Surprise visit!!

This weekend we made a surprise trip up to Michigan to visit my family. It was a great time and fun to completely surprise everyone. Ethan and Adalyn just ate up all the time with Grandma and Adalyn just completely blossomed while we were there. Her little personality is really starting to shine and she is the funniest little thing! Case in point:

Adalyn had climbed on top of the picnic table and I told her she needed to get down because she was going to fall. Next thing I know she is giving me this big grin, puts her fingers to her cheeks, sticks out her tongue and starts going Na Na Na while waving her head side to side. It was the cutest thing ever and all I could do was laugh!!

She has also developed a love of animals... as long as said animal is not within 10 feet of her. It does not however keep her from chasing after them! She followed my brother's cat all around his field for the longest time. The cat just played with her- it would lay down till she got close then get up move a few feet away and lay down again only to move as she got closer. I did manage to get some beautiful pictures of her though while she played this game with the cat.

See...

Both kids also did really well on the 8 hour drive to and from. I was a little nervous about the trip home as it would all be during the day and I was worried they'd get bored. They did really well and this was what they looked like about and hour into the trip...

Ethan soon followed Adalyn into dreamland and both slept for almost half the trip! I was impressed and quite relieved :)

Here are some more pictures from our fun weekend- enjoy!

Big Brother sharing his ice cream :)

Whipped Cream fight!!

Hot dog anyone??

Adalyn's newest reaction to asking her to smile for the camera?? Why, stick your finger up your nose of course!!

Not Me Monday- it's back!!

YAY it's back! Not Me Monday! What exactly is Not Me Monday? Well it's where I share with you all the things I most certainly did not do this week. Hop on over to Mckmama's blog and check out what others are not doing as well!

• I did not sleep until 9:30 on Saturday only to lay around in bed all morning AND take a nap. I did not then finally get out of bed at 3:30 that afternoon. Nope, that would most certainly be too lazy of me!
• I did not have the chance to get lots of cuddles and wrestling time with my two adorable kids all morning on Saturday because I did not stay in bed so long. I also did not get to take that glorious nap snuggled up to my sweet little girl- nope, not me!
• I did not decide to post a ton of new pictures on my blog to make up for not posting any new updates for nearly 3 weeks. Nope, that would be neglecting my blog which I most certainly would not do.
• I was not overjoyed when I heard the news that MckMama would be heading home with Stellan to be reunited with her family as Stellan was discharged from the hospital. Nope, it would be silly of me to be so excited for something that happened to someone I don't know in real life at all.
• I also did not spend way too much time this week reading blogs of other sick little babies that I do not know if real life at all and crying and praying that they would be healed. Nope, I have better things to do.

Ok, so there is what I did not do this week. What about you? Head on over to Mckmama's blog and see what others did not do this week!!

The last few weeks...

In Pictures.

With warm weather comes busy, full days, here is a glimpse at what we have been up to...

***WARNING: Picture overload ahead***

Time as a family spent with family and good friends, how much more blessed could we be?

Where has the time gone...

wasn't it just yesterday that she was this small?

And now all of a sudden she is 19 months old, running everywhere she goes, climbing on furniture, feeding herself and learning to talk. It seems like I blinked and she turned into this:

She is all over the place now! Here are some of the things she is up to these days:

Learning to talk! New words include:

Mama (I'll never get tired of hearing this, I've waited so long!!)
Eat (her favorite pastime)
Num Num (her word for food)
Na Na (banana)
voom voom (car)
mup (up)
bye bye
Hi
And I know there are more, I'm just so glad she is finally starting to talk!

She is still using her signs too- she knows please, thank you, milk, bye bye and all done.

She also is learning some animal sounds:

Quack Quack
Woof woof
roar

She is working really hard to climb onto the furniture all by herself and has succeeded at least once!

We just got her a tricycle which is her new favorite things- pictures soon I promise!

Her favorite things:

shoes- she is such a girl
her blanket and her binky- can't go anywhere without them
her pretties- her hair things
books of any kind!

It's so amazing watching her grow and learn everyday. I am so grateful and extremely blessed to be her Mommy.

Apparently

Apparently, "apparently" is Ethan's new favorite word. This morning alone on the way to school he used it at least 3 times. There is nothing funnier than hearing such a word being used by a 4 year old. Here are some examples of his use of the word:

Said while opening the door for me this morning and it closed on him: "Apparently that door doesn't want to be opened!"

Said after Adalyn dropped her grape on the floor: "Apparently she didn't want that grape"

Now, hear those statements with the emphasis on the word "apparently"- too funny!

There are many more examples but those are what are coming to mind at the moment. That kid just cracks me up sometimes! Remind me to tell you sometime of his use of the word "actually"...

Not Me Monday

It's Monday again which means it's time for Mckmama's blog carnival where I tell you all about the things I most certainly did not do this week. Hop on over to Mckmama's blog and check out what others are not doing as well!

• This week I did not have to go to the surgery center twice to take family members for surgery. Adalyn did not have tubes put in her ears on Wednesday and Eric did not have his shoulder scoped on Friday! Whew, that would be just too much medical stuff in one week if it had indeed happened.
• Ethan did not tell me this morning after he had been woken up several times that he "needed to let his head wake-up" and that was why he wasn't yet out of bed. That would be too funny!
• I did not start reading "Gone With the Wind" this week because I had never read it before. Everyone has already read that by this point in their lives, right?
• I did not decide to participate in Not Me Monday just because I saw that Mckmama had not yet posted hers and I might actually get a chance to be in the top 10 this week if I had it already done!!!

Your turn- what did you not do this week?

Mwwaa Wa Wa

Do you remember what all the adults sounded like on Charlie Brown? Well, apparently that's what Adalyn has been hearing, at least for the last 6 months or so. You see, she has had ear infection after ear infection for about that long and when they weren't infected they still had fluid on them. So yesterday we went in and she had tubes put in her little ears. She did great and was in a great mood afterwards. She did have yet another double ear infection when they went to put the tubes in so they drained all the fluid off and she is on antibiotic ear drops. Now we are hoping that she can hear better and hopefully she will start to talk soon!!

I do swear she said Thank You yesterday so that's a start :)