It's Baseball Season...

and the Reds are off to a good start!

The Christmas Cottage

For Christmas, Catherine got this really cool cottage that you can draw and color on. I guess I had envisioned her decorating it with beautiful flowers and what-not, but it really has turned into a house covered in graffiti. It has provided hours and hours of activity for the kids; even Anna likes to crawl in there. And anyone who visits our house is required to draw a picture. I love the creativity!

Anna's Birthday!!

Anna turned 1 this past Sunday!! I can't believe it's already been a year. I know everyone says that, but it does seem like it much went faster with Anna than with Catherine or Will. She is such a delight. We celebrated this past weekend in Union with my family. Anna had lots of fun with her everyone!

I made cupcakes that looked like butterflies, ladybugs, dragonflies, and bumblebees from this great pan Marcy gave me for Christmas. Thankfully I found a strawberry cake mix that doesn't use any milk products. We let everyone decorate their own with icing and sprinkles. The kids had lots of fun with that!

Anna enjoyed 2 cupcakes :)
Sitting in her sweet little rocking chair for her birthday present!
On her actual birthday we didn't have any more cupcakes, so I gave her her favorite treat--a lollipop!
Her newest trick--standing on her own. No walking yet, but we're getting a little more balance.
Happy Birthday sweet Anna! We have loved our first year with you and can't wait to share many many more.

Miss Madeline the Potato

Catherine's class is having a potato pageant today. I think it has something to do with St. Patrick's day and they're studying root vegetables. Our job was to dress up a potato. Catherine thought this was great and has been talking for weeks about what she wanted to do with her potato. She finally narrowed it down to a baby, an old man, or a bunny. So yesterday I told her we had to pick and she said old man. So I went downstairs to get some fabric to make him a nice little vest.

But then she saw the flower material and decided she'd rather have an old lady. So we made the old lady potato a dress, complete with buttons. We used extra buttons for facial features and some string for a mouth and hair. She was also required to have a sash, so Catherine wrote her name on that. (Although the permanent marker wrote through the fabric and it now says Madeline in permanent ink on the kitchen table. Anyone know how to get that off?) I have no idea why she thought Madeline was the perfect name for a potato, but by this point I was tired of dressing a potato and ready to be done. She said, "Why aren't you having fun, Mommy?" as I was getting grumpy. Oh my little crafty girl, this is the one area of life where we are very different!

Losing the Nap

Will is in the transitional stage of needing/not needing a nap. Really I think he still does most days, but since he knows that Catherine doesn't take a nap it's getting harder to convince him he does too. So we're trying the "every other day" approach at this point. On the days he doesn't nap I get him to play quietly by himself for at least 30 mins and then he and Catherine can play together for another 30 mins. I really would like for him to learn to play by himself for the whole hour, but we're working up to it. Some days though, I find him like this. And he thinks he's not tired!

I'm Alive

Don't worry...I'm alive after a really rough and sick weekend. Last week we all had some kind of cold/allergy/sneeze/cough thing. By the end of the week, mine was in my sinuses, my ears were hurting, my throat was hurting, and it really really really hurt in my chest. Like it hurt to drink water, or to eat, or to exhale. And then by Friday evening I started running a fever between 101.5 and 102.5.

By Saturday morning (after I almost passed out on the bathroom floor--why does this happen to me with fevers??) I told Jay I had to see someone because I was so sick. So I went to the CVS nurse. When she asked what was wrong I almost started crying. I really felt so badly that I thought she would tell me I needed to go to the hospital.

Turns out I had a sinus infection, bronchitis, and the flu all at the same time. She sent me home with lots of medication and after 2 days in bed, I started to reemerge yesterday. I feel much better now but still a little tired and worn out. Everyone else in the family is still recovering from this cold and cough, but thankfully no one else seems to have the flu. We all had flu shots and I have no idea where or how I got it. But I am thankful to be feeling better and alive. And I thankful for my wonderful husband who took care of all the kids even though he didn't feel good himself.

Perfect Little Paintings

Check out my friend Angela's great business: www.perfect-little-paintings.com

She does custom art for baby and children's rooms. It's all beautiful! So take a look at her website and give her a call if you want to create a custom piece for you child or for someone as a gift.