I've watched "White Christmas" - the season can begin

Let's pretend the previous post was yesterday's.  There.  That was a good post yesterday, huh?

The gifts are all wrapped and under the tree.  Last year I faked it and just threw many gifts in bags.  If a gift was actually wrapped all I did was stick a bow on the front and call it good.  This year I decided that all the gifts should be tied with ribbon and the ribbon should then be curled and cut.  It took me probably a total of 6 hours to do, but I'm happy with the result.  Part of the anticipation is unwrapping the gift.  If it just takes one second flat to do it then what's the fun in that?

I feel like my Christmas tree could use more "oomph" at the top.  I'll have to see about that next year.  Maybe.  I really am not someone who needs to way overdo everything when it comes to decorating.  I enjoy it, but I don't shop for my home very often (or ever).  I think everyone has something that they feel pretty crazy to spend money on and, for me, that's home decor.  I'd rather have a new shirt or, better yet, buy clothes for Millie.

Speaking of decor and Millie, I bought her a stocking.  It's a technicality, really.  We aren't ever here at our house for the holidays so I don't know that her stocking will even be used except for looks.  I forgot to get one for her last year so I bought her a really sweet heirloom needlepoint stocking from L.L. Bean just a couple of weeks ago.

And just for the fun of it, here's her First Christmas ornament from last year.  I love it.

I love looking at photos of the babies from a year or more ago.  I can't believe how much they've changed in what seems like a short amount of time.  Here they are on 11/29/09 (l to r:  Kate, Anna, Amelia):

 And here they are on 11/27/10 (in the same order, only Caleb [6] and Ben [4 months - my sister, Carrie's, 3rd] are sandwiched between them:

How time flies!  The girls are starting to play with each other more and getting into the territorial phase.  Amelia is the youngest - she's almost 18 months.  Anna is the oldest of the girls at 20 months and Kate is 19 months.

I think that does it for me tonight. 

Happy Wednesday!

Screaming Santa Photo

It strikes me as odd that I finally have the time to blog 4 days before Christmas. 

My business keeps me very busy.  I make bows in every spare slot I have available and even those are precious few.  It's still going very well, although I closed my Etsy shop - right now I only sell my wares via my Facebook fan page.  I got a little tired of Etsy's fees and how long it took to create each listing.  My hope is that I will be able to have my own website relatively soon.  We'll see!

Amelia's doing great.  She's at the age where she repeats (or tries to repeat) what we say.  We took her to see Santa a couple of weeks ago, and because I'm such an awesome mom I was kind of hoping we'd get the obligatory screaming child Santa photo.  She sure seemed on her way to making that wish a reality.  She clung to me as tightly as she could - her little arms wrapped around my neck and her fingers digging into my back.  She even managed to wrap her legs completely around me in an attempt to interlock them when I tried to give her to Santa.  Santa just sat there, probably hoping we'd give up and walk away.  I managed to free myself and put my close-to-a-meltdown 17-month-old daughter on Santa's lap.  She was not havin' it.  But then the photographer produced a Goofy stuffed animal and waved it in Amelia's face.  This is what we got:

Thanks a lot, Goofy.  Here's hoping next year I get my screaming child photo.

(I really do love this photo)

The Business. She's a Beast.

It's been two months since I last posted.  To the day.  Odd.
Somehow I have over 760 "fans".  And if I could send free bows to each one I totally would.

But, the business is why I haven't been blogging.  Or cleaning.  Or cooking much.  Or, really, much of anything.  It's pretty much grown into a huge, scary monster that I am afraid I can't handle anymore.  Busy is a blessing, don't get me wrong, and I certainly wouldn't complain.  But I feel an obligation to every single one of my customers to make the best product possible and ship it as soon as possible which is very stressful.

It sounds easy.  You're thinking it sounds easy.

It was easy when I first started and had, maybe, an order a week.  Now I'm looking at my order sheet of orders placed this week and last and wondering how I'm going to ship 16 orders as quickly as I'd like.  The truth is, I'm not.  And I have that disclaimer on my main business page - that it could take 2-3 weeks for in-stock orders to ship.  You'd think that would make me relax a little but it doesn't.  It makes me twitch.  Do you know how quickly 2 weeks flies by?

Christmas is 3 months away!

I digress.  Really.  Because I'm not complaining, I promise.  I could just use one or two of Santa's elves right about now.  He should stop being so selfish and gimme one.


On to other things.  Like my sweet, beautiful Amelia.  She's such a good girl and this age is SO fun.  I don't let my business completely overtake everything in my life, especially her.  We have a great time.  She's hilarious - I'm really enjoying 15 months old.


She can say a lot of things because she tries to mimic everything you say.  Today, she said a word and I didn't understand it (big surprise), so I said "What?" To which she responded "What?  Whaaat?  Whaaaaaat?"  I would be offended that she were mocking me if she weren't 15 months old and learning to speak.


She says "Thank you" ("Tchank Tcho") without prompting.

She says "I love you" ("Ya Ya") and gives kisses and hugs without prompting.

She says "All Done" ("Ahh Duh") as she signs it now.

Give her 100 toys and she will always go right for a baby doll and tote it around with her.

She laughs a lot, but she laughs the hardest at/for her cousin, Caleb.  They are GREAT friends.


The girl will eat any dried or fresh fruit you stick in front of her.  She may be a somewhat picky eater with some things, but fruit is not one of them.

"Default happy" is how my husband describes our baby, and he's right.  She just seems content and easy-going 95% of the time.  She gets that good naturedness from her daddy.  Not that everything is stars and rainbows all of the time - she has her moments.  But, we deal with the attitude and move on.

She will and does walk off with things.  No idea where the remote control for our Blu Ray player is.  She walked off with one of David's favorite pens - can't find it anywhere.  Half the time we can't find our lip balm or remotes for our bedroom lights.  It'd be frustrating if it weren't so funny.


She started walking in mid-August and hasn't slowed down since.  That was the same week we were down in Portland buying our '05 Honda Odyssey Touring.  Yes, a van.  And I LOVE IT.  Seriously, I think people who say they'll never own a van need to drive one around for a week and see how awesome it is.  Remote control doors and rear hatch?  Um, yes, please!  Seats that fold into the floor and hidden compartments in the floor for storage?  OKAY!  The list seriously goes on and on. 



You'll notice many of the photos are from this month. We drove down to Portland last weekend for an early trip to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island. We had a really great time but many of the festivities weren't out yet - too early. I should mention that my sister, Carrie, made the girls' t-shirts. Cute, right? She's making more to sell in my Millie's Bows comment game on October 1st. See my Facebook fan page for details.

And, just for fun, here's a photo of the newest member of the family!  Meet Benjamin!  My sister, Carrie, gave birth to him on July 28 of this year.  He's so squishy and loveable.  That's my dad holding him.


Happy Friday!

Things are Bloomin'

I'm going to do this post in a bulleted format because simply too much has been going on and if I write about all of it I'll bore myself and you.  So, here goes!

- Millie's first tooth (her bottom left) broke through on February 5th.  This helps explain the terrible sleeping and overall crankiness that is atypical for her. 

- The night before Valentine's Day, David took Millie and me to a local chinese restaurant. I only bring this up because of how cute my baby looked that evening and because I have proof of her cuteness...

-  David and I went to see "Avatar" on Valentine's Day, but it was sold out so we saw the movie "Valentine's Day" instead.  It's a rental.  We finally saw "Avatar" yesterday in 3D and it was good - the animation (especially in 3D) is incredible.  Here's Amelia and David on Valentine's Day...

- David bought Amelia a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy as a Valentine's Day gift.  He also made her a card by drawing hearts and writing "Happy Valentine's Day" on a piece of folded cardstock.  He's not an artist but I hope he does that for her every Valentine's Day - it's pretty special.

- The weather here lately has been incredible.  Mid 50s to lower 60s and beautiful blue skies.  On Friday we took Amelia to the park right up the street.  David thought I was a little crazy for wanting to take her on the slide and swings, but we did it and I think she liked it, even if her face doesn't show it!

Our plum tree is really going crazy right now, blooming really early.  So I couldn't resist getting a couple of pictures of Amelia with it. 

- I thought I had more to say but apparently my memory is short.  Wait, I already knew that.  This is why I need to post often.  Otherwise I forget what I want to say.  Oh, I'm annoyed that the Olympics air live on the east coast and we get a 3 hour time delay even though they are taking place just a couple of hours north of here.

- Here's a cute video I took of Amelia (far right) with her cousins Kate (middle) and Anna (far left) last time we were in Oregon at the end of January. My sister, Lindsay, is the one with the blanket.

Busy week this week, but hopefully I'll post more often now.  Obviously if I wait then I forget everything.
Happy Tuesday!

Christmas in Pictures

I got so used to making enough coffee for 8 adults that I accidentally made my coffee the consistency of tar this morning.  That's what a week in Oregon does to me, I guess.  I don't mind.

I'm going to summarize the Christmas holiday in the only way that isn't over-the-top wordy and completely boring to all of you (and saves me from a lot of proofreading)....in pictures.

On Christmas Eve, Amelia got to play with cousins Lucas and Isaiah that she hadn't seen since August...

When we got home that night, Amelia mostly enjoyed chewing on wrapping paper while we opened a few gifts for her.  Here she is in her snowman pajamas playing with a Christmas present from a friend.  She's laying on a quilt made for her by her great-great-aunt Nan!

On Christmas Day, we delivered treats to our local fire department before heading to David's parents' house for Christmas breakfast made by the guys.  They made breakfast sandwiches on croissants.  Yum.

That morning, Amelia got to try on a hat made by her aunt Stephanie and a bib that David's grandma made and that David wore when he was a baby!

She also got to see her cousin, Nora, who is David's cousin's 3 month old baby girl.  I have a feeling they'll be friends when they're older. 

The QT with cousins didn't stop there.  We decided to head down to Oregon on Christmas night instead of our original plan of waiting until the following Tuesday.  Amelia slept the entire way and we got in really late.  In Oregon, Amelia...
...got to defend her pacifier from her cousin, Kate, who was very curious about the plastic object protruding from Amelia's mouth.

...got to play with Kate (when the paci battle was over, of course)

...play with both of her girl cousins!  (Sorry the picture is blurry.  I loved it too much not to post)

...got to go to the baby Bible class for the first time (since she's the only baby where we attend up here, there isn't a Bible class for babies)!  Even though she was tired I think she really loved it!

...got to see her very first snowfall since Hillsboro got 4 unexpected inches of the white stuff (notice out the window behind Millie and her Granddad)!  She didn't care much.

Millie and I were in Oregon for a week.  We had such a great time.  The longer I was there, the longer I wanted to stay!  Carrie and Chris bought a house at the end of November and, because it's a "fixer-upper", they're staying with my parents until the house is actually liveable.  So the guys spent every night (and day!) over at the house fixing it up.  One night, the guys stayed at my parents' house with the kids and the girls all went over to the "fixer-upper" and primed doorways and window sills.  We worked a lot but we laughed even more. 

Speaking of Chris & Carrie, I'm going to be an aunt again!  Anna is 8 1/2 months old so she'll only be about 16 months older than her next sibling and Amelia will only be a little over a year older than her next cousin!  Does it get any better than that?!

David had to work the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas, so he went back home on Sunday night then returned late Tuesday evening.  While he was home after work on Tuesday evening, he and his brother-in-law, Jake, worked on our master shower.  I'm happy to say that I think it's nearing completion.  David tried to put up sheetrock tonight but it was really loud and the baby was asleep.  She woke up so he stopped.

We got back to Washington in time to see David's aunt and cousin from Chicago.  While we were there, Amelia got her first look at Sage, Jake and Stephanie's lab.  I can't get my baby away from the animals - she wants to love on every dog and cat she sees, and Sage was no exception.

Here's Amelia's 5 month shot and 6 month shot next to "the pig".  My dad won that pig for me when I was 2 and except for the stick-on black nostrils that got lost in the wash, I'd say it's in pretty good shape.

I think month 5 was a huge growing month for her.  Now that she's on solids, she's really beefing up.  So far she's had...

- Peas (loved them)

- Green beans (loved them)

- Squash (yum)

- Applesauce (absolutely)
- Pears (nom, nom)
- Prunes (out of necessity...she ate them fine)
- Peaches (not a fan of peaches.  Who doesn't like peaches?!)

Tomorrow is her 6 month checkup.  I've got my questions for the doctor written down.

Seriously.  See, this is my problem.  I start a blog and can't shut up.  I need to work on breaking up the posts.

Have a good Wednesday,

It's the Holiday Season, don't forget to hang up your sock

I wish I could post pictures of the gifts I'm making for the babies, but I want their mamas to be surprised, too, so it will have to wait until at least next week.  I'll just say that I'm hooked and that I'm seriously considering going into business doing this after the holidays.  I'm very fortunate in that I can stay at home with my precious baby and not work outside the home, but, wow, experiencing our first Christmas as a single income family has been a very eye-opening experience.  We thought we were living tight before - whew! - nothing compared to Christmas.

So, anyway, more on the newfound passion of mine and potential 2nd income in the coming week or so.

So, the sleeping hasn't gotten any better, but we've chosen to embrace it.  We still hope that she'll go down only once, but when she wakes up after an hour we bring her out to the living room with us.  We've tried letting her cry but the child can be a mule...very stubborn.  I don't know where in the world she gets that from.  She cries and cries and then she screams and screams.  Tonight she started flipping out so David went in to get her and even after he picked her up she continued to completely scream her head off - she even cried harder when he picked her up.  She would stop for a couple of seconds and consider her surroundings but then she would start the screaming again.  I've never heard her cry like that - it was awful.  She finally settled down and David put her on her play mat.  She laid there contently for about 30 minutes then I fed her and laid her back down.  She didn't make a peep and fell right to sleep.  So, the question is whether it's worth it to fight her on this or just to pretend that her 8pm bedtime is actually just a nap and let her play until she gets tired.  Whatever...I mean I can't really complain too much since she'll usually sleep through the night once she goes down.

I know I post about sleeping all of the time, but she's almost 6 months - it's our life right now.  I wouldn't want her looking back on my posts and thinking she never gave us any trouble.  I don't want to put a smiley face here but that's the spirit in which that comment was intended, so just imagine it's there.

I have a nasty cough but I'm fighting it.  Tomorrow we go to Lacey for David's extended family Christmas Eve celebration.  I managed to make a no-bake cranberry walnut cheesecake pie and a double batch of artichoke dip so that's my contribution.  Should be fun.  I don't imagine Amelia will be getting her required naps over the next couple of days, but hey, it's Christmas.  Couldn't get any worse than it is or than it has been, I would imagine.

Next week we head to Oregon to have Christmas with my family.  Well, they'll have Christmas on the 25th but since it's David's parents' turn to have us this year we'll celebrate with my side of the family next week.  On Christmas Day we'll head to David's parents' house for breakfast, gift opening, then dinner with his aunt and possibly a couple of other relatives.  My only wish would be for snow...or at least rain.  We're in Seattle, for crying out loud!  But no, we're supposed to get sun on Christmas!  It'll be a fun day either way!

Hmm, pictures.  Let me see what I have.

So this is David and Amelia playing on the floor.  You'll see the "Scat Mat" next to the chair which is supposed to give the cats something similar to an electric shock when they step on it.  This is to prevent them from scratching our furniture more than they already have.  I'm mumbling under my breath but you can't hear me.  The obvious Amazon box and Target bag are the few items I had left to wrap that I got wrapped tonight.  I put them by the tree so I would remember but then I got sick so they stayed there for 2 days.  That would drive my mom crazy.  It drove me crazy, too, I just didn't feel like doing anything about it.


And here's just a cute shot of Millie.  I have some pictures taken with the "Night" setting on my camera, but it looks like my baby is being engulfed in the flames of the fireplace which is very disturbing.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas fun?

Can someone please tell me why my child wakes up exactly one hour after being put to bed for the night?  I'm stumped.

So, it's been an interesting weekend.  On Friday night, David and I had a little gathering to go to and I had volunteered to bring a dessert.  I always volunteer to bring dessert - baking is fun, cooking is not (to me).  I did what never fails to drive David crazy...I tried a new recipe.  He has no objections to new recipes;  it's the making them for the first time and "trying them out" on non-family members that he doesn't understand.  Really, I don't understand it myself.  I should just make something tried and true when preparing dessert for other people.  I decided to make some little cookie cups and then fill them with cream cheese frosting.  Sounds good, right?  First off, I should have known nothing good could come from them when I was trying to squish the dough into my mini muffin tins and it kept sticking to my fingers and wouldn't mold into the pan.  The recipe called for store-bought refrigerated cookie dough but I don't think I've ever bought cookie dough - I always make it.  I figured it'd be the same thing.

Apparently not the same thing.

Something was burning.  I peeked into the oven and realized that the tins were overflowing and dripping (yes, apparently cookie dough can drip) onto the bottom of the oven.  I think my dough wasn't cold enough...maybe I overmixed it.  Either way, the stench was very potent.  I wasn't having a particularly uplifting day to begin with but this failed recipe really had me defeated.  We decided to just pick up some cookies on the way to the get-together instead.  I hate doing that, but I love that the option to buy yummy cookies from the grocery store bakery is there.

So, that night we got home from the get-together and I rushed to get the baby in bed.  For the last week or so she's been going to bed fine but then she'll wake up really mad about an hour later.  She won't go to sleep until around 11:30pm so I've been trying to get her on a schedule.  If she's anything like her father, she'll thrive on routine and structure.  We'll see.  Of course who really expects to stick to a schedule around the holidays?  Yeah, I'm a great mom.  Thanks to David, she's now sleeping again.  He went in and patted her bum until she went back out.  I don't know why she wakes up.  Oh, nope...she's awake.

Anyway, so on Friday night I got her in bed then decided to make some baby food.  We bought the big bag of frozen organic peas from Costco so I put some in a pan with a little bit of water and cooked them down.  Tried pureeing them in my small food processor - wasn't pureeing them well enough.  Tried them in my bigger food processor - still not working.  Then I got out my blender.  Realizing that they probably weren't liquifying because they were too hot, I threw in several ice cubes and, voila!, baby food!  It made a lot more than I anticipated...I filled my Baby Cubes and stuck them in the freezer and still had about 1/2 cup left which, in baby food terms, is a lot of food.

So, on Saturday, Amelia had peas.

I think she liked them but, wow, she made a mess!  The fingers had to go in her mouth after every bite then they went all over the Bumbo and then all over her pajamas.  They went in the wash and the baby got a bath. 

That night we had some friends over for our annual Christmas party.  I had decided to make some fudge and did a double batch.  Well, it took forever to boil...literally, like, an hour.  So I was in panic mode trying to get everything ready before people arrived.  It's a good thing I have such a wonderful husband.  He vacuumed, straightened, cleaned toilets, and took care of the baby while I baked the fudge, cooked the artichoke dip, and cleaned up the kitchen.

Good friends of ours have a sweet little boy named Max who is just 3 months older than Amelia.  Here are a few pictures.  They had a good time checking each other out.

Amelia tried to eat Max's ear and did a face plant into the sofa.

"Finally someone my size!"

I can't believe it's the week of Christmas already.  More than that, I can't believe that it's 11pm and, yet again, my child is still awake.  I fed her earlier when she first woke up and she didn't seem all that interested.  David just tried feeding her again and she didn't even drink everything he offered her.  I also gave her Tylenol and Hyland's Teething Tablets so who knows what's wrong.  Maybe 11:15pm is her real bedtime.  Seriously, we tried getting her up at 7 or 8 when she first wakes up no matter what time she goes to sleep at night then putting her down for only 2 naps, one around 10am and one around 2pm then 8pm for bed and she still won't sleep. 

Okay, enough about that.  It's Christmas already!  I haven't been in the mood to do much baking.  I think I have a bit of the baby blues or seasonal depression or something.  Probably shouldn't shout that out to the world, but it's how I feel.  Just...down. 

I should run errands tomorrow but I haven't been feeling so hot today and I need to make sure I'm not getting sick first.  Blech.

My baby is crying.  Still.  Crying.  She has to sleep some time, right?

Good night.  And wish me luck.