Hockey, Hockey, Hockey & Bird Nerd Alert

My husband loves hockey (Detroit Red Wings are his favorite, hence the shirts) so we went to a Lake Erie Monster's game in Cleveland last night. They are a minor league team so it wasn't too expensive to go. We were in the nose bleed section so I thought Jade might be afraid. My little daredevil thought it was so cool to be up so high and kept wanting to play on the steps ahhh! She actually enjoyed some of the game. I think she really liked the mascot and music. Every time the music played she would shake her booty. Then when it stopped she was like, "more music, more music."

Here is Jade and her daddy dressed like twinkies.

What a ham!

My mom is really into birds and actually lives behind a protected wetland. I like watching the birds out her window and she has this cool feeder that suction cups to the window. She got one for me a couple days ago and I LOVE my new feeder. I got my first rush of birds last night. I was going, "oh, oh look a Cardinal, oh a Chick-a- Dee, Blue jay, Blue jay." So I either need to get out more or I am officially becoming a bird nerd (as my mom calls it). The only bad things is now my hubby has a nice display of bird crap on the back window of his car. Which he likes to park in the street under a tree that all my new winged friends are hanging out in. oops!

Play Date

Jade and I went over to see a friend of mine who nannies for two kids. She has also recently adopted a little girl Ashlyn (domestically) last October. We love hanging out talking about adoption issues and letting the boy she nannies and Jade play. This picture is funny because Jade never used a pacifier. The two babies had one so Jade thought she would try it out.

Here is Ashlyn my friend's daughter. Isn't she precious. I got to feed her a bottle (loved it) and hold her for hours! She is so smiley and sweet!

Here is Jade and Conner on the choo-choo.

Bye Bye Blue, Hello ?

Well our beloved Betta "Blue" kicked the bucket a couple of days ago. He was Jade's first fish. On the night of his passing. I had put him in the toilet yet forgot to flush him right away, oops. When Jade went in to brush her teeth she saw him in their and said, "fishy, fishy." I could tell she wasn't necessarily sad he was there just confused. So I said, " Oh yeah, fishy is going bye bye". And Jade replied matter of factly, "bye, bye fishy". I don't think she quite understood what happened to fishy so I decided to leave it at that. So today we went out to get another Betta. Jade picked him out (along with a snail) and she seems perfectly happy with this new one. No new name though just Fishy and Snail for now.

I think she like the snail the most.

He seems happy in his new home. Better then that cup of water he was in at the store.

Happy Easter!

We had quite the busy day today. We went to church and then off to John's parents for Easter lunch. Jade got one look at her Easter basket and she wanted nothing to do with her regular food. She just kept digging in her basket saying, "money, chocolate". We came home for a few hours before the egg hunt at my parent's house. The minute Jade got up from her nap the first word out of he mouth was, "chocolate". I can't say I blame her.

Here are some pics outside. It was a short shoot because it was 39 degrees.

Jade had so much fun finding eggs at my parent's house. She ran into the end table she was so excited (no worries she didn't even hardly notice she did it). Then she realized the eggs has gifts in them. Can this be more fun! It was so cute, after she opened them she hide them so she could find them again. I can't wait next year it will be her and her brother!

I gave in!

Let me tell you, Grandma + mommy+ Jade + grandson coming + outlet mall = DANGEROUS! My mom is on Spring break this week (she's a teacher), and we had a girl's day out. So what does this usually contain, eating out and shopping. My mom lives about 10 miles from this nice outlet mall. So somehow the car ended up over there so we had to go in. We just went to get Jade a jacket for Spring but they had this really cute diaper bag for $10 (regularly $36) with your purchase of $50 or more so of course we had to take advantage of this deal! I have been just looking and feeling the baby boy clothes in the stores for some time now and something about these in the Carter store made me have to ask the retail clerk how their return policy works. "Well as long as you have the receipt you can bring them back whenever." Okay no brainier let's get my boy some duds (Grandma agreed) and if they are too small I'll just bring em back. I have been so good about not getting him anything but with this policy how can I go wrong! So yes I gave in and Grandma joined me. Don't worry about Jade she got plenty too We went to many other stores as well. I just LOVE little kid's clothes. Why is everything so cute when it's small? Here are the outfits we bought our little man. (Okay Grandma bought.)





I also house sat for my parents for a couple days while they went out of town. Jade and I got to chill in the Jacuzzi tub. We don't have one of these so we enjoyed until we were prune-nee. Jade didn't want to get out.

Who Knew?

Who knew Little Bear was a comedy. Jade is sure enjoying it.
Sorry it is so dark. it is cloudy today.

Aquarium pics

I dont know how to get more pics on one post so here are some more.

Aquarium

Well we made it back to Ohio. I think Jade was slap-happy by the time we got home. The last hour she was grabbing her feet, dancing and making raspberry noises and cracking up. Then she was putting her arm in the air and tickling herself. It was so funny. What a goofy kid, I love it! When we got home she HAD to have a bath so she didn't get to bed till 11:00. Oh well you don't get to go to the Chicago Aquarium everyday. The aquarium was fun. They have this reef area where the entire room was made out of fake coral intertwined with large reef tanks. My favorite was the large shark tank. If you stood really close to it and looked up it was as if you were in there while the sharks swam over you. Jade loved the lizards (of all things) and the penguins. It was nice weather too. Blue skies and high 50's. I'm so ready for Spring!

Chicago's Chinatown

Well I survived the night only being kicked a few times. I don't think I would have been at all except at about 3 am I rolled over and the bed was wet. You know what that means, the easy up leaked . So I had to lift Jade up to put a towel and different sheet under us. It was hard for her to get back to sleep without moving all over and kicking her feet. So I ended up at the foot of the bed. My husband got a kick, no pun intended, out of seeing me all scrunched up at the end of the bed this morning. After John got back from school we made it over to Chinatown. I have to admit it is a lot cooler than ours at home. I felt like I was back in China, except everything in China is cheaper. I love Asian architecture and art. Jade had so much fun being in the stroller outside since we haven't been out at all lately. She kept telling us where to go. She kept saying, "This way, this way." and pointing where to go. Here are a few pics. Tomorrow we will visit the aquarium and then it's back to Ohio.

Year of the Rooster!

Had to represent for my boy.

Yum, Pho!!

Chicago

Well we made it here. Jade was really great in the car. I think the portable DVD player helped a lot. We also made it before rush hour! If you have ever been here during it this is a big deal. John has school for work tomorrow so Jade and I will be stuck in the hotel most of the day. I could go to the strip mall across the street but John said, " Have fun getting across that street holding a 30 pound toddler!" Of course I forgot the stroller. Every time I go on a trip I ALWAYS forget something. This time it was the stroller, shampoo for Jade and wipes. I almost bought one at Target but I just couldn't bring myself to do it since we have 3 at home. I always keep one in the van but we brought a company car. If we go shopping at the big mall I'll rent one and Purell every square inch (I'm a bit of a germ-a- phoebe and it doesn't help that Jade has been in the hospital twice with an allergic reaction to a virus and a staph infection she needed surgery for). I hope we can make it over to Chinatown too. The one here is a lot larger than the one we have in Cleveland.

Downtown: Sears Tower

Jade has been doing better at saying, "Cheese" when we point the camera in her directions. Here she was taking a drink of milk just I turned around to take a picture. NICE! If you can click on this to enlarge it really shows the milk action through the teeth.



Oh yeah baby, some Hi Ho Cherry-O. (We play our own version for now)



Then we swam in the pool. John was coming up behind us so Jade was screaming her head off.
So we got the camera to get a little video. She didn't scream quite as loud but it is so funny! You might want to make sure your volume isn't too high.



Chill'n poolside baby!


Well I'm off to bed. The hotel couldn't put a crib in our room because of the two beds (this was all they had available) so I'm bunking with my girl tonight. I'm sure I'll be mule kicked all night long. (I better sleep with a pillow over my head, hehe).

Continued Weather Report

Well since I have been talking about the weather so much, why not continue it. Except this is about the tornado that blew through our house (actually it has been tornado season lately). This is Tornado Jade. She loves to get ALL her toys out at once and when you have both Grandparents living within a 15 mile radius you get quite the loot.



I got Jade to "help" me pick them up but told her we were going bye, bye to Grandmas to get her motivated to go a little faster. She usually puts about 5 toys away to my 105 (hehe). As you can see she is pretty proud of herself. What is that blue thing under the couch? I bet there is a whole box of toys under there.




Then we went over to my parents house (yeah I wish this was my house in the picture) so they can watch our two pups for our trip. Check out the snowman my brother made with his friend. They are like 6 feet! (by the way single ladies my bro is single and he cooks!!) Jade and I are going to Chicago with daddy for his work. We went once before but this time our hotel will have a pool. They also have a PF Chang's (which is good eatin if you ever have the chance to eat at one) We don't have one here so we will be eating there tomorrow night. This is one of the reasons I want to go (pretty sad how motivated I am by food, hehe). Just say a little prayer for us that Jade doesn't go stir crazy in the car for 8 hours. Oh yeah and that we don't hit Chicago rush hour (it's INSANE).

Hello Blizzard!!

No you have not just tuned into the Weather Channel. Yes, this is China + Vietnam = Love and yes this is what it looks like outside. Remember my post before last when I mentioned that I hope this is the end of the heavy stuff. Well, I must have jinxed us because we are now having a MAJOR snow storm. It started yesterday mid morning and is suppose to go till tomorrow morning. We have gotten 17 inches so far. and should have 20 when it is all said and done. Yes, I live near Cleveland and yes I am use to snow but wow this is a lot. Here is the funny thing. Some friends and I had a baby shower for my friend Jeanine (that we have been working on for weeks). It was this morning at 10:00. We thought about cancelling it but what we were going to call all 300 members of the church! so yes at 7:00 this morning off I went along with another friend of mine to set up at the church. Boy was this an adventure! I got stuck in the drive so hubby had to dig me out. It took me forever to get there. My friend Susan was there to help me set up and she was looking shocked. She was cracking me up because she said," I was so scared. I was like praying the whole time (hands on the wheel at 10 and 2) sitting as close to the windshield as possible because my wipers kept freezing." The shower went well and a few did show up. I'm glad the mommy to be has four wheel drive and a helpful hubby.I bet this will be going in her baby book. But no the adventure doesn't stop there because we have to go back home. Half way home it was really coming down, I mean white out! When I got to my street, I got stuck in the middle of the road. My husband (who was shoveling the drive for the fourth time) saw me and came over to help. He could not get the van up the drive so he had to shovel the STREET too so he could pull it in. Now he is asleep (I think he has shoveled more today then in his whole life). So I am not going to say I hope this is the end of the heavy stuff (because then what, we will get 4 feet)hehe. So any of my southern readers please send some WARM weather our way!

Heat Wave!

Okay not exactly a heat wave but it sure felt like it after the last few months of cold and snow. It was 60 degrees yesterday and sunny (which is exciting because we don't see the sun much here). Jade and I were so excited. We even busted out the sidewalk chalk and tricycle. Jade is getting much better at using her tricycle but she still doesn't have the peddle and steer at the same time thing down yet. She kept peddling into the neighbor's yard. We made it about half way around the block (10 minutes later). Well that joy didn't last long we are back to 30 degrees and sleet. Oh well I'll take one day of 60 degrees over none at all.













Okay, remember those blocks/legos my husband got. Well these eyes came with them. My man is just so weird creative (hehe).