The Vanderwal's: July 2014

So it has been 7 weeks since I have posted. Summer is flying by for us as I am sure it is for most of you. Last summer I posted a summary of what most of our days are like and I thought I would do that again cause I don't want to forget. Our days begin at 4:41 am where we debate through our tiredness if we will get up to work out, do devotions, etc. If sleep gets the best of us we reset our alarms to 5:20. To be honest, sleep wins most days and for now I am OK with that. Next I get in the shower while Kevin has breakfast, watches the news, and gets his stuff ready for work. Shortly after 6 I am up for breakfast and to get dressed. By 6:15 Kevin goes in to wake up the girls if they are not already awake and to get them dressed. After they are dressed Kevin sends them into our room to sit with me while I finish getting dressed and then we go across the hall to the bathroom for piggies and ponies. Then its time for shoes and we are out the door shortly after 6:30. I have been doing drop off and pick up to daycare while Kevin is doing construction so we usually get there about 6:50 and I am at work at 7 or shortly after. Over my lunch I usually have a pre-mapped out game plan of errands to run or a doctor appointment to go to. At 4 I take off and pick up the girls. We are usually home around 4:45 and play outside until 5:30 when we come in to eat supper. Depending on how long Kevin works he usually gets home while the girls and I are eating. We then go back outside, to the park, or play downstairs until 7-7:30. Then Kevin will read a story to the girls and they are out by 8 pm. We then usually have tons of other things to do around the house like laundry, dishes, and who knows what else. By then I am ready to sit down. :) This is probably why summer is flying by. Busy but GOOD!

Last weekend was Fourth of July Weekend. Kevin and I both had Friday off so we headed up to Lake Okoboji with the girls on Friday morning. After an iffy ride up there, where we debated about turning around, we had a great rest of the weekend. The girls didn't nap the best but they played and slept hard. I got to chill at the pool two days in a row and Kevin read a book and took 2 naps. They got up early Sunday morning so we enjoyed a great HyVee breakfast and headed back to Sioux Falls. It worked out well because we felt like we still had almost a whole day at home. The girls took a 3 hour nap and then we joined some friends at a wading pool. Pretty great weekend!

This past week our "babies" turned TWO! And the truth is they look and act so much like little girls instead of babies. We woke them up a little earlier than normal and had them open a few gifts and then we went out side and took some pictures in the adorable outfits my mom made for them. I think they felt fancy in them :) They had a great day at Amy's house and brought giraffe and butterfly rice krispie bars and they had a Dora party there with cupcakes. Sugar rush for sure! We brought the girls to Red Mango for frozen yogurt after supper and then it was time for bed. Such a great day!
Thursday was my dad's birthday and yesterday was Kevin's birthday so we had a party to celebrate birthday week. We started out the day by Kevin and I taking the girls to Perkins for breakfast...Kevin and I LOVE breakfast and the girls are following in our footsteps. We then went to the butterfly house/marine cove. The girls thought it was pretty cool. Amelia loved the quail that roamed around the butterfly house and Quinn was obsessed with the stingrays. Later my parents, Reid and Lauren (and Lauren's sister), and Heather, Elliot, and Mason came over and we did some grilling and playing outside. Even though it was Kevin's actual birthday I planned a Chapter 2 themed party for the girls and have a ton of the pictures below.

As far as Baby V goes I was 27 weeks as of yesterday. WOW this is flying by. Overall I am feeling well. By the end of the day my tailbone starts to hurt but sitting on the hitting pad and getting a good night of sleep seems to help a lot. It's quite different to only carry one baby--while I feel movement it's nothing compared to the movement I felt when I carried two babies. Next week I have the glucose tolerance test and at week 31 I will have another ultrasound to check on the growth of the baby just to make sure he or she is growing as expected.

Amelia & Quinn are hilarious. Over the last few weeks they have gotten into Minnie Mouse, Dora, and Doc McStuffins. They have Minnie and Dora babies that they carry everywhere. These two girls talk nonstop and copy almost everything we say or do. They do the actions to Arky Arky and This Little Light of Mine and love to listen to them over and over. They are adorable and hilarious.

We are looking forward to heading to BC in just a couple of weeks. The girls are looking forward to seeing Bep and Grandpa as well as their cousins! We can't wait to see everyone either. Would have been fun to celebrate with all of them yesterday too but we will celebrate again in no time! We feel very blessed to be the parents of these crazy fun and smiley girls are thankful for the two years we have had with them. We cant wait to see what this next year holds.

Anyway, here are some pictures of their Chapter 2 party.

I made a Table of Contents for each of the girls with their favorite things and other things we wanted to remember about the time they turned 2.

Having a pre-party cookie with Mamma.

Quinn and Uncle Reid

Loving their new Barbie bikes from Uncle Reid and Aunt LoLo

Time for cake!

Checking out the new table and chairs from Grandpa and Grandma.

Reading a new book with Grandpa

Here are some other pictures of what happens in the Vanderwal house.

Quinn only wants Baby and her blankie when she sleeps. Even if she asks for Minnie or Dora when we put them down, before we go to bed and check on them, they have all been thrown out of her crib.