Duck, Duck, Goose . . . .

We walked up to St. Kate's tonight and fed the ducks and the goose. Emily didn't quite get the idea of giving the bread to the ducks. She picked it up off the ground and ate it herself.
Oh well, she had fun walking around with the ducks, trying to give the goose the piece of bread and quacking at everything. Lou wasn't sure what to think of anything. All he knew was that he was also going to eat the bread that was on the ground. The ducks weren't too happy about that though.

Return of great weather!!!

THE LOOK!Yeah, the nice weather is back! Yeah, Dan finally got screens back on our screen porch! Emily and Louie spent the weekend at Grandma and Papa's this weekend, Dan worked on the porch and I went on a scrapbooking extravaganza with some ladies and Tesa. It was fun, but we ate wayyyyy too much food!!!
We bought Emily a big girl seat last weekend because Louie has outgrown his infant carseat. That was a fun trip to Babies R Us. Emily is just entering the major meltdown point in her short life and it is so much fun. She melted down three times in one trip. On a good note, she loves her new seat so much, she sits in it every chance she gets.
Louie is growing fast, I think he skipped the 9 month size of clothes and went straight to 12 month stuff. He seems to go through one growth spurt after another. He also LOVES his solid foods. He's eating three huge meals of it a day, plus bottles. Big guy. . .
The kids got bubbles in their Easter baskets last weekend, they really like them. Can't wait to get them outside. They love to be outside and play in the grass. They were in the sandbox today for the first time this year. We'll see how much sand Lou eats this summer, he's sure to pass Emily's amount from last year.
We walked up to St. Kate's tonight and there were tons of ducks and geese. I forgot to bring the camera with, we're going to walk there again tomorrow and hopefully get some nice pictures. The ducks aren't shy about wanting food, so we'll bring an old loaf of bread with. Should be fun! Emily walked around after them quacking tonight.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter yesterday in the sub zero climate here in St. Paul. The Pelletier's started the day by going to 9:30 mass at Assumption. The church was decorated with beautiful flowers. Emily was her very social self, she walked around before mass started smelling all the flowers on the altar. Both she and Louie were very good at church.

After church, we came straight home to get ready for our Easter celebration with the Tapio's. Grandma and Papa made it back from Florida just in time for dinner. The rolled in at 3:30pm. Emily was very excited to finally see Papa. Everytime the phone rings lately, she looks around and says "Papa!" We had a delicious dinner. Emily went outside with her cousin Billy and walked her doggie and played with her new pinwheel. She had one last year too, but someone stole it with the urn of flowers in the middle of the night. I found a new one at the Family Dollar in Cocoa Beach! She loves her pinwheel.

The Easter bunny came on Sunday morning. I tried to get a picture both kids with their baskets, not a chance. There was NO way Emily was going to sit still for that one. This is the only picture we were able to take of her yesterday. Louie loved his basket and looked like such a little man in his sweater vest. He was ready to head off to junior high! He has really been hamming it up lately whenever there is a camera around!

The bubbles were the favorite in the Easter baskets this year, along with Curious George. He's also from the Family Dollar in Cocoa Beach. (The Family Dollar was a good walking destination there, we (I) got lots of good stuff there.)

A Brief Update

It's been really cold here for the last week. The temperature has been about 30 degress for a high the last few days. The sun has been shining, so it's very deceiving.

Emily's longing to be outside, walking her doggie up and down the block. Oh well, she's enjoying just sitting in the sun for now. She has decided that these boots are fun to walk around the house in. The other day she got up from her nap, put her boots on and sat in the sun.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the kids from Florida. The one day that all four of use went down to the beach to play in the sand. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the water was fairly chilly. It didn't really matter to Louie, he just sat there eating the sand.

Getting Ready for Easter!

We've gone from 82 degrees last Monday to 15 degrees this morning. I'm worried that my beloved peonies, that are already three inches high, will be damaged by the cold. Hopefully not and we'll have some beautiful blooms in a couple of months.

Louie and Emily sure are changing. Lou has gone from crawling with a limp last week to the real thing and fast. He can get from Emily's room to the dog dish in about 15 seconds and that seems to be his primary destination at all times!

We went to the hospital on Saturday morning to meet Emily and Louie's new cousin. Rebecca Ann was born early Friday morning. She has so much hair! Becca weighed in at 10 pounds, 2 ounces and 22 inches! The same size as Louie was at birth. She's a cute little girl. . . We didn't take any pictures though?? When we got home from the hospital, Lou showed us his new trick. He can pull himself up on his knees next to stuff. He's trying so hard to stand, but just can't do it. After his nap, he was up on his knees at the side of his crib, guess we have to lower the mattress all the way down. He's much more ambitious than his sister ever was and can't seem to stay in one place for very long.
We'll see what the future brings. He and Emily are having so much fun together. They're really good at making the other laugh.
Emily's really talking up a storm now. She was standing at the front door, looking across the street saying "Hi Care (claire)! Bye Care!" She LOVES to see the two girls across the street, Claire and Cathryn. Emily thinks Cathryn is so silly.
She's also very ''arful" lately when she's drinking her milk. We've been working very hard to get rid of the sippy cup before Louie's got one. So far, so good. She's very "areful" when drinking her milk.

Vacation is over :(

We went to Cocoa Beach last week to visit Grandma and Papa and the Florida Jansen's. Emily and Louie had a great time playing with their cousins and getting to know Auntie Stacy and Uncle Mark. They had fun with Grandma and Papa too.

Grandma took Emily down to the beach on Tuesday afternoon, when we got back to their condo from the airport. She was very excited to go and get her feet wet in the ocean.

Dan went deep sea fishing on Thursday, it wasn't a great day. He said there were 6-7 foot seas on their way out the 18 miles to the fishing spot. He wasn't fortunate enough to catch anything, big bummer. We were looking forward to a dinner of fresh sea bass or red snapper. Oh well.
On Friday, Louie went down to the beach. It was really windy so we were all covered with sand. Dan had to dunk Lou to get the sand off. We opted to spend the rest of the afternoon playing in the swimming pool out of the wind.

Mark, Jared, Dan, Juli and Emily went to the Ron Jon branded Cape Caribe Resort to swim on Saturday afternoon. We had so much fun. Stacy and Drew joined us later in the day. Emily enjoyed the pool and Dan and Mark took the kiddies down the Lazy River. When Emmy was done swimming, she walked around to EVERYONE in the kiddie pool area and said "hi." We estimated she said about 150 "hi's" that afternoon. It was a fun day!

Sunday afternoon, we met the cousins over at FishLips to watch the cruise ships set sail. Uncle Mark and Drew had seen them all arrive very early that morning, around 5:30. Emily said "bye" to everyone as they were passing by. The Disney cruise ship blew his horn on their way by, it sounded like "When You Wish Upon a Star."

It looks like Huey, Louie and Dewey are trying to escape the cruise ship!

It was a cool and windy day again on Monday, so we headed back to the indoor play area at the Ron Jon Resort. While we were there, a man came through with a baby alligator (2.5 years old) for the kids to hold. He liked Louie's zoo keeper outfit and thought he should have a chance to hold the gator too. Emily admired a possible future pair of shoes or perhaps a purse?

















Vacation ended on Tuesday morning when we had our flight home. It wasn't the best of times, but thanks to Jared loaning Emily his favorite puppy, the flight was better than many of the other families on the plane.







We had a St. Paul/St. Small moment on the flight home. The same crew flew us down there and the flight attendants couldn't wait to get their hands on Louie. One of them thought that I looked familiar. Turns out, she and I went to Highland Catholic together and were a year apart at Derham. Her name is Kelly and her brother George was in my class. Small world. . . .

Only one more day!

We're leaving on Tuesday morning to go to the beach. Emily's getting very excited to go. We've been telling her she's going to go on an airplane and she will sign "plane."
Hopefully, it will be a good flight down and back. I hate the thought of crying babies on the plane. Thankfully, we're flying SunCountry. We're on the preschool bus directly from MSP to DisneyWorld, with about 300 other families with kids. Should be fun!

Wow, what a beautiful day!

So much snow, so little time to enjoy it. The snow is melting fast and will probably be gone in a couple of days. It's 45 degrees (above zero!) today and it's beautiful. We went out and ran errands this morning. Emily got a new "goggie" from Ikea and she loves it. We named him Spot.

When we got home from errands, she took Spot for a ride in her doll carriage. It is too nice outside to not be out enjoying it.

Louie has been mastering his new mode of moving across the room. He can crawl but not too fast, it is faster to slink like a caterpillar. It's pretty funny. Emily was on the floor showing him how to crawl fast, it won't be long.

Today

Dan took Emily and Louie to story hour at the Merriam Park Library. Emily didn't sit and listen, she was too busy walking around saying "Hi" and "bye" to everyone.

She is really enjoying the doll pram that Santa brought her for Christmas this year too. She pushed it around the circle all day today, she told Dan she was "walk" and then hi and bye about 100 times.

This week in review

Well, things are moving around here, literally. Louie started to crawl this week. He isn't fast, but he's moving! Life is really over.
Emily is talking up a storm. She's also learning her A C B C's, she sings ACBC and then laughs. She thinks that she's really silly.
We went to the Albertville Outlet Mall last weekend with Auntie M to get some shoes and other odds and ends for our trip to Florida. Auntie M bought Emily a really cool girly pillow at the bedding store. Emily just LOVES it and has to have it in her bed when she goes in. It's her favorite thing right now. She had a lot of fun at the Stride Rite store, trying on shoes and sandals and walking around showing everyone in the store. She's really turned into a very social girl and says "hi" to everyone that is in her path. We bought some pretty white sandals and a new pair of tennis shoes. She's all set for the beach!
Louie is changing everyday also. Like his mom, he's got a true love for food. So far, there's nothing that kid doesn't like or won't eat. He is eating solids three times a day and enjoying every mouthful. We're starting the sippy cup now too, he doesn't really want to drink too much from the bottle anymore. He's a happy and healthy little boy. He's fairly predictable for naps and bedtime, unless there's too much going on and he might miss something. Yesterday, he didn't want to nap because Maria and Bella were over and he loves to watch what they are doing.
We're getting everything ready for our trip to the beach. Emily's been watching Curious George Goes on Vacation. George goes to the airport, on a plane and to the beach. She's really enjoying watching it and says "george, beach."