A note from Henry.

Hi!
Teething sucks. Especially my molars. And especially because they are coming in one at a time. Motrin is my friend.

Love,
Henry

Valentine's Day

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! Nathan and I actually had Monday off of work, so we took advantage of the 3-day weekend. We had a bunch of house projects piling up, so we asked my dad and step-mom to watch the kids on Saturday and Sunday. I painted our banister (see picture of Henry - it wasn't white before), and Nathan worked on a long list of miscellaneous projects (including patching up his new surround sound install holes and a desk for my crafts!) We even got a date out of the deal, and had a yummy sushi dinner for Valentine's Day. After dinner, we went to Best Buy and bought a Wii system, so we're having fun getting that set up. We have gotten so much done in February already, and it is so exciting to actually make some progress around here! I was pointing out to Nathan that his motivation around the house seems rather high lately. Is it a coincidence that football just ended? I think he doesn't know what else to do with himself!

Special thanks to Lizzie and Pete for the fun Valentine's Day balloons. The kids have been playing with them for 3 days straight! We miss you guys and hope you are doing well in Ohio....

February

Well, we're only a week into February, but I think you'll agree that it doesn't get any busier than this. (ha!) Just check out everything we've been doing....

1. We gave Daddy a much-needed haircut.

2. Daddy and Madeline have taken playdough to a whole new level. (dog, Lightning McQueen, an elephant, and a shark.) Henry loves to play, too, but his time always gets cut shorter than he wants because he eats it. Yuck.

3. Henry had his first Twinkie, which of course is a huge milestone to keep track of. (Nathan thinks it was Madeline's first twinkie, too, but I don't see how that is possible.)

4.

Henry was completely weened from the bottle. He's only been on 1 nighttime bottle for the past few months, but we finally cut that one out, too, on Friday. He still has negotiated slightly "bobble, bobble" these past few nights, but we've been able to calm him down easily with a few books (which he is starting to love) and his blue blankies. I suppose I should start thinking of him as a toddler now instead of my little baby boy!

Winter Carnival in St. Paul

We met up with college friends Kelly and Jack and their two kids Stella and Charlie for our first time at the Winter Carnival in St. Paul. We started off the morning going to the Landmark Center, where they had Radio Disney employees leading the kids in dancing and games. Charlie won 3rd place in a dance contest and Stella won a head-to-head clothespin race, so the Bartshs cleaned up on prizes.

Then we went outside to Rice Park to go down a giant inflatable slide and to see the ice sculptures. Although most were barracaded off, Madeline did find one that she was able to run up to and start shaking. In front of a huge crowd. Yes, I'm a mom without any control. And where was Nathan? He was off trying to find mini-donuts. What else would he be doing? He's at a carnival for God's sake!!! Then we took over a little pizza cafe and scarfed down 2 pizzas. It was a perfect morning!

January

Not much going on these days. Just trying to keep warm despite the cold snap we had last week. Here are the kids goofing around while in their new Christmas chairs.

Nathan and I aren't really much into New Year's Resolutions, but we are trying to make some changes in our current lifestyle. We typically don't make it to church every weekend, so now we have committed to make that a priority. And since we're working on God stuff for two hours a week (adding in mass time + commuting), we're also committing to working on our health for 2 hours a week. I know - church and working out should be must haves, but we just made way too many excuses and they weren't the priority that they should have been. But now I'm done making excuses and I'm excited to have such a simple yet easily attainable goal for each of us and for the good of our family overall. Just having the goal makes me feel like a better person. I can't wait to see how much better our lives are going to be if we can really follow through on these 2 x 2 hour commitments.

A blogger award!

A friend of mine from high school, Nicole Kelker, gave me the Kreativ Blogger award (thanks, Nicole!). Here are the rules: List six things that make you happy. Pass the award along to six more bloggers. Do not give the typical answers and go for the less obvious, as you all know that family, friends, God, etc would be on the list.

• Chocolate. Chocolate makes me happy. Specifically dark chocolate or chocolate in combination with caramel will really make my day.
• Greeting cards. I'm assuming that most of you reading my blog know by now that one of my favorite hobbies is making my own greeting cards, baby announcements, invitations, etc. As soon as my best friend Emily introduced me to "stamping," I was hooked. I just love the sentiment and thoughtfulness that comes with a good old fashioned hand-written card, so it's fun for me to share my creations with our family and friends. I'm also having fun starting to get into scrapbooking.
• Crossing off items on a to do list. I love having a big to do list, crossing stuff off of it, and then making a fresh to do list. I know. Pathetic. But it's a sense of accomplishment for me, and that makes me happy.
• Learning. (Nathan calls me "Questions Becky" for a very good reason.) I think I'm always going to be the type of person that is constantly reading or taking a class or trying to figure out something new. The topic is always changing, too. Before it was my MBA, then parenting books, and now I'm onto studying for a certification test for work. I don't always have the time to get in all of the books on my list, but it's fun when I do. My goal for 2009 is to devote more time to religious studies and to try to join a Bible study.
• Garage saling. Is "saling" a word? Walking out of a garage sale with 3 bags of kids clothes for only $40 can seriously make my entire week.
• What kind of mom would I be if I didn't mention something abuot my family? Ummm... introducing them to new things makes me happy. Watching them learning, seeing their first reaction, that kind of thing. I wish I could remember each of those moments better, but I try to savor it when it happens.

And now to pass on the award.... I completely peer pressured most of my best friends at work to start their own blogs, so the least I can do is give them some ideas to write about. So, I pass this award onto Tracy Regan, Heather Hetteen, Ali Issa, Melissa Sjoquist, Gina Sandvick, and Tami Lozier. (Honorable mention goes to Tamira Patten, who *just* had a baby, so I don't want to add her to the list!) It's a fun list of things to think about!

Christmas card photo collage

Here are some pics of the kids that my friend Heather took. The one on the top left is the one that we sent for Christmas cards, but there were some others that I liked as well, so compiled them all together just for fun (and practice on Photoshop!)