the laugh

we finally managed to get tanner's laugh on camera. he is a very happy guy, but he is so hard to get a laugh out of. also he's cutting some teeth (or so we think) and that is why he's playing with his tongue. and now we want to share.

spring break

one of the perks of having a husband who is still in school...spring break. a full week of relaxing and not worrying about studying or tests or even getting to class on time. it just couldn't get any better than that. the only downside was that both of our kids ended up getting sick just in time for our break.

first of all, i have to say that none of my spring break pictures turned out great. so many of them were blurry. who knows, maybe i was completely distracted with our awesome company.

i love that st. patrick's day fell over spring break. that means we could celebrate all day for one of my favorite holidays. dressing the kids in green, leprechaun shakes and our traditional green dinner.





grandma hedin and emily flew in the afternoon of st. patrick's day. they were able to join us for our green dinner.



while they were here in wisconsin, we headed out to the outlets to do some shopping. grandma thoroughly spoiled our kids and us as well. thanks so much! since both kiddos were sick they were pretty tired and cranky while shopping. we decided to take a small break to let the kids sit and relax.



shopping isn't always the most exciting for a toddler, but katelyn found ways to entertain herself. she is in love with bracelets and kept loading her arm with them.



we also hit up a bounce house place for katelyn to run around at. she had a ton of fun running around and jumping but got worn out quickly. that darn sickness.



of course we couldn't have them come and visit and not grab some custard. katelyn was totally okay with that.



and while grandma and emily were here they took great care of our kids. both kids were pretty needy with their snotty noses and nasty coughs, but grandma and emily were always willing to hold the kids and play with them and even give them baths.



thank you for coming out to wisconsin grandma and emily. i must add that lori was so nice to let us all go out to a movie while she watched the kids and put them to bed. it was wonderful.

we had a great time and miss you already.

the verdict is in...

tanner does not like rice cereal. the poor kid just sits there with this disgusted look on his face. especially as the spoon gets closer and closer to his face.



katelyn and i took turns painting toenails. she wanted to get it just right and kept telling me, "you have to hold still. don't move." just like i tell her when i paint her nails. she is such a girly girl. i love it.

katelyn loves to help me fold the laundry, but folding turns into playing with the clothes (and messing up my neat piles). by the time we're done she's tried on a little bit of everything. her favorite though is putting on our socks.

next week is spring break. we are so excited for the break especially because we're going to have some visitors. grandma and emily, these two are waiting to be spoiled. hurry to wisconsin!

katelyn the thief

katelyn has been a great help with tanner. he burps, she runs and gets a burp cloth. he poops, she's off again getting a diaper. he's fussy, she wants to grab him a toy...and then keeps it for herself.
so i'm sure you can understand why i would feel some relief when she goes down for a nap and tanner and i have some time to ourselves. i can leave him on his own to play with his toys knowing katelyn isn't there to steal them away.

but eventually, katelyn is awake again and ready to start grabbing.

i don't normally let katelyn get away with this. just this once while i was snapping some pics.

thankfully tanner doesn't seem to care that his toy is stolen. let's just hope he stays like this when he becomes more aware of what she's doing.

oh, and katelyn's latest and greatest. changing outfits after i put her down for a nap. hence the reason why she's wearing shorts hiked up as high as they will go in the middle of winter.


and lucky me. i got to take some pictures of my neighbor's baby. what a doll. and so fun to play with a tiny little newborn again.

play time

i love my kiddies. sometimes i think i don't say that enough. it's easy for me to get together with friends and complain about the hard/bad/frustrating things my kids do. i keep telling myself to stop doing that, but i get back in the situation and there i am complaining again. but i really do love my kids. they make us laugh and smile every single day. sure there are some really difficult things we are trying to overcome (hopefully sooner than later) but i don't want to get so wrapped up in those negative things that i forget there are still good things going on as well.

our smiley little guy that is getting better about sleeping at night. yea! he has been so different from katelyn in the sleep department. this is something i did not expect since katelyn was so easy.


i think i'm always a month behind when it comes to things tanner is doing. he started grabbing his feet around 4 months and hasn't let go since. this has made for some tricky diaper changes.


my kids have been so different. katelyn was sitting up by five months but not rolling over (and she never did). tanner wants to roll over oh so badly but doesn't seem that interested in sitting up.


we've been doing a little preschool with katelyn this year with some of her church friends. she loves it. i think we're always making a mad dash to get out the door in time, but she gets to learn and play for two hours while i get to run errands with a sleeping baby. i do not object to that.

all ready for preschool and decked out completely in pink. i think we're brainwashing her.


has anyone else gone through way too many toothbrushes with their two year old? katelyn keeps dropping her toothbrushes in gross places, chewing them beyond use or even losing them. i finally decided to buy two so i have a replacement on hand.


oh katelyn with her brother. she loves this kid to no end. she is constantly trying to make him laugh and smile at her and loves to smother him to death. i can't wait until he is a little bigger so he can play along. sibling relationships are fun to watch as they develop.

as of late

i think we've been indoors too much. i'm basing this off of katelyn's behavior lately. we are need of some warm weather so we can get out. winter go away now. we're done with you. i'm really starting to root for a residency in arizona or texas. as my mom says, you just have to suffer through two months of really hot weather, then the rest of the year is great. sounds good to me.

we just had ourselves a nice little snowstorm that brought in 9.2" of snow. nothing in comparison to the east coast, but still a lot of snow. tanner liked checking out the snow falling.


tanner grabs at everything now. if it is within arms reach, he wants it. my phone, papers, anything i'm eating...seriously everything.



katelyn loves to color. and apparantly she really loves to color with markers. i gave her some paper hearts to decorate for the g-parents for valentines day. she worked on these four hearts for one hour. she colored every square inch of each heart then colored every square inch all over again. she put a lot of work into those valentines.



sadly katelyn has been spending a lot of time in time-out. i think i'm kind of a mean mom for taking this picture. she was really mad at me when i pointed the camera at her.



katelyn has slowly started taking some of her naps away. she naps about every three days. i still stick her in her room for quiet time though. one day i went to check on her in her room just to find it empty. i went downstairs and found her huddled over her stuff asleep in the swing. not sure how that can be more comfortable than her bed.

dinner with daddy

test weeks are a little busy around here. so we decided to join tyler on campus for dinner one night. it turned out to be a crazy night. katelyn spilled her red drink all over the table and our food, tanner pooped in his diaper and sent it all the way up his back, i brought leftovers (enough said), katelyn ran away from tyler when he tried to clean her up...

but you would never guess all of that from the pictures.