January Randomness

Here are some sweet pics of the kids from January...

Bailey ALWAYS has to sit in my lap, even if he is sitting on Grant too. In fact, Bailey's sitting on my lap now, even as I type. He's a cuddler...and maybe a little spoiled too. ;)

Jenna's favorite jammies from "B"

Having fun in the snow

Jenna loves our neighbor-girl Brenna.

He finally got those yummy toes in his mouth!

First fruit - applesauce

First veggie - squash

Jenna loves to help cook now. Whenever Drew or I are in the kitchen cooking, so always says, "Big stool, Mommy" followed by "I do it!" Here she's making a homemade pizza with Daddy.

This next section is dedicated to my sweet, mischievous, always on-the-go 2 year-old. It's rare that a day goes by without her getting into something she's not supposed to. Although it's frustrating at the time, it's also humorous because I know she's just curious. She definitely keeps me busy, but I LOVE her!! (And, to be honest, I think she just takes after her Mommy who also has a mischievous side to her as well.)

This night Jenna got a hold of Grant's baby cereal and decided it would be a good idea to dump the entire (full) box on the floor. So besides the frustation at the mess and the "money down the drain", I laughed it off and began cleaning it up. First I swept it up and then I swiffered the floor to make sure I got it all up. Well....if you know anything about baby cereal, you'll soon realize that was a terrible mistake! Baby cereal is very fine and flaky and it becomes almost like a paste when you add liquid. Sooo....when I sprayed the floor and then tried to wipe it up, it became like a paste - impossible to see because it's the same color as the floor and very sticky! Needless to say it took quite a bit of cleaning to really get it all. :)

Jenna's also been watching Drew and me and likes to mimic what we do. For instance, she'll put her finger in our contact cases and then put it up by her eye and say "dakah" (contact). So on this morning I was busy with Grant and noticed that Jenna wasn't around and that it was quiet in the house...never a good combination. When I went upstairs, this is what I found...

Another day I came into our bathroom to find most of a bottle of lotion all over the bathroom floor. Needless to say, our bathroom door now has a childproof lock on it! ;)

Then another day Jenna grabbed a full bag of pretzels and dumped them onto the desk...salt and all.

Sneak peek....

We got our family pictures taken last month. I was planning on uploading quite a few on here, but the pictures are too large. So here's a sneak peek of them. If you'd like to see all of the pictures, go to: http://www.photoreflect.com/store/thumbpage.aspx?e=7810836

Drew's Birthday and Alumni Basketball Weekend

Since we were getting together with my family to celebrate my mom's (Jan. 21st) and Drew's birthdays (Jan. 19th) we didn't do too much at our house for his birthday. But he did get a special home-cooked meal and instead of a birthday cake, he got a plate of lemon squares - one of his favorites. I tried to put 27 candles in the cookies, but ran out of candles (and space!). :)

Earlier that day Jenna painted a picture for Daddy.

On January 22nd, our family, my parents, my sister and her husband all headed to Cedarville to watch Drew play in the Alumni Basketball game. I was soooo very thankful that my family came, not only to cheer on Drew, but also for their help with the kids! Jenna sat with my mom and sister for most of the game. And actually she sat and watched most of the game too. We even got her to say, "Go Daddy!". :) But near the end of the game she was ready to move around.

The only picture I got of Drew playing. He did really well...or at least that's what I hear. I didn't get to watch too much of the game because I was catching up with friends and taking care of the kids. :)

Mommy and her little stud

Some of Drew's closest basketball friends from Cedarville - (from left to right) Jason Weakley, Scott Tarvin, Anthony Delimpo (holding his youngest son, Colt), and Drew.

We stayed for the men's varsity game that night. It was fun being back for a game even though we were both pretty busy taking care of the kids. We'd trade off between the two and take turns walking around the gym with Jenna.

We had a great time being back on campus and seeing some of our Cedarville friends. We said this fall that we were hoping to make it to a few basketball games, but it just didn't happen. I guess that's how it is when you have two young kids. :) BUT...maybe we'll get to do it next season.

We had a birthday party for Jenna a few weeks after her birthday. It was a ladybug theme and we invited family that lives nearby. We figure next year she'll be old enough to want her friends at her parties. I've done a lot of party planning over the past few years with wedding and baby showers at our church - it's something I really enjoy doing. So when I planned on having a ladybug themed party for Jenna, I did research and found some really cute ideas I wanted to incorporate. Here it goes...

Look at that mischievous face. She's probably about to sneak some candy...

Before guests arrived, Jenna dressed up in her play shoes and sunglasses (upside down, of course).

Some decor and the birthday cake I made. It was my first big cake and so much fun doing! I'd like to make all the birthday cakes for my kids...we'll see.

The guests...Uncle Leon and Aunt Diane

Uncle Jim, Aunt Lois, and "cousin" John

Phil, Amanda, and other "cousin" Silas

Aunt Kelley and Uncle Brian

And of course, Grant

Opening presents

I made her party hat from supplies I had at home - I used a paper party hat that I had extras of from her birthday last year and covered it in black felt. Then I cut a small strip from our red Christmas tree garland to put around the bottom. I cut out a "2" from red felt, hot glued it on, and outlined it in my crafting glitter glue. Then just added a glittery pom-pom on top. It would have been nice if Jenna actually wore it longer than 10 seconds, but that's okay. :)

Singing Happy Birthday to her

Blowing out the candles...Daddy had to help her a little

Eating the yummy cake and ice-cream. She preferred the ice-cream over the cake though. We're realizing she's not much of a cake person, but she does love her ice-cream.

Some of the food...fruit kabobs. Originally I was trying to make them look like ladybugs...with a strawberry bottom and grapes for the head, but it didn't look anything like a ladybug...haha. So they're just plain old fruit kabobs.

My ladybug appetizers - the top ones are Ritz crackers with a cream cheese topping, small tomatoes halved, and olives for the heads. Then I took some of the cream cheese mixture and tinted it black to put little dots on the tomatoes. The middle ladybugs are Ritz crackers with mozzarella cheese slices and pepperoni wings with olives, once again, for the heads. The bottom plate holds lots of Oreo ladybugs. Wish I could say I came up with these ideas all on my own...nope.

Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw with the grandkids

The kitchen decor. We also got some red and black helium balloons and Drew drew black spots on the red balloons.

Our family

Grant was such a trooper throughout the whole party, even though he was exhausted. He finally fell asleep in Daddy's arms. Such a sweetheart!

Later that day we gave Jenna her gift from us - an art easel. One side is a dry erase board and the other is a blackboard.