Our Dolphin's Party

We had a football party a couple of weeks ago. Mike's favorite team, the Dolphins, played the Bears, which is his friends' favorite team. We made some chili and had some appetizers. Our friends brought their son with, and our kids love him! I wish he were old enough to babysit!

We all wore Dolphin's gear hoping our team spirit would help them win. I forgot to snap a picture of us all together! Despite our cute outfits, the Dolphins ended up losing.

Trying to get his sweatshirt off. He never wants clothes on.

Riley holding the potty chair bucket which is full of pee.

Bucky in Ethan's jersey.

Black Friday

My sister, Sarah, and her family came over on Thanksgiving night to play cards. We taught Sarah and Steve the game, canasta. It was girls vs guys. Sarah and I kicked butt! We really rubbed it in their faces too!

We were planning on getting up early to go do some shopping, but we stayed up way too late. We still made it out of the house by 11, which I think is good. Speaking of Black Friday shopping, it's insane. This is the first year I went out early and shopped. We went to the mall, which was a mad house. My niece, Janai, also came. She was a pretty good sport, but I could tell she was getting sick of shopping! We got some good deals! My feet hurt after that trip! I'm glad I got started on my shopping. Last year, I waited until 2 weeks before Christmas to even start.

Little Miss Piggy, Jude. This girl can eat! I had made the kids peanut butter toast and they, of course, hardly touched it. Jude spotted it instantly and grabbed an entire piece and started chowing down. She then ate a ton of cheesy puffs.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I know I'm a little late posting this! I hope your Thanksgiving was as fun as ours. We went to Springfield to Mike's aunt's house. The kids had a blast playing with their second cousins. They were pretty worn out by the time our trip was over. We played some cards. It's a tradition for them to play a card game called canasta. It's an old game and is really fun.

We ate all of the traditional foods. Mike's mom and aunt like to eat weird food. They were eating fried giblets. The rest of us wanted to look away! They also like to eat pig's feet, but thankfully, the grocery store was out. The turkey and stuffing were really good. The kids' favorite was the pie. Go figure!

Mia was so tired here. She could barely keep her eyes open.

Pigging out on pumpkin pie. Her favorite Thanksgiving food, by far. Actually, she was eating the whipped topping.

Their second cousin, Shelby.

Riley was so worn out that she took a three hour nap...during our Thanksgiving meal. Mike laid down with her and took a nap as well. I snuck in to take a picture and Mike heard me. He closed his eyes and then smiled. I told him that most people don't smile while they're sleeping. :) Cute picture nonetheless!

Shaving with Grandpa.

Anniversary

Mike and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe that it's all ready been 7 years (together for 10. Wow, a decade!) A lot has happened in that time! We met in Cancun on spring break my sophomore year of college (his junior.) There were a lot of ironic things that happened from the beginning. We both went to USD but had never seen each other. He said he saw me in the Minneapolis airport and decided that he wanted to meet me. We flew on the same flight down and back from Cancun and staid in the same hotel but different floors. Shortly before we went to Cancun, my friends and I rented an apartment that was two doors down from where he was living with his friends. It's been a wild and crazy 7 years, never boring for a second. I'm thankful for having such an awesome husband and for him being such a great father!

We had a nice night out. We went to Foley's, which is a fancy steakhouse. Mike had a monstrous steak and I had some chicken and shrimp pasta. We shared a bottle of wine and a piece of cheesecake. It was very good! Of course, the kids came up in our conversation, but we also had a nice adult conversation. It's so relaxing to sit back and eat a quiet meal. We were going to go to a movie, but we missed the time. I'd have liked to have seen the new Harry Potter flick, but Mike isn't into Harry Potter. He wanted to see, "Due Date", which I was unsure of, so I guess it's good that we missed the time!

After dinner, we went to Big Lots, World Market, and Petco. It was fun to walk around and look at things without three little ones in tow. We decided to get an oven for our gifts to each other. I know, how romantic! After our shopping trip, we came home to three excited wild kids! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Schmidt for babysitting!

I thought it'd be fun to post some of our wedding pictures. It was fun to look through them again. I hope I didn't go a little overboard!

Busy Week

We've had a really busy week here. I had a mock code for work that I had to go in for. Sarah watched the kids for me so Mike didn't have to take off work. Thanks again, Sarah!

Ethan had a speech session and he did really well. He was talking a lot and did everything Laura asked. I love these kinds of sessions!

The people from Birth to 3 came to re-evaluate Ethan to see if he still needs therapy. He barely cooperated with them. Ethan is really shy around people he doesn't know. It takes him a long time to warm up to people. It's frustrating! He wouldn't talk out loud and wouldn't do the things they asked. Stinker! He scored just a little over what he should. She changed his score a little bit so he would qualify. She is afraid that if we stop therapy, he'll regress. They also said Ethan would benefit from going to preschool because he's so shy with strangers. They're going to see if both Ethan and Mia will qualify for preschool. It would be Monday thru Thursday from 8am to 11am. I'm not crazy about the time! They also tried to evaluate Mia but she wouldn't even look at them! They're going to see if Laura will start working with her as well because she isn't talking as much as she used to.

Mike had a football party last night. His team, the Dolphins, played his friends' team, the Bears. We made some chili and other munchies. The kids had a blast playing with our friends' son. They were pretty worn out by the end of the night.

I have to work tonight, so the kids get some Dad time. Our 7th wedding anniversary is Monday. Mike's parents are going to watch the kids for us while we go out and celebrate. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do but it'll be fun to have some time alone. I think we're going to get an oven for our anniversary. Yeah, I know, sounds really romantic!

Mia is Potty Trained...

Yey! I'm so excited to report this! A week ago, I focused on potty training her. I took her diaper off in the morning. She kept bringing me diapers to put on her, so I knew she had to go. I'd put her on the potty chair and kept doing this until she went. On several days, she'd hold it from 9am to 4pm! She's stubborn! We did this for a few days, and she really caught on. She's been going on the potty chair for the past couple of days. We dance, clap, and shout when she goes. She's so proud of herself! She always shouts, "I peed" with a huge smile on her face. Mia, of course, reminds me that she gets a piece of candy when she goes.

On several occasions, I caught Mia trying to pee standing up (like Ethan.) She actually did pee standing up once. Needless to say, most of it was on the floor. Only a little made it in. She, thank goodness, has stopped doing this!

I'm getting sick of emptying the potty chair. I know, shame on me! I've waited years for them to be potty trained and now I'm complaining about the potty chair. It wouldn't be such a big deal except that Ethan pees every half an hour. (I am not exaggerating.) You add Mia peeing in it and it becomes 3-4 times in an hour. That wouldn't be a big deal except that Riley likes to empty it. It's a flipping race to the potty chair when one of them goes. When Riley gets ahold of it, she spills pee everywhere. I have to try not to run at her because she'll take off running and pee goes everywhere. She's spilled pee on my leg before. Mia is just as bad about wanting to empty it except she doesn't spill quite as much. Though, she spilled pee all over Mike's foot. I got a good laugh out of it!

There's a whole lot of nakedness going on at our house. I think that is what helped with our two being potty trained. I strip them down and they love it! I think it helps remind them that they don't have a diaper on. Mike told me the other day that it creeps him out that the kids are always naked. Haha. It is a little awkward when people come over or we get packages delivered. I try to hide the kids behind the door, but they always want to see who's here. I always feel the need to explain to people why they're naked. People probably think we're weird!

Poor Riley

Whenever Mike scolds Riley, she automatically sticks out her bottom lip. She doesn't do it when I get after her. It must be the deep voice. It's funny nonetheless! She was trying to get Mike's beer.

The Weekend is Here

-I hope everyone has a good weekend. I have to work, so Mike has daddy duty. He's excited beyond belief! :)

-The kids are getting really naughty. Mia has learned a couple of new phrases. She now tells Riley to, "go away." I have to admit that I laughed the first couple of times I heard her say it. I was wondering where she learned it when Elsa tried sitting on my lap and I told her to "go away." Oops. I'll take the blame for that one!

-Do you want to know what her second new phrase is? Shut-up. I couldn't believe it. We were sitting in the living room last night and Mike was making some noise, and Mia kept chewing him out and saying, "stuck-up." Mike said to me that he thought she was telling him to shut-up. Well, today, I was trying to get Mia to talk more (she hasn't been talking as much as she used to) by pointing to her nose and eyes and asking what they were. She looks at me and says, "stuck-up." I looked at her and asked her if she just told me to shut-up, and she said, "stuck-up" again. I then told her to say shut-up, and sure enough, she says, "stuck-up." Wonderful! That is one word that I really don't want her saying.

-Riley is a little instigator. Her new little trick is taking something away from the twins and running away as fast as she can. Ethan had his speech session yesterday, and Mia was quietly playing with one of Laura's ball toys. Riley grabbed two of the balls and took off running. Mia threw a complete fit. She started screaming, threw herself to the ground and started lurching around like she was having a seizure. Laura turns around to see what the commotion was and saw Riley running away with the balls. She started laughing and I said to her, "welcome to my day." Laura said that she was surprised that Riley does stuff like that. She figured that it would be Mia doing it.

-Ethan's speech therapy went well. He still wants me to sit right there. If I try and get up, he follows me out of the room. I think he's making a lot of progress. He talks more than Mia, which has me worried about Mia. Will I ever stop worrying about them? :) They will be doing his 3 year old evaluation soon to see if he still needs therapy. I'm hoping that he scores well enough and we can stop. It's been a good experience, but I'm sick of making sure my house is clean! And those with little kids know exactly what I'm talking about!

Cheeeeeeeese...

The kids have started saying, "cheese" when I take their pictures. It cracks me up!