St. Lucia and December Fun!

Today is St. Lucia in Sweden. I don't know much about the tradition, but I wanted to do something nice for Patric to bring a little of home to him. Apparently, they make cookies called Pepparkakor (basically gingerbread) so I made the dough last night so that we could roll them out today. We had a pretty busy day, so we didn't get to them until after dinner, but WOW--THEY ARE YUMMY!!

I got some shots of us working on them, for those in Sweden who follow this blog.

Josh helped roll out the cookies.



Josh helped cut out the cookies...and licked them too! He got A LOT of flour all over him, but that is part of the fun of making cookies.

We didn't have gingerbread men cookie cutters...so we had to make gingerbread snowmen, angels, and holly leaves.
An action shot...while they are baking! They smelled SO yummy!!

The finished product. They smelled SO good!


Josh is testing them out...to see if they are good.


Patric and Josh relaxing, watching a Christmas movie...while Josh continues to snack on his cookie. Look at his hand, he did not even let me come near him because he thought I would take his cookie away.



In other news---today marks the day I officially lost 20 lbs. I have been dieting and working out for about 6 weeks...of course Thanksgiving was in the middle of it all on top of any cheat days I gave myself...but I am SO happy to be 8 lbs less than I was when I got pregnant with Josh. Ideally, I would like to lose another 7 lbs before I get pregnant again...but I am just so happy I have lost what I have.

I will be bold and post a picture of me in my bathing suit. Patric took it today...just to show how much I have lost. Patric has repeatedly told me how proud he is of me. I have resisted trying to get pregnant, because I felt so miserable about my body and did NOT want to gain on top of pregnancy weight. Now I feel much more confident about getting pregnant...though I will not get to enjoy my body much, if I do get pregnant fast.




Yes family---Patric and I will be trying for another kid this month. Cross your fingers that conceiving this kid will not take over a year like Josh did. Josh was sure worth the wait though!

It's the holiday season!

So--

We had these REALLY AWESOME tickets to the Giants v Redskins game on Nov 30. Did we go? No! Josh decided to get some type of stomach bug and was pooping and puking a lot the weekend of Thanksgiving. We did watch the game together at home, and Josh actually fell asleep on his daddy..which he NEVER does...so I had to capture it.




I took some pictures of Josh playing outside when it started to get cold out. Also--it was a way to kill time...as Patric has been working later than usual and I have a hard time adjusting to that! Planning dinner is about the most stressful time of my day.


Patric got a hard hat for Josh at work like a year ago...and he LOVES to play with it. I am sure I have posted pictures of him wearing it, but I had to show it again, because I think it is pretty funny. Don't mind his red face...i guess he gets a dry face when its cold...didnt have this problem last year.



I am NEVER in front of the camera...I generally am behind it...so I thought it was kinda nice when Patric thought that it would be cute to take pictures of me reading to Josh before bedtime. Josh FINALLY likes us to read to him...I was so sad when he would keep closing the books when we tried to read to him when he was younger...but now it is something we do before every nap time and bed time.


Next time...I hope to post some Christmas pictures...I bought Josh's christmas outfit (and all of the pieces were on sale!! Like majorly...like 50% off...gotta love shopping after the rush)

Catching up

I tried to update this blog a couple of times now, but the pictures didn't load, so I got bored and walked away. Now the pictures load up, but I get this weird hyperlink type font...oh well. We had fun taking Josh trick or treating. He was a monkey this year.This is our old street. We decided to go to some of the old neighbors since townhouses means more houses in less walking time. Problem was, most of our old neighbors were not home! So they did not get to see Josh all grown up. Oh well...there is always next year.



I bought these leaf bags at Target for a buck....and we decorated our front porch with our pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch. Very festive!
We went over to Grandma's house after some trick or treating and were surprised to see Aunt Holly and Lily there. Then a little later, Uncle David and Aunt Teri showed up with Rebecca, Arianna, and Jessica. I had to get a group shot. Lily was NOT cooperating...so she is not pictured.

Josh is picking out his pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. He is a strong little man. And cute too!

A family shot. It was pretty dang cold for the middle of October....but I would rather it be cold than hot!

I went to super saturday so Patric took Josh over to the park. Apparently, he wanted to go down the big slide all by himself. He is such a daredevil!

We have a TON of leaves on our yard. It is NOT fun to have to clean them all up...but Josh enjoys playing in the piles we make.

More October Fun!

We decided to go to the zoo...of course we picked the hottest day in October...but it was fun none-the-less. The Zoo has a petting area...and Josh even got to brush some of the animals.


I think this is my favorite picture that I took of the day. Josh got to pet a cow! He loves milk, so it is important for him to know where the milk he drinks comes from.
Josh REALLY liked the Gorillas. It was REALLY crowded in the gorilla house, so I didn't get to see him much...Patric was with him...but this was what he did the entire time apparently.

Patric cut Josh's hair, about a month ago now, but I thought it looked really good, so I did a little photo shoot before he went to sleep for the night.

Josh LOVES to laugh...I think it is one of his favorite things to do...and I love it too!
I call this picture the "fake smile". He totally does NOT smile like this...but he decided to and I captured it. He cracks me up daily.

Tagged

October Fun

I took Josh to Nalls Farm with a bunch of friends a couple of weeks ago. As a family, we went to the zoo on Saturday too. I tried to get some good pictures....though Josh was not that cooperative. We also cut his hair again, so I took some pictures of that. Enjoy!!

They had tunnels under the display of pumpkins. Of course Josh loved them!
Josh would NOT smile for me!!
He got in the wagon himself, and then his friend Talen pushed him around.
Running on the pumpkin display.
He picked something off of the flower. I need to learn how I took this picture because I really like the focus on his hand and the fuzziness around it. My camera is too high tech for me!

I tried to load the other pictures and keep getting an error message...so just enjoy the pictures from Nalls Farm.

My hair

So--

If you knew me in high school, you knew that my hair color changed a lot. I think it was my type of therapy. Two weeks ago, I had a really hard day and decided it was time for a change. So I dyed my hair.


Enough about me...Josh is so EASY lately, and I don't quite know why. Maybe because he gets to go have fun at the gym daycare while I work out or that he is talking more, but FINALLY he is a happy little boy all the time. It was a long four months!

Our new kitchen

We bought this house May 23...and I KNEW that I wanted the kitchen completed relatively quickly. It was not a functional kitchen the way it was before. Now we have more storage then we need, but I am sure that will change soon enough!

Before --


After --
SO MUCH BETTER!!

When we bought the house, the microwave was inoperable, so we bought the new one. When I was putting our dishes back into the cabinets, my casserole dish's top fell from the cabinet above the microwave onto our glass top stove and onto the floor and broke. I was angry to say the least that I was so clumsy and now my favorite casserole dish would not be able to be used....but then horror of horror's, I BROKE MY GLASS TOP STOVE! So, we had to buy a new stove...which we were planning on doing anyway, but just not so soon.

A couple of days in DC

Patric's friend was here on business from Sweden, and spent the weekend with us before he went home. We went to the capitol, walked the mall, went to the national archives museum, the White House, the botanical gardens and the supreme court. We also went to the temple on Sunday before he had to go to the airport. Josh was so good during our long day...he truly amazes me sometimes!
Here are some pictures of the weekend.
Patric and I in front of the capitol.

I thought this was a cute picture of Josh and his daddy.
We rarely take family pictures, so I had to take the opportunity!
The beautiful DC temple, with a cute little boy wreaking havoc on the grounds.
Us in front of the temple.
A staged photo, but none the less, a cute one.
Awwwww, how sweet.

Because Patric asked..

Patric took some pictures of Josh and Carlie last night. I was over at a friend's house, so I was not home for the fun they had. Apparently Carlie did not fight Josh during this torture...

Moment I was waiting for!

So--

I go to get Josh from his nap this afternoon, fully expecting a fully clothed, happy, giggly toddler who has thrown all of his stuffed animals and blankets out of his crib...just like any normal day. Instead, even though all of his blankets and stuffed animals are out of his crib...so are his clothes and he is playing with his wet diaper that he took off!! I must admit, it cracked me up!! Especially since he didn't have a poopie diaper...that would not be a laughing matter. I even ran and got my camera. When I load the pictures on my computer I will upload them into this blog. He just was SO happy to be naked. I hope this doesn't start a trend.

Oh--and he is officially 18 months now...in nursery (no big whoop, I am a teacher in nursery). I took him to an 18 month old check up and he was 29.6 pounds and 33 inches tall. My little toddler is actually a husky little boy! Perhaps he needs to lay off the carbs.

As promised....here are the pics. I particularly like the second one where he is smiling SO BIG! and SO PROUD!