Party Weekend Begins!

We did Megan's birthday a day early this year so we could do a middle of the day celebration.  That works a lot better for us at this age than after dinner.  Chopper and I set up her presents on the fireplace for her to see when she woke up.  Doesn't she look excited about them?

 This is the look when I TELL Megan to smile for me to take a picture.  When I demonstrate rather than just tell her, I get this:

 Why does she tilt her head?  I tilt my head so she can see the smile behind the camera.  But it's cute.  A few of her presents weren't entirely wrapped so she got those right off the bat.  One was a feather boa in a bag which Megan was very excited about "the fluffy in the teeny tiny bag"

 And kept it near her during breakfast (in the bottom corner).  But when we pulled the fluffy out of the bag . . . 

 Whoops -- hi Abby!

 She DID NOT want to wear it.  So Chopper demonstrated for her.  It didn't help.  She still loves it in the bag, not around her shoulders.

 After breakfast and getting dressed, we made her cupcakes and then went ahead and opened presents before lunch.  I couldn't wait any longer.

 Megan did better with opening presents but it still took a while because she wanted to play with each thing as it was opened.  I think that's probably a cue to me to buy less presents . . . 

 Her princess cups 

 The ipod from Grandma and Grandpa -- that sounds worse than it is but it's a little music player that plays a set of kids songs and is DESIGNED to look like an ipod.  It's not really one -- the grandparents don't spoil her THAT much!  Abby really liked it too . . .

 The princess paper doll -- only it's not paper, it's wooden with magnetized clothing.  It's a Melissa and Doug product and it's awesome!  I wanted to play with it!  And Megan has played with it more than anything else.  We went out this afternoon (after 5 days in the house!) and she was asking to go home and get her "princess girl".

 I put together a box of dress-ups that included this great set of princess shoes on clearance at the Disney store.  They have little heels and lights when you walk and she has worn them all day.  

 That and her tutu.  Amazing what a little tulle and elastic can do.  When we first put the shoes on, she wouldn't walk, not that I blame her.  Heels are hard!  And I don't really go for heels for little girls, but try to find princess shoes without them!  She finally got the hang of it after Chopper helped her around a little bit but there has been no race car running in our house today (her latest thing is to run back and forth and tell us she's a race car.  She watches Cars way too much).  Just little princess steps in her shoes.

 So these are her butterfly cupcakes -- idea courtesy of FamilyFum magazine.  Sorry to say, I will not be doing them again.  They were messy to make and easy to break -- they're just candy melts so I shouldn't have been surprised.  I made just enough for the birthday girl and that's it!

 Megan is still not a fan of he birthday singing and the candles.  Not sure why . . .

 Chopper had to blow out her candles for her and this was her reaction when he did.

 But then she wants to lick the candles off and of course, eat the cupcakes.  You are correct when you assume that this is the only thing she ate pretty much all day.  Well, you only turn 3 once right?

 More princess stuff from her dress-up box -- costume picked up at Target after Halloween for a great deal.

We really enjoyed the day.  I really enjoyed the day!  I love her girly-girl-ness but I really love that we know what she likes and can watch her light up.  There are frustrating times of course but the older she gets, the better she gets!

I tried to get some videos of Megan through the day but she was so focused on playing with new toys that she would barely talk to me.  But I got a few cute things!

So Grandma Won't be Sad . . . .

Apparently I am just not updating enough -- especially with video.  It is fun to watch the girls do their funny little things though and I have wished on more than one occasion that I had some kind of glasses that could record the little spur-of-the-moment things that I love -- but I don't.

So this video gets a pretty good look at Abby moving around.  She really is inching her way to where she wants to go -- and that usually means that there is something on the floor she's not supposed to have.  I think that any day now she'll figure out it's faster if she'll coordinate into a crawl but for now, inching and reaching does seem to work.


Megan is so funny in her speech and the way she talks about things.  We've had some really good snow here as of 12 hours ago and I thought it might be fun to play with it rather than play in it.  We did go out in it, but the cold and the snowsuit hamper things a little bit so I brought some inside and Megan got a big kick out of making snowballs and putting the babies with their mommies and I think there's something in there about a walking, talking snowman . . .


And then there's the raspberry competition:

I've tried to take a few more pictures too of my funny girls and their funny faces: 

 This is Abby's scrunch face -- it usually happens when she's complaining but sometimes she'll do it just for fun too.  Look at those teeth!

 One of Megan's favorite things in the world is for Chopper to "have both my girls".  And that's how she says it -- "can daddy have both his girls?"  He's a lot better at holding them both than I am and usually it ends with Megan getting dropped on the couch -- which she loves.  Whenever Megan wears this shirt, she has to have the "hat" up.

 Megan has three pairs of pajamas.  Depending on what she is wearing she is either a mermaid, a flower girl, or a super star girl.  And yes she runs out of the bathroom after her bath saying "Megan's a super star girl!"  It's really cute actually.  She's gotten really funny about her clothing choices.  The day after laundry is done and all her clothes are clean, she will without fail pick the blue shirt, blue pants, and blue socks.  She loves to be all blue.  Then the day after that is usually the purple pants and shirt, and the day after that is pink.  After that, she doesn't have enough clothes of similar colors so darn it, we have to coordinate instead.  We're very monochromatic in this house.

 This is the snowsuit that Megan got from Grandma last year.  It's a 24-month size -- and it still fits with room to spare!

 We've gotten a few inches of snow this morning and our wonderful winter weather continues.  We played outside for a little bit but it turned into mommy carrying Megan so it didn't last long!

 This is a very impressive amount for Dallas!  All the Steelers and Packers fans here in town for the SuperBowl are upset that the weather is just like their hometowns and not warm and balmy.  Apparently the average temperature this time of year is 57 degrees and about 10 years ago was their record high of 85.

Storm of the Year

I don't have any pictures because if you look out the windows at what's on the ground, you'll laugh me right out of the blogosphere.  There's barely an inch on the ground but we have been housebound for going on 3 days now and the Dallas/Fort Worth area is counting the hours that we've been below freezing.  Currently we're around 52 hours.

It's amazing what qualifies as extreme weather here.

Not that this is a piddly little storm and we're running circles around it after living in Idaho and Montana.  No, the roads are solid sheets of ice because we have no snow equipment to scrape and what we did borrow from the Texas panhandle has been focusing on major highways but not using ice.  Just sand.  Doesn't do much when your temperatures are in the teens.  Plus, our entire area is pretty much all electric.  We've had rolling blackouts since yesterday because a few major power stations were thrown off-line by the storm.  We've been very blessed to just have intermittent blackouts of about 15 minutes each but other areas have been pretty hard hit.

Not the Dallas Cowboys stadium area though.  They have a point -- there are too many people to have a blackout -- it would probably cause a lot of dangerous panic.  But it's a little irritating to watch on the news the reporting on all the Super Bowl parties that are going on while regular people are cold in their homes.

We're supposed to get some more snow tomorrow night. -- come to think of it, we had that major snowstorm in Virginia last year right on Megan's birthday too!  Well I guess we know when to be prepared then!

It's the little things

We have some special events coming up so I'm trying to get the girls to put their game faces on.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't!

 I love this picture of Megan but she looks so grown-up to me here!

 Today we tried to go to the zoo for bug-fest (I know you're shocked, but they had some neat stuff going on).  When we got there (well almost there anyway), the HIGHWAY was backed up with people trying to get to the zoo.  So I turned around and we went to the park instead.  The girls had a good time . . . 

 Except Abby kept yelling at me for taking away her "toys" (sticks and dirt that was going right into the mouth).  But look at those teeth!  She has 4 good sized ones front and center top and bottom and they've pretty much all come in at once.  And they are sharp -- trust me.

 We've been working on getting Abby to feed herself.  As of yesterday -- we have success!  What a way to celebrate 10 months old!  Cheerios all by yourself!  Still not crawling but she is scooting herself around slowly but surely to get what she wants.

Bountiful Baskets

Our provident living specialist in our ward is absolutely amazing.  Between her and this wonderful website, I finally feel like we are on our way to getting our food storage going.  And that is a very good feeling.

But she does a lot more than just food storage.  She also knows a lot about how to go about buying bulk foods in the area.  It's a fantastic money saver if I can just find the space to do it all.  I suppose it will come in time.  Meanwhile, I took advantage of one thing today and am hooked.  Bountiful Baskets.  I'm not sure how the whole thing works behind the scenes but it more or less is a co-op where you pay a set price that goes in to buying bulk fruits and vegetables.  Then on a specific day and time, you pick up your portion.  You don't know what you're going to get but it is definitely worth it -- $16.50 every 2 weeks for 6 different fruits and 6 different vegetables.  And that's not total -- that's type.

In addition to pretty much all the fruit you see here, today we got lettuce, celery, asparagus, yellow squash, potatoes, and cucumbers.  Oh and tomatoes.  I am very very excited.  In fact, I need to see if I can freeze or dry the celery because I have two big bunches and we just don't eat it that often.  But it's nice to have around.

If you live in an area where they do this -- I'm recommending it!

My girls

I haven't posted in a week but honestly, there's nothing really exciting going on in our lives at the moment.  We're all trying to survive the 2nd (or maybe it's 3rd) round of colds this season and I haven't felt like leaving the house or keeping up with the house!  And now that I look at these pictures, Megan to me really does look sick.  That and she desperately needs a haircut.  The crown (which she wears 24/7) kind've flattens her bangs down but I think a trip to supercuts or wherever is definitely in order.

 Whoops!  I haven't posted these yet -- Chopper refinished our coffee table to match the new TV console.  That saves us a lot of money and it looks great!  Now we just need to get rid of the old entertainment center but haven't had any takers.

 I know it's hard to see here but you need to notice something (other than my messy living room).  Chopper doesn't believe in cell memory but both of my girls are sucking their right thumb and holding on to their left hand at the same time.  Megan rubs the palm of her hand while she sucks, Abby still holds on but she can't feed herself Cheerios either so I'm assuming she'll get there.  I was a thumb sucker for sure but can't remember what I did with my other hand but still -- it's funny how they do the exact same thing.

 Since we're all sick, we've been vegging out with movies all day -- this is The Lion King that has the girls so engrossed.

 Ok they're not really cuddling, Abby is falling over all the time (on purpose) and I used Megan to prop her up.  But it looks very sweet.

See what I mean about looking sick and the hair?  My poor girl.

snow, snow, snow, snow!

I missed it at Christmas believe it or not.  But never fear!  The snow is here!

Look at the piddly little inch with the grass peeking out on the edges!  This caused a 2-hour delay I'll have you know.  The girls and I were out at 9 a.m. and as we drove by the elementary school, we noticed there were no cars in the parking lot!  Kind've funny too when a good portion of the kids walk to school . . . maybe they have to delay because no one in Texas owns a coat!

Actually, all of this came down on Sunday -- I just haven't posted until now -- laziness, not busyness.  But when we got into the car to go home from church (in the snow), Megan said "we're going to have Christmas!"  It definitely felt that way.

Oh and Abby is still spitting. Just in case you were worried.

MEGAN WENT PEE ON THE POTTY!!!!!!

You have to understand how ecstatic I am about this.  I've been letting it all go telling myself that when she's ready, she'll do it.  And she did!  I don't know if it will continue or will be an isolated incident but I am over the moon that she did it where she has absolutely refused to even sit on the potty for the longest time!  I am one very proud mommy!

It all happens at once.

Either that or I just forget to post!  So where do I start?  How about happy birthday to me!  I blog about everyone else's birthday so why not.

Actually, I just want to say that I love birthdays -- even this close to Christmas.  Everyone in my family (except Mark) remembered to call and some of them even sang!  Liam, at just 5 months, wrote me a card and posted pictures of it on his blog (thanks Danny and Denise), and -- most importantly -- I had a wonderful birthday with my fabulous husband and incredible girls!

Chopper has been bringing me little presents all week: flowers, a chick flick with back scratching (Chopper, not the movie), quilt magazines, a bag of tamales (he knows just what I like!), and then last night we celebrated as a family with cake and ice cream and more presents! 

 I finally have a double-boiler and so I took advantage and made my mom's cooked frosting -- I love this stuff!  It's really simple to make but you do need the double-boiler and I particularly love that it is light and not overly sweet like the store-bought frostings.

 And it makes a beautiful cupcake!

I am not uploading the other picture of me because it's even worse than this one.  I did not do 31 candles -- it's the roman numerals 3 and 1 (which actually isn't the right way to do 31 . . . so much for Latin class . . .)

Chopper has been working on a furniture refinishing project.  I saw this console sitting in a yard down the street several weeks ago and since it sat there for a few days I figured it wasn't something they wanted.  Chopper went down and asked the people what they were doing with it and they told us to take it.  So we did!  It is a nice solid piece of furniture but was painted a butter yellow done in the shabby chic style which we didn't love, so he set out on the task to strip and refinish and he did a wonderful job.

 We didn't get a true before picture -- the drawers have already been done here.

 These two give you a better picture of the color and finish.  It's not bad -- just not our style or color choice.

 And this is the finished piece!  It turned out so beautifully and perfectly houses the new TV.  Yeah, we got a new one.  The one we had (still have really) is an 18" box that was supposed to be temporary 2 years ago.  We've held off on buying another tv partly because we knew we would have to get a new entertainment center or console as well (ours only holds box tv's) and we didn't have the money for it all.  So when this one came home the first thing Chopper said was, we're going to have to get a new tv!  We should've put the old one on there and taken a picture . . . 

It's a lot of tv to look at when you're only used to 18" by the way.  My eyes needed to adjust actually!  We may never go to the theater again -- ok there are certain things you still have to see in the theater but I'm not kidding when I say watching our movies is like seeing them for the first time.  You can actually read any translations in the movie and see the details!

Finally, Megan is an avid reader.  I frequently find her "reading" her books when I'm busy with other things.  The first video is just finding her in her tent.  The second is her "reading" one of her Critter books.  When she reads, the story often involves pieces of other books we've been reading together, parts of movies she's watched, even songs we sing or things we talk about around the house.  It's a lot of fun for me to listen in.  This year I'm going to start her on letters and sounds and words and while I'm excited for the world of reading to really open up, part of me doesn't want to destroy this world of make-believe that she reads for herself out of books.  I hope that it continues in other ways.

I think that's all folks!