Heading down to Bean Town

After two weeks of living in New Hampshire we are finally starting to feel settled! On Saturday we celebrated by heading into Boston to check out some of the sights. Boston is 45 minutes south of where we live and the drive was smooth and easy. Here are some pics I took coming into the city.

The harbor was full of sail boats, even in January! I thought that was cool. And Taber made me take a picture of the Garden were the Celtics play because apparently he is their newest fan : )

There were lots of cool things to see but our destination for the day was the New England Aquarium. Before we left Minnesota, Taber's boss bought us a year membership so we could take the kids any time. I can't think of a more thoughtful and useful gift, especially now that we've seen how awesome it is!


They had everything from sharks and sea turtles to jellyfish and penguins. Brinley was SOOOO excited about EVERYTHING! She was practically hyperventilating as she pointed to each tank shouting "FEESHY! FEESHY!"

At one point both girls were standing in a window of the tank when this huge shark swam by. It was right next to them and they both squealed with terror! Teya, because she was scared out of her mind, and Brinley because if Teya does it, so does she. : )

Case in point: I held Teya up by this big sea turtle to show her how big they are. As soon as I put her down Brinley ran over to Taber and held her arms out and said, "I too! I too!"

So of course, Taber had to lift her up too.

These two are becoming pretty inseparable these days. It was so much fun watching them go from exhibit to exhibit with their eyes glued in amazement to all the exotic animals. As a result, we didn't get too many pictures of their faces, because why on earth would they want to look at the camera when there were penguins, sea horses, crabs, and dragon fish in front of them?

I did manage to get a few pics of Teya with her crazy "I'm really excited to be at the aquarium!" face. Like the one in the bottom corner of the collage above and the one below holding a starfish.


After we had seen all the fish we headed over to the IMAX theater to watch Under the Sea in 3D. Brinley did great and made it through the whole movie but Teya flipped out when the fish started eating each other. I finally had to take her out for the last 10 minutes when the turtle started eating the "beautiful jellyfish" (which happened to be her most favorite creature in the movie) it was all a little too much for her 3 year old eyes. At least she looked cute in her glasses.

All in all I would say our visit was a huge success. We love our aquarium membership and are so grateful for the awesome gift! We also love Boston and are happy it's so close. We'll definitely be back often for more adventures and exploring!

Enjoying

I recently read the blog of a friend whose new year resolutions all revolve around the word ENJOY. Instead of focusing on things she doesn't have or isn't, she is going to focus on enjoying all the things that make her life beautiful. Her son, her hobbies, her role as a homemaker, etc..

I was really impressed reading that and thought I could use a little dose of that attitude. Right now is the perfect time in my life to be able to sit back and ENJOY. I don't have a lot of commitments or know many people yet so I can really just dig into my life at home and enjoy every part of it. We're not in a hurry to be anywhere or do anything, so instead of rushing my kids from one activity to the next, we're just trying to enjoy each job, chore, game, story, and moment that comes into our day. Here are a few of the simple things that highlighted our week. ENJOY!

We pulled out an old ball pit that the girls haven't seen for almost a year. Now that Brinley is big enough to play in it the two of them went wild!

I love the static hair action that's going on with Teya and Brinley in the background.

I was actually going to give this away because Teya didn't play with it much before. Guess having a little playmate makes it much more fun!

Seriously entertained them forever!

On Wednesday we woke up to find our driveway covered in heavy soggy snow. Normally I would've dreaded shoveling that long steep monster, but I decided it needed to be done, and we were going to enjoy it!

I bundled the girls up, armed them with their own "shovels" and we got to work.

Teya loved being the big helper and even Brinley was putting her back into it. I love how she's squatting down and digging in in the last picture.

And last night I decided to make my normal chore of cooking a little more enjoyable by doing a kid friendly meal the girls could help with. We made homemade pizza and they were SO into it! I need to get them their own little aprons and make cooking together more routine!

Brinley prepped the crust with a little brushing of olive oil.

Teya carefully layered on the sauce

Then it was time for the cheese! Brinley took several hands full but I don't think any of it made it onto the pizza ; )

Teya put the toppings on the pizza, and Brinley continued to put them in her mouth (that's her sinking her teeth into some pepperoni in the background ; )

Happy Faces with their finished product, ready to go into the oven!

I know our schedule will pick up and things won't stay simple for long, but I still hope to follow my friends example and make this years theme all about enjoying the journey.

Making Friends

Before we moved I tried to prep Teya on making new friends. I told her she needed to smile and introduce herself in a clear voice, then ask the other person's name and invite them to be her friend. We practiced it quite a bit.

Teya:(Smiling) Hi my name is Teya. What's your name?
Me: My name is Mommy
Teya: Do you want to be my friend?
Me: Yeah!
Teya: Okay! let's play!

I figured she would be dealing with other 3-4 year olds, so this little formula would be pretty fail proof.

On Thursday, after 4 days of setting up the house and no sign of any of the neighbor kids, we set out to the indoor playground at the mall. There Teya found a little girl exactly her height and decided this was going to be her new friend.

Teya: (Smiling) Hi my name is Teya. What's your name?
Little Girl: Blank stare
Teya: Come on, let's go play
Little Girl: Ignores Teya and goes off to play somewhere else.

Teya looked confused but was determined to make a new friend so she started following her around the playground. The little girl made NO interaction with Teya, and watching this unfold I started getting a knot in my stomach. I never told Teya that maybe someone wouldn't want to be her friend. I didn't know how she would handle the dissapointment.

Luckily Teya seemed oblivious to the fact that the girl was ignoring her. She just kept following her around and when she saw me her face broke into a giant smile and she shouted, "Look Mom! This is my new friend!" I gave her a nervous thumbs up as I watched the little girl escape Teya again. "Where'd my friend go?" She would ask every few minutes when she lost sight of her. "Mom, where's my friend?"

At this point I just felt sick. Moving is hard enough, we'd been here for 4 days (an eternity to a 3 year old) Why couldn't she just meet one friendly little person? My mother bear instincts wanted to shake that kid and say, "Why don't you play with my daughter!?"

Then I noticed that the little girl was wearing a diaper. I heard her call to her mommy, she didn't speak very well and still had that baby talk voice. Her mom was sitting near me so I asked her, "How old is your daughter?" "almost 2 and 1/2" she responded. Suddenly I felt relieved. 2 and 1/2? No wonder she wasn't responding to Teya's fast paced dialogue. For all I know she could just be learning to talk! Teya is almost 4 but she is pretty tiny for her age, and this girl was pretty tall for her age. Teya just assumed that same height meant same age, and so did I!

When Teya came back over to me and said, "My new friend is kinda shy." I pointed out that the little girl was wearing a diaper and was still little and probably didn't know how to talk really well. Teya seemed to be happy with this explanation and said, "well mom, we need to find a friend who's my age!" I laughed, where did she learn to say "my age?"

The next day some people from our ward came over and introduced themselves. They have 5 kids including a 4 year old, and Teya was a pretty happy to meet them. We went to their house on Saturday and another family with 3 little girls ages 5, 4, and 18 months was there too. It was great to see Teya glowing as she interacted with all her "new friends."

Making friends can be scary and hard, but it's amazing how it helps us to go out of our comfort zones, stretch, and grow. While I was so stressed about that little girl not talking to Teya, she was completely unaffected by it. Whether that girl talked to her or not, in Teya's mind, they were friends! I love watching her go out and without making any judgments, unconditionally invite and accept people as her friends. She doesn't have insecurities or wonder if people will like her, she just assumes they will and goes for it! I'm trying to follow her example and even got brave and took the family with Taber to introduce ourselves to the neighbors. They were wonderful and so nice, giving us their phone numbers and inviting us to call if we ever need anything. Just like Teya, I'm excited to make new friends and I know that with the right attitude, we're going to have a great experience here.

Trek East

We did it! We made it to New Hampshire and survived the car trip. Here are some fun facts, highlights and survival secrets.

Random Facts about our Trek East:

Miles driven: approx. 145o
Days in the car: 3
Stops per day: 1
(except on day 3 when Brinley went on car seat strike, then we had to stop twice)
Happy Meals purchased: 6

Chicken nuggets consumed: 24

States driven through: 9
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire

Hours I spent behind the wheel: ZERO
(Taber drove the whole thing, what a stud!)


Hours I spent going back and forth between the seats catering to little peoples needs: approx. 3, then I gave up and just sat back there with them.

Meanwhile Monty enjoyed Gold Medallion status in the front seat. Lucky.

Other highlights:

Driving through States and parts of the country we've never seen before

Making it the whole way with NO MELTDOWNS from Teya
and only one minor come apart by Brinley

Stopping in Chicago to stay the night with Naomi and Kevin.
They hooked us up with a and a car charger for our DVD player (priceless!) and an I-pass so we could cruise through the billions of toll roads without stopping. As if that wasn't enough, Kevin even made us a pancake breakfast! We love those guys!


Survival Aids:

-Stickers: We must've gone through at least 500. Kept them both busy for decent stretches of time.
-Play-doh: Makes a mess but that's all part of the road trip right?
- New coloring books and markers: When they were bored with their coloring books they did some nice artwork on their faces.
-i-Pod holders that attach to your window: Thanks to my sister Sarah for the idea!


- Sun shields for the windows
- GPS
-i-Pass (thanks again Kevin!)
- binky, toys, treats, and MOVIES!!!

Everyone did great for such long trip. Now we're just trying to hunker down, unpack and get settled in to our new life as East Coasters! : )

Friday Foto: Strong Gene Pool

One last post before they turn off my internet.

found this old picture while packing.

Guess we know where she gets her smile from now : )

Some Final Farewells

Thanks to our wonderful friends, the moving process this time around has been the easiest we've ever experienced. So many have people reached out to help us. At least 7 different people asked if they could watch our kids while the movers were here. We had meals lined up for every day of the week, several people asked if they could come help clean and we even had friends offering to let us stay with them after the movers came. While this made the moving process easier, it makes moving a lot harder. Leaving behind such an amazing network of friends is going to be tough. I'm just thankful that the internet makes it so much easier to stay in touch, otherwise I'd be a little emotional right now.

The packers came and boxed everything up on Tuesday, and the movers came on Wednesday to load it all up and ship it out. Something about seeing that big moving truck pull up made it all feel very final.

Luckily we got a chance to have a few last farewells before we leave town. On Tuesday night our friends, the Cunninghams, had us over for dinner. We had a great night chatting and reminiscing, then they sent us off with some Minnesota souvenirs (so we'll always remember where to come back to ; ) and a yumm-a-licious turtle ice cream pie.

Through out the week we had similar get togethers with friends (although I wasn't smart enough to bring my camera!) and then tonight our awesome friends the Parish's threw us a going away party so we could say goodbye to everyone one last time.

We can't thank John and Jamie enough for putting such a great evening together for us. Thinking about it I guess I am going to get a little emotional : ) It just really meant a lot to be able to see everyone, give them hugs, and say goodbye before we go.

I love these people like my family. I seriously couldn't ask for a better group of friends and I hope they all know how much we will miss them!

Closing out 2009

Best part of the holidays: Having Taber home from work for 2 weeks! The girls relished all the extra attention from Daddy and everyday Teya asked "Are you going to work today Daddy?" and when he'd say "no" she'd jump up and down and shout, "YAY! DADDY'S STAYING HERE! OUR FAMILY IS ALL TOGETHER!" Here are some of the fun things we did as a family to close out 2009.

A trip to the Mill City Museum with the girls and Taber's parents

At the top of the museum I tried to get a picture of the girls with the great view of downtown Minneapolis. Teya wasn't being cooperative with the camera however, every time I told her to smile she just closed her eyes. So this is what I got. Life with a 3 year old ; )

It was so nice to be able to take Taber's parents and grandmother along. We are so glad they could come out one more time before we leave!

On New Years Eve we took the girls to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. This was the first time we've been able to navigate that place without a stroller! It was awesome not having to wait for the elevators or push through the crowds with that thing. Nice perk of the girls getting a little bit older. Here they are painting their faces at the Spark Cart.

They loved all the hands on activities and I loved having a place for them to make a mess that I didn't have to clean!

This is my favorite picture because I think Brinley looks like a little baby Avatar on her Banshee dragon ready to go to war or something. If you haven't seen that movie, GO! it's amazing.

After the museum our New Years Eve was really low key. We colored signs with the girls and cut out 2010's to tape up around the house. Then we had root beer floats, counted down to "midnight" (8pm for the girls) and shook our noisemakers and danced around.

A picture of us taken by Teya.
Her photography skills are improving, this could be quite useful in the future...

Once the girls went to bed Taber and I talked about and wrote down our goals for 2010. I plan on starting to work on them as soon as the move is over ; )

On New Year's day we spent the morning sledding with our friend's the Ayllons. They have a great hill in their back yard and even though it was only 6 degrees outside the girls were so bundled up that they did awesome!

If you're wondering about the blue tape on the girls' wrists, it looks kind of funny but it keeps their gloves on and the snow out, meaning we can stay outside for much longer periods of time : )

Sledding was awesome! Visiting was friends was so nice too.

And that's it! Goodbye 2009! Goodbye Minnesota! Can't wait to see what the next year brings!