Lily's Special Day

A little preparation...

Equals a fun first birthday!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today...

First Haircut

Lily got her first haircut today!!! Her hair was getting all scraggley and uneven in the back, and she had a spot on the back where the hair was getting all matted and tangle-y. It looks "purty" now!

(if these pictures had volume, you would hear lots of sobbing coming from behind that pacifier. By the end of the haircut, we had lots of tears and snot.)

Making Heart Crayons

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Tuesday

It's Tuesday. Not much going on around here. Right now, Abby is watching Sesame Street while Lily lays next to her, hopefully falling asleep soon for a morning nap. Our big plans today are to hit Target's kids clothing department. We are looking for a birthday outfit for the soon to be birthday girl. That is unreal. I can't believe it has been a year. I have mixed feelings about it. I am a little sad, and yet, excited that we made it through the first year, which I think is really hard. I am excited for her to start walking, because then they really seem like a little person. We "practiced" standing last night while I held her arms. She isn't great at it, but I think the practicing is helping. She giggles most of the time she stands. It is pretty cute. She knows she is doing something new, I guess.

We just finished up baths for everyone and a shower for myself. I honestly feel like I'm up to my elbows in lotion today. We had a big temperature drop (like 20 degrees in 24 hours) in the last day or so, and the cold is taking its toll. Abby's nighttime cough is back, surely because of the dry air because it was totally gone, and I got all itchy from dry skin yesterday. So, today was Lotion Day! Hopefully it will help.

It's still "Girl Time" here with Matt traveling. I'm pretty tired. I just don't sleep as well when he's gone. Lily isn't helping the situation. She hasn't been sleeping well at all. It is really frustrating. I don't know if teething is the problem, or not. It definitely could be because she's sprouting them like crazy. I just know I'm tired.

We got a little bit of snow here yesterday and it is bitter cold. I'm not looking forward to getting out in it today, and yet I'm looking forward to getting out. If you know what I mean.

Okay, that is all the rambling I have in me for right now. Hopefully Lily has fallen asleep by now!

Have a great day!

Slice and Bake

Yum, so good! Abby and I are going to make some super easy sugar cookies today. These are easy and really good straight from the oven. (We sprinkle colored sugar on the tops before we bake ours.) I had to share the recipe!

Slice-and-Bake Sugar Cookies

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium-size mixing bowl.

2. Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and with an electric mixer, beat on medium-high speed until fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

3. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Turn 1 portion onto a piece of waxed paper and shape it, rolling it inside the paper, into a log about 10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. Repeat with the remaining dough. (Dough logs may be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 1 month. Slice and bake directly from the freezer.)

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5. Slice the dough into 1/3-inch-thick rounds, rotating the dough often so it doesn't become flattened as you cut.

6. Place the cookies on ungreased baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. Bake until they are pale golden around the edges but still soft on top, 13-15 minutes (a minute or two longer for frozen dough).

*If you like, this basic cookie dough can be dressed up with sprinkles or colored sugar for colorful cookies in a flash. You may either sprinkle them on the tops of the cookies after slicing or brush unsliced logs with egg white and roll in sugar before slicing for a border effect.

My Project Runway Fantasy Team!

Something fun to do since Project Runway is one of my favorite shows. I'm still figuring out how it works, but click here to see how they earn or lose you points.

Wordless Wednesday

Etsy

I embarked on a journey today. I officially opened an Etsy store with my mom called Carrie Birdie Designs. We are selling handmade things that we enjoy making. I feel a little like the store is in "draft" mode, because I'd like it to look a little more polished, but we now have items listed to sell.

Check it out!

Carrie Birdie Designs

From Upper Room

With all the changes that our family is going through right now, this Upper Room daily devotional seemed worthy of sharing.

Today's Scripture

The Lord says, "See, I am doing a new thing!"

-Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)

WHAT is God up to now? How did I ever end up at a writers conference? I can barely spell correctly. Just writing for my speaking engagements as a pastor's wife takes hours of exhausting effort.

God has such a sense of humor! God provided the conference fee, a free plane ticket, even my meal money. How could I not go? Though I wouldn't have dreamed this for myself, it is clear that God has new adventures on my horizon. What a blessing to hear the words of Isaiah 43:19: "See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" (NIV). I believe that God is creating a new thing in me.

Considering this "new thing" God wants me to do fills me with fear. The task seems daunting. I am not a wordsmith. My husband, an English major with a master's degree and a Ph.D., should be the writer.

But I believe that God calls unlikely persons to do the extraordinary. I don't know what lies in my future, but I do know that God may call all of us to do "new things." If we believe this and trust, God will equip us as we write new chapters in our lives.

Prayer

Father, help us to never allow our fears to stand in the way of the wonderful plans you have for us. Open our eyes and hearts to see you in all you call us to do. Amen.

Celebrate!

Cheesecake Factory for us tonight!!!

Matt got the job!

Woo hoo!

Still waiting...

No news.

No Cheesecake Factory.

No bad news either, just more waiting, which seems to be the name of the game. We are waiting to have our celebration dinner until we have an official offer. Though we did have pizza last night, which was kind of cheating.


On a side note, those of you with iPhones or iPod Touch, I just downloaded a program that I am using right now to blog this called BlogPress Lite (free). It makes blogging (from Blogger) from your phone/iPod super easy. There is a full version one that you have to pay for but I think this one meets all my needs. Pretty cool for if you want to update a blog but aren't at your computer (like, for example, if you are sitting in your baby's room trying to get her to fall asleep for nap, but I wouldn't know about that).

A Roller Coaster

Are we nearing the end of the roller coaster? Matt had his third and final interview for his promotion yesterday. All signs point that the job is his, except he hasn't officially been told that yet. Signs are pointing so strongly (and we may have a little confidential inside information, shhh) that he got an e-mail that he has a hotel reservation already for next week's meeting in New Jersey for managers. He booked his flight this morning and thus the traveling begins. Assuming he gets this job, he will be traveling three of the next four weeks. Am I ready for this?

We are waiting for an official offer now, which of course will include salary. This will actually allow us to budget for groceries! You think I'm kidding.

More to come when we know for sure. (but, we are already planning our celebration dinner tonight at the Cheesecake Factory!)

A Very Busy Baby

We have hit a new milestone. Lily is officially into just about everything she can get to. She still isn't crawling, but she is now MOVING. Rolling, scooting, crawling backwards (but just not forwards yet), rocking, etc. This afternoon, I was trying to fold a load of laundry and Lily got into one of the DVD baskets. We usually stop her and redirect her attention, but today I just wanted to get my laundry folded. She couldn't get hurt or mess them up too bad, other than throwing them all over the living room.

"Hmmm, the remote. I never get to hold one of these..."

"I just can't find one I want to watch."

All done! It's official. There is nothing to watch."

Happy Wednesday!

Right now in my house:

(yeah, time in her room is rough, right?)

So, my newest project... the "Girly Skirt". Fun, huh? I just finished it and Abby loves it. She picked out the flower material and I chose the black (which she wasn't thrilled with). The pattern says it is supposed to take around a hour to make- hah! I made every possible dumb mistake there was to make on this one. You can't tell because I've either fixed them or made them impossible to see, but geesh, it was getting ridiculous. That said, the next one I make will be MUCH easier because I made all of those mistakes this time.

(look at that face- too cute)

Rambling Thoughts

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. I keep waiting for some inspiration, and it just hasn't come. So, I'll just ramble some random thoughts, I guess. Let's be honest, that is how I talk anyway.

We made it through our Christmas travels. We crammed in a lot of traveling in a short amount of time. It felt like we didn't really have much time at either of our stops, yet we were really glad to be home when we got there. The girls got way too many toys. We made a trip to Target the day after we got home to buy a new organizational shelf-thingy for Abby's room to try to contain some of her "little" toys that Lily needs to be kept away from. Speaking of Lily, she was too fun at Christmas. Even though I am sure she didn't really "get" Christmas, she would get all excited when we opened presents. It was really cute. See?

Abby got lots of more grown up toys this year. Barbies, My Little Pony, craft stuff, and a fancy jewelry box (which she says is her favorite present, yes!). Her jewelry box was a big one from us. It is personalized with her name and is a music box with a ballerina inside it. And, of course, Santa is a big deal.

As far as the crawling update on Lily, she still isn't. That said, she is moving around quite a bit. She just started kinda crawling backwards to get to a sitting position, and she is doing a lot more rolling to move around. I originally thought she'd be crawling by Christmas and I was obviously wrong. Now my bet is her birthday. We'll see.

Everyone is back to the real world tomorrow. Matt is back at work and Abby has preschool. She is ready, he's anxious. Lily and I are just around for the ride. I do think this is where we'll start to feel the difference of Matt being done with his MBA. He has always had the holidays off from classes, but now he'll be working and actually get to be home in the evenings. I'm really looking forward to the routine of him being home. Now we can choose what we WANT to do.

Ummm, more rambling...

I got a small gift card to JoAnns in my stocking, so I'm planning a few projects in the coming weeks. I am going to try another Scarf Along, I think, with some different fabric colors. I think I want to use darker colors this time, with some black since I wear a lot of it. I also have ordered a pattern for a cute girly skirt for Abby (and Lily soon), so that will be fun too. I'll keep you posted.

Can you believe it is 2010???? Are you going to say "Two thousand ten" or "twenty ten"? I haven't decided yet. I just had to write it for the first time today. Weird. Bye bye, 2009: Year of the Lily!

Happy New Year!