Monday, February 08, 2010

One of those kind of days...

The kids have had a nasty stomach diarrhea bug and every day begins with hitting the ground running from changing sheets, diapers and clothes. Will has had it the worst with a diaper rash to top it off. Will had to take a bath in the sink because we don't have a working tub at our house yet...just a stand up shower. After looking at this picture though, don't you feel just a smidge bad for me? :) No shower, make-up and yes my shirt is backwards and inside out. And yes, I kept it like that the entire day so people would feel sorry for me. Is it working?

My sweet buddy didn't seem to mind and is hopefully almost done with this little bug! 6 days and counting...Greta was on hand to give him toys to keep him happy. She's been my little helper getting me extra clothes and diapers when I'm doing his diaper changes. She tells him when he's crying "It's otay, Will!" and then when he's crying a lot she'll say, "That is E-Nough Will!" (emphasis on the E). :)

Friday, January 15, 2010

5 days

Countdown begins today of 5 days before we move into our new home! Before we leave the land of homemade baked goods around every corner, the land of tevo and cable television, the land of a fenced in backyard, the land of "you go back to bed for a few minutes and let us get the kids" and somehow we are still excited!

Thursday, December 31, 2009

12 Days of Christmas

I did this last year to force me to pick a few favorites out of million pics from Christmas. Here's another version from our quiet Charlotte Christmas in 2009.

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
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The Christmas story of the birth of a Baby.


On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
Two adorable hats from Aunt Bridge in Idaho. Thank you!!








On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

3 sets of matching p.j.'s from there Aunt Leebs. (And she gave Will's to him too) Thank you!


On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
Mama Ward's "4"head on Skype. She was cracking us up and talked to us almost the whole time this way!


On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
5 takes of family pictures. (These are two of them) :)


On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
6 beautiful people!


On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
7 months pregnant Danielle trying to get out of a recliner.


On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

8 hours behind Iraq, we watched a pre-recorded video tape that accompanied a book that my Dad sent Greta. She loves it and wants to watch it all the time.






On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
9 minutes of Will sitting still on the bottom step watching his Uncle Dan fly a remote control helicopter.



On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:


10 bucks for a vintage suitcase to hold dress up clothes for Greta. (Complete with remnants of an old Air France sticker!)
On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:


11costumes to play dress up with! (Well, Honest Abe here cannot tell a lie. Who knows how many costumes are in there...probably not 11, but we'll just say it is for effect.) :)


On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:



Dozens of other wonderful gifts! A coat for me, Hungry Hippos for Greta, I Love You Stinky Face book for Will and an outfit we bought for Eden, just to name a few.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!


















Love, The Renstrom's

And a huge thank you to Megan W. who took these pictures!!

Gingerbread House

Mom R. and the kids and I went to a fancy hotel in South Charlotte to see gingerbread houses. "Hey Greta, let me take your picture by the Christmas tree." Awesome.


Eiffel tower gingerbread house. Seemed really cool until you looked closer and Homer and Marge Simpson were ice skating down below. Kind of lost its nostalgia after that. :)



They had a little Santa village downstairs that the kids enjoyed playing at. Will just loves stuff like this and giggles at every snowman.





Greta cracks me up in this picture. I think she's mimicking a mom who's trying to get her daughter to smile for a picture behind us.

This is Will's whiney face.

G was so funny in this picture too. I told her to go sit by the presents and she sat on the presents. Then, I told her to stand up and she stood on the presents. By the time she figured it out, she was way to into her apple cider to oblige me anymore.

Then, a nice lady came up to us and gave us a coloring page with crayons and a stuffed snowman! Yay for richie-richville!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Legit Crazy

A friend of ours, Jake, said about Greta the other day, "That girl is crazy. Like legit crazy." It made me laugh, but I think he's right. We like her craziness and I think these pictures reflect that.






Baby Blover

Greta said the other day, "My baby blover is my blest fend" (My baby brother is my best friend.) So sweet. Here are some pics of their usual way playing together, going down the slide.








Such a sweet happy boy!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Gingerbread Church with Kyle and Ryan

More activities carried on the next day before the guys and the rest of the gang, that arrived later, left for Florida. I told Greta we would make a gingerbread house with them.


I think she was excited, but more so about just eating the candy. Ryan and I on the other hand got way more into it than anyone else. :)


Both of the guys were such a huge help with the kids. From tea parties to just watching cartoons, it was nice to have their help and we loved having them around.



Our house's roof caved in and so we called it a gingerbread church complete with a steeple and stained glass windows (Ryan's idea, ha! I'm telling you, we were way into it).



Thanks guys! Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Tea Party

Kyle and Ryan drove in tonight from Liberty to head to FL tomorrow for Christmas break. Greta was so excited for her buddies to be here that she invited Ryan up to her room for a tea party. Here she is in her apron serving tea to Ryan and her stuffed moose.
Apparently Greta had insisted that Ryan sit in the little chairs, but he politely declined because he thought he might break it. What a nice guy he is to oblige a 2-year-old little girl. She loved it.

Things I Love

Greta: This girl has such a vivid imagination. She cracks us up with her stories of an elephant tickling her at night or her imaginary pet snail named Scissors. Here she is painting with water on the inside of a cereal box. She said, "Look Mommy, an umbrella!" Well, wouldn't you know! Can you see it? It's upside down and it must've been a windy day picture that she was painting because it's inverted, but an umbrella it surely is!


Then, one day she took a bite of her chicken nugget and said, "Look, a rainbow!" I realize this is not brainiac stuff, but it's a first for her to see these objects out of something and I am so enjoying this stage of learning.

Oh, and she's funny.
Will: He is in SUCH a learning stage right now. I am constantly surprised at what he knows and discovers each day. He moos when he sees the cows on the side of the road, he knows that ducks quack and can sign for "all done" and "more".
Here he is signing "all done" by waving his hands up in the air and he says, "Ah dee, ah dee".

He is such a stinker when in his high chair. I seriously couldn't ask for a better eater. He is a vaccuum and just shoves it in, but when he's done, he's done. Here he is beginning his cleaning ritual of his tray by dropping his sippy cup. The peas and corn will follow and so on and so on. Of course, we've been trying to correct this behavior by a slap on the hand and a firm "no-no" but he just squinches up his eyes and turns up his nose like he's so bummed he can't continue. It's hilarious.


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Here's my buddy not doing a thing I ask from his bag of tricks, but you can hear him laugh and that, my friends, is a precious sound. You can also see his four teeth since he's decided to be such a big boy and grow up and get teeth.


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I love it when my kids play together. Especially if no one ends up crying.

Fun Girls Weekend?

The question mark is not about the weekend being fun rather than a question of it really being a a weekend. I'll explain later.

It began with Jackie and Baby Cole arriving Thursday night in Charlotte to spend the night with us. Greta loved "Baby Toad".


And so did Will. He was so cute, I don't think he even knew Cole was real until he started wiggling and then Will started giggling and kept going to touch him and would retract his hand to just laugh some more.
After Greta saw Cole playing on his blanket, Greta set up her dolly like this.


And here is the only picture to prove that Jackie and I met up with Lindsay Friday afternoon to spend the "weekend" with each other in Greenville, SC. We had such a fun evening together complete with tapas and gelato. We lived it up in a hotel that night thanks to Dad R. too! Thanks so much! Sadly, however, I woke up the next day with a fever and a giant headache and we all headed home! Ugh. I don't even want to talk about it. We were supposed to go Christmas shopping and do crafting the next day and even go to the movies (a luxury for a stay-at-home mom for those of you who are thinking "big whoop" and yes, I said big whoop), none of which we did because I stinking got stinking sick. And there was even an art fair that weekend along the river that we could've gone to. SO, instead we drove home and I sat at home by myself since the rest of the fam had gone to Raleigh and watched the Alabama football game and the original version of Little Women. Okay, now it's time for you to feel sorry for me now.