Easter #2

Hannah was the first to wake up this morning.
She was pretty excited to see if the Easter bunny would know that we moved and with a whole house full of new spots to hunt she couldn't sleep.
After the girls found their baskets it was time to make pancakes. 

 Next it was Easter with the Millers, Bauers, Gotchs, DeLisles and Hammonds.

Complete with pooches!

We had Easter potluck style which is the only way to do it these days.

Grandma went to church this morning so we let ourselves in early so that we could get the meal going.  Kristin, Bobby, Jennie and Tom have multiple parties to attend today so they requested to eat early.  We made our way outside for our usual family pictures and even got a great one of the guys- too bad Andy and Kari weren't here :-(

Schmidty and Reggie spent the day wrestling :-)

 When we got home the girls were desperate to play outside.
Poor things....they really need a driveway and a yard.

Easter #1

I so appreciate Brian's family being so willing to be flexible around the holidays.  His mom is always suggesting alternate days to celebrate which makes it so nice for both of our families so that the kids can actually enjoy their time with each side.

BFF selfies

The girls and I were home today due to Good Friday.  Tonight is Lindsay's birthday party and we needed to get her a present and run a few other errands so we were up, showered and ready to go pretty early.  It was a nice day out and we decided to call Maddie to see if she wanted to have a playdate.  I didn't tell the girls that we were going to pick her up so they were pretty freaked out when we pulled into her neighborhood.

 The girls were super good while we were shopping and after we picked up Lindsay's present we went to McDonald's for lunch.  There was an older couple next to us that took a liking to the girls.  After learning all about their grandchildren, and even seeing pictures, the gentleman pulled out a pocket full of change and gave each of the girls 30 cents for their piggy banks.

When we got to Target I was instructed to wait a second so that they could get a good selfie.

 

After Target the girls were treated to some FroYo at Cherry Berry.

We came home and played for a few hours until it was time to leave for Lindsay's party.

 

Her party was at the Schwann's Super Rink.

They brought pizza and cake, opened presents and then we got to skate on our own personal rink.

It was a super cool party idea and the girls had a blast!

First time on skates for both of them.

 

 After a while Hailey was done skating and Carter came over to her with a chair.  She enjoyed rides around the rink for the rest of the night.

On our way home Hailey was sitting in the backseat and said "Mom, that guy (pointing to Brian) took skating lessons.  Him can skate GOOD."

More snow

It's snowing again.

I am not happy.

Nobody is happy.

Well, maybe someone....

Grandpa Denny's Girlfriend

It's Easter this weekend so the girls and I were talking about our weekend plans.

Mom:  "This weekend we get to see all of your grandmas"

Hailey:  "We do?!  YAY!"

Mom:  "Yep.  Do you know how many grandma's you have?"

Hailey:  "Yes.  Free"

Mom:  "You are right.  Which ones are they?"
Hailey:  "There's grandma Chris, grandma Bauer and Grandpa Denny's girlfriend."

Dance Friends

Tonight Alicia, Landon and Caylee stopped over to see the house.

Caylee is Hailey and Hannah's friend from dance.  We had pizza and then made our way to class.

Hailey and Caylee are so darn cute together.  Caylee and her family moved to Otsego and next year won't be making the drive all the way to Champlin for the 30 minute dance class anymore.  Alicia also wants to expose Caylee to tap and studio life so they found a place closer to home.  Bummer for me since I love our Tuesday night chats but I know that we will see them again.

Thanks to Facebook and text messaging, it is so easy to stay in touch with people.

We sure will miss them but now we get to look forward to play dates that don't involve sitting on the hallway floor!

Dear Family, by Hannah

Dear Hailey,

She is 4.  She can wink.  I love Hailey.

Dear Amy,

She is 37.  She can give me kisses.  I love mom.

Dear Dad,

He is 38.  He can hug me.  I love dad's hugs.

I love my family.

Let's get ready to rummmmmble!

We all got together today at Grandma Bauer's to celebrate Bob's Birthday.

I think someone needs to start sitting in the middle of this couch. Haha

Bob sits on the left- always.  You come to grandma's and Bob is either on the couch watching TV or at the computer playing solitaire.  Usually it's the couch.  All the time.

Grandma sits on the farther end but she's constantly up and moving around that when she finally sits in her spot it usually puts her to sleep.

Reggie and Schmidty joined us today and for the first time I got to witness them play.....or wrestle.

Jennie was less than thrilled about the situation and I get it.  It's her baby.  It's hard to know with these two if they were having fun or whether they were annoyed by each other.  They would nip and tug at each other and if someone yelped, the other would back away.  Both of them kept going in for more so I would imagine that that means that they were playing.  

Poor Schmidty has no idea how big Reggie is going to get- in just a few short months Reggie will have poops bigger than Schmidty!  

 

This dog :-).  He just wants to be outside.

 

First Smoke of the season

Grandma and Grandpa Parmley are coming over for dinner tonight.  Brian has missed his smoker and it's suppose to be nice today so it is an absolute must that we have ribs.  I can't wait any longer.

Hannah ran to the store with me to pick up some groceries and she asked if she could sit in the cart.  A few minutes later my shopping buddy was out.

She slept through the whole trip and didn't wake until we made it back to the car.

 

After dinner grandma and the girls were playing Go Fish.  In the middle of the game Hailey just walked over behind Hannah and started to give her a massage.  "Here Hannah, does this feel good?"

Luckily she didn't leave grandma or me out :-)

 

Family Fun Night

Hannah stayed home from school today.  She was saying she just didn't feel right and although her temp seemed ok, she felt a little warm to the touch and looked run down.  We decided to let her hang out at home today and miss her first day of school.  She obviously needed a day to just chill because she pretty much layed around all day until after lunch when she decided to scrapbook a little.

 

She was feeling better once daddy and Hailey made it home so we went to Family Fun Night at her school.  It was like a carnival- games set up in the classrooms, bouncers in the gym, food and prizes.

Hannah even met up with the CPBA Husky

Made my day!

 

Jennie posted this picture on Instagram today.

It made me smile for the whole day.  Poor Reggie is NOT ready for the snow to be gone and the rest of us are ready to move because we are sick of it.

Apparently while out on a walk today, where you can see it was nice enough to shed the coat, he spotted this pile and it was on!  He made his way there, climbed to the top and started his protest.

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!