Happy Christmas!

Oh my poor little pumpkin butt. I read her The Night Before Christmas, told her all about Santa Claus, and totally thought (being the bold child that she is), that she would sit on Santa's lap no problemo. Well apparently I was wrong. It doesn't matter who it is hiding under that suit, she's terrified of him/her. I guess we'll try again next year.





Although she hates Santa, she loved Christmas. She was ALL over the place at my aunt's house. Seriously, she sprinted back and forth from room to room to room for several hours. The energy that kid has is unreal. We went to my mom's Christmas Day where she received her most coveted gift...the Cozy Coupe.




You should have seen her throwing a fit yesterday morning. She was so angry she picked her Cozy Coupe up from behind and threw it on the ground like she was transforming into the Incredible Hulk. Her strength never ceases to amaze me.

She played a pretty fun game with Grandpa and a potato chip box...





We had a very busy but very fun Christmas. All of her grandparents/great-grandparents spoiled the crap out of her. She got a ton of gifts. I think one of my favorites is the Aquadoodle. She can scribble all over the place with water pens. I busted her sucking the water out of one of the pens this afternoon, so I guess she won't be ready for markers any time soon.

I also got to see my great friend Beth over break. Me, her and Cassie had dinner and spent some QT together. It was just like the good 'ol days when we were roomies. Well, almost...only one of us was having drinks this time.

Oh, I also wanted to thank the City of Minneapolis for doing a terrible job plowing the street in front of our house. They left some gigantic snow boulders behind, right in my parking spot. Damn you.

It's gonna be a white Xmas.

You've gotta be kidding me right. Could a 20 month old really do this much damage? She was silently and stealthily scribbling ALL over everything in her room when I thought she was napping. She didn't make a peep. She got into the closet, found her crayons, and colored every surface in her room that she could reach. The worst part is, that she did it again the next day. You fool me once....

What a smart, artsy little turd. I wasn't even mad when I finally heard the sounds of crayons scraping the wall that separate the living room from her room. In fact, I knew just what I was about to walk in on.







It snowed like like crazy this weekend. Crazy. The plows got called off, busses stopped running, cabs weren't picking people up. But I went to work. It was kinda worth it. The roads were only plowed so one lane was open, downtown had massive snow drifts up and down the streets...



The snow was so high it was blocking this entire restaurants front.

The house project is moving a long nicely...besides the fact that our dumpster is now filled with several feet of snow. Tyler and his dad insulated upstairs all weekend.



Last week when it snowed, Ami and I played outside. She got sick of me pulling her in the sled, and wanted to pull it herself.
She's so bossy.




This weekend I was able to put lights on the tree and decorate, cleaned like crazy, did a bunch of laundry, worked Fri and Sat nights, got some groceries, and even did a little sewing.


Now I want to lay down and watch TV. And eat a Swiss Cake Roll. Damn you Target with your temptations.

Yay for babies!

Well, Abby finally had her baby, but not on a Monday, it was in the middle of the night on a Friday. I was way off. I was, however, right that I was having a niece. Adaline Grace. She's real cute. See...




We have been over there playing and admiring Ada the last several days. When we were there yesterday and Sam and Amelie were giving each other rides in Sammy's wagon.




Sam has this Mr. Potato Head toy, it's a giant-ass clear plastic potato container that holds about one thousand potato head parts. Anyways, Ami was playing with Mr. Potato's glasses and reading a book.


We did a lot of celebrating for Thanksgiving with 3 days of meals. I ate a lot of pumpkin pie and we had TONS of leftovers. I made Tyler take the rest of them to work this week because they started to make me feel queasy every time I opened the fridge. And why would delicious Thanksgiving leftovers make me sick you wonder....?

This is why! Please pay no attention to the terrible countertop in the bathroom.


We are really really excited, and since Amelie is currently obsessed with babies and looking at photos of babies, I think she's excited too. We are due at the end of July. I'm really looking forward to getting back in maternity clothes with stretchy waistbands. No, really.

Sooooo, hopefully we will get the upstairs remodel finished ASAP. We've got the bathroom and closet framed in, and the plumbing and electrical is almost finished. I was going to take some photos to show, but it was too dark up there.

Well, I sent Tyler to get some fried chicken, so now I need to prepare for the feast. Hooray for pregnant eating.

Winter Weekend!

Man o man did it snow this weekend. I'm not complaining. The snow covered up all the leaves on our lawn. Amelie and Tyler played outside in the sled while I clocked in some sleep on Saturday morning. How crazy is it that it can go from being almost 70 degrees to a blizzard in less than a week. I love MN.

I'm (un)patiently awaiting the birth of what I think will be my niece. My very pregnant sis is due any day now. I think Monday is the day. Not sure why, I just have a feeling. I'm so very excited.

Tonight I made White Bean and Kale Soup and it is delicious. I bopped over to Target at 5pm to pick up the ingredients and I will never go to Target on a Saturday again. People are crazy competitive, cruising through the store at top speed cutting people off. Also, don't stop in the middle of an aisle and have a conversation with your friend. You're in my way, and his way, and her way...move please.

We went over to play with Grandma, Abby and Tracy on Friday. Look how cute they are...


Amelie is nuts about her bed still. She has gone to bed like a champ every single night. I still can't believe it. When she wakes up in the morning, she sits in bed and waits for one of us to go get her. She's so cool. Check our her and Evi "sleeping" in the bed.


My really manly husband was hunting last weekend. He murdered, err...shot 2 deer. Although, it's really a shame that I hate venison. I do love my manly husband though. Speaking of manly, he sure did a lot of man things this weekend. He drank some beer, played video games, put away all of our yard toys and furniture, spent some QT with Ami, shoveled, built some things upstairs, took out the garbage and recycling, AND took me out to dinner (actually, I paid). What a man.

Happy Birthday Krista!

Today my BFF Krista turns 30. Happy Birthday Quizzie15!

We haven't gotten much further on the upstairs remodel, but we laid it out like a gigantic blueprint so we could see how it would be. That reminds me of an old episode of friends where the gang is in London for Ross's wedding to Emily, and the only way Joey can figure out which way to go, is to set the map on the ground...and "get into the map." That's what I'm like with maps. Photos follow:




I can't wait till it's finished.

Amelie has been waking up at either 3:30am or 4:45am every day for the last week and a half. It's forced us to start going to bed early. The other night we were both so beat, we went to bed at 8:30. Shhhh, don't tell anyone. I hate to admit it, but I feel so great when I wake up with 8 hours of sleep. So what's better...getting a couple hours of alone time after she goes to sleep at night, or feeling well rested in the morning? The old lady in me says it's getting the sleep. Since I have always been a night owl, this should take some getting used to.

I snuck in after her morning nap and snapped a photo 2 days in a row. She's so cute sleeping.




Then she woke up and did this


Which forced me to turn her crib into this

which I had not mentally prepared myself for. It only took 2 hours. You'd think all you would have to do to convert her crib into the bed, would be to replace the tall rail with the shorter one. No, I had to take the whole crib apart, then put it back togther with the toddler rail on it. Meanwhile, Ami was jumping on the mattress on the floor and the bed platform as well as shaking the rails as I was trying to screw them together. When I finally finished, I felt like I just did a triathalon.

I knew she was going to love her new bed, but I had no idea how easy it would be to get her to sleep in it. (At least the first night) We did her normal routine and she came over to me and said, "night night," which is her telling me she wants to go to bed. She ran in, let me tuck her in, and fell asleep for the rest of the night. She woke up at 6am calling for me and when I went in she was laying in her toddler bed snuggling with her dolly. This dolly, the same one she strips down and throws on the floor when she gets mad.


We'll see how tonight goes. She's supposed to be napping now but I can hear her in there beating on a tambourine...

Auntie Tova came home for a busy wedding filled weekend, we got to spend some time with her at my mom's house. She pulled out the mini 4 wheeler and Ami loved it.


We took her trick-or-treating on Halloween with some of the neighbors. She picked it up pretty quickly. We only went down one side of the block, but she was running up to doors holding her bag open. I ate all her candy.

I'm Thirty.

I recently turned 30. It was also pretty awesome. I didn't have any type of mental breakdown or anything like that. Tyler and Cassie threw me a fabulous party with some help from my mom. We had a bonfire and some great company. We took the light rail downtown and threw down later.

Look at Evelyn feeding Amelie birthday cake. OMG, she was also running after Ami and Sam tickling and laughing with them.

For my birthday, Tyler also got me the new IPhone 4 which kicks ass. Thanks husband. You're a keeper!

Amelie loves wearing track suits (ie:I think it's hilarious) and she also loves headscarves and her sunglasses. Also, she just discovered picking her nose. I wonder where she learned that from...


Here are a several other things that Amelie really loves:

-Her dad, she cries every morning when he leaves for work. It's sad to say the least.

-Being naked.

-Elmo in Grouchland. Vanessa Williams is in that movie. 100% of the time, there is a song from that movie stuck in my head.

-Running

-Chipotle


-Learning new words. She recently learned "Dynamite."

-Glee, I was watching this afternoon (Netflicks, and she danced to it and then laid on the couch and enjoyed it with me.)


-Etch-a Sketch's, and her cousin Sammy


-Large Trees


-Ducks and the sounds they make

-Disappearing into thin air

It was a perfect day today. After watching Amelie throw several tantrums, I figured a little fresh air and nature could do her some good. We went to Woodlake Nature Center and ran/walked around the short trail. I had to carry her and/or hold her hand over the floating dock so she didn't walk directly into the water. Afterwards, she took a great nap. Just what I needed.

We are still demolishing our upstairs to make it into our master bedroom. We had a dumpster delivered the other day and Tyler and my dad threw all the walls and ceilings out the window directly into it.

Do work!

JBF

Oh my god, I just finished sorting and tagging and hanging and poking safety pins through an assload of baby clothes. My fingers hurt, my hands are dry, but I have a rack of clothes and some other crap ready to consign tomorrow morning. I seriously hope it's worth it. I sure love shopping at the Just Between Friends sales, but shit, it's hard work to sell crap in them.

We watched the finale of Dexter season 4 tonight. Wowza. Now what do I do? I've got that heaviness laying on me and I don't have cable so I have to wait like...another year or more for the next season. Plus, they put the season finale on one disc so it was just over like that. At least they have previews of Californication season 3 to tide me over for the rest of the evening.

OOOhhhh, we got a new ride. I super-love it. We bought a used 4Runner and it's in stellar condition and I love driving it. I want to drive it everywhere. I told Tyler I would sell my bike and use it for gas money. (kidding of course). But it had a moon roof and the back window rolls down. I've always wanted a moon roof.

This weekend we demo'ed our upstairs. It was a lot messier than we planned it to be. We feel pretty great that that little part of the big project is finished. Now we need to get some estimates and hammer that shit out. I cannot WAIT until we have our fabulous upstairs master bedroom. It's gonna be the best.

I've attended 2 births now, both of which were very different. I learned a lot from both births and I am really anxious for my next one. My beautiful cousin had a little baby girl and my good friend also had a little girl so with all these little babies around me, my womb is pretty much aching for a baby. It's a weird feeling.

Look at these cuties. I watched my friends kids the other day and Tyler took some time before work to hang out with us all to watch a little Elmo.



and...Ami feeding her little buddy Frank. See, she's ready for a new baby too!


Lastly, I was out of the living room for about 1 minute, and when I came back, this is what I found. It was every single tissue from the brand new box...god I love her.

Septemberish

I have obviously gotten really bad at blogging.

I'm just so much busier than I used to be. You think as the kid(s) get older, it gets easier...surprise! I've been juggling my doula duties, play dates, taking care of the homestead, grocery shopping, keeping the place presentable, bartending, and having a little spontaneous fun at the same time.

My evenings keep disappearing to various meetings and other responsibilities and my days seem to be getting shorter and shorter.

We got a new vehicle this weekend, Tyler took it out of town to go biking this weekend. Should be interesting when he gets back. I hope it's not caked in mud. I'm excited to enjoy a sun roof for the first time in my (almost) 30 years. I've always wanted one.

I went to lots of garage sales and the like in the last week. I got Ami some pretty cool shoes/boots and some winter clothes on the cheap.

All that girl wants to do it watch Elmo. It's always, Elmo Elmo Elmo! I hate that she wants to watch TV and I NEVER have the TV on during the day. However, she watched Elmo in Grouchland one morning when I was sleeping after a long weekend of work, and she is hooked. She is obsessed with Elmo books, her Elmo finger puppet and anything fuzzy and red that could possibly be Elmo. At least it's not Sponge Bob or Barney!

She also LOVEs running around naked.

She also loves wearing her yellow rain boots.


I've got 3 baskets of laundry staring me in the face, and I need to prepare for the MPLS bike tour in the morning...so I'm OUT!