Life on the Prairie

Practical Joke

2009-12-02T07:15:00.002-06:00

After a great day spent with family on Thanksgiving my husband played a practical joke on my parents. Here is how they found their car:-)

Flipping Lefsa

2009-12-02T07:01:00.003-06:00

Our new family tradition with my aunts is making lefsa after our Thanksgiving meal. The kids are now at the age where they want to help and they can. In fact by the end, they needed little assistance. Plus we get the benefit of eating fresh off the grill lefsa, with brown sugar!

September

2009-10-01T11:16:00.011-05:00

It's taken some time to adjust to our new schedule. Both kids are in school and are learning so much, there's tons of projects, form to fill out and lots of new things to try.

To be honest some days I feel like a house fell on me.

I think it's more the shear amount of change that happened. We're on the verge of settling into a routine. Complete with morning bus stops, letters/themes of the week and art projects galore. Just don't ask me about our experience with the bus!

A nap-proof summer

2009-10-01T10:35:00.007-05:00

Hello again,

We took full advantage of this past summer and played our hearts out! The kids were virtually nap proof on the weekends! Which meant that they did they're regular naps during the week at daycare, then we played all day on Saturday and Sunday. *Confession, it did take us a little longer to figure this out. But after trying on several occasions to put two kids down in a one room cabin for an 1 and 1/2 hours we finally caught on:-)

We had completed our big task, painting our house, before summer started. So we were ready to play. We had a few planned events and then left the rest up to the stir of the moment. Which lead to lots of camping, fishing, bonfires, boat rides, swimming, tubing and horseback riding. The kids have really loved fishing and each have their own tackle box. They have on several occasions sat down to 'trade' tackle, thanks to Uncle Chris for all the tackle:-)

At the beginning of the summer, I was aware that this summer was moment in time that I would remember. Knowing that just around the corner was that there was a big change, the start of school for both kids. I think we all achieved living as kids in a nap-proof summer:-)

Winter has left

2009-04-19T16:28:00.007-05:00

Winter has left and we took full advantage of the warm breezy day by flying our kites.

What happens when you think your kids are playing quietly together. . .

2009-03-28T09:08:00.002-05:00

Out of the mouths of babes

2009-03-28T08:54:00.003-05:00

While sitting down for a Sunday lunch my son asked me "Does God have a Mom and Dad?" If you have any suggestions on answering this one let me know!

Later that night as we're completing the last puzzle before bedtime my daughter is trying to convince me to do another puzzle. But not by asking for one more, instead she says to me "Mom, you are such a good helper!" I guess they do listen to us:-)

Sweet Thing

2009-02-28T14:58:00.001-06:00

My Sweet Thing

Blogger Award

2009-01-28T11:09:00.017-06:00

A friend of mine, Becky Knutson, gave me the Kreativ Blogger award (thanks, Becky!). Here are the rules: List six things that make you happy. Pass the award along to six more bloggers. Do not give the typical answers and go for the less obvious, as you all know that family, friends, God, etc would be on the list.

1. I love when my kids discover something all on their own, with no parental influence. There is nothing that can make me smile more than those Uh-Ha moments!

2. I drink one cup of coffee everyone morning, how else can I get through the day and be happy.

3. I will eat almost anything that is pistachio. One of my new favorite is pistachio gelato:-)

4. I'm always looking for new ways for me to use my creative spirit. There not usually big endeavors. But here is my latest way to contain clutter and encourage my kids to be creative. Thanks Shan for the basket!

5. I used to play soccer year round, because I loved the game. But the last time I played was over 5 years ago. I'll be on a team in Februray, here is to getting back on the saddle.

6. I'm always reading. I love bookclub because it gives me a chance to read books that I would have never picked out. Plus kudos to my mom who is always passing along books for me to read.

And now to pass on the award.... I was completely peer pressured by my friend, Becky, at work to start my own blogs, so now I pass this award onto Tricia B, Kathy V, Melissa S, Gina S, and Katie L. It's a fun list of things to think about!

The boy who loves to fish

2009-01-12T22:09:00.008-06:00

Dressed in his bib snowpants, with his camo fleece my son meets me as I drive up to the ice fishing shack. He looks like he's been fishing for years. I briefly see him the same way but at 16. I can just imagine when he's that old, he'll choose to be fishing all day!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T16:22:00.005-06:00

Homemade Lefsa

2008-12-01T06:45:00.016-06:00

After the thanksgiving feast, we set out to make our very first batch of Lefsa ever. We traditionally have lefsa during the holidays, but this year we made our own.

After all our hard work, we enjoyed our own freshly made Lefsa and it was worth it! A special thanks to my aunties and my mom for all of my Swedish traditions.

Room for one more. . .

2008-11-25T15:21:00.006-06:00

Today, still one day until Thanksgiving we decorated the house for Christmas. The kids loved getting out all the decorations. This isn't our normal plan, but we had the time. Plus our wreath was delivered, which certified my belief that we had room to celebrate one more. . . holiday.

This year as we are giving thanks for all of our friends and family, we'll have already begun to celebrate Christmas. It feels like we have remembered how special it is to just spend this time laughing and enjoying time with others. And we will keep that spirit alive into Christmas.

Make-up

2008-11-19T11:02:00.007-06:00

As my daughter and I are walking through the department store she spots the make-up counter. She gets these big eyes and runs towards the all the displays of make-up. Here I am diligently following her as she moving from one display to the next, repeating "We don't touch" as her eyes see all the make-up sitting open and waiting for her little fingers.

I shouldn't be surprised by this but I still don't know where it came from. I remember when she was just a year old she had a complete melt down in The Limited store when I said that she couldn't get the purse with the huge diamonds on it. Or the time that I would purposely go in the doors at Macy's that would not take us by the jewelry or purses for fear that she would want to live in those isle forever.

I do have hope it that it won't be her only interest. Last time we were at the store she loved looking at the sparkly christmas trees, but then the next isle she spotted the tools and we had to go take a look!

Happy Halloween

2008-10-30T06:51:00.007-05:00

Comfy shoes

2008-10-08T09:20:00.003-05:00

Yes, it was one of those mornings! You know that kind where nothing is going smoothly. It's all taking more time. More time to get dressed (two outfits for my daughter), more time for my son to try on 3 pairs of shoes including taking off his socks to put on flip flops. All this and I still wasn't dressed for work or had my hair done.

Once we were all in the car, I breathed and thought it was all over. As I stepped out of the car to get the kids out for daycare, I thought "Wow, what comfy shoes." Then I looked down and I had my crocs on! I think the crocs are not classified as business casual. So away I went back home to get on my dress shoes.

Humble

2008-10-08T09:09:00.010-05:00

Being a parent is humbling. Children repeat what you say, they challenge what you teach them, and they stretch you to think about life in a whole other way. We try as parents to protect and shelter them from the world. Giving them experiences a little at a time, like handing them one M&M at time versus the whole bag of M&Ms.

But given our best attempts they will also experience life differently or faster than you. I was thinking that this would happen when the kids get older. One of these defining moments for me was when I was in college and left to explore Great Britain, France and Australia. These were places that my parents had not yet experience. I remember feeling so excited to go on my adventure to these places.

But the other day the kids spent the weekend with Grandpa and Grammy. When we picked them up and our son was so excited to tell me that he drove the Bobcat all by himself. We've encourage our kids to be independent. But now my son was driving a bobcat all by himself a whole year before I did at a young age. My son was so proud to tell us of his new adventure. I am humbled.

No boundries

2008-10-08T09:02:00.004-05:00

I remember my daughter wanting to pee like her brother outside at the beginning of the summer. We'll apparently she has been pondering how to pee like boys.

The other morning I found her on the toilet. She had her knees on the seat, facing the toilet, hanging on to the sink and peeing. I immediately started to laugh. I asked her what made her do that. She simply stated that she was peeing like her brother.

Brocolli

2008-09-02T13:46:00.010-05:00

Broccoli at last! I can't believe that we grew Broccoli. It was so easy. I'm not the most attentive person to the vegetable garden. While we water it once a week, it doesn't receive very much more attention than that. But as I found out from my green thumb gardener next door, broccoli continues to grow after you harvest your first head. So now we'll have broccoli until late fall. Which is great because Mya and I eat the broccoli right from the garden.

But the real kuddos goes to my dad. As I think our above ground garden is playing a much bigger part to the success of our garden. His idea is to have used Bobcat tracks to hold the garden. The tracks when laid on their side are big black rubber circles. This helps to hold in the heat, water and keep the wildlife at bay.

We covered these tracks with bamboo shades from you home improvement store for pennies.

Ta Da, a Vegetable Garden!

In your shoes

2008-08-26T15:40:00.003-05:00

Is there a noodle inside your egg?

2008-08-19T14:03:00.006-05:00

My daughter had asked at dinner "What is this?". I said "Egg Noddles."

Then she proceeded to take her hands and pretend to break a egg while repeating "How break noodle?"

I'll admit I was confused by this. Then I understood her. She was asking how do you break open an egg and to get a noodle:-) I love looking at the world through her eyes.

Burning Nose

2008-08-04T08:38:00.011-05:00

Burning nose! What how does that happen?

We were all sitting around the bonfire. Garrett was roasting a marshmallow at Nana's and Papa house, one of his favorite past times. When I see him take the burning marshmallow out of the fire pit. The next thing I know is that a little piece of marshmallow must have got stuck to his nose when he was blowing out the marshmallow.

The poor thing had got a fragment of burning marshmallow on his nose. We were discussing the event the next day and had said that a burning marshmallow had caused his ouchy. Garrett correct us by saying it was because of his burning nose:-)

In just over a week there is no evidence that there was a burning nose!

We were tubing. . .

2008-08-04T08:38:00.008-05:00

We thought we'd try our hand at going down the river one more time. This time we took the kiddos and floated down the river on a raft. It was a much shorter ride (2.5 hours).

We all sat on a 'blow up mattress' like raft. (it's made to go down the river and not 'pop' when you hit a branch in the water). The grandparents live on the river so it was fun to tell the kids to look for Nana and Popa's house. The kids loved it!

The trip was just long enough as Mya feel asleep on my lap with less than 10 minutes until we landed in Nana and Popa's back yard:-)

Louis and Clark Adventure

2008-07-15T09:40:00.006-05:00

We just got back from a Louis and Clark Adventure. We started down a beautiful river in our canoes. It's a river untouched by bridges or roads or houses . We were looking forward to marveling at the nature around us. We did see birds, turtles, eagles and fish.

We've been down this river before. We've leisurely canoed down the river laughing with friends, swimming, and enjoying a beverage of choice. But what we misjudged was the WIND. The wind was so FIERCE that the only way to move towards our destination, i.e. campsite, was to PADDLE like crazy. We thought, or prayed, that it would end so we could enjoy a leisurely ride down the river. But the wind gust continued and the waves repeatedly banged against our little canoe. By the time we reached our campsite, we had paddled 20 miles against the WIND for 8 hours straight! This was not the relaxing weekend we had hoped for, but it was an adventure that we will never forget.

Pumpkin Pie in July

2008-07-15T09:36:00.007-05:00

Yep, that's right. I had Pumpkin Pie in July. It was delicious, homemade (by my mother) and I enjoyed in on my birthday.

It's probably not what you think of eating in July. But when I think of the fall I start dreaming of pumpkin pie, or pumpkin pie blizzard or pumpkin pie coffee. No I'm not ready for fall yet, but it was a great moment to savor on my birthday.

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-08T09:00:00.002-05:00

Deer Park

2008-07-08T08:51:00.002-05:00

A new experience for the kids, a Deer Park.

Dairy days

2008-07-08T08:46:00.002-05:00

June was Dairy month. So we headed to the nation capital on Dairy, Wisconsin. We hit up the Creamery and got our fill of ice cream. Then headed the next day to a real dairy farm for a filling breakfast. The kids loved seeing and touching the all the Farm Animals.

Who is out at the bars.

2008-07-08T08:40:00.003-05:00

Two quick stories from evenings out at the bars.

A girl ran through the bar with just a towel on yelling that she'd just been robbed. As we left the bar she was outside with cops and the guy that had robber her!

A squirrel (guy dressed up as one) drove a mini 4 wheeler through a bar. Everyone stopped to see the show, then returned to their conversations like this was normal! I guess he had just come from a Squirrels Unlimited meeting.

Prior to this I hadn't been out for quite a while, but I don't remember seeing this before!

Summer, Summer, Summertime

2008-06-03T10:15:00.001-05:00

Boys and their toys

2008-05-20T08:40:00.006-05:00

The Bridge

2008-05-14T16:01:00.011-05:00

The bridge is done. My husband put this together. Well, the kids too. They helped dad for the entire project. We finally have a bridge from our deck to land.

Now, let the fun begin! The kids have already found out how it helps to take out their toys from the garage to the deck and then back again.

Nail polish remover, anyone?

2008-05-14T15:51:00.005-05:00

I put nail polish on my daughter, an activity that she loves. Then she wanted me to put some on my nails. Usually I don't wear nail polish but thought that it would be fun.

Well, it turned into three weeks of wearing nail polish. This is only because I was either too tired, too lazy, or forgot to go get nail polish remover. Because of course I had ran out.

So everyday I'd check my nails. If they didn't 'pass' I'd grab the bottle of nail polish and quickly run new nail polish over my nails. I continued this for three weeks!

I'm now stocked with nail polish and will probably have this bottle for the next 3 years, as I had the old bottle that long!

Tick on you?

2008-05-01T16:56:00.006-05:00

This morning it saw it from far away and I did not even have my glasses on! It was a TICK on Mya.

As I looked closer I realized it was attached to her leg. Then the commotion starts. Mya started calling over and over for me to remove it, I tried to settle her down. But at the same time i did not know how to remove it. Garrett tried to help, but just added to the commotion.

Then, like a good Mom I looked online to find out what to do:) That came up with conflicting advice. Finally after talking with my husband, friend and the Dr. I took the tweezers and with one feel swoop I was able to remove the whole tick.

Now that you are itching yourself, go and verify that you don't have any on you!

Dum Dum

2008-05-01T16:37:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, we gave Mya a dum dum sucker and she ate half of it.

I just looked at it, thinking who ever eats half of a dum dum! It's the littlest, tiniest sucker ever made and she only ate half of it.

But today we took her to the doctor and she's at 20% for overall weight! Yea for us, this was up from her last appointment where she lost weight. She is so indepentent so getting her this far was such a battle.

Next step is to work on her eating the whole sucker!

Forts

2008-04-18T17:09:00.002-05:00

The other day I said to my husband "I do not know why we bought a bed and sheet for Garrett."

For the last 2 weeks he has slept in a fort in his room. The fort is made of his comforter over the end of his bed and his toy box. He has been sleeping inside the fort in his sleeping bag on the floor every night!

I guess he misses camping!

No evolution

2008-04-18T16:47:00.002-05:00

The other day my daughter walks into the bathroom and stand right in front of the toilet; just like her older brother does when he has to go pee. She looks up at me, smiles and goes to sit on her little potty chair.

I know what she's thinking. If I could, I would. I agree that is would be easier to pee like guys. But instead I smile and think why has the toilet not evolved into a cooler/easier bathroom accessory?

The other side of the fence. We were out hiking at a local nature park. When my son, G, says he has to go potty. Well, we were no where close to a potty. So my husband takes him by a bush and tells him to go potty outside. G looks up, giggles with glee and pees. He is so excited to be able to pee outside standing up.

Blond-ish

2008-04-07T13:53:00.005-05:00

I happened. I saw this one really blond hair on the top of my head. But what made me look closer, was it was a short hair that stood up on it's very own.

Then I realized, to my surprise, that was blond-ish. It reflected color and was thick. . . it was Gray! So with one swift movement I removed any evidence that it was there. Now I JUST have blond highlights.

Wisconsin Dells

2008-04-07T13:48:00.002-05:00

We survived our first car trip to the Wisconsin Dells, and probably not the last. We all enjoyed the two water parks, cabana, Buffalo Phil's, Knuckleheads, Paul Bunyan breakfast and a night in a condo complete with a hot tub.

All around the kids were waterlogged and well fed. We especially enjoyed the Paul Bunyan breakfast where we sat at a huge table, we didn't order and the food was brought to us in less than 5 minute with unlimited helping. This is was the perfect place for family's. No squabbling over what to order, or feeling guilty that I didn't order the right amount of food for a 2 and a 4 year old. Plus no waiting for food!

After being in the water for 3 days in a row we headed home. All of us were exhausted. Well most of us were. Our daughter on the other hand talked for the entire ride home, yes for a full 4 hours!

Spring into Painting

2008-03-26T09:37:00.003-05:00

Yes, I admit I had the spring bug. It came on full force. I wanted a new start, even if I still have snow on the ground.

I went to the paint store, brought home several samples. Of course my husband looked at the colors and asked why I got so many of the same samples! They were different:-)

Then I went to town and painted over two weekday nights. (Yes, I did say I had the spring bug!)
But it looks so nice and I feel I have a new start. So if you're debating on taking on your next project, go ahead let the spring bug take hold. You will definitely be rewarded.

Three Little Boys

2008-03-13T08:42:00.005-05:00

What do you get with Three Little Boys?

The other evening we went to a friends house for a 'movie night.' The kids were so excited to see each other that they played instead. Which still worked well for us moms, because we had a chance to talk.

Then as we are ready to go the three little boys got really silly. They pretended to 'toot' on each other. Each time, their pretend toots got louder and the laughter more.

My first response is mouth open gasp! Why is my son doing this? Why is so funny? Why do they think this is funny at the age of 4. I thought this would happen, maybe, at the age of 11. But as they continued and we tried to calm them down all I could think is I have a lot to learn about raising a little boy.

Preschool - The First Day

2008-03-05T12:19:00.003-06:00

Garrett was all brave this morning when we got to Preschool. But I had to bring Mya with us because her daycare was closed. I was only in there for about 5 minutes and the teacher politely told Garrett to say goodbye to his Mom. I guessed that was my clue to leave :-) But getting Mya out was a different story.

As we were trying to leave Mya starts to cry, then wail, then cry out Garrett's name over and over. I finally took her into the bathroom and told her she had to be brave for Garrett. Of course all I wanted to do was to cry with her and call out Garrett's name.

I did call at lunch time and he was doing great. By the end of the day he was still enjoying his time, despite the fact that another friend bit his finger!

Cinderelly

2008-02-14T09:49:00.003-06:00

Cinderelly - We have been inidated by Cinderelly. We were just at a little girls Birthday Party and Cinderella showed up. The kids were so excited.

I have to say I'm not a huge princess fan. I don't want my daughter thinking that's all she can achieve in life. (this is thanks to my mom influence) But I did get caught up in the moment with a Cinderella at the house.

Waterpark

2008-02-14T09:34:00.011-06:00

We got out of the cold and went to the Water Park Of America. We had a blast.
(Go to http://www.momtalk.com/ to sign up for two free tickets. )

The biggest adventure we had was braving the large family raft ride. As we walked up 10 stories, I was thinking maybe this isn't such a great idea. But as we got to the top we looked out the windows and saw the snow on the cold tundra. That gave us the incentive to jump into warm water and go down on the raft. Mya had big scared eyes on the way down, but she didn't cry. When we got to the bottom Garrett jumped out and headed for the stairs, ready for round 2. Mya was just happy to get off the ride.

After that we enjoyed the different levels of the kids area. They had little slides, big slides, fast slides and multiple sprayers of water. Plus a surfing area. See picture above as Garrett body boarded with the lifegaurd.

Later that night at home, we were talking about our day. We asked Mya if she went on the big family raft ride. She blurted out "I have to!" How hilarious.

Converse

2008-02-03T18:48:00.001-06:00

The kids and I were walking into the gas station. In front of me the kids were having a real conversation.

It was one of those times that it hits you that you have two kids and they are not babies anymore. They are growing up, they do not need Mom or Dad for everything. Here they are in front of me walking and having a conversation independent of me.

A bobcat? No

2008-02-03T18:36:00.005-06:00

The other day we're driving in the car and my daughter says "Bobcat" [as in a brand of skid loader]. But as we get closer she realizes it not a Bobcat, and she says "Oh, it a loader."

I'm still amazed by what she, a two year-old, is aware of. Her grandpa owns dump trucks, bobcats and backhoes. So I shouldn't be suprised, but . . .

Let's go

2008-01-29T08:53:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning I was running late. I tried on 10 different outfits. This whole time the kids are playing nicely in the living room. But I kept on saying "Let's go kids, we have to get our boots and jackets on." Meanwhile I'm running between my downstairs laundry room and my bedroom trying to find clothes to wear.

Then when I'm finally ready, I realize that I'm late! So what do I say, sternly, "Let's go kids, we have to get our books and jackets on."

What I realize is that I was saying those things to myself. I was the one who needed to get going. So, from now on I'm going to try to only say things once to the kids and only when it's needed.

Tales from fishing

2008-01-29T08:34:00.000-06:00

Fishing tales usually involve how big the fish were or how tough they were to catch or even where the secret spot was when they caught the fish. Whether you are on the lake in the summer or on a frozen sheet of ice in the middle of the winter there are always tales to be told.

This tale is from our first family ice fishing outing. First off, we drove our vechicle out on the ice. It's a strange but exciting feeling to be out in the middle of a frozen lake with your truck. Then we drilled holes into the ice, the ice was about 2ft deep. Whola, drop a line and start fishing. We caught serveral little sunny's. While the kids had a blast running on the frozen lake, seeing the ice shacks, and catching fish. The fun didn't stop there.

We put our daughter in the truck to warm up her fingers, she instisted on not wearing her warm gloves. When her hands weren't getting warmer, my husband started the truck to get some heat in there.

To our surprise, she locked herself in the truck. Yep the keys, the key clicker and our daughter were stuck inside the truck. So for about 20 minutes we all tried to get her to press the unlock button. She is only 2 years old, but I still think she had an idea of how to unlock the doors. I think she had way more fun with Mom and Dad, as she was our focus for that entire 20 minutes. Atlast, she unlocked the doors and we all went back to ice fishing.

Without me

2008-01-16T13:38:00.000-06:00

This morning, I woke up my son.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation.

I say, "Let's put your clothes on."
My son says "Where are we going?"
I say "We are going to daycare."
My son says "I don't want to go yet."
I say "Honey, the car is running. (It's cold here) Do you know where the car is going?"
My son says matter-of-factly "To daycare without me."

I just started to chuckle!
I love how kids are so true to their feelings.

Taking a break

2008-01-07T16:51:00.000-06:00

I've been taking a break, not in relaxing. It seems that after all the fun of holidays are now over I'm still reluctant to get moving, but in the same moment bored with 'taking a break'. Until I realized the reason for it. . . My daughter is potty training. While this is truly an exciting milestone. It leaves me to spend the majority of the time on an outing revolving around a RESTROOM.

This is how it goes: before we leave the house we use the bathroom, then we get to the place and we use the restroom, then when we are the middle of shopping/playing and one child has the need to find the restroom, finally before we leave we go the restroom. The whole idea grosses me out, two little kids that need to use the restroom and whole restroom trickling with germs! Plus, it's the middle of the winter. So I'm carrying coats, mittens, hats, diaper bag, and my purse. Where do you put all that when you are in the restroom?

With two little kids in tow, one potty trained and the other on the verge I'm more apt to sit at home. I'll let you know when I'm ready for an outing that involves more than a restroom.

The Dancing Elfs

2007-11-30T06:51:00.000-06:00

Check out our dancing moves. Enjoy!!

Elf Yourself

Indulging my Inner child

2007-11-26T09:27:00.000-06:00

When I was a young girl I wanted a super cool and modern doll house. Here it is, my daughter's Christmas present. As we brought it in the house (kids were sleeping) I indulged my inner child and put all the accessories in there place!

Black Friday

2007-11-26T09:23:00.001-06:00

Well, for the first time in my life I went Christmas shopping on Black Friday. A few lessons I learned for next time.

1. Don't get caught up in doing all the Christmas gift shopping on one day. (You'll be extremely tired, including your tootsie)

2. Take several breaks. I meet a friend, then got coffee and breakfast.

3. Keep your eyes open for the uncommon checkout lines. I found the jewelry counter had a register and it was only 6 people deep!

Stillwater

2007-11-26T09:15:00.000-06:00

My husband and I spent a night away from the kids and home. It was heaven. We found this amazing bed and breakfast in Stillwater, Minnesota. It was a beautiful 19th century home called The Outing Lodge at Pine Point. It had a romantic flair of early Americana design. We stayed in the Bob Dylan room. In the morning over a delicious breakfast we chatted with the owners.

We will definately go back, someday!

Happy Halloween

2007-11-05T07:56:00.001-06:00

Snap Away

2007-10-23T09:40:00.000-05:00

Snap away, as in take a lot of pictures. In the fall it seems that every picture captures a moment that requires a little more time to appreciate. So go outside and enjoy!

Rip

2007-10-22T09:18:00.001-05:00

On Friday afternoon, after the kid's naps, we were off to my cousin's wedding. First off, I don't know why I was thinking my two kids would sit for an hour at a catholic wedding! As we find our seats Garrett starts to cry because he doesn't have the toy that Mya has. So off goes my husband and Garrett to discuss how to act in a church. As my husband is bending down to talk to Garrett at his level (what a good dad) he hears a rip! He relizes that he has just ripped his pants. He carefully walks back into church, thank goodness the jacket covered the rip, and tells me the story!

So, my husband decided take Garrett with him to go home and change. Then Mya starts to cry for daddy. So after a whole ten minutes into the wedding we all flee the church in the middle of a prayer. Forgive me o father.

In the end we all make it back to the reception for a wonderful night filled with good food, family and plenty of dancing. To bad the kids didn't sleep in the next morning!

Silhouette

2007-10-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

Here is an easy art project that I did of my kids silhouette. I took pictures of the kids in front of a window on a sunny day. I enlarged the pictures and printed them in black and white. To create the artwork, I took the enlarged picture placed it on a canvas and then used sepia decoupage to adhere them together. Then just framed the canvas. Ta Da, instant artwork of your family.

Favorite Place

2007-10-05T09:43:00.000-05:00

The other night I finally had time (made time) to read my book before going to bed. Then, my son Garrett (who I thought was sleeping) came in to say that he couldn't sleep and wanted to sleep in my bed. I tried desperatly to convince him to go back to his bed and sleep. No luck. Then I asked him what is one of his favorite places? I was thinking he'd say swimming, MOA park, or the cabin. But Garrett looked up at me and said that is favorite place was right next to Mommy! Then he fell asleep cuddled up right next to me:-)

Train Ride

2007-09-28T16:57:00.000-05:00

Choo, Choo! We headed off to a kid's dreamland. A miniture train that travels around on a real track, with a real live smoke coming off the stack and room for plently of kids.

We had a blast and will always remember the place that let us dream!

Saturday Morning

2007-09-28T16:36:00.000-05:00

So here is an example of a typical Saturday morning at our house. . . or not:-) Upon waking up we realize our cat 'Tex' looks to have a broken front paw. So we call the vet and make a emergency appointment. We are in route to get him in by 8am so we can still meet our plan of going on a train ride at 10am with our family.

We are all set and just have to get Andy and Tex in the car and off to the vet. Then Andy realizes that he forgot the keys in the house. So I run and get them, BUT the door is locked. Plus I did such a good job of locking up the house the night before when we were out, that there is only one window open. The window is barley over 1 foot tall! So we take Garrett out of the car and push him through the window. Then we tell him how to unlock the door. (The only door that has a lock that he didn't know how to open.) Then they are off to the vet!

Now we have survived two incidents, but they come in threes. So while they are gone I find the third. Somehow the downstair's bathroom has flooded. As I cleaned it up I try to figure out what caused it to flood. But I didn't find the answer by the time we had to leave. I still wonder how it happened but that will have to wait for another Saturday morning.

Happy Birthday Mya

2007-09-14T06:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Mya! This morning I frantically tried decorate Mya's birthday cake for daycare. I wanted to put leaves, cut out of fruit roll ups on the lollipop flowers. What I thought would be a simple decoration to add to the cake, turned out to be a big sticky long mess. But, when it was done I felt happy that I took the time to create this one of a kind cake. Even if it didn't turn out so pretty. But I as got the cake pan back I could tell at least the kids liked it.

When to wear a swimsuit?

2007-09-10T09:36:00.000-05:00

As it was nearing naptime at our house Mya, almost 2, was having a difficult time winding down. We sat in her bed and read many stories, we turned on soothing music, plus we turned on the fan. So as I left her bedroom and shut the door, she whined for a little bit. In five minutes she was quite. Curiously, I check in on her. This is how I found her.

She removed her bedding, her clothes and diaper. She then searched through her dresser to find her beloved swimsuit before falling asleep on the floor!

First Play date

2007-09-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

Garrett had his first play date this past weekend. I should preface this, first play date without mom. My neighbor and her two kids picked up Garrett on their way to the park. Garrett and his friend Jake, upon telling them they were off to the park started to run! They were free:-) As they were running I imagined them 5 years from now running off to their next adventure (without any moms). Just as I remember myself, living each day exploring the world until my mom called me in for dinner.

Strut your stuff

2007-08-16T16:25:00.000-05:00

Our daughter is almost two! We still think of her as the baby of the family (and always will). But yesterday as we picked her up from daycare she was covered in frilly dresses, several purses and of course the high heel shoes. She walks around, little toes and all, in the high heel shoes like the world is her doorstep. And she couldn't be happier. It used to be that she'd try on any shoe, now it's only mom's high heeled shoes, plus they have to be CUTE! She has very discernible taste for a little girl (baby). So for now we say 'Mya, Strut your stuff!'

My little 'Caillou'

2007-08-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

Garrett is my little Caillou. He has been asking to watch Caillou on TV everyday. Thank goodness for DVR. Last night Garrett was going to bed and our cat, Houston, was cuddling with him. Garrett kept calling him Gilbert. This is the name of Caillou's cat! A the age of 3 1/2 years he is still trying to define what is real and what is make believe. But it is so much fun to see him exploring all the possibilities.