EYES

A post dedicated to my kid's eyes.

Jacob has clear brown eyes.

Our pediatrician was a little surprised by this because Brian and I both have green eyes.

She actually said if I didn't know you 2 better I would say "milk-man child."

Both his Granny and his Grandma Stott have brown eyes.

His are not as light brown as Granny's or as dark brown as Grandma Stott's but a nice shade right in the middle.

Merry's eyes are gray, some times greeny or some times bluish.

They are moody eyes and change with lighting.

Her eyes are like her Papa's and Aunt Ann.

Grace has dark green eyes.

Not green like her parents, Brian and I both have light green.

They remind the most of her Aunt Leslie's eyes.

Adam's eyes are still really blue.

Our kid's eye colors change really late so do not think this is their permanent color.

Right now they remind me of Grandpa Stott's bright blue eyes.

Adam at 11 months

Adam is 11 months old this week and he is full of spunk and personality.

He loves to peek out the windows to see what is going on. There is a pair of sandhill cranes that live by our house that are frequently strolling by on the sidewalk.

He still loves blankies and pacifiers.

His thighs are nice and chubby.

He finally grew tooth #8 and likes to show it off.

A few in color, to show his eyes are still blue. Sometimes I think they are looking more greenish, we will have to wait and see. He knows how to blow kisses, play peek-a-boo, clap and wave. He loves the other kids and crawls around the house looking for them.

Merry, Merry

Merry picked the fabric for her birthday dress from my fabric stash. This particular fabric I inherited from my Mom's fabric stash, very appropriate as Merry is her namesake. Merry loved the cloth until the first time she wore the dress and realized none the girls were holding balloons. Jacob tried to reassure her by telling her that the little boy was trying to give the little girl a balloon but it floated away. Now Merry is just upset that the balloon flew away.

This week the challenge is hearts. Merry loves Valentine cards and has been making hearts for several weeks now.

Flatwoods Park

One Saturday in January we headed to Flatwoods park to go for a bike ride, picnic and hike. Did I mention I love Florida winter weather. We hiked until we found a bridge with a small creek. Then we had to stop and throw everything in the water to see if it would sink or float. Who knew that acorns sink? A grand time was had by all and we will definitely return to finish the bike loop and see some more of the hiking trails.

Happy birthday Brian

Brian turned 30-something this week. I usually do not bake or cook or really do anything in the kitchen, but I actually made a from scratch cake for Brian's birthday. I always thought that Brian liked hummingbird cake or italian creme cake because that is what I like, but it turns out that he likes just plain old chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Good to know after 10 years of marriage. Costco is forever away from my new house so I could not get the old stand by, the All-American Chocolate Cake. Good thing allrecipes.com had an excellent subsitute. Good ole Sandy, saved the day.

Sandy's Chocolate Cake.

• 3 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream
• 1 1/3 cups boiling water
• FROSTING:
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 3 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 3 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 5 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 
  

Some how I did not take a precut picture. Oh well you get the point, delicious.

A post chocolate cake coma.

Adam was happy munching on some sweet potato puffs when Gracie decided he was getting jipped and slipped him a piece of cake which he promptly destroyed. He sort of looks like Hitler.

Grace, Grace

I love this picture of Grace, I think she was looking at her Dad making faces when I took it. It totally captures her personality.

Grace is a baby lover. She has a doll attached to her pretty much all of the time. (Merry made her this baby doll sling to carry her babies in for Christmas.) I think this is part of the reason Adam has not given up the pacifier yet, Grace insist he needs it all of the time. She knows where my secret stash of emergency pacifiers are and goes and gets Adam one when he is sad. I said that Adam didn't need his pacifier anymore, she got all teary-eyed and and said "but he is just a baby, Mom, he needs his pacie." She is such a cute little mom.

Gingerbread Houses

I am trying to catch up on last year so there are lots of post dated post and catch up post.

These were the original gingerbread houses we made way back in December. I was way too lazy to actually bake gingerbread and way too cheap to buy the kits, so I hot glued some graham crackers together for houses. They didn't seem to mind, they all loved making them. In case you were wondering about Jacob's eye patch, he is really a pirate. Well actually his is blind in one eye so we are trying to strengthen it so he can see.
Fast forward to January. I was in Michael's and Merry found the gingerbread kits on clearance and begged to get them. So here is round II of gingerbread houses. I especially like the smiley face that Merry put in candy on her roof. Hopefully my kids do not remember this and I can still get away with the glue/graham cracker houses this December.