Ellie's 18 month appointment

Once again Ellie saw Dr Jen for her well-baby visit. We have been very fortunate in that these are the only visits she has had. Our appointment had been postponed because the morning of our initial appointment the cleaners had used a strong chemical on the floor and it made our doctor physically ill so she had called to reschedule that morning.

Ellie weighed in at 23 lbs and 2 oz. Her height is 32 1/2" and her head circumference is 19 1/4". She is growing well. I forget the percentiles but I know her head is big.

She got three shots today. After the first one she just looked wide eyed and whispered "Ow." Then after the second and third she started crying. She was very brave though and I am glad that is over. Now no more shots until she is much older (four years, I think?)

Finger Painting!

The kids needed something fun to do so I busted out the finger paints. They really love to smear the paint around and I like the fact that clean-up is so easy!

It is interesting to me to watch their different techniques. Levi loves to rub it all together to see what colors he can make. He has learned that blue and yellow make green, and by adding red he will get brown.

Snow Day

The weather finally warmed up enough to take the kids outside to play in the snow! Armed with a snowsuit and snow boots from Jeneé we went out to build a snowman.

I was disappointed to see that all the leaves under the snow had stained it so as I rolled the body of our snowman it was not white at all but patches of brown and yellow. Yuk!

The second section I made too large and it was too heavy to lift.

I chisled away at it with my hands and feet until I could pry it upwards onto the base.

In the meantime Ellie tromped off towards the alley and Levi went and gently led her back for me.

Once our snowman was assembled it was time to hunt for features. I found two big hollow pipes for arms on the other side of the garage. We used a big icicle for the nose. Levi brought over another icicle and put it where he could reach - the base. Look mama, this is the penis! What a riot. We had a masculine snowMAN. I used tootsie rolls for eyes and tried to use red hots for the mouth but they kept falling off (much to Levi's delight, as he quickly snatched each one as it fell and ate it). At least they stained the snow a bit before they fell. A small knit hat and a bubble pipe and our snowman was complete!

It's all fun and games

Sabbath lunch my mom made eggplant parmesan for everyone and the Roods joined us for the meal. We also had a good salad and leftovers from Thanksgiving (breads and sweet potatoes).

The kids sure love straws.

Ellie's obsession with shoes continues. Thanks Jeneé for lending these great boots for the kids!

The cousins/sisters sit down for a photo op.

All us girls! Cousin Debbie, grandma Joyce, mom Karen, aunt Kim, myself and Ellie.

My grandma plays with Ellie and kicks off the game part of the evening.

I asked my grandma if she would like to play some games and she replied with an enthusiastic YES! My mom has a lot of games so we all went into her "activity room" and started with Scruples.

I had never played that before and it was a lot of fun and a real eye opener. You learn all kinds of things about people, or at least you think you do.

It was a riot at times. My mom won.

Once that game was over we started up a rousing game of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.

It was four ladies vs. three men, and the first round ended in a tie.

It was so much fun we all had to play again. The men won the second round.

Not to be defeated, we women challenged for one more round.

The men won again.

Despite our thumbs down I think the smiles are obvious and it was the most fun I have had in a long time.

Friday

Friday. A day off. How did I spend it? Lounging around the house in my pajamas most of the day. It was glorious.

My mom called to tell me she and Kim and grandma were going to Fort Walla Walla and then to the Country Store. It sounded like it could be fun, but it was cold out and my kids were just about to go down for their naps so I declined. Sadly. But I just wasn't motived to get dressed and go drive around in snow in the big-beast-with-bald-tires.

I think I watched two movies in a row on television. It was just that kind of day.

Thanksgiving - Part 2

Thanksgiving after breakfast I worked in the kitchen. Well first I had to make a quick trip to Safeway for a few ingredients. Then it was time to cook.

Stuffing - a recipe I have loved since I first found it at least five years ago, and I make it every year. I always hated stuffing until I tried this recipe and now Thanksgiving isn't right without it.

My mom requested that I bring a Green Bean Casserole. I had only tried to make this once in the past and it turned out horrible. I was worried about repeating that but after some reading online I realized how I failed and figured out some ways to make it better. I used fresh string beans and it took a lot of time to wash and snap the ends off. I steamed them until they were tender and then I followed the Campbell's Soup recipe with a slight variation - I added a bit of Sharp Cheddar and some Swiss as well. I forgot to top it off with more onions 5 minutes from coming out of the oven but it was still tasty.

I had found some new pie recipes and really wanted to try one. I made a lemon velvet cream pie. It was a lot of work to make the dough. This is the third type of pie-crust I have experimented with and it was more complicated than anything else I have tried. It was good but I just don't think the extra work is justified. In the above photo my grandma Joyce poses with her Pumpkin Cheesecake and my mom's friend Tabita shows off her elegant apple pie. Pie anyone?

We got to moms around 2:30. The roads were ok, better on the highway than in town. We had gotten a fair amount of snow lately and very cold temperatures! As low as 0 degrees one night!

Levi enjoyed some special time with grandma Baer reading to him while we waited for the food to bake.

My aunt Kim enjoyed talking to Ellie. She and my grandma really quizzed her on body parts and she got them all right! Some of them I didn't even know she knew! She found one of my mom's dolls and carried her around the house part of the time.

Finally it was all ready! The turkey was an organic one that Kim had shipped up from Sacramento. My mom made her famous best-ever mashed potatoes, grandma made the sweet potatoes, and the vegetarian turkey loaf rounded out our meal.

The table was ready too. It was like the paparazzi with everyone pulling out multiple cameras to take photos of everything.

Time to feast! My mom kicked it off by saying what she was thankful for, and we went around the table and took turns expressing our gratitude. We realized that out of all of us, only two people are employed. And yet "God always provides, and I have to have faith" said my mom.

After the movie there was time to chat and catch up with family. Matt took the kids in one of the rooms to watch Toy Story 3.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I found that it gave me a lot of things to think about and reflect back on for the coming year. It also energized me and gave me back my love of cooking! Work has taken a bit of a toll on me lately and the four-day mini vacation was a welcome rest.

My grandma was being silly and told me to take her photo. So because of that I feel compelled to post it here as a closing image. :) hehe

Thanksgiving - Part 1

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love food. I love reasons to cook, both old favorites and new recipes. I love family, and typically Thanksgiving is a reason for many of us to congregate together. This year my auntie Kim braved the weather and flew up from Sacramento. My grandma Joyce and husband Orville braved the weather and drove over from Ronan, MT.

We started off the holiday with a new recipe. I'll admit I was starting to get in a real slump when it came to the kitchen. I was getting really bored with all our meals and depressed about not trying anything new in awhile. So I set aside some new things to try for Thanksgiving. For breakfast I made a Cheddar and Grits soufflé. It turned out really well but it's not something I will make again. Matt and the kids all seemed to like it. The dogs really liked it too, as it made so much we had leftovers for all the hungry mouths in the house. Part of the top fell off in the oven. I carefully carried it over to the table for a photo. Curious Levi ran over and hit the table. The soufflé fell. Oh well.

What November breakfast would be complete without egg nog? Levi picked out the Pumpkin Spice flavor. The original was left over from last time we went shopping. We discovered the perfect size glass for the kids was a shot glass. So that is how they get their serving of cream once a day. :)

Ellie is learning how to smile for the camera now. Here she is in a brown outfit I found for her at TJ Maxx.

This is Levi posing for the camera. Well, it's better than him running away, which is typically his response when you aim a lens at him.

Cabin Fever

What does a kid do when they get bored of being inside for two whole days because of 3° weather? Ellie figured out that if she climbed up on the bed and stood at the headboard, she could throw herself backwards and have a fun fall experience.

First Snow

Our first snow of the season was on Nov 22. I think I noticed the snow starting to come down the night before. Here is what it looked like when I was heading out the door to go to work. It was a very dry snow.

The roads were kind of slick because the snow was packing and it was very cold and icy underneath. It doesn't look bad in this photo but driving on it was another story. Thankfully by lunch time it had warmed up enough to start melting it and the roads were much better mid-day.

After work the snow was coming down in big flakes. Matt went out to check the anti-freeze in the trucks. Levi wanted to go out and see the snow. Since we knew he wouldn't be out there long we just threw on his coat.

Matt and Levi threw some snowballs around and then they were ready to come inside because it was so cold. I guess we should have put gloves on Levi. His little hands were frozen after only a couple minutes.

Ellie didn't go out. She was cozy in her pajamas. She has learned how to work the zipper on these now so the first thing she does is unsnap the top and then she zips them down and tries to take them off. Maybe she gets too warm. I end up redressing her a couple times a night.

Trip Out

Today the weather was really nice so I loaded up the kids and we went to a playground.

Levi asked me what the park name was. When I told him it was Rodger's playgound he asked me "Where's Rodger?" I had to explain to him that was a last name, like our last name was Bobbitt, and the playground was named for the school, which was named for a person. Anyway it was all kind of boring to him.

The kids really enjoyed the merry-go-round and talking in the underground pipes. We hiked out to the other playground in the back but it wasn't really geared for little kids so after Levi climbed around a bit on the monkey bars we came back to the front section.

I am glad we took advantage of the nice weather.