march madness, round 4

just as the final 4 for the real march madness was being determined, we had our final weekend of visitors for the month. whew! what a fun-filled busy 4 weeks it has been! we feel so blessed to have such a wonderful and loving family who travels across the miles to come see us.
this last weekend we were joined by pappy and gammie pié. in typical kentucky pié fashion, we spent the weekend hanging out, eating delicious food, going shopping, and watching movies together. jacob showed off his newly developed lego-building skills and kate graced us with her non-stop chatter.


pappy got a haircut, jesse got new glasses from the eye doctor, and i ran/walked a 5k with my good friend.


we were even surprised by an inch of snow on sunday morning!

it's been a joy to watch the kids interacting with their far-away family. we will treasure these last 4 weekends and look forward to when it will be our turn to make visits to pittsburgh and colorado.

march madness, round 3

aunt joey was our visitor this weekend. it was very helpful to have her here on friday, as we ran some errands and went to several dr appointments. one of those appointments being for jackson, who we found out has a torn ligament in one of his hind legs. poor guy. he's been limping for several months now, and we thought it was arthritis (he is almost 7 years old, so it made sense). so we started him on some supplements that are supposed to help with arthritis...and it didn't get any better. thankfully the x-rays we got done on friday showed a healthy set of hips! but it also showed much swelling and signs of a torn ligament in his knee. surgery has been recommended. (once we win the lottery, of course.)

the rest of the weekend with aunt joey was relaxed and pleasant. we enjoyed a day of sunshine, making sidewalk chalk art and playing in the sandbox outside. we hit a couple stores that i had coupons to, to get some spring/summer clothes for the kids. we watched a couple of good movies. jacob begged his aunt, almost hourly, to play legos with him. kate showed off her dance moves, with much resistance, and entertained us with her "shake my booty".

we even got to see the supermoon on saturday night. that was cool!

a nice weekend.

one more weekend of madness to go, and then it's back to same-old-same-old for us....just in time for warmer weather! oh, and jackson's surgery.

school things

we just made the decision to not put jacob in preschool this coming fall. we decided this the night before the registration day, and also found out that the class was full anyway. i was a little bummed at first because i was hoping jacob could have the experience. but the more i think about it, the more i am glad we didn't do it. one more year to have him home before he starts real school. i am also hoping this will give us some time to find a tumbling class or some activity to get him in a class setting.

in the meantime, we're keeping busy with the answers for preschoolers set at home. we've been taking it slow and are almost halfway through, just in time to break for the summer! jacob loves learning his letters. he can now write most of the letters A to X, and he can write his first and last name with no help from mom telling him which letter comes next.
a week or two ago he recognized the letters on the starbucks sign. "mommy, that sign says coffee!" that's my son! and just this week he asked me to tell him how to spell it. i love this boy.

grandma bought the kids a dry-erase board, and jacob has enjoyed practicing letters and drawing random things on there. here he is with his friend isabel and their joint-effort piece of art... a dry-erase tree. :)

march madness, round 2

this weekend our family enjoyed a visit from grandpa dennis, fresh from colorful colorado. saturday morning he was kind enough to take us all to the circus- a once in a lifetime experience. "the greatest show on earth!" is what we heard over and over. it was pretty spectacular, well done, and loud! it took kate a while to warm up, but by the end of the show she was clapping and dancing. jacob started out loving it, but i think by intermission he was ready to leave. it was stimulation overload for him. :)


the weather was beautiful in kentucky this weekend, so we spent some time outside enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. and of course, dad's visit wouldn't be complete without a visit to trader joe's (which he sadly doesn't have the convenience of in colorado).


kate and i both have crummy colds, but other than that, it was all in all a lovely weekend with grandpa!

march madness, round 1

i've deemed this month "march madness" at our house, and it has nothing to do with college basketball. it's a month with scheduled visits from out-of-town guests every weekend. this is a busy-ness that is very welcome at our house. :o) we love having visitors!

and to kick off the madness, a visit from grandma and grandpa mclane. we spent the weekend playing with new toys, shopping, and eating good food.


thank you grandma and grandpa for making the 6 hour drive, in the rain, in the dark, to visit us!

uh-oh, legos

jacob recently was rewarded for keeping his pants dry for a week straight (a major accomplishment). saturday we took him to the toy store, where he was allowed to pick out the toy of his choice to buy with his leftover christmas money (shhh...he didn't know about the christmas money part :) ).
with my mother as my witness, i was doing everything i could to keep myself from screaming as we opened the packages of all the oh-so-tiny pieces. jacob loved it.
we've set some rules, so i am not picking up tiny lego pieces all over the house. he is allowed to play legos in his room, and only during his afternoon rest time (sans sister kate, aka babyzilla). and now jacob loves rest time and can't wait to go spend an hour in his room.
i guess these legos have their pros and cons. :o)

today is the day

after months of thinking something must be wrong about non-dairy coffee creamer, and after having it confirmed for me last week as i came across this site, today is the day i have decided to start down a new path in my coffee drinking adventures....homemade (organic) vanilla caramel creamer (real dairy!). i am using this recipe here. i hope i notice a difference in my body, because i am certain that the amounts of non-dairy junk i was consuming was NOT healthy at all!

one thing you can be certain of, it's going to be a LONG time before i can get to the point where i am drinking my coffee black. yeck.


**sidenote: i wasn't able to find the La Creme creamer in my area, but my sister did, and she tried it, and verdict is that it is not good at all. "very watery" she said. so save your money.

well said

jacob, while talking about how much he likes carrots, says:

"bunnies bring carrots to the grocery store. and then they sell them to our house. and then we eat them in our tummies."