Christmas is Coming

Christmastime has taken on a completely new level of fun with a 2-year-old in the mix. She has wanted to be involved in every aspect, from setting up the Christmas tree to hanging the advent calendar (and taking the candies out each day to inspect how many are left), to reminding us which presents under the tree are for her. We've even worked in a few catechism questions that she can answer: 

"What happened on Christmas?" 

"Jesus was born!!"

"Where was he born?" 

"In a TABLE!!" ("No, Lu, a STABLE, not a table...") 

"Who came to worship him?"

 "Three wise men kings!"

 She understands so much more than I thought she would about Christmas, and I love guiding her into even greater understanding of who Jesus is and His unending love for her. 

She's becoming more and more rambunctious every day. Most days at our house involve a lot of ballerina dancing (to the nutcracker music), long stretches of bouncing on the bed, and a lot of running and jumping onto the couch. She is definitely not a snuggler, so we love those rare moments where she'll pause and give us some love. Even if it's just a quick butterfly kiss:

Lucy might be loving this Christmas season, but someone had to pay the price for all that fun: 

Lucy even shed a few tears for penguin's broken foot. But she got over it pretty quick.

Here's a shot through our kitchen into the dining room:

And of course little girl number 2 has been working hard too, getting fatter and longer by the day. Here I am at 27 weeks:

She is just as wild (if not wilder) than Lucy was in utero. I love how constant and unrelenting her little kicks are. They're actually getting less "little" these days, but I still love the reassurance that she's alive and well in there. And I can't believe we'll get to meet her in a few months!

Fall Weather Part 2 and a Baby Bump

Since I didn't have any pictures to go with the lentil soup recipe, I thought I'd post a few from yesterday when Lucy and I were out enjoying some beautiful fall weather:

And here's a shot of Lu admiring our fall porch decor, with our gigantic white pumpkin in the background:

Some pretty baby curls:

Dancing in the street with mama:

And, I actually snapped a shot of my baby belly! Okay it's not great and my face is hidden, but at this point it's better than nothing! This was 22 weeks. I promise I will get Joel to take a better one sometime in the near future. But now you know I'm not making this up! There really is a baby in there (and she's a kicker). 

Fall Weather Fever: Lentil Soup

There are so many things I love about fall, but making lots of soup is very, very high up on that list.

I don't have a picture to accompany this post because I haven't made dinner for tonight yet, but this recipe was given to me by a good friend, and it has become one of our favorite soup recipes. I included her parenthetical notes because they make me chuckle when I'm preparing this soup.

So here it is:

Jill's Lentil Soup Recipe

2 tsps oil
2 onions diced
3 carrots grated
3/4 tsp marjoram
3/4 tsp thyme
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes w/juice
7 cups broth (if you use chicken broth then it's like it has meat in it..)
1 1/2 cups lentils- rinsed and picked over
1/2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp pepper
6 ounces dry white wine (guzzle the rest while the soup simmers)
1/3 cup chopped parsley
4 ounces shredded cheese (we usually use cheddar)

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan and saute onion, carrots, marjoram and thyme. About 5 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes, broth and lentils. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 1 hour.
3. Add salt, pepper, and wine. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve with cheese and parsley on top.

I do have one side note and that is that I often am too lazy to buy parsley and since Joel is not a big cheese fan, we usually don't serve this dish with cheese and parsley on top. I imagine it tastes even better that way, but it is still so yummy without!

Happy Halloween!

This year we have a little Minnie Mouse to take trick-or-treating:

Last year we had a Piglet. Look at the difference one year makes!

I won't get weepy on you. I promise. 

This was the first year where Lucy has had an opinion on her outfit, and since she's a big fan of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, she was thrilled to dress up as Minnie.

These pictures are actually from our trip to Moscow where our old church had their annual Fall Carnival. It's so fun to have TWO events to dress your child up for instead of just one.  I haven't decided yet if I'll take the camera with us when we go out trick-or-treating at 5th Street Market later. It is raining and I like to have my hands available to hold Lu lu, but we'll see! 

If not I at least have her costume memorialized on our blog. I found the dress at a thrift store in Portland, and my mom found the ears at Goodwill and she made that bow. Isn't it adorable? I love how large it is, it's just like Minnie's, and it makes her look so cute.

I didn't get any good pictures from the fall carnival, it was pretty chaotic although Lucy had a blast. But I did manage to snap this one which I think is awfully cute. Lucy and her nana.

And here's some holiday decor to wrap up the post! Happy Halloween!

Paramedic Papa

Lucy is a girl who revels in her "owies." She likes to find them, point them out, and then talk about them a lot. Even if it's just a little piece of dirt that has landed on her skin, she comes running up to me asking, "My Owie?" So on our most recent trip to Moscow, Papa decided to dig out his old ski patrol first aid kit and take care of all of Lucy's owies.  

First he wrapped one leg and splinted an arm. She didn't care much for the splint, but was thoroughly pleased with one wrapped leg and requested the other one be wrapped as well. 

So Papa dutifully wrapped the other leg: 

And Lucy was magically "all better!" At least for the rest of the evening. 

It was a lot of fun for Lu-lu. We think she enjoyed it a lot more than the cats did back when Papa used to practice on them. 

We have a 2 year old!

Lucy's birthday was last week but we celebrated it on Saturday when we could have a full-out party with family there. Lucy has a book about birthday parties, and so in the days leading up to her party she was very interested in the influx of balloons, crepe paper, and carnival-themed decorations. She kept asking very pointed questions: "MY party? People coming? BALLOONS??" It was adorable. And she did have a blast.

We went with a carnival theme for our animal loving gal, and my mom and I spent a fun day scouring the dollar store, Walmart, and Michaels for thrifty party decorations. 

Here was our part decor/part entertainment elephant stand that I drew and my dad nailed to some boards for the kids to throw balls through:

And here's the food table! 

We had popcorn, cupcakes, animal crackers and animal cookies.

Mom and I scrapped the idea of decorating cupcakes in the shape of animals, and instead found some cute wooden animals that we stuck on sticks at Michaels. Much easier and still so cute!

We set up a kid's activity table with colored pencils, stickers, puzzles and coloring sheets:

And of course, every two year old loves balloons and party blowers:

The kids opted for chowing down on popcorn first

But they also spent a good deal of time with the stickers

And the party blowers: 

And even a bit of the elephant stand game:

Lucy loved having everyone sing her happy birthday

And she is still talking about that cupcake:

Lucy said goodbye to her guests through the elephant stand:

It was a fabulous afternoon, and we're really grateful for the 2 years God has given to our spunky, beautiful little girl. Happy Birthday Lucy!

For Grandma and Grandpa

Others might find this video entertaining as well, but I figured that since Grandma and Grandpa Cohen haven't gotten a chance to hear Lucy sing the itsy-bitsy spider song, they would particularly love this clip. That is, if they don't develop vertigo from my child's insane energy bursts. I am partially to blame for that: Joel is on a business trip and this pregnant mama is not nearly as good at rough-housing with our antsy two-year-old as dada. The energy had to go somewhere.