Fun in Minnesota

We all had fun in Minnesota. William enjoyed the Children's Museum (we lost him in the ant hill and I was worried for a little while). William also had fun sledding for the first time at Grandma and Grandpa Mc's house. He had fun making William paths in the snow, getting pulled up the hill and then riding down with Mommy.

I had fun visiting family and my friend Chandra and I took a photography class together. It was good, just a little chaotic for the photo shoots they set up for us. But I learned more about my camera and some new techniques, so that I what I was hoping for.

Adam had fun helping my Dad buy some new TVs that were made this century. And he also made a clandestine trip to the Half Price Bookstore where he bought 5 or 6 books on WWI and WWII. I don't get it, but he enjoys reading non-fiction.

William did well on the long drives, just got antsy on the last 30 minutes coming home. I racked my brain to come up with songs to sing and we hit on Old MacDonald, I went through all the farm animals I could think of and we were still miles from home. So I improvised, Old MacDonald had a Daddy (with a fart, fart, here and a fart, fart there...) William was laughing so hard and so was Daddy. Why is the word fart so funny to boys young and old?

Now for a few pictures...

Pics of William

The light was right and I was in the mood for taking pictures and William didn't mind. So I went a little crazy as William had fun around the house!

Spring Fever

I am pretty sure it is spring fever, as I have the urge to vacuum the house from top to bottom. And I mean vacuum everything, move all the furniture, the whole shebang. So Adam gets dragged into it. Adam runs the regular vacuum, I have the one with attachments for vacuuming the floor boards, and William brings his and has to vacuum where Daddy is currently vacuuming. Four rooms down, two to go, maybe when we get done spring will come?

Pictures of William waking up after nap.

Don't you just love sleepy faces that are waking up?

Eating a little snack...

And he's revived and awake!

William's goofy little thing is to say "heena heena heena" when he is feeling silly, and there was a lot of that this morning. Adam is trying a new technique for transitioning from Nights to his off days, he is staying up, and only taking a short nap while William naps. So I get the pleasure of waking him up shortly, let's hope he's not too much of a grumpy bear.

Molars Oh My!

There's been a lot more tantrums lately, I am hoping it's because is his 2 year molars are coming in on the bottom. It's that or we are in for a case of the terrible twos. This is the face we have been seeing more of. Sometimes it cracks me up as he gets so into character, then will get distracted for a bit and forgets to cry, remembers and starts up again.


Adam is figuring out his schedule and says he is getting better sleep now that he can sleep till he wakes up rather than knowing he has to get up in the morning. The ear plugs are doing wonders, I should have bought some years ago for him. Adam also catches occasional cat naps; most are interrupted by a little man crawling on him or poking him in the eye and saying "wake up Daddy".

Adam's birthday was yesterday, we let him sleep in, then made cupcakes and pies for him. William was very helpful in the cleaning up the spatula for the cake batter, as well as rolling out the dough. He excelled at putting flour on the counter for me, to the point we had mounds of flour on the counter.





Perry the penguin is becoming more and more a part of William's life, he gets his beak brushed when William brushes his teeth, he was being feed applesauce the other day at lunch, and currently from what I can hear over the monitor, Perry is jumping from the crib "uh oh" and needs to be rescued (since I have already done it once, I think Perry is going to have to nap on the floor today).

Next week at daycare they are studying polar animals and on Wednesday its penguins, so this should be right up William and Perry's alley.

Keeping the house quiet for Adam to sleep on Saturday and Sunday mornings is taking some thought and pre-planning. Yesterday we visited Suzy, Ryan and Julianna and met Howie the big yellow dog again. We had fun playing with Julianna's toys and she was very nice to share with us.

Today we headed for Appleton to do some shopping. There are some children's Museums in the area, the library, shopping and visits to our friends houses, so that should keep us busy for a while. I hope spring comes soon, as that will open up parks for us to play at, stroller rides, and bike rides.

Happy New Year

Out goes Christmas 2011 and all its fun and family, in comes the New Year. Now for the next month or so I will write 2011 and then have to scratch it out to 2012.

We got a couple new ornaments this year, I got my Swarovski Crystal, this year it looked like a poinsettia flower. I have one from every year Adam and I have been married, that makes 9 crystal ornaments; my how the time flies.

Grandma Pam has found Germany wooden ornaments for us for years now, and we have a beautiful collection started too. I loved this year's Santa climbing up the ladder, very cute.


And my Grandma Ruth has been making hand made ornaments for years. She makes them for all the grandkids, grandkids-inlaws, and greatgrandkids. I think that means she makes 40 or so every year. This year it was a cucumber and you can see it sparkling on the tree below. I usually display all my Grandma Ruth ornaments on garland over our fire place.


Little man was helping shovel the icy snow we got last night, but didn't appreciate the wind. We came in side and had fun playing on the couch. Still gotta love peekaboo!








And now I am off to fulfill my new years promise of exercising twice a week, I hope I keep with it. I am thinking of a sticker chart to keep me honest :)

It will be a bit easier now, or I will have less excuses as Adam will be home in the evenings now. He starts 3rd shift tonight, so we will see how that goes for him. I am worried about his sleeping.

Boxing Day

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve opening presents. Kevin didn't get the message to wear red on Christmas Eve, but we sat down for a nice photo shot (darn camera didn't focus the best, but every one is looking the right direction, so I guess I should be happy).

Playing with old toys before opening new ones.

Momma stepped it up a notch and allowed us water to mop with!

One of the big hits this Christmas, a basket ball hoop. He made basket after basket, and the same the next day.

Some of William's other favorite toys: a cash register (just like my old one), a doctor kit, and a microwave. On top of that we have plenty of new crafting stuff, building and puzzling toys to keep us busy.

My father even found a working Fisher Price Radio. I got one when I was seven and loved that thing. It eventually wore out, so he found one on the internet and surprised me with it. William likes walking around with it and interviewing us with the Microphone.

We are saying good bye to one set of Grandparents today and hello to the other set tomorrow. What we are going to do when we run out of Grandparents to entertain is any ones guess!

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve to all, here at our house we are having a pretty laid back day. Grandpa Mc and Uncle Kevin are watching WWII shows and making observations. Grandma Mc is doing a little sewing. William is dry mopping the concrete basement floor, I am updating the blog and drinking my favorite Chai Tea Latte. Adam is hanging out with all, moving from area to area as his attention span wanes.

William has increased his helping power and learned to clean carpet spots this past week, though I think he had more fun putting the sponge in the water and squeezing it out than actually cleaning the spots.

Proud of his sponge and enjoying helping Momma.

He really loves being involved with all we do and we try to encourage it as much as we can. On his list of things to help with...

- Get mail from the mailbox
- Wheel out the garbage bins and back in when empty
- Water the plants in the house
- Sweep and Mop
- Make cookies
- Turn on and off lights
- Open and close the garage door
- Make Murphy's food
- Give treats to Murphy
- Put out bird food in the back yard
- Folding laundry (well at least shaking it out)

We had our friends Ryan, Suzy and Julianna over for a visit Friday morning. Julianna and William played well together and had fun with their Christmas present exchange. Julianna was checking out William's hat and got him started riding his airplane again (but he is getting a bit big for it).



Have a Merry Christmas with family and hope Santa brings you your heart's desires.