May 2007
May 2008
May 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Mother's Day 2009
I had a wonderful Mother's Day. My darling husband woke up with both kids and let me sleep in while they made breakfast. They bought me breakfast in bed which became breakfast on the bedroom floor to avoid huge messes with kids. We hung out around the house and played before heading to a Fossil preserve about 5 minutes from our house. We "hiked" around the fossil preserve for a while before finding a playground for a picnic lunch. Lily did excellent when hiking and was independent with rock climbing compared to her little bro. This kid threw himself off a rock and was caught mid-air by his attentive father. Nice reflexes Randy.
Lily was very aware of Mother's Day and how it is a special day for moms. But every once in a while she'd wish me a "Happy Valentine's Day" which was pretty cute. The kids also gave me home made cards which will be kept forever.
Randy-props to you! He also bought me a wonderful card and helped give me a relaxing and fun day. I couldn't have asked for anything more.
Lily was very aware of Mother's Day and how it is a special day for moms. But every once in a while she'd wish me a "Happy Valentine's Day" which was pretty cute. The kids also gave me home made cards which will be kept forever.
Randy-props to you! He also bought me a wonderful card and helped give me a relaxing and fun day. I couldn't have asked for anything more.
Monday, May 11, 2009
KIDS!!!!
Last weekend the kids helped me plant flowers. They enjoyed playing in the dirt and all the flowers were planted without too much mess. Although this type of activity isn't much fun without some mess. I also found a deal on a sand and water table from a second hand store. It proved to be a hit by entertaining these kiddos for a good hour.
The serious side of Harrison
Pretending to be napping
Eyes glazed over by the Sprout Channel (either Dragon Tales or Caillou)
Time to goof off
Typical weekend wear...ballgowns.
This picture is for Randy. He loves her little dimply hands. Our last reminder of our little baby girl.
Harrison's all smiles for momma
I could eat these cheeks over and over again.
The serious side of Harrison
Pretending to be napping
Eyes glazed over by the Sprout Channel (either Dragon Tales or Caillou)
Time to goof off
Typical weekend wear...ballgowns.
This picture is for Randy. He loves her little dimply hands. Our last reminder of our little baby girl.
Harrison's all smiles for momma
I could eat these cheeks over and over again.
Monday, May 04, 2009
PRAGUE
Charles Bridge-statue lined bridge that connects Old Town to the Little Quarter and Prague Castle. Filled with tourists and people selling jewelry and paintings. The bridge was named after Charles IV, a Holy Roman Emperor (also on the 100 Kc bill) who ruled in the 14th century. Previous bridges were built on the same spot but washed away by floods. In 1342, Emperor Charles IV decided against repairing the old bridge and had a new bridge built (foundation laid in 1357). St. Vitus Cathedral is visible on the hill.
Statue in front of St. Vitus Cathedral.
Bridge Tower-Gothic gate from Charles Bridge into Little Quarter.
Czech leaders have ruled from Prague Castle for over a 1,000 years. Four main parts make up the Prague Castle (St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, Basilica of St. George and the Golden Lane).
This picture is of the castle (guards standing under "fighting giant" statues)where the Czech President has his office.
St. Vitus Cathedral-the best part of the Prague Castle if you ask me. It contains the tombs and relics of the most important local saints and kings, including the first 3 Habsburg Kings. The cathedral was started in 1344 but due to plagues and war wasn't finished until 1929.
Wenceslas Chapel-to the right is St. Wenceslas tomb and a locked door that contains the crown jewels. Czech kings used to be crowned in front of the coffin. The entire chapel is roped off because the wall paper is encrusted with precious and semi-precious jewels.
First view inside St. Vitus Cathedral.
Stained glass inside St. Vitus Cathedral.
More views of St. Vitus Cathedral.
Basilica and Convent of St. George-Prague's Romanesque Church. We didn't tour inside but the outside definitely had a simple look. I don't know how old it is but St. Wenceslas' grandmother was reburied there in 973. After seeing St. Vitus the Basilica of St. George was a little too simple. :)
I love the doors in Prague. This picture was taken after passing the Basilica of St. George and heading into the Golden Lane (which we didn't pay to walk down but it was a street lined with old buildings that used to house goldsmiths that now contains tourist shops).
View from top of Prague Castle
Another view from the top of Prague Castle. Especially handy when you are shooting arrows at the enemy.
Before we walked over Charles Bridge and roamed around Prague Castle we found a vegetarian restaurant, Lehka Hlava (Clear Head) that was tucked away on a cul-de-sac. Here is Randy posing for another door picture (this one is one of my favorite Prague pictures. It brings me back to that exact moment and the feeling...which was all good)
The ceiling was filled with little, sparkling lights.
Local artists designed the tables and decor.
This was the alley to get to the resturant. Not only do I love the doors but the tiny streets lined with neat, old buildings.
If you can believe it this was only 1 day of our vacation! More to follow at a later time!
Statue in front of St. Vitus Cathedral.
Bridge Tower-Gothic gate from Charles Bridge into Little Quarter.
Czech leaders have ruled from Prague Castle for over a 1,000 years. Four main parts make up the Prague Castle (St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, Basilica of St. George and the Golden Lane).
This picture is of the castle (guards standing under "fighting giant" statues)where the Czech President has his office.
St. Vitus Cathedral-the best part of the Prague Castle if you ask me. It contains the tombs and relics of the most important local saints and kings, including the first 3 Habsburg Kings. The cathedral was started in 1344 but due to plagues and war wasn't finished until 1929.
Wenceslas Chapel-to the right is St. Wenceslas tomb and a locked door that contains the crown jewels. Czech kings used to be crowned in front of the coffin. The entire chapel is roped off because the wall paper is encrusted with precious and semi-precious jewels.
First view inside St. Vitus Cathedral.
Stained glass inside St. Vitus Cathedral.
More views of St. Vitus Cathedral.
Basilica and Convent of St. George-Prague's Romanesque Church. We didn't tour inside but the outside definitely had a simple look. I don't know how old it is but St. Wenceslas' grandmother was reburied there in 973. After seeing St. Vitus the Basilica of St. George was a little too simple. :)
I love the doors in Prague. This picture was taken after passing the Basilica of St. George and heading into the Golden Lane (which we didn't pay to walk down but it was a street lined with old buildings that used to house goldsmiths that now contains tourist shops).
View from top of Prague Castle
Another view from the top of Prague Castle. Especially handy when you are shooting arrows at the enemy.
Before we walked over Charles Bridge and roamed around Prague Castle we found a vegetarian restaurant, Lehka Hlava (Clear Head) that was tucked away on a cul-de-sac. Here is Randy posing for another door picture (this one is one of my favorite Prague pictures. It brings me back to that exact moment and the feeling...which was all good)
The ceiling was filled with little, sparkling lights.
Local artists designed the tables and decor.
This was the alley to get to the resturant. Not only do I love the doors but the tiny streets lined with neat, old buildings.
If you can believe it this was only 1 day of our vacation! More to follow at a later time!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Ahoj from Praha
I'll write more later but wanted to share some of the Prague sights that we've seen in the past 1.5 days. It's awesome!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Pivo! Pivo! And more Pivo!
Growing up we took a family vacation every summer. My mom saved money all year and planned and planned. We had some great ones too. We seemed to rotate Kansas City (Royals game, World's of Fun and Ocean's of Fun) with Minneapolis (Twins game and Valleyfair). Sometimes the folks would throw in camping or a trip to Adventureland. Good times and always enjoyed by myself and bros. Before each vacation I would get SOOOO excited. The kind of excitement that kept me up at night, too giddy to sleep. The kind of excitement that made a few days seem like forever away, the day we left for our vacation never came fast enough.
As I've grown up I haven't had those "kid" feelings as often. Taking trips is awesome and I love to travel but now either we travel with 2 little kiddos (excitement-NO, nervousness-YES) or we travel for work and usually alone. It's still fun to take a short trip back to Colorado and go shopping (and work!) but then we miss the kids terribly. It's usually good for the dad/kid bond to have me out of the picture for a few days but it's pretty hard on me. I always steal something of the kids to keep close at night...stuffed animal or blanket, so I can smell them at night when I'm lonely. Since having kids the only trip Randy and I have taken together, not work related, was here, to house hunt. Not exactly relaxing.
Our Prague trip is fast approaching and I'm so excited to report I have those feelings again, just like a kid. I can't wait!!!! If I start to think about leaving the kids I just start crying so I'm suppressing that for a bit. The in-laws and my mom, accompanied by Aunt Joleen and Gram are babysitting and most likely have spoiling on their mind. I know the kids will have a blast and I look forward to their daily chats, recalling what funny thing grandpa did or what grandma made for lunch. Lily is already requesting a blanket as her souvenir. She requested a blanket on our last trip but she got a snow globe instead. Guess cuddling up to a hard plastic dome isn't ideal and she really could use another blanket since apparently the other 5 thousand she owns don't work.
The countdown is T-2 days. Unfortunately for Randy he will be working a few days in Prague. But once his talks are over a huge weight will be lifted for a few months. I plan to leave all memories of work aside and, as recommended by a friend, sit and people watch and drink beer. In Prague. I can't wait!
As I've grown up I haven't had those "kid" feelings as often. Taking trips is awesome and I love to travel but now either we travel with 2 little kiddos (excitement-NO, nervousness-YES) or we travel for work and usually alone. It's still fun to take a short trip back to Colorado and go shopping (and work!) but then we miss the kids terribly. It's usually good for the dad/kid bond to have me out of the picture for a few days but it's pretty hard on me. I always steal something of the kids to keep close at night...stuffed animal or blanket, so I can smell them at night when I'm lonely. Since having kids the only trip Randy and I have taken together, not work related, was here, to house hunt. Not exactly relaxing.
Our Prague trip is fast approaching and I'm so excited to report I have those feelings again, just like a kid. I can't wait!!!! If I start to think about leaving the kids I just start crying so I'm suppressing that for a bit. The in-laws and my mom, accompanied by Aunt Joleen and Gram are babysitting and most likely have spoiling on their mind. I know the kids will have a blast and I look forward to their daily chats, recalling what funny thing grandpa did or what grandma made for lunch. Lily is already requesting a blanket as her souvenir. She requested a blanket on our last trip but she got a snow globe instead. Guess cuddling up to a hard plastic dome isn't ideal and she really could use another blanket since apparently the other 5 thousand she owns don't work.
The countdown is T-2 days. Unfortunately for Randy he will be working a few days in Prague. But once his talks are over a huge weight will be lifted for a few months. I plan to leave all memories of work aside and, as recommended by a friend, sit and people watch and drink beer. In Prague. I can't wait!
Friday, April 10, 2009
I did it!!
I did it. I finally did it. This wasn't an April Fool's joke (unlike 2 April Fool's ago). This wasn't done on a dare. Or after 3 shots of Jägermeister. Okay, nowadays I would only require 1 shot. But still, this was a decision made by an unintoxicated mature woman.
Months ago, I hesitated to do this mostly because of an office job and being the wife of a professor. Well, my office job is now conveniently located in my house and the only person I see regularly between 8-5 is the FedEx man. He probably doesn't care about a nose piercing but rather is wondering what type of crazy pajama pants I'll be wearing. The other issue was being the wife of a new professor. This concern was axed during my first lunch with his faulty co workers and the female professor had a....nose piercing. YES! Besides Randy really didn't care anyway.
So I did it and it hurt like hell. But no regrets.
My conversation with Lily yesterday:
Lily: Whatcha doing?
Me: Cleaning my nose piercing.
Lily: Can I get a nose piercing?
Me: Gulp. Yes, you can. When you're 32.
Lily: Are you 32?
Me: Yes, I am.
Lily: Okay. Is poppa 32?
Me: Nope, he's 33.
Moral of story...Lily will be allowed to date, pierce, tattoo when she's 32 years old. And Randy will always be older than me.
Months ago, I hesitated to do this mostly because of an office job and being the wife of a professor. Well, my office job is now conveniently located in my house and the only person I see regularly between 8-5 is the FedEx man. He probably doesn't care about a nose piercing but rather is wondering what type of crazy pajama pants I'll be wearing. The other issue was being the wife of a new professor. This concern was axed during my first lunch with his faulty co workers and the female professor had a....nose piercing. YES! Besides Randy really didn't care anyway. So I did it and it hurt like hell. But no regrets.
My conversation with Lily yesterday:
Lily: Whatcha doing?
Me: Cleaning my nose piercing.
Lily: Can I get a nose piercing?
Me: Gulp. Yes, you can. When you're 32.
Lily: Are you 32?
Me: Yes, I am.
Lily: Okay. Is poppa 32?
Me: Nope, he's 33.
Moral of story...Lily will be allowed to date, pierce, tattoo when she's 32 years old. And Randy will always be older than me.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Reward charts
Soliciting advice on reward charts. We want to do one for Lily (3.5 years old) but we need ideas.
We have 2 main issues:
a) Getting dressed in the morning
b) Listening during bedtime routine (putting on pajamas, going potty, brushing teeth, going to bed)
How many stars (or marbles, or whatnot) should Lily receive before her reward? Should it be a number that she can easily count to? If so, should we have 2 types of rewards...5 stars=picnic or a small toy and 15 stars=trip to mall for carousel ride? Do we take away stars/marbles for bad behavior? Or only reward good behavior?
Comments are open for discussion!
We have 2 main issues:
a) Getting dressed in the morning
b) Listening during bedtime routine (putting on pajamas, going potty, brushing teeth, going to bed)
How many stars (or marbles, or whatnot) should Lily receive before her reward? Should it be a number that she can easily count to? If so, should we have 2 types of rewards...5 stars=picnic or a small toy and 15 stars=trip to mall for carousel ride? Do we take away stars/marbles for bad behavior? Or only reward good behavior?
Comments are open for discussion!
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
We hosted our first annual Easter egg hunt last weekend. We met more neighbors and the kids had a blast. Except Harrison, he woke up on the wrong side of the crib and didn't snap out of his funk the rest of the morning. We had 17 kids and over 300 Easter eggs full of candy and toys. We kept it pretty low key but maybe next year I can talk our friend, Ted, into dressing up as the Easter bunny and scaring the kids. Fun!
I didn't get a great picture of the mass of colorful eggs but at least you can see all the room to hunt...
Lily's overabundance of eggs (all the kids had this many-except for the wee ones who really didn't care)
Harrison managed to score a few eggs.
My awesome neighbor, Shauna, and her son, Vonn.
Two girls battling for the eggs (i.e. candy).
Shauna's husband, Greg, and little guy, Kingston.
Lily was quite pleased with the Easter bunny eraser
Harrison was much happier playing with his Thomas train set.
I didn't get a great picture of the mass of colorful eggs but at least you can see all the room to hunt...
Lily's overabundance of eggs (all the kids had this many-except for the wee ones who really didn't care)
Harrison managed to score a few eggs.
My awesome neighbor, Shauna, and her son, Vonn.
Two girls battling for the eggs (i.e. candy).
Shauna's husband, Greg, and little guy, Kingston.
Lily was quite pleased with the Easter bunny eraser
Harrison was much happier playing with his Thomas train set.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Thursday, April 02, 2009
01 Apr 2009
Yes, yes, yes, my last post, composed on 01 Apr 2009, was a funny, funny, funny joke. Granted I'm probably the only one laughing.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
More moving news
Later this month Randy and I are traveling to Prague. Randy was invited to give a talk and I invited myself to tag along. :)
Well...instead of a vacation (for me) it's turned into a house hunting trip. Yep, that's right...we're moving again. To Prague! Randy is going to participate in a professor exchange program in Prague so we'll be there for 2 years.
We have a lot of details to work out...we now own 2 houses in 2 different states and won't be living in either, living abroad with kids, learning Czech. We think it's a great time to go before Lily starts kindergarten in 2 years so we taking this rare opportunity.
Got your passports ready??
Well...instead of a vacation (for me) it's turned into a house hunting trip. Yep, that's right...we're moving again. To Prague! Randy is going to participate in a professor exchange program in Prague so we'll be there for 2 years.
We have a lot of details to work out...we now own 2 houses in 2 different states and won't be living in either, living abroad with kids, learning Czech. We think it's a great time to go before Lily starts kindergarten in 2 years so we taking this rare opportunity.
Got your passports ready??
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