Happy Birthday, Abby!

Hooray for Abby! Today is her 1st Birthday!! Yesterday she smeared vaseline all over my tan couch, so I actually consider her lucky to be having a first birthday! ;) We love Abby. She is so sweet and loving. She loves to play peek-a-boo, make messes, eat things off the floor, play with Emily, being in the bath, and get and give hugs and kisses. Tonight we're having homemade pizza, fruit salad, peas and green beans (favorites of hers). Em and I just made chocolate cake and we're going to put up some decorations. Emily has been so excited, definitely more so than Abby. ;) In some ways it's hard to believe that she's a year old, but it others it feels like we've had her forever (you know how it is). This last year has actually gone by pretty slow with everything we've had going, so I feel like I've enjoyed my time with her.

Vinyl Blog!

Ok, so I finally have my vinyl blog up. Here is the link! :) http://simplystatedvinyllettering.blogspot.com/

Thoroughly Grossed Out

Oh, man. So yesterday I found what looked like mouse droppings under my sink. As in, a mouse (probably mice) are living in my house. Uninvited. Pete confirmed it. Mice. Are. In. My. House!!!! It gives me the shivers even typing it. I am thoroughly grossed out. I can do the largest, hairiest of spiders, smash them with the bravest of them all, but I just can't do mice. The only thing worse would be a rat, but I won't even go there. My friend that lives about 20 minutes away gets lizards in her house. I would rather have lizards than rodents any day. They gross me out that bad. So Pete got some mouse traps last night, and as soon as the girls go to bed we are going to get started on project "No Mice". Wish us luck...

Christmas in Cincinnati

Well yesterday was a fun day. Emily was SO excited this year. She was wound-up from the day we put up the tree until yesterday night (when she started to crash a little). On Christmas Eve Emily and I made and decorated sugar cookies and also popcorn balls (My aunt sent us a really cute kit.) Pete relaxed and napped and tried to take it easy after a 96 hour work week the week before. After he and Abby woke up, we went to see a little nativity in Mt. Healthy that had real animals. There were goats, sheep, and donkeys. It was really fun.

This is a picture of them waiting on the stairs to go down and see what Santa brought.

Abby was so funny. She wasn't very interested in unwrapping presents, but she loved picking them up, chewing on the bows, and getting into trouble! Santa brought Em a doll house and Abby a ball station (with the air that blows the balls around), plus grandmas and grandpas spoiled them, as did aunts and uncles. They also spoiled Pete and me. :)

Pete in the U of U scrub cap for the O.R. I bought him for Christmas.

Vinyl Cutter!

Yea! I am so excited! I finally got my vinyl cutter. I bought it with the intention of starting a small business out of my home. Vinyl hasn't quite hit Cincinnati by storm like it has in parts of the West, so we'll see. ;) I'll post some prices in a little bit, in case someone you know is interested. Here are some pictures of some little neighbor gifts I did. I put chocolate dipped pretzels inside most of them. I found pretzels that were Christmas shapes, so I was extra excited.

A Brown Thanksgiving

I love the Browns!! I was so excited when they said they would join us for Thanksgiving. And they came bearing St. Louis treats like toasted rav, peppermint Joe Joes, and Chris's delicious homemade raspberry jam. I had so much fun with them here. It was great to be reunited with good friends. We were all sad after they left. It made me miss St. Louis and our friends and Stonecrest... But alas I guess we must move on with life. Anyway, we had a great weekend eating, shopping, watching movies, and they were so nice to help me with the kids. I sure hope they'll come again, stinky cheese and all... :)

Halloween

Here are some pictures from Halloween. Emily was a scary witch and Abby was a giraffe. We had a Halloween party at my mom's house a couple of days before and it was really fun! We had lots of spooky food including eye ball cookies, mini mummy pizzas, spooky severed fingers made of peanut butter (Pete's specialty), mummy sausages, a graveyard cake, homemade apple cider from my brother, and more. We did some games for the kids, which was so cute. Man, I just love my family! Then on Halloween Pete had to fly back to Cincy, and the girls and I went trick-or-treating with my brother in Farmington. It was so much fun. The kids were so cute and really enjoyed themselves.