Elsie's first day being one!

Annie was overjoyed when she realized her little sister is now a number.  Elsie seemed to know today was her day, and made sure it went her way.  Every time you set her down she screamed until you picked her up.  Only today little Elsie, only today.  She napped lying on her Gigi's lap and was glued to my hip while I baked a wedding cake for tomorrow.  It is not easy to bake while holding a baby  (I'll post pictures of the cake after the wedding).

Elsie wants present.

Elsie gets present.

Elsie kisses present.

Elsie eats present.

 

Yummy present!

Happy Birthday Elsie!!!!

I love you tremendously.  I love all four of your incredibly sharp little teeth even when you bite me.  I love your little smile and your adorable waddle.   I love that you were in a hurry to start life and haven't slowed down since.  I can't wait to see all the crazy things you'll do growing up. 

Happy Valentines day!

Yes I'm a day late, but I took this picture yesterday morning with the full intention of posting it.  Sadly I didn't sit down once yesterday.  I've been trying to play catch up since last week.  The entire family came down with some miserable virus that left us all bedridden for a week.   Thankfully we were all on the road to recovery in time for Valentines day!

Baking

Always excited to bake!

Elsie knows whats good for her

 While Annie lies on the sofa sick, Elsie walks around chewing on Garlic. She is so my little girl.

Way to stay healthy little Elsie!

Project #2

 This is how I make it through winter without getting depressed or loosing my mind.  I start planting seeds, and planning what will go where in the spring. This is my favorite part of winter.  Christmas and Thanksgiving are great, but they can't hold a candle to planting and planning the garden.  Especially since this will be our first real planting since moving here.  Last year was a disaster of moving, having a baby, transplanting from the old house and then weeding, digging and laying out the garden.  Grunt work aside, this year will be awesome!

 We've already had our first signs of life emerge from the soil.  Annie and I check almost hourly anticipating the first signs of a sprout.  The soil pushing up from the pressure of the sprout.  To us it is insanely exciting (we really don't get out much).

 

Our modified cold frames are set up and ready for the cold hardy plants we have sprouting in the basement.   Right now they have kale, parsley, Swiss chard, and spinach going.  Unfortunately Winter decided to hit and temps. are dropping down to 14 degrees tonight.  Hopefully the plants already going will not suffer too much.

Treasures

Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to get ahead of the game at home.  Project #1 Make Bar Soap.  Soap for Annie's super sensitive dry winter skin and my husbands, stink.  Yes stink, which he insists on buying antibacterial soap for.  I don't know what camp you buy into in regards to anti-bacterial, but I am against it, firmly.  So I made no stink soap for Texas and Soft soap for Annie.  This morning when I pulled out a bar of soap for Annie I got so excited to know I had what I needed and it's in it's own cute box stored away in it's own special place.  Worth every minute.