Sunshine Eggs

Nearly every year, Eric and I make an resolution to "be more organized" and we are... a little more every year. We still need to re-new that resolution every year. This year, we are going to be a little more creative. It somehow spun from a combination of the movie we watched on New Year's Day (Julie & Julia) and a visit to the library where we found a stack of children's cookbooks. Adrik is highly motivated by food and often loves to pull his step stool over to the counter to help me make a meal. He is pretty good at "mixing." So, this year we are going to create food together. Each week we will post one of our creations. We try to eat mostly healthy food and it has to be quick and easy. I try to never cook anything with more than five ingredients and take longer than a half hour.

Our first creation is "sunshine eggs." Adrik chose the recipe and told me that it would be "delicious!" He used the cookie cutter to cut a hole in each of the whole grain slices of bread. I cracked the eggs and together we watched them bake and then we all sat down on a beautiful sun-shiny below 0 day to eat our creation. They were nice and buttery and Adrik said they were "eggy" too!

Christmas Blizzard of 2009!

Christmas in Wisconsin

Getting a picture of the two kids under the tree was nearly impossible! They were so excited for Christmas day and all the gifts and playing with their cousins. Soleil found this wrapped Chocolate bar under the tree which was a gift to my mom, and chewed on it all morning. (the wrapper, not the bar!) We ate our traditional stollen and coffee breakfast and waited for the rest of the family to arrive. Since their was a blizzard, we were a little nervous that Nicole and Sarah might not make it, but luckily they did.Jayda received a Nintendo DS from her mom and dad for Christmas and she was thrilled! Adrik thought it was so great too and loved watching her feed and take care of her little pet dogs and cats on her game.

Adrik and Austin had a fun time playing together too. Nana got them hats to match Grandpa Bill's hat. Grandpa Bill read them the Christmas story before we opened gifts as always.

Soleil got a rolling penguin from her Nana and Grandpa Bill. She loves it! She also got a hand made ball with a bell inside and a handmade bird mobile from them. From Aunt Nicole she got a book and from Aunt Sarah she got some large pop beads. Aunt Bethany made her a pet monster.
The two boys really liked opening their gifts. Nana and Grandpa Bill gave them both a tow-truck set from Cars. Adrik opened his first and Austin got very sad; he was quickly handed his box to open and was so excited to get the same. Every time Adrik begins to open a gift, he says, "What is it!?"
Soleil spent the morning rolling around under the tree chewing on the gifts and getting into the wrapping paper.
Here we are! We always take a picture of us girls under the tree. Bethany and Ryan couldn't make it and they were missed...maybe next year!

Cookie

I took a box of cookies out of the freezer yesterday and Adrik exclaimed, "I forgot about those!" It has only been a couple of days since we made them, but now they are sadly nearly gone. We were planning on making cookies here at home, but then I called my mom one day while she was just beginning to make cookies for Christmas so I told her to freeze the dough and we would come up and help make and decorate them. It was so much fun -- even my dad got into the cookie decorating spirit!Adrik really liked cutting the cookies out, just like he does with play dough.
Nana frosted the cookies...
Adrik added the sprinkles!
They turned out so beautiful and so YUMMY!

Christmas with our Family of Four

As our little family grows, we have decided to start some of our own family traditions. Adrik convinced us that we needed a tree, so we cut and decorated a beautiful fir. I pulled out the Advent tree calendar that my mom made for our wedding gift and Adrik and I pinned an ornament on the tree each night before bed. He remembered to do this better than I did. Strangely, each ornament was pinned up in a line along the ric-rac, resembling an ornament train. I took Adrik to Target to choose gifts for his cousins and Soleil. Last minute, Eric decided that we needed stockings and we didn't have any, so we hung two soccer socks from the windowsill. Our other tradition is that we always go to Wisconsin for Christmas so we celebrate our own at home a few days earlier. We wrapped all our little presents, put them under the tree and told Adrik that we would open the gifts the next day. Of course, that was the day he decided to sleep in! When he finally got up, we opened our gifts and then left for Wisconsin to beat the winter storm.Adrik got a Thomas flashlight, Thomas Colorforms, Thomas feltboard, Thomas play mat and a Thomas Shirt.
This is the gift that Adrik picked out for Soleil.
This is the gift that I got for Soleil....I always wished I had one for Adrik to help him sleep.

Standing

Yesterday I had my back turned to Soleil and when I looked back, there she was, on wobbly legs pulling herself to standing as she leaned against a toy box. She was trying to get to the toys inside. She did it again today against a step stool that Adrik was eating a snack on.

Merry Christmas!

Sharing with you the Glory,
the Wonder, the Miracle
of this Holy Season.
Have a Blessed Christmas and New Year.

Eric, Opal, Adrik & Soleil

Words...

Soleil has been saying "Mamma" for a while. She usually says it when I am feeding her, so Eric thinks she is actually saying "num, num!"

Today, we were all cuddling on the couch and Soleil was grabbing Adrik and we kept saying, "Adrik...Adrik" and sure enough, she distinctly made the sounds for his name, "Adrik."