Auto Show and Anniversary

When I finished up the last post, I knew things would be busy this week, but didn't realize how busy they really would be.

We hit the ground running on Tuesday, and I took Keira and Soren to Kindermusik. We met up with Lisa and Dominic and Emily and Brooklyn. Keira was a bit tired today, and wasn't super social. She didn't want to sit with them in the rocking chairs.
It was also a 3 outfit day for Soren (this happens a lot, but isn't always documented through photos like today).


During the day, I tried to get Keira excited about our upcoming ski trip by dressing her Jess doll in her ski gear. This caused Keira to need to get equipped with her bike helmet and goggles. I had forgotten that although Ryan was taking her boots in to get skis mounted, he wouldn't have the skis with him. We should have waited a day or so for this, but oh well. We had fun. When Ryan got home from work, Keira was watching TV with her helmet and goggles. Very funny!

Keira is watching Word World, her favorite, with helmet and goggles.


In the evening, we all headed out to church because we finally got our mortgage documents for our reset. We had them notarized by a friend there because we needed witnesses, and figured that was the easiest way to get them since there would be so many people around for the various Tuesday activities. This was a huge relief to us. We never thought we would still be in this condo for a full five years and have to reset our loan, but it wasn't too painful.

Wednesday was a super full day. We had my visiting teachers, Amber and Michelle, with their children, Sidney and Zach, come over for a visit. Keira, Sidney, and Zach enjoyed playing together, and Michelle invited us to come up to the mall because she was meeting other over there for lunch. We declined lunch, and went up a bit later and ran into Rebecca with her daughter Asheley. Rebecca is my visiting teaching companion, and we also team taught together in primary forever ago.
Keira loved it when Asheley would give her an extra push to go fast down her favorite slide.

Keira and Asheley got to play together, however, we missed Michelle and Zach because we had to get Keira down for a prompt nap today because we were headed to the auto show in downtown Detroit once Ryan was off work. The slide show includes all the photos taken at the auto show. I am sorry, but I didn't pull out the duplicates (ie, additional shots taken in effort to get people looking). Keira initially did not like the auto show at all, and seemed very afraid. She warmed up a bit after going through a few exhibits. It was funny what she liked and didn't like. I think it had a lot to do with the lighting and music at the displays. She liked the exterior color swatches that were shaped like balls at Hyundai, the little seats at BMW that were made out of leather to coordinate with the displayed vehicles and their motorcycle, the "igloo" at the mini display (until she realized it didn't have a roof), the miniature models from the design college, the corvette (like Barbie's car), and the couches and tables at the Lincoln display that were full of letters. She also really liked the Ford Taurus that came apart (photo in slide show) and the fudge. By the end of the evening, she was much more interested in looking at and sitting in the cars. This show was more fun for me to watch her reaction that anything else. With the issues with the auto industry, there were very few real "concept" cars, and more just what will be out for production.

On Thursday, we had a presidency meeting at Valerie's, and then did some errands. These are just pictures of cuteness around the house. Soren threw up in the jumperoo all over his overalls (Keira did this all the time too), so he only needed new pants today instead of whole new outfits.


Ryan brought Keira's skis home today, and she was very excited about them, and wanted to try them on. I think they are the cutest things ever. They are the second to smallest size (80cm, she is 83cm tall now), which means Keira will probably get a couple years out of them (assuming this isn't a total disaster). As soon as she had them on (in the kitchen) she wanted them off because she couldn't move in them. Hopefully she will want to put them on next week on our trip.
We loved how she wanted to wear them with her dress. She does understand that she can't play in the snow unless she has her snow pants on.

On Friday, we went to the Novi Library storytime. Keira had a great time, and we were actually early for a change. We also checked out two books about princesses, "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots" and "Do Princesses Scrape Their Knees" in an effort to get Keira to wear pants more often than only snowpants. So far it hasn't worked, but they are very cute books. There is one more in the series that we will get when we return those, "Do Princesses Really Kiss Frogs".
This is an action shot of Keira jumping and counting.
Here she is just counting (below). The jump and count song as well as the wheels on the bus are two of her favorites. Today's theme was bears, and she was excited because Miss Diane read "Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see?" by Eric Carle, one of our favorites. She can "read" this book to herself using the pictures as a guide. She also includes the sound effects of the animals. I think she was asking, "what do you say" instead of "see".
I was trying to get a shot of Soren's cute little jean pockets. You can see his skull and cross bones in this shot, but the second shot is a cuter one of his face, so I included both.

In the evening, we went and picked up a few more items from REI for our ski trip; a ski trainer backpack for Keira, clips for her ski tips, and warm mittens. Hopefully these things will help us to have a more enjoyable trip.

On Saturday, we went out to lunch to Baha Fresh while doing more prep for the trip. We needed an oil change in the truck and groceries to take with us. These are just some photos from the morning. Keira would have worn her towel all day if we let her today. Soren and Ryan being cute as always.
This picture turned out really cute of Keira. The funny thing is that Soren is sitting behind her in the chair and that was what I was trying to photograph, and she just jumped into the shot. Talk about shutter delay. It is rare these days that I get such a good clear shot of Keira smiling and looking without having to take a ton.

That evening, we attended a killer barbeque/dinner social at Jan and Matt's home for the Elders Quorum. They had excellent food that was very impressive. Their son, Anderson, is leaving for his mission this next week. Keira was very excited that she got to eat chips of some sort almost all day long, and was happy to visit with some of her friends from nursery. We enjoyed being able to visit with our friends as well. Jan is one of the few female engineers that I know outside of Ford or OSU/UM, and it is nice to have an engineering friend at church.

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary. We didn't do much to celebrate it, aside from have a decent dinner at home. The real celebration will be later this week when we take our ski trip up north. That is how we celebrated our first wedding anniversary as well, except it was a preliminary ski trip to prepare me for Utah. I should put a wedding picture up, but I will need to scan one first. We decided to let Keira skip her nap, to only have to deal with her being really tired and cranky once instead of a couple times since she typically naps during our new church time. I guess we will know how it really goes tomorrow because she may be overtired tomorrow too. She was very excited to wear a "crown" that she made at church today. This is pictured in the photo at the top of this post. Since she did skip her nap, she fell asleep really quickly tonight so it did make it really easy to put Soren in her room tonight, since she needed to sleep more badly than him.

Additionally, I am taking up a "tag" from Haley and posting my 4th picture from my 4th folder under "my pictures". I have two photos because when I looked in "my pictures" from the gallery and then went to upload to blogger, the folders must not have been in the same order, because the photos were different. They are both in front of our house this past September before Soren was born. We unfortuately don't have anything really old on this computer since it is new last summer, so they don't go back really far and it wasn't as fun of a history lesson as it might be for some. I might just have to dig up some old photos and post them just because. I challenge any of my readers to do the same and post their 4th picture from their 4th folder.

On another note, I have added the "Save Handmade" button to our page. There was a new law that was passed that will require lead and phalate testing of all children's items (for children under 12) to be sold in the US after February 10th. This was intended to safeguard people from lead hazards from cheaply made toys, but it has drastic repercussions for people that have small businesses in their homes or on the side making handmade children's clothing and toys. I urge you to check it out. Initially, it stated that even resale of existing items would need to be tested first, but that has been changed slightly, because it was going to put all consignment and resale shops out of business. I feel like we are shooting ourselves in the foot here. The problems have arisen mostly from toys imported from China, and those are the companies that can afford to pay for the testing. Instead, the local small businesses here in the US will be suffering. A former classmate of mine made some darling slippers for Keira that she sells, as well as a little taggie style teether toy, and it is so sad that she will not be able to continue legally unless something changes.

Finally, next week should be pretty exciting. We leave on Tuesday to go up to Crystal Mountain and come back Friday. Both of our parents (mine and Ryan's) will be sharing a mountain top cabin with us, so hopefully Ryan and I will get to ski together for a bit. We will surely have lots of photos to post of Keira's first skiing experience, as well as Soren's first swimming experience at the Crystal Spa pool (we will be skipping the mountain top outdoor pool, though). We are hoping they will both be sucesses.

Brrr, Its Cold in Here...

There must be some Torros in the Atmosphere... (Bring it On)

Not really, but this week was very low key. It was very very cold here, even for Michigan. Temps were in the single digits and below if you factor in the wind chill. We didn't do a lot and had a lot of snow, but it was too cold to play outside in it. I did go running a couple times, but not far or fast. We decided to book a ski trip to northern Michigan as well for later this month. We spent a lot of time at the mall and at home, just hanging out, so there are lots of pictures of Keira and Soren just sitting around. Not too exciting, but they are so cute, I figured I would post them anyway. We continued to put Keira and Soren in the same room, however, we wait until they are both asleep to combine them. Soren falls asleep in our room and then is carried into his/Keira's room. He does sleep a lot better in the crib than the pack n play (although I am probably jinxing us for tonight by writing that). We put a small space heater in their room, which helped tremendously with the cold and their sleeping. Their room is the coldest in our home.

Tuesday was just an errand day. Ryan also had scouts in the evening. These are just shots of cuteness in the house. This chair and our couch reappear a lot this post.




On Wednesday, we went to the library for the storytime. This was the first one of the year. We will probably bounce back and forth between the Wednesday class and the Friday class, depending on our schedule for the week, and that is fine with them.
Keira got 3 stickers today after the storytime. She has one that she is touching on her chest and one on each hand.


Keira loves anything with crowns on it, because she is totally into princesses and princes. She likes this shirt of Soren's because it has a crown on it. Soren goes through lots of clothes each day.
Thursday marked the first day of our three days in a row of going to the mall because I couldn't think of anything else free to do. We could have gone to Rainbow Recreation to play for free, but the weather wasn't the greatest (snow) and I didn't want to go that far from home. It was fun today because we ran into a friend, Joann, from church with her youngest children, Lucy, who is just a few days older than Soren, and Joe, who is in the younger nursery than Keira's. In the evening, we went to a couple stores looking for ski boots small enough for Keira. We struck out near us. Fortunately, Ryan had talked to a shop near his work that had a used pair that we could try out that needed to be transferred to that shop. We did manage to find some great deals on crocs for Keira and I.
Keira really wanted to wear her Halloween pjs. She was stuck in Halloween mode for a while, and I was worried it was making a comeback.
I figured out a more efficient way to get both children ready in the morning and still let Keira have a long bath!


Keira was excited to hold Soren's hand on the couch.
On Friday, we came back to the mall. Since we had already gone to the library storytime this week, we were not really supposed to go again. It was extremely cold, so cold that many schools did not have school because of the cold. Soren was very happy and laughed a lot at the mall when people peeked in at him. It was very cute.


Keira loves this popsicle slide! It appears a lot in this post.
Soren is sporting his ski sweater.
On Saturday, I felt compelled to run. I don't know why, maybe just because it had been a while. It was super cold, but Saturdays (or any day Ryan doesn't work) are the best day for me to run because I can run when it is light out and it is typically warmer when it is light. I got super bundled up (wore my ski shell, fleece top, fleece pants, and long underwear) and ran a whopping 1.25miles on the sidewalk of our complex (since the association takes care of the sidewalks pretty well, they were clear of snow). It wasn't snowing when I decided to run, but it started, and made for a miserable time of it. I didn't leave our complex, but just ran in every court. I had Ryan take a picture of me inside doing my famous "do I look fast?" pose. This pose came about because so many times race photographers will take my picture and catch me in a point in my stride where I don't even look like I am running at all. Since this has happened so often, I learned to watch for the cameras and now get some action shots where I do look fast, but not like the cheeseball in my pose. I don't look very fast here. Ryan poked his head outside as I was finishing up, so I asked him to take a picture of me in the mess outside. I knew this photo was being taken, so I could make a slight effort to "look fast" despite the conditions.
We also had to go back to the mall because I had forgotten to pay my Macy's charge the previous two times and was unable to do it online and have it post on time. We let Keira play at the playarea and got pretzels. It was a bit crowded being a Saturday, so there were a few altercations, so we didn't stay long. It is a good thing that Soren will probably outweigh Keira soon, so once he can walk around he can stick up for her. She is so tiny that the slightest accidental contact can topple her sometimes. It continued to snow all day and through the night.




We had a lazy Sunday morning with a great breakfast cooked by Ryan. It snowed throughout the night. We got all ready and got to church early enough for a bench, but with church being during naptime, Keira and I didn't stay in it much. Our patio table shows a good indication of how much snow we got this week. It stays fairly shaded so not much melted to show about an 18 inch accumulation.
Ryan and Soren are ready for church.
Keira and I just need our shoes.

Soren is in his comfy clothes. His eyes look so blue here. We are curious how long they will stay that way.

Today is the observation of Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, so Ryan had today off. I went for a better run today since it was sunny and the roads and sidewalks were clear for the most part. It was also not quite so cold. We met up with Kris and Linda for lunch at the Grand Traverse Pie company for some sandwiches and pie. I was also able to run some errands with just Soren while Keira napped. We had a web cam session with Tyler, Minde, and Chase as well.
Lunch at Grand Traverse Pie Company. Keira was getting a bit tired at this point.
That is pretty much our cold week. This next week is a bit busier since we actually have things going on. We have to get Keira's ski gear taken care of for our trip (she is so small, we are afraid if we don't secure it before we go, we won't be able to find it there to rent) and there are more storytimes scheduled.