Our Christmas Tree Adventure

Friends of ours invited us to go Christmas Tree "shopping" the old fashion way. They invited us to join them trekking up into the mountains to find a Christmas tree in the woods. The real woods, not a Christmas tree farm. So we thought "why not". Neither of us had gone searching for a tree this way before and figured it would be a good family experience.

We headed off too the national forest and decided to go as high as we could...till we reached snow. So even though it was a mild, almost sunny day...by the time we made it up the mountain and reached the snow, it turned into a foggy, cloudy, some what snowy day. lol
We bundled ourselves us as best we could and made sure Jade had on plenty of layers. She seemed very interested in "all that white stuff" on the ground.
Some of other people who joined us had brought sleds, so Jade got a free ride while Dad pulled her up the hill.
Then, we decided to see if she'd like a real ride and down she went on the sled with her little friend steering in the back.
She did fine down the hill, but wanted mommy as soon as the sled stopped. lol
Then we went searching for our trees. JB showed Jade how you dust off the snow so you can see how the branches will lay. Jade loved knocking the snow off and pretty soon found a tree just her size she could knock all the snow off on.
But in the end, we opted to cut down a slightly larger tree.
By 12:45, Jade was pretty grumpy, tired and hungry. So this picture isn't all that great, but I had to get at least one shot with me:) Do you like my crazy outfit? hee, hee. I really need to look into getting a snow coat.
We made it home safe and sound, we had some fun and definatly made a good memory. Now I'm off to the store to find some fun, new, Christmas Decorations!

Conversations with Jade this morning

*Mom going in her room to get her up from bed*

Mom: Good Morning Jade!

Jade: HI! Dadda? Aaa, foot.

Mom: No, Daddy isn't here right now, what's wrong with your foot?

Jade *banging her foot on the side of the crib* Foot, ah, ah, why? aaa mmm

Mom: Oh, did your foot get stuck in the side of the crib?

Jade: Ah huh

Mom: I'm sorry, are you okay?

Jade: ah huh

Mom: Do you want to get up? Are you hungry?

Jade: Eat!! Peeass!

*taking Jade downstairs to the kitchen*

Mom: What do you want for breakfast?

Jade: BANA!

Mom: Oh, you want a banana?

Jade: *clapping with glee* ah, huh!

*hand Jade her banana and then turn around and sneeze*

Jade: u aright?

Mom: Yes, I'm fine. I just sneezed

Jade: Oh

*after breakfast upstairs, I'm on the computer working*

Jade: Ma-Ma! ah ma, ooue, moo, moo?

Mom: You want to watch a movie?

Jade: Ah huh

Mom: What movie do you want to watch? Potty Power or Happy Feet?

Jade: FEET!! Peease!

*grab Happy Feet from movie cabinet*

Jade: Wow!

Mom: You like the movie?

Jade: Ah, huh.

*Jade sneezes*

Mom: Ah oh, are you alright? Do you need a Kleenex?

Jade: Ah huh

*grab tissue, wipe Jade's nose*

Jade: Ank u! (thank you)

Mom: Your welcome.

Because she is so cute...

Jade saw me taking a pic for my beauty blog and wanted to pose to. She's so stinkin' cute!

Jade's Hair

These aren't great pictures, but I just wanted to show off Jade's little french braids I did in her hair on Sunday. I love the fact my daughter has enough hair for me to play styles with!

House wife.

Sometimes I find myself sitting around doing nothing. When I am in this state, there have been passing moments when I wonder "Gosh, what good "wife" type thing could I do to make my husband love me more? Or at least come home and think he is married to the best women ever".

I like to make these wondering thoughts end in some fantasy type thought such as: "absolutely nothing! You are the most perfect wife simply how you are!" I like to think that no amounts of make-up or clothes need to be added to make me look more beautiful. I also like to think that no amounts of house work, well behaved, dressed and washed child, warm, good smelling meals on the table, need to be done in order for my husband to ever question for a moment the choice he made in a wife.

But then, after these silly fantasy's pass, I do realize that sometimes I think the best thing I can do as a wife, is clean the house, care for the child, make myself look presentable, and cook a nice meal. Sometimes I think, really, that is all I need do to have my husband come home and greet me with a smile.

Is cleaning, cooking and mothering such a horrible chore? Well, sometimes...Yes! But then, often times. No, it really isn't. It isn't that difficult (well the cleaning and cooking part). A little dusting here, pick up toys there, vacuum the carpets, make the bed, do the dishes. Ta da, picked up, clean house. How long does it take me to do that anyway? And yet, I resent it. I want to be thought of as a good wife and a good mother without having to clean the house. Or cook the meals or...bath the child. (hee, hee)

What is my point? None. I was just wondering today what things I could do to make my husband feel loved, and then found myself thinking "huh, I could clean the bathroom". So, I cleaned the bathroom. Then I was sitting watching tv and also wondering if there was something more I should be doing. And that's when I noticed the floor rug and the crumbs under the table. So I got out the vacuum, broom and mop and in just a short amount of time had the floors vacuumed, swept and washed.
This won't garuntee me a happy husband at the end of the day, but I am hoping that perhaps it will grant me a happier husband then may have been had he entered his home and crunched on left over breakfast that had fallen off the table from this morning.

I'm a house wife. Plain and simple. Nothing exotic or luxurious about my job. But it's a job I can do, and sometimes I think I do well. And if being a house wife could some how make my husbands life some way easier...well, that makes me smile. At least it makes me smile for today.

Honey, if you read this, know I was thinking of you when I did my house chores today:) I Love you!

Jade reading books

Doing double duty

Jade is learning (like many new moms) that once you have a baby you may have to learn how to multi-task. I think she is doing a good job of it.

Some days I miss my family

Some days I miss my family. I miss all the craziness, all the silliness, all the conversation, all the activity, all the people. Some days when I look around my house (especially if Jade is napping) I think "man, my house sure is quiet".

Sometimes I compensate for this, I compensate by talking to myself all day er...talking to "Jade" all day. The wonders of a one sided conversation. Though, she is getting better, she says a word here and there. I asked her a question earlier and she said "sure". lol

Today, I was missing my family and I didn't feel much like talking (sore throat), so I just kept busy. I kept busy from 7-10:30 by working for my job and making Jade sit on the potty. I kept busy from 10:30-12:00 by going through two closets and pulling everything out and reorganizing and throwing away things I didn't need, wrapping Christmas presents and re-hiding them (I'm not sure why I'm hiding them since they are for my family...who are 3000 miles away, but you can never be to careful). I also folded two loads of laundry and put two more loads in the wash.

Then from noon-1pm Jade and I ate lunch while watching a pre-recorded "Amazing race" show.

From 1-4pm I folded and put away another load of laundry, ironed three shirts and one pair of pants. Hemmed a new pair of pants, cleaned three bathrooms, dusted the house, swept the floor, washed the floor, cleaned out under my bed (don't ask), did the dishes, checked the mail, and made Jade sit on the potty.

Thinking I was just about ready to be done I saw Jade walk down the stairs in her rainboots and thought "ya, we need some fresh air" so, I got on my rainboots and we went outside and raked and bagged about a billion leaves. That took us an hour. Then dinner at 5pm and at 5:40 the doorbell rang and two cute kids came over to play while their mommy went to workout.

It's is now close to 7pm. I recently finished making a breakfast casserole for tomorrows MOPS meeting and the kids are all playing nicely in Jade's room.
I look horrible. My hair is nasty, my face is nasty, my clothes are nasty. My day isn't over yet, at 9pm I get to go to church and help setup for the MOPS meeting for tomorrow. J is at a friends watching Football so aside from this morning I haven't seen him today.

This has been a busy day for me, lots of little projects and things to make me feel like a super busy stay at home mom. But now that I have a break, with nothing much to do for the next two hours I realized, I miss my family and I wish they were here with me tonight to make me laugh. I can't wait till Christmas so I can see everyone. That will be nice. I'll have 10 whole days of being surrounded by people and most likely I won't have to talk to myself or find projects to keep me busy all day.

Update: Oh, and I just spilled half my cup of tea all over the keyboard. Nice.

Two cute pics

Jade attended Kyri's birthday party last week, while we did get many pics from the party, this one of the two of them sitting together was my favorite. Oh, and of course, this one with Ben too!

"Mommy, I done!"

I heard Jade yell she was done and came and found the entire roll of toilet paper on the floor!

She was pretty pleased with herself too!

My daughter

Today is day two of "Getting Jade use to sitting on the potty" potty training attempt. I brought her out a bucket of toys and sat out her potty chair. Then I took off her pants and let her play.

I am working right now, so I wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing, but then I turned around and found this.

A pant-less baby wearing her necklace, bracelet and purse and examining some chapstick she found.
What is it for? How do I open it?
Ah, ha! Figured it out.
I don't want to label Jade, but these pictures do seem to say what I want to (girly girl!) lol!

Help me win a Free Canvas!

http://camilledawnphoto.typepad.com/camille_dawn_photo/2008/10/beautiful-serio.html

Do your remember the pictures I posted a little while ago of Jade in her blue dress? They were taken by Camille Dawn Photography and we were SO thrilled with each and every one of them. Well, right now, she is offering a gallery wrapped canvas to who ever wins the most comments about the art on their blog. So please, be a good friend and go to the link, check out our pics and then leave her a comment on her blog to help me win:)

each comment goes toward an opportunity to win a $400 canvas wall print. (Please only one comment per person.)

Baby Einstein

This evening Jade and I went to Harvest Fest at our church. Before we left I decided to dress Jade up like a baby Einstein. She wasn't really as sad as these pictures seem to show. In the first pic she was asking to go outside and the second we are on our way to the party.

These pics don't really do her look justice, but you get the idea. I think her fake mustache was a big hit and of course her crazy hair. Hee, hee I dressed up in a white lab coat and tie (with pants and a shirt of course) to play her "assistant".

Cheesecake lollipops anyone?

Last night I was hosting a Discovery Toy party at my house. I wanted it to be a dessert party too and so I asked my mom for some cool dessert ideas to share with everyone who came. She showed me this link from Neiman Marcus for cheesecake lollipops. She had recently gone to an event that had made these cheesecake pops to look like candy apples.

So I googled around till I found this recipe on AllRecipe.com I modified the recipe a little bit, by deciding to dip the pops in white chocolate instead of their recommendation of confectioners coating. And I dipped them in mini chocolate chips instead of coconut. But I am sure these little treats would taste yummy dipped in whatever you wish.

These aren't the best pictures, but I thought it was a fun dessert to do during the holiday season and thought I'd pass on the idea to anyone who would be interested. Thanks Mom, these were yummy!

Crazy Hair

I decided to tease some of Jade's hair today to see if I could do a "mad scientist" kind of a look for her, so she can have a cool costume for our church harvest fest on Friday. She didn't want to put her toothbrush down for the pics, she is really into hygiene.

Pretty Day

It is such a pretty day out today!

Jade and I had a short bike ride to the gym this morning. It was so nice to bike in good weather. I know it will be short lived, but that's okay.

We have a busy day ahead of us with lots of little kids coming to play all day long. I think Jade is looking forward to it. I asked her if she wanted her friends to come over to play and she said "fun!" lol.

She is learning many new words

Gone missing

Jade's hair clip has gone missing. It is a very odd thing, since it seems to have vanished in thin air. Let me go over my morning with you real quick so you all may play a part as Sherlock Holmes in this story. Ahem...

Jade woke up this morning at approximately 6:27a.m. Daddy got her out of bed and made her oatmeal.
I got out of bed at approximately 6:32a.m. and found Daddy and Jade with their oatmeal and a banana. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and kept Jade company while she shoveled her oatmeal into her mouth (by her self no less.)
At, or around 6:49a.m. I brought Jade upstairs, changed her diaper, dressed her. Took her into the bathroom and brushed her hair.
At 6:58 (I'm just guessing here)Put two hair clips in her hair. Kissed her adorable face.

Around 7:22a.m. I picked Jade up (with her hair clips still in her hair) and put her in her car seat. We drove Daddy to work.
Returned home a little before 8am. Brought Jade upstairs, sat her in the rocking chair and began working.
8:10a.m. turned around to talk to Jade and ...Da Da! One of her hair clips was gone!!!

Spent 11.5 minutes searching the chair, her clothes, her blankie, her bear, the stairs, the entry way, the car, the garage, the car seat, back upstairs, back around the chair, back looking all over her blankie and clothes. Nothing! Where can her clippy be!!!!!

Thus ends the tale of the missing hair clip.

Jade's hair

I just liked the fact I was able to do Jade's hair today in a mini coil. She thought she was pretty cute too:)

Friday

Friday Jade and I spent the entire day at the mall. And when I say the whole day I mean from around 8:30am-2:30pm. Jade was a trooper though, we took breaks from shopping and played in the kids area. We also found some yummy foods to eat and had lunch at Johnny Rockets. Yum!
After our mall shopping we decided to spend some much needed time at the bookstore. Jade needed to catch up on her reading. She found the section she wanted to be in, plopped down on the floor and started reading her books. Like Father, like daughter.
After our busy day out, we met daddy at a nice hotel and stayed the night, well...first we did go out to dinner at the Rain forest Cafe, then we went to sleep. Saturday morning, bright and early, we got up and headed back home. Once at home we unpacked some of our many bags and Jade showed Daddy her great finds.
Note the new sunglasses, bracelet and necklace. Her jeans are new as well, but you can't see those.

Because my daughter is a ham...

...she will do funny poses for me.
Her favorite word or phrase right now is "ta da". In this picture she is saying "ta da" as if it's so amazing that she can sit on a pumpkin.
And since my daughter is a ham, singing with a microphone is a must! Here we are doing some karaoke action on Sunday afternoon.
This morning when I came in to get her up, she jumped up and threw her arms out and said "Ta da!!" I couldn't help but crack up at her.

Pumpkin Patch Day

From Jade: Today Dad and Mom took me to the pumpkin patch. When we first got there we had to wait around to catch a ride to the actual pumpkin patch, so I killed time by checking out the animals. Dad lifted me high so I could tough a Llama, Mom wasn't to excited about that and she said she had to stand far away. I'm not sure why.
I spent a lot of time trying to touch and feed the goats. Mom and Dad are cheap so they didn't buy me any actual feed to give the goats, so I tried to give them sawdust instead. Apparently goats are smart, because they didn't eat it.
Finally we got our tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch. At first I wasn't to sure about the whole thing. We were out in a muddy field full of orange balls.
But then Daddy got down and showed me that you could pick up the balls...er...pumpkins and carry them around.
I found a good one. I said, "ma ma!" and Mommy turned around with her camera to take a picture.
Then I tried to pick up the pumpkin and...ya, it was to heavy.
But then I found another pumpkin, it was just the right size. I could carry it every where. Eventually I got bored with it and threw it on the ground.
Mom picked me up and we walked around for awhile until we found a better pumpkin.
Then, we got back on the tractor ride to go pay for our pumpkins. I am bummed here because Dad's pumpkin is bigger then mine.
I wonder if I could steal it away from him when he isn't looking?
After we paid for our pumpkin (or I should say, Dad paid for them) We got a cart to pull the heavy pumpkins to our car. I'm a pretty big girl so I offered to help Dad pull them the long way to the car.
But then I got this brillant idea, why walk when you can ride? And so I told Dad he was super strong (beef up his pride, ya know) and he let me ride in the cart.
All in all, it wasn't a bad day. I got a pretty cool pumpkin and so did Dad. Poor mom, she was so busy taking my pictures she never found one for herself. Maybe next year.

For Grandma B

Jade got a few new outfits from her Grandma B this week. Jade was so excited to get the box and was happy to pull out all of the shirts and sweaters and pants that were there. This morning she helped pick out what she would wear. She wanted the red shirt with the scotty dog on it. In this pic she is pointing to the dog saying "daww" for her Grandma B
In this pouty pic she is upset because she wanted me to the take the pic of her sitting in my lap
so we also took a pic of her sitting in my lap. Oh, the socks she is wearing in the first pic are also from Grandma B they have dogs on them too. Jade loves doggies:)
Thanks Grandma for Jade's new clothes!

Good Morning Friends

A just because picture with my little cutie.