10 MONTHS!

I cannot believe this baby boy is 2 months away from his 1st birthday!  It seems like it was just yesterday I was starring down at my big belly wondering when he was going to make his debut!  Michael has been a bit more daring lately and is starting to pull himself up onto the bottom step and has also made his way into the cabinets more than once.  And so the "fun" really begins!

And his fans love his "model" pose...

Weight: 23 lbs., 2 oz.

Height: 29 inches

Eating: Thinks he is a big boy eating more table foods and feeding himself.  Especially loves breakfast time.  (Maybe because he is perched in the high chair with a good view of the morning action.)

Starting to enjoy: Books, especially ones with "touch and feel" pages.

Newest feat: Going from an army crawling to sitting position on his own.

Latest accomplishment: Growing more hair.  Mostly on the sides and over his ears sporting a bit of a Bozo the Clown do.

Disposition: Still very sweet and always snuggly.

Snow Ice Cream

We are part of the snowpocalyspe that has hit the US of A.  (So much that our Christmas break is continuing an extra day today...)  A friend sent us this Ice Cream Snow recipe and we made it after dinner last night.  Jude gave it 2 bouncing thumbs up (a sign he really really likes something).  And making it broke our cabin fever for a few minutes!  

4 cups of fresh snow 

1 cup of milk or cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and enjoy!

Plenty of snow here to make more tonight!!

  

7 Quickies For Today/Tonight/Whatever Day it is...

Happy Friday!  (At least I think - these mid-week holidays have my internal clock confused!)  Playing a late night catch-up with Jen...

1.  Before Christmas break, Jude received the coveted "Sunshine Award" in music class.  He was VERY excited to share the news when he got in the car that day after school.  Although from the teacher's comment (and from his reenactment), I'm wondering if his sleigh bell ringing was similar to the cow bell...

2. Moving onto child #3...  Lately Ellen has been saying the Act of Contrition in the morning before breakfast in place of Grace.  A slight foreshadowing that it will be needed for the day ahead...

sharing my morning coffee

3.  And now news about #4...  Over the past week Mr. Michael has begun to move vertically and not just horizontally.  He's propped himself up on the bottom step several times and has also made his way into cabinets a few times now.  And so the fun begins!  

4.  We've seen a fair share of snow so far this winter.  And I'm beginning to think my kids' obsession with eating snow is borderline unhealthy.  One big snowfall (about 8+ inches) happened about 12 hours after Ryan had knee surgery a few weeks ago.  Our good friends thoughtfully offered to help shovel our driveway.  Ryan joked that our kids could probably eat enough of the snow to clear the driveway - similar to ants lifting 50 times their body weight, our kids could probably eat 50 times their weight in snow.  (Don't worry - I did the shoveling and no children or ants were harmed in doing so.) 

     

5.  With the fresh start of a new year (and with new Christmas goodies in our home) I'm copying off of my sister and have embarked on a 30 bags in 30 days mission.  So it's day 3 and I have 4 bags for Goodwill, 1 bag of treasure chest donations for the classroom (that Clare and Jude are NOT students in!), and 2 bags in the trash.  I love a good purge!  

6.  And of course I am very much looking forward to Downton on Sunday night!  

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7.  Have a great weekend and stay warm wherever you are!  

2014

Happy New Year! 

The 6 of us celebrated with friends (and cousins!) and still made it home by 10PM.  :) 

We were out of town for Christmas (enjoying new baby cousins!), so things are slowly getting back to normal around here.  Gifts have found new homes, laundry is mostly caught up, and the fridge and pantry are restocked (as best I can when Jude is home from school).  I have my new calendars and have been penciling in all the important dates we have this year...from Michael's 1st Birthday in March (-sniff-) to Clare's First Communion in May.  Looking forward to what lies ahead!  Many wishes for a Happy 2014!    

10 on 10

Linking up tonight with Rebekah for 10 pictures from our 10th day of December...

6ish

Tree lights are always the first lights on.

7ish

I will never grow tired of these pudgy hands!

9ish

Story hour craft by Ellen.

11AM 

New library books (and books on tape and DVDs) for all to enjoy.

Noon

Lunchtime!

2 or so...

A lovely gift from friends in the afternoon sunshine.

3PM

Sunshine in office - real life still life.  

5PM 

Love the quote for February on this gift-to-be calendar that arrived today.

  

6 PM 

Bubbles for the baby while Mommy washes dinner dishes.  

7 PM 

Sister snuggle under the Christmas quilt.

Hope you had a wonderful day!

9 Months

Michael turned 9 months old on Saturday!  

Bathtime = splashtime!

Teeth: Has 5, working on #6

Says: 

"Da-da" = Daddy

"Juuuuuuuu" = Jude

"Na-na" = Wants to nurse and go to bed

New Foods: puffs in any flavor, but especially likes banana ones...and has enjoyed vanilla wafers!

Mobility: Army crawls on his belly, pushing off with his right toe.

New Look: Growing (a little bit of) hair.  He's a blondie.  

Size: Anywhere from 6 month - 24 months.

Loves: Jude

Tolerates: Ellen as a playmate, especially if that means being in any "hideout" with her.

We love our Bubbs!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I love finding good soup recipes to enjoy during the fall.  This is one of my favorite soups to make, but since Ryan has no love for broccoli, I don't get to enjoy it very often!  I recently made this for friends and kept a few bowls for myself.    

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped onion

3 tablespoons margarine

6 cups water

6-8 bouillon cubes

8 oz. egg noodles

2 - 10 oz. package of frozen broccoli

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

6 cups milk

1 lb. cubed velveeta cheese

To make:

Saute together onion and margarine.  Add water and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil.  Add noodles, cook 3 minutes.  Then add broccoli, cook until tender.  Stir in garlic powder, milk, and velveeta.  Heat until cheese melts.  

Enjoy!  

Thanksgiving Long Weekend In Review

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

Both Clare and Jude donned Native American apparel for their respective Thanksgiving play and Thanksgiving feast to start off the long weekend.  

We put our Christmas tree up on Friday, but not before cutting out all 1000 lights on our pre-lit tree. That was an all-day event in itself.  As we were nearing the end of that ordeal I began to wonder if the time we had "saved" by the ease of the pre-lits in years past was catching up to us in the time we spent cutting out the lights...   

We have our hay and manger out for Advent.  (Ellen is especially excited about this and has already put ALL of the hay in the manger several times.)

And she was very pleased with her seasonal Sunday best yesterday and asked Ryan, "Just how gorgeous do I look!?"  (She also wanted to show her puffy slip to the man and son behind us at Mass.  Thankfully she asked me first and was told no.)  

Happy December!

Happy Advent!

5 Favoritas

Linking up with Hallie today for some favorites...

1. New-ish jeans.  

I got my sewing machine out last week and made easy alterations on 2 pairs of jeans, hemming one piar and taking in another.  This tutorial by Refashion Mama on hemming jeans, and keeping the original "jean" hem was great - I'm going to keep it in mind the next time I'm shopping for my short self.  

And this tutorial by Freshly Picked on altering jeans by taking them in on the sides was very helpful. Glad I took the plunge on both of these are have been loving having 2 "new" pairs of jeans to wear!  

The only picture I have of my work was of me in the mirror, standing on the toilet in my altered jeans for my fashion grad sister...not worthy to post.  But she did approve!  

2.  Cartwheel by Target.  

Have you heard about this???  It's a free app that lets you choose deals/coupons (5-50% off!) to use at Target.  Just select which deals to add to your cart and then present your phone when you check out to be scanned.  So easy!  Love me some good dealz!

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3.  Clementines.  

They're herrrrrrrrrre!  

And I love that Clare loves them so much.    

4.  The color fossil grey by Glidden.  

Color matched in Sherwin Williams cashmere paint.  And purchased during their 40% sale.  

Win - win - win.  And currently being rolled out by my husband.  :) 

5.  Crock pot soups!  

The Cheese Tortellini Soup I shared yesterday is a current favorite here.  But I also love making Potato Soup (and I know you do, too, Kathleen!) and Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is another one of my very favorites!  Delicious, hot, easy dinner - check! 

  

{Crockpot} Cheese Tortellini Soup

I love a good crock pot recipe, especially one for soup this time of the year.  This recipe came from a recipe exchange I did this spring and we finally tried it out for the first time a month or so ago when the fall temperatures hit.  Ryan, Jude, and I especially love it!  (Jude keeps telling me that "spinach in soup is really really good!")  

Cheese Tortellini Soup 

1 bag frozen tortellini (approximately 12 oz. - I use cheese, but meat would work, too.) 

1 small bag of fresh spinach

2 cans of Italian style diced tomatoes

1 box or 4 cups of chicken broth

1 block of cream cheese

1 pound of roll sausage (optional) 

1. Brown sausage and drain (if using).

2. Chunk up cream cheese.

3. Put all ingredients into the crock pot.  (You can put tortellini in now or later.)

4. Cook on low for 4 - 6 hours.

5. If you didn't add tortellini in with other ingredients, add it an hour or so before serving.

I've only made it without the sausage and just using cheese tortellini - we are fans.  

Here are the leftovers I enjoyed for lunch the next day - yum.  

Tree of Thanks

Last year around this time our pastor gave a talk that has stuck with me.  In it he mentioned that "if you are not teaching your children to be thankful, you are teaching them to ask for more."

So in that spirit and with the upcoming holiday, we made a Thanksgiving tree of sorts over the weekend.  I simply stuck a large tree branch in a pot with rocks and we were good to go.  (Of course Michael has become interested in those rocks...thankfully they are too big to do any damage!)  I printed out tags for everyone to write out what they are thankful for.  Simple.  And the kids are really enjoying it!  And I love seeing what they have come up with over the past few days.

Ellen's grateful heart.  

Funny because we don't own any!

He really does love them!

8 Months!?!?!

Our sweet Michael turns 8 months old today.  

8 MONTHS OLD!  He is getting too old too fast!  

Nickname: Bubbs.

Eats: Still nurses, but eats solids like no other baby I have ever had!  He especially likes peas, green beans, and bananas.  

Latest achievement: Mastering the army crawl!  He made his way into the kids' bathroom the other day and tipped over the trash for the first time.  

Newest talent: Clapping!  

Teeth: 4 - 2 on top and 2 on bottom.

Says: "Da-da" and "Juuu" (I'm pretty sure that means Jude!)

Diaper size: Yes, that's a 4.  

Dinner for New Mom

Some friends of our's recently joined the 4 kids club and welcomed their new addition almost 3 weeks ago.  I brought them dinner the other night - one of the perks of having a newborn!  I always feel like you get a lot of casseroles with the addition of a new baby, so dinner for our friends included...

Chicken Packets, Macaroni and Cheese, Green Beans, and Snickerdoodles.  

(Ryan says snickerdoodles are his favorite, so I shared the love.)  

In disposable pans = no dishes = more time to love on that newborn baby!

Life of a Kindergartener

Yesterday was the first day back to school after a nice relaxing week off for fall break.  (I look forward to not packing lunches for 5 glorious days!)

Jude, who his teacher described as a "sponge" during his parent-teacher conference, was soaking it all up again today and was a wealth of knowledge for me after school...

With a real meteor he found in our yard.

"This kindergartener girl found a feather at recess and she told me that when she finds a feather she checks to see if it has rabies by licking it."  (gag)

"The secret at my table is that Mrs. 'G' (classroom aide) dances with gorillas."