Christmas Pageant 2012

Ellie and Owen were in their pre-schools Christmas Pageant this past week. Ellie was an angel and Owen was a sheep. It was the cutest thing ever and both of the kids absolutely loved being a part of it. My pictures are not the best but here are a few.

First Race!

The whole family joined in on the fun for the 5 Seasons Race in Cedar Rapids on the 4th of July! Jeremy and I planned on running the 5K and the kids were signed up for the kids run which was .45 of a mile. I pushed the kids during the 5K and it was mighty hot! We had to wait around for awhile before the kid run started, and they started to loose interest.

Waiting and looking a bit grumpy!

Once we got moving in the kids run they had soooo much fun! I carried Owen on and off for a lot of the run, but little Ellie was a trooper and ran the entire time! She would say, " Mom I'm tired" every once and awhile I would tell her to slow down a bit but she never would. I think the excitement of everyone running kept her going! They got medals at the end and were so proud!

Counting down the days...

Ellie has been counting down the days to her birthday for the past 10 days. We made a pink and purple chain to help us mark the days. She takes a link off first thing each morning she wakes up and then counts the links that are left. It really is very cute! Ellie has been talking about her birthday for months, so we are all very ready for it to get here :) I think she is about to bust a gut in antipation. Party on Friday and birthday on Sunday!

Day 2 Potty Training

After 2 morning accidents Owen actually went potty on the potty chair!!!! He was so proud! Still no number 2 on the potty but it was a great day with no accidents after his first time on the potty!

He gets the biggest smile on his face when he knows he did a good job!

Potty Training Day 1

Today marks the first day of potty training for Owen...and he is mighty proud!

The day was marked with 5 accidents: 4 pee and 1 poop and nothing in the actual toliet. By the end of the day he was running to the bathroom once he did go potty in his pants so that was some progress!

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater

We have started playing games at our house! I have looked forward to this day since before I had kids! Jeremy HATES playing board games and is such a sore loser, I could not wait until my kids wanted to play games with me! A few of our faves right now are, memory, princess memory, Candy Land, Old Maid and Hungry Hungry Hippo!
Well the other day we were playing Hungry Hungry Hippo and look who takes after their daddy in the game department...Owen the cheater! He uses his hands and puts all the marbles into his hippos mouth...he also acts as if he is doing nothing wrong during the act and gets very upset if you take the marbles out of his "hippo's belly" to continue playing the game.
Caught in the act...

Caught in the act

Cheater

Acting like nothings is up :)

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

The Easter Bunny came and left eggs all over our back yard, filled with candy and money! :) Ellie and Owen had so much fun running around the yard and collecting eggs. Ellie helped Owen find a few and was very fair to her little brother. After we came inside the kids went through all their loot, put the money in their piggy banks and ate their weight in chocolate!

Dying Eggs

The kids have been so excited all week to dye Easter Eggs. We decided to do it Friday night before Easter. Ellie of course wanted to dye all her eggs pink, while Owen didn't care what color he was using as long as he could throw the eggs into the different cups and watch the dye splash all over! He broke a few to say the least.

I'm really enjoying doing more and more fun things as the kids get older! I hope they want to hang out and play with us forever...although I know this may not be reality!

Spring Break 2012

Jeremy and I had planned a trip to Chicago for my Spring Break this year. It was almost ruined when I came down with the flu...but I was able to recover and fortunately had a great time in Chicago. We attended a Second City performance Saturday night which was SO FUNNY!!!! We had plenty of great food, drinks and a lot of fun. Sunday I woke up and ran in the Shamrock Shuffle, which is an 8K (5miles). It was a lot of fun, but a bit overwhelming to run in a race with sooo many people.

We came home Sunday afternoon to a sick Owen :(. I had the entire week off, so that was a plus with a sick kid at home, but it was also not the most relaxing week off :). Even though Owen was sick we still got to do plenty of things around the house. We go outside on our bikes, played with bubbles and chalk, pretended to drive daddy's new truck, had tea parties galore, colored, painted and made our first batch of homemade playdoh...I cannot wait to hang out all summer!

First time back on the bikes this year!

The Little Artist

Making Playdoh with Mom

Having fun with our playdoh

Baking with Mommy

Tea party with Ellie and Mommy

Future Hoarder???

This is pretty typical for Owen...he has to sleep with as many toys as he can cram into his bed. We at times worry that we have a little hoarder on our hands??? :)

Helping Daddy

Mommy went to the store and got some new shelves for the kitchen. So...that leaves dad and I to put them together and put them up :) I had sooo much fun helping my daddy, he even let me help work the drill! Hope mommy appreciates all are hard work!

Concentrating

Holding it in place

Big Helper!

Ellie the Monkey

Ellie's pre-school room has been turned into a zoo! It is adorable! Miss Megan did such a good job transforming the room and is so creative. Ellie was the monkey at the zoo today! She had so much fun!

Ellie the Monkey

Reading with Aunt Aundrea

Aundrea came to visit us for the day with presents...books! We have officially read our new books a bizillion times!
Here is us reading with the bestest Aunt around!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Ellie and Owen got all of their Valentines ready last night for their daycare friends. Ellie attempted to write her name on every one of her Valentines! She picked out an outfit to wear and Mommy helped Owen pick out something red  to wear today too. They are so excited to celebrate Valentines Day at daycare and tonight at home with Mommy and Daddy!  

Rugby Banquet

Jeremy and I heading off to the Rugby Banquet 2012! It was a great time! Thank you to Grandma Mary for watching the kids!

Reading with Daddy

The three best people in the world,

reading together,

I love them so much it hurts.

Iowa Wrestling Meet vs Minnesota

Jeremy and I LOVE going to Iowa's wrestling meets. We typically go to a few every year. This year was the first year that we brought the kids along. They did pretty good for the most part. Owen was very well behaved and seemed to enjoy the wrestling. Ellie was a bit more difficult to keep busy and seemed to enjoy the snacking :) The Iowa Hawkeyes beat Minnesota and it was a great time had by all!

Best Friends

Ellie is always telling Owen that "you are my best friend". She actually tells almost everyone this...but I think that she means it with Owen.
Owen and Ellie LOVE each other they play all day with one another...and miss the other one if they are not around. They also fight once in awhile, but quickly forget those moments.

Ellie is going to hate this when she gets older, but lately she has been asking why she can't marry Owen. She always calls Owen her "Eric" (Ellie's definition of a prince) and says that she is going to marry him. We tell her that brothers and sisters can't get married. She is having a hard time grasping this :)

Best Friends

New Years Resolutions for the Daughetee's

Happy New Year! This year to ring in 2012 we took the kids out to eat at Red Robin at around 5:00 to beat the crowd, we then got ice cream at Coldstone (which Ellie puked all up in the middle of the night), and were all in bed by 10:00! We are living quite the WILD life these days! :) In reality it was a nice low-key way to ring in the New Year, especially considering the night before we were up soooo late watching Iowa get beat in the bowl game.
I have been thinking about some New Year Resolutions for us as a family to set:
Danielle:
- I'm going to be more aware of time management. I'm perpetually late (not to work) but everywhere else. I always think that I have time to work everything in and then end up panicking and feeling way too rushed.
-I NEED to do my first triathlon. I have done a duatlon, and now want to try the triathlon. Hoping for August.
-Complete 1/2 marathon. I'm officially signed up for one on May 19th and start training the end of February.
-Remove artificial sweeteners completely from diet (I know it sounds silly, but it is something I want to do)
Ellie:
-Learn to write her name without assistance. (She can write it now if I write it first)
-Recognize all letters, she recognizes most of them right now. For instance the other day we were in a public restroom and she points out a "F" written on the stall door...luckily she can' read what the word was, but I was proud she knew the F :). She also knows what all of our names start with and knows all of the letter sounds and long vowels.
-She is begging to take gymnastics again
-First swim lesson
Owen:
-Potty training!!!! He has no interest right now, but we will get there :)
-He is talking up a storm, I would like him to continue doing so well
-He has gained 6 pounds since surgery in October, I would like the progress to continue.
-First swim lesson
-Start to learn to write his name
-Stay in bed once put to bed :) (work in progress)
Jeremy:
-Shoot Monster Buck!
- House projects galore!
-Re-paint basement
-Put instillation in garage
-Knock out wall in stairwell to open it up
-TBD