2.13.2011

Today we spent the afternoon up at the lake to celebrate Kristi's birthday. We watched home videos of family vacations and the kids, drank some wine, ate a great dinner and celebrated Kristi. It was a wonderful night.

Love this shot, daddy's are so strong.

Bianca got tired and almost fell asleep on daddy.

2.12.2011

On Saturday Brian and I took the kids on a little staycation at a local Embassy Suites. We checked in around 4 and hit up the pool and hot tub. The kids had a blast swimming and splashing around. Then we headed up to get ready for the complimentary happy hour. Just one of the perks of staying at the Embassy Suites. While getting ready, you could find Bianca and Bennett staring out the window at the hundreds of ducks swimming in an aerated pond. Definitely a sight for sore eyes this winter!

We headed down for some snacks and drinks and met up with Brian's uncle and cousins, who just happened to be staying at the same hotel on the same night!  Great minds think alike I guess. 

Brian taking Bianca's picture!

Beebs chilling at the empty bar! 

 Bennett with cousin Angie. 

Cousin Natalie and Cousin Jake.

After happy hour, we headed out to dinner at a local 50's restaurant. The food was tasty but the service was slow! The kids were definitely antsy which made for a stressful dinner. After dinner we headed back and hit the hay. In the morning we ate the awesome complimentary breakfast (another perk) and headed home! It was a nice staycation.

2.11.2011 {Spaces}

Day 10 of The Joy of Love is all about "spaces".  Spaces where our loved one(s) can be found, the space they LOVE.  I know I've mentioned it plenty of times before, but I have to document it for this prompt.  Bennett absolutely loves the fireplace.  If it's on, you can bet that he's sitting right in front of it.  Today, he was enjoying a Popsicle in front of the fireplace.  Strange but true!  And, I just love it!

2.10.2011

This post is going to be 3 part and contain much more than 1 picture, but that's ok because I want to remember it all!

First, I need to post this picture of poor Bennett enduring his sister's dance class. This is what he does, plays the iPad, or on other days his trucks and he ALWAYS runs around in the vacant studio! He's a trooper!

Now I need to catch up with The Joy of Love, this is day 9, hobbies or passions.  And forgive me because I'm going a bit out of order.  The girls love to dance, they love going to class and love showing me their moves daily.  Bianca happened to be the star of the week today and she did such a great job leading her class with her dance steps. 

And now back to Day 8 for The Joy of Love, a gift of love.  Annika showed up with this wonderfully amazing card for Brian and myself today.  It truly is a gift of love, handcrafted from my kindergartner.  I love it!

2.9.2011

Ever since Annika was a little baby, she was able to sit for a long time and focus on a single project.  She never had the toddler attention span of bouncing from one thing to another.  At one year of age, she could sit and watch an entire episode of Sesame Street and that's a whole hour!  To this day, she can sit for hours on end and color, do puzzles, crafts or play with legos, polly pockets or littlest petshop.  I love that she can do this and I am still fascinated that she has this ability when ADHD runs rampad in our family!  

Annika playing legos.  She really enjoys this new hobby and it's even more meaningful because her daddy shares this love.

I didn't edit these pictures (besides sharpening and resizing for web).  I just love how warm the light is.  This brings me back to the exact moment, the sun blaring into our windows as it always does in the afternoon, the dust particles and the mess in our living room.  It's who we are!

2.8.2011

I love how the kids look in the morning.  They still have their sleepy eyes and are so cute and snuggly in their jammies.  And, we can't forget the bed head.  What's not to love?  And this morning, the light was so nice, so warm and peaceful.  The morning was serene, even if it was only for a moment!

Crazy Annika with her crazy hair!

Bianca serving up the cake!

2.7.2011 v. 2

I know I already did a post today, but in my quest to add something to the kids' bathroom walls I wanted to get a second shot of them in the bath.  A few weeks ago I snapped a super cute shot of their feet and got it printed on canvas.  It looks so cute in there, but I have another wall to decorate so I wanted a face shot of my monkeys in the bath too to complete it.  Well, I got it!

Looks like a typical bath night in our house!