Christine is Exactly Four Months Old Today!

As I am blogging, I have to blog about Christine. Today she has officially turned four months old. This is crazy to me! I do not know what happened to the four months. We all love this little girl so much. She is beautiful, happy, calm, easy going, and honestly, one of the best babies EVER! She laughs and smiles all the time, Lexi can get her laughing the hardest out of us three. She is just such a delight and a wonderful addition to our family. She is also such a snuggler. She loves to be held, cuddled, kissed, and hugged. Even in her crib, she holds on to her blanket and presses it against her cheek while she sleeps. She just might be a blanket kid, we will have to see. But, I am so glad to be her mom and I am so glad that the Lord has blessed her with health and beauty and with a pleasing personality. We love you Christine!

Christmas Countdown Idea

I am so in love with what we are doing for our Christmas countdown this year. As I was searching my favorite blogs for some ideas, I found many, MANY ideas. However, this idea kept showing up on lots of different blogs and I felt it was the perfect one for our little family. It is a Book Christmas Countdown. Everyday, Lexi gets to unwrap a different Christmas themed book and before bed, that is the one special book we will read as a family. Lexi loves to read and so I felt this was the perfect way to not only get her into the holiday spirit, but to also have fun counting down the days to Christmas. This turned out to be really inexpensive for me. I already owned 7 Christmas themed books for toddlers and so I just needed to get 18 more. So, I headed on down to my favorite Salvation Army store for children's books. Sure enough, they had exactly 18 Christmas books, no joke. So, I bought them all. They had a deal going on where you could get 3 books for one buck, so the total cost came to 6 dollars. Fantastic! Then, I went to the dollar store, purchased wrapping paper, the red basket and the ribbon, so another 4 dollars was spent. Then, I just printed off the numbers at home from my computer and used glue dots I already owned, so that was free! So, there you go, for 10 dollars, we now have this cute book countdown that we will be starting tomorrow!

Alexis, My little Helper

Alexis has really been a big help lately with Christine. She LOVES her sister! It makes me so happy. Lexi loves to get me Christine's diapers. In fact, she literally goes through the bag and finds the design that SHE wants Christine to wear. To illustrate, here is a conversation we just had this morning about Christine's diapers.
(I was in changing Christine's diaper and already had a new one ready to go, when in walks alexis)
Alexis: Mommy, I will get a diaper for you!
Mommy: I already have one sweetie, but thanks anyways.
Alexis: Mom, let me see it.
Mommy shows Alexis the diaper
Alexis: mommy, she cannot wear Elmo today, she wants Bert!
So, Alexis goes through the bag until she finds a bert diaper and hands it to me and says,
"You are silly Mommy, today is not an Elmo day!

It cracked me up, and we have had similar conversations for a while. I do love it that she cares that much about her sister though.

Secondly, Lexi loves to help feed Christine a bottle. She thinks it is so cool.
Below are some pictures of Alexis feeding Christine yesterday.

I hope she continues to help out with her sis as they get older and I hope the love Lexi has for her will only grow stronger as they grow up together! 

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Last Friday, we set up our Christmas tree and decorated the apartment. Below are a few of my favorite Christmas decorations and pictures that we took of that night.

When we pulled this out of it's box, Lexi was instantly mesmerized by it. Then, when we turned it on, it sings and makes snow swirl all around, she loved it! Thanks Grandma Priest for getting this for her. It is so cool!

My Grandma King gave this to us a long time ago. It is actually a tree topper, but since I made our bow to top the tree, we have always just put this out as decor. I love how beautiful this angel is and how calm it makes me feel when looking at it. 

I love our simplistic Nativity. We bought it last year when we realized we didn't have one! This helps remind us the real reason for the season.

Lexi was being so goofy as we were decorating for Christmas, she can feel the excitement in the air. So, as I was trying to get a picture of her with the tree this year, she could not keep still and kept jumping up and down. So, I took the picture anyway. I actually really love it, it really captures the excitement kids feel at Christmastime. I also love that she is sporting her Halloween pjs  while standing by the tree, very cool to mix holidays!

Almost a Perfect Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving! It is, hands down, my favorite holiday. Since living in MI, we have always had Thanksgiving with friends, due to lack of family. Our first year here, we went to Ohio and celebrated with our good friends, Jake and Kara Bodell. Last year, we hosted Thanksgiving at our apartment, in which Jake and Kara AND Lucy Bodell came from Ohio and we had some friends from the ward join as well! They were both equally great! This year, however, we decided to not have Thanksgiving with friends and just celebrate with our little family. Since this is probably the last Thanksgiving in MI and the last Thanksgiving away from family I wanted the opportunity to make the ENTIRE meal myself, I have never done it until now. We also wanted to just enjoy it and not worry about the house looking perfect, being on time somewhere, kids being cranky due to lack of nap, etc, etc, etc. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful for friends who have made our time here in MI so enjoyable and the holidays so less depressing, I am indeed grateful for them. But I have realized that sometimes being with just your family and relaxing can be great as well! So that is what we did, and we all had one of the best Thanksgiving day's ever!

Because we were not expecting any visitors, we ate when everything was ready. This was great for me, especially since I slept in this morning and didn't get up when I wanted to. So, around 8:30 a.m. I woke up, preheated my oven, and started work. I did most of my prep last night so today was actually an enjoyable cooking day for me. Anyways, by 9:30 the bird was roasting away! And, due to an incredible cooking method I learned, it was done by Noon! By the time the very last thing was made, the Rolls, we ate at 2:30 p.m. We were shooting for 1 pm so not too far off :)
Here is our entire menu for the day:
Roasted Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing
Rolls
Corn
Giblet Gravy
Deviled Eggs
Root Beer
Pumpkin Pie with Homemade Whipped Cream

If I do say so myself, it was quite good! The turkey was so juicy and moist and having only made a turkey one other time before today, which was last Thanksgiving, I have improved this cooking skill a lot! I finally got over my, I cannot make rolls well at all, barrier today. These were the best rolls! I don't want to say Ever because I still think the Lion House Rolls are better, but they were up there in that caliber! Anyways, Chris is telling me not to ramble on about my food addiction, so I will save you. Let's just say I was quite proud. Chris was proud and happy as well. Lexi was just glad there were rolls and root beer. Oh, yea, and corn. Yes, that is right, that is all that stinker ate: One roll, too much rootbeer, and maybe two spoonfuls of corn. I cannot wait until she starts eating again, silly girl.

Anyways, after we ate and cleaned up somewhat, we talked to our families! I love our families. They are the greatest people on Earth. My family was scattered this year and so was Chris's family, but it is great how everyone is just one phone call away. Although I enjoyed our quiet, peaceful Thanksgiving, I am looking forward to many more Thanksgivings when we are closer to home and surrounded by wonderful family.

Then, we went for a drive, and looked at Christmas lights. It was Chris's idea, and I was actually amazed at how many people have already put up Christmas lights and trees and Christmas stuff in general. Lexi loves lights and so she had a good time.

After our drive, we came home, ate pumpkin pie, got in pjs and watched a movie as a family. It rarely happens that all four of us are on the same couch watching one movie, I loved it! Lexi got to pick and it was Ratatouille. She received this cute movie from Christmas last year from her Great Grandma King and for whatever reason, we had not watched it until now. Lexi loved it! Thanks Grandma for getting it for her! She has already asked me if we can watch it again tomorrow. And, since I am going out shopping at 3 am for Black Friday, she just might get her chance :)

Then, it was prayers, kisses, and bedtime. It really was a near perfect day for us! I am so grateful for holidays, especially because Chris does not have to go to work or school and because it makes our family seem so much closer. I am grateful for Thanksgiving and the spirit of Thanksgiving that is brought with it. I hope all of your days were happy ones and filled with good memories. So one last time, Happy Thanksgiving all!

Our Table Settings: I got the cloth napkins, napkin ring, and placemat at Pier 1 for ridiculously low prices! I love sales. Sometimes procrastinating pays off :)

The Centerpiece

Chris requested these beauties. None were left!

We received this gravy boat for our wedding and never opened it, until now! Isn't it pretty? Pretty fancy smancy. If you gave it to us four years ago, thank you. 

In my opinion, the star of the show!

Isn't is just pretty?

The bird. Okay, it looks a little weird, because I cooked it breast side down! So, the lines from my roasting pan rack made it look a little funky, but believe you me, it was scrumptious nonetheless.

Lexi just wanted to eat! 

Carving the bird. He did good!

Isn't that a pretty plate? I am so glad there are leftovers, this is making me drool just looking at it.

Christine was quite content playing while we ate. She is such a good little baby! We love her.

Lexi HAD to be in this picture. Look, she still has a roll in her hand, she literally jumped off her chair from the table to squeeze in to Christine's photo. Having trouble sharing the spotlight? No! :)

Chris loves to mix his corn with potatoes!

My girl! 

My splurge for this meal: Paula Deen stoneware pie plate. Love it! I swear the paula deen pie I made tasted 10 times better being baked in this! 

It was more like pumpkin cheesecake rather than just pumpkin pie! Very good and I am not even a huge pumpkin pie fan! Paula Deen rocks! 

This is out of order, but I had to add it. I love Lexi's look, it is kind of like, "hurry up mom!" and "okay, just for you, I'll smile."

Nature Walk and Making a Leaf Book

Today, the sun was out and it was not raining, so us three girls went on a little nature walk in our "backyard." It was so much fun as always. Lexi loves to be outdoors and let's face it, winter is coming whether we like it or not, and so we are taking every opportunity to go outside before this fluffy, white stuff we call snow appears. It was rather windy, however, and it was a chilly wind, so our walk was about 30 minutes, I wanted an hour, but Lexi's nose started looking a little red, so we cut it short. On our walk we did what we always do, pick up leaves, sticks, and other interesting things that Lexi discovers, like pinecones and acorns, etc. Normally after our walk, Lexi insists on leaving the things she found in her bucket. In the bucket they remain until I start seeing crunched up leaves in her bedroom and sticks on the bathroom floor and then it is back outside for them. Well, today, Lexi asked me if we could make a leaf book like on Sid. She is really digging this show right now on PBS called, Sid the Science Kid, and there was an episode about leaf books, oh, about a week ago, maybe two weeks ago. When she asked, I couldn't believe she remembered that episode. So, how could I tell her no. So, I got out some construction paper, and stapled two folded in half pages together to create a book. Note: I first made a red book, but Lexi looked at me and said, "Mom, I wanted an orange leaf book. pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaassssssssssseeeeeeee mommy!" So I made an orange one. She sure does have opinions these days :) Then, we used masking tape and Lexi taped her leaves and things onto each page of this book. I had her describe each item on the pages and I wrote down exactly what she told me. I love how observant she is and I love how she uses more than one adjective sometimes to describe something, like she said, "big, brown leaf, and brown, bumpy pinecone" Pretty good for a 2 year old, I think anyways. When we were done, she flipped through the book, reading it to me. It was cute. After she was done, I said, "Okay it is time to clean up!" All of the sudden she looked at me with this look in her eye like she had the most brillant idea ever. She said, "Mom, wait! We need to get my magnifying glass and really look at the leaves!" "I'll get it Mommy!" Sure enough, she walked over to her backpack, pulled out her magnifying glass and came back to the table. She started looking at her objects using it and then she got so excited and said, "Mom, these leaves have lines on them, just like Sids!" I was amazed at first, how much she remembered from that episode way back when and second, that she was so observant and was acting like a "real scientist!" Who knows, maybe she will choose a profession in the science field one day. Anyways, I just wanted to share because we had a good day making discoveries!

Everytime we ask her to smile now, she cocks her head back like this, it is funny!

Funny Story: When I put the tape on this pinecone, she started laughing and said, "Mommy, you gave the pinecone a blanket!' She thought it was hilarious!

I don't know why she is making that face, but it makes me smile.

Look at my scientist!

FHE: Oreo Cookie Turkey

Tonight for FHE we read our thankful tree leaves to remind us of what we are thankful for. We also sang songs about Gratitude and discussed, briefly, the history behind Thanksgiving. Then, for our treat/activity we made these adorable oreo cookie turkeys. The whole family enjoyed doing this! As Lexi was making hers, she would sneak candy corns and pop em in her mouth.Then, I would ask her, "Did you take a candy corn?" (as her cheeks were bulging and orange/yellow drool rolled down her chin). She looked at me, and said, "No, mom." (as pieces of candy corn were falling out of her mouth). After this, she would just start to laugh, it made us all laugh. She really enjoyed eating as she worked! But, I was impressed that when all was said and done, she actually completed one turkey! Chris also made some turkeys. So, it was a fun family endeavor. Lexi kept singing, when she wasn't eating, The five fat turkeys are we.. song. It was cute! I had taught it to her when we made the hand and foot turkey and she remembered it, apparently. Anyways, it was fun to make these and remember that sometimes playing, laughing, singing and eating with your family are the best of times. It was also a fun reminder of how Thanksgiving is fast approaching, I am so excited! So, from our family to yours, Happy Early Turkey Day!

There should be another candy corn on the bottom left hand side, but Lexi snatched it! Anyways, this was the best looking one we made!

I love this picture, because Lexi kept looking at it and saying, "I love you little turkey!"

She was so proud of her creation! And, as you can see from Lexi's face, these turkeys are also messy and scrum-diddly-umptious! She even got some frosting in her nose if you look close enough :)

Chris really was proud of this one, it was his first one that stood up without falling over!

Chris insisted that I be in a picture too, so here I am, in all my Monday night glory, with my last turkey of the evening!

Library Craft Project

I absolutely love, Love, LOVE our local library! It is amazing. The kid section is really incredible, I hope to have a playroom/basement that I can layout just like the libraries. It is that awesome! I try to go to the library twice a month with the kiddos, and sometimes we even go 3 times a month. While we are there, we always have the same routine. We first pick/check out our books and then Lexi gets to play with the puppet theatre, puzzles, kitchen, felt board, lego table, computer games etc. Then, before leaving we go over and see the fish in the aquarium. Well, this past Thursday when we went to say bye to the fish, there were craft projects  for the taking. They were already cut, bagged, and ready to be brought home for children to put together. I thought it was cool. So, Lexi picked out this fall wreath that she wanted to take home and do. She loved doing this. It is the simpliest project ever and I think it was one of her more favorite ones. She got to tear the strips of paper into little squares, which she loved, and she got to glue. She is getting so good at glueing. How we do it is, I give her a wooden stick, I pour some glue onto a paper plate, and then Lex dredges one end of the popsicle stick in glue and then smears it all over whatever she needs to put glue on. It is great! She calls it "painting with glue" which is a pretty good description of what she is doing. Anyways, she did this whole project pretty much entirely on her own. It is now hanging on her bedroom door. Today, I asked her if we could take it down, because everytime you open/close the door it makes a swoosh noise and drives me a little crazy, but when I asked she looked at me with the saddest look and said, "Mommy, please don't that would make me sad." So, it is still up. But, I am glad she is so proud of her artwork! And, thank you library for the wonderful Thrusday project.

I love her look in this picture. And, I love that you can see her trademark smile, gotta love the gap in between her  teeth. 

Fall Family Pictures 2010

Our wonderful friend, Carlie, took our family pictures at a beautiful placed called Meadowbrook Gardens. It was a bit cold, but some of them turned out really cute, nonetheless. Christine was excellent, even though it is hard to get a 3 month old to smile and Lexi was being rather difficult to work with until Talen, Carlie's 4 year old son, started making funny faces and then Lexi was laughing hysterically. But, all in all, we captured the moments I had hoped for. These pictures will not be used for our family's Christmas card, but I wanted to share them anyways, because I like them. So, here is a glimpse of our family photos.

One Night in Bethlehem

Each year, instead of doing a ward Christmas dinner, our ward puts on an event called, One Night in Bethlehem. Basically, our entire church building is transformed into Bethlehem and tour guides take groups through each scene which all leads to the manger room where there is the Nativity scene. That is not a very good explanation for this wonderful event, but hopefully you get the idea of what I am talking about. Since living in MI I have been involved with this event. The first year I was in charge of communications. The second year I was in the cast as a tour guide. Well, this year, Christine and I get to be involved. I am still going to be a tour guide, and Christine gets to be one of the four baby Jesus's. Today, the sweet lady who is in charge of PR, took a picture of the cute couple playing Mary and Joseph and Christine as Baby Jesus. The picture is going to be put in all local newspapers online and hard copies to promote this community event. I just had to share the picture, I think it turned out really good. I am really excited to be a part of this event again this year, and I am thrilled that Christine gets to be a part of it as well. Now, I want everyone to  pray on Friday, Dec. 3rd that Christine will be a sweet, peaceful, baby Jesus :) Okay? Thanks!

Hand and Foot Turkey

I love Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving themed crafts for kids! Today, we made a hand and foot turkey, Lexi's hand and foot turkey to be exact! I love, LOVE how I had all the supplies on hand so that we could make this in no time and inexpensively! Double bonus! Lexi just loved creating this turkey and the end result was fantastic. In fact, she has been carrying this turkey around all day. Now, she is napping and as I was getting her ready for her nap she asked me if the turkey could come take a nap with her! She is that in love :) It is cute!
We used her hand prints for the feathers, her foot traced onto brown foam for the head, a paper plate that is colored in brown marker for the body, pipe cleaner for the feet, and scrap pieces of orange and red construction paper for the beak and gobble part.
Tips: So I did not have to trace Lex's
hand 8 times, I just took four pieces of construction paper, folded the stack in half, traced her hand once and then cut out all the papers at once. It was simple and fast and they all came out uniform. Also, I wanted to paint the paper plate, but did not have brown, so we used marker, but next time, I will invest in the brown paint, because she got tired of coloring the plate and I had to finish. It was also a little time consuming and did not turn out as pretty as paint would have. So buy the paint if you don't have it. Lastly, I traced her foot with no shoe on. This is harder to do. Next time, I will have her put on a shoe. She kept saying the pen tickled her feet and would move, and then because her toes are not even the head is slightly slanted. But oh well, live and learn. So if you want to re-create this with your kiddos hopefully my little tips will help. No matter, Lexi had fun doing this and it really was easy to do. She helped me with all the steps and it held her attention, except when I had to cut, then she read books! I love creating things with Lex and to create projects using her own hands and feet are a great momento as well. I plan to keep this particular project in her "baby box" so that she can see how small and tiny her hands and feet were once upon a time...

FHE: President Monson's talk: The Divine Gift of Gratitude

I just love General Conference weekends! This last one in October was especially good! Well, tonight it was my turn to give the Family Home Evening lesson and I chose one of my favorite talks given by our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson, on gratitude. This topic has been on my mind a lot lately, probably because I have been complaining lately more than being grateful. Well, this talk has inspired me to look at life with the glass half full rather than half empty.
Some of my favorite quotes from the talk are the following:
"A grateful heart...comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives."
"My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."
"Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings."
"We have all experienced times when our focus in on what we lack rather than on our blessings. Said the greek philosopher Epictetus, "'He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."'
The latter quote is the one that really touched me the most. Lately, I have been dwelling on the things I DON'T have rather than the things I DO have and my attitude has been not a good one because of it. Well, tonight, for Family Home Evening, we discussed this talk and we made a Thankful Tree listing 50 things we are thankful for so that we can start to appreciate and remember those blessings which we do have. This was a fun activity, even Lexi could think of things she was grateful for. We have this tree hanging on our wall and we are going to keep it up for the entire month of November. And, everyday, we are going to add leaves (blessings) because everyday there is something new to be thankful for. My hope is that we will see this tree and remember all that the Lord has blessed us with and remember that it is because of Jesus Christ that our lives are so richly blessed. I personally want to thank everyone who has helped me in my life. Most of our tree are filled with PEOPLE who have blessed our lives. People like moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, cousins and all other relatives. I am so grateful for the people God has put in my life and I know it was no accident I was sent to the family that I was.

Spinach Stuffed Shells (Freezer Meal)

Our ward's RS has started a new, ongoing project to help better serve the sisters in our ward. Our RS president and Humanitarian Leader have asked the sisters in the ward to prepare a freezer meal that will be placed in a central RS freezer and when someone in the ward needs a meal, they will pull out one of the freezer meals instead of calling someone to prepare and take over a meal. I think it is a very good idea! We will see how it goes. Well, I signed up to prepare a freezer meal and this is the one I made: Spinach Stuffed Shells. It is delicious! The ward is asking for 8 by 8 inch pans, so what I did was I made one 8 by 8 for the ward and one 8 by 8 for our family's dinner. It was really nice, it was no extra work on my part. This was really a quick and easy meal and it was delicious, like I already mentioned. In fact, Chris told me it was his favorite stuffed shell recipe I have made yet and that is a big compliment because I have made many stuffed shell recipes throughout our married life. Anyways, I will include the recipe and pics of the meal. Oh, a great tip I learned from a wonderful cook in my ward, Patty, is on how to keep a freezer meal from getting freezer burn. Place an 8 by 8 inch size pan in a gallon ziplock freezer bag and then take a straw and suck out all the air so it creates a vacuum effect. you can also write the directions on the ziplock baggie for convenience, it is genius. That is what mine is a picture of. Again, genius idea! Now that I realize how nice freezer meals can be, I plan on making more for my family so that on days where we are short on time or I don't feel like cooking we can have a nice meal instead of taco bell. Anyways, enjoy and if you have some yummy freezer meal recipes, please send my way at heidi.glidewell@gmail.com. Thanks!

Recipe:

Spinach Stuffed Shells

www.sisterscafe.blogspot.com

1 pkg jumbo pasta shells

1 jar favorite spaghetti sauce

1 pkg chopped spinach, thawed

2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

1 lg carton cottage cheese

1 egg

Thaw spinach and drain well. Cook shells according to package directions (I always slightly undercook them by a minute). Mix in a large bowl;cottage cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, spinach and egg white. stuff mixtre into shells and place in 9x13 baking dish (I usually use 2 smaller sized ones because my family does not eat a whole 9x13 for dinner). I spray the baking dish with cooking spray and pour a little bit of sauce in the bottom. Stuff mixture into shells and place into prepared dish (or dishes). Pour spaghetti sauce over shells and top with some cheese. Cover and freeze or you can bake it immediatly at 350 for 30-45minutes until heated thru. If you freeze it plan on adding an additional hour to your baking time. I love freezing this meal, but it is also a great recipe to make earlier in the day and keep in the fridge. Then all you have to do it throw it in the oven for dinner.

                                     Before adding sauce and cheese on top

                                                        I forgot to cover mine with foil before placing in plastic bag, so don't forget like I did. 

Lexi's First Counting Book

Last week, I was trying to think of a "preschool" activity I could do with Lex that would actually be educational and fun! Well, Lexi loves to count, she loves shapes and colors and pretty much anything to do with math. So, we made a counting book. Lexi LOVED doing this! I just took a piece of construction paper, (the color green was her pick), and folded it into a book. Then, I took a marker and just wrote the numbers 1-6 in the corners of each page. I then laid out a bunch of foam shape stickers and together, Lexi and I put the stickers on each page until we had the amount that represented each number. She really enjoyed it, more than I actually thought she would. I also loved how this one simple activity reinforced more than just counting. It reinforced shapes and colors as well. Plus, she had to use her fine motor skills to peel the paper backing off each sticker, which trust me, took patience for Lexi and me, but she did it! So, this one activity did so many educational things! I love it when that happens. Then, on the back page, I wrote a number and drew that many lines by it and Lexi had to count as she placed the stickers on the lines. This was great. Lexi can count to 14 just by memory, but if you have her point and count she has difficulty for she will point to one object and say, "1,2" so if there are only 5 items she will say 10 because she doubles counts each one, if that makes sense. So this was practice for counting and pointing, I forgot the actual educational word for this at the moment, but you get the point. Anyways, I have been trying to do things like this with Lex at least twice a week, at LEAST. And, it is really good and gives us something structured that is beneficial and most importantly, makes learning FUN! I love watching Lexi learn and I love it when she gets so proud of herself for saying and doing the right things. I love how kids come to earth curious and full of love for learning. It is great! I get my teacher fix everytime I teach lexi something new!