The Patterson Clan

We had a great visit with my family one of the days we were in Alabama.  Aunt Natalie and Uncle Travis came over for the day to celebrate Bailey’s (and Travis’s) birthdays :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Mom and Dad witht he girls.  I think Bailey looks just like my dad and Taylor has several features that remind me of my mom (especially her hair!).

 

The birthday girl all pooped out.

 

Suprise!    J/k :). 

Sweet Tales with her Papa.  (and yes, Bailey is wearing a Rapunzel dress and Taylor a Christmas dress.  We took “Christmas pics” as a family just before these and Tales didn’t want to change into her other clothes.  Bailey doesn’t wear normal clothes anymore.  She changes outfits every hour these days…")

Country Club Pool Alabama style :)

While visiting Jonathan and Lindsay, the girls needed some outside time during the day.  (AKA…it had been raining for 2 days and stopped to barely a drizzle…everyone was going crazy inside :)). 

We stripped them down and plopped them into the pool!

Bailey wanted to go without her panties, but I said even in Alabama you have to draw the line somewhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cellon Clan

All the Cellon Clan went to Alabama to stay with Jonathan and Lindsay over Labor Day weekend!  We had tons of fun.  I have more pics of the girls playing, but wanted to get the family pics up!  Mom C and Dad C have been blessed with FOUR Grandgirls after having 2 boys :).

Grammie and Papa with their Grandgirls :). (Alice was not. having. it. that day!)  And yes.  Bailey wears dress-up clothes all the time now. sigh.

 

Tales and Ada

Taylor LOVED meeting her new baby cousin, Ada Payne over Labor Day weekend.  She was so loving and caring and always wanted to hold Ada.  If Ada cried, Taylor would say, “pacie, blankie!” (Taylor uses her pacie/blankie to comfort herself). 

Here are the 2 littlest Cellon’s loving on each other

Taylor trying to comfort Ada and letting Grammie know she was still a baby too!

 

Aquarium Day!

I decided to take the girls to the aquarium today for something fun! I feel like the past few weeks have been busy, busy with travelling and school.  We decided to ask Emma to come along!  I was super proud of all 3 girls as they behaved very well for me at the aquarium and for lunch at Yana’s a 50’s style deli in Swansboro.  What fun memories :)

Here are all three in the car (Thank God for the dvd player!) and looking at the sea otters.

 

big…………………………………………bigger…………………………….

 

biggest!!!!!!!                         

sea otters sleeping.                             sea otters sleeping :).

 

They had a new exhibit that was a screen on the floor that moved like water when you stepped on it.  The girls loved it and we played there for a long time!

First Day of Preschool 2011

     

Today both girls started preschool for the 2011-2012 school year!  Bailey is in a T/TH class and Taylor goes just on Thursday mornings.  We ate oatmeal with raisins and a few M and M’s for a special breakfast (by request from Bailey :)).   They both had a good first day!  Bailey said her favorite part was catching 5 roly-poly’s during recess.  The PMO teachers said Taylor was the “boss” in the class.  She is now one of the oldest ones and I think she must enjoy finally being able to tell someone what to do! ha!  They weren’t very cooperative this morning with the pics, but you can see how much they’ve grown!  I can’t believe in a few days I will have an almost 2 1/2 yr old and a 4 yr old~  my babies are so big now.

Working out with kids

While in VA beach, my friend Kelly (and co- BOQ occupant) went to the “stroller” aerobics class on NAS Oceana.  We joined her a couple times for a fun and crazy workout.  I think it is so good for children to see their parent’s putting their health as a priority.  Whether it means you run with them in the stroller, do push-ups together in the backyard or they just know that going to the “gym-school” means that Mommy is running to be healthy.  They know it is a good thing to exercise and can almost outrace me at this point!

Here is Taylor, Nora (who is a couple days younger then Tales) and Bailey. 

Kelly and our other friend Jenna.  Kelly is due Oct. 1st and Jenna was 36weeks pregnant with her 3rd.  They are a-m-a-z-i-n-g.   What great examples!

Kelly showing the girls good form.

All of us after a great workout!  The kids loved using the 1lb weights, chasing around the gym and just generally running around like crazy children :).  We went to Jason’s Deli afterward and loaded up on healthy food!

Mommy “bacets”

While in VA beach, Taylor’s favorite thing to do was get into my travel jewelry case and put on all my bracelets (she only broke one :)).  Literally every hour she was in there getting them out! 

Here is Tales trying out her new pony dressed up as “My Little Pony” in Va beach.  (for those of you not up on your little girl shoes…MyLittlePony is a pink pony with pink hair :)).

Grammie and Papa come to VA beach!~

Blair’s parent’s came to visit us in Va beach for one of our last weekends there.  It was so good to see them!  Unfortunately, they brought the heat with them and it was over 100 degrees the whole time they were here which limited our activities :(.   We enjoyed showing them the beach, boardwalk and taking them to our favorite restaurants.  Bailey enjoyed taking “rest time” in Grammie and Papa’s room every day!  Miss you guys.

Girly Tales

Taylor is rarely found without accessories theses days.  She has told me the last few mornings that she wanted to wear a “dress” not pants!  She loves to put on dress-up clothes and her motto is the more the prettier :). 

Please take note of the same horrid black/gold bow Bailey had on the other day.  Also note the many purses.  Even at church and the gym she carries all the purses they have around :).   She loves to go through my purse and begs to wear all my jewelry when we go upstairs.  So girly!

Operation: De-clutter

After living in 400 sq feet for the past 10 weeks, you really learn to prioritize what you have to own and what you can get by without :).  Once home, we felt the great urge to purge!  While in VA beach I had read on a blog about a women who puts all her kids toys in 3-4 bins.  She puts all but one bin up in the basement/garage and then every month she takes one down/packs up the previous one.  This way, the clutter is gone and the kids get “new” toys every month.  I thought it was a great idea and divided up our toys accordingly:.  The garbage bag is a bag full of toys for our garage sell!

The end result:

The girls actually PLAY with all the toys seen almost every day and clean-up is so much easier.  Before, some toys would remain untouched for months.  I imagine we will leave the kitchen, dress-up clothes, books and arts/crafts out at all times and rotate all the other toys!

We carried this theme throughout the house and now we have a garage full of stuff to sell.  I still have to go through the kitchen….but it is so nice to live in a simple, de-cluttered home now :).  I know it will always be a challenge to keep it this way though…

Cooking, cooking, cooking :)

We have been home almost exactly a week now.  We have been very busy de-cluttering, cooking and cleaning around here.  Blair checked out of his old job and starts his new one on tomorrow.  Here are some of my cooking projects that were completed this week:

The first was “pear”sauce (like applesauce) from pears off our neighbors tree.  They are very, very hard pears that supposedly never ripen enough to eat by hand.  My MIL has experience with these and said to “stew” them with a little water, cinnamon and sugar.  They were a lot of work, but the end result was fabulous and FREE :). 

Here is the basket of pears Blair/Bailey and Taylor picked.

First, I peeled, cored and cubed the pears.  This took f-o-r-e-v-e-r and was a great workout for my arms :)

Next, I put all the pears in the pot on Med-low (i think?)  with a heavy sprinkling of cinnamon, a 1/2 inch of water and a tablespoon of turbinado (organic sugar).   I let it cook until the pears were soft (maybe 1 hr-1hr30min)

Once done cooking, I set them aside and let them cool for a couple hours.  I think I ran some errands to the library/post office and when I came back they were cool enough to finish up.  Throw them into the food processor and pulse until smooth.

Put in jars and ta-da.  Homemade pearsauce.  We ate one jar within 24 hours and froze the other.  We are going pear-picking again today! 

Another recipe we tried was these granola bars.  I made them with pecans and while it tastes great, they were pretty crumbly.  I think we’ll finish off the rest of the pan left like "granola cereal” with some milk :).