New pix

I've been having fun learning how to use our new digital SLR. Love it! We got a Nikon D5000 12 mp.....SO fun! AND it even takes video....a number of other digital SLR's don't have that feature so that's a huge bonus! What I like best about it is how fast it is...perfect with kids that move and since I like to take pix with natural light...the speed helps a lot there too. I'm still trying to figure it all out, but here are a couple cute ones I got of Ava. Eliah is in the "don't take pix of me phase" and I don't think there is any camera fast enough to capture him! Ha!

Here is Ava with her new special big girl drinking glass.

And sweet Oskar napping away.

Was a long start heading back to work on Monday after our break, but today went a little better. Nice that I have the next two Wednesdays off.....I think that's the perfect day to have off...breaks up the week so nicely. I think we may head to the indoor park, even tho I cringe at the thought of all those germs, but the kids haven't been out to play in.......gosh, I can't even remember the last time....they NEED to get their wiggles out.
Oh, when the kids were in the bath the other night Eliah squirted water in Ava's face....and we talked about how that wasn't nice, how she's going to learn to do the same thing, blah, blah, blah. A few minutes later, sure enough, Ava squirts water in Eliah's face. Instead of him yelling at her, he wipes his face and sort of growls, but then says: You were right, Mom....she did learn to do that too. Ha! Ha! Oh how I love to hear those words!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! With each new year you can't help but think....where did the last one go??? And that's exactly how I feel again. And with each new year I can't help but think... how can I do life better?? While I'm not a big resolution person, there are some things I hope to work on....but I'm not going to list them here, they are just for me. But I do plan on blogging the same as I have so I remember these busy days that quickly turn into weeks, months and years. This blog is a record of our lives of the events that bring me joy....and clearly, for those of you who follow it....my children obviously bring me great joy and I hope to continue recording all the funny, sweet things they do.

May 2010 be a year of great happiness and joy for your family.

Here's my creative crew painting. The colors started out so pretty......then we learned what happens when you add white to another color (good teaching moment) and then we learned what happens when you mix ALL the colors together...another good teaching moment!

It's so hard keeping paint ONLY on the paper....the world is our canvas, right??? Ha-ha!

Here is Ava showing where paint should NOT go.

And here's a little clip of Ava painting....

Christmas '09 - Part III

This does it....the last Christmas post. Not too much left to share. Had a great time out at the farm sledding and playing with cousins. Weather cooperated so we were able to get out sledding. Good food, good people and good fun.

At the top of the hill waiting for turns to go down the run...yes, you go thru the trees....it's the family way! Ha-ha!

Ava having a little lunch with Attic G&G.

Here's Ava with Emma....these two are so cute together.

This is what happens to a little person at the end of a long day.

I had to share these pix. Ava is wearing this outfit from Island G. With that outfit on and with her new Dora sunglasses....it almost seems like she thinks she's going to go on the cruise with Island G&G! Doesn't she look ready?!
The kids got a little Christmas gift money. They each got $5. Picking a toy at the right price point is a tough concept for kids. But, when my little Manager has a problem, he's pretty good at figuring out a solution. When he saw this kitchen set....he REALLY wanted it. It was $10...he figured out that combined they had enough. So, after a little discussion with Ava, they agreed that they would share the new toy instead of each buying their own smaller one. I was pretty pleased with both of them that they were able to do this together. And, they have been sharing and playing with it nicely....even on day two of having it! Ha-ha! Check out the coffee pot...put in water, press the button and water will fill up the coffee pot. All the mixers, "mix" too. Pretty cool.
I really need this week to SLOW down a bit. I'm trying to savor every moment of being at home and not rushing out the door. I'm even skipping the pool this week....just want to take it easy. Today we went to the pool to swim. Holy buckets is Ava a little fish. She went down the two little water slides. Then she wanted to go down the "bigger" blue slide....I wasn't sure if she could handle it, but she loved it and went again and again. We went into the deeper end and Eliah wanted to jump off the edge....so did Ava. Once she even jumped in totally on her own without me holding her hand! Yikes! Over and over and over we did this. My kids have fins, that for sure!

Christmas '09 - Part II

The Candle Blowing Contest continued as usual this year. Just look at those puffers! They were no match to Henni's puff as she won with 8 total. Rich and Eliah (with a little secret help) trailed with 7. Can't remember where Aaron ended up....and I was so far away it's not even worth mentioning! Ha-ha! Good times, for sure!

Christmas morning opening their stocking stuffers. Eliah got a Transformer.

It was hard to tear Ava away from her dollhouse...but when she realized stockings mean a few more gifts....she was on board.

She got her very own chapsticks....3 in different flavors.

Showing off her glossy lips....but look at those eyelashes!

The Christmas Snow Storm of 2009 got really hyped up and ended up canceling many holiday plans. It seemed to be a bust in some areas as all they got was rain....but we did end up getting all snow...the heavy wet stuff. Thankfully it came over two full days so we were able to shovel (okay, who am I kidding.....Aaron was able to shovel) a few different times. The heaviest was on Christmas morning and our neighbor came and helped us out with his snowblower. So nice...we would have been out there for a couple hours...where it took him minutes. Here are our little helpers.

Just look at all that snow!!!!! This is day 2....not as much as the first day...but heavier. We for sure got well over a foot total.

This was also fabulous snow for snowman building. Check out the hammer Eliah is using to help get the carrot nose in!

Christmas Day we left for Attic G&G's house. By the afternoon the snow had stopped and sort of turned into drizzle. Side roads were a mess, but the freeway was just wet...no big deal. We had a nice relaxing evening with Aaron's parents, brother and sister. Saturday we went to the big family Christmas Extravaganza out at the farm. Lots of fun with cousins, sledding and good food. Pictures for Part III -- Coming Soon!

Christmas '09 - Part I

We started Christmas 2009 at our house celebrating Christmas Eve with my sister and her husband. Very early on in the evening we brought out "the" present for Ava. Her very own doll house...although she has to share with me. ;-) She examined every little detail, just like I had imagined.....SO FUN!!!! It was a hit and kept the kids engaged the rest of the evening...which let the adults eat and savor every bite of dinner.......

We went for our traditional Christmas Day menu full of herring, salmon, kaviar, hardtack, Aquavit and Pilsners....Ooohh Yummy!I met my monthly salt intake and just one evening! But doesn't it looks just FABULOUS?!!There she is eating her hardtack, salmon....and corndog! Ha-ha!And we finally get to more gifts, for the kids anyway. They were both getting pretty tuckered out and we knew there would be no way they would make it to the end. Eliah and Auntie Henni were playing pretty hard. He was so sweaty...notice how wet his hair is! Ha! Here he is helping Ava open her new doll, given to her by her daycare lady.Eliah opening his Thomas video from Island G&G.And another hit from Island G&G........his own John Deere picture frame with a pix of Grampa and Eliah on the tractor.Ava gets a really cool book.

And Eliah gets his own blanket from Gramma...all about road construction, tractors and such....AWESOME!!!!

We got Ava a baby stroller for her other dolly....how cool that she got a baby from her daycare lady!

So, that's it for now. Tomorrow I'll try to post pix of Christmas morning along with "Stormageddon" snow pictures....yes, this will be quite the Christmas to remember for sure! Thankfully a neighbor came and bailed us out this morning....he didn't want anyone having a heart attack from shoveling snow on Christmas! Gotta love neighbors...the ones with snow blowers, anyway! Ha!

I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!

Okay, I simply can not contain my excitement. I decided to put together Ava's big Christmas present together tonight....it's her Fischer Price Grand Doll House. Oh FOR REAL!!!! I am just busting and it feels like torture to wait until Christmas Eve. This house is AMAZING! They thought of everything....all the little details.....there are no words to describe this excitement......are you ready??? Okay.....here it is......(Gasp!) I know....isn't it fabulous??!!! And do you spy Louie in the above pix?
Okay....check out the bathroom....movable shower curtain, towel, toilet seat that goes up and the toilet cleaning scrubby that actually comes out so you can clean the toilet! And it has a little string attached so it won't get lost. Then the sink...the cupboard opens below the sink and there is a pink step stool that slides out on the left. There is even a little edge on the floor so the stuff won't fall off.

And here is the big sister bedroom. Just look at the canopy bed! Love it! Bedding comes off....yet it's attached so it will never get lost!
And here is the mom and dad's bedroom set. The pix of it was too dark in the house. The robe comes off the stand and the chest opens to put pillow in....
...and check that out.....it's like a Select Comfort for mom and dad! And look how the comforter is attached. Ahhh....I'm in love with this thing!
And here is the kitchen. Again...too dark to take a pix inside. I'm doing this downstairs at night so the lighting is horrible. But, are you feeling hungry? Well, look.....the REAL LIGHT in the oven will tell you when that pizza is done....or the buzzer will buzz....or the phone will ring...or you could even hear the water boil! Ahhhh.....unreal!!!! And see the cute pot and coffee pot...attached with little strings so they won't get lost. These people are SMART! Fridge and freezer both open with food treasures inside.
Feeling sleepy yet? Well the twin babies in this family each get their own little bed with spinning mobile. And when they need their pants changed, the can go on their changing table with some REAL soft lighting and soft lullaby music too!
Here's a brighter shot.
And finally, the whole family together. Okay, while I realize this shot looks a little creepy...they are the cutest darn little dolls ever. All have bendy legs/knees and can even stand on their own. Two different places for the babies to eat...but strangely only two big chairs. I said to Aaron that I thought that was strange that a chair wasn't provided for the big sister....he said: No, the chair is for the girl....the mommy is in the kitchen cooking! Ha-ha! Such a kidder!
And there it is. I'm thinking that this will provide just a wee bit of entertainment for the kids Christmas Eve. And if they don't like it....I'll have fun playing with it!

First Hair Cut

We've been talking about it for awhile, but it finally seemed time to cut Ava's hair. It was getting so long in the back and always getting snarly....not fun. So, off we went and she seemed more than ready to go. I wasn't sure how she would do, but she just let me put her up on the booster seat and she sat nice and still just like she was told. She cringed, but laughed when water was sprayed on her hair....but still sat still. We talked about the puppies on her cape when the stylist cut the back. We went for just a little longer than chin length as I wasn't sure how it would all turn out...but I think next time we could actually make it a real chin length bob. I wasn't so sure, but after her bath tonight, her hair just curls right under and looks SO cute with her little hair clips. I realize now I didn't get an "after" picture....I suppose there will be many opportunities this week. :-)Our amaryils bloomed this week! So beautiful! I can't believe how tall this thing got! Certainly great fun for the kids to watch this thing just shoot up...it's a good 2 feet tall!Eliah loves it when we make a cave for the bunk beds...but for some reason it was WAY more fun to hide from mom on the top bunk.I finished Eliah's stocking last night. It has the same white yarn lined with silver yarn and then small bells stitched on to the star. I added the silver yarn and bells to Ava's stocking too....feels much more complete to me.....I just don't have the energy to take it down and take pix of that right now. Maybe another day...... Now I'm working on Davis' stocking....did I mention he chose red too??? I won't be knitting mine or Aaron's until June or so....Ha!And then, six and half years after taking him home, we got a call from Oskar's breeder. She was just calling to check on him and see how he was doing and asked for some pictures. She shared the news that Oskar's dad, Spinner, passed away suddenly in November at 12 years of age. His mom, Logan is 14 and still strong! Good genes. Spinner was able to sire one last litter 10 days before he died. She sent the pix below of the puppies.....Oskar's brothers and sisters! ;-) As I was emailing her the pix and telling her a little about Oskar....just made me take a moment to think about this fabulous furry friend in our lives. Our lives would be SO different without him. The kids use him as a pillow, the give him a hug and kiss on the way out the door in the morning....he's always there ready to shower us with love, or kisses....or to clean off the forgotten plate. He can be a pain, he sheds (a lot), but he is a lover and finds joy in all the little things. We can learn a lot from our dogs.

Cookies

We went down to G&G H's on Saturday for a little photo shoot of Ava making cookies. Aaron's cousin Hannah, is a photo student and took some pix of Ava making cookies. It took about 3 hours....and we got a whopping 18 cookies made....very poorly made cookies...but that's not really the point, right? But seriously....how DO people make neat and tidy, frosted, Christmas cookies? I suppose they don't leave it all up to an almost 2 year old. Just a guess.
Anyway, here is Ava getting ready.

I love all the flour and sugar all over her face and shirt. And the strap to her shirt...she looks like she's been working hard...eating cookie dough anyway. And of course, only her mother and grandmother would wear black on cookie baking days....we were a little messy! Ha!Here they are...all 18 of them....and many have some of their middles missing from this little lady who figured out how to scoop up huge finger fulls of sugar. Oh, being almost 2 is a wonderful thing!After a tough afternoon baking....and skipping nap time....it's time for a little snuggle time with Grandma.

And some more snuggle time with favorite people Cousin Hannah and Great Grandma Norma! What a great weekend!

Tired

Aaron has been home sick for the last 3 days. Which means I've been "on" most of the week. I'm a little tired and I'm loving having my feet up on the couch right now. Feels SOooooo good!

We got a decent snowfall on Wednesday so Eliah and I had to shovel. He was very excited and I have to admit...it was pretty fun to be out playing in the snow...even tho it was a tad chilly.

I was home with the kids today and we had a good afternoon. Ava wanted to put on Eliah's Spider Man costume....she was very proud of the big muscles! Here she is trying to put on her Dora shoes too. Doesn't she look so grown up here?
And this is us outside playing today. It warmed up into the mid-teens...felt pretty good! Ava loved going on the sled which she insisted on calling a "boat" and each time we went down together she would say, "Again!" So cute.

All Dressed Up

I had to post a couple pix of Ava in another Sunday-Best. I'm not one of those moms that dresses her little girl in pretty, princess dresses each day of the week....I'm into comfort for sure. So when Ava wears her pretty dresses for Sunday School, I feel the need to grab the camera. She does seem to like the tights tho...and flipping her dress up over her head is also a grand time! Black tights aren't very golden retriever friendly, but we managed. Isn't she cute with her little black shoes?


And here is Eliah's class picture. They charge a ridiculous price per sheet for these things...certainly not going to pay about $10 for his class pix...so I just did a snapshot of it so it's not the clearest thing...but you get the idea. The kids are so cute. The little girl on the far left, back row, is Olivia...she and Eliah play really well together. His teachers say he plays well with everyone, but Olivia is often there to greet him and will also start asking me questions or will show me her new shoes or toy she's playing with. They are a funny crew.

Videos

I have video to capture the latest. Yesterday I made peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kiss centers with the kids. The turned out pretty great. Here's a little conversation I had with Ava about the cookies.

And then today we got together with Aaron's cousin, Bonnie, and her family. The last time I think we were together with them was when Eliah and Broedun were just babies....I think they are about 6 months apart. It was a WILD and CRAZY time with all the little ones together. Thankfully Michael and Katherine have this awesome playroom where the kids can be kids....plus it's away from the adults! Ha! I love that they can just play and play together. I'm so thankful that my kids have all these little ones to grow up with.

From Left to Right:
Soren (2.5), Ellie (10), Ava (almost 2), Eliah (almost 5), Liam (almost 5), Broedun (5) and Colin (almost 7)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, I'm a little behind on this whole Happy Thanksgiving thing, but hey, better late than never. We had a good break from school. It was good timing as Eliah caught a bad cough and battled a low temp for a few days...he really seemed fine most of the time, but if I hadn't had the week off from school, it would have been a rough week with us staying at home with him. He was better by Thanksgiving so that was good.
It has been great fun watching our Amarylis grow. This pix was taken 1 1/2 weeks ago. This is what it looks like now! Eliah has really enjoyed checking it each morning so see it's growth. Truly an amazing flower and we're all excited to see it in bloom!Here is Eliah helping me with the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. We made those and a pecan pie. Yummm!!!!We spent the holiday at Aaron's parents house. This is when we first got there. Ava LOVES the turkey Auntie Mar gave us last year. The apron on the turkey says Eat More Chicken and it sings and dances to the chicken dance! Awesome! It's probably Ava's new favorite stuffed animal. I have to take it out of her crib at night so she doesn't roll over on it and turn it on. I have no desire to hear the chicken dance blasting at two in the morning! ha-ha! But for real, aren't we cute here?Grandma had a new toy out for the kids.....a marble tower system. The kids loved it...and marbles are great fun to stick between your toes! Thanksgiving afternoon we went out for a walk and a little football. I forget what exactly happened....but Auntie Becky appears to have been tackled.....by Ava???
We went out to the tree farm last Saturday to get our Christmas tree. I just love our tradition of going out and cutting down our own. Ava got into it and pointed at a bunch of trees....Eliah had fun playing hide and seek and running around. This is the best shot of us in front of our tree....good grief!And here's just a random shot of Ava in her bumble bee suit and playing with ...... ugh...what is that??? Hmmm, that's our homemade play-doh that seems to have lost its doh-ee-ness.

Ohhh, what to do....

...on these dreary, wet, gray days? Make homemade play-doh is what we do! This was a fun activity. I was going to make Christmas cutout cookies with the kids, but I didn't have colored sprinkles and such....at least not Christmas colors, so that idea was out the window. So, we made our own play-doh instead and made the color by adding some tempera paint. They LOVED it! We'll see how long it lasts.

Here is Eliah making an ant hill...see all the ants lined up to go inside. He also made "the boss" ant to make sure all the little ants were working. Seriously....if this kid doesn't find a career in management of some kind, I will be truly shocked!

And then there is Ava who loved making crazy hair with my garlic press. And yes, she is wearing two hair binders in case you were wondering. Apparently it's the latest look in the almost 2 year old circle.

Another new look is going Bumble Bee.....a look that's never out of season. Please note, she is playing with StarWars motorcycle action figures. Yes, my little lady.I've been knitting around and around working on this stocking for Ava. Eliah wants one too...but I'm not sure if he realized that it wasn't going to stay that big. I've since felted it and it now measures about 7" X 20"....those suckers sure can shrink! And this is what I came up with for the design. I needle felted the name and swirls....it's a pretty cool thing if you ask me! I'm not positive I'm done yet.....I like it...but I feel like maybe it just needs a little something else.....hmmmm, suggestions anyone? I am working on another red one for Eliah now.....so around and around I go some more....

The back.

Growing

Ava must be in a growth spurt right now as she is eating a ton! She is getting better at "more, please"...ha!
Here she is showing me where all the yummy chocolate pudding went....at least the stuff that's not all over her face!
Saturday we had a fun visit from Cousin Hannah! The kids LOVE her! Ava seems to have connected with her and was very silly dancing around the living room, crawling all over Hannah and looking at a picture book with her. This pix makes me giggle...Ava finding her toes with Hannah, Davis playing DS and Eliah watching Davis play.
Tonight Aaron and I had some leftover chili. The chili is a little too spicy for Eliah so they had their own dinner. However, Ava kept looking over at my dinner and asked for my "soup". So I gave her a small bite and she kept asking for more....finally getting her own bowl! She even gave up her spoon and went for the BIG spoon.

A great week ahead. I only teach tomorrow as I have Tuesday for my day off and school is closed Wed-Friday. I'm excited to make Thanksgiving stuff.....sweet potatoes and a pecan pie. The temps are going to drop....so Thanksgiving may actually have a chill to the air....perfect for some hot apple cider! Mmmmm-mmmmm!

Football

We have had amazing weather this November. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less that two weeks away. You know that once Thanksgiving is over, Christmas season is in full swing....CRAZY!!!!! So, this gift of nice weather (especially after the crappiest of all crappy Octobers) is greatly welcomed!
Football has been the activity this weekend! It is so fun to watch Eliah race around the yard and tackle Aaron. He is all smiles and laughs uncontrollably as he makes a tackle or is thrown over Aaron's shoulder and raced around the yard. Ava even got into it a little bit and ran with the football twice and quickly tossed it to Aaron. She spent the rest of the time happily glued to my hip and much preferred me to do all the running across the yard. Here are a few pix.

Here's Ava in her pretty dress and tights. She really likes to wear tights and it's a riot to watch her hike them WAY up over her belly like old man pants. She's inherited my sweet tooth...here she is trying half of a Sour Patch Kid!

The kids love to take pictures....Ava took this one.

Ava's vocabulary continues to blow me away. I can't write down her words anymore as there are just too many. She will say anything you ask her now....or at least do her best at repeating the word. She will finally say her own name....it comes out like: Ahh-vah, but clearly her name. So fun!

Oh, I spilled a glass of juice on the wood floor today. Good ol' Oskar was right there to help clean up. I turned to the kitchen to grab towels....only to return to see Ava helping clean up......Oskar style! Yup, there she was on her hands and knees licking up the juice from the floor. Ahhhh!!!!! Ava! Stop!!!!! Both she and Oskar look at me like "what's the big deal?" That is a vision that I hope stays with me forever.....what a girl!!!

Summer Sun!

After a ridiculously cold October, we now have 60's in November! It's just crazy! So, we made the most of the nice weather and spent a ton of time outside over the weekend. We first went to a birthday party of our little 2 year old friend, Linah. The kids had a great time playing together and running about! Visits to neighborhood parks and bike rides were also part of the weekend.
Saturday night Aaron and I went out on a DATE...that means we went out without kids for a nice dinner and bottle of wine, a grown-up movie with no Dora, Thomas or Elmo as the main character....we didn't even need to bring diapers, wet wipes, sippy cups, snacks, activities or books! Wow! We had a great time!
Sunday I cleaned out my car...it was really pretty disgusting, so I'm thrilled to have had the nice day to do that. Then I also hung up the Christmas lights (no, they are not on yet), finished raking the yard and other yard stuff, ironed some of my student art (I have to do this outside as it's so stinky....but I've done it in the snow before so I'm happy for the warm temps!)
Here you can see Aaron got out the catapult for Eliah. They had fun chucking footballs and tennis balls for Oskar! You can also see our newly painted door....it used to be a strange purple grapey sort of color from the previous owners....I think it looks pretty nice! We probably lost our chance to get the front door done.



We have work days today and tomorrow. We started today at the Russian Museum of Art for our morning session. What a great place! It's in south mpls if you ever have the itch to go. On our guided tour we were surprised by the sudden appearance of a bat! Yes, he was busy swooping around and getting really quite close to us! Needless to say, our tour downstairs was cut a little short as a couple of the workers took care of him (humanely for those of you worried;-) Also found out that our docent was an art teacher that is now retired...but I used to sub for him back in the day! Funny!
Tomorrow is a work day....oh just in time! My classroom is a disaster and needing a bit of a make-over!

Happy Halloween!!!!!

We have had a whirlwind weekend full of festivities. Last night we got dressed up in our costumes and went to my school for the Halloween Dance. We had pizza and juice for dinner then ran around in circles (dancing) in the gym. It was a great time!

Here they are....Eliah was going to be Bat Man...but complained of his costume being too "itchy".....so he chose to wear his dragon costume again. Here is the dragon trying to eat a flower! Ha!

The sweetest flower I've ever seen!

Here we are at the dance. Ava did great...but wouldn't let me put her down. Eliah and I held hands and danced in circles.

She loves wearing her costume!

I thought this pix of Eliah was so sweet. FooFoo is under BooBoo....clearly tuckered out from a busy night!

The kids got their own mail today from Island G&G! Eliah's card had a Halloween scene with stickers to decorate! Fun!

Heading out for Trick or Treating.....Ava learned to say "treat!" just in time. That little ghost in the tree is what we made a few weeks ago. Sadly, we went to carve our pumpkins last night and they were rotten! EEeeeewwwww!!!!!! So, no pumpkins on our step this year :-(
I love how he's holding her hand in this pix....

Sugar = Speed for kids........

After trick or treating Eliah helped hand out the candy and thought this was GREAT fun! A couple times he stepped outside during some lulls and yelled "Hey guys, come get your candy over here!" Ha!

So, now everyone is in bed, totally crashed from sugar highs. A very good day for sure. Happy Halloween to you all!

A busy weekend.....

We had a crazy busy weekend...all fun for sure, but now I'm exhausted! Friday we had some friends over for dinner. We had a great time, but after a few glasses of wine, some coffee seemed necessary.....well, I never drink coffee anymore....especially at night...and the real stuff....so I was up ALL night. I finally fell asleep around 6 but then was up at 8:30. Ugh! Then Saturday we went down Aaron's grandma's 80th birthday party. Great fun seeing everyone! Then it was off for cousins night for an evening of pool and lots and lots of laughs.....however, this turned out to be a late night too. And here's another "hurrah" for grandparents! Not only do they watch your kids at night...they are built in for the morning too! So, here it is Monday...and I really need another weekend to recover from this last weekend. At least we gain an hour of sleep this coming weekend, right?

Ava LOVES black olives....no surprise since I'm her mother! Well, Grandpa is pretty creative and makes eating food fun! Bet you never thought of using your fingers to hold onto your olives, huh?

Here is Eliah being a very good "helper" and taking care of that tough job of opening birthday cards and gifts!

Ava was a little snuggler this weekend. She got passed around and snuggled with many. Here she is with awesome Cousin Hannah.

Auntie Joyce was even in town. Ava sure likes her. She does all these funny things with noses.

And guess what Ava did today?! You got it! She went pee-pee in the potty!!!!! Of course, just a little got in the potty...I think she surprised herself and stood up as she was going....sort of defeating the purpose, but hey, she's not even 2 yet so I consider that a success! Hooray Ava!

Another new little news tidbit is my school is offering all day, every day Kindergarten next year at no cost! That is if we pass our levy next week. It's a huge savings to not have to pay for it... so, if all goes well with the levy, Eliah will be coming to school with me next year! Crazy!

Leaves

I was supposed to post pix from our pumpkin patch outing from yesterday, but once we were at the farm, I realized I brought my camera....but no memory card in it. So, I had 6 precious pix that I could store on my camera internal memory. Hmmmm.....now I need to figure out how to get them off the camera.....too many days will go by before I figure that out....so on to the pix from today.
What a beautiful day it was! Kids were out with me working on the yard most of the day. We pulled weeds, leaves, trimmed, clipped, raked, bagged, etc.....a very busy day for sure! Here are my helpers.
Ava couldn't decide if she wanted her mittens on or off. In between these times she played dump trucks/excavators with Eliah scooping up mulch. She's also layerd in my family knits....the green sweater made by me and underneath (I know, you can't even see it!) she's wearing a sweater that my FarMor made for me that I wore when I was her age! How cool is that!

We raked up all the leaves in the backyard and made a fun pile for jumping in. Here he is in action....tongue sticking out and all! Air Jordan!

And here's my first baby. Oskar has had a tough couple days dealing with a limp...we think it's from his front leg or shoulder...although it's hard to tell as it doesn't always bother him. Here he is outside with us (not at all afftected by his leg most of the day) in the front and back yard...loving every moment of just being near us. He is the sweetest and most lovable dog I know.
And beautiful! Just look at him!

Cookie Bakers

The sun is shining today and I think it might even hit 50! What a heatwave! Good grief. Ava is napping now and when she wakes up we'll head to the pumpkin patch....finally. We been keeping busy over MEA and doing a little play and then I've been catching up on some things around the house. Finding all the winter gear and washing it all, organizing the hall closet and putting sandals away and replacing with snow boots and slippers. Feels good to get things done.
Yesterday for an activity we made ghosts and bats to hang in our trees and around the front door. We also got some of that spider webbing to put around the door too. Kids were pumped and excited to make everything, but of course, once we got outside I was quickly abandoned to hang everything up myself. Hmmmm......so much for teamwork.
Here are a few pix of Ava. She got into my make up bag and found eyeliner.....she was quite pleased with herself.

Here's a new shirt for her....I thot it was pretty cute. I give a hoot!

Today we are making our Halloween Cookies! Wow.....flour has the amazing ability to get EVERYWHERE when baking with a 1 and 4 year old. Also tricky since we don't have a kitchen table right now. Aaron has it in the garage to strip and re-stain it. Hoping to have it back tomorrow. But anyway, the kids had a great time....Eliah didn't stick around for the decorating....but Ava stuck with me til the end.

Having a yummy cookie after lunch. Oskar in his usual spot, of course.

Stay tuned for Pumpkin Patch Results! ;-)

Someone Special

Okay, Eliah continues to crack me up just about every day. Here are his latest:

We were reading Stop, Drop and Roll....a book obviously about fire safety. So we were discussing what exactly those 3 words meant. When I told him to always remember that if his shirt were ever to catch fire then to just roll all over the ground. He got a little excited and looked at me with his big eyes and said, "Mommy, if you shirt catches fire.....you should just change it!" ;-)

Then yesterday afternoon from the back of the car I hear him ask, "Mommy, will I ever get married?" Good grief...where did that come from? So, I say something along the lines that he doesn't have to worry about that for a very long time. Then he asks, "But Mommy, what if I never find that someone 'pecial?" Oh my goodness......after some questioning, I'm figuring he probably heard something like that at daycare....one of his friends asking a teacher why she isn't married and her response something along the lines of not having found that someone special yet....something like that anyway. Oh, so hilarious!

Ava is sick today. She has a horrible nasty sounding cold and a low fever, a little lethargic at times, but other times happy as can be and playing all over. We took her in to Urgent Care tonight. Nothing comes up on the radar. Her oxygen levels were good, throat and ears good, lungs sound clear too....probably a respiratory virus of some sort, but at this point, not RSV. Told to watch her for increased temp and rapid breathing, but should otherwise move out on its own. The Urgent Care was BUSY tonight and everywhere I go I hear of people being sick....gross....just waiting for it to hit me as everyone else in my family has had some form of it. Ugh.

On that note.....it's MEA tomorrow and Friday! No work til Monday! Hooray!

Oh Poop

So Ava is ridiculously interested in sitting on her potty. She pointed to the top of her closet Sunday afternoon and said "poop" while pointing to her potty. Figured, why not?! So, I brought it down and we took off her diaper and put her near her books. She never actually went in the potty but spent a great part of the day trying....or at least talking about it! We're just making it fun...but she is one determined little girl!
I was home with the kids today. Ava has come down with a slight temp and a nasty cough. She was VERY clingy with me and just wanted to be held. Poor baby. I took this pix earlier in the day when she was feeling a little better. I have her in the Sweetheart Cardigan I knit her. It's plenty roomy....but doesn't she look just so sweet in it?

Bath time continues to be one of our most favorite events. Thought it would make her cold feel better having a bath before bed. Well, it must have helped as they were both SO silly in the tub. Here they are putting their ears in the water to see if they could hear me.
And yes, apparently when you're 21 months wearing two "toggles" is very much necessary.

Fall

Life sure is busy lately as I look back and see it's been almost forever since I posted last! Ha! The days are just plain busy and blogging seems have taken a few steps back on the "to-do" list. But, here it is a Friday night....and I am finally home and sitting with my feet up on the couch...feels so good.
Last week on my day off I took the kids to one of our favorite parks....we were all alone! After an hour or so, another mom came with her son, but that was it! Funny, this mom and I started talking about daycare and I told her about Eliah's daycare....she enrolled her son a week later! i think we should get some sort of discount for a referral....I should check on that. Anyway, it was a chilly day as Fall finally arrived, but fun to have the whole park to ourselves.

Here is Ava after coming out of the big, twisty slide...she loves them!

Eliah usually spends a good chunk of park time at the digger...very important work, you know.

This one made me giggle.....Eliah taking huge scoops of sand....Ava picking up individual sand pieces....so funny!

Big brother showing baby sister how an excavator works.

Last weekend we went down to Aaron's parents as his dad is back in town for a few weeks. We had lots of fun going out with Aaron's siblings and shooting pool for an evening! The only thing that gets better than grandparents babysitting...is staying at grandparents house and having them to get up with the kids in the morning after a late night out! Hooray!

Sunday afternoon we went to the local fire station and toured the trucks and saw them put out some practice fires. Fun! Aren't they sweet?

And how cute is this....

So, it's conference time at school again. Yikes, these are long weeks, but we all make it. Tuesday was my day off, but I had to go in for conferences that afternoon/evening. Aaron had a late meeting, so I brought the kids to school with me for just 30 min or so until Aaron could get to my school to pick them up. I had to laugh at how different they are. Eliah was fascinated with my staplers and stapled just about every piece of paper on that table together! Lots of moving.

Then there is Ava. She sat at this spot for over 20 min coloring on the paper....and later all over herself....you can see her face and they joy she has showing off her very colored hands. She has a history of coloring all over herself....my artsy one with purple hair and tattoos perhaps?? ;-)
This weekend is looking to be cold! We have our neighborhood fire station open house...we'll see if we get that. Also think it's pumpkin patch time, but.....brrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

I also have to share my latest swimming achievement. I've been stuck at the same yardage for some time now and decided to start increasing my workout. So, my goal on Wed was to hit 1.5 miles (2650 yards/106 lengths) and I did it! Then today, I went even more and got 2800 yards in! I'm pretty pumped to have that done in a 45 min swim. 3,000.....maybe not too far off??!!!

Como Zoo

Tuesday was another beautiful day and heading outside was a must for our day off together. Eliah chose to go to the Como Zoo. What a GREAT day! With all the big kids in school and summer sort of "over" we had the zoo to ourselves...other than a bunch of other moms with strollers. Was nice and quiet! We started out checking out the conservatory and Eliah loved all the huge tropical plants, flowers and fish. These fish were big! Wow!
Just look at that splash of color!!!!! All those flowers....joy!
So here we are checking out the fish. Ava seems really drawn to the animals. The Spider Monkeys were leaping everywhere and the gorilla put on a show of pounding his chest! It certainly got their attention!
Here we are just before heading home. Aren't they just the two most precious creatures ever?? When we go out and about, we gets lots of compliments and comments about their hair and how light it is...people really seem amazed by it. They just about melt me when I see them sitting close like this....
Eliah had a blast building this lego castle! We haven't done much lego building before and I was amazed with how quickly he was able to understand and read the visual diagrams. He learned he needed to count the "bumps" of the legos to get the right sized piece. But can I just say DAMN! Legos are expensive!!!!!!!! Yikes!
And here again is the little lady.....she loves to have me blow the bubbles off her hands so they go flying in the air...here she is trying it herself!

Summer in September

After such a cool summer, we now have summer in September and it feels great! While I'm normally pretty ready for jeans and a sweatshirt, I know those days will soon be upon us and I'll take these hot days and enjoy them. We played outside with the sprinkler and the kids washed Ava's little car. Good fun!

Like always, the kids have kept me laughing each day. Here was one conversation with Eliah in the car the other morning:
Eliah: Mommy, why don't all birds get to hang upside down?
Me: Hmmm, I'm not really sure any birds really hang upside down.
Eliah: Yah they do....
Me: Which ones?
Eliah: The ones at the south pole.
(Took me a moment to realize he meant they hang upside down as they are on the bottom of the earth! Oh for real...too funny!)

Ava is also starting to do two word groupings. She'll now say: one bite, more please, help please (usually while trying to put on her shoes), no puppy, no meow (her word for cat and of course bossing the dog and cats around), and when she tries to get by people she'll now say "me"...her version of "excuse me"...she'll try to say just about any word you ask her to say...but she still won't say her name yet. When you point to her pix...she still says "baby".

Starting the 2nd week of school tomorrow. I have Tuesday off with the kids...weather is looking great so I'm sure we'll go on some outdoor field trip. Yay!