Valentine's Morning

 Pancakes (referred to by James as "Pancanks") with sprinkles are becoming a Valentine's morning tradition around here....

 And he wouldn't have it any other way.  James wolfed down three of them before we knew what happened.  They have whole wheat in them...so that's a good thing, right?

 Clara has NOT been feeling well this week, suffering from a runny nose and other cold symptoms.  Poor little Clara!

 James picked out a candle for me for V-day.  So sweet!  Mark also got me chocolate and a few new cds--love them!

Keepin' it real....no time for makeup (or a shower) before our 7am breakfast!

Valentine

Kicking off 'blogging in 2012' with Valentine pictures.  It's been months since I've updated here but really want to do a better job.  Rather than attempting to catch up on everything since October, we'll just pick up here in February

I actually took these pics a few weeks ago.  The day before had been so nice and warm at this park, I thought we'd give it another go, all dolled up, the following day.  Well about two seconds in, I realized it was wayyyy too cold and windy to be putting my babies through this.  So I snapped a few and called it good.

A Valentine's Day! 

Belated Father's Day

We are really missing Mark around here. He will be home in three days from a short missions trip to Rwanda. I took these pictures on Father's Day. That's how far behind I am in posting pictures! Mark is a super duper fantastic dad. He is so patient with the kids. James thinks the world of him, and Clara definitely lights up when she sees him the morning! Father's Day was pretty hot Mark pulled out the sprinkler and ran around in it with James while Clara watched from the swing. Later he and James made one of their favorite meals together; "pancanks", fried eggs, and bacon.
I'm starting to think collages could be my new method for including photos in my blog posts. I love that I can smoosh them all together and upload just one image! I realize the black and white I chose here is a little on the artsy side. I'm just playing around with settings!

Easter Bunnies

It is very difficult to get both children in the same photo, simultaneously smiling and looking at the camera. So I figured this was blog-worthy, although a little late. A quick photo taken right before church on Easter Sunday.

Easter 2011

We had an Easter gathering at our house Saturday. We had planned on my parents and brother Joel and his family coming over. My youngest brother Jeff surprised us by showing up and then Elizabeth's brother Justin also joined us for the day. It turned out to be a fairly relaxed afternoon of just hanging out in the backyard while Mark smoked meat.

Taking a break from meat-monitoring. Clara loves her daddy.

We smoked baby back ribs and turkey breast.

James loved loved loved having family around.

I took about 20 photos in a row of this little cousin trio. They were a little non-perfect. I think we've got years of that to come! The pink fluffy outfit (and beret) that Clara is wearing was from my grandma for Christmas.

James knew exactly what to do when it came to the hunt. He dove right into most eggs he found to sample the fillings.

Annie had a practice round the day before at my parents' house. But she was still perfectly content with about three eggs. She was so excited about them and really enjoyed putting them in the basket....then taking them out of the basket...repeat...

We dyed eggs, too. Only seven, though. That was about all we could handle this year...

Clara just started swinging a few weeks ago.

It was a full day. Our potluck meal with smoked meat was delicious. The kids were WORN OUT, as were the adults!

February Update

I'm starting to think a monthly blogging goal is more reasonable than the near-weekly posting I was capable of a few months ago. Anything more will be a bonus! Not that I've ever had anything too inspiring to share...just the goings-on of our family! But I do want to continue updating for family and friends that don't leave near us! So here we are....mid-February. How did THAT happen? The past few weeks have been a blur for several reasons.

1. I've been sick. Again. But who hasn't? Seems like we've all been sick multiple times this winter! It sure always makes me thankful for my normally healthy state.
2. My niece Annie turned one and I was lucky enough to contribute to the buffet of sweets....very fun...but a little time consuming. :)
3. My mom had a birthday and we had her over for a special birthday lunch. A 30-minute Rachael Ray recipe took two hours with two kids to take care of simultaneously! It was delicious, though, and worth it for Mom!
4. James is 'dabbling' in potty training. Yay! He's a loooong way off from being totally trained, but at least he's willing to try now!

And now a few pictures....(don't worry, none of the potty training efforts :)

Our little heart-breaker James....all spiffed up for some Valentine pictures I took....Mark thought this pose was really strange and too senior-picture-esque. I thought it was cute. Thoughts?

Clara with my mom at Annie's birthday party. Clara is 16 weeks today. Notice Clara's wrist rolls....yep, she's 'filling out' nicely. Sidenote: my mom's grandma's name was Clara!

Love the cousin-love! We'll have years of goofy pictures, I'm sure. None of them are ever looking at the camera, it seems.

Everything we know about royal icing I learned here. It's ultra-time consuming but has a really snazzy result. Mom and I had fun working on these last week for Annie's party...can you tell it was 'cupcake' themed?

And cupcake bites, of course! These were the extras, leftover from the party 'favors'. Of course, everybody was sent home with plates of leftover cupcakes, too, because...............

there were FOUR types of GOURMET home-made cupcakes, made by Mimi, my brother's mother-in-law. See how they shimmer? Gorgeous. The chocolate one on the right has purple fairy dust on it and was to. die. for.

the birthday girl, Annie, enjoying her pink lemonade cupcake

I love this family. This is Joel, Elizabeth, and Annie. Notice the cupcake dress and the fact that she can show you how old she is...she's SO smart!

These are incredibly life-like, aren't they? Hand-made (not kidding) by a friend of ours, Sally. They are literally chicken ottomans. They're so fun! If you're interested, here's her site!

Mark took James on an outing yesterday. A reward-for-going-on-the-potty-chair outing to get ice cream. They came home with this Valentine balloon, from James to Mommy. I love it.

And this morning I insisted on doing something little for V-day. So I whipped up a paper-heart 'garland' of sorts to hang from the light fixture (hole-punched and strung with curling ribbon) and threw on a pink table cloth. Here's James opening a card from his grandparents (Mark's parents). He took the entire process very seriously. There was some cash inside and he excitedly shouted, "I have MONEY!" He spent five minutes 'reading' his card and his money. (note: gorgeous roses from Mark!)

Although it appears that I fed James sugar cookies for breakfast, these are actually pancakes, stamped out with a cookie cutter and garnished with whipped cream and sprinkles, of course. SO much healthier than sugar cookies for breakfast. :) I really think that sprinkles are a great investment for the toddler years.

And that's all for now. It's a modern-day miracle that I've been able to blog this long today, so I'll post again another time...maybe in a month?

December to January

Somebody asked me the other day what I've been up to the past few weeks....what on Earth is keeping me so busy? These two kiddos have literally kept my hands full. In the past month we had five Christmas celebrations, James had his first stomach flu experience, I had a 24-hour bug, James fractured his foot, and we've all been battling a yucky cold bug for weeks! In addition to that, Clara is more and more alert every week. This is a LOT of fun for us but also makes it more difficult as I'm learning how to delegate my time between two children!

Here are several pictures from the past month....

James is obsessed with 'helping' in the kitchen. I'm learning to be more flexible and he's learning a lot about cooking! He loves to say " raw chicken! need salt! very hot! be careful!" Here he was helping my mom and me make ham sandwiches for my grandmother's birthday party. His job was to peel off the wax paper between the swiss slices and throw it away. He was listening to silly songs while he worked. :)

James has painted a few times. He likes to use the brush but refuses to finger paint. It sort of surprised me! He did, however, desperately want squeeze the paint out of the bottle by himself...am I a bad mother for not letting him?

We celebrated Christmas with Mark's family first. Here is my dear mother-in-law. We have been following her through quite the journey lately! Less than a week ago, Lois had major surgery to remove cancer from her right lung. She has been so brave and strong. The surgery was successful but there is still quite a bit of recovery to deal with. Please pray for her as she is recovering and still in the hospital.

Our annual hand bell and caroling at the nursing home

After getting his cool blue cast on, we had to keep James off his feet for a few days. Here he had fun making gingerbread cookies with my parents a few days before Christmas.

My grandmother turned 80 on Christmas Day. We had quite the party to celebrate the day after!

James and Clara with their cousin Annie, my brother's daughter. James had fun playing with Annie!...perhaps too much fun? He passed his cold on to her. :(

This was the best we could do for a Christmas picture of our family. Kind of pitiful, huh? It is very typical, though. James is nearly always checking on Clara, touching Clara, hugging Clara, poking Clara....and she just tries to take it all in.

My extended family...grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...the works!

The week following Christmas my girlfriend Amy was available one afternoon before heading home so a few of us got together. As you can see from the picture, we all have kids and are all busy mamas now! It was great to catch up a little!

10 weeks old

11 weeks

Trick or Treat

So this was obviously a few weeks ago...but I just wanted to share James' first Trick-or-Treat experience. He totally got into it. My parents' house was our first stop, followed by several homes in the neighborhood our friends live in. He referred to it as "Cookie Treat" or "Trick or Please" a few times, which was pretty cute.

Family and Our 4th of July

Hope you don't mind another slide show of photos. We've just had so much going on that I can't keep up with posting pictures individually! These are pictures from the past two weeks, some from the 4th of July brunch at my parents' house and some from visiting Mark's parents over two different weekends!

Easter!

A sampling of photos from our Easter weekend....James heard the magic words "wash dishes" and scooted his chair over to the sink at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He LOVES to splish splash. What a pill.

I know I've said it before--18 month-olds come with LoAdS of personality!

James really enjoyed shooting hoops with his daddy.

And now I'm joining the scores of parents who must post Easter-egg hunt photos. Here's James with his basket--not quite sure what to expect. My parents, Mark, and I made quite the ordeal out of it, with two cameras and a video camera to document the whole process.

James was really into it--for the first six eggs or so.

But 12 eggs later, he was starting to fizzle. I could just imagine him thinking, 'why are they making me clean up all these eggs?'

Two baskets were required to hold all of his eggs--a good sign that there were a few too many. It was fun, though!