Our Saturday evening

Today was a good day.

I had wanted to take the girls to the zoo.

Ryan wanted to clean and organize the basement.

The basement looks pretty good.

Anyway.

This evening was great!

The weather was cool, but not cold.

Perfect for a fire in the pit

(gotta get rid of those old bank and credit card statements somehow, right?)

We grilled some great pork tenderloin with applewood smoked bacon on top!

YUM!

While the grill was going, this is what we did....

 

Ryan helped Lila ride her bike!

(well, kinda)

ummmm....

Yeah....

He was pretty proud of himself for not falling down!

Hey, he had to SHOW Lila how to do it, right?

He also had to bend her training wheels back in place.

oops...

She did eventually get on by herself.

She didn't actually GO anywhere by herself, but who cares?!

We had fun!

Ellie liked watching the action too!

Not a bad day.

Not a bad day at all!

Gross.... I mean, Mmmmm Delicious!

Seriously, how can we make them eat this stuff?!

cereal and green beans

I put it together and it makes me want to gag, yet I get all smiley and weird when I feed it to my little girl!

"Mmmmm, isn't that yummy?"

Yuk. 
But she seems to like it, so whatever.

Ryan took the day off today and I'm LOVING having him home!

The day has been great and the whole weekend is looking to be fun!

(Sorry Dad we aren't up visiting, hope you feel better quick! Love you!)

Happy Friday!

Minnesota weather!

Us Minnesotans are fussy about our weather.

Winter brings the "too cold" or "too much snow" or the opposite "not enough snow" (no one likes a brown Christmas and I know a few snowmobilers that really hate a dry winter!)

Spring can be rainy and the winter chill seems to always hang around past Easter.  You can have a week in the 50's then back to below freezing in a snap.

Summer is either too hot and sticky or not warm enough to really get out and do all that great "summer stuff"!

And in true Minnesotan fashion, this fall has been no different!
Hot, hot, hot to start, then rain to beat the band, then GORGEOUS colors, sunshine, and wonderfullness, and now...
Snow and wind like you wouldn't believe!
Typical.
Really it is!

I love Minnesota!  (I wouldn't mind if the snow and wind held off just a bit longer though!)

Amelia Kate

Remember this tummy?

And I made a quick post here about her arrival.

I FINALLY got the chance to go and see this little babe I've been not so patiently waiting on!!!
Amelia Kate was MORE than worth the wait!
She's darling, and perfect, and snuggly!  Everything you could hope for in a baby!
And her mommy and daddy also asked me to snap a few photos
(a few, really?  do these people know me at all?)
Of course I was more than happy to take pictures for this family I LOVE so much!
Congrats again Sarah and Paul, you really did some nice work!

I will apologize for the complete picture overload, but what's a girl to do when you have a subject so sweet?!

Play time

Ryan is gone hunting for the weekend.

Elaina is sleeping.

I'm sitting on the floor "eating" a piece of plastic corn on the cob!

And I LOVE it!

The house is a disaster, I have pictures that are DYING to be edited (more on that later), and there is a mountain of laundry that really should get done, but Lila came over, tugged on my hand and said

"mommy play? pees?"

How do you say  no to that?

So that's what we did last night.  For over 30 minutes, Lila had 100% of my undivided attention, a rare thing.  We enjoyed our "dinner" of pizza, eggs, corn on the cob, soup (with bread for dipping... I'm not joking), and she served me both coffee and water which were every bit as delicious as I told her!   She made sure to blow on my food so it wasn't too hot ( "Cool down mama"), and even made me proud with all of her spontaneous please and thank you's!

It was a good night!

Maybe I'll tackle the laundry today...

or not.

Ellie, half a year later!

How can it be?

I just don't understand how half a year has gone by already?

She's my honey, my love, my snuggle bear!

Miss Elaina, you rock my world!

I Heart Oatmeal

I love oatmeal.

I mean, what's not to love?

It's warm, and delicious, and comforting.

Seriously, oatmeal is a little touch of heaven on earth!

And I had a bowl this morning upon arriving home from work feeling like crap.

I still feel like crap, 

but my oatmeal was great!

In the Orchard

I heart Faces is having an "in the orchard" theme contest this week.

I love this pic of Lila and thought I'd give it a whirl.

nothing fancy

I'm glad the weekend is over.

It was long and I'm tired.

I should be napping.

But I'm not.

I was playing with my girls, then took a shower, and now am playing with pictures.

A few good things have kept me going today.

I got to leave work an hour early!

(doesn't seem like much, but makes a HUGE difference in my day! Thank you Diane!)

Elaina was full of smiles when I walked in the door.

Lila has been a  very good girl today, 

minimal whining and no major catastrophe meltdowns!

That's it.

That's all I got today.

Nothing fancy

Lila with all her "pretty" necklaces!

"Reading" the Sunday paper with Daddy! never mind it's a Fleet Farm add... or that it's upside down! Ha!

Happy girl

Single parenthood

Tonight I'm at work.

I'm at work a lot of nights

Nights away from Ryan, and the girls.

Nights are hectic in our house.

The girls are tired, we are tired.

Baths, bottles, potty time... yada yada

I give Ryan a lot of credit for handling the

"night-time" routine, 90% of the time.

I really wish I were home more.

I love my job, and believe it or not,

I like working night shift,

but still, my family is my JOY.

and I miss them, and I'm pretty sure they miss me too!

Parenting single-handed is no fun.

Ryan, I love you.

You are an amazing Dad!

XOXOXO

Amelia

She's here!

And she's perfect!

Congratulations Sarah and Paul, 

I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am for you!

Get ready for the ride of your life!

Welcome Miss Amelia

October 14, 2010

9:35pm

8lb 11oz!

My girls

Ryan snapped this last night.

I love it!

I love them!

Today is a good day!

Busy busy!

Holy buckets!  My week is gonna be jammed packed, but lots of fun stuff, so can't really complain!

Saturday was a day for pick-up, clean-up, and just gear up for the week!  

Sunday, Ryan was up and out the door by 4:45am, headed to Glen Flora, WI (3.5 hrs away) to have Rio bred.
Yep, you heard me... we're at it again.  Sheesh, as if I don't have enough on my plate.  And it gets better...

When will these puppies (plural please?!) arrive?  Oh...right before Christmas!  Ha!  

Seriously, could this dog have any worse timing?  Ok, I'm done, moving on...

So, on top of Ryan spending 6+ hours in the car with Rio, we had a little birthday party for Lila yesterday!

It wasn't anything fancy, really just a great excuse to get together and for Ryan to use his meat smoker!  We opened a few presents, sang Happy Birthday (she loved it), and had some cake!  "Nemo" theme, of course!  Really, just had a good time visiting with everyone!  There were lots of little ones running around and it was fun to all see them together!

Lila had a blast and crashed hard at the end of the night, always a sign of a great day!

HUGE thank you to everyone who stopped by!  We love you so much!

This morning it was up and at em' again, since I had a mandatory simulation training at work.  

(Totally creepy, that's another story!)

Ryan watched them for the hour I was gone and then the girls and I headed home.

We've played with Lila's new toys, I've played with some pictures I took (of course) and now they are napping!!!

I am excited for the fact that this week I have 3 little photo shoots set up with friends, so I get to play with my camera A LOT!!  I have one tonight actually, so I should run.  Gotta clean up the disaster left behind from yesterday!  

I threw in a few cute shots of the girls and have a bunch more from the party, but those will go up later.

this one's a little different, but I thought it was cool.

Lila was playing with her new pony, So Cute!

loving my Lila

Even though I had to work on Tuesday (Lila's birthday)

we still had a little celebration for just our little family!

We had pizza, one of Lila's favs and she got 

a monster cookie with ice cream for dessert!

Candles on top, of course!

Make a wish sweet girl!

Even Ellie dug into the cake (made and sent home from daycare!)

please ignore the fact that she's on the counter and the 

horrible disaster around her!  Also ignore the fact that we left

our child unattended long enough for her to somehow manage

to get the top off the cake and dive in! ha!

Today you are 2!

Sweet, Silly, Crazy Lila!

Today  you turn 2 years old!

I can't believe what an amazing little girl you are

and how quickly the years have flown by!

From the very beginning you have challenged me.

And I love you all the more for it!

I think you will be an independant woman!

I'm just sayin'.

Thank you for being the awesome little creature you are!

Happy Birthday Scooter

Daddy, Ellie, and I love you!

Lila at 1 Year