MIssing Daddy

Brian left for Chicago today.  He's working on the Tilt project!

It's amazing to think that we had snow dumped on us just a few short days ago.  All of it is gone and we are back to a dirt yard and driveway....that's one thing that was nice about the snow, it covered up this mess.

 It was nice enough outside today to open the sunroof for a little while on the way to Jackie's and then Hailey suggested we send a picture to daddy.

 

We went out to eat and when we got home the neighbors, Noah (7) and Grace (4), were outside looking to play.  The girls ran over and made themselves at home.  They rode their bikes for a bit and spent some time just running up and down the sidewalk.  It was time for them to eat so they talked their dad into letting them eat on the front steps so they could stay with the girls.

When it was time to go to bed Hailey broke down.  She couldn't sleep because she missed daddy too much and even though we called him to say goodnight, she was daddy-sick.

We were sitting on her bed snuggling when she got up and walked into my bedroom, she came out holding one of Brian's sweatshirts and asked if she could sleep with it tonight. How sweet!

Got a Garbage Bag?

It's not a joke- you will need a garbage bag to mix this delicious snack!

Mix one packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (dry stuff)

2 1/2 cups Canola Oil

1 Tbsp Dill Weed

1 Tbsp  Lemon Pepper Mix

In the garbage bag (yes I am still serious- NO the biggest bowl you have won't work)

2 bags Fritos

2 bags Cheetos

2 bags Bugels

2 bags Pretzels

1 box of Cheezits

1 box of mini Saltines

(get creative here if you wish)

Pour the mixture from above into the garbage bag, hold the bag shut and mix it all together.

Dump it on wax paper or flattened out paper bags to dry

Enjoy!

when i look at this world vol 4

This weekend my 4th blog book arrived!  Over 300 pages of stories, pictures and memories!

Born to Ride

It was a pretty nice day today and Hannah decided today is the day she is going to try to ride her bike without training wheels.   The training wheels came off and we made our way across the street onto the sidewalk.  I read online about different ways to teach a kid to ride a bike and was getting ready to talk her into trying a few of the methods that I had read about.  I wasn't sure I could handle the whole hold-the-back-of their-bike-and-run-behind-them thing.  I understand that kids everywhere have been learning to ride a bike this way but I was just not convinced from my side of the equation that I could actually pull that off.  I was going to try a few other things first.  We got 30 seconds into my instruction when daddy came to the rescue!  He took the more traditional approach and within a few seconds they were off.  Hannah was trying hard to balance on her bike and Brian was right there with her, the whole way.

 

 

She was balancing so good that within a few steps Brian was able to let go and she could pedal a few times on her own before she would start to tip.  By the time we made it to the end of the block, she was riding a good 5-10 feet on her own at a time. 

 

We made our way around the corner and Hannah kept getting better and better.

We turned around to head back home and she was to the point where she didn't need any help anymore.  SHE DID IT!  We were so proud of her!  I couldn't hold the tears back.

She spent the afternoon riding her bike up and down the block and back and forth in front of our house. While she rode by she had the biggest smile on her face- she too was so proud!

She was practicing her turns when she toppled over and couldn't catch herself fast enough.

She was not too happy but it was nice to see that after we got her cleaned and bandaged up she was ready to try again. Ouch- poor little one.

Ladies Day Out - Take 3

For the past three years Tammy has invited me to join her at a Ladies Day Out event.  It is a fundraiser for MS.  It's a room FULL of ladies, vendors, and crafts.  HEAVEN!

Since I haven't touched my scrapbooking stuff in a very long time I didn't have very high expectations for my day.  I didn't set a goal of how much I wanted to accomplish and since I didn't even look at my stuff before I loaded it up I wasn't even sure that I would have anything to actually work on.  It took me a while to get started and organized but once I did, I had so much fun!

I only got 8 pages done but as the saying goes, that's 8 more than I had before I walked in the door today!  It got me in the mood to get my stuff organized and set up in the basement so that I can do some scrapbooking at home.  Of course I haven't quite gotten there yet- I like that I have a place once I am ready!  Maybe it's time for a few girls days at home!

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night

Yep- this stuff really happens.  At some point in your life you could actually walk into your child's room to find that they have slept with sunglasses on.  When asked why I was told that when she was going to bed the hallway light was too bright.

And in case you thought that since Spring officially started and all of the snow was melted that it's probably getting nice out.......think again.

We got dumped on again.  At least Hailey and Abigail had fun building snowmen at Jackie's today.

Stop.

We have had a lot going on lately.  It feels like there is always something to do, somewhere to go or errands that need to be run.  The kids haven't had much time at home to just be and I don't feel like there is much time to just sit.  Tonight we sat as a family and watched a few TV shows together.  Hailey was my snuggle partner tonight!

Feels good to get in a little recharge time :-)

Lucky Duck

One of the many things I love about our new home is that we actually have places to put our things.  We have a decent amount of storage and in most of our rooms there are empty drawers and cabinets.

Like for instance, this hairdryer has it's own drawer.

I am sure overtime we will find reasons to fill these spaces but for now it's pretty fun to feel like things have a place to go.

Is this for real?!

We heard from one of the little boys in the neighborhood that there was an 8 year old little girl who lived just down the street.  Hannah was super excited!  One day when she got home from school she was greeted by a bunch of kids in the front yard wanting to play.

There were a few girls but mostly boys.  One of the girls looked around Hannah's age and the other looked to be a pre-teen.

I was in the middle of something when Hannah came over and asked if Vanessa could come in the house to play for a little bit.  "Sure" I said.

I came in the mudroom a little while later to find these shoes.  The pink ones are Hannah's and the black ones belong to her friend. Figures the pre-teen friend is the one that wants to come in and play with the six year old.  A little while later the girls came downstairs and Vanessa's mom walked down to meet us and pick up Vanessa.  We got to talking and she informed me that Vanessa is 8 years old.  She's definitely mature and tall for her age but I was super happy to hear that she wasn't 13!

Skip to my lou

Hailey loves to skip.  I love when she does because she hasn't quite perfected it yet so it's sort of a run/hop/jump motion.  When I asked Hannah if she had anything to say about Hailey's skipping she said "She looks cute when she skips.  I don't think she will ever stop."  When I asked Hailey if she had anything to say about her skipping she said "I yike to skip because I 'm a good skipper and I like to play with my daddy but he's too fast so I have to skip to catch him."

Mom's New Toy

I have been wanting a Keurig for a while now.

Not really sure why except for the obvious reason, to make warm drinks.  Coffee, tea, whatever.

I am not a black coffee drinker.  I have tried but I just can not do it.

Lucky for me there are tons of K-Cups out there that are flavored for people like me.

At the very least I can actually offer guests a cup of coffee now :-)

Oh My Pink!

Back to the Barbie house!  As always the girls were so excited to see each other.  They ran to each other and gave each other huge hugs (I love that!).

After we walked through the Dreamhouse Stacey treated the girls to a cupcake.  After the party we spent the evening at the Busta's just hanging out.  They made all sorts of wontons and some boneless chicken wings.  All of the food was delicious.  YUM!

 

For the First Time in Forever

It's time!  Brian was home today and worked hard!  Our garage has been cleared out enough for us to get our vehicles inside!  I can't wait to park in an attached garage.

I will miss the first smells of spring and summer while walking to the garage and I will miss the morning sounds of the birds chirping and neighbors leaving for work.  

I won't miss the cold winter days or the rain though.  Definitely won't miss the rain.

Kiley slept over tonight.  The girls were so excited!

Maddie's Birthday party is tomorrow so she can ride with us :-)

Troy dropped her off and ended up sticking around for a few hours.  We had dinner and then the guys went downstairs and the girls went upstairs.  For the first time in forever I was in our house, alone.  I had my own floor of the house.  All to myself.

Oh my gosh!  What should I do?! 

I brought the computer out, turned on the tv and sat on the couch to catch up on some blogging.

It was fabulous for the 15 minutes that it lasted.

Soon I had the little ladies looking for treats.  Once they saw how much fun I was having, they had to get in on the action.  Just a small reminder of how blessed I am right now to have kids that at the moment want to be near their mother.  Even their friends wanna hang out with me.  This won't last forever.  Soon I won't be cool enough and they will be doing whatever they can to avoid me.  So even though my left arm is going numb, I will embrace this moment.

Strike a pose

This post was going to be about the fact that Hannah was eating leftovers from Benihana for breakfast.  It was going to be about the fact that I could only imagine what any adult that got close to her would think when she approached them smelling like shrimp sauce at 7:30 am.

I took the picture with those things in mind but as I looked again at this picture I couldn't help but notice that Ms. Hailey thought that I was taking a picture of her and was posing for me.  What a cutie!

"I emailed Dale"

 "I emailed Dale"

Those words have been said by either Brian or myself almost everyday (sometimes a few times a day) for the past few months.  Dale is our builder and prefers to be contacted directly with questions/concerns/requests.  We weren't always so good about remembering to copy each other on our emails to him.  They were frequent enough that I was certainly ok with that.  I don't need anymore emails.

This was also our que to let each other know what we were thinking about an upgrade, possible change, item at the constructed house that needed attention, etc.

I was feeling a little sad once we moved in thinking that we would speak these words less and less.

Little did I know...

We definitely don't connect with Dale as much as we used to but there are still plenty of things left undone (driveway, patio, painting, etc) and as we are here longer we start to notice other things to bring up.  We've had to have the girls bathtub looked at for a smudge mark, the vanity in the downstairs bathroom replaced due to a crack in the corner and a few of the lights were finally installed.

Most recently we have been 'marking'.

Dale will be stopping over in the next few days to talk about some imperfections that we have noticed.  In the meantime we have some new decorations.  

Hey Girl!

Hailey discovered a new app tonight- I think she was enjoying herself....

Celebration continues

My family came over today to celebrate my Birthday.

It was the first time that a lot of them had been out to the new house.

It was nice to have everyone over but it was even better that we cooked and ate dinner with not a single person getting tripped over or stepped on!

The new house doesn't feel overwhelmingly big but you can sure appreciate the extra space in situations like this!  

One of the gifts I opened today was from Hannah.

She gave me a quarter to buy a back massage from her.

I already cashed it in and she actually did a good job!

My mom brought over a box full of stuff.  Report cards, notes, school projects, worksheets, awards, etc.  This will be fun to look through some night!

Heart officially melted

Hailey was in her room and started crying.  She was feeling sad about something and I can not remember what it was all about.  Hannah was in her room and came running in to check on her.

Hannah: "Come here buddy, let me rock you."

Hailey jumped right up.

Hannah stood there swaying back and forth while Hannah rubbed her back.

'New Amy'

Today is my birthday.

I woke up in a great mood.  How could there be a reason to feel anything but absolute joy today?!

I am alive and fortunate enough to be celebrating another birthday.

As soon as I grabbed my phone there was a constant stream of Facebook notifications.  Well wishes and Happy Birthday greetings from so many people.  

Hannah woke up extra early this morning to wish me a Happy Birthday and then asked if there was anything I needed.  When I responded with no she clarified that she really wanted to get me something.  "Do you need breakfast or something?"  How could I say no to that?!

Minutes later she returned with a strawberry pop tart and Diet Coke.

I got to work and moments later I was presented with a desk full of goodies from Loriann.

Flowers, muffins for the team, Diet Coke, Red Vines, Cadbury Mini-Eggs and Gavin DeGraw tickets!

Another reminder of how lucky I am to have such a great friend.  I definitely don't tell her enough how much she means to me (but I think she knows).  This past year has been tough at work and I can honestly say that I am not sure it would have been worth sticking it out if she wasn't there.  I usually really enjoy my job and I have really appreciated working for HealthEast, I love it there, but it's been hard.  She gets it, she gets me.

It's great to have someone to talk to who understands and can also speak my language (which many days feels like Chinese).

After work Brian and the girls showered me with gifts.  A gift card to DSW and Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  We had a nice dinner at PF Changs and Kim even joined us!

During dinner Kim mentioned that she wanted to take the girls home.  They were all in for that idea so after dinner they stopped home for a change of clothes and waved goodbye as they drove away.

I love the relationships that my sisters and my girls have. They are all so lucky to have each other.

We had heard that the neighbors were getting together tonight and we planned to stop over after dinner.

Tonight the party was at John and Elizabeth's.  As soon as we walked in we saw a table set up with balloons.  The balloons read Mike, Amy, Jake and New Amy.  Each balloon came with a gift (favorite alcohol for the others and flowers for me) and a birthday crown.  Elyse had shared with the group that it was my birthday and turns out there were actually 4 other birthdays within a few week period in March.  I tell ya, these people sure know how to make you feel welcome!  We met three more households worth of people tonight who were just as nice and fun as the ones we have met so far.

The day ended with knowing that we were going to be able to sleep in a little tomorrow!  

Happy Birthday to me! (thanks Kim and Jennie!)

Nailed it!

Today is the first nice day we have had in months.  MONTHS.

The sun is shining and you can be outside without a coat on.  Too nice to be inside, that's for sure.

The girls were begging to stay outside as well so we decided to spend sometime tonight picking up nails from the driveway/yard.  We haven't been parking in the garage yet.  It is slowly getting organized but it's just not ready for dirty cars yet (remember that we have a mud driveway right now).

When we first started I assumed we would get a small handful picked up.  My main goal was to get them away from our truck tires.  The LAST thing we need around here is a flat tire due to our construction zone.

After only about 20 minutes we had to get a small bucket out to hold all of the nails that we found.  Feels comforting to know that we picked so many up.  I am sure there are still tons of them out there somewhere but at least we tried to get as many of them as we could.  That should at least help.

Homework

Hannah:  "Mom, remember that homework that I was suppose to do while we were at grandma's and we never did it?"

Mom:  "Huh?  What homework?  Did you have homework that we missed?!  Oh man, how did we miss a homework assignment?!" (gotta admit, I was panicking a little- how can we have already missed a homework assignment, she's been in school for like 120 days?!  What in the world are we going to do when her homework really matters if she had homework and I didn't even know?!)

Hannah: "Yes mom.  We had homework we were suppose to do over winter break.  Don't worry Ms. Stauffenecker isn't mad, she knows that we moved in and that you are real busy.  Don't worry, she understands mom.  She is so understanding.  She understands everything she knows, mom."

Mom: "Hannah!  Just because we moved doesn't mean you don't have to do your homework.  How did we miss this? I am sorry buddy.  Are we suppose to do it and bring it in?"

Hannah:  (giggling while she talks)  "No mom.  Almost nobody in the class did their homework.  Not one person turned it in.  Ms Stauffenecker understands."

Something tells me that Ms Stauffenecker probably forgot to send some homework home.......

Reason #78

 

One of the many reasons that I wanted to move was to live in a neighborhood where people were outside.  Kids playing, grown ups talking.  We didn't have that on our old street.  Sure we knew a few of our neighbors really well but on our whole block I think I knew 5 families.  We really only ever spent time with Kris and Steve.  I wanted my kids to grow up in a neighborhood with kids and lots of them.  I also wouldn't mind if Brian and I made a few new friends in the process too.

Tonight we went over to Jake and Elyse's house where we also met Paul, Amy and their son Ethan. 

Jake and Elyse have a house like ours but because our houses are 'custom built' they are all different on the inside.  Based upon the changes or differences that each of us made.  They have a HUGE island with a beverage cooler and shelves built into the side.  They went with white trim and a white kitchen.  It is beautiful!

Everyone we have met so far is so nice and we hear that there are tons of kids on the block. 

YES!  I can't wait!

Our first visit

Earlier this week I had bought some blank canvases for the girls to paint.  I thought it would be cute to hang their artwork in the loft.  Each of them got two.  One large and one small.  Here goes nothin'!

The Parmley side of the family came over today for a March birthday celebration.  About 30 minutes after they arrived we got a visit from the neighbors.  Elyse, Jake and their newborn Emerson stopped over to meet us and brought us a bottle of wine.  What a nice surprise!  It was great to be officially greeted to the neighborhood!   I can't wait for this summer!

One week down, a lifetime to go!

It's a been a week since we moved in.  Seems unreal.

Hannah was home with me again today.  We spent the day getting more boxes unpacked and ran some more errands.  It's funny when you move into a new house how much stuff you need want to replace.  We also threw stuff out when we moved from our old house so we needed to replace the 'regular' items, condiments, paper products, etc. 

I have been obsessed with shopping for rugs lately and today I finally broke down and made a commitment to one that I have had my eye on.  I was a little nervous about it but today when I went to the store to buy it, it was on clearance!  50% off!!   I am so happy with it!

The girls LOVE our new stools.  I love having my little buddies with me whenever I am in the kitchen cooking or cleaning up.  They eat breakfast here every morning and most of the time during their evening treat.

Boxes anyone?

We have quite the collection of cardboard around here.  I posted something on Facebook asking if there was anyone that needed boxes.  Within a few minutes there were responses and today I loaded up my truck to make my first delivery.  I had mentioned to Loriann that I was going to meet someone for a drop off and then I was planning on heading out to Woodbury to do a little shopping so we met for lunch and spent the day kid-free shopping.  It was fabulous!

I ended up buying some pictures for the office and pillows for the loft.   I also got a picture for the loft. The pillows are out and look adorable.  The pictures will take me a while.  I can't bear the thought of putting holes in the walls just yet.    As much as I am wanting the house to look 'lived in' and decorated it makes me nervous to commit to anything.