Curly hair and appliances

Daniel took some pictures last night of Sadie's hair after her bath. It is getting so thick, long, and CURLY!

I am so excited by how quickly it seems to be growing. Daniel and I are anxious to see what it will look like (how curly?) in a couple of years. It is definitely precious right now.

On to appliances.... five happens to be the number of years to stay in a brand new home before everything starts breaking. In the last six months, all of our appliances seem to be going out and we have some water leakage at our front door. Today, it is our heat pump. So our a/c is not working. We had had an exorbitant electric bill a couple of months ago. We generally do pretty well at trying to use both our a/c and heater sparingly. We also have been working hard the last several months to keep our lights off and televisions off, unplug "phantom" appliances and chargers, etc. So it was a shocker that our electric bill was so high...I mean REALLY high. Then the next month it was back down to almost normal. So we thought the electric company had messed something up. :) Well, now we KNOW! The strange thing about all of our appliances is when the respective repairmen come to fix them/replace them, the different repairmen always tell us, "Well, this ..... (insert brand) is the best brand and is made to not break for ...... (insert LOTS of years) or until ...... (such and such happens, that hasn't happened yet). EVERY SINGLE ONE of the repairman have said this about each appliance. I guess that is supposed to make us feel better? Thankfully the high today is only 65. So it is nice and cool (and humid from the rain) in our 5 year old home. :)

Harvard here we come!

Every time Sadie does something new, I tell Daniel, "She is SOOOO smart! Don't you think?" I mean she is always surprising us with new tricks, new words, new understanding of her surroundings. She isn't potty trained like her younger cousin, but she is smart.
Don't you think?




p.s. this is a (very) common occurrence

Picnic at the Park

We went up to Sheridan (where Daniel works) today and had a picnic at the park.

The weather is so nice here today...80 degrees!

Sadie was filthy by the time lunch was over. We had actually gone to the grocery store on the way up to Sheridan to pick up some things for lunch. I gave Sadie one of the free chocolate chip cookies they had in the store (actually it was only a half), and that was a last (at least until she's a little older). At first she was just chewing on the edge quietly, then I looked down and the cookie was completely gone! She had shoved the whole thing in her mouth (I guess she likes chocolate chip cookies!). Her eyes were big, and she had cookie tainted slober coming out both sides of her mouth, on her hands, running down her jacket, and wiped all over her sleeves and the cart. Since she wasn't choking and seemed to be handling her cookie stuffed self quite well, we ran over to the baby aisle and grabbed the cheapest package of wipes they had and cleaned her, me, and the shopping cart all up. Then when we got to the park, she was more interested in playing in the dirt that was on the pavilion floor then eating. So between chocolate chip cookie and park dirt, she is in need of a bath!

When we finished eating, Sadie played on the playground for a few minutes before we left.

We had our favorite pimento cheese sandwiches for our picnic. As we were eating them, we were saying...man, everyone should know about these pimento cheese sandwiches! I can at least share them on the blog. They are REALLY good! Now I need to just figure out how to cut the calories on them a bit! Oh, and if you live in our area and shop at Kroger, the jarred pimentos are found in the specialty food aisle...huh? I know, I don't get it either, but whatever! There was only one jar basically to choose from, and that jar was "sliced" pimentos instead of diced. I even had a Kroger employee helping me find them, and that was the only jar we found. Frustrating. Anyway, here's the recipe:


Three Cheese Pimento Cheese
(this is from an old Southern Living I have)

8 oz package of cream cheese
1 (4-oz.) jar diced pimiento, drained
1 (5-oz.) jar pimiento cheese spread
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3 cups (12 oz.) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

1. Microwave cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl at HIGH 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30-second intervals. Stir in diced pimiento and next 6 ingredients.

2. Stir in Cheddar cheese. Serve immediately, or cover and chill up to 4 hours. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 4 days.

If you make this, enjoy! Hope everyone had a wonderful week and has a great weekend!

Busy bees

I know, I know, we haven't updated our blog in a whole week (*gasp*)! We have just been really busy since last Wednesday. Here's a brief rundown.....

Thursday - We went to the Children's Museum with some friends from church

Friday - SUCH A NICE DAY....why waste it blogging, instead we spent LOTS of time outside

Saturday - Daniel gave blood, actually he's soooo cool that he gave DOUBLE; however, no rest for the weary, the lawn had to be mowed, and Sadie and I watched (we're slave drivers!)




Sunday - We celebrated Aggie Muster a little early (happy Aggie Muster to all our Aggie friends)

Monday - I got to enjoy a girl's night with my friend Kristen while Sadie and her daddy went to Lowe's

Tuesday - Our friends Jill and Addelyn (12 weeks old) came for lunch; Sadie just stared at Addelyn

Today we will be enjoying the company of twin boys who are around 10 weeks old. I'm anxious to see what Sadie thinks of them! :)

Oh yeah, and this has been keepin us busy....

Yep, we're not afraid to admit that we have taken FULL advantage of FREE Chick-Fil-A breakfast...wouldn't you? (don't answer that)

So that's a brief synopsis of what is going on around here. And yes, those are the only two pictures I have taken in the last week. :(

If you want more information on Sadie.....

She is walking all over the place.

She routinely reorganizes my kitchen and bathroom cabinets for me.

She is starting to eat her vegetables better (don't remember if I wrote about the problems we were having with real veggies...she likes baby food veggies though...go figure!)

and she LOVES Chick-Fil-A!

Dear Holt

Sadie got a sweet Easter present from her friend Holt in Nebraska. It came with such a sweet note from Holt, that Sadie insisted I let her write the thank you letter herself.

Dear Holt,

Thank you so much for my Easter pig that is dressed up like a bunny. Your mommy is right, my daddy plays with pigs all the time at work. Thank you for sending me my own pig to play with. I really like it and carry it all over the house. It's really soft, and pink is my favorite color. I can't wait to see you in June.

Love,

your friend Sadie

Eating adventures

Sadie had rice and shredded pork the other night for dinner......

and it made a BIG mess! :)

New shoes

I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks now, but keep forgetting. Here is a picture for Mamaw of Sadie in her new Keds:

Showing me her shoes...

and another one just because it's cute!....

Easter celebrations

We definitely have had a busy week. I think Easter is my favorite time of the year. I have great memories of Easters growing up..... picking wildflowers to decorate our Easter basket with, going to church during Holy Week, receiving my first communion on Maunday Thursday, wearing pretty dresses on Easter morning, and decorating and hunting Easter eggs. So we have enjoyed every part of the last week (even if it's a little chillier than the Easters we grew up with!).


Now that we are at a smaller church (Epiphany Lutheran Church), we have been able to be more involved in different church activities. So we spent our week helping with church preparations for Good Friday and for the Easter breakfast. We were blessed to enjoy some great food and company at other people's houses (Daniel says we are going to become the "Holiday Crashers" here in Indiana!), and enjoy Sadie's first Easter.


We left our camera at our friend's, Jane and Dave's, house on Saturday night. So we didn't get a picture of Sadie in her Easter dress. :( Luckily she didn't get to go through her Easter basket until yesterday afternoon because we left early yesterday morning and had a full day. So by the time Sadie got her Easter basket, we also had gotten our camera back and were able to take a few pics of her sorting through her Easter goodies.











She lined everything up on the floor after she took it out of ther basket.......






Here are a couple of pictures of her "hunting" Easter eggs at Jane and Dave's house. This is her runner-up Easter dress. Did I ever write about the THREE Easter dresses I bought Sadie...on accident! Ebay can be a bad thing some times! Again, since we didn't have our camera yesterday morning, we didn't get to take a picture of her at the church Easter egg hunt. I'm hoping maybe someone else will have some pictures to share though (because I'm sure everyone was taking pictures of Sadie instead of their own children! ha!). We'll keep our fingers crossed though.









We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I'll post the rest of the pictures to our Picasa web album (link is over to the side).

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Whew...it has been a busy few days. I'll post more pictures and updates later, but here is one of Sadie going through her Easter goodies this afternoon.

We hope everyone was able to enjoy this most blessed of holidays and reflect upon the sacrifice that was made for all of us to enjoy eternal life.

Love to our families today, and happy Easter to EVERYONE!

He is risen, He is risen indeed...Allelujia!

Sadie update

Sadie had her 12 month doctor's appointment on Monday. Everything looked good. Her measurements this time were 21 lbs 9 oz (60th percentile), 30 1/4 inches long (85th percentile), and 46.6 cm head circumference (90th percentile still!). So she is long and lean with a large head. One of Daniel's coworkers said that a big head was a good thing because all the famous models have big heads! ha! That's the first I've ever heard of that, but we'll go with it!

In other updates, she is taking more and more steps each day. She can walk across the room from time to time. At this point, I think she is playing a mind game with herself and needs to build up the confidence to really get going.

She has somewhere between 5 and 10 words already! "Uh oh" (we pretend that that is a real word!) tops the list of the most used, and "shoe" is close behind. She also says Dada, Mama, Sadie (sounds like Daddy! ha!), toe, thank you (she actually uses this phrase alot....she is very well mannered! ha!). She also said her friend's name, Kenzey, the other day when I showed her pictures of Makenzey. So funny! She repeats alot of other words when you tell her what something is.

We have been having alot of fun together. Sadie has had a couple of play dates already, and I think we are going to venture to a mom's group meeting this week. It's supposed to be warmer and prettier by the end of the week. So we might start weekly picnics with Daddy at the park during lunch. That will be a fun way to get outside and play a little. I'm so ready for nice weather and to enjoy being out in the sun again!

Photo session

When we were in Texas a few weeks ago, one of our friends, Erin, took some pictures of us. Erin is really a talented photographer. I mean a really talented photographer. She so should do it full time. :) I always enjoy looking at her new pictures on her blog. Daniel has been friends with Erin and her husband, Jason, for a long time. They have a really adorable little boy that we were excited to get to meet. It was great to see all three of them. The picture session just ended up being the icing on the cake.

A week ago, she posted a sneak peak from our session, and I was originally going to share only that in a random post I've been working on (coming soon!), but this morning I woke to her having all of our pictures posted on her website! To view them, go to "Proofing", and the password is "Foley". There are so many great ones. I don't know how we'll ever choose.

I do think Sadie enjoys being the center of attention more than I realized, because she is smiling in the pictures she took by herself, but seems unsure in the family shots. Oh, and yes, little Miss Olivia is quite the model. She looks so much like a younger version of her mother in those pictures (I mean identical to what Amber looked like when we were growing up). I guess that means she'll be beautiful when she grows up.

Enjoy!

Texas trip

This is long overdue, but here are pictures from the one day we took pictures while we were in Texas a few weeks ago. We had a birthday party for my sister, Amber (3/25), Sadie (3/28), and my niece, Livy (4/6) at my sister's house in Cedar Park (Austin area). It was alot of fun. All of my family were there, and we were so excited that Daniel's parents could come for the day as well. Amber's and Livy's neighbors joined in on the party too (they're alot of fun to be around).


Without further ado....

Me and my mama

Will, our resident griller

Model niece, Olivia Nicole

Chit chatting grandparents

Our resident doctors and the adorable prodigal niece, BB

Sweet Aunt Annie

Who needs a lawn mower? We're renting ours out for $30 an hour.

Presents and wonderful neighbors

Fun Aunt Amber

Where was Daniel you ask? Taking the pictures. I promise next time we'll do a better job documenting our trips.

It's walking time!

Do you know the song, "I'm in the Lord's Army"? Sadie really likes this song. I was singing it to her this afternoon and doing the motions that go with it. I also like to march the whole time I sing it (for whatever reason), and Sadie just eats that up. This afternoon she was trying to march with me. She kept picking up one of her legs like she was tapping to the beat.

Just a few minutes ago, I was singing it again so Daniel could see how much Sadie likes it, and she started marching her one leg again. I got the camera out to take a picture of her, and as I'm taking pictures, Daniel starts yelling "Look, look, look!". Low and behold, Sadie is walking toward me, just laughing away the whole time, and I've captured it all on the camera!!!! Now if that isn't luck, I don't know what is! I'm surprised the door bell didn't ring right afterward because I was squealing so loud.

For the record, she has been taking one step for the last several days, and started taking two side to side steps together yesterday, but tonight was at least FIVE full steps FORWARD! Yahoo! She proceeded the grand event by taking two or three steps together several more times.

So here you go, pictures of Sadie's first steps (sorry for the poor quality...it's hard to take pictures when you're squealing!).....

Staying at Home

My first week of staying home is going really well. Last weekend was really busy with Sadie's birthday, a shower at church, our friends Kyle and Marilee visiting (it was so nice to visit with them and we're looking forward to seeing them more now that they're in Chicago), and Daniel and I going to the Elite 8 NCAA game (Michigan State vs. Louisville) on Sunday. So it was nice to not have to worry about getting laundry done and the house cleaned up late Sunday night like we would normally do. Instead Sadie and I have been able to work on everything a little at a time the last three days.

We have also spent alot of time playing dolls (Sadie got two new baby dolls for her birthday, and we are working on showing them love! :)), having tea parties, racing Sadie's new car against her old wheelie toys (the new car has a better engine and wins every time!), reading books (Sadie received lots of new books for her birthday), dancing with Sadie's new maracas (that makes Sadie laugh every time), and playing with all her other new toys. Sadie has been a little clingier than she usually is at home. I don't know if this is part of an adjustment phase (like she's having withdrawal from all the kids and action at daycare)??? I guess we will see as the weeks go on. So she follows me everywhere I go. Here is her new form of transportation.....

She's like a little old lady with a walker. She follows me into the laundry room right about the time I've got my hands full of clean laundry from the dryer. So she turns her walker around and follows me back out. It's really funny. When I leave the room, I can hear her behind me strike up the walker and start after me.

Also, did you guys notice how in Sadie's post that her dress matched her decorations at her birthday party (specifically her plates and napkins)? That was a sweet find at Hobby Lobby. We had already gotten fabric cut to sew her a dress (when I was in Texas), and then came across the party decorations in the same patterns. Luck? I think not! So we took advantage of it all!

One more picture of her turning her walker around....