I Need Another Dog Like I Need A Hole In My Head

Not sure where to begin so I'll just jump right in. For our Saturday fun last weekend, Nathan and I decided to go to this shopping center (Surprise, surprise..) to walk outside and go from store to store. It was nice out so that seemed like a fun idea. Plus, it was close so Emma could nap at home and she wouldn't have to sleep in the car. 

I was driving. We didn't have any real plans besides get some lunch and see where the day takes us. I parked semi-close to Michaels and wanted to go there. Nathan wanted to go to PetsMart (Emma loves animals), so I obliged. No crafts for me. Womp womp. 

Well guess what day it was? Adoption day. If you know me well, you know I avoid that like the plague. Because we will end up with all of the animals. It makes me sad and I leave praying that these babies find safe homes soon. 

Today was bizarrely different. Emma was in her stroller and I popped her out and I thought it would be fun for her to play with the dogs. Surprisingly, it was all puppies, not one adult dog. Emma was in heaven. We all hopped right over, sat down and played with 3 different puppies. 

You know where this is going, right? Every lady made some comment towards us "Wow! These dogs have not perked up all day until that baby came over!", "You should get one!", "That dog is crying to see that baby!". You get the idea. 

After a good 10 minutes, Nathan and I looked at each other and I knew it was over. We were getting a puppy. Not just any puppy, but a not-yet-house-trained lab puppy that sheds and will get to be 70 pounds. 

We decided to go to lunch and talk about it. My mom and dad always told me that you cannot force it when it comes to a pet, and it just has to come to you. I do think in my heart of hearts it was meant to be. Hello... I wanted to go to Michaels and buy crafts! I didn't want a dog! Nathan wanted to go there. Something told me to go over and see those puppies, so we did. Whatever.

We went to Panera, talked about it, and came to the conclusion that yes-- we could definitely get a dog, but it would be hard work. Mostly on my part. Fab.

And guess what? We went back to PetsMart. Every single one of those dogs was adopted. Every one of them. Of course they were, puppies go like hot cakes.

So I'm not sure what I was supposed to learn last Saturday. Maybe we should have acted on it and got the dog sooner? Maybe it was just for us to appreciate the babies we have at home?

So that's what we are doing. :-) We love our babies and to answer everyone's questions that I'm sure are coming-- No we are not getting any more doggies right now!

Last Week Recap

Spring is almost here..I can feel it! Actually no because it snowed like nobody's business on Thursday. Regardless, another great week for the books. 

Monday it was almost warm enough to go outside and play with E's car. It turned out to be a major fail (too cold and windy, not enough layers), so I ended up carrying the car inside (with her in it). 

I pushed her around for a while and she would go in/out/in/out 465356 times. Sometimes she'll get out when the car is in motion so you have to pay attention! At one point she had her feet up on the dash. Classy. 

Nathan had to work a double on Tuesday, so we tried to keep ourselves as busy as possible! We (shockingly) went to the mall where E got to run around the play area. She loved it! 

Afterwards we hit up Safeway for some fruit and got the idea for "cold spaghetti cold spaghetti" (below). 

Besides me getting E prematurely excited for this (Forgot how long it would take the pasta to cool), it was great fun for her. 

She threw 75% of it on the ground and I wasn't thinking of much of it..until it was time to feed the dogs and they wouldn't eat! 

I'm not sure what day this was (below), but E randomly cuddled with Cocoa. I know I say this a lot but I'm so thankful we are raising her around doggies! 

Some days I think Cocoa is Emma's favorite but other days she shows Oreo more love. I do know that Oreo loves her, and Cocoa could not care less about her. 

Emma loves loves loves animals. We go to some type of pet store at least once a week. Her favorites are the cats and the guinea pigs. We will not be getting either of those. Ha. 

On our way home we stopped at Target (shocking) for more bananas. God we live an exciting life. I thought I'd change things up a bit and we had our snack at the Target cafe. 

It was a very nice change of scenery and homegirl loved it. 

Also note: How crazy long is her hair? 

Not pictured: Emma hates baths again. Or something. The last two baths have ended in tears. Ayyy yi yi. 

Another great Saturday in the books! I'll post about what we got ourselves into soon. ;) Hard to believe the day ended at Target but I can promise we did not buy anything-- even though we had to pry that TMNT poster from Emma's hand on the way out. 

We had to move that side table (below) to sweep the floors yesterday morning and E just made herself at home in it. She is such a climber! I set it down and she darted right over to it. Trouble. Maker. 

It got up to 50 yesterday so after constant banging on the window, Nate took E to "drive". I started dinner and they were inside after about 6 minutes. What?? 

He said "she kept going in and out"...duh. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Have a blessed week! xoxox

Saturdays

For two years, my husband has had different days off than the "rest of the world". His "weekend" was usually Wednesday/Thursday, but for a short period it was Sunday/Monday (which wasn't so bad). 

Over Christmas, we found out he would be getting weekends off at the start of the new year. Score! Since this change, we have a new appreciation for Saturdays. They are the best ever! 

It was always so weird going places on his weekend. I swear people thought we were jobless weirdos living off the system when we would go out to lunch or walk around the mall on a Wednesday afternoon. 

We've learned to appreciate little things like actually having the weekend off. It also has us being kind of selfish of our Saturdays. We'll miss them when we're dragging Emma to 600 birthday parties in 4 years. 

*These pictures are just from random Saturdays since being on the new schedule*

I purposely try to do everything on my to-do list ahead of time so I don't have much to do on Saturdays. We save laundry and the sweeping/mopping of our floors for Sunday, so the only cleaning we have to do is not drown, LOL. 

We are so lame-- we do things like go to our local mall (it's not really our favorite) or our old mall in DC (our favorite, but you have to pay to park), hit up Target and maybe get groceries, or find random trouble to get into in our town. 

We have a cute corner bakery, the pet store (Emma adores the cats), 2 consignment stores, and farmers market. There's even a farm down the road that has a free petting zoo! Emma is cow obsessed and one of their cows just had a calf.

We try to keep things relatively free/cheap. As much as we'd love to do brunch with mimosas every Saturday, it's not in the budget. We'll eat lunch before we go, bring lots of snacks/drinks, and we're usually home for dinner. That makes us sound super cheap-- we'd just rather put our money elsewhere. ;)

And honestly it's just about being together and doing fun things. And for me it's about getting the hell out of our house. Sorry for the bluntness, but I just want to bust out of here most days. 

When we get home from wherever our adventures take us there is always the whirlwind of feeddogsunloadcarchangebabyimstarvingwhatarewehavingfordinnercleanupbathbedtime fiasco, but it is always worth it. 

Nathan usually hangs with Weezy and I'll pick everything up. It's kind of their time together and they always get into the most random things. Last Saturday they had gathered 3 different pairs of sunglasses and put them on some of her stuffed animals. 

Okay, hope everyone has an awesome Saturday! 

What Emma Eats

Happy Friday, folks! I wanted to share some of the things Emma loves to eat right now. Mostly because I don't want to forget all the funny things she loves and how we have to get bananas at least twice a week. Fa real!

Like I have said before, E is a big snacker. When we sit down for our family breakfast/lunch (because of Nathan's schedule), we'll be lucky to get two or three big bites out of her. We always make it really positive and we're happy if she's happy. :-)

For breakfast she'll have any of or a combination of the following: banana, strawberries, grapes (halved), toast with peanut butter, or bites of our cereal or my oatmeal. Some mornings we'll make eggs or pancakes, but I don't like doing that if she won't eat any of it (because N & I are happy with cereal). 

She'll have a zillion and half snacks throughout the day: more fruit, veggie straws (pictured below), peanut butter and graham crackers, cheese, sweet potatoes (in fry form or roasted), dry cereal (cinnamon life, cheerios, Smacks), and her favorite-- Nature Valley Oatmeal Bars, the cinnamon sugar kind. 

Lunch can be anything listed above or last night's leftovers. Sometimes we'll have grilled cheese or PBJ. Mac N cheese with broccoli is a huge hit! 

We usually have the same mundane dinners: Any kind of pasta with sauce/meatballs (beef or turkey), lasagna, chili and cornbread, beef stroganoff, brinner (eggs/toast/french toast/pancakes/sausage), tacos, enchiladas, and quesadillas. 

I always offer her water with her meals and a veggie for a side and fruit for dessert. She loves her water, though, so I do have to monitor it. She would drink it all day if she could! 

Nathan just introduced her to something we don't see often at the Boese house-- Chocolate chip cookies! He bought one from Chick Fil A and oh my gosh..she carried her little pieces around for about 20 minutes before I pried it from her hand. She loved it and it was definitely a much deserved treat for her! 

Okay hope everyone is having an awesome Friday! xoxo

A Peek Into Last Week

I realize this blog is getting kind of redundant. Sorry. I'll try to exciten (?) things up around here. 

Okay so we have this room in our house that we have no idea what we'll ever do with it. We call it the questionable room (Seriously. When my dad is here he'll say "Yeah I put that picture frame in the questionable room", for example). 

It's not junky, we just don't know what to do with it. Play room? Future kid room? I don't know and don't pressure me to make decisions. 

Anyway, Emma loves adores is obsessed with the questionable room. Mostly because she's never in there (because there's nothing to do in there). Well, boy was I wrong! I brought up a few of her toys and she played in that room for over an hour. 

So maybe the future of the questionable room is a play room? 

And while she was in the questionable room, I was in her room going through all of her clothes-- fit, doesn't fit, winter, spring, etc. 

We found this darling dress from my friend and we can't wait until it warms up to actually wear it outside!

Also note: It's impossible to photograph a toddler. Impossible.

Our "formal" living room is also becoming a play room. It's a good place for her because there is a giant window, and no TV. 

I put the white fluffy rug down and she has her blocks and some other toys. The best idea yet! 

Not sure when exactly this was last week but E fell asleep while I made dinner. So funny. My grandmother sent those overalls for her and at first I thought they were boyish, but they are adorable! Plus she can wear leggings under them and be extra warm. 

Fell for the overpriced toddler yogurt and that definitely seems to be a win. It is a huge mess and we only eat it when Nathan is not around because he's kind of a mess nazi. 

Remember when I said Emma loves to go through the recycling? I don't know why, but she thinks she's so cool when she steals something from there.

We got another set of snow. We still don't have a shovel. Luckily it's mostly melted. That pic (below) was taken after Emma banging on the window and saying (what I think was) "side". 

E loves to watch herself in the oven reflection. She moves around, waves, and yells at the baby "in the oven". So funny. 

Before we got her shoes on Saturday, we went to BRU to look for shoes and..nothing. As in, they just had sandals and crocks. What? So disappointing because I had lots of coupons. 

Also after a random toddler (ahem) squirmed out of cart I just let her run around. Insanity. I don't know how people do it with multiple toddlers (twins?!). She ran and touched everything. We immediately got back into the car and doused ourselves in hand sanitizer. 

When we got home we had a package from my cousin Katie! Best cousin ever! 

Also note: E has a new thing for flipping things over? She does this with her musical table (below) and the other play cube she has. 

Is this some new thing? I don't know but she thoroughly enjoys playing with the stuff while it's upside-down. 

..Trying to caputre a semi-decent photo to send to Katie and I give up. Like I said, it is impossible to photograph Emma right now.  

Our fancy living room turned playroom. Pin THAT on Pinterest. Boom.

Every morning E runs into her closet and grabs a coat and shoes. She loves picking out clothes/hats/shoes. This just started but it is so fun to watch! She gets very frustrated when she can't put the coat on correctly. 

Yesterday she had on PJs with a tutu and sneakers. Weirdo. 

Homie loves to make me crazy and eat the banana peel. Ayyyy yi yi. 

Okay have a great Tuesday! xoxo

Day By The Hour

8AM:

Time to party because it's the weekend! We wake Daddy up around 8:30 because Emma cannot wait any longer. Also because we have to do laundry and it's impossible to carry everything up/down the stairs with Little E. I would leave her on the main floor but she'd light something on fire and invite boys over. 

9AM:

Breakfast recap. Note the 600 banana peels-- we go through 2 a day in this house. 

10AM: 

Still can't part with her banana peel. I'm not fighting her today and let her eat it. Whatevs. Also note: Numero dos pants because we got yogurt on her jammies. 

11AM:

My husband got the Girl Scout Cookie Tracker App and found out that they'd be at AC Moore at 11. So guess where we were at 11AM? 

12PM:

Made it to the mall. It's almost an hour drive so E napped in the car on the way there. 

1PM: 

New shoes for a certain little girl! The whole point of going to this mall was to go to Stride Rite. Apparently they are closing hundreds of their stores, and this one was one of them. Boo. Finish Line had some Sketchers and they were $30-- winner winner chicken dinner.

When the guy went back to get her shoes, Emma followed him. Yeah, we have a runner on her hands. 

See also (below): New kicks

2PM: 

Ran into one of Emma's homies in Baby Gap. My heart explodes when I look at this picture. Not pictured: Her unzipping his hoodie and him pulling her hair tie out. 

3PM: 

Heading home; shortbread cookie in hand. Car seat police-- I sat with her while she ate the cookie. Cheel, y'all. 

The entire way home Emma just stared at her new shoes..she loves them! She also looks like a big kid here. How is that possible? 

 4PM: 

Sorry. Get home. CRAP we never moved any laundry over. Feed dogs, let them out, throw everything back where it should be, change Weezy, what in God's name are we having for dinner. . . among 600 other things. 

5PM:

My husband sends me this picture while I'm getting groceries at Target and it makes me so sad. Emma is my very best friend and I hate leaving her! Actually she's just yelling in this picture (not crying)-- this is the door she saw me leave from. 

6PM:

We ended up getting BBQ take out. It was okay, probably won't go there again. While I'm recycling the containers I see this. 

..It's dry erase, people. Chill. It wiped right off. And I dropped the marker earlier this morning and the little monster found it! 

7PM: 

Baby is asleep (6:50!) and I just finished cleaning kitchen. 

8PM:

It's so much easier if you pick up all the kid toys at the end of every day. This way Emma can get straight to "work" tomorrow morning and play. It also ensures that we don't lose any toys: all the puzzle pieces are there, princesses, and stacking bowls. Type A problems. 

9PM:

Writing this post with Elf on as background noise. 

Happy weekend, y'all!