Day 73 (3-12-03)

Yesterday was MOPS swap where we bring items we don't use anymore and pick up items that we can use. I found this pair of boots, which I totally heart. They add that feminity that I am trying to go for. They have quite a heal on them and they make me feel so good.

Day 72 (3-11-09)

Haley likes to have sleepovers in our room sometimes. We have a little loveseat that she uses as her bed. This morning before we headed to MOPS I snapped these pictures of her cute feet while she was still sleeping. I can't believe she will be six in one week. YIKES!

Day 71 (3-10-09)

Matthew decided today that he wanted to learn how to walk up and down the stairs instead of crawling. I can't believe how big he is getting.

Day 70 (3-9-09)

We had a pretty day out today so we decided to get some spray painting projects done. Matthew sat on the little piece of carpet and dictated directions.

Day 69 (3-8-09)

My dear youngest child got a hold of Haley's stickers and put them all over the dining room chairs. Wasn't that so sweet of him?

Day 68 (3-7-09)

Haley and I had a great time on a 2 hour cruise on the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers in downtown Pittsburgh. We went with the Daisy troop. We danced, snacked, and sat and at popcorn on the deck while everyone else watched a magic show. She wasn't interested in the magic show. She said she just wanted to have a date time with her mommy. Oh, melt my heart.

Day 67 (3-6-09)

Haley and I played around with the camera today and made silly faces. We had a fun time. I sure enjoy spending time with her.

Day 66 (3-5-09)

We went to a new Chinese restaurant for dinner. It had a beautiful pond with Koi fish and golfish. The kids had a great time watching them.

Day 65 (3-4-09)

Haley's girl scout troop took a tour of Petco today. They were able to hold and pet many different kinds of animals. Haley's favorite was the guinea pigs. My favorite part was the 300lb. Mastiffs that came in to be groomed and the ball python. I actually got to snuggle with the snakes for a while. I loved it. The scorpion, we all agreed, was our least favorite.

Day 64 (3-3-09)

Matthew gave us a little concert with his harmonica today. He has gotten very good at playing that harmonica.

Day 63 (3-2-09)

We couldn't decide if Matthew was unhappy about being pulled out of the bathtub or the fact that his mommy can use this picture as blackmail one day.

Day 62 (3-1-09)

Haley decided to surprise us tonight by getting Matthew ready for bed. She dressed him in one of her giant Harry Potter shirts. He looked so adorable.

Day 61 (2-28-09)

Matthew sure enjoyed playing with this ball today. He was hysterical the whole time.

Day 60 (2-27-09)

We have been taking care of a friends dog, Tally, while they were in Jamaica. It has been awhile since we have had a dog in the house. We had a good time with her.

Day 59 (2-26-09)

We found Haley inside the hockey bag after getting undressed from practice. She is such a goofball. She said she wanted to be packed into the bag and carried out because she was too tired to walk. Funny thing is, she could actually fit very easily into that bag. It is huge!

Day 58 (2-25-09)

Haley and I spent about 45 min. after school today popping endemame pods and talking. We had a great time. Endemame is one of my new favorite snacks. Yummy. Haley kept sneaking bites of them.

Day 57 (2-24-09)

We are finally heading home. "Pennsylvania Welcomes You" is the best thing I have seen lately. We got home and headed to the store to pick up some ingredients for Swiss Cheese Fondue. Yum. Matthew and Haley love riding in the car cart. When I was putting groceries away, I found two baby dolls in the freezer. I wonder who put those there?

Day 56 (2-23-09)

Today we tried to head home. We stopped at a great rest stop that was sitting above the freeway. It was really nice, like a mini mall. We wound up having to get a hotel about 2 hours outside of Pittsburgh due to an intense winter moving through. We were all really bummed, especially Matthew who was crying hysterically. Greg calmed him down after a bath and a cuddle session.

Day 54 (2-22-09)

The car in Chicago was not as great of a deal as Greg thought. Greg replaced several things on the car to get it ready for the drive back to Pittsburgh. About 2 miles from where we bought it, it blew up into a huge puff of steam. :( Greg spent the next 7 hours replacing the thermostat and other parts to get it to work. I drove to several car part stores looking for the parts he needed. Haley and Matthew hung out in the car shop we were using and watched Boz videos. That soon got boring and they decided to run around the garage and play in the mud and oil on hte floor. It was very cold and snowing the entire day. We got back to the hotel, without the car, around midnight.

Day 53 (2-21-09)

Our first morning in Chicago we took the kids to the pool at the hotel. Haley was so exited. Matthew had a great time sitting on the edge of the pool and splashing.

Day 51 (2-20-09)

We decided to take a quick trip to Chicago to buy a car Greg found on EBay. Haley was so excited about staying in a hotel and about stopping at McDonald's on the way out. I was excited about Starbucks and Crunch 'n Munch, my travel snack of choice. We left Friday afternoon and were supposed to be back Saturday evening. Yeah right!

Day 50 (2-19-09)

Haley wants glasses really badly. She gives new meaning to the name "four eyes". What a goofball.

Day 49 (2-18-09)

We took a tour of Krispy Kreme today. It was a lot of fun. We had 25 kids with us. YIKES! The kids each were able to dip a donut in chocolate and then in sprinkles. Matthew was one of the last ones to go. When the lady handed him the donut to dip, he shoved it straight into his mouth. It was hilarious.

Day 48 (2-17-09)

Haley lost her second tooth today. More drama. She informed us of two other loose teeth. Does this get any easier?

Day 47 (2-16-09)

Haley dragged Matthew around the house on an afghan. Matthew is sitting so patiently and having a ball. He has her wrapped around his little chubby fingers.

Day 46 (2-15-09)

We went over to a friends house tonight. They have a 2 year old son named Matthew. The Matthew's get along really well. They were acting like little ham's while eating Macaroni and Cheese. My Matthew even stuck some in his ears. Boys will be boys.

Day 45 (2-14-09)

Today was Valentine's Day. Greg and I got a babysitter for the kids (our first real babysitter) and went to a couples party. There were six couples, all close friends. We had an amazing time playing games, eating, drinking, and just enjoying each others company. It was an amazing night.

Day 44 (2-13-09)

I took Matthew with me to Costco today. He usually loves riding in the basket and sampling different foods. Today, he was downright angry that I wouldn't let him sample something that was super spicy. Poor baby!

Day 43 ( 2-12-09)

Lots of things happened today. Matthew got a hold of my "acorn hat" as we call it. He kept pulling in over his face and running around the house. He couldn't see so he ran full force into the door frame and then bounced into the wall behind him. It was hysterical. He also tried hummus for the first time and LOVED it. He played in the bath by dumping water on his head and then trying to lick it off his face. Haley was looking mighty cute with a puppy on her head.

Day 42 (2-11-09)

Haley and Matthew were playing on our bed before bedtime. They were having so much fun. I was able to get them to lay still long enough for this adorable picture.

Day 42 (2-10-09)

Haley lost her first tooth today. It was an hour and a half of pure torture, crying, and screaming. In other words, DRAMA! When Greg was finally able to pull it, she didn't even realize he had pulled it. She was astonished and Greg and I just kept laughing. She couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror. The tooth fairy brought her $2. Inflation is something else.

Day 41 (2-9-09)

This lovely box arrived on our doorstep today. 500 "packages of love" as a friend calls them. Greg won them in some sort of contest when he tried to win a trip to some island. Crazy. We are going to be sending them with a friends sister to Africa to pass out to the locals there. Cool!

Day 40 (2-8-09)

I found a fantastic train table on craigslist and brought it home for Matthew. He loves it!!! Haley does too. He likes to play with it while I am cooking because he is in the kitchen with me, but not in my way.

Day 39 (2-7-09)

Greg replaced some parts on the car and seemed to really enjoy doing it. Later than day we picked up a weight machine at an elk farm and really had trouble keeping it in the truck because of the extremely bumpy roads.

Day 38 (2-6-09)

Today was Haley's first time having a friend sleepover at our house. We invited her friend Grace who lives next door. We decided to go to Uno's for dinner and dessert. The girls were able to make their own pizzas, which they were super silly about. They also shared a hot cookie with ice cream. Yumm! We had a great night.

Day 37 (2-5-09)

Haley and I had a great time playing together today. We bought some new building blocks and a bowling game. We built a castle for the My Little Ponies and then threw it up in the air and let it rain down on us.

Day 36 (2-4-09)

Today was the hundredth day of school. Haley and I decided it would be fun to celebrate by making her an outfit with the number 100 all over it. We wrote with glitter glue, which washes right out. She looked cute. On the way to school, Matthew reached over to her, said "Sissy" and grabbed her hand to hold it all the way to school. It was so precious.

Day 35 (2-3-09)

Matthew loves watching the clothes in the washing machine. He stands there and yells "Wow". He also loves pushing the washing machine buttons. Thankfully, there is a child lock system. Unfortunately the child lock does not work for the power button so Matthew manages to turn the machine off in the middle of a load quite often. Urggghhh! It's a good thing he's so cute.

Day 34 (2-2-09)

Matthew loves his froggy pajamas that Aunt Laurie gave him for Christmas. He loved wearing them today while snuggling his Elmo dolls.

Day 33 (2-1-09)

Superbowl party at home. Go Steelers! This was such a fantastic game and we enjoyed swinging the terrible towel (especially Matthew) and eating Steeler cookies. Greg spent the morning trying to scrape the more than 6 in. of ice that had gathered on our driveway and stairs.

Day 32 (1-31-09)

Haley met a female referee today and asked to get a picture with her. The referee asked us to send her a copy of the picture for her desk. She was so encouraging of Haley. I took the picture of Matthew at Toy's R Us. He loved the Thomas bed.

Day 31 (1-30-09)

Haley was getting annoyed with Matthew so she went into the laundry room to get away from him. After a time of not hearing her, I went in to check on her and found her asleep on her bunny that Aunt Kerry gave her. I was able to snap a picture just before Matthew woke her up. He decided to join her by laying down next to her on the big elephant. He loves being like his sister. Matthew is always laying on the floor when he is playing with his cars.

Day 30 (1-29-09)

Today I decided to try a new recipe book called "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. It involves turning vegetables into puree's and cooking those vegetables into regular foods. I decided to make brownies that had spinach and squash puree. The mixture was a little scary but, as you can see, the brownies looked normal and you could not tell there were vegetables in them Haley and Matthew LOVED them. I loved all puree's and their beautiful colors.

Day 29 (1-28-09)

Today was a crazy day. We had an incredible ice storm that just blanketed everything. Haley took the camera and snapped a few pictures, one of her doll and one of a cupcake she drew at school. She also had to count out 100 legos for 100's day at school. She was proud of her problem solving skills by placing each lego on a number on her number chart so she wouldn't lose count. Smart girl.

1-27-09 cont.

Matthew got a hold of a roll of toilet paper. I had so much fun wrapping him up in it. He laughed the whole time.