Vacation Bible School

Ella's best friends (sisters) Ava and Ivy. I watched them yesterday after Susan watched them for me so that I could go to my audit. (Everything went very well)
Daddy found this to be very humorous.
Something is apprently wrong with the camera...sorry it may be time for a new one. The girls with the giant Panda Bear...the theme for Vacation Bible School was Pandamania, from the movie Kung Fu Panda.
Eva and I hung out in the nursery 3 days of the week to help volunteer, we had a good time and made some new friends.

So Ella had a great time at her 1st week of Vacation Bible School, although it left her exhausted and with a cold. (and Eva now too :o(. ) I found out the last day of bible school that I had been signing her into the wrong group everyday. She was with the Pre-k instead of the 3-year olds, I felt stupid and bad for her. She informed me that it was ok and that she had a great time so that made me feel a little better anways. I hope she got everything out of it that she was supposed to though! Well there's always next year! It was very tiring on me and Eva also, waking up before 8 and being out of the house before 9 was a challenge. I also picked up an extra overnight on Sunday so I was playing catch up all week on my sleep and getting up earlier didn't help. So I am very happy that its over! So obviously not a lot of pictures....oops! This weekend I also picked up another shift so I was tired but Sunday we finally had our housewarming party. It went well and my closest friends were here. The day was perfect so we were outside the entire time watching the kids play. We are so thankful to have this wonderful house with a big backyard for the kids to play in.

Happy Father's Day!

Eva and daddy! Happy Father's day
The girls and daddy on Father's Day
Eva playin with her baby.

We took the girls to the park on father's day, it was a new one and they really enjoyed it.

Eva making daddy sportin the sporting equipement.
Ella playing catch with daddy.
Cheese!
Look at my garden! I can't believe I can actually do it!
daddy took the girls to the park when I went to work one night.
Played baseball and ran the bases at the park, getting ready for t-ball.
Ella and daddy watchin baseball together.
The girls playing!

We have had a busy week hence the reason its Wednesday night and I'm now just updating the blog site, sorry for all who have been waiting and checking diligently. Anways we had a good Father's Day. The girls made daddy a plate (it had a pic of the girls and Ella colored hearts and drew on it.) which we put his food on for brunch, it was a great surprise for him. Ella and daddy have been spending a lot of time together lately. Ella looks forward to him coming home all day and them being able to play baseball at night. Makes daddy pretty proud!
On Monday and Tuesday we went to the libary and then Tues. after library we had a picnic with some friends. Wednesday Ella hit her 1st homerun over the fence so it was a big day for her and daddy. Then we went running and we were strapping Ella in and she goes " I'm getting pretty big for this, pretty soon I'm going to have to start running with you." It was pretty cute! Lately, we keep saying we can't believe how old she's getting because she's been saying the darndest things. Ella wanted to watch Scooby-doo one night but daddy was watching baseball and she had already asked daddy if she could watch tv and he said no, she then decided to ask me and daddy heard her and said no before I could answer, she quickly goes. "I was talking to mommy!"

On Thursday Evan's work had a fun fest day, there we played and jumped in bounce houses, ate hot dogs/ice cream cones, kind of a little festival. Then on Saturday night we went to a Creekside Blues Festival, there they had lots of music and many more fair rides. The girls had so much fun, and we forgot our camera for both events. Oops!
Ella has been thouroughly enjoying her Vacation Bible School this week and will post more about it next week. What a big girl, I drop her off at 8:45 and pick her up around 12:30. She kisses me and says bye with no fussing. It's nice to have 1:1 with Eva, I acutally have been volunteering at the church but have stayed with Eva in the nursery. It's been nice and relaxing. Eva's getting her last 2 bottom teeth so have been kind of fussy plus waking up early to get Ella to vacation bible school has been a bummer for her. Hope everyone's enjoying thier summer.

Daddy's b-day

Daddy and his girls. We thought instead of putting 28 candles on his cake we made the 28 with candles, which was acutally 25 candles. Seriously....it was like a small fire which melted wax all over the cake.

Eva didn't seem to mind...loved the cake or should I say frosting.

Eva and Ella riding the pony at Texas Roadhouse. You had to hang onto this one, it was fun at first but they quickly got whiplash.

Ella snapped a picture of daddy and mommy.

The girls giving daddy kisses on the cheek. He thought it would be a great picture every year on his birthday if both girls could kiss him on the cheek. Well it will have to be next year, too hard for Eva to understand.

The instructor made the mommy show us how brave they were...this mommy did NOT volunteer. This is the big snake.
This is the little snake.
Ella holding the Alligator. He is 2 years old and used to people so as Ella would say, he's nice. The guy had been asking for volunteers the entire show and Ella had just turned around and said I want to hold him and he asked her, she quickly replied NO....I pushed up there and said he was nice and that the guy would help her hold it. He helped her and she was kind of comfortable, what a brave little girl.
Look it how proud her little sister is!
Ella is posin by her big tower...she's so proud! Of course, daddy had to help her.....it's way taller than her.
Eva listening to her heartbeat....She might follow her mommy's footsteps. ;o)

We had a wonderful week which started out with daddy's birthday on Tues. the 7th. We took him out to Texas Roadhouse and then gave him the game "cornhole" (or as Hope calls it, the game with beanbags and boards). We also got him some gym shorts that he really liked. I was so proud of Ella to keep the gifts a secret, it almost came out once but I quickly derailed her. Now to go backwards, on Monday we went to the first day of the summer library reading program, it was about reptiles. There they had live reptiles, we saw (as Ella would say) 2 snakes- 1 big 1-small, 1-alligator,who was nice, and she held or helped hold him. 1- hairy spider (Tarantula), and 1-lizard. Ella and Eva sat very attentively and really enjoyed themselves....what a great start to the summer program. Wednesday Eva had her 18 month appt. She is growing like a week and weighs 26 pounds 4oz and is 22 1/2 in. long (75th percentile)She only had 1 shot and did well with it. We had visitors on Wednesday, my friend Andrea who has 3 kids. She moved an hour away so we don't get to see her that often. She has 3 kids so together we have a 1yr, 2yr, 3yr, 4yr, and 7yr. Pretty busy! We had fun though! Friday I worked at all 3 clients houses so a total of 17 hours. I was tired on Saturday and just relaxed and took a nap with the girls. It sucks to work those long hours but its usually only once a week. I can handle it! Sunday Evan and I went out to a movie- The Hangover 2. It was very good and the girls had fun with their new babysitter Alexa, who is 16 and very mature. We weren't gone long but it was very enjoyable. I hope the warm weather has found ND and that the sun shines all week.

HOT!

Ella's reading naked trying to stay cool without A/C.
Ella posing for the camera.
Why the Reds stadium is so nice, great view of the boats on the lake.

Another ball game and this one was hot and miserable! We stuck it out until the 7th inning and the best part of the game was leaving.
Eva and Ella dancing to a singing frog, actually Eva's dancing and Ella's laughing at her. It was so cute, I definitely got in my laughing medicine for the day.
Eva and Ella shaking their hips.
Ella's reading to Eva who is trying to escape.
Eva and Ella putting together a puzzle.
Eva feeding the ducks! We didn't get too many pics because those ducks got really close, they were taking the bread right out of our hands and I was a little scared they were gonna bite or snap at the girls so we got the heck out of there.
Eva, Ella, and Emerson playin in the house.
Emerson, Ivy, and Ella playin in the pool. Ivy and Emerson didn't bring their bathing suits so they wore their panties. Good thing we don't have sickies in the neighborhood!
Eva's 1st pigtails!

So since we have gotten back its been so hot here, like in the 90's almost everyday and coming from ND where it was in the 60's it has been a hard adjustment. We set up the pool and Eva still does not like it. We had a playdate with some friends 2 days and basically stayed home so we could get back into normal schedule. I had a moms banquet Thursday evening and it felt great to get away for awhile. We went to another baseball game on Sunday and it was 86 degrees and sunny with no wind so it was miserable and then we got home last night to NO A/C so had to figure out what to do to fix it. So must responsibility, I'm still glad we don't own this house, definitely less stress. Today it works on and off and hopefully tomorrow someone will be here to fix it.

On Saturday in the grocery store I had grabbed a frozen bag of chicken out of the freezer and had pretended to throw at Eva because thats what Evan always does and she flinches and then giggles. Well I actually did chuck the bag of chicken at her face, it slipped right out of my hands. I felt so bad and was thankful that noone was in the aisle because they would have definitely turned me into social services. So after her screaming/crying for a few minutes and a swollen lip we finished our shopping trip and I vowed to myself that I would never PRETEND to throw anything at her, especially her face. Worse mom of the year! Oh and something else to add to that, we were driving to a playdate which was in the country so the road was very narrow and I turned around to look at Eva and I went off onto the side grassy part of the road, scared the crap out of me. I then proceeded to calmy explain to the girls that mommy needs to focus on driving instead of tending to their needs and that we could get very very hurt if we get into an accident. Ella could tell I was upset and just kept saying "it's okay mommy it was just an accident." What a cutie trying to comfort her mommy! So another lesson learned this week- drive with limited distractions! So we had a great week, the girls are still best friends and hopefully will continue that relationship for the rest of their life. They giggle at and with each other so much, I love it! It's so fun to watch them!

Trip to ND

Eva playing in the 96 degree weather, she is very heat intolerable though and doesn't last long. Got out the pool for her but doesn't want to play in there. Ella likes it!
We always wear lots of sunscreen and try to make them wear hats but Ella likes to tease me and take hers off!
I made them Peanut butter puppy pancakes, they liked them.
The girls and I at the Brewers game, there was so much for them to do there. It was great!
Ella at the Brewers game!
Eva at the Brewers game!

Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
We took a tour of the Leinenkugels brewery in Chippawea Falls, Wisconsin on our way through. It was interesting and I actually got to sample the beers this time, all the breweries we have gone too I have been pregnant.
Auntie Alana and Ella at the Twins game.
Us at the Twins stadium.
Ella and Eva at G&G Lindahl's!
Eva's a princess, Grandpa Jim brought this home for the girls.
Brotherly love! Jon-Left, Grant-middle, Evan-right.
Grandma Lindahl and Eva
Eva cheesin for the camera during the graduation ceremony.
The only good picture we got of the graduate!

Eva eating a sucker, we had just left Columbus ready for 20 hours in the car.

Well we arrived home late Sunday night and watched the temperature climb our entire way home. It was surprisingly warmer at 11:30pm (78) here than it was the entire time in ND. We were so happy to be home! I also realized now that we're home that we have more pictures of baseball games than of our family's- oops! I always just grabbed a camera that was closest to me to capture the pics and it was obviously never mine. Hopefully we get pics sent our way! Anyways our trip went quickly, as it always does. Graduation consumed the first 2 days and Monday and Wedneday was spent with my precious grandma Evelyn. On Tuesday we drove to Minot to surprise Auntie Hopie and Savy at school and watch Grant play baseball. Thursday was spent doing laundry and packing up to hit the road again. We had a BBQ with both families and some extended family Thursday evening before we left to visit. We miss everyone so much already and are looking forward to seeing everyone again. We are hoping to have the Lindahls here in July for a short visit otherwise no future plans as of now to go home, which makes it that much tougher. The girls did extremely well in the car but were tired and ready to be home when we go home. The last few days have been spent outside in the pool, I just bought them an inflatable pool but we are also welcome at our old apartment complex pool so will have to do that occasionally. The girls are still too young to go all the time, I can't handle the 2 of them by myself! We are enjoying the weather so far and will enjoy another baseball game this weekend. We are going to Cincinnati to watch the Reds and the Dodgers! It's going to be another hot day so we are prepared to roast.

:o) We hope the weather brings some nice summer days up north for all my friends and family. I know you need them.