Mall of america!

Elijah or Evie?

Some of them might be a little trickier than you think.

Ok so you can probably tell the difference, but seriously! These guys would be twins if they weren't a year and a half apart.

1.Evie and Grandpa

2. Elijah dressed as a girl to see what future evie was going to look like.

3.Elijah watching TV

4.Evie sleeping

5.Elijah...dressed as a girl again

6. Elijah getting a hair cut. Evie has still never had one!

7. Evie playing.

Weekend getaway/Old Blue comes home, almost.

This past weekend we had a little getaway. Well, the kids had a getaway. Aunt Wendy and Uncle Joe volunteered to take then for a few days! Now, Elijah loves going to see various family, but he gets very excited when we mention Uncle Joe. He was over the moon to learn that he would get to go to Uncle Joes house for the weekend. Evie didn't seem to mind much either. We were a little hesitant to let Evie go, but as long as Elijah is around, she seems to bode well.

We met Wendy and Joe and put the kids in their car. Elijah couldn't get away from us fast enough and Evie was close behind. Normally Evie says No! to everything even if you talk about candy, but when I asked if she really wanted to go with Aunt Wendy she shook her head with a vigorous Yeah!

So Tony and I had sat and most of sunday to ourselves. What did we do? We ate. More or less. We opened the gym sat morning, participated in the new yoga class being offered (did I mention we now have yoga once a week at Timberwolf Crossfit? me like), and then we went home and made Meatza, ventured out to do some shopping, caught a movie, did some mall wandering, then hopped over to another crossfit to hang out for a bit at a party they were throwing. Then? Oh yes, there's more. We realized the lions and saints game was on so against our better judgement since we had already stuffed our faces for lunch, at the movies, and at the party, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings, ordered wings, and sat ourselves directly in front of a large TV to watch the game.

What a day without kids. We realize that we went a little overboard. You kind of do that when you realize you dont have any person to worry about keeping entertained or under control or keeping vigilant of constantly. We just went. out. Where ever we could think to go. Maybe we can make this a once a month thing? Hmm? Aunt wendy?

Anyways, Elijah screamed and cried when we pryed him out of their car to take him home with us and Evie swung her arms trying to get me away from her. They were happy to be coming home. Not. We had to make a candy stop to get elijah to stop crying. I might be a little sad that they didn't seem to miss us, but I know that they had a billion times the fun playing this weekend and didn't want it to end with stinky old parents.

On a side note, the police called Tony yesterday to report that his truck has been found. So we went to go check it out. At 9pm. With all of us in tow. What they failed to tell us was that Tony needed to have a bill of sale to even see the truck since it was still technically not in his name (given to him by Uncle Joe). Oh and there were parts missing including the transmission being gone and it would cost $150 just to get the truck out of the impound. Sorry Old Blue, looks like your time has come. Tony is gonna go back to see if he can find any of his belongings still in the truck, but aside from that it is pretty much a lost cause. At least we have some closure. RIP Old Blue 1989-2012

New years party shoes

Wrestling

Teagan the kitty: A Christmas Story

About eight months ago, in April, Tony was moving across the country to St Paul to set up his CrossFit. He was bringing our kitty Teagan with him to keep him company while I finished up classes back in Utah. After a long drive, Tony made it the first leg of the trip to South Dakota, arriving at his Aunt Debs house around 2am. When he opened the door, Teagan promptly hopped out of the car and ran into the darkness. Tony was too tired to attempt a search right then, so he went in and went to sleep. The next day Teagan was nowhere to be found and Tony had to continue on to St Paul.

Fast forward to November.

Aunt Deb sent me a text saying they saw a cat on the deck, who she thought looked like Teagan and was wearing a collar. They dont see a lot of cats since they live in a somewhat country area, you know, big expanses of land where your neighbors are across the field rather than next door. So I told her to keep an eye out for her if she comes back around, but they didnt see her again since they have a couple dogs that I assume would bark and scare cats away.

Christmas time.

We go out to visit the family for Christmas and decide to take a look around the land for cats. After walking around for awhile yelling "KITTY KITTY HEEEERRRE KITTY" and looking weird, we settle back inside. On Christmas day, Tony comes through the door, telling me that he found Teagan on the neighbors barn and put her in the car. WHAT! Eight months after we lost her she turns up next door and just lets Tony pick her right up and cuddles on our laps.

I was a little nervous about bringing her home since for all I know she has been living in squalor as a barn cat eating mice and small birds. I looked her over, combed through her fur and she looks great! She is still nice a clean, maybe even a little more plump than when we left her. Maybe the neighbors have been looking after her. She and Oliver even rode home in the same car together with no incidents! They touched noses and sniffed and not even a bark (maybe a small hiss). She has been home with us for two days now and she is just regular old Teagan! The other cats dont really like her that much right now, but they generally just avoid each other, so nothing major has happened. I really can't believe it! It is great and Evie just LOOVES her. She meows at her trying to get Teagans attention and will bend down and put her face in Teagans and laugh. Teagan has been a champ about it all.

We are taking her to the vet this afternoon to get everything checked out (luckily we updated all of her shots just over a year ago so she should be good from the whole wilderness cat thing).

YAY!

I forgot to take some pics of Teagan, but here is Evie talking to Annie the cat.

Words!

I can put words on the blog again! I cant type on the blog from my phone, just upload videos. The plug for my laptop went out recently (the plug stop working? what? has anybody heard of this?) so I have not been able to get on a computer besides a snippet here and there on Tony's computer at the gym. Hence, I have only been blogging via video uploads from my phone. Maybe now I can leave stories and even some pictures because Tony got me a new laptop for christmas!!

While my other was still in working order, it was getting older and replacing the plug (we have already replaced it once) would cost like a hundred bucks anyway so here we are! On my new lap top! It is beautiful! It is shiny! There are no tiny fingerprint smudges on the screen! Best of all, there is a camera! Now I can skype my long lost family members (weeks have gone by, baby Henry must be walking by now, I am missing it all! but no longer.)

Also, I can leave awesome stories for everyone to read (Hi Grandpa Earley!) For instance, we celebrated Christmas a little early this year since we will be spending it in South Dakota. Santa came yesterday morning bright and early. We told Elijah that he had to sleep in his own bed ALL night in order for Santa to stop at our house and leave fun presents and treats. Lo and behold, at 730 am, the door creaks open and elijah shuffles into bed next to me with a big smile on his face. The kind where his eyebrows go up and his nose wrinkles. I asked if Santa came. "YEAH! SANTA CAME MAMA! He weeve preseeents!" It was so fun.

This is the first year he has started to grasp the 'santa' concept and we have been playing it up since Halloween. Any time he is naughty or throwing a fit, we just tell him that Santa wont come unless he his nice and listens. It has worked pretty well. Any chance it will work up until next christmas? Maybe we can do it again for the easter bunny.