HAPPY AMES FAMILY

Minka Moo: a very hungry dog

2012-02-01T17:00:00.003-06:00

To say that Minka is a fan of food is a vast understatement. She is downright THRILLED when she sees us even walking in the direction of the garage door (we store the food in the garage). I have been telling my mom how excited she gets. Yesterday I attempted to get a video of this excitement. The quality and camera work isn't the best since I was trying to capture the video while I was also carrying her food dish. I ended up breaking the video up into a few parts. Please ignore my annoying voice. I didn't realize I talk so baby to her until I heard this. Horrible... Enjoy!

Here is Minka finding out she is going to eat:

Getting her food:

Not coming up for air:

I think it is safe to say that we have a little piglet on our hands. She may end up eating us out of house and home when she gets bigger :)

On the potty training front, she seems to have regressed somewhat. She was doing VERY well for awhile there. Now we pretty much have at least one accident a day. Some days more than that. Oh well! She will learn. She is lucky she is so cute :)

Night!

Lilli as Bambi on ice :)

2012-01-31T17:00:00.002-06:00

Lilli really wanted to wear Caden's Toy Story boots last night. She had a very hard time walking in them. The best part was when she tried to stand up while wearing them. I had flashbacks of Bambi trying to get up after falling on the ice. She is a funny girl!

Night!

Sick house

2012-01-30T22:59:00.000-06:00

For some reason we are having a very hard time keeping all of us healthy! Caden and Lilli are going on week three of their colds. They both ended up having ear infections, and Caden also has Sinusitis. Ryan and I have been battling extremely sore throats ourselves. Enough already!!! Did I mention was also had the flu go through the house about two weeks before that? Who knew that colds could be so horrible? The kids have coughed so hard that they have thrown up! Nothing is better than having a child (who just had a huge breakfast of eggs and cereal) get into a huge coughing jag...while you are holding her. It was pretty gross.

We seem to FINALLY be on the mend. Ryan took Caden into the Walk-In clinic at Shopko because his cough seemed to be so much worse. That's when his ear infection and Sinusitis were diagnosed. Both kiddos are taking Amoxicillin. Ryan and I have been taking Ibuprofen non-stop for our sore throats. The window sill above the kitchen sink looks like a drug store!

Hopefully I will be able to report soon that we are all healthy. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Sick, but still cute:

They are showing their grilled cheese sandwiches. Caden's is a space ship and Lilli's is Mickey Mouse.
The best part is that Dada gets to eat all of the scraps :)

Night!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

2012-01-29T22:39:00.000-06:00

Today is a special day. It is Ryan's birthday. While it may not be a milestone birthday like last year, it is still just as important. Unlike last year, we didn't do anything special this year. He just wanted the normal Sunday family dinner. Since Cara, Jordon, and Andrew were in town, we moved it up to noon instead of dinner time. Given his pick of any meal for his special day, Ryan chose Lebanese food. Here is a shot of my plate before I ate my lunch:

I texted a pic to Grammie to show her. She told me it looked tasty and that I did a good job :) I ended up making Grape Leaves, Baked Kibbeh, Tabbouleh, and Cucumber salad to east along with the Baked Kibbeh. The Hummus was store bought.

It was a nice day. Ryan and I agreed on no presents this year. I don't count the presents from the kids. Caden even picked out Ryan's presents by himself. He picked out a green insulated coffee mug and a Perry the Platypus t-shirt. He was pretty excited about the shirt. I did have to talk him out of a Toy Story 3 Landfill toy like he has. He tried to tell me that Dada should have his own so they could play with them together.

I did end up giving Ryan a present. I was trying to think outside of the box since I didn't want to spend any money. I ended up making this for him:

Sorry for the bad pic. I will take a pic with my camera later. This one was shot with my phone, and the flash is horrible. I will take some tomorrow and repost.

I made this with a Melissa and Doug tray from the pizza set that the kids have. Those Melissa and Doug toys always come in nice wooden trays. The problem is that they don't have lids, and they are all different sizes so that I can's stack them. Instead of throwing away the trays, I saved them figuring I could do something with them at some point. So I did! I just painted the entire thing brown first, and then I selected the pics I wanted to figure. I LOVE the pic of the two wearing their overalls by the fence, so I knew that I wanted to feature that one as the large one. I added the word "joy" that I cut out with my Cricut. I wanted it to be simple and not overrun with embellishments. I think it turned out to be pretty nice. Ryan is planning to take it to work.

I have a nice pic of Ryan with his apple bars, but I didn't upload my pics yet from the camera. I will do that tomorrow.

Night!

My new love: Spinning

2012-01-28T17:00:00.001-06:00

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to try a spinning class. I was always too intimidated to go to one. The spinning people (as I imagined them) were too hard core for me. I didn't think I would do well with an instructor barking directions at me. What if I wouldn't be able to increase resistance when we told to do so? Would people look at me? Would they notice I didn't increase it at all? All of my fears came true...

My only experience with spinning, up to three weeks ago, was the one time I went to a class when I was living in Chicago still. You know, back in the day when I had more free time than I would in my entire life, but I didn't realize it back then :) Anyway, I decided one day to try a spinning class. I had no idea what I was getting into. The male instructor got us going right when class started, and he barked directions just as I had imagined would happen. He didn't ask if anyone in the class was new. He didn't help with seat position. He didn't explain what cadence was. He didn't explain how far to turn resistance for hills. I was completely lost. I felt like a fish out of water, and I decided that spinning wasn't for me. Sad day.

Flash forward 7-8 years. Since we now have a family membership to the Y, I want to get my money's worth. That and become more active. I noticed there are quite a few spinning classes offered. That got me thinking about trying it again. Another influence on this decision is that my Aunt Chris and Uncle Johnny seem to love spinning. They even go to class together. How cute is that? One of my co-workers, Pat, who is also trying to get into better shape mentioned that he wanted to try spinning after he lost some weight. I talked him into going with me. My last reason is my legs. Yep, my legs. I have ALWAYS wanted to reshape my legs. I know I will never have little skinny girl legs, but I know they can get better. So after considering all of my reasons, I knew it was time.

So three weeks ago Pat, his wife Beth (who is an experienced spinner), and I ventured into the Wednesday night spinning class at the Y. Chad is the instructor. He looks like Elliot from Law and Order SVU. I was intimidated. There were people with the special spinning shoes, biker shorts, and Chad even brought his own bike seat! I didn't know people did that. Chad noticed us when we walked in and asked if we had ever done spinning before. After we hadn't, he went through everything with us. He helped us set up our bikes in the correct positions, and he told us what our goals should be for the first class. It is amazing what a difference this was from my first spinning class! I was exhausted by the end of class, but I loved it. I can say that after three weeks...I am hooked.

I was especially proud this week when a couple of high school girls had to sit down and rest while I pedaled on. Who knows? Maybe I will become that person with the shoes and the shorts who everyone looks at and says, "Wow, she is hardcore." :)

Night!

Sleeping babes

2012-01-27T17:00:00.001-06:00

I think it is pretty normal for a parent to love watching her children sleep. They just look so sweet and peaceful. I look forward to checking on them every night before I go to bed. Ryan does, too. There have even been some nights when he will see me heading toward Caden's room (we always go there first), and he will try to beat me to the door. It's a nice little competition. :) Caden has really been into have all of his "friends" with him in bed lately. The bed gets a little crowded, but he seems to love it. I had to get a pic last night.

You probably also noticed that he isn't wearing pj's. He prefers to just sleep in his diaper. Sometimes he will wear his shirt, or he will wear pants, but usually not both.

Lilli also is such a cute little sleeper. We never know where she will be in the crib when we check on her. She is a mover! She does sleep pretty well though. We can't complain. I wanted to get a pic of her last night as well, but she was in a pretty awkward position. I couldn't get a good shot of her face. This is the best I could get:

So snuggly :)

Night!

Travelling Daddy

2012-01-26T17:00:00.003-06:00

The kids and I have had a bit a quality time together just the three of us lately. Ryan has had to do some traveling for PMI. (PMI is a billing and coding company in which Ryan is a partner with Dr. Chuck Brownlow for those who don't know). It started with last Friday when Ryan headed to Nashville, which was no easy feat. The weather was horrible, so Ryan and Chuck had a beast of a time even getting there. They got there late Friday night, lectured all Saturday into the evening, and left very early Sunday morning. Ryan was bummed out that he didn't get anytime to sight see or meet up with our good friend from high school Jessica Turner. I told him we will have to go back sometime as a mini trip and visit. He had a great time lecturing, but he missed the kids. We missed him a lot, too. Caden really wanted to send Dada a message, so this is what we sent:

Dada sent a response, and Caden probably watched it around 15 times! Lilli liked it, too.

Overall, we did pretty well. I had a terrible sore throat, and both kids were still fighting their colds, but we had a good time. Ryan got home around 1 pm on Sunday. The kids were very happy to see him.

Monday night then Ryan had to fly to Des Moines to lecture again all day Tuesday. And once again, the weather did not cooperate. After some flight switching, he was able to get there. Getting home was a pain, too. He almost did not make it Tuesday night.

As with over the weekend, Caden wanted to send Dada a message again. This time he was telling Dada about his cold.

Lilli seemed to be feeling a little better. Here are some pics of her "shopping" from our shelves. She loves to pull out the capers and can of Carnation and carry them around. Silly girl.

We are all happy that Dada is now home and doesn't have plans to travel again any time in the near future.

Night!

Running

2012-01-25T17:00:00.001-06:00

So I decided that I needed more motivation to run. I think one piece of great motivation for females is to look good while they run. Of course this means my apparel needs to look awesome. I decided I should start with the most important piece of equipment for a runner...the shoes. Look at these beauties that I am getting:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE them! They have another pair that is similar to this that glows, but I don't think I will be doing too much night time running.

So my running times might not be the greatest, but at least I will look good while I do it :)

I will leave you with some pics of the kiddos and a short video.

Here is Caden from Monday night cracking some eggs for dinner. He is getting pretty good at it!

This is Lilli trying whole broccoli for the first time. She liked using the fork, but wasn't too sure about the actual broccoli.

She does, however, LOVE dipping apples in peanut butter. She ended up discovering that her favorite thing to do was the simply just scoop out the peanut butter with her hands and eat it that way.

Night!

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-24T17:00:00.002-06:00

Look at me posting two days in a row! That leads me right into my New Year's Resolutions!

Here they are in no particular order:

1) Update the blog more frequently: Since my family in Ohio doesn't get to see the kids very often, I know it is very important to keep the blog updated so that they feel like they know what is going on in our lives. Plus, my kids are just too darn cute to not post pics of for everyone to see.

2) Workout regularly: I am already doing pretty well with this. Signing up and paying money for the Oshkosh Half-Marathon in April is really helping with this! Also joining the Y is giving me the opportunity to try some new classes. I want to figure a way to bring the kids into this one more. I have already been doing bicycle ab exercises with Caden sitting on my stomach. He thinks that's pretty funny.

3) Mail cards for special occasions on time: Although this was on my list last year, it was an epic fail. I don't know what my problem is with getting things out on time. I am hoping to help this along by planning ahead of time month by month the cards that I need to send. Since my scrapping room is so organized, I have no excuse. This is a good excuse to show my room, right?

Thank you, Ryan. That was the best birthday present ever!

4) Read more for pleasure: I LOVE to read. That makes sense since I'm an English teacher I suppose :) The problem is that I just don't seem to have enough free time to allow myself to read. At times I actually feel guilty when I am reading. I feel like I should be doing something else like cleaning or something. I need to get over that. It is important for myself that I allow myself time to read. I deserve it.

5) DATE NIGHT!!!: Ryan and I need to go out just the two of us more often. We feel guilty when we do. I know we shouldn't. We spend so much time with our kiddos. We have decided that we just need to pay a babysitter (Yes, I know we have many family members and friends who would watch the kiddos, but we feel like we are taking advantage of them if we ask them to watch the kids), and then we need to go out and have adult time. I want to start going to a movie once a month. This is pretty big considering the last movie we saw was before Lilli was born I believe. :) And I also want to go to dinner at least one other time a month. That means TWO date nights a month. Sounds good to me!

6) CRAFT! CRAFT! CRAFT!: I love to craft. Scrapbooking, card making, crocheting, paper crafting... I need to make more time for this. It is a nice stress reliever for me. The good part is that now that Caden is older, he can come downstairs with me to craft. He LOVES to play with my Cricut. And now that the basement is cleaned, there is a large area where he can play down there with me. A family that crafts together stays together :)

7) Stay organized: At this point, I think our house looks pretty good in the organization department. The garage could use some work, but right now it is just too darn cold to worry about that. Being organized always me to have so much more time to use on other things. Does that make sense? I have started making sure everything goes where it needs to go ASAP. So when I fold my laundry, I put it away as soon as I can. If I don't, there is the tendency to allow it to pile up until it is all done. That just gets the pile to look overwhelming and the task to keep getting pushed back. Not good. I have also been doing things for the day the night before. This includes: pulling out my outfit the night before, choosing outfits for each kid and placing on their dresser, packing my lunch, preparing my tea so I just need to put it in the microwave the next morning, pre-planning dinners... Overall, this has made my morning a lot less hectic and a lot more productive. I think Ryan would agree with that :)

I will update periodically on my progress!

Night!

Hello there old friend!

2012-01-23T21:49:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! New Year means new starts and new goals. One of my goals is to...wait for it...update this blog more frequently. I was doing okay until Sassy passed away on the 5th. After that I was pretty sad, and I quite honestly didn't feel like blogging. That was then. Much has changed.

We had a wonderful holiday season. Thanksgiving was a Wisconsin year, so we ate here. We did end up traveling to the Mall of America Black Friday. We stayed in a hotel Friday and Saturday, and then we headed home on Sunday. We had a great time. Caden LOVED the rides at the mall. Here are some highlights:

Dada and Caden on a ride

This was too funny. Caden crawled into the cabinet under the TV in the hotel room. He then pushed out the drawer to look at us. Goofball!

The funniest (and saddest at the same time) was when Caden and Andrew went on the Wonder Pets ride. Caden thought it was fun, but poor Andrew was not a fan. Here is a video from it.

Saturday was also great because we were able to meet up with Joel, Mindi, and the kids for dinner. They got to meet Lilli. Stupidly, I did not take any pictures :( The kids seemed to have a great time. It reminded us how much we miss them.

Dec. 21st Danny and Samantha got married. They signed the marriage license at our house. We were the witnesses. We then celebrated with some yummy pizza. Welcome to the family, Samantha!

Christmas was also wonderful. This was an Ohio year, so we headed to Ohio after we were done with work on the 22nd. The kids did pretty well in the car. They didn't really sleep very much at all. We got into Aunt Chris and Uncle Johnny's pretty late. Caden was holding on to Baby Mickey when we went in. Uncle Johnny said, "Is that Mickey with you?" Caden said, "Actually, it's Baby Mickey." LOVED IT! His new word he loved at that time was "actually." I am proud to say that he uses it correctly.

We had a great visit in Toledo. Here are some pictures, but Ryan has most of them. I will put more on later after I get them from his phone :)

Here is Lilli with Grammie. We were really happy because she went right to her. She remembered!

Here Lilli and I are waiting for Dada and Caden to get off of the train at Tamoshanter.

Merry Christmas!

Caden playing with Buzz and Jessie with his cousin Christopher.

Lilli lets "Aunt" Jennifer hold her. I love this pic because of Lilli's eyes.

We continued our family tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas before heading to bed Christmas Eve.

Again, we have more pics. I will update with the pics. Thank you, Aunt Ann for the majority of these pics from Christmas. I love them! I have to get more of them off of Ryan's phone.

We left Toledo on the 26th. Although we hate the driving, we do love visiting with the family.

The next day was also an important day, because that is when Ryan and I drove to Illinois (Trivoli) to pick up our little Minka. We didn't think we were ready to get a new puppy after losing Sassy, but my mom and Bill decided that it was time :) The place where we got her was 4 1/2 hours from Oshkosh. So, yes, that meant another entire day in the car basically. We were happy to get her though. Here are some pics:

On the way home!

Snoozing

Sleeping on the floor of the passenger's side while driving home.

The dragon by the castle :)

Minka checking out Lilli.

Minka loves her brother.

She has been doing very well. She has had accidents, of course, but we expected that. She and Bentley get a long very well. They are constantly playing. I vacuum all of the time thanks to their playing. For example, on Saturday I vacuumed the living room six times. Yes...six times. Minka clomps onto Bentley's fur, so there are always little puffs of Bentley fur all over.

The kids like Minka, too. Caden isn't too fond of it when she gets into her little feisty moods and chases him trying to chew on him, but other than that he is good with her. He is even a big enough boy to let them outside for me sometimes. When their playing gets to be too much, we put them outside to run off some of that energy. You can often hear me saying in the house, "Okay you two, go outside and play."

Lilli likes Minka, too. They have something in common. They both love to pull off her socks. Minka will grab the tip of it, pull it off, and run for it. Lilli thinks it is pretty funny. The only way to avoid this it to keep shoes on Lilli. She prefers to be barefoot though given the choice. We are happy that Minka is now part of the family. She fits very well with us.

Shortly after that we celebrated the coming of 2012. We had dinner with the family at Grandma and Bumpah's house.

Side note: Sadly, Caden no longer uses the word Bumpah. He now says Grandpa :( I was sad when this change took place. Lilli does say Bumpah, so that makes me happy. It just shows me that he is getting older. I used to love it when he called Grandma "Ba." That was a sad day too when he started to say Grandma. He is talking SO much. He is starting to drop things. He used to always use the "b" sound. For example, he would call Leonna "Beonna." I'm not sure why he did that. He now says Leonna. He still has a few that remain. He likes to call a computer a "beputer." Ryan and I have been working with him, so now he says "com-be-puter." :) I've been trying to write down the cute or funny things that he says. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of all of them. The other day he told me when he grows up and gets big he is going to drive my car and be a teacher like I am. I asked him if he wanted to be a teacher, or if he wanted to be an eye doctor like daddy. He thought for a minute, and then he said, "I want to be all." He wants to be a teacher eye doctor. I also loved it last week when he told me that Lilli is going to talk when she gets older. I told him that was correct. He said that they will talk together. Then they will build a fort to sleep in. They will not go to sleep because they will stay up and talk together and they will laugh. A parent couldn't ask for anymore than that!

Lilli is also my little talker. Her favorite word right now is "Minka." I think she hears us saying it to so often, that now she says it all of the time. She kept saying the word "why" yesterday. Since that is one of Caden's favorite words, I am not surprised by that. She still has the sweetest little voice when she says the word "hi."

Other things going on with Lilli...She LOVES to run, especially when she has something she knows she shouldn't have. For instance, she is really into pulling out our outlet covers. She will grab it, look at me, and run away squealing. She knows she shouldn't do that. Stinker...

I also have proof that both kiddos are mine. They both LOVE LOVE LOVE frosting. That alone proves it.

I have been trying to better manage my time. One thing I did that really helped with this is organizing our basement. Somehow cleaning that up seems to have given me so much more time. I think part of the reason is that I am no longer dedicating any time to worry about how horrible the basement looks. Here are so pics I took after I finished. I now can do other things without feeling guilty that I am not using the time to organize the basement.

Did you notice the workout area? I have been using that quite often lately. We now have a family membership to the Y, so I workout there as well. I got tired of feeling crappy about not losing all of my baby weight, and then I realized that I have no one to blame except myself. Yes, I am really busy, but so are a lot of other people. I realized that working out needs to be a priority for me. I want the kids to see me workout so that also becomes a part of their lives. So now it is a priority for me. Even if I am really tired, or I don't feel like working out, I get at least 15 minutes in. I have also been going to spinning class at the Y on Wednesdays after Lilli's swimming class. It is killer, but also a lot of fun.

I have also renewed my interest and adherence to Weight Watchers. I am tracking everything I eat, and realizing that those extra bites of the kids' mac and cheese can add up :)

Nicole Josephs and I signed up to run the Oshkosh Half-Marathon in April. That will be a huge push to get back into great shape. I know it is possible, but at this point that seems pretty difficult. I even did a trial run last night to get my time for a mile. It was 13:40...ouch! We will see where I end up. My goal is to just keep pushing myself to improve my time. Like I said, I just really want to demonstrate to Caden and Lilli a healthy lifestyle.

I think that is a pretty good update for now. Of course, there is more, but that will have to wait for another day!

Night!

missing my Sassy girl...

2011-11-22T22:00:00.000-06:00

I know it's almost been a month since I last updated. So much has happened since then. A lot of sad news. The worst of which was Sassy passing away November 5th. It was very unexpected and horrible. She was in kidney failure, and of course we didn't know until the end. The good news is that she didn't suffer. We are all just still very sad that she is gone. I miss her every night, as I will forever.

I will update again hopefully tomorrow with something upbeat!

Night!

fun with balloons

2011-10-26T09:21:00.000-05:00

Caden had a great birthday yesterday. I will post pics tomorrow from his birthday dinner last night. Here is a cute short video of the kids playing with some of the balloons left from Caden's party. Notice how Lilli is a big fan of squealing now. If you listen carefully you can also hear her say "Bentley" after he barks :)

Trunk or Treat and Caden's birthday party

2011-10-24T23:19:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was pretty busy! We had Trunk or Treat for the kids at Our Savior's Lutheran Church (Jay and Linda's church) on Saturday. The kids had a great time. Caden even won for the cutest costume. I think that Lilli was the cutest, but I wasn't going to argue :) The kids played games, ate snacks, did some crafts, and ended the time by trunk-or-treating in the parking lot. Fun was had by all!

Loving the cupcake he "won" in music chairs

Lilli plays musical chairs with Dada. Cousin Andrew plays with Grandma's help

Happy girl

Craft time!

Parading around the church to show the costumes

What a good lookin' family :)

Posing in the "alien car"

Cousin Andrew takes a crack at the pinata

Cousin Adin takes a turn

Caden has to get into the action, too!

Trunk-or-treating!

Caden got pretty good at saying "Trick or Treat."

Cutie cousins

All the cousins!

The rest of Saturday was dedicated to getting ready for Caden's birthday party for Sunday. The majority of the time I spent on the cake. Of course I had to get the Buzz Lightyear Wilton cake pan. I knew it would take quite awhile to decorate it, but WOW it took a long time. It took me around 1 hour to mix all the different colors after I made the large batch of butter cream frosting. Then it took 3 1/2 hours to decorate the cake. Was it worth it? Yep. Here is the result:

Caden was pretty pleased, too. Here he is checking it out:

He had a great time at his party and was pretty well behaved. Here are some highlights from the party.

The cupcakes

Look how carefully he reads his cards :)

Buzz Lightyear laptop!

Super cute helper, Nathan

Blowing out his candles

The cousins enjoying some cake. No shirts to prevent dirty shirts :)

Lilli enjoys a cupcake after she wakes up. She slept through the ENTIRE party :)

Thank you to everyone who came to make his party so special.

Tomorrow is his actual birthday, so we plan to get him a little ice cream cake and let him open the gifts from us. It should be a good day. I'm sure I'll have more pics.

It's hard to believe it's already been 3 years! It seems like just yesterday he looked like this:

Night!

"I will take care of you, Mama"

2011-10-18T19:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday, Oct. 6th was during the week when I worked on Caden's birthday invitations. I was up WAY too late quite a few days that week. That Thursday I decided I needed to go to bed early to make up for lost sleep. I decided to let Caden snuggle with me for a little bit in our bed. I wanted to make this post all about what he said so I never forget it. He was next to me on Ryan's pillow with Baby Mickey to his left. He put his little arm around my neck, patted my shoulder, and said, "I will take care of you, Mama." It was the sweetest thing. I have no idea why he said it or what made him think to say it, but it was so sweet. I told him thank you, and he patted my shoulder again. What a sweet little guy :)

Night!

Potty time update!!!

2011-10-17T22:04:00.000-05:00

Who would ever think that your child's bathroom routine could offer so much excitement? The house was filled with squeals of delight last night when...watch for it... Caden went POOPY IN THE POTTY!!! I was so excited! I could not believe he FINALLY did it. I know it was only once...but don't take this small victory from me :) We have been talking with him for what seems like years about using the potty for going poopy. (Side note: I don't think I have ever typed the word "poopy" so many times). Last night right at bedtime, around 8 pm, he went and stood behind his chair in his bedroom. That is the sign that he is going to go to the bathroom. Ryan saw this, so he told Caden that he wanted to take him to try to go on the potty. Caden did NOT fight the idea. That right there was HUGE. He ended up wanting me to go in there with him. I will spare you all of the details, but the end result was that he went!!!

So at 8:30 on a Sunday night, we changed him out of pj's and back into clothes, and we went to Target while Lilli stayed with Grammie. Of course he couldn't wait to get...ROCKIN MICKEY! His name is really Rock Star Mickey, but Caden calls him Rockin Mickey. He was thrilled to get his Mickey. Here he is checking him out in the store:

He insisted on carrying him all by himself. He looked so cute lugging that big box through the store.

What a big boy!

Night!

Buzz Lightyear invitations

2011-10-09T21:26:00.000-05:00

The reason that last week lacked in the post department was the fact that I still didn't have Caden's birthday invitations created. I know I am a planner, but this one got me. I had the BEST design, but I was way too ambitious. Ryan came down and looked at it and told me I had to start over with an easier design. Keep in mind that this was about 5 hours into it. But...he was right. I scrapped what I had and started over. The original design had a full Buzz and Woody standing next to the party information. I wasn't really thinking about the fact that each character was at least 30 little pieces. Yep, I'm crazy! I ended up with one that just features Buzz Lightyear. The text from the original card was able to be salvaged. I don't think they turned out to be that bad, but of course not as cool as the original design. My sanity was worth more. What do you think of them?

Halloween preview continued

2011-10-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

Here is a short video of Caden getting his new costume on. He was REALLY excited about it.

Halloween preview

2011-10-02T22:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted since Wednesday. It was Homecoming Week at school, and I just don't know where the week went! Here is a sneak peek at Lilli in her Halloween costume. She doesn't seem to mind it. She is an alien since Caden is going to be Buzz Lightyear.

Enjoy!

time with Dadda and Bumpah

2011-09-28T22:45:00.000-05:00

I went tonight with Sam to David's Bridal to pick out my dress for the wedding. Because Momma was gone, the kiddos stayed home with Dadda. They really lucked out because Bumpah came over, too. While I had a really fun time, it looks like they did, too!

Night!

important words

2011-09-27T23:01:00.000-05:00

When I took the dogs to the vet this summer, I had to wait a little while in one of the waiting rooms. There was a picture on the wall that I really liked, so I took a picture of it. I know the pic isn't the greatest, but I think the message is very true.

So often we worried about the "stuff" we have, and we forget that isn't what really matters. Ryan and I are very lucky that we have two great kids and two loving dogs about which to be enthusiastic. The other things just don't matter as much.

Night!

shopping cart problems

2011-09-26T19:00:00.000-05:00

We went grocery shopping yesterday at Festival, and Caden wanted to push a little shopping cart. Well, he calls it a "big boy" shopping cart. We made sure to not let him have it until we only had around three aisles left. We have learned the hard way that he will lose interest before the end of the shopping trip if we let him have it right away.

I thought he would like it if I put something in the cart, so I put a 12 pack of Diet Coke in there. It ended up making the cart a little too hard to push. He had some steering issues. The video ends with him asking me to take it out. He had fun. And yes, we were there during part of the Packer game. With kids, you have to go shopping when you can :)

Night!

Lilli LOVES food

2011-09-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

Our little girl can eat. I mean, this little one eats more than Caden! We have yet to find a food she doesn't like. Ryan was at continuing education this weekend for the WOA, so I sent him a pic of Lilli eating some Canadian bacon pizza. She ate an entire piece and a half. They were the traditional wedge shaped pieces. Not even the little squares. She was a pretty happy girl.

Night!

tired Lilli

2011-09-23T22:11:00.000-05:00

This is an older pic (from May) that I came across as I was looking through my pics. Lilli was pretty tired after eating dinner so Ryan put her on the chair to sit a minute. He called me into the room a second later to look at her. She feel asleep immediately. Pretty cute. She stayed there for quite a bit.

Night!

Caden the photographer

2011-09-22T21:38:00.001-05:00

My son LOVES to take pictures. I know he is mine, so I think everything he does is great...but really, he takes some nice pictures! Not perfect of course, but he seems to have an eye for picture composition. Here are some highlights from some of his pics. Notice he doesn't quite know how to use the flash. Remember, he isn't three yet!

He likes taking pictures of his "friends."

He got a pic of Bentley where you can actually see Bentley. Amazing...

Shocking...Sassy in a reclined position :)

I know I posted this one already, but I still LOVE that you can see him in my sunglasses!

This would be a GREAT picture if he would have had the flash on.

He is going to be a great photographer just like his Daddy :)

Night!

Ryan and his buddies

2011-09-21T22:25:00.000-05:00

Look how cute this pic is from Sunday when Andrew came to play with us. The boys were taking a break and watching a show. Believe me...it was a small miracle to get them to calm down and sit to watch. The fact they sat like this was just too cute.

I tried to get Lilli to sit, too. That just wasn't going to happen :(

Night!

picture time!

2011-09-20T18:17:00.000-05:00

Last night after Ryan got home, we took the kids in the backyard and took pics. Well, Ryan took the pictures. I wanted a nice one of Lilli for her one year pic, and of course I wanted a cute one of the two kids. I think Ryan did VERY well. What do you think?

Fun with Cousin Andrew

2011-09-19T19:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Caden was pretty happy because Andrew came to spend the day with us. He was there from around 11 until 8 last night. The boys had a great time! Lilli did, too. I wish the weather would have been nicer so we could have gone to the park. Ryan and I joked that we would have to send Cara and Jordon and apology letter since Andrew seems to have picked up some of Caden's habits. He now does the sassy "never" when he doesn't want to do something. We think that was picked up at Cousin Adin's birthday party. The other thing that Andrew now likes to do is fake burp and excuse himself. Caden thought it was pretty funny when Andrew started doing it, too. Of course you guessed it... Ryan got a video of it! Notice that Caden almost falls off his stool (not really :)) And says, "That was a close one!" They are too funny.

Enjoy!

Lilli loves Sassy

2011-09-17T17:00:00.003-05:00

We are very lucky that we have two dogs that are so tolerant of the kids. Lilli crawls all over Sassy all of the time. Sassy doesn't even lift her head :) If Lilli cries though, both dogs go to check everything out to make sure she is okay. Here is another video (thank you, Ryan) of Lilli with Sassy. Too cute!

Lilli walking

2011-09-16T22:04:00.000-05:00

Here is a short video of Lilli walking that Ryan captured yesterday on his phone. There is another one that I will post later of Lilli loving up Sassy. She is a big fan of the Sassy dog :)

Night!

Summer 2011

2011-09-15T21:54:00.001-05:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

"I do not want to listen to you..."

2011-09-15T21:04:00.000-05:00

"I do not want to listen to you..." This is a phrase I often hear come out of the mouth of my sometimes sassy little boy. The whole idea of listening (or not listening, which is the case many times) comes from visits to time-out I think. When he has to sit in time out, I always make him apologize before he gets up. He then has to also tell me what he did that got him to time-out. An example would be, "I am sorry, Mama. I jumped from the coffee table onto the couch. That is dangerous." Yes, this is a real example. Sometimes he goes to time out for not listening. I guess he heard that from me enough that now as he is walking to time-out he says, "I will listen..." It comes out more like, "I will yisen to you." I think he is finally realizing that just saying that will not get him out of sitting in time-out. He still has to serve the time.

I will end with a couple cute pics from the kids on a bike ride day. This was a couple weeks ago on a Wednesday. I took these on my phone, so they are not the greatest. But the kids still look super cute!
We only went up and down the street. Lilli wasn't digging wearing shoes that day. :)

Meeting Mickey Mouse

2011-09-14T19:00:00.000-05:00

I know Caden met Mickey in June, but I just love this picture. Plus I know I promised to post it on the blog. I still like looking at it:

I plan to print it and put it in his bedroom. In fact, maybe I should create a Disney World collage of pics for his room. I was just so happy he ended up giving him a hug. He didn't hug him at first. He was a little apprehensive. After we took some other pics he then decided to give Mickey a hug. Priceless :)

Night!

Pumpkin time!

2011-09-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

Before I took the kids home from Grandma and Bumpah's house, the kids got to pick out some pumpkins from Bumpah's pumpkin patch. That is not as easy as it sounds. Caden had to put a lot of thought into it:

We ended up bringing five home. I think Caden's favorite part was riding on Jimmy (the 4-wheeler) with Bumpah to take the pumpkins to my car.

Here the kiddos are posing with one of the pumpkins we brought home. Caden didn't stay there too long before he decided he wanted to take pictures of Baby Girl.

Night!

tired...

2011-09-12T23:10:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day. It was pretty busy at school, so I am tired. I wanted to have a more elaborate post, but again... I'm tired. Look forward to some highlight pics from Caden's swimming classes this summer. But for now...too tired :)

Night!

Mulberry Lane Farm

2011-09-11T21:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a very fun day. We went to Mulberry Lane Farm in Sherwood, WI with the kids. It was similar to Little Farmer but on a smaller scale. I had never heard of the farm, but thanks to Groupon found out about it. I bought tickets to the farm at the end of last school year. Since the tickets will expire next weekend, we knew we needed to go. I am so happy I bought those tickets. We had a GREAT time. The farm was nowhere near as crowded as the Little Farmer. We received a 1 hour tour of the farm. The best part was that the kids could touch all of the animals. Yes, they had hand washing stations all over:) Here are some of the highlights:

Caden and Dadda watching some piglets.

Hayride time!!!

Would have been a perfect picture if Lilli's eye would have been open :)

Checking out a chicken

Pretty girl

I love all of the green!

Feeding the sheep

Checking out some pigs

One little goat with Caden

Feeding goats

Riding a pony!

The pony's name was Princess

Caden successfully milks a cow!

Goofy boy :)

Loves his little sister

The stump kinda looked like a heart

Playing in the grass

Lilli was pretty excited!

He loves sticking his head in these things.

Picnic time!

Hungry boy

Caden the photographer took this pic. Look in my sunglasses and you can see him :) Love it!

We ended our trip there with a picnic lunch that Dada packed for us. Pretty much everyone was a happy camper... farmer.

We promised Caden we would take him back one more time this fall. His favorite part was milking the cow.

Have a great week!

the perfect picture

2011-09-10T19:00:00.001-05:00

Lilli started to really walk today. It is like she all of a sudden understood how to do it. I am working on getting some video of it. Pictures just won't do it justice.

Speaking of pictures...I find that I am always trying to get the "perfect" picture. Because of scrapbooking, I always try to get a great picture for the book. I have begun to realize that some of my favorite pictures are the unstaged ones. Or even the ones that I think won't look good, so I keep snapping. The 4th of July is a good example of this. I had both kiddos in red, white, and blue, so I though it was a great photo opp. I kept snapping but wasn't happy with the pics. Lilli kept trying to grab the camera, I couldn't get Caden to smile, one of them would look away... The list goes on. I finally gave up. When I went back and looked at the pics, I loved them! My favorite turned out to be one when Lilli almost grabbed the camera. What do you think?

Caden was trying to get her to sit next to him for the pic. "Sit, Baby Girl."

Yes, she is falling off the couch. I caught her :)

I mean really, could they be any cuter? And look at that cute little squirt. Such a happy girl!

Night!

Lilli's stats compared to Caden's

2011-09-09T19:00:00.001-05:00

Lilli's one year appointment was great. She is doing very well. I don't think I posted her stats from her 9 month check, so I will put those up here, too. Here are her numbers:

Lilli's 9 month stats         Appointment date 5/31/11

Height         27.5 inches           70th %tile
Weight        16.6 lbs                 10th %tile
Head           45.6 cm                 88th %tile

Here are a couple pics from that day:

Always happy until the shots :(

Caden's 9 month stats                Appointment date 7/23/09

Height         29 inches           80th %tile

Weight        18.10 lbs            25th %tile

Head           46.8 cm              90th %tile

Here are a couple pics of the little man from that day:

Seriously. How cute are my children? I just want to pinch those little cheeks every time I see them!

Lilli's 12 month stats         Appointment date 8/29/11

Height         29.75 inches         70th %tile

Weight        19 lbs                    20th %tile

Head           46.5 cm                 90th %tile

Caden's 12 month stats         Appointment date 10/26/09

Height        30.5 inches         75th %tile

Weight        21 lbs                 25th %tile

Head           47.5 cm              80th %tile

I am so lucky to have two very healthy kids. Not only is Lilli healthy, she is as happy as happy can be. She is constantly talking and babbling. Her words now include: mama, dada, baba, buh bye, more, wa (water), KK (Caden), hi (she says this constantly), Bumpah, Bentley (I swear she says it), and raspberry. Yes, she said raspberry Monday night. I am happy to say that Ryan witnessed this as well. It was after I explained to her that when Daddy blows on her tummy it is called a raspberry. She looked at me and said raspberry. What can I say? My kids are geniuses. :) She already says more than Caden did for a long time.

I will try to keep catching you up from things from the summer little by little.

Night!

The summer is over and Lilli is One!

2011-09-08T22:02:00.000-05:00

I won't even bother with the apology for the lack of posts. At this point they are pretty meaningless :) Needless to say it was a busy summer. Wonderful...but busy. I am sad that it is over. I am back to school now. This is our second week back. Last week we only had students for two days, so it has been a nice easing back into the swing of things. I think we are back into a routine. It was definitely a shift.

I wanted to focus this post on my little Lilli. She is already one! I can't believe it. It seems like we brought her home just yesterday.

We celebrated Lilli's birthday on Friday first since that was her real birthday. I didn't make a whole cake since we were going to be having one the next day. I made her little Mickey character mini cakes in a little press that I have. Lilli loved them! Caden did too, of course.

I also thought since the weather was so beautiful it would be a nice time to take a family picture. Caden hasn't been too fond of having his picture taken lately, but I think this one turned out pretty nice.

We had her birthday party on the 27th. We had beautiful weather, and I think everyone had a great time. Here are some of the pics. I didn't take nearly as many pics as I would have liked. My mom came from Florida to be there for the party and help out. The kids had a good time with her. We were happy she was able to come and visit.

Have a nice night! GO PACK GO! :)

Educare and Florida Fun Installment II

2011-06-29T22:30:00.001-05:00

The weather was absolutely perfect today. We need to enjoy it before it gets to be too hot. Caden, Lilli, and I met Grandma, Aunt Linda, and Cousin Adin at Educare for a toddler craft/song class. The class lasted 1 hour, and Caden was pretty much done with it after 30 minutes. They did some cute things, but for a 2 1/2 year old, the pace was a little slow. Caden did enjoy the parachute of course. He has always loved that in Adventures in Music. Here are some pics:

The boys before the class started.

My little goofball :)

Here I am trying to get Caden interested in coloring. Not very successfully. Lilli is trying to get in on the action.

Caden seemed to like matching his turtle with the correct shell.

And finally...the parachute. He LOVES it. Check out that smile. Adin is directly behind the flying teddy bear.

The rest of the day was pretty good, too. Caden took a nap today (thank you, God!), and after he woke up we played outside in the water. Lilli also took a decent nap today, so I was a happy camper. It gave me time to get all of my flowers and veggies watered. Caden loves to help with that, but it takes a lot longer then. Plus last night he held Ryan and me hostage with the hose. I was outside with him and he turned it on me. I ran into the house yelling (and laughing) for him not to squirt me. He thought it was HILARIOUS. Ryan eventually had to run out and all around the yard to get the hose away from him. He is a stinker.

Back to Florida...

Here are some pics from when we went to the Lowry Park Zoo. Other than getting in trouble every five minutes from the employees (that is not too much of an exaggeration) we had a good time:

Caden checks out the monkeys with his binoculars.

Look how cute those boys are holding hands :)

Caden was still talking about riding the train with Oma from when we went during Spring Break, so we knew we had to do it again. Check out Lilli's face. Too cute! Andrew is loving it, too.

And of course I need to include a shot of Lilli sleeping, because she loves doing that. And she is oh so cute while she does.

Night!

Florida Fun! Installment I

2011-06-28T23:01:00.000-05:00

We got back from Florida last Saturday. It was a great time...a hot time...but a great time. We went with Grandma, Bumpah, Aunt Cara, Uncle Jordon, and Cousin Andrew. All had a great time! I am still sorting through everything and tried to get completely unpacked. It hasn't helped that Caden has stopped napping the last two days... This include the pics.

The big part of the trip was when we went to Disney on the 21st. It was also our 8th anniversary. It was a great day. The kids were wonderful. Caden didn't nap then either. He was up all day and didn't go to sleep until 10:20 that night. As I said already, I still need to get through the pictures, but I will put some of the Disney pics up now. Here are some of the highlights:

Lilli was exhausted by all of the action.

Caden on the teacups with Daddy.

Caden LOVED meeting Buzz. Notice we had a hard time getting him to look at the camera :)

Who is afraid of Zurg? Not Caden!

Here we are on "It's a Small World." Can't tell if Lilli liked it or not...

This is when we were waiting for the bus to take us back to get our cars. Long day, but still two very happy little guys.

You may have noticed I didn't include any pics of the kids and Mickey. They did meet both Mickey and Minnie, but I don't have pics from my camera. I am still debating if I want to buy the ones they took at the park. Cara has some on her camera, so I need to see those. I will put some up when I have them. Caden did give both Minnie and Mickey a hug. It was cute.

Caden was also very happy to see Oma and Papa. Every night since we got back he has asked for a Caden story about "going to Oma and Papa's house." Too cute. He also likes to say that Papa is a "pool man." He is a funny guy.

He is still talking more and more. He has been saying the funniest things. On Sunday he said to Chris when we were leaving, "Have a nice sleep in your house, Aunt Chris." Yesterday he looked down at my flip flops (they have gold sparkles on the straps) and said, "those are beautiful." Tonight in the tub he wanted to drain the water, so he said, "May I please push the button?" How did he get to be so polite?

Lilli is doing great, too. She now has three teeth on the bottom and four on the top. I will try to get a pic of those. She is now really starting to get up on her knees to crawl, but she still likes to army crawl the best. She is pretty fast that way. I will get a video.

Although going on vacation is always fun, it is nice to be home. I have a lot of things to...but it is always nice to be home.

Look for more Florida pics soon!

Night!

School's Out for Summer!

2011-06-14T21:54:00.000-05:00

I was sooooo ready for summer to be here. The last two days have been bliss. The weather has been perfect, and the kids and I have been taking advantage of every second!

Monday we played in the yard in the early morning:

After that we headed to Little Oshkosh for some fun around 11ish. We called to see if Linda could bring Adin to play with Caden, and we were in luck. I think the boys had a good time.

Here are the boys taking a break with a snack:

Lilli rested, too:

Lilli liked the bouncy dinosaur seat.

We then met Aunt Lexie at McDonald's for lunch. Caden was bummed out that the remodel of the McDonald's removed the Playland, but I think he still had a good time.

This morning Caden was funny while I was making breakfast. He was playing with his toy drill, so I asked him to fix our oven. He looked at me and said, "There are not screws." So I told him to fix the staircase. He said, "There are no screws there either." Who knew that he knew how to correctly use the word either.

Caden REALLY wanted to get dirty, so we went to Bumpah and Grandma's to play in the sand for awhile. We then went with Grandma and met Dada for lunch at Fratello's. Again...the weather could not have been better! We ate outside, and Caden was well-behaved. :)

We ran to Appleton to pick something up, and then we headed back to Oshkosh. I wanted to head home right away, but Caden was not ready. As he said when I asked him if we could leave: "Not yet." We played there a little more, and then we came home. We played some more in the backyard on the swing set. Both kids adore to swing. I love it, too. They both have looks of complete joy on their faces when they are swinging. It is too sweet. Caden also wanted to play on the "pirate ship" a.k.a our hammock. He loves climbing on their on looking for other ships. My favorite was the morning of June 4th. We were playing outside and he wanted me to get into the hammock with him. So Lilli and I got into the pirate ship. He asked me for a telescope, so I pretended to hand one to him. He said, "Nope, no pirates." Then I told him to look for Captain Hook. He said, "Aye aye Captain Mama." I laughed my butt off.

Tonight for dinner Lilli had some Gerber spaghetti. She LOVES it. Caden never liked that. It looks like she and the spaghetti battled, and the spaghetti won!

I will leave you with some pics from before. Here is a funny one of Lilli. Ryan put her on the chair. Turned around for one second and she conked out.

Caden is my little baker. He loves to help me cook. When I ask if he wants to help me cook he runs to get his apron. Here he is making some muffins. He put the package of mix in the grocery cart when we went shopping on day. He did a great job.

He even watched them baking in the oven.

Lilli loved the final product, too!

Night!

Hello!!!

2011-06-09T22:46:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to say I haven't forgotten about the blog. I have been extremely busy. Today was the last day with students, so I should have more time on my hands starting this weekend. Look for a long update tomorrow!

Here are a couple pics to hold you over:

Caden helping me water:

Lilli on the boat with Aunt Chris not looking too comfortable:

Caden washing the house. (Can you tell he likes the water?):

Lilli browsing my magazines:

Here are a couple of videos. The first is Lilli with Daddy on the hammock in the backyard, and the second is Caden with Daddy on a spinner at a playground.

Night!

no more nuk!!!

2011-04-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a big day here. Caden threw away his nuk. Of course it took some bribery on my part, but he threw it away. In exchange for being a "big boy," I told him that we would get him a bike. After he threw it away he asked for it once last night, but we kept reminding him about the bike. He wanted a "tiny red bike." He asked for it once today, but he went without it. At bedtime tonight he didn't even ask for it. To reward him we went to Fleet Farm after dinner to pick up his new bike. Here is a pic:

Last weekend Ryan had to fix the locking mechanism on the sliding door. Caden decided he needed to help with all of his Handy Manny tools. Here is a video that Ryan got:

Lilli pretty much watches Caden all of the time and smiles at him. She is a rolling fool now, so I will have to get a video of that. I do have this super cute shot of her modeling my sunglasses:

I laugh every time I see the pic.

I will try to get some more pics on later this week!

Night!

snow go away!

2011-03-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

I thought I would update the blog while we were on vacation in Florida...that obviously did not happen! We were too busy soaking up the beautiful sun and weather. It was a great break from this Wisconsin weather.

This week proved to me how ready I am for the snow to finally end. Monday wasn't too bad since the temp was around 51, but the rest of the week has been horrible. It was capped off by the rain, snow, sleet, hail, thunder and lightning from yesterday. Yes...we had all of them. Yikes! It made for slow going to school this morning.

I would like to think back to last week in Florida... But before that I will fill you in on what else has happened. Caden had a haircut on Friday, March 11th. After the cut he had a sucker for the first time. He loved it:

I told him then that he could have another when we were on the airplane. He remembered this well.

Saturday was Andrew's 2nd birthday party. It was a train theme. It was a nice time and the kids had a great time. Here is a video Ryan got on his phone of Caden and Andrew playing on the bed in the nursery after everyone left:

Sunday we left for Florida. We flew out of Milwaukee in the afternoon. It was a direct flight on Frontier airlines. I have decided that no matter the price, we will always take non-stop flights. The kids did a great job on the flight there. I was a little nervous because, well, who wouldn't be? A 2 1/2 and 6 month old on a plane? That could spell disaster. Both were great. The iPad made things a lot easier, too. Caden loved being able to watch "Snow White."

Food also helped. He immediately got in his seat, got his belt on, and said "sucker, please." We probably gave him a few too many. Here are some pics from the plane:

Lilli slept most of the time. :)

The rest of the week was great. Here is an overview. Danny and Sam were there already. They got there on the 10th and stayed until the 16th.

Monday we went to John's Pass. Here are some pics:

Bubba Gump's for lunch

Hanging with Uncle Danny

A huge wing by the Hooters restaurant

Happy family!

Right before Caden got out of the hurricane simulator.

yummm..........

Tuesday was Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa:

Trying sherbet for the first time. BIG fan :)

Wednesday we took Danny and Sam to the airport. We then went to the park and hung out there for awhile. We also bought a blow up pool for the kids.

Thursday my mom took off of work, so we went to the park, went out to eat lunch, and hung around the house. Here is Caden on a walk at the park. He was using his "binoculars" to look for things:

Caden was hilarious at lunch. He was getting a little squirrely while we waited for our food, so we asked him if he wanted to watch something on Ryan's phone. He said, "No watch Snow White on Dada's phone. Dede watch Snow White on iPad." We all laughed pretty hard about that.

Friday we went to the beach at Tarpon Springs. Caden LOVED it:

Lilli...not so much:

Saturday was the day we flew back to WI, but our flight wasn't until 7 pm, so we basically had another day. We got in some more park and also pool time. Caden loved "fishing" in the swimming pool. Here are some pics:

Lilli didn't like the pool either...

The flight home wasn't as great as on the way there. One reason was because we knew we were going back to the cold. The other was that Caden had a meltdown for about 5 minutes during the descent. He was freaking out because he wanted Ryan to hold him. He didn't quite grasp the needing to stay in your seat belted part. We made it though! :)

The rest of the time since we have been back has been great except the weather. Tomorrow I am hoping to get Lilli in for her immunizations that she couldn't get since she was sick before. I still have the same cold I have been trying to kick for two weeks now. I still can't smell. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not so much.

I will leave you with a couple pics that are too cute:

Night!

sick kiddos

2011-03-08T21:30:00.000-06:00

Well, we have a bout of the common cold running through our house. As of now, Ryan and I have somehow managed to avoid it. Caden was hit pretty hard at the end of last week through the weekend. It is truly amazing how much snot one little kid can produce! I know that is gross, but it was impressive! I would have taken a pic of it had that not been really gross to do. Lilli now has the cold, too. She had a pretty bad cough through the weekend, but she was draining at all. That changed yesterday. Now the little squirt has a runny nose, too. Because of it both have been pretty snuggly. I don't like that they are sick, but I love the snuggles. Here is a pic from last night after I got home:

Love!

Last week Ryan had to go out of town for business from Wednesday through late Saturday night. It was pretty tough, but I managed. I am very grateful that I am not a single mom, plus I have so much family here to help me out. Ryan missed the kids a ton, so I tried to send pics when I could. Here are some of the highlights:

Caden asked for Mickey Mouse pancakes Saturday morning.

This was pretty typical sick Caden. The pic doesn't really do justice to his sad eyes... :(

How is this child always happy?

The lighting is horrible because Caden said, "Light too bright." If you look they are holding hands.

This is a very blurry pic, but look at that face! Love it!!!

Another sick Caden pic.

Caden talking to Uncle Danny while he cooks.

Last Tuesday was supposed to be Lilli's 6 month check, but the appointment got canceled. I didn't find this out until I got all the way there. I went to check in and the receptionist said, "Your appointment was canceled. Didn't you get the message?" I wanted to respond in a very sassy manner, but I didn't. I did say, "Well, I guess I didn't since I am here." Here is a pic of Lilli in the elevator going back down after I found out she didn't have her appointment that day.

Her appointment was rescheduled to today at 5:30.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lbs      10th percentile
Height: 25   cm    24th percentile
Head:    43.5 cm   72nd percentile

Here are a couple pics from the visit:

Waiting after the nurse took Lilli's stats.

Look at the cutie! Even with her tummy getting pushed, she was still pretty happy.

Tonight I need to do some grading, and then the rest of the week I need to focus on getting ready to go to Florida. We leave this Sunday. Yikes!

Lots to do...lots to do...

I will leave you with a pic of Lilli sitting by herself like a big girl:

Night!

Hello!

2011-02-28T21:59:00.000-06:00

Hello, all! Well I am back from a weekend of scrapbooking with some great friends. I am well-rested (pretty much) and I had a great time. I know I owe some information about the last two weeks, so here goes!

On Feb. 13th I had a scrapping day for my birthday (two days early). It was so much fun. Pam and Linda did so much work preparing for the day. They designed cards and different goodies for everyone to make. The food was awesome, too. I LOVED the carrot cake from LaSure's. Yum! It was a great time for everyone, and the hand and neck massages didn't hurt either! I also got a Vagabond. This machine is unbelievable. Click on the link back there to see what it is. I will be using that little bad boy quite a bit!

Here is a pic from my birthday:

Yes, Lilli is crying. Take a look at the pic and you can see the little tear by her eye. Sad, but still so cute!

Saturday, the 19th was a fun day. We took Caden to see Disney on Ice: Mickey and Minnie's Magical Adventure. He had a good time. Here are some pics:

He was pretty tired by the end!

Every time Mickey would leave the ice Caden would say, "Mickey come back." It was really cute.

Speaking of cute, Caden has also started to say when I get home, "Momma, I miss you too much." It melts my heart every time. I love it!

Lilli has earned the nickname Peach Fuzz. Look at her fuzzy little head.

Caden never had the fine hair like she has all over. It is so soft. I love that little head!

It is has been kinda crazy in the political world in Wisconsin. Kinda sucks being a teacher right now. I just keep hoping that the saying, "This too shall pass," will ring true in this case, too...

One thing that made me feel a little better was the students in our high school had a sit-in to show their support for the teachers. They put signs all around the school. They also wrote notes and put them up on in our rooms. The best part was when they took the time to come up to us to say "thank you." It meant a lot.

I will see if I can get some pics from my birthday scrap day and also from this past weekend. I will put them on later. I hope.

I will leave you with a couple pics of Caden and Andrew playing and Grandma and Bumpah's house. Love them!

Night!

Busy!!!

2011-02-23T20:52:00.000-06:00

Life has been crazy hectic the last couple weeks. I will update tomorrow night with a ton of pics!!!

Mushrooms and Deja Vu

2011-02-08T21:19:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention something about Saturday. Saturday night Ryan and I went out to eat at The Wild Truffle in Appleton. It was DIVINE!!! If you are a mushroom fan, I highly recommend this restaurant. YUM! It is my new favorite. Check out this pic of the mushroom bruschetta:

This is definitely my new favorite. I am starting to salivate even thinking about it!!! I am going to try to recreate the bruschetta sometime soon.

I will leave you with two pics. Lilli is starting to look a little less like Caden I think, but there is still definitely a resemblance. Look at these two cuties:

Night!

GO PACK GO!!!

2011-02-07T22:06:00.000-06:00

GO PACK GO!!! GO PACK GO!!! GO PACK GO!!! GO PACK GO!!! GO PACK GO!!! I'll get back to this topic later.

I think I have finally figured out how I will get my post done on a more regular basis. Let's see if it works!

Where to start... The last time I updated was Jan. 18th, so quite a bit has happened since then. The biggest thing, of course, was Ryan's surprise 30th birthday party. That was Saturday, Jan. 22nd. I was say that I think I REALLY got him. He was pretty clueless. Like I told everyone who asked, he was way too busy to notice anything. Plus I guess I am a pretty good liar. :) Here are some of the highlights:

Here he is when he first walks in

Yes, it is a surprise for you!!!

Check out that YUMMY cake. I think I was more excited about it than he was.

The best band EVER. Who knew that a band of eye doctors could be so cool?

Even the kiddos had fun. Check out the setup they had!

Catching up with high school friends.

Finding time for a little dance.

How did I get lucky enough to snag this guy?

Having a good time.

He had a great time. Plus I don't think he will need to buy any wine for quite a long time.

Sunday was a good day as well because the Packers played the Bears for the NFC Championship. As everyone knows, they won! It was a great game. We had plenty of food still from the party, so we were set.

The kids had a great time visiting with Oma and Papa, who were in town for Ryan's party. Ryan thought it was so they could help Dave with some improvements to the duplex. After he knew the real reason he said that made a lot more sense! I need to snag some pics from my mom that she took.

The week of the 24th was pretty good. Alexis and I are still working out, but not always in the morning. I found it was just taking too much out of me. I was dragging, so we decided working out every morning just wasn't okay. We are now working out two mornings a week. The other days are at night. Much better:)

Friday the 28th we had dinner with Ron and Jody Harrell. Mr. Harrell was our English/Mass Media/Journalism teacher in high school. We had a really nice time. I made Jambalaya and cornbread. We had a great time. It was nice to catch up with them. We promised we wouldn't let as much time pass between dinners as it did this last time. The last time we got together was before I had Caden. Yep. Too long.

Saturday the 29th, Ryan's real birthday, we really didn't do anything. That was exactly what Ryan wanted. He just bummed around the house with the kids and me:

We made dinner at home and watched a documentary about Oshkosh. Yep, we are exciting people. We had Shrimp Diablo. It was pretty spicy!

Last week was a great week, too. Last Monday Lilli had a vegetable for the first time. She had peas. She loved them:

My girl loves to eat. Since this picture she has also tried sweet potatoes and green beans. She loved those as well, too. She is an eating machine.

Here are a couple other cute pics:

First time in the exersaucer

Strong girl!

Saturday was a great day. The kids both woke up early. Of course that wasn't the great part. My wonderful husband let me go back to bed after breakfast at 8:30 for a half hour. I woke back up around 10:30! I felt so rested! Thank you, Ryan!

Daddy and the kiddos on Saturday.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!! Sunday was the day the Packers won the Super Bowl!!! Yay!!! Even Lilli enjoyed watching the game:

It was a great night! Caden even made up a new game. He turns his chair upside down and has people spin him around. Yes, he is wearing a helmet. Safety first. He wanted everyone to keep spinning him. We had to eat, so there had to be some spinning breaks. He asked me to spin him and I told him I was eating and to ask Alexis. He put his head down and in the saddest voice said, "She will say no..." It was so cute and sad at the same time. He had a great time. A dizzy time...but a great time.

Night!!!

the long awaited post

2011-01-18T21:13:00.001-06:00

About last week...I know I promised a post. Well, life happens! I got too busy, and I was way too tired. Alexis and I have been working out every morning from 5:30-6:00 AM, so I am pretty beat when the kiddos go to bed. This is our third week, however, and I don't think we will be stopping any time soon!

Now to catch you all up on what's been happening around here.

I will start with Lilli's 4 month check up on Thursday, January 6th. Here is a pic of the little squirt as the nurse gets her stats:

Yes, she was smiling. She thought everything was great until she got the shot. (She wasn't too happy last Thursday either when she went back for the other shot...)

Here are her stats:

24 in.                          27th percentile
11 lbs. 10 ounces          6th percentile (She is a little squirt)
41 cm                          40th percentile

That weekend we didn't do too much. Andrea's birthday was on Saturday, and Ella's birthday was on Sunday. One fun thing that Ryan and I did was go out to dinner, just the two of us, on Saturday night. Alexis came and watched the kids from around 5-8. We originally wanted to go to HuHot in Appleton, but by the time we got there it was way too busy. Ryan ended up suggesting that we go to Jonathan's Bistro. It was AWESOME!!! I loved it. I had Grilled Salmon Caprese. Delicious!!! I can't wait to go back. We didn't go out for a long time, but it was still great. It reminded us that we need to do that more often.

Last week was a decent week. Again, not too much happened. It is the end of the semester at school, so we have all been trying to tie up some loose ends at school. Busy! Busy!

The weekend was fun, too. Saturday afternoon we had Mads' 3rd birthday party. Caden had a great time! Then we came home and started to get things ready for Ryan's Rotary Holiday Party. It was supposed to be at Benvenuto's, but you know that we cheeseheads can't miss our Packers. Since they didn't want to cancel the party, Ryan and I decided to just have everyone come to our house instead. It was a great time. Caden was a ham and kept saying hi to everyone and "Pack! Go! Go! Go!" It was pretty cute. The win of course means that the Pack will be playing Da Bears next Sunday! GO PACK GO!!!

Sunday started with church of course. After church was the highlight of Caden's day. Caden went to Garbage Hill with Bumpah and Daddy. He had a blast! Here is a pic from Ryan and a video:

After sledding they took the little guy to McDonald's. Could he have had a better day? He was so tired when they got home that Ryan said he put himself down for a nap. He went upstairs (Ryan followed him), turned on his white noise machine, and plopped onto his bed. :)

This week has been flying already as well. It is finals week, so we have an altered schedule. It will be nice to start second semester next week. It will be a fresh start for everyone. I also like the idea of new classes so I can start things off.

Here are some pics from since the last time I posted:

Yummy!

This is the best roll ever!!!

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

Look at those cute feet!

Caden contemplating the true meaning of Mickey

"Don't worry, I'll get her arm."

Check out the hair

This little girl is pretty much always smiling

Here is my pic of the day for today of Lilli:

Does it look familiar?

She is one week younger than Caden was in his pic!

Night!

Stay tuned...

2011-01-11T20:46:00.002-06:00

Where is the time going??? Watch for a long post tomorrow. I will have all of Lilli's stats from her check-up last week and lost of pics!

Night!

cereal time and Caden's movie date

2011-01-04T21:27:00.000-06:00

We decided to try some rice cereal with Lilli tonight. She has shown all of the signs of being ready, so tonight was the night. She did very well...very messy...but very well. She seemed to really like it. We tried it pretty thin at first, but she ended up seeming to like it better thickened more. Here are some pics:

Ryan also got a little video with his phone. Look at her go!

She got so mad if I didn't shovel fast enough. Silly girl!

I also wanted to put the CUTEST pic from New Year's Eve. Sara and Mike were in town with the kiddos. Caden and Maddie got along very well. Not as well when he was trying to hug her, which is more like a tackle, but when he wasn't hugging all was well. Maddie had the movie "Despicable Me," which Caden has been wanting to see. Here they are watching the movie:

They are sitting on Adin's little Mickey couch. It was folded out to make a little bed. They are even under the covers. How cute are they?! I love it!

Night!

part-time request

2011-01-03T23:33:00.000-06:00

I officially put in my request with my principal to have a job share starting next school year. He was very receptive. Nothing is set in stone yet, but keep your fingers crossed for me.

Short post tonight. I am tired. Here are two cutie pics of Lilli that Ryan took last week:

Night!

GO PACK GO!!!

2011-01-03T08:44:00.000-06:00

Check out Caden watching the WONDERFUL game yesterday. He was pretty excited:

bye bye bathtub hammock

2010-12-30T21:05:00.000-06:00

Lilli made the transition tonight out of the little hammock in her bathtub. I thought it was getting a little too tight for her. She seemed to really enjoy the extra room to wiggle in.

Night!

McDonald's fun and "you must always hold me"

2010-12-29T21:28:00.000-06:00

Caden was a happy camper today because we went with Grandma to McDonald's for lunch. He was a good boy and ate his lunch before he played. He LOVES the apple dippers. Those were gone before anything else. Here are some pics of him playing on the playground. He had a blast:

Lilli has decided that she must be held at all times. She can be crying bloody murder, but if you pick her up she is suddenly fine. She has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger. She just cries and looks at him and he picks her up. Here she is sitting happily tonight after she got her way and Daddy picked her up. He is trying to get a spoon to balance on her nose:

Here is a pic of Lilli looking too cute yesterday:

Night!

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-28T23:09:00.000-06:00

We have been busy celebrating the holidays lately, so updated the blog has been pretty low on the priority list :) I will do my best to caught you up on the last week here in the Ames household.

We had Christmas Eve at our house this year. We had a great time. Caden and Lilli were spoiled rotten by the family. Here are some of the highlights from the night:

Caden "helps" decorate the cut outs

Family pic. Check out Caden standing on Ryan's hand.

The tradition continues.

Although Caden only really sat through the first page. Lilli looks enthralled.

Caden and Andrew had a great time playing together. Here are the two crazy boys:

We went to the 10:30 pm candle light service at church. We put the kiddos in their pj's before we left, and they were all great. Lilli slept throughout the entire service, and both Caden and Andrew were out about halfway through. Adin slept the entire service just like Lilli.

Christmas morning was great. This is my favorite pic:

Look at that smile on Caden's face... Love it!

Caden checks out the presents before we start opening.

After we opened presents here we headed over to Grandma and Bumpah's to see Reed, Terra, and Ryne who were visited from MN. We had a great time. We also did our Christmas gift exchange there. We may need to build onto the house to hold all of the new things.

Sunday was our traditional run to Green Bay for after Christmas shopping. We always hit Taylor Creek first. The only thing I bought there was a nut cracker for Caden. I am packing it up right away for next year.

Yesterday I was home with the kids, and I just worked on getting things situated in the house. We also got our photos from Thompson, so I was separating those to mail out to family. Here are my favorites:

I hope everyone is having a great time during the holidays!!!

I will leave you with this hilarious pic of Lilli. She looks a little terrified.

Night!

Christmas fun

2010-12-20T23:01:00.000-06:00

We had a busy weekend of getting things ready for Christmas. I had to make cookies for our school cookie exchange that was this year. I was a cookie making fool. Caden thoroughly enjoyed being a cookie taster for me.

Friday was my school's holiday party. Ryan and I went for about 1 1/2 hours. We had a nice time. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but I was very tired.

Saturday I made all of the dough for the cookies. Other than that we just hung out at the house. It was nice.

Sunday we went to Grandma and Bumpah's for dinner. We had Christmas early with Danny and Sam after dinner since we won't see them on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day most likely. Caden LOVED his present from them. They got him a Cars Lighting McQueen 4-wheeler. The rest of us may as well send our presents back :) Here is a video that Ryan shot of him enjoying his new toy.

This week will be a short one since I only have school through Wednesday. It will be nice to have some more time home with the kids. I miss them when I am away from them.

I will leave you with some pics!

"Caden, don't drink the water." That is what is often said during bath time.

Lilli is too cool

Here is a pic from Caden at the frame show at the Paine two weeks ago.

Caden cooking in his kitchen.

Snuggling

Night!

Santa

2010-12-16T21:22:00.000-06:00

Caden and Lilli went to see Santa tonight. Lilli was fine with Santa, but Caden was not a fan. In the pic he is pointing to me and saying "Mama." Too funny! The pic isn't the best quality because I took a picture of the picture with my phone. I will have to scan the real one.

Night!

I love my babies!

2010-12-14T22:21:00.000-06:00

This morning Ryan was Mister Mom and got the kids all up and ready by himself to take to Grandma's house. He did very well. He even was able to sneak in a picture for me:

How cute are they?!

Danny also stopped by this evening to take our Christmas photo for us. I have to go through the pics and pick out the best one. It makes it pretty hard to get a good one with two adults, two kids, and two dogs. I hope we have a great one!

Night!

where is the time going?

2010-12-13T22:07:00.000-06:00

I swear that the time is flying! I know I haven't been updating the blog every night, and I just don't have as much time now. I will do my best, but now that I am back to school things are super busy. It is 9:45pm right now, and I just got done putting the meatloaf together for tomorrow's dinner. That is what I feel like I am always doing now. Not making meatloaf, but figuring out ways to make things a little easier "tomorrow."

This past weekend we had a huge winter storm here. In preparation of it we went grocery shopping, got our Christmas tree, and bought new snow boots for Caden and me on Friday. Friday was also when Ryan and Danny took Grammie to Chicago to meet Uncle Johnny. I was very sad to see her go. At least I can now talk about it without crying. That's a plus, right? :) Miss you Grammie!

I didn't take a ton of pics this weekend. I accidentally erased a couple pics off of our camera that we needed, so Danny has the card right now to retrieve the pics. I will update with more pics after he gets that back to me. Here are a few that I do have from my phone from this weekend:

Our Christmas tree

Two hours into the snow storm

The next morning after the snow storm

Caden helping Mommy make Christmas cookies

Daddy running around with Lilli

Lilli with Aunt Alexis. She watched both kiddos tonight

Night!

four generations

2010-12-08T22:40:00.000-06:00

I finally got the picture that I wanted last night!

Night!

water park, baptism, spoiling

2010-12-07T23:08:00.000-06:00

Last Friday after work Ryan picked me up. He had the car loaded with the kids, Grammie, and our luggage for an overnight trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells. Ryan had a WOA board meeting Saturday morning, so we decided it would be fun to all go. We were right. Caden LOVED the water. Here are some highlights:

My favorite part was when we were walking to one of the water areas. We had to take Caden out of the water and he said, "Dada more fun." It was adorable. We will definitely be going back the next time Ryan has a meeting. In fact, we are thinking that a trip sometime in March would be fun with Cousin Andrew, too.

Saturday we left the Dells around 2 pm, so that Ryan could get to the Omro Holiday parade on time. He said it was VERY cold, but he had a good time. I didn't take the kiddos because it was too cold for them. Plus I needed to start getting ready for Lilli's baptism on Sunday. We prepped the veggies for the strata and baked and frosted a cake.

Mom and Bill got into town around midnight Saturday night. They were supposed to be in earlier, but their flight was delayed because of the weather in Milwaukee. They got to the house and then we went to bed.

Sunday morning Grammie and I were up early to get the food put together for the baptism. We made a Brunch Strata and Southwestern Egg bake. We also started a ham in the crockpot. They were both very good. My friend Sheri came over to our house to start the food in the oven while we were at church. Thanks, Sheri! :)

The baptism went very well. Lilli was wonderful. Everyone told me that the way she held her hands it made it look like she was praying.

Caden was a two year old. I held him during the baptism. He woke up with a cold that morning, so he kept trying to touch his nose. I had to pull his hand down. That went on for a little while. People started snickering a little, so I think he liked be the center of attention. He then wanted to go to Grandma, but he only got half way and then stopped. He ended back up with me again. Little stinker! :)

The food all turned out well. I was very grateful that Pam, Linda, Sam, and Alexis also helped with the food. I thought I would have too much, but it turned out to be the perfect amount.

Here is the cake I made.

Lilli received wonderful gifts from everyone. Here are a few pics:

Monday Caden and Lilli were spoiled by Grammie, Oma (my mom), and Papa (Bill). Caden even said, "Oma," so my mom was happy about that.

Today we had everyone over again so we could celebrate Dave's birthday early. His actual birthday is tomorrow. Grammie made tons of great food. Yum!

I also love these two pics:

We took Caden's high chair off and put it by the window. He crawled up and into it.

Here is Lilli sleeping on Grammie's lap.

Have a great night!

tomorrow

2010-12-06T22:20:00.001-06:00

There will be a HUGE pic update tomorrow. I have pics from our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge and also many from Lilli's baptism. Obviously we've been a little busy here! Sorry.

Night for now!

seeing double?

2010-11-30T21:00:00.007-06:00

Take a look at Lilli's pic from last night compared to one of Caden from March of 2009.

Lilli

Caden

Night!

turkey day

2010-11-29T23:13:00.001-06:00

I know it has been awhile, but I didn't want to be on the computer while I was in Toledo.

Last Wednesday was my first day back at school. It didn't really feel like it was since my sub was still there. So for all intents and purposes today was my first day. I will talk about that later.

Our trip was very nice. Well, everything was except for the ride there. That was L O N G. And the worst part was that Caden only slept like 1 1/2 hours of the 8 hour car ride there. When we got there (at 3 am), Caden was WIDE awake. Poor Ryan finally took him downstairs at 4:30 am so he didn't wake up the house. It was rough. The rest of the trip he slept pretty well.

For Thanksgiving we went to my Aunt Evita and Uncle Gary's house. Here are some of the highlights:

Checking out the 3D TV.

Playing a game of air hockey with Aunt Ann.

Lilli catches up with Grammie.

Caden gambles a little bit on Uncle Gary's slot machine.

Our attempt to get a family pic. As you can see, Caden was NOT having it.

Lilli models the shirt I made. She was a thankful little girl.

Friday was a pretty relaxing day. It was nice because Aunt Theresa Berry, Uncle Bob, Aunt Ann, and Grammie came over to visit. It was fun:

Caden thoroughly enjoyed the frosted brownie!

Lilli snuggles up to Aunt T.

Saturday we were able to spend some time with our family in Perrysburg. Lilli slept the entire time. I guess all of the traveling caught up with her. We had a very nice lunch at Bob Evan's. Stupidly I didn't take one picture! I was pretty made at myself when I realized this that night.

After lunch we went to visit with my Dad and Andrea. Caden fell asleep on the way there. He didn't even wake up when Ryan took him into the house:

Caden "fixing" the piano with Uncle Johnny.

Snooze time!

Meeting Amma

Cute pic of Danny and Sam

Proud Ampa

Saturday night we went to the Toledo Zoo and saw the Lights Before Christmas. Uncle Johnny watched Lilli until Aunt Christ got home. Actually, I think Jill got to the house first. It was just a little too cold for her to come out. I don't think Caden really cared too much about the lights this year, but it was a good time.

Uncle Johnny settles in to watch Lilli solo until Aunt Chris gets home.

Caden rode on a merry-go-round for the first time. He loved it.

Caden and Grammie walking hand in hand at the zoo.

Another cute pic of Danny and Sam.

A shot going into the zoo.

We headed home with Grammie Sunday morning.

Today I went back to school (for real), and I really had a great day. The students are wonderful. I think I am going to have a very good year!

Here is Lilli taking a bath tonight. She loves it!

Night!

lots to do...

2010-11-23T22:24:00.000-06:00

This is going to be a very quick update because I still have to pack, and it is 10 pm. I got most of what I needed to get done today done. I did all of the laundry, packed for the trip (except the clothes-that is next), looked up my schedule for school tomorrow, finished almost all of the Christmas shopping, and I even managed to get a craft or two in there. I made Lilli's shirt for Thanksgiving. I didn't want to buy a specific Thanksgiving shirt since she would only be able to wear it once, so I made ironed on the word "thankful." I figure then she can wear it again. I will post a pic of it after she wears it on Thursday.

This morning Caden was wearing my "coat" again and Ryan's shoes. Too funny.

He also was a big help making dinner. He helped Mommy stir the artichoke hearts in the EVOO and spices. Sheri, if you are reading this, artichoke hearts are a vegetable :)

Lilli went with me today to meet Uncle Danny for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was a nice time. I forgot to take a pic.

I also hung the screen that I got on Saturday. It is a regular screen from a window that someone painted with super cute snowmen. I put it up and didn't like the way the metal looked. Here is a before pic:

I decided to remove the wire and paint the frame black. It looks much better:

We ended the night with the kids doing bath time. Caden had a great time, and while I was getting Lilli's tub ready she fell asleep.

She ended up waking up because I needed to change her diaper. What a little cutie.

Night!

One last day...

2010-11-22T22:44:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is my last day off before I go back to work. I plan to pick up the last couple of Christmas presents that I need, finish the laundry, pack for Toledo, figure out what I am doing with my classes on Wednesday (probably should look up what my teaching schedule is as well)... I have more on my list than I will be able to accomplish. That's okay.

Wednesday the kids will be going with Kelly. Ryan's last patient slots are blocked, so he will be able to get home a little earlier to help with the last minute packing. Danny and Sam will be riding with us, and Grammie will be coming back with us. She wanted to be here for the baptism, and coming back the week before allows us some more time to visit with her. The following week she will be watching Lilli while Caden goes with Pam and Kelly. It was also be nice because we are going to the Dells Friday night until Saturday afternoon before the baptism. Well, the baptism is the next day, but it will still be a little crazy with lots to do. It should be fun.

Here are some pics from the last few days:

Thursday we took Caden to Monkey Joe's. I was kicking myself for forgetting to bring my camera. At least I had my phone with me.

Lilli chillin' in Caden's chair.

Caden loving his cupcake on a stick.

Caden wanted to wear Mama's "coat" tonight. Too funny!

Here I am enjoying my snuggle time with both kids.

Night!

Christmas time is here!

2010-11-21T20:58:00.000-06:00

The last couple days have been pretty busy. Since it was Widow's Weekend, I went craft shopping yesterday pretty much all day. It was a good time. Friday night was Game Night, so I didn't go to bed until pretty late. I was too tired to update the blog.

Friday morning kinda stunk because I found out that I didn't pass my National Boards. Of course I was disappointed, but that's okay. I already signed up to redo the one part. I made the mistake of submitting a unique large group lesson, and they obviously wanted a more traditional lesson. I was very close. I am happy that I only have to redo one part. I think I will be able to complete it by Christmas. The bad part is that I won't find out if I pass until November of 2011. Yes, 2011. That stinks!!! Oh well...

Today I went out Christmas shopping with Alexis. I only have a couple more gifts to get. I think I will be completely done tomorrow. I still need to do some wrapping tonight. My goal is to have everything done before I go back to school. Which is Wednesday!!! Yikes!!! Wish me luck!

Pics to come tomorrow!

Night!

time for catch up

2010-11-17T22:25:00.000-06:00

Sorry again that I didn't update last night. Once more I was too tired. I will attempt now to catch up up from last Thursday on.

Last Thursday night was the Oshkosh Holiday Parade. Since Northshore had a float, Caden and I rode on the truck pulling the float so we could wave at the people. Caden had a great time:

Here is the cute pic of Ryan with the kids that I told you about last week:

Friday I left at noon to go for my scrapping weekend. It was so nice to get away. I missed the kids and Ryan a ton, but it was nice to have "mommy time." I need to figure out how to still find time when I go back to work....which is next week...gulp. Here is a pic of what the large scrapping room looked like:

It was nice also that Ryan sent me pics of the kids. Look at this cute one:

Monday the kids and I had a nice day. I built a fort for Caden out of some blankets in the living room. He thought it was pretty cool. He has had me rebuild it every day since:

Tuesday Lilli and I had lots of snuggle time since Caden was with Grandma. I need to get as much while I can. While I was making dinner Ryan was with the kids. This is what I saw when I went into the living room. Too cute:

Today Lilli and I met Daddy for lunch. She was a little fussy, so Daddy scooped her right up and she was fine. She just wanted some love:

I can't believe she is already going to be three months old next week! Look how big she is already:

Cuter than ever!

Night!

Tomorrow

2010-11-15T22:44:00.000-06:00

I will be updating tomorrow...finally. I am sorry I haven't been on. I was out of town for the scrapping weekend, and we didn't have Internet access. It was kinda nice to tell the truth. I will fill you in with all of the details tomorrow. And some pics. I promise!

Night!

headache, sleepy Caden, smiley Lilli...again :)

2010-11-10T23:25:00.000-06:00

Sorry again for no post last night. I had a massive headache. I took some medication before I went to bed, and luckily it was gone when I woke up. Here is a too cute pic that Grandma took of Caden while they were spending time together. He was pretty tired, so he fell asleep in the cardboard train that Bumpah made for the holiday parade tomorrow.

I have a cute of pic of Ryan on the couch with both kiddos, but I'm too lazy to hook my camera up to my computer. I will post that pic tomorrow. I do have a super cute pic of Lilli with her Daddy tonight. And of course, like normal, she is smiling:

I love it!

The other highlight, I guess it would really be a low light, was during Caden's bath time. For the first time, and I hope the last time, Caden pooped in the bathtub!!! How disgusting is that??? Needless to say there was plenty of bleach used tonight. I scrubbed the tub down with bleach cleaner, and Ryan is dumping the bleach water out of the container with the toys as I type. Oh well! It was bound to happen sometime. I just hope there is no encore performance. Yuck!

Night!

We "elfed" ourselves!

2010-11-10T10:41:00.000-06:00

Check it out!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/v1J8g8sOgi5MokiF

new toys and preparing for the weekend

2010-11-08T22:34:00.000-06:00

There was a lot of playing in our house today. We played with playdoh, the toy kitchen, drew with crayons (and Mommy's pen), and we also brought out some of Caden's new toys from his birthday. Since he got so much, I didn't let him open it all at once. And at his age, if you put it away in a different closet he forgets about it! So today we took out two new toys. Here he is playing with his new car that is really a tool box.

He loves it because in order to open the tool compartment, you need to use a little key that comes with it.

He napped pretty well today, so that gave me some time to prep for this coming weekend. I will be going on a scrapping retreat. I will leave Friday around noon and get back on Sunday early afternoon. I am so excited! I have been designing some of the layouts I will be putting together. My goal is to get all of Caden's 2nd year scrapbook finished. Considering I only have two of the pages done, this will be a miracle. I also want to try to get Lilli's scrapbook done up through this point. In order to keep it up, I plan to start scrapping every Sunday for one hour. I don't know how long that will last.

After Caden woke up he had fun sitting with his sister. I tried to get a picture with both of them, but Caden would swoop in and then pull out of the picture again. Lilli thought he was pretty funny. She was smiling and swinging her hand:

The rest of the evening was fun. Caden was happy because Alexis came over. He enjoyed trying some of her tea:

Caden was pretty talkative today. He started saying "yes" clearly today. It went from "uh huh" to "ya" and now it is "yes." I gotta admit that I kinda miss the "uh huh." He is growing up very quickly.

Night!

Christmas time is here...

2010-11-07T23:31:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know it isn't really Christmas time yet, but this cooler weather has me in the holiday mood. That was part of the reason I spent a few hours yesterday doing some Christmas shopping. I LOVE it! I did quite a bit of wrapping tonight, too. Yay!

We didn't really do much this weekend. Those are the best weekends. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do, but does anyone ever really get everything done that they want? It can wait until tomorrow. I am getting pretty good at thinking that. Maybe a little too good...

Lilli looked adorable yesterday. Check out these super cutie pants she is wearing!

We went grocery shopping, and Caden was a big help:

I don't know if they came from clothes from Sara or Mindi's batch, but they are too cute.

The kids were in bed tonight when I realized I hadn't taken any pics today. We can't have that, so I decided to sneak into the kids' rooms and snap a shot of each them sleeping. Too cute!

I love all of the stuffed animals around Caden. Also notice that he is not covered up. We always have to go back in before we go to bed to cover him.

Night!

crabby Caden

2010-11-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

Well little monster Caden seems to have returned. We decided it would be nice to meet Daddy for lunch at Fratello's today. That was my first mistake. The whole time basically was Daddy and Grandma trying to keep Caden entertained enough so that he wouldn't cry. Yes, we were those parents with that whiny kid. Here is Daddy showing Caden pics on his phone. That worked for a little while:

My second mistake was that I forgot Caden's nuk. I know we are trying to start weaning him off of it, but man that is hard to do when it can work magic for a crabby kid. Yikes!!!

Lilli snoozed through most of lunch. Here she is modeling the headband that Grammie made for her. Too cute:

Night!

housework

2010-11-04T22:15:00.000-05:00

Not much to report for today. It was a pretty low key day. Lilli and I met Ryan for lunch at Red Robin, and then Lilli and I ran a few errands. I was able to pick up my Grandma's Christmas gift. Then I did housework: laundry, ironing, dishes, cleaned up toys (just to have the all pulled back out when Caden got home), made dinner... It is weird how I still feel like I didn't accomplish much today.

Not too many pics today. Caden was with Grandma for most of the day, so I don't have one of him. Here is Lilli snoozing on our bed while I was getting ready this morning:

Night!