Family, Family, Family....

We had a busy weekend full of family time, it was awesome!

Friday night Maggie was surprised with a great treat when Aunt Diane and Howie set up a date to read her bedtime stories via skype....The plan was they were each going to read a story (they sent the books ahead of time so she had a copy and they had a copy) and then Maggie was going to judge who the better reader was. Poor Howie, he didn't have a chance, he could have shown up in full costume and acted out the book and Aunt Diane would have won....Maggie's knows who to keep on her good side :)

Saturday Morning we spent a couple of hours delivering more yard signs, Maggie has decided that it's okay to tell everyone she sees to vote for her dad, but she thinks yard signs are REALLY BORING.

Saturday afternoon we headed for Lincoln. Papa turned 81 on Saturday and we were all excited to be there for his Birthday dinner. Gracie is starting to go through her shy, "I want my mommy" phase, so I wasn't sure how she'd do with everyone around....silly me, she did great....

2 little piggies....

Gracie wasn't wild about eating (she's getting a giant tooth), but
she liked chewing on the rib bones. Papa was so proud.

Happy Birthday to Papa, Happy Birthday to you....

Papa told Maggie to cut the cake with her finger....he only had to tell her once!

Love....

Aunt Cindi took the girls upstairs to throw rubber ducks off the balcony...

OH NO, the fish game is broken....good thing Uncle Marlin can fix anything!

lots and lots of fishin'

HEY! I know this dog sings, maybe if I keep hitting it, it will do it again!

After a late night at Gramma Lea and Papa's we headed for Omaha. Yesterday, we spent the day relaxing and playing.

Got you!

Apparently Gracie was really HOT :)

Mom taught Maggie how to use the player piano.....there could be alot of
loud visits in our future....

Did I mention the volume control is broken....so it only has one level....LOUD!!!!

What a great weekend!

Auctions!

I really like auctions. All kinds of auctions, estate, real estate, charity, antique....it doesn't really matter. It must be genetic, i remember going to auctions with my dad when I was a kid, you never knew what you might find. When I was young, my dad had several auctions to get rid of stuff people quit paying to store in the warehouse. Those were the best, I got to watch the auctioneers set up the tables of stuff, I got to look at it all before anyone came and occasionally I found a treasure (like a Mickey Mouse Christmas figurine that just happened to say 1981 on it...It was meant to be.)

This all goes a little bit against my NO stuff rules, but I like the chaos, the fast talking, the old stuff, and most importantly (and the reason Arnie discourages me from attending), the WINNING!

On that note, does anyone have a use for this.....




or this....



(actually I think Brandon has already claimed this one, but if he doesn't pick it up I'd be happy to have a waiting list.)

Here's the real story, Nucor (the steel mill) gives a dozen high schools 700 lbs of steel, and their shop class is tasked with turning it into something. Then they hold an auction and whatever the piece brings in goes back to the school. So, these kids were all their watching the pieces be sold....and they were going really cheap, so I felt bad. I was mostly just trying to bid things up but sometimes that backfires and you end up owning it.

Here's what I really should have bought....



Can you imagine the practical jokes you could play by just dropping this off in different peoples yards occasionally? It went for $100.....at the time I was overwhelmed by its size but in hindsight, I'm regretting my decision.

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It's yard sign time...

Arnie's yard signs arrived today, so tonight we went and delivered a few. Maggie thought it sounded like fun, but once we got going she decided it was pretty boring. If only she knew how many more we have to do....

At Grandma and Pop's house she got to get out of the car and help daddy.

There was an employee picnic at Norfolk Iron today for lunch. The girls and I went to see everyone....Gracie REALLY wanted to crawl across the table....she's a determined little thing!

OH NO....(I'm not actually sure what she was saying)

Mom, I don't want to be on the floor, I want back up on the table!!

When your almost 4....

....it doesn't get much better then today. Today was a big day for Maggie.

It was BIKE DAY at school and Pajama Party night at church! She was SO excited about both. Once again, she has really wonderful (and brave) teachers. The idea of 60 kids, 60 bikes and 60 helmets is enough to make me crazy, but they just dive in.

Get ready, get set....

GO!!!!



Round and round they go.

Grace thought watching all the craziness was pretty fun.

Maggie took a little break to work on her monkey bar skills....

Then back for a little more bike time.

 I heard Maggie scolding "someone" for hitting her....and this is what I found....

It's all the babies in time out and it was going to be "a long one" so she gave them each a book.

Grace must have practiced hugs and kisses while she was with my parents. Today she was very willing to give me lots of both. We were at Target and every time I reached for something I'd turn back to the cart and she would have her arms open for a hug....I couldn't resist. I probably took us 4 times as long to get our shopping done, but I got lots of love.


How could you every call me ornery?

Tonight was the end of Wednesday night church until fall, so they had a pajama party. Maggie couldn't wait. She thought really hard about which pj's to wear and decided on her buterflies. Then she added the robe, incase she got cold (it was 90 degrees today). At the last minute we decided to trade shoes for slippers. She grabbed a baby and off we went.

 Arnie picked Maggie up from church and "since she asked nicely" (and he's an easy target) they stopped at Tasty Treat for malts. Grace and I shared.....she had no intention of letting me have any....

Mom, your not going to take this from me, are you??

on the mend...

Maggie and I were both sick yesterday. Thankfully Arnie had a flight out of Omaha in the early afternoon, so he took Gracie with him and delivered her to my mom and dads. I hated to ship her off, but was so thankful that it worked out. Maggie and I curled up in bed and slept from 10:30am until late afternoon. We stayed in our pj's all day, watched movies, slept and snuggled. While I hate being sick and I hate more for her to be sick, it was kind of nice to spend the day with her, just hanging out.

Thank God my parents came to the rescue. Grace can be a handful and she was in a GREAT, happy and awake mood before she headed for Omaha, so it would have been a long day for me trying to keep up with her, take care of Maggie and get some rest myself. I have no idea what my parents had to rearrange to take her, but I think it was nice for Grace to have some time with them alone, usually she has her sister to compete with.

Maggie and I are both much better today. She went to school and has been bouncing off the walls all day. I still feel a tad under the weather, but much better then yesterday. Now, if Arnie can get back to Omaha (his flight was delayed at last check) and get Grace, then tomorrow we'll be back to our schedule as usual.

It's also with a bit of a heavy heart that I admit, today, I resigned my position on the Make-A-Wish Board of directors. I've been on the board for 4 years and have been really active in the organization for more then a decade. I'm not a quitter and I've been struggling with this decision for several months. The organization and the kids I've come to know and love hold a very special place in my heart. But unfortunately things change, peoples expectations change and sometimes you just have to know when to say when. It's not in my nature to walk away, and I'm still struggling with the decision, but I know it was the right one. Say a prayer that I find some peace in the decision and that I can let myself off the hook.

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Camping time....

This weekend we got the camper out for it's inaugural trip. We had a great time. We headed for Yankton, the campground was beautiful, not too busy and other then crazy winds the weather was great.

HEY GUYS!! Don't forget me....

Off we go....

Our spot was right across from the playground....

 The best part about camping in Yankton is it's close to Miss Lauren!! Friday night after dinner we went to watch her game. Her team won and she scored the first run of the game. Maggie was SO excited!

Maggie cheering (YELLING LOUDLY) for Miss Lauren (at bat).

After the game Maggie helped clean up the dugout. She was in charge of picking
up all the balls. She was thrilled to get to help.



Helping put away the bases.

Saturday morning Maggie talked Arnie into doing a little fishing. Thankfully they didn't catch anything...

Some crazy casting...

Saturday afternoon, Mom, Dad and Vadim drove up to spend the night. We didn't tell Maggie they were coming. When Dad parked for a minute, Maggie told Arnie that someone put a loud camper in the road. I wish I had a camera when Maggie figured out my mom was walking toward her, it was like she hadn't seen her in years! She told my mom later, she was the best prize ever :)

We were supposed to go see Lauren's game again Sunday, but unfortunately Maggie just wasn't feeling good. She seems to have caught some kind of bug. She played Sunday for awhile, but she just wasn't herself. She was really disappointed to not go to the softball game, but I knew she was really sick when she didn't fight it long. She feel asleep about 5 minutes after we got in the car.

A few more pictures from the weekend...

one of our girls is more of a morning person then the other....

Maggie loves her new bunk bed!

I'd like to believe this is sweet sister love, it's probably more of a head lock,
but I'll take it :)

Grace seems to really like sand....much to my disappointment.

Arnie would label this photo "It's a dad life!"

A playpen for 3 year olds :)

Grace likes her lawn chair but....

....she loves mine.

First thing Sunday morning, Maggie wanted to go see Grandma and Grandpa...
she didn't comb her hair, put on clothes, or real shoes....just pj's and rain boots.

Maggie really wanted Reagan to go down the slide....ya right!

What a great weekend!! We have so many more adventures ahead....