A Visit from the Grandparents

The last two weekends in January brought us visitors from home...the grandparents! First to come were Grammy (Kim) and Grandpa Brett, bearing gifts of a chocolate covered strawberry bouquet from Edible Arrangements. This store is super cute, and Grammy has promised a princess themed edible bouquet on the next visit. If the strawberries brought this big smile from Olivia, what will the princess bouquet bring???


Joe, Grammy, and Olivia decorating our heart shaped cake "suckers" (cake on a stick). The sucker itself was a horrible flop - they fell right off of the stick immediately, but the cake was still yummy and decorating was fun.

Grammy spends time with Ethan.

Bedtime always leads to many stories.

No, this is not another bedtime photo, but try telling Grammy and Grandpa Brett that!

Grammy and Grandpa Brett spent several hours with Olivia at the Children's Museum so Joe, Ethan, and I could get some serious clothes shopping done. Here, Olivia and Grandpa Brett have a musical duet together. I'm sure it was lovely.

Olivia and Grandpa Brett planting a garden together.

After Grammy and Grandpa Brett's weekend, it was time for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa. Of course, that always means more cooking lessons for Olivia from Grandma. This time was learning to make cinnamon twists. They have made pies, cookies, pretzels, and bread together. We are hoping that Olivia carries on our love of baking, and thus far she seems to really enjoy working in the kitchen.

Bathtime fun with Grandpa and Ethan.

Grandpa teaching Olivia the basics of baseball. You just never know what these two will do when they get together. This time they invented a game called "bonk the belly". Basically Olivia would "bonk" her head into Grandpa's belly and he would fall to the ground. Over, and over, and over...

More Grandpa and Ethan time. Again, you just never know what games Grandpa will come up with.

Grandma and Ethan. Not only did this trip bring alone time with the grandparents and the grandkids, but it also brought alone time for Joe and I. We actually went out to eat at a very nice restaurant ALONE for the first time in NINE months while the grandparents babysat. Plus, we actually didn't talk about the kids, we talked about the second most common topic these days...househunting.

More sleeping time. It appeared to be a theme with all of the grandparents. Do the kids wear them out?

The following are just some random shots of the kids. Olivia, Ethan, and Joe pretending to be stuffed animals.

I'm proud of my healthy eating kids. How many people have a kid that LOVES hummus and any veggie to dip into it (except tomatoes - Olivia's one aversion), will eat fruit like candy, and requests food like guacamole, edamame, lima beans, and salad (salad can actually be used as a bribe in our house). Her healthy eating helps Joe and I to keep eating healthy as well.

Even Ethan enjoys his broccoli.

This is how Ethan helps me in the kitchen. He destroys my tupperware cabinet while I fix a meal. I guess that is a fair deal.

Life Moves Fast, And So Do The Kids

Well, both the kids are mobile...though in totally different ways. Here are some videos to show you.

Here is Olivia dancing at the recent wedding. She pretty much led the dancing festivities all night.



The big man is a full fledged crawler. Kate isn't happy that he now crawls away from her rather than toward her.

Did We Accidentally Move to the North Pole?

Iowa City had 19.6 inches of snow for the month of December, and that was not even close to their previous record. The meteorologists are predicting another 10-15 inches more for the rest of the winter. Today is a HIGH of -1* and a low of -10*, and that does not include the wind chill factor (currently feels like -17* at 3pm). I knew that Iowa was in a different weather system than Springfield, but I wasn't expecting this!

What else can we do but have some fun in the snow? This is Olivia posing with "Mrs. Frosty". Why is this snowman a girl? "Because she has on a girl's hat. A boy wears a baseball hat." Oh. Don't worry, this picture wasn't taken today. Otherwise she would be so bundled up that you would only see her eyes.

Here Comes the...Flower Girl

Don't get Joe started on Olivia being a bride one day, but he was so proud to see her as a flower girl. My first cousin Erin asked Olivia to be in her wedding, and of course she was thrilled to be a "flower princess" in a "castle" (church). It is all in how you phrase things to her. This was a great honor that has a long history. I was a flower girl (around age 4) in Erin's parent's wedding, Erin's younger sister Sarah was the flower girl in our wedding, and now Olivia is a flower girl in Erin's wedding.

The family posing prior to the wedding on January 29 in Terre Haute, IN. When everyone is dressed up and happy, you have to take advantage of that and get a family picture!


Olivia posing with the bride before the big moment. Erin could not have been nicer to Olivia for this experience. Olivia was able to have her hair done at the same time as the "big girls", and Erin allowed Olivia to get dressed with her and her bridesmaids. That last bit was a thrill for Olivia - she loved watching them put on their beautiful dresses and she particularly loved Erin's veil. She will still talk about the veil 2 weeks later. The entire experience was magical for her.

Olivia showing off her flowers.

Waiting in the church for the big moment.

Olivia's big moment has arrived! She had quite a shocked look on her face when she saw the pews full of people. That was very different than how the rehearsal was the night before! However, she walked down the aisle without incident. The only little slip up that she had was once she reached the end of the aisle, Olivia did not see Joe waiting for her to take her to our seat. So Olivia turned back around and started walking back down the aisle. She made it 10 rows until she spotted Uncle Luke and he was able to get her into his pew. Every flower girl has to have a story like that, right?

Posing for pictures with bride Erin and groom Jason after the wedding.

I think that this picture is so adorable.

At the reception Olivia had the time of her life. She was on the dance floor as much as possible, and we had a difficult time keeping her off of it while Erin and Jason had their special dances. Here is Olivia bowing to her "prince" as Joe was called that day.

Joe with Ethan at the reception. Ethan hung in there really well despite the noise, strangers, and lack of a decent nap.

Olivia dancing with grandpa.

Olivia and I dancing. She danced non-stop for about 2 hours, and then asked to return to the hotel to go to bed. Olivia did beautifully all day, despite any fears that we may have had about her having an "I'm 3" moment.

Aunt Rachel, Ethan, grandma, grandpa, and great Aunt Patty showing off dance moves.

The conclusion to the end of a long day.

Christmas with the Kids

Joe actually wanted to name this blog "Before...". As in, before we returned to Iowa City to complete chaos. The reason that it took us a long time to post our Christmas blog is complicated, involving a crashed hard drive, leaking ceiling in Olivia's room, Kate's kidney stones, mold in Olivia's room, no phone service for 3 days, and Ethan's 102* temperature. All within 7 days. Anyway, we had a great time in Illinois for Christmas. We stayed in Litchfield, celebrating Christmas Eve with Joe's family in Edwardsville, and Christmas day with my family.

Grandpa bonding with Ethan. As of this photo before Christmas, Ethan was pulling up on any object he could with great ease. As of December 30, he began to crawl. He has become a very good crawler for his age, but luckily has yet to discover the ability to crawl AWAY from me, as he mainly crawls towards me. That will change soon enough. Now, I am shocked to say, he is beginning to show early signs of climbing and walking.

Mmmm...chex mix. That is a Christmas tradition with our family that began with my late Grandma Marian (she passed away from breast cancer in 1999). My mom promptly picked up the tradition and we will usually eat our way through 4 or more batches of the nicknamed "crunchy crack" as it is so addictive.

Yes, another gingerbread house. Olivia insisted that grandma's house needed to have one, too. This time, Uncle Luke and Beth were able/forced to join in the fun.

Cookie decorating time. Another family tradition that no one is exempt from. Each year some people (namely a certain husband of mine) complain about this, but then we all have fun (yes, Joe, we do) attempting to decorate more creatively than the previous years. You'll also notice that Olivia is wearing her Ariel princess dress. When at grandma's house, she rarely wears real clothes and spends the entire time in some sort of dress up clothes.

Ethan practicing for his cookie decorating debut next year!

All dressed up on Christmas Eve.

New sunglasses from Grammy. We think that she raided Elton John's closet.

Ethan provided much of the entertainment on Christmas Eve. Here he is opening his presents with daddy, Uncle David, soon-to-be Aunt Jen, and Uncle Tim.

Santa came one day early for Brennan with the gift of Rock Band. Once that gift was set up, everyone took their turns being rock stars. Here are Brennan, Joe, and David, with Olivia not so patiently waiting for her turn.

Olivia, Joe, and Grammy in their band. This is actually a fun game, and Olivia had a great time on the drums. I have promised Joe that upon our return to Springfield we will purchase a Wii, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band. I may never see him again after that.

Leaving cookies and a letter for Santa, and a carrot for Rudolph. Poor Ethan missed this moment due to being completely exhausted from the fun at Grammy's.

Twas the night before Christmas and all in the house were asked to read a bedtime story to Olivia. Here are Uncle Luke and Beth taking their turn.

Aunt Rachel and Uncle Thomas get their turn.

And of course grandma and grandpa take their turn reading to Olivia. As more people came into the house each night, her bedtime ritual became much longer.

Christmas morning has arrived! Reading the letter from Santa (Aunt Rachel and Beth...shhh!).

Olivia and Ethan posing prior to the absolute chaos of Christmas morning. And don't think for a minute that what you see are all of the presents that they received. Those are just the ones from Santa. Olivia may have been the only child on Christmas day to say "mommy, Santa brought me too many presents".

Olivia in her Barbie dress riding her new princess scooter. This Barbie dress was the one item that she consistently asked for all of December. I have no idea where she first saw it or why she wanted it so badly.

Ethan receives his first box of baseball cards. This is also an important family tradition - grandpa buys each of the guys a box of Topps every Christmas.

Olivia and Beth playing with new princess figures. Beth was great with the kids the entire vacation. She tolerated early wake up calls from Olivia (Beth was sleeping in the basement where the toys are kept), did art projects with Olivia, and was a great playmate.

And, finally, you have come to the last picture of this entry. I know it was a bit long, but thanks for sticking with it. This was taken the day after Christmas when we had a nice dinner with the kids, great Uncle Scott, great Aunt Donna, Beth, Luke, grandpa, grandma, great-grandpa Ed, and Marge. The crowns are from some Christmas "crackers" that hold crowns and toys.