Lookin' Sharp

Doesn't Jansen's haircut look snazzy? He keeps looking in the mirror and saying, "Mom, my hair looks nice." (Nate gives Jansen all his haircuts.)

Just Pictures...A Lot of Them

My Sis Gets Engaged

I have to spread the word through my blog that my little sister Alexis got engaged a few days ago! (Which means we are flying out to Utah on CHRISTMAS DAY.) The lucky man is Brennon. I have only met him a few times, but I tell everyone that asks that I think he is WONDERFUL and perfect for Lexi. I just love these two so much and am so happy for them. Really I should say I am happy for the three of them because the latest addition to the family is the dog Moose pictured below. Apparently it is the 3 of them that will be starting a life together. I have yet to meet this canine but I hear he is a keeper as well. Congrats guys!

Dirty

When you mix sweat, dirt, and snot you just may come up with something like this:

Natalie was filthy after our most recent trip to the park.

Look at that tan line! Mom needs to be better about the sunscreen...

A Dose of Jansen and Natalie

HERE is a video of Jansen and Natalie just messing around. Natalie says a cute "uh-oh" and roars like a lion---Jansen sings a lively rendition of the speckled frogs song.

CELINE!

Last night was the long awaited Celine Dion concert and she did not disappoint. She and her dancers did have me staring incredulously often (the man that was always in the female costumes, the glitter that was strategically placed on Celine's pants to name a few)

We started out the night with dinner at Bucca di Beppo:

And then raced over to the Schottenstein Center to watch this:

Nate, thank you again (if you ever even read this) for this wonderful surprise!

This Little Piggy...

I'm finally able to wrangle Natalie's hair into some little pigtails. It makes her look so much older.

My friend thinks she looks like Boo from Monsters Inc. I think she's right.

Park of Roses

Date night destination: the Park of Roses

While we were there, Nate walked over to a rose and suggested we smell some of them. My first reaction was, nah, let's just keep moving. But we did stop and as I smelled the first rose I was blown away by how much it reminded me of my grandma. The second rose had the funniest little bugs hiding in it's petals. The third one reminded me of a scented bag that was given to me on one of my birthdays when I was a kid. Of course the phrase "stop and smell the roses" came to mind and I was reminded of how important it is to take a time out every once in awhile and just ENJOY beautiful surroundings.

What a good sport. :)

Most romantic comment of the night goes to Nate: "What if we were cavemen and I had to drag you around by your hair?"

What?!

Did they even do that?

Great Book

Okay, okay. I know the cover and even title don't make you want to snatch this off the shelf, but I am loving this book! Nate's cousin recommended it to me (thanks Leisel!) and I think it is filled with lots of valuable, realistic, useful information. Taking into account my own personal parenting style, I like it even more than books like Parenting with Love and Logic. Every parent is different, so I guess I can't promise that you will love it too, but I really do think it's a GREAT resource. And a fast read. I haven't actually finished it, but I am enjoying it so much I just wanted to blog about it. I got it on Amazon for $.01 + shipping.

Tagged

I am a little behind on fulfilling this fun tag but here goes!

The rules: Read after the last picture to see if you've been tagged....The rules are you have to take 10 pictures of the following things and you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose (I mean it!). Then you tag six others.

The kids: Natalie's got a little ponytail in the back, thus the "slick." And Jansen, well, it's hard to catch him on camera...he's always moving.

The bathroom: thank goodness it didn't say I had to take a picture of the master bathroom.

My closet: scary, scary, and more scary

Favorite shoes:

Self-portrait:
Laundry room:
The sink:
The fridge:
Favorite room:
Dream Vacation Spot: anything that resembles this

If you are reading this and have some time, consider yourself tagged!

It's Wild

I really wish there was an easy way to get her to not touch her hair while she is eating.

Hooray Hooray Hooray

Our power is back on! I am a complete wimp. We had no electricity for a little under 24 hours and it about killed me. It suddenly came on about 45 minutes ago and I cannot tell you how happy I am...the sound of the air conditioner, the smell of my plugin, the wonderful shine of the lights. And the disposal really needs to be run! I also sure missed PBS kids this morning and Jansen's nightlight last night. Oh the wonder of electricity. It was EXTREMELY windy yesterday afternoon and evening...the remnants of Ike I think...we lost a little tree in our front yard and we almost lost this:

Oops.

This happened before it got REALLY windy or I would have put it away, but I happened to look out the kitchen window and bye bye swimming pool. It was on its way to the pond. Luckily Nate was able to retrieve it.

Natalie had her appointment with the pediatric cardiologist this morning. It didn't go terribly well, mostly just because she was NOT happy about being poked and prodded. Because she was so upset they weren't able to hear well or get a very accurate EKG reading and now I have to take her to Children's Hospital and have an ultrasound done. I was not happy with the doctor...he was one of those pediatricians that apparently only worked with robots during med school and residency because he acted a little annoyed and surprised that Natalie was so upset. He was asking me, "Is she always like this?" and "Do you have a toy for her?" Sure doc, let's hand her a rattle and I'm sure she'll quit screaming. She was very wary of him so every time he came back in the room she would start clinging to me. He did hear her heart a little bit after she calmed down and thought it sounded like a pretty harmless murmur, but we need to check it out because the EKG was abnormal. (Probably because of her tantrum.) Her next appointment will be in a couple weeks I think.