Weekending

Another weekend post, I know. But this one was a good one worth sharing. We stayed home the majority of the weekend, but we had some big things happen. Friday morning the kids and I headed to The Y and sent Jules off to daycare for the day. In the evening we made a quick Staples run on our way to the daycare to get the dog, and then headed home for the night. It was still bitterly cold on Friday, and Brooke has pretty much started refusing to walk when the windchills are in the negative numbers. Not that I blame her, but it's kept us mostly inside. 

Saturday morning I got the gym before the kids got up, and then we headed to the library. They have an underground parking garage, so it was the perfect get us out of the house, but keep us from freezing to death activity. As per usual, donuts, play time, and books followed. 

We made a quick Target stop on our way home, an then this is where the weekend got interesting. I let Harrison pick out a potty reward toy since he has been so resistant to potty training.  Of course as soon as we got home he wanted it, so I explained he could have it as soon as he started going on the potty. And what do you know, 20 minutes later he went on the potty.  

So now we are fully immersed in potty training little man.  Saturday went really well. No accidents and quite a few times of going on the potty. Today has been a disaster and I'm so glad they're in bed and we get a break before starting all over again tomorrow. Between constant use of my steam cleaner, I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done and finished a project in the kids' room that I'll be sharing later this week. Rob and I are now sharing a pint of That's My Jam, watching TV, and I plan to paint my nails. Kind of the perfect end to a crazy day. How was everyone's weekend? More exciting than sitting on the floor of the bathrrom, I hope.  

Books We Love - 2.5 Years Old

Wind chills here have been below zero for the last few days. It's so cold they're even canceling school. So, needless to say we haven't been getting out much. Our days have consisted of a morning gym trip, and the rest of the time indoors. We LOVE books, so all of this time stuck at home has given us a chance to get familiar with all of our new books.

While Brooke would tell you that her new Thomas book is her favorite, and Harrison will profess his love of Mickey and Friends, we have a few other new books that have made it to our most read list. Ones that they love to listen to, and that I like to read, over and over and over again. Most of them have a good message behind them too.

The Foolish Tortoise - We've had this one for a few months. It's by Eric Carle, so of course it's good. It's about a turtle who wants to be faster so he ditches is shell. He finds out sometimes it's best to be happy with what you have.

This is a Moose - A fun little story about how you don't have to be limited by what's expected of you.

10 Little Princesses - A book about friendship.

Leo the Lightning Bug - Little Leo can't light up like his friends, but he's determined to learn how. Practice makes perfect.

The Cat at Night - This one's a tried and true favorite. The kids love the pictures and seeing all the animals the cat comes across through the night. 

Tea Rex - This is a fun book based around etiquette for hosting a tea party. Both kids love it.

The Pirate Who Said Please - A great book about why manners are important.

Animal Firefighters - We picked this upon sale at B&N. It's a firefighter book. Enough said.

Not Your Typical Dragon - Quite possibly my newest favorite. It's all about why being different is awesome.

Bad Kitty - This is a goofy alphabet book that the kids adore. When we first got this, they insisted we read it every day, multiple times per day.

One I love that the kids aren't too into yet is C is for Chicago. Maybe after a long weekend there this spring or summer, they'll enjoy it more. What are some of yours and your little's favorite books? We are always on the look out for more new books, although our book shelf is running out of room. If you have any awesome storage ideas, I'd love to hear those too.

365 Challenge - Week 1

One of my goals for 2015 is is to do a 365 photo challenge. For those that don't know, it's pretty much just taking a photo every day for a year, and documenting it. This will come as no surprise to anyone that follows along with us; I take a lot of pictures. There are lots of days I don't break out the camera at all though. I want to challenge myself to get out my camera every day and snap a picture of our life.

Part of the challenge to myself is to use my Nikon, not my iPhone. I am slowly learning how to operate my camera in manual. How to adjust for lighting, movement, etc. Thanks to Santa Rob, I have a new 50mm lens I love, and it makes me want to take pictures even more. I know the occasional phone pic will get mixed in, as is the case this week, but I aim to be at least 90% DSLR pics. Although, maybe I should just be aiming to not forget a day. I want this challenge to help me become a better photographer, make me really know my camera, and of course capture our life in photos. So, here it is. Week one of my 365 challenge.

1.1.15 - learning about monetary transactions

1.2.15 - bath time close up

1.3.2015 - we love wellies - iPhone pic

1.4.2015 - laundromat photo session

1.5.2015 - movie night, Tangled

1.6.2015 - snow day

1.7.2015 - gymnastics class, week 1

Mission Organization and Our Weekend

This poor little blog has been very neglected over the last couple weeks. I have a constant feeling of playing catch up to try and get our lives back on track. We have most of our returns made from the holidays, altough I still have a sweater to get back to Express. I am still trying to figure out how to keep the kids new influx of toys organized. And even though I took down the Christmas tree on Monday last week, I just finally got all of the decorations organized and stored in the garage yesterday. I feel like our lives were more cluttered than usual for the last couple months of 2014, so now I'm really working to get things back in order and as organized as possible.

For the time being, the kids and I are off daycare duty, so our days are now free to spend as we please. I am hoping to continue with my motivation and to spend the extra time in our days getting things organized, or napping. Today I'm thinking my closet needs a good purge. It's been about 6 months since I've gone through my unworn clothes, so it's about that time. I've made some good progress on creating storage room in the garage, thanks to Space Saver bags, but I still need to do some work out there. If only it were warmer than 30 degrees in our garage. I might be more willing to get it all done quickly.

Our weekend was pretty tame. I was on call with the doggies this weekend, so the kids an I mostly hung out around home on Saturday. We did hit up Meijer, Kroger, and Target between morning daycare visits. We picked up lots of soup fixings, and I got to town on making a few batches of soup to put in the freezer. They have been all about soup lately, so I figured this was a good way to have meals ready to go in the freezer.

Sunday was another quiet day spent mostly around the house. We did make a quick trip to the laundromat to wash our comforters and so the kids could ride the electric car 251 times. Since we were close to our old hood, we hit up our favorite Chineese restaurant for lunch. Brooke and Harrison both had perfect pronunciation of Hainan House, and B kept saying we were going to Hainan's House for lunch. Quite possibly one of the cutest things ever.

The afternoon and evening were spent around the house watching football, doing laundry, finish up soup, and space saving the last of the kids' clothes. Robbie tried to watch Tangled with H and B, but they only wanted Cinderella, so his movie night with them didn't quite go as planned. One the kids were in bed we sat doen for adult movie time and watched Episode V. Robbie received the Star Wars box set for Christmas, so we are working our way through them. I haven't seen IV-VI since  I-III came out, so it's been fun re watching the originals.

We are going to start going back to the Y today. If it's anything like all of our past gym attempts, we'll go for a week, the kids will get sick, and then we'll have to take two weeks off while they get better. The also start swim and gymnastics classes this week, so we will be spending lots of time at the Y. Happy Monday!

Christmas Week

We had such an amazing Christmas week and weekend, I don't even know how to fit it all into one post. It was great to have most of my siblings in town for the week, and while I missed my brother and sister in law that couldn't make it, we had tons of fun without them. Sorry M&M! I will try to not be too long winded, but there will definitely be a lot of picture sharing. Here we go.

My sister, her husband, and my nephew arrived via the red eye bright and early Monday morning. We spent the day at my parents hanging out, playing trains napping, and trying to fix the mess up that happened with the kids' comforters, more on that later. In the evening, an old family friend came over and we did dinner and a few cocktails. Jules got her first taste of Grandma and Grandpa's ever. She found their dog's bed under the treat table, and she happily napped the evening away.

On Tuesday morning, the kids and I rand a few daycare errands to make sure everything was taken care of before the holiday. Then we went to my parents to spend the rest of the day. The kids wanted to have a movie night, so after a healthy dinner of Chicago style pizza, they all piled into the recliner(s) upstairs and watched some Christmas movies.

While they were doing that, my dad and I headed to the mall to obtain the stained duvet for Harrison's bed I had just returned the day before. Long story short, I ordered a duvet cover on Black Friday, it came and sat in the package for weeks. When I opened it, it was stained so I called to order a new one and made sure they knew I needed it by Christmas Eve. That was on Monday morning. Monday afternoon, I return the defective merchandise to the local store. Tuesday afternoon, I get a shipping notification letting me know it will be arriving Friday. Um WHAT!? After lots of time on hold with UPS and the retailer, it is decided the best option is to go back to the store and repurchase the stained one I had returned the day before. Thankfully they still had it in the store, and the crisis was averted. Luckily Harrison didn't notice, and wouldn't care, about a stained duvet cover. So maybe not as short of a story as intended, but there was my Christmas freak out. The new one did arrive on Friday and is not stained.

Wednesday morning it was back over to my parents. My other sister and her hubs had arrived the night before, so we wanted to get in some hangout time with them. Even though I tried to keep us on time, the kids were late getting down for naps, mostly because they were overtired and couldn't fall asleep. So we rushed to get ready for mass, and thankfully made it on time. Thanks to Brooke's accessory choices, we go a few giggles and stares on our way in. This girl is a diva in training.

She refused to take off her sunglass for the first 30 minutes of mass.

The kids did ok for mass, but not as good as they usually do. Too much excitement. After mass we picked up Robbie and headed to his parents. The kids had way too much fun opening gifts. At one point Harrison was screaming like a banshee every time he would open a gift, and it wasn't just his presents either. If he helped someone open, he still went ape. It was ridiculous. Brooke was very good at helping hand out our gifts to family, which I was very proud of. We made it home shortly before 9, and the kids went straight to bed. Rob and I went straight to work on bed assembly. It took us as long as it took to watch Home Alone, so not too bad.

Christmas morning was great. They came out yelling "two beds," and immediately hopped up and dug into their stockings. We had to make it to my parents house, so we rushed them through opening a bit more than we should have. Lesson learned for next year. They were so happy and content, I'm sure they would have hung out in their beds all day if we would have let them.

By the time we made it to my parents' house they were hungry and overstimulated. Harrison slowly lost his cool and eventually refused to open gifts, or act like a normal human being. It was early nap time for them, and thankfully the afternoon went much better. We enjoyed a late lunch, they opened the rest of their presents, and we spent some time with our loved ones.

One of my favorite gifts of the day.

They were loving Cousin Charlie's new game.

We headed home in the early evening so we could get the beds moved around. They watched Cars, a gift from Santa, while we disassembled and reassembled beds. When we tucked them in that night, they asked for their old beds, and then asked if they could sleep in the living room. Maybe the new beds weren't as big of a hit as we thought? Thankfully we haven't had old bed requests since Christmas night.

Family shot after lunch on Friday

Our weekend was filled with lots and lots of family time. My brother, his fiance, and the kids' Godmother, and I got to sneak away for a little adult time at Eddie's on Friday night. Saturday evening we finally started to tackle the after Christmas mess. Thanks to Space Saver bags, I freed up enough space in the garage that we can now store toys they have outgrown. We also put together a big donation pile.

Sunday morning we opened gifts with Robbie's brother and his kids. After naps we headed over to my uncles for dinner and one last round of gifts for the kids. Then we closed out the evening with a little SNF action. Go Steelers!

"Oh my goodness!! Charlie has a present!!"

Putting his bath time shaving kit to good use.

The week was utterly exhausting, and I'm pretty sure I'll be catching up on sleep for the next month, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Since my siblings all live hundreds and thousands of miles away, we have to squeeze every last second out of the time we have together. As of 11 am this morning, all of my siblings were on their ways home, and now it's back to, mostly, life as normal.

I hope all of you had an amazing holiday week and weekend as well. Does anyone have any big New Year's plans? We are taking the kids and heading to some friends' house for a low key get togther. I'm sure there will be board games, and of course lots of drinking involed. Cheers to another short week!

Family Photos - Fall 2014

We were late getting our family pictures taken this fall. Like December 7th late. I was a wee bit worried we wouldn't get the pics back in time for Christmas cards to get mailed, but our amazing photographer didn't let us down. I got the images back last week, and thanks to Tiny Prints 1 day shipping, I was able to get them out last Wednesday, so everyone should have received them on time. YAY!! 

We definitely got a good card worthy photo, and a few awesome single shots of the kids which are going to make perfect Grandparent presents. I hope you're ready for picture overload, because here it comes.

Awkward hand holding, check!

It was freezing outside, but the kids were troopers and we managed to grab a few outdoor shots the Firefighters Museum.

I am so happy with how the pictures turned out. I always feel like maybe there will be one or two good ones, and there are always a bunch of framers. I will definitely be getting a couple canvases printed from this photo shoot. If you live in The Fort and are in need of a good photographer, definitely check out Gillian Dyan Photography.

Happy Christmas Eve! I felt like I was so on top of things for this year, and then thanks to a mess up on my part, and a big mess up by a retailer, I have spent the last couple days placing last minute Amazon orders, speaking to customer service for longer than anyone ever should, and going to the mall multiple times during the week before Christmas, which is something I always try to avoid. Thankfully we have found a resolution to the problem, so Harrison won't have to wonder why his sister has a new pretty comforter for her bed, and he just has sheets.

I am so excited to go to mass with my family this evening and then spend the night with the in laws. I know the kids are going to enjoy every second of it, and I'll enjoy watching them. Merry Christmas Eve! I hope all of you have a blessed holiday!

Weekending

This weekend was so busy, and yet we didn't do much. With only a few days left until Christmas, we were trying to get all of our last minute things done. And somehow, there's still a lot more to do. For as long as I've know that Santa and the Elves were really my mom and dad, I remember my mom pulling late nights to try and get everything done. 4 am bedtimes are not an uncommon thing for my mom this time of year, and I totally understand why. Trying to make Christmas perfect for your kids is a lot of work. I love making sure all of the details are just right.

Friday morning we made a big grocery store trip to acquire all of the accoutrement for making cookies. H and B were surprisingly good helpers. We got there early enough that it wasn't too busy, but by the time we left, the store was crazy. A couple other quick errands, and we were headed home. 

Friday evening we had a few friends of for sushi takeout. I had a bit of a sore throat, so we had mimosas along with dinner. Since TWD went on hiatus, we haven't been seeing our besties as often, so it was nice to have a few of them over. Also, I may have drank a little too much mimosa.

Saturday the kids and I stayed in our jammies all day and baked cookies and other treats. They were very excited to help. Their version of helping involved eating the red hots off Christmas wreaths. Sorry to anyone who gets a naked Christmas wreath. Now you know why. 

We did do a snowflake painting craft. They love painting and had fun doing it, but it didn't keep them occupied nearly as long as I hoped it would. They were very helpful at cutting out sugar cookies. I let them pick which cutters to use and to help push them down. We ended up with a lot of holly and candy canes. We ended our night with a little Mickey's Christmas Carol, and then it was off to bed for all of us.

Sunday morning we were back at it with baking again. The elves checking in on the kids Saturday night, so they had coloring books and crayons in their stocking. Their new coloring books and crayons kept them occupied for while a while, and I was able to knock out another batch of cookies. 

When Robbie woke up, I went to pick up their new beds which thankfully fit in the back of the minivan. When I got back, the in laws came over, and we had soup and watched the Steelers win. When the game was over, we woke up H and B and exchanged a few gifts. Brooke was a very good helper, and did an awesome job handing out presents. Of course they both loved opening their gifts too. Harrison got a Chuck the Truck toy, and he played with it until bath time last night.

Once the kids were in bed, I finished icing cookies and then rob and I moved their beds into the guest room to await their Christmas Eve assembly. We decided it is time to switch the kids forward facing in their car seats, so we read the manual and switched their seats around last night. I have a feeling they're going to be super excited this morning when we head out to run our last few errands.

I still have a lot of wrapping to do and a few other small things to get done before Thursday, but we are so close to ready. The first of my siblings arrives in town today, so there will be lots of time spent at my parents, I'm sure. Harrison and Brooke have been talking about having to share Golden Thomas with their cousin Charlie, so I think we are all looking forward to today. 

Happy Monday! And I really mean that. It's the start of a great week.