Woo!

The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl! Hubby is so happy about this, and that makes me happy! He even went so far to say "We won the Super Bowl!" Now, Hubby and I HATE it when people say "we" when referring to their favorite sports team; but he was so excited he had to say it. He's been a Packers fan his whole life, through thick and thin, never wavering in his support for his favorite team. He loves sports, but the only specific team he supports is the Packers. Woo! for the Packers!

Second "woo!": potty training for Princess has started today. Undies only until bedtime. So far it has been a success (although it is only 9:15). It helps to have M&Ms as a prize, but she seems to have to go potty all the time. More updates to come as we get further into potty training and start making our way out into the real world, diaperless.

Too Long!

It has certainly been TOO LONG since my last post!

The last two weeks haven't been too hectic, but my laptop is broken! Last Sunday it decided to stop charging. I told Hubby that it was probably the charger, but he thought there must be some connection to the battery that is messed up. So, this is where we are now:

(A few things you should know about Hubby. He desperately wants to fix everything, even if he doesn't have a clue what is wrong or HOW to fix it. He is a programmer, so he works with computers everyday...he has never taken one apart. When it comes to his "handyman dreams" he does not listen to me.)

Aside from the sadness of the broken laptop, last Sunday was a day for celebration because the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears and are headed for Super Bowl XLV! Hubby has been a Packers fan his whole life, so I am doing my best to join him as a Packers fan. We are also working on instilling Packers loyalty into Princess and Little Man. We are gearing up to watch the big game here at home as a family. It should be a good time! Go Pack!

This past weekend we helped celebrate our nephew's first birthday! I remember the morning my SIL called and said she was in labor. It's like it was yesterday! I remember anxiously waiting to hear if they had a boy or girl and what name they chose to give him/her. I remember going up to the hospital and cuddling my first and only (so far!) nephew and being in complete awe over how much he looked like his father. I can't believe how fast this past year has gone. It is definitely bittersweet.

Then I freaked out because I only had 14 weeks left until my c-section. And now I only have 14 weeks until Little Man turns 1! I'm already working on his baseball theme party. Then just a few months later, Princess will be 3. WOW!

Yesterday, we were hit by a wonderful blizzard. It caused our city to basically shut down for the day. I'm so thankful to have such wonderful neighbors who helped clear our driveway. I went out with my shovel (ha!) prepared to spend the entire day digging us out, but got some much needed help from a snow blower!

Ok, so there is my update and I PROMISE to be better about posting. I also have tons of pictures to show you from the blizzard, the birthday party, and project 365...but they aren't uploaded to Hubby's computer yet. Look for pictures to come in the next couple of days.

Have a wonderful Thursday! :)

Nothing New

It's been about a week since I've posted anything, and the main reason is, there isn't anything new going on around here. Little Man's skills haven't progressed past cruising, although he is only 8 months old. Princess is as ornery as ever. The only change is that we had my mom's dog for a couple of days.
I've been taking at least 1 picture everyday and taking my weight loss goal one day at a time.
Sorry this post has been so short and boring, but like I said, nothing to report here! I will leave you with a few pictures from the last week!

It looks like we have a little birdie!

Cousinly love, hanging out at my sister's house

Why do you keep taking pictures of us, mom?

Princess eating cereal like a big girl! (And yes, my kitchen is grape purple!)

A little sibling love

And We're Off!

Looks like Little Man is ready to go! :)

Weekend Update

The last 1/3 of 2010, every weekend was spent traveling. When you live at least 45 minutes from everyone in your family, it's hard to stay put when the weekend finally arrives. So far, 2011 has been travel free! Now, I know it won't stay that way for long, in fact, the kids and I WERE going to travel to Goshen today (the winter weather advisory got the best of me) , but so far it has been nice to stay home. That said, we have been able to spend our weekends just enjoying our family time.
Friday was a pretty regular day. Hubby went to work, and I stayed home with the kiddos. To celebrate the return of snow, I enjoyed a nice, big cup of cocoa, and we spent the evening just relaxing.




Saturday, Little Man and I went to the grocery store. That evening my MIL came over to babysit, and Hubby and I went out to dinner with my sister and her boyfriend. We drove to Warsaw for some yummy Hacienda! I had a Blue Raspberry and Strawberry margarita...it was AMAZING! I absolutely LOVE Hacienda margaritas!!! When we got home, we enjoyed a little "Just Dance 2" and then hit the hay.
Sunday, we took the kids outside to play in the snow. Little Man played in the snow for the first time (he cried).


We went to Build-a-Bear and got Clarice for Princess, to go with her Rudolph. (I must say, I'm already sick of "My name's Clarice, hi" "I think you're cute"...ugh)


Then we had some yummy Italian sausage for dinner (my new recipe for the week).


All in all, it was an eventful, yet stress-free weekend!
Yesterday, both kids nap for 2! hours, and I was able to clean, workout, and take a short nap! Lately, Princess has been addicted to dresses and panty hose, and LOVES having her picture taking, so I took advantage, and we had an all day long photo shoot!





I hope you all had a wonderful, stress-free weekend! :)

Letter to Target

I've decided not to post my letter to Target...however, here is the shorthand version of what happened.

Bought my parents a tv.
It didn't work.
Took it back to exchange it.
Ran into so many problems!
Was told it was discontinued, then that it wasn't discontinued, but that we probably would never get it.
Called repeatedly, still hasn't come in and can't get our money back.
Wrote a letter, awaiting reply.
Will never shop at Target again.

Back to Work

There hasn't been a whole lot going on around here these last few days. Hubby went back to work, so it's just me and the kids, back to our old routine. So far I have kept up with taking one picture everyday, although it is only January 6!

1/3/2011 Family Photo Shoot!

1/4/2011 Princess and I made a lego city!

1/5/2011 Sookie and I, she could not stop shaking!

Yesterday was my parents 31st wedding anniversary. On January 16 they leave for Las Vegas, courtesy of me and my sisters! We are awesome children, if I do say so myself. We will be watching their Olde English Sheepdog also. That should be an interesting, but fun, time! I'm sure I will get quite a few great pictures to share from that week!
Tonight I'm going to try to run all my errands...get new work shoes for Hubby, new foofs for Little Man, head over to Once Upon A Child and then to Hobby Lobby. It should be a good time, and I certainly love to shop!
Stay tuned for my "letter to Target".
Happy Thursday!

2011

Happy New Year!

Well, we didn't make it to midnight to ring in the new year. We watched Eat, Pray, Love on New Year's Eve and ended up falling asleep at about 11:40pm. We woke up to our neighbors setting off fireworks, getting Sookie (our Boston Terrier) all worked up, at about 12:03am. We said our "Happy New Year"s to each other and then promptly fell back to sleep.
Yesterday we had two of my sisters and my sister's boyfriend over during the afternoon for some snacks. It was supposed to be a party, but it fizzled out quickly due to sickness and such. We broached the subject of our goals for 2011. I have quite a few and hope you all can help to keep my accountable so I can achieve my goals.
My Goals for 2011:
1) lose 20 lbs
2) finish the Indy mini marathon in less than 4 hours
3) take 1 picture everyday
4) make 1 new recipe each week
5) enroll Princess in a class
6) make a new friend
7) have a party
8) maintain this blog

So far I'm doing alright...I've taken a picture both days of this year and tomorrow I am making pot roast for the first time in my life.
Today my cousin and his family stopped by for a couple of hours and the kids were able to play together. It forced us to vacuum, dust, and organize the house a bit and I am so grateful for that! We had a great time and now the house is clean...double bonus!

Just playin'!

Hey buddy :)

Oh yeah, we got a new tv also!

I hope you all had an awesome time ringing in the new year!
What are your goals for 2011?

Happy New Year's Eve!

Starting tomorrow I will be taking 1 picture everyday, for the whole year! This is NOT an original idea, but I love it so much, I couldn't help but steal it! With 2 small children and hopes of starting another one in 2011, it seems to be the perfect year to try this project. Hopefully I can keep up with it and let you all enjoy our year in pictures!
Tonight we are doing nothing. Hubby and I aren't big on going out, and I think it's been about 3 years since we watched the ball drop! We are old. Maybe tonight we will stay up until midnight...maybe.
Do you have big plans for New Year's Eve?

Christmas

I love Christmas! I love the months leading up to it, as radio stations begin to play Christmas music, Starbucks busts out the Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Peppermint Mochas, stores fill the aisles with decorations and discounted toys, decorating the house and setting up my Willow Tree Nativity, and of course, spending many hours with family.
Growing up with 4 siblings, every Christmas was wild. We would spend Christmas Eve with my mom's family and stay up super late. I remember the excitement walking into my grandparents' house and seeing the piles of presents extending well past the width of the tree. We would call Santa on is 800 number and karaoke to classics such as 2Legit2Quit.

Just waiting :) (Me, Tom, Nina, Ian, Ash)

Christmas morning started early (sometimes as early as 4am) , begging my parents to get out of bed so we could open our gifts from Santa. I remember asking my parents repeatedly if we could open our stockings while we waited for them to wake up. Santa was always practical, of course, filling our stockings with muffins and juice, to give us energy to make it through the day on 4 hours of sleep. Then we would head to my other grandparents' house for a relaxing afternoon with my dad's side of the family.

I can't remember when it started, but every year until I got married in 2007, I would sleep in my little sister's bed on Christmas Eve. I was so excited (even at 18 & older) for Christmas morning to come, that I couldn't fall asleep; so I would snuggle in my sister's twin bed and toss and turn all night, wishing the night would go faster. This year, I had those same butterflies. I was so full of excitement for Christmas morning; not because of the presents Santa brought ME, but because Princess is 2 and a half. She understood that Santa was going to leave her presents. He brought her a Barbie Beetle and I couldn't wait to see her reaction.

Proudly showing off her car

This year we spent Christmas Eve in Goshen with my family, starting with brunch at my Mom and Dad's. (We got them a TV for Christmas (which I will DEFINITELY blog about later)). I took my awesome cinnamon rolls and the kids had a blast playing with their cousin and all their new toys!

Little Man with his football (from Poppy)

Then we headed to my Grandma's for her Christmas Eve party, and we got to hang out with all of my cousins and their kids.

It's hard to get a good pic when little kids are involved!

On Christmas Day, the kids opened their presents and then we head to Decatur to spend some time with Hubby's family. We started with breakfast at his aunt and uncle's house, then lunch at his great grandma's house, followed by dinner at his parents' house. It was definitely a fun (and food) filled, action packed, busy day!
Over the course of these 2 days, the kids received an overload of toys and clothes (all of which they absolutely LOVE!!). Thank you to everyone! We won't have to buy another toy until next Christmas! I wasn't sure where to place these next few pictures in this blog, but I wanted to share them; so enjoy this hodgepodge of memories from Christmas 2010!*

The wrestling starts early! Little Man and his 2nd cousin (they have a 6 day age difference)

Princess is becoming a pro at unwrapping presents!

Break time!

Over tired delirium

Cousins!

Little Man's favorite part of Christmas...wrapping paper!

**I know this post was a bit all over the place. There is so much to say and not enough brain space to put it all together in one blog post!

Woah!

It's been a whole week since I've posted because we have been so busy! This was our schedule: Tuesday, drive to Nashville; Wednesday, hang out in Nashville plus Garth Brooks concert; Thursday, drive home, drive to Decatur to pick up the kids, drive back home; Friday, drive to Goshen for Christmas Eve, drive home; Saturday, drive to Decatur for Christmas day, drive home; Sunday, drive back to Decatur for sibling dinner; Monday, drive home from Decatur after super fun filled night! Crazy!! So, to fill you all in and give you great details, I will probably do a series of post from this last week, starting with Nashville.

Nashville is an amazing city. There are literally people playing music on every corner. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. They have their guitar cases out collecting money. There are also bars and touristy shops everywhere you look; and each bar has an awesome band playing in it.

Broadway at Night

On Wednesday we went to the world famous Wildhorse Saloon. Apparently on June 1, 1994, the history of the World Famous Wildhorse Saloon began with country superstar Reba McEntire hearding a stampede of live cattle through the streets of Music City, also known as Nashville, Tennessee. The cattle were herded down Second Avenue and past the front doors of the newly opened club.*

(fake) wild horses hanging from the ceiling

They had great food (I had a Grilled Apple BLT for lunch) and all day line dancing. We went back that night before the Garth concert and watched Phil Vaught and enjoyed the night life of the saloon.

Phil Vaught at the Wildhorse Wednesday night

Then we headed to the Garth Brooks concert. He came out of retirement to do this Nashville Flood Relief benefit concert. He performed 9 shows in 6 nights and every single show was sold out. We had horrible seats, literally the highest seats in the building, but it was still AMAZING! I took about 100 pictures and lost my voice screaming and singing.

the crowd (15000+ people)

Garth Brooks
Garth and guest performer, Trisha Yearwood!

The aftermath (on the way home) hehe

We had a fabulous time and would love to go back to Nashville soon. We are also looking into going to see Garth in Vegas because it was such an amazing night! I know I left out so many details, but this past week was full of so much excitement, a blog post just can't do it justice. More to come soon covering our Christmases!

*Check out the Wildhorse Saloon website! Amazing place! http://wildhorsesaloon.com/about-us/about-us

Merry Christmas week!

Yesterday we had a packed house and I loved it! Two of my sisters, their SOs, niece, and parents were here for lunch and just to hang out. It was a lot of fun! The two little Princesses LOVED playing together and Little Man really enjoyed watching it. He is so eager to walk just to keep up with his sister! I was able to snap an awesome picture of my sister's family!

Their little lady has definitely grown so much in the last few weeks since I've seen her! Princess loves playing with her cousin and they are at about the same level in everything! It's a lot of fun to watch them interact.
I can't wait for all of our Christmas festivities, so I can snap lots of pictures of the kids playing with their cousins!
Tomorrow we leave for Nashville and I'm so excited! I can't wait to check out the Grand Ole Opry and just mosey about in Nashville. It will be a great getaway for Hubby and I and the first time we are more than 15 minutes away from our kids overnight; and of course, they are both sick with coughs and colds. I am taking them to the doctor today, just to make sure they are all good before I leave.
I can't wait to tell you all about our trip to Nashville and our wonderful Christmas parties! Hope you all have a fabulous pre-Christmas week!

Tired Feet

Woo! What a long day! I spent the whole day in the kitchen (9-5:30). We finished everything on our list and the house smells amazing, but boy am I tired! I am relaxing on the couch now with a big, fat Ricker's Dr. Pepper and a bowl of "extra butter" popcorn.
I have many pictures to post of the goodies we made today!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Nut Rocha

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Chocolaty Caramel Thumbprints

Scotcharoos

Buckeyes

We are definitely in the holiday spirit around here!

What do you do to get into the holiday spirit?

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

Can you believe it?!!?! One more week until Christmas. December went by in the blink of an eye, but we are ready for the holidays. We had to get everything done early since we will be gone for 3 days right before Christmas. We are leaving Tuesday for the Garth Brooks concert and I am so excited. Once in a lifetime!
Yesterday I headed back to the mall to exchange some jeans I picked up for Princess. They were massive. I can't believe how much of a difference there is between size 4 and 4 years! The mall was crazy! I am so glad we have our Christmas shopping done because I don't think I could have stayed there one more minute.
Today, my little sister and I are baking Christmas treats. We are making: sugar cookie cutouts, peanut butter blossoms, buckeyes, nut rocha (toffee), chocolaty caramel thumbprints, scotcharoos, and puppy chow. We have a full day of baking ahead of us and I can't wait. I love to bake! I hope everything turns out exactly how I plan (will post pictures later).
That's about all that is going on here! I can't wait for Christmas and all the festivities that go with it. And I can't wait to spend the 3 days leading up to Christmas, in Nashville with Garth Brooks...breathing his same air!
Happy Saturday everyone!

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow is Friday! I can't wait! I'm so ready for the week to be over. I wish the work week was 2 days and the weekend was 5. I have so many thoughts; they may be scattered all over the place, so hold on!

1: I have a thought for those who run the consumer world. Shopping carts should be large enough to seat two small children. I took both kids to Target yesterday (one is 2 years 4 months and the other is 7 months). Therefore, Princess is too young to be able to walk on her own. She just isn't trustworthy right now. And Little Man is too big to be carried around in his carseat, and frankly, even if he was, that would take up even more space. So, it's just me and the kids at Target, meaning I can't push two carts. I put Little Man in the seat and Princess in the basket. Princess was all over the place, standing up, shouting "have that, have that" about everything we passed. She was causing my cart to fly all over the place. If the cart was just a little bigger, with 2 side by side seats, it would have made my shopping trip much less stressful.

2: Happy Birthday to my big sister! She is 27 today. We are 17 months apart...so whenever her birthday comes around, it reminds me that very soon I will be exactly where she is; slowly creeping into my late 20's. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is so shocking. I remember having "middle finger night" with my siblings when all 5 of us still shared a room over 20 years ago. Wow, I'm old. :)

3: In less than one week I will be roadtripping it to Nashville to see Garth Brooks in concert! I am totally psyched! Hubby, my sister and her husband, and I will be leaving Tuesday night to see a super late Wednesday night concert. None of us have ever "vacationed" in Nashville, so it should be fun to check out the sights. I'm a little nervous about leaving my kids for 2 days, but they are in good hands, so it should be alright!

4: I got Princess this fabulous little gem at Crazy 8. It is definitely my new favorite kids store!

via

Well, I think I'm gonna say that is it for tonight. Have a fabulous Friday (tomorrow)!

FPOTD

My sister and her husband stopped by for a visit! They live in Chicago, but were in Ohio for the last couple of days due to a loss in the family. On their way home, they stopped in Fort Wayne and we enjoyed a nice pizza dinner. They hung out at our house today and watched Little Man crawl and Princess chat away. I love seeing my siblings! There aren't too many things that can top it!

On another note, Little Man decided that he is "so big" today! He raises his fists in the air and squeals. It is quite amusing and I hope to get a picture and video of it tomorrow. My kids certainly keep me laughing!

Hubby and I got into a heated debate about the best way for me to go about losing weight. I've been running for about 6 months and haven't lost 1 single pound. It gets kind of frustrating, and I'd really rather not take all this extra weight into a third pregnancy. The next thing on my list I have been dreading...calorie counting. Ick! But it needs to be done.
So my goal is to lose 20 pounds by May. I am training for the Indy Mini, so that should help. I could really use the prayers and encouragement over the next few months.
If you have any weight loss secrets or tips, do tell! Please!

FPOTD

My favorite part of today would most definitely have to be that Princess NAPPED! She slept for 1 hour and 15 minutes in her own room. (And it only took 5 minutes of crying!) Little Man added to the awesomeness by sleeping for 3.5 hours! Amazing!

However, I had 3 very specials moments today that were in great contention for the "FPOTD" honor.

1- I got to take a bath. By myself. It was fabulous. No kids bothering me and I was able to make it as hot as I wanted. It's been a long time since I've been able to enjoy that luxury and it was so worth the wait.

2- I made my first recipe from my new CrockPot cookbook. It contains hundreds of recipes that are favorites of long time CrockPot users. I had been looking for a book like this for a long time and finally found it at Target. For less that $12!! I love it!

(Don't you just LOVE my red CrockPot? Again, Target $29, LOVE IT!)

3) Princess and I played in the snow today and made this teeny tiny snowman!It was a fabulous day!