Spring has sprung... for me anyways

Well... it's been 4 months since I've done this! Feels like even more than that actually- we packed a whole lot in! We actually painted the first floor last October or November, so some of those pictures might be in older posts, but we've finished the bench in the "mudroom"/garage entry, painted Lily's room, and painted the extra bathroom. I'm really bad about accessorizing or decorating the rooms, so the walls are still pretty bare, but I do have curtains up in Lily's room- okay, they still need to be hemmed... (who's taking bets as to when that'll happen?!?!) We did hang roman shades in her room and I finally decided to shorten the pull cords after a few weeks.... yeah, I shortened them while they were up!!! Arrghh!!! Of course I made them so short that they didn't even go down 1/3 of the way. So Chad took them down and they are still in a heap waiting to be restrung. Soooo mad at myself for that! These aren't the cheap plastic ones either- they are the "cheap" fabric roman shades - cheap for what they are, but way more of an expensive mistake than the plastic ones from Home Depot. We also bought new appliances- thank you Uncle Sam! Okay- I guess it's just our tax $ we paid in excess last year, so we can thank ourselves! We are still trying to sell the old stove and microwave if anyone is interested! ;) I think we have the paint picked out for our room and bathroom, but we are not really looking forward to painting those rooms... cathedral ceilings.... so, who knows when that'll get done. Right now, we are willing spring to get here- I see green popping through the ground and buds on the trees- oh, and Chad's allergies are starting in all ready and he's contracted his first case of poison ivy for the year -- buy stock in Zanfel, Chad'll keep the price/share up! Poor guy gets poison ivy just looking at a picture of it and I could probably roll in the stuff and not be affected! We already have the boat cleaned/scrubbed, etc! (I don't think it got done at all last year...ooops) Our goal is spend a lot more time outside and on the water this year - so far, we're sticking to it. I suppose I should post some pictures - these will be snippits from the last few months- although all the house stuff I described above will have to wait because I don't think I even took pictures of the rooms yet.

Celebrating Eric & Angie's announcement! (okay - this was last summer...)

Me holding Brielle Kimberly in the hospital. (born 2/21/09)

Brielle at home- snoozin' in the swing.

Lily- so excited to be a big girl and hold her new cousin.

After a weekend in Green Bay, Lily inherited many hand-me-downs from Maya and Colin - her favorite were the ELMO shoes!!! Even had to sleep in them a few nights! Thanks Dewittt's!

Even MORE Elmo!!!

Snow Day - it's too cold and too much snow to go to school, so lets stay home in our swimming suit- duh, what else would we do.

Oh- and play on Mommy's computer (thank goodness for key-lock!)

Later that day(or sometime this winter) - Lily chilled in the snowbank so we could clear off the driveway. She runs away from Daddy w/ the snowblower - it's "yowd & scawy"


Christmas time!!!

Lily's first school program.

Completely mezmerized by the Elmo movie from her teachers.

Silly cousins on Christmas Eve - Yesenia & Lilianna.

A (blurry) family picture - Christmas Day at my parents house. (trying to get a 2 yr old to hold still long enough...)

In my attempts to be more politically educated myself, I think my daugter actually watched more of the inaugural events than I did....

"Look! I'm Grandpa" is what she said to me just before I took this. (Playing with my safety glasses) I guess Grandpa is setting a good example when we're not around.

You do see the irony in this don't you? Lily is putting her barrettes in Grandpa's "hair".

Lily being a ham in her new boots. I just think it's the cutest, silly picture.

Lily sitting nice with the doggies.

Lily decorating Moscow.... what a good sport he is.

Although, I think he doesn't mind the days she's in daycare...

I think this picture is so cute - can't believe a 100 lb. German Shepherd can curl up on less space than a door mat!

All dressed up for Great-Grandma's 90th Birthday party!

My Grandma with most of her grandkids and great-grandkids.

Easter at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

The Easter bunny even made a trip there...

Me and Lily - just chillin' at home.

Holiday baking

While cleaning up the mess below, I thought of so many names for this post, I don't even know where to begin- so I made a list.

1. Damn Dogs

2. Cooking with dogs

3. What our floor would have looked like with white grout. (we'll stick with black, thank you!)

4. Baking with a toddler is a piece of cake in comparison!

5. Seriously, how old do dogs live to be? 4?!?! Please?!?!

(Okay, I think I may have forgotten some since the adrenaline wore off!)

In comparison to the above pictures, baking with Lily was no problem! And that was Grandma's kitchen!

Between this and the cookie exchange at daycare... I think I'm set for this Christmas!

Cluster of Milestones

A few weekends ago, Lilianna, myself, Nama and Grandpa drove up to visit the Great-Grandmas. One of my Grandmas was temporarily in a nursing home recovering from illness (she has since gone back to her home) :) and was in a wheelchair more than using her walker. Since the walker was not in use, Lily was completely enthralled by it. It has a seat that flips down, so she insisted that she sit on there and be pushed like Great Grandma. It was cute. Also, notice her Packer outfit. She LOVES it! She asks "Where my Packer shirt?" about 4 times a week. Occasionally, she'll wake up and I'll hear "Go Pack Go" through the monitor. Too funny. I think she picked that up from one of the daycare ladies that is a huge sports fan.


Milestone #1 Lily's first haircut
I decided that the ends of her hair were looking a little ragged, so we had it trimmed. There was a cool little car chair to sit in, books to look at, a large fish tank on one side and a mirror on the other- and Lily just tried to turn and look at the woman cutting her hair the entire time. It's a miracle she didn't end up with some crazy spiral cut. just kidding. :) Of course, the M&M's finally worked- big surprise there. I'm sure they loved that, since this place boasts children's wellness - they have a huge play gym, use organic and/or natural hair products for the kids and give out organic lolli-pops at the end. Either way she finally sat still. And, I realized later that night that I forgot to get the "keepsake" lock of hair! :( That would have been the dark spike that she was born with :( Oh well - here is a picture.

Milestone #2 The toddler bed
Friday night (11/14) we removed one side of the crib (what will eventually be the footboard of her bed) and converted it into "the toddler bed"! I am wanting to try this potty-training method recommended by a guy I work with, but the child needs to be able to get his/herself to the bathroom at any time. As lucky as I am that Lilianna didn't try to get out of her crib, I decided that I am more tired of washing and buying diapers!

Lily trying out the new resting place.

The picture below is what happened in the 10-15 minutes it took to get the bed altered. I realize it could have been much worse (I've seen pictures from my friends that have boys!), but this was right before bed.... (whine...)

Luckily - she loves the "new bed". Friday night through Tuesday morning went great. Never tried to get out during naps or nighttime - just wanted to jump on it during the day. Yeah, Tuesday afternoon, that ended. She would not lay down to take a nap for anything, so I (not thinking of the long-term consequences) laid on the floor to keep her in bed. Well, she never did fall asleep - I however had no problem falling asleep (oops) and woke up to being kicked in the side b/c she was goofing around with her legs dangling off the side. UGH! Of course then Tuesday night, she wanted Mommy to lay down again. Errr... what the hell was I thinking?!?!
This last picture isn't really a milestone, but it was picture day a school on Monday. They have Christmas themed backgrounds as an option, so I put on her Christmas outfit - and realized after seeing this picture, that I may as well have picked out a school uniform! Oh well - it's cute. You probably can't see in the picture, but the dress has little plaid Scotty dogs on it. I found matching socks and hair pieces! She also has a pair of red leggings with the Scotty dog motif for when she wants to go outside, but refuses tights.

Happy Halloween!!!

Wow - a post two days in a row- Peg, please don't have another heart attack. (Sorry - not a laughing matter I know, but I think I know you well enough that I can throw in a joke now.) I hope you are feeling better and recovering well - we think about you lots! (you are even the blogs twice!) hee hee.

So, I don't think my actions this morning are too high on the "bad mommy" list, but they certainly don't fall into the "good mommy" category. Of course the children were to wear their costumes to school today for Halloween. We decided months ago that Lily would be a witch - she loves to ride her broom (she calls it her "sweep") all around the house. She is extremely picky about the feel of her clothes, so I decided I'd just make a skirt and arm bands to go over a black outfit instead of buying one of the Target or WalMart costumes - although, at $9, even making just the little skirt was more than that! So, we thought we'd get her used to it last night- whoa - she kicked and screamed and wanted nothing to do with it. I crossed my fingers that this morning would go better and went to bed. This morning didn't go much better. I finally got the skirt on her by saying she could have a cookie. - for breakfast!!! Mind you- it's 6:15 in the morning and I am feeding my kid frosted sugar cookies with candy on them - for breakfast. Sure- I may do that - but what Mom lets their kid have that much sugar before 6:30 am?!?!? All the articles and experts say you shouldn't bribe your children - much less with food, but seriously - she's two and sometimes that's all that works. That's how I get my dogs in the house. It's just one more example that shows how similar kids are to dogs - at least the first couple years!

Tuesday this week we had friends over to bake and decorate Halloween cookies - 6 kids and 5 adults! Yikes. I kept thinking that if Chad came home in the middle of it all, I'd lose any chance of ever having any more children. There was not one empty spot on the counters filled with diaper bags, purses, food, cookie paraphanalia and dirty dishes. Here are a few pictures of the kids trashing my kitchen. :)

Lily and Chloe playing with the cookie dough.

Okay - I guess I only had one cookie picture, theses are from lunch - Laura brought a recipe for "Pumpkin" Sandwiches. Very yummy - although a little labor intensive.

So, you read above that Lily would have nothing to do with her costume. It took a cookie at 6:15 in the morning just to get the skirt on! Tonight, Daddy asked her to put on the costume and he'd give her a candy corn, and she put the ENTIRE thing on - hat and all. For a candy corn!!!?!?!! Arrghhh! Feeling a little defeated that I couldn't get her to put it on to save my life, I was just happy that she had it on and took her out Trick or Treating. We even had kids come to our house! The first time in the 5 years we've lived here! There were two groups too - all the neighbors were even surprised.

Good pic of the costume even though she turned away. Note that she is riding her broom! Too cute. :)

Setting out to get some CANDY!!

After we showed off "Lily the witch" to our whole 5 neighbors, we headed over to Chad's parents house. By then it was dark and Lily was a little more nervous about the whole thing - it was cute.

Lily is enjoying a purple lollipop - a very messy, drooly, sticky lollipop. She thoroughly enjoyed it.

Note Mommy's Halloween treat way on the right side of the picture. mmmm....

For Aunt Peg... :)

This blog is for my Aunt Peg - a faithful follower, who has reminded (aka nagged) me a few times that I haven't posted in a while - sorry I haven't updated in ... whoa... almost 2 months! My excuse is that I've just been busy and after sitting at a computer all day at work, the last thing I want to do is sit at one all night. All that sitting is taking it's toll on my body - right now it's mostly my back and neck. That is an easy enough remedy, I'm just hoping I don't end up with "office ass". I realized that I have approximately 35 years left to work and I've been at this job 5 years. If I continue as a consultant chemist vs. bench chemist (basically a stereotypical lab chemist) - I will have been sitting on my ass for 40 years!!!! That's ridiculous- the human body is not made to just sit around. I've already check into getting more local field work - I need to toughen up again (i.e. sit outside in the wind and rain all day, haul around equipment, etc.) - having a baby and working in an office have made me soft - figuratively and literally!

So, this summer was full of all sorts of adventures. Since I didn't stay on top of my blog posts, I have included a ton of pictures that capture the summer fun in the sun!
Lily on the boat after swimming - looking a little chilly. Oh no - a "chilly Lily!"

On the way to dinner by way of boat- gotta have those shades! Actually, she calls them her "eyes". She'll say, "Mommy, I need my eyes" while reaching for her glasses.

Nama Evie also went to dinner on the boat.

The castle gets a fair amount of use now that it's on the deck.



Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!! Time for "Happy Bir-day Cake". It's not just "birthday cake," it has to be "happy birthday cake."

A day of IKEA shopping! Laura, Jessica, Elliott, Lily and me.

Taking a play break in the "berry basket" ball pit in IKEA. I'm not sure who had more fun - Laura or the kids!

Feeding the goats at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Chad's company picnic is there every year for Zoo-A-La-Carte. TONS of free food and beverages - they are extremely generous with the tickets! Lily did eventually warm up to the goats and walked around to feed them - note how high and tightly her legs are wrapped around Daddy- she was completely freaked out for while.

We went to State Fair with Aunt Nicole and Yesenia to see all the animals, but similar to the picture above, Lily was not eager to get to close to the animals. Bummer for Mommy - the animals are my favorite. Although, the girls did stand still long enough for us to eat an ear of corn, so that made up for it. (that's probably the second best thing about the fair for me). In the picture below, the girls were getting psyched up to go down the GIANT slide! I took them both down together on my lap- I couldn't see their faces on the way down, but they both wanted to go again!

A day in Elliot's backyard with Hailey, Elliott and Logan too. Playing in the sand - after swimming. Lovely.... I would love to send this one to daycare and the Birth to 3 program - I'm going to guess that her texture issues are getting better. Ugh- this would put me in the looney bin! You all know it's a short trip too!

Pretty tuckered out after all that swimming and sand playing at Elliott's house.

On the jetski with Daddy! Lily loved this. Pointed to it and asked for it for days afterwards.