Happy 2nd Birthday Delaney!

Laney Bug turned 2 last Saturday and she is ALL two. Fits. Hitting. Biting. But boy oh boy is she a snuggler! She'll tear you up but she will melt your heart. And she can hold her own when it comes to her big sister. Laney can tackle like a linebacker and giggle the entire time. Mike says one day she'll be the one sticking up for her big sister at school instead of the other way around. We have always said that Izzy is our delicate flower, whereas Laney is our rough-and-tumble. And how lucky that she is ours!

Thanks to our neighbors for letting us celebrate Bug with a cake, candles and a birthday song.

Dress-up is still the #1 activity to do in our house. If ever you should swing in, don't be surprised to see Mike or myself in costume. It's par for the course with 2 girls. And it's always, "Mommy help me with this Minnie dress," or "Mommy help me with these long gloves," or "Mommy can I have make-up for this costume?" It's never ending and a constant form of entertainment.

Izzy kept calling Laney on her birthday "Birthday Girl" all day long. It was so endearing.

Cousin Steve drove down for a day/night to go to the Co.lts / P.ackers game with Mike. Can you tell the girls adore him? He's the closest thing to an uncle they have...so even though he's Cousin Steve, we call him Uncle Steve. And have you seen him with kids? Melts. Your. Heart.

The girls sported their new tutu dresses from Roo...they loved them and are so cute!

With summer coming to an end, we've been trying to spend as much time as possible at the pool. Spent Friday and Sunday there and both girls are getting more brave in the water as the months pass.

Daddy Mike is always under the water, being pulled through the water or tossing the girls...it goes on and on. Daddy is fun in the pool!

This little almost 4 year old (let's call her Cheeks here) is jumping into the pool unassisted and going under water (without swallowing any water!). She asked if she could swim the entire length of the pool (it's a 50 meter lap pool) by herself. Um, ok sister. I recorded this 2 minute display of independence, as it was quite an accomplishment for her. As soon as she got to the other side I asked her if she wanted to take the floaties off. She said SURE! She and Mike practiced swimming without the floaties for a while and she was so excited. It truly was a monumental moment for her and I can't wait to see her continued progress. She's growing up so fast!

Bobo & Grandma came down on Sunday for a few hours to celebrate Buggy's birthday. And of course Bobo's truck couldn't sit in our driveway without the Littles climbing in for an adventure:

Last week was a busy concert week, as I saw Britney Spears with my girlfriends (judge away, I've been a fan since seeing her on the cover of Rolling Sto.ne magazine in 1998). She lip synced all but one song and her dancing was lackluster. But it was Brit Brit. Live. Ok, previously recorded, whatever. Enough said.

Mike and I also went to see Jimmy Buffett with some friends. I hadn't been in 3 years so my Fin to the Left was a little rusty, but I managed to dance the night away like I hadn't missed a year. So much fun. But I need a rester from concerts for a while, that's for sure!

Kim's Graduation 2011

Last weekend we packed up and headed to Chicago to celebrate my sister's graduation with her Bachelor's degree. Kim has been working full time, raising two kids full time and going to school for the past 6+ years. Needless to say, this was quite the accomplishment for Kim and we are all so proud of her!

 Mom flew in from Lake Tahoe and Aunt Gail & Uncle Thomas from Austin

 Kim's boyfriend, Carlos, hosted a party and 50 of Kim's friends and family celebrated on a beautiful day. Catered by one of my faves, Ro.satti's and Carlos even had a legit bartender set up at his house. Was a very special day and so much fun!

 Kim & Carlos

 Sisters

 Bottoms up!

 Do you think Izzalicious likes cake?

 Mom and Bug snuggling

 Kim was all about the shots...she was in rare form!

 Mikey and I

 Dad & Anna

 As the evening wound down, Mike and I tucked the girls into bed at Carlos' house and we took off to visit with my high school girls, Jen & Mary. We had the most fun, per our usual shenanigans. I'm pretty sure we have enough stories from this night to last us a LONG time. There are also some pretty incriminating photos from the evening as well...so it's pretty safe to say none of us will ever be able to run for office. Enough said. We always have a good time together and I'm so fortunate to have these girls in my life.

 Sunday morning we met for breakfast to celebrate Laney Bug's 2nd birthday and then we all headed home

Congratulations, Kim, we're so proud of all you have accomplished and are proud to call you family!

Saying Goodbye to our Summer Girl...

A good friend of mine (Court from the Mpls) grew up with what she called "Summer Girls" nannying for her. Her parents lined up said summer girl to take care of her and explore and seek new adventures. She became very close with her summer girl over the years and is still friends with her to this day. In fact, they are the best of friends. This is how I envision my girls growing up with their Summer Girl, Nanny Natalie (as they call her, Natty).

When my VP at work referred me to her friends' daughter as a summer nanny I called her within minutes of receiving her phone number. I heard this young lady was responsible, hard working and fun loving. I was able to meet and interview Natalie this past Spring and knew she immediately had the qualities we were looking for in a nanny; adventurous, enthusiastic (she was a cheerleader, girl after my own heart) and extremely responsible. I hired her within days. And then we waited for the summer to roll around.

The girls left school and began their summer with Natty. As the days and weeks went on, the activities and explorations were new and fun and the threesome we left at home each day fell into an amazing summer routine. Pools, parks, museum, zoo, fairs, feeding ducks, tie dying, the list goes on and on. Early on Natalie introduced the girls to her parents and the girls would rave about how much they loved Natty's mom and dad (Granny Panties and Mr. Dave respectfully). I was more than thrilled that Natalie had parents that loved my girls and welcomed them into their lives (office visits, lunch dates, garage saling, playing with Natty's childhood toys at their house). Felt like the girls had a new set of grandparents to love on them.

Over the course of the summer we could see new "Natty-isms" in our girls; they learned how to say "IU" with the coordinating arm movements, whenever they smell a dirty diaper they now say "PU Purdue!", they have many new facial expressions including the "attitude" face and they also can sing almost every song on the pop / top 40 radio stations. The three girls spent so much time together and fell so much in love that it seemed as if Natalie had been a part of our lives for much longer than 3 months. And we knew saying goodbye to her would be difficult.

 Attitude face (this is now as popular in our house as the excited face used to be):

 Another lunch date with Granny Panties (Miss Kay) & Mr. Dave. Love.

 Picking blueberries

Natalie's last week went out with a bang: a huge trip to the Fair with her mom, the girls' first manicure among all their normal shenanigans. Natty's last day she shared with us a 30 minute video of the 400-ish photos and many home videos she captured over the summer. I was laughing and crying...and so was Natalie. The video meant so much to me...and was so touching that she took the time every day to capture their moments. And then to turn those moments into an amazing montage for Mike and I to watch (and the girls to relive). The goodbye was bittersweet; we had an amazing time with her all summer but we know we'll see her again. Real soon. We plan to visit Natalie down at IU and we know she'll be back often to visit her parents. The goodbye was just a "see you later" in my opinion. We will miss her dearly, but the girls are excited to get back to their buddies at school and this is a big year for Natalie at school too (she turns 21 this year!!!). Good times ahead.

Thank you, Natalie, for a summer better than we all could have imagined. Thank you for loving our girls and welcoming them into your own family. You far surpassed our expectations and we were so fortunate to have found you! Best of luck at IU and we'll see you sooooon! xoxo

Summer Vacation 2011...

My summer vacation started last weekend...with a Saturday morning long run with 6 other women. Last summer when I was marathon training I was running with Meggie. Just she and I at 6am alone on the Monon week after week. Pushing each other. This summer, we have gathered a group of women that run together each Saturday morning training for different marathons. Our duo turned into a group. How cool is that?! I have found all these amazing women that start planning for their weekend long runs on Monday. Talk about ladies after my own heart. Yes. Please. Here we are bright and early:

 Once I got home from the run we packed the car up and headed north for Lake Tippy for 7 glorious, relaxing nights. And I did not pack a blow dryer. Now that's a vacation!

We hadn't taken a vacation since Florida Spring Break and we were more than ready to get away to the lake. We had several families that were going to come stay with us, but all-in-all we had 3 nights alone and 4 nights with guests. Was the perfect mix to our vacation.

The cottage we rent belongs to our dear friends the Tynans and they were more than generous throughout our stay at the lake. We entered the cottage to find my all time favorite lake treat: bagels, cream cheese, homemade pesto and fresh tomatoes. Oh my, does Nancy know me or what?! They also let us borrow a ton of toys for the girls to play with, a pack-n-play, their tube and their boat. Their boat. How generous are they? To know them is to love them, that's for sure.

Our first guests were Mike's mom Cathy and Larry. The girls did some serious swimming with them:

 After his parents left, several of our friends showed up:

 The Morses and the Fechtmans arrived on Sunday afternoon and we didn't waste any time...bathing suits were on before bags were put into rooms. We know better than to mess around at the lake. When the sun is up - we are outside, on the water. Boat rides, swimming, jet skiing and tubing were in our imminent future.

 You could tell Sandi is an amazing stay at home mom (who works the night shift as a nurse!), as she whipped out crafts every time we turned around. If it wasn't making a tree imprint with crayons, it was painting or making jewelry. Talk about keeping the kids occupied!

 And it isn't lake living if you don't bathe in the lake...

 Matt & Jill (Matt grew up in California, on the coast, surfing. Lake living was out of his vocabulary but I'm pretty sure we've turned him on to it.)

 Tubing!!!

 Sunday night was a riot: listening to the big kids in the dorm room of 4 twin beds trying to fall asleep. Again, this is a rite of passage of lake life...sharing a room with a bunch of your best buddies singing, talking, laughing. It was so much fun to listen to. We adults stayed up late chatting and by midnight the boys were on a boat ride that lasted late into the night. Good times with great friends. And making memories along the way. Wouldn' have it any other way.

 There was a watermelon eating contest (Ben won)

 Water balloons...

 Everyone left on Tuesday, which left a few days to ourselves before more guests arrived. Fortunately, the weather turned and the humidity left us (which made for some very cool & comfortable runs in the country for me). We turned the a/c off and opened all the windows. Decided the mornings were too cold to swim so we set off for Shi.pshewana's notorious flea market. Land of the Amish. Yet everything sold there is made in China. Go figure. The girls loved the new environment and adventure:

 We bought a rainbow of nail polishes for Izzy, jibbits for their crocs, a princess ring for Mizz Iz and some fresh produce.

And then some more swimming and boat time

 

 The view from our deck

 Thursday we were invited to go turtle hunting with Big Joe & Aunt Nance...

 Mike caught a little turtle whom we named Yertle the Turtle and one large-ish turtle whom Iz called Yertle's mommy.

 Nance & Big Joe have been turtle hunting for years. Years. And tradition is we catch them, take them home for a night or two, leave them in a cooler/bucket over night with a rock to rest on and leaf to nibble on, then we return them to where we found them to go back to their homes (so they don't have to come home with us!). Simple, right? Well, we woke up the next morning and discovered Yertle wasn't in the cooler. Or anywhere on the deck. Seems as if an animal must have taken him as a snack during night. We told the girls Yertle went home to be with his parents, that he missed them. Izzy cried. I cried. Then I immediately called Nancy. She laughed. Then realized there were kids involved and said, "Oh dear! This has never happened to us, ever!" So we had that to deal with. RIP Yertle.

 Mike's dad and Laura arrived on Thursday just in time for dinner and an evening boat ride...

 Bob brought his fishing gear and he, Mike and Iz fished for a while on Friday morning. Izzy actually is very good at casting off...she has quite the natural arm!

 Morning boat ride snuggle

 We swam at least twice a day, which allowed plenty of time for Izzy and Mike to learn new circus tricks:

 Do some serious Izzy tossing...

 And relaxing during naptime. This was my FAVORITE time of vacation, as I would grab my book and the monitor to spend 2-3 hours in the sun!

 This might be one of my favorite pics...Izzy is always asking to take pictures and this is one of her shots:

 By the end of the week Izzy became brave enough to jump into the lake without any help. And would submerge herself under the water. Big time. She's kind of a big kid now.

 And she's proud. We are, too!

 Self timer at its best:

We had an amazingly relaxing and fun vacation. Thanks to the Tynans for their generosity and our friends and family that were able to join us to compound our enjoyment!