Favorite Things, Etc.

BIANCA:

Favorite Color: Yellow

Favorite Shoes: A Tie Beween Her Yellow Converse &
Her New Bearpaw Boots

Cartoon: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Toy: Little People Town

Food: Breakfast: Granola & Yogert with Blueberries

Lunch: Pizza

Dinner: Chicken and Green Beans

Person to Talk To: Uncle Charlie

Song: Me & Julio - Paul Simon (she knows all the words &

can sing it for you!)

Book: Barnyard Dance - Sandra Boynton

Activity: The Little Gym with Momma & her friend Caroline &

Caroline's Mommy.

At 25 Months, Bia can...

*Count to 10

*Sing her ABC's

*Copy each and every move her sister makes

*Put her own shoes on

*Undress Herself

*Help put her toys away

*Climb up into her carseat

*Talk like a 4 year old

SKYLAR:

Favorite Color: Purple

Favorite Shoes: Gold Slip-ons or her new Bearpaw Boots

Cartoon: Dinosaur Train

Toy: Play-Doh or any prop she can use to make
up a story. Or anything to make crafts.

Food: Breakfast: Cinnamon Life
Lunch: Pizza
Dinner: Enchiladas

Person to Talk To: Grancy

Song: California Gurls - Katy Perry

Book: Cinderella

Activity: School! She loves all her little friends.

At 4 years old, Skylar can:

*Unload the dishwasher & set the table

*Climb up into the car and buckle herself in

*Dress and Undress herself

*Get ready for bed

*Talk on the phone for 15 minutes

*Snap her fingers

*Get the mail

*Sing along to numerous songs

*Back talk like a teenager

*Write most of her letters and numbers

*Boss her sister like no tomorrow

*Do hand-claps with Momma

new bike. new persepective

i spent so much time training for this last race by riding the country roads out by our house. we live on the outskirts of town, just on the border of the country, and i can literally go out and ride for 25 miles, and see maybe 5 cars. however, i do see other cyclists, horse farms, old schoolhouses converted into homes, tons of animals and butterflys, corn fields, beautiful flowers, etc.

i learned something new about myself while on these excursions. i've always thought of myself as the city dweller type, but on these rides, i cought myself envying the people that live in the old homes with the big lots, tons of space to play outside, and quiet. it was so peaceful, i've been longing to get out out of this neighborhood with the cars rolling by with loud music 24/7, and the goshdarn barking dogs next door. i am so sick of the noise!!! yes, im converting to a country girl. can you believe it?

by the end of the day, i am so overstimulated from all the noise coming out of my children, neighborhood, dogs, neighbors, music, aaahhhhhhhh! my ears literally hurt and im irritable.

wouldn't it be lovely to be able to build a house where you want with the materials you want, without having to ask approval of your neighborhood commitee? im ready to start building exactly what russ and i want!

slackers!

all my friends have been slacking on their blogs!!! instead of sitting around waiting for someone to post something new, i thought, hey, i will update my blog, that has been severely lacking as well.

even though fall weather still hasn't graced us with its presence, we are in full fall effect, with our schedules running our lives. skylar has school 2 days a week...

and has started playing soccer for our local YMCA.

and bia has started gymnastics...

(OMG!!! i have a super cute pic of her to insert here, but its just not working. grrr)

she has one of her little baby friends in her class, and its just too cute for words.

we've attended numerous kid birthday parties, play dates, etc. bia and sky now have friends that are siblings, and that makes for one happy momma when playdate day arrives. now i get to drop them both off and be by myself for 1.5 hours!!! wooot wooot!

swell foop is doing really well, and we are preparing to release some new fall items. check the site soon! i've also picked up some design work. i'd almost forgotten how fun it is to do kitchen and bath design. im really excited about this current project.

i'm still working out on average of 2 hours/day in training for my next triathlon, which will be taking place this sunday.

in addition to my wonderful husband and kids being there to cheer me on, my awesome mom is coming in for the event, and is going to take me to get a massage the day after. aaahhhhhhhh. moms are the best.

russ is staying busy at work, and has also started training for a 6k that we will run in together the day before halloween. who wants to watch him run a 6k in his ballerina costume? i do!

baby no more

there is absolutely nothing babyish about skylar

anymore. no more chubby fingers, no more chubby

cheeks. she actually has 6 pack abs! the little lady

can now pump on the swing, a major accomplishment,

and she can snap her fingers. there is no more baby talk,

and i miss it!! i miss her calling school "stool." and

when she got a kick out of her friend caroline

"taroline" for calling her "skylo." no more "t's" in place

of "c's"... no more "baby bianta." and she's even

starting to wipe my kisses off. where did the time go??

i was so anxious for her to be a bit more independent,

but now i want my baby back, just a little bit.

2 years!

russ and i celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary

on 4/20! my parents watched the kids so we could

have a nice dinner out. it was a fantastic night!

c

a visit to skylar's school

part one:

i had my very 1st parent/teacher conference

were i learned a lot of new things about my

3 1/2 year old! generally, i knew she was a natural

born leader, (russ and i joke about the fact that

she'll probably be the leader of a small country

when she grows up) but i didn't know how influential she is!

apparently there is 1 of these kids in every class,

and she's the one this year. a little ring leader.

little miss skylar, is... well, motivational!! (bossy isn't

the best way to describe it) her teacher tells me that

she is very enthuseastic and loves to lead the other kids

to get involved in all types of activities. i laughed through

a lot of this meeting, because it brought me back to

my kindergarten class, where my teacher mrs. lantz,

hated me because i was a "leader." what an awful

thing to be, right?! skylar apparently gets it from me. ;-)

a quick example of her influential nature: every day,

at the end of school, they sing a special clean up song

while they put the toys away. (i remember singing the

exact same song when i was a student at this pre-school

26 years ago!) "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere..."

well, sweet sky decided she wanted to sing jingle bells instead.

she also convinced all the other kids to sing jingle bells,

and guess what?? ... its now the new clean up song.

how funny is that?! haha! regardless, her teachers

say she gets along well with all the kids, listens well,

and is always happy to participate. i'm so glad they aren't threatened

by my little 3 year old, the way my bitchy kindergarten teacher

was. ;-) they love her spirit & they are happy to have her. yay!

part two:

skylar had show and tell this week! she had some very

good options from home, but decided the one thing

she really wanted to show to her class was her baby

sister, bianca. this melted my heart. i'm so glad i was

able to sit in and see skylar show her baby sister off

to her class. she told them all about how bia follows

her around at home, how she gives her baby sister

under dogs in her swing, how they play dress up together,

and do ring around the rosie (which they performed

for the class while wearing princess dresses). my favorite

part was when skylar took b by the hand and lead her

around the circle of children, introducing her to her classmates,

one by one. what good little manners she has! it was just

precious. such a fun day at the pre-school.

slackin on photos!

i know my blog has been lacking photos of the girls its

supposed to be all about; so here are a few of my

favorites from the past few months!

skylar and her giant sucker from her dad!

bianca helping mommy make cookies

bia enjoying her very 1st sundress of spring

skylar & her daddy working on their garden

skylar and the flowers she picked specifically for nana

the girls having movie night with their buddy, bailey

sky and her bff, mackenzie

sisterly love

bianca, aka, poe telletubby!

birthday party!!!

skylar and bia were invited to a birthday

party that had a reptile theme! we made it a

family event, and i'm glad russ was there to help!

the "reptile man" was there... he waltzed in with

his rubbermaid containers full of, you guessed

it, reptiles. (and a few other things.)

skylar held a tarantula

a scorpion (which also crawled all over me!)

a baby aligator

an anaconda

and a lizard! she was afraid at 1st, but she wanted to join

in and hold everything IF her daddy was holding it with

her. i was shocked she even agreed to that! she takes

after me, and doesn't even like dogs. haha!

on the way home, she asked for a pet tarantula and then

told us about how fragile he is, and all his air pockets that

would pop and kill him if he was dropped. she was taking

it all in! she basically reiterated the reptile man's facts

about all the creatures. it was pretty cute, and a nice

change from the princess party! ;-)

spring is in the air

i've got a lot to report and i know, i know, i've been so

behind on my blog. the weather has become significantly warmer and we have

been playing outside A TON! the 1st thing on baby b's mind in the morning

is "outside! outside!" so out we go, footie pj's and all, to run in the yard,

have coffee on the back deck and get full of chalk. what can i say, a lot of

the rules get thrown out the window when you're trapped indoors for 4 months.

(here's an example: russ "skylar, we dont throw balls in the house!" sky gives

me a wide eyed look of confusion... me: "um, yes, we do. its been a long

winter, dad." oops. ;-) russ and skylie have been working hard together to get

our garden going. she is such a good little helper! they've planted seeds

in the basement, plotted out the garden design, and even planted some seeds

outside this weekend. she loves helping her daddy in the garden. yay spring!

speaking of weather, it was a perfect day on march 6th for my 1st

triathlon of the season. this one was extra special because it was a team

adventure race, and russ was my partner! we had such a good time!

another married couple who we are friends with invited us to join

in with them, and we went for it. we went all out and hired a sitter

to watch the girls so we could spend the night out at the cabin

before the big race (the event was held at our resort). together,

russ and i ran 4 miles, mountain biked 7, canoed 3, moutain

biked 7 more, then we finished off with a ropes course with

40 lb sandbags! we completed just shy of 4.5 hours. it was quite the

race, and i felt so accomplished. having my husband as a

team mate was awesome!

russ seemed to fall back in love with mountain biking, so he went

out a few days after the race and bought himself a sweet new bike!

immediately following, i went out and got us a burley so we can pull the

girls behind us. we did our 1st ride to a restaurant nearby. both girls had a

blast and were yelling "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" the whole way there!

needless to say, we've been spending a lot of time outside running,

and riding our bikes. i am on a new green kick where try not to use my

car at least 1 day a week. it keeps me in good shape, and its good for

both the environment and our pocket book. last week, i ran to

skylar's ballet class, the grocery store, and to walgreens while the

girls enjoyed the ride in the jogger. it felt SO good to get out into

the world on foot! we live in a great spot for ditching the car, and

doing errands on foot or by bike. russ has decided that he will ride

his new bike to work every friday. i hope the weather is

supportive of his decision. ;-)

today was a great day! i tought skylar how to play "war"

(yes the good old card game that goes on for hours), swam laps @ the gym,

took the girls to pick up GRANNNNNNNCCCCYYYYYYYY! at the airport,

went to lunch, and then back to grancy's where she, of course,

offered to keep the girls so i could have some time to myself. my mom's the best.

i went home and took a nice long nap, and later biked over to her house.

russ and my brother met up with us for a great family dinner at the

cheesecake factory. YUM! uncle charlie, being the sucker that he is,

took skylar down to the carousel @ the mall. she's so spoiled by grancy and

charlie. then we all went to those big trampolines in the mall, where

i was gulited into jumping in sync with skylar. she loved watching

me fly up to the sky, and do backflips for her. im glad i did it, it was

a ton of fun! even though everyone stopped to see the adult on the

trampolines. baby bia was having a bird because she wanted to jump too!

when we learned that age didn't matter, and you just had to be

20 pounds, we decided to let her go! bianca is a wild woman!!

she jumped so high and even wanted to do a flip! haha! she freaked

out and melted down when her turn was over... she cried and said

"jump... jump..." for about 10 minutes, all the way out to the car.

poor bia. all good things must come to an end...

unfortunately ive got no pictures to post of the petites!