Happy Easter!

Poor guy....didn't even see it comin'

 Hannah drew this picture of the Easter Bunny.

 

 Hailey was first to wake up today.

We told her she could start looking for her Easter basket and she insisted that I help her.

I mostly followed her around giving her a few ideas of where she may want to look.

Hailey: "Mom, I am going to go potty and you go and find my Easter basket. OK?"

Me:  "Ummm, no buddy.  You need to find your own, I will help you but you should keep looking."

Hailey:  "No, you just go look and find it for me.  I am gonna watch TV."

We finally made our way downstairs and thanks to mom we found Hailey's basket in the shower.

Hannah didn't wake up until close to 9:15 this morning.  9:15! this is a girl who will get up at 5 during the week and typically 6 or 6:30 on the weekends.  For a minute we thought she wasn't breathing or something (and later I found out that she woke up because Brian woke her).

She came darting downstairs ready to start looking.

She was looking all over and asking questions to see where we had already been.

I told her about Hailey's basket in the shower and suggested she look other places that could 'open'.

She went into the laundry room and opened the fridge- nope not there.

She started to leave the room when I asked if she had checked everywhere she  could in the room.  She thought about it again.

Hannah: "Well, I didn't check the big things that wash clothes.  I should check there."

Me: "No, you probably don't need to do that, let's go somewhere else and look."

Hannah:  "Let me first check."

Opened the washer to see it was still empty and then made her way to the dryer.

There it was!  That silly bunny!

I absolutely LOVE this picture of the girls.  I know that they aren't looking at the camera.  They were playing with my dad as he was doing who-knows-what behind me to get their attention.

Such beautiful little girls I have!

(sorry, can't help it)

Almost missed it

Remember this past summer when Loriann, Molly and I drove to Springfield, IL to see Andy Grammer in concert?  Well, surprise to us, a few weeks ago he announced a concert in Minneapolis!

Loriann was going to be out of town so she was not able to join us but Molly and I were super anxious to see him again.  Lori and Karri also joined us.

I was suppose to meet Jennie and the rest of her bridesmaids at the Wedding Shoppe today to pick out dresses and get measured.  I put the girls down for a nap, set my alarm and sat down to read for a while.  Within a few minutes of sitting down I started to feel ill.

For the next 90 minutes I laid down off and on trying to figure out why I was feeling so bad.  The time came when I realized that I wasn't going to make it to try on dresses and I was getting close to having to call off my concert.  I had that feeling that if I just threw up I would feel better...it took the edge off but I was still not ok.

I decided to at the very least meet Molly and Lori at work to hand off the tickets- after that I would see how I felt and if I was still ill, Karri and I could pick the girls back up from Jennie's and head home.  After we made the ticket drop off we decided to get something to eat.  

I was starting to feel a little better and decided that we should give it a try.  Worse case, we get there, I am still sick and we turn around and go home.  We made it right as Parachute was performing.  They were really good.  I hear them a lot on Pandora and recognized at least 4-5 of their songs.

Then it was time!!!!!

He was awesome!

He sounded great.  His song order was great. His new music was great.  The covers he performed were great.  The company was great. The venue was great.  I wasn't feeling so great but I made it!

Stay home day

Today is a 'stay home day'- Jackie's is closed for Easter.

We had a few errands to run, a few birthday presents to pick up and a little 5 year old that was very anxious to pick out a dress to wear for Easter.

Going out to run errands?!  Of course that calls for a pretty dress.

Hannah was very excited that it was warm enough today to pull out her pink boots again.

We started at Kohls to look for Hannah's dress. 

She narrowed her choices down to 3 and insisted that we go into the fitting room so that she could try them on to help her make her final decision.

As she tried each of them on she let out a little squeal as she saw herself in the mirror- "Mom, look at this one.  I love it, do you?"

After she tried them all on she knew it was time to make a decision.  She stood in front of the mirror and one at a time held the dress up in front of her face moving back and forth checking herself out.

She finally made a decision and we were on our way.

We finished all of our errands and it was time to have lunch.

The girls named off places we could go Wendys, Culvers, Noodles and Co.....

Then I suggested Chuck E Cheese.  (not sure what happened there...)

"YAY!  But wait, can we go there when it's not a birthday party? Can we even get coins there?"

I assured them it would be ok and within a few minutes we had arrived.

We had a great time there.  We ate pizza and the girls played games and went on the 'rides'.

On our way out the girls were each holding one of my hands.  Hannah squeezed my hand and when I looked down at her she was looking up at me with the biggest smile on her face "Thank you mom for taking us here today."

When we got in the car we talked about how we needed to get home and take naps.
Then I mentioned that tonight after dinner we were going to go to Chloe's for a little bit.
Hannah yelled out "This day just keeps getting better!"

I am glad that the two of you had so much fun today...I did too :-)

"Mom, go your special way"

On the way to daycare Hannah asked me to turn down a specific street, she wanted to show me something.
Much to my surprise she actually knew where she was and where she was going and she lead us to this....

Yes- that is a GIANT snowman.
It just so happens that this guy is at Debbie's house.  Debbie is one of Jackie's friends and another one of the daycare moms in Jackie's neighborhood.  They get together with them often and will walk over to Debbie's to play.  A few days later we 'went the special way' and saw that a hat, scarf and shovel were added.

Ahhh, that's better

My ring is back from the spa and I feel dressed again!

Is it Spring yet??

I am SO DONE with this weather.

I want the windows open.  I want to hear the birds chirp. I want to see green grass.

I want the sound of lawn mowers and smell of freshly cut grass.

The girls are getting anxious too, although since it's been warmer lately they have been enjoying the snow more and more...and the huge puddles (sigh).

Hannah dug the tricycle out from the backyard today and the girls were so desperate to ride a bike that they took turns 1 minute at a time peddling around the driveway.

We had a little snowball fight and when it was time to go inside, Hailey ran up the stairs first.

When I got to the top I had a little snowball that I was going to through at her- she was giggling so hard and then grabbed the 'squirter'.  Good thing it wasn't hooked up to anything or this momma would have been soaked!

It didn't stand a chance

I couldn't take it any longer.

Time to say good-bye

It's happening again.  The feeling that the things in the house are swallowing me up.

I have been 'in the mood' for spring cleaning but it's just not the same when you can't open the windows and send the kids outside to play.  So, nothing is getting done but I should get a little credit because I think about it all the time.......which turns into a vicious cycle of feeling down in the dumps.

I used to feel so motivated and like I had energy to tackle these projects and now it just makes me depressed.  I beat myself up in my head constantly which then just makes me more worthless and lazy.  When I do feel motivated to start a project, I will get started and within 30 minutes I have two velcro babies by me either making more of a mess or wondering when I am going to be done so their 'activities' can start.  As a mom, I should just send them away but I really don't want to be that mom.

I don't want to spend my days saying 'No' and "Get away, get out of here", etc.

Of course we all have those moments and the kids need that but I hate feeling like that it all I say so most days I give in and stop what I am doing.

So, time to get into a 'every little bit matters' mode and get things accomplished as I can.

First on the list- the candles and bouquet from our wedding.

These have been in the entertainment center in the living room for years- since our wedding, 10 years ago.  I don't feel a need to keep them really, it just sort of always felt like the 'thing to do'. So, after a quick consult with Molly and Loriann we determined that there really was no need to keep these things around and they should find their way to the garbage to free up their shelf for my Blog and Shutterfly books.

It's a tiny step that nobody but me will notice but it's something.

Now only about 7,089 more of those little projects to go....

Spoiled

This morning started off with an early morning wake up by the girls.  

We were downstairs watching TV when Hannah heard some noise coming from upstairs.  She jumped off the couch, instructed me to stay here and she was off.

A little while later her and Brian came down with a 'breakfast tray'.

Hannah has been begging to pull out her Easy Bake oven. Usually it sits in her closet and she doesn't even know that it's there but she got it in her head that she wanted to bake cookies and hasn't stopped talking about it since (really just since this morning but this girl is tenacious!).

We didn't have any pre-made packages so we had to look online for a recipe and it's times like these that I LOVE the internet.  Tons of recipes and ideas.

We settled on a chocolate chip cookie recipe and decided it would be a good idea to make 'real' ones too.  Hailey would help with those while Hannah did hers 'on her own'.

She did great.  Measured out the ingredients, greased the pans, etc,

She had SO much fun and was actually very patient while she waited the 7 minutes between bakes.

While I was finishing up the dishes I heard Hannah rummaging around in the tupperware cupboard.

 Thanks buddy- this was fun.  Great idea!

Let the Birthday weekend begin!

I took today off.  It's been unsettling being gone for so many days the past month and I just wanted a day to take care of some errands.  I started by getting my license renewed and then I made my daily trip to Target.  Next stop was to the mall to drop off my ring for it's 6 month cleaning/inspection.

While I was there I decided to ask the lady about how long it would take to send it in for a 'good scrubbing' as childhood-Kimmy would have said.  My ring is 10 years old and has been looking a little dull lately so I decided to leave it with the ladies today and be 'naked' for the next few days.

I got to choose our dinner location for tonight and it was an easy decision!  PF CHangs!

Dinner was delicious and the girls did great.

Inside the bag that the little mouse left for me yesterday was this beautiful cookie- turned Birthday cake.  Thanks Loriann!

So this is what it's like to be an adult

Today is my Birthday.

I woke up alone in a hotel room BUT I was woken to a text from Brian and a video from Hannah- that's a great way to start the day.  The Facebook Birthday greetings had started.

We are leaving today so this morning when we left our room we wouldn't be back so it took a little extra time packing up this morning.

It was time to go so I sent my usual morning text to Loriann "You ready?  I am leaving in 3"

I opened the door to see that a little mouse had been by spreading some Birthday cheer- how sweet!

The rest of my Birthday was spent in training.

We were able to leave around 4:00ish which meant that we were ahead of schedule but also meant that for sure I wouldn't be seeing my girls tonight. It made me really sad- more than usual.

Luckily it was Friday tomorrow which meant we would have the whole weekend together!

Epic Tour Part 2

One thing that it nice about having the buildings all themed is that it helps you keep track of where you are.  You will remember if you passed through here before.

Everyone talks about the banana.

It's been a huge hit with the staff from HealthEast and many people have gotten their picture sitting on it.  From far away it looks cool enough but then when you get closer and see what it is made of it gives a whole new meaning to 'cool'.

Can you imagine how long it must have taken someone to cover this banana?!

Each building has it's own theme.  Every detail is perfect, down to the carpet in the staff areas.

Here is the tree house.  It is equipped with white boards and staff can reserve this space.

It's a way for them to get away from everyone else, their cell phones, their computers, etc.

 

The employees are encouraged to live healthy lifestyles.  There is no smoking on the campus and their employee cafeteria is color coded.  The green areas are the most healthy foods all the way to red (which would contain the french fries and burgers).  

We spotted this sign while walking through- Soda is $0.75 but the refill is $1.50

There was an area called Grand Central Station.  Here there was a General Store that staff could buy snacks or other types of things from,  a dry cleaner, a flower shoppe, and an Epic merchandise store.

Didn't see anyone working in these areas so not sure how the flower shoppe and dry cleaner works but the General Store and Epic store do not have employees that work there.

When staff are ready to 'check out' they approach the computer and then scan and log their purchases.  No cash transactions are done- all payroll deduction.

There is also an Ice Cream/Soda fountain and deli that work this same way.  However the Soda Fountain has employees there to make malts and scoop ice cream but it is all volunteer.  Staff sign up to take an hour of their day to work there to serve their employees.

One of the walkways is set up to look like a subway- they even have a homeless lady, Opal.

She never leaves the Subway but the employees do have fun with her.  Sometimes she is sitting, sometimes she is laying on the seats, sometimes she's under the seats- guess it just depends how rough her night was.

You can see why most of the employees here are under 30 and why Epic continuously is recognized as being one of the best companies to work for.

Where are we?

 So, the trip started with no heat in our bus. Today when we arrived at the Epic campus we approached the screens to find out which classroom we were in.  There was a group of people there and one at a time as they found their name and classroom, they backed up and went on their way.  I watched the screen change through the list a few times and didn't see my name.  I figured that I must have overlooked or missed it.  Then I saw the 'Amy' section (it's alphabetical by first name)- I was not listed.  Then I turn to my right and see that Loriann, Lori, and Molly are still standing there and look just as confused as I am.  None of us were listed.  We made our way to the front desk and joined the line of others that apparently were missed to be displayed on the board.  

When it was our turn, we gave her our names and instead of saying "Oh here you are, room x." she said "Hmmmm, we don't have you listed."  We had all received training confirmations- weird.

Lucky for us they had room in one of the classrooms so she quickly got us registered and we were on on our way.  

Our classroom for the week was the 'Dr. Know' room- this whole section of the hallway was James Bond movie style so I am guessing this was a Bond movie.

Our class was suppose to go until 5:00 pm today.

Around 3:00 we were given an exercise to do.  As usual the exercise would only take a few minutes but we would be given 15 minutes to work on it.

Around 3:15 the class started again and our instructor said "You all have been working pretty hard, let's take a break (ugh...again?!) and then class will resume at 8:30 tomorrow morning (YIPPEE)."

Then he informed us that he is willing to take people on a tour of the campus at 3:30.

This was something that we wanted to do so we knew for sure that we were interested!

This campus is huge!  It looks just like a college campus and all of this time here we have only been in one building- Voyager Hall.

Took this picture from the internet.

Voyager Hall- this picture (with the snow) I took from one of the other buildings.

All of the buildings are connected by either underground tunnel or skyway.

Here is an example of one of the tunnels.

In one of the buildings we turned the corner and saw this slide. 

Yes- people actually use it.

We were also given the explanation behind all of the artwork and decorations.

Apparently the CEO of Epic gets all of the artwork from the Madison Art Festival.

She will send an email at midnight the night before she goes and the first so many people to respond to her get to join her. 

On the road again

Here we go again.

From what we know this is our last trip to Epic for a while.  We leave today and return Thursday night (my birthday- lucky me).

We should have driven ourselves.  We get done with class on Thursday at noon and the rest of our group isn't done until 5 pm so the bus is scheduled to leave around 5:30 pm.

I won't be making it home by dinner time and won't be seeing my family on my Birthday.

If we drove, we would be home right around dinner time.

But....we decided to take the bus.  That way nobody has to put the miles on their vehicle and of the group, I am the only one that actually LIKES to drive so there wasn't anyone else jumping at the chance to get behind the wheel.  Loriann offered to let us take her vehicle but because she can't make a decision and just tell us that that was our plan we didn't drive.  It didn't feel right making the decision for her and then having someone else (more than likely me) be behind the wheel of her vehicle for 9 hours- she should have demanded :-)  

Right before we boarded the bus Loriann handed me an adorable little box with a message "Here, now I don't have to be responsible for how this travels."

Opened the box to find this adorable little guy looking up at me....begging to be eaten.

As we claimed our seats on the bus and took a final roll call we were also informed that we needed to stop in Northfield to get a new bus.  Apparently this one didn't have any heat so we could either wait for a bus to come and rescue us from Midway or we could start on our journey and just take a detour to reboard.  The weather has been horrible- snow, ice and wind- so we opted to get on the road and at least start moving.

We arrived around dinner time so a group of us headed out to Gray's Tide House for dinner.

We had heard about their chocolate covered cheese curds and decided that it was a must try item.

Hmmm...interesting.

The batter is almost like a brownie batter.

The cheese is a very light flavored white cheese of some sort.

They were drizzled in chocolate sauce and served with a heaping pile of whipping cream for dipping.

They weren't really good but they were by no means horrible.  Just sort of weird.

These would be a HIT at the State Fair....hard to believe someone hasn't thought of it yet.

My home for the next few days.....

 

Me hate Dan

Judy made an appt to take the kids in for some Spring pictures.

When I got the invite and after the plans were made I started to get nervous.  I hoped that her expectations weren't set too high because I wasn't quite sure how Hailey would do.

She actually made it in the picture at Christmas time so I was hoping that this time would be a little easier.  I told the girls Grandma had gotten them new dresses and we were going to go and get our pictures taken and they BOTH were excited and ready.

We talked about it for days.

When we got there and checked in we were greeted by Dan, our photographer.

Oh shoot- I know what this means.... 

Glanced over at Hailey and she was still ok - ok, ok, maybe we can do this afterall.

We picked out our backgrounds and then made our way to the waiting area.  When it was finally our turn we made our way to the studio.  Right outside the door Hailey stopped dead in her tracks, turned around and reached up for me.  I picked her up thinking she just needed a little push and immediately her face was buried and her legs were wrapped around me.  She was NOT getting down.

We got the older four lined up and then they all started reaching and calling for her.

She started swatting at anyone that got near her so we agreed that we would take pics of Courtney, Justin and Adam first while I would buy some time finding a way to talk her into this.

I walked her through the clothes section and we looked at the 'fancy' dresses.  I told her that if she took her pictures good we could come back and get her an Easter dress from here.  She got super excited, jumped out of my arms and started heading to the studio.

She was doing ok until she saw him (Dan) again.

She stood at my feet and jumped up and down trying to get me to pick her up- it was almost as though the ground below her was on fire.  Grandma came to the rescue and they talked about how maybe Hailey could hold gum for all of the kids in the picture and then after the pictures are taken she could pass it out.  Not a chance.

We tried to get her to sit on Hannah's lap.  Not happening.

Tried to get her to hold Courtney and Hannah's hands.  Nope.

Asked if she wanted to sit on something.  Nothin' but dirty looks.

So, we did what we always do- took pictures without her and she stood outside of the room against the wall swinging away at anyone that came near her.

Senior pictures are going to be a blast......

Punzel

Hailey: "Mom, when me get big like Punzel (Rapunzel) I can't go potty anymore 

or my hair will get in the toilet."

Who is the knucklehead?

So, who is the knucklehead?

The kid who thought she needed to buckle in the Peeps or the mom who giggled and then left them there for the whole ride home?

Keep your eyes on the road

Brian got a new radio for his truck.

Tonight on the way home from dinner he showed us just how cool this new radio is and played a movie.

Even though it's not very practical, it's awesome!

Are they quiet yet?

Wow- these things are annoying.

I don't really mind when the girls are actually playing with them.  If they are carrying them around or talking to them it doesn't bother me to hear them ramble on.

It is pretty annoying though when they are all alone talking to themselves or each other.

They will become quiet after a few minutes (which feels like an hour sometimes) under a towel or a blanket but the second that they sense movement or see light they are back at it.  

Probably wasn't the best idea to put them under there together today but then again, getting them to sleep is the easy part. The relocation is the real challenge.

Volume 3 has arrived

After a quick trip to Florida, my books are finally here!

I received a few calls from an out of state number and after a voicemail was finally left I was notified that my books had been delivered to the wrong address.  A company in Florida had gotten them by mistake and they were wondering if I received their shipment.  At the time I hadn't but it would only be a few more days before a huge box of books would be delivered.  They were kind enough to ship my books to me- even though Sharebook also agreed to reproduce and reship.  Now I guess my good idea of ordering two books this time around was rewarded with an extra set of two books so now I have four!

This makes Volume 3. Three full years of stories, three full years of pictures, three full years of our lives documented.  

These books are so awesome!  I am so proud of them and I can only hope that my girls love reading and re-reading them when they get older.  I can only hope that my grandchildren want to sit down and read these stories someday. 

The girls were really excited to sit down with the book this week and read stories with me.  

It was fun to look back and see what we were doing a year ago.  To see how short Hannah's hair still was and remember that she was learning to tie her shoes, to see that Hailey was still working on the potty training, to see how much her vocabulary has grown over the past 14 months.   I think it was extra fun this time around since they actually remembered a lot of the events/stories from this past year. 

Here's to the start of another year!