A bit of a crazy week

While it seems like every week with 2 year olds is a crazy week, this one has been especially crazy.

First and foremost, extra prayers for Justin's Dad this week, who had quite the scare with blood clots in his lungs.  He is thankfully out of the hospital and feeling much better.  We will miss him terribly at the family reunion coming up, but we understand that he needs to rest and recover.

It's been construction week at our house, which has made Owen a very happy boy.  He watched out the window for at least an hour.  And then cried when it was done for the day. 

To add to the craziness, Owen chipped his front tooth this week.  The catch?  We have no idea when.  That made us look like good parents at the dentist, right?  See that top, right front tooth?

The tooth did kick us into gear in taking O&O to the dentist for the first time.  Owen was fantastic, he sat still while the dentist counted his teeth and even let them take an xray.  Olivia cried when they counted her teeth, and luckily she didn't need an xray!  The bad news, nothing can be done about the tooth at this age, so we'll wait a few years and check it out again.

And finally, check out this adorable picture of our newest niece, Elle.

Touch-A-Truck

We visited Touch-A-Truck today, thankfully, inside the convention center.  It's crowded and there are long lines, but overall, O&O did pretty well. 

In the school bus

Children's Mercy Ambulance

Next to the fire truck (we didn't dare wait in line to drive it!)

We waited the longest for the Combine!  That's us!

And the cutest picture ever....

The Big 3-0

Today was my 30th Birthday!  Olivia even sang.  Owen said "Happy Day!".  We had a busy evening with Panzons for dinner, the bookstore, and then Culver's for custard. 

The big kids helped feed Hudson

My Mom made me this amazing collage!

And then Owen threw up.  Don't worry, I saved you from looking at pictures of that.  I'm guessing he just ate way too much!  He told us after that he felt better. But quite the last minute birthday gift!

On another note, operation "Please don't let us flood anymore" starts tomorrow.  First to go - our amazing, large, freshly stained deck.  Here's the before pictures for reference later!

Next up, that beautiful tree which is too close to the foundation.  Then the yard will be re-graded, and we'll get new sod.  We will live without a deck for at least a year to make sure everything is draining properly. 

Celebrations Part 2

Since I labeled my first post "Part 1", I felt like I needed to explain that there will be no "Part 2".  That's because Part 2 consisted of the following:

• kids refusing to sit in high chairs
• kids refusing to share toys
• kids ordering for themselves and then only wanting to eat what everyone else has
• kids being "all done" before adults got their food
• Justin B's order being made wrong
• Justin B's new order being partially dropped on the floor
• Justin B's final order being put in a to go box
• O&O up at least 10 times overnight (really?  they are 2 years old!)

Clearly we learned our lesson about having family dinner out.  At least I enjoyed my birthday cake long after the kids were in bed. 

At least half of the day was a good one!

Celebrations Part 1

It's Father's Day and Mimi's Birthday, so we started the party early this morning at City Market.  Then we went to Starbucks, which was oddly quiet.  Great for our craziness!

Making a choo choo train out of chairs. 

Fighting for time on Papa's Lap

Headed out to dinner to celebrate again tonight.  But this time Justin and Uncle Justin will be there too! 

Drums

Olivia deserves her very own post about drums.  She loves drums.  She loves tupperware and plastic spoon drums.  She loves banging drum sticks on the couch.  She loves to march and play, and make everyone else march with her.  And she especially loves her new drum:

She loves the drums at music class so much that she has a meltdown every week when her turn is over.  I'm not sure what took us so long, but Mimi picked up an instrument set for her last night.  We happen to be at an outdoor concert, so Livie just played along. 

And then she switched to the cymbals. 

She basically was her very own marching band accompanying the kids banjo band.  Her instruments didn't quite jive with the real band playing :)

When Mimi picked up the music set, she got Owen some puzzles.  O&O have never been interested in puzzles until Owen discovered one at the library this week with cars on it.  Now he's in heaven. 

Help

Olivia is scared of the rocking bridges at the playground (see picture below, I have no idea what the real name is)!  I'm pretty tired of helping her across, so I asked Owen to help her. 

He hopped right up there, took her hand, and led her back and forth.  Absolutely Adorable.  Every time Olivia would get to the edge, she would yell "Owie - help!" and Owen would respond back "Owie - Coming!". 

This is a horrible picture, but Mimi got them some new firetruck jammies (yes, more....).  They were matchy matchy tonight.  They also wanted "woobie hats".....They look ridiculous. 

Meeting Elle

We ran down to Parsons for a quick trip to meet Elle!  She's perfect.  We left O&O with Mimi and Papa for the night, so it was great to be able to cuddle with Elle and Mickey without chasing them around. 

Mickey was so much fun too!  He's babbling constantly, loves to dance, and wants to play ball all day long.  He doesn't really acknowledge Elle. 

Owen and Olivia spent the night at Mimi and Papa's house.  We were surprised to hear they got a perfect report, and apparently slept more than they ever do at home.  It was amazing how they can tell us details about their weekend!  Right down to the Jayhawk cups they played with in the bath.  And meeting a new friend at Panzon's for dinner - Ella!  Ella is the daughter of Emily, who I've known since I was in Elementary School.  My parents ran into Emily's family, and they all had dinner together.  Owen and Olivia were still talking about Ella today. 

Ellyn, Ella, Owen, Papa, and Olivia

Reading before bed

Thanks Mimi and Papa for letting us get away for a night.  Thanks Erica and Luke for letting us come meet Elle on the day she came home from the hospital! 

Baby Elle!

Welcome Elle Marie Manners, our new niece!  She was born late yesterday afternoon, weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs 11 oz, just like her big brother did.  We can't wait to meet her Friday!

While we were waiting for news of Elle's arrival, we played at Aunt Kelsey's house.  Owen and Olivia went for their first ride in the Mini Cooper. 

Thomas!

We went to visit Thomas today! 

First, we visited the fire truck.  This was actually the part they talked about the most.  

They were pretty serious the whole time - just taking it all in.  But they loved it!

Papa and Owen sharing a moment on the train.

Olivia too distracted to look at the camera

 

We ended with some playtime in a tent full of trains.  

We had a great day with Mimi and Papa!  It was cool outside, and almost raining, but not too bad.  

Bed Head and a New Word

We learned a new word this week.  Olivia got it right on her first try! 

Can you believe this is what Olivia's hair looks like in the morning? 

This was also our first breakfast in new booster seats.  Looks like the high chairs can go to the basement!