Mohawk!

Sidney's teacher, Tracy, loves to give her a mohawk :) Lately when I've been picking her up, Tracy is styling her hair for the 5th time since nap! It's adorable and definately the perfect length for this new 'do!

New camera!

A little blury, but look at what I can do!? I think I could do this with my old camera too, just never bothered to figure it out. Obviously I need a little more practice to perfect this and use all the fun features.

After much consultation from friends and discussing it with two salespeople at two different stores (all in one day!), I purchased a new camera tonight. I didn't have much choice seeing as though I literally set Sidney on the floor tonight and she started crawling!!! and I didn't have a camera to capture the moment :(

Let's hope I made a good purchase.

Look at that blonde hair! It's sure getting long!

A night of "PLOPS!"

Tonight we headed down to Lake Harriet for ice cream, to watch the ducks and listen to some music. Wouldn't you know it, we had a little excitement along the way....

Ryan headed to concessions to get the ice cream while I waited outside with the stroller and Sidney. I moved the stroller about 2 inches and "PLOP" a bird pooped on the cup holder! YUCK. Good thing I moved when and where I did or that bird would've either 1) pooped on Sidney's head or 2 )pooped on my head! After getting the gigantic sized ice cream cones, we headed down next to the lake to watch the ducks and enjoy our treat.

I then asked Ryan to take a picture of me with the girls' messy faces and suddenly I hear "PLOP", he dropped the camera into Lake Harriet! Next thing I know, I'm screaming at him to jump in to save my camera! Ok, so I wasn't screaming and since the camera wasn't totally submerged, it was safe enough to jump along the ledge and grab it (notice I didn't say "save" it).....
Here's our last picture.....

The camera is not to be saved, we've lost it to Lake Harriet :( There's water in the lens and although I was able to take another picture, it's shut down for good now.

The good news is we get to go camera shopping this week!! If anyone has suggestions for an excellent camera, let me know :)

Long ago...

This is a video from January 2008, just before Regan turned 2; nothing special, but then again everything she does is special!

And please pardon the missing pants, we were potty training!

Keep in mind she's only 3 so the words might not be all correct, but she's got the right idea :) And yes, I've nearly lost my voice completely so as Regan puts it, I sound like a frog. I'm hoping to get another video online of Sidney saying "bye bye" but the computer isn't cooperating. Stay tuned.

Lazy bones

Well, Sidney's almost 10 months old and this is about all she does for crawling. I know she'll get better (and faster) in the coming weeks and we'll be saying "slow down!" and "lock the gate!". Part of the reason she refuses to crawl is because she'd much rather walk around holding onto our hands. She does that non stop all day long and when we finally take a break, she cries so hard. Did I mention she's a drama queen?

In this post she was choosing to dance over crawling (once she grabbed the book I had placed out of her reach).

She may get more water on her shirt than in her mouth, but at least we don't have to worry about her putting her mouth on the metal spout loaded with germs!

More 4th pictures

parade pictures

Sandbox fun!

Most people hand out candy in parades, but the Edina HS hands out their jerseys. Sidney feeding herself! Cindy and Shane are cringing at this picture I'm sure :)

Sidney loves the sandbox, but she still tries to eat it :(

Regan helped me make a flag cake! It was very yummy :)

Happy 4th of July!

Look out! here comes a big one!

Sparklers with dad!

We wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July! Thank you to those who help make this country free :)

We started the 4th a little early by lighting fireworks off last night. Ryan says "legal fireworks suck" but the girls think they are wonderful! Today we have all of the grandparents here and 1/2 went golfing with Ryan (guess which 1/2) and Grandpa stayed home to babysit Sidney (though she napped all morning) while Grandma Sheri and I took Regan to a parade. It was a wonderful morning. Now everyone in the house is napping except me :)

Cheerleader

Regan got pom poms from Grandma Sheri tonight for participating in the parade. She's in her glory making up cheers....you can hear her trying to sing the Vikings cheer!

Carnival!

The deadly train ride...Hunter nearly got wacked in the face by the tree branch!
Expressions from the train

Sisters!

A semi-smile!

After the parade, we let Regan go on some rides at the carnival! Thank goodness Hunter was with to help out with that :) They went on a crazy wild train that neither of them were very thrilled about but we had fun watching them from the ground! Regan got all the way to the top of the gigantic slide before chickening out with fear. Poor Hunter had to go down the slide all by herself (but who doesn't like a slide at any age!).

Kiddie Parade

The girls, along with Gracie and Jayden were in a kiddie parade tonight :) They had so much fun! From the decorating to the actual parade, it was so much fun to watch them participate in the activities!

Sleepy heads....

if only they'd sleep in on the weekends instead of when they have to get up for school! Earlier this week it was 7am and we were dragging both of them out of bed (hence the picture taking). I leave for work by 7:10 and am charged with fixing hair so they had no choice but to wake up :(

Blabber mouth

We have some spare bottles laying around that Regan uses for her babies. Tonight, Sidney grabbed hold of it and starting talking into it. Adorable!

I like sand....

...but it doesn't taste very good :)

I looked away for a second and turned back to see Sidney with sand in her mouth; yuck!

Play date!

Today was the last day of my 5 day weekend :( However, we spent the day playing with Kari, Thomas and Natalie Schwartz so it might have been the best day of my time off from work! They drove up this morning and spent the entire day here; the kids had a blast. My favorite time was nap time so we could actually have a conversation and not be interrupted 10 times with "will you help me {put this on}, {take me potty}, {get me a snack}", etc! You'd think after 18 years of friendship we'd run out of things to talk about...not with us! It's great that the kids play so nicely together. I'm not sure they argued even once over a toy! Thomas and Sidney were best buds all day; she adores him! It was good practice for him as they have a new baby joining the family in November!

Hudson's 1st birthday party!

We celebrated Hudson's first birthday on Saturday with a Handy Manny Party! He was nice enough to share his toys, his beloved swing and even his swimming pool! Regan even got to help him open all of his fun presents :)

Sidney just loved giving Hudson kisses; he kept trying to figure out a break away!

Hudson and Sidney (they're 3 months apart)

Sidney all dressed up

Sidney and Hope

We spent the weekend in New Ulm hanging out with family, watching lots of softball games (while Ryan golfed) and playing at Grandparent Friederich's house. It was super fun and thankfully the weather held up for all the outdoor fun we had :)

Hair cut #2

Regan got her second hair cut this weekend. She was again pretty apprehensive at first, but warmed up as soon as she heard she'd get a sucker when it was over :) Plus it's not so bad getting your hair cut when your Godmother cuts it! Thanks Vicky!!

Rub a dub dub

two girls in the tub! I've been bathing Sidney without the bath seat for quite some time and am now getting brave enough to put Regan in with her (keep in mind she's 3 and likes to get a little crazy in the tub!). Both girls have a great time splashing in the tub separately, well, they love it even more when the other is in the tub too.

Videos of Regan

Here are a few short videos of Regan. One is of her dancing/singing; if only it was longer! We tried hiding behind the door while recording but she caught us. The other is of her telling me she needs to write a text message?! Never thought I'd hear that from my 3 year old :)

Kisses!

Minihaha Falls

This afternoon, I took the girls to see the Minihaha Falls. Of course, I forgot there is construction work going on at the falls and it's not like it normally is. We still had fun. Sidney gets so excited when she sees water and started kicking her legs and waving her arms as if to tell us she wanted to join the swimmers :) Don't worry Grandma Jan, I didn't let her jump over into the falls!

5 day weekend!!!

Sidney was waaayyyy to busy to look at the camera today!

Regan "swimming" onto the baby side.

Can you believe it! I'm actually taking a vacation :) Five days off from work IN A ROW! It dawned on me earlier this month that I no longer need to save my vacation. For 4 years I've been saving vacations for maternity leaves. Well, with no more kiddos in the works, I decided to take some vacation time this summer; starting today!! I took the girls to Lynnhurst wading pool in Minneapolis and we had a blast! Regan is such a people watcher that for the first 30 min, she just checks it all out from the edge or on her own, but after that, look out! She had a great time "swimming" on the baby side of the pool and chasing things around on the big kid side of the pool. Sidney had fun just being in water :) We packed a picnic so we could make the outing over the lunch hour and what kid doesn't like a picnic!?

Swimming

Grandma and Grandpa got an idea today....fill up the wagon and put Sidney inside :) She loved it! Saves us on the back aches bending over. After I got home from work, I put on my suit and sat down in the pool with her; she's in her glory in the swimming pool.