A Red Lobster Date

Aaron and I celebrated Valentines Day a little bit early last night, as we will be up North on Sunday. We went to Red Lobster ( I ordered chicken as I don't care for fish or sea food. I pretty much went there for Aaron) with Dan and Heidi H. It was really good. I was all up for dessert until I had the salad, their yummy biscuits, and my linguine. It was nice to sit at a table with other adults and carry on a conversation with no kids bugging on you.

Afterwords Aaron and I went to Kohls, where I bought a new pair of New Balance Tennis shoes ( my other pair desperately needed replacing as they had holes in both shoes), a dress, and Aaron got a new shirt. I'm wearing the shoes around the house today in hopes to stretch them out a little bit before I have to wear them to work today. Speaking of work, Aaron started his new ( hopefully permanent) part time job today. He will be working with Dan and his boss doing construction. He's hoping it'll turn into full time work in the summer. That would be SO great. :)

We had a babysitter last night for the kids while we went out and they were so excited. It's a pretty novel idea to have a babysitter at this house. Kiirsti walked in the door and both of my big kids went "She's here! She's here!" :) When I brought her home I asked how they were. She said they were great and that Jenna's not one bit shy. It's always funny to hear another perspective on your own kids.

Tonight we are headed up to my mom's and have two birthday parties this weekend. One for Karmyn and one for Dustin. Should be fun. A quick weekend but fun nonetheless. :) Hope yours is a good one as well!

Vacation

We are going to Minnesota next weekend! I am so super excited. I haven't been out there for two years, and now we get to go and see our new niece, little Riina Claire, and her big sister Maggie. We are leaving Thursday and coming home Sunday. I think I'll have an extra skip in my step for the next week. :)

Those Darn Deer and Pesky Mice

There are a few cons to living in the country, and we are finding them out the hard way. By experience. We set up a bird feeder about a month ago, and have been enjoying watching the various woodpeckers, blue jays and chickadees that come to feed. Well, the other morning, I woke up to find the feeder totally empty and my woodpecker bar (which I had just bought two days before) stripped to the string holding it up on the inside. I thought maybe a sassy squirrel had gotten into it, so I just refilled the feeder. Only to find it half empty when I got home from work that night, and deer tracks all over my yard. Darnit! They didn't touch it the next night, but tonight we went visiting at the neighbors down the road, and came home to deer tracks EVERYWHERE- even right by our front door, I think there were a few scraps of bird food that had spilled when I hauled the bag out to refill the feeder earlier- and an empty feeder again. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I might be able to keep them from eating my bird food every night? This could get too expensive, having to refill the feeder daily.

As for the mice...... ick! I'd much rather deal with the deer rather than the mice. At least they are outside and don't give me the heebie jeebies. I heard some squeaking in my closet last night when we were going to sleep, and Aaron said "Oh we'll just set traps tomorrow." Then right after he said that we heard some major scratching and some really noisy squeaks. We jumped out of bed ( it was one thirty a.m.) and cleaned the house and set traps that night. As of now, we haven't caught any. I did however discover that the mice had chewed a small hole in the corner of my bird food bag, and seed had spilled all over my porch floor. I put that bag in a Rubbermaid tote and shut the lid. Now we just have to invest in a couple of garbage cans and hope they don't try to chew holes in our garbage bags that we keep in the corner of the porch til garbage day. Also, any suggestions as how to catch the mice? We've got peanut butter on the traps right now, and someone suggested mashing sticky candy so they get stuck when they go to eat it and get trapped that way. I'm open to any suggestions! And on that note, I'm going to go to bed and hope I don't hear any noises that aren't supposed to be in my closet.....

Missing You

I miss these guys. See you in a few months! :)

Life is Good Today

So far I'd say February is turning out to be pretty darn good. :) We figured out our two vacations in March, one to Minnesota to hopefully meet our new niece to be, and another to Green Bay with some friends from down state. The latter one is going to be a kid free vacation. I might even be able to get a little bit of shopping in. Thank you mom for agreeing to watch them for the weekend!

Travis is still doing good with the potty training. I just smile every time I see him run around with his Elmo undies on. He's so fired up off his underwear, he hasn't been wanting to put any clothes on because they cover up his cool undies. He told me today "I'll put clothes on tomorrow mom." :) I'm crossing my fingers that this is the real deal. How great would that be to only have one baby in diapers!?

We will be getting our tax return next week and will be able to pay off some more bills that have been hanging over our heads. What a good feeling. :)

And last but not least, the sun is shining here in the Copper Country, the birds are eating outside at my bird feeder, and I have a clean house. Life is good today. Hope it is for you too. :)

We Are Excited!

So we decided to try an experiment with this guy..... an experiment with potty training. I know, I know, boys train later, and he's only two and a half. BUT, we decided what the heck. Lets give it a try. Well, we have heard that the best way to train little boys is to let them run around pants-less. No undies, no diaper, nothing. I figured the worst that can happen is I'll be scrubbing my floors.

Well last night he was playing in the nude, and he came running up to me saying " I did it! I peed on the potty!" It was hard for me to tell, but he was so fired up, I figured maybe he really did it.
Then today, when I got home from work, Aaron said he went two times on the potty when I was gone! He had undies on and peed in them, and got all sad. So he let him run around naked ( sorry if this grosses anyone out) and he said I have to go potty! Aaron put him on there, and lo and behold he went! Same story again when I got home. He hasn't gotten the #2 symptom down, he has to do that in his diaper, and I am NOT going to push the potty or underwear thing, but we are excited over this little bit of progress! :)

Logan After a Bath

These pictures pretty much speak for themselves. He had a bath, and was in a silly mood after. I love it when he gets like this. It just makes both of us laugh.