Happy Groundhog's Day!

Rowan made this awesome hat for Groundhog's Day in her weekly playgroup. I love how there is a little sun on the back of her hat. Apparently kids could pick the sun or a cloud.

And here's a little video clip of our peanut walking. Yep, she's our earliest walker at 10 1/2 months. It's crazy how fast she can move, turn around, carry objects and squat to pick up stuff without falling down.

32

This past January 25th, I turned 32 years old. It's strange. I don't feel a day over 22. For my birthday, we all went to my parent's house in Janesville. Andy and my mom made us a yummy supper. What was on the menu? I requested and received: beef stir-fry with vegetables and fried rice, cheese curds, watermelon and fried crabmeat rangoons. My mom made a yummy Boston Cream Pie for dessert.
Give him a shave and this would make a great picture. It's rare that I can get him to smile for the camera.

The kids all sat patiently at the table, waiting for their food.

Someone was thirsty too.

Mixed Vegetables

Squeaky Cheese Curds

Crabmeat Rangoons and Sake

Boston Cream Pie

Ursula is starting to show a lot of interest in sippy cups.

Rowan is telling us something she deems important. You know it's important to her when she holds up one finger when she's talking to you.

Ursula is tuckered out.
(This was a different trip to the Allord's house.)

Elefun with Grandpa.

As per usual, Harvey plays with the cars and trucks.

Babies bring great joy.

End of January Catch Up

Now that we are into the month of February, I realize that I must catch up on my photo sharing and blogging. I have fallen behind due to the normal stresses of kids, work and snow removal. Here's a few photos from the end of January.
Goofy Rowan.

Harvey found this position comfortable one day.

Great smile.....too bad I chopped off the top of your head.

This is as close to snuggling that I've ever seen Rowan and Harvey. It didn't last too long.

Since we get cabin fever often, Andy purchased a collapsible tunnel for the kids to crawl through. The really love to play in it. We were surprised to see that Ursula has no fear of the tunnel and she will crawl through too.
Unfortunately, it is neither mom or dad sized. I discovered this in the above photo. Sneaky Ursula started picking at my foot and tickled me.

Finally, here's the "blackmail" shot I have of Harvey, sitting on his truck potty. He has sat on it quite a few times now. We still have yet to see him actually eliminate in it. It's a start.

New Camera

With some of our Christmas money, we purchased a new camera. We got a Nikon DX (SLR camera). Our old digital camera was becoming quirky. It was from 2004 and technology has advanced a bit since then.
You can click on each photo to see it larger.

Here is my beautiful model - Rowan
(serious face)

(happy face)

(scared face)

(sad face)

My favorite thing about the above photo is that everyone is pretty clear, but Rowan is moving so fast that she's just a blur.

Night time shots in the falling snow are never easy....especially with a new camera.
When I first got outside, Rowan threw a snowball and hit the camera dead on.
I had to go back inside to re-group. I was so mad.
Here are the photos taken after I came back outside.

Sledding down our sidewalk.

Playing outside in the snow can tire a fella out.

The kids are having a blast playing with the kitchen toys that Grandma W. gave them for Christmas.

I tried to keep the photos to a minimum in this blog post. I have so many taken just in practicing with the new camera. I hope to get some more fun photos up as I improve my skill.
We are very happy with the quality so far though.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This Christmas, all of our plans fell by the wayside. All of our kids got sick. It started with Ursula. She had fevers that came and went. Then it moved on to Harvey. And finally, Rowan caught the same bug. Whatever it was started the week before Christmas and is finally dwindling down on the last day of this year.
I think Harvey has dealt with the symptoms the worst. Maybe it's because he's 2 years old. He has really been the most crankiest pill for about a week. I think I've heard the word "mommy" about 70,000 times since he got sick (and the majority of those have been in a whiny tone).
We had planned to drive to my sister's house and have dinner with my family on Christmas day. However, Harvey was having the worst of his fever on Christmas Eve
and the following day.
Rowan was sad that she didn't get to wear her Christmas dress to church and we were all sad that we
didn't get to see our family.

The more that I thought about it, I realized that Christmas was probably the best time to have all the kids get sick (even though no time is a great time). Since Andy had the holiday off, he was able to help me with the demands of all 3 kids. This was great until he started feeling sick too.
Luckily, he didn't get all the symptoms the kids had. He mostly had congested sinuses, no fever. But we all know how men handle any kind of illness. :)
He really did help a lot. But to be on the proactive side, I started taking Airborn to help me stay as healthy as I could. I've been doing most of the dirty work around here.Both Rowan and Harvey enjoyed sorting the gifts.

Although they aren't pictured, Rowan really liked the Barbies she received.
Harvey got a nice Mack truck (from the Cars movie).

Andy helped Ursula open her big present - a rocking pony that plays music when you press the ear.

It quickly became a free for all as the kids played with all the toys, regardless of who they received them.

Ursula is crawling everywhere, checking out all the toys.

Even though this is blurry, I liked how she looked in this picture.

Our little princess on her little pony. She does rock on it, but we have to keep a hand behind her so she doesn't slide off the back end.

One smile we got out of Harvey.

Ursula was mesmerized by Maria and the Von Trapp children.

Harvey is down for the count. There was only so much that he could handle this Christmas.
We hope we are all "back in the saddle" again soon.

Best wishes to all our friends and family for 2010!