8/22/11 - Winner, Winner!

Today started off on the most amazing note, EVER!

One of the DJ's on the morning show I listen to (I think I mentioned him in a vent last week) had a baby last week. The station hosted a contest, where you could enter a guess at what he was going to name the baby. The first person to guess the right name was going to win a gift card to USA Baby (they sell mostly bedding and baby/child furniture). Yesterday the DJ posted a picture of his wife and the baby leaving the hospital, and revealed his name, Isaac. Which just happened to be my guess! Well, this morning my phone rang shortly after I got to work. I don't usually answer numbers I don't know, but it was a "952" number, which I knew was where the station is located, and I knew I had the name right, so I answered. And, it was THE Dave Ryan on the other end, asking me if I had a minute to go on the radio. He put me on hold and I was seriously freaking out! I was so nervous and excited. Next thing you know, I'm on the radio, being grilled about how I came up with Isaac, and being awarded a $300 gift card. SO AMAZING! I couldn't believe it. My phone, e-mail and facebook was blowing up with people telling me they heard be on the radio and congratulating me. It was so exciting.

As for how I can't up with Isaac...this DJ has a 2 year old named Olivia, just like us. So, I thought about what I wanted to name a boy, and just went with that. What luck! And, as for what we're going to do with the gift card...convertible car seats for Amelia, so that I don't have to be the only one driving her once she moves out of her infant carrier. YAY! There is no way we'd ever be able to afford that. I'm so grateful!

So, I was on a high the rest of the day from my big win. I was pretty swamped all morning, had a meeting in the early afternoon, then took a couple hours off to get some shopping done. I stopped in to Cub and Rainbow to get some of our groceries. I was supposed to go to Target as well, but I forgot my list and coupons at home, and when my gas light came on, I decided it was a sign to just fill up, and head home. Ha.

When Christian arrived home, we ate some dinner, then spent a little time outside. We filled up the sandbox (finally), and as we were playing, I heard the tiniest, cutest chirping. Sure enough, the eggs in the nest on our deck had hatched. I tried to get a picture of the babies (in the brief time mom was away getting food), but I couldn't get high enough. Christian braved it, and heisted himself up high enough to get a good picture of them. So gross, but they'll be SUPER cute in no time. I love the sound of their little chirps, it's just oddly calming for some reason.

Here's a picture of the girls tonight (still on our matching kick) and, of course, "our" birds.

8/21/11 - Sunday Not-So-Fun Day

Oh Sunday. Usually such a nice, fun, family filled day. Today, not so much.

Today was filled with the usual. Breakfast and play time with the girls in the morning. Laundry (all day long), a little cleaning up and organizing around the house. Typical chores. I wasn't in the mood to do any shopping, so that didn't get done. Christian took a little nap while the girls napped, and I spent a little time on the computer (amidst the laundry fun). Once the girls were up, we ate some dinner. Sounds like a great day, right...just a relaxing day around the house.

Well, not so much. While everything sounds great and typical, really, it was out of control. The girls were TERRIBLE today. They would not listen to a word we said. They fought and fought all day long. They were violent and aggressive and just downright mean most of the day. Dealing with them took a toll on both of us, so Christian and I were fighting and arguing all day long. This went on from the minute they woke up, all the way through their bath. I finally had enough with them, and with the arguing, that I left him to finish baths and bedtime routine by himself, and took to cleaning the basement to get some aggression out.

Rico has continued to pee on the play mats downstairs, and I've had it with cleaning and sanitizing them over and over again, and the smell just won't go away, so I threw those outside and they are gone for good. I cleaned the carpet and vacuumed. Once I finished, I felt a little calmer, the girls were in bed, and I just went right on to bed myself. I know you are never supposed to go to bed angry, but there was no avoiding that tonight! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Here are a couple shots of the girls today. Christian is suddenly into having them match (which he would never let me do before). In a few VERY rare moments today, Olivia sat down and watched some TV with Chuy. Amelia is getting REALLY good at shape sorters and the ring tower. I was pretty surprised by her skills actually. Finally, they shared some fruit on their couch. Only, Olivia wasn't being as sweet as it may appear...she'd take a piece of fruit out of the cup, act like she was handing it to Amelia...then throw it on the floor and tell her "go get it sissy". Like she was a dog. Yeah.

8/20/11 - Congrats to Lisa & Josh

Today was a pretty long, but very fun, day. Today my little cousin Josh got married. It's SO hard to believe my younger cousin is actually old enough to get married. Man, that makes me feel OLD!

The day started with my car back in the shop. Two new tires and an alignment later I think the car is FINALLY fixed. Let's see how long we can make that last. While Christian was taking care of that, the girls and I got ready for the wedding, and packed up our bag. Then, he quickly got ready when he got home.

The wedding was down past Rochester, and my dad offered to pick us up so we could all ride down together. We definitely took them up on that offer. Amelia slept the whole way down, while the rest of us chatted and caught up. We were there before we knew it.

The ceremony was sweet and short. After that, we stopped off at my uncle's farm so the girls could see the cows. Then, we were off to the reception. It was a pretty low key, very kid friendly reception. The kids had a lot of room outside to run around and play. We ate some yummy food, celebrated and caught up with some of the family. Then, of course, the girls hit the dance floor and danced the night away. They were having the time of their lives! It's too bad we had quite a drive home ahead of us..we had to rip them away from the dance floor to get home at a decent hour. They passed out not long into the drive, and we were all passed out shortly after we arrived home.

What a wonderful day! I'm not all that into weddings, but it's still great to be able to celebrate such a wonderful event with people. It makes me think back to our wedding. It was only 4 years ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago. Such an exciting time, a new adventure, and amazing event in your life. It comes and goes so quickly, and becomes a distant memory even quicker.

Here are some shots of our day.

8/19/11 - Boggles My Mind

Friday, it's here again!

Today was my typical Friday to work, but my mom had to attend a funeral, so I took the afternoon off. I worked and worked all morning long to get as much done as I could, then was on my way home around lunch time. The girls were fed and ready for naps when I arrived home, which worked out perfectly! I spent nap time playing on the computer and having some relaxing me time. It was wonderful! I did come to the (fairly obvious) realization that I have a full fledged addiction to online shopping. I have so many packages on the way to me right now, it's crazy! But, I'm obsessed with deals. I figure, all of the free samples and free products that I work so hard for evens it out in the end! LOL

There is a report out today, from the county that I live in, that two barely one year olds just contracted measles. Like usual, it made me so angry. It just shouldn't even be possible. I will never, ever understand the new fad of not vaccinating your children. I've done this rant on my blog before. And, like I've said, I can understand delayed schedules, but just NOT doing it, period. I do not, and will not ever, understand it.

After a nice long nap, we hung out, waiting for dad to get home. I made a big, yummy pork chop dinner. The girl actually ate it, a lot of it, which is always a nice surprise. After dinner, we just hung out for the night. It was a pretty early night for all of us. We have a early, long day tomorrow, so nothing too exciting going on tonight.

Here is a sweet picture I snapped of Chuy and the girls tonight.

8/18/11 - The Old Typical Thursday

Today was a pretty low key day. Nothing too exciting going on in our world. Work was just work. Home was just home. The girls have been getting along fairly well, which is always a nice change of pace. Christian hung out at his mom's for a little while when picking up the girls, like he usually does on Thursday's, which gave me some alone time.

The one bit of exciting news that I have is that I have officially finalized my Chicago trip plans! YAY. I cannot wait to meet up with my "moms" and have a weekend away. It's set in stone, no turning back now!

We ate, played and hung out for the nights once they arrived home. And, that's really just about it for the day. I did snap this picture of Chuy and Rico, doing what they do best. Lazy animals!

8/17/11 - Mama Down!

Today did not start out too great. I woke up with one of my good old headaches. I contemplated, a few times, calling in and staying home for the day, but I decided to tough it out and head in. I'm finally consistently feeling semi caught up, and I don't want to fall behind again. And, I hate to use my time knowing that I need to save it for that far off baby #3. So, I went in. The headache was there all day, but it was survivable. I'm not kidding you though, as soon as I got in my car to head home after work, it escalated so fast, I thought my head was going to explode by the time I got home. I went right into bed, in my cold, dark room, and laid there. I also informed Christian that he was on dinner duty because I just couldn't do it. I think by now, he knows that my headaches are no joke, so he doesn't put up much of a fight.

The girls were pretty calm and well behaved tonight. Olivia understands "sick", and actually reacts to it well. She sure can be sweet when she wants to be!

The truck goes in tomorrow, and he's pretty excited about that. His poor baby has been scratched up, can you imagine?!?

Amelia is still SO in love with her Winnie the Pooh. She actually hugs it and holds it when she's sleeping. It's TOO cute!

8/16/11 - Planning Machine!

Today was a pretty typical day. Work actually flew by, it was crazy. I got a ton of stuff done. And, spent lunch getting upset with Christian and his dumb work. We're trying to reschedule our family pictures (thanks to the lip incident, followed by the eye incident), and weekends just will not work out. But, his work will not let him take any time off. He can't take a day off until September 19th! Seriously?!? Dumb. But, I think they'll let him leave a LITTLE early, or come in early to get his hours in, one day so I'm hoping we can fit them in next week. I'd hate to wait much longer...they aren't really Amelia's 1 year photo's any more then...so, I'm working on that.

We have so many exciting things coming up that we've been working on planning. Next week a church by our house is putting on a free family festival, the last one we went to was SO fun, so we're excited. Then, we're going to the Renaissance Festival next weekend, YAY! Then, the next weekend I have a couple online friends coming into town for a big family trip to the Mall of America and the State Fair. Then, we'll be hitting up the Apple Orchard and a day trip to Stillwater in September. October we'll be going on our annual trip to Sever's Corn Maze and I'm off to Chicago for a mom's vacation with some more online friends. So many fun, exciting things coming up. I just can't wait for any of it!

Tonight was pretty low key. Christian's truck went into the shop today, for a couple days. Luckily the other guys insurance is paying for a rental car, so he still has transportation. His work gave everybody a store credit to get new work shoes, so I picked up the girls today while he went to buy those. We ate a quick dinner when he arrived home, and then some big storms rolled in. Lots of thunder and lighting and a complete downpour. Once it calmed down a little bit, we went to the garage so I could check out the "new car"...it's actually really nice. It's a Dodge Caliber, and I really like it. The girls spent a little time running in the rain and jumping in puddles. It was cute :)

Finally, it was time for a warm bath and bed. Olivia threw a fit tonight because there was no Dora. She got over it quickly though and was off to bed. I go back and forth. Maybe it would be good to get into a routine of watching that before bed...then we have something to "take away" when she misbehaves. But, I also don't want her to become obsessed with watching TV/Movies. I'm OK with a little bit, but not to the point where she demands it, or expects it. I don't know, we'll see.

Here are some pics of the girls, playing in the rain.

8/15/11 - Black Eyes and Glee

Well, today was a great Monday for me, not so much for another household member or two.

Work was work as usual. I left work a little early today, my typical Monday routine. My plans were changed when I received an e-mail that I'd won a Glee Prize Pack from the Mall of America. I had plans to go see Glee 3D with my friend Gini tonight, so when I received that e-mail, and I didn't know what the prize pack actually included, I thought it would be a good idea to pick it up right away, just in case there were movie passes included. So, I left work, and headed right out to the mall. No passes, but I did get the movie soundtrack (SO good) and a couple other little trinkets the kids will play with.

So, I stopped home to wash some dishes and do a little cleaning up, then was off to meet Gini. Of course, more chaos ensued. She called me as I was on my way to meet her to let me know the Theater we were going to (a 5:15 show) had a broken 3D screen and canceled the show. So, I stopped at a different theater. They had it, but not until 7:05...and no other theaters were showing it until around then. So, we decided to just grab a quick dinner and chat for a while. So, it ended up working out better in the end anyway!

The movie was really good, just like being at a concert! LOL. I'm not sure how I feel about the 3D though...I liked the effect itself, but it seemed like the people were blurry, and it was giving me a little bit of a headache. I arrived home around 9:00. Christian had just gotten home from his parents house shortly before me, and had just put Amelia down to sleep. Not happy I didn't get baby snuggles at all today...Olivia was watching some Dora (again), winding down for bed. And, I was filled in on some news. Apparently Amelia was touching "Olivia's" princesses this morning, and Olivia got upset, grabbed them away from her, and punched her in the face. She has a nice black eye and accompanying scratch underneath her eye now. I swear, I don't know what we're going to do with her! SO SICK OF IT!

It's not actually from today, but here is a shot of her eye. It's hard to actually get it on camera, but it looks pretty bad right now. Thank god babies heal fast! I snapped one of Olivia too. Looking at this face, how could you imagine she'd do such mean things?!?

8/14/11 - Surprise Trip to the Zoo

Well, today started off like so many weekend mornings have over the last year....Christian and his dad, working on my car. The shaking of my car has become downright scary, and I now intend on driving it when I go to Chicago on vacation in October, so we need it fixed, and we need to know that it is indeed fixed before that. So, off he went, bright and early, so buy the part and head over to his parents house. After a couple hours (with a lot of chatting I'm sure) it was done and he was home. Now, it's ready to head into the shop for new tires and an alignment. Yay...While he did that, the girls and I ate some breakfast, played for a bit and I made the decision that a trip to the zoo was in order on this beyond beautiful day. So, I showered and we got ready to go. Christian quickly got himself ready while I packed up and loaded up the car. Then, we were off.

It turned into quite the adventure. We were literally a minute away from the zoo, and way too far from home, when I asked "you didn't take the stroller out of the trunk or anything, did you". To which I was met with dead silence, and then finally an "oops, yeah I did". Luckily, my mom doesn't live far from the zoo, and has a double stroller as well, so we stopped to grab that. Next, we decided to park at the shuttle instead of fighting the crowds to park at the zoo, only, we couldn't find the shuttle location anywhere. I was POSITIVE it was at the state fairgrounds, but we looked all over, and decided maybe they weren't running any more. We attempted to park at the zoo, and couldn't find a spot anywhere. GRRRR. Then, what do you know, we see one of the shuttle buses drive by. It finally dawned on me that no, the shuttle lot is at Midway Stadium (where our minor baseball team plays). We finally found it, hopped on and were FINALLY at the zoo. The only good thing about this fiasco is that Amelia got a nice nap in!

After a couple hours walking around the zoo and conservatory, we packed it up and headed back home (with ease). Olivia fell asleep on the way home, and proceeded to take a nice long (kind of late) nap. Amelia refused to sleep, even after a bottle, so she and I hung out while Christian went back over to his parents house for a little while. I finished up a couple loads of laundry, fed the girls their dinner and played with them until he arrived back home. Then, it was time for baths and bed. Olivia wasn't quite tired thanks to her late nap, so she watched some Dora while Christian and I hung out for a while. She's VERY into TV right now for some reason. She never really was before, but she's temporarily obsessed. Every after her bath she says "OK, time to watch a little bit of TV"...and says it over and over, trying to avoid bed. Hopefully this obsessed passes soon...

With that, our weekend is over! Never a good feeling. Here are some pictures from the zoo to share!

8/13/11 - Saturday's Should Never End...

Today was a wonderful, family, randomness filled Saturday. If only every day could be like this!

We woke up earlier than I'd hoped after our late night. After sitting around, slowly waking up for a while, I started on some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, and we all ate some breakfast. The girls were playing together so well again today, and it's beyond great to see that. I think the more Amelia fights back, and stands up for herself, the better their relationship will be. I think Olivia is starting to realize that she can't just push Amelia round as much anymore, and, more importantly, I think she's realizing how much fun having a sister around can be. FINALLY, progress!!

The morning was pretty much just spend doing laundry, cleaning up and hanging out. Nothing too exciting. We had some lunch, and the girls were down for their naps. Christian and I spent the next hour or so claiming we were going to go shower and get ready before finally getting off our lazy butts and actually getting ready.

Once the girls were up from their naps, we were off to the Mall of America to hang out for the evening. Amelia has outgrown her 6- month PJ's (which are all from Target), and I knew Carter's runs bigger than Target, so we stopped in to get some. 9-12 month PJ's are just too big still, but she should be able to wear the Carter's 6-9 month until it's colder and she can move up to the 9-12 month winter jammies Olivia had. Such a pain!! After that we stopped into The Disney Store. Olivia decided to get a Princess Lunch Bag (to use to carry around all of her princesses, LOL) and Amelia fell in love with a stuffed Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh is the first thing she's ever showed any real interest in, so YAY! We finally have something to spoil her with! Next up, dinner at the food court! And, finally Nickelodeon Universe. I had some points left from our last trip there, so Olivia took a spin on the Carousel. Then, used up the rest of them on the SpongeBob Bounce House...going in over and over again. LOL, whatever keeps them happy!

And with that, we were on our way home with two full, spoiled and exhausted girls. They took a nice long bath, and then were off to bed. Christian was then off to have a couple beers with a friend, so I was left to a nice, quiet house, all to myself! What a way to end a wonderful day!