Long lost blog

I have been out of touch lately. The kids and school have taken over my life. :)

Just had to write about something because I am not ready to announce it to the world yet (ie Facebook). Luckily, this blog isn't followed by too many people. :)

We are moving again. Chicago here we come. Sort of excited. Sort of overwhelmed. A little sad...

You're little for a little while...

I am listening to this song this morning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Npu_ly3ZM It makes me think of Tyler and how amazed he is with life right now. Every thing we see and do is so exciting and new to him. It is so much fun to be a parent to that. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear "Look Mommy!" as he points out a new discovery or one of his favorite things. And two steps behind him is always his baby sister. Today I have this feeling that their babyhood and "littleness" is fleeting. I sort of want to stop time today- savor this moment.

Summer has arrived!

It is hotter than blazes here in MN. Who new that this frozen tundra could get so hot so fast. I think it is really July. The kids and I are anxiously waiting for the neighborhood pool to open. We got the sprinker out yesterday. Tyler loved it. Allie did not care for it one bit. She went in once and said "Cold, brrr." Ha! She did like the fudge popsicles we had though. Here are a few pics.

Happy Birthday to me!

I was a little bit dreading this birthday. I don't know why- everyone says turning 30 is great. I just wasn't feeling the love. However, Chris and my parents turned it into one of the best birthdays ever! I wish I could post pics but we forgot our camera. I know my father in law took some so I have to wait until he gets here this weekend and beg some off of him.

We drove down to Kansas on Thursday. The kiddos were really great the whole ride. We had to stop at few of Chris' dealers in Iowa. I bribed them with McDonald's ice cream and movies. When we got to my inlaws, we had a nice dinner out and cake at their place. YUM! If you know me, you know cake is very important to me. We made it down to Wichita the next day and I spent a full afternoon of shopping with just my mom. We don't get to spend much one on one time together. We visited a few places that aren't great to take kids (Lucindas and Aspen Boutique).

On Saturday I was told to be ready at 10 and that was it! I tried my best to get my days schedule but no one was budging. I spent the morning at Healing Waters getting a nice massage. Heaven! I then got a manicure and pedicure. At this point, I think it was the longest I had been away from Allie in a year. My brother picked me up and we went to lunch at Mike's Wine Dive. So yummy! I had their steak salad and really it couldn't have been yummier. I spent the rest of the afternoon with my bro just hanging out.

Chris picked me up for what I thought was dinner. We headed to Bonefish Grill for drinks. I had their pomegrante martini and it was delish! I need to learn to make those myself. To my surprise, our good friends Scott and Erin met us there. It was so nice of them to come down for my birthday! After drinks, we headed to my parents where a surprise party was waiting for me! Thanks everyone for coming. I had the BEST time. We don't always get to see everyone when we are in town so this was a great way to do it.

I am looking forward to my 30's. Who knows what it will bring or what new states we will end up in?

All moved in...

We started moving in on Friday and all of our stuff is now in the new house. Chris and my dad painted our bedroom (it was a hideous tangerine orange complimented by a lime green bathroom) on Saturday. It looks great but the room is still messy. I will post pics when it is all put together. Next we are painting Allie's room and the downstairs. We have to paint pretty much the whole house. It is going to be so worth it though! With all the excitement, I am feeling a little let down this morning. I guess it is the finality of it all? I was hit with a burst of homesickness although I am not really sure where to call home anymore. I am really missing Spokane. Can you tell I am not good with change? Chris left for a work trip to California this morning so I am left to sort myself out while he is gone. Oh yeah- and sort through some of our stuff! I think it is garage sale time!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Allie giving her best Beak Em Hawks face. Fear the Jayhawks! Tyler doing his best Michael Jackson impression. Oh wait, I mean the Jayhawks are Number 1!

The time has come for March Madness! It is a big deal in our household especially this year. Who would have thought the K-State Wildcats would be a number 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. Not this Jayhawk. But they are and Chris is more than pumped. I, however, dress our children on a daily basis. They are rooting for both teams today but happened to be wearing crimson and blue. Enjoy your beer and basketball everyone!

Tyler goes to work

I sent Tyler out on the deck today. He was driving me a little crazy and he needed to burn off some energy. Allie was sad she didn't get to go. Maybe next year little one.

Tyler in all his glory shoveling the deck.

Bodily Fluid

What no one ever tells you before you become a mom is that you will be subject to all kinds of bodily fluid on probably a daily basis. In the beginning you constantly worry about it. Have they pooped? Are they peeing enough? OMG- they just had a ginormous blow out! I have whined about this on Facebook on more than one occasion. I am taking a break from cleaning our bathrooms and I just realized how utterly destroyed they are. Tyler apparently cannot pee without dousing some part of the toliet with pee. I am a stickler for clean toliets. I hate a dirty toliet more than almost anything! Our bathrooms in this rental are already slightly skeevy without Tyler's added help. I have recently tried cheerios and such to help with aim. He is improving but I think he gets a perverse satisfaction out of using his weiner as a fire hose. (!) My best bet is to invest in lots of clorox wipes I guess. Please tell me girls are easier in this respect (aside from the blueberry poop bathtub incident a few weeks ago)!

New Happenings

We closed on our Spokane house last week. We are excited that we sold it but it was definitely sad to close that chapter of our lives. So what do you do when you have no mortgage? You go write an offer on another house. :) We found a short sale house last week that we really like. It is a five bedroom, 3.5 bath house. It is in a great neighborhood. The community pool and playground is only one block away. It would be a great place to enjoy this summer. We won't know if the back accepted our offer for another month or so. I am praying and keeping my fingers crossed that it works out.

Allie is becoming quite the little person these days. She is saying all kinds of words and running about. She is also very into dancing. She kind of looks like she is in Flash Dance. She dances to nearly anything. I better start researching dance classes now. It is amazing the difference from one kid to another. She is very nurturing already. She loves to carry around stuffed animals and hug them. Tyler was into everything at this age. Allie is curious but generally just opens the cabinets and looks in. Well, unless they have food in them. She is a black hole when it comes to that. She is still tiny though-less than the 5th percentile. I guess she needs a little extra.

This blog says it is also supposed to be about running. Well folks, I haven't done much of that. Not in the form of races anyway. I still plod along 3 or 4 days out of the week along with my gym classes. I bit the bullet and signed up for the Maple Grove 1/2 in May. I'll post more when I do more races.

Tyler turns 3!

Ready to go!

Playing the instruments at the Museum

Opening Presents! Allie wants to help.

I can't believe Tyler's 3rd birthday came and went. Three is an interesting age! I love the language they have and their ability to understand things more in depth. Tyler is hilarious to listen to on the phone. But along with all that comes sassiness! Oh my! It is totally killing me. He gets something in his head and just annoys me until we do it.

We went to the Minnesota Children's Museum for Tyler's birthday. It was so great. It is in downtown St Paul. That is only about a 15 min drive from where we live. Their new exhibit is dinosaurs. There were tons of hand on activities. Both kids enjoyed looking for fossils and roaring with the big dinos. They also have an area that is set up like a little town. You can grocery shop, deliver mail, cook at a restuarant and make your own music video. I think this is the best children's museum I have been to so far. If you are ever in the Twin Cities, definitely check it out. We are going to try out the Minnesota Science Museum this month. It will be cool to see real dinosaur bones.

Tyler rounded out his birthday with a Thomas the Train cake and present opening. He really wants to wear his new shorts from Grandpa and Grandma but it is definitely too cold for that. I am begging for a day over 30 degrees sometime soon. Tyler has worn his Jayhawk sweatsuit from Nana and Papa nearly every day since his birthday. That's my boy!