{Our Week} - 5/13/13 - 5/19/13

Madden turned a whopping 17 MONTHS old on Tuesday.  I cannot believe he's almost to the year and a half mark.  Crazy.  More words (and phrases!) were uttered this week by the little man, including hot dog and cupcake.  He also shocked everyone when he sang right along with the Happy Birthday song when we celebrated my sister Lori's 24th birthday this week.  We even caught him singing it to himself over the baby monitor the other day ;)  It's too cute!

Mariah is getting to that funny stage where she could fall down and bounce right back up, but if you hurt her feelings or she does something wrong she gets very upset.  I guess that's all part of the learning process you go through, right?  Love that sweet girl :)

Mike is keeping our garden alive so far!  It took a turn for the worse the few days after we planted, but recently has sprung back to life and the plants appear to be doing well.  I am very curious as to what the future holds for our "little" garden.

I had a work trip to Chicago this week.  It's always a nice change of pace from the day to day office environment.  I even got the opportunity to go for a run along the Lake Shore Trail early one morning.  Watching the sunrise with the view of the lake and the city was just gorgeous!!!  I would happily run EVERY DAY if that's what I got to look at :)  I also got the chance to meet up and have dinner with a good friend who lives near Chicago.  Overall, it was a good trip!

Mariah has been really into "Air Bud" on netflix this week.  The other evening she was searching around the toy room gathering items in a bag and then hopping on her scooter.  I asked her what she was doing and she said "Mom, don't talk.  I'm going to be late to soccer practice."

Turns out there's an Air Bud Soccer movie?  Who knew!

Ice Cream and Playing Outside!

This warm weather encourages two things: Ice Cream and Playing Outside!

We had both items covered this weekend :)

Many attempts to get the kids to sit and smile...

This is tough work

One smiles, the other doesn't...

And SWITCH (I think they do this on purpose :)

"Let's both look completely uninterested" ;)

Reading a book together before bed <3

{Our Week} - 5/6/13 - 5/12/13

First off - Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  What a wonderful day where the important people in our life show us just how important we are to them as well! :)

Madden's vocabulary is growing so fast I can hardly keep up!  Some words this week include: "mine", "Lori" and "money".  I love when he say's Lori - sounds like "Larry" hehe.  My sweet little boy is getting so big.  Just looking at him he seems taller every day.  He's definitely in that "thinning out" phase - I even had to pull out all of the 12 month shorts he wore at the end of summer last year because his 18 month shorts won't stay up!

In other news we think Madden MIGHT be left handed!  He seems to favor his left hand, but we will see!  Mike and I always joked that we'd "encourage" our children to be left handed - but day-to-day parental responsibilities kind of made us forget about that.  So it would be funny if it actually happened on its own.

Mariah was a big helper this week.  She loves to be involved in everything we do - whether it's making dinner, cleaning or helping Madden.  She's willing to do it all!  I love the moments I catch her talking to Madden and saying stuff like "It's OK buddy!  Do you want me to get you some more cereal?"  I think the kids do have a secret language and they understand each other, but sometimes Mariah will sit there and say "YES OR NO Madden?  YES OR NO?!"  He usually just looks at her like she's a crazy person.  Hehe :)

Mike, as some of you may know, does not like to dabble in hobbies and activities.  He likes to be an expert at everything he does.  For example - our developing garden (we finally got to plant today!).  He has done weeks of research and I think knows just about everything to keep this garden thriving.  I am thankful for that because I have a black thumb.  I can't keep any plant alive, let alone grow food!  I can't wait to see how this turns out! :)

I am still loving to bake whenever I get the chance.  This week I even COOKED!  Homemade brown butter tomato sauce with basil was the dish of choice.  It was SO good and SO simple.  I just might have to share it on here sometime!  It will be the perfect dish to make with the 100 pounds of tomatoes we are going to get from this garden of ours ;)

"Mom, if I put money under my pillow the tooth fairy will bring me a nice, clean tooth!"
Backwards day? :)

Mariah: "I'm a crown lady!"
Me: "Oh... you mean a princess?"

The Niabi Zoo!

This weekend we met up with a friend, Rachel, her husband and their sweet little girl Elliot!  We had such a good time at the zoo.  Even though it was a little windy, the kids loved seeing the animals; especially feeding the goats in the petting zoo!  The train was a hit, too!  We're lucky to have a nice little zoo so close by.

Madden sporting his Thomas the Train hat while riding the train

Hi buddy!

SO fun

Mariah riding the hippo!

Daddy, too!

Kiddies on the lion!

Family pic!

We determined that Mike has a "ZOO SHIRT" - he claims it was just a coincidence.

Either way, it's funny :)

Daddy and Mariah in 2011 (Look at that sweet little girl!)

Daddy and Mariah in 2013 (Note the "zoo shirt" :)

{Our Week} - 4/29/13 - 5/5/13

I feel like I should just consider Madden's update section to be called:

"What New Words Did Madden Say This Week?"

This week included: Grammie, Grampie, Jordan (a girl at day care), book, bubbles and slide.  He's getting to the point now where he can pretty much repeat words after you say it to him a couple times.

In other news, this boy is OBSESSED with playing outside.  If its nice out (heck, even when it's NOT so nice out) he wants to be on the playset out in our backyard.  He LOVES the swings and going down the slide.  I literally think he would do it non-stop all day long if we let him.  He's devastated when it's time to come inside.

Mariah loves being outside, too!  That's actually how she acquired her very first splinter earlier this week.  After many attempts of trying to remove the splinter from the foot of a squirming 3 year old we finally conquered the battle with that tiny little piece of wood.  Thankfully she's a tough girl.  I am sure there are MANY more splinters to come. (See pic of operation: remove splinter)

One other new development with Mariah is her love for chocolate milk.  If you remember, this girl had a milk allergy less than a year ago.  Thankfully the past 6 months her allergy has lessened and she can tolerate milk and milk products just fine.  We had hope that she would outgrow it, but thought we'd NEVER get her to drink milk since she'd spent years telling people she was allergic.   I am shocked that now she asks for a glass of milk and likes it!  Granted its chocolate, yes, but hey if that's one way to get milk in her I'm OK with that.





Mike has taken up bike riding since his knee injury is still bothering him when he runs.  Major kudos to him for getting up at 5:30 am this morning BEFORE 7:30 am mass and getting a 12 mile ride in :)


I am loving Zumba lately.  I've been going once a week for about 4 months now.  I'm addicted!  If any one in the QC wants to join its on Thursday nights at 6:30 pm :)

In lieu of a "funny things Mariah said" section this week (mostly because I'm having a mental block - because there's not a day that goes by where she doesn't say something hilarious) I decided to post a cute video of the two of them playing with BUBBLES!!! :)

{Please look past Madden's outfit... I didn't dress him that morning... ;)

Outdoors!

We enjoyed lots of time outdoors this weekend.  A birthday party, riding bikes, yard work and playing!  We finished off the weekend with some ice cream :)  Can't all weekends be just like this (minus the 12 loads of laundry I had to squeeze in).

Bounce house at Kash's 4th birthday party

It took a little while for Mariah to get up the nerve to try it out - but she had a blast once she did!

Cheesy pose on the back porch :)

Same shot - 1 second later :)

Watching daddy mow the grass.
Mariah looked at this pic and said "Hey Mom!  There's a ball on Madden's head!"

My babies :)

Mariah and Daddy split this treat :)

And Madden and I were supposed to split ours, but he's kind of an ice cream hog

FACT:  Madden loves Oreos

I hope you had a great week!  Make this next one even better :)