Sunday Random

1. It was my birthday last Monday. I turned a whopping 34 years old  and I'm handling this nother year older thang surprisingly well. The Snickers Birthday Cake that the boys and I made and ate might have eased the sting. And the overnight (sans kiddos) into the big city of Minneapolis for a play, dinner and massages that Pat planned all by himself, most definitely eased the sting.

2.We woke up this morning to the first major snowfall of the season! This made us all very happy, but especially Jack and Owen. They could shovel the snow with their Dad all.day.long.

3. But, they took a break to make a snowman and go sledding.

I'm so lucky to have these men (two littles and one big) in my life :)

4. Before we played in the snow, we decided to go see Santa Claus at the Jackson Street Roundhouse this morning. It was neat! They had trains for the kids to play with, model trains for the kids to see and old train cars for us to check out the inside. We probably could have gone on an actual train ride, but I think the amount of snow was making it difficult to keep the track clear.

We also listened to a narrated version of the Polar Express while aboard an old first class train car.

5. Also while there, I saw these two little cuties wearing the most adorable shirts. I just had to ask their mom where she got them or if she made them. She pointed me in the direction of her friend's Esty shop (of course!!) called Swanky Shank. Just adorable..seriously!

6. I just made these Roasted Chicken-Artichoke Calzones that I heard about here. Oh.my.goodness! These were absolutely delicious!!! I followed the recipe pretty closely except I used a Rotisserie Chicken, two cans of Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust (one for the bottom layer and one for the top layer..fill and fold) and extra sharp white cheddar cheese instead of provolone. This made enough for our family (boys loved..not kidding...gobbled them up) plus leftovers for the week. Super easy to make plus delicious plus kids will eat them plus leftovers for lunches....winner!

7. Gosh I almost forgot, we also went to the Holidazzle Parade with friends on Friday night. It worked out great...pizza dinner in Pat's office and then we walked down to find a perfect spot to watch the parade just as it was starting. Oh and there was a light snow falling too. Good times!!

 8. I have been thinking about these ever since I saw them. Maybe for Christmas morning?

9. I better get to sleep, school might be called off tomorrow. That's what 10 plus inches of snow will do!

A comfort.

Addy usually falls asleep in my arms with her little hand up by her ear. It must be a comfort for her. A comfort she has had since she was in utero because she was doing the exact same thing in her 20-week ultrasound picture. Precious.

Addy has something to tell you...

Hey, guess what?

I grew a tooth!

Yeah, I know, it's kind of a big deal.

My Budding Arteeest

In the last few months, Owen has really taken a liking to art, specifically drawing, painting and cutting (he could use a scissors to cut paper for hours and he's really into cutting out hearts right now). He comes home from preschool with his folder plum full of random artwork he creates while he is there. One of my favorite things about Owen's preschool is that they have an art room for the kiddos and it's open for creating during their free play time. It must be one of Owen's favorite things as well, because at his preschool conference last night, his teachers told us he in there doing art any chance he can get. Love.

Due to Thanksgiving, Owen has been drawing a lot of hand turkeys which I cherish and have hanging around our house everywhere. However, in an effort to move onto the next holiday, I showed him how he could maybe make a Christmas Tree or a hand print reindeer. He took a liking to the tree idea and went for it.

And before I knew it, Owen had created his first drawing of a Christmas Tree.

Impressive little duder..impressive!

Adelyn: 6 months old

Addy is 6 months old and I'm just getting this up in time for her to turn 7 months old. Right on time.

I can't believe Addy is 1/2 year old..crazy!

In the last couple of weeks, Addy has perfected sitting up. She loves to sit up on the floor and play with (suck on) her little toys. She is working on going from this position down onto her belly so she can roll around on the carpet or army crawl. If she sees something she really wants, she will army crawl over to it. Watch out boys, she's coming for your toys! Each month brings milestones and sitting up has to be a big one! She gets the independence of playing by herself or with her brothers and I get a few minutes to work on a project or start dinner. Fabulous. Addy also has started picking up little foods off her highchair tray, which is another major highlight because unless Addy is eating, she doesn't care to be in the highchair very long. She loves eating those little yogurt melts and crunchies.

Addy is weighing in at a solid 20 lbs, which has her at the 97 percentile for weight. Her height is around 26 inches, which only has her at the 35th percentile.  I'm sure this will all even out once she really starts movin' and a groovin' aka crawling. Until then, she will be my little butterball.

In the picture.

I have briefly written a few times on this blog about how important it is to me to be in pictures with my children. I take tons and tons and tons of pictures of my kiddos, but still rarely am I in any of them. This happens for several reasons, the top two being (1.) I don't take the time to ask somebody to take my picture with them and (2.) I worry too much about the way that I look. It is not lost on me that these are two very silly reasons to not be taking more pictures with my kids because (1.) it takes two seconds to ask and click and (2.) my kids don't care how I look and still won't care 30 years from now.

Before I saw this post circulating around the web, my Aunt (and avid reader of my blog) actually emailed me the link with this simple reminder, "Don't forget to get in the picture once in awhile". 

And here is why...

"I'm everywhere in their young lives, and yet I have very few pictures of me with them. Someday I won't be here -- and I don't know if that someday is tomorrow or thirty or forty or fifty years from now -- but I want them to have pictures of me. I want them to see the way I looked at them, see how much I loved them. I am not perfect to look at and I am not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother."  ~Alison Tate, HuffPost Parents Blog, The Huffington Post

Just beautiful.

A Smile by Addy.

Addy smiles like this quite often, she loves that little tongue of hers.

She has since day one.