Disney on Ice

We went to Disney on Ice last Thursday night, and it was a blast. Annabelle was mesmerized. The show was a little under 2 hours, including an intermission and both kids paid attention the entire time. Of course, it probably helped that we had FRONT ROW tickets. I bought the tickets ages ago when they were first on pre-sale. We were in the front row on the edge where a lot of the skaters went on and off the ice. So very cool and so very worth it.

During intermission, Annabelle said to us, "Where did those costumes go?" Yep. She didn't ask where did Mickey Mouse go or where did the princesses go. She wanted to know where the costumes went. Then later as we were leaving, she told us again how much she liked the costumes. So darn cute.

On another note, I've been telling Anna a lot of stories lately, which she adores. I started doing this with Jack when he was around 2. The story always involves her as the main character, and lately she always wants to hear the story about Anna with the little tiny pony that fits in her hand. The look on her face is so blissfully happy as she listens to me. Such small pleasures.

Snow Headaches

Jack has informed me that the snow gives him headaches. And tummy aches. And as long as the snow stays around, he's going to keep getting headaches. (He's ready for it to be warm so he can go outside a lot again.)

I understand. It's one thing when it's pretty and snowing. But now it's just piled up all ugly.

Stealing by Accident

I stole a princess dance outfit from a store today. We'll call the store "Farget" just for anonymity. I didn't do it on purpose. I swear.

With Anna in dance class, we thought we'd get her another tutu outfit to wear. She fell in love with a blue princess one, and she held it tightly the whole time in the store. When we get out to the car, I lift Anna out of the basket and see that she had been sitting on the dance outfit, so we didn't pay for it. By this time, everything is loaded and Jack is in the van and buckled. And, it's also about 2° outside.

I'm just about to load the kids up back into the basket when I remember I was going to return a lamp I bought from Farget that didn't work. I did a quick calculation; the dance outfit was roughly the cost of the lamp, so I figured it was a wash.

On the drive home, I was still feeling pretty guilty about the whole thing. I was even making plans in my head to go back and pay for the outfit. But then I remembered that I went to Farget last week and purchased a dowel rod. However, the check-out girl must have put it separately or something because we did not get home with it. Yet, I was still charged for it!

So now I don't feel guilty anymore. In fact, I figure Farget owes me.

Sick Day/Vacation Day

Anna is "sick" today. Notice the use of quotations? There's a good reason for them.

This morning, Anna woke up and said she was wet because she threw up on herself. Sure enough, there were huge chunks of gross stuff all in her hair and bed. I got her all cleaned up and by this time, she got the notion of staying home sick. I could tell she felt fine, though (and no fever or anything), so I tried to convince her to go to school.

"There is still throw-up in my tummy. I need to stay home," Anna said.

She wouldn't eat (but was prancing around in her princess shoes). I figured I'd better be safe than sorry. At our daycare, if a child throws up or has a fever, they have to be out for 24 hours. So if I would have taken her in and then she threw up, then I'd have to take off two days.

By this time, Jack is pretty mad. He tries to tell me that he has a pretty nasty cough and that he needs to stay home sick, too. I told him no, and it pretty much broke his little heart. So I decided it was time to "make a deal" with him. You know...bribe him so he doesn't cry and get all upset. Anyway, it took some doing, but here's what we came up with:

5 grab bags (from the dollar store, only $1 each!)
Pancakes for dinner
$1 for his savings box
Skittles
Tae Kwon Do class tonight

Am I a pushover or what? Oh well. I took a vacation day and have been running errands and getting stuff done. All in all, a productive day.

Winter Classes

Jack and Anna are finally at the age where they can both take classes at the Y by themselves. This is a huge milestone for me because up until now, I've done a lot of swimming classes with them. Don't get me wrong, I like swimming. But the whole ordeal gets tiring with changing and then getting in the water and then changing again.

So now Jack is taking Tae Kwon Do and basketball (a last-minute sign-up on a whim). And Anna is very ecstatic about a little girl dance class.

I don't want to be one of those families with crazy schedules who have something every night of the week. But this is sure going to help us get through winter. Plus, we figured out that it's cheaper to become members of the Y, rather than to pay community rates for individual classes.

So this weekend was the first session. I went with Jack to basketball, and he was VERY timid at first. He is my cautious boy who is very self-conscious, so he didn't want to do the dribbling drills at all. He finally warmed up, though, and had a blast. Afterward, we got him a $5 basketball at the store and he's been practicing his dribbling ALL weekend long in the house.

I didn't go to Anna's class, but Steve said she loves it. Imagine 8 to 10 little 3 and 4-year-olds, all decked out in little dance shoes and tutus. It doesn't get much cuter than that. Hopefully we'll have pictures soon.

The Blog About Snow

As I type this, I know I'm going to have critics. People around here hate winter and the snow. Believe me, they start talking about hating it as soon as the first snowfall. I get it...it's cold and wet and icky and dirty. And I've definitely had my fair share of complaining about it. In fact, every year on the first very very cold day, I usually call Steve and complain to him about bringing me to this nasty cold state. (Actually, I usually say worse things than that, but I'm keeping this blog PG.)

But the thing is, there are some really cool things about living in a place where it snows. Today we got home and there was about 5 inches of snow in the driveway. The kids were in complete and utter excitement as they put on their snowpants and boots. And then while I snowblowed the driveway, they had an absolute blast.

It was pretty, too. The wind wasn't blowing. It wasn't that cold. And the sky was completely clear and crisp. It was a beautiful scene.

I'll be sick of snow next week, I'm sure. And definitely by March when it's still snowing. But sometimes it's just fun and pretty.

Our Christmas List

Christmas is only 2/3 of the way finished for us because we'll be going to Steve's mom's house on New Year's Eve. We've had a wonderful holiday thus far, though. It kicked off more than a week ago when we hit the road the night before a huge snowstorm hit Milwaukee. Whew! Then Steve and I joined Vicki and Jeff in Vegas for a few days before flying back to Oklahoma for Christmas.

Here are some of the highlights of our adventures, in my traditional list style.

* Jack might not remember what Santa brought him for Christmas this year, but Santa did leave him a note. In it, he told Jack that he kissed his toes while he was sleeping. Now, Jack has been playing "pretend Santa" with Anna, and he always makes her kiss his toes when she's being Santa.
* Anna fell in love with my Grandma, and it was the cutest thing in the world. Today I even asked her to name all of her grandmas, and she only named Grandma Bingham. "I can't think of the rest," she said. (Sorry other Grandmas. Don't take it personal, though.)
* My dad fired up their hot tub while we were there, and the kids LOVED going out there...sometimes even three times a day!
* We had great weather in Oklahoma. Jack even said, "It can't be Christmas. Where's the snow?"
* While I spent lots of money in Vegas with shopping, Steve was more productive and actually made a little with his gambling. Wooohooo!
* The built-in DVD player in our new van totally rocks.
* My brother, Steve, won money in Vegas, too. I'm super proud of him. My other brother....well, let's just say he didn't win.
* Jack and Anna had a blast playing with their cousin, Lockin. The three of those kids are crazy.

That's the highlights for now. We had a really great trip overall.

Car Salesmen Make Me Cringe

We're in the market to update our van these days. We travel such long distance throughout the year that we try to watch our overall mileage, which is getting up there. And we just want some cool new features like a built-in DVD (no cords!), windows that roll down in the second row and a power back door.

We happen to have great timing because the economy is down, so dealerships are cutting pretty good deals. And my parents are going to buy our current van. We're driving down there in a couple of weeks, so then we could just drive it to them!

Anyway, back to the point of my whole post. Car salesmen nauseate me. Here are my top 5 car salesmen annoyances...

1. They make lame jokes, and then you laugh just to be kind. Ugh.
2. They don't take me serious. Apparently, I have to have a man with me to buy a car because they will actually ask me when I want to come back with my husband. (They don't even know I'm married. One guy said something like that over the phone!)
3. They make stuff up on the fly. ("This car had new tires put on recently. Oh year, they are good as new.")
4. They want to talk too much and show you everything. (Like the folding rear seat is something miraculous that will make you buy it on the spot.)
5. They really aren't that thorough and ignore your questions. (I will ask very simple questions via e-mail and they glaze over them and just try to get me in the door.)

So what is it about car salesmen? How can they all share this annoying traints? And why aren't there more women?

I found this one van I really like but really don't like the salesman. We'll see how my search goes. If I can get through the salesmen, then we should be driving in a much cooler van in a couple of weeks. After all, if you drive a van, shouldn't it be much cooler?

Happy, Merry Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving in Minneapolis this weekend. Since I still don't have a camera, here are some of the highlights...

*We went to Macy's in downtown to go through this Christmas scene. Then we stood in line to see Santa. Jack got stage fright when he actually saw Santa and told him he'd send him a letter instead. (My company has breakfast with Santa next weekend, so we're going to craft the perfect letter this week to hand him personally. How convenient.)
*We went to our first movie as a family, along with Steve's dad and his family. We went to see Bolt, and it was super cute. Anna had a couple of moments, but she made it through. Yeah!
*Jack and Anna got lots of good play time in with Uncle Sam and Aunt Julia. We may not have a huge family, but this just means the kids get extra attention!
*We had Christmas with Steve's dad since we won't see them next month. Jack and Anna LOVED this. Jack got this United States game that Grandma Ginny played with him about 10 times. (What a great grandma!) And Anna got this baby doll and wooden cradle; she took care of it all weekend.
*I couldn't bear the thought of NOT shopping on Black Friday, so I went out to Target in the afternoon and got all my "Toys for Tots" presents taken care of.
*I got to sleep in three mornings in a row, though not because the kids slept late. I just have the most wonderful husband.
*Anna had about 7 pieces of bacon this morning for breakfast. (I figured I should throw that in there because I'm sure she would mention that as a highlight of the weekend.)
*Oh yeah, the actual Thanksgiving dinner! Steve's dad made a fabulous meal, and we'd pretty much cleaned it out by Sunday. Gotta love leftovers.

So yes, we had a great, Thanksgiving weekend. It's so much fun to see my kids growing up and being to play with each other and even unsupervised. We went to a movie, went out to dinner and stood in a looooong line to see Santa. These are all things that would have stressed us out 2 years ago. Now they are just fun. What a great family we have. I'm very thankful for that.

Thanksgiving Message from Jack

Jack learned a new turkey song at school. I couldn't post a direct audio file, so I had to upload it into a movie. I just put his song behind this recent photo I took. (He has this tie set, and he wanted to wear it so bad one day!)

In case you don't understand his words, he's saying...

Gobble Gobble said the turkey
Soon it will be Thanksgiving Day.
The way they treat me,
They're going to eat me,
So I better run away.

No More Babies

It's official. We no longer have babies in our house. Anna turned 3 on Friday. She's a big kid now...wearing underwear and everything.

We had a nice little party for her on Saturday. She got some great presents, including lots of horse-themed stuff and a cool set of princess shoes that she wears all the time. She loved everything, but her princess "bouncy ball" was among her favorite items. That little girl has mastered her bouncy technique with curls boppin' behind perfectly. For anyone looking for a good gift for a little kid, I would highly recommend the bouncy ball.

Here's a picture of her with her new horse, Sal, too. She can climb on him and sit on him. So cute. And her aunt Maggie sent her a cowgirl hat and outfit to complete her look when she rides Sal.

I took the day off on Friday, and we had a great girls' day. I can honestly say that I'm not sad to see my kids get bigger. Sure babies are cute and all, but I don't have that yearning to keep them young. I love watching them grow up and develop. Our weekends are quite pleasant, and the kids can even play unsupervised for short spurts (until someone cries out because the other hit, kicked or took something).

I feel very blessed to have such a great little family!

PS: These pictures are from my iphone. Word has it that I'm getting a new camera for Christmas, so hang in there!

Mosaics, Birthdays and Funny Stories

I haven't had a good regular post in a while. Well, following my great run last week, I haven't worked out a single day since then. Ha! A big reason is that I've had this nasty sore throat all last week that was brutal in the mornings. And then now I have this weird earache. But all excuses aside, hopefully I'll get back in the swing of things soon. I've built up my endurance, so I don't want to just lose it.

Today I did a lot of mosaics to finish up some Christmas presents I'm working on. They turned out cool. Jack and Anna even helped me do one of the pieces. That's the beauty of mosaics. It doesn't really matter where you put the pieces, as long as you're not doing a pattern. So they had a blast with that.

Anna's birthday is quickly approaching. I took the day off on Friday to hang out with her, and I think I might be looking forward to it more than her! That girl has been counting down the days to her birthday for a long time, so everyone is excited that it's almost here. (Especially Jack because he knows that it's one more step closer to his!)

Finally, here's my funny story of the week. We were in the drive-thru line at Walgreens, and there were some cars in front of us. We were just sitting there, hanging out. And Anna says, "Dammit cars!" Unfortunately, I have to take credit for that one. It doesn't make me proud, though.

I actually did it!

I really did it...I ran my 5k today. I've been working on it for a few weeks now, exercising and running outside weekly. Last weekend, I ran about 2.75 miles, and then today, I made it to the 3.1.

It was a cold and icky morning, though not as bad as it could have been. The kids went in the stroller on the walking portion with Steve and the grandparents. And my wonderful cross-country coach friend, Rachel, ran with me. She was such a good sport. She stayed with me the whole time, even though I know she could have gone faster. She even talked to me to keep my mind off the task at hand. What a great friend!

My time wasn't anything to brag about, but I finished the whole thing without stopping, which was my goal. I don't expect to be training for a full or half marathon anytime soon, so I might as well enjoy the moment while it lasts.

I celebrated my accomplishment by having a deep tissue massage.

Christmas Wishes

So it might be a little early for Christmas talk, but not in our house. Jack saw something with Santa on it, so he's already been talking about what he's going to ask Santa for.

Last month, he'd decided he wanted a Power Ranger brook and dustpan. (Don't ask me why. I have no idea.) But then now he's decided he wants a white Power Ranger, a gray Power Ranger and a Jack cup. Let me explain what Jack cup is. He had pictures taken at school, and they sent up a mock-up photo of his photo on a cup. Jack was amazed! Now he's sure that Santa will bring him a Jack cup. I'm sure Santa can definitely handle that. Good thing, too, since we'll in Oklahoma when Santa stops by.

Anna, on the other hand, just wants a princess dustpan and princess bucket. She's funny.

By the way, if you people haven't signed up for my giveaway on www.how-tostudio.com, you need to do it! If I'm doing the making, I'd rather do it for someone I know. Though I promise not to "fix" it. I truly draw names for the giveaways.

Costume Contest

I need some voting today. I'm going to enter Jack's Elvis costume (2 years ago; my mom made it) in a photo costume contest. Which of these photos do you like?

I was going to find an Elvis wig, but I figured there was no need to go overboard. The way the contest works is that if you make it through the first round, then it's up to the public's vote.

It really bugs me that some of the photos have random things in the background. D'oh! I should have picked up better before I took the pictures. Maybe Tina can photoshop it for me.