Mom's B-day Dinner Celebration

Last night my Mom thought that she was going to Ancho's to meet up with the family for her birthday dinner at 5pm. What she didn't know was that the WHOLE fam damily was all going to be at Wood Ranch BBQ at 4pm, waiting to suprise her. So Jake and my Dad came up with a plan to get her to Wood Ranch. My Dad made a fake job application for Wood Ranch on the computer, and my brother said that before they go to Ancho's he had to drop off this application at Wood Ranch at 4:30 to the manager, and that the manager wanted her to come in with him to say hello because he used to work with her at Marie Calendar's (all a fabrication- no real job app, no manager that knows mom). Anyway, it worked until they got inside and Drew said, "Uh, yea I think the manager wants to meet with me in this back room". Then she walked in and we all yelled SUPRISE!

I think it is impossible to get a group this large to smile for a photo, so I didn't even try. And wouldn't you know it, Hannah is the only one looking this time.


Claire Bear, visiting with Great Uncle Dave.

Me & Jake

Hannah diving into one of the cupcakes she made for Gamma.

Oh yea, it was just as good as she hoped it would be.

Claire visiting with Santa Clause? No, wait, that's her Uncle Mark! And her Great Grandma, Great Great Grandma, and Great Aunt Monica.

Chad, Jake, Donavon & Claire

Hannah got to help Gamma open her presents.

I wasn't in a postition to get a good picture of Mom with her cupcake Hannah made, but this is what I got.

It was a fun night. And best of all, Hannah and Claire were both SO good. It seems that these days when we do something like that I expect the worst, that way I am prepared for anything to happen. But when we have a night like we did, I am so pleasantly suprised. Hannah had so much fun and ate her dinner and sat in the chair like such a big girl. And Claire just loved visiting with everyone and all there was to see. She was all smiles the whole night too. Whew, what a relief.

Weekend Highlights

There weren't too many highlights this last weekend, but the biggest one that I have just got to jot down for memory, is that Claire slept from 7:15pm-7am Saturday night! It is crazy how much she is changing right now. She turned 4 months, and from that day forward she has gone from waking up a couple times during the night, to sleeping until 5am or later. Thank you very much for that Claire. Keep up the good work.

Even with Claire sleeping better, I was so tired this weekend. Friday and Saturday night I went to bed before 9pm. I started getting back to the gym this week, and even though working out is supposed to give you more energy, I feel like it makes me so tired at first. Don't get me wrong, I love those endorphins. How is it that after one workout I swear I am stronger, healthier, and probably ready to go home and try on my skinny jeans? I went 3 times this week, and until I get myself back into shape, I think once those endorphins wear off I am just exhausted.

I worked most of the day on Saturday. Sunday was a rainy day here so we did not do much. I grocery shopped in the morning, then later the whole fam made a quick trip to Best Buy and that's about it. We stayed in, Hannah did some fingerpainting, and we blew up balloons and played with those for a while. After the girls went to bed, Jake and I watched a movie on Sunday. We watched "Rachel Getting Married". We liked it. It's an independent film so it was a bit different and kind of slow in parts, but overall good enough to keep us both awake until the end.

Sunday I made Sandra Lee's creamy chicken noodle soup in the crockpot. It was really good and super easy. It also makes much more than in the picture, that is just the leftovers.

I was too lazy to write out the ingredients and directions so I took a picture of the cookbook. Just click on picture to enlarge.

Week #2 of rice cereal for Claire and she is slowly getting the hang of it. I think Hannah caught on much quicker, but Claire is at least eating it now.

**Update on Hannah's potty training- I have decided to wait a few more months before we get serious about it. She would go on the potty when prompted by us (and still does almost daily), but she wouldn't tell me when she had to go, and honestly I would intend to make her try every 10 minutes, and then I would get busy with Claire and it just didn't happen. So we'll try more persistently in the fast approaching warmer months and see how it goes. I'm not too worried about it though, I know she won't be going to school in diapers.

Where'd Hannah Go?

Yesterday afternoon Jake went to check on Hannah shortly after he laid her down for a nap. She has been a bit of a tantrum thrower at nap times lately and has not exactly been cooperative. He opened her door just a crack and did not see her in bed. So he opened the door a bit more and scanned the room. He did not see her anywhere. So he checked Claire's room, and our room, with no luck. Starting to get a bit panicked, he checked the bathrooms and she was no where to be found. He didn't want to alarm me that our daughter was missing, so he kept looking. He did another scan of her bedroom, and noticed that one of the window panels was a bit askew. At a closer look because the panels are sheer, he noticed that Hannah was behind the panel.

 

He thought that she was hiding from him. But when he pulled back the panel, he saw that she was crouched down in the corner asleep! He had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing. He ran downstairs to have me come look, and when I saw her I had to do the same thing. It was so funny. I can't believe she fell asleep like that. This is definitely the funniest position and place that she has fallen asleep.

 

So if you came into her room and looked straight you really couldn't see her because her body was behind the armoire.

Is that not the funniest thing? Please excuse her mismatched outfit. She was doing some fingerpainting before naptime in her scrubby clothes.

At Home Photo Shoot

In an effort to save money and try to take some cute pictures of Hannah and Claire on my own, I copied my friend Amy's idea and bought a black sheet. I do not have a fancy camera, and I am by no means trying to be a photographer. I lack the skill and the eye required, but I just thought I would have some fun and see what I came up with. (Don't worry Anna, my mediocre skills will not ever replace our use for you!!)

Black sheet cost $12 from Wal-Mart
Flower props cost $17 from Michael's

Everything else in the pictures we had at home

The adorable children in the photos-priceless

Mondays Aren't All That Bad

Way back when, in the years of 2002-2006 BK (before kids), Jake and I used to have most of our days off together. I have always been able to make my own work schedule, and so way back when, we would have a three day weekend off together every other weekend. People always complain about returning to work on Monday, but for us, we were both off so we called it Monday Fun Day. Sometimes we'd catch a matinee and go to lunch, once in a while the beach, maybe a day in the mountains. We had lots of fun on our Monday Fun Days.



Well, those days are gone, but we still make the most out of Mondays. Jake always works the evening shift on Mondays, so we try to get some quality time in before he has to leave. Monday morning this week was so nice for many reasons. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Claire slept all through the night and did not wake up until 5:30am to eat! (Of course one of them had to though, so it was Hannah who woke up at 1:30am crying. Don't know why, she was just all out of sorts) One of these days I am going to sleep 8 hours straight again. One of these days...

Anyway, back to why Monday was so nice. We were lazy all morning. We enjoyed our coffee and read the paper. Then Jake took Hannah for a jog and I got to get ready all by myself while Claire napped. Then later went to Sam's Club and stocked up on the goods, beer, wine, etc.

Then we came home put it all away and enjoyed our lunch outside in the backyard underneath our newly redone patio cover (thanks to our friend Joe). It provides much more shade now than it did before. Joe also installed our new outdoor ceiling fan/light which I know will get a lot of use this summer.

Our backyard has come a long way since we first moved in. Joe also repainted the fence a couple months ago and it looks so much better. Thanks Joe. This weekend we are going to go get some fresh bark for the flower beds, and plant some new spring flowers. We did not get our new fountain until yesterday, so in these pics there is a dump truck where our fountain now sits. I think the fountain is much more aesthetically pleasing.

Weekend Recap

Last weekend seemed to go by so fast. We didn't do much, but it just flew by. Friday night I went out to Macaroni Grill for dinner with some friends for my girlfriend Tawny's baby sprinkle. We had a good time.

Tawny is due with her second baby next month. Her and her husband Joe have a daughter Samantha who is almost 2, and this one will be a boy, or at least that's what they think is coming. =)


These are some of the adorable pirate cupcakes that my Mom made for her party. Our friend Amy ordered them for her.

While Mom was out, Dad let Claire watch TV! Looks like she liked it, I think they were watching The Bachelor. ha ha ha, just kidding.

Saturday Jake worked 8-4:30. Our only outing was the park and it was pretty cold. We walked to the one in our track and Hannah brought her soccerball to kick around a little bit.

I love this picture. If only you could see Claire's face better. I put socks on her hands so they would stay warm, and she had them up by her face covering her cute gummy smile.

After the park while Claire took her nap, Hannah and I got some fun quality time in the backyard together. This girl could live outside.

Claire woke up happy. Hooray for that. I think this picture is funny because I didn't know it when I first looked at it, but you can also see Hannah right outside the backdoor.

When Jake got home from work we went back outside.

Just a cute bath picture.

Dos Lagos With Gamma and Geeps

Sunday I went out to Dos Lagos with the girls, and my parents met us there. I had to drop my knives off at Sur La Table to get sharpened (so I won't cut the tip of my fingers off anymore). We did a little shopping and then had a snack at Wetzel Pretzel's. It was a nice outing. And it must of worn the girls out because we came home and they both slept from 1:30pm-4:30pm. Aaahh, gotta love that.

My Dad is sporting two stickers on his shirt from The Children's Place. Nice look, I think he's starting a trend. I can soon see all of his friends walking around with stickers on their shirts. You pull it off Dad.

A Weekend of Firsts

Last weekend Claire got to experience a couple "firsts". She went in the jumparoo for the first time. She wasn't too sure of it the first few seconds, but she got the hang of it right away. I hope she likes it as much as Hannah did. Hannah was so entertained with that thing.

Claire also had her first taste of rice cereal this morning! She turns 4 months on the 17th, so we cheated and just started the rice cereal today. Rice cereal = fuller belly = more sleep, right? So, I couldn't help myself, I was so excited to give it to her.

So far, she's not sure what she thinks of this goopy white stuff. We'll see how tomorrow goes.