Team Studer

Going to get our girl

2012-02-19T18:45:00.000-05:00

Well, we've waited long enough and now we're going to get our girl. The doc scheduled us for an induction on Monday at 8a. I am strangely calm and relaxed on the eve of some serious Momma-superpower-strength-extravaganza. It feels like we've been waiting and anticipating our new girl's arrival for so long now that it seems a little surreal that now we know what day she'll actually be here.

Since we've been aimlessly wandering around waiting for her these last few weeks, we've tried various ways to get ourselves busy besides my last post about finding things to do while we wait for Gemma's arrival. I had Greyson do a little artwork to hang up in Gemma's nursery. We had a big frame that needed a print and instead of making another frivolous purchase from Etsy - I let Grey use his creativity with some paint and a fairly big piece of sketch paper to make a masterpiece for his new baby sister.

...he was pretty pleased with himself...

The artwork looks beautiful in the nursery and each time we go in to rearrange things or practice reading some of Gemma's books - Greyson points up at the picture and says, "Booboo did that."

I've also carted Greyson, the two dogs, and my dad into the woods near my parents house for a mile and a half walk in attempts to walk the baby out of me (to no avail). But despite not pushing me into natural labor, Greyson and both dogs got a whole lot of energy out from all the hiking and swimming (just the dogs swimming, not Booboo - hah). So the hike was worth it for a house full of snoozing 'kids' for an evening.

pregnant shadow - HAH

And thanks to this pin, we had some indoor playtime with snow this week while I was just too tired for all the wild Booboo movement of the day. Indoor snowtime was a big hit that required very little movement for a solid half hour. Luckily, I had Bullet and Trixie nearby happily lapping up any snow that was tossed on the floor. As always, pinterest saves the day.

We're still regularly attending Greyson's activities for the week - including swimming, 'college,' and gymnastics. But Dadda has become full-on Gym Dad....

...while I stand on the sidelines and watch while carrying this 40 week belly around...

When we found out about our induction on Friday, we decided to make one last ditch effort of trying to coax Gemmi out before we force her out of my belly with another long walk in the woods to retrieve Brandon's tree stands from hunting season. This time both Brandon and my Mum were there while Grey and the dogs ran like wild animals. It was another good hike (at 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant - can I get me some kind of a Girl Scout badge up in here for that?!), but although tired all of our 'kids' out - it was, alas, unsuccessful at getting our girl loose.

So here we are now, on the eve of our second child's original birthday not really knowing how to balance all our feelings of nervousness, excitement, anxiousness, and worry. It will be a hard day tomorrow, but then it will be over and f.i.n.a.l.l.y. we'll get to see that sweet face.

Gem,

we just can't wait another day to meet you, honey.

we love you so.

already.

see you soon.

love forever and ever,

mum, dad, and booboo too.

My Memories Suite: a giveaway! - Update!

2012-02-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

I have some very exciting news (no, our baby girl has not arrived yet), but it's up there- considering that it has seriously curbed my mindless googling of things like "oh em gee, when will this baby come?" and "but seriously, how long is it possible to be pregnant?" Instead, I've been busy working towards one of my 2012 goals: creating a family yearbook!

So a little background, I used to be a scrapbook kind of a gal and somewhere between the multiple moves, dirty diapers, slobbery dog bones, and maternity clothes - I kind of lost a place for all my scrapbook papers, stamps, and pens. Besides tossing pictures into Grey's baby book & scribbling down funny things he's said - this blog and my facebook albums have had the serious pressure of maintaining my family's memories (eek!) Needless to say, it's been wearing on my mind that I haven't been doing as well as I would like about keeping a physical collection of the 40 million pictures I take a week; thus the family yearbook goal was created.

And then by the grace of the universe, My Memories knocked on my door (aka emailed me) and offered a chance to test and review their My Memories Suites v.3 AND...wait for it...offer one in a giveaway to my readers!!

So, after playing around (and seriously reminiscing about my days on the yearbook staff in high school - hi, Mrs. McBreen!) I became a little bit obsessed and I'm already mostly done with our January pictures and events (currently finishing up Gemma's sprinkle!). Want proof? Booyah, Trixie's Arrival; a double-page spread:

What I have really come to love about My Memories Suite v.3 is that its downloaded on my computer - so I don't have to be online waiting for the any site to refresh or wait 45 minutes for my pictures to upload. I just pull pictures from one folder and drop them onto the template.

I'm even trying to stretch my blogging wings and make things like a blog button and headers (which all the cool bloggers already have and I'm just playing catch up over here). And although I'm really weird and nervous about it, this digital scrapbook software has made it easy for me with all of their options - and even more digital kits on their website for purchase. So as seen on my updated facebook page (and soon available for 'grabbing,') I present, the Team Studer blog button:

So back to the good stuff...this is my first giveaway and one that I feel really excited about to share with you! Not only do I get to work towards one of my 2012 goals, but throw in a little "kindness" too and give one away. How's that for starting off the new year? I hope you all are as excited about it as me:)

To enter for a chance to win the My Memories Suite v.3 ($39.97 value), please comment below about why you'd like to win the My Memories Suite v.3. For more proof on why this giveaway is awesome, please visit: mymemories.com to check out the digital packages available for purchase or to learn more about the Memory Suites v.3. On Friday, February 17- I'll randomly select a winner and I'll announce that afternoon. (If I am incapacitated due to childbirth - my sister will post for me...hi, Tasha!)

But wait, there's more (hhah!),

I have good news for everyone (even if you aren't the giveaway winner!): My Memories is giving away free money...well, practically. Use this code:

STMMMS20

And you receive a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software AND a $10 coupon for the My Memories store...Let me do the math for you - that's a free $20...please & thank you.

So comment below for a chance to win!!

Quick shout-out to the My Memories blog where they have creative ideas, memory-making challenges, and giveaways galore. It's like a gold mine of scrapbook inspiration over there...just sayin'

**********************************************************************************
With the help of random.org, the My Memories Suite v.3 winner was selected:

CONGRATULATIONS to Cassie!

You have won the My Memories Suite v.3! Please email me at studerteam.tabitha@gmail.com to claim your prize.

Thank you to everyone that commented to enter the giveaway, hopefully it will not be my last! Don't forget, you can still use my code (above and listed in my side reel) for free $ off of your next My Memories purchase.

January Kindness: House Purge & Donation

2012-02-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

We have finally finished up our January kindness of the House Purge & Donation. This was a double whammy kindness as it was for others by donating to St.Vincent DePaul, AND also a kindness towards our own house as it forced us to comb through the still unpacked from our July move(!!) boxes in the basement. I will first state that many of things that will be discussed in this post are not particularly flattering, especially when I mention our kitchen purge which included multiple expired items (oops), but I'm trying to be honest here - so let's do this thang.

Very luckily for me, my sister agreed to be nanny/housekeeper/liveinfriend while on her winter break from college this year. So I had a full-time helper when it came to our House Purge Kindness, which was both helpful and safe as she took the task of carrying heavy boxes and standing on chairs to reach high places. (thanks, Tash!)

We made our way through the house, little by little each day clearing out and tossing out. During our purge, I kept one of my fav books: Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life on hand to remind me what was important to keep or toss. As the author suggests, my goal was to throw out 50 things - that's not 50 singular items, but 50 categories throughout the house. So if I collected 12 cookbooks to donate, that only accounted for 1 thing (since it was all the same one thing). I logged the items we donated or had to toss in the garbage on a little paper I had divided by rooms. It was an easy way for me to be proud of the progress and also keep track of our 50 things.

red artistic flair courtesy of Greyson

Since there is no way I'm going to recount each room and/or item we donated or pitched - let's do a recap a la superlative style:

Most embarrassing: The multiple bottles of expired vitamins or medicine that we discovered in the kitchen. Like 2009 expired.

The near death experience: The Welcome Rabbit (left over from the previous owners) that Grey kept taking out of the donation box and putting back in the living room near the tv. We attempted to donate this rabbit twice before we were tired of Grey stealing it back. The rabbit continues to stand post in our living room.

The one that made Brandon want to smack me: the 12 cookbooks (I shouldn't have bought in the first place and then) donated.

The fastest to go: the 9 books that I newly posted to Paperback Swap and then were immediately (all within 2 hours of posting!!) requested by readers around the nation.

The farthest to travel: The jewelry, unused bottles of lotion/perfume, and hair accessories that will make their way to the Dominican Republic when we go later this year. My mom helped clean out my closet and collected any items that could make the trip down as gifts (or bartering tools) for our vacation in October.

The most liberating: Shredding old bills and paperwork from 2009 and earlier.

Most daring: we threw away 2 fully finished disposable cameras without getting the pictures printed. ah! Who knows what would have been on there, but at this point (I'm pretty sure they were dating back to at least 2008) if we didn't know what was on them now, we wouldn't be missing them if we never saw them.

Most improved: The basement/future man cave that had previously been overflowing with unpacked boxes but is now an actual space. My dad & Brandon spent an afternoon working down there to clear out over 10 boxes, moved couches, and organized our wine brewing station. This was a huge weight lifted off our shoulders.

I so wish I had a before pic of this

The one that was less hard to say goodbye than I was expecting: Brandon is not a throw-out kind of guy, but he did a surprisingly good job when we tackled his clothes. He is definitely the kind of person that will find a shirt (that hasn't been worn in years) and then realize he forgot he even had it and wants to keep it to 'wear it now that's he's found it.' But he was focused and decisive and collected over 3 bags of clothes to donate. Such a proud wife right now:)

Best put to immediate use: We had 2 perfectly working toilets hanging out in our garage from our old house. One was sent off and now installed in Brandon's grandma's house!

The one that still eludes us: The garage. We were able to get through all the rooms in the house (including basement and man cave), but we still haven't made it to the garage. Seems that project will have to wait until the weather gets warmer since its hard to do any organizing/clearing out with 2 cars taking up most of the space.

Totals:

over 54 things/categories cleared out
6 boxes and 2 bags of goods donated to St. Vincent DePaul
3 bags of clothes donated to family members
1 bag of items collected for our Dominican vacation
an embarrassing amount of food and vitamins/medicine that was thrown out because it was expired (shameful)
10 books sent away since January 1st for Paperback Swap

Overall, our January kindness was a big success. I am proud of the progress we made to clear out and clean up. There will always be more to do, but to start off the new year getting rid of some of the stuff that has (both literally and figuratively) been weighing us down - feels like a refreshing start to the new year. To finish, big thank yous to Tasha, Mum, and Dad for all the help in tackling various rooms for our purge. I (literally) could not have done it without your focus and heavy lifting:)

the waiting game

2012-02-07T10:49:00.000-05:00

First, I fully recognize that we haven't even made it to my due date yet, howeverrrrrrr, at this point in my first pregnancy - Grey had already arrived and we were home by now enjoying his sleepy, cuddly, sweet, little butt. So, despite the fact that many a momma carry their babies longer than their due date - I would not like to join their ranks. I am currently at 38 weeks 6 days. ugh.

Thus, my family has been enduring me for the past week or so as the horribly mood-swinging, easily irratated, overly sensitive, extremely uncomfortable 9 month pregnant woman that I have now become. Brandon has heard more than once these past few days, "honey, I don't want to be like this, but I kind of just hate you right now. so please stop talking." My father in law got a call yesterday in which I said, "hi, can you take Grey for a while. Like even for an hour? I just don't have the energy...for all that...right now." And I literally just got off the phone with my parents after asking, if they would assist me in taking Grey and the dogs for a walk in the woods today, because "Maybe I can walk this baby out."

I've also spent a considerably concerning amount of time on google searching insane things that is fairly embarassing to report. But at this size, I'm really in no state of mind to care whether or not I look like a fool. Here's some examples of my google searches for a taste of how our last few weeks have gone. (these are literally sitting on my google search history...'big brother' must be reading these and laughing his a$s off somewhere):

are headaches and exhaustion signs of early labor? - could my dog contract rabies if he plays with a dead rabbit - what is Pete from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - is there a more annoying sound than kids whining? - alternative remedies for a child's fever - my 16 week dog is pooping in the crate in the middle of the night - my puppy does not attempt to let us know she needs to go out - alternative remedies to narcolepsy - notary near 159## - is there a more annoying character than ming ming on wonder pets? - 38 weeks pregnant and i hate everyone - what is with all the ryan gosling quote pins

Besides tolerating me, our little family has been attempting to stay busy until our baby girl decides to finally grace us with her presence.

We've been trying to get in some extra sleep:

Feeding our snacks to the dogs:

Getting energy out while playing outside (with the help of my parents and sister):

Getting energy out while playing inside:

Going to gymnastics (with the help of Gigi):

Watching local high school basketball games - so that Greyson can scream on the top of his lungs, "SLAAAAMMMM DUNNNNNK" in a setting more appropriate than any/every other place we go during the day

Cleaning up Trixie's diarreaha...like from the FLOOR.HEATING.VENT...which she incomprehensibly pooped on during the superbowl. Which then dripped down about 2 feet inside of our insulted vent. that is heated. kill.me.

Finishing up our January Kindness (more on that later this week)

Continuing our January date...even though January is over and we haven't even watched enough episodes to finish season1 yet!! January date = multiple month'er

And to top it all off, we've enrolled Grey into 2 more activities each week to try to beat the winter/waiting for baby blues . First, Greyson has started his college classes (hahhaha, but seriously they are at our local community college) and we go to Storytime on Fridays where we listen to books, sing songs, and make crafts.

Secondly, he and I have been taking swimming classes at the Y on Tuesday nights. There are no pictures of this because let's be honest, even I am not self-deprecating enough to post a picture of myself in a bathing suit at 9 months pregnant. All you need to know about Tuesday nights are this:
1. Greyson l.o.v.e.s. the water
2. swimming class makes him very tired (yay)
3. For a half hour out of the week, I feel weightless
4. after class last week, one of the dads asked me, "wow, so when is that thing coming?"

Which leads me to my final point for this post about waiting for our baby to arrive.
From recent experience, here are some things that should not be said to any woman who even looks like she's due soon:

"wow, so when is that thing coming?"
"Oh you've got time; your belly hasn't even dropped yet"
"labor shouldn't take too long, right? I mean the highways already paved this time"*
"geez, this pregnancy has been hard on your clothes"*

*those last 2 gems were said by someone who lives in my house. i'll give you a hint - I'm married to him.

For a much needed laugh - anyone have any more phrases/tidbits of wisdom that should not be spoken within earshot of a nearly due momma?

Guess who is still pregnant?

2012-01-31T12:43:00.000-05:00

Well. it's been a week since my proclamation that my dogs are trying to break the human-animal language barrier to warn me our daughter is preparing to be born. A week sprinkled with energy bursts, fatigue, extreme heartburn, one nosebleed, a whole lot of sporadic cramps. Alas, no baby, yet.

we are at 37 weeks & 6 days. Let the counting down begin. for reals.

bringing in 2012

2012-01-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

Our 2012 made a change of pace than the previous two years (here and here) as I was in no way, shape, or form prepared to host guests at our house for a party like we have in the past. Mainly because I wasn't even entirely sure that I'd be able to stay awake for the ball to drop. But we of course weren't ready to throw in the towel for some new years celebrating - so like in years past, we set our sights on the annual Gilmore New Years celebration (this was actually Brandon & my very first dates after our first kiss on new years eve 2000) and had the luck of having Jon & Ninny in tow:)

Before heading to the party, we made a quick pit stop at Brandon's parent's house to visit with Gigi since she wasn't feeling well.

And then because my husband and Jon can't help themselves, they peer pressured Pap Pap into taking a Wisconsin Lunchbox in honor of the big night.

Then my sisters, parents, and I exchanged numerous photo texts of each other from our various locations across Western PA because we all had separate party plans and missed each other.

Gilmore New Years eve is always filled with fun and laughter, but Brandon's favorite part of the holiday is spending time with his cousins, (who they have self-dubbed themselves 'the four horseman'...as in the apocalyptic horseman part in due to their tendencies to drink a whole lot in a very short amount of time anytime they're ever together). As an only child, Brandon's cousins were basically brothers to him growing up, so I can't help but smile (and occasionally shake my head at their shenanigans) when they all can get together.

And since Jon and Brandon are basic clones of each other and attend all drinking/hunting/fishing events together, the 4 horseman has since been expanded to include a fifth horseman...and then our son and Ray's son also jumped in on the hand gesture...so along the years, we've accumulated 5 grown horseman..and 2 horseman in training (oh, Dear God).

As official DD (and at 8 months pregnant), I spent the evening stuffing my face with spinach dip (mmm) and hotdogs & kraut. It was awesome.

Ninny is now a seasoned Studer/Gilmore/horseman wife and knows that the best way to spend your time at these events is to stay out of the way and sit back and laugh. She and I played dress up with Grey

And they even put on a little musical interlude together at around 11:45p at night. First of all, my 20 month old was still awake at 11:45p...second of all, musical interludes is kind of Ninny's specialty at Studer/Gilmore/horseman functions (taking into account the very first time she ever came to a new years with us and was coerced into participating into a 'talent show'). hahha, love you, Nin for being up for always being up for anything.

Grey was so glad to meet his cousin, Reid this year...and the 2 of them playing together was adorable. Reid was so patient and sweet with Grey (as Booboo tried to sit on his lap 44 times during the course of the night).

And Grey had fun spending time with his other Gilmore cousins, Katelyn & Alexis who were both happy to play with, wait on, or get snacks for him.

By the time the ball was dropping, I had a still-awake, albeit cranky toddler and a still-awake, albeit highly intoxicated husband on my hands. After a quick popcorn snack (oh, Brandon...), we made our way to the truck and after locating a wandering Jon, was able to get on the road and sink into bed - thankful for another happy, albeit busy, year come and gone.

With the new year comes resolutions which is really my favorite part about the holiday because I am such a cliche Virgo. 2011 was a great year for us; we moved closer to home, got a beautiful new house, started growing a new little studerbaby, Grey grew steadily all the while learning to walk, talk, and climb. It was an exciting year, but a hectic one too...one that sometimes felt like we were just 'getting through' the days. Just getting through hard parts until it would get easier and things calmed down. But as we can see, we aren't any closer to calming down, with a new dog, more renovations, and a new baby on the way...so in the spirit of one of my favorite quotes:

"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin- real life.

But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first,

some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid.

At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

-Fr. Alfred D. Souza

we decided to make-over our new years resolutions into goal categories for the year. Brandon and I had a long discussion about how we want this year to feel less like we're just getting through the days and more like we're working towards a goal...we'll multiple goals; who we want to be in a year from now; better versions of ourselves.

So we sat down and created our 2012 goals by category and then because I'm 'that mom,' we made one for Grey too. We arbitraily came up with the categories based off of the things that we'd like to accomplish this year...in addition to our 12 months of dates...and our 12 months of Kindness. What can I say, I love making lists.

haha - pic of b&i my junior year of college (left) and my sisters dressed & dancing like thing 1 & thing 2 (right)

So our year goals are hanging in plain sight so as to constantly remind us to keep working towards the kind of self/family/home we envision for ourselves...especially on the days that feel like we're just barely hanging on.

In case you're interested, here are our goals. Putting them out there for others to read is kind of motivation in itself. Anyone else busy working towards their 2012 resolutions/goals?

tab and brandon's list

image goal:

grow mermaid hair, then donate, then pixie cut

get another tattoo/work on sleeve

physical/strength goal:

successfully complete the couch to 5k program

get back in shape (play a whole bball game and dumbbell bench 100's)

spiritual goal (or as we referred to it, getting our minds right):

meditate/yoga for a half hour a day

wake up at 6a everyday

personal interest goal:

finish the 1st draft of my novel (!!)

shoot a buck & a turkey (hunting)

family goal:

make a family 'yearbook'

get the dogs trained

house goal (in):

weekly meal planning (ugh, this could have been my really ambitious)

complete kitchen remodel

house goal (out):

organize & grow a garden

landscape flowerbeds (3) around the house

travel goal:

take kids to Baltimore aquarium & Children's museum

take family to Nebraska to visit new Jurich baby!

really ambitious goal:

read a book a month (make list)

finish man cave

Grey's list

physical goal:

learn to swim

spiritual goal:

learn to say grace

personal interest goal:

learn to ride a tricycle

brain goal:

count to 10 and recognize ABCs

social goal:

have a sleepover!

travel goal:

spend a weekend (each) with Aunt Kitty, Aunt Uch, and Jonny&Ninna

food goal:

try 3 new foods

chores goal:

help clear the table & wipe it off after dinner

really ambitious goal:

potty train

The Great Labor-Predicting Dog Experiment

2012-01-24T12:03:00.000-05:00

So I still officially have 22 days to go until my girl's due date. However, my dogs started acting a little strange...and if you recall reading this post (from 3 days before Grey was born 2 weeks early), you can understand why I've now become a little suspicious that our dogs know something we don't know.

Starting yesterday, Bully has become on hyper-alert of any noise in, out, or around our house. At the slightest wind against the door, he'll start barking like a crazed lunatic. Both Bully and Trixie have been following me all around the house; I go upstairs, they come upstairs, I sit on the couch, they want to sit on (or near) the couch. Outside of the super-alertness of Bullet, he is otherwise subdued and kind of mopey; not trying to get into any trouble. When Brandon comes home from work though, they are mostly back to normal - it seems like its only when I'm here by myself that they go into weird dog mode.

And I'm not the only that thinks dogs (and other pets) are labor/pregnancy predictors! Check out these forums here , and here, and here, and here!! (which I obviously googled to check my sanity level...not really a legit sanity checker, but you know what I'm talking about)

I, myself, have been feeling a little 'off' for the past few days. Just super tired (even more than normal pregnancy tired) and like my belly is so full of baby and my guts that it might just tear at the seams. Occasional tightening of my belly muscles and sporadic sharp/hot pains 'down there' (ew?) have also contributed to Brandon making comments like, "Please don't let your water break in here" (while out to breakfast on Sunday) and me texting my parents saying, "the dogs are acting weird - can I get your work schedules for this week?" (which of course led to some frantic call backs insisting I tell them if they need to a)boil water or b)immediately leave work).

Besides just feeling off, my belly is so big that strangers that see me out, say things like, "Wow, how much longer?" and "Geez, you aren't going to have that little one in here are you?" I have a lurking suspicion that people are tempted to follow me around with their hands outstretched ready-if-needed to catch a baby that they think might at any moment fall out of me. (oh, don't you just wish that's what they'd do though - just 'fall out.')

Anyway, after all that rambling and somewhat TMI-info dump...I'm getting to the point: Last time, it seemed like Bullet gave us about a week's notice of Grey's arrival...so...the point of the experiment: If I don't have our baby by next Monday 1/30 - then you can all have a good cyber laugh at the woman who thought she can speak the secret, intuitive language of dogs.

If I do however have my girl before then, well I'm going to come on and post as we leave for the hospital and write something to the effect of, "booyah, told'ya so, my dogs are magical, holycrapwe'rehavinganotherbaby, why are animals so cool and amazing, see you on the flip side of reality when i am a mother of 2."

in the meantime, this little episode has been (at the very least) a fire under my booty to do all my last minute baby prep stuff, including:
1. finish all work leave paperwork
2. clean the house
3. stock up on necessities (toilet paper, dog bones, cat litter, etc)
4. make a labor playlist :)
5. empty camera memory card & charge camera

stay tuned.
(cue ominous twilight zone music)

Prepping our family for the new baby girl

2012-01-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

We're in the final countdown now; only 4 more weeks until our baby girls' due date. Cue simultaneously screaming in excitement while cursing in confusion. This second pregnancy could not have been the same amount of time as the first - it must be an illusion...or maybe it was the preoccupation with current toddler that has kept me from psychotically counting down the weeks like I did during the first pregnancy? In any case, we're here and we're not quite sure if we're ready to be here yet (ahh! we're going to be responsible for 2 kids now?!) We are attempting to prepare ourselves (all of ourselves) as much as possible for this new little being to come, but first lets go over the fun stuff...

like how my belly is bigger than a basketball. it's hilarious to Brandon,

Those pics were taken 3 weeks ago, so you can imagine the size of my belly now...hahh, just kidding. It's only slightly bigger, but with all the preparations going on, I haven't had time to remember to take an updated pic. Speaking of preparations -

First order of business is preparing the house. Like finally painting and setting up the nursery. Gemma's room has finally made the transformation from catch-all upstairs room (acting as both a guest room & Christmas gift hiding & wrapping center) to a full blown nursery. Bud got to work on painting over the bright purple paint with Sherwin William's White Dogwood.

Before: bright purple walls

After: light, soft pink for my girl

And since I'm a crazy wife/nesting momma, I have also pushed Brandon into painting the hallways since a)it needed done B.A.D. (I cannot look at those stencils one more day) and b) we aren't really going to be able to do it for awhile with a new baby around (it being the dead of winter and a new baby's lungs not really suited for paint fumes). So due to my constant ~~nagging~~ asking nicely, Brandon got to painting over the bright.white hallway walls to Sherwin Williams' Nomadic Desert.

buhbye, stencils!!

still a work in progress....

Besides all the painting, I also painstakingly went through all of Greyson's clothes that he has outgrown and pulled out anything that seemed gender neutral - which means our girl is getting boat loads of brown and green hand-me-down onesies. After the sprinkle, I also was able to wash all of Gemma's clothes (with the help of my own momma doing a load or two - thanks mum!) and Aunt Uch folded and hung up our girl's duds.

And as a double whammy to both baby prep AND working on our January Kindness, we re-organized and combed through all the toys in the playroom. Out of it, we moved any potentially dangerous-to-a-baby's-well-being toys (like Grey's sports equipment, including hockey sticks/nets, tball stand & bat, and various small toys) up to Booboo's bedroom. We also got a chance to toss some seriously chewed/destroyed toys in the trash and a few others went into our donation pile.

our slimmed down & organized playroom - Bonus: freshly cleaned fish tank!

We also did a search & rescue for all our baby equipment...which surprised me how much equipment a baby requires..why did I forget so fast? So, from the depths of our (still unpacked) garage, we found, cleaned, and re-assembled the baby car seat, high chair, swing, and bassinet.

And since we're talking about getting out the baby equipment, we might as well dive right into preparing bullet & trixie for the new baby's arrival. Just like the last time, we have already set up all the baby equipment (swing, high chair, etc) a few weeks in advance to allow for the dogs to get used to the new items on the scene. For Bullet this is a refresh of last time and he seems to remember pretty well that he's not allowed to touch/bite/chew on any of the baby stuff. For Trixie, since it was already up when she came to us - she has already come to know that the stuff is off limits.

We have f.i.n.a.l.l.y. transitioned Bullet into sleeping in his crate during the night, which was not the case a few months ago. We are totally bad dog parents and had allowed Bully (and his 80 lb booty) to sleep in our bed with us for most of his life. But with the addition of his new, bigger crate; he is happy to snooze in there on his plush camo bed. This has made a huge difference in my pregnant belly sleeping and will continue to make a difference as we attract more little children into our bed in the middle of the night (for b.feeding or nightmares alike). And luckily for us, Tricky-Licky is one of those dogs that kind of loves her crate, so we have no issues with her sleeping there through the night.

For our final (and most important) dog prep, we have packed 2 receiving blankets as Bullet's and Trixie's in the diaper bag for the hospital, to deliver to the house to them before we come home with Gem. We got this advice with the first baby and it worked wonders. For those of you that don't already know this trick: make sure to pack a receiving blanket (that you don't care about getting back) in the hospital bag. On the first day, wrap the baby in it to allow the baby's scent to be on it. Then have a family/friend take the blanket home to your dog. It gives your pup the chance to get familiar with the smell of the new baby. Bullet kept his in his crate until we got home with Grey:)

And then we are doing our best to prepare Greyson for his new baby sister. We introduced a tiny bear into Grey's stuffed animal crew a few months ago as "Maxie's baby sister" to get him acquainted with the idea of a baby sister even existing. And then by a stroke of luck and kindness, we adopted a baby sister for Bullet!

We also do a whole lot of talking about the ever elusive "Baby Gemma." Greyson knows that there is a "Baby Gemma" in my belly (or he at least thinks we call my belly specifically by the name of "Baby Gemma"). We also have had Greyson help us in getting Baby Gemma's things organized. So we visit Baby Gemma's room, and look at Baby Gemma's toys and clothes...I don't discourage Greyson from trying to play with or sit in Baby Gemma's things, and it only took a few times until Greyson started announcing, "Booboo too big" (like he did this morning when he tried to sit in the Bumbo chair). This has been a good segway into talking about how Baby Gemma and Big Boy Booboo will be different and sometimes the same. Like Baby Gemma will like to sleep a lot, but Big Boy Booboo will be able to play a lot. And Baby Gemma and Big Boy Booboo will both like hugs from mumma and dadda.

We also have been making an effort to read books about new babies. Our favorites right now include: Peter's Chair (Picture Puffins) by Ezra Jack Keats (especially love that Peter is at first frustrated that his baby sister is getting all his old stuff, until he realizes he's too big for all of it), The New Baby by Mercer Mayer, and Waiting for Baby (My New Baby) by Rachel Fuller. Besides reading up on new babies, Grey has been "practicing" reading books that he will be able to "read" to Baby Gemma when she arrives...like My Big Animal Book ($7.99) (My Big Board Books) by Roger Pritty, No, David! by David Shannon (one of Grey's favs right now), and his sports books: Touchdown! My Football Book and Slam Dunk! My Basketball Book both by David Diehl (he's slightly obsessed with these books, we're looking to order the Hockey and Baseball versions very soon as well.)

And either because we think its going to be helpful for him or just because we can't believe we're going to be in charge of another newborn again - we've been showing Greyson pictures of him when he was just a new baby.

And then it has been quite overwhelming to prepare ourselves, as parents to a very wiggly, squirmy toddler - to get our minds ready for a newborn again. So I pulled out and dusted off my number one useful tool when Grey was a newborn, On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep by Gary Ezzo & Robert Bucknam. I also (thank goodness) had saved all of Grey's old nap/eat/waketime schedules which has saved me from trying to re-figure all that out. You can read more about why we use this sleep method here (we realize every parent can make their own mind up about this stuff, so this is just for those of you that are wondering...not for those of you that want to pass judgments on our choice.)

Inspired by pinterest (when am I not?) I got into a very determined mission to make freezer meals for after the baby arrives. See, the thing is, when we had Grey, we maybe had about 3 legit meals for the first 8 weeks of his life. And those 3 meals arrived from our family & friends out of the goodness of their heart. So, in an effort to not have to announce to my husband and our son every single night that we're again having cereal or frozen waffles for dinner - we've been chipping away at a list of meals for after Gemmi arrives. Here's a little peek at what's waiting in our freezer (btw, Brandon keeps asking me, "so we have to wait until after the baby gets here to eat these right? we can't just make this tonight?")

1. Baked Shrimp Scampi
2. Chedder & Cracker Chicken
3. Asian Salmon
4. Honey & Spice glazed pork
5. Best Burgers ever
6. Crockpot Lasagna
7. Beef Sammies Au Jus
8. Coconut Chicken
9. Taco stuffed shells
10. Marinated Chicken for the grill
11. Brandon's chili
12. Brocolli & Wild Rice Soup
13. Roast & chopped veggies

Besides that, I've been making some impulse baby girl purchases (like at this shop and this one) on Etsy. Sorry, I just can't reign myself in - oops!

hello pink tutu, flower headband, and adorable leg warmers!!

Okay fine, the whole point of this post was to say that we're all a little excited and getting anxious to finally meet our girl. May the next few weeks pass quickly and painlessly...(HAH! here's to hoping anyway!)

Gemma's Sprinkle

2012-01-17T10:02:00.000-05:00

What is a sprinkle, you ask? Why it's smaller than a shower!

My sisters (who from here on out will be referred to as fairy godmommas to my babies) threw a beautiful and perfect "Sprinkle Sleepover" in honor of our baby girl that will be making her way into this world sometime in the next month. I had specifically nixed the idea of a full blown shower for our second baby (as it seemed a little greedy considering we already have 95% of baby stuff from Booboo's shower), but...we are having a little girl which clearly calls for a celebration of all things sparkly and pink. Thus, the fairy godmommas pulled together all of Gemma's future closest girlfriends and mentors for a proper sleepover in her honor.

The fairy godmommas somehow planned the whole thing without pinning anything to pinterest (since they knew I followed them both and would be stalking their pinboards - hah), but despite having to be super sneaky, the sprinkle was decked out in cute ideas and thoughtful details every which way I looked.

They put together 'Wishes for Gemma' cards that we all filled out (even Dadda answered one, which of course made me cry).

They made homemade Body Scrubs for the favors - which by the way, I have since used and it almost turned me into a cannibal in the shower (wanting to bite off my own arm which smelled amazing in vanilla and sugar).

They pulled together some festive spirits for the non-pregnant guests to enjoy and toast to our baby girl.

And Gigi (my mom-in-law) was in charge of the Diva-licious cake

Before getting down to sprinkle sleepover business, Abba (my mumma) pulled out a surprise for the grandmas: specialized pajamas with their respective names on them!

Then it was time to get down to business - the fairy godmommas had tons of plans up their sleeves to get us all ready to celebrate everything baby and girly. We started out with the most hilarious baby shower/sprinkle game ever called "Welcome Baby." The fairy godmommas had frozen tiny babies in ice cubes which we then dropped into our (very pregnant appropriate) Shirley Temples. Each of us had to guess what time our baby would be born (aka would separate from its ice cube). We all took our guesses and the next half hour or so was accented by overly zealous shouts of "My Water Broke!" when our babies were set free. It was hilarious.

None of us could resist yelling, "Congratulations!" anytime a new baby was "born." We all named our little babes too and we all cracked up as Katie became ever more annoyed by her baby who just would not let go of his ice cube. (she got a prize though for being the most 'overdue'). Abba won the game as she guessed closest to the correct time of when her baby was born.

While we waited for all our babies to be born, we got to work on completing "Turn to me when..." pages of a book that is being organized for our new girl. Each of us wrote down examples of times that Gemma can turn to us for support or help throughout her life. Each of us had our own unique examples including "When you want to travel!" (from Aunt Karpy who lives out of town) and "When you need help standing up to your brother" (from Ninny who has 2 older brothers herself).

We also got to work on decorating onesies for the baby girl with fabric, puffy paint, ribbon, and stencils.

And all throughout the evening, the most influential women in my future daughter's life chatted and giggled the night away.

After all of our projects were completed and the table was filled with both meaningful words and adorable outfits for my girl...my sisters pulled out the big guns - with props for a 'photo booth.' After the Shirley Temples, cake, and hilarious accessories - we all couldn't help but get a little goofy and were cracking up while posing for the camera. Gemma girl - you have so much to look forward to:)

Even our new pup, Trixie got in on the photo booth prop madness. (she's obviously super psyched about it)

After a quick change into our pajamas, we headed to the living room for a final game. The fairy godmommas had each of us write a message on a diaper so that in a few weeks when I'm so tired and possibly annoyed...I'll happen upon these messages from my girlfriends to remind me to smile and that I'm not alone. I could only take a picture of my message, since the rest are still a surprise. We were saying, "write with the understanding that this message could potentially save a life!"

the first 8 weeks was the hardest for me with our first (so tired/zombie)

And then, of course, there were presents to be opened since my baby girl is so loved already and the women in her life can't help themselves but to spoil her.

It's hard to even find the words to say how much the sprinkle and having all the most important women in my life together meant to me. I am surprised everyday by the things that come out of my son's mouth or the weird things he decides to do. There is something very comforting and close already that I feel with the knowledge that growing inside of my (very big) belly is a girl. And maybe we won't be anything alike, or maybe we'll be just alike. But knowing that she'll be surrounded by confident, funny, and caring women for her whole life makes me so grateful. Every which way she looks, she'll have examples of how to be a woman with grace and dignity (in various different shades and forms) and there is not a better gift we could ever give her.

to my sisters (aka the fairy godmommas),

I could never tell you how much it has meant to me for you to be in my life.

the only way I can even come close to explaining how much I appreciate you both

is to tell you that for the rest of my childbearing years

I will be praying for another daughter

because for Gemma to not have a sister herself

seems a tragedy

after what we have shared together as sisters all our lives

i love you

and thank you

scf.

tab

oh no we didn't...part II

2012-01-15T12:57:00.000-05:00

I have been delaying this post for about a week or so until we notified our closest family and friends of the news first. And now that just about everyone who needs to know first knows...we're ready to share the news that will probably make you all smack your foreheads and say, "are they insane? seriously."

cause we got a puppy.

as in now we have 2 dogs
and 2 cats
and 4 fish
and a toddler
and i'm due with our second child in a month

let's just take a moment for you all to sit wide-eyed and in utter disbelief for a few seconds...because that's what anyone we've told already has done...with maybe an addition of a few choice words thrown into the sentence "are you ______(choose your expletive) kidding me?!"

Okay, now that we're all up to speed, let me tell you a little bit about what happened that would make my husband and I appear to have lost our flipping minds...

Last Friday (as in the first Friday of the month), after hearing about a l3 week old brindle pit-lab that was going to be taken to the pound unless someone could take her that day - Brandon and I conversed over text messages (hah, how official of us) and decided that we'd take her with the safety net that if it didn't work out (ie. Bullet went totally crazy, Booboo was in danger, we couldn't handle her, etc) we had someone else that would be able to adopt her after about 2 weeks when they moved into their new house.

So, after picking the pup up after work, we spent Friday evening introducing her to the already crazy house that we live in.

After a slightly anxiety-ridden first meeting of Bullet and the new puppy - in which Bullet followed her around and sniffed her an impossible number of times - it was clear that Bully boy was quickly falling in love with having a friend. It was also clear that Greyson was quickly coming to think that we had somehow cloned Bullet and made him a "baby puppy."

So we've had her for about a week and half and Brandon and I have discussed and discussed and discussed again the pros & cons of keeping our new girl around the place. (To try to win me over, Brandon also threw in the mix, "Think of the kindness, we've saved her life. That's not 12 months of kindness, that's like 15 years of kindness")

So it seems that the fact that Bullet has become completely enamored with her - to the point that they just play together until they are both exhausted - has outweighed any of the Cons on our list. Because, honestly, Bully has been a handfull since we've had him (to say the least) and the majority reason for that has been that we just can't get him tired and his pent up energy has meant chewed toilet paper rolls and pillows, stealing things that he knows he's not supposed to have, jumping on anyone when they walk in the door, and a whole pile of annoying Bully-traits.

And now that he has someone in his life that is ready to run and play-fight and steal his bones and snuggle up close to him...he has had a transformation in the last few days that we have been hoping for since we first adopted him.

So, even though we may have truthfully lost our minds

and even though everyone else may or may not think we need to get our own episode on animal hoarders

The truth is: Trixie (or "Chicky" as Grey calls her) has kind of weaseled her way into all our hearts - most of all Bullet's...and we've decided that we're just going to go ahead and dive headfirst into full on circus-style living.*

*let's revisit this in about 2 months when I'm home alone with 2 babies and 2 dogs...I fully anticipate that I may just very well be singing a different tune.

oh no we didn't...

2012-01-12T10:32:00.001-05:00

actually, we did. After 21 months of his hair growing wild - we finally took Greyson for his first haircut this past Sunday. Booboo's hair has always been a big deal when we take him out and about. There have been too many times to count of women coming up to us and saying some sort of combination of the following: "Oh those curls, I wish I had that kind of hair, should've been a little girl with that hair!" My son's head has been quite the stranger magnet.

But the thing is...it was very quickly moving from adorable to Albert Einstein-y in the last few weeks.

what is going on with that awol curl?

We've also resorted to using grown up conditioner in it (which makes for its own problems when it gets in his eyes during the bath) and loading it up with detangler spray. Finally, enough was enough - so we carted him off to the hairdressers for his first real* haircut.

*I say real, because I have had to remove a few dreadlocks in the past few months when its just become too curly and mangy to comb out. hahha, oops.

before: side view

before: back view

before: front view

Grey got a healthy dose of watering down before the hairdresser could do anything about tackling the combing out of that mess. He sat really still and quietly the whole time though so as I flitted about him with my iPhone snapping pictures (after literally telling the stylist, "I'm sorry, I'm going to be one of those moms right now"), I was filled with pride because my baby didn't fuss or cry while a stranger held scissors unnervingly close to his little skull.

Brandon and I agreed that part of the reason that Grey was so well behaved during his first haircut was the fact that at that very same moment, his Dadda was getting a hair cut too! So from his seat, he watched how his dad behaved while getting a trim and since his Dadda was sitting still and being quiet - Grey just mimicked the same behavior and it was quick and painless.

It didn't hurt either that there were only 2 other customers in the place (waiting in the lobby) and so we didn't have to wait at all to be seen and during the cut, Grey didn't have a chance to be preoccupied or distracted by other people. Haircuts at noon on Sundays are the way to go from here on out!

ah! those curls!!

Grey sat still and quietly. Brandon chatted absently to his hair dresser about our old stomping ground while I stood around psychotically taking pictures with my gritting my teeth. Not because I'm so crazy in love with his curls (they really are more of a pain in the butt) but because my baby was getting his first haircut!! What's next, his first car?! just kidding, but not really.

When it was all said and done, the floor was covered in white blond ringlets and my baby had seemed to grow from 21 months to about 15 years old.

after: side view

after: front view

The following photo comparison is not an optical illusion. A mere 3 days had passed from when these pictures were taken...not 7 years. How in the world did a haircut take my baby into real life child-land? It's a little sad. And a little exciting. And a whole lot of cute.

And now that he looks like a big boy, he thinks he's allowed to give me looks like these...

...oh, excuse me...I don't care how old you get or how old you think you are, now that you have a cool short haircut like Dadda...I'm your mother and if I want to ask you to 'give your mumma a hugga hugga' while you're in the middle of doing something (like coloring) - i'm going to ask you. And if you think you're going to give me this look, well then I'm just going to have to steal a hugga hugga myself.

12 Months of Kindness for 2012

2012-01-07T10:22:00.001-05:00

It's the start of the new year which not only brings about resolutions (more on those a little later in the week), but also our time to reflect on the past year and think about how we can improve on being kind to others for the coming year. We had a great and mostly successful 3rd year of our 12 months of Kindness tradition. You can read all about our previous years of Kindness here and the idea behind it here.

When we get ready to make our goals for the 12 months of Kindness, we make some considerations to ensure that our list is attainable for how and where our family will be during the different months of the year. So for example, we need to make sure that our goal for February and March are decided while realizing we will have a very tiny new baby in our house. And the goal for June needs to allow for Brandon's very busy work schedule while he opens a new store. And in October, we'll be vacationing in the Dominician Republic - so could/should that be included in our month's kindness? And Greyson will be older this year (thus a little more understanding of what we're doing) so can we include things that are geared toward his development?

After considering all the places we'll be or all the plans we have for the months - we then talk about the previous kindness months that we've enjoyed doing to make sure we slot them into months. We also give new kindness ideas (some thanks to pinterest, of course) and add those to the list. And then finally, we arrive at our big finale...which we're now ready to unveil!

We've kept some tried and true Kindness goals from years past (like Donors Choose, our scholarship, etc) and added some new goals (like the "house purge" and supporting local establishments). We've also added mini-goals that apply to our March and April goals. As the months come, we'll give more in depth updates and details to our Kindness progress, but so far, those mini goal lists look like this:

Some of our Kindness goals are fairly big undertakings and specific to us (like planning & hosting our Invitational in July and the Turkey Bowl in November), but we have had practice in getting this events organized - and I'm a little bit of a happy-to-pressure-myself-with-big-projects kind of person. But 12 months of Kindness can be designed to fit your family specifically.

I recognize that not everyone has 20 million different causes in their mind that they want to help...so maybe your family's 12 months of Kindness could focus on one idea for the whole year: like making your family/home more green a little each month - if you are most interested in the environment; or using the year to introduce your kids to their status as a global citizen and perhaps making a focus each month on different places around the world & their culture, practices, and holidays (um, that one actually sounds awesome...maybe when my babes are big enough to get it...hmm). If you're concerned about a financial commitment for the year (definitely a concern in this day & age), it's certainly possible to come up with a full year of free acts of kindness (like refusing paper & plastic bags by always bringing your own when shopping, or introducing yourself to your neighbors). Get your kids involved in the goals too - maybe they really love animals right now, do you know about how you can buy livestock for underprivileged families around the world ? Or think about visiting & donating to your local animal shelter.

No matter how big or small, making a goal to participate in acts of kindness and giving throughout the year is sending the message to your own family (and kids) and others around you that maybe what the world really needs right now - is a little more kindness to one another.

If you and your family decide to do 12 months of Kindness, please link up so that I can be inspired by your choices of kindness each month. We're always looking for more ideas and it would be nice to see our collective effort in making this world a more kind place to live.

Here's hoping for a year full of Kindness and Love to you and your family!

12 Months of Dates: January

2012-01-04T09:43:00.001-05:00

Booboo's Christmas was a joyful one and he got all the things he asked for (a football and donuts) and even more than that...but when it comes to Brandon and I both felt kind of strange going in to Christmas to buy for each other. We usually have a talk (I imagine as all married couples do) about how much we're spending on each other, blah blah blah...but this year we got to talking about all the things we've already spent on each other throughout the year...like our trip to Thailand in March, like our new house in July, like all the times we were shopping and said, 'um, I think I/we need this,' and we pick it up without batting an eyelash...because we are fortunate enough to be able to do that. We don't have to wait and save until Christmas to get things throughout the year, and looking down at another Christmas where we'd have huge piles of presents from each other (&Santa) just felt really selfish and icky.

So, we decided that we'd each get each other a few things that we actually needed (and have been too lazy/busy/tired to get earlier). So Brandon unwrapped new jeans (since his current pairs had paint all over them from his horrid wife forcing him to paint our whole house this year), and a new camo winter hat, and car wash stuff. I unwrapped new Underarmor mom sweatpants because I have 2 pairs of holes in the inner thigh of the pair I continue to wear to death (tmi?), TUMS (best gift ever for a 32 week pregnant woman), and a gigantic Kit Kat bar (hahha, but seriously needed it, ok?)

The only thing that we decided that we hadn't done a very good job of this year was spending time together, ALONE. Besides flirting our butts off with each other while in Thailand, we operated mostly under the hope to control chaos this year as we lived separately for a month while B took on his new job in another town, and temporarily lived in a chalet at Blue Knob before finding a house, and tearing down walls and putting up wainscotting in the new house, and protecting our home from bears...we've been a little distracted. So, we decided that if we needed (or wanted) anything this year from each other - it'd be time together. But we've gone through that song & dance before...blah blah blah, we'll do date night every month, and then 1400 things come up and we're both too tired and out the window our good intentions fly.

So we took a cue from the pinterest gods, and organized our own 12 Months of Dates gift.

Instead of it being a gift from just one of us - we decided that we'd split the year and each take 6 months so part of the year would be a total surprise for each one of us. Brandon took the even months and I took the odd months and then because I am bossy and a control freak, I set up some rules about the 12 Months of Dates challenge:

1. A Date means Me & Brandon. no kids. no friends. no family.
2. We ARE allowed however to consult with friends/family for ideas
3. Dates can be something we've done before & enjoyed (dinner & a movie) or something we've never done before (bed & breakfast)
4. 4 dates need to be UNDER $50
5. 1 date needs to be FREE
6. 1 date can be over $50
7. Money/Giftcards/Certificates need to be included in the envelope (pre-paid)
8. Our 6 months of dates are due by: Dec 24

Since we were including the money or supplies in the envelope, we're hoping that will hold us to completing the entire year regardless of how crazy or busy we get in 2012. Of course, I also included a breakdown of what our year looks like to remind Brandon of the "appropriate-ness" of a month's date:

[Literally copied&pasted from an email I sent him of the "rules"]

things to consider:

where will our kids be during the date?

does the date make sense for the hectic-ness of the month:

(hectic months include: January (super pregnant), February (new baby), March (still new baby), June (your new store grand opening), July (beer olympics), October (vacation), November (turkey bowl))

(to which Brandon emailed me back, "why is our whole year hectic already and its not even January?" and I emailed back, "like our lives being hectic is new?")

Inside of each date envelope we included an outline of the date:

So after a lot of planning on both of our parts and some sneaking around - we had all of our dates packed up by Christmas eve. Since it was Christmas and mostly because I could not wait until January, I told B that we should open our January date in early in honor of the holiday. I got no complaints from his end, so he tore into our first of 12 and found:

The remaining seasons of Prisonbreak that we didn't already own with our outline stating that we'll watch the entire series through the month of January after Grey goes to bed. Our outcome will be to relax and spend time together watching something we both like (and reminds us both of our history together - we watched Prisonbreak over the phone while he was in Washington, PA for college and I was teaching in Brooklyn, NY. Like, literally sat on the phone watching in silence and then talking about it during commercials) while we wait for our new baby girl to arrive next month. Besides the series, while searching for seasons 3 & 4 on amazon, I also found a mini-movie (Prison Break: The Final Break) that is supposed to clear up questions about the last 5 minutes of the finale...which I couldn't resist. Brandon is very much looking forward to making it all the way to see this never-before seen footage.

Our January date is already turning out to be a good one. We're only on day 4 of the month and we're already on episode 6 of season 1....granted there are 4 seasons and 1 mini-movie that we need to finish before the month is over...so we need to keep it up at this pace.

One of the reasons I love Prisonbreak and why I knew this date would be a winner is because Brandon NEVER falls asleep during it - usually when we decide to watch a movie or tv together after the baby falls asleep, B will be snoozing after just a few minutes...but he's up for the entire episode of Prisonbreak and wants to debrief afterwards.

I have absolutely zero idea of what B has planned for the even months, but I am thinking that 2012 is already turning out to be pretty good for my little romantic heart:)

3yearanniversary

2012-01-02T11:01:00.000-05:00

We celebrated our wedding anniversary this October. We've only been married for 3 years, but we've been together and shared so much that I'm going to run some numbers by you...

Brandon & Tab; our shared life in numbers

years married: 3 (October 2011)
'newlyweds for:' 1171 days (says our wedding 'knot page')

years together: 12 (December 2011)

ages when we had our first date (homecoming dance): 16 (tab) and 14 (brandon)
(marianne, God bless you for letting him go with me. seriously. hahha, cringing about Greyson's future.)

#of high school proms we attended together (oh yea, I went there): 4

Prom 2000

difference of our ages: 14 months (tab's older)

years we maintained a long distance relationship: 6

longest distance separating us: 2148 miles (while B played a basketball tournament in AZ while I lived in Brooklyn, NY)

the night they spent their entire meal allowance on drinks

2nd longest distance separating us: 2111 miles (while I studied abroad in Costa Rica and Brandon was at college in Washpa)

surfing with Meg in Jaco (hi, Meg!)

longest distance for longest period of time: 321 miles for 2 years (while B finished college & I taught in Brooklyn, NY)

engagement period: 2 years

photo credit: Hourglass Photography

#of bridal party attendants: 22

photo credit: Michelle Misner

#of wedding guests: 431

photo credit: Michelle Misner

population for the smallest place we've ever lived together: 6271 (Punxsutawney, PA)

population for the largest place we've ever lived together: 279,179 (Erie, PA)

#of shared homes: 5

#of times our fish have moved: 9

#of cars we've owned: 4

longest distance traveled together for vacation: 8697 miles (Thailand 2011)

2nd longest distance traveled together for vacation: 4661 miles (Hawaii 2009)

#of countries abroad visited together: 3

Negril, Jamaica

#of pets: 7 (1 dog, 2 cats, 4 fish)

#of kids: 1 (20 months) and 1 'cooking' (due Feb. 2012)

photo credit: Hourglass Photography

#of godchildren: 1, our precious girl; Mallory Lauren

#of times Tab made Brandon tear down an entire wall in a house: 2

estimate #of times Bullets gets the shock collar daily: 8

frequency that Tab asks Brandon, "keys, wallet, cellphone?": 365 times a year

#of dead animals Brandon has brought through the house to butcher during hunting/fishing season: 1 catfish, 1 turkey, 1 doe, and too many to count steelhead & trout

#of years we've done 12 months of kindness together: 3
#of times we've used our turkey roast pan since our wedding: 1
#of real Christmas trees we've decorated together: 3

Being married has not been all romantic dates or even falling asleep in each others arms. It has been nothing like we used to imagine it would be when we were passing notes in the halls. One day our baby learns to walk, the next he busted his face open. One day we taught our dog to roll-over, the next we're chasing him through the yard to keep him away from the UPS man. One day we got a refund check from the insurance company, the next we overdraw on our checking account. One day we eat roast from the slow cooker, the next we sit in front of the tv while eating cereal for dinner. One anniversary we're getting a couples massage to celebrate, the next we're barely staying awake while eating at Chili's before I'm sleeping in the car on the drive home. We never know what is going to happen or how hard we're going to have to try, or how many times Brandon will continue to load the dishwasher the wrong way (hahh, kidding. kind of, but seriously?). Sometimes our life is so joyful that the only face that will reflect how happy I am is his. And sometimes it is so challenging that when I look at him there is nothing but gratitude to know that I don't have to live this life myself.

But, Brandon, its always your face. it's always me&you. and for that being married to you has trumped everything else.

our 3 year anniversary dinner

how much Christmas can one post hold?

2011-12-29T22:51:00.002-05:00

...well, we're going to go ahead and test the limits, cause I have a little problem called shutter-finger - in I like to do me some point & shoot over the holidays. Brace yourself friends, the holly jolly hasn't ended yet:)

We kicked off holiday festivities on Christmas eve morning with some cinnamon rolls and entertainment supplied by Dadda with a million fake burps in a row which got Booboo giggling so hard that he was squeezing gooey rolls and icing out of his teeth. Totally disgusting if it was anyone's kid but mine. sorry if you find this picture gross, its adorable to us.

After Booboo's last nap of the weekend practically, and a quick cleaning run-through of the house, we made our way to Christmas eve mass (the 4 o'clock "children's" mass - aka the noisy one, where we definitely belong...as Greyson stands on my lap and shouts "Booboo BIG!"). My parents and sisters joined us for mass and then stopped over to our place to enjoy some traditional Christmas eve spirits..

my husband has an obsession with Wisconsin Lunchboxes

and the girls will take a little bubbly:)

Followed by a Birthday song (complete with lighted candle) for Baby Jesus. Grey even sang too, although his version goes like this:

"Happy to Cheesus"

[blow out candle]

..what can I say - he gets to the point.

By 6p on Christmas eve, we had already celebrated quite a bit of the holiday, but things were just getting warmed up..

hhhhhhahahhahahha, so weird all around.

We made our way across town to Mimi's house (Brandon's grandma/Grey's Great Grandma) to enjoy some dinner (delish) and gift-opening with family. Booboo was spoiled rotten by everyone and showed surprise interest in things like..

..putting on his winter vest as soon as opening it, even though it was over 80 degrees in the house...

...and borrowing his cousin Gracie's new faux glasses while going around to each person with a camera and shouting "Cheese!" until they took a picture of him

...I can't possibly imagine where he gets his weirdness....waaaaaaait a minute...

It was wonderful spending our Christmas eve with Mimi and Grey's cousins; Morgan, Ariel, and Gracie.

By the time we got home, there was just enough energy in Brandon and I to get Grey to leave some cookies for Santa, pry the hockey stick out of his squirming hands and stuff him into his jammies...it took about 45 minutes to get him to fall asleep considering he at approximately 42.5 cookies during the day. After we finally got Booboo down to sleep, Bud and I weakly attempted to uphold our Christmas eve tradition of watching "Christmas with the Kranks" (which I think is absolutely hilarious because I think Tim Allen is comic genius and I may as well be Jamie Lee Curtis in that movie)...but then we both fell asleep after 10 minutes and didn't wake up until the credits...because we're old.

Now it's confession time, I'm a chronic early Christmas morning riser...like 5am riser. I can't help it, this happens every single Christmas and I'm not even excited about opening my gifts..I just love the excitement of the day and the prospect of delicious breakfast and wrapping paper on the floor. I understand this is totally lame and I should be happy to sleep in as long as possible...alas, I was up at 5:15a staring Brandon in the face breathing hot air on him until he groggily opened his eyes and said, "maybe we should let Booboo sleep since he went to bed late." And then I huffed about and went downstairs and ate cookies and stared at the tree for THREE and a HALF hours, until my two sleepy guys awoke from their slumber.

why is there a robot in our tree? Brandon hides Grey's stuffed animals in there. There is also a stuffed football, an alpaca, and Gee the monkey in there too. Grey found them all and then asked them each, "whayadoin?"

Grey was experiencing some toddler Christmas giving spirit and even helped Bully open one of his gifts before he dug into his own.

Bully must have been good this year (at least in Santa's eyes) because he got about 15 different kinds of bones and treats. Must have been all the beating he put up with from his human brother this past year.

Grey's gifts were a mix of toys we already had (like Maxie and his football) and a few new things like some football books and a teeball set.

pleasantly surprised to find his best pal Maxie under that wrapping paper

his heisman pose

All the while, Bullet continued eating his bones...

The only thing (besides footballs) that Grey really wanted from Santa was a donut - and he lucked out because Santa delivered a whole bag of little donuts for our guy. He opened them up and sat in shock for a few minutes before screaming "DONUT?!??!"

And then demanded to eat them immediately. A 10 minute recess of gift opening followed in which Brandon and I got too bored and started opening our own presents.

After Booboo's belly was adequately coated in chocolately donut goodness, he continued on his present opening. The next best thing to an actual football? Well books about football of course! (My Football Book, Touchdown! My Football Book, and T is for Touchdown: A Football Alphabet (Alphabet Books) ). They were a big hit...enough of one anyway that then we took a Reading break from gift-opening...which lasted another 15 minutes.

After all that reading, we headed for Grey's stocking which contained his single most prized gift of the day: a lollipop...which haulted all gift opening for quite some time as he ate his "allee-pop" and stuck his sticky fingers all over everything...

...and after Bully tried many times to steal it...and then did actually steal it once with a strange accuracy that included pop in mouth with stick perfectly sticking out...which makes me wonder if perhaps Bully wasn't a human in a previous life

After a very long time, we finally finished opening the gifts and made a royal mess

And then it was only a matter of time before my two sports loving boys pulled out the teeball set and went about attempting to break things in our house. (they didn't...yet)

Brandon even got Grey to watch the ball closely enough that he was able to swing and hit some pitched balls, which was probably Brandon's best Christmas gift this year.

While the two of them got to hitting balls around the house, I headed to the kitchen to whip up some deliciously easy pastries, thanks to Pinterest. They were divine and I may need to make this a Christmas morning tradition.

Source: navywifecook.blogspot.com via Tabitha on Pinterest

Oh, and besides bones for Christmas, Bullet also got an extra large crate that Brandon felt he needed to go inside of to help get Bully acquainted with it. And then Greyson went in too and then finally Bullet ..and then they all laid down in it. And then I secretly hoped that somewhere else in the world another mother is also taking a picture of her entire family in a dog crate because seriously....we can't be the only ones, right?

After our own action-packed Christmas morning, we somehow tore ourselves away from the mountains of donuts, cookies, and giant kit kat bars (thank you, Santa!) and got ready to head over to Gigi & Pap Pap's house for some more holiday cheer.

It was obvious that Grey's arrival was being awaited since my in-laws had spent the morning building a block corral around Grey's rocking horse and gifts (hehhehhe).

While Grey opened his gifts...and watched his Gigi attempt to ride a tiny rocking horse (oh, Gigi, sometimes you're too much!)...Bud and I enjoyed snacking and unbuttoning our pants from the overload of good food and lady locks.

Booboo scored a ton of toys and clothes - but was most infatuated with his set of tools (some of which were battery operated which made for noises and shaking...which he loved). He got to work on using them to help open other presents which caused him to wear a very serious face.

And then he ate about 14 more cookies

And then I made Brandon take a picture with his two "sisters." (Mare, please print this for your cube)

But even after all that Christmas cheer on the 25th, we still weren't done with the merriment. We headed over to our family friend's house; the Siwy's, for a Christmas day finale. Grey was so pooped from the day that he laid unconscious on the couch for about an hour when we got there - totally oblivious to all the poking and attempts to wake him up. He finally woke up and spent the rest of the evening playing hockey with Bryce and watching football...which is basically his favorite two things on earth right now.

best friends! Pam, Abba, and Becky

By the time we were heading home, we were all exhausted and barely crawled to our beds before passing out until almost 10 the next morning (which is record breaking for us in this house).

The 26th held only more holiday fun for us as we got ready to spend the afternoon at Abba & Chum's house for more gift opening and delicious food consumption. And it wasn't until we arrived that I realized in the bustle of the morning that I had forgotten my camera and then I cursed at myself for the rest of the day. Because you see, besides all of us getting mountains of more presents, Grey got a whopper of surprise with a Sesame Street drum set which started a full out jam session...that my mom must have been anticipating because she just happened to have a keyboard on hand, and Jordan just happened to have his new guitar and amp in his car...

So I had to settle for Iphone pictures of the whole gang getting in on the music fest...

Although that meant that I scored some sweet videos too

Besides being obsessed with playing the drums (thanks Abba & Chum!), Grey is also obsessed with other musical instruments...but mostly he's just obsessed with Jordan. So when he got the chance to help Jordan play his guitar - he was one little happy elf.

Abba & Booboo: "ho, ho, ho"

After a long Booboo nap and some more eating at Chum & Abba's , the 26th was topped off with a visit to my Great Uncle Sam Uzelac's Christmas party where we spent the evening listening to our cousins serenade us all on the karaoke machine and giving Mallory and Baby Hunter 2 million kisses. But since I didn't have my camera (ugh, cursing myself some more)...we're left with no pictures of this final holiday event.

So instead, I'll leave you with this photo of my two sneaky fellas who stole granola bars from the snack cabinet and sat on the landing trying to rip the wrappers with their teeth.

We had a very busy, very whirlwind-y holiday - but it was one that we were reminded at every spin of how lucky we are. Lucky to have some many family members. Lucky to have so many presents to open. Lucky to have so much good food to eat. And certainly lucky to have upset stomachs four days in a row due to massive amounts of cookie consumption.

Adopt a family: December Kindness 2011

2011-12-27T10:06:00.000-05:00

For our last Kindness of 2011, we adopted a family from the Salvation army. Brandon was adamant on having this be our December kindness since he enjoyed buying gifts last year for an unknown family in need. So I contacted our local Salvation Army at the end of December and requested to adopt a family. We were given a family of three; an almost 70 year old grandfather raising his 2 grandsons (ages 10 and 11). We got some ideas on what they wanted and off we went to shop for our adopted family.

While on a mission for pajamas and socks in JCPenney's, Brandon had his own mission to extract Greyson from various clothes rack hide-and-seek spots. A random passerby actually said to Brandon, "got a little ninja in there?" which Brandon still thinks is hilarious.

Besides jammies and socks for the boys, we also snagged winter hats, toy cars, a puzzle, and a movie. I was debating on a set of sports balls for them, until I considered that the last thing grandpa wants is flying balls and broken windows for Christmas...so I opted for a game they could all play together instead.

Then it was off to pick up their Christmas day meal - which I always like to include a little breakfast stuff, since it's my favorite meal of the day. Besides a ham, sides, and desserts, we also included noodles and my family's recipe for Ham Pot Pie so that they can enjoy the leftovers for a day or two after the holiday.

All of our gifts were delivered to the Salvation Army by December 12th so that they had enough time to go through everything and deliver to the family before the big day.

While our kids continue to get bigger (and able to understand concepts a little more), we plan on teaching them about being on Santa's team. My sister recently sent me a story (hi, Kayla!) that is really sweet and will lift your heart in the giving spirit. So hopefully, as we continue this kindness through the years, our kids will understand that being a part of Santa's team is just as good as getting presents from him too.

As we sipped our coffee on Christmas morning, Brandon and I smiled at each other and talked about how grateful we were to know that while our son ripped and tore his gifts open on Christmas morning, somewhere in town two other little boys were opening gifts from Santa's team too.

Our December kindness of adopting a family always makes me think of the Swedish Proverb: "Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow."

Hope you all got to be on Santa's team this year too:)

Building up to Christmas 2011

2011-12-24T08:25:00.002-05:00

We have a long list of holiday traditions building up to the big day that make for a very exciting December for our family. Gearing up on the Christmas excitement was even more fun this year since Grey has some idea of these general ideas about the holiday:
a) "Dinta" (Santa) is a person who is exciting and everyone asks what he is 'going to bring you.' He is awfully creepy up close though.
b) It is baby Jesus's birthday
c) there are A.lot.of.cookies.e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.
d) if you hit the Christmas tree with a hockey stick or ball, you should say, "Sorry, Tree"
e) there is a pickle ornament hiding on our tree that you should point out to every person that comes to our house
f) Baby Jesus and Dinta Songs are lullabies (Silent Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Up on the rooftop, Better Watch Out)
g) When you see Christmas lights on someone's house you should say, "ooooh, wow. pretty.....more?"

In our journey leading up to the holiday and my son's understanding of the aforementioned truths, we did quite a big of holly jolly'ing through the month. First, we met Abba at our Church hall to have breakfast with Santa.

And we got to meet some Church friends

And then waited (and waited and waited) for Santa to arrive

Which was REALLY exciting...

Until we got up close and then it was terrifying (even though we got a giant stuffed teddy bear - thanks Church!)

We also continued putting up our Christmas tree ornament advent calendar each day. Grey has the drill down pat now. I say, "Are you ready for the ornament for today?" and he says, "Ess, sit down," and goes to wait in the middle of the living room. He inexplicably wants to hang every single ornament "up high!" when I ask where he wants to put it on the tree.

We wrote our wishlist for Santa where I asked Greyson what he wanted Santa to bring him. The conversation literally went like this:
Mum: "Grey, we're going to make a letter for Santa so he knows what you want for Christmas. What would you like him to bring you for a surprise?"
Grey: "football?"
Mum: "Okay, football, that's nice. Anything else?"
Grey: "foooooootttttbbbbaaalllllllllll; touchdownnnnnnnn"
Mum: "oookay, more footballs. great. Do you want Santa to bring you anything different than footballs, honey?"
Grey: "donut?"

..and so Santa has it pretty easy over here for making all of Grey's wishes come true this holiday.

Then it was on to our annual Gram Helen's Sugar Cookie & Boiled Icing marathon day with my sisters and cousins the Hagerich girls. Ever since we were little girls we would spend just about a whole day at my grandma's house ~~eating~~ preparing cookie dough, cutting out cookies ~~and eating the raw dough~~, baking the cookies, ~~eating icing by the spoonful~~, and then icing and decorating the cookies. Between Gram and the six girls there, we would have mountains of sugar cookies ready for Christmas by the end of the day. Since my Gram passed away in 2006, we have been trying to keep that cookie baking day alive by holding it at whoever's house is up for a flour explosion. We are all still trying desperately to perfect Gram's boiled icing and with each year we're getting a little closer to doing it (hopefully).

At least Grey seems to like it a whole bunch

This year's cookie baking day was held at our house and Grey was able to get it on the festivities. We dyed his dough green as an indicator later to not.eat.the.greenies because they had bits of all sorts of nasty toddler crap in them (including but not limited to: dog lick, boogies, spit, sneeze, and have probably been pre-licked).

Bullet waited around under the table, patiently waiting for anyone to drop anything

Grey picked up on some pretty impressive techniques during the day and we tried (unsuccessfully so far) to teach him Gram's jingle for using cookie cutters properly. It is really elaborate and goes like this: push it down and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

We spent the afternoon covered in flour while gossiping, laughing, and catching up with each other. I know Gram could hear us giggling and was proud to know her girls are still sneaking big chunks of raw cookie dough in their mouths even though we're grown ups. we miss you everyday, still.

Speaking of flour.

Clean up wasn't too bad, considering we have a built-in, living vacuum cleaner

And a little gremlin who crawls all over the floor and mops it with his belly

It also wouldn't be the holiday season without attempting to take your toddler on a full day shopping excursion

To finish off our holiday build-up, we started a new tradition with the Fiores that included a train ride with Grey and Phia (that was so cute I could have just screamed on the top of my lungs).

Followed by hot chocolate (big hit) and a viewing of The Polar Express at Phia's house. The kids watched a total of 3 minutes of the movie before spending the rest of the time playing together and occasionally fighting over who got to sit in what chair. They were both old enough to independently play together so that Katie and I got to sit on the couch and fake watch the movie while trying to stay awake and catch up.

With so many fun holiday traditions behind us already, we are heading into the serious traditions now. From Christmas Eve to the 26th, we've got loads of family, great food, more cookies (!), and memories to make. We'll be back after then for a full update. In the meantime,

happy holidays to you and your family.

thank you for stopping by to read my blog and keep up with our funny little life.

i hope this holiday, you receive at least one of these best gifts of all:

your family sitting in church with shaking shoulders because you're all trying to not laugh at something that totally wouldn't be funny except you know you're not supposed to be laughing
that first bite of a warm dinner roll
kissing under the mistletoe
someone waking you up at 6am on Christmas morning
watching your grandma or grandpa laugh
watching a child's face when they see the tree
guilt-free dessert eating

baby, its cold outside...but lets go out anyway

2011-12-21T09:10:00.000-05:00

Even though the weather has been less than ideal the past few weeks (although, we have had some unseasonably warm ones sprinkled in there), I have been making an effort to get Grey and Bully outside anyway. The two of them trapped in the house without wide open space to run can wreck havoc on my cupboards and my psyche - so despite rain, snow, or wind; we venture outside for a little freedom.

And Grey throws Bully's ball

And they go off to explore together

And they bark at the birds and groundhogs in the woods

While I follow them around under my umbrella

And giggle over the face I can almost no longer see my feet over my big 30 week Gemma-belly

And my Booboo bear gets ever more dirty and wet (which warrants an immediate warm bath when we get back inside follow by naptime)

And the trees look awfully spooky with all the fog and rain

And Grey finds dead caterpillars that he wants to be his friend

But much to his dismay, they never want to play ball with him

Or we really bundle up and go outside in the snow...even though Grey refuses to wear his gloves for longer than 4 minutes at a clip

I've taken it upon myself to alter the postman's slogan to fit Mummas of Sons: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these Moms of the swift completion of tiring out their Sons.”

Practice makes perfect & Chores

2011-12-19T09:19:00.000-05:00

If you've seen me write it once before, you've seen me write it 100 times, practice makes perfect - and that especially applies to little humans. We do a whole lot of practicing at our house in hopes that if we can familiarize our entities (aka Greyson AND Bullet) with strange situations within a controlled setting that when it comes time for the real deal - we'll get less melt downs. So Grey practices all sorts of everyday things like drinking from a cup without a sippy occasionally ("nice and slow") to his manners (please & thank you & bless you when someone sneezes). Bullet is always practicing too, like waiting for his dinner without begging and not jumping on guests when they come to the house.

But when we come to a moment when there is a pretty big event on the horizon, we make an effort to do some serious practice; like for Greyson's first trick-or-treating experience. So Dada and Grey (and Bully) headed outside to walk up and down the sidewalk while I stood in the door around the corner. Grey practiced and practiced ~~knocking~~ banging on the door and when I opened it he practiced saying "chick cheet," and holding out his pumpkin bucket.

We practiced a few different days for about five minutes leading up to trick-or-treat night, so that when it came time for the real show -

...It seemed like an old routine, walking up the sidewalk with Dada..

...~~knocking~~ banging on the door to say "chick cheet" and holding out his bucket. Although it wasn't his mumma standing behind the door, he knew to expect someone with candy.

As a note: Grey might not be old enough to totally understand it, but we definitely had a little talk with him about how Halloween is a special day that we go to people's houses and get candy from strangers. This is a holiday, not an everyday practice. Halloween came and went and it only took a few times for Grey to stop coming up to me in the kitchen and saying "chick cheet?" and expecting candy.

Besides practicing, Grey also works on mastering a few chores he has around the house. With a new baby on the way, it will be especially important to have another set of capable hands to help...even if by capable I only mean throwing a piece of garbage away. So since about 15 months, Grey started showing signs of understanding when we were asking of him AND be eager to do helpful things around the house. He only has two true "chores" that he does everyday:

1. he turns off his sound machine before we leave his room after he wakes up
2. he puts his own dirty clothes in his hamper (pajamas in the morning and clothes at night)

Besides those two consistent daily chores, Grey also has a list of things he is able to do successfully by himself that are helpful, like:

1. Throwing away garbage
2. getting his own shoes out of the cupboard in the laundry room
3. getting his own "play outside" coat from the cubby in the laundry room
4. cleaning up his own toys
5. putting his animals back on his bed
6. helping to put laundry in the washer & dryer
7. putting stuff in the compost bin
8. putting food in Bullet's dish...

...speaking of feeding Bullet...here's a little video clip of Grey practicing this chore when he was about 17 months. He was still getting the hang of it, obviously.

There have been many positives and negatives to giving our young toddler chores and things to practice around the house. Some of which include:

Positives:

it has helped him understand multiple step instructions ("put your clothes in the hamper and then turn off your sound machine, please")
it has helped him learn prepositions ("Grey, can you hand me the ball that rolled under the couch?"
while he does a chore (like getting his own shoes), I can use my hands to be doing something else (like putting on my own shoes)
it has helped (we hope) Grey understand that he is a part of our family that works together to get things done and that we aren't his slaves
helps Brandon & I work on patience

Negatives:

it takes a r.e.a.l.l.y.long.time. what does? you ask...e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.
sometimes it means a new mess to clean up
forces Brandon & I work on patience

The Very Social Butterfly: Greyson edition

2011-12-12T08:12:00.002-05:00

At 20 months, my little man is very interested in spending time with "kids." He loves being around other kids, especially "big boys" because he wants to be big (and fast) just like them. I try my best to set up opportunities for him to socialize with other kids and we've had a ton of fun excursions over the past few weeks.

Greyson and Sophia (Pia) went to their first movie together (as in movie theater!!). We went to see Puss in Boots and despite the fact that we were 15 minutes late (my fault - no surprise) and despite the fact we were in the wrong movie theater for another 20 minutes, they still did pretty good. I am lucky to have a friend like Kate that will brave a movie theater with me and our toddlers:)

After the movie, we got to have pizza at Pia's house with her big "brother" Cloud - which Greyson absolutely loved. Cloud was so patient with Grey while they played basketball and Grey still says, "Cloud, Booboo, Booyah?" occasionally when we talk about Pia's house.

Then a few weeks ago, Greyson I shared a lunch date with my Mom's meetup group for a Teddy Bear picnic. It was only my second meetup with the group (the first was a trip to the Somerset Volunteer Fire Department) and it was enjoyable and fun. Grey was so happy to have Maxie join us for lunch and he fell sort of in love with another little girl's teddy bear too. We had lunch and got teddy bear themed surprises and even heard some teddy bear poems. Some of the other moms had little baby brothers & sisters with them and Grey was very sweet to the babies (yay for Gemma!)

Then after Thanksgiving, Grey spent the evening entertaining his cousins (from the Adams side) over at our Aunt Dar's house. Grey was happy to enlist everyone into playing with a train set, making them perform the scorpion move, and showing off his dance talents when it was time for Wii Dance.

Some days, we just need to meet Kate & Pia out for brunch for the mommas sake. Built-in toddler social events are a plus to chowing down on good food and catching up with grown-ups.

A few days ago we were lucky to host our cousins, Stef (Tete), Mallory (Mawee), and Hunter (Baby Unter) at our house for an afternoon playdate. I was so glad to be able to talk with Stef (about how it is dealing with double children) and Grey loved playing with Mallory and petting Baby Hunter's face.

Grey was also able to experience some firsts during that visit. Which included first sneak-behind-Mum's-back-to-steal-candy-from-the-jar-by-way-of-the-time-out-stool

And his first wrestling match with an opponent his own size...even if his opponent was playing blocks nicely just before the attack, and didn't want to wrestle, and was a girl. (In case you're concerned: Mallory totally took it like a champ and just tried to escape while her mom and godmomma frantically searched for our phones to videotape it while giggling hysterically).

i have no idea where he learned the sleeper hold. seriously, is it innate knowledge to males?

Regardless of how much mischief they cause, you can't deny that our children look like angels.

It's so important to keep Booboo socialized with other kid humans because his best friend continues to be Bullet. And when the two of them are together, it usually makes hard times for the mumma, like when they do things like this:

you may or may not be surprised to discover that in situations like these, it is almost ALWAYS Grey who started it

Advent Calendar with Christmas Tree Ornaments

2011-12-06T14:45:00.000-05:00

This time of year is so exciting and I have been trying to squeeze as many traditions into as possible since Brandon and I got married. Now that Grey is old enough to get bitten by the magic of Christmas bug, I could hardly wait to involve him in some Christmas traditions. So we picked out a tree together.

we needed a 'tall & skinny'

And then we wanted to involve him in the setting up & decorating of the tree..but he's not really old enough to understand why we had to vacuum 20 times to clean up the needles, and why it took forever for mom's pregnant belly to reach under the tree to lock it into the stand, and why we needed to remove the lights after putting them on (because half of them were burned out) and then put them back on. He was mostly just kind of annoyed with how slow the progress was going.

So we shipped him up to bed and finished the tree ourselves while listening to Christmas music and telling Bully to stop biting the bulbs. She still looks a little bare (because we were missing 25 ornaments), but Grey loves the lights and says "Surprise!" and claps when the timer turns them on in the evening.

Luckily though, I had another trick up my sleeve to make sure Grey had a hand in decorating the tree. After seeing this pin earlier last month, I was instantly infatuated with the idea of creating our own Christmas Tree ornament Advent Calendar. So after a trip to Michael's to pick up some thick paper bags (white) and some sticky foam letters - I got to crafting Grey's advent calendar. Of the 25 ornaments, 23 of them are ones we already had from previous Christmases. The two new ones include a little bear with a scarf (that I knew Grey would think was hilarious) and a clear bulb that I stuff a picture of booboo & bully into for Christmas morning. All of my supplies totaled under $20, so it was a pretty big bang for my buck project.

The numbering on the bags took the longest (and even that was only about an hour and half). After that, it was just a long wait until Dec. 1 so that Grey could start opening them up.

Unlike the pin, I placed our bags into a basket because first, we don't have a fireplace in this house. And secondly, all I could envision was Greyson grabbing at the bags constantly and ripping them down. The basket works for us since I can keep it in locations too high for him to reach and it can be moved around if I need.

So each morning since the first, Grey has received a new bag to find an ornament to hang on the tree. This kind of advent calendar not only gets him involved in the Christmas tree, but in a controlled, small-doses-at-a-time kind of way. With my very grabby, destructive 19 month old, controlled access is really the only way of survival right now.

Happy holiday'ing!

Dining room transformation Part Deux

2011-12-03T07:37:00.002-05:00

When we last left off at the Dining Room transformation (part une), our dining room had been upgraded with new wall paint, wainscoting, bamboo flooring, and our new dining set. Or, more simply, it looked like this:

Soon after, I got to hanging pictures on the wall to spruce 'er up a bit while Brandon and my dad got to work on the built-ins to plank the window. I have a thing for built-ins (much like my thing for chair rails and bunk beds), but not only do I think they are beautiful - but practical too. so, double bonus. We received so many beautiful dishes and platters for our wedding that have been hiding in cupboards for three years. So it was high time those babies got out of the darkness.

Because my dad and Brandon are so handy, they made our custom built-ins themselves and painted them to match the wainscoting. The back panel of the built-ins are actually floor to ceiling wainscoting - as are the front cabinet doors.

With some maneuvering, the men got the built-ins shimmied into their spots (they were perfect!) and then it was up to me to place and organize the shelves. The shelves are filled with wedding gifts, things I think are beautiful, and hand-me-downs (from my Grandma). The cupboards hold the things that didn't fit on the shelves or are a little less pretty when not in used (think cloth napkins & booboo's placemats).

I'm in love with the built-ins. that's really all there is to say about that. and I couldn't be more grateful to Dad and Brand for taking the time & effort to get them made and installed. I am one lucky lady.

Here are my beauties ready for the holiday season:

In preparation for the cold season, we installed a curtain rod above the doors leading to the patio and threw some maroon curtains (left over from our previous house) in an effort to keep the cold out. These particular curtains aren't permanent, but considering they are thermal and in the same color family as our room - they'll definitely pass for the winter.

One of our last tasks, that took forevvver to finish, was to install a new light fixture. The room had a ceiling fan which wasn't horrible, but for a dining room just didn't fly with me. So after a very long searching process that we took anything from this to this to this into consideration. We finally settled for an industrial looking light fixture that we actually found at Lowes!

As a quick reminder of what the room originally looked like:

hi bullet.

And how she looks today (a semi-final reveal since we still need to finish the closet/bar):

excuse the unfinished closet/bar

curtains open to patio

I really love our dining room and I am so glad that it is one that gets used often. Grey and I eat three meals a day together at the table and as mentioned here, I do most of my blogging from this room. Although we still have the closet to finish, the dining room is really a key setting for a large part of our day. and it is so pretty that it makes me happy.

Nackies

2011-12-01T14:10:00.000-05:00

We have been taking Greyson to gymnastics class at Uzelac gym for about 15 weeks now. Only since yesterday has he started calling it "Nackies" which is the most hilarious thing on the planet. He is in a class of 5 other kids (3 girls, 1 boy, and himself) on Wednesday evenings. I knew it would be a good way to release some energy during the cold months and that it wouldn't hurt for the kid to learn some balance and body control. What I hadn't expected was how much he'd be learning about following directions and taking turns. It has been a great first step to learning about listening to a teacher/coach. Granted, every Wednesday Booboo is just about the 'worst kid in the class,' but he is making slow progress on trying his best.

Each week we practice different gymnastics events like the floor, the bars, the beam, and sometimes the trampoline. But Booboo's favorite event is the block pit that is literally a giant pit filled with foam blocks that he gets tossed into from high up. This pit was also where I learned early on that a pregnant momma should not try to get in and out of it. It was a disaster and a fellow gym dad had to pull my pregnant belly out of there. Since then, Chum, Pap Pap, and Daddy have been at gymnastics to help Booboo try his best. Only the past few weeks have I stepped in again and helped him with all his events...except for the block pit. (shout out to the other gym moms & dads & Coach Cindy for taking care of Grey in the block pit!)

this is called "Possum" and Greyson hates it

hanging like a monkey is okay with Grey

Besides excelling at his block pit launches, Grey also has learned to do a front roll and a move we like to call "Scorpion." He does the Scorpion about 35 times a day at random times and asks anyone present to join him in the Scorpion move. The following picture is the best picture I could snap of the Scorpion, considering it comes on in seconds and his decision for Scorpion placement around the house is sporadic. It does show the elevation of the back leg which is monument to the pose.

"Nackies" has been a nice break in the week for both of us and Grey also gets to see alpacas. I know, everywhere we go there are alpacas...its strange. They are still his #1 animal (besides Maxie of course). So on the way to gymnastics, Grey says:

"Booboo....best...alpacas...nackies?"

Translation: If Booboo tries his best, we can see alpacas at gymnastics?

making art

2011-11-30T09:55:00.000-05:00

If it is unclear to you yet how much I am inspired by pinterest, please let this little post cement your understanding. Thanks to some pins, we have been doing quite a bit of art over here in the Studer house.

We needed a little art for Greyson's room, so thanks to this pin...I encouraged Grey to stick his feet in paint (at his delight) and we made a little "Booboo peet tragnor" (Booboo feet tractor):

I was inspired by these two pins (here and here) and decided to combine them to form a Super-Project for a little stairway art.

The instructions for antique-ing paper were really easy to follow and I was able to do it quite successfully with the help of only some coffee, an oven, and some paper towels

in progress

done!

I don't know where this Mumma's Prayer comes from (I've googled and only come up with other mom bloggers that love it), but I fell in love as soon as I found it on Pinterest. I'm hoping to re-read it when I have a have a hard Mom day...so like everyday?

Oh give me patience when wee hands

Tug at me with their small demands.

And give me gentle and smiling eyes.

Keep my lips from hasty replies.

And let no weariness, confusion, or noise

Obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys.

So when, in years to come my house is still -

No bitter memories its room may fill.

After we paint the walls and fix the stairs, I'm aspiring to use these bits of pinspiration to build a stairway art gallery, which will include my freshly made Mumma's Prayer:

Source: blog.hannamac.com via Tabitha on Pinterest

Source: younghouselove.com via Tabitha on Pinterest

So after picking up a frame at Goodwill and giving it a little spruce up of paint (the same paint we have in our laundry and powder rooms), and then adding a photo mat (from Michael's), I hung it up in the hallway as the first of many pictures to come. But for right now, it looks like this (lonely and on unpainted walls):

The holiday season has presented multiple opportunities for pinspiration, including these two pins (here and here) that were the foundations of our new Christmas flair that is currently displayed in our house.

Since our new house is lacking a fireplace (which I'm totally missing right now), we need a way for Santa to be able to get into our house on Christmas eve! So, I gave a key (from Michael's) a quick coat of glitter spray paint and hung 'er on the door. Grey calls it "Dinta's key."

Since I love this Elf quote, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear, I knew I wanted the print I saw on pinterest (above), but in an effort of saving Etsy money, I went ahead and used this pin to help make my own by using alphabet stickers, a canvas, and on-hand paint:

Brandon loves it, as do I..even though the paint seeped under some of the letters a little. I may need to pull out some Sharpie talent on it to clean up the lines of the letters, but I'm pretty happy with the end product.

Have you been on an pinterest art project sprees?

Sunrise from my dining room

2011-11-28T15:52:00.000-05:00

we live on top of a mountain

and when B gets up for work every morning, so do I.
I roll out of bed (literally with this pregnant belly) and go downstairs to make him coffee.

then while Booboo still sleeps, I creep on facebook, or look at pinspiration, or make new blog posts.
but on most days, i can't help but take a picture of the sun rising.

because i can see it out my dining room window (where i sit with my computer)

and it is a reminder of how everyday has the potential to be awesomely magical.

This is a story about thanksgiving

2011-11-28T07:50:00.002-05:00

There is a girl who dreams big dreams in her head. And with a little planning and the help of many, those big dreams come to life.

Like the help from the school secretary who fills out her paperwork for her because the girl forgot to pick it up in time. And the high school teacher who does free promotional work on the school website and by word of mouth. And from the school board who gives her permission to use their expensive technology and agrees to paint lines on the football field even though the season ended a month and half ago.

And from the men and women from an 18 year span of attending the same school who file through the registration table with donation money in hand. Some have peeled themselves out of bed after a night of drinking with friends. Some have kissed their children's heads as they flip on the Macy's Day Parade. And most have had a "you better be back in time for dinner" lingering in their ears from mothers and wives alike who stay back to keep the rest of the day from unraveling. The same ones who leave cold and sore with mud and sweat on their clothes.

And from the announcer (who has never announced a game in her life) who yells over the intercom, "And a great catch by the blue team," while the refs and players all shake their heads and smile by her cheerful, albeit unconventional, commentary.

And the help from the volunteers who show up to help make the day happen...even if they are 9 months pregnant, or even if they learn how to use the scoreboard only five minutes before kick-off, or even if they have a 2 hour drive home later that morning, or even if they have a bum knee.

And the custodians who show up on their day off (a holiday!) to open the school, and lay out the field markers, and then they stay to support the players before cleaning and locking up. The same ones who enthusiastically responded, "Gray!" when the cheerleaders chanted, "When I say Blue, you say Gray.."

And the fans who come to support, throwing money in the donation bin even though its free admission, and bundling up their own children in as much winter clothes as possible, and sitting on cold bleachers even if they never went to our school or even if they aren't related to any of the participants.

And her own family who are always the first to register and who are flexible with the volunteer jobs requested of them - not because they kind of have to but because they want to.

And the help from her husband who sent mass texts the night before seeking refs and to remind players of what time to show up. The same husband who helps carry heavy boxes and tables to and from the car, who supports her big dreams in her head, and when those big dreams make her worry he's the one that says, "it's going to be good, babe. you need to trust yourself."

And as this girl watched everyone shake hands and pack up their things and make their way home to their families and dinner, she takes a moment for some of her own thanksgiving. Isn't this what the holiday is about? Coming together with people you know (and some that you don't) to give thanks for the good things in your life. Like a supportive community, and strong bones, and laughter, and old friends, and new friends, believing in yourself, learning new things, and giving back to a place that helped you grow.

happy thanksgiving.
especially to those that remind me of what thanksgiving is supposed to be about.

the animal parade

2011-11-26T10:24:00.001-05:00

We have a little situation in our house. Grey has been emotionally attached to his bear, Maxie, for a few months now - no big deal. We made Maxie together at Build-A-Bear after Greyson's first birthday. At the time I didn't know this, but later I read that if you want your child to become attached to a toy/blankie it should be introduced between 12 and 18 months which is developmentally when they're ready to become attached to a comfort object..who knew!? So, we're glad he has a 'friend' and Maxie is machine-washable which is awesome for me. Grey calls him "Patsy" and Maxie goes most places that Greyson goes. Grey's best friend, Sophia, actually asks when we are going to visit if "Greyson's Bear" is coming along too. Maxie is kind of a big deal around here; he even made an appearance in Grey's 18 month old professional pictures!

photo credit: Hourglass Photography. (sorry for the crap scan though, from my cellphone)

But as of late, we've been going through a phase that not only does Maxie need to join us everywhere, but so do all of Grey's other stuffed animals. Besides #1 in our hearts, Maxie...we also have quite a line-up of mismatched and wide ranging stuffed animals to contend with these days:

First up, "Baby dister" She is the baby sister of Maxie who we have introduced to help prepare Grey for his new baby sister on the way. We talk about how Maxie is kind to baby sister and shares too. We also hold baby sister close and say "shh, shh, shh" like we're rocking her to sleep. Sometimes baby sister gets lost because she's so small. We've found her tangled up in sheets at the bottom of his bed, under the bed, and in Bullet's mouth. Poor baby sister.

Then there is "Berr" (as in the sound an elephant makes). He was gifted to Booboo from his Godmomma, Uch for his Baptism. Aunt Uch has an elephant stuffed animal that she still sleeps with at night (she's 22, heh) and wanted to make sure Grey had one of his own. Berr is really soft and makes for an awesome pillow. His downside is that he's so big and makes it difficult to carry him and Grey at the same time.

We also have "Dog." I got him as a read along pal when I purchased a Clifford the Big Red Dog book. For a long time he was neglected (Grey isn't crazy about the book) and then suddenly Booboo started to take notice of him. Bullet seems to pick Dog out of the pile over the other stuffed animals to gnaw on...whether he choose him because of their common genes or the fact that Dog is kind of stiff remains unknown.

Gee is our little striped monkey friend who is a frequent diaper bag traveler. Gee came to us as a baby gift (for Greyson's shower!) from Aunt Kitty before Grey was even out in the world. We actually even have maternity pictures with Gee making an appearance. Gee didn't have a name until Grey announced it a few weeks ago unprompted and now he's been Gee ever since.

"Dunkee" (aka monkey) is a pathetic little creature that is falling apart at the tail and eye, but gets loved just the same. Dunkee was a gift to Brandon from me while we were in college. I bought him at Atlantic Antic (a street fair in Brooklyn) and he was put together by NYC artists with Special Needs through Fresh Art, a non-profit organization. Dunkee made it through all the travels and has ended up with Greyson (although we had to remove his button eyes for safety reasons) he is still around ready for hugs.

and finally we have "Robot" who was a gift from a claw machine from Chum (my dad) to Greyson while we were in Pittsburgh for the Koch-Plowman wedding. Grey was going through a Robot phase (and by phase, I mean out of a limited amount of words and animal sounds he knew, very strangely robot movements & sounds was one of them). Now that Grey knows he can get a laugh from his audience by doing his robot impression, he likes to show off his moves on a regular basis.

So we've been juggling multiple stuffed animals at Grey's request and are very conservative when introducing new stuffed friends to him. I was reading about boy attachment to stuffed toys in It's a Boy!: Your Son's Development from Birth to Age 18 and the following quote made a lot of sense: "...from a boy's point of view, his bear is the absolutely perfect companion exactly the way it is because it absorbs all of his love as well as his anger and neglect. A toddler understands that he has the capacity to hurt his mother both physically and emotionally; he knows he can make his father mad, and that's pretty scary. The greatest fear for a child of this age is that he will anger his parents and they will abandon him. In this arena, a toy bear is far better than a mom, because you can do whatever you want to it and it stays with you all the time."

Dadda, Booboo, Maxie, and Dog

meltdown support by Maxie & Dog

watching some Mickey Mouse clubhouse with Dog, Maxie, and Berr

snow watchers: Maxie, Booboo, and Dog

the whole gang during a nap

So my little boy loves his stuffed animals. It seems like that would make him a just a baby boy. But in reality and in his mind, as he learns to rely on his "friends" a little more and his mumma/dadda a little less...it actually means that my little boy is growing up. And that makes me both proud and sad at the same time.

Speaking 19 month old language

2011-11-25T10:08:00.000-05:00

Some quick stats on Booboo's language development at 19 months:

Languages he speaks: English & some baby sign language
Words able to speak: a lot. i tried to count but got over 65 and then realized I forgot all the small words like eye and pizza...so then I quit counting.
New Words/phrases per week: about 4 (most recently including, "Mooma" (Kuma, which is our name for his Aunt Pam), "hold it", "down ma-cheen" (sound machine), and "nose runnin"
Most used word: Bullwee (Bully)
Weirdest word: Bom bost bin (compost bin)
Most used phrase: "Past ike Bullwee?" (Fast like Bully?)
Most clearly spoken non-normal word: itchy (as in 'Bullwee's itchy')
Funniest pronunciation: buttkiss (breakfast)
Sweetest child translation: After asking Grey if he had poop in his pants and Grey said "No!" Brandon said, "I think you're lyin'" to which Greyson replied, "Rooooarrr!"
Favorite use of language structure: possessives like, "Dadda's shoe" and "Mumma's bed" and "Booboo's peet (feet)"
Newest use of language structure: "too" as in, who's laying on the bed? To which Grey replies, "Dadda. Bully. Mumma too."

He's started doing this hilarious new mouth movement when he says words like "juice," and "mouse," and "Donald" (as in duck) where he purses his lips out as far as possible. He also does this mouth pose when he is fake crying (approximately 12 times a day). It makes me laugh to see him try out different positions for his tongue & lips to try to get the words to sound just right.

After the first three examples of his lip-purse in this video, he starts doing the normal wacky talking about things that make no sense. like saying his Uncle Jonny & Ninna are on Mickey Mouse. Welcome to the mind of a 19 month old.

It has been amazingly awesome to listen to the changes in Greyson's language development (sorry, nerd alert here). But I've really enjoyed listening to Grey go from:

"Bully"
to
"Bully bone?"
to
"Bully eatin' bone?"
and now to
"Bully eatin' is bone?"

Living Room Reno

2011-11-23T08:15:00.000-05:00

When we moved into our new house, one of the first things I said had to go was the wall separating the previous living room & dining room (seen in this photo from the Realtor website)...sounds somewhat reminiscent of our previous home's wall tear-down.

So Bud, Rudy, Jon, and Uncle Dave tore down the wall while I was out of town for a weekend in July as a surprise to me. It was only while they were in the process of taking 'er down that they realized it was a weight-bearing wall (oops, my bad) and we had to come up with a way to support it until we were going to finish the whole room. So we got a much bigger living room out of the deal:

...but then we needed to live with some temporary posts to keep our house from ~~falling down~~ sagging because we waited to start the living room big renovation until Brandon's November vacation (that coincidentally matched up with archery season) so that the reno could start and finish within a short amount of time - since he'd have the time to finish it...and his dad was also vacationing on the same week and had the time to help (hi & thanks Rudy!) So in between their morning and evening hunting schedules - the dad&son&grandson team was in our living room working away on the reno.

First things were first and that included fixing some phantom electrical wires that were in the floor thanks to the wall tear-down. Grey caught on real fast that a hammer goes 'bang bang,' and everytime anyone used a hammer from there on out, Booboo could be heard shouting, "Bang Bang, Dadda."

"bang bang, booboo"

Once all the electrical stuff was taken care of, the men got started on the beam that will exist as our weight-bearing mechanism, but still keep the room wide open. They did an awesome job and got it up in a matter of a day and a half.

And then it was time to pull up the pink/brown/stained carpet (thank goodness). Booboo even got in on the help with his big muscles.

Which also meant that we had to play furniture-tetris which Booboo thought was hilarious and kind of fun in a weird maze kind of way.

When the men got to painting,

...Booboo was dying to be a part of the project. So we smacked his painting-shirt on him and gave him some finger paint and full reign on the floor. He was happy to get a chance to paint, but of course it only held his attention for a few minutes, until...

...he was able to snatch up some real paintbrushes and cause at least 2 casualties:

I'm taking this as a direct insult to the Time Out chair

Bully & his new white spots

After the painting, it was time to get the chair rail up (I have a little bit of an obsession seen here, and here) and time to lay the new hard wood floor. We wanted to stick with consistency, so we ordered the same hard wood that we had used in the dining room reno: Distressed Bamboo.

Almost to the end of the reno, Brandon and I struggled with hanging the curtain rods (as always, why are curtain rods the most frustrating thing of all time to install?) I never really 'got' how curtains could make or break a room, until watching True Blood this summer and caught a glimpse of the gorgeous curtains in Luna's house (aka Sam Merlotte's girlfriend) and then knew for sure that once our living room was reno'ed, we'd have some serious curtains. We are all the way up on top of the mountain and don't need curtains (for the purpose of blocking out neighbor views) but I know understand the purpose curtains have to bring a room together. So we bought some double curtain rods and did some searching until we found just the right curtains.

hahha, I think its hilarious Bud is balancing on the time out stool

So for the (almost final*) reveal:

oh hey, Bully. make yourself comfortable

the new floor somehow highlights our beautiful ceilings

behind the long couch in the back is Booboo's playroom. Pics to come soon when its finished

*we are still missing new light fixtures, a rug, and some pictures on the walls (!!) but we are getting there. It is so refreshing to come downstairs in the morning and open the windows and have light stream through onto our new floors. The double curtains make me so happy and the lace curtain on the inside adds just the right amount of romance to a very cowboy-ranch feeling room. The orange was a bold choice but one that I think suits our leather furniture (and the sunshine I feel in my heart, hahha. cheesy).

The colors for the room are:
Sherwin Williams Alabaster (on top)
Sherwin Williams Determined Orange (on bottom)

Champagne curtains from Sears
Lace curtains from Lowes (surprised? I was)
Curtain rods from Lowes

Saturdays with Mumma and booboo

2011-11-22T09:29:00.001-05:00

Quite a few days this fall, Brandon had to work the weekends - so it was all Mumma & Booboo all the time. And with nice weather and a little cabin fever, we tried to make the most of our Saturdays together. So..

We visited the Somerset Farmer's market and chowed down on fresh & local cheeses, baked goods, and maple syrup pretzels. We actually hit up the farmer's market three weekends and all three times Grey's curly hair was received by sweet comments and free gourds (heh, i guess it pays to have nice hair).

mmm, fried local cheese curd

"Bumpkins!"

And we stopped by the library for some book browsing and coloring

And we baked Monster cookies together because my baby bump is always hungry for sweets (Booboo's not complaining about that one bit!)

I've also joined a meetup group of Somerset mommas to help Grey meet new friends and to help me make new mom friends in our area. Through the creative and organized minds of my meetup group moms - we even got to visit the Somerset volunteer fire department to learn about safety and see the fire trucks. Greyson loved it and I learned a lot of new information that as a pregnant mumma was kind of making me want to cry (cry of joy because there are women/men willing to volunteer to help others in danger and cry of fear thinking about our home catching fire - oh the joys of pregnant emotional swings). Visit this website for information and tools to keep you and your family's house as safe and fire-prepared as possible.

Right next door to the fire house was a really awesome playground that we also visited for awhile so that Grey could climb, slide, and swing his way to a sleepy afternoon.

Since I'm not always up for hauling and loading my baby in the car with a big belly, some weekends we just stayed at home and made our own fun. Like the fall day that was so beautifully sunny out that I couldn't help but make us a picnic lunch that even Bully could enjoy.

and Booboo tried to fit into the picnic basket

And that same day was so sunny and warm that Grey was even able to enjoy some water-playing fun to get some energy out of his system

Then he was so wiped out that he took a peaceful nap outside while I got to lay in the hammock and finish up reading NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children (great book for parents, btw).

As much fun as we have spending days together, we are all happiest when Dadda is home.

September & October Kindness

2011-11-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

With the backlog of posts that I have half-written to finish - I am resolving to write at least a post a day this week (possibly excluding the day of thanks, of course). My drafts are seriously bursting at the seams and its a bit overwhelming. So, here's some catch up:)

We are chugging right along on our 12 months of kindness commitment and I actually can't believe we are almost to the end of the year. Its about time to start brainstorming for next year's list. But before I get ahead of myself, let's do a little recap on our past few months of Studer Kindness, shall we?

August Kindness: Donate toys & books to a pre-school

Well, this month was a bust. I had full intentions of making a donation and then when I finally got to unpacking boxes after our move (in July), I took a look at our toys and books and realized they were all either a) missing pieces/parts b) half chewed (by either dog or child) c) damaged in some way by rips, slobber, baby puke, or crusty snacks...all of which is unacceptable to give to another child.

So, basically, we didn't do an August Kindness. We did however throw away some toys/books that were in really bad shape - including The Foot Book which was ~~ripped to shreds~~ loved so bad that it was missing multiple pages.

September Kindness: Donors Choose

If you feel the interest in helping young children learn through awesome projects by creative and inspired teachers, I urge you to check out Donors Choose. It's an organization that helps everyday people donate money towards teachers' dreams of inspiring kids with different projects. This is the third year in a row that we've worked with Donors Choose as our September Kindness. We searched around and stumbled upon a teacher from Ebensburg (about 25 minutes from our home) that wants her first graders to learn about our local (and our famous) historical flood. Not only was it an interest to us to be involved with a project that would teach kids about our local history - but we loved that she also wanted the students to learn about it from the animal's perspective. adorable and totally relate-able for 6-7 year olds. We were inspired so we made a donation off the class.

A few weeks later (after our initial thank you), we got the notification that others had donated as well and the teacher was able to raise enough money for her inspired play about the Johnstown Flood from the animals perspective.

And then a few weeks after that, we got pictures of the kids in their new costumes!

three cheers for education! hooray, hooray, hooray!

October Kindness: Trick-or-treat for UNICEF
In October, we have consistently participated in UNICEF's Trick-or-Treat fundraiser, ever since I was introduced to the campaign during my college days in Circle K. We are also lucky to get support from my Mom who participates with us by taking her trick-or-treat box to work and somehow always manages to get more donations than us (thanks, Mom!)

This year was the most fun we've had in our October kindness because Grey had somewhat of an idea of what we were doing. As in he knows we put "money's" in the box for the "kids." So every few days we'd empty out my change purse and Grey would drop a few more coins in the box while we talked about how its for the kids. Who he thinks "the kids" are at this point is highly unclear. As well as his understanding of money, but he was happy to help.

On to our last two kindnesses (hahha) for the year. We have the 3rd annual CV Alumni Turkey Bowl this week (on Thanksgiving) and next month we are adopting a family again for Christmas. We had also planned to drop off cookies to our former local retirement home...but now that we've moved - we'll be looking for a different cookie drop-off place!

For those of you that are interested in adopting a family for Christmas - we adopt "our" family through the Salvation Army. Check out your local Salvation Army contact number here and call up to see if they support family "adoptions" for the holidays. From the website, it didn't look like the Johnstown Salvation Army did - but then I called and she said that they had many families hoping to be "adopted." So call today and be a Santa Clause to someone! Time is running out as your gifts will need to be delivered by mid-December!

Birthdays: 27 & 28

2011-11-15T17:29:00.000-05:00

October 2011: Dadda's Birthday (27)

Bud scored big time with his best friend/brother this year when he was invited to the Penguins game on his birthday eve. Grey and I accompanied him to the recently married Koch's new house for a sleepover. While the boys were out enjoying some hockey and then out for snacks and drinks - Booboo, Ninna, and I enjoyed a relaxing evening eating dinner, dessert, and staying up for a whole 20 minutes of a movie. (sorry, I'm an old lady, hah).

Brandon and I were both off the next day, his birthday, and after B was done hanging out in a treestand, we lounged around finishing the movie and then headed to the pumpkin patch on the way home. We were lucky to have Ninna join us too (while Uncle Jonny was working hard). It was a chilly and kind of rainy day, but we still had fun picking out pumpkins and even watching some piglets!

Booboo tells Ninna, "Bumpkin"

he's really maturing now at 27 as you can see.

Later when we got home, after some delicious take-out from our favorite local deli, Thomahawks, we sang to Dadda and blew out his candles (about 20 times thanks to Grey). Booboo was even able to join in the singing since we had been practicing the Happy Birthday song thanks to one of his new favorite books: "Little Gorilla" by Ruth Bornstein

Booboo sings, "Happy to...Dadda"
Dadda also received some clothes FOR Grey and Gemma that suit his interests (they were all camo) and a promise from mumma that he has permission to buy whatever truck snow plow he needs/wants (since I'm not really qualified to pick out truck snow plows).

August 2011: Mumma's birthday (28)

I scored big this year as my hubby spent three hours learning about cameras before picking out a brand new Nikon D3100 for me (as a replacement for my last camera that suffered water death this summer). With a new baby on the way, a new house, and Grey's hair getting wilder by the day - there wasn't a better gift out there. And, this was a gift not only for me - but for you, my dear readers, as well. Since instead of reading posts that include pictures like this:

you now get pictures like this:

And now, since I'm down to only 2 short years before 20+10 birthday, how about a quick check in on my "Before 30" List of goals

Become a mother - double and a half check!

Grow a garden - hopefully will accomplish next summer, with a little guidance from these pinsiprations:

organized, raised beds. love.

Source: lovemyearth.blogspot.com via Tabitha on Pinterest

a toddler garden!

Source: theimaginationtree.com via Tabitha on Pinterest

Grow mermaid hair - working on it. hating tangles. really excited about going pixie after reaching this goal

and this, my friends, is why I don't post 'myspace' style pics of myself...they ain't cute.

Learn to drive stick - brandon's parents have a manual...so Bud needs to get on that...winter + ice might not be the best time to learn...maybe needs to wait until spring.

Go topless on the beach - thought i would be able to do this in Thailand but then couldn't because the country is Buddhist and Muslim...neither of which really appreciates topless foreigners.

Visit Thailand - done. loved it. obsessed.

Have a signature dish - oh bother.

Become fluent in Spanish again - not that Grey is moving into English speaking, we're going to start practicing some Spanish around this place. plus another DR trip is in the works for October2012. I need to try harder

Learn to golf - ugh. not even close.

Become certified in CPR - check! Brandon and I both took a certification class before Greyson was born.

what it means for your Picasa album when you live in PA and it's October

2011-11-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

That means you have pictures ranging from this:

To this:

To This:

Back to this again:

Oh, PA weather, how I admire you so for encouraging my clothing layering creativity and diaper bag packing skills. Happy ~~late summer~~, ~~winter~~, Fall!

There's a bear in the woods

2011-11-11T11:49:00.001-05:00

As one of Brandon's birthday gifts from his parents, they gifted him a state of the art deer feeder - which he was elated to receive. For those of you that have necks not of the color red - that means its a contraption you put outside with deer food pellets & corn in it to attract deer to a particular area. There's even a handy timer on it that shoots out deer food at certain times of the day! B doesn't even hunt on our property, he just likes knowing that deer are lurking about.

So after he spent a solid afternoon getting things set up (which included carving out some weeds, installing said seeder, and positioning it 'just so'), he had his feeder up and ready to attract some "deersch" (as booboo says).

After about a week or two, on one of our walks down to the pear trees, we discovered that someone (or something, oooh - spooky!) had given deer feeder a strong enough whack to the ground to bust off a leg. And the mystery culprit was smooth enough to open the latched lid to expose the bounty of deer pellets/corn mixture.

In my inexperienced mind, I believed it to be the wind and I snapped a pic of it and texted it to B. His text reply included something that registered in my mind as "bear. get out now," which then led me to scan the surrounding area with extreme paranoia before scooping Grey up and hauling my pregnant belly up closer to the house.

B tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the deer feeder up for a few more nights, but each morning we saw that it had been re-tipped and opened. He finally resolved to keep it down as he was feeding Yogi the Bear every night instead of the intended Bambi-like animals of the forest.

Each time Bully was outside during the night or day and go off into a barking frenzy we knew it could be a variety of things; like a stray black cat, that I thought was an escaped Jinxy for a large portion of the day, that was stuck in one of our pine trees. Or it could be the UPS man driving up the driveway, or even the neighbors pulling into their house since we have a clear view of them with the foilage gone. But we'd always first think it was the bear sneaking around the place, although none of us have made an actual sighting (except for one of our neighbors who said, "that's the biggest black bear I've ever seen...granted I've never seen one before him").

Then just a few weeks later, we had another bear-related incident. Around 8p, we lost all power in our house and totally exhausted anyway, I announced that was a sign from above that I better retire my big belly to bed. Bud had to give Bullet a few good shocks on his shock collar to get him to quit barking down at the bend in the driveway and to get in the house. Since we were out both football games and heat for the night, we made a call to the neighbors (who said their power had gone out but since come back on) and then to the electric company to let them know that ~~B and Grey were missing football replay~~s we were freezing.

Fairly quickly, the electricians arrived and knocked on the door to explain that a bear had been shaking the electric pole at the bend in our driveway so hard that it had knocked loose some cables which was the reason we were still out of power. It took them until after 11p to fix both the pole issues and replace our big electric box in our yard which apparently was also effected. All of this information didn't reach my brain until the morning when like a bear myself, rolled out of a 12 hour unconscious slumber.

Bear 2, Studers 0. Pretty sure this will be the only time I'm forcing Bud to add another hunting license to his collection.

What does this mean for me, besides the fact that I have seriously considered a plan of attack should a bear appear and I'd need to defend/save/protect Greyson...and that on more than one occasion I have had a nightmare in which I couldn't defend/save/protect Greyson from the bear...Well, it also means that I certainly cannot do these pins until the bear situation is regulated. (Which kind of feels even more sad than not feeling entirely safe during my nighttime walks to the compost bin.)

a) bird feeder a la toilet paper roll, peanut butter, and birdseed:

Source: moffattgirls.blogspot.com via Tabitha on Pinterest

b) bird feeder wreath:

Source: bystephanielynn.com via Tabitha on Pinterest

Crossing my fingers that we have the bear under control by Christmas time, since I'm hoping to repeat something that my Aunt did with us when I was a little girl. I'll be posting about it (if Yogi Bear has left us) but for anticipation reasons, just know it has to do with an outdoor Christmas tree that is friendly for the deer, birds, and other critters (and probably Bully Boy).

HallowBoo! 2011

2011-11-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

Is it lame to write about Halloween activities after Halloween? maybe? Is it more lame that I saw two houses with Christmas lights up while driving to my parents' house yesterday? YES. Even more lame that Walmart was playing a non-stop Christmas music station on Monday? super YES. let's celebrate thanksgiving, people! ...but before we do that - can we reminisce a little about Halloween?

If you're on board with me to peer back at Halloween before traveling to thanksgiving, please enjoy the following pics from our trip to HallowBoo! at Idlewild this year. It was our first HallowBoo! ever and we all loved it, but especially Booboo. We went on the last day it was open and since it was the last day and a beautiful day at that...so did almost everyone else. But even though it was really crowded (like more so than I've seen in the summer!) we had a great time and were able to enjoy all the things we had hoped.

Grey was dressed up like a farmer (or cowboy, or scarecrow..you decide) while Maxie Bear wore a cow mask. Booboo's whole outfit came from our closet which Dada appreciated (even though it was really tempting to buy him something new when we walked down every Halloween aisle in the stores).

The park was completely decked out in pumpkins, mums, and other kid-friendly spookiness that gave the whole place an exciting lift for the season. There were dressed up kids bopping all over the place and the game stations all had seasonally themed prizes (like the Frankenstein dressed rubber ducky that Grey won at the fishing pond).

Almost immediately, Grey wanted to go on some rides - so Dada (in his suit - he had come to meet us in between his visiting stores on a Sunday) took on duty of riding partner.

...while a prego mumma took on the part of game helper and photographer

Once we made it across the park and into Racoon Lagoon (the little kid's section of Idlewild), Grey was in a full blown riding frenzy. And he wasn't afraid to ride one single thing

taking a break from the rides for a family pic...he's not happy about it

After prying Grey away from the rides in Racoon Lagoon, we made our way over to Jumpin' Jungle (seriously, Idlewild is the best kid's amusement park, for reals) on our way to StoryBook Forest. Dada -dress shoes, tie, and all - participated in full on coolest-dad-ever fashion and hopped right into the maze of playgrounds and tree houses to help Grey along.

After all that climbing & crawling, we were highly anticipating the trick-or-treating available in StoryBook forest. It was going to give Grey a good chance to practice before the real deal, but it was also an adorably sweet idea (way to go HallowBoo planners). We made it our last stop on the HallowBoo tour, but it turned out that after all that playing and riding- combined with the tons of people, we only stopped a few "houses" before we double backed ourselves up out of there. It would have been a lot more fun if Grey wasn't only 18 months and super tired from all the playing (maybe first stop for next year?)

ready for trick-or-treating in StoryBook Forest

The best part about HallowBoo? While Dada went back to work and Mumma had to go home by herself, our baby was wiped out - which made for a very calm Sunday evening.

fall festivus 2011

2011-11-04T08:45:00.001-04:00

My parents hosted the second annual Fall Festivus in late September. The idea behind Fall Festivus is that during mid-fall each year, friends and family would come together and bring anything that they've made throughout the year to share with each other...like a harvest. This year we brought our homemade wine (The Grape Chameleon) and teamed up with Jon&Ninna for a deer roast in the slow cooker & elk st. I also whipped up some baked apples (from pinterest) but they didn't turn out as yummy as I had hoped.

We played horseshoes and ate and drank and were merry...and my family wore flannel, because I'm that much of a geek.

3 1/2 studers in attendance at this year's fall festivus!

Greyson had a ton of fun at Fall Fest this year, stomping around in his boots and throwing river rocks into my parents' water feature. Brandon won the horseshoe tournament alongside Bill Percinsky. And me? I got to eat yummy food, talk with real life grown-ups, and rest while everyone else watched my little animal child.

Not only did we see many faces of friends&fam that were repeat Fall Festivus attendants - we also got a special treat by having some newbies in attendance. Like our cousins Adam&Lea who are back on the mainland after living in Hawaii for a few years. And Tasha's friends that she met while studying abroad last year in Scotland! Olof (from Sweden) had been traveling worldwide for the past year (we were actually in Thailand at the same time in March!) had made it to his USA-leg of the trip and drove up with Beth (from Kentucky, USA) for Fall Festivus. The Kateri (from Canada) made the trek down to join up for a full-on Scot Reunion. It was awesome to meet them & I loved seeing Tash so happy to be back together with her friends.

Beth, Tash, Kateri, and Olof

By the time Booboo had gone to sleep (and I was almost ready to join him), the drinking had picked up at the party to include a 49 person game of flip cup.

Followed by more games of beer pong and flip cup...

And more drinking...including homemade moonshine & wine, a a little Jim Bean:)

As always, the night closes out (aaaand, I'm in bed already) with musical stylings thanks to Jordan around the fire. The Scot crew got to experience their first mountain pies (success!) and as far as I know - no one fell down the embankment this year (another success!). Fall Fest is the Best.

Booboo goes to the apple

2011-11-03T08:39:00.001-04:00

Back in September (ah! such a delayed post), the grandmas, booboo, and I hopped a train (not like hobos - we bought tickets) and pointed our selves northeast towards my beloved, NYC (you can read more about my ~~missing living in~~ love of visiting NYC here, here, and here . Although Booboo has been on several transportation modes (including airplane, boat, car, truck, and bus before) in his short life, he had yet to ride a train - so this was a pretty exciting day.

i love the stranger's look on the right as she watches grey's face light up watching the train:)

We got on the train and were able to snag 4 seats towards the front of a car that faced each other - well, truthfully we took all 8 so Grey had room to roam and climb for the...brace yourself...7 hour train ride. Yes, a 17 month old + 7 hour train ride = "CHOOOOO CHOOOOO!" for 5 of the 7 hours. This now is a public apology to anyone who was riding the PA train to NYC on the weekend of Sept.16:

To whomever was annoyed by my overly excited, 'Choo-choo' screaming child,

at least he wasn't crying?

love, tabitha studer

The trip was as enjoyable as a 7 hour train ride can be because we had snacks and toys and books enough to keep the little animal occupied until he crashed out for a little while. Gigi (Marianne) had packed us all a lunch (thank you!) and the grandmas were happy to take Grey for "walks" to the food cart while I sat and stared at the wall in silence (for moms - that is not bored, that's bliss).

We finally made it to Penn Station, and after navigating the subway (woohoo - 2nd new mode of transportation for Grey!), and checking into our hotel room in midtown west; we stretched our train-tired legs over to grab some dinner at the Stage Deli and visit Times Square to introduce Grey to all the lights and people.

so Grey knows how to 'get in the picture' now? cool.

It was a pretty boring night after that considering we had just had such a long day on a train and afterall, our group was comprised of 2 grandmas, a pregnant lady, and a toddler - that's a pretty sleepy bunch. So we walked a few blocks back to the hotel with some coffees/teas and called it a night.

We got up with gusto on Saturday morning, well Grey did and offered us a candid presidency speech (he was standing on the bed jibbering on and on and waving his hands around). After a stop to pick up some bagels, we hiked up to Central Park and Grey climbed and slid his way all over Heckscher Playground. Bagels in central park while my babe plays nearby? oh goodness NYC, i miss you so.

swinging with Gigi

climbing with Abba

Then we headed across the park and over to FAO Shwartz for some toy envy and a little shopping.

an Abba bar!

make-your-own-sticker demonstration

The toy store was fun and I was an incredibly cool mom and bought my child....placemats. hah! They have animals and the US on them AND they keep my table semi-clean...whatever, I AM COOL. Grey still does good in toy stores (and by good I mean he doesn't throw a fit when I make him put stuffed animals back) because we talk about how the toys live there with their families and friends. He seems to be fine with leaving them there since its kind of their home.

Back out on the street, we flitted down 5th avenue and across to Rockafeller Center, in hopes that Mare would have another sighting of Alex Baldwin (we didn't). We did, however, stop by a street musician playing buckets and the like as drums and Grey was mesmerized. oh goodness NYC, i miss you.

Then we hopped back on the subway and headed downtown to meet Elena and make it to Marianne's hair appointment at Devachan. By this point, Grey was pretty sleepy and took a quick snooze in his stroller.

For Mare's 50th birthday, Rudy had arranged for she and I to go to NYC together so she could visit the ultra curly-girl hair salon. The trip was a huge success with both fun and hair restoration, that we knew we couldn't make the trip without setting up another appointment. If any of you readers out there are super curly girls (like our Gigi is...and our Booboo boy is), then next time you visit the big apple - make an appt. to stop for a little Deva Curl loving...because this is what happens:

While Mare was getting Deva'ed, we walked around with my dear friend and brooklyn resident, Elena. Abba got a make-over at Sephora and Booboo and I poked around the Scholastic store. After a quick stint in Chinatown for some bartering (it's a requirement if you come to the city with my mom and mother in law in tow), we all came back together and headed up to Union Square for some more playground'ing and dinner at The Coffee Shop.

Grey and the girls

With full bellies and one stolen creamer cup, we jumped back on the subway and got my sleepy baby back to his hotel room.

The grandmas happily enlisted themselves in bedtime duty, so that Lenny and I could walk up town and eat Tasti-DeLite and catch a movie (Contagion) for the 11:30p showing. Full movie theater at that time of night so that Lenny and I had to sit in the first row? oh goodness NYC, how I miss you. It was so fantastic to catch up with Len, even though we hardly ever see each other and we're both probably the worst email/caller/texter-backers in the history of the universe - it always like no time has passed at all. I have a very few number of friends that I can text something like, "want to go see a movie right now?" and they'll say, "yea, let's go" without any planning or concerns...its awesome.

After a good night's sleep and a taxi ride (Grey's 3rd new mode of transportation in a weekend!) we made it back to Penn Station for a trek back to Johnstown..another 7 hour trek. Grey managed to stay AWAKE for 6 hours and 45 minutes, so that during ONLY the last 15 minutes of the ride he was completely zonked out.

It was a great trip and I am so grateful to Greyson's grandmas for making the trip with me and all their help. My hope is to continue a tradition of a NYC trip every summer/fall so that my kids might grow up with a little bit of their city-loving momma right alongside that very big bit of country-loving dadda.