Easter Eggs

Rylee, Sara and I colored Easter eggs last night. It was an eggcellent time!







Unfortunately our big Easter plans to see Lilly and family in Duluth have been postponed since Rylee has a miserable cold.

Happy Easter!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Another Recap!

It's late so I won't bore you with too many details, just some highlights (for Rylee) and firsts (for Jace). Technically he's been doing some of these for weeks so it's probably more like the hundredth time than the first.

Rylee:
- got to attend a dinosaur assembly with the K, 1 & 2 kids during her preschool class
- she sat in the front row and was picked to answer a question
- by chance or design, her answer actually (sort of) made sense!
- the question was about different things scientists use to learn about dinosaurs
- she said: "a long, long time ago, dinosaurs lost their bones."
- it was fun to be a fly on the wall for her first school assembly!

- Rylee's also discovered the fun of rhyming so she goes around giving you sets of three rhyming words all day long

- and she still loves knock knock jokes
- especially the ones she makes up herself that don't make any sense! :)

Jace:
- starting waving hi and goodbye in late January/early February
- it's adorable (especially when he waves at Daddy's picture or at Daddy himself via Skype

- he learned to clap right when we got to MN
- he loves to clap to music or in response to his accomplishing an impressive feat
- he claps when he wants more food as well (his version of the baby sign language for "more")

- Jace recently started standing!
- so far he only balances for 10 to 20 seconds (ie just short enough to make it difficult to catch on video since he's usually fallen down by the time you run and grab the camera)

I'll leave you with a couple random Home Depot photographs...









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Another Week...

... bites the dust!

We're still unpacking, hanging pictures and other such projects, but we're also having fun and settling into a routine (for Rylee): dance on Monday, story hour and swimming on Wednesday, preschool (at CRES) on Friday. Last week we also spent time with Grandpa Chip, Big Grandpa Bob, Jeanne, and Ginny.

Rylee and I have played outside in the snow and gone sledding numerous time, but we still haven't managed to make a snowman. Either the snow isn't right or my skills are deficient! She settled for another indoor snowman (with food coloring accents):




The big highlight of Rylee's week was a visit from my cousin, Lilly (along with Uncle Howard and dogs, Scooter and Bella). Bella is their new chihuahua that Lilly rescued from an animal shelter the day before.







They were here for St. Patrick's Day so we celebrated with Irish Nachos and homemade Shamrock Shakes. Yum!

Hope you all had a nice weekend / St. Paddy's Day!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kids' Room

I don't have a way to post pictures from my camera (I left the computer home with Jon) so phone pics are going to have to suffice.

The kids are sharing a bedroom and they love it! Rylee lobbied for it and I have to say it's working out great - they didn't have any adjustment period at all. I usually put Jace to bed first, but they've even gone to bed at the same time. I've discovered that both my kids are heavier sleepers than I realized. Rylee slept right through Jace's constant coughing last week. And Jace sleeps through my sneaking Rylee into bed and her getting up early in the morning. Both Jace and I have been sleeping in while Rylee watches TV with Gaga and Papa!

We decided to do some temporary decorating this year so the kids each got their own decals - "horseland" for Rylee and Mickey Mouse for Jace (I hate to admit, but he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - I know he's too young, but he watches it with Rylee.)










There was more to this post, but I got interrupted and then forgot. Guess it wasn't that important! :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Week 1 Down

Here's a quick recap of the highlights of our week.

Mon- Rylee's dance class (at Pat's). She got her costume for the recital (a sequined pink and purple outfit with matching teddy bear). She'll be in five numbers - one tap, one ballet, one character piece, one gymnastics routine and the closing number! Lots to learn! :)




Wed- story hour at the library followed by an afternoon of sledding (during Jace's nap).



Thurs- attended a dedication for Grandma Sandy at CRES (the elementary school where she taught Kindergarten). There was a nice turnout of teachers and even former students. The newspaper took some photos and Rylee got to be in one of the pictures with Grandpa Chip. She was very excited about that. We'll see if it actually makes it into the Courier.

The rest of the week we stuck close to home partly because Jace was so sick and partly because we were busy organizing the kitchen. I haven't had the chance to rave about my parents new house - it's awesome!! I love every inch of it. More on that later...

Today my "sister," Sara, hung out for most of the day. She's the best- Rylee loves her. Godmother Heather and daughter Meg also came over to bake fancy cupcakes. It was so much fun (as is anything we do with them!). It only took two hours to make nine purse cupcakes! :)




It was the perfect snow day activity.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Birthday

Sunday was my birthday and our first full day here. We were pretty lazy. We had a nice breakfast, unpacked, and baked some cupcakes (in my new apron!).




We didn't have Rylee's snow gear yet so she had to settle for making an indoor snowman.




Our friends, Heather and Megan, came by for a visit (and to drop off the snow pants). Rylee was excited to see her Cedar Crest bestie.




I managed to get Rylee outside for a quick snowball fight and a snow angel before baths and dinner.



All in all, it was a great birthday!

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone