Holiday Weekend!

Who doesn't agree that a Thursday 4th of July is the ideal day?  Your loooonnnng holiday weekend can start Wednesday afternoon, you get Thursday (and in most cases) Friday off and next thing you know....bam it's turned into a mini vacation at 5 days with dad off work.  Granted, dad is ready to get back to work come Monday morning after having spent the better part of the last week with all his crazies at home.  Anyway, we had a fun little holiday - started off Wednesday afternoon with a pool party at a friends house, followed by fireworks up at Algonquin Country Club.  Thursday morning we packed up and headed down to the Lake of the Ozarks for a few days (taking the back roads this time - highly recommend!), came back Saturday still with plenty of time to tackle projects around the house.
This was Emerson's first time to the condo and the girl was into it.....sunsets, wall to wall carpet to roll around on, hanging with dad, the lady was lovin' lake life.

Mom of the year got to the condo only to realize the bag with all of Ryan and Reese's clothes was sitting back in Kirkwood next to my bed.  So the girls with about 15 bathing suits between the two of them, added two more to the arsenal.  Have you ever tried picking through the Wal-mart little girls bathing suit section?  Tough pickin's, to say the least.  Whoever designed some of those options should be committed.   Needless to say, holiday wear for 2013 provided by Wal-mart.

Plenty of ice cream trips were had....

Eating fake doughnuts...

The girls were told they would be going to see Despicable Me 2 with dad after breakfast.....Reese = very happy.  Ryan = numerous followup questions mainly centered around exactly which Despicable Me it would be (not 1 dad, I've already seen it) and if this would cut into her coveted swim time.  Which, PS, in order to not screw up all the work we have done with Mr. Chuck (our Infant Swim instructor) we were water-wing-less for the first time the entire long weekend.  And the girls did great!  Sadly the pool water was just a hair above freezing so swimming was limited this visit.

Driving home the fact that she does NOT want to see Despicable Me 1 again.  

Easter

We were blessed with some awesome weather again this year.....sunny and warm - perfect for a mid-morning Easter egg hunt.   The whole family was in town to celebrate.  And what a difference a year makes....last Easter I was quietly bummed as the third month of negative pregnancy tests came and went and this year we have been blessed with the best little gift the Easter Bunny could have left:

Grandpa's favorite....

 Numerous discussion points:  we'll start with the obvious....a baby on the roof.  Then there would be Nolan trying to cheat and take an egg after we told all the kids to wait.  Reese with chocolate already on her sweater about 4 seconds after we arrived at Grandmas' and Ryan barking orders, mid-sentence.

 We never did get a real group shot....

Reese had on some really cute black mary-jane shoes for all of about .5 seconds at our house.  She flat out refused to wear them because they weren't as cute as these puppies apparently were/are.  Reese won.  And who doesn't love a warm pair of winter booties in 60 degree weather?

 Ryan was very diligently assessing her stash....

 She looks up to trouble....probably was.

 Emerson slept nice and soundly on Uncle John for a good portion of the day.  When I listen to Uncle John talk I tend to do the same thing....

 Aunt Barbara loving on Ryan....Ryan only allowing the affection in hopes of scoring some sips of Sprite.

 Freak show...

 Her best buddies:  Papa and her what-was-once-pink-and-white-but-is-now-pink-and-gray-blanket.  We'll be tackling that puppy just as soon as we master the potty situation (which, while not Easter related, we have had some good progress in that department - it appears I won't be selling Reese on eBay after all).

 Emerson discovered a new found love of trains...

 Dreaming of chocolate....

 My buddy Chris Martin was a little under the weather yesterday and was tired of me harassing him, so this is his best 'beat it lady' look.

 And back to all things happy......this sweet little pile of yumminess.

Excuse me as I go make the rest of the candy disappear so life, my sanity, my kids sugar levels and my waistline can return to normal......

Christmas morning

In pictures...
Coming around the corner to see the tree
Running for presents
Reindeer food was gobbled up....
This post was about as fast and furious as the entire gift opening process on Christmas morning - aka it took about 2.5 minutes.

Merry Christmas!

May you find your very own naked set of buns under the tree tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!  

A professional photographer....I am not

Yesterday we did a somewhat impromptu photo-shoot for this year's Christmas card.....brought on by the fact that I had about 12 hours left to go before a very ridiculous 70% off coupon expired (nothing like huge savings to bring out your productivity).  I'm lucky I didn't go into labor as a result.   I quickly realized about 4 minutes in that the picture-perfect card was not going to happen, instead a more accurate snapsnot of the girls personalities (and life) was going to have to be the theme.   And I was going to have to be okay with that.   Jeez Louise was the Reesers not a willing participant.    Ryan couldn't have been better.
Reese would have preferred to do nothing but this:
and this....
This was the look I got pretty much anytime I attempted to give the lady any direction....she's internally mocking me, I know it.
Next year I should really just hire a professional (or at least attempt with a glass or two of wine) but for 2012 you'll get the lazy, pregnant mom version of a card.  
A few unedited, un-cropped teasers that didn't make the final cut.
And this pretty much sums it up... I'm right there with ya Ryan.

Tis the season....

to freak your freak on Santa.  Yet still manage to ask him for a book for Christmas.
And we'll try to ignore the judgmental little elves (aka - camera operators) who gave me a look when I told them we are all for crying pics so when (not if) Reese lost it, feel free to click away.   I mean isn't scaring little kids sh*tless what mall Santas are all about?

Elephant!!!!!!!

So Halloween, my most dreaded of holidays, was adorable, fun, precious, hilarious and Tootsie Roll filled.   The weather was the perfect degree of chilly and fall-like.  The girls were all smiles and good attitudes. The neighbors were out and the fire pits were sending off some much needed heat.  We adore our neighborhood, but nights like last night make us really adore our neighborhood.   And the single best part of the girls being 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 is that we started Trick or Treating around 6:30 and they were done, inside watching Shrek Halloween, eating a few treats and playing with their friends by 7:15.  The adults got to sit back and enjoy the fire pit, have a few drinks (myself not included) and not worry about  tiny toddlers running full speed into an open flame.
A quick pic before they got started.....my little elephant and Tinkerbell, accompanied by Buzz Lightyear and Woody.
Reese started the evening off in her usual Reesey form....crazy. She came out of the house yelling "ELEPHANT" in the loudest, huskiest voice you could imagine. Non-stop. For about 10 minutes. It's like she was announcing her Halloween-self to the entire neighborhood, just in case the completely obvious costume didn't give it away. Here she is mid-'elephant':
The girls kept asking when Halloween started....so once it got dark out, they were anxious and ready to go.
Ryan's jokes were hilarious. As in hilariously bad. She does knock-knock jokes. I have tried to teach her legitimate ones but she prefers to freestyle.
Her favorite is:
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Cheese.
Cheese who?
Cheese on the table.
Seriously.  Our lovely neighbors feigned a laugh and proceeded with the candy anyway.  Although she did win props with this one:
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Lady.
Lady who?
Lady who would like some candy please.
Reese was a little more direct in her approach. She tried to barrel through the line (the hell with waiting her turn) and would attempt to stick her hand directly in the bowl of candy before even so much as a hello. We had quite a few 'manners' discussions along the route.
Time to sit and take count of our loot.
Hope you all had a fun Halloween.  And yes, I have already hit up the sales at Target this morning.  Although I'm happy to report there wasn't much we had to have so I walked away spending $3 on a witches hat and $1 on a black tablecloth.