Christmas Baking: Part II

We're spending a few days in Atlanta before heading to Louisiana for a few days. We've had a great visit and have had some time to do more Christmas baking. Here are some of the final results:

Mom's Famous Pumpkin Pie

Gingerbread Men and Sugar Cookies (decorated by Jenna):

We had a great time with our family, and Jenna really enjoyed the Christmas experience. Here is a picture of all of us before we began the Christmas meal.

Here is a picture of Jenna grabbing the last of the presents from under the tree. She enjoyed helping to distribute all of the gifts.

Here is a picture of Jenna modeling a new skirt (over her pants, of course). She did well opening the presents, and enjoyed all of the new, fun toys to play with.

Christmas Baking: Part I

Jenna and I have been baking the past few days. So far, we've made two batches of peanut blossoms, two peanut butter pies, and batter for gingerbread cookies. We'll continue baking when we go to Mimi and Poppa's tomorrow. Here are a few pictures...

Jenna loves doing this job:

A finished peanut butter pie--YUM!

Sampling the chocolate to make sure it's good
(notice Snoopy and Max watching her in the background).

In the oven:

Jenna very seriously doing her job...

notice her creativity this time; she put all of the kisses upside down.
The finished product--YUM again!

Jenna Loves Elmo!

Last night, we had our church Christmas party. I had on black corduroys and a red shirt, so I thought Jenna would look cute in red corduroys and a black shirt. I put her pants on, and everything was fine. Then I put her shirt on, and she started saying she wanted to wear her Elmo shirt instead. At the time, it was in the dryer, but it ended up being dry enough for her to wear. So, I reluctantly allowed her to wear a pink Elmo shirt with the red pants (at least Elmo matched, right?). Next, I found some Elmo socks that I thought she might like to wear. She didn't like the fact that Elmo was on the top of her feet, she wanted him on the bottom of her feet. So after a few minutes of trying to explain Elmo was supposed to be on the top so she could see him, I gave up and let her wear him on the bottom of her feet, with the heel on the top of her ankle. I tried to get a picture, but it was difficult. Here's my best shot. I can't imagine how particular she's going to be when she's a teenager when she's like this at two!

Father-Daughter Bonding

OK, so I was trying to think of what I could blog about for the past week, and when this happened, I couldn't resist. Tonight, we were putting Jenna to bed, which has developed into quite the routine: bath (most nights), clean diaper, pajamas, brush teeth, reading a story, then getting settled for bed (which includes starting her Fisher Price Aquarium, covering up with 2 blankets, and cuddling with her favorite toy, currently Max the Dog from How the Grinch Stole Christmas).

Tonight, I had left the room to start getting ready for bed, but I noticed Randy was still in there 5 or so minutes later. Apparently, she had asked him to sit down next to her crib and shut the door, so they were having some father-daughter bonding time. Jenna began pointing to the door, and saying something that he couldn't understand. He asked her if she wanted the door shut, and she said no. He then realized she was saying "go" and asked her if she wanted him to leave. She said "yes." I guess the bonding time was over, and she was ready to go to sleep.

Lunch with Friends

Today, we had lunch with some good friends from Ohio. Karen was my best friend from elementary school (unbelievably we've been friends for over 23 years!), and she and her husband Joe were in Tennessee celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary. We had a good visit with them, and took some pictures afterward. Jenna was very shy until it was time to leave, then she opened up. She even did some dances for them! Randy caught a great action shot when she was in midair.

December 3rd

Jenna's birthday was a fun one. She relaxed at home for a few hours at the beginning of the day, which is when she posed for this picture. She was dancing around too, so I caught a picture of that too!


She went to school for part of the day, and shared ice cream sandwiches with her friends. They had written a special message to her outside her classroom. They said every time they sang "Happy Birthday" to her, she kept saying "more, more." I guess she loved the attention.

Randy and I picked her up and took her to a playground. Although it was a little bit cold, she had a blast swinging and going down the slides.

All in all, it was a fun family day to celebrate 2 years since our little girl was born!

Jenna is 2!

It's hard to believe this was two years ago already. What a wonderful two years it has been. We've learned a lot and we love Jenna more than we ever thought possible.

Here are a few pictures from her birthday celebration this weekend. She was much more interested in the cake this year--last year Randy had to put goldfish in it (which she loved) and make her dig for them to get her to even try the cake. This year, she ate all the icing and a little bit of the cake.

Jenna did several dances for us...what a ham she is!


Jenna enjoyed riding on the same toy that me, my brother, and my cousin used to ride on when we were little. Kudos to Playskool for making such a durable fun toy to outlast all of these years and riders!

Last, but not least, here is a funny movie of Jenna "blowing out" her candle. Her look at the end is hilarious. I'll post more pictures later of her big day.