Snowin', Skiin', Fallin'

3 Little Snow People

It was a balmy 40 degrees outside so we bundled up and ushered our little cabin fever victims out the door. Jake was trying out some skis for the first time. Aidan wanted to go sledding down the 'big hill', and Corinna just wanted to be with her boys. I was ace photographer on the scene.

Jakey on skiis going....

.....going....

........gone!!

Aidan pulling Corinna going....

....going....

....and down!

Jakey splitting.....

...splitting...

...and split

Aidan snow angeling

Three's no crowd on a toboggan!

I heart You daddy!

Hearts and Cookies

With blizzard like conditions yesterday and school closed (GASP!) I was forced to do what every other rational house-bound-with-3-hyper-kids mother would do. Bake! Jake's Valentine's Party at school is today so yesterday we baked some goodies. By "WE" I mean Aidan and I. And when I say "baked" I mean "Aidan spilling sugar and flour on the table and floor". Anyway, it was kinda cute while it lasted. I have decided to add some of my baking projects to this blog in a vain attempt to mimic real 'foodie' blogs which I frequent. They are awesome. http://www.bakerella.com/ and http://www.cakespy.com/ are just so cool and updated all the time so I'm always there.

Just a simple Martha Stewart's Ideal Sugar Cookie recipe (which really is quite delish!) and Wilton's royal icing recipe to decorate. Win-Win. Each kid is getting 2 heart shaped cookies in a little cello bag.

"More" + "Dance"

Corinna does some sign language, but not a lot. This is why we thought it was hilarious when not only did she make up a sign, but what it meant. We had recently gotten the boys the Wii game "Just Dance" and played it a few times before bed. Corinna LOVED it (as did the boys who took turns dancing circles around Spike and I) and as long as Corinna held a controller and wiggled her tushy, she was in heaven. So one night we skipped the game and went straight to bed. That's when she strung together the sign for "more" and she made up a sign for "dance" which is her just wiggling with a HUGE grin on her face. Oh the cuteness.

Aidan even got Grandpa to dance (we got half a song out of him at least). When Grandpa tired of dancing (to Blondie's Heart of Glass) Aidan consoled him by saying "Grandpa, I did better than you because I take dance classes."

Even Buster gets a kick out of dancing.

My Beautiful Dead Flowers

These are the most beautiful flowers I've ever gotten. Yes they are dead, and well, I had to cut a little mold off the stems, but I just love them. They began life as a birthday bouquet for Tara. Back on Dec 27. They prettied up the kitchen table for a long while. When they were past their prime, I tossed them over the porch railing onto a bed of snow and ice. Certain that by the time the snow melted and anyone was out there again, the flowers would have blown away, been eaten by a fierce flower eating rodent, or otherwise dispersed. Well, that didn't happen, we had a mini- New York January heatwave with a 50 degree day and the boys played outside and the snow melted. And there was the knock at the front door. And Aidan was standing there, so lovingly carrying all the dead flowers he found outside. "Look mama, I picked them just for you!" it was so sweet. I had to keep them. So they are once again prettying up the table, but just a little further away from the food.

Happy Birthday Corinna Bo-Binna!

I think we finally got it right. By the third kid, we mastered the first birthday. It's not that the boys had awful parties, they didn't, but let's just say, this one was the best. Little Miss Corinna was a delight, she napped during the day prior to the party, and she was in great spirits--even when we had to wake her up to greet the guests. It was unseasonably warm for her January party, kind of poking fun at the snowflake themed fete. Once she warmed up to the crowd at the house, she was loving it! Corinna played in her playhouse with the other girls (tea parties!), chased the boys, and went to town on her smash cake (for those of you out of the kid cake circle, the 'smash' cake is a relatively new phenomena where parents give the one-year-old guest of honor their own mini cake to 'smash' as only a one-year-old can. I never really understood it, but upon seeing it in action at the party, I get it. It's cute. Messy and goopy and sticky, but awfully cute.)

The kids played mostly in the boys room and the adults were left to mingle and enjoy themselves. What a concept! The cake was a hit! There were snowflake tableclothes, candle holders, favor holders, luminaries, painting on the window, crafts, cookies, snow -snow-snow! Corinna's birthday shirt read "I Love Snow" (white shirt perhaps not the wisest choice)and her adorable "snow princess" headband topped off the ensemb.

She scored pretty typical (yet wonderful!) one-year-old loot. Pink bath toys, cute outfits, a ride on car, markers, Abby Caddaby plates and more. She's loving it, playing with everything. Even her brothers have set aside their pink prejudices played.

Ms. Corinna is 1!! So hard to believe such flashbacks between a year ago at this time and now. It flew by so quickly. She’s amazing. She’s got 7 teeth with another just about through. She’s 22 pounds and 30 ½ inches. She is saying “da-da” and “That”. “That” was her first word. She loves buster and is constantly showing him her toys and feeding him her food. She has recently gotten out of the baby bathtub and really likes being in the big tub now (luckily she's got all her new toys to play with). More room to play. She’s smart, too! She walks, nearly running, and has tried to push things together to climb on. She loves her brothers and has tried saying “Jake” and “Aidan”. “Aidan” is a tough name, it just happens that Jake is easier to say. That’s how I comfort myself when she repeatedly says ‘da-da’ and not ‘ma-ma’. She loves apples and waffles. She barely nurses during the day, but at night she’s still up 3 or 4 times (Oh to sleep through the night!). She's a happy, easy baby who puts a smile on her mommy's face like no one else can.

Merry DS-Mas

Well, when a day starts at 5:15 AM, there's no way of knowing what is down the road the rest of that day. BUT, when that day is Christmas, it's a different story! Jake sprung into the room just after 5 and wanted to open everything. It seemed so early! We stumbled out and the present opening began. Santa brought both boys, mommy, and Aunt Tara a Nintendo DS. What electronic fun! Corinna loved her very first christmas. She tried to eat as much wrapping paper as possible. Santa brought her a Rose Petal Cottage playhouse which is huge. Santa aught to consider where parents will place such things before bringing them!

Constant flashbacks to a very uncomfortable last christmas made me even more thankful as I watched Corinna walk effortlessly across the present-strewn living room as opposed to kick my belly from the inside! I will admit that this christmas was as much for me as for Corinna. The Rose Petal Cottage certainly out-aged her by like 4 years, but i didn't care. I wanted pink. I wanted tea party. I wanted a boy-free playhouse!! She loves it, and I'm ever the happier.

We knew the boys would LOVE the DS and not do much else for the rest of the day. We were right. We let them play until their hearts content. Which for Jake amounted to several uninterrupted hours of game-play!

Christmas Eve was pretty great, Aunt Lainie had the idea to have make-your-own pizzas for dinner and it was a hit! Aunt Tara made yummy shrimp also. The boys ate in the living room and the grown ups (grandpa, Aunt Tara, Aunt Lainie, Bavan, mom and dad) ate quietly in the dining room. NOW I understand why the kids' table is usually in the other room! We lit a very pretty taper candle (sorry, not Party Lite Kim) in the middle of a pine wreath in memory of the kids' grandmother. She was totally there in spirit.

As is long tradition in the Gartner house, we sat down and read "T'Was The Night Before Christmas." Only this year, no one listened! There was effort made, but the boys were shaking in their boots with excitement, Corinna was squirmy and tired, and it just went humorously downhill from there. We tried, but no amount of "shhh"ing would cut it!

The weekend before Christmas we were in Syracuse with the Baca family. It was great to see so much of the family and enjoy a wonderful time with cousins and grandparents. And the boys went with their cousins and Aunt Kim to see Lights on the Lake, a long-standing Syracuse tradition. Meeting a LONG line had no impact and they had a great time. I've been trying to go for the better part of a decade...I saw 2010 is my year!

First Snow ho-ho-ho

The first true snowfall of the season fell last weekend. I COULD NOT WAIT to get Corinna outside. She loved, loved, loved it.