The One Where We Host Our First Thanksgiving

There are more photos here than just Thanksgiving, specifically a couple from the day before and a couple from the day after (and then a few from a few days later), but I'm behind in my blogging (as usual), so I'll just put them all here. :)

We had a wonnnnnnderful Thanksgiving, and it was SO awesome to host in our new home that we are in love with! Brad did his first turkey, and it was a great success!

Here are some photos that I was able to snap here and there in between making and then eating the yummy food! :)

Pre-turkey pic :) My Loves!


Our fancy table! ;) :)


Well, what can I say about this photo? ;) It's Kim. :) Love you!


Brad's first turkey! YUM!


The kiddos playing with Oma in the new playroom


Mollie was obsessed with graham crackers!


LOOOOOOVE these of Gram and Zane!






Josh & Mr. Gavin


MMMMMMmmmmm.....


More MMMMMMmmmm.....


The FAM!


The FAM from the other direction :)


Sweet Zane


Day after Thanksgiving . . . attempting to decorate the tree (of course, we had lots of issues with burned-out lights that thwarted our plans)


Too cute! She is not sleeping, she's "reading" to herself. ;)


So, Monday I planned on taking pictures of the girls all day long and doing a big post . . . here's Nat right after she woke up.


Then helping me make breakfast while Mollie snoozes


Mollie wakes up . . . not too happy :(


And they stop there because Mollie was insanely fussy, we ended up going to the doctor, finding out she has a persistent double ear infection - #7 - (meaning she never got rid of the one she had 10 days ago), so we now have an appointment to see the ENT for her, and most probably she'll be getting tubes SOON. *Sigh* Hoping it's a GOOD thing!

Christmas Cards!

So, as you know, I love photography and displaying beautiful photos, especially of my sweet family! Since getting such cute holiday photos done by Jane Photography, I've been dreaming of super cute Christmas Cards to send out. I am finally going to order some 5x7 matte paper ones from Shutterfly this year instead of the photo-paper kind. That's what I want to do every year, but something always gets in the way. I've always had great service from Shutterfly in the past when I actually had enough free time to put together photobooks of Natalie's first year, so I'm excited to order and receive our holiday cards from them! I'm a huge dork and love addressing envelopes and getting cards ready to be mailed, so I'll even enjoy that process! :)

So you'll have to wait until you get one in the mail to see what I actually chose, but these are a few of my favorite styles . . . Merry Blossoms, Pretty Poinsettia Print, and Berry Cascade.

I think my favorite type of card they have this year are their "Story Cards" like this Most Wonderful Story one. How cool is that?

I think I'm actually going to splurge on some custom address labels this year too. We'll see! :)

Exciting options! Hopefully the girlies will go to bed at a decent time tonight and I can get started designing our 2010 card! :)

If you have your own blog, you could even get some free holiday cards from Shutterfly this year! Check out this awesome deal - Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Mama Mollie ;)

Here are some photos to go with my Mollie update below. :)

A LONG Overdue MG Update

I feel terrible that I haven't really updated much about either of my girls, but especially Mollie lately! I keep meaning to, and I keep thinking that she's going to grow up thinking that we didn't care about her as much as Natalie because every line in Natalie's baby book is painstakingly filled out (accurately!) and honestly, I don't think I've even filled in the day that Mollie cut ANY teeth - and she's got at least 12. *sigh* But I hope that someday I can truly convey to her that the reason I wasn't able to be so thorough in recording every detail about her (or Natalie, after Mollie was born) is that there is simply no time leftover - and it's not ONLY because I'm a harried working mama of two (although I am at times), but it's also because I like to spend time ENJOYING them. That doesn't give much free time to write down how much I enjoy them, but trust me: IDO!

Currently, I am absolutely LOVING Mollie's little language explosion. It seems like overnight she went from only saying "Dada" and "Uh oh" with the occasional "Nan-ye" (Natalie) thrown in (yes, you read that right - she did NOT say "Mama") - and now she's saying all of those things, PLUS Mama (still not often) as well as "A-see" (Casey, who she has a HUGE obsession with) "Baby" (Another HUGE obsession), and all kinds of other words here and there. It's honestly like she has a whole vocabulary now overnight!

If that weren't enough, the child obviously understands pretty much everything we say and do, which is obviously great, but it's also really funny. Yesterday, when I was getting Natalie ready to head out the door for dance, Mollie grabbed her jacket and went on the hunt for her own shoes. She was upset when we left (sorry, I am just not mentally stable enough to handle Mollie in a teeeeny tiny dance studio for 45 minutes), but luckily, she and Brad went out to get some dinner for themselves, so she got to go somewhere too. I have no clue why, but close to bedtime the same evening, she brought me her jacket and shoes - oh yeah, she says "SHUSS!" - so I put them on her, just for kicks. What I didn't realize was that I inadvertently played into her idea by going out to the garage to get something I left in the car. She totally thought we were leaving together - and when I realized what she was thinking and brought her back in, she threw a FIT. I'm talking laying on her side on the floor, scissor-kicking her legs, yelling, FIT. She's officially a toddler now, folks. The fits have arrived.

MG is so different from Natalie, but they have at least one thing in common: their stubbornness. What a thing to share, right? Mollie has been obsessing over standing in the kitchen chairs lately, and also getting into basically anything and everything she shouldn't. We give her quite a few warnings, but we've had to resort to attempting Time Outs. She gets really mad, and definitely isn't as obliging about them as Natalie was when we first started - Nat would sit on the TO stool, get bored, and take all of her clothes off. Mollie just cries and tries to run away.

On a really sweet and fun note, Mollie is really enjoying her baby dolls. It's so much fun to watch her comfort them, sing to them, feed them, and her favorite - put them to bed, which entails totally covering them with anything that resembles a small blanket. We find babies all over the house, just laying in the middle of the floor covered by blankets and we just smile. I finally figured out what to get her for Christmas - a super cute doll stroller, pack'n'play, bouncy seat, and diaper bag! I'm soooo excited to see her reaction to all her new little mommy stuff! But SHHHH - don't tell Mollie (or Natalie!) that's what's she's getting! Of course, I knew a riot would ensue if Natalie didn't have a doll stroller too, so I got them matching ones - Natalie's not getting all the other stuff, though, she's getting her first scooter and helmet! :) (AGAIN: BIG SECRET!) :)

I took a bunch of pictures of Mollie playing with her baby the other day, and I'll post them soon!

Marble Time!

Parenting a three-year-old is proving to be life's toughest challenge. We have had some seriously rough mornings lately, and I felt like I'd reached the end of my rope. I turned to some good mommy friends who had an awesome idea - along with getting things ready the night before and few tricks for a more pleasant hair-brushing experience - a reward system, specifically a marble jar!

So the idea is that Natalie will get a set # of marbles in her jar for specific things she does that are positive. We will not ever take marbles out for punishment - this is strictly for rewarding good behavior. I had fun making up a cute poster to show how many marbles she gets for different things - like being a good listener, using a pleasant voice (aka NOT WHINING), being respectful of others (sharing with Mollie, saying please/thank you, etc), staying in bed until her OK to Wake! clock light turns green at naps and in the morning, picking up toys, and the biggie - getting dressed and ready with no tears or fits! Once her marbles reach a certain point in the jar, she gets a "Marble Party," which isn't necessarily a party, but just a prize that she gets to have a lot of say in choosing.

The marble thing has gone swimmingly, to our delight! My friends suggested to make the first marble party happen fairly quickly, and then move the line up little by little. Knowing what the prize really means goes a long way toward motivation. So after about 3 days, Natalie reached Party status. I guess I should have just called it a "Marble Prize" though, because to Natalie, Party = cake. Well, that's not so bad, but whereas we'd envisioned a Marble Prize being a trip for ice cream, picking dinner that night, having a movie night, picking out a small toy at the store, or something of that nature, Natalie chose to bake a cake with Mommy - specifically an Apple Cake - that takes a lot of effort and that we JUST made last week (I'm sure that's why - it was fresh in her mind). So I was flattered that cooking with Mommy = prize in her mind, so we make a run to the store for more apples. It's kind of important that the prize happen fairly quickly, so I told her we'd make the cake yesterday - after dance and after dinner. Which means that we were peeling apples at 7:45 last night. ;) I'd already told her that the cake wouldn't be in the oven by the time she needed to be in bed, so she could help until bedtime (cutting and snacking on the apples is really the part she likes anyway), and then I'd finish the cake after she went to bed and we could have cake after dinner tonight.

A few steps into the cake, I realized we didn't have enough eggs. So Super Daddy went out to get eggs at 8:00 pm, and I got the girls to bed. I was up until 9:00 making a cake (BY MYSELF!) that takes at LEAST 1.5 hrs to bake. And I wonder where the Marble Party Fairy is that's going to clean up the mess from said cake? But Nat's excitement over her pretty cake this morning was worth it. I just hope that Brad's not right that she's going to want to do this for EVERY marble prize. I think we'll encourage something a little different next time, but it may include snacking on some apples. ;)

Here's the recipe for the cake - Mom's Apple Cake from the Smitten Kitchen blog (love her recipes!): http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/moms-apple-cake/ I don't know what happened the first time I made it, but it took over 2 hours to cook, it spilled up over the top, made a huge mess in the bottom of my oven, charred a bunch of the apples on top, and was rather dry. This time, the only real difference was that I sifted the flour (like it says) and I tried not to mix very long at all after each egg. It turned out perfectly (in the same exact pan) after only 1.5 hours. It looks amazingly moist, and I'm pretty excited to sample it myself. Oh, and our house smells WONDERFUL!