Kumquats and such

As I mentioned earlier, we basically opened presents for three days. Reagan wasn't feeling great, so we didn't want to force Christmas on her; rather, we wanted her to enjoy the holiday. On Christmas Day, we did manage to get her to open a few gifts and she had fun testing out her new wagon with Daddy. Concentrating despite feeling terrible:) She carefully placed each piece of wrapping paper (one-by-one) in the trash bag. Daddy wrote a beautiful poem for his girls - here's a picture of Reagan attempting to open the envelope The poem led us to these beautiful matching mommy-daughter necklaces with two diamonds in the middle. I'm wearing mine now, but it will be a few years before Reagan will be wearing hers! I think she was more impressed with the celery in Daddy's Bloody Mary than the actual presents:) Checking out her new potty from Great Grandma! Hooray for Daddy being back to put things together for us! Taking the wagon for a te...

Long before Jason was heading home, he told me to select a menu for Christmas day and he would do the cooking. In fact, he couldn't wait to get back into the kitchen! At first I considered asking for my favorite meal, slow-roasted pork shoulder, but then I changed my tune and had my heart set on a stuffed beef tenderloin with a bearnaise sauce...we ended up having a standing rib roast and boy was it a great decision! The day before he flew home, I went down to our "local" (and by local I mean 35 minutes away) Harris Teeter to check out the beef tenderloin selection. They were MASSIVE and cost quite a pretty penny, so I had to change my plan. Luckily a friend happened to be in the store and suggested a smaller, yet somehow still GIANT cut of beef and even sent me two recipes to choose from! (Thanks Kathleen!) We started with a recipe from How Easy Is That?  for onion and fennel soup gratin. We had made French onion soup just before Jason deployed and it was incredible, s...

On December 24th, I took Reagan to the ER and she was diagnosed with pink eye! They sent us home with a tube of erythromycin to apply 4 times daily to the INSIDE of her eyelid and instructions to give her Tylenol as needed. She was absolutely miserable for a couple days, but over time, her eyes have cleared up and she's warming up to Daddy! Reagan finally finished opening her Christmas presents yesterday! We let her take all the time she needed and she had fun opening her gifts. She's a trooper:)  

Our dear friends Maureen & Sean came to take pictures of Jason's homecoming for us! Maureen even made this sign for Reagan to hold!! Jason arrived before the rest of the Marines (lucky us!!) HOORAY! Clapping for her daddy A complete family once again:) What an eventful day Christmas Eve was. I've posted the most important thing (the pictures!) first, but here's a short recap. That morning, just before stepping into the shower, I received a text message from the Company Gunny informing me that the flight was delayed 2 hours. No worries, that gave me time for a run. So we knocked that out and once finished, I did my best to entertain Reagan and keep her away from the presents I had put out the night before.   We headed to base around 11:30 and arrived there just after noon. Maureen and Sean met us on base and they kids played together for  a couple hours. It was around this time that I really noticed Reagan's eyes were getting r...

Haha! Before you think I'm gross, here's what I'm referring to: An entire magazine dedicated to crafts and DIY stuff?! Yup, that's right up my alley! Stay tuned for some of the great things I find inside:)

No, I'm not talking about Christmas, I'm referring to Jason's homecoming!! Yes, this is quite possibly the best Christmas gift a girl could hope for:) Taken the day before he left 225 days ago, we said goodbye to Jason at 2am. It wasn't a tearful goodbye as that's really not my thing, and I was worried about getting Reagan back home and into her crib before she decided to wake up for the day, but it was a sad one. One marked by thoughts of "How much will we miss him?" "Will he be safe?" "He's going to miss so many more 'firsts'!" But 7 months later, the day is upon us and we couldn't be happier. To those people like my MIL and Jason's grandmother who endured much tougher times (and my Army friends who endure 15-month tours), this probably seems like a cake walk. 7 months?! Try a year! Monthly phone calls? Daily emails? Try not talking to your husband for the duration of the deployment and only having good ol...

My dear friend Lynsey mentioned that she was planning to make salt dough ornaments with her son, Mason. I immediately stole the idea and turned to the internet for some ideas. I came across this blog  called "The Happy Housewife: Where Martha Meets Real Life" and got some great tips. The recipe was simple: 2 cups flour (not self-rising) 1 cup salt 1 cup warm water Mix dry ingredients and then slowly add warm water until the dough becomes the consistency of pie crust. I mixed these up after Reagan was in bed and then rolled and cut about 2 1/2 dozen shapes. I used a meat thermometer (another tip from the blog above) to make holes for stringing the ornaments. Then I baked them for 2 hours and 15 minutes. When time and weather allowed, I dressed Reagan in her "painting" clothes and we headed outside in the 70-degree December weather. At first I thought she would just use her fingers to paint...I should have known better. This is the girl who would not touch...