Cousin Time!

We got to spend some time with Aunt JuJu, Uncle Kevin, Evie & Elle this weekend.  The last time we've seen them was Christmas and it's amazing how much little Elle has grown from that time.  She's now crawling and cruising and is just getting so big so fast!

All the cousins together being burritos! We like to fold them into a burrito with our blankets and the kids love it!

Here's Olivia and Luca's crowns that they made at the art class they took.

Teeth! Teeth! Teeth!

Today I noticed Olivia had some white showing on her gums and I just thought it was food b/c it's happened before and I would get sad that she still didn't have teeth.  Well, Corey noticed it and said something and we felt teeth and saw two little buds coming out of her bottom gums!  YAY!  It's amazing that the average age a baby gets teeth is 6 months old and she is 19 months and 18 days old today.   I'm so happy that she finally has teeth.  

In other good news, today, Luca gave Corey a big hug and said "You're my best friend."  It was the cutest thing ever and it made Corey's day. Then a few minutes later he hugged both Olivia and Corey and said "I love you guys!"  He melts my heart!

Let's Paint!

My playgroup suggested that we meetup at Creative Solutions, a place where you can take your kids to be "Creative" and the kids LOVED it!

Here's Luca and his buddy Carson working on their masterpiece.

Olivia really seemed to LOVE it the most.  I think she might be the artistic one because I notice that she always likes to color at home.   She went straight to the paint when we walked into this place and had no problems creating something - she even didn't mind having paint on her hands.  As for Luca, every time he'd get paint on his hands he asked me to wash it off.  After several times, I just told him that it was ok to have paint on his hands and that I would wash them before we left. He was not happy about it and  I noticed he would go to all the moms and the instructor and ask them to wash his hands. It's so fun to see the different personalities between him and his sister.

This place had different stations for the kids with all types of activities.

I never really let them use real paint at home because I'm afraid of the mess and I struggled a little bit because I hate messes especially with paint but I let them have fun and enjoyed every minute of it knowing that I didn't have to clean it up!

This place was great because they could spill paint, and basically paint anything ~ including this old China Cabinet.  I sure hope they don't think it's ok to paint on any other kind of furniture, especially ours!

They just had a ball!

I thought for sure that all the paint would've been knocked down by the end of the day but that didn't happen.

What did happen was that the kids started to paint on each others shirts.

The place provided larger t-shirts to put on the kids which was nice.

We also didn't have to clean up either! They had a couple of couches so the moms could sit in quiet while the kids painted but we never used them because we actually had fun watching them.

Olivia's serious painting face.

The next Picasso.

She didn't want to stop.

Luca is getting good at drawing. His drawings are starting to look like something!

Two hours later I decided it was time to go and I didn't have to clean anything up!  We might have to go here again!

Ice Ice Baby Too Cold, Too Cold!

It's been so cold here and Corey has had two "ICE" days. We've been hit by freezing rain and the roads are SLICK!

So after being stuck home ALL week last week because we were all sick.  We were stuck home another 2 days so we had to be creative and think of some fun things to do.  Make Valentine cookies!

Olivia was more interested in Coloring.

This is her coloring concentration face. She sure loves to color!

We also watched a great movie, UP.

Being silly!

"BEE" Mine!

Her new Vday hair bow!

Playing with their Mobigos while waiting for the cookies to bake! I though it was cute in B&W

Almost done!

Luca looks bored here.

Look at those curls! Is it me or does she look like she's getting blonde?

Yum~

Will you be my Valentine?

Strep Throat!

As I had mentioned earlier this week. Luca had a fever on Monday and Tuesday, then he was fever free Wednesday and Thursday. We noticed Luca had 2 pimples on his chin and didn't think anything of it but he kept picking at it. Thursday it seemed to spread and when he woke up on Friday he had about 12 pimples on his face. I called the doctors office, thinking it was chicken pox except it was only on his face and no where else. Thankfully, they were able to squeeze Luca in for an appointment. Corey was feeling sick on Wednesday with a sore throat and I was hit by it on Thursday night.

Luca was so good at the doctors office.  His doctor, Dr. Rob, always shakes my hand when he comes into the room and Luca stuck his hand out like he wanted to shake his hand, too.  So of course, Dr. Rob shook his hand.  Dr. Rob told Luca that he noticed he's got a Birthday coming up, and Luca said "Yep, March."  Then Dr. Rob asked him "How old are you going to be?"  Luca held up three fingers and said "Three!"  When they had to do a swab of Luca's throat, Dr. Rob told me that the kids typically don't like this but we have to do it to see if he had strep.  Luca opened his mouth and said Ahh and let him swab his throat.  I was so proud and Dr. Rob was pretty impressed! 

Luca was diagnosed with Impetigo which is a bacterial infection on the face caused by Strep throat. If you notice it's around his chin and nose, so when he licks his lips and rubs his nose the bacteria gets on his face which causes Impetigo. The doc told me to bring Olivia in, too, because strep is so contagious that she probably had it,  which she did. Corey and I also got checked at the Minute Clinic and we were tested positive for Strep throat. So we are all sick but at least we are all prescribed antibiotics and should be on the mend soon!



Since I like this blog to be positive, I will post some fun pictures that Luca took. He LOVES to take pictures and he's getting better at it, too! So these are silly photos of us that he took earlier in the week. Hopefully by the end of this blog it will make you smile even though I know all of you are feeling really bad for us!

I love that he took a picture of his feet.  It's so fun to see what pictures he took when I get the camera. 

Now this was taken today. For a 19 month old with Strep Throat she sure has a lot of energy!

The Secret

Some of you know that Corey and I are huge believers of The Secret.  We learned about it several years ago after watching Oprah and borrowed the DVD from a friend.  After watching it, it definitely changed our lives.  I always looked at the glass half empty but now I can always make a positive out of something negative.  Whenever I'm feeling down I just have to think of all the things I am grateful for and there are a lot of things.  Anyway...I am a fan of The Secret on Facebook and this was on their status today and I thought I'd share it with all of you...

"If you make time to list all the things you are grateful for, and you feel the feelings of gratitude, you will feel amazing every day. Your frequency will be high and you will move through your days in love with being alive, bringing joy wherever you go, positively affecting one person after another.

When you live a life like this, everything you want will come before you even ask. (The Secret Daily Teachings)"

 If you haven't seen the DVD or have read the book I highly recommend it!  Since living The Secret...things just seemed to fall into place and worked out the way we envisioned it.  We have two healthy, beautiful children, a warm home to live in and great people surrounding us.  I am so grateful!  

Sick Day

Luca woke up with a fever today so we've been home in a our pj's all day and I didn't take Luca to his dance class. I never leave them in their pj's all day because I feel like I'm not being productive, weird, I know, but Luca went down for his nap and asked me to change his clothes. I told him since he's sick he can wear his pj's all day but he wasn't happy about it. I think he's used to his routine of changing out of his pj's every morning.   Once we gave him Tylenol his fever went away and I'm amazed at how much energy he still has.  The kids asked me if they could color so I let them color and ran upstairs real quick to put the laundry in the dryer and start a new load to wash.

I have to say that I noticed how remarkably quiet they were.  I should have figured they were up to no good!  You can't really see this but they drew all over the sliding glass door.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser saved the day!  I made the kids clean it and it came off!

Olivia learned what a square and triangle looks like and knows the difference.

I asked her to show me the square...here it is!!  Smart girl!

Cosi Again!

I took the kids to Cosi again but today it was PACKED compared to when I took them Friday.  There were a lot of kids from Elementary which was probably why it was so hectic in there today.  The kids still had fun especially because all of their friends were there!


I love this picture of Olivia and Sophia! Sophia asked me if I would just take a picture of her and Olivia! How adorable.

This is the helicopter that Luca just loves!  When I told him we were going to Cosi he asked me if we could play on the helicopter first. He's the pilot and Sophia is the passenger.

Olivia remembered the slides and that was the first thing she wanted to do.

Half car, half human.

Luca's new friend, Gia.  I recently joined another playgroup that only meets once a month that I love and everyone lives very close to us - Arligton, Hilliard and Dublin.  I love it and the kids are all very close in age.

Luca figured out how to turn the water on to make it shower!

Olivia was all about this rubber duckie.

The water area is definitely one of the kids favorite things.

Luca and Ethan playing together on the sound machine.

Whenever Luca would talk into this microphone it would light up on the inside.