Hello and Uh oh

Don't most babies say ma ma and da da first. . . not Maren, it's hello and uh oh, when she drops things.

We're still here. . .

It's been a while since I have had time to write on this. We are just finishing up watching a parade for Dexter Days. We had our own corner, because the neighbors were IN the parade. Ian made out like a bandit! he got over one gallon sized bag, full of candy! It was actually an impressive parade, band, tanks, firetrucks, even a plane that was created over a lawnmower (we think)This afternoon is blown up jumping toy things in the park, volleyball, and tractors and other sights downtown. Tonight we are helping out with the Alvin and the Chipmunks viewing. The origional person with the projector, backed out, so we are helping out with that. . .Thisis how Maren enjoyed the parade. . . on the front porch, sleeping!

Baby Steps

Little Miss Maren has taken her first steps. . .Only about three before she lunges for a hand, but it's a start :) Our baby girl is getting big! Watch out world!

U Gotta Love It !

Iowa State Fair. . .U Gotta Love It!
This was the first fair for both the kids to go to and it was an awesome day all around. We had very little behavioral problems with the kids. They both took naps, and other than a little temper tantrum from Ian, they did a great job.

We started off the day at the 6:45. . .Why is it that you have to pry kis out of bed during the week and they are up BY 7 on the weekends?! . . anyway. . .My sister had given us some free fair tickets, so we went into the day thinking, they are free. . .we can stay as long as we want without having to feel like we needed our money's worth out of the day. If the kids start acting up, we can just leave. . .luckily we didn't have to. It was absolutely beautiful out today, sunny, 81 degrees, you couldn't have asked for a better day for the fair.
We got to the fairgrounds at about 11 (after a quick stop at Target for some sunglasses) and it was already very busy. We started the day off in the Varied Industries building. . .have to get the temporary tattoos and Kalona Ice Cream Bars. . .Iowa State decided to give out stupid paper hats instead of the temp tattos, so the kids were only branded with the Hawkeye ones today. Iowa Public Television had a booth with Clifford the Big Red Dog in it, you'd have thought that Ian won the lotto! He got so excited to see that dog. . .!

Our next stop was the Childrens Educational building, Ok I'm sure that's not the name of it, but I can't think of it. There, the kids got to see baby animals, Chicks, baby goats, sheep, and there were even baby pigs being born, although the lines were extremely long to watch that, so we skipped that viewing. Maren was extremely excited to see the animals, she was shaking! She greeted the baby goats with squeals of delight.
Third on the agenda was the Bob the Builder show. Ian Loved it. He got to go down close to the stage to watch, and he participated in the dancing, with the rest of the kids. Luckily then kept it short, Ian was ready for a pop and corndog by about 15 min into it.

We toured the Agriculture building, we even got out of there without buying anything! woo hoo! I got to get my art fix, Maren slept during this leg of the trip, so that gave Ian time to crawl around on the wooden train, and paint a picture at one of the booths. ( I didn't get a pix of the painting because I was viewing artwork while Eric was entertaining)
Since Ian is all of 2 1/2 years old, Eric thought it'd be a good time to introduce him to the big yellow slide! Just a note: at $2.50 a person, they make a LOAD of money off of that thing. . .Ian loved if course, and wanted to go again. Eric said that next year he can go by himself. We'll have to see about that one?!

top center , watch!
Down. . .
Down. . .
Almost there. . .
Ta Da!

Ian had fun, but I really think that it was just Eric's way to justify riding the big yellow slide!

That ended the main events of the day, both kids, and us for that matter, were very tired on the way home. Funny thing is, noone wanted to go to bed. . .I guess there was just too much excitement at the Iowa State Fair.

School starts at what time?!

I got my welcome back letter on Monday, saying welcome back of course. . .we'll see some of you in 2 days, everyone else in 3. . .way to get the letter out early guys. . . but most importantly, "your school day starts at 7:45 a.m. . .WHAT?! I get to leave 15 min earlier than I did last year. This is going to be tough. I woke up at 6:30 this morning. . .Maren started fussing at about 6:35. So I got up, went downstairs, got her a bottle, came into her room, only to find her completely unconscious and plastered to her sheets. She didn't even stir when I called her name. So here I am, 6:55 a.m. supposed to be out the door (good thing that time starts TOMORROW) and I am the only one awake. Eric has hit snooze twice, and although I told Ian that he had to get up three hours earlier today, than he did yesterday, he is completely passed out I don't think he believed me. . I'm not looking forward to waking the beast. . .
As for the actual start of the school day 8:10 am. I would just like to note that students DO NOT do well first hour anyway, how about we move the school day earlier. I had students that did NOTHING for most of the year, because they were just not awake enough to function that early. . .I actually had 2 students that were late all but one week of the year. they rolled in at 8:45, class was over at 9. . .something tells me that they didn't have a mother telling them they had to go to bed at 8 . I honestly don't know how this will work for the best. Can't I have Jr High first hour. . . I'd pay good money to have them calm in my room. . .

Ahhhhh. . .

I talked Eric into getting a new mattress. Our old one was no longer an acceptable option, my back was killing me in the morning and I spent most of the night tossing and turning. . .Yesterday I went in to Homemakers and got a bed. I got 5 hours of great sleep before Ian came in and woke me up. I spent the rest of the night in my old bed, which I fit into the niche in his room. . . How ironic. I just wish that when he wakes up at the wee hours of the morning, he wouldn't be so loud, demanding chocolate milk and then reciting the alphabet 5 times.
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Maren is now a greeter! She will wave to you when you tell her Hi! She also waves back when you wave to her. As for verbally greeting you, she will at times say her version of hello!

Tina Came over to see the kids,and me I guess :) It was great to see her again!

Girls Night Out!

We are all turning 30 soon. . . We spent Friday night celebrating Natalie's birthday. Happy birthday Natalie! We started out at Legends Bar and Grill. There was quite the gathering. Between Natalie's family, co-workers and college buddies, we rounded up about 22 people. After dinner at Legends, we migrated west, to enjoy some live comedy at the Funny Bone Comedy Club. It is amazing just how many people they can cram into that place! The headliner was John Evans, a funner up on the Last Comic Standing. He was good. Following the Funny Bone, we went downtown to a piano bar called "The Grand Piano-bistro" It was actually a pretty cool place. There was a duo called the lady fingers, playing. . . they were very good. I must say that it was the highlight of the night. ( I'll have to admit that I didn't want to go at first, but I am very glad I did! I hope to go back again) Overall the night was awesome. It was nice to get to see my friends again. . . it's been a while.

Happy blog :P

Look, Teeth! I figured I should probably post a blog that doesn't have content that makes my brother and father-in-law cringe, the worst thing you'll see in this one is drool. After going through the stuff in Maren's room, I found the bear that I have been taking pictures next to since she was born, so this month's picture is at 9 1/2 months instead of just 9. Maren is continuing to grow, despite eating dirt (Jon, it was a very small amount, I don't think she actually ATE any!) She now has enough hair to put a pony tail in the top stuff. Her two top teeth are huge and she knows how to use them! I took these pictures yesterday, and of course what Maren does, Ian wants to do too. Here are the teddy bear pictures for the month. Ian and Went and found his own bear to take his picture next to. We can't forget Ian, now can we? Wow, now that I have these pictures next to each other, they really do look a lot alike!--Summer is almost over, and I have survived, if you asked me that at the beginning of June, I really didn't know if I was going to. Things have calmed down a bit, although I'm really mad at Ian right now, he won't take a nap and he just woke his sister up because he "had to play in the room that she is in" Grrr.........I guess we will categorize that as part of the terrible two's. . .I really don't think they will ever end! Next week we go back to school, I am looking forward to the chaos I call my job. I have more work to do this year. I guess I should just feel lucky that I have a job. . .We'll see if I still do next year. They added 1 more high school class and Prescott(k-6) to my already 12 classes that I plan for. I guess, by default, I need to get more organized. Let the fun begin!

Not Again!

Two Years ago, we bought this house, with a pear tree loaded with pears. Just about this time 2 years ago, all of the pears vanished, even the bad ones on the ground. I noticed on Friday, that the pears are ready to be picked. . . So today I went and shelled out $50 for a apple picker, so I could get all of the pears. . .I got home and found not a single pear on the tree. . or on the ground!

Ian Nooooo!!!!!

I honestly think that Ian thinks that his name is Ian No! I was mixing up some poppy seed bread in the kitchen, and last time I saw the kids, they were watching Dora. . .It was really quiet, so I went to check on them and this is what I saw when I turned the corner. Ian No! Amazingly enough, Maren didn't have any in her eyes. My children were covered in waterproof baby sunscreen! I took Maren and wiped what I could, off with a baby wipe, being extra careful to get as much as possible off of around her eyes. . .why does it have to be waterproof. . .anyway, I put the bread batter in pans quick, so that I could give them baths. I turn around, and Ian has gotten ahold of the baking soda, and covered the kitchen floor with it. . .yes they were both playing in it. . .I knew they were being too quiet!
Now for bath time. Ian didn't have much on him, so my task was getting the lotion out of Maren's hair. It wasn't easy. . . even with the practice I have had with Ian and the Desitin! She fought me all the way, I think I got some soap in her eyes, because she is not a happy camper at the moment. Hopefully she will sleep for a bit, andher eyes will feel better when she gets up.

My 48 hour vacation

I got my break for the summer, this weekend. I went to Greenfield for a 12 hour scrapbooking Crop. It was great fun! The Creative Memories consultant that is usually there, wasn't there, which saved me money. . . she didn't bring extra things for people to buy, so the uncontrollable urge to buy something new, wasn't there. I did end up with a new cutter, and a wallet, that I just had to have. . .But for the most part I did a good job, not buying things. It took a while to get into the groove, and let the creative juices flow, but once it started,we rolled right along. I scrapbooked from 9 am Saturday, until 3:00 am Sunday morning. . . went to bed until about 10:15, got back up and worked until 2. It was nice to just relax and create. Even if it's doing something I swore I'd never do because I thought it was "crafty". . .at the moment it seems to be the closest thing to art that I can do, at least until the kids get older.

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