New Year's Resolutions




I read an interesting article talking about the science behind resolutions...

It said according to a 2002 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, people who made New Year's Resolutions had higher rates of success at making the desired behavior change (losing weight, exercising more and quitting smoking being the most prevalent) than people who did not make resolutions. After six months, 46 percent of the resolution makers were successful compared to just 4 percent of the people who did not make resolutions.

So, I think I better get my resolutions written down, huh?

Missing Matt...and more random Tuesday happenings




He's gone tonight on business. the house is so lonely in the evenings with out him here! I miss him.

Anyway, the kiddos and I had a fun day, though. Grant and I did lots of running around the house (he LOVES it when I chase him!) and hopping like frogs, jumping like gorillas, etc. He, minus one potty trip 10 minutes after he went to bed, went straight to sleep, so I think I wore him out! It's just so hard to keep him active (as active as he needs to be!) when it's sooo cold out!

So, Gracie is just starting to like a few more solid foods. I found out that I had been making them too thick , and that's why she was gagging . (Well, I guess it has been 2 years since I've made baby food!)

Anyway, she LOVES mangos. LOVES them. but, that was what she had the night she threw up, so we're waiting a little to try those again.

So, today I tried sweet potatoes again - she just doesn't like them. Takes a couple bites, then just will NOT open her mouth after that!

The new food for the day was baby organic yogurt, which is the 2nd thing that she's loved. Opened her mouth for more bites and all! Fun to see her start eating some. But I looked in Grant's baby book and I had written when talking about the 8th month that "solids still aren't a daily necessity". So, made me feel better about Grace. She'll eat, when she's ready.

I do worry about her gross motor skills - am calling about an evaluation tomorrow. But, even if she does have a gross motor delay, we've BTDT, and Grant caught up SO FAST. He was climbing stuff at Monkey Joes that my nephew, who'd been walkign since 10 months old, would never have climbed. anyway - I think I worry because I equate gross motor delay = cognitive delay.

off to bed, although it's SO hard to force myself to go to sleep with out DH here!

Muffins gone wrong




So, I offered to one of my neighbors to bring muffins to our weekly playgroup tomorrow morning. She said that'd be great, so I went through my Weight Watcher recipes to find one that sounded good. (I thought our playgroup could use a healthy snack to kick of the new year!) The Orange-Oatmeal recipe sounded the best, and I had everything on hand.

Well, I ended up being about 1/2 cup short of bisquick, so I googled and found that you can sub Bisquick with flour, baking powder, salt, and some Crisco. (I don't quite get the Crisco, but that's what it said!) So, I measured out the equivalent of the Bisquick I was short - and I decided to use whole wheat flour.

Well, I think I just changed too many things, because the muffins are NOT GOOD. I think the whole wheat flour was just too strong of a flavor - you can't taste the "orange" of the "orange-oatmeal muffins". I'll have to re-do the recipe in the morning, using plain white flour. They're only 3 Weight Watcher points per muffin, so not too bad. (although I could so easily eat like, 3 muffins!)

anyway - I'll let you know how the next batch turns out. ;-)



Matt left for Arkansas around noon today so I'm killing time online instead of going to bed!

I ran to Target this morning to get some groceries. it was GOOD to get out by myself! Stocked up on healthy food! Bye-bye Christmas weight gain :roll:, hello pre-pregnancy weight!

ran 3 miles on the treadmill today, even!

Grant and I had fun playing. we jumped on the bed, and then ran in the living room (made a "track" out of the bumper ran on the "track" and then landed on the couch pillows). I love him. I need him to watch less tv...gotta work on that!

made muffins tonight - NOT GOOD. tried subbing whole wheat flour for part of the bisquick - the WW taste was too strong and overpowered the orange flavor of the muffins. I have a feeling that with out the WW flour, they'd be good!

New Year Resolutions




I'll post my New Year Resolutions soon...but, to inspire all of us in the New Year, here's a good inspirational quote I just came across:

"There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results."

Happy New Year, all!

Merry Christmas!




Figuring out how the wrapping paper works:






Realizing that it's a tractor:





A Green, JOHN DEERE tractor, at that!



His Daddy helping him get it out of the box:





Playing with the tractor on the cool new road his mommy made him:





The glorious John Deere, even with a wagon:

Merry Christmas!




Figuring out how the wrapping paper works:






Realizing that it's a tractor:





A Green, JOHN DEERE tractor, at that!



His Daddy helping him get it out of the box:





Playing with the tractor on the cool new road his mommy made him:







The glorious John Deere, even with a wagon:

She's Beautiful




I think so, at least. I just love this picture!

(Her shirt is an early Christmas present that I couldn't wait to try on her!)

My Sweet GracieGirl:



Gracie's Christmas Gift




Grace modeling her Christmas gift that's almost done. (shhh! don't tell her it's still a little early!)


I think I need to change her diaper...




Grant just came up to me in the kitchen and said, "mommy, Gracie smells bad!"



I think I better change her diaper!

And, I'm just amazed at his language development!! It seems like every day he learns more words and is putting together bigger sentences.

Dry Feet




Poor Grace and her dry skin! :( Her legs have always been rough, not that smooth baby skin. :( Well, her feet got so dry they got brown scaly spots on them!

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So, a couple of nights ago I slathered her in Auqaphor (baby Eucerin cream) and then put her sleeper on her. Wow! In the morning, her feet and legs were the smoothest I've ever felt them! So, obviously, I need to keep doing that for her poor dry skin!

Since the Eucerin helped her so much, I slathered it onto my heels and feet a couple of nights ago. I don't know what's wrong with my feet, but they get nasty, especially in the winter time! The heels have layers and layers of dry skin, and they crack and get nasty. Seriously, weird, huh? So, I used the Eucerin on my feet for a couple of nights in a row, and it was amazing! Matt saw them and said it was the smoothest he's ever seen my feet look!

So, I guess the girls in the house need pedicures more often.

Not so into it...




Solid foods, that is. We wanted to wait until Gracie was 6 months old (adjusted) to start solids (as we did for Grant), so over the past couple of weeks we've gradually tried bananas, sweet potatoes, and applesauce (all homemade! )

Well, she's just not that into it...here's the general face she makes:

It's like she's saysing "really, mom? come'on, I don't want this stuff!"

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Ebay...




So, here's the dress I won for Grace - someone said the link in the previous post wasn't working for some reason:

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And, I think something happened to the seller! The seller had *fantastic* feedback (like, 99% positive, everyone had terrific things to say about the item, shipping time, etc)- up until last Friday (when, ironically, I bought the dress! ) And over the past week, there's been about 6 or 7 feedbacks given that they haven't received the item, haven't heard from the seller, etc.

So, i'm wondering if the seller was in a car accident or something?

but, still a bummer all around - I'm searching for another Christmas dress that might get here in time - maybe for the Christmas Eve service, and the Sunday after Christmas is still "christmasy" enough for a special dress!

Ebay Bummer




I won this dress for Gracie for Christmas last Friday night (a week ago!) and still have not received it in the mail! It's been a week! If he mailed it Monday (which he should have! ), I sooo should have got it by today! What a bummer! I really wanted her to wear it to church tomorrow morning. I even have a new red hair bow to match the dress, which I was excited about since her hair is finally long enough to have a hair bow!

anyway, not big in the scheme of it all, but still a bummer!

Saturday Evening sickies




Grant has a fever of 99.9 and I could only get the thermometer between his elbow and tummy (he wouldn't let me put it up further), so I'm sure it's higher. he just feels like he's burning up. He woke up crying 30 minutes ago saying"don't feel well, mommy".

grace is kind of wheezing and has a temp of 101.1! she's acting fairly okay, though slightly fussy. (which, for her, is a lot).

matt's in bed, sick. he's been sick all week, and is actually feeling worse tonight. I'm getting a little stressed and worried about everyone sick in this household!

So bummed at Ebay!




I won this dress for Gracie for Christmas last Friday night (a week ago!) and still have not received it in the mail! It's been a week! If he mailed it Monday (which he should have! ), I sooo should have got it by today! What a bummer! I really wanted her to wear it to church tomorrow morning. I even have a new red hair bow to match the dress, which I was excited about since her hair is finally long enough to have a hair bow! (which, her hair bow that I bought from Etsy still isn't here, either, so I guess it's okay!)

anyway, not big in the scheme of it all, but still a bummer!

Saturday Morning




And everyone SLEPT! Grant slept in until 8:45 this morning! Seriously, this is the kid who if he sleeps until 7:15 we're thinking he slept in! And Grace did,too! Matt and I actually woke up BEFORE they did, and I even asked Matt if he thought Grant were okay! 8:45 is probably the latest he's slept since he was a baby!

And it's snowing! I LOVE it! Seriously, I love snow. That's probably one of the few things I enjoyed when we lived in Iowa - all the snow we got there! it just feels so Christmasy.

Matt and I are enjoying our coffee - he's still feeling slightly under-the-weather, so hopefully today he'll feel better.

I think while the kiddos are napping this afternoon I'm running out to get the last of Grant's shopping done. It's just impossible to do it with him with me this year!

Tuesday evening




Whew!

long couple of days...

My grandmother passed away this past weekend, and her funeral was yesterday. The family asked Matt to do the service (she didn't attend church, ever, so as the minister in the family he's the default for funerals et al)...

Well, matt woke up SO SICK Tuesday morning. he barely made it through the funeral and burial service.

We got home about 7:30 last night, grant was in bed by about 7:45, and he slept straight until 8 this morning! he didn't have a nap yesterday. The funeral was in my parent's home town, so my brother and SIL and us traded off kid duty so we could go to the viewing/service (they went to the viewing, I went to the service, they didn't - I was closer to my gma, and I wanted to be there for Matt as he was doing the service).

anyway, Grant and my nephew, who's just 6 weeks older than him (so essentially the exact same age!), played ALL DAY LONG. they got a little restless towards the end of the day, but played well the majority of the day. But they wore each other out!!!

Matt went in for a meeting that he had to be at and then came home early afternoon. I've been doing kid duty for the past couple of days and am TIRED. but, his day off is tomorrow, so we'll get to relax around the house. And, hopefully one more good night's sleep will help him. i don't know how single moms do it!

I've been working on Gracie's tutu and Grant's road on and off all day, in between playing with Grant and feeding Grace. (she's e-a-s-y to entertain and honestly doesn't require that much effort! ) I've been really trying to limit grant's TV time and up our "preschool" type activities - I bought this cool preschool activity book that has given me some great ideas. (putting reindeer tracks out as we hunt for Santa, etc). Anyway, Grant's down to about 45 minutes of tv - (from about an hour and a half! ) 1/2 an hour of George in the mornings and 15 minutes of another George episode in the evenings while I make supper.

Okay, anyway, did y'all see the road I'm making for Grant?

Almost done...




Grace modeling her Christmas gift that's almost done. (shhh! don't tell her it's still a little early!)


oil




Grant just told me that his mower was broken and it "needed oil". this kid is hilarious!