Tuesday, December 27, 2011

merry CHRISTmas!

christmas was super fun this year!  especially now that both the kids are old enough to enjoy the thrill of opening presents.  derek does such a great job of being the man of the house on christmas morning...he gets up before all of us, gets the fire going, coffee brewing, praise music and jesus pic in place (no joke, this year he had the laptop set up with jesus' bright and shining face waiting for us when we woke up), casserole out and oven pre-heated, bible story prepped and everything ready to go...and then he rings his little santa bell that his dad used to ring when he was little letting the kids know it's safe to come out.  rowan and rigby were in bed with me by the time derek got to the bell ringing and rowan jumped out of bed and asked "what's that mommy?" all excitedly.  i look forward to the future years when the kids know what it is and wait for it...

the kids got too many gifts this year - seriously - too many.  i think next year we might try something different...although i'm not sure what just yet.  that's going to take some serious thought and prayer.  we want our kids to enjoy all of christmas, but i don't want them to lose sight of the real meaning.  the REAL meaning.  i keep thinking back about how much focus we all put on gifts and buying just the right thoughtful/wonderful gift for someone...which is a good thing.  but how much time do we actually sit and ponder and glory in our Lord? how much did I do that or did we do that as a family??? i'm guessing the one outweighs the other by hours/days to just mere minutes.  and that just breaks my heart.  it makes me want to re-evaluate my whole life.  seriously.

here is some of the awesome-ness we enjoyed at christmas this year :) 

we didn't need names on gifts this year...
not with pink and green camo paper

rowan's big girl target baby doll...the new love of her life

now the kids don't have to pull our lugguge around the house :)

rowan's barbie dream house...
thank you mimi, papa and papa dan!

even cole got in on the action

scratch*scratch*scratch*
maybe he'll leave my sofa and carpet alone for awhile

they each got a toy story flashlight...rig got rex and row got dr. pork chop
or dr. ork-pa-chop as rowan says

daddy made sure rig got some boy toys

and my favorite, rowan's reaction to a snow white
dress up dress that was in a princess suitcase...oh my :)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Daddy time

snacking in daddy's chair

The best picture I have of these two!

Or maybe this one is :)

Throw me high Daddy!

Helicopter please Daddy!

Me toooooooooo!

Yep, I'm spoiled...

I'm irresistable...look at these cheeks

Precious

Friday, December 16, 2011

separated siblings

Today my babies are at different babysitters for the first time!  Our regular sitter has the day off and there was a little mix up with Grandma Gora, so I had to find a last minute fill in to watch the kids.  I didn't think it would be fair to dump two toddlers on an unsuspecting friend, so the kids are separated for the first time.  I'm not worried about Rowan, that girl can fend for herself no problem!  But little Rig has always had his big sister to follow around and take charge when need be.

Well, it's 10:45 and the kids have been out on their own for about two hours now so overprotective Mommy has already checked in to see how they're doing.  Rowan is at our friend Liz's today playing with her BFF Gretchen.  She packed a bag and took along her blanky, two princess dresses and two pairs of heels...lol.  And from the picture Liz sent, it's safe to say all is well.

for some reason i think rowan looks like my mom here...
And little Rigby is spending the day with my friend Karen and her twins Caleb and Kylie.  He seemed a little hesitant when I dropped him off, but as I handed him off to Karen he hugged her and layed his head on her shoulder like only Rigby does...so I knew he was going to be fine.  Karen sent me a pic and said he's had a snack and is playing and having fun with his friends.  She also said he's amazed by the buck (deer head) that hangs on their wall.  What a GUY.  He even got his hair "did" by Karen...she said he wanted handsome hair like Caleb...oh my.


Friday, December 9, 2011

tiny dancers

our kids do a lot of dancing...A LOT.  they dance probably every day.  rowan usually has to put on some sort of dress or tutu and high heels, but rigby is willing to dance in anything or nothing at all :) 

sometimes they run and scream, sometimes they run in circles or sometimes they actually dance.  lately rigby has been going crazy and really getting into it but i don't have a video of that yet.  i'll try to post one in the next few days.  rowan will usually go into my dad's room and put on some of his oldies and then come and get us and tell us it's time for "the show"...too funny. 

here are a few videos...rowan's is dark, but it's worth posting because she's all over the place. and rigby's, well, it's just funny.


cheeseburger anyone?

i'm pretty sure that i'm the only one who will think this video is super adorable...but i am his mother so i guess that makes perfect sense.  how can watching a 1 year old eat a cheeseburger by himself not be adorable?

christmas jewelry

i thought it would be fun to get rowan some jewelry to wear with her christmas outfit this year...and as i expected, she was super thrilled :)  we've decided to do a simple black sweater dress that she can wear again and jazz it up with pink tights, pink jewelry and a pink hair bow.  she keeps asking every night to put her dress on, but i'm making her wait.  she is sampling the jewelry though which is hilarious to watch.  she struts around like such big stuff.  as soon as i put it all on her she looked down at her nails and said "now i need my nails done, k?".  this child is ALL girl.


only in wanatah

no, this isn't our house.  but it is in wanatucky.  it's actually a very nice elaborate display of christmas lights.  my guess is that we'll be driving by this house every night until christmas...the kids are crazy over it.  even santa's head moves...which sort of creeps me out.  watch the video below...



princess cole

rowan is even dressing up cole now...poor cat. he puts up with so much, but i think he secretly loves the attention. he wore this purse around the other night for quite awhile...he squirmed a little at first, but eventually gave in and embraced it.

oh christmas tree oh christmas tree...why is your star so droopy?

we did something new this year and decided to get a really big tree. 10 feet i think?  it's big and beautiful, and was a lot of work to decorate!  my dad, rowan and i decorated it last friday night while derek worked an all-nighter at the mill...fun fun :)

rowan was crazy about decorating...and especially loved climbing on the ladder.  we all even made a trip to meijer beforehand to buy extra lights...which is a rare treat for my kids.  i never take them anywhere - i'm always way too tired after work or i have so little time that i don't take them with since they make the trip so much more complicated.  so they thoroughly enjoyed walking thru the aisles and pointing at everything.  i was giggling inside as we made our way thru the store...such a simple and regular thing for most families is a big deal for us.  my dad had a good time too.  he pushed the kiddos around in the grocery cart and laughed as they pointed in awe at everything.  rowan was really good though, especially when it came to the toy aisle.  she didn't cry or scream or demand...just dreamed :)  what a sweetheart.

we ended up saving the star for daddy like we do every year.  it took almost a week but he finally got around to putting it up a few nights ago.  i'm not sure if he was trying to be funny or if he just wasn't in the mood, but he just reached up and plopped the star on top and didn't even trim the top at all.  needless to say, we have a droopy falling star...but i think we all actually like it that way.

snow!

Rowan came racing into my room this morning screaming "snow Mommy snow!"  She was super excited of course.  She asked over and over all morning if she could go out and play, and I kept saying no since we have a schedule to keep, and I had to get to work.  Well eventually I caved and let them play for awhile outstide before we left.  I've worked so much overtime this last 2 weeks that I deserved a late morning anyway!

After making a few steps in the snow, Rowan excitedly pointed at her footprints and said "look Mommy I made clues"...meaning she left footprints like in the cartoon Blues Clues.  I had to laugh out loud of course...only Rowan :)  Rigby was content to follow Rowan wherever she went and to do whatever she did.  If she ate snow, he ate snow.  If she piled snow into the planters, so did he.  I think he was a little confused, but was as excited as she was to get down and dirty.


Thursday, November 17, 2011

only rig!

the babysitter sent me a text message a few minutes ago with a picture of my precious son...sleeping as usual.  she said she noticed it got a little quiet and found rigby in the dog bed AGAIN.  he's gotten to the point that he's now able to remain conscious long enough to cover himself up...lol!

pumpkin carving

rowan and i had a little time to carve our pumpkins one saturday while the boys went to the hardware store.  i knew it had to be a quick creation because the last thing i needed was rigby digging thru pumpkin seeds in the middle of my kitchen. so we did it the ol' fashioned way with knives and spoons...there's no time for fancy drills and perfection carving in my world.  but that's quite alright with us.  we had a lot of fun and i let rowan choose which face or design she wanted for her pumpkin.  i think it turned out super cute!





big rig

i've noticed lately that my baby boy is really growing up, and it breaks my heart.  he's been tucking baby dolls into bed like his big sister, laying on the floor on his belly to play and draw (see pic below), and has even started to walk in on his own to the sitter (with mommy following behind obviously).  that might not seem like a big deal, but he's always let me carry him while rowan walked.  now he kicks for me to let him down and wants to do it on his own.  i guess it's okay; he is a handful, but this momma is used to having a baby on her hip :(  and since he's insisting on walking, that means i have to start putting shoes on this child a little more often.

my adorable beefcakes

giggling

snuggling

i love this picture...
he was really strutting like he was doing something important

and at last, getting into his new serious play position

just because

this pic made me smile today

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

pumpkin heads

playing on the wooden trains

daddy's pumpkin heads (derek's nickname for the kids)

rigby looks like moe (larry, curly and moe) here...it might be the super small hat



rig wasn't too sure about the pony...
he sat for a second and then decided to give his ride to his sister

this one looks good :)





our kids loved the dirt more than the pumpkins!

rowan snapped this parting shop on our way out
 
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