Easter Trip to WI

Here are some pictures from our easter weekend at home in Wisconsin. It was a last minute trip and we were only there for 4 days, but we thought we would sneak in one last trip before Maggie turned 2 and we had to pay for 4 tickets.

It was great for the girls to see their cousins, Chris got to go to opening day with my Dad, and I hit up all my favorite spots in Milwaukee and relaxed with the girls. We spent lots of time at the Children's museum, went to the zoo and the park by grandma Mary and pappa Denny's house. It was a great trip.

Maggie has since turned 2 and was soaking up every minute of her b-day. She got all things Mickey Mouse as she is currently OBSESSED with "the mouse" as she calls him. Chris and I have opted to not get the girls anything for their b-day's this year, nor throw them B-day parties----instead we are taking both of them in 2 weeks to DISNEY WORLD. They are so excited. We are doing a dinner with the princess's to celebrate MC's b-day and a breakfast with Mickey to celebrate Maggie's. Cannot wait to see them soak it all in at the parks too. I am sure there will be plenty of pics and stories to come.

I forgot my camera when we went to WI and so used my i-pod touch for the pictures----thrilled at the time as it seemed like a great replacement for my HUGE camera, but the pictures do not even come close to comparing, so I guess I will still lug that huge thing around. I will post some more recent pics from the camera soon, but you can enjoy these for now.

She is ready to roll----both of them LOVE to fly, and whenever we start to land MaryCate yells out for the whole plane to hear "I see Wisonsin"----not sure what she is going to do if we ever fly anywhere else

Please oh please tell me she is not going to take after her sister and smile like this for a straight year

LOVING this girls personality

All the girls hanging on their Uncle Ditty

Does it get much cuter

Me and my girls

The girls in the wagon, Brady was pulling them all to the doughnut shop

Doughnuts for everyone

Brady working on cars at the childrens museum

Clare---always doing her own thing

Ride 'em cowboy

Clare--teaching her "best friend" how to ride the horsey

Going down the slide together

Practicing her cross country skills====sorry girl, prob not going to use those skills much in FL

Just lounging around

Snuggling with Grandma

Another day at the museum

Working on some puzzles

On the zoo train with Uncle Michael and Amanda

At one point MC looked at Chris and I and said verbatim "mom and dad this is totally awesome"---we looked at each other and smiled thinking of how great Disney is going to be

Out for our b-day dinner---we decided to go to Ryan Braun's restaurant in milwaukee---he plays for the Brewers===best part about this picture is that about 1 minute after it was taken Ryan Braun walked right by us and my brother asked him to sign his shirt and then looked him square on the eye and told him that he loved him----possibly one of the funnier moments in my life

Never a dull moment with Uncle Michael around

Easter Morning----MC showing off her new strawberry shortcake doll

Happy Easter

MC playing her matching game with pappa Denny that she got from the easter bunny

Snuggles with Pappa Denny

...for both girls of course

And then uncle Ditty got jealous so he coerced them with his phone

Loving some time with Grandma Mary all to myself

Playing at the mall b/c it was way too cold to be outside

Just love that I get to hang with these girls every single day---I am one lucky mama

See how much they love each other----wish it was like this all the time

Monthly Update

Not much is new around here. Basketball season has come to an end and we are enjoying some sweet time with Daddy now that he is not as busy. MC is still very much enjoying school and Maggie and I still go to Music class once a week which she absolutely LOVES. I recently started watching a new little 4 month old, to help a friend out and so that has been fun for ALL of us. I LOVE having a baby around and the girls are in heaven. Baby Margot's mom works with Chris so it will be nice to get a break when Chris has breaks and also gives me summers off as well.

Last weekend Chris and I were able to sneak away for a fun trip to NYC. It was a x-mas/anniversary/valentines day gift for each other and boy was it worth it. You have to understand what a big deal this is. I absolutely LOVE the city. Chris HATES it. When we got married, he made it clear I could go with anyone, but he would probably not ever join me. All that to say I was shocked when he told me about the plan. I was told we were going there because we had some good friends that lived there and that was the only way that we could really afford it. Chris had gotten us tickets to see the musical Wicked and then we would spend the rest of the weekend with them. I was thrilled----long story short in the end we actually were able to spend the entire weekend staying at a hotel in the middle of Times Square....it was amazing---thanks to our friends brother who made a surprise visit and then did not want to have to book seperate hotel rooms for him and his fiance---so we REALLY lucked out, not to mention that Chris's amazing sister paid for our 2nd night to stay there, just so we could really kick back and relax---oh and she watched our kids for us all weekend----yea, she's pretty amazing and you all should be jealous!! We had ample amount of time on our own, time with our friends blue and kristin, and time around the city. It was a perfect little get away and just what we needed. Wicked was amazing, the food was great, we visited the 9/11 memorial which was breathtaking and even got a little shopping in at FAO shwartz and some fun places on 5th avenue. I am so thankful for his thoughtfulness and the generosity of others that made it possible for us to go there.

On another note, I have grown into the LOVE of baking cupcakes. So much actually that I am considering making somewhat lucrative at some point. Not sure how much we have shared on the blog about adopting, but it has been something we have been prayerfully considering for a while now. We are in the process of looking at a number of different ways to go about it, and we are being patient in figuring that all out. We have a heart for Cambodia and would love to bring some sweet little girls from there into our home. We also have taken classes to foster and would consider going down that road if the opportunity ever presented itself. All that to say, if we are in a position where we have to raise money to afford the process, I am looking into baking cupcakes as an option. We will see where it all leads----but let me tell you, it may pay to move into my neighborhood right now, because I am always in need of taste testers, and I can't have all of these sitting in my house, so I am forced to give them away!!

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to.

Here are the girls on VAlentines day with their fun little purses they got from

AUNT

MAD-A-LYN

For Valentines Day MC and I made strawberry Jam for our neighbors, here she is helping squeeze some lemon juice----that Juicer came straight from BOB SHEA----anyone else have one?? :)

MC mashing up the strawberries

If you could have seen her delivering them, it was SOOO sweet, she would walk up to each door and very sweetly say "Happy Valentines Day"

This is about 1 week old and I wish I would have taken it sooner so you could see how bad it actually was, but she got quite the shiner from falling out of her chair one night, nothing like natural consequences

Just had to put this on for the curls.....they are UNREAL some days

So our Christmas with the Wells was put off because we could not get any dates to work, so here we are Feb. 25th getting our Christmas on

Dance party in our living room

A little ring around the rosy

Cora getting her groove on in MC's boots

Such sweet friends

So our neighbors from 2 houses down just moved a few weeks ago===and before they moved I asked if they would be selling their swing set....they proceeded to tell me that if I wanted to take it apart and haul it down, it was mine to keep. twist my arm----needless to say we, esp. the kids, are thrilled with our new toy, such a treat and the kids play on it non-stop

My dad recently found all of my old strawberry shortcake dolls...I totally used to collect them. He was going to pitch them and I threatened him...needless to say he said fine but then threw them in the mail for me to deal with

Let's just say that the girls think they have died and gone to heaven

They might not take great care of them but.......

They sure do LOVE THEM

....so don't you dare try to take them away

I can often find them rocking them to sleep in their house outside

Introducing-----BABY MARGOT...couldn't you just eat her up

Both of them

MC reading her one of her very favorite books----5 green and speckled frogs, a gift from cousin CURT-DOG when Maggie was born

She loves to help mommy out

Maggie's photo shoot!

Christmas pics

Here are some of the girls in their X-mas outfits!!

Professional Pictures

I have been wanting to post these pics but was giving them away for X-mas presents, so I couldn't and am just getting around to it now. My friend Kirstin is a professional photographer and took these of us and the girls!! I just love them and these are just a few!! because the files are so big, i have to post in a few different posts, so here is the start!