Making cupcakes....

Jetta made cupcakes for Valentines day to take to daycare and wanted to help from start to finish. As I posted a few posts ago, she is quite the helper. She loves to help whenever she can. Whenever I'm cooking, she wants to pour in whatever she can, stir whenever she in can and just help however she can. Of course I let her help if she can, but I also have to remind her that the stove is hot and that she must be careful.

However, when it came to making cupcakes, I figured, she could help quite a bit and it wouldn't hurt anything, unless an eggshell landed in the mix and we could always fish that out - so let her bake away.

So, I sent her to her room to get her apron, which she gladly did and out she came, already with it on, just needing me to tie it and she was ready to go. So, we started the process and without much incident. I even let her hold the mixer (assisted of course) and she did a pretty good job. She is definitely in that independent stage, until she tires and then she's done. She of course had fun, but was the happiest once she found out, that once you get done mixing it all up, you get to lick the mixer and then she was ready to make more!

Now it was time to put the mix in the cups, which she eagerly placed in the muffin pan and did a good job. Now it was time to bake them and wait. Well, that was another story - waiting is not her best attribute. Patience is something I think we'll need to work on. I think it will be best summed up by a couple of the pictures Shannon took - I'll let you insert your own caption.

Anyway, all in all the event was a success and I think she had fun. She took them the next day and they were a hit and when I picked her up that night, she was very excited to tell me how they were all gone. So, I think she was excited about that.

So, here are some pics from her Better Crocker day!

Jetta's first real snow...

This past year we got more snow that we got the year before and so Jetta got to build her first snowman and make her first snow angel. She was very excited to be able to get out there and actually play in it. So, we got her all bundled up in her coat and snow pants and Shannon took her out.

They got out there and got started on the snow man and she realized the snow was pretty bright, so I took her out her sunglasses. Which by the way are so darn cute on her. However, I love when she tries to put them on. First of all, it really doesn't matter which way which she puts then on, because she doesn't have much of a nose, so they really don't stay up on her face either way. It's quite comical. However, once she got them on, she looked like she could take on the slopes. So, now they were ready to build the snowman. Of course we didn't have alot of snow, so he wasn't real big, but they got one built.

After a few snowballs were tossed, mostly by daddy and Jetta laughing and of course wondering where the snowmans eyes were, I stepped out and said, have her make a snow angel. She of course had no idea what that was, so Shannon had to show her. She thought that was pretty darn funny. What I thought was funny, was watching him trying to get up - only because it wasn't me trying to do it. So, we got her to get down and start waving her arms and legs and of course since she doesn't weigh a thing, Shannon had to help her a bit. And then it was time for her to get up and again he had to help her, cuz she wasn't able to get herself out of the angel she just made. So, Shannon grabber her by her jacket and just picked her up out of her angel. She was just giggling and of course wanted to do it all over again.

Needless to say, we got some good pictures of her enjoying the snow, donning her sunglasses (right side up mind you), making her first snow man and her perfect snow angel. All in all, I think she enjoyed her first real snow. Either way, I marked it down as a success. One I will remember for sure.

Cleaning and Handy Work....

At this point Jetta thinks helping me clean and doing chores is fun. She always want to be in the middle of what I'm doing and in the way. Every week when I go to clean the house, she always wants to help.

When I go to sweep the floor, she waits for me to get a pile of dirt and then will stand in front of it and stand with her feet apart, hands on her hips and want me to sweep the dirt between her legs/feet, so it goes thru her feet, behind her. She thinks its the funniest thing. She insists we do it and would want to do it over and over if I'd let her. So, to humor her, we do it once and then I ask her to move out of the way. Then she will let me finish sweeping, but has to hold the dust pan for me as I sweep up the pile of dirt. Sometimes, I get lucky and that pile makes it to the trashcan on the dustpan and other times, well, as I'm sure you can guess, it doesn't and I have to sweep it all up again.

From there, as I try to swiffer the floors, she'll let me get that done, but then once I finish and move onto something else, she will go back and pick them up and start spraying the floors and pushing the swiffer around cleaning the floors all over again. Oftentimes, creating a huge puddle of the floor, telling me, "mom, look I cleaned the floor", with a huge smile, all proud of herself and I just look at all the cleaner in a puddle on the floor. Knowing I need to go get a paper towel to wipe it up, so neither of us slip and fall as we walk thru the puddle she claimed to have just cleaned up.

Then, when I clean the bathrooms, she has to always help me "wipe and spray". She will wipe everything, from the toilet, to the cabinets, to the walls. It doesn't matter, what it is, she will wipe it. She tries so hard and is so proud of herself when she is done.

She also loves to help put the dishes away from the dishwasher. The trick is to beat her to the sharp knives before she gets to them. She will grab them and say, "mom, no knife" and will hand it to you holding the blade, because I have always told her that she can't have the knife with any silverware we have. So, she knows, but doesn't realize that the blade is the reason why.

Now, just for her to continue to have this interest and drive, but I'm sure the fun will wear off when she really can help. But for now, it's very cute and allows for some good pictures.

Now, for those of you who know me and are wondering.....yes, she does wipe out the sink after she brushes her teeth - most times! I don't even ask - she just has seen me do it some many times that she thinks is part of the process!

Okay, now for her handy side. A few months ago we noticed that one of the pieces of quarter round on the kitchen island was broken. Not really sure how it got broken, but nonetheless it was/is broken. Jetta, too also noticed it was broken. So, she being the child she is, didn't like that and she decided that it needed to be fixed. So, she asked me for some sticky tape (this is what she calls scotch tape). So, I said, okay, just to see where this was gonna go. Well, pretty much a whole roll later and a true 2 year old repair job, the quarter round was back on the island and wasn't going to go anywhere. I think enough can be said with pictures, so I will leave it at that and will post pictures of her handy work, along with some of her cleaning.

I'm thinking her future as a handy man may need some moe training.

Jetta reading....

I've been reading to Jetta pretty much every night since we've come home from China. I try to read 3 to 5 books to her each night so we can spend some quality time together and also for her to learn from the books. I think she has benefited from it in both ways. One, I think she really enjoys the snuggle time, cuz she asks if we are going to read books and two, cuz she knows alot of her books and her vocabulary is very good for a year old.

It is 20 minutes of my day and I think a benefit of a lifetime for her. One day I was somewhere else in the house doing something and I came back into my room to check on her, to see what she was up to, cuz it was a little to quiet and when I came in, I found her standing beside my chair, reading a book to her bear - Fred, telling him to listen. It was very cute. I asked her, what are you doing and she looked at me and said "I'm reading to Fred" - like I was a complete idiot. Like, mom, this is what we do everyday, why are you asking me.

She continued to read her Chinese New Year book to him, as if he was interested. The interesting part was - she had a lot of the story right, but did add some of her own story to it, but regardless, it was very cute.

Anyway, I went back out and grabbed the camera, cuz I thought it was so cute I wanted to capture a few pictures of her doing it. It was very sweet and it made me smile, cuz it made me feel good that she enjoys reading and the time we spend doing it.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Family Christmas Pictures....

It seems so strange to be posting these pictures as the year is nearly a quarter over already, but as I promised in my post, I hope to get caught up.

We had these pictures taken just before Christmas. We decided we should get an updated family picture, as the last one we had taken was when Jetta first got home and needless to say we have all changed a little. Jetta the most of course.

I was pleased with how the pictures turned out and very happy with the one of Jetta and I. I don't even remember what exactly she was laughing at, but I fell in love with the picture and think she looks absolutely adorable. Everday I am just amazed at how much she is growing and how beautiful she is.

I will attach several of the pictures we had taken. Hope you enjoy them and again sorry for my delay, but still wanted to share.

Time to catch up....

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, but my work schedule has been crazy busy and I have just not had time. I'm still busy, but told myself, I need to make time, as I have lots to post and if I don't do it now, I will never do it.

So, I will try to post the last few months and get you all caught up. This post will start with Jetta and her two visits with Santa Claus. She had 3 visits this year and didn't seem to confused by it. I was really sure how that would go, but she seemed to not care that Santa was if different places at different times.

The first was at the Mills Mall, which I posted some time ago, which was the Santa from last year, who even makes me believe. I was hoping she wouldn't be afraid and if you remember that post, she was not at all and nearly knocked others over to get to him.

Her second visit was at our house just a week or so before Christmas. We have a very dear neighbor, who loves kids and he and his wife offered for him to play Santa. He used to work at the Federal prison in Greenville for years and he has a Santa suit and always played Santa for their Christmas party. After he retired from there and moved away for a few years, he kind of retired from playing Santa and really missed it.

Last summer they moved back to this area and they now live across the street from us. They are very sweet people and Jetta is very fond of both of them. So, when they offered. I was excited to accept. However, as mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was very busy with work and was worried I waited to long to accept and was afraid he may not be available. However, when I went over to ask if he was still available, he was more than happy to do it. So, we made arrangements for him to come one night after work and were all excited to see how she would react.

His wife came over a litte before he came, brought some cookies over so she would be here and then he came over, ringing his jingle bells and brought his big red bag, all dressed up and came to the door. Jetta's face lit up, she was so excited, she said, Santa is here. She was running around, hiding behind me and was not quite sure what to make of the fact that Santa was really at her house.

He came in and they sat down together in the chair. He told her he had her she was a good girl and told her he had heard what she wanted. She was very excited to know that he knew what she wanted. She was smiles from ear to ear. He pulled out a barbie and she was thrilled. Then he gave her a train, that to made her happy. He then gave her a Curious George book, a gift that he and his wife wanted her to have. He gave her some M&M's also, which of course she was thrilled with. They shared some more stories and then we snapped some pictures. It was all very sweet and she had no idea it was him.

After a little bit, he said, he better be going, he had many other little boys and girls to visit. She gave him a big hug and he said goodbye. She watched him leave and was just smiling. His wife asked if she could have a hug as well and said she best be going as well.

Jetta asked where his reindeer were and we said, he must have already flown away. She was very happy for the rest of the night. He had told me he would not accept anything for doing it, that his payment was seeing the kids and how much they enjoyed it. So, I decided to frame a picture of him and Jetta together. I scrapped it with special paper and tried to let him know just how much it meant that he did this for us. He and his wife are very special people. They don't have any grandkids yet, but know that they will be great grandparents when they do. I will include a few pics from his visit.

Then her next visit was at Grandpa Denny's. We traveled to Peoria on Christmas Eve as we always do. Denny always has Santa Claus and this year was no exception. While the group of kids was smaller, it was still a very nice day.

As we waited Jetta was patiently waiting for Santa to come. She wondered if he would read a story again, like he did last year. I was surprised that she remembered that from the year before. She always surprises me with what she remembers.

It was time. We gathered downstairs and then we heard Santa coming, ho, ho ho, down the stairs he came. Again, she was very excited and she jumped in my lap. As he came down, he rounded the corner and she got even more excited. I was glad to once again see that she was happy to see him. You just never know how they will react.

He sat down and he talked with all the kids. He remembered Jetta. It was very sweet. I think he remembered her because she climbed up in his lap last year and helped him read the Christmas story. They read a few trivia questions and then it was time to hand out the presents. She was very excited. She and Olivia got baby dolls. They played side by side and had a lot of fun.

Then it was time to read the Christmas story. This year she wasn't as eager to get in his lap, but she still was eager to listen and help. She still enjoyed the whole experience. Overall she had a great time and am glad that Denny does this for the kids and am just sad that all the kids didn't get to enjoy it this year.

After Santa left we all had dinner together and then opened presents together, of course something Jetta enjoyed.

I'm going to include pics from Santa and from opening presents, as we have some good ones from both. Hope you enjoy all of them.

Multi-purpose Tree Skirt....

This year decorating the tree brought about a whole new meaning to decorating. Me being me, and me being OCD and having to have everything on the tree just right, having a 2+ y/o, well that wasn't going to happen the way it used to.

My first concern was, is the tree going to stay in an upright position. You would have thought we had a cat in the house, because Jetta was completely enamored with the tree and pulling on the branches. When we first brought it home and put it up, she kept wanting to pull on the branches and give me the needles. After getting sap on her hands, oh a hundred times, she finally lost interest in that.

Then it came time to start decorating. We put the lights and garland on first and that was all we had on for a couple of days. She thought that was very pretty and decided to take a few swipes at it with one of her toys, just to watch them swing. I thought to myself, maybe this is all the more we should decorate this year, as the ornaments we have are glass...yep glass and those won't just swing! As we started to take on that adventure she kept wanting to hand me the ornaments. Shannon would slowly hand them to her and tell her to give them to mommy and she would, only to tell me, mommy put it here and she would attempt to hang it and I would have to quickly grab it before it would fall to the floor, since it was not hanging on anything.

By now I was stressed, so we just started to give her the smaller, plastic ones that we have and the bows. She was very cute, but it was very stressful. Each time I would put something on, she would tell me "good job mom". I guess she got that from me, cuz when we read at night and do flash cards, I always tell her good job. Sometimes she wants to be a big girl and do both parts, mine and hers all by herself, so she'll do the flash card, say what it is, lay it down and tell herself, good job...it's very cute.

So, fortunately, without incident we got the tree all decorated and put our Santa on top. She was very excited. The only thing left was to dig out the tree skirt. So, I pulled it out and laid it on the floor. I guess it caught her attention. I left the room and came back in and there she was, all in her glory, she had it all unfolded and around her neck like a cape, dancing around with it, telling me, "look mommy, I'm Cinderella". So, precious. I just smiled and told her to let me tie it on her. Needless to say, Shannon hurried off to get the camera. So, she just smiled and said cheese. She kept taking it off and asking me to tie it back on. So, that is why I titled this....multi-purpose tree skirt, cuz now I will never be able to look at that tree skirt again without remembering the year she picked it up and put it on and danced like Cinderella!

These are the memories that I will never forget and what Christmas is truly about...not all the presents, not all the hustle and bustle. I can't wait for Christmas morning and hopefully a few more Christmas memories.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Cow princess...

These pictures are of Jetta being a cow princess....a cow princess you ask? Last year my friend Tiffany's mom, Nana, gave Jetta a tuta and flower headband for Christmas. Up until recently it was too big and Jetta really wasn't much into being a princess.

However, ever since she put on her ladybug costume for Halloween and it had a tutu and I pulled out her pink tutu from Nana, she has decided she wanted to wear it and be a princess. So, recently she had on her cow pj's and she and I were in her room and she said, "mommy, shhhh, I was surprise, daddy, I wanna be a princess" and I was like okay, why not, you go right ahead and you be a cow princess. So, we put on her tutu and headband and out she went, all in her glory, and there she was a cow princess.

Shannon had to get pictures. She was just dancing around and having a blast. She has a bit of time keeping on the headband, but she just loves wearing the tutu. Lately, she has been pretend playing more and will go off and play a little more by herself, but you just never what that might bring.

Some days that might be a trashed bedroom, some days she'll fix her own hair, which I'll include a couple of those pics and others she'll just play and call me in there to play with her. She's growing up so fast. However, it's amazing to see how she's growing and to see her little personalty come out. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures. They are rather precious and I know Nana will appreciate them...thanks Nana for the tutu....she loves it.

Jetta and Santa Claus....

A few weeks back we went out to the Mills Mall in hopes to see Jetta at the local Babies R Us. After we visited the store we went over to the mall to shop a bit and get a bite to eat.

Shannon's Dad and stepmom came down for the day to hang out with us and wanted to see if they could see Jetta as well. As we were walking through the mall, we came across the Santa display. We had no idea that he was even there yet, as it was before Thanksgiving, so wasn't even expecting him.

However, Jetta realized it was him and she took off. Thank goodness no one else was in line or I think they may have gotten ran over. She was gone and I couldn't even catch up. She was up there and in front of him in no time, stopped and said "hi". It was so cute.

To my surprise it was the same Santa as last year (the one who could make me a believer). I was very happy, cuz maybe it will make her believe that there truly is a Santa.

Up she went, she climbed right up next to him and sat down. She didn't set on his lap, but she was just a smilin' fool. They were snapping pictures, pretty much before they were even sure I was buying a package.

Needless to say, dollars later and a happy child, she had her visit with Santa and we didn't have to wait in line. I'm going to attach a couple of the pictures.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year....she is really excited and seems to be catching onto the concept. When she is bad, I keep saying "do you want Santa to come" and she says "yep" and I say "then you better be a good girl" and she will behave for a little bit....wonder how long that game will last!