a wednesday in march

we ventured up to visit my grandparents.

we just had the very best afternoon.

reading books, playing with toy cars, grilled cheese+tomato soup, fresh fruit for lunch.... and of course great grandma spoiled nash with ice cream. pretty sure he declared her his new BFF.

sometimes the most ordinary things... make the most extraordinary memories.

city library

once a week we like to go up to the city's library.

they have a small play area for children amongst the childrens books, a fish tank full of fish for the kids to read to... or in n's case wave hi, and blow kisses at.

they also have a large auditorium where they will do story time and different activities with the kids.

one of nash's favorite things to do lately at the library is color in the arts and crafts room

i love watching him try to decide what color he wants and how excited he gets when he decides his project is all done... he walks out of that arts and crafts room with such a strut... like he just made a masterpiece. and he did! i love what he creates... we always are sure to display it on our fridge or frame it and hang it up in his room.

i hope he continues to love to draw and color.....or at least making his mama a card on mothers day ;)

Storm Quid

Do you ever have one of those weekends where you have everything planned out and you just know, you just know what to expect.....

well this was one of those weekend, i was going to get cancelled from work thursday night, parents were coming on friday, i'd work friday night... sleep a little bit on saturday and then have the rest of the weekend with my boys.

the universe had other plans for us.

I ended up working thursday night- and my parents came down thursday to beat the snow (which we later name those 18 inches and 50mph winds "Storm Quid".)

friday nash spent the day with my parents here at home, while i slept. i get a message from nick saying he was coming home early from work, i figured it was because of the roads. .... nope. he was in a ton of pain and could barely stand. so friday evening before i was going in to work... we brought nick into the emergency department (long story short with that... it was his gallbladder)

meanwhile while nick was getting medical care i needed to get ready for my long 12 hour night shift on minimal sleep and the reality that there were going to be a lot of road calls from staff, so i needed to be prepared to be understaffed.

so naturally we went out for pizza ;)

grandma always telling him secrets

you can kind of see all the snow accumulating on the trees outside the window

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my parents dropped me off at work, and braved the roads back home, since we weren't sure if nick was going to have surgery, they didn't want to sit in the ED with nash all night. my dad stayed up to hear from nick and ended pick him up around 11pm. my amazing coworkers helped me out and let me go spend a few minutes here and there with him since the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where i work is exactly 3 floors above where nick was. its a comforting feeling being close even if i couldn't be at his bedside all night.

so once again my dad braved storm quid to pick up nick......and then again he picked me up saturday morning at 730am. i tell you what, that man has a heart of gold.

so what i thought was going to be a predictable weekend, it was anything but what i planned. and other than nicks gallbladder it was a wonderful weekend filled with family, pizza, fireplaces, and comfy clothes

hope you all stayed safe and warm during storm quid!

go go go go

we spent the morning running out our energy.....energy that is building up from being stuck indoors with all this snow and cold. he would run and kick balls and squeal and yell "go go go go go go go"

 whats not pictured here is the massive bouncy houses....those things were a battle ground. One was a big blow up thing that had stairs on one side and a large slide on the other.... that was mainly what my little one was wanting to do, but not of course without mama right by his side helping him. i was literally the only adult, but i did get a few sympathatic smiles and at one point another mom told me she was glad i was in there to prevent the mosh pit from accumulating at the bottom of the slide.

loving that one curl of his and how serious he is about his hydration :)

#1 fans

nick is in a basketball rec league again this winter. so every tuesday night he get's to make me fall more in love with him showing off his basketball talent. seriously what is it about seeing someone you love, doing something they love, and they look good doing... its the best! :)

we made every game except one... it was a 9pm start time, and lets just say mama doesn't have it in her to chase a overly tired toddler through out the gym and trying to keep him off the court. he actually does very very well, he more likes to run the track around the gyms, which doesn't allow me to be a very attentive fan- but i'll take that over him trying to run out on the court.

its so endearing.. when nick goes into play at the start of the game, he blows kisses and waves.. then all of a sudden he gets this look on his face, like WAIT... dad don't leave me! and then a few tears are shed... as well as when nick comes in on timeouts..so the last half of the season nick stopped coming out of the game at all to sit on the bench...haha poor nick, hey its a good work out right!? oh the things we do for our kids.

even though we were the only two fans for the entire team all season... i kind of secretly loved having those evenings just me and my boy on an empty set of bleachers, watching our main man do what he loves

minnesota statefair!!

we spent the day at the fair.

here our some photographs from our day.

^^ someone at more cheese curds than his mama!!

after getting some food and getting settled in, we made our way over to the animals. sheep, chickens, pigs, cows, horses.. oh my!! we are loving learning about animals here in our house, so seeing them in person was very exciting :)

 ^^ he loved watching this cow eat hay

  

 

^^ award winning chickens

  

 ^ he makes me SO happy

^2 seconds later...haha

i am not one to be shy about public nursing, however we found out these booths were air conditioned, had recliners, free water, sunscreen, free diapers, and coloring books/toy table....

 

^ staying hydrated on this hot summer day, it was "only" 85, but it felt like 105!

... so we went on quite the adventure to find a "lactation station". what a wonderful thing our fair offers.. from newborn to toddlers all mama's in there were laughing together because we were all so hot and sweaty and pretty much all were fighting over the fans.

 ^mee-maw met up with us for the late afternoon

the fair always is an indicator for me that summer will be coming to a close soon, school has started for most kids, and fall is just around the corner. trying to soak up the sun and enjoy everyday with this sweet family of mine.

summer saturday

 

 ^^ the baklava was truly heavenly!!


after greekfest, we headed down to our alma mater to explore for the afternoon

 ^^ walking the lakes, surrounded by bluffs

^^ sharing a malt at the drive in

dogg parkk

i am not sure who enjoys the dog park most these days...

mac because he loves to chase and play with other dogs and sniff around the entire park

nash becuase he loves all things dogs, and he screams and points everytime one runs by him. he even gets lucky sometimes and gets a kiss or a wet nose on the cheek from a puppy.

nick because he is so care free and happy and runs around with mac, or gets nash laughing so hard, i don't think nick is ever in a bad mood at the dog park.

or me. . . watching all this happening brings me so much happiness, i sometimes just stand there and watch all three of my boys have the time of their life, and nothing makes me happier than that.

park play

we have been going to the park a lot these past few weeks, now that nash is more steady on his feet he likes to explore and climb on the jungle gym's.

we met up with some friends and it is so fun to see nash get more intrigued and social with other kids/baby's

 ^^ waving hi to everyone and everything , hi tree, hi rocks, hi dog, hi mom, hi piece of garbage hahah

neil is only 2 months younger than nash, it has been so neat to see them both change so much and play together from being newborns to now walking, babbling 1 year olds!

matchy matchy

we are over here this summer with our matching overalls...

i have to do this now before he picks out his own outfits or no longer wants to match his mama!