NoDak tour

Henry was on Spring Break from preschool last week, so the kids and I decided to make a trip up to NoDak to visit.  

We headed over the Bismarck one day.  At our first stop, we spotted a huge jackrabbit right outside of my Grandma's nursing home, just hopping away along the rocks.  Henry was convinced that it was the Easter bunny!  Well, when we got to my aunt Jackie's house, and she had special Easter basket deliveries right from the Easter bunny himself, he couldn't have been more excited!  After playing outside with bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles all afternoon at my aunt Jackie's house, we visited the shop at my uncle John's trucking company, Roughrider Transportation in Mandan.  Henry had the time of his life - sitting in, riding in, and even driving a few of the vehicles.  The boy was grinning from ear to ear :) 

Uncle John even took him out on the road - the boy was pumped!

My Grandma was able to come over to my aunt Jo's house for dinner that night.  She HATED when I was trying to take a picture of her, but I snuck this one in and she looks great!

The weather was fantastic when we were there.  I got to get in a couple runs up to the dam.  Here's my sunset pic :)

While in Jamestown, we hit up all the hot spots!  I haven't been to the Alfred Dickey Public Library in years, and was VERY excited to see that the reading nook in the children's section, also known as the bathtub, lives on!  

Lydia took a huge tumble, face-first into the concrete, right after visiting the buffalo.  Poor thing, all scratched up, bloody nose and all.  

Henry got to go to the YMCA with my dad each morning, and said that was the highlight of the whole trip!  

It was one wild and crazy spring break, ha!

iPhone clean up

I know.....I've been TERRIBLE about taking pictures with my good camera lately!  So, here it is, a good 'ol iPhone clean up.....

We hit up the Children's Museum one morning a few weeks ago.  Now that Lydia is walking, it's much more enjoyable to visit the museum.  They can play together!  She copies everything he does :)

Henry is SO into hide-and-go-seek lately.  We play a little during the day and then he always tries to get one game in with Daddy before bed.  Lydia and I usually hide together.  Here she is.....hiding all by herself.  Henry doesn't have any tolerance for this sloppy hiding :)  We're working on it!

Phil and Henry went tubing for the first time at Elm Creek in Maple Grove.  He had a blast!  They hooked their tubes together for every turn down the hill, except for the last one - Henry wanted to go all by himself.  Check out those lanes!

We had a few warm days back in January - like almost 40 degrees, I believe.  I filled up his bike tires and we took a 1 mile trip around the lake.  Crazy!  He's just about grown out of this bike now.

A few weekends ago, we went to a bonfire on a sunny Sunday afternoon at one of Phil's relatives in Ramsey.  Check out that fire behind us, it was huge!

Phil dug out his old Atari from the basement one weekend, complete with about 30 different games.  He tracked down a cord from Radio Shack, I went and picked it up, and they were good to go!  Henry is so funny, playing "video games" now, ha!  If only he knew what a real "video game" nowadays looked like :)

I was lucky enough to take a long weekend trip to Marco Island, Florida with a couple of great girlfriends last month. We had absolutely beautiful weather, sunny and 75 degrees.  

We spent one of our days at the spa right there at our hotel.  It was fantastic!  Reading, sunshine, quiet, a few cocktails - what more could you want?!

Now back to the cold.....

We really haven't had much snow on the ground this winter.  Here Lydia had to settle for a sled ride on the lake, driven by her crazy brother that always makes her smile!  

Valentine's Day

We all LOVED Valentine's Day around here!  

Henry had a "friendship" party at school, and these were the Valentines we made for his classmates.  He signed each one of them on the back :)

He made heart-shaped suncatchers to send to all the ladies in his life :)  This was quite a project - he colored, sprayed, and then cut out all the hearts himself!  

A LEGO Valentine box for a LEGO lover, of course!  

And Lydia helped me with baking cookies one morning while Henry was at school.  Ok.....maybe she just dressed for the part and then ate the results when I was done :)

15 months

Lydia had her 15 month appointment today with Dr. Sakkal.  

Here are her stats.....

Weight: 20 pounds, 4 ounces (20th %ile)

Length: 29.5 inches (30th %ile)

Head Circumference: 18.25 inches (60th %ile)

Check out those shoes.  Multiple times a day, she'll go dig in her shoe bin and bring me a pair.  She LOVES her shoes!  Along with her shoes, she LOVES her baby dolls, too.  Look at her - pink shoes, cell phone and purse in hand, 3 baby dolls in the stroller.  Oh, she makes me smile :)

Christmas - part 2

My parents and sister joined us on Christmas Eve at our house.  We had an early dinner that night and then opened gifts.  Once again, the kids were spoiled!  Henry sure loved his Lego movie from Grandma & Grandpa and a Captain America costume from Auntie Sonja (which he now wears on a regular basis) and Lydia doesn't want to let her new baby doll that giggles all the time out of her sight :)  That night before bed, Henry picked out the cookies that he wanted to leave for Santa, along with a few pictures he made, one for the big man himself and one for his elves.  Phil and I got to go to church all by ourselves at 10pm.  It was crazy to actually get to listen to everything that was being said in church - ahhh, a nice break :)  

Phil and I saved our big gift for the kids until Christmas morning.  Henry has been wanting a car for the last 2 summers, since his buddies on the block all have them.  A fitted sheet worked perfectly as one of those car covers :)  

It was such a mild morning, he actually got to take it for a spin outside.  A couple of the neighbors could hear him coming down the road, so they all came outside to see!

Why use the door when you can jump out of the top, right?!  The car is now sitting in our basement until it warms up outside.  I've already had to implement the rule that you must use the door!

After celebrating with Santa on Christmas morning, we headed over to Oma & Opa's to enjoy Christmas Day.  Once again, the kids exchanged gifts with their cousins and aunt & uncle.  Henry sure loves his Highlights magazine he gets every month from the Gillespies and Lydia has been playing with her new set of blocks everyday from the Richters.  It started snowing mid-morning and didn't quit till we went home that night - we got our white Christmas after all :)

Christmas - part 1

We celebrated Christmas for a whole week - just how I like it!  I think the kids opened gifts 4 different days and loved every minute of it!  We had brunch at Oma & Opa's the weekend before Christmas.  Here, Opa helped Lydia open her new bottle for all her babies (the girl loves her baby dolls; she carries around up to 3 at a time already).

Thank goodness Oma showed her how to feed her babies :)  Now when she feeds all her babies at home, she makes the sucking noise for them and smiles!

Ya think Henry was pumped to open this new Lego set - look at that face!?  

A few nights later, we had our own family Christmas at our house.  I saw glimpses of myself that night in Henry - he couldn't clean up his toys fast enough, knowing that he was going to get to open presents!  Oh man, he was pumped up that night!  New jammies always have to be put on immediately, right?!  The boys LOVES jammies with a super hero cape - from the Darcys.  

These books were from Lydia.  She really knows the way to his heart - Lego books!

More Christmas celebrations to come.....

Brrrrrrr

It's soooooooo cold out there these past few days.  I think we were the only district in the metro that actually had school yesterday (and I was A-OK with that).  

Phil took some time off of work around Christmas, so we went on a few indoor outings with the kids.  One morning, we checked out the gymnastics club, Perpetual Motion, for open gym.  Look at Lydia, my little gymnast, so proud of herself for walking across her balance beam.....

.....and jumping on the trampoline :)

They had a bouncy house blown up there, as well, which I'm pretty sure was Henry's favorite!

One Sunday morning, we went bowling at the Brunswick Zone, another great indoor activity in the winter.  Henry was pumped - "I got 68 points!"

We made our first trip of the season out to the backyard to get on the lake for some skating a couple weekends ago (well, Henry and Dad skated while Lydia and I watched).  Henry started skating lessons this week, which will go through the month of January.

Lydia will NOT keep her mittens on, unless I tuck them into her coat so hard that she can't pull them off :)  Obviously, I didn't have them on too well here.

On this afternoon, Henry said he was the horse and Lydia was the cowboy.  He was pulling her all over the place, and she was lovin' it!