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. :(

Candy, Candy and More...

CANDY!!

It's not even Halloween yet and my daughter has received 5 treat bags full of candy. That makes for some very challenging nights at bedtime. I do limit her intake but as you moms know, a little goes a LONG way. Oh well, tis the season for sweet teeth! Plus, the potty bucket (a bucket full of goodies for going on the potty chair) has gotten very full and tempting.

Anyway, we were invited to a Halloween party at a neighbor's house so here are a few pictures from our evening.

Also, here are a couple pictures from this morning's Explorers class that Adelyn participates in every week. Isn't Adelyn's friend cute? She is an Ella, too! (BTW, I already landed her costume for Adelyn next year.)

Finally, I wanted to share a couple cute pictures of our Ella just being sweet as always.

We're looking forward to Halloween day so the girls can score me.... um, er, I mean.... score THEM some more candy!

Happy Halloween!!