Happy Monday!

Carter's Silly Face

"Now move Mom, I'm trying to watch Chuggington."

Get outta town!

Cary and I sure do love our kids...but we also love being able to get away for a night and spend some quality, child-free time together.  This was the first actual getaway since Brynn was born, and he and I were both looking so forward to it!  By 9:15 on Saturday morning, we'd already dropped the kids off at Grandpa and Grandma Coppola's, stopped for cinnamon rolls and coffee at Great Harvest Bakery, and were on our way to Iowa City. 
First stop - the outlet mall in Williamsburg.  Cary was a total trooper about this, which he should have been since he found some great deals for himself at the Nike store.  I found 6 or 7 cute outfits for Brynn at the Carter's outlet and a new spring coat for myself at Gap.  Poor Carter didn't get a thing...although both Cary and I did look at every store for him.  If we'd had a thousand dollars to spend, we both would have purchased the entire boy's section at the Polo store for our little man. With bags in our hands and smiles on our faces, we got back on the road and were in Iowa City by 1:00.

Next stop - lunch!  I did a quick clothing change in the car so that I could match Cary in my Michigan gear.  Let's just say we got some dirty looks at the restaurant since almost everyone there was wearing black and gold. 

Carver Hawkeye Arena - It wasn't a pretty game, but we had a good time.  We were of course surrounded by Hawkeye fans and Cary gave me the evil eye a time or two when I sang along to the Hawkeye fight song.  I guess you can't really ever take the Hawkeye out of the girl. :)  We cheered on the Wolverines and were happy that they won in overtime.  And then we carefully tried to make it out of the arena without getting beat-up. 

After checking in at the hotel and getting freshened up, we had a few drinks at a nearby bar.  We tried to pretend for a while that we were in college again and could drink long island iced teas and have a shot without really feeling the effects of that.  But alas, we are now almost 30 and my tolerance is way lower than it used to be.  :)  We had a late dinner at Giovanni's and were asleep shortly after 11:00.

On Sunday morning, I slept in while Cary worked out (over-achiever) and then we met my friend Katie for breakfast.  It's always fun to catch up with her!  And before we knew it, we were on our way back home to see the two loves of our lives.  It's always fun to get away, but it's even better coming home!  

Winter Weekend

I'd categorize this weekend into three parts: Family Friday, Sickly Saturday, and Sunny Sunday.  Let's start with Friday...

I'd asked around at work about things that people did for their kids for Valentine's Day.  One of my coworkers said that she always made a special candle-light dinner for her daughters, complete with a heart cake and wrapped Valentine's at each place setting.  I'm all about starting new traditions, so I decided to adopt her idea.  I bought Cary, Carter and I each something different to eat and drink (fish and red wine for Cary, chicken cordon blue and white wine for me, and a corndog and chocolate milk for the little man) and had strawberry cupcakes for dessert. The table was set with heart plates, wine glasses, candles, and some V-day decorations that Holly, Emily and I had made a few weeks back.  Although Carter was fighting a cold and wasn't terribly into the whole thing just yet, Cary and I agreed that it was much easier and more relaxing than going to a restaurant - with Carter playing trains next to us and Brynn asleep in her bouncer. Cary and I get our own Valentine weekend next weekend, so staying home and celebrating with our family was perfect. 

We should have known what the next day would bring....

Then there was a little hiccup in the weekend.  On to Sickly Saturday.  We went into Carter's room in the middle of the night to find that he had gotten sick in his sleep.  (Note...I may never eat a corn dog again.)  Poor kid.  I guess the stomach bug was making it's way through daycare and Carter was it's latest victim.  Although I'm not proud of it, I turn into a bit of a germaphobe around stomach viruses.  Luckily Cary doesn't worry about stuff like that, so he snuggled Carter until 1:00am.  The next day we just lounged around the house all day.  Carter didn't get sick again and his fever was gone by mid-morning, but he was still a little sluggish.  We watched several movies, gave both kids baths, did about 5 loads of laundry and were just lazy.  Cary took Carter outside for a little fresh air since the weather was so nice.  And by Saturday evening, Carter was feeling much better.  Unfortunately, we had to cancel our dinner plans with Joe and Holly.  Instead we just ordered in, rented Alpha and Omega, and all of us were in bed shortly after 9:00.  Oh yeah, it's a wild and crazy life!

And Sunny Sunday has proven to be a great day so far!  We went to church, had breakfast at Smokey Row, went on a family walk down our street (Brynn's first time!), watched Carter jump in mud puddles and go sledding in our yard, and watched DVR'd Saturday Night Live while the kids both took naps.  Soon we're headed to Cary's parents for dinner.  Gotta love a relaxing Sunday!

Fun in the Snow!

We spent Saturday at my parents' house just hanging out, catching up on epidsodes of "Friday Night Lights", watching Carter play trains, passing Brynn around, and playing in the snow.  Mom stayed inside with Brynn while Cary, my dad, and I took Carter outside. This was the first time this season that we'd taken Carter sledding, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!  We all started with about 3 layers on, and ended up just wearing a sweatshirt by the end.  We went sledding down my parents' big hill several times, Cary and my dad dug a tunnel for Carter to crawl through, and we went sledding down the side of the snow bank.   I'm not sure what the most memorable part of the day was....Carter looking like a bear coming out of the tunnel, Carter crashing his sled the first time, me struggling to get Carter back up the hill, Dad being out of breath from all of the tunnel-digging, or Cary jumping head-first into the tunnel.  Here are a ton of photos from the day...

 

January Re-cap

Well the month of January has flown by and I've been terrible about posting.  Here's what's been going on with us:

-I went back to work on Monday the 17th.  Since I only work three days a week, it hasn't been so bad.  It was nice to get back and see all of my students, reconnect with my coworkers, and have a little bit of "me" time outside of my house.  Although, I have to say that I don't think I could do it if I didn't have those two extra days at home with the kids!  Brynn is doing great at daycare.  She smiles at Hedy the minute we walk into her house.  And, of course, Carter loves spending time with Colby and Riley too.  So, all in all, the transition has been good.

-Joey and Maddox spent the night at our house for the very first time last weekend. Carter LOVED having them there and they all seemed to have so much fun. We took them bowling, then had pizza, cookies and Sprite on the living room floor, watched the movie "G-Force" and then just let them play together. They all layed down around 9:30, and were still awake at 10:45. We're pretty sure Carter just laid there talking to them while the other boys tried to fall asleep. The next morning after breakfast and an hour or so of playing at the house, we took them to my school gym to run around. Carter was a DISASTER! He was obviously exhausted and he kept falling down and crying. Joey and Maddox were great. And the three of them had fun running through a tunnel made by Cary, playing baseball, racing, and playing Duck, Duck, Goose. After some donuts and chocolate milk, we took them home and I'm pretty sure all of the boys took some serious naps. First sleepover at our house = success!

-My niece Katelyn turned 4! We celebrated at her house with a pink Tinkerbell cake, several Tinkerbell-themed games, and lots of good food. I can't believe she's 4 already! Where does the time go?  We also loved having the two babies together.  These two are going to be the best of friends.

-Since it's been so cold and snowy outside, we've spent most of our time cooped up inside.  Here are some random photos of the kids both inside and out. 

-We've reached an all-time low in the parenting department.  Cary has started bribing Carter with M&M's to play baseball.  Everytime he hits the ball, he gets an M&M (which he likes to keep as cargo inside one of his train cars).  Not the best parenting tatic, but his hitting ability has actually improved in the past few days! Way to go, Cary! :)

 -Brynn will be three months tomorrow and is changing every day.  She has the biggest smile and loves being talked to.  She can sleep through the night and does most nights, but still occassionally wakes up around 3:00am to eat.  And just recently she's learned to hold up her upper body when she's laying on her tummy.  What a big girl! 

Happy Groundhog Day everyone! :)