The Three Little Pigs

This morning, Calder told me a wonderful version of The Three Little Pigs.  I had a constant smile on my face just listening to him go on and on.  So, this afternoon, I asked him to tell the story to my camera.  It came out a little different this time.   Actually...a lot different.  He became distracted by thoughts of springtime, the Easter Bunny, and his new favorite TV show "Little Bill"...so there isn't a whole lot about the three little pigs.  Warning...although this video is super cute (in my humble opinion) it is also very long!

The Three Little Pigs -- Take One


Three Little Pigs -- Take One from courtney on Vimeo.

Here's Take Two (which is shorter).  He was able to stick to the story line a little better once we got inside our "brick house".  It starts off pretty dark, but then I figured out how to crack a window to let a little bit of light in.


Three Little Pigs -- Take Two from courtney on Vimeo.


I love this little boy!

Baby loves pumpkin bread

I mean she really loves it. 

Fun with Grandparents

Poppa cuddling his funny valentine

Fanciness

Slowly but surely, I'm starting to get a handle on how to 'upgrade' my blog.  I have a thing for fancy fonts, so I'm excited that I at least got that part to work!  It wasn't exactly easy and actually required some html coding (ok, ok, with very detailed instructions).  Hopefully more fanciness to come! 

Grrrr....

I hate blogger.  I just wasted 2 hours of my life simply trying to give the blog a 'newish' look.  It sort of worked, but I managed to totally mess up all of the formatting in the process.  I was finally able to fix most of it...but I'm not thrilled with the outcome.  I'm too tired to continue dealing with it now, so this is what it's going to look like until I decide to tackle it again. 

Channeling Martha

So, what's a momma to do when snowed in for an entire week? Chasing the kids around and dealing with cabin fever didn't leave me a whole lot of free time...but I did manage to find a little bit of time to get in touch with my inner Martha Stewart! I love making things...and I'm always finding these great ideas that I want to try, but I usually just can't find the time. So, anyway, here's what I cranked out last week. For Calder -- his very own Diego pillow case! It was a huge hit with my little Diego fan and really, sew easy!

And for Little Miss T? A cute little "T" onesie.

I'm obviously no competition for Martha (thank God you cannot see the details in my stitches from these photos!), but I really had fun with these projects and hope to find time for more! I really like to sew, and since my 4-H training only goes so far, I'm thinking that I'll actually go ahead and sign up for some sewing classes like I've been talking about for years now...

Now, about that blanket that I've been knitting for Tessa's first birthday...

Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, Snowtorious B.I.G.

So, we've gotten a little bit of snow in the last few weeks -- somewhere around 35" or so. And, for the whole winter season, we've had record snowfall in the DC region -- over 60"! I wanted to remember some of the clever nicknames that the storms have been given, hence the title of this post. I hear we are supposed to get more tomorrow -- I just pray that the forecasters are correct with a prediction of only 1-3 more inches! Anyway, Calder has been having a blast, and Tessa even checked it out for a few minutes. Here are a few photos of the craziness!

More Indoor Fun

On a cold afternoon a few weeks ago, we met up with some friends at the local soft play room. Tessa had been there once before, but this was the first time she actually played there. So much fun and a great way to break up the monotony of the winter!

Frostival

Last month we went to "Frostival", an indoor festival at a local expo center. Calder had a blast! Picture quality isn't great since we were using our point-and-shoot, and the lighting was poor inside the expo center.

One for the road...

One for the road from courtney on Vimeo.

Snow Day Game

With 25+" of snow outside, cabin fever is starting to set in. Luckily, Calder and Tessa made their own fun at lunch today...

Snow Day Game! from courtney on Vimeo.

New Lens

For my birthday, Dave got me a new lens for my camera. I've been having so much fun trying it out on my favorite subjects!

First Cookie

Tessa had her first cookie tonight. Needless to say, she's a fan.

More Birthday Highlights

On Tessa's actual birthday, we went out to dinner to celebrate. Tessa experienced her first waitress serenade, and received a huge piece of chocolate cake! She's a sweet girl and shared with the rest of the fam.

Yum! When my friend Mary delivered Tessa's birthday cake, she brought along her sweet daughters, Alison and Rachel. They are loyal blog followers and were happy to finally meet Calder and Tessa! :)

They even brought along some kids books that they had outgrown. Here's Ali reading to a Calder. He was thrilled!
Tessa serves up a home-cooked meal to Ali and Rachel!
John, Lauren, Madison and Olivia came into town to help us celebrate Tessa's birthday. It was really fun to watch the kids play together. Here, Tessa and Olivia share a balloon. We can't wait to help Olivia celebrate her birthday in March!

Hugs for Madison!

Checking out the birthday loot!

Tessa at Age 1

Can you believe she's one already? I can't. It's amazing how fast the last year went by. She's growing so fast now, I feel like she changes a little bit every day.

Here are her official 1 year stats:
Weight: 20 lbs, 14 oz. (48th percentile)

Height: 30 inches (80th percentile)

Teeth: On her birthday, she had 3 teeth. Two weeks later she was up to 5, and there are more on the way!

Words: Mama, Dada, cracker, bye bye, hi, baa baa, yeah, mine, dog, boo, uh-oh and...thank you!

She's crazy about the song Baa Baa Black Sheep. If you sing her something else, she'll listen to it...but as soon as you're done, she requests her fave by looking you straight in the eye and saying "Baa Baa." It's beyond cute. She's also a fan of The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Other things she loves: Lucky, dancing, baths, pulling hair, pinching, making tunnels out of furniture, the dishwasher, utensils, being chased, climbing steps, "brushing" her teeth, waving hello and goodbye, giving high-fives.

She's finally starting to show an interest in books. She doesn't actually want you to read her a story though. She just wants to hold the book, open and close it, flip it over, open and close it, turn it upside down, open and close it again....you get the picture. She is particularly fond of small books and lift-the-flap books. Give her a small lift-the-flap book and you're golden!
She's starting to show a bit of a temper......and an independent streak! She loves yogurt, and has lately insisted on trying to feed it to herself. It's really the only food she does this with, although at every mealtime, she absolutely must have a spoon or fork in hand, if not one in each hand.

For a while she was eating pretty much anything I put in front of her, including fish, crab, and Indian food! Lately though, she hasn't been quite as adventurous. Her favorites, aside from yogurt, are cheese, soup, crackers, spaghetti, pancakes and waffles.

Oh yeah...and hide your Kleenex boxes from this one. After she completely empties the box, she'll shred them all to pieces and eat them.