tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:58:38 +0000HolidaysMountaineersWest Liberty UniversityPartiesMy FolksMaggieFriendsAlexElizabethFairmont StateGolfDems RuleVacationCraftyUSPS SucksPoliticscool findsThe In-lawsKennedy PuppywelcomeAddicted to TVReidRed SoxShoppingfamilyWorkWheelingAnne and SeanCateRikki and DougRecipesHomeMortonsFunnyFairmont Golfhttp://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)Blogger261125Wvu-mamahttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-7459625586752905572Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:14:00 +00002012-01-05T22:32:34.314-05:00Elizabeth has become quite obsessed with Star Wars these days. She nearly leaped out of her skin when she saw the movie poster for Star Wars Episode I in 3D (coming on February 10th!) when we were at The Muppets. (It will be our Valentine's date!) I've been squirreling away Star Wars party supplies like a squirrel with nuts in November. Even Nana got into the act and bought out nearly every http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2012/01/elizabeths-impending-birthday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-5490606601926823228Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:53:00 +00002011-12-31T15:52:13.234-05:00CateAnne and SeanWest Liberty UniversityElizabethMaggieThe In-lawsMy FolksRikki and DougAlexReidWhat a year 2011 has been! Fun and eventful...memorable...frustrating and precious...some times all in the very same day!Here's the year in review - Amos family style:January - Elizabeth's 5th birthday was celebrated in Dr. Seuss style. It was a typical too-much-over-the-top party for our small gathering of Grandma & Papi, Nana & Papa, and the Koeglers. We had a lot of fun, though, so that's http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/12/2011-year-in-review.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-6498424780094190195Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:14:00 +00002011-12-31T15:52:56.214-05:00CateWheelingElizabethOnce again our best in the world neighbors, the Ritzes have outdone themselves with spreading Christmas cheer - especially in the spoiling of Elizabeth & Cate! (For anyone who is reading of this tradition for the first time, each day from December 1st - 24th, the Elf (aka: Marie) hangs a stocking on the back door and puts wrapped treats in the stocking every day as we count down to Christmas.)http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/12/neighborhood-elf.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-6009828140959519429Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:52:00 +00002011-12-13T13:04:30.872-05:00CateElizabethMaggieThe In-lawsPartiesMy FolksReidJust like the invitation to the Very Hungry CATErpillar party stated, "We can't believe a year has passed..." Seriously? How is my baby a freaking year old already???Cate celebrated her 1st birthday a few hours early as Reid had to be on the road with the Hilltoppers. Elizabeth helped me make Kitty Cat Cate a Hello Kitty cake. Cate was quite funny when it came to consuming her smash cake - http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/12/cate-1-year.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-5032195663937301399Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:41:00 +00002011-11-29T21:00:28.539-05:00MaggieRikki and DougWelcome to the world, Margaret Alisse Eckstein! My beautiful niece was born at 2:24 AM, Tuesday, November 29, 2011. She weighs 7 lbs., 1 ounce and is 20" long.Here are a few pictures that I just had to share...Maggie and Rikki - face-to-face...isn't this sweet???She's so smart - she's saying, "Touchdown Mountaineers!"Congratulations Rikki & Doug!!!http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/11/welcome-maggie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-4033689001991306936Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:49:00 +00002011-11-19T13:47:45.735-05:00CateElizabethCraftyPartiesAlexIf I do say so myself...over the past few years, I've done some pretty cute birthday party invitations for Elizabeth and Alex as evidenced below:Elizabeth's 1st Birthday:Alex's 1st Birthday (where I learned so much more on Photoshop):E's 2nd Birthday (was a book of pictures of her throughout the year...) E's 3rd Birthday (definition of over-the-top, the entire Candyland party was actually), http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/11/cutest-party-invitations-ever.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-6010750740927806160Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:50:00 +00002011-11-15T16:54:40.478-05:00CateElizabethThe In-lawsReidWhere, oh where, has the time gone? I can't believe it's now officially days until Cate is celebrating her first birthday!!!Cate officially has 4 teeth - two lower and two upper. She is still drooling like a St. Bernard. We may have finally beaten the diaper rash that plagued her for more than a month...thanks to the diaper cream that Anne sold me on by Arbonne.She took her first independent http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/11/cate-11-months.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-6280681397191529532Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:04:00 +00002011-10-25T23:05:21.610-04:00CateHow many steps must Baby Cate take before we consider her walking? 1, 2, 3...6 independent steps tonight!!! (10 months, 3 weeks, 3 days old!) Hope to get some video of it soon!!!! Amazing!!!http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/10/these-boots-or-bare-feet-are-made-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-616531574532373964Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:18:00 +00002011-10-28T13:31:31.862-04:00CateElizabethI may be partial, but my girls are quite beautiful! We took them to Oglebay today to get some pictures...how they warm my heart!!! (Click on any of the images to view them larger...)http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/10/beauties.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-8491966885704315607Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:05:00 +00002011-10-28T13:17:53.553-04:00ElizabethElizabeth is becoming such a big girl these days. Despite her resistance, she is learning to read...she's joined the Girl Scouts (Daisies, more precisely)...and is playing basketball.She does really well with reading, when she takes the time to stop what she's doing to focus. Therein lies the problem. She doesn't want to have to stop what she's doing to do something else. We're working on http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-big-girl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-3553574215079074543Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:55:00 +00002011-10-27T11:08:34.471-04:00ElizabethOn September 20th, Elizabeth had her first school picture day. The outfit I ordered for her pictures came the day after picture day (my luck!), so we had to spend the evening before shopping like a mad woman to get something that would look good from the chest up (because I'm THAT anal-retentive...and despite the fact that she and I had just purchased some school clothes a few weeks before, http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/10/elizabeth-kindergarten-picture.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-730144146073512029Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:21:00 +00002011-10-09T14:42:34.273-04:00CateElizabethKennedy PuppyJust as I was about to write that with the maturity that 10 months has brought and Cate doesn't seem as cranky all the time, the crying commences. Good times.10 months has just seemed to fly by -- it won't be too long before I'm planning her first birthday party. (Oh, who are we kidding? I have the first draft of the invitations -- which are going to be darrrrrliiiing -- on my scrapbook table.http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/10/cate-10-months.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-3985588752884387559Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:44:00 +00002011-09-15T19:58:17.147-04:00CateTeething sucks!But a cute hat from an awesome aunt for whom you are named makes getting 2 teeth in one day a wee bit better!Mommy capturing you standing up on your own (5 days after when you did it for the first time), not too shabby!Good on you, Baby Cate!http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/09/milestones.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-3208629940663102822Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:04:00 +00002011-09-11T13:36:35.731-04:00CateElizabethThree quarters of a year is behind us - holy crap! Cate continues to eat more and more table food. Shockingly, she is in a lower percentile with her weight I recently learned at her 9 month checkup (she went down to the 50-75th percentile in weight as she currently weighs 20 lbs, 6 oz.). She's in the 90th percentile in height (27-3/4").Cate is somewhat less cranky of an evening when I'm not http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/09/cate-9-months.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-1045925601976815299Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:40:00 +00002011-08-25T15:27:49.095-04:00MountaineersFunnyWVU fans may have remembered the NIT printing gaff... Old Navy has upped the ante. While they didn't go the classic misspelling of "West Virginia"...they screwed the pooch royally...and to multiple institutions when someone in their graphics department skipped out on the grammar lesson that reviewed contractions. Old Navy has printed up a series of shirts with "Lets [plural] Go XYZ" times 15 http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/08/old-navy-grammar-morons.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-3385163994004090635Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:26:00 +00002011-08-23T22:06:43.893-04:00CateElizabethCraftyAlexReidWith a little help from her Mama, Elizabeth made the coolest craft ever! Seriously. Even Daddy thought they were cool -- and that's saying something because he's put up with me making a whole bunch of randomness over the last 10+ years... What Mama did:Create the stencil on Freezer Paper using the Cricut MachineNote: To do this, you'll want to put the freezer paper on the cutting mat with the http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/08/awesome-craft-project.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-2079838007380292385Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:03:00 +00002011-08-10T11:54:29.401-04:00CateElizabethReidGracious sakes where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday Cate was happy as a clam when being fed baby food. Oh, yeah, it was only yesterday. This that has fallen by the way-side though as she is preferring to feed herself nibblets of apples, peaches, pasta, and potatoes. Will soon be trying carrots, avocado, sweet potatoes, and fish. If she has trouble picking the food off her http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/08/cate-8-months.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-3192882051514902602Sat, 06 Aug 2011 03:58:00 +00002011-08-09T17:08:04.379-04:00CateElizabethReidCate was cute & good at her first baseball game. The Pirates were not - on either account. They lost to the Padres 5-15. Most of the crowd left during the 7th inning stretch. We stayed until the end, though - hoping they would be able to raise the Jolly Roger...E cheered through the last out... http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/08/cates-first-baseball-game.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-5968354134000473072Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:18:00 +00002011-08-01T15:28:42.105-04:00cool findsTo sum it up: Best. App. Ever.Seriously. If you're like me, well me a few days ago, you have about 12 different store-related cards on your keyring. They didn't weigh me down, just made my already bulky keychain even bulkier. I lost my Barnes & Noble card eons ago - they always have to look me up by my phone number. For the longest time, until Reid could remember what phone number (an old cellhttp://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/07/best-app-ever.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-892340752960157927Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:18:00 +00002011-07-08T12:36:36.944-04:00CateReidEvery day with Cate is a new adventure! Last night, she reached another milestone...you can read about it by viewing the text messages between Reid & me. My messages are in the blue, his are in yellow. Enjoy!Chat with you more tomorrow. Sweet dreams.Think of me when you are actually getting sleep...11:55 PM, Jul 7Love you, mean it11:55 PM, Jul 7Great. Xoxoo11:56 PM, Jul 7Cate has determined http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/07/cate-more-milestones.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-1116217944887065019Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:35:00 +00002011-07-05T12:45:59.266-04:00CateElizabethCate is changing so much every day...I hesitate to say 'filling out' as I have washed up the 6-12 month clothing that Elizabeth wore and already switched out the 3-6 month items with the larger ones. Yesterday when I put a 6-9 month onesie that Elizabeth had worn, it ripped near the snaps. I don't believe it was the age of the onesie that caused it to rip as it barely snapped before she http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/07/cate-7-months.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-6960893445648092611Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:27:00 +00002011-06-30T11:45:02.331-04:00CateMortonsElizabethReidWeighing in at 18 pounds, 12 ounces and stretching to a whopping 27-inches tall...Baby Cate had her very belated 6 month check-up on Monday. She is in the 85th percentile in both height & weight. Her lungs are clear (finally!), but she may have allergies...so she will be taking a daily dose of Zyrtec to see if that will clear this congestion she has had since basketball season. (Her ears are http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/06/baby-cate-is-grrrreat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-974742442098579953Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:39:00 +00002011-06-30T10:52:31.528-04:00ShoppingElizabethPartiesReidI am mad to Target! (That's how my cousin Mike used to say it when he was a kid, now a dad of three..."I am mad to ___" when he felt he was wronged...)I've thrown 5 birthday parties for Elizabeth. Five (sometimes over-the-top) themed parties:Baby EinsteinCupcake*CandylandSesame Street*Dr. Seuss*I've thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of these parties, with the exception of the party favors for thehttp://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/06/mad-to-target.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-8151396817714771658Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:00:00 +00002011-06-30T08:14:14.875-04:00More crap that annoys me:Forgetting to Blog about crap that annoys meThis over-priced sewing kit that I purchased at Disneyland ($9) because a button fell off of my khaki pants that I was wearing...and I didn't have time to iron another pair of pants to switch them out...What's wrong with this sewing kit -- other than the price??? That it would be perfectly fine if I were mending Mickey or http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/06/crap-that-annoys-meaddendum.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5159823985019101656.post-1526279220008615811Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:27:00 +00002011-06-26T22:32:28.809-04:00CateReidKennedy PuppyThere is a long, long list of crap that annoys me, and I'll save you from the list in its entirety...here's just a taste of the ABCs that are me (you may want to give my darling husband your condolences the next time you see him):The word "satchel" - unless, of course, you are referring to Satchel PaigeAll of the Ohio and PA drivers that are dyslexic...thinking that the left-hand lane is the "http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/06/crap-that-annoys-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (WVU-Mama)0