Around Here

I've been doing some reorganizing and redecorating around here lately and I thought I'd show you some fun stuff I've added to the walls.

Here is what is on our bathroom wall (sorry for the shadows)

I added this picture to Jack's room:

And here are a few of the walls downstairs in our family room:

I finally finished Finn's baby book. I decided to make his digital instead of actually scrapping like I did with Jack's. I LOVED doing this! It was so much quicker and more organized. Not to mention, I didn't have to go and print out all of the pictures.

Finn likes it too!

My mom said Finn reminded her of Dopey. HAHAHA. What?!?! But the sad thing is, I kind of see it:








I really don't think Finn has big ears at all. Maybe it's the cheeks. HAHAHA. Oh Finn.

And...Finn's curls are back:

We didn't think they would grow back after we cut them the first time, but they did. It gives him a nice mullet look. Maybe by halloween he can dress up as Billy Ray Cyrus.

Happy Happy Monday!

Loving

Things I am loving today:

• It's Friday! Enough said.
• We had ECFE (early childhood family education) this morning. I LOVE ECFE!!!! Did you know MN is the only state where ECFE is offered in every school district? That's pretty amazing. I have learned so much in these classes and I highly recommend that any of you with kids check out their classes, or even their playtime groups ($3)!
• I got my dress back for Alissa's wedding. Beautiful. I can't wait for June 4th!
• But the best news is that my brother is getting a service dog!!! He was matched with a Golden Retriever named Rio. He will begin his training with Rio in April and will graduate and get to bring him home a month or so after that. This is HUGE news and I'm so excited for my brother!

A recent conversation with my three year old while making dinner and watching Oprah:

Jack runs upstairs from playing

Jack: Who's that? (looking at the tv)

Me: That's Oprah

Jack: Who's Oprah?

Me: She's a talk show host

Jack: What's that?

Me: It's a job where they interview people on TV

Jack then runs back downstairs

Five minutes later, Jack runs back upstairs:

Jack: Is that Oprah? The black one?

Me: Yes, that's Oprah.

Jack: Why is she black?

Me: Because God made her that way.

Jack: That's pretty cool.

And he runs back downstairs. HA.

Elissa the Magnificent

Two posts in one day? Heck yes!

Today I got the best present in the mail EVER!!!! But first, you should hear the back story. This year for Christmas, my high school girlfriends and I got together for the tenth year in a row! All six of us were able to be there. Considering we are all spread across the WORLD nowadays, this is pretty rare that we all can make it. Anyway, we all bought a present to contribute for the dice game. There was this head warmer that Elissa bought and it was a hot item. Mainly, it was going back and forth between me and Jenny. Needless to say, I was the one who ended up with it. But being the kind, caring, generous person I am (I'm kidding) I decided to mail it to Jenny. Because let's face it, most of the time I'm running out the door like a chicken with my head cut off, I barely have time to throw on my coat. I thought Jen would get more use out of it in Denmark. Plus, I know how much she loves getting mail. I told her when she got it that she had to take some pictures of her wearing it and post them for all to see on facebook. Which by the way she did.

A few weeks pass and Elissa told me that she mastered crocheting a head warmer just like the one she had bought for the Christmas Feast. She asked what colors I liked and a few weeks later (today) I got this in the mail:

Is this not amazing or what? Sorry Jen, I like mine better :-)

Elissa is by far the most crafty person I know. She crochets things in like minutes, I swear. She has made the cutest hats and cocoons and all around her house you can see her amazing talents. Oh and did I also mention she's an incredible photographer? But the most amazing thing about Elissa is that she is the best mother and wife (she's a pretty good friend too). Her husband, Mike, is in the Navy and JUST got back from his fourth deployment over to Iraq. Elissa is NINE months pregnant and has an almost 4 year old and a two year old. Elissa is supermom. Elissa is amazing. Elissa is magnificent. (Mike is pretty cool too by the way - her sailor).

Thank you Elissa for taking time out of your super duper chaotic days to make me this amazing head warmer. I'm so happy that your family is whole again and I cannot wait until you have baby number THREE!!!

A Little Behind

I'm a little behind on my blogging. I haven't really felt motivated to blog for whatever reason and I went on a huge cleaning/organizing rant last week. Plus Jack had a fever for part of the weekend and Finn woke up from his nap yesterday with one, not fun. But hopefully it will pass soon. Finn is teething like crazy right now, so I'm sure that's part of it.

Tom took these pictures this weekend of Finn. I thought they were cute. Finn is obsessed with sitting in baskets and little confined spaces. It's so funny.

But today, we are doing a lot of snuggling, reading books, and watching cartoons.

Happy Friday!

I'm so excited that it's Friday, my eyes are bulging out of my head! Tom's last official high school hockey game is tomorrow! (for the JV team). This means we can start eating dinner together as a family of four again! Happy Weekend-ing!

Happy Heart's Day!

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day. It started out with a nice workout at Lifetime. The boys do great there now, thank goodness! Then after naps we played outside! The first time this year. Woop Woop. What was the first thing that Finn did? He booked it towards the street. It's going to be a fun summer, ha. Do they make baby gates for driveways? Enjoy the picture overload.

I saw a setup like this in a magazine, and thought it was so cute. You know it's 2011 when your candy hearts say "email me" and "text me" HA

Did you notice Finn's chapped cheeks? Nothing is helping. I've tried vaseline, super thick lotion, nothing works! Any suggestions? Oh and this is the last week of Tom coaching hockey this season. Hip Hip Hooray!

This and That and Birthdays

Finn is obsessed with this one toy Grandma and Grandpa Starkey gave him for his birthday. The middle section spins around and around and if you put a car in the middle, it will shoot it out. Finn likes it for other reasons...he fits perfectly in the middle section:

This morning I made Home Made Granola and it is delicious!!! I'm changing up my food habits, but that is a whole different blog post! While I was making this, Jack was begging to paint. So I let him and I decided to give Finn a paintbrush and construction paper as well. If you have little ones and don't want to deal with the mess of actual paint or watercolors, then just get a paintbrush wet and let them "paint" the construction paper. It is awesome. In the summertime, I bring out cups of water on the deck and let Jack paint the deck. Endless entertainment.

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday. It's also my Mother-in-Law's birthday. Happy Birthday. It's also my sister-in-law's birthday! Happy Birthday! Isn't that crazy? Another random fact about sharing birthdays - out of my 5 best friends from high school - four of us share birthdays. Two of us in January , Two in June, and then the other two are loners and have the day all to themselves :-) I love birthdays!

Happy Thursday.

Jump, Jump

The other night, Jack piled about 8 blankets at the bottom of the stairs. He then started jumping off of the stairs into the pile. He was having a blast. At first he started jumping off of the bottom step. Then slowly he would get more daring, the 2nd and the 3rd step. That was high enough for mom. He snuck in a few jumps off of the fourth step without me being able to stop him. Finn was watching and just laughing hysterically. This jumping phase doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. It makes me extremely nervous. Tom says I need to get used to it. I'm not so sure I can.

Molly and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I was so excited for this week to start. Over the weekend, I got a membership to Lifetime. It took me a good 2-3 weeks to actually make this decision. This is good for me, usually when I come to a decision on something, I act on it. So taking the time to think this through, weigh the pros and cons was huge for me. Tom and I went in yesterday and signed me up. I was a little apprehensive about how the boys would do in the Kids Area, but Jack has been doing so great with ECFE and separating I thought he'd really have fun. Plus with his brother there, I figured that would ease his nerves. I decided my first day, I would just do a quick workout. I figured it would be better if they paged me when I was on an elliptical vs in an actual class.

So this morning we woke up and ate breakfast. We talked about where we were going and what we would be doing. We got to Lifetime and in the kids area and Finn was off, running around, playing with everything and everyone in sight. Jack started screaming bloody murder immediately. Saying he wanted to go home, etc. I told the worker it was our first time and he should hopefully calm down. So I left. I got to the locker room and started to put on my running shoes on when I realized I grabbed two different shoes. You've GOT to be kidding me. Luckily, there was a right shoe and left shoe, so I just wore two completely different shoes. One was blue and one was silver. I hopped on the elliptical sans music just in case they paged me over the intercom. Five minutes into my workout, my name was being called over the speaker. Great. So I headed upstairs and saw that Jack was inconsolable. I sat with him for a little bit and then was told that parents are not allowed in the play area for more than 5 minutes. So after realizing Jack was not going to let me leave, we just packed up and headed home.

Unless you have gone through this before I really can't explain how I feel about this situation. It's not that I'm embarrassed, or that I even feel bad leaving Jack while he's crying. I'm just so frustrated. I understand that it was his first time at a new place. But all of these emotions from when we had separating issues in 2009 are coming flooding back. I really thought we were past this. And it's not like I can't go to the gym at night or on weekends, it's just that the main reason for joining this club was to have something else to do during the days. To socialize the kids more. To do something for me for once. And it just blew up in my face.

I'm not giving up. We will go again this week. And I'll just sit in the locker room for the first 10 minutes waiting to get paged. And I will try and try again as many times as I can before I throw in the towel. I just need Jack to find something he likes to do there or for one teacher to help calm him down. Because it will just take one good time for him to get over this and realize how much fun it is there. I'm just worried it's going to be extremely challenging and take a long time.

To top off my day, my iPhone just fell in the toilet. Perfect. And no, Jack wasn't playing with it. It was all my fault.

I'd love some suggestions on separating from kids. Jack doesn't really have any comfort items like a blanket or nuk or anything. So that is out of the question. Next on my list: bribery.

Picture Time

About a week ago, Tom took Jack skating. It wasn't the first time, they've gone a handful of times this winter. It was the first time I went and got to take pictures. We just went to the rink down the street and we bundled Finn up. Finn lasted about 5 minutes before him and I had to leave. Tom says that Jack can skate/walk on his own, but he didn't do it when I was there.














Here they are getting all ready






This is what Finn looked like







Jack's new thing is to bring everything that is on his bed down into the living room and pretend he's going to sleep on the floor. It's pretty entertaining. Finn likes it too. I also let Jack play with my phone early one morning when I had some things to get done and I was sick of him nagging me.











This picture below was taken this morning. Tom came home late last night and the boys were so excited to see him. They are both looking at him in this picture. I love it!

A 3 Year Old and Technology

Jack has figured out how to work my Macbook. And I am not OK with this. Although sometimes I let things slide and hand him my phone to entertain him, I am never ok with him fidgeting on my computer! There is a Photobooth program on here where you can use the webcam to take pictures and whatnot and little to my knowledge, Jack has taken multiple pictures of himself while I've been in the shower. Just the other day I was cleaning out files on my computer and came across at least 25 pictures Jack had taken of himself. Have a look: