Christmas treats

This weekend while Morgan was staying with her Grandma and Grandpa Chupp Dave and I decided to get domestic. We made hot chocolate gift bags for his "girls" at work.

No, he is not a pimp. Ya know, the girls in his office. :)

His mom has a hot chocolate receipt that they all LOVE. I assume it is great since they all say it is. I obviously haven't had it since the main ingredient is powdered milk. The mix is what Angie, my college roommate, and I would call "death to Sara". :)

Anyways, once Dave had the hot chocolate all mixed up, we started our assembly line. He filled the bags with the mix, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then he handed them off to me to make them cute.

How did we do?

I even made little tags out of my scrap booking paper.

So we ended up with 40 some packs.

This afternoon I went to Keystone with the girls to hand out the packs.

Dave made beef jerky for the guys and the ladies got the hot chocolate.

Morgan played Santa saying everything from Happy Christmas to Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas.

It was a real hit.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas treats.

Some of you will be getting these too.

So act surprised when you see them. :)

The good stuff

As of Friday, December 12th, Adrienne has decided she no longer wants to eat baby food. Dave tried to feed her supper on Friday but was having no luck. She blocked her face with her hands and squealed every time he would try and go in with the spoon. We couldn't figure out what her deal was. For some reason I decided to tear off some of the pizza I was eating for her. I put the pieces on her tray and she ate it up with a big smile.

So I gave her some more.

I couldn't believe how much she ate. I guess she was tired of her fruit and cereal.

I can't blame her.

Since that day she has wanted nothing to do with the baby food. She wants what I am eating - the good stuff.

So that is what I have been giving her. Now eats peas like they were candy. I love it! Mealtime is so much easier now. It is also a lot more messy, as she still loves to rub her eyes and hair while eating. :(

This picture is after eating pasta for the first time.

She is about to eat a Nilla Wafer - a favorite treat of hers.

Adrienne 10 months

Adrienne is 10 months.

Things have changed a lot around here in the past month.

Her new skills include clapping, crawling, pulling herself up, and doing some minor cruising. It is so much fun and so much work. She is loving being able to get to all of Morgan's toys. She especially loves Morgan's doll house and all that lives in the house. Those dolls are soft enough to make great chew toys. The best part is that Morgan doesn't seem to mind. She's also pretty interested in Abbey's food bowl, which unlike the dolls, she is not allowed to chew on. :) It didn't take her long to master the skill of crawling and now she's able to work the room at amazing speeds. Morgan is a great big sister, sometimes bordering on a second mom - which we are working on, so she helps me keep an eye on her.

Another favorite lately is looking out the window. You have to imagine her patting the windowsill and saying "ahbabababa"...

Her reaction to Dave coming home from work is priceless! Saying she gets excited just doesn't give justice to her emotion. She bounces up and down and only gives him a few moments to come and pick her up before she starts squawking. If she is down on the floor playing, she crawls to him as fast as she can go. If she is in the high chair, she practically brakes her neck to see him. I love it! It has to feel great to receive such a welcome.

At 10 months Adrienne also loves to:

bite - hard - Morgan says her teeth are like shark teeth

pull all the wipes out of the container

make speedy escapes from diaper changes

go limp to avoid being picked up or redirected

run her gooey fingers through her hair during mealtime

throw things on the floor from her high chair

bang things together to make noise

grab my face while nursing

(I currently have 3 scabs on my nose to prove it)

take baths with Morgan

give kisses - when she feels like it

ride on my hip - though she rarely holds on

play with Noah's Ark - chewing on the animals one by one

sleep on her belly - legs tucked under with her butt in the air :)

Christmas warmth

I always liked decorating the Christmas tree when I was little. I just love the feel of a house decorated for Christmas. There is a warmth that seems to come with the lights and all the red and green. I hope that our girls grow up feeling that warmth in our home.

Today I brought up the kids' nativity set for the girls to play with. They really liked it. Of course anything new is always a hit. Morgan liked setting everything up and of course Adrienne was quick to "taste" all the new people and animals. :)

When we were at Jill and Eben's house we helped Jill with her Christmas decorations. Morgan LOVED it! So I was excited to have her help me this year with our house.

I have never had so much fun decorating a tree. Morgan was on a high. It was so great to see her so excited! We worked on hanging the ornaments together at first, but before long she had her own box and was going to town.

Dave has never really helped with the Christmas decorating. If he did it was only because I begged him to help me carry something. I'm sure he would say he didn't mind, or even liked, to have the house decorated, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the process.

Shocker!

Well this is what is great about this year...

he joined in on the fun.

I didn't even ask him!

It's hard to stand by and watch your daughter having so much fun and not join in on the action. So before long he had found some Christmas music on the radio and was putting his share of ornaments on the tree.

What a wonderful evening!

Of course Morgan and I were excited to show Adrienne the tree this morning. I let her touch it a while, mainly because I wanted the pictures. :) She actually stayed away from the tree the rest of the day. I'm sure tomorrow will be a different story now that I've said that. Our house is now toasty with the Christmas spirit.

So if you are in the neighborhood,

please stop by to soak in some of the warmth!

Thanksgiving weekend

Last week we took a road trip to Wheelersburg to celebrate Benjamin's 1st birthday, which happened to fall on Thanksgiving day. It was nice to have several days to relax with our family.

For the most part Morgan and Adrienne did really well traveling. We didn't even turn on the DVD player for Morgan until 4 hours into the trip! I'm pretty sure Adrienne's favorite part of the trip was the chance to explore the driver's seat.

We were driving when we did this.

Is that bad? :)

It was so great watching the kids play together. They had so much fun together! With the help of the adults' mediation skills there were actually very few squawks or scuffles. I think that's pretty impressive since the ages of the kiddos are 3 yrs, 15 m, 12 m, and 9 m.

Maybe there will be more of that to come. :)

Grandma was feeling really under the weather the first day they were there and wasn't able to love on the kids like she wanted to. This was the scene the next morning when she was feeling better.

The kids were all quick to crawl up next to her.

A little bag of Cheerios goes a long way with kiddos. I pulled them out to try to hold Adrienne over until supper. I bet it didn't even take 2 minutes for the other kids to figure out what was going on and make their way over. The job got too big for Grandma to handle by herself so Dave stepped in to help feed the birds.

Donna started teaching Morgan how to write her name. I think they got as far as M, o and r. Morgan did really well. I was shocked. I must be slacking because I had no idea that I should be starting writing with her already. I had just been working on recognizing her name. It was kind of funny because she actually became kind of obsessed with it. Jill was nice enough to share the cake beaters with Morgan.

Need I say more?
Benjamin wasn't sure about the cake at first, but it didn't take him long to realize it was pretty good stuff.

Benjamin got a lot of fun new toys and everyone was happy to help him break them in.

All in all we had a really good trip. Especially once Adrienne realized she CAN sleep at Jill and Eben's house. We did find out that both our girls are deep sleepers as they both slept through their sister screaming at different times.

Thanks Jill and Eben for making us all feel welcome as we invaded your house. I think everyone had a great time!

Once we got home both girls seemed to be excited to be home again. We had left Abbey with a dog sitter so they were also very excited to see her again. They were all over the house laughing and being silly together.

We had a really nice time with family, but it is also nice to be back in our routine again. Especially now that I have had a few days to remind Adrienne that she doesn't need to be held and personally entertained all day long. :)

1st snow

We woke up to our first snow of the season on Monday. Saying that Morgan was excited is a serious understatement. At 7 am she was running back and forth between the window and our bed, where I was laying, wishing I could have just 30 more minutes. As soon as she announced that there was snow she asked "Can I go out and play in the snow Mama?"- at 7 am. Later that morning we made a quick trip to Target to get her some snow boots. While there, she told anyone who looked at her what we were getting. It was pretty funny. She was very patient as she had to wait all day before she got to be up close and personal with the snow. Things are a little more tricky with Miss Adrienne on the scene. So here are some pictures of the girls all bundled up for our walk. Morgan loved stomping in the snow. And of course Dave, being the great dad he is, stayed out with Morgan to play after the walk, while Adrienne and I went inside to thaw.

And Adrienne was a good sport, as usual, even though she couldn't really move. I laughed at myself for putting those toys there. Not like she could play with them all bundled up.
There is just something extra cute about kids all bundled up for the cold.

On the move

Adrienne has been working hard these past few days. Sunday night as I was getting the girls' bath ready she just grabbed the tub and pulled herself up with the greatest of ease.

I love those surprises!

She has been flirting with crawling for the past couple of weeks. Yesterday she finally figured it out. Before you see any pictures of her crawling I have to show you my favorite pre-crawling move. When she still wasn't sure how to get moving the way she wanted to she would get on her hands and feet and stick her butt way up in the air. It was the best!

Here is our Lemonaidrienne working hard to get to her sister's doll house. It was so fun to watch her. We were all so excited. She felt that vibe and you could tell by her face that she knew she was doing something big.

Way to go Adrienne!

Morgan at 3 years old (words from her Daddy)

A lot changes in three years!

Morgan is very interested in dressing up and what it means to be a "pretty lady".

Morgan is using phrases we use with her back on us in everyday conversation..examples include asking a question and then when i answer in a way she approves of i get a "yes daddy, your right!" or "we need to eat a good supper and then we get desert, understand" or "you need to say excuse me" those are some my favorites, "daddy, you need to listen when mommy says something" is a bit down the list depending on the context. I love being parented by a 3 year old.

Morgan is also very interested in anything Adrienne does, the two play well and she enjoys making Adrienne laugh, bringing her toys, or testing the boundaries of what's appropriate for Adrienne to play with.

Morgan's attention span is growing, we've moved into some longer books like the Berenstain bears and Dr Suess. She can listen and quote books amazingly, we read every night before bed and often other times throughout the day.

Other activities Morgan enjoys include dancing, running, and playing tag or hide and go seek. We also have fun daddy / big girl time Saturday mornings running errands like going to the bank or grocery store. I get a chance to show her off and she gets a chance to sweet talk the teller's for balloons, stickers, and most importantly suckers. Morgan also has an impressive memory and she often amazes us by bringing up people's names or situations from the past with extreme clarity. She is already better with names than her dad. For example last week at the bank she asked "dad are we going to see your friend Paul?" Paul does work at the bank but we hadn't seen him for over a month, and that's the only time we ever see him. I couldn't believe she remembered his name! I hope she keeps that gift. It is just great to see her growing so fast and see those "wheels turning" inside that head of hers, she will surely keep us on our toes as time goes on.

Tagged from A to Z

I have been getting a kick out of reading these games on other people's blogs. So I was excited to join in on the fun when Kristi, my cousin (in-law), tagged me. Here we go ...

A. Attached or single? Attached

B. Best friend? "best" is all relative - I have several close girl friends

C. Cake or pie? cake

D. Day of choice? Saturday

E. Essential item? hair dryer (and brush) oh and gum

F. Favorite color? green

G. Gummy bears or worms? neither

H. Home town? Kalona

I. Favorite indulgence? designer jeans

J. January or July? July

K. Kids? two Morgan(3 yrs) and Adrienne (9 months)

M. Marriage date? 08/31/2002

N. Number of brothers and sisters? 2 older brothers - Chris and Mitch

O. Oranges or Apples? Apples

P. Phobias? snakes

Q. Quotes? Morgan "Here's a booger Mama. Do you want to put in your pocket?"

R. Reasons to smile? my girls - watching them love each other

S. Season of choice? Summer


T. Tag 5 people: Shelly, Lindsay G, Liz Y, Tiffany D, and Hillary

U. Unknown fact about me? I played the violin when I was little

V. Vegetable? Corn on the cob

W. Worst Habit? cracking my knuckles

X. Xray or ultrasound? Ultrasound.

Y. Your favorite food? Italian

Z. Zodiac sign? Scorpio

Those words

I remember as a child sitting at the dinner table by myself, with a serving of peas in front of me, with the task of eating them before I was allowed to get down from the table. I even remember that my dad had taken my water away because he didn't want me to just "wash" them down. However he might say he doesn't remember that today. Can anyone relate? It's funny since I really like peas now. I would even go as far as ranking them in the top 5 on my favorite veggie list.

Today for the second time in her life Morgan heard those words. Those words that came out before I even realized what I was saying. You know "You may not get down from the table until you eat your _____." Today it was sweet potatoes - ONE bite to be specific. After what seemed like way too long, she managed to get it down - gaging and shaking all the way. After taking a drink of her milk she announced

"Mama, I just like to sssssuck it down my swoat."

My girls ROCK!

... and I'm not talking about my boobs. :)

Our doorbell, or as Morgan says "dinglebell", rang at 6:00 this evening. As Morgan and I opened the door I was shocked to see the excited faces of Shelly and Lindsay. The shock factor continued to rise as they burst through the door holding balloons saying "Happy birthday!" ... and here's where it gets really good...

"We're stealing you for the night!"

To which I responded like any good mom would

"I haven't even showered today!"

They assured me that they would give me time to get ready for our lady's night out. I looked over at Dave. He just smiled as the sweat rolled down his face. Apparently he isn't real fond of lying to me, which is a good thing. As I was upstairs getting ready I just kept thinking ... no matter what happens tonight, this is the best gift they could have ever given me.

So after a quick picture to capture the moment we were off. I'll spare you the details, but be assured that we had a great time!
Thanks Dave (and Luke and Vinny) for helping my crazy friends pull off their awesome idea!
Shelly and Lindsay - you ladies ROCK!

Morgan's birthday party

I have always (all three yrs of her life) had fun planning Morgan's birthday parties. I was up way too late the night before her party decorating her cake and filling the house with balloons and all the birthday party essentials. I'm glad I did, because having her wake up on her birthday to a "party" house was worth all the lack of sleep, and then some. As soon as she headed down the stairs she shouted "Look mama, balloons!" She then proceeded to run through the house looking at the decorations saying over and over "Thank you mama! Thank you! I love it!"

You can't get better then that.

This is the first year that I was able to ask her what kind of party she wanted. Her response was "purple". She also told me at one point that she wanted a frog cake with a purple bow on it. I thought it was a little random since she doesn't seem to be excited about frogs. Well, as her birthday got closer and people asked her what kind of cake she was going to have the frog came up again. So I googled it and gave it my best shot. It's not perfect, but I've learned to be OK with that. :) She LOVED it and that is all that matters. Oh and that it tasted really good. That counts too. :)
Our family pancake kings, Grandpa Chupp and Dave, were happy to serve us up some of Morgan's favorite food. They also sweet talked uncle Steve into making the eggs. Thanks for your help guys. It was super yummy!

After we were all stuffed full of pancakes we brought on the gifts. Morgan has recently entered the "princess" stage. However I like to call it the "pretty lady" stage for Morgan because she always wants to dress up like a pretty lady. That also doesn't make me cringe quite like princess does. Well, Morgan's dress up box went from a few things to overflowing after opening her gifts. Here she is sporting some of the goods.

Every pretty lady needs lip gloss right? Morgan is no exception. Thanks to her aunt Sarah she has everything she needs and more to spice up her lips and nails.

The little girls were also fascinated with the pretty things. Grace already has an obsession with shoes so she was loving it. Adrienne was happy just chewing on them, but Grace actually tried them on and took them for a spin,

with Grandma's help of course.

Morgan also got her first dollhouse and several really good books. The new books have quickly become her favorites. I think it's funny how she goes in phases of books, asking to read the same few over and over again. Even though we were all still full of pancakes we brought out the party hats for some cake and ice cream.

We had a great day. Morgan loved being surrounded by her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Thanks for helping us celebrate!