Toddler Art

Thought I would share some of R's art- We used these for grandparent gifts and hubby got one too. R used watercolors on canvas. She enjoyed the splattering part the most :)

Holiday rewind

Our holidays were rather uneventful this year-which is a good thing. We spent Christmas week in Alabama with my parents and my brother and his 2 girls were there for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I was a little dissapointed the hubby's daughters didn't come down for a day to see their little sister but all in all, everything went well.
Once again, we had the traditional breakfast casserole (Cracker Barrel knock off) and a pretty simple lunch. Christmas lunch was:
Smoked turkey breast from Honey Baked Ham
Coleslaw leftover from Christmas Eve
Sweet Potato casserole
Chicken and dressing-my MIL's recipe
Veggie casserole prepared by my niece
Homemade rolls from someone at Mom and Dad's church
Banana cream pie my niece made
I thought about making a pecan pie but decided against it. Mom and Dad already had a cake someone brought over and cookies and candy sent by my MIL. The last thing we needed was more sweets.
Christmas morning was too funny. The hubby and I were up drinking coffee, not expecting little one up for quite a while since she was up so late the night before. Well, little gets up without saying anything and walks into the livingroom and sees her tricycle. I hear her say "that's mine" so I yell for the hubby to get her. He runs, picks her up and whisks her back into the bedroom while I cover up her Santa toys with a blanket. I then occupied R long enough for the hubby to get the video camera so we could tape her seeing the Santa toys. Poor kid was so confused :)
Finances were/are tight for everyone this year so the gifts were simple and that was okay for me. I actually enjoyed Christmas more because there was no rush to wrap, find, buy, make those last minute items. We got to focus on The Reason for the Season and being together as a family.
On another note: No pattern sewing is NOT for me. 1st pair of pjs I forgot to stretch the waist out before cutting, 2nd pair-not sure what happened but they were lopsided-majorly. So, no matching PJs this year. I think I'll look for winter themed fabric in the next couple of weeks and buy a pattern so I can start early for this Christmas 2010.
I did get alot done at my parent's home during the week. You can't tell but I made 3 trips to the thrift store with the back of my car stuffed, put a small chest of drawers and bookshelf out on the street for pickup and threw away massive amounts of trash. My hubby put in a handheld shower to make it easier for my Mom to get a bath. I also put 10 + meals in the freezer for the parents to have for dinner. My next trip will involve cleaning out the kitchen-Mom has enough dishes to serve an army.

Trip home-Looking forward to and dreading at the same time

The hubby, little R and I will be spending Christmas with my parents in their home this year. I'm looking forward to everyone being together one last time-my brother and his girls will be there too. I'm also glad that I will be able to give my Dad a break from the caregiver role for a few days and give him a chance to get out of the house without feeling guilty.
However, if I am truly honest with myself, I am also dreading it just a bit. My Mom's condition is not good, there is very little left of the woman I remember. My Dad is declining quickly too. I know my brother and I have to have a very direct, uncomfortable conversation with my father about my mom's condition and his plans for after she is gone. Up to this point, he has just said we will cross that bridge once we get to it. My Dad and I share a dislike of confronting the uncomfortable, so I definitely know where he is coming from. It has come to the point where plans must be made and preparations must be started.
Our trip will also include some major cleaning out of the parent's house. My Dad is a saver of all things-he came up in the depression, his family was impoverished, and they went without the things I would call neccesities. Because of this, he keeps EVERYTHING!! He feels if it costs money you should keep it, no matter if it is broken, useless, etc. My Mom was the type to buy stuff, lots of stuff, and sometimes use it, sometimes not. She also would buy for other people and sometimes forget to give it to them or misplace it. Mom also would collect clothing, houseware, books, etc that people were giving away with the intention of giving it to someone in need or just someone who might appreciate it and those things too would sometimes end up staying in the house. She enjoyed buying and enjoyed helping others, it was just sometimes to an excess. So, bottom line, I have a TON of stuff to go through and decide what should be donated, thrown away or possibly put on ebay. I'm guessing alot of things will just be trashed.
I know I will enjoy our time together and the memories we make. The busy stuff and other details will just be fleeting.

Merry Christmas
 Feliz Navidad

Handmade Christmas

I still have tons to do with ONLY 11 days left...panic is setting in. Well, not really but kinda close.
Finished so far:
Purple tutu for baby R w/ matching tutu for doll
Fairy wreath w/ purple flowers for baby R and a matching one for doll
Pink tutu
Fairy head wreath w/ pink flowers
Felt strawberries, sunny side up egg, pancakes, bacon, lettuce, tomato, ravioli and bow tie pasta
Flavored Vodka
Shaving soap in mug for the guys
Pink fairy wand
Purple fairy wand
Altered clipboards x 4
Refrigerator magnets x a bunch
Flower clips x 10
Banana cake in jar


STILL LEFT TO MAKE:
Felt food: bread, cookies, sauce for ravioli
PJ pants x 3 for Christmas eve
Herbal soap
Applique tees
Magnetic paper dolls-taking these w/ me to cut out on the way out of town
2 fabric drawstring bags for felt food and magnetic stuff
cookies w/ Splenda
More cakes in a jar
if I have time-bow holder x 2, I was thinking I could take paint and brushes and ribbon w/ me out of town
4 picture frames to paint or decoupage or something
Coasters are another maybe-decoupaged -I could do these while out of town too.

I am most concerned about the PJ pants. My sewing skills are extremely lacking and I'm thinking this may be above my skill level but I was unable to find matching sets for adults and toddlers at a price I was willing to pay. So, to keep with the tradition of matching PJ's, I will give it a go. I did find absolutely adorable fabric at JoAnne's-yellow rubber duckies on a snowflake background.

A look back

At the beginning of this year I came up with a few goals to work on. Here is what they were:

- Spend more active time with baby-DONE-The hubby and I make it a point to take her outside to play, dance around the house, play chase, etc


- Less TV more music or even silence-Partially Done-still working on it


- PURGE the clutter [massively hard for me-I like stuff:)]-DONE-but need to do more, the next step is my massive crafting stash


- Learn to sew ruffles on jeans and skirts-NOT DONE-I have made 1 skirt w/ a ruffle-not a pretty sight but I let her wear it anyway


- establish a bedtime routine for baby R-HAHAHA-that should say it all


- stick to bedtime routine-refer to previous answer


- try out the freezer cooking method-DONE-now, I need to do it again


- Have at least 5 meals in the freezer at ALL times-umm, once again, refer above answer


- More fruits and veggies for me and the hubby-Partially Done


WOW, I have alot to work on.

Christmas Advent

I made a super simple advent paper chain for our family this year. This is completely new for me as we did not do this in our family nor do I remember anyone else doing it. So, after reading about it on numerous blogs, I gave it a try. The aesthetics of it are less than spectactular and it still doesn't have a safe home but we started our special activities last night.
Our first activity was coloring Christmas pictures-both secular and Christian. Other activities included in the advent are:
Make cinnamon ornaments
Make pipecleaner and bead ornaments
Put up tree and decorate
Gather natural materials for decorating the house
Hang wreaths and lights
Decorate cookies
Drive around and look at lights
Make green Rice Krispy treats
Watch Christmas movies
Camp out around the tree
Hot chocolate and jiffy pop
Make smores (hopefully on the fire)
Make handrpint and footprint reindeer
Handprint on canvas for present for Dad
Paint on canvas for grandparent gifts
Singing Christmas carols

Some of the activities are repeats (coloring, movie, singing) but I think there are enough unique ones to make it interesting. Maybe I'll get the hubby to make a fancy advent tree in the workshop for next year :)

What my child is reading this week

This is my first meme and it is part of Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

R's newest favorite book is Where Is My Teddy Bear? by Erica Bing. I looked all over the net and didn't find a picture. The book teaches prepositions in a short, direct, fun manner. The approach is a question, answer format about everyday objects. The page with the answer has flaps to open to discover where the object is. R has it almost memorized. Cute.

This magnetic was supposed to be a Christmas present but the hubby gave it to R for some reason. She likes moving the magnetic animals around but doesn't really have alot of interest in doing it in an interactive way. The book has prompts for the child to place the animals in certain places.

We are also reading bible stories from this fold out book. R enjoys the pictures and the stories are short. We've read The Noisiest Boat (noah's ark) and A Fierce Giant and a Brave Boy (david and goliath)I plan on using The Night Jesus Was Born which is in this book as part of our advent too.

Cakes in a jar and cranberry vodka

Today was a busy day-besides the typical taking care of baby and cleaning, I got started on more Christmas gifts.

The first was cranberry vodka. I thought about cranberry liquer but decided on just the flavored vodka-same idea just no sugar.

MY RECIPE for Cranberry Vodka:

1 liter of vodka-don't go for the cheapo stuff

1 bag of cranberries-chopped

peel of 1 lemon-grated

peel of 1 orange-grated

Dump together in a sterilized glass container with lid and let steep for at least 2 weeks

Shake every day

When ready to bottle, strain solids and rebottle in glass container.

I plan on using 2 yard sale find glass containers w/ stoppers-originally from Pier 1 and possibly an old blue wine bottle if needed.

I also just got through making Cakes in a Jar. This idea seems way weird to me. You bake a cake, any cake in a canning jar and seal it. Sounds simple though. I used this recipe-  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Nut-Cake/Detail.aspx since I had lots of yucky looking bananas hanging around in the freezer. I used 1/2 pint (8 oz) Jars and filled them approximately 1/2 full.

If these work, I'll probably try a pound cake of some kind next. A brown sugar one sounds good but most of the recipes I have come across call for shortening. I refuse to use shortening.

I actually hear a few pops..the jars are sealing :)