quote of the day

"thanks for cleaning the poopie off my foot"

Said, not by my (almost)four-year old as you'd expect, but by my (almost)thirty-five year old husband. How did the dog know to poop on his side of the bed?.........

last minute trip to the water park

Sorry, no pictures of the kids actually IN the water park. I was too nervous to leave my camera on a random chair (the water park crowd is not the kind that you trust with your valuables) and too cheap to pay $10 for a locker. While not a relaxing getaway for the adults, it was a total blast for the kids.

playing in the snow

The temperature finally rose above 20 degrees, so we decided to venture outside! It was Ruby's first time in the snow, and the first time that Jack actually enjoyed it! Ruby liked it too, but was pretty frustrated at not being able to move around at all. We had a lot of fun playing with Emma, who loves the snow but doesn't get to play in it with us enough.
Jack was in heaven. The very first thing he did was plop down and make a snow angel. He didn't mind the cold at all, and had to be coaxed back in with hot chocolate and marshmallows. It was definitely the first time that the fun he was having far outweighed the pain of his freezing face and toes. We'll definitely make a few more trips outside the week while John is home. We might have to go sledding with the boys. More fun snow pics here.

Walking!

Ruby is officially a walker! She walks pretty much all of the time now unless she falls getting to her destination, then she'll crawl the rest of the way. I love this time when they toddle back and forth, and seem to be so pleased with themselves for mastering a new skill. I don't so much love the next phase that I know is coming....
the "get-into-everything-that-I-can-before-you-can-stop-me" phase.
She's also been eating an awful lot lately, probably due to the walking. She's eating as much as, if not more than, Jack. Some of her favorite things are macaroni and cheese, bananas, grapes, chocolate, and sour cream. She knows about eight different signs that are starting to become helpful in communicating. Most of them are signs for different animals (she still loveslovesloves animals), but she also knows the signs for "more", "all done", and "nurse".
And, of course, she is still as silly as ever.

Stuck in the house

I haven't left the house since Tuesday. Jack's preschool was canceled today, as were my planetarium shows and Astronomy class. And it's just soooo cold outside, the thought of bundling up the kids and taking them in and out of anywhere is really unappealing. So, being stuck in the house has forced me to do a few productive things: laundry, bathroom cleaning, and lots of cooking. So far this week, I've made chicken tortilla soup (yumyumyummy), bread, homemade strawberry jam, yogurt, cocoa nibbles, and play dough. The kids are getting a little stir crazy, too. Jack really needs some time to run around and get all the "crazies" out. There have been way to many cartoons watched in the past 48 hours!

Ruby has been playing a lot with this pink, antique doll highchair. She has one special baby that she carries around a lot, and loves to put it in the chair. Of course, she'll put pretty much anything in it, including bananas.

staying inside

growing bigger

Here are the babies at Christmas last year, what a difference a year makes!

Man, I love ramen noodles...

....and so do my kids. It's the one meal that I can cook in about three minutes and guarantee that they'll eat. Add some grapes and carrots on the side and it almost seems healthy, not to mention entertaining. Have you seen a one-year old eat noodles?

lazy days

I used one of my Christmas presents for the first time the other day and made some homemade yogurt, which I love. I've been making it in my oven, but it turned out much better in the yogurt maker. Unfortunately, I didn't have any granola to eat it with! My favorite recipe calls for butter, and I didn't have any on hand. Never fear! I went to the store for butter yesterday and was able to make the granola today. You know you're craving something when you take two little kids to the grocery store just for butter. But a big bowl of yogurt and granola with honey drizzled on the top is totally worth it.

Another Christmas present that I've been anxious to try out (since seeing it here and here and here) is the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. The idea is that you spend a few minutes mixing basic ingredients (yeast, flour, salt, water) together, store a whole bunch of dough in the fridge, then cut off a hunk when you want to bake it. It really is super-easy, and I always love a bread recipe that doesn't involve kneading and rising and kneading and rising. The bread is super-delicious, and I have to keep myself from eating the whole loaf in a day.

First handmade item of 2009

sherbrooke cowl. pattern by her. ravelled about here. loving it.

handmade in 2008

It's great to finally have pictures of the things I've made to look back on. I worked hard this year to make as many gifts for Easter, birthdays, and Christmas as possible. It's nice to think that these 16 pictures are only about half of what I've made this year. Missing are: embroidered hats for the kids, my dad's knit birthday scarf, baby dolls for Livi and Alex, Ruby's smocket, John's pillowcase, Sarah's embroidery, my mom's fabric napkins, Sarah's birthday purse, knit cowl for myself, Ruby's knit sweater, Livi's birthday apron, Spaceboy and Robot dolls, and probably a few other things I'm missing.

Let's hope 2009 brings lots of time for working on all things handmade!

looking back at 2008