Happy 1st Birthday, Finn!

Happy 4th Birthday, Ruby

Today, Ruby turns 4! Holy moly. She is getting old. I love this girl so much and it is so much fun being a part of her life.

Happy Birthday, Ruby Ann.

Love,
Your Godparents

My Best Friends Wedding

Well the actual wedding won't be for a few more months (June 4th of 2011 to be exact), but ALISSA AND NICK ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!

I'd like the share my top 10 favorite memories I've had with Alissa (although I'm sure I've missed a few).

10. Our choir took a trip to Toronto our junior year of high school. On the bus ride there, Alissa had on these huge head phones and was in a daze. I was bored out of my mind, so I took her head phones off and placed them on my ears because I wanted to hear what she was jamming to. The only sounds I heard were gun shots. Alissa was listening to some absurd rap album. I gave her the most disgusted look and switched seats.

9. In junior high, going to one of our softball practices, Alissa decided to take a short cut and hop the 10 foot fence. Of course she couldn't really hop it, so she climbed it, but her leg got stuck at the top and completely tore up her knee. I've never seen anything else like that in my life, and I never want to again.

8. Junior year of high school some of my girlfriends and I slept in a tent outside at my parents house and were swimming all night. Alissa had an apple and she was showing it to our friend Kelly who was in the pool. Alissa leaned a little too far and she fell into the pool. Alissa is allergic to chlorine. (There may or may not have been alcoholic beverages consumed during this camp out).

7. In college, we decided to make Alissa's boyfriend at the time a video of Alissa lip syncing his favorite song. What a lucky guy, right? We (about 4 of us girls) then thought it would be funny to make a girls video. We got all dressed up, set up the camera and played dance music. We did about four songs, and in between every song we took a shot of the cheapest, nastiest vodka you could ever imagine. Skol vodka to be exact.  By the fourth song, we were all a hot mess - in our own worlds dancing. There were also candles lit and the curtain we had in the background started on fire. HAHA. Well, when we were finished, we decided to go to a house party. As we were crossing the street, I slipped on some ice and my legs flew out from underneath my body and I had the biggest wipe out of my life. This of course was at one of the busiest intersections in St. Cloud. About three people who were in their cars pulled over to ask if I was ok. I can't remember if we made it to that party or not!

6. Alissa and I had so many softball tournaments during all of the years we played together. This one tournament, I went with her family - actually it was just her dad who brought us. Of course, I got my period during the tournament - so in between games Alissa's dad had to run to the gas station to buy me a box of tampons. I've never lived that one down. Thanks Rob.

5. One time in high school, Alissa came to church with my family. Alissa is not Catholic and doesn't really know how things "work" there. Well about half way in between the service, ushers usually pass around baskets for donations. For some reason church was really crowded that day, so one of the ushers came up to Alissa and asked her to help pass around the basket. Alissa politely said to him, I'm sorry I don't go here. He didn't seem to care and just stared at her with a blank look and handed Alissa the basket. So there she was, passing around the basket, as clueless as could be. I was just dying inside. I don't think she ever came to church with me again.

4. Our first high school girls Christmas dinner, Alissa took her cup filled with water and placed it over her mouth. She sucked a little too hard and it got the entire cup stuck on her face around her mouth. Her lips started swelling up and she started panicking. She looked at me with her eyes as huge as can be. The entire table was roaring of laughter and I was almost peeing my pants. She finally pulled it off and it made this huge GUNG sound and water flew everywhere. We were all crying we were laughing so hard. Her mouth had black and blue marks around it for a while I think.

3. Having Alissa be my maid of honor meant so much to me. I loved the speech she gave at our reception and I loved everything she did for me on our wedding day.

2. I love having Alissa as Finn's Godmother. She is so involved in my life, in my kids life - I am so happy that we chose her and that she accepted. Finn is one lucky guy.

1. But my favorite memory with Alissa was created about three weeks ago. Alissa and Nick came over to our house and showed us her engagement ring and told us the story of how it happened. And then with tears in her eyes, Alissa asked me to be her Matron of Honor. My heart bursted with joy and I screamed OF COURSE!!!!!! and gave her the biggest hug of my life. I feel so honored to get to stand up right next to Alissa and watch her become Mrs. Nick Kling.

Congratulations Alissa and Nick. We love you so much.

Merry Christmas 2010!

We had a FABULOUS Christmas 2010.

It all started Christmas Eve morning. Our doorbell rang at 8:05 AM, and Tom and I were both so confused. We were all still sleeping, which is very rare nowadays. Tom ran downstairs to answer the door and to our surprise my parents had bought us a SNOWBLOWER for Christmas! For those of you who do not live in Minnesota, this is a huge present. Especially since this December has been the snowiest month in history. Tom was so excited. He snowblowed (is that a word?) a few of our neighbor's driveways. It was a wonderful way to start the holiday.

We try to make Christmas Eve morning all about Jack, since it is his birthday. Which by the way, is SO much more confusing and harder than you could ever imagine. Like explaining holidays isn't hard enough to a child, try throwing a birthday in the mix. He'll never know anything different though. So him and Tom went sledding all morning and played outside while Finn and I played inside. We opened a few presents at my parent's house before heading over to my Grandma and Grandpa Loney's house for the annual Christmas Eve dinner. Santa then came to our house and ate all of the cookies and milk we left out for him, we opened his gifts and then were off to Tom's parent's house for brunch and more presents. Then after naps, we headed over to my parent's house for more santa gifts. My boys were extremely spoiled this year and got so many amazing gifts. Tom and I were pretty spoiled too. I've always loved Christmas time, but seeing it through your child's eyes has to be one of the greatest gifts ever. Enjoy the picture overload!



My aunt Liz brought some antlers for the kids to wear on Christmas Eve.



Here are the twins, Hannah and Brooke!







My Boys


The Loney family sang Christmas carols on Christmas eve and was led by these lovely folks:




Christmas Morning (don't you LOVE the matching jammies?)


I love these two pictures of the boys:




My sister-in-law, Teri, helping her daughter, Ari, open up gifts on Christmas morning



I have a feeling these two are going to get into some mischief when they get a little older:







My beautiful niece, Ariana



We didn't get a family Christmas picture taken this year, but here was the picture we used for our family Christmas card:


And here are some other pictures from that day, I haven't been able to put them online since they were used as a few Christmas presents this year :-) Thanks for taking some of these pics, Teri!!!









I hope that all of you had a very Merry Christmas! My Christmas celebrations aren't over quite yet. Tomorrow me and five of my girlfriends are getting together for our tenth annual Christmas feast. I feel so blessed to have found such amazing friends! We are spread out across the WORLD now, so it's pretty incredible when all six of us can get together. I am SO. EXCITED.

C is for Cookie

This weekend, I baked. I baked more cookies than I ever baked in my entire life. And to my surprise, they ALL turned out. I've never been a great baker before, and most of these cookie recipes were pretty basic. And I LOVE having cookies in my house. I take that back - my mind likes knowing I have homemade cookies in my house, my body hates them (because I can't stop eating them). I even froze some individual bags so I could give them to my friends and neighbors, otherwise I'm afraid we'd eat them all.

My first batch: Peanut Butter Blossoms (these aren't the exact recipes I used, I got my recipe out of a cookie book called The Cookie Bible).





My next batch: Mocha Crinkles - YUM






And last but not least I tackled my mother-in-laws famous cookies, called butter riches. They are seriously to die for. I think I've tried making these at least 3 times and they never turn out the way hers do. Tom always gets mad because he is seriously obsessed with these cookies. But today, my friends, I did it. Maybe Jack was my good luck charm!










This weekend we had our first Christmas celebration with Tom's extended family. It was SO MUCH FUN! There were four kids there and they are all at a really fun age. We had an amazing dinner and the kids were spoiled with some great gifts.

Jack also went sledding with my brother. Here is a picture, I've got it on video too - but I haven't uploaded it to YouTube yet. The rope broke from the sled, so we used an extension cord. Ha. Whatever works, right?



Here's to hoping this week flies by :-)

Jack's 3rd Birthday Party / Snowmygawd

We will always remember the blizzard of 2010 because it was Jack's third birthday party!!!! Luckily three families and both sets of grandparents made it to our house to celebrate with Jack. Although we were planning on having 14 kids over to our house, 6 was a great number! Jack had so much fun. It was an insane snow storm here. Here are some pictures to remember the day:

Tom and Finn


Me and Finn, Jack wouldn't come out into the yard. Maybe it's because he couldn't walk in the two feet of snow.


Here is Tom shoveling with Jack. When Jack sees snow blowers, he thinks people are mowing the snow. So he insists on having his lawn mower to help daddy.



Finn didn't last too long outside considering his boots and mittens came off! So we played inside and warmed up.



Here are the party hats I made for the kids. There were also gift bags with truck stickers, rubber duckies, and kazoos.



The yummy cookie cake! We also had cupcakes!


Singing happy birthday


Blowing out the candles




The birthday boy! I can't believe he's going to be THREE in less than two weeks.


I don't think that Jack will remember this birthday. But whenever people talk about the blizzard of 2010 we can tell Jack all about his third birthday party.

Now that I can check this birthday party off my list - the next thing is to finish Christmas shopping and to bake a TON of cookies! I'd really like to make a bunch for some of our awesome neighbors.

Oh and a shout out to Tom's brother Eric - it's his birthday today! And then my brother's birthday is this Thursday. December isn't busy at all.....we love it!!!

The dreaded age of three

Whoever came up with the term terrible twos, obviously didn't have a three year old at that time. Jack isn't even three yet, and it's already proving to be one of the most challenging ages. My friends and other moms have always told me how challenging three is, and obviously I didn't doubt them - it's just one of those things you really don't get until you are experiencing it first hand.

At three years old, Jack can fully communicate. He knows what he should and should not be doing. So when he misbehaves, it's SO frustrating. Everything is a power struggle with him. And his attitude and snottiness is driving me crazy. I find myself already saying the phrases I always hated hearing from my mom. "Because I said so. I can only do one thing at a time. LEAVE ME ALONE" ha ha just kidding about the last one, kind of. But with that being said - there are some things he does that melt my heart completely. Like when he says, I love you mommy. I love you so much. Or when I tuck him in at night, and forget to say his prayers, before I walk out of the room - he will remind me that we forgot to say his prayers. Or when he says please and thank you without me asking him to do so.

And today, the umpteenth day that he hasn't napped, I went upstairs to his room and laid in his bed with him. He asked me to sing twinkle twinkle and scratch his back, so I did. In about 3 seconds - he was snoring. His hand was all contorted and squishing his nose, but he was just out like a light. I had a million things to do (finish working, continue cleaning the house, put the laundry away...I mean finally, the monster is sleeping) but I just laid there staring at him, soaking it all up. Because there will come a day when he doesn't fall asleep with just the scratch of his back. He won't want his mom in his room. I just remember that for good times and bad - it won't be like this for long.

Jack's 3rd Year Video

In honor of Jack's THIRD birthday party being this Saturday, I thought I would share with you his third year video. I love making these slideshows. Somehow my original was copyright blocked on youtube so I had to change the first song (LAME). My favorite part is the middle section, you will see why.

Enjoy!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Funny Videos

Here is a video I took this morning of Finn pushing Jack. It's quite hilarious. He may be tiny, but he is mighty strong :-) (you might want to pause the music that automatically plays at the bottom of the blog, sorry I just didn't feel like taking away my Christmas music)!





This next video is short and sweet. Nothing special happens in it, but you get a glimpse of the boys' personalities. First you have Jack in his own world, but then he rushes to his brother's side for a quick hug. Then you have Finn thinking about walking, but just not caring. Then he starts to crawl and soon enough he's on a mission - loud and just b-lining it for the Christmas tree. Once I saw how this video ended I was cracking up. Welcome to my world is what I like to call this one:

Fun Songs

We sing songs ALL. DAY. LONG. Most of them are the typical songs - itsy bitsy spider, patty cake, ring around the rosey, row row row your boat. But there are a few really fun ones that we have learned at school and I thought I'd share them with you all (you might know them), since I know a lot of you have wee little ones of your own. You will have to just add your own little melody because I'm not recording myself singing for you all.

Elephant Song
One elephant went out to play, out on a spider's web one day
He had such ENORMOUS fun (make a huge circle with your hands)
That he called for the other elephants to come

HEY ELEPHANTS (scream this really loud)

(then pat on the floor like a stampede of elephants are coming

Repeat for as long as you want (two elephants, three, four up to 100 if you want). HA

Bumble Bee Song
I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee (have your hands cupped together and swaying them)
Won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee
bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (hold your hands up to your ear to hear it buzzing)
OUCH! it stung me (jump and let your hands open)

If Jack doesn't nap during the day, he will just sing up in his bed for 2 hours, well that or read books. These are two of his favorite songs right now though.

In other news: Potty training is going great. Jack is really getting the hang of it. We were at Tom's hockey games last week and he told us he had to go during the game. I was impressed. He's not a fan of pooping on the toilet yet, he usually saves that for nap time or bedtime. He also sits on the toilet, but faces the back seat of the toilet. Therefore, I still need to hold him. I'm not sure how I'm going to get away from doing this. I'll take holding him on the toilet verses emptying the potty chair any day though! Any suggestions?

Our Christmas decorations are up, our advent wreath is made, and a few presents are wrapped and ready to go. We still need to get our new lights on the outside of our house too. Pictures will be up later. For now I'm kicking it into birthday mode. Jack's 3rd birthday party is in less than two weeks! We need to get rid of Bailey for that day. Any takers? :-)

PS - enjoy the Christmas music I added on here!

Monday, Monday

Happy Monday!

I have been SO bad with laundry lately. But what annoys me the most about laundry, besides the folding and putting away of the clothes, is how EVERY matching pair of the boy's sock somehow gets eaten by our machine. Seriously, look:



These guys have been riding solo for over three weeks now. WHERE DO THEIR MATCHING ONES DISAPPEAR TO? Seriously. I'm giving them one more week, then I'm just going to throw them away.

On another note. We are going cold turkey on diapers with Jack. I've gotten some great ideas from the mom's in our ECFE class and a lot of them have said how pull ups don't really teach your kid much about potty training. I completely agree. They are a lot easier to use when first getting into potty training though. But after a while, Jack continued to pee in the pull ups just like diapers. So we are going full force. I'm planning on cleaning up a lot of accidents and we are wearing old pants the whole week. I was going to let him just be naked - but it's FREEZING! If I had to leave the house to go somewhere, I'd probably put him in a pull up though, I'm not that brave. Well at least not yet!

Finn is taking more and more steps every day. Yesterday he was up to 10! He's a machine. We are SO excited for Thanksgiving. And I'm also excited to hit up Black Friday. My mom and I haven't decided where we are going yet. But it's going to be so fun!

Chloe Mae Blair

Happy Birthday (yesterday), Chloe! Our good friends Kelly and Chuck Blair welcomed their THIRD daughter into the world yesterday. Little Chloe Mae joins her two sisters, Ruby Ann (our God Daughter) and Hailey Joy.  I wanted to get this post up soon because we've got some out of state/country friends who I'm sure are dying to see pictures of the sweet baby girl. So enjoy them. She is just a little munchkin and is the sweetest thing in the world.

 

Auntie Alissa


Auntie Molly







The only thing more exciting than one of your best friends having a baby, is being able to watch that baby grow up and having your kids be friends. I'm dreading the day when my boys and the Blair girls realize what cooties are and refuse to hang out with one another. Oh well by that time, the kids will be in school full time and Kelly and I will actually get to hang out during the days ALONE. And by that time maybe some of our other good friends will be at home mommies too and we can go play with that baby! I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

Congratulations Chuck, Kelly, Ruby, Hailey and Chloe. Your family is PERFECT!