Words from the Editor

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Minnesota, United States
Thanks for visiting my blog. It's sort of a running history of the trials and tribulations of raising a busy family. I work full time as a nurse and my husband is at home keeping the rest of our lives in some sort of order. Life is busy, fun and challenging every single day. I hope you enjoy our story!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

My Girls....









A quick disclaimer before I start this post. This is for Anna and Sarah in 10-15 years when they read this-- I love you BOTH, I do NOT love one more than the other.

Ok....on with the blogging. As Sarah has her own little personality now, Chris and I often comment on how completely opposite our girls are. Not saying that it is a bad thing, it's just kind of funny how we can have 2 girls that are truly nothing alike. Of course, there are the obvious differences like their hair color/amount and their eyes, but we have noticed so many other aspects that are different I thought I'd share.

For instance, Here they both are in the swing. Notice how Anna is all laid back and mellow while Sarah (and I know there isn't sound, but trust me) is screaming her head off and squealing so loud, half the playground is staring at her. Anna actually hated the swing until she was about 2. Sarah could spend all day in it if you let her. This is true to their personalities too. For the most part, Anna is pretty mellow most of the time. Sarah tends to be a bit more hyper and active.



And, next, the drama. Anna is and always has been our little drama queen. She is extremely sensitive and can cry over just about anything. Sarah on the other hand will fall directly onto her head and just keep going without a peep. This just happened the other day actually. Anna stubbed her toe on the swingset at the exact same time Sarah fell off a small retaining wall at my mom and dad's house. Sarah landed on her head, got up, shook herself off and kept moving. Anna, however, cried for about 10 minutes. Here are some pictures of the drama queen and her



not so dramatic little sister.


Onto baby proofing. Sarah is an absolute maniac and has figured out how to open every cupboard/drawer that we have. Chris and I just looked at each other yesterday and shook our heads when we saw Sarah trying to figure out how to unlock and lock the front door. Anna, however, never got into anything. You could leave an open bottle of cleaner out in the middle of the living room and tell her not to touch it and she wouldn't go near it. She didn't get into even 1/100 of the mischief that Sarah already has. Just today, in the span of about 10 minutes, Sarah almost put the remote into the toilet, took out about 5 glass bottles of beer and was clanging them together and tried eating all of Anna's hair binders. As you can probably guess, Sarah needs a cage and we may need a room with padded walls by the time we are done raising her :)



The first picture is of Anna. Notice the tall DVD case in the background of the picture. We still have this DVD case. However, it is now put away in the den behind a gate because if we left it in the open, Sarah would likely figure out how to A) climb it, B) pull it over, C) scatter DVDS all over the house, or (and this is most likely) D) all of the above. Second picture is what happens when we let Sarah into the kitchen for a few seconds. She is fast!

One of the other big differences is the amount of time each can spend sitting still. As those of you who knew Anna as a baby can remember, she LOVED to be held and sit still. She was such an easy baby and was so content to sit down that she didn't start walking until 17 months. We think it's because she was so busy developing her super smart brain! Anyways, Sarah is equally smart, but ten times faster. She does not sit still EVER. My mom and dad bought her one of those really cute foam princess chairs for her birthday. She hasn't sat in it since her party. However, she has figured out if she turns it on it's side, it works REALLY well for climbing on things. As you'll notice, the pictures I have of Sarah sitting are either when she is strapped in, OR when she has climbed up something she wasn't supposed to and then sat down for a brief second. Although the other trick to getting her to sit is to feed her (or push her in the swing).




Ok, I'll stop the comparisons now. I'm sure the child psychologists would tell me I'm damaging them by comparing. Although, we don't really do this out loud, just comment to each other when they aren't around. As for those of you wondering where the big brother fits in. He is much more like Sarah and they have become good friends. Just the other day Alex was listing off the things he is going to teach Sarah......how to play video games, how to fish, how to hunt, etc. Funny thing is, she'll probably LOVE to do all of that. Anna on the other hand said she will teach Sarah how to play babies and Barbies and house and fix her hair.......I think she may be disappointed in a few years. But, you never know, right?

.....and the rest of the disclaimer: Anna- we love you for your absolute loving, caring heart and sensitive nature. You are such a sweetheart and you truly care so much about others and are always willing to help someone who needs it. You are going to be so good at whatever you decide to put your mind to. Sarah- we love you for your silliness and ability to make us laugh. You are so adventurous and fearless. You are independent, stubborn and friendly. These traits will take you far. You will give us a run for our money some day :) You are BOTH wonderful little girls in your own special ways and we feel so lucky to watch you grow. Love you puddinheads.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

The End of Summer Blues














Can't believe only one week left of summer! For those of you in MN, you're probably thinking it's already fall considering it was in the 60s today :( We have been busy at our house getting ready for back to school time. Both with Alex and Anna and with myself- my next grad school class starts next week as well. The lengthy school supply lists are a bit absurd, but as those of you who know me well can attest to the fact that I LOVE lists and somehow the small task of "checking" things off is so fulfilling. With that in mind, I'm still a bit miffed by the AMOUNT of things on both lists. I mean, honestly, do I really need to send 16 glue sticks with Anna? What in the world is that about? In my entire life, I am certain I've never even come close to using that much glue. And I'm still trying to figure out why Alex would need post it notes. Seems like a "teacher supply" to me. I can't really see a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds utilizing 24 packs of post it notes, but what do I know? As some of you long time blog followers are probably wondering- yes, I am gearing up for a year with TWICE as much lost stuff :( I think I have enough lunch boxes stockpiled to get us through at least week 1. I have been busily labeling everything as well, even though, as I found out last year, labeling really doesn't do anything as there were hundreds of items in the "lost and found" with names on them. Seems that the task of sorting through and finding out whose classroom each kid is in is a bit overwhelming. Trust me, I have been to the immense mountain that is the Lost and Found and I would NOT want the sorting job.

Ok....enough of my ranting. I thought I'd share a sampling of pictures from our summer. Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Underdog

VS

And so, you are probably wondering what these 2 (Tiger Woods and Underdog) have in common. Well, in the world according to Alex, it goes something like this:
We were driving in the car yesterday and on the radio they were talking about how Tiger Woods had gotten beat by the underdog. Y.E. Yang. Alex has become a big fan of golf now that he has his own set of clubs so his ears perked up when he heard the name Tiger Woods. After listening for awhile, he says to me, "I cannot believe what a horrible golfer Tiger Woods is. How could he possibly get beaten by Underdog. I mean, he's a cartoon dog- what is wrong with that guy?" It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about but once I did, I had the best laugh of the day, possibly the week! Just imagining how this must have looked in Alex's head was too funny. After I stopped laughing, I did try to explain what an "underdog" actually is. I think he was disappointed. You have to admit- the image of Tiger getting whooped by a dog in a cape is better than the reality.



Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Cool things I can do now that I am ONE!!!!!










Yes....it's true, our baby turned 1 today. Where did the year go? Can't believe it's already over. She is such a big girl now. Here are the new cool things she can do now:

Walk. She has completely given up crawling for this method of getting around. With a few bumps and bruises, she is on her way.

Climb. This actually happened before walking. She seems to think that anything on the ground must be climbed on. She can climb up onto the couch, onto the dog and even climbed up the backstop one weekend at T ball. Luckily, she has not climbed out of her crib yet, but I'm sure that will be next.

Talk. She said her first "real" word the other day "Hi". Well, we are counting it as her first word, although it wasn't quite that clear. Of course she has said "uh-oh" for some time now but I'm not sure if that's technically a word.

Wave- goodbye and hello....loves to wave.

Fish. Well....actually Alex fished for her, but we did take her in the boat today for the first time. She was so frustrated with the life jacket and the fact that she couldn't just walk wherever she wanted that we only lasted about 45 minutes. Oh well, she got to touch a fish for the first time.

Drink from a "real" cup.....well, just a sippy cup, but better than the bottle!

Use utensils. When we gave her birthday cake at her party on Saturday, she just kind of looked at us like we were crazy. Then we gave her a fork and she was all over it. Such a smart kid. Of course right before this she managed to stick her foot in the cake and was licking frosting from her toes. (see above picture).

Happy Birthday Princess!

Friday, June 26, 2009

A lesson in Civics

Cute Alex story coming up :) This evening we were getting ready to go to the store to get Alex a new life jacket as he has passed the 50 pound mark and so needs the next size up. We are picking up our new boat tomorrow and so need to make sure we are ready! That's a whole other post, which I will save for when we have pictures of the aforementioned boat. Anyways, Alex decided he also needed to buy a new lure. First, for those of you who don't know- Alex is an absolute fishing nut and has more lures than probably any 7 year old you'll ever meet. He had gotten some dollar coins from his aunt and uncle for his birthday and spent some on part of his new scooter, but had saved a few of them for fishing lures. So, as we were getting ready, he ran down to his room to get his money. He was looking at the pictures on the coins and said, "Is this a picture of the queen?" Chris looked at it and said, "No, that is the statue of liberty". Alex: "What is liberty?" Me: "It is like freedom, when you get to be free to do what you want and people can't tell you what to do". Alex: (absolute dead serious look on his face) "I can't wait until I can get some of that". So- that is now Alex's new favorite buzzword- liberty. I'm sure he'll be using this anytime we do anything "unjust" to him :)

Monday, June 22, 2009

Screamin' Sarah

Sarah is quite vocal lately. Here she was in a bouncy house at cousin Tyler's birthday party. She really was acting like a caged animal!