Just Saying Hi

I still need to load pictures for my NYE post, but figured I would just stop by to say hi!
My phone camera card is full so I was looking at some photos on it to delete.

This picture below was taken out my kitchen window, so excuse the screen.  You see, Andrew leaves his coffee cup out on the picnic table A LOT. It is pet hate of mine.  When I see it out the window, I tell him to go get it and bring it in. HE isn't even allowed to use my nice coffee cups because he always leaves them out on the porch or the picnic table, or his car.  So, before Christmas,  I was in the kitchen baking and Andrew was outside doing stuff around the yard (picking up dog poo, cutting fire wood, hauling fire wood, etc)  and he wrote "LOVE YOU" in the snow on the picnic table! Aww, sweet, right?  BUT, I didn't even notice. Then he came in after a while and said something and I looked out and saw. Then he said "I thought for sure you would yell at me for my coffee cup out there so I Just wrote that for you to see too" haha. SO basically, he was picking on me for always nagging him for leaving his cup!  Oh, but he still LEFT THE CUP!  You can see in photo! lol.

 This was on our 2nd to last day of swim I think. Andrew came downstairs with her riding in his bag. haha. She thought it was great. I think he said "My bags are packed"

Someone at work gave me this photo of Anika from Andrew's ceremony.

Me trying to read to Anika on xmas, but she would rather do other things! I practically have to beg for her to come hang out with me!

This one was actually sent by my  mom. This is Anika up on New Years Eve waiting for the ball to drop! haha

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 Yesterday I got a flat tire on the way to work. I had already dropped Anika off at Miss B's and I had gone to the gym. I was leaving the gym and headed to work and I felt it!  I pulled over. I was going to ATTEMPT to change it myself, but it was 5 degrees out yesterday!! FREEZING.  Ended up calling AAA, but it was going to be an HOUR. I had to be at work so someone from the gym came and brought me to work. Then I got in touch with the tow truck person AAA had coming, and he picked me up at work and brought me back to the car.  Thank God. It was too cold to walk! I told the driver that ironically the last time I had a flat tire was when I was in NZ and I was driving Andrew's old beater car around. It was a 1984 Subaru that had a CHOKE to start it. It was obvi  a manual, which I knew how to drive, but this one needed fluids like everyday. A real mess of a car, but that's probably why he let me drive it in a city I dint know that well- AND driving on the other side of the road! Eeks. watch out! I got a flat tire at the grocery store there, and just left it there and walked back to Uni! I called Andrew and he said he would come after work. HE met me at  the store after work and apparently all his work friends were in shock that an American girl didn't know how to change a flat! Andrew vowed that I needed to learn. To this day, his is quite horrified I don't know how. The thing is, My dad taught me how when I was 16, but that was on a DIFFERENT car and LIKE I remember!!  Andrew thinks it should be part of our licensee test. Whatever. That's what we have AAA for! duh.  The tow guy put air in it instead of changing it. He said it didn't need to be changed and that putting a spare on my all wheel drive car would mess it up, bla bla He gave me his number to call if I needed more air to get home after work. Then, I drove it back to work and my mom came and took it to the local garage and they fixed it for me. Just a hole needed repair. 

Shortly after she dropped the car back to me, I got a call from the delivery people that they would be at the house in 30 minutes with our new washer and dryer, so I went home to meet them (and took a long lunch break).   THANK GOD they moved our old ones from our top floor down to the basement for us. Andrew wants to keep them to put in his future garage to wash his work clothes. Right now he takes his work clothes to the laundry mat.  I have a small attached garage, but Andrew wants to build himself a separate one next to our house. I don't see that happening soon so I guess I will just have 2 machines collecting dust in my basement for a while. That basement is getting mighty full!

  Andrew did the first wash last night-clothes.  HE showed me how to use it and walked me through it...and told me to read the directions but I told him to just tell me. ha.  I needed to do a diaper load.  So, I dumped the diapers from the pail ihto the wash, and told him to do a spin cycle first (to get the stuff out). It was a cold spin.  When the spin cycle was done, I went up to add the soap, but he had to show me where to add the soap...and we looked in and there were poop particles!!!   WTH?  He asked if I rinsed all the poop off. I told him I rinse *most* of it off, but I always just toss them in with SOME on there. HE was grossed out!  He started freaking out that he was sick to his stomach and we have been wearing poop clothes for 9 months. Technically, not 9 because breast milk poop really is organic and does dissolve. So, basically just since she has been on solids.   I SWEAR my old washer NEVER had poop particles! He wanted me to take out ALL the diapers and then hand pick poop out of the washer.  I did..mostly. I made him come help me though.  Then, he had me freaking out. I never saw poop particles in the old washer! He said the holes in the drum were bigger in the old one so they went through the holes..but he didn't want me ruining this new one. All I could imagine was some BIG poop buildup between the drum you can see in the washer and the outer drum where the water drains out the holes!!  EW!  WELL, I posted something on this hippie mom site I belong to ...where most of the moms Cloth diaper and some people were like, ew- "I rinse ALL THE poop out" Which is what my mom said too. She always gives me back diapers with ALL the poop completely rinsed- not just the solids flicked off like i do. Also, my mom CD'd my brother and I so she said she used to hand rinse ALL diapers.   Andrew said he also rinses ALL of it out, but how would I know that? I never supervise him!  But then other moms commented they do what I do and its fine. My favorite comment said this
"Ashely, I do the same. If it makes you feel better, I used to do customer service for Maytag. There shouldn't be any build-up between the inner and outer tubs unless there was already a fabric softener buildup there - and usually that presents as greasy or bluish streaks on your clothes. If there were really poop left on your clothes (and the dipes!) you would FOR SURE smell/see it. Every once in a while I do find something like a bean skin in the washer bottom - but only because it was way to big to get through the tub holes. If you're worried about buildup between the tubs, run an empty hot water wash with bleach. That'll take care of it unless you just use ridiculous amounts of fabric softener. :)"

I have never used fabric softener, so that is good!  I washed the diapers in HOT water again and no poop was left. 
 I still dont  know if I love this washer and dryer. As I experienced with the brand new stove we bought for this house- "THEY JUST DON'T MAKE THINGS LIKE THEY USED TO"

By the way, it is a TOP loader. We heard front loaders are not good for Cloth diapers so we stayed away from them.  And, by we, that was the ONE thing I told Andrew when he said he was looking at new machines...and then he picked them out ALL on his own and wrapped up the paperwork for Christmas.
If they suck, I will make him return them.

Our First Christmas as a Family of Three

This post is way late.  We've been busy around here.

Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt's house.

I took a photo of her white house ornament tree.  

I forget what year this one is, but I like it.

Anika got to sit in a VERY Old high chair to have her dinner. There were 10 kids there :)  She was the youngest, but only by 5 months.

Hanging out with Nona.  I got lots of pictures of A playing with her cousins and my cousins' kids.  She really loves playing with other kids. I love watching her.

After dinner and presents, we headed home. IT was the first Christmas Eve I spent at My own house. EVER.  I have stayed at my parents in the past.  When we got home, we put Anika in her Christmas jammies and opened our ornaments from each other.

Opening the one from me.

It was a Baby's First Christmas ornament with a photo from our xmas card in it :)

Andrew gave Anika a Monkey because she is such a monkey. Climbing up on everything all the time.
I gave Andrew an ornament with a Kiwi and NZ flag on it. I should have given him a US flag to represent him becoming a Citizen this year...but didn't think of it in time. We wrote the year on the back of all of them.

Andrew gave me this ornament. IT says "All you Need is Love. And Boobies" haha. To represent my year of breast feeding? lol.

After Anika went to bed, we put the presents under the tree.  A lot of the gifts were for Andrew and Me. We didn't go too overboard for Anika.  SANTA wrote Anika a letter and left it for her :)  The piano was from Santa. That's it. hahaha. IM not letting Santa give her EVERYTHING. I want credit too :)

Christmas Morning. SHe was pretty excited!

Daddy gave her that ugly doll. As you can see, she thought it was ugly too. lol.

I got that headband on etsy. Its darling, but too tight. The seller is sending me a bigger one.  She was trying to drink the baileys from my stocking :)

My mom and dad stopped over for a bit.

I have to admit, i was expecting a certain gift from Andrew. I thought for SURE I was getting it, so when I didn't, I was upset. HOWEVER, he got me a lot of PRACTICAL great gifts, but I thought I was getting a NON practical gift :)
He got me a new Washer and Dryer! It gets delivered this week.  He also got me a small electric heater for the basement since there is no heat down there and I like doing my crafts and stuff down there. It gets too chilly for Anika to be down there with me.  he got me some new windshield wipers. And, a new pair of ski racing mittens! I have wanted these new mittens for years to replace my old pair which I have had for 12 years! They are expensive mittens, so the perfect gift. Although, they are not hte exact ones I wanted. He said they were sold out of my size and he got me the top of the line ones...but the top of the line ones are not the ones I wanted. haha. I know, Im a biatch.  He also got my locket engraved with an A on the other side (for Anika) and tons of batteries (I always complain he uses all mine!) haha. And a Dvd player.  I was totally spoiled, but it took me a day or 2 to realize that.

He got Anika these little drums.  Look at my cute daughters.

We went to my parents house for brunch later in the day and to open presents. My mom made lobster eggs Benedict- YUM!

My brother, his wife and my other niece did not come over until the next day, but look at all the stockings at my parents house :)  And, sorry about the dead animal Jenny. Its a Fisher cat by the way. Speaking of dead animals, my dad gave me 2 fur headbands (made of Fox) and one is pink and one purple. Anika also got a fox fur scarf but I want to have it made into a hat instead.

Anika got some happy baby food in her stocking. I think she likes the food I make better :)

I wrapped up TONS of boxes in a big box for my niece. In each box was a $5 or $1...last year she complained when all the presents were unwrapped, so this kept her busy for a while! haha

You cant tell, but I had Anika wrapped in a blanket she got as a gift. I called it her woobie. I had a blanket/woobie :)

Nona gave Anika a back pack with her name and matching lunch box.

Her big present from NOna was this Vtech train. Its very cool with all the letter blocks and you put each block on the side and its says what it is and a word that starts with that letter. She got Elf on a Shelf for next year too! AND, LOTS AND LOTS of books from nona and from daddy.  Nona got her a really cute personalized book about fairies.

This shirt came from Andrew's sister from NZ.   They have so many NZ made clothes and its so hard to find made in the USA clothes here.  We actually heard something on the radio this weekend about how easy it is to find made in NZ products in NZ and the opposite in America.

 This shirt came from Auntie Liz in NZ. Rapaki is a Maori community where Andrew's family owns a holiday home. They are the only white people to own a home/land in the Maori community.  I spent some time at Rapaki with Andrew when we first dating. It is a special place. I take photos of Anika wearing or playing with all her gifts for her Thank you notes!  We finished all her thank you notes while I had some time off last week.

 Hoodie from my friend Molly who is in grad school at University CA, Santa Barbara.

Shirt from Andrew. Same as my ornament :)

My aunt sent this hat to Anika. SO CUTE!

 She got this hat from my aunt too  and this is her train from my mom.

These ruffle pants are darling and also came from NZ :)

She got this popcorn toy from my aunt and uncle. Its noisy!

This is me at my parents house the day after Xmas. We went back there for dinner with my brother, his wife, other niece and my dad's parents. We did more presents and ate more food.  It was kind of weird because my dad's parents (my dad's dad and his wife actually) were really late and the expensive meat my mom bought was over cooked.  my mom was mad and it just made for an awkward night I guess.

My little walker!

See this bell? She loves it. Well, on Friday something funny happened. We got home and she needed to nurse. I took off my dress and bra because my dress was high necked. Also, I don't wear nursing bras anymore, so its just easier.... After she was done she went over and played with her toys. I continued laying on the couch topless and turned on the TV. A few minutes later I look over and I see Anika running at me Ringing her bell! The look in her eyes was hilarious...she came over grabbed my boob, put it in her mouth. Took a few sips and looked up at me and laughed. Then went back over to her toys and tossed me like last week's garbage!! The whole bell ringing and running at me had me laughing my butt off.  Andrew worked late and missed it. I reenacted it for him when he got home. I hope she doesn't think she needs to ring her bell when she wants dinner! LOL.

haha. my girls :)

My mom had gotten that bib for Anika. I kept forgetting it at our other holiday meals.

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I hope you all had a lovely Christmas as well.

I will have to write my New Years post this week. I Might have to put it on my old (private) blog due to the content. I will let you know : )