Facelift complete!

Our big project, a mini-makeover for the front of the house, is complete. New shutters (now grey, no longer Carolina blue), a few new shingles, a new cap, and new railings for the stairs. Hurray!

Valentine's Visitors

We just had a VERY fun weekend. Seth's celebrating started on Thursday, when his class had their Valentine's party. He put them all up on his closet door. His teacher's valentine included pixie sticks...a little messed up, don't you think?Saturday morning, Tim, Tiff, and their little guy arrived. We had sooo much fun. Tim and Amelia playing on the floor:

Seth loved having another baby in the house...I guess he's bored with his sister already.That afternoon the adults snuck out to the Wake Forest-Florida State game...you get to see a lot more of the game if you don't bring the kiddos along!I'm sure Amelia is going to be on the lighter side when she goes for her next check-up, but she sure looks big next to her new friend (he's 5 months younger).So cute!Sunday afternoon we checked out Nathan's new office and all four of us took naps (that never happens!) Uncle Bryan stopped by on his way back to Atlanta. As you can see, the kids loved their surprise visitor.

Freeloader

As always, my living room makes for a dark video, but we wanted to show of how strong Amelia is. This wasn't a one-time occurence, it happend several times on Saturday. Lazy Seth!

a hint of spring

Ah, North Carolina winters. The kids were out of school on Wednesday for bad weather (I guess...we never saw any of it), and Saturday started a nice long stretch of beautiful days. We spent about four hours over the course of the weekend at Tanglewood park. When we got home from Sunday School yesterday, Nathan had some windows opened. Amelia was absolutely fascinated:

I remembered to bring the camera with us to the park on Sunday. I got a lot of good pictures. I may even bore the family with an album of them! Amelia loves to swing. I think Nathan could spend all day pushing her.I've decided Amelia is 97.5% tomboy. I definitely need to make sure I have plenty of "play clothes" on hand. She crawled all over the playground, and even tried to go head-first down the slide.Once Amelia realized that Seth was pushing her, she didn't want to turn back forward!I thought this was my new favorite when it was still on the camera...now I see it's a little blurry, though.We found the guys playing in a big field beside the playgroud. Here is Seth and his big stick:Sitting on a bench by Mallard Lake watching the ducks and geese...somebody was getting sleepy (and it wasn't Mommy...)Seth made a game of throwing rocks in the lake:

Landon is 4!

Last Tuesday the kids and I packed up an overnight bag after preschool and had a sleepover in Cary. We came back just in time to hit Funigans for Landon's birthday party. Actually, we were a little bit early. Seth tested out his skills playing kiddie-bowling prior to the party. He's definitely much better at Wii. It was a good way to make the week go fast!

just checkin' in...

On the nights I work, I can't go to sleep until I check in on the kids. I have a 99.8% success rate of sneaking in without either of them waking up. Monday night was so comical I had to take pictures. Notice Seth's pillow in the top right corner, as well as Cow and Dog on the right hand side, so you see where Seth is supposed to be: This has been Amelia's preferred sleep position lately: sideways in the crib. Her little bum was so high in the air, I thought she'd wake up with a neck cramp!

Playing on the floor Tuesday, waiting until it was time to pick Seth up from school...

Seth brought this home today, I had to share (although he won't even try hot chocolate because it starts with the word "hot"):

Tara's shower

We have been waiting a LONG time to have a party for Tara, and last Friday it was time to celebrate Max's arrival (hopefully in early March!). The nursery is yellow and brown with a puppy dog theme, so this is what I came up with for her diaper cake: Amelia not-so-secretly wishes Lonnie was her mommy. She'd definitely have a lot hipper wardrobe!

Stacey made this diaper wreath:

Fancy cupcakes from the Fancy Pastry in Lexington:

The excited mommy and daddy. Kudos to Chris for hanging out with a bunch of women all morning!

This was definitely one of our best showers. Everyone who could showed up because we all love Tara (everyone should have one of her where they work). There were kids everywhere. And it was a school day! Seth had a bunch of the boys from the 05-06 baby boom to play with, and there were at least four babies there that were younger than Amelia, the youngest being a whoppin' 30 days old. All the little girls were wearing pink and brown, and we didn't even plan it! (Unfortunately we didn't get a picture, but do you really think we would have gotten a good picture even if we had tried?)

Dishwasher legacy

I posted this picture of Seth in my very first blog post (he was about 13 1/2 months old): I sent a picture to family of Amelia's dishwasher mischief the other day, and Dad sent me back this:

I almost adjusted the color, but all my baby pictures have that slightly red tint that screams late 70s, so I left it as is. I don't know how old I was in this picture, but it was in Grandpa and Grandma's old house in Swift, I'd recognize that carpet and the olive appliances anywhere!

So what did Amelia do? I turned my back to put away some Tupperware and found her like this (camera was within arms-reach, so don't worry about her safety, and I immediately put her down as soon as the picture was snapped): Which makes me think we don't need a third child, or we might find him/her sitting on the top rack. If a picture of Nathan in a dishwasher appears I will add it, so it doesn't look like this comes only from my genes...

Preschool Pajama Party

Seth's class had a pajama day today. It may have been his favorite day of school yet. Yes, he wore footie pajamas with sneakers. Most of his pajamas are fitted, and I really didn't want to accentuate how skinny he really is. Plus he loves pajamas with feet (unlike his sister). Finally being able to play on the playground again, having pancakes for snack, and reading "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" sealed the deal. They were allowed to bring one lovey in with them, so Cow went to school, too.

more projects at home

I've kind of had a hard time lately adjusting to the fact that work doesn't need me. I've now developed the attitude that hey, I'll be there when they do, but I'm going to focus more on being around my family that wants (and needs) me. We've had a very good week, even though the weather hasn't been conducive to a lot of time away from the house.

One day the kids helped me with laundry...or emptied their baskets to make race cars. (Seth's imagination is through the roof this week)
Seth's favorite activity this week is cut paper with safety scissors and glue the pieces together with a glue stick. This picture doesn't do his post-nap hair justice.

Amelia has taken to having periods where she wants to carry her lovey around EVERYWHERE. This week she wants to share everything and has become a little mimic. She pretends to talk on the phone, fold laundry, and put on lotion. New words are "ball," "hot," and "duck" and she jabbers all the time.

I'm trying to get more organized with the extra free time I have...I finished two big projects this week, I'm quite proud of myself. I hope I can continue on this streak!

the girls' 11 month birthdays

Yesterday Amelia and GrammyGram celebrated their 11-month birthdays. On a whim, I decided to take the kids to Cary, because I didn't think I could possibly entertain Seth at home for yet another rainy day. I'm glad I went. The kids had a lot of fun playing with GrammyGram (and Gram and Pops). Before we left, Amelia got into the toilet paper...I have a picture of Seth like that, so of course I need one of her, too!

Grandma's sweater had beads on it (but she would have loved on her anyways).

The kids took a snooze on the ride home, and Amelia woke up with about 15 minutes left and realized it was past her dinnertime. Once I got off the interstate, I had to throw a container of Puffs in the backseat to appease her.

FB Flair

At the beginning of the year I gave in and joined Facebook. Though I don't 100% "get it" yet, it's been fun to reconnect with some old friends. Today a former coworker sent me this piece of flair...I just loved the butterfly made out of footprints! Never thought of that one before!

We're Expecting...

...another nephew in June! Elise's ultrasound was Thursday, and the little guy was not shy. We can't wait to meet him! Seth was fascinated by the ultrasound pictures, it was very cute to watch him inspect them on the computer.

multitasking momma

I really couldn't think of a good subject line, but I'm ironing as I wait for this to upload, so it fits...

Monday we took the kids to SciWorks for the first time...like most science museums, it could use a little bit of updating, but Seth had a good time...he's screaming, "SPACE!" in this picture...
After watching him here, I wouldn't recommend his surgical skills in the near future...

Amelia's favorite place to play upstairs is in the bathtub...she doesn't care if there's water in it or not...

Amelia's other top tooth came through this week (so thank goodness she is sleeping better again). Last night I let her try an ear of corn. She thought it was very funny to show me the kernels after she had scraped them off.

School was cancelled Tuesday because we had a dusting of snow. It's hard to say who was more excited this morning when it was time to head in. I never know if they are going to play outside in the morning or not, so he bundles up (Minnesota people: it was 22 degrees, so I don't think this was overkill...). Today they learned about penguins at school, how appropriate!

In the thick of the Inauguration

Our friend Nathan (Armes) is currently in DC and has posted some great pre-inauguration pictures on his blog. Check them out! He is a photojournalist based out of Denver now, but I have proof that we knew him before he "hit the big time"...this link will take you to pictures he took of Seth when he was 11 months old. (We even have an awesome framed photo he took for Nathan back in college...yeah, we go waaaaaaay back.)

Max and Ruby

Friday I took the kids to the local children's theatre to see Max & Ruby. The play is based on a popular Nick Jr show which is based on fabulous books written by Rosemary Wells. I was a little nervous because Amelia didn't do very well at the Backyardigans show this summer, but she was good until literally the last scene. Seth was in awe the whole time. I think he has inherited both his parents' interest in live theater (A little Mayse trivia: Nathan proposed to me after we had seen Man of La Mancha). Seth and his buddy, Landon (it was 18 degrees when we left the house that morning...I am so glad that mornings like that are few and far between around here!)

A quick picture of the stage prior to the show...the house opened up to an interior, spun around to turn into grandma's attic, which opened up to be the kids' bedrooms, and the fences turned spun around into bookshelves. It was a six member cast, the four supporting actors played everything from Ruby's friends to stuffed animals brought to life...which didn't trick Seth. At home he told me the grandma turned into a lobster (and he was right!).

Can Wii come to play?

(I think that was the catch-phrase for the early Wii commercials. I can't find it on YouTube to confirm.)

The Wii Nathan ordered arrived on Monday. It sure beats channel-surfing at night. Seth has figured out how to bowl...sometimes he gets spares, but there are a lot of gutterballs...

We give Amelia the DVD player remote so she thinks she's playing too (note: we really don't play that much when she's awake, and Seth only gets to play for short amounts of time too, but mommy and daddy play at nap and bedtimes!)

New year, new skills

Amelia has learned a lot of new things already this year. She now says "bye-bye" and has learned to blow kisses. She also says "mom" (which requires blowing a big spit bubble) and "momma", and "DAD!" when she wants Nathan, which is hilarious because she will do it repeatedly until he comes to her, no matter where he is in the house (not so fun when it's while he's at work, though). She's been clapping her hands for two weeks now, and last weekend learned this new trick:

5 Little Monkeys

Get your popcorn ready, this is going to take a full minute of your time...

Seth got these puppets for Christmas from my aunt and uncle, and we usually have at least one puppet show a day. His preschool teacher did a "five little pumpkins" show at their Halloween party, I think that might be where he picked up the "gentle" toss of the puppet across the room...