Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week I did not bribe Minnow with suckers so she would sit in her stroller as we visited Cabelas.

I did not bribe her with suckers so I could make some business-related phone calls. What kind of parent gives their kid 2 suckers in a span of about an hour?--not me!

We did not keep Minnow up until 11:30 on Friday night while we were hanging out with friends. What kind of parents do that? Not us!

Minnow did not have fun playing the W*ii until 11:30 at our friends' house.

I did not just take the Christmas tree lights off yesterday, a month after Christmas.

I did not call Muskie Man while he was out running errands and ask him to bring home a new play-doh set because I am getting bored with what we have. He did not come home with an Undersea Adventure play-doh set. I did not have fun playing with it.

I did not find Minnow on top of our breakfast bar eating a chocolate Santa after taking my eyes off her for .3 seconds! Time to move the stools away from the breakfast bar.

I did not let her keep eating the above referenced Santa so I could take a picture:

We're Back

I've been in a writing slump, just not feeling like blogging, but that is going to change. I need to write down the funny things that Minnow does that make me laugh, I'll forget them otherwise.

We had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends, even though it seems like it was a winter ago. Minnow enjoyed opening her presents and had to play with each one before moving on to the next one.

I became the coolest aunt ever by taking my nephews sledding. My five-year old nephew and I shared a sled and had a huge wipe-out. I had to pick grass from his nostrils and then pretend everything was ok so he wouldn't cry! My sister got a great picture where my feet are above my head in the middle of the crash. It was fun, nonetheless.

Our days are now busy with lots of basketball games at Muskie Man's school, playdates and I'm busy with a new business venture as a trunk keeper for Ma.tilda Jane clothing--a cute clothing line for girls that is too adorable for words, so I'll leave you with Minnow in front of the tree in her new dress:

Let It Snow!

Muskie Man had his second snow day of the year today. If these snow days keep coming, he'll have students at school until July! We probably have almost 2 feet of snow on the ground after receiving about 8 inches of fresh snow this morning. The temperatures were reasonable so we bundled up and went outside for some fun in the winter wonderland.

Minnow has so much more fun in the snow this year.
She did not want to help shovel the driveway, however:

That got me out of shoveling, and allowed us to go sledding instead:

We slid down the driveway and ended up a few feet into our unplowed street, we are definitely snowed in here:

Then we trudged back up the driveway to do it all again:

We then moved the fun to the yard and Muskie Man took over as the sled driver:

Minnow got off easy and was pulled back up the "hill:"

We had a fun time out in the snow, and now we are ready to warm up and take a nap.

So Much to be Thankful For

We have so much to be thankful for in our life.

I am thankful for Muskie Man, my best friend and husband. We laugh together, cry together and are on this adventure of parenting together.

I am also thankful that Muskie Man is in the field of education. He doesn't have to worry about coming to work one day and not having a job the next. Yes, his job is challenging and at times, stressful, but he is good at his job and enjoys it, most of the time.

We are thankful for our friends. We have been blessed with a great group of friends in our little town. We also have friends from college that we are still close to and enjoy getting together with them. I am thankful for my mommy friends who help me get through this being-a-mommy-thing.

We are thankful for our health. God has blessed us and our families with health and we pray that He will continue to watch over us.

We are thankful for our family. Some of our family lives far away and we miss them, but they are always in our hearts. We do see the majority of our family on a fairly regular basis, for that we are thankful.

Last but certainly not least, we are so very thankful for our little Minnow. Some days I look at her playing and laughing and can't believe that we are her parents and that she is our daughter. We can't imagine our little family without her as she brings us so much joy.

This Thanksgiving as we reflect on all of our blessings, we give thanks to God.

Halloween Fun

I had to do this long overdue Halloween post before Halloween is a distant memory and we are celebrating the next holidays. So. . .
We had fun on Halloween. Minnow was a monkey--monkeys are her favorite animal right now with dogs coming in a close second. We went to a MOPS barn dance where the mommies had to dress up too so I went as a banana, thanks to my "good" friend who so graciously lent me the costume.

Trick or treating was a good time too, Minnow sort of got the hang of it, but she would just hold her bag out for the treats. We did get her to say thank you. We ended up at some friend's for a while enjoying adult trick or treating with adult beverages--good times!

This is a fun age for holidays we are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Here is a picture collage I made on scrapblog.com--what a cool site!

Fall Family Photos

We had a friend so graciously offer to take our family photos for our Christmas card. I just got a couple of samples and will have the rest later this week. Thanks so much Coach L for taking the pictures!
I love how Minnow is holding my hand in this first one:

Two family shots:


Daddy's Little Girl:

My favorite, although it's not of the whole family. Minnow was in a rotted out tree trunk and ended up with all kinds of junk in her hair--I love the photo though:

A Trip to the Zoo

We took a trip to the zoo this past weekend. It was a beautiful fall day. Minnow loves animals so she had a blast! She ran from one section of the zoo to another, it wore me out. We saw pretty much the whole zoo except for the small mammals (bats and rats) and we didn't get a chance to ride the train that goes around the zoo--we had to save something for next time.

Looking at some monkeys:

Comparing ourselves to a baby gorilla:

Close encounter with a peacock at lunch:

We spent quite a bit of time looking at the fish, which is not surprising. Minnow loved looking at all the fish:

Tigers and Bears, oh my! (didn't get any good pictures of the lions to complete the phrase, sorry)

A trip to the zoo is not complete without feeding the goats: