As Long As You Did Your Best Right?

My goodness. It's only Thursday.

Wait. That's wrong. It's Thursday!! Tomorrow is Friday!

Yeah I'm not buying it either.

But for a moment let's rejoice in the good things okay? First, it's just cold today instead of extremely cold. That's moving in the right direction. Secondly, I was, after 3 days of thwarted attempts, able to clean my living room and playroom.

Those are the toys he was currently playing with. That's it! Amazing. 

Clean enough to vacuum. I was pretty impressed with myself. And to add a little whipped cream to my awesome-sauce sundae I even started doing the dishes.

I just love unrelated pictures of smiles

I know. That is like some C+ domestic-ing right there. But it worked for me this week. Husband had a business dinner both Tuesday and Wednesday night and depending on how a meeting goes today he may have another one tonight.

Now don't get me wrong, in actuality the days have gone very well. The kids were very good and even nap time/bed time haven't been too bad. But long days and short nights have made for one tired mama. 

Blurry because he is dancing/singing "Happy if you're a room without a roof."
 I can always appreciate a toddler's take on lyrics.

Anyhoo that's about the entirety of scoop around here. We had a lunchtime feast of crackers, cheese, apple and yogurt. It has recently started to snow some more. But I'm inside so I don't really mind.* I'm feeling so good that I may even do a load of laundry and just maybe I'll take out the garbage. Wow. Did that give you chills? Yeah. Me too. 

Have a wonderful Thursday.

*Of course later when it is time to shovel I'll be humming a different tune possibly.

Sleigh Bells Ring! Are You Listening?

In the lane snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland. Aren't we lucky?! No really, I am about as not a fan of snow as anyone, really. But we made it to January without significant snowfall!! According to the weather service we got 6.7 inches. I'll buy that. When I shoveled last night we were at about 4.5 and there was a good 2 inches this morning yet.  

Our school district is quite large and has some rural areas so it's a snow day here! With all the wind chill warnings we have going on I'm going to go ahead and call it for no school tomorrow too due to the cold. 

Mini Miss over here is fully content to stay in footy pajamas all day and snuggle. It is really not all that different than most days but typically she wears an outfit during the day. While I did change her into this outfit this morning I picked one with feet because keeping socks on babies is a losing battle and it's too cold to not have something covering feet. 

Apparently our children communicated to each other that they should be snuggled because it was cold outside because for a chunk of last night all four of us were in our bed. And we are not a co-sleeping family. Needless to say, neither Husband or I feel particularly rested today. 

Other news around these parts is our winter clean out extravaganza. We've been sorting through boxes and figuring out keep/throw/donate piles to try and declutter. We've also been rearranging furniture and making plans. It's not the most fun work but it sure is exhilarating when it's done! Just feeling the weight of stuff lifting off your shoulders would be a drug if you could capture it. (Poor hoarders who don't know that feeling.) 

If you need us, we'll be here cleaning and keeping warm! 

Off to a Pretty Good Start Already

2015 has begun. After 9 nights and 10 days away from home we triumphantly returned to our humble abode yesterday. Husband is back to work today but it's Friday so that is a good ease into into real life I think.

We had a lovely Christmas where we were blessed by the generosity of family. Husband and I spent some time after bedtime sorting older toys to the basement to make room for the new toys. We of course are still in that stage of coming home where random things live on counters and things don't feel settled yet but we'll get there.

The New Year rang in with the cops knocking on the door because we were too loud, But not really because we played Scrabble and Cards Against Humanity and had some snacks. It was certainly fun but about as low key as it gets. We did all cheers with sparkling cider so you know, it was a real party.

I haven't yet figured out any specific resolutions but I have decided the word of the year is going to be "Self." It sounds very Oprah but I am hoping to make a better self this year. By stretching my boundaries in some ways, limiting myself in others. I have some ideas but I am kind of taking the year one step at a time in a non-AA kind of way.

I will post more soon but I have a baby to snuggle, a toddler to engage and I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of a week's worth of mail!

2014 Year in Review

Things have been quiet round these parts. I have spent this holiday season trying to just be present and available so that equaled not a lot of computer time, no blog posts and actually very few pictures taken. We are still in vacation mode here, things are a bit more relaxed and unorganized but it is time for Dwija's 12 pictures of 2014 link up and if you stop by often you know I love a link up. Plus this is a good one to look back at the year.

2014 was a pretty stellar year when it really gets down to it. I am a little bit blown away by how fast and not fast it seemed. I am also a lot a bit blown away that it's time to adjust to saying a new year. I swear it takes me longer to adjust as I get older. 

January was cold. So I bought some mittens proving just how effective commercials can be. Mostly I read a lot. Then I read some more. The month mostly involved a lot of normal life. We of course made normal life fun even in the bitter cold. 

Early February brought us the news that Baby 2 was on the way, though we didn't tell anyone. We did a few photo shoots, one that gave us this Toddler GQ picture, which may be one of my favorite pictures of all time. We watched the Olympics. I fell in love with a diaper bag. C fell in love with the walrus. After a long stretch of COLD it got above freezing for 2 days and that felt like summer. It's all about the perspective isn't it? 

March finally allowed us to not freeze!! The baby just only wanted Mac and Cheese, but still the world didn't know about her yet. We started our tomato plants from seeds. March pretty much just was. It was probably the all day sickness. 

April was kind of amazing. A new Pigeon book. We let the world in on our secret. Easter happened and it was so special. Husband turned 30 AND we were in Florida just the 2 (3) of us. We went to Magic Kingdom and it was a blast! 

With May came a whole lot of rain. I eulogized Barnes and Noble. C turned 2! We had an ultrasound. Just not a whole lot of blogging happened but it was okay because we did a lot of activities. Plus I love birthdays so it was fun to celebrate C!

When it finally warmed up in June we moved the tomato plants outside. We went strawberry picking and I hijacked Theme Thursday. I made some busy bags which have since been incredibly popular activities at our house. We attended two weddings, one as a family, one as a date. Overall June flew by which is the best kind of month.

With July came retrospective thinking. We had a quiet 4th of July, my favorite kind of holiday. We dog sat. We went to a baseball game. The weather was phenomenal. Seriously every July can be just like 2014!!

August is my favorite month of any year. 2014 did not disappoint. C moved to the big boy bed. We got to see Baby Girl's face up close. I let go of my panic. We celebrated four happy years of marriage. C and I went to Minnesota for a while. We went on a family trip to see the walrus in person! I turned 28. 

Finally Fall! September brought us ever closer to meeting our little girl. Labor day was great. I told you all about my birthday presents which were and still are amazing. I even got that diaper bag I obsessed over in February. Go figure. I managed to grow a tomato from a seed. C and I went on a lot of special outings while the weather was nice and it was easy. C went to the family apple orchard with his dad. September inched along slowly. 

The first 21 days of October were excruciatingly long waiting for one little girl to make her grand entrance. There was a lot of lamenting and cleaning. But she did arrive. Finally. 10 days late and in less than 2 hours. The last part of the month was spent adjusting to life with two kids, entertaining visitors, and Halloween. C was a walrus and M was a polar bear. Because obviously? 

November came in quickly with a photo shoot and turned into a humbling month of reality. I had to let go of some of my expectations and focus on the two little people who rule my world. Miss M turned one month old and I was able to get some things done. Thanksgiving happened but more importantly we got ourselves a new little Catholic. 

In December I escaped the house for some me time a few times. We went to Disney on Ice. We made our annual gingerbread house and time kept marching on. M turned 2 months. Christmas and now we are here at today. 2014 was pretty spiffy!

I mean I guess the highlight of the year was growing a tiny human who turned out to be one pretty great little girl. I learned a ton this year which is always good. And even though I feel like I didn't read a whole lot I actually did. Life is pretty good no matter how you spin it. The challenges just make the good times all the sweeter. I know that's lame but really, it's true. 

Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Card 2014

Let's pretend I had all of your addresses and your favorite postal service employee has dropped this off at your home. 

I am going to sign off for Christmas festivities. Have a marvelous Christmas holiday! May your time be spent however you chose but with the love of the dear Baby Jesus with you always. 

Happy Christmas! 

4 Fun Days

The past weekend was pretty swell.

Friday we got a piano!

Go with me on this story okay? Husband's aunt and uncle live in town here. His cousin is a rather good piano player. They had talked about upgrading to a baby grand for a while. One of the music stores in town is going out of business and they decided this was the time. But they needed a new home for the old piano. 

It is a special piano, his aunt's parent's purchased it in 1974. They still have the original tag and sales promotional flyer. (We have it now.) I imagine it was bittersweet to say goodbye to the piano but I am happy that we are able to give it a good home and that our kids will be able to take piano lessons. 

C LOVES the piano and I'm not saying my kid is a musical savant or anything but he is already very interested in learning and (with the help of Husband) can play one song. He is very good at playing only one key at a time and not banging away. He's always had big hands and can already spread to 5 keys but can only put power through to his four fingers. I never took piano but I am sure glad that our kids can! 

Friday night was also the Elf Twitter party. Always a pleasure. 

M mostly slept through the fun but C enjoyed his first viewing. Did you know that there's a walrus next to the arctic puffin? Yeah I didn't remember that either. Of course my little walrus fan caught that right away and was his favorite part for sure.

Saturday brought a big day for us as C gave up his nuki. We'd been phasing it out since he turned 2. Mostly only in his bed, but when M was born it sort've had a resurgence. It started phasing out again and lately he mostly has just chewed on them. So we've been redirecting his and slowly pilfering them away. Honestly I'm not sure he's noticed that they've been gone since Saturday. So technically I guess it is the cold turkey method but he was more than ready. 

Yesterday we made one solitary batch of Christmas cookies. My favorite are peppermint meltaways and they're so good. I wasn't feeling very Christmasy and those always fill me with happiness. I let C help me with the glaze and the crushed peppermint pieces. They turned out with a tad more glaze than normal but that's okay. 

 

Today, Little Miss M turned a whopping 2 months old!! I can't stand it! Who said she could get so big?! She had her doctors appointment this morning and did very well considering. She got hot pink bandaids which is kind of cute. 

We have brought the swing back up and she has really taken to it. I made lunch today without anyone screaming! Perfection. 

That's about what I know. Certainly getting ready for Christmas around these parts. 

Not Much Is New But I'll Post Anyway

Once upon a Tuesday one michevious toddler kept climbing on top of the chest that lives in the playroom. (Until Friday when we are getting a piano!!) I repeatedly told him to get down from the chest and typically he complied until he didn't. This time he didn't he looked at me and said "Mom, shake it off." Then proceeded to sing "Shake it Off" while dancing on top of the chest.

It was cute. But frustrating. Story of my life these days with him. He's keeping me on my toes that's for sure.

One little girl over here is 8 weeks old already. Where on Earth has the time gone already?! I can't stand it.

When we were still in our brand new just home phase a friend brought us dinner. It was Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas. And they were SO GOOD. We made them ourselves last week for dinner and I prepped the chicken this morning for us to have them again today! 

HERE is the recipe. My hacks are to mix the marinade in a bowl with a lid and just keep the chicken in that instead of transferring to a Ziploc. Also who has heavy cream in the house all the time? I just use a little splash of milk--less calories, still delicious and I always have some on hand. 

I am the stereotypical Minnesotan born who thinks not really spicy things are in fact really spicy but even with the tablespoon of chili powder it isn't overwhelming and we buy the mild green enchilada sauce. If you really like spicy stuff I imagine the recipe lends itself well to being kicked up a notch but I don't know about it. 

That's the story in our neck of the woods!