For those of you who might not have known or realized it, we were on the road from March 5th until March 24th.  We were able to visit with family and friends in Platteville Wisconsin and all over Northern Michigan. Here are a few highlights for Simon while we were in Platteville, Wisconsin. 

Simon has discovered he really likes to play the piano (or at least play on the piano). Here he is playing along with Hayden, a friend from Dubuque, IA

Here is Simon playing with his buddy Rusty in Platteville, while the parents looked on with joy. 

Simon and Hudson also got to spend the evening with great new buddies, the Berglin Brothers.  Its a good thing none of them like to smile for the camera.

We did find a barrel although we may be looking for a second one soon. 
It is hard to believe with the four inches of snow we received on Friday and Saturday that Julie is already thinking of the garden but it is true.  Could be that todays 42 degrees has something to do with it as well.  So I am putting out a feeler post looking for help.  We are wanting to take advantage of mother nature this year and utilize rain water for the garden.  It will help in the long run to not have to turn the hose on (thus increasing our water bill) and utilize run off from the house gutters.  The problem of course is where do we store the water?  So I have been doing some checking and I am looking for two tanks like the one seen in the picture below.  If you know of someone who has these or if you have one and you are wanting to get rid of it, could you give us a call or drop us a line.  We would greatly appreciate it.

Today as I was folding laundry Simon was running circles in and out of our closet as usual when he found one of my shoes.  Not just any shoe mind you, a M&M sandle that I got from Matt’s parents for Christmas.  He instantly was convinced that there really were M&Ms inside that shoe and if he could only figure out how to get it open the treasure would be his!  So he pulled and pulled on it.  He turned it around and looked at it and pulled at it some more, all the while saying “um um, um um, um um” (translation: M&Ms).  Finally he got so frustrated the he threw it across the room with on final “UM UM!” And no matter what I did I could not convince him that it was just a picture and they were not real. I guess it’s true what they say, seeing must be believing.

Each day I come home and hear about the new first’s with Hudson.  Grabbing a toy, new sound or new action.  He is getting good at grabbing for things and now loves to talk back and forth with Simon.  Scares me that they might actually understand each other (but not very likely). 

Hudson really just likes to hang out without his brother swinging the toys away from him.

Dangling toys are a lot more fun when you can reach them and make them make the noise on your own, rather than your brother constantly bothering you and pushing the buttons. 

With the celebration of valentines day comes many different opportunities to celebrate.  With Simon being the big helper these days, Julie decided they would make cookies to send to the cousins in Montello, WI and Cadillac Michigan.  Little did she know just how much fun it was going to be and how much Simon was going to want to do more baking. 

Here Simon is helping to mix the dough and get it ready to roll out and cut out.

Once it is rolled out it is fun to use mom’s cookie cutters.

Now it is into the oven to be baked. 

Both Julie and Simon had a lot of fun that day and although Simon now ask’s everyday about baking, Julie is taking a day or two to recover. Oh yeah, and she thought she could probably make another batch if she could get all the flour out of Simons clothing.