Triplets?

This is how I feel every day now!


I miss the days when I could set Leo down and he would stay put. Now he is all over!

Sleepy Boy

So, if you were ever wondering what a one hour nap looks like at dinner time here it is.

This is 5 minutes later.
He never did finish his dinner.

Yesterday Alaina wore this outfit and ran around all day saying, "Roar!"
I think she has a future as a beautician, don't you?
As we speak she is fixing my hair again. She loves to stand behind me and play with my hair. She just pulled it and I said, "OWWW!" She replied, "I being gentle, Mommy." I guess she has heard that line from me a few times when I have been fixing her hair.

Dave's Weekend

Seeing as I am a Packer fan and Dave is a Viking fan and neither of us is willing to change, we are going every other week as to which team our kids cheer for. I gave Dave the first weekend, but next time it is Vikings vs. Packers, regardless of whose week it is, they are cheering for the Packers.

Here is a picture of Dave with his little Vikings Fans.
Here is my favorite part of Fall in Wisconsin. 60 Degree weather and grilling right before a football game.

Hope you are all having a great evening! Go Pack!

The best part of a present....

Everyone knows that the best part of a present is the box that it comes in. Or at least that is the theory that my kids live by. My Mom and Dad sent a box of stuff for Alaina and of course the kids went right for the boxes. Here is Leo playing with one of the boxes...

Ok, Laura and Carolynn, I really believe that you jinxed me! You both commented on Alaina's long and pretty hair. My plan has been to not cut Alaina's hair, other than trims, so that it grows out. That was the plan. You all know they saying you make plans and God laughs.....Yep. That happened. I found Alaina under the desk with a pair of scissors. I have no idea how she got the scissors. She decided to give herself bangs. At least they were wispy and not too short. I've got pictures showing how I fixed it at the end of the post. Yep. You will have to wait.

What do you know, Leo is still playing with the boxes....

Both kids wore their Badger outfits from Great Uncle Dan and Great Aunt Bonnie on Saturday for the big game. Thank you guys!!!

Alaina went and sat on the couch and told Daddy to sit on her lap. She was thrilled when he did.

Leo played with the boxes some more....
Alaina got all dressed up in her crown and pretty sweatshirt from Auntie Haley.
So my daughter found her new favorite place to play. Yes it is a clothes hamper and yes, it works great as a desk. What can I say...No harm, no foul?
One of the things Grandma Jane and Grandpa Keith sent were these mittens that my Great-Grandma Goodie made for me when I was little. Now they are her mittens that her Great-Great Grandma made.
Another box!
Oops! He got stuck. If you can't tell, his feet are off the ground and he is VERY stuck!

In this box Grandma and Grandpa sent a VCR and some of our tapes from when we were kids so that Alaina has some new movies to watch. There are also some home videos from when I was little. We haven't gotten to watch these yet.

Ok, so here are the pictures from the big hair cut....

Here is Alaina before. To get her to sit still I got her a push-up sucker. It kept her pretty amused throughout the hair cut.

Here is Alaina after.


I evened out the bangs (which I plan on having her grow out again, but if she is going to have hair in her eyes, it is going to be evenly in her eyes. I know. I probably should have left it alone, but I just couldn't help it.) And then I had to frame her face a little because of what she cut. Lastly, I trimmed up the back to all one length. Overall, I like it. It looks healthier, but I still miss her longer hair.

And I will leave you with Leo with the box...again.....




The boxes are now in the recycling. Sorry Leo. They don't match my decor.

Date Night

I have to reiterate.....My husband rocks!!!

Last night Dave and I had our first date night since, I believe, our last anniversary. I know it has been too long, but I have a hard time leaving my babies. I had planned on taking Dave to Outback Steakhouse (because I had a gift card for there from filling out a survey). We went there and Dave surprised me by having this on the table:

He went there earlier in the day to drop off the roses and the card so they would be sitting at the table waiting for me.

Then we had the most beautiful sunset:
I love all of the colors in the sky. It was such a wonderful night!

Leo Walking

Leo now can get himself up and walk with a walker proficiently. We are so proud of him! I can't believe my 8 month old is so close to walking by himself!





Here is Alaina reading the TV Guide. She looks like she is getting so old too!

Well, I have to go and get ready for my date tonight!!! This is Dave and my first date since Leo was born. I hope everyone has as great of a night as I do!

My husband rocks!!

Not only did he watch the kids while I went to a movie this afternoon (by myself!!!) but he is cooking dinner with the kids too. This afternoon he watched the kids while I went to watch The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II. I have wanted to see that movie since it came out. A year and a half ago Laura got me the set of books that the movie is based on for my birthday. Later, I watched the first movie and then when I saw the preview for the second one, I immediately called Laura to tell her that they were coming out with the second movie. It was really cute. I wish I still lived by Laura so that we could go and watch it together! Anyway, it was awesome to be able to get away to take a break. It was the first time I had been away from Leo for any length of time. He did really well. They also both did really well in nursery at church today. Since we moved they didn't want to stay in the nursery without us there. We both got to see a complete, uninterrupted sermon for the first time since we moved. Now, Dave is cooking up bacon to make grilled turkey and bacon sandwiches for dinner. We should only have 1 or 2 meals left from the turkey we made on Friday. We have been eating left-overs all weekend. (Everything turned out great by the way! I didn't mess up any part of the meal! WooHoo!) Have I mentioned lately that I have the greatest husband in the world!

Here is Dave showing Alaina how to use the tongs:
Leo was watching on.
Yesterday Alaina asked me to take pictures of her. For the first picture she fell over in the chair right as I was taking the picture. She wasn't hurt by the way.
This is how she smiles for the camera. She closes her eyes because she doesn't like the flash.
I have to take her by surprise to get her eyes open.
Making funny faces. (Guess who taught her that.....Grammy...)

And Alaina about ready to take the camera away from me.Hope you are all enjoying your extended weekend. 2 weekends from now we are going to an airshow. The Blue Angels and some other groups are coming to our area. Hopefully Grandpa and Grammy Johnston are able to come and see them with us! We have already told Alaina about the show and she is really excited!

Sleeping Baby

Because some days the bed is just too far away.......and I love to watch my babies sleep.

By the way, please ignore my messy well played in living room.

Our Anniversary

So, yesterday was Dave and my 4th anniversary. We didn't do too much because we had Jasmine and Trevor spending the night. We are however going out to eat together (ALONE!!!) on Monday to celebrate. Yesterday I also had 2 other neighbor kids over at my house. I was brave enough to let 5 kids finger paint at my kitchen table. It was a remarkable success. We had no tears and no huge messes. No paint fights and no paint on my ceiling. And I had 5 content kids for over an hour. Well worth the messy table. Here they all are finger-painting.


Alaina tried to pick up the paint by pinching it.
Trevor brought over one of his old firetrucks for Leo. It was a huge hit with both kids and the dog.
Bandit was just as fascinated as Leo was!
Tonight I have been ambitious and I'm making a full turkey dinner. Somehow it is 4:30 and I have nothing to do. The potatoes are pealed and sitting in water. The rolls are rising. Green bean casserole is on the stove waiting to be put in. Olives ('cause it isn't a turkey dinner without olives) and cranberry sauce is in the fridge chillin'. Turkey is in the oven and freshly basted (with my new baster---how fun is that!! Dave used mine to squirt transmition oil into the moped and I told him he could use it if he bought me a new one). Now all I have to do is wait to take out the turkey, make gravy, put things in the stove and make the potatoes. Should be easy. Let's just hope my rolls turn out better this time than they did last time (I forgot to take off the cling wrap when I put it in the oven...) and the green bean casserole cooks all the way through (I didn't know that you had to cook the beans before you made the cassarole or use canned...)

I'll let you know how my dinner turned out next time I have pictures to post!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy 29th birthday Daddy! I think he had a good day. He picked out a new hybrid golf club and a new net thing to hit his golf balls into (I have a picture of it on the July 23rd post) a while ago for his birthday present. I wanted him to have most of the summer to enjoy it. This evening he wanted to go to Dairy Queen for dinner and bring home an ice cream cake. He made things pretty easy for me seeing as I didn't have to cook or get him a present for today. All I really had to do was to give him his card. Somehow I managed to mess that up. I gave him his anniversary card instead of his birthday card. My excuse was that I bought and wrote them out at the same time (seeing as our anniversary is tomorrow) and I got them mixed up. He was a good sport about it. I took back the anniversary card and he'll get it again tomorrow.

Here he is with his birthday cake:

Alaina helped him blow out his candles. This is the first year that the number if candles didn't match his age. 29 is just too many candles to light. The first one I lit would have burned out before we got done singing. Oh, and yes, it's like 80 degrees and yes, Alaina is wearing a winter hat. She found it, put it on, and didn't want to take it off. I didn't feel like fighting, so she wore the hat tonight.
I think Alaina enjoyed the cake!
Earlier today Alaina was reading to Leo. It was so cute!
Happy birthday Dave!!

Alaina's Picture

Here are my newest pictures of Alaina. I posted a new one for Leo yesterday and realized I should really have an updated picture of Alaina. I put the black and white version of one of these pictures on the sidebar. I'm trying to figure out which one I like better. Any input would be great!!



Carolynn had asked to see a picture of some of my pottery. Most of it is at my parent's house because the stuff I had was stolen when our storage unit got broken into. Here is one of the sets I have left.

We're Home!

We had a great weekend with Haley and Zach and now we are home again! I wish we could have stayed longer but Dave needed to work and I need to babysit. Now that we are back I'm also on the lookout for a pottery wheel. I think Dave might make me a kick wheel, but in the meantime I'm on the lookout for a used one. He hasn't been able to find any plans for one on the internet but we have hopes that he can find plans at the library.

Anyhow, this is the one and only picture I took at Haley's reception. She was able to get Leo to sleep by rocking him.

Leo climbed on my lap.
Here is a picture of Alaina playing with the firetruck set that me and my sisters as well as my Dad (I think!) played with as kids.
Alaina and Leo played with this horse that used to be at my Great-Grandma Patefield's house.
This is one of Leo's favorite ways to lay.
Haley with Leo sleeping (again!) right before we left to come back home.

We had such a great time seeing everyone! It is so nice to be around family!