Cute Pictures at "The" Duck Pond

I just love these pictures! They were taken in October shortly after we moved. We live really close to a river trail and we took a long walk to the duck pond. My friend Cori is an AWESOME photographer and she took these while the kids were just playing. Jocelyn and Landon didn't want to be bothered...they were too busy "fishing". However, Bella was happy to be a willing subject, and I am very glad she was! Seeing all of the green in the background makes me look forward to going for more walks to the duck pond when it warms up again.

Jocelyn was feeding the ducks and these were very hungry ducks! They just come up and take the food out of your hand which was great fun for the kids!

Thanks again Cori for the pictures!

Now for the pictures I took.

The girls had so much fun feeding the ducks and noticing the differences between the ducks.


Jocelyn and Bella "fishing". Unfortunately it was catch and release!

Jocelyn and her fishing pole.

Pumpkin Carving

This year we went up to Marc's sisters house and carved pumpkins as one big happy family! It was a lot of fun to all be together.

Bella was pretty clear on her feelings about the pumpkin insides....EEWWW! is right.

The final results

We Moved...Sorry we dropped off the map

You may be wondering where we have been. Well, let me tell you. In October we moved...cheers and applauding are appropriate:) We finally moved out of student housing even though Marc is still a student. Our friends told us about this place and we jumped on it! I have been in seventh heaven having a dish washer and in house washer and dryer. Let's don't forget the much bigger kitchen and lets not forget the backyard. We have all loved living here! It has taken so long to get back on the blog because we no longer use a desk top computer and my laptop doesn't have enough space for all of our pictures, but my sweet husband did what ever he did and now I can blog much easier. So, I will be playing catch up for a little bit.

Jocelyn in our backyard (before it was covered with snow) finding the perfect resting place for one of the roses we picked from the bush in our yard.

The people who lived here before us left this rope swing in the yard and it is definatley one of Jocelyn's favorite things to play on.

Brief Hiatus From The Family

Usually our posts are about our beautiful kids and the fun things we do. However, I just wanted to take a brief editorial moment to discuss something that I think is very interesting and important. Those of us that have been born in the USA often take for granted how many languages there are in the world. Moreover, we don't realize how many of those language are dying out. It is estimated that 1 language is dying out every 14 days. Why is this important? Well we lose information about cultures, beliefs, linguistics, and many more concepts when a language dies out. Below is a short video of K. David Harrison, Director of Research at the Living Tongues Institute, on the Colbert Report.




This is a great precursor to the upcoming movie The Linguists which is an Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival. I am very excited about this movie. I recommend that everyone check it out if they get a chance.

This is the end of my brief editorial comment.

(Correction: The film was an Official Selection of the last Sundance Film Festival. However, it is still being shown at festivals around the world.)

Desperate times call for FUN measures

What does a very tired mommy do when she needs a rest but the kids need some fun? My solution, jump and play on the bed! You see this way I can just lay down and the kids have a great time. This time I decided to capture some of the fun amidst all of the jumping, laughing, tickling, and of course making funny faces.

Desperate times call for FUN measures cont...

What can I say...these girls are so fun and adorable. What a lucky mom I am!

Sleeping Arrangements

A month or so ago we moved Bella into Jocelyn's room to hopefully assist in unifying these two little angels:) I had enough with the Jocelyn locking her sister out of "her" room and refusing to share anything that resided in "her" room. Suprisingly, Jocelyn was so excited to have her sister in the same room and insisted on sleeping with Bella in Bella's crib. Bella wasn't too keen on the shared sleeping arrangements at first but decided it was OK. The co-sleeping has since changed and the sharing has gotten a little better, so overall it has been a good change.

Aw, they look like little angels!

I went in to check on them later that night before I went to bed and this is what I saw. After I took the picture I did move Bella away from Jocelyn's legs in fear of an incident that could cause me less sleep:)

Isabella Turned 2!

Bella turned two and we had a lot of fun! We had our friends and family out for a little BBQ, pinata, and of course cupcakes. It was fun to have a party outside with plenty of space and to share it with people we love. Happy Birthday Bella~!

Fairy Tea Party

In March our local library puts on a Fairy Tea party every year and my good friend Kim was so kind to stand in line for us and got tickets for a group of us that live in the neighborhood. I was so excited to have a mommy daughter date with just me and Jo. So, we get all dressed up and then she says to me "I want to go with daddy." I asked her again and explained to her that I was so excited to go with her and that I wanted to go with her and she says "No, I want to go with daddy." So, I must admit that I was hurt but this was about her not me so I told her she could go with her daddy. I went to tell my friend who we were going to ride with that Marc was going to take her but in that time Marc talked Jocelyn into taking me instead. It is a good thing too because he would have been the only man there besides the Fairy King. It was a lot of fun! They had a mini ballet and then all of the little fairies went up on stage and bowed to the audience and Fairy King if they wanted which Jo did not. Then they brought out some yummy finger foods. Jocelyn got to pick out a fairy book which she loves and was so excited to take home the little stuffed animal they gave everyone. Good Times with my cute little girl!

Yes, it's our blog too!

So in looking over our blog I have realized that I very rarely put pictures of Marc and I on here or give any updates on what we are up to. So, I am going to try to work on including us in the blog every once in a while. It may be random but darn it we will be included too!

Currently, Marc is out of school for summer but he is busy working on his Masters Thesis and of course working a lot! But, when he isn't doing those things he is an awfully awesome daddy and husband! We are so lucky to have him!! He has recently taken up racquetball and I am sure he will turn pro by Fall!

Marc with Bella at one of Jo's soccer games.

Marc and girls playing the bonk game! Yeah very cool...you just well...bonk heads and they love it!

Daddy is the master of flips too!

So, I don't really know what to say about myself:) What have I been up to (seriously scratching my head in thought)? I guess I will tell you what I have been up to. Sadly the truth is not really all that sunny. I have pretty much been sick since September. Let's take a ride through the valley of a weak immune system! So, in September I got Strep throat. October I got Strep again and also a Strep infection in my hand. I get eczema on my hands and it dries and cracks and it got infected too, so I went and spent two weeks with my mom since I couldn't use my hand for two weeks and that is not very handy when you have two children! November I got THE FLU which then turned into Pneumonia so after 2 1/2 weeks literally flat on the couch serious shots of antibiotics and oral antibiotics took care of that. It took me several weeks to bounce back from the Pneumonia but wait I never really bounced back due to the fact I had a reactivation of Mono along with another bacterial infection which yet again left me flat and exhausted for months which also took me to my moms because again with two kids it was very hard to rest and recover not to mention how hard it is on the kids. I have to say that Marc was so wonderful putting up with me through all of the sickness. I am currently getting better in that I have had a couple good days of energy until last week and then all of us got some sinus achy body sickness that left us all tired and sick which we are all trying to recover from now. But, I am determined to get healthy and strong and in getting my immune system strong again! I do have to say a big THANK YOU to my family and friends who helped me during this time! Thank you thank you!! I also apologize to Cori again for giving you mono, but hey misery loves company:)

Anyway, on the positive side of things I got a new haircut! This was in March and not the best picture but the hair is fun!

Grandma's Girls

Marc's mom is an angel and came to stay with the girls while we had to go out of town for Marc's work. Of course the girls are always in seventh heaven to have Grandma around and here are just a few tidbits of their time with grandma uninterrupted.Grandma gave Jocelyn a pair of roller blades and she wore them everywhere. According to grandma she even tried to wear them to bed . So grandma had to talk her out of wearing them to bed and into just wearing her elbow and knee pads to bed instead.

Another reason grandma is so beloved is because she attempts projects that mommy is not brave enough to do most of the time. She made them these adorable aprons to wear while they made a couple different kinds of cookies. I know the girls sure had fun and that was one of the first things Jocelyn told us about when we got home!

They also got to go to a place called Kangaroo Zoo which is full of fun energy releasing blow/bouncy things with their cousin. I love these places!

Thanks Mom!!

Funny Faces

One of our favorite things to do around our home is make funny faces and laugh and see how silly we can be! Well, the girls are becoming pros and here are just a few examples of their silliness. Some of the really good ones I can't seem to get on camera, but I will keep trying. I love it because they make me laugh! The only problem is when I am trying to talk seriously and Jocelyn starts making faces because she knows it makes me laugh and apparently the logic is that if she distracts mommy she won't have to listen or be put in time out. Well...it isn't so funny then but she still tries! Gotta give her points for trying.

My Recipe Blog is Resurrected!

OK, so I know it seems as though I have fallen off the face of the earth and well...it is a long story which I will go into later but I wanted to share my new favorite recipe. I love finding new yummy recipes that make eating healthy oh so fun and not eating healthy oh so worth it!. Well, I wanted to share the recipe for what we had for dinner tonight and I thought "wait I have a recipe blog, I should post the recipe there". So, I just opened it up for public viewing and I hope that you can get some use out of it too! Let me know if you have recipes you would like to add! Come on you know you want to! I will have more coming soon!

http://someofthisandadashofthat.blogspot.com/

Blog Credits

OK, so obviously the look of the blog has changed. I have to say thank you to Abby H. because I copied her blog:) I really tried to find another one I liked but didn't so Abby I just have to say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery! Thanks for the link and the idea!

Jocelyn's First Hair Cut

Yes, that is right! Jocelyn has just recently had her first hair cut. I was always afraid to do it myself because the last time I cut someone's hair Marc ended up with a buzzed head twice:) So over Christmas Marc's sister was kind enough to do it for me. Thanks Jennie!

Proof that I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to cutting hair. Sorry Marc!

Jocelyn smiling patiently as I snap pictures like a paparazzi mommy!

Having fun yet? Faces speak louder than words!

The End.