The Bathroom

Matt worked really hard, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, on what he called my"pregnancy project." We didn't love the color of our master bathroom, the paint was peeling and no matter how many times we cleaned it there was mold growing on the walls.

Here it is before:

And after:

He did an amazing job! The painting was easy, but the wainscoting was a lot of work and hassle. The "new" bathroom is so bright and clean and not stinky and I love it. Great work babe!

CC's 3 year pictures

What do I say about my 3 year old?!? She is such a joy and such a challenge all at the same time. She can make me belly-laugh and tear my hair out all within a few minutes. She is learning to exert her own opinion, and does so whenever she feels it necessary. She doesn't like to be told 'no.' She loves to dance! She loves princesses, and dress up. She is a daddy's girl. She is MY princess. 

Love you Cbug!

 

All About CC

2012 Facebook Funnies

This is a collection of funny things that I posted on Facebook this year. It's long, so it is mostly for posterity, but I know that some of my family and friends don't have Facebook yet and have not heard some of these. I might have Matt put together his collection too. Kinda fun to look back at.

January 16^th - Do all 2 year olds know how to fake cry, or is it just my overly dramatic daughter?

Jan 22^nd - Sang a solo in church today and at the end I hear from my sweet C "yay Mommy!"

January 29^th - This evening K was running around with some swim goggles on. C sees and says that she wants some goggles. Matthew Porter comments that maybe if she had some princess goggles she might actually go in the pool. C says "I want my princess goggles!" I said "you don't have any princess goggles." C says "Lets go shopping!" Oh dear. No credit cards for my little girl!

February 5^th - K: "C you're a style ninja!"

February 14^th - There is no passive listening in my house. EVERY sentence starts with "hey Mom?, hey Mom?" until I acknowledge the new sentence.

March 17^th - So, K was very spoiled at the ER. He got a stuffed animal, and stickers and lollipops. As he was skipping out the ER doors he says "that was fun!" Silly boy. He really was amazingly brave, he didn't cry once and he was actually telling knock knock jokes to the surgeon and nurses.

April 3^rd - C is laying on the floor...
Me: K, did you push her?
K: No.
Me: Did you push her?
K: No.
Me: Did you knock her over?
K: Uh huh.
I guess the right question is always important.

May 4^th - My sweet daughter told me "I can't look, I'm working." I guess I know where she learned that one!

May 17^th - Kids are playing hide and seek by laying down in the grass. Guess its time to mow!

May 18^th - You can tell you are a mother when you pick your nail polish color based on what you think your daughter might like.

June 7^th - C: Mom, can we sit on the couch and cuddle? (Well gee, twist my arm!)

June 11^th - I'm learning that the intrinsic need of a 4 year old to spray his little sister with the hose outweighs the punishments Mom can dish out.

June 22^nd - My son requested pizza, hot wings and root beer for dinner. Which we had. Such a boy!

July 3^rd - C is in the other room singing "I'm peeing in my pants, I'm peeing in my pants!" I'm grateful that we have already put on the nighttime pull-up.

July 5^th - Been in our house for 10 months and I am STILL cleaning dog hair out of the fridge. Do you think that's where the previous owners kept their dogs?

July 5^th - Just called the plastic surgeons office that stitched up K's head back in March because I had not yet received a bill; they told me that he was satisfied with what the insurance paid and was not going to bill us for the rest. She said his intention is never to make somebody pay out of pocket for an ER visit. Seriously the BEST news all month!!! There still is humanity out there!!!

July 8^th - Me: I'm dying!
Matt: You're not dying, you're multiplying!!
I guess he has a point.

July 20^th - The cost of medical care in NY had cured me of my slight hypochondriasis.

August 12^th – From Tess Huber: Today I asked my cousin's adorable 4 year old what his favorite color was. He told me green, blue, red, white, sliver, black, not pink since that’s his sisters favorite color, orange, purple, the color of me, and the color of my eyes. :D what a cutie ;)

August 15^th - My newest pregnancy craving is potato chips. Bring on the LBS!!!

August 31^st - In C speak woodpecker = knocking bird. Makes sense to me!

September 16^th - Took a kid to church without shoes today. It was bound to happen sometime!

September 19^th - A year ago today I thought my life was over as I left my beautiful CO to move across the country. Turns out the East coast is a great place to live and we are very happy here!!

October 26^th - Weirdest pregnancy craving so far... Pumpkin shaped cookies. Not pumpkin flavored, just pumpkin SHAPED frosted sugar cookies. I know, I'm weird. FYI, Panera has the best pumpkin shaped cookies. 

November 12^th - I guess a kid flooded bathroom is a good way to get the floor really clean! :-)

November 15^th - Hurray for C she is officially potty trained! Hurray for Mom, 9 weeks without diapers before we start all over again! :-)

November 21^st - C: (talking gibberish)... Okay Mom?
Me: I have no idea what you just said.
C: I don't know either.

December 7^th - We drove by the local mansion to check out the Christmas lights. The kids were wowed at how big the house was and I asked K what he would do if he lived in a house that big. He said "jump on the beds!" Well, why not?

December 24^th - Every day this week I have been one ingredient short of the recipe I am attempting to make. I think it says something about my state of mind: a few nuts short of a pecan pie (or something like that).

December 29^th - C is slowly figuring out that when we let her play Xbox with her brother, we don't turn the controller on.

 

A Princess Party

Today we celebrated my little princess' 3rd birthday! 

No princess party is complete without:

Pink and purple decorations, tiaras and wands ...

... pink cupcakes

... and heart-shaped sandwiches.

Aunt Jodi got her two princess dresses, so we let her open that gift before her party. She chose to be Belle.

Our friends were invited to dress up too, so we had several more princesses, a couple fairies, a unicorn ...

 ... and a knight and a pirate!

The kids made a princess picture frame.

Fabulous Ashley started an impromptu game of "princess, princess, frog" (like "duck, duck, goose") while I cleaned up after our craft.

We had lunch and cupcakes.

And finally opened presents.

 
I think a good time was had by all! We are so grateful for the wonderful friends we have made here, and for there generosity with their time and gifts.

Christmas!!

Christmas Eve was very low key, or at least we attempted to be. We just had a normal dinner and then allowed the kids to open one present, which was new Christmas jammies.

The part that made it not so low-key is that C was in one of her "moods" (which really happen way too often) and she was not interested in joining us for dinner. She ended up spitting her dinner in my face which got her sent to her room and me in tears. Fun! So, patient K got to open his present by himself and then (much) later C got to open hers. So the above picture is taken much later. 

Christmas morning we woke up to SNOW!!! We hadn't had much snow yet and I was really "dreaming of a white Christmas" and I got it!

They had seen most of their presents under the tree already, but the two unwrapped ones under the blankets were new.

Lego storage (for the plethora of Lego's he was about to get) from Grandma & Grandpa H.

And a kitchen from Aunt Jess!

There was a definite theme to the kids presents. C got a lot of princess stuff.

 K got a lot of Lego's.

This was the aftermath.

Thanks Aunt Jess for the skates!

The kitchen, with the play phone, were quite a hit too. Thanks Aunt Jess!

The kids stayed in their jammies all day and we just played with all of the new stuff we got. Thank you everybody for spoiling us rotten!! My amazing husband cooked his first turkey, and we enjoyed a much happier Christmas dinner with our little family.

The Rest of the Advent Days

I was a total slacker when it came to the advent activities this year. Not only did I slack on taking pictures of everything we did, I also did not get an activity assigned to each day. Nevertheless, here are a few things that we did do, in no particular order.

Make, decorate and deliver Christmas cookies.

Christmas decorations out of Legos. 

("We" are way into Legos right now.)

Set up and decorate the Christmas tree.

Read the Christmas story from the Bible as well as The Night Before Christmas.

Make paper snowflakes.

Attend K's Christmas party at school.

K is seriously awesome at learning all of the words!

I think one of the things that the kids had the most fun with was our Elf, Clever. He was a sneaky elf who hid in a different spot every night and the kids really enjoyed finding him in the morning to see what he had been up to the previous night. Here are the few that I actually had pictures of: