Friday, May 17, 2013

Ladybugs and A Sandbox

Kylie loves everything and anything to do with ladybugs for some reason. Thankfully we seem to have hoards of them in our yard. She enjoys it greatly!
To her surprise and delight, library hour this past Wednesday was all about ladybugs! There were a couple of stories about them and then they sang "5 little ladybugs jumping on the bed" and then the kids got to make a ladybug.
Here are a couple photos of her project.

gluing the head on

gluing on the spots
 
The final ladybug
Only getting a real smile by getting tickled by a friend
:)
 
After library we went and bought some sand. Last fall we bought one of those turtle sandboxes from a local up-cycle site for our town. Kylie has been asking for sand ever since. We also picked up a couple of sandbox toys and we set up the sandbox in the afternoon. She was pretty excited. I also put Sidney in to see what she thought of the sand. She was a little confused and had to be stopped multiple times from eating the sand. :)
Here are a couple pics of the girls in their new sandbox.

so focused. :)
 

 

So happy to have made a sand castle
 

Gotta love the turtle eyes.... :)
 

Sidney's reaction to the sand. :)
 

Just before she tried to eat it.
:)
 
 
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Swinging video

Over Mother's Day weekend, Mike and Kylie spent some quality time on the swing.
Thought I would share a video of it.
I love Kylie's insane laughter, which was much louder Before I started taping. :)

For some reason, I can't get the video to upload to the post like my last videos. Here is the link to watch it on though.


http://youtu.be/DblhmMScdM8



Hope you can see it!


Random pics from past week

Here are some random pics from this past week.

Enjoy!
I just find this picture to be fabulous.
 

Got the water table out!
 
 
Enjoying herself
 

Lookin at herself in a really tiny mirror
 

Kylie takin a break just about half way through a recent walk
 

all bundled up one cool night to watch Kylie roast marshmallows
 

What you looking at?
 

The girls and me on Mother's Day.
 

Enjoying some mashed potatoes!
 

 



Sunday, May 5, 2013

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Last weekend I made some buffalo chicken dip to go with lunch. Everyone seemed to love it and I received a couple of requests to share the recipe. So, I figured I would share it here.

Ingredients:
  • 1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk ranch dressing
  • 1/2 cup buffalo style hot sauce (I used franks redhot wings - buffalo sauce)
  • 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 10 oz cans chicken breast, drained
Directions:

     Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place cream cheese in baking dish and stir until smooth. Mix in buttermilk ranch dressing, buffalo style hot sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Then stir in chicken.
Bake 15-20 minutes or until dip is completely heated through. Stir again and serve.


The first time I made this, I didn't stir it enough before I put it in the oven. My chunks of chicken didn't really break up that much and my dip was pretty lumpy from the chicken. So, whether you stir it lots before or after heating, make sure the chicken gets broken up to make the dip a little "smoother" if you will.

Enjoy!!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Rolling Over, Standing Tall & Happy Eating!

Here are a few pics from the last week.

Sidney finally rolled back to tummy - the morning of the 1st. She then did it once last night when she was reaching for a toy! So I actually saw it happen!

I didn't put her in like this!
:)
 
 
Sidney has also gotten real good at pulling herself up. She did it in her crib again the other day and then did yesterday on her toy box. She then proceeded to pull toys out. I am pretty sure she doesn't realize that she can sit down again, because she stood there for a loooong time and then started fussing for some help. :)
 
 
Standing in her crib again
 

So proud of herself!
 

giving me a "profile" shot :)
 
 
Sidney has gotten sooo much better at eating this past week. I am very grateful for that! She is in her high chair and I am going to pretend that that is the reason she is eating!
I finally found a food today that she is excited about eating! (or she was just starving at lunch today!)
Normally, it takes a lot of work to get a spoon in her mouth. But today she approached the spoon with an open mouth and devoured her pears quite quickly!
She has also become a puff hoarder. If there is more than two on the tray, she will grasp them all in her hands and then can't for the life of her figure out where they all went. :)
 
Prune face and handful of puffs
(we are avoiding prunes for a while, because I think the
bumps she got on her face this week were from the prunes!)
 

"Yea pears!"
 
 
Not much else happened this week. Kylie has been pretty low key and I forgot the camera for both library and play group this week. So no new pics of her really.
 
 
Hope you all have a great weekend!!



Tuesday, April 30, 2013

7 months!!

Sidney is 7 months old today! I can't believe our little peanut is that old already! I say that every month that rolls around, but it is so sad that time is going this fast!

The fact that Sidney is 7 months old, means there is only 4 months until Kylie turns 4!!! Holy crap!

Sidney has been pretty busy this past month. She can now pull herself up on things. She did it on her little blue rocker chair, in her crib and on my legs. When she does it on my legs she usually gets stuck in sort of a L position, unless I bend my legs up. She easily goes from sitting to crawl position and has even pushed herself backwards with her hands. She can also turn herself in a little circle when she is in a half crawl/half laying on her belly position. I know she badly wants to be moving. She sits on her hands and needs and keeps rocking herself back and forth! I imagine this next month will be it. I bet she will be crawling before she turns 8 months.

Sidney still doesn't have any teeth. I thought this morning, that I may have seen a slight little white barely showing on her bottom, but I'm not 100% sure.
 For a week now she has been wearing an amber teething necklace.  It is made from Baltic sea amber. When warmed against the skin, the amber releases succinic acid, an all-natural anti-inflammatory with antibiotic and pain-relieving properties. So it helps with her teething pain.
 Many people think they are just hoaxes. But I think it works and I think it seems to be helpful. She has already stopped "chewing" on her lips/tongue like she has done previously and like Kylie did all the way through her teething. She is also just less cranky in the evenings, so I am sold that it must be working.

Sidney weighs about 16 pounds still. I find this to be surprising since she weighed 16 pounds a month ago. I thought she would way more than that since she is on a pooping hiatus again. She has pooped 2 times in the last couple of weeks. I just bought her some prunes, to hopefully remedy that situation.

She is also 26.5 inches, maybe. I could not get her to cooperate with getting measured today. But that seemed pretty close. She has been growing about half an inch each month lately, so that should be pretty close. :)

She is still pretty bad about being fed with a spoon. So, she hasn't had as much food as most 7 month olds usually eat. She discovered cheerios and puffs this past weekend. She did pretty good feeding herself. I may have to just really finely chop some very ripe fruit/veggies and just let her feed herself.
I think she would like that better anyways.
Oh - and we got a high chair!! Thanks to Mike's grandpa!! His family brought it out to us this past weekend. It is a beautiful wooden high chair and I am so glad we were able to receive it!

She is such an amusing little girl. She has quite the shy attitude as well. She will still give people a little smile as she turns her head down, so you can't see her face. She is usually quite vocal and makes the cutest little trills sometimes.


Here are a couple pictures from today!

My big girl.


Refusing to let things be and sit still for pictures.
:)

Standing with her blue chair!
 
 
We are looking forward to seeing what she will learn this next month!


Sidney's Dress

I realized Sunday night, that I didn't get a single picture of Sidney in her dress, by herself.

So I dressed her back up and took pictures Monday afternoon.

She REFUSED to have her bonnet on, so I didn't get a good picture of that. But I took her outside to some random spots and took a couple pictures....here are a few of the better ones that I was able to get from her. She wasn't in a real smiley mood. :(

The only smile I got
& the only one with shoes on too I think!
 
 
The only way she wouldn't touch her bonnet
was to have something in each hand.
Thus, we removed the shoes.
:)
 

Outdoor shot
(I think I need to re-edit the coloring on this one)
 

I really like this one!
:)
 

She refused to look at me. :)
It was a little too sunny out for her.
 

Took advantage of the shady spot by the hay-bales,
but she was still all squinty
 

And a little pouty looking. :)
 

:)