Merry Chirstmas!!! From the Arthur's

 

Well is seems crazy to think but Christmas and this year has come and passed. We had a great time with Nana and Papa and friends. 

Here Marty and his friends Hunter and Ainsley are decorating cookies on Christmas Eve.

I don't have a ton of cookies cutters and the ones I do have are unconventional. This year Santa got a TIE Fighter and Millennium falcon along with Chocolate Chip and carrots for Rudolph and his Mommy and Daddy. Marty had a blast picking out the carrots himself.  

 After Santa and his Elves finished assembly. 

After a long night of palying with buddies, come 7:15 am Christmas day and Michaela and I were the only ones awake. Nana, Papa and George joined us about an hour later. Only after Mommy, Daddy and Papa went into Marty's room at 8:30 did he wake up. Poor guy was still out of it. It took a while for him to get into the paper shredding mood. He would just got touch his car bed or bike then return to the couch. This was his look for about 20 minutes.

 As it seems to be the tradition Marty got a new bed this year. Now his Red Sox bedding has a new home in a sweet race car bed. 

He looks like such a big boy in it.

 

He also got a big boy Cars bike, which he happily uses to make the trek to his room and back. It has training wheels now but if he keeps this up he will be ride free come the summer. 

Our little Miss got a bunch a super cute toys and a new GT Walker. She is super cute in it and since she has now decide to be mobile helps keep her from getting super frustrated. She also got her 2 front bottom teeth which means at 8 months today she is doing great. Still a little peanut but busy, busy, busy. 

 

Getting a little help from Marty

 

 This was definitely one crazy year! But now we are home and staying for awhile. Thank you to all our family and friends for an amazing 365. I can't wait for the next round!

Wishing you a wonderful New Year. 

XOXOX

It's beginning to smell a lot like Sausage.....Bread!

 Part of the Christmas tradition I had growing up was gathering with the ladies of the family and making goodies. You name it we made it. 

Christmas cookies, Check. Italian cookies, Check. Biscotti, Check. 

And my favorite Sausage Bread.

I can remember the huge production line we had set up with each station adding another filling to these glorious rolls. 

You know you want one!

(!!!eyebrows wiggling!!!)

Last year was the first time I had made them on my own, having a big old kitchen in our new house and now that Marty is older he gets to help me with this tradition. 

That is if I can keep him from eating all the filling. 

To make this awesome snack you need to find some frozen bread dough. True if you are truly a baker you can make your own but who has the time. Follow the thawing directions on the package.

  Once you have your dough all thawed and ready to go, the real work happens. Roll one loaf out to the size of a cookie sheet. I don't have a smooth counter so I find that turning a cookies sheet over and stabilizing it with silicone pot holders works great. (the same for Sugar Cookies!) I had 5 to make this year and my arms were feeling it. 

Next comes the toppings!!!! 

This year I used 

1. Pasta Sauce

2. Diced black Olives 

3. Mozzarella

4. Pepperoni

5. Sausage (I pre-cooked about 2 lbs, using 1lb mild and 1 lb hot)

6. Shaker Cheese 

This is the part were Marty helped. Painting on the sauce, spreading cheese, eating cheese, adding pepperoni, eating pepperoni, then olives and sausage.  Even Soyna got in on it. Well mostly clean up! 

Once each one is filled it gets rolled into a log and into a coil. Each loaf is placed into a Pam'ed pie tin and then left to rise for about 2 hours. Although long this time due to nap schedules. 

Once they are all nice and puffed I brush with a little olive oil and sea salt. Then pop it in the oven using the package directions, which in this case was 350 degrees for 25 minutes. 

 

When they are done they are toasty brown and delicious. 

We eat them hot or cold with some Pasta sauce for dipping. It makes a great appetizer or whole meal. 

It can also be a great gift for those with too many tons of cookies or without a sweet tooth.

 Isn't it pretty!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So for the last 29 years we have headed off to the local Mall and taken pictures with Santa. This was great when we were kids because we knew a bag load of candy was a sure thing. As we got older and had friend who worked at the mall it was not so cool but we sucked it up and smiled for the camera and for our Mom.

As the family grew girl friends and husbands and now grandkids are included in the experience. 

So here are the pictures from this year. Enjoy!

Michaela's first Christmas! She loved to pull on Santa's beard and feel the fur on his coat. 

Marty's black eye came from an encounter with Uncle Tim's cat. 

But aren't they cute!!!

The whole family!

And she is off!

Happy Early Thanksgiving!!!!

We love you all!

Yesterday Michaela had her weight check. What an experience that was, Ugh!! Seriously not cool, but on a better note....

She's HUGE!!!

A little back ground:

After her 6th month appointment the doctor was concerned that she has not grown but in fact lost weight. She was only 11 lbs 1 oz and 23 1/4 inches tall. Not even on the chart!

So we changed from breastfeeding to the bottle and formula. And the great news is that it worked!!! 

 

Our little Miss gained 15 oz (basically 1 POUND!!) and grew a HALF an inch! 

This was great to hear because it means that it was just a nutrition problem and not any underlying health issues.

Woo! Hoo!

As I know you all love to see pictures of my cuties. Enjoy!!!

Awesome Bed head! 

It was a great faux hawk.

Sweet faces baby Girl!

 Marty made a "Cat" out of blocks. Not to shabby if I say so my self!

 Stickering Daddy in the Morning

Where did all my pretty bras go?

I swear the bra fairy raided my drawer while I was pregnant and made off with all my pretty bras!

In the course of fattening up our little Princess, she was managed to become weaned.  My "Plan" was to breastfeed her longer that I had with Marty (about 6 months) but for me that whole use it or lose it cycle that goes with breastfeeding runs in 2>>FF. 

 

One or two skipped feeding plus sleeping through the night and we are done. Sad, but it is for the best. She really needed the extra calories and fat, both of which I could not give her. Now she gets to spend some quality time with Daddy eating as well! 

She is still chowing down of her food of course. Even getting to feed her self!

 

Yummy Beans!! 

And now on a full belly she is a maniac. I mean wiggling, rolling, flailing all over the place. 

Talking, screeching and giggling every chance she gets. 

This girl is busy!

You know what that means, Good Bye boring beige and black nursing bras and Hello!!! Cute bras! I swear I put them in another drawer so that when this time came all I had to do was open it up and TaDa! 

Nope, gone!!!

And where you might ask?

I have no clue.

This is not even a "Hey, its a Mommy moment", nope they have run off to live with the bra fairy.

 We are getting geared up for a busy holiday season. The kiddos and I just got back fro a week at the rents for a craft show and in a few days we are all packing it up for Thanksgiving!

Then my brothers wedding!!! Can't wait! 

Then home for Christmas and New Years with a house full of Guest! I can't wait to get all the decorations out and hung while playing Christmas Music in the background!

We love you all and can't wait to spend some time eating and hanging with you all!

XOXO

Our Little Miss

So we had Michaela's 6 month appointment today. We knew she was little but figured she was still growing. Well we were wrong. She has lost weight!!!! Grrr, the kid eats food like crazy and still nurses but it is just not enough fats or calories. So we are now pushing the bottle and formula. 6 month is as far as I made it  breastfeeding with Marty and then once he got a handle on the bottle that was it. Wish us luck on fattening our Little Miss up!

Check her out!!! 

Eating Puffs all by herself!!!

And the Winner Is......

Congratulations to Kristi Kunce on winning the DIY Tutu Kit! Way to go Giants!!!

Happy Halloween from the Arthur's

 Happy Halloween!!

 

This year Marty was super excited about getting dressed up for Halloween. However He was super indecisive. For the longest time he would not give us an answer when asked what he wanted to be for Halloween. Then one day he pulled Robot out of the air. So here I am running through all the craft supplies I have and trying to figure out how I can whip up a robot with out breaking the bank or any fingers. Finally I had a plan and all it would take was a short trip to the "Man Store" (Home Depot) and we could make this work. 

Then as it so often happens with a two year old, his mind changed. OK, Bob the Builder it is. 

Which makes perfect sense if you have spent a second with our mini handy man. I mean the kid has more tools than George does. 

In fact the only thing we needed for this costume was the overalls and the tool belt.

So here he is as Bob the Builder!

For little Miss I wanted to try my hand at making a tutu. I have been toying around with adding DIY kits to my store and wanted to make sure that they really are easy to make. 

Easy and Super CUTE!!!! 

Just a few yards of red and black tulle and Wha Laa! Her little Puff clip is from the scraps and was just a simple.

I added the red onesie and black tights along with her red patten leather Mary Jane's. (Thanks Nana!)

As we all know Lady Bugs have spots, so I added hearts to her shirt. 

She does look a bit like the Queen Of Hearts, which I mean really, She Is. 

At 6 months old she is still rocking the 3 months clothes and blowing Raspberries!!! 

Super fun stuff especially with all the extra spit from teething. No teeth yet but they are so close.

We visited the Pumpkin Patch again this year and got some great shots of the kiddos.

The Princess in the Pumpkins. 

Marty love climbing over all the hay bales and I think he hit every single pile. Plus spent a good amount of time checking out the generator for the lights!

He is a special one alright!

Oh my, he sure is handsome!

The Haul!!!!

 Soooooo Strong!!!!!

 Hanging out in the back of the car with all our new Pumpkins!

World Series Champ DIY Tutu Giveaway!

Every year for as long as I can remember there has been Baseball on my Birthday! World Series Baseball!!!! Growing up it was always on in the back ground of birthdays and family get togethers.

*******As part of the celebration I am doing a GIVEAWAY!!!!*******

The first person who can give me the new World Series Champs and how many games it took to do it in, will get a DIY Tutu kit in your teams colors!!!

Orange and Black for Giants or Royal and Red for Rangers.

These tutus are great for dress up, play and Pictures!

Made of yards of tulle with an easy on and off elastic waist band. 

Each kit comes with a easy full color photo guide and all the supplies you need. No cutting or measuring required! All you need is a little time and you have a hand made tutu for your little Bat Girl! 

Sizes Newborn to 2 years

Open to US residents, 18 year or older only.

To Enter:

Leave a comment with your email address and the World Series Champ Team with the number of Games 

Example: SF Giants 5 of 7 games

One Entry Per Person

Contest Ends when the Champs are crowned!

Let the Feeding Commence!

Our little princess is just that, little. She is being passed up by all her friends in size. But she has hit all of her developmental markers for her age, so she is just on the petite side. At 5 months old she is 23 1/2 inches tall and a whooping 11 lbs 8 oz!!!

She is a great eater and really who wouldn't be if you were eating when and where ever you want, but her pediatrician recommended that we start her on some baby food. We had just started it anyway so it was good to hear we were headed in the right direction. 

Now when Marty started eating he only had to try it once and then it was off to the races. No gagging or spitting it back out. He basically sat there with his mouth open whining if you didn't shovel it in fast enough.

As a means of saving money and making sure he started out with healthy foods, I started making our own baby food with him and have continued it with Michaela. 

It is super easy and give you an excuse to go and get a new kitchen gadget, a Food Processor!! If you don't have one you can use a blender or food mill. I had a little one and loved it but the big one also shreds and slices!! I love me some kitchen tools.

There are also some great resources out there, I love Wholesome Homemade Baby Food, their website is full of great recipes, meal plans and tips. They have organized their site by food type and/or age groups for quick and easy reference to see where your little one is at. 

The nice thing about baby food is once you learn the basics you can make pretty much anything. So far Michaela has 4 food plus rice cereal. 

Applesauce

Butternut Squash

Avocado

Yams

For all the above food minus the Avocado (they can eat it raw through a mesh bag) the cooking process is simple. Peel, chop, steam/boil/bake, puree! That is it! 

Each one may require a bit of water or cooking liquid to make a smooth puree but that is basically it.   

So what do you do now with our homemade baby food?

The easiest way I have found is to use ice cube trays and freeze it. 

Once they have frozen overnight just store them in a Ziplock labeled with the date and what it is. 

They last frozen for about a month or a week in  the fridge.

Because Michaela has to set herself aside from her brother she is not taking to food as quickly as Marty. This leads to a lot of food on her, the chair and her bib. 

For her baby shower we got a hand full of cute little bibs. As adorable as they are they are just too small. So in order to keep her clothes clean and not have to undress her, I used a few bibs that my mom made Marty as a template to make some for her. 

Not only are these bibs big enough to cover her they are made from reclaimed jeans. The same jeans in fact that I used to make the skirt for her as a newborn. These super durable bibs are great for little ones all the way up though toddlers Marty still rocks his from time to time. 

The Hot Pink and Green Bib is fashionable and function with its daisy applique. Keeping your princess prefect for meal time and later. 

 

Your Rock Star will chow down and rock out with black flames and gray skulls.