Momma was sick...

Today's blog is about Mommy :)

Lets just say Momma had a NASTY stomach bug and was out of commission for 5...yes 5 days! It was NOT good. I had to stay home from work on Friday. If anyone has kids or knows me, ALL my paid time off goes towards for my kids and never myself! It was not good! I have had the 24 stomach bug and it was done and over with...well this one kept staying and staying and staying.

I can officially say as of Tuesday I am officially better and I can eat again.

It was a rough weekend but Daddy and family were a big help with the girls! Thanks all who helped out!

Future Gymnast???

Ok, she probably wont be a future gymnast but she is learning! She is my daughter and if you know me, I am NOOOOOOT graceful one bit :)

Madison has been in Gymnastics for 3 weeks and has been practicing her summersaults and has finally "mastered" it. I am using "mastered" very lightly because its still rough and its looks as though she is going to break her neck but she is SO proud.

Last Saturday Madison decided she was ready to do them all by herself! I got them on video...hahaha! Just so you know its a rough video and my voice is just annoying...so I apologize but I wanted to share Madison's new skill.

Daddy is so proud :)

TJ and his duck and geese calls...oh JOY!!! Lets just say he usually has to practice his calls when he is going to work so I won't kill him. It is loud and ANNOYING!!! Well he brought them out on Monday...yippeee! Of course Miss Madison wanted to try it and Avery thought it was HILARIOUS!!! For as annoying as those things are it was funny to see how much fun Madison had using them!

Look how excited Avery was to take a picture :)

Here is a video of Madison using the calls!!

Good Morning Everyone!

Hope everyone has a good morning!

Here is Miss Mad this morning in a GREAT mood...going shopping and holding her baby! Although, Daddy said she can NEVER shop at that store ;)

**Sending a prayer out to Grandpa Gene!

Weekend Flash Back!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Our weekend flash back!

On Thursday (aka St. Patty's Day), we went to the local elementary school and went to an open gym. Madison had a fun time just running around, going down slides, jumping on mats, climbing on tunnel type things, going down a glider, swinging...all in all it was fun! We were there for an our and it was fun and Avery had fun taking it all in! We will be going back again :)

On Friday we went to a local bar/restaurant for the all you can eat fish fry! OHHHHH heavens to Betsy was that delicious! All you can eat Fish...yummy! We will be going back! Lets just say both my kids ate SOOOOOO well! Avery has been so picky lately and has been such a hit and miss kiddo! She would eat really well one day good and then the next gag on food! Well, she proved me wrong on Friday. I brought food I know she would eat in case. She first started eating a hamburger (kids menu) and I don't know ate about a 1/4 of it by herself and then ate some fish! She was a miss piggy and was so happy that I got her to eat some normal "human" food.

Saturday, Madison had gymnastics/tumbling and had a good time! TJ and I went on a date night. Thanks Mar and Todd and Shel for watching the girls! Glad they were good! They had a movie night and watched Toy Story 3 and Madison had a WHOLE bowl of popcorn and watched the movie! She was so excited and asks all the time to have popcorn and movie! So I am thinking if there is a movie that comes to theaters that is VERY kid friendly, I may venture out and take her. I of course will have a large thing of popcorn, Icee and candy... :)

Sunday we did our normal weekend Target run. We got Madison her first pair of rain boots...pictures to come a different day! She was so happy and proud of them. She said she is going to jump in the water. She is too cute! We got some lunch at Chipotle and lets just say that was a DISASTER! Madison and Avery would NOT touch their tacos and I only had half of mine...it was a failed attempt but now we know not to take the kids to Chipotle.

AND if ANYONE wants to know...AVERY TOOK HER FIRST TWO STEPS! I about pooped myself because I was so excited. I was getting her ready for dinner and she is always standing by herself with out holding anything and I backed up and said "come on". She took one step and then took another and then I started screaming. I thinking I scared everyone and her too! Then of course after I scared the crap out of myself, Avery and everyone else she wouldn't do it anymore! Such a proud moment! I do have a feeling it will take a while because she seems happy crawling and she is QUICK! So I will keep practicing and maybe one day she will start doing it more! I was just SOOOOO excited!

Someone is Excited

Avery just hanging and watching other kids run around!

Madison was a climbing machine!

Can you tell she is tired and ready to go home...aka not listening to mom and dad :)

2nd Week of Preschool Time

Madison had "school" on Wendesday...her second week! She was very excited! Daddy even got to go with us this time and she enjoyed that company! This week Madison was not as shy and interacted with other kids! She is still learning that she needs to share a bit but did VERY well!

I can tell that she is the older child and doesn't like older kids trying to tell her what to do or if she is doing something wrong!

Here is a funny and interesting story:
There was a boy who is about 2 years older than her and been in the program for a over a year so knows everything very well! He is also knows "everything"! Of course Madison who is very stubborn and also knows "everything" was playing with a tent type of a fire truck thing. It has a door that is a flap-type fabric thing and Madison was "pretending" it was a blanket and this boy was telling her it "WAS NOT a blanket, it is a door" and was starting to get really upset that she didn't get that! If anyone knows Madison she isn't quiet and of course she yells back "it's a blanket"! This went on for a minute. Then the rest of the time this boy would try to correct Madison in everything she was doing. Madison then would holler back at him and was getting upset. I don't blame her one bit because I would have done that same thing. But as a MOM, I didn't want her to get mean or yell stuff back at her so I tried to tell Madison that she needs to keep her voice down and then tried to redirect her to a different activity. It was quiet humerous seeing Madison stick up for herself and wasn't going to back down. TJ even stopped me a couple times and told me to let her go she can do it herself...that was hard! I wanted to "save" my pumpkin from her getting upset! She held her own and we were quite impressed! Other than that she had a good time and I glad that TJ got to see his big girl do such big girl things!

Here are a couple pictures of Wednesday!

She was making TJ and I coffee and was VERY careful at keeping the cup on the plate! She is such a little mommy!

Reading "Gifford" aka Clifford the Dog!

Avery's 9 Month Stats

Well Miss Avery is growing wonderfully and continues to be OVER the charts in both height and weight!
She weighs: 24lbs
Her height: 30in

We address her continuing respiratory problems and the use of all the steroids that she uses for opening her airways. She has restricted airways which causes Bronchilitus/Pneumonia. Her doctor does not think she has anything serious because she is growing and developing so well! She does want Avery to go see a pediatric pulmonologist to discuss what's going on and if we are doing everything correct. I think this is a good appointment and will put our minds at ease and hope its just a rough winter for Avery and she will grow out of it! So say some prayers that she has a good rest of the month and no more colds/sickness till her next speciality appointment.

Here is our little miss shamrock!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Ok...I REALLY tired to get some cute pictures of the girls this morning.

It was NOT a successful shoot:
First, Madison will only smile NICELY for maybe 1 second and then by the time I can get Avery to smile, Madison stops and does the smile below :)!

Second, Avery was more focused on the TV and then giving us a crazy smile!


So all in all it was a fail of shoot but I had to post because it is St. Patty's Day...plus they are still cute :)
I also did NOT buy anything St. Patrick's Day specific but dressed them up in green!
I also LOVE this day because Green is my FAVORITE color and I had about 6 different choices in shirts and boy was that a tough choice...hahaha!

Tumbling Class

Sorry this is a bit late...better late than never right!

Like I explained in my previous post, Madison has joined a tumbling/gymnasitcs class every Saturday! It is something she LOVES! It gets her out of the house and just let her energy gooooo! She has so much fun and also allows her to meet new friends! So here are pictures of Madison and some of Avery enjoying watching Madison run around! Madison is excited for Saturday! Its daddy's turn to run around with Mad and I watch Avery play (we take turns)!

Avery loved seeing Madison run around!

Yes, that is Madison, she decided to run around and then realized we were all in the tent and came running back in! It was funny!

Madison swinging from the rings!

Picture is kinda blurry but Madison enjoying flipping over the bar!

Avery loved to pound on the glass

Yes, Miss Avery already meeting friends! TJ said the minute he put her down on the ground she went right over to the boys and started playing!

Avery having fun with Daddy

For you that have wondered, yes TJ came home on Monday from his work trip to New Jersey. He was not a big fan of it and was glad to be home. His flight got delayed an hour and then sure enough when he got to the car in the parking ramp...FLAT tire! To put it nicely...he was NOT happy ONE bit! He put the spare on and drove to a tire place and since it was a new tire they fixed it for free :) After all his shannigans from his trip to his trip home he was glad to be home

The girls were SO very excited to see him. Avery is starting to get a "tiny" bit more towards a daddy's girl (but she is still obsessed with me)! She had fun with him. He was playing with her on his legs and she was laughing and its always so fun to see her laugh and smile! She has such a pretty smile.

Tomorrow is her 9 month check up so I will post the results of her stats then. She is becoming to be such a fun baby! She is copying things that we say or do. Her new one is if we "roar" (like a lion) she will do her own "roar"! Its adorable! She loves watching her sister but will be the first one to push her face away from her if Maddi is bugging her! She is FAST at crawling and always right behind me when I am around the house! She is saying MOMMA! YIPEEE! About stinking time right :) She has said, momma, dadda, numm numm, papa/bopa (I think I heard it)...

So we are keeping our fingers crossed and double crossed that she is over her cold/bronchilitus stuff. I stopped using her neb on Sunday night....so far so good! Say a nice prayer for everyone that has had a rough winter with the sicknesses. Its not been a good time for a lot of people!

Here are some close ups of the girls right after they woke up...just had to share! Hope everyone has a great week! TJ and I are looking forward to a date night this weekend. Its much needed :)

Who is stealing Madison's and Avery's socks??

I would really like to know who is stinking stealing all my girls socks. I can be SOOOO careful and make sure I put both socks in the laundry basket and I ALWAYS end up with a bunch of missing socks. It DRIVES ME NUTS!!!! I don't get it. Who ever is stealing them...please bring them back because the other sock is lonely and needs its match :)

After two loads of laundry for the girls...these are all the socks that didn't have a winning match! In to the stack of non matches they go :(

Time Change Sunday

So we had to set the clocks ahead an hour. I will miss that extra hour of sleep but I DO LOVE that it stays light out at night time!

The girls slept till 7am...well technically 6 but with the time change it was at 7am! That was a GOOD time of nice sleep! Neither of the girls woke up at all last night...it was a GOOD night! I am OK with the our lost because they slept through the night with no problems!

Its also a lazy day. I am in my pajamas still and its 12:45pm and I am OK with it! I finally put away the laundry for the girls! The only thing I plan on doing today is vacuum the basement and clean the girls and our room!

OH and I also dressed the girls...that was better than yesterday...they were in the jammies all day :) Avery had a GOOD morning nap and Madison has been such a good girl! Its been a good day so far! OH and guess who comes home tomorrow......Daddy!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaa!

OH and I won one of the brackets for State Boys Hockey Tourney...I get to be queen for the day and NOT DO ANYTHING and be waited on!

Here are some cute pictures while I was putting laundry away and a video to daddy!

Avery playing and looking cute!

Love this face!

Madison wanted Avery to sit in the basket with her!

Madison playing in the laundry basket!

Madison found her hat...and can you see that small hand...its Avery ready to grab her head...hahha!

Here is a video for Daddy from Madison Jo :)

Can't Wait for Monday

I am looking forward to Monday BECAUSE my lovely hard working husband comes home.

My husband (TJ) recently accepted a promotion at work back in September. He now travels once or twice a month. At the time of the promotion offer he was about to start the police academy. It was a hard decision for him to make and we supported his decision. Lets just say I am proud of him and all that he is doing for his family. I do know that when he does go away for work, he feels bad and doesn't like to leave his girls but in the end it only betters us as a family, him and his company! He is GREAT at what he does and continues to succeed! He doesn't get much credit and I want to make sure he knows how much he is appreciated! Just know honey, I love you and all your girls miss you and can't wait for you to be home!

Its been an adjustment for me when he goes for 5 days at a time (up to twice a month). It is all ME that does everything. We are all surviving :) It can be very tiring, draining, exciting, fun, testing and loving! I try to make the best of it and try my best! I know I am not perfect and my limits are tested and my voice raises but in the end the girls go to bed at the same time every night, fed, bathed, loved and perfect! I always have to remind myself that the reason why he is working out of state is to better us as a family and better his career at work! I just can't wait for him to come so I can sleep and shower...hahaha...just kidding dear :) Another good thing that has come out of his traveling is that "the absence makes the heart grow fonder". I believe that when he is away it really speaks volumes of how much he does for us when he is home and how much I miss it. I also believe that when he is away he truly can't wait to be home with his girls/family...no matter how crazy and loud it all can be...he misses us and we miss him!

I do KNOW one thing is that I couldn't make it happen if it wasn't for family that have offered to help while he is gone! I have such great family offering to help where ever it is needed! With out family I would fall apart! It makes it a bit easier for TJ leaving for a few day knowing family is available and always willing and offering to help.

And to end this post...how can you NOT love spending every second with these two gorgeous girls. They are full of personality and love its crazy!

"We miss you daddy!"

Just fartin' around

I was just playing around with the camera while the girls played in their room!

This girl REFUSED to eat supper tonight...

The dark grey/blackish used to be light grey...This is what happens when you live in Minnesota! I love my Shox but hate how they get dirty so fast!

Mommy and Madison Jo

She can reach....

the PIANO...great now we will have two kiddos pounding on the piano!