Santa Claus

Everyone needs a picture like this.

Books

As a teacher I never felt like I had enough books.  I would compare my empty shelves to other teachers who had been teaching for 30+ years and I felt like my collection was inadequate.  I did my best to gain a collection…going to garage sales, ordering with book order points, grabbing what I could when the library cleaned out its shelves, etc.  I still felt like I didn’t have very many children’s books. 

Then I stopped teaching and brought my collection home.  My books have been sitting in the garage for 6 months.  I haven’t had book shelves to put them on. 

The other night I decided I was going to pull those books out and make room for them.  After all, before I know it Hannah will be more and more interested in books and I need them to be easily accessible. 

About 5 years before I got married my mom was on a furniture kick.  She would seek out great, cheap/free finds and store them in her basement…knowing that someday her kids would be married and need furniture.  I believe I got the biggest hook up when I scored this beautiful piece. 



In our apartment, it housed our TV.  In our home, it housed…..well, whatever I didn’t have a home for.  I had organized games and movies in the bottom, but the top had a broken CD player, baskets, exercise bands, our camera case, flashlights, etc.  I decided this would be the new home of my books.

Behold…

 
  
NOTE:  The baskets on the top shelf in this last picture are 2 deep…

I feel like I have enough books for now.  I estimated about 750.

Now, don’t ask me where a certain book is.  Organizing them is a project for another day (or possibly never because correct me if I”m wrong…but little kids love to dump things out so what’s the point?)  I know where Christmas books and Math books are and that’s it…and Magic Tree House.  At the beginning of every school year I would start to organize them, get about half way through, and give up because it’s just too hard….by author? genre? theme? writing style? plot? type of illustration? reading level?  subject?  I have never come up with a great system.  For now, at least they are out of the garage.

Now I just need to find a home for the random stuff I was storing in there before.

Bad Hair Day

When Hannah was born she had amazing hair.  There was a ton of it and it was dark with blonde tips.  Everyone asked me if I took her somewhere to get her hair highlighted….seriously? 

As she got a little older her hair got a little longer and the tips stayed.  I LOVED them. 

She had so much hair all over her head.

 

Then, as with most babies, she started to wiggle more and her hair started to fall out.  She started with one bald spot in the back.  

That got larger and soon wrapped from ear to ear.

 

Now, I don’t know what to do.  Her hair is SO long on top…what other 6 month old do you know that has long enough hair to put it in curlers?

 

But it’s SO short/non-existent around the bottom.  It always looks bad.  Do I cut off the top?  Do I leave it alone? 

I do think I need to trim the long whispies around her ears

So many babies are bald and I feel so lucky to have a baby with so much hair and I don’t want to cut her down to nothing.  When will it start to grow back?  Because for now – she’s always having a bad hair day.

Happy Halloween!

Event One:
BARNETT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – Watching the school parade.

Event Two:
ATRIA TRICK-OR-TREATING – Trick-or-treated to the residents.

Event Three:
CARDIN WITH TOM – We missed the trick-or-treating but we still made an appearance.

Event Four:
WARD HALLOWEEN PARTY – Changed costumes to fit family theme.

Event Five:
NEIGHBORHOOD TRICK-OR-TREATING – We were going to go but it was raining and she fell asleep.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM OUR LITTLE BUG!

Neighborly

We’ve lived here for just over a year now.  There are still many people in our neighborhood/ward that we don’t know that well and would like to know better.  So, I decided to be domestic and make a Halloween treat to take around to our neighbors.  We probably should have done this last year when we first moved in but better late than never….right? 

I made Witches Brooms and Hats.  Here’s how it went down.

WITCHES BROOMS

THE INGREDIENTS:  Flour, Brown Sugar, Butter, Vanilla, Salt, Pretzel Rods, Shortening, Water, Chocolate and Butterscotch chips. 

MAKE THE DOUGH:  Mix the butter, brown sugar, flour, salt, water and vanilla together.

SHAPE THE DOUGH:  Roll out 20 balls.  Attach the balls to the pretzel rods.  Shape the dough into desired shape and press with a fork to make broom bristles.

BAKE: at 350 for about 9 minutes.

COOL:  Cool completely on wire rack

CHOCOLATE:  Melt together chocolate and shortening over low heat.  Spoon over brooms.  Top with a drizzle of melted butterscotch chips.  Let cool completely. 

THEN…I made some WITCHES HATS to go along with them.

THE INGREDIENTS:  Fudge stripes cookies, Heresy’s Kisses and Frosting (I got lazy and used store bought)

PRESENTATION:  Wrap up with a cute bow and hand deliver

Happy Halloween Everyone!

How does she do it?

Hannah has been rolling for almost 2 months now.  I’ve written about this.  We thought we found the solution by tucking a rolled up burp rag along her side.  That lasted about 3 weeks.

Then we moved onto something bigger…stuffing a blanket up next to her.  That lasted about a week. 

We knew we needed a bigger barrier.  We rolled up a bath towel with part of it unrolled so she could lay on it and not kick it away.  This worked for about a week.

Today we put her down for a nap.  We put her down un-swaddled (which we’re trying to transition her to). 

(Notice how Jonathan positions her in the crib…and notice the green towel)

We laid her down around 1:45.  At 2:20 she was still making noise.  She wasn’t crying, just talking to herself, so we let her be.  For ten minutes I didn’t hear anything so I went into check on her and see if she finally fell asleep.  I found her like this:

When we went in to check on her she was still fighting it a little…she’d lift her body up, move her head, then collapse back down.  She was just so tired she didn’t care.  She slept for 3 hours.