Brown Thumb

Yard issues...Kluver assistance needed.

said Ella

"Heidi, it's our wedding day."

"Noah, go get your wedding clothes." When they do get married, I hope...
A. they hire a professional photographer
B. Noah doesn't choose a "Robin costume" for his wedding clothes

NEW CAR!!

After a full day of work on Friday and a 7 hour car ride home (without cruise control), Joel decided that we were ready to part with my little 10 year old Mazda Protege.

fun at the park

It's a little too windy, but at least it's warm and sunny today.

Grandma was here

Noah likes all Superheroes. He loves Batman, but he is OBSESSED with Robin. He carries a plastic Robin with him pretty much wherever he goes. Although he enjoys searching for all Batman toys on the internet, his favorite computer activity is looking at Robin costumes. When we stayed in Iowa over spring break, Grandma Cathy took Noah to the fabric store, and they picked out a costume pattern. Here he is..in a Grandma Cathy original.The boots are the cutest!! She brought a Batman costume for Eli and capes for Jack and Ella.

With the boys in great hands over the weekend, Joel and I took a mini vacation to the Cities. We had fun spending time with some of our very best friends. Thanks for everything Cathy & Don (and friends)!!

birthday

I had to share this picture that Eli colored and gave to me yesterday. I'm pretty sure it is the first picture he has actually finished (sorry, no time to flip it). He colors so slowly that he gets very bored with it. My parents took him to a baseball game on Saturday, and I guess coloring was better than watching baseball. So last night, I had the choice of going out to eat with my family or spending some time by myself. I was feeling pretty guilty as I was driving to the mall, and then I overheard a phone conversation. I was in Macy's and there was a guy on his phone standing there with his little girl. All I heard him say was, "Do you ever feel like you go to work and bust your ass all day, and then you get home and it's even harder?" It made me chuckle!!

Happy Easter

I forgot my camera, but we had a great time at the lake with my parents, Grandma Mona, and Grandpa Pete.

-going for an early morning stroll

-finding Easter baskets

-egg hunting

-watching Grandma Connie play the organ at church

-playing outside

-eating yummy food

-enjoying the first pontoon cruise of the year

-being surprised with a bunny b-day cake

and ending the day cuddled up watching The Sound of Music.

Spring Break

We spent last week in Iowa. Joel worked. They boys and I played. Saturday was Eli's 6th birthday. The blonde boys are our friends Jake and Chase. They were on spring break also, so we got to spend a lot of time with them during the week. Noah was very busy the whole time we were at Grandma and Don's. He took very few naps. This was one of his non-nap days.

St. Patrick's Day in the O'Brien house started with a decorated breakfast table, hats and treat bags. Grandma even made green eggs and ham. If you can believe it, Eli wanted nothing to do with his food. We went to a parade in the afternoon and I made corned beef and cabbage for supper.

Noah's favorite two places at Grandma's are on the front porch and in the dog room. He thought he was training Belle (golden retriever). He told her to "sit", "lay down" and then he'd put his face right in hers and say, "lick, Belle")
We had a great week. Thanks for everything Grandma and Don!

coming soon

Lots to blog. I'll get to it sometime today!

6 in 6 days

Like Father Like Son

These two are so much alike it isn't even funny!

On a side note, what would you do with a day off? I'm pretty sure I would not spend the day playing Boggle on the computer!!

more photos

I had to steal a couple of pictures from Jen.

Exhausted

That is how I would describe our household tonight. My parents took our whole family to Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria. In less than 24 hours we:

-watched a polar plunge (aka crazy people jumping into a frozen lake)

-went sledding

-made 2 trips to the water park

-celebrated birthdays

-played games

We were so busy that I didn't really get any pictures taken.

The grandkids are growing up! Brady turned 2 on Friday.

Thanks Grandma Connie and Grandpa Steve; we had a blast!!

Bismarck

Family Rock BandJennifer sent us home with some treasures. The doll house is a big hit.
Ella and Noah were taking very good care of their "babies" today.

Thanks for everything Jen and Rich! I must also thank our niece and nephews. They kept their cousins very busy which resulted in a lot of relaxing for me.

From Eli

I got the sweetest Valentine. From my husband, I received the most thoughtful gift....an 8 pack of 90 calorie coke.

Happy Friday

"Grandpa Pants"

What???

You can have books read to you on the computer??? This is SO much better than the Lego Batman trailers Noah insists on watching. THANK YOU ERIN!

question and answer

I saw this on a blog recently, so I thought I would do it (I left out a few numbers).

1. What is your current obsession?
new furniture/wanting to decorate
2. What are you wearing today?
sweats and hooded sweatshirt
3. What’s for dinner?
we had beans and corn bread
4. What’s the last thing you bought?
groceries and hot wheels color changing cars for the boys
5. What are you listening to right now?
Noah calling for "mom" (he wanted the tag cut off his blanket)
Eli talking to himself and kicking the wall (it's 9:40)
Joel's TV show...sex and the bible
6. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?somewhere warm, but I'd want all of our family members to live there too.
7. What is one thing you want to change about yourself?
talk less, listen more
8. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
If it was daytime, I'd say a warm beach. Since it's night, I'd like to be at a beachside bar with warm air and a cold beer.
10. What’s your favorite quote?
love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe
11. Would you cook for me?
yes
13. What are you afraid of the most?
a deadly accident
15. What is your favorite color?
green
16. Give us 3 styling tips that work for you.
I have no tips; nothing works
17. What is your dream job?
being a preschool teacher...just a couple of hours a day and getting paid A LOT
18. What’s your favorite magazine?
Entertainment: US weekly
WeeklyBeauty: Glamour
Inspiration: Self
Life: Womans Day
19. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?
clothes
22. What brings a smile on your face instantly?
my kids giving me hugs and saying I love you
Joel giving back rubs
23. What is one word that you say a lot?
"what" My kids say "Mom" a lot
24. What kind of haircut do you prefer?
really short, but not on me
25. What are you going to do after this?
watch the news and eat chips
26. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?
write in a journal
28. What are your favorite movies?
besides lifetime movies?
29. What inspires you?
Women who do it all...work, spend quality time with the kids, have a clean house, and are nice people.
31. Would you prefer coffee or tea?
Coffee
32. Which other blogs do you love visiting?
family, friends, friends of friends (where I found this quiz)
33. What is your favorite dessert/sweet?
ice cream
35. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I look old
36. What is your favorite season?
Summer
but I love nice fall days and a warm spring day is hard to beat!
38. What breaks your heart?
watching my child struggle, any child for that matter
39. What's one thing you really want to do in life?
figure out what I want to do in life

beans and cornbread...

not exactly what Joel had in mind for Superbowl food, but it was good. For a dollar each, I even got the kids to take two bites (yes I know I'm not supposed to bribe children) I'm going to use the leftovers to make re fried beans for tostadas tomorrow night.My new year resolution was to make one new recipe per week; so far, so good. This recipes came from The Pioneer Woman Cookbook that Joel's sister gave me for Christmas.

fun weekend

It started with an impromptu visit from my sister and her family. Craig and Jen had "date night" on Friday night, so after a movie and appetizers, they decided to join us for some card playing. Sunday was Jack's birthday party at American Gold Gymnastics. The kids had a great time!

oh fer cute!

Grandma Cathy gave us this adorable snoman making kit 2 years ago, and we FINALLY got to use it.

sledding

I'm not a fan of half day kindergarten (or half morning kindergarten as I like to call it), but it did allow for us to have "the hill park" all to ourselves today.

Baking cookies with Grandma

This is why my parents don't invite us for Sunday dinner very often. We decide to keep them busy ALL WEEKEND. Thanks for the fun everyone (We were missing Krista's crew because Zach was not feeling well)!

Merry Christmas...and Happy New Year

We were supposed to spend Christmas day at my parents and head to Iowa the next day. However, the snow changed our plans. Joel and Jen both had to work Christmas Eve., so everyone came to our house for a cozy 3 day snowed-in event (little did we know that the storm would hit later and we could've made it to Mom and Dad's)
With a lot of help from my Dad, brother and the friendly snowplow guy (Brent was standing outside in his bare feet flagging down the snowplow), everyone was able to take off Saturday. We decided to wait until Sunday to head to Iowa. The roads were still terrible, but we made it.
Grandma Cathy had purchased a DS for Eli's b-day, but it turned into his "must have" Christmas item. It was at least 24 hours after opening Santa gifts that he said "Hey, why didn't Santa bring me a DS?"

We had a fun week in Iowa, and everyone had a great time at Grandma's New Year's Eve board game party!!

ElfYourself - Hip Hop ElfYourself

ElfYourself - Hip Hop ElfYourself



Erin created this video for us and made my day. I hope it works!!

I shouldn't admit this

Eli was red. I was black. I helped him with a few moves at the start of the game, but he found a triple jump all on his own. I didn't have a chance after that!

Noah's preschool program

Song one: doing actions but no singing Most of the program: hands in pocket (pulled out only to be awfully close to nose picking)
He did take them out to do the sign language "I love you" for one of the songs. Just kidding. It wasn't sign language; it was Spiderman web shooting... with sounds.
He was also in charge of ringing some bells during a song which he did with A LOT of enthusiasm!


The cutest girl in the program? That would be Ella standing on Noah's right.

I have to say that I was proud of Noah for actually standing there with his class. I had visions of crying and him sitting on my lap during the program.