Friday, March 30, 2012

Park "No Hot"

This is the name Evelyn gave one of the parks near our house when she was barely talking and still calls it that to this day. It is a park surrounded by forest so it is always shaded, even in the summer. It is a great park to head to on a hot summer day for sure! We headed down there for the first time this year (rain rain go away!!) a while back ... both the kids were excited!

Our fearless leader!

My two favorite men!

He loves the slide!

As does she!

He goes up and down with ease... much better than last summer! He is getting so big!

Evelyn has always been a bit tentative about this dome bar thing. But my brave little one climbed all the way over ALL BY HERSELF this time! So proud of her! She's getting big, too!

We still need to practice the bars.. but she'll get there! Daddy is a good helper!

I don't know what I did to get this photo to look like this, but I LOVE it! Matthew was so excited to slide down a real pole.. just like a fireman does! :)

Thankful for my neighborhood.. and for park "No Hot"! Great family fun!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

New Big Bed

We have been talking about converting Matthew's crib into a "youth bed" for some time now. For one thing, we think he is ready. And another.. heaving all 35+ pounds of him in and out of the crib three times a day is wearing on my back! So, last Friday was the big day.

I remember how excited Evelyn was when she got her "big girl bed" and the anticipation was so exciting for her. Matthew was TOTALLY different. We hyped it up quite a bit, but he really wasn't excited at all. In fact, the day we did it, he would say"noooo big boy bed!!" Doug actually was sneaky about doing it, after dinner when the kids were playing. Matthew had no clue what he was doing.

Sneaky daddy!!

Matthew walked into the bedroom right as Doug was done and actually started to get upset, trying to pull up the mattress to make the missing side of the crib. It was sweet and sad at the same time. After some time warming up to it, though, he thought it was pretty neat, especially the fact that he could read books on it all by himself!

He really likes it!!

Goofy boy!!

We were very fortunate in that Evelyn had NO trouble adjusting to life "after crib". She only fell out of her toddler bed once and even though she was still not sleeping through the night when we moved her, she never got out of bed without calling for us (she actually still doesn't get out of bed until we come get her... I love that!). We were hoping for the same with Matthew, but he is a different kid... and we really didn't know what to expect.

Thankfully, bedtime that first night went smoothly and other than rocking him a bit longer than usual (per his request), his routine was the same. I have to admit that as I was rocking him, the reality of the situation hit me and yes, I cried. My baby.. he is growing up!!

He feel asleep within 10 minutes without a fuss. He did fall out of bed once and woke up one other time crying, but other than that he did GREAT and slept until 7am. He then called for me when he was awake! Yay!


Sweet sleeping angel!

Matthew is pretty excited about his new set up now, although he does NOT like it when you call it his "big boy bed". It is his "new big bed". And he has NO problem correcting you, either.. HA! "Me no big boy", he will say. I like that. He still is my baby! :)

We are almost a week into "post crib" life in the Morris house and things have gone very smoothly with this transition. Both bedtime and nap have carried on as normal and he has not woken up until normal times since that first night. We hope it continues!!

Go Matthew Go!!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Happy Birthday Mom!

My beautiful mom turned 66 on the 28th. She was going to be out of town on her actual birthday, we celebrated the Sunday before. My sister and I (plus our families) went over to her and Doug's place and made her dinner and had a little party. It was a fun time celebrating her!!

Grandpa Doug makes the BEST cosmo's! :) I hope I look as good as my mom does when I am her age!!
It wasn't raining, so the kids got to run around outside. Thanks to my hubby and my brother in law Chris who tended to the little people while we made dinner!

We kinda went overboard on the candles... haha!

The kids sang "Happy Birthday" very well.. and very loudly! Mom loved it!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Really?

Yesterday was the first day of spring.

Today, we woke up to 3+ inches of snow.

For real.

Crazy!!

The kids were so excited, tho, so we hurried thru breakfast and got into our "gear" to go play.


Yay for snow!!

Making a snow angel

Yummy!

Matthew does whatever his sister does!

My pretty girl!

I think snow is pretty, too!

If we can't ride in the wagon, lets at least empty it out!!

Matthew really wanted to play with his outdoor toys even in the snow.

Snowball fun!

"Bi no, momma!!" (big snow momma!)

The kids wanted to build a snowman really bad, but didn't have the patience to build a big one, so we opted for two little ones on the picnic table. They were cute and the kids LOVED them!

Um... Happy Spring? :)

Friday, March 9, 2012

181 Days

That's how many days until Evelyn starts Kindergarten.

Yep, I counted.

Yep. I have tears as I write this. Happy tears, some sad tears, too!

Last night was Kindy Orientation at the school she will be attending. I have to admit I was a bit anxious about it. For many reasons that I won't go into right now. But overall I was very pleased with the information we received last night and am excited for Evelyn to begin this new chapter in her life.

She was really excited about the evening, especially since it was just her, Doug and I. Matthew stayed with a sitter. She sat on Doug's lap so she could see better and listened intently as different members of the staff gave presentations. A lot of the other kids were running around being a bit disruptive. After wards, she wanted to meet all the teachers and although shy, warmed up towards the end of our visit. We were proud of her. We know she is ready!

The event was in the library, and if you know my sweet girl, you know she LOVES books. Her and Doug read a few before we left! :)

Never to big to be daddy's little girl!!

181 days. I am planning on making the most of them!!

Nature Park Fun

One of the many things I love about living in our fine city is our amazing Parks and Rec services. They really are great, for many reasons. One reason is the Nature Park that is a 5 minute drive from our house! It has a slew of trails, trees, ponds and wildlife for the kids to explore and get some wiggles out. We had a (much needed) sunny spell this week so we headed there to run around.

Ready to go on in!

My pretty girl....

A rare decent photo of them together!

They usually turn out like this.. HA!

We had to stop and read the signs along the path we were on!

They both were so excited to go over a bridge and see a small waterfall.

Watching intently...

Mr. Serious!

Such a pretty place!

#2 running to catch #1

But don't worry, he got to be the leader soon enough!! :)

I love these two...

So as we were walking back the kids found a huge log that they didn't notice on the first time by. They both enjoyed climbing and jumping on it!



What a fun way to spend a sunny afternoon!!