things I like today pt. 2
Posted: June 20, 2011 Filed under: Ava Rae, Eating, Family, Favorite Recipes, Food, Noelle, Other Family, Us Sorenson's | Tags: favorite things 4 Comments »Things I like today:
…that 4 years in, this is what our life is. Honestly though, I looked at this picture and felt O-L-D. Like, double take- ‘wait, is that a picture of my parents and us when we were little?’ But, a little perspective later- I feel so far beyond blessed that I get to call this my life, that my front yard, those my children, him my husband…
…Father’s Day morning. It sounded like this, “Ava, want to wrap your gift for Dad? Sure. Think Dad will like his new shirt? Of course, he told me his favorite color is purple. Ava, keep your voice quiet. Mom, can I crack the egg. Just finish decorating your card. OK. How do you spell Dad again. Ava, keep your voice quiet. Oops, I added an extra A. It’s fine. I drew you Mom, look how funny you look. Can I try the bacon? What kind of tea did we make dad? It’s coffee. Ava, keep your voice quiet. Elle, NO! CRASH. Oh crap, nobody move. Ava don’t walk on the floor. Elle crawl into the bedroom. Ava call your sister. Ava open the door. He’s asleep. No he’s not, just say Happy Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day. Were you seriously sleeping. No…so, what’d you break?”
…This dessert. My new summer staple. It’s like a frozen S’more. Do it!
The little girls endorsed it with ‘yummy sounds’…so did everyone at the table. Seriously, that good!
…my dad.
…the baby that we constantly have to strip down to her diaper because she is always such a mess.
…Kurt’s new “favorite color” shirt.
…this cute belly and the baby boy we are praying makes a prompt arrival the moment he is done cooking.
my talented family: part 1
Posted: June 14, 2011 Filed under: Asper Kourt, Family, Little Ones | Tags: Kev, rock 101 1 Comment »Featured today: My youngest brother Kevin Herig. You know him as the singer/songwriter of Asper Kourt. You know him from swim lessons (if you need lessons for your kiddos this summer give him a call). From here on out you will also know him for his latest awesome venture-
ROCK 101
(open website on any browser but Mozilla)
Looking for something fun for your kids to do this summer? Check it out! Session 1 is well underway and everyone is having so much fun! There will be 3 more 2 week sessions to choose from- all located in the Northeast Heights at St. Stephens United Methodist Church.
MUSIC EDUCATION WORKSHOPS BY SOME OF NEW MEXICO’S FINEST MUSICIANS. FORM YOUR OWN BAND AND PERFORM A LIVE CONCERT. GUEST BAND PERFORMANCES. GROUP AND PRIVATE INSTRUCTIONS, SNACKS, GAMES, AND MENTORSHIP. Sounds like a hit to me! Wish I could go 
You in?
My Big Day…
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Family, Little Ones, Noelle, Other Family, Us Sorenson's | Tags: Birthday 2 Comments »You can take the title how you will…
For the appropriate perspective you can imagine that it is Noelle’s yet to be unveiled voice presenting the blog that will outline the celebrations that surrounded her one year milestone. OR, you can read and take this title just as it is written… MY (that’s me, Dani’s) Big Day. Because really, who cares more about the first birthday than the mom who remembers all too clearly the events of one short year ago? I never would have captured the significance of the first birthday until I had kids of my own.
Now, you know, I am not even a birthday person. Could seriously do without any kind of birthday hoopla for my own day of birth. But when my sweet soul sista sent me a gift on “my” special day last week, I was a heap (crying mess- if you were wondering). I mean, I don’t need a gift or shout out every time one of my babies grows a year older, but that first year… it’s huge. It’s like a combo platter of, ‘I survived’, ‘I lost my baby weight’, ‘my baby is crawling/walking/interacting and not really a baby‘, ‘I can see the light at the end of this exhausting tunnel’, ‘I take more than one shower a week (most weeks)’! It’s happy and sad, it’s a glimpse into how quickly life goes, how fast things change, a reminder that it won’t always be so hard and the urgent need to embrace as many of these precious moments as you can… A big thank you to the sweet heart of my friend who understood that this momma needed a long distance ‘hug’ on Elle’s day. So, a shout out to all you mama’s on your kid’s first birthdays!
We had a delightful time celebrating One Year!
We invited up our families (that makes us 15 people big) to Pagosa Springs for Memorial Day Weekend to celebrate our Elle girl! With permission (of course) we took over the Sorenson Cabin and the Herig’s Weekend Rental Cabin for 3 days of fun in the sun wind! There was 4 wheeling, flower picking, trampolining, sheep shearing…
We were thrilled and so touched that everyone made the trek just to celebrate and reminisce with us!
The Birthday Girl followed right along in her Ma’s footsteps and spent most of the day fussing and crying. Thanks again God, for pacifiers and for allowing one that matched her birthday outfit perfectly to find it’s way into our possession. I think God has a sense of humor and gave the fashionista in me this little treasure 
It just wouldn’t be a party without me second guessing myself at the last minute… And I am here to say that I’m glad I did. I hadn’t baked a cake for our gal thinking that a whoopie pie would suffice for her birthday candle-blow and sugar-high. Morning of… that was not going to cut it. I baked up a smash cake for our girl and with minimal tools created probably the best looking cake I have ever made. Sorry for the very public pat on the back- but I had a proud moment. Ha.
Oh boy, were there gifts! Clothes and a sock monkey, a barn with animals, hats, hair accessories, a helicopter. Wow! Noelle’s favorite part? You know it, tissue paper. Seriously, when you are trying to think of what to get a one year old. Paper. They can’t get enough.
Look at all those Daddies hiking with our girls.
This was Ava’s first hike. Where she actually walked. She didn’t do much walking.
No trip would be complete without those Herig boys being all buff and dangerous. It was entertaining. No one got hurt. AND it gave us an excuse to stop, watch and snack!
Kurt and Ava- Peas in a Pod. Their shared dream that they share daily, that they could fly.
Cousins. So sweet. Makes me anxious for our new nephew to make his appearance. Excited to meet him and after some l-i-v-e-l-y conversations about his name— I can’t wait to hear what it will be
There was trampolining. There was more that one anxious Mom there and more than one not-anxious Mom there. Can you guess who was which?!
On Elle’s actual birthday, June 1st, we did just a little bit more celebrating. It was an Einstein’s eating (anyone tried a Pretzel bagel? HEAVEN), walking practicing, gift-opening, pizza eating, park playing, movie watching kind of day. And it was great! Happy One Year Baby Girl.
baby toys
Posted: April 1, 2011 Filed under: Family, Learning, Little Ones, Noelle | Tags: playing 2 Comments »
This is not a toy.
These blocks are.
This house is.
Everything in this messy pile is.
Bin after colorful bin… toys.
___________________________________________
We set our sweet baby in front of all of these ‘toy’ areas numerous times throughout the day.
This is where we find her every time we turn around.
And if we aren’t quite sure which door where she’s taken off to, we just have to pause, tilt an ear, and wait for the “boooiiinnggg” of that door stopper being plucked.
week of firsts
Posted: March 10, 2011 Filed under: Family, Learning, Little Ones, Noelle | Tags: elle 1 Comment »This week started out with us laughing at Noelle as she did this silly arm-flapping dance while playing with us on the living room floor. It took us a while to realize that she was WAVING! So began a week of firsts and A-LOT of “Hi’s” from the 3 of us, trying to prompt that sweet, silly, arm-flapping wave.
If you can’t tell, Elle hasn’t found a food she doesn’t like. However, when she loves things that I consider healthy choices, I am SO happy! This week, beans! During lunch one day (following a bowl of veggie soup) Elle ventured into the world of clapping. It was so cute to watch her realize that it was her tiny hands making that sound. The delight on her face was priceless and the 900 claps that followed the first left Ava and I with a laughing-tummy-ache! This was truly a trick-a-day kind of week. Elle finally successfully drank through a straw too.
The other day Ava and I were talking and she informed me that she had the perfect job for Noelle when she grows up. “A DRUMMER!” In her sweet little Ava voice in true Ava form (hair flipping and matter-of-fact tone) she said, “Since she likes to drum on everything I think she would enjoy that job. And she could be in a band like Dad.” When asked what she was going to do when she grows up she said, “Be a Mom like you. We can share Noelle and I’ll do Keva work during naps.”
That girl has it all figured out. Ha!
In other news, Saturday morning the three of us walked in to see what all the racket was during Elle’s “nap”. It was her. Hanging onto the rails, on her knees, just bouncing away. We dropped that crib mattress down so quick! This kid is gonna keep us on our toes!
Very much inspired (continuously) with my crafty BFF I randomly decided that I would venture into the world of sewing. Ummm. Harder than it looks folks. My first sewing project, a lumpy, asymmetrical, FAR from what I envisioned, blanket. However, it turned out to be the perfect companion for my youngest girl.
AND…. SHE’S CRAWLING!!!
going to school
Posted: February 24, 2011 Filed under: Ava Rae, Learning, Little Ones | Tags: school Leave a comment »Thanks to one of my ‘Super Mom’ friends, Ava and I have ventured into the world of Home-Preschool! How wonderful is it that through the wonders of the internet we can copy take the advise of those friends that we look up to oh-so-much and use their resources to enhance our life and time at home! Thank you Sarah for introducing us to this fun, entertaining, EASY Preparatory Curriculum for little ones! I have to say that from week one I was amazed at the sponginess of Ava’s brain. She was so ready to learn and absorb each thing that we discussed that I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to schedule some “school” time. In the weeks since we started, this is one of her favorite parts of our day. She loves doing a craft, reading a story, watching videos on the internet, memorizing our Bible verse and best of all, sharing it all with Kurt when he gets home! This has been such a great addition to our daily schedule, something fun for us to do together and a good lesson in patience and organization for me.
Here is the board for one of our recent weeks of school!
Bible verse- Proverbs 30:5- “Every Word of God proves true.”
Letter- E
Number- 5
Theme- Lighthouses
Vocabulary Word- Beacon
Shape- Octagon
We “learn” one or two of the above lessons per day and pair it with reading a related story, doing a craft, watching videos or anything else that seems to tie the idea to our daily life. The website is a wonderful tool and gives ideas for each weeks activities. The best part- there is total freedom to adjust the lessons to your home and supplies!
Baby Loves Food
Posted: January 20, 2011 Filed under: Eating, Little Ones, Noelle | Tags: baby food Leave a comment »We are traveling a different road this time around when it comes to introducing food to our baby! This girl LOVES food! With Ava we had to work really hard at introducing each new taste and texture. We dealt with many many choking fake-outs as she would gag every time any sort of texture touched her tongue. This led to many almost heart attacks for Kurt and a ton of introduction and re-introductions on my part. To say the least, introducing solids and then table foods was a long and exhausting process. Leading into it I was kind of dreading these months with Noelle.
I kind of noticed that something was up as I attempted to make Noelle’s first baby food in my blender and as I was feeding her I kept finding rice chunks… she didn’t seem to mind and I was glad that my poor puree job didn’t seem to matter. As time has gone on it has become apparent that this silly baby prefers texture and is so unbelievably bored with jars of baby food! So, for months 4, 5 and 6 we did LOTS of bananas and rice cereal, sweet potatoes, introduced some quick-dissolving cereal snacks, and offered her anything we were eating. She loves eggs (I know, I know, no egg whites for babies, but I forgot at the time and she didn’t have a reaction), rice, meatballs, turkey, chicken, tomato sauce, pasta… the list goes on- the only thing she really seemed to hate was applesauce? Who doesn’t like applesauce?
So though it is wonderful that she seems to really like to eat with us- there are still plenty of times when we are out and about that I wish she would eat a jar- ya know? Well, in remembering that a friend suggested these squeezers of baby food I ran to Target and picked up a few hoping that Elle would tolerate them for a once and a while type situation. Well, they were a hit! She seems to like the fun flavors and as an added bonus these are very Dad friendly. You can squeeze the tube right in their mouth! Not only is it less messy— it’s fun
- What Mom doesn’t like to see Omega 3 and Antioxidants on the baby food container?!
- AND they are Soy, Wheat, Dairy and Gluten Free with no added Sugar!
