A weekend full of fun!!!

It was a GORGEOUS weekend! Weather in the upper 80's by Sunday, we got to spend a good amount of family time together and for the most part, everyone was happy!

Here is a run down of how we kept ourselves busy ... what did you do?

We laughed while we ate our veggies ...














And we laughed a little more ...














Then we laughed at each other ...







And got in a little cuddle time ....







We picked "flowers" all. weekend. long. (And gave them to mom because she's "pretty". Riley's actual word!)















We gave new meaning to the words "Family Bed" ...







We shared our toes to be munched on ...







Practiced our "Miss Hollywood" face ... (anyone remember the picture of me sitting on Uncle Donalds lap with the big sunglasses on?)







Cuddled a bit more before getting up to eat breakfast ...







Had friends over to play ... LOTS!







Helped mom work up the garden (thus the extremely dirty little boy) then took a break to play ...

That was our weekend ... hope yours was just as fun!

All is well again ...

Mom drove the Xterra to work this morning and Riley instantly reached over for his sisters hand ... excitedly announcing, "Mom, I can hold her hand again!!"

Ahhh, it's the little things in life ....

(And when we got to daycare he was still holding it ... I had to tell him to let go so he could get out of his carseat.)

The thoughts running through that little mind ... amazing!!

The following is the conversation Riley and I had in the car tonight on the way home from daycare.

And just to make things clear ... "Kiki", aka Charina, is an old neighbor of ours who moved to Becker. Riley loves her to death and would have no problem having her step in as his mom. If Riley was about 25 years older Steve, Charina's husband, might have some competition. :)

Riley: "Mom, I miss Kiki."
Mom: "I know honey. I miss her too."
Riley: "I think she should move back here. I don't want anyone else living in her house."
Mom: "Well, honey, I don't think she's going to move back. We're going to have to go visit her soon."
Riley: "Mom?"
Mom: "Yes Riley?"
Riley: "I miss Grandpa too."
Mom: "Too far away Grandpa?" (This is how we refer to Grandma and Grandpa Knudson)
Riley: "No, my grandpa that's in the ground." (Grandpa Zahradnik)
Mom: "I miss him very much too, honey"
Riley: "I wish I could talk to him."
Mom: "What would you tell him?"
Riley: "I'd tell him that my sister is cute."
Mom: "Oh really? Well ..."
Riley: "I don't think grandpa should have died ... grandma might be lonely."

*sigh* Sometimes his thoughts leave me speechless.

A little of Paige ...

"Pears? Mom, I don't think I like pears."









"Maybe if I wimper a bit they won't make me try them."








"MOM! I REALLY DON'T LIKE THESE!!" (And yes, she did hate them for the first day but then seemed to take a liking to them.)








Our big brown eyed girl














Caught in mid-yawn








Paige's question of the day is on her shirt. She'd like an honest answer please. (Click on this picture (and any really) to see it larger. If you can't read it, it says, "Does this diaper make my butt look big?" Thanks to Ryan's cousin, Sara, for the uber-cute shirt!!!)

What a person would expect from me ... pictures!!!

Our day at Silver Lake ...
































This is the look I got when I asked him to smile. Do you think he's sick of the camera yet? :)







And focusing hard on putting his car back together once we got home ...

Did my siblings ever love me this much?

Some of you know that we purchased a new (to us) car around Christmas ... a 2006 Chrysler 300. It's just a bit bigger than the Xterra.

Well, in the Xterra, the back seat is small enough that with Riley's mono-huge carseat, him and Paige aren't that far apart. So close in fact that if Riley really stretches his arm out and Paige has her hand in just the right spot, he can hold her hand. He'll hold her hand all the way to daycare in the morning or hold her hand all the way into town as we run errands. It's something he started on his own and does with no prodding from us. And I think she likes it too because she never pulls away from him.

This morning we took the Chrysler though. As Ryan was trying to get Riley buckled in, Riley was upset because there's quite a bit more space in the backseat and he couldn't touch his sister. Yes, my three year old was actually upset because he couldn't hold his sisters hand. I love it ... but how long does it last? :)

I don't think my siblings ever would have been upset about not being able to hold my hand ... upset about me wanting to hold their hand ... probably and more likely. :)

I'm thinking this love will last another ... oh, couple months max. Paige has learned to roll over and will soon be getting into Riley's toys ... at which point I think all hand holding may be over with. But it's sweet to watch for now. :)

Have a good weekend everyone! I think we're heading to the MN Zoo tomorrow.

Only in Minnesota ....

Well, you'll notice the posting right below this one mentioned the fact that we were getting snow. Only in MN could we be getting snow one week and have temps in the 70's the next week.

It was a gorgeous day yesterday. I don't think Riley even went in the house at all when we got home from work/daycare. I was inside fixing dinner when the door opened up and he asked, "Hey mom, can Wyatt come over to my house and play?" For some reason in that one moment he seemed so grown up. Long gone are the days of mommy and daddy being the fun people to play with ... now it seems we're best suited to be swing pushers while Riley swings next to his friends. *sigh*

So yes, Wyatt (neighbor boy) came over and then soon Braden (another neighbor boy) was over. Braden's older sister came over to talk to Paige who was in heaven in the baby swing. Pumba was chasing around the little people. And guess who the supervisor was? Daddy. :) Wyatt's daddy wanted to know if we were opening a daycare. :) I should have taken a picture ... it would be good advertising for Rainbow PlaySystems.

We rounded out the warm spring day with a walk around the neighborhood. I know I've said it before but I love our neighborhood. We know so many people in our development and everyone's so much fun. We got to talk with some people last night who we hadn't seen in a while and even found out one couple is pregnant. I seriously think I should start selling the water in our neighborhood ... 28 plus kids in just our little block ... it's CRAZY!

And quickly ... Miss Paige is now eating pears and green beans. I think she'd prefer to just skip this bottle stuff and eat solids all the time. We put her in her highchair and she wants to eat NOW. And if we're done feeding her but Ryan and I are trying to finish our dinner ... she expresses her dislike that she doesn't have anything for herself. Attitude ... don't know where she'd get that.

This is the way she rolls ...

It's happened! Paige rolled over from her back to belly last night ... and then after realizing she didn't like that much, kept on rolling and ended up on her back again. :) She'd been so close so many times ... but finally she got that shoulder and arm out from under her body so she could do that little "belly rock" thing that all babies do.

So that's it. Just thought we'd share.

PS ~ To all of the non-Minnesotians ... we're in the middle of getting a bunch of snow. Phooie! Isn't it the middle of April?

Update ... Pictures of the "Daddy Cut"

Before ...















Laughing at mommy because she's about to pass out ...















Well, it's too late to turn back now ...


















And for an after shot look at the Easter picture below. It's kind of hard to see ... but it's obvious it's MUCH shorter.

Did the Easter Bunny visit your house?

I think I should have taken stock in sugar before this weekend based on the amount of candy in our house right now. We have one basket, two pails and one bowl full of candy. And that's not counting the Halloween and Valentines Day candy we still have left over.



In reality though, the Easter Bunny was VERY practical at our house this year. Riley got a new movie, a book and a John Deere shirt (along with the obvious candy) and Paige got a new highchair and a pink John Deere outfit. There was also a bird feeder and bird food that was left. Yes ... VERY practical. :)



Riley enjoyed a weekend full of bunny related events. Saturday started off with an egg hunt at mom's work. There were 160 some kids and each kid got to pick up 18 eggs. Riley was elated to get candy, a necklace, erasers, etc ... Then we came home and him and dad argued about how to color easter eggs ... at which point mom had to remind dad who the child was and who was supposed to be enjoying the whole egg dying process.


Sunday we woke up to a table full of presents, headed off to church and then came home and ended up having an Easter dinner with Grandma Karen and Grandma and Grandpa Knudson. It was a nice surprise to have Grandma and Grandpa here for the day.

Hangin' from the tree like a monkey ...

Well, it's official ... Paige has had her first bite of human food ... something I wouldn't turn my nose up at if it was offered to me. :) Once again I'll be making most of the baby food ... and Saturday morning I made up a batch of bananas. She didn't turn up her nose too much at them ~ just a little bit at the first taste of something with flavor.























And as a side note ... she's this close to rolling over. If she could just get that shoulder tucked under she'd be on her belly.

I want a haircut like daddy's!

I'm afraid it's happened. My "right" as a mom to have total say in what my child looks like is going out the window with every turn of the calendar.

It started last year when I purchased my child a pair of Spiderman sneakers. Riley wanted them SO BAD and had such a tight grip on them I think the sneakers would have ripped in two if I'd have tried taking them from him. It took every ounce in my body to do it ... and actually, I don't think I did it ... I think daddy had to pay for them. To balance it out, I had to also buy a pair of brown oxford type shoes. I even complained to my neighbor about it. It just pained me so to see my child walking around with character shoes.

Now we've gone beyond the clothing ... and on to the haircut. I like a short cut on him with it short on the back and just a little longer on top. I like clean edges over the ears and around the back. Basically, I like the "little man" cut on him. That went out the window two nights ago when Riley decided he wanted a haircut "like daddy's". I told them I wanted no part of it. They went down in the basement with the clippers and I followed them down only to take a picture of the "before" ... then promptly went back upstairs with Paige. I think Ryan left the clippers at about a half inch or so ... but he looks so much different. And of course, Riley is proud as a peacock that daddy cut his hair.

I wonder if he's figured out the "barber" didn't offer him a sucker after his haircut this time though? :)

Sleep is bliss ... sort of!

I should be totally rested. For two nights in a row now Miss Paige has slept mostly through the night in her own room ... I say mostly because daddy has gotten up twice each night to turn on her Ocean Wonders Aquarium to put her back to sleep. So why am I feeling even more tired than normal?

Anyway, this is still pretty exciting news for our house. With Miss Paige not eating much at daycare I was still feeding her at night whenever she woke up so that she wouldn't fall anymore behind than she already was in the weight category. Usually once she woke up she would be with us in our bed the rest of the night. It's something I hated to do but I just couldn't be getting up twice a night like that to feed her. So this news of her (mostly) sleeping the whole night in her own room is big news. It's so nice to have the whole bed to ourselves again. Somehow even though Ryan and I are like 10 to 20 times the size of Paige, she managed to take up about 90% of the bed. Ryan and I would both wake up in the morning ... glued to the edge of the bed while Paige was comfortably laying cross ways (which just floors us because the girl can't roll over ... yet was somehow able to twist her body) between us ... arms totally stretched out to the side and just as happy as one could be.

So yes, even if we need to get up once or twice to start her aquarium, it's totally worth it because we can actually sleep on our backs or our sides or tummys or whatever way we want in our own bed.

And a sneak peak to Monday's entry ... we'll be trying a little bit of mashed banana in Paige's rice cereal this weekend ... we'll let you know how it goes. :)

Maybe we should add photographer to his list of possible careers?

Riley is usually a sweetheart and puts up with my need to take a million pictures of him and his sister. He knows that when the studio lights start coming out and the couch is pushed to the side, it's time for him to change into a different outfit and do his best to smile for mom.

The last few times he's actually enjoyed the whole process a bit. He's got a "model" burried somewhere that comes out whenever he's in front of the camera. If I really wanted to embarass him I'd post the pictures of his "poses". See, we usually take a couple pictures with mom giving directions and then Riley gets to chose a pose or two on his own. Yesterday, his pose of choice included bright orange construction goggles. No, I won't post those today ... but you can bet your butt they'll be saved for his high school graduation someday. :)

Here is his best shot from yesterday ... we didn't get too many of him because I was trying to figure out the teacup thing with Paige.

He's also enjoying being behind the camera. This is quite the process. Usually mom is the one getting her picture taken (I much prefer to be behind the camera) and daddy helps Riley push the shutter button. I'm not quite sure how much he sees through the lens (the bigger cameras don't have the option to look a the screen on the back to see what you're going to take a picture of) but he did manage to get a couple good ones of Paige and I.

Tea for One?

After hearing online about these cute teacups at Wally World, we had to go out shopping this morning. Here is what became of it ... enjoy!