Busy Household

Here's a glimpse of our living room this holiday season. Festive, fun, and filled with things to trip over.

With all the family in town and continued home renovations the last couple weeks, it's been hard to find time and creative energy to write. But here's a short rundown of our latest events:

• We had a successful Thanksgiving with smoked turkey ala Mark, lots of pumpkin pie, and a new fangled cranberry sauce recipe (mmm, port). It was such a treat to have my parents and Chris & Carol in town to celebrate.
  
• We decided to exchange some Christmas gifts a bit early, so now we have a beautiful new mini-camcorder to play with (Thanks Mom & Dad Neely, Mom Synowiec, and Cathe & Adel!). We've taken lots of video already and Taylor loves to watch playback of "the baby" (a.k.a. herself). I'll see if I can post some clips soon.
  
• The bathroom went one step forward and two steps back - the tub is installed and the jets work great, but more walls were torn out and the toilet is only partially functional. Plenty of work left to do before we're out of town for Christmas...
• Taylor and I stumbled across a FREE children's craft event at Lowe's on Sat morning. They gave us a kit for making a little gingerbread house with a roof that opens, and candy-themed stickers to decorate. I built the house and Taylor added the stickers. She even got a free Lowe's apron with a gingerbread man patch (you get a patch every time you participate in their craft events - offered every other Sat). I think we'll try to go back next, next Sat to see what the new activity is.
  

I had a really hard time getting Taylor to sleep tonight. We've been staying up so late this weekend that her schedule is off by a few hours. She finally fell asleep on the couch a couple of hours ago and I found myself compelled to do some online shopping - partly for books about getting children to sleep and how to wean from nighttime feedings. We must work on sticking to routines as well; they make parenting much much easier.

I suppose I'll attempt getting us both back into bed now. It'll be much more comfortable than me trying to squeeze onto the couch with her for the rest of the night!

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.

Happy Birthday, Andrea!

Today I turn 25. One quarter of a century down, two to three more to go.

Mark took the day off of work and Nancy and Ann are in town today, so we are celebrating in style. We had a homemade waffle breakfast, went to the zoo, ate burgers at Seamus McDaniels, and have just eaten a Cookies & Creamery ice cream cake from Cold Stone - sooo good.

We arrived home to a beautiful bouquet of flowers, courtesy of Mom & Dad. Thank you and Happy 34th Anniversary to you two!

Here are other pictures from this morning:

Aunt Ann and Taylor (in her new dress and shoes)

At the zoo with Grandma