What we did on Sunday when church was cancelled because of 1 inch of snow

(though in defense of the church leaders, it was Ward Conference and the Stake President was traveling from an hour North- where it was worse).

All the credit on this post goes to Conrad and Josh. All I did was take pictures and wash hands.

The lovely artwork you see below was created by Conrad and Amelia. Conrad did the top and bottom frames, Amelia did the middle.

My husband, the creative part of our marriage decided to frame their artwork! We are pretty proud parents. We think it's awesome.

Conrad said he was making a monster.
Amelia in action:

Yeah, if it were up to me the kids would have been buckled in their carseats in front of the TV. ;)

On the bright side of things:

I found this little friendly blockage in my vacuum. My vacuum now works like a champ!

I slept in until 9:30 am. (This is the time of when I was finished with the dark side of the thing...)

My carpet has lovely vacuum lines.

This beauty did not make a mess this morning in her crib (which definitely would have happened if Conrad were in her shoes... or, rather PJs, with a yucky diaper). She waited very patiently for me to come get her, reading books and just relaxing.

I noticed who Amelia has been reminding me of with her long bangs:

And, here I present to you the dark side. I'd like to name this photo, "Corn Flakes on my Couch." or, "Conrad in a Crunch."

Nominate me NOW for mother of the year!!! Yes, I slept in until 9:30!!! Absolutely unheard of around these parts. Conrad came in to my room, but played quietly and didn't bother me to come get him breakfast. I woke up to the sound of the corn flakes spilling out of the box. I didn't know what it was, but I was sure that Conrad had dumped something.

On the bright side of things I got plenty of rest so Conrad did not have to suffer the wrath of a tired mom! (That or I was guilty for sleeping in!)

Ya know, I would love to blog...

...but I don't have anything exciting to blog about.

Conrad's doing great with potty-training. We really struggled there for a while, and it is so nice to have Conrad back to being his delightful self. He is definitely a boy. He's got lots of energy and curiosity. His favorite questions are "Why?" (and then if I answer "I don't know") he says, "Tell me about it!!!"

Amelia is great (besides her "MINE" and "NO" and hitting phase she's in right now). She is a girl through and through. Josh gets a laugh out of bathtime with her because while Conrad's splashing around in the water Amelia just lays down and relaxes. She plays soooo well by herself, too! It's wonderful.

Josh has been in a great rotation close by, so I can't complain about him being gone all the time. We think we're going the anesthesiology route. I'm not sure how sure we are about it, but Josh is talking more about doing that than orthopedic surgery. He's applying to 2 residencies in Oklahoma, 1 here in Kansas City (UMKC), 1 in St. Louis, 1 (possibly) in Florida, 1 (possibly) in Arizona. He got released from YM 1st counselor and is now the EQ secretary.

And I am not pregnant! Kind of weird, I have to admit. Although it's been great to have a break from the chaos that lasted about 2 years. I am still the Visiting Teaching Coordinator. I've had this calling for almost 2 years and I think I am finally getting the hang of it. We're only here for 1 more year (and a couple months) so I doubt I'll be switched around.

Anyway, nothing exciting happening in our house! Oh, except I bought some mini chocolate Cadbury Eggs today! Now that is worth blogging about.

It ends, and also begins!

Potty Training.

Going so much better! This boy has made a complete turn-around. There is light at the end of the tunnel! This morning Conrad went to the bathroom (both numbers) without even mentioning it to me. He catches himself before he goes (number 1- even with friends over!). Tonight he made a break-through. He was having nightmares while he was sleeping and kept crying out. Josh went and checked on him, thinking that maybe he needed to use the bathroom. He did! We are making progress, it is SO AWESOME!

On another note, or, with our next child... Amelia thinks she wants to use the potty, too. She sits on it, giggles, then is done (but doesn't "do" anything). Tonight she got out of the tub saying, "potty!" So I set her down on the seat, she sat there... giggled, then was "ah gah," (all done). Nothing in the potty. I dried her off from her bath and was about to get her dressed when she ran away from me. She went and sat down on the rocking chair and pulled the face. I knew what was happening. Sure enough, there was a puddle underneath her.

Oh dear here we go again!

Curious

Today and for the last while Conrad asks me lots of questions. Sometimes I state "Conrad you ask a lot of questions!" Today he responded,

"Why?"

For the Love of:

sugar.
a family: (all ready for church on Valentine's Day, Josh dressed the kids while I was working on my calling. Josh, Amelia and Conrad are all wearing Red. How festive is he!? Love it.
a sweet cookie getting ate by my tasty man:

...a sweet cookie delivered by Austin and his mom. Awww!

getting what you want: (she wanted to go "bye-bye" but we had to eat lunch before we headed off to church! The misery.)

a handsome 3 year old boy all ready for church.

Happy Valentine's everybody!

Josh and I celebrated last night and went to eat at Nick & Jake's. We got a free dessert SINCE IT WAS OUR FIRST TIME GOING THERE. Awesome, right? It was. We both had some delicious red meat (I had some petite medallions, holy goodness! and Josh had some braised ribs, those were addicting) sided with creamy mashed potatoes and greens. Apple Cobbler for dessert. We hadn't heard much about Nick and Jake's so we decided to gamble on it. Our food came out really fast, our waitress was very sweet, yet ditzy. I forgave her. Of course!

Josh and I had a really good time! There was lots of laughter. I love that man. He is so good.

Happy Valentine's Day to me and Josh:
Our bedroom has had NOTHING on the walls for our whole marriage except for the mirror on our dresser, which doesn't count. We decided last year to make Valentine's be a holiday where instead of giving each other lame gifts that will just make our blood sugar higher (or die in a couple of days) to give each other a functional gift for our bedroom. Last year I bought a down comforter and duvet. This year we decided to decorate a little and give our huge white-walled room some color. It's not done, Josh would like me to point out. Our pillows need brown pillowcases. We just got this part done tonight and I was so excited to show everybody, and I needed a reason to post to my blog! We got everything from Home Goods. Thanks to the tip from Shannon and Amanda about how awesome that store is. (FYI to the KansasCity-ans: it's inside Marshall's at Zona Rosa). Also to Shannon and Amanda, I saw their little girl fairy decor and I DO love it. I have to limit my spending though... so someday and sometime, probably about the time Amelia's into hanging pictures out of magazines onto her bedroom walls.

Here is Austin with his big brother Stetson. They were watching a movie of themselves dancing to "I like to move it, move it," at the end of the movie Madagascar. It was a good dance. Stetson has got some good moves.

Austin hurt Conrad's feelings though when he told him he couldn't sing the song. Conrad was dancing until Austin said that, so Conrad's not in the video that I recorded.

Here is Conrad singing some random song he made up. Josh recorded it. Good luck if you can understand it. I can't.

Amelia is even starting to sing recognizeable songs. I hear her singing to the tune of the ABC song. She says random somewhat recognizeable letters. "jay ji jay jay" is H I J K. Got it? Funny kids.

LDS Journal

FYI, Jeni, specifically, I started writing in LDS Journal this past week. I type faster than I write, and so often I get on the computer as an escape. This will be easier for me to remember to do rather than my paper journal. Just go to ldsjournal.com and make an account if you forgot the website. :)

We're doing good here. Kids have colds. I'd rather keep them in the tub all day with the faucet's on their faces leaking constantly. Josh is doing a rotation 5 minutes away from our house in Internal Medicine. I have a new goal, to run a 10K in June, and that is keeping me out of the blues this winter. So far I am running an 11 minute mile. I've got some work to do!!!

January disappeared faster than I anticipated (and I've heard that rumor going around with a lot of other people it seems!). Hopefully February and March go by quickly, too. Then it will be TORNADO season! (not really looking forward to that either.)

Shout out to my Dad. I love you. I'm thinking about you. I hope you have a nice weekend. :)