Movie night

After a busy day of shopping and playing, we built a fire, snuggled up next to the fire, and watched Toy Story 3. What a great ending to a great day!

Double the fun

Yesterday we had two play dates, that's double the fun!!

First we headed to the biggest indoor germland, I mean, playland, in the area. We met our former neighbors and their two youngsters and prepared to burn off some energy. It was great fun and good company too. I long for the day when I can be that parent just sitting on the sideline watching instead of in the thick of it as a participant. Oh, who am I kidding?, I love spending time inside this place. And besides, there's going to come a time, all too soon, where neither one of our girls is going to want us to follow them around like shadows.

Isn't this just the cutest picture of the oldest two? Grace and Regan have the same head tilt as they devoured a quick snack before heading back inside. Sidney, on the other hand, took her time eating her snack and was a good 15 minutes behind the other two. She just couldn't keep up!

And because 2 year olds aren't real good with transitions, this was the face of Sidney as we transitioned from play to lunch.

The second playdate took place at our home. And because I'd rather not show a picture of our children, half dressed, (some cross dressed!) in play clothes, this is the only shot you're going to get. The kiddos had so much fun playing dress up with old dance costumes and Halloween outfits. Regan gave Sidney a spin in a wagon built for a doll; but of course, our little tyke fit just fine!

Cookies!

We made Valentine cookies today; M&M Valentine cookies! Let's just say the girls enjoyed taste testing the M&M's over actually baking. Don't get me wrong, they both love to measure, pour, crack eggs and stir. But really, eating M&M's is so much more satisfying!

Regan grabbed my camera and took some shots today. She then proceeded to drop my camera. I simply cannot wait for her birthday when we will give her a brand new "real" camera. Yes, we are giving her a real camera. Enough of this kid friendly camera crap where the pictures come out blurry every time. And this girl loves to take pictures. I digress...

Now that all those wonderful M&M's were inside the cookies, the girls waited patiently watching the cookies bake.

"See mom! I eat da cuuokie".

Flashback Friday

A date like no other date. What we wouldn't do to add 2 more chairs to this table and go on this "family" date today!!!

Boredom sets in

Regan has been taking Nerf gun lessons from Papa and Grandma Jan for at least a year...now that she has her own Nerf gun, she is practicing for her next visit to Papa/Grandma Jan's.

And yes, this is our target. Same target that Papa has been showing them to use for a year. Thanks dad!

After we put the guns away tonight, we popped in Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD. It's winter. It's cold out (shouldn't complain really, it was downright balmy today!). But we're getting bored. Remember the catchy "C-H-I-P-M-U-N-K" tune? Well, our girls danced around the family room tonight like my brother and I used to dance around to the theme of 'Dallas' wearing our feety pajama's back in 1985. Such great memories!

It wasn't such a boring night after all.

The life of a toddler

So being two years old has it's ups and downs. There's so much learning that takes place; learning about the world around us as well as learning about sharing. Sometimes learning comes the hard way, meet today's "down":

That mark would be a bite on Sidney's shoulder, from another toddler. Her "friend" was trying to "tell" Sidney that when she stole a toy from her, the "friend" got upset.

Lesson learned....for now.

Sidney rebounded quickly from the spat at school today and enjoyed an "up" by sitting inside a laundry basket filled with stuffed animals while yelling "push me mommy!".

Silly faces

Tonight while waiting so very patiently after finishing dinner, the girls enjoyed making silly faces and looking at their photos on the digital camera. It reminded me how much more fun it is to take pictures with a digital camera than it used to be with 'film'. These days we have instant gratification, where I used to wait 2+ weeks before developing my film and discovering my masterpieces!

Enjoy....

Birthday Party

Regan went to her (boy)friend's birthday party on Saturday at the Bell Museum. Ben is a friend from her school that she simply adores, to the point that she started recently calling him "my boyfriend". Not to worry, apparently it's a mutual arrangement as we learned from Ben's dad at the party; he informed us that Ben and Regan are building a house and started talking about building a heater too. At least they are planning for this cold weather.

Back to the party, it was a great time and Regan really seemed to enjoy herself! She saw lots of animals and even touched the turtle. She drew the line at the snake though!

Painting shirts, funny faces and everything GREEN, that's a snapshot of this fun party!

Happy Birthday! (to me)

It's official, I've turned another year older. And thanks to my wonderful family, I had a great day. We had some other usual family things going on today (dance pictures, Regan attending a friend's birthday party, etc) so I had to wait until tonight to celebrate. It was worth the extra wait. The best part of my day was sitting next to our sweet (yet still ill feeling) Sidney on the couch and she leaned over, rested her head on my arm, and out of the blue said "I love you mommy". That girl really melts my heart.

I opted for dinner at Rain Forest Cafe (you'd think it was Regan's birthday) because I knew the girls would like it:

and then we headed down to Underwater Adventures because there is free admission on your birthday and who doesn't like something that is free! Besides, that place just never gets old.

This big guy decided he needed to say Happy Birthday to me; we actually could see his mouth moving as he rested on the glass.

And now finally Regan can say "it's my birthday next"! She's been waiting a long time :)

Time for a change

Regan's been nagging me for a few weeks to get her hair cut; Ryan's been nagging me for MONTHS to cut it short. I wasn't willing to go drastic, but I could spare a few inches. My reasoning for wanting longer hair on her....it's just easier with all of her activities to pull it back into a ponytail. This morning we ventured out into this frigid tundra and set out for a new do.

Before:

After:

Now I pray and pray that those curls are still there!! It was pulled straight during the cutting process so the current state is not an accurate depiction.

Name calling

We don't condone name-calling. But sometimes we just have to laugh at the girls with their sisterly spats. More recently, their spats end with some name-calling, and the name of choice.....it's not "stupid" or "pumpkin head", or anything along those lines. Nope. Not our girls. Instead, they opt to call each other "Uncle Shane". That's right, one will be upset (usually Sidney) and say to the other "You're Uncle Shane!", to which the other (usually our drama queen Regan) will begin to whine and cry telling her lovely sister that "No, you're Uncle Shane" and back and forth this goes.

Not really sure where it started, or why they are calling each other "Uncle Shane!?", or why it's so terrible to be called Uncle Shane!? Sometimes it just cracks us up to listen to their arguments, over really nothing at all!

Snuggling with Grandma

This little peanut still isn't feeling well. I received a call from Grandma around 11:30 today telling me she had a 103 fever again. Thankfully Grandma Sheri didn't mind some extra snuggling today. This virus is taking a toll on Sidney; she's without fever one hour and with a high fever the next. It doesn't slow her down for very long before she's back up and at 'em, bugging her sister. We've started a new med this afternoon, this one a steroid, in hopes it will help clear her lungs so she can finally be healthy. At this point, she cannot even run a few feet without a major coughing spell which seems to last forever.

I can draw!

Sidney has taken a serious interest in art lately. She is quick to pull out her "homework" and join Regan at the table every week, or open the art cabinets and pull out paper/markers to create her own masterpiece. This weekend, she opted for one of the Magna Doodles and drew her very first smiley face!! Yes, she did this entirely on her own and was darn proud of herself (so was her mommy and daddy!).

Let's go to the movie!

We took the girls to the movie today....

No not THAT movie!!

We went to see Yogi Bear. This was Sidney's first experience at the theater and she did amazingly well. It was a lot like Regan's first experience, she stood some, sat some, danced some and ate a lot. We had to make her movie experience perfect by adding popcorn and an Icee.

And then when it was all over, she said "more movie theater!". I think it's safe to say that she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Flashback Friday

This video just makes me smile, ok, more like laugh out loud :) I love watching them groove and seeing Sidney's toothless smile!

August 2009

Game night

Tonight after dinner, the girls opened up the cabinet which contains the overflow games and it was like Christmas all over again! We've had to get real creative with how to store toys and games because I ran out of room to keep everything out in the open. So there were games in this cabinet that the girls hadn't seen in a couple of months.

Logan relived her childhood by playing Pretty Pretty Princess!

Regan won the first game, and then in a rematch, Logan won but I didn't get a picture :(.

Sidney likes to play Don't Spill the Beans and she goes crazy when they spill. Just watching her face in the anticipation of a spill is enough to put a big smile on my face; especially when she's still not feeling up to speed. We also played Diggity Dog and Farm Animal Matching games.

I love game night!

Swinging video

A few people have asked to see a video of the swing in action. Not a real interesting video, but the swing sure is fun!

Under the weather....still

This afternoon, I received a call from school informing me that Sidney had a temp of 103.5. I've never left my office so quickly. The girls and I spent the afternoon snuggling and watching a movie before the Tylenol finally kicked in a couple of hours later. Sidney couldn't get comfortable and at one point, wanted to lay on the floor on top of her lovies (aka a stuffed animal) and have Regan rub her back. It was adorable. She's back to her usual self right now. We hope the night goes well for her.

Just not right...a mama's instinct

Yesterday, I noticed Sidney's breathing didn't sound quite right; a very high pitched wheezing sound was coming from her lungs with every breath. She had caught a cold over the weekend but thankfully was eating, sleeping and playing normally so we went about our evening. It pained me to put her to sleep however. I was a nervous wreck, listening through the monitor like a hawk and overjoyed when she opted to join us in our bed midway through the night. After a call today to her pediatrician's office, I took her in for a quick check. My gut instincts were right, she is wheezing and it's not normal. After ruling out RSV with a quick swab, she completed a nebulizer treatment. And what a champ she was with this treatment! It took a little dance from Regan to distract Sidney and help her to realize that the neb was intended to help. A few minutes later, she had another check by the doctor who informed me the treatment had helped and therefore, he was sending us home with our own nebulizer/medicine for further treatments. {insert a sad sigh by me}. At this point, we're all hopeful that she simply has a cold and needs a little extra help to rid her body of the virus. My concern is that if she ends up wheezing with every cold, they will tell us she has asthma. For now, we'll take it one cold at a time.

Indoor fun!

At Christmas, the girls received a gift packaged in a plain white box. It meant very little to them because it was in pieces and there wasn't a picture to explain the contents. I knew what it was. I knew it would eventually make them smile so wide while SWINGING inside :) Today was reveal day. Pampa Arnie secured the new indoor swing to the door way and viola, instant fun! We're doing our best not to let a cold, snowy, MN winter ruin any fun!

Paxton turns one

We celebrated cousin Paxton's 1st birthday today and what fun it was!

Getting a group photo isn't an easy feat. We're missing Hudson because he refused to enter the picture. And my girls look real thrilled to be on a break from playing.

This girl simply loves birthday hats. She's been known to wear them around for weeks after a party. Paxton had a special hat but he despised it (see him crying in the background?). Not Regan, she gladly put it on for us!

How stinkin' cute are these 3. Ash caught another awesome picture with Hudson/Sidney hugging and I can't wait to get a copy. But for now, this one will have to do. It's hard to see, but Sidney actually has her arms around both Regan and Hudson. Such a sweetie!

Happy 1st Birthday Paxton!

Angels

Ryan's been working a lot lately so I'm getting used to the single-parenting tasks and today was a big day. The girls and I headed out to the grocery store with a list 'a mile long'. Our girls are typically those kids in the store that run up and down the aisles, touch all the shelves and scream/cry if they can't get something while begging. No wonder I wasn't very excited about this shopping trip. This time I told them they would be allowed a donut at the end if they behaved....I needed to bribe, I was desperate for a good outcome! They proved me wrong. Both girls sat in those double seated shopping carts like angels throughout the ENTIRE store. A miracle.

They were so giddy with excitement and gobbled up their donut on the drive home.

Sometimes you just do what you have to in order to make it

a good outing for everyone. Today was one of those days!

Mama's helper...

....just got a little safer. I love this contraption; might be the best Christmas present ever! I've been eyeing it for a long time, wondering if the expense would be worth it. Let me tell you, it's worth it. We have 2 little girls who love to "help" me in the kitchen but we struggled with finding a safe way to get them at counter height. Chairs weren't cutting it and letting them sit on the cupboard was a disaster just waiting to happen. We've got our answer now. Best of all, they love it as much as I do!