happy new year!

wishing everyone a safe and happy 2007!

ppprrrressssents!!!!

some pictures of the kids opening their christmas presents. thank you everyone for your generous gifts!

merry christmas!

thinking of you all who are far from us and wishing a you a wonderful christmas. we miss you all!

i found these while i was organizing our photos. they are so funny!

good day today

i wish i could tell emma how getting enough sleep helps her be in a much happier mood which in turn makes me in a happier mood. today was a good day all around. she got 3 naps in today totaling about 4 hours (i hope this trend lasts...but i'm not getting my hope up), and she was just in a good mood all day. usually she's a bit fussy in the late afternoon because she doesn't take long enough naps. we got a bunch of errands done, played, read some books, and she really enjoyed her dinner tonight. she's loving the spoon, and loving shoving her fingers in her mouth mid-eating so that the food proceeds to smear all over her face, hands, and whatever she touches afterwards (notice cereal on face in picture as a result of the aforementioned action).

6 months!

hi everyone! these are just some pictures of me from last week when i turned 6 months. so far, i like being 6 months, though i don't think it feels any different. the one thing i like is being able to eat foods (even though they're all mushed up) and not just drink my mama's milk. i've already tried sweet potatoes and carrots, and i think my mama is going to have me try peas and prunes (i don't know about those prunes...but i guess it will keep me regular). also, my daddy has given me cookies, which i really, really like. i sure hope he keeps giving me those...just don't let mama catch us! i also like being able to sit up and play with things instead of always being on my tummy or my back, although i do like to lift up my butt when i'm on my tummy to see if i can get on my hands and knees. it's a lot of work so i don't like to do it for too long. bye for now!
love,
emma

another year, another cookie day

we had cookie day today at our house (like last year). in attendance this year was gram, aunt corrie, prasti and emma (she mostly taste tested the icing and gnawed on a sugar cookie). we made a lot of cookies...3 batches of chocolate chip, 2 batches of peanut butter and oatmeal raising, 4 batches of sugar cookies, 2 or 3 batches of almond bark, 2 batches of cream cheese cookies...talk about cookie overload!!! we also made some special, personalized sugar cookies for aaron to take to work. apparently it was a hit last year. now, the only thing left to do is eat them all!

we love lefse!

hooray! today we received a special package in the mail. inside, there were 3 packages (1 lb. each...yum, yum) of DELICIOUS lefse. tyler was so excited he wanted to eat some right away. but no...we did not eat any until after dinner. aahhh, it was so good! Freddy's Lefse is the best lefse we've ever had. Thank you ibu and grandpa john for sending it to us.

waiting for christmas to come

FedEx...can I be your poster child?

this is emma modeling a very stylish FedEx beanie hat. you can find more fashionable FedEx gear at the online store (cute baby not included).

theory disproved...and some other stuff

i should have known that my theory was wrong (see last post). after she woke up from her AM nap that day of 1.5 hrs. her 1st afternoon nap only lasted 30 min. so i guess, i don't know what's going on. then today, she woke up at 6:15 am, ate and went back to sleep until 8:15 am. just when i think i'm starting to figure things out...ha, ha, ha...too good to be true.

we got our christmas tree on sunday at good ol' home depot. not as big as last year, but it's not crooked! it looks beautiful, and the smell has just overtaken the downstairs living space...yum! it's always fun to dig out all of the ornaments and decorate the tree while blaring christmas music on the stereo.

lastly, it finally started snowing today. after a couple of weeks of mild weather (in the 60s) it is now in the 30s (night lows in the 20s) with wind chill of 11 degrees...yuck! granted the snow is pretty and perfect for christmas, but after that it would be best if it could all just melt away. tyler wanted to ride his bike to school today, but we told him he couldn't because of the snow. i wonder if someone out there makes snow tires for bikes...but that's just crazy. it's too cold to ride a bike right now, although it's hard to get that through tyler's head sometimes. talk about a die-hard cyclist!

nap breakthrough (I hope)

sleeping peacefully (i'd like to think that the crying that took place before this was all worth it...but doesn't seem so when she only sleeps for 30 minutes!)






i think we may have had an afternoon nap breakthrough. for the past 2 months, emma has developed a stellar morning nap (sleeping 2-2.5 hours on average) though her 2 afternoon naps only last 30-35 min. (that's why i make her take a 3rd one much to her protest). at first, i thought the reason why she slept so well in the morning was because she slept in our bed, which is much more comfortable than a crib mattress and smells like mommy & daddy. however, on 3 occassions now, she has slept for 1-1.5 hours for her 1st afternoon nap-in her crib! what does this mean?? i don't know, but i'm excited (because she's much more pleasant when she can get a long afternoon nap in). my theory is that it's a combination of her getting older and allowing her to sleep for only 1.5 hours max in the morning. she's taking her morning nap right now. dare i wake her if she goes past the 1.5 hour mark? part of me wants to try, but part of me enjoys the 2.5 hours of "me" time (a.k.a catching up on cleaning, bill paying and other house related chores time) in the morning. hmmm....
~prasti~

Christmas gift ideas

for Tyler

for Emma

for Prasti (and some for Aaron too)

our kids are a blessing from God...

thanksgiving day

jon & jenna hosted thanksgiving this year at their house. there was tons of food and all of it was delicious. emma couldn't get enough of the sweet potatoes after trying them for the first time, and tyler managed to use what looked like a whole can of whipped cream on his pie. to those family and friends who we could not be with this year, we miss you and hope your thanksgiving was as fulfilling (ha, ha) as ours!

a visit from aunt janie

these were from last week when aunt janie (aaron's aunt) flew in from atlanta to visit for the week. it was so nice to see her again!

mama & daughter

so i just took these one day when i was really bored and had too much time on my hands (actually that's not true-i never have enough time to complete the things that need to get done, i just procrastinate).

hanging out with my big brother is sooooo cool!

a little late, i know...

finally! i posted more pictures from our pumpkin carving on our website. there was a couple more i wanted to put up, but for some reason it wasn't uploading. maybe i'll try again later. enjoy them! ~prasti~

first foods!

we started emma on rice cereal just last week and she is really taking to it. obviously she still needs some practice keeping it all in her mouth....





BEFORE...








AFTER...

is your nose running? better go catch it!

'tis the inevitable runny nose/cough/cold season and the only person in our house that has safely avoided this fate is aaron. tyler got it first, then me (prasti), now poor emma just got it today. she did not nap well at all today because she couldn't breathe right, and i'm hoping this does not impact her night sleep too much. it's so sucky to see a baby with nasal congestion, runny nose and a cough, because we can't explain to them what's wrong and what they can do to help clear up all that congestion. i can tell you she DOES NOT enjoy the nasal spray or the snot sucker (a.k.a. nasal aspirator). would you enjoy getting a tube stuck up your nose only to find that's it's going to vacuum your brains out (that was a slight exagerration)?~prasti~

my tired state...

i have accepted the fact that i will be living in a somewhat tired state until all our kids are grown and out of the house. sleeping late to find time for ourselves and waking early to attend to the kids is not conducive to a well rested mommy and daddy, but it's well worth it for our children. then i was thinking that maybe aaron & i will begin to get some decent rest again when the kids get a little older (like teenagers), but by that age we'll probably still be in a tired state from staying up late worrying why it's past curfew and they're not home. then again, our kids are never going to be allowed out of the house past sunset once they're teenagers so we won't have anything to worry about *wink, wink*.

trick or treat

tyler as nightwing batman (i think) before he went out trick or treating this year. he got lots of candy, so aaron & i have been helping him eat it. i bought 6 bags of candy this year (last year i only bought 4) thinking it would be enough...but no. once again, i had to dig through tyler's old candy stash so i had enough to give out. that was still not enough (plus i didn't want to use up all of tyler's candy) so i finally had to put up a sign saying we were out of candy. crazy! especially since we only got 1 or 2 trick or treaters total while we were in seattle. we always have tons of kids on our street, and it's always fun to see the different costumes-homemade ones are the best!

what's with the controversy??

while at babies r us, i picked up the november issue of babytalk and happened to read the readers' comments page. it was all about the magazine's last cover photo of a baby breastfeeding. apparently, it was a controversial picture, because there was a "bare" side-view of a breast with a baby sucking on it. there were only a small handful of negative comments on the reader's comments page all talking about how disgusting it was and how disgusting and inappropriate it is to breastfeed in public. one comment i read from a lady said it was pornographic...ha, ha, ha!!! how can a picture depicting the utilitarian use of the breast be pornographic???? and yet these same women who are disgusted by the photo on the cover, make no comments about breasts being displayed in a sexual manner through the media (think Victoria Secret ads or Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition). If a picture of a breastfeeding baby is "inappropriate" then those Victoria Secret ads should be considered inappropriate too. anyway...that just really got me all worked up...it's no wonder not more american women breastfeed. there's still a lot of negative energy out there about breastfeeding in public that it makes women who do feel ashamed (me included during the first month of emma's life). here's a link to another blog by a woman who commented on that photo controversy: http://womenshealthnews.blogspot.com/2006/07/babytalk-magazine-cover-controversy.html
~prasti~

chomp, chomp, yum, yum