TURNING 2

To my sweet little Olivia Grace -

Today you turn two, and I simply cannot believe it. Two! You are two years old, where oh where has the time gone little girl?

This year has been a very busy one for you. You have learned so much - like how to push chairs up to counter tops, climb on up and get into the cabinets. Most often I find you getting into the treat cabinet, with your face covered in some sort of chocolate, with a look of "what did I do Mom?" on your face. I have to say, you are one smart little girl. But sometimes you decided to mix it up a bit and you go for the cabinet that is full of Momma's wine glasses. This last time I found you standing next to the chair you had climbed on drinking water out of one of my fanciest glasses, happy as could be. The things you achieve all on your own at such a young age really baffle me little girl.

You have learned how to apply Mommy's lotion to your body in impossibly large amounts. I have found you numerous times on the floor of my bathroom after I have taken a shower with lotion all over your legs, arms, pajamas, and lathered in to your hair. What a mess!!

You have discovered where the arts and crafts drawer is and have found its contents to be oh so fun to dump all over the floor. After dumping it all, you seem to enjoy creating some sort of art project - but not on paper - oh no. You enjoy making an art project on yourself by coloring up and down your legs, arms and belly with markers. Oh, do you ever enjoy that. I have found you on numerous occasions sitting on the floor coloring away on one of your limbs without a care in the world. I have to admit, at times I have found you so enjoying yourself I have left you to make a colorful mess out of yourself. Heck, it is only crayola markers, right?

You have learned the oh so wonderful art of throwing tantrums with the thought that this will make it possible for you to get your way. I think we are almost at the point where you are realizing these tantrums just land you in a time out. Where after a few minutes I always find you at my heels ready for a big hug and kiss. Which I have to say is the best apology I could ever receive.

You have also learned how to hit when you are angry or frustrated. One of the many perks of having older siblings - you learn from them - the good, the bad, and the ugly. When you hit Momma or one of your siblings all I have to say is "no, no, you be gentle!" and you immediately turn to whomever you hit and gently stroke their face saying "genta, genta..." You can be so darn sweet.

So as you can see, you have been one busy little girl this year Olivia Grace. Learning new things, exploring and becoming your own little person.

But beyond all the crazy things you seem to get in to that keep your Mama on your toes, you really are a sweet, sensitive, and loving little girl.

You are always showing your brothers and sisters how much you love them by giving them hugs and kisses for no reason.

You lay for what seems like forever on the your favorite Dora chair [that turns in to a bed], watching Dora the Explorer [your favorite show ever].

If we have to go anywhere you immediately call out for Nuky and gay - kee. [Nuk and Blanket] Your two most coveted items on this planet. We never leave home without them.

When you are upset or tired, that nuk goes right in your mouth and that blanket is found snuggled up right to your sweet baby face. Your source of comfort.

At night before you go to sleep you sweetly pat the pillow right next to yours and say "Momma Pray." I lay, you put your hands together, and we say our goodnight prayer - now I lay me down to sleep.

You have brought your Daddy and I so much love and joy this past year, and we are so excited to see what this next year brings. I am certain you will still be as busy as ever, getting in to things and keeping me on my toes. And that is just fine. I love you so darn much it really does not matter what you do.

Happy, happy birthday my Olivia Grace Shelton. I love you to the moon my little 2 year old.

DADDY'S DAY [A day late]

I love my man. I love how he is able to make me laugh when it seems like there is nothing in the world to laugh about. I love how he knows just how to make me feel better when I am sad or hurting. I love how hard he works to make it possible for us to live in our house in our great neighborhood. I love that he makes it possible for me to stay at home with our babies so that I am able to raise them. I love how he sometimes comes home with a bouquet of my favorite wildflowers for me just because. I love the cards he gives me on special occasions, and the notes he leaves in my suitcase for me to find when I go on one of my rare, but much needed Mommy-needs-a-little-break get aways. I love how well he knows me, what can set me off without a moment's notice, what can make me cry without a moment's notice, what can make me smile at a moment's notice.

But most of all, I love that he chose me to spend the rest of his life with, to grow old with, to have babies with. I love that he loves me.

And I think it is safe to say that the kids love him just about as much as I do. He may not be around as much as other Dad's are, but when he is, he is pretty much the greatest Dad ever.

He takes the boys fishing down at the docks at the Marina, which they think is pretty much the best thing ever. A whole afternoon catching fish with Daddy? What could be better. He brings Ava out for special shopping day's with him which she just loves more than life itself. Why? Because Daddy, of course, buys her whatever her little heart desires. He simply spoils.her.rotten. And loves every minute of it. He spends hours in the playroom with Anthony trying to pass levels on whatever game he can't seem to stop playing on the Wii at the time. Sometimes it's Super Mario, sometimes Star Wars, but whatever it is he sits there patiently playing and listening to Anthony's instruction as to how to pass the level at hand. He snuggles up on the couch with his little Liv Grace and watches Dora with her over and over again if she wants. He lays with her and calms her down when she wakes up in the middle of the night crying and upset.

He loves our kids more than life itself; and this is another one of the many reasons I am so crazy in love with him.

Happy Daddy's Day honey! I love you....

NORTH SHORE

Our little get away to the North Shore this past weekend was nothing short of amazing. And I have to say, I was amazed by how amazing it really was. [You think I used the word "amaze" enough there?]

I had never been to the North Shore, and I admit, I never really had any desire to go there much less any other place in Minnesota. I always thought, Oh, I live in Minnesota, why would I want to go on vacation in Minnesota? Boooooring! Give me hot, sticky, sunny weather, a beach and a cocktail in my hand -that is what I call vacation. Which meant take me to Key West, Florida, Hawaii.... You know the places.

I admit, as we were driving through Duluth to our final destination, I was still feeling a bit hesitant. Not knowing if I would be bored out of my head and desperately looking for the nearest beach or happening bar/restaurant to entertain myself at by people watching.

But when we arrived, all my worries melted away.

The Mr. had taken care of all the details, and I have to say, he did quite the job. We stayed at the Grand Superior Lodge in Two Harbors. He decided the regular rooms in the lodge were not good enough for our last-little-get-away-before-baby-arrives, so he went and rented us our own little one bedroom cabin over looking Lake Superior.

All I can say about this place is.... perfection. It was the epitome of what I had asked for - a peaceful, relaxing, romantic getaway, just him and I.

This was the view from our patio,


The patio that the Mr. enjoyed sitting on each evening while enjoying an adult beverage after a long day of exploring. I would have to say, he deserved it after bringing me to this little piece of heaven.


We did our fair share of exploring The North Shore - one of the most amazing places we stopped at was Gooseberry Falls. The waterfalls were nothing short of unbelievable. The crazy thing was that us tourists had free reign of the place, you could walk right up - I mean right up- to the side of a waterfall and look down. It was as if you were in the middle of no where on your own little adventure - like LOST. [I may watch too much T.V.]

Here I am standing a safe distance away from one of the waterfalls. I would not dare to get much closer, as I have to admit, I am pretty clumsy, even more so when I am pregnant. I would be the one they would be telling the unfortunate story about on the local news station. Top news today: A pregnant tourist plummets to her death after tripping on a rock and falling down a waterfall at Gooseberry Falls today. Yep, I can see that happening.


We even managed to get a picture of us together next to the Falls. This is never an easy feat, as both the Mr. and I feel weird about stopping complete strangers who are enjoying their day to take a picture of us. But I figure if we did not do this at least a few times on this trip, we would not have any pictures of the two of us together, and I would be kicking myself.

So, we stopped a lovely couple who looked as if they were on the same sort of romantic little get away as us, and asked them to snap a quick picture of us. This time we were up higher, where they had built a wall so that no one had the ability to plummet to their death. That is unless they were trying to.


Here we are inside the visitors enter looking at this wolf. Apparently this breed [would you call it a breed? Heck, I don't know] is no longer in existence, so this one they stuffed and put on display is pretty special. We thought the kids would enjoy the picture, so here I am, posing with the big fella.

I got a few shots of the Mr. hiking down the trails toward other fun things to see.


Here he is feeling how cold the water was. At this point I was ready to lay right on those rocks and let myself be covered in the freezing water I was so hot. Being 8 months pregnant and hiking up and down stairs, dirt paths, and rocks is not so easy. Not to mention it makes you hot. Really hot. Like sweat dripping from your forehead down in to your eyes hot. No jokes - I felt as if I were 16 again and had just spent an hour running up and down and up and down the soccer field playing a game. Sad thing is now at 33 all it takes is a bit of hiking to get me to sweat like that. Oh the joys of getting older, being out of shape and being pregnant.


Here we are in Grand Marais checking out the view.


Right after this little sight seeing expedition we happened upon a shop called "The World's Best Donut's" and decided we had to stop in and have one. In deed they were very yummy. Would I call them the world's best donut's? Not so sure about that, but I can say I could have eaten a dozen of them.

Outside of this little shop was a fun place to stick your head for a photo. Of course, I had to have the Mr. take a picture of me. I look pretty good, right? An obese woman with yellow pig tails, holding a tray of donuts. Nice.



No, this is not the only pictures we took. There are many, many more that are still sitting on my camera. I just thought I would show a few of the highlights from our trip and leave it at that. Not to mention this post would be about a mile long if I were to have uploaded all of our pictures to see.

So there you have it, our trip to the North Shore. It was amazing [there I go with amazing again], beautiful, peaceful, relaxing, and perfect in every way.

Thank you to the Mr. for planning it and making it so special - our last little get away before our little peanut arrives in 6 weeks! I love you, love you, love you. You are the best.

VACATION

The Mr. and I are away on a fabulously peaceful mini vacation on the North Shore. We are staying on Lake Superior in our own little cabin overlooking the lake.

Sleep and relaxation are in abundance here, and I am loving it. I would have to say that The Mr. did a perfect job in planning this trip.

THE BIG 3-6

[Picture courtesy of Miss Ava - which is why the angle is not all that fabulous. :)]

The Mr. turned 36 today. He was not so excited about this special day of his, and I understand. As we get older, birthdays seem to become less and less exciting and eventful as it simply marks the passing of yet another year. I know, I know, it sounds so negative; so depressing, so ho-hum, but it is the truth. If you are an adult, you know it, birthdays in your 30's and 40's are far less exciting than what they were in your teens and even 20's for that matter.

Anyway, I convinced him that he needed to act as if it was a very, very exciting day. For the kids sake. They had spent time carefully picking out his gifts, wrapping them [with Moms help], making homemade cards, and planning a pizza dinner out.

They truly planned the whole day and were so excited when he finally arrived home from work early that evening. This part of the birthday celebration, him arriving home early, really helped me to realize he had taken my requests to make this day out to be very exciting seriously.

Why, you ask?

Well, because Dad arriving home from work early is almost unheard of. Dad arriving home from work at 5pm, which is when he walked through the door is not only unheard of, it was straight up shocking to witness. We usually don't see Daddy until close to bed time each evening, if not after, so you can understand why.

The kids ran to him immediately yelling over each other "open my present Daddy!" "Read my card first Daddy!" They could barely contain themselves.

Here he is opening his flip - flops Lucas got him. He was really loving the bottle openers on the bottom of them. Lucas explained, "Dad, those are for when you need to open your beer."

Liv did not seem to want to wait for Daddy to open his present so she started without him.

Daddy was so happy to see she had picked out such nice polos for him.

Daddy loved the card that Miss Ava had made for him. You can always count on Ava to make you something very special.



Daddy loved the shirts that Anthony picked out for him as well. He got lots of big squeezes from Daddy for his gifts.

And last, but certainly not least. he opened his gift from me. If you look toward the bottom of the picture you can get a glimpse of what that gift was. Underwear and socks. I know, not very romantic or sweet, but he needed them and wanted them, so that is what he got. He was happy and that is all that matters, right?

We ended the celebration at our local pizza joint by inhaling a huge pepperoni pizza and drinking pop [what a treat.]

So as you can see, it was a very special day. And I have to thank the Mr. for going the extra mile to make his own birthday seem over the top special for the sake of the kids. They enjoyed every last minute of it.

THE CHOICES WE MAKE AS PARENTS

Being a parent is tough. Parents warned me of this before I became one myself, and as with all those other little cliche snippets of advice I have received from others I subtly rolled my eyes and thought to myself: Yah, yah, I know; being a parent is hard work, it is not all sunshine and roses. Yadah, yadah, yadah.

And once I in fact did become a parent the same thought still went running through my mind. That is up until the past year or so.

I am amazed at how tough parenting has been for me as of late; and I think much of it has to do with the ages my children are at. More specifically, the ages Lucas and Ava are at. I find myself worrying constantly about them socially - are they making friends easily? Do they have someone to sit by at lunch every day? Are people ever mean to them at school? Do they feel like they are part of the crowd at school? Not only do I worry about them socially, I worry about them academically as well. Are they keeping up with the rest of the class? Do they feel frustrated or are they struggling in any particular subject? Are the teachers being patient with them and helping them to learn in a healthy, constructive way?

The list goes on and on. I do spend time talking to their teachers, and making sure things are going smoothly. I also spend time talking to them, trying to subtly find out if anything is "off" or if they are having any troubles. I do my investigating, so to speak. And yet I still worry, worry, worry.

So you can imagine the worry that came over me when I found out in March that there was a spot at St. Croix Prep for Ava. I have wanted to get my kids in to this school forever, but how can I uproot her from Lily Lake, the school she knows, loves and feels comfortable at? The school where she has forged some really great friendships? How can I take her from what she knows with two months left in the year, and put her in a completely different school, different learning enviornment, different friends, different everything? How can I move her when they do not yet have a spot for Lucas, or know if they even will by next year? Yet how can I not?

As you know if you read this blog at all, we ended up taking the spot for Ava. And what do you know, she adjusted just beautifully to the new school. Actually, she has come home from school on numerous occasions saying that she likes this school much better than the one she was at before. Hearing this makes me oh so happy; it makes me breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the Mr. and I did a good thing, and that this is all working out.

Throughout the past few months she has grown so very much. Her confidence has grown by leaps and bounds - she reads more fluently, she is not coming home from school frustrated by her math homework, and she seems so much more well rested each day being able to sleep past 6:30am. She has come out of her shell and has started to make some friends which I am so happy about. Her best friend being Miss Keelin; the one who showed her around on the very first day of school, made her a card, and helped her to feel welcome and accepted in her new school.

So I have to say I am so very happy about the choice we made as parents, the very hard choice we made to send her to a brand new school. It seems to have paid off - all that worrying for nothing, right?

I wish I could say that this would be the last tough choice we would have to make as parents. That this was a lesson learned, and that I won't over think, go back and forth and worry, worry, worry, about many other things down the road. But that is certainly not going to be the case, and I am a Mom for goodness sake, worrying is what we were made to do!

HOLY BELLY!

9 more weeks to go before this little man makes his grand entrance into the world.

[Picture courtesy of my Anthony Thomas.]

Can't wait to meet you my little peanut.