The quote above is from the mouth of Little Miss Olivia. These are a couple of things she told me she loved about her Daddy. We had another March Birthday celebration. This time for one of the most amazing men of my life! It's hard for me to believe that we've celebrated 11 birthdays together, wow! The kids painted pictures for Shane this year, and I, shockingly, made him a little scrapebook. I really wanted to do something special with the pictures of the two of us from our trip to Cannon Beach in February. One of my creative bones, Tabitha, came up with a super cute idea. Thanks Tab!!! It turned out darling, and Shane has it on his desk at work, where he also hung the kids paintings up. We had a nice little extended Birthday with our friends & family at Wolf Lodge this weekend. Thanks to everyone for the cards, treats, amazing chocolate cake, kind birthday wishes, etc...
Just came out today =)This is only like a 10 sec clip, but I'm sure there will be more to come! I couldn't get the video to post, so you just click on the link and it takes you right to it. Enjoy~I can't wait until June! Twilight Eclipse trailer: A first glimpse - KansasCity.com
I took these a couple weeks ago. I was upstairs cleaning and Shane was with the kids. When I came down they had their snow pants, and slippers on. They were hilarious, they made up their own little game where they'd run from one side of the house to the other, do knee slides, and then scream "SCCCOOORE!" Later that day they had their swimsuits on and were pretending they were at the beach. Nolan ended up running around outside with a diaper and half his swimwear on, but did put a hat on for warmth...hmm. So completely bundled up and sweating inside the house, and half naked outside, makes sense =) I felt bad for the neighbors that day, the kids kept peaking through the fence talking their ears off. We have very random events that happen in our household. Especially when my little free spirited rascals have their imaginations running wild. I'm blessed that these two play well together, and have great little imaginations and can entertain themselves! To be honest, I think they have more fun during dramatic play, then they do when they're playing with toys.
We love this girl!!! Most of you know this already, but just in case you don't, Tabitha is my brother Joe's girlfriend(of years at this point, come on Joe, where's that ring??!!) Tab has become so close to our family, she's become one of my closest friends, and my kids ADORE her. I know I've mentioned that before. I think Olivia considers her one of her "bestees" NO JOKE! She had a sleepover with Tab and Joe a couple weeks ago and didn't want to come home. If she could spend 24/7 with Tab, she would! When I think of SWEET, Tab fits it, she really is so kind, generous, always happy, positive, and such a joy to be around. We had a Birthday party for her last Friday at my parents house. *One more thing I should mention, she moved ALL the way over here from Cleveland, Ohio(to be with Joe!) We enjoyed celebrating you Tab, and hope this next year brings you all the HAPPINESS you deserve!
Olivia celebrated her 100th day of school last week~wow the school year is just flying by! They started the week off by bringing in their 100's project~which was a collection of 100 small "things." Liv chose M&M's. It was a great little math lesson as well, helping the kids learn to count by 10's.
The next day was Pancake-Pajama Day! A couple other parents and I went to school with the kids that day and helped make 100 pancakes. They also had applesauce, & little sausages. I think the best part for the kids was wearing their pj's and slippers to school! I can't express enough how grateful I am for Olivia's Kindergarten teacher. She is such a WONDERFUL person, and has truly been a gift! Olivia has loved school, and when she's had to stay home when she's been sick, cries and says she wants to go to school. Ha, wouldn't it be nice if our kids felt that way about school forever?!
Shane and I finally got away for a weekend together, after nearly 7 years! I was a nervous wreck, and a couple of days before we left I wanted any excuse to either take the kids with us, or stay home. Neither of those things happened and last Friday morning Shane and I left for Cannon Beach, Oregon. We have always loved our road trips together. We used to take them all the time when we were dating, and before we had children. Getting away together was one of the best things we've done in a very long time. I feel like we rejuvenated our love, friendship, marriage, it was bliss! Just to really focus on each other was great, to start and end a conversation without any interruptions, to NOT be on any schedule at all...the toughest decision we had to make for 3 days was what, when, and where we'd eat =) We stayed in an amazing hotel that completely pampered us. The pampering included things like~turning down our bed at night and placing handmade chocolates on our pillow, complementary dvd's delivered to our room, homemade chocolate chip cookies, tea/coffee available 24/7, stocked our fridge each day with beverages of our choice, complementary cheese wine every evening, and the most delicious breakfast I've ever had. The breakfast had every kind of fresh fruit you can imagine, homemade granola, pastries, breads, floretine egg scrammble(they switched it up each day,) peppered bacon, irish oatmeal, fresh squeezed juices, organic coffee/tea. It was seriously out of this world! Our room was 30 feet from the beach, it was so beautiful. The tide was so high the entire time it was unreal. We've always gone down in the summer so this was an entirely different season for us to be down there. It rained the majority of the time, but we were prepared and that didn't keep us away from the beach, day hikes, and walking around the quaint little town. I included a lot of landscape pictures in the slideshow. I wanted you all to see how amazing one of the hikes we went on was. We hiked through a lush forest to get down to the beach. It was so beautiful, at the end of the trail, it opened up to the ocean. There was a river and small creeks running through the forest leading to the ocean. The trees were HUGE, you'll notice some pictures with Shane standing next to them.
One of the other highlights of my mini vacation was spending an evening with one of my longest, most dear, best friends in my world, April. We have been bestee's for 20 years! We've gone through so many chapters of LIFE together. I miss her so much but we've managed to make our friendship a priority in spite of not living in the same town. We plan on seeing April and her sweet family again this summer!
While our time away couldn't have been more perfect, we were ready to get back home to our 2 little sweethearts. We missed the kids, and our family time, chaos and all ;)
I Love This Boys Eyelashes(They remind me of Snuffleupagus) First Night In Big Boy Bed!More Snuffy =) This wasn't by choice, I was forced, by Nolan. He's been climbing in and out of his crib for quite sometime now so it became a safety issue. Liv was out of her crib at Nolan's age, but there's something about the second born. Instead of anticipating every milestone or stage, I want time to freeze every now and then, no rushing! Like I said, he was becoming a little monkey with the crib, in fact, when he'd climb back in, it was as if he was in track participating in the pole vault! He'd just run for it and then practically do a back flip into the crib, that's Nolan for ya. So last weekend Shane took his crib down. I couldn't even watch, it seriously made me sick to my stomach, I had to leave the room. The thought that the crib may never be used again in this family just crushes my heart, it has so much history. After Shane took it down he brought me all the bedding, bumper, crib skirt, etc...for the wash~I told him that I couldn't look at that either. My baby is growing up...sniff sniff :( I do have to say he's so darn cute in his wee sleigh bed, it suites him. While he is safer now, he's also a little excited about the freedom of not having to be lifted out of his bed. The other morning we heard a "flick" in his bedroom around 6:30 AM. There was light coming from underneath the door. We walked in and he was sitting on the floor with one of his books. Children are precious, but there's something about when they're sleeping. Nolan hardly ever falls asleep anywhere but his bed(or ours,) or the car. He asked Shane to wrap him like a burrito the other day on the couch and within 10 minutes he was sleeping sound. He did it again today when he was downstairs watching a show. I just want to squeeze him even harder when his cheeks are warm, his breathing is relaxed and his little mouth open, what is it about sleeping babies? I COULD JUST EAT!
