Exclamations

Her favorites?

"Chippiny Crippin!"  (Jiminy Cricket!)

"Ridikullus!"  (Ridiculous!)

Flower Girl (picture!)

Flower Girl

On Saturday, Gisèle was a flower girl in a wedding.  She loved it, and did her job perfectly.  I spend most of the day at the church with her, and she had a blast - in spite of skipping her nap!  A fantastic friend (thanks, Lacey!) took a video on her iPhone, so you can all enjoy watching her!  (The other flower girl ran out of petals early and gave up on the whole business, but that allows you a better view of Gisèle!) 

Rainbows

This girl loves color.

Miles's Night-Night Routine

I don't have any pictures of the routine - it's too hard to take them in the dark, and I'm always too busy enjoying the cuteness.

Miles is adorable all the time, but especially at bedtime.  He has a very short bedtime routine, since we're not in the habit yet of reading him a bedtime story.  We tell him it's time to go night-night, and carry him to the bathroom to brush his teeth.  He likes to hold his toothbrush himself, after pointing out the lion ("rooorr!") and hippo ("ippa!") on it.  He'll wiggle it around in his mouth, letting drool stream down onto my shirt the entire time, while grinning at Gisèle in the mirror.  After one back-arching whine/cry when we tell him he's all-done and taking the toothbrush from him, he'll lean in and give big, open-mouthed kisses to Daddy and Gisèle, and happily wave bye-bye, sometimes blowing kisses in the process.  (Gisèle will usually give him a careful kiss on the nose, ear, chin, or other place of her choosing at this time.)

I'll carry him to his room, lay him down, and do a diaper change while he babbles to me happily.  Once a fresh diaper and pajamas are on, I pick him up and hand him his monkey lovey.  He smiles happily, sometimes says "tay-too," (thank you) and cuddles it close while he lays his head against my shoulder or cheek.  He'll reach one arm around my neck while I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and sometimes he'll join in on "up above the world so high..." 

After the song is over, I'll say a quiet prayer with him, thanking God for a nice day and a wonderful family, and asking Him to help Miles sleep well.  I'll lay him down in his crib, and put his arms through his blanket-sleeper sleeves.  Miles will carefully switch his monkey from one hand to the other while I'm zipping him up, careful not to lose hold of it.  Once he's all zipped up, I'll lean in to give him one more kiss, and he'll kiss my cheek and cheerfully say "bye-bye," waving and blowing kisses as I leave and close his door.

He is an absolute joy, and we are blessed.
 

Father Daughter Dance 2011

This is Jamie and Gisèle's 3rd year at the River Pointe Father Daughter Dance.  They love it, and look forward to it year-round.  This year, Gisèle wore a dress Aunt Brandi sent her for Christmas from Korea, along with silver ballet flats and white tights.  She had sparkly clippies in her hair, and a beautiful corsage her Daddy bought her.  Jamie was "so handsome!" (as Gisèle put it when she saw him) in a new shirt and tie to coordinate with her outfit.  They're having fun at the dance as I post this, and I can't wait to hear all about how it went!

 

Cassoulet

Gisèle, looking at her dinner:  "Hey!  Cassoulet looks like piggy noses!"

Apple Spice Bars

These are wonderful!  They are dense and moist, and chock-full of apples.  You don't have to peel the apples, so they come together pretty quickly.  They're good for dessert, but I also happily had them for breakfast a few times.  (You could think of them as a kind of coffee cake if that makes you feel better about it!)



Apple Spice Bars

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
a pinch of ground cloves
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 apples, cored and diced - about 2 cups (You don't have to peel these.  I used Fuji, since I had them on hand.)
cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

-Preheat the oven to 350, and line a 9x13 pan with foil* and baking spray.
-In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.  Whisk to combine, smell the mixture and sigh happily, then set aside. 
-In bowl of stand mixer, combine sugars and butter on medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well to combine.  Add vanilla and beat to combine.  (At this point, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and beat another few seconds.)  Then turn the mixer on low and fold in flour mixture a little at a time until just combined.  Fold in apples.
-Spread the mixture (it will be thick) evenly into prepared pan and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar.  Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool completely before removing from pan.

*note - I think you could skip the foil step and just spray the pan and leave them in there after they bake.  I did the foil step, removed them from the pan using the foil after they had cooled, and then put the whole 9x13 slab back into the pan, minus the foil, for storage.  It seems like an unnecessary step.

God's Little Messenger

Jamie was out of town this past weekend on his annual Men's Attack weekend with church.  I had a horrible headache Saturday and was feeling pretty awful by the time the kids were finishing lunch.  I put Miles down for his nap and had just tucked Gisèle in, when she let out a little whining sound, and I thought "oh no - here we go.  (sigh)"  I was so afraid she was going to throw a mini-tantrum (a common occurrence lately), and I just didn't have the strength to weather it with my head like it was. 

What came out of her mouth, though, was something unexpected - she said "Wait, Mama - I wanna say a prayer!"  Oh.  That's something we do before bedtime, but not usually before a nap.  I certainly wasn't going to say no, though, headache or not.  I knelt down by her bed and said "ok, sweetheart - what do you want to say to God?"

"I wanna say thank you to God for my Mama because I love her."

{cue the tears}

Here I was feeling awful because of my headache, missing Jamie, and just wanting to leave the room and lay down, and she wanted to say a prayer for me.  God always knows just how and when I need to be spoken to.

***

In other news, I'm getting over bronchitis and the beginnings of walking pneumonia and I feel like death warmed over.  The headache on Saturday was just the precursor, so I probably won't be posting much the rest of the week.  (Poor Jamie didn't have a great homecoming from his Men's weekend.)  Big thanks go to our awesome friends Matt & Emily for coming over Sunday to take care of the kids and take me to the Urgent Care center before Jamie got back!  They rock!