Great Wolf Lodge

Siena had school off  Monday and Tuesday and Dave could finally take some time off. He didn't take hardly any time off for Christmas so we needed some family time. We went down to Williamsburg on Monday to the Great Wolf Lodge. It was so much fun. There were a lot of people there. I guess that is the thing to do when school is out for a couple days. We got the fun room with the Kid camp bunk beds in them. The kids loved them. I thought the kids would fall asleep so quickly because they were so exhausted Monday night but they were so excited for the bunk beds they stayed up and played and were still up at 7:30 ready to go again. They had their own little room and a t.v. There are tons of things to do here. We spent most of our time at the waterpark. Monday night we went to go to the art and craft room (Siena's favorite part) and it was closed so we ended up at the arcade instead. Tuesday morning we were waiting at the door of the art and craft room when it opened. Siena painted a flower pot picture frame and Ben painted an alligator puzzle. I think Siena could have stayed there all day. It was such a fun time just as a little family. We had wrist bands that we could buy all our food and snacks. It was very convenient. We never had to leave the lodge. We did go out for dinner and went to Walmart to get some food for breakfast. We tried everything we could think of to get Siena to go on the big slides. That girl is stubborn. I don't even think she was that scared she just didn't want to. I think she would have loved them if she did but maybe next time. We did have great progress as she and Ben posed with the wolf mascot! Both kids have always been terrified of mascots or dressed up characters. We are going to Disneyworld in May and we are preparing them all for the characters there. So now I have hope that we may get some pictures with the princesses and characters there. So exciting! Monday night they have a little show down in the lodge and a story time. The kids all dress in their pajamas. It was really fun but crowded. We had a fabulous time and now I know what to do for a fun blah January weekend.

 waiting for storytime.

 story time.

 Whylie the wolf.

 violet the wolf.

 watching t.v. in his room while having breakfast.

Captain Moroni

Dave went home teaching and made the Title of Liberty for the lesson. Ben was so excited when he came home and Ben got to play with the title of Liberty all day.

Claire 10 months

Claire turned 10 months without me even realizing it. I have a friend that had a baby the same day and she announced it on facebook that he was 10 months. I was thinking no our babies aren't 10 months yet. It is almost birthday month here at the Meilstrup household so I was getting everyones dates mixed up. She was 10 months on the 18th.

She still hasn't figured out that you are supposed to crawl on your hands and knees. So she still army crawls but she is fast. Dave and I have decided she is going to be a swimmer because when she gets really excited and wants to get somewhere fast she pushes on both her arms at the same time to push herself forward, just like the breaststroke.

She has just started to pull herself up on furniture but won't cruise along it.

She babbles all sorts of sounds but can't seem to get mamma or dadda out.

She still prefers me but when Dave comes home she crawls excitedly over to him, he picks her up and then she reaches for me again. Dave is the means to get held by me.

She loves being near the kids. Wherever they are playing she wants to be right up in their faces. The kids are really becoming responsible for her. In the mornings when we get ready while I am helping one kid the other kid is in a room with her playing with her or reading to her and making sure she doesn't eat anything small. They like being in charge of her.

I decided I really wanted to try cloth diapering. I finally took the plunge. I have wanted to do it for a long time. I don't know if I will like it or if I will stick with it, but I bought the stuff and am excited to try. Dave is not so excited, but he doesn't change diapers anyway so I thought I would atleast try. Today was the first day and we had success! Cloth diapers are cute and I am excited about the fact of not running out of diapers one day and having to go run out to the store. We will see how it works out.

thats just what brother do

Dave and I got a new mattress. We aren't sure what to do with our old mattress so we put it in our empty front room. I didn't want the guys delivering our new mattress to put the old one in the basement in case we wanted to just sell it or give it away. So it looks like squaters live in our house. It's a little random but the kids love it. They play games up there, jump on it and read books on it. So we took advantage of it and took fun pictures there today.
Claire is one tough cookie. Ben steam rolls her constantly. He is such an affectionate boy I love it. She loves the attention.

my chunky baby, you can't even see her eyes when she smiles. She grabs quite the attention wherever we are with her chunky cheeks. At church on Sunday a little 4 year old boy asked his dad if he could sit by the family with the chunky cheek baby. She gets so much attention.

oh my gosh he is the cutest boy ever.

fun pictures

I got a fun Family night book for Christmas that has whole lesson plans for every week. We are trying harder to actually do different and new things for family night. We had a lesson on family prayer tonight and had a craft to do with it.
the kids have become very interested in giving Claire baths lately. Whenever I am up there they come running up and ask if they can help. One night they ended up with her in the tub. She was quickly kicked out and they took over the tub.

snow

We are divided in this house. Dave and Siena love the snow. Dave says he would love to be snowed in for days, I think Siena would too. Ben and I need to be snowbirds. When Ben saw the snow outside today he said, Oh Snow! very frustrated. When we took him out in the snow the first time ever he screamed and screamed and screamed. Ben will play in it now with Siena atleast for a little while. They got a sled from Santa for Christmas and they finally got to use it. Siena didn't believe it was winter because it has been so nice. This is our first snowfall. Claire was amazed at the snow. She just sat there and stared at if for the longest time. She took a nap the whole time we were playing outside so I wonder if she will really like it if we stick her out in it.

pushing eachother down the little hills in our yard. You can see the grass through the snow so it wasn't a very fast sled unless you pushed it all the way down the hill. They still had fun. It's so fun watching them from inside. They play so nicely together. I love it.

my cuties. I love this new camera that takes such good, clear pictures.

forget the sled. going down 'penguin style' They are so funny.

looks real comfortable.

It does make it look nice and wintery, but I will take the weather that we had Saturday over today. We were at the park for 3 hours Saturday without coats. It was low 60's. It was heaven!

January festivities

lots of pajama days and wrestling
Siena and Ben had two games that they played non stop the week after Christmas and New Years.
They were elves and delivered presents all around the house. I would find paper everywhere with little toys wrapped up. We went through a lot of tape that I eventually hid from her and about half her ream of paper is gone. It's very cute to find around the house.

I opened the front coat closet the other day to get my coat on the way out and found 8 Little People dolls all lined up. Apprently that was the stage and they were putting on a show. It was a funny sight to find.

Then, Siena and Ben loved the Rose parade. Ben asked if we could go one day and I said yes. It would be fun to go and watch it live. Here Ben is marching around the basement waving the baton and blowing his horn like in a band.

Happy New Year

Sparklers before midnight.

Happy New Year!

Siena preparing to make the New Year countdown cookies. Siena has a great memory and she remembers watching the ball drop last year at midnight. She wanted to watch it again. Everyone went to bed a little after 11. I wanted to stay up and watch the ball drop. Siena and Ben were in Siena's room that night together so I went and got them at 11:50 and we watched the ball drop. Right after that we were in bed and we fell asleep quickly. Ben didn't wake up till after 10 the next day.

exploding confetti noise makers. I didn't know they exploded confetti when I bought them.

a little bubbly at midnight

Claire getting revenge on the nerf gun darts.

countdown cookies.

reading with Grandma

Siena only had one week off of school for Christmas break. It has been so nice Siena and Ben have played nicely together and Claire just tries to follow along. Dave unfortunately had to work all week so it was nice that the kids were getting along so I could have some peace. They have enjoyed all the new toys they got for Christmas. Surprisingly, they love the board games we got. They are now masters at UNO but don't really have the attention span for Sorry and usually just end the game early. I was excited for Siena to be home and wanted to atleast do one fun outing. I planned on Thursday going to a childrens museum in Baltimore. I had packed everything the night before so it wouldn't be stressful in the morning. Siena threw up all morning Thursday. I was so sad. We were going to have so much fun at the museum. So that cancelled that, then Friday morning Ben threw up. He was fine right after but Dave and I felt a little sick that night. Saturday, New Years Eve, we were to host a party. We cancelled that so we wouldn't pass our germs to anyone. We were feeling fine that night and still had a little family party. Grandma came down to visit us for 2 days so it ended up being a fun party.