WWF in my living room

In the last few months, Olivia has taken it upon herself to develop her wrestling skills.....the target of her affections used to be taken out upon the poor dog......but now.....

....she has a new target....

...a certain 2 year old....

...welcome to the WWF of Barber wrestling.  

Most of the time I just let them go at it....except for the time I saw her standing on his back.  ( that produced some interesting inquiries from mom as to why that was not a good idea).  Wish I would have had my camera for that one....but I do have some footage of another match...

So without further ado....

xoxoxoxoxo

13 weeks and counting...

Hurray!!  I'm 13 weeks and starting to feel better....still can't look at a piece of lettuce but the nausea is subsiding significantly!! Whoo-hoo!!

Here is a pic of my 3 month belly....can't believe it's already starting to POP!!!

xoxox

One potato, two potato, THREE potato...

Yes, that's me comparing babies to potatoes...

If you didn't know already...we are expecting our third little one on April 3, 2011.  

( this might explain the lack in posting...i am NOT feeling well lately...not at all).

no energy + no appetite + upset tummy = a non-blog posting mommy.  

I hope to return to our regularly scheduled blogging just as soon as I'm feeling like a human again.  

( at least there is a WONDERFUL end result...)

xoxoxo

How could this happen?

How is it possible that my darling baby girl is 4 years old today?

How is it possible that she is such a big girl?

How could 4 years have flown by in the blink-of-an-eye?

A note to all of you new parents out there.....

-cherish EVERY moment, even the bad ones...they are gone in an instant.

-savor each kiss, each hug, each tender love that your child gives you

-marvel at the world through their eyes

and...

LOVE them for who they are as individuals , not as who you think they should be.

Happy Birthday my darling child....i love you more than you could ever know.

xoxoxoxoxo

A moment of silence...

Can you hear it?  

The silence....

The wonderful , beautiful silence.....of.....

my darling husband whisking my children off to a weekend in Palm Springs to be with their grandparents..

Which meant...

mommy had a weekend....YES! , a weekend to herself...( minus the Saturday I worked all day..but we won't think about that...)

...and...

i actually made, ate breakfast, read part of the newspaper, and took a shower...all...

...in silence....

no t.v., no radio, no NOISE!  

Do I miss my children?  

...of course...

.......BUT........

I never knew "silence" could be so therapeutic. 

xoxoxoxo

p.s.  i love you, my husband...you truly know what I need , and when i need it...

A bountiful harvest...

...well...maybe not quite "bountiful"....but we're pretty proud.  Olivia is in the garden daily picking cherry tomatoes and we tried growing a few carrots this year ...they were small but created squeals of delight from the kids as we pulled them out of the ground....we have a couple of pumpkins growing and some corn.  The zucchini plants are also producing like crazy....yummm!

Oh, and the reason there aren't any picks of Finn with vegetables is because he chucks them like baseballs when you hand them to him.....ahem.. :-)

xoxo

Summers are for splash parks and movie nights..

...the title pretty much says it all...

....you just gotta love the FREE splash parks that are popping up all over...this one doesn't happen to be particularly close to our house but it is the best one...or at least Olivia thinks so..:-)

.....and there really is NOTHING better than a movie night ( i think this one was "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs") and popcorn with you cousins!  Ahhhhh....summer....

xoxoxo

The frog that ate yogurt.

Hmmmm...did you know that frogs like yogurt?

Raspberry yogurt, if you want to be exact about things.

Did you know that you can use a hammer to eat yogurt?  

...some prefer a spoon....but..

...then it wouldn't  produce the same results....a very happy ( an messy ) little boy.

xoxo

This is how we roll...

Our pool......daddy style!

Our "Jamba Juice"...Mama style...

.....and Our "Fantastic Sams"...aka Mama-givin'-kids-new-haircuts-in-the-backyard-kinda style!!!

and that's how WE roll...:-)

A sign of summer...

Hmmmmmmmm.......what could this be......

Turns out it is was the remains of a Sponge Bob Square Pants Popsicle! 

( courtesy of one of the FOUR ice-cream trucks that make their way down our street EVERY night! ) 

xoxoxo

The claw is our master..

If you are a Toy Story fan you will love these....

my mom made them for Finn and his cousin Micah's birthdays...

they are really too cute for words....

and boy-oh-boy did the kids LOVE them.....

Happy Birthday boys! 

xoxoxoxo

Midwest Journey 2010

We try every year to make it back to the MidWest..Chad has family in Illinois ( where he was born) and I have a ton of family in Wisconsin ( where I was born).  Sidenote:  Chad and I were actually born about 70 miles apart from one another...he at Great Lakes Naval Base outside of Chicago and me in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

Anyway,  this year Chad's dad's family had a reunion planned in Chicago and so began our midwest journey 2010.

We flew into Milwaukee on a Thursday..stayed with my dad a night ( he lives in Oconomowoc..about 45 min. from milwaukee)..and then on Friday drove down to Chicago for the reunion.  The next 3 days were spent with family..BBQ'ing, swimming, enjoying a boat ride on the Chicago River, and listening to an actual thunderstorm!! whoo-hoo!!  After the reunion was over on Sunday we drove to Chad's aunt and uncle's house ( on his mom's side) and stayed there until Wednesday.  It was during this brief stay that my darling Finn decided he needed to turn 2 years old.....boooo!  I really wasn't ready for this...he was just born wasn't he?    We took him to the Field Museum in Chicago ( natural history) and he was thrilled with all the dinosaurs...so fun.  We followed up with a trip the next day to the Lincoln Park Zoo ( which btw was FREE!)..and time with cousins....:-)

The next 8 days were spent enjoying time back up in Wisconsin with Grandpa and all of our other lovely relatives....my dad has 11 brothers and sisters..most of which live in and around Oconomowoc...so there was no shortage of people to visit and cousins to play with.  Olivia and Finn were thrilled with catching fireflies, playing at the city beach ( on Lake LaBelle), visiting Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa ( my dad's parents), and listening to MORE thunderstorms..:-)

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the new Brewers stadium in Milwaukee...it was the kids' first professional baseball game and they very well behaved...well...that is...until Olivia drank 10 ounces of lemonade....yeah....then barfed all of the place....prompting sympathy vomit from Finn....yeah, and then....well....we got them cleaned up and found better seats.  hahahahah!  It was definitely an experience I don't EVER intend on repeating...*sigh*.

All-in-all a great trip ...we can't wait to return next year and make more midwestern memories....the kids are still talking about Grandpa and Olivia's new favorite expression is " Well, Grandpa would probably let me do that..."   Nice.

xoxoxo