Sunday, November 27, 2011

Raking leaves

Our yard waste cart was getting kind of full when Zane was helping me with the yard the other day, so he had the idea to put Raegan in the cart to have her stomp down the leaves a little bit. She had a blast! (Other than the little bits of leaves going down her diaper - that she didn't like so much!)








She's being a really big "help" here!






Cuties

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving with Grandpa

This year, Raegan and I went to the nursing home to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my grandpa, mom and dad. The nursing home set us up a very nice table and it was a wonderful meal. I don't even really like pumpkin pie all that much, but this was one of the best pumpkin pies I've ever had. Delish! My grandpa wasn't quite in the present, but he ate pretty well and he seemed happy, so I'm glad. It was a wonderful day.

Raegan loved the fish tank. She stood over there with Granny and then with Papa for quite some time after the meal.



The nurse that my Grandpa gets along with so well makes sure that they have Mt. Dew stocked up for him. How fantastic is that?! :)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Love

Something I never get tired of taking pictures of. :)

Parade of Lights

This was the first year that I decided to take Raegan to the Parade of Lights downtown. It's always really cold out, and I just felt like she was too little the past two years. Raegan has just recently realized that parades are made of awesomeness, so I felt like she would be able to enjoy it even if she were kind of cold.

Kind of cold is a bit of an understatement. It was freeeeeezing. We actually didn't stay for the whole thing, because about 40 minutes into it I realized that my fingers were starting to get numb inside my gloves, and I felt like that was enough for Raegan. She really did enjoy herself though. While we were waiting for it to start (because Salina parades never start on time - truefax) she wasn't very smiley, but she got pretty excited as soon as the floats started going by. She's got the concept of CANDY! at a parade down, but I've been working really hard on making sure she says thank you to people who directly hand her candy. We were standing next to an older couple who didn't want any candy, and they kept passing candy that landed in their direction over to Raegan. I had both coat pockets stuffed full by the time we left. So Zane will be enjoying a good bit of the spoils from this parade! :)

Looking a little sad waiting for the parade to start


Twirlers with fire batons - very cool looking!


When I took this picture she was saying, "I got more candy, Mama!" Very exciting!


I wish the Christmas lights would show up better in my pictures


Raegan did a pretty good job of staying behind the tape, except for if there was candy laying out there. I had to snap her back a couple times.


Raegan loves parades!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Update

Long time, no update. Life has just been so very busy lately, I really haven't had time to take many pictures or update this blog. Also, there's this little thing called Pinterest that seems to take up a lot of my internet time lately. Check it out - it is seriously the most amazing website in the world. I am getting so many home improvement and craft ideas from it, it's ridiculous.

We made it through the sickies, and Raegan is fully recovered. Right now she is absolutely loving puzzles and reading. Neither are new things, but she is just full on, gung ho into doing both as!much!as!possible! right now. Before that, we were in a coloring and playdough phase. She still wants to do both, but it's not a daily thing like it was in October. Her favorite books right now are her toddler Bible (hand-me-down from Zane) and all the books from the Llama Llama series. Raegan is so amazingly smart. She has her Llama Llama books memorized, and I only brought the Misses Mama one home a week and a half ago. If you start reading and pause halfway through a phrase, she will finish just about every line of the book. She still loves singing and sings ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle to us frequently. She's also started singing "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee." It's quite darling to hear her say, "Ouch, stung me!" at the end.

She's still counting to 13, then skipping up to 18. She names capital E and A now, and she's starting to be able to retell stories from what she did during the day, with some prompting to get her started. At child care, they work on spelling their names, and if you start "R-A-E" she will say, "G-A-N, that spells Raegan!" When you ask her to spell her name without getting her started, she says, "A-O-C-N-O-P-N-O-P, that spells Raegan". Love it!

Besides Pinterest, I've been keeping busy with some projects around the house. Luke put the railing on the front porch a couple weeks ago, and I've just finished painting it all a beautiful bright white. The cold weather kind of slowed down getting that done sooner. After I finish this post, I'm going to go touch up the paint on the east wall of our bedroom. I have a couple shelves and pictures I want to hang in there, then I'm going to post pictures of what a drastic change we made. We also finally weatherproofed/stained our back deck, and my front flower garden is all cleaned out and ready for winter. I've actually been very productive over the last two or three weekends, which I'm very proud of myself for. No more wasting away naptime on the internet for me! (Well, not ALL of naptime at least!)

Zane will be 13 in another week and a half. I cannot believe that he is that old. A teenager.... oh boy! For the most part, he's pretty helpful and kind, although he does have his moments of teen angst, obviously. We got his report card a few weeks back and he had 5 A's and 2 B's. Woo hoo! His first band concert of 7th grade will be coming up next month, so I'll have video and maybe some decent pictures to post from that. The lighting in the auditorium always makes for crappy pictures. Zane has gone through another growth spurt recently that has made it necessary for us to buy him new clothes.... again! He's now wearing jeans from the men's department and he's got at least a good two inches in height on me now. Our grocery bill is also showing the effects of his growth spurt. I'm going to have to start shopping in bulk at Sam's for more food here pretty soon.

So that's about all in our neck of the woods. I'm off to finish our bedroom. Pictures to come! :)

Friday, November 4, 2011

Sickie Girl

Raegan ended up being pretty sick this week. We stayed home from church last Sunday because she was really weepy and starting to get stuffy. Later that afternoon she started running a fever, so Luke stayed home with her on Monday. I had some fun things planned in my classroom that day and I really didn't want to miss work, and he seemed happy to stay home. :) She didn't have a fever all that day, so we went ahead with trick or treating that evening. She ended up waking up several times in the middle of the night, and when I took her temperature at one of those points it was a little above 100 degrees, just like it had been on Sunday.

So I called off at work and stayed home with Raegan. I ended up keeping her home Tuesday and Wednesday, because she still had a fever when we put her to bed Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning her fever broke and stayed gone all day, so Raegan and I headed back out into the real work again Thursday. She seems to be on the mend now, although she is a bit more weepy and demanding than usual. She's also still not eating very much, which is a classic sign that she isn't feeling her best.

Sweet little story: Raegan loves the two books that she has from the Llama Llama series. I brought home Llama Llama Misses Mama from work to read to her yesterday. As the book goes along, the llama gets more and more sad about missing his mama after she drops him off at preschool. At the page where he starts crying, Raegan started wailing and said, "Maaaaaaama!" and flung herself into my arms. She tends to be very emotional when she's not feeling good. Poor sweet baby. :)

Raegan on Tuesday watching a little Sesame Street. Poor sickie girl!

S'mores Pie

I've been doing a lot more baking lately, mostly thanks to Pinterest. Now, before you continue with this post, click on the link and go check it out. It is seriously the most amazing website in the world. If you want an invite, let me know and I'll send you one. I heart Pinterest so very much.

I found a fantastic recipe for S'mores Pie through Pinterest, and I decided to make it for a meeting at work today. It was fairly easy, and doesn't require too many ingredients, which is always nice. Mine didn't quite turn out like the one pictured on the link, because my top crust wouldn't roll out very well. I ended up dotting the remaining crust on top for kind of a cobbler effect, but it still tasted pretty darn good. I forgot to try it warmed up, so I guess I'll just have to make it again!

6 Regular sized Hershey Bars, broken into pieces (I used a bag of fun sized Hershey Bars, because they were on sale for Halloween.It didn't take quite the whole bag, so leftovers for my husband. Win/win!)

3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 7oz container of Marshmallow Creme
wax paper

Preheat oven to 350°
Spray a 9″ pie pan with baking spray.
Beat butter and sugar together until combined.
Add egg and vanilla.
Add flour, graham cracker crumbs and baking powder.

Divide the dough in half. Press half the dough in the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pie pan.

Evenly spread the Marshmallow Creme over the bottom crust. Spread the broken chocolate pieces on top of the Marshmallow Creme.


Now, form the remaining dough into a ball and place on a piece of wax paper. Top with another piece of wax paper and flatten into a 9″ circle.Carefully peel the top piece of wax paper off. Flip the crust onto the top of the pie and peel the other piece of wax paper off. Pinch the dough together to form the crust.

Bake 20 minutes until lightly browned.


Cool completely on wire rack and slice when ready to serve.
 
Check out the link for pictures. It is seriously heavenly!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was indeed a lot more fun this year. I wouldn't say Raegan is really at the age where she LOOOOOVES it, but she was pretty excited about the candy and seeing her grandparents. Luke and I have made a joint decision that there will be NO FEATHERS in any way, shape or form on her costume next year. It was kind of a pain to put together and more of a pain to keep together, but the end result was pretty fabulous.

The cutest jailbird you will ever meet!


Flying


Oh yeah, wait a minute. I'm sick. I almost forgot.... :)


Granny and Papa think she's the cutest jailbird ever also!


Jazz hands! She almost looks like some kind of cancan dancer in some of the pictures.


Officer Zane. The mustache is about 50% his. lol


Love that boy!


I was so happy, because when we went to my Grandma's house, Zac and Deeanna were there with the kids. Raegan was pretty happy to see Baby Ryan. Look at that thoughtful old soul! :)


Trick or Treating at Rick's house. Raegan wasn't scared at all of the graveyard he has set up in his front yard. (The noises on the porch were a little more scary to her though.)


Trunk or Treat at our church


Trick or Treating in our neighborhood


Happy Halloween everybody!