ketchup...no, I mean catch-up

Thank you to all who have continued to check my blog even though I haven't posted anything in a week. Time has flown and a lot of things have happened. I will attempt to give you the short version of the highlights (in random order):

~ Jonas has mastered the "army crawl" using his elbows and feet (not his face anymore!). He's still not very fast, which is good because I still don't have any safety gates for my stairs.

~We had our first house guests, my good friend Mindy and her baby Mayzie.

(I managed to not get a picture of Mindy, but here's Mayzie and Jonas.)

~ I purchased a new toy and have started an at-home exercise regimen with surprisingly great success so far! (And, no-I didn't pay that much for it!)

~ Seth started preschool. He goes for 2 hours, 45 minutes three days per week. He loves it, Maryn hates it. She cries whenever we drop him off and asks me when she gets to go to her preschool. I would do something special with her at home, but he is gone during her nap time, so she's sleeping.

~ I have been consignment and garage sale shopping like crazy. I have found some awesome deals that I'm pretty proud of and have splurged on some things that may prove not to be worth it. But that's the fun of it. My favorite purchase is these sneakers I bought for Maryn.

She absolutely loves them! She calls them her Care Bear shoes because of the hearts, I guess. I wish I had some to match.

~ I have started a new craft project. It's something I've never done and I'm really excited about it. I hope I can pull it off. Thanks to Mindy for the inspiration and advice. I will post pictures of my progress.

~ One last funny note, tonight we went to a grand opening of a restaurant here in town. There was a clown there painting faces and making balloon animals, etc. She was standing outside right by the front door as we entered. Seth was petrified and didn't want to walk anywhere near her. I have heard that kids can be afraid of clowns sometimes, but I was still really surprised at his reaction. I don't have any idea where this fear came from, I can't remember the last time he saw a clown in person. Anyway, after watching her out the window while we ate, Seth decided that he did want a balloon animal and his face painted. Hopefully his fear was cured. Here's what we came home with: