Busy day

Lots of fun today out in the front yard.

Andrew is looking like such a big boy! Julia loves to swing really high!

A neighbor, Hannah, came by to play too.
Even Whitney came out to join the fun.
And what better way to end the day than digging into a tub of Ben & Jerry's?!

Friday fun with Benne and Grandpa

Yes, Julia is in her swim suit, washing the car, on a winter day. She insisted. Luckily it was unseasonably warm this afternoon. We didn't really mean to was the car by hand on a winter day, but the car wash place was out of order. We decided to do a little spot cleaning back at home, and somehow it escalated into a full scale car wash and Julia felt she should be in her swim suit if she was in danger of getting wet. It was quite funny. Thanks, Dad for helping get the car clean!

Packing excitement

Julia and Andrew will be going on a vacation to Benne and Grandpa's house for the night on Saturday. I told them last night and Julia was SO EXCITED she started packing her suitcase. She spent about 20 minutes running all over the house collecting things that she needed for the trip. Everything from her special blankie (which she gave up sleeping with last night because it was already packed and she wanted to keep it packed!) to all of the pants she owns (the drawer is empty now), to her rocking chair, sit'n'spin, 6 dolls and about 20 books. I did tell her it was only for one night... Several times we had to hunt down more and bigger bags to contain all her things. Jeff noted that she takes after me. (sigh...)
Here's another picture which better shows the progress we made over the weekend organizing and decorating our entry. We added the mirror/hooks thing, and the pictures.

Everything is waiting by the door for Benne and Grandpa to come. I don't think she really gets how long it is between now and Saturday!

30 seconds in the life of Andrew

To help demonstrate the pace of trouble around our house... these three pictures were taken in the space of about 30 seconds. From one trouble spot to another, with no wasted time inbetween!


Note the new haircut, and the cute red jammies. (I bought the red jammies for Julia, but she refuses to put them on... Andrew might be prone to trouble, but at least he isn't as particular as Miss Julia! They're close enough in size already that a roll at the sleeves and pant legs will make them work for Mr. Drew!)

Andrew's first haircut

We finally broke down and gave Andrew his first haircut, at 19.5 months old. Here he is in the barber chair, sitting on Daddy's lap. He definitely didn't want to sit in the big chair by himself (even after big sis Julia smartly demonstrated to him how it was done... very cute) but once he got to sit on Daddy's lap, he was just fine. And while I had decidedly mixed feelings about trimming those darling curls and little baby wings, he does look quite adorable with the new 'do too.


Right next door, here's Julia getting a trim at the ladies salon.


Both of them look like such big kids now with their new haircuts, especially Andrew's which is more dramatically different (altho we did keep some of those curls!) I'll post a photo of their new finished haircuts shortly...

Running progress report

I have been following the Couch to 5k program found on Coolrunning.com, as I've mentioned previously. Aided by the wonderful podcasts by Robert Ullrey, and by Nike+, I've been more motivated and more consistent than ever before. It took me 2 weeks to finish Week 4, due to the holidays, but I think I'm ready to move on now, and have just returned from my first run of Week 5. This week seems to be a big turning point, as we go from 3 five minute runs (with short walks between) in day one, to 2 eight minute runs on day two, to a full 20 minutes of nonstop running by day three of week 5. I'm a bit intimidated, but determined. So far so good on day one.