Last week was a very odd week for us! Monday and Tuesday we had no school due to a potential ice storm that never really materialized. Wednesday was normal and then Thursday I had a staff meeting all morning and then I was off until Monday! So we took advantage of the long weekend and headed down to the cities for some fun and shopping! I got some good deals! Babies R Us and Toys R US both had 50% already Clearanced clothes so Carson got some cute pieces and outfits. I got some super cute Carter sweaters for only $4.00! They also had 20% off already Clearanced merchanise so I bought a bouncer chair because I had a coupon for an additional 20% off, so i ended up paying $14.xx for it! Ikea was having a special on Saturday for 400 thread count sheets for $9.99 so we thought we'd head over there Saturday morning. It was a ZOO! Just crazy! People really wanted cheap sheets. They said one per household, but people had their whole family standing in seperate lines with sheet sets. Oh well, we followed the rules and only bought one! Thats all we bought there too. I wasn't digging Ikea on Saturday. After that we went to Hopkins and meet Lisa, Nick and Jessica to see the play "Goodnight Moon". It was cute, short and perfect for little kids. Hayden really enjoyed it! Especially the tap dancing bears. After the play we all headed over to the Convention Grill for some supper. After that Hayden, Jason and I went to AdventureLand, a indoor playground. We went here before with my Mom and Dad. Hayden had a blast(so did Jason!) sliding, climbing, and playing with giant balls. My Mom and Dad were also in the cities for the weekend so we met up with them for some yummy Custard at Liberty Custard and went swimming on Sunday at their Waterpark hotel. I didn't, I went shopping with my mom! Hayden on Saturday night was swimming in our hotel pool. We decided to have him try swimming without his floatie, he did so well. By the end of the night he was swimming about 10 feet or so by himself above and underwater. He really favors swimming underwater. We were really proud of him! So that was a little highlight of what we did this weekend. Pictures are here:

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, we did! Hayden is now officially 4! He is making sure we all know how to act and talk like a 4 year old. (You Don't talk to a kid like that, I'm only 4!, When you were 4 you were naughty too!) Christmas a very long few days. Hayden got so much stuff. We have been building, coloring, putting in batteries etc.
He also had his 4 year well child appointment. Doctor Maria loves Hayden! She was there the night he was born and always remembers he is a Christmas Baby. She was impressed by him(aren't we all!!!) and said she thought Preschool wouldn't really be necessary except the social aspect so only 1 or 2 days a week, part time. I agree with her! He is the perfect size of your average 5 year old. Last year he was the perfect size of your average 4 year old, so i guess he is staying on track. She said not to worry about his size because his BMI was fine. Hayden and Dr. Maria carried on a nice conversation about him, his daily activities and so on. It was really cute to listen to him talk to another adult.
This week Hayden got his first pair of Ice Skates, he unfortunately haven't been able to take him yet, its cold! He is very excited and just wants to go. My friend Sarah is up from Arizona so we have been spending time with her and Breckin, so much fun! I bought out Old Navy's Maternity clearance at .97 a piece. Jason has been working a lot lately but has the next couple days off. We are going Ice Fishing on Thursday(I've never been!) and doing something else on Friday as a family.
In Baby news this little guy has been a mover and shaker. I am excited to see him again on Tuesday. Jason and I have some names narrowed down that we both like! Emery is one of them but we think we have one that might stick and not sharing yet! But middle name suggestions are welcomed!
Have a Happy New Year! Our plans are pretty nonexistent! Oh well we don't care! =)

Blah. Thats how i feel right now! Its been a long, long week without Jason. I just want to sleep! We miss me much. He hasn't shot an Elk yet and has only seen 1(not including the Elk farm that he said may be over taken due to their frustration.) They are having fun though and thats what matters.
Hayden and I enjoyed the day together on Tuesday. It was very nice here for being the middle of September it the mid 70's. We went to Playfront Park, Little Angie's for Lunch(AKA the Other Angies) and shopping in the shops. Then later that night we went Mini golfing, which Hayden has been begging to do for like a month. It was a very nice night. Ohh for supper i grilled, all by myself, i was proud.
I have a new work schedule starting this week and the days seem soooo long. I prefer working with people and I am mostly by myself. I know some people would kill for an hour and half of uninterrupted working time. But I like working with kids. I am sure i'll get more kids in once winter sports start.
Our shopping trip was fun and very fruitful! I bought a ton of stuff for Hayden(Gap had jeans/pants for only $10.00 and Hayden always needs pants) I bought a lettuce knife, bread knife and oh yeah a Coach Purse. It was dirt cheap(well for a Coach purse) and it fits my huge camera so i am happy. It was a little crazy of me, oh well.
Not to much going on this weekend but we'll see i'd love to get some stuff done around here. Check out the Sept. Pics I am planning on adding some more tonight.
Enjoy!
Oh yeah Hayden was having his nightly 5:30 meltdown and wanting to go to my Aunt Dana's house. I told him "No honey Auntie Dana lives to far away" so he said in response "Well just take the GPS then" Apparently our GPS has a special time transport mode helping us get from one place to another in a short time! Always thinking that boy.

Things I Love:
#1 http://www.pumpkinpatchusa.com/
Go there. I LOVE their clothes, they have kids clothes, baby, teens and even maternity. Great quality and nice prices(sale items!). Super Fast shipping too! I ordered on Tuesday and Fedex brought it this morning from New Zealand, 2 day shipping!

#2 My Husband. Why See Things I Love #3.

#3 My NEW Camera! See pictures above for a glimpse of greatness!

Well we made it home safe and sound on Sunday night. After our fun weekend. On Saturday we met up with Lisa and Jessica for some fun. We went to that store, Second Debut and another store that sold "designer" clothes at 70% or more. I almost bought a christening gown for any possible future daughters, i was talked out of it. It was only $8.50, come on guys! I tried on a few dresses for Jason's cousin Patty's wedding, but since i actually already have 4 dresses i could wear i didn't buy any. At Second Debut i found a Coach Wallet, which the man in the store said was a fake because it was made in China, but doing a little research the wallets are made in china! It also has the zipper(YKK) that Coach uses and nice stitching. So it may or may not be real. The zipper pull was missing though. After that we drove down to Punch Pizza and had Neapolitan pizza. Jason actually liked it too! It had yummy basil on it. After that we went to Wild Rumpus and Sebastian Joes. We played at Jessica's house too! For dinner we went to Convention Grill and had yummy burger, fries, ice cream and Hot Fudge. It was very good! Then everyone came back to the Hotel for a swim. Hayden was all "Nick watch me" "Lisa watch me" "Dad watch me" "Mom watch me" yikes! He loves everyones attention. He was a very good little boy this weekend too! On Sunday we woke up and went to Ikea. We found a Dining Room table we LOVED. Its nice because its just one solid piece of wood for the top, thats what i want. Its really dark and watch our woodwork perfectly. We are thinking this may need to be purchased in the near future. We are thinking that we'll buy 4 chairs right away and the next few times we go we'll pick up the rest of the chairs. We are going to get one leather chair for the head of the table, Jason liked it! After Ikea and me running into a teacher from school, we went to Menomonie to see Emily. We just hung out in her dorm room and watch ice cream cake. We hit the road and got home around 9 because we met my mom and dad for dinner. We saw a Black Bear on Highway 53 it was neat. Its nice to be home and time to start another week! Pictures to come soon!

Hayden woke up this morning looked out the window and said " Why is there snow on the ground, doesn't know it's Spring?" Poor kid! We keep telling him we'll play golf with them, and t-ball when the snow goes away and it just keeps coming back! Not much snow either! Just a dusting and we are actually in Bloomington at the Staybridge Suites. I've stayed her a bunch of times with my parents and brought my boys back. The rooms are very nice and all rooms are a "suite". We don't have much planned for the weekend but i am sure it will be action packed! Yesterday we first went to Jessica's house and those two played, and super well! They were very good sharers. Then we went to the Mall of America. I of course found a smokin' deal on a winter coat for next year for Hayden. Its a wool peacoat with toggle buttons and a food with a fake Sherpa lining for $6.97! Its a $42 coat! I was happy. He also got a new swim suit. I found a swim shirt(Rash Guard) on clearance for $4.99 down from 10.00 and then we went and found matching bottoms that were on sale for $10. Hayden was SO excited. I love it, my boy gets excited about new clothes, he is totally my son! Jason of course rolls his eyes. I went into Janie and Jack. Its the Upper end of Gymboree. I was impressed with the prices of their clearance items, made them affordable if i was splurging but so many of the items i have see sooooo similar at Gymboree they just put a turtle on them or something like that. They did however have the cutest hats for boys. I didn't buy one but i will differently watch their online clearance for them. Okay anyways after Mommy was in shopping heaven the kids went on some rides at the new Nickelodeon Theme park at MOA. I didn't know Nick had taken it over. It was cute with big Dora and Boots faces on the ferris wheel and Diego Bus. Spongebob roller coaster, you get it. Hayden bounced in Spongebob's Pineapple, both kids+the mommies rode in Blue and Magenta. Lisa, Jason and the kids rode on some Big Rigs, the kids rode on Dora's blue train(the name is in Spainish but i have no clue how to spell it!) and then the mommies and kids rode on Swipers Sweepers. Which were little cars that kind of whip you around the corners. We all loved it! It was actually fun for a kiddy ride. And something that i liked there was that parents did not have to pay for going on the rides with the little kids. Most places make the parents pay too. We had a Food Court dinner Hayden and I shared what he wanted, Chinese. Well actually we had Japanese but don't tell Hayden. He loved the Sesame Chicken(the only Chinese food Jason will eat!) and devoured the rice. He is becoming an adventurous eater, which i love because i will try just about everything. Okay better go wake up Jason who has a cold, poor guy. But he was a trooper all day yesterday. I keep pumping Tylenol Cold into him. Today we have many options! Ikea, Wild Rumpus/Creative Kidstuff, Denny's bakery, Convention Grill, Grand Old Creamery or is it Ole?, indoor playground, Second Debut( i found this place online last night, its all the high end stuff Goodwill gets they put it into a swanky store and sell it and what they say is Goodwill prices, well see! Maybe i can be like my mom and get a Coach purse at Goodwill! Wink, Wink mom! Tomorrow we are heading to Stout to see my sister. We may have to stop at Nelson's Dairy on the way through Stillwater! Have a good weekend! Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures the rest of the weekend because i didn't on Friday.

Wow how fast a week goes by? We had a very busy week and weekend. I think i will do it from Sunday to whenever i can remember! First off we both have colds and haven't been sleeping very well the past 3 nights so i am thinking its going to be a very long day at work today! Hayden is also VERY clingy to me this past week. I call him my shadow. He wants to sleep with me go and do anything with me. Its kind of weird. I don't think he has been sleeping in his own bed more then a couple hours each night. Okay back to last week!

Sunday: Hayden, RaeAnn and myself stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Coon Rapids. Hayden woke up early for me and he insisted we go have breakfast right away. Then we swam for a little while, well mostly sat in the hot tub but he was okay with that "it feels good". We then went to Toys R Us and bought some food for his kitchen set. Play food has gotten so cool! We bought a pizza set and it all Velcro's together. They had sets that were all like that. Then we drove home. Hayden sleeping until Hinckley. Then it was home to play for a little while and then we drove to Smith's house to see Daddy and watch the football games. And that's all i will say about football games! Except at Packer half time we went to my mom's house and ate yummy appetizers and packer cupcakes made by Emily and Brittany.

Friday/Saturday: We drove to the cities and stayed Friday night at Lisa and Nick's house. We woke up BRIGHT and early to the nasty cold weather and went to ELMO! Live at the Target center. We did this last year too! The kids seem to really enjoy it! We pit stopped at Starbuck's on the way to the show and Hayden and Jessica chimed in that they wanted something. So we ordered them Kiddie Hot Chocolates. Hayden did not like his which i thought was weird but i have figured out that with his cold sweets don't taste good to him, he didn't like the cupcakes and didn't like Jessica's birthday cake or ice cream. Okay so after the show it was time for Jessica's birthday party(Saturday was her actually birthday! Happy Birthday Jessica!). She got lots of neat gifts and yummy food. Hayden holed himself up with her kitchen set. He did not feel good at all for Jessica's party. We also went swimming on Saturday night it was so nice to sit in a hot tub when it was -200 degrees out! We ate at Mcdonalds for supper that night "Not my daddy's Mcdonalds but another Mcdonalds"

Okay the rest of the week. He had way to much fun at Angie's house this week and did not want to leave! Ben has that probably too she must need to be more mean! On Thursday i started working as "Call Staff" at WITC in their LRC(library!) I will work every thursday morning from 8 until i go to work at the high school. Its really calm there, very weird. I caught on fast since i have been working in libraries since Jan 2000. Jason has been working his butt off. They are expecting their SOR(surprise inspection thingie!) sometime before Feb 7. SO he is basically working 6 day weeks 9+ hours a day which means he will really deserve our trip to Texas! I don't know if i put that on here yet. But Jason, Hayden, Mike and Raeann and me are going to visit Michael and Laura in the beginning of Feb. We are driving! It will be fine i am sure it just better be at least 55 when we are there! Okay i'll post pics in a while! Have a good week!

Wow what a busy weekend. We had a very nice Thanksgiving. Busy, but good! We headed to the Cities on Friday morning. We had lunch at Psycho Suzi's Motorlounge. It was very cool and great food! I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants something out of the ordinary. The pizza was yummy! The Black Bean Chili was AMAZING! We headed to the hotel and hung out a while. We went to Maverick's in Roseville for dinner. Its kind of like Arby's but much better and not a crappy chain. Fresh roast beef and homemade soups! We attempted to go look at Christmas Lights but we only slightly succeeded. Emily and Brittany joined us after that at our Hotel. We went swimming too!

On Saturday we headed to the Science Museum. My mom and dad went else where and the 5 of us kids went and saw an Imax film about Greece and looked at the neat exhibits. We then walked the couple blocks and met my mom and dad at Cossettas for some pizza. Hayden then crashed fast asleep and we drove down to the Old Pioneer Press building where we rode the elevator equipped with its own Elevator Operator. Very cool! I doubt we'll ever be able to do that again. The building was very cool too! I love architecture. We had take out at a yummy BBQ place right by Minnehaha Falls. We then went shopping at World Market and Michaels. I loved World Market and had never been there before what a variety!

Sunday we went to Turtle Bread Company. Then to Wild Rumpus. Hayden had lots of fun with the little front door! He liked the cats and even pet them. He really liked the Chinchillas. The books too! We stopped quickly at Creative Kidstuff and bought none of their overpriced toys! Then we took a quick Trolley ride with Santa. This was the highlight of the trip for Hayden. He LOVED the Lake Harriet Trolley. Smiles the whole time. Whistles, Tunnels, Tracks, and rocks everything he loves! We then just barely made it to the Children's Theater for A Year with Frog and Toad. Hayden sat through the whole thing and loved it. I think he would love to be on the Stage. He loves to sing and dance and loves attention! The show was very cute! I love the Children's Theater! We then went to Macy's and saw the Nutcracker on the 8th floor(not 9th like i previously stated). Hayden was SO good standing and waiting in line he seemed to like it too. He did not like Santa and threw himself on the floor screaming. Oops! Maybe next year. Then we went outside and watched the Parade. Hayden sat on my shoulders. He waved and saw the front of the first float and then he was out, cold. Snoring in my ear. He was very tired! Only my son could sleep through a Marching Band 3 feet away!

We had a great weekend and look forward to a normal week! Christmas tree tomorrow hopefully! Its snowing right now, i hope it keeps up! Have a great week. Thanks for checking on us.

Wow! I haven't blogged in a while! We've been so busy. Hopefully i'll hit it all. Here is just the list of things we have done since last time!
Stayed at Lisa and Nick's house. Played LOTS!
Went to a Chlorinated Swimming Pond. (Didn't get to stay long due to thunder, boo!)
Went to the Children's Museum in St Paul. Lots of fun! The kids went wild. Played lots and ran around!
Watched Jessica for a half day. She is SO cute! She let me fix her hair, which was harder than i thought it would be!
Went shopping at Tanger, Hayden and I. We ran into my cousin's wife and their baby Hudsen. Whom Hayden keeps talking about!
Brought Hayden to Monday night Golf League. He was SUPER good. We are bringing him again tomorrow. The kid loves to golf.
Storytime on Tuesday! Hayden was a rabbit and hopped around with cute little ears on. Nothing cuter than seeing 20 preschoolers and toddlers hopping around with bunny ears.
Wednesday was the Maurices summer picnic. Had both Grandmas of course! Jason, my mom and dad, Brandon and Rae Ann, (plus a few more people) were the tug of war champions. Dominating 3 teams!
Wednesday night Hayden ran! He ran the whole 1/4 mile, without tears and a huge smile on his face and determination, we were very proud of him!
We went to Hayward with my mom and dad. We saw the lumberjack show. Yo Ho! Swam, and swam! My little fishy. Saw some family friends. Candy, ice cream, and bake goods! And we hit up Wilderness Walk. They had Wallabies, don't remember these from before! Hayden now knows they hop and will demonstrate if requested!
We've been so busy and having so much fun. I got a blah letter in the mail today telling me i actually have to start working again a week from Friday! I love my job, but i love my baby more! It will be one tough first week!
I have started storing most of my pictures online. There is a link on the side to my albums. These photos that i make public are(should be!) there for your use and printing if wanted. If anyone ever tries to save one and print please let me know! I just want to know if it works! Remember too, COMMENTS are always appreciated i love to know who is reading the blog. If you just click the comment link on the bottom of each post you can leave a comment without a blogger name!
I hope everyone has a great week! Summer is coming a close!

Shopping!

Well the week is almost over! It's been tough. Hayden has been incredibly bipolar this week. Nights have been rough. He wakes up and wants Jason, he needs to know where he is and asks about 3 times before he falls back asleep on Wednesday night he did this 5 times in the night. I had to work at 7! My dad watched him yesterday while i worked the morning shift at the school. Hayden didn't go back to sleep! I felt SO bad. It's rough to get up and watch him in the morning when you are tired because he isn't! I guess he was a stinker for him too. Well after work i had grand plans to spend the afternoon shopping. Old Navy was having an in season sale and i wanted a few things for the Hay. But i did not feel good at all when i was done with work so we came home and took a nap. It was great! 3 hours of afternoon nap! There is not anything better to me i love naps. We did get to go shopping after we brought Brandon to basketball. I got the CUTEST outfit for him. I am going to try and book a photo session with Nicole Marie in this outfit for the spring, i want them outdoors. He looks just like a little model. We also bought new swim trunks and swim shirt. I love the Old Navy Rash Guard shirts Hayden seems to stay warmer while he swims and looks cute! We also went to Target to test drive the new stroller i want. It's super nice! Its taller for Jason and I and it goes to 55 pounds where most other strollers go to 40, so its nice and roomy for Hayden. But the reason i really want it it weighs just under 9 pounds and folds really small for traveling. There is also an accessory pack that includes a travel bag, seat cover, and rain guard. I love it! I just hope Jason likes it. I want him to test it too before i buy it. I found a pretty good deal online w/free shipping. Here's a picture of it:

Well have a great weekend. We can't wait for Jason to get home we miss him ton!
Here is a little message from Hayden: hwwwwghhgggggggggggggggggaaatyyyydenn bddjhjjkjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

All those J's were for Jess, Hayden said.