Crazy Days

Things have been mildly chaotic around the Tripoli home this week. We closed on our house in Allentown Thursday. Matt, his dad, and my dad all spent Saturday painting. Sunday we ran around like crazy trying to get some last minute things accomplished before we actually move this week.

Tonight is our last night in our house here in Danville. It's just Alex and I (Matt's staying at the new house because he's already working in Allentown). It's such a bittersweet night. I'm excited for the move, the new house, and the great job opportunity for Matt. However, this house is very special to me. While it was technically Alex's THIRD home, he accomplished so many of his "firsts" here! He started to crawl right after we moved in, walked shortly thereafter, said his first words, ate his first real food, moved from his crib to a bed, and on and on. We've made some great memories here.

Snow Fun!

We finally have a little snow outside! Yesterday morning Alex and I bundled up and ventured outside to play. Our industrious little guy decided we needed to dig out the driveway to help Daddy. He's such a great little helper! At one point Alex got some snow on his face and in his mouth and started spitting and sputtering to get it out. I told him it was okay to eat a little snow and the rest of his time outside was spent licking snow off of his mittens. "MMmm, Mmmm! That's good!" He would tell me. After over an hour outside I had to bribe him with candy to come inside. My toes were freezing!

I didn't take any pictures from yesterday's snow adventures, but Matt took Alex outside this morning and I very briefly ventured out in my jammies for some photos.

Play

Today Alex and I were stuck at home for the morning waiting for our new (king!!) mattress to arrive. Our friends Holly, Natalie, Jenn, and Jacob came over and brought lunch to help occupy our time. The kids hadn't played together in quite a while because of the craziness of the holidays. I think they missed each other!

They had so much fun running around, playing play-doh, eating cookies, and being silly. It was a great way to pass an afternoon! I'm going to miss our Danville friends so much that I can hardly stand it. Its hard to believe that we won't be here 3 weeks from now...

Budding Chef

Alex loves to help me bake and often asks if we can make something together. Today at breakfast he asked if we could make pie. Since we were waiting around for a contractor to come look at something for us, I figured we might as well have a project to occupy our morning. I started to get out the flour and butter, but Alex quickly dismissed those ingredients. He had his own plan. We pulled a chair over to the counter and Alex brought with him a handful of grapes left from his breakfast. He also requested the apple juice from the fridge and a pie plate.

He mixed his ingredients together:

Then he decided he needed to make "mussins" (muffins).
We took out a muffin tin and he got to work!




Once he'd distributed his apple juice among the muffin cups,
he asked for raisins. He took such care in putting raisins in each of the cups!


Finally, we were able to taste his creation. He declared, "That a good recipe Mama!"

So far behind!

Today I am owning up to something that I've known for a very long time. I am terrible at keeping up with my photo albums and memory books. I am currently downloading pictures to my computer from August. I haven't put a picture in an album since Christmas 2009. Alex's baby book is largely empty.

I keep putting these things on the back burner. No more. Time is slipping by so quickly, and while I try to live in the moment, I really need to spend more time capturing the moment. Anyway, I am going to try to hold myself to this resolution for 2011 despite many changes on our horizon.

We move in 2 weeks.
We have a baby due to arrive in about 10 weeks.

I am determined not to fall this far behind again!

I leave you with a picture of my two favorite guys from our wonderful Christmas!