Dancing Queen and Princess

Little Miss Annastasia is a pretty little ballerina in her dress and ballet skills. We've been working at it and she's getting pretty good. Possibly dance lessons in the Fall!!!! We'll see. She still gets shy when people watch her but maybe once she's up there in her costume and shoes she'll just want to be pretty and want people to watch her.

Annie aways makes me wear this tu-tu. I'm lucky it fits over one thigh! I bought it for Marceah for her 2nd birthday. Marceah won't wear it and Annie refuses because it's "mommy's" and yep, I get to wear it. I think it's adorable and thought a little girl would be head over heals for the frills and what not but apparently the dress mommy made is better. I'd have to say that I loved the dresses my mom made too. They were my favorites!!

I Found the Camera!!!!

Yep, found the camera. It really wasn't lost. It was actually in the diaper bag the whole time. I just couldn't see it in the side pocket!

After spending two hours in the car trying to get to the base today I decided it wasn't worth it and came home to spend the day with the family. Drove 55miles only to arrive back at home. yah, the roads were terrible. I think everyone had the bright idea to leave late this morning because 94 and 494 were parking lots. Literally! Anyways, finally made it back home and grabbed Ethan, Annie's buddy to go skijoring with us. They took a little nap in the chariot. It was an absolutely beautiful day out. It was just what I needed to destress from my lovely drive around town today.

Well Rosie wasn't in the mood for pulling much today for some reason but she did get me in the snow a few times!

My view of our outing. The snow was so light and fluffy. The dogs would kick it up and it would sparkle in the sunshine. Super pretty to look at.

Turk working hard to pull 200lbs of Adam, 60lbs of kids and 25lbs of chariot! GO TURK!!!

Something kind of interesting, my child is as long as our stairs! Annastasia has gotten into the habit of laying on each step as we walk up to bed. A new stalling method I think.... I see this picture and I'm thinking either the stairs need to be shampooed or need new carpet....I'm leaning towards new carpet! :) I would like new carpet but shampooing is probably more in the budget.

Speaking of budget. Random thought, while we were at the mall we stopped in at Goodman Jewelry to see if they had Adam's wedding ring. He had lost his last Spring when he was raking up the backyard of all the dog poo. He couldn't remember when he had last seen it when he was out side so the 5 bags of "crap" were not too appealing to go through. Well, anyways, he's been without a ring since then and the topic came up as to whether or not he should get a new ring or not. Adam - "Do you think I should wear a wedding ring." Me - "Do you think I should wear a wedding ring?" Adam - "YAH!" Me - "Well, there ya go then!" Funny how if you turn the tables how obvious the answer can be. I then made a comment of possibly needing a larger diamond but that didn't go over to well. He said the one I have reflects enough light. I had to laugh! SO, we found his ring at Goodman and ordered it. Back in 2003 it cost $159 with the warranty. TODAY it cost $300some and we didn't have to purchase the warranty again! Geez inflation is bad! But needless to say he will have his ring back. What brought up this whole, do I need to wear a ring or not? One of the flight attendants Adam flew with a month or so ago asked him why he didn't wear a ring and he told her he lost it and she said, "Well, you could be sending the wrong message since you don't wear a ring." Not really sure what that meant but now he has his ring.

Last Sunday we took a little trip to the Mall of America to ride on some rides. We stopped at Uncle Casey and Auntie Megan's house to see their new puppy, Henry, who is absolutely adorable. We were getting ready to leave and Uncle Casey asked Annie if she wanted to go home and she says, "NO, Ride on rides!!!" She was very excited to ride on some rides. We got to the mall and I needed a snack so we stopped to get a pretzel. Annie didn't want any of it. She just kept saying, "rides, rides!" She was bound and determined to ride on some rides.

As excited as she was, she was scared! She had a death grip on me on the merri-go-round. The second time around she enjoyed it more. We went on about 6 rides or so. Thank goodness (we were a little naughty) a lady that was leaving the park gave us her child's wrist band to use so we got to ride all the rides for free! I thought it was very nice of her to share it with us. I think that made the rides that much more enjoyable!!! Plus Annie went to get on a ride and then changed her mind so at least then it wasn't a loss for us.

THE NEIGHBORS! We finally got a chance to all hang out together. Adam is usually the missing piece with having to work. But we scheduled a night out at the House of Comedy at the M.O.A. and it was so much fun! The headliner was great and we all enjoyed the night away from the kids. Afterwards we went to the "Corner Bar" in St. Michael for some drinks. This place is like the little hole in the wall from when St. Michael was just a stop sign and the bar! It was fun because it was so simple and small town feel. Surprisingly I didn't know anyone there. In the front is Dianne (Ethan and Kylie), Krista (Cole, Lane, Jada), Me (you know my kids). the back is Garrett (Dianne's hubby), Aaron, Mark (Krista's hubby) and Adam. Cousin Sam babysat Annie and they had a good time together.

Just a cute picture if the dogs all curled up. Turk is such a baby. He doesn't "like" to be outside all day, I always find him all curled up. Rosie on the other hand is bouncing off the walls chasing something or pouncing on Turk trying to get him to play.

Annastasia taking pictures of herself. She's winking!!!!

So I asked Adam to take a picture of me skiing with the dogs so that I could have one of Me but he took a video instead. Well right when I was getting close to him I lost my balance cuz Rosie was at first slowing down so I straightened up but then my ski caught an edge in the snow and since there wasn't tension on the line I was on my own to hold myself up and well I wasn't doing so well and just when I thought I caught myself Rosie yanked on the line and she basically pulled me down into the snow. Adam forgot that you can't hold the camera sideways when videoing so it's sideways but you get the gist of it right?! He cut the first one off right as I was loosing my balance and then turned the camera back on right as I was being pulled down into the snow so you don't see me struggling which I'm sure would have been hilarious to see. But this will have to do.

This that and the other thing...

So Annie kicked me out of the living room. That's a first since everything today was "Mommy do it!" I was like, "okay but let me get my laptop." She almost wouldn't let me get it off the couch, she kept hitting my leg saying, "no, go -way" What's up with that?! Whatever, I'll sit in the other living room in the dark and enjoy the quite I guess.

Marceah blew me a kiss tonight as I was leaving her room. Totally gave me the mommy feel goods.

So I figured out why Annie wanted me to get out of the living room. I'm sitting in the dark here, typing away when I hear something drop on the hard wood floor, hmmmmm I wonder what that could be. Sounds like marbles dropping. Low and behold they are peanut M&M's. We have a bowl of them on the kitchen table and she usually asks for some during meals and she gets one or two if she eats well. Well, tonight she was helping herself!!! I walked in there and saw half the bowl on the floor and the dogs were on my heels. Annie sees me and throws her hands up and exclaims, "Uh-Oh!" I just laugh. What's a mother to do. I let her have one more and put the bowl on the counter. I tell ya, what she won't think of next. Lately she's been telling me "no puppies get it" and either puts her hand on what ever she's talking about or tires to hide it behind her back. And of course everything is hers.

Yesterday after walking in the door, plopping Marceah on the floor and taking my hat and coat off, I hear Annie saying, "No wait -Ceah. NO NO NO!" I turn around and there is Annie trying to get Marceah's hat off but Marceah was trying to put her head down. She eventually got it off and I thought how sweet of Annie.

Annie is starting to realize that Marceah can't do everything that she can and has been helping Marceah with numerous things. She has even put a few toys in Marceah's bad hand which is so fun to watch. Annie will get Kleenex's and try to wipe Marceah's nose (she's not a fan of that!) But it's also interesting to watch the little sister become the big sister. I was talking to a friend who's son with DS is in Marceah's preschool class and she had described how the younger siblings take on the roll of the older sibling. Her children do some of the same things, although her DS son is the youngest. They just do things for him without mom asking or just do things for the sibling with DS because they know he can't do it. It's just been so bitter sweet to see Annie step up and be the big sister. Breaks my heart to know my little Marceah has to struggle so hard to do what is so simple for Annie. But Marceah is such a happy loving child and that makes her so beautiful. I'm slowly realizing that when people (or strangers) say to me what a beautiful child she is, they are not just commenting on her outward appearance. And that justifies all my hard work.

No sign of the camera yet. Gotta check under the stove! I asked Annie where the camera was and she looked at me all confused. Haha, she was just as perplexed as I am as to where it could be. Well hopefully it shows up soon.

Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad! WOW!!! What a mile stone to have accomplished. Lets just say I'm not surprised but so tickled at how in love they are. What a blessing to have.

Went Skijoring for the first time this season. Didn't do too bad. Only fell three times. One really bad one flat on my butt. My poor tail bone is hurt'n. Stinkin tail bone. It never quite healed from Annie's birth so if I land on it wrong (or land on it period) it's sore for awhile. I didn't get too much sympathy from Adam, he was laughing at me! I can't complain though either because I was laughing too. Turk literally just whipped my feet out from under me and down I went. Other than that it was a great afternoon. So nice out, mid teens to 20 degrees. Talk about a heat wave!!! Sure beat Saturday morning on the way to the gym when it was -14! Brrrrrrr! I'm looking forward to 30 on Wednesday. Probably going to get out skiing again before the trails melt.

Moments to share...

So My little Miss Annastasia got a lap top for Christmas from my Uncle Joe and she is loving it. Mommy also got a new lap top from Daddy this year and mom is loving hers as well. Anyways, tonight after the dance recital in the living room (nightly showings at 8pm) Annie and I were picking up the living room before going to bed and as we were walking out she caught sight of her lap top on the table and went to grab it. I was like, no it's time for bed but she fought me so hard that I backed off and so she took her laptop in her arms and carried it over to the couch where Adam and I leave our laptops and set it next to ours and said, "there." I giggled and she continued to walk right up the stairs to bed.

Mommy dance? Mommy dance?... that is the question. Little Miss Annie loves to dance and wants Mommy to dance with her. She will run into the living room yelling MOOS-IC, MOOS-IC and turn on the radio. She usually always has a dress on or her new Minnie Mouse dress up dress that she has worn every day since she got it on Christmas. I've only gotten to wash it once. I can get her out of it for bed but that's about it. Anyways, Mommy has taught Annie 1st, 2nd, and 3rd position (ballet) and how to twirl with her arms up in an arabesque. We are also working on leaps and kicks. She's getting the kicks down pretty well. Before I know it she will have a routine down!!

Camera's missing, haven't a clue where it went. Kind a sad but I know it will show up somewhere.

Christmas was busy as usual, Annie loves her Minnie Mouse doll and dress. Usually the first words out of her mouth when we get her up for the day is, "Minnie Moush dress please?" I mean honestly how can you say no to a sweet little groggy voice, bed headed, little peanut at 8am! She also has the pink M.M. shoes and the ears with the pink bow on them which she calls her "crown!" Although that has gone missing since the day before yesterday. Haven't a clue where that went either. She is also enjoying her CONVERTIBLE MUSTANG! Yes, she got a little kid car from Granny and Grandpa Bob. She's finally getting the hang of it, going forward and backwards. The best is that she has to have the radio on before she goes AND has to have her sippy cup in the cup holder. Minnie Mouse is usually in the passenger seat but Marceah has enjoyed a spin or two.

Some of Annies new words and phrases:

1. Tu-tut. Aka swimsuit.

2. No no mommy!! She says this when she's brushing her teeth and I try to turn off the water.

3. No Annie's! Says that for just about anything.

4. HATS! Park hats, mommy, daddy, -Ceah and Annie's hats! Anytime she gets out of the car she sees our bike helmets and asks if we can go to the park as well.

5. NO! I DO IT I DO IT!

6. DOEN'T! DOEN'T -CEAH!

7. Minnie Moush please. This is she wants to watch the mickey mouse movie with minnie mouse in it.

8. Help please!! She's so polite!

So the other day We were all out to lunch at Culvers which is a rare occasion that we are ever out to lunch but anyways Annie and Marceah were sitting next to each other in the high chairs and Annie was eating french fries and looked over at Marceah and showed Marceah her fry and before anyone could blink Marceah snatch Annie's fry from her hand and popped it in her mouth and proceeded to chomp on it in Annie's face!!!! Adam and I just looked at each other like, WHOOOW! Annie's screaming and Marceah's stealing food! We couldn't help but laugh out loud!

Annie continues to be a Mama's girl. Mommy has to do everything, change her diaper, dress her, get her coat on, shoes on, put her to bed, get her food, scoop her food, get her cup....it's exhausting! Every once in awhile she'll let someone in on something but it's a rare occasion. I'm so happy that I"m her number one, yet, "Mommy do it" is starting to be a dreaded phrase to hear.

Annastasia continues to be a little angel in church. She's always quiet and is content to sit on someone's lap and read books or plays on the kneeler. I love it when she whispers. She just moves her lips and nothing comes out!!! I'm like, What? Louder please hun. Then she just emphasizes her lip movements and I have to giggle.

That's about it for now. Time for bed!!!

20degrees to 75 degrees in 12 hours!

So Friday afternoon Adam and I took the girls sledding which they both loved. Annie walked up the hill all by herself every time. She tried a couple of times to wimp out and make me carry her but I made her walk. I think we went down about 10 times and then she was off to the park with daddy.


Marceah on the other hand went down an additional 15 times or so until mom could hardly make it up the hill anymore! Marceah may only be 29 lbs but wow, is she a load to cart up a hill! This is the only time she actually feel off the sled and this doesn't really count because she wasn't going down yet. She would giggle all the way down. It was so much fun to see her enjoy something and be like a "regular" kid. She has changed so much in the last year it's amazing how well she can communicate now. She's my lovey little lady, and my stinker butt all in the same day!


It surprisingly wasn't too bad out that day, very bright though and Annie wanted her sunglasses which we didn't bring along so squinty eyes were the fashion.


So on a whim, Adam and I flew down to Arizona for little get away and time to reconnect and just be a couple again. Why Arizona you say, well, it was the warmest and best weather in the nation that weekend, that's why.


We got in on Saturday VERY early Saturday morning, like still dark out Saturday morning. It was beautiful. We stayed at the Boulders Resort, a 5 star resort which was very obvious. It was the kind of place that vales your car and pulls your chair out for you and puts your napkin on your lap type of place but not overly stuffy. It was so nice to be pampered. But even better to soak up the sun's warmth and just be outside in the fresh air. That in itself was revitalizing.


This is the house we stayed in. Very cozy inside and romantic. It was so interesting to see all the different kind of cactus'. Quite a few of the tall green ones had holes poked in them as if a bird made a home inside. Living inside a cactus does not sound to appealing! But safe I guess.


There was a waterfall right next to the pool. I think it was made, don't know of too many waterfalls in the desert! We didn't really see much of Phoenix but the resort was beautiful. There was a golf course throughout so it was fun to take a walk and just stop and watch people play or putt. My favorite part of the get away was that there was a spa on the resort and Adam and I had a couple's massage. Oh my goodness, that was amazing to say the least and I can't say much more about (if you know what I mean). So with that said, Arizona was fabulous for the weekend and I would visit Boulder's again in a heartbeat! Thank you Hun for a great weekend away.

Lots o stuff

So everyone wants to be in my lap at once, especially when I'm feeding the baby. You can't see Marceah because she's behind Rosie but she was scooting over to see what the hub bub was all about in the chair. Baby Kylie was like just keep feeding me please!!!


My little girl all gussied up! She insists on wearing a dress everyday and I found this one at Nordstrom's with the tu-tu skirt which she absolutely loves. She has to also wear a dress to bed so I put her in the usual footie pjs and then give her a tu-tu to wear with them and she is happy. I think it's just ironic that she loves to be "pretty" everyday. She will protest until she gets to wear a dress. I must say that she got that from her mommy who also wore dresses all the time as a kiddo (and as an adult in the Summer time) and mommy got it from grandma who also dressed up in dresses.


Dunno what they were doing with the camera here but it's kind of a cool picture.

Christmas tree hunting 2009! It was a gorgeous day with no snow so getting the girls around the tree farm required wheels instead the usual sled. They really fill out the wagon these days, they were fighting over leg space, and you guessed it Marceah lost. Poor thing was all crunched up but she did well. I got her out and she walked quite a bit and Uncle Casey carried her so then she was a happy camper.


This is Casey's and Megan's first Christmas together and Megan's first real Christmas tree! They were cuter than cute could be that day!


The tree isn't that heavy. I'm just sore from working out so I was over emphasizing how big the tree is. I did carry it all the way to the truck by myself which was a decent distance!!! I'm stronger than I look these days :) Thanks to the YMCA. Love that place! If you have a Y around you check out Body Pump, such a fun total body workout and gives awesome results.



My little Miss Annastasia loves to wear daddy's goggles. She's always pointing to my glasses saying, "new glasses" (since they're new, kinda) and then pointing to her eyes, "my glasses." She wants to wear glasses but I tell her she has perfect eyes and doesn't need glasses. She seems to accept it every time I say it because then she moves on.


Look at this little angel of a doggie! How could she ever inflict pain on her brother?!!!


Yep, Rosie got Turk good this time! I can't decide if those are claw marks or a bite. Turk has made Rosie bleed on countless occasions when they were puppies so finally she got him back. She has turned into our alpha dog, very bossy to Turk but Turk always makes sure he is in the door first to be feed! I unfortunately don't feel sorry for him one bit! The little turd has eaten my boots, gotten into the garbage, peed in countless spots that I continue to find, eats off the table and steals Annie's s



My little girl is SOOOOOO going to be a ballerina. This kiddo is constantly pulling me into the living room and asking me to dance with her. She either turns on the snowmen or the radio and will start dancing. Here she wanted dad to dance with her but he had the great idea to have the babies dance instead. I like how the dogs are like, ehh, whatever.

Grrrrrr

I just love the military! Well, not so much. Only smiling for the camera. This is me in my Chemical gear, loads of fun. At least the new version of this doesn't have charcoal in it anymore. Technology has advanced. Yah, every time we had to wear this stuff you would look like you just jumped down a chimney. So I got to play war which was actually pretty cool. Sounds stupid I know but who gets to "play" like this as an adult. War is a very intricate process, rules, processes and pure craziness.

A C5 Galaxy the largest aircraft in the US military and KC135 Stratotanker, refueling aircraft (the same one that I flew on to Japan that caught on fire ) yah, love these old airplanes!!! came to our base to pick us up and transport all of our stuff to a training base to play war with Scott AFB and Puerto Rico. They were very long days and horrible food which included MRE's which I didn't eat. YUCK! I pretty much starved to a certain extent. Well, I brought quite a bit of my own food since I was going to be stuck in my room on crew rest for quite a bit of the time and thank goodness I did too! So the only time I flew was in the middle of the night at 2am and that flight only lasted 30mins because we had to make an emergency landing. So we were on a C130 from Puerto Rico, a very old model. These guys don't usually do AE (aeromedical evacuation) so they were not use to what our mission was or for that matter having someone else on head set listening to their conversation. I was MCD, in charge of the mission so I was on head set and I heard them say they lost engine #3. I'm like okay, not a big deal I suppose we'll be fine with the other three, just going to be a little bit longer flight. Well, then they start talking about the heating system on the wing that they can turn on to de-ice the wing if needed and then turn it off. Well, they turned it on cause it was snowing but it wouldn't turn off so the wing was way over heated. Their conversation got heated and then they started talking in Spanish really fast and I was like WHAT THE HECK!!!! SO I got on and said, GENTLEMEN! I can't understand what you're saying! And since they were talking in Spanish now I'm a bit nervous. But they reassured me that they were working on the issue and that we were going to be landing. So I yell to the rest of my crew to get ready for an emergency landing and we were on the ground in no time. I don't think I've ever landed that fast before! I guess the issue was they couldn't get the wing to cool down and were at risk of the wing starting of fire. But right before we were going to land they got it to shut off but didn't want to risk flying more because they didn't have a way to de-ice the wing in flight. The pilots came back to talk with us and they felt bad that we couldn't do our mission but I was like, Hey, I'm just glad to be on the ground and not running from a burning aircraft!!! They laughed. So I finally got back to my room at 6am and crashed. From that night on I never knew if it was day or night. Well we won the war and were able to come home on Sunday. Imagine that, our flight home was at 7am which meant a 3am wake up call so yet again a sleepless night. The military loves very early mornings and I'm so not a morning person!