Spaghetti Saturday Night

One of Macyn's favorite foods is spaghetti. So we decided to let her go "all out" and get messy! I remember seeing pictures of myself when I was her age covered in, what it seemed, heat to toe in marinara. I am completely okay with this "clean" approach. However, after her bath, there were some noodles floating in the tub :).

To go along with the spaghetti and meatballs, I made some Garlic Butter Croissants instead of garlic bread. I got the recipe out of the book Cooking Outside the Pizza Box. What you do is, roll out your crescent rolls and top with garlic butter & mozzarella cheese. Roll up and bake. They were super easy and really good!

Changing Table Jungle Gym

This is what Macyn's room looks like now. A toy bin storage system which houses all of her toys. She USED to have a changing table....until she decided to use it as a jungle gym. Case and point:


She seemed like such a pro at this, which makes me wonder if climbing her table is what she has been doing by herself in her room these past few days. hm...... Amazing how much they learn considering she learned how to walk about 2 months ago is all! She's a daredevil, that's for sure!

Easiest Soup.....Ever!

Doesn't this look gooood?! Guess what it consists of? Buying cans of different stuff and putting them all together. Simple as that! My mom actually gave me the recipe, and I think she got it from Weight Watchers. It tastes like a combination between chili soup and vegetable soup. Either way, it has a lot of flavor and super easy to make. Ready for the recipe? Here it is:

1 can Hormel chili with beans
1 can Hormel chili without beans
1 can mixed vegetables
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 can old fashioned vegetable soup
1 can diced potatoes

Put all in pot (liquids included) and heat thoroughly.

That's it! And its a good, hearty soup. Enjoy!

Don't Forget About Ariel!

When I was a little girl, I used to look through the toy magazines at Christmas time and cut out pictures of things I wanted and send them to my Grandpa. One year I really wanted some bunk beds for my dolls, and instead of going out and buying them, my Grandpa made them for me.I have 2 of these beds that you can either put separately or stack them on top of each other. Since my Grandpa is gone, these home made toys have a special place in my heart. Macyn has been really into playing with her dolls and I thought this would be something good for her to play with. So we put all 3 of her babies to bed.But wait! There was 1 more we forgot. Macyn ran over to her tub of Mega Blocks and found Ariel and put her in the bed with her babies. She definitely didn't want us to forget about her!

Winter White Wash

We decided since it was nice out today (18 degrees and little wind) we would take Macyn sledding. She wasn't too thrilled with it & I think it was because she looked like Ralphie's brother from A Christmas Story.
....or maybe she wasn't too thrilled for the mere fact that she white washed herself:

You be the judge.

Macyn is 15 months old and busier than ever! She is always on the go & doesn't like to nap since she is such a busy body. She naps for 30 minutes at daycare & goes to bed around 8:00 and sleeps until 7:00. It amazes me how she is never tired considering how active she is and how early she gets up.

She enjoys her mealtimes and has some favorite foods like fruit cups, any kind of soup, pasta, and tacos! She seriously eats what I think an adult could eat sometimes. She also likes to spend her time sitting in the fridge:

She also likes to walk backwards, twirl, and play hide and seek. Since she likes to point to whatever you ask, whether its a person, toys, the dog, etc., all you have to do is "hide" and then say, "Where's Mommy?" and she literally looks until she finds you. It is a fun game to play, that's for sure. I hid under the pool table and she found me. Then I hid behind the couch, and I peeked over to see where she was looking and she proceeded to look under the pool table first. Then she crawled under it to make sure I wasn't there, of course :)

She has learned to blow her nose, but not very effectively. We are working on that:


She is also trying to get the hang of using a spoon/fork. She has the idea, but doesn't quite have the skills, or the realization that you have to put the same end into the bowl as your mouth. Case and point:



We also found out the hard way that she likes to drink marinara sauce out of a bowl....lets just say she made quite a mess which required to take a bath in order to get it out of her hair.She doesn't say many words, but still makes a lot of different sounds. Instead of saying "Dada" all the time she throws a "Mama" in there once in a while. She has also grown out of her 12 month clothes (and some 18 month) and now wears 18-24 month clothes. I had to go out and buy her new pants since all of her 12 month ones are too short. Who knows, maybe by the time spring rolls around she could wear them as capris!

Midnight Snack

Never Grow Up

Tonite while DH was working, Macyn and I had a great mommy - daughter night together. We played dollies, read books, danced, etc. Then I decided to take some pictures and she wanted to see the camera. So she sat on my lap and looked through the pictures with me. She likes to look, point, and talk to the pictures, so I brought up this one:I proceeded to as her, "Where's Daddy?" (since he was working) and without hesitation she points to her daddy. I then asked her, "Where's Mommy?" and she looks at the picture, looks back at me with a huge smile on her face and points to me. She then snuggles her head in and sits up and smiles. She sure does know how to melt my heart!

It makes me realize how I am going to miss these days of such sweet innocence and unconditional love towards her mommy. How even though she doesn't talk, she knows who her "Mommy" is, and not just another face in a photo. I can feel her love when she smiles and snuggles in, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

I think the amazing T.Swift says it perfectly....."don't you ever grow up, Just stay this little." You can listen here. I love the first verse:
Your little hands wrapped around my finger/And it's so quiet in the world tonight/Your little eyelids flutter 'cause you're dreaming/So I tuck you in, turn on your favorite night light/To you, everything's funny/You got nothing to regret/I'd give all I have, honey/If you could stay like that/Oh, darling, don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up/Just stay this little/Oh, darling, don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up/It could stay this simple/I won't let nobody hurt you/Won't let no one break your heart/No, no one will desert you/Just try to never grow up, never grow up.
I just might have to learn this one to sing to her at bedtime....
I love you Macyn Faith....don't ever grow up, okay?

New Years Resolutions 2011

First, an update of my New Years resolution from last year, read the Bible in a year. I am sorry to say, I did not complete this...but I am still working on it and should be finished by the end of the month. I am not sure I fully understand everything I have read, but I definitely recognize different verses and stories I hear about in church. I am currently involved in a small group doing the Beth Moore Daniel study. I enjoy doing a deeper study of a little section of the Bible at a time, for a deeper understanding. I also found some other things, like famous verses or other verses that are meaningful and can be applied to today's world. So even though I don't think I fully understand everything I read, I do believe I have more knowledge than before I began reading the Bible.

This year's resolutions, are to stick to our budget. We took Dave Ramey's Financial Peace University this past October. It is a 13 week class on how to get out of debt and have financial peace. It is a great class with some great ideas. It definitely got me motivated to pay off our college debt. It is extremely hard to not get down when you have been stuck in your ways so long. For example, it is hard for me to put extra money to our college loans, when I am used to saving that money. But we are going to try and stick to our budget, and get our monthly funds going, so we will feel more financially secure. It is a trial and error budget, and it takes a lot of time. I work on our budget daily, but I hope to get to a point where this will not be necessary. If you want to learn more about this class, check out his website or do a Google search. It is basic budgeting principles, that if you apply them, you will "live like no one else." This is also a religious based class.

Finally, my last resolution for this year is....diet! I have tried to work out and lose weight, and I never can find time and I'm not really willing to give up time with my daughter in order to work out. So I am going to try and do something else - eating better with PORTION CONTROL! I really think I can do this, and maybe drop a couple of pounds. But I think I over eat a lot and if I just eat maybe 2 pieces of pizza instead of 4, it might make a difference. This I think I could handle over the course of a year. I just don't want to be one of those people who work out for 1 week and then give up. I just need a realistic goal, and that is my goal for this year.

New Years & Another Christmas

We had our final Christmas today - this time on my Mom's side. Here is how the day went down: First up, family pictures:After that, we ate lunch which consisted of loaded baked potatoes. I am never too fond of this meal since, well, I don't like potatoes. Usually I just have a pile of tavern meat on my tray and a pile of ham. I was smart this year though, and brought buffalo chicken dip and better than sex cake for dessert. Why not bring something you like, even though it is considered an appetizer?! After lunch, it was time for presents! Macyn was a big help opening them for Great Grandpa.... and Grandma......and her own!She also found Great Aunt Lisa, the one who was in the room during my c-section with her. Here is a picture (to refresh your memory)After the present opening madness, it was time for bingo! I came back with scented oil candles & Josh ended up with cashews and mixed nuts. The best gift of the day was the one my Grandpa got - Big Mama's House DVD. I couldn't stop laughing, but he ended up trading for some cashew Turtles.