Monday, November 1, 2010
Tis the season to scare....
It's that time of year again....Halloween!!!! Grandma Hargis sent the girls some homemade Halloween pillowcases and they refuse to take them off.
We took the girls to a pumpkin patch to pick out their very own pumpkins. Here's Tessa with the pumpkin she chose.
Natalie was complaining that her head hurt and didn't want to pick out a pumpkin :(
She must have started to feel better because here she is with her pumpkin, all smiles...
They got to decorate pumpkin cookies at Grandma Biehn's house which they loved.
Tessa stole the M&M's after everyone was done and was walking around the house eating all the leftovers.
Here they are before heading out to go trick or treating! Look at my adorable, yet fearsome witches!
We hope everyone had just as happy a Halloween as our family did!
A little bit of construction....
Well, you've all heard about it by now, I'm sure, but we did a little bit of construction at our new house recently. We had about 4 palm trees removed and I would show you the pictures, if I had taken any....
We also had a bunch of windows changed out. Our favorite part of that was the changing of the patio door. This is the old one. It was sooooo hard to open and close. Even the screen needed two hands to make it move. Part of the problem was that the track was so worn down. Well, we ripped this one out and.....
...installed this one! So much better! It slides so easily! Ah, the little things in life....
Our other, not so little project, was our kitchen. Here are a few before pics...
I don't know who invented white tile kitchen countertops but I'd like to punch that person in the nose. The grout is miserable to keep clean and the surface isn't smooth. Everyone who sees the cabinets in these photos thinks they are some kind of light wood. No, no. They are are that cheap melamine that somebody painted yellow. And that somebody did not do a good job. They were a streaky mess. And green walls to boot? Actually, the kitchen doesn't look to bad in these pics but in person...yikes. I also hated the split bar. Neither the lower level, nor the upper bar level were very good usable space so when we decided to rip everything out, I told the contractor to make it all one level. Also, the garden window, better known as the ultimate dust collector, was being replaced with a new slider when we did the rest of the windows.
Our contractor started on a Friday and this is what I came home to. What did we get ourselves in to? We basically lived off of the generosity of our parents and a microwave and toaster oven for a week and a half...
Yeah, not loving the green. 
A week and a day later, we came home to this.... 
I love my oil-rubbed bronze faucet and hardware and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my granite composite sink. It's cafe brown and super deep! Also, notice the bar area. All one level! So much better! We replaced the sad microwave whose turntable didn't work with a nice new one. Next will be the refrigerator but I'm waiting for some gift cards that I earned at work to come in first.
When we put all of our things back in the cupboards we actually ran out of stuff to put away before I ran out of cabinet space! Unheard of! I love our lazy susan and our pull out drawers in the pantry. The drawers are all soft-closing so no more slamming drawers!
Off to Oak Glen....
It was time for our annual trip to Oak Glen. We LOVE that place. The girls were very excited for it this year since they actually remembered it from last year. Here are Natalie, Jeremy and Tessa sitting on a bench at Snowline Orchard enjoying pickles and apple cider donuts. Yum.
Tessa found a tree stump to sit on and devoured her pickle and her donut on it. Here she is showing off her spoils...
Natalie was being a goofball but I love this shot.
They were so excited to feed the goats and sheep again (neither one likes the big pigs very much). They kept telling the goats that they could have "just a little". They talked to the goats like they talk to their dolls. There was one goat who kept following us around. He was really cute and soft and the girls really liked feeding him.
There were two llamas (or alpacas?). This cute one, who Jeremy fed. He got very slobbery hands as a result. The other one was soooooo ugly. He definitely needed braces. Poor thing.
We happened to be at the petting zoo at a good time because they had pig races. They let the little piglets race to get their bottles of milk. They let the kids hold the bottles. Here are the girls feeding one of the winners.
We always enjoy our trips to Oak Glen and definitely enjoyed the apple cider that we brought home :)An exotic vacation to....Erie, PA!
We decided to take a family vacation to Erie, PA this year to visit Jeremy's brother, Jeff, and his family. They are living out there while he does an Orthopedic Surgery residency. We promised we would make it out once while they were living there and we kept that promise. Carolee had just had a baby in May, Mr-I'm-too-stinkin' cute Brady and we were all excited to see him, especially the girls. We had so much fun, in fact, that my picture taking was sadly neglected. I didn't even get a picture of Brady to share with you :( We were there for his blessing so Jeremy represented for the Biehns. The next day, Monday, we all loaded up into our cars and drove to Niagara Falls! Here are are few pics. The weather was GORGEOUS and it was surprisingly not very crowded. We picked a great day to go.
Doesn't the sky look fake here? The falls create a huge amount of mist!
This is what happens when hairspray meets mist and wind :) Sorry, Carolee, I just had to include this one!
Here's our happy family all decked out for a trip on the Maid of the Mist. I was a little nervous about the girls and how they would handle all the water but they were total troopers!
The really liked their blue ponchos and they totally helped the keep the girls nice and dry.
Here's a shot from the boat. We didn't take too many for fear that our camera would get soaked!
After Niagara, we drove to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY, home of the original Buffalo Wings. They were delish! This is the only picture I have of Jeff and his family from this trip. I told you, I sadly neglected my duties with the camera...
Here's the first place you see when you get the Hershey Park. Chocolate World had every kind of Hershey-themed souvenir you could want. There was a free ride you could go on that showed how the chocolate was made. There were three animatron cows who sang "Hershey's Milk Chocolate...it's the milk chocolate..." over, and over, and over......It was catchy. A little too catchy...
There were all sorts of things do to...
Natalie was super excited to be at the "chocolate park." This was on the aforementioned free ride.
This was how Tessa looked the whole time we were there. We decided to get some lunch before going into the park and while Jeremy and Natalie went looking at all the souvenirs, Tessa fell asleep. She just felt miserable so we decided to leave and come back the next day if she was feeling better.
Luckily, her fever broke later that evening and she decided she felt much better and went swimming and ate a good dinner. So, back to Hershey Park we went the next day. We went back to Chocolate world and tried a "Frozen Cocoa". Oh my goodness! One wouldn't think that would be very refreshing but it was soooooo good! It was like an icy, slushy, hot chocolate. Yum. I almost wanted another! Here are the girls enjoying their frozen cocoa.
Natalie kept telling us it was her turn to have a drink....
As you can see, Tessa was feeling much better!
Here's Miss Tessa enjoying a ride on the Merry-Go-Round
Ok, so the characters are definitley not as cool as Disneyland but we had to get a photo with one of them....
If this really had been a giant bottle of Hershey's Syrup, we probably would have bought one. It's actually just a piggy bank.
Of course we had to get a picture with the giant chocolate bar.
Back in Erie, we enjoyed some of the signs from the local shops and restaurants.
The four of us decided to take a little side trip to Hershey, PA, since we figured we would probably never have that opportunity again. We set out early Wednesday morning and started the day out with Tessa running a high fever. Hooray! She wouldn't eat or drink and slept for the whole 5 hour drive. Poor bug! We only had one day there so we decided to give Hershey park a shot.
Here's the first place you see when you get the Hershey Park. Chocolate World had every kind of Hershey-themed souvenir you could want. There was a free ride you could go on that showed how the chocolate was made. There were three animatron cows who sang "Hershey's Milk Chocolate...it's the milk chocolate..." over, and over, and over......It was catchy. A little too catchy...
There were all sorts of things do to...
Natalie was super excited to be at the "chocolate park." This was on the aforementioned free ride.
This was how Tessa looked the whole time we were there. We decided to get some lunch before going into the park and while Jeremy and Natalie went looking at all the souvenirs, Tessa fell asleep. She just felt miserable so we decided to leave and come back the next day if she was feeling better.
Luckily, her fever broke later that evening and she decided she felt much better and went swimming and ate a good dinner. So, back to Hershey Park we went the next day. We went back to Chocolate world and tried a "Frozen Cocoa". Oh my goodness! One wouldn't think that would be very refreshing but it was soooooo good! It was like an icy, slushy, hot chocolate. Yum. I almost wanted another! Here are the girls enjoying their frozen cocoa.
Natalie kept telling us it was her turn to have a drink....
As you can see, Tessa was feeling much better!
Here's Miss Tessa enjoying a ride on the Merry-Go-Round
Ok, so the characters are definitley not as cool as Disneyland but we had to get a photo with one of them....
If this really had been a giant bottle of Hershey's Syrup, we probably would have bought one. It's actually just a piggy bank.
Of course we had to get a picture with the giant chocolate bar.
Back in Erie, we enjoyed some of the signs from the local shops and restaurants. Doesn't this sound appetizing?
This is kind of a one-stop-shop for those safety conscious, diabetic pyromaniacs with a sweet tooth....
This is the same place as the picture above. Carolee sang the theme song for Mr. Fudgie Fudge and it had us all cracking up. The girls wanted to take a picture with him, but.....
....would you let your kid take a picture with this?
We really did have a blast and Jeff, Carolee and the kids definitely kept us all entertained. Thanks again for letting us stay with you! We love you guys!
This is kind of a one-stop-shop for those safety conscious, diabetic pyromaniacs with a sweet tooth....
This is the same place as the picture above. Carolee sang the theme song for Mr. Fudgie Fudge and it had us all cracking up. The girls wanted to take a picture with him, but.....
....would you let your kid take a picture with this?
We really did have a blast and Jeff, Carolee and the kids definitely kept us all entertained. Thanks again for letting us stay with you! We love you guys! Sunday, August 8, 2010
Either my life has gotten busier, or I've gotten lazier...I choose "A"
I can't believe it's been almost two months since I last posted. Our 2010 Blog Book is going to be sadly short compared to 2009. Sigh. BUT, here is a big long update of the past two months of our lives...
TESSA & NATALIE TURNED 3!!!!!!! I can't believe that my little 5 lb babies are giant 3-year-olds now. They sing their ABC's and are recognzing some of the letters and know a lot of the sounds (thank you Letter Factory). I love spending time with them because one if them is always bound to make me laugh.
Natalie is our little mother. She's always trying to "take care" of Tessa or her baby dolls. She's our little artist and loves to draw and at only 3, she pretty much stays inside the lines in a coloring book. I don't think I've ever seen a 3-year-old who doesn't just scribble all over the pages. She loves to talk about going to Disneyland and always wants to see "Dongal Duck" and she loves her new "Tinatchtiks" (gymnastics) class. She loves to watch Giada at Home with me and will point at my olive oil and say "that's like Giada's, mommy". She loves that show so much that when she goes to the playground she will reach down and grab a pinch of sand and sprinkle it like it's salt and then say "look, I'm like Giada!" My little artist/chef in the making....
Tessa is just as sassy as can be! She is my little comedian and makes some of the funniest faces! She never walks anywhere! She will run, hop, or gallop but rarely does she slow down to walk. She and Natalie have their differences but if something happens and Natalie starts to cry, Tessa is right there asking "Are you ok, Nan?" She will even hold her hand to make her feel better. Tessa is my diva. She can almost always be found in her "pretty dress" ( a purple crushed velvet dress-up dress) with high heels and as much jewelry as she can find put on. She also likes to stare at herself in the mirror and "put on makeup" with her magnadoodle magnets. We're definitely in trouble with this one!
I cannot imagine my life without these two. When I come home from work and they run and scream "Mommy!" it makes me feel so blessed to have two incredibly wonderful children to call my own. I'm looking forward to watching them grow (but not too fast) and can't wait to see what adventures lie ahead for them.
Ok, moving on, here are the girls at one of their many birthday celebrations this year. I'm pretty sure they didn't have a birthday but a birthmonth. They were so excited about opening presents that I could hardly get them to slow down enough to find out who the presents were from! Christmas should be super fun this year...
They definitely scored in the dress-up clothes department. Here's Natalie modeling her new Sleeping Beauty dress and her new umbrella (my girls are obsessed with umbrellas).
We decided to take the girls to California Adventure for dinner with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto. The day we were supposed to go, Jeremy got VERY sick and so I ended up taking the girls with Lynne (Grandma Biehn). Here they are with Ariel! They had so much fun and they got to see Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Cinderella and Princess Minnie, too! They were so excited! The food was decent but $$$$.
As a family, when Jeremy was feeling better, we went to BJ's for dinner and the girls wore their crazy birthday hats and got to have a whole order of macaroni and cheese to themselves. Then they got free pazookies! They ate all of their macaroni and cheese and hardly touched the pazookies. Don't worry, we helped :)
Natalie looks like a professional model here posing for her picture!
One of our new favorite family traditions is Cupcake Sunday. Every Sunday we make a new type of cupcake. We've done chocolate with a vanilla bean buttercream frosting, lemon with lemon frosting (and candied lemon peel on the top, yum), yellow cake with nutella filling and a nutella buttercream frosting (I entered this at a work baking contest and won!), and our latest was a pretzel salad cupcake which is FABULOUS!
The girls like to lick the beaters and enjoy eating the cupcakes also! No frosting for them though. Weirdos.
We signed the girls up for a city Gymnastics class which is held at the KIPS gymnastics club. They LOVE it. They are in the parent/tot class and the teacher just told me that they can move on to the "Little Kippers" class in the fall since they listen so well and do the exercises well. Well, at least they listen at gymnastics.....Here is Natalie after just having completed a roundoff back handspring. Yeah, right!
They both handle the balance beam really well. Here's Tessa concentrating on keeping her feet on the beam.
They both love getting to go upside down over the bar.
Here's Natalie stretching on the floor...
We also went camping last month. To sum up a series of unfortunate events, Norm got a flat tire, our air conditioning went out, Natalie had a urinary tract infection and we had to drive down the mountain to take her to the doctor's and get antibiotics, we had to drop our car off at the mechanic and use a rental which did not fit everything that we brought up with us and Jeremy's birthday cake got ruined when water leaked into the container. Whew.....we had fun but we hardly have any pictures. Here are a few...
They both handle the balance beam really well. Here's Tessa concentrating on keeping her feet on the beam.
They both love getting to go upside down over the bar.
Here's Natalie stretching on the floor...
We also went camping last month. To sum up a series of unfortunate events, Norm got a flat tire, our air conditioning went out, Natalie had a urinary tract infection and we had to drive down the mountain to take her to the doctor's and get antibiotics, we had to drop our car off at the mechanic and use a rental which did not fit everything that we brought up with us and Jeremy's birthday cake got ruined when water leaked into the container. Whew.....we had fun but we hardly have any pictures. Here are a few...The girls with their cousin, Bradin, eating dinner.
On the way home, they weren't feeling good and so we gave them cups just in case they had to throw up. I love this picture. Oh, and they never did throw up.
My sister-in-law, Kris, told us about a drive-in movie theater that is about 10 minutes away from where we live! We decided to check it out with them and caught a double feature of "Despicable Me" (loved it and will be buying it when it comes out) followed by "Eclipse" (followed the book well but still drove me crazy as they all do). We put the back row of the minivan down and loaded it up with blankets and pillows and watched it from the back. The girls fell asleep after the first movie and we were free to enjoy the second one in peace. For $14 for the four of us, this double feature was a great deal!
Ok, that catches us up for now. Next week, we are off to Pennsylvania to visit Jeff and Carolee and we are SO excited! A trip to Hershey is already scheduled. I just hope I can drag Jeremy out of the Hershey chocolate store....
My sister-in-law, Kris, told us about a drive-in movie theater that is about 10 minutes away from where we live! We decided to check it out with them and caught a double feature of "Despicable Me" (loved it and will be buying it when it comes out) followed by "Eclipse" (followed the book well but still drove me crazy as they all do). We put the back row of the minivan down and loaded it up with blankets and pillows and watched it from the back. The girls fell asleep after the first movie and we were free to enjoy the second one in peace. For $14 for the four of us, this double feature was a great deal!
Ok, that catches us up for now. Next week, we are off to Pennsylvania to visit Jeff and Carolee and we are SO excited! A trip to Hershey is already scheduled. I just hope I can drag Jeremy out of the Hershey chocolate store....
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