The Corn Maize

Saturday we went to Danville Farms in Kilgore to visit the corn maize and pumpkin patch. We went with Big Mama (Ryan's mom), Aunt Sara, Aunt Stacy, and Jason. It was a little hot, but a lot of fun! In addition to pumpkins, they have a lot to do for kids of all ages. First, we noticed the staged photo area with hay bales, pumpkins, scarecrow, fall decorations, and cute little ride on tractor. I tried to get a cute picture of the girls, but it is really difficult to get one with both of them looking at the camera and not squirming around or picking their noses!
This is the best picture I got! After this we headed over to the big pillow bounce. It is a humongous long colorful rectangle that is blown up with air and you bounce on it like a trampoline. It always induces lots of giggles from Brooke and Heather even enjoyed holding on to my hands and bouncing. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures from this part of our trip.

Next, Brooke wanted to race some ducks! Aunt Sara showed her how to use the water pump and then she went to town pumping away! While they were busy racing, Heather wanted to explore and I caught her playing on this stage coach with a cedar porch. She was being playful and I was able to capture a few cute pictures.

Then we discovered the corn box, which is like a sand box, but filled with corn instead. The girls loved playing in it and luckily Heather didn't eat any....that I know of.

I was even able to get a great picture of Aunt Stacy with her little love, Jason!
They also have several metal frame play cars and climbing area. We played there for a few minutes before heading over to feed the goats.
After feeding the goats we took a tractor ride around the park and all the kids enjoyed this!
We were even able to get a good picture of Big Mama with all her grandkids! I just wish my two littles were looking at the camera, but at least Brooke is smiling. :)
Then we attempted to do their famous corn maize. After about 5 minutes of walking we decided it was too hot and Heather was starting to have a melt down so we turned around and walked out. Before we left, we let the kids climb around the pumpkins and we tried once more to get a good picture in their staged photo area.

Heather's 1st Birthday

Wow this year has flown by and I can't believe it has already been a year! You are doing so much! You can walk!! You first took 5 steps on your own on 9/17/11. Then you saved the rest to show off at your party later that day. It has been a week since you have taken your first steps and walking is now your preferred method of getting around (other than mommy holding you). You are getting more confident and can dodge most obstacles, turn corners, and change directions. You can also carry objects in your hands while walking. You can go from a sitting to standing position unassisted. You love your new found freedom.

You can say bye-bye, bye-bye daddy, dog (which sounds like daag), and hi. You love to put things in buckets/baskets and dump them out. You love to clap when you have completed a task such as putting a toy or puzzle piece in the correct place. You have a very easy going and happy disposition (unless you haven't napped well ---but I think that is true for most people).

You are a great eater. You are eating all table foods and drinking whole milk. I'm still nursing in the mornings and evenings. You have eaten strawberries, grapes, pasta, peanut butter, and scrambled eggs and loved all of them! Most days you will eat more than Brooke.

You are sleeping through the night consistently now. You go down for bed around 7:30 and wake up around 7am. You take a nap from 12-2 most days. You are going to mother's day out 2 times a week and usually don't nap as well there, but otherwise love it. You went through a 3 week separation anxiety spell where you would scream and cry anytime I dropped you off, but have since gotten over that. (Thank goodness!! It killed me to hear you throw a fit.) You have had several weeks of on/off diaper rashes and I'm trying to figure out why all the sudden you seem to be getting these. We are now trying different brands of diapers. You are wearing 12 month clothes, size 4 shoe, and size 3 diaper. We will get your height and weight at the next doctors appointment in October. I will update this post when I get it.

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Heather's first birthday was a blast! We had about 25 family members come and help us celebrate. Her theme was owls. Look whoo's turning 1! Here is a slide show of the evening. She showed of her new walking skills several times so everyone got to see her new moves. She liked her smash cake and made a huge mess! She wasn't very interested in opening presents and we had to keep redirecting her. She will get it in a few months, Christmas is coming up and she will have lots of practice.

It has been such a blessing to watch Heather grow and develop over the last year. Some things were very similar to Brooke while other things were completely different. I am so honored that God has picked Ryan and me to raise these beautiful daughters!

Happy 1st Birthday Heather! I look forward to watching you continue to grow and develop!

The joys of parenthood

I used to consider myself lucky and thankful that I never had a baby that played with their poop and made a huge mess in the process. Well, today was my pay day!

I was on the phone in our bedroom when I heard one of the girls crying. I turned on Heather's monitor and it wasn't her. I got extremely worried that something was terribly wrong with Brooke because she doesn't cry when she wakes up from a nap. Oh, my mother instinct was totally correct this time! I could smell the stench before I even opened the door to her room and I knew something was terribly wrong.

Since we have been working on potty training, I have decided to make her wear big girl panites full time during the day. During nap time I have been putting her potty right next to her nap mat, so when she wakes up she can go potty. She has been really successful the past 3 days doing this.

Today when I opened the door to her room the stench was so strong that I immediately felt like vomiting. I looked at Brooke and was in such shock that I didn't know what to do first. She was covered in poop and had clearly been finger painting her body with it! It was in her hair, nose, hands, arms, legs, torso, feet. She was crying and I felt bad, so I didn't scold her. I just assured her we would get her clean.

I picked her up and put her in the bath. While the hot water was filling the bath, I cleaned up the mess around her potty, thankfully she didn't paint anything else except her and the potty. As I was cleaning her up, she had dried up the tears and I asked her what happened. She kind of gleefully talked about playing with her poop. It took me by surprise because seemed to be distraught when I walked in the room. I didn't know how to handle it, but I just talked to her about how yucky it was to do that and we need to flush poop down the potty so he can be with his other friends! I hope the talk and disgusted look on my face as I cleaned her had an impact and that she will never do that again! Then after I gave her 3 baths, I felt like she was clean and not a biohazard anymore. Then I cleaned out the tub and filled it with clorox and threw away all the toys that she had touched. I just can't stomach the thought of keeping a bath toy after thinking that feces possibly touched it and then Heather putting it in her mouth. YUCK!

Then I told her she still needed some quiet time, so that I could go and shower!
So, if anyone needs last minute gift ideas for Heather, they need a whole new tub full of bath toys!

I no longer consider myself lucky. Pay backs a witch!

First Day of MDO

Today is the first day for both girls to attend the PREP school! I hope they are having fun and making new friends! I was heartbroken as I walked away from Heather's door and I could hear her crying. I know she will have fun, but it will take some adjustment and momma will get some much needed time to organize and do kid free chores! I wanted to share a picture of the girls from this morning. All morning I have felt like I am naked and missing something. I keep checking and double checking to make sure I have everything! Ha!

Recipes

There were a few recipes that I was repeatedly asked for at my dad's party.

Lemon Mousse Fruit Cups
frozen phyllo cups
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 lemon
1 can of lemon pie filling
powdered sugar to taste
seasonal fruit washed (strawberries (cut into quarters), blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)
mint leaves optional

Allow phyllo cups to thaw on counter. Whip the cream in the mixer to medium peaks. Add zest of lemon. Fold in 5-6 tbsp of lemon pie filling and several pinches of powdered sugar. Taste and adjust to liking. Fill pastry bag or zip lock bag with mousse (if using zip lock bag cut corner to pipe out). Pipe into phyllo cups. Top with fruit and mint leaves.


Marble Cheesecake brownies

1 box of favorite chocolate brownie mix
8 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/3 cup of sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 tsp of vanilla

Mix brownie mix according to directions and spread in pan. Stir cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla until smooth. Dollop cream cheese mixture on top of brownie mix and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 for 35 min.



Homemade Salsa

2 cans of diced tomatoes (or you can use the equivalent of fresh tomatoes ~7-8)
2 cans of rotel
1 tsp salt
1 onion
1 jalapeno
1 bunch of cilantro

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed. Refrigerate overnight for best results.

The BIG 6-0

My dad's birthday was this past Sunday and he turned 60. Since this is a major milestone birthday, I wanted to celebrate it in a big way! My mother, brother, and I decided to throw him a surprise birthday party. I had a lot of fun planning it. This was the first time I had ever planned a party for this big group of people (35). I did have thoughts during the planning process that I could get into this and this is fun, but those thoughts were quickly dissolved when the day of the party came! There were a few unforeseen kinks thrown into my final planning hours and I had to make some compromises, but thanks to my MIL for her help we were able to pull it off! The party was a success and I had bought plenty of food and everyone went home happy, so it was all worth it to see the look on his face.

The week before the party, my brother thought that my dad sounded suspicious of me planning something. So, all week I was trying to think of something to distract his thoughts, but it serendipitously worked out on the day of his party. My brother traveled from Lubbock for his birthday and on Saturday we surprised him at lunch with the arrival of my brother and his family! So, I thought this is perfect, he thinks that this was the BIG surprise and now he won't suspect anything else the rest of the day, GREAT! Well, that night we had the party at the church. He looked shocked when he walked in the room. He told me that he didn't expect anything and he was surprised! Then he said, "Now this is all the surprising, right?" I told him yes and to just enjoy the evening!

Here are some pictures of the evening:

My nephews: Andrew and Ethan

The kids know where the good stuff is!

Ethan's face says it all...

My dad looking at all his memorabilia. My mom and I worked on getting pictures and things he liked together to display on a keepsake table.

Me and the birthday boy!

The birthday cake

I Love You, Dad! I hoped you liked your party. Happy 60th Birthday!

Heather 11 months

Heather is just a ball of energy! If she is not asleep, she has to be moving, climbing, twisting, crawling, cruising...any form of movement! It takes some speed and skill to change her diaper! She is becoming more inquisitive and figuring out how things work. She will play with her blocks or legos and try to see if they fit through holes. She has figured out how to open the jack-in-the-box without turning the crank. She loves to fill buckets up with various toys, dump them out, and repeat. She has figured out how to open cabinet doors and drawers.

Her language skills are exploding and she is babbling all the time. She even said her first word this past Sunday, "Bye", while waving bye-bye. I was pleasantly surprised. By the way, she also waved for the first time this past month, 8/10/11. There are several times I think that she has said something, but it still sounds like giberish, but on Sunday the word bye was very clear and even used appropriately! Way to go, Heather! I know it is only a matter of time before she starts adding more words to her vocabulary.

Heather is still cruising, but getting more confident of letting go of things. Not walking yet, but getting closer. She will occasionaly take a few steps between Ryan and me. She still does the mowgli crawl (named after the jungle book character because that is what it looks like) especially when she is wearing a dress or doesn't want to scratch up her knees. We went to a birthday party at the local splash park last week and Heather wanted to get in the middle of the water action. Even though it was all concrete, she didn't let that stop her. She just did her mowgli crawl all around the park! Everyone thought her crawl was unique and funny!

She is doing great with eating table foods. She loves pasta, cheese, strawberries, carrots, yogurt, and crackers. I have weaned her to three feedings a day and I feel more comfortable with her starting mothers-day-out next week. She is drinking whole milk from a sippy cup and it was an easy transition from formula.

Heather is wearing mostly 12 month clothes, size 3 shoe, and size 3 diaper. She is 29" and 18 lbs by my measurement.