Bedtime Trouble!

Tonight we found out, a little too late, that Robert wasn't quite as tired as we thought when we put him to bed. We had heard him running around a little bit but figured as long as he was being quiet and not waking his sister we'd let him stay up there. Well about 30 minutes later he came sneaking down the stairs and sat by me on the couch. I should have known something was up as he usually doesn't come downstairs unless we say it's ok. As he's sitting next to me he has a huge grin on his face and is swinging his foot back and forth. It was dark in the living room but I notice 2 of his toes look a little different and then I realize they've been painted. He found a bottle of my nail polish in my room and painted 2 of his toenails. We took some pictures downstairs and then I went up to look at the damage...

If there is one thing I love/hate about my son is his ability to copy everything we do after seeing it just once. Tonight I'm thankful for this ability as every time I paint my toenails I put a towel down. Robert couldn't find a towel but used an old gift bag to paint on and this is the ONLY thing with nail polish on it. Big sigh of relief!! Here are some pictures of his evening art project.

Needs to work on staying in the lines!
The minimal mess on our bed! The yellow fabric is the gift bag he
used under his toes. That is one proud boy!Future Blackmail!!

And now time for bed...

Moving!!

Our house has finally sold, or rather we'll be closing on it soon, and thus we needed a new place to live! Because of the timeline and wanting to save up more money we decided to rent and are happy to say that we've found a great new home in Apple Valley off of County Road 46 and near Cedar Avenue.

Here is a brief description of our new place with pictures following! The house is a one-story with a walk out basement AND an attaced GARAGE!!! If you can't tell I'm a little excited about having an attached garage. On the main level of the house are 3 bedrooms, a full bath, kitchen, dining area, and living room. The rooms are all decent size and the kids will get more room but our bedroom will be a little smaller. Based on who will spend more time in their rooms we're okay with this change! Downstairs is a finished basement with a 2nd living room which will be our play room! There are also 2 additional bedrooms downstairs, one we'll use as an office and the 2nd as a guest room. Along with that there is a 3/4 bathroom and laundry/storage room along with a few additional closets and storage spaces. The basement walks out into a nice size backyard that is partially fenced and contains 3 garden beds so we can have both flowers and a garden, not to mention a great space for the kids to play. Here are the pictures!

Master Bedroom

Izzy's room (looks identical to Robert's minus the ceiling fan)
Main Bathroom

Kitchen/Dining Area...a little on the small side but we'll make do

Main Living Room

Downstairs Living/Playroom

Downstairs Bathroom
Office

Laundry/Storage

We are going to be moving in 2 weeks, which doesn't leave a lot of time to pack but it also means we don't have to live in boxes for too long. We'll be moving on St. Patrick's Day (Saturday, March 17th) and are open to any and all volunteers that would like to help...we pay in food! I probably won't be doing any posts again until after we move but look forward to more pics after we move with all of our personal touches on our new home. Have a great week everyone!

Time with Grandma and Nick!

The past few weeks have been very busy for us and we're thankful to family and friends for helping out with the kids. The first big change was Eric deciding to join a new real estate firm a little over a week ago. He joined the MN Real Estate Team and that group has been the number one team in MN since 2006 so needless to say he is happy with the switch. The group, unlike Keller Williams, provides leads for their agents and Eric has been very busy since day one with all of the leads and already is working with serious buyers. The switch has been great for him and the perfect rejuvination to the start of spring.

With the switch it has meant that his schedule has been getting busier and busier and thus juggling staying home with the kids and being a full time realtor is getting trickier. Thankfully I'm in my down season and my work hours are a lot less but even with that we have been needing more help and our thankful to our families for helping out!

On top of this we found out that after months on the market our house is getting close to closing with a projected date of the end of this month or early April. We were really excited to hear this but then it also meant we needed to find a new place and fast! Last weekend we went and looked at some properties and decided to rent for awhile to help save up cash and allow us more time to find the perfect property. The house we have chosen is great and located in Apple Valley. I'll do another post on it but we are excited for the change and to be closer to family and friends...even if does mean moving further away from our awesome babysitters and friends Molly & Jess.

So instead of relaxing awhile we'll be busy packing and getting ready for our next adventure and moving in 2 weeks. Eeek!!

This past week my mom came up to help watch the kids while I worked during the day and finished my senior swimmers/diver scrapbooks at night and allowed for Eric to do a lot of showings. It also gave us a chance to go out and celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary! Here are some pictures she took of the kids and there movie night with Uncle Nick.

Practicing their piano skills!

Movie night with Uncle Nick and Grandma!
A little sleepy...
Learning to play games on PBS's website!

February Fun!

February is always a busy month for me with the new semester starting, the swim season wrapping up, birthdays, and all the normal daily tasks that keep us busy so I do apologize for the lack of blog posts.

We started the month with a trip to Red Wing to watch the Super Bowl with my mom. The kids enjoyed playing with their favorite M&M toy, eating food (but not sharing with Vegas), and destroying Grandma's house!

The next big adventure was celebrating my birthday. My birthday fell on a Saturday this year and even though I had to work in the morning for practice and then a rental meet I made the most of the day. After returning from work I spent some time playing with the kids and then was treated to a pedicure with my mom. Following that my mom stayed with the kids and Eric and I had a date night. We went for dinner at Wildfire in Eden Prairie and then spent the rest of the evening doing a little shopping. The next day my mom and I were able to get some scrapbooking done and then on Monday we had our favorite babysitters (Molly & Jess) watch the kids so that the adults could go celebrate my birthday and Valentine's day at the Melting Pot! Eric and I had been there but this was the first time Nick, Tori, and my mom had visited and we had a great evening as you'll see from the pictures below! Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so much fun and memorable!!

And here are a few random shots of the kids taken over the last month!

Robert's at that stage where he usually can go without a nap but sometimes he gets a little too tired and will fall asleep in random positions downstairs!

Izzy doesn't like to stand at the train table to play!

Izzy loved the piece of chocolate I shared with her from my birthday treats!

And the bittersweet part of the month is the swim season coming to an end. It is always nice having more time at home and being able to focus more on the other parts of my job but I do miss seeing the team. Luckily a good portion of the girls work for me so I still get to see them throughout the week. We had a good finish at our conference meet and are looking forward to our banquet in two weeks. The picture below shows the coaches with our 6 seniors. They are a great group of girls and it will be very hard to replace their talent and personalities in the years to come.

Izzy's Haircut and Videos!

This past weekend when we needed to be out of the house for more showings we took the kids in for haircuts. Robert has the process down pat and enjoyed watching Boots (aka Dora) while getting his trimmed. Izzy, being the princess that she is, wasn't as into the process. This was her first haircut and as you can see from the pictures she wasn't too happy to be there. She didn't get much done...just shortened the back to minimize her mullett, which also makes for springier curls, and got some of her baby hairs cut off in hopes that the top will grow out better and faster! She did make it through, despite the tears and pouty lip!

Really mom? You're not going to save me???

A few nights later they are showing off their new hairdos and enjoying playtime!

Izzy had a diaper leak and was put into her pjs early. Unfortunately the feet in the pjs were a little too slippery but once she put her polka-dotted shoes on to match the polka-dotted pjs she was quite happy!

Robert's a Dancing Machine!



Finally!!! We got Izzy's tickle~tickle~tickle on video!!

This picture is from the other night. Eric and I were having a late dinner of soup with crackers while the kids had a snack of cinnamon-sugar toast. Eric and I were busy talking and didn't pay much attention to Robert when he asked for some crackers. A few minutes later I glanced at his plate to see he had copied us by crumbling his crackers on top of his food. So cute!!!

Robert's week with Grandma!

While I was gone in the Bahamas Robert spent most of the time in Red Wing with my mom. He had a great time and got to do lots of fun things. His favorite memories include going to the chipmunk movie, singing at church, pancakes, playing with the Otteson girls who babysat him, and helping Grandma. My mom also enjoyed having him there and was really sad to give him back. We're also not sure if it was the week away, getting spoiled by santa, or just getting a little older but his tantrums have definitely decreased and he is becoming our sweet little boy again. He loves helping, sharing his love with lots of hugs~kisses~giggles, and is even being a nice big brother!!

Here are some pictures from his time in Red Wing!

Tracing/coloring fun! As you can see he still likes to use both his right and left hand to write. His right hand is definitely better though!
Pancakes!!! Made the cereal we give him most mornings not very exciting.

His own tent in the kitchen!

My trip was good as well. The first few days we were there weren't the best due to cold, windy weather and having to train in a pool that didn't have a working heater. Low 70 degree water temps mixed with high 60, but windy, air temps did not make for happy swimmers! Luckily the cold front passed and we moved to a different pool so the rest of the trip was a lot a better. We were on Paradise Island, near the Atlantis resort, and enjoyed walking to the shopping area for gifts and ice cream. I was able to keep in touch with the family through skype. The first time skyping with both kids was hard because they were both very sad and had a hard time understanding why I wasn't with them. Luckily after that they enjoyed seeing me and had lots to share with me. I have to leave again this weekend (Thursday-Saturday) for a meet in Iowa so hopefully that goes okay and that Eric doesn't completely lose his mind. :)

This weekend we celebrated my mom's birthday on Friday with Nick & Tori and had a great time. We all stayed up way too late but had a good time talking and hopefully not scaring Tori too much with stories about our family. On Saturday my mom and Robert came with me to a Wildcat Hockey game and Robert had a lot of fun watching the game and the Zamboni!

And to not leave Izzy out of this post here is a picture of her in her new high chair/booster seat. She is on her 3rd one...she broke the one we used for Robert, could get out of her straps in the new one I bought her a few months ago, and so Eric had enough while I was gone and got her a top end model that should keep her in. She loves it so all is good so far! She is at a fussy stage right now so it wasn't the easiest of weeks on dad. It helped that she didn't have her brother around for most of it to pester her but she now knows what she wants but can't always communicate with us so that she can get it...or when we do figure out what she's asking for and it's something she can't have she doesn't like being told NO. We're hoping this is a quick stage and are happy to see her vocab progressing so that she can tell and/or show us what she needs.

Happy New Year!

Every year at this time I leave with my team for our annual training trip. I still enjoy leaving the cold but it does get harder to leave the kids each year. This year I'll be going to the Bahamas and it should be a great trip and while I'm gone Robert will spend a good portion of the time in Red Wing with my mom. Leaving Eric and Izzy for some father-daughter bonding time...and what I hope for some good blogposts to be put up by Eric.

Before I left I wanted to do a post with some of the pictures that got overlooked, or rather I was too busy with other things to post earlier, so that everyone can enjoy them as much as we do and update you all with our life.

Robert is slowly (and I mean slowly!) coming out of his tantrum phase but is still very independent. He is talking more and more each day and always wants to know where everyone is. Izzy has now become "baby" to him and he refuses to call her by anything else. For the most part he has a love-hate relationship with her. Loves to talk about her when she's not around but hates that she is so mobile and into all of "his" toys. It is a challenge to keep track of who starts which fights and timeouts are becoming more common but hoping this phase doesn't last too long.

Izzy is growing up quite quickly and has become our little princess. She's at that awkward age of wanting to be able to do all her brother is doing but can't quite do it all. She also is trying to communicate with us but with her limited vocabulary this is often a challenge and usually ends in a tantrum...sometimes by her and sometimes by Eric and me! She does have some words she uses that include mama, dada, go, and tickle. She loves tickling people and when she says tickle,tickle,tickle it is honestly the cutest thing you've ever heard. We keep trying to get it on video but being the princess that she is, refuses to do it! While she started talking much earlier her brother she definitely is not as eager to get moving as quickly. She just started walking over the holidays. She's been able to do it for months but was too stubborn to do it, unless it was on the couch, not safe but she thought she was so funny and cute doing it.

Eric and I are both busy with work and finding time for each other and the family is sometimes a challenge but having the last week off and a slow week for Eric allowed for some great bonding and a chance just to relax and enjoy everyone. Our house has had a few offers but for various reasons they fell through on the buyer's end. We think we finally have found a legit buyer and are looking forward to moving closer to work and family in the next few months. Well I should say being closer...the move is not exactly something we're looking forward too!!

Here are the pictures and hope to share more with you once I return!

What is it about oven drawers that is so exciting?!

Her new way of eating! Got to be relaxed around here!
Enjoying his book while his sister is distracted with something else!

Princess throwing a tantrum! Getting along and probably plotting against Eric & I

Reading in Mom & Dad's bed is the best!

Happy New Year Everyone!