I MADE IT!!! (365/365)

Can you believe it?! ME, Becky Iblogonceeverytwomonths Bathje completed my goal of posting once every day for a whole year? I know I'm surprised!! There were days when I was VERY close to not posting in time, and days when I was SO not in the mood to sit down and write a post (can you say four day hospital visit), but I'm so proud of myself for doing it.

People have asked me if I plan on continuing now that my year is complete, the answer to that is no, I don't intend to do another year of daily posts. However, I do plan on posting more often now that it's become a habit. I haven't yet decided if I'll just keep this blog or if I'll create a new one, but I will certainly let you know.

So for now . . .

Keep it movin' -- there's nothing to see here, folks!

Thank You, JJ! (364/365)

I'm at a Trans Liberian, I mean Siberian, Orchestra concert in St.
Louis with three of my favorite people. Thank you, JJ for inviting me!

Also, I love Stacey. :)

Dinner at the Diner (363/365)

Cindy and Tori were off in St. Louis for the annual Rappe girls
shopping excursion, so Dad and I decided the rest of us should go out
to eat at BJ's - a Jacksonville staple. The food was pretty good (I
should know better than to try something new. I had a pork tenderloin
horseshoe when I should have stuck with what I know tastes good -
hamburger), the company was great, and both girls took turns playing
peek-a-boo with Uncle Chuck's hat!

Only TWO days left!! Can you believe it?!

Guess Who Barely Touched Her Dinner…(362/365)

But easily polished off the last of the chocolate pie?

Oh, Isabel.

Can You Guess What They're Doing? (361/365)

All three of them were in a trance watching The Simpsons.

Miss you Ry (and double N)!

Knitters Row (360/365)

We're all such old ladies…and we love it!

Merry Quack Quack! (359/365)

Matt and I started our day bright and early at 6am.
After we had showered and changed, I decided to wake the girls with my camera.
"Mommy, it hurts my eyes!"
Wish I could have actually seen where I was pointing the camera,
but you get the point.

Izzy was out like a light and couldn't have cared less about my flash!

Once she got up though she was in awe of all the presents!
(This was definitely the first Christmas I've ever had that started before sunrise!)

Can you tell she just woke up? She couldn't wait to dig into her stocking.

She's such a happy girl, the duck kazoo helped, I think.

I wonder what my sister got for me for Christmas!

A NEW HELLO KITTY CALENDAR!!!
I don't believe it!

I had so much fun watching Izzy open presents.

This was one of the big reasons why!!

What's this? We still have ONE more present to open?
And it's for MEEEEEEE??
I wonder what it is . . .

It's a scooter (not pictured, you'll just have to trust me), just what I always wanted!!!

Then we went to Mom and Dad's for breakfast and the rest of the day's festivities.
Unfortunately my camera decided to crap out and I have to send it back in to Canon.
Needless to say this was not the highlight of my Christmas.

I blame Patrick. ;)

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!!

Christmas is Coming! (358/365)

• We've been to mass (with Auntie Annie).
• There is snow on the ground (and it's still falling).
• My belly is full of cookies (oops).
• Presents are around the tree (and weighing down the stockings).
• We're packed and ready to leave for Jville on the 26th.
• Matt and I finished our Bathje grab bag ornaments (I'll have to take
pics of the ones the girls made - SO cute!)
• O'Henry's Full House is on the TV.

I'd say we're ready for Christmas to get here (though I'm not looking
forward to getting up at 6am)!!!

Merry Christmas!

What's Christmas with out Foldovers? (357/365)

I actually had the dough for these in the fridge for a while, but I
had been putting off making them because they aren't exactly my
favorite things to make. It's probably a good thing that I waited
until today to finish them because while they may not be my favorite
things to make, I sure do love eating them! Had I made them last
week, my stock would surely be depleted by now!

Riiiiiiiiicola!!!! (356/365)

Empty wrapping paper tubes are good for many things,

including pretending you are from the mountains of Switzerland.

Oh, and for calling moose.

I Told You We Were Going to do it (355/365)

Hope you had a good one, sorry we forgot to make a video!

Last Class Until Next Year! (354/365)

Today was Alice last day of school until 2011 and they celebrated with a Christmas party - of course! I'm pretty blessed that I get to stay at home with my girls anyway, and being able to participate on days like today make me even more thankful that Matt works so hard so I am able. The kids had so much fun making crafts, devouring cookies, and playing silly Christmas themed games. Even Izzy got in on the fun - and I'm pretty sure that she's already ready to go to preschool herself!

Izzy having high tea with our school director - Mrs. Dillon.

One of Alice's best buddies, Tricia, fawning over Izzy.
She and Emily both think Izzy is the bees knees.

Oh, and this has always been Izzy's favorite toy at Alice's school.
Maybe she'll grow up to be just like her Uncle Fred!

It didn't take them long to finish their cookies.
Izzy was happier than a pig in, you know what.
She was trying to cram the tree cookie in her mouth
when it was still full with half of Oreo.

See the influence you have on me, Cindy?

It dawned on me after the kids went to bed that we forgot to make a birthday video for Uncle Mike who celebrated his 35th today. We'll make up for that tomorrow, so long as you don't mind that it's a day late. Love you!

Nice Way to End the Weekend (353/365)

Alice and I attended a birthday party of one of her classmates at the local children's museum today. By the time it was over I was ready for a nap!

Typical Alice, thoroughly enjoying being at the table full of boys.
I think she was a little bummed that her buddy Chaseton wasn't there.

It was stuff like this that made me think that Alice would fall asleep
once we got home. Those kids ran all over the place, yet she didn't express
any interest in a nap this afternoon.

Also, watching 4 and 5 year olds play tag is hilarious!

The non-violent version of the pinata. All of the kids pulled a string
and out flew $10 in candy. They LOVED it, in case you had any doubt.

Almost her whole class was present, it made me truly appreciate what
her teachers do three days a week. Wrangling 11 kids is madness,
I can't imagine throwing a few more into the mix.

Mike and Rae, Avert Your Eyes (352/365)

if you don't want to see Kaylee's gift before she gets it. I spent a few hours finishing this up today, and I was so excited with how well it turned out I decided I had to share.

Over Thanksgiving I discovered that Kaylee has a real love for painting. Rach expressed that she's been meaning to get Kay a holder for her brushes because she has so many of them. With that I knew what I was going to do for her for Christmas, and I asked Rae if I could make one for Kaylee. I have mom's paintbrush holder that she used for many, many years and once upon a time (with the help of Jessica) I used it as a template to make my own brush holder using some vintage Strawberry Shortcake fabric we came across in mom's cedar chest after she died. I thought that since I had done it before that it would be a sinch to do again - boy was I wrong!

I ended up buying fabric twice because I messed up the first time around. I didn't cut pieces to the proper length, and I just plain didn't put it together right. SO, the second time around I actually thought it out properly, measured several times, and wrote step by step directions so I wouldn't mess up. It certainly helped!

The finished product isn't perfect, the piece on the inside that covers the brushes wasn't evenly sewn for one, but it's done and it will serve it's purpose well, I think. And who knows, maybe it will even last her for many, many years to come.

Thank Goodness For Playdates (351/365)

God I HATE that word.

Anyway, Alice's very favorite friend since school began is a little girl in her class by the name of Zoe. Alice, especially at the start of the school year, would come home and talk of nothing but Zoe and how the two of them did this, that, and the other that day. Needless to say she was at the top of Alice's guest list when she had her birthday party! Anyway, today Alice went over to Zoe's house for the first time for a much needed afternoon of play with someone her own age. Izzy and I stayed this time to make sure that Alice would be ok (of course she was) and I think we all ended up having a good time! Zoe has a little brother who is about a year older than Izzy, so the two of them got along well while the two big girls went off and did their own thing (this is Alice's most favorite thing about having friends over or going to their house - playing in their rooms. Probably because we don't do much of that at all here at home).

The afternoon was filled with lots of chatter from everyone, all of the children participated in dress up, and Zoe and her Mom even made special butterfly cupcakes for the occasion. Need I tell you that Alice was in heaven and REALLY didn't want to leave when it came time? I think she'll be doing a lot more of that after the holidays. I know both Alice and Zoe really enjoyed their special friend time!

And I enjoyed doing something different for a change, and Zoe's mom is just as sweet as she can be. I also really enjoyed how well both of them napped when we got home!

Tomorrow I plan on finishing Kay's present so it can be shipped off to her (now that her Daddy's present FINALLY arrived in the mail I've got a fire under my butt to get it done)! There is absolutely NO WAY I'm going out tomorrow to get my last Christmas gift. That will just have to wait until Monday.

Love This Tradition (350/365)

The girls currently have three Advent Calendars/count downs till
Christmas (chocolate, create Santa's beard, nightly stories about
Christmas), but I think I like this one the best.

Last year I found a set of ornaments that you read on a night leading
up to Christmas. It's all about the biblical story of Christmas, and
the girls love reading it each night, and then finding a spot on the
tree for the book.

I'm betting they also like the Daddy cuddle time as well!

Paging Dr. Who! (349/365)

Alice got to pick up a new doctor kit today.

I promised her that if she could help me go through her old toys and give some away

that I would get her a new doctor kit when we were finished

(her old one was down to three unbroken items).

We bagged up 4 large garbage bags full and donated them!!

She totally earned that new kit and she's been playing with it all day!

I finally finished Alice's scarf last night.

I ended up doing a stockinette stitch so it really curled up on me width wise.

So to remedy that, I just made it super long so I could loop it around her neck several times.

The resulting scarf rivals that of Dr. Who.

Ok maybe it's not THAT long.

It actually doesn't look half bad once it's wrapped around her neck.

In fact, I have been wearing it all day long (it's chilly, even in the house)

and it's mighty toasty as well.

O Christmas Tree (348/365)

It's small and it's hard to view it from a good angle because our house is small, but we love it. Someday when we have a larger house we'll have a bigger tree, but for how this one suits us well.

I Think We May Finally Be Ready For Christmas (347/365)

Cookies are made, decorations are up, there's a chill in the air, and snow on the ground. Today Alice and I bagged up 4 full bags of toys to donate, and boy does it feel good to get all of that clutter and unused stuff out of my house! Too bad the good feeling won't last with Christmas coming, but at least the clutter won't be compounded once the presents are opened.

We Decorated Cookies Today (346/365)

They may not taste as good as homemade, but we sure did have fun making them!! Also, with all the mini M&Ms Izzy ate it's no wonder she hardly touched her dinner (for a while there it seemed like she was going "one for you, and one for me...").

Freaking Internet (345/365)

Be back later when it's working.

ADDENDUM:

The girls looking fabulous in Grandma Susie's aprons.
They both ate this up.

We cheated this year and bought sugar cookie dough in a tube instead of making it ourselves so we could skip to the fun part of decorating. The girls will enjoy them and that's what matters. With foldovers, puppy chow, cream cheese cake mix chocolate chip cookies, fudge, and peanut butter blossoms I think we're ok in the sweets department.

Besides, I prefer a drop sugar cookie recipe that can be found in
Grandpa Rice's nursing home cook book to roll out sugar cookies any day.

Even Izzy got in on the fun. She was most hysterical when I had the mixer running. Silly girl spun her head round and round trying to either keep her eye on the paddle, or she was imitating it.

No, we did not drop her on her head when she was younger.
She's a Bathje, she comes by it honestly.

Tomorrow will likely again be spent at home instead of at my in-laws. We're supposed to get a bad winter storm and we will not brave the storm if it's as bad as they say it's going to be. I planned on this actually so I didn't have to finish the foldovers tonight as my back was killing me and foldovers can be time consuming. If I get through with that and feel inspired I'll hopefully at least get the fabric for Kay's present cut. Cross your fingers that I don't mess it up this time and have to get even more fabric!