12/25/10

Christmas at the Ranch

Redneck Christmas Tree, Redneck Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches..

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Not every little girl gets to experience that magic of a redneck Christmas tree, but our little girls did. Blythe helped us pick out a 4x4 stump, shovel the sand into a tin bucket, and decorate snowman to hang on the garland. I have to admit that when my mom was first describing this tree I was a little skeptical, but I think it turned out pretty cute, even without the super cute girls in front of it.

After we got the redneck Christmas tree assembled it was time to put on our shiny black shoes, our bright red Christmas dresses, and head to Christmas Eve service where we met up with Joycelyn, John R, Grandma Barbara, and a few other locals. Of course a trip to the local church wouldn't be complete with a test run on the motorized chair. You know Jason, always in engineering mode and wanting to make sure it was safe for the seniors.

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After Christmas eve service we headed over to the McRorey's so the girls could get a taste of a real Christmas tree. Their great, great Aunt and great Grandmother put this tree up just for them.

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****Christmas Morning****

Claudia, Jalyn, Grandma Barbara, and I were all sitting out in the living room in anticipation of Blythe waking up and starting Christmas when we heard a rustle quickly followed by Jason telling Blythe she had to wait. Apparently when he was little his dad always stalled by brushing his teeth, or shaving, or something just to increase the anticipation. In all fairness I don't think Blythe had a clue that this morning was any different than any other morning. Finally Jason was ready and let her open the door..

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[here she pokes her head out and sees all of us staring at her and thinks twice about coming out]

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[Now she's got her game face on]

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Since Blythe is really into birthdays this year we decide to celebrate Christmas with a birthday cake for Jesus (Angle food cake of course) complete with candles and a very excited little girl to help blow them out.

Merry Christmas!!

12/10/10

Nilla Goes To The Hospital

Nilla is Blythe's beloved baby doll. It's like Mary Had A Little Lamb, everywhere that Blythe goes, Nilla goes too. A few weeks ago Blythe pointed out to me that Nilla had an awie on her leg and when she showed me sure enough she had a major awie. Nilla's cloth body was starting to become detached from her plastic leg...not good. I really didn't want Blythe to have a one legged baby doll that she takes everywhere with her and I also thought a nice Corolle doll should certainly last more than a year (even with the amount of love Nilla receives). I contacted Corolle and they responded immediately that they would send us a new Nilla, then I got an e-mail back that they would be sending a doll as close to Nilla as possible, but they were all out of Nilla's. I went online to see what the doll looked like and it looked exactly like Nilla just in a different outfit so I guess that is a bonus because we now have a new outfit.

Jason and I debated about how best to replace the old Nilla with the new Nilla. We knew if she saw both of them she would say "I want 2 Nilla's," so that wasn't an option. We have been talking about taking Nilla to the hospital so we continued that theme. Jason tried to convince her that she should kiss Nilla goodnight and let Nilla go to the hospital, but Blythe was NOT interested in leaving Nilla overnight, but who can blame her? What mom would let their precious baby go to the hospital without them over night? So we went with plan B which was the super quick before bedtime trip to the hospital. I told Blythe to give strip Nilla down and give her bye bye kisses and to show me the boo boo so we could make sure it was all better.

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Here we are starting to get a little nervous

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Then Jason brought in the hospital box and Blythe placed her in the box and away she went. In lightening speed the box cam back and Blythe quickly took Nilla out..

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only to learn that Nilla had not been fixed and she needed to go to a different hospital (I was biting my tongue at this point thinking, really Jason we needed to do that?)

So Blythe loaded Nilla back up in the box and away she went. This time she was getting nervous so I suggested a seat in the waiting room chairs.

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Finally Nilla returned and was ALL BETTER. Blythe couldn't have been happier. And to top it all off Blythe got a new pair of PJ's for Nilla in her advent calendar!

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Finally floating again

I knew it had been a long time since I blogged, but I had no idea how long it had really been until I logged on and saw it was 11/17..WOW I am almost a month behind. I debated about going back through the days and pictures and playing catch-up, but I resolved to go ahead and catch-up on memory book pages and post some sneak peeks here so you could see what we have been up two the last 3+ weeks. Apparently we have been having WAY too much fun to get around to blogging.

On November 20th we took Jericho to her first Aggie game and Blythe showed us she is an old pro at cheering for the Aggies.

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My cousin Blair and his wife Tanya were in the states for a visit from Australia so we took them to see the holiday festivities at the Gaylord.

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11/17/10

A day like Alexander

Right after getting dressed to head out the door to Jericho's 4 month appointment she decided to spit up all over her outfit (luckily it had a bib and she was wearing it so we just tossed the bib and went on our way). Once we got loaded in the car I realized we didn't have enough gas to get to the appointment and as I was filling up the car the auto stop didn't work and gas went everywhere. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning.

After we pulled into our parking spot at the dr.'s office I pulled Jericho out of the car seat to discover that she had decided to empty her system (trying to get off a few ounces before weigh in) and it was everywhere. As I am changing Jericho in the passenger seat and receiving funny looks I realized that I didn't pack a complete change of clothes for Jericho. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning.

I decided to throw her in the wrap in just a diaper with a blanket over her since they make you strip them down first thing. I got a few stares as I walked into the doctors office with a half naked baby, but oh well. The drama for the morning luckily stopped there. We had a great 4 month appointment. Jericho is topping the scales at 16 pounds 7 ounces, maintaining her place at the 95th percentile and measuring 25 inches long, placing her in the 75th percentile for length. She didn't cry for the first shot and gave a slight cry at the second one, but was over it as soon as I picked her up.

11/12/10

A Name

On Tuesday morning I was called a Pioneer Woman and by the afternoon I had also been dubbed a Yuppie. These two names seem to be completely opposite, so I took a step back to see which one, if either of them describe me.

Pioneer Woman

Although Halloween is over I would have to say that this weekend had a Pumpkin theme. The neighbors invited us over for dinner and we asked what we could bring and we were given the task of dessert. Since I loath the grocery store I needed to come up with something I already had the ingredients for. As I was playing in the front yard with Blythe I noticed the pumpkin and decided I should make a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. I am not a big pumpkin pie fan, but I could become one pretty quick if I didn't have to go to the grocery store. I searched around on the Internet and found a recipe for a home made (with real pumpkins) pumpkin pie and sure enough I had all the ingredients.

First I had to cut the pumpkin and dissect it, very similar to a cantaloupe.

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Then I baked it on the oven (similar to a squash) until it was soft enough for me to scrape the insides with an ice cream scoop.

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Then I pureed the scooped innards to create my pumpkin pie mush (the non an version)

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After that the hard part was over and it was just a matter of throwing the remaining ingredients in and baking it. What I wasn't expecting was having 8 cups of pumpkin mush when I only needed 3 so that meant I had to make another pumpkin pie dish so I went with pumpkin soup because we could eat that as a meal and again avoid the grocery store.

And of course a picture of my assistant as she sat and watched and encourage me with her big smiles.

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[Here is the link I used to make the pumpkin pie. http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php

Note: I did not think the insides scooped out all that easily (on the pre-baked side) so I ended up cutting it like I would a cantaloupe and it wasn't a problem having several pieces instead of just two. After baking I used the ice cream scoop and it worked well.

Our medium pumpkin yielded 8 cups instead of the needed 3 so I made it into pumpkin soup. There is a pumpkin soup link on here, but it seemed pretty bland so I looked at a few others and then just did what I had on hand.

Soup:
One medium onion
One carrot
6 garlic cloves
*sauté above ingredients

7 cups of chicken broth
The rest of your pumpkin pureed guts
Thyme
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
1 cup of cream
*add all and keep in pot until hot

In the end I added about a ¼ cup of cream cheese cause I thought it could use a little cheese, but mozzarella or Parmesan or whatever you have on had would work

***now go get those Halloween pumpkins off the porch before they rot, or bring them to me and I will come up with something else!

It turned out well and I didn’t think it tasted too pumpkin(ish)]


I was sharing this story with the playgroup when I got the name pioneer woman so I guess I can see where that came from.

Yuppie

I have heard this term used before, but I couldn't define it so I went ahead and looked it up: Yuppie (short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional")
[1] is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class in their twenties or thirties.[2] It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession. However it has been used in the 2000s and 2010s in places such as in National Review, The Weekly Standard, and Details.

To put this in context, I had just loaded jericho and Blythe into the double jogging stroller and was about to start our jog home from morning playgroup when Jeff said "Monica, your such a Yuppie; your either here in your BMW or sprinting your kids from place to place." At first I thought, wait isn't driving a BMW and then taking your kids from place to place on foot in a used, faded jogging stroller completely opposite?

Upon further review of the definition I just don't think I fall into this category. I would say that I am far from obsessing over my social status and equally as far from materialistic. I don't think being a stay at home mom with a husband in graduate school puts us in the middle much less the upper class.

[Yuppies are made fun of for their conspicuous personal consumption and obsession over social status among their peers, which is seen as vain and materialistic. Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank, author of Luxury Fever, has remarked, "When people were denouncing yuppies, they had considerably lower incomes than yuppies, so the things yuppies spent their money on seemed frivolous and unnecessary from their vantage point."

Yuppism... is not definable entirely by income or class. Rather, it is a late-twentieth-century cultural phenomenon of self-absorbed young professionals, earning good pay, enjoying the cultural attractions of sophisticated urban life and thought, and generally out of touch with, indeed antithetical to, most of the challenges and concerns of a far less well-off and more parochial Middle America. For the yuppie male a well-paying job in law, finance, academia, or consulting in a cultural hub, hip fashion, cool appearance, studied poise, elite education, proper recreation and fitness, and general proximity to liberal-thinking elites, especially of the more rarefied sort in the arts, are the mark of a real man.[4]]

So I am not really a pioneer woman or a yuppie, just a wife and a mom who is spoiled by a great husband and great kids.

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Apparently Blythe learned to cut paper....

11/2/10

Yoga on the Lawn

With the change in weather comes a change in activities. Now that we are able to walk out of the house after 10am without the instant feeling of pitting out, we can plan some outdoor activities for our playgroup. Today we had an extra special playgroup with Yoga by Mamo (Claudia). In most case the saying "a picture is worth 1000 words" is accurate, but in this case it doesn't quite do justice to the setting.

It was 9am and we had a pretty good rain the evening before. We had planned to do yoga on the lawn at 10am because my house is not large enough for 5 people to have ample space to yogasize. We could cancel or we would make it work. Being the make it work kind of person that I am, that is what we did. I hunted down 5 paint tarps to put on the wet lawn to create the yoga mat stations. Then I brought out toys for the toddlers to occupy themselves with; the cozy coupe, the tricycle, balls, trucks, etc. Then I brought some entertainment for the infants; bouncy seat, swing, play mat, etc. at one point Mamo asked me if she should grab the kitchen sink..HAHA very funny. I wanted everyone to be able to enjoy the yoga so I knew that meant the kiddos had to be well entertained.

Although we rarely were all in formation (due to a needed nursing, a toy argument, potty breaks, etc.) it turned out to be pretty successful. Everyone got a taste of yoga, the toddlers got some much needed outdoor time, and the babies played nicely.

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10/31/10

Halloween Weekend

We started our Halloween festivities on Friday night at our playgroup. Blythe was dressed up as a cowgirl and just as we were walking out the door she started to shuck her cowgirl clothes. She pulled on the shirt and said “I don’t like this shirt, I don’t want to be a cowgirl.” If Blythe wasn’t able to undress herself I would have tried to convince her to be a cowgirl, but before I got more than a few words out the outfit had hit the floor and it wasn’t moving unless it was to the dirty clothes or back on the hanger. I quickly glanced up and saw the Ballerina clothing hanging in the closet and said “do you want to be a ballerina?” I breathed a sigh of relief (seeing as we had no other options) and a little bit of a ‘really? Really? My daughter is going to dress up like a ballerina?’ Once Blythe had transformed from a Cowgirl to a Ballerina we loaded up and headed to the Lowe’s house. We were greeted by Robyn and Mike who had brought the rest of our cowgirl costume (the stick horse and the hat) and Blythe still claimed she didn’t want to be a ballerina, but she did want to wear the cowgirl hat. About 15 minutes into our Halloween activities Blythe decided to expand her character a little more, into a Mad Ballerina Cowgirl, seeing as she stole Peter Pan’s sword and dissected a pumpkin.....

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That evening Jericho got to enjoy some reading with big sis.

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Saturday

After we finished getting the house ready for all of our guest to arrive it was time for pumpkin carving and pumpkin painting. Of course the pumpkin carving contest went to Jason, do you recognize this picture?

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Saturday evening we went to mass and the Wilkes’ treated us to a wonderful dinner at Madden’s, thank you! The food was delicious, as always.

Sunday

Sunday morning Blythe débuted her new jammies (courtesy of Ladi) and just happened to match Mamo. Ladi got some big early morning grins from Jericho. Is there anything homier than everyone in their jammies?

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Festivity #1: Jericho’s Baptism

On Sunday at 1pm Jericho was joined by parents, sibling, grandparents, great grandparents, and god parents for her baptism.

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Some might claim that Jericho's cake was not very appropriate for the occasion, but come on she was baptized on Halloween so I went with a spooky cake. Of course it didn't quite all work out like the directions said it would, but Ladi has some extra patience and helped my spider web peel off the parchment paper.

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Festivity #2: Trick-or-Treating

Remember how Blythe was having a hard time deciding what she wanted to be? Well the ballerina part stuck, but this time we added a leopard head.

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It only took Blythe about 3 doors to figure out this trick-or treating business. She would walk right up to the door, knock, and if they answered she would say "Trick-or-Treat" and if they didn't answer she would say "no one home, time to go to another house." She got enough candy that she was having a hard time holding her trick-or-treat bag (otherwise known as a pillowcase).

Great Grandma Behrens made the girls some tutu's which are TUTU cute!

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