Valentine's Day!

We're getting ready for Valentine's Day!   I found a really fun idea on Pinterest and so we're giving it a shot!
It was GREAT fun trying to peel the wrappers off of 300 crayons!

Picture retakes

With much anticipation, I bring you Louie's retake photo.  It is questionable.....

Pajamas

A few weeks ago, I was at the fabric store and came across this super cute Dr. Seuss Flannel. Trying to think of something to make for the kids, I decided on pajamas. Found a pattern and then began hunting for reasonable (aka: cheap) long sleeve tee to complete the set. They turned out really cute. The kids LOVE them. When I told them that I finally finished up the shirts last night, Louie gave me a huge hug and kiss and told me I was "the BEST mom in the whole world!"

Our photoshoot went downhill quickly....

Louie's Room

Louie's room has been a work in progress for almost a year.
It started last fall, we were at our last Twins' game of the season at Target Field and I rented a wide angle lens to take some photos.  Knowing that Louie wanted to ultimately have a baseball themed bedroom, I wanted to get a good shot of the whole ball park to print on a canvas for his wall.
Then, I found this super cute bedding at Home Goods, one of my all time favorite stores.  They also had those fun baseball pillows.  (picked one up for cousin Lorenzo, because he would surely end up with a baseball bedroom someday too.)
On a recent trip to Home Goods, Louie found the cute sports themed lamp.  He's been asking for a lamp so he can read in bed at night.  Score!  Then, we had that cute little table that I picked up at an estate sale for $5 many years ago.  So, after finding a super easy tutorial on refinishing furniture, he and I set out yesterday to paint it red.  Louie's favorite color is red.....

When I couldn't sleep last night, I got up at 2am and painted on the glaze and wiped it off with a rag.  Voila, we now have a super cute red table for his bedside lamp.....
The cute little school desk is a craigslist find this fall for $10.  I picked one up for each of the kids to have a desk in their room.  
and here it is, Louie's sports themed bedroom:

the good and the not so good

Ordinary Day

I found this video on a blog that I read pretty regularly.  She shares some pretty fun things to read and watch.  I also really admire Erin Cobb's photography.  It's beautiful and inspirational. 
Earlier this week, Erin posted this video and I finally watched it today. 
It is lovely! 


and if this doesn't inspire me to take more ordinary day pictures of our little family, I don't know what will!

Closet

I am in the process of cleaning out the closets in the kids bedrooms.  I'm so bad at keeping up with the task....
Anyhow, as we move closer to the start of school, I have to make room and get things organized!
It is CRAZY! how much stuff these two accumulate.
I wish I was the garage sale kind of gal!  There would be a gold mine in here!
Why do old homes have such small closets?
My goal is to find homes for the things that have to go and find them pronto!   

July 4th

This is the 4th of July for Emily....every year.....
my favorite from this year. 

Summer fun!

We've had a really busy summer so far and it seems that it isn't going to slow down until the middle of August.
It's been HOT, HOT, HOT (and humid, humid, humid) which is no fun! Sunday it was so hot and humid, I couldn't stand to be outside. So, E & L put on their swim suits and cooled off in the swimming pool. Really cold water fresh from the hose didn't even phase them.
We improvised and made our own diving board.

practicing his belly flop

and catching some air

ahhh good times!
This one tried her own version of a belly flop

or was it a somersault? I can't tell, Miss Cautious wasn't having any part of jumping, I know that for sure.

Popsicles!

We've got a popsicle addict at our house...and since we can't keep up with the consumption of them, this might not be a bad idea! 
Simple Summer Popsicles
Now, I need to find a nice popsicle mold.

Watch this, please!

It is a very powerful video and a reminder to me of the summer that my own Dad was diagnosed with Melanoma.  He survived and lived another 30 years!
Just a friendly reminder to make that annual appointment with the dermatologist!

Charlie

My nephew, Charlie, is graduating this spring....my sister asked if I wanted to take a shot at his senior photos. I like how they turned out, I think Charlie does too. Our first attempt at pictures, we ran all over Nicollet Island and took photos. When I got home and took a peak at the results, I knew that we had to go again....AFTER he followed my directions and got a haircut!

So, we headed back to Nicollet Island on a Sunday afternoon. We walked, drove and snapped pictures. Then, I noticed that DeLaSalle has their OWN school bus....Charlie thought this idea was so "gay" (spoken like a true 17 year old), but it turns out, this is his favorite shot of the day. It is mine too!

Cocoa Beach 2011

Dan, Louie, Emily, Auntie M and me, drove to Cocoa Beach last week for a week in the sun with Grandma and we were lucky to spend a couple days with the Florida Jansens. It was great to spend three short days with them.....it was hard to leave them. The kids had so much fun together.

More on our trip later this week.

Christmas Morning

This should be the LAST post from Christmas! It's only been six weeks....and I'm getting caught up on things.
Emily and Louie were really looking forward to Christmas and Santa's visit this year. Since October, both of them have been talking about things that they wanted from Santa.
Then, in early December, we went to see Santa at the University Club only to find out that both of them had completely changed their minds on what they wanted from the big fat man in the red suit...
Emily told Santa that she wanted a car and Louie wanted a Millenium Falcon.
So, Santa went to work with trying to figure out what sort of CAR to bring Emily and also went to work searching for a Millenium Falcon.
I was secretly hoping that Louie would change his mind back to the crashing cars thing that he had been saying for MONTHS....and Emily change to anything but a CAR.
Well, as we got closer to Christmas, both kept talking about their respective toys.
The week before Christmas, panic set in! The only Millenium Falcon to be found on the internets was a 1500 piece LEGO set for $500. Ummmm, no. It became very clear to me that LEGO was the only toy company licensed to make Star Wars themed toys now. There wasn't a Millenium Falcon to be found, anywhere.
So, in my frustration, I posted on Facebook asking how I was going to give my child the ONE thing that he wanted, a Millenium Falcon? THANK GOODNESS, people actually read what I post on Facebook! One of my friends, Trinity Reyes, sent me a link to a Millenium Falcon that she found on Craigslist (in Seattle)....I immediately wrote to the seller and heard nothing; I'm pretty sure they wanted no part of packing and shipping their toy.
If I remember correctly, this originally was sent to me on December 21!
Time was ticking.....I sent a message to one of my classmates, Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and my cousin, Shannon Druffel Ressler who both live in Seattle, hoping that one of them might be able to help get my hands on that Millenium Falcon.
Unfortunately, Gael was busy with work and had deadlines to meet. Fortunately, Shannon is the BEST cousin on the planet and contacted the seller and met her at the dentist office the next morning, December 22...tick tock.
Shannon totally rocked! and had the Millenium Falcon in her hands and was off to Fed Ex to get it sent to me in Minnesota!
The Millenium Falcon arrived the next day.....

Emily and Louie were exhausted from Christmas eve at Grandma's. Louie didn't want to get up the next morning! So, Emily waited patiently for him to get up!

A few minutes later, I came out of the kitchen to find this:

We knew that Christmas morning was underway and this was going to be a memorable one!

There was a lot of this type of thing going on....digging around under the Christmas tree.

Santa brought Louie this Lego set (not the $500 Millenium Falcon set!).

Someone realized that there wasn't a Millenium Falcon under the tree.....

But it wasn't under the tree, Santa left the HUGE box by the front door.

and he was excited.

Emily didn't get a car, but she did get a horse drawn princess carriage that goes with the Take-A-Long Princess Castle that she got and she was thrilled!

and who knew, the Millenium Falcon takes batteries! it makes all the noises from Star Wars. Love it!

Thank you Shannon!

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve out at Grandma Jansen's house. Santa makes his traditional appearance...although it was a bit dicey this year, there was so much snow, we weren't sure how Santa would get in the back door. But it is nothing that a window onto the patio couldn't fix!

Everyone had their picture taken with Santa!

Christmas Cookies!

The weekend before Christmas, we always get together for a Jansen family tradition, Christmas cookie decorating.....it is always lots of fun! Emily and Louie really enjoy decorating and getting together with their cousins.
Emily loves spending time with her cousin, Katie.  

Feel the Love

In December, we had record snow! Snow means lots of fun outside....

15 Minutes of Fame!

Back in December, Louie had his 15 minutes of fame at the NELC Christmas program.

This last picture, Louie was (again) telling Santa that he wanted a Millenium Falcon for Christmas......more on that later!

The Gingerbread House

The Monday after Snowmageddon, we were snowed in on our street....I stayed home from work and while Dan shoveled more snow, Emily, Louie and I put together our Trader Joe's Gingerbread House.
I'd highly recommend this model...it's an A-Frame, sort of looking like a European Chalet. Very cute.
We had a great time!