A Day in the Life

Yes, it has been a month since I posted something new on this blog. I have been spending my time posting things on a weight loss blog with my mom and sisters. Yay for dieting!

So, I was talking to another Mom today who asked me, 'What do you and your kids do all day?'. It's a valid question, and though it may not be terribly interesting to most people, it makes for cute pictures for the grandparents. And let's face it, that's why I do this blog. So, without further explanation, here is my post of what my kids and I do all day stuck in the house.








After we drop Ty off at school and make a stop at the YMCA for and hour, Rinne likes to come home, kick back and watch some quality TV while Mom gets a shower. Backyardigans is her current favorite right now. Sometimes the box is more interesting than the movie, and she usually ends up sitting in front of the tv reading a book. I think she just likes not have to fight Ty for her favorite chair.

After Ty comes home, we have some lunch and then it's time to get the wiggles out before Rinne takes a nap. It's the best I can come up with when I can't take the kids outside because it's 10 degrees. You've seen the live action living room dancing. So, these still photos are nothing in comparison, but the kids do love to dance together. I love the faces Corrinne pulls. The dancing fun typically ends when Ty decides that wrestling his sister to the ground would be more fun. She's going to be a tough little girl.







Ok...so this post is getting a little long, and I actually don't have any pictures of what happens during Corrinne's nap, because it's usually me trying to clean or prep for dinner, or playing Geo Town with Ty or... It's different everyday. But, I do have a video of my "favorite" time of day... Between the hours of 3 and 6, when Daddy's still at school and Mommy wants to lock herself in the bathroom. This is a pretty much our life in the raw, so only watch the video if you promise not to be judgemental. : )

Here are my cute kids eating dinner. I really do like this stage where they are starting to become friends and do things together.

AND...for the grand finale! This is REALLY the best time of day. Rinne and Ty love their bath, and we recently started adding bubbles for a little more fun. These will make great black mail pictures someday.

Hope you enjoyed your little journey through our day. I'll try for a shorter post next time. : )

Dancing queen

My new favorite thing that Corrinne does right now is her dancing. I finally caught it on video today. She does this any time music is playing, especially if it is a song with a strong beat. Today, I turned on one of our local radio stations that does an hour called the "Lunch Break Bootie Shake". This video was the result. The music that really got her moving was a new Beyonce song. Ty got in to it too. The video is about a minute long and took me over 30 minutes to download, so I hope you get as good of a laugh out of it as I did.

Christmas morning magic

This was the first year Matt and I as parents could really play up Santa Claus, and I have to say it really puts a lot of magic in Christmas when your kiddo can't hardly go to sleep because he is so excited. We put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, and Tyler reminded us all night long, "Santa does not come while you are awake". Sage advice that he found tough to follow when it was actually time to hit the sack. Christmas morning was kind of crazy. I tried to keep with my family's tradition of sorting out the presents and then opening them one at a time in age order. It wasn't until we had gone back and forth two or three times between Tyler and Corrinne that Matt brought it to my attention that we were not really sticking to the plan since neither of US had opened a single present yet. I guess I was just too excited seeing my kids have fun. Once Matt and I attempted to jump in to the present unwrapping, the kids lost interest in what we were doing and the unwrapping quickly became a little chaotic. Can't expect two kids under four to really be patient enough to take turns that many times, right? My favorite present for Corrinne was this little rocking chair, which she quickly learned how to turn around backwards in, rock it really hard, and fall flat on her back. She only did that once. She also enjoyed her little cabbage patch from great Grandma Campbell. She gave it "loves" (hugs). Tyler loved all of his presents. Mean parents that we are, Matt and I did not bring out Tyler's Santa present until he had unwrapped everything else. He had asked at least two shopping mall Santas for a rescue helicopter. Once he had all of presents opened, we asked him if he had gotten everything he wanted for Christmas. He tried to say yes, and then said, "Well, I asked Santa for a rescue helicopter. He must not have heard me." After a response like that it would have just been cruel to tease him any longer. The reaction we got when we brought out that one last present hidden behind the tree with Tyler's name on it was priceless.

The other fun thing we did was tie a string to the tree that led both Tyler and Corrinne downstairs to a toy playhouse from their Grandma Nelson. Both Ty and Corrinne were very excited about this new addition to their playroom. All in all, there were lots of smiles from both parents and kids this Christmas. We feel very blessed.

Family is Fun

May I just say, I have the best in-laws a girl could ask for, especially when it comes to how great they are with my kiddos. Matt's parents came in to town for one day on their way up to visit the Omaha extension of our family. They packed more fun in to that one day with my kids than I am able to do in a week. Tyler was in attention heaven. Grandma and Grandpa listened to all of his jokes, watched all of his tricks, read him books, played with cars...what more could a little boy ask for? Ty, Matt, and the grandparents took a little trip to Independence to see the visitor's center, while sick little Rinne and I stayed home. Now those are good grandparents. Wish we lived closer and could see them more often.

Christmas Firsts

It's amazing to me how fast the month of December is going. This one is full of firsts for this family. We decided to buy a REAL tree this year...They are cheaper than the fake ones, but after having it up for a couple of days I can't wait to buy a fake one at the after Christmas sales for next year. The day we brought it home was very exciting. Tyler wanted to have colorful lights on the tree. He practiced wrapping the lights around Daddy first.

We pulled out all the ornaments which Tyler loved putting on the tree, while Corrinne took them off again. Once we got them all on Corrinne pulled the whole tree on top of herself leaving her a little stunned and all the ornaments on the floor. Yeah!

This was Daddy trying to secure the tree a little better, with a little help from the kids.

Corrinne was also quite fascinated with the little nativity set. She loved setting them up in little rows.

Another first was Tyler's first school Christmas program. (He's in the middle). Oh, he looks all sweet and innocent there, doesn't he? That was the beginning of the program. Too bad I don't have any pictures of the end of the program where my son and the cute little kid next to him were having a friendly little shoving match. That was a tense moment for me as a parent, wondering what exactly do you do when your kid is sharing shoves with another kid in the center of the stage in a chapel during the Christmas program? The other picture I don't have was the lovely little stare down Tyler gave the little boy after they were done with the pushing. The singing was adorable, though.

Finally, Corrinne and Ty got to play outside in the snow today. This was Corrinne's first time getting to play in the snow. It took 10 minutes to get her dressed in all that pink fluff, but the picture of her was worth it. She looked like a little pink marshmallow. Tyler loved the snow, and probably would have played in it all day if he didn't have to stop to eat. Kids are fun.

Gas obsession

So...remember this time last year when gas stations were putting up funny things like this instead of the actual price of gas, because it was pretty much too painful to look at?


I told my mother, who is currently paying ridiculous money for gas living overseas (sorry mom), that when gas gets below $1.50 a gallon here I was going to take a picture. Well, I don't have the picture today. It seems lately everytime I pass a gas station i am behind the wheel, not in the passenger seat and it is hard to take a photo and drive at the same time. No really, it's hard. But I just HAD to tell everyone that gas prices here are INSANELY CHEAP right now. And by that I mean $1.35/gallon!!!


I seriously filled up my tank the other day for about $25.00, and that's when it was 1.59/gallon which I thought was a steal. I haven't been able to fill up for that price since my first year in college.

I don't know why this is so amazing to me. Maybe it was all those reporter stories I did back in 2004 when gas prices were going up and I had to interview people at the pump. "So...what do you think about the gas prices? (please say something intelligent that I can use)"


Seriously, I think I did that story WAY too many times. It must have had an impact.

Who needs a trainer?

Matt has been working out with a trainer these past couple of months and has really bulked up the muscle mass. This morning he was working out at home and Tyler was very interested in what he was doing. So, Matt was showing him some of the exercises he has done with his trainer like lunges and sit-ups. Tyler jumped right in, "Look at me, I can do lunges too!" He had a very serious look on his face the whole time, like he was working really hard. He needed a little help with the situps. I think the best was when they were doing push-ups. Ty did a few on his own (real pushups, no kidding), and then he took a break and made his Dad work a little harder. Ty is always telling me he wants to grow up and be big and strong like his Daddy.