1/29/11

The promised video's

Jericho's latest trick



We finally got Blythe to sing for the video camera

1/26/11

10 inches lighter

I like change, variety, trying new things, and my hair is no exception to this desire to experience change. If you have known me very long you know that I tend to grow my hair out and then cut it off and repeat the process. The last time I cut it I found a purpose for my hair. I sent it to locks of love. It has been over 2 years since that last donation and it is finally time to cut it again. I knew it was time because I am a pony tail girl 99.9% of the time, but lately wearing my hair in a pony tail for long periods of time resulted in a head ache. I would have liked about 2 more inches in length after the initial 10 inch cut off, and I contemplated being selfish and cutting it to where I thought my ideal length would be (only about 4 inches, a far cry from the minimum 10), but hey its hair and it will grow back and I like change, drastic change...right? I had Landon come over to the house and do the honors.

BEFORE:

Photobucket

Photobucket

The Measurement:

Photobucket

Landon: "Are you ready?"

Photobucket

Photobucket

AFTER:

Photobucket

The new length meets the requirement of still doing into a ponytail and its nice to be able to make my hair look presentable (sans ponytail) in about 5 minutes.

************************************************************************************
While some may suggestion cereal, bananas, avocado's for a baby's first food. Daddy suggests

Photobucket

*Notice the little bit of hair sticking straight up in the back...baby's getting hair!

Speaking of trying new things, I had a friend teach me how to knit on Sunday so that has been consuming my free time, but I have just about finished my knitting project so cute video's and more pictures in the next day or so.

1/20/11

I lept

I took the leap today, I let go, I took a chance, I forced myself to let go and be brave... Today we hired a babysitter and it was....GREEE-AT [insert the Kellogs tiger cartoon character from years ago "their GREEAT"]. To be fair we know her through Jason's cousin and she has hung out with us before, but this was the first time we left the girls with a 'babysitter.' I prepped Blythe all day telling her how Ms. Erin was going to come over and play with her while Mommy and Daddy went on date and she was going to help take care of Jericho. Blythe helped me make dinner for her and Erin (homemade macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets). I had Erin come over 30 minutes before we planned to leave so she could get acquainted and so I could see that all was well and not be fretting about it the entire date. After about 10 minutes Blythe was completely smitten with Erin and I could tell there would be no qualms with us leaving.

Jason's lab mate had told him about a $5 Bingo deal on Thursday nights so we decided to give it a shot. I had looked up the information online and it might as well have been written in a foreign language because I know NOTHING about Bingo and they used Bingo Lingo on the website. We decided we would walk in and ask some question and then decide whether or not we wanted to stay and play. We expected the crown to be outfitted with wheelchairs, walkers, lots of grey hair..basically lots of old people, but that was far from what we saw. When we first walked in it was pretty desolate except for a few people on the electronic machines who probably needed to check out the "do you know someone who has a gambling problem" icon on the website. The first thing we noticed was the smell of smoke, instant turn off. We almost turned around and walked out without even getting more information. Luckily we noticed a glass area, picture a rectangular fish tank, and we thought, oh maybe that is a non-smoking area. It's a good think we stuck around and asked our questions because for $5 we got to play 5 games each with 12 faces (this is the Bingo Lingo for Bingo cards) and 2 beers each!

When we first sat down they had a speed round going and when they say speed they mean speed, were talking calling the numbers as fast as humanly possible, I was getting nervous just listening to the caller. Jason and I decided we would make our lives a little easier by highlighting the squares we were going for. There was the double postage stamp, the straight line, the floating 6 pack, the T, and the cross. If you click on the link above you will see what I am talking about. They gave us a piece of paper with the different games and we thought the black squares were the only ones so that is what we highlighted on the different games. We were afraid they wouldn't be calling much slower than the speed round and we were nervous. Come to find out the black squares are just one of the possible combination and not the ONLY combination for that Bingo...hello waste of time highlighting and good luck remembering what all counts and seeing it, but we didn't figure this out till half way into the first game. We were sitting across from some regulars so they helped us out so we knew which games were being played when and what we were looking for. Jason thought we had more time before the first game was going to start so he went out to get his second beer and it started. I am pretty sure my heart was racing and my hands were shaking and the thought of having to maintain 24 faces. I quickly scanned mine and then Jason's furiously stamping all the numbers (they waited a good 15 seconds in between each number so it was not nearly as fast as the speed round). Jason returned after 2 numbers were called and I proudly told him that I had his all stamped up and ready to go and he looked very unimpressed as I stamped them regardless of whether they were the black squares as shown on the card. He said no we should only stamp them if they are in the correct location, so I obliged, and about 4 numbers after that we are informed that the double postage stamp can be in any of the four corners not just the two shown on the sheet. UGH there was no time to catch up and now I was really flustered as I didn't want to miss out on a possible Bingo. Shortly after this and still flustered I notice that one of my twelve bingo cards was only one away from a Bingo, and right about then Jason glances over and says "your pretty close on that one". The caller calls out 64, I look down, stamp my card, check it once more to make sure I am seeing it correctly, raise my hand and then yell out BINGO..Jason quickly looks at me and says no, no, I look back down and realize that I got ahead of myself I needed a 62 NOT a 64, so I quickly (all flustered and red faced) try to play it off and say "on ho, never mind." I'm pretty sure I heard a few "dumbass," "loser," etc. comments from behind, but hey I wasn't going to let that rain on my date night. So I got over excited, fumbled, looked like a fool, yelled out Bingo in the middle of a huge Bingo hall when I in fact had NO bingo and on the very next number 6 people legitimately called out Bingo..live and learn right? Neither Jason or I ended up legitimatly getting a Bingo and as much as I hoped someone else would be a fool and yell out a false Bingo I was the only one who walked away with that honor. I have to say for $5 that was a heck of a lot of fun and we will probably be seen in that Bingo hall again. Luckily I am about to cut 10 inches off my hair, that's another post for another day, but hopefully they won't remember me.

We came home to 2 happy babies, a happy babysitter, which made us very happy parents!

Jericho's New Trick

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

And when you walk into the room and see this, you just have to laugh

Photobucket

Photobucket

well laugh, take a picture or two, and then deal with the explosion.

Have a Great Weekend!

1/18/11

Dude, 3 words

Homemade Funnel Cake!

Photobucket

Why in the world did I decide to make funnel cake?

The other day when we were cooking up the homemade pasta I got a whiff of that carnival funnel cake. You know the one that you can smell from yards away and you somehow justify the over prices, over caloried, over fried goodness of a funnel cake, because after all you are at a carnival or perhaps the renaissance festival and its only once in a long while. I honestly can't remember the last time I had a funnel cake because I probably wasn't able to swallow down the 'over-priced' sugared goodness, but once that smell invaded my nostrils I lost control and headed to google. I figured it would be something really hard to make and I would probably need a deep fryer and other items that I didn't have, but to my surprise it was really easy to make and it tasted surprisingly similar to the carnival style. My craving was satisfied and we have a new funnel cake lover, Blythe.

1/17/11

Half-A-Year

How can it only have been half a year when Jericho, in such little time, has made such a mark on all of our hearts and filled us with so much joy? In six little months she has perfected the art of object to mouth, sitting up, and charming us with her big smiles. I feel so lucky to be mommy to Jericho and Blythe and I am forever grateful I get to call them mine.

Photobucket

Photobucket

1/16/11

A Cozy Weekend At Home

Outside of going to mass we spent the entire weekend just the four of us. As much as we love to travel and spend time with family and friends we sometimes forget how nice it can be to just .... be. Enjoy an impromptu game of trouble or building blocks for Jericho to knock over and send her into a fit of laughter. How much fun two sisters can have underneath the kitchen table.

Photobucket

And the smiles, all the smiles!

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Waking up on Saturday morning just mommy and baby while daddy and Blythe sleep in. Enjoying that rare one on one time and then deciding a boring cereal breakfast is not what this Saturday calls for, so Jericho and I head into the kitchen and decide on biscuits using our new nativity cookie cutters.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Vacuuming the rug countless times this weekend as Blythe enjoys crafting, particularly the cutting part. Our little artist in the making!

Photobucket

This evening I asked Blythe what she wanted for dinner and she said "pasta," so we went all out, completely home made, right down to the noodles. We needed 3.5 cups of all purpose flour, but we have been avoiding the grocery store like the plague, partly because its cold and partly because the game of 'how long can we make it without going to the grocery store' can be fun, so we ended up with a little AP, a little bread and a little wheat, and it was still edible. Jason and Blythe aren't too big into the veggies so I have been hiding them where I can and I have found that you can hide spinach in a lot of things and its quite tasteless. So yes those meatballs look green, but its NOT because the meat is bad.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
All good cooks do a taste test...right?

Photobucket

Photobucket

We wrapped up our evening with a little game of cowgirl where Blythe rides her horse and calls the cows "come on girls" and Jericho and I ride the bull around rounding them up.

Photobucket

Photobucket

We had a great weekend, hope you did too!

1/13/11

Half-A-Year Old

Jason has been eager to try solid foods on Jericho because he was counting on her being an eater, so much so that he had convinced me that she was going to tear into the 'solid' food unlike Blythe. I did my best to guarantee a successful first solid food attempt, make home made oatmeal cooked with breast milk instead of water. Unfortunately the one word used to describe the experience was not success.

Photobucket

Jericho was happy as pie to sit in the high chair and even gave Jason a great big smile as he approached her with the spoon, but that's where the smiled ended. He touched the spoon to her lips, she gave a quick short little lick and wrinkled her nose. Jason managed to get some of the oatmeal into her mouth, but he couldn't make it stay. She not only had the grimacing face, and the look of 'what the hell are you doing to me,' but she even had the gag down. I am taking this as a compliment that my breast milk is just so good my kids don't want anything else.

Photobucket

I recently started watching Baby James three days a week and he is a rock start when it comes to eating solids. I thought perhaps Jericho might give into the peer pressure so I tried bananas this morning and the reaction wasn't any better than the cereal. Although Jericho is always grabbing for our food and appears to be interested apparently that is where it stops. I guess its a game to her, how much food can I grab off that plate or how much food can I knock on the floor.

Photobucket

So far Blythe is enjoying the role as big sister x2, but the newness may soon wear off.

Photobucket

It is a rare treat at our house for Blythe to give a baby a bottle and she did a great job on our trial run with Jericho. Unfortunately when it came to the real deal Jericho was NOT interested in the bottle and when Mamo and Jalyn asked Blythe if they were doing something wrong Blythe responded very matter of fact "Jericho doesn't take a bottle."

Photobucket

Oh to have these eyelashes

Photobucket

As of 11:34am Jericho hit the half year mark. We are clearly having a lot of fun because time is zooming by us. I will have to postpone the 6 month photo shoot because Jericho's left nostril did not want to cooperate and if anyone knows how to wipe a baby's nose without sending their lungs to high gear and immediately wiping a smile off their face, give me a hollar. So yes I realize that my child has a snotty nose and yes I used to be one of those people who, when they saw a kid with a snotty nos,e quietly said to myself "I will never let my kids run around with boogers in their noses," and now I am eating those words because although the green slime that drips out like a leaky faucet from sun up to sun down is not the cutest thing in the world, it is something I can live with from time to time because if I spent all day wiping noses and using the nose sucker we might outdo all the barking dogs and win the noisiest house on the block award.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket



Blythe and I decided to go ahead and dive into the next holiday this afternoon so we got craftastic and created a little bit of love for our living room:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Just like with cooking, the one down side to being crafty is the clean-up; although, I think Jericho gets the prize for the ones who hates it the most. Luckily she has a big sister who is there to protect her from the big bad vacuum and she does her best to console her telling her "it's o.k. Jericho, your o.k. Jericho."

Photobucket

Photobucket

And when you are craving marshmallows by the campfire sometimes you have to settle with marshmallows by the toaster.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Sleep has been very scarce here lately with all the sniffles and coughs and what have you's so this sleep deprived mama is going to bed, with dreams of a full night of sleep, so she can wake-up and be ready for another day in paradise, even if the night is far from barefoot toes in the sand.

1/12/11

Sad Eyes

Oh the sad, droopy eyes. The eyes that are so sad you have to look away to prevent your own eyes from watering. Jason and I had yet to experience the sad, droopy, can hardly keep them open, yet can't close them eyes. I think these are the eyes that say "yes I am really sick, really feeling awful, and it is o.k. to wait on me hand and foot." These are the eyes that for the first time I can say Jason was completely wrapped around Blythe's finger in a 'that's my little girl' kinda way. Jason sat and rubbed her back, and watched movie after movie, and tried so hard to get a small chance at a smile by making Blythe favorite snack...popcorn. These says eyes are stubborn and really sucked the happy little toddler away from Blythe. She became the stuck on the couch despite really wanted to play toddler. She would stand up with all the energy that she had, start to walk towards something, and then turn her head back to the couch with a whimper that said it all 'I want to play, I want to smile, I want to laugh, but I can't.'

We have had a long December with sickness after sickness and it looks like January is trying to compete, but I have declared we are done, DONE with sickness. When Blythe woke up this morning I proclaimed that we were all better, no more whining, no more feeling bad, we were having friends over and we were sending all this sickness to the curb. It took about an hour for my attitude to rub off on Blythe, but we had a 10am play date and she played, and laughed, and talked, and we saw the really lively Blythe that was taken over by sad eyes for far too long.

Listen up colds, flu, ear infections, anything but a clean bill of health, we played your game, you made us miserable for an entire month, and were calling you out and sending you far, FAR away.

Here's to a really healthy 2011!