Getting back to Normal

The holidays are passed as is our vacation, we are reluctantly getting back into our routine. We're trying to enjoy winter but there's not to much outside to enjoy! If its going to be cold and grey, it should at least snow and be pretty to look at!

Two weeks ago we were in Florida for 6 days and it was beautiful! Warm and sunny everyday... Our kind of vacation. The trip went great, it was the 4 of us as well as my mom, who was the "nanny", its so nice going on vacation with the kids knowing we get to have breaks and time for ourselves. Brooke did pretty good being cooped up in a small area on a plane, a minor 6 minute meltdown (my mother timed it!) after getting woke up by someone bumping into Kevin as she slept. Blake was awesome, he eats his snacks, watches his movies and plays with his toys, so content! 

Our vacation agenda went somewhat like what we did last year: arrive and settle in on Sunday,  Hollywood Studios on Monday, Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, Epcot on Wednesday and Animal Kingdom on Thursday and sadly home on Friday. 

Since we've been there quite a bit, I planned a few things they we've never done. We always stay at the Grand Floridian and we have never eaten at any of the restaurants there (besides the awesome room service and the "quick" service restaurant) so Monday morning we had breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, with Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderful and Mary Poppins. Blake loved it, and meeting all the characters, Brooke on the other hand was terrified of them! She would cry and cling to me. Poor baby! For the rest of us it was nice to see something new! Hollywood Studios was much the same as last year, we did go to the Indiana Jones show and the kids seemed to enjoy it. We got to see Chip n Dale, Blake was so happy to see them! Kevin took Blake on the Star Wars ride, and attempted to go on the Toy Story ride but it broke down while they were standing in the 90 minute long line. While they were going on rides Brooke and I went to Disney Junior Live on Stage, Brooke danced and clapped and waved the whole time! Her favorite part was the bubbles tho! We went back to the hotel early and the kids napped. Kevin and I went back to the park for the thrill rides, we also walked to the Boardwalk which we've never been too, it was neat too see. After that we went to Downtown Disney for some delicious Fultons and shopping! We had a great day and night!

Tuesday Blake had an appointment at The Pirates League, where they turn your kid into a pirate! He had a scar put on his face, a tattoo, and the whole costume! Blake was really quiet and shy, he didn't get much sleep the night before so he was bit outta of it! He was happy about the sword he got and the sword fight he got to have with a pirate! Brooke wore her Cinderella dress, she's too young to go to the Bibbi Bobbi Boutique but she still had to be a princess! And the ladies at the pirates thing doted on her, they painted her nails and played with her! We were able to go on most of the rides before heading back to the hotel for naps. Before we left the kids found the water area and burned off some energy running through it, it was a perfect Florida day! Blake loved the kids roller coaster and well all the rides! Brooke loved the Dumbo ride and the carousal. Once back at the hotel I took Brooke back to our room while Kevin got lunch with  Blake, when he got to our room his key didn't work, apparently he knocked quietly at first since Brooke was sleeping, then as I didn't answer he started pounding on the door and yelling at me through the door, while Blake was yelling for mommy to answer the door cause he had to pee! The housekeeper happened to see this and told Kevin it wasn't his room, Kevs insisted it was, so the lady opened the door to the empty room.... Cause my hubby was in the wrong building! Ha ha ha! All the buildings to the hotel look the same in his defense. However I think this was hilarious, especially as I sat and enjoyed a wonderful quiet lunch! After everything settled down we went back to Magic Kingdom and finished up all the things we wanted to do, Blake even went on his first big kid roller coaster, he laughed, giggled and screamed the whole time...it was a hit! 

We went to Epcot on Wednesday and spent all day there! I loved it, however it got too long for the kids and we had a few meltdowns along the way. We got to go to the aquarium, the Finding Nemo ride,  on Test Track, on Soarin', 2 boat rides as well as a quick walk through the countries. We ate at the Garden Grill restaurant, it was a revolving restaurant with Mickey, Pluto and Chip n Dale. The food wasn't very good but the experience was fun! (Trying new things :-) We then headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!

Animal Kingdom is where we spent our last day, we went on the safari ride, saw some animals, went to the Lion King show as well as some Dinosaur rides. It was a nice easy day, we were able to see everything we wanted and head back to the hotel early. The kids napped/ rested while Kevin and I snuck out and rented a 2 person little boat and cruised the lagoon around our hotel, it was a blast! (Again something new!) We definitely want to do that again! After our "cruise" we went and had drinks at the pool bar, it was so relaxing! We did some more shopping, then grabbed the kids and back to Magic Kingdom we went! Blake loved the Buzz Lightyear ride, we went on it a couple more times. We also went on the People Mover, my mom and I discovered it on Tuesday so I wanted to bring Kevin on it. Again something new and it's a relaxing ride and you get a good look at the park! Sadly we had to head back to the hotel, we took the boat back to our hotel, the kids loved it!


Blake and Tow Mater!

 

Both kids got a Duffy Bear, he's the Disney Bear!
 

Happiness!

Brooke loved the horsey and cried when the ride was all done!

Cold water on a hot day!

Blake and Brooke loved running around!

Cute!

 



Meeting Duffy for the first time!

 

Donald duck is number 1!

Fianlly not scared of Mickey!

One of our only pix of us from our vacation!

Friday we packed up and headed home, much to mine and Blake's dismay! Blake wanted to stay for 55 more days, me too! The flight home went good, Brooke slept most of the time and only fussed a bit, Blake of course was awesome! Home sweet home we are!

 Blake turned 4 last Wednesday! My baby boy is a big boy so he tells me! The Sunday we came home we had his birthday party, it was Spider-Man themed! He had a cupcake "cake" which was awesome, definitely doing that again! Anyway he got a lot of neat gifts: remote control car, soccer ball and basketball, Power Ranger toys, Jake and the Never land Pirates ship and accessories, a tractor and clothes and slippers...which he and Brooke loved! We went and got Brooke a pair too! Blake also had a daycare party with his friends. The day of his actual birthday I made him special chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancakes with sprinkles...yikes! We took him to Apple bee's for his birthday dinner, he loved the treat he got but was shy when they sang to him, in fact whenever he was sung to he got shy! We came home and he opened 2 more gifts, a marshmallow gun and a Mr. Potato head! One last cupcake before bed and off to dream land for him! I think he had a great 4th birthday!

4 years old already!

An attempt at a family pic!

Blake is still into ninja turtles and power rangers as well as cars and weapons, he loves to fight with swords and chase you! He loves to lounge and watch movies and will beg or whine every night for a movie! Sorry kiddo Friday and Saturday night only! He has a huge imagination and loves to pretend, he's always coming up with things to play with his friends, I love watching and listening to him. He also loves books and story time. Blake almost has his phone number memorized and we're still working on writing his name (no patience!) and better listening ears! Last weekend Blake and Kevin had a boys day and went to Monster Jam, sounds like they had fun...Blake has been renacting what he saw with his monster trucks all week! Next up for Blake is pre-k registration, some day he's excited to go school other days he doesn't cause he wants to stay with mommy!

Brooklyn! What can I say? She's the sweetest little spitfire! Her personality is a blessing, she's silly and sweet, a ball of energy with a smile always. She's quiet and loud and a bit dramatic, all girl is our princess!  Brooke loves to play in Blake's room, with her 2 baby dolls and blankie by her side, she loves her purse and baby stroller to haul around all of her little treasures she finds. She loves shoes, especially her little "ugg" boots, she loves to go places, shopping, daddy's shop or grandmas, she just likes to be out and about! Brooke is constantly making messes and gets into everything she's not suppose to be in, like scaling the gate, going up stairs, closing the gate at the top of the stairs and going to play in her room while I did daycare dishes! She loves playing with her daycare friends and trying to keep up with her brother. Brooke is saying a few more words and still tries really hard to say certain things, she says: mama, dada, ba (Blake), hi, di (bye), juice, please, kitty, this, horsey, yay, this and no. She babbles a lot and can do most of the animal sounds we learn at circle time. Brooke was a mama's girl on vacation and is back to being a daddy's girl at home. She's still not much of a snuggler but gives lots of a hugs and kisses and will sit and read her princess or pooh book. 

Such a happy girl!

 

Kevin has been spending time in his new shop, there's still a few things he needs to get but all in all he has just about everything to make it a functioning shop! Just in time, he can now get his cars ready for the season before his busy season at work hits. Kevin has changed his plans...he is racing in Florida this year, as of right now I'm not sure how long he will be gone, but he will be racing for someone down there. Which is awesome as a lot less to do with not having to haul our stuff down! Kevin, his dad, Jim and Matt Leer and me are the lucky ones that get to leave wintry Wisconsin for the sunshine state.

I've been staying very busy, like always! I'm a still on a mission to "re-do/redecorate" our house. I find that now that I'm getting older my tastes are changing, a lot of things that we have I picked out when I was 19 and for a different house. Lots of ideas, just need to put them all together. I did end up redoing all the decor in my master bath, as I wanted it to be "spa" like and relaxing, so now its all cream and pale green....I love it! Next up I want to do our master bedroom, I found some beautiful bedding that I loved but I'm not sure that I want to spend that much money on it as it is expensive and my comforters seem to wear out quickly. I've also been buying a few things for the kitchen/living room area, those will be my last rooms to do. And I'm kind of lost as to what direction I want to go in. I've even considered hiring a designer to help :-/  Other than that I've been busy with work, all of the kids keep me busy, it just makes for long days and I'm beat by 8! I got a Kindle for Christmas and I've been reading a TON, that was probably one of the best gifts I've ever gotten. Last weekend Brooke and I went to Duluth for a little r&r and shopping. We had a great time and I think she really enjoyed being the "only" kid. I wish I would have stayed longer but dang it was nasty cold up there. Brrr! My mom and I are going to be planning a weekend getaway just the 2 of us, sometime in the next month, I can't wait as I am a girl that needs her mama.

Have a wonderful week!

 

Why blog?

This is a question I often ask myself when I have "update blog" on my to do list. Is it really something I need to do? Is it worth spending so much time on? Do I enjoy it enough?

My answer is yes and no! I like highlighting certain events in our life, I like seeing a picture and having a story about it. I don't like the amount of time I spend on it though, as I don't have enough spare time as it is. I enjoy it enough, I enjoy it most when I go back and look at older posts and remember the memories and seeing how our family has grown.

I don't blog for others but for myself and my family,  my hope for this blog is to print it out and give a copy to each of my kids when they are older. Something fun to read and look back on for them.

Well anyway now that I've convinced myself to continue to work on my vacation and family update post, time to get to it!

Enjoy the day....the cold will be gone soon!

Welcome 2013!

Happy New Year! I'm ready for a new year, not that 2012 was bad, it just wasn't the greatest year, kind of nice to start out new and hope for a better year this year! Although I don't make any resolutions as I never follow through with them or I forget them :-)

December was a wonderful month full of Christmas cheer, birthdays and time spent together! As usual it went way to quickly. Anyway the first weekend in December we drove out to Hendricks Mn for our friends annual Harvest Party, we've never been out there before, it was a blast! It took about 5 hours or so to get there and that was driving through a snowstorm! We got there a few hours before the party started and were able to tour some of their farming operation as well as there barn and horse arena. The place was beautiful and really neat to see! (Kevin FINALLY understands why I want an arena and what I need done around my barn after seeing Chad and Pam's beautiful horse barn!!!!) The party was amazing, they had awesome food, cold drinks and the Johnny Holm Band playing, who I've never heard of before but they were really good. We ended up staying at a beautiful bed and breakfast. *Quick story about the B&B: Chad brought us to the bed and breakfast and Kevin and I remarked about how nice it was, he then said he would tell us what it used to be the next day. Well guess what it used to be.... a funeral home! I was a bit uncomfortable about it! LOL That must of been why all night Kevin kept my drink full!

Kevin's birthday was December 17th, we celebrated at home with a homemade cake that Blake decorated, he was pretty excited about it! (And for dinner we had sloppy joes and pasta salad, per Kevin's request...my man is easy to please!) The weekend before his birthday Kevin and I went to St. Paul and stayed at the St. Paul hotel and saw the play Elf. It was great to getaway! We had fun shopping and just being together!

The new race shop is all done! Kevin has been moving things in and organizing and doing whatever guys do in their garages for hours on end! Its been great to have him here more, the kids and I love it, especially when mommy needs a break and off to the garage they go to play :-)

Christmas was wonderful as always! Christmas Eve we went to our Church's service, first time for us, and we all enjoyed it for the most part. Brooke was a stinker! She sat still for 20 minutes and then would yell "hi" and babble really loud and would cry/scream if we made her stay by us or go get her when she walked away. Kevs and I spent a lot of time in the hallway with her! Blake was great and sat still and listened, he was such a good boy!!! Blake even sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and wanted to know if he was coming to our house for his birthday party! That night we hosted my side of the family and we had a great time, we ate good, laughed a lot and the kids loved opening gifts. Blake was hilarious he would open a gift and then yell so excitedly about what he got, it was cute! Brooke did good opening a few gifts, then she got bored and would play! Kids were in bed by 11, with milk and cookies left for Santa. Santa brought Blake the Ninja Turtles hideout and Brooke a kitchen, they were so happy! Christmas day afternoon was spent with Kevin's side of the family, it was wonderful! My mother in laws house is so beautiful especially at Christmas time that it makes for a cozy and merry day! The kids were super excited.... more presents! Needless to say we all had a a wonderful Christmas, the best part was time spent with family and the happiness in my kids' eyes!

My little loves!!

 

She new the princess gift was for her!

 

Ninja turtles!

 

New Years Eve was kind of thrown together, we really had no plans as most of our friends were staying in and we really never gave it much thought. Well then we thought we would go out and have dinner and drinks at the bar in town....romantic huh?! ;-) Then we decided to stay home with the kids, yet I did NOT want to cook! So we hopped in the truck and headed to the grocery store at 8:30 to get some crab legs and whatever else, we get to the store and decide we should go to the Mexican restaurant across the street...it wasn't busy! *(The kids already had dinner!!) Blake had a meltdown because he wanted to get the ice cream we promised him, in the store we go for cupcakes, ice cream, a sippy cup and wipes. Random! (I didn't bring my diaper bag or purse as this was suppose to be a quick trip!) We ended up at the Mexican restaurant at 9:00. We ate, headed home, kissed the kids good night and I was sleeping by 11! And that was our wild New Years! ha My how times have changed!!

Our vacation is fast approaching us! Woohoo, can't wait to leave the Wisconsin weather for some Florida weather! Sunshine, palm trees and flip flops, here we come! I'm not quite as prepared as I usually am, in fact I'm suppose to be packing and making lists for things I need right now...but I here I sit blogging!!!!

Not too much new with the kids. Blake is still very much into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, his Nerf guns and cars. He loves being outside as much as he can and counts down everyday until Friday and Saturday nights...those are his movie nights. His birthday is fast approaching us, and he is so excited to be the big 4. Brooke will be 18 months on Sunday and she is just the sweetest handful! She loves her baby dolls and blanket and books. She's very much a daddy's girl and loves to play/bug her brother. She says quite a few words, and tries so hard to say more, she babbles a lot! They're both happy and sweet, full of energy and they have all of my heart!

Other than our upcoming vacation we don't have much planned, Kevin and Blake plan on going to Monster Jam, a shopping trip/weekend in Duluth for me and the kids and hopefully a getaway to the Dells in February! I'm still working on redecorating the house, its work in progress! The kids bathroom and laundry room are done, our bathroom has been painted and all I need is new rugs. Next up is our bedroom, I'm not sure what I want in there yet....I'll get some ideas on pinterest!

Enjoy the day!