Girl Scout Delivery

Maddie is a Brownie this year and sold Girl Scout cookies for the first time. She went up and down our street, hit up from family and friends, and worked a cookie booth last night. She has been quite the sales lady wanting to fill out the forms, make the sales, and deliver the cookies all herself.

Coloring = Pizza

Elise won the coloring contest at Papa Murphy's!

The phone rang and they said, "Is Elise there?" I stumbled over my words, "Um, yes, um, she's here, um, she is only three years old." And they laughed, "We know. She won the coloring contest!" I put her on the phone and she said, "Mom, what are they saying?" When I told she had won a pizza for her picture of cupid, she went crazy. After Eric got home from work, we went over to get dinner, thanks to Elise. She was SO proud!

Jungle Ice Cream

Since we have been home a lot lately, the kids have been creative.

Welcome to the Jungle Bedroom Ice Cream Shop!

Stomach Bug Anyone?

Poor Gus and Maddie! Gus started throwing up last Sunday at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Before we left AZ, Gus shared it with them. Then we started an epic nine hour drive of multiple clothes changes and many tears from Gus and me. We hoped that the rest of us would be spared but Eric and I were soon was complaining of tummy trouble. Last night, poor Maddie joined the ranks and spent all of today like this. Gus seems to be fine, playing with Elise, helping with the laundry, and trying to eat, but he continues to get sick each day. We hope you can avoid this nasty bug.

Gus played with his "socks" and then he threw up in the kitchen about 20 minutes later.

Goodbye Grandpa and Grandma in Arizona

We just returned from one last weekend in Arizona with Grandpa Les and Grandma Sandy. After 11 years in Sun City Grand , they will be moving back to Minnesota to be closer to family. My dad's MS has progressively gotten worse and it will be easier for them in the Twin Cities. As we drove the 9+hours there, Eric and I reminisced about all our AZ visits with them. We enjoyed their first house on Silver Breeze Drive without kids, discovering the White Tank mountains, working out with everyone at the fitness center, and taking Bucky on walks through the empty lots of the developing community. When we had kids, they moved to their current house on Hawthorn Drive and we played at the pool more, found the zoo down the road, and got familiar with the area playgrounds. The girls loved sleeping on their airbeds and riding their scooters on the patios. We routinely came for Thanksgiving and felt close to family. In the mornings, we would enjoy breakfast, the newspaper, and conversation and in the evening we enjoyed many card games and bowls of popcorn and ice cream. Each visit, Eric would hope to get to In-N-Out Burger (see photo) and the White Tanks for a long run, I would hope to visit a lot with my dad and wear sandals without socks, and the girls hoped to pick grapefruit and swim until the guards said it was time to get out of the pool. We couldn't believe at how many of our trips included one of the kids getting sick and this time was no exception. Gus got a stomach bug and now my dad and Sandy are dealing with it. We hope our good memories outweigh the sicknesses and we want them to know how much we loved having them near. We will miss them in Arizona but look forward to new Minnesota adventures.

In-N-Out Burger 4 X 4 -- 4 patties, 4 slices of cheese

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was a cookie-baking, card-making, party-partaking good time.

Chicks on Sticks

The first weekend of February, I spent all of Saturday and Sunday at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area with 50 other women honing our ski skills. Ages varied, ability levels varied, backgrounds varied but we all had one common goal -- to ski a lot. I just started downhill skiing a few years ago (I cannot call my one scary day at Powder Ridge in MN in 1988 real skiing) and I have spent most of my last few winters at Pajarito by myself trying figure out how to turn and stop. Eric and I coordinate to give each other an hour to ski before or after the kids ski or nap or eat or... This was the first time I really got a chance to ski the whole weekend, try out a whole bunch of skis, and learn from others...including my group leader who was my former student! I did runs that were too hard for me and I survived. I had great conversations on the chairlifts with local women I've never met who love to ski. I hurt each night as I went to bed. It was a great weekend.

Dog Girl

Dog Girl (aka Elise) got new blue puppy PJs from a preschool friend and she went nuts. After she put them on, she asked me if I could take her picture with Bucky.

They spend so much time together. Don't you think they are really starting to look like each other!?

Gus Loves to Color

Gus has been coloring everything lately -- his new coloring book, Elise's favorite coloring book, Maddie's homework, the table, the walls,...

He also loves the put the crayons in the box and dump them out of the box again and again and again.

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Love is in the air! There is nothing like getting dressed up for a special night out with your dad -- making crafts, eating dinner, taking photos, and of course, dancing!

Super Bowl or Super Cuts?

Check out Elise's new haircut! Do I laugh or cry?

While we watched the Superbowl with a few friends, the kids were playing great all around the house. The last few minutes of the game were so exciting and we were cheering until out came Elise... Someone said, "Did she cut her bangs?" OH NO! It was more than her bangs! Thankfully, it was only our daughter with big chunks and her little buddies, Maya and Kamaya, were able to go home with a full head of hair, I think.

She is wearing a headband today...