The PB and Js

School project night

2012-01-26T11:50:00.000-05:00

Last night from 6:30-7:30pm the K-3rd grade students presented their school projects. The projects all stemmed from a book report and the children put together presentations and posters to explain to each of the parents during the open house. Paige has been working on her project for the last few weeks and was very excited and nervous for last night. Her project was about snow.

It was interesting to walk around and listen to everyone explain and present what they had learned. It's a little loud in the background because there are other kids in the room also presenting as parents stop at their tables. Here's a video of Paige's presentation:

Fishy Face

2012-01-25T10:13:00.000-05:00

This morning I was saying goodbye to the girls when I dropped them off at school and was giving them hugs. Brooke looked at me and was puckering her lips so I asked if she wanted a kiss. She said "No, I just want to make fishy face".

Mornings

2012-01-20T09:34:00.001-05:00

I didn't get very far in updating with Elf pictures, did I? Things got a little hectic in December. I traveled to Boston for a week for work and then we did our annual Cincinnati/Pittsburgh travels for the holidays. We had a wonderful holiday and if I get some time, I'll backfill with a post of some holiday pictures.

This post is about our morning routine. I'll be honest, it's tough getting everyone up and dressed and out the door by 7:30am on weekdays. I hate waking up the girls any earlier than absolutely necessary. They already have a 7:30pm bedtime, so it's not like we can put them to bed any earlier so they can get up earlier. So we just have to be very efficient in the morning. We wake the girls up at 6:45am. We don't actually have to wake Brooke up. She has a sun in her room that turns yellow at 6:45am and so then she sneaks down the hallway and into our room and yells "Surprise" to wake us up. Luckily, we have our alarm set for about 30 seconds before she gets there so she doesn't scare us too much!

Brooke does pretty well with the morning schedule. She listens well and helps get ready when she can. Paige, on the other hand, has been a bit more difficult. Part of it is because she's tired, but also I don't think she likes being told what to do every step of the way. And, we also don't like having to tell her each and everything she needs to do every step of the way. There is frustration on both sides. So we came up with the idea of making a chart so that she could mark off each step and then know what to do next without us constantly having to remind her. It worked REALLY well this morning. We didn't raise our voices once, and she was so proud to be independent and get ready all on her own! Paige filled out the first column with magnets and then Brooke wanted to do it also, so she got the second column. Notice which activity Brooke didn't complete? That's another whole blog post!

Elf Days 4,5 & 6

2011-12-07T10:51:00.001-05:00

Cinnamon ornament, the elf couldn't resist:

Hanging in there (upside down on the kitchen ceiling):

Elf left a note from Santa for the girls:

Paige wrote a note to the elf:

Paige can tie a bow!

2011-12-05T19:15:00.001-05:00

YouTube Video

Brooke's also working on it:

YouTube Video

Elf night 3

2011-12-03T20:27:00.001-05:00

Elf posing for a portrait.

Elf nights 1&2

2011-12-02T21:35:00.001-05:00

Last night we read the Elf on the Shelf book to the girls. Afterwards, Paige said she hoped we got a girl elf this year.

This morning we found Esabelle (named by Paige) on an advent calendar!

Tonight the elf is hanging out with the stacking snowmen.

Vitamin

2011-11-29T21:43:00.001-05:00

Brooke: I want a wyamin.
Jen: A what?
Brooke: wyamin
Jen: I can't understand you
Brooke: wa wa wyamin
Jen: Oh! Vitamin! Va va vitamin!

The crib is gone!

2011-11-13T12:55:00.001-05:00

We sold the crib today! Jen listed it a few days ago on Craigslist, and we sold it with our first call. It was such a nice crib, and we're happy that another baby will get to enjoy it.

This cleared up a ton of space in Brooke's room, which let us do some rearranging.

Much nicer! She does need a picture on that back wall, though...

Brooke is starting to recognize letters

2011-11-13T09:37:00.001-05:00

She doesn't know sounds yet, and doesn't know their names, but she can find the specific shapes much faster now compared to just a few days ago. And she's starting to know letters by context. She pointed to a "c" that was by itself and said "Cat! Cat!". She also loves to point out B's on storefront signs and say "That mine! That me!"

School Pictures

2011-11-09T13:00:00.001-05:00

This year's school pictures:

Brooke's big girl bed

2011-10-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

For the past few months, Brooke has been having some issues at bedtime. She wants us to stay with her until she falls asleep. So every night one of us sits in the hallway just outside her door until she falls asleep. In the mornings, she usually wakes up around 6am and cries for us. At that point we'll bring her in bed with us for the next hour until we're ready to get up.

When Paige was this (exact) age, we transitioned her into a toddler bed. We did that because she had been trying to climb out of the crib. Brooke, has not made any attempts to get out on her own. But we figured since Brooke is already having some issues with bedtime, maybe if she was excited to sleep in a big girl bed she will improve? So yesterday we set up the toddler bed in her room, but we're keeping the crib in there as well until we're sure she's ok being out of it. It took awhile for her to go down for a nap because she was pretty excited. And bedtime went fairly smooth last night too. She even slept in until 7am on her own!

Flooded basement

2011-09-08T08:37:00.000-04:00

In the last 7 days, weather.com is reporting that we got hit with 8-12" of rain. That's equivalent to the ANNUAL rainfall in Phoenix. The worse for us was on Tuesday night. It had rained all day and continued through the night. I'm guessing the majority of that 8-12" happened within 24 hours.

When we went to leave the house yesterday morning, we found about an inch of water in our basement. There are 2 parts to the basement, the finished and unfinished parts. The unfinished part is where the washer, dryer and furnace are. And there's a drain in there as well as a drain in the garage. The water was moving down the drains, slowly but surely. I used a mop to help pull the water from the corners and away from the appliance to the drain and pulled up a few small rugs we have. After I had mopped, that part quickly dried up. The finished part has a shag carpet and no drain. So that water just sat in there. Luckily, just recently we moved a lot of clothes that were in boxes into plastic storage bins. There were some boxes on the floor, but we quickly got them picked up and I don't think much if anything was ruined. Except the carpet.
We're not upset about the carpet getting soaked. It was very old, dirty shag carpet that was going to be replaced sooner or later. But we just had to advance that timeline a bit and pulled half of it up last night and we'll probably tackle the rest tonight as it's getting kind of stinky down there now.

We were so excited when we saw that there was tile under the carpet. If we had known that, we probably would've pulled this up a long time ago! Some of the tile is a little chipped around the edges where the carpet was nailed to it, but other than that it's in good condition. But then as we pulled some up over by the closet I uncovered a number 6. And I said to Justin, why is there a 6 on our tile. He quickly ripped up more carpet by the number like it was a Christmas present and then exclaimed "It's a shuffleboard court"!
At this point, we still have the other half of the carpet to pull out, who knows what we'll uncover on that side!

Kindergarten Favorites

2011-08-30T20:05:00.002-04:00

I hope I can remember to do this each year, starting with Kindergarten!

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-30T08:29:00.001-04:00

The girls were excited this morning to go back to school. Brooke is going through a shy phase, so she was sort of hiding behind Paige here:

Paige loves getting her picture taken now and most of the time will even smile for me! She is so excited to be in Kindergarten this year!

And here's Brooke, still being a little shy, but at least smiling:

This is outside of school. Paige did well when I left her, but Brooke didn't want me to go. She's been extremely attached to mama lately and being home for the past week with me hasn't helped. They are trying to smile, but the sun was just so bright!

Here is last year's first day of school pic. I can't believe how much they have grown!

Paige's UNO technique

2011-08-23T16:31:00.001-04:00

So I look up during our UNO game and see this:

She played most of a hand this way. No apparent difficulties...

Family baseball video

2011-08-21T15:54:00.000-04:00

I made this a while back, and Paige wanted to see it again. I figured I'd post it here.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Game night

2011-08-16T20:52:00.002-04:00

Brooke was teaching me how she plays the caterpillar game...

Where is thumbkin

2011-08-16T07:21:00.001-04:00

One of Brooke's favorite songs right now. Her other favorite is Happy Birthday.

YouTube Video

Paige got her first library card today!

2011-08-13T11:03:00.001-04:00

Proof:

Problem on the Railroad

2011-08-12T10:02:00.001-04:00

Disaster struck on the B&O railroad last night...

YouTube Video

"Oh no! Choo-Choo train! Fall down!!"

Swimming

2011-08-02T11:05:00.000-04:00

We just got home from our 2 week summer vacation in Cincinnati. Paige and Brooke spent the second week with the grandparents while Justin went to a conference in Indiana and I went to work in Boston. When we got back in town we went to the pool and got to see Paige's new swimming skills! Before we left she wasn't even putting her face in the water. After a week she was swimming a few feet by herself without any floatation device! She is holding her breath for a good while underwater and was even starting to bob up to catch a breath while swimming. She even had no fear doing a back float without me holding her! She AMAZED us by how quickly she conquered her fear and dove right in (pun intended).

Here's a few pictures Nama shared on Facebook from one of their pool trips:

Tonight Paige starts swim lessons tonight at the YMCA. I can't wait to see what more she learns over the next 3 weeks!

Brooke discovered that the markers all fit together today

2011-07-19T17:29:00.000-04:00

Guest Bathroom remodel

2011-07-11T16:36:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Grandma and Papa came out to help us give our bathroom a facelift! The first job was removing all the wallpaper and painting. Then we replaced the 1970's medicine cabinet/mirror and added a light fixture above the new mirror. We added new light switches and a working outlet in the bathroom (to the right of the mirror). And lastly, we replaced the faucet. The blue tile is staying...that's way too big of a job for us to take on right now! But at least now it doesn't look nearly as dated as it did before. Thanks grandpa for all your help!

Before:

After:

Paige's first t-ball game

2011-06-22T22:11:00.001-04:00

Paige had her first t-ball game tonight. She really was awesome. We have practiced a bit in the back yard, but it was fun to see her go after grounders, throw them (in the direction of) first, and stroke a couple of infield singles. She really had a great time running the bases too.

I may end up coaching. There supposedly are three coaches for the team, but none showed up today and so myself and another dad ran the show. It was my first t-ball game too, so I didn't know a bunch of things. I knew everyone bats, but apparently you can't get thrown or tagged out, for example, even though the fielders are supposed to try. Anyway, I'll be there for most of the rest of the games, so if I'm needed I will be out there. Might need to get myself an orange shirt!

Disney World!

2011-06-19T20:58:00.000-04:00

Lots of pictures from our trip! We had a great time! Click the picture below to see our album...

https://picasaweb.google.com/paigeisone/DisneyWorldJune2011#

Keyboard Duet

2011-06-09T09:55:00.003-04:00

The girls are home with me this week, and decided to have a keyboard/vocals duet.

Paige's self portrait

2011-06-06T16:45:00.001-04:00

Paige's project on her last day of preschool!

Dance Recital

2011-06-03T19:52:00.001-04:00

Tonight was Paige's dress rehearsal and tomorrow is the real deal recital! I put tonight's pictures in our picasa account and I'll upload more after tomorrow's show:

https://picasaweb.google.com/paigeisone/June2011

Brooke singing and playing the harp

2011-05-26T19:58:00.000-04:00

The tree

2011-05-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

We had a huge leaning tree removed from the backyard. It was probably about 20 feet tall, but it was leaning right towards our bedroom and we feared it would come down on the house during a bad storm.

Here's the view from our family room before the tree was cut. All you see is a big branch or two that was right in front of the window:

And here's our new view! There's a lot more light that comes in now. And there are 2 big bushes that we now see that are beautiful when in bloom.

Happy Birthday, Brooke!

2011-05-21T01:10:00.010-04:00

Today you are TWO years old. I feel like I just brought you home from the hospital yesterday. My sweet little baby is totally a toddler. You are so loving and affectionate. You love to cuddle and I hope you don’t grow out of that any time soon! You even love your dolls and your kitty. I bet you say Ella’s name no less than 20 times a day. Every time you see her you call to her as if you’ve been apart for years.

The biggest change this year was changing schools to be in the toddler class at Penn-Mont when you turned 18 months. I was so nervous about how you would handle the transition and you impressed everyone including your teachers at how well you could adapt. You’re a very independent little girl and love all the activities you can keep busy with during the day at school. One of the teachers commented early on that you are the most communicative child they ever met and yet you were only saying a handful of words. If someone wasn’t understanding what you were trying to say, you’d take them by the hand and show them what you want. Another helper in the classroom told me she doesn’t think she ever saw you cry. You’re very easy going about most things.

Your favorite part of the day at school is when you get to go outside. Your class has outdoor time the same time as Paige’s preschool class. You run up to the fence to see your big sister every day! You love and admire your big sister. If we’re getting ready for dinner and Paige is still in the other room you’ll call out as loud as you can “AAAAIIII” which we all know to be “Paige”.

You have learned routines very well. You don’t fuss at bedtime anymore as long as I do the exact routine every night. I tried to make a fun picnic dinner in the living room one day which upset you very much because you didn’t want to vary from the routine of dinner in the kitchen. When you’ve done something wrong, you’ll willingly go sit in time out because you understand the consequence. Your first 3-word phrase was “No, Time Out” when you were correcting me for not putting you in time out after you had pulled Sissy’s hair.

We thought you were going to be an early potty trainer, and you still may be. You know when you have to go and you had gone a couple of times in a row for a few days, but then you developed a fear of the potty so we’re taking a break right now. But as soon as you dirty your diaper, you tell us. Sometimes you even slip and tell us before you actually go.

Right now you are obsessed with the color purple. It’s your favorite thing in the whole world. You’ll walk through stores shouting “purple” at every purple thing you see. If you see clothes that are purple, you’ll insist on wearing them instead of anything else I might suggest for you to wear. I hope you keep this passion for things!

Thank you for making these 2 of the best years of my life!

Happy Birthday, Paige!

2011-05-19T01:00:00.023-04:00

Today you are FIVE years old. Time flew so fast for me, but for the last month or so you've been asking us daily how much longer until your birthday. You're so anxious to be 5! You grew up so much this year. You started out a preschooler and now you’re counting down the days until you start kindergarten! You absolutely love school. I hope that never changes. Even your teacher is so excited to tell us about all the new things you are learning. It seems like math may be your strongest subject. You’re only in preschool and you are already multiplying!

On the other hand, maybe you’ll want to be a scientist when you grow up like Daddy. This year you’ve been asking tons of questions about where things come from (including babies). You are fascinated when looking through the pictures in Daddy’s anatomy textbook.

We got to see the jokester side of you come out this year. You like to tell us jokes. Sometimes it’s the same joke over and over and other times you’ll ask a question with a silly answer and call it a joke. You’ve also started testing your boundries with “fake stories” as you call it. We refer to them as lies. If we catch you in a lie, you laugh and say “fake story”!

This year you’ve been taking a tap/ballet/tumbling class instead of gymnastics. You do very well following the teacher as they instruct when you’re not in a silly mood. Your first recital is coming up soon and you’re so excited to be on a stage and wear your costume and makeup!

(Far right, in all light pink)

In your second year as a big sister you’re starting to see Brooke not only as your sister but as a friend. You just can’t get enough of her. You love it when she sits on your lap and asks you to pick her up even though you can only lift her an inch off the ground. She looks up to you and you are so proud of her. I couldn’t ask for a better big sister.

Thank you for five of the best years of my life.

Happy Easter

2011-04-29T10:19:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, we did an egg hunt in our backyard for the girls:

On Sunday morning, they quickly found their baskets from the Easter bunny:

After breakfast we got ready for church:

After church, they had treat bags for the kids:

And so it begins...

2011-04-05T08:17:00.002-04:00

I think it was at the beginning of the year that we pulled out the old potty chair. Before bath time, when Paige was going potty Brooke was asking to go as well. So we brought out the chair and she will sit on it before she takes a bath. Now, she's wanting to sit on it every time we change her diaper too. The thing is when we're changing her diaper it's usually because she just went, so sitting on the potty at that point is pretty useless. This morning, I was changing her out of her PJ's and took off her diaper. She pointed towards the bathroom, so I took her in there and put her on the potty. Then I left her and went back to her room to get her an outfit. A minute later she walks into the bedroom (across the hall from the bathroom). I asked her if she was done and she shook her head yes. So I finished getting her dressed and then went to help Paige. Then I hear Justin calling me from the bathroom. I go in there and sure enough there's poop in Brooke's potty! When I told her daycare teacher this morning she said she's been sitting on their potty every day too, but hasn't done anything yet. I think it might be soon though!

What I love about blogging is going back and remembering the milestones that we went through with Paige. I noticed that it was a month before Paige's 2nd birthday that she went potty for the first time. But she didn't actually train until she turned 3. So I'm not going to get my hopes up or even really start pushing Brooke at this time. I'm not ready for my baby to grow up yet!

Update: After her nap she grunted and grabbed her diaper. So I asked if she wanted to use the potty and she enthusiastically nodded yes. And guess what, she peed on the potty!

Another Update: She just went pee again. That makes 3 times today!

Washington DC

2011-03-31T13:52:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Justin and I spent the weekend in DC. He had some meetings with some text book publishers (kind of like a focus group) and I got to tag along. It was a 3.5 hour drive.
Our hotel:

We got in around 4pm on Friday, so we did some sightseeing and walked down to the White House. This is the closest we were able to get:

For my birthday, Justin got me a new camera. It has a great zoom:

On Saturday, Justin was in meetings, so after breakfast I went out and did some touring on my own. I did a tour of Ford's Theater (around the corner from our hotel):

Then I took a hike up to the capital:

I really enjoyed that tour! I have a lot more pictures here if you want to look through: https://picasaweb.google.com/paigeisone/March2011

I met up with Justin and his group for dinner at Oceanaire Seafood Room. AMAZING food!

On Sunday before heading home, we toured the Natural History Museum:

And then stopped in Georgetown on our way home to see the site of the show DC Cupcakes:

The line was super long and the cupcakes don't get very good reviews. So we went on a tip from a DC resident and stopped at Baked & Wired just a few blocks away for the best cupcakes I've ever had!

It was really nice to spend some time for just the 2 of us and get to do some sight seeing. I look forward to taking the girls back in a few years when they'll be more interested in history.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

2011-03-18T14:57:00.000-04:00

This past week we met with both of the girls' teachers for a twice-yearly parent teacher conference. This was the first time we've met with a teacher about Brooke, aside from the brief conversations at drop-off and pickup. They are amazed at how well she has adjusted since starting in January. She quickly picked up on all their routines and fits in well. I asked if she was clingy with them because I know at her old daycare she always wanted to be held by the teachers. But they said that lasted only a week or so, but she'll sometimes approach them for a quick hug and then be on her way again. There is just so much to keep her attention all day that I think she was going to the teachers before out of boredom. Morning drop off has been a bit of a struggle with her crying and not wanting us to leave. But she would quickly get over it after we left. Over the past 2 weeks or so she finally has overcome that and hasn't shed a tear at drop-off since. In fact she'll put her stuff away, give us a hug and wave goodbye. Brooke's vocabulary is improving, but her teacher isn't concerned in the least. She's very good about getting her point across without using words. So, at least she's communicating. And she is attempting to say new words and mimic us, it's just not always very clear.

Paige's teacher has a rough class this year. It's 3, 4 and 5 year olds, but she had a big group of 5 year olds last year which were a huge help and then this year there are only three 5 year olds. The majority of her class are 3 year olds. And some of them are very "lively"! That being said, she had tons of praise for Paige this term. I think there was concern in the past about Paige challenging herself enough and working with age/skill appropriate material. That is no longer a concern. Paige and her friend, Lexi, have been working together on some advanced math material. They are doing multiplication already! The amazing part is she picked it up so quickly. In the course of a week, she can already multiply by 3's. Her reading is coming along slowly. Often times she'll be looking at a word quietly and we'll think she's lost interest. But instead of sounding out all the letters out loud, she'll do it in her head and then blurt out the word just when we thought she was giving up.

We're so proud of both our girls and how well they are coming along. I often miss them during the day, but I know they are in good hands at school. Their teachers really are wonderful.

Big girl dresser

2011-03-06T13:58:00.000-05:00

The other night we were out by Ashley Furniture and they were having a store closing sale. What was left (barely anything) was marked up to 90% off. We found this dresser that matches perfectly to Brooke's crib. Her crib converts to a toddler bed and later a full bed. They look great together, you'd think they were from the same set.

Her old changing table/dresser is pretty beat up, but hopefully we can get something for it on Craigslist.

Parent Night - Toddler Room

2011-02-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

Brooke has been at her new daycare for about a month now. Last night was Parent night where I spent an hour in the classroom with her so she could show me the things she works on during the day. We love her teachers and the school so much. And it's nice and convenient having both girls at the same school. In just the month that she has been here, Brooke has learned so much. There are tons of activities for the kids and she's so happy. Here are some of the things she showed me last night:

I didn't get pictures of everything we did last night and there are tons of other things too. She was so excited to show me everything. And the room was amazing calm for having a bunch of toddlers in there. The teachers are just wonderful. They talk in nice calm, low voices the entire time and the kids respond really well to that.

Notice the little white rug Brooke is doing her work on? It's so cute to see her roll up her rug and put her activity away when she's done!

Sledding

2011-02-16T12:30:00.000-05:00

This was taken a few weeks ago. Brooke LOVES to sled down our little hill. Paige tried it once and wasn't interested in doing it again.

New Furniture

2011-02-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

This weekend we picked out a new couch and chair for the family room! These are the quick pictures we took in the store. They will be in about 4-6 weeks from now. The couch we currently have in the family room will move in to the living room for now. It'll be so nice to have something to sit on when the girls are playing in the living room!

Crayfish

2011-02-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

Justin had purchased 30 something crayfish for an Animal Behavior lab. We had all the tanks in our basement for a few days and we all went up to the field station where he's teaching his class on a Sunday to help him set them up so he could be ready to teach on Tuesday. The girls took a liking to the little crustaceans, so after he was done using them for class we rescued one to keep as a pet. Justin also kept a few as pets at school. The others, well they weren't so fortunate. Not sure if we're going to name her. They don't have a very long life expectancy.

The less fortunate...

A conversation with Paige

2011-02-01T15:59:00.000-05:00

Paige: I don't want to marry anyone when I grow up
Me: Ok, that's fine. You don't have to.
Paige: Yes I do, because I want to get babies.

Speaking of growing up, I posted this on facebook last week but thought I'd put it here too.

For the preschoolers, the teacher will write in what she tells her. Once they are writing well on their own they will finish the sentence themselves. These were hanging in the hallway. Some of the other kids in her class had cute answers too such as Elmo, Luigi, and lots of Princesses!

Swagger Wagon

2011-01-31T11:35:00.001-05:00

This weekend we bought a new (to us) minivan! It's a 2005 Toyota Sienna XLE Limited. It has 43k miles on it and is in really great shape. Here are some pictures:

Front view

Side View

Dash

Middle row (captain seats)

Third Row seats

Interior

Holiday Party

2011-01-25T15:03:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from Justin's work party (mid-December).


Pretty Blue Eyes

Buddies

Brooke being shy

Our holidays (part 1)

2011-01-25T14:58:00.001-05:00

I know I'm super late with these pictures. But there are a bunch of them! At least it's not February yet :) This is going to be a 2 part post because I am still hunting down some pictures I took of the girls at our house. At least I think I took pictures! Ok, here goes. Get ready for a picture overload.

First stop was Christmas Eve at Grandma and Papa's house. Here are some pictures before we went to church:

The kids had a blast when we visited the Pittsburgh Science Center:

Brooke made a new friend. She kept insisting to sit on Liz's lap!

Next stop was Grampa and Grammy's house in Cincinnati. Brooke made another friend there:

And Paige learned how to drive with Grampy:

We bundled up and went to Zoo Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. The girls really enjoyed it, aside from the cold!

Brooke got a haircut! No more mullet:

We then went over to Nama and Pop's and took a drive out to Chicago for a big family holiday party! The girls got to meet/see 3 of their cousins that are so close in age. They had a blast and quickly took to playing with them as if they've been friends for awhile. Paige threw a fit when we had to leave the next day because she had so much fun.

Brooke and Maddie playing in their pj's before bed. They are only a few months apart.

Happy Holidays

2010-12-23T10:31:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve - a day early

2010-12-23T09:54:00.000-05:00

Today is our unofficial Christmas Eve. We've arranged for Santa to come a day early for our house this year. That way we can head over to Grandma and Papa's house in time for Christmas Eve mass.

This means that Buddy, our Elf, will be heading back to the North Pole with Santa tonight. Last night, he was taking a test drive in an airplane. I think he's trying to send Santa a hint that he prefers first class.

Last weekend we went to the mall. We didn't stop for pictures with Santa, but we did let the girls have a quick ride on the train. As we were walking up, they were already loading so we quickly bought the tickets and put the girls in their seat. We didn't really think it through and Brooke was terrified. She didn't know what was going on. In hindsight, we should have let her watch the train before sticking her in it. She finally settled down in the final lap right before the ride was over. Luckily Paige was in the car with her, so if she tried to escape, hopefully Paige would've been able to grab her.

Buddy the Elf

2010-12-21T11:33:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of December, we had a visit from an Elf. He came along with a book called "Elf on the Shelf". This elf will visit us each year at the beginning of December and stay with us until Santa comes at Christmas. Each night he reports back to Santa on the good and bad things that he watched. In the morning, it's a game to find out where the elf is hiding or what he was up to after he returned from his visit with Santa. We named our Elf Buddy. Below are some pictures of where we found Buddy in the mornings:

These blocks used to spell "Believe"

Paige wasn't too happy about this one. Barbies are off limits to Elf!

Snowman and Buddy got into a snowball fight!

18 months

2010-12-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

Brooke turned 18 months old on November 21st. So I'm a little late on posting this!

She had a doctor appointment on 12/3.
Weight: 21pounds, 6 ounces (10th percentile)
Height: 31.25 inches (30th percentile)
Head Circ: 18.75 inches

In the last few weeks her language has exploded! She attempts to say a lot of words, but usually only the vowel sound will be correct. She plays a game on our phones called Peak-a-boo barn and it makes animal sounds and then says the name of the animal. When she sees the picture, she can now identify the animal and "say" it's name. Before she started using any words, she mastered the art of nodding her head. It is so cute to see her nod yes or no. I'm sure half the time she didn't know what she was agreeing or disagreeing to, but at least she was getting her opinion out there! Now she'll say Nooooo along with nodding her head no. Her first and favorite word is Ella. She'll say it a million times over every time she sees her cat. She hasn't yet learned how to say Paige and she still some times confuses Mama with Dada. She probably says about 10 words correctly and consistently. But around 20-30 words that we can tell what she's asking for.

As our pediatrician pointed out, she has started the terrible twos phase. She was in a less-than-pleasant mood for her appointment. Although, after waiting an hour, who can blame her. Luckily, her tantrums are fairly short-lived. If she doesn't get what she wants, she'll collapse onto the floor face first and have a mini-meltdown. We just let her get it all out for a minute and then she's ready to be redirected.

She is still very much a cuddler. Often times in the morning she'll wake up around 6am and I'll get her from her crib and bring her in to lay with me in bed for awhile longer. She just loves snuggling up.

Happy belated 18 month birthday!

Pictures with Santa

2010-12-06T08:46:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the pictures we've had taken with Santa this year so far. The first were on light up night on Thanksgiving weekend.

This one is from the Lunch with Santa party that Justin's work put on for the kids.

Christmas Tree

2010-12-02T10:27:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we went to cut down our Christmas tree. We went to the same place as last year, JB's Tree farm. Last year was absolutely beautiful because it was snowing and we felt so much more in the holiday spirit. This year since we were getting it earlier than usual, there wasn't any snow. We thought we'd be missing out on the fun, but in the end it was so much nicer not freezing to death cutting it down. Or trying to tie it on the car with numb fingers.

Our sad attempt at a family picture in front of our tree:

Brooke loved riding back in the cart pulled by the horses squeezed in with all the cut trees!:

The girls and I sitting on the side eating popcorn while Dad tied the tree to the car:

We got to meet 2 of Santa's reindeer:

At home with the tree all decorated:

Cards

2010-11-29T15:41:00.001-05:00

It's that time of year again. I'm starting to think about what to send out this year for our Christmas cards. I like to send out a picture of the girls. Last year I did their school photos, but this year I didn’t purchase any of Brooke’s pictures because they didn’t turn out as well. I update the blog and facebook with pictures, but we have many relatives who we don’t get to see often and who aren’t online. A picture at Christmas time may be the only picture they see of the girls each year!

Shutterfly has a wonderful selection of holiday photo cards this year. They are very affordable as well, starting at $.32 a card. That’s not much more than what you’d pay for a generic boxed card set without the personalization of a picture! I haven’t decided yet what format to do for our card, but they have tons of options including some that have room for photos and some family tidbits like this one on the right.

If you’re looking for a nice personalized gift for family members, check out their photo gifts section for things like mugs, books and these new desk calendars.

Right now they are running a promotion for Free Shipping on orders of $25+ Promo Code SHIP25

If you blog, sign up here to receive 50 free cards from Shutterfly by writing a post about their products.

Paige School Pic

2010-11-12T10:03:00.000-05:00

After last year's lack of smile school picture, I talked to Paige beforehand that it was picture day and to make sure she gave a nice big smile for the camera. She gets shy in front of new people, so I knew we'd have to work on this a little. We practiced a few smiles that morning to get her ready. Perhaps we practiced a bit too much.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-28T21:26:00.001-04:00

Our town does Trick or Treating on Thursday night instead of the 31st. I have no idea why. Paige was so excited to go. I've never seen her this excited for a holiday before. Christmas is going to be a blast this year. When I picked her up at school tonight around 5pm, she ran up to me then darted to grab her bag and coat and was at the door in about 5 seconds. I made a comment to her teacher that I've never seen her move so fast. The teacher told me she asked her earlier if the teacher could call me at work and tell me to go home and get her costume and bring it to school so she could get dressed there.

I took this picture this morning. We dressed them both in grey shirts and orange pants today. Completely unintentional.

We had a difficult time getting them to pose together in their costumes before we left:

She was much happier once she realized she was getting candy! I can't tell you how many times we'd be walking along and look in the stroller to see Brooke with a candy bar in her mouth...wrapper and all!

Recycling Crayons

2010-10-22T13:50:00.000-04:00

It seems like our crayon stash has been multiplying. And one of Brooke's favorite games is to dump all the crayons (and everything else she can get into) all over the floor. After about the hundredth time of picking up all the little pieces of crayons that we store in a gallon size freezer bag I got to thinking maybe we should sort through them a bit. So Paige and I did a little crafty project. We picked out all the homely broken crayon pieces and peeled the wrapper off of them. Paige liked this part. Then we sorted the crayons by color and broke them into small pieces. Next I put them in a cute decorative cupcake pan. I put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 275 degrees until the crayons were all melted. Here's what they looked like when I pulled them out.

After they cooled I popped them out and we had pumpkin crayons! For most of them I mixed 2 or 3 colors of crayons together for a swirled end look.

I have other seasonal cupcake pans, so we may be doing this again in a few months!

Brooke School Pics

2010-10-15T10:01:00.000-04:00

Below are Brooke's school pics. She was very unsure about the process. She had just gotten to school and I took her straight to the photographer. She didn't cry, but every time he was about to take the picture she'd flinch because of the flash and the clicking noise. He took a ton of pictures, but these were probably the only two where her eyes were actually open. He also managed to crop out the sippy cup that was in her other hand. She doesn't really have one specific "lovey" item that she keeps on her at all times, but she definitely does like to hang on to things for comfort.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-14T20:04:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we went to Valewood Farms again for their pumpkin patch. This is the 3rd year in a row that we've gone. Follow these links to see the posts from 2008 and 2009. The kids really love the corn box, hay ride, animals and games they have. It's great for this age. Our first stop was the dairy store for ice cream. Brooke couldn't get enough of it! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the cows. We got to see them up close on the hay ride and they had a calf in a fenced area that Paige reached through and pet!

The new feature this year was the corn maze!

The trees were so beautiful on the way home. It's such a nice drive this time of year.

Brooke 15 months

2010-09-21T16:08:00.000-04:00

Today Brooke turns 16 months old! But I just realized I never posted what her stats were for her 15 month doctor appointment. So here they are a month late:

Height: 29.25"
Weight: 20 lbs, 10 oz

For some reason I've been thinking that Brooke is so much smaller than Paige was at this age. But I just looked back at an old blog post and saw that Paige was 20.5 pounds and 30 inches at her 15 month appointment! It says that Paige had lost a pound from her previous appointment, but we didn't really see that with Brooke. Her weight gain has just been slow.

Kitchen facelift

2010-09-13T14:07:00.000-04:00

Here are a series of Before and After pictures of our kitchen facelift. We tore down all of the lovely flowered wallpaper and painted the walls a light shade of green.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

These last 2 pictures are my favorite. Look how much bigger and open the kitchen looks without the crazy flowers!

BEFORE

AFTER

Now we just need to do something about that red door!

Magazine Sale!

2010-09-08T11:25:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again! Paige is selling Magazines for her school. If you're interested, you can sign up for a new magazine subscription or add another year to a current magazine subscription.

The website is https://www.qsp.com/store/LightReg.aspx

You'll be asked for a school organization number before you can start shopping. Enter: 425003358
When you checkout it will ask you for "QSP ID - Preferred Method". Her QSP ID is MER1
By entering this ID it will give Paige's school 40% of the sale.

If you'd like to order something, but don't want to place the order through the website, let me know and I can also submit through an order form.

The deadline has been extended until October 4th. Thanks to everyone that has purchased!

Thanks!

First day of school

2010-08-31T09:08:00.000-04:00

Today is Paige's first day of Preschool-4. She'll be in the same classroom as last year since it's for ages 3-5 year olds, but she'll no longer be in the group of "the little ones". She'll be the middle child for this year :)

Homemade Bread

2010-08-30T08:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I made cinnamon bread, from scratch for the first time. Up until this summer I've never used yeast before. I had an irrational fear of baking with yeast for fear that it won't rise or would be too complicated. So I started by using it in homemade pizza crust. I've made that twice this summer and both times the crust came out really well.

I came across this recipe for bread on the pioneer woman site and was ready to give it a go. The hardest part was having to wait 2 hours for it to rise. Then I rolled it out and added the cinnamon, put it in the pan and wait another 2 hours to finish rising. We sort of had to plan our whole day around my bread project! I'm also very thankful for my Kitchenaid mixer. I used the dough hook to knead the dough for 10 minutes. This would've been painful to do by hand.

The end product turned out great and everyone loves it. It rose beautifully! The cinnamon to bread ratio is just perfect. The only thing I'll change is next time I'll bake 2 loaves and freeze the second one (or just eat it).

Experiment: Ice Cubes vs. Hot Water

2010-08-25T18:46:00.001-04:00

Paige was playing with her play kitchen today and was asking questions about ice cubes. So I decided to do a science experiment with her. It went really well!

First we took 2 glasses. One we filled with hot water and the other with cold water. Then we put an ice cube in each cup. She didn't know what would happen with the cube in hot water, so it was neat to have her observe this. Here are some questions I'll ask her and I'll try to type her responses as they come out of her mouth.

Q: What was the first thing you did in the experiment.
Paige: We got hot water that could burn us and cold water.

Q: Then what.
Paige: We put ice in the water.

Q: What happened to the ice in the hot water.
Paige: It melted.

Q: What happened to the ice in the cold water.
Paige: It didn't melt.

Q: Why did the ice cube melt?
Paige: Because the water was too hot for it.

Q: Where did it go?
Paige: It turned into water.

Q: What did you learn from this experiment.
Paige: That the ice would melt

I thought it was pretty neat that she retained all the information from our experiment and was able answer all the questions correctly!

Q: Paige, do you like Science?
Paige: Yes.

Q: Do you like doing experiments?
Paige: No

Q: Why not?
Paige: Because i like silence (I think she meant to say "science").

At this point in the interview she had already moved on to looking in Justin's ear with a flashlight to see if there were any princesses in there.

Sesame Place

2010-08-18T14:49:00.002-04:00

This past weekend we took a family vacation and went to Sesame Place near Philadelphia. We stayed in a hotel 2 nights which was half of the fun for Paige! We got a 1 bedroom suite so Paige slept on a pull out couch and Brooke in a pack n play. Our room was big and roomy so there was enough space for everyone to have their own place.

As for Sesame Place, the girls LOVED it! Paige is still a little frightened by the costumed characters, but she still enjoyed seeing them. She just didn't want them to touch her. So most of our pictures are of Brooke with the characters.

They had a good mix of amusement park rides, water activities and shows. On Saturday morning we did a breakfast with the characters. We got to meet each character up close and personal and while we ate they each stopped by our table to say hi and take pictures.

For the rest of the pictures from Sesame Street look here.

Brooke's First Steps

2010-08-18T11:30:00.003-04:00

On Monday evening Brooke took her first steps going between Justin and I!

Click the link below to watch the video.

Video of Brooke's First Steps

13 months

2010-07-07T12:49:00.001-04:00

June 2007 and June 2010:

The eyes are similar. And they both have big, round heads. But other than that they look completely different to me!

-----

Update: In response to mom's comment below, here you go: Paige with Brooke's Hair!

Still look pretty different to me, but it's hard to say why. Cheeks? -Justin

Bathroom mural

2010-07-02T15:06:00.000-04:00

Last month I posted about our bathroom makeover. I still kind of felt like something was missing though. When we were in Ohio we went to the Krohn's conservatory on Father's day with Grandpa and Grammy to see their butterfly exhibit. It was the last day of the exhibit, but the butterflies were still in great shape and there were tons of them! We all really enjoyed it. Afterwords, we peeked in the gift shop and Grammy spotted some cool wall decals that were just perfect for that bathroom! Thanks Grammy & Grandpa!

4 year checkup

2010-07-01T14:45:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Paige had her 4 year checkup. They did a vision test where she had to identify some black and white pictures on a card that the nurse held while standing in the hallway. There was one card that stumped her. It was a black & white image similar to this:

Who has a phone like that anymore?

She did a hearing test where she wore headphones and had to raise her hand every time she heard a beep. She got a kick out of that game! The exam went well. She had to get one shot and wasn't too happy about that, but she did wonderful. This is also the first time they have asked her to wear a gown.

Stats:
40 inches
35.14 pounds

Portraits

2010-06-29T08:32:00.000-04:00

We had the girls' portraits done for the 1 and 4 year birthdays over Memorial Day weekend and it just dawned on me that I never posted them here! We went to Picture People at the mall to have them done.

Massive trees

2010-06-10T07:59:00.002-04:00

We have a lot of HUGE trees on our property. Over Memorial day weekend while we had help in town Justin tackled the 2 trees in the front yard that were dead on the bottom half. Again, I forgot to get some good "before" pictures. But here's a good picture of Justin at work and you can see just how tall the trees are in comparison to Justin.

The hardest part was getting someone to come out and haul away the branches. Finally after many, many, many phone calls we finally got someone out a week and a half later. Let's hope the grass is ok under where the piles were sitting.

House painting - exterior

2010-06-09T08:38:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I forgot to take some good Before shots before the painters started. We met with about 5 different contractors trying to find someone we liked. The one we went with offered a great price, was very professional, and had an opening where he could start the next week! So we picked our colors and then they started painting. Here's a "before" picture from last fall:

The white was so dingy looking that it was looking almost gray. I wish I had a closer picture, because you could easily see how uneven the paint was from 10 feet away.

The new colors we picked were Sand Dune for the siding and Denim for the trim.

Birthday Party

2010-06-08T13:35:00.000-04:00

Over Memorial day weekend we had a small joint birthday party for the girls.

Brooke napped in her swing after we hung a sheet to give her some shade:

The kids played in the sprinklers:

We ate some good food:

Someone started getting tired and cranky by cake time:

But did better once she could sit in Mommy's lap to eat:

Thank you to everyone who was able to come out and celebrate with us!

Bathroom makeover

2010-06-07T14:19:00.000-04:00

If you recall, we took down the wallpaper and painted the master bathroom last fall. We had a lot going on at the time, and it literally took a few months before we had finished it.

I've recovered from that experience and was ready to tackle the next room that needed fixed up. Just about every room in this house has wallpaper in it. The next room on the list was the 2nd bathroom. This time, I was a little more focused and was a little less sleep deprived so I was able to work on it after the girls were in bed. I was able to do all this within a week! In addition to taking down the wallpaper, we also replaced the mirror. It's not shown in these pictures, but the sink is at the very left side on the counter and you could only see half of your face if you were standing at the sink and looking in the mirror.

Here's the AFTER picture with the new paper and paint instead of wallpaper.

1 year checkup

2010-06-02T10:25:00.000-04:00

Brooke had her 1 year checkup yesterday. She did great, even with getting the shots.

Weight: 19lbs, 7oz (25th percentile)
Height: 28" (15th percentile)
Head Circ: 18.5" (95th percentile)

She's also working on cutting her 6th tooth right now!

My 3 year old was shy

2010-05-27T08:14:00.000-04:00

But now that she's 4, she's ready for Broadway...

If clicking on the video above doesn't work, here's the link to youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68i7hhm57uU

Happy 1st Birthday, Brooke!

2010-05-21T01:00:00.011-04:00

Dear Brooke,

Today you are 1 year old! I can't believe how fast this year flew by. You've been such a peaceful, happy baby. You rarely cry unless you needed something. You were my little breastfeeding champ! You just always go with the flow.

You simply adore your big sister and could just sit there and watch her. You giggle your unbelievably adorable giggle when she entertains you.

Even when the priest was baptizing you on the alter, you just looked up at him with your big eyes and smiled making him laugh. I can already see that you're going to have a great sense of humor one day.

It took you a little while to get used to eating solids, but then you loved everything that we'd feed you. And all your first foods were pureed with love by mama. Now that your eating big people food, you shovel it into your mouth as fast as you can. Especially if it's your favorite, strawberries (or ice cream).

We got more snow your first winter than we've had in many, many years, but that didn't stop you from enjoying it!

You have 4 teeth now! The first came in on February 19th and the other 3 all came within the following few weeks. Now your little smile is even more heart breaking! Your favorite game is rolling a ball back and forth, and now you're even starting to throw it (and you're getting daddy's hopes up for a future baseball player).

It took you a long time before you started sleeping through the night. We did a little cry-it-out which seemed to really work for you, but once you started doing well we had teething setbacks. Mommy has a tough time not running to you when you cry. I think we're finally on the right track and you're starting to sleep until (almost) 6am now!

Even though you're not walking yet, you have no problem getting around. You started crawling at 8 months old. Now you'll walk behind anything that you can push. You'll be walking on your own in no time, but please don't hurry! You love being a part of everything that is going on and don't want to be left out. And we love having you a part of our lives.

Happy Birthday, baby Brooke! I hope you enjoyed your first journey around the sun.

Happy 4th Birthday, Paige!

2010-05-19T01:00:00.005-04:00

Dear Paige,

Today you turn 4 years old. You are so excited for your birthday. We’ve been crossing off the days on the princess calendar in your room every night before bed since the beginning of May.

You grew up so much this year and had so many big accomplishments. The first of which was about 2 months after you turned 3 years old when you were potty trained. We spent a weekend working on it and after that you had it mastered!

You seem to easily master just about everything you try. Just a few months after starting preschool this year, you learned how to read. Even your teachers were very proud of how quickly you’ve picked this up. You also learned how to write all your letters and your name.

You became a big sister this year too. It is so apparent how much you love your little sister. And she adores you just the same. I melt every time I see you give her a hug or a kiss, which is very often.

You look forward to your gymnastics class every Thursday evening and are happy to show off your moves to anyone that asks. We look forward to introducing you to more activities and sports as you get older.

At school, your teachers tell us you’re pretty reserved. Although, you have come a long way since you started preschool. You have lots of friends and know the names of all the kids in your class. You keep pretty quiet at school, but when you come home you explode with song. It’s amazing to us how quickly you learn and memorize the songs from school.

There were so many good times this year, but this was probably also your most difficult year yet with the tantrums. As the year progressed, so did your vocabulary which has helped you a great deal in being able to voice your frustrations. Which in turn has helped us to help you work through them.When you're mad about something you'll often include the words "never ever" as in "I'll never ever be able to stop crying". What I love the most is your active imagination and how you absorb everything going on around you and then use your words to tell us what's on your mind. There isn't a day that goes by where you don't make us laugh.

We have loved watching you grow from a baby into our big girl. Happy Birthday, Princess!

Brooke

2010-05-05T12:21:00.008-04:00

I love how well these pictures turned out. And I love that I was able to capture the progression of happy to not-so-happy as it happens within about 3 seconds.

Easter!

2010-04-13T13:57:00.000-04:00

For Easter we were at Grandma and Papa's house this year. Paige found her basket all by herself.

Then she helped Brooke find hers:

I like this picture because you can see her 2 bottom teeth if you look closely (click on the picture to make it bigger):

The Easter bunny brought her second tooth in on the top! She's been struggling with that one for about 2 weeks before Easter. Now she has a total of 4 teeth!

At church with the cousins:

Family picture (a little blurry):

Blowing bubbles and playing at the park:

Tutus

2010-03-31T11:17:00.000-04:00

I was feeling crafty and made the girls matching tutus! It was super easy. I just cut strips of tulle and tied them around a ribbon that ties at their waist. No sewing!

I was a little limited on colors, all the craft store had were pastels. I may try it again if I find bolder tulle colors. But aside from that they turned out really well and the girls like them.

Yes, Paige is wearing pajama pants under hers. She was feeling a little expressive in her clothing choices that day.

Beautiful weather

2010-03-22T16:35:00.000-04:00

This weekend we had the most absolutely beautiful weather! It's been such a long and rough winter that we were so excited to finally be able to get some outdoors time! We spent a lot of time playing outside with the girls and doing some yardwork preparing for Spring. Here are some pictures I took with my phone:

At Justin's school they put on a little Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Paige wouldn't go near the Easter bunny, but Brooke didn't mind at all!

Picture Day!

2010-03-18T09:45:00.000-04:00

On March 2nd, Brooke's daycare had another picture day!

We're planning on going to a portrait studio for her 1st birthday pictures, so I don't think I'll be buying many of these prints.

Brooke's 9 month

2010-02-27T19:45:00.002-05:00

Brooke had her 9 month checkup on Friday. She's doing well and hitting all of her milestones. She crawls, pulls herself up, waves, and says mamama, bababa, and dadada. Her favorite game is to play rolling the ball with her sister.

Here are her stats:
Height: 26 1/3"
Head: 18"
Weight: 17lbs, 6oz

Brooke's first tooth came in 2 days before she turned 9 months (Jen's birthday). I would list some of her favorite foods, but she loves everything we feed her! She's a very good eater. And now she's starting to be little miss independent and wants to feed herself, so we're moving on to more finger foods and less purees.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T20:52:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Click on the picture below to watch a song from Paige:

From Feb10

Brooke started crawling this week! Here's a video:

From Feb10

Brooke waves hi

2010-02-03T08:40:00.001-05:00

This past weekend Brooke started waving to us! Here's a video:

From Jan 2010

Paige reading video

2010-01-31T15:24:00.002-05:00

Here's a short video of Paige reading Book 5 in the BOB series:

From Jan 2010

Fireplace Dilemma

2010-01-26T10:31:00.000-05:00

Here's our fireplace:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's very big. We like to burn fires during the winter, but then we have to leave the flue open for several hours (usually overnight) after the fire so it cools down and we don't have smoke in the house. We lose a lot of heat from the room because of this. Also, it's a very big room (about 1,000 square feet) and the room is usually pretty cold as it is. Even with a fire going and out ancient blower working you barely feel any heat coming out.

We decided to get glass doors for 2 reasons. 1. Safety for the kids. 2. So we can close them after a fire and keep some of our heat from escaping up the chimney while the flue is open. However, since it's so large we needed custom doors made which are pretty pricey. We had someone come out yesterday to measure and he told us the blower will be incorporated in the door installation. And since our blower is not very efficient, loud and may konk out at any time, we may not want to have the new doors custom fit with this old blower.

Our choices are now: 1. Purchase a new blower along with new doors. 2. Purchase a fireplace insert instead of new doors and blower. The fireplace insert may be a little more expensive, but in the long run may be the better value.

Here's an example of a fireplace insert:

It's technically a wood burning stove inside the fireplace. It will produce a lot more heat than a regular fire will (even with a good blower). It will have longer burn times on the wood, and it's better for the environment. However, we will be trading the open look of logs burning, for a smaller door with the fire inside. Plus this door will get extremely hot, so it's a safety issue with the kids too. But it may save on our heating bill because we can have a good fire burning most of the day on only a few logs.

Leave a comment with your vote. Should we go with a fireplace insert, or get a new blower and doors? A new blower will also help us heat up the room, but if we want it to last a long time we have to keep throwing wood on the fire.

Reading and Crawling progress

2010-01-18T13:15:00.001-05:00

Brooke is going to be 8 months old this week! So hard to believe. She's been busy trying to learn how to crawl. She's almost got it too:

And Paige is 3 years and 8 months old and is getting pretty good at reading 3 letter words:

Click on the pictures to watch the videos.

Helicopter ride

2010-01-12T14:26:00.000-05:00

For the New Year's party at Nama's house this year, Justin's uncle Fritz flew his helicopter over and we got to take a ride. We asked Paige if she wanted to come to the airport to see the helicopter with us, and at first she was excited but then later decided to stay at Nama's house and help her get ready for the party. But we flew over the house, so she at least got to see us up in the sky from the driveway. It was an amazing experience, so much different from what I was expecting. All of a sudden you go from being on the ground to just floating in the air. Luckily there was very little turbulence and it was a very nice and smooth ride!

Here's the view from above Nama's house (on left). Paige is in the driveway waving to us!

Oh Christmas Tree

2010-01-11T14:42:00.000-05:00

This year we started what will hopefully be a new Christmas tradition. We chopped down our own Christmas tree! Aside from a unusually early snow in October, this was our first real snow of the winter. It was a beautiful day to go pick out a tree. We got to ride on a horse drawn wagon out to the field. After we picked the perfect tree we took turns sawing it down. Then Justin pulled it back to the wagon pickup for our ride back to get it wrapped up. We even made it all the way back to our house without it falling off the car!

Randomness

2009-12-14T16:06:00.000-05:00

I have a bunch of little things I wanted to say, so I'll just bullet point them!

Brooke is finally sleeping through the night. It's been a few weeks now, but I've been afraid to put anything in writing too soon. After her 6 month doctor appointment and her doctor stressing how important it is for her to be getting a full nights sleep, I bought the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. After a few nights she was sleeping 10 hours!
Paige is doing so well with spelling words. She knows the sounds of all her letters (thanks to Montessori and Leapster's Letter Factory game) and she can sound out the letters in words and has started writing them. She still has a little way to go on reading the words.
Brooke has finally started getting into solid foods. We've been offering her food since 4 months, but it's really been the last week or so that she's been eating anything sizeable. Her favorites so far are yogurt, pancakes and carrots. I've been making everything fresh and then freezing.
We've all received our H1N1 vaccinations. Paige and Brooke have to go back and get a second dose a month after their first. For Paige that will be this week, but for Brooke it's in January.
Paige is really getting into Christmas this year. She's been too afraid to sit on Santa's lap, but she did write him a letter (kind of). And she loves to sing Christmas songs. Although, she got a little freaked out the other night when dad was singing "He sees when you are sleeping..." right before bed!

Paige School Picture

2009-12-04T14:20:00.000-05:00

The same company did Paige's school picture that did Brooke's. However, for Paige's school we had to purchase the package we wanted before we saw the prints. It's a bit of a gamble, but the prices are a lot cheaper. They also will do retakes if you're not happy.

I half expected Paige to just outright refuse to sit for the photographer. She's going through a very defiant phase right now. At least I hope it's just a phase :)

I wish she was smiling, and I can just tell by the face that she's making that she's trying really hard NOT to smile. You just know 5 seconds after they snapped the photo she had a big grin on her face. But we decided not to do retakes, because there's a chance they could come out even worse. Looking back at this picture in several years from now will remind us of our strong-willed little girl at 3.5 years old.

Parent Night

2009-11-19T15:33:00.000-05:00

Last night was parent night at Paige's school. Not to be confused with parent/teacher night which is on Monday. Parent night is for the kids to bring a parent to school and show us what all they work on. They asked that only one parent come with each child to keep it from getting too crowded in the classroom. Since Justin grew up in a Montessori school, I got to go so I could learn more about her work.

In the past few weeks Paige has really come out of her shell. I'm hoping her teachers will tell us the same on Monday night when we meet with them. She used to be shy and fairly reserved. Now she's a total chatterbox. She loved taking me around the classroom and showing me everything she works on and she wasn't intimidated at all by all the other people in the room. I snapped a few pictures with my phone as we worked on things together.

Bead Tree, Spindle Box, Sandpaper letters, broad stairs & pink tower:

Little Artist

2009-11-12T11:22:00.001-05:00

Paige loves to draw. Every day when she comes home from school she usually brings home about 5 drawings that she has done. They usually look pretty similar, just lots of scribbles on white paper. The other day she told us she was going to draw a princess and the output actually looked a little like a person. Then today, while I was making my lunch I was flipping through the stack of papers she brought home yesterday and found this one:

See the yellow hair, eyes, mouth, legs and feet? I'm assuming that's green grass at the bottom and blue marks in the sky could be birds? Ok, the birds might be a stretch.

I added some colored pencils to her wishlist!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-04T11:49:00.000-05:00

We went to the Valewood Farms pumpkin patch a few weeks ago.

Paige got to milk a cow:

Play in the corn:

Play in the hay maze:

Pose with pumpkins:

They have a really nice hayride too where they give a tour of the farms and their cows and the beautiful countryside. It's a great time of year to do this when all the leaves are turning.

Brooke had fun too :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-03T13:19:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes. Paige was Sleeping Beauty and Brooke was a piggy.

Brooke is now sitting up all by herself unsupported!

Brooke School Pictures

2009-10-21T16:34:00.000-04:00

These are the pictures Brooke had done at school on October 1st. Here's the class picture. Brooke is the second one in on the right.

This one is my favorite:

Proud big sister

2009-10-06T17:03:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on here before or not, but Paige is the best big sister that anyone could ever ask for. She LOVES her little sister so much, she really has exceeded our expectations. I kept waiting for the jealousy to start, but she has shown no signs of that. She just adores Brooke. We call her "our" baby and Paige likes to help out as much as she can. In the car the other day Brooke was fussing and Paige tells her "it's ok Brooke, I'm right here". It truly makes my heart melt the things she says. If Brooke is asleep in my arms she'll come over and give her "quiet kisses". I've been trying to capture these moments on video, but I'm usually holding Brooke or by the time I get to the camera I've missed it. Here's a good one of Paige going over to Brooke on her own and holding her hand:

View Video

Bathroom wallpaper

2009-10-04T19:16:00.000-04:00

We started pulling down the badly peeling, ugly wallpaper in the master bathroom a few months ago. It ended up being a bigger challenge than we initially thought and was put on the back burner while other projects like the family room remodel were completed.

I finally started devoting an hour here and there taking down small sections at a time which made it more manageable. We eventually still want to do a big remodel and update the fixtures, but I think this makes it a lot more liveable until then.

Here are some before and after pictures:

See the peeling paper above the shower? That's how it looked when we bought the house!

Work in progress...

AFTER - All wallpaper is GONE and we painted it light brown.: