is there a newborn in the house already?!

For the amount of sleep we have gotten in the past two nights, one would think so. But, no. The baby is right where it should be causing all sorts of havoc rolling, punching, kicking inside my belly (which keeps me up in and of itself). The culprit of our sleepless nights is the 2 year old. Miss Finley decided that the stretch between 12:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. is WIDE AWAKE time. Mind you, that is just shortly after I go to bed (that might need to be adjusted if this keeps up). So, I am 8 months pregnant living on 3 VERY short hours of sleep. I would expect this with a newborn- that is just how it is (it is the part I am so dreading), but this time- BEFORE the baby comes I should be able to get lots of good sleep. Unfortunately that has not been the case the past few days. Finley is NOT sick- she might be teething (those stubborn molars), but other than that I can find no legitimate cause for her waking. We have tried to let her cry it out with no avail. A full hour of SCREAMING with not a sign of letting up. She is very persistent- always has been. We tried bringing her immediately into our bed, hoping she would stay sleepy and just drift off again. No luck. We tried going through a modified bedtime routine- rock, sing, bed. Again- did not work. She just wanted to be awake. I would think this means she is ready to give up naps (oh, please no), but then she falls asleep in the car on our way to pick up Avery EVERY DAY!? Then she transfers into her bed and sleeps for 2 hours?! What to do? I CAN'T have a sleepless 2 year old AND a newborn- my poor sanity!!!

another milestone

Avery is growing up so quickly and surprising me at every turn. We have been working on recognizing letters for a while now, but it didn't really seem like it was really "clicking" with her. Then yesterday, she just whipped out and wrote her name by herself.
She was so proud of herself. It was an eye opening moment for me... she is much more capable than I give her credit for. My baby is getting to be such a big girl... my almost 4 year old!

dreaming of sunnier days

Last week we were able to enjoy the break in the rain and take a picnic lunch to the park. It was SO nice to feel the sun on our faces and toes. Unfortunately, it was just a taste of glorious sunshine as it has since started to rain (again). Now we are cooped up resorting to picnics on our living room floor (for breakfast as per Avery's insistence this morning).

Dreaming of more sunny days ahead!

rainbows and shamrocks

We celebrate Finley's birthday in February (the day AFTER valentines day), which was represented by hearts, sweets, pink, and red. Now we are gearing up for Avery's birthday which is ON St. Patrick's Day, so we are ushering in displays of rainbows and shamrocks in her honor.

All the COLOR photos were found on flickr. Another addiction!

1. rainbow in my candy box 3. Foglia di trifoglio 5. pencils 7.untitled (balloons) 9. a rainbow of flavors

growing up

Finley had her 2 year check yesterday. She has jumped up to 12th percentile in height (32 1/2 inches) and 8th percentile in weight (22 lb 6 oz). We have all just come to accept that we are not growing giants here. We love our petite little girls!



Here are just a few things I wanted to write down to remember about the life of my little 2 year old...

1. To go to bed you have to be able to have access to your belly button, have your blankie draped over your shoulder, minnie mouse in your arms, and a sippy cup of water in your hand.

2. Your favorite show is Finding Nemo. You yell "yahoo" and "yippee" every time it comes on. You love fish tanks and point out Dory and Nemo whenever you can.

3. You like to run around scaring your sister with your hands up, yelling "DRAGON" and roaring.

4. Your favorite food is cheese- not string cheese, but sliced tillamook cheddar (and ONLY sliced tillamook cheddar) and goldfish.

5. One of your most favorite activities is dancing with your sister- to the radio, to the music on CARS, in the car- wherever and whenever you can.

6. You love to kiss and love on the baby in mommy's tummy.

7. You are baby OBSESSED! You want to touch them, hold them, love them- to the point of being a tad bit smothering. Mommy will have to watch you CAREFULLY when the new baby comes.

8. You are very outgoing with other children. You love to run and play with the big kids (including your older sister). You are always running around, giving lovies, demanding hugs- some kids might be scary because they are bullies- you are scary because you are so affectionate!

9. You love books and want to "read" them yourself more often than letting anyone read to you.

10. Your favorite part of your bedtime routine is singing songs. You always say "more songs." Your favorite songs are "the Jesus song" and Raindrops on Roses.

11. You have an extreme shoe fetish. You LOVE shoes. Yours yes, but you like stomping around in mommy's and Avery's shoes even more. Boots are your favorite.

12. You are so snuggly and cuddly (when you are not too busy running circles around us all). You give the BEST hugs! You have a way of making everyone around you feel loved.

13. Your uncles are your favorite. You light up whenever Bubba, DayDay, or Uncle Chris walks in a room to see you.

14. You are a very happy, smiley little girl, but you can also throw attitude with the best of them (your sister). You also give some of the dirtiest looks I have ever seen.

15. Your newest phrases (that you have picked up from your sassy pants sister) are "That NOT funny," as you fold your arms across your chest. "I not happy" with a "umph" under your breath for added emphasis. And, "I don't want it."

16. You call Avery "ReeRee" and we have all started to call her that too.

17. You are a big helper- you will get anything I ask you to get- you pick up (and sing our clean up song) whenever you see me starting to clean up. If anyone drops anything, you are the first to grab it and hand it back. You love to take things and throw them in the garbage and are USUALLY pretty good about distinguishing what is garbage vs. what is not.

18. My favorite thing is to hear you say "night night- I love you mommy" as I am leaving your room at bedtime.

19. You love to talk on the phone. You make anything and everything into a phone- a piece of paper, a block, a spoon?!

20. Whenever you do something you find challenging you yell, " Whoo hoo" I did it, I did it!" and give a round of high fives and pounds (with your signature "urgg"). We are so proud of you too!

We love you Finley! You are SUCH a joy and blessing in our life. You are your older sister's biggest fan and best friend and you will be WONDERFUL big sister to your new baby. We ALL love you so!

thinking outside the box: the egg slicer

While I was preparing dinner for our family date night IN, Avery wanted in on the action. She wanted to help. So, I broke out the egg slicer (something I have NEVER used for its intended purpose- however it is the most ingenious tool for slicing strawberries, mushrooms, olives, and numerous other things). It is not terribly sharp or threatening- it is stable and easy to maneuver- just crying out to be used by children wanting to help in the kitchen (with supervision of course).

Avery cut up all the strawberries for our salad (eating about 1/2 of what she cut along the way). She also sliced a whole container of mushrooms for our pizzas. She tried one mushroom and but wasn't a big fan, so we didn't end up having the same 1 for the bowl, 1 for me problem there. It kept her busy and she was really helping too! All hail the egg slicer!

finley's special day

Finley's special day began with waffles with strawberries and whipped cream before church (only the strawberries and cream were consumed) on her birthday plate from Aunt Jodi (that mommy ended up shattering later in the day... tear).

After church, we had a low-key family gathering to eat dinner, open presents, and top it off with Cold Stone cupcakes (which are soooo cute and extremely tasty). Grandma and Pa got Finley these adorable new little Nikes. She has a shoe OBSESSION, so she wanted to put them on right away and has since refused to take them off (I have to sneak them off before I put her down to sleep).Looking a little sleepy already.There are the Cold Stone cupcakes... LOVE them! This was her last wind before..... She conked! Out cold on Papa's shoulder.
Happy Birthday Finley!

We love you so!

a little shorter please

Avery has been HOUNDING me to get her hair cut. Everyday, ALL DAY, for the past 2 weeks she has been asking. Finally being cooped up with all this rain, her insistence peaked. I called and thankfully my hairdresser was able to squeeze us in between clients on Friday.

While Maggie was cutting, she turned to me and asked if it was short enough, or if I wanted to go shorter, etc... I told her to ask Avery. Avery made her desires known- "I want it a little shorter please." OK! This is a girl who knows what she wants!

She was so excited during her hair cut and very pleased with the results. She wants to show everyone and beams at all the attention. At first, she was afraid to get her hair wet, she didn't want to get it wet in the bath or let the rain get on her head- worried it would make her hair grow long (we have been having discussions lately about how the rain water helps the grass and plants to grow, so I think that must be her point of reference). My silly girl!

date night in

For valentines day, the grandparents all went to the melodrama, so we were left babysitter-less. I really didn't mind because restaurants tend to hike up their prices on valentine's day anyway (kind of like florists sell a dozen roses for $70 on valentines day and then $12 the day after?! They do because they can, I guess). It is just not worth it. So, instead we had a fun date night IN with the girls.

Menu

heart shaped mini pizzas

strawberry spinach salad

3 layer cherry jello

All red and valentines-y. Plus, it was all tasty to boot!

I tried out my new bread maker to make the pizza dough. It turned out great- especially considering the fact I made a drastic measuring error. The recipe called for 3 1/2 cups of flour. I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup and put 4 of them in the bowl, leaving me 1 1/2 cups short. Confusing- it was to me too...obviously. The dough came out of the bread maker a soupy mess, but I just added the missing flour and kneaded it in by hand and we were good to go. Here is the recipe I used (found at http://www.fabulousfoods.com/):

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons dry active yeast

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

If using a bread maker, put all ingredients in the bowl, push the "dough" setting and walk away. Easy as can be. See instructions HERE for using a food processor or for mixing/kneading by hand. I rolled out the dough and used a large heart shaped cookie cutter to make the individual crusts. We all put on our own toppings and put our creations into a 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes (until cheese melted and crust was golden brown).

The spinach salad was so good. The girls ate it up too- or they at least ate the strawberries out of it. Found the recipe for Strawberry Spinach Salad I at http://www.allrecipes.com/ (love it). You really can't go wrong with a recipe that has been given a solid 5 star rating 902 times over.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon minced onion
10 ounces fresh spinach - rinsed, dried and
torn into bite-size pieces
1 quart strawberries - cleaned, hulled and sliced
1/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for one hour.
2. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. Pour dressing over salad, and toss. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

I am not usually a big fan of jello, but the 3 layer cherry jello (that is just the name I came up with because I can't come up with anything better) is something else entirely. Really, really, REALLY yummy. I had it once before at another valentine's dinner- years ago. I made the recipe from memory. I am not sure if I have it all the way correct, but it tasted just as I remember.

Ingredients:

1 can/jar cherry pie filling

1 6oz box of cherry jello

8 oz cream cheese

8 oz sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds)

Directions:

Spread cherry pie filling into a 13x9 pan

Prepare jello according to package

Pour jello over cherry pie filling

Refrigerate until set

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar. Beat until smooth.

Spread mixture over set jello.

Sprinkle chopped nuts on top.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

After we were all stuffed, got the girls in bed, and YaYa and PaPa (my mom and Larry) were back, our date night IN turned into a "wild" night on the town. Paul and I snuck out to go to a late movie and brought our own candy mix of Reeses pieces and peanut M&Ms (our new favorite combo that we found on accident... definitely worth trying). We saw He's Just Not That Into You. It was entertaining- although the cheating husband plot line just made Paul mad... it was not my favorite either. I don't think we were supposed to like the guy- it was well played if that was the case. Other than that, it was a pretty good movie. It was just fun to get out and watch a movie uninterupped with my valentine!

all for love

We love valentine's day in our house. We love the love! WE love the decorations, we love hearts (most especially on our faces), we love pink and red, we love each other (sometimes to the point of smothering as the bottom picture demonstrates).

We also love valentine's day because Finley's birthday is the day after... she will be 2 tomorrow! Crazy! My baby is turning TWO! The decorations serve double duty- usually I am able to get additional valentine decorations, flowers, balloons, and candy at 50% + off to help set the stage for her actual birthday, but with it falling on a Sunday this year we will just make do with what we already have in the way of those things. My mom and Larry are here visiting for the festivities AND Paul has Monday off, so that makes this weekend extra sweet!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Spread the LOVE!

P.S. Take note of Avery's "long" hair. She insisted on getting it short, so we got her hair cut yesterday... it is so cute! Pictures to come.

P.P.S. We finally got our bookcases up that flank the fireplace (the ones I was going to try to put up myself)- see picture above. We had to have a friend come over and help us cut out some baseboards for them to fit (thanks Brian!) and it was still a squeeze... I did the measurements- oops! I like them- lots more storage (hidden storage at that)! No books in them yet- that box is still in the garage somewhere. But, we are making progress! My nesting instincts are coming in handy!