Weekend in review

The girls and I took a trip down to Grandma Jan/Papa's house for the weekend. With the crazy rain/sleet/snow weather that was coming, we left early and spent some extra time hanging out, playing, baking, shopping and loving up on each other. The bonus, my dad has a tendency to wake each morning by 6am....perfect match to the kiddos of the family :) That meant, this mama caught up on some much needed sleep. Thanks Papa!

My parents hosted the Schugel Family Christmas party Saturday and the girls were all dolled up in their sweater dresses. 

 Sidney was THRILLED that the dresses were short-sleeved. Have I mentioned she has a preference for summer clothing? First thing she does when she walks in the door is take off her socks. She gets giddy when she gets to wear short sleeves in the winter and as you've noticed, she won't wear winter PJ's for the life of her. 

Dearest Pinterest gave us the idea to make mint chocolate chip cookies. 

Y-U-M! 

I'm quite certain that Ryan isn't bummed he missed out on this cookie delight! My cousin, Joey, however, walked out of the Christmas Party with a stack of these cookies in a cup like they were Sweet Martha's at the State Fair! 

Regan loved 'em too, and made sure I didn't let Joey take all of them with him!

Thanks for a great weekend mom and dad! 

Scrubby scrubby

I've mentioned in previous posts how much I love Pinterest. So when I came across a quick/easy method of cleaning the bath tub, I knew I had to try it. 

Little did I realize that the girls were going to have SO much fun with it!

Take a kitchen scrubber with attached wand, fill with 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 dawn soap. Viola. 

We leave it in the bath tub and anyone can grab it and scrub a little during the shower! 

I've never seen the kiddos so excited about scrubbing!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it....

what!? 

wait, what did I just say? 

living in Minnesota my entire life, it's no secret that this white stuff is not on my " reasons I love it here". But alas, I will put up with it because to see and hear these two giggling for hours on end is worth it in my book. I'm just not at all excited about dealing with this stuff for the next 8 days or so, but, I will survive and we will make the best of it. 

Today we spent over 2 hours playing outside. Sledding, coloring snow, sledding and rolling around laughing. 

They were figuring out the best plan of attack with Ryan's childhood archaic black sled.

It's best to go two at a time in that sled. Twice the giggles and twice the speed!

Each day when we arrive home, the girls ask if they can give the snowman, reindeer and hippo a hug. It's Ryan's least favorite thing to hear, because the lights then have a tendency to become undone and he has to go fix them :) 

Today when I asked the girls to sit next to the animals for a picture, they were in their glory because it meant more hugs to the wire-looking things.

Sorry Ryan...."can you please go out and fix the snowman's head? He's not lighting up and I have no idea why!"

Yes, I realize, the heaviness of today's many many inches of snow was beautiful. It always is an incredible sight. The first snowfall. Fresh snow to cover up the brown. Yes, it's pretty, but in 3 weeks, I'll be ready for it to go away and give way to spring. 

Day in the life of an Elf

With some wonderful friends in tow (Thomas, Natalie, William and Kari), we headed downtown to check out the Macy's 8th floor display. Although the line was beyond long, it took only 20 minutes of waiting and we were inside enjoying all of the lights and sparkle. 

The kids pointed each elf out to each other, squealed with excitement to see what was happening in each scene and had a lovely afternoon in the winter fairy-land. 

Our girls knew that, at the end, they got to pick out a gigantic cookie or Rice Krispie bar and sat devouring their snacks. I laughed that Natalie's cookie was as big as her head! 

And then, when the treats were in their bellies, the kids wrote letters to Santa, reminding him that they had been a good girl (or boy) and asked for that one special present. Click HERE to see Regan doing this in year's past!

Thanks to the gang for making this year's trip another great memory! 

Sidney's artwork

Sidney has been busy at school helping to decorate her class with all sorts of art projects. Most recently I saw this hanging on the wall this week...the description is that it is Sidney and Regan making snow angels. Awwwww :) 

St. Nick's Day / Disney on Ice

St. Nicholas stopped at our house Wednesday during the night (click his name to see more about who he is). The girls woke on Thursday to find Ellie the Elf waiting to watch them open their gifts :) They delighted in the books, Hello Kitty tumblers, fancy pens and art projects. We actually skip the tradition of candy because frankly, what kid needs candy!?

(and no, Sidney doesn't need winter pajamas. she refuses to wear the 7 that are in her drawer. and in all honesty, the sweat hog would probably roast overnight so we oblige and let her wear summer PJ's all winter long).

Thursday night, Grandma Sheri took us girls to Disney on Ice. It was supposed to be their St. Nick present from Grandma, but of course, she had to come up with a jumbo bag of presents for each girl too. They're pretty spoiled lucky! 

This wasn't one of my more favorite Disney on Ice shows, to me it was a little less entertaining. The girls both really enjoyed it and I know that's more important. Sidney's face just lit up when two characters did cartwheels on the ice! Her face was priceless when she looked up at me and gasped! 

We had a great St. Nick's day, and hope you did too! 

Meet Ellie

Ellie came fluttering in the other day, a bit of a rough landing for that parachute. She got hung up on the TV and the poor gal hung out all day long :) 

It's our first year with the Elf, but with all the ideas floating around on Pinterest, I couldn't resist! She's a gem of a gal and keeps watch over every move that the girls make. Regan is soooo into her. She wakes up each morning and wanders around the house searching for her "where is she mom!?" calling out for help. Sidney's not as in tune, and prefers to pick on Regan by walking past Ellie and touching her (the book warns not to touch her or she loses her magic power to fly back to Santa). Boy that makes Regan's blood boil "DON'T TOUCH HER!". That proved difficult as she didn't stay hung up on the TV very well....shhh!

The she sat quietly at the table appearing as though she had breakfast all ready for us, her bowl filled with cereal. 

She's been off and running on the American Girl horse too! 

Oh all the places she will go this month! She's not just "on a shelf" in this house, she's everywhere!, and I'm loving the "magic" she is bringing to our home. 

Holidazzle 2012

Each year we venture downtown to the Holidazzle parade to enjoy all the lights, music and of course, see Santa! It was close to 40-some degrees today so we expected a packed parade route. Good thing we left early because we were right in our expectations! We secured a good spot and had nearly 40 minutes to wait in the cold. These two were super excited and didn't seem to mind waiting as they sipped on hot chocolate and munched popcorn. We only had to throw out a few elbows for late-comers who thought they could barge in and take over their up-close viewing. I don't think so!

Finally at 6:30pm exactly, the street lights went out and the crowd squealed in delight! 

I say it every year, the lights and floats are really incredible! 

At one point, a Metro Transit bus/float came past and Regan said "how come it feels like I'm moving?", just as Ryan said "I'm completely blinded!" because the sheer number of lights was incredible!! And it really did make us feel like we were the ones moving!

Take a look at that gingerbread house below....so neat!

And a winter parade is not complete without Santa Claus bringing up the caboose! 

Lots of lots of kids

I took on a big job today while the kids were off from school (still not sure why we get all these random days off from school!?). Random Fridays off from school are easy for me, since I don't work Fridays. But they aren't so easy for parents that do work. So today, I offered to watch a friend's 3 kids in addition to my own. We had 3 six year olds, a 5 year old and a 4 year old. Wowzas. 

Boy did we have fun! 

Fashion shows, dance parties, art time and games were among some of the things that we did. The girls did great sharing their toys/space and enjoying the day. I was exhausted, only because it's a lot of work to keep up with the "can you get me ____", "I need a push" (David LOVED the indoor swing!),  "I spilled", "can we have a snack?", etc.

I was happy to help out and my good deed was repaid tonight as Leigha came over to babysit and Ryan/I went to see a movie! It all works out :) 

Earrings

Sidney has been begging to get her ears pierced, this after seeing her BFF's video on Facebook of her recent adventures (clarification: it was on BFF's mom's FB page). Eventually, Sidney got smart and mentioned her request to daddy. He quickly gave in and suggested a date. Shockingly, she was still interested the next day and in just a few seconds...viola! ears pierced. 

She whimpers at the end of the video, but never actually cried. And she is sooooo very proud of her ears! We thought she might not want to lay down on them to sleep, but it hasn't been a battle at all. She loves to show off her new earrings and cannot wait to change them out to some super fancy ones!
Way to go Sidney!

The wee one

Today I took Sidney to her required 4 year old assessment for her future academic career. She went into the assessment looking something like this: 

Thankfully she came out looking more like this. 

Sidney came in on the assessment right where they predict she would for her age. The teacher commented that we have nearly 2 years before she starts Kindergarten, and yes, she will be one of the oldest in her class.  Not much we can do with a September birthday, she missed the cut-off by about 10 days. That gives me one extra year to snuggle her up, listen to her silly comments, watch as her imagination takes her to far-away places and bask in her super tight-never-letting-go hugs. 

I'll take it. 

Here's a little more about the littlest of this fam: 

She is energetic to no end. 

The less sleep she gets or the closer it is to bedtime, the more energy she has. 

Despite going to bed at 8pm, 9pm, or 10pm, she will wake around 6:30 or 7am. 

Every. day. 

She is my big helper, asking to help make dinner, bake, clean and fold laundry. 

Sidney has disliked car rides from day one. And that hasn't changed. She's bored and cranky whether it's a 10 minute or 2 hour ride. Therefore, we don't travel by car if we have a choice. 

She adores Grandma Jan's iPad, mostly preferring to watch videos of herself. 

She much prefers the mama of the bunch...we thought this would even out a bit more by now. 

Sidney adores Regan. She wants whatever Regan has and together, they can be the best (and worst) playmates. I hope this love of each other continues forever. 

She's my on-the-go kid, enjoying all things out and about. Asking her to stay at home for an entire day is like torture, most days she wants to go-go-go. 

Best of all, she is THE best 4 year old and we are so in love with her. 

It all came tumbling down

Today we decked the halls. The girls waited patiently while I strung the lights around the tree, all 500 of them. Regan read me stories, and I helped her sound out words as I climbed up and around the tree over and over again. 

And then it was time to add the gorgeous ornaments. We only use German glass ornaments. And we are prepared each year for at least one broken ornament. This year, Regan reached for her first ornament and dropped it. C-R-A-S-H. Broken ornament number one. Ah, but we made it through the rest of them and the tree looked great.  

Until, it happened. 

I was carefully returning the manger scene to its spot under the tree and I could hear a terrible sound. 

The tree was heading towards my head!! I dropped the manager and held my hands up to catch the 6 foot tree approaching my head. 

C-R-A-S-H! 

Yep, ornaments tumbled to the hardwood floors, many of them breaking. Too many to count. 

Tiny particles of glass everywhere. 

We tried hard to re-secure the trunk to the very old base but it wasn't helping, the bolts just kept pushing into the soft tree trunk. 

I couldn't help but laugh. How can you not?! Outside of the broken ornaments, it was a very funny sight. 

Then, as Ryan held the tree, I drove to Target and bought "the mother of all tree stands!". Laughing the entire way as I picked out needles from my hair and wiped sap from my fingers, picturing the tree as it was heading right towards my head. 

After it was secured into "the mother of all tree stands", we decked the halls.....again. 

And I would have taken a picture of him holding the tree for 20 minutes, but I think he would have strangled me at that point....he didn't find the scene as funny as I did.  

The kids and I took on an art project this afternoon as well: hand print Christmas trees. It's tough to see the stars at the top that makes them look like trees. They had a lot of fun and we did them on canvas so we can keep their tiny hand prints for years to come! 

Finally it was on to baking Christmas cookies. They mixed the dough, cut out the cookies and frosted them. It went like this: some for the cookie, some for my mouth :) 

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom celebrates her birthday around Thanksgiving each year. Which means she's lucky enough to have helpers for unwrapping and blowing out candles :) 

The girls made grandma a mosaic tile stepping stone and she was just as excited to see it as they were to create it. I love those pseudo-home made gifts. 

Happy Birthday Grandma Jan! 

Gobble gobble 2012

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We spent the day racing around New Ulm visiting all of the family and eating plenty of snacks, turkey and pie. Before we left home for the dreadful drive (within the first 6 blocks, Sidney was bored), I attempted a picture of the girls....

eventually I succeed with a beg. They were so sparkly and cute in their Thanksgiving dresses, and the weather was gorgeous early in the day. It felt more like Easter than Thanksgiving. 

Papa saved the wishbone for the girls and told them how to play the game/make a wish. I still don't know what Sidney (the winner) wished for....she's been keeping it a secret! 

Ryan loves him some turkey; it's his favorite. Because of his change in diet and exercise lately, he's now down a few pant sizes. But he couldn't resist on Thanksgiving. 

He ate and ate and ate turkey. Just turkey. Plates full of turkey. 

I'm not kidding. Plates full. 

Everyone was finished with dessert, I had cleared and cleaned the table, and there he sat...eating turkey!

My only "family" picture on Thanksgiving...we're missing the man who was still eating turkey :) 

In the evening it was off to Ryan's aunt's house for some playtime with the cousins. The girls, along with Hudson and Paxton, went screaming through the house, racing around, up and down the stairs. Apparently they had found her treat/snack table and were quite loaded up on sugar. 

Eventually they climbed up and snuggled with Maddi, Vicky and Hunter, so sweet :) 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

We're officially into the holiday season; it's the only reason I can tolerate December! 

Grandparent Breakfast

Each year, Regan's school hold's a "Grandparent/special persons" breakfast. And for the second year in a row, all four grandparents joined her for breakfast (add Sidney this year). I don't think Regan quite realizes just how lucky she is that all 4 grandparents make the 100 mile trek for a 45 minute breakfast. Not to mention, how lucky she is to simply have 2 grandmas and 2 grandpas in her life. Trust me, she loves each and every one of them. So much so that she can't imagine life without any of them. We are so thankful that they love her (and Sidney) so very much!

"giving thanck"

Regan went to work this evening and created her own "thanksgiving poem".

We have one very proud little girl on our hands, and she can't wait to hand over her poem to her teacher.

Read it phonetically, and you'll get the words: "I love giving thanck and...I hoop you do to. It is vare fun to see you haveing fun to!"

Triathlon

I mentioned several weeks ago that I have been training for an indoor triathlon (timed, not distance). Today was the big day. I did all I could to prepare and really, for a variety of reasons, was only able to push myself  at the gym this last week. Let's just say I pushed hard.

I woke this morning at 5:30am, and considered myself crazy. Who gets up that early to go workout? And to do the workout I was about to partake in! 

As I drove to the gym/club, I reminded myself "mind over matter". I didn't want to go crazy (crazier than I already felt!), but I wanted to go further than what I thought I could complete. 

I joined my fellow crazy coworkers and started to get ready. I had never done something like this, so I didn't really know what to expect. But I got into my swimsuit, and then carefully laid out my clothes, iPod, shoes, etc so I was prepared for the bike and run portions. And before I knew it, we were in the pool and the whistle was blown. Here is how it went down:

10 minutes swimming (I finished .59 miles)

30 minutes on the spin bike (I finished 18 miles)

20 minutes on the treadmill (I finished 2.3 miles)

60 solid minutes of exercise! My legs felt like noodles but otherwise it wasn't so bad. 

I went home and wanted to feast on this : 

Kidding of course! But it crossed my mind :) 

Just around the corner

In an effort to be prepared for all the holiday decorating, you know, the holiday that is just around the corner, I've been working with the girls on various 'art projects'. 

They are loving my new found love of Pinterest. 

Last night we created our own ornaments that will be hung above our dining room table during the Christmas season. And with the amount of acrylic paint that was poured into each glass ornament before they shook them up, it's going to take several weeks for those puppies to dry!

I took the kiddos to see Wreck It Ralph at the mall and wouldn't you know it, Santa was already there, perched in his chair. We aren't quite ready for the full Santa visit, so we dashed around to the back of his set-up and snapped a few pictures with the decorations. 

Christmas is just around the corner....it's of the few reasons I tolerate winter.

fall days

With the beautiful fall day (and days ahead), we hope to get outside and soak up the sun. But today, Sidney was given the option to go to an indoor jump location and she opted not to! Shocked, we jumped to Plan B: Bubbles! 

She was impressed with the size of the bubbles and loved chasing after them and watching them pop on the pool cover. 

I think I was more in love with the fact that it's the middle of November and we were outside without jackets/hats/boots/mittens on! I love warm fall days and love even more to spend it with this cutie.