Egg-cellent Easter!

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Easter this year was made much more fun by the fact that Isabella really got in to it. Last year she could sort of hunt for eggs and help die them and such but this year she REALLY enjoyed it! We had a ton of fun. Instead of me blabbering on and on about it, I’ll just show you the highlights, in pictures!

Coloring eggs!

(she sticks her tongue out when she concentrates)

(chocolate “nests” that I made, with M&M eggs, and a marshmallow bunny)

(Chocolate Oreo pudding cake (with a special blue whipped cream frosting and Easter sprinkles)!)

(someone’s keeping an eye on it…)

Easter morning!

Hunting for eggs!

Celebrating with the family at my parent’s house

(Rockin’ the Easter dress, with dramatic lighting for effect!)

Another egg hunt!

Live action video directly from the backyard!

(Making giant bubbles!!)

The after dinner siesta…(these 2 weren’t the only snoozers…CJ was out in the car sleeping!)

(My favorite part of Easter – the Reese’s peanut butter eggs!)

There you have it! I hope your Easter was as good as ours!

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2Apr2012

Spring Things

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons, Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Don’t you just love this time of year? It has been unbelievably nice and warm here in Omaha lately. We were in the 80’s and 90’s all weekend and in to today.

No complaints from me. I’d much rather have warmth than cold; sun than snow; green than brown.

But I will miss my cute winter boots.

Remember that glass art project I did a couple Friday’s ago? Well we got them back last week and I forgot to show you how AWESOME everyone’s stuff turned out!

Ta da!

Aren’t they all great? Each one is unique and different, yet super cool. Mine is the second from the left on the bottom row.

Here’s the before pic:

And a close-up of the after!

I am super happy with it and I particularly like how the colors sparkle and shine when the light shines through the window. I plan to hang it in one of the windows above our door. I just have to figure out a way to do that…

Speaking of projects…I tackled another one on Sunday.

A co-worker friend had given me a doll cradle a while back that was hers as a baby. It was in great condition, just needed a little TLC in terms of dusting and touch up work.

(By the way, it was impossible to take a picture without Samson photo-bombing it. Apparently the cradle had some tantalizing smells on it that REALLY intrigued him!)

I decided to paint the wood white and re-upholster the bed part. I’ve done it once before so naturally I’m an old pro…

I started by pulling the bottom out and ripping off the old fabric. I found some cute flannel stuff at the fabric store that would work for a couple projects, this being one of them.

I first laid the board on the fabric so I’d know how much to cut.

Then I trimmed a nice rectangle, making sure I had a couple inches of trim around each side.

The next step involved some very intricate fastening measures that should really only be left to people who know what they’re doing.

In other words, I used duct tape.

I folded in each side and taped it down with a long strip.

Then I folded the corners in and secured those.

The back can be ugly since it’ll never be seen.

When all was said and done, the “bed” looked like this.

Then it was time to tackle the painting. I simply drug the cradle outside and sprayed the bejeezus out of it with white spray paint.

The finished project turned out really nice! Isabella is going to love it!

I plan to give it to her on Easter, and use it as a “basket” for all her other goodies.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t include one final picture of the cradle with Samson in the background.

Somehow I managed to get this whole project done during Isabella’s nap time. Unbelievable.

Finally…you can’t have spring and Easter season without sugar cookies!

Isabella helped me make them yesterday. I got the dough prepared ahead of time and she helped with cutting them out.

At first she didn’t get the concept of using them as actual cutters. She would just set the cookie cutters on top and them pull them off leaving very faint outlines.

Eventually she got the idea though.

Not only did we do bunnies and butterflies and dog bones (for Samson of course), we also had to do Christmas trees and candy canes and gingerbread men.

Naturally.

Once they were baked and cooled, she helped me frost them too. She chose to use yellow and pink frosting.

They all turned out absolutely perfect! And they taste even better because they were made with love!

My last project of the day was to fix her Gingerbread Man doll which she has slept with every night since December. Mind you, “Ginger” was a toy of mine as a kid so he’s not exactly a spring chicken. As such, part of his shirt was coming unstitched and he head was, um, partly falling off.

So morbid.

I used the same fabric that I bought for the cradle to fix Ginger, basically just sewing a new “bib” on him (which also attached his head back to his neck).

Isabella helped.

Let’s be clear – I’m not exactly a seamstress. But I can sew on a button and apparently fix an old cookie’s shirt (and head).

When I was done, I handed Ginger back to Isabella and she smiled, hugged him and said, “Thank you! He looks so handsome mommy!”

That’s all the thanks I need.

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17Feb2012

A Day of Love: In Pictures

Posted in Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

I know I’m several days late on getting Valentine’s pictures posted. It’s been a busy week.

We had a great Valentine’s week in this house. It started last Friday when CJ surprised me with flowers in the morning.

They were there, sitting right on the leftover Chinese takeout, when I reached in the ‘fridge to get my water bottle for a workout.

Seeing and smelling roses is way better than fried rice.

Friday night was spent decorating and stuffing Isabella’s valentines for her friends.

I bought these cute little mailboxes at Target and then Isabella decorated them with stickers. I made a little postcard with a love note that we tucked inside, along with some fruit snacks and a granola bar. She LOVED making them and she kept calling me the Mail Carrier because I would “deliver” the goodies and she’d stuff them in. So much fun!

Saturday Ceige told us that he had a surprise waiting downstairs. Isabella and I hurried to see and found these waiting on the counter.

He didn’t make the donuts but he did write the little love phrases on them.

And we ate them with passion!

Later that day, Isabella’s boyfriend and his parents came over to celebrate the holiday with us. This has become a tradition ever since the 2 kiddos were born. Here is our first Valentine’s together.

And last year:

Ah, they grow so fast. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of them this year. Oops. I did however remember to get a shot of the AWESOME cupcakes they made and brought over!

That was a cherry filling. So good.

Isabella dived in face first. Literally.

On Sunday I made blueberry heart pancakes for breakfast. Sort of.

Admittedly, it’s not my best work, but it’s the thought that counts right? Isabella enjoyed them anyway!

I also made a heart brownie that Isabella helped me decorate.

And by “help”, I mean she pointed to a spot on the brownie and told me what to put there.

The Big V Day itself was fairly uneventful given that it was a Tuesday and I was at work for most of it. There were lots of cards exchanged from all parties, we had dinner at grandma/grandpa’s with the larger family and then came home to open one last present.

Sending love from our family to yours!

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5Feb2012

What’s This White Stuff?

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

No sooner did Puxatoney Phil see his shadow, did we finally get a winter snow storm here in Nebraska. In a normal year, we would have had several of these storms by now. But this year has been anything but normal. Early last week I was walking around outside in a long sleeved shirt and NO JACKET!

Let that sink in for a moment.

January 31st – in the dead of winter – and it was warm enough to not even have outerwear on.

I could get used to this.

But it looks like I won’t have to. Snow was unleashed on us overnight Friday and we woke up to this.

Everything blanketed in white. Samson loved it. He ran around out there like a crazy dog.

Jumping and digging and leaping through the wet stuff.

When you live in the Midwest, you have to own a snow blower because you know weather like this will happen. We, however, do not own one. We never have. Somehow we’ve managed to get by for 6 years owning a home without a snow blower. We either shovel or rely on the kindness of our neighbors. At our old house, we had great neighbors. They would always take pity on us and do at least our sidewalk for us, and sometimes the driveway too. However, we live in a new neighborhood and figured those good old ~~lazy~~ days were over.

We were going to wait for the afternoon, when most of the snow had stopped, to go out and start shoveling. But around lunch we heard a motor moving down our sidewalk and looked out to see our neighbor across the street clearing our sidewalks for us – and we live on a corner so that’s a lot of ground to cover.

We were really thankful to him for doing that. Then I looked out as he turned into the driveway and started clearing it! Seriously! He did our sidewalk and driveway, along with the neighbor’s driveway too! We were even MORE thankful and I vow, as God is my witness, to bake him cookies or something very soon!

Since we didn’t have to shovel, we had time to play! We bundled up and headed out to the backyard.

I look like I’m in pain there. I’m not. I was just being silly.

Isabella and I played while CJ cleared off the patio. Then we all worked together to build a little micro snowman on the steps.

CJ added some stick arms while I finished it off with raisin eyes and a carrot nose.

Do you see a murderer in that picture? Look toward the bottom corner. Literally 2.5 seconds after I took this photo, Samson ate the eyes and nose and knocked the head off the snowman. Isabella said, “Samson wrecked it! He ate it!”

And so was her first lesson in the cruel humanity of this world.

We had lots of fun and now I’m ready for it all to melt so that I can put my jacket away again.

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27Dec2011

Accomplished

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons, House and Home by teamtradermom

I love me a good to do list. This is for 2 reasons.

It outlines my tasks and helps clear my head
It feels so amazing to cross things off and see what you’re getting done

Yesterday was one of those days.

First of all, let me just say how nice it was to have the day AFTER Christmas off. That extra day really helped get things reset and back to normal before starting work again.

Boy did we take advantage! Originally we considered using the day to catch a movie or something but that would involve a baby-sitter (we feel Isabella is too young yet for movies, even the kids ones). Plus, that would take valuables hours away from the many tasks that have been piling up. Owning a house – and particularly having just moved – means no end to chores, fixes, repairs, remodels, etc. So we opted to stay home and get stuff done.

I didn’t actually write out a list, which is unusual for me, but I was checking one off in my head. Here’s everything I got done:

2 loads of laundry folded and put away
First floor vacuumed
Dishes washed and put away (by hand and dishwasher)
Pictures hung in the master bedroom
2 pictures hung in the living room
After Christmas shopping done at Lowe’s
Isabella’s kitchen set put together*
Christmas presents put away
Goodwill items donated*
Basement cleaned up and some organization started**

CJ got a whole bunch of other stuff done too, from his own list.

Boy did it feel good! I went to bed last night exhausted yet satisfied.

Switching gears a bit. I’m not going to write a whole Christmas re-cap post this year because frankly, I’m ready to move on. I love the holidays and we had an awesome weekend, but I’d rather leave it be and quietly go forth with my week. It’s one of those things that you build up for a whole month and then when it’s over, it’s time to just let it go and stop retelling it.

One thing I will share is that this year we got Isabella involved in culling through her toys. Before we even brought one gift from Grandma’s into the house or opened many of her Santa gifts, we had her sit with us in the play room and decide which toys she would keep, which ones would be put away for a while (i.e. take out of the rotation and bring back in 6 months from now when we needed something “new”) and which would be given away to “other kids and babies and ladies and guys” (as she says it).

I thought it would be hard for her to understand and that we’d have to grab toys out of her clutched little hands but it didn’t go that way at all. She was cool with giving some of them away. She even went with us to Goodwill yesterday and watched daddy take the bags of stuff in. She asked where daddy was taking her toys and I reminded her about other kids who needed them. She said, “And babies and ladies and guys.” Yes, them too.

With a herd of toys either gone or relegated to the basement, her playroom had much more room for her new toys, like the kitchen set. It looked so nice and neat and open last night I almost wept. I know it won’t last – especially with my tornado Father-in-law coming over today – but it sure looked good for a day!

Another project that was started today was the basement. That one wasn’t even on my to do list – it was a total accident. See, last week I started working out again. Some of my gear is still packed away, and we don’t have the TV set up in the basement yet, so I’ve been forced to do either the elliptical while reading a magazine or free weight moves (using fitness cards from magazines). Well I finished my magazine this morning before my time was up on the elliptical and I CANNOT use a machine without either reading material or TV to watch. So I had to find other cardio. I looked around the basement – which has basically been the dumping grounds for everything else in the house that we don’t know what to do with – and decided I might as well work on organizing it.

So I moved furniture (including the elliptical which before was tucked back in a dark corner and now is near another wall, under some light), went through boxes, picked up toys, and basically started figuring out where things should go and how to keep it somewhat tidy while still being in limbo.

I got so much done and was moving and using muscles the whole time. Not too exciting but I felt great about it! Plan to do that again tomorrow and every day thereafter until we have a gym membership (which could be sooner rather than later)!

I have a whole slew of other projects to get done but those will have to wait for another day and another post.

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