Last Day of March, So About Valentine's...

March has been a busy month of traveling! The kids and I went to Californa again (pictures to come) and then upon return, approximately two weeks later we went to Florida to see my brother/sister-in-law and niece and nephew! Pictures to also come regarding FL... We just got back this last Friday and have been playing catch up with the house and Carl's school.

Before I let another week go by, I wanted to share some pictures of Valentine's day! This is how I roll- posting about V-day 1 1/2 months later.

I bought the children and Carl some electric toothbrushes and a few little treats- nothing fancy, my kind of gifting. They seemed pleased, I was pleased, sweet. Carl and I also bought these awesome nesting bowls:

Carl was in school for most of the day, so after I came back from the gym, the kids and so dear friends came over to decorate cookies eat frosting for a little bit. It was fun! And surprisingly not terribly messy- I have an aversion to messy activities.

just a little cookie with the frosting

 

goob.

cookie pile!

v-day lunch

Carl came home and he had mentioned that he had a date planned out for us earlier in the week, so I was looking forward to dolling up. When the sitter came over, BAM- there it was, secret spilled: I overheard him talking about breakfast plans for the kids.

I was very surprised. We have never left the kids with anybody but family! But we love these two sisters that frequently watch the kiddos and so I was at ease. It was one night only, anyway.

So we started by being foodies and trying some local fancy eats. Let me just add now that Carl and I are not fancy. We ordered steak tartare and were surprised to find a plate of raw ground steak looking back at us. Mooooooo it echoed as we tried a bite (only one bite for me). It was ok though, it made a delicious scramble in the morning (ha!)

We then drove to the Pfister, a fancy hotel and had some late night appetizers at the lounge while listening to a pianist serenade us with his beautiful tunes. In the morning, free in-room breakfast was provided, so we ordered everything. Salmon and a cream cheese bagel was one of the items, only the salmon was raw. What the heck is with fancy people and raw food?! Just cook your dang meats, ya crazies. No worries, I broiled it when I got home and had it with crackers.

carl even took the time to make a slideshow of the last 6 years with our song (this magic moment by Jay and the Americans) playing in the background! This is my lame picture post-slideshow.

The pleased wife!

the happy couple!

breakfast time!

the spread

nom nom nom.

After breakfast, we decided to run home and grab the kiddos to go swimming at the pool! That was definitely one of my favorite highlights. My kids just LOVE the water! Very opposite of me, but a very Leder-esque quality :)

sound of music plays in my mind every time I look at this picture!

view of the Lake from the pool!

So besides my really lame gift to Carl (c'mon, who can beat a surprise getaway?!), Valentine's was amazing and so wonderful to be able to just talk and dream about our future and reminisce about our past. Love you, Carlo!

snagged this pic of the art museum on the way home. gorgeous day!

Bucket List Series: #3

I know you've been eager to see what other crazy things I want to do

1. I want to have short, hot pink hair

2. I want to have a real deal white girl's african weave/braids

3. I want to speak Spanish fluently as a family

Ok, this definitely isn't that crazy. I am so eager to learn more languages! I used to want to speak French fluently (and someday I will), but when I met Carl, the Spanish language was suddenly so much more romantic and meaningful to me. As many of you know, Carl lived in Spain for two years serving a mission for our church and speaks Spanish fluently (and the best sounding Spanish comes from Spain, might I add ;)

Fortunately, I've picked up enough Spanish to be about where I was at French. Huzzah! Unfortunately, it actually isn't very much. Bummer. BUT I am confident that we will all communicate in Spanish someday! One of the ways I'm hoping to encourage us all to practice more is to enroll Ezra into the Spanish-immersion school here when he starts K-4 in Fall 2014 (yikes, school already?? more on that in another post...). Side note: for those of you unfamiliar with K-4, as I was when I moved to Milwaukee, it is essentially pre-kindergarten/pre-school for four year olds. It is part of the public school systems, though many private schools have also included it in their schools as well.

Other ways I am practicing is using my Duolingo app on my iPhone. It is simple and frankly, quite awesome. If you don't have any Latin-based foreign language background, it may be a tad more challenging, but it is such a great review for me! I also try to talk to Carl using basic Spanish, such as que hora es? (what time is it) and Cómo se dice "[object]" en español? He tries to challenge me often and some days I respond well communicating as much as I can and other days I just say "I don't know what you're saying!! Yarg!!" Yes, yarg included.

Do you have any languages you are determined to learn? I must say, on top of Spanish, I want to learn Mandarin, French, and Sign. But baby steps and Spanish is priority :)

Good Tidings!

For those who's emails I don't have, here is our Christmas Newsletter and Card!

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December 24, 2012

Dear Family and Friends!

Another Christmas, another year- yes, it’s that time of year that your random relative, favorite child, old roommate, or new acquaintance mails you a picture and newsletter! Well, e-mail in our instance.

We are doing well all the way out here in Wisconsin! SO many changes have occurred since we’ve moved out here – as easy as it is for me to write a book about our life in just the past 14 months we’ve been here, I’ll save you the saga, and share a little about each of us.

We moved out here initially because Carl was accepted to a cardiovascular perfusion program last year. We were both so excited to come out and start again on a new career path! However, as Carl continued in the program, he realized that due to his personable nature, spending the rest of his career inside an operating room just did not seem right. And I whole-heartedly agreed. So, though an extremely difficult decision, we decided to pull out of the program. Now, he has been fulfilling pre-requisites for physician assistant (PA) programs! What?! More school? Like I said, Carl is such a personable guy. And smart! We said, “why not?” I would just like to take a moment and brag- PA school is incredibly difficult to get in, let alone get an interview. Among 1,600 applicants, 300 receive interview offers and each school varies in the seats they have per program. That is why I am SO proud he has TWO interviews already lined up after the New Year! Way to go, Carl! We are praying school starts this year, but whatever it takes to get in is our current motto.  Whew! Now that that’s out of the way, Carl turned the ripe old age of 30 and has been ever so helpful at watching the kidlets while I rest after work. His favorite things are a good nights rest (every parent’s dream), opportunities to ride his bike or jog, a new pair of shoes, wrestling with Ezra, and watching a great action flick on his new 50” TV. Least favorite things: stinky rancid milk spit up from Vivienne on a fresh shirt that’s just been changed into and my blood curdling scream when I see a spider.

I, Tracey, have been doing quite well myself! I have been working in an emergency department as an RN for the past 10 months (minus six weeks of maternity leave) and I love it! I work nights and I must say, the patients who come in during the wee hours of the night continue to keep me entertained. I am so grateful to finally have nursing job I love and don’t want to pull my hair out while there! Besides work, I still enjoy sewing and cooking a good meal, though between kids and work, I find sleep consumes most of my time in-between.  My favorite things include hearing my babies laugh, chatting with Carl before bed, and a good chocolate dessert. My least favorite things include my detest for this mullet hair I have due to trying to grow it out this upcoming year, trying to come up with dinner when I don’t meal plan, and having Ezra pull my hand and say “mess!” only to find that yes, there is cornstarch all over the living room and piano.

Ezra is now the ripe old age of TWO! 29 months to be exact. He is freakin’ hilarious! Finally, the chatting phase has arrived. He loves to ask questions, can count to 12, almost says his ABCs correctly (does “A B E E E F E” count?), and like his mother, enjoys singing, dancing to all music varieties, and anything involving music. Many who attended to Venegas wedding can testify of his awesome dance moves. Ezra has such a bright light in his eyes. Even strangers notice and stop to tell us! He is incredibly intelligent and a great problem solver. He is making great strides in potty training as well – I know how curious you all are about his current bowel and bladder patterns. A few of his current favorite things include covering himself with our couch pillows and hiding, finding pens and markers to draw anywhere, watching the Backyardigans, playing rough with Dad, and “helping Vivi” whenever possible. His least favorite things include naptime, being told “no” and coming inside after being outside.

Vivienne Chan Leder – what a doll baby! She is now NINE months! I can hardly believe her one year birthday is nearing! She makes the sweetest little baby sounds every day. She has been rolling around mostly to get to things, knows how to “army-crawl,” but prefers to scream and make us tote her around. We call her our little parrot for that very reason of constantly hanging on to one of our shoulders. Vivienne, or “Vivi” as we mostly call her, seems like she will be walking before she crawls as she loves to pull herself to standing anywhere she can clasp her little pincers onto. I say pincers because those ruthless little fingers will most definitely find their way to the most tender skin on your arm, your collarbone, and a few unspeakable places as well. She is following her brother’s footsteps in being a chunky little thang with the many fat bracelets up her arms and down her legs. I could nibble on her little round cheeks all day!  Favorites: being held all day, having mom-and-dad-time-ONLY, my phone, and playing with whatever Ezra has. Least favorites: being buckled in the car seat, not being held and walked around, and being forced to wear a diaper.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May you continually remember the reason for this season and achieve all your resolutions by next Christmas ;)

Love,

Carl, Tracey, Ezra, and Vivienne 

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Seriously 10 weeks to go?

As many of you readers are also loyal facebook friends, you will probably have noticed I posted a very pregnant-looking picture of myself this week. Take a moment and notice the difference between 30 weeks with Ezra and 30 weeks with this babe:

 I am carrying out much more this time and my back and pelvis feel every bit of it. However, thanks to my maternity belt purchase, it hasn't been too bad as long as I get adequate rest each night (which Carl has allowed me to get by letting me sleep in almost everyday :)

We had fun taking pictures on Sunday after dinner. I love my little [growing] family!

he's like an asian carl, right?!

love love love that we are making the same face

just needed to showcase the brown eyes he inherited from me :)

YARG!!! We tend to say this at dinner time with forks, but he's happy to say it with blocks too

Being "soft" to the baby

he surprised me by giving the baby a kiss too!

Yay!

And the who's the goober now?

happy day!


ps- i'll be reporting on Carl's juicing halfway mark tomorrow on our other blog. woot.

The other one.

I finally updated my other blog with some reviews on treats as well as Carl's new diet action plan. Check it out!


http://harmonizedlaughter.blogspot.com/



Have a great day. I can hardly believe tomorrow is Saturday already!

EEEE ARRRRRRR

The title is pronounced "E" "R" which is announcing that I just got a job in the ER! Woohoo I am excited. It'll be a challenge, but so exciting and rewarding. Have I ever mentioned how grateful we are for my nursing degree? It has been a blessing in our family, especially in the last year!

Another announcement, Ezra's tree nut allergy panel results came back. This kid has a peanut, cashew, and almond allergy. Blah! I never thought he would be an allergy kid. So I scheduled an appointment with the referred allergist for more testing. Sigh. I hate that he will be poked and prodded and not know why.

While driving around today, Carl stepped into a Jimmy Johns. He came back smelling like a sandwich, so I told him he smelled so good I could take bite of him. I must be pregnant because I'm pretty sure there is nothing tremendously sexy about smelling like a toasted turkey sandwich.

It's been lightly dusting the last 8 hours. Welcome, winter.


Life is good :)

Just for old time sakes :) This was taken almost a year ago. I could nibble up those little fat rolls on his arms!