Kid Friendly Nativity

December 20, 2011December 20, 2011Leave a comment

Growing up, we had the most beautiful nativity scene. It was all carved wood and was incredibly detailed and had so many people – it was like a religious Barbie house to me. I loved playing with it. I like staging all the figurines, hiding baby Jesus and enjoying every minute of it.

As an adult, I had a hard time finding an equally beautiful manger scene that was kid friendly. But then I came across a hand-made set at a silent auction for Circle the City charity (amazing amazing amazing. If you don’t know, find out). I was stalking a bid I had made on a bedding set for Baylor and noticed the adorable figures. They are all knitted and include the three wise men, shepherds and sheep, a donkey, camel and of course the holy family and an angel. The auction was closed for it, so I asked the lady collecting the cards if she could give me the information for the person who made them. The lady said she didn’t have it, but if I would give her my info, she would have the lady contact me.

Flash forward 3 months and I got a call from Sister Joan. I had no idea who sister Joan was, but when a nun calls you, you listen. She explained she was driving to Arizona from California and that she had my manger scene for me. Huh? I confirmed that it was for me and not someone else since I had only been interested in knowing how much one cost…and yet now I apparently owned one. Or at least I was going to own one, once I knew how much it cost. To keep it brief, I almost drove off the road when Sister Joan told me what the winning bid was for the nativity scene at the silent auction. But she then told me that the lady who make the scenes donates them to Circle the City so whatever amount I wanted to donate was perfectly fine. I decided on a number that didn’t make me want to choke and handed over the check and collected my goodies.

Bottom line? Worth every penny. The best part about the figurines is that there is not much that could destroy them so Bay is free to play to her heart’s content. She had baby Jesus in her baby buggy and was pushing him around because “His mommy Mary said it was ok”. Just love it.

The whole gang..happy at home in the hutch.

The wise men

The shepherds and the camel

The Fam – I love the donkey hiding behind them!

It’s Happened, G*ddammit

December 19, 20115 Comments

So it’s finally happened. It was bound to happen and I think most parents go through with this (well, maybe not the good parents). I’m talking about when your kiddo busts out a swear word. And even better, uses it correctly and in multiple forms.

Last week after swim lessons, we were home and getting dinner started, laundry done and catching up with our neighbor, Melissa. I was headed out the door to the grill when Baylor walked out of the office and said “Oh no. Daddy forgot his pens for work. Goddammit!”. Melissa and I both paused and asked her what she said to which she answered “Daddy forgot his goddamn pens!”.

I stopped and silently absorbed what she had just said to me. I can’t lie and say that it wasn’t funny that she used it so perfectly – but I bit my tongue and held back the giggle and explained how that was not a word we use. Ever. No matter where she heard it from (i.e. Me).

The next day we were at the grocery store. It was particularly windy and her hair was not in her now trademark pigtail “knots” on top of her head. Which meant her hair was everywhere. As I was putting her in the car she declared “my goddamn hair clip won’t stay in!!”. This time I asked her to look me in the eye where I explained that she is never, ever, ever to use that word. It wasn’t funny or ok. She then proceeded to say it 3 more times. I mustered all my strength and said nothing. I didn’t look at her, tell her to stop, nothing. I simply put the groceries away and ignored all further comments until I heard a very soft “I sorry, Mommy” from the back seat.

That was Friday so I’m crossing my fingers that we’ve at least side-stepped this one. That is until the printer wouldn’t print in anything but variations of yellow and blue…PW is responsible for that one.

The Wands Need Sleep

December 16, 20113 Comments

Between PW’s late work nights this week (he’s averaging at least two nights a week after mid night) and Bay’s early mornings, we’re all starting to look like the walking dead.

Here’s how it typically works:

730pm: Bay is in her crib but still chatting to her animals

930pm: I decided I really do need to get to bed.

1000pm: No really, I’ve got to get to sleep

1045pm: Sleep timer turns off the TV and I was a goner when my head hit the pillow.

1145pm: PW gets home and announces himself loudly so that I don’t have a heart attack thinking he’s an intruder (we learn from our past around here).

1215pm: PW still goofing around the house which wakes me up and confuses me.

100am: PW finally goes to bed and again, wakes me up.

400am: Bay starts whimpering in her sleep.

405am: More whimpering.

408am: I decided I better go figure out what she needs before PW’s alarm goes off at 5am because then there is a chance she won’t go back to sleep.

415: Clean diaper, socks and a blanket and Bay is back down. I am now awake.

440am: I finally doze off…

500am: Alarm goes off. I tap PW who promptly asks me to snooze the alarm.

510am: PW gets up on his own.

515am: Snoozed alarm goes off again.

545am: PW leaves for work.

600am: Whimpering…

615am: I get my lovely wake up call of “MOMMY!!! AWAKE!!!”

And this is why it takes three coats of various colors of concealer to cover up the deep, dark circles under my eyes…So looking forward to nap time on Saturday when I can catch 2 hours of guilt free sleep time.

Bop It

December 15, 2011Leave a comment

PW and I had a very limited idea of what the hell we were doing when we registered for all our baby gear. I, the shopper with a black belt, was totally overwhelmed by the process and spent most of our first trip with my feet up in the floor model gliders. Thankfully, we did pretty well ending up with only a few things we didn’t really need.

One of those items was a Boppy Pillow…or so I thought. This little “U” shaped, stuffed thing is supposed to help support your baby while you breast feed. I am apparently not the Boppy standard size as I would have needed 3 of them stacked up to help me out. But I did find it useful when Bay was learning to sit up. We would sit on the floor and try to get her to stay upright with the support of the soft pillow around her.

Normally, as soon as we are done with something, it gets washed and goes straight to a storage bin in the garage. But for some reason this damn pillow escaped my organized wrath and B spotted it at the top of the closet shelf. She asked if she could have it and then insisted she sleep with it. She didn’t have a pillow at all, is out of SIDS range and has enough stuffed animals to choke a horse in her crib any way, what could it hurt? It turns out that she loves it. She sleeps like a badger – flailing around and rolling all over the place. So the Boppy works great as it pretty much surrounds her. She looks so comfy, I’ve been tempted to snap a picture. But because I haven’t totally lost my mind, I don’t risk waking her up with the camera beep.

Easy Christmas Decorations

December 14, 2011December 14, 20112 Comments

Holy cats. This Christmas has been screaming towards us like a Mack truck. I feel like we’ve been scrambling from the get go to catch up / get ahead of this holiday. When we were putting up decorations, I realized one of my favorite things is one of the simplest. It’s a trifle dish full or ornaments surrounded by a fresh, live wreath. And this past weekend, I found a banner that cascades out of the middle that really is the icing on the cake – er, trifle. And really, it’s so something that Kristin Thomson at www.oneprettyplace.com could whip up lickety split.

Ali Hearts Coffee

December 13, 2011December 12, 20111 Comment

I love making mini Christmas trees. They are so fun to dream up, to create and so fun to give as gifts. Peter’s mom and dad are both UofA grads as well so their tree is a UofA theme with all four of our graduation pictures as ornaments. My mom has one with an ornament for each of the kid’s family’s. I have aspirations to make one for Bay with a picture from each Christmas, but I haven’t found the right inspiration yet. But I did find inspiration with some coffee…

My sister, Ali, has always been a lover of Starbucks. She even worked there for a short stint in high school. I knew she had been collecting the mini ornaments they sell at the holidays so I asked her to bring all that she had and compiled them all into a tree.

I usually pick up a box of three, mini, prelit trees from Michaels in the after Christmas sale. So I had the perfect little 14 inch tree for the project. I tied on the ornaments, glued on some bells, tied on pretty ribbon and found the perfect espresso cup as the topper. I also found a mini tree skirt at Target – perfect!

Pasta Fagioli

December 9, 2011December 8, 2011Leave a comment

I am so fortunate to have become good friends with the other two room moms from Baylor’s class. They are incredibly funny, smart and freakishly talented multi taskers. And they like wine so we were a match made in heaven.

We sipped and snacked on Monday night at Postinos. I’m embarrassed to say that it was my first time there (look, I like to ride my bike and I live where I can do that to like 15 great restaurants, why go where I have to drive?!). We all ordered a cup of the Pasta Fagioli with sausage and it was awesome. I googled around and found a great recipe. It’s soup, but very hearty and great for a meal.

My variations are that I used fresh herbs because I had them, hot Italian sausage (Safeway meat counter), kidney instead of cannaleni beans and I added 3 tablespoons of butter to the final mix, just to give it a little more flavor. I loved this recipe because it was a chop-and-dump-into-pot variety which is my favorite. Be sure to add the Parmigiano on top, it really pulls it all together.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 carrots, peeled & chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 lb sweet Italian sausage links or 1 lb hot Italian sausage, casing removed and crumbled ( can use turkey sausage)
2 teaspoons dry oregano
1 tablespoon dry basil
1 -2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste
1 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes with juice
3 -4 cups vegetable stock or 3 -4 cups chicken stock
1 can progresso cannellini beans
1 cup ditalini or 1 cup small shell pasta
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
parmesan cheese

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium high heat.
Cook onion in oil 2 minutes.
Stir in garlic, celery and carrots and cook for 3 minutes.
Add and brown crumbled sausage.
Add basil, oregano and red pepper.
Toss to coat.
Stir in tomatoes and stock.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
If necessary, add an additional cup of stock or water and stir in beans and tiny pasta.
Simmer for 6- 8 minutes or until pasta is tender.
Stir in parsley and serve hot with grated Parmesan cheese.

Recipe credit from:http://www.food.com/recipe/pasta-e-fagioli-italian-soup-with-italian-sausage-38088

Cookies Gone Wrong

December 8, 20114 Comments

Yesterday afternoon, Bay and I put on some Christmas music, lit a cinnamon candle and fired up the oven to make some Christmas cookies. B was thrilled to play in the left over dough, flour and sprinkles while the cookies cooked. It was a lovely afternoon.

That is until two cookies escaped the baking sheet and dropped into the oven where they broke into a million pieces. Crap. I decided to just close the door and let it cool before I attempted to clean them up. Until the kitchen began to fill with smoke.

“Why not let it self clean??” I thought. So I put on the self clean setting and returned to icing the trees. Until I noticed that it appeared we had a yule log in our kitchen…yup the cookies had ignited in the oven. I quickly turned off the oven and stepped back trying to decide what to do next – get the extinguisher? Call 911? As I contemplated, the fire quickly went out. Bay casually looked over from her sprinkling duties and said “Mommy, there’s a fire in the oven”. Yes, yes there is kiddo.

Despite our house smelling like a camp fire, all is well. The oven cooled and is no worse for the wear (I think). I cleaned out the chunks of cookie and it is now happily self-cleaning (I think). The windows are open, the fans are going and there are holiday scented candles burning so hopefully by this afternoon there will be no evidence of our almost fiasco.

When my cousin Will arrived last night to watch UofA and eat us out of house and home (I was prepared with 3 lbs of tacos) I told him what had happened. He responded “what’s with you guys and fire??” – referring to the grill fire of 2009. It’s nice to have family who cares about you.

On the bright side, the cookies were delicious! Chef Mini Wand does it again!

The Chef hard at work.

Check out that post nap hair.

Much like shoes, you just can’t have too many sprinkles.

Give a Little – Or a Lot

December 7, 2011Leave a comment

When Baylor was a baby, I sat crying while watching a story on the news about families in need. They described a mom asking for help when she did not have enough formula left to feed her starving 3 month old.

I couldn’t help but think about Baylor. When she needed a bottle in the middle of the night, I was annoyed having to get out of my warm bed and make a bottle. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head – what if I didn’t have formula? And what if I didn’t have the money to buy more? What if my sweet little girl was hungry and I knew there was nothing I could give her to fill her belly. It crushed me.

This is one of the reasons I love The Crisis Nursery. It is an amazing organization that provides relief to families that are stuck in the middle – families that have more income that what qualifies them for aid, but too little to really survive. And to families who are victims of violence. They provide food, a warm bed, toys, counseling and other aid for parents, kids and families.

It’s important all year to give to amazing organizations like this – but it’s especially important around the holidays so that these special kiddos get the Christmas they deserve. When you look at their wish list, they need baby wipes before they need toys. Socks and underwear. Shoes and soap. That’s where the donations go first so they need extra to be able to give toys and gifts to the kids as well.

If you have some extra – or even if you don’t – consider giving to a great charity this season to make someone’s Christmas brighter. Monetary donations or of items are great ways to help – I think it’s never too young to start. Bay and I did a clean out of her toys and we talked about how we were going to give them to kids who really needed them. At first, she was hesitant to let go. But after a few minutes she was lovingly kissing a few toys good-bye and placing them in a bag saying “you’re going to someone who really needs you!”.

We are all so fortunate to have what we have so lets spread it around.

Here are some of my favorites:

The Crisis Nursery: http://www.crisisnurseryphx.org/index.htm

Circle the City: http://circlethecity.org/

Pets on Wheels: http://www.petsonwheelsscottsdale.org

Tree Hunting

December 6, 20111 Comment

Peter finally convinced me this year to go up North and cut down a Christmas tree. I have always been opposed because his plans involved me sitting in the back seat with a squirmy, crying kiddo while getting motion sick for 5 hours while he sipped hot chocolate, sang along to Christmas songs and drove his oh-so-precious truck.

He agreed to move the location to a much more reasonable destination and went the first day permits were available to ensure that we got the right area. The plan was that we would drive up just north of Payson, get our tree, eat a picnic brunch and head back while the munchkin napped. When I told our friends Beth and Grant of our plans, the wanted to join. So now we would have a party for our Griswold style tree hunting. We were certain it would be a disaster, but hopefully a hilarious disaster.

Sadly, Mother Nature had other plans. She decided to dump 2 feet of snow on the usually dry area the day before our trip. After looking at the web cams and the road conditions, we decided it wasn’t safe to risk an accident or getting stuck. So we opted for church, breakfast and tree hunting at a lot with our friends.

PW and I each can’t remember the last time we had a real tree. We have an awesome, pre-lit version that is so easy we just always go with that. But the live version is pretty great – we bought from a local nursery and the thing might as well have been cut down by us it’s so fresh! Here are the highlights: