Madison's First Taste of Cereal

No, cereal was NOT a big hit! I remember this far too well from the days of Evie. I loved her expression before the second bite...she knew what was coming. Plugging her with a paci after putting cereal in her mouth seemed to help food stay put. She only had a few bites, but it was a start. On the positive side, she napped well this afternoon and went longer before needing to be fed. I'm hoping this works as well for her as it did for Evie and gets her "system" in gear! :)

Below, the second bite....

Hand & Foot

Scott and I learned a fun (somewhat complex) card game called Hand and Foot while living in Texas. We spent many nights during 2002-2003 playing H&F with some good friends. I went through my old score book to see how the girls measured up with the guys. Turns out we were evenly matched. The girls won 13 games of H&F, compared to the guys' 14 wins. Not bad!

In case you don't know me very well (or at all), I have an invisible "A" permanently imprinted on my forehead. My old score pad is a 9x6 subject notebook I've had since my senior year of high school. It is COVERED in doodles and old phone numbers which I'm sure are disconnected/ changed by now. If you have EVER played a game (worth keeping score) at my house, there's a 99% chance I have evidence.

To Spade or not to Spade...

Yes, that is the question. The answer is simple...if you want to win, you spade! :) Scott and I have been playing Spades with James and Charity regularly since July 2, 2004. By regularly, I mean almost weekly....that came to a halt when we moved to Ohio in August 2006. We managed three card-playing visits during 2007, but the Browns really miss our regular dinner & dessert get togethers.

Well, let's start with the stats. In 2004, the guys won 41 games and the girls won 31. The guys won 18 games in 2005, while the girls won 15. A similar pattern followed in 2006, with the guys winning 29 and the girls winning 22. See the trend?? No matter how good it got for me and Charity, we still couldn't catch up with the boys.

This past July, in Ohio, the guys won 13 games and the girls won only 8 games. Depressing! Our luck changed in December!! That's right, last week Charity and I won 15 games while the guys only won 8. How sweet it was for the girls!!!

If you've never played Spades, I highly recommend starting NOW. We've known James and Charity since 1998. A friendship that started between us and Charity's parents....it grew into holiday gatherings where they included the Browns. Eventually Scott and I started serving in the youth ministry of our church with James and Charity. One kid later and the weekend Spades game was born (easy to do after putting our little boy to bed!).

Our friendship was built around the kitchen table. Are cards essential to our friendship? No, but the cards provided the comforting platform to be ourselves. I can't think of a single "off limits" topic in the last 4 years. That doesn't happen every day.

Kitchen Transformation Complete!!!

James and Charity stayed up with us until 1:00 a.m. to finish the paint job last night!! The kitchen looks AMAZING! The paint is by Valspar and contains granite granules for texture and a little gold glitter for some light-reflecting sparkle.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

Christmas Traditions

I was at a recent gathering where one discussion focused on Christmas traditions. I sat there wondering if we had any in our home. I realized this week that, yes, we have traditions.

We bake and ice cookies together as a family. With Evie joining in on the fun this year, we had an even bigger mess than last year. By the time Evie was done she was the only one who could eat her unsanitary cookies! :)

Television is another tradition....we watch several of the standard rerun cartoons of yesteryear. "White Christmas" is the one staple-movie that we squeeze in at least once during the season. It's quite possibly one of my 10 fave movies of all time; it's fun sharing it with Jared and hearing him ask if we can watch it together.

Our most twisted of traditions, however, happens each Christmas Eve. We load up in the van and head to the local mall around 4pm....yes, 4 pm, when all the crazies are out grabbing last minute gifts. Having our shopping done makes it SO much fun to watch others scurry about. There are also lots of 50% deals already in full swing so why wait until the 26th?

Opening a few gifts early is another at our home. Each year I ask if we can open a few presents on Christmas Eve. Scott usually relents, but it's not a guarantee. Thankfully he gave in last night and the kids each opened a few packages. I just love getting the fun started early.

Scott and I have an ongoing tradition of tormenting one another. Okay, so basically Scott torments me. I have to work extra hard each year to guess my gift:
Our first married Christmas together saw me rummaging through the trash (the bag really was on top of the pile) only to discover a Macy's bag. Imagine my dismay when I opened an umbrella...Who buys an umbrella at Macy's????
One year I ruined the surprise by getting the mail--a task I used to seldom undertake--my very cute Taz Devil bowling ball bag arrived in a box wrapped in WB tape. I instantly knew what was in the box.
Last year took the cake. I tracked the DHL tracking number to find out where the box originated. Upon discovering it came from Fry's, I got on Scott's desktop PC and visited Fry's site, where I tried to find out what pages he had viewed. He had, of course, deleted the history.
This year he had the box shipped to himself at work. I tried to generate an online account for his credit card to see where he'd been shopping. Unfortunately, I didn't have his expiration date or security code from the back of the card. :)

Merry Christmas!

For Charity! :)

We love the letters! Thank you so much!

Kitchen Remodel - Phase 3

Scott started tiling the backsplash today. He will hopefully finish the tile work tomorrow and grout the day after Christmas.

The kitchen transformation is amazing!!

Kitchen Remodel - Phase 2

Our new kitchen counters were installed on Friday. Scott spent the evening installing our new sink and faucet. Next comes tiling, which will likely commence tonight. Yay!!


I tried to get one photo to show the counter color. This is pretty accurate.

Kudos to Scott!!

Madison and I didn't get much sleep last night, so Scott fixed breakfast for Jared & Evie. He got them dressed, took their pictures and they headed to church! Yay for Daddy!!

Doing the Limbo

This is Jared's (& Daddy's) second snowman of the season! The temperature rose the next day....hence, the snowman doing the limbo! :)

Learning something new

My dear friend Renae recently introduced me to a great book, Five in a Row. The concept is that you check out books from the library and use the FIAR book to develop lessons from the book you just read.

I have spent the last couple weeks reading "The Story About Ping" to my kids. Jared loves the book and I've been amazed at the questions it has spawned. Below is his very own mega-block recreation of the Yangtze River, the location of of Ping's story.

The "Click"

Every mom who has ever potty trained their child has heard about the proverbial "click." With Jared, I don't remember a click....I just remember that, over time, he got consistently better at making it to the potty until he was 100% done. No click.

Evie is a girl and, therefore, very different. There was a click!!! It happened on Saturday night at the dinner table with a profound statement, "Mommy, I have gassy poo-poo!" This is merely code for I passed gas; it can also mean that she has to go poop. I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty and she replied, "yes." About 30 minutes later she had peed in her little potty. You may ask why it took 30 minutes....that's the amount of time it takes her to stop freaking out and actually use the potty. She's been consistently going on the potty since Saturday night....with lots of freaking out! Evie doesn't want to go in her pull-up but she hasn't been too sure about the potty either. Today she said "hooray" after she pooped on the potty....maybe the freaking out is going away...or at least lessening. YAY!!!

Playing in the Snow!

Winter Wonderland December 2007

First snow of the season!!! It was snowing when we went to bed last night....this is what we awoke to this morning. Needless to say, Jared can't wait to get out there and play!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Jared and Evie did a great job hanging snowflakes on the Christmas tree.