Winter Break

This is what that looks like at our house:

We had a wonderful Christmas including an early visit from Santa! I hope you did as well. I'll be back here once I can finally see my floors again:)

P.S. So far? Three is so, so, so much worse than two.

P.P.S. I could NEVER be a preschool teacher.

My gift to you:)

Somehow I ended up viewing old clips from Saturday Night Live on my computer tonight. I can't recall another skit in which the cast so completely falls apart. I can't watch it without crying (good tears). My favorite moment is about 4:40. Enjoy!

Adoration

Mad Snowman-building Skillz Yo

The weather outside certainly is frightful but we made the best of it today.

During Chloe's nap Poppy and I went "sledding" in the front yard. As was the case last year, her first snowy winter, she wasn't too impressed with the snow. I think she used her snowsuit twice last winter, for a total of ten minutes. If I could find a pair of gloves that would stay on her little hands she might be more eager to spend time outside in the bitter cold.

We did manage to build a snowwoman. She looks like the offspring of Jabba the Hut and Gene Wilder, with microcephaly:

Who knew it was so hard to take a picture of a snowwoman? So my homework assignment for tomorrow is to google "how to build a snowman" and "how to take a picture of a snowman":)

I decided today was a good day to bake. Someone was happy to join me (in last year's Christmas pajamas):

Our house was already a mess thanks to the painting project so a little flour wasn't going to hurt anything. She had the BEST time scooping and measuring and "making muffins".

I better at least get nominated for mom-of-the-year for this:

We ended the day with a special family movie night, something we've never done. After dinner and baths we all sat and watched 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and had warm chocolate chip cookies in the family room. Poppy couldn't believe her luck. Neither could I.

It was a good day:)

Excuses

Well so much for the posting Monday-Friday thing! I'm not sure if that is a realistic goal for me. But, I really want it to be!

We decided to make the holidays really exciting this year so we're painting our whole house. And, as usual, by 'we' I mean 'my wonderful husband'. Someone has to rear the children:) Our current color is brown with pink undertones. We wanted to brighten and warm things up. We changed our mind about the color after a day and a half of painting, but we finally chose a nice neutral cream with yellow undertones. I can't wait to start putting things on the walls. We've held off because we knew we were going to paint and I think it's going to make a world of difference in terms of coziness. Can't wait to share the 'after' pictures:)

We've taken on another huge project- taking a decent holiday card photo.

Kind of makes painting seem like child's play:)

Minnesota Children's Museum

We took the girls to the Minnesota Children's Museum while we were in Bloomington, MN. We'd heard good things about it and it did not disappoint. It was clean, not crowded, and had several interesting exhibits. There was even a small room available for nursing. We all had a great time and I highly recommend visiting if you ever have the chance.

Play is the poetry of the human being.

-Jean-Paul Sartre

She is Three

We celebrated Poppy's birthday today!

She wanted strawberry cake so strawberry cake she got. I used the 'best birthday cake' recipe from smitten kitchen for the cake. It was good but I'm still searching for the perfect yellow cake recipe. For the frosting I added mashed strawberries to cream cheese frosting. She liked it:)

Dear Poppy,

You make me happier than I ever thought I could be.

You keep life fun and interesting.

You are very loved!

I hope you had a memorable third birthday.

I think you did because you asked us tonight if we could do it again sometime:)

I love you to the moon and back and then some:)

Mama

p.s. Yes, you may have a piece of cake for breakfast. Just don't tell daddy:)

Listen

Today, the day after Thanksgiving, is the StoryCorps National Day of Listening (thanks NPR). The idea is to record a conversation with someone in your life as a keepsake. I just spent some time on their website listening to a few stories and I thought this was share-worthy:

Judge Joe Pigott and his wife Lorraine

Is it just me or could you sit and talk to that man all day long?

Now go and listen and record:)

Grateful Thoughts

Grateful to be alive, to live in this country, this city, where we are safe and free.

For our warm house and our family. Our friends. Our health. My husband's job and his ability to provide for us.

For the library, farmer's market, TiVo, the internet, my macbook, my camera, and sweet tea.

For you!

Cheers!

Holly meets Ree!

So we took a little road trip to Minnesota. We visited the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN to see Ree Drummond aka Pioneer Woman aka one of my favorite bloggers. She just released a new cookbook and was having a book signing. We decided to make a little family trip out of it.

We spent most of our time at the mall in the amusement park area. We were quite pleased with the number of rides available for Poppy.

I told Chris to take a picture of Poppy in the mirror. I love it:)

Mommy's turn. Shortly after Chris took this picture the nice lady who runs the ride came over to tell me that the camel that Poppy was sitting on was stationary and that it might be more fun for Poppy if we moved her. She was right. I shall pay more attention next time.

Poppy loved this little coaster. It was fast for such a little thing.

We also spent a lot of time in line for Ree. Almost four hours, it was crazy. They were filming for a new TLC show, "Mall Cops". I'll have to make sure it gets TiVo'd.

I could not have done it without Chris. I owe him big time. He helped me keep two little ones entertained and it wasn't easy.

All the ladies standing by us agreed with me that he deserves major brownie points (Ree even noticed he was with me and gave him mad props).

Finally she arrived! I was in the bathroom with Poppy so I missed most of her Q&A but I was able to snap this picture.

She was beautiful and sweet. It was great to finally meet her, although I stuck my foot in my mouth by asking "Do you have many vegetarian fans?" She looked at me like I might be a little crazy, given that she lives on a cattle ranch and wrote a cookbook full of meat-containing recipes. What can I say - I was a little starstruck and didn't know what to say. I really need to work on my small talk skills, but I'll try not to dwell on it too much - I know Ree understands social freaks like me ;)

Marlboro man turned the camera on the crowd.

So I'm not posting the picture of me and P-dub because:

a) it is out of focus much to my disappointment (I set it to aperture priority at 4.5 and set the ISO at 1000???)

and

b) I look like I smell something

But, this is a picture of Poppy not getting the hint that we needed to move along:

Chris had to intervene and pick her up and carry her off (I had Chloe). Ree was very kind about it. Thank goodness we had gotten to know the gal behind us quite well.

If you haven't heard of Pioneer Woman, you must check out her blog. She is funny, clever, and kind and writes about many things, there's a little something for everyone. Reading her blog makes me happy. And that's saying a lot considering her family raises cattle and I'm a vegetarian. Maybe there is hope for world peace after all!

You Betcha

We are going to sleep in Bloomington, MN tonight. More about our trip later but for now...

2 nyquil gel caps

+

painfully slow internet connection (I will never again wonder if I really need those extra 5 gb's or whatever they're called)

=

Good Night!

Fight Club

I think my Poppy has inherited my sleep disorder. I don't recall ever having sleep issues until college, during which it was not unusual for me to stay up all night, just not able to sleep. When 5 am rolled around I would get dressed and go to the gym. Boy are those days long gone. This is not to say I don't like to sleep, of that there is no question. My husband and I? We like our sleep. I think our marriage would have some serious issues if we didn't both respect the other's need for sleep.

As I type, this is what I hear from the other room:

Poppy: "Mom......my.....mom.....my.....mom.....my.....mom.....my". She doesn't need anything, besides maybe a shot of Benadryl.

My sleep issues went from bad to worse when I starting working 7p-7a as a nurse. Sure it was only three days a week, but let me tell you I can totally see why working the night shift takes years off of one's life. I swear I read that somewhere. You go from desperately needing to fall asleep even though your body doesn't really feel like it at 10am, to desperately wanting to close your eyes for just five minutes to make it through the night. It ain't fun. So, be kind to your night nurses:)

It doesn't help my sleep situation that I am a night owl. My husband thinks this is all in my head because he is a morning person. He could and would go to bed at 8pm every night if he had his choice. I never can. And he wakes up in a great mood. I never do. In fact, if I'm asleep by 11pm it's because I'm sick and on cold medicine. More often than not I'm up well past midnight. I get a mental second wind and my mind just will not relax.

So, when my precocious daughter refuses to fall asleep at night and insists on singing every song in her repertoire, I can't be upset with her. If she's not tired, she's not tired. It isn't her fault. I'm hoping things will get better once she gives up her nap, but I think she's destined to be a sleep fighter like her mother. I guess if this is the case, the good news is that when she gets older and it's age appropriate, I'll have a late night movie watching partner? Or maybe she's just being a normal almost three year old. It's anybody's guess.

I think she's finally out. Either that or she's temporarily lost her voice due to the strain placed on her vocal cords from the roughly five thousand songs just forced through them. Again, anybody's guess. I'm off to kiss foreheads...please let them be sleeping:)

Cool Camera Bag

The Bowler