2-Wheelin' Around

Poor Lilly has been trying to learn to ride her bike without training wheels since late last summer.  She was starting to get the hang of it, then broke her arm and was unable to ride for 7 weeks.  When her cast was removed in October, she again tried to ride with two-wheels.  She would do okay, but wouldn't pedal hard enough to keep going.  So we moved her to the grass, where she couldn't just coast.  It worked, but she couldn't go more than about 30' by herself and we still had to push her off to start.  Well, we had snow the first weekend in November and it didn't leave (as I type, we are getting snow...on April 28...)  But we have had a few good days here and there this spring.  Lilly was doing quite well again and then...her stitches.  Since she was still learning, and learning means wipe-outs, I wasn't about to let her ride with the stitches in. 

Finally, on Monday, it was nice, there wasn't snow on the ground or rain in the sky, and we had no plans for the evening.  Lilly put on her helmet, walked her bike to the grass and said, "I'm ready Mom!"  I pushed her off once and that was it.  She rode the entire length of the front yard, made a turn (her first successfully) at the end and rode back to me.  Then she pushed herself off and did it again.  After a few times, she asked if she could go in the driveway.  She's a pro!  It just clicked and she's doing so great now! 

We are so proud of her!

Hoppy Easter!

We hope you had a great Easter celebrating that Jesus rose from the dead!  We had a wonderful day.  It started with our egg and basket search, then church service, then we hosted Easter dinner for my mom's side of the family.  We ended the day with a nice afternoon walk and family movie night viewing of "Tangled."

Let's go camping!

This spring, we were able to pay off several bills and what's better to do when you pay something off than buy something new?!  I know, not the best strategy, but it's what we did.  Thankfully, our new payment is going to be less than what we were paying for the others combined.  So we're still ahead, and with a new toy, too.

We bought a camper.  We've been wanting one for awhile and finally took the plunge.  I love to tent camp, but Andy's not a fan of it.  And during horse camp and the fair, we stay at the fairgrounds and have had to borrow a camper from family for those 2 weeks.  So it's something that has been on our minds for years.  This spring, when we paid off those bills, we started to look at campers.  Since it wasn't something we needed, we were willing to wait until we found just what we wanted.  Andy insisted on it being a 5th wheel, I insisted it have bunks for the kids so we didn't have to mess around with converting tables and couches several times a day.  We found our ideal camper, in our price range, on about day 2.  Seriously.  We hemmed and hawed, looked at a bunch more on-line, and kept going back to this particular model.  It was ours a week later.

The whole time, we didn't tell the girls anything.  My parents had taken them overnight for a visit with family friends, so that day Andy and I went to see the camper in person and put down our deposit.  When he pulled in the driveway with it a few days later, the girls were so excited. "Is that a camper?  Whose is it? Is it OURS?  Do we have a CAMPER?!"  It was a school night, so they were disappointed we couldn't sleep in it right away.  But that weekend (after the play on Saturday night) we stayed in the camper for the first time.  So far, we love it.

(I don't know why this won't rotate)

Let's Play Cinderella

What I didn't mention in my post about Lilly's foot was our guilt that night.  Not the guilt over Lilly getting hurt (though we felt badly) but the guilt over poor Alayna.  See, she was in a school play that night and it was her first time ever performing something like that.  And we missed it.  Thankfully, Alayna is old enough that she understood Lilly needed us more at that time.  And super thankfully, there was another performance the next night!

The play was "Cinderella", though it was adapted and set in the 1950's.  It was really cute--Cinderella was going to a sock-hop instead of a ball and she sang in a lip-sync contest instead of dancing with the prince.  Alayna was one of the Chicks, a group of girls that followed the cool guys around and were friends with Cinderella.  She did a great job and we were so glad that we caught the Saturday night show!

You Put Your Right Foot In...

Our weather has been crazy, going back and forth between snow and 60 for the last few weeks.  But a little over two weeks ago, it was a nice 60 degree day and Lilly was playing barefoot outside at her friend's house.  They were running around and decided to play with rocks.  Somehow, in the middle of their rock play, a boulder fell onto Lilly's foot just right...and split it open.  We were just getting ready to head into town when we got the phone call:

"Candy, this is ____.  Lilly was playing outside and somehow a rock fell on her foot and split it open.  We didn't think it was that bad, but after we cleaned it up, we thought we'd better call.  I think she needs stitches.  I am SO sorry!"

After assuring her it happens and we weren't upset, we got in the truck and drove over to check it out.  It took us about 2 seconds to agree with their assessment and we gathered her things to bring her to the hospital.  Her friend wanted to come along to the hospital, so we loaded everyone and started the drive. 

To keep Lilly's mind off her foot, we made the 40 min drive as fun as possible.  We sang songs, told silly stories, talked about school and found ABCs on road signs.  When we got to the hospital, they gave us a big exam room so everyone could be with Miss Lilly.  We all guessed how many stitches she'd need and Daddy won with a guess of 5--she needed 6!  His prize was to carry Lilly from the hospital and pay for our supper at McDonalds!  haha

On the way home, Lilly wanted to continue her sleep-over and we told her that was fine.  However, once we were closer to home she decided she wanted to come home with us.  We dropped her friend off, again assured our friends that all was fine and went home. 

Lilly was such a trooper the whole time!  She was great about letting us take care of her foot and always made sure to be extra careful with it.  She had her stitches in for 12 days and had them removed this past Wednesday.  The doc said all looked well.

He has risen...and so have we!

OKay, so I'm not in any way likening myself to Jesus--just wanted to get that out there right off.  But yesterday was Easter, which celebrates the fact that Jesus died and was raised from the dead 3 days later.  Well, this blog is kinda being raised from the dead.  I hope.  I've been so horrible with blogging and I really miss it, but things have been so crazy.  But I'm going to make a point of blogging more because I enjoy and I know my readers enjoy it, too.  So let's hope I keep things going this time.

I'm not going to do a huge update post, but a few individual posts over the next few days.  So be on the look-out, if you are still out there!

Spring Snow

Unless my calendar is wrong, we are now officially in the season known as Spring.  Spring is when snow melts, grass and leaves grow, flowers bloom and the temperature starts to warm...right?  Now I know I live in Wisconsin and therefore anything can happen with the weather, but I've decided that this year is completely unfair.

We got snow yesterday.  Like a foot.  12" of snow.  On March 23.  Snow in March is not that unusual of a thing for us--last year we even had a dusting of snow in May.  But this year seemed like it was going to follow the calendar.  We were in the 50s a week ago and our snow was about 75% gone.  I could actually see more grass than snow in my yard.  The birds were here and singing and all was well.  Then we got dumped on and the temp isn't supposed to go above 35 for the next 5 days.  *sigh*  I'm just done with it all.

March 23 was the first snow day of the year for our school district.  Even with all the snow we got this winter, it all fell either on weekends or pre-arranged days off.  So the girls and I made the best of it--we played games, did art projects, painted nails, did "make-up-overs" as Mikayla calls them, ate cake for dessert after lunch and just hung around the house.  I didn't take a single picture, but meant to.  Oh well.

Presto Change-O



See how much of a face-lift our kitchen has had?  We replaced the refrigerator, oven, dishwasher, microwave, floor, and 2 light fixtures (on the ceiling and above the sink).  We removed some wall-paper, painted, added vinyl wall lettering, and took the doors off the peninsula cupboards.  Now to finish removing the old wall-paper, get new counter-tops, put up a back-splash, replace the door/drawer pulls...

Tell me, how many of you have a fridge like mine?  I know they say that a clean fridge door can make the room seem bigger and cleaner, but I have 3 kids and do daycare.  I will not get rid of the ABC magnets that keep them occupied while I cook.  And my HUGE dry-erase calendar? I live and breathe by that thing.

Current, Complete and Consistent Kitchen

As most of you know, we've lived in our house for just over 6 years.  When we moved in, we had to buy a refrigerator but the rest of the appliances were there.  They were functional, but nothing to look at, and nothing that had any bells or whistles.  The oven was black with a white top, the dishwasher was white and we had bought a black fridge with the intention of going all black in the kitchen someday.  The appliances worked most of the time and, in the case of the stove, was original to the house when built in 1979. 

(we've made so many more updates to this kitchen, including removing the cupboards doors above the peninsula, peeling wall-paper, new pendant light above sink, new fixture on ceiling, vinyl wall writing above cupboards, etc)



First thing we replaced?  The stove.  I got a beautiful flat cooktop and an oven that was considerably larger than the old one.  Not only that, but all the burners work on the new stove!  The next thing to be replaced was the dishwasher.  The old one didn't get our dishes clean and was horrendously loud.   In the meantime our microwave also died and was replaced it with a nice, new and sleek model.  All that was left was the range hood.  The disgusting, grease-laden, impossible to get clean, white, loud and inefficient range hood. (and I don't know how many times I gouged my forehead on those sharp corners!)

Take a look at that beauty!  Not only does my kitchen now look consistent and current, but it's also quiet!  The old fan was so loud that I couldn't hear conversations at the kitchen table if I was cooking.  And the fan was so permanently gross and greasy that I had to always use it on high for it to be effective--and that's using the term mildly.  It did the bare minimum of sucking out the steam and stank from my cooking.  But this new one...oh it works so great and so quiet and looks so good.  And the filters can go in my dishwasher!!  How awesome is that?  My old filters I would soak in hot, soapy water for an hour and then scrub with an old toothbrush--all to get them as clean as possible which was about 25% clean.  Ugh.  So happy to see him gone!!  Not to finish removing the old wall-paper, get new counter-tops, put up a back-splash...

We're Baaa-aaack

Did you miss me?  Yeah, I know it's been awhile...again.  But the last few weeks have been busy.  At first, I was busy doing tons of laundry, cleaning and packing for our trip.  Then we were gone for 8 days on our trip.  Then we were home and had to unpack, settle in, buy groceries, etc.  But we had such a good time!

We flew out on Friday morning and landed in Orlando around noon (after a slight medical emergency on board).  There were 10 of us--my 5, my parents, my in-laws and sister-in-law.  We met my sister at the airport, who had flown in from VA.  It was great to see her for the first time in over a year!  We had rented a house but couldn't get in it until after 4:00, so we got our rental vehicles and headed to Cocoa Beach.  It was the first time to the ocean for our family.  We had a great time playing in the sand and waves.  Mikayla didn't like the water (it's yucky!) but she really enjoyed playing in the sand on "Coconut Beach."  After the beach we checked into our rental house and then went grocery shopping.

Day 2 was spent at Animal Kingdom, but before we got there I had to buy a new camera--mine crapped out after the beach when I plugged it in to charge.  Of well.  We got the new camera and headed to the park.  We had so much fun walking around and looking at all the various animals, many of which (hippos, rhinos, elephants...) aren't even found in zoos around home.  We went on a few rides, including Lilly's favorite roller-coaster "Expedition Everest."  We also sat in on "It's Tough to be a Bug" in 3D by the Bug's Life crew, but Mikayla did not like that at all.

Day 3 (Sunday) started with waking up and looking out the window to about 10 hot air balloons flying over our neighborhood.  The girls thought that was really cool.  Then we headed to Magic Kingdom.  We got to meet Cinderella and Ariel, went on a bunch of rides (including Space Mtn and Big Thunder, which the big girls loved) and sat in on Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.  The Laugh Floor was really funny and they even picked on us and our matching shirts, particularly singling out Grampa Bill.  We watched the Celebration Parade and ended the day with ice cream and fireworks over the castle.

Day 4 we went to Hollywood Studios.  It was our first day of meeting a lot of characters--Buzz, Woody, Green Army Man, Mickey, Lotso, Frozone, Mr. Incredible, Mater and Lightning McQueen.  We also saw Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid plays.  The girls each bought some souvenirs and we went on the Rock-n-Rollercoaster, which went 0-80 in about 2 seconds and went upside down!  Alayna didn't know what to think of it but Lilly, our thrill-seeker, loved it.  For dinner we went to Ponderosa Steakhouse and came back to the house to find out we'd missed out on 12" of fresh snow back here at home.  Oh darn.

Day 5 was the day to say goodbye to Bill, Lynn and Alicia.  They didn't get to stay the whole time, so after saying good-bye to them and getting them off to the airport, the rest of us headed to Epcot.  We were able to meet Daisy, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, Snow White, Mulan and Marie from Aristocats.  While in line to meet some of the characters, we started chatting with a family that commented on our Packer jerseys (we were all wearing jersey's but my sister)  The daughter said she cheered for the Packers in the Super Bowl since the Panthers weren't in it.  Turns out it was Thomas Davis and his family--he plays for the Panthers!  After that we did the Nemo ride and looked at all the aquariums while Gramma Paula took a survey and received $150 to spend at the parks!  When she returned, we watched Turtle Talk with Crush and we completely recommend that.  It was hilarious.  Then we started the country tours and had some Italian gelato.  We ended the day with the ride that goes through the "big golf ball" and all the girls really liked that.

Day 6 we went back to Magic Kingdom.   The first thing we did was go back to meet the princesses because Belle was on duty.  Belle (Yellow Belle, to be exact) is Mikayla's favorite princess and she was so excited to meet her that she was shaking!  It was too cute.  We also met Aurora/Sleeping Beauty.  We did a few of the rides we didn't have time for the other day, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, rode the train around the park and finally, Splash Mountain.  Mikayla was so happy to make the height requirement (barely!) and loved the whole "roller-coaster" ride, keeping her arms up the whole time!

Day 7 was our last full day in Florida.  We took our time in the morning and then headed back to Cocoa Beach.  We played in the sand and water for a few hours, then anxiously waited for 4:50...when Discovery was going launch.  We were able to watch it launch and it was so cool.  The blast was VERY bright and it went so fast you almost could have missed it.  But we can now say that we watched Discovery launch for the last time in person.  Since the beaches were so crowded, the normally 45 min drive back to the house took 3 hours!  We got back to the house and got everything packed up to go home the next morning.

Day 8 was time to go home.  We gathered everything, did a quick tidy of the house and headed to the airport.  Our flight was delayed almost an hour, but we finally were put at a new gate and given our seating assignments.  It was hard to say good-bye to my sister, who had a flight later than us back to VA.  Our flight was uneventful and we landed safely at MSP.  Mikayla slept for about 2 hrs of the 3 hr flight, even sleeping through landing!

We had a great time and are so blessed to have such wonderful family!  I took about 450 pictures--actually, I probably took about 550 but each night I would go through my camera and delete the blurry or bad pics from the day.  I came home with about 450 on my camera.  I uploaded a whole bunch to FaceBook and honestly don't want to go through that again.  SO...if you want to see the pics, just let me know.  I can send you a link to my album on FB, even if you aren't on FB, and you can view the 125 I put on there.