March Madness

I cannot believe it's already been a month,.....
I will blame my BFF Sarah for the neglecting of my blog, house, children, etc... as she has introduced me to a new Internet Social Network. You may have heard of it...It's called Facebook. FB for all you Facebook virgins out there. (not sure if there are any left out there, as I may have been the last one) I'm starting to wonder if they have FB Rehab?

We are still cooped up like chickens. I think this darn winter will hang around as long as it possibly can. Of course I woke up to a snow filled yard yesterday morning,.....& why wouldn't have I, since I just made the comment 2 days prior (when it was 65 degrees) "I am so glad we're done with snow!"

Ughh...will summer ever get here? After being teased with beautiful weather it makes me want to hop on a plane & head to AZ. Oh, wait.....WE ARE!! Yes, we are headed to our old stomping grounds. It will be so nice to get some Vitamin D the good ol' fashion way. I am so excited. Seeing that it's McKenna's 4th Birthday this week, we thought we'd give her the greatest birthday present every little girl dreams of,....meeting Cinderella (& the other princesses) in person!! We are headed to Disneyland as well. I will post a million & one pictures for everyone to see her awe struck expressions. (she lives, breathes & dreams princesses)
It's official! Gage's first tooth made it's debut yesterday afternoon!! (bottom left) He has been chewing on everything & anything he can get his little fingers on. (the cat's tail is no exception)

He as also become aware of food. It doesn't matter what it is, if he sees you eating something, or about too, the fight is on. He will reach for it (to the point of falling out of my arms), grab for it (to the point of falling on his face) & stare you down (quite funny) until he gets to taste it. I made these awesome teething biscuits & he just loves them. I will post the recipe at the end.

They are great & don't fall apart like the other teething biscuits we've tried.

Gage also had his first competition. Who does Gagers prefer? Blondes, Brunettes or Red Heads?

After much thought,

analyzing,

of course taste testing

....& a little bit of teasing us....

The winner is............

BLONDES! (I always said Blondes have more fun!)

Gage sits up on his own & he's almost ready to crawl. Jason made the comment that he should be crawling by now. Then I realized I would need to put him down in order for him to be able to do that. :0) So we're working on that as well as sleeping in the crib. I'm still awaken by a beautiful little baby grabbing at his toes rolling over onto me & slobbering in my face every morning. (ok, some mornings he just wakes up screaming & grunting until we get up with him so he can do his thing. Like clock-work, he poops EVERY morning at about 7 am.....never fails.) We said our goodbyes to the baby bath that we've used to bathe all of our little ones. Now that Gage is good at sitting, he's in the tub! He thinks it's pretty neat splashing & is seriously wondering how he can get the drain into his mouth. (sorry honey, it doesn't lift up......he'll figure it out after a couple more baths)

Besides being the cutest baby ever, he just likes to hang out with the family.

He's such a content little guy.

Zander went from a toddler bed to a big bed! He just loves it. Now that he's higher, he's taken notice of the Winnie the Pooh border that's on the wall. He went down for a nap & when I went in to check on him, I noticed he tore a bunch of the border off. I gasped when I saw what he did, but then I remembered I hated the border & it made him less of a stinker. (plus he was asleep when I noticed it, & who can get mad a little sleeping boy?) Sorry to all you Winnie the Pooh lovers out there, I just think it's over-rated. So, after removing the remaining border from the walls yesterday (it became a ritual for him to tear some off before he went down for his naps) I am going to re-decorate the boys room, which I am really excited about.

(Remember that kid from Jerry McGuire? It's Zander!)

Zander continues to work on his "L's". A couple of nights ago he proceeded to tell me "I wuv you mommy. You wook wike Cinderwewwa (that's Cinderella, for all you non toddler translators). You have beautiful horns."....Umm, thanks? (he was sticking my hair out on both sides, so I'm thinking those are the beautiful horns he's referring to?) Oh he is such a "wittle wover" too. He has been since birth. Zander is a snuggler a hugger & a kisser. Just a mellow kid. He's going to make a great daddy/husband some day. Yes, (sigh) McKenna still tries to make him a fellow princess. It's a daily struggle I have with her (& him). I ask Zander, "Are you a boy or a girl?" He says "Boy!" (most of the time). I later hear McKenna telling him that he's actually a girl & should wear her dress so he can be in her wedding. Within two minutes of explaining he's a boy & boy's don't wear dresses, there's an instant bridal party in my living room, with Zander as the made of honor.

(I actually wore the pink dress in my Aunt's wedding when I was 4)

Oh those kids crack me up!
McKenna, as mentioned earlier, is such a princess. Just last week she told Jason she wanted to be Belle (from Beauty & the Beast) when she grows up. (Who knows, there's always that possibility she will be....I mean, somebody has to be Belle at Disneyland, right?) We went to Disney on Ice last month & the kids just loved it! There were a bunch of little girls dressed up as princesses too. It was really cute. I didn't even think of dressing her up, seeing we parked at Lambeau Field & walked to the Resch Center (about 3 or 4 blocks) in SUB ZERO weather!! Brrr!
About 3 weeks ago I had a little fight with McKenna (well, as much of a fight that can be had with an almost 4 year old) & when I told her what she did was wrong & asked her if she understood, she just looked at me, rolled her eyes, & said, " Whatever Mom." Umm, what! I can almost feel the contractions from my uterus shrinking from just giving birth to this beautiful little baby girl, & did she just look at me like she was a high-schooler & tell me whatever?!? And what's with the whole mom thing? I'm MOMMY, or Mama,...not MOM!!

Can I press the pause button on her & let her be little for just a bit longer? I don't even know when she stopped being a toddler & turned into a little girl. (Can I get some Kleenex over here please?!)

(When she's not a Drama Queen she's a little goof ball!)
Jason, well, is sitting on the couch watching what most of the men today are watching.....basketball.

(Twins much?)

The dreaded March Madness has begun. I saw a funny commercial on TV yesterday about a dad commenting on how he couldn't believe his little girl was going to be 6 yrs old. He stated how he remembered the day she was born perfectly, it then showed a flashback of which teams won & which teams lost. (she was born during March Madness) It was quite funny, until I realized, "Hey, I wonder if Jason thinks this too?" (McKenna was also born during the NCAA Tourney) Jason continues to work hard to support our family & allowing me to not miss a moment in the kids lives. Thank you honey!
I myself, am working on a bunch of projects. When we moved into the house, I was almost 8 mos pregnant, so not much could be done as far as decorating. Once the baby was born, well, I was pretty much tied up nursing or tending to the other little rascals. Now that I am done with nursing, & McKenna & Zander are off having their weddings (j/k) I have some time to get my list checked off. Besides preparing to plant a garden, I bought some fabric to make curtains for McKenna's room as well as a beautiful canopy for her bed. I'm also making curtains for various rooms throughout the house. (just to clarify: by "I'm making them", I am really referring to my mother-in-law making them) I'm not sure when my favorite store went from Abercrombie & Fitch to HOBBY LOBBY!!?? (Probably when I became pregnant & can no longer fit into nor afford A&F?) Once the projects are completed, including the re-decorating of the boys room, I will post the before & after pictures.

Jason & I managed to find time to go out with some friends from college TWICE this month. It was much needed & much fun. Anyone remember Landon from "The Real World Philidelphia"? (on MTV) He was part of our entorage. Check him out on The Real World vs Road Rules Challange debuing in April on MTV.

Hopefully by the time we come back from AZ there won't be a spec of snow on the ground or on the sun windows & we can finally start to enjoy this country living again!

We hope all is well with everyone & I will post some pics of McKenna's Princess Party this next weekend. For all you Princesses who know where we live, we hope to see you there!!

Click on picture for larger view. Let me know if you want me to email the recipe.