Daddy Day Care

As most of you know, Nick is in landscaping...which usually means LOTS of snowplowing in the winter. Not this year! We have not had the snowfall we usually get, so he has been home a lot more than usual. Which means we get to save a little $ on daycare (Willa still goes 3 days a week for consistency's sake), AND he gets stuff done around the house! Win, win!

On Thursday, Willa decided that she didn't need an afternoon nap. I work from home in the afternoons, so it was up to Nick to entertain her. He decided he needed some chocolate cake, so he pulled a mix from the cupboard and the two of them went to work baking.

Tonight's activity was paper pirate hats!

I know he's ready to get back to working regular hours again, and we're ALL ready for spring so we can get out of the house, but this has been a lot of fun!

Christmas 09...one month late!

Yes, I'm a huge blog slacker.

Anyway, Christmas! I will try to remember what we did. We made the trip home in about 8 hours. It definitely takes longer when you have a little one, but I think we could've done worse! Willa did GREAT on the trip. We only had one meltdown on the way there, I think she cried for about 15 minutes but that was the only incident. By the time we got there she was definitely ready to be out of her carseat. We went to Christmas Eve church that night and had another meltdown on the way home. It was just too much carseat time! Fortunately, after a good night's rest, Willa pulled it together and had a wonderful long weekend, being passed around and spoiled!

We had 4 Christmas celebrations to squeeze in, running here and there visiting people...it gets to be so much! We did manage to get away and hang out with a big group of friends, and I'm so glad! I think we are going to make that an annual thing.

Anyway, here are some pictures. Willa got to play with her cousins Cole and Aubrey and learned to sit up on her own over the holiday. She's a pro these days, but it was big news just a month ago!

Halloween Fun!

I am up early because Willa doesn't know about daylight savings time. Time to update the blog!

Yesterday was Halloween! We love

Halloween...next year we are looking forward to taking Willa Trick or Treating and then eating her candy, but this year her job was just to stay home and look cute.

We carved pumpkins the night before. Halloween day we took pictures of Willa in her costume, and then put her in her little My Firs

t Halloween outfit for the rest of the day. We had some friends over with their little girl who is Willa's age, and I made creepy finger cookies. It was a good day!

Comparisons

I don't think I need to explain this post...I will just let it speak for itself.

Cousins

Cousins (L-R) Aubrey, Cole & Willa (nice fat tummy, Willa!)

Aubrey and Willa, 3 months apart in age.

Mini House Makeover

We have many plans for this house that involve at the very least new siding, at most an addition. We'd like to do both of those at once, but until we can afford it, the house looks pretty drab. In fact, we get lots of siding salesmen knocking on our door reminding me that we need new siding. Four years we have lived in this house, complaining about the faded shutters and general ugliness. So one day I got the bright idea to freshen up the outside just a little...and after we had finished, Nick and I both looked at each other and wondered why on earth we didn't think to do this before.

We repainted the shutters and added some color to the doors! The "before" photo was taken a couple years ago, so new landscaping has made a big difference as well. Anyway, I think I can live with this for awhile now. Until it's time for new siding, this will do!

Blooper!

While trying to make a nice little video for Willa's Aunt Angie to see while she's at work, Willa did what she does best!