Lilly's Slipper Drive for PCH

Attention all Shoppers! Lilly needs your help!
After our recent stay at Phoenix Children's Hospital, it became apparent children need slippers! The other children in the hematology/oncology floor were quite taken with Lilly's Hello Kitty slippers. Many of the children walk up and down the halls pushing their IV poles wearing pajamas and socks. Lilly believes they all need slippers! When we arrived at Target tonight, all of the children's slippers were 70% off!!! Spongebob, Hello Kitty, Smurfs, Spiderman, Cars, hearts and more were $2.98 per pair. We are staring our SLIPPER DRIVE with the 37 pairs we bought tonight. Let's see how many slippers we can donate to the patients at Phoenix Children's Hospital. If you want to help, email me for a mailing address (loriksu@yahoo.com). Thanks in advance! Any size, especially XS, S, M for boys and girls are appreciated. Slippers must be new.

We will donate the slippers in honor of Hannah Huckfeldt, Lilly's best friend, who became an angel in April 2011. Hannah was also a patient in the hematology/oncology center at PCH.

Thanks in advance!

New hairdo...

We are home from our 5 night vacation at the hospital. The girls and I were home taking it easy today, when Lilly announced she wanted to get her haircut. So, we loaded up the car and drove to the hair shop. All three Z's have a new 'do.

Maggie wasn't behaving for the camera, but here's Claire Bear...

Love those straight bangs. She really does have the perfect hair! Lucky girl!

When the stylist asked Lilly what she would like done to her hair, Lilly told her she wanted it cut up to her ears. SHORT! The stylist looked at me for approval, and I said, "Whatever she wants!"

 

Biking entertainment

It's that time of year- Arizonans flood to the great outdoors in the wintertime. Our beautiful weather beckons bike rides and playing outside. We thought the kiddos would like to ride in the bike cage, so Rob aired up the tires and away they went...

If you look closely, you can see Miss Maggie waving away.

Here's Claire and Maggie bundled inside..

After riding around the neighborhood pulling these two turkeys, my legs really hurt! It's one thing to ride a bike, but it's another thing to pull a load! What a great workout!

Whole new world

Our little Maggie is growing, growing, growing. At her 1-year pediatrician appointment, she overachieved, again. She continues to be >95th percentile for height and weight. 

We try to see the same doctor each time we visit the office, we just like him the best, so I chuckled to myself when he began asking questions about Maggie.

Is she starting whole milk? My response... It's a slow transition but yes.

Is she still using the bottle? My response... Yes.

His response... In the next two weeks you need to transition her to a sippy-cup, no more bottle. 

 This last comment by him made me laugh. Our beloved doctor does not have children, so he does not know the difficulty we will face during the bottle/sippy cup transition. Two weeks? How about four?
This weekend I bought Maggie new cups- ones perfect for a transitioning baby.
This morning we added a yogurt drink to her sippy cup. She was hooked.

 She is also walking all over the place. And, we are please to report she is not using her pacifier at all times. We have our dear friend Meredith, Maggie's Auntie M, to thank for that.

Cinnamon roll follow-up

It should be no surprise we have been cooking again.

Last night before leaving for an event, we had the brilliant idea of making cinnamon roll dough in the bread machine- it would have been ready to roll out by the time we got home. Once rolled we could put them in the refrigerator and bake in the morning for breakfast. So, that is what we did.

The reason for this post is to tell you about an alteration I made to the recipe- an improvement.

Instead of adding 4 Cups all-purpose flour, as the original recipe asked, I added 3 cups all purpose (unbleached) and 1 cup whole wheat flour. This seems to be the perfect combination because the texture of the rolls was better than the original. I wanted you to know in case you take the time to make these yourself.

 To recap... my alterations from the original recipe

1. Flour alteration: 3C all-purpose flour and 1 C whole wheat flour

2. Frosting: combination of powdered sugar and milk

And, as the original recipe states, we also doubled the filling.

I hope you like them too!

First Soccer Game

What does every family of a kindergartner do on a sunny Saturday morning in January?

We found out this weekend... soccer games! Yes, that's right, the Z family loaded up in the car and headed down to the soccer fields to watch Lilly play in her first game.

In addition to her scheduled practices, Rob has been helping hone her skills in the backyard. Since she's only been at it one week, it was quite entertaining to watch. She had a few great kicks, did a good job following the ball and best of all had a great time.

Here's our soccer star.

  Here she is warming up before the game.

Waiting for Coach to call her in to play after a water break.

Music class, gymnastics, soccer... Mom's Taxi needs to start charging for fuel!

Soccer-excitement

I knew something funny was going on when I heard Rob's voice from down the hall... "Lori, come here and bring the camera." Let's just say Lilly is a little bit excited to begin soccer practice this week. Rob took her to buy a soccer ball, socks and shin guards this afternoon. When he went to read her stories at bedtime, this is what he found under the covers... 

I think we have convinced her the shin guards won't make comfortable sleepwear.

Let's hope she takes our advice.

One year comparisons

When I was writing the last post, I began to think about the other girls on their first birthdays. So, I decided to dig in my digital archives to find their photos at the same age.

Lilly, age one:

Claire, age one:

 

Maggie, age one

Happy First Birthday, Maggie

Our little Mags is already one year old! Where does time go these days? Seriously! She is such a delightful baby with a calm and curious personality. Our Maggie began walking the first part of January. She takes 6 or 8 steps at max, she can go from sitting to standing without holding on to anything, she says "mama" and something that sounds like "Bah" whenever Belle the dog is around, she loves her sisters but does not like to be picked up by them (Lilly), she still loves her bottle but eats almost anything we feed her, she sleeps through the night when she doesn't have a cold (she has had two colds), she has 8 teeth. We are so blessed as a family to have her in our lives, and though it's only been a year, we can't imagine our family without her. This afternoon we snapped a few photos of our one-year-old.

Though she had a super cute birthday hat, she could have cared less about wearing it.

I made cupcakes to celebrate Maggie's birthday.

 She didn't hesitate picking up her sweet treat. But, she seemed to look at me for approval before digging in.

 Once she tasted the chocolate frosting, it was all over... all over her to be exact.

 Here's one more showing just how thrilled she was about wearing her hat...

 Happy birthday Maggie Bug. We love you.

Pocket sized aunts

Months ago Claire proudly announced she had Aunt Teresa in her pocket... she meant her toy doll. Claire absolutely loves Aunt Teresa and thinks her tiny toy squinkie looks like her. So, yesterday, when we found the long lost squinkies under the chair cushion, Claire exclaimed, "It's Aunt Teresa and Aunt Coco!!"

She was excited to find them and even took her nap with them that afternoon. But, the really funny part came when she role played with them in her toy castle. From the other room I could hear her telling the Aunt Teresa doll what to do and to share, etc. I'm not sure what exactly the Aunt Teresa doll was doing, but Claire was rather firm with her. Aunt Coco was behaving.

Here is Claire with her squinkie friends.

Meet Kitty, Tweety, Aunt Coco, Aunt Teresa and Ariel.

Claire's doll

You know as well as I do that not every toy catches a child's eye in the same fashion. Well, Nana hit the jackpot when she gave Claire this awesome doll. Here is a picture of Claire with her doll on Christmas morning. All of the gift opening had concluded when we announced, "Wait, Nana has ONE MORE gift." Claire gasped when she saw the doll and sweetly exclaimed, "My doll!!!"

She had taken a serious liking to this doll at two Pottery Barn Kids stores in the days leading up to Christmas. Both times while at various malls she told me, "Mom, I really really want to take this doll home." So, Nana bought it on the sly.

She is so fond of the doll that she likes to sleep with her and take her in the car whenever possible. The other night, while Rob and I were working on our laptops, we found Claire asleep on the floor. Even her doll was tucked in.

 But the excitement grew even more when the latest Pottery Barn Kids catalog arrived in the mail last week. Claire thumbed through the catalog and was ecstatic to find more dolls like hers.

For several days she slept with the catalog, as well as her doll. She keeps asking if she can have more dolls like hers for her birthday.  We'll see, sweet Claire, we'll see.

5 1/2

We don't make a habit of celebrating 1/2 birthdays, but Lilly's is hard to forget... New Years Day.

She remembers her half birthday and reminds us of it. And, since we're usually all together on New Years Day, who can resist a little celebration? Lilly announced she wanted me to make monkey bread and bierocks to eat on her half birthday. So, that's what we did...

Here are the girls helping make the monkey bread. This seems to be a New Years tradition.

After our bierock dinner, we sang "Happy Half Birthday" to Lilly and let both of the girls blow out the candles.

 Lilly was disappointed there were not gifts to open. 

One funny side note, Lilly wanted to know exactly what time she was born. Then, she kept asking throughout the day, "Have I been born yet? Am I really 5 1/2?"

 Later, when discussing going back to school, Lilly wanted to make it known to her class that she is indeed now 5 1/2.

Too cute!

Fiesta!

Our dear friend Shelly is part of the Fiesta Bowl committee. She volunteers year round to make sure the Fiesta Bowl and all its activities are well planned. This year she gave us her VIP passes to the Fiesta Bowl Parade. The girls had never been to a parade before... well, parades at Disneyland... but definitely not a parade like this.

Maggie was excited to be there..

We enjoyed reserved front row seats in the bleachers. When the bands marched by, the girls were quite impressed. They could almost reach out and touch them. Here is Oklahoma State's band. We were cheering for this this year since K-State didn't make it to the Fiesta Bowl.

 From a distance, Claire could see this Native American cradle baby balloon floating down the street. Once she saw it, she yelled, "I  can see the baby Jesus!"

I can see where she's coming from, can you?

Here's our front row view...

 All three of the girls did well at the 2+ hour parade. It was fun to watch their excitement as the different floats, groups and bands passed by.

And, Oklahoma State won their game... nice going Cowboys!

What a party

Mariah, our little friend (Shawn and Amy's daughter), turned 3 and held her birthday party at the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. As part of her awesome party, we road a train around the park to see all of the beautiful lights. While waiting in line for the train, various characters greeted the children. Not surprisingly, our girls wanted their picture with ALL of them. Here are just a few.

Here's a cute one with our friends, the twins.

 Thanks for inviting us to your party, Mariah. We had a great time!

Taking it to the street

Though Lilly didn't request a scooter for Christmas, I just knew she would love one. This unexpected gift has been the most played with of all the toys. She rides it all around the house on our tile floors and can turn a corner on a dime. But she really likes to ride it outside where she can go faster and faster. Here she is enjoying the beautiful weather and her new scooter.

 Claire is learning to ride her big bike. She thinks she still needs to ride her teensy tiny tricycle, but we are slowing convincing her it is too small.

Winter in Phoenix... riding bikes outside, no jacket, sunshine... this is the best time of year for Arizonans.

Big Day at the Museum

We have had lots and lots of fun with the girls this week. With both of us home for the holiday, we've pretty much done something fun every day. 

We took the girls to the Children's Museum of Phoenix. Oh the fun! We could have stayed all day!

There is a relatively new 3-story play structure at the museum, and it is amazing. In this photo you can barely see Claire half-way climbing in the structure; she's wearing a white sweatshirt. They even conned me by saying they were "scared" so I would climb up in the thing.

While at the top of the structure, I managed to get this super cute photo...

 We played in the art room... even got pink paint in Claire's golden hair.

 We played in the noodle forest...

Lilly especially was fascinated with the play kitchen where she made and then baked a pretend wood fired pizza. Yum!

 All the while the girls played, Maggie seemed to study every move they made. Though our visit was right in the middle of her nap time, Maggie was too busy watching everyone to even notice she was tired. This photo accurately captures her looking, staring, thinking and processing the museum.

Maybe next time you will be able to play too, Maggie.

Maggie's Latest Trick

All good grandmothers teach their grandchildren to do silly things, right?

Well, thanks to Nana, Maggie has a special talent of her own. 

Ask Maggie, "Hey Maggie, where's your tongue?"

This is what you'll get...

 And, as of this evening 1-2-12, Maggie has an even bigger trick... she took her first steps. 

Watch out world!

Everyone's Favorite

Like all carbohydrate addicts, I love a good cinnamon roll. So, I was excited to read about one mom's success making them with her bread machine. Over the Christmas break, I decided to give it a try... I tried this recipe three times to be exact. And, I plan to make it again... until it reaches perfection. All this isn't for my benefit, of course, it's so our next Kansas visitors can have a royal treat for breakfast. Any takers?

 And here's the recipe just in case you are eager to try it too:

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

In the photo above, I changed the frosting from the original recipe; we prefer the milk/powdered sugar version at our house. Cream cheese frosting would be tasty too. Enjoy!