Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!

I have lots of pictures to make up for my long lapse since my last post.  I promise I have a good excuse or rather excuses.    Here's what we've been up to lately:

Easter!  I attempted deviled eggs for the first time ever.  We typically don't have eggs around the house, but thanks to Easter we had enough and a great excuse to make them.  These are one of Dave's favorite foods.  He used to rely on our neighbors to whip up a batch for him at least once a month, but since they are now a 12 hour drive from us, I figured I better learn how to make them.  I did pretty well!  I didn't try any. While I love eggs, I'm not a fan of them prepared like this.  Dave said they were great! 

We took the kids to an Easter Egg Hunt at All About Kids.  They had the "hunts" divided by age group, so the room Annabelle and Daddy were in had eggs everywhere.  It was just a matter of picking them up faster than the other toddlers. Daddy, I mean Annabelle, did a good job.  Andrew's room had the bigger (and smarter) kids.  The entire hunt lasted about 90 seconds.  We had to really book it to get some eggs.  We did a pretty good job.  Here you'll see Annabelle "evening out" the baskets.  Silly girl!

Andrew was so proud of his Monster Easter Eggs.  For the sake of honesty, I will admit I helped a little bit.  Andrew was a little upset with me when I made deviled eggs out of his monsters. 

We spent this past weekend in Detroit, MI.  We went there for Dave's cousin Julie's wedding.  The wedding was beautiful.  The kids had a great time!  Not much dancing for the kids.  Wedding or not, they are always ready for bed at 9pm, but that's ok, we had a whole weekend of activities planned.  We visited Grandma Wilson's favorite place, Greenfield Village.  Here's Daddy enjoying the carousel. 

Andrew and Maya checking out the chickens.

Daddy, Andrew, Uncle Matt, Maya and Grandpa Wilson riding in a Ford Model T.  We spent the whole day there checking out things like trains, glassblowing and pottery.  They had a lots of horses and other animals too. 

Andrew's favorite part of the whole trip (sorry Julie) was definately Uncle Barry's trains. His whole basement is covered in train tracks. Andrew is still talking about it. He just loves the fact that the trains went through the wall! He also loved Uncle Barry's old, fast car (a green Camero). Of course he says Mommy's van is still faster :)

Back in Louisville....

Here's Miss Annabelle reading her all time favorite book:  "If You're Happy and You Know It..."  Her favorite verse is on the Lion page "If you're happy and you know it give a ROAR!"  In this picture she's giving a "ROAR".  So, so, so cute!!  We have read the book so many times that Andrew has it memorized and will read it to her when Mommy is sick of reading it.

Here are the kiddos enjoying our weekly visit to story time at the library.  Each visit they read a few books together, sing some songs and then do a craft project.  Our frig is filling up fast with all the art projects.  Annabelle is just as into them as Andrew is. She is one of the first to get a chair at the craft table. 

So, our big news.... We sold our house!  Here's our proud SOLD sign.  We closed on it on Monday so we are officially not homeowners anymore.  Well, for at least the next 30 days.  Our other new is, we found a house here in Louisville!  Here's the story for that.  We had probably seen at least 75 to 100 homes (literally!) when I decided to head out during the day with our realtor.  Well, wouldn't you know it, the first time I head out without Dave I stumble on "the" house.  Dave was working really hard all week at a BIG event, so he couldn't even come see it.  Our realtor found out they had other offers coming in on the house and advised us to move fast if we really liked it.  Dave said he trusted me (hahaha), so I signed his signature and put in an offer that night.  It was accepted within 2 hours.  By the next day the house had 2 back up offers on it.  It was on the market all of 5 days.  Everyone we've talked to down here thinks we got a great deal on the house.  It's in a great neighborhood, Lake Forest.  There's a pool, a couple parks and a great elementary school just 2 minutes from our house. We are planning to close by the end of May and looking forward to guests.  :) 

The kids and I were cruising around J-town a couple weeks ago and strolled past the firestation.  The fireman invited us in for a private tour.  Andrew was on cloud 9!  Mr. Chatterbox had 10,000 questions for the fireman.  Here's Annabelle, Andrew and Jacob hanging out on the firetruck.

The big ladder truck was out when we first arrived, but later we got to see them come back and unload.

Andrew joined 4 yr old soccer through the YMCA this spring.  It has been.... interesting.  Andrew loves playing, but I'm sure you can imagine what its like watching 4 yr olds play soccer.  If a plane flies overhead, all play stops until its gone.  The same goes with all other distractions.  haha!  Andrew tells me he likes practice the best because he doesn't have to share his ball with everyone else.  I'm not convinced yet that team sports are for Andrew.  He seems to run on his own schedule.  When the coach says "Run, run, run" Andrew strolls on over.  He doesn't have a big competitive drive in him.  I just have 2 rules for him while he's out there... 1)  Have fun  2) Wear yourself out - Mommy wants to sleep tonight!  :)

Here's my crazy motion shot of him playing.  (Testing out the new camera).

We made a trip to Green Bay a few weeks back for Katie's Bridal Shower.  It was a great opportunity to see everyone.  Here's Nikolas and Andrew.  These two never seem to miss a beat with each other.  They can go months without seeing each other, but you'd never know it when you see them together.  So much fun!  I can't wait to see Annabelle and Maelee like this in a little while!

Here's Miss Annabelle enjoying (maybe that's not the right word) her cake at the shower.  Yum?

Well, that's all I have for now.  This coming month of May will keep us busy again.  We'll be packing to move to our new house (yay!) and Aunt Katie and Uncle Duffey are getting married in a few weeks.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the wedding!!  It's so great seeing everyone on both sides of the family within a month!

My plan was more often....

I had planned to blog more than once a month, but I have found that being a stay at home mom is much more time consuming than originally thought. The weeks seem to be flying by. We try to stick to a routine for Annabelle's nap, but then we also try to sneek in some outside play time, storytime and some play dates throughout the week as well. Once we've done all that it's almost dinner time and time for Daddy to come home. Here's some quick little updates on each of us...

Annabelle - she's walking! She looks like a little zombie with her arms straight out and her legs not bent. But she's the most adorable zombie EVER!! She is so excited to be walking. She literally went from crawling one day to walking the next. She trys so hard to keep up with Andrew that she is so happy to be moving at a faster pace, finally. She practices walking a lot with her baby stroller. Today I saw Andrew chasing her while she pushed it. Annabelle was laughing so hard she could hardly stand!

Andrew - he has been a social butterfly since we moved here. We were a little worried that having him out of day care would take its toll, but Andrew has two new friends that he gets along GREAT with. We see Jonathan about once a week. Andrew loves going to his house because Jonathan has a train table. The boys get along great and play with trains for hours. Jonathan has a new liter of puppies at his house. They are always trying to get us to take one home. I'm sure if we had a house to live in, David wouldn't even let us go over there for he knows we wouldn't be able to leave without one. Sensibility kicks in now for I know we don't have any room for a dog in this townhome!! Andrew's other buddy, Jacob, we see about twice a week. Jacob is another recent Louisville transplant. Jacob's mom Jen is another stay at home mommy, so we typically get together twice a week and find a park for the boys to run around and burn off their energy. Jen and I swap ideas on things to do with the kids - cheap and fun stuff!

David - busy, busy, busy! He's been working ALOT! He took a quick trip to Minneapolis to train his replacement and check in on our house a couple weeks ago. He's been working on a couple big projects lately, so we are anxious for things to calm down so we can see a little more of him in the coming months. Dave loves his new position and confirms the move has been well worth it!

Me - busy with the kids as usual. In my limited free time, I've been catching up on my scrapbooking and doing a lot of cooking. Cooking is a passion of mine that went by the wayside during my full time working days. A friend of mine has a cooking blog that I enjoy, so I might change things up a bit with a recipe here and there. With all the cooking, I've been forced to get back into a workout routine. Typically 5 days a week I will jump on the elliptical, pop in a movie and burn some calories. It's exhausting, but I feel so great afterwards!

As promised, here are some pictures of the kiddos. Enjoy!

Over the weekend we went to Discover the Dinosaurs. Not to sound negative, but what a rip off! We spent 30 minutes in line to get tickets (that was after we cut in line - Matt and Sheryl had saved our place and already waited about 30 minutes). The tickets cost $37 for the four of us to get in. We zipped though the dino exhibit in about 15 minutes and spent the majority of the time in line for the bouce houses, which, by the way cost, another $6 per time to go on! Not doing that again! Andrew had fun and that was the reason we went, but I think we'll find a cheaper place to enjoy bouce houses next time. (Doesn't he look excited here)
Miss Annabelle - she wants to do everything big brother does!

Last weekend we went to the car show and guess who made an appearance!?!?!

Our favorite cart at the grocery store. Thankfully that have about 6 of them, but boy are they a pain to steer! Good thing I have two extra drivers to help.

Here's Mocha trying to sneek along on Dave's trip to Minnesota.

We got 3 1/2 inches of snow today. The kids had a blast playing in the snow this morning. Annabelle only lasted about 10 minutes, but Andrew insisted on staying out a while longer.

Annabelle is not sure what to make of snow. I don't think she cracked a smile they entire time we were outside. Guess she's just like Mommy like that!

Here's Andrew and his dump truck playing in the snow.

The trees looked so pretty this morning, just had to snap a few shots.

Hi ya'll

A few pictures to start with.... Andrew - practicing his swing at the Louisville Slugger Museum.

Dave and Beth celebrating the Packer victory over the Lions!

Silly Annabelle!

Annabelle helping me unpack!

Andrew helping me unpack! He said the packaging reminded him of leaves. So he had to jump in the pile.

We are finally starting to settle in here in Kentucky. The move went well. It was very quick. We had the movers at our house on a Thursday and a week later they met us in Louisville to unpack us. We are still living in a sea of boxes but that is to be expected until we find a house. We are eagerly waiting for our house in Minnesota to sell before we buy down here. We have been out looking and are looking forward to the process this time around. Your dollar goes a lot further in Kentucky!

The kids and I are enjoying our time at home each day. We have our routine. We've been going to storytime each week at the library. It gives Andrew a chance to meet other kids and show off his arts 'n crafts skills. I was so impressed the first time I watched him cut things out with scissors. I didn't know he could do that. He told me "Mommy, you have to stay inside the lines, just like when cars drive on the road." Such a smart kid!!

We made a trip down to Nashville over the weekend to visit Aunt Katie and Duffy. Andrew enjoyed the trip and meeting their new puppies. We also went to the Humane Society they volunteer at and got to play with a lot of puppies and kitties. No - we didn't bring any home! Not this time :)

More pictures soon....

We're heading south for the winter... (and not coming back)!

We are grossly overdue for a family update. Since our last post Dave received a promotion/job offer for a position in Louisville, KY. He accepted the offer and we are well on our way to Louisville. Last week we put our house on the market, packed up our belongings (or rather, sat as movers packed everything), loaded the moving truck (again, sat and watched), made the 5 hour drive to Green Bay for a New Years/Christmas celebration with our families and tomorrow we make the 8 hour drive to Louisville. Dave drove down on Monday to start working today. It has been a fast and exhausting month. We are looking forward to slowing down a little in January. We found a townhome to rent in Louisville and it's working out so I can stay home with the kids while we get settled and learn the area.

Our new address is: 1178 Whetstone Way, Louisville, KY 40223

We would love to hear from you! Do us a favor and say a little prayer in hopes that we sell our Minnesota house fast!!

We have lots of pictures from our moving adventure and we'll post them soon (need to get internet service at our townhome first!)

Lots going on!

Over the past month we had a trip to Green Bay, Grandma came to visit for a week, Halloween, Andrew's 4th birthday party, 3 doctors visits, 2 trips to the emergency room, and a partridge in a pear tree. haha! We'll explain through the following pictures.
Halloween - here's Daddy, errr I mean Clark Kent or Superman saving a baby from a burning building.
We had a birthday party for Andrew while we were in Green Bay for the weekend. The kids had a blast. This was the best picture of the 3 kids together. Nikolas, Maya and Andrew.

Andrew and his monster truck birthday cake.

We went to the Zoo Boo while we were there too. Lots of fun and LOTS of candy! Andrew dressed up as Buzz Light year again this year. He loves that costume. I'm sure he'll wear it every year until it gets too small.

Annabelle was our little flower. So cute! If you look closely you'll see evidence of our first trip to the ER. Annabelle fell from a standing position to her tush and in doing so bumped her chin and her wrist. She was in so much pain from her wrist that we took her in for some X-rays. Thankfully, nothing was broken, just bumps and bruises, which are healed and gone today.

Andrew got a BIG monster truck for his birthday. It's remote controlled, but he won't let us or anyone use the remote. He just wants to push it around. Maybe some day we can race it with our other remote controlled car.

We did a little photo shoot in the park a few weeks back. The kids (and adults) had a blast playing in the leaves.

Our second ER visit was a result of a stomach bug Annabelle had. No fun! Andrew ended up at the doctor's office this past week with pnenomia! :( Other than some common colds, we are pretty much back to normal.

We are looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year and watching the Packers beat the Lions (...yeah right...)! Go Lions!