The past couple of weeks

Whew, just now finding time to get a few pictures on here.

I love these random, everyday pictures that I capture - because that is how we are living right now - our everyday life.  And we love it!

 Meemaw watched the kiddos when they had a break off school last week - and she was able to make it to Colin and Maggie's Valentine's Day party.  No picture of Colin and Meemaw, but she was there, too!

We went out to dinner one day last week and the kids wanted to try out a taste of a lemon...

 Colin did okay with it, just made some funny faces...

 Maggie was not a fan...At All!

But she was okay enough to do 'silly faces' for a while when we were waiting for our check

 Colin has been loving to play board games after dinner at night - this particular night he was super proud of his Angry Bird structure he built.  Soon to be knocked down by the one and only...

Moose.

 He's so curious about everything - he gets his big ol' nose into all that we do.

 He can "shake" now.

I know, I know... big time stuff here!  Isn't he amazing :)

 The kids wore their "blue crew" shirts to bed one night.  They love matching when they can.

Moose loves it, too!

 Grammie and Granddad got the kids lips suckers for Valentine's day - pucker up!

And finally, we surprised the kids with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend.

We had never been there and were looking for a little getaway from the winter blues.

This was a perfect trip for us, one night away from home, but tons of fun!

The waterpark there is HUGE and has tons of slides that both kids can go down.  Way more than at Cocokey because they are much more strict with height policies there.

 The kids got 2 sets of wolf ears to wear

 Their scary wolf growls

 The hotel did story time at 8 pm, these little animals moved and told a little story before Wiley the wolf came out to help read a story

 Wiley the wolf

You can't really tell here, but there were TONS of kids all lined up listening to this story.

 We stayed a little after storytime to get a picture with Wiley.

Fresh out of the pool on the last day - so much fun!

And somehow we managed to get out of there without spending a dime on anything 'extra' at the hotel.  

It was so much fun.  The kids had a blast going down the slides and playing in the lazy river.

Do you wanna build a...

SNOWMAN?!

The boys took advantage of a nice day (after some 3 inches of snow fell the day before) to build a snowman.  They were so proud of themselves.  It really did look pretty great!

Hey there, February!

I can't believe it's almost the middle of February!

We've been battling some nasty bugs around our house - the ones that bring really high fevers, coughing, sleepless nights, and extra-whiny kids (and parents!)

But, I am happy to report we are on the mend and doing much better.

Colin looked super cool for Hat and Glasses day for spirit week at school

(Maggie also looked totally cute, but was refusing to take a picture, silly girl!)

The 2nd day of spirit week was Superhero/Princess day.

You couldn't tell by looking at this picture, but this was the day both kids came home very puny looking and with high fevers.  Man those illnesses can come on quick!

Needless to say - we missed out on the rest of spirit week (BUMMER!) as well as school pictures that were the last couple days.  Oh well, they wouldn't have looked very good with pale faces and super rosy cheeks, anyway! :)

Colin wanted a picture with Moose, and of course, so did Maggie!

 They just love this dog so much, there is never a lack of attention for Moose, that's for sure!

 The kids perked up some the next weekend, so we did some baking for the super bowl.

Each kid made a batch of homemade pretzels (wearing the aprons that Meemaw got them for Christmas!)

 They are getting to be pretty great helpers in the kitchen

 And a selfie of Mags and I, baking away in the kitchen.

 Oh, and this was just a random picture of Maggie, after she found my glasses in my work bag.

I am supposed to wear glasses (well, bifocals actually), but I never do.  Maggie thought these were so funny when I wore them, so she tried them on, too!

My beautiful 4-eyed-girl!!

Gordy's first bday

Tiff sent me some pictures from Gordy's birthday party, so I thought I would share.

He is such a cutie pie!  I see so much of both my sister and Chad in him.

 This is one of my favorites!

Love his cute little smile!

 I also love this one of everyone after presents were opened.

Tiff did a few pictures of Gordy with a 'practice' smash cake the weekend before the party.

She got some great pictures that I thought were super cute!

And on his actual birthday they filled his crib with balloons

Can you find him in there?!?!

Love you Gordy Pants!

Feeding fish and being silly

Last weekend we went to Meemaw's to spend some time away so that Brian could continue to work on the kitchen wall without any distractions.

It was a pretty nice day, although terribly windy.

We decided it would be fun to go feed the fish.  Luckily, Meemaw had been saving some old bread in the freezer for this exact moment!

 Ready to go feed some fish!

   You can't really tell from this picture, but the majority of the lake had ice on top.  The little portion that wasn't covered in ice had a TON of big fish ready to eat!

Now on to some random pictures... 

The kids found some sunglasses that they just HAD to try on.

Very fashionable, don't you think?!?!

Meemaw got Moose a really fun squeaky toy.  He had since then tore it up into a million pieces, but it was fun while it lasted ;)

We went to celebrate Gordon's first birthday this weekend.

It was a really fun afternoon.

I was taking pictures for Tiff on their camera, so I will try to track down a couple cute ones.

Gordon did great, even though he wasn't feeling 100%, and was super cute enjoying his smash cake.

  

The kids got these waxed lips in their goody bags.  So much fun!

Crazy cats...

 The current state of my kitchen...

 Moving right along...

Home renovations

So Brian FINALLY got the opportunity to tear down the kitchen wall/cabinet that he has wanted gone since we moved in.  I know how things are never as easy as you think they will be - but he got the project started this past weekend.

A few before pictures - with our sweet navy blue tile backsplash :)

The kids thought this was pretty cool when Brian started cutting into the wall - 

They promptly asked to play "pizza shop" and Brian and I came to the window to order our pizza from the chef (Colin) and server (Maggie)

Just realized my kids aren't wearing pants in this picture - not sure about that...

Isn't the lovely pinkish-red flower wallpaper a nice addition to our kitchen?

Brian etched a portrait of Colin into the wall before he cut it out.  If you look real close you can see it!

And how the wall looks today.

We are going to build up a higher kitchen counter to sit at, so there will be a little room for Brian to have the electrical plug ins put in.  

He will be putting up some dry wall this weekend (while I take the kids to Meemaws to get them out of the house) and hopefully it won't look torn apart.

If you know me at all, you know this is KILLING me to have part of my kitchen all sorts of messed up.  But, I know Brian wants to do it right and is doing a great job so far.  I just can't wait for it to look a little more polished!