Baking Buddy

Sunshine has been very intrigued by my activities lately. I have been able to do some sewing and she loves to sit or stand behind me (on the same chair) while I sew. Granted, it doesn't leave me a lot of room to sit, but she is entertained and I am getting my sewing done. I panicked a little when I realized a few days ago that Easter really isn't that far off. I am making her dress and I have a long way to go. But that isn't really what I writing about, so on with the post.

This morning I decided to make some zucchini bread. With Spring on the way (hopefully), I thought I should use up some frozen zucchini from last year's garden before it was time to start planting this year's garden. I have not involved Sunshine in any baking, but thought I would give it a try today. I have an apron that I wear sometimes and she likes to have an apron too so that she can look like momma. So, I let her wear this very cute apron that my Grandma Ferdinand gave me. It is truly a vintage apron....I love it! It looks like a skirt on her...she is very proud to wear it. We had fun measuring together. I believe I did include all of the ingredients and was able to keep the goldfish crackers she was snacking on out of the mixing bowl!

I am looking forward to many more fun times in the kitchen with my little girl.

Mmmm......

I think she fully enjoyed her chocolate chip cookie!

Day to Day Life

This morning we went to the park to play. As we were unloading the car I heard/saw a helicopter landing on the other side of the play equipment. My first thought was- "someone must be really injured." (A total mom reaction, I know). After talking to a few people I realized that they were having a benefit for a local police officer who was recently injured and that the helicopter was for the kids look at and sit in. Sunshine loved it, but was a little shy about sitting in it.

She seems to have fallen in love with the slide. I remember the first time I took her to the park and how much I had to help her, now she just does it all by herself! She has a new pair of shoes on in the picture below. She loves these shoes and actually cried last night when T them off so he could get her ready for bed. He told her that the shoes had to go "night, night", which seemed to help.


After the park, I had a lunch date with my sister-in-law so T and Sunshine had a Daddy/Daughter lunch. I really enjoyed having lunch with Meg and T had a fun time taking Sunshine for an Aggie bus ride after they ate. She loves the book "The Wheels on the Bus", so riding a bus was very exciting.

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that we were feeding the horse. Man, I am so thankful for Humphrey. Even on days when it is too cold to play outside we bundle up and get out to take Humphrey some carrots. Just being outside for 15 minutes is great and a break from being inside all day. I am hoping we have had our last cold spell...I am ready to wear shorts!

Momma is excited about...

Pigtails!!!

Basketball and other things

Wow, where did January go?!? I feel a little behind on posting. It seems like life has been pretty normal around our household for the time being. I am glad to be back in a routine; seems like December lacks in routine sometimes (which is probably good for me).
With the warmer weather, we've been spending as much time as we can outside. Sunshine enjoys looking at the "babies" (the cows are calving right now), feeding the horse his carrots, swinging, riding in her wagon, and gathering eggs from our chickens. She has been a great sport about watching me work in the garden. So far I've planted shallots, garlic, onions, broccoli, lettuce, and spinach. I am excited to help Sunshine grow some sunflowers this year. I thought they would be good to start with since you get such a large flower from such a little seed. I told her the other day that we were going to plant some sunflowers, and she said "birds". I was amazed that she remembered that we had bought some sunflower seeds for our bird feeder.
We've also been attending some Aggie basketball games. She loves it and is regularly talking about basketball. Yesterday she wanted to look at the sports section of the newspaper b/c there were basketball related pictures. It was very cute and kept her occupied for at least 20 minutes while I was making dinner.

Well that's about all for now. Enjoy the rest of the week!

Fun Week!

Last week the university was closed, so we enjoyed some extra family time (although I couldn't keep him out of the office the entire time :)!) I loved having an extra set of hands around the house and Sunshine loved having her Daddy at home. I was afraid she might go into withdrawal this week when he went back to work full-time, seriously. Last week she woke up from her nap one afternoon and began asking where Daddy was. I told her that he was outside and she just burst into tears. I wonder if she would cry if I was outside?
On Tuesday, T had to go to San Antonio for a meeting, so we tagged along. It's always nice to have a day away! His meeting was downtown, so we got to eat at Mi Tierra. Yum. Even at 2:30 we still had to wait for a table, popular place!

Waiting for our food (they were fast!)
She loved this balloon. She saw another kid leaving with a balloon and you would have thought a large dog (or any other animal she loves) was walking through the restaurant. She got so excited and kept saying "balloon". Thankfully our server picked up on her desire to have one and brought one out just in time.

Full concentration was given to the balloon. It kept her from trying to stand up in her chair :)!

This picture is from New Year's Day. We spent the evening with some friends. They have a daughter, Abby, whom Sunshine just adores. This is a picture that Abby took. She is so sweet and is always finding things for Sunshine to play with.

Christmas 2009

This year we were in Kansas from the 19th-23rd to celebrate Christmas with my family. We then returned to Texas and celebrated with T's family. We really had a fun time in Kansas. All of my sisters and their families (there are 5 cousins now!) and both of my Grandmas gathered at my parents house to enjoy a great meal, time together, and exchanging gifts. We made a trip to Manhattan while we were there and visited a pottery studio near my parents house. Travel was great and we were very glad to be heading south before the blizzard hit!

We spent Christmas Eve together- just our little family of 3. We went to our church's Christmas Eve service and then had our traditional meal of soup. Christmas morning we enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls together and then watched/help Sunshine open her gifts. It was really fun to see her get so excited about her new baby that we gave her. Here are a few pics...

She kept saying "baby, baby, baby!"

Checking out her new baby.

Taking her baby shopping in her new shopping cart.

Mmmmm....cinnamon rolls!

We spent Christmas day with T's family. It was great to see our nephews, both who are currently serving our country in the Marines and were able to be home for Christmas. We had lots of great food and fun time together!