Lucy's first French braids

 I spent a lot of my girlhood with braided hair, and I have lots of memories of my mom braiding my hair for me. Now Lucy's hair is getting pretty long (and she was distracted enough this time) so I was able to do this to her hair. She doesn't much like me messing with her hair, so who knows when we'll do it again. But it made me smile!

I love both these faces!

By the way...

In case you hadn't heard.

Baby girl, due beginning of May.

Everyone is excited.

Tuesday (and the blog is caught up!)

 8:02 am: Chicken broth, fresh from the crock pot

8:03 am: Our living room constantly has books all over the floor because of Lucy.

The cabinet is a new treasure in our home, gifted to us by my grandpa. It was made in 1932 for my grandma, who would have been about the same age Lucy is now. It was used as a play kitchen at my grandparents' house, and now we're using it for books.

 8:03 am: Constantly by my side for the past week and a half

(A doctor's visit and antibiotic for sinusitis and pink eye two days later, and I'm starting to finally feel better. Blah!)

 9:14 am: Getting ready for Valentine's day

9:15 am: Rhett wants a picture of his Legos

11:10 am: I Spy and Waldo are current favorites

 11:21 am: Roses from my lovey

 12:34 pm: Movie time (Mama needs a break)

 1:36 pm: Homemade fortune cookies. (Not sure they're worth the effort when you can do this.)

 4:46 pm: Giving our new electric pencil sharpener a workout

 6:27 pm: White chicken chili for dinner

7:33 pm: Some iPad love

Saturday

 8:22 am

 8:28 am

 8:49 am: Making waffles (2 waffle makers is the way to go)

 8:53 am: Whether she loves her own sweet self or she loves the KitchenAid, I can't blame her either way

 8:55 am: Helpers

 9:08 am: Benjamin trying to play games on mama's old cell phone (and this book, which is pretty fun)

11:36 am: Checkout

 12:06 pm: Fill-up

 2:43 pm: Paul assembling the new ping-pong table with John's help

 2:43 pm: Benjamin and his buddy Caleb

 6:18 pm: Hot dogs for dinner

10:04 pm: A yummy treat

New Year's Eve

 We were looking forward to spending New Year's Eve with friends, but we had to cancel thanks to this:

 

and this:

 and this:

 I took him into the doctor's office the next day (we always get sick on weekends and holidays), but there was no conclusive explanation. He's had a rash similar to this before (though not as bad), but a dose of Benedryl always cleared it up right away. This head-to-toe business lasted for about a week, coming and going between the prescribed doses of Zyrtec and Benedryl. The poor kid was uncomfortable. It faded out as I was getting ready to take him back to the doctor. I'm definitely glad he got better, but I still wish we knew why it happened!

To close out 2012, here's a picture of Lucy with her new (and improved by Mama with a new seat) doll stroller.

Christmas

 This was not a good picture-taking year for us. Maybe we need a better camera so we'll take more pictures because we'll know they'll turn out better.

Christmas morning smiles! Or lack thereof.

Lucy enjoyed the baby doll Santa left in her stocking.

 

 

In other stocking news, Benjamin was miffed that Santa gave him the wrong color stocking after he told him that it was the red one. Oops. (This same child was also upset that he "didn't get anything I asked for!" from Santa. It was hard to explain to him why things might have been different had he shown his mother his letter to Santa before he mailed it!) Still, his views on Santa seem untarnished for now. We'll see how this next year plays out...

Despite his disappointment with some of the gifts he received, Benjamin was quite the generous giver himself this year. He created and wrapped up several pictures and other hand-made things to give to Paul and I, and in an incredible show of generosity, gave Rhett his beloved "alien parachute" that he got from the dentist.

The boys were very excited to "help" Lucy unwrap their gift to her: a new baby doll that came with her own stroller (which lasted all of 30 minutes before the seat came apart).

 

Paul and the boys were, as always, very good to me, giving me lots of very fun things. I, on the other had, didn't do as good a job for Paul, who had five boxes of mac-n-cheese among his gifts from us. (I still love you!)

And finally, our Christmas card photo, kindly taken by Amanda Peck.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Sweets

 We had a fun Christmas season at our house this year, but apparently not a lot of photo documentation.

The boys had fun decorating gingerbread cookies. I think I got the idea to put the sprinkles in a muffin tin from a Cook's Illustrated magazine. It definitely made things (slightly) less messy!

Rhett picked the tulip cookie cutter as one of his shapes and called it a "Christmas flower."

Rhett helped me make some Christmas Jell-O. (He was a lot more happy about it than he looks here.)

On Christmas Eve we decorated our graham cracker houses. 

Later we took our neighbors gifts of homemade hot cocoa mix and homemade marshmallows, and had our traditional Christmas Eve Palestine dinner. I cooked salmon using this recipe, which was so tasty, if not very authentic for a Palestine dinner.


Seared Salmon with Balsamic Glaze
from Cook's Country
  
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 sprig rosemary (about 5-inches long) (I've since substituted dried rosemary)
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 4 skin-on salmon fillets, 6 ounces each, 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick
•   Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Whisk vinegar, juice, honey, and pepper flakes together in small bowl, then add rosemary. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until smoking. Season salmon with salt and pepper and cook, skin side up, without moving, until well browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Flip fish skin side down and cook until all but very center of fish is opaque, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to platter and tent with foil.

2. Wipe out pan with paper towels and lower heat to medium. Carefully pour balsamic mixture into pan (it will splatter). Simmer until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Remove rosemary sprig. Whisk in butter, season sauce with salt and pepper, and pour over salmon. Serve.

Wednesday

You'd think I'd do a better job on 12/12/12 than four pictures... But no. Must have been a busy day?

9:10 am: Benjamin's school Christmas program

 

 10:08 am: There's Benjamin, right in the middle. I forgot to bring the good camera to his first school performance (of course).

 11:10 am: Lunch in the car, and treats to drop off

 11:10 A banana with lunch

Like I said, not a very good 12x12. Oh well.