Daddy Day

Alyvia had Daddy Day at her pre-school tonight.  She and Alan left the house a little before 6, she was so excited she kept saying "hurry daddy, or we'll be late!". 

 

All ready to leave!



Daddy and Livi went to school and did a few crafts and had snack. 

They had a great time and I can't wait until Mommy Day next week!

Happy Easter!

Despite waking up late this morning, we had a great Easter day!  Colson woke us up (for roughly the 6th time) at 7:20 this morning and we jumped out of bed and started to get ready for church and to be gone the whole day.  When Alyvia woke up, we hunted for Easter baskets-Livi was so excited!

Livi helping baby brother with his basket

We made it to church and after headed up to Aurora for brunch with the Schindel family.  It was so nice to spend a little time with everyone today, I can't remember the last time everyone was able to be together for a holiday!

Family picture (not my fav of me, but the best of all of us)

A couple of people got to meet Colson for the 1st time, wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was busy (eating) I guess!  Since my grandma wasn't feeling well enough to make brunch, we went to my grandparents house to visit for a while.  Before we left the restaurant, Alyvia got a bunch of easter eggs from the hostess.  She told Nana "I got one for your mom so she feels better"-she has such a caring heart.  Both Alyvia and Colson were soooo good-happy, friendly, just plain good kids! 

We got home tonight around 6:30 and tried to push towards bedtime.  Poor Cole has his nasty cough back and he has so much snot/drainage that he projectile vomited his entire bed time bottle.  Alan went out and got some pedialyte and he seems to have kept that down so far.  Poor kid, he just can't kick this virus :(  Hope this week brings sunshine and healthy kiddos!

Easter Zebra

Livi, Nana and I went to the Bunny Breakfast and Easter egg hunt at Wildlife Prairie Park today.  It was somewhat of a disaster, but Livi had fun and that's what matters to me.  There was a face painting lady there and I voted that Livi get a bunny face, but Livi wanted a zebra, so a zebra is what she got! 

The Easter zebra :)

We walked around the park a bit and then headed toward where the egg hunt was going to be.  It was a muddy mess, through no fault of the park staff, but we were all messy by the time we got to the field.  We were about 30 minutes early and you could plainly see TONS of eggs waiting to be "found".  Livi was fairly patient, and FINALLY it was time to go.  The organization of the event was awful though and they started with the 7-12 year old group, never mind most of the kids there were 1-6 and had waited the whole morning for the egg hunt.  Regardless, the hunt got started about 20 minutes late and Livi finally got her eggs!

We left immediately after the hunt (read: debacle).   Tonight we colored eggs at home.  Alyvia had lots of fun and was very serious about her eggs.  Colson got in on the fun too!



Decorating is serious business

Looking forward to celebrating with family tomorrow!

7 months old!

Guess who is 7 months old today?

Who Mommy?

You are Colson!

 

Really Mommy?!

Yep, it's you Bud!!

 

I'm so happy to be 7 months old!



Colson is 7 months old and doing great!  He is doing so many big boy things now!  

-He sits up all on his own.  He still gets off balance if he moves too quickly, but he does really good!

-He is finally rolling from his back to his tummy and very often does this in bed....then he hollers like he can't roll back :) 

-He wants to eat table food.  ANYTHING we have, he immediately wants and yells loudly about it.  He loves Mum-Mums b/c he can feed those to himself. 

-He has really caught on to the sippie cup.  He doesn't necessarily hold it, but he definitely knows how to drink from it.

-Colson is wearing 6 month and 6-9 month clothes.  We just moved up to size 3 diapers and his size 2 shoes are getting a little tight.  He was 16 lbs. 4 oz. last month and I bet he's between 17 and 18 lbs. now. 

-We are still struggling with sleeping.  He has unfortunately been sick almost the entire last month so coughing has been waking him up multiple times each night.  Now he is almost over the cough, but he is still waking up a lot...maybe 8 months will be the magic number!

 

We love you so much Colson!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Daddy Day

Alyvia had another "daddy day" today.  This morning she was sure that she wanted to stay with me today. But mid-way through the morning, she decided that she wanted to go ride with her daddy again...in his "green bean tractor" (big green tractor).  While Colson was sleeping, Alyvia got changed into her work clothes and packed her lunch (FULL of food).  Once Colson woke up, we drove Livi out to the field to meet her daddy.  She grabbed her backpack, jumped out of the car and off she went...

This girl spent the WHOLE day farming with her daddy.  They field cultivated, worked in the shop, changed the oil in the tractor and made a trip to Kleines before they headed home.  While Livi and Daddy were hard at work, Colson and I went and spent money :)  We went to lunch with Nana and then Colson had his 7 month pictures, which turned out so cute! 

While waiting for his pics, we shopped a little bit and bought Aunt Anne's birthday present.  We ran to Target after the mall, because what is a trip to Peoria if you don't go to Target?!  Daddy and Livi met us at Kohls and then we all went to Olive Garden for dinner.  When we got home, it was bedtime-yay!  Good day all around!

"I LOVE God!"

Livi and I were playing outside today-she was on the horsey rider and I was pushing her.   She was asking me lots of questions...

Livi: Who made our house?  Me: Jeff the neighbor built it
Livi: Who made my swing set?  Me: Daddy did
Livi: Who made the kennel?  Me: Daddy built it-daddy's pretty good isn't he?
Livi: Who built the trees? Me: God did-God made all the trees
Livi: (gasps) I LOVE God!!  I love Jesus too! 

I love God and Jesus too...and I love the little girl who loves them with her whole 3 1/2 year old heart :)

Just another manic...Sunday?

Busy Sunday around here-as per usual.  We got up and went to church this morning and per Livi's request went to LePeep for breakfast after-yum!  Ran to Lowe's before lunch and got a storm door for the back deck (which I'm so excited for-I know, sad).  Then we went to lunch with the Cowsers at Famous Daves-yum again!  Alan and Colson headed home for nap time after lunch and Livi and I headed to the grocery store.   Livi was dressed up in a bright purple dress with flowers for church and she did look really cute pushing her little cart around.  A "Nana" type lady stopped and told her how pretty her dress looked. 

Livi said "I went to church today" 
Nana lady "Oh, I bet you have fun at church"
Livi "Yes, I do, we learn about God and Jesus at church"

I love that she gets it-she may not understand much of what is said at church, but she gets it as much as she can :)

Both kids are still fighting some sort of respiratory virus.  Both have snotty noses and coughs. Colson is still have 1-2 coughing fits each night-poor babe.  No fevers though so we're just trying to "ride it out".  Hopefully the warm weather will continue and we will kick this thing for good!

I'm getting TERRIBLE about taking pictures, so I'm going to work on that...I'm sure my posts are boring right now for the 3 people reading my blog-sorry :(  Next time maybe!

Playin' at the Park

Today we had a baby shower for our friends Danielle and Laura.  They are both having baby boys this summer, friends for Colson!  Livi was really good at lunch and played nice with Carrie's daughter Ella. 
I made diaper cakes for both girls and I thought they turned out pretty cute

Livi and Ella babysitting Liam and Sienna

Since Livi was so good at the party, we headed to Bradley park so she could run off some energy!  Livi had lots of fun running around the playground and going down all the slides.  We took a small walk and Colson took a little nap and then got some swingin' time in.   Livi loves being outside and I love that the weather is getting nice enough so we can go play!

A little grumpy when he 1st woke up

After playing Livi and I got some ice cream and hung out at Nana and Papa's before gymnastics.  We had a great day together before I have to go back to work tomorrow!  Hopefully we have a great weekend coming up too-the weather is supposed to be nice again!

I'm a Wicked Witch

Short story:  Alan and I went to dinner to celebrate my cousin Amanda's 21st birthday tonight.  We had Kacie come over to watch the kids for about 2 1/2 hours.  Alyvia wasn't too happy that she wasn't going with us.  So when Kacie got here, I heard Alyvia tell her "My mom's kind of being a wicked witch today"!  Apparently she won't be watching The Wizard of Oz at Nana and Papa's anymore!  The babysitter told her immediately that it wasn't nice to say that and I followed up on talking nice...but it was kind of funny too.  I'm so going to have my hands full in a couple of years....



My funny girl (wearing my glasses)



Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Colson is officially rolling from his back to his tummy!  Alan went in his room this morning and found him on his tummy.  He has been so close to this for at least a month now and he finally just did it-way to go Colson!  In other Colson milestones, he is sitting on his own for a couple of minutes at a time too!!



See?  I can sit- what's the big deal?



2nd Birthday bash

Today the kids and I went to a 2nd birthday party for our friends Sienna and Emmerson.  I thought the party started at 11 or 12-I was wrong.  It started at 10 and I found that out at 8:45-when I had just put Colson down for a nap, hadn't showered, Alyvia was still in her jammies and the party was 40 minutes away-oops.  I almost just said forget it, but Livi wanted to go so we got ourselves together and got ready for the party. We made it and we were only about 30 minutes late, not too shabby.  Livi always takes a little while to warm up to everyone, but once she did she played so nice with all the kids.  I was so proud of her.  She played with Jameson, Landrie and Lizzie-no fighting at all.  She also played a little with Emmerson too.  Livi is really growing up and acting a lot more mature (at times!).

Emme, Alyvia and (the back of) Lizzie

Alyvia, Jameson and Lizzie

The party was at Danielle's house and she did such a nice job.  She made the kids homemade chicken nuggets (which I never even thought to do-ever), there was yummy spinach salad, delicious buffalo chicken dip, barbecue sandwiches, fruit and fruit dip.  Then she made the cutest cupcakes for the kids (and I possibly had one as well).

Fish cupcakes!

After we ate, the girls opened presents and the kids all played a little more before we headed home.
I'm so glad that we ended up going.  Colson was a good boy too and I had a great time visiting with my friends, who I don't see enough of.  When Alan got home, I went out for a run and actually ran my whole 1.87 mile route.  Slowly, but surely, I'm getting a little bit better at running-not great, but better.  I just may be able to run that 5K in June!