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Thursday, February 23, 2012

This week in a nutshell

I can't believe it's already Thursday!  Do you ever have one of those weeks where they fly by so fast and you have so many plans that you don't really remember all the individual things you did?  And you (of course) don't get all the other "little" things done that you were going to sneak in on the down time.  Well it's been one of those weeks for me so far.  Last weekend proved to be much too short, and now it's Thursday afternoon and I feel like I'm way behind on my check list for the week. 

Here's a recap of a few of the cute/funny/naughty things the kids have done over the past few days:

Elijah has started really laughing when we tickle him now-it is so adorable!  The little guy is extremely ticklish and when we tickle his sides and legs he just squeals and giggles.  It is the most precious little sound:)  Matt was tickling him last night and I just felt so blessed to have such a sweet little boy!

Bella has always loved reading books but lately when I go into her room to get her up in the morning, I will find her reading to herself in her rocking chair.  It is so sweet! 

Elijah is growing like a weed!  He turned 3 months last weekend, and he is already wearing 6 month clothing!  I can't believe how big he is.  He's in the 90-98% in all of his measurements so far, so we will see if this trend continues...

At church last Sunday Bella dumped her water cup on another little girl in the nursery, and then took the little girl's pretzels and threw them on the ground.  Talk about a bully!  Bella is usually really sweet in nursery so I don't know what provoked it.  When we asked her later if she had done those things, she replied, "Yep" and went on playing like it was no big deal.  We kept a straight face about it, but barely:)

Elijah has recently become a once-a-week pooper.  That's right. ONCE in a WEEK.  You can probably imagine what that means for clean up.  It's an automatic bath time for him (and sometimes the rest of us involved as well).  I don't know if he's trying to prove what a good intestinal system he has or what, but it is definitely an adventure every time. 

Matt and I are youth leaders for our youth group at church, and this Wednesday Matt came to church straight from work.  The kids and I were already there, and when Bella saw Matt walk in, she ran toward him yelling, "Daddy!  Daddy!", jumped into his arms, and gave him the biggest hug with her arms tight around his neck.  He later told me that it just melted his heart and he didn't want to put her down.  That melted my heart!  I am so lucky that my children have such an excellent father.

We went grocery shopping today and Bella walked next to me (she actually stayed close!).  After a while, Elijah decided that he needed to be carried so that he could look around at everyone.  So here is my little boy smiling at everyone and getting random people to come talk to him, and my little girl waving and saying "Hi, Hi, Hi!"  to everyone we walk past.  What friendly children I have!  (On a side note, thank you to my amazing mom that helps me grocery shop so that I can have a cart for groceries and a cart for children and children accessories-I love you and appreciate you Mom!)

Well that's all for now, but I am going to try to post more often if possible.  Have a blessed week readers!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Busy Busy Busy!

Well, I'm feeling a little like a superhero right now, although I am definitely not.  The reason I am feeling this way is that in the past two days I got all the grocery shopping done (and used coupons to save some $), made my weekly dinner menu, did many, many loads of laundry (how do we make so much laundry??), washed dishes, went through mail that had piled up, washed the floors, went to the government center to get Elijah's birth certificate (with the kids in tow!), made a trip to target for some good deals, made Matt a birthday dinner, gave both the kids baths and managed to take a shower and get myself and the kids presentable for two days in a row!!!  Wow!  If you are a mom, then you can probably understand how difficult some of these seemingly easy tasks can be. 
                Here is my dinner menu for the week:

1.  Buitoni Ravioli with french bread and salad
2. Easy Taco Melts
3. Buffalo Chicken Pizza (one of our new favorites)
4. Swedish Meatballs with garlic bread (Matt's birthday meal)
5. Salmon with Rice
6. Cowboy Quesadillas
7. Hot Ham and Cheese Roll

If you are interested in any of the recipes just let me know!  I love sharing recipes and finding new ones that my family will eat!  I will try to post some pictures of the dinners we have this week if I remember.


Here are a few pictures from Matt's birthday dinner.  We had swedish meatballs (one of his favorites) and a brownie trifle for dessert.
mmm...trifle!

A little smile:)

 Did you notice that Matt's dinner is on a plate painted by the kids for his birthday?  It has Bella's handprints and Elijah's footprints, and Bella painted the background.  It turned out really well:)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We love you!

So Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Matthew!  You are an amazing man of God and I appreciate you so so much! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Hopefully this post will make you feel good about accomplishing something small that perhaps feels like a huge task.  Trust me, I am with you completely! 

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Three Valentines for me please!

I will be the first one to admit it-I LOVE Valentine's Day!  I love all the pretty pink and red decorations, the cards, the candies, the excuse to dress up and go out, even the cheesy romantic movies. 

This year I had 3 Valentines: my wonderful husband Matt, and my two kiddos, Bella and Elijah.  What a sweet day it was!  The night before Valentine's Matt and I went out to dinner (Elijah came with too since I am his only food source and he refuses to take a bottle!).  Matt wrote me a sweet poem that made me cry, we had a wonderful Italian dinner at a restaurant we've never tried before, and we got our wedding rings resized so that we can actually wear them again.  Turns out having kids makes your knuckles bigger (among other things!).  We will get them in a few weeks, so I'm pretty excited. Here's a picture of us dressed up to go out to dinner (notice Elijah's tux!  I couldn't resist!). 


On Valentine's Day our playgroup had a Valentine Party for all the kids, complete with cards to pass out, cookies to decorate, and, of course, pizza.  It was so fun and the kids had a great time. Bella especially liked that she got to eat all of Elijah's candy since he's too little to indulge.  What a nice big sister:) 

Behind all the fun treats and cards though, I really do like to take the time to think about the wonderful people in my life and how blessed I am to have them (and how blessed I am to be here to enjoy them.).  God definitely listens to prayers and answers so wonderfully.  I will spend the rest of my life trying my hardest to live the life He has designed for me-what an exciting adventure!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone, hope you all had lots of LOVE in your day!

Monday, February 13, 2012

My Silly Girl

Well, I've finally done it.  I've started a blog.  I've decided that the best way to figure out what I want to blog about is to just start blogging and hope a general theme emerges eventually...
So for now, I would like to take a moment to write about the funny things my 2-year old daughter Bella has done lately.  I know I will soon forget if I don't write it down, so here are a few of the silly things she's done over the past few weeks:
1. One afternoon while I was nursing our son Elijah, Bella discovered that she could get into things and I couldn't get to her right away.  She took advantage of this by unwrapping a stick of butter I had sitting on the counter.  Pretty soon I see her marching around the house with a whole stick of unwrapped butter in her hands.  Needless to say, I now try to have something for her to do while I'm nursing:)
2. One night Grandma was watching Bella while we were out.  Bella and Grandma were reading stories in her room and Grandma started to doze off in the rocking chair (she has to get up very early for work).  Bella went and stood right next to Grandma and yelled loudly.  Grandma jumped awake and Bella starting laughing hysterically.  Definitely her father's daughter.
3. Bella has recently developed a few of ladybugs and will walk around the house looking for them.  If she finds one or anything that looks remotely like one (such as a crumb or piece of lint) she will stand back, point to it, and ask, "what that?" or "what is it?" or just say, "Buuuu" (bug).  I will then have to go retrieve the "buuu" and put it outside. 

Some of the adorable things she says:
Pu-peez = Pizza
Nana = Ana (our dog)
Kaka = Auntie Erika
Eeze = Please
Beba = Bella
Tank te = Thank you
Ahhh = Mouth

And so many more.  I love living with a two year old.  She has so much joy and curiosity.  Sometimes I forget to look at life that way, but she is a constant reminder to me.