Potty Pal

Today we attended the Maus dudes Valentine's Day party. I was a little worried about going because Alex as still coughing, and I wasn't sure how other parents would feel even though I was pretty sure he was no longer contagious. It was a blast. We made a craft. Alex found it just as much fun to lick the paint off his hand as he did making hand prints! He looked pretty adorable with a blue 'stache! We also decorated cookies. Thankfully, Crystal is nice an layed back because Alex managed to get red and pink frosting everywhere. During the party, Nolan needed to use the potty. Of course, there are two potties side by side. Alex took it upon himself to sit on the other potty and keep Nolan company. It was pretty funny. I guess we will be getting Alex a potty tomorrow!!

aahhhhhhhhccchhhhooooooo

Poor little Alex has been sick since last Thursday. He started coughing in the middle of the night and continued to get worse that Friday. Due to his illness, he was unable to attend his friend's 2nd birthday party. I attended for him! I did come back with goodies for him which he was excited about.

Saturday night Paul hosted a Stout party. I guess it is stout month?? He had several of his brew club companions over and few others who enjoy that style of beer. I was amazed at how fast men can inhale meats! I've been informed that this will now be a yearly event. Next year I'll make sure to buy a couple pounds of summer sausage and cheese.

Sunday marked a milestone birthday for Paul. He turned 30! It was a quiet day. Every year I make him a surprise dessert. It usually involves his favorite thing....peanut butter. I slaved away all day and ended up with an ok dessert. Paul got a hand-crank ice cream maker for his birthday, so we also had that.

Thankfully Alex is sounding better today. He's never seemed run down and has been a good eater through this entire time. Since he is on the mend we will be able to attend his first Valentine's Day Party tomorrow. His twin friends are hosting. It sounds like a lot of fun.
I 'll post on the event tomorrow.

What stinks???

I had the honor of waking up to the nasty-ist smelling dog toot ever! I was in a bit of a sleepy haze trying to figure our where the stink was coming from, only to realize that I was cuddling with Gracie's tush which was the culprit of the stink! You kind of wonder if that's going to set the tone for day. Lucky things have been looking up since! :)

We had gymnastics yesterday which wasn't our best day. Alex spit-up on one of the pieces of equipment, and I knocked another father in the head. Unfortunately, it wasn't the father I would have chosen. I feel sorry for this poor kid named Miles. All of the children are 3 and under so you can't expect miracles...but this father is annoying. Apparently, Miles can't pick out the color pink fast enough, and his ta-da's aren't big enough, and Miles doesn't jump to his father's commands fast enough...aagghh. He's a toddler for goodness sake! It's not like we are training our children for the Olympics! This isn't China!

Paul's 30th birthday is quickly approaching. We aren't doing anything special. He has brewed 4 different styles of stout and is having some beer buddies over to help him drink it. I've had the privilege of sampling them. They taste like beer! :) Although I must admit that I did pick up the mild coconut flavor in one of them. Of course, I'm making him a mystery dessert....currently, it's a mystery to me too....I better come up with something quickly.

Update...finally!

Brrr... it sure has been cold! We've finally gotten out and about this week to enjoy the heat wave! :)

I enrolled Alex in parent-tot gymnastics last week. I thought it would be a good place for him to burn off some energy. He is a very busy boy. It seems like gymnastics just energized him. I guess we will se how next week goes. I don't expect he will learn any "moves", but he can run around on soft flooring, play in the foam pit or jump on the in floor tramp. He did get a few stamps for trying different stations.

We attempted a music group through the mom's club. It was pretty much a disaster. Alex is a little too social and gets ants in his pants if he has to be still for long. There was one mom there I wasn't impressed with. Oh well, we will find other activities.

Paul is heading to Minneapolis this weekend for the annual Mash Out competition. It's a beer thing. My mom will becoming down Friday to hang out with us while he is gone. He should be getting back Sunday.

Friday I have my annual bone marrow biopsy. YIPPEE! It's routine through the research group I'm participating in which pays for my medicine. We will just hang low that weekend which means no Super Bowl parties for us! :)

Alex has been a monkey lately. Paul forgot to lock the cabinet under the sink. He keeps his coffee grounds there to compost. I'm sure you can tell where this is headed....so I walked in to the kitchen one morning to find Alex and floor covered in coffee grounds. Of course, his pj's happend to be white! I quickly retrieved the vaccuum and when I rounded the corner Alex was bent over licking the grounds off the floor. The kid has an affinity for coffee for some odd reason. The next morning he got in to my makeup bag and decided to paint himself, his clothes and the floor with my cream bronzer. I guess he decided winter was making him look a little too pastey. :)

Christmas Fun

We started Christmas Eve morning with Dippy Donuts. It was a recipe I caught on Paula Dean's show. They were pretty good....and SO healthy!! ;). We ended up running a few last minute errands later that morning. I had a bit of a pie disaster which kind of put a kink in my mood, but I rebounded quickly. We also delivered pumpkin bread to two of our neighbors.

That night we had our friend, Enrique, over for dinner. I made beef brisket, beans and a salad. I have to say that everything was pretty delicious. After a long course of dessert, we watched Christmas Vacation. This is an annual event at our house. Everyone was tired, so we were in bed shortly after 10.

The next morning we ran down to see what Santa brought. Unfortunately, Alex thought his milk was way more important and was not impressed by the sled Santa brought. Paul got a ladder, and I got some Black Jewel popcorn.

Later Christmas morning we head over to the Halvorson (Paul's sister) house. Alex was a little slow with the gift opening, but it was fun to watch him. We all got spoiled. We indulged all day on pizza, sweet goodies, meatballs, and dip. We played games and had blast trying out Rock Band. I like the drums and bass the best. By the time we left that evening, I was so bloated from all the salt that my boots barely fit!

When we arrived back at our house, my mom and dad had arrived. Alex was tuckerd out and was a sleep in no time. We were tired, too. It ended up being another early evening which was ok because we needed lots of energy opening presents.

We are celebrating Christmas today with my mom and dad. Since my dad had to work, and Alex goes to be early now, we decided it would be better to wait until the next day. We started the morning with a quick pancake breakfast, and we were off to open gifts. It has been a wonderful day. I'm in the process of cooking our big dinner for tonight. We are having turkey, honey glazed ham, cornbread dressing, corn, rolls, deviled eggs and I think that's it.

We are hoping to get Alex out this afternoon to try out the sled. You can't pass of up a 31 degree heat wave!!

White Christmas

It sure is pretty watching the snow fall. Today has been fun. We've been family bonding. Paul got up early and ran. I got up early and got ready so that when he got back we could run errands. We were out the door at 8 am. Perfect timing because that's when most stores were opening. It was very peaceful. We were back by 9:45 and not one swear word was uttered. I would not want to be out later.

We got home and I started making pie crusts. Paul has picked out a fresh peach pie and rhubarb cream. I chose pecan...no surprise there. I'm also making"trash". I hope to finish off any baking and start some prep work. My grocery list wasn't ready before we left this morning, so we are going to venture once more this afternoon.

Yesterday, I went to a mom's group. It's for stay at home moms. It was nice to be able to get out and meet new people and let Alex play with other children. We met at McDonald's for breakfast and to play in the playland. These are tough words to swallow. I claimed I wasn't letting Alex play in those germ infested areas. Maybe that will teach me to never say never! He had a blast. He climbed the stairs and disappeard into the land of tunnels. I was hoping he would figure out how to get down because I was sure I wasn't going to fit up there. Of course, he came bopping along a little bit later. I'm not quite sure if he went down the slide or how exactly he got out. Of course, Mr. Social went around to stop at various tables to "talk". He played for 2 hours! I was pleasantly surprised about the group. I expected it to be lots of "perfect" moms. It wasn't that way at all. I enoyed it so much that I decided to join. There are activities several times a week, but you just attend what you want.

Safe travels to anyone on the go today and tomorrow.

Let it Snow

We are watching the snow fall again. It sounds like we are to get about 6 inches or more. The wind should pick up later today. Fun, fun.

Paul's last day of work was Thursday. He doesn't have to go back until Jan 5!!! I'm SO excited. We kicked off the weekend with a trip to the mall yesterday. We arrived as the doors opened at 9. We got some really good deals at Macy's. They always seem to have the best clearance prices. I must say that I get really put off by Herbergers. Each year we buy these coupon book fundraiser things. I've yet to figure out what the coupon is good for. I even brought the ones from the paper yesterday, and they wouldn't accept those either. Next time I'm going to have someone walk me over to an item that the coupon is good for. I have a feeling it applies to nothing in the store!! We also stopped by Dinoland. I use to be kind of fearful of these places due to the germs. After my mom met with the endocrinologist, I'm much more willing to expose Alex. We did wash his hands afterwards. He really enjoyed the other children. He and another little boy played peek a boo. He was a running/giggling machine. We then headed downtown to due some banking and stopped by one of Paul's favorite spots, Bertrosa's. It's a Chicago style cafe....another words...all sorts of hot dogs and sandwiches. Basically, lots of man friendly food.

Alex has taken an interest in the toilet. I'm trying to explain that only poo poo and pee pee goes in there. He was starting to place all sorts of things inside. He now runs around saying pee pee and going to the toilet and saying pee pee. I thought it might be a good time to associate those words with things in his diaper. Now he waves his hand in front of his face and says "uff" or "soo" if he has a stinky diaper and says pee pee for just a wet diaper. He isn't able to tell me what's in there on his own. Maybe he will figure that out in the near future.

I didn't do Christmas trays this year. I'm not sure why. I guess it's too much work. I did make mini loaves of pumpkin bread instead. It's better than nothing. I'm almost done with my shopping and have 90% of my stuff wrapped. I hope to finish up everything on Monday. You couldn't pay me to get out on 13th ave today!!!