Whew.  It’s a lot of work to get some good looking photos.  Of 31 photos taken at our favorite Portrait Innovations, we only had 3 to choose from.  Josiah was mad as a hornet because he couldn’t ride on a little rocket riding toy that he spied as we started the photos.  3/4 of the photos had his pouty, big bottom lip and teary eyes, and I actually considered choosing one of those photos, since it’s a look that’s very much him 🙂 But we settled on this… still no smile from Josiah, but good enough to hang on my wall.  When did Analise turn into a young lady?  And Josiah was every inch the handsome little man today.   Please excuse the fact that it’s a picture of a picture.  Too lazy to work the scanner, and we only got the $9.95 package so no disc of images.  Oh, and excuse the little glimmer of snot below his nose.  You can really only see it on the big photos 🙂

I just discovered a cool website called Shabby Princess, that is all about digital scrapbooking.  I don’t know anything about digital scrapbooking, ‘cept that I’m a little interested in it.  But on their blog, they’ve got some free kits to put pages together as well as some downloads for monthly computer desktop backgrounds that you can insert your photos in.  Here’s what I created for March:

If you want my cute kids as your desktop background, leave me a comment and I’ll email it to you 🙂  I think it turned out so sweet!!  I might have to try digital scrapbooking!  Or, if you’ve got cute kid pics you want in there, I can do it for you if you send me the pics.  But who would want anyone but my cuties? 🙂 

When it gets too quiet around here, I get worried.  Analise was playing in the hallway, and I’d been taking care of something at the other end of the house.  I went in search of Josiah.  Not in his room, not in Analise’s room, not in my room… but the door to my bathroom was closed, and I heard him chattering in there, bumping against the door.  I tried to open it… it was locked!  AG!

Momentary panic ensued as I rattled hard, begged him to unlock it, shook the door.  Of course, nothing happened.  Josiah started to get a bit upset.  I called Tom, and he told me to find my tiniest screw driver to see if I could get it in the lock to open it.  The first one didn’t fit, and I didn’t have much hope that we had anything else.  And I was not pleased… my bathroom is probably the LEAST clean place in the house.  I clean it about half as often as the other bathroom, so the thought of J in there for an extended period of time was not fun.

But the 2nd screwdriver slipped right in and turned the lock easily.  Whew!  Josiah was pretty distressed by now, but not so happy to get the stern words I had for him and then get swept off to the other bathroom for a thorough cleaning. 

I also now know that we’ve got little "key" on the top of the outer doorjamb in the hallway.  Good to know!

Brian’s second race of the season was yesterday.  It was #2 in the series of 3 training races starting off the season.  Long story short… he’d hoped to launch one of his teammates into the breakaway, but that didn’t pan out very well.  So Brian took off with another guy on his wheel, and the two of them broke away, and Brian won the sprint.  Another win!  Another $25!  Hehe.  Hopefully the good riding will continue and the prize money will get a little better 🙂

Last night was another stormy night, nearly identical to last week.  No tornado sirens, though, thankfully.  But Analise doesn’t like thunder, so she was in and out of our bed several times.  We’ve struggled with her dragging bedtime out, with one request after another, up and down.  Tonight, she was really good, though, only getting out of bed once to tell me something.  Yeah! 

Her teacher told me about this moment from school:
Analise and her friend Laurel got into a little disagreement, and Analise was upset.  She cried a little to Miss Brenda, and told her, "I don’t like Laurel.  I don’t want to sit by her.  I don’t want to be her friend."
Miss Brenda said, "Now, Analise, what does our Bible verse say about that?"
Analise sighed a BIG sigh. "Be kind to one another."
Miss Brenda: "Yes, and is it kind to say that you don’t want to be her friend?"
Another BIG sigh from Analise. "No.  But sometimes my mouth says things that my head doesn’t want to say." 
How true is that, from the mouth of a 3 1/2 year old??

That’s what Analise said early last evening as she struggled to fall asleep.  They were actually very prophetic words.  Brian and I had planned a nice in-house date night with coffee, dessert and Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire on the agenda.  Analise was out of bed several times after her initial 8pm bedtime (half an hour late).  She finally dozed off, and something woke Josiah into a crying fit, of course waking Analise again.  Josiah needed tending to a couple times before we finally settled into the movie without interruptions at 9:45. 

Amazingly, the kids were sleeping soundly when Brian and I were jolted out of bed by the tornado sirens, which are less than a mile from our house.  I’ve always wondered if we’d hear them in the middle of the night.  NO QUESTION about it.  The kids still slept, somehow.  Brian decided to check the TV or computer to see if we needed to head to the basement.  Often, the sirens go off but the storm is in another part of the county.  It was very quiet outside, and the only sign of trouble was crazy lightning in the distance.  I listened to the storm pick up while Brian was checking things out, and about 10 minutes later, the power went off.   Brian came in to tell me that the storm was moving east at 40mph and heading our way in just a little bit.  There was no actual tornado, but something indicative of one on the radar. 

So we gently woke the kids, grabbed some flashlights, blankets and pillows, and made a big sleepy pile just inside the basement area, listening to the worst of the storm blow over us.  The kids were so good, and we stayed for about 20 minutes before heading back to bed.  The power was still out, and the storm was still raging.  I thought Brian’s parents were surely up, due to the sirens, so we called them to see if they had power and could tell us what was going on.  Whoops… they were still sleeping, and they had power and had never heard the sirens.  Tom assured me the worst was over (though I don’t think he got up to check!), and we tucked the kids into bed.  Josiah went right back to sleep, but Analise flopped around in our bed, scared of the thunder.  She finally fell asleep, and Brian took her back to bed, at who-knows-what-time-bc-the-power-was-still-off. 

Early bird Josiah decided it was time for us to get up at 7, and our power finally came back on at 8:15 or so.  Whew- the house dropped to 66 degrees!  We started a fire and heated water for coffee and warmed up our waffles on the stove 🙂  Analise talked about the nighttime adventure all the way to school, and I’m sure all her classmates and Miss Brenda got to hear about the thunder, lightening, ‘nado and the power going off. 

Just catching up with some cuteness. 

A rare moment of playing nicely together.  Maybe there will be more soon…

Josiah sharing a pacifier with Boz the Bear before bed.

Analise creating her Valentine sucker flowers.  She worked so hard!  I cut them out, and she colored a bit, and wrote an "A" on them. 
She pushed the sucker through the flower, and I finished the her name and taped a leaf on the sucker-stem.

My Valentine rose.  Josiah and Brian picked it out. 

I’m on a roll 🙂  Enjoy a few glimpses of our lovely day at the race.  The kids first, because they’re cuter:)

My little monkey was determined to scale the most challenging part of the playground. 
See him in the background of the photo below, too, making his way up.  Crazy boy.

Kim and her daughter, Anna, led Analise down the high, fast, curvy slide.  They all spent the most time here.

Anna wanted to ride with Josiah in our double stroller.  Josiah was busy ringing the bell at the finish. 
Every time any racer would come by (and everyone did 5 laps) the kids would all stop playing and yell, "Go Daddy!"  It was so cute. 

The Tria Market-Two Men & A Truck (fruit jerseys) congregating at the start.  They were quite a presence.

Brian and Mike Olheiser in the break coming around to start the 2nd lap.  The BMC rider is just behind Brian.

Yep, it starts early! Today was Brian’s first early season "race". It’s only a training race, with minimal prize money, and everyone is training through these 3 Sunday races. But it’s still a great test for the legs and gives you a glimpse into who’s ready to dive into the season.

And Brian came out on top! He was in an early break with another elite Alabama rider, Mike Olheiser, who just finished racing the Tour of the Bahamas and the Tour of Belize. He’s also a former 2-time Master’s National Champ and finished 2nd in the Master’s World Time Trial Championships last year. He’s a Big Dog 🙂 There was also a pro from North Carolina who rode for BMC in the break. The three of them worked hard, and it came down to a sprint finish. Brian played things just right and came out on top! What a sweet start to the year! And we’re $25 richer (well, minus the $15 entry fee and the gas… so maybe $5 richer, haha).

Analise, Josiah and I enjoyed a cool spring day on a GREAT playground with the family of one of Brian’s teammates. Their kids are almost exactly the same age as ours, so we had a fun time together. Kim and I are even planning a birthday party for all 4 of them. We may even travel to some races together, which will make juggling the kids much more enjoyable.

Maybe I’ll even come back later with some photos. Hope everyone else has had a lovely weekend!

My kids usually eat Eggo waffles for breakfast (I console myself by buying the Nutrigrain blueberry version, so it’s somewhat healthy).  But we struggle to get breakfast eaten completely before being pulled away by the fun things the day holds. 

So today, Analise was whining that she was hungry at around 10am.  "I"m so hungry, Mommy.  I’m not growing!" she cried.  (Isn’t your heart tugged?  Poor girl.)  I pointed out that half her waffle was still sitting on the plate in the kitchen, and that was the only option. 

"It’s too cold!"  I popped it in the microwave for 10 seconds and handed it to her.  Whoops… too long. 

"It’s too hot!" (Is this reminding you of any fairy tales?)  I told her to wait just a minute and it would be just right.  She found a distraction playing in the den somehow, and the whining ceased, amazingly. 

A couple minutes later, Josiah walked in, munching on her waffle.  Of course, more tears. I just can’t win. 

Brian and I have been looking forward to Valentine’s Day for weeks.  We had decided that we were going to use some gift cards we’d been given to us for Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.  I’ll give you all the extravagant details, though I’m almost embarrased to admit how much we spent.  We’d gotten $150 in gift cards (!!!!).  Of course, at first glance, Brian and I imagined how nice it would be to get 3 nice dinners out.  Ha!  Then we came to our senses and realized that we’d better not hope for that, but we were still planning on 2 dinners.  Well.  Friends of ours were excited to share their wonderful dinner experiences and filled us in on the prices.  We decided we could get 1.5 dinners, without all the trimmings and probably pay something ourselves for the second meal or we could get one really nice meal, no holds barred.  We chose the latter 🙂 

Our waiter was excited that this was our first experience dining there.  He proudly told us that though everything was delicious, we really needed to have steak to appreciate it fully.  That was fine, as Brian had been dreaming of his steak for weeks.  The waiter told us that the beef was in the top 2% in the nation (in what category, I’m not sure…um, like they’ve been through the ACT or SAT ranking system?).  Midwestern, corn-fed, hand cut, aged in house… whatever all that means.  I wasn’t really sure I was going to be able to appreciate such a good steak.  But I shouldn’t have worried… it really was excellent. 

My sister, Anna, will be proud to hear I had a cosmopolitan based on a friend’s recommendation, though I have to say that I should have had a nice simple glass of wine, as the hard liqueur was a bit too strong for me.  Brian and I shared the chopped salad, which was very good.  I had the petite filet and he had the filet, topped with sauteed peppers.  He was so impressed with his.  I enjoyed mine, too.  It was one of the first steaks I’ve ever eaten that I didn’t need A-1 or worchestershire sauce.  Just salt, pepper, butter, and parsley.  Mmm… butter makes everything delicious.  They bring the steaks out on sizzling platters, 500 degrees!  So the steak is still cooking right in front of you.  We shared a baked potato and creamed spinach.  Everything is a la carte, and the steaks were $30 and $35 each.  (The Porterhouse for Two was $80 for 40 oz!)  The sides are huge, though, so we had plenty of food and some to bring home.  Then Brian enjoyed a Cafe Royale coffee liqueur drink, which was very tasty.  And though I loved the steak, our warm apple tart with ice cream and caramel sauce was amazing, beautiful and HUGE. 

So all that, along with the tax and a generous tip took care of our gift card.  It was definitely worth it, though.  Quite a fun and delicious meal.  I’m not one to spend $$$ on food, and there’s no way we would have spent that much on our own.  But the gift card was a real treat and a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day together.