Spring Break in the Dells...

Why are the Wisconsin Dells called the Dells?  When I googled (is that a word?) to see if I could find an answer it brought up info about an R&B group.  LMAO!  If you know why, post a comment to this post!

Anyway, here we are spending the week of spring break in Wisconsin (home of cheese... curds, I guess).  Why not go someplace more exciting with warmer weather you might ask, because we have a timeshare and this was a fun option we had within driving distance, that's why! ;-)  So this past Friday, I packed up the car and the kids and we drove 5 1/2 hours from Des Moines to the Wisconsin Dells.  Daniel was in Chicago for work this past week and drove up to meet us here.  At first I was a little scared of the idea of driving by myself with the kids on a trip like this as I have never done it before without Dad.  Anyway, it went very well as Peyton and Jackson watched movies and ate their snacks I brought and the drive went by very quickly!  The resort is nice, we are in a two-story, two-bedroom unit with a small lake nearby, playground, and activity center with a fitness center, swimming pool, and arcade.

Here are some pictures we took yesterday while checking out the playground...

On our first day here, we hit the Tanger Outlet stores where I got three new pairs of Crocs and right next door we found a fun restaurant called Buffalo Phil's Pizza and Grille.  They have toys trains next to the tables and the trains carry your food and drinks to the table!  Such a ingenious idea!

It was a lot of fun and Jackson (who LOVES trains) was in heaven!  I swear the boy barely ate because he couldn't stop watching the trains.  He even asked the waitress if they could change out the locomotive so he could see other trains go!  ;-)

Today we planned to go to the Wis Dells Parkway and walk around but it was raining.  Maybe tomorrow we will do that.  I want to go to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum and Wizard Quest. We are planning a trip to the pool at the resort later today, a trip to the Madison Children's Museum later this week, and perhaps House On The Rock on our way home on Friday!  So far it has been a very nice and relaxing vacation for all of us!  More soon!

A job for Daddy!

It's official, I'm returning to work next week.  I've found a flexible part-time job working for a local non-profit three days a week.  My background is in non-profit so I'm so happy to find something that meets my experience and interest.  While I'm very excited to get back into the workforce, I'm also sad that 18 months has gone by so quickly for me as a stay-at-home daddy.  But in a lot of ways, I'll still be a stay-at-home daddy two days a week and on weekends!  Luckily, my mom (Nana) has agreed to watch Peyton for us at our house while I'm working so Peyton will be in his familiar daily environment and probably won't even notice that I'm gone!  LOL.  ;-)

Baby Signing Time!

I LOVE Baby Signing Time! It is amazing to me how well Peyton has caught on to signing when he wants "more milk" or to "eat."  His vocabulary has improved as well and he is saying more words like, "No, ball, more, Nana, and thank you." There are four volumes in the baby signing time series and we have just moved on to volume 3.  We are going to learn words like day, sun, tree, good night, etc.  I'm excited.  Plus, we just got CD's for the car to listen to all of the songs from all of the DVD's!  I'm probably more excited than Peyton because I'm singing these songs all the time now!

Below is my new favorite picture of Peyton signing for "more" and getting very pissed off at Daddy because I don't know what he wants "more" of!  LOL.

A break for Daddy (and Dad)...

For the past two week, Daniel and I have been in Las Vegas! Yes, you read that right, TWO weeks! I tagged along for a mini vacation while Daniel was there on some work related business.  It was nice to get away and spend some quality time with Daniel, spend some time alone working out or reading, and even cheating on my diet!  :-)  We walked up and down the Vegas strip, saw the show Le Reve (The Dream), and went to the Grand Canyon!  Here is a picture of me and Daniel at the canyon.  It was AMAZING!

The entire trip to Las Vegas was an awesome trip but the best part was coming home to Jackson and Peyton!!

Jackson did a pretty good job while we were gone.  He stayed in his routine for the most part while we were gone and had some great days at school.  Talking to him on the phone and even Skype was a bit frustrating at times.  I have a new appreciation for how Daniel (Dad) feels when talking to Jackson when he's out of town.  Regardless, he was sure excited to see us when we got home and that made both of us feel so good!  Here is a cute picture I took of him the day after we got home where he celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday at school!

I think Peyton grew even taller while we were gone and the first thing I did when I got home was ran out to buy some 2T clothes for our big boy!  Look at him sporting his new jammies and cute Angry Birds shirt!

Tomorrow I'm taking Peyton for his 18 month check-up!  I bet he's 30 lbs!  So this morning we all ran out  and got our haircut.  Peyton got his cut really short and it looks adorable (look at how bushy it was though).

Last, my 36th Birthday is coming up on Tuesday and since Dad is going to be out of town this week we celebrated my birthday today.  I got some awesome new clothes and some gift cards!  It was very nice.   The best part was my special surprise PRINCESS birthday cake.  Boy, was Jackson jealous of my cake!

Where is God?

The other night as Daniel and I were tucking Jackson into bed he started asking a lot of questions about God and heaven.  He wanted to know why we could not see heaven when we look up at the sky and why does God punish bad people...  all questions that we have thought about at one time or another.  I found the exchange to be so sweet and innocent as he was searching for answers to some difficult questions.  Both dad and I believe that Jackson and Peyton need to find their own beliefs, whatever those may be, but we are not forcing our beliefs on them.  We are sharing what we believe, but with the idea that faith is what guides us to our own beliefs.

So this brings me to my questions for my followers... have your children asked questions about God and how have you handled those?

Valentine's Day Party!

Jackson's class had a Valentine's Day party last Friday and made special gifts for both dad and daddy plus he got loaded up on sugary treats!  I was feeling a bit under the weather (got the stomach bug that's been going around and a fever so I was out for 5 days with that).  Anyway, Daniel went to help out with the party in my absence and took these pictures of the festivities...

Last night both Jackson and I made a really nice Valentine's Day card for dad (who is out of town this week and will not get it under Friday when he gets home).  The card will go with some other things we bought for dad earlier in the day that we can't wait to give him!  We had a good time eating chocolate, talking, and coloring pictures on the card.  We don't do that nearly enough, mainly because I'm usually wrapped up in stuff with Peyton, but I think we are going to do more crafty things like that in the future!  :-)

We are all very excited that Mamaw arrives in town tomorrow night for 2 1/2 weeks and will be staying with the boys while dad and I go on a mini-vacation to Las Vegas!!  I can't wait!  More details on that coming soon!!

UPDATE:  When to the eye doctor today and I have 20/20 vision and the doctor has released me from his care unless I have any problems!  YEA!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Yesterday we got a couple of inches of snow in Des Moines (unlike the 20 inches of snow Denver got - YIKES) and it was very cute to watch Peyton stare out the window taking it all in...

We all spent a fun, lazy morning together after Dad had been out of town all week for work.  Peyton even took advantage of the time making his own seat by dumping out all of his toys from a basket and sitting in the basket.  The Big Bad Wolf's dream come true?  LOL.

Jackson and I braved the snow later in the afternoon and ran to the grocery store.  I was surprised that it wasn't as packed as I thought it might have been.  When we were all done and standing at the check-out, Jackson and I started to put the groceries on the belt and I noticed that the jug of milk appeared to be leaking a little bit.  This is the second time I've picked up a leaking jug of milk at Wal-mart.  What the up with that??  Anyway, the girl took the milk and slide it across the scanned before I could even say it was leaking and milk went everywhere.  WHOOPS!  LOL. 

Dad made an awesome dinner for us with homemade french fries and baked chicken.  It was really yummy!  Peyton kept signing for "more" french fries!  Sometimes I wish I had a video camera attached to my hand all of the time to catch moments like that!

Today, we are having another lazy day not wanting to do much of anything.  Jackson and I did manage to get the front sidewalk shoveled!  I fried some bacon, made some oatmeal and toast and we had a big Sunday breakfast.  Afterwards when I was cleaning up the kitchen, Dad was busy responding to some work emails and Jackson was getting dressed so I went to check on Peyton...

There is something about Iowa Public Television cartoons that gets his attention!  LOL.  This week we are keeping track of all our TV watching for the Nielsen Ratings and I laughed as I put down that our 1 year old was watching TV all by himself!  That doesn't happen very often! 

As the rest of the world is getting super excited to watch the Super Bowl today, Dad and I are more excited about watching the Super Bowl Half-time show with Madonna!  I think this cartoon pretty much sums it up for us both!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!