The Night Before Christmas

My Sweet Babies. Lulu 2 1/2 years old & Leo 10 months enjoying his first year of Christmas festivities and CANDY!

Christmas Cookies

Lulu and I make cookies all the time but I generally measure everything and let her add it to the mixer, but for this special occasion I let her do all the measuring to make cookies. Of course the only thing she couldn't do is load the cookies in and out of the oven.

It's been a very tough year in our house financially speaking. In any case it was decided that we would send Homemade Maple Syrup to our family members this Christmas. Although many may not know how much work tapping, harvesting and cooking sap to make syrup is, it didn't quite feel like we were giving enough so we also decided to include homemade cookies. In reality all the stress of gift giving is so silly because truthfully I wish everyone would send us some food for Christmas!

Crawling around being silly.

Nana's House Christmas

Lulu is helping Penny and Ezekiel put up the Christmas ornaments.

Cousins and fast friends! They were like 2 peas in a pod.

Everyone loved the train, which was later relocated to the floor around the Christmas Tree.

A new fan of the Candy Cane!

Decorating for Christmas

I am not much of a holiday decorator but since having kids I feel obligated to step it up. This year we put a fiber optic tree in the front bay window and a manger set. We let Lulu put the bulbs on the little tree for practice before the big tree.


Then Lulu helped her Daddy put up the big tree, she danced with the branches and then handed them to him.




Later when Leo was up she was I found her putting her favorite toys into the tree as ornaments. Gosh, how brilliant... an appreciation for her current toys, and nothing breakable to boot!





By the way, Leo LOVES her "jump high."

Typical Toiletry Mess

If left with bathroom door open any day of the week, any time of the day, this is what you will find! I guess I am counting my blessings that the TP wasn't in the toilet and he wasn't flusing and clogging it!

Little Playboy

I just have to post this picture because it cracks me up that Leo can often be found lounging around in this position, on his side leaning on one elbow with his top leg crossed over.

Thanksgiving Day 2011

We went to Nan & Tata's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Somehow I only managed to take a few pictures... Leo snacking and myself target shooting. Oh well, food was good and the weather for Minnesota was WONDERFUL!

The guys were suppose to go to the Twin Cities for Thanksgiving but with the Chicken pox just being over and Leo not showing any signs yet plans were changed. Lulu was going to go with The Birthday Boy* to see his family, then it was decided if either of them were carriers (which I have since learned wouldn't be the case) it could be bad for the siblings who haven't had Chicken Pox.

Chicken Pox

Oh my poor little girl got the chicken pox. One morning I saw a scab on her face and questioning what happened and looking at her face I noticed 2 red marks on her eyelid too. I checked her whole body out and found nothing, an hour later the red marks on her eye were fluid filled and one on her neck was also. Well those who know me also know that I did not do all the vaccines the government wants done... NOT that I am don't plan to do important vaccinations, but I have been spacing them out and grouping them 2 at a time because I want my children's exposure to Thimerosal to be at a minimal level.

Leo is of course too young for the varicella vaccine. So I cruised the internet and found this natural remedy link called fastchickenpoxcure. We found the first pox on her on November 19th, and the last one to heal was on November 23rd. We did 3 baths a day alternating the malt vinegar, oatmeal & baking soda and I fed her all the foods suggested that I could get her to eat, a few of them I disguised in other foods.

I was hopeful that Leo would catch them during the same time, meaning that their exposure to the source was at the same time, such as at Day Care. However, I was not so lucky. Calculating backwards her exposure was during Halloween, where we were going downtown near strangers sneezing outside in the cold, where Leo didn't join us outdoors and besides day care it was the only outing we'd done during that time frame.

Leo caught broke out with pox on December 6th, and his last pox to heal was on December 9th. He seemed to have more pox, but considering he's under 1 year old and his immune response less built that would make sense.

The Amazing B

Out of the blue after breakfast Lulu says, "Where's B?" and after peaking below the table where she was hanging out we found him!

I am guessing her newest adventures with her sidekick B on the Flying Trapeze is from the book the Runaway Bunny which for awhile she wants read to her nightly before bed.

Play Date

My friend entrusted her son to me for several hours while she worked. I am so blessed to have the friends I do and I am so glad that our children play well together too!

Halloween 2011

For Leo's first Halloween we made our first stop at Beagle Books. Then we went into Bella Cafe, where Leo and Nana stayed warm and Lulu and I ventured out to all the Downtown Park Rapids Halloween shop stops.

A big shout out of THANKS to my friend Tracey for loaning us 2 costumes this year, and to Mary Miller of Candied Creations by Mary for the Halloween basket Lulu carried. It came filled with designed candies and toys displayed on sticks. It was so cute, Lulu ate most of the candy before we made it downtown!

Pumpkin Party & Maze

I was so lucky to capture this incredible picture with 2 smiling babies at the END of a trip to the Carter's Red Wagon Pumpkin Party with a Corn Maze.

Lulu, Leo and I (The Dreadful Gardener*) were accompanied by our favorite babysitter Hailey, also referred to as Hailey Ice by Lulu (we are not sure why). This was swimming ducky race was Lulu's favorite game at the pumpkin party. I think Hailey seemed to enjoy it to, except the water was cold and the wind was blowing too hard to enjoy wet hands!

The big slide was a Lulu favorite too. The ladder side of the slide is made of hay, pretty interesting. This was their first trip down the slide, by the end Lulu was going by herself and face first. She's definitely more gutsy than I was at her age.

I am not sure what this was called but it was tons of hay rolls stacked next to each other and some piles into tall stacks for a sort of maze. Lulu ran around like a nut jumping over gaps in the hay along side Hailey, and although Leo wanted to join in he was bound to sitting still (not quite crawling).

These strange adult/child pull toys were one of the last things the kids rode on because they were pretty busy the entire 2 hours we were at the Carters Red Wagon Farm.

Although I do not have a photo of the Corn Maze it was pretty cool. My suggestion to anyone going next year is go during opening day when the maze isn't smashed down in places where people got stuck/lost and cheated.

Another delightful day in the small town USA!

Fargo Air Museum

We went to Fargo to get new work boots for The Bread Winner* and because Lulu's greatest fascination these days are airplanes we stopped at the Fargo Air Museum. We showed up about 15 minutes past closing time, but the VERY NICE woman who was working the museum let us inside anyhow. It was just the four of us wandering around these old planes, and one helicopter.

Leo who has been the easiest baby to take out-n-about decided that he wanted to be not be so easy, so it was a short trip through.

I told Lulu to sit in the helicopter and she was hesitant because as she said, "I don't know how to fly it."

Kite Flying with Dad

This is a kite that has been in my family since the 80's. My Dad got it in Denver when my little sister was a kid... and she's in her 30's now. It was missing the cross bar and a tail, so after trying to get a really cool flower shaped kite up with no luck because the design is wrong to keep an uplift I cut it apart and used a part of the kite and sewed it onto this old kite for a tail. Then I found a dowel from one of my crafts and whittled it to fit into the kite sleeves... and up we go.

So as grateful we are when Lulu & Leo's Dad comes out to play with us, because we know he has many other tasks to do around the farm, sometimes the rest of us don't get to do anything but watch Mr Control* play.

The wind was waxing and waning on this day so this is about as high as the kite flew. It was probably about 1 1/2 hrs from starting with the flower kite to getting this 1980's kite up in the air, so needless to say the babies were tired of watching Dad and following him around. We had to go inside for naps. And that's just the way it is some days,(right mom's out there!) at least we got some fresh air outdoors.

Magazine Mess

Now that we have a crawler we are finding that Leo get's into everything in his reach. I don't know why we never had this issue with Lulu, but this guy keeps us on our toes!

The Rest of October

1 O'Clock and Still Going

I am glad that someone is VERY happy,

if only I could get more sleep!

Beep-Beep

New Driver

Leo was so happy (as usual) to be participating in an new experience. I was feeling like a bad Mom grocery shopping at 7pm on a Monday night, good thin they don't have school in the morning! A 30 minute race around the grocery track was exactly what we all needed before heading home to eat and bath! Ah, one more night gone. He sits up on his own, rocks on his hands and knees (almost crawling), and rolls around where he wants to go. He can also now walk forward in a walker. He's such a silly boy, loves to smile and laugh... but has a short temper when he wants something!

By the way, Leo is eating table foods now, I grind them up but he pretty much won't eat baby food any longer. Lulu is doing great too, she's just a stitch saying the silliest things all the time like playing peek-a-boo with Leo, or the moon when there are clouds out. She still loves her books and is now so versed in them that she knows her favoites by memory and says the words as they are being read to her.

Food Coma

He had a meal, then we let him have a piece of pizza crust that he mowed down. Then he wanted a second, but he didn't want to hold it. So I held it for him... and he fell asleep eating it.

HAPPY Girl

On the count of 3...

1

2

3

ANGRY Girl

And best of all... who knows what she was so instantly angry at?! I probably smiled at her!

Rubba-dub-dub

Two Babies in a Tub

Could they be any happier?

I was giving Daddy a pedicure, and Lulu was jumping around saying tub, tub, can I take a bath in here... splashing the water. So of course how could I say no.