Fashionably Late

Evie is over a year late to the Frozen party.  But don't worry, she is quickly making up for lost time.

Evie's best friend, Emily, has been obsessed with Frozen since close to the beginning.  Evie did not jump on board until recently.  Maybe it is the fact that Emily has just about everything Frozen themed at this point and comes over in full Frozen paraphernalia.

Whatever the reason, I am so thankful her new found love of Frozen happened right before we needed to make a 9 hour drive to Ohio for Grandma's funeral.  Jason might know every word of that movie now thanks to Liz allowing us to borrow her DVD players.  Whatever causes less screaming and crying while you are trapped in a van for 18 hours in a weekend, right?  :)

In addition to watching Frozen three times, I picked up a read-along Frozen book at the library.  Evie must have listened and flipped through that book six times.  It's just as fun to listen to it at home too!

oh gez, who put Braylen in charge of the CD player?
That's a fight ready to explode

Bless his sweet heart; Braylen has endured hours of Frozen watching,
Evie "reading" to him, and Evie's renditions of "Let it Go!"

A mom in my MOPS group found those Frozen t-shirts for $0.16.  I challenge you Mema to find a better deal than that!  It's Evie's only piece of Frozen themed clothes; she wants to wear it every time it is clean.  And luckily we have a cape to be like Elsa

And don't forget the side braid like Elsa's

I know all of this is totally last year to 99.9% of parents.  It is a side of Evie we have never seen; an obsession with a Disney movie.  The benefit of not having Frozen fever until now is all Frozen gear is available and hopefully cheaper :)  I expect a lot of Frozen stuff coming her way come May 24th.

Not her best performance, but something to make the grandparents chuckle.

Cousins

When Jason and I started dating, we had 6 living grandparents between us.  That's pretty amazing.  As they kept living longer and longer, we knew a time would come when we would attend multiple funerals in a year.  It's starting to happen...

Jason's paternal grandmother passed this week at the impressive age of 96.  Unfortunately Grandma suffered from dementia the last decade so I know very little about her and I met/saw her twice.  I stayed at her house in Dayton, OH as Jason and I took a road trip to Indiana to see his mom's family; her house had some retro 70's shag carpet upstairs.  The other memory I have of her is seeing her a year or two later with Jason's cousin, Ann Marie, and her young son, Jack.  And since Jason doesn't remember anything from the first 15 years of his life, I got nothing else.  (I am slightly kidding... relax)

Virginia "Jean" Hollencamp is the other grandmother that our Evie is named after.  I don't think she even understood that we did that.  It's interesting that the two grandmothers died within 6 months of each other.

Sadly, we do not see Jason's Hollencamp aunts, uncles, and cousins as much as I think we should.  Most of them live in Illinois and Ohio, so it makes it difficult to get together for holidays.  After visiting with his cousins and their kids, I am determined to make more of an effort to get together with them before another decade passes!

Just look at this 2nd cousin cuteness:

2nd Cousins!
Braylen~Heidi~Jack~Grace~Luke~Evie

I have heard many stories about Jason and Jen's cousin Ann Marie.  In fact, I was just looking through a photo album Jen created as a tween a few weeks ago at Mema's house that had thinking and talking bubbles inspired by Ann Marie.  It was clear in the pictures of the Hollencamp cousins from the 90's that Jen adored Ann Marie and Jason liked his "cool" cousin Daniel.  

Hollencamp cousins
Jason~Daniel~Rich~Bobby~Jen~Ann Marie

It doesn't surprise me that Ann Marie has two kids just as outgoing and sweet as her.  Grace and Jack were a huge blessing to us; they were eager to play with our kids as soon as they saw them.  This was the first time Evie and Braylen met the Hollencamp family.  They quickly warmed up and loved their new "friends"

Evie and Grace played some kind of game with
the goldfish.  Evie had Grace wrapped around her
little fingers in no time.

Fast friends

Jack encouraged Luke and Braylen to tackle him.  Ann Marie
already told us Jack can fly by himself.  How soon can he come?!

Look at that love for his little cousins

Jack will be 12 years old this month.  Yeah, he was probably younger than Braylen the last time I saw him.  I wasn't kidding that it has been a decade!

sweet blonds

We were sad to say good-bye to Grace and Jack.   A visit to Chicago is definitely going to happen in the next year or two.  Hooray for cousins!

Going in for a good-bye kiss xx

RIP Virginia S. Hollencamp (Sept 22, 1918 - March 6, 2015)

Nighttime Visitor(s)

Evie has never come out of her bed in the middle of the night.  Never.  It has been a pretty amazing 3.5 year ride.  The tot clock has kept that girl in her bed.  I am not saying she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night and call for us; she does cry or scream for us occasionally.  She might be a little harder to get to sleep, but she is an excellent rule follower about not getting out of her bed.

Braylen, on the other hand, has been our nighttime visitor.  Most nights he will sleep soundly through the night; the first we hear from him is when he not-so-quietly opens his door when his clock turns yellow.  (We have door handles instead of knobs.  Worst and best thing with kids).  Because we could distinctly hear the door handle bounce back up, we were woken up before he made it to our room.  Usually we could intercept him in the hallway and get him back down with ease.

Now we must be sleeping sounder or he has figured out how to quietly exit his room because I am now awaken by stuffed animals and a blanket being tossed into my bed.  Almost all of this stuff comes out with him

A bed full of "lovies"

It reminds me of my childhood of creeping into the hallway with my animals and blanket.  I silently waited for my mom to wake up and snuggle me.  That rarely worked so I then stood at her bedside hoping my presence would wake her.  I think there were some jumps and frights those nights.

Braylen hasn't scared me yet; I am sure that is coming.  It's kind of cute that he brings everything with him.  One time he even made two trips out of his room to get every last thing out of his bed.  Jason and I do not share our bed with our kids; we already share it with Parker for 5 minutes upon going to bed and that is way too long.  We don't want to create bad habits, in our opinion.  With that said, there are some nights when I am just so tired that I give in and let him snuggle with me.  It's like I am college student child again snuggling with stuffed animals.

And in case you were wondering, yes, there is room for Braylen with all those animals.  He sleeps perpendicular in his toddler bed with all of them snuggled around him.

Parental Fun and Games

Confession time:  My attention span to play with babies on the floor is limited.  I can think of a million things I would rather be doing around the house than sit there, jiggling a toy.  I should love sitting on the floor playing with my toddlers, but frankly, I don't; they mess up every train track I build, tear down the fort in .2 seconds, and throw puzzles pieces all over the room.  Yes, I know that is what toddlers do, blah, blah.  My life consists on EVERY activity and thought being interrupted and messed up.   It's exhausting doing that all. day. long. every day.

The beauty of being a parent, though, is that give is a few weeks, months, or years and everything changes.  My kids are moving into the next stage of toys, ones that are equally enjoyable for them and us!  I am excited about this season where the kids want to play with us and I want to play with them. 

Daddio is a great playmate.  He is much better about sitting on the floor for a long period of time playing with them.  He is creative, fun, yet orderly.  There is a reason kids should have a mom and a dad.  Dads offer something moms, or at least this mom, are not as strong at doing.  I also like seeing a side of Jason I don't normally see.  Jason can build a well engineered Lego tower, transform a car seat box into a car, and make the kids giggle for 30 minutes playing "tackle".  

Daddio loves to build with the Legos.   They are his go-to toy since we got them for Christmas.  There are many times I will find the kids somewhere else in the house while Daddio is alone in the family room building a structure with every Lego we own.  I envision lots of building in our future!

While I was out Friday night, Jason was busy painting 

Two windows and a sunroof

Room for two drivers.  Braylen is the back seat driver :)

Most nights this is what I hear while I am picking out outfits for the next day.

I, on the other hand, am enjoying the time spent putting together jigsaw puzzles and playing card games.  Braylen is asking for the box of jigsaw puzzles now.  While Braylen naps, Evie and I play Go Fish.

Go Fish!

Yesterday we played Old Maid (minus the Old Maid) for the first time with Daddio.  Evie did a great job holding her fan of cards.  She had the most matches in both games we played!

Braylen is antsy to throw the ball all over the house.  He loves to throw, kick, and chase a "bouncy ball" around the gym when we go to open gym.  Bring on the warm weather so we can play ball outside!  Daddio's next task will be teaching some soccer and catching skills :)

Overachiever

That was the word my favorite meteorologist used about today's snow storm.  I hear anywhere from 1-8 inches going into today.  When all was said and done, I think we got around 9 inches of snow.  This storm definitely overachieved!

After a fun morning at Port Discovery and a slow drive home in the snow, we hunkered down for the afternoon and night.   It was still coming down after Braylen's nap and with the forecast of freezing rain moving in later, we grabbed the snow gear and went out sledding.

Since it was still snowing, Daddio brought out his ski goggles.  Of course the kids asked for goggles too.  So I put on the only ones I could find....

There is nothing flattering about goggles.  Chemistry, pool, or ski...
all look silly and leave unsightly lines

Of course the Smith's were over for some sledding

A little help from the girls

Then this all happened 2 minutes later

So we said good-bye to our hill and went to the safer, less steep hill in the gazebo area.  Our kids had a blast going down the hill, even making it to the street.  No cars were coming or going at that time since we hadn't seen a plow yet, so it was a perfect time to sled without worries.  The kids giggled and smiled for a long time.  Braylen eventually face planted in the snow and that put an end to his sledding.  It was a super fun family afternoon of sledding.  I think we are getting close to taking them snow tubing and having Robb teach them how to ski :)

The kids wore their snow gear multiple times and went sledding.  It can be spring now.  We are ready for our afternoon/evening walks around the 'hood and playground visits!  

(The blog says Jason wrote this.  It's really Marisa.  I use Jason's youtube account and forgot to switch back to me)

Great Nana

The mind of a three-year-old fascinates me.  I assume Evie isn't listening to me (since she tends to ignore my requests 75% of the day), yet a few days later, something I mentioned will come back up.  I have been pleasantly surprised that "Great Nana" comes up at least 2-3 times a week recently.  Driving home from preschool she will randomly say she "misses Great Nana" or that she "likes Great Nana".

My immediate family knows that Evie did not warm up to Great Nana quickly, if at all during our visits with her.  Most of the time Evie cried and clung to us.  I think these might be the only two pictures I have of Great Nana holding Evie because after 7 months, she only wanted us

6 weeks

7 months

Evie did not attend Great Nana's funeral, nor was she there when my dad gave me the sad news of her passing; however, Evie heard enough prayers in the days between her stroke and death to know that I was very sad about Great Nana getting old.  When I would cry about my ailing grandmother, Evie asked why I was sad to which I told her I was sad to lose a very special lady in my life.

I have talked to Evie about Great Nana living in Heaven now with God and we can't visit her like she requests.  I am using her questions about how we can see Great Nana again as a teachable moment about Jesus and eternal life.   Her little sponge brain can soak it all in.  She told me last night that Great Nana, God, and Jesus are all in Heaven together.  That was after she commented about Great Nana taking a rocket to Heaven.  (She saw Pete the Cat in Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star take a rocket to a star).

Every time Evie mentions Great Nana, I am filled with so much joy.  Shockingly, I don't tear up over missing her, instead I am excited about passing on stories about her to Evie.  Last night after her rocket comment, I asked if she wanted a story about Great Nana after I said prayers.  Her eyes were wide open as she listened to me talk about her.  Tonight as I tucked her in, she asked for "prayers, a Great Nana story, songs, and snuggles".

I feel like I hear the most about my deceased family members when we are together at someones funeral.  I don't want Evie (or Braylen) to have to wait until someone dies to hear about my childhood with my Stefany grandparents.  I love that Evie is requesting stories and can see how I did a lot of the same things as a kid that she is doing with G and Poppop.

Now that I am a mom, I can appreciate exponential more what Nana did for our family.  She hosted every single holiday for her brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, in-laws, out-laws, grandchildren while never looking flustered.  I never heard Nana raise her voice except when she was trying to get her husband's attention "YO MIKE!"  She cooked with real butter and lived to see her 90s.  She is the super mom we all strive to be.  Gosh, I could blog about her all the time; she was just so amazing.

May 2013
May we always love our family like Nana loved us.

My Sous Chef

Evie has lost interest in taking an afternoon nap, but has gained interest in being my sous chef.  It has taken me this long to allow her to cook with me.  Selfishly, of course.  I didn't want the extra mess and frankly, I have very little patience come dinner time.

While Braylen naps, we do some dinner prep together.  Evie insists on washing the dishes left behind from various meals over the last 24 hours.  Score!  I am happy to see more water is staying in the sink area than on her clothes now.  Evie's main jobs are to add ingredients, stir, and push buttons.  When dinner time rolls around, we put Braylen in front of a TV show and finish our meal, or start it.  I like that we have our special time together.  My hope is Evie will be more willing to try her dinner if she helped prepare it.

Tonight Evie was so cute in her apron; she was really into making beef strogonoff.

All good chefs wear an apron and pull their hair back

mixing the beef and onions
Last time she mixed onions, she teared up.  She was proud of
herself for not crying this time :)

Adding mushrooms

Mid mixing, I noticed a familiar head position

Oh yeah, Evie got a call on her phone (chocolate bar)

chatting while making dinner

a true multi-tasker

And yes, we did make those Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies for dessert :)