making the words mean what we want

Charli has been working hard on her words, letters, and numbers.  Several times a week she will get her notebook out and learn to spell a variety of words.  Some words are easy and ones she can sound out, and others are so random it makes me wonder how her little mind ticks!  She is also experimenting with using her own grown up words such as "irritating", "aggravating", "hilarious", "absolutely", and "unbelievable" to name a few.  It's fun to hear her use these grown up words, and makes me giggle when she uses them correctly as well as incorrectly from time to time.  Her favorite phrase right now is "Mom/Dad, come look what your son has done.  Now."  She has a varying opinion some days on being a big sisters, but each night before bed she always rests her head on her pillow being thankful and full of love for her brother...which is all we can ask for ;-)

I know this is not a great picture of Harper, he looks much better when you can see his beautiful blue eyes, but I love the look on his face!  We had extra time one morning and he took Wynston to his room to play..I walked in on them cuddling up!

this cutie is probably Harper's second favorite animal right now!  This is "Gunner", and he belongs to cousins Ryen & Macey...or as Harper said "Uncle Shawns".  "Uncle Shawn" is another man in Harper's eyes who has hung the moon...these lucky guys get the best of Harper!!

Welcome to the new world of technology and birthday parties!!  Ryen shares a birthday with her Aunt (my sister-in-law) Kara, who lives in Arkansas.  It's no fun to leave them out of the festivities so we skyped while Ryen opened her gifts!  The Arkansas boys (Cohen, Grant, and Reid) were adorable!

this is my favorite picture of the weekend!  Birthday girl Ryen and Harper getting ready to dive into the cake!

This picture is especially for Uncle Randy to enjoy..."woo pig sooie"  (Randy, Charli picks this shirt out weekly to wear and is in her top five favorite shirts!)  The girls were playing dress up and performing...I think she was cowboy Charli here...not to be mistaken for cowgirl Charli.

Harper and one of his most talked about people...Uncle Shawn.  Maybe it is the matching blue eyes that makes them buddies...whatever it is, it is adorable!  They were heading out for one of the main attractions while out west, a ride on cupcake the horse!  Both kids got to ride, and it is always a highlight for them!

"Gunner"

slumber party fun!  The girls look forward to their slumber parties each time we go out there...they get to fall asleep to a movie and snuggle in for the night!

they were like little animals at feeding time!!  Shawn yelled "breakfasts ready" and they came running!

I can see a musical future for these two!  Charli & Macey will make it rich, for sure!!

Charli is very good at telling us how much she loves us.  Generally it sounds like "I love you to the moon and back" or "I love you to infinity 90 times".  Today Chad was told, "I love you to Iowa". 

I love the thought process of a 5 year old!! 



barbies to bad-guys

Tonight Charli was packing a bag of things to take to daycare.  You know the staples in almost every 5-year old girls life, power rangers.  She then ran to Chad asking him to open a Barbie she got for her birthday last summer.  When he asked what her plans were with that she said "to be the bad guy dad."  Of course!  :-)

fun with glow sticks in the bathtub! 

This doesn't happen very often.  The kids love books, but it is rare that they will both sit still and lay to read a book!  Chad had surgery on Monday and the kids were gracious enough, for this one night, to be calm!

love this!!  All little brothers get the opportunity to wear make-up at some point!

Chad has a new toy that he has been enjoying this week!  We got an iPad for the family...never thought I would see the day I would take this picture.  Chad and his dad are sitting side by side while they play with the computer, priceless!

she looks like a garden gnome!

super heroes!

love, love, love this!!!  Harper and Grandpa!

catch-up ketchup

Last week I was able to make a trip to DC for work to attend a leadership conference, it is a great place to offer such amazing legislative and leadership sessions.  It was extra fun to be able to attend with a friend and co-worker!  However there is far too much there to do, to focus only on work!  Lucky for us we were able to balance and made the most of our time!  Here are some pictures from the week...

I thought this was exciting...I got to walk through the "occupy DC" area.  I am not sure how occupied this area was originally, it seemed to be a little thin - but neat all the same!

 

embracing the Washington monument!

the White House!!  I am pretty sure we saw President Obama, but perhaps I am wrong :-)

 

I took this picture entirely for Charli's benefit, she is super into Ninjas now!

 

while at the air & space museum we watched a 3D movie on the Hubble Aircraft -- it was neat!  We followed it up with a neat show in their planetarium, which made us both sick to do back to back!

on our way to meet with Senator Nelson's office, this is the Capitol Building behind us!

The Supreme Court.  There were a ton of security guards around, though we later found out we would have been able to enter...had we tried!

Oh...good ole President Lincoln!!  On this day we made a last minute decision to make the "short" walk from the Capitol to the Washington Monument.  We were told it was 'maybe' a mile.  It was after 5:00pm and it had been raining.  But, since it was only a mile we figured we would be there in ten minutes and all would be well.  Well...the rain didn't let us, the sun went down, and "maybe one mile" turned into over 2.5 miles -- in the dark, in an area under construction, and took us an hour.  I am still not sure how or why it took an hour, but it made for a good story!  The girl I went with was looking forward to this the entire trip...so we couldn't pass up the chance to see him! 

on our way to see Mr. Lincoln...catching the beauty of the "wind" this night at the Washington Monument!

as you can see here...we were still getting rained on! 

the kids helping to make muffins the weekend before I was leaving for my trip!

most exciting last week was the 8+" of snow we got for the kids to play in!

Chad and Charli made these Valentine Robots for her school party this week!  She was so excited she wanted to make them for her daycare party later this week too!  They had a lot of fun and executed some excellent teamwork on this project!

I am posting this with Chad's permission, by the way!  I thought it was too cute to capture this moment...Harper is looking up to his dad, even if it is in the simple things of life!  ;-)

mid-west...east-coast...mid-west

I am happy to be back in Nebraska after spending a great week in Washington DC...but it is hard to catch up with work and "other" stuff once I am home.  Hope to update pictures early this week...feels like it has been so long since updating pictures and telling stories!

Charli and Chad made her valentine's for school today - she picked a Valentine Robot...which she was so excited about so she doubled up for daycare later in the week too!  I didn't get any pictures of their teamwork, but will try to get a picture of a "bot" before they last ones go to daycare!  Her favorite thing about this is the "Ninja" cards she is giving...wow, talk about excited when she saw these in the store!!  Have a tomboy has it's advantages, no need to double up on cards for such events.  Thank you, Charli!

Big thanks to those who helped Chad while I was gone...and BIG props to him for keeping the house running without missing a beat while I was gone.  I walked into the house with the dishes done, laundry kept up, house clean...and it was awesome!!  Happy Valentine's Day to me :-)

hope to get pictures and updates up soon...have a sweet week :-D

welcome, winter....

As we welcome February, we have welcomed (or not really) winter.  Friday evening / Saturday morning we received about 8+ inches of snow where we live...which is our biggest snow this winter.  Once Chad and the kids scooped the snow everything started to melt.  The snow will certainly be here for awhile, but it won't be as bad as it could be!

Before the snow hit we had several beautiful days so we enjoyed some spring/fall like activities! 

 I am pretty sure Chad enjoys this more than either of the kids...but I will never know for sure!

 it doesn't always happen, but when it does, the two kids playing together is a little slice of heaven!!

Our picnic on the 30th day of January!!

a bike ride is a GREAT way to burn energy off after a long day!  The days are getting longer which meant on the warmer days we had we could be out until 6:00!

"mans best friend" is the case with Harper and Wynston for sure!

I have been having a problem with my alarm clock lately.  It will go off around 2:30 and even at 5:30 when I am not in bed anymore.  The worst part is when it goes off before 6:00 on the weekends.  My alarm clock weighs about 30 lbs and doesn't have a snooze button.  Harper tries to sneak in our room almost every night, with no success...but the boy has yet to give up! 

With the recent snowfall Charli can't get outside fast or long enough!  Both kids have had fun playing outside and in the snow!  I think this will stick around for awhile, but hopefully spring will be here soon!!