Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! We had a great time visiting family and friends in ND and MN! We can’t wait until we see everyone again!
(Below) Vivianne was part of the Kramer Lutheran Church’s Christmas program as one of the angels.
You can find many more pictures on our Flickr page!
Dad and Viv
I made some peach milkshakes tonight for a treat. By the looks of their mustaches, I think they liked them ;-)
Here’s a quick video I took tonight.
We’ve been trying to teach Vivianne how to jump.
1st Week...
We’ve had quite the transition at our place this past week. Thomas started full-time with his new job and I started my new job as a stay-at-home mom! In all honesty, I don’t think we could have had a better “first” week. Everything went great. I didn’t once think about my old job or have a moment where I wished I was doing something else. Vivianne and I keep a pretty busy, active schedule that seems to work for the two of us. I am getting to spend more time with her and she is still getting time to be with other kids and without mom. There is a community childcare drop-in-center which I’ve been taking her to 4 times a week for 1.5 hours each morning while I go exercise (New Year’s Resolution #1) which she seems to have taken to quite nicely. She is also involved in two classes that meet for an hour each week. They are excellent and she loves them! We may sign her up for one more later this month, but are waiting to see how it goes with the routine so far. Due to the extra time at home, I’ve started cooking MORE (New Year’s Resolution #2). I tried out three new recipes last week and they weren’t half bad, I couldn’t believe I actually made them! We bought a rice maker/steamer and some new pots and pans which made cooking all more the fun. And on top of it all I’ve quit drinking soda (New Year’s Resolution #3)!
I am hoping the coming days and weeks ahead will go as smoothly as this past week.
Can you believe it? The child wears jeans.
If you look closely at this picture, you will see that Vivianne is actually wearing a pair of jeans! We have tried to buy her jeans at every age, but they never would quite fit her. They would always be way too long and I felt like they were constricting around her belly so she’s been a sweatpants kinda girl…until now! While cleaning out her closet, I found an old pair of jeans she got a LONG time ago and decided to try them on one more time and Voila they actually fit her, they finally were the right length and had enough elasticity to fit around her belly!
Decorating Cookies
We frosted sugar cookies yesterday afternoon. I let Vivianne use a paint brush and I think she thought she was really painting. After a few strokes of frosting she would have to stop and taste the cookie. She ended up doing more tasting than frosting :-) She thought she was big stuff because she got to wear an apron.
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The Library
I forgot how cool the library was until I brought Vivianne there yesterday afternoon. The local library’s children’s section is under renovation and has been closed since November. We’ve just been patiently waiting for it to open. It never crossed my mind to bring her to another library in a neighboring suburb until a parent suggested it at one of Vivianne’s classes. Lake Bluff is the city right next to Lake Forest so we headed down that way to explore their library (it took us about 4 minutes to get there). It was awesome! The entire basement was dedicated to the children. They had a little puppet theater with puppets, blocks, puzzles and of course books available for the kids. 
She LOVED it. She especially liked all the puzzles, we pretty much put everyone of them together ;-) On our way out we passed by the movie section and she spotted a Dora video so we checked that out and she got to watch some of it when we got home. The librarian informed me that they have toddler story time each week. Unfortunately it is during the same time she is at one of her classes, but this spring/summer we could take advantage of it! We will definitely be back.
Oh, those 3 sweet little words...
PAID IN FULL!
My student loan is officially paid off. Halleljulah!
Looking for a simple and sweet Super Bowl treat?
We just got done making a few batches of these pretzel explosions. The plan is to have them tomorrow during the big game…we are hoping they last until then. We may have to put them in the safe.
Ingredients: Mini pretzels, rolos.
Directions: Place pretzels on a cookie sheet (we placed parchment paper on top of the cookie treat for easy clean up). Next place one rolo on each pretzel. Place in oven (350 degrees) for approximately six minutes. Take out and place a second pretzel on top, making a sandwich. Let cool.
Note: Can be refrigerated and eaten cold as well.
Warning: Can be messy.
