Way Back When-esday: 11 months old

I can't do it. I can't pick just one. They all warm my heart and make me smile so big that it consumes my entire body. Ahhh ..... what I would give for one more day with them at this age. Just to kiss their bellies or smell there slobbery little necks. I want to hold them and rock them to sleep on more time when they were this age. Just one more time I swear:)

11 months old - May 2011

First time trying out sippy cups. Huge hit!

They still play on this Kangaroo Climber! Q on top, HC on the bottom.

Hassie Clare Bear loved the sound of her hands clapping. She still sits on her feet like this and it drives me crazy!

Man I love those chunky thighs! Jamie bolted 2 swings together so we could push them at the same time without them crashing into eachother.

Quinnie Ray teething on the Kangaroo Climber (FYI -best toddler contraption ever.)

Hassie Clare and Daddy taking a siesta.

Quinn

Hey Elvis .... uncross your eyes!

HC on left, Q on right

Quinnie in baby-jail .... or is she under a bar stool???

4th Birthday Party - The Little Gym

Last night the girls and I were looking at pics on my blog and one of them asked “where are our birthday party pictures?” Sure enough …. I forgot. 20 years from know when they are reading this they might not think they had a 4th birthday party. I can’t let that happen! So here ya go Quinnie Ray and Hassie Clare …. here are pictures from that day that Hassie Clare said “this is the best day I ever had.”

The Little Gym

Sat. 6/12/10 from 4:30 – 6pm

HC picked a Barbie cake and Quinn picked a Princess Tiana cake

Amanda & Quinnie (a good friend from Mother's Day Out and church)

The girls with Katie (a very sweet little girl in our neighborhood - AKA prime babysitter in a few years:)

HC and cousin Jo Jo with crazy teeth

Afterwards, a bunch of folks from the party headed down the street (literally less then a quarter mile away) to our house for a hoe down! I had pizza and all kinds of party food. Not to mention peach daiquiri’s and spiked lemonade for the grown-ups. The evening was full of laughter, stories and sweaty kids. During one fierce game of hide-n-go seek, I realized that I could not ask for a better way to celebrate their birthday. We have the best friends and family EVER. I don't have many pics from the festivites at our house cause Jamie got called out to work ..... so I was running the show solo. Besides that, it was a great day!!!!

Uncle Brent pushing Quinnie and Ella Grace

Fashion Show Diva's - Josie, Katie, Hassie Clare & Olivia (seeing that beaming smile on Hassie Clare just melts my heart.) They did a parade and fashion show with multiple wardrobe changes!

Kiddo Attendees: Josie, Jack, Corbin and friend, Kayden, Olivia, Isabella, Katie, Ella Grace, Amanda, Macy Kate, Munro, Maggie, Grant, Mary Ellen

First boat ride

#1st hurdle - getting Quinn in a life jacket.
#2nd hurdle - getting Quinn to swim in lake water.
#3rd hurdle - keeping Hassie Clare from jumping out of the boat.
#4th hurdle - convincing Hassie Clare that she can't swim by herself without a flotation device in the middle of the lake.

All minor hurdles that proved not to be challenging. Well, except the first hurdle. I worked on that one for about a week straight with Hassie Clare's help, several times a day. And I couldn't be more proud of her.

We drove about an hour south to Lake Enid to meet some friends (thank you Angela and Starsky) that invited us down for the day to swim, boat, tube, eat and hang out in an air-conditioned camper (or maybe it was a 5th wheel ... not sure). Despite a little rain, lots of clouds and 100 degree heat, it was a great day to be in the water. The girls had a blast. It convinced Jamie and I that we have 2 little outdoor girls after all and we might consider buying a little pop-up camper and a little boat (despite Jamie's begs and pleas for super nice boat with a sleeper cabin).

For obvious reasons we didn't take a camera but here are a few shots from Jamie's phone:

Quinnie with her nervous smile sitting in Daddy's lap.

 HC flying a Buzz Light Year kite (well worth the .25 cents even though he is swimming with the fishies now)

Something about floating on water makes Quinn instantly sleepy. Always has.

Jamie & HC tubein' (that's how we say it in these parts:) 

 Me & Quinnie tubein' - she shocked us all and asked to go first. We couldn't believe how brave she was being at the lake.)

We got home, I put everyone to bed, unpacked all our stuff from the day and I headed down the street to my neighbor / BFF / friend of 20+ years. Between kids, jobs, families, etc., we never get time to just hang out by ourselves and talk. Well .... we spent 4.5 hours just sitting and talking and drinking and laughing and crying. It was fabulous. We decided that professional counseling is overrated and that we both NEEDED this desperately. With good intentions, we made plans to do this once a month. But the next time we vowed to have a midnight cut-off instead of a 3am cutoff.

Adventures in Union, MO

Once again we packed up the extra large grocery getter and headed about an hour west of St. Louis to Union, MO. We arrived about 1:30am Sat morning. The last hour of the ride was spent with Quinn screaming from pure exhaustion and me with car sickness (I was turned around in my seat trying to comfort Quinn) from the curvy back roads Jamie decided to take. Thankfully this was the worst part of our weekend.

Hassie Clare felt 4 hours of sleep was plenty. As soon as the sun came up she whispered to me "It's a bright, bright sunny day Mommy." I'm not sure what I hollered politely said back to her but she went back to sleep for few minutes. This went on every 30 minutes until 8:30 when we finally agreed to let the girls get up. They absolutely love being at Maema's house. I'm not exaggerating when I say that she has just as many toys at her house then we do at our house. She had already told they girls about a few of the new toys (Buzz Light Year Costume, Annie wig, movies, all the characters of The Wizard of Oz) so their excitement was at an all time high. On top of all that they were super pumped to spend time with their Aunt Jodie.

Events of the weekend in order:

• swimming at Paige's mom's house with all the kids
• smelled Crystal Meth cooking for the first time (and hopefully the last time) - see story below
• 40th birthday party for Jamie's childhood friend Dale Gerding at the city park
• Maema's retirement party at Haggie's - see pics
• Dinner and drinks (adults only) with the Hammer's, Alsops, Worth's
• Water park with the Hammer's and Alsops (Chan and Cam)
• Ice Cream & Junk food with the Hammer's at Dairy Queen - see pic
• tour of Union High School where Jamie's Dad works

Story - We had a few hours to kill so I thought I would get some exercise in and take Ruby for a walk. It was high noon and we headed up a small country road near Maema's house. This road leads up to a church at the top of a big hill with a cemetery in the front. In route, I walked by a small, dilapidated trailer park. At first I thought to myself that someone was baking something. Then the smell hit me and I knew exactly what it was. It smelled like chemicals and someone getting a perm mixed together and being microwaved. Needless to say, Ruby and I picked up our pace and got the heck away from there:)

We didn't get home until 3am Tues morning. We squeezed a few too many things into 3 short days. But I don't think we would have done anything differently. It was a great weekend. My mother in law always makes our trips up there so easy. I've promised everyone that we will come back more often. Our next trip up there is already planned in October!

Qunnie AKA "Super Girl"

Buzz Light Year striking a pose

Maema with her little boy and granddaughters at her retirement party.

Hassie Clare playing with 3 turtles at the retirement party .... long story behind the turtles.

Maema opening up presents. This is thong panties holding adult diapers with money stashed in the panties. The funny thing about this story is the gift giver called after the party and asked for her panties back!

This picture cracks me up.

Best Friend's Forever - Morgan, Quinn, Jenna, Hassie Clare

The girls swimming in Maema's ginormous bathtub.

We made it! Another fun filled, family weekend with lots of new memories made.