Thursday, December 27, 2012

Making stuff


Last week I made some Christmas presents for some of the kiddos we know. It wasn't hard but I didn't try it before I made it so....hopefully it turns out!

What did I make? Well, now that everyone, or almost everyone has their gift, I can share. I made gingerbread play dough. I mixed all of the dry ingredients together and put them in empty pasta and jelly jars. then, I wrote out the rest of the directions and attached them to the jars with a cookie cutter.




The recipe (that I found on pinterest of course) is really easy.

1tbsp cinnamon
1tsp cloves (ground)
1tsp nutmeg
2tsp ground ginger
1tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup of salt
1 cup of flour

That mixture looks like this. It's about 2 cups of dry ingredients if you plan on making it and putting it in jars.





I had to use a funnel to get the dry ingredients into the jars.

The rest of the ingredients are 1 cup of water and 1tbsp of veggie oil. Mix the dry ingredients with the oil and water in a medium saucepan. Stir until the mixture becomes a thick batter. Cook over low/med hear until it becomes a thick dough. Then turn it out onto parchment paper and knead.

I made an extra batch so that I could have one for gabe so I will have to give it a try soon.

-jen

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

My life via instagram


There has been a big fuss over at instagram about changes that are coming. I'm not really sure what the big deal is, but I may be going private pretty soon. I don't want someone using my pictures. And yes, I was watermarking for awhile, but it got to be tedious and I was having trouble blogging to begin with.

Anyways, here are my most recent instagram pics!




Top left....
Our Christmas tree
Gabe and I driving...someone's crabby
Gabe trying to comb Molly's hair with a fork during chocolate chip pancake dinner

Middle row...
Someone's really excited to have their slide inside!
Old school dance party
Good morning!

Bottom left...
Gabe watching the "snow" fall the other day
Squeezing play dough. (he squeezed it really hard and said "poop!"
Sitting on the potty

-jen

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Another love note to gabe




Toddlerhood can be rough. You can't really express yourself all of the time. You still need to nap, but don't always want to. Toddlerhood can also be pretty fun. You get to play with toys all day (most of the day anyway). You also get tons of hugs and kisses from mama and dada.

I absolutely love you. It was a rough week for us. You want to give up napping because you miss DA. As your mama, I know that you still need a nap, that you will be so much happier if you nap. Also, for some reason you don't like your car seat. I had to bite my tongue today when you pulled at your buckle and screamed "mama! Un-butle (unbuckle) me!". It was so funny, and how clever of you!

Where has my little baby gone? You are becoming such a big boy and trying so hard to talk in sentences and make your voice heard. I'm so proud of you. I'm also so proud of how you have been helping me lately. I glanced under the tree tonight and I was so proud and happy that all of those presents are under the tree because of you. I would wrap them and then you would put them under the tree for me.

I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and are filled with the wonder of Santa.


-jen

DA, I miss you


Dear DA, I admit, I wanted you to break so that it would be easy to give you up. However, gabe refuses to nap. I miss you.

Yep. That was a little note to gabes pacifier. Since DA has broken, night time isn't that bad, he doesn't even ask for him. However, naptime SUCKS. like A LOT! The only way that I can get gabe to sleep is to drive around. And that doesn't even work some of the time, although he is clearly tired.

I think I'm going to have a naptime only DA. I cannot decide if I will use the pacifier with the animal or if I will just get a pacifier (ugh) but I cannot go another week without napping for this kiddo. He needs one still or he's a mess, crying all over the place.





Life without naps...


-jen

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Update on mom

So, I finally have info to share about my mom.



She has a blood clot in her right leg (originally it was in her left leg). Her left foot is a little swollen, but there's not much they can do. She gives herself a shot of blood thinners everyday. (I don't know if I could do that). As of Monday, she doesn't have cancer anywhere but her lung, in the middle, stage three. The course of treatment will likely be chemo and radiation.

Besides running a fever everyday, she's feeling good and in good spirits. She is at home which helps a lot.

There's still second opinions to get, but it seems like this will be the best course of treatment. Hopefully, it will be a doctor at Lutheran, where Jorge works.

Thanks to everyone for their continued support and interest. It warms my heart, and my moms, that people are thinking of us. So, thank you all. I will keep everyone updated.


-jen

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Pinterest party links

Look at me! On top of things with links and everything! Enjoy!



Cookie cutter ornaments








Santa belt ornament although we did a little variation since we didn't find red glitter ornaments.


Photo ornaments



Melted snowman




Reindeer thumbprint ornament



I cannot find the link for these snowmen, we used clear ornaments, stuffed them with clear/sparkly tinsel then used paint pens to draw on faces. Well...Sidney drew on all of our faces because she did such a good job.











Sidney came up with these designs all by herself. The top ornament has red tinsel and then she used tacky glue and made a snowflake. Then she covered it with epsom salts. The bottom ornament is also filled with red tinsel and then Sid painted on a Santa face. Awesome!





Pinterest ornament party

Megan, Sidney, Pat (Megan's mom), my mom, and I had a pinterest ornament party about a month ago. It all happened because Megan and I (and our moms) realized that we were all pinning the same ornaments to make for Christmas. We are all a pretty crafty bunch so the pinterest party was born.

We all picked two or more ornaments that we wanted to make and we also had to pick a dish from pinterest to make. It was a great idea and I cannot wait until next year, especially because my mom wasn't feeling well. She actually went to the hospital just a few days later.







We made quite a mess!



Sidney got super creative and even made some ornaments on the fly!

Look for a future post with links to the ornaments and close ups of my favorties!
-jen

Monday, December 10, 2012

DA died




DA, for those who don't know, is gabes pacifier. He's has taken a few different shapes in the past two years, a monkey, a giraffe, a blue giraffe and a blue dog. The blue dogs pacifier ripped from the animal, the blue giraffe has a crack in it, the monkey I don't really like, but it was his first and the giraffe....has a huge hole in the pacifier.









This takes the whole when to get rid of the pacifier conversation/situation off the table. I just have to keep the monkey from both Jorge and gabe. Also, there was no nap time today, mostly because there was no DA. We will see how bedtime goes...


-jen

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Cookie monster baby




Out of the blue tonight gabe takes out his cookie monster stuffed animal and calls him his baby. He put him to sleep with his blankie. He gave him his DA (which by the way is broken, it has a huge hole). Then my mom wrapped cookie up in the blankie and gabe gave him his miiilk (there's an emphasis on the i when gabe says it). Then, cookie was being bad and had to go in time out. The whole thing was too funny.




















-jen

Friday, December 7, 2012

Instagram photos again!


Ok, I hope you all checked out harper's happenings...it's a pretty cute blog, and Harper is adorable! But seriously, I have an adorable kiddo too!

This week has been up and down and all over the place. My mom came home from the hospital (yeah!), I think little man may be getting sick, I am wearing skinny jeans and not yoga pants, and Jorge has been working a ton(good and bad). So, I don't have a ton to talk about, but I have a ton of photos!


Jorge and gabe enthralled with "the little mermaid"



Having a meltdown because he cannot spend the whole day outside



Cuddle time



A beautiful winter sunset (although it was 60 degrees!)



Squeezing onto the couch with GB



Yeah mail!!



Spongebob hat...I had to chase him down to get this!



Finally asleep and may be getting sick (warm and fussy)


-jen

Want to laugh?


I don't always follow this blog, just occasionally. However I do follow her on instagram and when she said Harper was singing to F.U.N. I just had to check it out. And now gabe won't stop asking for "arper" on YouTube. Check out harper's happenings

-jen

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Gabe amazes me!


Ok, I know that I am a little biased when it comes to my little man, but lately he has become amazing. He has started talking in longer phrases and answering my questions even better than before. He is also repeating a lot of the things that I say.

The other day he was throwing a ball and I asked him to stop. He continued and said "k, mom. Sorry mom. K, mom. Sorry mom" it was hilarious and amazing all at the same time (he kept throwing the ball though)



He is also say some words better. He used to say "truck truck" for fire truck, but now he is saying fire truck and even dump truck. I was so stunned when we pulled up to a dump truck and he said "mom, dump truck, mom". Wow! My baby is turning into a toddler/kid for real!

One of the cutest things he says is "lumpy". It's the heffalump from winnie the pooh movie. He says it with a British accent, just like lumpy in the movie. The other day he was saying in a sing-song voice, "lumpy and woo (roo), lumpy and woo". So much cuteness!






Ugh, sorry if I gushed too much. I'm just so excited about these new, big kid, milestones.

-jen

Monday, December 3, 2012

Putting up the tree


This year, it took us two days to put up the tree. We usually do it the day after thanksgiving, but this year Sidney was going to be with her mom. So, we waited until Saturday and then still needed Sunday to finish it! Gabe had a lot of fun decorating, except that he put all of "his" ornaments in one spot and wanted to take them off/put them on over and over again.






















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