Christmas Cookies

Christmas used to my favorite holiday but working retail has just made Christmas stressful.  Working retail makes it hard to enjoy the holidays.  I miss the days when Christmas was about celebrating with friends and family and focusing on the birth of Jesus.  At some point, Christmas has become about shopping with retail stores working their employees more and more.


We also had our first loss right after the holidays, almost three years ago.  It's hard not to remember that we are seven days away from the 3rd anniversary of our first BFP.  We are so blessed to have our beautiful rainbow.  I'm more thankful and love her more everyday.  She is our miracle baby and this time of year is a great reminder of that.

I want Anne to remember Christmas as a joyous time with friends and family, but that's hard to do when she goes days without seeing her dad because he is working so many hours.  Steve is such a hard worker and I appreciate all the overtime he is working so we can keep our bills paid but I miss him being home.

Today was probably the first day this Christmas season that I truly enjoyed the festivities.  My great friend, Stacey, came over and we spent the day making Christmas cookies.  It was so much fun and we had some great conversations while baking too.  We may have made a mess in the kitchen, but it was worth it.  We made five different kinds of cookies, plus some homemade white chocolate peppermint hot chocolate.  Yum... I'm so thankful for great friends.

Special thank you to my mom for coming over to play with Anne while we baked.  She is sleeping now, like any good baby should be doing at midnight.  Her mommy should be sleeping too.  She had a busy, fun-filled day today.  Tomorrow, more fun in the works, we are traveling to Toledo to spend Christmas with Steve's extended family.
 

 Anne did get to help decorate her own sugar cookie.  She loved it. 

  

“Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?” (or in our case a stove)
~ CS Lewis

Precious Moments

This week's family sickness has reached the smallest member of the family. She was up every hour last night between 9pm and 2am. Poor girl couldn't breathe, she was so congested.  I finally got her to sleep for 2 hours sitting up in our recliner, then she joined us in bed and slept another two hours.

 These are the moments I treasure. Anne won't remember the time I filled the dishwasher or folded the laundry.  She doesn't care if bathroom needs cleaned or her playroom is messy.  She will remember the times she giggled together, snuggled and napped together.  I love her so much.  I am so blessed that I get to be her mommy.

College Savings Goal

I did some research on college savings for Anne. With the estimated cost of college going up every year, we are trying to start saving early. According the calculator below, for us to save the money she needs for college, we have to start saving almost $600 a month. Yikes and that's just for one child. I guess we had better get started.  We obviously can't save $600 a month at this time but maybe we can save enough for one year of school.  We only need $150 a month for that. Every little bit helps, right?

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Results

If your goal is to cover 100% of the $246,972 projected cost of college,
you will need to start making monthly contributions of $577 to meet that goal.

Your child:

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Will be attending a college that currently costs $ annually. 
Has   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18   years until college. 
Will attend college for   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8   years on a            full time           half time          basis.

You:

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Wish to save enough to pay for % of projected college costs. 
Wish to meet your savings goal by the time your child            begins           ends          college. 
Currently have $ in your college savings.
Wish to make            lump sum           annual           semi-annual           monthly          contributions to your college savings.
Expect college costs to increase by % per year. 
Expect to earn % after-tax each year in your college savings plan. 

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"Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it." Proverbs 21:20

"The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty." ~ Proverbs 21:5

Healthy Kids: Homemade Cheese Puffs

I am always on the hunt for healthy on-the-go snacks.  My mom found an old cookout that she has had since we were kids.

Today, we tried homemade Cheese Puffs!

1/2 lb Cheddar Cheese, grated
1/2 Cup Margarine
1 Cup Flour
1/8 tsp Salt

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Roll dough into small balls about the size of marbles. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Anne enjoyed being Grandma's little assistant.

  

Baby Approved!

Winter is Here

2014 First Snow

2013 First Snow

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We woke up this morning to our first snow of the season. Anne was much more interested in it this year than she was last year.  Steve opened the curtains of our bedroom and she just stared out the window with such intrigue.  She just wanted to watch the snow fall.  It's fun to watch her eyes when she really experiences things for the first time.  Everything was so pretty and white.  When brought her out to the living room, she crawled right over to the window and peaked outside.  Winter is officially upon us. I guess we might as well get used to it.

She is spending the day with Grandma today while I work.  I packed her snow pants, hat, heavy coat and extra clothes, so maybe Grandma will take her outside to play.

One Year Update

 We celebrated Anne's birthday today.  We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.  Anne is so blessed to have so many amazing friends in her life.  My parent's house was just full of people that love Anne.  

Thank you to everyone who came.  I can't believe she is one year old.

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Weight: 17 lbs, 9 oz
Height: 27.5 inches

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Eating: She loves to eat.  There isn't many foods that we haven't fed her that she hasn't liked.  She prefers to feed herself over purees now.  She still nurses around the clock, getting up several times a night. 

So far:
Thumbs Up: sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce, avocado, peas, squash, carrots, bananas, whole wheat cereal, guava, watermelon, pasta with sauce, meatballs, yogurt with any fruit, BBQ anything, kidney beans, eggplant, meatballs, bread, hot pretzels, hummus, cabbage, brussel sprouts, ice cream

Thumbs Down: oatmeal cereal, spinach, peaches, any pureed meats (but she will eat chicken right off the bone cut into pieces)

Sleeping: We are starting to some sleep training.  I started reading the book The No Cry Sleep Solution.  Hopefully, the book will give us some give tips to help her sleep better. 

At first, she just looked at the pretty cake. She wasn't sure what to do with it.  After her dad and Grandma showed her to taste it, she happily ate some.

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Milestones:
* She can say: dada, mama, mommy, uh oh, hug

* She can sign: more, all done

* She is growing and changing everyday.  She just loves to explore and learn new things.

* She is crawling and climbing everywhere and getting into everything.

*Anne has 7 teeth now. 

* Her favorite way to start her day is to hug her bears.

The party wore her out.  Sweet girl snuggled up with her dad and took a nap.

Happy Birthday Anne

It's 2am and you are probably wondering why I would want to be awake this early.  Actually, if you know my little girl, you might not be wondering since she loves to wake up in the middle of the night for fun.  Tonight though, I think she just wanted to reminisce.  Exactly one year ago, at about 2am, our little girl decided it was time to enter the world.  She had chose her birthday and needed to break her mommy's water to make it happen.

I have to say though that when my water broke, it was probably the most relaxed I had been the entire pregnancy.  I think it was because I knew that by the end of the day, I would likely be holding our rainbow baby.  Our two and half year journey to becoming parents would finally end with a baby in our arms. 

This last year has gone by so fast.  I just nursed her and rocked her back to sleep.  I am just as in love with her little face now as when I saw it for the first time.  We have such a fun day planned.

Our beautiful miracle turns one today.

Happy Birthday, Anne!

Fall Harvest: Sweet Potatoes

We have never attempted sweet potatoes before, so we had no idea what to expect.  The plants grew huge with really big vines everywhere.  Next year, I think we are going to give them more room.

Not bad for our first time.

11 Month Update

Eleven months have passed since our beautiful baby entered the world.  The time has gone by so fast.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives.  Everyday, she gets more and more personality.

Milestones:

* She is growing and changing everyday.  She just loves to explore and learn new things.

* She is crawling everywhere and getting into everything.

*Anne has 6 teeth now.  Three on the bottom and 3 on top.  Number 7, I believe, is on the way.

* She started to really enjoy standing and cruising around the room on her walking toy.  It's fun to watch her learn these new skills.

*She can climb up steps now.  She hasn't mastered down yet though.

 

Let's go shopping, mom.

She is "walking" and climbing now.

 Queen of Peace Peace Fest -- Anne got to dunk Grandpa in the Dunk Tank.

 Anne introducing papa to her friends.

 She got to try her first Blueberry donut at the Blueberry Fest. -- Loved it!

We stopped by Ben's Pretzel in the mall.  She ate almost an entire Pretzel Stick by herself. -- Loved it.

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Weight: 16 lbs, 4 oz
Height: 26.5 inches

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Eating: She loves to eat.  There isn't many foods that we haven't fed her that she hasn't liked.  She prefers to feed herself over purees now.  She still nurses around the clock, getting up several times a night.  She loves to feed herself peas.  If we will her tray with various food, she will push the food out of the way and eat all the peas first then continue with the rest.

So far:
Thumbs Up: sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce, avocado, peas, squash, carrots, bananas, whole wheat cereal, guava, watermelon, pasta with sauce, meatballs, yogurt with any fruit, BBQ anything, kidney beans, eggplant, meatballs, bread, hot pretzels, hummus

Thumbs Down: oatmeal cereal, spinach, peaches, any pureed meats (but she will eat chicken right off the bone cut into pieces)

Sleeping: She still nurses around the clock, waking up every 3-4 hours during the night.  I hoping this habit breaks soon.  We are trying a sleep routine of diaper change, bedtime snack (usually nursing), then a bedtime story, then getting rocked to sleep.  This month has been rough.  She has started to not want to sleep without us present.

Summer Harvest

"Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce." Jeremiah 29:5 ESV

 Our tomato plants have taken over our front yard's garden.

 We finally have a little green pepper on our pepper plant.  Sadly, I think our zucchini plant is dying.  It just doesn't look healthy.  Maybe, we will have better luck next year because I love zucchini.

We have sweet potatoes growing in the backyard too and they are growing like crazy.  They are not ready for harvest yet. 

 Here is what I picked today.  Aren't those the cutest little green peppers you have ever seen?

Our Garden Progress: Front Yard

Our front yard garden is really coming together. My mom has been a huge help with this project.

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This is an early picture.  The flowers are much bigger now.  In the front, there are Begonias and behind them are Lilies and some Asters.  I also planted a Rose Bush in the back to add some more color.  On the right side are several Cherry Tomato plants.  The Tomato plants have grown huge.  I have been able to bless some neighbors with the abundance.

Anne is always helpful.  She is a great supervisor and encourager.