adventures in babysitting ....

Aunty taking pics with the kids :0)

So last Saturday, Bryan and I watched the kiddos .... Riley and Addison. They even spent the night with us. They kept us busy ... Riley wanted to bring over Papa Murphys pizza and cookie dough. I rented Madagascar 2 for us to watch. We colored and hung out and then went to the park. It was such a beautiful day out. It was a lot of fun and a good way to run off some energy.


Addi decided Bryan was her BFF when he had some Doritos ... she wanted to share :0) After they shared, she was attached to him LOL



We had pizza for dinner and went back to the park to play for awhile. Pippy was thinking maybe Addi would share a bite with her ...






We got home, cleaned up and in our jammies to make cookies and watch the movie. It was a cute movie. The kids like to dance and sing to the song "I like to move it, move it ..." it was fun :0) After the movie, Riley, Addi, Pippy and I all piled into Collin's bed (he had Bryan's king size bed in his room). It was too exciting to go to sleep for awhile but eventually the excitement wore off and the tiredness set in and we all slept good thru the night.



We decided to spend the morning coloring, chasing Pippy around and watch some Scooby-Doo.





It was FUN and tiring. Pippy was very worn out. So her and I took a nap when the kids went home.

enjoying the weather .....

The last couple days we've brought Pippy to the park when I got done with work. She loves running around. The park we go to has a big open field and let her off her leash to run wild :0) She does very good and minds. Thank goodness.






And then she is SO worn out and sleepy when we get home ....



Too bad Kayla and Ryan are in Florida now and missing this gorgeous weather ... even tho I'm sure they are enjoying the HOT weather and getting tans :0)

It is so nice having my Grams in Woodbury ... I've been trying to stop by like every other day or so. She seems to doing good and getting settled. I just hope that she can meet a friend or 2 up there soon. I think that part is lonely for her. She was use to having her friends around to stop and have tea and visit with her. I know that she has gone to BINGO a few times ... I hope she keeps going to activities.

Bryan and I are watching the kiddos (Riley and Addi) on Saturday and I think they are gonna spend the night ... I'm excited :0) I actually have quite a few babysitting dates coming up ... but I will take all I get because I'm sure October will be here before I know it.

Last weekend, Bryan, Collin and I went to the MOA for the day on Saturday. Mandy, Thorne and Ava were staying there for the weekend so we made plans to hook up. I hadn't really seen her since her wedding in October...that's WAY too long. I was really excited to see her cuz I wanted to see if she was showing at all. They are expecting a baby girl, Ily Jo, in July. Yay fun for them. I can not believe Ava is 7. How time flies. When we all lived together, she was 3 and up. She is so cute and such a little lady.

Then on Sunday, we grilled out and Papa (Bryan's dad) and Cody came over. It was a nice, relaxing day. We just ate and watched Tropic Thunder ... funny movie!

Hopefully I'll get some CUTE pics with the kids this weekend ....

sad, sad heart <3

I just had to write about my friend Noelle and the lil girl she lost :0( It was last Tuesday morning that Noelle (who I worked with in the ER at Fairview...she is a peds nurse) lost her 5 yr old daughter Ainsley. I was SO heartbroken when I found out. Her and her husband have Hailey who is 7 and Wesley who is 6 and Ainsley was 5. She passed away in the ER. I'm not sure of the whole story or what exactly happened. I know that she had juvinile arthritis and that ha weakened her immune system. I went to the wake on Friday evening. It was the saddest thing ever. How tragic for such a young, vibrant family to have lost such a precious little life. As I was signing the guest book, Hailey was hugging some people in line behind me and she was telling them that Ainsley had a "pink case" and that they all had pink on cuz it was her favorite. She looked so sweet and just like she was sleeping. Hailey was standing by Ainsley's casket and telling us about what each thing in there with her meant. It was so sweet. They also had a table set up with all of her favorite things, including a pair of pink pjs and her dance costumes and shoes. There was also a book sitting on the table called "I Wonder What You Do on Your First Day in Heaven" by Phoebe Welsh. What an amazing book for children. I just thought it was so incredible. I thought a lot about Riley and Addison when I was there. It was such a surreal moment. I can never imagine having to say "goodbye" to either of them. I just wish I could hug Noelle every time I thought of them. My heart breaks over and over for the pain that they are going thru. I just wanted to write about it because it is constantly on my mind ....

My little bunny ....

I just had to put up these pictures of Pippy that Ryan took ... he got a new camera and is really good at taking pics with it :0) I just love these ones of Pippy .... the first one is my ABSOLUTE favorite



she was sleeping in the sun but kept kind of waking up ... too funny











I felt SO bad for Pippy on Friday night ... Bryan and I had ran to pick up some fish for dinner and Pippy and I waited in the car. I had the window down so she could have some fresh air. There was a little girl int he window that was talking to her and waving at us. As Bryan was pulling away, I pulled Pippy down from the window and started to roll it up. Well I wasn't paying attention to Pippy cuz I was busy waving at the little girl. I looked at the window cuz it felt like it was stuck and here I had rolled Pippy's head up in the window. Well of course I started freaking out ... and as I'm yelling for Bryan to roll it down, I rolled it up more and she started yelping :0( I finally got her head out ... poor puppy! She was so sad and upset. She just curled up into me. I felt SOOOOOO awful. After we got home and a few extra treats later, we are all OK :0)

Grams ....

Grams Grams n Lindsay Grams n me

So last weekend, Aunty Shirley, Lindsay (who had just had her 2nd carpal tunnel surgery) and I went up north to help my mom pack up grams' stuff for her new apt. We did a lot of cleaning house, getting rid of junk and organizing. Poor grams was having a hard time letting go of stuff but we reminded her that her new place will be smaller and if she needs anything, we can get new stuff for her new place. The dumpster at her apt building was empty when we started on Saturday and by the time we left (after 10+ hrs), it was overflowing and my mom even took stuff to her house ... crazy? Plus that is after like 8 boxes went to the "Sunshine Closet" ... which is like a goodwill. And my mom still had more to drop off. We couldn't believe all the stuff gram had accumulated but I guess after like 24 years in the same apt, it happens. We took a few pics to remind us of the packing day :0)


Lindsay packing up clothes and Me loading up a box


Shirley moving dressers Shirley and Phyllis thinking hard LOL

So yesterday a few of my uncles and cousins, my parents and Aunt Shirley and Uncle Dave packed up everything up north in a Uhaul and brought it down to her new apt in Woodbury. I went over today along with Lindsay, Nichole and Aunt Shirley to do the rest of the organizing that Shirley and mom didn't get to yesterday. We got a lot done (I left before the others) but it was looking like home for grams when I was leaving. Next time I'm there ... I'm sure sometime this week, I'll take some pics :0) It's just nice to have her down her now and closer. Good job to everyone that got this task done (FINALLY!!!!)

Hanging out with Riley

This is my favorite pic ... they are SO cute :0)

So last Wednesday I got to hang out with Riley for the evening and then Pippy and I spent the night. It was SO fun. Riley and I were VERY busy playing. We played Golf and Bowling on the wii and then we played like 5 games of Guess Who? That was my very favorite game growing up (well that and Memory). I did better bowling but Riley did beat me every time but once. Golf was a lil difficult for him to play but we tried. We watched a couple episodes of Dora and were practicing our Spanish. He actually knows quite a bit. His curious lil mind kept asking me how to say stuff in Chinese tho. He thought it was funny that Aunty Shana had NO idea how to speak any Chinese. Guess that should be my next project LOL We were having fun taking pics ... especially him taking ones of Pippy. SO here are a few pics that we took ....


Riley bowling on the wii


He was actually excited in this pic cuz he got a strike even if it doens't quite show it :0)


Riley playing fetch and tug-o-war with Pippy


Riley took this pic of Pippy


Pippy chillin' on her favorite couch (Riley's couch that is ...)


Riley and me ... I like this pic :0)


And Riley watching Dora and chillin' before bed