18:31:00.000-08:00

Tonight we went to an open house at the preschool Audrey is most likely going to attend this fall. Who knew that signing up for preschool was such a big deal?? The way you hear people talk about choosing a preschool you would think we were deciding Audrey's entire future based on the decision we make!

And now that we have picked the preschool, we have to decide on a time that we want and then hope there will be a spot for us. Morning or afternoon? Two days or three days? What will work best with Isla's schedule, even though it is kind of hard to predict what Isla's schedule will be in 7 months. Ugh, it is making me tired just thinking about it.

Actually, I think the real reason I'm tired is because I did not sleep much last night. Or the night before. Or the night before that. A certain soon-to-be preschooler is once again having a really hard time staying in her bed at night. As a result, she is keeping us all awake at all hours of the night.

She was doing better for a while. If she did get up, all we had to do was walk her back to bed, and then she would go to sleep. This week, she is not going back to sleep. She is getting up again and again. She is crying and yelling "help" at the top of her lungs and throwing fits and wanting to go potty and doing everything except for staying in her bed and sleeping.

Last night, Audrey woke Isla up. Then Audrey did finally go back to sleep, but Isla was up for over an hour. Isla is so sweet and chill when she's awake, but if you wake her up when she is sleeping, it is almost impossible to get her back to sleep. After 45 minutes of listening to Isla scream, we eventually fed her a bottle to get her back to sleep. It was about 3:30 am at that point, and I hate that we had to resort to a bottle. Isla has been done with a night time bottle for a while now, and reintroducing it does not seem like a good idea. But desperate times call for desperate measures. The problem is that our desperate times are starting to occur every night!

I really do not know what to do. We have tried everything and nothing works. And even if we did find a way to keep her asleep in her bed at night, everything is going to get all messed up again once we go to Florida in two weeks. In Florida, we will be sleeping in several different places, often with all four of us in the same room. Audrey is going to spend 12 nights sleeping with us, and I know for sure that it will ruin any kind of good sleep patterns that we are trying to establish right now.

I'm just rambling now. And the words are starting to swim in front of me on the screen. So tired. Must go to sleep now. Here's hoping for a better night.

January 31: Eight months old

2012-01-31T19:14:00.000-08:00

My goodness, I don't know what happened to the month of January. It just disappeared! And now this baby girl is a whole month older. Oh, how I wish I could freeze time right now! I'm not ready for her to get any bigger.

Our sweet baby Isla is HUGE! I'm guessing she weighs around 18.5 pounds right now. That is definitely bigger than Audrey at this age. Actually, we just compared Isla and Audrey's legs last night. It is quite possible that Isla's thighs are bigger than Audrey's thighs are right now. That girl has all of her fat packed into the lower half of her body! I don't even know how she is so chubby, because she is really not a huge eater.

We are working on finger foods. It's funny because she picks up everything and puts it in her mouth...except for food . Somehow she knows the difference between food and non-food items! She is doing pretty good with the pincer grasp, picking things up with her thumb and finger. She will pick up her food, look at it, shake it, smash it...but she won't put it in her mouth. She is getting to the point where she will let us help her get it in her mouth. Once in her mouth, she likes the food and does a good job chewing it before swallowing. It's just going to take a little more practice until she is self-sufficient with this eating stuff!Isla is still not rolling over too much, but she is growing more tolerant of tummy time. No signs of crawling at all. Her standing balance is getting pretty good though. She can hold onto something and stand up for quite a while on her own. I'm thinking she might start walking before she even starts rolling over consistently!

She makes all kinds of sounds; squealing and happy screaming still seem to be her favorites. Lately, I have been hearing lots of "mum" and "mumma" sounds from her. I like to think that she is calling me by name! =)Now that she has figured it out, Isla loves to clap. For the first few days, she would start clapping everytime someone looked at her. Since she caught on to clapping so quickly, we have been working on the sign for "more" at mealtimes. If we do the sign for more, she will start clapping. Sometimes she will clap on her own after each bite. It does seem like she understands what we want her to do and is trying to communicate with us....which is really fun!

She also loves to jump in her jumper. Especially when big sister comes and jumps right beside her!

January 30: 60 degrees in January!

2012-01-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

I took a little blogging hiatus this weekend. Not too much to write about. We had a fairly quiet weekend and didn't do much besides hang out at home.

Saturday night, I had book club. We discussed the book What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. It's a good book about a woman who has amnesia and can't remember the last 10 years of her life. In our discussion, we brought pictures and discussed what we were doing 10 years ago. In January 2002, I had just found out that Daniel was interested in me, and I was trying to determine if I might be interested in him as well. Fast forward ten years...here we are with a family of our own!

After book club, a few of us went to go see The Artist. The Artist is a silent, black and white film about the end of the silent film era. It is most likely going to win the Academy Award for Best Picture this year. It really was a great movie. Even without the spoken word, it is entertaining and keeps your attention. You should go see it!

Moving on to the topic of the day: it was 60 degrees today...in January! We had to spend a little bit of time outside, and of course we had to take some pictures.

It was a bit windy, and Isla kept making this funny face every time the wind blew.Audrey insisted that we bring out the sidewalk chalk!

January 26: Chicken Stir Fry with Couscous

2012-01-26T18:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a recipe I made for dinner the other night. It wasn't anything too fancy. But it was real food, it was healthy, and we really liked it. I started with this recipe, but then ended up changing it so much that it felt like a completely different recipe by the end.

I made this in a hurry with ingredients on hand, so I'm sure that you could change the way you cook things or the ingredients and make it better. But this is the way I made it, and we thought it turned out pretty good. The original recipe called for squash, which I didn't have, so I left it out. I'm sure you could add squash or other veggies to make it better (that is, if you like vegetables! I will be honest and confess that I didn't even eat the peppers in this. I just ate the chicken and couscous. I like the flavor of peppers when cooked with other foods, but I do not like to bite into them. Picky, I know. I'm working on it).

This was my first time to try couscous. And I really liked it! Definitely a good and healthier alternative to white rice.
Chicken Stir Fry with Couscous

3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 medium red pepper
1 medium green pepper
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
A few leaves of fresh basil, finely chopped
Thyme, to taste
1 1/3 cup chicken broth
1 cup uncooked couscous
1 T. butter

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add peppers, onion, garlic, basil and thyme. Cook for about 5-7 minutes. Add strips of chicken to the veggies and continue to stirfry until the chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

In a separate pan, bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add the couscous, cover and remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir and fluff with a fork. Add the butter and sprinkle a little more basil and thyme into the couscous, mixing it all together until the butter melts.

To serve, pile couscous on the plate first and then top with chicken and veggies.

I also served these baked apples with this meal. The recipe says to peel and slice the apples, but I was in a hurry. So I left them unpeeled and just chopped them up. Still delicious! I used sucanat in place of the brown sugar. This was my first time to cook with sucanat, which is unrefined cane sugar. I have tried to eliminate white and brown sugar from my regular baking (I like to bake a lot!). I am eager to use sucanat more and see how it compares, as it is a more natural and healthier sugar option.

January 25: Isla can clap!

2012-01-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get worried that Isla is never going to learn how to do anything because we don't spend enough time playing with her. She is so chilled out and content most of the time, that is almost too easy to ignore and just let her do her own thing while we are busy with other stuff. We don't really ignore her, but she definitely does not get as much one on one attention as Audrey did.

Today, I decided to spend some time with Isla and work with her on waving and clapping. We haven't really tried to get her to clap or wave or do any signs or anything yet, and today seemed like a good day to try it. Audrey was really slow to wave and clap. She first waved at 10 months and didn't clap until 13 months. However, Isla kind of started to get the hang of both today with just a little direction from me! It is so crazy how different babies develop different skills at different ages.

Here is a video of Isla's clapping. She starts to get her hands together, and then she gets too excited and just starts flapping her arms all over the place. She cracks me and Audrey up!

January 23: Photo Shoot Day

2012-01-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

The girls and I stayed home all day today, and we ended up taking a lot of pictures!

I started the day doing a little photo shoot to get some pictures for Valentine's Day cards. I have a code for 24 free cards that I need to redeem soon. Fortunately, both girls were in a very photogenic mood. They were all smiles.
Later this afternoon, we were up in the girls' room while I was putting some clothes away. Audrey wanted to play with her dress up clothes. She wanted to walk down the hall in each dress, and then I had to introduce her by her princess name. "Here comes, Cinderella!" Then, I took her picture.

I did absolutely nothing to get her to pose; all of these poses are complete Audrey originals! If I would have asked her to pose, she would have stuck her tongue out or made a funny face. She was much more cooperative, and actually kind of good at posing, when I let her do her own thing.

January 22: Pantry "Before" Pictures

2012-01-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

Organizing my kitchen is definitely on my list of projects for this month. Especially now that I am cooking more and actually using my kitchen! Really, I would just like a whole new kitchen. But that is not going to happen any time soon, so for now I'm going to do what I can to make the space I have work for me.

We don't have a pantry, just three kitchen cabinets that we use for food storage. I do store a few stock up items in our basement storage, but other than that, this is the space we have for food. It's not a huge space, and I am really not using the space well right now. Everything just gets thrown in wherever.

I am hosting a Tupperware party this week, and I'm hoping to get some containers to help organize this space better. (If you live in town and want to come to the party, let me know!)

Here are the before pictures of my kitchen cabinets:

Once I get my Tupperware here in a few weeks, I'll post the after pictures!

January 21: Grocery Shopping and Real Food

2012-01-21T19:31:00.000-08:00

I went grocery shopping today. Fun times. I brought the groceries home, and Audrey wanted to help me put them away. Watching her pull everything out of the bags, you would have thought it was Christmas morning! She was so excited about everything I bought. Here are just a few of her exclamations of excitement: "Toilet paper!" she said. "I can use it EVERY DAY!" "Wow, Mom, blueberries. Blueberries are my favorite!" "Oh, Mom, look, look at this...it's quesadillas" (while holding up a package of tortillas). "You bought me more applesauce? Thanks, Mom, thanks!" "I'm so excited!!" "Oh, I love it! I love it!" Seriously, it was hilarious. I wish I would have recorded her.

Speaking of grocery shopping, I am in the midst of a transition with our grocery shopping. A few years ago, I started using coupons to save money on our grocery bill. Our grocery budget was $50 a week, and I tried to come under that as much as possible. Some weeks I could buy all the food we needed for the week for just $30.

I haven't been using too many coupons lately for a couple of reasons:
1. I don't think manufacturer's are putting out as many good coupons. It seems to be harder to find really good deals.
2. For the past few months, we have been trying to cut out processed foods and eat more of a real food diet. Most coupons are for processed foods, so I don't buy many coupon items anymore.

We are not doing a 100% real food diet. I'm not quite ready to give up on all processed foods yet. It's kind of surprising that I even got on this real food kick, because I am not a healthy eater. I'm very picky, and I don't like green vegetables. One of these days I am going to have to grow up and start eating more vegetables, but I'm not quite there yet.

However, I do think there is good reason to eat more naturally and cut out processed foods. So, I am doing what I can to help us fix meals and snacks at home that are all natural. Mostly that means I am cooking a lot more from scratch, which is more work but also kind of fun. (One of these days I'll give you more specifics about we are eating and what we are no longer eating, and maybe I'll post some recipes too).

My biggest problem is with our grocery budget. Real food costs a lot more money than fake food!! I'm in the process of figuring how much we have been spending over the past few months and trying to make a new budget. $50 per week is definitely not enough to feed all of us for the whole week.

It's painful for me to start spending more money on food. I always prided myself on being able to feed our family without spending much money. However, I'm starting to think that there is a problem with that type of thinking. Americans spend less of their income on food than any other country (under 10%). Maybe that is not such a good thing. Cheap food is not always good food.

I've seen this quote from Michael Pollen, who wrote In Defense of Food. (I have not read the book, but I've seen this quote in several places with some of his other thoughts on food):

“Is it just a coincidence that as the portion of our income spent on food has declined, spending on health care has soared? In 1960 Americans spent 17.5 percent of their income on food and 5.2 percent of national income on health care. Since then, those numbers have flipped: Spending on food has fallen to 9.9 percent, while spending on heath care has climbed to 16 percent of national income. I have to think that by spending a little more on healthier food we could reduce the amount we have to spend on heath care.” – Michael Pollan

So, I am trying to train myself that it is okay to spend more of our income on food. Even if it is painful at times! Real quality food should be considered a good investment of our money.

January 19: Photo Organization

2012-01-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

Obviously, I take a lot of pictures. Sometimes I do a good job keeping them all organized; and sometimes, all my pictures are just a mess. Lately, I have been working to straighten up all my photos and improve my system for keeping them organized.

First, let's talk about prints. I am a bit old-fashioned, but I really like to have actual physical prints of most of my pictures. I don't print every single picture that I take, but I do print a lot of them. Audrey has always loved to look through all of our photo albums. When she was just learning how to talk, it was a great way for her to practice everyone's names. I also think it is a great way to help her remember all the fun things we do!

I am fairly diligent about putting my pictures in albums with captions. It is one thing that I actually do stay on top of on a regular basis! Someday, I would love to have all matching photo albums. But for now, this is my hodgepodge of photo albums, along with all of our baby books and random photo books that I have made.
To print my pictures, I take advantage of free or really cheap print deals from Shutterfy, Snapfish or Walgreens. Whenever there is a good deal, I print as many pictures as I can. Once I have my pictures printed, I try to put them in albums right away. I like the albums that have space for caption writing on the sides so I can write down dates and labels for the pictures.This week, I made labels for the fronts of all my albums. Nearly all of them have a space for a picture on the front. So I just printed the dates of the pictures in that album and inserted that label into the picture space on the front.

Then, there are the digital pictures. I'm estimating that I have about 10,000 pictures on my computer right now. I do get lazy about keeping these organized though. I tend to just dump them all into the "My Pictures" folder with the intention of organizing them later. That is silly, because it would be much easier to just organize them when I save them. Tonight, I worked on cleaning up my photo folders.I take all of my photos in RAW format, then edit them in Lightroom and export them as JPEGs. The yearly folders at the top are all the RAW files that Lightroom automatically saves. The rest of the folders are my JPEG images. Most people probably organize their photos by date; Windows would even do that for me and it would be easier. But I prefer to organize them by category. It is easier for me to find pictures that way, as I don't have to remember the exact date the photo was taken. And I just like it better that way.

I like having all of the girls' pictures in their own folder like this:
I also like having all of my holiday photos all in one place. It is fun to look through and see how we have changed from year to year.
I won't bore you with any more screen shots of my photo files. You get the idea! It does feel good to have every photo now in its rightful place. I'm sure I will sleep better tonight now that I have completed this task! =)

January 18: Good-bye PT!

2012-01-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

It's a big week for Isla. Today she graduated from physical therapy!For the past couple of months, we have just been checking in with Shannon once a month to make sure Isla continues to make progress with her neck and upper body strength and head rotation. Today, Shannon said that Isla is right where she needs to be, therefore physical therapy is no longer necessary for her.
Shannon says Isla has all the head, neck and upper body strength that she needs to be able to roll over consistently and to crawl. She complimented Isla's amazing sitting balance and noted that she holds her head perfectly in alignment, no tilting to either side. Isla can now turn her 90 degrees in both directions and range of motion is no longer an issue. She says that Isla will roll over and crawl when she wants to roll over and crawl. We just have to keep putting her on her tummy to give her an opportunity to do those things. She said that her own daughter was like Isla...she was sitting up great and doing everything else she should be doing. But she didn't roll over until 9 months, and then she immediately started crawling.
It is a relief to me to hear from an expert that she is still on track with her development, just a little slow in the rolling over department. Isla has come a long way since we started all of this
almost six months ago. When she was two months old, she would only turn her head 60-70 degrees each way. Around 4 months, she grew more reluctant to turn her head, and we ended up getting neck x-rays to rule out any problems with her neck bones. Shortly after that, she had a breakthrough and started turning her head more and more each way.

We've done all kinds of stretching exercises and hours and hours of tummy time. It is good to know that all of our work paid off, and she is now doing great. She is growing big and strong and enjoying her new, cute, round, helmet-free head!

To celebrate the end of both the helmet and physical therapy, I ordered some new headbands for Isla today. I need to get a bunch of alligator clips as well, so I can convert all of Isla's velcro flowers into clips that both girls can wear. We are enjoying being able to snuggle with Isla's head again and give her kisses! Kissing the helmet just isn't the same!This is Isla's new laughing face. She scrunches her eyes up and giggles...it is pretty funny.
I also tried to take some pictures of Audrey today. She was more than happy to let me take pictures of her, but she wasn't exactly cooperative. She thinks it is hilarious to jump in front of the camera and strike a silly pose/face. This is the best shot of the day with her.

January 17: More Organization

2012-01-17T19:38:00.001-08:00

Before Isla was born, I created a new place in our dining room for storing paper, mail, receipts and other things that used to end up piled on my desk.

Eight months later, and it's time to check in and see how this new system is working for me. Here is what the shelf looked like earlier this week:
Not too bad, but there were some problems that needed attention:
1. The red bin on the top was serving no purpose, other than collecting random junk that really didn't fit in the space.
2. The silver filing trays were filled with random papers and other junk, and none of them were organized at all.
3. Papers with no home were starting to get piled up on top of the boxes.
4. The boxes still didn't have labels on them.
5. The two white boxes on the bottom shelf were empty and serving no purpose.

Most of these problems are a result of not having an exact home for everything that I wanted to store here. So I started by pulling out all of the papers and other junk that gets piled here. Then I sorted it into categories to figure out exactly what needed a home. I reorganized the trays and boxes and the top bin. Hopefully there will now be a place to put everything that I want to put on this shelf.

I also made labels for the boxes so we know what is inside of them without having to open them up and look. I should have done that a long time ago!

January 16: Good-bye Helmet!!

2012-01-16T19:34:00.000-08:00

Isla graduated from her helmet today!!!!!

Well, she technically isn't quite finished with the helmet yet. She will still be wearing it at night for a few more weeks. However, the night time wearing is just a precaution. We don't want her head to regress and flatten out again. Since she will just be wearing it to prevent flattening and not to correct it, in my mind we can say that she graduated from needing its correction anymore!

Her CPI today was 86%. Normal is 83-85%. We are extremely happy with the way her head looks right now. The back is round, the side bulges are gone...there really is no need to keep correcting her head shape because it is now CORRECT!

I am sure I will have more final thoughts on the helmet, but it's too late tonight to form any coherent thoughts. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves for now:

January 13: Book Nook

2012-01-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

Our book nook is complete...for now at least! I'm sure I will come up with some more ideas to add (like a lamp or some more pillows) in the future. But right now, we are calling this project finished!I bought this fun polka dot bean bag. So far, Audrey hasn't done any reading in the bean bag but she has done plenty of jumping on the beanbag!

I also typed out and printed a fun book quote to go in the frames. I had visions of this quote being printed on canvases, but I didn't quite have the money for that. I already had these frames, so that made this decor FREE. And we like free decor around here!

January 12: Snow!

2012-01-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

We finally got our first snowfall of the season. Not much snow, just a couple of inches. I'm not a big fan of snow. When I was teaching, I loved it if it was enough to get school cancelled. Now, without the hope of a cancelled school day, I just don't see any reason go get excited about snow. It's cold and messy. And did I mention cold??

However, I'm trying not to let my bah-humbug attitude about snow rub off on Audrey. Just because I want to hibernate all winter doesn't mean that she should want to do the same. She was pretty excited when I told her to open the door this morning and look outside. "Snow!" she said. "Mom, where is my sleigh? I need my sleigh!"

Daniel had a lunch meeting and practice at church tonight. So the girls and I were on our own from about the time they woke up to the time they went to bed. I didn't feel like going anywhere in the cold, windy weather either, and I knew it was going to be a long day at home. To help the time pass more quickly, I tried to come up with a bunch of activities to keep us busy today. We also stayed in our pajamas all day, because that is what you are supposed to do on cold snowy days at home!
It seemed like a good day for baking. So while Isla was napping this morning, Audrey and I made muffins. It is always a slower and messier process when Audrey helps bake, but she loves it so I usually let her help. Today we made these Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal muffins. I wish I would have made a double batch, because we have been eating them up all day long!
There was no way that I was going outside to play in the snow...way too cold and windy for that. So instead, I brought some big bowls of snow inside to make snowmen. We tried this two years ago, and Audrey was not a fan of touching the cold snow. She has grown up and toughened up a little. Today she helped me get big handfuls of snow and pat it into balls, and she even thought it was fun too!

The only problem was we took too long making our snowman. By the time we were ready to decorate him, the snow was melting and he quickly started to look deformed. This alien looking snowman was the best we could make today.
We also made snow ice cream. I think we tried this last year, and it just wasn't very good. Audrey wouldn't eat it. I think my ice cream this year was a better ratio of snow/milk/sugar. And with the addition of fresh strawberries, it was actually quite delicious!

January 10

2012-01-10T19:50:00.000-08:00

So, this little old blog of mine is finally updated with a new look and a new name. I couldn't come up with anything creative for a name. After a couple of weeks of thinking (and coming up with nothing), I went ahead with another generic name. But at least it's a new generic name.

I'm a bit underwhelmed with the tagline as well. But I was trying to think of a way to summarize what this blog is all about. It's mostly about my family and the girls, as well as some of my random thoughts and just my life in general. So that's what we are calling it...."my family, my thoughts, my life." It kind of sounds narcissistic and all about me, but isn't that true of most all blogs? It seems as though that is kind of the purpose of blogs...to give us a place to talk about ourselves!

Moving on to today's post! Audrey had some Christmas money to spend from Grandpa and Grandma. I found a good deal on this dollhouse (sells for $94, I was able to buy it new for $40). I had a feeling that it would be a hit with Audrey, and I was right! She was SO excited when it arrived in the mail today. I was planning to wait until Daniel got home and let him put it together. But Audrey did not want to wait, so I put it together all by myself while Audrey and Isla watched and cheered me on. It was fairly easy to put together, but just opening up all the packaging took about 20 minutes!I love watching Audrey playing with dolls and pretending. It is so fun to see how things from her real life translate into her pretend play. I need to start making a list of all the things she says to her dolls or she pretends that they say to her. It is so cute!!

I also got this book for the girls with some of their Christmas money. I am super excited about it! I splurged and spent a full $10 for it.It is not the real story of Pride and Prejudice. Obviously, that would be a little advanced for a baby board book. It is called a counting primer, and it just basically counts (from 1-10) various people, places and things from the real book. The illustrations are really cute, and so far the book has been a big hit with Audrey.Her favorite page is this one:
She quickly learned the names of all the sisters, and she is so proud of herself every time we get to this page and she can list them off: "Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty and Mary!" I don't expect her to be smarter or anything because she has a Pride and Prejudice book. I just think it's a really fun idea.

There is one other book available right now in this BabyLit board book series: Romeo and Juliet. But soon they will be releasing Alice in Wonderland and Jane Eyre. I might be tempted to buy them all!

January 9

2012-01-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

Isla has graduated to sitting in the front of the cart when we are out shopping. Up until now, she was usually hanging out in her bucket car seat in the back of the cart while we shopped. I have been getting tired of lugging her around in that carseat...too heavy! It is a bit more of a hassle to get her in and out of the car seat in the cold weather and deal with getting her bundled up in a coat, but I think it is time. Isla definitely seems to be enjoying the new view!

Since making this move, Daniel and I have noticed that she (and her helmet) receive much more attention. I was nervous about what people would say about the helmet before we got it. I thought I would be self-conscious about her every time we were out in public.

Really, we didn't get many comments at all about the helmet. A few people at church asked about it. Several older ladies thought she was wearing it to protect her head in case she fell down. But overall, the helmet received little or no attention when out in public.

Until Isla started sitting up in the cart. Now that she is a bit more visible, I guess the helmet is drawing more attention. We have received a lot of stares and gawking lately, as well as several comments on the helmet. Most people comment on how cute it is, especially the flowers. But one lady at Wal-mart this week asked, "Is that a hard hat or something?"

I actually prefer for people to ask me about the helmet. I would rather them know why she is wearing it than make their own assumptions. I'm a little too shy to initiate conversations with people who are staring at her though. I rarely bring it up with strangers, unless I can tell that they want to ask about but aren't sure how to ask. So I'm always happy when they initiate the conversation themselves.

Going out in public was originally one of my biggest fears about the helmet. I was just worried what people would think about it. As soon as we got the helmet, that fear disappeared. Who cares what people think or say about her? She is still sweet and adorable and our precious little girl. She is happy wearing it. We are happy with her wearing it. That's all that matters!

January 8

2012-01-08T16:16:00.001-08:00

Book Organization

I love books. Someday, I dream of having a library in our house where I can put all of our books together. Until then, our books are spread throughout the house on various shelves.

We do have a lot of books. I don't know how we end up with so many books, as I don't ever just go to the bookstore and buy books. Though I do have a weakness for buying kids books at garage sales.

In order to keep our house from being overtaken by books, I try to go through all of our shelves and clean them out a few times a year. That is what I have been doing for the past couple of days, and I have filled up a huge tub with books to sell at our garage sale.

I am also trying to create more toy storage in the basement playroom. To open up some shelves for toys, I wanted to put some hanging shelves on the wall for books. I found this idea on Pinterest. I asked Daniel if he could make them, he said, "Sure!" and then he made them. And I love them!! These shelves are on the playroom wall, and I am putting all of our board books here.The shelves are low enough that Audrey can take off and put away the books by herself. I ordered a beanbag to put here and make a little reading nook. I am brainstorming ways to finish decorating the space, so I'll post another picture someday when this project is finished.

All of our picture books are stored in Audrey's room. They are never this neat. It usually feels like we have a ton of books, but once I straightened them up and organized them, the shelves look empty. I think it might be time for some new picture books! =)I also have a basket in the living room with both picture books and board books that I try to rotate occasionally, so there are always books readily available for reading!In the dining room, all of my fiction books are housed on these shelves. Now that I have my nook, I am really cutting back on the number of books that I buy. I have decided that eventually (I'm not quite there yet) I only want to own physical copies of books that I really love and would want to read again and lend to friends.
In the piano room, we have all of our Bible reference books, Christian books and other books from our college days. I forgot to take a picture in there, but there is another whole bookshelf full of books.

And more books in the piano room closet! The middle shelf holds all my piano books. The rest of the books is my collection of juvenile fiction. Many of these are my books from my childhood. The rest are from garage sales. It is a bit of a sentimental hobby for me to collect these kinds of books. I am trying to collect all the Newbery Medal books and pretty much all of the books that I remember as a kid (I read a lot when I was a kid!). I refuse to pay more than a quarter for any of these books, but they are pretty easy to find at garage sales for that price. My favorite is when I find them for 10 cents a piece. I am determined that at least one of my girls will grow up to be a reader and will enjoy reading these books as much as I did.Whew! That is pretty much every book in our house. And that's AFTER I cleaned out all the shelves. Maybe I need to back through and clean them out again!