Catching up AKA a really long post

So last Tuesday I sat down at the computer to do my Ten on Tuesday post and had no Internet. And that continued until Friday afternoon, thanks to a supposed "network outage". Super annoying. And while it's been back up now for a few days, I just haven't gotten around to updating the blog. I've been spending a lot of time in the basement though. Painting. Lots of painting. We're getting carpet down here (yay!) Thursday so I've been preparing for that. Tonight, packing some things up, putting up new switch covers and doorknobs on the closets. Tomorrow my neighbor Larry is coming over to help me move the bigger furniture pieces out of here. Then I'll mop the floor tomorrow night and by Thursday afternoon will have carpet! Then the fun part, getting everything moved back in and organized. Oh, and then we have to put together the other Expedit shelf we got a couple weeks ago. And hang things back up on the wall. And get a curtain. And then it will finally be done. After all that, I'm tackling the family room bathroom. Woo hoo for more painting!

Here's a quick recap of the last week.

Sunday night we went to a free concert in the park in a neighboring city. We hadn't planned on it. We were just stopping at the park so Emma could play after dinner and the concert was going on so we stayed.



Nice butt, eh? Michael kept waiting for this guy to stand up and move so he could get this picture and me and Emma listening to the music but the guy never left. Well, eventually he left. But it was after Emma got restless and stood up.


Finally took Mackenzie's picture in her 9 month shirt on Saturday. She was actually 9 1/2 months old, but really, let's not get technical. These are as good as I could get. She wasn't much in the picture-taking mood.



But she was all smiles a little later on. That's because she was standing, and we all know that's what she does, and likes, best.


Emma's turning out to be a pretty good drawer (is that a word?) at 2 1/2, if I do say so myself. Know what this is?

Train tracks. She has us draw train tracks on her DoodlePro all the time. Very basic. We just draw two parallel lines with lots of lines going across them. So Saturday evening while I was trying to take Mackenzie's picture she drew her own. I'm impressed. She can also draw a pretty good circle and smiley face.

We also babysat Claire that night while Marty and Abby went to the Indians game. To say the enjoyed themselves would be an understatement.


Check out my city I drew for Emma on our driveway.

Complete with park, library, school, grocery store and Kid Park at the fitness center.

Not real sure what she was doing with this stick, but I like the picture anyways.


Wednesday night Emma insisted on sleeping in her "yellow flower dress". Not sure how that's more comfy than pj's, but she went right to sleep.


The night before that, she insisted on wearing these too-small fleece one-piece pajamas. For the record, it wasn't cold out. And she put them on at 6:30 pm. And I found her like this around 1am:


I'm sure I've mentioned how she's not real into me taking her picture. But last Tuesday she actually asked me to take her picture, said cheese, and I got this:


Mackenzie and her beloved piano. She's actually not pulling it down on herself anymore, thank goodness.


And the 9th was our anniversary. Thanks to my mom for babysitting while we went to dinner.


And that about covers it. I've still got some pictures to post from when two of our babysitters came over for lunch/dinner before heading off to college. Once the carpet is in and and things are back in order and I'll get those up.

I love this picture

So we got this picture in the mail yesterday.

It was taken at a graduation party last month. This my life. Mackenzie doing what she always does - stand. Emma hugging me, something she's been doing lately. She'll just randomly hang on to the back of me. And me laughing and happy. I love my life. :)

Here's Michael's new air cast he got yesterday. Bye-bye OSU cast. He's still on crutches for 3 more weeks, though.


And on Tuesday. (pardon the mess) I went to the library and grocery store and when I got back this is what I found.



She was so tired but wouldn't nap and while I was gone fell asleep on Michael. He can't exactly take her up to her crib, though, so this is where she slept. When I picked her up to move her upstairs she never even woke up.

Ten on Tuesday

1. My new IKEA Expedit bookcase. Love it. Still some rearranging to do but it's up and I love it. Did I mention I love it?


2. I also got one in white for our basement. (Our basement is finished and that's where our computer and my scrapbook area is.) It isn't yet put together. We're going to paint and carpet (right not there's tile) down there and then we'll put it together.

3. My still-on-crutches husband put the bookcase together for me. I helped with lifting and bringing pieces over to him but he did most of the work. I was impressed.

4. Saturday morning before going to Ikea we went to the Twins Day Parade. So cool to see our town full of so many twins.



5. This is Caroline with Emma. She lives across the street from us and we've become good friends with her family. Emma and Caroline love each other. They're so cute. I love the friendship I have with Beth. It's great to know you have someone right there you can count on.

6. After the parade (and still before IKEA. Obviously, I put this post in the wrong order but I'm too lazy to change it all) we stopped at Step 2. They're having a big tent sale and Marty and Abby wanted a wagon. So we picked one up for them. And one for us, too.

7. While Abby and I were at IKEA, Marty and Michael put their wagon together and Marty took the girls for a ride.

8. Wednesday, Michael has his check-up. Hoping he gets a walking boot.

9. Hmmm, what else...I'm actually running out of things to mention. Oh, I'm on the American Crafts design team for another year, which I'm very happy about. :)

10. And lastly, I'm leaving shortly to go vote for our library levy. Love our library. Hopefully, it gets a good, supportive turnout today.

9 months today

This cutie pie is 9 months old. She's getting to be a handful - in a good way, of course. Is very mobile, still doing her funky crawl (pushing off with one foot while using the other knee) but it works for her. Her favorite activity is still standing. She'd rather do that than anything. The baby gate is definitely coming out tomorrow. She's already attempted to climb the stairs, thankfully it didn't work. She has no desire to eat table food. Spits it all out and makes the funniest faces. But she'll eat any baby food you feed her. She's noisy, like her sister. They love each other. When they're in the car they laugh and giggle and talk to each other. Well, Emma talks and Mackenzie makes sounds. Bathtime is the best though. So funny seeing them together. Mackenzie weighs about 18 lbs, 6 ounces and has her check-up on the 8th. She's getting to be a little chunk. :) Her hair is starting to lay down in the front, which makes me a little sad. But it's still so very blonde. She loves the music and activity play table and the piano - because she stand with them, of course. Plus any toy Emma has. LOL. She gets excited when she sees us. She dances to music with the funniest little bopping music. She can throw things pretty well - especially her bottle when she's finished. She's getting her second tooth (bottom right). She's in a big girl car seat, although still facing rear for a few more months. She's just amazing.




Tonight after dinner we went back up to the Step 2 tent sale to get some blocks for Claire. (We went yesterday and got some fantastic deals on their Soft and Sturdy blocks and a fire house play set.) Then we picked up some ice cream and headed to the square. Emma first gave a little concert on stage by herself (video coming soon) then I joined her for a duet.

We were singing "Go Go Joshua" and doing the motions that go along with it.

"Go go Joshua, lead your army go..."


"...Blow the trumpets up to Heaven"

"...All around the walls fall down."


Then we practiced jumping.


Michael was one are only fan, as Mackenzie was a bit busy...


She crawled under the bleachers and kept trying to climb up them but that wasn't really working for her. She kept getting stuck either standing up or sitting like this. Then she bumped her head and fun time was over.

I love you, my little munchkin.

Ten on Tuesday

1. This past Friday, Marty, Abby and Claire came over and Abby and I took Emma and Claire to the pool. Check out Claire relaxing in her float. With the naked baby doll. Love this.



2. It was the pool's Christmas in July party. There was a DJ playing both Christmas and non-Christmas music, Christmas decorations everywhere, games like limbo and ahula hoop contest. And Santa. Claire was fascinated.


Until she sat on his lap.

Then, not so much. Love that Santa is in swim trunks and sandals.

Emma, wouldn't go near him. I wasn't surprised, she refused to sit with Santa at Christmas, too. She just watched cautiously from a safe distance.

4.Sunday was my sister's birthday. We actually got there first. On time. When we called to see where they were, they were just getting on the highway and completely surprised we beat them. Obviously, I need to work on my punctuality.

It did give me time to take some pictures. Like this one.


Sadly, no good ones of Emma as she wasn't really into it. Again, not a surprise. Anymore when I get the camera out she tells me to stop. She did get my hopes up at one point when she sat next to Michael but that lasted all of 2 minutes.

5. We went to the park after dinner that night.


Crutches and all, Michael was able to help Emma climb this:


6. I had the munchkin climbing all over me. I'm sure I've mentioned this, but you cannot sit next to her without her using you to stand up. And it hurts. She pinches and scratches and yanks on your shirt until it's all stretched out. Michael has started calling her leech. :) But I did get this. A sweet little baby kiss.


7. Malachi, my soon-to-be-new-nephew, turned one this month. They threw him a pool party in Uganda. He's adorable. Just pretend there are pool party pictures here, because I don't have any of those, but I do have these. He's so cute.

8. Have you tried the blog readability test? Just go

here and enter your blog's address and it'll let you know its level of readability. Mine's junior high. Could be worse, could definitely be better.

9. I'm thinking about changing my blog address. I'll post about it before I do it, wouldn't want anyone to be traumatized when they couldn't find my blog. ;)

10. You should check out Simple Scrapbooks new special issue:



In it, you'll find this:


And a bunch of other fantastic ideas for making super cute mini-albums without spending days on them. I have numerous pages already marked with albums I want to make. You can get it here

Have I mentioned she loves to stand?

Tonight.

 
 

Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch passed away today. His "last lecture" at Carnegie Mellon is absolutely amazing. In case you haven't seen it, here it is:



And he's a story about him on CNN.com:
YouTube's star lecturer dies at 47

I hadn't realized it was turned into a book. I'm going to have to read it.