Blueberry Muffins

Carys and I have had tons of fun since I've been home this week. This was a favorite of ours when she basically made the blueberry muffins. She really loves to be the helper in the kitchen so I'm trying to make sure I let her help as often as possible. It takes a bit longer but mostly b/c I wanted to get a shot at each step in the process.

Christmas Aftermath

Those of you who know me know I'm not the greatest housekeeper ever but our house looked like a Christmas warzone and like a Chrstmas grenade exploded. Luckliy we have an unused sun porch to store it all and it'll probably take us until spring get rid of it since we only have one trash can and one pick up/week. I am getting better at recycling so that increases me to two trash cans per week. At least Carys and Helen don't seem to mind at all!

Christmas Breakfast

Thanks to my Mom's Sausage ball recipe, we've continued the Christmas breakfast tradition at our house. Carys and Poppy love these tasty breakfast treats and I made a ham and swiss cheese egg bake to go with it. Yum yum.

Christmas Day

Waking up on Christmas morning. Carys still has a lot to learn about Christmas morning, we were definitely more awake and more excited than she was. I'm sure the tables will be turned oh so quickly in the coming years!



We left a plate of sugar cookies Carys and I baked on Christmas eve. Those silly reindeer and Santa, they left one bite and a sip of milk. They must be getting full from visiting all the houses on our block.



Santa always leaves gifts for good boys and girls and Carys was no exception. She got tons of goodies in her stocking plus one special Santa gift, a new, battery powered train set. In case you did not know, Carys is completely fascinated with trains.



Even as little as Helen is, she got on Santa's list for being such a good baby. Before you start to count items, Santa realized the day after he left a few things in the upstairs closet. Oops. I guess those will be next year or just extra "gifts" through the next few months.



True to baby form, Helen was content to chew on this bow the entire time we were unwrapping gifts. This of course made Carys happy as she got to unwrap extra gifts this year.



We moved the party to Tiffany's. They had LOADS of presents waiting for them here (as you can see). Also Tiffany cooked a delicious pork roast with green beans and potatoes and rolls (and all the little extras) topped off with a great bottle of red wine (or two). I really wish I'd taken a picture of the table setting. It was complete with sugar plums, candy cane candles, precious blown Christmas glass and wonderfully festive table settings. She and Mike completely out-did themselves. And she had just the right Rudolph video to calm the little ones while we ate. Perfect.



Here Carys and Caitlyn play with the stuffed pony, it was a big hit and it was great that the girls got along so well. Caitlyn's Mommy is expecting a little girl next April, we'll have lots to contribute by then.

Christmas Eve Prequel

Carys is getting a few pointers from Poppy on how to hang ornaments. Notice we started with the small unbreakable ornaments this year. This is because we know even we break ornaments (or light bulbs) each year so it will be that much more difficult for her not to. And yes, we did have a bulb break this year, it's a Christmas tradition with us.



Poppy is unpacking all the packages we got and Carys is being the helper. She loves to be the helper these days. You'll be seeing more of that later.



Thanks to the WHOLE great big family for making this a Christmas to remember for Carys. That tree is bursting at the seams. And that's how anyone would like it.

Christmas Eve

Finally we have a little bit of Christmas spirit, thank God!

Christmas Tree

Yes, it's Christmas and we still don't have a tree up. Here's a tree from downtown just to prove it really is Christmas time.

Lift Off

The countdown to crawling has begun.

Final Product

After the projects I had in mind for the season, some listed on this blog. Carys and I finally did manage to finish and get a final product. Hopefully we can do more on our outstanding projects since I'm off starting Friday. Whew!

Christmas Cookies!!!

It's 5 days till Christmas, we don't have our tree up but I'll be darned if we can't bake some Christmas cookies. After spending the WHOLE day putting the kitchen back together and cleaning after the remodel, we broke in our new oven with some sugar cookies. We used the pre-made squares so we could get to the decorating and eating part faster.



Carys found it difficult to wait on these so I turned the oven light on so she could watch them "grow" as she would say.





Carys loved frosting the cookies. I have to say after the second one, she was licking the knife and Mommy finshed frosting the cookies.



Poppy helped with the sprinkles. Why sprinkle the sprinkles when you can dump the sprinkles. Note the giant green sprinkle blob. It was fun and no we really did not mind the blob of sprinkles.



Sharing is good for the soul.

Sicky

We've been plagued by sickness this week. There's a violent stomach virus spreading at daycare and it came to our house. Poppy and Carys were both affected. Here Carys is resting between vomiting. That was yesterday. She's feeling better today and holding down fluids and food.

In case your wondering about her face. That's a completely unrelated issue. She was home sick (with a cough and cold on Monday) and decided she would pull Poppy's razor out of the bathroom trash and shave her face like Poppy. I think this will be the last time she tries that but it was a hard lesson to learn. We learned to throw all razors and sharp items away in the kitchen trash where it will take much more trouble for her to find them and make much more noise if she decides to try.

Jungle Gym

Welcome to our house, the indoor jungle gym for babies.

Cubes

I fall in love with certain baby toys and this is one of the set of soft cubes that I think is a must have for baby. But don't just listen to me. I think the proof is in the picture.

Baby on Board

Carys was just as happy on the sled with Poppy towing her. I was actually surprised she stayed on the sled but she may have been frozen to it (just kidding:)

Little Bundle

Mommy and Helen enjoyed tromping around in the snow and enjoying the winter weather. The snow is so beautiful right now b/c it's fresh and white and clean. No babies or Mommies were frozen during this outing:)

Hot Chocolate

Since it's been cold around here, we decided to break out the hot chocolate. It helps that we have some semblance of a kitchen now and a running dishwasher too! Carys says her favorite part was the marshmellows. I agree!

Sledding

This is the big hill Carys and Poppy went sledding down yesterday. Carys was a bit scared and refused a second run.



She was not so scared that she could not enjoy this little slope Poppy found. She happily went sledding down it many, many times...

Snowfall

We got 6 inches and more snow is on it's way! The girls are snuggled in their beds with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

Beautiful Eyes

Sometimes you take a million pictures but you only need that one.