Julia's Birthday

Julia just got a little pound cake for her real birthday but she definitely enjoyed it. We're celebrating tomorrow with family.

Happy Birthday Julia Rose!

I can't believe our little baby girl is two years old today! It doesn't seem that long ago that we brought her home and opened tons of pink gifts. I remember thinking she was so sweet I couldn't even imagine ever being mad at her. Too bad those days are long gone! She brightens our lives with her friendly, happy personality! (Even if she does have a bit of a stubborn "I'll do it MY way" streak as well. Don't know where she got that...)

Julia 2 years old

Julia 1 year old
Julia 1 day old

Brand new

Another One

I was trying to sort the plastic silverware into forks, spoons and knives for Julia's party tomorrow. "No, no, no!" said Julia (her current favorite phrase). She then sorted them by color. Who knew she could do that? Just to see, I tried putting some whites in with the clears and she promptly took them out and put them where they belonged. There were a few blacks and one red that she put in the space in the back where you can't see them. Samuel would be proud.

True Love

The other night as we drove home past John Deere in the dark, Samuel said, "Doesn't the sign look so beautiful at night, Mommy?" I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

Long Date or Short Babymoon?

Jeremy and I took a day and a half or so away from the kids to go on a long date or short babymoon, whichever you want to call it. We saw a movie, did some shopping that we couldn't have done with kids along (see my next post for our big purchase), picked a probable middle name for the baby (dont' get too excited, there's still no first name in the works, we just can't name a baby until we see him), stayed in a hotel, went to my 36 week doctor's appointment, ate a lot of yummy food and just enjoyed being together. I must have been feeling onery because as we wandered around shopping I kept waiting for some stranger to ask me when I was due. I really wanted to say "Well, the contractions are about five minutes apart, so I think we'll go to the hospital soon." Jeremy laughed when I told him that. Luckily for all strangers, no one asked. Thanks Lynn and Logan for watching the kiddos!

Thanks Grandma Irene!

Grandma Irene impulse "bought" us this monstrous desk at Mrs. B's yesterday. (Okay, so Jeremy and I have a tendency to impulse buy furniture- but only when it's in the scratch and dent section!) We actually went to the furniture mart looking for a bedroom set for Grandma to buy us but the only one we found that we both really liked only came in a dark, almost black finish that just wouldn't work in our brown room. Since the rolltop on our desk just broke last week and we couldn't keep Julia out anymore we decided to see what they had. We saw this one and liked that the whole computer could go in it and then be closed off when we wanted, but rejected it as too big and because we didn't like it enough to pay what they were asking for it. Then we headed over to Mrs. B's and found the same thing for quite a bit less because of a couple small scratches and decided we would go for it. I still think it's too big but I love the computer in it.

Anyone want a rolltop desk that doesn't close anymore...?

Aargh!

I wrestled Julia into her clothes this morning, wrestled her every time her diaper needed changed, had to convince her to eat all three meals, had to catch her before I could wrestle her into her coat and finished off by wrestling her into her pajamas. She cried at lunch for, I don't know, ten minutes and I couldn't figure out why. Plus every time I turned around from cleaning up a mess, she had made a bigger one somewhere! I hope this was just an off day for us...

Lent

I wish I was one of those mothers who loves being pregnant and cherishes every moment. But nope, I'm ready to kick the kid out- I want a full supply of oxygen and no one sitting on my bladder and stretching out my hips. So Lent has come at a good time for me, a little extra incentive to offer up my small complaints and not spike my blood sugar with chocolate.
Yesterday I had Samuel and Thomas come to a final decision about what to give up and it had Samuel in tears. The thought of giving up something for 40 days was really difficult for him. He tried to tell me he'd give up corn, which he does love, but it is the vegetable he eats most so I had to say we wouldn't be giving up anything healthy. Thomas kept wanting to give up something very specific, like chocolate chip cookies or tootsie rolls. So I had to tell him we need to be a little more general so it is actually a sacrifice. In the end I convinced them to give up apple juice. It's something they drink every day at breakfast so they'll notice the sacrifice but isn't something they love so much that it would be impossible for them to be successful. Also it's very easy for Mommy and Daddy, no having to think of alternative vegetable choices at dinner time. :) I'm still working on a family resolution, I'd like that one to be something extra we do, not something else we give up. I don't want to get too complicated, the baby should arrive sometime toward the end of Lent so I need to choose something easy enough we can keep going even with a newborn! We'll see what I come up with.
By the way, if I've given up WordTwist would having a Boggle party be cheating? ;)

A Wedding!

Jessica, my good friend and former roommate of four years got married this weekend! I had the privilege of being one of her personal attendants and spending the whole day with her. It was a beautiful and fun day. I don't know Steve well but Fr. M expressed exactly what I thought in his homily (I've probably paraphrased him) "I have only met Steve once but I know he is a good man because Jessica chose him."

Jessica and I July 13, 2002

Jessica and I Feb 13, 2010

Our Goddaughter, Emily (Jessica's niece)

Bonnie had this beautiful picture of the church they were married in made for them.

L St girls

I'm so happy for you both, congratulations!

100 Days of Kindergarten

Samuel's class celebrated the 100th day of school on Thursday. I'm sure the teachers were amazed and thrilled that it happened to fall on Open House day during Catholic Schools Week. Each child had to make a project with 100 things on it. Mrs. N specifically said "No bags with 100 things in them. This must be a display." So Samuel thought he would gather 100 rocks. "And how will you display them?" I asked. "I'll glue them to paper," he responded. "I don't think regular glue will work, Samuel" "We could hot glue them." Yes, I'm sure "we" would have had tons of fun hot gluing 100 rocks to a poster board. Plus all our rocks are frozen in the muddy ice out in the driveway so he thought of doing 100 pictures instead. We started by printing pictures of family members from wedding pictures, then we copied his school picture and I also printed any pictures of friends I could find in our digital pictures. I found pictures of all our patron saints on the internet so we included them too although Samuel was somewhat skeptical about actually "knowing" them. We had 92 people and then Rosary Group was at our house (8 moms, 18 kids, lots of fun) so I snapped pictures of 8 more people and we had 100! Samuel did all the cutting and gluing. Being the organized child that he is he grouped the people by family (including my side and Jeremy's side sections), friends, saints and classmates. It turned out pretty cute and was much lighter than 100 rocks would have been! So if Sam knows you, chances are you're on there!

Discernment?

Out of the blue from the back seat of the van Thomas asked me:

"Mommy, does Jesus want me to be a John Deere guy?"

"I don't know, what you should be when you grow up is a good thing to ask Jesus about."

A couple seconds go by.

"Mommy? My heart says no and Jesus doesn't know yet."

A Fun Daddy Adventure

Jeremy scores big points for this adventure. I got time to myself and finally shook the pregnancy crabbiness (for that day at least) and the kids had a blast. It's a place called Boingz. Jeremy said it's about the size of a gym and there are six of those inflatable bouncers. The kids can jump all they want for $7. Jeremy said they definitely got their money's worth of fun out of it. Samuel and Thomas liked the obstacle course best and Julia loved the plain bouncer and the huge slide. Julia told me a lot about it.
M: Did you have fun with Daddy?
J: Jump!
M: Show me how you jumped!
J: (jumps up and down)
M: Did you slide?
J: Side, whee!
M: Did Mommy go?
J: Nope.
M: Did Daddy go?
J: A-huh. (that's a yes)
M: Did you see Aunt Lynn and Uncle Logan?
J: Uncle.
M: Did you see Grandma Susan?
J: A-huh.
A great way to get rid of some excess energy on a really cold winter day when you have a crabby mommy at home.

Julia mid-bounce.

I don't know what the boys are standing on but Jeremy said Julia tried to make the jump to the next one and missed. Oops, good thing she's tough. :)

Hi! I'm having a ball!

Ready to go!

Whee!

Samuel says this video is of a "big V family crash"

Anyone up for a play date there next time we need to get out of the house? :)

Two Unrelated Questions

#1 Why does my bowl of Raisin Bran have 48g of carbs and 18g of sugar and Sam's bowl of Frosted Flakes have 26g of carbs an 12g of sugar? Looks like I get Frosted Flakes tomorrow!
#2 Why does two months sound like forever until the baby is born when 8 weeks sounds like "I need to get out the cradle and the clothes and the car seat and fill the freezer with food and ..."?