TECHNOLOGY

Does anyone else ever feel like this with their significant other???

ORCHESTRA HALL

Friday was fieldtrip day for Juliette.  Usually, I love to go, but we gave Gramma a turn!  The field trip was to Orchestra Hall.  I think they had an ok time ;-)

Selfie with Gramma

 Playing the drums...

 Playing the violin...

The live version:

Thanks for going Gramma!!

LOST TOOTH!

It happened so fast!!  Wednesday night Juliette said she had a loose tooth, and Thursday at school she lost it!  I barely had time to document!!  She was SO INTO IT...I think the promise of the Tooth Fairy coming really sped up the process! 

Wednesday night it was loose, so we took a video to send to Gramma and Papa!

Here is a still of her wiggling away in the mirror...

I had to go coach my softball clinic on Wednesday night, but when I got home I made a quick tooth fairy pillow in case she lost it the next day (I had plans to be out Thursday, so I wouldn't have time!).  Luckily, I was able to throw this together.  Not my finest, but a good prototype at 9pm...

 

Got this pic from her teacher on Thursday :-)

 

Finally, in case you are wondering, the going rate for a tooth in our house is $1 and a tube of toothpaste :-)

 Juliette has had a lots of "firsts" and I love them all, but not gonna lie, this one made me tear up a bit.  She's getting so big :-)

STYLIN'...

Just another Mamma/Juliette day in the books!  We started by dropping off Dylan and heading to Target.  Juliette was stylin' in her Ariel costume.  She pretty much rocked Target!   

After Target we went to see Sara for her 2nd ever haircut...they chatted it up and Juliette was really into all the mirrors!

  

With the bribe of a sucker, we also curled her hair.  She looked SO old!

After her hair appointment we headed over to see my Grandpa Erickson (my dad's dad), who is currently in hospice.  Juliette was SO AWESOME...he can't see or hear very well, and I explained that to her before we went.  She stood right next to him the whole time and he held her hand...it was really sweet.  She even tried speaking up so he could hear.  This girl truly has a compassion gift with the elderly...she was awesome when my grandma (mom's mom) died a little over a year ago and she was awesome today.  We are very lucky to have such a sweet little girl!

 

Finally, we finished the day making some homemade granola bars!  They were kid approved!

CHEAP ENTERTAINMENT

When Como Town is not open, we have to improvise for rides...

I'M PAPA!

Both of my kids have done this with both of my parents glasses....but my mom caught this on video and it always makes me giggle...

BUH-BYE STROLLER

DW 2014...some of us need nap time more than others

Someone was looking to buy the exact stroller we had.  I wasn't really thinking about selling it, but since they were looking- and willing to pay a really fair price- why not?  Except for DW there is not much need for a double stroller for us anymore...so I dropped it off Sunday and collected our winnings!  One more baby item gone...they are getting so big!

HOCKEY FANS

watching the boys

Saturday afternoon I took Juliette to go watch my bosses kid's hockey game.  He also has a daughter who is Juliette's age and those two played together the whole time.  They were pretty adorable and giggly :-)  After the game Juliette went up to Johnny (who is 8) and said good game and gave him a big hug- she LOVES older boys.  It's pretty cute.  For now.

ALL SCREEN TIME ISN'T BAD

There are so many articles on screen time this, blablabla that...it can make your head spin as a parent.  Obviously balance is key.  But you know what...sometimes you get a little picture like this of your two kiddos working together and you just don't care! 

KG OPEN HOUSE

Joey and I went to the kindy open house at St. O's last night.  I went myself last year when we weren't sure what we were going to do.  Apparently you can't keep kids in preschool forever, so Juliette will be going to Kindergarten next year!  She will stay at St. Odilia's, and get to wear a jumper!!!  Everyone is excited about uniforms!  Juliette is also very comfortable at the school and has a nice relationship with the kindergarten teachers...as you may have expected!  So here's to putting down the deposit on some nice first day of school pictures!!

BOWLING

Today I had Mamma Juliette Day, but I also worked in a quick work meeting.  Juliette and I went to Town Hall Lanes and got in some bowling and lunch.  She was really cute and we were there before they opened so she had the place to herself, it was pretty cute!

WORKIN' BOY

I do a lot of work a home.  Maybe too much...  Dylan wanted to sit down and do some work too.  When he was done, he shut the computer and said "I am all done with my work!"

The pencil in the ear thing is TOTALLY Joey :-)  I had to help him get it there...him trying was pretty cute, though!

RANKIN PLAYDATE

I was off with both kids on Monday, so we had a nice little playdate with the Rankins.  It's really nice because Juliette and Danielle are a month apart and Dylan and Brady are 6 months apart, so they pair up perfectly.  AND they can play well without us even having to watch them (much!).  Audrey is only 6 months, but is the easiest baby ever....you barely even know she is there!  Such a fun time :-)

SHOW TIME

Ok, originally this post was titled "Snow Time" but when I went to send the pics form my phone to computer, I hit delete instead of send :-(  We went over to my parents on Sunday night and got to play outside in the snow and on the pirate ship....it was fun...wish I had pictures!

Anyway, the only other picture I had from this day is the kids sitting on their chairs in the living room watching a show!  Juliette has had that Tinkerbell chair forever, and I found the Spiderman chair for Dylan for $5!  They were so cute sitting together!

snack time!

COUSINS

Finally had our makeup Christmas date with Elizabeth and kiddos (Noelle was helping Miles through his shot recovery, so we missed them!) Dylan LOVED having a big boy over here to play with and all the kids did well!  Wahoo!  It has been fun watching them grow!

Waiting for their cousins...2 hours before their arrival!

Obligatory stair pic...a little fuzzy, but cute!

SECOND CHILD

I feel like I have been heavy on the Juliette lately...but, honestly, she is so much easier to get to take a pic...

Case in point...(at least he is happy)

THE CALL

I got my first ever, "your child threw up at school" call. 

Honestly, she looked bad when I brought her in in the morning, but she said she was ok.  Good news is, she made it to the bathroom!  (I would've felt terrible if it was on the circle time rug or something!).  When I picked her up, she was still looking a bit green.  I wasn't sure if we were going to make it down the hallway!  But we did, and made it to the car.  But not all the way home :-(  That poor little kid puked in the car.  I did have a bag ready for her, and she got it all in there, but man does it suck to watch your kid puking from the rear view mirror...so sad.  The rest of the day she rested and napped.  No more puke, just a lot of sleep and movies!

obligatory pic with the puke bowl/bucket

MAMMA JULIETTE DAY

Wednesday is my day out the office (I work during naptime and at night to make up my office hours).  So on Wednesdays, I am home with Juliette, and we have dubbed the day "Mamma Juliette Day".  At the beginning of the school year I made a conscious decision to try to do something different and fun every week...not just sit around and do chores and watch movies!  So we've done lots of fun things...Children's Museum, Twins game, library, Macys 8th Floor Holiday display, movie theater, arts & Crafts, Mall of America...  We usually start with a morning at Caribou, where Juliette always seem to have the "best hot chocolate EVER!" :-)

So this week we took Caroline (her doll) out the the American Girl store for some lunch and shopping!  She said that Caroline really wanted a pet...a kitty.  Turns out that Caroline's pet, according to American Girl, IS a kitty, and his/her name is Inkspot.  I paid $22 for this.  That hurt.

Anyway, when you go to lunch, they have a little box with conversation starters...I took pictures below so I would remember the stories.  The first one was, "Who is the funniest person you know?"  She looked at me, and goes, "Moooooommmm, you know that one, it's GRAMMA!" :-)  The next one was, "Who is the smartest person you know?" and then she pointed to me.  Two for two.  The third one was to use one word to describe yourself.  She said she likes to play...and I explained that the question was asking about her personality and asked if she was kind or friendly (specifically not using "beautiful" or "pretty") and she looks at me and goes, "loveable"...three for three kid.  Man, I just loved that answer!!

 

We also had a few points left over from our last visit to Nick Universe, so owe could go one a few rides.  I BEGGED her to go on the (kiddie) rollercoaster.  She is my scared-of-big-rides child.  I also may have bribed her, but either way, we went on the ride together.  The left is a picture of her clutching my arm before the ride started.  The picture on the right is her standing and smiling and proud that she went on the rollercoaster.  In her words, it was "AWESOME!"

Love my Mamma Juliette Days with this girl!!

BOYS II MEN

While trying to make sure to introduce Juliette to the finer things in life, we were jamming out to some Motownphilly in the car...here is our conversation:

Juliette: "What is boys cement?"
Me: "Actually,  honey, it's Boys II Men, it's the name of the group."

MOVIE NIGHT

We let the kids watch a movie together in J's bed...they were SO good and SO cute...it's fun watching them actually play/hangout together more!

MR POTATO HEAD NIGHT

Joey was battling the stomach flu, so instead of our nightly bed cuddles, we played some "tato head" in the loft.   Dylan and I played for a while and then Juliette joined us.  Everyone played well...I am not sure why, but I am not complaining!

'Tato selfie

She named him Mr Nick (one of her teachers last year)

They played SO well together...it was awesome!

Working hard

ALL PARTIED OUT

The conversation after her friend Maddy's birthday party today...

Juliette: "Mom, do we have to take a nap when we get home?"

Me: "Do you want to?"

Juliette: "No."

Picture was taken approx 5 minutes later :-)  My favorite part is the sucker in her hand...

STYLE

Can you believe she dressed herself this morning?!?  The girl has her own style.  I was actually really excited because when she came up to me with all her clothes, she whispered, "mom, I am wearing a turtleneck!" (she knows I like turtlenecks...) 

The biggest benefit to her "style" is the non-matching socks...saves me time when folding laundry!

MY HAT

Bath time with Dylan tonight...he puts washcloth on top of his head, "look at my hat, mom"

That's the exciting stuff that goes on at this house...

DON'T TOUCH MY STUFF, GOT IT?

I am doing softball clinics on Wednesday nights, so Joey has the kids solo for the night.  He said Dylan was really into saying, "don't touch my stuff.  got it?"  So he tried to get some of it on video...this isn't as intense as he usually is, but still cute...

GYMNASTICS

Don't hold your breath for 2028...

Thanks to my friend from college (Lynn), Juliette has a free session of gymnastics!  We tried gymnastics at age 3-4, but she was not really into sitting still, or having 10 kids in a small space and a lot of waiting.

This class only has 4 kids, which is super nice and a lot more equipment in the "little kid gym".  The cool part was to see Juliette be vocal and confident and TRY things she couldn't do on the first try WITHOUT getting mad/frustrated.  SO SO SO great to see as she usually has a tougher time with this (hmm..wonder where that came from).

MONDAY MAMMA MARGARITA

I love grade school. 

I even use the present tense when talking about it because it was so awesome.  I probably peaked in 8th grade and LOVE LOVE LOVE all my grade school experiences...teachers, the actual learning, FRIENDS!  I just feel like that group of people was special.  The wonder of the internet and facebook allowed for some of those friendships to be rekindled- and it's like no time has passed.  Since September, a group of us having a standing date the first Monday of the month.  Sometimes everyone comes, sometimes people miss a month, but so far we've done it every month and had a great time talking husbands, kids, schools, and the need to make a full weekend out of this!

So, thank you, dearest old friends, for bringing me back to one of my favorite times in life.  So glad we have reconnected and looking forward to the years to come! <3 p="">
Wow, that got sappy! :-)

NO MORE LESSONS FOR MAMMA!

Dylan passed into Baby Backfloat 4 in swimming. 


Translation: I DON'T HAVE TO BE IN THE POOL ANYMORE!! 

I do love spending time with my children, but LOVE not having to get in the pool in the middle of the winter.  I also love watching him be a BIG boy...which is kind of his thing right now.

SLEDDING

Our morning play date got cancelled, and it was warm (30 degree), so we headed out to go sledding! This is the first time we have all gone as a family and it was really fun!  Dylan didn't last as long, but Juliette was up for some more runs after Dylan and dad went to warm up in the car!  These are the only pics on my phone...need to grab some cute ones from my camera!  Happy Winter!

Bundled up and ready to go!

in the car...best i could do!

Dylan and Dad trekking up the hill

cheese

the girls

she's really into being 5 1/2

last run with daddy

Such a cutie!

HALF BIRTHDAY

Yeah, we celebrate!  Who doesn't love a half birthday?!?  Juliette was VERY excited about turning five and a half.  She enjoyed getting bigger and wondering what she could do now that she was five and half.  Dylan enjoyed singing Happy Half Birthday to her!

p.s. is it weird that she actually feels older to me? :-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, two (ok, almost 3) years later, here I am...trying to commit to the blog for 2015!  If anything, I know my SIL Kristine will read it!  The kiddos are getting big, getting more active, and getting to be just all around awesome.  I am going to try to post a daily pic and a little caption as my way of documenting the year. Sooooo...you might feel a bit overloaded....ENJOY!