Archive for January, 2011

Snow Day Fun

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

When I first woke up this morning and looked out the window I knew we would be having at least an hour delay so I went back to bed for a bit.  When I woke up the second time and looked outside I saw even more snow.  I thought to myself, there is a small chance we will be out of school or at least a two hour delay instead.  I hopped on the computer and much to my delight we had another snow day.  Now, I know some people might be tired of snow days (I myself wasn’t wishing for one, but I will take it), but I love the snow.  We are trying to cherish every "snow" moment this year, because it could be the last one for awhile.  Here is a recap of our snow day so far.

We started the day with a yummy breakfast.  I made French toast with a homemade blueberry and raspberry sauce.  I used a recipe I found on Finding Joy in My Kitchen (a new favorite food blog of mine) and it was delicious.  We also made Sugar and Spice Bacon.  Some of the best bacon I have ever had!

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Then we ventured out into the cold in our "suit" and "boots" for some more snow fun.  We pulled Mikayla around in the snow, threw some snow balls and even made a snowman.  I need to give credit to Ben for making the snowman, Mikayla and I didn’t really help that much, unless you count watching and gathering/eating accessories!  Mikayla really loves snowmen, so she thought this was pretty cool.

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After we were good and frosty from the cold we headed inside for a little snowman treat.  He looks kind of creepy, but Mikayla loved him.  He is made from "marsh" (Marshmallows), bananas, pretzel sticks, sprinkles and fruit leather.  If she had been asleep I would have tried these, but he turned out cute for a quick snack. 

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Love at first sight! (Please ignore my shirtless girl, she has become a fan of eating without a shirt.  I am not sure why!)

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Digging in!

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I think Mikayla has enjoyed her snow day, I know I have.  Now to go list some items for the Little Angels Attic Sale before she wakes up and we have some more snow day fun!

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

This is an important day to our family for many reasons, you can read about some of them here and here.  It is important to both Ben and I that we carry on MLK’s legacy and share his visions for the world with her.  So, in light of this, we spent the day remembering him in a service here in BG and listening to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

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Mikayla loved listening to his speech.

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Intent listening by both parties!

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Paint

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Mikayla loves creating artwork.  She loves stickers, crayons, markers and paint of all varieties.  She even likes to use my blush brush in the morning to "paint" her face.  This might explain why when painting with real paints the other day she decided to paint her face and hair.  Needless to say, we took an early bath that evening!

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It took a little scrubbing to get the green paint out of her blond hair!

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She had a blast while she was painting herself, but immediately started signing and saying wash when she was done!

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January Sensory Tub – White

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

I have decided for my next few sensory tubs we are gong to focus on colors.  For January, since we typically think snow for this season, I opted to go with the theme of white.  I included some of the same items from the December tub because she liked them so much.

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In the tub we have small buckets to scoop with, Styrofoam balls of various sizes, soap roses that smell like vanilla, cotton balls, satin ribbon and a duster.

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So far Mikayla is most in love with scooping things in the buckets and tearing apart the roses!

For February, we will focus on the color red and also incorporate a few Valentine items.

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Who Needs Snow?

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Who needs snow when you have bubbles!  Last week when we got a little snow it was a little too cold for a girl with the sniffles to go outside, so we created our own fun indoors.  We made some snow cream, filled up the sink with bubbles and made some "snowmen".  Mikayla loved it!

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Then and Now – The Soup Pot

Saturday, January 8th, 2011

When Mikayla was about four months old, Ben thought it would be funny to put her in a large soup pot.  It actually turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of her from early on. 

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The other day, he decided to try out the soup pot again.  I think she is getting a little too big now!

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Have We Changed?

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

A Christmas tradition that I wanted to start with our family was getting in our pajamas on Christmas night, making some hot chocolate, setting up the camera on a tripod and snapping away!  Here is our family last year:

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And then here we were this year:

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Have we changed?

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Accidental Potty Training

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Back in October I wrote a post about Mikayla going "poo poo" in the potty for the first time and getting an ice cream cone all of her own.  From that point on we never really tried to potty train Mikayla, but at the same time we never discouraged it either.  If she wanted to sit on the potty we let her.  If we noticed she was looking like she needed to go, we ran to the bathroom.  We hadn’t even purchased big girl underwear yet.

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Well, last weekend (right before our whirlwind of Christmas traveling began), Mikayla decided she wanted to be potty trained.  On Saturday and Sunday she didn’t have an accident in her diaper except when she was sleeping.  We were so proud of her, but didn’t think much of it because we assumed when traveling she would have more accidents.  She proved us wrong in a big way!  Over the course of the next 7-8 she only had a couple of accidents, even on the road.  When we finally returned from our traveling we tried her big girl underwear that were in her stocking.  She loved her "panties" and even got a little upset when we put a diaper on her at nap and night time.  For three days now (cross our fingers and knock on wood) she hasn’t had an accident in her big girl underwear!  What a big girl she is!  We are still using diapers at nap and night time, but the rest of the day she is is underwear.

This potty training thing is nothing we did, she just woke up one morning and decided she didn’t want to go to the bathroom on herself anymore.  Like I said, accidental potty training!

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