Heather Drive

Toddler Tornado

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:35:00 +0000

For all who were wondering how on Earth a playroom could look this spotless...

...this is an example of what it looks like after Nora has had her way with it.

The parental cleaning service comes through at 7:30 p.m. every night, after the toddler is in bed. :)

This is the way all kids "play," right? With an attention span of 0.5 seconds before they move onto the next thing?

Deployed

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:55:00 +0000

It is a day that has been hanging over my family for quite some time now. One that I could not really grasp until today. And although it certainly seems more real now than ever before, I think that in a lot of ways, I am still processing.

My brother, Trevor, will officially be deployed tomorrow morning.

This afternoon, we attended the "yellow ribbon ceremony" to send off his unit.

He will be gone for a year. It's tough to comprehend. Thankfully, he'll remain in the States for a little while, fulfilling the beginning weeks of his deployment in the deep south. Then, we don't know what his destination will be. We have no idea where he's going; and neither does he.

I am sad. I am sad for the hole that will be left in our family until he returns safely home. I am sad that when we have family dinners, there will be a notable absence for a while. I am sad for the birthdays, the holidays, and other important events he will miss. I am sad that we will only get to joke, to laugh, to make fun of our mom (sorry, Mom!) in a long-distance way. (But I do have to give a shout-out for the miracle that is Facetime. Thank you, Steve Jobs.)

I am scared. At the ceremony today, there was a lot of emphasis on coming home safely. That's obviously numero uno, but for me, it's a fear I can delay a bit--because like I said, we don't even know where he's going. So it's actually hard to know if we should be scared. But I guess the fear right now is mainly focused in the unknown. So, we wait--just as he does--to find out what his assignment will be.

I am angry. I'm angry that there is even a need for soldiers. Anywhere. I wish that we could all just get along, sitting around a fire and singing kumbaya and all that shit. I'll go all beauty queen on you and say that I wish for world peace. An impossibility, I know, but hey. I'm just putting it out there.

I am proud. I am proud of Trevor. For the man he is, and for the sacrifices he is making for this country. It may be a "war" that I cannot understand, but it doesn't mean that I do not appreciate and recognize what the men and women in the military do for all of us. I love Trevor and love what he adds to our family. We fought a lot growing up--especially when we were teenagers, wow, there were some doozies--but we're grown-ups now.

That's how Trevor's deployment affects me. But the thing that gets to me the most--the thing that gives me a ball of anxiety in my gut--is not about me. It's about the little family he has made.

{Trevor and Kara's wedding day - May 21, 2011}

When I pray with Nora before putting her to bed each night, it is the three of them that I pray for. For safety, for peace, for strength. That the year may fly by for them so that they can all be together again before they know it.

As we sat at the ceremony today, you could hear the sounds of small children all around. Many of these kids were going to be saying goodbye to their daddies, or their mommies, for an entire year. And that's just... heartbreaking.

Sitting among all of these people, it really hit me: Kara, Hunter, and our family--we're not alone. There are hundreds of thousands of people throughout this country--and millions around the world--who are affected in this very same way.

{Hunter, searching the group of soldiers for his daddy}

It is with great pride that we send Trevor off to serve with the U.S. Army National Guard.

But we will miss him.

And we'll be counting down the days until he's home.

Penguin Personalization Giveaway Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:30:00 +0000

It's Friday night. It's been a busy week.

Michael and I are drooling over the backsplash tile we're 99% sure we're going with for our kitchen.

There's a fire in the fireplace. And there's wine.

And TurboTax. That's right, we're starting our taxes. What can I say? We like to party.

But I wanted to drop in quickly to announce the Penguin Personalization giveaway winner. Thanks to all of you who entered--I'm sorry everyone can't win! But it sounded like all of you really liked all of Megan's work (see it again at www.penguinpersonalization.com), so I hope you will consider ordering from her in the future for all of your embroidered items. Personalized gifts, FTW!

We used random.org to pick a number. Without further ado, the winner is...

#14!
(In case you're wondering, we did 1-51 instead of 52 because there was a duplicate comment, so I counted that as only one comment.)

And to save you all from counting, #14 is... (drumroll, please)

Jessica, I will e-mail you. I need you to respond within 72 hours to be eligible to receive the prize, mmkay? :) Congratulations!

Giveaways are fun! I'm not going to go all giveaway crazy on you guys or anything (that would just be annoying), but hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do another one relatively soon.

Have great weekends, everyone!

DIY Alphabet Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:15:00 +0000

First, let me say thank you to all who left such kind comments on our playroom reveal post on Monday. It was so fun to finally be able to show you a little part of our house. Dare I say that it motivates me to finish other rooms just to be able to share those, too? :)

Anyway, I promised to follow up the playroom photos with some additional details about a few of the projects we completed for the room. The one that seems to garner the most interest from people--both online and in real life--is the alphabet wall.

Honestly, our ABC wall made the room for us. It's a pretty big wall, and before, it was a blank canvas, staring at us every time we were in there. Since it's a playroom without any real furniture, there was nothing against the wall to "anchor" the whole thing, so it was tough to figure out what we wanted to do with it. We considered some other art--prints, mostly--but all of it seemed too small. And a lot of the art I've spotted and liked (like this) is expensive.

I had pinned a few alphabet walls on Pinterest (like this and this), and I kept coming back to them as a solution for our giant wall. At one point, I showed Michael the photos, and he was sold. That, in turn, sold me.

I immediately began to seek letters. I wanted to find as large a variety as I could, and I knew from experience with other letter projects (Nora's name on her nursery wall, the D-A-D we did for Michael for Father's Day) that Michaels and Joann Fabrics only had a few varieties. But at some point, someone (maybe Niki?) suggested Hobby Lobby.

I don't even remember when Hobby Lobby opened locally, but there is only one here. It's relatively new, at least, and the crafty girl inside me is ashamed to admit that I had never been. Although it's not exactly FAR from where we live, it is somewhat of an inconvenience to get to, and Michaels and Joann's are closer--so I just never really had a reason to go to Hobby Lobby before. My search for letters led me over there, however, and I will say that as soon as I walked in the door, I was blown away.

Why hello, Hobby Lobby. Where have you been all of my life?

Love at first sight, people. And, as it turned out, for good reason--because I hit the freaking jackpot for letters at this store. Every time I thought that I had definitely found every variety they had, I stumbled upon another. That was the only complaint I had: their letters were scattered all over the store, not just in one easy-to-browse section. BUT let's just say that I was not exactly sad about having an excuse to scour every inch of the store.

After initially collecting something like 15 different letters at Hobby Lobby, we made separate trips to Michaels and Joann Fabrics to round out our alphabet collection. Over the course of a week or so, we collected everything we needed.

To decorate each letter, we also picked up a variety of acrylic paint colors (some I already had in my stash, others we picked out new), and some fun scrapbook papers. Then, we got to work. We spent several of Nora's naptimes and evenings decorating our letters. First, we laid them all out in order and I mapped out a plan to utilize a variety of patterns and colors. I made note of the color or scrapbook paper that we planned to use for each letter, and we did our best to envision what the finished product would look like (it was impossible).

Many of the letters were simply painted. With others, we painted the edges (or left them plain) and then I covered the front of the letter with scrapbook paper using Mod Podge. I used a foam brush to spread Mod Podge on the letter, placed it face-down on the back side of the scrapbook paper, and spread out any crinkles the best I could. Then, after letting it dry for several minutes, I used an exacto knife to trace the letter on the paper, cutting away the excess paper. Once I was done cutting, I covered the top of the paper (the front of it, the nice decorative side) with a layer of Mod Podge to seal everything and give it a nice protective finish.

Some of the letters were super easy, because they were already complete when we bought them (such as the C, the G, the N--printed on our computer, the O--a clock!, and the R--left unpainted).

I actually spray painted the J and the Z. The J is just plain white semi-gloss spray paint, so that was simple. With the Z, I first spray painted it all white, let it dry for 24 hours, and then taped stripes on it with painter's tape. Then I used black semi-gloss paint to spray it again. Once dry, I peeled off the tape, and ta-da! Zebra print.

Once the letters were all finished, it was time to figure out how to hang them all. First, we laid them out in a "pattern" on the floor to determine how many letters to put in a row, how much space to put between them, etc. I took photos of our layout on my phone to reference as I did the hanging.

Then, we had to actually attach hanging hardware to each of the letters. You know, the little hooks that are on the back of picture frames? A lot of the letters didn't have those, so we had to add them. We bought a variety of picture hanging hardware at Hobby Lobby, and I used different ones, depending on a lot of factors--the thickness of the letter, the amount of space on the back, etc.

Finally, it was time to hang everything.
I wish it went that quickly in real life. :)

It actually really wasn't that bad, but I did do it over a period of about 3-4 days. As you can kinda-sorta see in the slideshow (and in the photo below), we utilized a laser level for the top row to make sure we were working on a straight line. We also taped a yard stick to the left side to mark the left edge, and used painter's tape to mark the right edge. The goal was to hang all of the letters, fairly evenly, and space them out to span the entire length between the yard stick and the painter's tape.

To hang each letter, we used a variety of methods--picture hanging hooks and finishing nails, mostly. Again, it depended on the letter, the type of hardware we had used on the back, and how much space there was between the hardware and the top of the letter.

And then our alphabet wall was finally DONE! So we stood back and admired it. Every day. We still do. :)

Time consuming, but worth it. And educational, too. We're working on teaching Nora each of the letters already. (Just kidding. Kind of.)

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a monogrammed MINT cosmo bag from Penguin Personalization! It ends Friday, you know.

Penguin Personalization Review and Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:00:00 +0000

This review has been a long time coming, folks. Five months in the making.

Mommy blogger FAIL.

But now, the stars have aligned. Megan over at Penguin Personalization is ready, I've actually remembered to sit down and do this, and all systems are finally a go.

REWINDING... I had so many ideas in my head of what I wanted Nora's birthday party to look like. I settled on an ice cream cone theme pretty early on, and started envisioning the details--the invitations, the food, the cake, a perfect sundae bar with fixings set up straight out of a magazine, the decor... and the birthday girl's outfit, of course.

Because of the timing of our move, I had to let pretty much all of it go (except the outfit!). It was still a nice party and everything was cute--but it was thrown together last-minute and it just did not completely live up to my Martha Stewart-like expectations for myself. But I long ago decided to give myself a break given the circumstances, SO I DIGRESS.

Anyway, a week or so before the party, I realized that I hadn't yet figured out what I was going to do for Nora's outfit. I had found a cute jean skirt I wanted her to wear, but I was at a loss for the t-shirt. I had been searching for something that would tie into our ice cream theme, but hadn't had much luck in stores. Online, I had pinned a number of options, but... I certainly hadn't left myself very much time.

And then I remembered Megan, who started up her own little business, Penguin Personalization. Megan and I "met" 4+ years ago when we were both planning our June 2008 weddings--hers in Louisiana, mine in New York. I shot her a quick e-mail asking if she would be able to do a custom embroidered t-shirt for me, and she not only agreed to get it to me in time for Nora's birthday (only about a week away), but also offered to give the shirt to me for a review AND sponsor a giveaway on my blog. That Megan; gotta love her. Seriously, though, at that time in my life I was possibly more stressed than I had ever been, so Megan was honestly a lifesaver. I almost cried. :)

So, point #1: Megan is flexible, friendly, and a doll to work with.

Once I described to Megan what I was looking for--a colorful shirt with an ice cream cone, perhaps Nora's name, and I liked the idea of a cherry on top--she went to work, creating several custom designs for me. She e-mailed me the concepts, and I was really impressed with her creativity. For one of them, instead of just a plain ol' cherry on top of the ice cream, she had made the "cherry" a #1! How cute is that? Of course, we picked that design.

Megan was also really helpful in determining the best size t-shirt to order for Nora. With inconsistent sizing among clothing brands, it can be really difficult to order things sight unseen, but Megan did her best to relay the brands and sizes to me in ways I could relate to (i.e. I was somewhat familiar with Walmart's sizing, and Carter's).

When the t-shirt arrived in the mail just a few days later, I was thrilled with the result. The applique/embroidery is of great quality, and done in a way that doesn't cause any "puckering" or other unsightly problems with the t-shirt fabric. We couldn't wait for Nora to wear it at her party.

As you might know by now, Nora's party was a success, and we received many compliments on her t-shirt. She wore it several more times throughout September, and the embroidery held up just fine in the washing machine.

If you're looking for custom t-shirts for your babes, I highly recommend Megan and Penguin Personalization.

And, she doesn't JUST do t-shirts; Megan has a variety of personalized products available, such as hats, towels, blankets, bags, handkerchiefs, and more. Peruse her website and Facebook pages to see some of her work. If there's something you'd like but don't see, or it's listed as out of stock, be sure to contact Megan directly at penguinpersonalization@gmail.com. One of the biggest advantages to working with her is that she can do pretty much anything (after all, it's personalized, y'all). Here is just a selection of the things she can do:

THE GIVEAWAY
Now... Megan/Penguin Personalization has offered to give away a MINT (brand) Cosmo Bag with an embroidered initial to one lucky Heather Drive reader! These bags (shown below) are really versatile, as they can be used as a makeup bag, wipe case, purse organizer, a case for pens and pencils, etc. Surely you could find a use for it, or give it away as a gift!

Giveaway Prize:
(1) MINT Cosmo Bag, embroidered with an initial from Penguin Personalization

Please make sure to follow the entry instructions carefully. They're not difficult, but you must follow the instructions in order to be eligible to win.

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite item/design from Penguin Personalization's website or Facebook page. Also, please leave an e-mail address where you can be contacted if you win.

Limitations:
Only one comment/entry per person. Giveaway open only to residents of the United States. (Sorry to all of my international readers!)

Deadline:
This giveaway will end at 8 p.m. EST on Friday, January 27. Entries left after the deadline will be ineligible to win.

Winner:
One winner will be chosen using random.org. The winner will be announced on my blog and will be e-mailed notification of the win. Winner has 72 hours to respond to my initial contact, or a new winner will be chosen.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: Penguin Personalization provided Nora's custom birthday t-shirt at no cost to me, in exchange for my review of the product. However, opinions expressed within the review are my own. (I hope you know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn't positively review a product that I wouldn't back anyway, whether I paid for it or not!). Penguin Personalization is also sponsoring the MINT Cosmo Bag giveaway.

Double Trouble

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:25:00 +0000

We went into the pediatrician's office this morning for Nora's ear "recheck" appointment from her latest ear infection diagnosis two weeks ago. I had an inkling that things were not going to go well.

Sadly, we've gotten pretty good at diagnosing Nora's ear infections on our own, just by observing her behavior and her general demeanor. She's usually not miserable, but she's just not herself. A little moody. With a short fuse. Occasional rubbing of the ears. Interrupted sleep.

That last one has always been a tell-tale sign. On Saturday night, she was up--wide awake--for three hours in the middle of the night. Fun times, I tell you.

Anyway, the doctor took a look at one ear and sighed, "That one is a mess." And then she looked in the other one, "That one's not good either."

Let's back up here. December 22: Left ear. January 9: Right ear. January 23: Both ears. The last two were diagnosed at appointments that were supposed to be "rechecks"--in other words, appointments to confirm that infections had cleared. Our poor girl has not been ear infection free since well before Christmas.

The kicker this time was that she had been on Omnicef, which is considered a broad spectrum (a.k.a. strong) antibiotic--because amoxicillin hadn't been doing the job. Now, it appears Omnicef isn't working, either. So, the doctor opted to give Nora injectable antibiotics.

INJECTABLE. Antibiotics.

They're the big guns, y'all. Not cool.

We have to go back tomorrow to have her ears reevaluated, because apparently, these antibiotics are so good that we should see marked improvement in just 24 hours. At that point, the doctor will decide if she needs another round. Rinse and repeat for Wednesday. Poor little Nora is going to be traumatized, I fear. Needless to say, she was not thrilled with the two needles that were stuck into her chubby little thighs this morning.

We also walked out with an ENT referral. We're at the end of our rope with this stuff. We want our baby to get better. We've looked into chiropractors, and it is just not a feasible solution for us right now. We've considered the dairy sensitivity, and will be talking to our doctors about that a bit more, but overall, we're just happy to have the appointment with the ENT (next week) to get a formal evaluation of her condition, and go from there. This isn't the way we wanted this to turn out, but we just want to put an end to this endless sea of ear infections, trips to the doctor, and antibiotics.

Baby steps.

Playroom Reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:20:00 +0000

AKA the post in which I show you how we turned a formal living room into a playroom.

Our new house was built in the 1970s, so of course, we have a smaller, cozier family room AND a formal living room. When we first looked at the house, then bought it and moved in, we figured the living room would be kept quite empty for a while. Buying furniture for a room that we didn't plan to spend much time in was pretty low on the list of priorities when it came to spending our money.

At first, the room was an "overflow" room. And when we were ripping down drywall and the family room was under construction, we had all of our family room furniture in the living room. It was a mess. But once we had things under control, we moved everything into its rightful place and the living room was left with... a toybox. So it became a makeshift playroom for Nora.

Over time, we began to embrace the idea of a first floor playroom. And finally, we decided that if we were going to make it a playroom, we should put the effort into "decorating" it as such. We started collecting pieces for the ~~formal living room~~ playroom, and now, we are finally done.

It's funny, because when you walk through our front door, this is actually the first room you see. I suppose it is a testament to the current state of our lives. Hi, we are parents to a young child. :)

The color on the walls is Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. We actually chose it (and painted it on the walls!) before we even really knew what we were going to do with the room. Looking back, that probably wasn't the right approach, but I think it turned out to be the perfect color. I love it. It's a lovely blue-gray color and really makes this room light and airy.

This is a DIY magnet board we made out of sheet metal for Nora (thanks to Pinterest for the inspiration).

Curtain rod and curtains are from JCPenney.

Table ~~by Tot Tutors, purchased at Toys 'R' Us~~ from Santa's workshop. :) We have really been impressed with the little table so far. The pieces are nice and sturdy, the colors are great, and Nora loves it. Win-win-win.

Playmat by Tadpoles, purchased at Amazon.com. We bought three of them to make a mat of this size. This has been great for us, too. For a few months, we sat right on the hardwoods to play with Nora in the then-empty "playroom," and it was really rough on the tailbone (especially one that I swear is permanently damaged by childbirth). This makes things a bit more comfy!

Cube shelf and fabric drawers from Target. This was one of our latest additions within the last several weeks, and it has really helped to complete the room. To have additional, smaller storage to supplement the toy box has been great. Books, smaller toys--they're all easily accessible to Nora, but they now have a place.

Lamp and lampshade from Target. Art from Etsy. There are dozens of variations of the "playroom rules" floating around Pinterest and Etsy, so there are certainly options. And, subway art is fairly easy to DIY, too. However, this PDF file was only $10 and I figured it was more than worth it for the time I would've spent to try to design something I liked equally as much. I had it printed at Staples for like $2, and bought the frame at Michaels.

More toys organized, but easily accessible to Nora. We also decided to hang her cake smash collage (want a better look? check out this post) in here.

Ah, the alphabet wall. This thing was a labor of love, and totally deserves its own post--so be on the lookout for more details on this project within the next few days. In short, we had a huge wall to contend with, and debated going in a few different directions. But in the end, we fell in love with an alphabet wall I had pinned on Pinterest... the rest is history.

Toy box is by my dad. :)

I know this type of thing probably isn't everyone's cup of tea. Like I said, this is one of the first things people see as they come into the front door of our house! A lot of people would prefer to have playrooms that can be hidden behind closed doors, and toys that can be tucked away. But for us, it was about creating something functional. Instead of furnishing and decorating a room that would be rarely used, we went with something that is utilized on a daily basis.

In this room, Nora can play with all of her toys just a few steps away from us while we're making dinner. When we have company over (almost all of whom have children of their own), our kids can play together in the next room while we enjoy some adult conversation. We envision that this room will get a lot of use during our years with young kids. At some point, when they're a little older, we'll move the playing into the finished part of our basement, and this room will transform into something else. Until then, our little girl enjoys it every day. See?

Making sure to come full circle--here are the "before" pics. First, with the sellers things:

And then on the day we moved in:

And one more time, here's our after:

Overall, this was a really fun room to work on. It took some time, but mostly because we just collected items little by little. Once we decided to truly "finish" it, everything came together very quickly. I wish the kitchen could be this easy!

Gated Community

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:13:00 +0000

You'd think that with the (seemingly) hundreds of baby gates on the market, it would be easier to find one that actually works and fits in the spot you want to put it. But we're not having much luck, and we have an increasingly mobile and curious toddler who thinks that climbing the stairs is the most.fun.activity.EVER.

Our biggest problem lies in our banisters. The one at the bottom of the stairs is pretty tall, so we can't find a gate tall enough to be able to line up the tension rods with the flat parts of it. So we figured we'd have to get one of those banister kits to adapt the best/tallest gate we could find--a Dream Baby Extra Tall security gate--but then we noticed that when we use the tension rod against our sorta-loose banister, the tension was actually forcing the banister over to the side a bit, causing some of the molding surround the banister to rip apart. NOT GOOD.

The other issue with the bottom of the stairs is that I guess you're supposed to put the gate on the bottom stair, as opposed to the floor? If that's the case, we've got bigger problems since we have a pretty thick and cushy carpet as a runner, making the surface area unlevel when you go from left to right.

For the top of the stairs, we have the same type of banister, but it's a bit shorter. We bought a Summer Infant Sure and Secure Extra Tall gate, because it was one of the only ones I found that was (hopefully) the right height AND could be hardware mounted (a safety requirement for top-of-the-stairs placement). We don't have it in our hands yet, because our local Babies 'R' Us and Toys 'R' Us stores were out of stock, so we had to have my sister-in-law pick it up for us in the city where she goes to college, and we won't see her again until Saturday. But since the banister is a little loose upstairs, too, I'm nervous that this won't work, either. When you hardware mount, does it still require tension against the surfaces you're mounting on?

Our trim molding is not the easiest thing to deal with either, as it also semi-interferes with mounting--both tension and hardware styles. Fun.

And then there's part of me that is thinking we should just save our money and buy a cheap, removable-on-a-daily-basis gate that we can somehow rig at the bottom of the stairs, and just very carefully supervise (like we have been) whenever we're upstairs. At what age do kids generally learn how to go down stairs safely? When are they old enough to start teaching them to scootch down on their bellies, backwards?

For downstairs, if we can't figure out a bottom-of-the-stairs solution, our only other option is to put a gate in the doorway to our kitchen, then put a (very wide, and probably very expensive) gate across the opening into the playroom, effectively blocking off our entire foyer. This is less appealing to me because I feel like the gates will be more "in your face" this way, as opposed to being relatively inconspicuous in our stairway.

What do you think? Any suggestions for us based on our photos? Do you live in a "gated community," or do you let your kids roam free? If you do the former, what is the system you've found works best for you? If the latter, how on earth do you keep your kids away from stairs and/or watch them every second?

A Bitch of a Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:30:00 +0000

We moved into our new house in August. Five months later, and I've shown you very little of it. You've probably caught glimpses here or there, but I haven't openly documented how much this place has changed.

It sort of makes me feel unaccomplished, like we haven't truly finished anything. But we're actually working on putting the final touches on a few rooms right now, so I hope to be sharing some official before and after pics soon.

But first, I thought I'd start by showing you the room in our house that is next up on our list of projects. It's arguably the most important room in the house. And, oddly enough, it's the room I currently hate the most. It's received very little cosmetic love and attention thus far.

That room? It's the kitchen.

Behold: Photos of our ugly-ass kitchen, from the day after we closed on the house.

Yes, that is an ungodly amount of z-brick. Yes, those are parquet floors.

Yes, that is shoe molding being used as crown molding.

Yes, the z-brick even goes behind the refrigerator. Lucky us.

Oh, and YES, that is rosebud wallpaper, with a heart border, all of which was just installed in--wait for it--2009.

And let's not pass up the opportunity to admire the wooden heart valance/shelf thingy up above the sliding glass door.

*sigh* We have our work cut out for us, don't we?

A few things have changed. We couldn't rip down that wallpaper fast enough, and the heart shelf/valance thing was an early casualty. We also tore out the z-brick that surrounded the dishwasher. We moved our laundry from the basement to that gigantic oversized pantry (there were already laundry hookups in there). But then we got overwhelmed and distracted with other things, so the kitchen is just in a state of... ugly. Unfinished ugly.

In September/October, we ripped our family room ceiling and walls down to the studs and put up new drywall (with help from my dad, and our friends Emily and Pete). After that monster of a project, we were beaten down. So, we took a break from big projects, choosing instead to tackle things like painting and window treatments and replacing all of our hollow wooden interior doors with six-panel slab doors. And then we got through the busy holidays.

Now? Now, it's January, it's a new year, and we are ready for a project. A BIG project.

We are preparing to tackle that beast of a kitchen. To rid ourselves of z-brick forever, we have to (temporarily) remove all of the upper cabinets, the countertops, and a couple of the base cabinets in order to rip the upper portion of the walls down to the studs. Then, we'll put up new drywall, and tape/mud/sand it all. We also have plans to paint the cabinets, install a tile backsplash, replace some of the fixtures, and... replace the floors.

I'm not going to lie to myself this time; this is going to take a while. But instead of dropping off the face of the earth and stopping in to blog only occasionally with "OMG WE'RE SO BUSY, MY HOUSE IS A HELLISH MESS, I'M GOING TO DIE" posts, I figure that I'll try to keep you all updated on where we are in the process. You know, so you can live in kitchen renovation hell right along with us. :)

Right now, we're finishing up the research/planning stages, but we hope to start to buy materials in the next few weeks, and finally begin making progress (DEMO!!) in early February. We're somewhat intimidated and are still in search of a little help (Bueller?) but it has to be done! Living without a kitchen is never fun, and living without a kitchen with a toddler is like... have I used the word hell yet?

And so the countdown begins...

Have any of you tackled a big DIY kitchen renovation? Anyone have any experience with removing z-brick? How about (safely, temporarily) removing countertops without damaging them? Anyone just want to sympathize/empathize with my ugly kitchen woes? :)

Toddler OCD

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:55:00 +0000

Nora has a thing for making sure objects are in the "right" spot.

When she plays, she makes her share of messes, but a lot of times, she'll pick up after herself--because she likes putting things away as much as she likes taking things out. Sometimes, she'll be playing in the cupboards in the kitchen and the next thing I know, I look down and there is no sign of her having been there at all. I have to a double take and make sure I'm not going crazy--she really WAS just playing there, right?

She was; she just cleaned up all of the evidence.

Nora was given the Fisher-Price Little People Zoo for Christmas, and when Michael first opened it and put it all together for her, he put the gorilla in the tree swing. Now, Nora can't handle it if the gorilla is NOT in the tree swing. If she walks over and finds him anywhere else in the zoo, she immediately moves him to the swing, then will often just walk away again. It's like--as long as the gorilla is in his place, her job there is done.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like when someone--AHEM!--tries to put your lens cap back on while you're busy taking her picture. Because, you know, the correct "home" for a lens cap is--you guessed it--on the end of a lens. God forbid that it's lying on the floor somewhere; that's a situation that needs to be immediately rectified.

All of this is hilarious and adorable. I get a huge thrill out of this behavior, because it demonstrates just how observant she is and how her brain is sucking things in like a little sponge. My kid is SMART, y'all. And as her parent, it's so fun to watch her learn before my very eyes.

After all, we all have some OCD tendencies, don't we? I could name a few of my own. How about your kids? Do you notice that there are things they HAVE to have a certain way?

White

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:42:00 +0000

As Michael and I drove to the pediatrician's office with Nora yesterday, it was raining. Driving through that type of weather, we marveled at how we couldn't believe that it was mid-January and we hadn't seen more than a dusting of snow. I wondered aloud whether we would actually have WINTER this year.

This, coming from a couple of people who apparently haven't seen a weather report in a while. What can I say? We've been distracted.

After taking Tessa outside to pee this morning, Michael came in to wake me up. He laughed, "So, we kind of got a lot of snow last night."

"REALLY??" I asked. I dragged my butt out of bed, showered, got dressed, got ready, and head downstairs before I even took a peek outside. Finally, I saw that overnight, winter had magically arrived. We had several inches of snow on our deck, everything in sight was white, the wind was blowing, and snow continued to fall.

I knew instantly that my commute was going to suck. And it did, but it wasn't as awful as it could have been. Lucky Michael got to stay home with Nora this morning, but I had to go in for a meeting. I did get to come back home around noon, and the roads were just as crappy then as they had been this morning. In fact, when I turned onto our street--it didn't even look like a street. The road was undetectable.

And it was beautiful.

Everyone was bitching today (even I was, when my fingers were frozen after scraping off my windshield), but we typically see this weather start in December, if not November. We're lucky to have gotten this far without it. Now, I'm just curious as to what will happen next. Is winter here to stay through ~~March~~ April? Or will we be back to the "new normal" before we know it?

Was anyone else surprised by some snowfall today? Experience crappy commutes? To this point, has this winter been as mild for everyone else as it has been for us?

Just breathe.

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:45:00 +0000

When Nora was around 6-7 months old, she had a bad cold with some wheezing and was diagnosed with "probable RSV." Aside from some loud breathing and a hacking cough, it never seemed to be much of a big deal. But little did we know at the time what havoc that stupid RSV would wreak on us for months and months to come.

As you might be able to tell by now, it's been a rough week, what with starting out with another ear infection and all.

What started out as a runny nose and a sporadic cough with her ear infection on Monday has slowly and surely turned into a full-blown, nasty cold with constant runny nose, a really painful-sounding cough, and... some loud wheezing.

I had thoughts that Nora might be developing bronchitis or something, but figured that the antibiotic she's on for her ear infection would also wipe out anything else that could actually be treated. Still, I called the doctor's office this afternoon to talk to a nurse, just to be safe. She put me on hold to grab Nora's chart, and as soon as she came back, she said that given Nora's history with RSV/bronchiolitis, they wanted to see her.

We got the last appointment of the day--4:30--so you can imagine that by that hour, the doctor was running behind. Very behind. So we waited a good half hour before we were even seen by a doctor--which was a med student first, then the actual pediatrician. Because the pediatrician was teaching the med student, she started making observations aloud as soon as she entered the room. Nora was in nothing but her diaper, so she was able to conclude right away--without even listening--that Nora was wheezing and working harder than normal to breathe. She noted that she could see retractions in her belly and ribs, which--as you might suspect--are not a good thing.

Michael and I went from feeling like we'd probably walk out of there with nothing but a "she has a bad cold" diagnosis to being talked to about how, if it gets any worse, Nora is probably going to end up in the hospital. The doctor didn't seem to think it will actually come to that, but she was worried enough to make us try an albuterol breathing treatment right there in the office. I had done this once before with Nora after her initial diagnosis of RSV in the spring, and it sucked, but nothing could have prepared me for the alligator wrestling that this involved today.

Nora hated it. Just hated it. Have you ever tried to hold a mask up to a 16-month-old's face while air is blasting out of it? We had to pin her arms down, legs down, and squeeze her against me to just TRY to get this thing up near her face. We tried to read to her, we sang songs, but she screamed bloody murder the entire time. She actually bit the mask repeatedly. And, if you haven't had the pleasure of doing this, please note that the treatments last TEN MINUTES, which might as well have been ten years for how slowly time passed in those moments.

Unfortunately, when all was said and done, it didn't even seem to help--which means that Nora's bronchiolitis (which is swelling of the lung's passageways, by the way) is most likely caused by a virus, not underlying asthma. That's actually great news, so don't think I'm complaining about that.

Even so, we walked out of there with three prescriptions--for an albuterol inhaler + a spacer (child-size mask) for breathing treatments + steroids. All to help try to open up the tiny passageways in her lungs. The sad part is that, because she doesn't appear to have asthmatic tendencies, these things probably won't help at all--but given the severity of her wheezing, the doctor wanted us to utilize every available tool that could even possibly work.

We were given strict instructions to call the doctor's office every day for the next five days to provide an update. In the end, we were at the doctor's office for more than an hour and a half. Wow.

The good news is that our little wheezer still seems to be in pretty great spirits. She was thrilled with the Blue's Clues sticker she got to play with on the entire ride home from the pediatrician's office. She's been tired (sleep isn't very restful when you're coughing all night) and glassy-eyed, but she's smiling and laughing and running like usual. Due to the every-four-hours breathing treatments, she still gets to stay home with us tomorrow, but at least we don't have a depressed little sicky on our hands.

I, on the other hand, am traumatized and counting down the days until spring.

I'm so very sick

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:15:00 +0000

...of my baby getting ear infections.

I didn't post about it amidst the hustle and bustle of Christmas, but a few days prior to the holiday, Nora was diagnosed with another ear infection. We suspected she might have one, but weren't positive. I called the pediatrician's office and debated aloud on the phone for several minutes before she convinced me that yes, it could be an ear infection, and no, we wouldn't be wasting their time if it turned out to be nothing.

So, on my last day of work prior to a 5-day Christmas weekend, I left the office an hour early to run Nora to the totally empty pediatrician's office for their last appointment of the day. And it was confirmed: Nora had an ear infection for Christmas, for the second year in a row.

Ten days of antibiotics later, she was seemingly fine. Unfortunately, that didn't last long.

We had a pediatrician's appointment scheduled for today, for a recheck of the ear--to make sure the Christmas ear infection had cleared up properly. But yesterday, we began to notice our girl feeling a bit under the weather again. A little more quiet than usual. A little more clingy. Constantly rubbing her right ear. Slightly feverish. The tell-tale sign came when I put her to bed at 7:00 p.m., and she woke up screaming at 8:30. Under normal circumstances, that's just not how Nora rolls.

So the appointment to recheck her left ear turned into a diagnosis of infection in her right ear. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Our pediatrician mentioned the possibility of getting tubes put in her ears back in October. At the time, we weren't feeling ready to make that jump, which was fine, since the doctor said she would give Nora a pass for one more ear infection between then and March--more than that, and she'd want to talk tubes. Well, guess what? She's now had two, and we're only in January.

For those who are curious, her history looks like this:

B aby's 1st ear infection - December 27, 2010 - treated with amoxicillin
Ear infection - April 2011 - treated with amoxicillin
Ear infection - September 2011 - surprise diagnosis at well baby appt - left untreated
Ear infection - Oct. 10, 2011 - treated with amoxicillin
Double ear infection - Oct. 26, 2011 - unsure if it's same infection as 10/10 that never went away, or a new one - treated with omnicef
Ear infection (left ear) - Dec. 22, 2011 - treated with amoxicillin
Ear infection (right ear) - Jan. 9, 2012 - treating with omnicef
Note: I'm about 98% sure there was another surprise diagnosis somewhere in there that we left untreated, but I can't remember exactly when that was. Our philosophy (with our doctor's blessing) has always been that if it isn't bothering her/she has no symptoms, we can leave it to clear up on its own.

In my mind, the number from December through October was not that big of a deal, which is why I was surprised when our pediatrician mentioned tubes then. But looking at December through October, and now October through today? Maybe I'm an overprotective mama bear, but that looks like an awful lot of ear infections.

We tried to talk to the pediatrician today about tubes, but she wasn't Nora's doctor--our doc is out for a few weeks on some kind of medical leave, and won't be back for another two weeks. This doc today said she likes to be very conservative about tubes, and personally, wouldn't recommend them at this time. But in our minds, she doesn't know Nora. And while I respect her as a member of the medical community, I would feel better about it if we heard it from our pediatrician.

We now have 10 days of an antibiotic, and then we go for a recheck again in 14 days--thankfully, our pediatrician is supposed to be back in the office that week, so we scheduled the appointment with her in the hopes that she'll actually be back and up for seeing patients.

In the meantime, we are just torn. We want the tubes. We don't want the tubes. Aside from the pain and discomfort the infections cause Nora, our two biggest concerns are: 1) We don't like to have her on antibiotics so often, and 2) We're worried she could potentially have some mild hearing loss from having fluid in her ears so frequently, which could be affecting her language development. At this point, I think what we really want the most is just a hearing test. We just need the referral to the ENT to get a consult and figure out exactly what we're dealing with. If there's no hearing loss? I think we'll be comfortable waiting a while longer to see if she'll grow out of it. If there is hearing loss? I think our baby is getting tubes.

Blah-biddy blah blah. I'm honestly just as tired of talking about it as I am of seeing my little one suffering. As always, we do enjoy the extra snuggle time. Last night, we couldn't get her back to sleep when she woke up at 8:30, so we brought her into our bed with the iPad and let her watch a good chunk of Toy Story 3 while lying there with us. Just precious.

Tonight, we have antibiotics that are hopefully doing their thing, and a baby who is (at least for now) sleeping peacefully in her crib, so we can at least give it the two weeks to see what the recheck brings. But I do find myself wondering if we're just delaying what is inevitable. Only time will tell.

Annnndd... I just heard her over the monitor. My poor baby. We made it until 9:15 tonight. *sigh* Perhaps we will watch Tangled on the iPad tonight. :) Goodnight!

Tea for Two

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:50:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I walked into the playroom to see Nora having a tea party with her daddy.

It very well could have been one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I love these two so much.

People always say that men want sons. They want boys for the rough and tumble, the dirt, the sports, the toughness. There are some who would say they don't know what to do with a girl.

There are men out there who would refuse to--or would at least be embarrassed to--sit at a miniature table with their daughters to enjoy a spot of imaginary tea. Mine happily sat down for tea with his baby girl. Then, he not only let me take photos, but he said I could share them, too.

Nora is so lucky.

And when I look back at these photos and see how happy it made her, it tells me that as she navigates her way through her childhood, playing with her daddy--these are the things that, as an adult, she will remember and appreciate about her father. It is the little things.

Like tea for two.

Spurt

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:25:00 +0000

Something different is happening.

My petite-since-birth, perfectly-5th-percentile-dwelling little Nora is... well, I think she's packing on a few pounds. :) At her 12-month appointment, she was 17 lbs., 14 oz., which was right on the 5th-percentile growth curve she had been following all along. The doctor used words like "perfect" and said she was "doing exactly what she's supposed to be doing" as far as eating, drinking, and growing.

Then, at her 15-month appointment, something funny happened--Nora had gained 3+ pounds, weighing in at 21 lbs. total, pushing her into the 20th percentile. Our doctor pointed it out to us, and said, "What do you think is different?" I shrugged and said, "Well, I'm not breastfeeding anymore." (I stopped completely when she was around 13 months.) She asked how much milk we were giving her, and I quickly estimated that it was maybe 21-24 oz. a day. She said that now that Nora is eating table food, we should cut back her milk intake to a maximum of 15 oz. a day. So, we did. No big deal.

Nora has been eating like an absolute champ lately. Ever since she recovered from being sick for that week in December, she has been shoving food into her mouth by the fistful. She won't eat everything we serve her, but when she likes it, she loves it. There are times when she seems simply insatiable, and we can't imagine how her little tummy is possibly holding all of the food that she's eating. But we've always been told that babies are very good at regulating their own food intake--if they're not hungry and they don't "need" it, they won't eat it.

{check out that buddha belly! watching the beginning of "Tangled" with my mom on New Year's Eve}

Still, I think Nora might be "filling out" a bit. Her little buddha belly is hysterically round (and cute!) these days, and I notice that she feels a bit more "solid" when I lift and carry her. I (very unscientifically) weighed her at home this week and I think she could be over 22 lbs. now--and it's been less than a month since she weighed in at 21 lbs.

What gives? Everything you read/hear says that babies all "grow at their own pace," but that they're considered healthy if they "grow on the curve." In fact, from the very beginning, our pediatrician said that assuming she goes through life eating healthfully with a balanced diet, Nora would likely still be on the 5th percentile curve when she graduates high school, for crying out loud.

Are these just normal fluctuations? Is she just "catching up" after being so tiny for so long? Is it a sign of an impending growth spurt? Or are we actually overfeeding her? These are the questions that are running through my head. She's only (almost) 16 months old, so I don't want to stress about her weight--but I guess I'm just paranoid given the whole previously "perfect" growth curve. I suppose you could say she's throwing us a curve ball. (hehe.)

{more round belly!}

Don't get me wrong: I do think she's healthy. I look at her and see nothing but a healthy, growing girl. And it's hard to argue with the amount of food she's consuming when she's eating things like broccoli, green beans, black beans, and oatmeal like it's going out of style. Avocado. Veggie burgers. Sandwiches with a little bit of hummus or peanut butter. Pretty much anything that we eat for dinner. We try to give her balanced meals as much as possible--protein, carbs, vegetables, fruit with every meal. She doesn't drink any juice.

So, who knows? We're just first-timers with this whole parenting gig, so we want to make sure we're doing everything right. I think we just have to wait and see what happens between now and her 18-month appointment. We're fairly confident with the way we're handling it, but still plan on checking with the doctor (and get her weight checked officially) when we take her in for her follow-up ear infection appointment next week. Until then, does anyone have any experience with this? I've been told by a few parents that kids "grow out, then up" so we should perhaps prepare ourselves to see her get a little taller soon? I'm hoping that it'll all even out in the end--maybe she's gaining faster now, but will slow at some point?

In the meantime, Nora's good appetite doesn't seem to be letting up. My girl likes to eat! :)

2012 Greetings

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:23:00 +0000

At the stroke of midnight last night, we bid farewell to 2011. It was nothing fancy or exciting. We had a nice night in with some wine, appetizers, and champagne. My mom came over for a while but left well before midnight. We were in bed by 12:15 (although, thanks to some of neighbors, we weren't SLEEPING because they decided to set off huge fireworks).

2011 was an eventful year. It was exactly a year ago that Michael and I decided to start our search for a house. We put our condo on the market at the beginning of February, and things just... didn't go as planned. We put an offer on a house in March but didn't get it. In early June, we finally found another one worth putting an offer on--a noncontingent offer that was accepted--and so began the months of real, live stress.

Obviously, things worked out. For the time being. We rented out the condo right after we moved out of it, and although that stress was relieved, we jumped right into home improvement projects at the new house which were just exhausting. We had lofty ambitions about how quickly we would be able to do things, and well, I'm here to tell you that we ridiculously overestimated how much we'd be able to get done in a short time.

Our kitchen? It's still ugly. We have wallpaper ripped down, we removed the light fixture above the sink, but then... we haven't done anything else to it. Oops.

We don't have a single room that is "complete." There are things in every room that stick out like a sore thumb to me, things that need to be done.

But we are living here at least. We are doing what we can but we are not letting the projects rule our lives like they did in the first month or so that we lived here.

Going into 2012, we don't exactly know what the year will hold for us. The lease we have with our condo tenants expires on April 30. We don't yet know whether they plan to stay or not. We might be putting it back on the market for another attempt at selling it. We may be renting to someone new. We may have to replace the furnace/air conditioner. We may have to repaint the entire place. We just don't know.

Amidst all of the stress and changes we experienced in our lives in 2011, we had the most remarkable little girl to remind us of how blessed we truly are. We watched her grow from this smiling, squishy baby in January to this energetic, joyful, busy toddler at the end of December. I look back at photos from the year and I just cannot believe how much she has changed before my very eyes.

We were lucky to be able to travel a lot in 2011. Charleston, Las Vegas, Utah, Arizona, Mexico, Poconos, Virginia. We don't yet have any trips planned for 2012, and because of the lofty goals we have for things we want to do with the house, we're not sure what our 2012 travel will look like. Our priorities are with our home right now, but we do want to make sure to go somewhere this year, so it's just a matter of figuring things out.

The people in our lives went through their ups and downs, too. We prayed for and supported them all, just as they supported us. I think we're all entering into 2012 better for what we have been through (big and small), and I think the year holds a lot of promise for all of us.

Just as I hope it does for all of you.

Happy New Year.

Christmas Day: The Finish Line

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:45:00 +0000

After Christmas morning breakfast and gifts, we left my mom's house a little before noon, if memory serves me right. We made a brief stop at home to drop off the gifts we had just received (we needed the room!) and began to the drive to spend Christmas with my in-laws at my sister-in-law's house. Nora napped for a good part of the ride, the weather was great, and we made good time (the roads were empty!). It was time for more family fun!

It was actually quite relaxing. The cousins played together and watched movies (even though they couldn't agree on what to watch), and us adults were able to talk and catch up, which doesn't always happen during our normal, whirlwind visits.

We received more gifts--the majority of which were for Nora--and were very grateful again for everyone's generosity. As always, we had a lot of fun GIVING gifts this year, too, and they seemed to be well-received by everyone, so that's always a good feeling. :)

Tessa traveled with us (here she is, sporting her new collar that Santa brought for her), so we truly had our whole little family with us.

Melissa and Andy made us a wonderful Christmas dinner--lasagna rolls. Everything was delicious; in fact, Nora ate an entire lasagna roll by herself, so clearly something had been done right!

After dinner, we tried to get some nice photos of the three cousins together, just like we had done with Nora and Hunter in the morning. Unfortunately, we waited too long and Nora was too tired. This is the best we could do:

Oh well, at least we have photos for posterity. No one ever said all of the kids have to be smiling in them, right? :)

We spent the night at Melissa's and came home the following morning. It was a busy holiday for us, but one that we really enjoyed. We felt like we got to spend a lot of quality time with our families, and the kids all had a great time together.

I can't wait to see how Nora does with it all next year. It seems like it'll just keep getting better and better as she comes to understand it more.

Christmas Morning, Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:15:00 +0000

When we arrived at my mom's house on Christmas morning, we had a quick conversation with my siblings about whether we wanted breakfast or gifts first. We actually chose breakfast, which would've blown the minds of the children we were a handful of years ago. :)

After pancakes, cinnamon rolls, and sausage, we all piled into the living room to start the chaos that is opening gifts. Nora settled right in.

Hunter was really into opening gifts this year, which was cute.

My mom got both of the kids bike helmets for next spring/summer.

Everyone was really generous, we are really grateful for everything. Nora got some really cute stuff from her uncles/aunties and grammy, and Michael and I got a lot of gift cards to Home Depot and Lowe's, which is really all we want/need this year!

My mom got Nora and Hunter the recordable books, and recorded a greeting message. Nora loved pushing the buttons. Hunter was adorable--he kept listening to it and saying, "Grammy!"

We had to take the obligatory "cousins" series of photos. Hunter was very serious this go-round. I think he was counting down the seconds until we let him go back to play with all of his new toys.

I just love the way she looks at him. LOVE it.

Ahhh, they love each other so much. I can't stand the cuteness!

After the kiss, we let Hunter escape to go do his own thing again. Back to the toys he went. Sweet boy.

Nora let my mom read her new book to her, which was great. At this age, she's generally shy with everyone that is not Mommy, Daddy, or Mary (daycare), so it's tough for the grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc. who want to snuggle her. I was so happy to see her warm up to everyone on Christmas morning. Progress, yay!

Family pic (minus Michael, who had to take the photo for us)

From my mom's house, we hit the road for my sister-in-law's place to celebrate with Michael's family. We had a 2+ hour drive ahead of us...

Christmas Morning, Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:58:00 +0000

After dinner at my mom's on Christmas Eve, we got Nora into her pajamas and stayed for a while longer, but headed home by Nora's normal bedtime (7:00 p.m.). We did manage to snap this photo of the four generations before Santa came, though. :)

Once home, we read Nora "The Night Before Christmas" (thanks, Kara!) and put her to bed.

We did all of our wrapping on Friday night (the 23rd), which was wonderful--it was the first time ever that we weren't scrambling to wrap gifts on Christmas Eve. Instead, all we had to do was play Santa, which didn't involve much since we went pretty light with Nora's gifts this year. We got to work assembling Nora's kid table and chairs with a few glasses of wine and a fire in our fireplace. It was really nice.

Unfortunately, Nora was up from 3:00 a.m. to after 4:00 a.m., which was sort of miserable. I'm not sure if her ear was bothering her or what. (Did I mention she got another ear infection for Christmas this year? Just like last year. Except way less miserable than last year.) As a result, we were actually up before she was in the morning, giving us time to shower to get ready to go to my mom's before she was even awake.

But eventually she did wake up on her own, and we gave her a little cereal for breakfast before bringing her into the family room for the big reveal... which, you know, was relatively uneventful this year. I'm guessing it'll be a little more magical next year. :)

Still, Nora was highly amused by her "just my size" table and chairs, and got reacquainted with the Little People airplane that she got from my in-laws on Christmas Eve.

Then it was time to open stocking stuffers. Nora was sort of into it. She had fun pulling the gifts out of the stocking, and helped Michael unwrap a few of them.

She got a big girl plate and bowl and a Sippigrip.

Tessa had gifts in her stocking, too. She's really good at opening her own presents.

Here's Nora, studying the cover of her new movie (Despicable Me) from Santa. I think she's thinking, "Wait, this isn't Rio." (Her FAVORITE.)

After her Santa presents, we opened a few gifts from other people. Nora opened presents from Mary (her daycare provider), her "aunt" Donna (my mother-in-law's best friend), and then from "Pa" (my dad).

Pa got her Zig the Big Rig, as well as some extra Wheelies cars. Nora was pleased.

And here's Nora sitting in the middle of some of the aftermath. But we didn't have long to sit around--we had to head to my mom's for my family's Christmas morning breakfast!

How did Christmas morning go at your house? What were your favorite gifts this year? Are your kids "into" Santa yet? It seems like Christmas will just keep getting better and better as Nora gets older. What toys were the biggest hits with your little ones?

A Six Pack o' Reindeer

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:54:00 +0000

OK, so... looking back (here and here), it appears as though I was really into reindeer this year. Again, I blame Pinterest.

As part of their gifts this year, we gave six packs of beer to my brothers, my father-in-law, and our brother-in-law. But they weren't just ANY six packs, you see. Each bottle of beer was dolled up with antlers, a couple of eyes, and a puffy red nose.

They were damn cute and FESTIVE, too! And really easy to make.

The antlers are brown pipe cleaners, cut to maybe about 8 inches long or so. I figured out the right length by experimenting a little bit, then just copied that length for the rest of them. The pipe cleaner is just twisted around the bottle neck, just under the cap. I didn't have any problems with it staying in place. Then, I cut little pieces to make additional points on the antlers, wrapping the shorter pieces around the longer ones.

The eyes are googly eyes, and the nose a red pompom. Both (as well as pipe cleaners) can be found in the kids' craft section at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Joann's, etc. I attached the eyes and nose to the bottles using a hot glue gun.

Some brands of beer are better than others for this project. For instance, it wasn't until I sat down to do it that I realized that the "neck labels" on Yuengling wrap all the way around the neck--not leaving me any blank space to glue the faces. So, I had to rip off the little labels, which didn't make for the best looking six-pack. And the Land Shark reindeer, while cute, didn't look as nice as the ones on the dark brown bottles. We bought the types of beer based on our recipients' preferences, so it didn't much matter to us--but it's just something to keep in mind if you're not sure which kind of beer to buy for this project.

All in all, it was cheap to turn these six packs into reindeer, and didn't take much time, either. It made for a nice little gift for the beer drinkers in our lives. And if you want to make them for someone who doesn't drink alcohol--the original pin on Pinterest actually used a six pack of root beer bottles, too, so that's an option.

That sums up my Christmas crafting this year. Unfortunately, I didn't get to all of the ones I wanted; I'll have to save some of them for next year!

Did you do any crafts for the holidays? Did they come out like you'd hoped? Did you find that others (or your recipients, if they were gifts) appreciated your efforts?

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:49:00 +0000

I've baked more in the past few weeks than I have in a really, really long time. So here I am, after Christmas, still with a recipe to post! I know it doesn't do anyone much good now--if you're anything like me, you're overloaded on sweets and the last thing you want to see is another cookie. But give it a few weeks, and maybe you'll be in the mood for a good gingerbread cookie again.

A chewy gingerbread cookie. These were actually my favorite new find this year.

One of the best parts was that I didn't even have to look for it. This cookie landed ~~in my lap~~ in the kitchen at work a few weeks ago and one bite into it, I was sold and e-mailing a coworker to share the recipe.

They're that perfect mix of spicy and sweet that only gingerbread can offer, and the soft, chewy center was what really won me over. I could take or leave crunchy gingersnaps, but these? These are too good to pass by.

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
(Source: Unknown)

Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 egg

Directions:
1. Stir together the first 6 ingredients.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and beat well with a hand mixer.

3. Add dry ingredients to the beaten mixture, beating well. Form small balls (about 1" or larger if you want bigger cookies) and roll in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake in a 375 degree oven about 10 minutes until tops of cookies begin to "crinkle"! Check at 8 minutes, and continue baking if necessary.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

As you wake up on this Christmas morning, I hope you are surrounded by (or have plans to see) cherished family and/or friends. If you don't celebrate Christmas, but rather Hanukkah, something else, or nothing at all, I wish the same for you. :)

We are having our very own Christmas morning with our little family of ~~three~~ four (Tessa, you know), then spending the rest of the day with both of our families. I'm sure I'll be back in a few days to share loads of photos, but for now, I'll leave you with these.

First, our Christmas card photo this year:

It may have taken like 300 shots, but I do think we ended up with a good one. :)

And then a couple of pics from our Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's tonight. <3

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays.

From our family to yours.

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:05:00 +0000

To all those who celebrate, Merry Christmas Eve!

This morning, when I was in that brief state between sleep and awake, I actually thought it was Thanksgiving Day. That just goes to show how quickly Christmas sneaked up on me this year. But the gifts are wrapped, cookies are baked, and I need to throw this post up and then go get ready for Christmas Eve Mass before dropping by the in-laws and then dinner with my grandma, aunt, and uncle at my mom's. Wheeee!

These cookies are another gift from Pinterest. It's a basic peanut butter cookie turned into a reindeer. Gotta love Pinterest.

Mine didn't come out as adorable as the inspiration, but they're still cute, and hey, they taste delicious, so that's all that really matters. I think our nephews will get a kick out of them when we celebrate with Michael's side of the family tomorrow afternoon/evening.

What I like about these cookies is that they are "decorated," but wayyy easier than the traditional cookie cutouts. Although I'd love to put together some beautifully frosted cutouts, I just didn't have the time again this year--and these little guys came together from dough to finish in just an hour or two. So if you're looking for something to make last-minute as you prepare for Santa's arrival tonight, whip up a batch of these. But hurry and get to the store, you're running out of time! :)

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies
(Source: Bakergirl)

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- Chocolate-covered mini pretzels
- Mini brown M&Ms
- Regular-sized red M&Ms (we used peanut M&Ms)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Combine brown sugar, peanut butter, shortening, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add egg; beat until just blended.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

4. Form dough into 1- to 1.5-inch balls. To make reindeer-shaped cookies, pinch the bottom of the ball slightly to form a point, then gently flatten with your hand. Space cookies about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until set or just beginning to brown.

5. Remove from oven and immediately (and gently) press two mini pretzels into the tops of the cookies for the reindeer's antlers. Press two mini brown M&Ms in for the eyes and one red M&M for the nose.

6. Allow to cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack or paper towel to cool completely.

DIY Reindeer Candy Bar Wrappers

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:58:00 +0000

I have Pinterest to thank for this one. I saw these homemade reindeer candy bar wrappers and pinned them a few months back, because right away I knew that this would be an excellent little gift to make for my team at work.

They were really easy to make, though a little time consuming because of all the little paper pieces that need to be cut. If you have circle punches of various sizes, I'm sure this would go much more quickly, but I don't have them and didn't want to buy them specifically for this project. Even though I traced and cut all of the circles by hand, I was able to make six of them in just a few hours while sitting in front of the TV. I enjoy a good paper craft, so I thought it was fun. :)

The link to the original tutorial is broken, but these are not hard to figure out just based on the photos. I do have to give a big shout-out to Stacey Carter (www.staceystamps.com, which no longer appears to be a valid website), who posted the photo of these, though--as these are obviously completely based on her design.

I used Ghirardelli chocolate bars instead of Hershey's because, well, I thought it would be nicer. But if you're a Hershey's kind of person, by all means, save yourself some money and get Hershey Bars.

Here are the supplies that I used, and a rough description of how to assemble these guys.

Supplies:

- Brown pipe cleaners

- Cardstock (dark brown, light brown, white, black, and red)

- White paint pen

- Hot glue gun

- Glue dots

- Scissors

- Chocolate bars

- Various circular shaped objects of different sizes to use for tracing (see notes below for objects I used)

Instructions:

First, I laid the chocolate bar on top of a sheet of the dark brown cardstock and marked the length, then cut. I then wrapped the cardstock around the bar so it connected at the back, cutting off the excess. I attached the cardstock to the front of the bar using a few glue dots, then secured it to the back using a few more.

I traced and cut all circle shapes. Two white and two black circles for the eyes, one dark brown circle (then cut in half) for the eyelids, and light brown and red circles for the nose. I sketched the little "ruffle" part at the top of the head freehand, then cut that out, too.

To attach everything together and to the candy bar, I used a mixture of glue dots and hot glue. I used the big "3D" glue dots to glue on the noses, because I liked how they stood out away from the face a little bit.

For the eyes, glue the black circle onto the white circle, then the brown half-circle on top of that. Use paint pen to draw a little "glimmer" on the black part of the eye. When dry, attach the entire eye to the face.

For the antlers, I cut one pipe cleaner in half to use as the two antlers. Then I cut a second pipe cleaner into smaller pieces, and wrapped the smaller pieces around the large pieces to make additional points. I secured the antlers to the candy bar by running a line of hot glue along the bottom portion of the pipe cleaner, then sticking it in between the card stock and the candy bar, pressing firmly to set.

Note: OK, so the circular objects I used for tracing? I found most of them in my kitchen. For the white part of the eye and the dark brown eyelid pieces, I traced the large end of a cake decorating tip. For the black part of the eye, I traced the end of the "plunger" part of one of Nora's ibuprofen syringes. For the light brown portion of the nose, I used the roll of glue dots, tracing inside the cardboard roll that they come on. For the red nose, I used a measuring spoon (the tablespoon). You can use anything, really. Just look around for circles that vary in size so you'll have the nice textured/layered look with everything.

I think that sums it up! Let me know if there are any questions.

Only three more days until Christmas (since today is nearly over)! Do you have your shopping done? Any last-minute Christmas crafts planned?

Itsy Bitsy SPIDERS

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:06:00 +0000

Nora and I were singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" during her bath tonight, and she was actually doing (her version) of the motions. When I got her out, I started singing again, and sure enough, she was still swinging her hands around. I happened to have my phone right there, and after about 20 takes, I finally got her to do it on video.
<br>And then I put her to bed, came downstairs and discovered spiders (not one, but two) in our Christmas tree. The irony did not dawn on me until I sat down to upload the video to share with all of you. Clearly, Nora and I must have summoned them with our excessive singing of their song. No more Itsy Bitsy Spider, then.

For the record, the tree spiders looked just like the sickening little bastard who invaded my car last winter. And proceeded to stay for a while. It's a good thing Christmas is almost here, because I have half a mind to evict the Christmas tree from the premises.