Growing Up

I feel like my boys are growing up so fast these days! I snapped a pic of them making 'forts' under the bar stools and it instantly brought me back.....

here's the then and now:
Of course they weren't under the same sides but you get the picture:) The earlier one was taken a little over a year ago (15 months maybe?) - WOW Ethan looks like a GIANT now and Judah like a little boy! I'll try and persuade them to squeeze under them again in another year!

Turtles

I finally uploaded my pictures! Hooray for me:)

We went to the Children's Museum with Joe's family a while ago and had a blast! They had a turtle that you could get in...well of course Joe got in there:) My full grown TMNT:) After Joe tried it, Ethan got the courage up to crawl in there too! WAY TOO CUTE! I love my little turtle:) Judah never crawled in there - but he did enjoy sitting on top! I doubt his arms would've been long enough to fit out anyways...

We had such a GREAT time at the Museum! Sadly, my camera's battery was close to dying so I got limited photos. BUT that meant I had more time to play! I SCRUBBED all our hands after we were done exploring and thankfully no one got sick! (Hands on museum made just for kids = LOTS of germs! Especially in the dead of winter!)

I love watching our little guys explore the world and the Children's Museum gave them plenty of opportunity for that! They both fell fast asleep within 10 minutes of leaving - it wore them out good:)

10 on Thursday

1. My littlest guy is under the weather...boo. Poor Judah has a fever and threw up early this morning (thankfully nothing since 9am!)

2. I HATE HATE seeing my kids sick! They look (and are) so helpless! Judah fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table tonight - I can't remember the last time he's done that!

3. I am SO hoping he has a 24 hour bug - I'm hopeful since he only threw up in the morning and seemed to eat fine after that. The fever is hanging on but hopefully a good night sleep will help kick that!

4. Joe picked up a new faucet for our bathroom (our old one was leaking all over our counter!) - it makes the bathroom look so nice and now Ethan can wash his own hands after he goes to the bathroom!

5. It has two separate handles instead of one so it will be MUCH easier for Ethan to turn on - hooray!

6. Joe also picked up a part (I have no clue what it is) for our toilet - it had a leak somewhere...I don't know much - all I know is that Joe is fixing it now and the toilet's all taken apart:) *and I have to go to the bathroom! ahhh!*

7. I started the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons" with Ethan and he's doing great! (granted we're on lesson 5....but it's a start!) I've heard great reviews on it so I figure we'd give it a shot!

8. Ethan saw the letter 's' today and said "hey mom - that 's' says 'sssss'" which is something we just learned from the book! hooray for retention!

9. It's aimed for 4-5 yr olds or 'bright' 3.5 yr olds...I thought we'd do it now and if it didn't click we'd do it again next year!

10. I'm having a hard time believing that February is almost over..wasn't it just Christmas? I know I say this a lot - but time is FLYING around here!

snow..snow...

I think we've had enough snow for the winter! I was sooo excited when we could see the tiny corner of our grass last week - that 'warm up' was just a tease! We've had a blizzard doing it's thing since yesterday afternoon...lots of snow!

I keep telling myself that soon enough spring will come - spring will come!! I cannot wait!

10 on Tuesday

1. Hooray I'm actually getting this done on Tuesday!

2. Tuesday's are my busy days...ECFE in the morning and work in the afternoon...whew. I'm tired.

3. We got our new (to us) fridge over the weekend and I LOVE it! It's a sleek, black, side-by-side:)

4. The boys love the new fridge too and are obsessed with making new artwork to decorate it with...too cute.

5. I took a video of Judah doing his puzzles with his mad skills and we're trying to speed up the video so people can watch him do his magic. We're running into some issues trying to speed it up but (hopefully) we'll figure it out! Otherwise I'll just post a 5 min video of him:)

6. While grocery shopping the other day I needed toilet paper. I compared prices, picked a good one, bought it and came home.

7. As I was hauling my 'toilet paper' into the house I looked at it and realized I bought a huge thing of PAPER TOWELS. Oy. At least we have a good supply of paper towels now...and I bought some real TP tonight:)

8. Also on that shopping trip I NEEDED baby wipes; like we had 2 wipes left. Wouldn't you guess that I got all the way home and realized I forgot baby wipes? yep. I also bought those tonight. Double Oy.

9. Our van is in need of repair (starter I think? Ask Joe..) so Joe and I have been sharing the car. It's been working out fine but it makes me REALLY appreciate the sliding door on the van! It's so much easier to get kids in and out with a sliding door!

10. Remember when I said I had tons of pictures and needed to get them on the computer? Yeah, still haven't done that. Bad me. It'll happen eventually I promise!

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day! We had a wonderful day:)

I dressed the boys in red and we all went to the Y this morning; my instructor had 6 raffle give-away gifts in honor of Valentines and both Tess and Christie won one! Christie was so gracious to split hers with me:) I came home with a yummy smelling candle. hmmm. The boys came home with cute heart stickers:)

Then Joe and I went out for a lunch date! We both had won free buffet lunches at this little restaurant in town so we decided to redeem them - it's a cute Asian place and we had the dining room to ourselves! Good food+great date+FREE=awesome. After that we went to Caribou (buy-one-get-one day!) and then grocery shopping; romantic right? It seriously was fun though!

We came home to this....The boys made us chocolate covered strawberries (with Grandma's help) - they were sooo proud of them! They also ate almost half of them by bedtime:) I don't blame them..they'll delish! *Notice our beautiful new (to us) fridge in the background! We got it Saturday and I love it! It really updates our kitchen*

We did our normal afternoon rest time and then off to swimming lessons..back home...ate dinner...put the boys to bed.

After the boys were sleeping Joe and I made ourselves a 'fancy' dinner to enjoy - we made steak, raw fries, green beans and onions. Throw in a glass of Ginger Ale and light a candle and you have yourself a romantic dinner! It was sooo good - I love myself some steak:) Plus, I love cooking with my man:) I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day! I have 3 very handsome Valentines that I was honored to spend the day with!

10 on Tuesday on Wednesday

1. wow - I'm getting really bad at getting my 10 on...post up on Tuesdays! Can I blame it on the fact that Joe's home on Tuesday evenings now? I sure can and will.

2. I think Ethan's having a growth spurt - that kid eats SO much now! And is always hungry...always! Good thing he's eating lots of healthy foods: 3rd helpings of broccoli is a win in my book!

3. During rest time today; aka: Ethan watching a movie while I rest; Ethan actually FELL ASLEEP! Another clue to his possible growth spurt...sleeping during the day!

4. My boys are obsessed with bubble baths! They would take one every night if I let them...sometimes I do:) They took one tonight and I got a little carried away with the bubbles - they loved it though!

5. I told Ethan that his and Judah's nose's look the same (they do!) and he kept on trying to 'clean' his nose to make it look different. didn't work. It's adorable when they're next to each other in the tub and you see the similarities in their faces.

6. We watched Astroboy on Saturday night as a family on Netflix (gotta love the instant streaming!) and Ethan LOVED it! New favorite movie. He's now 'Astroboy'.

7. Ethan had swimming lessons on Monday and insisted that his instructor call him Astroboy. She's a sweetheart and called his that for the whole lesson;)

8. Weeks ago (like 3 or so) Joe and I went on a little get-a-way to a cabin about 2 hours south - I still have the pictures on my camera and hope (soon!) to get them on here soon! It's an adorable little place:)

9. Speaking on cameras...I am being so LAZY with getting my pictures off that and onto my computer! argh. Every time I think of it I'm too tired or something. someday. I promise:)

10. I LOVE cake mix cookies. So easy. So simple. So yummy. I'm going to go make some:)

I'm dreaming of....

SUMMER!

I'm done with winter. We have plenty of snow, plenty of cold, plenty of sniffles...and we're ready! Ready for some sunshine and warmth! Ready for picnics in the front yard! Ready for t-shirts and shorts! Bring it on!I was browsing through some old pictures on Facebook and found this gem of my boys eating dinner outside! Such is the life:) Warm, sunny days that go on till 8pm! There's something very comforting about sitting on a blanket, eating food and hanging with all my boys:)

Here's hoping that old-man-winter will leave soon. We've enjoyed you (somewhat) but it's time to move on. The boys have enjoyed playing in your snow but this mama is ready for some fun in the sun! Bring on the parks and beaches!

Sadly, I know we'll have to live with this cold (and by cold I mean the low tonight with windchill is -28 and the windchill HIGH tomorrow is -12! brrrrrrr.) I know EVENTUALLY the snow will melt, the sun will get warmer and sweet summer will show it's face!

5 years!

FIVE years ago I married my best friend:) Oh how time flies!
I can vividly remember that day...getting my hair done, getting my makeup done, getting a caribou caramel cooler to calm my nerves, lots of pictures, waiting for the ceremony....waiting....then BLINK...we're married! The ceremony went by sooo fast!

I do remember walking down the isle - or in my case walking down STAIRS - with a death grip on my dad's arm and my train of my dress getting STUCK on a screw or something! ack! Keeping my cool I stopped - looked back at my train - then thankfully the person sitting in that isle spot unhooked my dress. whew. Other than that the ceremony went off without a hitch (or any that I can remember 5 years later!!)
I still remember back in 2005 when we were trying to find a date for our wedding; we looked in January and I peeked ahead to February just to see what the dates looked like; and when I say 'look' I literally mean 'look'..and I found the COOLEST 'looking' date!

02-04-06! Call me a nerd. I'll take it:) It's nearly impossible to forget our wedding anniversary...two-four-six! Fits perfectly with my math background eh? I totally planned that.

It's been fun to reflect back on our 5 years of marriage...what a FULL 5 years it has been! It makes me excited for the next 5 years!

Joe and I just got back from a WONDERFUL anniversary date evening...I may devote a whole post to it (hopefully!)

I thank God daily for my awesome husband and wonderful children - I can't imagine my life without them!