Museums and Gingerbread

I know it's been awhile since I've posted. So here is what we've been up to. I've posted some pictures to show how much fun Cadence has had. Last week, Jared and I took our girls to the Children's museum at the Gateway. They are calling it Discovery Gateway. I remember when it was in an OLD OLD building, but they have moved it to the Gateway. A lot of the exhibits are the same, and then they have some new ones. I thought it was A LOT of fun, especially for kids. Everything is hands-on and Cadence was running everywhere. The pictures I have below are 1. Cadence and Jared in a "market truck." They have an area where kids can pretend to have different professions. Cadence is pretending to drive the produce to the market. They even have a fake market for the kids to go grocery shopping and to check out. 2. On the roof, they have a life flight helicopter that the kids can get into and see what it's like. They also have other life saving professions that are explained up there. Cadence loved to fly the helicopter. and 3. Cadence and Jared are pretending to be weather reporters. The exhibit has a weather center, a main desk, and also some sound booths. My favorite was the building exhibits. They have multiple desks where you can build things..with magnets, or spin wheels...many different table. I especially liked the domino tables. The have a table for beginners and also for experienced. On the table is a pattern where you put the dominos--in the Robots exhibit. Anyway, it was fun. The price..ehhh, but it's worth it for the kids. For the rest of the week and weekend I focused on Christmas. We finally got a mantle piece to go over the fireplace, which I painted white. And for YEARS I have been wanted to make and decorate a gingerbread house...not any type, designing and baking gingerbread in the oven, putting the pieces to together and decorating. Honestly, I'm glad I did it. This is definitely something you need to try once. I would do it again, but not every year. Next year I'm going to try graham crackers. I added some pictures of our living room, and my first EVER gingerbread house. This week my wonderful older sister is coming into town for a week. I'm reallllly looking forward to having her in the same state. In that week time, my sister has mapped out where she is going to be at what time and with what parent (or friend). Also during that time, my parents have every holiday activity planned out so we can have that "holiday feeling" while she is in town. fun huh. Hope it all works out. Have a Happy Holiday everyone!!

My Thanksgiving weekend

My weekend started last Wednesday when I went grocery shopping for this and that so we wouldn't have to travel to the grocery store during the holiday. I was excited 'cause I picked up stuff to make a delicious sour cream apple pie....sooooo good. The recipe came from my great aunt on my mom's side. Cadence helped me when we got home, she is really good at helping in the kitchen. Later that evening we headed up to Homestead, only to be STUCK in traffic forever...seriously, 5mph on the freeway?? I'm glad I wasn't driving. But we finally made it there after getting lost and wow, it was fun. It was nice to have place for the kids to run free and also have a place for the adults to have their own time. The next chilly morning, we had a thanksgiving feast...yummmy. That's the only word for it...YUMMMY. Thanks Dad! After the yummy meal, I snuck in a 20 minutes nap. It would have been longer, but their were two 3 yr olds that were looking for me and found me. sigh. The boys played pool and sounded like they had a good time. My little family went home later that afternoon while the rest stayed for another night. The next morning my friend LESLIE and her family came to visit!! yeah! Seems like no time has passed..and yet it's been 8 years. Our girls got along great...and terrorized the dog. Lots of Laughs. Leslie has her own blog, you should check it out if you like blog hopping: http://www.lesliesayswhat.blogspot.com/ . She should be home by today..2 days to get back to Kansas. Hope it was a safe trip! My hubby put up our Christmas decorations outside, and it looks great! It is definitely a change from the BIG inflatables he usually puts up for christmas. I have just started to put up Christmas inside. The tree is up and partially done, I still have more to hang, but it's hard with a baby and a 3 yr old that wants to pull on everything. The rest of my spare time (when the baby takes a nap) I played WOW! or world of warcraft. I have yet to get into my new book, so I played with Jared on wow when I had some time. I enjoy it, I'm not addicted like others, but it can be fun to play. That's about all for the weekend. It was nice and mostly relaxing. We are trying the potty training. Most of the time it works ok, but she still acts disinterested. I'm trying the sticker approach. Anyone have other ideas i can try???

quick post

1- My baby is getting her 2nd tooth! note to self: need to start weaning her off. 2- I am no longer employed, just going to be a mom for awhile. =o) 3- I'm finally hanging more pictures on the big wall! Pictures to come when it is all done. thats it for now. p.s. the answer to the riddle is the letter D.

Riddle for the week

Riddle: I am present in daytime but absent at night. You can find me in darkness but never in light. In the deepest of shadows, I hide in plain sight. What am I? Solution: coming soon!

week in review

I just haven't felt like writing much in my blog. I have things to say, just not sure how to say them. I will say I'm looking forward to next week, not necessarily because it's a holiday, but a holiday that's bringing a friend and her family back here for a few days! I haven't seen my friend for YEARS and I'll finally be able to see her and meet her family. The holiday should be fun cause I won't be cooking or doing any dishes. We are having Thanksgiving with my dad and his little family up at the Homestead. I've decided that it is GREAT when you can go somewhere and they do all the cooking and cleaning...not to mention the large variety of food to choose from. Don't get me wrong, I still think it can be fun to have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at home, but it's nice to have a break once in a while. In other news: the baby in the family is FINALLY out of her bassinet, which was in my room, and in her crib. wahoo! We started this a few nights ago when she was getting me up every hour. Poor thing is teething and having a miserable time. This way she's in a different room and puts her self to sleep instead of waking me every time she moves. On the downside, our other daughter is in our room on the floor until the baby is comfortable in their room...yup they are sharing the room. I am glad the girls get a long so well, but Cadence wants to sleep in the crib with her, and that's just not going to happen. =o) I can say that I have over 50% of my Christmas shopping done! wahoo! I had a goal of having it all done by Thanksgiving, but that just isn't going to happen. maybe next year I will meet that goal. I can't wait to put out my Christmas tree and start decorating. I love the holidays, but I always wait until AFTER Thanksgiving to put up any Christmas decorations. But by this time next week...the tree will be up and decorated. lol. Not much will be happening this week. I may be making some ginger cookies, just for fun. I love ginger cookies and Jared's family has the best recipe. makes a ton! I've also been working on a cookbook in the last few weeks with my sisters. I finished compiling my recipes and sent them to my sisters. Amy is done on her end..i think, although she keeps finding more to add which is great! Lisa will add her recipes in between her job and homework. Hopefully soon we will finish the cookbook that we have talked about for years of doing. I can't wait! It will be nice to have all our favorites in ONE place and not scattered in 10 different cook books. We're making this cookbook something we can keep adding to when we have new recipes. good times. Yup that's about all. Hope you all have a great weekend. p.s. I added music to my post, but chose the option to not start automatically, so if you want to listen to something press play! nothing special, but my options were limited from that site. =o) hope you like.

Riddle Time

I like posting these riddles. I am going to try posting one every Sunday. A New Riddle: What can you catch but not throw? Answer: a cold! you answered that one fast!

It's coming in....

Melody is getting her first tooth! ah! You can feel it and you can see a tiny white speck on her bottom gums. I tried to take a picture but she was not being very photo happy this morning. She is my bubblicious baby. With the tooth coming in all she wants is to chew on something, so lots of drooool. fun fun fun.

Riddle

Question: If you give me food, I will live. If you give me water, I will die. Who am I? Answer: FIRE

Trick or Treat Picture

I found a picture of both my girls on Jared's camera! cute girls, can't help sharing. =oD

Halloween Night

Halloween night. I was really looking forward to Halloween this year, it was going to be the first Halloween off in 3 years. BUT I ended up having to pick up some hours for work so I could get my Sunday hours off. So I spent the afternoon before my shift getting the girls ready, the candy out, and the pumpkins all cut and in place. Cadence was a cute princess and Melody just wore her halloween pj's. We were going to put her in the Eeyore outfit, but from what I heard from Jared, she did not like it one bit. Jared was going to wear his Indian feather hat, but Melody screamed anytime he put it on. lol. Before the 3 of them left to go Trick or Treating, Jared and Cadence practiced knocking on doors and saying trick or treat..really cute. Work went fine for me, it was busy at the start, but it slowed down enough for me to get off early! Yup...just in time for the candy to be gone and put the girls to bed. Here are a few pictures from the night. I HAD to share my pumpkins that I carved..it was a labor of love. =o) and they look pretty neat at night when they are lit up. Hope you had a spooktacular day! Here are my lovely girls! Melody just being cute and Cadence in her princess outfit. Here are my pumpkins!! The first is Cadence's pumpkin of a cat with a pumpkin, then mine (hard to see) is of a haunted house and the moon with stars. And last is a silly face that I cut for Jared. I love Halloween.