Really?!

Saw this sign outside my hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. Classic!

Nana and Papa come to visit

Brandon's parents, AKA Nana and Papa came to visit from Spokane from Thurs-Mon.  Bennett absolutely adored them and loved spending every second with them! Wayne and Brandon were busy almost the entire weekend putting in a back splash in our kitchen.  That has been on our to-do list for the past 4.5 years that we've lived in our house, so I'm really really excited that it finally got finished!  Although Brandon has a little left to do... caulk along the bottom and seal, so hopefully it is 100% finished (and cleaned up) by this weekend! THANK YOU SO MUCH WAYNE!! We love it! Here are a couple of pictures of the process...

Wayne with the saw...

Brandon cutting out outlet holes (who knew having 10 outlets in your kitchen could be such a pain!)

Brandon installing the LAST piece of tile!

Wayne with "the piece"...a shape you could only find while playing tetras!

The "almost" finished product! Love how our mosaics turned out!! 

On Friday, while the boys were busy working, Bennett, Nana and I went to the new City Garden downtown with a couple of Bennett's friends.  It was a toasty day, and the girls loved playing in all of the water features and then we all enjoyed a picnic lunch! 

Other than that, we just enjoyed hanging out, doing a little shopping, playing outside and playing at the park.  But mostly Bennett and Nana did a lot of reading!! Bennett also absolutely loved her jewelry box and new treasures inside.  Most mornings she would wake up and want to put them on right away! Here are a few more pictures from Nana and Papa's visit.  Thanks for coming!!

Bennett, Nana and Papa walked to Schnucks for some treats.

Bennett and Papa reading Bear at Work, a library book we had about a bear who was a mailman.  Bennett couldn't wait to show Papa!

Bennett and Nana "snuggling" on the big bed.  Bennett insisted they read books in there every night!

Nana helping Bennett put on some of her new treasures!

Not a bad day

#13

Today's Trail Run

... Can only be described by one word: Mud. That was fun stuff!

Backsplash Project

And so it begins. Papa is here working hard!!

Fun shoes!

It is possible that she gets it from either her mom or dad... But this
child loves shoes! She will try on any shoe, too, big or small.
Lately, these have been some of her favorites.

On the trail

Right on the river!

11 week appointment and funny Bennett phrases

Today we had our 11 week doctor's appointment.  It was a brief visit, but we did get to hear the heartbeat, and the doc said everything was looking good! So we were happy to hear that! Appropriately enough, Brandon and I then followed the appointment with a great lunch date at a Thai restaurant called Land of Smile that we had never been to before.  It was delicious and we stuffed ourselves! And by the way, Bennett doesn't need to visit the Land of Smile to enjoy her food.  Did you know that Bennett thinks sugar snap peas are the funniest food on earth? She had them the other night and hilarity ensued.  You never know with that girl! 

My mom watched Bennett at our house while we went to the doctor.  That included putting Bennett down for her nap.  My mom quickly learned that Bennett has been trying all sorts of stalling tactics from her bed lately to try to get people to come back in her room.  Bennett spent over an hour talking loudly in her bed.  My mom spent that hour sitting outside her room writing down everything that she said.  I will include the list because it is pretty hilarious!

1. Mommy, where are you?

2. You forgot to put blankie on me!

3. My soother is not working.  

4. Jelly Cat is not working.  (that's the stuffed animal she sleeps with!)

5. Mommy always comes back from the gym.  (I guess she forgot where I was!)

6. That baby is too breakable to hold.  You just look at her.  (referring to a doll on her shelf)

7. Mommy will be fine.  Daddy will be fine.  (she was worried about why we were going to the doctor.  I had to explain that we weren't actually sick!)

8. Have a lot of birthday cards! (on her bulletin board in her room)

9. One frog lost his friend, over and over and over.  (referring to a book she and Grandma had just read)

10. Mommy might come home. 

11. Grandma Joje put Dora in her bed.

12. She sang the alphabet song twice.

13. Mommy's taking a shower.  Grandma Joje doesn't take a shower.  

14. Yay! Mommy comes home!

That kid's a riot! No wonder she finally wore herself out and fell asleep!!

Critters!

I've been having fun with my new camera, and I was graced with a couple great opportunities to get some shots lately.

The dragonfly that refused to fly away was out at Innsbrook. Stunning colors! Looking at the structure of the wings close-up is pretty amazing.

My favorites are these snake photos, though. This bad boy was roaming our front yard the other day. The neighbors and I all decided that it was a rat snake. Works for me. I just know it was huge. Bennett was completely undeterred by it. Maybe I sensationalized it too much by snapping pictures like it was Paris Hilton.

After the throng of people went back in their houses, the snake got out of the tree and headed for the back yard. It was completely stretched out, and feeling like I was a safe distance away from its head, I knealt down to touch its tail. People do it all the time on TV, and the snakes don't seem to care much. This one cared! The second I touched him, he coiled up and turned around. Alright, alright, I get it! I jumped back... and then looked around to see if anybody saw me freak out. All clear. Whew! I should take more care to apply things I teach Bennett to other areas of my life. For instance, even she knows that we shouldn't touch kitty's bottom because she doesn't like it. Just apply that knowledge to the snake, and the crisis could have been avoided.

In the end, I guess boys are just drawn to these things. How else could you explain why I stopped to try to catch a newt while running this weekend. What was I going to do with it if I did catch it? You can be sure I would have taken it's picture.

Yup... I made crepes!

Mmmmmm ... Crepes for breakfast!!

Blogging from the trail.

Gorgeous view!

Recession be darned. We're expanding!

No pun intended. Laura is even starting to show a little bit. What better way to kick off the new blog site than with the announcement of an additional baby?! We've known since May 25th (Or in Franny's case, "Five, squared."), but have been cautious about spreading the news so that we could avoid any false alarms. At our check-up, though, the doc told us that everything looked good. We'll go back to the doc again next week for the 12 week appointment. The due date is January 30th, 2010. We won't get to find out the sex until September 8th. That one's circled on my calendar!!

With that, welcome to The Janosky Project 2.0. I'm looking forward to using the Blogger format because it will allow me to make mobile posts from my phone. I can snap a quick picture, add a few words, and instantly share it with all of you. It should make blogging more spontaneous and fun.