Naples City Beach

(The Hubby at) Imaginarium and Manatee Park

At Lover's Bay State Park in Florida

We are having a good time so far. This might be the only hot, sunny day. But as long as it's not cold snow I will take it.

New Hair Color

Not sure how well you can see the dark purple streak in the front. There are two in the back as well. Maybe some natural sunlight pictures in Florida will show it better. Anyways, my friend Caitlin who is a professional colorist was willing to play kitchen beautician for me and color my hair & I LOVE IT!. She did an all over color of medium blond then went back and put in the purple streaks and hand painted in blond highlights all over with bigger chunks framing the face.

I always wanted to do some kind of fun color in my hair but never had the guts. This year I decided that if there is something I want to do and it is financially feasible, I am going to do it. Life is too short to not try things and live your life.

Making Bows

I made the light pink ones last night and then made the dark pink & blue-striped bows tonight. I made these for Isabel & 3 of her friends. I just thought Isabel needed some new bows and thought I would make bows for her friends whose moms borrowed me some things during my pregnancy and/or for Henry.

Isabel is going to love that she has a bunch of new bows made by mommy. I have not made her any in a while. I am going to make her some korker bows next, but I need to go buy a dowel and some think grosgrain ribbon.

Snowshoeing 2010

Today we went snowshoeing at River Bend Nature Center. It is much more work to snow shoe with a 16-pound baby strapped to your chest that without. But we did have fun!

Even More Homemade Gifts (To Come)

I need to take pictures of them yet, but Andy received some new pajama pants that his mom made and Isabel got a new jumper that his mom made her. And Henry got a new hat from Andy's great grandma. And I also need to see if I took pictures of the homemade gifts Isabel gave to her godparents (beeswax rolled candles & fire starters in a homemade gift bag.) Oh! And she made a homemade coaster & candle holder out of plaster of paris for grandma M. And together we made hot cocoa mix & soup mix for grandparents. And I gave gifts of crabapple jam, apple butter, & pear sauce to different people. I also made Henry a fleece tie pillow that coordinates with the blanket I made him as a "birth" day present.

Hopefully, I did not forget to mention any of the homemade gifts we received or made for others. We appreciate all the gifts we have gotten this holiday season, but the ones that people put time & effort into are always special to us.

More Homemade Gifts

This hat & scarf was made by Isabel's great grandma.

I made this princess hat & wand for Isabel for Christmas. She loves them. I did made a couple more to give to some friends' daughter who wanted to make them as well, but couldn't get over that night.
These are some stationary sets that Isabel & I made for her teachers at preschool that include a notebook, pen holder & flower pen and homemade cards.

Homemade Gifts

This is a collection of gifts I made for the kids that include: mittens for Isabel & Henry, mittens for dolly (obviously, dolly belongs to Isabel), pillow & blanket for dolly, leg warmers for Isabel.

Crocheted boy dolly lovey for Henry from my mom.
Chef's hat & oven mitt for Isabel made by my mom.
These are some crocheted wrist cuffs my mom made for me. She first made the single one, but wasn't sure she liked it when she added the single stitch around the edge, so ripped that out and started on a new set. I did like the initial one w/o the edge, so I now have a matching set and a single wrist cuff. This will be a nice accessory for someone who is allergic to nickel and can't wear many bracelets to wear.
My mom made this roll-up tool pouch for Andy. She made this custom because he wanted it a certain style with specific features. Kudos to her for reusing items for the canvas & denim material.

Happy New Year & Merry Christmas

Andy does a better job of getting a decent picture of my dad. Every time I take a picture of him I get his eyes closed. Seriously, EVERY TIME! Andy took all these photos of him.

Kudos to my mom for the creative idea on reusing an old football jersey to make a remote control holder & pillow.

Christmas 2009

Here is our tree this year.

Here is the manager scene. Isabel apparently thought that Mary & Joseph had a tea party when Jesus was born.

Product Testing

Recently I joined a product testing & sampling program and I have had the opportunity to test out several products that are already on the market and give my opinion of them. I got full size samples of these products & discount coupons for future purchases. No additional compensation was received. Here are my thoughts on the recent products I have evaluated.

Wet Ones Anti-Bacterial Wipes: I honestly would not have bought these prior to getting them to sample since they cost more than baby wipes. But due to the fact that I have a newborn and it's flu season, it was the perfect time to try these. I am very comforted by the fact that I have a travel size pack of these in my purse for when we go places and I want to sanitize the area or us. I have used them on us, for other people, on shopping carts and on an activity toy at the clinic. I like to use them on my daughter after she plays at Playland at McD's. It just eases my mind to know they are anti-bacterial & I have to use in places with lots of germs & viruses are spread.

Ghiradelli Peanut Butter Chocolate Squares: LOVED these! But, it's chocolate, so what's not to love. I ate some of these and I also gave some to my daughter in her St. Nick stocking. She enjoyed them as well and immediately ate them. I thought the chocolate & peanut butter filling were very creamy and balanced amounts and tasted like they were of high quality ingredients.

Alouette Spreadable Cheese: I got the garlic & herb cheese spread. I loved it. I ate these on water crackers because I didn't want it to compete with any flavors that would be in crackers, which I think was a wise move. I am next going to try spreading a thin layer of it inside grilled cheese sandwiches. I think it will make them more special & flavorful. I definitely would recommend this. My only complaint it that I had to go to 3 grocery stores to find it and they only had this one flavor.

Sensodyne Toothpaste: Up until this pregnancy I never had a tooth sensitivity issue. So, this was another product with perfect timing. I am still testing this product out, but so far I am impressed. My sensitivity seems to have decreased, which is enjoyable because who wants to experience sensitivity when you are trying to enjoy something sweet. I am more likely to purchase this product in the future just because I have tried it and know it works. The flavor is a gentle mint flavor and it leaves my mouth feeling clean all day.

** I have been very pleased that I enjoyed all these products. There is something satisfying about trying a new product and enjoying it. I would recommend any of the above products.

Caught in the Act

So, is it a baby activity gym or a cat toy? Either way, it's getting used and I am getting my money worth out of it.

Most Recent Family Photo

Since we had friends here, we were able to get someone to take a picture of the four of us (not one in the labor & delivery room).

Thanksgiving 2009

We had our friends Lori, John & Rachael come stay with us for a couple of nights and celebrate Thanksgiving with them. It was a good time and we look forward to when we can see them again, maybe WI Dells this winter or a visit to their house this summer.

River Bend Nature Center

My daughter & I love to go to River Bend Nature Center to hike, play & explore. And while we are there I usually find a few interesting shots to take that are not of her. These were my favorites today.

The Wine Says It All

Poor hubby......this picture just sums up everything.

Garden Update

Well, as the summer season comes to a close I thought I would reflect on my garden so far. We planted tomatoes, what we thought was lettuce in an embedded paper from Kraft - turned out it was some kind of flowery thing, turnips, watermelon, what we thought was cucumber - according to the package - turned out to be spaghetti squash, canteloupe (grew one plant but then it died away), pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, spaghetti squash (so, yes, we have a bunch now), green beans, yellow beans, & peas. Also in pots are more tomatoes, hot peppers, mesclun greens, cilantro, nastrutiums, spinach (didn't work too well as I planted to late), & basil. And the perinneal herbs I have growing are chives, sage, oregano, terragon, mint & some cilantro that re-seeds itself every year.

We do a lasagna garden and I planted everything in mounds. The tomatoes are coming along nicely and we have recently been enjoying them. We planted Early Girls in pots, so we have had some tomatoes for a while, some cherry tomatoes in a pot & in the garden, and Big Boys in the garden. I think this year I will be chopping & freezing the tomatoes like I did with the ones I got from my mom last year (we finished using those up about a month ago).

We had a plentiful crop of zucchini (from one plant) and yellow squash (from 3 plants) and I made many dishes and shredded quite a bit & put in freezer to use this winter.

The spaghetti squash is new to us. I made it once & it's ok. The hubby didn't care for it as much, so now I need to find some recipes other than just "faux" spaghetti (which is how we ate it just the once).

We have about 5 pumpkins in the garden and they are almost fully orange. Next year I think I will plant them later. But they look great, pretty uniform and actually perfect looking and the vines are still healthy, so they are still out there. So, we will carve one or two this year and save the others to cook & make stuff with. I kinda wish I would have planted some bigger ones because now I wish I had one to gut & take pictures of the baby inside of, but he will be very little at Halloween (just born), so I might be able to use our pumpkins.

We didn't get to eat as many of the beans as I would have liked. We had something eating them, but I could never find anything except lots of holes in my leaves and half eaten beans. So, next year we will have to approach these differently.

We did good with the peas and ate most of those right out of the garden. But we did have several stir-frys with pea pods in, as well as putting some turnips in there (I am the only one who really likes them here.)

We had pots of basil inside & outside and the inside one did much better and is still growing strong. The pot of mesclun greens grew nicely (this was new to me) and I liked them, but the hubby didn't care for the mix of flavors. Oh well. I liked them and would mix with lettuce for a salad.

The peppers & nasturtiums did well and the kid loves the idea of being able to eat the flower, even if she didn't care so much for the radishy type flavor.

Oh! We also planted 2 raspberry bushes. One of them died on us, but the other did pretty good and we enjoyed a small amount of our own raspberries which we picked out there.. And we had planted strawberries in these hanging bag things, but they didn't work (or the cherry tomatoes in one too). So, we won't do those bag things anymore. I would like to get some strawberries established at some point.

Watermelon has been growing well. We had our first Sugar Baby watermelon the other night. They are quite juicy, but also quite seedy. We still have a couple more and the kid is very happy to have them and enjoyed the watermelon so far.

We are now attempting some late summer gardening. The kid & I planted more mesclun (which is up & growing already) and cucumbers on Sunday and just tonight planted some lettuce, spinach & radishes, as well as some cilantro in a pot. Not sure how the cucumbers will turn out because they need a couple months and they could get nipped by frost, but we thought we would try anyways, since we didn't get any. All the mounds for these are in the middle of the garden, so I can tarp if I need to. I just need to pay attention to the forecast & get out there.

The kid discovered that she loves cilantro and has been eating it out of the herb garden, although now it has all gone to seed & dried. So, while the seeds we collected continue to dry, I did buy some other cilantro seeds and we just planted some in a pot that we can bring inside and we will try to grow cilantro through the winter.

We have been collecting seeds to plant for next year and so far what we have drying is: yellow squash, hot peppers, Big Boy tomatoes, peas, & cilantro. We will harvest some zucchini, pumpkin & maybe some spaghetti squash (not sure about that yet) and our other tomatoes as well.

We'll see how the rest of the garden goes for the next 2 months and if any more garden spots open in the next month I might try to establish some more spinach. The organic gardening class I went to walked about how there are CSAs in MN & WI that grow spinach year round and discussed how to do that. I love spinach, so I might like to try that. But we'll see what else opens up and when the baby comes.

Next year I would like to create a small raised bed for kid to have as her own garden space and we can plant the beans, peas, & cilantro in there. And maybe some leaf lettuce. Those are all good things that she can pick herself and grow quickly.

This winter we try to keep some herbs going and also grow alfalfa sprouts again (just bought some more of those seeds). And we'll start some plants indoors again. The cherry tomatoes, watermelon & marigolds we planted early have done great. I also would like to expand my herb garden to include thyme next year, since that will come back each year in our zone. And next year I want to be sure to get in cucumbers and I think I will pass on the turnips since no one else eats them. Maybe we will try some potatoes next year. I think the kid will like cutting up potatoes and planting them.

Oh - the other thing I might like to get in the garden here soon is some garlic. It needs to be planted by mid-September at the latest (for our zone), so I need to get to a garden center to buy some bulbs. They overwinter and will be ready to harvest by the time I need the space for the rest of the garden.

Phelps Mill, MN

Yesterday on our cabin vacation we went to Phelps Mills, MN and toured the old mill & viewed the dam. I thought there was lot fo interesting & beautiful pictures to be taken here, so I was snapping away. I was actually really pleased with how a lot of them turned out, which is why I had to make 2 different collages.

Interesting Pictures

These are a couple of pictures I took at Phelps Mills, MN yesterday. The top one was at the playground there. It is this cute old couple that were swinging on the swings together. I have just never seen an older couple like this on the swings. She was really cruising on the swings.

This is a WHAT NOT TO DO. Don't over over a dam in your kayak. We just hope that the owner of this kayak was smart & made it out before it went over.