Jan 21- Jan 27 (week 8)

 My Album, Week 8

Mike (our Schwan's guy) comes every other monday.  Bryce gets super excited to answer the door, say hi, help me order/pay, and see his big truck.  (...and yes, our life is that boring.)

 Another day, another place Bryce finds to sleep OTHER than his bed.

 Met Amanda and the boys at the mall to play for a bit.  Bryce would not stop asking to ride the car/motorcylce we passed on the way in.  (...and seriously??  $.75 per ride?!) 

I know I've said this before, but I am LOVING my e-mealz!  I never stress about dinner anymore!  The bonus about this program is that eventhough we enrolled in the dinner for two, there is usually enough left over for lunch once or twice.  This sandwhich is Turkey, corn, feta cheese, and tomato on focaccia bread.  All ingredients I would NEVER usually buy, but it was the bomb. 

This boy is so silly and quirky without even trying.  Now that we are attempting to potty train, he can often be found in a pair of Lightning McQueen underpants....but the boots too?  He is developing a very strong sense of oppinion when it comes to what he wears.  Lately he insists on wearing shorts. and crocs.  and it is never warmer than 30 degrees.

Went out to dinner with Luke, Janine, Bradi and Brad...finally!  We haven't been able to set something up for a while where all 6 of us could make it.  Glad we finally had a chance to catch up.  This was the only picture I took.  Ehhh.  We had a great time!

I'm on the rotation to run the slides/media at church every 6 weeks.  Of course as we were ready to leave the house on Sunday, Syd was a wreck and needed a nap.  Dan stayed back with the kids, and I went alone.

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Well, that was our exciting week!  Want to see more Project Life pictures (much more exciting I'm sure)?

Stop by the Mom Creative!

Feb 14-20th (week 7)

 Valentines Day is not a big deal around here.  Since we don't do gifts or celebrate, I figured I would at least make a little card/banner from the kids.  We hung it up on the door so Dan would see it when he got home.  Bryce was so excited to help hang it up.

Went to check on Bryce before I went to bed and this is how I found him sleeping. 

This picture makes me ill since the total was $75 and my tank still was not full.  (that is the max that is allowed per credit card purchase)

Let me just say how much I love this place.  Target makes me happier than...pretty much anything else in life.  However, it gets me into a little bit of trouble.  I went there for diapers and I left with:

2 clearance valentines plates for the kids

hand-held sewing machine (to make my custom size page protectors)

new elmo and lightning mcqueen toothbrushes

4 adorable little silver buckets from the $1 section

new dumptruck from $1 section

tylenol and ibuprofen for kids

chapstick

popcorn

It's amazing how fast $100 adds up!?!?

Went out to dinner with our good friends, the Klimszas, then hit up the boat show downtown.  It is so much more enjoyable to be there as a patron vs. a vendor.  Since having kids, we rarely see Paul and Heather anymore (at least I don't), and realized it had been over a year since we hung out. :(

Went to Detroit to shop for bridesmaid dresses with Stephanie.  Forgot to take a picture, so I found the dress online.  We had fun catching up.  Then went to Meg's new apartment to hang out and help her unpack.  It was the weirdest feeling to have the entire day to myself.  Dan was great to stay home with the kids and not complain one bit. :) 

Drove back home Sunday afternoon.  Beat the blizzard by about 15 minutes.  I think Dan was pretty excited for me to get back. 

Check out more Project Life pictures over at the Mom Creative.

Almost forgot I had a desk under there.

It was bad.  Like, 2 feet high bad.  My desk was turning into a pile...no, more like a mountain of crap. 

Since this is sort of a "bonus" room, and it has doors...they are usually closed, and it is often neglegted.  It is my catch all room.

 Don't know where to put something?

Just throw it in the "office" and get to it later. 

Have things you don't want the kids to get their hands on?

Just throw it in the "office" and get to it later.

Why am I wasting this amazing scrapbook room???  I have been dragging my PL stuff out into the living room to work on it because there is no room on the desk.  Why??

 I finally cleaned and purged and found my desk top.  Hello!  Nice to see you again! 

Until it is clean, I forget how much I love this room!

Feb 7th- 13th (week 6)

In sticking with our new "Meal Plan" I've been trying to grocery shop regularly (once a week) to get everything needed for a week's worth of dinners.  I am loving e-mealz.  Takes the burden of planning off my shoulders.  If you've never heard of it...check this out!  (Yes, I am a huge dork)
 

Costco trip.  Had to bust out some applesauce before we left to keep the troops happy.  Love that Syd is sitting at the giant picnic table.  Makes me laugh.

Awful, awful, awful picture, but trying to capture lunch time via self timer.  Give me a break people, we stay home all day and it's boring.  However, I have really been making an effort to eat more meals at the dining room table so we can all sit together. (more importantly dinner)  Probably could have showered, or not taken a bite for the picture...WTF?

I decided to invest in a membership at the Children's Museum downtown.  I love how everything is hands-on and they can touch, play, learn and I don't have to worry about messing anything up. Sydney was loving the bubble table.

Attended Dan's Awards Banquet for his company.  This year they had a "Western" theme which I blatantly ignored.  Surprisingly many people participated.  It was interesting.  I could have done without the Square Dance caller...What happened to black tie and open bar like they used to have?

I didn't take a pic from Saturday, so this was Dan and I at the banquet Friday night.  Just bought these overlays from Ali Edwards, so I thought I would take this one for a spin.

Sarah's Baby Shower for little Paige.

Check out some more Project Life Pictures at the Mom Creative.

Jan 31- February 6 (week 5)

The kiddos and I met Cortney and Aiden at Barnes & Noble to play with the train table.  That darn things *usually* keeps them busy for at least 45 minutes.  Welp, not today.  We spent the majority of the time chasing them around. 

Yippee!!!  My kit finally arrived today!  probably looked out the window 999,999 times to see if the big brown UPS truck was outside.  (a little impatient are we???)  Every stinkin noise made me look out the window.  Apparently we are his very last stop of the day.  Same thing happened when I waited for my 31 order to arrive.  Either way...it came!  I spent the whole night putting it together.  I decided on the Turquoise since it was a little less "feminine".  LOVE it!!

I'm sure everyone has their own version of this picture, but woke up to INSANE amounts of snow this morning.  Pretty much everything was shut down.  Good thing my car was in the shop fixing my deer mess.  It's not like I would have tried to go anywhere!  Click here for more Blizzard 2011 pics.

I couldn't keep them in the house all day with that much snow to play in.  Finally caved and we got all bundled up to brave the cold.  (and man was it cold!)  These two could play outside all day!

By Friday night, Dan and I are so wiped.  Most nights look something like this, but it feels even more pathetic when it's a friday night and this is what we are doing.  I am the oldest 30 year old I know!  (it sure is relaxing though!)

Our buddy Aiden is turning two so we hung out at his house to celebrate.  There were tons of kids to play with and our kiddos had a blast.  Dan and I got a sitter and went out with Cassie ans Pete later that night.

I'm usually able to make it through a football game, but my head was pounding all day.  I popped some Excedrin PM and didn"t even make it to halftime.  (I really wanted to see Black Eyed Peas too.)  Not a big deal, no money on the game, no party to go to, and I didn't have a preference.

Lots more Project Life Tuesday over at the mom creative.  Click over there to check 'em out. 

Guess what Brown did for me???

Hooray!  It was finally delievered yesterday!  I wanted to get a cool picture with my project life box and have the UPS guy hold it and take a picture with me, but, well, he practically threw it on the porch and ran.  I'm pretty sure I was his absolute very last stop of the day and he wanted nothing to do with me since it was after 6pm.  That's too bad because it would have made a fantastic POTD.  What a poor sport.  :(

Spent the rest of the evening putting my album togeter.  I was giddy!  So glad I decided to order this guy!! 

Jan 24-30 (week 4)

Today was our first day of e-mealz!  (journaling after completing one week)  This is simply amazing.  First of all, I hate cooking.  More than I hate cooking, I hate grocery shopping.  More than I hate grocery shopping, I hate planning meals.  The amazing EMILY QUINEY introduced me to e-mealz and my life will never be the same! (ok, that is a little dramatic, but seriously, I love this system!!)  You subscribe to their site ($5 per month), and each friday you download a week worth of meals.  Included is the grocery list as well as the cooking instructions.  We chose the meal plan for two to try it out and see how it went.  There was plenty left over for the kids too (but of course they wanted nothing to do with it.)  I grocery shopped over the weekend, and we started on monday.  I spent soooooo much less than I usually do at the store, and we didn't eat out once!!  <3 <3 <3 this!!

Since the Christmas decorations came down, the house looks so naked.  I whipped up a few little Valentine's Day decorations to fill the void.  More photos here!

This little boy amazes me.  We play with these puzzles all the time and Bryce never shows interest in the number and alphabet ones, (usually just the trucks and animals).  Suddenly---overnight---he knows all his numbers and letters!  Not really, but he can crank this puzzle out like it's nobody's business.  Yay Bryce!!

Just a POTD to remind me of what my kids eat these days.  Frozen waffles.  French toast sticks.  Nuggets.  Pizza.  PB&J.  String cheese.  Cereal.  Yogurt.  Bananas.  Grapes.  You know, nothing but the healthiest, freshest stuff around here.  oh...and absolutely no vegetables...oops almost forgot that one.  Yup, mother of the year.

This is Sydney's favorite face lately.  Oddly enough...she only does it to Dan.  It usually goes something like this:
{looks at him, makes face}
He doesn't see her
looks at me
{looks at him, makes face}
he doesn't see her
looks at me 
I tell her "say Dada"
"Dada!" {makes face}
Dada makes face back at her (FINALLY!)
looks at me, laughing
"Dada!" {makes face}
Dada makes face back at her (again)
looks at me
...we do this combo about 5 more times.

Went to Muskegon for the afternoon to celebrate Drew's 4th Birthday.  Went swimming, had pizza, cake & ice cream, and Drew opened gifts.  Bryce was LOVING the pool, and Sydney, well, she thought it was for the birds.  Typical.

I was lucky enough to snap this picture because this couch cuddling lasted all of 15 seconds.  They had both just woken up and didn't quite have enough energy to start arguing yet.  Hey, I'll take it where I can get it.  Love these two!

I'm linking up over at The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.  Hop on over to check out more Project Life Photos!