Christmas is coming...

Last week Anabelle and I managed to catch a bug going around and both had bad colds. Fever, coughing, sore throats- the works! Being pregnant, I am a much bigger baby when I get sick b/c I am frustrated that I can't take any medicine to feel better. Also when you are already uncomfortable from being pregnant, it's just no fun to add in the uncomfortableness of being sick too. Fortunately I am feeling better and it didn't last too long. Poor Anabelle also got hit pretty hard with a fever that lasted about 4-5 days and a bad cough. After a trip to the doctor and lots of rest she is also finally feeling better. We are crossing our fingers that John won't catch anything and we will all be healthy for Christmas.

It's interesting how you can try so hard to be consistent with your children and set up routines and ways of doing things in an attempt to curb normal 2 year old attitude problems and a week of being sick throws all of your good effort out the window. It's just hard when they are so pathetic and not feeling well to not give in to their every want. What person doesn't want to lay on the couch and watch TV while being waited on hand and foot when they are sick- 2 year olds are no different. The difference lies in how you are once you are back to feeling better. Most of us realize that you can't watch endless TV and boss others around, but strangely our daughter hasn't made that connection yet. So this week has been a fun one for myself and John as we try to reign in our little dictator. Of course the craziness of the holiday season only makes this more challenging.

Being sick put me a little behind on my usual holiday activities and so this week I have been left to play catch up. Luckily I had most of our Christmas shopping done, with lots of gifts being purchased on-line this year. Once everything arrived I had a lot of wrapping to get done. I still have a lot of wrapping to complete tonight, but here is Anabelle inspecting the gifts that are already under the tree. It has been a tough lesson teaching her not to open, rip tags off and climb on the gifts. I am hoping everyone gets what they are supposed to and it's not broken :)

Another item on my to-do list that I was behind on was baking. I wanted to make sure I was truly feeling healthy before baking so as not to pass on any germs. I also was a little disappointed b/c I intended to let Anabelle help out with lots of the baking-she loves to help cook. But due to her lingering cough I didn't feel that it was a good idea to have her help. So I have been baking after Anabelle goes to bed each night. Aside from the usual chocolate chip and oatmeal butterscotch cookies; I like to make several different treats to send to John's work and the neighbors. Over the years I have come up with a few of my favorites to make that are easy and yummy. This year I decided to take some photos as I went along and share the recipes with you. I know it's nice to sometimes have a quick go-to treat to take to work or a party and you might be looking for something new to try so here you go.

Pretzel Turtles

Preheat your oven to 350, line your sheet with aluminum foil (I forgot to do this) and lay out pretzels on a baking sheet.

Place a rolo candy on top of each pretzel, and then put the cookie sheet into the oven for 4 minutes.

When they get out of the oven take a pecan and smoosh (technical term) it into the melting rolo.

Once they are all done stick them in the refrigerator to cool. Eat them up-yum!

Oreo Balls

Take a whole package of oreo cookies and grind them up in the food processor (I have done this by hand before and it works but it is a pain)

Then add 1 package of softened cream cheese to your cookie crumbs and mix it all together to make a dough- use your hands it's the easiest way :)

Once your dough looks like this, put it in the refrigerator for a little bit.

After about 20 minutes, take it out and roll it into little tiny balls. I got 90 out of one batch. Then put them back in the fridge for another 20 minutes.

While they are in the fridge, melt one bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave. Then using a toothpick, take the oreo balls and dip them into the chocolate. Placing them on a wax paper lined baking sheet when done. I find that you can only get about half of the oreo ball dipped without risking losing the ball into the chocolate. Since the tops are left without chocolate I like to take the leftover white chocolate and scoop it into a ziploc bag, then cut the tip off and drizzle the chocolate over the tops of the oreo balls. I think this makes them look fancier and more like truffles. After this step put them in the refrigerator for a while to harden up. Try not to eat them all in one sitting- they are so good!

If anyone has any other good easy recipes to share, I'd love a new one to add to the repertoire. Hope you are having fun getting ready for Christmas at your house!

Visiting Santa

What we've been doing...

Watching the Bears with Uncle Joe.

Making dinner with Momma.

Checking out the ornaments on the tree.

Santa jammies!

Ok Mom enough pictures, I'm ready for bed.

Look it snowed! Gotta put on my new boots first thing in the morning!

Nothing like putting on some reindeer antlers and reading a good book.

O' Christmas Tree

Our tree is up and the decorations are out, we are ready for Christmas at our house!

This year we have 2 trees, a big tree or "everybody's tree" as we are calling it, and a smaller tree that is just for Anabelle. Anabelle's tree has all non-breakable ornaments that she can take off and put on as many times as she'd like. I'd also like to work on some crafts with her to decorate her own tree. The big tree has mostly non-breakable or sturdy ornaments on the bottom (with the good ones on top), and Anabelle is allowed to touch them but not take them off. So far this is working pretty good-but we may still be in the honeymoon phase. She really likes to look at the ornaments on the big tree and even says "hi" to them all, giving them a little shake to see if they make noise. She is so fun to watch!

Checking out the big tree.

Here is Anabelle's little tree.

We have also been listening to lots of Christmas music around here. My favorite is a mix of various artists all on one album, it was sold by Avon back in the 80s and my Mom used to play it often. It always makes me think of Christmas as a kid. A few years ago I was able to find it all on itunes and make my own, since the cassette tape was no longer working (never mind the fact that I don't even have a cassette player). The last song on the album is the Muppets version of 12 days of Christmas. This has become a favorite of Anabelle's, and is referred to as the "Piggy song". She requests the piggy song SEVERAL times a day. Not sure how much longer the Avon album will stay my favorite if I have to hear the piggy song 52 times a day :)

I am very excited for all of the fun Christmas activities that are coming up, I know Anabelle will have a great time this year!

Cousins!

We are home from our trip to Houston and getting back into our "normal " routine. Today was a much quieter day than we've had in a while and Anabelle wasn't too happy about it. Alone with me all day she kept asking where Daddy was, and when I explained that Daddy was at work she then ran through the list of everyone she could think of wondering where they were. Sorry kiddo-it's just Momma!

We had a great time on our trip to Houston. Anabelle was so good on the airplane. She was entertained by reading the SkyMall magazine, drawing on her MagnaDoodle, eating snacks, playing with playdough, and watching Blues Clues on our new Kindle Fire. It was also nice to not have her sitting on my lap the entire flight, especially since my lap seems to be getting smaller these days.

We spent our time in Houston relaxing, spending time with family, playing games, eating, shopping and having fun! Anabelle had a lot of fun with her Grandma, Grandpa and Super Duper Auntie Tish (who came in from Las Vegas for the holiday). She also was VERY excited to see her Aunt Mary, Uncle Mike and cousins -Donte, Taylor, Gianna and Dominick. When they were around each other she played non-stop and didn't want to be interrupted, and when they weren't over she would ask about her cousins and when she'd see them next. It was so fun to watch them playing, and they did a great job with Anabelle. As always we are already looking forward to our next visit to Houston!

Playing dress-up with Grandpa's clothes.

Watching the Thanksgiving Day parade with Grandma.

I tried to get some cute pictures of Anabelle in her turkey shirt.

My friend Kylee made this adorable turkey hair bow for Anabelle.

Playing with Dominick: what could be more fun than crawling around under the dining room table?

Coloring with Gianna; Aunt Mary showed off her drawing talents and drew some Blues Clues characters in Anabelle's notebook. She loves coloring them in and looking at them.

Cousins! Dominick, Donte, Gianna, Anabelle, and Taylor.

Mary was great at getting Anabelle to smile for pictures!

Yum! Pumpkin Pie for dessert.

Anabelle and Grandma

John, Anabelle and Super Duper Auntie Tish

John, Anabelle, Grandma and Grandpa

Anabelle with her Grandma and Grandpa.

Thanks for a great visit!

Happy Thanksgving!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! We are thankful for so many things- especially this little turkey!

"Could I be wearing anymore clothes?"

A super gold star to whoever can tell me where that line is from.

What's been going on around here?

Lately I seem to be taking less and less photos of Anabelle and our daily outings. Not because we aren't doing anything, but just because I don't think of it. This leads to a decrease in blogging-sorry. Our days are generally filled with play dates with friends, story time at the library, grocery shopping and errand running, and playing/ chores at home. Anabelle is doing great. She talks so much and says the smartest/funniest things! She picks up on a lot of things that surprise me. She can really be entertaining to watch and play with. Both John and I were just remarking the other day how well behaved she was most of the time, and that she didn't seem to throw as many tantrums as we'd expected. Well Anabelle must have heard this and decided that she would show us that she can act like a typical 2 year old with the best of them. The last few days she has been more whiney than usual and is also exerting her independence. Often you can hear her saying "Apabow do it!" (we are still working on saying Anabelle) repeatedly, followed 5 minutes later by a scream of "Mama help you!!!" (i.e I need help). I am glad she is learning to be more independent and I know that this is a big area of development that all children go through, it can just be exhausting sometimes.

I finally managed to finish some sewing projects I had been working on for the fall. The first one is a little owl dress that I made for Anabelle. I had originally bought the fabric back over the summer thinking I would use it to make something for Marena and Adam's little boy, Everett. But the brown corduroy owl material just never seemed right for anything I was making. So instead of wasting it, I decided it would make a cute jumper. I had some real difficulties while sewing this and made some stupid mistakes, but thanks to some suggestions from some sewing friends I was able to fix it. I think it turned out pretty cute. It's a little big right now, but hopefully that means it will fit her for a few months. Anabelle was not in the mood to have her picture taken, so I just snapped some pictures while she was playing.

The second project is a turkey shirt for Thanksgiving. Last year it was my first ever sewing project (on a machine) to make Anabelle a turkey shirt and I loved it, so I thought she should have another one this year. It was my first attempt at words on a shirt and although it takes much longer, I like how it turned out. I think she'll wear it with a jean skirt on Turkey day-Gobble Gobble!

Last year's shirt

This year's shirt, similar but with some changes.

Now that I am done with my fall sewing projects I should really jump right into working on the Christmas/Winter things I want to make. Maybe if I start now I'll finish before December is half over. A girl can dream right?

We are heading to Houston on Friday to have Thanksgiving with John's family. I am hopeful that Anabelle will be good for the flight, I think she is old enough to be interested and excited in what is going on and enjoy traveling a little more than in the past. I think it will also help that she will have her own seat and we will have a whole row to ourselves. I know Anabelle is excited to see Grandma and Grandpa as well as her Super-Duper Auntie Tish, Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike and her cousins. Our trip has been a frequent topic of conversation around here as we get ready. Be sure to check back next week and I am sure I will have more photos to post of our visit.

Morton Arboretum

A couple of weeks ago my Mom and I decided to take Anabelle to the Morton Arboretum in Lombard, IL to check out the children's garden. I had been to the Arboretum before but had never visited the children's garden. For years I had been hearing about how wonderful it was. When I was teaching it was recommended as a place to take my students, and then when I joined the Mommy circuit it was again recommended as a place to take Anabelle.

Well it certainly didn't disappoint. The weather was cool but beautiful, and it seems that all the summer crowds were gone. We had a fantastic time climbing, running, exploring, touching plants, and dipping our fingers and toes in fountains. The grounds are full of plants, sculptures, fountains, rivers, climbing areas, little houses, slides, small scale furniture, water fixtures, tunnels, mazes and bridges. There was such a variety of things to do and see that this place would be appealing to kids of pretty much any age. We liked it so much we decided to purchase a yearly membership. I hope this trip is just one of many.