Happy Birthday Lillyanna!

Tomorrow is my niece Lilly's 2nd Birthday, we celebrated at a Birthday Pool Party Friday with her and our family. It is always a joy to celebrate Birthdays with my nieces and nephews, but to see Lilly turn 2 is pretty special.

You see, she had a rough go into our world when she was born and has had a few obstacles to overcome in her first 2 years of life, which makes her 2nd Birthday a true blessing. Last year she had to have major surgery in Chicago at Shriner's Hospital to repair a cleft pallet and has had many hours of speech therapy and doctor's appointments with people sticking things in her mouth since that time. I am happy to report that she is talking up a storm and behaving like a typical crazy little 2-year old. She has had to learn her words at a different rate than most babies because she couldn't actually work her tongue in her mouth the way we do, so she learned "her way" until the surgery and has now had to learn a whole new way. The way she says TT just melts my heart.

I am proud of her and how tough she is. She has a beautiful and crazy spirit about her and doesn't sweat the small things, because she has had to weather some of the big things without even knowing what those "big" things are. She doesn't worry when she falls and scrapes her knees like most 2 year olds, she jumps up and continues to run and play. She is always into something and loves to discover new things (including dog food), she seems to find all of the stuff in my house that I have lost.

So Happy Birthday My Sweet Lilly Bean! TT loves you very much! Continue to make your daddy crazy and remember that TT always says "yes" even if mommy and daddy say no.

Riding (in the house) her new bubble-making, singing Princess trike that TT and Aunt Julie got her.

*Ha-Ha Paybacks Brother for all those noisy toys you bought Brady!*

Seriously... you want me to watch your children?

My very good friend Kelly and her husband Nate asked me if I would watch their 4-month old twin girls, Caroline and Sophia. Seriously??? You trust me with your small children? I was more than honored to watch these beautiful baby girls and couldnt' believe that they asked me. She actually thought I was doing them a favor, are you kidding -- a day with 1 beautiful baby is wonderful, but 2 sweet girls to play and drool over, that is beyond wonderful. They were doing me a favor -- I got out of a house full of teenagers to hang with children who don't talk back! Delightful!

Ok, I will completely admit that twins is hard work. I know people ask Kelly all of the time, how she does it, she says that she doesn't know anything different, so it's her everyday. WOW! I have even more respect for her and Nate than I did before. It wasn't like I couldnt' do it or it was ... I don't want to say hard because it is hardwork., but I now see how she lost all of her baby-weight so fast. You NEVER sit down - they keep you busy. There is always something to do. They did sleep for a little bit, but I am a newbie -so clearly watched them sleep on their very cool baby monitor (shut up, I know).

Feeding time came and I wasn't even going to try that one alone, I called in reinforcements. I had asked Rachel, but she was a little freaked out with such little people, so Brian and Brady came over and helped me. Supermommy can feed them both, but there was no way I was taking that chance; how would you choose who you would feed when they are both hungry if you can't feed them at the same time? There is no way I want to be part of giving either of them a complex - I love them equally! :)

Anyway, thank you Kelly and Nate for a wonderful day; thank you Brian and Brady for helping with feeding time (sounds like I'm talking about animals at the zoo, huh? I'm not, I swear). I had an outstanding day and it would be an honor to hang out with Sophia and Caroline any time you need.

Where have we been?

Ok, everyone has been asking me where we have been. I know it's been like 3 weeks since I've posted - I don't really know where we have been. Busy, I guess. I don't know what we've been doing, but I'm sure it's been really important stuff. :)

Mason and Rachel spent a few weeks with their mom, who was in town and with their mom's side of the family. They spent a week at home with her in Arvada, and then went to Luray, Kansas and spent a week at Wilson Lake where their grandparents own a little vacation house, swimming and hanging out over the 4th of July. Mason played a some golf with his Grandpa Russ at Osborne City Golf Course too and got some pointers from him. Mason stayed an extra week to spend some quality time with his Grandma Janice and went antiquing.

When they got back, we spent a long weekend at Lake McConaughy (a blog and pictures will be dedicated specifically to Lake McConaughy) with my side of the family having a great time.

When we returned from there, Rachel was hired to housesit/dogsit for the family next door for a few days. We are really proud of her, she is a little gun-shy when it comes to doing something new and getting out of her own comfort zone, so we were glad she did it and didn't have any issues. Mason and I kept thinking that she was going to beg one of us to go stay with her for the week overnight, but she never did. She is growing up before our very eyes.

Brady has been all over the place. He spent a weekend with Grandma Kim fishing and hanging out with Ray and his boys. (Here are a few pictures from that weekend). I will say that this kid does not ever sit still. All I can say is he is busy! He is an avid trampoline jumper and our trampoline bit the big one (likely because Brady and his friends are pretty rough on it, jumping off the deck onto it and putting the sprinkler on it, etc.). I never realized how much that thing actually helps us until it was gone. Holy Cow, he was driving us crazy; he definately needs some sort of outlet to burn that energy. Well thank goodness Uncle Jim hooked us up with one and we are back in business, he is out there as we speak. Jump Brady, Jump!

As far and Brian and I; well Brian has been really busy at work, as usual and I have been busy at work too. My job is going to be changing a little bit and I am really excited. I will continue to work with kiddos, which I love; but I am also going to be doing some supervisory stuff too, which will be a nice challenge. It's something I haven't done before and I am really looking forward to learning and growing into it.

Alright, well I think you are up to speed, I will try to get back on track (no promises).

Happy Fourth of July!

We spent a wonderful weekend in Casper, Wyoming with Papa Rich and Grandma Judy. It took a while for us to get out of town with a 10 car accident on I-25 where we sat for 1 1/2 hours, but when we finally got there, it was well worth it.

We spent the weekend with much relaxation and rest. It is so beautiful and peaceful there. Rich and Judy live in a beautiful house tucked into the countryside with scenery as far as you can see, antelope roaming all around you.

Brian and I had such a wonderful time, but I don't think it can compare to the time that Brady had. He was busy from the time he woke until the time he went to bed. He learned to shoot a 22 shotgun and practice target shooting of their deck. Papa Rich taught him how to drive a tractor and helped to do some chores around their property. Then Papa got out his Quad 4-wheeler and that was pretty much the last I saw of him.

On the 4th, we went and had dinner at this great place where we had something called the "Grease Bucket", which included a variety of delicious fried items, including fried pickles, which are one of my favorite things. We also went to a Casper Ghosts game, that's the minor league baseball team for Wyoming, and had a great time. We won't say what the score was, but it was fun with a fireworks show at the end.

On Sunday, we were getting ready to head home and Brady decided that he wasn't really ready to come home and asked Papa Rich and Grandma Judy to stay a little longer and luckily Grandma didn't have to work again until Wednesday, so he is there until then. Last I checked in with him, he was still quite busy going to see Ice Age 3 at the movies, going swimming at the aquatic center and who knows what else.

Thank you Papa Rich and Grandma Judy, we had a great weekend!