lunch at the park

15 and 16 months

My little man is 16 months old today! For his 15 month Well Child Checkup visit last month he weight in at 24lbs 12 oz, which is 50-75% of the average for boys and 32 1/4 inches, which is the 75-90%. So he's got some meat on his tall bones, but he's no chubby baby. I think he's too active, he runs and jumps and climbs it all off. He's all boy, and loves to play with his cars, planes, trains, tools and star wars toys. He's got 12 teeth now, 6 on top and 6 on bottom so I think we are done with teething for now, whew! He's also a very affectionate lil guy who loves to give hugs and kisses too! He often will wrap his arms around mine or Jeff''s neck and give a kiss then run off. So sweet! Jeff and I are amazed at how fast he's picking up words. I decided to make a list, there are almost 30 words that we can think of that he knows and uses regularly. Most are food and toys: chip,hot dog,chicken,bubble,ball,balloon,bike,yo-yo,thank (you),d-d-d-dora, man,yay,amen,night night,fly,hat,mine,wait,shoe,what,want that,light,no,wow,up,Lego and cho cho train.

November Ice and Snow

It's January and I'm finally getting around to blogging about things that happened in November. Obviously I have some catching up to do so here goes...
Mid November we took the kids to see Disney On Ice:Let Celebrate! It was going to be just me and Kara, but then I found coupon code online that made the $25 tickets only $11 (+ 5.75 each in fees) and we got a ticket for Jeff, and Grandma Lisa (my step-mom) came too! Andrew was free because he is under 2 and we debated if we should find him a sitter or bring him. In the end we decided that if he got too restless that between the 3 adults and 4 seats we should be OK. So glad we did, he loved it! Both the kids had a kind of deer in the headlights look of amazement for the first half of the show, and by the second half Kara was clapping and Andrew wanted down on the floor to dance along to the music. The seat in front of him and Jeff was empty because the little boy who had been sitting there had moved to his dad's lap. It was an fantastic show, and watching the kids see all their favorite Disney characters come to life was priceless! Someday I will have the time to learn how to do photo collages, but for now, here are my favorite photos in no particular order.


The week of Thanksgiving provided another winter treat, SNOW! Kara was thrilled! She had wanted snow last winter and we didn't have any at all. The girl had been making angels in the sand all summer and so it was a dream come true for her to make an actual snow angel! Jeff and kids built a little snowman. Andrew kept touching it's head and at first I thought he was trying to knock it over, then I realized he was saying "hat", as in, the snowman needs a hat. Sheriff Woody was nice enough to loan our little frosty his hat.

You know you're a homeowner when...

You have a sink in the living room!

Why is there a sink in the living room? Well because the dishwasher broke. One of the joys of home ownership, when something breaks YOU get to fix it. But this story has a very happy ending. After a couple weeks of Jeff vs. the dishwasher, with the dishwasher not draining properly, or leaking at the bottom, Jeff tinkering with it, coaxing a few more loads of dishes, checking the plumbing to be sure that wasn't the problem, it was finally decided the dishwasher just needed to be replaced. After comparing prices online and checking for sales on new dishwashers we decide to also check Craigslist. I was hesitant to buy a used dishwasher, because I didn't want to be going through this again next year, but I'm glad I checked! I found an amazing deal on a KITCHENAID dishwasher from a family that was doing a remodel and upgrading to stainless steal appliances. Kitchenaid dishwashers start at around $800 for their base models, they were selling this one for $100. Nothing wrong with it except the color. So, if you are still wondering about the sink in the living room... when Jeff went to go pick up the dishwasher the guy offered to sell him the sink and facet too. Well, it was a lot nicer then the one we currently had and easily worth the extra $15

The dishwasher model is called Whisper Quiet Ultima and it lives up to the name! The first time Jeff turned it on I thought he had left the water running in the sink. It has a couple different wash settings and a 2, 4 or 6 hour delayed start option!

Kohler sink with a nice deep basin and the facet has an extension hose on the head.

My "new" kitchen!
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This is the "before", a picture from our moving in day. I didn't really take pictures of the dishwasher. Pretty sure both the sink and dishwasher were original to the house.

Halloween x 2

Launching into the Holiday season with a new baby, who had outgrown the newborn who sleeps all the time phase, life got kind of crazy and blogging, well just didn't happen. So here is Halloween 2009 and 2010.


2009
Over the summer I'd been in a sewing mood and had bought pattern at a Joanne's sale to make Kara a Cinderella dress for playing dress up. Princesses and dress up were two things she was BIG into, still is. Well I got the idea that I had plenty of time, if I started right away, to make it in time to also be a Halloween costume. This was the most challenging thing I'd ever decided to sew that I actually completed. It really stretched me and I sure learned a lot! I wanted it to be a little big, so she wouldn't outgrow it too fast. So she was Cinderella... again... for the 3rd time! But she loved it!
First time trying on the completed dress...


As you can see, Jeff was Charlie Brown... again...
A two year old getting ready to go out trick of treating for the first time is not easy to photograph!

We went to my Dad's neighborhood because they actually get trick-or-treaters and its a nice flat culdesac neighborhood, just right for trick -or-treating!

Jeff's "Mikey" pumpkin.

On to 2010!
Andrew had two costumes that I had scored at an after Halloween sale super cheep. The Friday before Halloween we went to Jeff's work for the festivities where he got to be Buzz Lightyear... to infinity, and beyond!

Kara refused to put on the witch costume I had for her, she wanted to wear Andrew's pumpkin shirt.

Ward Halloween party with her Minnie Mouse costume, which she slept in for the next two days!

Andrew's Woody costume came with these cute "boots", but the fabric was too thin for outside.


Andrew tries hard to keep up with Kara and trick -or- treating was no exception, he figured that one out quick! Walk up to a door with a pumpkin, say something, and get a piece of candy, I can do that!

With Halloween falling on Sunday this year we just went to a couple of the close neighbors houses and then came home and popped some popcorn.

I convinced Jeff to forgoe his Charlie Brown shirt and dress as Barry Hucklebug. Don't know who Barry Hucklebug is? Well Kara does...

It's her current favorite bedtime story!