Some recent pics.

These are in the opposite order than I wanted.  But I don't have the patience to rearrange them.  So here we go, from most recent to the beginning of summer, basically, but not totally in order.

Sun kissed kids, loving their dog.

Learning to play games on the computer.

Laying on the beach in Duluth.

Loving new Legos.

Pretty pink hair!

My handsome guys.

Fishing with Grandad at Lily Lake on a windy cold day.

Lake Superior with Grandma Nan.

It's July... Whoa.

In March the kids and I made a trip to the pet store in hopes of getting some cute fishies for our fish tank.  We came home with Ziggy, an adorably sweet brownish black and white rat!  We didn't even call Daddy to get the ok.  With all the sadness going on at the time, nearly losing my friend who had a great loss, I needed to splurge and do something a little crazy and a cute cuddly thing seemed just right.  It's something we'd talked about before, since I had rats growing up and loved them.  I was the one who wanted to hold out till the kids were older. I remember cleaning cages and it was NOT fun!  I'm happy to say that it's much easier at 30 than it was at 10.  LOL.  Ziggy is a year old and was already named.  Someone returned him and he had to be treated for a terrible case of mites.  He had scabs all over.  But, true to form, we can't resist a reject pet.  All of our creatures were wonky in one way or another when we adopted them.  And we love them.

In April when Gramma P was here we went to see Monsters VS Aliens in the theatre.  It was our first big screen movie all together as a family.  Last night we saw Ice Age 3 in 3D with Grandma Nan.  It was freakin' cool!  I want to see it again.  

In May, I read the Twilight series and really enjoyed them.  I've never read 4 books in a month before!  I know other people do it all the time, but I just don't read fast enough, and don't seem to find enough books that I'm THAT interested in to read that much.  But these were fantastic and fun.  I'm even reading the first book again because I just wasn't ready to move on and I've never read a book twice before either!  

Aubs is 3.  Holy moly.  She's turning into such a big - little girl.  I can't explain or pinpoint it, but a lot has changed in the last few months.  She's just, older.  She and Ty have been playing together so nicely as she's getting older.  It makes me so happy!  Her imagination is great and she uses a high pitched voice to play with her princesses and kitties.  She sings and hums in the car or while playing alone.  I adore it.  I'm definitely feeling a kindred sister spirit with her.  Having a girl is very different when you're a girl.   Aubree got her ears pierced about 2 weeks ago.  It's so frickin' cute!  She was such a trooper, she didn't shed a single tear.  She has gorgeous pink jeweled flower earrings.  SO much cooler than when I got it done!  She lets me clean them several times a day and never complains, except when I drip the cleaning solution on her.  

Ty and Aubree are taking Summer Spanish at Valley Preschool and are both super excited to do it and to get to go together.  Aubree's had no issues with being at the school and I think this is a great introduction for Preschool in the fall w/out Ty.  The teacher says Ty is the most wonderful helper ever.  She just can't get enough of him!  I'm so proud of him and the boy he is becoming.  During the school year I had several of the preschool girls moms tell me that Ty is one of the, or THE nicest boy at school.  Ah, my heart could just bust right open!   And here I am sitting at home worried about how bossy he is.  I guess as long as he's wonderful out in the world he can let all the crazies out at home and I can be happy.  LOL  I'm so excited for him to start Kindergarten because I know how much he's going to love it and, of course, I'm sad too.  This is a huge change in our world and I don't know how it will effect the time I get to spend with him.  That's a worry for another day..

Ty has lost TWO teeth!  In less than 2 weeks time!  Holy moly, again.  I've got some big kids here.  Yesterday we drove by Washington park, the park we go to most often, and I realized that someday I will not have little park aged kids.  I think my heart skipped a beat.  I can not imagine life past parks.  Must move on now or I'll give myself an anxiety attack!   ... Ty had loose teeth for a month or more and at first he was totally NOT into wiggling them.  For some reason I was seriously excited about the wiggly teeth.  Maybe because it's the first thing that he and I could 'share'.  As in, I remember wiggling and losing teeth and so will he.  Finally after much prompting, he was wiggling teeth while riding in the car and watching tv.  The first one came out at the grocery store with Dad.  I was so excited for him!  I think Ty bonked his mouth on the shopping cart and that helped the little sucker out.  Then a week and a half or so later when the other tooth was seriously loose I took a look at it and saw that there was a big gaping hole under it - it was SO ready to be out!  So I told Ty if he could get it out that day I'd give him a Sunkist soda... : )  He informed me that he'd rather have a Diet Coke w/ Lime like I drink...  the kind we don't let him have because of caffeine!  I told him if he yanked it out before Aubree woke up from her nap (so she didn't harass me for a soda too) then he could have one.  5 to 10 minutes later that puppy was out!  Again, Mom was overjoyed and overexcited, screeching and squealing they way I do.  LOL  And he thoroughly enjoyed gulping down that soda.  Since I am 'the tooth fairy' I know exactly what 'she' gave Ty.  5 quarters for the first tooth and 4 for the second.  He grabbed his goods and put them in his piggy bank with out ever mentioning it to anyone.  When I asked him what he got he informed me that the tooth fairy gave him 4 silver dollars - both times!  The second time I even showed him a quarter and asked if it was 'like this?' - nope, it was a silver dollar, which I'm pretty sure he's never seen.  LMAO, I love it.  

Spring fever.

Let's just say, the lack of blogging has to do with spring fever and lots of time spent playing outside.  And, sometimes blogging gets hard.  Some how regurgitating a bunch of emotional things, good and bad, is hard to do at times.  At other time I really like it.

In March, one of my closest girlfriends here in MN lost her baby girl.  She was nearly half way through the pregnancy.  There were complications during the ordeal and they ended up having to take her uterus due to the amount of blood she was losing.  And that's putting it nicely.  She went through 3 entire people's worth of blood.  She nearly didn't make it.  Needless to say, this was hard on everyone.  It's 3 months later and I still get teary eyed about it.  Ty and Aubree both knew our friend was supposed to have a baby and we talked about how her belly was growing.  So now they know that the baby came too soon and didn't make it.  It comes up a lot.  Part of me likes that they know that life isn't peaches and cream all the time, even if they don't get the depth of the pain.  That's life.  I'm sure my little summary doesn't let on how awful this all was, but I'm really not up for writing a novel about it, which I could, it was very bad.  Very sad. 

I have lots to catch up on, but I just can't start writing about it after what I just wrote.  So I'm going to have a moment of silence in memory and honor of the sweet baby girl who we're all sad we didn't get to know.

This morning and just now.

Aubree:  Where we going to?

Me: Nowhere

Aubree: Yeees-where!

----------------------------------------------------

Ty:  Mom, I love you.  I love you more than any other kid has ever loved their mom.  I love you even more than you love me.  I love you more than..... 

on and on and on he went.  He does this a lot.  : )

Mish Mash

Aubree puts her own shoes on, and she sings in the car.  Ty has loose teeth!  For about a month now, but he's not too into wiggling them.  Ty will be starting T-ball this month.  He went to baseball practice with Dad today and can't wait for his turn to play.  He's been pretty emotional lately and nearly cried when he found out it wasn't time for him to play yet.  Both kids have been taking gymnastics and are having a good time.  This is Aubree's 2nd session and the class is much smaller - like, her and one other girl.  She is way more open to trying new things in this environment.  On that note, she is finally singing/doing the Hello song at ECFE!!!    She's starting to come out of her shell.  : )  Both of the kids will be doing summer Spanish at Valley Preschool and can not wait for it to start.  Aubree's been talking about her birthday in May since Ty's bday in Jan. and that she's going to have a purple cake.  I think it's about time to figure out how to make a purple cake!!  While the boys were at baseball practice today Aubs and I went CRAFTSTRAVAGANZA.  It was so much nicer than last year.  Last year was so cold and dreary and, well, frozen!  Ick.

The kids had their first 'sleep over' in Aubree's room while Gramma P was in town on her Spring Break a few weeks ago.  I figured it was a good time to try it while I had back up in case the next day was miserable because of over-tired kids!  It's not like they've asked a lot before, but the subject had come up of sleeping over at Leah and Owens house a while back.  We said yes, someday.  But it hasn't happened yet.  I was really impressed, they did very well.  They fell asleep much faster than I had expected.  I think being tuckered out from Gramma's visit was key.  Last night they gave it another shot, this time in Ty's room.  They were a bit louder and took longer to go to bed, more like I expected.  Still over all, they did pretty good again.  But today, we have some tired kids!

 

Hats for Ty

Ok, I admit, that's not a hat, but it's Ty's and it's cute, so there it is!

Look at him in all his Mommy-made-it goodness.  I am trying to soak this up while it lasts.  I'm sure before I know it he'll be telling me how lame I am and not wanting anything that his mom made.  
I super love this hat.  And I super love that he loves it cuz it's so stinkin' cute I would have been super sad if he didn't like it.  But he requested it after I made a similar one for a friends toddler.  He calls it his alien hat.  Awesome

Just a pic of something I can do, that I never thought I'd be able to do.  Knit!  And on multiple double pointed needles no less!  Yes, I will pat myself on the back, thank you.

OMG, it's Shrek!  This one was super fun and super fast.

Yo

Hair:  still good and you can sort of see the cute bobby pins I got on Etsy (of course).  I've been very artsy handmade etsy fabulous lately with my handmade bobby pins and my handmade earrings and my handmade purse and my self handmade hat and scarf.  It pretty much rocks.

That there is just pure good.  Joy, elation, how can that sweet girl not melt your heart?

Paartay in K-town!

One of the best little boys ever!  Sailor is so much fun to have over, and he picks up knitting.... oh boy.

Hey, I actually like this picture, and I'm in it!  I really like my mini-me, even if she's nothing like me.