Phones Are Great, Just Not For Blogs.

My mother in law asked why I hadn't updated the blog lately and I realized it's because I am never down in the basement on my computer anymore, I'm always doing things on my phone.  Which is great, but I haven't been able to post anything here from my phone.  SO...here we are.  Brendan is off today and the kids are up coloring Bubble Guppie pictures and I snuck away to the computer.

 

So what has been going on lately?  Last weekend I took the kids to my sister's.  We played with cousins and saw Gramma Pam.  We ate at Russ' which is a kid favorite, we thrifted at Bibles for Mexico which is a mama favorite.  It was fun!  The kids were awesome on the four hour drive and Chicago traffic was smooth sailing both ways.

 Other than that, not much has been going on.  Same old life of school, thrifting, sewing, and playing.

Ooh, wait, no, we got new appliances, thats's fun!  We had ordered a stove from Home Depot and when they delivered it, it was damaged.  Two weeks later we still didn't have a new one, and then it was a hassle to get my money back, it was just such a pain in the ass.  Finally we ended up going to Sears Outlet where they have all the scratch and dent ones, where we found our new stove AND ended up getting a refrigerator because they're such low prices, why not?  So we still ended up with dents in our stove, but we got it for way cheaper.  Ha!

 And...we got a new vacuum.  Life is good.

Night Driving

Last weekend we went to Michigan to celebrate my neice's tenth birthday.  It was a crazy time of night driving, as we left on a Friday night and came home on a Sunday  night.  Instead of sleeping peacefully, the kids were up most of the four hour drive and went kind of bonkers from sitting in the car too long.  Blah.

But the trip was fun, they love to see their cousins.  I like to see my mom and sister.  It was gorgeous out and we got to spend lots of time outside. 

We even went to Tunnel Park, which is a lovely park on Lake Michigan that has a big huge sand dune.  And going right through the dune is a tunnel, hence the name.  I have memories from when I was little running through the tunnel screaming at the top of my lungs to hear it echo!  It was fun to see my kids do that, too!

 Our sleep was all off and everyone took amazing naps!  Otis in the stroller after a walk with Grandma, and Brendan and Ingrid passed out on the couch.  All that fresh air and chasing balls with cousins really wears you out.

 

My First Funeral (Sort of)

That's right, I'm 34 and I've never been to a funeral before this week.  How does that happen??  My grandpa passed away on Ingrid's birthday.  I wrote this about him on my other blog.  I love that guy.

I took both kids with me on a five hour drive to my sister's.  Thank god they were good and slept!  Ingrid read books and sang to herself while she was awake.  We stopped for pancakes.  I had a Harry Potter book on cd to listen to.  It was a nice day.

We ended up going to stay at a hotel when my sister's air bed broke.  I didn't want to sleep on the floor and I knew Ingrid was tired and overwhelmed with traveling, so it would be better for everyone if we contained her in a room where she couldn't bother anyone but me!  Otis was a dream--he nursed to sleep at 8pm and didn't wake up until we woke him up at 7:30am to go get breakfast.  This is the picture of a truly relaxed baby:

The next day we had a get together with my brothers.  It is so rare all four of us kids and all our kids can get together!  Ingrid just loves to play with all her cousins!

Ingrid decided to slide down the slide face first into a pile of mud pies they'd been making.  Add a snotty nose and this is what you get.  Ha!

The next day was the memorial service for my Grandpa.  It was sad but also a chance to see everyone and reminisce about him.  My cousin from Indiana was there, she has the same kids as me--a three year old girl and a baby boy.  Her son Max is five weeks old.  Otis is five months, remember?  God he's so tiny!  I always think he is so big, but then he gets put in his place by a sleepy newborn...

It sucks to have a death in the family, but it's nice to see everyone.  Especially with our enormous family that's spread all over the country--it's pretty hard to get us all together.  It's nice when we finally do.  I would prefer a family reunion next time, though. 

Birthday Weekend

This weekend we went to the west side of Michigan to see my family.  It was my mom's 60th last week and my nephew's first this week, so we had lots of celebrating to do!  Ingrid was so great, she napped half of the three hour drive and was happy the rest.  And looking quite dapper in her pearls.

We went to my sister's house and swam in the pool, played with lots of toys, and relaxed.  It was so strange but I didn't have to keep much of an eye on her the whole weekend because there were tons of other people around, and my 7 year old niece was a good babysitter.  So I actually did get to relax, it was nice!

Dinner was crazy, we have too many people in our family...It was nice that all of us could get together at one time, though, as usually someone is missing--either me or my brother who lives in Wisconsin.  But we were all there, all 18 of us! 

The next day we had my nephew's first birthday party.  Ingrid had fun with yet more toys that are new to her, and a swingset in the back yard.  She wore herself out and by the time we had cake and sang happy birthday, she was ready to go.  She slept the entire way home, it was great! 

I am so glad we got to do a fun family weekend.  Ingrid is getting way easier to deal with as she gets older, it makes traveling that much more fun.  We'll see what a new baby brings now!

For the love of Tulips!

Next week is Tulip Time.  I can't go this year, I am so bummed!  It is so much fun to watch the Dutch dancers, see the tulips, eat an elephant ear, and go to parades.  I was really looking forward to going with Ingrid again this year but alas, we have to move instead.  But how coincidental is it that at the thrift store yesterday we found this:

I can't wait to put up a little shelf in Ingrid's new room with this little lady and the wee wooden shoes we have! 

We also went to the park yesterday and were the only people there!  It was gorgeous out, just a little windy and chilly.  But seriously people, throw on a coat and come play!  Brendan and I are always amazed how many people stay indoors so much.  I'm all for the days of relaxing and all, but once it's spring, I want nothing more than to be outside. 

Speaking of relaxing, here's Ingrid in the chair.  Quite the little queen, isn't she?

Our Wedding Weekend

I was in a wedding this weekend so Brendan and I took Ingrid to Holland. We drove straight to the rehearsal, then dropped Ingrid off with Aunt Corie.

We went to dinner, where the wedding party got their presents--monogrammed Snuggies for the guys, so funny! They looked like a cult...

Then we went to New Holland Brewery for drinks. Fun!

Unfortunately, Ingrid had finally fallen asleep at Corie's right before we got there, so instead of leaving her to sleep, we picked her up and stuck her in the car, where she woke up, got mad, and cried until 3am. Brendan drove around with her, we rocked, we sang, nothing was working. Brendan managed to fall asleep with her in the car with Ingrid on his chest. They got a few hours of sleep. No fun.

Luckily the next day was better. I helped get stuff ready at the wedding site, Brendan and Ingrid napped, then Ingrid and I napped, then we got ready and went to the wedding.

It was on Lake Michigan, the weather was perfect, everything looked so beautiful! Christy looked amazing, Keagan wore a little mini-tux, which was adorable, and all the bridesmaids fit into their dresses-one was 5 mo. pregnant, and one had just given birth three weeks ago :) There was a short ceremony, and then lots of great food, drinks, cake and dancing. Ingrid was the belle of the ball, as she was the only other baby besides Keagan there. Everyone kept saying what a great baby she was, which is usually true, but I just laughed and said, yeah, unless she's screaming at 3am...

Tulip Time '09!

It was Ingrid's first Tulip Time this year! We went on Friday to meet up with our friends Michelle and Jan who were coming from Colorado and Iowa. Day one was doing the downtown Holland thing--Centennial Park, tulips, Dutch Dancers, the Peanut Store (yum!)


Day two was Dutch Village. We got Ingrid some cute little wooden shoes with her name on them, we saw some more tulips, and Jan and Michelle even walked some goats! Ingrid was so busy all weekend that she was in a daze for most of it. She totally crashed last night after we got home!