The Little Things

    Being a mom of a 1 year old and a 3 year old has its moments.  Sometimes you may even let your daughter pull out a whole box of wipes because the five minutes of peace is totally worth it.

 But when I do get a minute to myself I can't help but think about how cute they are and all the things they do that make me smile.  Like how Shane wants to kiss me and when I tell him he needs to close his mouth he puckers up like this.

Or how Marissa begs to brush her teeth anytime anyone is near the bathroom or says the words

Or how Shane will ask you for something and then give you the response he wants- "Mommy would you like to read this to me?  Say 'sure! I would love to!' " 

Or watching Marissa love on her baby doll

If you have talked to me in the past few weeks you probably know I've been working hard with Shane on getting him to jump off the ground with both feet.  I know, I know, that's old news for most kids his age but he would just jump with one foot and do this kind of gallop thing and he really thought he was jumping.  I knew he was capable of doing it he just has never been good at taking verbal directions and applying it to his body. Poor kid was doomed, anyone who has ever tried to teach me how to bowl knows where he got that from!  Anyway, when he realized he wasn't really jumping it was pretty sad for a few weeks there, we would practice and he would say "I just can't jumpppp.  I have a hard time!  Not today, not tonight, not tomorrow!!"  I tried not to be too much of a drill master but sometimes he was just sick of it and when I would ask him to do it he would sometimes say, "No!  I'm just hiding from jumping!"  But we practiced on steps a lot and pretended that he was a scary monster who would jump off the step and get us and it became fun again.

And all that hard work payed off because tonight he jumped for real!!!  Hallelujah!  We're so proud of you Shane!

The Festivities

With my birthday on Saturday and Marissa's birthday and Easter on Sunday, and Josh actually home, we had a fun filled weekend!  On Saturday we took the kids to two egg hunts.  There was a little one at Walmart and then a big city one in the afternoon. 

Check out all those eggs waiting to be found!  He is usually a "tiptoe through the tulips" kind of boy, but he knew what was at stake here and got quite a few!

Marissa had cracked open an egg at the first egg hunt and figured out in a matter of seconds what was in them so when we had to wait for the start those eggs were taunting her and she was frantically signing "more! more!"  and trying to get to them.  Needless to say they are without of her eyesight at home now :)

"Look at all this loot!"

The Easter bunny was there which thrilled Shane and petrified Marissa.  I have never seen her so scared of something!

That night we dropped the kids off with our friends and went to Birch Run for dinner and a little birthday shopping.  They have the best deep dish Chicago style pizza (for me) and gluten free thin crust for Josh. 

After we picked them up we let Shane stay up and eat cake with us.  He had been talking about it all week!

The next morning the Easter bunny came and we checked out the goods,

then went to church. 

That night we had our friends the Walpoles and Hepworths over for Easter dinner and had a little egg hunt in the backyard for the kids

and cake for Marissa's birthday.

She took longer to get into it then I thought she would (and by that I mean more than 5 seconds...)

but loved it and was even eager to share:)

Happy Birthday Marissa!

My little baby turned 1 yesterday (on Easter)!  She is growing up so fast and we love her so much!  A few things about her at a year:

-We may be in trouble- she is a total flirt and she especially loves men.  She will smile and wave until she gets their attention and has them wrapped around her little finger in 2 seconds. 
-She is a great eater.  She will eat just about anything (of course including dirt and all that kind of stuff too...), her only stipulation is that you mix it up and give her some variety.  Some favorites are avocado, strawberries, blackberries, bananas, and anything we are having for dinner.
-Loves her brother and also enjoys tormenting him.  He loves lining up his cars and she can't resist crashing them, much to his dismay.
-She's getting a little bit closer to walking but I think it still may be a ways off.
-Still nursing but we're working on the weaning now that she can have cow's milk.
- Says mama, dada, and more (ha!), and signs more, eat, drink, milk, all done, book, please, and gerbil.  She tries so hard to say baby but it just comes out "da". 
-Is pretty much done with morning naps but takes a good afternoon one and sleeps great at night.
-Kind of has a mullet at the moment, and has 12 teeth now. 
-Figures out how to do things/get into stuff pretty quickly.
-Gives us the best hugs and cuddles but is not big on kisses. 
-Loves mooching anything off of Dad and if he tries to open his computer on the couch she will climb onto his lap and beg him to watch something. 

Happy birthday Marissa!!  We sure do love you!!!

Life Lately

Nothing too exciting going on here lately but I like to document the day-to-day stuff too, so here goes.  A couple weeks ago we had some really unseasonably warm weather and had a lot of fun outside.

I had fun pulling out some of the summer clothes

And we walked to this little playground a couple blocks away from our house several afternoons.  It has been fun to see the progress Shane has made since last summer!

Josh had grand plans for our yard and filled in most of the dead patches of grass with seed, and then the weather turned last week.  But next week is looking on the up and up so we're hoping it grows.

Speaking of Josh, he has finished 3 weeks of his surgery core and is still alive!  Just kidding (kind of).  He got the luck of getting the attending surgeon who is notorious for ripping into students and eating them alive, but feels like he is incurring his wrath a little bit less every day, which has to mean something good right?  He even gave him a compliment the other day (then said, "just don't let it get to your head!")  He is learning a ton though and getting some good experience.  His alarm goes off before 4 every day (including Saturday) to get to the hospital by 5 to round on patients and is on call at the hospital about one night a week but is usually home for dinner the rest of the nights at least.  The kids soak up all the time they get with him and sure love their daddy.

He got a charcoal grill with some Christmas money and we busted it out for the first time today and had burgers outside for dinner

Along with a little baseball:)

And I ran a half marathon last Saturday with my friend Jamie.  I've run a couple before and have always kind of had the goal of finishing under 2 hours but could never quite do it so I was super excited to finish this one in 1:58:23.  It was perfect running weather and I realized that after doing most of my runs pushing 55+ pounds of kids in the stroller, it felt pretty good to run without that!

Grandparents Galore!!

A few days after we got back from visiting my parents in California, we had Josh's mom come out to see us in Michigan!  The kids were in grandparent heaven!  Grandma Dettinger is so good with the kids and we had so much fun with her at the park, the museum, and of course hanging out and doing whatever the kids wanted her to.  We know we've made it hard on our parents by moving so far away but it's a good thing we have cute kids so we are ensured visits from them!  Thanks for coming out Shelley, we had a blast!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Alright, you know the deal by now.  It's St. Patrick's Day, so I can't help but write limericks, one for each of us.  This is Marissa's debut year!

Marissa will shortly be one,
She's getting to be so much fun,
Doesn't care about walking
Spends lots of time talking
And sure loves when dinner's begun!

Shaners is finally well
After an awfully long sick spell
Spends much of his days
Lining up cars in new ways
And still thinks his sister's real swell

Kelly's done many a run
To train for her 13.1
Loves her days with the kids
But when they close their eyelids
She relaxes and gets some stuff done

Josh just started his surgery core
So we don't see him much anymore
Surgeons sure can be rude
But he's got a good attitude
I'm so glad family med's what he'll go for!

More Fun in California

While we were in California and my parents were working we passed the time by seeing some of our favorite people.  We are so glad that Josh's grandparents live in California still so we can see them I go home, because the kids love them!

(P.S. Yes my son is in my underwear.  Apparently he got my "I get carsick when I try to read in the car" gene)

It worked out great that Josh's Aunt Jennifer was there for the weekend with her sons Jackson and Trent and that she stayed a few extra hours to see us. 

She was so good with the kids and they had fun playing hide and seek with her.

 Then when I realized that I was in the same state as my island friend Liz we set some plans rolling to meet up and I was so glad to see them!  Shane and Emmy spent the first chunk of their life together on the island.
This was the last time we saw them,

and now they're both 3!  They weren't best friends at first,

But Emmy wooed over Marissa,

and then she and Shane bonded

Here we are with our 2 kids each now, who knows where life will take us between now and the next time we see each other!

We also got to see my best bud Christie, who is always a hit with the kiddos.

And we made a little trip to my mom's school and Shane was in HEAVEN.  We walked in and he wanted to sit at a desk so we found an empty one for him and he read books and colored while the kids did their work.  Do you think he is going to love school or what?  Except he is convinced he will be riding a bus there ;)