Weekly Wrap-Up

This week was not too eventful. It was great taking Monday off to celebrate our anniversary and the rest of the week went by pretty quickly after that, so here we are at the end of the weekend J

Rose was up to her usual fun and silly self J 

 Yes, she decided she could drink from two cups at the same time...with no hands!

Wednesday Rose decided dipping her pretzels in milk would be yummy, it must be, because she wanted to do it again every day since.

Rose also got to see ponies twice this week. On Wednesday, Nana took Rose to the farm for a field trip where Rose got to play with the new foals. On Sunday we all went over to the farm to watch a horse show.

Rose helped Nana with registering the riders

I think Rose is picking out her own pony...

**I realize I haven’t posted a recipe in a while, so here are two!! Last week at the farmer’s market I purchased oat flour to start replacing the flour I use in baking items. A while back I had purchased wheat flour and a whole grain flour mix, neither of them really worked out well in my recipes or tasted yummy. So far, oat flour is AWESOME! I have made blueberry muffins, brownies, and pancakes (I just used oat flour in my favorite pancake recipe). I made the muffins and pancakes twice, both with all oat flour, and they turned great. 

Oh and since I have stopped posting monthly updates on Rose, here is just a quick review of what our 2 year old is up to these days:

-Rose continues to be a great eater (most of the time) and can use utensils to feed herself (if she feels like it). Rose loves to drink out of adult sized cups and bottles and she likes ice in everything J

-Rose is able to kick balls and has a great overhand throw. She is working on jumping, she has the bounce idea, but her feet have not left the ground at the same time yet.

-Due to her grandmother and mother, Rose has developed distaste for bugs. If she sees one she will grab a shoe and start whacking at it, love her!!!

-Rose continues to sleep very well. She takes an afternoon nap and sleeps about 11 hours at night. We still have her in her crib. She has never tried to climb out, sometimes she actually tries to climb in!  Since she is able to open all our doors, I like having her in her crib where I know she is safe to sleep through the night. 

-Rose is using around 40 words and has consistently been adding 2-4 new words a week. Some words are super clear like: up, off, out, and grass. Then there are words like ‘soap’ that I know what she is saying, but it sounds nothing like soap. She also uses signs and pointing to get what she wants.

-Rose’s favorite activities include: playing outside, going to playgrounds, being in the pool, playing with her dolls, painting, and looking at books.

-Rose is mostly wearing panties and is doing pretty well with toilet training. Most days and most of the time, she tells us when she needs to go and has no accidents. Other days...not so much :)

We are getting geared up for ‘Wedding Palooza!’ This week Justin’s brother is getting married and my cousin is also tying the knot J Thursday (yes, that is July 4^th) we have the wedding rehearsal for Matt’s wedding, followed by their wedding on Friday, and then my cousin’s wedding on Saturday… Since Rose is a flower girl in Matt’s wedding she will of course be attending all these events and we decided to take her with to my cousin’s wedding since most of my family (aka babysitters) will be there too and Justin’s family (aka the rest of our babysitters) will just be getting rested from Matt’s wedding.  Send us happy thoughts, that our little flower is able to stay cool and doesn’t mind staying up WAY past her bedtime J

Weekly Wrap-Up (a day late)

Well as anticipated this blog post is a day later than usual, come on, I've really been doing great at getting a post up every Sunday night...

Before we enjoyed our night away, we were once again busy on house projects. Our second floor deck was FULL (almost a ton, no really, that much) of trash was hulled away by Justin this weekend. Last Sunday on the way to dinner at my parent's we found this free porch swing. I painted it over the weekend and Justin hung it up today. (I am sitting on it now as I write this post. There is just something neat about having a porch swing!)

Rose is a great little helper with the flowers and herbs around her house and mine. We will soon have tomatoes, if we can keep Rose from eating them straight off the plant J

Rose took this little 'selfie', she thinks it is funny to look at herself in the iPhone camera. 

Rose LOVED finger painting in the tub this week and got the paint on everything, this mama included :)

Today Justin and I celebrate 7 years of marriage J So, last night Rose was at her grandparent’s home while Justin and I stayed at Flowers and Thyme Bed and Breakfast in Lancaster. This was Rose’s 3rd night away from us…yes, 3 nights in 2 years. What can I say, I NEED to be with my baby J We did enjoy a delicious dinner and had a relaxing night as a couple.

Beautiful gardens on the property and I got some poppy seeds from the garden, so we'll see if I can create a little of this beauty at home. 

Whenever we look for a B&B, a two-person tub is a MUST! Justin almost takes up the whole thing himself ;)

Aren't we cute? Well, I am super cute and Justin is lucky ;)

What did we get for gifts? We looked it up and copper and wool are the traditional 7 year wedding presents, but we opted for new sneakers. 

I don't have any awesome words of wisdom here on marriage. 7 years ago I had no idea what our marriage would be like and I have no idea what it will be like in another 7. There is no manual for marriage, it's a different journey for everyone`. For my travel companion I picked a forgiving, sweet, and caring man who loves bacon and VW's :)

We have some pretty busy weekends coming up, yay for summer! 

Weekly Wrap-Up

What a rainy week…but that’s not a bad thing. We enjoyed lots of fun activities inside and when the rain took a break, we quick ran outside!

Here's a quick recap of our week:

Monday was pretty dreary in the morning, but that didn't stop us from enjoying breakfast on the porch and doing some squirrel spotting.

Rose has also become a daddy's girl (more on that later) as an example of her love for daddy, Tuesday morning Rose insisted that daddy wear a bow with her! How can you not love these two? My heart is sooooo happy :)

Rose got to go the the Boyertown Sidewalk Expo on Tuesday with Grandma and made out like a bandit with free stuff and food :)

Tuesday night we welcomed a new family member: a VW Bus!

I was a single parent again Tuesday night, as Justin and some friends picked up this um, atrocity? But Rose loves it and often asks to see the 'bus'. 

She didn't get to see the 'bus' until Wednesday and in keeping with the vehicle theme, she discovered Nana's sun roof and loved it!

Rose has become such a daddy’s girl! As a daddy’s girl myself, I think this is AWESOME. I still think Rose really loves her mommy and we definitely will have lots of special mommy-daughter things, but right now Rose just wants her daddy. Here’s an example: Up until about 2 weeks ago, bedtime books had been a mommy and Rose thing, but now Rose pulls mommy out of the chair and insists on having daddy read her the books.

Thursday I spent time with my daddy when we went to a Fightin’ Phills game (I really don’t like the name change…). Although there was a little spritz here and there, we made it until about 8:45pm and then the rain came...so we left. We had a great time and I love making these memories with my dad!

Thursday Rose, wore a rose in her hair :)

Friday when I picked up Rose, Grandma said she had a fever and didn't eat a good lunch :( We gave her some medicine and she seemed to be doing better, so we headed to a local park for some pre-weekend fun! She is getting a few more teeth...so hopefully that is all over!

Saturday we had our last music class until the fall. Due to vacations and just general business our teacher decided not to offer any classes over the weekend this summer. I’m not sure how Rose and I will occupy ourselves to give Justin some time to work on the house, any ideas are welcome!

Justin joined us for our last class and then took us out to lunch :)  Someone remind me I have to blog about how AWESOME Music Together and Christine have been....

Saturday afternoon Justin worked hard to finish our bedroom floor and although trim, paint, closets, bathroom...the list could go on :) need to be finished, we moved the bed over and are now sleeping in the room. SO for the first time since living here for almost 5 years, we are using every room in the house!

Saturday we took pizza's for grilling to Justin's dad to celebrate Father's Day...if you've never grilled pizza, give it a try! It is really yummy :) We get the pizza kit from the pizza shop next door or check your grocery store. 

Sunday was an awesome day for us. I got to take Justin and Rose to the camp where I was a camper for many years and then also worked as staff for 3 summers (2000, 2002, and 2003). Spruce Lake Wilderness Camp is also were I became friends with Becky, who also came up for the day with her two cutie pies :)

Long story short I was thrown into that lake about 13 years ago...

  

I was never a tether-ball champ (actually I was pretty good on the hockey court), but Rose is starting young

Rose made quick friends at the painting station :)

It wouldn't have been a true camp experience without a s'mores!

 This is a picture of tent #2. I was a camper in this tent for several years and then got to select it as my tent both years I was a counselor. 

Becky and I have so many great memories of camp AND Becky got a husband too :)

 Hopefully our kiddos will also make great memories and friends at camp!

Rose took a nap for most of the ride home and then we went to dinner at my parent's home to celebrate Father's Day! Due to the business of this weekend, I managed to make an Angel Food Cake, but no icing...hey, I'm human ;)

Heads up blog reading friends...there will NOT be a post next Sunday :( Justin and I will be celebrating 7 years of marriage (YAY!) with some us-time and so I will provide an update early next week :)

Weekly Wrap-Up

JUNE! Where has the year gone already? I guess it was technically June last Sunday when I posted, but writing 'June' on all my forms this week, made me realize we are almost halfway through 2013. Rose has been up to so much already this year and we have some terrific things still to come :)

One of those things is Rose's second appearance as a flower girl in Uncle Matt's wedding on July 5. When I ordered Rose's first flower girl dress from a shop on Etsy a coworker of mine said her mother could have made that...so when this wedding got closer I asked if she would like to make it...long story short she said 'yes', we picked a pattern and fabric, she made the dress, and Monday I took Rose for a fitting. After a few alterations to make it even smaller, it fit and is BEAUTIFUL! But can't post pictures until the wedding ;)

Anyway on the way to get the dress we passed a playground and Rose made it known that she expected to play on a playground, so after dinner we went to the Blandon playground. 

After some swinging with daddy we headed up to the pond to look for fish and see the ducks.

Here the ducks look all cute and sweet...what you don't see is a flock of geese about a dozen coming up on the left and hissing...I quickly ran away and yelled at Justin to grab Rose and do the same!

Most of our week was uneventful. Rose is continuing to go the potty about 80% of the time and is wearing panties at grandma's and home. She also continue to LOVE being outside and playing in water. We had a couple of nights in the last week where she voiced her disagreement with bedtime, but is back to doing very well with calmly going to bed :) 

Thursday Justin had to do some computer work, so I was a single parent for a night. Maybe I'm just whining here, because I know a lot of people are single parents every night, but I really hate not having him around to assist with dinner, bath, play, and bed. After working all day, I love spending time with Rose, but she is exhausting. We had fun Thursday night and except for her insisting on finger painting during mealtime, she took it easy on me. 

Friday Rose and I made some more artwork while waiting for Justin to get home. Rose thought it was just as much fun to paint her hands (and eventually mine) as the paper.  

 I asked for a smile...

Rose also helped me with some laundry until she decided the wash basket had better uses...

After feeding Rose some dinner, we decided to head out to the toy store and play a bit and then pick up our dinner to enjoy after Rose was in bed. As we were leaving, Aunt Kate showed up and so she came with to play at the store.  Rose really loves trains!

Saturday morning Justin and Rose spotted this cute little guy: 

 Luckily, unlike the geese, there were not a dozen other bunnies around hissing!

Sunday we did some errands together including picking up our master bedroom flooring. Justin was actually AHEAD of schedule and finished installing the ceiling on Saturday. After Rose's nap, Nana took Rose down to their home to play with Papa, while Justin and I installed some flooring. 

Ceiling 

Floor

We then also went down to my parent's home for dinner (I really like when Nana picks up Rose for a few hours and then also makes me dinner!). Rose was very excited to have a knife and thought her pickle should be cut, with close supervision by mommy. 

We had a great and productive weekend! This next week and weekend look pretty busy with lots more fun stuff.