Yogurt Snacks and Baby Sneakers

While in Omaha, we invested in some Gerber Yogurt Melts and Taylor devoured them. She gladly eats them in place of more substantial food and stuffs her cheeks so full that yogurt dribbles down her chin.

Well, in an effort avoid shelling out $2.50 for a package that lasts only two snack times, today I made what Mark likes to call "YoBaby Buttons." I took the unfinished half of Taylor's morning YoBaby and spooned it out in little drops on wax paper on top of a cookie sheet. Then I stuck it in the freezer. When I took it out and showed Taylor, she was so excited! Now we have a healthier, less expensive yogurt snack that Taylor loves. Too bad it isn't portable! The "buttons" only stay firm for a couple of minutes out of the freezer.

In other news, I finally located Taylor's Tredz! She ran off with them two weekends ago right before our visitors arrived and since then I have searched high and low without success. Today, I decided to check the guest room trash can. Sure enough, two little sneakers. Considering our history with finding lost items in the trash, I'm surprised I didn't look there sooner! Thank goodness I found it before our trip.

Butterfly House

Yesterday, Taylor and I met up with Sarah and Samuel at the Butterfly House. It was like the Butterfly Pavillion at the Omaha Zoo, but larger and with a wider variety of butterflies. I think the babies liked it. They were actually spotting the butterflies flying around and pointing at them. It was a great getaway on a dreary, rainy day.

So You Think Taylor Can Dance?

One of our favorite shows to watch is "So You Think You Can Dance." We watched the audition shows the last couple of nights and Taylor really seemed to enjoy it! She was picking up some new moves. I think we need to watch more dancing videos.

Here's another video of some of her new daring moves. She is definitely gymnast material - no fear.

Omaha to St. Louis

We had a great weekend in Omaha. The 5 mile run/walk went well. It was a very sunny day, but breezy as well so we didn't get too overheated.

Carol and Taylor stood in line to get their faces painted before the race started, but the line was so long that Mark stayed behind with them and the rest of us started running/walking. Mom and I walked slowly so that they would have an easier time catching up. Carol jumped in with the runners as they passed the two mile marker and Mark waited there awhile longer until we were made it. At that point the "sag wagon" police car was right behind us. We had been walking so slowly apparently, that we were at the back of the line! Everyone we had passed up before then had just dropped off and left.

With Taylor in the umbrella stroller we made an effort to speed up and pass as many people as possible, running whenever we reached a downhill area. When we got to the last mile or so, I decided to run, Mom wanted to keep walking, and Mark just pulled the stroller off to the side to watch us finish. I crossed the finish line at just under 1 hour and 25 minutes. It was my slowest time yet for this Boys Town run, but I comfort myself knowing that I took it easy and didn't really try to go fast anyway. I'll have to post our end-of-race photo later, as soon as I get it from my parent's camera...

When we got home we had Stetson Salad for lunch and banana splits for dessert, watched a few movies, and then had beef kabobs and corn for dinner. Taylor loved eating the corn right off of the cob!

Here are other fun photos from the weekend.

Taylor playing with her babydoll inside Phoebe's crate. Mark was worried neighbors would look in the window and think we had caged our baby, so he pulled the curtains shut.

Taylor and Phoebe enjoying the sun and nice, green grass.

Kissing Daddy through the window. They did this for a few minutes! It was adorable.

The drive home went amazingly well (thanks for the prayers)! Taylor slept for about 4 of the 7 hours, and when she was awake she was happy and playful. Phoebe, on the other hand, insisted on sitting on my lap for almost the entire drive. We got home at about 5:30pm, so it was plenty of time to unwind and relax before bed.

We had leftovers of Mark's homemade pizza for dinner (oh-so-good). I told Mark we should see how his pizza tastes once it's been frozen and defrosted. If it holds up better than store bought pizza I think we should just make large batches of it once a month and have them as our dinner back-up plan instead of other frozen pizzas.

Now I need to get to unpacking our stuff and washing some clothes...and Taylor's gunky carseat cover. Feeding baby in the car = messy messy messy. Taylor and I leave for KL in 8 days! Yikes! I need to get packing.

Weekend in Omaha

We're in Omaha now! It was a long and not particularly pleasant drive up (read: screaming, tired baby), but we made it here just before midnight on Friday. Then Phoebe woke us up at 6:30am on Sat because she was so excited to explore my parent's big backyard. Ah, a vacation of little sleep.

We went to Sur La Table and found new, fun pizza-making and grill supplies for Mark, then to Whole Foods for our yummy pizza ingredients. Mark will be making pizza tonight. Then, Mark and I left Taylor behind with my parents and went off to see the new Star Trek movie. I really liked it! It makes me want to watch the original series all over again.

Taylor and her Lola spent a lot of time outside playing with the garden hose (which Taylor also loves to do at home now). Here are the best shots:

Chris and Carol arrived late last night, so we haven't seen much of them yet. But we're all going to Dario's for brunch in a few minutes and then to the zoo.

Tomorrow is our big 5mile run (er, walk). We may prep a little bit today walking around the neighborhood. I forgot the jogging stroller, so we're forced to take it slow with an umbrella stroller my parents had around. Mom is pleased she'll be pushing Taylor for the event this year. Dad had the stroller all last year.

I'd better get ready to go - we're leaving soon!

Photo fun

Bad case of bed head

New love of pillows

Pigtails!

Babydoll joins family

Here's a cute video of Taylor caring for her new babydoll. We got the doll and stroller from the yard sale last weekend.

Outdoor progress

Here are a few pictures from two weekends ago when we revamped our backyard. We removed bushes from the area right next to our patio, Mark hacked down our pine tree on the back side yard, Nancy and I planted flowers, and then we had tree removers come during the week to take down our gum tree.

Taylor in her sunhat and SPF shirt

Removing bushes and rocks

Mark's new grill


Gum tree is gone

New blog site and weekend visitors

Finally, our blog has made a full transition. You are now viewing this on Blogger instead of WordPress. I'm sad to see the blue bird graphic go, but our new image is an actual nest in our tree out front which makes pretty special.

This weekend we are hosting Jenifer, Ann, & Jon. We had yummy grilled pizza ala Mark last night and buttermilk Belgian waffles with bananas this morning. For the pizzas, Mark tried to make a marinara sauce more like Papa John's and I think he did very well. Ann has been catching up on some Harry Potter for Wii, while Mark and I obsessively check in with Mafia Wars on Facebook. *If you're not already part of our mafia family, you should be! We need more family members to be able to progress in the game.*

At 9am today we were off to the Ferguson City Wide Garage Sale! Mark and I picked up lots of games and crafts and other kiddie things for Taylor. We bought a baby doll with accessories and a stroller, a light box (meant for viewing slides), 6 child-sized chairs with a large (yet short) craft table, a handful of records, a beer mug and a coffee thermos for Mark, and more. Ann and Jon packed their car full of stuff as well, but Jenifer didn't buy a thing! Shocking!

Tonight we're going to church, then out to eat. Our visitors will be leaving early tomorrow morning.

Up early and busy day ahead

Sadly, the url redirect still is not working. Mark contacted people at our host server place to get our url to forward to this blog and they somehow redirected markandandrea.synowiecs.com to google.com. Why??? Mark said he'll contact them again today to fix it.

I have been awake since 3:30 this morning. Taylor was really itchy and started scratching her diaper rash, so I got up to put her in a new dry diaper and put some hydrocortizone cream on the itchy parts. Then I couldn't get back to sleep. Plus I was very hungry. I've eaten a pear so far, but my tummy is still grumbling.

Speaking of itchy, Mark has a bad case of poison ivy. It seems he came into contact with it during all our yard work this last weekend and the oil got inside a cut on his arm. Now the rash is spreading all over his body. He has been so uncomfortable the last couple of days that he is planning to work from home today. He'll go see the doctor this afternoon.

This morning Taylor and I have our final Parents As Teachers appointment before the summer (they work on a school year schedule) and then Sarah and Samuel will stop by for lunch. I'm thinking turkey sandwiches out on the patio...though I need to clean off the furniture a bit from all the weekend mess. I'll have to post some photos of the progress in the backyard as well...as soon as I get them on the computer.

Then later today I need to do some major cleaning, as we are expecting lots of visitors this weekend! Most of Mark's siblings and their spouses will be driving out for some yard sale fun and play time with Taylor. Thanks to my lovely husband, the kitchen is mostly taken care of. I just need to prep the nursery-guest room, the bathrooms, and the dining room.

Tonight is the season finale of Hell's Kitchen. I'm excited to see which chef will reign. The Biggest Loser finale was a massive disappointment - a sad end to an unnecessarily long three hours. Mark and I were rooting for Mike to win. Oh well, there is always next season.

First post on Blogger

Whew! I finally finished transferring all my old posts (50 total) to Blogger. Now I just need to figure out how to redirect my url. Mark will help me when he gets home.

As for now, Taylor and I are just finishing up breakfast and will head outside for a run with Phoebe.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was my second Mother's Day and it has been really fun so far! We woke up early, dressed Taylor in a cute pink dress that used to be mine (she received LOTS of compliments today), went to church, had a yummy outdoor brunch with Dave, Sarah, and Samuel at Schlafly Bottleworks, and then ran some errands.

Now all my little creatures (well, one big one) are sleeping as I catch up on email and blogs.

Actually, this whole weekend was a celebration for me. Mark's mom came out to help us clean up our yard and break ground on flower gardens. It looks fabulous, though Mark and I have a lot of work yet to do. We set up my new composting bin, my garden hose reel, and have been developing plans for a lovely vegetable garden.

Mark got an early Father's Day present - a charcoal grill - and worked long and hard to prep it for cooking dinner last night. We had salmon fillets, grilled carrots, baked acorn squash, and quinoa, finished off with a tasty strawberry cheesecake from Sam's.

Tonight I think we'll just take it slow and straighten up the house for the work week ahead. Plenty of dishes and laundry and vacuuming to do. Sounds like it's going to rain too... Until later!

Furniture, festival, format change

The estate sale last weekend was a lot of fun! The house was very old and filled with all sorts of antique goodies (lanterns, baby rocking chairs, books) and the weather was fabulous. We hit the jackpot with a beautiful patio furniture set for just under $300. It included a rectangular table with umbrella, 6 chairs, 2 footstools, and a side table. Mark and I are so excited to spend more time enjoying our backyard this spring/summer!

We also found several Disney story records (101 Dalmations, Sleeping Beauty, 3 Little Pigs, etc) and a couple of nice overalls for Taylor to wear next year and get as dirty as she wants.

Today begins the Festival of the Flowers in Florissant (not too bad to say 5 times fast). Despite living in Florissant for the last three years, Mark and I have never attended. But this year will be different! Festivities begin at noon, so we'll head out as soon as Mark is off of work (around 2pm) and Taylor is up from her afternoon nap. There will be a flea market, a plant sale, a beer garden, a carnival, and more (note order of interest).

Our morning may also include Taylor's 15 month check-up with the pediatrician (can't find that appointment card...) and a trip to the annual Ferguson Church of the Nazarene Kid's Consignment Sale. The last couple of times we went to the sale we found lots of neat items for Taylor, like toys, books, and hair bows.

As just a head's up, I am considering switching our blog from WordPress to Blogger. It won't affect the location of the blog (still markandandrea.synowiecs.com), but it will affect the format (i.e. no more birdie, which makes me very sad). The switch would be a pain, considering there is no good way to transfer all my past posts, BUT it would make future blogging eaiser because I can upload photos directly from Picasa and the subscription setup is much more advanced. You could receive a daily digest via email instantly after I write a new post! I can't for the life of me figure out how to make this happen with WordPress...

And, as an addendum to my Earth Day post, here are a couple of articles about toilet paper I found interesting. I hope they make you think a bit more about the environmental impact of your purchases. The New York Times reports that the oh-so-prized fluffiness of American toilet paper comes at the expense of millions of trees, some of them from old-growth forests. The process of turning fresh tree pulp into fluffy, white tp also takes a great deal of water and chlorine. Many other countries do just fine using recycled material for toilet paper, so I think we should make more of an effort to do so. Seventh Generation and Trader Joe's supposedly make pretty good stuff.

According to Consumer Reports, the ultra-fluffy toilet paper brands are heavier on the wallet as well. CP's "Best Buys" (soft, yet much more affordable tp) include Kirkland Signature from Costco and White Cloud from Walmart. While I cannot attest to the environmental benefit of these brands versus Charmin or Cottenelle, there's a good chance they're better because they aren't the front-runners of tp advertising campaigns. Perhaps a good goal, starting fresh this May 1st, is to "save the earth, one toilet paper roll at a time."