Fionn's First Photos

Look at this handsome man!









Thanks again Emily. They're great.

Introducing...

Fionn Christophe Flood

Tue Jan 12, 2011 9:12pm
8 lbs 21 inches

As you can see Chris and I finally agreed on a name. :-) I love his name, I had to come around to the traditional Irish spelling. I didn't want people to always mispronounce it, which they will, so sorry buddy, I guess you'll just have to get used to telling people that it's pronounced Finn!

I'm in LOVE! He is gorgeous and sweet and soft and tiny and perfect. I forgot how amazing a newborn is. His smell! I could just eat him up. The teeny tiny mewly sounds. So delicious!! Clare is obsessed and wants to hold and kiss him every second. Shea is pretty much indifferent but thinks he's cool. Grandma and daddy have to take turns holding him when he's not with me. His birth was long, as is usual for me, but easy and recovery is so far great! We had so much help from wonderful neighbors. I love you girls!! Thank you for everything!!!

We're happy as can be! Welcome gorgeous boy, we love you!!!

Aebelskivers anyone?

We got a pan last year up in Solveng and finally put it through it's maiden voyage over the Christmas break. Chris' family always had them during the holidays growing up and now we're all hooked!! I think I ate about 20! They are soooo delicious! Chris has promised to make them for us every holiday season from now on. Now that I've been thinking about their buttery, crispy, soft, sweet, deliciousness, I might have to make them for breakfast tomorrow. Anyone wanna come over?? :-)

Shea's imagination

is awesome! He is so smart and funny. I love the things that he thinks up and says. For example, a few Sundays before Christmas he was forced to entertain himself as Mommy and Clarey napped and Daddy was "watching" (ahem, snoozing during) some football. So Shea found an empty box and filled it with toys. Shea wasn't discriminating, he included the Little People Nativity characters, some assorted superheros, transformers, Star Wars bobble heads, Bakugans of course his nutcracker collection. Sounds like a good mix to me! The best were the things that Chris overheard over the course of that hour. (It's good to know that he's listening during Church and Family Home Evening.)

- Batman and Optimus Prime had a discussion with each other about which Church to join.
- Optimus attacked the Roman soldiers who hurt Jesus.
- The nativity camel was translating Jesus' baby talk for the assembled crowd.
- The pirate nutcracker and Drago teamed up to attack the opposing team of Anakin and the three Wisemen.
- Mary was shown how to leap tall buildings by Anakin.

And that's just what Chris could remember by the time I woke up. Thanks buddy, you are highly entertaining!! :-) Keep it up.

Clarey

Clare is so much fun right now. She is at a super fun age where she can tell us everything she needs to and we can play and pretend together but where she still wants to cuddle and be cuddled. She and I have had so much fun this fall and winter spending time together while Shea's been in school. I'm afraid she's going to have a really hard adjustment in the next little while when I'm not just hers anymore. Here's a few funny things she's done/said lately:

1- Today I was getting dressed and she came in and started giggling. She said, "Mommy, your belly has a nose!!" (Yes, my belly button has popped out - Baby, you're done! Come out!!!) :-)

2- She got her very first nightgown. I hadn't ever gotten her one because they ride up and they're irritating and I didn't want her to be cold, but I guess I never thought about it from her perspective. This girl LOVES dresses and skirts. There was a super cheap nightgown online that I bought, when it got here, and she put it on I realized - She was ecstatic! A DRESS! That she gets to wear to bed?!! She gets to be a princess in her sleep? It was a revelation to her and a dream come true. She NEVER chooses other jammies now. Good thing it's big - she'll be able to wear it for a long time :-)
3- Clare is in LOVE with the princesses. As much as Chris and I always said we'd never let her wear tacky princess dresses and have princesses and barbies - you just can't deny the girl if that's what she loves. This was her reaction to seeing the princesses in the Disneyland Christmas parade. Look at that face! She loves them!!
For Christmas she got a Princess computer and a Princess scooter. She was so happy with both!

4- We watched the beginning of Sound of Music the other night and a few days later Chris went in to tell Clare to stop singing and go to sleep. He heard her singing, "Jesus wants me for a nun."

5- She was in the bathroom the other day getting ready for bed and all the sudden she started screaming, "Mom, a bug! A bug! A bug!" I went in there and found this:
She had crawled totally on top of the potty to escape the teeny tiny bug across the bathroom.

Love you Clarey!

My little readers

They LOVE to read. It makes us so happy! With me, with dad, with each other or alone. I find them "reading" on the couch several times a day and a day could never end without story time! I love it!!

I think I can

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

8 more days!!!!!!

Baby, your momma can't wait to get you here!

I'm thankful...

for this one:

The most supportive, considerate, wonderful, loving, helpful husband around. I am the luckiest, luckiest girl!

for this one:
So funny, original, smart, handsome and loving. I miss him so when he's in school and have LOVED having him home all week!

for this one:
I had no idea how much I would love having a daughter. She's sassy and sweet and beautiful and smart and this girl and her mamma are tight!

for this one:
I'm so grateful to be pregnant one last time. Don't get me wrong, I'll complain to anyone who'll listen (sorry Chris, Lauren, Jaimee and Mom!) about the heartburn and the tree trunk ankles, but I really feel so so blessed to be doing this again!

and...
tonight I'm grateful for the cute new purse Clare picked out for me for my birthday! :-)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

New favorite dinner

Personal chicken pot pies!

So easy...
-Saute some onions in olive oil. (Remove onions)
-Add small diced potatoes and carrots, cook until fork tender. (Remove veggies)
-Add diced chicken breasts or roaster chicken, cook until done. (Remove chicken.)
-Use pan to make a quick chicken gravy, or toss in a can of chicken gravy, add a little water so it's loose.
- Toss back in all the veggies and chicken.
- Cut some circles from ready made pie crusts, and lay them in your muffin tin. (I rolled out my pie crusts, so they wouldn't be so thick, since the pot pies were small.)
- Fill with filling and place pie crust rounds on top. From pie crust scraps cut your families initials and place on top.
- Bake at 425 for 20 minutes -ish.
- Delish, healthy and easy. The kiddos loved that their letters were on top and they gobbled them up!!
Thanks Alicia for the idea!!!

(Don't you love my awesome styling for the photo? The pink and green plastic plates the kids ate them on. I know, I know, classy!!) :-)

My 36th.

I actually like having birthdays. Even now that we're up to these impossibly high numbers. It's all thanks to Chris and my parents - they are sooooo good at birthdays! I had a wonderfully relaxing, happy, low key day. It was exactly what I wanted and we capped it off with a family dinner at PF. My all time favorite food.
Then there's the fact that Jaime and I share a bday and Lauren's is a few days later - which always makes for some fun birthday celebrations. This year was Jaime's 30th and she decided to have a Barbie party. I wasn't all that excited about dressing up as a Barbie, they don't exactly come giant and pregnant :-) but Bedtime Barbie and the party turned out to be so much fun! Anyone having a girls only party soon should do this. It was a blast!! Everyone looked so cute and it was actually fun getting dressed up and it's always fun hanging out with the girls!!
We ended up with:
Dressy Barbie, Holiday Barbie, Toy Story Barbie, Bedtime Barbie, Sweetheart Barbie, Bridesmaid Barbie, Asian Barbie and Doctor Barbie. (Not pictured, Lingerie Barbie and Ballet Barbie.)