The princess {gone mad}

March 8th, 2014

From this picture, you would never know.... 

This girl is crazy!  She's a maniac!  She's a lunatic!  She's really cute.  What in the world are we going to do when she's sixteen!?

Shortly after waking up way too early after going to bed way too late, she turned from a smiling little sweetheart to a demanding, crazed princess.  I hadn't even brushed my teeth and I thought I was going to lose my marbles.  As she wished, I put her princess outfit on her and went down to the playroom to take her mind off from her misery {those molars will be the death of me}.

She did a lot of cooking and was content as long as I was "eating" all of her food.  Content, until it was time to go back up to our apartment:

Thankful for my crazy little princess and surviving days like today!

The Lego Store!

March 7th, 2014

Christian has been working very hard on completing a reward chart.  The goal: tiptoe into mommy and daddy's room {versus screaming at the top of his lungs at 2:00 am "Mommy! Mommy!" and waking up everyone in the apartment, and probably our neighbors, too}.  Baby steps in trying to keep this boy in his own room at night.  It might take ten years, but he'll do it, someday.

We were all excited for our morning outside the city.  We went to the Burlington Mall for the first time.  It was great, we will be back!  It had a fun play area for the kids, some great stores for mommy {maybe next time}, and a Lego store.  What more could we ask for!?  

Both Christian and Lindalee were so excited to be at the Lego store.  I think Christian's enthusiasm for Legos has rubbed off on Lindalee.  Not a bad thing!  I love watching their little minds and fingers work while playing with their Legos.  I'm in occupational therapy heaven! 

Christian with his reward: the Millennium Falcon!

My little shopper prancing around the mall.

In the evening, we were honored to be a part of the Meybaum's book launching party.  I'm pretty sure the children enjoyed it just as much as the adults.  The party was at Hardi's {really neat} office.  Christian asked why Mr. Hardi worked at a restaurant where people played games.  Seemed pretty awesome to him.

Lindalee loves her girl friends!

Christian is one lucky little man!

When we got back to our apartment, there was a surprise waiting for us.  Uncle James had come to spend the night!  Lindalee was especially excited and wouldn't let Uncle James put her down.

Uncle James tucking the kids in for the night.  Like the wonderful Uncle he is, he read Lindalee's favorite book: "Little Mommy".  Awww.

Thankful for a Friday packed full of fun things, family, and friends!

While Daddy's away, we will miss him...

March 6th, 2014

Daddy headed to Charlotte for the week.  We were sad for two reasons:  we missed him, and we wanted to go to Charlotte too.  Even Christian called Daddy out on not taking us along.  To his defense, our lives have been very up in the air lately, and it was not the best idea and time to be planning a family vacation.  Either way, we missed him, and we missed seeing our buddies in Charlotte.

Showtime cuddles.

Lindalee "cleaning the floor"

Since our bid on the last house didn't win {surprise, surprise} the search continues.  A beautiful home, in our price range {bonus} went on the market while Chris was away.  I braved rush hour traffic with two hungry kiddos to see this house because I knew it wouldn't last.  I was right.  By the time I talked to Chris about it on the phone, it was under contract.  Bummer.

I tried to take pictures of the house to send to Chris.  This was the only one I got before my phone died.  That was the kind of day I was having.

Moments like this melt my worries away.   Love these two!

The next morning, lack of sleep, two crazy children, bad weather, and my lingering cold got the best of me.  There was nothing that needed to be done in Boston, so off to Meme and Papa's we went!  I had a hard time getting the kids out of the apartment, we showed up at M&P's looking like a hot mess.  Thankfully, they took pity on me and gave me the greatest gift a tired and sick mommy could ask for, sleeping in past the children's 5:45 am wake up calls.

Lindalee heading out of our apartment.

A lovely, homemade dinner.  Hit the spot.  Meme took charge of the maniacs so I could sit and eat.

The next day was beautiful; just what we needed after the cold, dreary weather we've had this past week.  We all had a great time outside.  The sunshine put us all in better moods.

"Mowing" the snow

Working hard.

Of course, Meme took them sledding.

Lindalee cooking "pizza" and "cupcakes" in her cottage.

Meme was beat after our 24 hour stay, but she ate up every minute of these maniacs.  

Thankful for big helpers, just a "short" car-ride away!

Uncle Slosh's birthday weekend

March 2nd, 2014

Another fun, filled weekend!  We spent two nights up north celebrating Uncle Slosh's big 3-0!  We had hoped to bring Christian along so that we could ski with him.  Despite our attempts of bribery {sleeping in a bunk bed, skiing, etc} he made it very clear he wanted to stay at Meme and Papa's with Lindalee.  "I really missed Papa this week, I want to stay at his house and play with him.  You can go skiing without me."  I was sad, but the thought of sleeping in past 5:45 excited me.

The boys made dinner, and it was good!

Bromantic team work

A beautiful view to wake up to.

At the top of the mountain with some of my favorite ladies!

While we were away, the children lived it up with Meme, Papa, and even Yia-Yia!  They were very excited for their trip to the mall to play with Meme and Yia-Yia.  They played at the play place, had pizza, and even some icecream!  

Sunday was a very busy day.  Chris and I drove straight from the ski house to Boston to do some house hunting.  Nothing official, but we are pretty sure we will be booted from our corporate housing shorty and would rather not be 'homeless'.  I'll explain once it's official, don't want to jinx anything.  

After looking in a number of neighborhoods at many, many homes, we ended up putting in an offer in on this house.  It's a bidding situation, and we are pretty positive we won't 'win'.  We figured if nothing else, it's good practice, it's a fast paced market up here.

Thankful for a fun weekend with family and friends.  An extra {big} thank you to Meme and Papa for playing with our crazy children all weekend and then driving them all the way back to Boston for us.

I'm tired.

February 25th, 2014

Another fun morning with our buddies.  Christian wooed the ladies, again, with his reading skills.  I was extra thankful for his entertainment since I had a rough night.  Lindalee was up from 9:30-4:30am.  No joke.  I really enjoy having four kids around, and thought I could possibly handle four of my own someday.  I think this was God's way of telling me to think twice.  It's one thing to occasionally help out with two extra kids, but after a night like last night, I had to break out my super mom cape to get my act together.

Breakfast and storytime with Christian.  Nice little morning!

Sleeping beauty.  It's a good thing she's so cute!

Walking the ladies to school.  They look way too old in this picture.  Stop!

Sleeping beauty {Lindalee} missed out on all the fun!

After a fun adventure of dropping the girls off at school, Christian and I headed home to pick up Lindalee and go to music class.  Despite not being very happy that daddy woke her up, Lindalee was in good spirits and didn't appear to be sick, just a little tired.

We had a fun time at music class.

Crazy Christian dancing in the middle of the circle, as usual.

After music class we stopped by the doctors to get Lindalee checked out.  Thankfully her ears look great.  Three molars coming in were the culprit of her sleep troubles.  It was time to go home for a nap!  Unfortunately, Lindalee was the only one who napped.  I just reminded myself I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead.

Sweet girl. 

We had a fun afternoon adventure to the pet store where Christian made a friend.

Lindalee helped me pick out some new underwear and was very excited to try it on when we got home.

"The days are long, but the years are short"  -Gretchen Rubin

  Good night! 

Ski School: Week 4

February 24th, 2014

There's no better way to start the day than waking up to good friends.  Christian and Lindalee were SO excited to get out of bed and find their buddies playing in our apartment.  Their parents are out of the country and we were happy to be able to help entertain them in the morning.  I loved watching them interact with one another.  Sweet kiddos.

Christian reading his favorite story to the girls. 

Lindalee was up and excited to join the "party".

Today was Christian's last ski school class.  As much as we have all enjoyed it, I'm ski schooled out for the year.  It's a lot getting two kids dressed, driving to the mountain, renting skis, getting ski clothes on, having a snack, getting ski clothes off to go to the bathroom, getting them on again, Lindalee screaming for "more cocoa" every other minute, Christian wanting to take a break for a snack, etc.  Get the idea?  I'm sure next year will be a lot easier.

Watch out, here they come!

Hitting the slopes!

The snow bunny princess.  Yes, she insisted on wearing the tutu.

What to do after a fun morning skiing?  Yoga!  We got a new video that does an animal pose for every letter of the alphabet.

Christian's favorite, the "snake pose".  Lindalee was "scared" of the "snake".

Christian hit the gym with Daddy so he can get "stronger and stronger".

Thankful for a busy day full of friends, skiing, and some muscle building.