Game Night

Winter....blah!  Abby's been asking us for weeks now to play on her bike, or swing set, or go for walks...anything to get out of the house.  I feel ya girl, I do.  But, we're still a few months away from spring/summer weather and that means we're often cooped up in the house.  Weekends are better, we have time to get outside while the sun is still out, but weeknights, we get home, do dinner, watch a show or two to settle down and then it's off to bed.  The days are so short, and it's so cold that we've all been feeling like we need spring!

Anyways, what does all that complaining about winter have to do with this post?  Well, one random evening Ryan asked me if we had any games to play with Abby and I said I'd pick some up.  I wasn't sure if she was ready for a real board game yet.  You know, turns, winning/losing, a path with a direction....I wasn't sure if she would get it.  But she did!  Candyland was a huge success.

She won the first tame....I lost, big time!  Of course, after that she thought she was ALWAYS supposed to win and would try swapping her piece for whoever was in first.  She's a smart kid....and the first born so she's used to getting her way I guess.  That night she and Ryan probably played 5 games and had a great time doing it.  Which, reminds me, maybe I'll break out this game again tonight.

Honoring Everyday Moments

Remember when I used to blog a ton?  I do.  I feel like this happens every winter.  Blogging sort of slows to a crawl for me until the spring hits and I finally get my act back together.  It's not that we aren't busy...trust me, we are.  But we're doing less that seems notable in the winter months.  But, I have to remember that my reasons for blogging go far beyond sharing the big moments with you.  For me, this little space that I carved out of the internet is about remembering all of the little moments that slip quietly past.  The moments that are the foundation for the big, wild, crazy moments I tend to blog about.

Perfect example, see those purple scribbles on the tub in the first picture?  That is one of the first times Abby wrote her name.  The B's look more like upside down balloons, but they are lower case letters and that is huge!  And, she wrote them in a straight line, and in order.  More often they are scattered around the page in no particular order, but on this random night in the tub, she got it right.

And Hazel, poor second baby!  I remember having post after post with random pictures of everyday life with Abby.  I really need to just keep my camera out and shoot a few here and there so this little peanut has just as many baby pictures as her big sister.  At least she's got her weekly photo blog.  I'm keeping up with some things ;)

It's these moments, these ones that seem so random and un-blog-worthy that I know someday I'll look back on and treasure.  It's the days of baths in laundry baskets (to keep from drowning) and scribbles on the bathtub that I just know will float past far too quickly.  So, on that note, please excuse the randomness that may be headed your way.  For me, it's these tiny moments that make up these little humans lives and I need to remember to document (and celebrate) them just as much as we do the big things!

1 Family x 12 (Jan)

For some reason, Jan and Feb are always slow blog months.  At least I remembered to grab our family photo for Jan.  It was a close one, we took this on Jan 30th while bowling with Jamie/Zach and Stella.  I just know that someday, these will be some of my most favorite photos.  I mean...look at Abby's face.  HA!!

Christmas 2015

While Christmas morning has come and gone, there are a few pictures I couldn't resist sharing with you all.  Like last year we had a low key Christmas day right here at home with the girls, our pj's and a yummy dinner.  My parents spent Christmas down with Joey and Andy this year.  Dan, Ellyn and Auntie Erin came to our house for the day and we had a great time!

Aside from more presents than anyone can count we had a delicious beef brisket that we smoked.  It's a long story how we decided on a 13 lb brisket for 5 adults but man was it good!  We started it on Christmas Eve around 10 pm thinking it would take MUCH longer than it actually did to smoke.  Which, ultimately meant that Ryan spent an hour fiddling with it at 3am in the garage in his underwear, but it wouldn't be an exciting story without that!

Long story short, we learned a ton with this first brisket and while there are some things we'll do differently next time, it turned out awesome!  And we have plenty of left overs frozen for future delicious dinner!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!!  Bring on 2016!!!

Visiting Santa

Two weekends ago we were back in Freeport for Ritterbusch family Christmas.  Near my parents house there's a family that does a really great Christmas display of lights and a few nights during the season Santa even visits for a few hours.

Santa wasn't scheduled to be there on the night we were visiting but my Mom called ahead to see if he could make a special appearance for the girls.  It was really special and we were really lucky that busy Santa was able to fly down from the North Pole for a few minutes to sit with the girls.

The girls were in awe!  I was sure thankful because earlier this year when daycare had Santa come visit Abby told him "DeDe, you were a really good Santa".  That little sh*t!  How in the world did she know that?  She's THREE!

Since Santa was making the long drive just for us my Mom also invited Grace to come visit him as well.  Might as well squeeze in one more little peanut right?  There's always room on Santa's lap for good little girls and boys!

Hazel was actually sleeping when we got there so she'll have to wait until next year to see Santa.  I don't think she minded.

We sure were lucky to get this special experience all to ourselves.  Mom said that a friend of theirs took their kids on a night when Santa was scheduled to be there and they waited over an hour to see him!  Thanks Mom and Dad for organizing this special event for us!

1 Family x 12 (Dec)

On Christmas Eve there couldn't be a more perfect family photo....Merry Christmas Eve!

Baby Cunningham (Quilt)

You guys, my quilt making has slowed to a very slow pace.  Like a snail.  So slow!  Most of it is having a newborn, some of it because work has been crazy busy but I'm dying to get back at my machine.  Luckily, I started this guy quite a few months ago right after Hazel was born and when I was still on maternity leave.  This guy is for a very special friend of ours, Betsy.  She's due with her second around the end of Jan.  Which meant that I had plenty of time!  But, Bradley, Betsy's first had his own plans about when he'd be born and came into the world at just 31 weeks.  So, I knew I needed to get this quilt done early.

I can NOT tell you how much I love this quilt.  There has never been a more perfect example of a quilt that I personally would love.  I mean, I love all of the quilts that I make, but if I was choosing a color scheme for my very own quilt, it would look just like this.  It's blues and greens with a little bit of yellow and lots and lots of grey.  Basically that equals Sadie to a tee.

There are over 200 fabrics in this quilt and over 750 - 2 inch squares.  It's scrappy and fun and so so pretty.  I tried fussy cutting for the first time as well.  For those of you that don't know, that just means that I'm very careful of the placement when I cut so that the squares include whole pictures, like that tiny Babar painting in the top left.

Betsy - we are so excited to meet your new little girl (or guy....yes, she too decided to be surprised).  I'm secretly hoping girl, but we'll love them either way.  I hope he or she loves this quilt to death and drags it around everywhere!  Quilts were made to be used and loved so let the babies spit up all over them...that's life!  We can't wait to meet you Baby Cunningham (though not too soon!  Keep baking!).