Holiday Memories

Here's a slideshow of pictures from this holiday season. We had wonderful visits with family and we made sure Ella's 1st Christmas was a memorable one. We hope you all had a great holiday, too!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Keepin' It Real in 2009

I was just thinking about the mixed reviews I've gotten about this family blog since originating it this year. For instance, here are some of the not-so-positive remarks I've received:

"Wow... you must have a lot of time on your hands to write so much on your blog. I'm just too busy to do something like that."
"I don't really read your blog; I just like to look at the pictures... sometimes."
"Do you, like, have your camera permanently stuck to your hand at all times or what?"

You've gotta appreciate candid feedback like that.

For the most part, though, I've received very positive comments about it and I definitely keep it going thanks to all of the very sweet remarks I've gotten such as:

"You are such a good mommy for making a blog like that!"
"I've gotten such good ideas from your blog... thanks!"
"Jenny.... are you o.k.? You haven't posted on your blog in like 2 days." (O.k... this one can be viewed as both positive and negative.)
"You have a great writing style and I love to read your blog."
"You really have it together, Jenny."

First, I want to thank those who are kind enough to give me sweet feedback despite my corniness and dorkiness that shows through the posts. :) Seriously, though, it really does make me feel good to hear such nice things! Also, in response to a couple of these positive comments, I will have to make a confession: I really don't have it all together and most of my ideas come from somewhere else. What I don't include in these posts are the tiny details like Adelyn telling me to put my camera away or the time I spend on the internet when I could be doing laundry or dishes. While I do like to think that I have it together 80% of the time, the other 20% is SO NOT together. :) I'm usually rushing around like an idiot preparing for our little day trips and it's inevitable that I will forget something. I'm working on that. (But my learning curve is quickly depleting!)

What I also would like to work on in 2009 is making my blog posts a little bit more 'raw.' Some of the best blogs I follow are those that have no shame and report things just as they are with no fluff.

For instance, here is a cute post that I consider to be 'raw humor' that a friend of mine posted recently on her blog.

These are the blogs that are most inspiring to me because they make me feel better about my own daily challenges as a SAHM (stay at home mom) since transitioning from my professional life to my much more rewarding personal life as a mommy.

So, there you have it... something else to add to the exponentially growing list of resolutions for 2009. Hopefully I won't let my VIP audience down! :)

P.S. Christmas pictures coming soon. (We've been super busy travelers lately!)

Privacy Setting Extended

Like the true procrastinator I am, I've been pushing off the whole privacy setting thing I've mentioned before. I thought, why not start fresh in 2009? It's only a couple weeks away anyway. So, there you go... another week to send me your e-mail addresses if I need to add you to the 'invited readers only' list. You can find me on facebook, too, where you can shoot me a message there.

In the meantime, strangers who like to look at my beautiful family almost as much as I do- feel free to lurk! But your lurking days will be over soon...

Sidenote: I already have TONS of photos to weed through from our Christmas weekend traveling to see family. Unfortunately, I just have too many other things to do (like present wrapping, cookie baking, etc.) so those will have to wait. Sorry!

Our Snow Princess is 11 Months!

Isn't she sweet checking out the snow today?

Here are a couple other pictures of our sweet little baby who isn't much of a baby anymore! BTW, she's been motoring around everywhere now that she has graduated from an army crawl to a full traditional crawl. She's been pulling up and cruisin', too. It won't be long before she takes her first steps!

The 'Corn' Within Me

If you know me well, you know that I've got an embarrassingly corny side that has been rearing its ugly head since becoming a mommy. I've done things as a mom that I thought I would never be guilty of. You know, like forcing my husband to wear something in the same color scheme as his matching wife and children's clothing to a social function. At the time, it seems like the best idea but in retrospect, I feel ashamed for making such corn-filled decisions that I'm sure have some people thinking, "Are you serious right now?"

So when I decided that it was our turn to take on the neighborhood kids' holiday party, it was no surprise (at least to my husband) that I would have the corn out full-force on Saturday night. I really wanted to make it a nice night for the children... so I planned Christmas activities like cookie decorating, had Christmas music going, had Christmas shaped jello, had a stock of Christmas print-outs for coloring, a visit from Santa after a poem sent to them in the mail, and even had a cute story-time activity where the kids would pass the Christmas bear everytime they heard the word 'bear' in the story until the last child left with the bear would win a prize... Elf droppings (runts) of course!

So I think the night was pretty successful but looking back on the pictures (I've included a few here), I think... "Geesh, Corny Mom Jenny... could you have gotten any more CHRISTMAS on these kids?" Oh well... I think the kids had a good time and I think I didn't annoy too many parents especially considering that I kept their drinks full. Spiked egg nog of course! :)

Breakfast with Santa

We made our annual trip to the zoo to have Breakfast with Santa as well as some holiday characters including Elmo, Frosty, Rudolph, Hippo, Frog, Teddy Bear, etc. This of course was Ella's first time and she loved it! Adelyn, on the other hand, was still a bit weary of all of the overgrown holiday characters since she is much more aware of her surroundings than her baby sister. And to be honest with you, I was a little scared of some of the holiday characters, too! :) We did see her sneak a few smiles as she held on tightly to an adult, though. Oh, and she LOVED "Ho Ho" and cheered upon his arrival (see pic). I can't believe we were able to get both girls on Santa's lap without a parent in the picture. I was definitely happy for that!

I also have pictures to share from our night hosting a kid's Christmas party but I'll have to do that later since one of the kiddos is awaking from naptime. We had a fun, holiday-packed weekend!

Monkey Business

Andrew has been diligently working on the girls' new playroom. In just a couple weeks, he's managed to frame the room, complete the electrical work, put up drywall (which he says he will NEVER do again), paint, put a drop ceiling up, put the closet doors on, and put up/paint trim. He even created a little nook for a workspace/computer area in the corner. You might be able to notice it in one of the pictures. Then I found someone through my favorite website (Etsy) to do some custom painting with PBK-inspired trees and birds. I had the painter camouflage the girls' names into the artwork so they can call one of the trees their own. Adelyn has a big tree and Ella has a little tree of course! (I'm sure this is something they will appreciate more when they are much older.) Anyway, I LOVE how it turned out!! And yes, I AM lucky to have such a handy husband who would never leave a project uncompleted. :)

The only thing outstanding is carpet which is scheduled to be delivered on Thursday. That means that we will have to move everything from the old playroom into the new one to make room for our new bedroom furniture scheduled to be delivered on Friday. Our old bedroom furniture is going into the new guest bedroom/old playroom. Follow that? Plainly speaking, we'll be busy Thursday and Friday. Then we are hosting a small holiday party for the neighborhood kids on Saturday after we have breakfast with Santa at the zoo that morning. Oh, speaking of that... check out the letter Adelyn and Ella got today in the mail from the North Pole:

Nice poetry, huh? I think 'Santa' better not quit his day- um, er... night job!

Now, for the 'Monkey Business' title. Here are a few pictures of the girls at Monkey Joe's today with their friends, Jackson & Caroline. Adelyn is still a little hesitant to do the big stuff but managed to get through some of the bounce houses with some assistance. It was a fun but LONG day.

Cute Cousins

Just wanted to share a couple pictures of the girls feelin' the love from their cousins during Thanksgiving Day weekend. They were THANKFUL to share the holiday with most of their cousins including Gracen, Makenna, Malyssa, Austin, Maggie, Timmy, Erin, Kyle, Doug, and Ben.

Christmas Came Early!

I've been singing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" to Ella over the last week and low and behold- they both sprouted up within 24 hours of each other. I'm not surprised that she got them early because she has been a very good girl this year!

Now Ella has five teeth- three on the top and two on the bottom. Further, here are a few other things our little sister is doing lately: she loves to say 'uh-oh' and 'ki ca'; she likes to mimic hand movements like clapping, 'how big?', playing indian (hand back and forth over open mouth), etc.; she's a dancer-- she loves music and also sings to it especially at church; she still LOVES bath time and isn't intimidated by the water at all; she loves food and her latest favorites are Yo Baby Yogurt and bananas processed in the Magic Bullet; she is still semi-crawling (1/2 crawling on knees; 1/2 army scoot/crawl) and she does attempt to pull up but hasn't mastered solo standing in order to cruise; she is down to two day naps and sleeps well through the night in her crib with a taggie blanket in grasp while sucking her left thumb; and she likes to play the dropping game where she'll purposely drop something so that I'll pick it up for her. Oh, and she got the biggest belly laugh the other day when I spit a food toy out of my mouth. (For the record, I didn't mistake toy food for real food; Adelyn placed it there when we were playing kitchen.)

I'm sure there are many other fun things to report that I'm leaving out. What's important is that she is doing very well developmentally and even though she's a bit of a lazy daisy when it comes to crawling/walking/cruising/standing, I'm pretty sure we'll have her walking sometime in the near future. Maybe not by her 1 yr birthday like big sister but that's o.k.! I can't believe she will be the big 1 on January 17th. That's just around the corner. I would consider working on birthday invitations but I haven't even gotten my Christmas cards out yet.

That reminds me- I mentioned in this post that my blog will be converting over to a private setting. Not only will this serve as a friendly reminder that it will go into effect in less than a couple weeks, but I also wanted to include my e-mail address as a way for you to contact me if you'd like to continue reading the family blog but don't have a way to let me know. In light of the 'privacy invasion' feelings I've been having lately, I will be disclosing only my 'junk e-mail address'- an old addy I keep active for non-personal e-mail reasons. I still check it, though, so feel free to shoot me a message! And for those solicitors out there, don't feel free to use it. Really. It's remarkable how fast I can throw you to my junk mail folder. And don't think I won't report you to the MSN police! :) Anyway, it's jenoldham at msn dot com if you'd like to join the very exclusive VIP list- ha!

Adelynisms

Mom: "Adelyn, would you like Mommy to blow your nose for you?"
Adelyn: "No, mommy... my nose is cwying."
Mom: "Why is your nose crying? Is it sad?"
Adelyn: "Yes." (head bowing)
Mom: "Awww... why is your nose sad?"
Adelyn: "Cause it is cwying, mommy. You didn't bwow it."


Enough said.

Striped Tights...

... a guilty pleasure!

Going Private

So, did you hear about the guy who gathered a school name and children's names from a decal displayed on the family van and entered the school and asked for those children by name to take home with him? How scary!

Now that the holiday season is in full effect with tons of photo ops with family, I'd like to be able to post pictures without them feeling like their safety or privacy is in jeopardy. Personally, I've always been a bit gullible... or perhaps a bit too trusting. With children at stake, though, you can never be too careful.

With that said, I plan on making my family blog private to invited readers only. I will be uploading my address book to include all of you who I have e-mail addresses from. For those of you who I miss, please send me your e-mail address and I will be happy to add you! The privacy setting will go into place in a couple weeks to allow for a transition period.

For This I am Grateful...

We had a tradition every Thanksgiving where we would go around the table and confess to everyone what we were most thankful for that year. Even though I didn't quite appreciate this tradition as a teenager who felt like my feelings were just too personal to share with others... I've grown to appreciate it now as a mom. I think we all sometimes forget to thank those who mean the most in our lives and this is a great excuse to remind our loved ones just how important they are to us.

In the true spirit of the holiday, I decided to do a small craft project with Adelyn to find out what she was thankful for. On each finger, I wanted her to tell me 10 things/people she is grateful for.... and here is the outcome:

Admittedly, some of her choices were prompted by me. She came up with a few all by herself, though, including green (her favorite color), cottage cheese (which she calls cheesy), Cinderella (princess obsessed), candy (thanks to Halloween), and corn dogs (favorite lunch). My hope is that her answers will become more meaningful as the years go by. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to the entertaining responses she will have for me in the next few years.

Rather than include a super long list of the things/people I am grateful for (it's not Thanksgiving YET), I wanted to share just one. I am thankful for: TRADITION. I touched on this a bit at the beginning of this post. I find that it is important for parents to encourage and preserve traditions to give the family a feeling of connection. Fortunately, my family growing up was rich in tradition. It's something that made my quality of life so much better and I plan to pass on some of the same traditions to my own family. Sure, there will be a day when they will roll their eyes when asked to share what they are thankful for at the Thanksgiving dinner table... but they'll appreciate it one day!

We hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

We're Back!

One week later and we're back home after a trip to my hometown. My sister was in need of some help with their 6 month old while they took their oldest to Disney World for a few days. It was a fabulous excuse for the girls and I to spend some quality time with baby Kenna... and she is a sweetie! We also stuck around long enough to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of my family on Sunday. I feel awful that I forgot my camera so I don't have any good pictures to share from our week. :(

As promised, here are a few pictures from the Fall photo shoot in October. Aren't my girls gorgeous?! I'm their biggest fan!

Double Digits!

My baby girl is 10 months old today. How bittersweet! It's really starting to sink in just how big my baby has gotten. I don't want to get emotional so this post will be short. Here are a couple pictures I took of my little Ella Bella Butter Bean today.

BTW, she tried to say kitty cat today- more like 'ki ca'. (I dressed her in her kitty cat outfit for the occasion.) She has mastered 'da da' as well. Our lazy daisy is still not crawling yet but she does scoot/army crawl to get to where she wants to go before placing whatever that is in her mouth. Maybe she'll never crawl and just start walking... who knows! What I do know is that she is SO SWEET!

P.S. The new header picture is a preview of the Fall professional pictures we had made. I'll have more to post later.

Our Weekend

Look at what I did this weekend:

Look at what Andrew did this weekend:

O.k... maybe not. But it would be much more interesting if it happened that way, huh? :)

Andrew decided that he wanted to start building an unfinished part of our basement into a new playroom for the girls so we can convert our existing playroom into a guest bedroom since we don't have one. He framed the entire room this weekend without an automatic framing nailer. Boy has skills! I'll have to admit that it is a huge relief that he is finished. The room is located DIRECTLY under Ella's room and the racket got pretty annoying at times since it's difficult to get her to sleep somewhere other than her crib.

During the girls' nap times, I was able to craft a few Christmas party invitations for our neighborhood friends. My MIL (mother-in-law) has a huge supply of Stampin' Up tools so I thought I would take advantage to save some $. They're pretty generic but I think they turned out o.k. for a beginner. It's just a small get-together for about 10 kids so I think they will work just fine. BTW, does anyone have any ideas for such a party? I'm thinking about doing a 'cookie decorating party' and have holiday-shaped sugar cookies ready for the kids to decorate with a spread of frosting and candies. A neighbor is having a relative dress up as Santa and give out gifts so I am so excited! :) Oh, wait.... it's not even Thanksgiving yet! That's what I keep telling myself when I get the itch to do some holiday decorating.

Dude... Seriously?

Remember me mentioning in the last post that I just paid $18 for shipping on my oversized photo order? By the time I could answer the doorbell, this is what I opened the door to today... with the UPS employee quickly departing.

Can you imagine how awful the packages will look during the holidays? Luckily no photos were damaged in the delivery!

A Kodak Moment

I find that an incredibly important part of my job as a mommy is to preserve the memories of my children through pictures. And boy do I take that role seriously. Seriously enough that I just ordered 300+ pictures off of Shutterfly that covered a time span of merely 2 months. (Shipping alone was $18!)

With that said, I haven't been so camera happy lately. With every picture I take, I think about the downloading, editing, and ordering process that goes along with it. Oh, and then there's this huge task of organizing pictures that has become foreign to me. (This is one of my 2009 resolutions since I know I won't have time for it in 2008.)

These are the moments, though, that I kind-of regret not having my camera with me for over the last couple weeks:

1. Ella pulling herself up to the table for the first time
2. Adelyn during craft time at the Children's Museum
3. Adelyn feeding Ella
4. Ella waving bye-bye for the first time
5. Another trip to the Science Center
6. Adelyn finding a friend in Ella by playing kitchen with her
7. Going to another one of cousin Austin's soccer games
8. Adelyn's first attempt at jumping in the soft pit at gym
9. Outside playtime before the cold weather came
10. Our semimonthly trip to McD's Playhouse
11. Adelyn's reaction when I brought home a Blue (the dog) balloon from the grocery store (she's a fan)
12. Church day when the girls get dressed up in matching outfits
13. Adelyn's poo poo dance (much like a football player's celebratory dance when he makes a touchdown)
14. Adelyn crying when our tour at the preschool concluded

What I didn't miss, though, is a precious moment with both girls playing on the new game Andrew brought home last night called Rock Band 2. If you notice in the picture, Adelyn is playing drums while Ella assists with the bass. Good teamwork at an early age! These are the pictures that will mean the most when they get older... especially when they decide that they hate each other- ha! That's when I'll pull out the plethora of photos I have with them showing sisterly love for each other over the years. That's if I can find them by then! :)

Catchy Title Here

Sorry... my creative juices have run dry tonight.

This is why-- my mind is running all day. I think it's one of those side affects of full-time mommyhood. You know what I've found to be another side affect of full-time mommyhood? I find myself relating Blues Clues episodes to my everyday problems. I was just telling a friend that if Steve from Blues Clues is solving my biggest life mysteries, then my life must be pretty uncomplicated.

This brings me to what I wanted to post about. I've been feeling very uncomplicated lately. My days seem to pass in a predictable pattern and I've allowed it to bother me. I start daydreaming about returning back to work and all the 'important decisions' I would make in my business day... all of the thank you's I would get for doing a good job. Oh, and all the mani-pedi's I would have time to get during my lunch hours.

Then I got a reality check x 2. The first one occurred when I was driving home from one of Adelyn's classes. Adelyn randomly decided that she wanted to go to her grandma's house and NOT home. So she kicked and screamed and threw things at me until I was totally frazzled. As I walked in the door with Ella in tow, I quickly placed her in her Bumbo settled on the dining room table before carrying Adelyn to her room to change her diaper and put her down for an overdue nap. Then it happened. I could barely here a cry over Adelyn's screaming. It was a pain cry and it was coming from Ella in the other room. I turned the corner and found her on the tile floor. I can't even explain to you how freaked out I was that she had fallen out of her Bumbo onto the tile floor. Long story short: Ella is fine and suffered only a small bump on her head. But I cannot forget how stupid of a decision I made in a moment of distress.

A couple days later, I was picking up the playroom while Adelyn played and Ella got some tummy time. All of the sudden, I heard Ella start to gasp for air. She had found a small spongey toy (one of those capsules you put in warm water to expand into a shape-- in this case a Halloween monster) on the ground and decided to eat it. It was stuck in her throat and so I tried to sweep it out with my finger to no avail. Then I attempted the heimlick maneuver... to no avail. Then I put my finger back in her mouth with hopes that she would gag it up... to no avail. Finally, I called my neighbor to rush down and by the time she got to my house, Ella had swallowed the sponge. As though I wasn't already freaked out-- then I found red stuff that looked like blood coming from her mouth. I flipped out! Well, apparently it was just some of the non-poisonous dye coming from the tiny red monster. And my pediatrician assured me that once swallowed, it will pass normally and should cause no pain.

Phfewwww.... a couple of close calls this week that really put me in my place. It makes me wonder: how many of these little mistakes could have been made in the presence of someone else watching my child?! I don't know if I could live with myself knowing that someone other than myself was to blame for such silly decisions with such large affects. Trust me... after this week, I wanted to fire myself as a mommy. I deserved a written warning at the very least. :) In retrospect, though, I think this could have happened to anyone and I am so fortunate that at the least, it happened while I was there. I am SO fortunate for that. Further, these are the 'important decisions'.... much more important than anything I would ever accomplish at work.

Oh, and as a side note... I utilized the words of wisdom from none other than Steve on Blues Clues during both incidents mentioned above. "Stop, take a breath, and THINK!"

Awww... maybe life isn't so uncomplicated after all.

Getting Past Denial

Hi, my name is Jenny and I am a bow-aholic.

Ever since having my two little girls, I've become addicted to baby/toddler hair accessories likes bows, headbands, flower clips, etc. In fact, it's gotten even worse since having girl #2 aka Ella Bella Butter Bean. I suppose there could be worse things to become addicted to, right?

Anyway, this obsession paired with my internet shopping addiction = a very dangerous place I visit often called www.etsy.com. It's like an online craft fair for the cutest boutique baby items ever. Including... you guessed it... hair accessories!

Here was my last purchase -two bows to match the girls' fall dresses for their most recent photo shoot (I will provide pictures later.) Oh, and then there's this little number to match the Gymboree Holland Days line that my girls have pieces from.

My latest bow obsession is the classic huge solid hair bow for Adelyn like the ones she wore yesterday and today (see pictures).

So I bet some of you moms are wondering why I don't just give in and learn how to make the darn bows/headbands myself, right? Trust me- it's not like I don't have the website with bow-making instructions already bookmarked for future reference. I'd like to think that I've done my homework, though. I'm all about a good cost analysis. If I take into account the cost of supplies, the cost of my time (including a lot of perfectionism), and the low cost of the deals I find online (we're talking $2-$3 a bow people!)... it's really not at all worth it. You know- besides the hobby part. But if I do decide to take on a hobby of crafting baby boutique items, I'd like to find something that isn't so saturated already so the profit potential is much greater. (That's the business major in me talking.)

So there, I'm admitting that I am addicted to something so trivial as baby hair accessories while also admitting that I'm not willing to enter into a new hobby unless it makes/saves me $. :) Hey... at least I'm no longer in denial!

Our Caterpillar & Butterfly

Here are a few pictures of the girls on Halloween day. Like the true procrastinator I am, we didn't carve our jack-o-lantern till yesterday afternoon... I think it turned out great, though! Adelyn wasn't so sure about the gooey stuff inside and I'm sure Ella would have loved to put the gooey stuff in her mouth if given the opportunity.

We stayed in our neighborhood before venturing out to our old neighborhood (where Andrew's parents live now) to trick-or-treat. I hate to report that our poor little pumpkin, Adelyn, has a sour stomach this morning possibly from the sweet candy we allowed her to eat last night in light of the holiday. :(