Auntie K

Auntie K is known to be pretty awesome around these parts.  While Forest is still a bit skeptical that Auntie K and I are related (she is taller after all, with MUCH more fashion sense) and tends to hang back at first, Olaf is full of constant sweet request demands for attention the minute he sees her.  Can you set up the train set?  Can you read to me?  Can we watch Cars 2?  Can we play outside?  Do you want to play cars?  Is it Christmas yet?  Can you buy me a present?  What's this?  What's that?  Let's dance!

Like any loving Auntie would, she acquiesces to most requests.  Lucky for us!  Kendra was home last weekend and came over one night to play games, and got to hang out at bedtime.  The boys LOVED it.  She'd been here about 3 minutes before she turned to inform me "Jenny, you are going to have a lot of broken bones in this house" as the kids chased each other down the hallway, tripping on blankies and running each other into the walls.  I am just surprised we haven't visited the ER yet! (knock on wood)

Love you Auntie K.

first day of snow play

It has been just gorgeous here with the snow!  Cold, yes.  Slow driving, yes.  But super beautiful. 

Olaf was really excited for the weekend because he knew we'd get to go outside to play in the snow.  So yesterday we got them all bundled up and went for a little walk into the woods, picked out our Christmas tree (didn't cut it down yet, just found it), and did some sledding.  Olaf has finally gotten a little tougher, and actually walked most of the way himself instead of crying to be carried.  Bonus!  Awesome!  Forest was content to babbled while on my back.

We all came back rosy cheeked and ready to warm up by the fire that Steve had started.  COZY.  Just in time for naps :)

The boys seem to be growing up so quickly.  It's crazy how Forest went from baby to toddler in like 2 months I swear.  He doesn't talked a lot yet, mostly just babbling.  But we can make out what he means for ball (ba), bottle (baba), binky (baba), blanky (baba)... ha ha, do you see a trend?  Usually it's accompanied by a pointing finger.  Well there's also "go", "up", "dada" and "mama" and I think he says thank you sometimes "tay-oo" and olaf "o-ah".  Who knows though really :)  We just love that he's trying to communicate.   He loves walking, playing cars, putting little people in cars and taking them back out, throwing balls, terrorizing the dogs, blowing raspberries, chasing people and climbing stairs.  Ah and DANCING like a maniac.  Love it. 

I want to send lots of love to Grandma Riley in Oak Harbor today -- hope you are feeling good today!  The boys are all sending you lots of hugs and kisses!

haircuts

 In the past month we've gone from moppy...

To mohawk...

To buzz cut...

Though every stage was cute... I can't wait until it finds it's middle ground!  But I will say... boy this buzz cut is EASY PEASY.  Rinsing the soap out takes no time at all now.  Which makes for a happy mama and boy.  He looks SO grown up like this.  And it is crazy how much this boy resembles his cousin Trygve with short hair.  Seriously.

Love my little Oly.

Chi-Town

Last month I had a fun chance to visit Chicago for the first time.  I have been waiting until I had lots of time to write a post about it, and how much fun I had, and describe my photos in detail... ha ha ha!  Well I never had the time I was looking for, but I do have a few minutes now, so I need to post this! 

Anyway, my good friend from college, Joanna, invited me to come spend the weekend in Chicago with her last month.  She was going to be at a work training near the city the week prior and had gotten a hotel room in the city for the weekend.  Bonus (for me) is that her husband wasn't able to go, so she invited me to come instead!  I decided to go a few days early, because I also have lots of family from Chicago (the ones I re-met at our family reunion last July) and I wanted to see some of them too.

Also I should mention that I am terrible at taking photos.  Truly awful.  Not only do I not take time to compose any of the shots... I forget to take it out 3/4 of the time!  So here ya go -- These are all taken on my iPhone, which is why they are just OK in quality.

Under the "Bean".  That's me in the blue coat in like 5 locations.

Hands down coolest architecture in Chicago.  It's an apartment building.  Each of those wave/ripples are someone's deck outside their condo.  Awsome.  It looked so cool both up close and far away.

Top of the Willis Tower.  Gracious that's high up there.

Another view below.

Dinner at the 50/fifty: Hamburger topped with pulled pork, cheese, and a mac and cheese waffle.  With a side of sweet potato fries.  I ate about 1/3 of it. SO GOOD.

What a creative light fixture in a bakery!

Inside the Bleeding Heart Bakery.  Best cake balls ever.

Bridget and I talking to... shoot I forget.  Apparently he had his own TV show.  That was before my time :)

Chris and I at Navy Pier.

The Bean.  Again.  It was worth 2 visits.

Joanna and I.  Love her.

All in all, it was a GREAT weekend.  It was a little weird being away from my kiddos for that long... especially Forest since he's still nursing...  but I did enjoy staying up late, enjoying little coffee shops, shopping, walking for hours, and doing a lot of other things that little people don't enjoy so much :)  Plus I knew Steve was taking good care of them with a steady diet of mac and cheese, pizza, and quesadillas, plus a lot of good movie watching and cars playing.  Good times traveling.