A Little Late…

Mayah was 15 months old on the 28th, and I meant to do this then and never got around to it.  That was a busy day.  Anyway, here’s some pictures I took of her that day…no time to write this morning.  What’s new, right?

And so we meet again…

Alright, just a quick post to say that I’ve become a huge blogging slacker.  As if I wasn’t bad enough already!  I was going to blog faithfully during our Christmas trip to Arizona, but let me tell you the sad story of what happened.  We arrived on Friday, and by SUNDAY AFTERNOON I sat down to blog about what we’d done so far.  Suddenly, something happened, and I accidentally erased the entire paragraph describing what we ate for Christmas dinner.  I was immediately discouraged, and decided to finish the post later.  So…I’ve worked on it since, but still haven’t finished.  It’s a sad story, I know.  So I’ve been avoiding tackling the project, because we were there for almost 2 weeks, so there’s a fair bit to write about.  I just came and saw the 2 newest comments on my previous post, and realized I had to post SOMETHING to quell Rachel’s unfounded suspicions.  So there, Rachel!

Well, what do you want to know?  Winter is as dreary as ever here, and I’m going to try hard to not complain about it anymore.  Because really, what can you do about it anyway?  It’s my little sister’s birthday today…happy birthday, Kim!  She’s older than the hills.  Mayah’s doing great.  She STILL only has 6 teeth; can you believe it?!?!  She seemed to be teething really hard this past week, but there’s still nothing.  Crazy kid.  She will be 15 months old on the 28th.  My favorite word to hear her say is “bath.”  She looooves bathtime, so when I tell her it’s time for a bath she says “beese?”  I say “bath” she says “base?”  I say “bath” she says “bath!” I say “YES! Bath!”  It’s pretty darn cute.

Okay, time to get organized for church and the day…Church, lunch with friends, meeting at our house, and then small group potluck at our house.  Should be fun and busy!  Simultaneously.

Please Be Gentle, Monday

So far Monday’s not complying with my request.  Although we did wake up to snow falling, which made me happy!  I think I’ll have to bake some Christmas cookies of some sort today.

Mayah’s been in a terrible mood the past couple of days, although she has little moments of sweetness here and there.  Let’s see, shall I blame teething this time, or save that for another day?  Could it be the perpetually snotty nose she’s had FOREVER?  Maybe she gets dry, itchy skin like I do in the winter.  Perhaps it’s a very small hangnail that is too small to see with the naked eye, but is causing unimaginable affliction and trials of the worst kind for her. I DO NOT KNOW.  But I’m looking forward to the day it passes.  Come quickly, is all I have to say about it.

And now to share one of those little moments of sweetness I was talking about: she sat nicely for several minutes looking at a book and “reading” it out loud with the cutest intonations and expression.  Melt my heart, little one-year-old!

Anyway…I think that’s all for today.  Hang in there, everybody, and remember there’s only one Monday per week.

Cuteness

Thanksgiving Videos

At Rhonda’s Request

Here are some videos of Mayah to show what she’s up to these days.  They may be boring for people who are not grandparents or aunts.

Alice.com

I just became a big fan of alice.com…could be too big of a fan if I’m not careful!   My first order should arrive today, so if anything is drastically wrong I’ll be sure to post about it.  I just don’t see how you can go wrong with FREE SHIPPING (which I still can’t get over), a site where you can compare according to price per unit, and where coupons are automatically applied for you!  Most of the prices seem very good to me, so I think the catch could be if a person (not me, of course!) would get carried away and buy things they don’t really need just because it’s so darn convenient.  So, if you use it, please use this referral http://www.alice.com/referral/E3B3CD4 and we will both benefit!  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Happy Saturday (so far)

It’s just one of those Saturdays that you can tell is going to be awesome.  We started out with these along with bacon, eggs and really fresh (freshly roasted) coffee, so the day’s just off to a great start.  Plus the sun is shining like a…um…a really shiny sun, the sky is clear and blue, and it’s supposed to get all the way up to 68 F.  Not bad.  So, we’re off to rake some leaves!  Also, tonight I have a hot date with the hubster, which I’m looking forward to.  Oh yeah, and Mayah’s rejecting food that is not like ours.  Sigh.  I don’t really mind, actually.  I’ve been looking forward to her not spitting things out because they’re too big of chunks or not mashed up enough.  It’s also really handy that because she wants to eat what we’re eating, she’s trying things she didn’t like before (like eggs!).  I like it.  In other news, she’s still being pretty stubborn about walking.  She can do it, but she does very little of it.  Her preferred method is walking on her knees.  Yes, I’m serious.  It looks pretty funny, but it drives me nuts.  She also started saying “There you go” when she gives you something.  I just don’t realize what things I say a lot until I hear her say them.  My little mini me.    I hope everyone’s Saturday is as good as mine, and I hope my Saturday is as good as I think it is.

Mayah and Her Baby

The baby was one of her birthday gifts (from her little boyfriend, Ben .  Here’s a picture of the toy we got her:

We Have Survived Birthday Party #1

Yesterday spring decided to come for the day.  It was amazing! 73 F and sunny?!?  So I opened up the house and tried to get all the sick-germs out.  Mayah just got over a cold and fever, so I’m sure there were some hanging around.  But yesterday was the day of her birthday party, so we stayed inside all day, unfortunately.  I had food to make and cakes to…umm…decorate, so we just enjoyed the beautiful weather as it blew through the house.

So anyway, we had 10 adults and 9 kiddos here for spaghetti and meatballs (Robyns’ delicious recipe), green beans, garlic bread, Wacky Cake and ice cream.  I hadn’t made the meatball/sauce recipe for a long time and it said that one recipe serves 4 people.  False.  I made 4 recipes and after we all ate as much as we possibly could, we were left with a little over one gallon of sauce and meatballs!  Believe me, I will be making a note on that recipe for next time.  The cake was also what we might call Overkill.  I wanted the traditional one-year-old-digs-into-cake-isn’t-it-cute-funny-etc. thing, and, of course, I wanted to also make sure there was plenty for everyone to eat that hadn’t been dug into.  So, I made three 9-inch round pans o’ cake; layering 2 of them with chocolate icing and then I made the other one into a flower, which I decorated in a most basic and amateurish way.  Anyway, there’s so much cake left it’s not even funny.  Maybe I should have some right now just to help the cause.  Now that I think about it, every single thing I made for the meal last night was waaay too much.  Wow, how did I plan that so badly?  Oh well, better than running out of food, right?

In spite of the overkill on food, cramped house, fussy 1-year-old (she hasn’t been in the jolliest of moods lately), and unexpectedly warm house, we had a really great time with our friends.  We have some great friends, let me tell you!  And thanks to great friends, I wasn’t left with a kitchen full of dirty dishes to clean up this morning!

Kirk is at a mandatory training seminar for substitute teachers today.  Blah.  At least he gets paid for it, but it would be more fun if he were here instead.  Mayah’s been playing with all the presents she got last night.  She was holding her doll and gently petting its head, and then she even gave it some kisses.   Pretty cute.

Simple, yet…simple.

“Wow.  My birthday cake is on fire.”

“Hmm, not bad.”

“Finally! a baby whose face I can poke and jab and not get into trouble for doing it!”

Thus ends our very first birthday party as parents.  Fun, yet surprisingly exhausting.  Totally worth it though, and we even survived!  Seriously, though, it is time for a piece of cake.