New Haircut

Jonathan always cuts his own hair and now he also cuts Justin's.  He has been crazy busy at work these last couple of weeks and hasn't had any time to cut Justin's super long hair.  As I am sure you have noticed in our recent pictures, Justin's hair was getting quite long and much harder for me to style.  Finally this weekend, Jonathan got around to cutting it.  He always cuts it a little shorter than I would prefer, but it does grow back quickly.  I can't decide if Justin looks older or younger with shorter hair.

Take our picture, PLEEZZ!

Katelynn had a blast today dressing up all her Barbies and lining them up on the coffee table.  After she had played for a while, she came over to me and asked if I would please take her picture with her barbies.  I think she was quite proud!  Ha,ha.

A Different Kind of Lovie

Most kids have a blankie or something they go to sleep with every night.  I attempted it with both my kids, but neither of them ever became attached to any sort of lovie.  What Justin will go to bed with (and does on several occassions) is his monster trucks.  How comfortable those must be when he rolls over on them!

Today is Dress-Up Day!

Katelynn's preschool class is having dress-up day today where they can dress up like anyone they want.  Katelynn chose to go as one of her favorite princesses:  Snow White.  She was pretty excited as she left for school today!  I can't wait to hear how their day of fun went!

First Boating Trip of 2011

After having 80-degree weather on Friday, we couldn't resist pulling out the boat to hit the lake on Saturday.  It was still nice and warm, but I will admit it got a little chilly being on the water at times.  Justin didn't venture much into the water, but Katelynn splashed around in it quite a bit.  I thought it was still WAAAYYY to cold for my liking, but it was still so nice to relax on the water today!

 Katelynn, of course, had to practice some jumping and gymnastics moves while on the water!

 Ring a round the rosie (probably the only activity Justin was willing to venture the cold water.. not that I blame him!)

 I bet it won't surprise you that I wouldn't doubt that driving the boat was Justin's favorite part of the entire boat trip!



Perfect Outdoor Weather!

This is the time of year when I am the most grateful that we moved from Michigan to North Carolina.  There is nothing like having 80-degree weather in the middle of March!  I absolutely love it!  It was even so warm that Katelynn traded in her capris for shorts halfway through the day (not so great at matching them but hey, we were just playing outside at home and I was shocked she was agreeing to wear shorts!) The kids and I spent almost every waking second outside today.  We started the day with a park playdate with friends first thing in the morning (and it was already 70-some degrees!), then came home and had a picnic lunch and play outside.  We did go inside for an hour for naps but then we were right back outside again until bedtime after that.  First playing and then we did foil dinners on the grill and ate them on the back deck.  The kids had a blast just hanging out on the deck while dinner cooked.  They were even good about posing for some pictures!  If only they didn't have their snack all over their face, these would be even better pictures!

Cool Dude with a Helmet!

We recently bought Justin a bike helmet to start learning to ride his tricycle.  He has decided he should wear it 90% of the time he is outside, whether he is riding his tractor, bike, or nothing at all. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2011!

Do you even have to ask if we sported green for St. Patrick's Day?  Of course we did!  Even the baby made sure to sport a shamrock for a bit today....

 And once I had a finger-painted belly, Katelynn had to have one too!

Ms. Sassy and Independent

 Boy do they kid you when they say ages two and three are the toughest.  If you ask me, age four is pretty rough too.. at least when you have a girl anyway.  Part of me loves that Katelynn has so much independence and such strong will.  She knows what she wants, and she's determined to have it.  It does, however, cause lots of fun when it comes to dressing and getting her hair done.  While we have finally overcome the obstacle of only wearing dresses and skirts (they are still a fave but jeans are now part of her wardrobe- yay!), we now have a new obstacle.  There are days when she now wants her hair up instead of just in a headband.  While a few months ago I may have jumped for joy at the idea of this, it has come with its own challenges.  She wants her hair up, and she wants to do it ALL BY HERSELF.  I am not allowed to help.  So, yes, I allowed her to go to school today with pigtails that she had done all by herself and she was very proud and sported them all day.  I have to admit she didn't do too bad a job on the front... the back was a different story though!

Remember how much fun I said four was?  Pouting in the last month has increased dramatically, and of course the littlest things are very worthy of pouting about in Katelynn's book.  It's not so funny when I'm dealing with it, but this picture makes me laugh quite a bit.  I can't wait to show it to her a few years down the road!  (This was half a smile by the time I took it, but the crossing of the arms is always accompanying her pout these days.  Her pouting can be much, much worse though.)

My Favorite Things

If you ask Justin what his favorite things are I guarantee hands-down his tractor and Daddy's four wheeler would be one of the first things out of his mouth.  On a daily basis at least 300 times a day while we are not outside on his tractor, Justin will ask, "Mommy, where my tractor?"  My answer is always the same, "In the garage, Justin."  And then he follows it up with, "Me ride my tractor?"  His second favorite question is to ask where daddy's four wheeler is, and I bet you guess what comes after that.... "Me and Daddy ride his four wheeler?"

Coming in at a close second are his monster trucks, matchbox truck and trailer, and trains.... and his fireman boots.  He LOVES these boots and it's quite a struggle to casually suggest he wear something besides them when we go out in public.  It rained early this morning so he got away with wearing them all day today though!

(And yes, he is big on dressing himself these days and does in fact have his boots on the wrong feet.  Call me a bad mom, but if he won't let me change them and won't change them himself, I don't fight it.)

Field Trip To CiCi's!

Today Katelynn's class went on a field trip to CiCi's Pizza.  They got to go in the kitchen and see how everything worked and even made their own pizzas.  Justin and I attended too, but of course we are behind the camera taking the pictures.  Siblings weren't allowed to make their own pizza, but Justin was content eating it.  He ate FOUR pieces of pizza while we were there!

 Katelynn and some of her buddies (Jadyn is next to her, Lily across, and Ryleigh kiddie-corner)

 Katelynn normally only wants cheese pizza, but she was all about adding some extras today while she was getting to cook her own at the restaurant!



New Bedrooms!

Whew.. it has been a long few weeks of organizing/cleaning/rearranging around our house.  It was a very long process, but it is finally coming to an end, and I am getting my house back in order.  We moved Jonathan's office into his room in the basement after painting and tiling that room; Justin moved into the old office (which had to be painted for him), Katelynn took the newest furniture that we purchased, and then the baby took over Justin's old room and took Katelynn's old furniture.  So, needless to say, I had to rearrange all three kid's bedrooms to accomplish this.  Finally, I am about done.  I don't have pictures of the baby's room quite yet as there are still clothes all over that need to be put away, but here's the big kid's rooms!  Justin's is 100% done, but I still have some things I want to put up on Katelynn's walls.

Normally I like doing themes in the kid's rooms that they won't outgrow quickly, but I decided to just go with a little boy theme for Justin's and did a car theme room.  I actually love it!  We kept the gray color that the room always was for the top color and did a blue at the bottom.  My original plan was to do a road border between them, but we decided it was less permanent to do the wall stickers on a wall instead.

Katelynn's room is still the brown and pink polka dots, but now her furniture is darker (which looks so much better with the pink and brown.)