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Enchanted Kingdom: Omaha Children's Museum

Lorelai and Pepper have a new favorite exhibit at the Omaha Children's Museum! They to visit the new Enchanted Kingdom exhibit last night, and it was a huge hit!

Right off the bat, we knew it was going to be a good exhibit because of the large animatronic dragon at the entrance to the exhibit! Although Lorelai was unsure, Pepper could have watched that dragon all day long.



The exhibit is full of hidden learning gems, all wrapped up in a big princess fairy tale. A few of Lorelai's favorite sections were:

1. The DIY bubble wand with fountain
2. The caste with slide
3. The mini market
4. The unicorn nursery where you can feed and brush your unicorns, which also include an animatronic unicorn



Other awesome sections were the library, mirror maze, kitchen, and gem mine! There is a special reading area where one of the dragons assist in telling a story. There is a rock climbing wall for older kids, along with many other exhibit highlights!


The museum is going above and beyond with th…

Family Dinners

This month we've decided to implement the "family dinner". I'm not committing to this long term yet...but I'm giving myself 30 days. It is a manageable goal for us, in hopes the habit will stick and we will see the long term benefits.
First, our normal evening often looked something like this:

4:00p- Mom arrives home from work and Lorelai wakes up from her nap
4:30p- Mom starts eating dinner, and Lorelai has a snack while playing/reading
5:30p- Lorelai has a more substantial snack/meal either while playing, in the car on our way to run errands/go to library, or if it is a messy dinner, in her high chair
6:00p- Dad has dinner
7:00p- Lorelai has another snack because she probably didn't eat any dinner.

This is how we've always managed dinner, even before kids because of our schedules.

So why change? I've read countless articles on a few of the supposed benefits of having family dinners together. Here are a few points that stood out to me:

It doesn't …

Why LASIK was the affordable, best decision I've made this year.

I can't believe it has already been a month since I had LASIK. I never thought I would get accustomed to not wearing glasses so quickly, but I am loving it! Not only can I see my shampoo bottles in the shower, but I also get to put on sunglasses anytime I want, press my face up against my girls' cheeks (without stabbing them with the side of my glasses), and see immediately when I wake up. Side note: I found out I have a smoke detector in my bedroom with a little blinking light. With my glasses off I honestly could not see any blinking light or the detector above our heads. I asked Kevin if it had always been there, because it was at an angle I would only see lying in bed, when I normally had my glasses off. 


I'd like to share a little about what procedure day was like.  First, let me say that Kugler Vision is the most customer focused business I have ever met. On procedure day, I was treated like royalty. I was brought into a peaceful room, asked what kind of music I liked…

Interview with Kevin: Being a Stay At Home Dad

Kevin is working double-duty now that there are two crazy little girls at home. Over maternity leave last month, I started getting a little insight into what his life must be like. I decide to interview him on what it is like being a stay-at-home dad!


What do you love most about being a stay-at-home dad?

The thing I love most about being a stay at home dad is all the time I get to spend with the girls and how I have been able to see them grow up every step of the way. I really have enjoyed spending time with Lorelai reading, playing with toys, watching movies, and taking her to experience new things. Its still early, but I am sure I will love it with Pepper too.

Why did you choose to be a stay at home dad?

I wouldn't say I chose to completely, I was more than willing to. I didn't particular like my job before Lorelai, however, it was more that it made the most sense. I was working a retail job, and Kitty had just been hired at her current job which included a salary we …

Battling Mom Guilt

I'm officially back to embracing the "Working Mom" title. Going back to work brought on a lot of mixed feelings for me. I was nervous to jump back in after being out of the office, feeling bad about the lost hours of quality time spent with the family this week, regretting not spending more time soaking up baby cuddles and reading stories, worried about how Kevin would handle having both girls at home during the day...and then a little exhausted on top of that.

Let me just say it..Mom Guilt Sucks.

I try to overcompensate by focusing entirely on the girls when I get home from work. I spend my commute listening to parenting books and books about how to be a successful working mom, all in an attempt to make myself feel better that I'm missing so many quality hours with the girls during such a fleeting time.

Some days I feel even worse when my emotionally unstable two-year-old sees me arrive home from work and cries...not wanting to be near me, all due to whatever demon …

Why I Believe In Sleep Training

It's 4:00 a.m on the day my youngest daughter turns 7 weeks old. You may be thinking, "that poor mom, you know its been a rough night if she is blogging at 4:00 a.m."

Wrong, I just woke my daughter for the first time in 8+ hours to eat. I can't say this is the "norm" yet, but she is consistently doing 5-8 hour stretches of sleep at night, before going down for another 4 or so hour stretch. If you're a mom of an infant, you feel like a million bucks after that kind of sleep and I had to share what we did to get here.


When we started "sleep training" our oldest, Lorelai, at around 6 weeks old...I started to think maybe we just had a good sleeper. She had colic, MSPI (if you don't know what this is...you're one of the lucky ones) and all kinds of tummy issues leaving us with a screaming baby any time she was awake. She wasn't exactly the poster child for a kid that would sleep well. I told myself that sleeping well was the least she c…

I'm Getting LASIK, and Here's Why

If you don't wear glasses or contacts, you may not understand the struggle I'm about to describe to you. My struggle is this:


These are my actual shampoo and conditioner bottles in my shower. Can you tell which set are shampoo and which are conditioner? Yeah, me neither. This is honestly what my bottles of hair product look like to me in the shower, as well as anything else when I don't have glasses on. When I started buying shampoo & conditioner that looked the exact same and have a toddler who loves to move around my bottles...it started driving me nuts. I have a system, rather than group brands of products together I put shampoo on one side of the shower, and conditioner on the other. I have a two year old who LOVES to move them around during the day...just one of the many ways she likes to make my life a little more challenging.

That is just one of the many reasons why I'd love to be able to see clearly without glasses. Another big event that happened this year…