We're getting there!

Sidney has been enjoying practicing her walking lately. Last night Ryan and Grandma Sheri were having her walk between the two of them. I grabbed my camera to video and wouldn't you know it, she unexpectedly starts walking right towards me! Thankfully the fall wasn't so bad and we got a few steps on camera!

Sidney says "out"!

I realize I might be the only one who gets excited when my kid learns a new word, so feel free to skip this entry entirely! Sidney's list of words she says is this: mom, dad, bye, ba (for ball), up, out and hot. She's like most kids in that the second I turn on the camera, she refuses to talk, but I finally managed to get "out" on video! (although you can see I tried to get it more than once and my luck ran "out"!)

The Great MN Get Together 2009

Once again, we took the girls to the MN State Fair! We're discovering that we might have to go an extra day without kids next year; 6 hours and we didn't go into one building except to see farm animals. We spent the bulk of the afternoon looking for a slush and then taking Regan on rides :) Both kids seemed to enjoy themselves so it was definately worth it! There were 10 of us and here's a rundown of the food we shared:

pizza (this was for Sidney primarily because who goes to the state fair and gets pizza!?)

pronto pups

ice cream

corn on the cob

aligator bites

snow cones

cheese curds

deep fried pickles

big pickle on a stick

fresh lemonade

french fries

beef stick

slush

turkey sandwhich

funnel cake

salted nut roll

blooming onion

and yet we all walked away thinking we weren't really that full!?

Regan got to help milk a cow! Ok, so it was a balloon on a plastic cow :)

All this great food and all I get is cheerios!?

All of us, minus Megan, who took the picture!

Dad and Sidney enjoying some french fries and lemonade

Picnic!

With the nice days of summer winding down, we took advantage of a cool afternoon and had a picnic at Quizno's yesterday! Both girls love eating outside and we all know Ryan has a built in heater so on most days, he won't agree to it. However, Quizno's must have decided to turn on their heater yesterday so it felt like it was 400 degrees inside and the cool breeze outside was wonderful! The best part is that both girls eat so much better when we change the scenery; and there's just so much to look at outside.

What a stinker!

Sidney's new (well, old) thing is to drop food off her high chair. Or in the case tonight, drop her sippy cup repeatedly, all while giving me her cute adorable smirk! She knows who is boss around this joint!

REGAN!

This train set is really helping Regan learn to spell things and recognize letters that belong not only in her own name, but also in Sidney's name. It's adorable to watch her search for the right letters and put them in the correct order. Now if only she could get the little latches on without getting so frustrated! Miss Independent; I think I'll teach her how to spell that next!

Deer Park

While in the Dells, we spent some time at Deer Park letting Regan feed the deer. She had a great time and kept telling us over and over which deer were hungry so she could feed them more crackers. Unfortunately she stepped in deer poop at the end so she was pretty upset to see brown on the bottom of her white sandal and was more interested in figuring out how to get it off.

Regan feeding a deer; she claims this one bit her but we know it maybe only sucked her fingers. We learned a lot about the mouth of a deer in that they don't have teeth to bite you except at the back of their mouth.

Sidney letting the deer touch her little fingers; scared the daylights out of me but she was in her glory!

Who can resist taking one of these shots; the girls look annoyed but they really were having fun.

Papa got a little carried away and needed a kiss :) He didn't realize I was videotaping and thought I was just taking his picture!

WI Dells!

We spent a long weekend in WI Dells with my mom’s family for a big reunion and everyone had a great time! Our hotel was wonderful and had everything you could imagine from resturants to waterparks to a golf course to a spa (which I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to experience). The girls traveled really well and Sidney did finally warm up to her cousins, many whom she hasn’t seen since she was a tiny baby. Ryan had the most fun in the waterpark, going down ridiculously steep slides and getting a sick thrill off it while the girls and I hung out in the baby pool or lazy river; he did manage to get me to go on many of the slides. I regret to say we didn’t get a group shot but we do have some cute pictures of the girls!

Cindy and Sidney

Regan would like to say she didn't like going down this slide, but she managed to get enough nerve to go up the stairs to the slide 3 times so she obviously enjoyed it!

We caught up with Grandma Jan and Papa on the 18th hole and the girls enjoyed a cart ride

Sidney had no problems splashing in the water

Keep asking yourself what she's doing...because I don't have the answer; whatever it was she was enjoying herself!

Matchie Match

Every once in a while, I turn into that mom that puts her kids in the same outfit. Today was one of those days. Ryan is starting to like it more and more so I think we'll be seeing these pictures more frequently. (but trying to get them to pose this morning was impossible; if one was looking, the other one was screaming. and to get them to smile at the same time...yea right!).

A little more Valleyfair

Just a few extra shots from today, first to prove that Sidney was actually with us, she just is a girl who needs her afternoon nap. The second is a picture of Regan loving the carousel :)

Valleyfair!

We spent today at Valleyfair enjoying rides and eating fair food! Despite growing up with "forced fun", I couldn't bring myself to go on any real rides. For those of you who didn't know me growing up, my parents had forced fun, while most parents forced their kids to eat veggies. Forced fun included doing things you may not think you would enjoy, for example, hours and hours of Star Trek/Wars movies, WWF cage matches, monster truck rallies, and yes, even roller coaster rides! So as a kid/teenager, you name it, I went on it. Now that I'm 30, I can't imagine going on some of those rides, just watching Regan makes my stomach churn! So I left the riding up to the rest of the gang and I thank those who took Regan on rides so my lunch could stay where it belongs, in my stomach! Here are a few shots from our day :) You may wonder where Ryan was during all this fun....he was nearly losing his lunch on the rollercoasters, lucky guy!

More S-I-D-N-E-Y

What can I say, I'm a sucker for personalized clothing for babies :)

Underwater adventures

We took the girls to Underwater World today at the MOA after being forced out of the house for an Open. It's incredibly overpriced, but both girls really enjoyed it and that's all that matters!

Regan's favorite was definately the tank set up just like Finding Nemo! She had a great time pointing out all the fish/characters.

Regan's least favorite part....the freaky looking diver.

Checking out the sharks

Sidney is mesmerized

Regan telling us all about the fish she sees.

SIDNEY MARIE

Calasan?

That's what Regan says to Sidney when she's scolding her: Sidney Marie Calasan. Now where in the world did she come up with Calasan? Our only thought is she once named a baby "Calus" and this is some form of that word. She will repeat when we say that Sidney has the same last name as the rest of us, but yet when she's frustrated at Sidney, she ends her name in Calasan!! What a nut! She knows how to make us laugh :)

You might have ADHD if you said this....

"But at school, I do it 3 {times} 08 Humboldt Avenue {South} spaper, blocks and trucks"

That was Regan's comment before bed last night. It's certinaly much harder to explain in writing, but read it without the words in parenthases and that's how she said it. I added the extra words so you could follow her train of thought; random as it is!

Summer fun

We spent this afternoon running through the cold sprinkler and then warming up by playing in the sun! Sure beat playing at the park (in my books anyway!).

Regan's finally warming up to the idea of driving her golf cart around the driveway.

Don't worry grandma Jan, with a little time on the course with you, she'll figure out what to do with all the gear. For now, she thinks it's funny to stick the ball in her mouth and make silly sounds!

Whoa!

An indication that Sidney's hair is finally getting some length! Instead of making her even more miserable in this heat this afternoon with a hat, I opted to put sunscreen on her melon. It obviously made her hair stand up all over and Regan sure got a good laugh!

Exercising

Regan thinks it is so funny when her bike gets stuck in the alley; now she does it on purpose!

11 months old!

look at that wild hair!

It's hard to believe in just one month, our little baby is going to be one year! It's amazing at how quickly the first year flies by when it's child #2. Sidney is now almost 19 lbs and I'll have to get back to you all on her length. She routinely takes a morning and afternoon nap and unfortunately, has started waking overnight recently for a bottle (not sure what's up with that?! and we're open to any and all suggestions!). Just today her 5th tooth popped through and we know that has been making her miserable lately. Her favorite things to do are watch Regan sing/dance, splash in the bath tub and eat! She's a very good little girl and definately a mama's baby :) She says mama, dada, ba (aka ball) and bu (aka bye). She enjoys going for walks and waving at everything and everyone; thankfully all of our neighbors just wave right back at her!

No nap weekend

I guess maybe it should read "no formal nap weekend". Because we had 2 open houses scheduled over nap this weekend, we had no choice but to skip nap time for Regan (Sidney sleeps almost anywhere). Each day Regan ended up falling asleep in the car around 6:30pm and got a quick 20-30min power nap. We're obviously not ready to let nap time go!

Day one....

Day two...

Fun with Hudson!

Ashley, Jamie and Hudson came to spend the night with us on Saturday and we all had a wonderful time! We braved the heat and took the kids to Como Zoo/Town for a few hours to go on rides and see a few animals. Of course, Regan was more interested in the rides than the animals! She had a hard time leaving Hudson to go on a few of the bigger kid rides :) This morning we played outside with bubbles and lots of girly toys....sorry Jamie! Hudson seemed to have a lot of fun pushing the baby stroller around the driveway!

Dancing queens!

By now, you've all heard the catchy song...and we've heard it a million times! Regan calls it "mom's song" because no matter how often I hear it, I always start dancing when it comes on. Both girls' face light up instantly and they too can't help but move to the beat! Today I managed to grab the camera and catch a few of their dance moves. Regan was more interested in watching herself dance in front of the mirror (hence the back and forth you'll see). Enjoy!

School open house!

We had open house tonight at the girls' school and guess who joined us....grandma Jan, grandma Sheri and grandpa Arnie! The girls were so excited to have them see their school and give them a tour. Regan played a few games, got a face painting and danced her heart out to the music! Poor Sidney barely slept at school today (or last night) and was just beat. Let's hope she sleeps well tonight, we could all use a good nights sleep.

Thanks for coming!!! We love you :)

S-I-D-N-E-Y

Ryan had so much fun watching me try to take this picture tonight; he commented "I wish I had a video camera to film this". Evertime I'd get on Sidney's back side, she'd spin her little body around so she was facing me, too me forever to get a picture of just the cute butt flap :)

Mad Mixtures!

The science guy came to Regan's class today and as you can see by her facial expression, she had a great time watching his experiements!! She brought home made playdough home tonight and was so proud of what she had done :) Little Miss Science girl!

Splish Splash!

Sidney's got the splish splash fun figured all out! She was laughing so hard at herself :) You'll hear her adorable laugh is a pretty deep sound today, those darn teeth are giving her a little cold.

Fun with Hunter!

Hunter came up with Grandma Sheri today to babysit, and although Regan missed seeing Grandpa Arnie, she had a blast playing with Hunter all day!

Here are a few pictures of their day together....

Gotta wear shades!

Buckets of fun!

Silly girls :)

it might be humid if....

Regan's hair looks like this! We love those curls!

Water fight!!!

It was a bit one sided, but Regan had a great time having a water fight today with dad! It obviously wasn't planned as he was just hanging out pool side and decided to get his feet wet when she poured water onto him :) We couldn't be upset, it was too cute!

Summer fun!

Today we had my college friends over for some summer fun and a baby shower! The kids had a great time playing together. Despite most of the toys being in storage, there were plenty of toys to play with. It was so much fun to see everyone's family and just enjoy the wonderful day!

What a great idea, take out the exersaucer from the garage and play with it outside!! It gives my back a break from Sidney's constant desire to walk around holding my fingers.
Regan and Nathan hanging out in the tramp (they were born only a week apart).

Getting them to all look at one camera was a battle that wasn't going to be won, especially at 9pm tonight!

...and aren't there mommies cute too! 3 in the center are expecting :) What a busy group of gals!