still alive

YES, we are still alive and doing well, or "signal 88" in police talk! We have been so stinkin' busy lately plus me being just too lazy doesn't help matters. Emma is in bed now and Lauren is on my lap, so really slows down the typing process.
Here is a quick rundown of our activities, not that anyone really cares, but I am trying to justify why it has taken me 9 days to update this thing. :)
Lauren is teething and a little more crabby than usual. She is also rolling all over the room so I can't just lay her down in one spot and walk away like I used to.

Emma got lots of great birthday gifts, so we have been playing KerPlunk, Diego's rescue center, stickers all over everything, walkie talkies, dominoes, checkers, bingo.............on and on and on.

Emma has been taking swimming lessons everyday last week from 5:00 to 5:30. She is doing OK....definately holding her little group back, but that's ok, I remember hating swimming lessons as a kid (maybe cause they threw us off the diving board on the first lesson. ) As long as she is having a good time, I really don't mind.

Emma also has been going to this gym class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for about the last month from 1-4pm. She absolutely loves it and Dave and I love the quiet time with just Lauren.

I finally signed her up for preschool in the fall and she will go every MWF for a couple of hours in the morning.

Also I got wrangled into coaching a little girls soccer team starting in August. I guess there are only 6 girls on a team and only three play at once so it shouldn't be too tough. We will be playing games on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings. Emma is so excited to play and I have to say that I am looking forward to it too.


I have only taken one day off of work this month, which is not like me at all. :) I have even gotten stuck working some overtime on some pretty big cases lately. Of course the days that I'm stuck there forever are the days that Dave is not off. SO thanks to grandpa who was successful in babysitting both girls the other day! nbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb <------ Lauren just did that with her foot!

Anyway, mom and dad have decided to do some remodeling/updating to their house. I am proud and elated to announce the "death" of the peach and teal flowers on vines that greeted all of you when you came into the house. We.... (Stacy and I)....picked out a great mocha color for the entryway and the painter should have it done by Tuesday! Mom is going to Stuart for a week so she said to dad today, "whatever you do, don't give the girls the credit card!" Oh the fun that would be at the Mart!!! Anyway, we will be trying to get as much done as we can before she comes home! We threatened to have a huge garage sale this week! :) I can't believe that she hasn't broken out in hives yet just thinking about leaving dad and Stacy and I to make some "decisions!"

Sorry, can't figure out how to delete one of those pictures and I sure am not going to sit here forever trying. Both girls are down for the night and it's my turn. Have a great weekend everyone, hopefully it's not 9 days till you hear from me again.

curiousity

I am at work, so there aren't any cute pictures to post with this BUT I have to make an entry before I forget this. All four of us went to the Westroads mall lastnight to return something. We decided to go into Old Navy to see if they had anything good on clearance. Dave and I turned away for 5 seconds to look at something. Then we see that our curious little four year old had unsnapped and had started to unzip some jeanshorts on a little mannequin (sp?) that was about her height. She was obviously trying to peek into the shorts to see if "anything" was in there. Dave and I about died right there in the store. Luckily no one saw it, although if I saw someone's little kid doing that I would think it was the cutest thing. I told her she couldn't do that because that was the mannequin's "private part" and she isn't allowed to look......brother...what do you say? Better get to work.

Happy Birthday Emma

I cannot believe how these four years have just flown by. It is kind of sad but so exciting as she will start preschool in the fall and hopefully get on a little soccer team. I am also going to get her into swimming lessons cause I just don't know how to teach her myself. Anyway, we had such a wonderful and busy day. As soon as Emma got up she decided to "help me" get everything ready. She set the table for 13 people and set the other table with the Dora plates.
We colored Dora pages and cut them out to be placemats for the "guests". Then at 1230 we left to get treats for all 30 kids at this gym that she goes to 2 times a week. As soon as we walked into the gym, all the teachers told her happy birthday and even sang to her. She thought she was big stuff. Then I ran quickly to pick up a soccer ball for her and her birthday cake.
Thank you so much mom for coming over last night to help out so I could make the food and for picking her and Andrew and some balloons up. What a help that all was. And dad, thanks for doing the camcorder thing again. :)
As soon as Emma got home she just had to put on her short little "party dress". Emma is not good at wearing dresses and this one was probably too short for her....oh well.
Thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy summer to come celebrate with us. It means so much to us to have you here. Thanks for all the wonderful gifts too....we couldn't hardly get her to bed tonight. Poor thing wants to play Dora games and open up the Princess walkie talkies. She played a couple of marble games before bed and kicked the ball into the goal a couple of times. A special thank you to Andy and Casey for getting her "slime" to play with. Her and Andrew had a ball in the back yard and she just about had to be hosed off before going to bed.
All in all we had an awesome day but I need desperately to get to bed.

Too stinkin' hot

For those of you who know me I am not a hot weather fan at all. I am counting the days till fall, which is an awesome season. I will not go on and on about why cause I think I did that already a month or so ago. :)

So when it's 100 outside, it's time to spend half of the day in the pool. The water today was so nice and refreshing and we enjoyed having some people to share our little "swim party" with. Lauren got to get in the pool for about 2 minutes before she had to go inside. Poor fair skinned baby.

Anyway, back to work in the morning so I better just post some pics and get to bed. Both girls are down for the night, so I better take advantage of it.

Bowling balls not baseballs

Yeah for thunderstorms and lots of rain!!!

Finally, a chance for some family time away from a hot, dusty baseball field. Andrew's game was postponed last night due to the storm and rain so we actually got to do something all together.

Emma just absolutely loves to bowl. We got her her own lane with bumpers and as you can see the alley was very quiet. Just the way we like it. Emma bowled and bowled and bowled until we stopped her after 4 games. Thank goodness for 6lb balls.

Brian and dad met us there and the rest of us bowled three games. It is always a competition between Brian and I who has the better score. I'm afraid that I outbowled him last night with a 155 which is unheard of for me. Dave actually had 5 strikes in a row and bowled a 241. Andrew isn't so good :) and bowled a high game of 79. Emma's high game was 78. We had a great time and driving home from the alley we had to take a couple of cool cloud/storm pictures. I believe that it is called a cumulonimbus cloud. ( learned that in 6th grade) funny what you can and cannot remember. Thanks to mom for watching Lauren so that the night was just easier for all of us.

Thank goodness also for Fridays! The weather is going to be so hot this weekend so we may have a little swimming party with the cousins. The storm wiped away my chlorine levels so I definately added some more tonight and hopefully we will all be ready to get in Saturday and Sunday. (Talk about a glare if I take some pictures.) Emma is the only one that doesn't make the camera glare. :)

Have a terrific weekend.

A brave post and a showoff

This is a "brave post" for me cause it contains pics of me in a swimming suit. And the showoff is Lauren who now rolls constantly both ways. We can't keep her on her back anymore.
It was nice and hot out today so I decided to get in the pool with Emma. I had the day off of work since I worked last Sunday. We had a great day, went to lunch with our good friends Lisa, Paul and Mason from Denver. We ate at Famous Dave's in Bellevue and it was way yummy!!!
The pool was actually quite refreshing but it is so tiring when someone wants to ride on your back while you swim in it. I am trying to teach Emma to swim and I don't quite know how to. She is learning how to hold her breath when she puts her face in the water. She actually tripped over my feet and fell all the way under before she stood up. I think she actually did hold her breath. She has to wear her life jacket though if she is the only one in the pool.

After about two hours in the pool....yes I wore major sunlotion....we got out and she took a bath and I a shower since the chlorine level was a little high to begin with. (I don't like germy pools :) ) Then off to another baseball game which they won 18-0. We start the "state tournament" tomorrow night in "scenic" Carter Lake.

Lauren has already learned to roll both ways. This is way earlier than Emma ever did and it is so fun to watch her do it. It is great that she can roll but she will not stay on her back, even in bed, then squirm around to try to get comfortable. Plus, after she eats, she rolls on her belly and then spits up. If I don't catch it right away, she gets tired and lays her head down in it....yuck. We did a lot of laundry today and will probably do a lot more now. Emma thinks its hilarious and she is getting more and more excited to play with Lauren.

Oh yea, today in the pool Emma wanted to pretend that we were swimming to different places. She said that we were swimming to "Africarica" (Africa) and McKansas City. I think these great names come from us talking a lot about Africa, which is where our Uncle Mel is right now and McKansas City I think comes from talking about our cousin Mackenzie. Emma also told me about a girl at "her gym" named Jasmine....she said , "but mom, why is her name Jasmine, she's not a men! Then she asked about the word breakfast and what "fist" means. Too much for my brain today, I need to get to work. :) She is also interested in what heaven looks like and what Jesus looks like. If anyone has any good responses to these questions, let me know.

The nightime routine

For some reason the nighttime routine wears me out. Could it be the bartering over going to the bathroom one more time, the arguing why we cannot wear our flannel candy cane pajamas with the feet in them in July, or the drink after hug after another kiss followed by "cover me up again!" Yikes! There is always something new to try to "get" or persuade me to do. But the reward of a quiet house is worth it..........aahhh blog time.

Really nothing new here...as if you couldn't already tell. I worked until 4:30 today arresting very bad people, then picked up the girls from Dave's mom. Somehow I volunteered....was asked and couldn't say no....(when will I learn) to be in some sort of advertisement/commercial for the Child Saving Institute tomorrow morning. Then I found out I have to be in uniform! Whoops, better dig one out that fits and brush it off...hopefully I can find all of "the parts" to it or I'll be borrowing from Dave.

Actually I shouldn't complain...the girls are doing great. Lauren already has learned to roll from her tummy to her back and nearly can go from her back to tummy. She is growing so quickly which is ok because the older she gets, the more fun she is.

The other day while Dave ran into the gas station and Emma, Lauren and I were in the van, Emma started chuckling and said, "mom, you are such a jerk!" I turned off the radio and tried to hold back my laughter while I asked her who says that. She informed me that, SpongeBob says that to Squidford. Great, why can't we still be watching Sesame Street! Anyway, I haven't been called that for a couple days so maybe it is in the past.

Just some dumb pictures from the "dreaded routine."
Don't worry she handcuffed herself!

Fishing in Fremont!

We had a pretty good time tonight fishing at Fremont State Lakes. The weather was unbelievable and the bluegills were biting a little bit. We stopped at Subway and picked up some sandwiches and had a picnic before Emma and Dave threw their lines in the water. I don't have a license so I just watched, which was good cause Lauren and I went for a walk.

Emma was a little on the challenging side, probably cause she was tired, but she was also quite funny as usual.

During the picnic, Dave kept "shooshing" the flies off of her food (I know it sounds nasty) and she kept saying "Stop Daddy." Finally we asked her why she was getting so upset and she said, "cause the flies need to eat something too." So I told her that we don't like flies on our food cause they may "poop" and she told me that they don't have butts cause they are too little. Go figure!

She was absolutely filthy as you can see in one of the pictures. She talked the whole way home and at one point told us that since she was "filthy" she was a boy. She said that once she gets home and takes a bath, she will be a girl again. I asked her who says that and she said that daddy told her that when they were fishing. Wrong!

So then, we finally made it back to Omaha and were near the big Walmart on Maple St. Emma said, "mom, we're in Stuart!" Dave told her that we were in Omaha and that there were probably more people in the WalMart right now then there are in Stuart. :)

Anyway, just a couple pictures to describe our night, which was all in all quite fun.

Red White and Blue

What a great 4th of July this was. The fireworks are loud here now and I have no desire to go outside cause my face is washed and my pjs are on. Emma is hopefully out for the night and Lauren is laying upstairs watching the Presidential 4th of July special :) She really should be sleeping after all of the action today.

We went to the Tekamah parade at 10 and Emma got more candy then I think she did on Halloween. The parade is a great time and I think it is our third year going. Lauren didn't appreciate the sirens too much so her and dad sat back a ways under a shade tree.

Then we went to Aunt Stacy and Uncle Ted's for hotdogs and left over birthday cake. What a great time there again. Uncle Mel and Aunt Kathy brought over poppers and parachutes and we had a blast catching the parachutes. Emma couldn't believe that she was allowed to go into the street so much today. Emma and grandma filled up water balloons and I seemed to get the brunt of it, which actually felt good tonight. Dave is working and I'm sure is very busy with all the people complaining about the fireworks. (All I have to say to them is "get over it" it's the 4th.) Unless the party is going on till midnight don't call the police, seriously.

Anyway, Emma has her earmuffs on so hopefully those "scary loud" fireworks won't bother her. And, oh yea, my favorite float was the bowling alley who boasted "automatic scoring." COOL, no more counting pins on our fingers.

I have to work in the morning so I need to get the little one down. Hope everyone had as good of a 4th as we did!

YUM!! Rice cereal!

Well another first today. It was Lauren's first try at cereal. She did great and even ate a pretty good amount. She was getting the hang of it at the end but I didn't want to overload her the first time. Of course big mother hen had to try her hand at feeding. She is really into "when I have my own babies I will....." Yes Emma, when you are married, then you can have your own babies...then you can feed them and change them and give them baths, and rock them and dress them and carry them and blah blah blah.

Lauren just smiles at Emma all the time. She probably thinks her constantly talking is funny and actually Emma has a pretty cute voice until it is used over and over.

Anyway, good job to Mr. Mom again who had to take both girls to the doctor for Lauren's four month check up today. I was at work and couldn't make it out there. (I wasn't too upset cause I HATE it when the kids have to get their shots. Daddy is much better than mommy when it comes to those things.) Anyway, our little one is 13 pounds and 7 ounces already and 25 inches long. She got the "all clear" to start cereal and even a couple of veggies. I gave her a little Tylenol at 6:30 and she is still out as we speak. I just don't have the heart to wake her up in case she is miserable. Hopefully I can give her a bottle and another little dose soon and she can sleep through the night.

We are going to a 4th of July parade in Tekamah, NE tomorrow morning and Emma just can't wait. She already laid out her red, white, and blue outfit for tomorrow. She is so dramatic that she is already worried about going into the street to get the candy. I guess that's a good thing though. After the parade, we are going to clean up leftovers from the twins birthday party and enjoy a little homeade icecream. The girls and I probably won't do a thing tomorrow night as Dave has to work. :(

Hope everyone has a great 4th.....what a great celebration!

Another weekend gone

Whew, another weekend gone! We were way busy this weekend. I finally got around to setting up the pool on Thursday night. Thank you mom and dad for bringing over an attachment to the air compressor......Dave's little bicycle pump was not going so good. It took forever to set up and it is such a pain BUT I have no one to blame but myself cause it was my brilliant idea to buy it last year. Thank goodness Emma absolutely loves it and hopefully she will learn to swim in it someday. I figured out all of the chemicals and scrubbed the filter so we are good to go for quite a while. So of course she spent all of Friday in it. Friday night, Emma went with Grandma and Grandpa to watch the fireworks at Memorial Park. Another love/hate relationship she has formed with fireworks! Then, she spent the night at their house and Dave and I had a nice quiet romantic datenight at Walmart with Lauren :) Thank you mom and dad...it is a nice break!!!

Saturday, Dave was gone all day at Andrew's baseball games..........oh when will it ever end? Emma has a cold and so she spent a good chunk of Saturday resting and napping. I spent most of the day making sure she wasn't kissing and licking Lauren. (yes she has licked her in the past.)

I almost forgot....Emma hates loud fireworks so she went to bed last night with my winter earmuffs on....should have gotten a picture...it was so cute!

Today we spent all day at the twins' first birthday party. What a great day it was and we are wore out tonight and I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow!

A big thank you to the Krachers for the beautiful quilts for the girls. Emma loved climbing in bed with hers tonight and Lauren loves to stare at the bright colors! We really value your friendship and are so appreciative of the gifts.

Not much else to say except we hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July!