The party

Yes, my little girl is 3. And what a day she had! That day started out with pancakes & bacon, as requested by the little one. Then, playing, playing and more playing. She was invited to go to the park with the neighbors and she very excitedly accepted. Which was VERY nice, as Tim and I could get ready for the party. We cleaned, cooked, shopped, and Tim worked on the swingset so the girls could pay on it for the party. Mid-afternoon people started arriving and the party began!



We were outside for a lot of it as it was so beautiful outside! Then inside for some grilled burgers/hotdogs/brats and the usual barbecue fare. It was very yummy. Of course the most exciting part for Emma was the opening of gifts and her cards! (Thank you everyone who sent cards! She was so excited to open them!) From us she received pool toys (noodles/Princess Pool Stick things, kickboard) a Dora softball & glove, and some arm floaties. Other gifts: Tinkerbell doll & movie, bathing suit, art supplies, bell & horn for her bike (which get old really fast now that it isn't on her bike yet!) and a thermos she carries with her everywhere!

Here are some pics of the festivities:





(Yes, Evan even managed to get a hand in the cake and lick some frosting - he loved it!)






All-in-all, it was a great day. It is funny, even though she is 3, I still think to myself "Hmm - 3 years ago now, I was in the hospital walking the halls and waiting." Then an hour goes by and I will look at the clock and think "Well, now I was in the birthing tub and wishing I had went with the drug option Haha! :-)." It has been 3 years, but I still remember that day so clearly. My, how fast time flies. It is good and bad - bittersweet is probably a more appropriate word.

Now - we are off to the cabin for a few days. I am really looking forward to it! Hopefully the wind dies down a bit. It is crazy windy here - almost scary windy. I don't like it.

Here are some pictures of the progress of the swingset. Tim is doing a great job - Emma LOVES it. Although, much to our dismay, she isn't a huge fan of the Tube Slide like we thought she was. That is all she could talk about - her green tube slide. Then, when it was finally put together, she didn't want to go down it.



The swings on it are awesome because they are about 11 feet tall - so one can swing really high. There is a little rock climbing wall on one side, which Emma loves and there will be a playhouse. Emma wants to be out there all the time, which is nice for all the money/time we put into it.

Well, I should go and run some errands before we leave.

Everyone have a safe & happy Memorial Holiday!

Ah - the excitment!!

Emma probably had all the excitement she could possibly handle tonight - she got to go see "Dora Live" at the State Theater in Mpls for her birthday. It was Dora and the City of Lost Toys. Basically, Dora lost her Teddy Bear and it was in the City of Lost Toys. It was pretty fun for the kids - Emma was so incredibly excited and so fun to watch. Her eyes were so wide and she was dancing in our aisle to the songs and saying all the phrases, "Swiper no Swiping!" She said that her favorite part was Swiper. Anyway - it was fun - well, fun to watch Emma. It didn't offer much for the parents, but let's be honest, I didn't buy the ticket for me. Here are some pics of Emma and I:





Before Dora Live, we went out for Pizza to our favorite pizza place - Broadway Pizza! Emma is a member of their kids club, so she got a free pizza, chocolate milk, and sundae for her birthday. She had a great time, ate well, and bounced on the seat the whole time, excited for Dora. Evan enjoyed the pizza too. He ate his first piece of garlic bread, some pizza crust and Pear/Blueberry/oat baby food - WHICH - leads me to more exciting news - EVAN IS NOT ALLERGIC TO WHEAT! He saw the allergist this week and the skin prick tests came back negative - no allergy! YEAH! The doctor thought it was probably just a virus that was causing the rash/skin thing going on for him. So - on comes the good food again - and Evan is liking it!





This past week was good. We went to the cabin last weekend and had a great time. Emma couldn't contain herself and had to get in the water. Yup - lovely. We were fishing on the dock and Emma was playing in the sand and I turn around once to see her standing in the lake with her bucket. Nice. Tim caught a big whopping bass - an 8# (or over 8 pounds), 23 in long - whopper. He was very excited. Emma was too as she caught the first fish off the dock this year. Evan just likes to be outside at this point - so he was happy too. We didn't do too much for Mother's Day. Emma painted me a lovely flower pot at daycare: (which of course, she was very excited about AND planted the flowers herself)



We went to church that day at Emma's urging, the just relaxed at the cabin. I received lovely Winnie the Pooh Mother's day cards from the kids and a nice gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods for some new running shoes.

Everything was good this week. Emma has swimming lessons every week now - this upcoming week she starts being in the water by herself and no parents. We "practiced" this week at class and she had a great time. There are 3 other kids in her class at the Y and they all do well - Emma can now swim with a floaties around her waist. It should be a fun summer for her in the lake!

Tim and I are good. Tim is progressing nicely on the swingset. The little rock climbing wall is done, he has the tube slide but has not assembled it yet, and has the beam for the swings done. He is hoping to work a lot on it this weekend for Emma's big day on Sunday. Tim received exciting news at work - his office is moving to Woodbury! I know - what crap is that?! I drive 40+ minutes to work one way and his commute will be like 7 minutes. Wonderful for him and that he will be so close to the kids - AND - savings for the bank (our bank account that is) with gas/parking/etc.

Work for me is hopefully getting less busy. Some main projects are done, which I like. I did sign up for the triathlon so - July 11 is the big day for that- everyone, wish me luck! I will need it for SURE.

Evan is almost crawling. He can get anywhere that he wants - he does a combination roll/push on his toes/roll/flail his arms/roll thing. Pretty cute. He is 8.5 months old - no teeth, but is enjoying good food again. We still call him "Mr. Grabby" as anything that is in his reach, he wants. Especially the remote control - typical man!

Emma's 3rd birthday is Sunday - Ah! She is getting so big! We are having a Princess Party for her. She is just looking forward to Kyra and Kaylee coming over so they can run around. She has more energy that I can believe, constantly makes me laugh and frustrates me with her little attitude. She even told Tim the other day on the phone "Yeah, Mama gave me a time out because I was naughty and had attitude." Yup - that's right kid. She is trying to learn her numbers and direction. I was trying to teach her right and left, but she insists it is right and wrong. There was a small incident at daycare the other day with her "friend" Madelyn. I asked her how her day went, and she looked down and said "Madelyn told me my coat was ugly." I, looking up surprised said, "what did you say?" "Madelyn told me my coat was ugly and it made me sad." Yup (me being good Mom and suppressing my urge to tell Emma to tell that little punk Madelyn what I think of her behavior) I had the talk with Emma that it doesn't matter what people think of our clothes or anything like that, that as long as we are nice, it is all that matters. I also told Emma that as long as we like our clothes, that is all that matters. Hmm - it is starting already. Isn't she too young for that stuff?

3 weeks from now and I will be in Chicago! I am uber excited for that - I am hoping to go shopping tomorrow and buy an outfit to wear there - I know, I am a dork. But I am really looking forward to it! Tim and I also booked our small trip for our 5 yr anniversary middle of June! So much stuff going on - I can barely contain myself!

Definite progress

Well, I guess I should apologize to Tim for my last post. His "so what, you don't think I can build the swing-set?" comment made me think my last blog post was too hard on him. Let me put it this way, I KNOW he can build the swingset. I KNOW he will do an excellent job. However, I also know (after almost 9 years of knowing him) that everything takes longer than he thinks it will. So, with that - there is definite progress on the swingset. Emma is very excited for it to be built and mentions every day about the tubie slide that Tim is building. She thinks he is physically building the slide also. not quite... Here are some pictures:



Unfortunately the yucky day yesterday set him back a bit, but today he worked for a long time and got a lot done. After we got home tonight, Emma was so excited she decided she was going to go out there and help too.





Today I had the day off, so I went down to visit my good friend Megan and baby Bennett. They are doing good - it was nice to relax and visit with them. Bennett is so tiny! I do not remember my kids being that tiny and Evan is only 8 months old. (Which - happy 8 month birthday tomorrow Evan!)

I can't say I really know too much. I am very happy that it is nice and warm out and I hope to plant my plants soon in the garden. We are heading up to the cabin this weekend sometime and I plan on visiting MANY of the garage sales the next few days. I have to run into work tomorrow afternoon for a meeting, but then I got nothing :-)

Here are a few recent pictures of the kids:









Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

The Garage Sale

Finally - it is done. All the work, late nights, cleaning, sorting, blah.blah.blah. Worth it too, I would say. Tim and I did pretty well! YEA! I was amazed at all of Tim's stuff (crap) that sold. I remember when my Mom & Aunts would have garage sales, and they would laugh at the stuff that sold. That was Kristen and I this weekend. Do you remember that I was getting frustrated with Tim one night? Did I blog that? Instead of setting up tables, he was getting his crap out to sell? Well, sell baby it did. Old car books/weird shaped dusty footballs/an old rusty sink/ old woofle ball game/10 egg cartons full of golf balls/ an old dusty chimney sweep. Kristen and I would just laugh when some old man (which was mostly our clientele) would come in, go to Tim's stuff, shrug, pick it up and come to pay. Good for us, I understand, just funny. Unfortunately, not many young Mom's came to buy Em's old clothes. Some did, but were looking for boy stuff, others did and bought some things. But, I was hoping more would go. Luckily, I have a friend in Woodbury who offered to put Em's clothes in her garage sale next week. It is the big Woodbury Garage sales next weekend and they are crazy busy. Hopefully, all will sell!

We are all good here. I was seriously stressed out by the garage sale, but have a huge sigh of relief now! Maybe that will help pay for my Chicago trip- YEA!

Emma is good - not much new with that one. She is loving that it is nice outside now. She also had a pretty good time at the garage sale, because if it was not Kyra and Kaylee she was playing with, it was some other random kid whose Mom was shopping. At one point on Saturday, there were 4 kids (including Emma and excluding Kyra and Kaylee) running and playing in our yard. She was having a ball! She enjoyed helping Tim trim trees in our backyard, picking me "dragonlions" (dandelions) and helping Tim pull out the "nasty,stupid charlies". (creeping charlie). We are planning her third birthday party -which will be in 2 weekends - she is pretty vocal about what she wants, but when isn't she, really?! She wants a Barnyard party (on Nickelodeon - a cartoon about barn animals. Not sure if I will find anything with that) so I am trying to talk her into Tinkerbelle. She wants pizza and yummy cake, a pretty dress, balloons, and presents. It should be fun. Her current favorite thing are Knock Knock jokes, but she still doesn't understand what they are about. She will say, "Knock Knock" then after I say who's there? she will think and look and then say something random and laugh. So, maybe a good gift to her for her birthday would be a book of knock knock jokes. I will have to try and find one.

Evan is good too. Still sleeping well - really happy- all that good stuff. He can say Mama - but it is more - mamamamamama. I think he is saying it to me, but still not 100% sure. I made an appointment with an allergist in 2 weeks to check out his wheat allergy - or if he has one. Tim and I have been creative here (with the help of our family occupational therapist) to find other foods he can eat. He currently enjoys Chicken Alfredo with Rice Noodles, rice cakes to snack on, and wheat & gluten free vanilla cookies. I am anxious for his appointment to learn more about what is going on. He also does enjoy eating chunked bananas & peaches, however, his favorite food is still All-natural Cheetos. Yum! He tries to pull himself up to things and does get in the crawling position - but no movement yet. Much to the chagrin of his sister, he can get pretty much anywhere he wants to go, especially to chew on Em's barbies. He enjoys playing Ken the most - not the "Mean" Barbie, which I always have to play. I get the "Mean" Barbie, Evan gets to play Ken, and Emma's Barbie is always the princess that is locked in the tower by the "mean" barbie... aka, Me. Lovely.

Tim and I are surviving. I am trying to find the balance between demanding work (and trying NOT to bring too much home) the triathlon (which I finally did sign up for - 69 days left), kids (nothing to explain there) and housework/laundry/cooking/blog/scrapbooking/ever-expanding to-do list...etc..etc..etc.. Tim is taking this whole week off to build Emma a swingset/playground in the backyard. He has pretty big plans, so we will see what is accomplished. I took off Wednesday to help because knowing Tim, if he thinks it will take 15 hours to build, it will really take 20. It will be pretty nice if his thoughts come into fruition. A playhouse for Emma & Evan with firemans pole, 2 slides (one yellow tubie slide as requested by Emma) a long swingset/monkey bars/rock wall/ I cannot think of what else. Anyway, it should be nice, but we will see. It sounds like a lot of work to me... Tim and I are planning a vacation for our 5 year anniversary - Man! Can it be 5 years already? I am looking forward to it, but know that it will be extremely hard to leave the kids. Kristen and I are also going to Chicago (YEAH!) for a short trip to visit our cousins and get-away. All in all- it will be an excellent summer and I cannot wait for it to get warm so I can go water-skiing/jet-skiing/ and go on my vacations!

Anyway, I think I have babbled enough. No pictures again -sorry. I will soon, I hope.

Witness to a miracle

Tonight I got the pleasure of meeting one of the newest little people on this earth. Bennett Clarence Boysen was born on April 24 to my best friend Megan and her husband Brian. He is an adorable baby and his two doting parents are so excited. It is so neat to go to the hospital to meet the little one, especially after having one, to know the excitement/apprehension/nervousness/extreme joy that is going on in Megan & Brian's world. Bennett is 7#, 3oz and is so tiny! It is so hard to remember my little ones that small - and Evan is only 8 months old! Luckily, holding little Bennett didn't make me want to have another yet (haha!) but it is fun to think back when I was in the hospital after having Emma and Evan. Congrats to Megan & Brian & baby Bennett!

Sorry it has been so long between posts. Our life is not slowing down one bit! From the triathlon and the knowledge that I need to work out more (even though it doesn't happen!) and the upcoming garage sale and my to-do list which never gets smaller - I just run out of time. I have also been bringing my work home lately as there are not enough hours in the day to get all of my work done when I am there.

The kids are good. Emma's favorite thing right now is arguing. Lovely.
Me: "Emma - don't stand up on your chair, you could fall."
Emma: "No, Mama, I won't"
Me: "Emma - don't run up the stairs - you could fall."
Emma: "No, Mama, I won't"
Me: "Emma - your shoes are on the wrong feet."
Emma: "No, Mama, they are not."
so on and so forth. It is lovely, really. Tim has tried reverse psychology on her. It can be so frustrating sometimes, especially when she has no idea what she is arguing about! We were leaving the park reserve in our town one day and she made some comment that we had already left. I told her "No, Emma, the park reserve is really big and we are still driving through it." and OF COURSE - her response; "No, Mama, we are not. We have left." "No, Emma - we are still in the park reserve." "No, Mama, we aren't." Hmmmm.... and then my patience runs out and I let our conversation stop.

Evan is good. No teeth like I thought were coming in, although I swear I saw one! Also, he may be allergic to wheat so I am going to be taking him to an allergist one of these days for some testing. The next door neighbor commented one time after seeing his rash (which I though was ezcema) that she thought it was a rash due to a food allergy. Me, being bad Mom, never gave that a though - so we experimented and didn't give him wheat products for a week. Lo and behold, his rash cleared up (after the poor guy having dry patches on his skin for a long time - he even tried to scratch them!). However, after speaking to an allergist, he recommended bringing Evan in for testing. So- I will do that soon.

Tim and I are good - both busy like normal. I also am seeking the help of an allergist as I am now experiencing spring allergies as well as fall -AND- have finally hit the end of my rope and have decided to do MORE allergy shots. Yuck. I am still somewhat skeptical since the other 4.5 years of shots didn't help like I wanted, but hopefully - the next 3-4 will. Once again - yuck.

I started garage sale-ing again! My hometown just had their city-wide garage sales, so Mom, Evan, and I went to those. Emma now loves them as the last one we went to, I bought her a sequinned dance leotard. She was in 7th heaven with that. She told me the other day that she wanted to sell her mermaids in our garage sale. I told her that I wouldn't as she still plays with them a lot and she would miss them. I asked her why and she said because she needed the money. Hmmm... maybe to buy more dance leotards!

With that - I have to go. Sorry no pictures this time, hopefully next time.

tucked in and sleeping

Finally -both kiddos - sleeping! Sometimes I am so happy for this time of night :-) Let's see, where to start? Easter was a lot of fun. I can't find the pictures right now of Emma getting up and finding her basket -but once I find those, they will be posted. She had a great morning. It took her about a half an hour or so to remember that it was Easter. She was watching cartoons or snuggling with me or something that morning when she pops up and says, "Hey - do you think the Easter bunny came last night?" To which I replied, "Hmm. not sure - we better go and check!" That was the end of it. She found a few of the eggs first, which were promptly opened and candy eaten. With each egg was a great exclamation, "MAMA! DADDY! He left another egg!" Then, egg opened, oohing and aahing over the insides and off to find the next. It was so fun - it is amazing how excited a little one can be over something like that. She found her basket under a paper grocery bag (that tricky bunny) and she immediately dumped everything out to examine it. A lovely Barbie doll, that I think the bunny found on clearance at Walmart, a cute pair of shoes, and candy. Not too much, but definitely enough! And what, you may ask, was Evan doing while Emma was destroying my house? Walking around with Daddy, watching the excitement. Once all the eggs and baskets were found (Evan's basket had a little glowing/seahorse/music/lullabye thing and a pair of shoes) it was breakfast time. We enjoyed monkey bread and eggs. The - off to Nana & Papa's.

Mom & Dad had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids there after their rest time. They were running around, laughing, etc - it was fun to watch.

Emma - getting ready to go and search for eggs.


Found one!



Emma! No more candy. (hmm. big surprise, she is not listening to me :-)


Yup, Evan was there too...



That's it from Easter (until I can find the other pictures!) Everyone had a great time - yummy food - yummy candy - and fun toys. What else does one need?

This week has been crazy - work has been super busy, which yes, is great as the time flies by. But yucky because I brought work home with me. BUT - we will see if I actually get to it.

The weather has been wonderful so we have been outside as much as we can. Today we went for a walk, blew some bubbles, and just played.
Here is "cool" Evan in his new shades. He actually really liked the sunglasses. He never once tried to take them off - which amazed me. He just sat there, for about an hour, sucking on his Nuk and laughing at Emma.

Well, I best go fold my laundry. Fun and exciting it is to be me, I know. At least last night I had some good girl time and went to Dixie's with my book club friends. Yummy food (good beer) and good conversation. No real plans this weekend. I am hoping to go shopping a bit and get some new running shoes, maybe some work clothes. I gotta go - almost out of battery - no spell check this time!

2 things I am very happy to post...

1) We got Emma's Pink Winter Coat Back
2) EVAN'S SLEEPING!!!!!! (and it has been about a week straight, so I don't think it is a fluke.)


I asked Tim the other day to stop at the dance studio on his way home to check the lost and found box. "Why" he grumpily said, "I seriously doubt it is there." But, to keep me happy (he is finally understanding that it is good to do that - haha) he stopped. Lo and Behold it was there! Emma was ecstatic and wore it the rest of the week. Tim couldn't believe it as he thought someone had stole it. I was just happy it was there. Although, the words out of my mouth: "YEAH! The coat is back, now I can sell it at the garage sale!" Yup - about 3 weeks from now, I am having a garage sale. More on that later. BUT, it will be much easier to sell the pink snowpants with the matching coat that goes with it.

And - Evan sleeping! He has discovered he can sleep on his side and his tummy and he likes that much better. Some nights, he even sleeps from 8pm to 4am - straight through. It is amazing - truly amazing! I know, I probably sound crazy, but it has been a LLLOOONNNGGG seven months getting up 3 or 4 times a night (if not more some nights). I feel alive again - I am invigorated - But now, what do I plan on doing? Getting up early the days I don't work to exercise.

Crazy... but the triathlon is about 12 weeks away. Still planning on doing it, but haven't signed up yet. I had a bit of a panic attack in the pool the other day. I konw, it was a freakin pool, but the swim lanes were busy, so someone else was swimming with me in my lane. We swam by each other, I got the rough water in my face, I couldn't breathe right and I panicked. I know, I don't get it either, but I stood up in the lane and had a hard time catching my breath. I wish I knew where this weird phobia came from so I could be cured of it. Maybe instead of being a witness to the JFK assassination in my past life like I had always thought, I was a drowning victim or something. OR -maybe I was witness to the JFK assassination and the mafia threw me in the water because I saw something I wasn't supposed too.... Hmmm.. the plot thickens.

It has been a good past few days, especially with the sleep I am now getting. The kids have been good - Evan turned 7 months old.





Here are some pictures I took today with his favorite toy - a plastic yellow bat. Some things about Evan at 7 months:
1) HE IS SLEEPING! ( I can't help it, I am so happy!) Although, still only does a half an hour nap every 2 hours or so.
2) He will roll from one side of the room to the other
3) Everything goes in his mouth - so Emma is constantly on "potential toys that could choke Evan" watch. And (shocking I am sure) she is not too shy to verbalize to her cousins things that will choke Evan so they can't play with them.
4) Is a good eater and really prefers real food to baby food. His meals today: A sesame bagel with butter and cinnamon and sugar, pureed buffalo chicken lasagna, and pureed chicken enchilada's (thanks to Amber for her family's cookbook - we all LOVE that recipe!)
5) Still enjoys his Johnny Jump-Up and exersaucer (although Tim thought it would be okay to sell them in the garage sale. Yeah - 'fraid not."
6) Really likes his Mommy - his eyes always seem to follow me and he cries when I leave the room. Sometimes it is annoying, but mostly, I love it. He also says Mama.
7) Happy go lucky kid in general.

Last week we planted flowers in my little greenhouse domes I bought from Menards. Kind of weird that last Sunday Emma went sledding and made a snowman in the morning- Then, in the afternoon, she planted flowers and vegetables in the domes.




And - happy to say less than a week later- we have plants growing! Our Marigolds, Cosmo's, Sunflowers, Sweet Peas, and one pepper are up! She was so excited when she saw that today. We will see how it goes the next few weeks before we can plant them in the pots, but for now they are doing good.

Tonight we dyed Easter eggs. Emma had a great time - we only did 18 eggs, so it really didn't take long, but it was fun. Our pack of Paas actually had double the stuff in it, so we would have had some awesome color eggs if she would have let them sit in the dye that long. Evan enjoyed watching and chewing on the cardboard bingo game or whatever came with the dye. Emma did a good job trying to be gentle with the eggs, but cracked 4 when we putting them in the water to hard boil them AND spilled a lot of the dye on the table. She had a great time watching them and putting her own personal touches on the eggs.




(note how many of the eggs have an "E" on them. Emma now knows how to spell her name and enjoyed spelling her name or part of her name on the eggs.)



This weekend we are heading home for Easter after a Sunday breakfast with Eric and Gaeb. Monkey bread probably, Eggs benedict most likely, and I am sure Emma will feast on candy that the Easter Bunny will bring her. She is very excited to see the Easter Bunny - hopefully he stops by.

Tim and I are good also. Work has been busy and like I mentioned before, I am having a garage sale the beginning of May. Should be fun and we need room in our basement, so good-bye to all of Emma's old clothes. I know I will leave out a few things that are cute or hold sentimental value. Tim says he has some household or garage stuff to sell - that should be interesting :-)

Anyway - have a very happy Easter!

I am bigger than the sky.

As said by my lovely daughter today. No surprise as Tim and I always say, "When Emma does something, she does it with gusto." We have been having some really great days here lately. (For those that have already read my sister's blog, I apologize for the redundancy.) Friday the neighbors came over to play. That is all that Emma wanted from Thursday on- to play with Kyra and Kaylee. Friday morning came, Emma woke up, and right away it was when are Kyra, Kaylee, and Kristen coming over?

We did an art project - cotton balls on a paper plate and you have the Easter bunny - wonderful I know. The funny thing is our intent was to have the kids line the paper plate and ears with cotton balls and to cover the ears. Kyra and Kaylee did a fine job - Emma's creation was a big furry mess. Let's just say that cotton balls covered EVERY INCH of the paper plate. It was cute, just doesn't look like a bunny :-)

Then, we roasted hot dogs. I am not sure why I thought this would be a good idea in low 40 degree weather, breezy and cloudy. But, Kristen went along with it and off we went to get it together. The firewood was already in a bundle (thank you Tim!) and we went to assemble groceries and off we went to the back yard. The kids had a great time. Thankfully we bundled them up pretty good. Evan - not so much. He was bundled in his carseat and took a bit of a nap. Kristen dragged our little climber back by the fire pit and we got the fire going. Now, we don't have the best history making fires- but this one was a doozy. Bright flames cascading from the pyramid of logs in the middle - higher and higher - providing much needed heat to our chilled fingers and nourishment to our bellies. Ahh - what a sight! Plus, I love the smell of a good campfire. It really was a nice time. If only it was a bit warmer :-)

Pictures in no certain order....














(Sorry, I know there are a lot of them, but it was such a fun day and I thought these pictures captured the fun we had out there.)

Today was a "Mama and Daddy Day" as she calls it. We ran some errands in the morning and then I made it outside to go for a bike ride. It was the second time out on it and it was fun. I cleaned the house a little bit this afternoon and Emma tried to be a big helper and watch Evan. She hates it when I vacuum, so she always heads up to her room when I do it. The nice thing for her now is that we put some of her Barbies up there yesterday, so she had some fun things to play with. (quick side note, that kid is funny with her Barbies. She loves dressing them and is always talking and acting out a scene. All of her Barbies are named Kate and her little girl Barbies are named Little Kate. Likewise, all of her mermaid dolls are named Mariana. Funny, I know.)

Anyway, she was up in her room playing when I stop vacuuming. "Mama - you done yet?" "No, Emma - Evan doesn't like the vacuum either. So, I am going to put him in his crib." She convinces me to put him in her room, so we get him all set up with his toys and his pillow behind him, just in case he falls back. "Emma - you are in charge. He cannot have any of your Barbie stuff by him, those can choke him. Help him out and don't push him over!" "I know Mama - I am bigger than the sky. I can watch him." (sigh) So, I continue vacuuming the living room and 2 minutes after I put him up there, I am back to check in.

I come up to see the door closed and this worries me - but when I walk in, she is playing Barbies and he is happily chewing on his toys - still sitting up. Hmmm... makes him sound like a dog. Anyway... "Emma - how did it go." Emma: "He did good." (eyes wide open and big smile on her face) Then she turns to him and says, "Are you happy little guy? Are you? I take good care of you, don't I little guy?! Don't worry Mama, he is good up here with me." So, I smile (and maybe tear up a little big again, I can't help it, she is getting so big and is usually so good with him!" and leave, but I leave the door open a little bit so I can watch them. She turns to him, tickles him, and falls on the floor - which makes him laugh. She laughs and does the same thing and then says "WHAM!" He laughs again - then she tickles him again and laughs. It is seriously, the sweetest thing I have ever seen. This goes on until I go downstairs to vacuum one more room.

Later on, Emma and I head to the YMCA to go swimming. This is her first trip there and she has a blast. They have a nice little water slide that she can ride down with me - plus water toys like noodles, ducks, boats, etc. Anyway, we had a great time. When we were getting ready go to, I was going to put Evan in his crib again with toys so I could pack our bag and Emma says, "Put the Little Man in my room - I can watch him. He can keep my company."

Other Emma quotes from today (she had a ton of them today, she was making me laugh all day)...
--as Tim was going outside to check the grill, he leaves the sliding door open. "Hey Daddy, you need to close the door! You are going to let bugs in!"
--As Emma and I were leaving the Y "Mama, that was actually a lot of fun. I will have to tell Daddy all about the Y."

I had to write down some of her sayings todayso I would remember them. That kid cracks me up - but, like she told me today, "Mama, I am bigger than the sky!"

A picture is worth a thousand words...

If that is the case, I have millions and millions of words. I love pictures. I especially love the digital camera so I can take lots and lots of pictures and delete the ones I don't like. I wish I were better at taking them and hope to one day learn how.

I think I took some good ones this past weekend. We were at the cabin - waiting for spring!- and Emma just had to get outside. So, we got everyone bundled up (one of the harder things with having 2 children I think - getting them ready to go outside. One would think Emma would be good-to-go on her own and sometimes she is. Most of the time she is talking in my ear, playing with Evan, etc and is the last to get ready.) Anyway - here we are playing in the lake and looking for trolls.




Nothing too exciting was going on at the cabin the past weekend, we just wanted to go there and get away for a bit. Emma is just itching for summer so she can wear her bathing suit and play in the lake. She wears her bathing suit every day as it is, just not outside.

Here are two of my favorite pics of my two favorite guys.




Then some family pictures. We haven't had any updated pics since Christmas and don't have a family picture at the cabin. Plus, we were all wearing vests. Unfortunately it is hard to tell in the picture. I thought this could be a future Christmas card picture "Have a very "Vest"ive Christmas" - Get it?? I know, I am a dork. However, I figured Evan will be changing a lot this year and we should probably wait for the '09 Christmas pic!




Sunday night we headed over to the neighbor's house to deliver a birthday card and decided we would try to wagon with both kids. What an adventure for both of them. Evan was smiling and laughing the whole time as was Emma. Emma thought it was the greatest thing since her thumb:-) I really think she is enjoying the fact that Evan is getting older and is playing. He is still not playing the way she wants him too, but he is trying. He LOVES Emma and laughs/smiles whenever she comes around and Emma eats that right up. She is always in his face going "GaGa-GooGoo" or something. As Tim says, "Emma's two favorite people are Evan and whoever is with Evan." Meaning... she is still jealous when Evan is getting attention :-)



And Finally - we got out Emma's train the other day. It is an old Sesame Street Train Set that I bought at a garage sale a long time ago. Anyway, she loves it. Evan does too - we put him in his bumbo or just let him sit up by it and he watches it go round and round and round. Emma was playing with her handkerchief and the train the other day, so I tied it around her head and said that all train conductors wear a conductor hat. She thought that was pretty cool and was a very proud conductor! I left to go do something and when I look in on her and Evan, I see this:



Emma put the hanky on Evan's head so he could be the conductor. I know this sounds silly, but I got tears in my eyes. It was so sweet!

Other than that, not too much is going on. We will be around this weekend so I can get to our taxes -blah- and hang out. Work is going well, I am getting frustrated there, but I am attributing that to the winter blahs. I am picking up some more purchasing responsibilities, so that is cool. I will be negotiating prices, pulling usage data, and working with suppliers for some of our trace minerals. I am excited about it. That could be a good next step for me career-wise when the kiddo's are in school :-)

I guess I should mention that I think the medicine is helping Evan out for his acid reflux. He is not uncomfortable now when eating - so that is a huge relief. Now, we just need to figure out the sleeping thing. Unfortunately the medicine did not help that. The doctor thought it might, but no go. I tried the "cry-it-out" method last night. That lasted for an hour of him screaming and I gave up.

Emma is good and has been invited to her first sleep-over. Her friend Breezy (our daycare provider's daughter) and Emma have been talking about doing a sleep-over for a long time. I don't think Emma really knows what it is, but we may try it. It would consist of lunch at McDonald's playland (which I may attend also to keep Theresa company), playing, sleepover, and then back at our house. I am not quite sure how Emma would do for a sleep-over. She is obviously very comfortable over there, but still, sometime at night, she still wants us. When I picked her up from daycare the other day, Theresa made the mention that Emma told her "you drive me crazy!". Great - unfortunately that is Tim's influence!

Well, I must get back to ER. I haven't watched it for about 6 years, but I had to watch the last episode! I used to love that show. Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Let's hope we don't get too much snow.