HEY! Go Sioux

This past weekend Brandon and I took the kids out to the Sioux-Gopher women's hockey game. It was our first sporting event outing as a family of 4. Elias has sensory issues so we were hesitant to take him to a sporting event, but his OT has been going awesome so we decided to give it a whirl. The results: Pure awesomeness! He had SO much fun in the kids zone, watching the game and of course eating all that yummy concession food. We started off the game with a trip to the kids zone, followed by a stop at concessions for popcorn and french fries. We headed to our seats to watch the game. Both kids watched the cheerleaders in amazement and were quiet all through the national anthem( thank goodness). They sat in their seats contently for awhile but then they started to get antsy. The benefits of being at a women's hockey game rather then a men's: Space! Elias got up and moved from seat to seat with his Ming Ming wonder pet in hand. Annie was content moving from her seat to Daddy's lap, after all it was a much better spot to have access to that yummy popcorn. Halfway through the game Brandon and I looked at each other and said why the heck didn't we do this before! (We know prior to Elias going to OT this outing would have been a disaster). Annie was over tired and very crabby the whole next day so Mommy and daughter hung out at home while the boys went to the game. Elias saw ads for both pizza and ice cream on the jumbo screen and asked daddy oh so politely if he could have them and Brandon just couldn't say no. (This is in addition to the 6 little Cesar's bread sticks he ate)Elias at more food at that 2nd hockey game then I think I could have. It was nice to have one on one time with Annie, I forgot how easy life is with just one! It was a great weekend and we are planning on taking the kids to the double header basketball games this weekend since our family enjoyed it so much! Now whenever we say Elias guess where we are going later ( i.e to grandmas or to visit Mrs Nikki(OT)) he says GO SIOUX? HOCKEY? and is truly dissapointed when I tell him no. Too bad season is almost over, oh well there is always next year!

Annie enjoying some popcorn on Daddy's lap

Elias talking to Ming Ming while watching the jumbo screen

Elias and Ming Ming singing

Annie watching a little hockey with Daddy

Annie during starting line up

Elias loving the bouncy thing

Our attempt at a family picture, poor Annie is soo tired and Elias just wants to get back to eating his ice cream

Mommy and Annie

Daddy and the babies watching the cheerleaders

Elias playing a little hockey. I was pleased to see he is much better at ball sport. Don't get me wrong I will encourage him if he wants to play hockey, I just really don't want to be a hockey mom. That gear stinks and areans are cold!

Its Spring..or Not

Last week the weather took a turn for the best! It got up to 40 degrees and that was my go-ahead sign to take the kids out side. Brandon and I bundled up the kids and he and Kellie took the kids outside for a nice long walk while Mommy cleaned the house. The kids had so much fun just being outside even though they were so bundled up it was difficult to move. They splashed in the puddles and played in the snow. It was so refreshing to be outside again. To bad the weather is back to its miserable self again. Oh well at least we have warm weather to look forward to.

Keepin busy in the Winter Time

I would say the single biggest challange of being a stay at home mom is the winter restrictions!! During the spring summer and fall there are so many ways to fill your day. Inside play, outside play, walks, swimming, raking leaves oh how I can't wait for warmer weather! In the winter the kids and I are stuck indoors most of the time.We try to get to open gymnastics or the play area at the mall but it seemes like everytime we venture to one of those place the entire family ends up sick for a week. Anyways, after stalking several blogs and websites I have found lots of ways to pass the time. We still do our usualy puzzle time, color time, story time ect but instead of outside time we do crafts! This week Elias and Annie helped me bake..then eat chocolate chip cookies. I must say they turned out pretty darn good. We also did a craft project and played dress up with our winter gear..well Annie did at least.

Elias working very hard on his craft project

All Done

Annie enjoying a little color time

Annie brought over Elias's boots and insisted I put them on her, then she got her hat out and just chilled.
Elias was reaching for the sugar, man he looks like his daddy! Oh and he picked out his outfit...can you tell?
Elias got REALLY excited when the timer went off, he came running over to me MOM COOKIE
Ha Ha I love this picture! I set the plate of cookies down and Elias started pulling them towards him and Annie got SOOOOOO mad.
Both enjoying some cookies

Happy Valentines Day!

Let me start off by saying I am not a huge fan of Valentines Day. Its another religious holiday that has been turned into a marketing hayday. With that being said I love any reason to do special themed things so I ran with it. In the morning I made the kids pink pancakes. I made these last year for Elias and loved them just as much as his regular pancakes. This year Annie got to eat them too! For lunch it was hear shaped grilled cheese sandwiches. After Elias woke up from his nap, he got to use his Valentines day present early. I bought him play dough and him and daddy played for almost a whole hour!!! After Annie woke up they opened up their other gifts and we spent the afternoon playing and having a good time. For dinner Brandon insisted on taking me out to eat at our favorite resturant L'Bistro. We lucked into early dinner reservations at 5:30. I called at 4:45 and there must have been a cancellation because when Brandon called the earliest we could get in was 9pm!!. Anyways so the kids had heart shapped pizza from papa murphy's and we went out! The heart shaped pizza ended up looking like a circle gone wrong so I busted out the heart cookie cutter one more time to cut out real heart shaped pizza's. After dinner Brandon and I went over to our friends David and Jody, to hold my new Godson Isaiah. He is so precious and cute, it was the perfect end to a really fun day.
Yummy pink pancakes for Breakfast!

Heart shapped grilled Cheese

Heart shaped pizza for Dinner

Getting ready to hit the town

Annie inspecting our groceries. Like her outfit and hair? Daddy did it, can you tell?

I don't know why but I just love this picture.

Daddy helping Elias play


Working hard

Look at my snowman mom!

Elias having too much fun playing with Daddy

About to fight over the mini Jesse doll , one of their Valentines gifts

Elias using his new scanner to check out some grocerys

Ok so here is a good story: Annie has this lovie, a stuffed mouse that was given to Elias as a gift from his great Nana. Elias didn't care for it at all. One day when Annie was about 6 or so months she found the mouse and fell in love with it. She is a perfect sleeper as long as she has this mouse which we renaemd Jelly Cat, since that is who manufactures them. So I was out furniture shopping and there was the bunny version to Jelly Cat at the store!!! It looks and feels identicle to the mouse minus the long pink tail the mouse has. I bougt it immediatly so we would have a back up and so poor Jelly cat could get washed. She was NOT buying it at first.

Then she decided this Jelly cat was OK too!phew

Elias being Elias

As promised here is Elias's video. As I was making this I noticed that all the clips of him I have are of him "singing" The first is Elias singing to Sweet Caroline. Brandon LOVES Glee and has pushed its music on our kids from the day the soundtrack CD came out. The next is the Glee cast singing Don't Stop Believin. Elias sings alot like his dad, doesn't know the words but trys anywyas. The last one is Elias singing the Good Luck Charlie theme song. He knows how to unlock my phone tap the app button and select youtube, after he gets there he brings it over to me so I can type in good luck charlie song. Then he takes my phone and I don't see him for a LONG time. He knows how to restart it. He just sings and sings, sometimes acting out the intro. He is too funny! Enjoy his lovley singing and try to ignore Annie babbling in the background.

Annie being Annie

One of the biggest joys about being a stay at home mom is that I do not have to miss out on any of the funny stuff my kids do. I made a little movie tonight with clips I took (using my awesome Flip) of Annie this week. I love seeing her personality starting to really develop. One thing is for sure...the girl loves music and dancing! One of her favorite things to do with daddy is snuggle up on his lap and listen to music on his Droid. Brandon loves this too because 1. he gets to snuggle with his baby girl and 2. He gets to sit and relax after a long day at work. During the day if she is fussy I will play music on my phone and we will dance around the room. Elias has figured out that when Annie is bothering him all he has to do to get her out of his toy kitchen is just come up to me grab my hand and say" Mommy, Annie , Dance Dance" ha ha clever little guy.

In this video Annie starts us off with a lovely version of sweet Caroline. She then shows us her ability to sound like all kinds of animals. She teaches us how to eat ketchup with a fork and lastly shows off her moves while watching camp rock. (My kids get 1 hour of TV a day and it is usually spent watching something that involves singing or dancing like camp rock or Shake It Up.) I will make one for Elias too but it is late and I don't have then energy to do it right now...you will have to live in suspense until tomorrow for that one.

Spoke to Soon

The last post I did, I mentioned how our whole family was over being sick...that night I ended up at urgent care with Annie. Guess I spoke to soon! She had a double ear infection and was such a sick little girl. Thankfully,after some yummy pink medicine she is feeling much better. I haven't taken any pictures recently due to our family constantly being sick so I figured I would update every one on all the things Annie and Elias say and do these days. I will start with Elias.

He is a little chatterbox these days and loves learning new things. He is really into puzzles right now and likes to name the shapes and letters as he puts them in. He is really into learning right now and likes to ask "What's this, What's this" He is also very into playing house..or so I call it. Annie and Elias will disappear upstairs for what seems like hours. I will go up and check on them and I see the two of them "cooking" in the kitchen or pushing the doll stroller around. He likes to hold Annie's hand and lead her where he wants her to be. He recently started to try to pick her up which is rather entertaining since Annie only weighs 6 lbs less then he does! He likes having a little sister to boss around but I don't think he is in a hurry to add another brother or sister to the family. The other day he woke up from his nap early and so he snuggled up next to me while I finished watching Bringing Home Baby. This was our conversation:
Elias: Mom, is that baby?(pointing to the TV)
Me: Yes that is a baby, Elias do you want a baby in the house?( NO I am not pregnant just thought I would ask him)
Elias: Ummmm..........NO! Cream!! ( he calls ice cream just cream)

So I guess we won't be having any more babies for while just ice cream haha.

Annie is getting so big! Out of nowhere she has all these words and all this personality! Her and Elias like to be my big helpers and yell at the cats to get off the table and counters for me. I will be picking up the living room while the kids are eating lunch and I here her yelling "Get Down Get down" Here are a bunch of her other words: Mom...which she hardly says, Daddy,which she says ALL the time, Bath time, All done, Get down, Jelly Cat( her lovie) No, Amber,Car,Hi, Bye,Jor (short for Jordan), Kellie, baby,ball,book,bubble,show(what we call a movie),woody, buzz,rex,cat..I am sure there is more but I can't think of them at the moment. In addition to a every expanding vocabulary she has developed quite the personality. She still shows her "perfect baby" side by sitting and reading by herself or working on her shape puzzle. She likes to go upstairs by herself and just play in her kitchen or with her dolls. She is quite the independent little girl. On the other hand she has developed this diva side to her, I blame it on the 4 eye teeth that are all coming in at the same time. She has quickly learned how to over act if brother touches her, you would think sometimes he is chopping her arm off with the way she screams. My favorite has to be how while I am cooking dinner she will come in the kitchen and plant herself at my feet and just cry the most pathetic fake cry every! like I haven't fed her for days...she is too funny!
I am so thankful to be able to be a stay at home mom so I don't miss out on all of these precious moments..good and bad!

Sick No More!

After 2 very bad colds passing through the Eberhardt household in the month of January we are all feeling much better. Moral of story is no matter how crazy we are all going inside the play area at the mall is never a good idea! Every and I mean every time I get talked into taking the kids there they get sick. Here is an idea: Parents if your child is sick...DON'T take them to a public play area. Ok well now that that little rant is over...I haven't been taking very many pictures latley since I am currently obsessed with my new Flip camera the cheer team bought for me for being such a great coach haha! I can take snapshots off the videos but they of course are not as great of quality. Here are some pictures from 2 of Elias's new favorite activities: fingerpainting and doing the dishes.

Annie showing Mommy her finger paint

Annie and Elias hard at work creating their masterpeices

Elias really got into it

Time to wash up and do the dishes, Elias loves this part and Annie just wants to be like the big kids.

Elias likes to drink out of the sink whenever he gets the chance...weird kid

Annie wanted to be weird too so she started licking the chair. If you look closley you can see her little tounge sticking out through the bars....can anyone say kids going stir crazy?