Ordinary Days with a side of the Stomach Flu

Emma thinking she's so funny getting "her" jammies on

Daddy, sporting his new Wild Jersey

Game time before bed while Mommy was out with Neighbor friends celebrating her birthday!

Sledding Fun!

They're quite the pair! Emma loves to be his little mama and Mason loves it, most of the time

Learning to walk with his walker.  I decided to cut the chains and let him grow up, only because it's his birthday month.  I had lots of tears and emotions last week, that did the heart well, I think.  It's allowed to me accept that my baby is turning one.  It's less about that fact that it's MASON and more about the fact that it's the end of a stage that has defined me for so long.  He's our last planned baby, we'll see if God has the same plan.  So, we're beginning to enter a new stage of parenthood, that moved beyond prepping for a baby or adding another sibling.  Not bad, just different, and I need a minute to morn the closing of the stage that was and will be such a big part of my life! 9 years with Little Littles :)

So, back to the excitement of Mason learning to walk with the Walker.  Emma was so proud

Nope, he didn't spill anything, that's ALL drool!

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and then we got creative with a game of throwing balls down the stairs and catching them in the bucket....you gotta do what you gotta do in the dead of MN Winter

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and then Friday morning Emma got the stomach flu for a total of 2 hours.  After 2 hours she was begging for food and bouncing off the walls and never looked back.  I would have thought it was something she ate, but then Libby came down with it Saturday afternoon.  Hers lasted a little longer, but by 24 hours she was back to her self.  Poor kiddos, they were the same two that got sick over Christmas.

Before Libby was hit we escaped for some skating

and each girl wanted their own picture with mama

knowing Libby may not be feeling up to Sunday morning Mass and not wanting to expose everyone to her germs, I snuck away for 5pm at Saint Victoria.  It was a nice treat. 

Daddy went to 8:30 Sunday morning with #1 and #3, they stopped for a quick hair cut and donuts on the way home

I told them to eat their donuts in the car since it wasn't fair to E-Liz

Play time, Dr. Craigmile awaiting her next patient

Practicing which side to comb his hair to, for his one year pictures

We made cookies a while back to deliver to Joey at his hockey games as an early birthday gift, they are his favorite cookies!

trying to remember all of the little details that I will soon forget

Getting creative and still moving a little Cosmic Yoga to warm us up!

We love our ordinary.  We would love even more to have no more sickness this winter!

Happy February!

Catholic Schools Week

Before kicking off Catholic Schools Week.  The Bigs had an opportunity to participate in Holy Family's Dance Clinic.

It took a little convincing of Dad, but when we agreed there would be NO MAKEUP we gave the all clear :)

The girls had a blast!!

Sally's in the middle left

 Libby is 3rd from the right in the front

 Dinner time!

The next day was a monthly kid date with Sally.  Mommy's turn with Sally.  We headed out to check out one of Uncle Joey's Pond Hockey Tournament games.  Thankfully he knew we were coming, so knew to call us to tell us the games were delayed 2 hours.  The high temps made for lots of melting the day before and then it froze and the ice was terrible.  Sooo we turned around and had a nice little breakfast treat downtown Victoria at Ruby's Roost

 The sun was in our eyes and Sally asked if I could find any extra sunnies since we were driving in Daddy's car.  We found some OLD ones of Mommy's.  I had her take a selfie and send it to Daddy. Love this kid

 What was their 3rd game, they LOST.  They knew it was going to be a great team (they went on to get 2nd in the tournament).  Such a bummer, as it meant they wouldn't make it to Championship play on Sunday.  It was a new team, so was unfortunate that they were put in their same bracket.  Oh well, they once were a surprise team that went on to with the Tournament.  They did have a 4th game that we stuck around to watch.  It got MUCH colder when the sun went away

 While we were hanging with Uncle Joey, Daddy was getting creative during Mason's morning nap

 Of course, when they started, they didn't realize the path led them right into a

 Tree...

 Time to get buried

 Emma's turn

 Super Fans!  So great to have a day away with the Oldest! She gets to see a different side of mom, when I don't have Littles to tend to.  We made a stop at the Toy Store so she could take pictures of possible  Lego Sets that she wants to save her money for to buy.

 and then it was the Kick Off to Catholic Schools Week.  We love our Catholic Community, both Church & School!  First up was Pajama day!  Libby as excited to have her 1st full week of celebrations, since she only got pieces of it in Preschool last year

 Island Wear was Day #2

 Uniform Day for Day #3 since it was a Mass Day.  Little did they remember that it was also Dad's at the Door!!

 Fun pictures that were posted to the school's Facebook Page!

 Love that he knows the importance of showing up for little things like this.  Big sacrifice on the work side since he gets to work almost 2 hours later than normal.  But Memories they'll never forget.  Plus, once the school day begins, all the dads kneel in prayer! Powerful Statement

 I got a rare treat and was able to sneak away during nap time to catch the school's Variety Show! Each grade did a group skit or song, was very cute!  Many powerful moments for all the parents in the audience.  Good thing they didn't have a bucket going around asking for money, pretty sure we all would have said, TAKE IT ALL.  Love love LOVE our school, so worth the sacrifice of having to pay tuition.

 One of our favorite teachers snapped this picture of Libby and sent it to me :)

 Day #4 was Wacky Hair or Hat day!

 Day #5 was dress like a Twin or Twin/Sports wear.  I LOVED that, as soon as Sally found out about the dress up days, she immediately thought to dress like a Twin with Libby!!

 Sally's teacher got one of them at school too!

and that's a wrap.  It's a favorite week of the year for the students and one of relief for parents and staff that we survived yet another one :) Lots of planning and prepping and being on top of all the things ;)

I'm 34!

Back to an even age and an even year, yeah, I'm weird.

Last week I turned 34.  Thank you for all of the phone calls, messages, pictures, gifts and cards, I sure felt extra special.

We were able to sneak away 2 weekends in a row for some date nights to celebrate.  The first weekend we met 2 other couples and ate at Olive's in Excelsior, so delicious!  It was a wonderful carefree night with great conversation.  Doesn't happen too often when there are usually 9 kiddos to tend to when we are all together.

The next weekend we got to go out on a double date with Kari and Andy.  We decided to check out the Super Bowl Live, downtown.  Who knows when we could ever host again.  It was a lot of fun and a neat change of scenery for us SAHMers :)

It was weird to be able to have an adult beverage while walking the streets.  Lots of giggles and lots of memories!  We were bummed that the tubing hill was deemed too icy for tubing, the boys were relieved

 taking it all in

Soooooo original...wife hands camera to husband to take a picture of she and her friend.  Husbands pretend to take a picture but instead take a selfie

 Sister Friends! Sooooo many giggles

 Oh the lady and the amount of effort it took to get this photo, let's just say she is used to an iPhone without a back button

 Birthday morning.  Reid did a great job of prepping and having everything decorated for me.   Also should mention this was during Catholic Schools Week and it was Island wear day.

Reading Sally's card and getting emotional because...

 She gave me $2 of her very own dollars!!

 Reid knows my only request for the day as that I get a picture. They also made sure to give me my favorite candy bars :) If you've known me for a while then, yes, I have switch from Twix to KitKat, Give me a break ;)

 Post nap Birthday Snuggles

 Post Nap Birthday Snuggles #2

 "Mom, we made sure to pray for you at school today and we told everyone it was your birthday!"

 Miss Sally

 Miss Libby

 Not a ton of celebrating, as we all went to Emma's swimming lesson to cheer her on.  Daddy stopped by BWW and Cold Stone to get my favorite take out items!

 and then I did some more number crunching and realized half of my birthday celebrations have been with Reid!! We're basically an old married couple ;)

age has never mattered too much to me, I wear it proud!  Looking forward to a wonderful year of growth!