Playing Catch Up

I feel like I am always playing catch up on here. I just can't find the time to blog about all the fun things we have been doing! But here it goes....

This weekend we met up in Des Moines (at Ross & Christi's) for the annual Ladwig Get Together. The weather was beautiful & a good time was had by all! After the party was over we went to Ross & Christi's softball game. We were all exhausted Saturday night and were asleep by 10! On Sunday we took Hallie to Build A Bear to make a Shrek, then headed back home.

Tomorrow we are headed up to Iowa City to meet Jessie & Sara for dinner. I will post more after that.

Enjoy the slide show below... (hold your cursor over the picture for the caption to pop up)

Happy Birthday, Allivia!!

Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday!!!!!

Allivia is 5!! (Allivia is my cousin Jenni's little girl) This weekend we traveled over to Des Moines for Allivia's birthday party at Triad Gymnastics.

Our road trips get a little long-- so here is Reese balancing things on her head for entertainment :)

...and Hallie practicing making different faces.

After the party we hung out at Keri & Jimmy's and then met most of the Bolles family for supper at Joe's Crab Shack. We had a great time-- thanks for inviting us! Here's the slideshow...

After Joe's we headed over to Ross & Christi's to visit. We had so much fun we decided to stay and have a slumber party, as the girls called it! Here's a little slide show of the cousins. (taken in the morning-- so some of the pics are really beautiful!!) We had fun taking silly pictures of each other! See you guys next weekend. We'd like to make reservations for four Saturday night, please :)

And that is it... there is our weekend.

I should also include a little Ann'y wish for Dad and Mary (their ann'y is the 24th as well)

It was also Grandma Mildred's birthday....

so lots of special people to think of on April 24th!!

Enjoy the day!

Girl's Night Out!!

Okay, this post is pathetic.... NO PICTURES!! Can you believe I spent the whole night with scrapbookers and nobody took a picture?? Still, the night was so fun I had to blog about it! First, I went to "Not Your Ordinary Book Club"... taught by Kim. She is fabulous and we had a fun time! After club Kim, her sister visiting from Utah- Maren and I met our other scrap buddy Lynn at Red Robin for a super fun dinner! Lynn is sooo funny, she kept us very entertained. (what happens at Red Robin, stays at Red Robin) Not to mention all of her show & tell of all the new things she has been busy creating-- did I mention she is absolutely the most creative and "artsy" person I know??? I LOVE all of her stuff!! She needs to publish a book with all of her creations! I am sure it would be a best seller :) Anyway, we all had a great time & I can't wait to get together again!

P.S. Thank you Ryan for babysitting!!

Fun Pics

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Here are Hallie & mommy taking funny pictures...

And Hallie dressing up as a "Butterfly Princess"

Reese cookin' something up

Can this be comfortable? She sleeps in the funniest

positions!!

A Day at the Zoo!

Today was a very fun day! We went to the zoo with our new neighbors. They have a two and a half year old, Lia... who has become Hallie's best friend very quickly! They have done something together everyday since they moved in. This summer should be lots of fun!

After the zoo we had our first grill out and dinner outside! SUMMER IS HERE!!! Yipee :)

30 Minute Blog

Okay, so the timer is set... I am giving myself 30 mins to do this blog and then I have a TON of stuff I want to get done while BOTH (that's right, I said it... both) girls are napping!! I think I first need to address our weather-- for those of you out of state--

These two pictures were both taken this week! First, snow... then 2 days later-- grillin' weather! Oh well, as long as the grillin' weather lasts I won't complain about the snow. This is Ryan's new grill-- he is very excited :) Our family LOVES to grill out!!

Next topic... my NEW VINYL LETTERING!!!!!!!!!! Cathey came through again!! This one is soooo cute, I love it! The pictures were kind of hard to take since it is like 8 feet long, but at least you get an idea!! This quote says: "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly."

I have gotten requests for Cathey's e-mail, so here it is: cjdj1947@mchsi.com

She is sooooo good, she can help you create whatever you have in mind-- just send her an e-mail.

And now the reason I have to get going.....

We gave into the pressure and got "Guitar Hero II" last night. (a video game you have to play the guitar!) So we have been "rocking out" and not getting anything else done! -- Thanks Jess, we are addicted now!!!!!!!

Okay, the other reason nothing has gotten done is I found a GREAT scrapbooking website!! ATTENTION ALL SCRAPPERS.............. www.bluemoonscrapbooking.com It is fabulous and I got all my stuff in 1 day!!! (So, of course I had to order more!!) So now I have to get to work on a scrapbooking project and finish putting shingles on Hallie's dollhouse and get laundry done, and clean up the house a bit. I am sure I forgot other things, but my timer is down to 2 mins. so I have to go!!!

And of course........... here is a picture of Reese, taken by Photographer Hallie....

Ladwig, "Out"

(Don't you feel like I need to have a goodbye phrase for the bottom of my blogs??? Okay, maybe Ryan Seacrest's "Seacrest, Out" isn't it, but I need to think of something. I feel like Katie Couric when they were having the contest for her phrase. I have to be careful-- I don't want to plagiarize anyone!!)

Easter 2007

We just got back from our easter adventure... and had a great time. I took too many pictures, so I decided to make a slideshow (below). First, my mom visited for a few days and made cookies with the girls. Then our adventure really began... we picked up Jess in Iowa City- making it a FULL car! Bentley was at my feet in the front seat.-- he played "fetch" for about 45 mins. He would pick up the toy, I would drop it back on the floor and so on and so on! Whatever keeps him busy! We made it to Ida Grove and dropped Bentley off to play with Chase (Ron and Tricia's dog) for the weekend. Then our final desination was my dad and Mary's house at about 11:45pm! On Friday we colored eggs and ate at Pizza Ranch for supper. Just had a fun day hanging out with each other! On Saturday was the egg hunt. It was 29 degrees and super windy. Hallie took her hands out of her pockets long enough for one egg and she was done! BRRR! Broc and Sara and their kids came over for lunch and egg hunt at dad's. Sunday we woke up to go to church, went to church (found out service started earlier than normal), missed church, came back home visited a bit more and started our journey back the other way. Along the way we stopped at Ron and Tricia's celebrated a mini-Easter and made it back home around midnight. We checked out what the Easter Bunny had brought the next day. Hope that explains most of the pictures.... enjoy the show!

Easter 2007 Slide Show

Fun-filled Weekend-- Lots of Pictures

Friday Night

On Friday Hallie, Reese, & I started our adventure! First, we headed up to Iowa City to pick up my NEW machine for scrapbooking!!!-- the Silhouette. Also, I was in "Heidi Heaven"... the scrap store had just gotten in a TON of new stuff, and I love it all!!!!!!! So, needless to say-- I stocked up! You will be seeing lots of projects using these very soon! I committed myself to do the "Scrapbooker of the Year" contest with Kim... so I have 20 layouts or projects to do and make a portfolio. It will be lots of work, but hopefully lots of fun!

After my stop off in heaven we went and picked up Jessie and headed off to the Coralville Mall for Family Night. It was LOTS of fun!!

We got to ride the carousel ... this is Reese's first time! Hallie loved riding with Jess.

Then it was off to the museum...

Here is Hallie painting a masterpiece.

And playing in the Old Time grocery store.

They have a full Doctor's office, baby nursery, dentist office and ambulance. Hallie played doctor and gave Reese and I the full "rig-a-ma-roo"- including shots!

Thanks for the fun night Jessie!! We had a blast... we'll have to do it again soon!

Saturday

Wow, we packed Saturday full of activities, too! We started off bright and early to be at the Easter Egg Hunt at 9:30 in Moline. They had an Easter bunny, and the mascots from the Swingers (baseball team) and the Mallards (hockey team). After the hunt we headed off to Hallie's last dance class. (the video was posted earlier) It was a fun little class, but I think we are going to hold off and sign up for swimming lessons this summer.

Saturday night Grandma Carmel came to visit :) She played with the girls and I worked on my scrapbook layout for the March contest at Scrapaganza.

Sunday

Today we woke up early and continued working on the layout (Okay, so here is where I would post the picture of the layout, IF I would have remembered to take one!!-- I will post it once I get it back. I used my new machine for a lot of it)

I went to Scrapaganza and planned my class I am teaching for the Magnetic Calendar.

This picture isn't the greatest, but at least I took a picture, huh? It is made of galvanized steel, cardboard and paper. I will be teaching it two days in May-- hint, hint, sign up!! :) It will be lots of fun! You can see more at www.scrapaganzaonline.com soon-- the pictures on there will be better.

So, there you have it... our weekend in a nutshell.

Hallie's Last Dance Class-- Froggie Dance