What we've been up to...

Lydia has been exploring the world of self-feeding. This is a morning oatmeal experimentation. She is only wearing a diaper and a bib. She actually does pretty well.
Lydia has stuffed a 1/3 of a banana in her mouth. I got tired of chopping the banana up into little pieces so I gave her a large chunk. She has not learned portion control quite yet.
I got to hang out with all of my siblings in January! It was awesome. Liz and Gram came into town for a few days and we had non-stop fun.
Lydia is reading novels now...about dogs of course...she prefers to read when the book is propped on a dog.
Lydia loves to play house with this house that Santa brought her. It has been a lot of fun watching her play and playing with her. She thinks she is pretty cool.

My friend spotted this China cabinet at her favorite thrift store and told me that I had to buy it. She had heard me complain about the lack of storage space in my kitchen and my desire to have clean counter tops. Her vision, my wallet and Ben's painting turned that brown, dated china cabinet into a really great piece in my kitchen.
Here it is finished! I put my grandma's china on the top shelf, our everyday dishes in the middle and my white, cute dishes on the third shelf. The three cabinets are holding our crock pot and other large dishes. It is great!!!!! I got the knobs at Hobby Lobby. I did not know they had knobs...but they do and they are cute and they are reasonably priced!
I did not think that the china cabinet would add as much space as it did, but it is quite remarkable. I was able to designate three cabinets to food! So, here are my clean counter tops. There are still a few things that I would like to do in my kitchen, but for now I am super happy. I have also been in a purging mode. I have boxes being made for a future garage sale! After 8 1/2 years of marriage we have collected a lot of things...and we need to get rid of some stuff!
Blizzard 2011. Blizzard of Oz. Snowmagedeon.
It has so many names. It was an intense storm and left a huge mark! Lydia and I have been building forts, moving from room to room in the house to find new things to do, making sugar cookies, and watching the snow, etc.
I also started watching a 3 month old baby girl last week. She is super sweet and fun to have around. Lydia is learning to share mommy and not to poke the baby (anywhere on the face). Once I get everyone on the perfect schedule, life will be pure bliss...

That is the update for now...