Aquarium & Zoo

On Thursday we met our friends Holly and Clark down at the Houston Aquarium for lunch. We ate fish tacos in the restaurant surrounded by fish swimming around us. Addie thought it was so much fun that we decided not to bother paying for the exhibit afterward - she thought she'd already seen what we came to see. There is a lot to do at the Aquarium, so we will definitely be going back. Here are the kiddos in their strollers:



Then on Saturday we met Serena, Dave, and Maggie at the Zoo. It was 45 degrees and very windy. Despite the sunshine, we were all pretty chilly and wimpy, so we didn't last long! I did capture a few pictures though.

Here are the chilly kiddos:


Serena was such a good aunt to brush the nasty hairy goats with Addie. I stayed on the other side of the fence fighting the nose itching. I'm not a fan of animals and their smells. Thank goodness for Serena! :)

Family Ties

Cousins from Julie Berg on Vimeo.

S.M.R.T.

I set up my comments for approval before posting so that I could get email addresses from people before they were publicly posted in comments, only I thought they would be emailed to me. Sooo, just today I figured out that they were sitting in my dashboard waiting for attention. 46 of them.

S.M.R.T.

Crazy Good Food

Two of my sisters-in-law and I decided that we wanted to eat lunch at Pei Wei today. We must have wanted it bad because we were willing to do it with six children. Ages were 4, 3 1/2, 2 1/2, 1 1/2, 9 months, and 5 months. Let's just say, we got there at 12:40 and could not believe it was 2 o'clock when we finally got into the car. I ate most of my lunch after we got home from a to-go container. Oh well. it was good pad thai.



Addie is loving playing with her cousins. It's really fun to hear them talking back and forth now. They're even cute when they are up to something they shouldn't be doing. This morning it was really hard to lay down the law when Emma and Addie were having so much fun rolling Nana's "display" fruit down the stairs and laughing hysterically. Silly girls.

Nine Months Old!

Biker Girl

Addie was very excited when Anthony bought her a bike this past fall, but quickly decided she didn't like it when she realized we weren't just going to push her around on it forever. This month she tried it again and after many failed attempts at getting mom to push her, she learned how to pedal. Now all she ever wants to do is ride her bicycle. She doesn't say bike. Bicycle.

Here's a little clip of her skills:


Biker Girl from Julie Berg on Vimeo.

Fashion Backward

I realize I am not the most fashion forward person out there these days. The shoes I spend most of my time in are my Brooks Adrenaline running shoes that I simply repurchase every six months in a slightly different color. However, yesterday while I was splurging on yet another pair of black high heels and some preppy navy ballet slippers, I asked the sales lady what the hot shoe trend was this season. Silly me for asking. She pointed to these:



And these:



Well, I will definitely NOT be a hot momma this spring. I think I would cause injury to myself or others in the second pair. Maybe some of my friends out there can pull this off, but it's just not in my repertoire. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed for running shoes, ballet flats and classic heels to return to center stage.

As Promised - Christmas "Rapper" Photos

See this post for explanation! My friend Jamie just posted these on Facebook today. Facebook is cooooool.

Seven Years

Married for 7 years
6 anniversaries spent apart
owned 5 cars
lived in 4 places
3 foreign vacations
blessed with 2 children
had (past tense) 1 dog

Just for fun, I dug up this picture of us the night we got engaged. The expression on Anthony's face was priceless.

The below picture captured the other 50% of emotions he was feeling that night (I hope).

We celebrated on Friday night by going out to a restaurant called Christopher's. There is a Christopher's restaurant here that is oddly very similar to the Christopher's that we went to the night we became engaged in College Station, Texas. We both remembered the one in College Station being better than the one here. Maybe we were just looking through rose colored glasses?

Privatization

No, I'm not talking about Social Security. This blog is going private in a few weeks. I've toyed with the idea for a while. My blog is set up so that the only way to get to it is by actually typing in the address or clicking on a link. I was fairly content with that form of privacy because it's allowed me to be "found" by so many friends just by clicking through from mutual friend blogs. I thought I'd put things to the test this weekend and see if I was really ducking all of the search engines out there and I failed the test.

FYI, not everyone will fail such a test. My blog specifically shows up on many "lists" out there because of the wide variety of topics I choose. Celebrity names, politicians (aren't those two same these days?), YouTube video, and other various random topics I cover have flagged my blog. It may be impossible for me to actually stick to simply talking about the exciting day to day routine of our life and I've already done the damage with my other posts. I've avoided going private because then it won't work with various readers (to my knowledge/experience - if anyone knows how, please tell me!)

So...I hope this will not lose my audience. Blogging is really fun for me as a stay at home mom. I love getting feedback. It's almost like conversation. :)

I've changed my comments setting so that all comments will be emailed to me prior to being posted here, so please send me your email address if you think I don't have it so that I can send you an invite. I'll just delete the comment so your address is not listed for all. If you are a friendly blog stalker who loves the unpredictability of my topics (holidays, potty training, politics, religion, etc.) just send me your email anyway! I hope I will hear from all of you!

Snow Day

A storm came through on Sunday night and turned our nice green lawn into a winter wonderland. The upside was that, unlike Iowa where it's cloudy and 10 degrees on such days, it was sunny and 30 degrees so we could actually go outside and play in it! So fun. The downside...our neighborhood has issues with anything that reaches the magnitude of storm. Not major storm. Not national disaster. Just regular storm. So at 2 a.m. I woke up to the power going out. It was 13 that night...not so great. So, before the fun in the snow began we had spent most of the morning huddled up reading books and playing in my bed to try to stay warm. Luckily, right as Addie and I were heading outside to clean off the car so we could leave our chilly home, the power came back on and all was well. Yay.

When we first went outside, Addie just walked around in the snow saying "This is tricky Mommy!" It was cute in her little voice...but I didn't catch it well on camera. Once she was used to the snow, she self entertained with a rice paddle and a baggie. The girl loves to fill things, empty them, and refill. Maybe we should have a yard full of sand!

We had a blast playing. We definitely overdressed though...I guess our Iowa winter gear is a little much for North Carolina. The snowman is still standing, but his face has melted off. Two whole days isn't bad for the south.




Snow! from Julie Berg on Vimeo.

Fancy Nancy Cupcake Party

For all you wanna be Super Moms out there (I'll admit, I wouldn't mind being one) here is a really cool way to throw your three year old daughter a birthday party. One of Addie's friends from church just turned three and her mother threw her a Fancy Nancy Cupcake Party. It was so cute.

When we got there, Addie had her own apron and chef's hat to put on. Then she joined the other girls who were decorating cupcakes. After singing "Happy Birthday" and happily devouring their "fancy" cupcakes, they made beaded necklaces (BIG beads...3 year olds here.) After that, they had a dress up relay. Oh yes. Super cute. There were two teams of little girls that had to race back and forth to baskets full of dress up clothes. The team that got everyone in their fancy dress up shoes, tutu skirt, and purse won. Then they all sat down while the hostess read Fancy Nancy.



The birthday girl opened her presents and then the party started to break up, but it was so much fun. She was sent home with a party favor bag (matching the apron, of course!) that contained a bracelet and a ring pop. Addie has been singing "Happy Birthday" ever since (this was last weekend) and at least once a day she asks me if we're going to have a birthday party for her. Maybe we'll be moved by then...somewhere...maybe she'll have friends by then...hmmm. Pressure.

Oh, and on the picture...that's the face I get when I say "smile" right now. Ugggh. Oh well...I guess it could be a frown or looking away which we've done plenty of.