Busy, Busy!!

Just like everyone else, we've been busy!! Gosh, I honestly don't even know where to start!

We had an excellent Valentines Day. My mom had been generous enough to take care of the kids the Friday before so Ryan and I could head out to dinner by ourselves. We went to a new place in town called HuHot. YUM ... it was so good! Since we'd been out by ourselves already, we invited my mom over for dinner the night of Valentines Day. Riley talked her ear off ... there's something about my mom that makes him just talk nonstop. I've noticed it the past few times we've been over to her house. :)

The big news in our house right now is that Riley's birthday is in two weeks. He'll soon be 4!! My gosh where has the time gone. His latest "thing" is picking out his own clothes. Last Friday he wore green running pants, light blue socks with tractors on them and a blue spiderman long sleeved shirt topped with a white/blue/red dirt bike short sleeved shirt. I couldn't help but smile when I looked at him. We met Leah and her two kiddo's for dinner at McDonalds that night since both daddy's were gone at work/school and I casually mentioned that he'd picked out his own clothes so she didn't think I was losing it.

Miss Paige is becomming such an independent little person. She likes doing tasks. When we get home from being out, she takes her hat/mittens off and puts them in the correct basket. She likes throwing things away (but confuses the hamper in her bedroom and the garbage so you really need to watch her). And in the past week or so she's discovered that if she stands on the stool in the bathroom she can see herself in the mirror. Even better ... if she does it while mom is getting ready in the morning, she can reach mom's make-up brushes. :) She grabs my blush brush and pretends to put it all over her face and then we all tell her how pretty she is. She thinks she's hot stuff.

A word update on Miss Paige ... she now says hot, daddy, mommy, puppy, uh oh, done and hi. Her three favorite words are daddy, puppy and hi. Daddy we hear quite a bit ... she knows she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger and uses that to her advantage. Puppy ... she adores Pumba and shows her affection with some slaps to his head. And hi ... well, for a while she'd look at you and say, "hi!" over and over and in just about every voice tone that she had. It was pretty cute.

I've got a pretty big weekend coming up. I'm going to a little photographers get together in Chicago Feb 29-March 2. The wonderful Krystal Muellenberg and Kate Crafton are just two of the gals I'm hoping to bombard with my photography questions. I feel like I've already learned a ton from them without even meeting them face to face ... I have a feeling that after this weekend with them I'm going to be either amazed at everything I learned or depressed about how much I still NEED to learn. And as a side note, Krystal has offered to let me second shoot three weddings with her this summer in LaCrosse. I'm super pumped about everything happening with my photography and hope that this is really a time of growth for me.

And just because I hate posting without pictures ... here are two for you ...

Riley and daddy when we did a little snowshoeing in Goosebury Falls State Park.

Could these lips BE any bigger? LOL