Parade of Lights

Despite the temps, we took in the Parade of Lights tonight with all of the grandparents, my feet were utterly freezing but the girls loved the music, lights and of course, seeing Santa! I'd like Grandpa to bring his truck next year so we can load chairs into the bed and watch from there :) It truly is a festive experience and something the girls really enjoy watching. Something tells me they enjoy the parade just as much as spending extra time with their grandmas and grandpas.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! These two cuties had their fill of turkey, ham, stuffing, pie and everything in between :) I'm hopeful they'll sleep well tonight.

Thankful for....

On Thanksgiving, we are so very thankful for the ones we love. Where would anyone be without the love and support of friends and family? So today we think about those that make our life brighter....

Last night Ryan was able to have a "few more" drinks

with Paul before he heads back home to Germany.

We will miss you Paul and are thankful we got to see you this month!

I cannot begin to say how thankful I am for the best friend a gal could ask for. Kari and I spend countless hours, at all ends of the day, in conversation. My day doesn't officially begin until I hear from her and it cannot officially end until we say goodnight! I have a terribly heavy heart for her this Thanksgiving as we lifted her wonderful father into heaven this week.

We are thankful for these two sweet angels that love each other more than anything. Sidney's arms-wrapped-tight-around-my-neck-hugs are top notch and make my heart melt instantly. Regan's belly laugh can get me rolling along side her and forget about all my troubles.

And it goes without saying that we are thankful for our parents on this Thanksgiving. Without their wonderful expertise, help, support and love, we would be completely lost.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Eve and Grandma Jan's birthday

We've been hit by another ice/snow storm. Depending where you are in the state, you got one or the other or a mix of the two. The girls went outside tonight to help grandma Jan shovel.....they weren't much help :)

Apparently this is what you do when you don't have a sled on hand, use the shovel instead! The girls laughed hysterically and grandma Jan seemed to think it was pretty fun too.

And after all that shoveling, or sledding, it was time to warm up inside, eat cake and celebrate grandma's birthday! Hope you had a HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Flashback Friday

This week we will celebrate my mom's birthday; don't worry mom, there's no embarrassing surprise party planned like there was in 2007 :) Enjoy this flashback Friday and have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Friends from a far

One of Ryan's closest friends, Paul, left for Germany years ago; and we've missed him dearly ever since. While he and his family are in town on vacation, we were fortunate enough to have them over for dinner.

Ryan and Paul

Me/Sid and Renata

And of course, the stars of the show, Regan, Niklas and Sidney having a great playdate!

This November, I'm thankful for wonderful friends!

Snow girl

First snowfall!

This morning, we woke to multiple inches of wet, heavy (heart attack causing) snow on the ground. The jury is still out as to the amount, roughly 5 is our guess.

Sidney jumped for joy, having no idea what she was getting so excited for. She screamed for us to come to the window, she was mesmerized that the rocks were "all gone" in the rock beds so we spent 20 minutes bundling up. And the next hour outside re-bundling and replacing mittens and boots.

Then Sidney stood in the garage, refusing to go any further. It was cold, can you blame her!

Regan ran straight out the door into the beautiful white snow, begging me to help her build a snow man. Soon, we heard a loud crack from across the street, and a tree came tumbling to the ground from the weight of snow. I decided to quickly wrap up the snowman project under our tree and opted out of a picture...just in case.

It was a family ordeal to shovel the driveway for the first time, much too heavy for our baby snow thrower. I have a hunch the new slippery slope is going to cause a few falls and "stuck" cars this winter.

And then it was onto the back yard and some fun for the girls :) Regan went down the slide and cleared all the snow off with her snow pants; and boy did she laugh at how fun that was!

Not to fret, Sidney quickly had fun too and didn't spend the morning in the garage. Once she figured out how to walk in the depths of the snow, she laughed along with her big sister.

I really am trying to love this white stuff. It's just a bit too early for me. I asked Regan if she had fun this morning and her response was "yea!, but the snow is cold".

Flashback Friday

Notice the snowflakes?

I thought it was appropriate given all the weather talk lately.....

ready or not, here it comes!

And by the way, I'm not ready!!!!

Wednesday nights....

Wednesday nights around here see a few more faces. Logan has been joining us for dinner weekly and when Maddi isn't working, she comes along for some fun too. Our girls simply love to spend a few hours with these two gals and tonight was no different. After dinner, we played in the toy room, got the kiddos pretty hyper, and finally settled down to some "salon" play. We all got some pretty good laughs as Maddi created a pretty interesting new do for Regan....

Thankfully Regan disagreed with Maddi that she should wear this "French twist", as Maddi called it, to school tomorrow, or worse, for her high school prom some day!

Not to be left out, Sidney only wanted Logan to touch her hair.... I wonder why?! She had a couple of cute pony tails but after pulling them each out, we started to call her Elvis.

Best dressed

Thanks to a grandma who absolutely loves to shop, these two definitely win the "best dressed" award. Today they each sported their own little tutu/dance themed outfit, of course, because it was dance class day! What a couple of little hams posing for pictures.

I love chocolate

Grandma Sheri sent some Halloween treats last weekend and Sidney picked the last chocolate/pumpkin brownie for dessert yesterday. This peanut does not mind one bit about getting her hands dirty, but she was pretty upset that her shirt got dirty in the process.

I'm happy the dessert is gone.

From Halloween to Thanksgiving

We like to decorate the house for every holiday. This time of year, we go directly from one holiday to the next so when I packed up the Halloween knick knacks, we immediately pulled out Thanksgiving ones. The girls' favorite job is to display the window gel clings in our big bay window. We clear off the ledge and they climb right up and go to work. It's adorable to listen to them chat as they work and in the end, I have two very proud little girls and two very nice lines of leaves, pumpkins and acorns.

Happy Halloween 2010

The last of our Halloween excitement took place tonight as these two munchkins explored our new neighborhood while Trick or Treating. They each gathered up 4 lbs of candy, and I know that because I weighed their bags. Yes, on the scale. That's a whole lotta candy for just going around our block; a little deceiving considering our "block" isn't a standard city block but it's still only ONE block!

While we walked tonight, Regan sang us Jingle Bells. I begged her to come back to Halloween and she said "I can't sing Halloween songs". Thanks for the beautiful singing!

Out of that 8 lb pile of candy, each hyped-up-super-excited-child of ours choose 1, maybe 2 treats.

And then they each followed that sugar treat with some carrots.

Just trying to even out the nutritional pyramid again.

As promised, here are the 5 pumpkins on display this year. They turned out great :)

Carving pumpkins

Apparently the magic age for Regan is 4. Because at 4 years old, she finally dug her hand into the pumpkin without too much trouble and enjoyed the feel of the seeds, string and mush. She desperately tried to convince Sidney to do the same, but wasn't successful.

Sidney appears to be putting her hand into the pumpkin, but it was a staged picture. She wasn't going near the ooey, gooey inside! We got a lot of "yuck mom!" looks from her and a few evil eyes at the smell.

I think the girls were quite happy to be painting their pumpkins versus carving them. In Sidney's case, she painted her arms, high chair and the table too.

You'll have to wait until tonight to see the final products!!

Halloween Party 2010-Round 3

We took the girls down to a nearby shopping area for more Halloween fun this morning. All the shops participated in the "Trick or Treat" fun and handed out lots of candy. It was a great way for mom/dad to browse the shops too; we started remembering how much we both enjoy certain stores and have missed shopping now that we have two little ones.

Sidney is a pro at Trick or Treating now; she's not waiting for her sister to catch up, she just runs from one to the next!

We got to hop into a fire truck too! Regan thought it was pretty cool; but you guessed it, Sidney got a little frightened.

It's tiring work to be such a cute chicken! We received oodles of compliments on her costume and we saw lots of people pointing her out to their friends. She is an adorable chicken if you ask me.

Halloween Party 2010-Round 2

After a quick dinner, we got back into costume and headed to meet some friends for another Halloween Party that we attend annually.

But first, I snagged a picture of Cinderella and the Chicken

There were lots of games and indoor trick or treating....

And of course, there's this 3 story indoor park that is a favorite for Regan and her buddy, Emerson. Sidney went up with Ryan once and insisted on coming back down quickly.

Ryan got in on the fun too, ok, well all of the adults did but he's the lucky

one to be featured on the blog! This is not an easy toy to maneuver!

Regan got a bit of a scare out of the haunted house. She didn't realize I went in the side door and was waiting for her inside; she actually jumped as I snapped this picture and then followed it up with a good laugh! Let's just say she does better than me when scared....

I tried and tried to get a good picture of them with this Halloween scene in the background; this was my final try and it just cracks me up!!

Apparently, if you add me into the photo, they do a little better at posing :)

Halloween Party 2010-Round 1

Cinderella and her chicken attended their classroom Halloween parties today!

Regan had no problem taking part on a non-scheduled school day.

Sidney, on the other hand, was pretty sad that we went to school on a Friday. It took her a very long time to warm up and sit on the chair versus my lap.

That's A LOT of sugar sitting on her plate!! Thankfully she didn't eat it all :)

Flashback Friday

Regan 2008

Lady bug girl

Sidney 2008

Our little jalapeno

We've been BOOED!

I love this new neighborhood we have found, we just feel so at home here. It has an amazingly family friendly atmosphere. So this afternoon, as the girls and I drove into the driveway, we noticed this pumpkin filled with treats sitting on our front door steps. The sign says "We've been booed!" and the second page gives instructions on how to pass it along. We're so excited to celebrate Halloween in this wonderful neighborhood!