Happy Birthday, Sis!

Today is my sister, Erin's, birthday! We went over to my mom's and had a fabulous family dinner a la Chef Mom. Yummers. After dinner, it was time for presents and Erin was such a good sport about Emily and Christian just hovering over her, waiting for the next gift to be opened! They had each made her a little something--Emily made her a bookmark and a card. Christian had painted her a picture and also had helped with the card. Each of the children sure love their Auntie Erin!

Erin has a way with the kids--"playing" just comes naturally to her. Just like my mom. (A major gift I wish I'd inherited when Emily wants to play "puppies" and my lack-luster imagination just isn't cutting it for her!) She is always willing to come over if I need her. Often, it's with little notice and on her day off.

Erin is also a lot of fun. She has a great sense of style and man, is she funny! I almost always end up chuckling pretty hard when she's around. We're just under 2 yrs apart and so we grew up close friends, having Barbie marathons and fighting over whose socks belong to whom. I've been very blessed to have her as my sister.

Happy Birthday, Auntie Erin! We love you!

My New Favorite Food. By: Kari Lindseth

Can you tell how much I LOVE spaghetti??? (Can you also see the handprint on my forehead?)

Note from Mommy: It's the little moments like this messy girl's face that totally makes my day!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had some fun celebrations going on around here! Christian's preschool party was last Thursday. Our sweet neighbor came over to watch Kari so that I could go help out and hang out with the C-man.


The kiddos had a great time in the gym w/their "snowballs" (crunched up paper). First up, was the parachute! (Do you remember that the BEST days in gym class were always the ones that you got to play with the parachute??)






Next, they used their snowballs to have a snowball fight! Boys vs. girls!

Finally, we went back into their classroom to decorate their bags, eat, and hand out their valentines. Christian was so tickled with all of the valentines he received from his little friends. So cute!

Up next, Emily's party! She got to celebrate on Valentine's Day and both Daddy and Christian got to go up and support her. She was sooo excited! Daddy was able to take a half-day off from work and it was SUCH a great "gift" to us all to have him around in the afternoon! Check out these fierce faces! This is Emily with her teacher, Ms. Wauters. Emily loves Ms. Wauters.

Finally, a picture of sweet Kari. Grandma Karen came by to bring over some little gifts and valentines for the kids. I had just brought Kari out from her room...she had decided not to nap in the afternoon and had gotten a bit sad when Mommy wouldn't let her come out right away! (She's starting the transition to one nap--ugh!) But, she did brighten up considerably when she saw Grandma :-).

As for the rest of the day (no pictures, our card was full), we played OUTSIDE!! The weather has been sooo beautiful this week and we are taking full advantage of it! For dinner, we picked up a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and SUPER yummy Valentine sugar cookies from Eileen's. (To DIE for---and normally, if it's not chocolate, I'm not having it; this is the exception!) Emily was "in-charge" of FHE in the evening and once the kiddos were in bed, Cubby and I got to kick back and relax! It was a very lovely Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

A Good Reason...

Just in case you were considering it, here is one good reason to have another baby:

http://www.bodenusa.com/Womens-Maternity.html

Boden Maternity! I love their clothing lines--mens, womens, especially kids and babies (can't afford too many, but love 'em anyway) and now they have a maternity line!

BTW: this is by no means an "annoucement" of any sort. I just got the mini-boden catalog today and was looking through it and they had a page with their new line :-).

My Little Minions

Aren't they cute?? The first little shot of Kari is her latest and greatest. It'll be on the runways next season. I call it "The Gru." (Well, she actually could be one of his minions--maybe Kevin?) Yes, we've been into "Despicable Me" lately.

As for the second picture, I told Christian that it was time for his Quiet Reading Time the other day. (He still take a nap a couple of times a week, but the other days, he'll go and read for a 1/2 hour or so. He calls it "Quiet Reading Time;" I call it, "Mommy's Sanity Saver." In any case, the other day Christian came out and told me to "Come and see, Mommy!" So, I go back and this above picture is what I saw. He had set up a little cozy reading spot all by himself. Books and everything. He was so proud of himself. And so was Mommy.

Determined

I was going to entitle this post "Stubborn," but "Determined" puts a positive spin on the whole situation!

Yesterday morning, I was trying to get everyone ready so that we could take Emily to school. I asked Christian to go and get some boots on since he could put them on by himself and, since we were only going to be in the car 5 min, it shouldn't have mattered what he had on his feet.

Christian had other ideas though. His new favorite shoes are his "fire shoes" that he got for Christmas from his Auntie Erin. (They're black converse w/flames on the side.) The also have laces and require help from Mommy to get them on. I tried to explain to him that since we were only going to be dropping Emily off and them coming home, he needed to listen to Mommy and just put on his boots. Thus commenced the tantrum.

I finally helped him to get his shoes on, but left the laces untied. Well, he screamed the entire 5 minutes that we were in the car that he needed his shoes TIED!!!! I finally told him that if he wasn't going to listen to me about putting boots on, then he'd have to learn to tie his own shoes b/c I wasn't going to do it for him this time! When Emily got out of the car, I heard her say, "I'll teach you to tie your shoes on Saturday, Christian, okay?" So sweet. I wish it would've worked!

He was still fuming when we got home and decided to stand in the garage rather than come into the house when I brought Kari in. I thought to myself, "Fine. He'll come in soon b/c it is FREEZING out here!" (He did have his coat on so this wasn't unreasonable.) So, I got Kari started on breakfast. After about five minutes, he still hadn't come in so I went down and opened up the door to the garage. My sweet little boy had turned on the garage light and opened up the car door. I found him sitting inside the car, trying to tie his shoes w/tears coming down his cheeks. He looked up at me and said, "Me sorry, Mommy."

Instantly, I scooped him up, gave him a big hug and kiss, and brought him inside. I told him that I didn't realize how important wearing those shoes had been and that I was sorry for not listening better. I told him he could defintitely wear his Fire Shoes later that afternoon when we went to the library. I got another big hug. Melt my heart!

It was only later that I looked at his shoes. This is how he'd tied his shoes:

"Determined" is definitely the right word.

Ice Skating Class

Emily has recently started ice skating classes! It's one hour on Saturday afternoon for 10 weeks and she is LOVING it! This was her second week and I got to go and watch her with Grandma Karen. It was so.darn.cute! When they first got out there, it was all about getting their "skating legs" warmed up. They practiced their "step-step-gliiiiiddddee" and also the proper way to fall down (an important thing for these newbies!)

After getting warmed up, Emily really took off! It was really amazing to see how quickly she got comfortable out there. Her teachers set up a little obstacle course and they also played some games and even did some "free skating" around the rink. Emily was so excited that she went around the whole rink two times!

I must say, I was really impressed with Emily. Not only for doing so well, but for going out of her comfort zone in so many ways. She is learning a new (and difficult) skill. She is out there for the whole time (an hour is a long time for little legs on the ice!). And, she goes out there without knowing anyone or having Mom, Dad, Grandma, a friend, etc...to do this with her. She's very brave! Great job, sweetie!