grandma's pumpkin rolls

not only is this a family favorite, but sometimes the promise of this roll is enough to get me invited to someone's family gathering!

Roll
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:
preheat oven to 375 degrees.

beat the eggs on high speed for five minutes. gradually add in the sugar. stir in the pumpkin and lemon juice. set mixture aside.

in a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and nutmeg. fold into pumpkin mixture.

either grease and flour a cookie sheet, or cover it with waxed paper. spread batter onto the cookie sheet.

bake for 15 minutes.

turn onto a towell covered with powdered sugar. roll and cool.

Filling
Ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
mix ingredients.

once the roll has cooled; unroll the cake, spread the filling, and re-roll all at the same time. i can't think of a better way to explain this, but good luck!

no more toothless grins!

elise got her first tooth today! well, i noticed it today, anyway. typically their first tooth is on the bottom, but elise is getting her top two teeth first!

take a hike

we went to the scioto audubon metro park today and hiked all the way downtown. bethany was with us. she has been asking to see me, and misses me :) she was supposed to be mine, anyway.

we visited stephon at aep for a moment. i have a hot husband ;P

sucker !

it's adorable and really funny to see what a softy stephon is :) shelby has him trained to feed her from his plate... looks like she's teaching elise as well! they had both just finished their dinners, but it doesn't matter. it's a daddy / daughter thing ;)

paige

paige elizabeth hines is my new niece ... i finally got to see her today! she is seven weeks old and absolutely adorable. i can't say who she looks like, though. jen seemed pretty sure that she has the right baby, though :) she weighed seven pounds and 14 ounces last week. shelby weighed seven pounds and 15 ounces when she was born!

i got a sneak peak at nathan's grades for this term on-line today. they look good! okay, i sneak and peak at them almost every day, but the teachers are finalizing grades for the term in the system now.

elise'isms

it doesn't seem like i did much this week. i took some pictures of elise'isms, though :)

there are four big, soft, baby einstein blocks that we keep in a tupperware bucket. elise likes to dump out the blocks and put the bucket on her head. it's hysterical! when she puts it on, she will pooch out her lips and stick out her tongue to stick them on the wall of the bucket ... too funny :D

elise sleeps with the shirt that i wore the night before at naptime, and the shirt that i wore that day at bedtime. isn't she cute!

and ofcourse, we have raspberries...

a pretty productive day

we started out our today at the library like we usually do on tuesdays for story time. that is followed by lunch with sandra at zuppa's.

stephon came home pretty soon after we did so that he could prepare for his last presentation for the class that is wrapping up. it was fun to get to see him and for him to get to play with the girls.

while this isn't an exciting topic to write about, i was very excited to get through all of the baby clothes that were stacking up in the living room! i also got through a bunch of clothes that i took and donated :) i am excited when i feel like i've accomplished something that helps me feel like i'm getting ahead just a little.

nathan spent the evening preparing for exams. they apparently have six grading periods, and the first one wraps up this friday.

i had a victory this evening! i finally out-smarted shelby. vegetables have been a losing battle for me for a few months now. but today i pureed them and mixed them in her 'getti' sauce :) she loves spaghetti and ate two bowls of it! i win!

fashion show

i served in the nursery for the month of september, so today was my first sunday back in the service. it was good. i missed the babies, though!

shelby wore one of my dresses to church! it was the first dress that my dad ever bought me, and maybe the last... i thought it was pretty cool. i called dad and he remembered the dress. i'm sure he thought it was neat, too :)

elise wore the fall dress that i made for shelby for her first thanksgiving :) she was adorable!

nathan wore... clothes. i'm happy to say that he didn't have any meaningful dresses to wear today ;P

he wore those same clothes to a church youth activity this evening. they were going to try to break the guinness world record for the biggest ice cream sundae eaten by the most people. there weren't enough people there, so it turned into a huge ice cream food fight! of course. what else should i have expected? and then those same clothes got hosed down at the end of the night when it was about 55 degrees out. hee hee! i'm glad he had a good time :)

blendon woods

we went to blendon woods park this morning. the kids and i went, anyway. i felt bad for leaving stephon on a saturday, but he has schoolwork to do and i'm pretty sure he was able to get a lot more done this way. he misses us, and we miss him, though, so i was a bit torn. we had a great time, anyway :) made it worth it!

we went to the water fowl refuge and hung out in the observatory for quite awhile. we saw a beautiful blue heron, some wood ducks, and about five or six turtles! they have telescopes in both of the observatories. it was almost surreal. the telescopes are really nice, so the birds and the turtles were real clear and close in them.

nathan and i like looking at the the wildlife. shelby was trying to figure out the telescope. she doesn't quite have the coordination to keep one eye closed and look through the other through the telescope yet. elise likes to look out of the windows and investigate the goodies on the ground :)

it was a cool, breezy day, so the observatory made the perfect place to eat lunch.

shelby informed us that the ducks go poo poo, go pee pee, and go bye bye. she told us that and nathan and i about died laughing!

wildlife

the girls and i went to the play area at the polaris mall with heba today. i should have listened to her. it was so crowded. shelby did fine, she seems to be able to hold her own pretty well. elise was okay because she stayed at my feet. she was more fascinated with our shoes. great. next time i'll take heba's advice and go really early.

nathan loves his guitar. he was singing his heart out and strumming wildly today! he was having a good time :) i should mention that he is tone deaf, but don't tell him that.

a typical tuesday

we started out the day at the library for story time, like we typically do on tuesdays. i think that shelby is starting to recognize and understand what it means when i ask her if she wants to go to the library. after story time we have lunch with sandra at zuppa.

elise plays peek-a-boo so well! it's adorable to see her do it. i'll have to get some pictures. sometimes she gets her eyes covered, and sometimes she doesn't. sometimes she just squishes her face and eyes like a shar-pei puppy and it's hysterical :)

sharon woods

the girls and i went to sharon woods park today and went on a hike on the edward s. thomas trail. we got two more answers for our metro parks passport, i'm very excited!

shelby took her 'telescope.' it's an empty paper towel roll. i was trying to get her to look at squirrels, leaves, etc. but we mostly used it to look at elise and each other :P

at one point there was a tree down in our path. ya know, the guys that we passed coming from the other direction could have let us know! we made it... shelby climbed over it, sorta ;) and i was able to lift and maneuver elise and the stroller over it. it's stephon's fault... the forecast said that it was going to be windy so he warned me to be careful of falling branches and trees.

of course, we know that shelby was collecting sticks the entire way. she found one that was taller than me and carried it for quite awhile, i was impressed!

we hung out on the observation deck that is off of the trail for awhile. shelby played and read the map. that was funny... she mixes babble and real words and acts like she is reading them off of the page. i love it! and i let elise out of the stroller to crawl around. she investigated everything, and taste-tested anything that she could cram into her mouth before i could stop her! mostly it was acorn lids. and maybe one acorn and a leaf. a well rounded diet, really ;) she scratched at the nail heads in the wood and pulled herself up on the railing. it was interesting to watch her investigate the two-foot and under world :)

once we left the observation deck the girls started to fall asleep. i was looking over the stroller at them and not paying attention to the path and i swear i could have hit the deer that walked into the path in front of me! they startled me at first. a mama deer and two baby deer were standing about ten feet in front of me! i could read the number on the tags on their ears. i slowly got my camera, but don't know why i was so slow since my pushing a squeaky stroller down a gravel path didn't even make them pause, and tried to get a couple of pictures. what a time for my camera to be difficult. ugh. anyhow, they were beautiful :) the babies missed the whole thing.

at the end of the trail is schrock lake. shelby had a bit of her peanut butter sandwich left and so did elise, so we fed them to a few ducks. elise was still asleep. shelby kept asking the ducks if they were hungry. it was cute and pretty funny :)

back in the saddle

i went scrapbooking with terry, and the rest of the scrapbooking crew today! this is the first outing that i've been on for a number of hours without the babies since elise was born. it was great!

today was the last sunday of my rotation with the infants at church. what a blessing they are! heritage has a great system for childcare workers and i truly enjoy the opportunity to care for the babies. elise likes to have me in class with her, too :)

sisters and friends

it's neat to see shelby and elise develop a relationship. individually we see them look up to and admire us as parents and family, but their relationship with each other is more equal. it's sweet. they laugh together, look for each other, get bored waiting for the other to wake up, and today shelby tried to comfort elise. elise was crying and shelby brought her a pretzel. it worked! hey, i can use all the help i can get.

elise crawled across the family room this evening. she has been doing a combination crawl / army crawl, but today she got it down! the more mobile she gets, the less frustrated she gets ... and the easier it is to keep her happy. gotta love it.

lovey

elise has a new trick! today shelby was especially affectionate towards her. elise hugged her back today :) when shelby hugged her (looks like she's pinning her down in a wrestling move, really) elise patted shelby on the back. it was sweet :)

nathan got his first guitar today. he's so excited! he is taking guitar at school. we went to the guitar center, i highly recommend it. it's amazing how much better it sounds than the backpack guitar he was using!

sick day

i am so sick today. i have a sinus infection again.

nathan is taking guitar at acpa. today he wrote his first song and is practicing for his first test. today i realize why parents really want grandchildren. there is no way your child can appreciate what they put you through while learning a new instrument until their child does it to them ;)

bugs

the girls and i went to blendon woods park today to play with bugs!

shelby got to see a turtle, that apparently couldn't find the bugs that it was supposed to be eating, and a toad that did much better. there were 20-some kids squealing in delight when the toad ate the meal worm. it's probably traumatized and will never eat again. we went outside to collect and look at bugs... shelby collected sticks. she is such a two-year old :)

elise was busy in the back of the room with me during the class portion. she had a chair that she kept pulling over her head. it was her little baby cave :) otherwise, i can't say that she was very content. she wants to get out of the stroller and run around with her sister when we went outside! it was too wet and rainy, so she was frustrated.

waving the white flag

i had such high ambitions for today; stop at the bank, fill up the bike tires, go to the park for a ride, have a picnic lunch at the park. we started out pretty well, but it all went downhill quickly. broken air pump, rain, no rain, rain, and then out of time. that pretty much sums it up!

elise is standing up on things now! she pulled up on a toy bin at sunday school yesterday. the first time i saw her do it smoothly was on friday in her crib.

she's funny at nap / bed time because of it. she sits and smiles at me and shelby and laughs and talks and now she stands up to do these tricks! the more ambulatory she gets, the less frustrated and more happy she is, especially when it's time to go to sleep :P

the arts and college preparatory academy

nathan is going to the arts and college preparatory academy! we really really like it. the work is challenging, which i love (especially when i get to help with algebra or science). and they incorporate art into the curriculum (right now he is taking guitar), which nathan loves.

i'm just a little disappointed that none of the new friends that nathan is making have red or purple hair.

a trip to the zoo

we went to the columbus zoo again today. it's nice to have a membership because we can go for a quick trip and come home and go back another day to see other animals and attractions. today we went for a boat ride and saw their trained animals show.

the boat ride was fun. nathan has wanted to do it forever and probably appreciated it a lot more than the other two. shelby was okay with it; elise played with her seat belt.

they have a show that involves a bunch of trained dogs, cats, mice, pigs, a kangaroo, a porcupine, a skunk, and a number of other animals that put on a 20 minute show. if you get a chance, you should definitely see it! i couldn't believe the things they trained those animals to do. it was SO neat!

shelby's first hair cut

we went to cookie cutters today for shelby's first haircut :) it was great!

they had a big tree house inside with a play area around it that elise kept busy in. shelby sat in an airplane and watched elmo while 'michelle' was cutting her hair. she just trimmed it up, i really can't even tell it was cut. stephon says that the ends look more even and he's stopped calling it lettuce, so i'm guessing it was a success!

nathan is 16, can you believe it!?

okay, he has three days to go but today was nathan's surprise birthday party. he had a blast! it was supposed to be a pool party, but there was heavy rain all day. we didn't mind, we played inside!

parish and his wife stephanie really did a good job. we had it at the clubhouse at their condo. stephanie decorated and one of their friends, watson, catored the event. the food was wonderful!

nathan had a great time, and so did everyone there. my family was all there, parish's family was there, and so were several friends. everyone mingled and visited and caught up with people we haven't seen in years.

pearly whites and no cavities!

we went to the dentist today. really the appointments were for nathan and me, but we walk in with a crowd :) shelby will have her first dentist appointment with us in january!

elise still has no teeth. i tell everyone that her and i have an agreement that she will wait to teethe until after we're done nursing. no one believes me.

sitting home eating bon-bons

we went to the library today for story time for the girls. it was wonderful! nathan went to the teen room and read his book (the iliad) while the girls and i were in "class." he loved the library, too. the main library building was funded by andrew carnegie, is a roman design and is all marble and granite. it's a really neat building and has all sorts of fun resources inside. i like the coffee shop, myself.

i was wondering how a room full of toddlers would get through a half-hour of reading... no... i knew what was going to happen with them, it was me i was concerned about! but it was cool! they started out with a little song and dance, read a story, did another little song and dance, told a story on a felt board, did another little song and dance, and played a little game. it was brilliant! you would think these people know what they are doing!

afterwards, we went to zuppa where sandra works and had lunch with her since we were already downtown. i didn't get a ticket today! i have gotten a ticket every time i've been there. seriously. it's a good thing she's cute because man, she is expensive to visit!

later we went by the charles school which is a charter school here. it's part of ohio dominican university, which is very cool because the students have access to the college and are encouraged to take classes towards college credits while they are still in high school. i think nathan needs someone else to motivate him to want to do good in school, and i'm not sure i am the one to keep doing it. we're going to check out cornerstone academy in westerville tomorrow, although i don't think they will have the same college benefits that charles does. i'm sure their location is much more desirable, though! ohio dominican is supposed to be a good university, but they are located in the armpit of columbus, i think.

we went to whetstone park and had 2nd lunch... or a pre-dinner :) we ate our reds and blues there. we had blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries! it was wonderful. i try to make sure we get a complete rainbow every day, along with healthy grains and some protein. i can't say it happens every day, but today we did good!

nathan had martial arts tonight, so we dropped him off at the studio and the girls and i came home.

whew! i didn't realize how busy today was!

elises tricks and nathan fun

little little elise is quite difficult when it comes to eating these days! she does not want baby food. she wants what everyone else is eating, especially shelby. however, she still has no teeth. she still has the cutest, toothless, baby smile!

actually, that may not be entirely accurate. she does like to play with her baby food. she discovered a pretty cool trick recently, and today she mastered the art of spraying her food. she sprays it and laughs and laughs! i am really trying not to encourage it, but when she laughs real hard it is so funny! so, today i had a nice even spray of squash in my hair, on my face, and on my clothes. it probably looked like it was airbrushed on :P

she has also started squealing! ugh! she belts out this shrilling, brain rattling, echoes around on the inside of your skull, scream when she is crying. i have to nip this one quick. no, she doesn't rival elizabeth, yet.

i took shelby and elise to the library today. we used to go a lot to get books for nathan for school, but he's been stuck on the iliad and the odyssey for awhile. plus, i think shelby was too young to really appreciate it at the time. today we went to the main columbus metropolitan library, it was so cool! they have a huge section for kids, a tree house, and a theatre-style story time room. i am looking forward to taking them to story time there.

i haven't had many updates for nathan recently. he was out of town off and on over the last couple of weeks. first he was in warren, ohio with my mom and bob, and then he was with parish for parish's wedding. he had a great time at both, but now he is back home and has been locked in his room for the last several days working on getting it clean!

ya know, i should have him start a blog so he can tell everyone what he's been up to. i would have loved to see what he would have written about his vacation in warren. he got to ride in a manure spreader in one parade and got to drive a tractor in another! he got to help with cows at the trumbull county fair, helped a family friend plant flowers around her house, and worked his tail off at mom and bob's house! nathan is very proud that his grandma drives tractors and he loves this kind of work, so he will be talking about it for quite awhile! here are some pictures from the first parade.

finally, we're on a roll!

elise finally rolled over from her stomach to her back today! she's pretty late doing it, but i'm not worried about it because she hasn't had much of an opportunity to work on it. she hates being on her stomach. i think she did it out of necessity. i laid her down for a nap on her side and she rolled to her stomach. i knew she'd get frustrated, but i left to see what she would do. it worked! she fussed a little, and rolled over!

shelby's imagination continues to amaze me. i really want to take all of her toys away and just give her two sticks and see what she comes up with.

i realized today that she is also working on pre-math skills. she matches letters on her blocks. grouping blocks like this is important. we're going to start working on patterns and grouping a bit more, i think. i was reading about it today, so i'm excited to be on a pre-math kick :)

singin' in the rain

i have a plumbing project i've been working on. the cold water doesn't work in our main bathroom. this means that nathan showers in the master bath, and i have to run cold water to the tub to give the girls a bath. the plumbing needs to be fixed quickly! it looks like the project is on hold until monday now because i'm going to have to find a part (the stem) at a plumbing store because what i have is from 1966 and none of the stems at lowes or home depot match.

since my home maintenance project on hold and it had been raining all day, shelby and i went out to play in puddles :) well, we intended on going for a walk but we have a great puddle on the sidewalk out front. we had all sorts of fun!

after puddle fun comes bath time! elise had two new bath tricks today! she splashed and splashed and splashed some more! shelby was a bit annoyed because she was trying to fill her boat with bubbles and the splashing was distracting. it was funny. i moved elise to the back of the tub, but her second trick was to scoot from one end of the tub to the other. it was really funny. i wonder if she'll try to do that in lieu of crawling.

i read a great article on babies and toddlers imaginations yesterday. i am truly fascinated with shelby's. she's so creative and abstract thinking when she's pretending or when she sees things like letters or shapes in different objects. the first time i remember really seeing it was when she picked up sticks during a walk and said 'y!'

nathan is back from parish's and he and stephon are playing star wars battlefront II on the 360. tomorrow will be the first day in weeks that nathan has been in town and home on the weekend when stephon is here. i've decided that we're going to play hookie from church tomorrow for a family day. i'm feeling inspired, so we're having a star wars day :) we will start with episode I, and keep going until we've seen them all! how fun does that sound !?

ugh...

today started out rough. i think the girls got up later than i thought, so i was frustrated to get to the Y around 11:30. childcare closes at 12, so i didn't get to swim laps. this means no laps at all this week. frustrating. and then the outside pool was closed, so monitoring both babies was exponentially harder. it wasn't that big of a deal, really, i guess. there are too many people who have it a whole lot worse.

i got a lot done in my garage today! it is almost completely re-organized and orderly and i am SO excited about it!

i am watching a series called life after people. it is so creepy! it's not scary, just the idea of deserted and abandoned cities is eerie to me.

new quirks, new tricks, and new forms of entertainment

we went to grandma french's today while mom was there, and then all of us went to dave and jen's for dinner. it was really nice to see everyone!

it seems that elise not only doesn't want to sleep anywhere other than in her own bed, much like shelby, but she apparently doesn't want to eat away from home, either. we thought that maybe she has started teething, but then tonight she ate quite a bit of her food. who knows.

shelby dressed herself for bed tonight! we have another step towards independence, woo hoo! she needed a bit of help with her pants as she tends to try to put them on upside down (in through the foot holes first). she got her shirt on all by herself, though. unless i am mistaken, i believe this was the first completely independently successful dressing of a shirt!

i can't say that nathan had any firsts today, nor did he do anything peculiar. he is studying electro-magnetic forces in science, which is very cool and europe in geography. that is fun. i love to learn, so i have a good time learning with him. he's doing fractions in math. it's good practice for me, but i am really looking forward to algebra and some of the later math classes.

he had a really cool experiment yesterday. we connected aluminum foil to both ends of a battery and burned our fingers... doesn't that sound fun! it was :) we're easily entertained, what can i say.

a cup

elise started drinking out of a cup today... sorta... ;) she'll need to know how to use these handy tools if she decides to start teething. if she starts biting me while nursing she may just dehydrate if she doesn't have an alternative method!

dancing queen

shelby has always loved to dance. she danced before she walked! she would pull herself up on the coffee table and dance. i started taping the show 'so you think you can dance' for her because they always have great music during the show. tonight she started imitating one of the dances! it was so sweet :) looks like there are dance lessons in our future!

water babies

we went swimming at the Y today. it was elise's first time in the pool! she was sitting on my lap in the kiddie pool while shelby played and nathan worked on schoolwork at the picnic table.

elise loved it. she splashed with her hands and kicked with her feet! she liked standing from a sitting position on my legs, too. and of course nathan and i got a good laugh when she 'blew bubbles' in the water!

shelby discovered the girl in her today! she was playing in the pool, picked up a leaf, and then dropped it and ran out of the pool yelling 'Ewww!' it was hysterical. she avoided that leaf the entire time we were there. i don't even know where she got that from.

i think this will be daily thing after i swim my laps since the outside pool is open now. we ate our lunch out there and then the girls came home and took really long naps!

social lives of babies

the girls and i made it back to church today! i have not been since elise was born... i had to build up the courage to take them both in by myself. we did it! shelby walked into her class like an old pro. it was easy because she is so used to going to the toddler room at the Y every day. i hung out for awhile because i didn't know the women working with the kids. i just feel better if i can get to know them a bit. elise did well for awhile, but they had to put up her number at the end of service. i had forgotten her t-shirt AND her pretzels. whatever. i figure that as long as i remember the kids, everything else is gravy.

shelby is little miss independent these days. she's become pretty good at putting on her sandals by herself, although she did go to church today with them on the wrong feet. today she's been insistent on dressing herself as well. she also handled the potty all by herself while she was with stephon today, too! she went from two to grown in a matter of a week!

elise hung out with me while i worked on my scrapbook at terry's. she seems to be like shelby in that she doesn't want to sleep anywhere else but in her own crib. shelby eventually grew out of it. somehow i got work done in spite of having a cranky infant with me! she totally missed her long nap... and her short one that would have occurred during church hours. so she fell asleep for the night at 8:00 tonight. we'll see how that turns out. she's so much more social now. that seemed to happen at about the same time that she started sitting up real well, it seems. i'd say that she has gotten pretty stable while sitting in the last couple of days. she's been very chatty since the day i wrote about our first conversation.

milestones

elise slept all night last night! woo hoo! i put them to bed at 10, and they didn't wake up until i got them up to leave around 7. it sure seemed really stupid to be waking them up the first time elise slept all the way through. i had an appointment, though, and it couldn't be avoided.

shelby put her sandals on all by herself for the first time today :)

elise is sitting up really well. she sits well enough that i can sit her in front of an activity and leave her there with just a pillow behind her in case she falls. it sure makes it easier for her to play and stay content.

extended family

elise had her six month check-up and shots today. she weighs 24 pounds and 13 ounces, with her clothes on!

nathan watched the babies for me while i went to an appointment. i put them down for their 1:00 nap and they generally sleep for a couple of hours. well, they woke up and elise was very unhappy. nathan handled it great. he stayed calm, called me, and we figured out how to calm her down together. he's a super dad in training :)

tonight we went to bradley cole's concert at the arts impact middle school. it was so cool! they played steel drums and barrels and other percussion instruments. we were outside and it was absolutely beautiful.

shelby followed bethany around all evening. she just thinks that bethany is so cool! elise hung out with aunt gwennie ;) babies love gwen! and she has lots of experience with big babies since sandra had big babies, too. she carried elise around the grounds, claimed her as her own, and told other parents that her baby could eat their baby! oh gwen.

we wrapped up the evening at mcdonalds with grandma and grandpa godin. i've known sandra's parents for several years. it's always so good to see them :)

more tricks

elise has been on a roll this week! today she ate vegetables for the first time. we started with carrots. she loved them when i mixed them with her wheat cereal. i gave her some straight earlier in the day, but it was really just for the photo op. she didn't want them straight, which is what i expected. it's easier to introduce new foods to babies if you mix them with food they already like, even if the thought of the mixture seems gross... like wheat cereal and carrots!

the wiggle dance

we watch a show called jack's big music show in the morning. stephon and i like it for the kids because they introduce several types and styles of music, as well as numerous musical instruments. well, there's a song that they sing called the wiggle dance and apparently elise has picked up on it :) she moves from side to side and the more you encourage her, the more she does it, and the more excited she gets about it. it's very funny! so shelby and i sing the wiggle dance song for her when she gets on a roll.

sandra's chicken casserole

this is one of our favorite things that sandra has fixed for us. i did, however, add a bit of my touch to the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (two full breasts)
16 ounces sour cream
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 bag soup vegetables
fresh ground pepper
seasoned salt
6 servings prepared stuffing

Directions:
sprinkle the seasoned salt onto the chicken and cook the chicken
mix the cooked chicken, sour cream, soup, vegetables, and pepper to taste in a 13 x 9 baking dish
cover the mixture with the prepared stuffing

bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes

heart to heart

elise and i had our first conversation tonight! she was clicking, so i clicked with her. she figured out that she could do it on purpose and cause me to respond with the same sound. she loved it! so did i :) we "talked" for awhile.

we're in the money!

i spent part of today and yesterday at terry's doing a garage sale. the turn out was great. i spent $30 and made $35 so technically i'm up $5! the money is not the primary reason i participate, anyway. it's nice, but mostly i just have fun hanging out with terry and her family AND it motivates me to clean things out of my house that we don't need.

i worked on our garage this week and cleaned out about half of it. it looks SO much better. i hope to finish it this coming week, but i'm not sure what i'm going to do with the rest of the stuff that i come across that i would have sold. i'll have to think about that one.

braces faces!

i am about to have both of my guys in braces! stephon is getting them, too. i told him that when nathan got braces i was there to take pictures. somehow i don't think i'll get pictures this time ;)

dr. pierce showed me nathan's records today, too. it's amazing how much better his teeth are than when he first got them! they had wonderful things to say about him, too. the doctor, the receptionist, and the nurse all talked about how much they enjoy nathan and what a good kid he is. i told them that it's the daily beatings ;) i don't go into the office with nathan very often. he's old enough to go in by himself, and it's easier to keep the babies contained in the car. so it was really cool to hear such great feedback today.

here are more pictures of nathan from when he got his braces on july 23, 2007!

mommy's meat loaf

this recipe will probably change over time. i'd like to experiment with red wine and tomatoes in it at some point. otherwise, we love this meat loaf with mashed potatoes!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup realemon lemon juice
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon beef-flavored bouillon
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
* i use 85% lean ground beef, any leaner is too dry, any more fat is too greasy
1 1/2 cups italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees

in a small bowl, combine ketchup, sugar, 1 tablespoon realemon, and mustard
in a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and 1/3 cup ketchup mixture and mix well
in loaf pan, shape into loaf
pour remaining ketchup mixture over loaf

bake at 350 degrees for one hour

spring cleaning

it is time for terry's annual community garage sale, so i am cleaning out my garage! the girls take their nap at one, so yesterday and today i got through a good portion of it. i had organized this one wall of shelves about two years ago, but where there is an empty space my guys will stash stuff! it is actually going much easier than i thought because the shelves and storage on that wall are still organized... every thing has a place, and there is a place for every thing :) now if i could just catch up the rest of my house.

have you seen ice age? i put the girls in the van and put this movie in so that i could keep working. i usually do not believe in using the tv to babysit, but i am working towards a deadline. anyhow, there is a scene in the movie where sid the sloth plows through a bunch of dodo birds with a watermelon in his hands. for some reason, every time that scene plays shelby cries her little eyes out. it's so pitiful! i can't figure out what is making her cry, though. i had put the movie away for several months because of it, but she did it again today. poor baby.

mother's day two

i had breakfast cooked for me again today! stephon made me pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage, and bacon. i could definitely get used to this! he brought me tulips and a card. he wrote a really nice note in the card, but i have to tell you that he colored the guy on the front of the card with a pencil so that it would have a black guy on the cover. it's hysterical!

shelby had a new trick today for mother's day. she is starting to figure out how to write a couple of her letters. i asked her to make an "H" and she did! it took her a bit, but she got it! how cool is that!

aaand we played star wars battlefront II for the rest of the day! i could get used to that, too ;)

mother's day one

we celebrated mother's day today since nathan will be going with parish tonight and tomorrow. nathan started out the day with breakfast for me :) he made french toast, bacon, sausage, and eggs. afterwards he worked on a carving for me that he is making from a stump of wood that we had out back. it's a big heart and it says "mom" on it :) i'm so flattered that he is working hard on a gift for me. then we played star wars battlefront II for the rest of the day. it doesn't get any better than that!

we got elise's new car seat this evening. her and shelby have matching car seats :) i can't believe she's already outgrown her infant seat. it only went to 22 pounds, and she weighed 21 pounds last month! her feet were also hanging over the edge of it. it was time.

in good company

stephon and i went on a date tonight! i believe it was our first one in 2 1/2 years. we went to dick's den on high street. although the name sounds like we hung out at an adult book store, it is actually a dive bar that is known for the jazz bands that play there.

it was fun... the band was pretty good. however, the singer was pretty bad... comically bad. while it was our first date in forever, stephon still refused to look at me the entire time we were there for fear that he would not be able to control his laughter. we had a good time, and it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if the singer had been any good.

i got to use my new toy for my laps today! i had to return my swimp3 player because it wasn't working. the replacement came yesterday so i am back to dancing through my laps ;) i really wanted to sing with the music, but that would have been embarrassing.

shelby and i started working on colors today. she was curious about colors of things, so i figured it was prime learning time!! she did pretty well. as always, her pronunciation is very entertaining:

red	ret
orange	orache
yellow	yellow
green	gween
blue	bue
purple	purper
black	back
white	white

training, educating, and schooling

i took nathan to the Y at 5:30 this morning! you would not believe the number of people at the Y that early in the morning. he has been training for a triathlon. today we talked to the guy he is training with and have decided to continue the training, but work towards a triathlon next year. the smallest of the triathlons is called a "sprint." they only have to swim .75 km (almost a half-mile), bike 20 km (12.4 miles), and run 5 km (3.1 miles). can you imagine!?

shelby is so ready to read! she knows her alphabet, although she still misses about two letters each time she says it. i'll let you know as soon as she gets through them all, error free. she knows the sound of each letter. for the first time today, she seemed to understand the concept that words are comprised of letters. it happened to be her name on my t-shirt that she recognized. stephon has been working on her name with her, and today i really think she got it. after her name on my shirt, she got a book and asked me what all of the words were. i'm telling you, she's ready!

elise has been working me for two days. she cries unless i hold her. it's next to impossible to get anything done. she just needs a lot of love right now ;)

stephon is schooling nathan in some madden football right now. who would have thought that school would be in session at 10:30 at night! Mr. President, call in the National Guard! Send as many men as you can spare! Because stephon is killing nathan! he needs emergency help!

at the zoo

we went to the columbus zoo today. it was a beautiful, sunny, perfect day! nathan checked out the baby elephant. shelby and i have seen it a couple of times now and i didn't want to wait in line for it today. instead we met up with nathan at the petting zoo. elise made friends with a goat!

nathan had martial arts this evening, so the girls and i hung out at the house. they already play well together. it was really fun to watch them entertain each other. shelby jumps up and down and elise laughs and laughs! this, of course, makes shelby laugh and she jumps up and down even more. i think it's neat to see them forming this bond. they will always have each other :)

more pictures

new tricks

elise found her toes today! it may be surprising to you that she can get her toes to her fingers with all of those rolls in between ;) she's been working on this for awhile, and stephon has seen her do it before, but i'm counting it as a trick for today since this is the first that i've noticed it.

we went to academy park today and shelby tried out the rock wall. it's about five feet tall, she made it up to the first level of steps. she almost had herself pulled up to the next level!

nathan is working on something new, too! i'm not supposed to know, but he walked in the house with his carving tools the other day. he slipped, so i get to write about it ;) i think he is carving something out of wood for me for mother's day :) if you have kids, never take their unconditional love for granted. if your kid is a boy, never take being the love of their life for granted because it won't last for long.

mommy's oatmeal

you wouldn't think that oatmeal needs a recipe, but good oatmeal does :) essentially, i start with a pie recipe. i've also used cookie recipes, such as peanut butter cookies. use honey to sweeten it to keep it healthy!

Ingredients:
6 cups water
1 cup milk
3 cups oatmeal
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup honey
raisins* or 1 can pumpkin

Directions:
Put water, milk, and oatmeal in a pot and turn the stove on high
Add the rest of the ingredients
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes
*If you are using raisins, add them once the oatmeal is done and ready to serve. This will keep them firm

singer and song-writer

the girls were in the bath tub tonight and shelby started singing. she sings every once in awhile, but it's always babble. tonight i could understand enough to know what she was singing about! i have always wondered if she was mimicking a song that i sing to her (she sings bye-oh-baby a lot) or if she was making up her own. now i know.

she sang about going poo poo in the potty. she sang a song about her hands. and lastly, she sang a song about elise :) isn't that cute ! !

mommy's pot roast

this is SO good! the au jus makes a wonderful gravy.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 - 4 pound roast
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups water
4 teaspoons beef bouillon
1 cup burgundy wine
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
1 package onion soup mix
fresh ground pepper to taste
one bag instant brown rice

Directions:
sprinkle seasoned salt on roast
sear roast in olive oil
mix remaining ingredients in a crock pot
add roast
cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 6
leave rice in it's cooking bag and submerge in crock pot one hour before you eat

i've also been experimenting with this in a pressure cooker. it tastes really good, but i haven't got the roast as tender and falling apart as i can in the slow cooker. i'll let you know when i do, or if you have a great secret to do this, please let me in on it!

unhealthy competition

i almost don't even know what to write about tonight. i'm sick, i'm tired, and i'm tired of being sick.

i did see the ears, nose, and throat doctor again today. the x-rays were inconclusive, so i go in for a CT scan in three weeks. he thinks that there is a good chance i will have to have surgery. let's see... that would bring my surgery total up to eight.

i can't remember what dad's score is. he just had surgery on his right wrist for carpel tunnel syndrome. PLUS he is going to have it on the other wrist. i always thought that somehow fate made us take turns on having to have surgery until we recently realized that we're pretty close on the number that each of us has had. now it's a competition. of course.

nathan made me aware of something today. did you know that the ABC's song is the medley from 'twinkle, twinkle little star?' i had no idea!

swine... bronchitis?

so, it's apparently time for my monthly cycle. my monthly cycle of sinusitis and bronchitis, that is! had you freaked out a bit didn't i ;) seriously... i am miserable and this is getting old.

i did ask my family doctor about the swine flu. he said what makes it worse than influenza a or b is that people don't have a natural immunity built up against it yet. as long as it's treated early, it isn't any more harmful than the other two. but, just like the other two, it can be harmful if not treated early. SO, don't kiss any pigs, but if you do, get treated as soon as possible!

elise did something funny tonight. i think she was playing peek-a-boo with the light on the baby monitor. she would look at it and smile, then turn her head away real quick, and then abruptly look back and smile and laugh. she did it several times. it was cute :)

a long day

we got up and went to the Y again today. i swam nine laps. the next time i go i am going to up it to twelve :) i took my new swiMP3 player... i love it! oh yes, i have a toy for playing music under water!

nathan starts training for another triathlon tomorrow morning at 5:30! the triathlon is in mid-july at alum creek park. i would love this a whole lot more if i didn't have to get up and take him.

nathan had martial arts today. he is a blue belt in taekwondo and hapkido and studies at central ohio martial arts.

while nathan was in class, i went to the grocery store today with the girls all by myself, thank you! i feel like i very successfully accomplished something today.

AND i cooked breakfast, did a load of laundry, a load of dishes, picked up taco bell, and put up the groceries.

just don't tell my dad... he thinks i just sit home and eat bon bons in front of the tv all day. i enjoy the envy that goes along with him thinking that ;)

swimming

we went to the Y today. nathan works out with the weights, shelby goes to the toddler playroom, elise goes to the nursery and whew! if i have energy left after all of that, then i swim my laps ;)

shelby went right into the play room like she hadn't missed a beat! going there really helped with her separation anxiety. they are real good about telling her that 'mommy always comes back.' and i like to hear how well behaved and helpful she is all the time :)

elise fussed, but her big brother came to her rescue! he heard crying and recognized her cry so he went into the nursery and helped them with her. he gave her my shirt and rocked her for awhile. she started crying so he came and got me. isn't he great! :)

i took shelby swimming. i don't know what happened, but she figured it all out today! we worked on jumping in the water, blowing in the water and putting her face in, and kicking for months. today she all of a sudden started doing all three! she was doing so well that i started letting her go under the water when she jumped in. she did great! pretty soon she'll be swimming laps with me :)

trabble and babble

we were in youngstown today for granny's 84th birthday! i come from good stock (as my aunt kay says) and will most likely have many many years to enjoy. my granny says that the "good stock" is the blair in us, which is her maiden name. since today is her birthday, we'll go with that ;) for her birthday i dressed the girls up in the dresses that she bought them. they were adorable! granny loves baby girls in pretty dresses.

she got her fill of babies, that's for sure. we were there, karen was there with her two babies. ken, lydia, and granny stopped and visited sandy and gabrielle the other day. and dave and jen were there with their baby. okay, jen isn't due until september, but that's besides the point. the point is, granny had a great birthday with her great-grand babies!

elise started to babble today! all of a sudden she realized that she could control sounds. it was really cool! there seems to be a lot of ba-ba-ba-ba and a little da-da-da-da. we're working on ma-ma-ma-ma. might as well work on getting it right as soon as possible ;) she talked up a storm, it was funny. she talked in the van quite a bit on the way home, and was so excited to talk that she had a hard time nursing and going to sleep tonight! i suppose we'll be telling her to "shhh" now for the next 18 years, right!?

blowing in the wind

shelby all of a sudden realized that she has hair today, i think! okay, she knows she has hair, but today she figured out that she likes to shake it in the wind. we went for a walk at my dad's and she lifted her head up and shook her hair. done in true star fashion ;) it was pretty funny. i may put her in dresses, but she comes up with this prissy stuff all on her own!

happy easter!

we had easter with mom and bob today. we started out the day at church with mom. i believe shelby and elise were the prettiest girls there ;) shelby wore a pink dress, and elise a white one that granny bought for them. nathan was definitely the most comfortable, handsome guy there. all the other guys were dressed up and had on ties, nathan wore jeans and a nice polo. i told him to just ignore the glares he was going to get from the older people, and from all of the jealous men and boys!

we had spaghetti at mom's, and then both of the babies fell asleep. it was cute. i decided to torture them by keeping them in their dresses... they were such dolls! they fell asleep in the bed together and it was too adorable. they looked like sleeping angels.

while they were napping we went out to check out nathan's new bike. hee hee. bob was working on it and lost most of it. the only thing left was the seat attached to one wheel! okay, it was a unicycle. it was hysterical watching him try to ride it! oh yes, i have pictures.

happy pre-easter!

we celebrated easter at dad's today.

karen, sandy, and i took the babies to jcpenney's to get an easter picture taken. that was fun! the appointment was at 12:20, so it didn't take very long for shelby and elise to start showing that their nap time is at 1:00. elizabeth was trying to escape like elizabeth apparently always does when she's out. occasionally shelby would follow when karen chased after her. yep, we let the 8 month pregnant chick chase the toddlers! gabrielle was the sweet one for the day ;)

shelby and elise wore dresses that granny had bought them. shelby wore her white one, and elise her pink. pay attention because tomorrow they'll where the same dresses on the opposite kids! nathan didn't go to get his pictures taken today. he refused to wear an easter dress, nor did he want to come and hang out with his mom, aunts, and girl cousins. can you believe it!

i have elise's first 'sitting up' pictures! she sort of did it the other day, but today she sat up real well. her and gabrielle were visiting :) it was very cute.

check-ups

we saw dr. harper today. he's been our family doctor for 13 years! nathan had his yearly physical and elise had her four month checkup.

nathan officially broke 100 pounds! he weighs 107 pounds and is 5' 4.25". he was vaccinated against meningitis and isn't feeling very well this evening. other than that, he is happy and healthy!

elise weighs 21 pounds! she's in the 99.7th percentile for height, and her weight seems to keep climbing the charts above that. the doctor said that i need to limit her to three meals and two snacks per day. any other time that she wants to nurse i need to give her a water bottle, try a pacifier again, or at the very least keep her intake to a minimum if she's nursing outside of her meals and snacks. she got her four month vaccinations and has a slight fever tonight.

shelby didn't have an appointment. she doesn't have to go back until she's five. she did, however, get a sucker :) way to go shelby!

we went to dinner with the coles tonight. it was me and sandra and seven kids! it's not as bad as it sounds, really. her oldest is 18, then she has a 14, 12, and 10 year old. between them and nathan, they take care of shelby and elise.

sandra asked shelby what elise's name was... she said phat fat! how funny is that! i took a little video of it, i'll see if i can upload it tomorrow. it's hysterical right now, but we'll need to stop that pretty quickly!

a status report of sorts

the wheels are definitely turning in shelby's pretty little head. today when she didn't want to eat her vegetables, she waited until i left the kitchen and emptied her bowl into the trash. the child in me was really proud of her. the mother in me has to figure out how to get this kid to eat her vegetables!

nathan spent the day working on math. we use the math-u-see curriculum. he has been doing online drills to speed up his multiplication facts and practice sheets full of fraction problems. it takes you back, doesn't it ;) not only does his learning take me back down learning memory lane, but i have to remember how to do all of this shtuff! i'm not complaining, actually. i love it. it's the closest i'll ever come to being a professional student :)

elise had three meals of cereal today. it took us two weeks to get this whole swallowing trick down! we've only been doing one or two meals a day. now that more is going in than is coming out onto the bib, we can eat it more often!

stephon is working out again. i am quietly excited about it! quiet because if i make it seem like i want him to do it, he'll stop just out of stubbornness. he thinks he's such a rebel when he feels that someone is telling him what to do. i think it's funny.

me? i'm absolutely, completely, undeniably blessed to have the opportunity to be home with my kids! i have been working on teaching shelby, guiding nathan, caring for elise, and being stephon's personal assistant. i get to torment them all with my need to have everything scheduled, structured, organized, and exactly how it should be to the nth degree. who could ask for more ;)?

mommy's homemade shake and bake

i tried this for dinner... it is so good! i used it on pork chops, but it would be good on chicken or veal as well.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
10 teaspoons olive oil
3 1/2 teaspoons old bay seasoning
2 tablespoons dry parsley
2 cups italian seasoned breadcrumbs
4 eggs
1/3 cup milk

Directions:
preheat oven to 400 degrees

combine dry ingredients
add oil
mix well
line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil
spray with olive oil cooking spray
mix eggs with milk
dip each piece of meat into the egg mixture
cover each piece of meat in the bread crumb mixture

bake at 400 for 30 minutes

ears, nose, and throat

i had an appointment with the ears, nose, and throat doctor today. they did an x-ray and everything looked okay. i am supposed to go back in the next time i get a sinus infection. that shouldn't take too long. if someone drives by the house with a cold i'll catch it and end up with a sinus infection! i am getting them about every two months now. maybe they'll stop now that i've seen a doctor about them :P

poor nathan got left in the waiting room with two very unhappy babies! it was nap time and both of them were really grouchy. i do not take it for granted that i am very blessed to have such good help at times like this when i need it!

the next step in potty training

the girls and i went to academy park today. stephon had to go into work today and nathan was with parish so i braved it alone with two babies! we did good :) i took them in their new double-wide stroller.

shelby overcame her objection to public restrooms. i was prepared for either way, but she did it! no accidents, woo hoo!

elise watched shelby and the other kids playing. she wants to get out there and play so bad! i bet she walks early just to catch up, keep up, and play with her big sister.

L... M... N... O... P... Q... Burger... S... T... U... V...

we went for a walk today. it was really pretty out... i would say it was about 60 degrees and sunny... just perfect :)

shelby surprised nathan and i when she picked up sticks and started making letters out of them! and she was correct when she did it! she made an X, Y, E, F, and U. smart AND creative. she gets that from me ;)

what's really funny to me regarding her letters is the letter R. she calls it burger. we have no idea why.

an experiment gone awry...

the girls and i met terry at chipotle's for lunch today :) i haven't seen her in ... forever! it was wonderful to chat and catch up.

the plan was to sit and hang out in a public place, at an off hour, over non-carpeted floors and wait to see what shelby will do when she needs to go po-eee. she wouldn't go. we went to the restroom a number of times, and she will not use that toilet. i even have a little portable potty seat for her. she's not feeling the public restrooms yet. can't say that i blame her, i guess.

nathan picked out new glasses today! woo hoo! the one's he has are a couple of years old and have had issues since day one. i'm relieved, so i know he's ecstatic. they essentially look the same to me as the one's he currently wears, but the metal frames are painted black this time. he went way out on that one, let me tell you!

potty trained!

we have changed our last shelby poo poo diaper! woo hoo! she lets me know when she needs to go (po-eee!) and has even surprised us by getting on the potty all by herself. it took four days. seriously.

it was a disney princess potty training extravaganza. she picked out a princess potty seat at the store on sunday, and we began her princess training on monday, march 23. granny had given her a princess wand while we were in huntsville that she held while she sat on her throne. believe it or not, there was a website on the potty seat package where i could download a matching princess potty chart. and lastly, there were princess stickers at the grocery store. kind of makes you a little nauseous, doesn't it.

there is a little cynical satisfaction that you can get out of this as well... since none of you will appreciate not having to change her diapers. just know that she has been 'pee-pee'ing' and 'poo-poo'ing' on the princesses ;)

four months old... and 20 pounds!

we started cereal yesterday... i should mention that. i decided to wait until we got back from huntsville to start since i have to pump to get the milk. i figured i'd save my granny the trauma of witnessing that.

today i had to take elise to the doctor. she has bronchitis... and she weighs 20 pounds. have you ever seen a growth chart? there are the lines that indicate various percentiles... and then about two centimeters above those lines you will find elise. oh yes!

the bronchitis is pitiful, and scary. she coughs so badly that it scares me to death. and then if she's sleeping peacefully, i'm worried that she's not breathing. poor baby.

physics and healthy teeth

what does physics have to do with healthy teeth, you ask? well, shelby began her physics career today at the dentist's office.

today was the first time that shelby counted to ten! we were counting pictures of kids on the wall. this was her first step to becoming a brilliant mathematician, which imperative to her career in physics :)

training begins

i just realized last night that nathan's triathlon is on sunday, february 1. many of you will recognize this as the same day as the superbowl! i don't know what they were thinking.

he will have to swim six full laps (12 lengths of the pool), ride a spinner bike for a half-hour, and then run two miles. and he only has one day to do it. we will not be camping out at the Y like we would be if i was the one doing all of this.

here are some pictures from last year's event.

back to grandma's house we go!

the girls and i came back to grandma's to visit today. grandma seems to be recovering well. she even made it to church today to receive her 17 year perfect attendance record!

17 years of perfect attendance... can you imagine? i'm thinking that there are some days that i'm just not in attendance, much less able to maintain attendance anywhere else! notice that her 17 years started after her children were all grown and gone.

let's all work towards an attendance record somewhere! we can start next week.

more pictures

grandma french's house

we went to my grandmother's house today. she is having surgery tomorrow on her carotid artery tomorrow. this will be the first time she's been in the hospital ever and she's 86 years old! like my aunt kay says, we come from good stock ;)

i do think, however, that she should threaten surgery more often. all five of her kids were here for the event.

they are a comical bunch. grandma and all five of her kids sung 'if you're happy and you know it' to shelby. she stared at them in total amazement that adults really do such things :D they also took turns blowing bubbles and helping shelby catch them with her tongue! that was pretty humorous, too.

as is the case most of the time, nathan was off playing and i didn't see a whole lot of him. he was playing with his second cousin, mason. they seemed to be having a great time :)

more pictures

grocery shopping

i'm so proud of nathan today! he learned a good life lesson today and yesterday.

he wanted to do my grocery shopping for me. i stayed in the car with the babies and walked nathan through our list over our walkie-talkies. today i had $60 left in my grocery budget, and about $110 worth of items on my list. nathan kept track of the cost of all of the items he picked up, and made good decisions on what needed to be sacrificed for more necessary items. i was truly impressed :)

woo hoo, there's poo poo!

whatever... then you come up with a better title!

well, she did it :) but i don't think she gets it. nathan and i cheered and gave her high fives and a flinstone vitamin as a reward. we need better rewards, but that's all i had at them moment.

oh yes, i have pictures. for the sake of being tactful, i'm censoring them. you're welcome.

christmas x4

i love christmas :) the second best gift of christmas (christ being the first, of course) is family. it's the one holiday that we all seem to make an extra effort to visit all family. most other holidays are spent with one family, but christmas brings us all together, if at all possible.

we spent today with some of stephon's family. we were at his dad's and step-mom's. brell, jerome, joseph and michelle and their boys, and devon's daughters were all there. we always miss bridget and her family when we get together, but it was a great time :)

the kids play great together. shelby and zaire played with matching toys together, but we ofcourse have the whole sharing issue at this age ;) nathan entertained joe-joe and rikia but was most interested in his new remote controlled mustang gt. shelby also followed paige and rikia around. they are sweet girls and love to play with shelby.

stephon watched football with papa joe and uncle charles, although i think papa joe was more interested in holding elise :)

michelle, arlene, joseph, jerome, and i played spades. i did pretty well this time! the last time we played i was pregnant. as you all are well aware, i go through a seemingly significant diminished brain capacity when i'm pregnant and it doesn't show any more than when i'm playing spades! michelle is always my partner, and is always patient with me :) today we kicked butt!

check this out... we had turducken for dinner! have you ever heard of that? me, neither! it was pretty good. you have to check out the link and see what this is.

unfortunately, i have no pictures. that's awful, but between cards and babies, i just didn't pull it off. hopefully i can get some pictures from arlene.

if anyone has spelling corrections for names, i would greatly appreciate it!

it's potty time!

actually, it's potty time about the time your kid starts eating meat!

we technically started awhile ago when we bought the potty seat, according to the books and the tv show... oh yes, there is an on-demand tv show. but today, we began sitting on the potty first thing in the morning, before her nap, and when she wakes up from the nap. we sit and read books and drink water and listen to water dripping from the sink. if nothing else, it's great one-on-one time for us :)

i don't know if she's totally ready, though. she doesn't tell me when she goes, and she doesn't care to sit in a dirty diaper. we'll see. we'll work on it for awhile as long as she isn't too resistant.

oh yes, much to her future surprise, there will be pictures! lol

talkers

yesterday elise confirmed that what i suspected was cooing, is! she's trying to talk. she did it a lot more today.

shelby is learning lots of new words, as you would expect. it seems that we're working on manners and counting these days:

please	peas
thank you	tace
bless you	bus... she isn't learning this one from me. i tend to not say bless you because it's really pointless.
you're welcome	she simply says 'ya.' i have no idea where she gets this one. it's kinda funny to me :)

one	one
two	two
three	it started out as tease, but she quickly upgraded to tea.
four	she only said four for a couple of days, and i can't remember how she said it. i don't know what she has against four. maybe it borrowed $20 and hasn't paid it back.
five	fice
six	ses
seven	sum. finally said that once. she likes seven even less than four.
eight	eight
nine	nine
ten	ten! she is always very excited about ten :)

she is just starting to count on her own up to about three, but when she's counting with me she goes something like this: two, two, tea, fice, fice, eight, eight, eight! (she gets frustrated if you don't listen to her), nine, ten! but she does get them in order :)