my little chefs

Molly and Gabe love to cook. Molly likes to feed her babies. (You can see them all over the table) Gabe prefers to feed me I'm constantly hearing "momma try. mmmm" or "it's hot. blow". Today they were running around with little storage boxes on their heads. Some days I feel really lucky that these two are mine. I wasn't feeling very lucky when Gabe threw up on me in wal-mart on Wednesday, but today I'm feeling lucky.

Happy New Year

We're back from our Chicago/Minneapolis trip. It was fun getting to see family and friends, but I think this may have been our last winter trip. The drive home from Minneapolis should have taken us 6 to 7 hours instead it took us close to 11. Our average speed was 43. In hind sight we should have stayed one more day, but I was anxious to get home and wanted more than one day to unwind before "normal" life started again. I'm still in the process of putting away all of our Christmas decorations along with all of our trip stuff. Right now our Christmas decor is boxed up on the floor next to our TV. Hopefully some of our snow will melt this week so we can get into our outside storage closet. (Right now there's a snow drift blocking our back door.) The weather man said there's 18 inches of snow on the ground and should be in the high 30's by the end of the week, so I'm hopeful. Maybe I'll even make it outside to clean the van out. I hate it when everything is cluttered. So that's what we're up to. Cleaning. Unpacking. Organizing. Pictures to follow.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to me, yesterday

Yesterday was my birthday. Drew really tried hard to make my day special. He made me a terrific dinner and then friends came over for some cake and ice cream. It was an enjoyable day. Molly has been singing Happy Birthday Jenny to me all day. I kind of wish that everyone called me mommy sometimes.... If you ask her how old I am she'll promptly tell you "tweneey ix".

I really liked the show Gilmore Girls. Drew worked for a bus company when we were first married. One summer someone left season 5 on a bus, after a few months I inherited it. I also have season 7. (I found it really cheap. Probably because it was the worst season, what a disappointing season finale... ) If I see a season at the library I always pick it up. For my birthday Drew got me seasons 1, 2 and 3. When I was opening them Molly was glowing with excitement. "More Gilmore Girls" (Molly and Gabe love the credit music. They get so excited as they show off their dance moves. I love being a mom and watching those moments.) After we put the kids to bed *. Drew and I started watching season 1. I think pilots are always awkward as people are figuring out their characters etc. Example: Kirk was in it, but his name was Mick? Strange. It was kind of like watching a first date. No one's really sure how to act or what to say. Now I'm a few episodes past that and it's feeling a lot more familiar.

Thanks Drew and to everyone else who called and came over :)

*One other little happening.
Last night when we were putting the kids to bed we couldn't find Gabe's pacifier. Which is really strange. He only has it when he's in his crib so it's always in the crib or on the floor near the crib. I did the only thing I could and gave Gabe an old pacifier that they (Molly and Gabe) like to play with that has a hole in it. And then I cut Molly's. They both still want them at night/nap. I hear a lot about how they're "boke", but it's just very matter of fact. It looks like we're at the beginning of the end of being a pacifier house. I knew that I'd have to take them away at the same time and I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't be buying anymore. So yesterday was the day. And this morning Gabe slept until 10! I'm going to be delusional and say that the two are related.

Holy Snow

We got hammered with snow. Last year I was excited for snow and it didn't really snow at all. This year mother nature's making it up to me.

Molly playing in the first fakes of the morning...

What a difference a day makes. I think "they" (our local weather people)said Lincoln got 10 inches total. Then the 40 mph winds came and this is the nice snow drift out our back door. I'm guessing it was close to 3 ft...

So what do you do when it's below zero and too cold to go out and play? You play basketball inside and...

...craft. Here they are painting cut up t.p. rolls that we tied into snow flakes. Anything involving paint and glitter keeps Molly and Gabe entertained for a solid 20+ minutes. That may not seem like a lot of time, but I think 20 min at the table for a 1 and 2 year old is pretty good.

While I'm not a fan of driving in the snow it is fun playing in it. Some friends came over and we went sledding with the kids. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the kids facial expressions as they were sledding. It was priceless. Drew also got 1 1/2 snow days so that was nice. Not quite as good as LPS's 3, but having Drew home on a Wednesday was a treat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving. What's better than good company and good food? yum

Happy Math Thanksgiving

This is the second year that all the math grad students, in Drew's year, have gotten together to celebrate an early Thanksgiving. I used to feel strange hanging out with Drew's school friends. 1-I'm not a math student. There are always jokes floating around about professors I don't know and equations I'll never understand. 2-We have kids. Mainly for these reasons I felt out of place and still do on occasion, but let me tell you Molly and Gabe were the life of the party. I guess because I'm with them having fun ALL the time I forget how fun they really are. If that makes any sense?. :) Molly and Gabe had 15+ adults to be entertained by. This is Molly and Gabe hiding under the table with Molly Sr. In the end we ate way too much and the kids had hours of entertainment. Not a bad Sunday afternoon.