Thursday, April 8, 2010

Februaruy 2010 Fun

Well, here we are into April and I am blogging about February... Oh well I guess it is better late than never! This is an over view of our month:

Well, this morning I walk out on the porch to find our resident monkey climbing on top of the car!! I wanted to shout "stop", laugh and grab the camera all at once! So, being a clever Mama, I grabbed the camera and got my pictures and then told her to get down and don't do that again. AND did not laugh!


She was so proud of herself!

The very next day, she learned how to climb into her highchair! It is wider at the bottom and quite sturdy, so we decided to allow her to continue this one. She thinks she is pretty clever! Little monkey!

Talking to her Nana. And I do mean just chattering away!! Supposed to be eating her waffle and sausage, but talking to Nana is more important when you have a cold!!

Emma's first time to help cook or bake. We made a special dessert for tonight's dinner. She liked being up on the chair and watching, even dumping, but once the mixer was on, she took off!!
But, soon came back to sit on the rug and wait for the beaters!! She already knows about licking them!
Emma helped put the dessert together even. She placed the strawberries in all the right places. (and ate a few!)

Then she carried it over to Daddy all by herself!


We made Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes for our special dessert. The cake mix had the recipe on it. Add 1 cup chocolate chips to the batter. Split the cupcakes in half and make like strawberry shortcake. Sprinkle with mini chips.

Trying out her yummy dessert. She ate EVERY bite too! She for sure has her Daddy's sweet tooth!

Another Valentine Week gift for Daddy.

Each day we gave something to each other that we had bought or made. I missed doing this week long celebration last year and made sure we did it this year! This was our usual thing while dating, to celebrate holidays and birthdays for a week instead of a day.

The day before Valentine's, we had heart pancakes for breakfast, as Sunday mornings are too busy for a sit down, cooked breakfast.

But... I was almost out of pancake syrup!! So, Mama had strawberry jam on hers.


Opening her Valentine's gift bag from Mommy & Daddy... (Daddy didn't feel good, so he was still in bed)

Are we excited about the bear socks? Or the chocolate covered strawberry cream heart?

Jessika lovin' on Daddy while Emma opens her card.

Strawberry cream heart all over her face!!

ooohh!! A Chocolate heart lollipop from Daddy!! WOW!

Daddy didn't feel good today, so we missed church, but by the afternoon Mama wanted out of the house!! So, we went to the park for a bit. Emma adores this park with all of the big slides and climbing frames!



No age or weight limits??? :-) I used to love the teeter totter!

She loves these big slides! Straight, bumpy, swirly.... all of them!

..and Daddy on the big swirly slide too!

Loving her some big slide!! She has no fear!

Chomping on her Valentine pop from Daddy. She was not impressed that I wouldn't let her eat it all at once!!

A few more nibbles...


Check out my FREE bouquet of flowers from Publix! They sent us a coupon and I saved it until closer to Valentines. We don't have $ to waste on them, so free ones were really nice!



Martin made a classic Swiss Fondue for our Valentine's Dinner. We had toasted bread and apples to dip in it. Oh my!! So yummy!!


We take a lot of self portraits and this was one of many attempts to get all 3 of us in the shot.


Looks like we are kissing, but really it was an exchange of ice cube! She adores ice!!

Not sure just what caused this particular expression.... but funny still!

Valentine's Dessert was a Black Forest Parfait. Layers of cherry pie filling, cool whip and chocolate-coffee soaked cupcakes.

Trying and trying to get a good one. It is at an angle, but a decent photo. :) Check out that RED lipstick! A Valentine's treat from my hubby.

The almost weekly visit from Nana & Papaw meant mini Pink cupcakes this week... Emma had two. I have never seen her react to sugar overload before!! Maybe because she has never really had an overload... But, she was HYPER!!! WOWZERS!! Martin, Papaw and I were trying to build with her and she was knocking em down almost faster than we could build! Just a laughin' and rolling on the floor!! Whew!! Won't do that one again for awhile.

We started kind of potty training, and today was her first success (nothing major, just a sit every time she is changed). She made no noises, no signs that she had done anything, so I changed her diaper and put her down for a nap.... Well, when she woke up she needed changed again, so I told her to sit. WELL.... there was a stinky brown surprise in there that we didn't know about!!! Later that day she also did a pee. Guess we have to actually check it every time now!!


February 20th we did an all day scrapbooking time and we had fun together and the girls had a blast! Here is Nana taking them for a ride in Emma's wagon.

The guys went golfing all afternoon while we scrapped. And then we gathered for dinner at our house. This day was originally supposed to be our Boca House Party anyway, but one by one people couldn't make it. I requested to host one thru houseparty.com and was chosen. They sent us a box of goodies that included coupons for free tiems for the party and to pass out to your guest, a Boca mitt, apron, tray, napkins, magnets...
Martin is the Boca grill master. Check out that Boca oven mitt they sent!! :-) HUGE!

And the Boca apron, as well as the fact & info sheet about Boca products.

We had a fun day and some good food! Halie loved helping Emma load her fork.

I made Mini Meatloaves with Boca Crumbles, grilled Boca Burgers and Baked Chick'n patties, as well as mac & cheese. Mom & Dad, Stepoh & Robert and Bob & Gina brought a dish ro two or three and we had a yummy meal.


The end of the evening, the grandparents were in Emma's room playing Ring Around The Rosy!! Toooooo funny!

"...They all fall down!!" Kind of a dark picture, but too funny not to post!!

Last Sunday in Feb. was still cool enough to wear a new dress from Grammy. It was a thin corduroy and luckily enough, she had cute shoes to match! In this one, she was pouting ab out taking a picture!! Check out that poochy lip!

Now we got a cute smile! We had to get a nice one so that Grammy could see her in the pretty dress!! Told her we were taking pictures for Grammy & Gramps, and that did the trick!

Pursuing a relaxed potty training effort... Won't be too long and she will be ready to just go for it!! But, for now I am just having her sit a bit each time I change her diaper. Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't, but she's getting used to it more and more.

My final week's freebies: cereal samples, coupons for free box, as well as money off. FREE Cakesters, etc... I saved my Free item coupons and waited.... and waited... and finally the right sale came along. I bought 5 boxes of Kashi cereal & 1 of their bars for $2.00!!! The cereal was on sale for 2.50 each, while the bars were regular price at almost $4. I had 2 FREE cereal coupons from samples, plus two 1.50 off, PLUS 2 that I printed from target.com that said "buy 2 cereal and get 1 cereal" or "Buy 2 cereal and get 1 Bars". WORKING it!!! Also, saved the Cakester Q's until they went on sale BOGO!! 2 boxes totally free, plus 2 more for like 39 cents or something crazy! ALWAYS sign up for those things that companies want to give you for free!!! I ended February with an overall savings on our grocery/household expenses with about 81% (on the other laptop, so not sure of the exact %)

And that brings us to the end of February. Maybe I can get March up here soon.... LOL!