Ready for some baseball!

Yup, we are ready to watch some Twins & Cardinals games. Looks like we may have a future player on our hands. Paul got both kids balls & gloves for Leah's birthday!




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Easter Sunday

We attempted to get a decent family photo and a decent photos of the kids together but this is about as good as it gets!

 

 

 

 

City Museum

This past weekend we got a visit from Auntie Abby and her boyfriend Ryan. We were happy to see her and glad she made the trip all the way from Minneapolis. On Saturday we took them to City Museum. It's tought to describe what the place is all about. It's a combination of art and jungle gym and junk. The entire place is construced from materials "found" in the city of Saint Louis. Fun times were had by all. The rest of the weekend was great too!

 

 

 

 

How does your garden grow??

Well, our garden isn't growing at all yet but after a week of 70+ temps I sure hope we see something before too long! Leah was super excited to get some seeds going this year. I wish I had been organized enough to do some ahead of time in the house but with a month worth of company every weekend, it just didn't happen. Oh well.

I'm hoping we get a bit more out of our little bed than we did last year. Last year was sort of a "test" and I figured out what we needed more of. Greens Beans and Sugar Snap peas are taking up most of the space, along with carrots, lettuce, & chard. We will do some buckets with tomatoes and peppers and a few herbs up on the deck too I think. Last year the tomatoes and pepper got eaten by squirrels. Hopefully we can keep them away this year. And hopefully we will have some seeds come up. Jonah really got into the whole "digging" thing and may have dug up more seeds than we got planted!

 

 

 

 

Four!

My baby girl is four. For some reason this birthday was a hard one for us. She all of a sudden seems so grown up. Tall, pretty, opinionated, sassy all that stuff. I remember being pregnant and wondering what sort of personality she would have. . . .and know we know!

So what is Leah doing at four?? Totally into art work. Girl spends TONS of time sitting a the counter with crayons or markers. Give her a scissors and glue and you may not see her till supper time! YOu'll hear her though because she never stops chattering!! Music is another love. SO much that she requested a stage and lights to do her own shows! hmm what else

- calls herself a daddy's girl
- loves her brother as long as he doesn't touch her stuff
- play makeup was her favorite birthday gift along with the stage her daddy built her
- loves to talk to people on the phone
- interested in dinosaurs and this morning wanted to know if they live in volcanoes
- close to her friends. nice that she has had the same ones for quite a while now. making a few new ones too!

so much more I could say about my girl. I can only imagine what I'll have to say in 4 more years!!

Running

 

This past Saturday we packed up the kids, some friends, & the bottle of Bailey's and headed downtown for me to run the Saint Louis Saint Patty's day 5 mile run and to catch the huge parade. 11,000 other people ran the race too and it was quite the experience. I'm glad to say that my kids know that exercise is important. They know that mommy likes to do it and that's why I haul them to the YMCA several days a week. They know that we do it to stay healthy and that it can be fun.

Now of course I'm not sure it was too fun doing it in 40 degree weather and then standing around in the same weather to watch the parade. And I'm sure it wasn't too healthy sipping Baileys after the race but good times none the less. It was all made better by the fact that our old friends, the Hansens, made the 8 hour drive down from Green Bay, WI to enjoy the festivities with us. I was thrilled that I treated them to thier first "corned beef and cabbage feast" and that they liked it!!

The Sewing Bug

I'm not sure if it's the winter blah's or what but last week I got hit the bug to haul out the sewing machine. I've been reading some craft blogs and saw some super cute ideas for turning old tshirts into little girl skirts, & men's dress shirts into dresses and pants! So here's Leah in one of my favorite old tshits!!! And it was easy enough for me, a beginning sewing without a pattern! I managed a sundress, hooded towels, & another skirt last week and did a bit of work on a pair of pants for Jonah today! Hopefully Leah will continue to think it's cool that I can make clothes her and not be worried about the "homemade look!"

Snot & Sun

We've got the snot. Colds, hacking, boogers, icky stuff. Poor Jonah had the worst of it last week & was diagnosed with a double ear infection & sinus infection. Amazingly, it didn't slow him down much. Now Leah has it and has been wiping her nose so much it looks like she has a little red mustache. And I've got it too but I'm managing. Really it could be do much worse, a friend's son was diagnosed with pneumonia last week & supposedly RSV is going around. I had to laugh when the nurse at the dr's office tried to test Jonah's oxygen levels last week. They never got a reading & the dr walked in and said "I'm sure his lungs are just fine if he was able to put up that much of a fight!" Hopefully we will be back to normal soon.

As for the sun, we have finally gotten a taste of spring! We've made several park trips & covered the street in front of the house with sidewalk chalk. We sure were ready for some fresh air!!

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, a few words. This is the stuff that is making me crazy!







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Cheesecake

My boys lovin the Oreo cheesecake I made for Valenties!


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Winter Zoo

Have I mentioned how much I like going to the zoo in the winter?? No? It's quiet & calm & you can visit with animals for as long as you like. And I get this feeling that the animals are actually happy to see you! Or at least curious about what the heck you're doing there when it's cold!

Oh & the old ladies volunteering in the reptile building were thrilled to see Leah coming. She got a full education on how snakes shed their skin, including a slighty creepy demonstration of a stuffed snake doing just that! Good thing Paul wasn't there, he'd have been running out the door! Did you know he HATES snakes!?



We also really like the Zoomagination Station which is a giant playroom of zoo related activities. The snowleopard cave & water table were the kids favorites today. It was nice that there were 4 whole kids there today!


As for animals, we saw penguins, bears, apes, chimps, monkeys, all the reptiles & sealions. Our faces were the peguins & the moments we had with the gorillas!


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Snowshoeing!

The kids & I are spending the weekend in Pella while Paul celebrates MardiGras with some work people. Grandma Helen found out about a snowshoe nature walk put on by the Army Corps of Engineers at the rec area just up the road. Jonah didn't last long in the shoes & we spent most of the hike pulling Leah in the sled, but it was fun & interesting. I now know all about snow fleas!

We were able to check out the shoes to bring back to my patents for the weekend & Leah is now a pro. Sure makes exploring the outdoors in the snow a bit easier. Grandpa Lee loves it & is ready to order his own pair!



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Wordless Wednesday

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One Jonah = 10 normal kids

Yeah, that's what the child care director at the YMCA told me on Saturday. He said that having Jonah in the class room made it like having 15 kids instead of just 5. He said they were all playing nicely until they heard a crash. It was Jonah pulling the bucket of blocks over. So they all headed over to pick those up until they heard more noise. It was Jonah who had climbed on the table and and dumping the container of crayons upside down. So the staff headed over to pick those up before Jonah and the other little ones started eating them. And then more noise. All of the coloring papers hit the floor. Jonah again.

Seriously, at least once a week someone asks me how I deal with him. It's like this. No chairs at the table or counter. Nothing breakable in bottom drawers. Locked lower cupboards. And yes, he still gets into stuff. I have very little make up left thanks to him and the dog gets extra meals because he sneaks into the pantry closet where the dog food is. Yesterday there were a million pieces of egg shell all over the kitchen. Don't ask!

Fast cars

The other night I took the kids to the "Science is Fun" event put on by our Parents as Teachers program. Science was not so fun for me as all I did was prove that it's impossible for one mommy to chase two kids in opposite directions. I think the kids had a good time though. The big hit for both of them was a swimming pool filled with pasta & shovels & buckets. I decided not to recreate that one at home since Jonah was really into emptying the pool! I did manage to make some nifty car ramps like they had there today though. Leah's still sleeping & Jonah & I are trying to see which is faster, the fire truck or the garbage truck.




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Family Photo

I'm not sure why I didn't put this up here before, but here's a family photo of us from Christmas taken by Uncle Ryan. Leah was just a little wound up about opening gifts and Jonah was ready for bed! Classic!

This is where she put the furniture. I'm waiting for my mom to remind me about my obsession with moving furniture as a young person. I think I actually broke my bed from moving it so much.


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Afternoon antics

My friend Wendy calls most afternoons around 4:30. This is what Leah did while I was on the phone. It's not the first time. I'm not sure if I should be singing the praises of the manufactures of those nifty felt floor protectors for an unscratched floor, or cursing them for making the furniture easy to slide. I'm seriously considering bolting the furniture to the floor. Or maybe I can talk Paul into heavier furniture??


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Tea Time with the Tiny Tots

This is what goes on at our house sometime between 3pm and 4pm every afternoon. Snacks & juice for them. Espresso for mommy. I just want to squish their little faces when I seem them sitting up there like that. Squish, squish, squish. Love those two little blonde heads.

This is Leah teaching Jonah about the fine art of splashing in puddles. Yup, puddles in January in Missouri. I really don't miss the never ending blanket of snow and ice we were covered with all winter long living in Wisconsin, but I can't say I love the dreary gray of winter here either. Temps have been in the 40s and 50s this week which has gotten us outside and helped with that cabin fever. Seriously, between fighting with Leah, "sassiest mouth in the south" and being up all night with "toddler beds suck" Jonah it's been a rough two weeks!