Bullet Points

• The weather improved this weekend and we were able to spend some time outside. We have a new routine of going for a long walk before lunch on Sundays. It wears everyone out and we all take a long nap in the afternoon. Wonderful! Next weekend maybe I will remember to take some pictures. After nap time, Adelaide and I went to the grocery store (remind me not to go to the grocery store on a Sunday), while Jon and Aedan did some yard work and cleaned up the garage. All in all, it was a nice end to the weekend.
• I said in my last post that Jon and I had just finished up Battlestar Galactica. We decided to start season 4 of Justified. It is so good. I am sure we will have the season finished up by the end of next weekend.

• On our weekly trip to Costco, we found this awesome full length mirror for a great price. It was too big to fit in the car with the carseats and such, so I went back on Saturday during nap time to pick one up. I love it! It is huge and fits on an empty wall in our bedroom perfectly. Both kids have a great time playing in front of it. I have already lost all hope of keeping the bottom half clean for the next few years!

• It got cold again today and it is supposed to be even colder tomorrow (Or today, since this won’t post until Tuesday morning). For dinner I am making a chicken gnocchi soup. It is so good. I use a variation of this recipe.
• I took the kids to the library this morning. While I picked out books Aedan played nicely on the rug with toys and Adelaide ran around pulling books off the shelves, climbing up and standing on just about every little kid chair possible, and pulling all the stuffed animal puppets out of the bin to bring to me. Sigh. I tried to get a picture of her standing on the chairs, but as soon as I got out my phone, she sat down and started looking at a book as if she had been a perfect angel the whole time. I am sure I will get a picture soon though. It is her new favorite trick. She loves to play upstairs since that is where we have a small table and chairs. She climbs right up, stands up and then claps for herself. She is totally going to climb out of her crib way before I am ready for her to be in a big kid bed, I just know it!

-Lauren-

Midweek Updates

Jon and I just finished up watching Battlestar Galactica. We like picking a show with multiple seasons on Netflix or Hulu and watching it together. I am surprised I got into this one, but it was good. I thought the finally was really good as well. Next up I think we are going to get caught up on Justified and then maybe Son’s of Anarchy.

While I was at work this morning, I had my house cleaned. I decided to spend some hard earned money on getting the house cleaned on a regular basis. As I sit here with both kids asleep, work finished for the day and my entire house clean at the same time…I have decided it is totally worth it.

Jon and I are having a date night tomorrow and I think it is going to be freezing! Last weekend, we were playing at the park in t-shirts and they are calling for snow showers on Friday. I’m not sure where we are going to go, but I am looking forward to some 1:1 time without the kids.

This morning, Aedan insisted on wearing my sunglasses all the way to school. I wish I had a picture of him walking into class…he kept the sunglasses on, and was caring his milk cup from breakfast like it was his coffee.

I took this one last week. He keeps telling me he needs sunglasses. I guess I should buy him some, so he doesn’t have to use mine all the time.

-Lauren-

Our Weekend

This weekend the weather was perfect! We spend a lot of time outside.

My parents came down Saturday morning and we all headed straight to the park.

Adelaide finally decided that it is okay for someone besides mommy or daddy to hold her, even when mommy and daddy are around. Thank goodness!

Of course by the time I decided to take a picture, she decided she was done.

She also learned how to go down the slide by herself. As in, she will sit down at the top instead of just try to walk straight down. Crazy girl!

After lunch my mom and I headed out and did some shopping. We had so much fun! I picked up some new makeup and skincare items. My skin has been so dry lately.  I am totally in love with the stuff I got. It was a little pricy, but totally worth it!

This is what Adelaide does when I get out my phone to take a picture…she just wants to play with it and has gotten good at throwing little fits. I think 2 is going be a hard year for her us.

And this is what I was trying to take a picture of…multiple times a day this is what my living room looks like. Aedan’s absolute favorite thing to do is to take all the pillows off the couches and play under them. He is under there in the picture.

I have this great cookie recipe that I love. Lately the batches I have been making haven’t turned out as well. I finally bought some fresh baking ingredients and that seems to have done the trick. They came out perfect last night! I also picked up this little scooper recently and love it!

Next up I want to pick up these silicone baking mats to use instead of parchment paper. Anyone used these before? Do you like them?

-Lauren-

Busy

Yikes, a whole week gone and no posts. Things have been so busy lately. I generally try to get work stuff done during nap time and now that Adelaide only take an hour morning nap, that just leaves me with the afternoon to get everything done. I used to blog once my work stuff was done…like today, or in the evenings but I just haven’t felt like it too much. Hopefully I can get back into posting regularly. I love looking back and reading about past.

I’m planning to do a 15 month update post for Adelaide next week. She is at such a fun age! I used to think I would just love having a little baby but after seeing Aedan get into the toddler/preschooler phase, I just have so much more fun with that age. She is getting close to dropping her morning nap and I can’t wait! It will free up our mornings to get out and do thing without having to rush home for lunch. She and Aedan both still nap for a good 2.5-3 hours (well Aedan is usually up after 2/2.5 hour) in the afternoon which is wonderful.

This morning I had her skip her morning nap and we went up to north Austin to visit my grandmother. Aedan was at school so it was just the two of us. She did so well! We got to meet a few of my grandmother’s friends and had a great visit in her apartment. Then we ate lunch outside while Adelaide ran around. Such a fun morning!

Yesterday, I took the kids to a park play date. The weather was great, but the wind was awful. It made it feel much colder that it was. They  still had a lot of fun!

We just got a gate for the top of the stairs. When we first moved in two years ago, we just put a gate at the bottom to keep Aedan downstairs. We didn’t have much in the bonus room at the time, so he really never wanted to go up there. Fast forward to now, our toy collection as expanded upstairs and Aedan loves to play up there. Since he is up there, of course Adelaide wants to be up there too. I got tired of just sitting by the stairs while they both played so we decided to get another gate.

Both kids think it is so fun to throw toys, through the gate, down the stairs. Sigh. At least Aedan likes to go retrieve everything when they run out of items.

Sounds like nap time is coming to an end. Time to get out and play in the backyard and enjoy this gorgeous weather!!

-Lauren-

Back to Work

Today is our first day back on a regular schedule.

Jon had to work a few days last week, but it was pretty slow, so he was able to hang out with us a lot at the same time…perks of working from home!

Today, Aedan was pretty bummed that when Jon said he had to go to work right after breakfast, he really meant it.

Aedan doesn’t go back to school until next week, but I have to work a few days this week, so it feels like a normal week. It is super cold here, but the kids and I made it out to run a few errands this morning. Our frig and pantry are loaded up for the week and I am planning on make chili and corn bread for dinner tonight!

Last weekend we took Aedan to see Frozen and then last night Jon and I went to see Anchorman 2. Both were good. Aedan was glued to the screen for most of Frozen and as soon as it was over, he asked to watch it again. Jon and I laughed a lot during Anchorman 2. Not as good as the first one, but still fun to see. I love going to the movies when it is cold outside. It just seems like the perfect thing to do.

I was looking back at my Christmas post and I realized I never posted these pictures. The Friday after Christmas, Aedan and I went up to Round Rock and hung out with my parents for the morning.

Baking cookies with Nenna…

Watching a movie with Pop.

It was a fun morning! My mom had gone through some pictures at my grandmother’s house the day before and found this one of Jon, Hiro and I…6.5 years ago! Hiro was such a baby!

-Lauren-

New Year’s Eve

For New Year’s Eve this year we had a couple of friends over for dessert and drinks.

Jon and Aedan went and bought some sparklers and other fun things for us to set off. This is the first time I have lived outside of city limits and it is so fun to set off roman candles, bottle rocks and various other things at the 4th of July and at New Years.

We had a great time visiting with good friends and I think the kids had fun hanging out and playing/watching a movie.

Everyone headed home around 8:45 and we thought maybe we could get Aedan to go to sleep. Not so much. Just like we thought it was fun to set off our own fireworks so did a bunch of other people in our area. So we had one tired 3 year old by midnight, but I guess what is two days out of the year of a super late bedtime? He was pretty tired the next day, but took a long nap and was back to normal.

On new year’s day, we had a pretty lazy morning and just about stayed in our pj’s all day which was nice.

We are looking forward to a great 2014!

-Lauren-

Christmas Recap

I am so behind in blog posts. I want to do a 2013 recap, but I have a few posts I need to get up first. Hopefully I can get back on track this week!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year!

We started by celebrating on the 21st with Jon’s extended family. We had lunch at his grandparent’s house and got to visit with his aunt and uncle and cousins. Jon’s dad got sick so they weren’t able to come down. We missed seeing them and hopefully will get to catch up with them soon! Both kids did really well and we were even able to keep them awake on the way home so everyone still got to take a long afternoon nap.

On the 23rd, we got together with my extended family. I know there were a lot of group pictures taken, but I don’t have copies so hopefully I can get some soon…hint hint mom! We had a lot of fun and both kids did great again. Thankfully Adelaide was over her fussy phase and was pretty content to walk around exploring. Aedan had fun playing with my cousin’s kids. There are two boys and another girl, all really close to his age, so it is perfect. Next year it will be fun to watch Adelaide jump in the mix

We were on our own for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. It was really nice to celebrate with just our little family. Santa came and Jon and I were so excited to celebrate with just the 4 of us.

I totally thought Aedan would be up early, but of course he and Adelaide both slept in! I could see him walk into the living room from our bed, and it was so fun to see the look on his face when he saw the gifts out.

We had such a good morning opening gifts and just hanging out.

After naptime on Christmas day, my parents, sister, aunt and grandmother’s came over for our final celebration. There were so.many.gifts! I think everyone had a great time and Aedan and Adelaide were totally spoiled.

The only thing Aedan wanted for Christmas was “lots of firetrucks” and he got just that. He loved every single thing and we now have a playroom half full of firetrucks/firefighting gear.

My aunt took some great pictures while everyone was opening up their gifts. Here are a few of my favorites…

Everything fire truck related…

She got a bunch of fun stuff as well!

Oh and this gift my dad got cracked me up. He drives a jeep wrangler and apparently this is a jeep thing…

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a fun New Year’s Eve!

Happy 2014!

-Lauren-