The new Big Oak!

Okay, people. This is big news. I am so happy to report that I will never have to park in this parking lot again! Yay! I do think that this picture is a bit deceptive because this parking lot (shared by James Reeb, Milio's and 4&20 Bakery) is actually the world's smallest space, especially when you are driving Dan's truck! Lucy's day care has been undergoing a major remodel over the past few months so they have been at a temporary location since June 2013. Their Big Oak home is now complete so we are moving back. I hate this parking lot with a passion and I had one minor bump with another parked car here so I am grateful to be back to our usual spot. :)

 

 

And, the newly renovated Big Oak is beautiful! Lucy was so excited to get to the new space. I am sad that she will only get to enjoy it for one short month!

 

Here she is checking out all of the new play areas and the huge windows.

 

Lucy had a day off of school while her teachers set up their new classrooms at Big Oak. So Lucy, Roman, and I spent a morning playing with our friends. We will really miss these kids when we move to Rhinelander.

 

Here is Lucy Bear with her brother and sweet little friends, Sophia and Kenzie.

These girls always have a lot of fun together! 

Roman is 5 months old (Delayed Post!)

Our little man turned 5 months old on January 26. He is getting to be a big guy - well over 16 pounds. Mama is getting toned arms carrying this kiddo and his big sister around! :) Roman's favorite things these days include: watching everything that his sister and his dogs do, pulling his socks off, eating (he recently tried pureed carrots for the first time and loved them!), tearing things (as previously blogged about), making all kinds of squeals and happy screams, and gnawing on toys.

 

He is such a sweet boy! We love him so much!

 

 

Fox tails are delicious!

Tear it up!

It is not a secret that one of my guilty pleasures is reading celebrity gossip magazines! I especially like to read them when I am nursing Roman - they are much easier to page through than a book. I was feeding our little guy and reading my Us Weekly when I needed to help Lucy for a minute. When I came back I found this:

 

 

Roman was tearing my magazine to shreds!! I forgot how much 5 month olds like to tear things up! I  vaguely remembering the mornings when Daniel and I could still read the Sunday paper...the beginning of the end with our newspaper days was when little Miss Lucy started to rip our pages. Lesson learned (again!). Haha!

 

Love you, Roman!

Superbowl Weekend

Just a quick post from our Superbowl Sunday weekend!

On Friday, I dropped Lucy off at daycare and Roman and I made the quick trip to Schaumberg, Illinois to go shopping at Ikea. :) I needed a few things for the house - including a toddler bed for Miss Lucy! (You can see the mattress in the photo below). We had a good day, Roman was a trooper! He did a great job shopping with Mama and got lots of compliments from others about his good looks and stellar behavior. While we did have a good day, this Mama will never attempt the same adventure again. It was a huge pain to load up all of our new stuff and get it safely in the truck with just yours truly and a 5 month old. Whew!

On Saturday we went to Stories and Sweets with Ms Tracy at the library. Lucy just loves her storyhour time. We happened to go to the library on Thursday evening last week and Lucy asked if Ms Tracy would be there. When I said No, that she would be having dinner and spending time with her own family that night, Lucy threw a fit! She was heartbroken at the thought of going to the library without the opportunity to read with Tracy. :)

This month's theme was rabbits.

 

We made bunny ears as part of the craft. Lucy ran around afterwards and hopped like a rabbit to wear off the energy from her donut.

 

 

Roman was his good natured self. :) He happily gnawed on his toys and watched his sister bounce off the walls.

 

We pretty much ate our way through Super Bowl Sunday! We had a lovely brunch with our friends, the Carlson family. Lucy and Jonas played together - I wanted to include this picture as further proof that Lucy does wear her tutus everywhere! haha!

We did eat a few healthy things such as carrots and celery with our chicken wings!

We told Lucy that it was a very special evening because she was allowed to eat in the living room. She was ecstatic! Its the little things people. Eating in the living room + a juice box = one happy child. 

This one didn't care too much for football. Someday, Roman, someday! I am super excited for this guy to play high school football because he has the perfect football name for the announcers to call out over the loudspeaker. :)

Cold Day

We have had a cold winter in Madison this year! Lucy's daycare follows the Madison Public Schools closing schedule so she has had three cold weather days at home with Mama or Dad in January. Eek! Talk about stir crazy! :)

 

How did we spend our most recent day inside?

 

We did puzzles!  

 

Here is a sweet video of Lucy completing her tools puzzle. I thought that her Grandpas might enjoy seeing this one! :)

 

 

The kids spent some quality sister/brother time together. In this particular moment - I think that Lucy might be loving Roman a little too much. He looks kind of scared with that overzealous hug!

 

 

That's better! Lucy loves her little bro so much. It is so much fun to see them interact together.

 Lucy put up her Valentine's Day window clings. Thanks for the package of Valentine goodies, Paul, Abigail and family! Lucy played with these clings for a long time until they lost their stickiness and Scout ate one. Oops.

One of Roman's most recent milestones is that he has found his feet. Yay for built in toys! This guy could chew on his toes all day.

 

Looking forward to warmer weather when we can go barefoot all the time!

Aldo Leopold Nature Center

A few weeks ago we visited the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona. We met up with our friends Andy, Erinn, and Charlotte and spent a very enjoyable Sunday exploring.

 

 

Lucy was able to point out lots of animals on this beautiful wall hanging! Fox, deer, ducks, fish...  

 

Lucy and Daniel played with puppets.

 

Lucy was quick to check out this tree. Notice that she is wearing her tutu :) She l-o-v-e-s her tutus and would wear one every moment of every day if we agreed to it. And, yes, she does wear them to bed over her pajamas pretty on a regular basis!

 

Our little peanut poking her head out of the tree like a raccoon.

 

Lucy and Charlotte had fun catching fish and putting them in nets. Lucy would yell, "I got a whopper!" It also seemed like she was practicing some noodling - just picking up the fish and throwing them in the net.

 

Lucy fell in love with a stuffed wolf while we visited. She called it her wolfie and had a good time wrestling with it. Just preparing for life up North... haha!

 

Thanks for the fun Sunday, Nye family!

 

Playdate on MLK Day!

Lucy's daycare was closed on MLK day so the kids and I scheduled a playdate with some of her little friends - MacKenzie, Nolan, and Eagan! Thanks for hosting, Mary! :) Lucy had a great time. We have not been spending as much time with this crew since I went back to work and it was so much fun to see everyone. We were even able to meet Nolan's sweet new baby sister Lillian and hear her crazy birth story firsthand. Baby Lily was born in her Mom and Dad's car this December! Wowza!

 

While the mamas were captivated by Julie's story of Lily's birth, the biggest hit for the kids was the PlayDoh table! They loved it! Lucy got some PlayDoh/toys for Christmas but I already packed it away for the big move so she has not had an opportunity to play with it yet. I am confident that she will love it when we break it out in Rhinelander.

 

Lucy and Kenzie at the PlayDoh table

 

 

Playing with Nolan

 

Roman enjoyed watching the older kids. This guy holds his head high and is starting to army crawl/move his little body all over the place! Eek! Mama is scared of having 2 mobile children. Haha!