A wonderful Day off...

These are the days that I LOVE to be a teacher!!!  Riley and I slept in, had a great breakfast, and then the entertaining morning of finger painting!!!

 Mom...come on...why did you ask me where my nose was???  Really, are you that childish?

 The artist at work...

 Picasso here we come!

All done!!!  Look at those beautiful hands!!!  Now it is time for bath-time!

Happy Birthday Lucas and Owen!

This past weekend was a wonderful weekend of healthy kids!  We celebrated the Birthdays of two of our friends, Owen and Lucas!  We arrived at the YMCA to find many familiar faces and a huge jungle gym!!!

 Jillian is amazing, as soon as we arrived she was there to help out!!!  What a great kiddo!

 Riley had a blast!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtA7sz7BtbI

 This thing went all the way to the ceiling!!!

 Jillian took the brave Riley all the way to the top and went down the slide with her the first time!

 I finally worked up the courage and became the only "big" kid to try out the jungle gym...yes, even pregnant I made it through!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hH3kagA3CI

 I got some great pictures!!!

 Hi Ryan!!!

 Too close MOM!!!

Hi Josephine!!!

Someone was too busy to get a photo shot in!  Hi Addison!











It was a great time with great Kiddos!!!  Thanks Owen and Lucas!

January 2011.. a week of illness...

Yuck...Our first week back from a wonderful Christmas vacation brings with it a week of the horrific stomach bug!!!  Jason left for his week long trip snowboarding with family in Colorado and Riley and I were left on our own.  Usually a decent deal, we get to choose whatever we want for dinner!  Instead it was a trip to the ER with Riley (the same night as Jason's Mom too!!) and a stomach bug for Riley for almost a week!!!  YUCK!!!  It was painful to watch a 1.5 year old learn to hold a bucket as she puked!!!

When I fell victim, my Mother, God bless her, came to the rescue!  After texting Mom and Dad late Wednesday night informing them that I too had fallen victim, my Mom arrived on Thursday morning with rubber gloves, Lysol wipes, and ready to de-germ the house!  It was a blessing to have her so close and willing to drop everything to rescue us.  Thanks Mom....I truly do not know how I would have survived without you!  She was a saint, from late night changing of bedding due to puke (2x a night!) to watching explosive diarrhea squirt out of Riley-- Oma Sue was there to help us every step of the way...Thank you...

As we were nearing the end of the weekend, our final plea to Jason landed him returning home 2 days early to tend to his sick family...just in the nick of time as Oma Sue headed back to CT with the unfortunate gift of germs as she then fell victim too...

A week later and we are finally back to normal!!!  Thanks Oma Sue!  We love you!!!

Round 2...

Round Two!!!  Oma Sue and Goomba arrive just in time for round two of the Christmas fun!!!

I love the ribbon Oma Sue!

OOOWWW, a farm set!!!

The big day!!!

 It all started with a mountain of presents from Grandma Mary, Grandpa Jimmy, and Nana Barbara.  Riley, those presents are taller than you!!!

 Nana stating that she didn't go too crazy...well, maybe just a little....

 At first there was some trepidation on the opening of presents, Grandma had to help her along....

 Boy is she a girlie, girl...she LOVED all the clothes Grandma, Grandpa, and Nana bought her!

 No more trepidation here!

 Two handed ripping open!

 Time for the big one...

 Where is it...come on...I want it!!!

 Ok...what is that?  Riley isn't too sure and neither is Maggie...

 We needed some coaxing from Dad...and a hug...

 But then success!!!  Cool little pony Grandma!

Riley calling all of her buddies to tell them how many presents she got!  And this was only round 1!!!  The Carlson/Leadbetter presents haven't even begun yet!