August 2014

Maia and Izzy cruising in the Barbie dune buggy. A great past time on our street. You haven't been initiated until you've had your toes ran over by this thing. 

A typical day in our neighborhood is to dress like your favorite character. Addie chose Snow White today. 

Hudson chose Bat-turtle. 

Mark's sister, BIL, and neice came to spend some time with us for a weekend. We went to the zoo and had a great time. The girls' favorite part was the stingrays. 

Also the Ferris Wheel.

Cousin Ladelle

Petting the stingrays. They said they have to clip the stingers every so often like fingernails. 

Petting zoo.

Bear cove

Mark's favorite part. 

We all rode the Skyfari. I made Addie ride with Mark because I'm terrified of heights. I held on tight to Izzy. 

Dave, Ladelle and Trish

First day of school. A monumental moment. Sigh.

All grown up.

A daddy and his girls. 

Our neighbor and good friend Hudson. Hudson is in Kindergarten with Izzy, but has Mrs. T instead. 

Izzy and Miss Waller. 

Izzy had her first overnight guest. It was Jaycee from across the street. We built a fort and played games. Lights out at 11. 

Well it has happened. My baby is a Kindergartner. We began the month with open houses and meet and greets and the big day came on August 11, 2014. I did pretty well. I only had to wipe my eyes once and that is when she was walking with her class into the building. After the first day she said she loved it and hasn't looked back. Addie had a hard time adjusting the first few weeks. She wanted to always know where Izzy was and screamed that she didn't want to go to school. There were a few days of holding onto my or Mark's pants and just bawling. That has since gotten better and she is adjusting to the new life without Izzy at daycare.

Izzy has struggled a little bit with rhyming words and after a few days of school she has them down pat. I can't wait to see what more is in store for her. I hope she can be a smart and nice little girl, but the nice is going to be a lesson learned. Just kidding, she is a sweet girl most of the time but she can sure push buttons...and not only mine. I have caught her being bossy with her friends and when I call her out she acts like she knows it's wrong. I think she just wants to see how much she can get away with. It could be also that she is tired with her new schedule at school and a lot shorter "quiet time."

Addie is growing leaps and bounds. I think she is going to be a lot taller than her sister. She is still as funny as ever. There are many times where Mark and I are sitting at the kitchen table just giggling at the silly little things she says. She is into telling stories at dinner time about a queen and a princess and a monster that gets them. The animation on her face is enough to make you laugh.

Mark and I continue to work away. Trying to keep our heads above water between work, running girls and keeping our house presentable. It never ends! Oh well, it keeps life interesting.

July 2014

 

Addie's fireworks hat she made at school.

 

My pretty girl playing in the sprinklers and on the inflatable slide at the Jones's

 

My biking diva on the 4th of July.

 

Showing her artistic abilities with her chalk art. She made a firework.

 

The girls.

 

Izzy, Xavier, Victoria, and Addie getting ready for the big night.

 

Xavier waiting for the show.

  

A little BBQ before we light fireworks.

 

The Harley taking us around to see the neighbors.

 

Our great neighbors, the Jones'. They left us at the end of July and moved to Tampa. We will for sure miss them.

 

Todd, Mark and Brock. AKA: Jones, Brown, and Smith. Can't get more generic than that.

 

Kiddos watching the fireworks.

 

 

 

Nolan, Xavier, Izzy, Hudson, and Addie.

 

Mark and Addie having a deep conversation. I'm sure she was trying to get something by working her magic.

Mark and I getting ready to see Willie Nelson for the 5th or 6th time.

Stir Concert Cove.

 

Izzy in the princess chair at Louie's Wine and Dive.

Addie had one too.

Izzy learned how to take a selfie. Then she took a few more.

 

She later did a little face art on her mom.

Addie then learned how to do selfies. She loves playing with mom's camera now.

A night out with a great friend, Valerie Camp.

The girls sporting their Frozen backpacks. It took a lot of work getting those backpacks. I think every little girl wanted one this year. I even had to wrestle a 40 yo man for one as he was putting the whole rack of them into his cart. What does he want all those for?

Can't believe she is going to be a kindergartner!

                                     

This is on our way to the zoo to see the stingrays and much more.

Stingray Beach!

All aboard!

 

For one of the Small Miracles teacher's 21st birthday all the kiddos dressed up in princess or hero outfits. It was for Miss Brittany who happens to be our babysitter too. The girls love her.

Cinderella

Snow White.

 

This is at Ponderosa Lake in Grand Island. Good family friends live on this lake so we took advantage when we were home. Cousin Kya came with us. The girls had a blast swimming and jumping off the dock. All the little fish would swim around us and Izzy wasn't too sure about that.

 

                                            On our way to KC for our first family vacation.

First stop was Sea Life Aquarium. The girls had a good time filling out the quiz and observing the tanks.

These were little bubbles in the center of the tanks where you could crawl up under the tank and stick your head in. The fish would swim around you.

Finding fossils.

LEGOLAND.

Getting rest for a big next day at Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun.

 

The girls hanging in the suit waiting to go ride the rides.  

Planet Snoopy in Worlds of Fun. Addie was scared of all the big characters so she wouldn't stand by Snoopy. We finally got her to give Linus a five.

 

The first ride the girls went on Addie didn't really like. She was ready to get off. But she rode many more and had a lot of fun.

These cars sped really fast around the corners. It was fun to see my 6'4" husband get in to this car.

 Next up Oceans of Fun. We rented a cabana and had a blast in the wave pool.

 

That evening we had dinner in the Plaza at Cheesecake Factory.

 



Our 4th of July was an uneventful, but very nice day. We played at the Jones' house all day on the water slide. Then we cleaned up and watched fireworks with the neighbors. It was the Jones, Smiths, and Browns. Can't get more generic than that for last names, can ya? We had a blast and there were no injuries. The kids loved the Bomb Pops and fireworks. It was a successful night.

Izzy will be starting kindergarten in August so she had to go get her K physical done. It went well until it was time for the shots. As Dr. Anglim talked to her how we have to get them to stay healthy, she kept her nose in her book and began to sniffle. That was hard for me. I knew it wouldn't go well. In order to get her shots it took me and two nurses to get it done. Poor baby. I hate it when they are scared. After, we went to get school supplies to go with the Frozen backpack I searched for all over the state of Nebraska. She is getting excited to go to Kindergarten.

Addie is getting so big and too smart for her own good. The words that come out of her mouth have us laughing daily. Everything is, "I not know, " "I lost it, " "yep," and the list goes on. I wish I was fast enough, or had a better brain to remember all that she says. I need to get better at remembering to write it down. We still have an occasional small wetting of the panties and as we are walking to the bathrooms she will say, "Mom, don't say ugh!, ok!" I just love this little gal.

We went to our friend, Gary's, annual pool party for his birthday. The girls loved it. Like I've said before, they would live in the water if they could. Addie is ALWAYS wanting to put her suit on. The following weekend we went to Gamma and PopPop's for their appreciation BBQ. It was nice to see everyone and hang out in GI. I even got some mommy time with two of the greatest friends, Lisabeth and Lindsay. I took the girls to Ponderosa Lake (thanks Sheree and Russ) and they had a blast swimming and jumping off the dock. We came home Sunday and got on the road to KC the next day. We were taking the girls to Lego Land, Sea Life Aquarium, and Worlds and Oceans of Fun. We were no more out of Omaha and Addie kept saying her tummy hurt. She soon threw up everywhere. No where to clean her up but a gross interstate gas station. What's a person to do? She was fine the rest of the trip. The girls loved Oceans of Fun the most. They did like the rides at Worlds of Fun but were quickly over it. I think I spent three hours in the wave pool.  I'm glad they had fun. Back to Omaha and back to the grind with many new memories to share. Until next time.

Ariann