New Furniture...New Look

We have had a couch we bought off a work type craigslist for 6 years now. they had advertised it as an IKEA couch, but who knows if it really is. It started to get some rips in the fabric, so I patched them, but then it started to have rips EVERYWHERE...cath told me not to even move it from PA to VA, but we did. It was in the office, and had basically become the dogs bed. Well I had heard that January is the best time to buy furniture so I said to Ryan on Thursday, If we are going to get a new couch we have to do it this month. So yesterday we went to "THE DUMP" its a warehouse type place that is only open friday-sundays, all sales final, they get the overstock of other stores I guess.
So last night after the kids naps we went to and bought not only a new couch, but a Chair and ottoman to match. Ryans favorite thing about it is that it was made in the USA. ha ha
Here are some before and after pictures of the room. I think it looks so nice now.

Before: Looking in

Before: Looking out...thats the new chair

After: looking in

After: Looking out

Happy 1st Birthday Ethan!

We got ethan balloons for his birthday, they were quite a hit

Its my birthday!

I'm how old?

Syracuse won!! What a nice birthday present

I'm loving this cake stuff

I think audrey might love it more though, she's licking the plate clean

Ride 'em cowboy!

hi :)

Jumphouse

Today we took Audrey to her friend Jeremy's third birthday party at a bounce house type place that does birthday parties. I'm guessing you can just go and play at times too. Audrey wasn't acting normal all day- she hardly ate or drank anything and was just generally out of sorts. the party was at 1 - her "normal" nap time. But i really want to go to see what this place was and to see how birthday parties go. Well Audrey fell asleep on our way there (and we were 35 minutes late to begin with) so we had to wake her up when we got there and she was just a bear. She finally warmed up when I went into a bounce house with her. but she only ate 2 bites of pizza and didn't want cake! so with that I knew something is wrong. hopefully tomorrow she is feeling better. We went to bed extra early tonight. I have no idea what could be wrong. she is warm but no fever. I may call the doctor tomorrow to see. Here are some pictures, she did have a few fun moments on the birthday chair and lots of friends from daycare were there.

Ryan trying to talk audrey in going down the big blow up slide, he failed

The big Batman jump house

Audrey and Mommy in a bounce house

Audrey having fun finally

Ethan would have had a blast if we had let him in...but he was too little

Ryan enjoying the blackberry party

Pizza Time

Sitting on the birthday throne with a friend from school

Audrey Sleep habits

3 weeks ago bedtime routine:

We say its bed time, audrey grabs her milk and marches upstairs. We take a bath, get dressed, drink milk, read 3-4 books, always ending with a biscuit book, brush teeth and hair, hugs, tell her to go get bunny foo-foo (her lovey) and cover her up turn off the lights and leave. done.


The last few days (and the WHOLE vacation):

We say its bed time - there are tears and jumping up and down NO!. we finally get upstairs after some coaxing. we take a bath, get dressed, every few minutes "where are we going to go to sleep?" drink milk, read a story, brush teeth and hair, once we start the walk back to the bedroom the tears and screams start. I don't want to sleep in there! Sleep on the floor daddy! I don't want to go to bed! leave the light on! leave the door open!

we tried to let her just cry it out and put the safety thing on the door handle so she couldnt open her bedroom door. we left and went downstairs to watch on the video and she was screaming at the top of her lungs and crying. she left the view of the camera and we hear "i dont want my pajamas!!" then after a minute or two we hear her crying in the hallway. ryan went up and she was down to her diaper and had busted the safety device and got out of the room. ryan thinks she would have chewed her way out if she had to. I don't understand what happened. but i hope we get back to the normal routine REAL quick.

Christmas Whirlwind

well we made it through our trip!

1. Drove 1500 miles
2. Stayed at 4 different houses (kids atleast)
3. Had 4 christmases
4. Drank lots of beer and wine
5. Attempted to ski/snowboard...semi successfully
6. Had 2 birthday parties
7. Took 700 pictures
8. Had one allergic reaction
9. Had one fever
10. Had to sleep on the floor next to audreys pack-n-play 10 nights (and counting)

But it was fun! We had so much fun seeing everyone and people FINALLY got to meet ethan. But I am glad we don't have to do that again anytime soon.