Happy St. Patty's Day!

Here are our two little leprechauns!

Callie's hair shows how we're doing and what this upcoming week will be like- a little disheveled and a lot crazy.

Shout out to Nana on her fun Irish holiday!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday!

Our house is a snot factory.  Both girls.  So much snot.  Fun times.

We got a lovely night of sleep on Friday night.  I woke up a few times, but was able to go right back to sleep. G-ma and G-pa got woken up a bunch of times, but seemed to make it through just fine.  We got these pictures on Saturday morning.

Silly girls

Other than that we had some play time at home and went to visit Great-Grandma Gi-Gi.

This baby SERIOUSLY loves to eat.

Hanging out at Gi-Gi's with Auntie Yoda and Auntie Mari

Today was pretty mellow.  There was some early morning Maya shenanigans, some more playing at G-ma and G-pa's house, some Maya reading shenanigans, and a trip to the grocery store.

I like to scream at 6am sometimes so I can come in Mommy and Daddy's bed
and goof around.  And then sleep in their bed for awhile.  Mommy is a sucker
for it. 

Tea Party and play time!

Reading, then eating a book

"Hold on, Mom, I need to grab a magazine."
Um...this girl is seriously 4-going-on-14.
At least it was a cupcake magazine and not the celebrity gossip I
am drawn to.

 I have 4 more days until spring break.  Can't wait!  I'm so excited to have a chunk of time off with my girls.

Favorite-Things-Phone-Dump Friday

This week has been crazy.

Our house can attest to that.  I can't wait to have some time to clean this weekend.

Let's see...the girls.

Callie has been pretty great this week.  From what I can remember...she has been pretty pleasant.  Ok, maybe we had some more pooping issues, but nothing too major.  The best thing for me about this week was when I picked her up from preschool.  On both days she asked to stay and play for a little bit.  That was music to my ears, because she has been so hit or miss with wanting to be at preschool this year.

Favorite Thing #1: Wanting to keep playing at preschool!

Maya.  Maya Maya Maya.  I heard there is an 8-month sleep regression.  I think we might be there early.  Which is kind of ironic because she has never really gotten great at sleeping to begin with.  But it has definitely gotten worse again.  And then last night she started getting a really bad cold, which made things much worse. 

But besides that, she is starting to really love eating.  She sucks down her oatmeal in the morning, and pretty much likes all the different kinds of baby food.  Beyond that, she likes eating little bits of regular food: string cheese, different kinds of fruits, puffs, and most recently- broccoli!  She gets SUPER excited when we feed her "real people" food.  She gets all bouncy and happy and adorable.  I love it.

Favorite Thing #2: A child who eats vegetables

On to the rest of them...

Favorite Thing #3: Playing at Boom's house

Favorite Thing #4: Playing at Pa's house

Favorite Thing #5: Dinner at the condo

Favorite Thing #6: Playing at home

Favorite Thing #7: Beautiful day at G-ma's house

Favorite Thing #8: The baby is putting forth effort to do something!
She is reaching for toys...and getting a little mad.

I had a day off with the girls today, and it was SO great.  I haven't had a day with just them to myself for a long time.  Besides the fact that Maya totally didn't want to nap (and we had to take a really long car ride to get her to fall asleep, but then she babbled loudly for an hour and fell asleep the last 20 minutes until we had to go in for Callie's hair cut) it was a great day.

Favorite Thing #9- A day with my girls

And you guys- TONIGHT- both girls are having a sleep over at G-ma and G-pa's house.  BOTH of them!  We originally planned it for Callie to sleep over and for us to just pick Maya up later (because we went out for an adults-only dinner for Jenna's b-day...hooray!). 

Favorite Thing #10- I straightened my hair!  I put on make-up!
I wore a necklace! 

But then G-pa offered to have Maya stay too.  It wasn't too difficult of a decision to say "yes, we will take a full night's sleep, thank you!" 

It looks like they were doing just fine without us.

Favorite Thing #11- happy girls and happy grandparents

So I will try to actually sleep instead of worrying about what is happening over there (i.e. my baby waking them up umpteen times).  Did I mention that I had a hard time sleeping in L.A.?  I finally got the hang of sleeping consecutive hours by the third night, but the first two I was waking up constantly anyway.  Seriously ridiculous.

Anyway, thanks G-ma and G-pa!  Good luck! :)

TBT

I missed doing my usual throwback post last week!  This week is exciting because it features my 100th throwback picture.  And I made it a special one.  :)

But first, a few others...

Throwback #97- Proof that our current little baby is a diva.
At 7.5 months old our first one held the bottle on her own.
This one WILL NOT DO IT.

Throwback #98- Everything goes in the mouth!

Throwback #99- The home-made sleep sack, sewn (with help by G-ma) by
yours truly.

THROWBACK #100!!!!!
A look back at Kona's b-day parties since we had kids.



Happy Birthday Kona Hope!

Our silly doggy is 8 years old today!

She tolerates loves her sisters and her sisters love her!

She "picked" the spot where she wanted to sit, and as you can see, she really loves sunshine.

Happy birthday Kona Hope!

Family Pictures

At the end of December, lots and lots of people from G-pa's side of the family all gathered to do family pictures.

We're talking about LOTS of people.  I think I counted about 36 people, and there were still a few that were missing.  And of the 36 people, 9 were kids.  It was a riot.

Here are some of the pictures that we got:


The whole family (almost)

The great-grand kids

All the cousins and in-laws with Nana and Papa

Our family in green!

With Nana and Papa

For the number of people and number of kids, they turned out great!!! 

WEEK Wrap-Up: The California Edition

Hello!  I'm back in the good ole MN.  This has been a crazy week so let me catch you up on it.

Monday: Crazy Day
Maya at Boom's house...
Callie at Preschool...
Kati and Chris both stressed at work...
All we could do was have a family cuddle once we
were all back home.

I'm not sure what happened on Tuesday, but I have no pictures.  The girls were home with Chris all day and I have absolutely no idea what we did that night.  Like NO idea.  If I had to guess, I'd say we played, ate dinner, and went to bed.  Exciting stuff.

Wednesday:
Wacky day at preschool for Callie.  She was wacky.
Maya hung out with Pa.

Then we had a snuggle sesh.  It was great.

Then Callie stole my phone and took 39 selfies.  Nine are pictured above. 
As you can see, her nose is still a major boogie factory.

 

On Wednesday night Mari and Josh came over so Chris and I could go on a real date.
We went to Chino Latino (DELICIOUS) and enjoyed a great meal together.
And the fortune was pretty hilarious seeing as I was heading to the airport the next day.



Thursday morning: Travel day
The girls both seemed to know what was going on.
Maya wouldn't let me put her down all morning, and Callie packed her bags to come with.

But they had a fun day with G-ma at the nature center.

I headed out to L.A. on a 4:15pm flight on Thursday with 10 other members of our leadership team. We stayed at the super posh L.A. Live Marriot and were treated very well.  My room had a great view of the Staples Center where the Lakers and Clippers play.

Top row: View during the day/night
Bottom row: Walking around the hotel

We had 2 full days going to conference sessions that were (mostly) good, and were able to enjoy a little sunshine inbetween sessions.  And since we were still on MN time, we were out at the pool enjoying the sun at 7:30am before the conference even started.  The sunshine was AMAZING.

The top and 2nd row side pics were sunshine by the pool at 7:30am.
The middle picture is me during lunch one day getting sunshine from the hotel room
since I forgot to bring sunscreen.  Direct 12:00 CA sun would not have been good for
my fair MN skin.
The bottom picture is 9 out of the 11 fabulous coworkers I traveled with.

On Friday night we took a cab to Santa Monica.  We ate at a really fun sports bar a few blocks from the pier, and then walked around the pier, walked on the beach, and went on the ferris wheel.  The sun goes down pretty early there, so we did all of that in the dark.

Walking on the beach, Santa Monica Pier, and on the ferris wheel.

But by mid-day Saturday I was REALLY REALLY REALLY missing home.  I kept getting pictures throughout the couple days, which helped...

Hanging out with Boom, G-ma and G-pa, Charlie and Mabel, and at home.

...but I couldn't wait to get back on the plane early this morning and head home.  I got the window seat, and took pictures periodically as we were flying. 

Traveling from West to Midwest: Ocean, Mountains, Farms, Snow.

When we landed I texted Chris that I would be home soon, but much to my surprise and delight, he and the girls were waiting for me at the airport. 

SO happy to snuggle these two!  And Callie was a big helper with my luggage.

So it was a good trip, but I'm so happy to be home.  Chris was a rock star, and a big thanks to family and friends for being a support to them when I was gone. 

There's no place like home!