Emily turns 1

Bath  time after...

here's what the set up looked like...

Big Girl

Today this kid took her first step.

Two days ago she learned to sign please.

The day before that I swear I heard her first word. I said "say cheese!" as I held up the phone/ camera and she said it. I was giddy.

Today we also took her first birthday photos but those will not debut until her bday on the 27th. :)

Finally

Sitting in our new house. :)

Maybe

Tomorrow we could be in our new house. :)

Shopping

It's amazing what a friend can do to lift your spirits. A friend and a little retail therapy.

😊

Hair funk

This is what Emily's pigtails look like after the elastics are out

Before and after photos

Rant

We are in a hotel. It's a very nice place with free laundry.
There are 4 washers and 8! dryers because the washers are so fast.
Over an hour ago someone had taken all 4 washers. Which I understand, you've got laundry to do, and so you do it.
But these people did not move there stuff to the dryer. And it was done for over an hour.
So I was a bad person. I piled their wet white clothes onto another one of their washers and filled it with my ONE load of laundry.
I need clean jeans to wear to meet David's unit today.

I don't even feel bad.
Because in a public place, you need to be considerate of others.
(and I was as considerate as time allowed- we have to be there at 2!)

Happy December

Pending the inspection, we'll be in our new house by next week!
(As renters so that we can get out of this hotel while closing paperwork goes through.)

Peek a boo

Emily was sweet today playing peekaboo and insisting on sitting in my lap to play blocks and read books.

Also, it seems we may be homeowners in the very near future.

11 Months, yesterday

Updates:
We moved to Florida.
Emily is 11 Months old.
Maybe I'll blog again. Thanks Court.
We're living in a hotel.
We put in an offer on a house.
I'll keep that info updated.

Today was an adventure.  I did all the laundry down the hall (free laundry yay!) and hauled it all back in one basket with Emily on top.  Very safe.  Em took a nap and then we headed to base (a different one) to the hospital to get a flu shot for each of us.  After a ridiculous amount of paperwork we FINALLY were taken back.  Emily's shot was in her thigh, and she looked at the guy like "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? I SMILED AT YOU!!!" She let out a pathetic cry of betrayal and whimpered some but I was proud of her not screaming her head off.  Poor baby.  Then she got a short (late) nap, we ran to sign papers to put in an offer on a house here (home owners in the possible future), and had Pizza Hut for dinner.  Yes, my 11 month old ate pepperoni pizza FOR DINNER and then had a bottle of FORMULA and went to bed at 645pm.  BAM.

My Little Chef

Today I got an inkling to make chocolate chip cookies.  This was because of my Aunt-in-law Laree's post about the best chocolate chip cookies.

Now, I believe that I have one of the best recipes for chocolate chip cookies, given to me by my father.  He's famous among our family for them, and I am now famous among friends here for them as well.

You can find my recipe at the end of this post.

Now, my little helper was ready for our kitchen adventure- minus one aspect.  She needed a chef's hat.  So I sat upstairs next to my craft stuff and tried to think of a way to create one.  Either I needed white paper or white cloth.  And then my gaze traveled to some tube socks from a tie-dye experiment last year.  I measured Emily's head, and determined that I needed three socks.  I sliced them up their side, stitched around the bottom band, and turned the top into wedges.  It was about ten minutes of making things up.  My result?  

I even impressed myself.

My little helper was happy to model her new hat:

And of course, she wanted to help me cook.

Dad's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

1 cup (2 sticks) Butter

1/2 c White Sugar

3/4 c Brown Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

2 Large Eggs

1 bag chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Blend together dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

In your mixer put the butter and sugars together.  Blend until creamy.

Then add the eggs and vanilla, blend well again.

Slowly add the dry ingredients now, making sure to scrape the bowl occasionally.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Each cookie should be 1/4 cup of dough.  On my biggest pan I only fit 8 cookies.

Cook about 14 minutes or until the bottom edges are just brown.

Tips:

* The butter must be at room temperature- OR! if you're a last minute planner like me, nuke it for 15 seconds on power level 5 (out of ten).  Soft, not cold, but not melted either.

* Use REAL vanilla.  We like to stock up when we travel to Mexico- or when we have a friend doing so.  Also, I always add extra.

*For the chocolate, I always use semi sweet.  I find milk chocolate to be too rich.  Also, I use about 3/4 of a bag.

* Yes, each cookie should be big- 1/4 cup of dough.  Leave plenty of room between them.

* Line the baking sheet with parchment or foil, its a quick clean up

* I put my cookies to cool on brown bags from my groceries (my dad's trick).

* Don't forget the glass of milk when enjoying these!

Crafty

I've been fairly crafty lately, and I'd love to share a few projects.

I've been making hair bows for Emily.  Hot glue, ribbon and clips from Sally's (100 for $6!).

To display these, I realized that Em needs a hair bow holder.
I didn't want to pay any money and found an adorable frame upstairs to fill with ribbon and more hot glue.

Here is my result:

  

Now, it's obvious that she needs another or bigger display.  Especially since I intend to make more bows for her!

Here is Emily modeling a couple that I made:

 

Easy fun cheap projects are my specialty!

I've also been sewing small monsters out of scrap fabric.  If I ever finish any of them, I'll post photos!