The Big Girl Birthday Party

Before Allison:





After Allison:










Happy 3 for ME!






Look at my Baby Girl! She isn't going to be a baby for much longer.... :(







I like cake....

My Big Fat Month of April

April is a reallllly busy month in here in Crazyland. It was chock full of great stuff. So, I will try to fit everything in. It may get a little long, so sit back, relax, grab a snack, and enjoy the post. :)

April 1- I got a page from my boss that I had a delivery the gift shop. My boss is a HUGE prankster and LOVES April Fools’ Day jokes. I actually asked everyone, my boss included, if this was a joke. It wasn’t! My sister Melanie sent me a really great flower arrangement and chocolate to work. Best April Fools’ surprise I’ve ever gotten. I would like to be able to show you the flowers, but I can’t. I didn’t remember to take a picture before they started to wilt. :(

This is also my brother in law Mike's 30th Birthday! Happy Birthday Mike!



April 4- Happy Birthday to me! I had a wonderful night making cupcakes with Allison and having dinner with my friends Suzanne and Emily. Not the fanciest birthday I’ve ever had, but one of the nicest by far. I did get one fancy surprise, my mother in law Donna, sent me some really great purple irises. They were beautiful, but had the same problem as above: didn’t put the camera and flowers anywhere near each other. :(






The stickers on my head are compliments of Allison. She was making me a present :)


April 5&6- My friends James and Michelle came to visit. We have not gotten to see each other for quite awhile. It was great to have them staying with us. Their son Jonas is 2, so he fit well between my girls. He also liked playing with some of Allison’s toys! It was great!






April 9-12- I traveled to Nashville for a professional conference. It was an interesting time. I drove in Tuesday night after dropping the little girls at my parent’s home. They were so kind to take them for the week. I arrived at Melanie and Brett’s apartment around 2 AM. My car poured out a whole lotta coolant upon arrival. My head gasket was cracked. Neato! That had to be replaced before I left for home. Rather difficult to repair, and pay for = $1700. Did I mention, Dave Ramsey is my hero? If not for Dave’s FPU, I would be so much more freaked out. Seriously, freaked out.

To keep the fun going, I went to my conference at Opryland. Opryland is HUGE. I got lost a lot. I mean A LOT. It took me 45” to find my car in the parking lot one day. It took me 20” to actually get out to my car to leave the conference. When I went to check in for the conference, I wasn’t registered. My boss forgot to give the secretary the paper work to get me registered. I was fortunate enough to get into everything, but that was a touch stressful. But in the end, all that matters is that I got my CEUs.

I did enjoy dinner with my sister and brother in law. And I was able to see my friend Mandy for dinner the last night I was there. They were great to hang out with and we ate some good food! :) Mandy and I checked out some neat shoes.




April 15- Emily’s 1st Birthday. I have already posted it, even though the video refuses to play. Grrrrrrrrrrr




April 16- A picnic in our front yard. It was great. Allison is still asking about picnic. Emily just wanted to eat whatever she could get her hands on. Food for her or not! She thought, with her bearly toothy grin, she was ready for apples and string cheese. I ran interference enough to keep us all alive. Bandit was very attentive also. He really wanted some of the meat sticks….








April 19-20- Visiting the Jens! Two of my best friends from college are Jennifers. They are both from the KC area originally, but one lives in Milwaukee now. They were both in KC for this weekend in April and the Crazies took to the road again. We had the BEST time playing volleyball in the mud and cooking out with family and friends. Did I mention it was muddy?










We also got out for some adult entertainment Saturday evening. Jen’s mom and dad watched the girls for me very kindly. I had a great time with Jen & Joe, Sarah & Justin, Dustin, and Jen. I almost forgot that I was an old fogey!







I must also mention, I got a sunburn that day. I had to use my blush to even out my face....



A mildly sad note: Sunday was my 6th wedding anniversary. It just doesn’t feel real anymore. I feel a disconnect that seems insurmountable. I sure hope not, but my spirit is growing weak and weary.

April 26- Happy Birthday Girlies! I had our families over for a joint little girl birthday party. It was a lot of fun. We had cake and BBQ. Who could ask for anything more? The girls received some great gifts that have already been put into use. Emily put on a great show for all who wanted to see a cake smash. Allison was delicate in eating the icing from the top of the cake, but not the actual cake.















April 27- Our 1st Cardinal’s game in the new Busch Stadium! YEEEEHAAAAAA! I was worried the game would be called for rain, but we made most of the game. I can’t say Emily was really impressed. My mom and Emily took the stroller all around for a walk. Allison thought the fireworks were great. She thought the Ben&Jerry's was even better! I bought the tickets for my dad’s 66th birthday. It took a few months, but baseball season is finally here. My dad and I had a moment of realization as a foul ball came flying past us that we might want to keep an eye on the game! We were too busy coloring with Allison to notice. It was a great memory I hope to never forget.













I hope you enjoyed my labor of love. It has taken almost 24 hours to get together and posted. I will try to post a pictorial of the Big Girl Party. I might even give another go with uploading video. But please don't hold your breath. I don't have really good MOJO with the video.... ;)

"1"

It's a monumental day here in Crazyland. Today is Emily's First Birthday! We did not have a "proper" party. We will be having a combined party since her sister's birthday is in 3 weeks. But we could not let this day pass without some type of celebration. So the regular Tuesday night dinner girls and I had a great time watching an angelic little face become smeared and covered with frosting and sprinkles. We sang and giggled and generally enjoyed the event. Here are a few highlights. Shooting Star! A special cake for my special girl. The cool little star shaped cupcake cups from Reynolds were a special find for tonight's shindig. I hadn't seen these before, but I will look for them more often I assure you! They were neat-o. There is our feature performer now! You can't see that she is sporting 3 new teeth. She is finally getting teeth. I'm worried they are all going to spring forth at once! Motrin is my best friend! Allison was close at hand to "supervise" and lend technical assistance as needed. Emily didn't seem to need much help though! She started off slowly, a little tenatively. But she did really get into it after a few handfuls :) The still pictures are nice, but I think this really captures the moment much better!

Cool Running!

So I got crazy and did another 5K in the COLD! But at least it was not raining this time. I ran most of it. I will admit to walking part of it, but I was impressed with my time. I finished the 5K in 34:11. Now, I know that is kinda slow in real race circles. Did I mention I haven't run since October? Yeah, since the half marathon.... My new fast shoes are actually really comfy and supportive. I am so darn excited.



This is my inspiration for doing this 5K. She is my super hot sister in law. She is helping me get back in shape in stead of becoming the mommy blob I could be. :)








Here I am with Mike and April.








Mike is SUPERFAST! He came in 1st in his age division. He finished the 5K in 19:12. The Green Flash..... He is my inspiration to attempt training for a 1/2 triathalon.

fun photos

MAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH Happy Easter!







Allison and I took a tour of Grandpa Bill's goat works. She really liked riding the Cub Cadet with Grandpa. She almost made my heart melt by telling one loud little goat "Don't be scared baby goat. Grandpa help you!"







This is dad's newest puppy. He will live and "become one" with the goats. He is awfully cute, don't you think?










My cool new FAST shoes. They are also exceptionally comfortable for my crappy feet.... I worked in them today without any difficulties. Wow, never had that before in 10 years on my feet. I am sure they will also sprout wings to make me super fast when I actually get to run this spring!






Emily sporting her new fashions for Easter. We went to my mom and dad's house "far, far away". It was a nice visit and the girls got to dress up. Grandma was proud!







Allison's pretty (cheesy) grin for Easter. Sorry so blurry. My camera battery died after this shot. Grrrr. You might still note that I did the matching outfit thing that I hate. I had to....the dresses were soooo pretty. I'm princessing vicariously through them.









This is me and Allison and Suzanne getting ready for the St Pat's 5K. It was COLD. Allison was ssssooooooooo done at about the 2 mile mark. It was raining. But most importantly, we had a good time sweating! We walked the 5K by the way. Maybe next year I'll run it. Without the stroller.....








This was a pic I took in the drive through of Starbucks. I am not sure what they ordered, but they were certainly intent on the window!

Tonight, tonight

Tonight was a good night. No, actually it was a great night. A finish to a rather above average day.

I do have to admit to skipping Bible study. But honestly, I think God will understand and approve. Emily and I were sick last week. So this makes 2 weeks in a row that I have missed. I had my book in my bag and everything ready. I was looking forward to spending time sharing and learning with some great women.

So when did the plan change? When I went to pick up the Princesses, they were sleeping when I arrived. Allison was really hard to wake up. Not unpleasant, just sleeping hard. Then Miss Em had to be rousted from her slumber. I took Emily to the couch and we snuggled as she woke up a little more. Then Allison came over to join the snuggle after getting her diaper changed. It was great. I had both in my lap, giggling and squirming. Both were in fantastic moods.

Plans were still in place at this point. Then I remembered that I had not put Emily food in the diaper bag. Plans rapidly revamped in my mind. We went to the store instead of church supper. Then we came home, had leftover pizza, watched the “Little Einsteins”, the girls took a bath, and they went to bed. I got Allison to bed first without any fuss or argument. Miss Em needed a bottle and fell asleep on my lap. I got to hold her and snuggle for almost an hour. Emily doesn’t usually let me do that, so this was great. She was all sacked up in her sleep sack and had her thumb and blanket and the world was right.

Like I said; it was a great night.

Emily's Surprise

This is a monumental video in the life of Emily. She is growing so quickly! I am trying to catch it all, but I feel like it's impossible to keep up. I would love to just quit working and enjoy my girls. Alas, but no. Not for now at least. But I thought I would share her fun developmental milestones with all you guys too!

Enjoy.




PS: It's a little dark, and I'm not the greatest cameraman ever. But I hope it was fun. And yes that was my goofy voice in the background with grandma.