My Music Lovin' Baby

Pretty much the only thing Kaitlyn watches consistently is the 'intro with theme song' to each show we happen to watch. She even stops what she is doing to listen to the "Days of Our Lives" theme song. Tonight, she took particular notice to the Gilmore Girls theme song. I replayed it 5 times and she had a fit when she realized I wasn't going to replay it anymore. I can't say I blame her, I love Carol King too.

Enjoy!
Rachel

Delicious Ham & Potato Soup

I totally put myself through college working at Benningan's Grill & Tavern. Sadly, the entire restaurant chain went out of business last year. The only reason this is sad is because there are a few choice items from their menu that we will truly miss. Jacob will miss the Kilkenny's Country Chicken Salad (dressing on the side, no eggs), potato skins, and I thought I would forever miss their Ultimate Baked Potato Soup. Well, not any more! Due to these ridiculous cold spells, I've had a hankering for soup lately. I went on allrecipes.com (my favorite recipe site) and found this AWESOME recipe. I have made it twice so far and I plan on keeping it in the family for the rest of my days. I mean, it had been rated 5 stars by over 2,000 people! It will definitely be worth your while to make this recipe, and you most likely have all the items you will need already in your pantry.

The only thing I did differently from the recipe, was use Chicken Broth (98% fat free low sodium) instead of water and add shredded cheese on top. It is the perfect soup to warm you up!

Doggie Bath Time

The other night, I was feeling lazy and Chloe was in desperate need of a bath. So, when it came time for Kaitlyn to have her bath I went ahead and threw one dog in with the other. Kaitlyn thought it was hilarious! She had no idea that Chloe could get wet.

I hate the cold....

but I love this.
My house is clean, Kaitlyn is napping and my father-in-law finally got my fireplace to light. It is perfectly peaceful... for the moment.

Splish Splash I was Takin' a Bath!

Yea for the tradition of "Alfalfa do's."

Back to December....

It's a great blessing for Jake and I that our parents just happen to live 10 minutes apart; not to mention, each set of grandparents live within a 45 minute drive. So, we were able to have a wonderful 11 day visit with almost both sides of our entire family. The only one missing was my brother JT who is serving a mission in Brazil. Some of the highlights were: Christmas (of course), visiting with the NY Crosbys, going to the Florida Aquarium, watching my Dad shoot off fireworks, and my new favorite.... the Dillards New Years Day Sale. That will definately be a tradition from here on out. For those of you who do not know, from now on ask your husbands for a Dillards gift card for Christmas and one day of babysitting. Then, get to Dillards as soon as the doors open on January 1st because all of their clearance is an extra 50% off! Plus, they bring out all of the stuff from the back that needs to go on clearance. The Brandon Dillards is HUGE and almost everywhere you looked there were extra racks pulled out into the aisles to allow for the insane amount of merchandise on sale.

Between Christmas and the Dillards sale, the Crosby clan definitely made out like bandits over the holidays! Our poor Subaru was packed to the gills on our drive back to Tallahassee. Kaitlyn was surrounded by stacks of pillows, toys and luggage while in her car seat.

We thought Kaitlyn would have been a little more into opening gifts this year.... but she wasn't. She'd open them, but only after we coaxed her too.

A few days after Christmas, we went to the Florida Aquarium located near the Port of Tampa. The Aquarium is home to over 20,000 aquatic plants and animals from Florida and from other places around the world.

One of Kaitlyn's favorite things in the world is water! So, her favorite exhibit was the "Touch and Feel Tank." She splashed all over the girl next to us. Those poor starfish and sea urchins didn't see what hit 'em!

One of my favorite things to do is to pet the sting rays. I had the camera out and was about to snap a shot when this guy decided to pop up for a kiss.

Kaitlyn, again, loved trying to splash in the water. Never mind those cool fish swimming under the surface.



Gwen was a little bit tougher to impress. But then again, she's only 9 months old and she didn't have a very good nap. However, Gwen was still able to keep herself together better than her crazy cousin wanting to go, go go!



Every now and again, the Aquarium has fiberglass sculptures that the kids can jump on. They're perfect for photo ops if your toddler is willing to participate.

Needless to say, we had a very fun afternoon with the fam!
If you're ever in Tampa, you should plan a trip!

Also, on a day I was helping my family with some stuff, Jake and his brood took the grandgirls to Parksdale Farms. I totally hate that I missed it (and I definitely want copies of those pictures Ashley) but you should most certainly see what took place there!

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

This year I thought it would be fun to make some "I spy" quilts for the Grandmas and my sister-in-law for Christmas. I decided it would be fun back in July. Sadly, I didn't get serious about it until November. Needless to say, Kaitlyn became fascinated with the sewing machine and annoyed that Mommy would never let her touch the needle.

I also made a kind of practical joke for Jake and my Dad. You see, my Dad used to wear this purple, rainbow striped sweater to church on chilly Sundays. When Jake would see him wearing it, he would start singing the song from the "Figment" ride and tell my Dad he looked like an Epcot employee. When my Mom finally convinced my Dad to get rid of it (or maybe she just raided his closet while he wasn't looking) they passed it on to Jacob. The sweater sat in the box it came in for MONTHS on the trunk at the end of our bed. It was reincarnated as a pillow with a few memorable embellishments that both men would recognize.

Last but not least, I saw these cool perzonalized fleece balls on etsy.com (truly one of the coolest websites on the planet) and thought they looked so fun. However, I was not about to pay $50 for 2 of them. I thought I could surely make them myself. Well, I did make them... just a little too huge. I mailed one to my niece in New York and it weighed over 9lbs! Gwen is only 9 months, so I'm sure it will make a nice piece of furniture for a while. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kaitlyn thinks it's hilarious to roll it around the house and throw herself on top of it so she can roll forwards and backwards. She even uses it as a seat to straddle when it's stuck in between the couch and the coffee table. Next time, I will be trimming my stencil down a couples inches on each side. I can not tell you how many bags of fiberfill are in those things!

Our First Christmas Tree!

As mentioned in the previous post, Jake and I have never had a Christmas Tree in our soon-to-be 4 years of marriage. I was determined to have one this year, but my highly active and extremely curious toddler has changed my mind. So, I had to go with Plan B. I have been meaning to decorate our maple tree in our front yard for a few years now. I have had the snowflakes and icicles for awhile. Not to mention, this tree is completely out of Kaitlyn's reach while she is within the walls of our home, but she can see it clearly from her bedroom window.

Yea for Christmas!

This morning was the annual Relief Society Christmas Party. It was a really good time to chat and catch up with the Sisters while making crafts and wrapping gifts. Not to mention, stuffing ourselves full of delicious soups and creme puffs. (I think I ate most of the creme puffs. I couldn't help eating a couple every time I walked past them! They were just sitting there staring me down!) If you weren't there, you totally missed out.

After the R.S. festivities, I went to K-Mart for their last day of "Coupon Doubling." I spent a ridiculous amount of time there trying to figure out what the actual price of items were due to the complete lack of organization at the Tallahassee K-Mart; which is why I never go there unless I know it's worth the hassle of sorting through the chaos. Anyway, this will be the 4th year that Jacob and I have been married and still no Christmas tree. I'm totally disappointed, but I went ahead and splurged on a few boxes of Christmas lights, because we have never had those either. They had a particular line that was 50% off this week.

When I got home, I grabbed Kaitlyn and went to our local Publix. Santa was there in all his fuzzy, red glory. Katie was not too impressed. No matter how many employees were coaxing her to go to him, she just stared at him with indifference. One lady, pictured below, even showed her what to do.

After we grabbed a couple of necessities, we went back home and I strung up the lights. Besides almost being scared to death by the ugliest, largest and most lethal looking of unknown insects I have ever seen, I think it turned out alright. Here is the finished product.

I wish we had more, but this will have to do for now. Tomorrow I'm going to string some snowflakes and icicles out in the maple tree in our front yard. Yesterday, Katie and I hung up our stockings, put out her advent calendar, the snowmen salt and pepper shakers, our nativity from Grand Cayman and that was it. We have a shockingly low amount of Christmas decorations.

Well, I hope everyone is getting in the holiday spirit. The Christmas season is such a beautiful time of year. It's a little easier to keep your thoughts and actions on the right paths. I love it!

Lost Footage

My Mom and sisters found this lost footage of my dad, brothers and Jake at last year's Christmas-get-together. Enjoy!