Dear Santa

Madeleine's the perfect age this year to start understanding all of the excitement around Christmas. The other day she was telling me that she wanted some new things so I asked if she'd like to write Santa a letter asking for some of them. It was pretty endearing! She held the marker and I helped her make all of the letters except for the last sentence (she ran out of steam). However, at the very end she wanted to write her name all by herself and she did a great job! (And yes, I know we misspelled "puzzle" in the rush to finish but I think ol' St. Nick will forgive us.) Now to teach her the part about being naughty or nice...

While I was celebrating my b-day...

Justin discovered this after laying Parker down for bed:

Madeleine passed out cold on top of Drake; they were both were snoring. Makes a very cute picture.

Birthday snow

Today is my 31st birthday. No denying it now...I'm really in my 30s! I'm welcoming this year with a new hairstyle (will try to post pics later) and a hopeful disposition. By this time next year both kids will be in preschool and I'll have a lot more free time on my hands. I have no idea what I'll be doing with it but the prospect is titillating! I am meeting some girlfriends at a bar tonight to share beer, appetizers, but most of all companionship. I've been very fortunate to meet a few really neat women over the last few weeks and I'm looking forward to some kid-free time to enjoy conversations with them. We'll save the family celebration for tomorrow night when we don't have to suffer the effects of kids and sugar highs on a school night. And Mother Nature is sending some snow as a reminder of how quickly time does pass. Next week Thanksgiving then Christmas, New Years, and then my trip to San Diego with Carol! I'm gonna like being 31!

Unplanned projects

On Monday I burned a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Really burned it! After airing out the house as much as possible, Justin could still detect it when he came home. That finally pushed him over the edge and he agreed it was the excuse we needed to get an over-the-range microwave. I'd had my eye on one on Craigslist for a while and fortunately it was still available. Thanks to having yesterday off, we actually started and finished a project in one day (not common in our house)!

Look past Parker's head. Our old black microwave stood out like a sore thumb on the counter, taking up valuable space, especially during canning season.

Excuse the disaster but this pic shows what our cabinets looked like prior to installing the OTR microwave. The mess on the counters was all for a good cause...notice the jars of red and green salsa and canned pears and pear sauce. They should last us the year!

Installation in progress.

Space saver wonder!

Crown of the kitchen :) Justin and I are so happy with the final results! So our cabinets look a little different...it's totally worth it (we had to ensure enough clearance for the canner)! I won't have to worry about the kids trying to microwave toys (it's almost happened), provides a perfect nightlight, and isn't as loud as our old one. Now my goal is to keep the reclaimed counter space clean, at least until next canning season!

Trucking

Life's been on auto pilot lately. Not too much to report...joined a boy's 2-year old playgroup and both Parker and I are making new friends. Madeleine's getting better and better at sleeping in her twin bed and she even made it a solid 10 hours last night without waking up (first time since starting preschool). Our washing machine croaked a few weeks ago so we splurged and got a new fancy shmancy energy efficient one that we can fit a whole lot more clothes into. And we're finally moving forward with getting new windows for the house, just in time for the first dusting of snow today! Guess we have a little bit going on...just no pictures to show for it! I'll try to get some fall photos before snow covers the ground.

Halloween

We had a whirlwind evening this Halloween. Once Parker woke up from his nap, we got the kids decked out in their Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes (from Dr. Seuss books) and loaded up in the car to visit Jen as our first trick-or-treat stop. Jen indulged the kids with lots of goodies and her neighbor let them practice knocking and saying "trick-or-treat." We ran back home, slurped some smoothies, grabbed the jogger and ran around the neighborhood looking for friends who had already started ringing doorbells. We caught up to them easily and the candy fest began! Madeleine caught on very quickly to the amazing deal this is for kids and we had to keep calling her back because the 2-year olds couldn't keep up! After scarfing down some cheese, we let the kids have a bit of candy while they played with the play doh that I bought to hand out this year. It turned out to be a pretty popular trick, at least from the parents' reactions. Then Beth, Cody, and Greta stopped by for some last minute fun before bedtime. It was an evening full of friends and fun and I'm guessing we'll be hearing about it until next October.

DQ

These pictures are a bit dated (Parker still had his shaggy surfer hair) but they show some of the fun dynamic between these two. And to give credit to Dairy Queen, the new mini blizzard is perfect: big enough for sharing between two kids and small enough to not cause stomach aches or guilt for mom!