Easter 2011

We had a restful and peaceful Easter here in Decorah last weekend. I enjoyed laying low and getting the opportunity to take a nap every single day! We probably should have started packing up the kitchen, but decided to just soak up a weekend at home and not stress ourselves out quite yet.

The weather was rather cool and occasionally rainy, so we didn't do all that much but did venture outside a little each day. Olivia and Brian were great pals with Brian tackling small projects around the house while Olivia followed him along playing babies and convincing Brian to haul her baby stroller up and down the stairs a million times. Gracie reinstated her obsession with mommy over the weekend, and also became the queen of silly.

On Sunday we had a wonderful meal at Brian's aunt's house, and then after naps, we had an Easter egg hunt at Pat and Roger's. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

Off to church...

Snapped this picture of my lovely Livy while I was honing up on my camera skills. Sleepy girl - staying quiet in church was hard work!

Gracie caught on to Easter egg hunting right away - she's up to trying anything that Olivia can do.

Liv was definitely not interested in sitting still and getting her picture taken - or much less even looking at the camera.

Pretty sweet little sisters - if only they'd looked up!

Happy First Easter Gracie!

Hmmm...Do we have a little stinker in the making here? I think so...

A House Update

Looking though my iphoto library the other day, I stumbled on some house pictures I had taken a long time ago. After I had surgery on my chin, Brian took the girls to my mom's for the weekend to give me some quiet time. I used it to clean the house and snap some pictures to help me remember that someday it will be possible to have a clean house again. I never did a post about them for whatever reason, but thought I would now. They can given a little insight into our new home for those of you who haven't yet seen in first-hand.

Master Bedroom: I stripped the wall-paper and took down the drapes in this room before school started. From there, we hired someone to do the painting. Since the picture, we got a new bedspread that has more color and brightens the room.

Dining Room: Our dining room is a bit smaller than I'd like, but it fits our furniture. When we start our kitchen remodel in a week, the picture on the left wall will be replaced by a window pass through. Some day we have dreams of opening the door on the right into our sun-porch/garage by making the sun-porch more livable (insulating, new windows, etc...).

Living Room: I like this room a lot. My mom and I painted it and the dining room before moving in making it a nice place to be right from the start. Now that we have furniture in our basement along with all the toys, this room stays relatively neat and more adult-like - well, except for the coats hanging off the dining room chairs and shoes and hats everywhere!

Guest Room: Open to all! Hopefully we'll have some color on the walls in here and in the family room this summer sometime.

Family Room: When we started looking at houses, Brian wanted a basement more than anything. Now, I understand why. This space is great (even better since we now have a big sectional sofa to hang out on). I love having a place to keep all our toys, and, even more, I love being able to leave a mess and not have to look at it first thing in the morning!

A Prized Possession

Today, Brian officially became the first man in Decorah to mow his lawn this spring. You could say that he was just a tiny bit excited about his new riding lawn mover. This last snow storm really had him chomping at the bit, fussing about his grass, and anxious to try out his new "man machine" - although he did offer to teach me how to drive it.


Liv surprised me by wanting to ride along with daddy for a bit. I figured she'd be petrified of it as she is most loud things, but she proved me wrong. Mostly likely, it has something to do with her new daddy obsession. Constantly she tells him, "Daddy, I like you." And she tells me, "Mommy, I love daddy." Very sweet, but where's my love? Liv and Brian were great pals all weekend, running errands, picking up sticks, etc... Of course it was me who issued a time out and dealt with the resulting temper-tantrum. No wonder she likes daddy so much! Okay, okay, I admit, I'm a little jealous of all the love. I did get some nice cuddles at bedtime tonight, but then was kicked out so "daddy could put her ni-ni." :)

Really?

Spring started about a month ago, but you wouldn't have thought that waking up in Decorah this morning. As I arrived at school, the grass was just beginning to be covered, and by 10:30, our principal was on the loudspeaker announcing an early out. No, I'm not joking. Conditions weren't all that great around the area with many accidents reported. The snow - about 4-5 inches was incredibly heavy and slushy. Who would have ever expected an early out on April 19th - seriously, I can't even be annoyed because it's just too surprising. But, I will be annoyed if this snow isn't gone in two days - did you hear me Mother Nature!



After dinner, Brian and Liv headed out for some snowman making. This was honestly the first time Olivia has shown any interest in snow - ironic, of course. Gracie was a bit put out that she and I didn't head out along with the Liv, so I dug out Liv's old snow boots which ended up fitting Gracie perfectly. Grace was definitely much braver than Liv was at that age. She even allowed me to put mittens on her and kept them on. Brian and Livy made two snowmen - well, Brian made them while Liv made her own mini-snowballs and tried to throw them at the street signs and trees like Daddy. Grace braved a few steps, but mostly stood at a stand still taking in our Spring Wonderland. Maybe she was just trying to comprehend why the grass underneath the snow was so green...

More Fun with Friends and Family

Two weekends ago, my friend Lindsay, her husband Daniel, and their son Grant came down for a visit. It was wonderful to spend the weekend catching up - it had been way too long. The little kiddos played well and slept...well, okay. Regardless, the weekend left me wishing the Cities were a little closer so that we could visit more often!

Saturday we had lots of playtime and enjoyed the outside air (hard to imagine as today, as I'm writing this, my students are impatiently waiting our early dismal as we have 3 inches of snow on the ground and supposedly another 5 coming). I'll post a couple of pictures of the kiddos at the Luther tennis meet when I get them from Lindsay. Saturday evening we had more friends over for lots of fun, conversation, and perhaps, just perhaps, a few beverages. Sunday we enjoyed a delicious brunch together at Peace Dining before everyone headed home with long naps for everyone.

Gracie and Grant enjoying some fun in the tub.

Awwww, Gracie loved giving Grant kisses all weekend.

Elliot and Olivia cuddled up for some Dora.

Another awwww...They're spooning.

Reading

Both our girls have a wonderful passion for reading these days. You can imagine how much this pleases their mommy!

Check out Gracie's bed-head.

Gracie's favorite word is "bk," and it is the first word out of her mouth in the morning and the last word she says at night. I don't think she's really excited to see us in the morning, she's just excited to run to her basket of books. Mornings, we usually find her standing up in her crib pointing frantically towards her basket. Gracie still pulls every single book of the shelf downstairs on a regular basis, but at least now there's a purpose to this as she's digging out her favorites. She's really into touch and feel and flip books. She also likes any animal book. We've been working on a lot of animal sounds, so far she's mastered baa, woof woof, neigh, roar, and quack. We're still working on moo, oink, and meow.

Livy has gotten to be great at listening to longer stories. Her most recent interest is reading stories to Grace and to us. This interest has been budding for awhile, but recently it's overpowered even having us read to her. We also tend to go in reading streaks with Olivia where she only wants the same two books for an extended period of time. The video below shows off some of her skills! (It's a little longer, so you might have to wait a few minutes for it to load.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUcOSTEcAEo