Our week

I'm thinking I might start doing a weekly blog update...post some of my favorite pictures from the week and talk about my kids...I feel like the time is just slipping through my fingers. I love them so much.  And as important as it is to be present, I also think it is my job as their mom to record their history.  Call me crazy, but I think history is so important. I love hearing about my own family history, as sordid and crazy as it can get...and I love when my mom (and when my dad was alive, my dad too) tells me about what I was like as a child...it makes me feel so much more connected and known and loved. She does a great job of this for sure, and I want that for my kids too...and right now, my blog is the best way to accomplish that.
So I guess I am just putting a proverbial stick in the ground saying I won't skip out on this important part of our family...not to mention how it keeps us connected to our far away family.  Also hugely important.
I reserve the right to blog on inspiration and a whim as well, but I think a little discipline and structure never hurts in general ;)


So on that note:  Our week in pictures:

Lucas loves chilling out on this fire truck, this was at the end of last week and we were waiting to go pick Judah up from PDO (parents day out). Lucas is truly a chill child. I love him.  I had "girls night" with my small group ladies and a babysitter came over that night...Lucas apparently gave her a run for her money, normally chill....he was not having it. Cried so much, she called her mom to ask what to do...ended up stripping him down to his diaper, hanging out on the porch with him and he zonked out and slept great.  She's a great sitter, and I'm so glad she called her mom and not me...I needed a girls night and honey child was all good in the end.

The next day we had the opportunity to host at the last minute the local Mom's Club monthly brunch...I was so glad I'd taken the time to clean my house up the day before...phew!  It was awesome to see all the areas of my house that are kid friendly, loaded up with kids! This is the reason we keep our house and don't sell and down size...moments like these.  It is great to see life and friendships built in the walls of our home...and in our yard and porch which are especially fun for the kidlets!

Lance has a great work opportunity which required a little photo shoot...isn't he handsome? love my pilot. no matter if the opportunity works out or not, he's the man!

This wasn't exactly overly important...but I feel like venting.  Wrapping a blender in shredded paper seems like a good idea so it won't break...but bubble wrap would have accomplished the same thing and I wouldn't have had to deal with the carnage of said paper being strewn about my home via my baby. oy.

I have introduced Judah to the Dust Buster...hoping that he somewhat gets over his fear of loud noises the more he uses it...and so far, his love of cleaning has overridden his fear of noise.   Here he is cleaning up for small group, our Monday Night good time!

Tuesday morning I spent time running errands and getting things purchased for the Baby Dedication service our church is doing this weekend...I recently took over what they call "Great Expectations" and one of the job duties is helping with this event. It was fun. I spent a while in Party City waiting for the church to fax over the Tax Exempt form (I had the # but it wasn't enough for this place, every place is so different on what works with tax exempt stuff. weird.)  So while I waited, I perused the halloween stuff...I love me some halloween.

I had just gotten home and given Lucas a bath after his nap when a friend tweeted that they needed help.  Lance didn't leave for work for a few more hours so I figured why not, I was available.  Basically what we thought was going to be a quick doctor visit, turned into a few day stay at the hospital...I spent most of the day with Pearl Joy and her mom while all of the tests and things were run, I tried to stay out of the way but be helpful when needed.  If you are not familiar with Pearl's story, I'd highly recommend you follow along as it is so cool to see the miracles that have already happened and to see God continue to work. Here is the link to her blog.
Lance ended up dropping our boys off with a friend in our neighborhood and leaving for work, so no good-bye kiss for me, but it was fine.  It was a God-ordained day...and I love those kinds of days no matter how messy or inconvenient.

The rest of our week has gone pretty well. Judah is learning spanish at school, Lucas is having fun exploring the world.  We all miss Lance when he's gone...but try to make the most of it and have fun in the meantime.

Friday was a really fun day, I let Judah play playdoh while Lucas napped, he's so creative and has such a fun time.

we ran some errands on friday including stopping by a local consignment shop that I have sold a few items at...I hadn't made much money, but they let me trade my small earnings for this fun toy the boys love playing with...it's a race track that spins...this picture looks like they are enjoying it together, when in actuality I think Judah was hugging Lucas so he wouldn't climb on top of the toy :) haha...at least he was being nice about it.

I blogged about the fun chore chart we made for Judah, I did this on friday night with my friend Nicole and her kids...we did as much as we could with kids around and finished the rest later...but this friend of mine also spends lots of time parenting alone due to her husbands job and we are really enjoying doing a meal together while our husbands are both gone working...something about the end of the day when our kids are not as happy because they are tired, everyone's hungry...we don't have any help on the horizon for bed time...and it's just a nice way to combine the work and share in the day.

So that brings us to today!  We are laying low and taking it easy...last night before I went to sleep I jinxed myself...I thought "how many nights in a row has Lucas slept through the night now?" started counting and fell asleep...only to be awoken several times in the night...guess I counted my eggs before they were hatched.  (yawn)

Once we got up and got our motors running, Judah has really enjoyed using his chore chart. So glad we did that project.  Now for a new week to begin!  Lance comes home today so that will be nice. Love that man.

A ray of light

I ran across a cute idea recently and tonight actually went for it.

I was all DIY up in here.

I am hoping it was worth all the glitter now strewn about my house...I think it will be...


we started out using a sponge to paint a paper plate...Judah enjoyed this part.
we also cut some triangles out of construction paper...Judah really really enjoyed this part.  He's good with scissors...I think he must be practicing at school, cause I've never let him near them before and he was seriously good at cutting.
And notice the adorable face he drew..it's orange, like the paint, so you will have to look close...

Next we made some more triangles, but this time out of sparkly paper.  Then I glued some pictures on them that I found via free clip art randomness from the world wide web, I attached the sun ray's to a clothes pin and vwala.  I made 10 different jobs/chores for Judah:

1. Brush your hair
2. Clean up toys
3. Take your Vitamin
4. Take your allergy meds
5. Eat Breakfast
6. Go Potty
7. Brush your teeth
8. Put on your shoes
9. Get dressed
10. Take your lunch box to School

Here's what it looks like on a door in our house (all attached to poster board), our fridge doesn't magnetize on the front or I'd probably just have put it there.

And hopefully each morning, it will look like this once Judah and I work together to do all of his morning tasks!
School days are different than other days, so it will be a little mix and match each day, but hopefully we won't forget the important stuff...

ps.  I'll probably do the "pick up toys" one at night so he wakes up and already has a ray on his sun.

Highlights from our trip

I hesitate to call our trip "vacation" because the word "vacation" implies rest..and while our trip was great and fun, it was most definitely not restful...two little kids taken out of their routine and environment makes for crazy...3 of the 4 of us (not me) ended up on antibiotics...and my plight was not being able to turn my neck to the right (I love my chiro, I'm almost fixed).  So yeah, the word "vacation" just doesn't seem adequate in my mind...but after you see some of the fun things we did, you may say "who cares if your kids wore you out, you had fun and you weren't at home so that is a vaca if I ever saw one!"...lol.  okay, I'm done talking to myself.  If you have littles, you understand my ramblings...

Onward.

I picked a few photos to show you the highlights...I have GOBS of pics, so a lot of these things I highlight, I may come back and blog more about and show you more pics.  I am getting really really good at taking pictures of airplanes and dinosaurs.


Here we go!

On the drive to Canada, we stopped at the National Museum of the USAF, it was an airplane/aviation enthusiasts dream come true...hanger after hanger of awesome aircraft.

 Ironically, we went on the day that Neil Armstrong passed away, but didn't find that out until after we had left...we dedicated these pictures to him:

When we arrived in Toronto, Lance's sister loaded us right back into our car and took us off to a Buskers festival...it was really cool and totally fun...even after being in the car for 3 days.  So that says a lot ;)
If you don't know what a Busker is, maybe this picture will give you a clue...before you go and google it...

One day we took our 2 nephews and our 2 boys and headed to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum).  They had a dinosaur display that was pretty awesome...and of course we had to look at the rocks.  Boys!

We had a chance to meet up with some Sioux Lookout friends of Lance's (and now mine!).  It was really pleasant and a highlight of the trip for both Lance and I.

The CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) was going on while we were visiting, it made me feel like I had just gone to the Great MN get together (shout out to my Mini friends!).
Animals, rides, food, performers...it was great.  Judah and Lucas went on their very first Ferris Wheel ride...it was grand.

Then there was the 2 hr trip that took us 5 hrs...but if we hadn't gotten lost we never would have found the most awesome pirate ship park ever!

We spent the weekend in Collingwood...lots of great family memories made.  I was introduced to a tasty treat called a Beavertale when I was at the CNE, lucky for me, there was a Beavertale stand in Collingwood...glory!  chocolate!

Another highlight of our time in Collingwood involved a photo shoot with the cousins...I won't show those pics off till after christmas probably...in the meantime...here's a cute pic of Judah helping me find good spots and good light for pictures :)

We said good bye after a great week of fun.

On our trip home we stopped at several really cool spots...including the Canadian side of Niagara falls!  (the Canadian side is the pretty side)

We went to the Rock N Roll hall of fame...

...and while we were there, found out that the Blue Angels were at the Cleveland Air show so we got to see that sitting on the 3rd level of the Rock N Roll hall of fame...it was awesome.

We stopped in Louisville for a car break...and lunch...and found these really fun fountains to keep us busy...

...and before we left Louisville we stopped at the science museum to pose for a few fun photos..

and when we were 1 hour away from home...we couldn't resist turning off and going to Dinosaur World!  It was a cool way to end our trip...

It was quite an adventure!  We are glad to be home safe and sound and we are blessed to have been able to have such a great time with extended family and make so many great memories with our little family all together.  It was great...even if I needed a 3 day nap afterwards ;)

Wylde Walking!

So we've been in Canada for a couple weeks visiting Lance's sister and her family...I have gobs of photos to sift through and eventually share some of the fun ones with the blog...in the meantime, we are attempting to get rested up and back into a simple routine of life. Not an easy task after such a long trip.

And wouldn't you know it? As soon as we get home and Lance heads back to work, Lucas Wylde decided to take his first steps!  I actually almost missed it, he has been standing up alone for a long time but then scoots back down and crawls to where he wants to go...but this time, he stood up and took about 3 steps towards me and I happened to glance at him while he was doing it! stinker! of course he wouldn't do it again that whole day...but I was determined to get him to do it for my camera so I could post it on facebook for his daddy to see! Mission accomplished, and again today he took more steps with a little encouragement.  It won't be long!  He's only 9 1/2 months old so he's definitely early, but Judah was 10 months so for my kids, he's basically on track.

So that's the exciting news around these parts :)

Here's a picture of my happy child, really early in the morning in a hotel room near the end of our trip...he's so cute, even when he's annoyingly awake and I want to be asleep :)