My comfort

Last weekend I had an appointment to get my eyebrows waxed. 

When Hannah found out I was leaving she immediately started putting on her coat letting me know that there was no way I was getting out of the house without her.

Me:  "Hannah, you can come with me but I have a few things I have to do.  You gonna be ok with that?"

Hannah:  "I can be just fine mom.  Where you going?"

Me:  "I have to go and get my eyebrows waxed and then go to Cub and Target."

Hannah: "Eyebrows?!  Cub-the just my size cart place?  OK!"

Me:  "Ok, well just so you know when mommy gets her eyebrows waxed you need to be very quiet and sit very still.  OK?"

Hannah:  "OK mom.  Why can I not talk?"

Me:  "What the lady is going to do hurts mommy a little so we need to be sure that you are staying out of her way."

Hannah:  "Ok mommy.  It will be ok.  I will be there the whole time holding your hand.  I will be right next to you."

Sure enough, she was an angel.

Sat next to me the whole time holding my hand.

When I was done I sat up and she wrapped her arms around me "Mommy!  You did it.  I told you you be ok.  Great job!"

Can your heart actually melt away?

3rd Bathroom

This is my new bathroom-

or at least Nash thinks it is

In four of the last 30 days I have walked down these stairs to go get Hailey from her crib and have been greeted by Nash's poop.  The good thing about it is that I can smell it long before I start on my way down the stairs.
I think he is trying to tell me something (save your comments to yourself for this one).  He must want an outdoor dog house.

It's SNOWING

Today we had the first snowfall of the season!

I am a typical Minnesotan.  I think the snow is beautiful.  I believe that it wouldn't feel like Christmas without snow.  I don't mind sitting inside and looking out at it.  I do not need to be out there 'in it'.

Now that I have kids I don't get to 'opt out' of winter.  I can't hibernate and just use it as a tunnel between my house and the car.  I have 4 eager eyes staring at it wondering when they can get out there and touch it.

After about 5-10 minutes of dressing we were finally ready to go outside.  Hannah was beside herself.  She was so excited to just run in the yard and 'stomp through it' with her boots on.
Hailey just wanted to point and grunt.  I believe that she was telling me that someday when she is able to walk she is going to follow Hannah around in that yard "You just wait and see mom".

We made snow angels and threw snowballs.
We even had time to eat a 'snow popscicle'.

Maybe this cold, wet stuff isn't so bad after all!

Airhead

When this toy is turned on it plays music and blows balls into the air.

What happens when the balls are all blown out?

See for yourself

(I wish you could hear how hard Hannah was giggling)

Pizzaeria

Brian does all of our cooking.  Most of you already know that but I don't ever get sick of talking about it.
He is into making homemade pizzas lately.
This isn't your typical homemade pizza.  This is not a premade roll-out dough crust.  This is not an add water and roll-out crust.  This is a homemade mixed, kneaded, stretched, pulled, and rolled-out crust.
It is de-lish!

The white chicken with tomato and onion is my fav!

Peek-a-Boo

Really?!
These pics will say it all....

Momma

Brian picks the girls up each day from daycare.  I do the drop off and he picks up.  There is no way with my commute that I could assure that I would be there each day by 4:30 to pick them up.  It works well for us but that also means that the minute I walk in the door after work it is GAME ON until the kids are in bed.

When I walk in the door, Hannah usually comes running shouting "Mommy! Mommy!  Mommy!"

Hailey usually gets so exicted that she yells and then flaps her arms as fast as she can.  Then after that doesn't work to actually help move her she will start crying until I pick her up.

Nash is so excited to see that someone is opening the door that as I am coming in he is pushing his way out.

It can get a little crazy and stressful at times but even so it is wonderful to get such a warm welcome.

As fall comes to an end

Fall is coming to an end.  We are due to get snow this weekend.
Not sure if I am ready for boots, hats, gloves, jackets, being cold and wet all the time.
Especially when I see pictures like this...

The weather is so nice.  The kids are back in school, things start to feel 'back to normal' around this time.  Once that snow hits, the stress kicks in.  It will feel like Christmas is right around the corner and in reality it is.

Sleeping Beauty

Back in October, Chloe was having a sleepover Birthday party.
I bought Hannah a Princess sleeping bag thinking that that would be just the novelty she needed to make it through the night.

She wasn't quite ready at that time to have her first 'little person' sleepover (as Tammy would call it :-) and didn't stay over night but that hasn't stopped her from wanting to sleep in her sleeping bag.

Time to eat!

Babies, babies, babies.

That is what we do at our house.

It has not taken Hailey long to learn the routine.

Today Hailey decides that Talking Baby needs to eat.

You get what you pay for...

How embarrassing...
I noticed this morning while getting ready that the diamond fell out of this earring.
I wonder how long ago that happened??

I guess that is what you get when your earring cost $4 about 10 years ago (or even more).

Page-a-Week, Week 3

This week I finally completed a page for Hailey's scrapbook!

I am not in love with how it turned out but it is complete and that is what is important to me today.

Nastics

It is Brian's Birthday today!

Happy 35th honey!  We love you!!

It is also Wednesday which means that Hannah has 'nastics'.  I want to take better pictures however the lighting in the area is horrible and I am sure I would get some stares if I actually brought along my extra flash, etc.  So, this is as good as it gets for now.

Hannah is doing the bear walk on the beam here.

I wanna try

Tonight before their bath, Hailey was pointing at the toilet so we decided to set her on it.

She didn't go but she sure was proud of herself!

Isn't she cute???

Isn't she cute?
I got this bag from Thirty-One Gifts, a new home-type of party.
It is all about personalized bags and gifts.
This bag is one of my new favorites.  It is HUGE and very durable.
Besides the pattern, I love most that it stands open on it's own (it has a rectangle bottom). 

Happy Halloween!

Lucky for me, Hailey is too little to argue about dressing like a monkey for Halloween.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind and even humored me by attempting to 'ooooh, ooooh' just like one.

Me:  "Hannah, what do you want to be for Halloween?"

Hannah:  "Blue princess with tapping shoes and a abra-ca-la-bra!"

She enjoyed spending her evening making things disappear and wearing hangy earrings.

We trick-o-treated at about 6-8 houses and then she was done.  Cold and most interested in sitting on the trailer waiting for the ride to the next house.  Hailey really enjoyed seeing all of the other kids dressed up and walking around.  She was not too sure about going up to the houses so we stayed on the trailer to keep Hannah company.

I think I like this best

Hailey has decided that she is over crawling.
More and more this week we would find her walking across the floor to get to where she wanted to go.
This weekend we pretty much gave up crawling for good.
She still hobbles around, takes about 3-4 steps- then stops for a break, wobbles, then continues but she sure is determined.

And getting pretty good at it too!

Those eyes

Got home from work tonight and was feeling a little overwhelmed.

Brian asked me what was wrong and I warned him that it was not a good time to talk about it.  Of course like most men would, he kept urging me to tell him "What's the big deal?". 

Well, it took all of about 3 seconds before I broke out into tears. 

(Hailey was in the living room playing and Hannah was in her bedroom.)

Hannah came out of her room and walked up to me.

Hannah: "Mom, why you have those eyes on?"

Me:  "What eyes, huh?"

Hannah:  "Those eyes (pointing).  You crying eyes."

Made me think of early this week when we were reading about the Grumpy Old Troll (you know, the one that lives under the bridge) and she was very disturbed that in the book he doesn't have grumpy eyes.  "His eyes just fine, mom."

How amazing that at only 3 years old she is aware enough of others and how their expressions complement their mood. 

If only it were that easy to control our mood.

Just hanging out

These two should probably be fighting.

You would at least think that they would squabble a little bit while they both decided that they needed to be sitting on the bench.

Not these two.

Instead, Hannah helps Hailey get up there first.  She makes sure that she is sitting and is comfortable and then plops herself right next to her. 

Hannah usually will only sit still for a few minutes but Hailey will hang out on that bench all night.....just swinging her legs and smiling.

Don't get me wrong....we have plenty of fights....I just like to celebrate these moments more :-)

Last but not least

I started this page a while ago and recently put the journaling and other finishing touches on it.

Halloween '09

Sorry for the glare on the picture...too lazy to re-take it.

Falling for fall

My favorite page of the night.

I absolutely LOVE these pictures.

P.S.  Happy Birthday Jennie!

Special gift from daddy

Page for Hannah's book talking about her need for big girl furniture before Hailey arrived.

Grocery Stop

Page dedicated to a previous blog (in January, i think) about how nights playing 'Grocery Stop'.

Page-a-Week actually continues

Gretchen invited me to Archivers tonight to scrapbook with her.

It is always a hard thing for me to commit to for two reasons.  The first is that I pretty much have a mini-Archivers in my house.  I have so much stuff I couldn't possibly use it all.  Not only difficult to decide what to bring but also tricky to justify spending my evening being tempted to by more when I know my current supply is a little out of control.
Secondly, it was a Friday night and I wouldn't see my kids all night.  I dropped them at daycare and I would be heading straight to Archivers from work and wouldn't be spending time with them.

On another note, I need times like this.  I need to allow myself the guilt-free evening of doing something that I enjoy for the evening.  NOT for a few minutes between putting the kids to bed and tucking myself in...

Brian took the girls to Troys for the night so they could play and hang out and Gretchen and I (and our friend Amanda) went and had our evening.

I got 5 pages done.  I thought about stocking them up and then each week I didn't have time to complete a page I could take one from the 'make-up' supply and then I realized that nobody would care and I would only be trying to fool myself.

Instead, I will 'cheat' by posting a page a day to help me get through this monsterously busy week at work.

This page is all about Hannah and her love for babies.

Dolphie

Meet Dolphie.

Not sure if our 'Soda conversation' sparked anything for her but today she introduced me to Dolphie.
When she picked him up out of her animal basket she gave him a huge hug and said "DOLPHIE!  I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!"

He has been by her side ever since.

Although, for some reason he isn't allowed on the table.  He must sit under her chair waiting.

This kid cracks me up.

All mines

Last night during The Grandpa Dan Show Hannah was asked to name a puppet.

Grandpa showed her the puppet and talked about how the puppet didn't have a name and he needed Hannah's help.

For those of you who know her well, you know where this is going.

Hannah named Grandpa's new puppet, Soda.

This morning when I asked her about the puppet and if she remembered what she named her this was her response:

"I named her Soda.  All mines are Sodas."

She ain't kidding....see for yourself.  I am sure that you have met at least one of these Soda's in your life.

When you are not looking...

Hailey loves her sister's milk.

She will drink her own milk (slowly) when we give it to her but the minute that Hannah puts her cup down Hailey is off to the races.

She will crawl so fast over to the cup and then sit patiently and wait until Hannah isn't looking.  When her back is turned, she grabs the cup and starts chugging away.

If she catches you watching her, she will take the cup out of her mouth and give you the biggest smile.

One of those things that never gets Hannah upset.

"We can get more milk mom, right?"

Bubble Monster

Hard to get a picture of your child in the bathtub without including all of the special 'parts'.

You will get the idea...

Hannah was covered from head to toe in bubbles (minus the face- of course - water on face makes us real nervous for some reason)!  The first time we bubbled her up, she yelled out "ROAR....I am the bubble monster!" 

It has quickly turned into a new bathtime routine.

Choose your battles

This weekend Hannah found this beautiful dress (Halloween costume) in her closet.

Hannah:  "Mom, it's like a beautiful princess!"

I needed to run to Target and she wanted to come with me.

What do you think the chances are that we got in that car and went shopping at Target in a different outfit.

Your right. 

0%

I really didn't mind.  Our fellow Target shoppers didn't mind either.  In fact, it took us twice as long because she was stirring up quite the conversation with people when they would comment to her about how pretty she looked.

Another proud mommy moment!

Page-a-Week

Tammy and I were talking recently and she shared with me that sometime this fall she wanted to start scrapbooking again.  She was personally going to commit to completeing one page each week.

Loved it.  Had to steal it.

Week 1: Page 1

This page is some pictures that were taken of Hannah, New Year's Eve 2008.  She was just over 15 months old and I remember at that time being blown away at what a little person she seemed to be.  The journaling talks about her vocabulary at this age and a few of my favorite phrases she was  saying.

Dear Mother Nature, please keep the weather this beautiful!

The weather has been so nice lately.

We have been able to play outside.

A new favorite game these days is the Mickey Mouse Tag game that she got from Chloe for her Birthday.  There are four characters that you hide around the yard and then when the game starts, it calls out a characters name, when you find the character, you cover it with the Mickey peice, then a new character is called out. 

The game times you so you always want to try to get the best time.

I wish you could see this

If you look really close you might be able to see the handprint on the side of her face.

Talking Baby slept with Hannah last night.

It appears they were cuddling for the majority of the night.

Here she goes....!!

It happens so fast.

One day she is your little baby and the next she is starting to walk.

Hailey is determined.

Tonight she wouldn't stop.  She would take a few steps, then fall, then stand up and try again.  The look on her face was priceless. 

Once again, as I wait for her to get big so we can celebrate her milestones, I feel sad inside realizing that I am getting 4 steps closer (literally) to her never wanting to crawl again.

Came across this picture and it made me giggle.

Hannah was invited to Katelyn's birthday party. 

 It was a bowling party.  Katelyn is one of Hannah's friends from daycare.

Hannah and Olivia were waiting for their turn to bowl and they found the air.

Do you like how Hannah's comb-over is blowing in the wind :-)

Happy Anniversary!

This is not a very good picture of us but it is the only one that I have handy that will not require me to get my lazy self off of the couch.

Hard to believe we are already celebrating 7 years of marriage!

Looking forward to another 60...or more if we are lucky!

Res-tur-lant

Mommy:  "Hannah, will you take this downstairs to daddy to see what he wants for breakfast?"

Hannah:  "Sure mom."

(pitter patter down the stairs, mumbled conversation to daddy, giggles along with the pitter patter on the way back upstairs)

Hannah:  "Here mom, this is what daddy picked from the res-tur-lant."

Caught!

So, that's how she does it!

Hannah is always telling us that she needs to brush or teeth or wash her hands and then she's off to the bathroom.

We will hear the water run.  It turns off and out she comes.

This morning, I saw how she reaches the sink.

Pond clearing

While making toast for Hannah this morning, we noticed that the bread was starting to get a little stale.  I made a comment to her that we would need to throw this bread away and open our new loaf.  She responded with "No mom, how 'bout we save this for the ducks at the duck pond.  That a good idea?"  We agreed that her idea was better than mine.
I dropped her off at Jackie's and sure enough when we met up again 9 hours later she remembered our 'good idea'.
She would not stop talking about it until finally I gave in and off we went.
We started throwing the bread peices to 5-6 ducks that were sitting in the grass.  Soon after, the ducks starting coming out of the pond and running over to us.  All together there were about 40-50 ducks and geese all around us, quacking and begging for bread.   Note to self:  next time you go to feed the ducks, bring enough for everyone.

Dinner Art

It is always a joy when I am feeling overwhelmed and then I finally get a chance to sit at my desk and actually do work.  For those of you that know me, you know that I am a list writer. 

I don't always need the list but I always like to have one, just in case.

I also take lots of notes and attend a lot of meetings.

It would probably be snart to develop some type of note taking system, but for now, notes are taken on paper.  Most times I don't need the notes that I have taken and the reason I have written so much is just to distract me from the meeting anyways, gives me something to do so I don't say too much or get too involved (or sometimes upset).

Then when I have time, I like to go through all of those notes taken at meetings and log them electronically or complete the 'things to do' that came from the meeting.

Anyways, I was having one of those 'clean up the list' type days and came across this, all mixed in with my work notes.

Dinner Art.

Last Friday Brian and I took the girls to 5*8 Grill for dinner.  Hannah wanted to play Tic-Tac-Toe (how does she know about that?!....I guess I paid for that too at the price of $340 a week).

After our Tic-Tac-Toe game her and daddy wanted to draw lines.

I am glad for this blog, so I can take a picture of this page....to remember these nice days of going out to eat and spending time together as a family and then throw that paper away.

It really isn't worth scrapbooking....

Birthcontrol

Sorry for the horrible image.  My camera does not take good pictures but when you are having a moment like this to share, you have no time to get the real camera. 

If this were a good picture, you would see that not only is the Beef-a-roni all over the highchair and her face, but her hair is orange, her shirt is covered, her hands are actually smooshing noodles in her hair as this picture was taken.

I guess that's what I get for playing peek-a-boo during dinner.

Oh well, nothing a bath won't fix :-)

Project Talk

This is the conversation I overheard while Hannah was working on her project tonight.

Brian:  "Hey buddy, whatcha workin' on?"

Hannah:  "My project.  It's for my dance party."

Brian:  "Your dance party?  When is that?"

Hannah:  "In 7 weeks."

Brian:  "Oh 7 weeks, huh?"
Hannah:  "Yep.  7 weeks to the dance party, then all the people will come to my party. There might be elephants there that will dance with us."

Brian:  "Wow, really?"

Hannah:  "Yep, in 7 weeks.  First I need to finish my project."

Here comes fall

The leaves have been falling fast.

The colors have been extra breathtaking this year (in my opinion).  When we got home from work tonight, it was such a nice night that we got out the rakes and made a little pile in the yard.

Hailey wanted nothing to do with it.

Hannah head straight for the tree, giggling while I was raking.

Me:  "Hannah, what's up over there?"

Hannah:  "I waiting to jump into your leaves."