May Update

Spring has sprung in Minnesota! May was another great month! Mother's Day weekend was upon us before we knew it! It began for Duane with his Go Ruck event. In a nutshell, people run around the Cities from about 10pm-6am doing crazy obstacles, all while wearing a 30lb. weight on their back. He was wiped after the event but said he had a great time!

For Mother's Day, it was beautiful outside so we met some friends at a park and they brought doughnuts. It was a lovely morning and day!

Olivia, Walt and Lily (with Joel doing the work in the background)

We had an awesome visit from my brother and a friend of his and my mom came, too! Alex and Ted (Teddy Bear as Olivia called him) had a bike race to compete in on a Saturday so they came from Thursday evening to Monday morning. It worked out well because as soon as they arrived on Thursday, Duane, Olivia and I left Annie in their care and went to Olivia's Kindergarten Open House! The rest of the weekend was spent with each other, trying to soak up as much time as we could.

I had 2 work trips during the month of May - one to Kansas City and another to Detroit. Duane and the girls survived and had some nights with soccer practice worked in there, too.

Annie was super tired one night and actually snuggled with Sadie! I about cried when Duane sent this to me while I was traveling - so sweet!

The rest of the month we spent outside and trying to get ready for our upcoming vacation to Gulf Shores! Olivia opened up her lemonade stand for the season and even went to a Twins game with Duane one rainy afternoon.

Sharing a popsicle 

mixing lemonade

adding Annie's name to her lemonade stand sign....she even shared her earnings with Annie!
(All Annie did was chew on the cups!)

Annie and Ruby at the MN Zoo

at the Apple Valley VFW Memorial Day ceremony

April Update

The weather was warming up even more in April and the girls absolutely loved it! We spent a lot of time outside during the weekends. We also had a visit from Duane's parents!

I had a trip to Boston and then had a couple weeks of no travel, which is always so nice!

Saturday lunch prep....Annie barely staying awake for her lunch to be made....

Annie falling asleep while eating her lunch!

snacks on the front porch

Reading with Grandma Kathy

MOA trip always includes dinner at Tucci Bennuch!!

sidewalk chalk!

Weekend evening fro-yo

so, so, so excited to be out for a walk!

March Update

The bad thing about catching up so late on these updates is that I have no idea what happened 3 months ago?!

Duane and I celebrated our 11-year wedding anniversary! We treated ourselves to a new laptop and Apple Watches....exciting, huh?!

Annie had a fever one of the weekends so Duane and Olivia had a date night - burgers and a movie!

I had a work trip....Houston and I think that's all. While I was in Houston, I missed some snow!

Annie taking down spaghetti

The last weekend was Easter! While the snowing was slowly starting to melt by this time, it wasn't excactly warm. The Easter Bunny lays his eggs in snow and slush in Minnesota.... We had the Stone's over for brunch and they stayed for the afternoon. We watched one of the Star Wars movies and Olivia loved it!

Cy and the girls

February Update

With the almost-constant ear infection since late November 2015, on February 8, Annie had her first set of tubes! It was inevitable and the right choice for her (and us). We had the earliest appointment so Olivia was at school around 6:15am! Annie did well with the surgery but once again, Duane had to be the rock and hold Annie while she had anesthesia. She came out of surgery quickly and was very snuggly and attached to her thumb. By the time we got home, she was hungry and her normal, happy self! We even did a little furniture shopping that afternoon with her!

Post surgery food!

My parents came for a visit and that's always nice! Olivia was thankful to have a playmate in my mom!

Once again, I had a couple of trips so Duane was holding down the fort in Apple Valley. I had trips to Santa Monica (which was a nice break from the cold) and Atlanta and Dallas. When I travel, all bets are off....

Pizza and STAR WARS on a Friday night

Olivia and Annie began to "play" together more and Annie started her little habit of backing herself up into anyone's lap when they're sitting on the ground. Bonus points if you had a book!

Annie's first pony-tail!

January Update

Happy New Year! We rang in the new year by flying back to Minnesota from Indiana and unpacking and getting the girls back into their routines. We had just enough time to grocery shop and take down Christmas decorations and it was time to go back to school and work....well, sort of.

On January 4, Olivia had her tonsils/adenoids removed and her 2nd set of tubes. It was an early surgery time so we dropped off Annie as early as possible and headed to the surgery center. We had read a book and talked about this surgery with Olivia for a couple of months. She was as ready as any 5 year old would be and stayed pretty brave until Duane came into the room wearing scrubs and a surgical cap. He was the unlucky one that had to hold her while they did anesthesia. I sat in the room and cried by myself. 45 minutes later she was out of surgery and we could go see her. She was a wreck! They tell you to keep the child calm so they don't yell/scream and irritate their throat....right, sure, easy! Not really. She was mad and coming out of that anesthesia fog was hard for her. My favorite part of the whole day, she looked right at me and said, "the nurses and doctors here are SO RUDE!" (Not really, sweetie, they were amazing!) She wouldn't drink or eat her Popsicle. It took about an hour and we finally got her to drink and take some pain medicine. She slept on the drive home and when we got to the house, she was groggy and slow but she was so ready for movies. Her appetite came back quickly and she made sure she had Popsicle after Popsicle after Popsicle.

We woke her at night to make sure we stayed ahead of the pain and that was quite a chore. She was overly tired and pretty mad. I stayed at home with her that week and by Thursday, I called Duane and basically told him I'd lose my mind if I had to stay at home another day with her. Going into work on that Friday was almost like going to the spa for a day! ;) Olivia was back at school a week later and slowly recovered from all of the TV and sugary Popsicles, oh and surgery, too!

The rest of the month was cold and typical January-in-Minnesota.... I traveled a bit and wouldn't you know, the first trip away from home I take, Duane came down with a 24-hour stomach bug! I was FaceTiming with Olivia the first night I was gone and she made a weird comment about "Shar had to take us to Daddy today!" Poor Duane had gotten sick right before picking up the girls and didn't want to go into daycare so one of the teachers brought the girls out to him....poor guy! He powered through and by the next morning, he was fine and the only one that had gotten sick. Annie pretty much had an ear infection all month, though, but more on that later!

Here are a few pictures from the month.

Do you see Annie? Boxes and boxes of baby items (but not Annie!) packed and ready for Alex and Giesla's future Potter baby!  I do need to add here that when Duane was taking care of this, he wasn't exactly paying attention to Annie and she ate cat food. I found out later from my trusty reporter, Olivia.....

Olivia skating on our pond

a birthday part at Chuck E. Cheese - 1st and last time there (thankfully nobody contracted a MERSA infection!)

MOA trip for dinner and rides