La Pura Vida

Thursday, July 25, 2013

A Weekend Away Part II

Last weekend, we took the girls on a mini vacation. The girls had been begging to go to a hotel for months, and since summer is quickly disappearing, we decided to pack up the bags and head to Brainerd for a few days.

We took off in the morning, and got into town early afternoon. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the course. (mini golf, that is...) Pirates Cove is the place to be for golf! The girls slowly tried to figure out the whole golf thing, but it went more like this: Maria would put her ball near the hole and hit once then pick it up and be done. Emma would bring her ball to the hole and push it in with either her club or her hands. It was pretty entertaining. Either way, they enjoyed themselves and all the pirate decor!

That night, we hit the pool. This was probably their favorite part, seriously. Next time, we might as well just go to a hotel nearby! ;) They swam for over two hours before we headed up to the room to order pizza. The girls hung out in their "bedroom" with the "hot pool" and watched cartoons while waiting for the pizza to arrive. They loved this "hot pool" because the water coming out looked like a waterfall!

The next day, we had breakfast and were off to the pool again for some final swimming before we checked out. Once we got all packed up, we were off to Paul Bunyan Land! We went here last year and decided to go again because it is the PERFECT place to bring this age of kids. They rode all the rides several times, visited with Paul Bunyan, and hung out at the petting zoo. It was a great day!

Our final stop of the day was an ice cream shop! YUM

Then back in the car we went to go home. It was the perfect vacation for us. Two days was just right to have some fun and not get too overtired. And Natalie was a trooper! She enjoyed her first of many vacations as well!

And I leave you with our family picture from our trip. Last year, a certain young lady in our family was crying her eyes out during our family vacation picture... this year you get...

...her butt. Yep, the memories! :)

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A Weekend Away Part I

Joe and I took a small trip the other weekend to Chicago to visit some good friends from college. They live in Indiana, so it was a good place to meet up. We had never been there before, so Joe was eager to visit the oldest stadium in baseball.

We didn't want to drive the whole way to Chicago in one day, so we decided to spend the night at a casino in Wisconsin. Joe came out 50 cents ahead! Yay! Here is the waterfall inside the casino we stayed:

The next day, we made it to Chicago! We were staying near the airport, so we had to take the subway & the bus line to get to Wrigley Stadium. Lucky for us, we met a couple on the bus that just happened to have two extra tickets on the lower deck above the Cubs. We couldn't pass up the offer of these great seats! They sold both the tickets to us for more than we could have bought one ticket in the worst seats there! score! :) Plus, we got free cowboy hats!

And Joe caught a ball during batting practice, which made his day of course!

Then it was off to meet up with our friends. We had a GREAT time exploring Chicago's downtown. We walked through Navy Pier and had a great lunch:

We took in views of the city:

We strolled through Millennium Park to check out this strange looking mirror:

We tried the famous Chicago Style Pizza:

And of course, became experts of the underground subway system just in time to go home.

All in all, it was a great trip! It was nice to get away for the weekend and visit our friends. We just wished they lived closer!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

A Little About My Girls

Maria

Age: 4
Likes: Playing in the dirt, gravel and sand, singing, dancing, reading stories, saying what letter everything starts with, "kiki", and making cards
Dislikes: Bugs in the house, picking up toys
Favorite Sayings: "Mommy, Emma's {insert something naughty}!" and "Goopa Gapa"(or anything silly)

Emma

Age: almost 3
Likes: Holding Natalie, singing about everything (think a musical), talking, talking loud, talking about her birthday, talking about what she is going to do, repeating the same question over and over even after you have answered it, and did I mention talking? (I think it runs in the family :)
Dislikes: Every food that gets put in front of her (even if she ate it the night before!)
Favorite Sayings: "I don't like that!" and "It's ok mommy!" Examples:
Me: "Who put sand in mommy's flowers?"
Ems: "It's ok mommy!
Me: "Are you supposed to have your shoes on in the house?"
Ems: "It's ok mommy!"
Me: "Who colored on the toilet seat?"
Ems: "It's ok mommy!"

Natalie

Age: 2 months
Likes: Swinging, sleeping, being outside, being held, smiling
Dislikes: Tummy time, being put down, burping

Thankful on this Thursday for my sweet girls who are just growing up way to fast!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Baptism Day

Yesterday, we were very blessed to be surrounded by family as we welcomed Natalie into the church through baptism. It was a rainy morning, but Natalie was in good spirits. She was wide awake throughout the entire morning and hardly made a sound. Here are a few snapshots of the day.

The beautiful lace dress that was worn by my mom, sister, daughters, and I:

My beautiful girl:

The baptism:

"Go, therefore,and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

Matthew 28:19-20

The family:

The godparents:

The cake:

It was a perfect day. May God bless you each and everyday Natalie. We love you!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Unexpected Progress

I found out last minute Friday that some house projects were getting completed this weekend.

I didn't expect either one of these things to happen so soon.

YAY!!

1. The garden shed at our place was finally sided thanks to some hard-working family members!

(And no, that's not snow on the ground still. It's an enormous pile of golf balls that Joe brought home from work the other day. Just what we needed as we begin to clean up the yard! grrr)

2. The sheet rockers came and made our basement look like a room!

It may not look that great to you, but after living here three years with an unfinished basement, it looks amazing to us! Now, we are patiently awaiting the taper, so we can paint and get all the girls toys out again! They have been in hiding since we started working on this downstairs.

And onto some Expected Progress...

1. Natalie Marie turned 3 weeks old this week! She is really starting to fill out. She is a sleepy head, but is finally starting to be awake for a few hours at a time so we can see her pretty eyes! She enjoys sleeping in mommy and daddy's arms and in her baby papasan chair, but sure hates laying flat down in her crib! Little stinker. She loves to eat, and has a double chin to prove it! :) Here is a snapshot of her at three weeks old:

2. It's finally starting to feel like spring!! (and even summer a few times this week!) We bought some flowers this week and are ready to plant today. We also got the pool out to play in the sun today. Here are my three beach girls all laying out in the shade today!

Friday, May 03, 2013

Sisters

Emma has decided that when she grows up, she is going to be a princess...

but I think she has taken this new job as big sister pretty seriously. :)

She loves (in her own words) "petting" Natalie, holding her, feeding her, getting her diapers and wipes, swinging her, and telling her "it's ok" or singing to her when she's crying. She doesn't want to go anywhere with out her. Maria is the same way. They fight over who gets to look at her and hold her.

She's a pretty sweet little girl, and the doctor said today that she looks healthy and is growing already!

We are very thankful for these cute sisters!

Monday, April 29, 2013

She's here!

The majority of you guessed it right! It was a girl!

Miss Natalie Marie

was born on Tuesday, April 23rd at 9:44pm.
(after almost not making it to the hospital in time!)

She entered the world weighing 6lbs and 10oz and was 19 1/4 inches long.

She is just perfect!

And her big sisters couldn't be happier to have a healthy little sister at home. They are big helpers, and don't want to take their hands off her! :)

She has been sleeping the majority of time, but is usually awake for a few hours during the day so the girls can see her with her eyes open. They seem to think she needs to be awake all the time to play! That will happen soon enough. For now, we are very thankful that she is a happy, healthy baby that eats and sleeps like babies should!