Adventures in La La Land

1. I forgot a couple cute parts to the gender reveal story . Lucy never asked how the ultrasound tech knew it was a boy. And when she was looking at the pictures later, the tech wrote "it's a boy" on the money shot. Lucy read, "It's a boy!" but didn't ask what the picture was of. Haha. Whew. Explanation avoided! I can't wait to hear the questions that arise when she helps change that first diaper . . . As we were leaving the doctor's office, I told Lucy I wanted to stop at Target and get a "little brother" outfit, so we could use it to reveal the news to Grandma and Aunt Niki. Lucy said, "No! I want to tell them!" And she actually did it. She exclaimed "It's a boy!" to everyone who asked. So sweet. 2. I pulled out the fall bins of Lucy's old clothes for Lena, and put away some of Lena's outgrown stuff this week. And I got a little sad that no one will wear those adorable outfits again. Thinking of a...

1. I think Lena hit the terrible twos this week. She has been testing me at every chance she gets. And she is so ridiculously persistent. Every time I tell her no, she continues to beg and plead and cry "pleeeeeeeease" on and on and on. It's driving me crazy! I know I just need to be firm and consistent, but it is so exhausting. At least there are still these moments. She's my snuggler . . . 2. I forgot to mention that at Lucy's friend party last week, the kids were all playing upstairs being incredibly wild. They were screaming like banshees and running back and forth, and jumping all over the place. All of a sudden, they all started running downstairs shouting, "Lucy's puking!" And I realized then that my poor child has the Pitch Perfect Puking Syndrome. Anytime she gets excited, she pukes. We're going to have to strongly discourage a future in acapella singing . . . Nik and I went to Pitch Perfect 2 last night. It was awesome. Loved it ...

1. We had a nice Easter. We actually all made it to church and Lena lasted for the whole service in her class!! That hasn't happened in weeks!! We alternate every other year for Easter with our families. This year was the VanderKoddes, but Justin's wonderful mom didn't want to cook, so we went to Olive Garden instead!! Glorious! We've got a good system there. I order one meal for the girls. Lucy eats the macaroni and Lena eats the sides (grapes and fries). Haha. I actually got something different (!) even after my post last week about how my tastes never change. I've been a little underwhelmed with their chicken alfredo lately (my usual), so I got the chicken carbonara instead. It was amaaaaaazing, but expensive! Thank goodness for gift cards. Here are the girls in their Easter best: I tried to talk Lucy out of the ice cream dress, but she insisted. Haha. Lena was not in the mood for pictures, so this is the best I could get. Haha. 2. On Monday, I took the ...

1. We added another activity to our Summer Bucket List in Reverse: a Whitecaps game. Lucy got a free ticket for completing the summer reading program at the library, but there were only 3 dates to choose from. Justin drove by the ballpark Tuesday night and saw that Wednesday was "Princess Night" and it happened to be one of the dates available for Lucy's free ticket. We knew we couldn't pass that up! So Lucy dressed up in her princess garb, we left Lena with my parents, and we headed off to the game. Lucy was quite bored by the game, but she loved spotting all the princesses in the park. And I actually anticipated her boredom and brought a Junie B. Jones book, so we read in the grass while Justin watched the game. :-) Her favorite part was the 10 minute fireworks show at the end. Haha. 2. Thursday was my mom's birthday, and it worked out that all my siblings were available (unheard of!) so we all went out for dinner at Rio Grande. I ordered the Mac n' Cheese...

I'm leaving for Ladies' Retreat tonight, so you get a special advance-edition of the Saturday 7! 1. I always talk up my Halloween costume in the Saturday 7, but then I post the pictures on facebook and they never make it on the blog. Let's remedy that this year: We were Flo and Mayhem ! Apparently Flo is a pretty popular costume, because Progressive's website has all the logos ready to download and print. Easy peasy! Didn't Esther do a great job on my hair and make up? It took me days to get my hair back to normal! Haha. We had so much fun with our small group that night. We played a new game called Telestrations . It's a cross between Telephone and Pictionary, and the result was hilarious . I'm bringing it to Ladies' Retreat. :-) 3. The girls loved Halloween, too. Lucy picked out her own costume at Once Upon a Child. It's actually Cherry Blossom, but she thought it was Strawberry Shortcake, so we let it slide. ;-) And my mom found this awes...

We had a busy week! Here are some of the highlights. 1. On Tuesday we went to Schwallier's with some friends. The kids had so  much fun. We let them play to their hearts' content at each little "station" (bunny and goat petting areas, water play, corn play, cow train, etc.) and spent 3 hours there! (Including a little picnic.) We're so blessed to have good friends! 2. I made a meal from Plain Chicken this week: bacon cheeseburger soup . It was much less soup  and a lot more cheesy potatoes with burger and bacon in it. Haha. It was delicious, but not cheap. Do you know how much 2 lbs of Velveeta costs?? I was shocked! ($5.49 in case you were wondering). Also, probably not great for the waistline . . . 3. I think I've written before about Lucy's imaginary friends. She has a whole slew of them, and they come everywhere with us. I actually get kind of annoyed with "them" sometimes. We'll be riding in the car and Lucy will say something li...

1. Lena had her 6 month check-up on Monday. She weighed 14 lbs, 8 oz. and measured 26". That puts her in the 14th percentile for weight and the 39th for height. Still a little shrimp! She got 4 shots, screamed when they poked her, but stopped crying as soon as I picked her up. She was feverish and cranky for the next couple of days, but nothing terrible. 2. She has been getting up so much at night. It is ridiculous. We've been doing some cry it out, but it's not going very well. Especially because she's still sleeping in our room. And Lucy's room is right next to ours. She woke up one night this week saying, "Mommy! Lena is being too loud!" We all agree, Lucy. 3. I got pink eye again  this week. I really need to do some research on recurring conjunctivitis or something. Fortunately, I still have some of the antibiotic eye drops from last time. And I came across this little gem  online. That seemed to help too! 4. In this week's edition of ...