Piper's Favorite Christmas Gift

Wordless Wednesday

The Times Are a Changing

It seems the theme for this year has been change. Christmas has not been an exception to that rule. For pretty much my whole life the tradition in my family was that we would go to Christmas Eve mass and while we were there Santa would stop by our home and drop off all our presents. I guess we were always one of his first stops. This year has been a bit different. My sister and her boyfriend will not be here until the 27th and Josh is working an overnight tonight. I talked to Santa and I guess he's not stopping by until Monday.

I guess I'm fine with the change it just feels kind of strange. Instead tonight my Mom, Dad, Piper and I all went to mass. We've been spending the evening watching It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story. My Dad told me this is the first year in his whole life that he hasn't opened presents on Christmas Eve. He tried to talk us into opening all the presents and the wrapping them back up. To me that sounded like more work than fun.

I always knew that one day when I had my own children that traditions would change. It will be interesting to see what traditions Piper will remember someday.

What ever your traditions may be, I hope you are all enjoying yourselves. Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Guess who's 9 months old!

Piper is 9 months old today. I can hardly believe she'll be one year in only 3 months!

She's doing all sorts of tricks and has become quite the little copy cat.
She army crawls all over the house and it's getting harder and harder to take pictures of her.
She's working cutting her top two teeth.
She can say hi, bye bye, momma, and every now and then we think she says dada.
Her favorite song is Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and she loves puppies and kitties.

It's so much fun to watch her little personality develop. What a wonderful 9 months it's been!

Wordless Wednesday

sooc

North Park Blocks

I've been a little homesick for Portland lately. I think it's something about this time of year that makes you homesick for the places you used to live.

When ever I feel a little homesick I check out the Portland Parks facebook page. I few weeks ago they posted this picture of a playground in the north park blocks. The photo was taken 100 years ago in 1910.

Wouldn't you just love to play on that jungle gym!?!

Below is a photo of what the jungle gym in the north park blocks looks like now.

Christmas Play List 2010

1. Caro Gesu Bambino --Andra Bocelli
2. Little Saint Nick -- The Beach Boys
3. Same Old Lang Syne --Dan Fogelberg
4. Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer --Dr. Elmo
5. Happy Xmas --John Lennon
6. Silver Bells -- Relient K
7. River -- Sarah Mclachlan
8. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer-- Jack Johnson

9. What Child is This -- Garth Brooks
10. Baby, It's Cold Outside -- Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmen McRae
11. Ave Maria -- The Carpenters
12. Frosty the Snowman -- Fiona Apple
13. O Holy Nigh -- Weezer
14. Winter Song -- Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
17. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town -- Mason Jennings
18. Christmastime -- Smashing Pumpkins

Christmas Gifts

I'm afraid that the Grandparents are going to be getting lots of photo gifts this year. I don't have a ton of money for presents but I do have access to a nice camera. I made a really cute Christmas ornament with our Christmas card picture. I'll try to make a post about it sometime around Christmas.

She's not the model she used to be.

Piper has become very interested in the camera lately. She crawls after me while I try to take pictures. The more she moves the more interesting things get:)

Yesterday my mom, Josh, Piper and I headed over to Blooming Prairie to visit my Grandpa and Grandma. My uncle and my grandma were leading a Christmas sing-a-long at the nursing home where my grandparents live. Piper also put on show for all the residents. She clapped, she waved, and she even sang. She does this crazy closed mouth singing thing.

Another favorite moment from the day was during lunch. Mom, Josh Piper and I went out to eat at a little sports bar near Medford for lunch. A woman came and sat down not far from us and started talking on her cell phone rather loudly. Piper of course thought the lady was talking to her. She started waving at the lady and finally caught the woman's attention. The lady waved back and continued her cell phone conversation but with an inside voice.

Wordless Wednesday

Baby Hattie

I was contacted a few months back my Hattie's mom Abby to see if I was up for taking some newborn photos. I was super excited! I have to say taking Hattie's pictures was such a great way to get my newborn fix. She was such a sweet little model and I couldn't be happier with the outcome of the shoot.

Snow Day

A blizzard hit south central Minnesota today. The weather people kept comparing it to the Halloween blizzard of 1991. We were all pretty cooped up but we made the most of it. Piper loved watching the storm and trying to catch the snow flakes as they flew past the window.

Mom and I baked some cookies, and mom made some really yummy chili.

Josh was the only one brave enough to venture into the storm. He went up to the gas station to bring us some bread and diet cokes.

Tonight he went out to see how hard the wind was blowing and how deep the drifts were growing. He threw snow at the window and that really scared Piper.

Though we enjoyed the easy going day I think we are ready for the storm to end and to get out of the house.

My 2nd Favorite Cookie

I made my second favorite cookie this week, oatmeal butter scotch cookies. I love eating these, they remind me of my childhood. I would love when my mom would make me these cookies.
They are also pretty easy to make

1 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp soda
4 c. oatmeal
1 pkg. butter scotch chips

Mix together. Bake 12 min @ 350

I mixed up the dry ingredients first and then added the eggs and butter. This recipe you really need to dig in and mix with your hands. Unfortunately as soon as I was all nice and gooey from mixing the dough Piper found Taco the Cat's water dish. By the time I washed the dough off my hands Piper had made a nice little puddle around the dish and was pretty wet herself. I had to wait until Josh got back from the store to finish making the cookies.

Even though the little baby kept me on my toes while making the cookies they still turned out great. I had to share them to help prevent me from eating them all.

Wordless Wednesday

An Early Christmas Gift

Piper received a Christmas gift from our friends back in Oregon today. They wanted her to open it right away so that she could get the most use out of it.

As you can see above Piper's first Christmas gift ever was a University of Oregon coat. It is so cute and so nice and warm. I know she is going to get lots of use out of it:)

Prune Face

One of the many things I swore I would never do before I had kids was post a picture or video of my child with food all over their face. I'm sorry but this video cracks me up. I hope you get a kick out of it too.

Thanksgiving Video

I was reading through some of my favorite blogs and I came across this video. I think it's so beautiful! It makes me want to invest in a DSLR with video capabilities and video editing equipment.

Why do my hobbies have to be so expensive?

Wordless Wednesday