9 months and counting

Every day with Caitlyn lately is an adventure!  At 9 months she has 5 teeth with more on the way, is crawling like a maniac and giving us a run for our money.  Her newest "trick" which drives her parents crazy is turning the tv off and on.  She pulls herself up and goes after that button with determination no matter how many times we talk to her, correct her or gently redirect her to another toy.  It's prompted us to pursue getting a new tv and tv console a few months earlier than we were planning on simply for the sake of our sanity.

She tries to pull herself up on most things that she can get her hands on and has a great reach.  We're learning how to Caitlyn proof the house!  She's been standing up in her crib for a couple of weeks and we realized that we needed to lower the mattress so that she wouldn't be able to tumble out.  Mike, amazing at all things, had to drill an extra set of holes for the mattress height because our crib only came with two and the lower one was just far too low.  Angela could not reach over to put Caitlyn in the crib because she's too short.  Mike of course being over 6' had no problem!


She's a squirly monkey lately and that plays out in very sweet ways as well.  She's recently figured out how to really bop along with music and darn if the girl doesn't have rhythm!  Those who are musically inclined in our families (which is really almost everyone!) will be happy to hear that she tries to sing along with music, not entirely off key and loves "drumming" on the floor with her hands. I'm sure her technique will improve with time. ;)  Here's a little video to see her bopping in action!





We recently took Caitlyn on her very first street car ride.  The windows were down, the wind was blowing and she was exhausted...so she laid her head on the shoulder of the person holding her and would have easily fallen asleep if we hadn't had to get off!  It was pretty sweet.  She definitely enjoyed it as did we.

And we've been lucky enough to have Aunt Joan in for a few visits lately.  Joan is teaching Caitlyn the intricacies of her phone!  They were figuring it out together I think!

She and our cat Tabitha have an interesting relationship that baffles us.  Caitlyn, I think, is convinced that Tabitha is a very fun stuffed animal and gets very excited to see her.  Tabitha, doesn't want to be touched by Caitlyn, but continues to plop down right near her only to have to run away seconds later when Caitlyn quickly crawls towards her.  If she defends her territory and bats at Caitlyn, then Caitlyn is just delighted and thinks that it is the best game.  And Tabitha hates it when Caitlyn is crying and always comes to see what is wrong and tells us to make her stop crying because she is concerned for her.  (We're very good at talking to Tabitha! LOL)

All in all, we're having a great time and despite things like having her formula recalled and dealing with a grumpy baby more than we're used to and getting all our housework done (no dusting for quite a while I'm afraid!), we're enjoying life in the South and eagerly enjoying any cooler day we get.

We hope that all of you are doing well and look forward to the next time we see any or all of you!

New Adventures with an 8 month old

I'm switching with Ang this month on writing the blog.  Last month we had a lot of first's with Caitlyn, especially on our travels to South Bend and back in the car.  Caitlyn was a great sport and did really well on our 16 hour trip to South Bend all the way up to the 15th hour and then she let us know she was finished, so very grumpy but made it through the last hour.  One the way back we broke up the trip in two parts and stayed in Nashville over night.  Caitlyn's first night at a hotel... next time I think we will get a suite!

We certainly enjoyed having our new Honda Odessey for the trip- a lot of room and a smooth ride.  The gas gauge is a little odd...when the gas gauge says empty there are still 4-5 gallons in the tank.  I guess this helps prevent people from running out of gas...but harder for someone like me who likes to stretch the tank.

We visited many family and friends. Above is a shot with Aunt Margaret.  And a shot of Caitlyn with her oldest cousin Monica.  That's #1 and #21 of the Pingel grandchildren!

Here's Caitlyn meeting Gloria Connolly for the first time!

Ang visited fabric stores that carry lines of fabric unavailable in New Orleans and also worked hard to buy decorations for the singles brunch back in New Orleans the next week.  She found the perfect table top decoration at a great price.  I was able to get together for the annual guy's weekend and really enjoyed that.  We also enjoyed a day at the beach with my sister Joan.  Lake Michigan is so beautiful, we really miss it!  Here are pictures of Caitlyn at the beach with mama.

When we got back home we had the pleasure of having Jonathan Finke stay with us for a few days while attending the singles event. Then when things quieted down we were able to give Caitlyn her first hair cut.  Mama had debated about having someone else do it, but I think it turned out just great!

Last week we went to Ron Evans wedding and debated about bringing Caitlyn, but it turns out she was super good and enjoyed by many others attending the wedding. It was super hot that day, yet everything was so fun including the brass band, food, drinks and even sno balls.  Ang and I even managed to get some dancing in !

Life in June

Well here we are, already to June! It's hard to believe because each day passes faster than one before it. In just a week, Caitlyn will be 6 months. 6 months! We're enjoying every second because we know how precious each little moment is at this age. She's in a constant state of discovery and wants to put everything in her mouth. And that's because we think that she's started teething. But she's being such a trooper about it! You can tell that she's uncomfortable and occasionally she'll have a hard time sleeping. But she's got some gauze blankets that are her favorite comfort object and she rubs those against her gums almost constantly. I have four luckily, so I switch them out every day for a nice fresh one! LOL.





She recently started just a few solids and boy has that been an experience. She loves her high chair because it lets her sit up, but she definitely hasn't loved everything we've given to her. She has no problem with the rice cereal and is a great eater...Mike's the one who usually feeds her and she just opens her mouth right up for the next spoonful. Let's just say that the same could not be said of the sweet potatoes, green beans, pears, or peaches. Finally we had the brilliant (it's brilliant because no one told us about it) to try a couple of other foods: bananas and avocados. And she's in love...or at least tolerant! It cracks me up because those are two of Mike's favorite foods...so thankfully she's showing some signs that she'll have his palette over mine. It's hard to be a picky eater and I hope that she's not...but if she is, she'll have my sympathy and understanding. No one has ever been able to make seafood that I enjoy...and it's not for lack of trying!

Food she enjoys...



Food she doesn't....




Mike has been ridiculously busy with work lately which is a good thing...but it makes life a bit stressful. He's got a great guy working for him part time as an onsite manager for his two other workers. Days are great when he's there, but otherwise Mike has to split his time between being onsite, writing proposals and meeting with new clients. It's a lot of work and let's just say he deserves a vacation! When he comes home, he takes Caitlyn in the Baby Bjorn, has his southern drink and generally waters his garden. We have so many wonderful tomatoes right now that he has grown that he's been giving away bags of them to the neighbors! They are all quite meaty and delicious and he's almost as proud of them as he is of Caitlyn. LOL.





And I'm busy taking care of Caitlyn during the day and sewing away...rather than talk about what I've made, if you are interested you can always check out my other blog http://cuttopieces.blogspot.com/ which has all my sewing and quilting activities. I keep up with that one much better than I do with this one! Sorry!

We did recently have Joan and Cathy Grill come visit for the weekend. It was a brief but welcome visit and we're so happy that Joan could spend time with Caitlyn. She wasn't able to make it to the baptism, so she had to make up for that. Now if only I could convince my brothers to come visit....





This weekend we're going to be getting the large tree in our backyard taken down. It's sort of sad to see it go, but it's a pretty sad tree and NEEDS to come down. All three guys who came out to estimate it said there was no way it should stay up with all the termite damage and deterioration. But it has provided shade and for that we've been grateful. Our plan is put a new tree up but we have yet to decide what that will be. I want something fast growing, tall, provides shade, doesn't attract bugs or caterpillars, and can tolerate the bit of water of that we get in the backyard still from time to time with large storms. Research in my future!

That's about it for now. Life with Caitlyn is a joy every day...not that she's not work, but she's pretty darn adorable and that is definitely in her favor. :)




Love, Mike, Angela and Caitlyn

Life is full - a baptism, a week of family and friends, some festivals and just trying to survive

Hello all! We were recently able to see many of you on our trip to South Bend for Easter and Caitlyn's baptism. Our time was very full there with seeing family and friends and I'm happy to say that all of Caitlyn's cousins at least got to see her and most got to hold her and enjoy her! Mike and I were so touched by their love for their newest little Pingel cousin. Of course we expect her aunts and uncles to adore her and they met our expectations too. :)








The baptism was on Easter sunday and Kevin Ranaghan graciously agreed to baptize Caitlyn for us at Holy Cross Parish. Everything went well and Caitlyn was a peach throughout the whole ceremony. No problems with water for that one!



Matt and Carrie Urbanski are Caitlyn's godparents and did a wonderful job hosting a beautiful gathering for everyone after the event.



We spent time with Pingels and just a few Finkes that week and tried to see as many friends as possible. It's always so hard to see everyone that we would like to! Caitlyn was certainly happy with both of her grandfathers!




Caitlyn did quite well with the airplane rides...better than her mother in fact who got quite air sick on the way home. But nausea is no stranger unfortunately, so I just added the Cincinnati airport to my growing list of places I've tossed my cookies. Oh well. Gotta keep life unpredictable.



We've been equally busy since we've been home it seems with Mike's work picking up and New Orleans spring time. Thankfully Mike is blessed with work right now and works hard all week long. But last weekend we packed it full with some yard work, a Hornets game, a crawfish boil, the botanical garden show and the French Quarter festival! We wore out Caitlyn that's for sure!




We even got to dance in the streets at the French Quarter fest to our wedding song being sung live by a woman with a great voice. We were the only ones dancing but we didn't care! And Caitlyn was in the Baby Bjorn the whole time. LOL.



Mike picked up some heirloom tomatoes at the garden shoe so hopefully later in the summer we can show you those. The orange and lime trees are in bloom right now and smell heavenly and the wisteria is climbing away! I'm busy quilting away during Caitlyn's naps and generally just trying to rest and stay healthy. We adore our little girl more and more each day and I still can't believe that we really have her. We are blessed with this one!

Spring is in the Air!

Well after a colder than normal winter, we're finally seeing some warm days that you might expect from New Orleans. Due to the cold, we (and everyone in the city) lost a lot of plants in the freezing weather. Since we all like to pretend that we're living in a tropical area, we plant tropical plants...well...they're all gone and with little hope of returning. Sunday we finally had a nice enough day that Mike and I could get out and cut down all the dead plants :( and clear the way for new, yet to be purchased ones. We lost our bougenvia (no idea how to spell that!), our hibiscus tree, the palm trees suffered, our climbing mandevilles, and others. So that leaves some big gaps in the yard. Strangely enough, the weeds seem to thrive! So there were plenty of them!

But now much of it is cleared away and ready to be replanted. We planted a flat of pretty yellow marigolds to brighten things up in the meantime and believe it or not Mike has already got his tomato garden going. It was a lot of work and we made our neighbors jealous by actually tackling the work (everyone needs to do this). There's still much to do. As Mike told me, we made a dent in the yard. But it definitely looks more tidy by the front door and that's what we see the most!

Here's some pictures to enjoy of Mike checking out his garden a few days later with Caitlyn.

Caitlyn is 3 months!

Here's a few shots that she let me take of her today. Yesterday was her 3 month birthday already! She's babbling and sleeping pretty well through the night. I think that we are getting a little more adjusted to our little family and what it takes to make it through the day! Enjoy!

my dishtowel on Paula Deen's website!

So I've finally gotten some feedback on the dishtowels that I've sent to the Paula Deen show. One of them can currently be seen in one of the articles on her website.

It's a pretty picture and shows off the towel well.



I've also been told that my dishtowels were used throughout the taping of season 7. Currently they are showing season 6 on the Food Network and I need to find out when they start showing season 7. They were very sweet and invited me to send anything more any time. They loved my towels. What a nice compliment!

Video of Caitlyn Noelle

Getting the Baby's Room Ready!

We've been moving furniture around the house for the last couple of weeks trying to clear out the room that will become the baby's room. Angela is making a great sacrifice (that she's happy to make) of giving up her former sewing room for the baby. We decided to combine the sewing room with the current guest room. That was stage 1. The guest room has turned out well and we actually find ourselves spending a great deal of time in there now.

We didn't want to repaint the entire nursery because we had a lovely shade of green throughout the room and some fun wall decals already in there. But Angela can't leave well enough alone and decided that we needed to have a focal wall with a new design treatment. In her great love of all things geometric, she decided to cover the wall in a grid of squares. Her gracious husband Michael agreed to professionally help her out in her grand endeavors. :) After painting the wall white, he quickly taped off the grid of squares and the fun began!



Not content with just one color in the room, Angela decided that we needed to have 6! So Michael purchased all the paint and gamely went along with her plan. We planned out how large the squares should be for maximum impact and minimum chaos. Yes, math was used! Then we got to work painting each of the squares in a predetermined random pattern.



Two shades of green, two shades of blue and a shade of grey and white later....here's what we ended up with!



After letting the paint dry for a day, we wanted to see the room as complete as possible. So Mike waded through our current lake of a backyard (got to love LA rain and flooding) to get the crib. And we moved the changing table and the dresser into the room as well. All three pieces Mike had painted beautifully earlier in the summer and we've been waiting to put them in the room!






Everything is starting to come together and now Angela just needs to get cracking on all of the fabric additions to the room. Here's some of the fabrics that might be used for the nursery.

Mardi Gras and Disney World...what a fun way to spend the last week!

Hello everyone! We're back again with more antics from the Pingel population in New Orleans. Winter took it's sweet time, but Spring is on the way and the weather is warming up again. We recently got to celebrate Mardi Gras here in New Orleans...well at least we got to go to some Mardi Gras parades. Life was busy for us, so Mike and I only made it to one night of parades. But we had fun! It was great to be there especially with the Ronaynes and Paul Rose who were celebrating their very first parades. I distinctly remember my own first parade just a few years ago and it was fun to act like I'd been doing it forever. Another unexpected treat was having Hannah, Kathleen and Jen in town as well. I believe that it was Jen Torma's first parade as well.




We didn't celebrate the rest of Mardi Gras in town because Mike and I had to head to Florida to spend some quality Disney time with my family. We kept extending our stay to hang out longer and experience more Disney goodness. It was fun that everyone from my family was there and hopefully we'll have some good pictures to prove it. Jeremy and Amy scoffed at our Mardi Gras beads, but Mike and I dutifully brought some and wore them at Disney on Mardi Gras day. There were many many LSU fans around, so we were in good company. Highlights of our trip there include dinner with Jon, mom and dad at Rainforest Cafe, sushi with Jeremy, Amy and Josh, the fillet mignon at Jiko with mom, dad, Jeremy and Amy, and drinking around the Epcot worlds. Oh and of course, my favorite ride Splash Mountain. Good times.



We're back home now getting back into the groove of real life again. Mike is working hard to find more jobs and making his wife happy by helping her organize the house. I'm working hard at my sewing machine again. I've been creating lots of items lately and have opened a shop on Etsy.com. This is a site devoted entirely to artists creating and selling handmade items. If you haven't checked it out before, please do. There is all kinds of stuff there, and you know you'll be helping the little guy! Always a good thing. My particular shop is called Tweedledee Designs and can be found here.



Most of my creations are baby gifts at this point, but I'm also looking to add quilted wall hangings, eye glass cases and perhaps some makeup cases. If there's anything you're interested in, let me know! I'm a fabric-aholic and I have so much waiting for me to create. :)

For all those stuck with cold weather, feel free to come visit and we'll try to arrange some warm weather for you! This is a great time to visit when we don't have any humidity!

Back in the Saddle again

Well we're back in the South after a couple of CHILLY weeks in South Bend. The last month has just flown by with Christmas and out of town trips!

Mike and I had our annual Christmas party here in New Orleans right before Christmas. We were delighted by all our guests, but were especially pleased to see friends and family from out of town. Mike and I have worked hard in recent years to perfect (I know you're all shocked by this!) all workings of the party. As part of this, we've taken to creating many of our signature drinks in bulk before the party so that we can pour them quickly. It really helps free us to be better hosts (we hope!). This year we had some great drinks including self titled Father Christmas Fizz, Little Drummer Boy, and Snowflake. They were all super yummy concoctions and were topped with our handmade garnishes out of gum drops. If it looks like something Martha Stewart would do, you're right. It's straight out of her magazine! Mike got really good at this (better than me in fact) and started making fun variations himself.



After much work for both our Christmas party and the community Christmas party, we set out with Joan up to South Bend. A long but thankfully uneventful trip later, we finally arrived in the icy cold north. The next two weeks were filled with probably more conversation than I have the whole rest of the year!

We celebrated Christmas Pingel style with lots of laughter and singing. Pat and Beth and family had recently purchased "Rock Band" and there was much fun to be had watching and participating in this game. Others sat around the piano, pulled out the guitars, and sang in harmony to all sorts of Christmas songs. It was great because it was the first time that all of the Pingels have been together since Mike and I moved almost 3 years ago! And I don't think any of us will ever forget Beth's questions about the nature of life at IU. :)





We were also able to visit with a number of friends in town including checking out Matt and Carrie's lovely new home. And we were excited to catch up with many people from my high school class at the annual Stowebash party! We also took off to Chicago for a couple of days to visit with James and Jenni and their sweet girls as well. And despite Mike getting the stomach flu while we were there (sorry James and Jenni!), Mike and I were able to attend the musical "Wicked". We've been playing the soundtrack non-stop in our car ever since thanks to Jim and Colleen gifting us with the music!



The Finke Christmas celebration proved to have it's own set of hi jinks as well. Unfortunately we've all been sworn to secrecy, so I can't share them with you. But Mike claims that he has never laughed so hard in his whole life. Rest assured, the famous Finke eggrolls made a grand appearance, mainly due to the hard work of Mike!



The weeks ended out with Sean and Gretchen's wedding. The wedding was full of beautiful music and it was so fun to be able to catch up with so many out of town guests. There were people there that I easily haven't seen in 5 years, probably more. But boy was I done talking after that!

Since arriving back home, we've celebrated Mike's birthday with any number of great meals and were blessed by some great new work that came to Mike's company. Life is good in '09 so far. Let's keep it that way!