Mad Dash and Mad Snow

The rest of this week was pretty much business as usual, except we did have a few fun highlights that were out of our normal routing. As I stated in our last post, we did get the house super clean, super fast (more below). We also went to the Hands on Museum in Ann Arbor and got a lot of snow. We also had several more meals on our griddle/sandwich press.

Tuesday was a pretty low key day. We needed it after our busy Monday and putting Keira to bed in her new high bed. We are happy to report that we have not had any major falls or bonkings as a result of her new bed. Ryan had scouts in the evening, and I had hoped to run before or after, but ran out of time before. It was super icy after, so that was a "no", and sat on the couch instead.

Keira is cleaning like Sleeping Beauty. If only she would pick up her toys and put them away...

Wednesday was a fun day. We had a lazy morning and met up with Linda at Laurel Park place for some shopping. I am not a good shoe shopper- I get rather overwhelmed when I see all the shoes grouped by brand and not by style. She was able to help me out with picking out some awesome dressy shoes for church. I had been getting by with just a couple pairs of boots for winter and sandals for summer for a long time, and it is so nice to be able to have fun shoes! She was also a great help with keeping Keira occupied, which is another reason why I typically don't do much shoe shopping. My running shoe has been the same basic shoe with minor tweaks here and there over the years, so that is actually a no brainer for me these days. I was also able to go on a quick run after getting home. It had warmed enough during the day to melt the ice from last night and the roads were pretty dry.

Soren actually made his drum light up today. It was an accident, but he liked it.

Keira likes her tummy time too!
Thursday morning was spent at a presidency meeting all morning, and then we hit Costco on the way home. I was late, as usual, but this time for a totally different reason. I was cleaning up a big mess that required some laundry, and we will leave it at that. Keira had a fun time playing with Lizzie and Elise, and Michelle gave me some preschool details. I hope to get Keira into preschool with Lizzie this fall. I can't believe I have to sign her up now already. We haven't done it yet, but we plan on it, I think. Once home, we had naps, and then cleaned up more messes in the evening, including a bad one on the floor. Soren went through several outfits today, although his were mostly from drool/spit up. Keira was responsible for the really bad messes today, although managed to keep most of her clothes clean, oddly. I was overjoyed to go for a run and get away from messy children this afternoon. Soren's many outfit changes are shown below.


Keira is reading her Little Mermaid book as she watches the movie.
When I got back from my run, I did some "flying Soren's". This is an ab exercise with Soren on my lower legs. We will have to get some video of it, he really enjoys it. I did this with Keira too, but she wasn't this heavy this fast, so it was easier.
Friday we had a great morning. We drove out to Ann Arbor to go to the Hands on Museum. We met up with Stacy and Connie from church with their children and Valerie and Katie. Keira was very excited to see Katie. Connie's daughter Haley was just put into the same nursery as Keira this year, so they aren't as used to playing with each other yet, but hopefully they will play together more as the weeks go by. We spent most of the morning in the preschool area because it is enclosed and no children over 4 are allowed in, so it was pretty easy to keep an eye on them and lots of activities geared to their ages. We also walked around part of the main museum. There isn't food service there, and Keira was asking for lunch and getting tired, so we headed home fairly early. It was snowing, and we got quite snowy on the way to the car because the museum does not have dedicated parking.
Keira is brushing a Petosky Stone, the state stone for MI. It contains fossilized coral that is more visible when wet.
Keira and Katie are in the water area of the Preschool room.
Keira really enjoyed the water. We weren't sure if we could get her to leave this area (similar to the NYC museum experience). She did transition a bit better here from area to area.
Playing in the kitchen in the preschool room.
All of us in the preschool room.
Valerie and Katie (Luke stayed home today)
Keira has a thing for small slides.
Soren can face out now! He seemed to really enjoy the museum. He likes seeing other kids.
"Nemo" and "Dory"as Keira called them.
Keira is turning gears that can be arranged on the table.
There were lots of buttons to push. Keira and Katie were both getting a bit tired at this point and both wanted to push this one. It worked Tesla's Egg of Columbus.
Big Magnet- Keira has just about maxed out her washer chain.
Inside a giant bubble. She wasn't so sure about this.
This dollhouse is 125 years old. Some of its furnishings look a bit newer, though.
Keira looks to be about 34 inches here. It must be the perspective and the shoes!
Katie on a gurney. Keira wouldn't go near it or in the ambulance, not even the front seat, where she loves to play in our truck.
Tornado
The snowfall on the stroller. Soren was already in the car at this point.

Once the kids were down for their naps, I got a call from our realtor's agency, and we learned that we had a showing Saturday at 11:30. Yikes! Our house was pretty bad, but after the shock wore off, Ryan and I cleaned the rest of the evening. It was a good thing we had gotten our Christmas decorations under control earlier in the week.
The bedroom was finally all clean (due to the showing), with both beds all made up. No worries, we didn't leave any of the soft stuff in Soren's bed, it was just for show.

We were able to get the place whipped into shape fairly well prior to 11:30 the Saturday morning. We had to skip a wedding at 11, because at 11:15 I was just hopping into the shower trying to at least be clean before leaving the house. The truck bed was full of stuff to go over to the storage unit (that is the greatest hiding place for stuff, even if we would have just brought it back in afterwards). We went over to Kris and Linda's for lunch, which was so needed after running around like crazy people all morning long. Soren got to try out their jumper. He was a bit grumpy at first, but after a meal, seemed to enjoy it. Keira was curious about it, but realized she was too big. She doesn't like being laughed at (who does). We hung out for a while, and it was really snowing still (it had started while I was in AA yesterday and hadn't really stopped). I had initially wanted to go to REI due to their super clearance sale, and we weren't totally sure if we should go due to the snow. We were on our way home from Kris and Linda's, and our wipers were all frozen up and it was hard to see, so I just asked Ryan if we should still go to REI (we pass it on the way home), so we can at least clean off the car again. I am so glad we did, because we were able to get GREAT deals on winter coats, hats, down vests, fleece jackets, and snow pants for Keira and Soren for NEXT year at super cheap prices. The prices were so low it was worth the gamble. I am glad we made it out to the store, because when we got home to look online, everything we had bought at the store was sold out online, so we couldn't have bought it if we didn't go. It was also funny because the parking lot was PACKED in the middle of this snow. REI shoppers (us included) are pretty hardcore!

Soren isn't too sure about the jumperoo
Keira is sure she is too big for it.
They are happy now!
A pink tutu and black snow boots, what a combo!
We also put both Keira and Soren to bed in the same room. It was a bit rough getting them both to sleep, but they slept really well for a change.

Sunday morning we played in the snow. Keira isn't a big fan of being in the snow while it is snowing, so we waited until it finally stopped on Sunday to play in it with her. Soren even came out for a little while- he was awake and we couldn't really leave him in the house awake by himself. When he was ready for his nap, we brought him in and he slept right up until we needed to leave for chuch. We had to go back to church in the evening for a meeting that required both Ryan and I, and that was a bit sketchy getting to, but we made it. Keira and Soren went to bed a lot easier, but didn't stay to bed very well.

Here is Soren all bundled.


Keira made a little "chair" out of the snow. She kept asking to be "put up there", meaning, be put into the snow since it was so deep. She wasn't sure about stepping off the sidewalk into it at first or if it didn't have some tracks in it already.
This isn't even the full amount of snow. Ryan had cleaned the truck on Saturday morning prior to the showing to load it up with items to take to the storage unit.

Ryan was going to "get" Keira.
Ryan helped Keira to make a snow angel.
Inside, all ready for church (minus tights and shoes). Keira is investigating our jumperoo.
Soren really didn't know what to think at first. He did warm up, though.

Today was an early morning. Too bad we didn't need to be anywhere early. I was pretty zapped from a rough night from both of them, but we were cleaned up and ready by 8:30 this morning. I think it was a record to have EVERYONE bathed/showered and dressed this early. Usually someone doesn't get a bath and I shower at night when we need to be somewhere early.

I made it though the day, and went on a run when Ryan got home. It was a rather slow run because there were many areas that were not plowed well on my route. Keira and Soren are both in bed now(finally, it was pretty hard again tonight)- hopefully they will stay asleep better tonight.

Keira wanted to do tummy time too.
Ryan really had Soren laughing really hard tonight. It is so funny what he thinks is funny.

For the rest of this week, we don't have much planned. The library story times resume and we need to keep the place clean (as we always should) in the event we are selected to have a second showing this weekend. We probably won't, but there is nothing wrong with a clean house.