Dancing queen

"Yeah Daddy! I am your dancing queen!" As said by Emma right before she went to bed. Yes, tonight was the big night - the first night of dance class. Emma was beside herself excited this whole week. Monday it was "Mama, when do I go to dance class?" Tuesday it was "MAMA!! TOMORROW IS DANCE CLASS!" and then today it was all she could talk about. Last night we packed her dance bag and she was so methodical about putting everything in there and packing it just right and of course she had to carry it with her wherever she went. She reminded me about 5 times to pack her snack and was just so excited.
Here she is right before dance class. We got there about 10 minutes early to check out the studio. All day today Theresa said she was talking about dance class, so Theresa curled her hair and put her hair in a "dancer's pony". I got her dressed there when I got there after work and then we left.

It is only a half an hour class, and to my dismay, parents were not allowed in the studio. There were about 8 girls in her class and 2 teachers. When it was time for her to go in, she let go of my hand and just walked right in and sat down on the mat. She looked back at me, gave me a big smile, and sat their patiently for the class to start. She looked like such a big girl! The first dance was with Beanie Babies, which was pretty much just moving the beanie babies back and forth - but it was really cute. Emma kept looking at the observation window for me, and when she caught my eye, she would give me the biggest smile. All in all, she did great! She listened to the teacher, tried to do the dance moves they were teaching her and was smiling the whole time. 7 more weeks to go! (another shot of her before)
Evan did well throughout the class also. He and I watched Emma and walked around a bit. He is getting some teeth I think and is CONSTANTLY gumming something and drooling. I thought he might be a bit disgruntled throughout the whole thing, but did well. Not much else is new with that little man.

Tim is slowly feeling better and was finally able to bring the kids to daycare. Like I mentioned before, I loved seeing the kids in the morning. Well, I loved seeing Emma, I always see Evan, but it really threw off my day to take them to daycare. I start work at 6:45 and daycare does not open until 7:00. Traffic is a TON worse for me when I leave that late, so I didn't get to work until around 8:30. Yuck. I find I get the most done between 6:45 - 8:00 am when most people are not there yet.
We are debating going to the cabin this weekend. It was a for sure thing, but then Tim hurt his back so he is unsure if he wants to go. Although, I think it may be a good thing because it would be much more relaxing for him there versus here.

Not much is new with me. Dealing with daily frustrations... from work... my messy house... and family - ha! I am sitting around my house now, looking at the clutter, carpet that needs to get vaccumed, etc and I just don't feel like doing it now. I feel like sitting down and writing in my blog! I had to have a little chat with Emma today about bad language. She didn't say a naughty word, but I was tickling her or doing something and she looks at me and says "Back off!" Yeah, that went over really well, let me tell you.

I may take the kiddo's into work tomorrow. My coworkers mentioned they would like to see Evan again and meet Emma. So, we may do that. I will see how the morning is going and how guilty I am feeling about my cluttered house. Plus, I have to pick up some pants that I recently had hemmed. Let me ask you this... how is it possible to buy 3 pairs of pants from the same brand at the same store AND the same size, but to have 3 different lengths? AUGH! That is my biggest frustration! Same size, all petites, yet 3 different lengths. One is perfect, one is okay with heels, and one I had to have shortened! I don't get it! Men have it so good. One size across the board.

Well, that's enough rambling for now, I have some scrapping to do!

Oh, My Achin' Back

Happy Monday or something like that. Both kids are asleep, I just laid Evan down and about an hour ago left Emma in her bed singing lullabies to Baby Jesus (aka. glow-worm) What a long day. More about that later.
This weekend we were up at the cabin and it was a very nice weekend. We had some friends up who have eight year old twins (boy and girl) and boy did Emma have fun playing. They were running, sliding down the hill, fishing, and running some more. For being eight, they really played with Emma well. If they were going somewhere, they held Emma's hand and brought her along. When they were outside sledding, they would pull her up the hill and squish her in-between them on the sled. It was a lot of fun to watch. Probably Emma's favorite thing they showed her was riding on a sled in the back of the snowmobile with Mama driving. I would drive about 5 mph and she would be hanging on tight to the sled with the biggest grin on her face. She thought that was the best thing! It was really cute. Evan had a great time this weekend also because he got a LOT of attention from the twin's parents and from the twins. He was always being held, played with, spoke to, and was loving every minute of it. So, all-in-all, it was a great weekend. PLUS- Evan slept a bit better and Emma slept fabulous! On Sunday, she slept in until 7:30! LOVE IT!
The bad thing about this weekend? Tim hurt his back.. pretty badly. He was outside setting up tip-up's and something happened. So, he proceeded to set up the rest (only a man would do that!) and then come in the house where he basically sat for the rest of the day. I felt really bad for him, it seems really painful for him when he does anything really. So, I have been trying to do basically everything, so he can feel better soon. Which.. leads to my LONG day!
So, last night, I ask Tim "do you want me to bring the kids to daycare since you can't lift or really do anything?" "Nope, I will be fine tomorrow." Okay (although I doubted it) I listened. This morning, I asked when my alarm went off... "nope, I am fine". I asked before I left work, "Nope, Thanks, but I will be fine." So, I leave for work. 15 minutes into my drive, I get a phone call. "Kelly, I can't get out of bed." Yup, I KNEW that was coming. So, I call work and come home. It took us a bit to get him out of bed (after waiting 20 minutes after I gave him ibuprofen so they could "kick in". Then, getting kids up and ready, packing their stuff, helping Tim, "Kelly, I need soap, Kelly I can't get my socks on.. so on and so forth" It was a long morning. If he would have listened to me in the first place, I could have slept in a half an hour longer and then done everything! Men... Here's a clue to all men reading this - Listen to your wife or girlfriend, they sometimes know what they are talking about! Hahaha!
I must admit, it was fun seeing the kids this morning. That is one thing I definitely miss with leaving for work so early. Emma was excited and had to dress like me so we could match! I was wearing khaki's and a brown sweater, so she had to wear khaki's and a brown dress. Evan was smiley and happy to see me too. Although, we did not match clothes.
Tonight, Evan and I went to Target to buy Emma her pink ballet slippers for dance class. First, let me say, Target has GREAT sales on kids clothes! I bought Evan tons and tons of clothes for like $1 - $2.25 for pants and the same for sweatshirts. I LOVE those sales! We found Emma her pink ballet slippers and icy-hot back strips for Tim, and then came home. We left Tim in Emma's capable hands while we were gone. She was playing doctor with him and got out her doctor kit and gave him some shots, combed his hair, and listened to his back. She thought he was doing a lot better! She was a very good doctor and took good care of him.
Emma is so excited for dance class! When we got home tonight, she had to put on her dance clothes and practice. So, she ushered Tim out of her room: "Daddy, I need privacy. I need to practice my dance moves." A minute later, she comes down and dances for us. She needs a little work, but overall does a great job. She was having, according to her, "bad feelings today". Her and I had a little argument about her bedtime. Basically, I told her it was bedtime and she said it wasn't. Anyway, she was up in her bathroom brushing her teeth and she told me she had bad feelings. I had never heard that one before, she I asked a few questions, but she didn't elaborate too much. So, we brushed teeth and washed hands to help the bad feelings go away. She said it didn't help. But, when she came down the stairs, she told Tim she had bad feelings because "me and mommy were arguing." She actually said arguing! That kid - her vocabulary just kills me sometime. Tim and I will just laugh at some of the stuff she says. Last night when we were leaving the cabin, I was packing up the truck and told her to stay inside. She proceeds outside and says, "Actually Mama, I am coming outside with you." I look at her, "No, actually, you are staying inside!" Ah, that kid.
Evan is good too. Almost rolling over... almost! He and I work on that a lot. Still smiley and giggling. The past few nights have been a little better for sleeping, which is great. He loves getting tickled and "standing up". We got out his jumper tonight. He wasn't so sure of the jumping, but loved swinging in it.
I am good too. Ready for a quick bath and bed. Tim says he is fine for work tomorrow and getting the kids to daycare, but, hmmm... should I believe him? At least he said he will get up with me to start moving and to see if he needs my help. Maybe he learned a little something from this morning!

Seriously....

I love my children - more than anything, obviously. However, when they don't let me sleep, I start to get loopy. I swear yesterday at work I was dizzy and disorientated and really NOT wanting to be there. Evan, God love him, just does not sleep. Well, does not sleep when he should let's say. Here he is, at 8pm, sleeping on his boppy pillow. Before Emma's bedtime, we read 3 stories and he had fallen asleep on me while reading stories! Seriously kid - if you need sleep, let's do it in the middle of the night too. He took small catnaps today; A half an hour here, 15 minutes there, a quick nap for me (thank goodness!) and now this.

That goes for Emma also. Evan was up a lot last night (obviously from my ranting) and then to add to it, Emma was up at 5:45. Love it. Love my children :-)

Let's see... what else?? Other than that, today was okay. Emma and I made banana bread. I took the bread out of the oven, put one of the loaves on the cooling rack and it collapsed. The bread was not done in the middle. Nice. I did the toothpick thing and everything. Oh well, Emma and I ate around the juicy parts and had a lovely tea party. She has really enjoyed playing tea party lately and it is a lot of fun, I must admit. Today we dined on oranges, banana bread, and water (or bubblegum tea if you ask Emma.)

Well, the little guy is waking up - shocking I know! Here are some pics of Emma dancing tonight.

Cereal all around

Evan's 4 month doctor appointment went really well. It really frustrates me, however, how late doctors repeatedly are for appointments. I really like the clinic we go to and the pediatrician that Evan and Emma see is very nice. However, he is perpetually 30 minutes late. Talk about frustrating. Emma came along to Evan's appointment and did really well for the most part (Evan was awesome) but she was getting pretty antsy towards the end... but so was I.
His stats:
Height: 25.5 inches - 65%
Weight: 15.5 inches - 49%
Head circumference... cannot remember and does anyone really care?
Anyway, my little man is good. Dr. said to start feeding cereal, gave us options on sleeping, and that was pretty much it. 2 shots and an oral vaccine, which I really like they are doing now.
So, today we gave the little guy cereal. He did good for a few bites; then seemed somewhat disinterested. Emma was much more interested than he was. She was so excited he was going to eat cereal and had to eat fruit loops when he got his tasteless rice cereal. So, the cereal took about 5 minutes and then he was done. We only gave it to him once today, will try more tomorrow when our day is not quite so hectic.
The week has been good. Thursday, the day of Evan's appointment, went so well. It was actually amazing how well the day went and how much I got done. Let me tell if, if every day could be Thursday, I would consider doing the full time stay at home gig :-) I cleaned, did laundry, kids were happy, and even had a half an hour to myself;which rarely happens- haha! All went well.
So, Emma is pretty sure lately that she is going to turn into a mermaid. She just works it into regular conversation like it is a normal stage of life. We were at the cabin the past weekend and outside on the sled we were talking about something and she looks up at me with her big blue eyes and says, "Well Mama, when I become a mermaid, I will swim fast and fast and will do jumps and flips and have fun." Oh really?! Then a little later we were walking in from checking Daddy ice fishing and she says, "Mama, when I am a mermaid, I will swim and will have fins. I won't have legs." So, I ask her then, "Emma, I thought you were going to be a dancer?" And she just says, "Well, I will be a ballerina mermaid." Like - duh Mom!
And of course, what is a blog post with a picture of Emma in her ballerina clothes.
Tonight we went out with some friends for a holiday dinner and left the kids at home with our babysitter. She is our daycare provider's daughter, does a great job, and Emma thinks she is a lot of fun to play with. Anyway, she doesn't have a lot of experience watching little babies, so our daycare provider came over and "observed" and helped out with any thing that came up. Like everyone that reads this blog is aware of, Evan can be a tad fussy at night, so I felt much better that Theresa came over just to help out if needed. Theresa also brought over her other daughter Breezy (Brianna, 3) who is Emma's best friend, besides the Kayle. Emma was beside herself excited all day today for Breezy to come over. All week it was, "Mama - when is Breezy coming? We are going to jump on the trampoline - but- (and she points her little finger at me) only ONE person at a time because two would be dangerous. And then we play in my room, and with my babies, and jump some more." She would go on and on with all the stuff her and Breezy were going to do. It was really cute. I attribute Emma's potty training the second time to Breezy's inquiry as to why Emma was still wearing pull-up's. Anyway, Emma had a great time tonight playing with her friends, Evan wasn't too cranky - but he was a little bit, and Tim and I had a date night AND wonderful food. All is good - I am a lucky woman.
Now, I am watching the Soprano's, but wanting to turn it over to SNL as Doogie, aka. Barney, aka, Neil Patrick Harris is hosting and I think he is pretty funny. Not sure why I thought I had to share that, but it is what it is.
Have a nice day!

Yes.. I realize..

My last post was a little backwards with the pictures first. Blogger was acting funky and it took me over an hour to finish, so I didn't want to mess with my last post too much. Sorry.

A Promise fulfilled

Well, I did the thing yesterday I wasn't planning on doing for a long time, if ever, that is. I signed Emma up for dance class. Seriously! I didn't think it would happen this soon! I saw my daughter being a tomboy - not a little dancer, but I guess I am wrong. Well, she still does love to fish, loves outdoors, so maybe she will be both. Anyway, Emma is basically potty trained again - so we signed her up for dance. She is in the 2-3 year old class, which should be interesting. She is SO excited it is fun to watch her. Hopefully after the dance class is over, we can do some swimming lessons. I refuse to be running her around to two different things a week when she is only 2. Although, I say that now.....
Now to the hum-drum of winter. No more excitement for the holidays, just the waiting for spring. I am still enjoying winter, I think I may take up cross-country skiing for another sport in the winter. I figure that is something I can do at the cabin on the lake. So, I may scout out some equipment at a used sporting goods store to see if I like it. I got out of my good exercise habits over the holidays. Plus, I got rid of my good eating habits too. So - time to buckle down and concentrate on losing the last few baby pounds. The Emma weight too - not just the Evan stuff :-) Wish me luck on that! Hopefully we will be joining the Y soon so I can start swimming and biking a little bit.
Evan has his 4 month appointment tomorrow - can you believe it?! My how the time flies! My little baby boy is "talking" all the time, smiling, laughs a little laugh, and is growing so much. We are still working on some sleeping issues with the munchkin, but other than that, he is fabulous! Now, if his Mama could get caught up on sleep, she would be fabulous!
Emma is good - dancing around like crazy lately. She is constantly wearing the ballet clothes she got from the neighbors for Christmas. If we go out, she puts her clothes on over the ballet clothes. When we are at home, she is only wearing her ballet clothes. At the cabin the past weekend, she only wore her ballet clothes. And quite the strong personality on that one too. Wonder where she gets that?! How do you punish a two year old? It seems like I could be constantly yelling at her for something, but that is no fun for her. It is hard to know how to be a good Mom and teach her to be a good kid. What should I expect? She is only two for goodness sakes and there is the "terrible two" name for a reason. Anyway - somedays her and I are at odds with each other as she definitely knows which buttons to push. She must get that from her Daddy.
Here are a few pictures from the past weekend at the cabin. It was really nice, we had about 4 days there. We filled them with ice fishing, movies, food (there is a reason we call it the fat house), and family. Everyone had a great time. Tim and I had lobster tails on New Years Eve around 10pm once the kids were asleep. We actually saw midnight, not that I really care about that. Anyway - I have a few other things I should get too, so I leave you with a few pictures of my little guy at 4 months old.

another year gone by

Yup - now is the time where you get all those blogs looking back, what went well, what went badly the past year.. etc.. etc.. etc.. If I had more time, I may do the same, but I feel as though I have a lot to write and not much time to do it. SO... 2008 obviously went well, we all were healthy, Emma was fun, and Evan was born. Hopefully 2009 will be the same. Well, no baby born - but everyone with health and kids being fun. I have a few resolutions again -
(1) lose weight (but doesn't EVERYONE have that as a resolution?)
(2) do 2 triathlons this summer - still sprints, but I would like to do at least 2.
(3) Record more memories - I LOVE digital scrapbooking. I just can't seem to find the time. I tried to take a class about recording memories, I didn't participate as much as I wanted (because I couldn't find the time!) but I do have the tools to record the memories, like the funny stuff Emma says, or all the firsts with Evan, so hopefully I can keep up.
(4) try to make a little more "me" time. It is so easy to get caught up in the kids, what they want, etc and I don't want less time with them. I just want a bit more for me! Even if I start taking a half an hour each day to read the paper, I shouldn't feel guilty for that!

This past weekend was good, but more on that at a later time. We were at the cabin, actually saw midnight on New Years Eve (which I can't say I care about that much anyway) and played outside a lot. Good times.

The craziness of Christmas

(insert sigh here...) Yes, Christmas is over. It was wonderful, really wonderful actually, but now it is over and I am okay with that also. It was a whirlwind of 4 days. Days filled with family, presents, and fattening food which I should not have eaten but I did. But, first I need to mention that I am going to give you a recount of the past days, sitting in the couch in the living room, watching the movie Miracle on TV, typing away on my laptop!! ahh!! But, more on that later :-)

Work this week was crazy. After our "Power Outage" on Monday, I paid for that fun time off on Tuesday. Work was really, really, busy. Thankfully the plants were not out of ingredients, but we just had a lot of busy work and purchase orders to get done. I was the only one at work that day, so that made it a very busy day.

Christmas Eve was our yearly party at the neighbors. It started out with what Kristen called Christmas Tree pancakes and sausage, however, Kyra and I both decided they looked more like a large nose that anything else. After breakfast, we made Christmas ornaments with the kids, watched a Christmas movie, played, ate, Kristen and I were able to watch a cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie while the littles napped, and then opened up the little presents to the kids. After that was Christmas cookies with hot chocolate and then home. It was a fun, busy, day, but a tradition we hope to keep alive. That night Eric, his friend Kevin, and Gaeb came over to celebrate the holidays also. We ate well (Steak, asparagus, wine) and then got cookies out for santa and vege's out for the reindeer and sent the littles to bed. Emma was excited the whole night, talking about santa and him coming into our house and saying "Ho Ho Ho", eating the cookies, etc. It was so fun to watch the holiday through a two year old's eyes. I could tell she was still trying to wrap her head around the whole Christmas thing, but loved the excitement around it.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect the next morning, if she would know when she woke up that it was Christmas or not. She slept in until around 7am and then came to our room as she normally does and didn't really say anything about Christmas. She did remember that her and Evan were both wearing matching Santa jammies but that was it. I made sure I made it downstairs before everyone else so I could capture the moment on video camera and I am glad that I did. Emma walks down the stairs and exclaims "Mama! There is a trampoline down here!" She immediately starts jumping and laughing and is having a great time. That was probably my favorite moment - watching her eyes as she came down the stairs and saw the presents and the trampoline. Priceless. Emma did say that she saw Santa out her window that night, but somehow I don't believe her! We opened up presents, ate breakfast and then got ready for Tim's family to come over and celebrate the holidays also. Favorite items: For Emma, definitely the trampoline, but also a mermaid barbie doll for the tub. Evan enjoys his Bumbo chair and how he feels like a big boy sitting in it. I love my shiny, red, new LAPTOP!!!! and Tim really liked a rifle that he picked out himself. gee.. fun :-)

The past two days were at my family. My sisters and I celebrated down there with the fam and had a great time also. My father and I are lucky recipients of a hot air balloon ride gift certificate. So, sometime this summer he and I will by flying high above the St. Croix Valley in a multi-color balloon. Hey, isn't that a song?? Anyway... We had the small family Christmas yesterday and the big Brunner Christmas today. We had yummy food, saw a lot of family that hasn't been in town for awhile and opened up more presents!

Some fun things this past weekend: watching Emma enjoy her trampoline. Seriously, that kid LOVES the trampoline. She had to open her presents on the trampoline, watch TV on the trampoline, wanted to nap on her trampoline, basically do everything on the trampoline.
We got home tonight from my family and she instantly starting jumping on it and said, "mama - don't worry, my tummy feels better now. My tummy missed the trampoline but now feels better." She did want to bring it to Durand, but obviously told her no. Another fun gift for Emma which she received today? Her glow-worm. She decided to name the glow worm Baby Jesus and sat it by her while she ate and wanted it to jump on the trampoline with her. The worm also plays lullabies, so all night she was playing the music and rocking with it and singing away. It was very cute. Emma also received dance clothes from the Kellogg's and instantly had to put on the outfit and tutu. She was dancing around and loving every minute of that too. She is now doing very well on the potty again, so to follow up with our promise, we will have to send her to dance class soon.

All-on-all, it was wonderful. It was fabulous seeing our family. Both Tim and I have a wonderful family and it is always fun spending time with them. It was busy and I know I speak for Tim and I both when I say that we are very happy to have tomorrow to clean and relax. My house is an absolute disaster, but at least I have one more day to de-clutter, de-box presents and get rid of the tree. It is dropping needles like crazy and driving me crazy. I hope to do a bit of shopping tomorrow and take advantage of all the deals that I am hearing about. With that, I am done. I am attaching all the pictures below. I think they are pretty self-explanatory of the holidays.

Merry Christmas

Have a wonderful holiday everyone! I hope everyone travels safely and that you enjoy the time with your friends and family! Here are Christmas wishes from Emma and Evan.

An early Christmas gift

I went to work today, as I do every Monday now, and was working away, calling the feed plants, placing orders when all of a sudden - NOTHING. The office building goes dark, computer shuts off, and I think... this is not good. So, coworkers gather, we chat about what happened and an hour later the power is still off. Then, we get the announcement: "This building is being evacuated. Please exit the building as soon as you can." YEAH! I joyfully exclaim "Yea! I have a full afternoon without the kids!" (which my coworkers thought was pretty funny) It seriously couldn't have came at a better time. I had a few odds and ends to finish before Christmas, a few presents to wrap, and I have been so damn tired lately as the kids get me up every two hours that I was in a fog today. So, yes, happy early Christmas gift to me! I enjoyed a nice leisurly lunch at Panera, stopped home to check work email and put out a few fires, then headed shopping!
Silly me, but I couldn't believe how busy the stores were today! Seriously, don't people work -or- was it a blackout everywhere? But, I had the whole afternoon, so I didn't let it bring me down. I got everything done, picked up kids at 4:30 and headed home. It was fabulous!
All the presents are wrapped, now just to clean house, start some cooking and I am done. The holidays should be fun. I am glad they are here and I will be glad when they are done :-) I really love spending time with all the family, but sometimes it feels as though the holidays are more about the hustle and bustle and less about what it is really about. yeah, I know, I sound like a cheesy Hallmark card. Anyway...
One of my stops tonight was the Gap. I got Evan some of the cutest clothes and they had the best sales. I bought a pair of overalls, 4 shirts, and a warm fleece full body suit. Now, if I would have paid full price for each of these items, the total would have been $116.50. BUT, because of my savvy smart shopping, I got them all for $27.00. I know - awesome! I love it when I can find deals like that! I think Kate from "Jon & Kate Plus 8" said it best with: "I don't work full time, so I take it as my job to save money for the family." I clip coupons, I hit up garage sales and try to find sales such as these at fun stores.
We had a great weekend. Tim and I had a date night which was so needed.! I miss him! I miss our time together. We are so busy with the kids that we rarely have time to ourselves, so it was nice. Our daycare provider gives each of her family's free baby-sitting for a night for our Christmas present. She even came to our house. Emma loved having her here, she was bouncing off the walls and showing her everything. Theresa brought along some games, nail polish, etc for the occasion. It was very sweet of her.
Saturday and Sunday were filled with shopping. Emma and I had a lot of "Emma and Mommy" time as we went looking for gifts for the family. It was fun and needed as her and I don't get time alone that often either. Evan did good here with Daddy and enjoyed the male bonding time also. He is normally with Emma and Me, plus the three neighbor ladies, so I am sure he likes some testosterone. (did I spell that right?)
Kristen and I made a whole bunch of candy with the kids and enjoyed a movie afternoon on Friday also. Plus, Kyra made a "fun club" which pretty much meant the little girls would play run around in Kristen's house and I would push Kyra around and chase them. I think everyone had a great time AND we made 4 different kinds of candy.
One more work day, which will be really busy given our unexpected time off today and then I am done for the week. Tomorrow night will be busy cleaning and then it all begins. Once again, I am really looking forward to it, but it will be busy!
That's it. Even though I could actually watch the Packer game tonight, I have to get to bed. Emma and Evan have been fussy sleepers and I desperately need some good sleep. I hope to update a bit over the holidays also and Emma wants to send out some holiday greetings. Anyway, Merry Christmas!! Be safe on the roads and enjoy the time with family!

Damn cold

Yup - it's damn cold here. I just came home from seeing 4 Christmas's (which was okay, some parts were funny. Some parts were over-the-top) and the bank was showing -9 degrees. Lovely.

We had a good week. I have to admit, I was feeling very overwhelmed last Wednesday after work. My house was a mess, tons of laundry, Christmas cookies, cards, decorating, etc. But I had a very productive Thursday which really helped my situation. I let a lot of it go - honestly. I decided that if I don't get all my decorations and my Christmas village up this year, I am okay with that. If I don't bake a lot of cookies, I can buy them. That made me feel a lot better! Most of the pressure I was feeling was self-imposed, so I let it all go. I did get some Christmas cookies made with the neighbors and I stayed up late one night doing my Christmas cards and now I just need to mail them :-) Yeah - they will be in your mailbox soon. Hopefully before Christmas.

Emma has been a goof lately - she is so excited for Christmas! She has really enjoyed the cookie baking, the present buying, and everything that surrounds Christmas. I took her and Evan to see Santa at a local gas station. Santa, Ms. Claus, and a reindeer visit there every year. She really didn't want a lot to do with Santa this time. Plus, since I was there alone trying to push a sleeping Evan in the stroller in the snow, I didn't try to hard. Which is fine, I can see why she would be a bit nervous about a big guy in a red suit.

Last night the whole fam was downstairs while Tim was watching the Vikings. Evan was sleeping and I was running on the treadmill. Emma thought that was fun, so she decided that she would run too. She was running the whole length of our basement while saying "Mama, this IS fun. I like exercising. I exercising with my Mama. I LIKE running!" She did probably 3-4 laps and then sat down and said, "Wow - I tired! Aren't you tired Mama?" I also gave her my MP3 player which, for her, was the best thing in the world. She was listening to some music, but then decided it was best as a phone. So, she was calling Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse and talking away. She told Mickey Mouse (who was apparently stuck in a bear cave at one point) that it was very icy out and he had to be very, very, very careful in the snow. I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. Tonight she was sitting at the table and said "When I get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, I go hunting my with my Daddy. I go find some ducks. Then I hunt pheasants." This, of course, made Tim and I smile.

Well, it is way past my bedtime. more later. and yes, I will get cracking on those Christmas cards...

Definitely not a clever title

I have problems thinking of clever titles for my blog posts. Many times I just want it to be "Sunday Night" or "Tired" or "Kids are driving me crazy" or something like that, but that is not very original. I guess I am either too tired or feeling too overwhelmed right now to think of anything... hence the title tonight.

A quick pick of the family...


and a lovely thing that Emma is doing for some pictures now (great)


I actually told Tim to take one of me and the kids today, but for some reason he coudln't figure out the camera and they all were blurry... go figure.

This long weekend was good. I enjoyed my time at home away from work - but I am happy to be at work - especially now that Evan is eating. (hopefully he does good tomorrow!) Emma asked me why I worked tonight and I told her for money. I figured that was the easy answer versus "I need some productive thinking time... I need to use my private Catholic college education which I will be paying for a few more years... I need to get away sometimes... I like to speak with adults other than your Daddy... I like to be able to go out and buy fun things for myself such as a cute pair of shoes without feeling guilty..." anyway - so I felt the easy answer was money. Which made her think. "Mama, we don't have enough money!?" "No Emma, we just want more." "Hmm.. why?" blah.. blah...blah... this kid is NEVER quiet. We were decorating the tree tonight and she was singing the whole time. Not Jingle Bells or anything Christmas-y, just anything that came into her head. Her song went like this :" I love my Mommy, I love my Daddy, I love my Evan, I love penguins, no, I really don't...." Some other fun verses: " I love coloring, I like my Ariel book, but I don't love it because I need more stickers..." Seriously ON and ON and ON. So many times Tim and I just look at each other and laugh. I was teaching her how to play some piano today. The simple Do, Re, Mi and the like and she had a lot of fun with that. She can't sing a lick, but she had fun playing the piano. I definitely give her an A for effort.

This was an action packed weekend. Thankfully as many of you know, Kyra's surgery went very well and we are all hoping she will be home tomorrow. Emma had a lot of fun playing with Kaylee while we were watching her, but wonders about Kyra also. I have been trying to prepare her for what it will be like when Kyra is at home - but she doesn't really understand. The good thing is there are so many projects to do for a little one in a cast right now - Christmas cookies, making Christmas ornaments, Christmas cards (which I am really late on right now!) so I know Kristen can keep her busy- I know Emma and I look forward to keeping her occupied on the days we are at home too!

I saw Wicked on Saturday and LOVED IT! Saturday was a very nice afternoon actually. Eric and I went to the Rock Bottom Brewery first (YUM!) for a beer and food then off to the play. Wicked was a lot different that I thought it would be - but it was excellent. That is definitely one I want to see again.

My parents were up this weekend also to help out at the hospital and with Kaylee. They stayed here which Emma likes so it was nice to see them too.

Today was the Christmas tree! Evan slept thought the whole thing, which was okay. Emma thought it was okay too - nothing too exciting for her. She did enjoy the hot apple cider in the warming house though and was pretty sure we needed to buy her ice skates. I have some pictures of Emma decorating. My theory is that she enjoyed decorating so much because the nice ornaments were wrapped up in tissue paper and she thought it was a present :-) She did very well hanging ornaments although didn't understand the concept of spreading them out. She has four ornaments on one branch and I think about 10-12 withing 6 inches of each other. But, they are very nice.

Here is the finished product - if you look at the bottom right you can see the heaviness of the ornaments!


Em and I played outside in the snow today - made snow angels and went sliding down the hill. Maybe (and I will just throw this one out there) if we have some snow for Christmas the family can have a big sledding party again? We had a great time last year - how many people did we fit on the toboggan?? I bet we could beat it this year! (I have absolutely no clue how to spell that word.)

I have to get everything ready for tomorrow. That is the one bad thing about being at work again - packing. I need to get together the kid's bags for daycare, my work bag, my umm... other bag, my lunch, take a shower, pick up the house, update the blog, and be in bed by 9:00. Crap - already 9:30 and I haven't started them yet... go figure.


OH YEA - Evan turned 3 months old today! My little man :-) He is continually getting happier and more smiley and is already a ladies man :-) I am so thankful for him and Emma and could not be happier!


Have a great week everyone!

Finally

My little man drank! I received a phone call from Theresa that he took a bottle this morning around 9:30 and then again around 1:30. Finally! What a relief that was for me! He still had his own conditions around it, such as he needed to drink the bottle in his carseat and not with Theresa holding him. But, I figure in a few days, he won't care about that either.

Anyway - I am pleased to say that all is well here. I am done with work for the week and have 4 days off. Life is good.

The protest continues

Evan didn't improve much today at daycare again. He still did not drink from a bottle. I was kind of prepared for that though - I packed a different bottle, formula and a medicine dropper - just in case. Turns out the medicine dropper was the only thing that proved to be useful. Theresa was able to use the dropper to get about 4 oz of milk in Evan today. No good. However, Theresa said he was in a pretty good mood all day today. So - that is good; the hunger must not be affecting him too much. It still bothers me a lot though. Tim called the triage nurse at the hospital and she didn't seem to concerned either. She said that some babies never drink from a bottle - maybe Evan will be one of those kids. She said that on the days he is at daycare he will want to cluster feed at night (which he does) to regain his nurishment that he missed during the day. We are supposed to monitor diapers, etc to watch for dehydration, but other than that, not to worry too much about it. Sure -easy for her to say. Apparently her son was the same way.

I need to get to bed, but I wanted to update. Theresa did say that he was playing and chewing on the bottle today, so maybe tomorrow is the day.

The Hunger Strike

Well, Evan decided he didn't want to eat today - at all. Yup - that's right. He was protesting his stay at daycare with a hunger strike. I last fed him at 4am and he refused to eat all day. So, I fed him again around 4:30pm. I was able to leave work about a half an hour early so I could get to him sooner. I was in touch with Theresa all day and she said that he was pretty crabby in the morning but then took a long nap until about 2pm. After that, he was okay - smiling and cooing a bit. This made me feel a bit better, but I knew my little man must have been hungry. She was able to get about 1 oz of formula in him, but that involved her squeezing some of the bottle in his mouth. Not good. Plus, on the way home Emma was telling me about her and Evan's day and she said: "Yeah, Evan not happy. He kept crying and saying Mama, Mama come get me. Evan no like Tesa." Nice. That did not make me feel any better. Tim is going to be feeding him a bottle as much as he can - although Evan did all right with the bottle before so I am not sure why he did that. I am hoping tomorrow goes better.

Work was okay, it was hard to leave home this morning, but it was somewhat okay to be back. It was hard to remember how I used to do things - the screens I look at, keystrokes, etc. But, by mid-day I was back in the swing of things.

Hopefully tomorrow is better. Send good thoughts Evan's way.

Sad

Yes - we all knew it was coming... the day before I go back to work. It has been a rough day. I take a look at my happy little boy and hope that he will do okay tomorrow. I know he will, but I am still sad. This is definitely the hard part with wanting a balance - leaving your children to go back to work. I keep asking myself... what if Evan is scared? What if Theresa can't calm him down and he gets really mad? What if Evan thinks I abandoned him? Now, I have done this once before and I know it will be okay. I know this is what I want. I have the perfect situation worked out with the job share for 3 days a week. Emma is fine - Emma still loves me, but still... it is really hard. At one point tonight I was crying a little bit and Emma came up to me with her big blue eyes wide open and says, "Mama - are you sad?" and I nod my head and say yes. Then she says, "Don't worry Mama, I will get them." and then she wipes the tears off my cheeks with her little fingers. Sweet girl. Give me a few weeks and I will be happy to be back and will know that I have done the right thing. But, not right now.

We had a wonderful holiday. It was small and quiet. The food was good and the kids had a great time. Tim's son Eric came to visit for the day also, so that was nice too. The day after Thanksgiving we did some shopping. My sisters, Mom, and I were up at 6:00am to go shopping and I got a lot done. I think I have all the little kids, except Evan, taken care of. Evan is a hard one this year, but I will make sure he enjoys it a little bit! The stores were pretty crazy, but I think it is fun. As long as I don't encounter someone really cranky or mean, I do pretty good! Tim had the day alone with the kids and had a good time with that also.

The weekend was spent at my parents house for the rest of deer hunting and visiting some family that was up for the holiday - which was fun. We had discussed getting the Christmas tree, but decided against that as we were all tired and thought it was a bit too early.

With this, I leave you to get ready for work tomorrow. This means I need to print out a bunch of Evan pictures to bring and load my digital frame up with pictures. sigh... this IS what I want... really... it is.

Here is Evan last Tuesday.

Enjoying the time

Well, my maternity leave countdown is now at one week. One more week at home with my baby boy. This is a short week also as our daycare provider is taking Wednesday off to travel for the holidays so I have today and tomorrow alone with my baby. Then - a week from now I will be back at work. We did a small trial run at daycare last week. I dropped Evan off mid-afternoon and did some holiday grocery shopping. Evan did pretty good. He got a little fussy before I got there and was asleep when I picked him and Emma up. All-in-all he was there for about an hour and a half and did okay. Emma is really enjoying her role as big sister at daycare and I was told she did really well and tried to comfort him when he was sad. I told Emma that she will need to help out because Evan might be scared and she can make him feel better. She loves that!

This past week was nice. Evan continues to sleep better and last night only woke up once to eat! He is still happy and smiley and usually only has one real fussy time during the day, which is around 7pm at night. He is still talking and working on his neck strength. He has not rolled over since that day about two weeks ago - but is still working on it!

Emma was a big girl and got her hair cut again! The woman that cut her hair did a great job, even curled it for her. I really only wanted to get her bangs cut, but we did end up trimming a bit on the ends too. She sat really well and even got her hair shampooed, blown dry, and curled with hair spray. The woman told me she left her bangs a little longer so I could still style them. To which I laughed to myself and thought, yeah right. I have never even blown her hair dry so needless to say, styling Emma's hair doesn't really even occur to me. A pony tail would be nice if she would let me do that, but no, she doesn't.

This past weekend we were at Durand for deer hunting. We played outside a bit on Sunday and visited with family. Tim is not doing so well this year hunting. He normally can boast that he shot 3 or 4 deer by now and this year his tally is at 2. Fine by me as we don't really need any venison at the moment. The good news is that my cousin Jerad (who was out for his first year) got a nice buck.

We are going to attempt to take a family picture tonight for our Christmas card. Hopefully everyone looks okay and smiles. Maybe I can try to style Emma's hair for the picture... hmmm.. but even that is doubtful. She had a funny moment with Tim last week. She wanted to change into another dress one night when she came back from daycare. Tim was in with her trying to change her mind. The argument pretty much went like this.. Emma: Yes, I want to change my dress. Tim: No- you are not going too. Emma: Yes! Tim: No! Tim said this went back and forth a minute or so when finally Emma looks at him and exclaims in a frustrated voice: "I am going to go and talk to someone else." She then proceeds to come downstairs by me and asks me if she can change her dress. To which I replied... NO.. don't think so.

Here are some pictures from this past week. Emma in a wheel-barrow yesterday. She really likes going for rides in there. We rake up some leaves for a cushion and then I run around the yard with her. Fun for her and quite a work-out for me, so that was good. Evan and my mother while Emma was in the wheel-barrow and Emma with her new haircut.




This upcoming week is Thanksgiving - YEAH!- and lots of yummy food. Then - shopping on Friday, which I am really looking forward too. Hopefully we find some good deals.

The mystery of the gum in the shoe.

So, I pick up Emma from daycare as usual today around 4pm. She usually likes a snack in the car, so I packed some Animal Crackers - nothing unusual. We get home from daycare, Evan is crying, Emma is talking very loudly, and I am trying to make supper so it is the typical chaos in the Heuer House. I look over at Emma and she is chewing on something. I ask her casually - "Emma - what is in your mouth?" She looks down and doesn't answer. So, more forcefully: "Emma - WHAT is in your mouth?" Emma: "Gum Mama - but you didn't give it to me, Theresa did!" Now, I thought that was suspicious as she was eating her animal crackers on the way home and I don't remember her chewing gum at Theresa's. So, I ask her if she is lying to me and she says like she is annoyed with me "No Mama - Theresa gave it to me!" and kind of rolls her eyes. Anyway, I let it go.

BUT - later that night I am picking up toys and I am putting away her princess shoes and I see something on them. I look a bit closer and I see it is a small bit of dried gum. Now maybe I am thinking way too much about this, but I DID give Emma gum yesterday and she WAS wearing her princess shoes yesterday.... is it possible that she put her gum in her shoes yesterday and then picked it up to chew it today? Goodness, I hope not... First of all, that is just gross! Second - would she think like that for being 2? I mean, I know she is advanced and everything (haha!) but do 2 year olds have that kind of throught process? "Hey - if I put my gum here, I can chew on it tomorrow?" Not sure...

We had a great weekend at the cabin. Tim was hunting on Saturday and we visited with Tim's family. We had yummy steak that night for supper and just relaxed. Sunday we went out for brunch and just lounged around again - not too shabby! I am enjoying my last 2 weeks at home with my little guy (sniffle.. sniffle..) But it will be okay. I cannot believe it is almost Thanksgiving!

Oh yes! Big news for my little guy - Evan rolled over TWICE on Friday! Once I would just call a fluke - but nope, he did it twice! He rolled from tummy to back. Kristen and the girls were here too and witnessed it also. I also gave him his own bath today in the little baby tub and he had a very nice time. It allowed him much more freedom than with me holding him in the big tub while Emma is in there also. Ahh - such changes for my little man.

That's all - peace out.

You're going to miss this

So, I am watching the CMA's right now - I really like that award show. Well, I really like to watch the singers perform. Trace Atkins just sang "You're going to miss this" and that song always makes me tear up, because it is true. All the little stuff with Emma and Evan - good and bad - I know I am going to miss. That is part of the reason I am taking an online class to document stories and moments. I want to try to remember everything... like how excited Emma was this morning when she woke up and saw the snow and wanted to make snow angels ... how Evan likes to hang onto my finger when he is eating and gently strokes my side with his little fingers.... how Emma looks up at me with her big blue eyes and tells me "Mama - you are the best." I am very, very blessed.

This has been a busy week. Emma's days at daycare were a bit off this week -she is going Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday she had a lot of fun helping me and Tim's son Eric make apple pies. We really tried to include her as much as we could. At first she started helping peel apples, but that didn't really work out that well. So, after that she became the "official dishwasher." She was pretty excited about that and lasted about a half an hour until I looked over and saw her dipping her hair in the sink. After an "EMMA! What are you doing?!" (as I see her eyebrows are even wet!) She looks at me and says "Mama - I just have to get my hair wet. Just a little bit." Ergh.... Eric helped her bake her own little pie and she ate the whole thing for supper. She had a great time and I think Eric had a lot of fun too in the chaos of our house.

Today Evan had his 2 month appointment. The little guy was a trooper. He is 23.5 inches long (75%) and 11 lb 10oz (25%). No real concerns, may have a bit of acid reflux, but no medication or anything. All in all - a healthy little boy. WHICH- you will not believe! Last night he slept from 10pm to 5am!! yes, that prompted me to get up at 3:30am to make sure he was still breathing, but I couldn't believe it! The night before he was only up twice - please, let this be how is sleep will be going forward! It felt so good last night to get about 5 hours of sleep in a row! I haven't had that for weeks. Here are a few pics before the shots:



This weekend we are heading up to the cabin. This may be the last time there until about Christmas, so it should be nice. Hopefully relaxing!

Damn Packers.

That's right! I said it. Poor Aaron Rodgers had no pass protection today, our penalties were through the roof and we lost to the VIKINGS. Oh well, it was fairly close and at least I got the watch the game today! Both kids were sleeping and it was actually being shown on TV - many times the cities stations do not show the Packers.

We had a good weekend. Tim was hunting - left Friday and came back today - and we had my lovely aunt up for company! It is always nice seeing family and Emma loves playing with her - and it was nice to have the help when Evan was fussy. Although, he seems to be a bit better. We have his 2 month doctor appointment on Wednesday, so I will still ask about sleeping issues, but slowly I think he is getting better. Two month's old already - can you believe that? Here are some pics of my little guy on his 2 month birthday.


Emma is good too. A goof lately. She has been noticing me decorating the house for the upcoming holidays, so she decided that she should help decorate. Her addition?? Hair ties on the door knobs... About 4 or 5 of the doors in the house are decorated with hair ties. Funny - she puts them on the door knobs for decoration but not her hair. She also told me today when I was putting on her tights "Mama - sometimes you drive me crazy" Then she shook her head.

So - back to the Packer game. Tim was gone and I saw no harm in dressing the kids up for the game. He just can't get it that they are Packer fans. AND NO - I did not buy either of these outfits for them... they were gifts.

Don't they look happy to be wearing the good ole' Green and Gold?

We don't have much coming up for this week. I have a dentist appointment, Evan has a doctors appointment and I have to do a big grocery shopping run. Fun. I am hoping to get out and do a bit of shopping for myself. Buy some NON-maternity clothes for work.. sigh...work.

Have a happy week everyone!

Finally - it is over

The elections that is. No more ad's - no more mailings - no more phone calls. FINALLY! Now, you won't hear me talk a lot about politics as everyone has their own idea's and that is fine. But now we have a democratic president and majority in both sides, so let's get something done. Hopefully the change that Obama has promised will happen. Unfortunately I feel this means our taxes will rise with this change AND I am a little nervous with his lack of experience - but let's get something done. Now I pray for his family that they are kept safe.

Not much is going on here. I am relishing my last few weeks at home with my baby boy and working on his sleeping patterns. He only got up twice last nice - but that follows a night that he was up 4 times - every 2 hours about. That was rough. He has his 2 month check up on Friday, so I am going to talk to his pediatrician to see if he has any idea's. My little man is still sleeping now, so I am about to get my morning coffee and do some digi scraping. I have signed up for a digi-scrapping class so I have to go out today and get some supplies - but I am pretty excited about that. Something for me!

Big Candy Day and me time

Ah yes - the Halloween Festivities are over. But, what a fun day! The fun really started on Thursday when Emma and I made all the goodies for the next day. The cupcakes turned out great and the chocolate cut-out cookies were maybe the best cookies I have ever made - seriously... think a brownie in a cookie. Yup - they were THAT good! Emma had a lot of fun making the cut-out's - although it was truly an exercise in patience for me as we could only get a few cookies out of each roll since she would place the cutter smack-dab in the middle of the dough. Still though- fun.

Friday was a crazy day. Emma went to daycare in the morning for her Halloween party. Theresa said all the girls had a great time dancing to Halloween music and running around in their costumes. I bet they were pretty cute. After the party she came home to nap and then our party began. Evan pretty much just hung out for most of the day with me. To him, it was a normal day. Well, I guess there was a lot more craziness than normal. Here he is in the morning, enjoying the peace and quiet.
The neighbors came over mid-afternoon, then Emma woke up and the excited/anxious chatter started. Tim had the train all set and ready to go, so Kristen and I thought we should take it for a test drive. The girls had SO much fun - it just made them more excited for the rest of the family to come and for us to go out trick-or-treating. They decorated the "Boo Train" as it came to be called and then after a quick supper - they were ready to go. Unfortunately with all the madness, I never got a good picture of Emma in her costume -OR- her and Evan together. But, I am hoping in the next few days, I can get them in their outfits again and can snap a few. Anyway, Tim and Evan stayed home to hand out candy and the rest of us were off. I think in total there were 5 trick-or-treaters and 6 adults in the train with the kids and the train handled us all very well. We were out for about 1.5 - 2 hours and then came back. Here is Emma at home surveying all of her candy.
All in all it was a great day.

I guess I should mention a quick bit about pumpkin carving. Yup- we did it. Emma did not like taking all the "goo" out as we called it. She enjoyed coloring on them with markers - so that is what she did while I carved them. Nope, no pictures of the finished products, but they looked okay.


The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. Yesterday Tim went hunting so the kids and I went to Durand. Kim and Andrew were still there, so Emma got to play with them some more (which she loves) and I got a bit of help. While I understand that Tim loves hunting, I am a bit frustrated that he has to be gone for weekends while I am at home. If Evan was a bit older and sleeping better, it would be different, but having a sleep deprived Mama sometimes isn't fair to the little ones. The next four weekends he will be preoccupied with hunting. Luckily today I got a bit of a breather and went out for brunch with my friend Katie and got an opportunity to have a nice workout. So, I am feeling a bit better and ready to take on another week.

I only have 4 more weeks left at home, then back to work. It will be good to have the extra cash for the holidays, but I know it will be hard. Thankfully it is only 3 days a week, so I am easing into it.

That's it. I need sleep.