Birthday Mini-Celebration

Our families are coming into town next weekend to celebrate Ian's birthday, but we couldn't let the day arrive without a bit of celebrating.

Ian woke this morning to his 'wrapped' present at the foot of the stairs. He didn't rush down the stairs, but paused at the top, sat and looked at it. Then he got up and walked to the bottom of the stairs. At the bottom, he crouched down to see what the blankets were hiding (on a side note, he pretends to be The Grinch and/or Santa a lot, and uses all the blankets around to wrap up the gifts).


With a look towards us for reassurance, he torn the blankets off with, "My big boy bike!"


At church today, Ian went up for the children sermon as always. Pastor Sara asked him if it was a special day, and then proceeded to lead the whole congregation in singing "Happy Birthday" to Ian. He was standing up tall on the chairs in the front for all to see. I asked him how he felt, and he said, "So happy." After church, a birthday lunch of McDonald's (can't wait til he gets older and knows there are much better restaurants out there for your birthday), and a nap, he got to take his new bike outside. It was close to 60 degrees out today, so it was perfect bike weather. He had a bit of trouble in the driveway. He would freak out because the bike would go when he didn't want it to do to the incline. We swept all the sand out of the garage and he practiced in there instead. There were definitely not as many cries of fright while biking in there.


No big cake tonight, the one for Saturday is a big enough project in and of itself. We used a leftover cupcake and sang him "Happy Birthday."



The problem with a February 13th birthday- Valentine's Day is the next day. So he had to write his name on the 20 cards he needed. The he put the heart sticker on to seal it closed and put it in the box.

Happy 4th Birthday Ian!

My little man is four today. I can't believe he's that old already. I still catch myself thinking of him like this:


But he's not.

He's my little man who sets the table and throws fits about what's for supper.

He's my little man who loves to play catch and pillow fights.

He's my little man who reads books to himself after we give good night hugs and kisses.

He's my little man whose voice rises an octave when he talks to his sister, and rushes to her side to give hugs and kisses.

He's my little man who watches movies with a blanket in his lap, because one minute he could be laughing and the next scared and want to hide his eyes.

He's my little man who takes cupcakes to preschool for his birthday, and celebrates when there's some left to eat at home, too.


Happy Birthday Ian. I'm so very glad you're in our life. You bring us such joy. Can't wait to see all that you'll discover this year!

Life in Pictures

She's two-fistin' it! One of her favorite things to eat right now is toast. Actually, I think she'd eat anything we'd give her. She's a great eater.


She's also a master of the sippy cup, which makes me super excited for a few weeks from now when we switch to cow's milk. No more bottles and formula!!!


I took this picture as Darrin and I went to bed after 10 (thanks for the awesome flash Marlena and Noah!). Ian has been coming out of his room a lot at night. He goes to bed around 7:30, and so when he'd walk out around 8 or 8:30, one of our theories became that he may not be tired since he has been taking naps every day at school. To try and stop the leaving, we're trying a strategy in which he can stay up and read books in his room as long as he'd like. We smiled when we saw him in bed like this because he looks he just made it back into bed before he fell asleep. And no, he doesn't have pjs on. Some nights he asks to just keep his clothes on, and in the land of 'pick and choose your battles' this is one battle we choose to lose.


Saturday I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I made prepped beef stew to keep in the freezer (so that I can just pull it out and throw it in the crock pot some day), magic bars, and homemade hot pockets (again stored in the freezer for us to take for lunch). You can add to the list brownie I made on Sunday. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a kitchen that looks like this during a cooking session...


This is Annaliese 98% of the time- she is such a happy girl! She's doing what we call her 'scrunchy' face. LOVE IT! She absolutely loves bath time, especially since we've taken her out of her baby tub and put her in the big tub with Ian. They are so fun to watch together.


She's even not feeling 100% and she's still a happy girl!


Sunday was a big day in our household. The Packers won the Super Bowl (in case you didn't know...). So of course we were all decked out for the day.


Ian's my little detective. He was helping with the dishes and couldn't figure out why the drawer wasn't closing. He ran off and returned with his little Buzz Lightyear flashlight, got down on his hands and knees, and tried to figure out why. It was so darn cute! He kept moving to get a better angle and he'd talk to himself. I think he finally determined that there's a red lid in the way.

Pushing her baby

Annaliese and I were home again today for a snow day, though I think it was more of a cold day. I pulled out her stroller today. She hadn't played with it for awhile. She's been cruising around the furniture and walking while holding our hands, so I thought, "What the heck?" and stood her up behind the stroller, fully anticipating that she'd take two steps and then fall to the floor. She sure surprised me! (I shot the video on my phone, so the quality isn't the best, but it was the fastest way for me to share it with Darrin at work)

Already today...

It's a snow day today, and Annaliese and I have had quite the morning already (and it all occurred in the last hour).

She had a MAJOR blow-out. One that resulted in a bath. Usually she takes a bath with Ian; we put her baby tub in the big tub and then each of them has their own space but we can do baths at the same time. Instead of filling her baby tub like normal, I let her play in the big one. She had lots of fun, and I was very surprised she didn't crawl around everywhere to try to get the toys that were floating around. Instead she just sat and reached for them. She also tolerated me snapping lots of pictures.









And then there was after bath. She is getting into everything now. She's figured out how to open doors, and one of her favorites is on our entertainment center. Needless to say, I baby-proofed a bit this morning after she pulled almost everything out on herself.



It's just Annaliese and I home today for the snow day. Ian's preschool was still open, so he's there having a blast I'm sure.

That weeknd list...

I didn't get everything that was on my to-do list done for the weekend, but I don't feel guilty about it because
a) there's a snow day today so I can get some things done, and I hope to do some things that aren't on there.
b) I read this post on Life as Mom on Saturday. Seemed a lot like what I was doing with my weekend to-do list. I chalked up not getting everything done to have too big of eyes and that I need to save some stuff for later.
c) I spent it with my family making memories.

Ian and I curled up on the couch Saturday and watched Peter Pan. I have not seen it since I was a wee tot and I do not remember it being as dark, the women being as catty, or Peter being as mean as it was watching it now as an adult. Ian enjoyed it, though he sat with the blanket on his lap, ready to pull it up and cover his eyes whenever he felt scared.

Saturday night we went out to my favorite restaurant, Lazlo's, for supper. Thank goodness we don't live near there because the smell alone would make me want to go there every night to eat (they have a hickory grill and the smell, mmmm). Ian's kid's meal comes with a scoop of ice cream. When our waitress asked if he still had room, he pointed to his back and said, "There's still room right here."

Sunday we went to church and got groceries. I'd like to say we were stocking up for the snow, but we really didn't know it was coming at that time.

And I did do a few things that weren't on the list, but I thought were productive anyway. I made the invites for Ian's birthday party (how can my baby boy be turning FOUR in 13 days?!?!), and prepared/froze one of the meals for our freezer exchange.

Weekend To-Do List

Yep, yet again I need to post a To-Do list on here. So blogosphere, keep me on track!

Saturday (green must do, blue if I have time):

- Find recipes for freezer exchange next week.

• Chicken Rice Casserole
• Chicken Bacon Ranch Macaroni and Cheese
• Taco Cornbread Bake
  

- Go grocery shopping
- Do 4 loads of laundry
- Finish figuring out pictures for last year's album
- Finish cutting out the rest of the blocks for the blue quilt
- Clean the house (I detest this!) kitchen and bathroom left to go...

Sunday:

- Review IEPs for work
- Make our dessert for the week I made our favorite granola bars
- Figure out scrapbook layouts for Annaliese's album
- Upload pictures and place order from Shutterfly
- Piece blue quilt
- Write Thank Yous


It's just after 9:00 am on Saturday. I would hope I can cross off a lot of these in the next 12 hours!