A staycation and a birthday girl.

Its been weeks since my last blog entry. I don't even have a good excuse for my absence, life has been busy. But not nearly as busy as Greta is. Oh my goodness, I don't remember Sully ever being as busy as she is. She is nonstop. She looks here and there, climbs this and that while antagonizing Sully, who usually gets the blame for it. She is sweet and smiley, but gosh does she keep me on my toes.

Sully is his mild mannered self. He is the sweetest little boy who definitely pushes the limits. I can't believe he will be three in two months, and...he has mastered potty training! We are so proud of him. He is in undies full time except during his nap and at bedtime. This was honestly not part of my plan, I originally thought we would do it this summer, after he was three. Apparently he showed me who was in charge ;).

Dave was on vacation this last week and we spent it mostly in Sioux Falls, although the two of us were able to get away to Minneapolis for one night. We had originally planned to look at some things for the house project, but those things fell through. We went anyway and had dinner with Leanne and her family. It was great to see them. The kids had a great time back home with Courtney. Otherwise we took it easy, Dave had his share of Mr. Mom duties and is ready to get back to work tomorrow.

Yesterday was my 35th birthday (and was also week 4 of 10 in my parents' house). We had a very mellow day which included a trip to the fitness center, naps, and take out. It was perfect. We had brunch with Dave's family this morning and will celebrate with my family when Maggie and her family gets back to town (next week).

All in all, life is good. Enjoy some photos below.

Sully and Greta before church.

Peek-a-boo with Greta. 

Breakfast smile. 

Park fun with Sully.
The park matches his coat and mittens :).

Puddle jumping. 

Ice cream with the Oliver kids. 

Farris Wheel ride at Scheels. 

Cozy Kenzie. 

New robot jammies.
Sully says "I LOVE them mommy!".

Greta's 15 month check up and Valentine's Day.

Greta and I went to see Dr Sam last week and are happy to report a really great check up. She had a slightly low hemoglobin at her last appointment so we had been giving her a multivitamin with her bottle once per day. She had a repeat level drawn and had great results, which meant no more bottle. She actually transitioned very well, so we packed up the bottles and took them back to the house. One less thing to worry about. She is the happiest girl. She smiles all of the time. She has mastered "thank you" which is the sweetest thing I've ever heard. She loves to snuggle before bed, but loves having Sully as a roommate even more. They are quite the sibling duo. Greta's stats are as follows: Height: 30 inches (31 percentile), Weight: 19lbs 11oz (7 percentile), and Head Circumference 18.25 inches (66 percentile).

Valentine's Day was quiet. Dave was post call, so we stayed pretty close to home. We had dinner with some friends and their two small kids, needless to say, it was wild, but fun. Dave and Sully surprised Greta and I with balloons and flowers. We have such great men in our lives :).

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Day trip to the Children's Museum

Maggie and I took the kids to the Children's Museum on Friday. Dave was on call so when Maggie suggested it, I knew it would be a good way to break up the day. We hit the road by 9:30 and arrived in Brookings at 10:30. The kids had a blast. Sully was content chasing after Isaac and Anna while Greta would rather stick by my side. Maggie and I checked in with one another as we kept an eye on one or all kids. It was definitely a tag team approach. We had lunch, played some more before having a snack, and then hit the road. We arrived back in Sioux Falls at about 3:30. The kids were tired and happy. I am proud to say Sully even had a dry pull up all day. We had several potty breaks, which obviously did the trick.

Thanks for the invite, Olivers! We are already looking forward to the next trip. xoxoxo

The minivan selfie.

Greta girl picking carrots. 

Sully shooting hoops, he could do this all day.

Sully dressed as a cowboy while Native American dancing. 

Admiring the dino. 

Waitress Anna taking orders at the Ice Cream Parlor.

Live size light bright. 

Group photo. 

Maggie and her kiddos. 

Sully, Greta and I. We are pushing nap time ;).  

Greta is in heaven. 

Better than heaven with Isaac. 

Settling in at #25.

Construction got real, real enough to kick us out. My blood pressure goes up just thinking about the days leading up to last weekend. The packing, sorting, tossing, organizing, etc. that was required to temporarily get us out of there. We had initially planned to spend the bulk of our time at a rental house, unfortunately that fell through last minute, which was a major bummer and inconvenience. Fortunately, my parents are really great and accommodating. So, we moved back in to the house I grew up in. I am sleeping my childhood bedroom and showering in the shower I used through high school. Its actually quite humorous. The kids are sharing the master bedroom, each in their own pack and play, they are taking tubbies in the bath tub I grew up using, with the same drain that I sliced my eyebrow open on. I ended up in ER and came out of there with a butterfly bandage, which was exciting to me as a three year old. We are gradually feeling more at home here. The kids are having a blast and love to jump on Grandpa Paul's bed. As of today, we are one week down, 9 more to go. My mom returns on Wednesday, so that should be fun (for her ;)).

I have been by the house 1-2 times each day to check on progress, and it is incredible. Dave, however, just told me he is no longer interested in seeing the progress. His sentimentality is in full force. The upstairs two bathrooms are completely gutted and the fourth bedroom (which will become a master closet and bathroom) is also down to the studs. They started in on the kitchen and den on Friday. They will open up the sunroom, living room, and kitchen walls this week. I am excited to feel the openness. Making decisions and picking out finishings has started to feel like a full time job. I am happy to say that according to Lyn, the woman helping me, we are more than 50% done, which feels great.

Just when I thought my plate was full, Sully started giving very obvious potty training signs, so we are adding that to the mix. He has been doing so great. Today is day 6 and every day gets a little bit easier. I cancelled one of my diaper subscriptions, boy was that exhilarating! Yay Sully!

The newest Foreman on the job. 

Maggie comes to help me move. 

Story time in Grandpa Paul's bed.  

Tubby time at Grandma and Grandpa Banana's.

A Butterfly House outing. Mom, keep that thing away from us. 

Rocking the big boy undies.  

Snowman fun. 

Munce household happenings.

Life around here has been busy! After our trip away, the kids and I got back into the swing of things with our weekly routine, and Dave is back to work. Routine is so good. We have also started to pack up the house in anticipation of our 2-3 month move while the house is under construction. Unfortunately our original rental house arrangement fell through which left us scrambling to find an alternative plan. Lucky for us, my parents are willing and ready for us to move in (my dad is gone to California for most of it while my mom will come and go). We are anticipating a smooth transition and hope things move along here while we are gone. So, on top of our usual stuff, we are packing and moving furniture while the kids sleep.

Dave and his buddy, Paul went to NYC this last weekend to see the B-52s in concert two nights in a row. Yes, you read that correctly, TWO nights in a row. He has been such a good sport about my frequent trips to see friends that I encouraged him to get out of town. While he was gone, we had a snow storm that left us with 6+ inches of snow, which was lovely, but a huge pain, however it made for great packing (and wine drinking) weather ;). They had a blast. We were so happy to have him home on Sunday evening.

While looking through photos from the last week, I couldn't help but notice how I have (almost) mastered photos of the kids together, so I thought I would share several of them. Enjoy!

Preconcert mode.

Post concert #2 with a couple of souvenirs. 

Park fun. 

C'mon Gg! 

Admiring flowers from daddy during breakfast. 

Post tubby smiles. Greta 15 months, Sully 2 years, 8 months. 

Sleep sack silliness. 

Bahamas

Maggie plans an annual couples trip to somewhere warm. In the past, I have either been her babysitter, pregnant, or had a newborn, so was unable to join. This has been the first year that I was none of the above, so we joined in on the fun. 

We flew to Nassau a couple of days after the rest of the crew and stayed a couple of days longer. It was just the right mix of partying/socializing and downtime. Maggie had chartered a boat and its captain on the second day of our trip which was really fun. A great way to spend a Sunday. Otherwise our time was spent eating, reading, walking and relaxing. 

The kids were home with Courtney (our lifesaver), with a little help from my mom and Maggie when she returned home. Although I had a lot of anxiety leading up to being gone, everything went great at home (as it usually does). It is so nice to know they were in good hands. 

Maggie and I.

The whole crew at Sandy Toes. 

Lunch near the harbor.

Bohemian style food. 

Walking on the bridge to Paradise Island (Atlantis is
in the background). 

One last pic at the resort. 

Meanwhile, back in Sioux Falls. Smiles all around. 

Hello again!

Wow, I can't believe it is 2015. I always give myself a short blog break after the holidays, so that explains where I have been. Its hard to believe we are already 2 weeks in to the new year. Its always exciting to imagine what lies ahead at the start of another year. I am most excited about house progress, upcoming trips, reconnecting with old and new friends, and spending as much time with my family as possible. 

2015 has started out cold, bitter cold. We had several days of below zero temps and blizzard like conditions after a snow fall that they cancelled school one day and forced an early dismissal in the same week. Obviously this doesn't effect our day to day life around her since both of the kids are mostly home with me all day. We were able to get a few gym trips in, but otherwise we pretty much hibernated. After the busyness of the holidays, the calm days were welcome. 

When the temps rose into the single digits, the house reno resumed. We have had pretty steady work here for the last week. We are adding a mudroom behind our current den and attaching a three stall garage to that. We will have a wine cellar below the mudroom and lots of storage below the new garage. All of those spaces were dug in the last week and the footings were poured today. Although I complain about the noise and having to forfeit my driveway space during the work hours, I am grateful to see some progress. 

The kids are as sweet as ever. We are so excited for Sullivan as we enrolled him in preschool in the fall. Its hard to believe he is already there (well, as long as he is potty trained by then...yikes!). He is going to go to The Graham Academy at The Washington Pavilion. We feel so good about the curriculum and the way they integrate The Visual Arts Center and The Kirby Science Center. Sully is going to love it. His obsession with robots continues. We dance like robots, move like robots, talk like robots and dress with robots on all clothes. The only way I can get him out of his robot jammies is if I put him in his robot sweatshirt. Needless to say, I do a lot of robot laundry in order to keep up. 

Greta is walking and talking more every day. Some of her current words include: ball, thank you, hello, hat, mom, dad, banana, monster truck (much to Dave's disgust ;)), etc. She is so sweet. I seriously cannot get enough of her and I really cannot believe that she is starting to act more like a toddler than a baby. 

Ok, time to catch up on a few photos. Enjoy! 

Christmas clean up. 

Christmas light fun.

Greta gets a clean bill of health. 

Story time with daddy. 

So excited about his new jammies. 

Sully holding his ticket in to preschool. 

Science Center fun.

Post Science Center exhaustion.

House progress, looking into what will be the wine cellar,
where the man in red is standing, and hallway (which is
being dug out of our current crawl space under the den). 

More house photos. The closest hole is one for the
garage footings.