It's A Walk In the Park

Last night, we visited Mel's store on the Square and walked around the park. Bells is finally getting big enough to be able to play in the area that they have set up for kids. They have a big train for kids to play on and a little train depot.

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All bundled up and ready to go! It was really chilly; once we got to the park, we had to add her new hat.

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Checking out the train depot.

Playing in the "engine room"

Thanskgiving Yumminess

We had a great week with my side of the family - Mom, Dad, and Rachel got here on Monday night and we had a great time Christmas shopping, visiting Mel's store for lunch on the Square, and Thanksgiving! Some pictures from the week...

Sweet potato puree with a maple syrup and pecan topping.

Fabulous apple pie...Mom Wires' recipe with a lattice top. It was delicious!

Mom on the motorcycle...had to have a "bike" picture in here! Mom had a blast!

We had "fake Christmas" on Friday morning. This was our chance to have Christmas with my side of the family, and it's a fun way to have two Christmases! My favorite gifts were a food processor from my parents and a robe from Steve.

Mel got Steve a Harley Davidson Atlas; it shows where the good bike routes are and describes the motorcycle laws of each state.

Bella and her stocking - she got a lot of baby powder and socks (It sinks when Mommy shops for you!).


Bella got a girl's bomber jacket and a set of puzzles from Grandma and Grandpa. Loved them!

And finally...we took some family pictures on the swing in the backyard for our Christmas card. We just took some family pictures, but for the Christmas card, we like to include Mel, too. I don't want to give away the picture yet, but here's a cute one of Bella that I cropped.

Pear and Fig Pandowdy

I love Martha Stewart! Reading her magazine is when my crafty, nerdy, baking, scrapbooking side gets to come out. I really like the holiday issues, because there are a ton of recipes. I am not a great cook - my mom and sister definitely have the skills in that area, but I can (usually) follow a recipe.

My family is coming into town tonight and since I'm sure we'll be quickly overwhelmed with all of the Thanksgiving yummies that are our traditions. I wanted to make a new recipe ahead of time.

Here is a recipe I found in Martha Stewart; it's a pear and fig pandowdy, which I read is the New England version of a cobbler. It smells divine!

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The Price I Pay For Being Stubborn...

Okay, so I'm sure over the course of my life, I've paid worse "prices" for being stubborn, but this one is current...

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When you have a baby or toddler in your home (in my case, three toddlers), you have to decide just how hardcore you want to be about child-proofing. I've read a lot of articles that suggest accepting your current state and removing anything that has decorative or sentimental value from your home until your child is about 5 years old. This is just not me; I can't remove everything I love from my home, and especially my living room.

As a stay-at-home-mom who has to see the inside of her house all day, I want to take pride in my home and how it's decorated, and I don't want the whole room to be decorated in exersaucers and sippy cups. I want to be able to clean up at the end of the day and have it look like a "normal," adult living room. Maybe this is just asking for a headache, but it's what we've chosen so far.

The risk you run, of course, is when a small human and your decor collide. In this case, Rex (one of the toddlers I watch) decided to use my caroler figurine as drumsticks against the side table. And since I've already put way to much dialogue into this blog, can I just whine for a moment and say that chasing three toddlers around the house, while also trying to keep the room intact, can be EXHAUSTING! There, I whined. Now I'm off to find some super-glue...

Gobble, Gobble

Worked on our Thanksgiving craft this week. We traced her hand to make the turkey's body, and I cut out feathers, an eye, and whatever the weird red thing is that hangs down (I'm too lazy to Google it right now). Then she colored the little body. I did it for all three toddlers and made extra of Bella's hand for both grandmas. Coming in the mail soon!

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The back that shows the outline of her hand. She's so cute and pudgy!

'Tis the Season...

...for footie pajamas and runny noses!

Steve absolutely LOVES seeing Bella in footie PJ's, so whenever the weather gets colder, I find some new ones for her to wear. It's so cute to see her walk around in them - she's so cozy and fuzzy!

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Bella is also working on her first cold of the season, and I think Rex is, too. I always make sure I'm stocked up on tissues - they sneeze a lot and toddler noses are not cute with snot! We're extremely thankful that Bella's colds tend to be mild. Steve and I were commenting last week about how thankful we were that we had never had to take Bella to an E.R. or urgent care facility. I think that's a miracle for a toddler! We have a tough little human!

Steve's Deacon Ordination

Sunday night was Steve's deacon ordination. Pastor had each of the men stand, one at a time with their wife, and he read a short testimony about each man. Then the men sat down on chairs at the front of the sanctuary, and their wives stood behond them. Pastor invited any man who had been ordained as a deacon or elder to come and pray around the men in groups. Steve and I had about 6 or 7 men around us, most of whom we knew well, and it was a really special time of prayer and blessing.

Believe it or not, Steve wasn't nervous...I think this is his "waiting" face. :)

We had eight people on the other side of the camera trying to get Bella's attention and make her smile, but no such luck! I think she's staring at Auntie Mel right here.