There is hope...

We had a couple of warm days last week...in the 40's and 50's!! It was awesome! The kids loved getting to play outside. Alyssa loves it just as much as Dallin....she might like it more. I can't wait until it is consistently warmer! They had fun going for walks, riding bikes and scooters, and playing in the puddles...

Keeping busy...

During this long winter, the kids and I have made lots of fun forts. Dallin really likes to play inside them.
Alyssa has awesome hair inside the forts.
Dallin tries to get as much attention as possible including pretending he is Alyssa.
Alyssa picked a new favorite thing to eat....Cereal! She is actually pretty good at feeding herself with a spoon. Look at all those teeth...4 big ones now.
Dallin likes to do art/craft projects. His latest was painting a picture frame. He was so proud of himself! He is so handsome!

Our jumping and twirling princess!

One of Alyssa's favorite things to do is to spin around and around. She gets dizzy really fast, but does it all the time.


The other day Dallin was jumping around the house, and Alyssa thought it looked fun and tried to copy him. She spent the whole day jumping and laughing. She doesn't actually lift her feet up, but here she is "jumping"

2011 Auto Show

Yesterday we went to the Chicago Auto Show. Dallin had lots of fun "driving" all the different cars. Alyssa wasn't as huge of a fan. She wanted to run around, but there were too many people. It was very crowded, but the Chicago auto show is huge!
We tried to keep Alyssa as entertained as possible with snacks. They also each got a new car to play with, and Alyssa was very excited.

Lots of Snow!

Last week we got a lot of snow! Jeff even got to stay home. There's huge walls of snow everywhere here. Here's a picture of our front door. You can't really tell, but there is a lot of snow. The kids are kids are kind of sick of being in the house, but we still try to have some fun in the house.
The kids stole some oreos out of the pantry. Alyssa sure did enjoy it.
My little girl LOVES trucks just like her big brother. She plays with trucks more than anything else, and her favorite books are truck ones.
Dallin asks every day to go back to bounce town. Since I am a mean mom and don't take him every time he asks, he pretends he is there using pillows.
Even though Alyssa loves trucks, she also loves shoes. Here she is with one of hers and one of Dallin's.
Alyssa is becoming more of a daddy's girl.
The kids having fun in the playroom.

Time for Sledding

We got some snow over the week, so we took the kids sledding twice over the weekend. On Friday night we went just right outside the house. There is a slight hill that Dallin thought was huge! Alyssa was pretty hesitant at first, but she warmed up and started to enjoy it.

On Saturday morning we went to a park to go sledding. There was an actual sledding hill where they had it fenced off so the walkers wouldn't get nailed. We were the only ones there and had lots of fun. Alyssa even would go down all by herself. Then we went and played at the park for awhile. We are supposed to get lots of snow this week, so maybe we will be sledding some more :)

Dallin did get some battle wounds. On Friday night Jeff accidentally ran Dallin into another sled. On Saturday he ran himself into the fence and flew off right into the fence. Thankfully he just missed his eye.

The Museum of Science and Industry

On Thursday night Dallin overheard me talking about how the Museum of Science and Industry was free on Friday. So he woke up and all he could talk about was going to the museum with the tractors. We decided we would go since it was free, and it isn't that far anymore. We really love this museum, and we all had a great time.

The first stop was the tractor area. Both kids loved "driving" the tractor and combine.

Then we checked out the cows.
Dallin thought it was so awesome to see the toilet section and see where stuff goes when we flush.
Our little clowns :)
Dallin steering the ship.
The kids loved playing in the kid "big idea" section.

Alyssa was fascinated by the baby chicks.
Alyssa loved watching the trains go by her.
Riding a train.
The museum has a storm section now, which Dallin absolutely loved. He helped "make" a tornado.
He went in this tube where you could feel like you were in a tornado.
Dallin watching the marble maze.
Alyssa was pretty good the whole time considering she missed her morning nap. She was done by the time we left. Here she is chilling in her stroller with her chin resting and her tongue out all the way.
It was a fun day besides one part. There is a huge airplane there for you to walk through. There was a little misunderstanding between Jeff and me on who had Dallin. I saw him walk like 10 feet to Jeff who exited the plane, but Jeff didn't see him and he just kept walking. I looked back over and didn't see him, and Jeff didn't either. We both started running around looking for him. Finally after a minute or so Jeff found him. IT was a very long and scary minute. Dallin was crying and very scared. He held on to Jeff the rest of the time. When he talks about the museum he always talks about how he was lost....maybe he will listen and stay close to us now.