Tuesday, December 29, 2015

christmas recap

 
so i actually did get a christmas miracle.
ronnie got christmas eve off and we got
every single thing done on my list.
woot. woot.
i started my day  e a r l y,
like 5am, but it was so worth it
because by 8:00 i had already gone to the grocery
store and taken my kids to go see santa.
i'm going to let you in on a little secret:
people do not get up early to go see santa.
so if your kids are early risers, like mine,
take advantage and go when they open.
literally NO LINE.  like, at all.
we walked right up while another family
was finishing up and took our picture and left.
the whole thing took 5 minutes.
so. awesome.
ronnie and i took the girls to the magic tree the night before
and i spent my evening wrapping gifts while ronnie
took 2 hours putting together a big wheel.
i'm not kidding.
i made my pie when i got home from santa
and showered for church while the girls napped.
we managed to make it to christmas eve mass
by the skin of our teeth and lot of help from my folks.
there is something about getting everyone ready for church that's cursed.
it is ALWAYS stressful, which is so not the point of going.
but brette did a good job of putting on lip gloss for an hour
while the rest of us took turns holding reid.
we made it home in time for our annual christmas eve pizza,
sat out cookies for santa and put the girls in matching pj's.
i did forget to read them "twas the night before christmas"
which kind of kills me, but i promise to do better next year.
 

 
 

 
christmas morning brette woke up at 5:50 and wanted to see
if santa had eaten the cookies she left him.
 i made her wait for her sister until 7:00, so she watched cartoons
in our room and guessed what presents santa brought her.
once reid joined our party,
we had a good time making a mess of the living room.
(note to self: wrapping paper with glitter is banned from this household)
after breakfast we loaded everyone up and headed to warrensburg
for our big family christmas with all the relatives from my mom's side.
we ate a lot, watched the kids open a ton of gifts and then
i downed a few glasses of wine to top off my holiday.
oh what fun!
brette and reid are super lucky to have so much
family surrounding them and really made our holiday amazing.
brette was super excited by three things:
her new black boots (which she's wearing in all our Christmas morning photos)
a buzz lightyear toy
and a northpole dance radio (oh lordy, help us)
 
 

 




 
 
 
we had a great day.
hope yours was spent with
all the ones you love.
 
until next year!



Thursday, December 24, 2015

happy holidays

i'm checking things off my list left and right
and somehow i think i'm going to manage to get it all done.
whew.
in the meantime,
i just wanted to wish all of you a
merry christmas and blessed new year!
2016 is charging right for us.
 
and for those of you not on my mailing list,
here's our last minute christmas card that
i managed to get out on time.

 
 
and now i'm off to go bake a pie.
merry christmas!

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

making a list, checking it twice

i just made a list of all the things i need
to get done before christmas and
now i'm feeling a little frantic.
and yes, i guess waiting until christmas eve eve
to figure this all out was not smart.
there are things i want to do and then
there are things i have to do.
but lets be honest,
i plan on getting everything checked off my list.
 
1. bake a tollhouse pie
2. go to the magic tree and lights-seeing
3. make ham roll-ups
4. exchange a gift i bought in the wrong damn size.
5. wrap every single thing.
6. go to christmas eve mass
7. go see santa
but first things first,
i need to go to the grocery store.
always.
it wouldn't be that bad if i could just run to the store
right now but the girls are both napping.
i'm secretly hoping that they don't nap forever.
(which goes against my mom-mantra)
but the sooner i can get cracking,
the better.
i really wish ronnie was walking through the door right now to help
or was off tomorrow, but i won't hold my breath.
that would truly be a christmas miracle.

am i right?!
 
i'm sure everyone is running around
frantic trying to put the finishing touches on christmas,
so here's to the holidays...
the most stressful best time of the year!
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

reid: 5 months

 
my littlest chicken is five months old
and is such a sweet little girl.
(much sweeter than my 2.5 yr old that,
at the moment, makes me want to pull out my hair.)
however both my girls are sick,
so we're having a rough week.
but still, let's celebrate miss reid.
 
growth:
i have no clue what she weighs,
i'd guess between 14-15 lbs.
her little leg rolls are growing in quite nicely
and her cheeks are as round as ever.
her newest accomplishment is rolling over.
all. the. time.
and once she started rolling over,
she had to stopped being swaddled at night,
which has made things interesting.
more on that in our "sleep" section.
however, she just rolls from her back to her stomach,
but once she on her stomach she can't get back over.
for some reason, she won't push off on her arms.
we're working on it.
she's in size two diapers and 3-6 month clothing.
her hair is still red and her eyes are still blue.
i wish her eyebrows and eyelashes would darken up
a bit, because even though she has them,
they're hard to see.
she's still on reflux medicine and the pediatrician upped
her does to 2 ml twice a day. 
so far, it seems to be working.
 
 
sleeps:
this little one is an amazing night sleeper,
but that's where it ends.
so far, naps are still not consistent and
what works one day will most likely,
not work the next.
she gets up around 7am and will sleep on and
off throughout the day.
i always have both girls down around 1 in the afternoon
and sometimes R will give me a couple hours and
other days she'll only give me 30 minutes.
i'm going to stick with it because i know the older she gets,
the better she'll nap.
i just wish i could find that sweet spot everyday.
as for the night, she's going down by 7:00,
up at 4:00 and back down until 7:00.
but as you read above, we've had to stop swaddling her
because she'll roll over.
this means, she might wake herself up a few times
before she's officially asleep, but she's getting better and better.
 mostly, this whole rolling over thing it freaks me out
because i'm afraid she'll smother herself.
if she was able to sit up or crawl,
i wouldn't worry, but since she's still so little
and still in the age range for SIDS i spend a lot of my nights
checking my monitor to see if she's flipped over.
in fact, this morning she was asleep on her tummy.
dang those tummy sleepers!
i'm looking into getting an angelcare monitor.
it will actually sound an alarm if she stops breathing.
i never worried much about this with brette because
her gross motor skills were never on point, so by the
time we stopped swaddling her she still wasn't rolling over in her crib.
it is highly recommended that babies sleep on their back,
but i think reid has other plans.
 
 
eats:
she is still nursing wonderfully.
she eats every few hours and i wanted to add
some water to her diet, but
i only ended up doing it like 3 times this month,
so i really sucked that up.
i'm going to REALLY focus on it and
try to introduce her to a straw.
i remember loving that brette could use a straw,
so that's my #1 goal this month.
i plan on starting to introduce food at 6 months and
i cannot wait for that.
i'll start with cereal and peanut butter,
then vegetables and fruit.
starting foods is one of my favorite parts of the first year,
so i'm really looking forward to january.
 
 
plays:
she likes toys that rattle, light up or play music.
she still loves her pacifier, but mostly just to play with
and not really use it for sleeping anymore.
i try to force it on her because it really does soothe her
but i think she's starting to get over it.
she also likes things that hang above her to she can bat at them.
we don't have one of those play mats but
we have a homemade version in the playroom that
seems to work just fine.
i try to have her hang out on her tummy a few times a day,
but she isn't a huge fan.
she loves sitting up, but can't do it without support,
so i prop her up or put her in the bumbo.
our bumbo has a tray on it so you can give her toys
and she can occupy herself for a little bit and
sometimes when brette needs something too,
this comes as a big help.
but most of all, she likes being held.
of course.
 
 
our second little child is quite different than our first,
but has captured our hearts just the same.
happy five months, reid!
 



 
 
wanna compare?
 
 
 
 

Sunday, December 20, 2015

cookie day

we had our annual bake off at my mom's house.
all the females (plus my dad) exchange cookies
and spend a whole day making
more cookies and christmas candies.
 
oh what fun!
 
fudge
divinity
peanut clusters
oreo balls
peanut brittle
dipped pretzels
molasses cookies
peppermint bark...
and that JUST what we made that day.
i can't even explain all the things i ended up bringing home.
holy cow.
i just gained 800 pounds.
but look at these little girls that got to help.
totally worth it.
 












 
 
i think i need to invest in three four
little aprons for next year.
how cute would that be?
 
i just love traditions.
hope you're having a sweet holiday too!
 




Wednesday, December 16, 2015

fast food

randomly last night i made the bomb breakfast casserole.
fast. easy. and so good.
 
it was nice outside after naps, so
the girls and i went out for a walk.
i had to nurse reid when we got back in and
when i looked at the clock it was almost 5:00.
holy geez.
dinner.
crap.
since we start bedtime around 6:30,
dinner needs to be ready around 5:45.
normally if its already 5:00 and i have nothing out,
we would be feasting on frozen pizza or scrounging up leftovers.
but when i checked the freezer there was no pizza.
we did have some chicken pot pie leftover,
but not enough for me, ronnie and brette.
just great.
i noticed that we had
jimmy dean cooked sausage links.
eggs.
cheese.
we also had a can of biscuits because
i intended to make a shepard pie recipe off pinterest sometime, but
hadn't gotten around to it.
 
 
 
hmmmm.
surely i can make some sort of breakfast concoction out of all this.
so i started with the sausage links and starting cooking 10 of them.
meanwhile i cracked 6 eggs and whisked them in a 9x9 baking dish.
i cut the biscuits in forths and laid them in the egg.
once my sausage was cooked i cut up and added them to the dish and
stirred in shredded cheese and sprinkled in some salt and pepper.
i had my oven going at 400 and put it in for 20-25 minutes.
meanwhile, i took my sausage drippings and made gravy.
side note:
have you ever made gravy?
i used to be kind of intimidated by it.
i mean, me? make homemade gravy?
i should leave that to the professionals.
but i swear, it's the easiest thing to do ever.
you literally add flour to your sausage and stir it around
for 2 minutes, then add milk and stir it around until it gets thick.
salt and pepper to taste. (can add red pepper if you like it hot)
that. is. it.
i know.
suddenly you're thinking about all those homemade breakfasts
your mom and your grandma have made you where you thought,
holy geez, thank god SOMEONE can still make this for me,
and now here you are, making it for yourself.
you should try it and impress everyone.
 
when the casserole came out i poured the gravy on top.
and wa la - done!
so basically i made biscuits and gravy breakfast casserole.
and yes,
we were eating by 5:45 and its my new fave.

 





Friday, December 11, 2015

holiday rush

my week has been busy,
which is no surprise with christmas
right around the corner.
ronnie put up our lights,
which makes me happy...
and nervous to have him up that high.
(reid and i watched from the ground)

(hold on tight, ronnie!)
 
we spent a whole day shopping with mimi and papa. 
i actually got all the things i needed for the girls' stockings
and i found some cute cowboy boots for brette.
i only have three gifts left to buy.
hopefully i can knock those out by next week.
ps- reid totally crapped through her whole outfit
while out shopping and proved yet again, why
online shopping is definitely the way to go.
 
(this is her - yeah, i shit myself face. classic.)
 
i find myself needing more time.
we still need go look at lights,
visit santa,
send out cards,
drive through christmas in the park,
go stare at the magic tree,
drink hot chocolate and watch christmas movies. 
(i'm watching christmas vacation as i type this.
check that off the list.)
but i guess the truth is -
my girls are still little.
the holidays are going to be more fun the older they get.
right now its hard to keep them up late enough
to get some of these things done.
i need to be patient and let them grow up first.
i did, however, get some baking done.
 i count this as an accomplishment in itself because
we had a surprise guest,
miss eden lou.
i thought it might get a little chaotic and not get done, but
i really loved having her.
it gave brette someone to play with
and it makes me so excited for the
day that reid and b can run off  and play without me.
they colored, played tag, helped me bake and
ran around outside.
when nap rolled around, i had all the
girls in bed and asleep with no tears in 15 minutes.
i felt like a gold-star mom.
 


(my baking buddies)
 
(and my cookies turned out. yay!)
 
 
we had a good week.
now if only my house got cleaned...
whoops.
 
next up?
family cookie day
and christmas with ronnie's side.
tis the season.


Tuesday, December 8, 2015

me want some cookies

my big family cookie exchange is saturday
and i'm so excited!
i haven't participated in the actual
exchanging of cookies in a couple years
because i don't really need 8 dozen cookies at my house.
normally i just take home the candies we make that day
and call it a year.
but with two girls and a pending party at my house
i thought i should actually partake this year.
my family is graciously letting me do the exchange,
but cut in half.
instead of baking a dozen cookies for everyone,
i'm only doing half dozens and that's what i'll get in return.
its a lot more manageable for me and it will
help me avoid eating a few dozen cookies over the next month.
added all up i'll need to get three dozen cookies pounded out.
i'm gonna be one baking son of a bitch on thursday.
hopefully the girls cooperate.
last time i did the exchange i made monster cookies.
they are seriously good.
and the time before that i did crappy sugar cookies,
but with good cause.
this year i had an idea to do s'more cookies.
i found a recipe that seems pretty easy,
so i'm going to try it out.
i'm hoping they're a hit.
 
here's the recipe:
make your normal chocolate chip cookie dough.
crumble up a cup of graham cracker.
cut 6 marshmallows in half.
add 3/4 cup of your graham cracker to your cookie dough.
take your 1/2 marshmallow and roll your dough around it.
then roll your ball in the remaining graham cracker crumbles.
bake at 350 for 12 - 15 minutes.
now i just have to do this times three.
wish me luck!




Monday, December 7, 2015

christmas shopping

shopping with a four month old and
a two year old doesn't work.
well, it works, but i hate it.
brette wants to touch everything
and reid doesn't like to sit in her carseat for that long.
just the other day i had to let brette pick out something to hold
while i held reid as we walked around wal-mart's toy aisle.
oh what fun.
so i did something i hate.
i bought almost everyone i know gift cards.
wah wah.
it's not fun for me.
it's not personal.
and it's lame to wrap.
BUT it gets me in and out of the store in less than 5 minutes
and that is most important these days.
now i only have three people left.
except for what i need to finish up brette and reid's gifts.
when it comes to shopping for the girls,
gift cards won't work and i don't want brette to see what she's getting
so i've done a lot of online shopping.
in fact, a lot of deals i found were better online than in stores anyway.
i'm all about the convenience and the fact that
it's delivered straight to my door can't be beat.
 
 
i'm sticking to my little rhyme from a few years back...
something you want,
something you need,
something to wear,
something to read.
 
we got brette:
a table and chairs set
to be determined, but right now we're looking into cowboy boots.
and this book.
 
we got reid:
a toy,
to be determined
a swimsuit
and this book.
 
this does not include their ornament, pj's and xmas books
their elf on the shelf, tootie, brought them their christmas pj's,
they will get their ornament on christmas eve
and we're having a breakfast party with all my girlfriend where
"santa" brings them their christmas book.
then i have a bunch of small stuff for their stocking.
whew.
 
now who wants to pay my credit card bill?
please?
anyone?
hello?



Thursday, December 3, 2015

it's beginning to look...

...a lot like christmas.
unfortunately it doesn't look exactly like
what i had pictured in my head.
my old house had a very different decorative vibe:
black, white, green, birds, leaf patterns.
so when it came to decorating for christmas
i used a lot of red, silver and sequins. 
oh yes, there was lots of sparkle.
and it looked great.
but in THIS house
it looks weird and out of place.
last year we lived with my parents over the holidays
so i hadn't seen my decorations in two years.
when we i got them out, i was sorely disappointed.
this house needs wood, plaid, cotton sprigs,
pinecones, cranberries, gold and deep red.
so basically i need a lot of new stuff.
that's not great news when i don't have the budget
to go out re-buy all my christmas décor.  
i mean hello, i'm busy shopping for gifts!
 
so i scrounged up what i could,
and made do.
i plan on borrowing a few more things
my mom found that she doesn't use.
maybe i can go out at the end of the season and
get some more on sale and have it for next year.
until then, this is it.

notice my tree has no topper?
it used to be a big silver sparkly bow and
it totally doesn't go anymore.

i actually bought this because i just
had to have one more thing of garland.

my old table runner was black velvet.
it's heinous.
i remember i had this scarf hanging in my closet and since
i wanted to incorporate plaid, i thought
this was a good cheap option.
i'd like to replace the big sequined ornament with a wooden sleigh
and add a few cotton sprigs,
but obviously that will have to wait.

i hate everything about my island décor,
but i have no ideas and nothing left to use,
so this will do for now.

my mantle needs work too.
it needs height.
i'd love to find some reindeer or trees to add.
i'd also like to fill my wooden toolbox with poinsettias.
ps- my mantle garland has lights but one must have
burned out because they wouldn't turn on today.
sounds like a job for ronaldo.


i love my wrapped columns.
basically i just loved lit garland.
 
 
so when i finally do get to go out shopping for new things i
have a few ideas from either instagram or pinterest
that i thought would work great.
now i just need to find the right items
and recreate something similar.
 
 
 
this was my original inspiration picture.
i took a screen shot so i could keep it.
it basically has everything.
cotton, cranberries, wood, old trucks.
it's perfect.
the rest of these are based off this first idea.
 





very cabin chic.
wish me luck finding all these amazing things for super cheap!
tis the season, right?!