The Great Minnesota Get Together

When : tonight after work

Where: MN State Fair

Who:  Tammy, Bett, Jodi, and I

What:  Deep fried cheeseburger, fried pickles, cheese curds, diet coke, deep fried oreos, milk, deep fried fruit on a stick, pot roast sundae, Sweet Martha's Chocolate Chip Cookies, Hawiian Shaved Ice, deep fried mac n cheese, smores, and french fries.  (I hope I remembered everything)

How:   The key is to go to the fair with many people so you only have to take 1-2 bites of everything you get and everyone shares.

I really needed the trip to the fair tonight.  A night to just hang out with some friends without worrying about work or all the things that I should be doing that I wasn't.  The weather was decent and the crowds were perfect. 

You are killing me...

The only thing bad about following a blog is when you are looking forward to your daily dose and you get to the page to find nothing.   

The end of an era

We have bought our last can of formula (at least for now). 
I bet you know where this is going...I am starting to sound like a broken record, huh?

Hailey can start drinking whole milk at 12 months. Since she will be just a week or two shy when this formula is done so instead of buying one more can, we will transition her to milk.  (she already steals swigs of Hannah's milk whenever she gets a chance so we know that her stomach can handle it)

For only $11.96 I could delay this next chapter in her life for another 7-10 days but that's all it would be, a delay. 

So, for the next week, each time I make a bottle I will think about how fast life is moving.  How quickly-just one year ago-that our lives were blessed with Miss Hailey Renee. 

The chalk road

How fun is it to play with chalk? 

This weekend, Hannah drew a road with chalk on the driveway. 

I added trees, houses, buildings, and a stop light.

It was such a nice weekend with such beautiful weather.

The Chalk Family

Tonight we were hanging out with the neighbors in the driveway.  The neighbors grandson, Brody, comes over and we sit and hang out.  The kids usually ride their bikes, blow bubbles, draw with chalk, and of course eat plenty of snacks.

Hannah layed down on the driveway adn asked me to trace her.  She finished it off by drawing some eyes and a mouth.  Happy to see that it was a smiley face.

Then it was my turn.  She wanted to trace me...

Don't take out this garbage

Took the garbage out of the cupboard to take it outside to put in the garbage can and came back inside to find this.  At first I didn't know where she went.  I had asked Hannah to keep an eye on her...well, Hannah was around the corner giggling waiting for me to come back inside to see just where her sister had gone to.  It was pretty cute watching her peek outside of the door and smile at us knowing that she was 'getting away with something'.

This is the job that never ends

It just goes on and on my friends

Sometimes I start to clean it up, not knowing what's in store

and then within a day I'm cleaning it some more

This is the job that never ends

It just goes on and on my friends...

Why is it that your kitchen counters become the 'catch all' to everything in your house.  This day the center island contained a gallon of paint (to finish that bedroom redecorate project), paint rollers, a computer, formula container, 2 deodorants, a note pad, a box of dog bones, a purse, a container of peanuts, hairspray, a dish rag, 35 cents, and a box of fruit snacks.

I could clean it off but it will just collect more stuff tomorrow.

Bubbles, Bubbles, are so fun

I love this picture.

That look on her face is just pure joy! 

She is so proud of herself now that she isn't using a bath seat anymore.

And I am so proud of this adorable little face!!  (look at her mouth...AUGH I just want to be kissing it!!)

Patiently waiting....or was she?

Yesterday we were going to Tammy's house for a Tastefully Simple Stop and Shop.  When we were finally ready to go, I told Hannah that I needed to get a new shirt on, then get Hailey in her seat, give the dog a bone, then I would be ready to go.  She informed me that she would be fine waiting in the car.  I think her words were "I will go to the car and wait for you.  I can start to get buckled."

I come out to the garage and sure enough she got herself into the car but she wasn't sitting in her seat....instead she was exploring....the lights, wipers, radio, cruise control, hazard lights, and right blinker were on when I started the car.  Good thing I had the keys in the house with me or she may have just taken off down the driveway.

Never good when you shirt ends up in the sink

Not a good sign when your shirt ends up soaking in the sink.

Picked Hailey up out of her highchair tonight, brought her into the bathroom to get her clothes off so she could take a bath.  Noticed something on her shoulder, looked like mushed up puffcorn so I wiped it up with a Kleenex and continued to squeeze and hug her- while waiting for the bathtub to fill with water.  Just then I looked down to see that the mushed up puffcorn from Hailey's shoulder was all over the front of my shirt!  All over.  I think by now I don't have to tell you that it wasn't really puffcorn.  Nope.  It wasn't.

Hannah Elizabeth

Mom:  "Hey ________ (insert term of endearment here)!  I sure do love you!"

Hannah:  "I not __________ (whatever I called her (usually Honey or Sweetie)).  I Hannah Elizabeth Parmley!"

The spoon

For some reason Hailey has been carrying around this spoon.  It has been about a week.  She holds onto it when she crawls, when she eats, brings it into the bath, brings it along when she rides in the car... you get the hint.  Maybe this is her 'Dankie'?

Just hanging out with my sister

Now that Hailey is mobile she wants to be everywhere that Hannah is.

She is also mastering the ability to climb so I was not surprised when I saw her climb up on the bench and sit next to Hannah on Grandma's bench.

Hannah was talking to Grandma (not sure which one but whomever it was was telling her real funny jokes).

Hello, nice to meet you

Meet my new toy.

The HP Mini netbook*. 

Cute, isn't he?

*I placed the bottle next to it so you could get a sense of just how mini this thing is.

Is it that obvious?

I went out with some friends for dinner tonight.

Pretty obvious, huh?

Get this thing off of me!

I guess Hailey didn't like this shirt. 

All day she would be crawling and then stop, scream, and lift the shirt up as if trying to pull it off.

When she took off crawling again, I was able to see the problem.  The shirt is a little long and as she would crawl, the shirt would get tucked up under her knees and slow her down.

Devestation

Today was suppose to be a good day.   We met Denny, Judy, Jennifer, Tom, and the kids (along with Tom's parents, sister, her husband, and their daughter) at Cascade Bay in Eagan.  We were celebrating Adam's Birthday.  It was a little cold and windy that day.    Tom left the waterpark before us to get pizza.  We were going back to their house to eat and open presents.  As we were driving back to their house, we saw tons of police.  Brian and I made some comments that soemthing big must be going on (little did we know what we were about to see).  As we got closer to their house we saw smoke in the air (we were still 1/2 mile or so away), then we were passed by fire trucks driving down the road.  The closer we got, the more we were able to see that the smoke looked awfully close to where we were heading.  We were talking about how that fire must be right by their house, must be the neighbors house.  We turned down the road and saw that Jennifer and Tom's street was blocked off.  We couldn't see anything except police and fire trucks down the block.  We drove around the block and came around to the other end.  At that time we looked down the street and saw that Jennifer was talking to the police.  OH NO!  We could see that their house was on fire. 

Brian let me out of the car and I ran down to see what was going on.  As I was running up to the house I saw the firemen breaking down their front door, I could hear them around the house breaking their windows.  Looking at the house we could see that there was smoke coming out of the attic as well.  A few minutes later a fireman came out of the house carrying a kennel....I could see Angel moving inside and knew that she was alive.  No one was in the house and everyone is ok.

The next three hours were surreal. 

The kids were at the neighbors house, pretty oblivious as to what was happening.  Jan got the the pizzas from Tom's truck and as the firemen worked on putting the fire and 'hot spots' out, we ate pizza-picnic style in the neighbor's back yard.

Saturday night Tom and Jennifer had a fire in their portable fire pit.  When they were done, Tom poured water over the fire, he is always real careful.  Sunday morning they moved the firepit closer to the house.  Apparently the coals were hot enough and with the wind that day, it was enough to somehow catch fire.

This week they will be put up in a hotel and eventually moved to a more 'temporary permanent' place.  The fire cheif told them that they could be out of their house for up to 6 months.  During this week there will be plenty of clean up to do and the insurance people will go through their things to determine what can be saved, what needs to be thrown, what can be cleaned, etc.

I will miss you most

Kari,

I will miss you the most when you leave.
I will miss being able to just talk to you.  I will miss taking little road trips and having a few moments alone with you to just talk about random things (well, actually, can you hear Hannah talking to us in the background...?).  I will miss your facial expressions and your excitement over the smallest things.  The things that as you grew up you took for granted or didn't even care that they exsisted.  I will miss your passion for reading.  Not because I necessarily enjoy sitting at the library waiting for you to touch everything you need to touch but for the simple fact that as I grab my gadgets (computer, phone, etc) you still just want to read.  That is my sister.

Andy,

I will miss you the most when you leave.

I will miss watching you interact with your boys.  You are a great dad and your boys are lucky to have someone who is so invested in them.  I will miss your sense of humor and your ability to add laughter to any story that is being told.  I will miss your passion for shopping and keeping track of the 'cravings' that you arrived with and assuring that within your time here you space them out as to not overload your senses.

I will especially miss your love for ice cream.  When you are around is the only time that I have someone who also believes that ice cream makes the best breakfast.

Agustin,

I will miss you the most when you leave.
I will miss your voice.  I will miss your personality and the way that you leave your mark with every comment you make.  I will miss your creative spirit and your ability to keep yourself busy....anywhere at anytime.  I will miss your vision of noticing that anything could be blown up and within the blink of an eye "Pkkksssspppsssshh (boom!)" things are gone, just like that.  "What?  I am just playing."
I will especially miss watching you interact with Hailey.  You were so sweet with her and I would often find you following her around, just watching her as you would pat her on the head.

Kas,

I will miss you the most when you leave.

I will miss the perfect mixture of my children.  Your appearance reminds me of Hailey and your personality is just like Hannah's.  How much more perfect could you get?

I will miss your angelic face.  I will miss your wisdom and phrases.  I will miss watching you watch everyone else and soaking in everything that is happening around you.

I will especially miss watching you play with Hannah.  The freezie monsters. 

Cousins by chance, friends by choice

These kids sure had fun together over the past three weeks.

The parents had fun watching them play together.

In just a few days, the boys will head back home and life will get back to 'normal'.  I think we would rather have them here...

The countdown starts again

The countdown starts again.
This time instead of counting the number of days before Kari and Andy get home, we are dreading the few days that we have left.
No matter how much time we have together, it never seems like enough.

Today everyone came over to our house.  The kids swam at 'Parmley Park' again and at the end of the day ended up on the couch baking cakes. 

De-Lish

Hailey has transitioned from eating mostly rice cereal and baby food to eating finger foods and solids.

She is a huge fan of mac 'n cheese, bananas, 'wet' toast, and fish sticks.

I remember when Hannah was little and started eating solids.  I was so exciting to stop feeding her baby food.  I was so excited for her to be feeding herself and I loved watching her pick up the food with her little pincher fingers and then shove the food into her face.  With Hailey...not so much.

Don't get me wrong, she is ADORABLE!  She probably has the cutest little face ever made and those cheeks were made for storing handfuls of noodles.  The problem is that this poor child has to deal with a mom who already saw how fast time goes by and has already watched one child grow up and become independent and isn't ready for her baby to get any older.

You are getting the hint. 

You've heard me say it before.

I appreciate the fact that my girls are growing up and learning new things and I am looking forward to the days when things get a little easier but I am going to miss them at this age.  I am going to miss Hailey's chubby legs.  I am going to miss her gums. 

I am looking forward to watching her grow and seeing who she becomes but can't I just feed her baby food for a little while longer?

Until she's like 16?

Bumps on a log...or house

Came outside to put my car away tonight.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something on the house. 

Three big spots.

My heart stopped.  I wanted to look but I didn't want to know what it was.

It was probably just a huge moth or something.

Maybe it was just some dirt.

Better yet, maybe a shadow. Could it be?

Got in a little closer and my stomach jumped into my throat!

Three HUGE (about the size of a half dollar- at least) frogs/toads, whatever - nasty either way, were hanging on the side of the house.  Even though I knew that it was probably very unlikely that they would jump off of the house and onto my face, that is all that I could picture happening next.  My skin was crawling.

I went into the house to get my camera and when I came out and started getting close to the side, I noticed something hanging on the side of one of the flowers...

Now, inside the house, looking at these pictures, I kind of wish that I would have gotten my big lens and taken some cool pictures of these guys but I kinda hated them. 

I was even having trouble looking through the camera view finder to snap them for fear that I would be attacked.

Manic Monday

Back to work.

It has been such a frustrating summer of commuting.  I can usually handle the commute pretty well but this year, the construction is making me crazy!

I just feel like ANYWHERE I try to drive to I run into a detour or lane closures.  It is frustrating enough to be in bumper to bumper traffic but then to see orange cones and signs everywhere....it sure can ruin your day.

Back to 'normal'

Left Las Vegas last night (well this morning) at 1:34 am.  Arrived in Minneapolis at 6:30 am. 
Thought I would get a chance to take a nap to catch up on some sleep, etc.  No such luck.

Hannah and Hailey greeted me at the door when I got home.  They were both very excited to see me but Hannah was real excited about the donuts I brought home.

Hannah:  "MOMMY!! (pitter patter, running my way.....screech!)  You bring donuts?  Oh Boy!  Daddy, mommy bring me donuts!"

We spent the day just hanging out at home, taking it easy, talking about what we did over the past few days.

Wrapped up the day with the girls in the tub checking out their 'silly hair' in the mirror.

Goodbye Vegas

Each time I am in Las Vegas there is something about my trip that stands out.

My favorite part about this trip was the view out of our hotel room.  This picture from my camera phone does not do it justice but at least you can see that we overlooked the strip.  It was so beautiful!  We slept with the huge picture windows open at night because the view was so amazing.

Our plane will leave tonight (tomorrow am) at 1:24 am and we will arrive in Minneapolis at 6:30 am Sunday morning.  Guess I should I have thought about that when I decided to get only 3 hours of sleep last night...

When mom is away...

While I was in Vegas, Brian sent me daily videos of the girls.  It is a nice way to stay in touch and get my daily dose straight to my phone.  Many of the videos start out with Brian asking Hannah what she wanted to say to mom, she would yell into the video "Happy Birthday Mom!"  (funny considering that I always attempt to take Happy Birthday message videos to email to you all on your speical day but she never will....guess she figured it out)  In this particular video I got to watch Hailey enjoy her first Oreo cookie.  He's lucky that it wasn't one of the rules....I forgot that one...Shoot!!

My home for the next 4 days

Here in Las Vegas for ACE 2010.

We are staying at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

This is my 13th trip to Vegas and in all of the times that I have been there I had never stayed there until now.  The hotel was very nice.  It was huge inside and there were lots of fun caisno games.  I went with a girl from work who had never been there before so we needed to make sure that she saw all (well most) of what Vegas had to offer.

We went a day early so that we could explore.

We first took a tram to Excalibur, then walked across the bridge to MGM.  We continued down the strip all the way down to the Wynn  (1.87 miles- which does not include the walking we did inside each hotel, etc).  We then went from the Wynn to Treasure Island to watch the Siren show.  After the show we walked to the Paris Hotel where we ended up catching a cab back to the hotel.

Today after the conference we went downtown with our friends from ACMC, Sheri and Stacy.

It was a fun time!

ACE 2010

This week I will attending ACE  (Allscripts Client Experience).  This is a user group conference where over 3500 Allscripts product users will be at the same conference learning together and sharing ideas.  I have been to ACE twice before and have always had a great time.    This year at ACE, Benjamin Zander was the keynote speaker.  For those of you who don't recognize his name, Benjamin Zander is a conductor (of the Philharmonic Orchestra), teacher, and speaker.  He has co-written a book titled The Art of Possibility and came to ACE to talk to us about how we can change the world.  What an insipring man!    Throughout the conference there were daily sessions to choose from to attend that ranged in areas regarding training and education, end user support, workflow discussion, new tips and tricks, information about Meaningful Use (the government stimulus program), and much more.  The conference was held in Las Vegas so when we weren't working we didn't have any trouble finding things to do.

Instructions

Now girls, I am leaving tomorrow for Las Vegas.  I will be gone until Sunday.

These are your instructions while I am gone

• No growing.  All growing should be suspended until I am able to witness it.
• No learning anything new.  Hailey especially - don't even think about starting to walk or saying any new words.
• I do wish for you to be good for daddy and to have some fun but in NO way should you have so much fun that you hope I don't come home.

See you soon....love you muches

Privacy please

The event occured like this...

Hannah:  "Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom."

Me:  "Ok, let's go."

Both walk into the bathroom, take down Hannah's undies, set her on the toilet, sit on the edge of the tub.

Hannah:  "Mom, get out of here. I just fine."

I think I will remember that the next time she insists that I sit in there with her.

Ain't nothing going to slow me down

Oh No, I've got to keep on moving 

(You are singing it aren't you?)

Now that Hailey is moving around it is impossible to keep her still.  She has places to go and things to see...objects to put in her mouth, things around the house to touch, dog hair on the floor to collect all over her socks and legs.

This girl loves to crawl under things.  She will crawl under chairs and just sit and hang out there.  Many times we find her under the kitchen table or under the sofa table in the living room.  Most of the time she can get herself out but every so often she gets herself stuck.

This look on Hailey's face is classic.  This is my girl.

She has a smile that touches your heart and a face that can light up a whole room.

Just this week she started pulling herself up on everything!  if she can reach it, she will use it as leverage to pull herself to a standing position.   She hasn't started walking across the couch or anything yet but I wouldn't be surprised if she starts soon. 

Hannah didn't start walking independently until she was 13 months old, I am anxious to see when Hailey will start.