DH has been working very hard on the comments spamming I have been getting. Our plan is to have the newest 3 entries accept comments. A blog without comments is just a journal, right?! 😉

In celebration of “Delurking Week” (Jan 7-13), please leave a message! Questions, comments, topics, etc. are all welcome and appreciated! Can we beat last year’s number???
Update- ARGH… looks like comments aren’t working correctly. I’m working on it!
Update 2- Ok!!! Lay ’em on me!

Andy beat out 3 day old Brendan in the Sneezes Contest this morning. First place- 7 sneezes in a row!!! Haha. He tried his first few bites of a meat too- Apples and Chicken. He loved it. The small stage 1 foods are just not enough anymore- even mixed with cereal.
Bren solved his first “Blue’s Clues” riddle (that I know of) today before they solved it on the show.
Clues:
UP
DARK SKY
FLASHING LIGHTS
FIREWORKS!!! YAY!!
I think AF and BF have been duking it out. I’ve been low on milk the last 2 days. I think it is coming back now though. Apparently I am very affected by hormonal changes. This seems to happen about once a month. I hope BF wins!!! LOL.
And I passed up my 2 year Blogiversary in November! Go me! 😀

Now that I have a minute to breathe, I have a minute to post something other than pictures…
Christmas was good. It is always nice to not be responsible for much more than the care of my kids. The presents were fantastic. The in-laws always go all-out. I got a Kitchen Aid food processor and a Celphalon multi-pot (with veggie steamer and pasta inserts). DH got a new camera (Kodak Z710, we loooove it). Bren got a variety of toys and Andy got a few toys and a lot of diapers.
Bren’s musical repertoire includes 3 carols now- Jingle Bells from last year plus I’m Getting Nothing for Christmas and Feliz Navidad and a line or two from We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
He has become Mr. Silly lately, especially with his obsession with people’s names. He’ll ask me my name and I’ll tell him and he’ll invariably argue about it and tell me my first name is Sebastian (a la Little Mermaid) or it is Mom, not Jen. He calls DH Darrell instead of Daddy cuz it gets his goat. His own name is Brendan “Potty” Hxxxx. Love that middle name. LOL. And for some reason he calls a bottle of water a “Dega Seca Doo Dad Water”. Haha.
As for Andy, he now gives kisses. He is delightfully ticklish along his sides too. He mostly nurses to sleep (though he can be bounced to sleep on a knee) but when you put him down he needs to hold the edge of a blankie to replace my shirt and a pacifier to replace me before he’ll settle down. Don’t take too long getting these either! 😉 He is totally a pacifier baby now.
He is just now starting stage 2 baby food with fruit and veggie combos. I still mix them with either rice or oatmeal or on an odd day a spoonful of yogurt. He gets one meal in the afternoon and occassionally demands a few bites if he sees us eating supper. He loves eating and seems to enjoy just about everything right now.
He is really growing and some of his 6-9 month sleepers are getting small. It seems like we just started this size!!! He wears size 3 pampers but often blows out of them. Yuck. THAT is a disadvantage of breastfeeding. Oh, and he drools incessantly.

I’d kill for a tall frozen fruity alcoholic something or other… but I’ll settle for good mongolian barbeque. This time. 😉 Happy New Year!



Oh yeah… almost forgot those pesky resolutions…
#1 Lose 40 pounds… had to have a weight loss goal! It’s tradition!
#2 Organize my house so it doesn’t look cluttered all the time and everything has it’s place to go. And keep it that way.

Good bye 2006! It’s been a damn fine year!

I can’t believe I made it- here it is the night before we leave for Christmas and I have just a few items left to do. Mainly, packing suitcases and addressing areas I don’t want to leave to stew for 10 days (Ewww- Can we say empty the diaper pail??).
I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and I’ll see y’all in January!! Have some merry desserts while you’re at it!!

I call this photo “Bite the big one”. LOL.
5 Minute Any Flavor Fudge (you go Rachel Ray)
Melt 2 bags any flavor chips in saucepan. Stir in 1 can condensed milk and 1 t vanilla or other flavoring. Stir in nuts or dried fruit if desired. Pour into a pan and allow to cool in fridge for 30 minutes. Make in a wreath shape for the holidays by pouring into a round cake pan with the empty condensed milk can (wrapped in plastic wrap) in the center. Do not spread the wreath smooth- it looks better chunky.
We made cinnamon chip peanut fudge!!! Yu-ummm!

Andy now plays with and grabs at his feet, watches tv with Brendan and keeps looking at and for Brendan. He thinks he’s a riot! He scooches around on floor and doesn’t stay in same place or direction you put him in. He also swats sideways at the toy steering wheel on his swing to move it and can even honk the horn. He has been sitting upright in the swing for about a week now.
Whadda big boy!!!

Make sweet potato pie!
To 1 baby container sweet potatoes add 1 small pinch pumpkin pie spice and 1 pinch sugar. Thicken with oatmeal cereal.
Andy LOVES it! 😛

But I have to write down a cute thing Bren said tonight:
DH: “Let’s go bye-bye, Brendan.”
Bren: “We’re not going bye-bye. We’re going outside to see all my friends from the Hundred Acre Wood. Let’s go!” [Note: our Christmas decorations are Pooh themed].
Wow! Far cry from “Come on Anthony, let’s play in the snow!”- the 8 word sentence I recorded last January, 11 months ago.
Brendan is totally loving Christmas!!!
*****
Andy is nearing the 4 month mark rapidly. He tried both avocado (Wheeee! More please!) and sweet potatoes (Eh.) today. I mix just about everything up with rice or oatmeal and he definitely prefers fruits. I wonder if he’d like the veggies more if I didn’t thicken them up.
Andy is getting into the pacifier now and likes to choke himself on his own fingers. He is really into little stuffed animals, especially this little purple puppy of his. Mostly he likes to talk and interact with people. We just switched to 6-9 month clothes and size 3 Pampers cruisers. He breastfeeds about 5 times during the day and once or twice at night.
*****
DH and I have been making Oreo and candy cane barks and Alton Brown’s pinwheel chocolate/peppermint candy swirled cookies for his coworkers. Tomorrow that’ll be done with and a big check mark on my “to do” list. It’s been hectic but fun.
***We’re going to be on tv!! Watch us on “Over the Top Christmas” airing on HGtv. First showing is December 17th at 8 pm central.***