Winter Fun!

We spent our last couple of days of February playing outside in the beautiful weather. The kids have had a blast and I am beginning to like the outdoors in the winter more and more. Grandma and Grandpa are in town and came yesterday. Grandpa Nyhlen is having his surgery at Fairview Southdale Hospital tomorrow evening. So our prayers are for a quick recovery!

Zoey and Grandma made a snow-woman today. Zoey named her "Fauna." I am glad that she and I had the talk that snow-people don't stay forever, because Fauna melted away just hours later. It was fun while it lasted.

Zoey still wants a dog and is saving most of her money in a piggy bank so that one day (when she's 7) she can have one. This, however, is the face she made when she found some of Gracie's dog poop in the backyard. I hope she gets used to it, because that will be one of her chores!

Grandma and Zoey played Pie Tag in the backyard.

Gracie had a blast running around in the snow!

Zoey has been making laptop computers lately. She is very specific in the design. As you can see below, the one she made a few days ago has a game where you catch bananas. The mouse was later cut out and made wireless.

Seeing that Grandpa will be in the hospital for a few days, Zoey thought it would be nice to make him a laptop too! Here is the Zoey 3.0 version. Instead of catching bananas, he will be catching hearts.

In other news, Zoey is officially registered for Kindergarten. I am more excited now that I have actually visited the school and met some of the teachers. Zoey also has another loose tooth--although I think it will take a while for her to actually loose this one.

Zander had his first dentist appointment last week. According to Tyler, he was a very brave boy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Above is one of Zoey's Valentine crafts from daycare. She did the writing and the cutting! She is really growing. I can't believe that we register her this month for kindergarten in the fall. Both kids are just growing up to be such neat kids. We are lucky to have them as our Valentines!

Here are Zander and Zoey making their Valentine's for friends.

Here are my funny Valentines:

The Chicken or the Egg

Me: Zoey, which came first: the chicken or the egg?
Zoey: The chicken.
Me: Where did the chicken come from?
Zoey: The egg.
Me: Where did the egg come from?
Zoey (without flinching): The carton.

Happy Birthday Nana!

January Happenings

Happy New Year!

The kids are growing like crazy! Tyler and I are just trying to enjoy them and soak up all the cuteness that it them. Zoey is going through a growth spurt at the moment--she is constantly eating. She has been a member of the "clean plate club" all week long. And as for Zander, as soon as we put him in his big boy bed and got his haircut, he has decided to be a big boy in his communication too. He now talks in mostly complete sentences and is all about his big sister. Whatever she does, he is sure to follow.

Zoey lost another tooth yesterday (that is number 2 if you are counting). She was very excited about it and when she found another toothbrush and 4 quarters under her pillow again this morning, she declared that 3 quarters will go to the church. (She has declared that the tradition.)


Zander is very into music lately. Ever since Nana and Poppa gave him the percussion set, he plays the drums all day long! You would think that it is annoying, but it is actually pretty cute! Look at the set-up he put together to help accompany me while practicing for church last night--that's right, he set up this "drum set" all by himself, and put on his rockstar glasses.

This was another of Zander's ideas--it is part of him loving his sister so much! His favorite part of the outfit is the dancing shoes.


On New Year's Day, Grandma and Grandpa Nyhlen came down to celebrate Christmas with us. It was fantastic to have them around for the weekend. The kids enjoyed all the gifts and especially loved going to the movies with them. They saw Disney's Princess and the Frog.


I put this picture in just to remember that I love this robe! It is so comfy, I have worn it a lot. The funny thing is that one of the nights that Tyler was reffing, I declared another pajama party night with the kids. Zander looked at me and said that he would be right back. He left and came back with my robe, stating that I needed to put it on. How can you argue with that!

More Big Boy Excitement!

And the big boy events just keep coming! This haircut was way overdue, but he just didn't seem to have that much to cut! He wasn't keen on the idea of a haircut, but once he was in the chair, he just went with the flow. Zoey was there the whole time giving him a pep-talk. She was saying things like, "Don't worry little buddy, I'm right here for you." It was sweet.

Before:

During:

After:

A view from the back. . .
After a little shopping trip yesterday, I semi-completed Zander's room with some accessories. Zoey loves Zander's "Feme Room." She now wants a "feme" room of her own--a princess "feme".

The little pirate enjoying his new digs.

Follow Up

At about 3am this morning, Zander decided it was time to go back into his crib. I told him it was his last night in his crib and he said ok and went back to sleep.

The Big Boy Bed

We took the plunge today and bought Zander his brand new big boy bed. He was very excited about it and couldn't wait to try it out. Didn't even wait for the box to be opened! Tyler spent the good part of the evening working on it so that Zander could use it tonight.

All done! (The cool thing about this bed, is that when he is a little older and used to the bed, it flips over and bunks--so that he will have all that floor space underneath as a play fort.)

I got to put Zander to bed and he seemed pretty excited, but I think he felt the same bittersweetness that I did. He asked for more stories and songs than usual and was a little extra cuddly. But I told him that the rule was he had to stay in bed! He repeated the rule and within about 10 minutes of leaving his room, he was snoring away in his new bed. I am so proud of him!
We'll see if it is always this easy, but he did good tonight! That's what counts!

Christmas 2009

We hope that everyone has had a blessed Christmas! It is definitely a white one and we are all snug at home enjoying a very lazy day!

Here is Zoey at her Church Christmas program this year, next to her "best friend" Paige.

After Zoey's Christmas program at church, we came home and
she and I put together the gingerbread train.

This is really mostly what she did. . .
The final product. . .

On Wednesday we went to the Annual Daycare Cookie Party and enjoyed a visit
from Santa. The kids got their last chance to ask Santa for what they really wanted.
We were glad that they stuck to their list!

On Christmas Eve, the snow was falling and Mommy was cleaning for guests--so Daddy took the kids outside to enjoy the snow. Zoey stayed out for almost 2 hours! Here she is in her snow fort.

Nana, Poppa, Auntie Tammy and Uncle Eric all came over that evening to enjoy dinner and company. It was a nice relaxing evening and the kids really enjoyed all of their gifts. Zander opened his baseball beanbag first and thought that was the greatest gift. . .that is until he opened the percussion set from Nana and Poppa! Can't get him to stop playing the tambourine with his maracas--we have a little rock star on our hands!


The Livingston Family Band
Zoey really wanted to leave a note for Santa so that he would know the cookies were for him.

The note must have worked, because in the morning, the cookies were eaten and Santa had left a red bag with everything the kids asked for. Zoey even got a dog toy for her dog (that she will get when she is 7 years old.) Zander got his baseball and a baseball mitt. He was so happy!


We thought he can start the potty training process by learning from Elmo!
Zander's face says it all. . .Merry Christmas!