Thomas Dean {Five Months}

Our favorite month yet with Tom Tom, Tommy, Bubs, Bubby, Baaaaayyyybeeeeee! Thomas is doing so incredibly great. He is the happiest, smiliest baby and definitely my favorite. Kidding! Kidding! Kidding! I love them both equally! But for real, this babe is unbelievably amazing. Through everything he's been through his first few months of life he is such a champ and keeps on shining and thriving. I am so inspired by this little 14 pounds of greatness.

Eye Health. We lost our first contact a few days ago which is frustrating because it takes us a few weeks to get a replacement made (from scratch) but we think we've found a good fit for now and have graduated from weekly eye doctor visits to every few months (unless we need to be seen sooner)!!!!!!!! No more three hour weekly Friday morning visits. We were also informed at our last appointment that since we've found a good contact fit and prescription for now we can soon begin ordering our contacts in larger sets which is much more affordable than the weekly sets we've been paying for. And since our insurance company has no interest in further discussing any sort of coverage for Thomas' condition we were super relieved to know discounted contacts are finally in discussion.

Our doctor also told us Thomas has pseudostrabismus which is a common eye misalignment and often gives a cross eye appearance. Basically his nasal bridge is broader and flatter than normal so there is less space (white area) between the iris and the inner corner of the eye lid. Doctor says he should outgrow it though and is not worried.

Baby Jesus. Thomas was asked to play baby Jesus in our church's live nativity on Christmas Eve. We were pretty excited and honored because our church is huge (5,000+ members) and there are lots of baby Jesus candidates, but we've had so much support from the pastors and elders there between all of our prayer requests that they've gotten to know us pretty well. Sadly we had to decline since we'll be out of town on Christmas Eve but we still thought it was awesome he was asked!

Then, a few weeks later we received a call from Thomas and Caroline's school. I suspected ear infection, fever, ya know, the usual weekly call. To our surprise it was the director calling to tell us that Thomas had been selected to play baby Jesus in the church play! He was hilarious on stage and smiled over and over. 

Five Month Highlights:

• Twins? Without fail, anytime we leave the house with the kids we are asked at least once if Caroline and Thomas are twins.
• Purees! We skipped rice cereal and oatmeal and went straight to purees this month and it has been a complete game changer. No more constipation issues and we were able to push bottles to every four hours (instead of 3) and increase from 6 to 8 ounces of Earths Best Formula. For the most part he is just eating whatever organic packet is on sale at the Teeter, but I did feel bad that I made most of Caroline's food so I steamed a bag of (pre-washed, skinned and cubed) sweet potatoes for him. He likes them. Also eating pureed prunes, peas, butternut squash, mangos and peaches.
• At daycare Caroline's teachers bring her to Thomas's class every day to visit and they both love it. She immediately runs across the room to give him a huge hug and plays with him for a bit before returning to her class.
• Size 2 diapers, 3-6 months clothes.
• Transitioned to sleep sack!
• First Thanksgiving and met Santa!
• Ummmmm, still sleeping in our room (by choice). Every other day we have the conversation about moving him to his crib but then chicken out. He sleeps through the night sometimes but sometimes still gets up around 4 am for a bottle. We just started following the 12 Hours by 12 Weeks method for dropping the night feeding...fingers crossed...
• We received our school pictures back. In perfect second child fashion we forgot to put him in a cuter outfit. In our defense we learned last minute that school pictures were the same week as my surgery so things were a little chaotic. He still rocked his photos though...

Five month favorites: Fisher-Price Lights Piano / Winkel Rattle / Links Toy / Baby Einstein Tag Along Tunes / Activity Gym / JJ Cole Agility Carrier / Snuza Baby Movement Monitor / Mustela PhysiObebe No Rinse Cleanser / Dohm Sound Machine / Wubanub / Nose Frida / Bumbo Seat / Boogie Mist Saline Spray / Sleep Sack

Thomas & Caroline at five months.

Delicious & Easy Christmas Gift: Homemade Blackberry Jam

Looking for a quick gift to make this weekend for teachers, neighbors, friends, co-workers and more? I have a sweet idea for you...

For as far back as I can remember my mom has made strawberry jam for Christmas gifts. Each year friends and family have come to expect this delicious treat and her list of recipients has grown quite a bit! In fact, her list as grown so much that she makes a ton of extra jam to have on hand in case someone stops by unexpectedly with a gift during the holidays. So once a year she devotes an entire day to jam making and freezes it for Christmastime. And because she's an overachiever she always bakes a fresh loaf of cinnamon bread to accompany her jam gift too.

A few years ago I started baking mini loaves of cinnamon bread as Christmas gifts for neighbors and friends but decided to step up my game this year by adding some homemade blackberry jam. Plus, I have a longer list of people to give gifts to now that both Caroline and Thomas have 3 teachers each (6 teacher gifts adds up quickly!). Here is how I packaged the teacher gifts...

Simple Strawberry Jam
Instructions by The Pioneer Woman and adapted for Blackberries

Ingredients
5 cups hulled mashed strawberries
7 cups sugar
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 49g package powdered fruit pectin

Directions
1. Place 8 or 9 8-ounce mason jars in a large hot water bath canner (or pot). Cover with water and bring to a simmer.
2. Simmer center lids in separate saucepan full of water.
3. Place mashed strawberries and lemon juice in a separate pot. Stir in pectin until dissolved. Bring strawberries to a strong boil.
4. Add sugar (measure beforehand so you can add it all at once), then return mixture to a full (violent) boil that can’t be stirred down. Boil hard for 1 minute 15 seconds.
5. Skim foam off the top.
6. Remove one jar at a time from the simmering water. Pour water back into the pot. Using a wide-mouth funnel, fill each jar with jam, being careful to keep the liquid/fruit ratio consistent. Fill jars so that they have 1/4-inch of space at the top.
7. Run a knife down the side of the jar to get rid of air bubbles.
8. Wipe rim of jar with a wet cloth to remove any residue or stickiness.
9. Remove center lid from simmering water and position it on top.
10. Put screw bands on jars, but do not overtighten!
11. Repeat with all jars, then place jars on canning rack and lower into the water.
12. Place lid on canner, then bring water to a full boil. Boil hard for 10 to 12 minutes.
13. Turn off heat and allow jars to remain in hot water for an addition five minutes.
14. Remove jars from water using a jar lifter, and allow them to sit undisturbed for 24 hours.
15. After 24 hours, remove screw bands and check the seal of the jars. Center lids should have no give whatsoever. If any seals are compromised, store those jars in the fridge.

I highly recommend using a canning kit for jam making. These tools make the process so much easier. I borrowed this kit from my friend to see if I'd actually follow through with jam making and now I am absolutely going to buy one for myself.

Also, I chose 4 ounce jam jars instead of the big boys because I wanted to stretch my jam across as many jars as possible.

 

 

 

 

I recommend waiting to make your jam when your choice of fruit is in season. I love blackberries so I waited until they were buy one, get one free at the Teeter. My friend Lisa makes jam several times a year during each fruit season - peaches, blackberries, strawberries, etc.! The peach jam is on my list for sure this summer!

And that's a wrap on jam! So far our recipients have been pretty excited about their surprise jam delivery!

O' Christmas Tree & Other Christmassy Things {2015}!

Over Thanksgiving weekend we ventured down to the end of our street to pick out our first Christmas tree as a family of four. Caroline had a blast running around the lot and since it is located in our neighborhood we ran into several friends while scouting out the perfect tree.

The family picture was a bust but that was okay with me because I didn't have time to brush my hair and was wearing leftover makeup from the day before.

Also, one of the very best parts of our adventure was watching Thomas take it all in. We are noticing a HUGE improvement in his vision recently and we cannot sing enough praises for this miracle!

He is also really into faces these days and loves feeling Matt's scruffy cheeks and grabs for his glasses.

We had good behavior all around from the kiddos. There was a brief moment while informing Caroline that we couldn't get the little tree that we prepared for a a full fledged public toddler meltdown, but thankfully she was quickly distracted.

As soon as we arrived home the Christmas tree was whipped straight inside, furniture was rearranged and Matt brought all the Christmas boxes down from the attic without one argument...so we celebrated with festive champagne cocktails (with rosemary & cranberries). Now, stringing the lights was a different story. Ha! After a few "discussions" about starting at the top versus the bottom, I finally conceded and agreed to let Matt do the lights this year because it still hurts to reach above my head. And shhhh, between you and me, he did a great job too. So, more champagne!

This year Caroline was allllllll about "helping" which made decorating the tree take two days longer than usual. Every time I turned around she was unrolling ribbon throughout the house, digging through boxes of ornaments or trying to plug lights together. So basically one of us had to be on Caroline watch while the other worked on the tree.

See what I mean by helpful? She also managed to hang and remove the ornaments on the bottom of the tree two thousand times.

Every year the dang bow takes me hours to make. And even though I've fluffed and rearranged it soooo many times I could mess with that thing all season long and never be satisfied.

Our Monogrammed Juco Skirt is from CoraLee Boutique and Courtney is still offering all my readers a 25% discount on all monogrammed items! Just use the promo code CAROLINACHARM25 at checkout! Make sure to place your orders by today to guarantee delivery by Christmas.

The Pentatonix Holiday Pandora station is guaranteed motivation to start wrapping gifts too. I love the pretty plaid wrapping paper I picked up this year (from Michaels). The kiddos gifts will be wrapped in a more obnoxiously busy and bright paper.

And a few pictures of the minis in their adorable matchy matchy jammies in front of the tree. I actually won one of these sets from a Smocked Auctions giveaway last summer and have been so excited to finally pull them out.

A little dance party. We love living room dance parties.

This year we hung our Christmas cards on our pantry doors with washi tape. And since this is the busiest place in our home I get to smile a lot while I'm fishing around for animal crackers.

In full disclosure, the thought crossed my mind to remove all of the kiddos toys, vacuum and fluff up the present that Caroline has obviously figured out is a riding toy before snapping a picture of our stockings and half decorated mantel. Buuuuut, this is real life right here folks and the decorating probably won't get finished anyway!

Also, every year I frame our Christmas card and add it to our collection. And every year Matt says "you should just buy a lifetime supply of these frames in case they discontinue them" and I laugh and tell him that's a terrible idea and remind him how tiny our attic storage is. Of course, this is the year that my silver frame was discontinued and now only available in black. That was a fun shopping discovery with Matt.

A new tradition we started this year was our Advent calendar! We received this as a gift the day before Advent began and it has been one of our favorite things to do after dinner together each night. All of the boxes are filled with m&ms and before we open the box we have to each say something we're thankful for. Caroline participates in her own language but I'd like to think I've made it on her list at some point. She also loves to share her candy with each of us which is pretty awesome.

We always receive a lot of compliments on our Moravian star. This advent symbol is rich in history and is the official Christmas street decoration in Winston-Salem, which was founded by Moravians in 1766. I'm pretty sure Matt's parents gifted this star to Matt long ago because we've been hanging it for years! Anyway, you can find one here.

  See our previous Christmas trees here: (pssst -- the deeper the archive, the more hilarious) 2014 Christmas Tree 2013 Christmas Tree 2012 Christmas Tree 2011 Christmas Tree