Naptime

So lately Lauren has been really fighting naps (even more so than usual).  So everyday we go through a "little dance."  She tells me shes not tired (even though she was yawning on the way home from school), she asks me to read a book (or two), then she amazingly has to go poo (even though she just sat on the potty going pee for the last 5 minutes) - you get the idea, it is a struggle!  I'm sure some people would just say give up and let her stay awake, but the consequences of doing that (imagine a normal sassy Lauren and increase by 1,000) are terrible so naps are essential.  Anyway, getting back to the issue at hand . . . she talks, makes up excuses, laughs, all the while, I'm getting annoyed (she needs to sleep so I can get some blogging done!).  The past few days, our conversations about naps have changed.  We have gone from me just saying, "lay down and shut your eyes" to her asking, "can I just lay down and rest?"  My response is "yes", but no talking.  She comes back with, "ok, can I keep my eyes open?"  I say, "no, you have to rest your eyes too so they need to be shut."  Lauren responds with, "I'll shut my eyes, but can I still breeve (breathe)?"  Me (with a smile on my face), "yes Lauren, you can still breathe, just keep your eyes shut."  Finally, I fell like I actually won - all I had to let her do is breathe and she'll rest (which always leads to a nap) - not a bad deal!

In other Lauren news, I am seriously contemplating removing all of her clothes from her room.  She is the WORST human ever to get dressed.  I used to give her options, but when that starting taking 15+ minutes to decide what to wear, I started just picking out clothes for her and she went with it (until now that is).  Now, nothing is ever right; everything has to be in layers (because she insists on wearing shorts and skirts in the middle of winter), nothing I ever lay out is the right color, and most importantly, she insists on choosing her outfits based on what she "feels" like that day.  Can you imagine?  I'm her mom, I wear sweatpants, hoodies, and on a "nice" day, maybe jeans.  I could care less what I wear and somehow I was "blessed" with a daughter who can't stand the thought of wearing sweatpants when a jean dress would, "look cuter."  Her outfit dilemmas have led to more than one meltdown in the morning, and because of the meltdown, we've cut it close a few times getting to school so it is officially a PROBLEM!  What do I do?  Maybe start buying clothes that are all the same color (there goes the color problem), remove her clothes (which seems easy, but in reality will be much harder than I think), or just put up with it (and the meltdowns that are sure to follow)?  All I can say is that when she gets older, she can buy her own clothes (assuming they meet my standards), and I'll just stay away from her when she is getting ready - how much longer will that be?

Doctor Lauren

Miss Ellie has been a little under the weather today, but lucky for her, she has a loving (and very smart) big sister who can step right in and make everything better.  Here is a picture of the patient and doctor . . .

Shortly after this picture, Lauren gave Ellie the "green light" to get up and play when she listened to her breathing and declared, "you sound great!"  After 17 hours (yes, Ellie is very capable of sleeping for 17 hours a day) of sleep yesterday, Ellie is once again down for what is so far, a 3 and 1/2 hr nap.  Maybe after the nap, and another good night of sleep, she'll be back to herself.

In other news, I have been busy watching the Lady Jackrabbits of South Dakota State University advance to another championship game at the Summit League Tournament.  Let the March Madness begin!  Tip off tomorrow is 3pm sharp - not sure how that will work with nap time, but we'll figure it out!

Random pictures

I was going through my camera today when I found some random shots so I thought I'd share them with everyone.  First up are a couple of shots of the girls using our new vacuum.  I loved the vacuum the minute I used it, I loved it even more when the girls (who apparently do housework in skirts) wanted to try it out and did a good job of cleaning the floors for me.  Little vacuum, little girls, it is a match made in "Mommy Heaven."

The next picture is the girls having their first sleepover in Ellie's room.  Lauren got the top bed while Ellie opted for the trundle still laying flat on the ground (this proved to be a wise decision around midnight when I heard Ellie take a tumble - at least the floor was only inches away, and not feet!).

And the last one is what happens when a little boy is stuck playing with two very "girly girls" for days on end - eventually he just gives up and joins in on the fun, even if that means putting on a pretty pink skirt!

Spontaneous Saturday

Dentist, hair stylist and "tax person", these are the three people I(we) use who live more than 20 minutes away from us, and for good reason.  A dentist, well what do I really have to say about this one.  Ryan and I tried a dentist in Shakopee and it only took one visit for me to decide that driving to Mankato once (I know it is supposed to be 2 times per year, but I'm a little lax on that still) a year is well worth it to know that someone isn't going to charge me insane amounts of money to "fix" things in my mouth, or worse yet, in my kid's mouths that really aren't broken.  The upside to driving to Mankato for the dentist appointments, we get to hang out with said dentist and his family after the appointment is done - not a bad deal!  The dentist by the way is Brent Olson (I guess I should say, Dr. Brent Olson, but whatever) and he is a good one!  Hair stylist . . . well, I really didn't know what a "hair salon" or a "hair stylist" was until my late (or later) 20's.  Prior to that, a quick trim at Great Clips or any other place for that matter was good enough for me.  Well, it only took one amazing haircut and color to make me change my mind, and wouldn't you know it, that salon and stylist, is also in Mankato (I'm starting to see a trend here).  Since my first cut at Aveda, I have only had two haircuts outside of that place, and it wasn't good.  One looked like a mullet and the other had so many missed strands of insanely long hair all over my head that it got to the point where I actually had Trav take a big chunk and just cut straight across with one of our normal scissors at home.  Sadly, his trim was better than what I had started with - lesson learned.  And then there's the tax lady.  Prior to Trav working at his current company, we had always done our taxes on our own, and it was NOT fun.  We would stress out and read, and stress out some more, and to this day, I'm not completely sure all our of returns are correct - oops.  Well anyway, once Trav decided to start his own company, we were sort of forced into having someone do our taxes because as much as we would like to save a buck, neither of us are qualified in the area of "more than just  a basic tax return."  So after Trav chatted with a co-worker, this guy recommended a lady he used and was happy with, the only problem, the lady worked about an hour away from Shakopee (she better be damn good if I'm driving a full hour).  As it turns out, she is great!  From the first year to this year, she always gets things done quickly, and most importantly, we manage to get ourselves a nice little tax return - well, worth driving an hour for.

So after reading that, you might be wondering where I'm going with this.  Well, it is "tax time" and as usual, I like to get right on things.  So last week, I gathered up all of our tax documents and faxed them to the "tax lady" and one week later, she called to say the returns were ready - time to plan a trip "up north" to sign the returns.  Because the trip is boring and no fun for the kids, I try to plan something fun to do on the way home.  So this year, we packed up the kiddies, signed the returns, then played it by ear.  First up, we had to get something to eat, but then we realized how close we were to Troy's house so we decided to make a surprise visit first, and grab lunch after.  As luck would have it, Troy and EJ were home alone while Nicole was off "learning" so she can make more money.  Troy showed Trav and I all the remodeling that has been going on in his house while the kids played with all of EJ's toys.  After a while we all packed up and headed out for some lunch.  Once lunch was done, we finally got to the fun stuff . . . a trip to the zoo.  The weather was great and we were only a couple miles from the zoo so it was the perfect place to spend the afternoon.  We saw monkeys (EJ slept through this - apparently all that playing finally caught up to him), fish, seals, penguins, lions, tigers, and bears, and too many other animals to name them all!  Here are some pictures from the day.  Most are of the backsides of the kids as they were far too busy watching the animals to actually stop for a second and turn around.

EJ snoozing away

Ellie crouching down low to get a better look at the zebras

The things she says . . .

Lauren has been on a real roll these last couple of days (well, now that I think about it, it's actually been more like the last couple of weeks).  And by "on a roll", I am not referring to anything positive (think lots of naughty things and you pretty know what life have been like around here).  Where to start . . . well, I guess the easiest is to say that she has been super sassy lately (granted she is always sassy, but this is getting ridiculous).  She doesn't listen and has a comeback for everything even before you get your actual words out.  Timeout has become her "second" home and as usual, she doesn't really care.  If she can pick at someone (usually Ellie, and when she gets sick of her, she moves onto Colton), she does.  I'd have to have eyes not only on the back of my head to watch her every move, but a couple extra sets in all the walls as well, the girl is sneaky!  And when she finally does admit that maybe she did something wrong, in order for her to apologize for what she has done, she requests, no more like demands, that you apologize to her as well for making her feel bad (now that is some crazy logic).  And just when I felt like I could take it no longer, it seems like she has snapped out of it.  Today she woke up all bright and shiny, and through school, a play date, lunch, and nap time (which is happening right now), she has been a little saint.  I'm hoping this continues for the next couple of weeks and maybe, just maybe, she'll be her sweet little self that she is, and not that crabby, sass pants that she tries so hard to .  I guess we'll wait and see . . .

And in addition to her naughty behavior, she is also having some "word vomit" issues.  She says whatever she wants, whenever she wants to.  The other day while we were picking up toys downstairs, she says, "I'll play with those later so I'll just leave them on the floor."  I of course was at my wits end and replied with, "well then, I hope Scrappy pees on them because that's what he does to toys that are left on  the ground."  After that, she angrily puts the toys away and we head upstairs.  As we are walking, she mutters in a voice just loud enough for me to hear, "I hope Scrappy pisses on your leg."  So clearly we still need to work on that "piss" word - not good.  Then after dinner she again mutters in her low voice at the table, "God damn it."  Not knowing (okay, I knew exactly what she said, but I was hoping I got it wrong somehow), I ask her what she said, and she replies, "God damn it just like you said."  Now, I will be the first to admit that I have said my fair share of "God damn its", but I swear, on that night, I said no such thing.  She was just in one of her funks, and she was making the most of it.  And in one of her sweeter moments, she told me last night that she, "has a love potion on me."  Not really sure what that meant exactly, I asked her and she said, "you know, like how Barbie has a love potion on Brad."  Well, no I don't know that Barbie has a love potion on Brad, and whatever happened to Ken?  He is Barbie's soul mate.  Anyway, after much discussion, she let me know that not only does she has a love potion on me and Ellie (the three of us are "girl besties" so that is no surprise), but also on Dad and Ryan (but only when they are nice to her), and anyone else who is nice and wants to be her "bestie".  Oh to have to simple logic of a four year old!

Other than Lauren keeping me on my toes, we've been staying busy with the great weather outside.  I've managed to get in about a 45 minute walk everyday with Ellie, Colt, and the dog while the big kids are at school. We've also had Lauren's first preschool play date (her buddy Myles came over for the morning), helped celebrate EJ's 2nd birthday, had a fantastic Valentine's Day (the second portion of my gift - you'll remember the vacuums were my first - was to have the carpets professionally cleaned along with air duct and dryer vent cleaning - talk about romantic!), and have just enjoyed hanging out together (amazing how a little trip to Mexico can clear your mind and make you start to appreciate all the little things again instead of getting annoyed by them).  Overall things are good and my house looks and smells clean as can be - yippee!

Happy Valentine's Day

I'll start by saying that yes, I am fully aware that today is not Valentine's Day, but at the Quast household, it is (and only because I made it that way).  Let's back up a little . . . for those of you who know me (and even better yet, for those of you who know my parents because after all they are the people who taught me the "correct" ways of doing things), you'll know that keeping a clean house is a top priority for me.  Well, as of late, I've been having some trouble keeping things the way I like them, namely, the floors!  I feel like all I do is sweep, swiffer, and vacuum all day, and the floors (carpet, wood, and tile) still look like crap (or possibly just substandard, but you have to remember, I grew up in a house where you could visibly see the vacuum cleaner lines at least twice a week - we call this, "high" standards).  Anyway, back to my problem.  So the floors were crappy, our white socks were looking dingy, and I just wasn't happy so I started to wonder what could be the problem.  The broom was "old-ish", but still worked.  The swiffer was a little beat up, but could still swiffer, and the vacuum still left the "vacuum lines", but didn't really do any actual vacuuming (we're talking no suction power).  That's when I made an executive decision that it was time to update some of my cleaning tools.  With my decision made, I hit up the Internet during nap time and read up on all kinds of upright vacuums and after an exhaustive search, I had two in my sights . . . an Electrolux (didn't even know they made vacuums until a few days ago), and an Eureka (was rated as a "consumer best buy" by consumer reports in 2011).  But, what I didn't expect to find was a sneaky little thing called a "stick vacuum."  I'm guessing there are some people out there reading this and saying, "what century does this girl live in", but I'm telling you, I've never heard of these "stick vacuums" until the Internet, and once I read about them, I was in love!    The description almost seemed like it was written just for me . . . "quick jobs, light and easy to maneuver, hard floors, if you have kids or pets this is a must" - seriously, I've dreamt about a "tool" like this for years, and now here it is, oh my gosh I'm so excited!  So I made a decision last night that now I was not only going to buy a "regular" vacuum, but also a "stick vacuum" so all of my problems would be solved (at this time, Trav doesn't know I purchased not 1, but 2 vacuums, but once he gets home and see the results, he'll be very happy I did - at least I hope he will).  Fast forward to today . . . Ryan and Lauren at school, I can hardly contain my excitement as I pack Ellie and Colton into the van to visit Walmart and make two purchase that will make all my dreams come true - my heart was beating so fast with excitement.  When we got to Walmart, I was bummed to see that the Electrolux (one of my top two picks) wasn't in stock, so left with just one option, I picked up my Eureka (my "regular" vacuum), and moved aisles to scope out my "stick vacuum."  Luckily the one I had read about online was in stock, so I grabbed two (upon telling Aaron and Ann about these this morning, they requested that I pick one up for them as well), and raced out of the store in order to get home and try out my new "toys."  Let's just say I wasn't disappointed!  I used the stick vacuum first on the kitchen floor and entryway and other than being completely disgusted with the amount of dust, food, and other crap on the floors, I was more than impressed with my new best friend.  He (not sure why, but I call it a him), sucked up crap that my old big vacuum couldn't even handle.  The floors (and area rugs too, yes, he can take care of those as well) look amazing!  There are no crumbs, no little balls of dust dancing across the floor, and most importantly, no fine dust (you know, the kind that only shows up when the sun hits the floor just right) at all, it was just clean!  After all that excitement, I wasn't sure I could handle anymore vacuuming, but I had to push through and get the big guy out for a try.  After some simple assembly, I put the "big guy" to work, and again, I was not disappointed!  The carpets look a hundred times better then before, and the big "wow" happened when I vacuumed the living room (which I had just done yesterday with our other vacuum) and almost completely filled the container (once again, I was happy, but also disgusted by the sheer volume of crap was that was in my "clean" carpet).  So there you have it, my "Valentine's Day" gift from Travis is (or will be), my two new vacuums!  I know it's not real romantic, and some might not even consider a vacuum an actual "gift", but I'm happy, and the floors are clean so that is all that matters!

I'll leave with a couple of pictures of the girls from last night.  Lauren wanted to "dress up" to surprise Daddy. And as usual, when Lauren dresses up, Ellie wants in on the action.  Here is what they came up with . . .

And here are a few older pictures I found on my camera.  On this particular day, I decided that it was time to start "time-outs" with both Ellie and Colton.  The main reason . . . they are constantly throwing food on the floor during lunch.  The first picture is when Ellie joined Colton in the corner.  As you can tell, "time-out" was actually fun for them - clearly it didn't work.

And by the end of lunch, Lauren actually decided to join them.  After that day, I came up with two different time-out spots, one for Ellie, and one for Colton.  Since the "new" time-outs, let's just say we've had more tears and less smiles (not sure if that was the end result I was going for either, but I'll take it for now).

Back to reality

So we just got back (ok, not "just", we actually returned home on Wednesday, but I've been too busy getting back into reality to sit down and type) form our trip to Mexico, and let me tell you, adjusting back to reality has been hard!  Our days in Mexico went something like this . . . wake up (I was up by 7am most of the time so I headed down to the beach to do some reading), have breakfast (once Trav got up), meet Brent and Katie at the pool/beach around 10am, have a few morning cocktails, grab some lunch, have some afternoon cocktails while laying by the beach/pool, go to our rooms and shower up for the night, order some room service (chips, guacamole, and salsa were a favorite!), have some early evening cocktails and play cards, go to a late dinner, then bum around the rest of the night until we got bored and headed to bed just to do it all over again the next day, and the next day, and you get the idea - it was heaven!  The resort was gorgeous, the food was great, and the company was even better!  Although the trip was a blast, we were all smiles on Wednesday morning when we had to pack up and head home to see our kiddies (it also helped that it was raining that day which made leaving paradise a little easier).  Here are some pictures of the trip.  The first one is my absolute favorite . . . not every man can pull off a speedo, but with a little liquid confidence and a well planned out idea, Trav was able to "grace" the other beach patrons with his new favorite swim gear . . . enjoy!

And just so everyone out there knows, this whole speedo thing was bought to be a joke for our travel mates, Brent and Katie, and although Trav only broke it out once during the trip, I fully expect to this "navy guy" to make many more appearances at the Loken pool and the Quast family cabin this summer - can't wait!  And here are the rest of the "normal" pictures from the trip.  It was great to get home and see the kids, but just 3 short days later, here I am already missing our Mexico lifestyle . . . until next time, and yes, there will be a next time!