New Addition

Sophie is a big cousin yet again! We don't quite have all the details yet as she was born this morning and Mom is still recooping and for all of you who have had a child you know how those first few hours can be....trying to get all the info out to family, answering the phone that won't stop ringing from all the well wishers, not to mention trying to handle your new little bundle of joy. Well, thanks to the lovely technology of text messaging the info that I do have have is that Gabriella Goes (haven't found out her middle name yet, but I'm on it) entered the world around 9am or so this morning weighing a small 7 pounds even and is 20 inches long! Just a peanut, but then her big bro Braedon was just a peanut too. As far as I know my cousin Michelle is doing fine, she is the one sending me all the updates via text message, so she must be feeling okay at this point. I know that my grandmother (Sophie) must be over the moon excited as this is her 6th, yes SIXTH, great grandchild in 3 years; Emerson, Sophie, Braedon (Gabriella's big bro), Jackson, Caden and now Gabriella!!! It is so amazing how much our family has grown in three short years, sometimes I wish that we lived closer so that Sophie could experience the joy of growing up surrounded by her cousins and sharing in such a large, close family. I have such fond memories, however when I think of the winters they have I am glad I live in NC.....sorry guys!

Congrats Michelle and Nelson on your new baby girl!

Lookey What I Made!

In an effort to save Sophie's car seat from any pee accidents I decided to make my very own pee pad, you can buy them in the various baby stores, but I figured I could just as easily make my own and save myself the 9 bucks. I took some measurements of the seating area of her carseat and made a pattern, from there I cut two layers of an old terry cloth hand towel out for absorbency and of course you need a waterproof layer so it doesn't get all over the car seat and for that I used an old crib mattress pad liner. I sewed them all together and poof....Meg's Pee Pad is created....well Soph's Pee Pad, but I made it!!! For a final touch to make it pretty I used left over Princess fabric to cover it and make it pretty. So, I guess in this case it will be OK if she pees on the Princesses! I took some pictures of the pee pad in the making and the final product. It did not occur to me to take pictures until I had already had the pee pad inside the cover and I was not taking it out so you can get the basic idea of how I layered it all together from the pictures. Needless to say I am VERY proud of myself, not only for making this, but saving myself a little money in the process, oh and it fits PERFECTLY in the car seat, it is out there now awaiting Sophie's beautiful little Princess Buns!

Waterproof layer (crib mattress pad)

Absorbent layers (terry cloth hand towel)

Side view of all three layers

Bottom

Top

A Boston Girl At Heart

This is not really a very exciting post, but more of a fun little update and reason to post pictures for those of you who don't really get to see the Sophster on a regular basis. She truly is a fun little girl with a caring heart at such a young age. I can't believe how fast she is growing and changing. Anyway onto the post......

Lately I have been wearing a hat, a Boston Red Sox hat of course, to cover up my laziness and therefore "not worthy of stepping outside looking like that" hair. And in true Sophie style AKA "Mommy's Little Shadow", Sophie dictated to me as I was getting her dressed, "I wear my "B" hat like Mommy". I really did not think that she would wear it beyond the door, since she usually gets annoyed with it and chucks it somewhere. I was so surprised when she kept it on the whole 45 minutes we were out doing errands. Go Soph, and Go Sox! Neal and Papa S. may have her converted to a Steelers fan, but there is no way they are getting baseball too, it's Red Sox all the way Baby!!! She did end up chucking the hat when we got home and traded it in for the two lovely new hair bows we bought while out on our errand running and she insisted that she wear not just one, but both of the new bows! Enjoy the pics and her silliness!

Soooo serious.

Bored Out of My Mind

As I sit here and listen to the baby monitor and await Sophie's calls of, "Mommy where are you?" which lets me know that she is in fact awoken from her nap and is ready for me to come and get her (if I go up and get her before she is ready, she is way grumpy, so I have learned to wait for the call), I realized how bored I am. I can only do so much laundry, and I can only avoid several other household tasks before the boredom really sets in. I am actually so bored I want my sleeping two year old to wake up just so I will have something to do.....how crazy is that?????? So in an effort to banish my boredom I retreated to the home office and logged onto the trusty Internet and Googled "Bored Out of My Mind" and a plethora of websites came up and this is the one that I found most entertaining Very Bored A Great Place to Be When You Are Bored.

Just a quirky little website that is really nothing but a time filler of things that you would have never really ventured to care about unless you were in fact, "Bored out of your mind" with nothing else to do. So if you ever find yourself as bored as I am finding myself right now, check it out, it is actually slightly entertaining. Now I am off to the kitchen to start dinner since Neal just called and let me know that he is on his way home, YAY!!!!!!

Mommy's Little Helper

Yes, that is my child in the dryer. No, I did not put her in there either, she willingly climbed in after helping take all her bibs out and put them in the clean bib basket. I have always found it easier to let Sophie "help" with various tasks around the house or give her her own task similar to what I am doing. I chose to do this for numerous reasons; number one to avoid the whining that I know will ensue if I don't allow her to "help" since she is my shadow and must do what I am doing at ALL TIMES! Number two, to teach her responsibility, and that she is a fully functioning member of the family and is capable of doing things for herself (this has really helped as I have been giving her more responsibility lately, I find her now telling me that she can do it and she does not need my help where as before everything needed my assistance or for me to just flat out do it for her). Number three to teach her the joy and pride that comes along with helping out and/or doing things for yourself no matter how small the task, the smile that spreads across her face when I thank her for helping me out or congratulate her on a job well done is priceless. I also include her in on lots of cooking and baking since being a stay at home mama, I find I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen, which actually I don't mind I am getting quite good at this whole cooking thing, a regular old Domestic Goddess, that's me!

Celebrating Gigi S!

Valentine's Day is not really Gigi S's birthday, it is actually Monday the 16th, but weekends are always more convenient for birthday celebrations. Gigi cooked her own birthday dinner, a fabulous veggie lasagna, mmmmmm yum yum! Afterwards we enjoyed some delicious birthday cake with sinfully sweet icing. Sophie was such a big helper when it came to blowing out the candles on Gigi's cake. She even attempted to sing happy birthday when we told her we were going to sing to Gigi, but when it came time to do the actual singing she was a little too awestruck by the glow of the candles. After cake she decided that she wanted Uncle Joe to play his guitar, it did not take much more than, "Play guitar, pwease, Uncle Joe". Sophie had a great time playing with Uncle Joe's guitar and drum sticks. I have no doubt that Sophie will definitely be wondering where Uncle Joe is when he heads off to Japan for 4 1/2 months! Sophie is still talking about Happy Birthday, and today made sure to wish me a Happy Birthday while we were in the bathroom at church, not yet sweetie about 2 more weeks! Until then though, Happy Birthday Gigi S!!!!

The rousing game of UNO that seemed to last FOREVER!

Helping Gigi blow out the candles.

Enjoying a little cake.

Heading up to play Uncle Joe's guitar.

Showing of their fabulous Super Bowl Champ shirts!

A Family Affair

Before heading up to Neal's parent's house for Martha's birthday dinner (of which she cooked herself) we stopped at Starbucks for a little family coffee date to celebrate Valentine's Day. Sophie had a great time, of course, she is a Starbucks veteran and loves the hot cocoa! Neal loved watching Sophie act like a big girl and enjoy her hot cocoa and in true Neal style snapped some great pictures as well. Thanks to Auntie Nancy for the Starbucks gift cards, you made our Valentine's Day that much happier!

Valentine's Day With Gigi K!

Today my mom came down to celebrate Valentine's Day with Sophie and I a day early. She arrived just as Sophie and I were putting the finishing touches on the heart cookies we were making for Valentine's Day. While I cleaned up my mom and Sophie played in the play room with, well, what else, Princesses and Princess stickers! Once the cookie mess was cleaned up I was off to get a shower, by myself, YAHOO, with no little monkey pulling back the shower curtain every 2 minutes asking, "Whatcha doing Mommy?". As cute and sweet as she is, getting a shower while she and my mom played outside was nothing short of a visit to the spa!

After my lovely shower (did I mention I showered ALL BY MYSELF?!?!?!) we were off to lunch at one of our local favorites Chantilly's Tea Room, it is a fabulous little restaurant in an old Victorian Style home with great food and great service too. If you are ever in Gastonia you should definitely try it out, they are only open from 11am until 2pm and is usually packed. Sophie was so great while we were there, I was actually kind of floored at how well she behaved! She is growing up so fast, she had a little pre lunch converstaion with us and even made sure to let me know half way through the meal that she needed to potty, my baby isn't really a baby anymore! Once we finished up with lunch it was back home to play with Sophie's new No Spill Bubble Bucket that Gigi brought her for Valentine's Day. She had such a great time playing with Gigi and the bubbles! Thanks Gigi!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Too Much Wind = No More Power For Us!

Wednesday night it was SO windy that we lost power for about 2 hours. It would not have been so bad if I hadn't just put Sophie in the bath tub! Poor little thing she freaked out, it took her a minute to get upset because the lights flickered first and then came back on for a second then dimmed again and went out completely and there we were sitting in complete darkness in her bathroom until Neal came rushing up to save the day with a flashlight. Once she saw Neal with the flash light she let out a very cautious little giggle, luckily I had not wet her hair yet, so I just finished up washing her body and pulled her out, nothing like a much needed bath cut short! Getting Sophie to bed seemed to go okay until the wind and rain really started to pick up and whip around outside, and with no monitor it was hard to hear her crying upstairs while we were downstairs, but there is nothing like the ears of a Mommy listening out for her baby. So, mine and Neal's little candle lit (we had tea lights all over the house, it was kind of romantic and fun!) game of Uno was cut short so that I could go and tend to her. The power went out around 7:15pm and finally came back on at exactly 8:56pm leaving me 4 minutes to get downstairs and watch LOST! I was so excited, I felt like the LOST Gods were shining down on me when the power came back on!

Spring Preview

We are finally getting a little break from the cold and this weekend we are supposed to be climbing to 68 and 70 degrees on Saturday and Sunday respectively! Can't wait. Friday, we got a little preview of the wonderful weekend weather to come, the morning started off quite chilly, but as the day progressed we experienced a significant warm up. Neal came home around lunch time since he is dealing with a bit of nasty head cold right now, and once Sophie got up from her nap he thought it might do us all some good to get out and enjoy the nice weather and fresh air since we have been cooped up so long. Sophie and Neal had a blast rolling around on their bikes together, she is starting to get the hang of using the peddles a bit more, especially watching Neal peddle around. It was beautiful outside and really gave us a taste of Spring and has me longing for some permanently nicer weather!

Sophie's Secret Language

In an attempt to do something fun for the afternoon and help pass the time since it has been bitter cold for us here in the Carolinas, Sophie and I experimented with some Magic Grow Safari Animals, an idea that we poached from our friends, Abbie and Morgan. When we saw that Abbie and Morgan had so much fun with these odd little capsules that I loved playing with as a child too, I remembered that Neal had a package of these capsules from a couple of Christmases ago when I could not think of anything else to stuff in his stocking. Well, either the capsules were too old and busted or I didn't put warm enough water in because I had to basically rip open the capsules to reveal the spongey safari shaped animal trapped inside. Regardless of how the little animals emerged from their capsule, Sophie had a blast playing in the water and talking away to me and herself in her secret little language that she has come up with in the recent weeks. She thinks that it is absolutely hilarious that she is being so silly and that Neal and I have no clue what she is saying, all we can do is say, "What???" and giggle along with her, which only makes her laugh harder and continue to act like a goofy little two year old girl. I hope it makes you giggle too!


Untitled from Neal Slimick on Vimeo.

SIXTH SUPERBOWL TITLE!!!!

YAY Steelers!!!!! I know, I know, I am a Patriots fan by birth and would probably be disowned by my entire, and I mean my entire family, near and far, if I abandoned the sacred Pats, I assure you, my blood still runs blue and red! However, since the Pats weren't in it this year and I married into the Steelers legacy some 4 years ago I cheered right alongside my very, very excited husband for that cute quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It was a very exciting game to watch, especially at the end with Steelers pulling it out with so little time left, man I tell you what those guys really know how to keep their feet on the ground and in bounds when necessary!

Neal and I attended a Superbowl party at our friend's house while Sophie hung out with Gigi and Papa Keilty. We dropped Sophie, the mini Steeler's fan, off at Gigi and Papa's house right after church, but before we did we made sure to snap some pictures of her in her "Oh So Cute" pink number 7 Roethlisberger jersey (Thanks Ruth and Jack!!) and her Steeler Bear, Daddy made sure that she got to wear her jersey to church to show off her Steeler pride!