Happy 1st Birthday to Emma!

Emma is having a wonderful day today. Unfortunately, Kris had to go to Michigan for the day so he won't be home tonight. He made sure to wait around until she woke up this morning to tell her Happy Birthday (and of course she slept in). For us, we went to the gym, took two naps (Emma not me), played inside and outside. Once Emma gets up from her nap and Ryan gets home from school, we'll be heading out to do some shopping, go out to dinner and play at the mall.

We had a great party for her on Saturday. Some of our friends came over as well as my parents, sister and her friend. We had hot dogs and other picnic stuff. The kids played and ate while the adults talked. I made a cupcake cake in the shape of a #1 for the kids and made a brownie mousse trifle for the adults, which everyone said was wonderful. We opened presents and just had a great time.

Emma got some great new toys. We got her a play house for outside, which she loves - as does Ryan. The clothes she received are so cute, I can't wait to put her in them! She's enjoying playing with all the toys.

We were so happy to have our family out here and wish that Grammie could have made it. Unfortunately, she had a fall at home a few days before she was scheduled to fly out here, that caused her to break her arm and require surgery. She is home and resting now, but we missed her.

Happy Easter!

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We hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter. We certainly are.

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We spent today having our own Easter egg hunt in the living room. Ryan loved it and wouldn't give up even when we knew we had them all. Emma just wanted to eat the eggs. Put them in the basket - no way! Just one would have made her day! They both loved what they got in their baskets - baby treats for Emma, stickers and chalk for Ryan, plus a car and bunny ears for each of them.

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After a wonderfully cooked breakfast by Daddy - we got ready and went to church. Everyone loved Emma's cute bonnet. After church was an Easter egg hunt there. They had so many eggs. While Emma didn't feel the urge to get any or move, Ryan and I 'helped' her a little. Ryan had a ball and got so many eggs - and way too much candy. Emma even partook in the candy by shoving a whole Reese's peanut butter cup in her mouth and giving us back the wrapper! Yep, she ate the chocolate. Ryan wanted to open everything right then and was begging for chocolate when we got home.

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After a little lunch, we got our ham started and worked on our spring cleaning. We have a motivation now to finish ASAP - since we have visitors coming for Emma's birthday. I'm almost finished with the bedrooms. We finished Ryan's room yesterday and Emma and the spare room today. Hopefully, we'll get our room and the hallway finished today or tomorrow and I can start in on the first floor.

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Spring break and beyond

I didn't realize until Kris's mom mentioned that I hadn't posted in a while. I guess you can say life is just busy. But really I'm just trying to increase my business and trying to see what I can do about that. I am having a table at the chocolate festival held about 45 minutes from here next weekend. So I've been prepping for that. Plus trying to drum up some business for May. I've already decided that April is a wash between the festival, Easter and Emma's birthday - and us being out of town the first week. Kris has been travelling a lot again, so it's hard to schedule during the

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Around here, we've just been busying ourselves. I've been spring cleaning for that last few weeks. And while I haven't done anything in two weeks, I'm almost done with my entire 2nd floor. I hope to get some help with moving furniture to vacuum tomorrow. But who knows. Ryan and I are going shopping tomorrow for Emma's birthday presents. I have no idea what we'll get. I still can't believe she is going to be one in 17 days. I just seems like yesterday.......

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Ryan was on spring break last week and Kris was in MI near my parents house. So we scooted out of town as soon as speech was over on Wednesday to drive up to visit. Luckily they were both pretty good for the drive. We had a great time visiting with my parents and seeing the Stone's and McCarthy's as well as my grandmother. I must say, I was addicted to Wii fit and loved playing the games - although my hips were hurting from the hula hoop! Ryan loved the skiing and the soccer ball game. My chocolate party was a bust with over 20 people not even RSVPing - which was disappointing. Not sure, if it looked too much like the last invite so most people ignored it. But Ryan loved getting hang out with Evan when the McCarthy's came over (and Kris got to go out with Joe and Erik). We made it back in record time (for us) even stopping to pick up Kris's car. And I started in on two days worth of laundry.

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As you can see from the pictures - there isn't a lot going on around here. The first picture was after church a few weeks ago. Kris's mom bought the cute dress for Emma so I wanted to get a picture of her in it (there is a picture of just her on her website). The second picture is from yesterday. Emma realized that she can climb up onto the couch if she moves Ryan's little couch in front of the big one. And she loved 'talking' to me over the couch. The third picture is of Emma attacking me! Doesn't she look ferocious with those teeth! Last night she came down with a fever and was up a few times during the night (as was Ryan and Kris woke me up once - I am exhausted). But she seems to be feeling a little better today.

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Our friends, the Fortners were over to visit onTuesday. They lived here when we moved here and moved to Minnesota last year. Ryan really misses Max and they had a great time playing.

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A few weeks ago, I decided that Thursday night would be 'Be with Mama night'. It entails taking the kids to the gym after Ryan gets home from school and either taking Ryan to the pool or Emma to the gymnastics class while the other one goes to the daycare. I thought this way they both get some time with me alone, since when they are together they are constantly fighting for my attention. So I took Emma yesterday. While most the stuff was too big for her, she will have a lot of fun once she is walking (she seems to have no desire). I'm not sure if she would have had more fun if she had been feeling better - of course I didn't realize she wasn't feeling well until we got home. After that we had dinner at the gym and came home to see Daddy!

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In little notes about each of them:

Emma is loving giving kisses - especially to Ryan. She is getting away from nursing a little, which is fine since I'm ready to be done with it too. She's not walking or even looking like those legs of hers are strong enough. She did stand up from sitting on a step at my moms which was the first time I saw her stand up without pulling herself up. She's getting to be a better eater. She definately lives up to that 'make them try the food several times before they'll like it' mantra. She is finally eating the apples, strawberries and bananas I cut up for her. She loves vegetables. We think she might be having a tooth come in, but have no visual indication!

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Ryan is glad to be back at school and wishes the rain would stop so he could play outside. We're still struggling with getting ready to do anything because he doesn't want to stop whatever he is up to. He is having a hard time with not getting so much attention. Anything Emma does, he feels the need to do, even if he knows he shouldn't or heard me just tell Emma not to. He must have any toy that Emma finds and feels the need to make her cry as often as possible - mostly by overhugging her or knocking her down. His speech is coming a long and I'm often hearing 4 or 5 word sentences - some of them that aren't missing words (he misses the words the, a, and etc). We've been warning him for a few weeks now that once school is out - it's potty time. Today, I put him on because he asked me to change him because he was poopy, but he wasn't. So I was hoping he needed to go, but he peed and washed up and then asked for 2 M&M's! I know he can do it, but he just needs some convincing.

Poops the word

Ok - so as everyone knows, we have not been successful in potty training Ryan. Thankfully, we've seen that Emma cries a lot when she's poopy, so maybe she'll be easier. So here is a wonderful story about today. Emma is on medicine for her ear infection which is making everything a little watery and leaky. So when we got home from the gym today, I had to change all her clothes. But since I was taking her upstairs after I nursed her to put her down for a nap, I just left her in a diaper while I nursed her. I made the mistake of making funny comments about her being naked. When will I learn?? Ryan is at a point where if I say anything about Emma, he feels the need to do it for attention.

Anyway. After I put Emma down, I took a shower while Ryan was watching Curious George. I told him to come up and find me when the show ended - in hopes of avoiding the shouting he does from the bottom of the stairs. When he came up he had only a shirt on. No pants, socks or pullup! And he thought it was hilarious. I must admit, I thought it was funny too. And I told him, that I didn't care as long as he went in the potty. He ran around like that for about 10 minutes while I finished getting ready. Then I got him dressed again so he could help me clean all his bath toys as part of my spring cleaning. This cleaning also included his potty chair.

After we put them both down for naps, I left for the grocery store. When I called later, this is the story that Kris relayed to me. Ryan evidently thought to take his pants and pullup off again. But this time, he pooped right on the floor in his room! Then he proceeded to play with it and spread it all over his room. I asked Ryan why he didn't use the potty or call for Daddy and he said he did (Kris wouldn't have heard him though because he was outside). So when Kris found him, needless to say he was livid! He is now hoarse from yelling so much. Ryan was put into the bathtub (toy free since they were still in the garage) and then put on his bed in a pseudo timeout while Kris cleaned up. Of course, Emma woke up from her nap part way through this and Kris couldn't let her out of her crib because he was cleaning, so she screamed for a half hour. She was pretty happy to see me when I got home. But wow - was I glad I wasn't home for this!

Other things that have happened. We went to the zoo yesterday. We were supposed to go with a friend, but her son came down with a fever. So I bundled the kids up and we went anyway. Ryan had a great time and he walked the whole thing. We were sitting in one of the resturants for our snack when a male peacock outside put his feathers into bloom! Ryan watched for a while and then I had him go out near the peacock for a picture. He also played in the childrens area. Emma wouldn't take a nap in the stroller and ended up falling asleep 5 minutes before we got home.

Ryan's teachers visited yesterday for our second home visit. Ryan seemed embarrassed to be here with them and didn't really want to interact, but I know they were anxious to here him talk at home because he is very quiet at school. Eventually, he opened up and played kitchen with Miss Chris. After that, I put them both down for naps, which Ryan didn't want. So he trashed his room instead. I had told him that I would leave the light on if he would play quietly for an house. Well he was pretty quiet - but pretty messy. And he eventually fell asleep by the door for a half hour. Here is what the room looked like.

Sorry for being away so long!

I'm sorry we've been away from the blog for so long. I have been plenty busy with my new chocolate business and spring cleaning. I've already written this blog once and then hit backspace too quickly and deleted half of it, so I'm writing again.

My chocolate parties are going. I've had 4 parties, some successful and some not so much. But all of them a lot of fun and with some great food. Must be why I've gained a few pounds. I just can't help myself, the products are so good! I'm really hoping for this to take off. I have a lot of work to do. I have been trying to get to the gym as much as possible. I've recently found that if I follow a plan set out ahead of time, I stick to it much better. So I just finished my first 5 week plan and set up another 5 week one. I am gaining some muscle, which is good. I've also started my spring cleaning. I estimate it will take me 12 weeks at the way I'm going to get through it all (and that doesn't include the basement).

Ryan is doing well. He is going to be evaluated at school for help with fine motor and gross motor physical and occupational therapy. I know that he will need it, because he did with Children's - we just weren't willing to pay for it. He will easily qualify for the preschool again next year. His speech has come a long way, thankfully. And luckily, 'I play with Mama' isnt so promenant part of his daily speech! We have been working on playing by himself and he is getting much better at accepting that I have other things that need to be done.

Emma as always is so happy. We found out today that she has a double ear infection - but you would never know. She recently learned to clap and enjoys doing it when every she does anything. She started walking behind things, which creates some fights between her and Ryan over who gets to push the shopping cart. Those legs of hers are getting stronger, but she's not ready to really walk yet. This week we had some great weather so I let the kids play in the sandbox. They both had a great time.

Last weekend, Emma and I headed to MI for Jenny Stone's baby shower. She is such a cute pregnant lady and we're so excited for this baby - especially Aunt Sally! Previously, we've tried to leave early in the morning in hopes that the kids would sleep in the car. But it hasn't worked out as well as we had hoped. So this time I left around 7pm in hopes she would fall asleep. She did, but then alternated crying and sleeping for the last hour. We had a great time. It was wonderful to get to spend some time just with Emma and to have my parents get that chance also. Ryan got to spend the weekend with Kris and from what they have both told me, really enjoyed their time. After much deliberation, Kris took Friday off from work. They got steel for the garage and went to the park with Ryan's big John Deere truck. Ryan attempted to tell me all about the weekend on Monday, but was just missing too many words. At least he wasn't too upset, he was certain that they were going to Grandpa's house and had attempted to 'pack' a few times on Thursday.

Anyway, that's it. Email me if you want to host a chocolate party! Look what's it done to my sister!!

Happy Valentine's Day

We have gotten back to normal here now. Last week, Ryan had school ALL week. Can you believe it? Of course, it was in the 40's all week.

We went to the gym on Monday - where I managed to over work myself on weights and pay for it the next day. That combined with coming down with strep throat was just terrific! I felt awful and had a hard time keeping Ryan from tearing me to shreds. He wanted to climb all over me, but kept elbowing and kicking me in the process. By Wednesday afternoon I couldn't take it anymore and went to see the doctor who said within a minute that I had strep. And after a positive strep test, I was given a shot of penicillin and sent on my way. I felt almost 100% better by 10 am the next day. Which was good because I had to clean my house for friends coming over to test some of my chocolate creations. They are great. So if you want to have a party, let me know!

Kris took some tax prep training available through our church and has donated his Saturday mornings now through April 15th to help do other people's taxes. While I applaud him in helping others, it's not a real help to me. But as always we'll get through it. Friday we had went to the gym in the afternoon to go swimming. Emma was a little scared, but eventually liked it. Ryan just played in the water spraying from the ground outside the pool. Saturday we went back to the gym for another workout - without lifting weights! I'll go back to that tomorrow.

For some reason, Ryan has decided to start climbing everything. Cabinets, dressers, bookshelves - nothing is safe anymore. After the third or fourth time on Saturday, I said that was enough - he needed some climbing time. So we went out to lunch to BK where they have a climber. He had a great time and even met some new friends. Emma loved watching what everyone else was doing.

Today, Ryan was digging through our closet trying to wear our clothes. So we found him a shirt Kris was giving away and a tie and dressed him up. He thought it was fun for a while - and although the tie didn't stay on long, he didn't even want to take the shirt off for his nap.

After all that, Kris made me a wonderful dinner for two last night. We had steak, potatos, broccoli, salad, homemade bread and a cake (homemade also). He did a terrific job. All the food gave us some great belly aches last night. But we enjoyed sitting down to a meal with just the two of us.

The Winds of Winter/Spring???

This place can't decide what season it is. Two weeks ago they cancelled school for the entire week and last week for two days. This week - 60 degree days. Not that it's lovely, it's raining now. But at least not frigid. Yesterday, we took advantage of our wagon and made some nice trips around the neighborhood.

I know it's been a while since I've updated - and please read the next blog because its new also.

So here's what's been going on. Emma is working on cutting her 8th tooth. Hopefully it will be in any day now. She's drooling all over. She recently started climbing the stairs, so we now have to be more diligent about closing the gates. On Sunday, she managed to get all the way to the top. Ryan finally called us when she turned around and tried to head back down. Luckily, she only fell one stair before she was caught. Kris has been letting her practice on the two stairs in the basement. He said she would fall down but get right back up and try again. She's still getting over a never ending cold which is driving me nuts. Besides that she is the normal happy baby.

Ryan has been having a lot of tantrums and night fights. I'm not sure what the reason for either of them is. It seems as though he finally figured out he could put up a fight. The night fights are what happens between the two of us when he decides to destroy his room. He's been climbing on the bookshelf, so we had to take his cd player out. He's been unplugging the clock and lamps and basically destroying his room. This morning he was proud of himself for not doing any of it and had to show me everything he didn't do. It was cute. I'm so glad for him to be back at school. I can definately see the stagnation in his speech when we don't go to school or speech. Plus he has so much fun. Lately, all he wants to play here is Spin - Momma spin to be exact. I spin him and then throw him down on the bed. He could do it for hours if I could! I also set up an obstacle course in the basement which kept him busy for a few days.

So here are the explanations of the pictures. The first picture at the top is the finger paintings the kids made on Kris's birthday. The next pictures are of the kids in the tub. I finally got them to start bathing together, which has made my life easier and they have so much fun together. The next pictures are of Emma climbing the stairs and raiding the Cheerios box. Next are two pictures from the museum two weeks ago.

And last but not least, we welcome Daniel Harper into our family. He was born to Matt & Tammy yesterday (Feb 9). I haven't seen any pictures yet, but will try to post one when I do. I will never forget his birthday since it was my sister, Melanie's birthday. She would have been 30 years old yesterday. Amazing.