Saturday and Sunday Mornings

in our house start EARLY.  Like 6:00 early.  Well 6:06 if you want to get technical.  Mark and I usually both end up waking up because the only good thing about the girls waking up early is Mark and I working out.  He got up and ran Saturday morning and I ran on Sunday morning (before Mark went golfing!)  With the girls waking up that early that means a long day of entertaining the girls.  Saturday morning when I was getting ready for the CMH family picnic (more pics on that later) this is what Lauren did...

Lauren made a new home for ice cream cone.  I was going to throw this Kleenex box away, but then I decided to give it to Lauren.  She is really into coloring, cutting, and gluing these days.  So I gave this to her and told her to decorate the box for one of her animals.  So for about 20 minutes this entertained her. 

Then is was on to dressing up like Tinkerbell and playing in the bathtub.  They put on make up (pretend) for a while, and then opened up (and broke) the special fairy dust.  The fairy dust is real make up (well body glitter.) 

I can't exactly remember why Addison is in just a diaper.  Maybe I was trying to get her dressed and she ran off and giggled...who knows.  I think she ran around in a diaper for close to an hour though.  The girls love to play in our bathtub.  They usually fill it with pillows, blankets and stuffed animals.  This was all before 8:00 on Saturday.  Hello weekend...

(This picture is horrible because it was taken with my phone) Sunday morning started out just as early. The girls were up around 6:20 (I was already out running so Mark got up with them.) Mark got himself showered and then headed out to golf. I got breakfast going and then decided to clean out the dishwasher and clean out a few things in the cabinets.

I decided to get rid of the baby rice and oatmeal cereal that Addison has not needed for over a year now. So I threw it down the drain and turned on the garbage disposal. Well the large amount that I put down the drained almost immediately turned into PASTE and clogged the pipes completely. I did not know this, I thought I had broke the garbage disposal. So I took the above picture and sent to it Mark. I put " I think I just broke the garbage disposal" and thought to myself "have fun golfing!" He called back within seconds and said "call your Dad."

My Dad knows how to fix EVERYTHING...so that is what I did. My Dad spent all day at my house fixing the clogged pipe. He had to take it apart, cut it off, stick a hanger in another part of the pipe, go to Lowe's and get some special tool, put it back together, tape/glue the pipe, and then it was fixed...or so we thought We then noticed that the garbage disposal was leaking (totally unrelated to the paste I put into the pipes) So another trip to the hardware store for a little thing to fix the leak...although the little thing was not the fix (unfortunately.) So ANOTHER trip to Lowe's for a garbage disposal.   Three trips to the hardware store in one day is never a good sign. 

Thanks again Dad for coming to our rescue, unclogging the pipe, and installing a new garbage disposal. 

This is what the girls did Sunday morning as I was showering and trying to get ready for the day.  They built a house next to our bed.  Lauren found as many pillows as she could, most of the blankets from her room and Addison's room, and Addison brought in the stuffed animals.  You can't quite see everything because a lot of is is under the pillows.  Needless to say, most of the girls toys ended up in my bedroom in the morning.  Quite the mess.  But that is OK because they play together so well and the creativity is great for their little minds. 

So this next weekend I am hoping for a little more sleep and a little less chaos.  We also had a custom made desk installed this weekend (and I say this weekend because it was Friday afternoon, night, and Sunday for ~5 hours.)  It is awesome and we love it (more pictures later.)   Plus, we enjoyed a BBQ with friends on Sunday afternoon.  It was a much needed BBQ with time to sit, relax, and down a few beers (3 in about an hour.  They tasted so good!) 

Grandpa and Grandma's Birthday Party

Sunday morning we headed to Lawrence to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday and my Grandma's 88th birthday.  Several family members were able to attend the event.  It was quite the party! 

Thank you Shannon for getting everyone posed for this amazing picture.  It turned out great. 

Grandma and Grandpa are wrapped up in the family quilt.  Of course, Grandpa would not look at the camera, just the cake...

My attempt to get a picture with the girls and their Great Grandparents.  Little Addison was too busy watching Grandpa.  Still a great picture of the rest of us.  Do you like Lauren's hat?  It is Jessica's...Lauren really adores Jessica. 

Lauren prefers to play with Luke, who wants to play with Martin, so Lauren is stuck hanging out with the boys, and not Jessica.  These three had a blast!  They always do when they are together.  It took a while for the boys to allow Lauren (the girl) to play with them.  Martin kept saying "no girls allowed."  Lauren spent a few minutes sad that she could not have Luke all to herself, but then realized that Martin was a lot of fun too. 

Claire and Addison were trying to keep up with the big kids.  Lauren, Martin, and Luke were out at the tree house playing and that is where Claire and Addison were headed.  By the time we got out there the bigger kids were done playing in the playhouse and headed to their next adventure!  My Uncle's houses is a ton of fun with all kinds of things for the kids to do! 

Time to cool off and have some cake! 

It was hot, so these two hung out in the shade for a while.  Love this picture.  Luke is the big brother Lauren will never have but really wants! 

When the party got a little crazy my cousin Jeannie and Luke's dad Bill took the kids down to the lake to fish (thanks guys.)  Lauren was the only one who caught a fish!  They had a blast down at the lake with the fishing poles. 

I did not even think to pack any toys or things to entertain Addison, so she found the spice rack and had fun with the spices.  My Aunt Jeannie did not seem to care, said all her grand kids have played with the spices. 

I captured this picture outside when Addison was playing on the swing.  I just love it.  She had a blast running on the porch with her cousin Claire, laughing and playing.  We spent most of the day out there and finally headed home around 5.  It was a great day with the family and a memorable birthday celebration! 

Family

I took these pictures a few weeks back.  Nothing planned.  Addison was sitting on the stairs playing with her kitty.  I told Mark to go up there with her so I could snap a few photos.  Lauren joined them too because she did not want to miss out on the fun.  Sometimes these are the best pictures. 

Fun Run

Saturday morning Mark headed up to the Ville for his Fantasy Football weekend.  He looks forward to this weekend all year long.  He goes up to our old college town, gets together with the 12 guys on his Fantasy Football Team.  Drafts his team, hits the golf course and the bar, and usually plays cards all night long.  He loves this weekend. 

I love it too, because it means a whole weekend with just the girls.  Lauren gets to sleep in Mommy's bed tonight (lucky me) and we get to do fun stuff all weekend.  We hit Fun Run in Liberty Saturday morning.  We had a blast. 

This was about 2 hours into the running, jumping, sweating and fun. 

It took Addison a little bit to warm up to things, but once she did she had a blast. 

Lauren went down the Batman slide probably 45 times.  She is so polite and shy that it sometimes took her a while to get to the top and go down the slide.  All the crazy boys kept cutting in front on her.  (Man I am glad I have little girls.  Nothing against boys, but I think they would exhaust me.  They are just boys!) 

Addison enjoyed this little house.  She would open and close the window over and over again and just laugh and smile.  It was so sweet. 

The other huge slide that Lauren probably went down 35 times.  She just loved this place.  It wore her out. 

My mom met us up there which was a huge help.  Addison wanted to play in the kiddy room, and Lauren wanted the big slides, so it would have been very hard to keep on eye on both of them by myself.  Nana treated the girls to a stuff animal that you could custom make.  Addison got a dog, and Lauren a Unicorn.  They carried both of them around while playing, and the Unicorn even went down the slides with Lauren. 

Addison fell asleep in the car for 15 minutes.  I thought for sure I could move her inside and she would go right back to sleep in her crib...no such luck.  She is at my feet now while I type this blog.  Lauren has been asleep for an hour and I am sure she will be up soon too!  Off to McDonald's for dinner.  Special treat since it is girls weekend. 

Wordless Wednesday

Gymnastics

When dance ended in June Lauren decided she wanted to do Gymnastics...and she loves it....and she is really good.  I think this will be something she sticks with for a while.  She loves to run on the trampoline, the bars are her favorite, and she is getting really good at the balance beam.  Last week was the last session for summer so parents were able to come in and take pictures, and the kids got a medal at the end. 

Can you see the muscles in her arms? 

This is not as easy as is looks...go ahead...try it at home...I did and I was no where close to where Lauren is.  She was the only one in her class that could do this!  Way to go Lauren! 

Jumping up on the vault. 

I snuck in a few pictures several weeks ago.  This girl is amazing on the bars! 

Lauren adores her teacher, Ms. Allie. 

Standing proud with her medal.  Gymnastics will start up again in a few weeks.  We are going to move Lauren up to the next class since she did so good this summer.  We can't wait to see her excitement each week when we go to gymnastics.  It is really a lot of fun. 

Cute Summer Pictures

Say cheese!

Mark scaring the girls!

Looking through the Disney autograph book.  They love those books. 

Wordless Wednesday

Zoe is 7

Zoe is our wonderful golden retriever.  She is such a great dog!  We got her a few months after we were married, so really she was our first!  She gets a little neglected at times, yelled at a lot by me, crawled on and stepped on, but gets tons of attention from Mark and the girls.  We all adore this dog. 

Each year for her birthday she gets new tennis balls for playing catch in the back yard.  She gets a bone filled with peanut butter, which she will chew on and lick for hours (so much we have to take it away and make her rest when her gums start bleeding!) and a stuffed toy to chew on and rip apart within hours.  We learned early on to quit buying the stuffed toys because they were ripped apart and stuffing was all over the house literally within hours. 

Both girls got her a monkey for her birthday.  Lauren got her the blue and yellow one here.  One week later she still has it. 

Addison got her this monkey.  If you look real close you can see the white stuffing on the carpet and Zoe pulling out more.  That monkey only lasted a few days. 

We call Zoe our big screen TV as we have spent a fortune on her and her allergies and constant itching and licking of her paws.  She is now on allergy shots that she gets twice a month.  I think they are finally starting to work (8 months later.)  Maybe now we can get her off the antihistamine and steroid she takes each day! 

Happy Birthday Zoe!!