Sunday = Bowling Fun Day!

This weekend we headed to the bowling alley with Jonathan's parents to enjoy some bowling and pizza.  Jonathan's mom didn't bowl since she's still healing from her back injury, but it worked out great because she was able to chase Justin around the bowling alley. 

Katelynn is quite the little bowler.  She loves it!

Our silly bowler.  No one told her to bowl like this and none of the rest of us were being silly.  She just did this all on her own.  Of course, once she got not only lane but the surrounding lanes to laugh and crack up, she repeatedly kept doing it.  We finally had to tell her she had to stop doing it when her bowl got stuck down the lane because she wasn't able to push it hard enough with this technique.  We had to put SOS on our bowling screen to get some help!  (I took a picture of the screen for laughs, but I'll save you all from posting it!)

Our plan was to let Justin trying bowling at the end.  He LOVES balls in general and spent much of his time running around trying to pull the bowling balls off the shelves.  He pushed one around on the carpet for a while too.  Oh- and his second favorite thing was the fan attached to the ball return.  I didn't get a picture of it, but he LOVED standing there and letting it blow on his hand!

New Fashion Fave

So not only is Katelynn obsessed with shoes, but this week she has been having to wear her baseball hat at random times during the day.  Earlier we were playing in the basement and she stopped in the middle of playing and said, "Mommy, I need my hat like Daddy's!"  I told her it was in her room and she bolted up the stairs and came back down with it on. 

A wedding almost five years ago....

Jonathan and I will be celebrating our five-year anniversary this coming week.  Tonight we all sat down as a family and watched the videos from the wedding (days leading up to it, rehearsal, wedding day, and reception).  Katelynn was so excited to watch it.  She ran upstairs when we suggested it and put on her choice of pajamas.  She talked the entire time, asking lots and lots of questions.  The funniest part of the entire thing is she kept saying things like, "What are we doing, mommy?"  "Where were we at there, mommy?"  It's as if she thought she was right there getting married with Jonathan and I. 

The funniest part of her conversations was the one about shoes.  As I posted earlier in the week, the child is obsessed with shoes.  So, as I was walking down the beach (we got married on the beach), Katelynn said, "What shoes are we wearing, mommy?"  I told her that I wasn't wearing any shoes.  I was barefoot, just like I should be on the beach.  She just kept asking why and where my shoes were and why she couldn't see any shoes anywhere for me to wear.  It was a good ten minute conversation.

As you can see in the photograph, Katelynn had to get herself a veil (or what she thought was one) and then a bouquet of flowers.  She held them (the flowers) the entire time she watched the wedding and reception, and when Jonathan and I started our first dance, she wanted to dance too.  I danced with her and she kept trying to put her head up against mine because Jonathan and I were doing that during our first dance.  We couldn't stop laughing at the way she imitated our wedding day.

Girl's Night Out

I was trying to get ready to go out tonight for my girl's night out/ baby shower with other playgroup moms, and Katelynn was right next to me in the bathroom.  As I put curlers in, she put them in her hair; as I put makeup on, she put makeup on.  I was rushing to get ready, but I had to pause to smile at how darn cute she was trying to be big like mommy.

Two Little Bakers

Tonight I have a baby shower to attend, and I agreed to make the cake for the shower.  Of course Katelynn wanted to help.  Anything that involves a cake and she is there!  We pulled out our helper stool that makes it safe for Justin to stand at the counter too since he wants to do anything his big sister is doing, and we all made a red velvet cake!

It only took me about four rewashes of the spatulas to actually be able to stir the cake germ-free :)

And this is Katelynn's favorite part of baking- licking the spoon while the cake is baking!

Here's the end result of the cake I made!  Can you tell I have a new obsession with fondant cakes?  Soo fun!

Tent Fun

Justin got a tent for his birthday, and the kids have been having a blast playing in it.  They rock it all over the place and run in and out of it, playing chase and tumbling on one another.  I love just being a bystander and listening to their laughs and giggles as they play together in it.

I fell off the wagon

Remember my grand idea of taking a picture everyday and posting them each day?  Yeah... it was a great idea, but as soon as life got busy, that idea went down the drain.  I take pictures most days anyway, but between Justin's birthday and then getting ready for a consignment sale that I sold a ton of the kids clothes in, I got a bit behind.  My goal for 2010 is to try to keep up with housework and laundry and it's been rough trying to keep up with all of it and still just enjoy the kids so my poor blog got abandoned.  No worries though- I'm not giving u- well, not giving up on the blog but I am going to give up on making a post every single day.  I'll stick to several times a week.   I hope I don't let it get behind again, but I won't make any promises!  I just updated it though- quite a few new posts are below to catch you up a bit!

It's a beautiful day!

We got our first taste of Spring today.  I wish it were here to stay, but I doubt that.  I took the kids outside for hours today.  It was a whole new game for Justin now that he can walk.  We started off in light jackets, but it was too hot even for light jackets!

Snack Break!

Wii Dance

It's been a lazy Saturday.  Justin never even got out of his pajamas and we let Katelynn wear whatever she wanted all day.  We layed around and played inside all day, but no worries- we still got our exercise dancing with the Disney Dance Grooves game on the Wii!  :)  Justin couldn't decide if he liked dancing more or shutting the TV off while Katelynn and I were.

I'm a proud mommy again!

Yes, it's passed Valentine's Day, but today is Katelynn's V-Day parties with not one but two of her playgroups.  I have been so busy with getting ready for a consignment sale that I didn't even think about her cards until the day before.  As always, we made them.  I found an idea in a Family Fun magazine of how to make V-Day flowers.  I thought at first that I would need to make them and then have her color them.  They were made out of three heart cut-outs each.  At the last minute, I decided to see if Katelynn wanted to try to cut out the hearts.  I wasn't sure if she could do it, but she loves cutting up paper into shreds so I thought we'd give it a try.  Not only did she do a pretty good job of following my marker outline to cut out hearts, but she wanted to keep on cutting and cut all 45 hearts that we needed for all her valentines!  I coudn't believe it!! 

We put suckers in the center and she drew pictures and letters on the petals.

Where's Justin?

Peek-a-boo is still one of Justin's favorite games.  Now that he is mobile, it's a whole new game for him because now he can run and hide in all kinds of spots.  Today while I was getting dressed, he realized that he could hide behind Daddy's shirts (now, keep in mind he thinks he is hiding when his face in in the shirts even if you can see his entire body!)

All we have to say is, "Where's Justin?'  and he jumps on laughing or grining... it's just too cute!

Our Valentines

A year ago, these were my Valentines.....

... and somehow they thought they could grow up on me over the last year!  Here they are for Valentine's Day 2010!

Snow AGAIN!

So we always get one snowfall a year here in North Carolina.  It normally never even covers the grass.  This winter, however, we've been getting a lot more snow.  This was now our second big snow with the result being a few inches on the ground.  The difference though is that here in NC, it's not gloomy and depressing like Michigan.  It snowed Friday night, and as you can see, the sun was out Saturday morning!

A Girl loves her shoes

These days Katelynn is so busy that I find it a little harder to get a ton of super cute pictures of her.  She doesn't want to sit still or look up from what she is doing most days.  Today she was actually posing and smiling away though (maybe because my goal was to just take pictures of her new fave shoes that day and not her.. of course she would cooperate then!) and for some reason this shot was my favorite that I captured of her.

And here was what I was actually going to post about. Katelynn finds one particular pair of shoes that she gets stuck on for a week at a time.  This particular week it was her new Tinkerbell purple flip flops.  Have I mentioned she has decided purple is now her favorite color?  Well, we went to the Disney store the other day and she picked these out for summer.  She knows she can't wear them outside until it's warm, but she has put them on day and night while we're in the house.  Today she insisted on napping in them!  What can I say:  she loves shoes!

Big stuff!

If there's something that looks like he can climb it, he's on it.  Just this week, he has attempted to climb on the picnic table, the coffee table, and the worse yet- the gate that blocks him from the stairs.  Not only does Justin know exactly what a step stool is, but he'll carry it around to a place he wants to get something off of or on to use it.  Here he was attempting to play in the sink with the soap and water.

Superbowl 2010

We don't always do much for the superbowl around here.  Jonathan's not really a football fan, and although I have been in the past, I haven't really had time to pay attention to the games these days.  This year though we were invited to a party by one of the moms from Justin's playgroup and decided to go.  Really, we left the party 30 minutes after the game started because of bedtimes, but it was fun to get out for a bit.  I had a Panthers jersey for Katelynn from a few years back, and even though they weren't playing in the superbowl, I had to have Justin wear it for the party  He looked so cute in his first football jersey!

Here's Katelynn having a little picnic during the party. 

Justin seemed to think hanging next to the beer was a good idea.  I guess he was trying to live up to the theory of what happens when men watch football.  (Or really, he just thought the ice was pretty cool and yummy)

First Bday Card Signing

You are probably going to have to endure a lot of pictures like this from me in the next few years.  I'm just one proud mama everytime my kids do something.. even if it is inevitable they will learn it one day.  This weekend is a little girl from Katelynn's playgroup's birthday.  Katelynn has always (probably since about 18 months old) "signed" the birthday cards for her friends.  In the past, it has always consisted of scribble, then for a short time it was faces of people or spiders, but today she finished and it looked like this!!!  I was so proud of her!!  And then she wanted to try to write Ada's name on the front of the card.  I showed her how to make a "D" on paper and then she wrote it out on the envelope.  It was nice that the name was short for her first time around!

The "Look"

Justin's new thing is to give us this goofy look constantly.  It cracks me up every single time he does it.  I'm not sure if that's why he keeps doing it, but we have been seeing this face on him quite a bit these past few days!

This is the flirty/trouble look.  He's always up to something!

What is it about the first birthday party?

So Justin has been walking for probably two weeks, maybe three weeks.  He started taking steps quite a while back, but we finally called it walking several weeks ago when he started cruising around on two feet without being prompted to get from one place to another.  He still has been doing a fair amount of crawling though, probably just as much as he is walking.

All of a sudden today, he is pretty much just walking everywhere!  It's a significant difference to me.  I can't recall a time today when he has crawled versus walked.  So, what is it about their birthday celebration that makes them realize they are big enough to be a full fledge walker?  I remember it was the day of Katelynn's birthday party when we realized she was a full fledge walker, and now the day after Justin's party I am noticing the exact same thing!  Coincidence, I know, but it's still pretty funny!