Snow and cookies

Today was a good day. I was up a bit late due to Josh getting in late, my cold and reading a good book, so when Bella got up at 6am, I was worried it was going to be a bad day.  I finished my book while Bella got to get in some important PBS kids TV.

Josh came in and made breakfast. We then all got ready to go outside, him to go to work and Bella and I to just play. It wasn’t too cold and only lightly snowing, so Bella and I played in the “back yard” by her playhouse and outside climber thing. She had a blast with that. I had fun playing with the cats and Cole. He loves when we get to play outside. We eventually made to the barn for me to do chores. They went quickly for once. Of course since I did them so early in the morning, i couldn’t set up the milk house yet.  next stop was up to see the calves. One of them is sick and didn’t make it. Well she was still alive when we went up.  We also checked on Baby Sue.  Bella misses her in the barn.

After we got done with the calves, we started to head back to the house. I decided to shovel the cement part of our driveway. Bella even got in to it. She had a blast with her shovel. Then she figured out that the big snow pile in our front yard was hard packed snow she could climb. She had a blast.

We came back in and it was nap time. Bella went down pretty easily. While she napped, i did some pick up and then decided to work on organizing my pictures. I got all of 2010 sorted out by months :) Now i can hopefully start setting out some scrapbook pages.

Right before Bella woke up, I put lunch in the oven to cook, so when she woke up it was almost ready.  So after a bit of playing(to let her food cool down), we had chicken nuggets and french fries. Then after we were done eating, we decided to have some fun.  We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Bella had fun. We used the kitchen aid mixer and she thought it was the coolest thing. I let her even put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet.  I love watching her figure out new stuff. It also reminds me of being a little kid and cooking with my mom.

By the time the cookies were all done, Josh was on his way home.  We then spend some time together while Josh and I checked out the mail. Bella was all over Josh. She really misses him when we are home all day and he’s gone to work.  He had to go out and do some stuff on the farm while I cooked supper and Bella got to watch a little afternoon Diego.  After supper it was out to milk and me to clean up. I got the all the rooms vacumed and picked up the kitchen.

when Josh and bella got in, we decided to watch Wipeout as a family while Bella’s bath was getting ready. She really enjoyed it. Probably not the best show for her, but it’s still fun.. Then it was bath and bed. Josh put her to bed and she went down way quicker than when I do. Praying for her to sleep all night!

back to normal

Today felt like a normal day, something that I haven’t felt in a long time. Bella didn’t alert us to her being up in the middle of the night, so Josh and I got full nights of sleep. She did wake up and eat some candy in bed and clear off her bookshelf. 

We had breakfast and then got ready for the day.  Josh was heading off to work, so we headed off to the library early. I took my netbook with. I didn’t think anyone would be early too, so I thought i could get some internet time in. Bella had fun playing on the computers.  I was able to upload my pictures from the last week and half and finish up a blog post. It was great. i think I might have to visit the library more often with my net book. :) A few of our friends were at the library too, so we got to hang out too.

After we left the library with some new books to read, we went to Kwik Trip to fill up the gas tank. We also ran inside to get a snack. Bella loves getting string cheese and i got a Grilled cheese.  Then it was off to home. Bella of course wanted a snack, even thought she had fallen asleep on the way home. So I left her finish her breakfast and off to bed she went. Naturally she wouldn’t go to sleep. We keep trying and finally about an hour and half later she went to sleep.

while she slept i was able to get some work done and have a bit of time for me.  I decided to go to a cleaning schedule in hopes to keep up better with the house work. I worked so hard to de-clutter most of the house(still not done yet) so now i want to keep it clean. So my goal today was to clean up the bedrooms. I got my room and the office done. Then i managed to get the rest of the laundry put folded and put away, and cleaned up the kitchen. While doing this i caught up on my DVR and read for about 30 minutes before Bella woke up. 

Once Bella got up, she got a snack/lunch.  Then it was time to head outside to do barn chores. I quickly threw chicken to bake in the oven while we went out so that way it would be done in time for Josh to be home.  Bella had fun playing outside in the snow while I worked on pushing up feed and scraping the walk. We then went for a walk up by the calves to see Baby Sue, who managed to get out of her hut.  Bella  had fun playing in the snow up there, since it’s so untouched.  Next i moved on to setting up the milk house. By the time i was done with that Bella was ready to head in the house.

We got in the house and Josh arrived home a few minutes later. We sat down for supper and decided that i could run to Aldi’s to get some food staples. Bella and Josh went out ot milk and I went to the store. I had a budget and stuck to it. I got a bunch of food in about 20 mins. Then i decided to run to Dick’s and get some meat and a couple other things that were on sale and stuck to my budget there too! I was really impressed with myself.  Another goal for 2011 is to get a budget and stick to it!

On my way home I got stuck behind the fire department and by an accident so that slowed me down getting home, but worked out in the long run, since Josh and Bella were just finishing up milking.  Together as a family we unloaded and put away all the new food. Bella was so excited to see the new foods i got her.  She got a bunch of snacks, but hopefully it will keep her sleeping all night. 

Bella went to be pretty easily then Josh and I watched a bit of tv before he went out to fix feed.

It was a great day and i hope to have more like it!

Blizzard!!!

Since I'm trapped at my mom's I figured I could blog a bit.  Bella and I have been here since THURSDAY! We wanna go home! As I type this Josh is on his way,but it's very slow going, and I think our trip home will be the same, but I wanna go home!
Anyhow. Here's a recap of hte last 5 days!!

On Thursday, Mom came to get me and Bella in the morning before the snow came. We got to Watertown about one, and by 1;30 the snow started to fall. I left Bella with mom and ran to Vinny's and walgreens to pick up some last minute stuff. Btw I love Watertown's St Vincent de Paul and wish there was one closer to me! The snow was coming down pretty heavy by the time I got back to mom's, but we needed to get to Pick N Save. So as soon as I got to her house, we loaded up Bella and quickly ran to the store. The store was out of most of the stuff we need, go figure. We were shopping for cookie supplies. 20 mins later we are checking out and the snow is making everything white and what I thought blizzard looking.  Drive back home and we are done for the night. Bella got to watch Max and Ruby and went to be early. We had a busy day for Friday, so to bed early for us!

On Friday, Bella acutally slept until 5;30 and then come and slept with me until 7am! She hasn't slept with me in ages! Then we got up and started the day. Dar came over and we celebrated christmas with her. Bella got new clothes, and bunch of wooden playfood! She also got a TinkerBell statue on a wind up music box, and she is in love with it! That Tink she winds up and watches it go around and repeats. I got some gardening stuff and kitchen stuff..all things we need :) 
After we open everything up, we headed in to Mayfair mall. I haven't been there in AGES!!  Bella did pretty good at the mall. She had her moments,  but I think they were mostly due to we don't do the mall much and she had no nap! My mom was going to take her to sit on Santa's lap,but Bella didn't want to get close to him. she liked looking from afar. Guess she really is my kid. ;)  We ate lunch in the food court, mostly burger king which was so SLOW! 
On our way back, we stopped at Carroll, so I could drop off something for Dr. P. I made him a little box to keep some of the toys in his office. I also dropped off an xmas card for him. I took Bella to his office with me, and we had a good little visit.  Dar and mom were waiting for us, so we didn't stay too long. The next stop was the outlet mall, to find boots for bella. I swore i had two pairs of size 8, but I can only find one, so i wanted another pair for when she really makes one "barn boots"  I hate cleaning cow poop/mud off her boots. Bella still hadn't napped yet, so yeah she was not having much more. So after one stop there, we headed back home. Bella fell asleep on the 10 mins trip back to watertown, but then wouldn't go down in her crib back at mom's.  So mom went off to the store and bella and I went to play outside. She loved the snow! I'm gald she was able to enjoy it even if we weren't home.
That night, My mom watched Bella and I headed over to Tori's to visit with her and attempt to help her get ready for the christmas party. I wasn't much help, as I had already over done it with bella during the day.  It was a nice visit though.
Saturday started with watching the weather. Apprently Blizzard 2010 was coming but no one knew when, where or how much. So our whole day was last minute choices. In the morning, Bella and I went to Ella's 2nd Birthday party. Bella had a good time playing with Ella and Ronin. She did pretty good with the new people too.  At one we headed out and I called mom to make the call if we were going to bake cookies at my sister's.  At that moment it wasn't doing anything but cloudy, So off we went. We got to delefield and the rain started. It rained the whole 2 hours we were there. We did mange to get a bunch of cookies made too! Bella was having fun with Drew and Sara and helping to make cookies too. I think next year she will be helpful too. As we headed home, the rain turned to  a rain snow mix. UGH! thankfully we were on a not so busy road and mom was driving. We forgot eggs at Tracey's so we stopped at a gas station on the way back into Watertown, then hunker down at home. 
While we were at home, the rain snow changed to all snow and it got me thinking about what to do for the christmas party the next day. The blowing snow they were calling for and Blizzard warnings worried me about everyone traveling to Lake Mills..which most of us were in watertown.  So at 8 or so that night, we made the call to move the Party to watertown, back at John and hannah's. So i went to bed praying it wouldn't be as bad as the thought.
I was Wrong, when i got up at 6am(before Bella, no less) i couldn't see out my window as the snow was stuck to the window. It was pretty nasty out. My mom tried to shovel her driveway, tehre wasn't much snow, 4 inchs maybe, but it was so wet and heavy, that we got the snow plow guy to do it. They did plow her road and so it gave me hope for traveling in town.  I made a quick trip to walmart since we had made the call that i would be in watertown until Monday. The roads were iffy on the way there. Walmart wasn't to busy but only one check out lady. So by the time i got done there, it was time to get home, load up and pick up Court.
I got Court and slowly headed over to John and Hannah's and I mean slowly!
Once we got there, we had a great time. It was a very small group with 8 adults and 4 kids (5,2.5,almost 2 and 1). There was a lot of laughter, conversation, and food!  We did miss those who were stuck in different towns due to snow, and hopefully next year we won't have this problem!   By the time we left the party, things were looking better, as  least in town. So Bella and I played outside a bit. Then we made cookie! bella did a good job too!  After supper, Mom watched and put Bella to bed so that I could go down and visit Court for a bit.  WE had fun playing Guitar hero! I hope santa brings me one for xmas!

Today has been spend waiting to go home.. When i Started this Josh was on his way to get us, his 2 hour drive was 2.5 hours. We ate lunch and then he did a couple things for my mom. Then it was on the road to home. The roads were good until Barnveld, then they got bad again. We managed to get about 15 mins from home when Bella threw up everything she ate for the day. So we have been dealing with that tonight. I pray it's a 24 hour thing and she is better by tomorrow! So it took us 3 hours to get home.  But we are home and look for Pictures from this weekend to come this week :)

Cooking with Bella

Every week I try to at least once let Bella help me cook something. We’ve made Mac N Cheese, (both box and homemade), pizza, rice crispy treats, jello and now chocolate pudding pie. She really got into this one.

 

This is just getting started…and saying “cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese” for me. She says it forever til i take the picture

Stirring, and stirring…she loved that part. she also didn’t want me to help at all!

 

I switched to the whisk to get it to mix up better, she shortly took that over too

 

She loved cleaning out the bowl and the whisk

 

Eating her creation!

Cooking with Mom

So the other day I needed to make Lunch and naturally I didn’t get to do it while Bella was sleeping and Josh was out working on the farm. So Bella got to help me. I decided to make homemade Mac n Cheese aka not from the box.  I filled a pot of water and placed it on the stove for hte water to start boiling. Bella’s job was to put noodles into another pot from the bag of noodles in the cupboard.

Digging into the bag

Noodles in the pot

 

Good Job Bella!

While the water was boiling I shredded my new Organic Valley Reduced Sodium Cheddar cheese. Bella got to eat the stuff that was too hard to shred.

After that she was kind of done cooking since it all required hot pot, stove, or water.

So she got to enjoy some strawberries :)