Whoops!

Had to share this funny story. . . . well it was very funny to me, as the mom.
I was getting some dinner ready for the kids tonight after Dan left to go to his basketball game. On Friday nights, when it is just me and the kids, I'll make something and we'll have a little picnic on the living room floor and watch a movie or play a game and eat dinner.
I was heating up some left over tuna noodle casserole (that was DELICIOUS, I must add....). The bowl was really hot and slipped out of my hand and smashed on the stove, dumping tuna noodle casserole all over me, the stove and the floor. I didn't say a word, honest. Emily was in the play room and heard the crash and yelled "oh dammit!" along with it came one of those frustrated sounding, "ugh!" groans. Followed up with "that's a big mess Mommy!"
It was all I could do to not laugh. I guess we (both Dan and I) need to be a little more cautious about what we say around here.....

Also, I'm trying to give our blog a fresh look for spring, because getting 8 inches of snow on February 26 is really sort of depressing. Especially when we're not going to Florida to play on the beach with the Florida Jansen's and Grandma this year (cry, cry, cry!) Anyhow, pardon the polka dots, I'm having a couple of issues getting the HTML coding to work for me and it's really bugging me! However, I refuse to give up! and will keep working at it. The fun yellow backgrounds are from the House of 3 website . . . they have some really awesome digi stuff for scrapbooking and blogs! Great colors, fun designs AND tutorials on how to use it all! What can be better than that?

Polka dot issue is fixed! They were covering the whole screen and it was hard to read. I love polka dots!
Just another note, the borders on the photos, etc, that I've been using lately; one is from Hof3, some of them are from Nicole Van and many are from the Narratives collection (from Polka Dot Potato) that Karen Russell created. LOVE all of them . . . It takes me a while to learn and get comfortable working with stuff in Photoshop . . . I'll try to mix it up a little more. Getting the photos to fit inside the borders is difficult for those of us that are visually challenged!

Sicky

We went to Assumption for Ash Wednesday mass this morning at 10am. Our plan was to drop Emily off at school after we grabbed some lunch.
She was so excited to go to school today, they are going on a big field trip to the Eagle's Nest up in New Brighton. It was her first field trip that was further than a mile from school. They've walked to Korte's to buy stamps and mail letters to their parents, they were learning about the US mail and mail carriers. They've also taken a ride on the Metro Transit bus to a fire station when they were learning about fire fighters. Today's field trip was just for fun.
Yesterday, Emily's report came from school that she was having a really "off" day. Her balance was off, she didn't want to be touched and she wasn't really outgoing and social like she normally is. They thought she wasn't feeling well. I got her to bed really early last night so she could get a good night sleep and feel better.
Well, she was feeling fine when we left for church. But it was all downhill from there. She started to feel warm, wanted to be held and then she started complaining that her tummy ached. I thought she was going to throw up in church, so we headed for the restroom.
Needless to say, she didn't go to school today and is really bummed that she missed her field trip.
Hopefully, she'll be ok to go tomorrow as they are going again tomorrow. (most kids are either MWF and T Th) Emily goes to school T-F so she would have gotten to go twice! Now, we're just hoping that she gets to go once! This afternoon, both kids took nice LONG naps and went to bed at 7:30pm. Emily seems to be feeling good. Hopefully, she'll be ok to go on the field trip with school tomorrow!

Just thinking . . .

As we are moving towards getting Louie moved into a little toddler bed, I need to start thinking about getting rid of our crib and changing table/dresser.
If anyone knows anyone that is in the market for a nice, gently used crib with a matching dresser/changing table let me know.
Details: it's a Bonavita crib, Carla model in a pecan color. Very sturdy. It passed the shake test at the store and that's what sold me! It has a drawer under it and is on wheels that lock. The mattress can go to three different levels. We won't be including a mattress with it. It was purchased in January 2005 (yep, a month after Emily was born) from USA Baby for about $350. This is the best picture that I have of the crib, you get the idea.
The dresser is a maple dresser that is stained in a pecan color. I bought it as a kit and assembled, stained and finished it. It matches the crib. It has three drawers for clothing and then a tower like thing with a cupboard (to hold diapers and all that stuff) with a small drawer.
I'll post pictures of them both later tonight.
I'd love to get rid of these without the hassle of Craigslist . . . . . we wont' be ready for them to go for a month or two, but arrangements can be made if needed sooner!

Bella's Bowling Birthday

We celebrated Bella's 5th birthday at Mattie's Lanes in South St. Paul on Sunday afternoon. Emily and Louie could hardly wait to give bowling a try! This is one of my favorite pictures of the day, Bella with a halo? not sure how that ended up on her head . . .










































The little kids bowling shoes were so dang cute!
Maria had some nice form, she has learned from her parents. . . .

Louie and Emmy only bowled about 4 frames, L discovered the NASCAR driving game over in the arcade and wanted to no part of bowling. He just wanted to sit in the car and pretend to drive. It was a fun party, but we were all tired and needed to go to bed!

Dan and I got a line on a toddler bed for Louie. It's a train toddler bed. We're trying to figure out what to do? I'm all about him staying in his crib until he goes to college or he tries to get out, which ever comes first? But we decided to use it as the "ultimate potty training reward!" We made the announcement this morning. We'll see what sort of response we get.

I really would love to NEVER buy diapers again!

Ahhh, it's over . . . . .

Ah, the weekend is over and what a busy weekend it was!
We celebrated Valentine's day by dropping the kids off at Grandma's house for an overnight. Dan and I then zoomed up to the White Bear Lake movie theaters for a matinee. We saw "Slumdog Millionaire" and if you're thinking of a movie, just GO. It is a really good movie and very well written story. Both Dan and I loved it.
We got home from the movie and made cheese fondue. I haven't had fondue for years. My parents used to have fondue parties with us kids. We'd get it all set up on the coffee table in the living room and have a little fondue party in front of the Muppet Show or something like that on Saturday night. YUM. I love swiss cheese fondue. Really, what's not to love? A boiling pot of cheese, wine and garlic with a side of delicious bread for dipping?

We met the kids and Grandma at church this morning and it was very apparent that Emily and Louie were tired. Louie was doing everything possible to be naughty. Grandma Kay stopped by to drop off Valentine's for the kids and then Dan turned on some NASCAR for Louie to watch. He finally stopped running, sat on the couch with Dan and was OUT. Emily is really into making up a little bed for herself on the living room floor lately. Well, she made one for herself today and soon, she was OUT.




Yesterday, before we left for Grandma's house, Emily was playing in her room, watching the big snowflakes fall. She was looking out the window, wearing these cute sunglasses that she got for her birthday.













































It's been a while since I have gotten some fun pictures of her.

DEAL ALERT: While everyone was napping and/or watching a movie after lunch today, I ran to Sear's to pick up some laundry soap. For those of you that have front loading machines, Sears has a really great HE (high efficiency) laundry detergent. Well, I got to Sears and the boxes of powder (that is over 125 loads) was only $13 and the bottles of liquid (33 loads) was only $3. Yep, that is about $.10 a load. Ten cents a load. That's about 50% less than the liquid that is for HE machines at Sam's Club. So, in these tight economic times, get yourself to Sears and pick up some of their fabulous laundry detergent!

He's a Fairy!

Audrey and the boys were over for a visit today when I arrived home from work.
Typical play time lately always involves the fairy dress-ups and Isak wanted in on it. Yep, we've got some nice shots for his highschool graduation too!

Two years ago . . .

I am working on a project of going through and organizing pictures on my computer. There's so many that just need to be deleted. It's crazy. Thousands of pictures.
But, I found this folder from February 2007. It was around Valentine's Day.
I love to see how little Emily and Louie were. . . . so fun. I had just returned from Florida, I drove down there with my mom.

Emily's OT evaluation

I just spoke to Dan and thought I do a quick update on Emily's occupational therapy evaluation today. She had her physical therapy and speech therapy evaluations on Monday.

Occupational therapy works on her fine motor skills (holding crayons, stacking blocks, working with scissors, etc.) where physical therapy works on her gross motor skills (walking, running, jumping, balance, pedaling a bike, etc.). She did really well. Dan said that she was amazing and followed directions perfectly!

As I have said in the past, getting Emily to do a simple task, like putting on her clothes in the morning, is like pulling teeth. We find ourselves asking her 10 times to do something and she still doesn't do it. Eventually, we get mad, frustrated and end up just doing it ourselves. We sort of made it a New Year's resolution to not get mad and ultimately yelling, because that was just adding fuel to the fire. It encouraged the power struggle between Emily and us.
Since we have been patient and encouraging towards her, she's been a different child. She's been following directions and even doing things the first time we ask!

Emily is such a sweet little girl. She is always concerned about Louie and what he should or shouldn't be doing, but not in a tattle tail manner. Dan and I are so proud of the progress that she's made at school! She has the most wonderful teachers. I can tell because when I ask what she did at school each day, she always will say, "I played with my friend (insert Lori-her main teacher, Lois - her OT teacher, Anne - her speech teacher, and Carol - her PT teacher). I love (name)."

I am so happy that everything has fallen into place with Emily and that we got her the help that she needed when we did. Her teachers at school are amazing!
We are so proud of Emily!

Miscellaneous pictures

After we were done cleaning the house on Sunday, Emily wanted to put on her fairy attire. She loves to put her fairy dress-ups on and dance. Louie always wants in on the fun and isn't afraid of putting on the fairy stuff. One day he may regret it, but we won't tell him until his highschool graduation!



Louie was trying to walk around in my boots.


Tonight, I was getting the kids ready for bed after they had baths. While I was getting Louie all ready, Emily was in her room. When I went in to check on her, this is what I found:

She was all tucked in under her blankets and reading a book. She loves to read books and tonight she was reading "The Night Before Christmas."

Monday, Monday (and I don't know the rest of the words)

We finished off the weekend on Sunday with a really nice day at home. I made a game out of picking up toys and books. We went through stuff and got rid of thing and then did a little mini spring cleaning. The weather was very inspirational.
After we were done, we set up all of Louie's train tracks and pretended we were on the Island of Sodor. Emily loves to get in on the action with her Emily train from the Thomas collection.
Everyone took a nice nap in the afternoon and then dinner and bedtime to get ready for a busy day on Monday.
Dan took the kids to their Monday morning ECFE class and then headed over to Auntie Tesa's house. She watched Louie (with her eyes shut, HA!) while Dan took Emily to Gillette for her evaluation appointments.
A couple of weeks ago, she had her annual appointment with Dr. Tervo, the neurologist. He went through everything with Dan and gave him the rundown of her genetic testing that finally came back from the University of Washington (or somewhere like that). All is good. No need for further testing or further MRI's at this point. He did suggest that she have some evaluations with the speech, physical and occupational therapists.
Yesterday, Emily had her speech and physical therapy evaluations and I'm happy to report that she did very well. Her vocabulary is at the level of a 3.5 yr. old and her physical therapy went very well too. She is climbing stairs unassisted and with confidence and her sense of balance has greatly improved!
We've also noticed over the last week to 10 days (and so have her teachers at school) that she's much more attentive and better at following directions. She's even showing signs that she is starting to understand the feeling of having to go potty. So, all is going well for Emily right now.
Keep your fingers crossed that she stays on this road of improvement!

Jackson Street Roundhouse

We went to the Minnesota Transportation Museum today. Let me just say that Louie was in sensory overload for the full 2.5 hours that we were there. He could hardly contain himself.
He loved every minute of it!






While walking around and checking out all of the old train memorbilia, I found this hanging on the wall back in a corner. It was really cool. A poster for the St. Paul Winter Carnival dated January 17, 1887. The poster had been used in Green Bay, Wisconsin and listed the train times, etc. to get from Green Bay to Saint Paul, it took almost 11 hours by train.

There's a bunch of old trains that kids can be the engineer on.

This was an old engine that Emily and Louie were pretending to drive.

The only way that we were getting Louie out of that place, after we went on our train ride around the train yard was to bribe him with french fries. He wanted them fast as it was way past lunch time.
We stopped at White Castle. Emily and Louie LOVED it. They both ate two cheeseburgers and a small french fry. When we got home, he sat down right inside the front door and drained my Coke Zero.

Last night, we watched the Little Einstein's Big Huge Adventure. Lou was really excited to eat fish sticks in the living room in front of the TV. It is one way to get him to eat everything on his plate.

Crazy Kids

Ted got a haircut. He seems to have way more energy when he gets his haircut and then he sleeps a lot. He is an absolutely crazy dog.

Louie

He has a mind of his own. He decided that he loves to wear my headphones. He loves flashlights and wants to have one in his hand at all times.
He seems to be in an endless number of time-outs lately. He skips one and two and goes straight to 3. Automatic timeout for throwing your food, plate, milk, silverware. You get the picture. Meals have turned into our least favorite time of the day, thanks to Louie.

He has one freckle on his belly and thinks it is the coolest thing ever. He is constantly trying to look at his freckle and show it to us when he has the chance. We thought that he was interested in potty training, but not so much. We're taking a hiatus on that for a few weeks.

He loves to make goofy faces in front of the camera and he LOVES my camera. He wants to look at pictures all the time. He runs around the house yelling "To Infinity and beyond!" We have "I'm Buzz Lightyear" arguments all the time. He still loves Thomas the Train and Lightening McQueen, but Buzz Lightyear is the greatest thing ever.

Emily

Loves her Bitty Baby Twins, she loves her babies and puts them to bed every night in their bunkbeds. She takes them for walks in their doll carriage throughout the house regularly.
She pooped on the potty four times this week. She is still struggling to make the connection between having to tinkle and actually going. She loves to go to school everyday. She is learning how to peddle a bike at school. She loves her teachers at school and tells us that Lois, Lori, Ann and Carol are her favorite friends. She is so incredibly excited to go to swimming lessons in April. She is also going to be starting a preschool tumbling class.

She loves to take baths and pretend to swim in the tub. She washes her own hair. Big girl!

When do siblings have to stop taking baths together? These two LOVE to screw around in the tub together and have the best time playing in the tub. They LOVE to play with all the sea creatures. We play a game and try to find Mr. Ray everytime they take a bath. It's fun. It's our thing.

These two also love to make funny faces in front of the camera. The other night was the first time that I was able to capture it on film.
Ahhhh, good times!

Pelletier Wordle

I had to give this a try too . . . . it's pretty cool. Give it a try at Wordle