Two FAVE places

Violet has two favorite places.  #1 is her changing table.  She looooves looking up at the mobile, and has since she was born.  Yesterday we added a few stuffy friends for her to look at as well.  Yes I added the balloon for birthday season here.

#2 is her play mat, which we call 'the jungle' because her siblings love to add so many toys that it looks like a jungle for her to explore. Sensory overload, perhaps?  She's loving it.

Max and Eleanor went around the neighborhood with pizza order forms today.  So funny how much they enjoyed it because I always dreaded fundraisers.  I think they like chatting with the neighbors, mostly.

It’s always a great idea to get to know your neighbors!!

Introducing our newest family member!

Introducing Violet Cecilia. 

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💕

Born on 7/10. 7lbs,  20 1/4” long.

Life with baby 3, thus far - 

*as with the first two, I am still calling her simply “baby” 

*she & I went on a hike before we went to the hospital

*she’s the tiniest, but her big siblings had more hair

*she cried the loudest & angriest when she was born

*4 & 6 yr olds have endless questions about new babies - literally, endless!

*Eleanor, when she first saw me post-baby “mommy, you still have your big tummy?”:)

*fitting 3 car seats in the backseat has been interesting..

*you can blame me 100% if you didn’t even know we were expecting. Now you know!🥰

Another January weekend

My weekend was entirely mundane, but I got a lot done so I am okay with that!  Saturday morning I meal-planned the heck out of our week, ordered groceries, cleaned the house, and did a boatload of food prepping for the family.  I made 5lbs of potatoes (made these friday night), a beef-roast in the crockpot for Jason, aloo gobi, lentil curry, and some rice.  The only thing I didn't get to making was more salad dressing for the week!  

Eleanor & I sat down and ate a healthy meal together on the floor mid-day Saturday.  Me with my salad + potatoes, with roasted red pepper dressing.  She had some of her pink pudding - which is really a hidden-veggies kiddo blend.  

Random thought - We need to visit this place.  Stairs upon stairs upon stairs.  Have I ever mentioned my love for stairs?  They're so fun.  I think my kids would enjoy it too because we ran hills this summer together and had a blast.
  

We were originally planning to go skiing, but that didn't happen.  My activity consisted of treadmill running & cleaning the house!  Sunday did our usual church, visit to my parents, and a few errands for me + kiddo lunch prep.  I am not sure where the day went!  I definitely had more things I wanted to do..

By Sunday night we were tired, but shockingly we got ready fairly nicely!  Library books for the win, on motivation. :)

If library books are this motivating, I may need to start planning more frequent visits...

Giant's Ridge '23 - the Year Everyone Made it

 My favorite weekend of the year is our Giant's Ridge ski trip, and it was just this past weekend.  Of course, I did not take nearly enough pictures because I was busy NOT being on my phone.  But a few highlights + a couple of pictures were...

* Getting picked up early from school for the drive up north.  Eleanor was first.  Max second.  Both did great in the car ride this year, but after the 3 hour mark, we were all so ready to be out!

* Everyone made it this year!!  This level of coordination (and health) has not happened in years.  We were a little nervous when my little nephew threw up on the drive up, but turns out, he was totally fine & they came the next morning.  Maybe he did not love the 3 hour drive?  I wish we would have gotten a group photo of us but this is as many people as I have in one photo from the entire weekend.

* Beautiful weather.  It was 20-30 degrees all weekend.  Perfect for skiing.

*This cutting practice kit from Melissa & Doug was awesome for the mornings when we are trying to stay quiet & not wake everyone up at 6.

*Skiing!!! Can you see how gorgeous the trees are behind me?  Snow clinging to the trees is my favorite.  I did about 20k each day, and had a beautiful time out all by myself.  The trails were not super busy, as I love them.  I listened to a somewhat dry (but still good!) audio book the first day, and a part of a Mel Robbins book the second day.  I think Mel made me faster because I was done with mostly the same section MUCH quicker even though I had tired legs from the first day.
I took both kids skiing out Saturday afternoon to the stadium area, and Max & I went again Sunday afternoon to the Bronze trail in search of some hills.  

Now we are all ready for next year!  Eleanor was so, so sad when we were walking away from the cabin.  She just didn't want to leave.  Me too, as always!  It's such a special place. 

It makes me think I should plan more medium-sized adventures throughout the year to look forward to.  I'll have to start a list of ideas... 

A few snow days to kick off 2023!

Happy 2023!  We celebrated by some chaotic fondue making - I did not leave myself enough time to do all the things -  and then we stayed up until 8:00 pm.  Actually I think it was almost 9 by the time everyone was in bed, so that really is late for us these days!  

New Year's Day we went to church, and played and played and played.  It was pretty nice outside, so a good day for some more sledding.

We even got a bonus day on Monday!  One more day of sledding, playing, and some food prep and cleaning for the week for me.  I made TONS of soup (this delicious one) and boiled up potatoes, and packed up kiddo pasta for lunches.  I intended to make hummus, but that has not happened yet.  Maybe Tuesday? 

My New Year's puzzle did get started, on January 2.. better late than never.  This is going to be a tough one.

And one more surprise.. we have a new adventure coming in July!  Baby #3 is officially on the way.  We are all very excited.  My apologies for the alien-babe ultrasound pic, but I had to show you something!

Jason immediately started making long lists of names, and all the things we should consider buying for Baby 3 (you know, like new cars apparently are a necessity?).  I have done nothing but sleep so far.  I have plenty of time, right...?!? 

Not always just a cold...

 There's never a great moment to get sick, and I completely randomly got sick this week.  Monday started out entirely normal - swimming lessons + a rainbow sighting on the way home.

Then I have zero pictures until Thursday night because on Tuesday afternoon, around the end of the workday, I started to get a runny nose.  I thought it was really weird because I had felt 100% healthy up until that point.  Usually with a cold you at least feel tired first.  This came out of nowhere.  On the way home, all through soccer, and up through suppertime I was convinced I must just have inhaled something that irritated my nose.   

Around bedtime I was thinking maybe it WAS a cold, resulting from my chaotic Monday launching a new website.  After the kids fell asleep I got fully congested and then started to feel pretty tired myself.  I had a client meeting the next day so figured I should do a quick covid test.  It was negative - ok so just a cold...

Tuesday morning- I woke up feeling terrible, so told work I felt like I was pretty sick so should stay home.  Wore a mask to get the kids ready for school & sent them on their way..   throughout the morning I felt worse and started getting chills and body aches.   After plenty of denial, I finally tested again and - POSITIVE for covid.  Dang.  Called the kids and Jason home, told work, etc, etc, etc.

Wednesday & Thursday - I slept a LOT both afternoons after work, and slept through til I had to login to work at 7am.  That sleep helped, but felt exhausted and sickish.  I managed to work with 2ish brief naps during the day.  Those naps were magic energy boosters.  Jason had to handle the kids alllll day long, which is not his forte.  I helped more on Thursday, even though I probably shouldn't have - it's so hard to stay away from them!  "Mommy, I need a hug" is not easy to say "nope" to...

This is how the kids were sleeping - we had them in the living room, because they didn't want to be on a different floor than where my quarantine space was..

Umm December flew by like crazy this year!

 Apparently life got busy because I have not posted in too long!  Here are a few updates from last week...

Featuring:

*~*A visit from St. Nick on Monday - new Christmas jammies & some chocolate.

*~*My current fave tea.. chocolate mint.  I don't even like mint usually, but it's awesome in tea and
coffee.

*~*This is what the trails looked like before the big snow.  Now, sadly, the noisy snowmobilers will takeover most of my beloved trails for the season.  See ya next year, trail!

*~*No photo from Wednesday - was a church night & I had two somewhat challenging littles with LOTS of wiggles. :)

*~*There is a good chance a nice cardboard box will work as a Christmas gift.  Endless possibilities!  Jason and I went to Ikea Thursday night so this was enjoyed Friday, Saturday, Sunday...

*~*Kinetic sand + grandpa = 2 hours of busytime while mom bakes cookies on Saturday!

*~*I also took 2 littles to Target on Saturday afternoon, shopped for toys for other kids, and came home with NOTHING for them.  Well, I suppose technically I got them some yogurt.  We took pictures of the things they really really loved, and we had an excellent time.

*~*And last, but not least - sledding after church on Sunday!!! E is finally 'big' enough to enjoy it - last year she was so scared.

Bring on a new week!

Grandma and Grandpa's Playground gets a new addition

Ok so this was definitely the highlight of the day, so I will just start here.  Friday nights are playground nights for our family, and today Grandma and Grandpa's playground got a new addition.



My dad started the base of a new sandbox last week, and this week we have SAND.  Super exciting.  He also found a few brand new-to-us sand toys to play with in the new sandbox.  The kids were entertained by this all evening.  Honestly, I had fun playing in it too. 



Is it too dark to go running when I cannot even see my face? Or my Garmin?



Weekend plans include: cooking, cleaning, organizing, weeding + running, skating & playing outside.  Max picked up a little bit of a cold at school, so we probably will stay even more at home than normal, so he can get rid of it fast.

I am officially ready for the weekend when I can run in the daylight!

Freshly vacuumed stairs & pizza. It must have been a successful day!

After school creativity session.



Pizza!  A new quick non-sourdough recipe to try tonight - plain old cheese for the kids & Jason cooked our pizzas on the grill (on stones) like always.



Before bedtime, I decided I needed to vacuum our stairs.  I do not think I have vacuumed them in at least two months, and I am not even exaggerating.  They were bad.  However it made them look even more amazing afterward because it was such a beautiful difference!  Yep, I even took a picture of them.



It was worth these two running around like bedtime-maniacs upstairs, while I was quickly vacuuming.



I also accomplished the meal-planning in order to do my grocery run tomorrow.

Saturday:
lunch: granola, yogurt and fruit
evening: enchiladas + kale
Sunday:
brunch: french toast/pancakes and fruit
evening: tofu, creamy noodles, broccoli
*treat: either choc cookies or choc-date cupcakes

Monday-leftovers/veggie burgers, apples + peas
Tuesday-sandwiches + zucchini
Wednesday-cashew-sauce penne, broccoli
Thursday-beans & rice + quesadillas + kale
Friday-easy stuff at mom & dad's

The End!

Weekend Adventures

I got off to an early start again on Saturday for just about 11 miles skating (10.75). It was definitely not quite as hot, but still nice to get out early.  There are less people on the trails, which means it's easier to skate freely - not worry as much about who might be up around the next corner to have to clear, or potential dog walkers with long leashes, or young kids mingling in the middle of trails.  Early is good!



I felt so much stronger this week, but still not ready to push it the full extent of my 6 mile out/6 mile back stretch - at least I think it's a 6 mile stretch. I will try to be ready to find out and try that next week.  And then we'll start working on picking up the pace.



The kids wanted to go for a ride around the neighborhood with me afterward, but they had quite the to-do list to accomplish first.  So by the time they got in the trailer, it was almost lunch/nap time and they were not interested in a very long loop.  We got fun crackers though (they always get a special snack in the bike trailer/stroller).



After nap, I really really was overdue for cleaning up their rooms - they help with the toys and clothes, and then I tackle the vacuuming, and washing blankets and things like that.  Jason was busy so I had to get our current babysitter, the laptop, out for a couple of videos to keep them occupied for a little longer.



Ultimately we did another "campout" in the basement! We watched Frozen on DisneyPlus, stayed up a little late, and then we all slept on the floor downstairs.  Eleanor did go up to her bed after the movie, because she just sleeps so fantastic that way.



Sunday, after church, we had another adventure planned.  Jason really wanted to go see this Prince statue down in Henderson, MN.  He said it was in a garden area, so we could probably explore there too - which made it sound good enough to me!  So after church we fueled up with extra cheerios and packed up the car.



And we drove over an hour to see this...



Also, it was not really in a garden...



So we went off to plan B: a little nature center not even 5 miles away.



We took a long walk through a really cool trail. It wove us back through some soybean and corn fields, to a big pond that was really pretty because it was in the middle of nowhere & usually our walks involve houses at some point.



They wore themselves out for a short nap & then were off and running again when we got back for some visits with grandmas and grandpas.



It turned out to be a successful adventure after all!



Whew we did a lot this weekend..

A new addition to my morning routine

I've been visiting this giant weed every morning. Because for whatever reason the Japanese beetles that have decided to join our flower beds find it really tasty. Every morning now, I go spray them down with a soap-water mix. It's only been a couple of days, so we will find out if it actually works! Fortunately the beetles have not destroyed any other plants like this.



Also, while out spraying I stumbled across this random pretty blue flower.  Pretty sure this one is technically a weed too - I didn't plan it.  That makes it a weed, right?  It's a very pretty weed.



Do you think if I put marshmallows into my superfoods, it still counts as a superfood snack?  It was not quite as good as my choco-chip/caco nib additions, though still a fun addition with the coconut flakes too.



My mom brought over some of her amazing fresh salsa for us the other night.  So today my lunch was covered in it - plus leftover black beans, corn, and I topped it with walnuts.  Which, I know sounds weird, but it adds a nice crunch, and I am into walnuts right now.



Fresh salsa is beautiful.



After picking up the kiddos, we headed to my parents', per our usual Friday night fun plans!  My dad has a sandbox in the works, so that's what the frame is under the swingset.  My brother even stopped by too - hooray!



Good thing these kids have both school & grandparents' houses for playing on some sort of playgrounds during this pandemic!