Notice the difference?

Sidney was so excited she pooped in the tub :)

Nature in our front yard

Moving into this home in the middle of winter, we had no idea how beautiful this tree was going to be in spring. Each year, for the past 6 years, I have taken its picture and admired the fragrant flowers.

In more recent years, I have added this little cutie to the pictures, on the same branch every year.

This year was Sidney's 2nd year on the same branch; full of smiles and loving the view!

Perspective

This large red and white sign hanging in our front yard for the last 56 days is a sign of a house full of stress. Fifty-six days of poorly-timed showings, multiple open houses, no personal items left out, all toys packed away, daily vacumming routines and a meticulously maintained home. Our patience is wearing thin, all 4 of us. Today I was complaining to a coworker of mine about having a home on the market and the stress involved. Up walked a little boy, sporting a trach, carrying his blanket with his parents close behind as he headed back to his room at Children's Hospital next door. I stopped dead in my tracks, realizing that no matter how stressed I feel right now, my life can't even compare to that little boy's life. So, sale or no sale, we have our health and for that I am thankful. Sure put life in perspective today.

Best of all, I got to play with this adorable face for over 2 hours at the park tonight (while someone else enjoyed the comforts of my incredibly clean, well-maintained, on the market home).

And we had a blast together!

T-ball

Regan adores dance classes and gymnastics. So when we got the opportunity to sign her up for tball, we thought "why not?". Ryan's concerned she's too young; not able to concentrate for the full 60+ minutes of practice and becoming too distracted.

I wonder what gave him that idea?

20Ten Times the Strength

I have the privilege of being in this amazing group of gals; college friends from years ago. We still keep in contact...regularly getting together for family events, baby showers, weddings, gatherings, etc. And when one member fell quite ill last year, we were there to help her out through support and love. This past Saturday, we held a benefit for Amy, and the turnout was truly amazing. Below is a picture of this wonderful group of friends!

Relaxation

After a long weekend of playing in the gorgeous weather, vacating the house for multiple (inconviently timed) showings and doing some of our own house shopping, we ended the weekend with a grill out and a bonfire. The girls were in their glory...specifically due to roasted marshmallows! Sidney didn't really know what to think of the bonfire, she obviously doesn't remember them from last year. She kept walking around pointing and telling us "hot" so we wouldn't touch :) She's a quick study.

Not to be left out, Grandma Jan and Papa bought Sidney her very own chair sporting her nickname of "Sid the kid" (thanks Ryan!). She adores her chair; THANK YOU!

Spaghetti Face!

Spring time at the park

Tonight I got to spend time with the girls at the park while Ryan went to a well needed guys night out with his college buddies. Regan was so precious just soaking in the sunshine that I quickly pulled out my camera phone for a photo :)

Minihaha Falls

With the help of Grandma Sheri, I took the girls to Minihaha Falls on this glorious morning! They enjoyed watching the falls and seeing the sights of nature. I'm eager for the park to finish renovations so we can explore more areas, it's been a very long time!

Regan convinced me to take her down to the bottom of the falls, behind the fence that says "Keep Out!". It obviously doesn't do a good job because we weren't the only ones down there. She loved it, my little nature girl :)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the two of us. Not an easy feat as I didn't have anyone to hold her attention behind the camera!

The only American Idol I need!

Last night was date night. But I opted to go with my mom instead of Ryan, and he was pretty disappointed as we went to the Bon Jovi concert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To give a little history, my mom has been in love with this man (sorry dad) since I stood all of 3 feet tall. She even had (I mean, HAS) a 1980's poster of him stylin' in a vest showing off his wild hair and tattoos hanging in her sewing room! Wouldn't you know it, she got me hooked on the guy. I can't help myself, he's amazing!

So as the guys hung out at home with the girls, my mom and I were giddy over this man, on our feet the entire concert! He gave a stunning 2.5 hour performance (yes, you read that right) and said at the beginning "I'm the only American Idol you'll need"! Darn right!
We've gone to see Cher twice, and while she gives an amazing performance herself, she sure isn't this good looking! They came back for an encore and the crowd went nuts; even after they were finished, or so everyone thought, the screaming continued and he just couldn't help it and gave in for just one more song! Simply an amazing performance!

Thanks mom!!

Happy Easter!

We had a glorious Easter day starting off with Easter baskets at the crack of dawn, church, a wonderful egg hunt in the yard, good company and a lot of good food! Below are some shots of the girls throughout the day. Enjoy!

Regan finding a new headband in her Easter basket. She was pretty excited!

Sidney got bubbles and we couldn't do anything else until we played with them...inside!

Regan enjoyed dashing around the yard finding eggs. Thanks Papa Easter Bunny!

Sidney followed closely behind, grabbing the eggs Regan missed (and there were actually plenty!).

Regan in her Easter dress

Sidney being shy for the camera.

We hope everyone enjoyed Easter!

Hunting for Eggs

On this beautiful spring morning, we headed out to the largest Easter Egg hunt I've ever seen! It was held in a beautiful setting at a local ski area so we got some great pics too :)

There were 4 areas roped off for the hunt, depending on age. This picture is for 4-6 year olds. You can see it is lined with kids ready for the big announcement!

Regan anxiously waited while dancing around, listening to the fun tunes blasting from the bandshell. I think she had more fun waiting because once the hunt started, she was in shock at the chaos. Despite our efforts to prep her, she stopped after grabbing just one egg. Ryan had to pick her up and move her to another area with less kids because concrete sealed her feet to the ground. He then helped her gather a few more eggs before they were all gone in less than 2 minutes! I helped Sidney in her area of 1-3 year olds, she held her own gathering eggs though was more curious as to what was in them over gathering more!

Both girls enjoyed a peaceful snack of jelly beans as they watched the chaos end and the crazy people walk away.

Regan's now prepared for what the Easter bunny leaves at our house tomorrow after church. I think she's more excited that her competition stands half her height!

Ducks!

As I was getting the girls dressed this morning, I glanced out the window into the back yard and this is what I found :)

So we scurried outside with what we could find: angel food cake (thanks Grandma Jan!). Unfortunately, they didn't like it as much as we do.

So we ran back inside for bread, turns out they weren't that hungry. We tried of course, tossing them tiny pieces of bread. Despite their lack of liking to our food, the girls had so much fun watching them waddle around. The only thing that would've made it better was to see some ducklings along with mommy and daddy.

(Remember, we were working on getting dressed...hence the half dressed children you're seeing!)

Preparing for Easter

Our plans this morning were to dye eggs for Easter. Regan was super excited, as she remembered not only from last year but also a couple of weeks ago with Grandma Sheri. Sidney just went with the flow. (as you can see, I made Sidney take off her jammie top because I knew she'd spill. well, I should've made her take off the bottoms too!).

So we got everything out and I prepared the cups. Regan helped by setting some in front of Sidney and the rest in front of herself. Sidney picked up the first cup, smelled the vineager and pushed them both as far as her tiny little arm could go, then she gave the nasty smelling cups this "eye" as if to say "I don't appreciate this".....

Not to worry, she got over her little issue with the smell and had a great time, placing, or should I say, plopping eggs into her cups. Thankfully she never launched them across the table, though she did, as predicted, dump her cup out all over herself, table and floor.

Regan had a great time and enjoyed coloring on her eggs as well as watching them turn colors. She was so proud of her eggs.

Tube Slide

Here's a side by side shot of the girls in the famous tube slide; roughly about the same age too!

Improvise!

What do you do when you're on a bike ride with the girls and get a phone call asking for a second showing on the house in just 30 minutes, which of course happens to be dinnertime? Improvise!! That's exactly what we did. I pedaled like crazy back home, calling Ryan to explain the situation who was still working and we quickly packed a picnic! We threw our picnic basket together in 5 minutes flat, including PB/J sandwiches, bananas and animal crackers (I didn't say it was gourmet!). Five trips back into the house for things forgotten (bib, diaper...just in case, camera, water, etc), we eventually buckled back into the carrier and headed to the park to enjoy our picnic. All I can say is thank goodness for amazing weather!

The girls enjoyed lots of playtime after our picnic, we can hardly keep track of Regan these days. She meets a new friend and off they go running and playing together :)


(I have a picture of Regan in this same slide, I'll have to do a side by side)