Dress Up, Finger Paints and Bubbles! March 1-2, 2009

Catherine loves to dress up in her princess outfits. She especially likes Cinderella's dress. She decided yesterday that Claire wanted to play dress up too!

Claire makes the perfect 'Belle,' don't you think? :)

This morning during 'craft time' we finger/arm painted!

As a way to clean up, I filled the sink with soapy water for her to play in! She enjoyed making 'bubble soup.'

Claire - 9 months old! March 1, 2009

Our sweet baby Claire is growing so fast. Here she is - 9 months old!

Sweet gummy grins - still no teeth - they should arrive soon (so says all the drool)!

She started 'army' crawling last week and loves getting into everything!

SNOW!!! March 1, 2009

Now, don't freak out.  Yes, I am blogging!  I was going to try to back up and do old stuff, but that is too defeating right now.  Maybe later.  But for now, here are some pics to enjoy!

It snowed Sunday morning and actually stuck to the ground.  By the time we got out of church, though, it was mostly gone.  I was so sad b/c Catherine had not gotten to play in it yet.  So, I prayed and asked God to have left a remnant of snow in our yard somewhere for Catherine to play with.  On our way home, there was hardly any snow anywhere.  It was gone.  When we got to our house, the snow was all gone - except for a nice-sized remnant on our deck!!!  It was perfect for Catherine and Daddy to build a snowman, throw snowballs and even eat a little snow!  And Mommy and Claire got to enjoy it all from inside at the deck door!  :)  God was so sweet to us!!!

Our snowman - with a carrot nose, raisin eyes and buttons and a baby doll's pink hat - and arms from the bush in the back yard.  

Claire enjoyed the snow, too.  She liked to eat it -- really, she wanted more!!!  :)

After we came back inside, Catherine watched her snowman.  She kept saying that he was going to melt.  Aaron moved him to right in front of the deck door so that it was still in the shade and would last longer.  And it is sitll outside now.  There isn't any snow anywhere else, but our sweet snowman still stands -- his carrot nose and raisin eyes have fallen out, but he still proudly stands at our door!  :)

THE Game! Yankees vs Red Sox (August 2008)

For all you Seinfeld lovers . . . (August 2008)

Yes, it's the famous restaurant on Seinfeld!! (The word "Tom's" is never shown on the show, though.) We didn't eat at the restaurant b/c it is nothing like it was on the show. You'd think they would redecorate it to look just like the show. They would make tons of money that way, I would think. They would have to have the "large salad" on the menu!
Claire, bless her heart, slept through it all! :)

And yes . . . the Soup Nazi! Well, at least we thought it was going to be the Soup Nazi! After much walking, we found the Soup Kitchen. But, it was closed down. The original Soup Nazi had sold all of the rights for his recipes and made it into a chain restaurant in NYC. So, off we went, to find the "Soup Man's" new restaurant!

And here it is! Aaron stepped up and immediately ordered the large crab bisque (just like George did), except the only problem was that they were not serving the crab bisque that day! :) So, he pulled an "Elaine" and asked what they thought was good. He ended up with the Mulligatawny, Kramer's favorite. Luckily, Aaron was able to make it out of the restaurant before they snatched back his bag and declared, "NO SOUP FOR YOU!" :)

Pizza Pizza!! (August 2008)

It wouldn't be a trip to NY without eating some yummy NY pizza! But being the Seinfeld fans that we are, we couldn't just eat at any pizza place -- it had to be Ray's Pizza. Or is that Famous Ray's Pizza? Or maybe Original Ray's Pizza? Actually, it was Famous Original Ray's Pizza! :) (If you haven't seen that episode of Seinfeld, that isn't going to make any sense.) :)

YUM! -- And I don't think I dropped any on Claire's head (her head is below my hand).

Kids in NYC (August 2008)

Who says you can't haul your 2-year-old and 2-month-old all around NYC?
Our kiddos did AWESOME!!!! Claire rode all day in my new sling. She could either face out (as seen in the picture below), face in, or lay down in a cradle position. She loved it and did GREAT!!!

Catherine enjoyed walking around every once in a while, but her choice transportation was . . .

. . . this umbrella stroller which she found to be quite comfy (or comfy enough) for nap time!

Aaron was awesome -- he would pick up Catherine in her stroller to show her different sights or carry her up flights of stairs in the subway or at other sight-seeing places. We were so proud of our girls! They made the trip all the more fun!

Playing in a Park (August 2008)

After our stadium tour, we ate lunch (where my burger was not so great - but that's another story) and then headed out on the streets of New York. Uncle Tom & Aunt Lois had headed out of town to catch their flight home by this time. We decided to go see Grant's tomb. On our way, we stopped at a park nearby to feed Claire. The park was nice and shady. It had an area with a sandbox where most of the kids were playing. Aaron decided, though, to let Cathering play in the water fountain. He would roll her stroller toward the water so that she would get sprinkled on. Soon, she was almost completely soaked. :)

Feeling the water!

Then Daddy and Uncle Sam took turns pushing Catherine in the swing. What a happy face!

Pure joy!

The New & the Old (August 2008)

The New Yankke Stadium right next door to the old Yankee Stadium.

The Old Yankee Stadium: "I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee. - Joe DiMaggio"

Before our tour, we were outside the stadium and snapped this picture of some of the players (one of them is Joba Chamberlain). We were so excited to have gotten their picture. Then we realized that was silly because we would get to see all of them at the game - and not through a fence!!

More of Yankee Stadium (August 2008)

This is Aaron before our tour started touching Yankee Stadium. :)

Monument Park

Aaron beside Babe Ruth's monument in Monument Park. Aaron took pictures of every single monument. I thought I would just show you a couple. :)

Ahhhhh, the sacred grass that we could not touch. They told us the rules before we started the tour, which included not touching the grass. Aaron turned to me and said, "Remind me of that. Really, remind me of that!" I think he thought that when he got down to the field, he would just forget and start running out there. Thankfully, he didn't. But we did get a good picture of the grass!! By the way, that is Kentucky Blue Grass!! I am quite proud! :)

Yankee Stadium (August 2008)

And here it is! It is such a beautiful stadium. The pictures don't do it justice. This view is from the press box. The guys (and Aunt Lois) got up early Monday morning to stand in line to get tickets to take a tour of the stadium. I waited at the apartment with the kids until we for sure had the tickets.

The tour allowed us to visit the press box, walk on the warning track (but DO NOT touch the grass!!), visit Monument Park, and go in the Yankee dugout. If some of the players had not been there, we would have had access to the clubhouse.

Here's Aaron about to come out of the Yankee dugout and take the field -- well, not really. If they caught you touching the grass, you would be escorted out immediately. :)

If you look closely at the above picture (click on it and it should make it bigger), you can see that to the left of where Aaron is standing there is a little white mug-looking thing that has a baseball sitting in it. Well, we saw the ball just sitting there, so we asked one of the security people walking around with our tour group if we could have it. She said no. So, being the crazy Yankee fans that we are, we did not give up. We asked the other security guy and he said sure! We were thrilled! How cool to have a ball that was actually at Yankee stadium!! We were told that before the tour started, some of the pitchers, including Joba Chamberlain, were having a bullpen session. So who knows, this could have been one of the balls they used! :) But I'm betting it is one of Alex Rodriguez's homerun balls. hee hee!!

Aaron and Catherine in the dugout!

New York City - Sunday (August 2008)

After getting off our bus in Chinatown, my cousin Sam, Panke, Uncle Tom & Aunt Lois met us just in time for lunch. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. The usual food we order in a Chinese restaurant, we found out, isn't really authentic Chinese food. But thankfully, the waiter said they could make it for us. :)

See what we ordered? :)

After eating, we headed home via the subway and took a nap at Sam & Panke's apartment while Sam, Panke, Uncle Tom & Aunt Lois went to see Sam & Panke's new apartment (they are moving in a week or so). For supper, Panke make a traditional Chinese dinner called "Hotpot." It was very good! The pot in the middle of the table is full of boiling soup stock and as we sat at the table, Panke would add in meets and vegetables to cook in the pot. The food would cook quickly and we would eat it as it cooked. My favorite were the fish cakes. I know, it sounds weird, but it really was good! I like the sesame sauce to dip it in (seen at the bottom right corner of the picture).

Catherine opted for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and banana! :)

New York City or Bust (August 23-24, 2008)

Our New York City Trip begins!!!

Many people thought we were crazy for taking a bus with our 2 little kids to NYC, and maybe we are, but the trip went great! We left Nashville at 6pm on Saturday night and arrived in NYC around 11:30 am (10:30 am cst) Sunday morning. The girls slept all night. Claire only had one or two times where she cried -- and that was because she wanted me to lay her down to sleep. :) All four of us traveled round trip to NYC for less than $300 (whereas flying would have been around $1000 for a non-stop flight!).

Don't worry she was not able to fall out of the seat! She loved riding or well, sleeping on the bus!!!

I bought lots of toys and books for Catherine to play with on the bus. We only opened one of those toys the whole time!!! On the way home, we never got out any toys b/c she slept almost the whole way!!! Here, Catherine is playing with some Dora window clings on the bus window!! :)

Our girls! (August 2008)

Catherine (2) and Claire (2 mo) love each other very much. Here they are laying on the couch. As you can see from some of the pictures. We are supervising the whole event - much to Claire's relief! :)

Catherine & Mommy

First day of MDO (August 2008)

Catherine started Mother's Day Out this year. She is going one day a week (in order to give me some time to go to the grocery store with only 1 child!). Don't get a wrong impression here -- Catherine is not sad at all about going. She is mad in this picture b/c she wants to wear her backpack. I just wanted to get a picture of her backpack and lunchbox. (Her lunchbox goes in her backpack so that there is only one thing to carry).

Here she is happily wearing her backpack ready to go to school. She LOVES school. Her teacher told me that Catherine was her big helper. Always making sure that everyone had everything they needed: crayons, wipes, etc. Just like a mommy -- and if you know Catherine, that doesn't surprise you one bit! :) She asks almost everyday if she can go to school. :)

You know your child is ready to potty train when she can put on her own diaper!!! :) One evening while I was cooking supper, Catherine came in to the kitchen with her diaper bag and pulled out a diaper asking for a diaper change. We had just changed her diaper so I knew she didn't need one. Well, evidenlty that didn't suit Catherine. She proceeded to lay in the floor and put on a diaper over her clothes. :)

I guess she was worried about leaks! :) hee hee!! Aren't 2-year-olds fun!!!

She's growing up (August 2008)

We (well, Catherine & I) enjoyed watching gymnastics during the Olympics. Catherine was mesmerized the first time she saw the gymnasts perform.

She was so moved that she peformed some gymnastics moves of her own! :) Here she is doing her final pose at the end of her performance like the real gymnasts do.

Catherine loves reading. She has just started reading to her babies. :)

For some reason, Catherine has always loved being in boxes. Now that she is bigger, it is harder for her to find a box to fit in! :( I can't believe she is so big!

Sweet Baby Claire 2 Months old (August 2008)

August Living (August 2008)

Catherine's new favorite place to play: The Pantry! At the end of the day, I find all kinds of random toys in there. She likes to go in there (she can stand under the shelf) and close the door saying, "Bye Bye, Mommy! I love you!" There is no light in the pantry, so many times she stands or sits in there in the dark -- by her choice. She thinks it is funny, and well, it is! :)

I had a slumber party for my birthday -- my nieces, Sophie & Alex came over! I guess they were really there to play with Catherine, but I had fun all the same! We made mini pizzas for supper. The girls really enjoyed helping.

Aaron, Alex & Catherine made me a stawberry birthday cake! Too bad we didn't take any picture s of the finished cake. I guess we ate it too quick! :)

My sweet baby Catherine doesn't have a lot of hair, but boy, can it get messed up during a nap. These pictures don't do it justice. It was some crazy hair, though!!! :) (As you can see, she's saying, "No Pictures, please!")

Bubble Time! (August 1, 2008)

Catherine loves playing outside on the deck.

She's actually really good at blowing bubbles. She works really hard at it. :)

Claire - 2 months old (July 2008)

My how she has grown!

Holding her head up high!!!

Sleeping beauty

Happily stretching as she wakes up from a nap. :)

My "Mini-Me" (July 2008)

Catherine honors me so much by wanting to do everything I do. It's sweet, but scary! :)


Here she is using the coaster holder as her camera. She holds it up to her face and yells, "Cheese!"

Catherine wearing my tennis shoes and sprinting/falling through the kitchen.

Ready to go shopping! Her bears and babies are in the cart.

Cooking in the cabinet! :)
I was cleaning out some gift wrap supplies and Catherine found this piece of hollographic tissue paper. She immediately grabbed it and took off for the kitchen. The next thing I knew she was using it to cover her pans (this cabinet is her designated cabinet that has a few kitchen items in it she is allowed to play with). We assume she is pretending it is aluminum foil! :) On this particular occasion, she has covered her pan and is placing it in the "oven." After that, she closed the oven doors (the cabinet doors) and starting pushing on the door with her fingers (as though she was setting the timer)! Isn't that precious!!!