I ♥ My Job

**Sorry about the loud music in the background, Sally insists on rocking Belle in the swing, with the music on.  Sounds like we're at a circus!

It's Our Daddy's Birthday!

27 Things we love about our Daddy


1. He’s our Daddy

2. He loves our Mommy

3. How hard he works so he can provide for his family

4. His dedication to his Catholic Faith

5. His Nicknames for everything

6. The way he reads us books

7. The baths he gives us

8. Wrestling with him

9. Getting Saturday morning donuts

10. The way he makes us laugh, like no one else can

11. Cream of Chicken and rice

12. When he pushes us on the swing

13. When he shares his food

14. His unconditional love for the Gophers

15. When he shovels snow in the winter

16. When he rakes leaves in the Fall

17. When he mows the lawn in the summer

18. He loves country music, especially Taylor Swift

19. He teaches me how to pedal on the bike

20. When he gets to put me to bed and we do prayers together

21. His crazy kisses

22. He takes us on walks around the neighborhood

23. Playing outside with him

24. Snuggling with him

25. His big bear hugs

26. When he tickles us

27. He puts his family first. He loves that he’s a daddy and he’s the best daddy in the whole whole world!

Happy 27th Birthday Daddy! We hope you have a really great day! We'll try to make this the best year ever for you! Thank you for being such a nice Daddy to us!
 
We love you with our whole whole heart,
Your girls xoxo

Sun Shiny Day

Libby enjoying watching her sister play at the park!

Happy Early Birthday to the wonderful Father of our Beautiful Girls!

We love you with our Whole Whole Heart {sallyism}!

♥,

Your Girls

Cheering for Suh

The other day when it was really nice outside, we ventured up to the park after naps.  To our surprise there was also a Track Meet going on up at the high school.  We decided to go take a look and cheer on our wonderful babysitter, Suh, as she ran the mile!!

Great job Suh!!

Libby was promoted to a seat!! For those of you doubters {like I was} about the location of Libby's seat, let me tell you she LOOOOOOOVED it!  It's all she'll know. She won't know that she has a limited view until some day when she is a big sister and she'll be promoted to the front and then she may look back and say "thanks a lot mom!"

Suh's coming in hot in the orange :)

Dog Park

My friend Jenny got a new/old dog two weeks ago.  They adopted Dylan, who was a foster dog.  He's between 5-7 years old, and a very well behaved dog!!

Not sure who had more fun at the Dog Park, Sally or Dylan :)

Thanks Jenny and Dylan for coming over to go for a walk! We hope to continue our walks as the weather gets nicer and nicer!

Not sure if it's because we had a nice little break from one another, or I'm more emotional because we're approaching her THIRD birthday, but I'm finding my oldest girl sweeter, cuter and funnier every day!

Four Girls

Lucy and Annie came over to play yesterday morning, so that Mary could finish up some sale stuff. 4 girls was easier than I thought it was going to be.

Giddy Up

Great day to have lunch outside!

Back together again

Everyone had a successful weekend in their different places.

Sally did a great job with her manners at Nana and Grandpa's house.  She even went with Nana to go visit her special friend Mary, who is blind.  Sally held her hand and said the Hail Mary and Our Father with her.  She coincidentally said "See ya later Mary!" as they walked out to leave.  She also remembered to treat Nana extra special on Sunday, as it was her 60th birthday! She doesn't look at day over 50! Thank you Nana and Grandpa for taking Sally for the weekend!

Daddy had fun at the bachelor party, it was a nice break for him as he's been so busy with work and school!

Mommy couldn't believe, she at one point used to think having one infant was a lot of work. I also can't remember what I did before kids.  Every down time I had I used to check things off of my to do list and most had to do with either Sally or Libby.  Did I used to just lay around all day and watch TV??

Libby had a lot of fun at the Christensen's house and was a good girl! Check out the video at the end to see how happy she really was! Thank you Christensen Family for taking such great care of her!!

The ECFE Sale was a big success as well, great job Mary for putting it all on!!

Grandpa Joe's tie!

ECFE Sale!



Libby's reaction when I told her, her sister was going to be gone all weekend!

 I'm not going to lie, when the sun set, I missed having us all together.  So much different being at home when Sally {or daddy} isn't here.  Much easier to be the one leaving, rather than the one left behind.  As Sally says "It's great to be all together as a family!"

She was thrilled that we had family bed time stories on her bed last night.  "Can Libby come too?!"

Sally's new favorite line, "Hey Mom, I would like to have more brothers and sisters, please!"  In time my sweet girl.  Give mama some time, saaaaay another two years when Daddy is doen with his grad school bit :)

Falling in Love

I'm falling harder and harder for my girls lately.  It's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.  My little get away to Texas was much needed.  We are all doing our own thing this weekend.  Sally is off to Nana and Grandpa's house for the weekend, Daddy is off with the guys for a bachelor party, Libby gets to play for a few hours with the Christensen Family and Mommy will be volunteering at the ECFE Clothing and Toy Sale.

Libby has been very chatty lately, but the minute she sees the red record light, she stops...

It's going to be weird being home for the weekend, just me and the baby.  It's going to be quiet.  I'm anticipating getting a lot done, but we'll have to wait and see how much 'me' time I'm willing to give up to clean :)

Mama got a new do and Sally got a candy necklace :)

Love her



My little cupcake loves being a big girl like her sister!


If you're in the area, come check out the ECFE Clothing Sale!
Saturday, April 21st
8am-Noon
Central Community Center
6300 Walker Street
St. Louis Park, MN 55416

Happy Weekending!

Selfless, OCD Mom

Sally loves to cut with scissors at ECFE, so I thought it was time to buy her a pair of her own.  She sat at the table and cut for 30  minutes straight...causing a rather large mess of little pieces of paper.

She was happy to help clean them up when it was time to be done.

This was 5 minutes in

I guess there could be worse messes. 

**I once saw something that said "Whoever came up with OCD, obviously didn't have OCD or they would have named it CDO {alphabetized letters!}

Can I have some?

Reid made a quick apperance yesterday to help out at Libby's 4 month check:

Weight: 15lbs 4oz --84%

Length: 24 1/2in-- 61%

Head: 41.6cm --69%
 
Healthy Girl!
 
Reid was excited because it meant he got to have a little snack/dinner before he headed to class.  Sally is known for her "Can I have some?" before she even knows what you're about to eat.  Reid took full advantage of it yesterday...
 

Second Half of Texas and the Zoo

Good Morning!!

So excited she can finally wear her new outfit from Grandma and George

Giggles with Andy

If there's a candy store you can bet I'll be there :) What is it with the craze of mustaches? I don't get it

Downtown Denton at 'the square'

The Courthouse is the center of 'the square'

Drinking a COLD bottle...Hell pretty much froze over when that happened!

Kari telling Libby what it's like to work here at the Mellow Mushroom....delicious pizza!!

Pretty Pretty girl ready to head to church

Girlfriends

Waiting to board the plane...it was 30 minutes delayed. 

Traveling is hard work..;) There were at least 6 'infant in arms' on the plane.  Mine, was of course, the best one and the cutest :)

On to Daddy-Daughter time

Helping Daddy make coffee...one of her favorite things about the weekends!

Beautiful day to go to the Zoo!

:)

Her favorite animal she saw

Reid sent me this picture with the caption "Our Mommies look the same"

Lunch Time!

Dinner with Delores. Thank you for watching Sally while Reid had a review session for class!

On her way to pick up her sister and her mommy!  When they got under the tunnel part to pick us up Sally said, "Oh, is this Texas?" As if we were just down the street the whole time ;)

"Let me take a closer look!" Mommy scored big with a Belle Pez Dispenser.  She rocked it, wrapped it up in a blanket and snuggled with it in bed.  **Side note: Daddy didn't know these clothes were set aside in a "too small" pile :)

"We're a family again!"-Sally

**Mommy always takes too long with the video to capture the real giggles that were happening 2 minutes before this

I think it's safe to say we all had a fabulous weekend!

4 months!

We had a happy little girl on our hands this morning after her morning nap!

I developed my morning nap this month!! 2-3hours!

I learned how to use my hands better, I can grab and hang on to things

I'm almost rolling over

I love being on my tummy!

Hey, where is my sister going?

I'm really good at the airplane, soon I'll have rock hard abs!

Libby brings so much happiness and joy to our family, as well as strangers! We love you Libbers!!

Texas and Trains

We're back! We had a AM-AH-ZING {right Kari? :)} time in Texas with our fabulous host and hostess!! It did my heart well to see my good friend and spend some quality time with her! Thank you thank you for your extra special hospitality and love, we're so glad to have made the trip!! We miss you already!

Libby was a great little traveler! She turned many heads at her cuteness.  Literally, a whole boarding gate area looked and ahhhh-ed at her as we walked by, it was if we were in a parade. 

We pretty much turned heads everywhere, picture a baby in the Bjorn, a bright green stroller, filled with bags and me rolling my suitcase behind.  Everyone thought I was nuts for not checking things, my response was, "Hey I juggle two kids at the grocery store, this will be pretty much the same." The only time I really needed help was getting my bag up and out of the overhead storage on the plane.  Both times, the people who helped get it down ended up carrying my bag all the way off the plane for me.  Most people really do want to help and aren't irritated that you chose to travel with a baby.

Our time in Texas was a perfect balance between touristy things and just relaxing.  It was nice to only have to worry about an infant for a few days. 

I think I need to start giving my kids a better chance at proving their adaptability.  I'm such a routine follower that when things get changed up when away from home, I think my kids will crumble.  They usually rise to the occasion and far exceed my expectations.  For instance, Libby doesn't do the whole bottle thing very well.  Twice during the trip she drank a bottle that wasn't to her perfectly warmed temperature!  She fell asleep numerous times just hanging out in her car seat {thank you thank you to Kari's generous neighbors for borrowing us a car seat, pack n play and bouncy seat!!} and Bjorn.

I could go on and on about details, but I have a load of pictures to share and a little lady who's waiting to play, I missed her so!

Fell asleep moments before takeoff and slept for most of the ride.  If she wasn't sleeping she was all smiles with her neighboring passengers!

We made it! Anxiously waiting for Kari to pull up!

Fixin' to have a great day with Kari!

Yay for no socks!!

Lunch with the girls...amazing Guac!!

Chit chattin' with Kari

So cool!! Fort Worth stock yards.  There is a rodeo every Friday and Saturday and the Bulls walk down the street in a procession!



Ye-Ha



Note the adaptable baby :)

Girlfriends!!

That's the end of the first set of Texas. 

Next up, first set of Daddy and Sally.  Reid was a very good daddy and husband while I was away.  Sally had special time and adventures as well as staying on schedule.  I came home to the laundry done, the house organized and a bouquet of flowers on the table!

Last year when I went to Arizona I missed Sally A LOT.  This time, I missed her, but it was definitely a very good break for us.  It's good to be home and getting back on schedule.  In the back of my mind, I know that being away for a week this coming winter, for a destination wedding, will also be a great break and that I can do it.  It makes me be a better mom!

Daddy's solo ponytail

Train Museum...she looks soooooo old!!

Excited!

Waving to the trains as they go by

Loving her special time, just she and Daddy

Lunch, Target style.  Daddy said not to worry about her thinking she can eat lunch every time at Target because they went to a different Target :)

Happy 4 months to our sweet Libby.  We'll see if we're able to post another entry today...