The Word of the Day

and the word for today is "poop."
Emily is fascinated with that word and said it all day yesterday. She is also very interested in the bathroom. Yesterday, she played with the box of wipes all day long and kept saying "change poop" and "wipe poop" and "Louie's poop." She also says "potty" and signs it all the time.
I guess we'll be doing a little reading up on potty training girls, and maybe think about giving it a try??? We'll see.
We are going to the beach and grandma got Jared trained in just a few days last year??? Maybe this year she can give it a try again . . .

We had another blizzard on Thursday night. About 18 inches of snow fell in two days. I was able to make it in to work on Friday, but there weren't too many others there.

When I got home from work, Emily and I went out to play in the snow. She had a good time, until she fell face first in a pile of it.

More Snowy Day!

Emily went out to play in the snow this morning and loved it! She hasn't really seen this much snow before. We weren't sure how she'd feel about the snowsuit that she wore, but it she quickly realized it was very warm and comfortable.

It is still falling and Dan's been out blowing the snow for a couple hours now. We're not complaining though, it is much needed around here.

The Snowy Day

Snow has been falling since about 3pm yesterday. It's not too cold, so it's nice outside.

Ted and I went out to Petco last night to get him some food and at 8pm there was no one on the road.

Here's the same photo from yesterday afternoon, with the snow accumulation from the night.

Grandpa Don and Jan came for dinner last night, we were teasing them about getting started for home before it gets dark out. Jan doesn't like to be out driving in the snow. Emily had fun putting on a show for them. She was very chatty and really knows how to ham it up for a different audience.

I almost forgot! Louie sat up by himself for the first time today with out falling over. He thinks it is the best and gets really made when he is laying on his back. He'd much rather be sitting up, looking around.

American Idol

Wednesday night, Louie didn't want to go to bed. He wanted to stay up and watch the ladies on American Idol. He really enjoyed the singing of a few of them, but some of them really made him cry! He had also discovered his hands and feet. They're fun toys attached to himself and there all the time for entertainment. We're getting ready for the big one this weekend. There is supposed to be 12 inches of snow on the ground by Sunday night. The snow was to start falling during the night and continue through the next couple of days. When I was up at 4:30 this morning, no snow yet! Lou was so tired last night, he was asleep in bed at 6pm. We had to fight to keep him up until them. So, it was an early morning for both. Emily can't miss anything so she needs to get up when he does. Everyone was up by 6am. Still no snow. . . .

We're off to our early morning run to Sam's Club for groceries and gas. Then to SuperTarget for the rest of it all. Hopefully, we don't have to go anywhere else all weekend.

We'll keep you updated on the snowfall.

Update: The snow is falling! When you turn on the news, you would think that this wasn't Minnesota and we had no idea how to deal with snow. There must not be much other news to talk about, it's all about the snow. News here doesn't really care about Anna Nicole Smith, I guess. . . Here's the snow falling at about 3pm Saturday.

The Weekend

Emily has been very busy coloring. She loves her crayons! We got out the easel and she began creating her lovely picture of trees, apples and the sun. Also, she is a definite lefty. We've been noticing it more and more, she holds her crayons with her left hand, carefully positioning it in her hand. She also holds her silverware with her left hand.

Well, we've been above zero for a few days now. The end of this miserable cold weather is near!!! We're supposed to hit the low 30's for the remainder of the week. Emily took her dollies out for a stroll on Saturday afternoon, in hopes of the fresh air helping to get her to take a nap. No luck. We had to head off to Maria's birthday party with no nap. It was a fun party and Emily enjoyed playing with the other kids. There were 10 month old twin girls there, Lou had fun rolling around on the floor with them.

Yesterday, we went to the Brandt's for dinner and Emily played with her friend Isak. The two kids had a good time playing, Emily is becoming more assertive and holding her own, she wouldn't let Isak take anything she was playing with away. We had a delicious dinner and dessert, then headed home. She got two battle wounds while there, Audrey didn't hear her sneak up behind in the kitchen and Emily got knocked over on her face. Then when we were leaving, Dan did the same thing and she got hit in the head. You can't really see it, but she woke up this morning with a little bit of a black eye and a fat lip. I'm sure that it won't be the last! She didn't want her picture taken, it was interrupting the "George to George" marathon on PBS this morning. She LOVES Curious George!

Happy Valentine's Day

Well, it's Valentine's Day and in keeping up with the tradition of the day being a total non-event, Dan has come down with the crud that's been travelling around the house. He went straight to bed when I walked in the door from work . . .

Emily and Louie don't understand anything to do with Valentine's day. They did get mail the other day and enjoyed looking at their cards from Gama and Papa.

Both of them seem to be finally getting over the colds and runny noses that have been lingering for almost two weeks. I was home from work yesterday, sick and probably will be again tomorrow. Hopefully there will be an end in site!

Tonight, both kids tried on their new sunglasses. When we were at the dermatologist last week and she heard that we were going to be heading to the beach, she suggested that the kids get some sunglasses. No one tried to rip them off, so that's a start.

We've been working on increasing Emily's vocabulary. Late yesterday afternoon, I turned on the TV and her favorite "George" was on. Curious George was going to the beach. We've been working on getting her to say "beach." Hopefully, she'll say it before we get there. . . .

Some pix from the past

Here's some pictures from the past.

The first is Halloween, Emily had a ball dressed up as a chicken. Louie was a little puppy dog and really had no clue what was going on. The only thing he knew was that Ted barked a lot and went CRAZY everytime we opened the door to pass our candy. It was a fun night.

Then we have Emily's second birthday. She has been fascinated with snowmen, so I decided to be creative and make some snowman cupcakes. They were fun to decorate and the kids enjoyed eating them.

The other two pictures are of Emily and Louie, each was taken when they were three months old, wearing the same outfit. Can you see the similarity?

It snowed on New Year's Eve this year. It was the first time that Emily had been awake when it was falling so we went out and checked it out. Dan showed her how to catch a snowflake on her tongue. She was fascinated with it and just like in "The Snowy Day," she walked with her toes out like this, and her toes in like this. It was fun. We were all asleep in bed by 10pm that night!

Catch up!!

We've got lots of catching up to do . . . .

Emily and Louie are growing fast and changing everyday. Emily's vocabulary has really grown, she says everything these days. Her latest is "Louie's Silly" followed by a hysterical laugh. Everybody is silly! She's a very busy girl and is discovering new things everyday. Her latest around here is the stairs. Up and down all the time.

Louie is also changing all the time, he is rolling everywhere. He started on solid food in the middle of January and quickly realized that it was good. He's mastered "first foods" and is ready for seconds. Like his sister, he's decided that pears and peaches aren't the best and that he LOVES vegetables.

Here's his first time with rice cereal, yumm-o

We're all getting over having the cruddy winter colds. Emily got sick while Juli was on her road trip with her mom. Dan was flying solo while she was gone. They had to make a trip to Urgent Care on Friday night, ear infection. Emmy was feeling better by Sunday, but it was no fun for Dan. Everyone was happy to see me when I got home on Monday morning.

I spent the weekend getting over a bad cold. Imagine, catching a cold when it is -5 degrees all day long?? It's terrible. I heard Stacy mumble to Mark "don't ever ask me to move to Minnesota," I don't blame her. I ask myself all the time "why do I live here."

We took some pictures today for Valentine's day cards. Emily was in a goofy mood and wouldn't sit up straight. . . .

My New Favorite Sandwich

I discovered POTBELLY Sandwich Works today for lunch. It is one of the best sandwiches around. A delicious roll is lightly toasted and loaded with whatever you want to make it yumm-o.

Christmas with the family

We have finally recovered and all is well. Louie is doing great and back to his happy, healthy self.There was no complete diagnosis to what happened and why he was so sick, but he's fine now. It was a scary couple of days with Lou and my dad. But all is well with both.


We had a fun Christmas with our families. Christmas eve, we went to Pam and Jerry's for brunch and then to Assumption for mass. We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Jansen's for the Jansen Christmas eve celebration. It was lots of fun, but we missed Auntie Stacy and Drew, who had to go to the ER at Children's. Drew got his finger stuck in the shower drain. I guess it isn't a Jansen family gathering without a trip for someone to the ER . . .
Santa came and all the kids had their picture taken with Santa.

We went to Randy and Nancy's for Christmas with the Pelletier's. It was fun, but a long day.
Emily was a happy girl when she opened her most favorite present, Uncle Paul picked out her princess chair . . . we don't say "princess" at our house though.
Santa came to our house for the first time and Emily had a ball. Actually, I think that Dan and I had more fun getting everything ready. I hope that every Christmas is like this one. Emily LOVED everything about it. She jumped into Santa's arms at Marshall Fields and smiled for her picture with him, saying "Santa, ho ho ho" the whole time she was in his lap. She loves every present that she got from her friends, family and Santa too.

It was fun to see everyone and to spend time with family. We really liked seeing all of our kids cousins.

The Saturday before Christmas, we decorated cookies at the Tapio's Billy showed Emily and Drew how it is done. . . there were more cookies eaten than decorated. It was fun!