Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"Pay toys!"

Sidney loves to play with toys. She is constantly ordering us to "sit down, pay toys" (aka: PLAY toys). But lately she's been playing with them in an unusual way. She loves to make piles of toys wherever she goes. Last night, she took her shopping cart into the toy room, piled it high with toys, and then unloaded everything onto the steps. Not a real safe spot for a 2 year old to be playing.
Then tonight, she unloaded two bins of baby doll items onto the
couch and sat nicely next to me while playing.
It's ok, we don't get it either.
Ahhh, but she's so darn cute that we just let it all slide


Sunday, October 24, 2010

Weekend with Hope

This weekend we had my cousin Hope stay with us during her MEA break from school. It took the girls a couple of hours to warm up to her before they wouldn't go anywhere in the house without saying "where'd Hope go?". It was most funny this morning when they thought she must have left already because even at close to 10am, she was no where to be found. I tried to convince both girls they should take after her and sleep in sometime too :) 6am comes a little early!
Sidney didn't want to sit for a photo so Regan tried holding her and pressing her head still....thanks for the help Regs!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Fall ball

Thankfully Logan has continued to play softball into her college years, and even better is that it's in the metro area so we get to see her talent! This morning we headed to her scrimmage and the girls spotted her all the way from the parking lot!
Favorite Fan #1 and Favorite Fan #2

Friday, October 22, 2010

Flashback Friday

Once upon a time (actually many times) I saw these people in action....
not me and Sheena, the Golden Knights
and decided it would be fun to do this.....
Ryan couldn't let me have all the fun so he did it too!
And can you believe we went back for more?
Wonder if we'd do it all over again?

Another round of breakfast

Breakfast is done in shifts around this house. Sidney wakes at 6am and is eating by 6:01, for the first time. Ryan leaves for work just before 8, and while he grabs something for his drive, Sidney eats whatever that may be (breakfast #2). Regan tends to eat around 8:30 or 9am, and today, Sidney slid a chair next to her so she could share in yet another breakfast. It's amazing that she continues to be a little peanut with all the eating she's doing!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Tailgating and more...

Ryan and I left the girls in the hands of Grandma Jan yesterday and spent the entire day getting ready and cheering for the Vikings. It was a wonderful day to tailgate for 4 hours before the game! The girls had fun playing at the park, twice, and having Grandma Jan all to themselves.

Ryan and the girls, Logan, Hunter, Vicky and Maddi
We play "washers", which I'm terrible at, and Maddi is REALLY good at. She opted to do some cheering and spelled out names like Y-M-C-A. Thanks for the great pics Maddi!
It was a long game, I literally sat on the edge of my seat the entire game and was visibly shaking at the end. But finally, a Vikings WIN!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Apple Orchard

This morning we ventured to Belle Plaine with some friends to a local apple orchard/pumpkin patch/scarecrow contest/FUN! It was a beautiful fall morning with a wonderful mix of sun and wind. Here's a little glimpse at how it went....

Regan rode a pony while Sidney stood on the sidelines per her own request. Someday she'll get enough courage to join her sister.
Regan and Grace sandwiched into a car in front of me/Sidney for a train ride. We picked apples before the ride and Regan snacked on her apple while enjoying the scenery.
Such a serious face in the middle of all those pumpkins.
It's getting slightly easier to snatch a photo of all 4 of them, right now they are 5, 4, 3, 2 years old!
And who couldn't resist an attempt at a fall family photo.
A stop for lunch at Clancy's put the icing on the
cake as far as Ryan's morning was concerned!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Pile o' leaves!

Chores around the house are so much less "chore like" when they involve FUN! So this morning as I started to rake leaves in the back yard, I opted to rake one big pile at the end of the slide for the girls to do this....
The look on Sidney's face of pure joy after she went head first into the leaves was priceless, but I was a little nervous it would be the opposite so there wasn't a picture of her giggling as I prepped myself.


Flashback Friday

3/2005
Shortly after getting married and taking a wonderful honeymoon to Hawaii, I convinced Ryan to join me on a European tour. Here's one of our photos. We were lucky enough to meet up with many friends/family overseas, and this picture, taken in Germany, is with my cousin Sheena who was studying abroad at the time.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Basement progress

This post has little to do with the girls, but some people are asking about the basement progress, so this is how the weekend was spent. Thanks to some amazing helpers (Shane, Arnie and Dooley), the sheetrocking is nearly finished!


And today, while we scurried off to the office, Arnie finished installing the lights. I think we've decided to hire out the next step (mudding, sanding, smoothing, etc) for a faster finish. My goal is to be finished by Christmas! And to think it all started with my mom and I on a Monday afternoon starring at a wall thinking "how can we take this down?" before starting the demolition!

Friday, October 08, 2010

Flashback Friday

Regan playing with Thomas
October 2007
They were so little!

Summer day in October!

It's 82F.
On October 8th.
In Minnesota!
So we're decked out in some pretty cute skirts with ponies in our hair and
heading outside for an afternoon of fun!

Daddy's helpers

We stopped by Ryan's office on our way to lunch today. The girls enjoy "helping" dad with his work. Let's just say his meticulously maintained desk isn't so clean after they color with highlighters on random sheets of paper!

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

GO TWINS!

The girls' school had Twins Day today; Sidney is on the far left being held by one of her teachers. Unfortunately Regan doesn't have any Twins gear and didn't like the Red/White/Blue outfit so she insisted on wearing her Vikings jersey. Given this morning's headline about Moss' return, we were happy about her choice of clothing today!

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Fall is in the air

Today was a perfect afternoon to play in the leaves; so the girls and I did just that. Regan is such a big helper and told Sidney over and over again "not yet. The pile isn't big enough yet."
It was adorable to watch them get silly and talk about the
"crisp, crunchy leaves" just like Sidney's book tells us.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

BLS

BLS. aka: Black Label Society. Remember that post last week about Zakk Wylde hanging in my garage? Tonight Ryan went to see him in concert. And being the good wife I am, I got Sidney decked out in her BLS shirt to show our support. Too bad she didn't cooperate with photos.
With a sucker hanging out of her mouth, she looked ready for a meet at greet with Zakk!

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Shrine Circus = major anxiety

We took the girls to the Zurah Shrine Circus today. And while Ryan and the girls had a wonderful time, I dealt with my anxiety about being at a circus. The whole idea of an elephant stampeded or a psycho tiger puts be over the edge. I realize this is a little silly, but if I could've taken a Xanax beforehand, I might have enjoyed myself a little more.

Regan experienced a pony ride, and though she was very nervous, she talked about it afterwards and claimed to enjoy it. Ryan stepped in lots of pony poop; lucky dad!
Now seriously, who puts a tiger on a tight rope close enough to the edge of the cage where he could jump over? I closed my eyes for most of this act and just waited to hear the audience gasp and scream in panic. Thankfully that didn't happen.
Now this was more like it! Big, fluffy dogs in a tube slide! Hilarious!
Who the heck bought tickets in the 3rd row? What was I thinking??
Ta-Da!
We all made it through the circus!
We can officially mark that one off of the "must do" list.
Think we'll stick to Cirque Du Soleil instead.

Friday, October 01, 2010

Three Rivers Park District

Today we made the annual trip to Hyland Ski Resort to ride the chair lifts and see the fall colors from the top. And once again, it proved to be a great experience for all of us.

Regan was more than thrilled to go on a "ride". She followed all the rules: hanging on, not kicking her legs, sitting nicely, etc.
This little peanut on the other hand, was a wee bit scared at first. She snuggled up tight but eventually figured out this was going to be fun, not scary. She managed to sit between myself and Regan and then proceeded to try to stand, turn around to see the people behind us, look W-A-Y over the safety bar, etc. Grandma Jan would've had a heart attack....
Once at the top, we saw a red tail hawk and owl on display by the raptor center, played some games and won some snacks, and roasted s'mores by the fire.
And of course, we took some pictures
Sidney knows that the best part of a s'more is actually the chocolate. She took a bite or two, then pulled out the chocolate from the inside and dropped the rest onto the ground.
Our smart little girl
And since we can't take the lift down the hill, the girls decided to follow the other kids and roll down the hill! We thought about joining them (there were a few other adults!), but both of us worried we'd get sick.

My favorite tree

Four years ago, I drove past this tree and fell in love. It's located in an incredibly large park not terribly far from our house. Every fall, we have gone back to find the tree, just at the right time of fall, to take pictures of the girls (see previous post). This year, I managed to make another memory out of it....not a good one. I lost Regan's glasses. I had taken them off for pictures. We eventually made our way over to the swings, then to the playground, and when we were leaving, I noticed they were missing. For 30 L-O-N-G minutes, we searched the ground; back tracked three times, asked a lovely mother pushing her little boy in the swing, but without luck. Drawing a deep breath, I called Ryan to share the bad news. He suggested we get on ground level to look (we had already done this), but I did it again. I bent down, Sidney walked up to me, and when I looked down by our shoes, there they were nestled between us; we all screamed for joy!!! Thankfully this tree remains a good memory :)

Flashback Friday

It's no lie that a Minnesota fall can be spectacular with the amazing tree colors. My next posts will be from today, so enjoy this flashback from the same 2 venues....

2009
2008
2008
2007
2007-Hyland Ski