Mia's Dream Come True!

I know this post is long over due. Hopefully I can catch up on the past couple of months with my blog. We've been having issues uploading photos from home. We left on Mia's birthday, March 31st for a trip to Minnesota. While there we went to the Mall of America and inside is Nickelodeon Universe. Mia's two favorite shows are Dora and Spongebob, so she was in heaven to get and meet her favorite characters. Olivia enjoyed seeing them as well. Here is a collage of some of their pictures with their celebrity friends. More to come soon!

Celebrating 2 years!

Twas a weekend of all things Mia. Saturday we went to Shipshwana to let Mia and Olivia ride on the carousel, one of Mia's favorite things to do. We ate some JoJo's pretzels, two rides on the carousel, a few shops, and then headed to The Towne Shoppe. While there we saw an Amish man with his horse and buggy selling rides. We loaded up in the buggy, all be it a bit chilly, but quickly warmed up with a lap robe he provided. It was a nice leisurely trip through the countryside. Olivia was in aww the entire trip and filled with curiosity and questions. Upon our return we headed to the Das Dutchma

n Essenhaus for a delicious dinner. We even were able to eat in the buggy. My sister and I used to make our parents wait extra long to sit in the buggy and thankfully we got right in without any wait last night.

Saturday night was also Earth Hour. A family tradition in our home where we opt to go without using power for 1 hour. Olivia loves to take a bath by candlelight and then play some card games each year. This year was no different, but Mia was past ready for bed by the time she got out of the bath. Andy and Olivia played Uno, while I tucked in our almost 2 year old.

Sunday, we celebrated Mia's birthday with family. Nana and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Jen, Aunt Joan, Uncle Jared, Aunt Elizabeth, and all the cousins came to join on us for this happy occasion. Our little birthday girl was in a great mood and thrilled with all her new found gifts and treats to eat.

Trying on her new shades. Upside down of course. She's starting a new fashion trend.

Smiling at her new Spongebob toy from daddy. Why is such a moronic cartoon so amusing to children?

The spread - cupcakes, ice cream, red raspberry cream pie, fruit tartletts, pistachios, honey mustard pretzels, goldfish crackers, jellybeans, thin mints, and juicy juice. What more could a two year old ask for?

Making her wish...What does a two year old wish for I wonder?

One of the highlights of the day was Andy sharing his Jelly Bellys he bought at the candy store yesterday. They had your traditional delicious flavors like peach, strawberry jam, and chocolate, but also included disgusting flavors that looked identical to the tasty treats. You never knew if you were getting juicy pear or booger, coconut or baby wipes, black licorice or skunk. Below is a collage of some people not getting their preferred flavors.

We will be leaving for Minnesota on Mia's official birthday so that is why we celebrated a bit early. Thanks to everyone for making it so special for her! We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Little Leprechauns and Buckeyes

Well, coming from and Irish family, it's no surprise that we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. My girls loved getting all greened up and putting on their shamrock tattoos to start the day.

Cead mile failte!

Thursday night dinners are always a rush and usually nothing too healthy since Olivia has to be to dance shortly after we get home. So last Thursday it was green pancakes with green rice krispie treats.

Mia being silly trying on my boots. She has always loved to try on shoes. Doesn't matter who's, she'll wear them all.

Andy was gone to Ohio State University last weekend for a swim meet. The girls and I enjoyed a fun girls' weekend, but were happy upon Andy's safe return. The girls were especially excited that he brought them each home OSU t-shirts.

Mia doesn't always want her photo taken, as was the case in this photo. She's wearing her new shirt that says, "Is it just me? Or do the wolverines stink?" Too funny!

Tonight for dinner Olivia, who loves to be fancy, wanted to have a fancy dinner. She named her restaurant "Chez Rouge," which is French and had the word red in it. She told me the red was for Ohio State and everyone had to dress fancy in either red or Ohio State clothes to get in. As evident in the picture above and below you can see the fancy attire she picked out for both Mia and her. What could be fancier than tap shoes too?

Warning to all parents: Don't let your children wear tap shoes at the dinner table!

The picture below is the end result. Thankfully we were economical when we bought new chairs at the end of last summer. Had I sprung for some expensive ones I might be a bit more upset.

Daddy's Girl

Tonight is the annual "Date with Dad" held at the Doyle Community Center. Olivia and Andy had so much fun last year that they had to attend again this year. Above is a cute picture of Olivia smelling her bouquet of flowers her daddy brought her.

All dressed up and ready to go. They were headed to eat at DaVinci's for dinner first.

Mia wanted in on the photo opportunity too. Maybe next year she will get to go also. For this year she gets to hang out with her mommy, and hopefully we can have a fun evening to ourselves.

Mia was sick this past week. Fever, ear infection, and enlarged spotted tonsils have not made for the sweetest daughter, but she's on the mend. The doctor is treating her for Strep, although they didn't test for it. He said that's what the majority of cases have been lately. She was negative for the flu.

My dad and Patty are currently bobbing like a buoy in the middle of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii somewhere. They are on a cruise, but due to the awful earthquake in Japan and also one in Hawaii the tsunami hit. He called this morning to update us and ask us to pray. They were in port, but the Coast Guard advised the ship to go out to sea as far as it could before the tsunami hit. He has emailed to let us know they are all okay, but that it was scary. All ports are closed until the seas die down, so they have to stay out a bit longer. Keep them and everyone involved in the horrific effects of mother nature's latest tragedy in your thoughts and prayers.

I've also attempted to start up one of my passions that I haven't done in years. My mother always encouraged my love of art and begged me to continue and share it with the world, but life gets busy and time slips away. Well, I have been dabbling a bit with it again. I attempted to paint a picture of some red poppies for my sister-in-law, Jennifer for Christmas and had another canvas that has been laying around since then.

A wonderful co-worker of mine, Vickie, sadly lost her son, Daniel in a tragic motorcycle accident last spring. The United Way just hosted a fund raiser in his memory last weekend at the Sturges-Young Auditorium with a silent local art auction. Since Vickie had told me they were going to do this I thought what a great reason to get my paints out and use that last canvas. It was a fun "Hoe Down" themed evening and a good turn out to raise funds for a great cause. If it weren't for my vivid memory of my mother insisting I share my art with the world, it would probably remain hidden away. I am by no means an artist, but it's a fun outlet for me, and now I remember how much I truly loved creating art. Hopefully I can find time to do some now and then.

Mischevious, Independent, Adorable

Well, Mia will soon be turning two years old. It's hard to believe this can be true. She's changed so much that I thought I'd write a post entirely dedicated to our little Mia Monster.

trying on her big sister's cowgirl boots

The M in Mia stands for Mischievous. This adjective describes her perfectly. Today she ran into another room to play and was all too quiet. So after two minutes tops I went into the kitchen to find, she somehow climbed on top of the counters, found a basket where I keep some snacks, pulled out a bag of peanut M & Ms and proceeded to open and eat them. She was so proud when I found her. As I sit and type this she continually goes into the bathroom, closes the toilet lid, climbs on top of it so she can reach the sink and turns the water on to play in. The house is in constant disarray due to her always feeling the need to pull everything out. Baskets of toys are dumped, drawers of clothes emptied, cupboards of dishes emptied, food from the pantry cleared out, toilet paper rolls unwound, wipes and Kleenex boxes pulled clean, and I could go on and on. I finish cleaning up one mess only to turn around and realize five more have been made for me.

Stripping naked and trying on Olivia's tap shoes (I was careful to only get photos of her backside.) She's always naked so it's hard to get her on film with clothes on.

I is for Independent. This child wants to do everything for herself! She wants to feed herself, get drinks herself, pick out her clothes and dress herself, go on the big girl potty, which of course leads to her undressing herself and removing her diaper constantly. We're thrilled to see so much independence in her, but the mommy in me misses having a dependent little baby that needs her. The last of her dependence on me was her nursing, which we just ended two weeks ago. I was more than ready, but she didn't want to give it up. When the time came, it ended up being more emotional for me than I thought it would be. Just knowing she is probably my last baby makes every milestone she reaches sort of melancholy. I'm so happy to see her grow and develop, but it's hard to let go of my baby.

Mia yelling, "Down doggy!" and pointing for her to get down, because she knows Vada is not supposed to be on the sofa. She also hit her quite a few times and tried to pull her down herself. She's a pretty aggressive little stinker.

A is for Adorable. She drives us crazy, but she is so stinkin' adorable doing so, that any frustration is quickly cured just by seeing her smile. She doesn't talk near as much as Olivia did at her age, but we're learning quickly it's just because she doesn't need to. She gets what she wants for herself. Daily she brings me this little jar of lip balm with a twist off lid from the bathroom to apply. She's been getting the lid off herself so I have to tighten it super tight. Well, the other day I couldn't even open it and had to give it to Andy to open. The next time I saw her get it, she went straight past me carrying her stool as well. I went into the kitchen to find her atop her stool getting a gripper pad I occasionally use to open tough jars. She was using it to try and open the lip balm herself. I was so pleased to see her make that connection. Mia is definitely more clever than we thought. No matter what she does, she's adorable through it all. God truly blessed us with two amazing daughters. We are so fortunate for the years we've had with both our girls and look forward to many more to come.

adorable buns snooping in the closet

Super Snow Sunday

Forget Super Bowl Sunday. We celebrated Super Snow Sunday in our household! Olivia and Andy built a snow fort while I tried to get Mia down for a nap. Mia wasn't too interested in sleeping and we watched Andy and Olivia out the window and decided to join in on the fun.

Olivia and Mia climbing out of their snow fort, all smiles of course.

Andy even made our own little sledding hill in the front yard.

After sledding in our own yard for a bit, we decided it was a perfect day to hit Dead Man's Hill, Sturgis' ideal sledding hill. After Andy fractured his L1 and L2 last year sledding, he kept his sledding to a minimum, so mommy got to join in on some of the fun for a change. I was thrilled to get the opportunity to do so, although Olivia told me she wished daddy could be her sledding partner. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and headed home to warm up with some hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Olivia on one of her solo rides down the hill.

I know this entry is well over due, but life has been busy and there is also that naughty "f" word that no one dares to speak of around our house; (frontier). We've had so many problems with our Internet service for a couple of months now. I actually did a really long blog entry with these pictures on Super Bowl Sunday, but when I went to post it, we had no Internet so I lost it all. The problems seemed to be improved so here's to hoping it's not too long before our next posting.

Christmas Afternoon!

How Mia started Christmas at Nana and Papa's.

Olivia loving on her Nana

Mia with her shopping cart from Aunt Jen. It was hard to get her to open any gifts after this was out of the box.

Olivia was spoiled by Uncle Aaron and Aunt Christy with her own set of golf clubs. I think her daddy is a little jealous because they're so nice. She even got pink golf balls, so she thinks she can go golfing in the snow.

These very annoying toys (sorry Esther) that the girls got, but Andy and Aaron wouldn't stop playing with them and driving us nuts.

Mia sporting a festive hat

It was superb being able to have Christy and Aaron with us to celebrate Christmas this year. We don't get to see them often enough. The girls had so much fun with them both.

Looking cute on Christmas day.