Cookies

Have you ever tried making cookies with a 3 year old?  It was definitely interesting to say the least but Lily really enjoyed it so I guess that is all that matters.  She asked if we could make gingerbread men which I had never done before so of course I said sure.  We had a little problem with the dough which did not make this endeavor any easier.  Lily is also quite stubborn and doesn't like to let anyone show her how to do something, she is more the trial and error type.  She cut out the first tray of cookies but then I sat her down at the table and let her decorate so I could cut out the rest.  She dumped quite a few sprinkles (read the whole bottle) on quite a few of the cookies and then I showed her how to put mini m&m's on them and she went to town with those.  As you can see by the pictures some of the sprinkles and m&m's also managed to find their way into Lily's tummy.  I managed to make a couple other kinds of cookies while she was other wise engaged but have a couple more I'd still like to do and I'm sure I will have my little helper for those as well.

Snow Day

We got a few inches of snow last week and the girls were so excited to go out and play they couldn't wait more than 20 minutes after it started coming down.  They had lots of fun and their little faces were all red by the time they came in.  Colin said they ate about a pound of snow each while they were out there.

Echo!

This is near the back door at my parents house.  While we were there for Thanksgiving the girls learned that there was a great echo if they stood on the bench and yelled down the stairs.  I think they stood there yelling for a good 10 minutes.

Cheese Face

This is Hannah's cheese face.  As soon as she sees the camera come out she makes this face and starts yelling "cheese".

Everybody look at the camera, look at the camera, LOOK AT THE CAMERA

With our new camera we will be taking our own family pictures and it is such a joy.  My first attempt failed and I really want to get our Christmas cards done so we are going with the Santa picture this year.  Thanks to Shutterfly we will be getting our cards for free too, can't beat that, and they have some great cards to choose from or just the regular picture cards are great too.  I am also a big fan of their picture calendars, they make great gifts this time of year.

I am also hoping that once i get the hang of our camera  a little better to order some of their canvas wall art prints, that is if the girls will every cooperate and LOOK AT THE CAMERA.  I may still be just a little frustrated from our attempted photo shoot.

Anyways, Shutterfly is a great company and I am always happy with everything we order from them.  I can't wait to get our cards and send them out.

Giveaway: Kid Tested Mom Approved

I know I've said this before but I am saying it again, we love cereal in our house. If I leave a box out on the counter Lily has been known to grab it and run and hide if I don't see her. The other week the girls managed to inhale a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in 3 days. They will latch on to one type of cereal and go through 2-3 boxes before moving on to another cereal. At any given time I usually have about 10 boxes stashed in our pantry. On to the giveaway:
With the same great taste kids have loved for more than 70 years, Kix makes it easy to serve your family a simple and healthy breakfast! Whether you choose to serve Original Kix or Honey Kix, you can be sure that your kids are getting a wholesome food with nutrients they need to grow.
The “Kid-Tested Mother-Approved®”cereal is made with whole grain corn and is an excellent source of iron. It also is a good source of calcium, fiber, and Vitamins C and D. Original Kix has no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.
Kix through MyBlogSpark was generous enough to send me a prize pack that includes a 24-piece counting-themed floor puzzle, fun learn-to-count flashcards, a sippy cup, a portable snack container and a box each of Original Kix and Honey Kix cereals.


If you'd like a chance to win a prize pack of your own just leave a comment and make sure to leave your email adress if it is not in your profile.  I will keep the giveaway open until Friday night and then choose a winner using random.org

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We went out and got our tree this weekend.  The past few years we've just gone to the nursery that is right down the street but this year I wanted to try a different place.  We were on our way to run another erand when we drove by the mall and they were selling trees in the parking lot.  It was actually a tree farm and they even had a Santa Claus there.


The tree that Colin and the girls picked out.

The girls loved decorating and hanging the ornaments.  They loved it so much that we spent most of today telling them to stop leave the ornaments alone and stop moving them around.

 

Isn't it pretty?  I think it would look even better with all the presents under it but I don't trust the girls to leave them alone so they will have to wait.

Poor Woody

Lily was playing with her baby the other day and apparently baby was tired so Lily put her down for a nap.  Lily found her a nice comfy spot on top of the dog crate and covered her with a blanket.  Poor Woody didn't receive quite the same loving treatment

Taco Night

My girls, they are so similar in many ways yet so different in others.  One of their big differences comes in their eating habits.  Lily gets pickier by the day and I can count on two hands the number of meals she will actually eat.  Hannah is a human garbage disposal and I've recently dubbed her Three Helping Hannah, there are very few things she won't eat.  I love taco nights simply because it is one of the very few meals everyone will eat.  Lily eats hers plain, Taco meat in a bowl and scoops it up with tortilla chips.  My Hannah though, she likes it all, I pile hers with a little meat and add spanish rice, black beans, sour cram, and anything else I am having on mine.  The first thing she does is pick out the black beans and eat them and then the rest.  On special nights where everyone actually cleans their plates the girls are rewarded with a special dessert of ice cream. 

Hannah's "cheese" face

 

Lily said "Mommy, no more pictures"

Snapfish Photo Deal

Snapfish has a great deal going on right now.  You can 365 4x6 prints free with a $10 purchase.  This is great if you are someone like me who rarely prints pictures and now needs them for some holiday gifts.  Just add the pictures to your cart with your $10 purchase and enter code 2010MY365.

Our Holiday Pictures

We had an appointment to get family pictures done last weekend.  After last year when I waited until the week before Christmas I promised Colin that next year (being now) we would do them before Thanksgiving.  It was horrible!  The picture place was packed and we were there for almost 3 hours.  Our appointment was for Sunday morning at 9:50, I thought that would be early enough they wouldn't be too far behind yet.......I was wrong.  We got there a few minutes early and after about 10 minutes they called a family that had a 9:10 appointment, so they were running a little further behind than the 20 minutes they told me 5 minutes before that.  We decided to leave, there is no way we would be any decent pictures of the girls if they had to sit around waiting for an hour, or Colin for that matter.  We went straight over to Best Buy and bought a new camera.  The camera that I've wanted since our picture nightmare a year ago.  The camera we will use for quite some time to come to take pictures of our family ourselves so that Colin does not have to return to that other picture place ever again.  We got a Canon Rebel T1i digital SLR and even though I am only up to page 41 in the manual I LOVE it.

Another one bites the dust

My laptop was sitting on the couch (where it sits 98% of the time) and Hannah climbed up and knocked it off.  The good news is the computer is fine, at least not any worse than it was before, but my mouse did not make it.  The computer landed on the side and crushed the little thing that plugs into the usb port for my wireless mouse.  This is the third mouse I've gone through in the three year life span of my computer.  The first two had bigger usb plug in, the size of a usb driver, and Lily was grabbing at it all the time and they stopped working.  The third one I bought a newer style that has the "nano receiver" and it was great, it barely stuck out at all, no more grabbing problems.  I can not stand the touch pad mouse on my lap top so I can hardly wait for mouse number 4 to arrive.

Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Apple Pie Giveaway was #1 Allison, congratulations.  I will be doing more giveaways oer the next couple weeks so don't forget to check back.

Banana Bread

Lily has been asking for banana bread for the last week so today I finally had enough over ripe bananas to make some. The recipe I use makes 5 mini loaves and they are perfect for us. The girls and I can usually finish one loaf in a day so I leave one out and put the others in the freezer and just take one out at a time so we don't get tired of it. As soon as it was reasonably cool I cut two pieces and gave them to Lily and she quickly gobbled them up. A little while later she was sitting at the kitchen table coloring and the banana bread was on the counter behind her cooling. I went upstairs to get Hannah up from her nap and when I came back down two minutes later I found her sitting at the table taking bites out of a whole loaf of bread....looks like a mouse got into it.

Happy Halloween!

We had lots of fun today!  This year instead of going door to door we decided to take the girls to Trunk or Treat at the church where Lily goes to preschool.  I've never done a Trunk or Treat before but really liked this.  The girls had lots of fun and got plenty of candy in the hour we were there.  They were both very shy at first, Lily kept hiding behind Colin and I, and every time I tried to put Hannah down she would wrap her legs around my waist so I couldn't.  Once they started getting candy in their buckets though they were all for it and really enjoyed it.  The people that volunteered to give out candy decorated their cars and the girls loved looking at all the decorations everyone had.  By the time we were done both of their buckets were full and Lily wouldn't even carry hers anymore because she said it was too heavy.  Hannah was a monkey and Lily was Angelina Ballerina, I was so excited that people even knew that Lily was an actual cartoon character and not just a ballerina.  They even had a hay ride that Lily and Lovie went on, Hannah was a little scared because the tractor was kind of loud.

Our Weekend

Last weekend we took the girls to Chesterfield Berry Farm to pick out their pumpkins.  Of course those pictures are on the other computer so I will have to add them later.  This weekend we let the girls paint their pumpkins.  They seemed to have fun and actually Hannah was much more interested in it than Lily was.



Apple Pie Giveaway

Who doesn't love pie?  Well actually I don't.  I like pumpkin pie and every once in awhile I will eat apple pie.  I do however for some reason love to make pie.  Pillsbury through My Blog Spark was nice enough to send me a “Love the Pie” prize pack which includes a VIP coupon for a free sample of Pillsbury® Refrigerated Pie Crusts, a pie dish, and apple themed kitchen items.  I also got a great deal on a huge bag of apples at Costco recently so I think it's the perfect time to make a pie.  I haven't had time yet this week, I've got an eye doctor appointment tomorrow morning and we are free after that so hopefully I will get a chance tomorrow afternoon so stay tuned for pictures.

If you'd like a chance to win a "Love the Pie" prize pack too just leave a comment letting me know your favorite kind of pie.  Make sure to leave an email adress if there isn't one associated with your profile so I can get in touch if you win. 

*The coupon, information, and prize package for giveaway were all provided by Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark.

Another Monday

1.  I really need to start taking more pictures.  I have none to show for today but decided to post anyway.

2.  Today was Lily's Special Day at school.  We did this last year and this year went much better.  Last year she screamed the whole time and wouldn't let me read the book we brought to share.  This year she wouldn't stop talking about our book and the pictures we brought to share.

3.  I totally "recycled" her poster from last year's special day and just added a few new pictures.....I don't feel bad about this at all.

4.  I am about half done with Christmas shopping and would love to be totally done by Thanksgiving but don't know if that will happen.

5.  My brother and sister in law were here for the weekend for a wedding.  Lily and Hannah had lots of fun playing with them and Lily was very upset when they left.  When we got home from school she kept asking where Uncle Drew and Aunt Ashley were.

6.  The girls and I took a walk yesterday and met another little girl who was outside playing with her mom.  She is a little younger than Lily but they played together for aobut 15 minutes and had a great time.  It just so happens that her name is also Lily and she goes to the same preschool and is int he class Lily was in last year.

Miscellany Monday

I am trying something new so that maybe I will be motivated to post a little more often so I am joinging in on Miscellany Monday with Carissa at Lowercase Letters.

1. Lily managed to almost break the garage door this morning. I heard her hit the garage door as we were getting ready to leave for preschool but didn't think anything of it. Apparently she managed to throw the dead bolt like lock half way and when I hit the opener the door made it half way up and then the lock slid into place freezing the door. I had to hammer the lock thing back through so the door could finish opening. Thankfully the door is fine and we made still made it to school on time.

2. We found a baby sitter and will be going out on date night this weekend.

3. I am obsessed with coupons and managed to get 4 movie tickets for $20 today through Groupon. This weekends date night will be a movie and dinner.

4. Lily loves school but for some reason she starts to cry every day when I pick her up. She is fine until she sees me and all of a sudden it's instant tears.

5. Lily is sitting next to me on the couch right now and just put her head down and went right to sleep, I guess she's tired.

6. Hannah is playing with a laundry basket. She climbs in with a toy or two and 5 minutes later starts yelling "helpy" because she can't get out. I get her out and 5 minutes later she gets right back in.

Just a little heart attack

On Friday night Colin went to put Lily to bed and she was none too thrilled so he said she could lay down in our bed with him.  I was in the bonus room which is right off of our bedroom and figured they'd be in there for about 20 minutes before either Lily fell asleep and Colin got back up or Colin got tired of Lily's tossing and turning and put her in her own room.  I heard nothing.  I went to bed almost two hours later and when I walked into the room Colin rolled over and sleepily asked me if I had put Lily in her room.  I paused and said no, why would I.  Apparently he heard her get up from the bed and figured she had come to find me.  She does this quite often but I wasn't down stairs like I normally am so I figured maybe she went down there and layed down on the couch when I wasn't there.  I went down stairs and nothing, no Lily.  I thought maybe she went to her own room when she saw I wasn't down stairs, nope, her room was empty.  At this point I was starting to freak out especially since she knows how to unlock the dead bolt on the front door.  I went back into our bedroom and turned on the bathroom light and told Colin he needed to get up and start looking.  That is when I looked down at the floor at the foot of the bed and there she was.  Sound asleep sprawled out on the floor.  It looked like she had started to sneak out of the room and made it about half way, and I am guessing Colin must have rolled over or made some sort of sound that made her freeze and she just fell asleep where she was.

Another Zoo trip

We took another trip to the zoo last week and met Darci and Carter there.  This is pretty much the only picture I got but it sums up our trip pretty well.  They seemed to have fun and even Hannah got out of the stroller and did a lot of walking.  It was pretty hot, in the 90's, so we got there when they opened so we would be done before it got way too hot.


They were checking out the ducks in this picture.  Go figure we go to the zoo and they were most interested in ducks.

Family

Lily needed a family picture for school and being on top of things like I am we have already gotten one note sent home reminding us we still haven't turned in our picture. I realized that we don't have an even remotely current picture of all 4 of us so I asked Colin's mom to take one when she watched the girls for us today. This is what we got.

Like I said, we really needed the picture and Colin and I knew what it was going to look like so we are both laughing while the girls just screamed. I am really hoping that Lily's teacher has a sense of humor because this is all I've got.

Yummy....pumpkin

Oh yes, these are definately on my grocery list for this week.  I love pumpkin and sure I could make some home made, healthier pumpkin muffins but these look sooo good.  Oh, and in case you didn't know there is a pumpkin shortage going on right now.  I've been to 5 different stores trying to find canned pumpkin and it is no where in sight.  So until I am able to locate some pumpkin in a can I will just console myself with these.

Poison Oak....not fun

We were working on the landscape around the house and I managed to get into some poison oak.  Colin got a few spots but I pretty much had it from calf to shoulder on both sides of me.  I was trying to tough it out but it seemed to be spreading and when I showed the pediatrician at the girls' check up last week she said I really need to go get a prescription to clear it up.  So I thought it would be fun to go from the pediatrician to the walk in clinic and just skip nap time for Hannah.  We were in and out in under 45 minutes, I think the two screaming toddlers ransacking the place may have helped get us some preferential treatment.  The doctor took one look at me and immediately started writing prescriptions.  Just a little FYI for you too, he said that it was spreading (after a week from when I first started itching) because it had gotten into my blood stream and could then move on to new areas.  I got my prescriptions filled and am almost back to normal after a few days and only seem to still get itchy right before bed for some reason.  I will spare you any visuals, it is not pretty, but luckily the weather is cooperating and cooled off a bit so I don't look ridiculous when I wear longer sleeves and pants when I go out so spare the public.

Mmmmm.....doughnuts

I was pleasantly surprised to find a lovely package on my front step this afternoon.  My lovely UPS lady dropped of a box from Amazon and my mom and dad sent me the mini doughnut pans I have been eyeing for my birthday.  I managed to hold off for a whole 3 hours before I had to do a little pantry inventory to see if I could come up with the ingredients for one of the doughnut recipes I have been collecting.  I started simple and went with one that uses a cake mix as it's base and it worked out pretty well.  Now, there is no way I would serve these as breakfast as they are really just chocolate cupcakes shaped like doughnuts but, as you can see the girls did enjoy them for dessert tonight.  I love the picture of them peering in the oven, they couldn't wait for them to be done.

Since these were the mini doughnut size it really made quite a bit so I put half in the freezer and frosted and decorated the other half with Halloween sprinkles.   I will do a little more planning for the next batch and hopefully they will be a little more appropriate for breakfast.

Recipes

I will admit that I have a bit of a recipe obsession.  I love to collect new ones however they tend to get stuffed into any out of the way space I can find for them never to be made.  I at least got to the point where I just tore them out of magazines instead of keeping the whole magazine but still had about 4 hiding places for them around the house.  The other night I got a chance to go through and collect them all up and organize them, I had some that I know for a fact are 7 years old and I still haven't made them.  I got out my trusty 3-hole punch and organized them by category into a binder.  Any new recipes go into the binder and when I am in the mood to try something new I can open it up and pull one out.  Once a recipe has been tried it will either be tossed if it doesn't meet approval or be put onto an index card and moved to my recipe card drawer.  And yes, I do have a drawer specifically for my recipe cards in the kitchen.  I won't even get started on the cook books.

Cutest Monkey Ever!

Lily and Hannah have recently started watching Curious George and are now in love.  I had this great idea that they could be George and the The Man in the Yellow Hat for Halloween.  My wonderful mother in law found this adorable costume for Hannah the other week but unfortunately I think Lily may have her heart set on being Angelina Ballerina instead of being decked out in yellow head to toe.


Isn't she adorable?

First Day of School 2010

Today was Lily's first day of preschool.  We went in on Friday so she could meet her teacher and she wasn't too receptive to having a new teacher this year but this morning went much better.    My girly girl picked out a Star Wars folder and green with flourescent orange spiders lunch box for the year....she has varied tastes.
 

And just for a little comparison, this morning is on the left and last year's First Day of School picture is on the right.  Her hair has only been trimmed once in the last year, it is finally growing in.

Sonic

After the zoo we decided to stop at Sonic for a treat.  Lily requested an ice cream cone and it was her first one.  I have a feeling it will be the first of many, she really enjoyed it.  Hannah had a smoothie and seems to have finally mastered the whole using a straw thing.  I had my favorite Orange Cream slush and it was quite delicious.

Zoo

At the beginning of the summer we bought year long passes to the Zoo and went once before it got too hot and now that it is cooling off again we were able to go for our second trip last weekend.  Hannah is getting more interested in seeing the animals every time.  Lily still loves the Tigers and they even had two baby tiger cubs this time.  Lily and Colin went into the big bird cage area and fed them.  Lily was loving it but when I took Hannah in there she kept trying to step on the birds that landed on the ground so she and I didn't stay in very long.

My Monkey

See this cute little cheese face, she was being very naughty this morning. Yes, she is sitting on the back of the couch and I do know how dangerous it is since she could fall and crack her head on the hardwood floors. She won't stay down. I pulled her down from there at least 50 times day and she just goes right back up. I tried putting her in time out and even put her up in her crib to try and get her to stop. You can see how long her mullet is getting too and though it pains me to have my children's hair cut because it takes them forever and a half to get any we may have to trim the mullet a bit, it's just getting out of control. If only the front could catch up to the back.