January Phone Pics

Eek!  I thought this posted 10 days ago!  Not sure why it got hung up in my drafts folder...

I'm thinking I might do one big "Phone Pics" post for each month in 2015.  And since we're already a week into February, I better get on the January one!

2015 started off with goopy, crusty eyes for my baby girl.

It was a Saturday morning and I quickly called our doctor's office and got her an appointment at 9am.  Matt took her while I stayed home with Thomas and waited for his phone call...ear infections or pink eye?  Those were my thoughts.  I was not expecting FLU!  Yes, she got a flu shot.  This was the strand not included in the shot and she had a full-blown case of it.  They came home with Tamiflu and we settled in for the weekend.  She ran a pretty high fever for about 48 hours straight - this was the sickest she's ever been!

Putting on a brave face to go to the doctor.  And wearing her "tie" shoes - the only ones she has with laces!

This is when I knew she really didn't feel well - she never lays still on the couch!

Back home from the doctor and already feeling worn out.  She spent most of the day on the couch.

Good thing for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to keep her occupied.

We tried hard to keep Thomas away from Katie Wynn so he wouldn't get it too.  Matt took him to church Sunday morning so they could get out of the house and get some fresh air.  While they were away, Katie Wynn managed to get up and play in my bathroom/closet for a little bit while I got cleaned up.  She was taking care of Elmo and Bitty Baby who apparently had a case of the flu too!

Thankfully, she only had to miss one day of school before she was back in her normal routine.  And that day was more of a precaution than anything.  She loved getting to play at her Mimi's house though!

Though the first weekend of 2015 was a little rocky, the rest of it was pretty good!  Thomas had his first restaurant high chair experience and actually behaved really well.

He also started really crawling and sometimes, after crawling for a few minutes, would just need to splay out and rest a little.

I told Katie Wynn that night that she could pick A book to read to Thomas.  She picked out a STACK of books.  That girl...she can't pick just one of anything!

More resting periods for Thomas...

Now that Thomas can sit up and move around, I keep catching the two of them playing together.  I think Katie Wynn likes having him around.  :)

Almost every toy they're playing with in the photos above technically belongs to Thomas.  Katie Wynn likes to claim them as her own.  Like this caterpillar tunnel below - she calls it HER "patter-pillar" even though it was his Christmas present.  Anytime she fusses about him touching the toy she's playing with and I remind her that it's actually his toy, she replies with "Thomas sharing."  She's all about sharing when it's him sharing with her...

With Thomas sitting up really well, we've also been able to have some fun kitchen sink baths.  

Thomas has discovered Lolli's food and water bowls.  It was only a matter of time.  Now we have to keep picking them up and poor Lolli has to remind us to put them back down!

One Saturday morning after prying Thomas's hands open to empty out all the dog food and dropping them everywhere, Katie Wynn told me that she would "keen it up."  I went back a few minutes later to check on her and found that she had completely emptied the bowl of food so that she could pick up every single piece and put it back in.  Sigh...

Speaking of Lolli, she got to ride home in Katie Wynn's lap one night.  All I heard from the back seat was, "Thit 'till Holly!" "I hold you Holly!" "Holly heavy!"  [Somewhat related: she can say Lollipop the correct way but still calls Lolli "Holly."]

After bath one night, I found the kids like this.  I asked Katie Wynn what she was doing on the boxes and she said she was on her potty (her diaper is still on).  I'm glad she likes to pretend to do that because she doesn't seem to have interest in doing it in real life...

Katie Wynn has become obsessed with having a "big ponytail."

One night I gave her one and she gave me one (with help) and then she squealed in excitement, "Now we bofe have big ponytails!"

Toy switcheroo!  Him on hers and her in his.

Here are a few more random pics...

Taking a bath in Mama's big bathtub!

Wearing Mama's hideous blue tennis shoes!

She always climbs up on a stool so she can help Mimi cook.

I don't know what I was thinking with this loud outfit!

I tried to catch Thomas in crawling action one night but Lolli kept photobombing him.

My dad has the only family birthday in january and instead of cake, we pigged out on chocolate fondue!  That's always pretty eventful with 13+ sets of hands trying to dip their fruit/cookie/cake in!

We had Anna and Wyatt the next weekend and had fondue with them too.  It might be my favorite dessert...I think I could eat it every night.  And the fruit makes it healthy, right?

Sadly, that's where my January phone pics end!  I have to save the next ones for February's recap post.  :)

Thomas: Eight Months Old

Am I the only one in disbelief that Thomas is already eight months old?  When did that happen?!  It's amazing how fast time seems to be flying and how quickly he's growing into a busy little boy.  A VERY busy little boy.  This past month was his biggest one by far in terms of milestones.  He was already sitting up but he's no longer wobbly and now he's crawling across the floor at lightening speed.  He pulls up on anything he can get his hands on - tables, chairs, my legs, his daddy's legs, he even uses Lolli to give him a little boost up!  This past week, he has also started walking behind objects as he pushes them across the floor.  I have a feeling he will be walking even earlier than his big sister did!

Wanna see his comparison photos from the last four months?  (His first four months' worth of photos can be found here.)  I haven't edited any of these yet but will touch them up a little bit before putting them on display at his first birthday.  The first set are the traditional monthly pictures in the same chair with a chalkboard sign indicating how many months old he is.  I have to take these fast before he wipes off all the chalk writing!

Next set are of Thomas and Katie Wynn both in one of our living room chairs.  Are these easy to get?  Absolutely not.  That girl does not like to sit still for pictures!  If you click on the photo for month seven (the one where they both have on striped polo outfits) and make it bigger, you can see a big fat tear rolling down Thomas's cheek.  I can't remember why he was crying but I'm sure it was from something his big sister did.  The last photo - eight months - was fun.  Their daddy had them both giggling for my camera.  I love how Thomas is so laid back. :)

The third and final set of monthly photos are themed for each month.  For month five - November - we played football!  I love those sweet blue eyes shining in the light.  

I always have the hardest time narrowing these down from the handful of photos I quickly take.  That's why you're getting some bonus pics with these.  :)

Nothing says December like Christmas lights, right?  Katie Wynn loved helping me wrap these around Thomas and he loved playing with them.  

Speaking of Katie Wynn, here's one of her wrapped up in Christmas lights too!  She was only three months old when I took hers (Thomas is 6.5 months above) so she looks a lot younger than him. 

I really struggled with an idea for January.  I had every intention of getting a New Year's hat for him to wear, but it just didn't happen.  I nearly let the month pass us up before snapping a photo.  Since we don't actually get snow around here very often, I just bundled him up so we could pretend.  (It might've been a little cold to sit topless in the snow anyway...)  I think my favorite picture is the one where he's biting his lower lip.  

February is the month of love and love means kisses.  With ruby red lipstick!  I put my lips all over my sweet pea for these photos.  And if you look closely in the first picture you can see another one of his milestones from this past month - two new teeth!

Katie Wynn got kisses too during her first year.  It's funny to me how she definitely looks like a girl and he looks like a boy.

Here are some quick stats on Thomas at eight months old.

• He weighs 18.12 pounds and wears 6-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers.
• His eyes are still blue and his hair still looks strawberry blond-ish.  
• Our boy loves to eat!  He eats solid baby food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and still drinks around 24 ounces of formula each day.  The only food we've found that he just really dislikes is green peas (can you blame him??).  We've given him puffs to try to eat but they mostly get thrown down to Lolli.  He loves playing with them though.
• While he is still not the awesome sleeper that Katie Wynn was/is, he's getting much better.  On good nights, he sleeps from around 7:30pm to 5:30am with 2-3 naps during the day.  We have experienced every sleep regression I read about but didn't have with Katie Wynn.  
• He does not have an inside voice.  When he jabbers, he wants everyone to hear him!
• Little Brother ADORES his Big Sister.  He loves to watch her no matter what she's doing.  She makes him laugh so much.  I hope they are always best buddies!

Katie Wynn's Kitchen

So last year, Katie Wynn got the cutest little shopping cart for Christmas and with it came lots of food that she could fill it up with.  Shortly after Christmas, my Dad and I built a tiny pantry for her to store all her groceries in so that they wouldn't be scattered all over my kitchen.  When I found the plans for the pantry (here, from Ana-White.com), I saw that it had a coordinating kitchen set to go with it (here).  I immediately told Dad that Katie Wynn would be getting the rest of the kitchen from Santa Claus the following year so we should do it when we had free time and not wait til the last minute.

Fast forward 11 months and I emailed him a link to the plans just before I left for Palm Springs.  "We should probably build this soon..."  I told him.  

Well.  Have I ever told you how awesome my Dad is?  I was just going to make K-dub the stove to go with her pantry and maybe save the sink for a later occasion.  And I had no idea when I was planning on doing it with Christmas just three short weeks away.  But while we were living it up on vacation, my Dad built BOTH the sink and the stove for me (er, Katie Wynn).  Isn't he amazing?!  I had no idea he was doing it either.  When we got home from Cali, he told me to come over and see what he had built.  Such a weight lifted off my shoulders!  

It's funny, before having kids, I would've been really sad if he had worked on a shop project without me.  This time I was just so glad I didn't have to figure out when I was going to get it done!

I'd like to say that after he built it I took over and finished it up, but the truth is, this Santa gift would not have been possible if it weren't for him and my Mom.  I think the only thing I did was prime and paint it white.  Dad even did a touch-up coat of paint after that.  Then he attached the oven door and all the cute little accessories.  Mom shopped for hardware for me and sewed the tiny curtain.  All I did was pop my head in occasionally to see how things were going.  They are the best!  

We moved it to our house the day after Christmas.  (Santa brought it to Katie Wynn at my parents' house.)  One day, when I trust my kiddos to go up and down the stairs by themselves without getting hurt, the play kitchen will move to our bonus room.  But for now, we officially have a kitchen in our kitchen.  It's actually great because Katie Wynn cooks while we do!  (By "we" you know I mean "Matt.")

We had to do a little furniture shifting to have it all fit in one spot together, so I had to move some art around on the walls too.  This big cake painting was done by my sister-in-law, Beth, and used to hang in our dining room.  I LOVE it on the brown wall though and love that it goes so well with the color of the sink skirt.  Hooray for coincidental matching!

One of Katie Wynn's favorite things about her kitchen is the dish rag that has her name on it.  Go figure - that was a last minute addition that I whipped up on the morning of Christmas Eve!  She loves telling everyone that it has her name on it and using it to "dry" her hands after "washing" them in the sink.

My mom and Aunt Kim were superstars when it came to shopping for hardware.  I really wanted a cute little faucet for the sink but did NOT want to spend a lot of money on it.  They found this perfectly sized silver one from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for just six bucks!  And they bought the towel holder for one dollar!  I was amazed.  The sink basin was my Dad's idea (I think) and makes me so happy...it was the water bowl that their dog, Taylor, used.  She was such a good dog; I'm glad that something of hers is living on in the kitchen!  

For the stove top, Mom and Aunt Kim picked up some thin wooden circles from Michael's that I painted black.  We had four of them to use but only two fit on top; I think that works just fine!  I wanted to add a little kitchen timer up here too but could only find ones that had really long times - like an hour - on them.  I don't think KW can wait that long for the ding! to go off.  What I really need is the timer from a board game or something.  If I ever come across one, I'll add it on here somehow.

The little oven door has a plexiglass window so we can see what she's baking inside.  She loves getting to open it up and put things in it.  She knows to turn the knobs to turn the oven on to bake.

It looks like on this particular day, she had a tray of cookies and a pan of cupcakes baking.  That's my kind of oven!  She'd tell you that red pot is full of soup.

The pantry and shelves under the sink are great for storing all of her other foods.  Under the sink she has fruits, meats, and cake that she can "cut" with her play knives.  I, of course, love that there's a curtain to keep it all concealed when she's not playing with it (which is not very often).

Speaking of playing with the kitchen, here are some recent phone pics of Katie Wynn playing with her kitchen and accessories.  She spends time playing here every single day!

The pan of cupcakes is pretty awesome because it's also a shape sorter.  She has to match the shape of the top up with the right shape on the bottom.  She's getting so good at it!  The cupcakes are also helping her learn her colors...orange is still her favorite.

Sometimes we bake cookies in bed and then she runs the cookie sheet into the kitchen to put in the oven and bake while we get ready for the day.  These are fun too because they velcro together into a roll so that they slice like Slice-N-Bake cookies.  She likes decorating the ones that have sprinkles.

When Big Sister isn't looking, Thomas likes to play with the kitchen too.  Notice he went straight for the steaks!

I'd say that Santa Clause (ahem...Poppy and Mimi) did a really good job with his gift this year.  It has already gotten so much use and I hope that she continues to play with it for a while.  Her daddy hopes this will spark an interest in cooking for Katie Wynn and that she might enjoy it more than her mama does.  I hope so too so that she can cook for me on nights that he's not here.  :)

Friends on a Farm

Hey, long-time readers - remember back in 2010 when Matt and I visited a farm and had so much fun that I wrote EIGHT blog posts about it?  Well, this past weekend, we finally got to go back!  

We have been trying to plan an adults-only weekend with some of our friends for a while and finally picked a date and lined up childcare for the long MLK weekend.  After our initial plans fell through, and then our backup plans fell through too, my friend Allison suggested we just visit her folks' farm for the weekend.  A brilliant idea!  

Don't worry, I plan to wrap up the whole weekend in this one post instead of splitting it into eight.  :)

At the last minute, one couple had to back out of the weekend so we ended up with just four couples going.  It was about a 5-6 hour drive and, since most of us didn't get on the road until after lunch, we didn't arrive until dinner time Friday evening.  Chris and Allison had already been there for a few days and had grocery shopped for the weekend.  A delicious dinner of grilled chicken, roasted vegetables, and fancy rice was already prepared for us!  I didn't have my camera unpacked yet so the only pics I got that night were from my phone.  After eating the main course, we celebrated Darrin's new American citizenship (that he'd gotten just that morning!) with an AmeriCanadian cake.

After hearing about the questions he had to answer and the oath he had to take, Darrin just might be more American than the rest of us now.  I would've failed for sure.

Matt and I camped out in the same upstairs apartment that we stayed in last time.  You can see lots of pics of it and the rest of the farm in this post.  "Camped out" makes it sound like we may have been roughing it.  I assure you we were not.

Saturday morning started early for Matt, Chris, and Sarah as they headed out for a run.  They ran 5.5 miles on hilly gravel roads.  They can only be described as crazy.  I sat inside and stayed warm and cozy.  When they returned, Allison had baked oatmeal and bacon cooking.  (This is a recurring theme from the weekend - we played and lazed around and then Allison fed us delicious food.)  I'm still thinking about that bacon...it was so delicious!

After getting dressed, the boys headed out to a field to shoot skeet and us girls went to the barn to visit the alpacas and llamas.  At the farm, there are 8 female alpacas and 4 boys, and two llamas.  The llamas are the protector animals.  If a coyote or something tried to sneak in and attack the alpacas, the llamas would stomp all over them!  

LLAMA

ALPACA

The llamas are my favorite.  They love to nuzzle up close to you and put their nose on your cheek for some kisses.

We hung out with the female alpacas.  Because alpacas live for so long, Jack and Jan (Allison's folks and the farm owners) don't want anymore babies so there's no mingling between the two genders.  

I guess it gets lonely though.  We got to witness a little girl-on-girl alpaca action.  

Pretty friends just hanging out in an alpaca pasture.  

After awhile, we hopped in the farm truck and met up with the guys down by the water.  The War Eagle Creek runs through the property and there are several flat spots where you can walk down and fish.  Or, in our case that morning, just take pictures.  Even with boots, boot warmers, and a pair of socks on, I could still tell that water was COLD!

Allison, Sarah, Jenny, Me

Chris, Charlie, Darrin, Matt

Here are two comparison pics of me and Matt.  The one on the left is from our first trip in 2010, and the one on the right is from last weekend.  Do we look older and wiser now?  Or just heavier and more sleep deprived? 

We left the water to go back to where the boys had been shooting skeet.  Jack has what they call the "War Wagon" for skeet-shooting.  It's a big trailer that's fenced in and has cushioned benches for sitting when not shooting.  

The guys were kind (and patient) enough to show us girls how to hold the shotgun so we could all take a turn.  This was my first time ever doing something like this and it was a little harder than I thought!  I wasn't expected for such a kickback from the gun.  I think hitting just one clay is the only thing that could've made the weekend better.  I tried three times and missed every one!  I think I could've gotten it though with just a few more tries.

Action shot!  See her shell casing flying?!

Check out the smoke from that barrel!

Another shell flying!

Allison's hair is flying from the kickback!

Shell flying!  My timing was spot on!

Chris was the only one to hit his clay while us girls were out there.  He hit four in a row and then I climbed up in the wagon to push the trigger and messed him up.  Turns out I am not a skeet-shooting lucky charm.

Clays and beer.

We rigged up my camera with the timer for a group picture on the War Wagon.  Maybe I should frame this for Jack - I think this was the inaugural run for the wagon!

Did you ever ride in the back of a truck when you were little?  I feel like I did all the time, but I can't really remember why other than I wanted to.  Even on city streets.  Sometimes with my legs dangiling off the back.  We talked about how we all did that but our kids will probably never get to what with all the carseat and seatbelt regulations these days.  

Boys and their toys!  This ranger lives at the farm and is very handy for getting around the 300+ acres.

While Allison warmed up lunch (tacos and nachos!), a few of us stopped back by the barn to give the alpacas and llamas a snack.

Sometimes the alpacas get a little mad at each other and do some spitting.  Poor Darrin ended up in the middle of one of the crossfires and got a little spit on him  !He was a much better sport about it than I might've been; he just kept on feeding them.  

My camera and I went inside while the others went to visit the chickens.  They collected four pretty eggs that we had for breakfast the next morning.  

Is there anything better than boys in the kitchen cooking?  I don't think so.

After lunch, we grabbed some chairs and went down to a different part of the river to do some fishing.  Sadly, the fish weren't biting but we still had fun trying.  Matt and Chris built a fire since it was starting to get a little bit cooler.

My fisherman!  We were hopeful that he would be the one to reel in a fish, but alas, there wasn't even a nibble on his line.  

I think Sarah may have had enough with the three of us.  Or maybe she was about to sneeze?

This is much better!  Sure do love these girls.

Just when we got the fire really going, it was time to put it out.  We made sure every little piece of wood was soaked before leaving...no forest fires from us!

The boys piled into the truck and went to put the War Wagon back in the barn.  Us girls took the ranger and went to explore the cave on the property.  

At first glance, the cave my not look very big, but it has small tunnels in the corners that you could crawl through.  Jack and Jan had a spelunker come out and go through them and apparently they run the length of the whole crest above the cave.  You could not pay me enough money to go in one of those tunnels!  Sarah was the climber in the group and checked them out for us.  (I did climb up there on my first visit, though.)  

After leaving the cave, we went on a mission to find the cows.  Jenny was the designated gate opener every time we came up on one.  

We were just driving down the road when we came up on a bunch of white tailed deer!  I could barely grab my camera fast enough.  They ran across the road right in front of us and several of their friends were still hiding in the woods.  So cool!

We passed the boys on our way to find the cows and had our picture taken.  

Finally, just past the house, we found the guys (actually, gals) we were looking for.  

We continued on to go see where the cows are weighed and the original well.  The cows didn't want us to go!  They ran after us for a little while.  

They evenutally stopped following us as we went on our way.  But we had to turn around and go back the same we came and...they were waiting for us.  A herd of big, black cows is not exactly what you want to see blocking your road!

Oh hey there, 140C.  Don't mind us, just passing through.  

As we approached the house, we could see that the boys were sitting outside enjoying a fire.  

For dinner that night, we had a great meal of steaks, baked potatoes, and salad.  The guys grilled the steaks outside and they were delicious! 

Matt made bananas foster for dessert and it was great, but would've been even better if we hadn't let our ice cream melt into a bowl of soup.  Oopsie.  

I didn't take any more pictures that night, but we had a fun evening of playing pool, watching sports, and working on the world's hardest puzzle.  

We reconvened the next morning for our last meal of the weekend together.  Allison made eggs and sausage and biscuits to go with the fruit and leftover baked oatmeal.  Once again, we stuffed ourselves silly.

We couldn't say goodbye and go our separate ways without one last group picture!

And since we were already in position and already had the timer and tripod set up, we took a few fun shots.  My camera was set up with a ten second timer to allow me to get into place, and then it would take four pictures in a row.  The pictures were quick, like 1-2-3-4, not like 1, pause, 2, pause, etc.  And the only way you could count them was to listen to the shutter since we weren't using the flash.  The instructions given for this first set of four was regular smiles for the first three, and then opened mouth smile on the last.  Click the picture below to see all four images in a row.

The last set was open mouth smiles for the first three and then a serious face for the last one.  Darrin and I failed miserably on the serious face!

And with that, we loaded up our cars and headed home.  Such a fun weekend!  Thank you to Jack and Jan for letting us stay on their awesome property, and to Chris and Allison for hosting us there!

We bought a couch.

I don't think I've ever formally introduced our master bedroom here on the blog.  That's mostly because I've never felt like it was finished.  And it still isn't.  Far from it, actually.  So I'm still not introducing it today but you will get to see a big ol' glimpse of it.

Our master is HUGE.  We had a big master in our old house so I didn't think we'd ever find another house with one as big, but low and behold we did.  This one is even bigger.  When we had the carpets shampooed this past summer, they charged us the price for two rooms for our master.  

It kinda is two rooms, really.  We have the half where we sleep - it has our bed and nightstands and dresser.  And also my wrapping armoir.  Then the other half is where we live.  It's where we watch tv at night after the kids have gone to bed and when they're awake, it's where we spend lots of time on the floor playing.  The two areas are divided by a partial wall and a big arched opening.

Up until about two (or three?) months ago, this is how it looked since we moved in.  

See why I've never given you a tour of this space?  Those chairs look so pitiful!  But, they are both the most comfortable chair ever.  I know, it's impossible for them both to earn that title, but they do.  They're comfortable in different ways.  The one on the left is soft and fluffy and you just sink right into it.  The one on the right reclines so far backwards that you could sleep all night in it.  And they were both bargains!  The white one was given to us (for free!) by some friends and the brownish one was purchased for a whopping 40 bucks.  I've had it recovered twice since it's former white pleather days.  (Yes, I'm aware those arm covers are hideous.)

So if they are both simultaneously the most comfortable chair ever, then why get rid of them?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  First off - check out that ill-fitting slipcover on the white chair.  Don't ever listen to any blogger that tells you an Ikea slipcover will fit on a Pottery Barn basic chair.  As you can clearly see, this is a lie.  (And what you can't see is that the slipcover is completely cut all the way up the back!)  But at just $30 for the slipcover, it was worth a try.  Lesson learned.  I have a big pile of swatches of fabric that I can purchase a Pottery Barn cover for this chair in, but the prices start in the $400 range.  I could get a whole new chair for that!  Secondly, my husband didn't like that we were always in our own separate chairs.  Call him a sap, but on movie nights, he wanted to be able to cuddle up on a couch.  Can't say I blame him - it'd be a heck of a lot easier for him to rub my feet if we were closer together! ;)

We initially shopped for a love seat to replace just one of the chairs with, but we never found what we wanted.  We eventually just bought a full-sized couch and I'm so glad we did.  It has a chaise too and that's something I've always wanted!  After having it for a few months, I'm surprised we ever survived without it.  There's plenty of room for all four (five plus Lolli) of us to pile on while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on a Sunday afternoon.

No, it's not the fanciest couch in the world and that photo above would never show up on a design blogger's page.  But it's big and comfy and easy to clean and that's exactly what we need at this stage in our life.  It's got to be able to withstand a dog and two small, sticky kids.  Plus the drool from when I nap.  :)  

Those pillows are sad and pathetic looking but their days are numbered.  I'm currently shopping for new bedding and fabric to finally spruce up our bedroom like it deserves.  Maybe this will be the year to formally introduce it on the blog.

One of my favorite Christmas gifts was that cute little sofa table.  We had the couch for less than a week before I decided I had to have something.  My spot is in the corner with the chaise and I never had anywhere to put my drink or empty ice cream bowl.

It's wood and metal combined and came from Ballard Designs and is just the most darling little table ever.  I heart it.  It's the perfect size to hold my drink and phone and whatever I'm reading at the time.

Just for fun (seriously, no judgement please!) here's a full view of that side of the room.  It's like a daycare up in here.  I dream of the day when colorful toys won't line the walls of my bedroom, but if having the toys means my kids will stay little forever, then I'll keep 'em!

So that's our three-months-ago update.  I feel like this couch and I have been friends for much longer than that.  We've done some pretty serious Sunday afternoon bonding.

Anyone looking for a new chair?  I've got a couple just hanging out in our playroom.  Wanna play Let's Make A Deal?