Christmas Fotos

Hmmm...that says: I decided that if I am going to host Xmas Eve dinner again we should probably invest in a tad bit nicer tablecloth so we don't have to buy a green napkin tablecloth at the last minute. Thanks to our special guests, Michael & Travis Parsons for driving ALL the way from Wisconsin JUST for my feast.




And that says...
Paige played Santa. Blah blah blah.

Mr Jace is 9 months old

Little Baby Bunting - Sure wish I had a sweet suit like this!
(That's NOT a request to Santa for adult-footie jammies)

Pretty proud of himself here. Maybe because we praise him so much for climbing up on the couch. The little things in life...

Proof that he doesn't always smile....

But more often than not...can't hide that sweet smile behind anything!
WE LOVE YOU BABY JACE.

My Digital Studio cont.

Wow - he has changed so much since this photo shoot!

My Digital Studio

In case you haven't heard we bought a house and I started a new job...2 very exciting changes for us. Needless to say, we've been a *little* busy. I'll post some pics of the house soon when we have a good set of before-and-afters. For now, here is a few shots of Jace who is now 7 1/2 months and Paige is 4 if you've forgotten ;)Jace can crawl, but usually resorts to scooting on his tummy because it gets him around faster. He eats like a man. He sleeps like a dream. If that makes any sense. You know what I mean. He smiles ALL of the time. (But there is more...come back later and read this!) Paige is doing wonderful in daycare and language development pre-school; she gets to ride the bus from daycare to school 2 times a week. What a big girl! She is a super bossy big sister: "BABY! I told you three times and you not listening to me..." And Jace is fulfilling his annoying-little-brother role very well - crunching up her papers, pulling her hair and grabbing at her books. Paige is also quite the little dancer. Our next project is to set up a Youtube account so we can share some of her dancing videos.


Top Left: Paige's attempt at packing up her books for the move. I know exactly how that happens.I think I do the same thing when I'm packing up photo albums and school yearbooks. All the rest are self-explanatory. Below are some pictures of our day at the Pumpkin Patch with Ava, Tyson and family. Paige zonked in the car on the way home at 4:00 and slept until we woke her up this evening at 9:00!




Ok - so the pout. (Where does she get that from?) :) I think I know. I'm sure some of you could confirm...
Anyway... the top picture is one of many times she went stomping or slouching away from Ava pouting...and sweet Ava comes running after her and tries to figure out what is wrong this time. My favorite one is the bottom left - pretty sure both Ava and Tyson are thinking, "WHAT NOW?" Oh Paige.

Oh what fun it is to ride...

We didn't make plans for Paige to ride with anyone at the fair and we were feeling sorry for her having to go on the rides by herself...

After her first ride we ran into Steph and cousin Levi!

And then Ava and Tyson!

And another BFF, Casiann!

And then........



PAPA!!!!


Jesse said we weren't leaving the fair until Paige fell asleep in his arms.

(We arrived at appx 1:30). After the rodeo Papa went on a ride with Paige. And then I took Jace to the car to feed him and put him to sleep. At 11:15 p.m. Jesse and Paige (still awake) called me to pick them up at the gate. Paige fell asleep when we got to our driveway. What a long fun filled day.

P.S. I used to spend every-day-all-day at the fair. Oh the energy I must have had!

Summer.FUN

We are thoroughly enjoying summer - especially the new fun things we get to watch Paige experience.

4th of July parade and fireworks. I'm sure we all know who really had the most fun with the fireworks.

The Circus (riding the elephant!)
Paige's favorite part: The "Frapeeze."

The Woodland Water Park where we jumped out of the pool 4 times to run to the bathroom only to not be able to go. (We not as in including me too, We as in Paige - I actually had success with my first attempt). I think it's adorable when Paige knows she has to go but can't - "Ugh, come out! come out!" It is pretty hard to go pee when you're shivering and have goose pumps. It's almost as bad as stage fright when someone walks into the bathroom and waits outside the stall for their turn. Ok, back to summer fun.

The Big Sky Waterslides - probably the *highlight* of the summer so far.
This was a day when I REALLY realized just how big our little girl is!
She went all by herself on all of the rides, including the River Ride in her own tube.
When Grandma asked if it was scary - "No, it was just fun!"
Here are the 2 little besties - Paige & Ava



It is so entertaining to watch them play, hear them giggle and listen to their conversations. They talk to each other and don't even listen to what the other is saying.

Paige: We made it all the way to the top, now we get to go down the water slide all by ourselves!

Ava: Hey Paige we got a new puppy and she has pointy ears on top and she slides on our floor

Paige: I walked up this all by myself and it's really really hot on the ground. Do you want to hold my hand?

Ava: And we got a bird and she sits on my finger and she pooped in her cage. hahaha

Paige: HAHAHAHA poopy butt! That's a poopy rock. Look at that poopy rock. Hey, Ava, now we get to go down this really really big waterslide, are you excited?

Ava: Hey Paige I'm trying to tell you about our new puppy that we got and she...

Paige: I got this new swimsuit at the store

Ava: I got my swimsuit at Smiths. What store did you get your swimsuit at? (heehee - Smiths is a grocery store, I think she meant Costco)

Paige: and I got my new sunglasses too

Ava: Do you want to what my new puppy's name is?

Paige: I'm a frog. Watch! Ribbit Ribbit

Ok, so my daughter is apparently the one that has conversation issues. Ava has always been ahead of the game on that.


Our little surfer dude.

Yes those are flames on his sleeves...and that is a red long-sleeve swim shirt/suit. Oh yeah! I put his cute little surfer shorts on over the full suit so he was really stylin' - but more importantly protected from those violent UVs

Summer Evenings are beautiful.

Jesse used to wear baseball caps *all* of the time; now he rarely does. When he puts it on Paige decides she needs to wear hers too. A little Daddy's Girl for sure.

Two Things

1. Dad & Mom bought me My Digital Tudio for my birthday and
2. It's soooo nice outside...

Therefore, you may not see me blogging for a little while.
Of course I could post my creations, but I'm practicing and not quite ready to publicize, I mean, have you seen the amazing work of Alison, JoEllyn and my Aunt Linda? Um, yeah....

Prince Jace

My daughter is Sleeping Beauty one day, Cinderella the next, and Snow White the next. Jace is always the handsome prince. He'll be glad one day to know that she totally has it figured out and he never had to be a princess.

I've been a little busy and behind on some blog posts.

First an update on Jace. 4 months. He seems to be growing into himself a little, he had only gained 1 and 1/2 lb since 2 months, but Dr. was not concerned and neither am I. You could call him Mr. Smiley. And a flirt. If I may say, he loves his mommy :) He totally doesn't mind when I smother his face with kisses. And at 5 in the a.m. his eyes pop open and he starts smiling immediately, pretty hard to keep up with him if you know what I mean! He's found his voice and screeches alot, which is cute so far.
He's rolled over and loves doing it. He'd really just like to get up and run around I think. But I really hope he takes his time. This is going by WAY too fast - I just had to schedule is 6 month appointment already!

Paige's Dream

This morning on the way to drop the kids off at my parents house, Paige told me that she had a bad dream last night. I asked her what happened in her dream:

"I said Momma I fell down and you said Oh No you got dirt on your pants! And I said Yeah, I did!....it was like that."

Smile.

Cake of the Year - Part 2

I decided to first post My Inspiration:

Some cakes are totally amazing, some are mediocre...I totally cannot do Fondant or whatever it is...so you see, I thought I knew my limits but could still make a fabulous castle cake. Couldn't I?

Well, turns out my cake was LESS than medicore, waaaaaaaaaaay less.

WHAT IS THAT??!?!?!?!?

Now to be fair to myself, of course the above picture is missing the most crucial parts of the castle - the towers. Which were the only part of the whole thing that I made that actually worked. We stopped at Costco and got a big flat white cake, I still used the towers and the Princesses and made a Castle Courtyard cake instead. It worked.

Now I laugh at myself - I mean seriously...a fabulous castle cake can only be done by someone with experience. Something I certainly don't have! Now...if I could make a castle cake out of an excel spreadsheet, then we would be in business!

Cake of the Year!

Now that I'm done with school and have soooo much time on my hands (HA!) I was so excited to make Paige's birthday cake for her bday party this past weekend. My brilliant plan unfolded and I bought the supplies more than a week in advance. I researched, daydreamed and visualized until I had the perfect cake and I really thought it was going to be...a piece of cake. (Ha, I love puns).

Come Wednesday and Thursday I began feeling oddly nauseous, just like I was pregnant. Yikes! I kicked it (the weird little bug) around and toughed it out W, Th and Friday and by Friday night I felt pretty icky. (But never got head-in-the-toilet-bowl-sick, just lay-around-sick). I felt sick enough that I decided I probably shouldn't make the food & cake for the bday party on Saturday though. My knight in shining armour, The-man-who-always-gets-to-say-Itoldyouso, My husband, said, "It's ok, we'll just pick one up in the morning." GASP!

After some pouting (that is, me pouting) he asked, What is with having to make some fancy cake? I always had a square cake with frosting and it was good enough. I'm sure you know how that question and answer session went over. Well, it DID end with him agreeing to make the cake and hopefully I would be better in the morning to put together my masterpiece. Yes, it would be a masterpiece, the cake of the year NO DOUBT!

Hmmm.....what shall I post first - My Inspiration or My Masterpiece?
I haven't decided yet and I've ran out of time for now...check back soon to see a cake that truly puts ALL others to shame.

3. The things she says...(another entire blog post)

The baby book I got for Paige just doesn't have enough room on the pages anymore, so I bought a nice little journal planning to continue documenting milestones and other things that MUST be remembered. Well...that journal has empty pages, and it's not because there isn't anything to write. I really need to get writing before things slip my mind! Anyway, in honor of her 4th birthday I thought I would expand on #3 from the Top 10 List below.

Paige started a pre-school language development class at the beginning of the year and we have seen some great improvements in her letter articulation and word pronunciation. For example, instead of saying "Moodie" she now says, "Movie" and instead of saying "Tybear" she now says "Teddybear." Although it's necessary and the right thing to do, it's kind of sad to see the 'problems' being fixed. I mean, it was so cute that she called the floor the "Floorground." She still has problems with some words like Snack is Stack and Treat is Cheat and Green is Reen...
It's also fun to do her homework with her - she has gotten good at the letter "s" and makes the "ssss" sound and then pronounces all the words on the list (pictures) such as house, mouse..."ssss mouse"..."ssss house". Oh and then she says, "Ok, I be the teacher and you be Dora." (Apparently Dora the Explorer goes to her school too). And she makes all of the little gestures that the teacher does. And then after you say a word right she says, "goooood," just like I imagine her teacher must say it. Do we have a future teacher on our hands?

Paige has also adopted the typical baby-talk voice we all use when talking to Jace. So she gets right in his face and says, "Oh baby Jace, do you want a bottle? Do you want a bottle? Do you want a bottle?" with little fake-giggles in between. It's totally entertaining.

Speaking of Dora the Explorer (above), the other day a lady asked Paige what her name was and Paige matter-of-factly said, "Dora." I think the lady was a little taken back until I said, her name is Paige, but she likes to pretend that she is Dora the Explorer. (And I'm Boots the Monkey).
She also likes to pretend that we are the Disney Princesses, usually Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. It's amazing how many times I've been able to pull her out of a crying fit/naughty tantrum by saying, "Oh, hey Sleeping Beauty, do you want to....." I can usually get my way with her as long as I address her as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White in my requests or directions. hehe.

I really need to crack open that journal at the end of everyday to jot things down, now here as I try to write about things I can't seem to recall anything else...but I know there are little phrases and statements every day that make us smile...

Top 10 things I Love about...

Aside from the fact that I love my kids because it just comes naturally and I really can't help it, and because they are Mine - pieces of me and the man I love combined into different little packages - it's a fun little exercise to make a list of the top 10 things about my kids right now. This list will change, as they change and grow, (and there will always be more than 10 things)

JACE
1. Smiles and Coos a LOT! :)
2. Kisses me back
3. Loves to snuggle
4. That wonderful baby smell
5. Eye contact with those blue eyes
6. How cute and content he is when he nurses or has his bottle
7. Never screams in his carseat, just snuggles right in
8. Little button nose
9. Strong little bobble head and how he loves to look around and "go exploring" (as Papa calls it)
10. Little noises he makes, grunts, squeals, sweet sad cries, giggles...

PAIGE
1. Imagination...(that's an entire blog post in itself!)
2. Such a sweet big sister
3. The things she says...(another entire blog post)
4. Her dance moves & beautiful singing
5. The pictures she draws/colors for me
6. Soooo excited for her birthday
7. So many "best friends"
8. Still loves to snuggle
9. Paige + Dadda = Fun & Laughter
10. Loves to do her homework from pre-school

Craigslist

The following ad has been posted on Craigslist:

STOP Waiting for Grandma to Die! 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra

Date: 2010-10-02, 12:12AM EDT

STOP Waiting for your Grandma to die so you can have her car! Buy this one and have a real old-lady car of your own. Let's go over some of the details about this fine auto, which STARTS, RUNS, and DRIVES.

*1987 Cutlass Sierra

* 30,248 Original MILES. I know you've heard it a million times, but this car has really only been driven to church and the grocery store, and the cemetery-- Old people LOVE to go to the cemetery. It is believed that this car traveled as far as West Seneca for a funeral once.

*As an old lady car, this Olds had the privilege of getting ROUTINE MAINTENANCE. Most recently the car got new tires (whitewalls out of course!) and a new battery. The new tires could possibly have 1000 miles on them, which means that they are pretty new. It's also up to date on its inspections, shots and vaccines.

*The body is in DECENT SHAPE for a car that has lived through 23 Buffalo winters. The color is Navy Blue. There is rust at all of the wheel wells; some worse than others. There are some BATTLE SCARS on the body from lost fights with a white vinyl sided home, mostly on the passenger side.

*Grandma is NOT A SMOKER, and had no friends that smoked. Lets be honest here, most of her friends are dead anyways, which brings me to my next point:

*The passenger seat and back bench seat are virtually untouched. I sat in the back seat once or twice, probably for a trip to the cemetery.

*The trunk is large enough for at least two bodies. Dark Body color is good for late night trips to Niagara River.

*This vehicle comes with a 100% working AM RADIO, and a motorized (working) antenna. Don't forget to lower your antenna for Delta Sonic!

*FREE SNOWBRUSH WITH PURCHASE. AND if it seals the deal, a vintage Buffalo Bisons sunshade for the windshield.

**Nitty Gritty Stuff** We will accept CASH ONLY. We are accepting other offers for this car.

>DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT OUR AD. BUT WE THINK IT'S HILARIOUS. (IT COULD BE OUR AD!)

KidS

We think it's fun to talk about our KidS...the plural-ness of it :)

Paige is a very sweet and doting big sister. Jace is an awesome baby. He is a super content little dude and hasn't kept me from getting decent sleep except for one night in the hospital. Oh the hospital...we delivered in Whitefish again - even after our horrible experience there with Paige. My doc assured me that it would be better this time. Long story short, she told the OB Director about our experience and the OB Director and I played phone tag - so we never got to chat. (Which I didn't really care about). Anyway, we found out that she had put a note on our chart and we received excellent treatment. I don't think it was anything above and beyond the normal care given, but I sure would have loved to see what that "note" was! I think all of the nurses were definitely on their best behavior and possibly felt like they were walking on egg shells. Is that the right expression? I don't know. Which is funny because we really aren't high maintenance, we just wanted to have things go a bit more smoothly from the point of admission. Anyway, we did have a great stay up there. And labor and delivery was honestly the best and easiest part of the whole 9 months! Thanks to a VERY good epidural and my doctor/midwife, who I totally love. That epidural let me (and Jesse) take a 2 hour nap while my contractions were doing their work; and at appx. 2:10 my doctor woke me up and said, "Do you want me to check you?" 1/2 hour later Jace was born.
The first words out of Jesse's mouth were, "Hey little buddy!" That's when I knew it was a boy :)

Paige's first response when Papa and Grandma asked her if she wanted to go to the hospital and meet her new baby brother: "No I need my baby sister first."
She is over that thankfully.

Jace was already 10 lbs+ at his 2 week appointment. He has already outgrown the newborn clothes that we received from generous friends and family. He is wearing size 2 diapers and filling them often. He likes his car seat, likes the swing, and sleeps most of the night in his crib. I won't make comparisons to Paige, because I love her just the same and we've moved on, but I now know for a fact that she was kind of a naughty baby ;)

Time to fold the laundry that I washed two days ago. Lots of things get started and...eventually finished.

Nesting?

2 things I've been super disappointed about with my pregnancies - (1) where is the weird craving? I've never craved a weird food. Like 1 thing that I just had to eat everyday. It would be 'fun' to actually be like, "Oh, man I need to have 4 pickles a day!" (2) That so-called boost of energy they call "nesting." I look around and just get overwhelmed. I make a to-do list and never do it...well maybe I do get around to checking off some to-do boxes but it's 5 weeks after I've written them down.

I get babycenter.com pregnancy updates. For those of you who don't know about it, you can sign up with your e-mail address, give them your due date, and you receive a weekly e-mail counting your week and telling you all about the development of your baby during that week, what size your baby is (in comparison to a certain food, weird), and then all sorts of other intersting memos.

This one caught my attention:
"Four Household Chores to Avoid during Pregnancy"
My first thought - Hmmm....what can I get out of doing and pass along to my husband? heehee.
According to the article, here are the 4 chores to avoid:
Here are four household chores to avoid during pregnancy:

1. Moving Furniture
2. Change your cat's litter box
3. Using Ant or Roach Spray
4. Hold off of Refinishing Furniture

Really? That is the list? Talk about a bunch of no-brainers. And a TOTAL let-down...I already do NONE of the above. What about cleaning toilets, scrubbing floors, doing dishes, and picking up toys? Those things really are NOT easy to do right now but they're not on the list so I guess I have to keep doing them. Booooo.

Speaking of picking up toys - Paige's latest:
Mommy: "Paige, before you get your snack you need to pick up your puzzle that you dumped out all over the floor right there."
Paige: "Ummm, how about Momma do it? I too little."

In the next conversation:
Mommy: "Paige, Mommy needs you to please throw you garbage in the garbage can."
Paige: "No, just Momma do it, my tummy too big."

And in another conversation:
Mommy: "Paige, please put your boots and coat on, it is really cold outside."
Paige: "I too fat."

I swear, I don't use the tummy too big/ fat excuse very often! In fact, only when I tell her that I can't pick her up and carry her anymore. She sure does catch on fast!

Paige's Bedroom

Paige's room was thrown together when we moved here a year ago...until recently she didn't even have a bedspread, just sheets and piles of blankets. And her room was decorated, kind of, but there was no design whatsoever. I had something in mind, and nothing in the stores or online quite matched up to my vision. So...I decided to make the stuff, only I didn't have time nor talent so....I delegated most of the tasks to the people most skillfully able to complete them. My dad built the dollhouse bookshelf and the white picket fence headboard. My mom made the bedspread with this fabulous array of fabric I ordered and she helped me construct the curtain. Basically ALL that I did was tell them what I wanted it to look like and bought the gerber daisies and glued them on the curtain, and stuck them behind the 'fence.' Oh and then I reorganized the room a little, but of course all of the heavy lifting and moving was done by Jesse. So you see, it was a total group effort. I'm totally happy with how it turned out, which is amazing acutally...and Paige loves it and loves to talk about who made what; and the changing table that had been serving as a bookshelf is now ready for baby #2! The only thing I would change if I could would be to not have the bed so close to the window, the curtain and the headboard are kind of busy next to each other, but this is the best arrangement we have with the space available. Before I post these pictures I have to say that my quick photo snaps do not serve justice to how the room turned out but you'll get a good idea I think.







What is it about a nice crisply made bed that makes a kid just HAVE to jump on it and rumple it all up? Oh well, again, you get the idea.
The big brown body pillow along the wall is kind of wierd, but it covers up a big cord that is plugged into the wall right there for our internet; the cord runs along the bottom of the floor, under the door, and around the corner to where I am sitting right now at my 'desk.' That's the way it is in above-the-shop-apartment living. But we're cozy and it all works just fine for now :)