The Funny Thing About Wee Read...

...is that through it, I have quite suddenly (and happily) become a kid-magnet. I would have never seen it coming!

Two of our couple-friends are expecting Baby #2, and both mommies are on bedrest. Cary and I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to help out when we can. Today at Wee Read I took Savannah along with McKinley and me, where we met up with Kylie and Lincoln. Kylie needed a rest and is too far along in her pregnancy to get down on the floor with Linc (a total pre-requisite in Wee Read), so I happily took on all three of the kiddos. Before long, our 3 (McKinley, Savannah and Lincoln) had completely lost interest in the actual reading and activities and were instead inthralled with simulataneously attacking yours truly. They began making enough of a scene that ALL of the children (and there were GOBS of them today) got into the game and started attacking their own caregivers. I am pretty sure our librarian was pretty displeased, but she quickly got over it because there was no denying how adorably cute it was to see these kids run to the front of the room, turn around and squeal with delight as they ran AT ME.

I love little things like this that come up and smack you in the face and make you realize that a little bitty person (or persons, in this case) can do something as simple as be a CHILD and spread a smile across your face for an entire day. How very lucky I am to have the opportunity to have this moment to spend with some fun little kiddos.

Lynn

Savannah & McKinley's Day Out

Yay for another Build & Grow Clinic! Today McKinley and I brought along Nonna and Savannah, and did we have fun!!!!!!!!!!! This was Savannah's very first Clinic, she was so excited to be there with McKinley, and likewise for McKinley. That was obvious as the kids ran through Lowe's, stopped abruptly and ran toward eachother while shouting, "Hug!!!!" They would then grasp eachother really, really tight and say, "awwww!" in unision with all the Lowe's customers and employees. It was hilarious, I couldn't quit laughing!

Once inside the little project room, McKinley showed Savannah the ropes - helping her choose a hammer and a carpet square while my Mom and I gathered the projects, Savannah's apron and goggles. It worked out perfectly (except that I got so wound up in trying to keep the kids occupied and equally getting some 'hammer time' that I forgot to put the base of the box in place...oops), Savannah would take a turn with the hammer, then McKinley, and so on. While I worked on that, Mom graciously tried to fix my big oops with the second project. We quickly finished the projects and the kids were thrilled to have a little tic-tac-toe box! It's so cute!

The nice Lowe's employee who was supervising today's clinic brought over McKinley and Savannah's completion certificates and patches for their aprons. The kids happily obliged having their pictures taken together with their projects and certificates. Seriously, that's just too much cuteness for my camera lens...I'm surprised it didn't melt! hahahahaha

Once we finished our projects we were all famished, so we hit Steak N Shake for some yummy burgers, a la car...and then a very special treat: CUPCAKES! We headed to the new cupcake shop in town, and the kids picked out their favorite cupcake for the day. Savannah saw the pretty blue colored cupcakes and immediately asked for that...it was "Blue Suede w/Blue Buttercream icing. McKinley said, " I want Chocolate!" and chose the Chocolate, Chocolate. I picked Chocolate Mint and my Mom had Cream filled Chocolate. Oh my gosh, so yummy!!!!!!! Can't do it every day, but we will definitely be back for a fun little treat!

After our big day of fun the kids (and Mom and Nonna) were all pretty tired, so we returned Savannah to her home. By this time, Savannah was calling my Mom, Nonna and requested to dole out some hugs for everyone, with a very special smooch for my boy. It's pretty obvious that we all had a blast. Now was the time to tuck everyone in for a nice nap. What a great day! Can't wait to do it again!

Lynn

P.S. Notice how much McKinley looks JUST.LIKE.CARY in the first pic? Scary...call me the incubator...

Feeling Restored

Whew, it has been a long and challenging 6 weeks. Technically, 8 weeks. I have been sick since the weekend after Thanksgiving - and credit my lack of sleep during our Black Friday Jaunt for that. Since then, our lives have been a whirlwind and have ceased to, well, cease. Enough already!

I finally have a clear diagnosis as to what has been going on with me...a bad case of bronchitis, and a few other things we found along the way. I'm sure this time I am on the mend and will be back up to par soon, for now feeling okay is just good enough for me!

Not only am I feeling restored, it's nice to have Cary and McKinley on their feet as well. They have both caught a small part of what I had twice and I am thrilled that neither of them became as ill as I have and that they are each feeling good again! I have aired out the house (old wives tale, I still believe!), lysol'ed the beegeezus out of everything, washed all of our pillows and aired out every linen I could drag outside. Bronchitis be gone! I want to enjoy the rest of the winter!

Also restored, along with some of my sanity, is our home computer. The poor thing crashed on December 7th - in the middle of my 2nd go around with the bronchitis bug and at the exact same time Cary & McKinley took it as well. Obviously, with a house full of sickies the PC took a back burner. When I finally got it to our computer guy, he called me with sad news...he'd worked for 2 hours to restore our computer and all its contents...to no avail. He asked for my permission to wipe it clean, resulting in my loss of every one of the 4 G of pictures I have ever taken, digitally (with the exception of those I have managed to back up), old files, even my resume. I told him I needed time to think about it...two hours later I called and told him that Cary and I had decided we had no choice. Just do it. In my mind forgotten photos flashed; baking a cake with my hubby, that funny pregnancy snapshot where I SWORE my belly was growing, the precious picture of McKinley sucking on his paci after he fell asleep in the car, photos of my parents. I was sick to my stomach.

Then Mike made my MONTH. While he waited on our call he created something he thought might do the trick --- AND IT DID! He was able to completely restore every single file on our computer. I could have cried. Oh computer gods, I have learned my lesson...off to complete backing up everything on that pc. Then onto the laptop.

So happy to feel restored!

Lynn

Lots of Snow...and being sick

On Wednesday night we were officially 'hit' with our first snow storm of '10. It's GORGEOUS!!!!! However, it's slick, there's a LOT of it and we are all sick. Again.

It seems despite our constant, usually effective efforts to ward off germs we have again lost the battle. We lysol the house, clean with vinegar and water, use anywhere spray on handles, phones, etc, handwash like crazies, and back it up with occasional anti-bac lotion. Yet still, I personally have been sick - NONSTOP - since the end of November and McKinley & Cary have already been sick TWICE in less than a month. WHAT IS UP? Grrrrrr.

Trying hard to not focus on that and just enjoy being home with my two favorite men, but I'm so tired of doing it with a nasty cough, shortness of breath and a clogged up nose! ENOUGH ALREADY!

In the meantime, I have managed to take some super cute pics lately...it's hard to believe in a few short days McKinley will officially be 2 and a HALF!

Here's hoping this junk we all have melts with the snow...

Lynn

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010!!!! We spent NYE with our friends, The Semmler's and we had a BLAST!

Robin's sister, her husband and their three children came over as well, together we all played Wii games, ate pizza and snacks and watched the ball drop. It was a great night!

I had some NYE hats, horns and noise makers, so I brought those for the kids as well as some really yummy sparkling apple juice. Robin provided the cutest champagne flutes for the kiddos, and as you can tell from the pictures - the night was a hit!

I'm happy to report I scored my midnight kisses - one from Cary and one from McKinley, respectively. McKinley's favorite part of the night was that sparkling apple juice...he continued to toast himself (lol) until we had to drag him to the car! ***Note: it really was sparkling apple juice...nothing more!

What a wonderful way to usher in a new decade!

Happy New Year!

Lynn

Below, Rick shows McKinley how to 'sit n spin', McKinley toasts the new year, McKinley toasts the New Year as his friends look on, McKinley toasts the new year, and...McKinley toasts the new year. You get the idea...