9/12/11 - Another Monday

Today was just another Monday in our world. I made a lot of progress at work, and while I've typically been leaving early on Monday's to do our shopping, I didn't feel like ruining my progress at work today, so I just made a SUPER fast run to Target after work.

Other than that, we didn't do too much today. We just are not very exciting people during the week, that is for sure! Christian and Olivia watched some video's on the computer while Amelia and I harassed the dog. That was about the extent of our partying tonight.

9/11/11 - 10 Years...

It's hard to believe, but it's been 10 year since the 9/11 attacks. I can remember everything about that day as if it just happened yesterday. All of the fear, sadness, anger.

I recapped that day in my post last year, so I don't think I need to get into it again this year. I didn't lose anybody in the attacks that day. I don't personally know anybody that has perished in the wars resulting from that day. But, I can still feel all of the pain that day has inflicted on the country as a whole. As I watched the anniversary recaps and stories on TV today, I was filled with all of that emotion again. Similar to that day, but rather than being overwhelmed with fear, I was overwhelmed with sadness of what has become of the world, of our country since that day. All of the changes, from flying to trying to enter a sports arena; changes that leave you a little intimidated to even enjoy those events. The massive recession we are experiencing, due in large part to the wars going on in the middle east. It's a day that is just never going to stop leaving it's mark on this country, or its citizens.

After spending the morning watching news coverage, it turned into football Sunday. It felt nice, because it shows that even though we've gone through and experienced this horrific event, we are strong, we do persevere, and we will continue to enjoy our lives as we are supposed to.

The Vikings as the late afternoon game today, so it was nice to have a little time before kick off. Christian's friend, Lorenzo, came over to grill and watch the game. Unfortunately, the game did not go well. The Vikings were in the lead most of the game (though, not impressively), but gave it up and lost in the end. Dang! Hopefully that was not a sign of the season to come!

After the game, Christian and Lorenzo ran over to his parents house to pick up the old snowblower, then were off to Lorenzo's to throw it in his apartment garbage. The girls and I hung out, attempted to paint our nails, and headed to bed. Another week down, and another week to come. Life definitely goes on; but the past is never forgotten.

Here are some pictures of the girls, sporting the Purple Pride!

9/10/11 - Heat Wave

Well, we're in the midst of a little Indian Summer style heat wave right now. It's a little too hot for my comfort, but by mid-next-week the temperature is really supposed to drop, like to freezing levels, so we'll definitely be enjoying these few days of warm weather.

I spent the morning going through the clothes Kelly dropped off last night. Lots of super cute stuff! I'm glad I went through it because there was a ton of cute summer clothes in there, so Olivia can get some use out of them over the next couple of days. Christian whipped up some breakfast and entertained the girls for a while.

Finally, it was time to get ready and head off to a birthday party, YAY! My cousin Chad's son, Aiden, turned 4 today, and we were off to celebrate. The party was outside, and of course, much hotter than any of us had anticipated. It was great though. There were TONS of kids for the girls to play with, so they had the time of their lives. A lot of my family was there, so it was nice catching up with them. And, of course, Christian and Chad had a chance to act dumb together for a while. Those 3 were not too happy when it was time to go, but it was getting dark, getting late, and I felt disgusting from sweating all day. It was definitely time to go.

The rest of the night was pretty low key. The girls went off to bed shortly after we got home, and I was not far behind. These hot days just take it all out of me!

Here are a few party shots to share.

9/9/11 - Finally Friday

Yes indeed, it's finally Friday. Even better, my Friday off work! YES! Spending the day with my crazy girls. It's exhausting, but oh so fun at the same time! The girls were actually great today. They pretty much did their own thing most of the day. Amelia did not sleep well last night AT ALL, so luckily she made up for that with a really long nap today. Giving me lots of time to catch up on my DVR (still shows from last season, LOL).

Christian picked up some take out on his way home and we spent the night hanging out around the house. Another exciting Friday night, you know the drill!

Here is a snap of the girls, eating their apples and Cheerio's and watching some movies. Friends today! YAY

9/8/11 - The Return of Football!

Today was a pretty typical day. Work went much better today. I plowed through my contracts like a pro! I finally felt like I'd gotten somewhere by the end of the day, and that felt great for a change. Maybe Melissa won't need to cover me for so long after all! Christian started early again today, but got off on time, so it doesn't look like he'll be getting as much OT this week as we expected.

After work, I rushed home to get some stuff done. I picked up the rest of the upstairs, did lots of dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Ah, an almost clean house. Feels good! I was VERY excited when I checked the mail only to find the Sever's tickets I'd won yesterday AND the USA Baby Gift Card I won from KDWB a few weeks ago! Having those in hand felt so good. I also got another package today...the girls' pillow pets. I found them some generic pillow pets for SUPER cheap, and free shipping, so I have officially started Christmas shopping. LOL

Once the rest of the house showed up, I made some dinner and we settled in to watch the opening night of football, New Orleans vs. Green Bay. Two teams we Vikings HATE. But, I'm excited for the return off football. Sunday the Vikings open up their season, fingers crossed for a good one!

That was about it. My obsession with Words With Friends continued, so with that, I leave you to attend the 11 games I have going! Here are a couple pictures of Amelia...being a pretty ballerina and sleeping with all of her favorite things. They sure are cute when they are peacefully sleeping!

9/7/11 - Lucky Day

Today started off very stressful. Work is definitely still getting the best of me. I still feel like I can't get anything done...e-mails are popping up non-stop, my phone is ringing off the hook. I can't concentrate on anything because it's a constant stream of interruptions. SO FRUSTRATING! Not to mention the new stack of requests that showed up this morning. Seriously, it's never going to end. But, one of my amazing co-workers took a few more of my Contracts, and actually told our supervisor to assign all of my new work to her for right now, while I catch up. THANK GOD for her, and thank god things are unusually slow for her right now!

By quitting time, things were looking WAY up. After that burden was lifted, I received an e-mail from KDWB that my USA Baby gift card was in the mail, AND I won tickets to Sever's Corn Maze! YES. I am OBSESSED with free stuff. Seriously, I may be ridiculously pathetic when it comes to coupons, but I work my tail off for free stuff, and I'd say I'm pretty successful at it! I also spent a little time looking over our budget, and it looks like, if we stick to our budget, we should have all of our debt paid of by the end of next summer. Truck, Line of Credit, Visa....all of it, except the house of course. It feels amazing to see that light at the end of the tunnel! Things are finally going to start looking up, and life is going to get that much easier. Financial freedom is not that far away any more, and our hard work and budgeting is finally going to pay off!

After work, I finished up the laundry, got everything put away, and packed away another load of too small clothes. Christian worked late, and spent a little time at his mom's, so I spent some time relaxing and playing on the computer. By the time he got home, we ate a quick dinner, spent a little time together, then it was time for baths and bed. Another day down, from ultra stressful, to ultra amazing, it was quite a day indeed!

Here is a bath time photo (I'm sure they will LOVE all of the bath photos we have of them when they get older, LOL).

9/6/11 - It's What Day?

I love days like this. It's Tuesday, but it feels like Monday because we didn't work yesterday, but really it's my Wednesday because I don't work on Friday. LOL, did you follow that?

I don't really have much to share today. It was a pretty low key day. I'm still nowhere near catching up at work. I don't even know if catching up is possible at this point. To top it off, I have MANY projects posted for proposals right now, and 5 of them are due this week. OUCH. Christian is working some OT this week...he's not sure how much, but he's thinking a couple hours every day. Works for me!

After work, I cleaned up the basement and finally got everything put back in order following our get together this weekend. I did a few load of laundry, made some dinner, and took it easy the rest of the night.

The girls have been pretty good lately. Amelia is officially sleep trained now....YAY, YAY, YAY! I'm sure I've discussed it before, but I am very anti-cry it out when it comes to babies and sleep. I feel that if a baby won't sleep and/or is crying, it's for a reason...even if that reason is just that they want comforting. If that's why they're crying, then it's your responsibility to provide that and meet that need. So, that's something that we've never done. (Just to clarify, this game changes when baby becomes a toddler and is doing it simply to avoid going to bed). So, for the last week or two, we've been able to put Amelia down after her bedtime bottle awake, and after a little time rolling around, goofing around and/or talking to herself, she goes to sleep. All by herself. It feels AMAZING to finally reach this point with her. After all of the sleep issues we've had, we're finally at a wonderful place, and it feels very freeing.

Amelia is also officially moving into 9-12 month clothes completely. I miss my tiny baby...she sure seems to be growing fast all of a sudden. Olivia is still pretty aggressive towards her, but she's actually been playing with her really well lately. Hopefully things keep changing more and more, and they'll grow to have an amazing relationship.

That's really about it. Not much going on the next few days...but some relaxing time is probably a good thing! The girls were VERY into their cartoons tonight....

9/5/11 - Celebrity for a Night

Happy Labor Day!!! And, happy day off to us! It was so nice to have today off after this whirlwind of a weekend. I woke up very sad though...knowing my friends were not only gone, but far, far away. It's really sad to connect with people so well, knowing that you may never even see them again. I sure hope that's not the case though!

The girls slept in a little but this morning, and I did a few loads of laundry. After some breakfast and hanging out, the girls were clearly still tired and we were able to get them down for a nap earlier than I expected. I was introduced to what is sure to be my new obsession...Words with Friends on facebook. It's basically scrabble, and I'm already hooked and I just started! This could be dangerous!

After naps, we were off to the Madrid's for a Labor Day BBQ. Of course, Meeka and Olivia, while SUPER excited to see each other, fought the entire time we were over there! Ugh, toddlers! After playing outside for a while, and grillin' up some food, Kelly and I were off for a mom's night out, which turned out to be much cooler than we expected.

Kelly won tickets to the screening of "Footloose" at the Mall of America. Little did we know, the director and the lead actors were actually going to be there! I couldn't believe it! Julianne Hough and Kenny Wormald are the lead actors...she is my all time favorite from Dancing with the Stars, so it was actually really cool to "meet" her. The movie was actually really good too, so it was a very successful night out.

Our night of feeling like celebrities came to an end, and we were homeward bound. It was a fun way to end an amazing weekend, that's for sure! Here are some pictures from our Labor Day...I didn't bring the camera to the movie, so I had to settle for a pretty crappy phone picture. Boo.

9/4/11 - Saying Goodbye...

Today was another very packed day!

The girls slept a little later than usual after their long, busy day yesterday. We were in the middle of breakfast when I got the phone call from my visiting friends that they were packed up and ready to meet at the Mall of America for our final get together. So, we quickly ate, got ready and hustled over to the mall.

We spent a couple of hours in Nickelodeon Universe. The kids went on a few rides, and the mom's did too!!! I NEVER get to go on rides because Christian doesn't like them, so it was nice to get to go on some for a change. We went on two roller coasters, and I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time. So fun! Olivia still had no interest in rides, so I just took the girls on the Carousel. Amelia LOVED it, she laughed the whole time. At least Olivia will go on something!

We all grabbed a little lunch, and then the dreaded time had come...it was time to say goodbye to my friends. I'm not the most sentimental person in the world, but I did have to fight back some tears when we said our goodbyes. It's so exciting planning these get togethers, it's so amazing when you are in the midst of them, but it's REALLY hard when it's time to say goodbye, not knowing when, or if you'll ever see them again. I know a lot of people may not really get the whole "online friends" thing, but we bonded over something so amazing in our lives, and we're so close...it felt really nice having the here, in person.

After ripping myself away from then, we were off to Christian's parents' for dinner. The girls took their naps when we got there, Christian and his dad worked on the snow blower for a while, his mom prepared some food, and I just sat there, kind of depressed. LOL. After eating and hanging out for a while...the girls were playing, and of course, injury ensued. Christian and his mom were standing in the hallway, not paying attention, and Amelia fell down a couple of stairs. It wasn't a long fall, but she hit her head on the pack n' play at the bottom of the stairs, and her nose was bleeding. I was NOT happy, not one bit. I immediately packed up the girls, and off we went. Accidents happen, but it's not OK when there are TWO adults standing right there...maybe if said adults hadn't been drinking, they could have been more attentive.

Vent over. Super annoyed. At least she's OK.

Here are some pictures of our day.

9/3/11 - Amazing Day

Today was an amazing day, filled with adventure, fun, lots of laughs and many memories made.

The day started off pretty early. The out of town families are not finding a lot of peace in hotel leaving, so they were up and raring to go bright and early. We scarfed down some breakfast, cleaned up and got ready for the day much earlier than we're used to (not that it's not totally worth it). The families arrived at our house, we visited for a little while, packed up all of the kids and were on our way to to State Fair.

We spent a good 6/7 hours there. Wandering around, putting the kids on rides (well, just the big slide for Olivia, of course), eating lots of tasty food and I having a blast getting to know our "new" friends. It was a little chaotic trying to keep such a large group of people together, so we broke apart a few times and did our own thing, which was good. The girls had a great time, eating, people watching. We attempted the Butterfly house...Olivia was terrified, and Amelia wanted to hold them, but obviously she would have crushed them. LOL.

Finally, we were all exhausted, the kid were getting anxious, our feet were aching and our bellies were full...so, we were on our way out.

The other families stopped back to their hotel to rest and clean up for a bit, and the girls went down for a short nap when we got home. The families came back over to our place so we could all spend the evening together. We ordered some pizza, the bigger kids played out in the jump house while the little kids destroyed the house. The adults were engulfed in the show "Hoarders" for a while, which was actually pretty hilarious. The men, and big kid, eventually made their way outside to the fire pit, leaving the mom's and babies time to bond. It was so amazing actually having them in our house, live and in color. I haven't laughed so hard in a LONG time...getting to know each other, watching the "babies" interact and play with each other. It was just such a good feeling hanging out when all of them. It makes me sad to know they'll be leaving tomorrow! Our time together just flew by!

Here are some pictures from our day today. What a great day!