Happy Easter again!

A very quick post to "deliver" some of these photos to mom. It is 9:15 which means it is past my bedtime.

We had a fantastic Easter and had tons of great food.

Lauren ate WAY too much chocolate and I feel bad for Dave because while I am at work tomorrow, he will be battling the need for her to eat sweets all day long.

Here are several great pics from today. The best is the mouth full of Skittles that Lauren has. :)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone!!

We visited the Easter bunny this morning at the mall and after we were done, Lauren wanted to go again. :) But we didn't.

We also colored eggs before Dave went to work and I battled my way through WalMart getting last minute things. OOF!

Here's just a couple pics from our day. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

The Zoo

Finally, we got to get out of this house and enjoy the weather!

I took a couple hours off of work which was perfect because it seems as if I spent all morning dealing with many many "officials" from South Dakota and medical records people. Between the two of "them" it was a long enough morning.

We met Stacy and the twins and her friend Michelle and her kids at the zoo and spent three hours letting the kids "tear" through the place. Emma and her new "posse" seemed to be getting more and more crazy as the time passed and it was certainly time to go at 4:30 to beat rush hour traffic.

Tonight at bedtime Lauren and I couldn't find her latest favorite book, "Dora's Bedtime Stories." I am not only a detective but an even smarter mom. :)

I remembered that a couple nights ago Emma tried to "borrow" it at night time because she knew that's what Lauren wanted to read AGAIN!

SO, Emma claimed that she didn't have any idea where it was BUT, she is thankfully a horrible storyteller/fibber. I opened her closet (no search warrant needed) and didn't immediately see it so I finally got a little more of a serious voice (bad cop) and told her to "find it!" She went into the corner of her closet and pulled it out for me and said as seriously as she could, "I wonder how it got there?" THAT did not even deserve a response. Then her excuse was (cause Emma ALWAYS has an excuse) is that she is "tired of hearing those baby stories at night." I told her she could sit in her room while I read it to Lauren and she said, "but I can still hear it." Then I invited her to sit in the basement tomorrow night while I read it to Lauren and she decided that she would try to sit in her room with the door closed. :) GRRRR!!

Anyway, tomorrow as Emma would say is "Good Ole' Friday." (Good Friday) :) She says that it's called that because "at Mass, the gifts aren't offered." Who would have known? (probably Grandma Sutton)

Here's just a couple cute pics from our outing:

Whew.....it's bedtime!!!

Today was busy busy busy and Lauren seemed to be the busiest!!

EVERYTIME I turned around she had helped herself to a snack.

I got out of the shower and she was hiding behind our bed with a box of Teddy Grahams.

Tonight while I was plunging the toilet from too much toilet paper, she helped herself to some Rice Chex and was lounging on the couch.

When I went into the bathroom earlier, she helped herself to some fresh brownies.

And...when I was hooking up this camera to download these pics I heard Emma laughing hysterically. She managed to get out, "mom, Lauren's in huge trouble." Of course I go running from our room and find this adorable little sight. How can you be mad at this: (those are her Chex in there) :)

some would call it "poor supervision"

I like to call it a VERY resourceful two year old.

Atleast I was "mother of the year" with Emma......

we went to SuperTarget and did a little shopping. She is THRILLED with her shoes that she got and even calls the Hannah Montana ones "second grader shoes" Wow, what an honor! :) Of course they slip cause they are a little too big at this point but even a little "blistard" never hurts. She wanted me to take a picture to show everyone.

The white ones are for her Easter dress and church.

That's it for tonight, we have a huge mess here with more basement projects and Easter stuff scattered everywhere.

3 cheers for......

Uncle Mel the master plumber.

Yes, he volunteered his plumbing expertise and is over hooking up our basement plumbing which I am thrilled about. We appreciate that SO much!!!

Also, he brought his camera over for me to download some great pics that he took last weekend. Now that's thinking!!

Here is a great picture he took of our "method of announcing our latest arrival."

Thanks again uncle Mel.

Our quick trip

First of all, we had a great time at Uncle Mel and Aunt Kathy's on Saturday spending time with lots of family, even all the way from Stuart. It was great to see great grandma and eat tons of great food as usual.

Saturday morning we had our 20 week ultrasound and we took Emma with us. Thanks to aunt Stacy for taking Lauren. Anyway, during it, I thought I saw a "boy part" and got a little excited......nope, just the umbilical cord. Anyway the baby was doing flips (imagine that) and so it was at first difficult to find the "parts" in question. But then it became very obvious. We have seen these parts twice before and are getting good at recognizing them. :)

Yep, ANOTHER girl!!! Yes we are thrilled, especially since everything looks great so far. Emma loved being there are seeing her and hearing the heartbeat.

Now for the name game......

Emma has made several lists of possible girl names and they mostly consist of the names of the girls in her class. Luckily we (Dave and I) have more luck agreeing on girl names than we do on boys and of course we have PLENTY girl stuff for her.

Dave already is plotting to have all three of them married at the same time. YEA RIGHT!!

Anyway, we snuck away Sunday morning to the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City KANSAS! I capitalize KANSAS because we were looking for it in Kansas City MISSOURI and it wasn't there...... leave it to Dave and I to get lost and end up in an interesting part of town. We seriously thought there would be plenty of signs considering it is near Cabelas and the Furniture Mart but when you head toward the wrong state, there are no signs. :)

Poor Lauren didn't have the best of trips. She woke up in the middle of the night (sunday morning) and had thrown up in her bed! :( She acted perfect though so we thought well, worse case scenario is that one of us is stuck in the hotel room for the day so we packed the "puke bucket" and all the necessary equipment and headed off. Yep, she threw up near Percival, IA, (don't ask me where that's at) and we had to change her and Purell Dave off as he had done the "trying to catch it" routine that I have never quite figured out the point of.

The Lodge is great and Emma was thrilled when she saw the pool. Luckily Emma and Dave went off on their own and rode all of the water slides while Lauren and I walked around in the baby pool. Lauren was both tired and hungry so she really didn't enjoy herself a whole lot.

Dave and Emma talked me into going on the "green slide" with Emma so I got brave and tried it. Let's just say I screamed more than Emma. Seriously, we were going SO fast I thought we would fllip the tube over around the curves. I think it must be like the louge (spelling) in the Olympics. Of course when we came out the bottom Dave was waiting with Lauren and laughing hysterically. Emma also thought the mock 3 speed was hilarious....I was not thrilled and that was my last trip down "the louge." I am glad that Dave isn't a panzy like me because Emma isn't afraid to try anything.

We dined on Famous Dave's that night in our room for fear Lauren would puke in public. She did great though and inhaled crackers and Sprite for her meal.

The next morning Emma was up before the sun and asking what time the pool opened. Dave and her went down and swam while Lauren and I walked around and took pictures and packed up the room. We went to a cool dinosaur restaurant for lunch then very briefly to a great mall before it was naptime/time to head home.

We find our way home without a problem! :)

Anyway, since Emma missed school on Monday, she had her regular week's assignments along with Monday's assignments waiting for her on Tuesday. (Guess what we did Tuesday night. )

Dave's first night to work in his new position was Wednesday and he showed up home about an hour before his shift was supposed to end. He informed me that he got the "puke bug." I will spare you the gross details of his episode. Dave was compelled to share all of them with me at 2:30 in the morning but I will spare you the pain.

Emma went to bed last night saying her tummy hurt. Great! Yep, at 1:00 we heard "mom"! She is such a trooper though, not even crying or dramatic about the whole incident. ( I think she is tougher than Dave) Dave basically cleaned up the mess because I couldn't stomach this one. :) THANK YOU HONEY!! So, I got Emma in the shower and she said, "hey mom, I think I saw my salami sandwich!" (ok, I'll stop now with the details) She is perfectly fine today and I'm awaiting my turn. :(

Here are some pics from our trip and Emma's abundance of assignments. (Lauren's "thumbs up" picture is showing you how she is excited to be eating something other than crackers)

The Party

Yep, believe it or not EVERYONE was healthy to celebrate a birthday! Lauren had a fabulous time and said to me a couple of times throughout the evening, "all my friends are here!" (she was including her Sesame Street friends) How sweet is that. Then that night she named off everyone that came to celebrate with her. It's almost as if she understood more than we thought she did.

Anyway, it was nice enough to grill out, so that's what we did. Nothing better than grilled hot dogs and hamburgers after months of not having them.

Of course the cake turns out "interesting" with every birthday but I suppose for now they will work. Lauren got so many great gifts and new toys. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us and for the great gifts!!!

Here are just a few pics from the "event." :

Emma insisted that I put a heart next to Ernie and Bert so that everyone knows that they love eachother.....YIKES! :)

Today I booked a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City for Sunday night. Dave has several days off since it is shift change and I made the executive decision that we were going to "get away", even if it is for one night. Anyway, we have never been there and it's time that we check it out even if putting on a swimming suit scares the you know what out of me. :) Seriously, if I waited till I was comfortable in a swimming suit, my poor girls would never get to do anything. The non pregnancy suit barely fits... but oh well, the odds of running into someone I know down there are fairly slim to none.

Lauren saw pictures of the place while I was looking on-line today and all she can talk about is splashing, or "flashing" in the water. Emma keeps asking her what she is talking about and we have decided to keep it a total secret till we get there or till we can't take the questions anymore on the trip down there. :) So, Emma thought that maybe she could quiet Lauren down by putting on their swimming suits and goggles again. (Lauren's is a little big and Emma's a little small) oh well, what do you expect for March when we don't usually "inventory" those things till at least June.

I can't decided if the goggles on Lauren are cute or scary.... :) Atleast she kept them on for a picture. Here they are: