Christmas sampler

I'm behind on my blogging. Time has gotten away from me! We had a wonderful Christmas, which started on Dec. 17th at Matt's dad's house. Even though it's technically over, it's still Christmas at the Wade house, as we haven't taken down our decorations yet. We usually leave them up until the new year, and this year is no exception. I always dread putting away the house decs because 1. It's just not as much fun putting them away as it is getting them out; and 2. The house seems so bare. (Boo.) Lola made this Christmas 100 times more fun. Of course, the little dumplin' was around last year, but she was so little... this year she was so entertaining! She quickly figured out how to open presents, and she gasped each time she tore the paper and discovered what was inside. It was a hoot. Santa brought Lola a play kitchen made by his elves (aka Pop, Mama and Dada - shhhh, don't tell). I'll post start-to-finish pictures of that soon. For now, enjoy these few pics from our Christmas. Happy new year, all!

Opening presents at Grandpa Dan's

Getting some pointers from cousin Maddox.

Swimming in Grandpa Dan's pool with M and M.

Christmas Eve brunch at Nana's - it was a beautiful day!

The night before Christmas...

Christmas morning...

Very excited about her new books...

We all got new mugs!

"Vroom, vroom" (thank you, Granny and Pop)

Watching Elmo videos on UC's phone (she is obsessed with Elmo)

Happy birthday to the best daddy in the world

Love,

Lola

Our little family

Jennie Wise (local photog) came over and took some family pictures for us a couple weeks ago. We got lucky and had a little snow on the ground. Love how they turned out! (And we even got Ossie in a few.)

The Graduate

We traveled to Columbia over the weekend to see my mom graduate from college. (Yes, you read that right.) She left college when she was 20 to marry my dad, and the two moved to Knoxville for his job. She took classes there, and when they ended up back in Ozark County she tried to commute to SMS in Springfield (now MSU) to finish her degree, but it just never worked out. A few years ago she realized it was one thing she really regretted, so she started taking classes through Mizzou online, and she finally finished!

(See, it's never too late to go to college.)

Exiting through the columns on her way to graduate.

It'll be 10 years in May since I graduated from this school!

Her "class."

Done and done!

Still looks the same... 40 years later. :)

A few recent snapshots

Crazy lady has crazy hair in the bathtub.

Lola loves to color in her coloring book... and on her bookshelf, changing table, storage bins, other (non-coloring) books, her socks, dining chairs, kitchen counter, Oscar and mama's head. Sigh.

We went to Gainesville for the Christmas festivities on the square a couple weeks ago (when Lola met Santa), but first we went by Matt's grandma's house for lunch, and Lola got to play with her cousins, Madison and Maddox.

Nana read Lola a Christmas story.

Madison and Maddox got to see Santa, too.

This was from today. Just enjoying the 60-degree weather in December.

(She was actually overdressed!)

Most of the time she stays out of the tree, and she still hasn't really noticed the presents. But, once in a while her curiosity gets the best of her.

Buddies

Just a glimpse at what it's like at our house some days when Lola and Oscar "play" together. Here he barks and chases her, she tries to kiss him, but he kisses her instead, and on and on. It's pretty funny. Matt (lovingly) says Oscar is the world's worst dog, but we sure are lucky that he's so good with our wild and crazy toddler. :)

Look who came to town...

Blueberry-oatmeal pancakes

Lola loves pancakes.

After dragging her to Springfield in freezing temperatures on Tuesday to get TWO shots, I decided she deserved pancakes for dinner.

This is our favorite recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 1/4 cups low-fat or fat-free buttermilk

1 large egg

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Combine flour, oats, baking powder and sugar in a medium bowl. Whisk together oil, buttermilk and egg in a separate bowl. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined. Stir in blueberries. Cook and gobble them up.

This is actually a South Beach recipe. The original recipe is for waffles (no blueberries) and calls for a 1/2 cup of water (in addition to the buttermilk) and 3 tablespoons of sugar substitute (instead of sugar). I omit the water for pancakes, so the batter is a little thicker. And I try not to use artificial sweeteners anymore (except for an occasional heavenly diet coke), so I use real sugar and cut it back to 2 tablespoons instead of 3. Lola eats them plain. Matt drenches them in peanut butter and syrup. They're really delicious by themselves. Also good with jam. Great leftover. Just pop them in the toaster. Enjoy!

Brown paper packages tied up with string

I finally started wrapping presents last night after Lola went to bed. I decided to use brown paper this year + red, white and green yarn + green glittery mesh. And stamps! This is the first time I've ever used rubber stamps... for anything, really. And I love how they look on the brown paper. (Bonus: they're a lot cheaper than name tags, too.) I got the idea from pinterest (of course). People, if you're not on pinterest, you're missing out. I practically did Lola's entire first birthday party based on ideas I saw on pinterest. The brown paper and rubber stamp idea is from pinterest. It. Is. Awesome. It's just a virtual pin board. You know, instead of tearing things out of magazines and having to keep up with loose pages (which I do all the time), you just "pin" stuff you like to your virtual board, and you categorize them however you like. I mostly repin ideas from other people (the fun part is browsing what other people pin, and then repinning what you like), but, you can also pin stuff (anything!) you see online.

Check it out.

15 months

Lola is 15 months old. Jeepers creepers, where does the time go?! Every day she grows further away from the baby stage and looks and acts more like a little girl. Some days it makes me really sad - but, it's hard to stay sad for long because this little girl is so much fun. I feel like she understands everything we say. She responds to all sorts of commands (like taking something to mama or dada, or throwing something in the trash, or giving Oscar kisses). She is definitely becoming more feisty (ornery) as the weeks pass. She furrows her brow and gives us looks now. She taps her fingers on her booster seat tray while she *patiently* waits for us to prepare her meals. She DEMANDS milk from the fridge and knows exactly where we keep the Cheerios. (We have to spell words so she doesn't hear us talking about certain things... I'm wondering how long until she figures out how to spell, too?) She not only walks, she now walks backwards. And she runs. She loves to read books - and she definitely has her favorites. Today was her 15-month checkup, which consisted of a quick exam, taking her measurements and two shots, which were not fun.

15 months

Height: 32 inches

Weight: 26 pounds, 2 ounces

As you may recall, she measured 32 inches at her 12-month checkup, too, which put her in the 105th percentile for height. Her doc thinks they might have overmeasured her last time, which would explain why she was off the charts; however, measuring 32 inches today still put her in the 95th percentile for height. She's in the 90th for weight - the most she's ever been! I'm guessing it's all the whole cow's milk she's been drinking over the past three months.

She can't get enough of it.

Obviously.

First snowfall of the season

It snowed a good inch or two in Pontiac this morning

She tasted it!

Watching the geese fly over

We definitely need some snow boots

Our little polar bear

Lola's Christmas tree

Let the countdown to Christmas begin.

The BEST nail polish

I love to polish my fingernails, but I don't do it very often, because it always chips and looks terrible after a day. Not this stuff. It is awesome - and I didn't use a base or a top coat. (I know what you're thinking: "Whoa.") I have it in two colors. This one (pictured) is called Commander in Chic, and I also have a vibrant red called All Fired Up. I put the red on last Wednesday night, and it was still looking good five days later. (I'm telling ya, it's good stuff.) And there are lots of colors. Check it out. (p.s. It's listed on soap.com for $9 - I got mine two for $10 at Walgreens!)

A very happy turkey weekend!

We made it home safe and sound from our trip around the world (okay, just to Ava and Kansas City and home again, but it felt like the world with a toddler in the car). Lola got to play with her cousins at Matt's mom's house on Wednesday - she LOVES seeing and being around other kids. Makes me wish we had a regular play date for her each week. (We might need to work on that...)

Madison, Lola, Maddox and Jackson - cousins!

We headed to Kansas City on Thursday, where we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the Stilley house.

Lola and (Kate's) "Auntie" Mary Ann

Granny and Lola

Us.

Thank you, Stilley family, for letting us crash your Thanksgiving dinner once again. Even though the MU-KU battle has ended (and we won! we won!), we hope to continue our tradition of getting together with you over the holidays... maybe next year you can all come to Pontiac.

(Or, maybe we can all go to the beach! Or, go snow skiing! Wahooooo!)

On Friday we got to meet miss Embry Jean Woods, the sweet little daughter of my good friend, Billie, and her husband Woodsie. Embry wasn't due until Dec. 2, but I told Billie I would really appreciate it if she'd have her before Thanksgiving so I could meet her. (Thank you, B, I know you did it JUST for me.) She is a sweet little doll baby. And so tiny! I can't believe Lola was ever that small (L was actually smaller!) Time goes by much too quickly. Sigh.

Afterward we headed to the Plaza for lunch at Jack Stack and a little Christmas shopping - yes, I actually managed to buy a few Christmas presents on this trip! (I'm close to being finished with my shopping, if you can believe it.)

On Saturday we headed to Arrowhead Stadium for the final border showdown between Mizzou and Kansas, and...

WE WON.

End of story.

Matt and I both came home with colds. Yuck. Lola seems to be okay so far, thank goodness. Hopefully this passes soon!

Check out all the pictures below: