back to the weekend...

Ready for a bunch of pictures?
remember you can click on any picture to see the full-sized image

So we left Friday, much later than we anticipated, putting us in the dark for most of our drive, which was not fun with the snow that was being dumped on mid-Michigan that day. But we made it.

I just love going up there to the Huff's house. And it's so different going up on our own... without the big Huff family. It's always lots of fun to join them and have all the kids running around, but when it's just us, it's so much quieter and relaxing. And we get to stay in the "big house". (Normally when the whole family is there, we stay at the other cottage, two doors down the road. At the moment that house is being renovated, and I'm thinking once it's finished, everyone will be arguing over who gets to stay at that one... it's looking great!) Anyway, the house is full of Mary Jo's creative decorating, which I envy every time I'm in one of her homes. I wish I was brave enough to go all out like that. I took some pictures of the house, but I have enough others to put on here, so if you're interested, Nicole took a million more and she posted them on her blog here.


We had a great time with the Barczaks, just hanging out, playing games, snacking away to our hearts' content. The guys took the sleds out for a couple hours of snowmobiling, and when they got back Savannah got to go out for a quick ride down the road with her daddy. (we tried to find a helmet to fit her, but they were all too big and we didn't want to push it... I was surprised she got on at all!)










And then we took a million pictures. Seriously, this house makes me want to decorate my house like this, not just because it's awesome to look at and live in, but it makes for amazing backgrounds for pictures. We found some sweet spots; and of course, being that Nicole is the professional here, she got some great shots and you should check some of hers out. There are some adorable ones of Porter and Sawyer. Here are a couple that I took...
































And I thought this was pretty cute... Sawyer likes to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes now, but as far as the motions go all he does is get real excited and pat his knees (only his knees- no head or shoulders or toes) wildly. Here, Savannah stepped in to remind him where his other body parts are...













And what would a vacation with the kids be without bathtub pictures?

























And just for you Aunt Holly... Savannah was drying her hair in front of the fire after Ryan told her that's how you dried your hair when you were little.




Sawyer was all about the rocking chair the whole time we were there.













Here are a few pictures from the car on the way home. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and you can see all the trees are just covered in ice sparkling in the sun.




















We stopped in Mt. Pleasant on the way home to hit an Old Navy and let the kids run around. And I know... enough with the pictures already, but here's one last one for you.
On the way up north, I have always chuckled at a billboard for a car loan place whose website is PoopyCredit.com. So on this trip we got to talking about funny signs and names and just after we saw the poopy credit sign, we saw one for a car dealer/body shop place in Mt. Pleasant called Krapohl's.
Now is it just me, or would that name not be pronounced Crap-hole? Where did you buy that car? Oh, I got it at that Krapohl place down the road... and I got my financing thru PoopyCredit.com! Hahaha!

Anyway, there's a super quick run-down of our weekend for you. We had a great time, and thank you so much Don and Mary Jo for once again sharing your beautiful home away from home with us!

Happy March Fourth

Use today to celebrate the potential in you and your life as you "march forth" and realize all your dreams.

Did you ever realize that this is the only day of the year that is a command?
I found this article in a magazine (and tried to find it online, but couldn't so I'm typing it all out) and I just thought it was the neatest idea!

A Day to March Forth!
A wonderful celebration that teaches our family to reach for our goals...

Our family:
Tina and Matt of Fredericksburg, VA and our kids, Levi, age 3, Emma,7, and Taylor, 10.

Our tradition:
Our entire extended family gets together to celebrate March 4th. We start the festivities by parading around the house to a few classic marching songs, then we have a big meal together. After dinner, each of us records a goal for the coming year. We also read off the goals from last year and vote on who best accomplished theirs. The winner gets The Golden Boot Award! It's an old army boot that's been spray-painted gold and it's stuffed with 25 one-dollar bills to sweeten the prize.

What we eat:
It changes every year, but the menu always has a marching theme. For example, we might serve Let Us (lettuce) March Forth Salad with toe-matoes, foot-long hot dogs, shoestring potatoes, and rocky road ice cream. You get the idea.

Some favorite goals:
Write a song, learn to swim, make three new friends, make the honor roll, finish our family genealogy... But really anything is fair game.

Our special keepsake:
At the end of the evening, the kids stand on the dining room table and we trace their feet on our March Forth tablecloth (an old bedsheet). Later Matt's mom, Kathy, goes back and embroiders all of the footprints, along with the year and each child's name.

Why we love it:
Tina: It's a fun way to show our kids how setting goals can help them achieve more than they thought possible.

Matt: We also get to model for the kids how to celebrate each other's accomplishments.

Taylor: I like that everyone is together.

Emma: My favorite part is when Gram traces our feet on the table.

Levi: I like the marching!

How we got started:
Kathy (Gram) came up with the idea years ago when she learned on a March 4 that she had been accepted into nursing school. She took it as a sign to "go forward" and decided to celebrate the day when her kids were older. That date became so synonymous with positive change that we even got engaged at one of the annual parties.


Isn't that a cool idea? Kinda thinkin' I might try out something like that with our family.
Good stuff.

**********
I have some pictures to go through and some sleep to catch up on, and I'll be back tomorrow to recap our weekend up north. It was so nice to get away!!
Hope you all had a great weekend too!

couldn't stay away

Okay, just have to ask,
What is wrong with these people???

My husband....
Normally for spending money, we use one credit card (to rack up air miles) for all our spending and purchases, groceries and everything. That's for budget stuff; I also have a small chunk of cash "discretionary money" every two weeks. Well, I haven't used up much of that extra cash for the past month, so yesterday I decided I had earned myself a fun trip to Target, and treated myself to a nice leisurely stroll through all the clothing, house decor, and other random items that are not necessities. I ended up with some needed household items, grocery items, as well as two new shirts for me, a cute sweater on clearance for Sawyer, and a new pair of jeans for him too. My total came to just over $70, and when I was relaying my trip to Ryan last night, I started explaining that I had left my cash in my other purse and so I ended up using the card for that total, but I was planning on either giving him about $60 to put back on the account, or I would use that cash for groceries or something else that would normally be put on the card. Most of that was totally frivolous spending, and I was fully planning on using my "own" money for it.
And what does he say?
Oh, that's okay, don't worry about it... you're fine.
Excuse me?!? Who are you and what have you done with my husband?

And Sawyer....
has slept in the last two mornings. As in, I had to wake him up yesterday to take Savannah to school at 8:20! And he's still sleeping this morning and it's after 8. Weird. I am truly jealous of moms who have kids that actually sleep in the mornings. It's so nice to have a little time to yourself (not that I really do- Savannah's still up bright and early- but at least she'll just sit and watch The Magic School Bus and leave me alone)!

And then Savannah....
worried me because it started snowing again this morning, and when I pointed that out to her, she actually let out a frustrated sigh. What?!? Savannah's disappointed that it's snowing? But then she redeemed herself by saying she was upset because Daddy had to work this morning and wasn't home to play in the snow with her. Okay. That makes more sense.

I was starting to wonder where my real family went.

Man, it's really coming down out there. It's only been snowing for like 20 minutes and everything is completely covered, our street and driveway were bare and wet, and now you can't even tell where they are. I knew it was supposed to snow today, but I thought I heard snow showers. I can hardly see across the street it's coming down so thick. And windy.
Hmmm.... I wonder how bad it is up north? Hope we can still head up there okay later this afternoon!


Okay, one more thing. While I'm gone, let's see who all reads this here little blog of ours.
If you come by here and find this post, please leave me a comment. Whether you're a regular or you read but never comment, a friend of a friend, whether you peek in from time to time or just happen to stumble across my ramblings today of all days, leave me a message. Just say hi, just say shut up, just say something! Go ahead- click that little comment link right down there and let me know who you are. It'll be fun to see how many actually pay any attention to what I say!

killing time

I found this fun little time waster on Angelique's blog this morning. Kind of cool... you can go to different online stores and "try" clothes on.
So how do I look?


Look like me? How does my butt look in these jeans?? hahah!

*****

I only got on the computer to put up my pictures for the last few days. But I found myself wandering the web and back here to ramble. I guess I'm just making up these random posts as fillers since we'll be gone all weekend.
We're headed up to the Huff's house on the river again.
I'm very much looking forward to the weekend. Don and Katie couldn't join us this weekend, but Friday is Ryan Barczak's birthday, so they're gonna head up there with us to celebrate with a nice weekend of relaxation. And sledding, and maybe some shopping, and lots of eating and more relaxing.

So I'll be back Monday with lots of pictures and I'm sure a few stories to tell.
Have a good weekend everyone!

ewwww....

what gross weather we're having around here today!
It was freezing rain/sleet/hail all morning and now it's just been pouring plain old rain for the last couple of hours. YUCK! Everything on the ground is just one big wet slushy mess! I had to don my snowboots to get to the mailbox through the icy slushy ankle-deep puddle/pond at the bottom of our driveway.

It's quiet at the moment though, and I have to admit it's kind of soothing hearing the rain on the roof. Haven't heard that around here in awhile...

It's just a dark and gray kind of day where you just want to curl up with a blanket and read or nap or alternate both all day long.
Speaking of nap... I think that's just what I'll do. Sawyer just went down and Savannah's in for her rest time, so I think I'll just cuddle up here on the couch and close my eyes.

awww...

Here's a little picture Leslie posted yesterday on her blog of Reyna snoozing in their bed...
Isn't she so sweet?!?





Well, after seeing that last night, I just had to look through our pictures because I was experiencing a little dejavu...
This is Savannah at about 2 weeks old.
She too had been up for her morning feed, and fell back to sleep in our bed, sleeping away even as we got up for our day. She just looked so grown up sleeping like that, but she was so, so tiny!

Anyway, this has always been one of my favorite pictures for some reason, and I thought it was funny that Les caught the same kind of moment!

snacking can be dangerous

So we all know Sawyer is obsessed with getting into the snack cupboard, right?
It's like he can sense if we happen to leave it un(child)locked and he's in the kitchen as soon as we're not looking -who am I kidding, he does it when we're looking too- and raids the cupboard, pulling out whatever he can get his hands on wanting a little taste of everything. We try to keep it locked. We keep all of our snacks and cereals in this big corner lazy susan cupboard, which can't use a normal door/drawer lock; we have to use an outside lock on the handles. Which means it's attached to the cupboard next to it as well, which doesn't really line up, making it awkward, hard to lock and unlock, and just kind of a hassle. In other words, it doesn't always get locked correctly. And Sawyer takes full advantage of those opportunities.

Well, today he took the phrase "getting into the snack cupboard" a little too far.

I was downstairs putting some laundry into the washer and the dryer, and as I headed back upstairs, I heard Sawyer crying. Now, Savannah was gone at school, and Sawyer doesn't just cry for no reason, so assuming he was hurt, I hurried up the stairs, worried. For a moment a couldn't find him, but then I realized the cupboard door was open...

and I found him.














I know... I'm a bad mother... instead of immediately rescuing my child who's scared cuz he's stuck the corner of a cupboard (with a protein bar still in his hand may I point out), I snap pictures first... I'm horrible.






I don't quite know how he managed to get in there, cuz it was tricky getting him out!
















**********

We got to visit with Leslie and baby Reyna a bit yesterday, and here are a couple of shots of Savannah holding Reyna. She loved holding her! We haven't seen a tiny baby in quite awhile (Reyna is four weeks old) and Savannah was in love...
when we talked about our favorite parts of the day before bed, this was hers!

this little piggy went to market

Making a grocery list today. Trying to come up with some meal ideas for then next couple of weeks. Isn't it funny how it's so easy to get in a rut with the food in your house? At least for me it is. I feel like we always have the same things over and over.

And isn't it funny how we buy the same things every time? I mean, yeah, we want to buy the things we know our family likes and eats (especially with kids), but so much of it is just habit. It's nice to mix it up a little once in awhile.

So what's on your grocery list?
Do you shop for what's on sale or just get what you need?
Better yet, what are some brand names that you just can't live without... you know, yeah store brands are usually cheaper, but sometimes generic or whatever's on sale just doesn't do it for you.

For us, some of our only one brand items would be
Kraft Mac & Cheese (cuz it's the cheesiest you know),
Jif peanut butter (creamy only),
Mrs. Butterworths syrup (store brands can just be so watery or flat tasting),
and Pampers diapers (I found everything else just leaked -or didn't keep the load contained- too easily. By the time Sawyer came around I never even tried anything else anymore. Keep the coupons coming, cuz Pampers are it for my babies.).

What are the brands you splurge on (or hoard coupons for) just because you think they're worth the extra money?

just another manic monday

I'm having a hard time believing today is Monday.

Not only did it feel like the weekend went by way too fast and there's no way it can be Monday already, but for some reason all day today totally felt like it should be a Thursday or a Friday to me. That's depressing, being that it really is only Monday. Ugh!

Of course, my confusion and disbelief probably stems from having already been up for 17 hours today. It is only 7pm. But yes, I've been up since approximately 2am. Courtesy of the SawMan himself. You see, he decided a good time to be awake, talking and playing in his crib was from about 2 to 4 this morning. And of course he's right on the other side of the wall from our heads. So I got to lay there and listen to his blabbing and whining and thumping for almost 2 whole hours. I got up with him once and Ryan got up with him once. But it wasn't that he was unhappy or wanting anything; he just WAS NOT GOING BACK TO SLEEP. I felt like ever.
And then of course when he finally went silent at 4am, I was still wide awake. I could not get to sleep. And then I was getting really hungry. I ended up getting up and decided to have a snack and get out of bed for awhile since I was getting nowhere just laying there stressing about not sleeping. But when I came back to bed 20 minutes later, I was still wide awake. I think I finally fell asleep by 6 o'clock. And of course Ryan's alarm goes off at 6:30. Followed shortly by the arousal of both kids. So basically I was awake for the day at 2. Not my favorite way to start the morning.


Hmmm.... seems like there was something else I was going to write about today. Can't think now.
Porter's birthday party was yesterday by the way. Very cool party; we all had lots of fun. Nicole of course did a great job coming up with the cutest theme and so many great ideas along with it. If you're interested you can check out all the details and the pics over here.

Allrighty then..
I'm off to watch a movie with Ryan (we'll see how long I last LOL!) before bed.
Nighty-night.

sticky

Sawyer has been very into stickers lately....
I wonder where he gets it?

Game Night

or Girls Drink Too Much Night

whichever title you prefer.

I don't quite know what happened last night, but our Oscars/Movie Game Night somehow turned out to be a night of absolutely no games (unless you count pool) and a rare amount of alcohol consumed by the female halves of all the couples. We had a great time, don't get me wrong. I just think we were all shocked by how um... tipsy, yeah that's the word... all us girls (Katy, Nicole, Maria and I) happened to be by the end of the night. I honestly can't remember the last time I drank that much. I think we had all just had that kind of week and when we took a minute to relax and um... let's say unwind, we took full advantage. I don't think I've laughed so much in quite awhile. We all had our share of picking on each other, telling embarrassing stories, and laughing, laughing laughing.

After everyone finally made their way home, (all the husbands stayed nice and sober for us -and for the kids) I still wasn't ready for bed, even though it was late.
So what do I decide to to? Do a little blog surfing of course.
Everyone remember Drunk Dialing? And how useless and babbling and regretful that could be?
Well at this point in my life I need no longer fear getting into a drunk dialing situation.
Apparently I need to watch out for Drunk Blogging. Or Drunk Commenting to be precise. I need to keep my fingers off the keyboard when I've had a few too many.

Sorry Kim, for the rambling comment. At least I think I sounded sober. Longwinded, but sober. Until Nicole ratted me out!

Thanks for a fun night girls!

funny...

... how sometimes when you think you've got a good perspective on things for the moment, life likes to test you.
After reflecting yesterday morning on keeping my gratitude more in the forefront of my heart... I think God decided to really call me on that. From there on out, I feel like I had the type of day where you keep thinking what in the world could happen next? Our washing machine wouldn't work, I was trying to make caramel corn and I couldn't pop a good batch of popcorn to save my life, my computer and printer were not wanting to cooperate with me, the kids were crabby, Ryan was still sick (and whiney) -just a little jab for you hun- and so on and so on. I really had to check myself a number of times and stop and find the good parts in all the frustrations.
Good practice, that's for sure!

gratitude

I had a hard time kicking my blah mood the other day. Even with some nice sunny weather yesterday, I was just feeling... I don't even know the word for it... agitated.

The other night I visited the spot of one of my favorite bloggers, an amazing woman and artist, Ali Edwards, and I found some great, much needed words. Ali could have been speaking for me, exactly. She, as well had gotten encouragement from another amazing woman, Heidi Swapp, and as Ali said...
I needed to hear her message (I am continually amazed at how things flow in just this way).

Gratitude. Not taking things for granted, and taking the time to appreciate the blessings in our lives, no matter how small of insignificant they can seem at times; gratitude is huge. It really does amaze me how much of a difference our perspective makes in our happiness and contentment. And how easily we forget that.
Heidi wraps it up best... here's her entry touching on the topic.


gentle reminders

I’m up with a really sick stomach. I am not sure at what point along the way I am going to realize that I CAN’T do spicy! Didn’t’ seem to matter last pregnancy… this time, even the slightest bit of zip in any food, causes great regret a few hours down the road…tonight I felt immediately sick after I ate, and I decided to lay down. That was at 7:30…it’s now 1:30am and I am not really tired…but I don’t feel good. So it’s a good thing that I have tues, wed and thurs nights episodes of American Idol on my tivo… so I am just going to sit here under a quilt and veg.

I had an awesome productive day, and I am thankful for that. Today was the start of week 8 in my Big Picture ‘year to remember’ class. In preparation for March, I have challenged my class to focus on ‘counting blessings’… and truly being grateful. I am enjoying the process of this class, and I get the luxury of focusing on the things that I need to focus on in my life. Today was a perfect example…I had a little lesson in taking something for granted. It’s funny how, when I go through my days or my weeks, I tend to focus on the ‘unaccomplished’ side of my list, and not so much being happy or content and thankful for the parts of my life that are accomplished and running well. Rather than really being pleased about what is working… what I have covered…I get so broken down about the things that aren’t under control.
I think that joy and happiness in life comes from finding it; appreciating it.
There has to be a balance of finding satisfaction and enjoying… and then turning it on, knowing what has to get done, and doing it!
But there is no time for ingratitude. Definitely reminded of that today.
So, I took cory to basketball practice today, and instead of dropping off and picking up and squeezing phone calls and errands in between, I sat on the ground on the side of the court, at the park… in the sun (sorry if you don’t live in az, so nice today), and watched cory play…cheer for him a little. Regroup. while I was there, my girl scout cookies were delivered (didn’t know we ordered) nice surprise! It’s the little things!
Much to be thankful for, pleased with and appreciate the reminder.

I'm thankful for the gentle reminders that come our way just when we need them.

Part of the purpose for my I like today because page was to be intentional about recognizing the good things of the day and to be appreciative of my blessings. However, it's become really easy for me to just slap a picture on there and then skip finding the likable parts of my life each evening. And when I do do it, sometimes I feel as if I sit there forever with my hands over the keyboard struggling to find some noteworthy brightspots in my day. Especially evenings when I have one of my headaches... that tends to put a darkness on my day that's hard for me to shake.

But I need to remember that it doesn't matter how small or silly or insignificant something may be. We always have an infinite number of things to be thankful for. Whether it's something as trivial as a good hair day or a favorite snack, all the way up to the bigger things like my children being safe and warm in their beds or the fact that we have enough to provide ourselves with those favorite snacks. Heck, how about the fact that I have a computer and the ability to type and that I can write these things, share what's on my mind, and get encouragement from total strangers just when I need it.

When you think about it that way, it's overwhelming all we have to be grateful for. And it makes my grumpiness and complaining seem awfully ridiculous.


p.s.
If you clicked on over to Ali's blog, did you check out her sidebar? Most importantly, her Autism Speaks Badge.

It's an awesome charity as well as an awesome network set up for some great causes. Ali's badge is in honor of her son Simon who was diagnosed with Autism two years ago. The six badges that have most donations (the highest number of donations, not the $ amount) by March 31st will receive a matching grant of $10,000 from Kevin Bacon. Here are more of the details, or you can go to sixdegrees.org. But please, click on the badge a make a donation. You can make a donation of as little as $10. Ali's badge is in the top 10, so let's keep it there. For Autism.

kind of a blah day...

I really do love the winter weather in the midwest. It just makes winter so much more bearable for me to have snow on the ground. Without it, it's just four long months of blah; just cold and bare and dreary and I feel like I'm just spending the whole winter waiting for spring.
Something about snow falling is so peaceful; it quiets everything. I feel the snow brightens things up, blankets everything and makes it feel like an actual season instead of just four longs months of waiting for spring. The kids can play in it, sled and build in it.
What do you do when it's just cold and rainy? Stay inside and wish it were spring.

Our snow is starting to melt some this week with our warmer temperatures. I look out the window and I'm seeing the dullness of the bare trees instead of white snowcovered branches. I see the muddy not-so-green grass peeking out at the edges of the yards and under trees. Rooftops are bare and the gutters are releasing the last of their ice and snow. The snow at the sides of the roads is slushy and dirty. Today is just mild and windy and melty and slushy and dreary. Days like this are what make me wish it was spring already.

I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
I felt like I had zero patience with my kids right from the start this morning.
And it wasn't even like they were being hard... I just wasn't feeling very friendly. And blah...

Ryan's not feeling so hot either. He woke me up this morning to ask me if he had a fever. I don't think he does... and he went in to work today, but he was pretty miserable all night; stuffy and coughy.
He doesn't get sick often, but boy when he does he's a whiner. Why is it that men are such babies when they get sick?

******

Okay, let's cheer this post up a little bit.

Yesterday was Porter's birthday. He's a big one year old now! Savannah was very excited that he and Sawyer "are the same age now"!
He wasn't a very happy birthday boy at our house all morning (he's in that tough spot between 1 and 2 naps a day), but after a good nap he was in a better mood for the rest of his big day and then Ryan, the kids and I joined the Barczaks out for dinner last night to celebrate.

Savannah had a field trip today with her class to Red Lobster. Yes, the restaurant. I wondered what on earth we would do at Red Lobster for two hours, but it was fun. The kids learned a lot about lobsters and other ocean dwelling creatures, they got to touch and even hold a lobster and then we all got to sit down and enjoy a little snack of yummy popcorn shrimp and, Savannah's favorite, Sprite. It was also Miss Kristy's birthday today and the other teachers surprised her with a little cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. Savannah was super excited about that too; that was probably the highlight of the field trip for her! She's a little birthday freak... I guess give that kid any reason to celebrate and she takes it all the way! Christmas, Valentine's, birthdays, doesn't matter how big or small, it's something to celebrate!
Anyway, the whole trip made me hungry (especially with the teaser of the appetizer), and I really want dinner at Red Lobster tonight. Too bad we already went out last night...

Let's see what else....
Oh, we have our next game night coming up this weekend. We haven't really had one since November, so it's about time! We're doing a little Hollywood/Movies theme since we have the
Academy Awards coming up on Sunday. We'll probably play a little Scene It, along with some other movie/celebrity trivia games and of course gossip and snack on plenty of candy and popcorn throughout the night. I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun to hang out with everyone again!

Okay, I feel like I'm just rambling aimlessly, so I'll wrap this up now.
I haven't picked up my camera yet today, so I'm off to hunt for something or someone for today's photo.
And hey-- Yay, the weekend's almost here!

the day started out productive...

I had a long mental to-do list today.
And I was on a great roll this morning.
I managed to

• do a whole load of dishes
• fold all of our laundry except for one small basket
• put all the kids clothes away, reorganizing the kid's closets and going through to weed out too smalls and such
• shower and dry my hair (which is a feat in and of itself while the Sawman is awake to have free reign of the house)
• clean both the kid's bedrooms and the playroom

And that was all before 10:30.

Then Nicole brought Porter over to hang out, bringing a few loads of laundry of her own because their washer broke down last week. So of course I spent the rest of the day basically sitting on my butt, lazily chatting the day away, getting not one other single thing done. Not even the dinner I had planned for this evening. I ended up throwing corn dogs and french fries in the oven as Nicole left at almost 5:30 this evening... about 5 minutes before Ryan got home from work! Welcome home honey, I slaved over a hot stove all day just for you!

Not that I mind just sitting around on my butt: and at least I had a good friend over to give me the excuse to do so. I'm just saying it was a good thing I was as motivated as I was this morning, so I had at least something to show for my day!


Oooh, okay, I gotta go. I was multi-tasking; trying to blog while I watched 24. However due to an unforseen change of events, the show now requires my full attention. As old as this show gets in theory, I just can't help but love it every week! Good stuff.
(and I'm still convinced Josh could pass for Kim's twin!)

rise and shine

Since I've been all linky lately, I thought I might as well throw another one at you...
Ryan came across this today and we just thought it was the coolest thing we've seen in awhile. Know anyone who needs an extra nudge to get out of bed in the morning? They just might need this alarm clock. Very cute. I don't know that it would be that cute at 6 o'clock in the morning, but it's a great idea, nonetheless.

a sunny Sunday in the snow

It's so fun to see Savannah loving the snow so much. It's hard to believe, watching her crawl, roll and run around in all the white stuff out there today, that this is the same girl who spent her first year of life hating to touch grass. And who spent the second year of her life hating dirt or sand, and still didn't love feeling the grass beneath her toes.

The first few times out in the snow here, she was quite hesitant and at times a little freaked out by this cold, wet, white stuff. Like, that stuff's supposed to be fun?!?

But now it's as if she's lived in it her whole life. Everytime I looked outside this afternoon, she was out there crawling around, digging, laughing, falling, and having a ball with her Dad. I love it!

Sawyer didn't get a chance to get out and play todaybecause he took a nice long nap this afternoon, but we took our big "all terrain wagon" out for a walk later around the block. It's been awhile since we've been walking, and it was nice.





I added more pictures today to the snow day album if you care to check them out.


And also, I can't beleive I forgot since I think Ryan was even on the phone with her when I posted yesterday, but Happy Birthday to Jenn yesterday!! Hope you enjoyed your day and your special dinner out!

If you're a parent...

...especially of a toddler at the moment,
oh my gosh, you have got to go read these now.
Seriously, I haven't laughed so hard all week. I was in tears!

And after you read those, make sure you read these and these.
She needs to publish a book!

snow pictures

Some have been asking for pictures of the kids out in the snow. So I put together an online album to keep all our snow pictures from this year in one spot and not have to put them all on the blog.

I didn't use our normal Shutterfly albums because I've been having trouble uploading to them for some reason. So here's the new album. It's on Snapfish and you have to create an account real quick to view my pictures... it's easy, all you need is your email and make up a password and then you can view the slideshow or individual pictures and also order any prints if you want.

I hope I like Snapfish. It was a lot simpler to use than Shutterfly and I can store pictures on there for an unlimited amount of time. So anyway, I just uploaded the pictures real quick- I don't think I cropped any or even fixed any redeye. If there's a print that you want that needs to be touched up, let me know and I'll go back and fix it up.

Happy Friday

So not only am I busy trying to remain a gas pump virgin,
but it appears that now we are also trying to see how long we can go without folding laundry...

Reason #84 Why I Don't Like Ryan to Be Gone Overnight

which doubles as Reason #101 to Get Lasik Surgery


{I hate feeling so vulnerable sleeping alone when I'm blind}



More often than not when I'm alone in the house, I sleep with my contacts in (or even my glasses on if my eyes are really tired of the contacts).

Glad you're coming home tomorrow, honey.
I sleep so much better with you around :)

my oh-so-not-camera-friendly-kids and an evening of oh-so-not-romantic paperwork

So Ryan's off again, the house is once again trashed (and in the midst of said mess, someone decided to play a game of hide and seek with my cell phone three different times today), Savannah is truly bummed that Valentine's day is over, and I'm still loving the snow.
Does that work for an update for you?


Since trying to become better at taking more pictures of the everyday stuff and the whole lotta nothin that's always going on around here, (okay, since you asked....here are a few more everyday stuff pics from yesterday...










Ryan may find this questionable, but Sawyer seems to really like playing dress up and beauty parlor with his sister...)


Anyway, after looking through my millions of everyday shots I'm collecting, I decided it was time for a sit-down-and-let's-look-cute-photo-session. I wanted to try and get some pictures of the kids- both individually and together. It's been way too long (like since Sawyer was about six weeks old) and now I have about zero good pictures of them together without toys, books, wrestling, or food involved. So I decided to just take some time one-on-one and one-on-two to try and get a few simple shots. Simple. Yeah, right.

First I tried the new chair. No one would sit still for even a second. Note to self: don't use rockers for toddler props.
Then I tried the bigger poof rocker in our bedroom (that's where I took a lot of their pictures together when Sawyer was tiny). Nope. They didn't want to share that seat, and trying individually, Sawyer was just climbing it.
So I tried throwing them both on the bed. That was a big mistake, because that got Sawyer so wound up it was ridiculous! He just kept crawling to get me, or thinking it was funny to do head dives off the bed.
I don't know how many hundreds of pictures I snapped. But I do know how many keepers came out of it all. Take a guess.

Five.
Four of Savannah and One of Sawyer. Well, I'm pretending One for Sawyer. The only one I like of him is even still blurry. *sigh*
Glad I'm not trying to get better at this or anything...

So here are two outcomes of the really not so great photo session attempt for Valentine's Day 2007.
Enjoy.
I sure didn't. LOL!

The rest of Valentine's Day was nice. Ryan got home a little early and took the kids out to play in the snow. Savannah had a blast making little mini sled hills in our yard next to the driveway and patio where the shoveled snow might be up to three feet high now. Sawyer thought it was hilarious to fall down in the snow, or to watch Ryan or Savannah throw themselves down. It was all pretty cute. Savannah was out there for more than an hour... I thought she was going to freeze her little tooshie off, but she didn't want to come in. There's just nothing like kids playing in the snow...

After the kids went to bed Ryan and I spent a nice romantic evening putting together Scholastic book orders for Savannah's whole school. I'm in charge of their book orders and Ryan so kindly helped me out a ton last night. Yeah, are we romantic or what?!? We actually almost had real plans to really go out. Ryan had a babysitter and everything. And then it sort of just fizzled out. Woulda been nice, but it was a good evening at home too.
We caught up on this week's 24 (*** please tell me, could they have picked a boy to play Josh who looks any more like Kim than he does??? Is that not obvious to anyone else?***), and then watched one of the most boring episodes (although definitely weird) of LOST I've seen in awhile. Oh well.

Anyone else out there have exciting, romantic Valentine evenings?

Hope everyone had a sweet Valentine's Day

How much snow, you ask?

**Edited in the AM**

Six inches today and still falling.

This was taken about 6pm.







I took this picture because I thought it was funny that our front walk to the steps was clear this morning (I shoveled it late yesterday), and it had disappeared by this evening.
Where did our sidewalk go?






Four hours later...

Forget the sidewalk--
where did our front steps go?

Ryan put it nicely...
We no longer have front steps, we have a front slope.









** here's the latest for you...
this morning we have a mini-sledding hill in front of our door instead of three front steps**

So what is today.... the BEST day of the whole year?

Savannah finally got her long- awaited Valentine's Day. A day early.
Two days of Valentine's Day... this girl is on cloud nine. Not sure why she *loves* this holiday so. I wasn't even aware of this until the other day, and since then she could. not. wait. for it to be Valentine's. This morning she was so excited to have her party at school today and bring her valentines for her friends and teachers.

I forgot to get pictures of her and her valentines this morning. We made made heart shaped crayons for her friends and she was especially excited to bring the strawberry "flowers" for her teachers today. I forgot to take a picture of her with the bouquet this morning, but here's a picture I found in the magazine where I got the idea...
I think it turned out great and it was pretty easy... I painted wooden skewers with green food coloring, we dipped our strawberries in white chocolate, added a little greenery, and used a cute white ribbon with red hearts on it wrapped around a little vase. Savannah made a great card and they loved it! I'm going to have to remember that idea for showers and stuff!


When I picked Savannah up from school after her party, she was all excited and couldn't wait to tell me, "Mom! Tomorrow is the real Valentine's Day!"

She would have been just fine with one day of valentines. I'm afraid my few treats tomorrow are just no match for the party at school today, her bag full of cards from her friends, and then her "goodies" from her grandparents that she got to open when we got home today.
Here you go; I actually got a couple of pictures of her -and what is this? Did she actually look at the camera?!?
























And to be fair, after all the pictures and blabbing about the little brother, I did manage to get a few shots of Savannah yesterday. She sat decently for me in her new chair. This is her first purchase with her own money! It was quite exciting, and I was very proud of her.
See, she has the habit that most three year olds do, of standing way too close to the tv. Like basically with her nose touching the screen. So being tired of nagging her about it, I sat down with her and had a discussion about how to solve this problem. We decided she needed a "spot" to sit.
Well, then a few days later we saw that Target had these neat little chairs on sale so we went and looked at them and talked about it and Savannah decided she wanted to buy one with the money she got in the mail for V-day (thanks Great-Grandma and Grandpa!). She picked pink, of course. So now she pulls that out when she watches tv and has her own spot to sit. It looks pretty stinkin cute in her room too! Take a look...





















We've been working with Savannah to make a few other changes around here too. Her whining and crying and not so nice behavior was becoming more the norm than a rarity anymore, so we came up with some "plans" for her. She is all about charts and lists and the routine and consistency those types of things provide. I guess she probably gets that from me. And it's a good thing I think like that, because apparently that kind stuff may be all it takes to get a jumpstart on getting her straightened out.

We've had a lot of talks lately. And this past weekend we made up some plans and some charts...

#1 was a So-mommy-and-daddy-can stop-nagging-everytime-I use-the-bathroom Chart (remember to wipe, flush, wash, turn off light).

#2 was a No Whining Chart. She has to put an x in a box every time she whines or throws a fit. Three strikes, and no tv or movie the next day. So far, since putting up this up, there has been zero whining. She went from whining all day long about anything, to none. Honest.

#3 is for her hair. Anyone who is close to us knows Savannah's hair has been a sore spot for all of us lately. She has just increasingly over the past year hated more and more to have anything to do with taking care of her hair. Washing, drying, brushing, braiding, touching; she HATES it. While attempting to brush her hair before school, one could expect anything from whining and complaining, to full-on screaming bloody murder. Not fun.
We were waiting on her first haircut, growing it out to be able to donate it to make children's wigs. Now that it's been long enough for months, Savannah has decided she doesn't want to cut it until she turns four. Don't know why, but she is adamant about that. But the struggle to keep her hair cleaned and out of the way is becoming too much for me. Out of anger and frustration about her carrying on, I threaten often to cut it off, but then I feel so bad. I don't want a haircut to be a punishment... she loves her long hair. But I can't deal with us both getting so upset about doing her hair anymore.

So now she has a chart. She has two colums; happy faces for cooperative hair days, sad faces for not. If she fills the one column, she gets a treat. If she fills the other column, that tells us it's too hard to take care of all that hair and we're going to get a haircut. So then it's just a consequence and not so much a punishment, right?
Anyway, so far... three happy faces.
Much nicer mornings and bathtimes, thank you very much!





Alright.
This is looking like a record for the most consecutive super long posts ever.
Wow. Thanks for hangin in there with me!
I'll cut down and keep em' short and sweet for awhile, I promise!