Glimpse of Our Week

Another week has flown by!  As usual, we have been keeping busy outside when weather permits it!

On Wednesday Amelia wore her swimsuit all afternoon and evening.  When it was time for a walk to the grocery store she wanted to wear it and I agreed as long as she added the wrap to cover her underwear that was sticking out!  

 

Oh, and she slept in the swimsuit too.  I wonder what daddy thought when he got her up the next morning...

Thursday evening, after speech, we walked to Subway with my family for dinner and then to the park to play!

Tonight we went to the park after dinner and Joey took a digger on the sidewalk:

He gets going running and it's like his feet and body can't move at the same speed and he trips himself.  This was the first time he did it on a hard surface and he has the bumps, bruises and scrapes to prove it!  I figured we'd have to head home but he was ready to go play after a few minutes of cuddling so we stayed about another hour!

 

I'm happy it's the weekend and I can sleep in tomorrow!

The Last Two Weeks

I haven't been on here much lately because despite keeping busy we aren't doing much worthy of sharing!  I was off last week and worked on purging the house, cleaning out the kids drawers in preparation for spring (if it ever comes!) and getting things done that I have been avoiding for several weeks.  It was a nice week off!

Here are some moments from the last couple weeks around here:

Visiting Lucky at Nana's house

Laundry basket rides

Fort building

Headed to school

Amelia loves the self-timer on the camera and asks to "beep-beep-beep-cheese!"

Vacuuming

Joe's favorite reading corner

MN Children's Museum with our friend, D

Tractor driving

Snow and more snow - in April. 

We are anxiously awaiting spring weather so we can go on walks, play at the park and just be outside more in general!  I think we are all feeling the effects of this long and seemingly never-ending winter around here - attitudes reflect that (in all of us!) 

I Took a Nap

I took a nap this afternoon.  Hallelujah.

It's been weeks since I have had a chance to even sit down after work before my shower and Daylight's Savings did not help me out one bit...  This afternoon, I took a chance.  I laid down on the couch, closed my eyes and prayed Joe would just stay asleep even another half hour.  Someone up there heard me because two hours later I woke up feeling refreshed. 

Amelia was the one who woke me up as she dragged her orange tub that usually holds stuffed animals into the living room.  Take note of the word usually...

The above photo shows the state of her room after my wonderful nap.  {sigh}

The good news is, despite the disaster area, we had a great night and I give the nap all the credit!  We have been swamped at work and I am beat, physically and mentally, when I get home. A nap really was just what I needed today to re-set my patience and not get so easily frustrated because of exhaustion.

Little man finally figured out the sticks are in fact for drumming - not carrying handles.

GIRL Jake pajamas!!!

Goodnight!

4-Day Weekend

Today was the last day of my four-day weekend!  Last week I had put in my forty hours by Thursday so I didn't have to go in Friday and then I had taken today off.  It wasn't the greatest weekend (we fought quite a bit) but was still nice to not have to get up early for four days!  

Friday we went to the Mall of America for the afternoon.  

 

We went to Sea Life aquarium which had two new exhibits we had not seen yet - Octopus Garden and the finished (permanent) Rainforest section.

We looked around the mall a bit, dropped of some tennis shoes at the Nike store for recycling and went on a few rides before we left.

Joe's first (successful) carousel ride :)

After we left the mall we dropped Amelia off with my family for a few nights.  Saturday Jason, Joe and I took a little road trip to pick up the deer Jason's cousin got last fall - it was just now done being processed!  We drove it down to his cousin afterwards and ran a few errands - nothing too thrilling.

Sunday morning I got into Amelia's room and tried to thoroughly clean it and purge it but I had a little helper:

He thought he was pretty cool hanging out in his sister's room!  I didn't do as much in her room as I had hoped but something is better than nothing!

Green hair for St. Patrick's Day!

 

My parent's dropped Amelia off in the afternoon and she was under the weather.  The night we dropped her off she started showing signs of a bug (fever, congestion, coughing) and she wasn't able to kick it. 

We skipped speech this morning since we weren't sure on Amelia's health and spent the day at home.  Joe has perfected the tantrum so the day got long.  Amelia and I tried to play with him but he was much happier on his own tearing up junk mail, banging things together or reading:

While he did his thing I assisted Amelia in building a "barn" for Baby Butterscotch.

She surrounded Baby Butterscotch with loose blocks and when I asked her what they were she told me they were hay.  Clearly she had thought of everything.  

Time to get to bed!

Week at Home!

I have the week off of work because it is super slow and there really weren't hours for my team.  I volunteered to use some vacation time because, let's be real, there are no vacations in my near future!  We are working on something pretty big around here this week...

...update to come!!!

It is freezing out and it will be the whole week!  Today the high was -3 but most of the day it felt like -30.  Bbbrrrr!  We usually just run trash out to the dumpster in normal clothes and flip-flops all year but today Jason got shoes, a coat and a hat on!  It's that cold!

This afternoon my parents stopped over with lunch (and to see the kids) on their way home from Indiana.  Before they left Papa gave Amelia a little volcano!  She loved it but when it came time to "erupt" it she got scared.  She told me it was going to be too noisy and hot - ha!  I got her to come out and we put a chair for her on the edge of the kitchen and "erupted" it.  She ran to the table so fast and yelled, "do it again!"

We had to refill it three times!  *each fill we were able to "erupt" it 4-5 times.

Joe's new favorite thing in the whole world is the Swiffer.

Seriously.  He loves that thing.  We ended up disconnecting most of the handle so he wouldn't be waving around 4 feet of pole as carried it around with him.  Now it is Joe-size :)  He seriously will "Swiffer" anything and everything.  It is adorable!

I'm looking forward to the rest of the week with these two!

Fish Bowl Faces

Our new point-and-shoot camera has a setting called "fish bowl effect."  Oh my!  It is hilarious!  See for yourself:

Auntie Kim

Joe-Joe

Mama

I saved the best for last....

Amelia!

Happy Friday, everyone!

NYE 2012

We've had a wild and crazy night over here...NOT!  We were invited over to a friend's house but the timing was just not going to make things go smoothly so we stayed in.  It was probably a good thing we did - crabby-kid-syndrome hit by 7 o'clock!

We pretty much laid around doing nothing all afternoon.  College football was on in the background.  I dozed off on the couch.  Nothing too exciting.  We never really ate dinner - just snacked on crackers, cheese, summer sausage and a baguette with brie.  

We played with blocks for almost an hour.  We built Amelia a pretty cool castle!
 

Joey played with his new soft blocks from Christmas:

Before bed Jason snapped a picture of me and the kids :)

Once they were in bed he made us something to eat...

...Caesar salads and New York strip steaks!  Probably not the best thing to eat past 8 o'clock but it was good!  We really had a simple, relaxing night. 

2012 was a good year.  We had some ups and downs, happy and sad times but we made it - we always do :)  I am looking forward to a fresh start in 2013!  

Happy New Year, everyone!

12.21.12

Well, looks like the Mayans were wrong ;)  Little Joe even wore a special shirt with a final message to everyone just in case the world did end:

This just might be my new favorite picture of him - ever.

We had catered food at work today from a local mexican place called Acapulco.  While having a second helping before leaving for the day a co-worker came up with this:

 

 We thought it was pretty humorous...

I've been fighting off a cold this week and as a result it's been a fairly quiet week.  Netflix has gotten a workout this week...

Tonight Amelia selected her "princess" jammies and wanted to dance.

So she we danced to "The Nutcracker." 

Jason and I finally figured out how to get Christmas shopping done early which means...my weekend off will not be spent rushing around trying to get gifts purchased etc.  What a nice feeling! I'm not sure what we'll end up doing but I am excited to sleep in for a couple of days! 

Great Friday!

  

We had a great day today!  I got home from work mid-morning and was able to catch up on some sleep before Jason had to leave for work - huge blessing.  The kids and I went to Target this evening for some things and it actually went smoothly.  Well, as smooth as it can go when you get that cart, you know, the one that makes so much noise everyone in the store can hear you and your son empties one side of a table of folded shirts into his lap while you are looking at snowpants with your daughter etc.  Really, it went well.  Amelia was so, so excited about everything we looked at and Joe was fine as long as the supply of animal crackers didn't slow.

The kids had gift cards so Amelia chose a Little People zoo animal for each of them.  

The newest additions to our zoo are a flamingo and an ostrich!  Amelia is thrilled with them and a co-worker of mine taught her how to stand like a flamingo which only makes her more excited about that one! 

We were up past bedtime tonight but both kids were very happy - unusual!  We have skipped bath for two nights in a row now - also unusual!  We have a busy weekend ahead of us and I hope it goes as well as today did!

Life Lately

We are still here - promise!  We're keeping busy playing, learning and keeping the house in order!  I have been too tired by the time bedtime rolls around to stay up and blog.  In fact, some nights I am too tired to stay up until the kids' bedtime - I fell asleep on the couch reading to Amelia just last night!

Bundled up for outside play!

This box is currently a popular toy - for both kids and cats

First homework - we worked hard on this and I LOVE how it turned out!

Hanging out with mama :)

Joe and Wormy* :)

* We lost Wormy today...for about a half hour.  He got dropped in Babies 'R' Us and we went to one other place after before heading to the car and realizing he was missing.  I panicked but we found Joe's favorite friend - thank goodness!  Usually he never leaves the house but Joe is getting through some congestion right now and wants the comfort so we took him out with us today!

He's learning to use this pull toy - slowly

Until next time...