What I Learned This Weekend

What a week last week was - so glad we are starting a new one!!!  Sorry for the cricket's chirping around the blog lately - I've sat down to write a couple times and nothing seems to ever come to mind - feeling a little lost on the blog writing mojo.

Back to our weekend

1. This was our first weekend with nothing planned, it's completely ok to say no to our normal weekly family dinners with my parents and the in-laws.
2. Avalynn woke up way too early Saturday morning but after having a bottle she slept in until 9:30.  Thank you baby girl - we all needed the sleep!
3.  Emma and I had a fun Saturday morning running errands in the rain.   She got a watermelon slushie and bought herself a new Tangled book.
4.  Every since Emma started talking she's always been a talker, but this past weekend it was brought to a new level.
5.  Because of this I seriously am worried about my sanity over the next few years, especially when Avalynn starts in too.
6.  Case in point even when she was watching her movie it was a constant dialogue with lots of Moms thrown in there!
7.  After errands while everyone else napped I lost myself in a new book I treated myself too.
8.  Thank you the Hubs sister for the gift card for Chili's as I didn't have to cook dinner that night.
9.  Since we got hit with a yucky virus and crud last week I got thrown off my normal cleaning schedule.
10.  Because I have the best Hubs around he helped me knock out the house cleaning in no time.
11.  I might have also let the laundry pile up too?
12.  He switched loads for me and brought them up so I could fold them.
13.  I don't know why, but I'd much rather fold then switch?
14.  Decided to make my yummy crockpot corn chowder and Avalynn devoured it!  This makes me happy - another meal she loves!
15.  I did what I said I'd never do - it's been a struggle getting her to drink milk from a sippy.  Since she's still on 3 bottles of formula, per her Ped, I tried putting the milk in a bottle and she was happy as a clam.
16.  I really hope we can be done with bottles soon and done completely transitioning her from formula to milk.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

What I Learned This Weekend

We had a very filled weekend with friends and family = a great weekend overall.

1.  Friday was my mom's birthday and I can totally whip out an amazing cake in an hour.  Putting your cake outside to cool so you can icing it is totally ok when your short on time!
2.  Make sure to cover it, because you don't want any winter critters or birds snacking on it.  No this didn't happen to me.
3.  Friday night was the first time I've missed using my Cricut in months!  Completely ok to print off letters, cut them out with an exacto knife and make my own stencils that way.
4. Slicing burlap in triangles completely stinks.
5. First time to Monkey Joes for a birthday party and it was over capacity!  Poor Emma was scared when we got there and said she didn't want to try anything, thankfully she warmed up as it emptied out some and had a blast!
6. I really wish parents would pay attention/watch their kids when at a place like MJ's, instead of sitting in the parents area and completely ignoring them.  It's not the job of other parents to watch your kids, especially when some of them are mean and keep tackling my kid for NO REASON!
7. It's always good to confirm plans with friends - and even better to probably confirm with a date instead of just saying weekend, had a little confusion this weekend when expecting company.
8.  It all worked out well in the end.
9.  It's always great to reconnect with lost friends.
10. It's official Miss A is not allowed to play with our remote anymore!  I was watching Netflix/streaming through the playstation and when I clicked back to the tv, on the screen was please confirm to buy naughty nurses for $10.99.  One more right button and she totally would have bought that!
11.  Deep cleaning always makes me feel good about the house, I cleaned Saturday & Sunday = not much cleaning to do Monday, my cleaning day.
12.  My hubby is pretty awesome especially with helping get ready for company, cooking up the meat while we have company and running last minute errands when needed this weekend.
13.  I finally took the plunge and re-did some of the blog, still have some other things I need to finish like a new button and menu tabs, but was SO happy with what I got done.
14.  Even though I have two kids, I still feel like a first-time mom with Miss A a lot of the time.
15.  She's so incredibly different then her sister in every way and different things have come up that never did with Miss E.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

What I Learned This Weekend - 6th Edition

Better late than never right?  Hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's and long weekend!

1.  I've decided I really don't like when Holidays land on the weekend, makes me feel like my weekends are forever long.  For example, this weekend felt so long that I could have sworn today, Monday, was Wednesday.
2.  Definitely go to the grocery store any other day but the eve of a Holiday - it stinks!
3.  My parents are incredibly awesome and loaded us up on food for our pantry and meat for our freezer they got us for Christmas!
4.  I love finding deals, especially on clothes.  I used return money from Christmas presents, a shirt & a pair of slipper socks.  I was able to get two sweater cardigans *my new love in my wardrobe* and still have $4 leftover!!!
5.  The Hubs is amazing at taking any photo I show him and re-creating it for me at a much lower cost!
6.  There's nothing like having your house back in order after the holidays.
7.  I've decided there will be no more "resolutions" just goals for the year.  They are much more rewarding when met!
8.  There's nothing better then hearing my baby saying Mum-Mum-Mum.
9.  Normally, it's when she's tired and hungry.
10.  New Year's Eve was sort-of a bust this year, I was zonked out on the couch by 9pm.
11.  I blame it on A's cruddy sleep the night before, she was up whining most of the night and I felt like I never fully slept at all that night.
12.  The Other Guys is a funny movie - I highly suggest watching it if you haven't yet.
13.  Love weekends when I can relax and watch some movies on tv - this was my plan for Sunday and I achieved it for the most part!

What I Learned This Weekend - 5th Edition

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend with your loved ones!!!  We certainly did!

1.  Remember what all things you do on holidays, because kids' don't forget and will start to expect it.
2. Case in point - I decided last year to stick a present under Emma's tree from Santa, Christmas Eve morning she comes down and tells me how excited she was for that present - OOPS, wasn't planning on doing that this year.
3. This made me think what to put under them and we became creative and wrapped each of the girls' ornaments, hung them on their trees.  We decided they would be from Fred, our newest addition Elf on the Shelf.
4. Doesn't matter what Avalynn would open she'd only want everyone else's presents.
5. Avalynn was totally getting opening up her presents - loved this!
6. Avalynn woke up before Emma Christmas Day and we ended up having to wake up Emma to get started on the days festivities.
7. Egg & Sausage Casserole *new* recipe were a HIT for Christmas day breakfast!
8. We are SO blessed by all of our families.
9. I'm happy that we were able to celebrate another year with everyone.
10. Singing Silent Night while lighting candles is my FAVORITE part of church on Christmas Eve.
11. Opening presents was much easier this year as everything we wrapped we "pre" opened and then put back in the box so we wouldn't waste so much time opening cruddy boxes.
12. I'm starting to chat again with a lost friend, I've missed her friendship greatly over the last 4 years and hope this is a new beginning.
13. I've decided Miracles really do happen around Christmas it seems.
14. You know you've been busy when you are getting ready to put the baby to bed and realize she's 11 months today!
15.  I feel like I didn't get to take in this last blessed day with her.
16. Lesson learned - don't use re-chargeable batteries for Leapster Explorer's.  We thought Emma's Explorer had stopped working and I finally got it to work after cotton swabbing all battery parts and putting in some regular batteries.

What I Learned This Weekend - 4th Edition

I can't believe we are officially at T-minus 5 days until Christmas!!!  Here's how my weekend went down

1. Emma has a one track brain.
2. This drives me batty when she's focusing on something and I'm trying to tell and/or ask her to do or not to do something.
3. I love trying new recipes, cheese potato bake & choc chip dip were a hit!
4. It's annoying when I bring scooby snack graham crackers for a dip and everyone has to make a comment along the lines "Eww...dog treats, what do you think we are".
5. I promise you, those crackers are so yummy and the perfect size for dips!
6. We had 2 family Christmas celebrations this weekend, one Saturday & Sunday.
7. I love seeing our extended families, catching up, and watching the girls' get some special time with their 2nd cousins.
8. Holiday games get very competitive and extremely loud!
9. It's something you can always expect.
10. My girls' got one of the Hallmark recordable books from my Gramma.
11. This makes me so incredibly happy, as my Gramma is fighting cancer and each holiday is a blessing and am so glad that my girls' & I will always have this little treasure to share.
12. Shellac polish doesn't care for my nails.  Supposed to be no chipping for 2 weeks, I didn't even last 1 day!
13. We finally caught the mouse in our pantry tonight.
14. For the past couple weeks, couple nights a week we'd hear something rattling stuff in our pantry *can we say creepy* and the Hubs kept resetting the traps.  Tonight we finally got it!
15. There's nothing more exciting then coming home late Saturday night to see a package on our front steps.  Our 2nd attempt *as the 1st one, wasn't what was pictured = it not working and having to return it* at buying a new heating element for our oven was a success!
16.  I never realized how much I relied on my oven for somethings until I couldn't use it at all.
17. This makes me beyond happy as now Christmas morning breakfast can go off without a hitch!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend - I'm off to crash into bed.

What I Learned This Weekend - 3rd Edition

Crazy how fast this past week has gone and for once this weekend was extremely lowkey, our only one for the whole month of December!!!

1. I have been exclusively nursing Avalynn for the past 10+ months, I've been having supply issues for a couple weeks and finally decided to supplement two feedings with formula.
2. This is ok!  I'm still happy as I'm still nursing her 3x's a day.
3. Avalynn is much happier to have a fuller tummy again!!!
4. I love the advent calendar I whipped up Saturday.
5. Emma was so excited to open our 1st one tonight (better late than never!).
6. Love making homemade Christmas presents.
7. I have a secret - my husband sews 60% of the big projects I do!
8. I love him for all of his skillz and am so glad he's there working on things with me!
9. Completed a t-shirt quilt for my cousin and a washer necklace for one of our sisters.
10. Realized am so glad my holiday shopping is done - I can't stand going out to the stores in December, people drive me nuts!
11. Thankful for my MIL taking Emma to the Shrine Christmas Kids' event this afternoon.
12. Snuggling under quilts, watching movies, while being hit with a cold is the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
13. Organizing makes me happy.
14. Am trying a new approach towards Emma.
15. It seems to make the days a little bit better and me much happier as I'm not so frustrated all the time.
16. Halls Harvest Peach Natural cough drops are so yummy, the honey inside feels good on my throat.
17.  I love hearing the excitement from Emma when we are driving around at night at all of the lights.

What I Learned This Weekend - 2nd Edition

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Mine has been pretty up & down, just like any other day I suppose.

Here's What I Learned This Weekend...

1. Getting up @ 3am for Black Friday shopping was pretty much a bust.  Unless there's an absolute AMAZING deal that will be gone asap, I am no longer going out that early.
2. Stay far far FAR away from Target until later in the day, we stopped in there around 6 am (2 hours after they opened) and the lines completely wrapped around the store, we promptly left and came back after 1pm - MUCH BETTER and faster, 2 people were in each line and they still had plenty of their good merchandise deals!
3. I'm completely capable to be awake for 22 hours after only 4 hours of sleep the previous night.
4.  True friends make everything better - enjoyed a great evening with the Nace's, playing cards and chatting & lots of giggling from us ladies, until midnight.
5. Speaking of friendships, I came to the realization that I'm done being the only person making an attempt.
6.  I like to think I'm a great friend and person and if they don't want to know this part of me, then it's their loss, I can't force more to happen.
7.  I don't like afterthought invites - they make me feel cruddy!
8.   Teething is EVIL when it comes to Avalynn - my poor baby is in such pain, and she speed crawls to us as soon as she sees the ibuprofen dropper, she loves her feel better meds!
9.  Making snowflakes with the oldest and then it starts flurrying outside is the best!
10.  Toll House, Brownie Bites (in the refrigerated section of the grocery store), seriously ROCK MY WORLD!
11.  Saturday was a meltdown day, 3 of them just on my part - I honestly can't remember the last time I cried, it was much needed and I feel better!
12.  Naps for everyone in the house makes everything better.
13.  Emma is a follower when around other kids.
14.  I don't like this, as it tends to be the kids who aren't the best behaved.
15.  Avalynn is finding her voice.
16.  It's amazing how loud the girls' volume gets when they are playing together, and this is with Avalynn not even really talking.
17.  I for see lots and lots of loud, rowdy, giggling days ahead in our future - this makes me happy to think of the relationship they will have!

What I Learned This Weekend

My friend Amber does a weekly post called What I Learned This Weekend and I've decided to join in on the fun!

Here goes my list:
1) Friday I spent the day with my Gramma making our annual pumpkin rolls.  Yum-O, Avalynn, loves the filling of them.
2) I also helped her make chicken pot pie and rolled out dough and cut up the pot pie noodles, it was delicious!
3) I'm so glad that the Hubs & I are on the same page when it comes to Emma, we've entered this bizzare/horrible/so ready for it to be over with - stage with her and it's nice to tag team so the other doesn't get over frustrated.
4) Early bedtimes are sometimes needed and 6:30 for both girls' was needed Friday night - so glad they slept!
5) The Hubs got up with Avalynn Saturday morning @ 6AM, I got to sleep in until 7:15 and got the whole bed to myself for a little. :o)
6) Lesson learned on our seasonal/holiday foam craft magnet project - something with 10 steps and multiple pieces to each step is too much for Emma. She said it hurt her arm too much, so the Hubs and I had a fun morning of crafting.
7) Emma is obsessed with Boomerang, as soon as we'd get in the van to come home this weekend this would be one of her first question to ask if she can watch it when we get home.
8) Avalynn is officially off of baby solids and eating our food - I want my baby baby back!
9) Avalynn is now testing out new sounds and has started waving goodbye and signing for "milk", aka my milk.
10) We have spent everyday this weekend with extended family, which also equals me not having to cook 3 meals!
11) I've decided that I'm going to make time several times a week to craft, as soon as I start it just relaxes me inside. This weekend I tried out my first zipper rosette - more to come on that later next week.
12) The Hubs and I had so much fun this weekend just talking & joking around and sharing LOTS & LOTS of laughs.
13) We both agreed that even through all of the rough times "job wise" in the past 2 years we feel very blessed and happy, our girls' make it that much better!