Sneak Peak!

Wednesday I had Ellaree's 3 year old pictures and Lorelai's 3 month pictures taken. I have a great friend that did them. She came up to the farm and then we ended up at the Coon Valley park. Ellaree was so much more relaxed and had lots of fun versus going to JCPenney's where they only give you 20 minutes and then you are done.

This is just a sneak peak of what she did on Wednesday. Let me know if you want her name and number. I am sure she wouldn't mind the business!

Elly's Homemade Bird Feeder

The other day Elly and I decided to make a homemade bird feeder. Boy I guess I really didn't know what I was getting myself into, but it was lots of fun and she has been talking about it nonstop since.

Tip #1: This is definitely an outside project...not kitchen.

Tip #2: Make holes after you fill it otherwise it comes right back out as fast as it goes in.

Tip #3: Take bubbles away from Elly before taking her picture. :) And yes, she is wearing her jammie dress. The girl knows comforter in her own home.

Just Having Fun

This weekend Harry was in a wedding for his good friend Nick Thompson. Nick & Sam started dating about the same time that Harry and I did. Not really sure what took them so long to get married considering this year will be our 4 years anniversary already but I guess not everyone does it like we did. :)

We had a blast as the wedding. It was very close to Verona where Uncle Todd & Auntie Laurie & kiddos live. This was perfect as the girls stayed with them while we did all the running around that a wedding takes. We got to Verona about 5 pm on Friday night, dropped off the girls and off to rehearsal we went. On Saturday there was lots of running back and fourth but in the end we had a blast at the wedding and Ellaree & Lorelai also did hanging out at the "Hardin Resort"! Yes we all were very well pampered and spoiled while we stayed there and can't wait to have another good excuse to go back again for a weekend very soon.

Reece hiding from his AJ...it was very hard to find him.

Everyone loved snuggling with the girls. Lorelai didn't care one bit!

Everyone was a nice comfy pillow to her.

While I got ready for the wedding I had lots of company.

Ellaree & Nay Nay thought it would be appropriate

to do Auntie Laurie's hair and makeup also.

Since we don't see Harry dressed up in a fancy tux that often I took as many pictures as possible. This is Harry during the wedding escorting Robin (groom's sister). Doesn't he just look so handsome!

Yes I had to do some twisting of the arm (not too hard though)

and got a picture with him as well.

In 3 weeks he gets to do it all over again for his brother Greg & Alissa's wedding. We are looking forward to it and I am definitely looking forward to seeing him all spiffy again. Not to mention little miss Ellaree in her princess dress as the flower girl. Oh don't worry, I got miss Lorelai covered too. We will be the best looking family there!

Survival

Well we survived the first day of work. I did pretty good with not crying when dropping the girls off and I only called once. Lori text me once in the afternoon. Harry said to go over around noon and check on her if I wanted but I was afraid that would be hard on Lorelai and maybe even Ellaree if I disrupted their day for 5 minutes and then left again. So I opted not to go. We are off to work again today and we will see if I do as well as yesterday.

Everyone at work was great welcoming me back and stopping by my cube for a chat. I have a new supervisor and therefore he came up to Cashton and took me out to lunch so we could get to know each other and talk changes in responsibilities. That went well and I am encouraged to work with Tim and to get to know him more. We have one thing in common...he has a daughter that is 14 months old so we have that to talk about if nothing else. He seems to be ready to work for his employees and to try and make work as relaxed and flexible as possible. This is good news for us and really hoping all goes well.

When I got home last night I got a surprising phone call from Harry's Grammy!!!! Grammy doesn't usually call out and so it was extra special for me to talk to her for only a couple of minutes but I will cherish that little chat with her.

MidContinent Railway

Have you ever heard the phrase "tell God what you are doing tomorrow and he will laugh". Well I should know better because I can plan until my heart is content but more then likely it will not go according to plan. Well that is how this week has went for me. I think Wednesday and Friday were the only days that went as planned. Thursday we did not go cookie baking with Sandy as she had something come up and I was not feeling the greatest (you have to love Spring colds). Saturday we were going to build a swing set but when you wake up to snow flurries...yes snow! That kind of puts a damper on the building mood. So we decided to check online and we found the Mid Continent Railway over by Baraboo. This was my Mother's Day as Harry is at work right now so I got to choose. Well I thought Ellaree would get a kick out of it since she loves Dinosaur Train & Thomas the Train. I must tell you though that when I woke up yesterday morning I got a beautiful Mother's Ring. I have one with Ellaree's birthstone in it and I got another one with Lorelai's. I am the luckiest momma/wife around to be so loved and appreciated.

Daddy, Lorelai, Mommy & Ellaree on the train!

Lorelai, Mommy & Ellaree in the museum

Ellaree, Lorelai & Daddy getting ready to take off!

Ellaree so excited to ride a train for the 1st time!

She loved getting her picture taken on the trains.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! I know that I am sure loved.

Over Achiever

Lorelai absolutely loves to stand and look around. So I decided it was time to get out the exersaucer. I love love love this one (thank you Uncle Todd & Aunt Laurie), there is a suction cup on one leg and the other two have wheels so she can learn to walk and go around in circles. We are a little concerned that she will turn out to be a Nascar Racer and only know how to turn to the left but we will cross that bridge another day.

Lorelai just stands, kicks, talks & laughs while in here. Of course her big sissy asks quite a bit if she should get in there but like everything else, once the newness wears off she will be fine with it. Ellaree was pretty excited when it came up from the basement and she started right in helping clean it up with me. She is such a good big sissy that loves her little sissy so much!!!!!

Singing To Sissy

One of our favorite past times is to learn new songs. Ellaree is becoming very well known for her singing and dancing abilities from everyone that knows her. Here is just one of her many songs, singing Jesus Loves Me to her biggest fan! We might have the next American Idol or Dancing With The Stars on our hands...maybe they will have to combine the shows just for Ellaree!

Flower Gardening

I know that Tuesday I was going to spend at home getting my house cleaned. But of course then I watched the weather and since Tuesday was suppose to be the only day this week to be almost 80's I decided we had better take advantage of it. So the clothes are still dirty but hey we got some flower gardening done. I love my flowers but have not had time yet to get out of there to weed. Thanks Grama for doing it right away this Spring otherwise it would have been lots worse. I of course had lots of help with gardening...

Some willing

and some not so willing!

Our Last Week

This is my last week with the girls before I have to go back to work. Yes I know it probably sounds like I am never going to see my girls ever again but it so hard to go back to work without thinking about missing them so much and what will they be doing while I am not around. Will they miss me, will Lorelai have a first without me, will Ellaree learn something really cool but by the time she seems me at the end of the day forget to tell me. I know it was hard leaving Ellaree but I thought it would be easier the second time around...I guess not. I remember with Ellaree, Harry got a phone call with sobs every morning for the first week after dropping her off at daycare. Granted I was working full-time then but still it was so hard. I am guessing he will get the phone calls again. So this week I did keep Ellaree home from daycare and we are trying to live it up as much as possible. So here is how our week has started and hopefully will end.

Monday ~ went to get measured for Ellaree's flower girl dress at Doris. This very sweet lady in Viroqua that is going to make her dress. Unfortunately, Ellaree thought we got to pick up her dress and there were many tears when we left with no dress. She also thought we were going to see Dora. Yes, Dora the Explorer. Such a bummer of a morning but we got through it. Then it was such a nice morning that we decided to go down the hill to Coon Valley and we walked the trail around the river with lots of bridges. Then ended with playing at the park. After nap time daddy was home and got to hang out and make daddy a strawberry rhubarb pie...oh and don't forget that last night was Dancing With The Stars!

Tuesday ~ Well Lorelai decided that it was a good idea to get up at 5 but only play in her bed so that mommy could sleep until 6. What a good baby! Ellaree is still sleeping at 7:30 so she must have been very tired after playing at the park yesterday. Today we are going to hang out at home (I know very boring, right) and hopefully get some housework done. But a very fun journey to the bank later today is in order!

Wednesday ~ Go buy fabric for Ellaree's flower girl dress, buy Mother's Day gifts, grocery shopping and probably will have to eat out in town.

Thursday ~ Drop off fabric with Doris (oh and pick up my dress for both weddings that Harry is in) and then we are off to pick up Grama so that we can go to Sandy's to make cookies! This I believe is the highlight of Ellaree's week. She loves baking.

Friday ~ There will be more baking as we will have a Mother's Day cookout at Grama & Grapa's Friday night. We are to bring the desserts which will be ok with Ellaree because that means lots of baking to meet everyones needs. Of course, lots of fun Friday night as we will get to see everyone and play, play, play! Hopefully the weather is nice because Ellaree wants to go to Grama's park. Did you all know that Grama had her own park? Neither did I but according to Ellaree it is Grama's park...not Readstowns park but Grama's!

Saturday ~ This will be momma's favorite day as we are going to have a family day! Harry has Saturday off versus Sunday so we will celebrate Mother's day and hang out as a family to my request since this is the last weekend before I go back to work. There has been much talk as to what we should do. We have talked about maybe building a swing set together, going to the park or who knows what will happen. But the weather will also tells us what we will end up doing but I can't wait.

Sunday ~ Probably rapping up loose ends at home and just getting ready mentally for the next day.

All in all it will be a great week with my girls and as you can see I love them very much and really really don't want to go back to work but I realize that this is what I need to do for my family. Sacrifice is sometimes bittersweet.

Farm Girl

Ellaree is definitely a farm girl all the way...yes she loves to be pretty and likes the finer things in life but I would not be raising her correctly if I did not teach her of those things also. Ellaree and her daddy had a conversation the other day about a squirrel in our yard, it went something like this.

E: Daddy, look there is a squirrel outside!!!!!!

D: Should I go and get the gun?

E: Yeah, you should go get the gun!!!!!

I am so very proud!