Poor sick Elise!

Poor Elise she has been dealing with a runny nose and sneezing the last 2 days. She has been such a healthy girl so she just doesn't seem to understand why I can't make her feel better. You can tell by her eyes she doesn't feel very good. Luckily she slept all afternoon and seems to be doing a little better now! She wanted to be held while napping which who can resist these sad eyes, so I did. After school I let Ethan and Emma play Mario Brothers on the Wii and Elise and I for the first time EVER took a nap together. It felt so nice! :)

Lastest Elise!

She is so strong Mario was holding her today and she will sit up from laying down on his tummy. When we put her in her bouncer she tries to wiggle out of it now! I told Mario maybe she is going to be very athletic! Who knows but she is a hoot, always smiling!:)

Snow shoeing

We have never been snow shoeing before but it was a lot of fun! Great exercise! :) It was perfect weather! The snow shoes were a little awkward to walk in and Ethan got tired after awhile and decided to rest in the snow!:) Before we started our walk we were talking about Indians that had lived in the area and how they survived in the cold winters in Iowa. I guess Ethan got so tired of walking he became delirious and thought he saw some Indians in the snow! Needless to say we were all laughing! I have realized Ethan is not and outdoors kinda guy! We took advantage of all the nice snow we have had here in Iowa last week! But I'm still hoping Spring is just around the corner.

Sledding

Emma and her friend sledding! We had lunch, roasted some s'mores and had a good time!

The hill was pretty steep. Ethan waving!

It was a great day, until Emma hurt her ankle. Emma and her friend went sledding backwards and ran into a fence smashing her ankle. She was fine until that evening. Her ankle got pretty swollen so just to be safe we took her in and her doctor did an x-ray but she is fine. It was just a sprain.

Around the house!!!

The kids playing, yes Elise loves hanging out with them! You'll have to excuse the paint can in the background I have been touching up our white.

A little Battleship again Elise hanging out with them. Ethan said she was making sure no one cheated!:) It seems like Elise always has her fist in her mouth. :)

Emma very seriously watching Barbie on TV. Notice the Barbie outfit she is wearing and she said her Barbie wanted to watch the movie on her lap. It again has been so cold here. So we keep entertained! :)

Manners

Ok, I am just going to assume that I have good manners. I mean most people in their thirties do, right? Hmm or do I? Anyways I'm really talking about my kids for now. But when it comes to my kids how can I be sure they have good manners? This is something they will take with them into adulthood. Of course any proud parent wants to just tell themselves, yes my child is kind and courteous and says please and thank you most of the time, well but I don't want to just assume. In my mind that would be what I call lazy parenting on my part, let me explain a few events that happened this weekend that got me thinking about this topic.

1. We are at our local grocery store, just Ethan and me; I had to pick up a few items for dinner so I grabbed one of those handy baskets. The girls are home with Mario. We get to the check out and I simply sat the basket on the counter. The lady checking us out goes on to start throwing our food out of the basket on the moving table(not sure of exact name of this so I'll keep it simple) anyways Ethan, as she is throwing the food, starts to organize the food by categories(frozen, veggies, etc.) very neatly. I was impressed. The lady goes on to ask Ethan what his name is and of course he goes shy and just stands there staring.

Me: Ethan, tell her your name.

Ethan: very, very softly, Ethan

Me: I repeat his name because she couldn't hear him.

The Check out lady: She asks Ethan, “Are you an organized person?” And tells him he did a good job.

Ethan: Stands there until I tell him to answer
her. And may I add had to tell him to say, Thank you!

2. At church another mom caught Ethan and his friend being mean to his friend’s younger brother today while I was visiting a friend for a few minutes I caught the part where this parent was pointing her finger at Ethan and his friend and explaining to them that their behavior was not nice. I immediately jumped in to find out exactly what happened and put Ethan in time out. Now his face was bright red so I know he was embarrassed about the incident. Which I hope is his conscience which is great, but when I asked him to apologize he got again very shy and quiet.

Now Ethan does understand what manners are, but why is it that I find myself having to push him to use them? To say thank you and to use respect and say hi to his friends parents and any adult in general and call them by their last name. Emma struggles with her “good manners” as well. Like table manners, etc. As a parent I want my children to use there manners daily, Am I asking too much out of a 5 and 6 year old? I am learning that bad habits are VERY hard to break. I too am guiltyof starting many bad habits! But I am on a mission to really start working with Ethan and Emma to make sure they always use there good manners and I know one day they will thank me for it, I hope! Please pray I can successfully achieve my challenge! My children are such a blessing to me!!! :)

Our cheap sideboard find on Ebay!

Outside it is cold and icy on our driveway but inside I'm ready for SPRING! In Oklahoma where our family is from it is warm and beautiful so I've been told, maybe that's why I'm ready for warmer nicer weather even though I have lived here in Iowa for going on 5 years. I should know better but a girl can hope, right! And with Groundhog Day soon approaching (I know I'm stretching here but just entertain me) maybe Iowa will have a short winter! Please, Please, Please!

With that being said I put some bird nests out in my house!

Last week we bid on this antique sideboard on eBay and won it for next to nothing. That was the other reason for our drive to Chicago, we picked it up. When we loaded it Mario and I were very disappointed on the shape of this piece. I even called my best friend who was at market in Texas shopping for her boutique in a panic with questions about a good painting technique. But Mario and I have an appreciation for old things and decided to try and repair and bring back the piece. It took nearly all day and some help from this product below, sorry I put in sideways.:)

And here it is in our living room (please excuse the wire mess I'm going to make something to conceal all Mario's speaker wires soon), we moved our black armoire to the basement for storage which we needed desperately so all is good. And for under $100 including products to restore it we now have a nice antique! Some day Mario and I would love to open up an antique shop but that is me dreaming!:)

Ins and Outs...

The family loaded up in our Kia mini van and took a day trip to Chicago last weekend. It was great. We had a good lunch at Portillo's a fun family oriented restaurant known for hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches, the kids loved it!

Elise is a very strong baby! She will be 3 months next week but acts more like a 10 month old. She will talk your ear off these days and loves to sit in the high chair and play with her toys. She is even lifting her head and body to try to sit up. And unlike our other 2 kiddos at this age she now loves her tummy time! She takes what I call a cat nap in the morning now around 10:30 am for about 30 mins then a long 2 hour nap in the afternoon around 3:00 pm then is awake from 5:00 pm until her bedtime which she has made herself at around 9:00 ish. Then every night she now wakes up around 4:00 am for a quick snack then is up for the morning at 8:00 am. The girl has a clock in her head. She is very scheduled!:)

The girls hanging out!

The weather has been very cold so we have been playing a lot of Battleship and Wii! We have been snacking on cherry flavored popcorn, it's becoming a routine. Every night we play some kind of family game and munch on this yummy snack. I know it's not a good habit to start when I still need to lose about 20 lbs, I wish I could get more motivated to really get focused to workout and cut out sweets. :( Elise is holding her head up like a natural now. She is so strong and is cooing making new sounds all the time! She is a lot of fun. :)

Passing the time during the cold Iowa days...

Emma and our 11 year old cat Cindy. Cindy is starting to slow down a bit now. She does some strange things these days. She loves to get Emma's dolls and ponies and carry them down the stairs by their hair and meow very loud. I'm not sure why, we are guessing she thinks they are her babies! I have even seen her lick them, I told you it was strange!

Elise being silly!

Our friend Bonnie bought this dress for her, she looks so good in purple! I can't believe she is now in 3/6 months clothes! The girl loves to eat. She is getting so long, I can't wait to get her stats at her next check up! She is measuring bigger than Ethan at this age according to his baby book! And he has always been in the 90% on weight and height! So she is probably going to be a healthy big girl!

Emma showing off her new dress she got for Christmas!

We met our friends in Oklahoma! It was so nice to get to visit with them! The kids had a great time playing! It's funny because they only get to see each other now once a year but when they meet it's like no time passed!:)