We did it! And Cleo's crawling!

Hot diggity! Mom & Dad finished the yard, and I crawled!

After

Before

We spent all weekend working on our front yard and we finished it Sunday evening. We ripped out all the ivy that previously covered the area and added in a few flowering shrubs and a rose bush, as well as some potted annuals. We left bushes there that were already established, so that helped. It feels awesome to finish it. Here are some before and after photos. The photos aren't that great, but you get the idea. Now I just need to whip my backyard garden into shape. The weeds are out of control back there.

Cleo started officially crawling-we are excited for her. It isn't that pretty, but who cares. She knows how to get around, so we need to be very careful! She's babbling all the time, and it's too cute. She is a smiley pants. Mr. Gus has been testing us like crazy. He has entered this fun phase of what I'm only assuming is his "Terrible 2's" and it's hard. He's learned that he can say "Why?" and "No!" to most everything, so it's getting interesting. Let's just say the little guy has had more time outs than ever before. But, as always, he's our little dude and more often than not, I just want to kiss and hug him all the time.

Kerry loves Crested Butte so far. She was only there for two days before she secured a full-time nanny job for an infant little girl. In the summer she'll also supplement by working at a restaurant that her roomate manages. She's been doing all kinds of Colorado things, such as riding a snowmobile to the "back country" and volunteering for a Fat Tire festival. She loves it, needless to say, and we're excited to visit her in July. I keep thinking she's just there visiting, so I forget she's there indefinitely. Weird.

As I type this Gus should be sleeping, but he's in his bed laughing hysterically (somewhat manically, which is scary) at something. He's been in denial about his daily nap for some time, but we have patches where he will nap well. This is not one of them. Fun!

More later.

Cleo turns 9 months

Cleo turns 9 months tomorrow and we took her to the doctor today. She's 26" = 9% for height and just under 18 lbs. = 35% for weight. Still a short little chunk of love. He said she's healthy, and he noticed her personality is very outgoing already, so we may have a little extrovert on our hands. He also noticed she is very touchy (she loves to kiss most everyone *open mouth* and she loves to hug and grab, even more than Gus ever did). She'll be that kid that either brightens everyone's day with a hug, or she'll scare or annoy some folks b/c she's too touchy. Ha.

Other than that, just enjoying having the sliding glass door open already this morning (going to be over 70 degrees today and 80 degrees later this week and weekend!!!). Will take the kids outside today, after the naps.

Andy has been traveling quite a bit this month. He returns tomorrow and then goes back out next week. I'm glad we have him for the rest of the week and weekend. We're going to work on the front yard this weekend. We've ripped (I should say Andy did it) the ivy out in the front and we're going to put in new plants, flowers, etc...new landscaping, and border it with some stones. It should be very cool when we're done. I'm excited. Depending on how it turns out (ha), I'll post some before and after photos.

Until later.

To be alive

A friend of mine shares a poem a day on Facebook. I loved this one so much that I had to share.

"To be alive" / Gregory Orr

To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but…

If we're not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?

This and that

Uncle Tony, Aunt Lindsey and Miss Cleo on Easter, before church.

Sisters, Easter 2009.

Gus looking outside for the Easter Bunny. The only one in the reflection is Dad!

Easter Sunday at my Aunt's house...double the pleasure.

The past week has been great, but it has flown by. Gus has been taking private swimming lessons with an instructor. The first two were rocky, but he now loves swimming and asks to "swim with Claudine." Claudine is a miracle worker, seriously. If anyone in the Lawrence area ever needs a recommendation for an excellent swim coach, she's it. He actually enjoys putting his head underwater now, and practices in the bathtub. Gus also talks frequently about his back float, and Claudine said he loves it. It's worth noting that Gus HATED swimming on his back when he first started. It freaked him out and he would absolutely wig out. So, Claudine is magical. We've signed him up for four more lessons. I can't wait for the pool this summer w/ the kids.

Easter was really fun. Gus hunted for candy before church, and after church we went to my parents' house for a candy hunt, and then to my aunt's house for more fun. The kids had their Easter candy hunt in my aunt's basement since the weather was so nasty.

Kerry is moving to Crested Butte, Colorado next weekend. It was hard to say goodbye to her at Easter, b/c I won't see her again until July (Andy and I are taking the kids to Crested Butte for a long weekend to visit her...I'm hoping to caravan with my parents). I'm going to miss Kerry like crazy, but Facebook allows us to talk all the time, and she will love it there. Andy and I have been once before and it's such a lovely little ski town. I can't help but think back to 1999 when we left for Chicago. I see Kerry's excitement and remember my own when we left for the city. I could barely contain it. Ah, the memories. What an adventure. It was so worth it.

I'm excited b/c Andy and I are planning out our summer vacation schedule. So far on the schedule we have a long weekend trip to Crested Butte in July, a vacation to Michigan over Labor Day week, and a trip to Chicago in November (without the kids!) for Andy's cousin's wedding. Oh, and if Andy makes his annual quota at work, we get to go on a trip to a resort in St. Petersburg, FL. It's looking pretty good that we'll get to go...but fingers crossed (no pressure, Andy! ha ha).

Gus and Cleo are positively hilarious and so fun these days. Gus always surprises us with new words or phrases. He's been interacting more with Cleo, which is so amazing to witness. He'll bring her toys when she's fussy, or he'll try to calm her down. Tonight she was getting tired and fussy before bed, and I saw Gus walk up to her with a toy. He said, "It's ok, Kee-o, here you go!" It warmed my heart. During their bath tonight Gus handed her a toy and she grabbed his arm and started sucking on it (she's teething big time). I love watching them and soaking it all in. I try to really enjoy every second b/c it's so fleeting.

Until later...

Bath buddies

Photo of little missy in the bath. She loves it. And a fun video showing you the dynamic between brother and sister right now. It's so hilarious to watch them together. Enjoy!

Since this is my 3rd attempt at a post, I give up on a creative blog title

She's not exactly looking at the camera, but this is a good picture to show off her eye color. Gus had green eyes when he was Cleo's age, so my guess is she will have blue. We will see.

Cleo doing what she loves...hanging in the Exersaucer outside by the wind chimes. She loves the wind chimes.

Grrrrr...I'm super annoyed with this blog. It will not let me upload a video. I've literally tried 3 or 4x now and I give up. It was a super cute video of Cleo scooting across the floor. Oh, well. Maybe it was too large of a clip. It's still annoying that I spent all that time waiting for it to upload only to have it freeze. Ok, I'm over it now. Thanks for listening.

The weekend was great. I went to Wichita to visit Kelly and had a great time catching up. We had a beer at Kirby's. I had never been and I really enjoyed it. It had the same cozy feel of the Replay or the Beachwood (Chicago bar). We watched the tournament which was so fun to watch with Kelly, and we got to eat out (without the kids...gasp!), so that was a treat, seriously. I also got my Solomon fix. I saw him for a bit before he went to Kelly's Mom's house. He's so freakin' cute. I could have played with him all day. And then KU won on Sunday, which of course made the wknd so sweet! Positive vibes for a win over MSU Friday night...

The weather here has been so lovely, but I'm afraid it's going to be chilly this week and weekend (in the 40's...yuk). I wish it would just stay in the 70's. We had an amazing thunderstorm last night, too, and the winds were insane! It was so fun to listen to. I really love spring thunderstorms. I don't so much love the tornado warnings that sometimes come with them, but that's to be expected in Kansas. I'm sure we will get a bunch of warnings once Andy goes out of town. He travels a lot coming up, and we always joke that when he's out of town someone either gets sick or there's a tornado or bad storm. It's true.

St. Patty's Day

I always look a bit tired in photos...b/c I am!

Molly has a grip on her cousin.

Rory and Cleo. We took Cleo's pants off b/c it was so hot. I wish I could get away with that when I overheat.

This is the second time I've posted this. The first time my laptop decided to freeze up and ignore my commands, so I had to restart the computer. Fun times. I'm surprised I have the patience to do this again. Here goes!

So today is St. Patrick's Day and we went to the parade downtown on Mass Street. We met my Mom and my niece and nephews, as well as Hannah, Ash and Eloise, Hannah's parents and Mo and Zeke. It was fun and the parade was very Lawrence (quite a variety of crazy and fun floats!) We then went out for lunch w/ my Mom and the kids. Gus and Cleo were so sacked by the time we got home that they were both in bed before 7pm tonight. They are sunkissed, too. It was 80 degrees! Rock on.