Why We Love Weekends

We all had a really, really fun weekend. Friday Brandon went golfing and then to Harrah's for the night with his dad and friends. The girls and I went and stayed with my parents. We went to Vacation Bible School, the park, grilled out, swam and relaxed... it was so much fun!

After VBS on Friday night, we took the girls to the park. Sophia played with her cousin Madelynn, and my parents got a first-hand look at just exactly how she feels about someone taking her out of the swing!!

On Saturday morning, my dad took Sophia to the Firehouse -bella was napping:( - and she got to see and sit in the fire trucks, wear a firehat, etc. she loved it! i dont know who had more fun sophia or gramps! :)
She also got to hear the sirens and see the lights, and see the inside of the ambulance.

right next door to the Firehouse is a Veterans Memorial which features members of my dads side of the family, which includes my dad's father and grandfather. and even more cool, is that the shields and the sheltons are both my relation and thanks to alphabetical order, they are next to each other... which makes for a great photo opportunity!

(jack shields=my grandfather, john shields= my great grandfather, sheltons= my uncles and cousins) Then after a delicious meal, (thanks mom and dad!) the girls and i headed home to get daddy so we could head to Brandons aunt and uncles. so i got home, re-packed the bags and we headed out again. we all had a wonderful time there, too. They prepared a very nice meal for us, and we sat outside and chatted while the kids were playing. it was nice to catch up with them.

they pretty much have a small amusement park in their backyard, sophia was jumping on the trampoline, rock climbing, sliding, swinging, dancing. the girls played with their cousins all night while brandon and i got to relax and visit. they even gave sophia a bath and got her ready for bed for me!

Sunday afternoon was relaxing a little napping (should have been cleaing,) a little watching sophia and bella swim (should have been doing laundry.)

Which brings me to the subject of my next blog: the abounding joy that a 3 ring pool brings to toddlers and parents alike!

Sophia got her ears pierced !!

I have always thought it was a tad cruel to pierce an infants ears, so i have always said that when my girls are old enough to ask to get them pierced then i would allow it. we were eating dinner last night and sophia said she wanted to get her ears pierced 'now.' So we, along with our friends Britney and Jon who were at dinner with us, went to the Claire's store at the mall to get her ears pierced. Now, im sure you would know my daughter picked out the most expensive pair of studs they offered. But they were white gold flowers with pink jewel petals and they have a lifetime warranty. I thought she would cry after the first ear and refuse to let them do the second one. But she didnt cry, she let them do both. She did say afterwards it 'hurt a little bit.' but she was SO brave and cute! we were just thrilled about it actually. it was adorable, and she loves the earrings. She is growing up way too fast!

Take me to St. Louie

We had a BLAST in St Louis this past weekend!
Friday afternoon we went to the Zoo. It was really a perfect day. It was warm and sunny, but still not too hot. We saw all the basics (elephants hippos zebras giraffes tigers snakes and monkeys), so we had no complaints.
it was such a great experience for Brandon and I to take our daughters to the place where we still remember going to when we were kids. It was fun then, and it was fun now! After the Zoo we went and ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Chesterfield. Of course, it was rediculously good. Then we took our full bellies back the Marriott at Union Station to stay the night. It was FABULOUS!

This weekend was the Race for the (Breast Cancer) Cure, so there were about a Billion people downtown i think. it was VERY busy!
Bella kept stealing Brandons hat, so we bought her a St Louis Cardinals hat and had her nickname (Bella Bug) embroidered on it there. its pink with scratch n sniff strawberries on it. SOO CUTE! and she actually kept it on (with almost constant flipping from front to backward) for quite a while. THEN we went to Chuck E Cheese. It was so rediculously fun. I was the only one who had been there before. Its hard to tell who had the most fun, but i would say its probably a tie between Brandon and Sophia. It might be impossible not to revert to childhood there, its SO fun. And with all the tickets Sophia got a few little trinkets she has been cherishing ever since.
Well with all the fun we were having we decided to stay an extra night. So we went back to the hotel to give the girls a quick nap because they were exhausted. (Very quick nap, unfortunately) Then we went to the mall to do a little looking around. didnt really get anything, but sophia rode the carousel and we played held a very cute mini dauschund at the puppy store. By the time we got back to the hotel for the night, the girls were conked!
Then Sunday morning we were homeward bound.

Like i said, it was a GREAT weekend!

raindrops keep fallin on my head

Some very lovely, rainy weather we are enjoying today. i dont hate rain and thunderstorms at all, as long as they dont crash my plans. today, i have no plans so its okay.
sophie and bella just went to stay the day at brandons mom's, so brandon and i are going out to lunch.
and we have officially planned the overnight trip to St. Louis!! we are all PUMPED :)!
i should definitely have some fun pix of all the events to post next week.
as for today, im working (during downtime reading another Harlequin) may try to do something important (like the accounting books) this afternoon.
also im currently accepting ideas for a fathers day present for my dad, and suggestions for what sophia and bella should get for their dad.
leave comments!

Lincoln Log Cabin

okay, so all the charlestonians have probably been to Lincoln Log Cabin before. BUT being that i have only lived here about 2.5 yrs i had never been. so brandon took the girls and i there on Sunday and we had a BLAST! it was a cool mixture between a fun outing and a really neat history lesson, too. i mean, there were workers there, dressed in the 1800's garb, working and carrying on like they would have. it was really, really neat. sophia found a kitten she liked and they had mulberries that we kept eating (new dress is definitely stained)

I was really neat to see the actual house where Abraham Lincoln lived with his family, their farm where they worked. i swear, it actually took me back to the 1800's when i walked in that house and there was a woman in a rocker with a long dress and bonnett holding her cat.

They also have the museum there, inside the Visitor's Center. They had some really cool, interesting items in there too. Like the Stephen Sargent Loom.

The Sargent house is on the premesis too, and we took a tour of that also. It was a much more modern house of the 1800's, contrasting to the simplicity of the Lincoln Cabin. It was really neat as well!

Here is a picture of Sophia taking a stroll up to the Sargent house. SO cute!

weekend fun :)

It was a wonderful weekend. The girls spent the night with my parents on Friday so Brandon and I had a night off. Then Saturday was pretty relaxing. We went to a cookout then came home and relaxed, got in the hot tub, did some reading. Sunday Sophia swam in her new pool (the orange one popped) and bella was splashing along the sides with her hands and accidentally fell in, it took her breath away. she didnt care for it too much after that.

also, some of the flowers we planted last weekend are looking really beautiful. we actually all look at them every day, its really exciting.

this coming weekend we are going to try to take the girls to the St. Louis Zoo, maybe even spend the night down there and take the girls to Chuck E Cheez. sophia would have a ball, but i think brandon and i would have even more fun to be honest. and their pizza is fantastic, too, if i remember right. although my childhood memories of the place involve rushed eating to get to the games.

Great Book and Movie Trailer

Okay, besides the Twilight series and the occasional Harlequinn Romance novel, i dont find much time to read anymore. But every once in a while i pick up this parenting book ive been reading off and on for several months now.

Its called 'The Power of a Positive Mom' by Karol Ladd (a former Illinois resident, also.) How often i pick the book up to read it is no testament as to how much i enjoy it. I always feel uplifted and motivated after just reading a few pages of this book.

If you are a mother, i strongly encourage you to read this book! Just the first Chapter alone, when Ladd talks about the myths in modern society about being a mother goes into detail about the true worth of a mom. She tells about how nowadays many women feel embarassed when asked about their occupation and they say 'mother' or 'stay at home mom,' like its a bad thing! Being a mom, everyday we make a difference in the lives of our children. This is the BEST, most praise-worthy job i can imagine. Of all the jobs i have ever had, i am MOST proud of being mom.

In other news, I liked the "New Moon" clip they showed on the MTV Movie Awards last night.

I didnt love it, beacuase (1)they didnt show enough sadness on bellas part and that was probably because (2) it wasnt long enough. (3) they showed no part of the relationship with jacob or (4) the make-your-heart burst reunion in Italy.

I mean, i really needed MUCH more!! Clink on the picture to watch the trailer and see for yourself.