Waterfront property

We didn't realize when we bought our house that we had waterfront property on the adjacent lot. Here is a picture of our "pond" next door and the two ducks that are calling it home. Seriously, it is an empty lot that the builder cleared but never had a chance to build a house on before the market tanked. All the snow melt created a little pond. We are having fun watching our ducks.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is a day I never cared about until I married a "Ryan" so of course, now, Jack and Elizabeth have to show their Irish pride. Jack's teacher already gave him a kiss today since his shirt says "Kiss me, I'm Irish". Here are a couple of pictures of my little Irish cuties in their St. Patty's Day shirts. Of course, Elizabeth wasn't in the mood to cooperate with the picture taking! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Long day

Today was a day that tried every ounce of my patience. Elizabeth screamed and cried ALL DAY LONG. She wasn't sick, tired, or hungry and so I have no idea why she was unhappy the entire day. I was so frustrated by the time Matt got home and was so eager to get out of the house and have a few minutes to myself that I volunteered to take Misha for a long walk. In the cold. I hate being outside when it is cold and can probably count on one hand how many times I have volunteered to walk Misha on a day when the temperature was less than 30 degrees. I'm glad I volunteered. I had a great walk with Misha and enjoyed the remaining rays of sunshine. I returned refreshed and energized and ready to face our crabby daughter. I took these pictures of Elizabeth at the beginning of the month and was just waiting until I had the time to post them. Tonight seemed like the perfect time to remind me that our baby girl is usually so happy (and isn't she so cute in her hat?). Hopefully today was an outlier and her behavior won't be repeated tomorrow!

Quote of the day

"Mommy, if you were an octopus you could do everything." Jack told me that as I was making breakfast this morning and he had to wait while I cut up Elizabeth's food before I could make his waffle. I told him I only had two hands so he needed to be patient. I'm trying to picture what that would look like...something like this perhaps...I agree with him, there are certainly some days where having eight arms would be nice.

Vacation

Matt has been on vacation this week and we have all enjoyed having him home. Matt and I enjoyed a few days away together at a cozy inn in Door County while my parents held down the fort here. We had a great time exploring even though most stores were closed because of the off season. We ate fabulous food, spent our afternoons reading and enjoyed three full nights of uninterrupted sleep (my favorite part!). Jack and Elizabeth loved spending time with Mamaw and Papa and were spoiled rotten! The week has flown by and I'm already looking forward to the next week off in July.