Handsome and Gretel

It's been a while since I've written...sorry for the blog slacking (is that the technical term??)  I've been wanting to write for a while, but I've had severe case of blog-writers-block!  I'm just going to try and push through it though, thanks to all my supporters out there who have encouraged me (you know who you are!! :) ) Lily is so excited to wear all her new clothes she got from Auntie Heidi...Heidi picked up some amazing deals at the Children's Place outlet in WI Dells and Lily got about 5 new dresses and she changes outfits about 5 times a day so she can wear everything!  This is a picture of her modeling one of her dresses and showing off her artwork. You can see she really loves the dress... Speaking of artwork, while Lily was painting she said "I am an artist just like Auntie Chrissy!"  Watchout Chrissy, there might be some competition coming! :) Anyway, I will try and do better with updating...I promise!  Check back often!!

. . . the boys will miss them TERRIBLY!!! (or "the boys will play". . . both apply) So Greta and Lily headed up to Rochester for a few days and, somehow, Greta trusted me enough to leave Joey in my care (I won't mention how many times she told me to not let him run in the street, not let him go down the big slide at the park (which he did. . . don't tell Greta), or not to leave him in the bathtub when I'm not in the bathroom). Anyhow, Joey ended up surviving the ordeal, and we had a great time. I must first throw a shout-out to Roger (Doc) and my mom ( Amma ) for watching Joey on Monday and Tuesday while I was at work. Joey absolutely loved spending the day with them (and I hope they enjoyed it half as much). I was able to spend some good guy-time with him in the evenings, and we made the most of it. On Monday night we took a nice, long walk, and we ended the evening at the park. Here's a quick picture of him playing with the fire engine, arguably his favorite

Although I have 5 kids under my roof today, somehow I am blogging?!?... I wanted to quick tell about our adventures and post some pictures today just in case Heidi happened to check!  Let me start with this...anyone who knows me knows one main fact about me and my kids...we have MAJOR sleep issues in this house!!!.. I have always looked at the Justus kids and known they are perfect sleepers...Heidi and Eric can take them anywhere and they sleep.  They go to bed somewhere between 7:00-8:00, and it seems for the most part sleep all night.  I have witnessed this anomaly on numerous occassions.  However,...my children do not.  I've always thought it was something in the genes, however after last night I realized kids who are around me don't go to sleep!!!  I started the 'going to bed' process at 7:00....I herded all 5 kids upstairs to get ready for bed (Joey was very resistant because he had just woken up 1/2 hour earlier from a nap!!...) Got the 2 boys down, 1/2 hour later

....she posts old pictures of you! The question is, which one is Greta and which one is Lily? :D    

I found a new favorite blog!...it shows all sorts of fun hairstyles to do for girls and so I had to try some of them out... It's been a lot of fun and Lily loves getting her hair done up in new styles. hairstyle #1 Lily and Adam went out to dinner and then came to my symphony concert on a 'date night' and she was excited to get all dressed up for it and I wanted to do her hair special for the night. hairstyle #2 My mom and I took Lily to Disney Princesses on Ice and I found this hairstyle that is fit for a princess! hairstyle #3 I actually made Lily a few minutes late for school today by trying this hair-do....oops!... Anyway, this actually is a pretty quick hairsyle...The other two styles took quite a bit of time.

Lily and I had so much fun last weekend when we drove to Minnesota to visit Chrissy and Jeff! Lily did a great job on our 4 1/2 hour drive, and we only needed to stop once for a break on the way there and back! We did so many things....I got to see the gallery where Chrissy's artwork will be displayed (I'm so excited for her!!), we got to hang out with Willy and Eddie (may I just mention that Eddie and I are big buddies!!), we went shopping (and of course found a mall park for Lily), and we ate lots of yummy treats (I won't go into the extra 5 pounds I came home with!). I also got Chrissy to work on some crafty stuff with me ;) and Jeff gave us a tour of Mayo Clinic (what an amazing place!). What a great weekend! This is a picture of Chrissy, Lily, and Me at Mayo Clinic. Isn't this amazing? It's a close-up of the blown glass sculpture behind Me and Chrissy in the first picture. I went to an exhibit of this artist (Dale Chihuly) in Milwaukee years ago and have loved