One Year Older and Wiser Too

The past week has been jam packed with so many fun things that I am just barely getting a minute to sit down and blog about them. We started off the week with Grandma W. coming into town for Banana's birthday! We are SO glad the weather cooperated and let her make it safely. Every day we have been running around trying to cram in as much fun as we could possibly manage! The girls have missed many naps and had way too much sugar, but it has all been worth it!

The highlight of the week was Banana's 4th birthday. I am still not so sure how I feel about her turning 4. I was going to list four things that I love about her, but there is no possible way I could stop at four. She is so caring and kind hearted. Her first concern is always about the people around her and she will do anything to make sure everyone is happy. If I'm having a bad day she is the first person to try and cheer me up and is always successful! She is a gorgeous little girl with big blue eyes that melt my heart, and get her out of trouble quite often. She loves learning and pushes me to learn more so I can be a better teacher for her. She has a hilarious sense of humor and loves to make people laugh. And when she grows up she wants to be a dancer/artist/pet holder (vet)/chiropractor/and a mommy. I can't wait to see what the next year brings and I am so blessed to be her Mom. She brings me countless hours of joy and the 24 hours of labor it took to get her into this world were worth it!
I have a ton of pictures from this week and had a hard time narrowing down my favorites....so you get to see most of them! :)

Banana had her pre-school Valentines party this week. She LOVED writing her name on all of her valentines and LOVED even more coming home with a box full of cards and candy!

We always start off birthday morning with chocolate chip birthday pancakes! And it gives us another excuse to sing "Happy Birthday"!

Running Man always makes a crepe paper number for the girls to get their picture taken in front of. And as you can see Banana has mastered the art of posing!

I had to throw in this pic of an ADORABLE Em. Seriously..could she be any cuter?!
After two years of her begging we FINALLY took her to Chuck E. Cheese for her bday. We only played the games, but we had such a blast. I forgot how much fun it is to just run around from game to game and just be silly. Both of the girls loved it and we're so grateful Grandma got to be there to help out!
And what restaurant did Banana pick for her bday lunch? RED ROBIN! Was there ever any doubt. That girl loves that place. Luckily we do too!

Her favorite present? Her Wii!! Lots of people have been giving us flack for getting her one and not believing that we bought it for her, saying that it's for us. No way! Thanks to her dad and uncles she is video game obsessed. She is having a blast playing it! She's been traumatized the last few weeks because Running Man sold the xbox and game cube to help pay for it, and she's been missing her Zelda. SO worth the tears when she saw the Wii!!

Banana picked a Rainbow theme for her party this year and her and I have had SO much fun planning everything we could do with it! She has been most excited about her rainbow cake. I loved making it and am super grateful it turned out!!
I also made her this rainbow banner, and she sent her friends home with take out boxes full of candy and fruit loops to make rainbow jewelry! I think I am in LOVE with planning parties now!
Thanks to an AMAZING friend Banana was surprised with these adorable cake pops! I found the idea on Bakerella and started them myself. Luckily Courtney came to the rescue when I was running out of time and stressing myself out! Courtney is amazing and I love the perks of having her as a friend! She also took a lot of pics with her super nice camera and I will post those pics as soon as I get them!
We are so sad that Grandma is leaving tomorrow and will miss having her around the house.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention one of the most exciting parts of the week for me! For the first time since Banana was born I spent a night away from the girls!! Running Man and I celebrated our anniversary/Valentine's Day and spent the night at a nice hotel. Loved every minute...especially the sleeping in part!! Thanks Mom!

Six

Running Man and I celebrated our sixth anniversary yesterday. There are many romantic, cheesy things I could say about him and how much I love him...but, I think I'll just give you a list of the six most important things I have learned about him over the years.

1. He is one of the only people I know who can get only four hours of sleep, and still function AND be pleasant the following day.
2. He LOVES working out. And not just your normal, I need to do the minimum to stay in shape (that'd be me). If I would let him he would probably spend the majority of his free time running/biking or at the gym. And...he thinks it's fun.
3. He can't remember the last time he was sick. He never remembers having a headache. And he hasn't thrown up since he was a kid. I think this works in my favor because he doesn't mind taking care of me during my worst pregnancy months, and it doesn't bother him to take care of the girls when they have the sickies.
4. He will do ANYTHING for me and the girls. He'll gladly be the girls' punching bag/bounce house/prince anytime. They have him wrapped around their fingers. And he'll be my punching bag/listening ear/prince anytime as well.
5. He loves me enough to sit through endless hours of Gilmore Girls/Ghost Whisperer/SYTYCD. I think he secretly likes all of those shows, but he'd never admit to it. :)
6. The most important thing I have learned is that he loves me more now than he did six years ago. I always thought that the most love you could ever feel was on your wedding day. I don't believe that's true anymore. We've been through a lot together over the last ten years and I think every trial and every moment of joy has brought us closer together and helped us fall more in love. He loves to surprise me at random moments with sweet gestures of love. He is an amazing man and I am blessed to have him as my husband!
(Sorry, I had to throw in a little cheesiness!!)

Then...
Now...

Bleh

This is what has been going on at our house. We're all sleep deprived. We're all cranky. And we're definitely not One Happy Family at the moment. :) I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago saying how blessed I felt that my kids were very rarely sick...and the next day the puking started. Then the runny nose, the cough, the fever, etc. The funnest surprise of all was when Em woke up yesterday morning looking like this...

Our first thought was chicken pox, but that was ruled out when none of them started blistering or scabbing. (And we literally have not been ANYWHERE for two weeks). I called the pediatrician's office and they basically told me to wait it out. It's not itching, and her fever is gone. Waiting it out is so EASY for me because I am definitely the kind of person who never panics about anything. Ever.
She tried some new foods the other day, so I'm crossing my fingers it's just an allergic reaction. I've spent too much time reading my parenting books and on the internet and imagined every worse case scenario. It looks a lot like fifths disease, but the rash isn't following the pattern they said it should...so we wait. And try and get some sleep.

A Week With No Sun

A two-week long headache, some sick kiddos, and the never ending fog that seems to have settled over our city means there haven't been many exciting things to blog about. Thank goodness I have my cute girls to keep me entertained or I might be crazy about now. (Please no comments on whether or not I am already crazy ;) )!
To keep ourselves entertained we have played endless hours of dress up, had countless photo shoots (the girls are obsessed with our camera), and we have managed to escape the house once or twice for some small outings. Here are some pics of a few of our indoor adventures. (yes, I know most of the pics or a little blurry..our camera is having technical difficulties).
Here is just one pic of our dress up activities. Banana found this dress in her closet and hasn't taken it off. My SIL made it for the nieces for my BIL's wedding a few years ago, and Banana now says it is her Princess Zelda dress. That's right,her favorite princess of the moment doesn't live at Disney World...she lives in a video game.
We went down to the river for our annual eagle watching day. We were excited that we got to see some eagles, but it was slightly FREEZING so we didn't stay too long. Of course we had to do a photo shoot, which lasted two seconds because my battery died. The girls weren't to impressed with me.

Banana loves for me to change the settings on the camera to do weird stuff like this...

But I don't mind because she looks GORGEOUS no matter what setting it is on. She is growing up so much. Apparently I'm not the only one noticing because everywhere we've gone this last week friends have been commenting on how much she is turning into a little girl. She's not my baby anymore...
Running Man must have noticed that I was running on empty this week because he came home from school one morning and told me he was kicking me out of the house so I could have some "me" time. I enjoyed three wonderful hours sans kids. Of course I missed them after five minutes, but I took full advantage of the time and got some serious errands crossed off my to-do list. I had lunch with a friend, and spent way too much $$ at Target. It's probably a good thing that I always have my kids when I shop there because they don't last that long in a shopping cart and their screams usually rush me out of the store. When I'm alone and with my enabler friend :) bad things happen! We shouldn't be allowed to shop together.
Here's to hoping for a little sunshine! Have a great week!

Attack of the Mischief Bug

I blame my lack of blogging on the FREEZING weather we've been having. All we have wanted to do these last two weeks is bundle up in our blankets and sit in front of the heater. I enjoyed the bundling up in our blankets part, not so much the bitter cold. Things are finally warming up a bit, so that makes us all so much happier!
While we were back in Utah over the break I had the sudden urge to hurry and get home and start organizing and de-cluttering my house. It almost felt like that insane "nesting" urge you get when you are pregnant. (I am NOT pregnant). So, of course our house looks like a tornado ripped through it, because getting things really clean means making a big old mess in the process. Sigh. But I didn't want to wait until four months from now and try and de-clutter and pack at the same time. That's right folks...this is my last Iowa winter! I know at least Liz is jealous. :) I can't think about moving yet because I get all sorts of emotional/panicky/teary thinking about.
Being cooped up in the house a lot means that my kids get a lot more mischievous. (Well mostly Em does, and Banana kind of follows her lead). Em's favorite thing right now is to climb. On Everything. Her favorite place to climb onto is the kitchen table. You think I would learn my lesson and not keep any food sitting out on the table...right? I forget and do it anyway, and Em has helped herself to countless serving of cake, cookies and whatever meal I am too lazy to clean up at the moment. She has also figured out how to climb onto the dresser...mostly my fault as well because it's an ANCIENT dresser with drawers that will only shut all of the way if you push, shove and bash your head against them. Hence me finding her like this the other night:
Running Man and I were cracking up so Banana came to investigate and decided to join her sister:

The girls love hanging out in their sleeping bags all day, and we are so grateful Santa brought them to our house! Here they are relaxing on Sat. night while Dad was on a fun filled Guys Night Out.
My close friends are well aware of the new obsession that has taken over my house. It's a five letter word...ZELDA. I'm going crazy. Running Man has always loved it and grew up playing it with his brothers. Well, the obsession was re-started over the break and I'm so, so sad to say that Banana has picked it up as well. It makes me even sadder to say that she plays it BETTER than I do. And understands what's going on a whole lot better than I do. My husband (and his brothers) have created a monster. :)

Today was a pretty nice day (it's pretty sad when we consider the mid 30's nice), so we took the girls out sledding for the first time this year. We had a blast, and I think the pics say it all!
Em liked the sledding part of sledding...but had even more fun giving us our push start.

Banana walked up every single hill about twenty times. By herself. Without complaining. It was a good day!

Holidays '09

Disney '09