Three Sniders

Turn Off!

2012-01-09T07:33:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking the phase we are going through with Katie right now is pretty typical for kids' her age. At least, I hope it is. Everything is going along fine, but the time comes when the fun is done and Katie needs to get ready for bed or out of the bath or some other undesirable task. Last night, such an occasion arose. Katie was taking a bath, but had been in there for about 30 minutes and it was time to get out. So I started with my regular cajoles. "Katie, let's go brush your teeth. Katie, let's read a story. Katie let's get your frog jammies." And so on and so forth with no luck. So then I went with my new tactic for getting her to pay attention to me. I said, "Katie, you need to turn on your listening ears" and I pulled on my earlobes. That got a glance, so I repeated myself. Another glance, although this was more of a glare. The third time I said it, she looked up at me and pulled her own earlobes and said "Turn off!" Ooohhh, that made me mad! So I said it again, and again she replied with, NO! Turn off!" So much for that technique. It clearly has backfired on me. In the end, I had to pick her up out of the empty tub all while she yelled at me about how she didn't want to take a bath. Sigh...

post bath

Long Time, No Post!

2011-10-15T14:50:00.000-05:00

Fall is here, the weather is gorgeous. This is my favorite time of year. Warm sunny days and cool nights-last night was kind of chilly though! That's okay, I'm happy to get out my sweaters and jackets. I put Katie in the cutest Halloween sweater this morning. She got tons of compliments on it at the grocery store.

We've been pretty busy lately. Doug's almost halfway through this semester. It's just about crunch time for him, he's got papers due and midterms next week. Fun. Katie & I have been hanging out and doing our thing during this time. We're having a great time making our "crafs" as Katie likes to call them. Last night she and I headed over to LaLa's and made cheesecloth ghosts. Well, she played with her play-doh and watched Clifford's Halloween while we made them. Katie really loves Halloween this year! It all started with this book she picked as her prize for the Summer Reading Program at the library. It's kind of a scary book, so we mostly just talk about the pictures as we read it, but she loves it! Everything Halloween she sees is "spooky Halloween." Then we checked out It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown from the library. I finally got to return it last week. I was afraid I was going to have to sneak it out of the house, she loved it so much! She loves all the decorations and she's having so much fun. She's going to be a witch for Halloween and she's having the best time playing with that costume already. So far, I only let her play with the hat, but she thinks that is pretty cool.

She came up with that broom thing all on her own!

We've been working on getting us ready for when Doug's unemployment benefits run out next month. We're still planning on him attending school full time until he's finished with his degree, but come January, he'll be getting a part-time job. Anyone hiring? We've pretty much cut out as many extras as we can. Our last two little luxuries are internet (which Doug uses for school) and Netflix. My focus has been whittling down our grocery bill. I'm no extreme couponer, but I have started using coupons more often and I've been ad matching. Two things that seemed like a pain the first few times I did them, but now if I don't do it, it feels weird! Honestly, there's no reason, even if we had plenty of money to not try and save what you can here and there, right? Today was not a good coupon day and a fair day for ad matching, but I saved about $14.50 overall and I think just looking everything over, we may only need milk and few fillers for next week. :) It's these little things that hopefully keep adding up to getting us through these next 18 months or so with our sanity still in tact.

Insomnia

2011-09-02T01:01:00.000-05:00

Inspired by a post I saw earlier and the fact that I was just not tired enough to go to bed (although I am now!), I started "editing" some pictures. I'm by no means a professional, just having a good time. I thought this turned out particularly cute though and wanted to share. Enjoy!

Together

2011-08-16T08:16:00.000-05:00

The other day as I was blog hopping, I came upon this quote: "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all." Pretty cliche, right? Yeah, that was my first thought too, but it stuck in my head. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how true it was. We have a beautiful daughter who is the light of our lives, a warm home that is getting lovelier by the day and a supportive extended family & friends network. That's quite alot in my book! We definitely have it "all." Remind me of this over the next couple of years, will you?

As most of our readers know, we've had some tough stuff to deal with since the early days of our marriage and it definitely took it's toll. These last few months Doug and I have really worked on some things and we are in a much better place these days. That doesn't mean that things are going to get any easier anytime soon. Quite the contrary. In a couple of months, Doug's unemployment will run out. We've been so blessed to have it all this time, but we knew it wouldn't last forever. We still want to Doug to complete his degree though. So our belts will get a little tighter, we'll eat more dinners at home, and a thousand other little changes to keep us afloat during these next couple years. Doug will also have to get a part-time job during this time. It's going to be hard, we know this, but we have a plan in place and hopefully it will be a successful one. That's kind of why we've been scrambling to get projects done lately. Like Doug said, if we have to sit at home the next couple of years, we need to have some nice things to look at.

Speaking of Doug, he just got up and started talking to me and now I can't remember what I was going to say anymore...

Bathroom: After

2011-08-11T08:46:00.000-05:00

Our bathroom is DONE! And 2 days ahead of schedule. :) Doug did an awesome job, this was a huge undertaking. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help more. My jobs consisted of painting, clean up, food, & Katie wrangling. Doug did everything else! So without further ado:

AFTER

Wallpaper was removed and the walls were painted a rather bright off-white. Mirror previously hung in our living room, then in our bedroom and finally has found a home in the bathroom.

New flooring! I'm so excited to walk in there and not look down and see yucky green.

This little cabinet was formerly orange with silver hardware. Doug painted the cabinet with our wall color and spray painted the hardware. Looks so much better!

This light fixture came out of my parents' house. It had been sitting in the basement for a year or more, and I didn't even really know what it looked like. What a happy surprise to find that it matched all our new stuff.

A look into the bathroom-no I did not match the potty seat to the rug or vice versa! Also, Doug (with a little help from my dad) pulled out the ugly door frame and put in this new lovely drywall. SO MUCH BETTER!!

Our new pedestal sink with our newly placed hand towel holder (it used to be on the opposite wall by the bathtub) and our freshly painted medicine cabinet.

New toilet

Doug ended up reframing this window and painting it. He also took out the screen on the other side, so now it doesn't open, but it is so tiny that that really isn't a concern. It does make it alot brighter in there now.

Our repainted exhaust fan/light. This really just took some cleaning up and some spray paint.

Remember that ugly light fixture from my last post? Doug cleaned it up, repainted it and put on new globes. I love it! It's one of my favorite things about our bathroom now.

We decided we just did not have the wall space for a towel bar, so instead we hung up a hook to hang our towels on while in the shower. It works great for us!

New shower curtain & rug (a better woman than me would have ironed this before hanging it up, but the wrinkles will steam out after a couple of showers, right?) Also, it is not really this yellow in here. Just bad light. I'll try to post a better one another time.

So there you go! Please excuse my terrible photography, it was late and we were all tired. I want to say thank you again to my wonderful husband for all his hard work and effort. Katie & I are so proud of you and we appreciate everything you do for us!

Bathroom Makeover

2011-08-07T10:54:00.000-05:00

Things have been a little crazy at the Snider house the last couple of weeks. Doug finished his summer classes, the truck broke down, Katie turned 2 and we started our bathroom renovations. Like I said, it's been crazy.

The bathroom has by far been the biggest undertaking of projects we've done in the house. It's getting a head to toe makeover. Last summer we replaced the tub and then that made the rest of the bathroom look pretty rundown. So Doug decided to do the rest of it this summer while he's on break. And well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Here's the lovely hallway that is part of the bathroom. In an order to make it functional, previous owners put in a medicine cabinet & vanity light. That didn't do much for us, so Doug took those out and patched the wall.

Another shot of the wall. The wallpaper has been removed and replaced with off-white paint. It's so much brighter! Although, the walls are in pretty terrible shape and we now understand why the wallpaper was up in the first place. Oh well, we can live with it for awhile.

Our original toilet before Doug found out there was a leak under it and a view of the ugly green floor.

Original hunter green sink that matched the hunter green floor (we are slowly getting the green out of this house!) before Doug pulled it out and left us sink-less for going on 2 weeks. Don't worry, I knew it was coming! Thank goodness the kitchen is close!

After the sink was pulled out...see, even the old wallpaper was green!

Not so pretty light fixture, that has been repurposed. You won't believe how awesome it looks now!


New toilet and a sneak peek of the tile.

Obviously these are mostly the before pictures. I've been taking pictures as we go along and it's going to be awesome when we're done. A few things we can't change, but we'll live with it. Like I told Doug, anything is better than what it was before. It already looks so much cleaner and brighter!

New Look

2011-07-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

Like our new look? We have a new title too! Three Sniders was okay, but it really didn't mean anything. I've been thinking for awhile we needed a new look, but nothing was coming to me. Then the other day after a midday meltdown, I made the comment to Doug that it was about 2 minutes past naptime and it was like a lightbulb went on! Right then I knew that was the new title for our blog, because lets face it, there are lots of 2 minutes past naptime moments around here these days. And they aren't all Katie's...

Hope you enjoy our new look!

Addicted!

2011-06-21T10:38:00.000-05:00

How can we resist ice cream when eating it makes her this cute??

Our family has a dirty little secret. When the temperature starts to rise (okay, really all year long...) we become ice cream addicts! And not just any ice cream. We want it from Dairy Queen or Culver's or wherever. It's an outing for us many evenings. Let's run out and get some ice cream and go for a ride. Confession time: last week we went out for ice cream a total of 3 times according to our online banking. I'm thinking we might have stopped another night when we had cash so maybe 4. Sad, that we eat so much ice cream that I can't remember all the times we have it. I'm more than a little embarrassed to admit this. Not only is all this ice cream not good for our waistlines, it's also not good for our wallet. We spent more than $20 last week on it. So I'm posting this today in hopes to make us accountable. On Sunday, we didn't have ice cream. Last night, we didn't have ice cream. Our goal is to make it all the way to Saturday without going out for ice cream. In the meantime, popsicles are a good (enough) substitute.

Hush Little Baby: A Message from the Cry It Out Front

2011-06-07T14:24:00.000-05:00

Finally asleep!

I'm pretty sure Katie hasn't slept a whole night in about 3 1/2 weeks now. Consequently, neither have Doug & I. We're exhausted. So much that we even took Katie to the pediatrician this morning just to make sure there was nothing going on like an ear infection or whatever. There isn't. According to Dr. E, it's the "terrible twos." Here's what we think has happened. We finally noticed over the weekend that her 2 year molars are coming in and maybe they started coming in a couple weeks ago when her sleep started really getting messed up. Every night her sleep got a little more off. It took her just a few minutes longer to get settled. Many many verses of "Hush Little Baby" were sang and lots of cuddles and rocking. Before we knew it, she wasn't going to bed period and we were horrified! What happened to our sweet little girl who went to bed "drowsy but awake" and where did this monster child come from? For the last 2 nights, I've been trying a modified version of "cry it out." Basically, I lay her down for bed (after our normal snuggles & stories routine) and leave the room. She cries, I come back in in 5 minutes. Settle her again and leave. She cries, I come back in in 10 minutes. Lather, rinse, repeat. Each night it has taken over an hour for her to fall asleep and then to make matters worse, she's waking up multiple times during the night. Well, last night it was just once around 1:30, but again it took over an hour to get her back to sleep. By the time she did finally fall asleep, I had some major insomnia. Thank goodness today is my day off. So tonight, we're going to try Dr. E's approach. We're going to let her stay up later and then after our routine lay her down. If she's still not tired enough to just fall asleep and cries, we're going to wait at least 15 minutes before going in, then we will only spend 10 seconds or so in her room. I'm just as leary of this as I have been of all of our other attempts, but I'm willing to try anything at this point. Dr. E said it's not going to work immediately, but hopefully it'll get her from crying over an hour to crying maybe half an hour. We'll keep you posted.

Recipe for Cooking with a Toddler

2011-04-20T21:26:00.005-05:00

Ingredients:
1 box of brownie mix
eggs
oil
water
love
patience
lots of towels

Preheat oven according to box instructions. Add all ingredients in a bowl. Let your toddler stir. Be patient when toddler knocks half the mix out of the bowl. Share lots of brownie batter flavored kisses. Pour into greased 9x13 pan & bake.

Hints & Tips:

Pose for obligatory picture with Momma!

Make sure to taste test the batter often! Fingers work best.

Stir, stir, stir!

Lessons Learned

2011-03-03T22:12:00.000-06:00

Everyday is a new lesson in our house. Katie's learning about the world around her and Doug & I are learning how to parent a toddler (19 months today!) This morning Katie learned all about what happens if you don't stay out of the kitty's face.

Poor girl. Tess, not Katie. She so did not want to be bothered, laying in the sunshine, but Katie just kept getting right down there. Tess gave her several warning hisses. I overheard and told Katie that the kitty didn't want to play, but she wasn't having it. And so Tess did what any annoyed kitty would do and nipped, I did what any Mommy would do and yelled and Katie did what any baby would do and cried. It all lasted about 30 seconds and then I cleaned up the mark on Katie's arm and she got a bandaid. I don't think any of us were too traumatized.

Still a Favorite!

2011-02-22T13:04:00.000-06:00

7 months old

18 months old

After 11 months, cheese puffs are still at the top of Katie's list of favorite snacks or "nacks" as she likes to call them today!

Butterfly Valentine Craft

2011-02-13T15:13:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow being Valentine's Day inspired me to put together a quick little treat for Katie to share at her babysitter's tomorrow. These were really simple to make-Katie may even be able to help by next year. Here's how I made them.

Supplies: 1 "fun size" or similar package of candy (or anything about this size/shape) and 1 pipe cleaner (chenille stem, if you're feeling fancy!)

First take your package and pinch it in the middle to resemble a bow.

Next fold your pipe cleaner in half.

Place folded pipe cleaner around the pinched section of your package.

Twist/wrap pipe cleaner around the middle several times. 3 times around ended up producing the best results for me.

Twist the two pieces of pipe cleaner together at the top to secure around the middle.

Curl the ends of pipe cleaner around your fingertip to make the antennae.

Finished product!

Bowl full of butterflies!

And who wouldn't want a Valentine from this cutie?

Day 18

2011-01-26T22:30:00.002-06:00

Project 365 is still moving right along. This was today's photo. I'm not claiming to take super-spectacular photos, I just am trying to capture one moment of each day. So my quality is definitely not there, but the story of our year will be there when it is all said and done and I'm excited for that. The best part for me is leaving the description of the photo. I can share the story behind the photo or the location or whatever. I'm definitely making this into a book when I'm done. I hope you are following along and watching our year unfold.

Snow Fun

2011-01-17T11:04:00.000-06:00

Today is a holiday for me (MLK Jr. Day) and Doug's last day of winter break. So this morning since the temperatures got above freezing we decided to take Katie out to play in the week old snow. I guess it's a good thing it's been so cold this past week so that there was still snow on the ground. She wasn't sure what to think of it at first. Plus, her snow boots are a little big, so she was having a hard time walking, but I think she had a good time after all. Here was my picture of the day.

And a couple of more...

Day 3

2011-01-10T21:26:00.001-06:00

Well, my Project 365 is going well. I'm definitely taking a bunch of pictures, but more importantly, I'm deleting a bunch of not good pictures. :) I'm so impressed with myself. I can easily take 20-30 pictures trying to get just the right shot and then after I pick the "one" I delete everything else in the folder guilt free. Here's my picture for today.

Project 365 Day 1

2011-01-08T12:41:00.000-06:00

I meant to start January 1, but that didn't happen. We didn't do anything exciting last week anyway! :)

Katie Facts

2011-01-02T22:01:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow Katie will be 17 months old. Where has the time gone? So tonight, I want to make a little note of all the things my sweet girl is doing these days.

What she says: Katie can say tons of words and repeats all kinds of things, but her favorite word right now is "Up!" Also, she no longer cries in her crib when she wakes up from her nap. She just calls out "Mama up!"

What she does: She loves to dance & jump (yes, jump!), play with her baby dolls, read books & play with her Little People.

What she eats: If she could eat nothing but mac & cheese, yogurt and pancakes, she'd be a very happy girl!

What she reads: Her current favorite is Five Little Pumpkins. We've read that one over and over for the last few weeks.

What she watches: When Katie was born, I never intended to let her watch TV before she was 2. Um, yeah. Sometimes I need to get ready and I need something to occupy her so I can do that without having her under my feet the whole time. Thank goodness for Elmo! Although, we've recently graduated to Dora & Yo Gabba Gabba. Blue's Clues is a hit too.

Everything else: She's going through a very Mama-centric phase at the moment, but it's getting better. She's warmed back up to Daddy lately. It probably helps that we finally stopped taking her to umpteen million strange places! Otherwise, everything else is going well and I kind of hope these next 17 months slow down just a little bit.

New Camera

2011-01-02T07:23:00.001-06:00

I got a new camera for Christmas, and I just can't decide how well I like it. It's only been a couple of days, so obviously I need some time to get used to it. And photographing a toddler that is perpetually in motion is pretty hard to do, regardless of what camera I use. At least for me. I also have been trying to use my flash less, which is kind of difficult indoors. Here's a picture that I took yesterday with it.

Hopefully we'll get a decent day soon and Katie and I can go outside and try it out.

New Year, New Us!

2011-01-01T09:29:00.001-06:00

This is the year we get back into shape. Doug & I looked pretty good for our wedding, (Doug actually ate well and exercised, I just worried myself into losing weight planning our wedding), but things have gone down hill. It's just time to be healthier. We're not just doing it for us, for Katie too. Wish us luck!

Too Much Christmas??!!

2010-12-28T08:56:00.000-06:00

Last night Doug & I ventured out to do a little post-Christmas shopping. This is one of our favorite activities and why in recent years we usually don't get each other much for Christmas (except last year when Doug surprised me with the special jewelry!) So we're at the dreaded Wally-World last night and we're picking up a few things for the last of our holiday celebrations (tonight with Doug's family) and I notice the Christmas clearance. In previous years, I would have made a beeline for those marked down ornaments and cards, but for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to even glance at them this year. I don't know if Doug has finally worn me down, or if thinking about Christmas with Katie has changed my whole attitude. I don't want her to grow up thinking Christmas is this overly commercialized event with piles of presents and for some reason the thought of wading through all those Christmas leftovers made me feel just that. I realized that we didn't need another ornament or new stockings or even new cards. Next Christmas I may be kicking myself for not "stocking up," but I don't think so.

Christmas spirit doesn't come in any of those things. Christmas spirit comes from hearing your daughter's first "ooos & aaahhs" when she sees Christmas lights. Or when you make your first little ornament or watch a favorite Christmas special. Making candy & treats to share with friends & family. That's Christmas spirit to me. So this year, I'll happily pack away our tree & decorations and not worry that I didn't find that one more thing for next year.

Christmas Highlights

2010-12-26T21:24:00.000-06:00

2009 was the Christmas it snowed and snowed and snowed! 2010 was the Christmas we went everywhere! We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve with a visit to Doug's brother's house. We had some snacks, the kids opened a few gifts and we visited and checked out my brother-in-law's new home. Very nice time, except that we had to be there right about naptime. This was no big deal last Christmas. Katie napped anywhere. Not so much these days. She fell asleep in the car on the way there, but of course was wide awake when we got her out of the car. Just a little 5 minute power nap. Then she proceeded to not get more than 6 inches away from me for the first 30 minutes or so. After that she was fine. She happily explored this new place and found all the cool toys! Thankfully, we were able to extract Breanne's stuffed leopard from her without too many tears.

After our visit, we decided a nice little drive around would be good before heading to Christmas Eve services at church. Our plan worked, Katie fell asleep right away and got in a good 30 minute nap. We felt pretty good about that and headed into church with a happy girl. She made it through the first song or two and then the wiggling began! This wasn't so bad, but she's getting pretty strong these days and I was having a hard time trying to keep her still. Passing her off to Daddy wasn't an option, because that just made her mad and then she got loud. Fortunately, there were some very nice ladies sitting behind us making faces and engaging her. Still though, when she started the head butting, we decided it was time to leave (it hurt!)

We probably should have went home with our cranky and tired girl at that point, but we still had to go out to my Grandpa's for more Christmas celebrations. Katie had a good time playing with her cousin Kirsten, as always and was generally in a pretty good mood. Still, we knew she wasn't going to make it much longer, so we kept our visit short. We still had to get Katie in bed and get ready for Santa!

Christmas morning was of course the morning that Katie slept in, not that we're complaining. Doug & I were up around 7 or so, but Katie didn't stir until 7:30. We were pretty excited to get her up so she could see what Santa brought her...


She was pretty excited when she saw it, she even said "ooh..."

Santa also filled Katie's stocking with some fun toys, books & bubble bath. From Mommy & Daddy she got some new clothes, jammies and a book. She loved that as well.

About halfway through opening up her gifts, she threw her hands up in the air and proclaimed "all done!" and walked away. It took quite a bit convincing to get her to come back in and Mommy ended up opening the rest of her presents for her. Doug and I had a nice Christmas as well. Doug & Katie gave me some perfume that I'd been wanting and Katie & I gave Doug a magnetic drill bit thing-y for his drill that he'd needed.

After we finished up our gifts we got ready to go and went to my parents' house. There were many more presents to open there and once again, just not enough time. But, it was still nice and Katie left there with quite the stash of toys and a new toy box (thank goodness!) This was one of her favorites!

Doug & I weren't left out there either! Doug got a new winter coat that and I got some new cartridges for my Cricut, among other things. Santa just forgot to send the gift certificates for extra time to use them! :)

Our visit at Mom & Dad's was just the start of the day. We had a really yummy Christmas dinner at my Grandma's...smoked turkey...yum! Katie played with more of her cousins. They had a blast playing "Ring Around the Rosie," Katie loved "all fall down!" She was definitely wearing out though. She had a bit of a meltdown while we were there (who can blame her, poor girl had been going nonstop for 2 days!) so we decided it was time to make a quick visit to Doug's grandma before getting our cranky girl home for the evening.

We had a nice visit there, and were pleasantly surprised to see Aunt Patty & Uncle Steve and Doug's mom met us there. Katie played and was generally adorable and we were sent home with a plate of cookies and some Christmas money. :)

Needless to say, Katie slept great last night. We spent the entire day at home and she has had a great time playing with her new toys. I think I've finally gotten everything put away! We still have one more Christmas celebration on Tuesday night at our house with Doug's family. Wednesday the tree will be taken down and Christmas will be over for another year. We hope everyone's Christmas was as lovely as ours. Goodnight!

Finally a Moment to Post

2010-12-19T18:17:00.001-06:00

Well, I went from posting daily in November back to barely posting at all. Oh well. We've just been way too busy these last couple of weeks, getting ready for the holidays and Doug preparing for finals. There has barely been a moment to clean the house much less post to our blog. But, finals are over now and so is most of the holiday prep. Just in time too, I'm looking forward to spending some time with my family over these next couple weeks.

Today Katie & I went to make our traditional Christmas candy with my mom & sister. It was so much fun! Yummy, too! Then we took Katie to see Santa at the mall (seriously $12 for 2 wallets is pretty ridiculous, but this picture was so cute I kind of wish I'd bought more!)

Maybe tonight we'll watch a Christmas movie. I checked out Christmas Vacation from the library this week and we've got pizza for dinner. Sounds like a relaxing night for the Snider's. Hope yours is too!

Busy Weekend

2010-12-05T21:55:00.000-06:00

I'm almost glad this weekend is over...almost. It has been nonstop! Lots of Christmas fun happenings. Elf, holiday party, tree trimming and Krug Park lights. I'm worn out! Doug has his last week of classes before finals this week, so it's going to be nuts until the 17th around here. Better start going to bed earlier tonight! Here's a quick picture before I go.

Katie enjoying the lights and the honking at the park!

Time to Unpack the Snow Boots

2010-11-30T09:18:00.001-06:00

I was having breakfast with Katie this morning and could hardly believe my eyes when I looked out the window. Snow! It's not coming down very hard or collecting very fast, but it's there. See...

Also, today is my last NaBloPoMo post. I did it! Yay! I probably won't be back tomorrow, but soon. Happy last day of November.

Trimming the Tree or How Not to Decorate a Tree with a 1 Year Old

2010-11-29T07:12:00.002-06:00

I don't know about all you other working moms out there, but I feel compelled to do everything with Katie. I want to cook with her, craft with her, shop with her, etc. I don't want her to miss one single experience. She handles it fairly well, and it's usually Momma that ends up tired and cranky at the end of it. Such was the case last night when I pushed us to get the tree decorated. Keep in mind we'd been at a family get together for most of the afternoon, Doug had a cold, and Katie didn't take an afternoon nap.

I started off by changing into my Christmas jammies and giving Katie hers to open. I want to start a tradition that Mrs. Claus leaves her Christmas jammies (all wrapped up in special packaging) right after Thanksgiving so she has the whole month to wear them. Yeah that didn't work so well. Maybe in a year or two when she might understand the whole Santa/presents thing.

After we were in our jammies and had our eggnog we started opening the boxes. In past years Doug would lay out ornaments and I would find the perfect place on the tree. We typically don't have a big tree/many ornaments so it took us maybe 20 minutes to do all of this if the tree was already set up. I think it took us an hour last night! Katie loved going through the ornaments and she handled everything very delicately.

Then it was time to hang the first ornament, and we thought we'd have Katie do it. I pulled out her first Christmas ornament, went over to the tree with her and helped her carefully hang it on a low branch. We stepped back and she reached out to it and snatched it back off the tree. That was apparently not the right spot. We tried again with the same results. Finally I took the ornament and hung it up where she couldn't reach it. We tried letting her hang one again with Doug, but we had similar results. Again, maybe this will go better next year.

The rest of trimming went about the same way. Katie pulling off the ornaments as fast as we could put them on and us putting them up higher and higher. We had a good time though.

As you can see, it all worked out in the end. A beautiful Christmas tree for our beautiful daughter.

Not As Planned

2010-11-28T10:10:00.002-06:00

This holiday weekend has not quite gone as planned. We've had colds, time conflicts & work schedules all messing things up. Somehow, we've managed to fit just about everything in though. Thanksgiving was spent with my mom's family at my parents' house. We visited with Doug's mom on Thanksgiving night and Katie had her first taste of eggnog. She loved it-just like her daddy! We got to hang out with super-cool Nick on Friday. That was so much fun. :) Last night we finally found some time to hang out with Doug's brother's family. We watched Polar Express (Doug had never seen it!) and had pizza and pumpkin pie concretes-YUM! Today will be another family dinner (my dad's family) and tonight is for decorating the tree. I can't wait!

Running Out of Steam

2010-11-27T11:52:00.000-06:00

Only 4 more days to post and I'm just about out of things to talk about. So I'll leave you with this completely adorable picture of Katie & my godson from yesterday afternoon. Happy Saturday!

Christmas!!

2010-11-26T20:53:00.000-06:00

According to Doug, Christmas can officially begin. We got our tree out this morning and put it up. So far we have lights & tinsel on it (after we got it back from Katie.) We didn't get a chance to do ornaments today, but we'll get to it this weekend. Be looking for our tree picture soon!

Thankful

2010-11-25T08:02:00.000-06:00

I try to be thankful every day, but today especially I want to remember to share my thanks. Right now, it's all about the little things. Good cold medicine, soft tissues and Doug & Katie letting me get the rest I needed the last few days.

I'm thankful for my family. My beautiful daughter who loves to dance and laugh and play. She makes me smile. My helpful husband who stayed up with me last night making food for today. He also mopped the kitchen & bathroom floors and helped me with dishes & laundry yesterday. It was so nice getting up this morning and knowing that we just have to get ourselves ready and nothing else. Thank you Doug, for talking me into staying up last night. Thanks to my mom & dad for organizing and preparing the better part of 2 family dinners this week. My brother & sister for being a loving uncle & aunt to Katie. My in-laws for hosting a low-key movie night for us to wind down with tonight. And I'm thankful for all the rest of our family and friends. We love you all and wish you the best on this Thanksgiving day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Craft Time

2010-11-24T17:36:00.000-06:00

Today I made a book wreath. It turned out really neat and it was so simple. Unfortunately I made this one for a fund raiser at work, but I forsee one of these hanging on my own door very soon. Here are the instructions I followed, in case you want to make your own. By the way, this is not the completely finished product. I ran out of pages (I used a 12 in. wreath) and so I need to get another book to fill in the holes. I also have to make the hanger, because the wreath holder on my door doesn't really work.

2 Years

2010-11-23T09:00:00.000-06:00

A lot has changed in our lives in just 2 short years. It was exactly 2 years ago yesterday that I took that fateful test and we found out Katie was on her way. Now that she's here, I can't imagine how we ever got along for so long without her. She's a joy, a blessing and truly the best thing in our world. She can make any bad day 100 times better with just a hint of a smile. Doug & I are truly thankful to have such a wonderful daughter.

Poor Me

2010-11-22T18:18:00.001-06:00

I have a cold. I caught it from Katie and today has definitely been the worst day. Fortunately for me, my lovely husband made me some soup for dinner and is now on his way to the store to get me some of the good cold medicine, you know the behind the counter stuff. Also, boogie wipes burn after you've blown your nose all day. I am now using Katie's old flannel burp cloths as a handkerchief. Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow.

Holiday Traditions

2010-11-21T08:14:00.000-06:00

One of the things I love best about the holidays are the movies! Give me a cutesy Christmas special or something sappy and I love it! I can't wait to share these with Katie. In fact, I shared the first one of the season with her last night. I checked out Frosty the Snowman and we watched it last night after dinner. She really liked it. I must admit, I didn't remember watching the Frosty Returns special ever, and was very disappointed. I was confusing it with Frosty's Winter Wonderland. I was kind of sad about that. I'll have to hunt that one down for us soon. It's the one I really remember watching from when I was a kid and I loved it!

Katie enjoying Frosty the Snowman

This is just the start of my holiday movie list, up next will be Elf! We'll watch that one the night after Thanksgiving after putting up our tree.

Dream Job

2010-11-20T10:18:00.000-06:00

Inspired by a post on my brother's blog (I'll link to it if he says it's okay...), I thought I'd write a little about my dream job.

Let's face it, work is work these days. I work because my family needs the income. There are parts of my job I enjoy. Helping people find books and answers to off the wall questions can be interesting, but my favorite part is storytime! Some days I am very glad that I have storytime on Monday mornings. Because more often than not after I drop off Katie at the sitter's I get a major case of the Mondays. I love reading stories to the kids, hearing their answers when I ask what they think will happen next or listening to them tell me about what's going on in their lives. Preschoolers are pretty cool! Even when they won't sit still or are interrupting your story, it is hard to keep up the Monday blues after 45 minutes of that! Then Tuesday comes and the blues start all over and I start thinking about what I really want to do...

If our finances allowed, I'd love to stay home and take care of Katie and our house. Most days, I feel like I am only doing things halfway. Work only gets half my attention because I'm thinking about Katie, Katie only gets half my attention because I'm thinking about housework, housework doesn't even get half my attention because working and Katie wear me out so much that I just don't care anymore. I don't even know that I give Doug half the attention he needs. We are so busy and when we're not, we're just plain tired. Not exactly the basis of a good relationship, right? But, life won't always be this way, or at least that's what I tell myself on those days that I start worrying that I just can't keep up.

Well Check

2010-11-19T17:52:00.000-06:00

Katie had her 15 month well check today. Everything was great! Very healthy, despite the slight cold she is starting to get. Here's her stats:

Weight: 25 pounds 8 oz. (80%)
Height: 31 inches (78%)
Head Circumference 19 inches (97%!)

Grocery Shopping Fail

2010-11-18T10:10:00.001-06:00

Katie laid down for an unexpected early nap this morning and since tomorrow morning is her well-check, I took that as a sign that I should hurry and go to the store while Doug was here and I could go by myself. I barely had a list and knew that I just didn't feel like cooking anything for the next 6-7 days. So, I bought frozen junk galore, pizza, ravioli, fish sticks, and hot pockets. With a couple of cans of soup & some spaghettios thrown in for good measure. I did get the stuff to make cabbage rolls, so at least one meal we eat in the next week will be decent.

What do you make when you just don't want to cook?

Momma's Little Helper

2010-11-17T07:29:00.003-06:00

These days, Katie loves to help. Or "hellllp," as she likes to say it. So lately we've been trying to include her in little chores as suggested by our parent educator. She especially loves taking the little bags of trash to the back door. I wish I had taken the picture from the other direction so you could see the big proud smile on her face. Other favorite activities include vacuuming, sweeping and opening up all the dresser drawers. She's really good at that one! Now if only we could convince her that putting away her toys is a good idea...

Naptime

2010-11-16T10:12:00.001-06:00

It's naptime and Katie likes to play a little game called, "Stash the Binky" or "Throw the Binky," whichever she's in the mood for that day. This morning it's "Stash." This is how the game works, she either stuffs her binky in the side of the crib or throws it out of her crib and whines until someone comes in and gives it back to her. It's quite effective and if she does this enough, she can avoid naptime all together. Or so she thinks!

Halfway There!

2010-11-15T21:57:00.000-06:00

Day 15 of 30 days of posting. I think it's gone pretty well so far, but if I've bored you already, I'm sorry. I'll just go ahead and admit that today's post is going to be boring. I have alot of thoughts spinning around in my head, but none of them want to come out and become a cohesive piece of writing.

I volunteered to make a wreath for a fundraiser at work. I'm going to attempt to do something like this. I hope it turns out well. I've never actually crafted anything that someone might purchase and it makes me nervous.

Katie peed all over the place tonight while I was getting her ready for bed. I took her diaper off and before I had a chance to get the other one under her, she started to giggle and sure enough there was the wet spot. I have no idea why she thought it was funny, but I didn't quite feel the same way. Changing sheets at 8:30 p.m. is not my idea of a good time.

Doug didn't feel well tonight and somehow that made me want to not feel well too. That's not quite true. It just made me feel really tired. I still feel really tired. In fact, I wish I had finished this post about an hour ago and were already in bed reading my book

Goodnight.

Not Cooperating

2010-11-14T20:39:00.000-06:00

I found the cutest video of Katie on the flash drive I thought I lost last night. I was going to post it here, but blogger is not cooperating with me, sorry.

Another weekend at home. We didn't do much of anything except hang out around the house, but we had a great time playing with Katie. We discovered that it is nearly impossible to watch a movie with her now. Last night we tried watching Alice in Wonderland and Katie went crazy when Alice fell down the rabbit hole. She ran up to the screen and yelled and shook her fists and then turned back to us as if to say, "did you see that??" Too funny! Tonight we had a similar reaction during Clash of the Titans while watching a battle scene. On both occasions the movies were started too late and she needed to be put in bed before the end, so we still haven't finished them.

Speaking of movies, I watched The Time Traveler's Wife Friday night while Doug studied (Katie was with her grandma.) I was so disappointed! Seriously, the worst movie I've ever seen based on a book. I'm not even sure that I would have liked it if I hadn't read the book. The book was so good, no better than good, it was great! Definitely on my list for one of the best I've ever read. And I'm always claiming that the book is better than the movie anyhow, but I was thinking that if this story was even half as good on screen, it would be pretty good. The worst part of it all for me, is that now when I think of the book, I am imagining the characters as they were in the movie and that is not working for me at all. Bottom line: read the book, don't watch the movie!

The Seasons of a Katie-bug

2010-11-13T21:07:00.001-06:00

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

Christmas is Coming!

2010-11-12T11:11:00.003-06:00

As I was grocery shopping this morning, I couldn't help but be reminded that Christmas is coming everywhere I turned. And you know what? I liked it! Of course, I'm also excited when the Christmas music starts playing on the radio in November (if you don't like it, listen to something else!) and when I saw Christmas lights & decorations already up on people's houses this week that made me happy too. This morning though, I experienced my biggest Christmas thrill thus far. As Katie & I walked into Wal-Mart she spotted the big Christmas tree and her eyes lit up and she said "Ooohhh..." Made my heart melt and I was ready to come home and put my tree up right then and there! We'll wait though. We have to give Daddy time to get into the Christmas spirit or at least be okay with getting out the Christmas stuff. This year, I plan to start decorating the day after Thanksgiving. Tree & all since we're planning to use our fake one this year. I can't wait to see Katie's reaction to having a tree right here in our house! I think she's going to love it. :)

YUM!

2010-11-11T21:15:00.002-06:00

Today was a looong day at work. So it was especially nice to come home to leftover casserole that my MIL brought over. I really wasn't planning to eat any, but I wanted to try just a little bite. Mmm...yeah, I ate a whole bowl and am seriously trying to restrain myself from having another. It was that good. Here's the recipe that she left for me. It's going to have to go into our rotation.

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
1 tbsp oil/fat
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup tomato sauce or puree
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cottage cheese
1 pkg medium wide noodles (10 to 12 oz.), cooked & drained
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1. Brown meat in oil, add salt, pepper, garlic salt, onion & tomato sauce. Simmer 10 minutes.

2. Combine sour cream, cottage cheese & noodles. Mix well.

3. Put meat, sauce & noodles in casserole in alternate layers, top with grated cheese.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

She made a few substitutions, instead of ground turkey she used shredded turkey. I think you could easily substitute chicken, but I also think a version with ground turkey/beef would be yummy too. I'm thinking it would be super easy if you bought a rotisserie chicken at the store and shredded it. She also used lasagna noodles (if I were making the recipe without having seen hers, I probably would have thought it meant egg noodles or whatever), but I think any kind of noodle would work well here.

Unsettled

2010-11-10T21:09:00.000-06:00

There was another shooting in my city today. This makes 5, I think, in the last several weeks. This is not typical for where I live and even more concerning is that it seems to be creeping closer and closer to my neighborhood. Today, it was about a block away from my hair dresser's shop. I wasn't there today, but all three of us were there less than 2 weeks ago. Scary.

200 Posts!

2010-11-10T13:25:00.001-06:00

I can't believe I have posted 200 times here at Three Sniders. I will post more later today, I just wanted to mark this occasion.

A Tail of Two Kitties

2010-11-09T07:47:00.005-06:00


That's Tess on the left & BJ on the right.

Our poor neglected kitties. They used to be the center of our world and subject of many blog posts and FB status updates. Now, they're just shoved to the side because someone cuter has come along. It's true, I have alot less patience for them now, but they really are good kitties. Tess is smart. She knows to stay away from the tail-grabbing toddler. She's protective though and loves laying in the chair in Katie's room. BJ isn't as smart, but he has the tolerance of ten kitties when it comes to Katie. He even plays with her, laying just out of her reach up above her and bats at her chubby little fingers as they try to reach him. This makes her giggle like nothing else.

I think they will all be great friends one day.

A Fine Fall Day

2010-11-08T07:07:00.000-06:00

Sunday was a day of perfect weather and absolutely nowhere to go. It was glorious. The only reason Katie & I got out of our pajamas was because we thought we were going somewhere, but our plans changed. So instead we played outside, baked cookies & cooked dinner. I also managed to clean out Katie's toys while she was taking a nap. Now the baby toys are packed away and I pulled out the Little People sets that were passed down from her cousins. She had the best time playing with those all day yesterday and was trying to pull them out as fast as I was putting them away when it was bedtime last night.

Here are some pictures from yesterday's outside adventures. Sorry if you've already seen these on FB, but they were too good not to share twice.

Good Food & Even Better Friends

2010-11-07T07:26:00.001-06:00

Last night we had dinner at the C's. It's so nice to just have a simple dinner without feeling the need to break out the fancy recipes or the pretty dishes. Then we just sat and talked and watched the kids play. It doesn't get much better than that for me on a Saturday evening after working that afternoon. I didn't have to cook a thing (thanks Angela!) and Katie had a great time playing with the other kids. Doug & Jay spent much of the evening outside enjoying the cool November air and some rather disgusting cigarettes. We are so lucky to have friends where everyone gets along. No one has to feel awkward or left out and just suffer through the evening because the other person is having a great time.

Katie had a great time last night and boy was she worn out when we got home! She fell asleep in the car and didn't even open her eyes when I took her jacket off and laid her down. She played hard last night. Nicky has all kinds of toys that Katie doesn't so everything was new & interesting. In fact she's still sleeping. So much for the time change being an issue!

Doug is going to watch football with his brother this afternoon, so I think Katie & I are going to go see my sister at her new apartment. We might even bake her some cookies. I hope everyone got their extra hour of sleep. Enjoy your Sunday!

Christmas Shopping

2010-11-06T10:00:00.002-05:00

Have you started yet? I had picked up a few things for Katie at the end of summer/early fall, but have refrained since then. I pretty much know what I want to get her, it is just a matter of finding the right thing. I was out with a girlfriend last night and found some cute clearance jammies and a top at Target. I'd like to get her a pair of pants in the next size to go with the top and another outfit, probably. They had some cute 3 piece things at Target that I'll probably regret not picking up. I also got her a book. I'm really trying to slow down on my book purchases for her. It's so hard though! Other than that I want to get her puzzle with big chunky pieces or some wood blocks.

Santa is going to bring her a toy vacuum and a big ball. Along with some stocking stuffers. Santa has no idea what kind of stocking stuffers to get for her this year. Any suggestions?

Grocery Shopping

2010-11-05T10:39:00.002-05:00

We've started weekly grocery shopping, hoping it will save us money and keep us from wasting food. So far, I'm not so sure it's really accomplishing that at this point. I did spend about $20 less today than last week, so that was good. Still, I'd like to be spending that amount every week. I'm not sure how to make that happen though. The one benefit of weekly shopping is that it's alot easier to shop for a weeks worth of groceries with Katie along. The cart doesn't get nearly as full and I don't spend all that time picking up the stuff she's grabbed from the back and pitched to the ground.

I will admit, I did buy a few things not on my list. Like that box of Christmas cards...they were only $3! They are cute, but nothing I'm going to be upset about if people throw them away after Christmas. I was going to do the lovely photo cards, but that gets to be so expensive and then people feel like they have to keep them and then what should they do with the picture, blah, blah, blah... This year I think I'll do wallets of our family picture from last month and just put them in the card. I think I did that last year too. Except that last year I made the mistake of sending some people 4x6 prints and others wallets and that got around. So everyone gets wallets this year! If they want a bigger picture after the fact, let me know and I'll be happy to provide it.

Three Things...uh I mean 4 Things

2010-11-04T09:43:00.005-05:00

Katie just went down for a nap, so I should be getting ready for work, but I didn't want to miss my post today...

Three Things I Love Right Now

1. My napping daughter. I love her all the time for sure, but about the time that she starts needing that nap is about the time momma needs a break. Fortunately, she's still taking that morning nap and she goes down easily (most days) for me.

2. Hazelnut creamer for my coffee. Doug used the last of it this morning, so I had to settle for milk & sugar. :( It was okay, but not what I was looking for. I probably would have been better off with some hot cocoa. I'm not a hard core coffee fan. I like my coffee very creamy and very sweet.

3. The Time Traveler's Wife, I just finished it the night before last and it was so wonderful. Even if Doug was laying next to me going, "you're crying...why are you crying, it's just a dumb book..." Sigh...he'd never understand. This was truly a book that I wasn't ready for it to end and certainly not the way it did.

Edited to add one more:

4. Christmas music on the radio! :) I love Christmas music and I love even more that it drives Doug crazy that I play it in November. Little does he know that I've already been singing Christmas carols to Katie for the last month!

One Hour

2010-11-03T07:06:00.001-05:00

As a general rule, I think I stay up about an hour too late and get up about an hour too early. In the evening after Katie goes to bed, I get my computer time. I really enjoy my computer time, especially if I've posted really cute pictures of Katie on FB and people are leaving me comments. But sometimes I enjoy my computer time too much and end up staying up much later than I intended and then I still have to read in bed for a little bit to wind down, so that pushes my bedtime back even further. These are the crabby nights. Last night was one of them. Then there are the subsequent crabby mornings, like this one, when I wake up at 6:07 a.m. and I am really wishing I could just roll over and go back to sleep. It doesn't work like that though. Time to get up and shower and start my day. So here I am, up at my extra hour, which is quickly coming to an end. The moral of this story, I seriously need to get off the internet much earlier in the evening and also probably in the morning too.

Blogger's Block

2010-11-02T21:47:00.002-05:00

I already posted this morning, but it was kind of a lame post and I had every intention of coming here to post something more substantial when Katie went to bed. So now I'm here and I don't know what to write about. Not good on day 2 of 30 days of blogging. So here are some random updates.

Katie is starting to do the "monkey see, monkey do" thing. It's so cute that she repeats most of what we say and tries to mimic our gestures too. It also means that Momma & Daddy need to watch what they say a little more carefully. So far, so good, but I know the day is coming. She also loves playing with our cats. BJ in particular, (only because Tess is smart enough to hide!) and she is constantly trying to chase him. Last night she was pulling his tail so hard that we had to pull her off of him. He was really good though and didn't hiss or try to bite her. She also likes playing with her dollies, her farm animals and has recently discovered hats. Too cute!

Doug is facing his toughest schedule yet, this semester. His adviser told him that if he made it through this semester, he'd graduate with no problems. He's definitely on track to graduate. :)

I am working Saturdays through the end of this semester to save us a little $$ on daycare expenses. It hasn't been too bad so far, but I'll be glad when it's over. Even just working 4 hours on a Saturday really eats up your whole day. I'm definitely looking forward to having 2 days off in a row again soon.

Speaking of saving money, we paid off the truck this week. Combining that with our recent credit card pay off and some new legislation that gives Doug another 6 months of unemployment benefits means that we're breathing a huge sigh of relief tonight. At this rate, we're looking at 18 months or so of being a one income family while Doug finishes school. If we get enough stuff paid off/caught up, it might end up being doable. And who knows, maybe during all of this we'll figure out a way to live on that one income and I might just be able to realize my SAHM dreams.

Don't Forget to Vote!

2010-11-02T07:50:00.001-05:00

Your vote today is just as important as it was 2 years ago. VOTE!

Halloween Recap & Day 1 of NaBloPoMo

2010-11-01T08:13:00.003-05:00

I think Katie thoroughly enjoyed Halloween this year. We ended up taking her trick-or-treating around my mom & dad's neighborhood in addition to the visits we made that afternoon/early evening. She did great! And wow did she get alot of candy! And she remembered that candy this morning and I actually had to say to her "No candy, until you eat your breakfast!" :)

Before heading out for trick-or-treating fun!

Dancing with the ghost at Grandma Sandy's.

Uh...Katie the Red-Nosed Penguin?

So much CANDY!

All Halloweened out!

Also, you'll notice in the left sidebar a badge for something called NaBloPoMo. This means that for the month of November I'm going to blog here everyday. I tried this in 2008, but didn't quite make it. Here's to a better turnout this year!

Crafting with Katie

2010-10-31T10:17:00.000-05:00

Katie and I worked on her very first Halloween craft this year. We painted a pumpkin! I painted just a little bit on there to show her how it worked and she took it from there. I must say, she did an excellent job! There was paint everywhere. :) She really seems to enjoy anytime I let her color and now paint. I can't wait to keep going. Maybe this year we'll get some ornaments or something to paint for Christmas. Wouldn't that be cute?

Halloween Costume Sneak Peek

2010-10-28T09:24:00.000-05:00

Katie's New Chair

2010-10-27T07:19:00.000-05:00

After mentioning that Katie has started to "sit" on everything like a chair, my friend from work, Pam, brought in the cutest little Elmo chair for Katie. As you can see she adores it! She was having so much fun playing with it last night, she didn't want to go to bed. :) Thanks so much, Pam! You made our little girl very happy!

Family Pictures

2010-10-17T21:24:00.001-05:00

Sorry if you've already seen these on FB, but here are some of the pictures we had taken a few weeks ago. They will probably go out in Christmas cards this year.

This is what happens when you take pictures with a 1 year old for an hour!

1st Day

2010-09-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

At this moment, Doug is finishing up his first day of his Sophomore experience student teaching. I can't wait to hear how it went. He ended up getting Lafayette as his school, but he wasn't sure which teacher. I hope this former Central guy will decide that LHS isn't so bad after all. I should have taken his picture this morning, so you could all see how handsome and teacher-ish he looked. :)
I took Katie to the Ren Fest this weekend with my parents & my brother. It was a good time. We checked out the petting zoo, the jousting, and turkey legs! Her favorite activity of the day by far though, was the slide in the play area. She loved that so much and cried when we left.

Katie on the slide.

Mmm...turkey leg

Nice Goat

Cheering

Doug andI headed to KC on Friday night to see a band with our friends. We learned that we don't have the stay up half the night stamina anymore. The band didn't start until 11:30 and I was about to fall asleep at the table. It was fun though and the band was great! We'd love to go to another show, but we'll caffeinate ourselves first if they are going to start so late again. :)

Ready for our night out.

Katie in Pictures

2010-09-18T08:31:00.000-05:00

She eats yummy pizza!

She can brush her teeth!

More teeth brushing!

Chillin'

Throwing Momma's cell phone for a pass!

Watching football with Daddy!

Time Flies

2010-09-11T10:14:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, Doug & I will have been married for 3 years already. Wow...3 years! Being married and having a child has been the most challenging and most rewarding things I have ever done in my life. And as challenging as it's been, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you, Doug. Happy (almost) Anniversary!

Time to Eat

2010-09-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

I'm making potato, broccoli & cauliflower soup for lunch today. I sort of used this recipe, but added potatoes & milk and left out the carrots. It smells yummy! I spent way too much money at the grocery store last night. I think it is because I actually bought food to cook. The cooler weather is making me want to spend some quality time in my kitchen. I even suggested to Doug that instead of going out for our anniversary we do a date night at home and make something together. So not typical of me! We've had so much fast food and gone out lately that none of it even tastes good anymore. I want to go back to when going out to eat was something special, more like a treat. I definitely don't want Katie growing up thinking that eating chicken nuggets twice a week is normal. So I planned some yummy dinners (which hopefully will produce enough leftovers for lunch) and hopefully that extra money I spent at the store won't go to waste.

Cool Girl Katie

2010-09-06T09:08:00.001-05:00

So it wasn't the best light to take pictures in yesterday morning, but this one was too cute not to share!


I'm too cool, Momma!

Feels Like Fall

2010-08-24T22:02:00.000-05:00

I'm loving this cooler weather. I can't wait for fall to get here. I hope we have a nice one this year. Last year seemed nice, but it also could have been that I was off work and therefore, was able to enjoy those lovely days more. Who knows, with the way things are going at work, maybe I'll be off more this fall too. Yeah, that's a post for another day.

What I really came to post was a few new pictures of my favorite girl. :)

Busy, Busy!

2010-08-12T23:21:00.000-05:00

Things have been crazy here at Three Snider's lately. We've had some home improvement projects, birthdays, & vacations!

First thing's first, our projects. We have desperately needed a new bathtub pretty much since we moved into our house 5 years ago. It was cracked and Doug repaired it many, many times. Just about the time we thought we'd really gotten it fixed good, we found a leak behind our shower wall. :( This opened up a whole other can of worms and so since we'd have to fix all that anyway, we might as well put in the new tub. So Doug, with the help of some good friends & family installed a new bathtub for us. It is awesome! All shiny & new. Now it just makes the rest of our bathroom look sad, but that's another post for another day. Next on our list is a new front door! It came in today and tomorrow we are getting the paint. Installation will be next week.

There were two big birthdays at our house this month. I turned 30 and even more excitedly, Katie turned 1! :) We had two parties for Miss Kathryn. A small one with Doug's family at our house on Saturday and a larger one with my family on Sunday (which also happened to be my birthday.) Each party was great. Katie loved eating birthday cake and was totally not interested in presents. I got a few presents of my own and some birthday money to spend!

For vacation, we drove up to visit our friends in Wisconsin, the Norgaard's. We had a great time! All of our girls (they have 2) played together and we went to the zoo and the farmer's market and shopping. So.Much.FUN!

Katie Walks!

2010-07-18T15:05:00.000-05:00

Tutu Cute!

2010-07-10T23:38:00.000-05:00

Katie's modeling her birthday tutu in the first photo and actually walking (yay!!) in the second photo.

More Summer Fun!

2010-06-09T07:55:00.000-05:00

Katie is having the most fun already this summer! Too bad, she probably won't remember it. Oh well, it's a good thing Momma likes to take pictures. :) Last Sunday we headed to the Royals game. It was a perfect day for a ballgame. They played the Detroit Tigers (which Daddy had never seen in all his game attending years) and they won, 7-2!!! Like I said, great game! Katie got a certificate for attending her first game and made it all the way through 4 innings before getting restless, so we strapped her in the stroller and made laps around the stadium with LaLa & PaPa. It was also Build a Polar Bear giveaway day in honor of the new polar bears at the KC Zoo. We can't wait to go see them this summer!

Water Baby

2010-06-01T10:23:00.000-05:00

I took Katie swimming yesterday at LaLa's & PaPa's (my parents) and she loved it!

Sneak Peek

2010-05-29T10:19:00.000-05:00

Katie's 9 month pictures are in. They are so good that I don't know how I'll ever pick which ones to print.... Here are a few of the more artsy pictures. Our photographer got some great pictures of Katie just being Katie though. I'll post a few more later when Doug isn't bugging me to get off the computer.

Sweet Dreams

2010-05-26T23:33:00.002-05:00

I just went in to check on Katie before heading to bed and she was all cuddled up with her seahorse. It was so sweet, I couldn't resist taking a picture. Goodnight!

Good Morning!

2010-05-23T09:39:00.001-05:00

It's going to be a good day, I just know it! Katie woke up in the best mood (see picture!), Doug's making me breakfast and Katie's already down for her morning nap. I'm going to eat breakfast, watch some Movin' Up on TLC and enjoy the start of my day. Hope you all have a great day too!

Katie Can Point & Talk!

2010-05-15T08:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, Katie pointed at our cat, BJ, and said "cah!" Doug and I were unreasonably excited by this. :) In fact, I fear I'm becoming one of those people who only talk about their kid. We were at a party last night and whenever anyone would ask me how I was doing, I'd smile and say fine or whatever, but as soon as they asked about Katie, I pulled out the pictures and started telling them about her latest achievements. I could have talked for hours! Haven't you noticed that most of this blog is about Katie, now?

Now, for some unrelated Katie-ness. Doug made the Honor Roll once again. He had 3 A's & 2 B's. One of those B's was in Spanish, his most challenging class this semester. He worked hard for it though! Katie & I are so proud of him!

Nothing new with me, really. It looks like the next step in our hours reduction at work is going to start sooner than we thought. Either June 1 or July 1. We were really hoping to be able to put it off until after the Summer Reading Program (August 1), but I don't think it is going to work out that way. That's a depressing paragraph I just wrote about my life. See why I like to talk about Katie instead?

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T21:59:00.000-05:00

My first Mother's Day might not have been everything I dreamed it would be...no breakfast in bed or anything like that. It was still a lovely day though. Katie made a cute picture of her handprints for me at her babysitter's and we made handprint bouquets for Katie's grandmas that turned out so cute! Just being with Katie today made me so happy. Who needs breakfast in bed when you've got something this adorable in your life!

Birthday Party

2010-05-08T22:56:00.000-05:00

Here's Katie all dressed and ready to go for cousin Kirsten's 1st Birthday party. We had a great time and it is hard to believe that Kirsten is a year old already! But, but, but...that means that Katie will be a year old in just 12 weeks! That is so not possible.

Well Check & Other

2010-05-06T14:24:00.002-05:00

Katie turned 9 months old on Monday, so that meant it was time for another well check. She would, of course, have to smash her thumb in a toy this morning right before we left. I think the last time we took her in she had a black eye from bonking herself in the face with something. Our parent educator called these the "hard knock months/years."

She was once again proclaimed "perfect & healthy" by the nurse practitioner and all was well. She now weighs 21 pounds and 12 ounces and is 28 1/2 inches tall. She's in the 80th percentile for her weight and the 74th for her height. She's growing and developing completely normally. The RNP did let me know that Katie can start eating more solids and we can start cutting back on her bottles. Yay! Just 3 more months of formula!! :) I did have a concern about her eye. Doug & I (and other family memebers) have been noticing that her left eye seems a little droopy or sleepy. This is especially noticeable in pictures. I sometimes have the same thing and I know mine is due to my left eye being Amblyopic. They were unable to detect anything unusual in her vision at the doctor's office today, but went ahead and scheduled an appointment with an opthmalogist at Children's Mercy just in case. We know from experience that this is something that is better treated earlier rather than later, so it is important that we find out as soon as possible.

In other news, it's finals week for Doug. Things are a little crazy at our house this week, but then he'll be off for for 3 full weeks before hitting the books hard again. He's taking 2 more classes this summer, so he'll stay busy, for sure.

Mother's Day is this weekend (hint, hint!). I can't wait to celebrate on Sunday!

The Very Hungry Katie

2010-05-02T08:19:00.003-05:00

Last night at dinner, Katie ate 1 jar of baby food, several of her baby snacks, 2 small french fries and some shredded cheese...and she was still hungry! :) I told you she was a good eater.

Update: This morning she ate biscuits and gravy. I'm not sure there is anything this girl won't eat!

Livin' the Frugal Life

2010-05-01T10:51:00.004-05:00

Lately, I've been thinking about ways for my family to save money, for several reasons. The first one being that at some point, Doug's unemployment is going to run out and since he's now getting his tuition & other school expenses paid for by VocRehab, we'd really like for him to finish school. Another reason is my uncertain job future. The third reason is when Doug finishes school and finds a job, we'd like to add a new member to our family and I'd like to able to stay home with the kids. Although, more likely, I'll work part-time.

So I'm reading this book and am finding some useful tips. I discovered the author also has a blog, that I'll have to look at as well. Still, this is not the be all/end all book of frugality for me. There's got to be a happy medium between giving up our Starbucks habit (which we don't even have) and making our own soap! Just so you know, we've cut way back on going out to eat (but probably still do it far too often) and plan to get rid of cable in June when our special promotion is up. We also already use the library. :) If your family has a particularly good money saving tip, leave us a comment!

Fixed It!

2010-04-30T21:47:00.000-05:00

And we're back, officially. :) Just had to get rid of an old template that was just messing stuff up, no matter how cute it was. Anyhow, here's a brief update since Thanksgiving.

Doug is just finishing up his second semester of school and doing awesome! Last semester he had a 4.0 GPA and was on the President's Honor Roll. This semester has been a bit more challenging, but he's going to do just fine, with all A's & B's. As of the end of last semester he switched from a Biology-Secondary Education major to a History-Secondary Education major. Either way, he'll be a great teacher & coach.

Katie will be 9 months old on May 3! She has 6 (!) teeth and weighs around 22 pounds!! More recently she has started crawling and pulling up. We've had to put a gate across the entire living room! She also likes to look at her books (yay, says the librarian momma!), play with the kitties, and talk! She's a great eater, not the least bit picky and wants to try everything! :) She's the best thing to ever happen to us and we love watching her grow and learn new things.

I love being a momma, but wish I were home with Katie more. Things at the library aren't going so well these days. The levy increase on the April 6th ballot did not pass and I'm not sure what kind of changes will be in store. Who knows, maybe I'll be back in school with Doug one of these days... I have discovered a new found interest in exercise, mostly due to the fact that I can't really afford to buy new summer clothes and somehow need to be able to fit into the ones from 2 summers ago, so it's exercise time for me. I'm having pretty good success with this DVD.

So that's what we've been up to during this 6 month hiatus. Glad to be back!

Long Time No Post

2010-04-30T21:10:00.000-05:00

It's been 6 months since my last post...yikes! Part of the problem is that our format is all messed up and I'm working on fixing it, but so far nothing is working. I'll keep trying. Here's a picture of our adorable girl in the meantime...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T08:38:00.000-06:00

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Here's what Doug & I are most thankful for:

Picture Time!

2009-09-29T11:26:00.000-05:00

Katie's a Movie Star!

2009-09-22T17:04:00.001-05:00

Click on the picture and then click on it again when it takes you to the next page. Make sure your sound is turned up! :)

Katie 1 Month

1 Month Old

2009-09-03T15:58:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe it's been a month already!

Makeover

2009-08-29T08:51:00.001-05:00

Katie's taking a nap, so this seemed like a good time to make a few quick changes to our blog. You'll see we're no longer waiting for July, we're just the Snider Family now. :)

So here's a brief update. Katie is doing great! She regained her birth weight plus 8 ounces and grew 1.25 inches by her 2 week well check. The pediatrician answered all of our nervous, first time parent questions. She's sleeping okay. Mostly during the day and at night, usually just waking up to eat. Only occasionally does she keep Mommy up past a feeding!

Doug started school this semester. After 2 layoffs in one year, he decided it was time to pursue other options and was able to take advantage of the dislocated workers program that pays his tuition. Yay!! He's decided to major in secondary education. He's had his first week of classes and seems to be enjoying them. Katie & I are so proud of him!

I am on maternity leave and that's about it. Taking care of Katie takes up pretty much all my time. Fortunately I've got some great help. :) One of these days, I'll get around to cleaning my house again, but for now I'm happy to just be keeping up with the laundry!

Well, that's it for us. Katie's still snoozing, so I think there is some bottle washing in my immediate future.

She's Here!!

2009-08-08T14:33:00.001-05:00

Kathryn Clare was born August 3, 2009 at 2:55 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20.5 inches tall. Fortunately, Miss Katie decided she was ready to come out on her own terms and we did not have to induced. The delivery itself went quickly and Katie and Mommy did just great! Mommy & Daddy could not be happier with our new little princess!

Inducing

2009-07-31T19:36:00.000-05:00

Well, the doctor didn't have anything exciting to tell us. Katie apparently really likes it in my womb, but the doctor thinks it is about time for her to make her grand debut. So *if* I don't go into labor on my own by Sunday night, we will go in and start the induction process. I'll spare you all the details, but my doctor thinks that by Monday night, our little girl will be here. Thoughts & prayers for an easy delivery and healthy baby will be much appreciated. The next time I post it will be baby pictures!!

Overdue

2009-07-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

Yep, we're officially overdue. Yesterday was the day. Of course, babies don't know this kind of thing, so what can we really expect? So now we're just waiting until this princess decides to grace us with her presence. We couldn't be more ready for her arrival. My bag is packed (Doug even has stuff to change into in case I go into labor in the middle of the night), her outfit is chosen and the baby laundry is done! We have a doctor's appointment in the morning and hopefully it will be better than last week's. Keep checking in with us. She's got to come out sooner or later!

36 Weeks!

2009-06-30T21:25:00.000-05:00

Pictures!

2009-06-30T07:09:00.000-05:00

To take a peek at the completed nursery, go here.

31 Days...

2009-06-27T07:42:00.000-05:00

My Grandma & Me (31w5d) 6/7/09 at my baby shower.

...until my due date. Wow! Time is flying by! We've been putting the finishing touches on the nursery. It's almost done, just waiting on a few things that have been ordered to arrive. It's really looking cute.

Doug & I attended a one day all inclusive childbirth class in early June. Best money we ever spent! We came away feeling so calm and confident about everything that's coming our way. I hope we can maintain this feeling during the actual birth.

I had my baby shower the day after the class, which was awesome! Mom & Sarah did an excellent job. And the best part were the adorable scrapbook pages everyone made. It will be so fun to actually show Katie who came to celebrate her impending arrival! Everyone was so generous too. We got so much stuff that Doug probably should have brought the truck when he came to pick me up! As it was, we had stuff crammed into every available inch of my car, even my lap. :) We never thought we'd get it all in the nursery, but so far, we've managed to find a place for just about everything!

We're getting caught up on the baby laundry. My mom came and helped one night, and we did 3 loads. You'd think as tiny as baby things are 3 loads would just about do it, but that was really just some clothes, blankets, & sheets. I've done at least 3 more since then and I still have a couple more blankets and another whole load of clothes to do. I'm debating on whether to wash the clothes in the next size up. Opinions?

I had the last of my 2 week/first of my weekly appointments yesterday. I had all the regular checks (I gained 3 pounds in 2 weeks...oops!), my blood pressure was "excellent" and Katie's heart rate is staying consistent at 148-150. Then I had the Group B Strep test and she did an internal exam to check me for dilation and whatnot. Not much to tell. My cervix is softening (sorry, that maybe is TMI), but that's about it. Her head has not made it's way down to my pelvis just yet, but she's staying head down. At this point, we don't want her to turn, because she may not have enough room to get back in the head down position. We talked about how the way her movements are starting to feel different. Dr. V said that at this point, since there isn't as much room, she's doing more rolling and wiggling and less kicks and punches. I can see her roll across my belly and it totally fascinates me. Sometimes I just lift up my shirt and watch my belly. I think it kind of creeps Doug out! He said last night he came to bed and put his hand on my belly and she rolled across it and it was just too weird for him. :) Also, I haven't had any contractions, that I know of. My back's been a little achey, but carrying all that extra weight in the front probably does not help that.

I think that's it. Sorry for the lack of updates! I'll try to stay on top of them better in the next few weeks!

Making Progress

2009-05-26T16:05:00.000-05:00

Doug spent alot of time working on the nursery this weekend. In the first picture he's putting together the shelving unit we got for her room. It turned out great, as you'll see further down.

He also set up the crib, with a little help from his sister-in-law, Becky. Becky & Eric were kind enough to pass down this crib to us. It used to be their oldest son's, but since he's almost 5 now, he doesn't have much use for it anymore! I'm not so sure how thrilled he is about having his new cousin sleep in it though. He's not too crazy about having a girl for a cousin. :) Anyhow, after they put it together I got to have my own little bit of fun. I put up the bumper and the mobile (that I picked up at a garage sale for $10!), just to get an idea of how it would all look. And Saturday morning when we were at Sam's Club, after showing Doug the adorable rug, he ran back and got it for me just as we were leaving. Mom & I picked it out a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't so sure that was what I was wanting. But, I'm so glad I got it. It looks so cute with the bedding and the price was excellent. It fits perfectly in front of her crib. And you really can't see it in the picture, but the wall next to her crib is where the quilt is going to hang. And I want to get this to put above her crib. I love that it is vinyl and so totally removable, not to mention that there will be nothing heavy hanging over her. So many cute things to do! :)

We also decided for the sake of utilizing as much space as possible, to remove the closet doors. I promise it won't look nearly this messy in the future, but it seemed like a good spot to put the bookcase and it doesn't look half bad, minus the fact that we didn't get the top of the closet painted! Oh well, there's still time for that. Or maybe I'll just some cute baskets to put up there. :) Once we get the dresser, alot of the stuff on the shelves will be put away and we'll use it for what it was really intended for, books! :) Doesn't it look cute though? Doug still plans to attach it to the wall though, so there'll be no chance of Katie pulling it down or anything like that when she starts climbing.

New window treatment, I had a yellow sheer up there, but it wasn't quite the right shade, it was a little muddy. This white really brightens things up and the light that filters through is cleaner. The changing table (also a garage sale find) is actually on its way to get a paint job. You may have noticed it is a little darker than the finish on the rest of the furniture, so my mom has agreed to paint it for us. But for now, it's doing it's job holding diapers and other assorted items.

That's what we've got for now. We still need to find a chair and get the dresser and then we'll be just about set. Not bad with 9 weeks to go!

28 Weeks 5 Days

2009-05-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

Practicing

2009-05-13T20:20:00.000-05:00

No belly picture today. My mom took one of me on Mother's Day, but it's on her camera. I'll post it if she emails it to me. :) But, I won't leave you without a picture!

Mom & Dad found a snugli last weekend at a garage sale and when we got it home, Doug decided he ought to try it out. Unfortunately, BJ was the guinea pig...er...cat. :)
Poor BJ, he's obviously not thrilled! Let's hope Katie likes it better! :D

26 Weeks 5 days

2009-04-26T17:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry, it's been so long since I've posted a picture. Doug's not a very willing photographer, so my mom took this one while we were over there earlier today. My last doctor's appointment was Thursday. I had to do the glucose screening test, which I passed and Katie's heart rate was 155 bpm. Doctor says I'm measuring right on schedule and she gave me lots of paperwork on childbirth classes and parenting classes. It's all starting to become very real, very quickly. :)

We're making some progress on getting things done around the house. Doug painted our room, and got the door hung last week. It looks great. This week, he's going to start working on Katie's room. I also found an adorable crib set (comforter, bumper & sheet) at Once Upon a Child for $10!! Looks practically new and really, considering you can't use the comforter (I'm going to use it as a wall hanging) and her bumper won't be there for long I'm happy to pay that. Especially considering everything else I was looking at was $50 and up. I'll post some pictures once we get started.

Time For an Update

2009-03-28T10:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't posted much more than pictures lately, so I thought I'd type up a little update this morning. Things are still going well. I had another doctor's appointment this week. Everything was great. Katie's heart rate was 150 and the doctor said I was measuring fine. I finally gained a little weight this month, 6 pounds. I'm up to 9 pounds total since I got pregnant.

We're starting to get things organized around the house and ready to paint bedrooms soon. We're switching bedrooms, so that Katie will have the warmer of the 2 rooms. We've got paint for her room already (thanks, mom & dad!) and I've been looking at a couple different bedding (another option) sets that I might want for her room. I guess I should run these past Doug first, to see what he thinks, but I imagine he's going to be fine with it. He's not putting up much of a fuss at all this girly stuff.

I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable at night and so is poor Doug. I've got myself surrounded by pillows and between that and my belly, I take up a decent portion of the bed. Too bad we already took down our guest bed! Oh well, we keep telling ourselves it is only temporary and it will be worth it in the end.

22 Weeks

2009-03-24T11:31:00.000-05:00

It's a Girl!!

2009-02-26T22:00:00.000-06:00

We went to our sonogram today and were pleasantly surprised to find out that we're having a GIRL! We're still in shock. We really thought it was going to be a boy. But, everything looked good and if everything goes as planned we'll have a sweet little girl at the end of July.