Thanksgiving (a bit belatedly!)

Forgot that these pictures were on my phone and not on the computer.

Molly jams

EasterBirthdaySnowStorm

We went to Wausau this weekend, intending to celebrate Molly's birthday and Easter a week early. We managed to do all of that, baking a cake, decorating eggs, and getting a visit from the Easter Bunny, even though we left a day early. Turns out to have been the right decision, as right now we are getting 1-2" of snow here per hour in Urbana. Happy Spring!

Molly's cake

Molly and GramGram

Leo proud of his tinkertoy creation

Molly and Grandpa Ervin telling jokes

Leo and Grandpa Ervin and Leo's Lego creation

The snow--still in progress 

Still coming down out there.

Can't go home again

Went to WI for my 21 year high school reunion. Yes, 21. We couldn't get the 20th together in good time so decided to delay a year. We then also combined the party with the class of '92. It was a fun time. It would have been better if Leo hadn't been under the weather and running a fever most of the weekend. But Jeff and I went to the first half of the homecoming game (it was cold! but we won). Then on Saturday there were tours of the new HS and the old HS, which has been converted to apartments, but because it's on the landmark registry they kept a lot of the historic details, since part of it was built during the WPA and has some artwork still from that time like murals and tiles. Saturday night there was a party for the grownups at a local hotel.

Introducing GramGram to Scaredy Squirrel

GramGram love

Auditorium of the new HS

Library of the new HS

One of the murals in the old HS

Old HS apartments

One of the many animal tiles at the old HS

Easter part II

comparing loot

An Easter light saber

A shod bird

Decorating

Easter in Wausau

Funny Grandpa

Of course I missed filming the parts where Ervin was making Molly laugh...

Breakfast at Grandma's

Happy First Birthday Molly!

Dear Molly, we can't believe you are a year old already! We went to WI for Spring Break, so you got to celebrate your birthday with lots of snow. You are a happy, busy little girl. You love to take things out and put things in, pull things off of shelves, or dump things out of baskets. You got a shape sorter and a set of stacking rings as presents and they are already big hits. Thank goodness, since otherwise you only want to play with your brother's toys and he's a little tired of it.

You have three teeth (two bottom, one top) with another top one on the way. You have more hair than your brother did at this age, and it's still red. You are, however, still a peanut and are a tiny thing. 

You have a lot of concentration for one so small.

You love to cruise and are contemplating walking on your own--you can stand unassisted for a bit and have taken a step or two on your own, you'll get there any day now. Yesterday you crawled up the folded pack and play and onto the coffee table. You just looked at me funny when I asked you what you were doing.

 You aren't talking really, although this weekend you were saying "take oo" for "thank you".Unlike your brother, you got a first BD cake to smoosh--you liked it well enough (even the frosting, which non of the rest of us liked). But generally you prefer any food you can feed yourself. You have little patience for being spoon feed much of the time, and bottle feeding is getting really hard. We're trying the sippy cup, but you haven't got the hang of it just yet.

You are such a sweet girl and we all love you very much. Your brother just loves to love on you--and frequently has to be reprimanded for being too much in your face/space. But he can make you smile and laugh and you adore him.

For those counting, yes, we never got around to posting an 11 month post. But rest assured we are busy living with and loving you every day!

Love, Mama, Papa, and Leo

Thanksgiving

We went up to Wausau for Thanksgiving this year and had a lovely time. It was too short a trip--we went up on Tuesday (because there was snow forecast for Wednesday) and came back Saturday.

Leo and Grandpa Ervin














Leo watching TV with Grandpa's headphones while GramGram wraps Christmas presents











Molly taking a break from trying to crawl














Leo helping GramGram tear the bread for the stuffing












Leo impatiently waiting to go outside to shovel snow--we got 1.5" while we were there!

















Molly's eager to read the ads to prepare for Black Friday












Leo loved washing dishes

Madison trip

For my birthday we went to Madison for a quick trip. We first stopped at Penzeys to stock up and then checked out the new additions to Hilldale Shopping Center--wow it's fancy! Of course we went to Quivey's Grove for fish fry Friday night-just as good as I remembered.











Saturday it was chilly and quite breezy. We went to the Union and Leo loved watching the water and the boats (he even said he wants to go to school at the UW), but it was too cold to stay for long, so we headed next door to College Library where we ran into two of my former coworkers.








Then we headed over to State Street to wander a bit before meeting up with my folks who came down to see us for the afternoon. Leo liked the badger fountain outside of Varsity Bar.










We went to lunch at the original Ian's. Mom bought lunch (thanks Mom!) Later we discovered that they've also got a big location up near the top of State Street.











Then we headed to the Children's Museum--Mom treated us again by paying everyone's admission--thanks Mom! I loved the cow that could be raised and lowered.










Leo loved the car at the bottom of the climbing contraption. Even though he's a good climber he wasn't feeling brave enough to try it out.















Mom and Erv (and I) mostly sat and talked and played with Molly while Jeff chased after Leo. It was very very loud and crazy--not surprising on a Saturday afternoon I guess!

My folks left to head back to Wausau a little after 3:30p and we headed over to the main branch of the Madison Public Library to decompress for a bit before heading to dinner.






We had dinner at The Old Fashioned, on the Square. It's new since we lived there and we really liked it--it's meant to be somewhat like a traditional WI supper club and a lot of the food is local. The food, service, and decor were fabulous. It was crowded and loud though--big surprise.








Then we headed back down State Street to get back to the car. The sun was starting to sink (but it was still pretty early) and the capitol looked especially nice.















We stopped at the Chocolate Shoppe and Leo and I shared a dish of blue moon. Mmmmm. We left to come home mid-Sunday morning. We had a great time and Leo didn't want to leave (neither did we).Hopefully we can visit more often as Molly gets older.