The Crafts

The picture on the bottom is Kate as a baby. I LOVE that picture. She looks so sweet. I decided to replicate the Kate picture using CJ to see how much the two look alike. The photo session didn't run as smoothly as I had hoped. I couldn't get CJ into the same position as Kate but we did our best. Aren't they both adorable!

Today was Claudia's baptism. It was a terrific day. Here are a few pics from church. For some reason I don't have any photos of the Craft side of the family. I will post those after I get them in my possession. I love this picture, primarily because of the look on Kate's face. Isn't she fancy in her sparkly red shoes? Lindsay, Dad, Mom, Me, Kate, Matt, CJ, Grandma Holthaus, Grandpa Holthaus Kate hamming it up for the camera...

Awhile back I mentioned I was going to follow the Real Simple's month long dinner recipes. I put off week two because we were going to be crazy, busy last week. However, I thought I'd provide a review of week one. Tilapia with peppers and olives I despise olives so I left them out. The remainder of this meal was delicious! Everyone loved it including Kate. However, we were all left hungry by the end of supper because it was not a very filling meal. Or we are all used to over eating. :) Oh, and this meal literally took me 10 - 15 minutes to prepare. Beef and bok choy stir-fry This dish was a big hit with Matt and me. Kate, however, could have cared less. This dish also took very little prep and cooking time. Great for a weeknight meal. Spicy orange-glazed drumsticks with green beans LOVED IT! I could have eaten this one all day long. Sadly, Matt didn't care for this one so much. He enjoyed the orange glaze but apparently doesn't like drumsticks. Something I didn't kn...

I'm proud to say I'm beginning to feel like I'm back in the swing of things. Each time I head out the door for a run I am able to handle three full miles. In fact, I've been running the 5K route from the LPC 5K run each summer. The first couple of times I was pretty slow. Actually, I'm still pretty pokey but my pokiness is improving. I'm down to a 31 minute 5K which would have broken my heart a year and a half ago but considering I had a baby 7 weeks ago...I'm awfully excited. I've decided I'm going to do run the Turkey Trot 5K in November and maybe even the Snow Shuffle 5K mid-December. Both races are in Waterloo and should be a lot of fun. It is something to look forward to and get in shape for. Anyone looking to run with me in one or both of those races?!

As sung by Kate... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EPtFB213XU

This is what Kate looked like today after naptime. No comment.

Wasp Ninja was back at it today. Who is Wasp Ninja you wonder? Why, it is me! I got my self assigned name from an experience several years back with a pesky wasp that found its way into my apartment. I was single at the time and living in Cedar Falls. I went to bed that night and as soon as the lights went out I heard a loud buzzing. I turned on the light and found one of my biggest nemesis ...a wasp. Being keenly aware of my lack of hand /eye coordination I wasn't about to swat at it and risk getting stung. So after watching the wasp land on my window blinds I wrapped myself in a spare bed sheet with nothing but my eyes peeping out and a pair of scissors in hand. I jumped onto a chair ever so stealth like, opened the scissor blades and cut the wasp's head off. No lie. Unfortunately I also cut the suspension cord on my blinds thereby ruining my rented blinds, but hey, that wasp wasn't going to bother me again. So today the Wasp Ninja was called out of retirement. ...

There are four guarantees in life. I'm sure most of you have heard of the two most well known; death and taxes. But you may not be aware of the other two. The third is that a baby will always wake when you sit down to eat. Anyone with kiddos has experienced this. And the fourth is that no matter what meal you may sit down for Kate will have to poo. It is inevitable. We will even ask her if she needs to go before lunch or dinner is done cooking and the answer is always a resounding NO. But about 5 minutes after sitting down to eat she will make her big bathroom announcement. Weird. We don't get upset over this because 99% of the time she is telling the truth but what odd timing. Anyway, this is going to be an interesting week for everyone in the house. Thursday afternoon Matt and Kate are taking off for Ames. Matt has his Iowa State Alumni Board meetings and Kate is going with him. Uncle Mike doesn't have school or work on Friday so he will have a full 8 hours o...

Well CJ has her very first cold. Not something I want to write down in a baby book. I'm not sure where she picked it up but I feel so bad for her. She is all stuffed up and has the occasional cough and sneeze. Oddly enough she has been sleeping great. I think it is all due to the loud noises from the humidifier I set up in her room. She struggles to stay asleep at naps but at night she sleeps great and goes right back to sleep as soon as she is done eating. The last two nights I was up three times but she was back to sleep with little to no effort from me. She basically did it all herself. Which means I feel almost like a normal person today because I was up for no more than 25 minutes with each feeding. Woo-hoo!! Her cold is improving greatly. It started about three days ago and is almost cleared up but I think we will continue to run the humidifier at night if it means she sleeps better. Oh, and here is an update on my menu plan. So far we have tried the tilapia wit...

After almost two full days since initiating Project Sleep the tally so far is: CJ: 1 Us: 1 Friday night we actually got a good amount of sleep. CJ was up a few times with one awakening lasting 3 hours. You may wonder why that qualifies as good sleep. Well that is because the whole family was in bed by 7:30...on a Friday! So although our accumulated sleep was more than normal, it was simply because we went to bed before the birds. Saturday night was much better. Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. I was only up twice for 45 minutes each time. Daytime naps have been going better. I've been trying to establish more of a routine which will hopefully help her understand day v night. Today however CJ has slept most of the afternoon away, but I will hopefully be recharged enough to deal with a possibly rough night thanks to my family. They surprised us with a visit today, thereby allowing us time for both a nap and a jog. Plus Kate awoke with a thunder this morning and has been constant e...

I hope you get "The Shining" reference above. But don't worry, I'm not about to flip my lid and attack people...at least not yet. We had a rough night last night. This is combined with the fact that Kate has reentered her no nap phase. And no nap for at least one kiddo means no nap for sleepy mom. Plus, it seems CJ has her days and nights mixed up. Ugh! I have therefore implemented Project Sleep. This is my mission, if I so choose. (Bad James Bond reference.) So, Project Sleep. I'm trying to get CJ to learn to fall asleep on her own and I'm trying to regularly wake her during the day so she will learn that daytime is for napping and eating while nights are for sleeping...lots and lots of sleeping. I am rather unsuccessful at the waking her up part. I've tried sitting her up so her head bobs around. I've tried undressing her. I've even tried rubbing her down with a cold wet wipe. No luck. Oh, and I also let Kate run around screaming "wake up CJ...