In a Nutshell...

Eep.

This is supposed to be a family scrapbook...a way of documenting our daily lives...but it seems lately that I haven't been doing a good job writing posts.

I guess exercising in the mornings at the YMCA hasn't helped my blogging cause. LOL!

What's new around here? Let's see...

Mark took Annika and Ava to their very first Daddy and Daughter(s) Dance which our local YMCA hosted. They had a great time dancing! I also enjoyed having a few hours to myself. :)

Valentine's Day was lots of fun. Annika created flowers from all the silk flower petals she picked up from the Daddy and Daughter Dance the previous evening. She also drew out a diagram to illustrate how she made them (I tried to correct her spelling). Sweet!

I just love the Valentine's Day cards Annika made for us.

Then this past Saturday we attended the Winter Carnival put on as a community-wide effort. It was lots of fun! I "manned" the booth for Family Connections of Southwest Wisconsin. We made colorful pasta necklaces. :) The kids (especially the toddlers) just loved touching and feeling the dry, colorful pasta. Kids and adults alike enjoyed creating their own necklaces. I made one too! I couldn't tell you what else was at the Winter Carnival as my efforts were focused on my booth. I know my friend Amy had musical chairs going on as part of her VBS booth. I also know that there was face painting, balloon animals, cookie decorating & of course eating, and bean bag throwing happening at the Carnival. It was lots of fun and it was a great snowy day for it too. Certainly an awesome way to beat the winter blues. I hope they do this again next year.


Okay...here are lots of photos. Naturally I loaded them backwards...so we'll have to start with the most recent and work backwards. Sigh. Some day I'll get the hang of this blogging business.

Ava ....asleep. On the couch. Mark had just finished reading to Annika (in a chair close to the couch) but he didn't see her slip on to the couch while he was reading. We put Annika to bed and he couldn't find Ava. We looked in her room, in Annika's room...and we found her. She'd fallen fast asleep on the couch and hadn't made a peep. A long day of playing at the Winter Carnival will make a little, almost four-year old, drowsy.
Ava getting her face painted. Her entire face!

Balloon butterfly!

Annika and her yummy cookie. I didn't get a cookie. I got a rootbeer float instead! Yum.
Please ignore my big fat arms. I swear I work-out! I swear they're not that fat in real life! Anyway...the cuteness here is Ava...Butterfly Ava.

Annika and Shae (I think this is Shae) at the bean bag toss.

Silly little Ava with the cookie she decorated. I heard she promptly ate all the candies off her cookie and left the cookie.

And this is Ava decorating her cookie...

Here's me at the Pasta Necklace booth. The kids really did enjoy making the necklaces.

Annika in her cute March hat (not sure what it's supposed to be but it's cute) and coloring...

The sweetest Valentine's Day cards that Mark and I have ever gotten:

Instructions on how to make a flower.....

(the small print is me trying to correct her spelling mistakes)

The finished flowers:

These flowers were made from silk flower petals she picked up from the Daddy & Daughter Dance. We used a hole punch to make a hole close to the base of the petal and then she strung the petals on to the pipe cleaner (do they really still call these pipe cleaners?). I made the first one and she made the rest.

Mark, Ava and Annika getting ready to leave for the Daddy and Daughter(s) Dance hosted by our YMCA. (lookie: Annika is wearing a dress!)

The girls getting ready to dance....twirling with their toys. Ava really wanted to wear her "wedding dress". In other news...

In a crazy moment in my life I signed up for the Mad City Half Marathon (Madison, WI) which is at the end of May.

Nuts. I know. Just nuts.

Yesterday I managed to jog 6 miles so naturally I can do a half marathon, right? We'll see. I'm obviously going to train up for it. I'd just love to cross that Life Goal off my list, know what I mean?

We still don't know any more about our car (as I mentioned in a previous post). I know should be extremely thankful that the car issue is our biggest problem and that many people out there are going through worse ordeals but it is taking a toll on us. We're trying very hard to remain calm and positive- even though I really want to SCREAM! Mark did speak to the General Manager so perhaps something will happen now.