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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Bummer....

Although I'm enjoying this gloomy day and enjoying the we bit of cooler weather the last 2 days we are a bit bummed!!! WE were going to meet some friends this morning  fora picnic and swimming at the lake but I'm not sure if I wanna make the trip if the weather does not improve:( We might just walk down to the park down the street from out house and play for a while and jump in some puddles from the rain last night.

I am super excited about a purchase I made yesterday. Well it all started when Neal came home with oooodddlleeessss of new toys for the kids....they were 75% off. Well one of the things he bought was missing parts so I ran to the Sun Prairie Target to see if they had one so I could exchange it. I got lucky that they did along with MANY more toys that were just getting marked down from 30 % to 75% off. I got a few things but I've been put on spending money probation so I did not want to go overboard. I wish I had my cell phone and called Neal to see if it was ok if bought a few more things. Well when he came home from work he thought that it would be a good idea to see if I could stock up on a few more things for b-day presents and things like that. I drove back out to Sun Prairie but all the good toys were gone :( They did have a bike hitch trailer at 50% off though........we have been wanting one all summer long and now we have a brand new one. We do still need bikes though and hopefully Neal can keep his eye out for one going clearance. They probably will before this winter. We will be all set for bike riding next year....yay.

Ethan learned how to say TA-DA the other day watching Curious George and he's walking around this morning just saying ta-da over and over again spinning in circles....haha. Well off to get some things done this morning :p

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Crib Baby.....

Feeling pretty lucky that Ethan is still sleeping in his crib. Conner was crawling out of the crib well before his 1st b-day I think he was around 10 months when the little stinker figured out how to get out and so we had to put him in a toddler bed. I plan on keeping him in the crib AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!!!! He loves it though and at night when he is done snuggling with me he just kinda pushes me away and I know he is ready to go in his crib and go to sleep! Sweet little boy!!!
He just recently updated to having pillows in there with him and he loves it.
Knees tucked under him....so cute!!
This is how Conner sleeps : ) 
Hehehe....loves his books :)

Fun play date.....

We had a very fun play date on Monday! Some friends of our invited us to their house for lunch and a swim in their lake/pond. There were 20 kids there of all ages so Conner and Ethan were both happy little boys. Bob and Karen have an absolutely stunning  home and so fun to visit them. Thanks for having us!!!
This is my DREAM driveway!!! I have ALWAYS wanted a tree lined driveway but would prefer something with pretty foliage for the fall colors!!
Their little beach....not really all that little!!
The back of the house from the lake!
Me taking the kids for a little ride in the paddle boat!
Ethan just having a blast playing in the boat with Miriam!
Miriam with her mama Amy taking a ride!
Conner loved playing with the bigger kids and held his own keeping up with them. They were having a water fight here!
Karen with her Grand daughter just chillin on the lake!
Conner learned so much again and I think it's just being around older kids. He is just a little fish now and loves the life jacket now so that made me SOOOOO happy. He hated that thing before Monday!
he thought he as pretty big.....he is!!!


In other news...I am so proud of my little Ethan. He has parted ways with his paci. When we were at our play date I lost his favorite plug somewhere in the midst of our crazy morning. I had one.....but...... he is VERY picky and only took a certain kind. Well when it was nap time I still tried it thinking that something was better than nothing. He kinda chewed on it for a bit then threw it down and went to sleep on his own. Granted he was extremely tired but still. Well I took advantage of this and kinda decided to just go with it. With Conner we cut him off cold turkey as well...for me this is the easiest. It's not a temptation if it's completely gone! SO I took it away yesterday. He did so well went to bed on his own like he usually did. I snuggled him a bit then put him in his crib and he went to sleep. Today he did have a hard time at nap time but did eventually go down without it and at bed time he did just fine without it!!! SUPER proud of him as I did not expect this to happen this soon or this easily especially since he has been very attached to it! My baby boy is growing up....this just seems like a big step to me and it did when Conner gave up his as well! Potty training next. He does like to  it but that's all we have done for now he thinks it's cool to be like his big brother and sit on the potty :) He is only 16 months so we have a little while to potty training!!!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Yeah that little pout explains it all today!!! He's been throwing up this morning and not feeling so good. He did keep his lunch down and has been sleeping for 3 hours now so hopefully he's on the mends now!!!
 
Boys in my House
Author: Erin Jo Kilmer
There are boys in my house – and Spiderman shoes
And 200 papers in various blues.
There's Bob (he's a builder) and Thomas the Train,
There's a fireman coat to wear in the rain.
They have cars on their shirts and frogs on their hats
There's a glove and a ball and a red plastic bat.
There's dirt on a face and a smudge on a nose;
Grass stains on knees and sand between toes.
There's bathtime at night with bodies to scrub,
And when we're all done there is dirt in the tub!
There's bandaids and bruises and curious bumps,
There's smiles and laughter and sometimes there's grumps.
There's odors most icky; there's boogers so green
There's more yucky things than I'll ever get clean.
There's piles of laundry; there's stories at night;
There's bedtime and bathtime and dinnertime fights.
There's cars and there's trains and there's books about trucks
There's Scoop, Lofty, Dizzy, and Travis, and Muck.
Sometimes there are bugs, and sometimes there are frogs;
Sometimes they are lions, or dinos, or dogs.
There are cute little vests and darling neckties
Dragged right through the mud – oh what a surprise!
There's running and climbing and jumping and falling
And laughing and crying and hugging and brawling
And rolling and losing and finding and creeping
And whining and stealing and sometimes there's sleeping.
There's tantrums and time outs and extra loud noise –
There's love in my house shaped like two little boys.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

why I love photo shop....

Before and after!!!!
Again Before and after!!!!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Happy b-day Neal....

Yesterday was Neal's b-day.....he turned 28 :) Getting close to 30 now!!! I hope he had a nice day!!! The kids and I made him special home crafted cards and picked up a couple little things for him to open. I baked him his strawberry rhubarb pie chocolate chip cookies and of course made him sweet tea and a lasagnateenie for supper with all the sides :) He had the day off so we spent it at the beach soaking up the sun. It was nice to be able to spend the day with him. Today he got his real b-day present....football tickets!!! He will be going to see the Bears play in Chicago sometime in October!!!! He's very excited about that and I'm sure Mike is as well.

Having a relaxing day today as well. Neal is working tonight and tomorrow night so it's just me and the kids all weekend :( We did manage to go to the arts fair this morning which I enjoyed so much. One of my favorite local artists was there.....SO GOOD that it makes me mad!!! He had a HUGE pencil drawing of Marilyn Manroe that was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen!!! It was just perfect and almost looked like a reproduction but if you took a closer look you can see the little tiny pencil marks. So amazing and inspirational!!!! It also cost $9,000.00....WAWSA!!!! There were so many fantastic artists one of which was an elderly woman who had oil paintings that just made me giddy with excitement. I loved her color combinations and she had a lot of nature pieces which are my favorite since I am inspired by nature!! People are so incredibly talented!!!!

Now I'm waiting for the kids to wake up. We are planing on going to a pretty grass field I found to take some pictures. Hopefully they turn out nice!!! It is so hot outside so I may just change my mind once we are out there :) Usually I am all about the heat and humidity and it does not bother me too much but for some reason this year I am having a hard time with it. Having two kids to chase around or carry around might have something to do with it!!! Still loving this summer and am a little sad that it's half way over.

Friday, July 16, 2010

The unexpected guest....

Yesterday was my once a week thorough cleaning day....ehh hem.....now my cleaning day is probably not like most peoples cleaning day. See I start with one room and work my way through the house. Usually I start with our bedroom and bathroom mostly because I can also finish up any laundry that I have leftover from the week in between scrubbing, dusting, washing the floor, putting misc. items in their spot and so on and so forth :) but see while I'm doing that part the rest of the house is just getting destroyed by two little workers not to mention that all the cleaning supplies and misc. items that I find and need to be put in their place end up in the kitchen till I get to that point. I should take a picture one day of this process to give you a better idea of what this looks like, but all I can say is that it's NOT pretty! I've always been like this though when I clean I CLEAN!!! I mean under the rug behind the dresser and under the bed kind of thing!!!! Eventually I get to Conner's room and the living room and the guest bathroom but the kitchen is ALWAYS last....why well I'm not sure part of MY process I guess!!!
Why do I do this I mean when someone comes to visit  the first thing they see is the living room and kitchen right who cares if the bedroom is a mess they don't even get to see that part. I wish I could change the process but I can't it's just not possible....hahah....this is my dads mentality and I hate it!!! When I was little I was the little cleaner but my dad is always the instigator watching, directing. You dust before vacuum, wash the floor last, dust to the right not to the left, don't vacuum too fast and in a straight line etc. etc. get the idea??? I mean that is just silly and rediculous and well there are a million ways to do one thing right???? Why then can't I change the process not sure but all I can say is that it is MY process and that's what works best for ME but I do not care one tiny bit how someone else does it or if anyone else does it at all. So I'm not talking just about cleaning here if you know what I mean.

Wow this post has gone in a totally different direction here.....haha guess that this was bothering me. Anywho.....yesterday afternoon AFTER I cleaned up the entire house and it was spotless and shiny and clean and smelled nice and fresh and I had the candles burning and the kids were napping so there were no toys scattered all over the house making it difficult to make it across the room and I had cookies in the oven and working on a card for Neal's b-day the doorbell rang.....WHAT ....who could that be???? Well the unexpected guest of course :) I sure felt like I had things under control looking like such a good house wife and mother! Clean house, cookies, cards, candles, quiet house.....wow did I fool them. WHAT if they came just an hour earlier when you could barely walk in the kitchen and the kids were screaming because they were tiered and I was frustrated with the mess and ready to scream myself well I probably would have hid in my clean bedroom feeding my kids candy to keep them quiet till the unexpected guest left!!!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Happy Anniversary....

So this July is my blogs 2 year Anniversary......it was fun to look back at what we were doing 2 years ago this moth.

You may have noticed that I have not been blogging much these days. I keep going back and forth on thins whole blog thing. We have a love hate relationship I guess you could say!! Many days I want to just quit but then on days like today when I can look back and see what we were up to and see how much my kids have changed and have it all documented in a very easy way I want to keep doing it.

I guess we will see what happens!!!

Trip to Rockford....

I have not seen my Mom and Dad in a while and still had my Dad's Fathers Day gift so I decided to go see them for a little bit yesterday. Neal had to work so it was just me and the kids! I also went to Old Time Pottery and spent way too much money...love that store!!!

Picking cucumbers and Magic Beans (they are pretty purple fresh but once you cook them they turn green) more on those on my food blog sometime in the near future :)
Conner having a whole lot of fun in the sprinkler!!
Ethan just looked from a distance :)
As usual he was more interested in food!
Blowing bubbles!!
Love that face....Ethan recently learned how to blow bubbles too!!! He thinks he's so big!!!
I think they wore G'ma out and she had to go to work :( I'm sure she had a LONG night!!!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Date with my two little boys....

I took the kids the other day to the movies to see Toy Story. Our original plan was to go to Rockford and leave Ethan with Grandma and Grandpa while Neal and I go with Conner but it's getting harder and harder to get every one's schedule to work out so I took both the boys myself. It was fun although I do not think we will be doing it again for a long time. Wawsa it seems like a lot of money to go see a movie anymore and I was surprised I even had to pay for Ethan. Crazy to me that a small popcorn alone was $6.00....hahah ohhh well it was fun!!! Ethan fell a sleep before the movie even started and woke up right at the very end. Conner was really into the movie once he got used to the loud sound but did get a little scared at the end. It was a fun date with my little boys and we got even more of a treat when we got home. Neal was already home and took us out to dinner :) We do not get to go out very often so that was pretty nice. We went to a little Mexican place right right in our little town. I had grilled shrimp with rice and avocados.....it was soooooo yummmyyyy!!!! And we had two people comment at how well behaved our kids were!!! Crazy people you take them for a day and tell me if you still feel the same way :) Haha no I know our kids are pretty good for the most part but certainly have their moments. It's nice to hear someone say that tho!! When the couple next to us finished talking to us and walked away Conner looks at me and says....."mama I'm a good boy" just making sure that I knew I guess :)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Milwaukee Zoo....

BTW.....Milwaukee Zoo......AWESOME.....awesome....awesome exhausting fun. I was only disappointed that they did not have the butterflies this year because we missed them last year and I really wanted to see them. Really wishing we just bought season passes. We got really lucky and got to see many of the animals WAY up close. Like this Lion....just spectacular!!!
The Mrs. 
Ethan is ALLLLL about the animals right now and apparently they all say "quack quack"
I have tons of pictures but I'll just leave you at that!!! We went on the little train ride and we packed a lunch and had a picnic right there at the zoo!!! Stopped and had ice cream treats....it was HOT and HUMID and so we ran through the set up misters right along with our kids. It's nice to have little ones to blame our own silliness on. It's a fun zoo, much better then the free one we go to all the time in Madison :) But that one is free and it's always nice to get out of the house with the kids!!!

Fun with family at the beach....


The kids and I had a fun day at the lake yesterday. They came up to see us for the day!!! Katie and my sister building a sand castle!!!
Conner and Katie hard at work making a volcano :) Conner just adores his cousins and is always so excited to see them and play with them!!! He was rather u[set when they had to go home :( 
It was a really relaxing day at the beach for me I got to sit back and enjoy the sunshine while the little mamas took care of my kids....thanks guys!!!
Katie with her little sand castle!!!
Conner has always been very very brave in the water and has been able to go under water for quite some time now but Madzia took it a step further yesterday!!! Thanks to her he now can totally STAY underwater for quite some time!!! Way to go Madzia for teaching Conner....he listens to her WAY better than to me :) 

I've been wanting to sign him up for swim lessons for a while now but I think I may wait till next year now. I've been working with him every time we are at the beach while Ethan is sleeping and he's really picking it up!!! Although I think he would have a BLAST at swim lessons :) 
That's my lil man completely under water!!!
Hahah yup him again right in front of Madzia under water :) 
All snuggled up warming up in the sun!!! Thanks for coming guys......it was FUN!!!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July everyone....

Thanks to our hosts Alissa and Loren we had an AWESOME 4th of July weekend!!! Thanks for having us and putting up with us :)
Saturday morning we all ran our 1st 5K. We all did a fantastic job and hope to do it again soon!!!
Neal and I plan on doing another 5K hopefully this month and I'm looking into triathlons which I think would be a lot of fun!!!