Great Loss

What a week this has been for our family. My brother Ed was killed in a car accident on the night of Monday, Feb 15 2010. My family found out on Tuesday that he was gone. Ed was on his way home from work around 11pm and went off the road and over corrected and hit another vehicle going the other direction. He did not have his seat belt on and died at the scene. On Thursday my mom, Mike, Jessica and I traveled to Nebraska to start the funeral plans. Friday Ben and Josh rode out to Nebraska and we had the Wake services and Saturday morning we laid Ed to rest. Ed was in the Air Force and they were wonderful through the whole process and really gave Ed the honor he deserved. My heart goes out to my mom and Mike, no one wants to have a child go before them. We still have a long road ahead of us and are very glad to the friends and family we have to lean on. This week has just reinforced the fact that we all need to enjoy life and not take one minute for granted as you never know when that minute will be your last. we love you Ed may you rest in peace and we will see you again someday when god calls our name.

Swimming and Snow

This week the girls and I ventured out to the Y for some swimming. Monday we went swimming with our cousin Amanda. After swimming for a while I realized that I forgot Emma's ear plugs so we had to stop our swimming. Today we went back with ear plugs and swam for a long time. I also started spin class this week at the Y. Amanda went with me to the first one and to my surprise I liked it and went back on Wednesday for another class. I also went back today, but I was the only one that showed up so they cancelled class.

More snow fell on us on Monday. We are supposed to get even more on Friday and Saturday. We all have cabin fever and are very sick of this snow!!!

Grandma Kathy stayed with us again this week after she was done working. It makes the commute easier for her especially with all the snow we have and it helps me when Ben is working out of town because I get a little break! The girls don't like when the weekend rolls around and she goes home :(

The girls had their valentines parties this week at preschool, they had so much fun and got way too much candy!

Long Time No See

Well it has been a long time since I wrote anything on here. We have been quite busy, or should I say Ben has been busy. His agency went independent on Monday and has created much more work for him. He worked all last weekend and has been busy for about 2 weeks straight. Hopefully his hard work pays off.

The girls have been busy with preschool and othe activities. Emma jumped off the mountain by herself for the first time on Saturday. She also has been doing great in dance and is preparing for her recital in May (as much as a 3 year old can prepare). Bella is working on becoming a big girl and using the potty. She did not have any accidents yesterday but had 3 today so we still have a lot of work to do!

Last week Ben found some time to go with us to Valley West Mall kids night with our old neighbors the Dehmer's. We had a great time!

Snow, Snow, Snow

Can I just say that I am soooooo sick of winter! We had another blizzard yesterday. Bella was able to go to pre-school and Emma went to dance, but after that we stayed in all day. Ben had to go north for appointments with Jim and they both did not prepare for this weather. They had no coats, hats, gloves, etc.... They ended up getting stuck in a snow drift outside of Ogden and luckily a farmer came by and took them in. The girls and I are very thankful we have good people in Iowa because things could have ended much worse. He finally made it home this morning and went back in to work shortly after returning home. Emma missed another day of school today because of the weather. I am not sure you could find an Iowan that is not sick of this winter we are having.

Weekend Fun

What a great weekend we had. Friday night I went to "Dixie's Tupperware Party" with my aunt Terri and friend Stacy. We laughed so much. Ben and the girls went to the Blomgrens house so the kids could play together.

Ben worked on Saturday while the girls and I went to Haley's basketball game. She did a great job and Emma and Bella love to go socialize at the game with their cousins. We then did some shopping and they got their first Zhu Zhu pets. They love them so much. Saturday night we went to Mickey's in Waukee to eat with the Blomgren's. The kids had another fun night with the Blomgren children. Although I am glad I was not out waitress that had to clean up after 7 kids!

Sunday was quite a lazy day for us. We did not get up until 9:30 then the girls talked us into getting more Zhu Zhu pet stuff for them so we made the trip to Target to see what we could find. They got a new home for their pets and played with that all day. Now I am sitting and watching the Vikings play..........Go VIKES!!!!!!

Mall day

Today Emma did not have school because of the ice, so we decided to go to the mall. Before going to the mall I went to the YMCA and did a 5K on the treadmill, which was a great feeling to be able to do that. Then the girls and I headed to the mall for some pretzel sticks and playing. The girls also got another treat because I had purchased a talking Dora house from g-bay at my mom's work and they were very excited to play with that.

Bella had a great potty trainning day. She wore underware all day and only had one accident. Hopefully we are on our way to being diaper free!!!

Ice Day

Today we had an Ice Day. Our area received about .5 inches of ice so of course we stayed inside. Let's just say that we are ready to go somewhere tomorrow. Bella did work on her potty training with a couple accidents. She did end up going a few times on the big girl potty with a little bribe from me (candy). Emma was cheering her on because if Bella went on the big girl potty she also got a piece of candy. Hopefully Bella will be out of pull-ups very soon!