Making cookies...

(I finally found my photo card to get pics/videos off my cell phone..that's why this post is sooo late)

I kept putting this off and finally the evening before Christmas Eve set it up so Kelsey could help me with the cookie cutters. She had a blast using the rolling pin and then choosing which cookie cutter she wanted and pressing it into the dough with both hands. Then I had her help me make the dough for the candy cane cookies. She had fun using the kitchenaid and knew how to turn it on and off right away.

I baked them while she went to bed, so the next morning we mixed up the icing and she got to decorate the cookies.

Potatoes!!!

This is one of the few foods we have not been able to get Kelsey to eat, with the exception of some roasted sweet potatoes I made a few weeks ago. Well, tonight there was a break through folks!! Kelsey and I had stopped by Gma/Gpa McDonald's house after taking daddy to the airport. Gma made dinner for us, roast chicken, peas (K LOVES these) and mashed potatoes. As always I tried to get her to taste my mash potatoes and she gave me a look of terror and said no, which I had her turn into "no thank you" Then when she was doing something I snuck a bite into her mouth. She ate it with trepidation. I then glued some peas onto the next bite of mashed potatoes and she ate it willingly. We did the same gluing technique with the chicken. When she finished her plate she even asked for more of everything, including the potatoes!! Today was a good day!!!

Granted I prob majorly screwed up b/c I'm sure they had butter or some type of dairy that she's not supposed to have...just a day in the life of me!!

Family Photo Shoot @ the Beach

Kitchen Helper

I've written before about how much Kelsey likes to "help out" in the kitchen. She has always pushed a chair up to the counter. Lou's been very worried about her falling off...for very good reason. She's fallen off twice (luckily she didn't really get hurt either time) After the second fall, we got on the Internet right away and ordered the kitchen helper.

We had debated before buying either this one or the Learning tower, but just couldn't see paying the $$ for it. Soooooo worth it! She loves it and we love it! She pushes it around the kitchen from the center island, where she likes to help, and over to the sink to wash her hands. Even her cousins enjoyed using it when they came to stay with us.

It is foldable/collapsible if you remove one screw from the platform. So far it really has not been in the way, so we haven't seen the need to fold it, especially since she uses it a few times each day.

Decorating the Christmas Tree..

We're a little unconventional and the Angel went up first to make sure we could fit her on. This year we gave in and bought a 9 foot artificial pre-lit tree. It pretty much goes to our ceiling, so Lou had to tie the angel on with fishing line

We decided to let Kelsey stay up past bedtime one night so she could help us decorate the tree. This is the first time we really let her participate and she had a blast. I taught her how to hold the hook to make it easier to put the ornaments on the branches. I separated out the breakable and non-breakable ornaments, obviously the pile on non-breakable pile was for Kelsey. After she finished her pile she kept trying to bring the breakable ones and put them on. She was so excited.

Since she had so much fun, I ended up buying her a little tree of her own for her bedroom. I wish I had my camera with me. She was dancing and singing as she was putting the ornaments on, that she got to pick out at the store. We even bought a little battery powered strand of lights. I turn the tree on during her naptime for her everyday.