DankieTails

I swear when she went to bed last night Dankie was not sportin' these pigtails.

I was informed that she made them that way so that she could put one in each ear. 

This little blanket is pretty lucky to have someone looking after her the way you do.  

Mr. A-Z

Tonight Loriann and I went to the Target Center to see Jason Mraz in concert.

He was a MUST on my concert bucket list and tonight he proved why.

He came out on stage- all alone and started singing.  Just him and his guitar.

He sounded awesome!

It was a great night and being in the 14th row was just icing on the cake!

I will definitely go and see him again if given the chance.

On another note.  It was hard to walk today.

My arms and legs were sore- which was to be expected.

You can see my battle wounds...sick, huh?

Mudsuckers

I have been dreading this day.

 

It feels like forever ago when the conversations about the Rugged Maniac started.

It sounded like a good idea at the time and considering it was Spring, there was plenty of time to prepare.

 

Was plenty of time to prepare.  Did I? 

Of course not.

 

Our team name was the Mudsuckers. 

Lori Schiller, Lori Johnson (Lori S's friend), Molly Spiess, me and Loriann Lane.

 

 

8:45 am:  Time to make our way to the starting line.

Much to our surprise we came across a red wall....you must climb the wall to get to the starting line.  Guess it was fitting considering this was going to be our challenge for the next few hours.

 

9:00 am the race starts

We started with running up a hill.

Yup- UP a hill.

I guess it should have occured to us when we signed up for a race at Wild Mountain Ski Place.

The first hill KILLED ME.

When you get to the top of that hill we had to climb a wall, then roll over a big pipe, the run up and down sand hills.  When we were done with that we went another hill.

About 0.5 miles into this 3 mile jaunt I realized that I probably should have eaten a better breakfast- I was already starting to feel sick and the handful of red grapes I had had wasn't cutting it.

For the next 3 miles we would go up and down hills while running walking from obstacle to obstacle getting very, very dirty.

 

Obstacles included (but not limited to): wall climbing, wall walking (climbing up slanted walls using a rope to pull yourself up), walking across tires while pushing other tires out of the way, crawling through mud- under barbed wire, climbing through a tube and landing in a puddle of mud then crawling up a tube out of the mud puddle (another UP), more walls to climb, more mud puddles to crawl through and mud hills to climb.  Near the end we slide down a huge slide that landed into a mud puddle (more like mud pool), jumped over fire, climbed more walls, and crossed a cargo net.

 

 

Amazingly, I finished.

2 miles in I wasn't convinced I could.  My heart was racing and I could not stomach the idea of walking another hill. 

Our offical time was around 1 hour and 28 minutes- not bad for not feeling well and walking the whole time.

Lori, Lori, and Molly went ahead of us and they finished in 1 hour and 17 minutes.

 

 

It turned out to be a beautiful day!

 

10:45 am today:  "I will NEVER feel the need to do that ever again."

12:00 pm today:  "The only way I would ever do that again is if I could be promised that there aren't hills like that."

 

I guess it's sort of like childbirth- all too fast you forget about how painful it was and only remember the good that comes from it.

 

Scrapfest 2012

 

This year was going to be different.

When I found out what weekend Scrapfest was going to be this year I was disappointed because I knew I already had stuff going on that weekend so there would be no weekend full of festivities.

Instead we decided to go just for the day on Friday and instead of paying for the badge (which would get you free access to the lines make and takes) we decided to go to the mall and look around.  We could browse the vendor booths and if there was something we were dying to make we could easily get the badge while we were there.  Plus, the store starting displaying all of the different make and takes so you could plan out your day so we could always see them from there too.

 

We decided this year was much more about finding inspiration and less about actually doing anything while we were there.

 

The rotunda shopping was kind of a drag this year.  They had a lot of bins and items out but they were lots of bins filled with the same stuff.  The paper packs were $3.99 instead of $.99/$1.99 and skimming through a few you could see that a lot of the papers were ugly.

 

There weren't many make and takes that we liked so overall we made a great decision about how to spend our day. 

 

Of course the day didn't end without an injury (remember my burned arm from last year?).

I bought 6 new soaps at Bath and Body Works and after a few hours of lugging those around my arm was feeling it :-( 

20 days

Hannah:  "Mom, we should call Kas and Tin on the computer tonight."

Me:  "Sure we can try that but they might not be home."

Hannah:  "You mean they were stuck in the airport for like 20 days?!"

Me:  "No, no honey.  They are home in Ecuador just maybe not home at their house.  Why do you wanna call them?  You miss them don't you?"

Hannah:  "Yeah.  And dad needs to see the baby."

 

Sure enough we made the Skype call tonight and not only did 'dad' get to see the baby but he also showed us his own baby that he has in Ecuador.

 

I love that the kids can communicate this way and I love to watch them in action!

Hannah's First Crush

Tonight Brian and I got to witness Hannah experience her first crush.

 

We went to Snuffy's for dinner and while we were there the table behind us was getting cleaned off.

Hannah looked up, saw the 'blue guy' and said to me "Mom, he looks cute!"

 

The rest of the night she couldn't keep her eyes off of him.  She would follow him around the resturant and as soon as she couldn't see him she would start asking where he was.

 

The 'Blue Guy'

 When we got in the car to go home I asked Hannah who she was looking at inside.

 

Me:  "Hannah, who were you looking at in there?"

Hannah:  "The blue guy" (see her embarrassed face)

Me:  "Why?  What did he look like?"

Hannah:  "Justin Beiber"

 

 

You make me feel like dancin'

Time seems to fly by faster each day.  At the beginning of 2012 I had all sorts of plans and ideas of activities that I wanted to offer to the girls; gymnastics, soccer, T-ball, dance, swimming lessons.

Here we are in September and I have yet to make any moves.  In the big picture it really isn't a big deal at all but these days it seems like kids are starting everything so much earlier and it seems as though there is so much competition around what to do and when to start doing whatever it is that you plan to do.  It makes me feel like I am slacking even though I know that it's ok for kids to just be kids.  There is always next year and always next time but I didn't want to be that parent that isn't planning and preparing ahead. 

I am that parent.

Just a few days ago I remembered that dance started sometime in September.  Shoot!  I hope I am not too late....

I found the information online last week and lucky me, the classes started this week.  I emailed the teacher and found out that it's not too late to sign up and she sent me the list of available classes.

Today at lunch I bought ballet shoes for the girls and tonight at 6:05 pm they had their first dance class with Just for Kix.

 

There they are!  Hannah is.  You can see Hailey's 'spot' on the floor.  She was not interested.  As soon as we walked in and the teacher said hi to her I knew that she wasn't going to warm up enough to give it a go.  She spent the evening on my lap intently watching.  A few times she stood up and made a step to her blue spot but then would change her mind and end up on my lap again.

 

 

Hannah did great!  She listened well and followed directions. 

 

We have two classes next week so we will try again with Hailey and see how things go.

Hannah can't wait for her next class!

Just hangin' out

The girls were playing outside tonight.

Brody was over at his grandma's.  He brought Hannah a Birthday present- a princess case filled with makeup.  Hannah spent the rest of the evening putting on makeup and looking at herself in the mirror.

Brody spent the evening running around the yard and playing with Hannah's balloons and Hailey spent the evening in these.  This girl loves shoes!

Her feet looked so cute in these shoes, hanging off the back of the truck while she was just hanging out.

Auntie Jennie would be so proud!

Happy Birthday My Bean Machine!

 

I gotta admit, I was expecting this to backfire.

A number of things could have happened.  A balloon could have popped in the middle of the night, they all could have popped in the night, Brian could get up to go to the bathroom and think it was a robber and attack them, Hannah could wake up in the middle of the night and need something, they could fall... a number of things could have happened.

 

What DID happen?

7:00 am my eyes open.

Nobody else in the house is awake yet.  That's weird- Hannah is usually up by now.

I got up to start baking the Birthday cake.

After a few minutes of rustling around I heard her door open.

 

Hannah:  "What did you do?  Oh my gosh!  You did this for me?!"

 

My beautiful 5 year old!

 

Showing off her present.

 

The Busta's came over to watch the Vikings game today (they won) and we played Beauty Salon. 

Yes- I said WE.

 

Hannah requested a Barbie cake and a Sprinkle cake so here was my attempt at meeting both requests.

 

I let her stay up until 8:12 pm.

That is the time she was born so before bed I told her the story of the day she was born.

Her favorite part was hearing how her and I stayed in the hospital room together while daddy had to go home to take care of Nash.  I told her that the nurse kept coming in offering to take her to the nursery and I wouldn't let her out of my sight.  I laid in bed staring at her and holding her all night. 

 

Happy Birthday Bean- hope this year gives you all of the opportunity that a 5 year old can wish for!

Last day to be 4

 

Today is Hannah's last day as a four year old.

 

The mailman came as she was taking Hailey for a spin in the Barbie car.

She opend her card from Grandma Chris and Tom and a $5 bill fell out into her lap.

 

Hannah:  "YES!  I just knew that I was gonna get some money for my birthday!"

 

 

I always tease the girls about not wanting to let them grow up.  I have often told them I was cancelling birthdays- not to be mean but in hopes that they wouldn't get any older.  I miss who they were when they were younger and even though I ADORE them more and more every day, I miss who they used to be.  Sure, sure- their personalities are a lot the same but their voices get more mature.  Their conversations and interests get more developed.

As it got closer and closer to the actual day I tried hard not to mention things like this because a few times I think I actually hit a cord with Hannah and started to make her feel bad.

 

While sitting in the back seat about a month ago....

 

Hannah:  "Mom.  I have a great idea."

Me:  "Oh yeah, let me hear it."

Hannah: "Why don't you bring me to the doctor and see if the doctor can put a needle where the birthdays are and then maybe he can stop them from happening."

Me: "Oh Hannah, why in the world would we do that?"

Hannah:  "Because then you won't miss me anymore and cry when I get older."

 

Knowing how badly she wants to grow up and be a big kid I started to feel bad about this. 

Poor thing- too much compassion at such a young age.

Although, good thing she doesn't know that if it were possible to stop her from growing, I might take a stab at trying ;-)

Topless

 

I cleaned out my tupperware cupboard tonight.  Well, to be politically correct, it isn't Tupperware.  It would technically be Gladware, Ziploc Brand ware, Target container-stuff. 

I was shocked (yup- I used that word when talking about plastic containers) as to how many lids we have that didn't have the corresponding container. 

These are the EXTRA lids.  E. X. T. R. A.

 

How fitting that I also ran across this on Pinterest today....

 

 

Now, clearly not the case here since these containers would not be topless in the fridge.

 

Only question is... where are all of these bottoms?!

 

 

 

The Mother's Day that keeps on giving

Brian had gotten me a gift card to DSW for Mother's Day to get a new pair of boots.  I have anxiously awaiting for the 'Boot Store' to make it's way to DSW so I had a nice variety to choose from.

Being that it's Back to School season I figured I was in luck and decided to go and check the place out tonight.

 

Heading to a shoe store?!  OF COURSE I needed to see if my little darlings wanted to join me.  Brian doesn't do much out of the house so he doesn't get a lot of alone time so another perk- give daddy an hour or so of much needed freedom. 

 

 

They were playing outside so nicely with their babies.  When I asked if they wanted to come they both got super excited so we started the drill, get on your shoes, wash your face, fix your hair, make sure you take a potty break.....

 

A few minutes down the road I heard Hailey say "Hannah, you me best friend!"

I turned around to find this.

Yep- true sisters.  Screaming at each other one second and riding in the car holding hands the next.

 

 

They asked if they could bring their babies to the store.  We usually will let them bring them to the store but then those babies stay in the car while we shop.  Occasionally they will make a trip into Target with us.  Tonight I was feeling like doing something special so when they weren't looking I packed up the strollers.

When we got to the store they grabbed their babies and looked at me weird when I headed for the trunk.  When it opened and they saw what was inside they went crazy!

 

They started off pretty good.  Then the excitement of the shoes started to get to them. 

They. Could. Not. Hold. Back.

They went up and down the aisles trying to try on everything they could get their little hands on. 

The strollers quickly turned from an adorable, look how good my kids can behave with their babies event into who's kids are those?!  Just kidding it wasn't that bad and every lady in the place couldn't get enough of their excitement.  Hannah yelling "MOM!  You have GOT to try these!" to Hailey shouting "Oh My GOSH!" at every pair she loved.

 

 

So, instead of shopping for boots, I attempted to herd kittens.

I did finally get to try a few on....those moments where I looked around and played the 'Whose kids are those?!" game :-)

 

Not saying that I wouldn't let them do this again....after all, you only live once and how cool would it be to have a memory of your mom letting you bring your baby stroller shopping?!

What a difference a letter makes

Hannah: "Mom! Oh man look- Hailey dumped out all the Turds"

"Yet me in!"

Mommy is inside the bathroom and Hailey is outside trying to get inside.

Hailey:  "Mommy, yet me in!"

Mom:  "No thank you"

Hailey:  "Yet me in.  Me need Kleenex."

Mom:  "There are Kleenex in mom and dad's room."

Hailey:  "Yet me in.  Me need to wash me hands.  So dirty."

Mom:  "You can wait until I am done getting ready honey."

Hailey:  "Mommy, me need go potty."

Mom:  "There is a bathroom downstairs buddy."

Hailey: "I mean me need go poopy."

Ha!  Too bad I am on to her. 

Didn't you get the memo?

Tomorrow life is expected to get back to normal.

My sister is back in Ecuador, the kids will spend their days at daycare and I will go back to work.  

Today the kids enjoyed a day off at home- we haven't had one of those in a while.

We set up the pool and spent most of the day outside.  We even ate lunch outside which the girls thought was pretty special.

While we had a chance to relax a little I spent a few minutes watching this guy who didn't get the memo that it was Labor Day.  He was hard at work all day buzzing from flower to flower.

Sorry buddy- hope you get some time off soon.

Goodbyes Suck

The last day that Kari and family are here is never fun.

It's never easy and it is never fun.

We are so lucky that my sister and her family take the time and spend the money each year to bring their family here.  We all appreciate it so much (even if we don't always act like it or express it).

It's amazing to see how good the kids get along considering they don't get to see each other that much.

Tonight Grandma Bauer hosted a popcorn party to celebrate the occasion.

The kids spent most of the evening together and the grown ups spent time talking.  Eventually it was time for the Parades-Miller family to call it a night.  They have to leave for the airport around 4:00 am so they needed to get some sleep and start packing up the cars.

Once Kari made the announcement that it was time to say goodbye, Nico made his way to Hannah.  They wrapped their arms around each other and embraced for a good 10 seconds.

After the rest of us cornered the boys for hugs and kisses goodbye- seriously on the floor in the corner stealing them- they were on their way.  The rest of us stayed back to help Grandma clean up and then we headed home.

While on our way home I received a text from Kari stating that Nico was really sad and hadn't stopped crying since they left.  

Me:  "Oh buddies- Nico is really sad that you he is leaving.  He is going to miss you guys."

Hannah: "Oh no!  I am sad too."

Hailey:  "Me sad too, momma."

A few minutes later...

Me:  "Hey girls- why are you being so quiet?"

Hannah: "I can't stop thinking about Kas and Tin."
Hailey:  "Me sad Nash died."

Babies, balloons, and T-shirts. Oh My!

Today is the last day that the kids will be at the cabin with each other for this summer because Kari, Andy and the boys leave on Monday.

We started today with Balloon tennis.  The kids decorated their own rackets (paper plates with a plastic knife handle).  We then blew up a ton of balloons and let the kids go crazy.

Over 320 hits I was told

 

Hannah lost interest pretty quickly.  Nico liked to run through them and kick them most.  Hailey really enjoyed throwing them into the air and then hitting them with her racket and Agustin was happiest when it was one kid, one racket, and one balloon.

Next would be a spin around the lake in the boat.

It's really awesome to have a boat to take out.  It's too bad the family is so big so we have to take multiple trips to get everyone out but the girls don't seem to mind.

Hailey was a little freaked out this time around being at the front so she sat in back with Kimmy.  Hannah came up and sat with me and LOVED being up there.  That boat can't go fast enough for her.

The kids have been playing babies.  Hannah or Hailey are the mom and Nico is the dad.  Agustin is the brother and the other girl is the sister (when she isn't the mom).  All weekend you could hear the kids walking through the cabin "Dad- get the baby."  

Hannah:  "Here dad- give her to me.  I can feed her."

Nico:  "No.  I need to get practice so I know what to do when we have babies someday."

A few seconds pass

Nico: "Not when we have babies together.  But when we have families."

The kids each got a plain white t-shirt to decorate.  Agustin was most excited and his dad sat with him while he designed his new threads.  The other kids were a little slow and less excited about it.

Once they were all done they decided to ask people to sign their shirts.

Then it was out into the yard to snap some pictures.

These poor kids were not too interested in the paparazzi this weekend and got real antsy, real quick.

Even Bobby got in on playing babies.

Kari and Andy had a lot of packing to do so they left this evening.  Brian and I didn't have anything to do today so after a quick chat with Jennie, Kristin, Tom, and Bobby we decided to hang out another night.

We started our bonfire around 7:30 pm and it was still going strong around 4:00 am when the boys decided to come to bed.

I am going to miss these weekends.