Children's Museum

Today we went to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum with some of our friends. I actually got free admission for a year back in October, but haven't gone back until now. Jaycee had a really fun time, and didn't want to leave (of course).

Jaycee had a really hard time sharing with other kids. When any kids would come up to the toy she was using, she would yell, "No!" She was quite rude. I finally got her to share with Caleb, one of her friends that we went with, and got a picture of it. It didn't last very long, though. The big golf ball cart roller was her favorite thing.

This is the end result of our fun day. I tried to just let her skip her nap, but she fell asleep on the couch. It's okay, though, because she was quite ornery.

I just thought I would post this picture I took today of her lunch. Take a good look, because my toddler is eating spinach. She loves it. I couldn't believe it when she ate it the other night. Then she asked for leaves (our pretend name for spinach) for lunch. She is way more daring with food than I am. What a good girl!

Birthdays galore!

One of the reasons I haven't posted for so long is the mere fact that there's not much for me to blog about. Jaycee won't sing her ABC's on the bed anymore. Lance doesn't ever give me ideas of stuff to blog about, and the winter/snow is getting really annoying. It's no fun knowing that we will probably be inside all day because it's too cold. We really haven't been doing much lately. Jaycee's favorite thing to do right now is play kid games on the computer (it's actually quite fun and educational), but nothing worth writing about. With all that being said, I totally spaced the fact that a lot of people in our families are celebrating birthdays this month. I don't have pictures of everyone, but I am stealing some from my sis-in-law's blog.

The first one to celebrate was Kammi, whose birthday was on the 14th. What an easy way for her husband to take care of two birds with one stone. This picture was the only one of her on her own blog, so it's the one I'm going to post. She looks way cute anyway. She was pregnant with their now 5-month-old son, Gehrig.
The next celebration was for my grandpa, who had his 80th birthday on Sunday. The whole family celebrated on Saturday at Golden Corral. I really wish I could have been there, especially after I heard that my aunt sang "Happy Birthday" and had everyone laughing. I'm really intrigued wondering what she did. Sorry about the picture. It's a picture of a copy, and that never turns out perfectly.


The next people to celebrate are my twin brother and sister, Corby and Kendra. Their birthday is today, the 24th. They're the babies of the family, but they're definitely not babies anymore. They are both holding Kynzee (our neice).

Corby's looking like he's ready to leave on his mission. Okay, not really, but it's coming so fast. He really has had his bags packed and ready to go since Christmas. It's a good thing we get to go home for his farewell talk in church, and to say good-bye. He's leaving on March 25th for those of you who don't remember.

The other person celebrating his birthday today is Lance's Uncle Kevin. We don't know how old he is, but maybe it's a secret or something. I know he's a couple of years younger than my dad, but that's all. He's the one that I don't have a picture of, and I have no idea where to look for one.
These are the only February birthdays I know of for our families, but that's quite a lot. I hope everyone was able to have fun, even though it isn't a great party until we get there. JK.

Hide-and-seek at Monkey Joe's=Not funny!

On Wednesday we, as in Brooke, Marissa, Amy, and I decided that our kids deserved to go have a fun playday at Monkey Joe's. It's about twenty minutes from where we live, and has all these blow-up slides and bouncing things. Jaycee was independent at first, and played in the toddler area, but when she saw the bigger toys she got nervous. I sent her in one on her own and she stopped at the top and started yelling "Mom!" She wouldn't go by herself after that, and it was very awkward for me to go with her on the slides. She did like running around, and leaving the toys before I could catch her. She found the arcade and enjoyed the bright lights and interesting toys, but I wasn't about to pay any money for her to play. I was just keeping Jaycee from climbing onto everything. I started talking to Brooke for a brief second and turned around to where I thought she would be, and she was not there. She had done this a couple times, and I had just found her at another toy. I started looking around and behind the arcade toys and she wasn't anywhere in the arcade. I thought I had heard some bumping sounds, but couldn't locate where it came from because it is so loud in there. Amy started walking around and helping me look. After about five times circling the whole place and each time I was hoping Amy had found her, but she was nowhere. I had even asked one of the workers if she had seen a little girl in an orange shirt. Just when I was starting to panic and start screaming for everyone to help me find my little girl, I looked at Brooke and she was telling me to go over to this toy (below).
Do you see that little door by Jaycee's arm? She had crawled in there and got stuck. When I got there Brooke said, "Jaycee's in there and she's stuck!" Her daughter Katelyn was trying to open that door, but it wouldn't open, and that's how they found her. It is like a little doggy door. I had to push her way to the back, then pull her legs under so her head would fit. She was really sweaty and hot when I pulled her out. Everyone was laughing and shaking their heads in disbelief, and I was trying not to cry. I asked Jaycee if she was scared afterward and she said she wasn't, and she was in there for almost ten minutes. All in all, we had a great time and want to go back, but I hope she doesn't do that again.

And the baby is.....

A Boy !!!
In case any of you were curious, we just found out that our baby is definitely a boy. We're so excited. As soon as the ultrasound showed between his legs we could tell it definitely was not a girl. From the pictures the technician took, everything looked normal and healthy. We saw ten fingers and ten toes. When she would try to get a head measurement he would shake his head "no" every time. It was funny. He moved around a lot during the ultrasound because it was an invasion of his space. This first picture is a profile of his face. The thing above his nose is his leftarm. The second one is of his feet (one resting on top of the other). The third one is him waving "Hi", and the fourth one is a profile of most of his body. The bubble-looking things are just weird shots of body parts (in the third and fourth pictures). We're excited to bring this little guy into our family, but it's new territory, so I'll be looking to Kammi (Lance's sister) for advice since she has four boys.

The Golden Weekend

Test week finally came to an end on Friday, and we had to celebrate to the best of our ability. We started off by attending Eliza Odell's birthday party. She was dressed up as Cinderella, and had a Cinderella theme. It was so cute, and Marissa had some cute activities for the kids. The first picture shows the activity where they waved a wand at Cinderella, said "Bippety-Boppety-Boo" and they would get some candy and bracelets. They also fed us dinner, which was awesome. Thanks for a good party Dan and Marissa.

Poor Drey, who is in the orange shirt. He's the only boy in our group of friends and children. He doesn't seem to mind too much, though. We won't tell him when he's older that he actually attended a Cinderella birthday party.

Jaycee's putting the crown on Cinderella's head in this picture. We spun them around, but they didn't get very dizzy.

On Saturday we went with our upstairs neighbors and other friends to Cedarburg to celebrate Brad's birthday. We packed a lunch to eat on the way, and Jaycee asked me for some chips. I handed her some, and looked back ten seconds later and this is what I found. She had zonked out and not even eaten a chip. Cedarburg, which is a town just North of us, was having a winter festival that we went to. A lot of the fun events were over by the time we started looking for them.
Lance put Jaycee in a tree, and she didn't want to get down.

Camels in Wisconsin? It's true. Jaycee really wanted a ride, but she probably would have chickened out after we forked out the money to pay for it.

She got to feed a goat. She wasn't scared a bit.

One of the cool things was all the ice sculptures. This was the best one we found because most of them were all melted from the heat wave we've been having. It has been so nice to have warm weather after the cold spells. Our snow is almost all the way melted.

Test week...ugh!!!

The dreaded test week is here, and we have made it through 3 of the 5 days of rigorous studying/testing. Well, I really haven't done much as far as studying or testing, but I'm definitely there for moral support. I cheer when Lance gets home and tells me he's done with one more test. Us wives have actually figured out that if we get together a lot during the week, it helps us survive much better. This is one of our get-togethers that happened on Saturday to welcome test week (thanks, Kaitlin). The girls chased each other around and around, then decided to hide under the table. From left to right are: Jaycee, Natalie, Myleigh, and Katelyn.

Jaycee's large head totally hides Natalie in this picture, but this shows Katelyn's face.

We also had an ice cream party on Tuesday night (thanks, Byrdie), and of course I couldn't pass up ice cream. I just didn't get any pictures. This next one is just of Jaycee being silly. I was getting her ready for bed and she ran off. It was really funny because it smashed her eyes and she looked like a puppy dog, but this picture doesn't show it very good.

One night Jaycee went into my room and decided to take her clothes off and try my pants on. She takes her clothes off frequently, and it is so exasperating finding her in her birthday suit at any time of day. She has to take her clothes off to get warm in her blanket. I try to explain that leaving her clothes on would only help her get warmer, but reasoning is of no use to a two-year-old. As you can see, the pants are rather large. It kind of looks like a strapless shirt (or whatever), and she gave a weird smile for the picture.

Just FYI--On Feb. 9th I will find out if I'm having a girl or boy and will post the results as soon as possible. I guess I carry my babies very compact because everyone tells me I'm not showing. I can tell a difference, but can hide my belly pretty easily also. When I get a baby bump (and don't just look "thick" as Lance has put it so dearly) I might post a picture of my belly, but don't count on it.