Human couches, horsey rides, and bad hair days

Here's a quick overview of this last week and some of the things the girls have been up to. While Jared was taking a little nap on the floor, the girls thought he would make a good couch for watching some TV. They sat like this for quite a while!

More time outside enjoying the sun

Breaking out the grill for the first time this year

Leah loves doing horsey rides on Abbie's back...

But it gets a little tricky when Abbie expects one in return!

Had a bad hair day recently? Leah wasn't too happy about hers.

Jared called it her Wyoming hairstyle since he likes to make fun of my small town upbringing and the big hair we all had in the early 90's!

Well, there you have it, that's our exciting week!

Seeing green...

I first noticed this coming up yesterday...

And by today, it already looked like this!

I love Spring!

Just my luck...

Have you ever had this happen to your Ipod?

It's called the "White Screen of Death" and means your Ipod is pretty much worthless. It just happened to my little silver 4G Ipod nano (like the one below) that I loved that I've only had for a year. It was the perfect size for fitting in my pocket and I haven't had any problems with it until now.

I went through all the trouble shooting and advice I could find on Apple's website and then tried other suggestions I found online and still couldn't get it to work. So I called Apple and they couldn't help me over the phone unless I paid a big fee since I just passed the year mark on the warranty. So then I made an appointment to see one of their "geniuses" at the Apple Store and they didn't know anything and basically couldn't help me, their only advice was to pay a huge amount to have it repaired elsewhere or just buy a new one.

So, long story short, I ended up buying a new, sleek, black 8G Ipod nano like the one below:

It cost just a tad more than it would have cost to repair the other one and now I have way more memory and can do so much more stuff. I've been having fun putting more music on it and setting up some playlists for the kids and Jared and now I even have enough memory to watch movies on it or put the General Conference audio podcast on there so I'm excited about that. I guess there is a benefit of having things break, maybe I should "accidentally" drop my camera tomorrow...hmmmm

A taste of Spring...

We had one beautiful spring-like day last week where the temperature got up into the 60's so we went on a walk and played at the park. After getting home, I couldn't resist letting the girls play outside in the dirt some more since it's been months since they could be outside without their coats on. Here they are getting all dirty and enjoying the sun!

A day or two later it was raining and back in the 30's so here they are enjoying a tea party indoors.

We recently found out that Abbie has a moderate hearing loss and so we have been busy going to the audiologist to get her fitted with hearing aids. We finally got them last week and so far she is doing really well with wearing them. She seems to notice a difference with sounds already and is excited about her pretty pink and purple ear molds. So if you see her out and about, she'll be sporting these cool duds!

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Bits and Pieces...

Here are some random things we've been up to lately. Read on if you're interested or have nothing else to do!

Abbie got a Light Bright toy recently for accomplishing a potty training goal and hasn't put it down since. She loves it and so far I haven't had a problem with all the little lights all over the house, Yay!

Abbie loves brushing Leah's hair and helping me get it ready to do in the morning.

We braved the cold (in the 20's) on Saturday and spent a little while outside playing with chalk,

Digging in the dirt,

And carrying the dirt into the garden.

Enjoying a little lunch after playing outside. Leah has figured out how to climb in and out of the high chair by herself and decided to stop halfway on this day.

I got out the playdough today and after about half an hour it all ended up on the floor in little pieces with the girls just playing with the containers. I didn't have the energy or time to try to clean it up and get it all back in the right containers so it all went into the garbage! It was getting all dried out and mixed together anyway so I decided to scrap it all and start over with new, fresh stuff for next time. Now I just need to go buy some! I don't think I've actually had to buy any playdough in the past year or so, we keep getting it in party gift bags or for birthday and Christmas presents. That just seems crazy for a mother of two toddlers!

Our beautiful happy girls...

Cabin Fever + Jungle Java = Jungle Fava

I am going crazy here! This has seemed like the coldest/longest Michigan winter since we've lived here (7 winters now) and it's not even over yet. Maybe it's because I have two restless kids that ask "Where are we going to go today?" and more preschool/playgroup committments and Dr. appointments than previous years so we have had to brave the roads and weather more often. Also, this is one of the first years I haven't had a little baby to keep me preoccupied during this time so it's just dragging on. We've still got probably two months of winter to go and I'm dying here! To combat this a little I've been trying to take the kids to some of the indoor play areas more often to let them burn off some energy and break up our week. Here we are at Jungle Java http://www.junglejavaplay.com/annarbor/annarbor.php, which the kids love and call Jungle Fava. I don't know why...

Leah kept getting in trouble at this place because she kept taking her socks off (which is against the rules) so she could climb up the slide. I put her socks back on about 100 times in the 3 hours we were there and she eventually threw one of them behind the black netting and I had to get an employee to help me get it out, the same one that called me out for having a kid with no socks on. I'm embarrassed to go back there anytime soon...

So, does anyone have any other fun ideas for combating the winter blues with young kids besides destroying my house with paint/cookie dough/mini-lego blocks?

Random stuff

Just a little peek at what we've been up to lately...

Leah started playing hide-and-go-seek out of the blue the other day; she goes into the corner, covers her eyes, and starts counting and then when she gets to seven, jumps up, and "finds" us (I'm usually in plain sight cooking or cleaning or something) and then does it all over again. I don't know where she learned it, maybe Abbie or church or TV?

She also loves doing puzzles and is pretty good at them. Even though I don't think I've ever sat down with her and shown her how to do this one, she can do most if it by herself!

Abbie has been getting pretty good at writing her name and has been practicing a lot by writing on Valentines. She loves showing me her name when she finds it written on things and I guess it's time to start teaching her more about letters and sounds and how to read.
Abbie is also so silly and funny. She loves playing games and pretending. She has a stuffed animal elephant that she loves and is always pretending that he is tired so she sings him a song at bedtime or that he's hungry and needs a snack or needs a toy (so she can have extra, etc). She loves to play freeze tag and just tonight we taught her how to play "Fruit Basket" and she wanted to play over and over. She's a typical 4 year old and it's crazy how fast she is growing up!

We were watching a friend's baby (no, I didn't suddenly have another without you knowing!), and Abbie and Leah were both so excited to feed him a bottle. They thought it was awesome that he actually drank it unlike their dolls who don't do anything fun like that.

Jared loves sushi and has always wanted to learn how to make it so we bought a kit and some basic ingredients and made some great California Rolls. They were pretty fun and easy to make and really yummy!

Here's my latest decorating project: I finally ordered my pictures from Leah's 2 year old photo shoot and decided to do this black and white photo collage on the wall. I found this great sign at Target and these black 8x10 frames and printed off some snapshots for the 3 openings one and voila! I just love the pictures of the girls close-up, it really shows their individuality and fun personalities.

There's also one other thing I've been busy with. I competed in a Biggest Loser competition with some friends at my church and amazingly, I won! I couldn't believe it, I was behind another girl for most of the 3 months we did it so I thought for sure she would win but at the end, I somehow pulled it off and won the jackpot (and went down a clothing size, it feels great!) Now I'm working hard to maintain what I lost but it's hard what with Valentine's chocolates and cookies and ice cream and brownies calling my name...

We kept Leah up from her nap the other day so she would go to bed earlier than usual (since we were going out on a date) and here's what happened during dinner. She was happy and eating really good and then the next thing we know, she conks out mid-bite. This NEVER happens! She wouldn't wake up so I carefully cleaned her up, changed her into her pj's, and was about to put her to bed when she woke up with a start and and said "I want to go play for one minute!" Guess she is like me and with a little catnap, gets a second wind and is good to go! (Don't worry, we put her to bed about 10 minutes later after a tantrum and a meltdown.)

Well, my second wind is about over so I'd better get to bed. Good night!