Tea for 2...or 4

So many fun events in December. I just love it. Every year we have a 3 generation girls day or night event. Someday I'm sure we will add the little girls too, but for now they are still too young. This year we attended a 4 course Christmas Teat at the Avalon Tea Room in White Bear Lake. The ambiance and meal were very lovely and tasty. Hats were optional...and we opted out on this one.

 Mom & Cari before the tea started.

Grammy & me.

1st course - chicken artichoke in a puff pastry and fruit.

2nd savory course - mini sandwiches and tarts.

I guess I missed the memo that we were supposed to wear red.

I must've gotten too into my food because I forgot to take pictures of the next courses. The 3rd course was scones with devenshire cream, jam, and lemon curd. The 4th course had a mini gingerbread cake topped with caramel (OMG to die for) and a plate of different sweets including a mint brownie, a shortbread nut cookie, and fruit tart. We were all too full at the end to try all the desserts then. Luckily we all got a doggie bag and they were still delicious later in the day.

The Santa Experience

7 day before Christmas, a weekend, Santa, a mall, and a just recovering from being sick, badly teething toddler. Bad combination right? It was, and I knew it would be going in, but we were out of time. It was our only chance for Sienna to meet Santa. We headed to the mall as close to Santa's opening time as we could. The line was long and full of antsy kids with their lists to give to Santa. We stepped in line and I overheard a woman 2 families away from Santa saying she had waited an hour from our spot. Great... Next thing I know I see the high school kids running the operation on the phone and hear something about technical difficulties. Even better... Not willing to give up our chance we waited, and waited, and waited. Despite everything Sienna was a champ waiting. We visited the food court for a bit of a distraction, but otherwise she was content in our arms or in line. I think it helped she wasn't up to full speed yet and still in a cuddly mood. 

1.5 hours later she had enough and was near meltdown stage, plus in need of a nap. Just in time for it to be our turn to see Santa. When she's teething, one of her only comforts is her Nuk. (It also prevents her from biting my shoulder. Yes, I have a biter) I really didn't want a Nuk/Santa pic so right before I set her in his lap I had to pull it out. And the rest you can see in pictures.

She started with screaming, kicking, back arching. Moved to just screaming and crying. And for a few moments stopped crying and just looked pissed. Picture taken! Santa visit done. Success?? Yes, success.

The Jovle's take over Florida

As promised I put together a little slide show from our FL trip. This trip not only did Justin, Sienna, and I go visit Rick, but Amanda, Travis, Izzy, Sami & Janis were all there as well. They went down the week before we did and we overlapped for 2 days. It was a lot of fun to see them and let the kids play together. Sienna already idolizes Izzy. All weekend "Ze Ze" was her favorite word.

I was very nervous about flying with a 15 month old. She doesn't like to be confined and not moving. I was pretty terrified of having THAT screaming kid on the flight. When we got to the airport they offered us a great deal for a first class upgrade so we took it. That eased a lot of my fears. She had tons of room to run around between us. It was my first time in first class too - soooo nice! Never want to go coach again!

We kept our trip cheap and did all the free Disney stuff - walked the boardwalk, toured hotels, looked at the Christmas decorations, and shopped at Downtown Disney. The weather was great and stayed in the 70s. We even got a little pool time in.

Here's the picture highlights.

Holiday Traditions

I have been MIA for the past couple weeks. I can blame the fact that we were in FL last week, but before that there's really no excuse. Here's a few of the things we have been up to. FL pics to come later in the week!

We took Sienna and Ariana to see their first Holidazzle parade. Sienna ooohhhed for the whole thing and loved seeing all the lights. I hope we can make this a yearly tradition!

Spent a full weekend baking cookies. The first day was our annual girl friend day of cookie baking and the second day was with the girls in my family. Lots and lots of cookies were made. I have been trying to be so good not to eat them all!

Loving all these holiday traditions and there are more to come this week. Such a great time of year!

15 Month Favorites

Sienna,

At 15 months you are full of opinions, loves, and hates. Conner is your bestest of all friends. You love to run over to him, give him hugs, pull on his legs and chase him around. This also includes standing next to him with your mouth open waiting until he gives you a mouthful of kisses. He is such a good doggy and is very patient with you.

Conner hugs

and kisses

Your Dad's love of Christmas is contagious and you have caught the bug. You are mesmerized by all of the pretty lights and decorations. Every time you see them you say, "Oooooooooh!!" and squeal with delight. Even if you turn away for a moment and then look back, it's like it's the first time all over again and more ooohs. 

Ooohing over the tree

Your Mom's love of dance seems to have been passed onto you. Christmas music is your favorite to jam to but any toy that plays music will do as well. You've even started to do a booty shake. (Videos needed) You also love climbing and rocking. Your rocking chair provides hours of entertainment. All of your toys go up on the chair and then you try to climb up and sit with them - most of them are too big and this doesn't work very well.

15 months means we got an official measurement checkin! I think you stayed pretty close to your same percentages as last time.
Height: 30.3 inches 44%
Weight: 21 lbs 7 oz 27th
Head: 18.5 79%

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been one of those months. I know I haven't been blogging much lately but the first round of winter sickness hit our family - and hard. Started with Sienna, moved to me and as soon as both of us were healthy, it hit Justin. No fun. But I'm happy to say 3 weeks later, we are all healthy and hoping we can at least enjoy this Thanksgiving weekend as a happy and healthy family (Please, let me have one weekend this year to enjoy) At least it hit us before the holiday unlike last year.

We're hosting Thanksgiving again this year. We're trying a new method of turkey cooking using a brine and a searing roast before a slower roast. Let's hope it works! I need to learn to never try new recipes when hosting. You can't ruin a turkey, right? Last weekend started my prep including a gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie!

I wish I could say it tastes as great as it looks - that's why I'm showing it on this blog and not my food one. :) The crust ended up being very hard. I need to keep trying to find a great gf/df recipe. The pumpkin part is still great.

Besides being sick we've spent the past couple weekends trying to cheer on our football teams. If only they looked as good playing as Sienna does cheering them on...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!!

Photo Shoot

Awhile ago we bought a Groupon for a photo shoot. I thought it was going to be a good idea to do it after Sienna was able to walk. I was thinking of cute pictures of her standing up, not thinking about how easily she could run away. Lets just say that if you want to get a photo shoot of your toddler, do it while they can stand against something but not walk yet. :) Lesson learned. Despite Sienna trying to show her independence and her semi-crabby mood we still got some cute pictures out of it.

Chatterbox

Sienna,
You, my dear, have become quite the chatterbox. You are constantly mimicking words and noises. The other weekend when Auntie Cari walked in the room I said her name and you tried to repeat it. She was very excited to hear "Ca!" too.

A couple days ago I received my weekly email about your milestones for this age and it said you should have about 5 words and early talkers could have 20. This prompted your Dad and I to list all of the words you say and it was over 20, plus a few animal noises and "Choo Choo". I was surprised to see that you are ahead in this area but of course proud as any mom would be. My absolute favorite word that you say is "Cracker". So much that I had to record it. Any kind of salty snack you call cracker. I love it.



Of course there are a couple words that I'm not too excited about. "Mine" is the top one - really mine? At 14 months you are way too young to know that. We'll chalk that up to daycare. And also "No" is becoming a favorite. I can't wait to see what else you start picking up. We're going to have to start watching what we say.

Buckets and Books

This is how we roll at the Jovle house: buckets on heads and books in hand. If Sienna ever gives you a bucket just know you're supposed to put it on your head.

Cooking Club IX

This cooking club was inspired by English cuisine. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to this one. Sienna and I were both sick so we stayed home and commiserated together. Cari was able to step in at the last minute and stand in my place. Here's what they made.

First Course

Fall Harvest Chestnut Apple Soup

Main Course
English Cottage Pie with Roasted Butternut Squash Salad and Sherry Maple Vinaigrette

Dessert

Cinnamon Plum Fool

Halloween Parties

Holidays can never be just one day in my family. We like to have many celebrations and Halloween was no exception this year. Sienna's daycare kicked the festivities off last Friday.

Getting 7 kids to look at the camera - not an easy task. Also that's a hockey stick Sienna is holding. Apparent she wouldn't put it down all day. I hope that's not a sign of the sport she'll someday want to play.

Mason, Owen, Luke, Eli, Gabbie
Sienna, Maddie

Saturday the parties continued at Nana's house. Ariana and Sienna dressed up for the grandparents. 

That night we carved pumpkins. I wasn't too sure what Sienna would think of the slimy pumpkin guts but she dug right in. It was just as much fun to put the seeds back in the pumpkin as taking them out. She also tried tasting them, walking in them, and removing them from the bottoms of her feet. Needless to say we had pumpkin guts all over the kitchen once she was done.

Sunday we continued our tradition of having the Eids and Moehrings over for a little Halloween party. We welcome a new addition to the group - Molly!! 

Happy Halloween

Sienna's 2nd Halloween - Cutest chicken on the block

Trick or treating at her first house; a bit unsure on what to do.

She was pretty excited about her M &Ms.

But way more excited when she got a "kuc ka" and tried to eat it the whole wagon ride home through the wrapper. She enjoyed it more with the wrapper off.

Family Updates

Sienna turned 14 months yesterday! She has become a busy little toddler and never stops moving. It's amazing to me how quick she's learning and picking things up. You can give her many simple commands and she'll follow them. "Go bring it to [insert name]" is becoming so handy. She loves being our little helper in any way she can. She's starting to have a whole list of words. I'm not sure anyone else would know the difference between "ba" for ball and "ba" for bottle, but we know what she means. She's also been making animal noises. Every time she's near the toy box she finds her little horse puppet, pulls it out, and says "neigh!" In the rest of her free time she's either eating or reading books. She hardly touches her other toys when there are books around. 

Posing before the Vikings game

Looking at the camera wasn't nearly as exciting as the pumpkins.

In other news Conner seems to be doing great. We took him back to the chiropractor last week and she said he was doing really well. She had high hopes for him going forward. He's goes again tomorrow and hopefully that will be it for awhile. He's been off his pain meds for a week and is dying to run around outside but we're restricting him until after that appointment. Hope for more good news!

Cookie Kisses

This is my favorite book of Siennas'. Watch and see why!

Conner

It's been an emotional roller coaster of a week. It's a really long story but to be short Conner wasn't feeling well last Friday night, so we took him into the vet on Saturday am. I didn't think he was really that sick, and was shocked to hear his results. He had a nerve pinched in his back and it was cause by a disease called IDD (Intervertebral Disk Disease). It's where the vertebraes start growing together and eventually lead to rear paralysis. The vet didn't know how long it would take. Could be months, could be years. For now Conner was on strict bed rest and pain killers. After 2 week he should be feeling better but will have to live a limited active lifestyle (ummm do you know my dog??) As you can imagine, Justin and I were devastated. You know in your head that your dog won't be around forever, but Conner's only 8. I figured he had a few more good years in him.

We got through the weekend and Conner didn't appear to be feeling much better. Most the times when he'd start to walk, his nerve would pinch and he'd freeze in place while his whole body started to shake. I felt so bad for him. Come Monday morning Justin is telling a co-worker about the situation. The co-workers knows of a great animal chiropractor and next thing I know we're bringing in Conner. Who knew they had such and thing and only my family would figure that out. We should be deemed poster children for Eastern Medicine.

I was hopeful but still skeptical. I'd love to say after the appointment Conner was frolicking but that wasn't quite the case. However he did seem to be feeling better. He was walking much better last night and there was even some tail wagging. The chiro adjusted him in 8 places and seemed to think with regular maintenance he will be ok. It's amazing to me the different prognosis the 2 different doctors have given us. I have a million unanswered questions but for now I'm hopeful that Conner will be ok and be able to live a normal dog lifestyle. We go back again next week and hope for more good news. Send good doggy thoughts our way!

Apple Orchard

I finally got my family fall fun weekend day! We went to Emma Krumbies to their scarecrow fest. I couldn't have asked for a nicer day out.

Sienna hung with the Minnie Mouse scarecrows. 

She helped feed the goats.

Posed for some cheesy pictures.

We rode the train around.

Smelled and picked a few apples.

Posed under the apple trees.

And also by the pumpkins.

Patio & Deck...or lack thereof

The past couple months we've been doing some [de]construction on our house. The deck was starting to fall apart due to water issues in the ground - that are now fixed but too little too late. It was also too small so instead of fixing it we decided to tear it down and start over. 

In addition to a new deck, we also added a patio slab where a future screen in porch will go. 

Deck in process of the tear down. The goal is to get the deck down this fall and put a new one up in the spring.

Camera Fun

I got a new app for my phone called Camera Fun. It was one of Amazons free apps of the day. You can take pictures or modify old ones in all different modes. They have everything from sepia to thermal sensor to canvas to mirrors and many  more. It's pretty sweet. Here's a couple of my favorite modes.

X-ray

Water Color 

Blueprint