Can you guess who it is?  I'll give you a hint.  She wears glasses, and Livi started to write her name, but got distracted before finishing the third letter...

I know, I know.  So I'm just going to move on...  This is where we left off:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!  Just had to put that one in one more time.

The girls did some painting:

And some dancing (with Daddy):

And we bought a set of hot rollers!  Luckily there is enough left for Livi after I do my own.  If you look very closely in the first photo, you will see that I have some in too.

And the end result:

Then a week or so ago we went to Tulsa to see the zoo.  Tulsa is only two hours away!  We stopped at the Oklahoma Welcome Rest Area to have a picnic lunch:

FYI, we think Norah spilled her water in the car, and her pants were drenched.  They were laying in the sun, and were almost dry by the time we left.  Daddy finished them off under the hand dryer in the bathroom.  Then on to the Zoo!

It is not as nice a zoo as the MN Zoo--especially since the animals don't have near enough room.  I did love that about MN; the animals were in an environment similar to their natural one with room to roam.  Not so much here.  More like the Como Zoo, but times one and a half.  Does that make sense?  There were lots of neat animals.  Including these ones, dancing to the music in one of the pavillions:

We didn't bring a stroller, and the girls got tired quickly being out in the hot sun and not having much of a nap beforehand.  So there was a lot of this:

And on the other side:

Then we had a monumental occasion around here...Norah Kathryn turned 2!!!  The cake was a joint effort--Jon chose the shapes and baked the cake, I came up with a design and frosted it.  We make a great team!    Norah calls it her "Oinky Cake."

The Birthday Girl:

We took our cake over to Grandma & Grandpa Rustad's house, and they supplied the ice cream, coffee, and milk.  Norah had so much fun!

This present was from Grandma & Grandpa Rustad.  It has quickly become the new favorite baby around here!

Norah got a ton of packages in the mail too!  Special thanks to Grandpa John for the handmade puzzle!  Thank you shout outs to Catherine, Stephanie, and Jenny too!    And Karly, we know yours is coming, LOL.

Then this past weekend I got to fly to Montana for my sister's bridal shower.  By myself.  Without the children.  Alone.  Have I made my point yet, lol?  I have never left Norah overnight before, and the last time I left Olivia was when Norah was born.  Can you believe it has been two years???  Jon found a ticket for a great price, and we jumped at it!  I had to get up at 2:30am to drive to Tulsa on Friday morning, because the ticket was half the price of flying from Bentonville.  I picked up a couple books on CD, and listened the whole way without getting tired once.  Then after an entire day of sitting on airplanes and making mad dashes in the airports to make my connecting flights, I ended up in Billings to surprise Jess, Leighton, and Dad.

It was a blast, and I'm so glad I got to go!  We had a lot of fun, and I didn't even worry about the girls.  Daddy, Liv, and Norah had fun too, but I think we were all ready for Mama to come home when she did.  Here are some shots from that weekend.

Grandpa Collins holding his newest great-granddaughter, Katelynn Marie, who is six weeks old.  She stopped crying every time she heard his voice. 

Teresa styling Grandma Collins' hair:

The gift table: 

Bryant, Katelynn's two-year-old brother (both children of Sara & Brant's):

Jacob (Teresa's oldest) holding Katelynn:

Grandma Collins: 

Leighton holding Katelynn.  Despite that look on his face, he did hold her for a VERY long time!

Grandpa & Grandma Collins:

Jess, Leighton, Katelynn:

Teresa with her crew: McKenzie, Jacob, and Jeremy

Jess snapped a photo of me too:

Auntie Susie, who hosted the whole weekend event.  Thank you; thank you; thank you!!! 

Auntie Mary holding Katelynn:

Shower Games...can you guess which one this is?

And guess who was the bride for the other team?  Also check out the train carrier...

The "brides" (though one looks a lot like Mother Theresa, and the other looks like a hippie)

Mother Theresa says to the Hippie, "Are we getting married? Because I think that's illegal."

Here's Jess with the rehearsal bouquet I made out of all the ribbons from her shower.  Can you see the one made of duct tape?

This is Jess and Gail, Leighton's mom:

And now, since I didn't have my own girls around to take lots of pictures, I had to take lots of pictures of Sara's!  Here are my favorites, some both in color and sepia:

Hope you enjoyed the update!  I would say I promise it won't be so long until the next one, but I'd rather just say I'll try.  And I will try!!!

Jon and I found a way to actually go see a movie!  I have to give all the credit to Jon, as he discovered the opportunity, thought of ideas to make it work, and believed it actually would.  I was not a believer until after it actually happened.  Here's what happened:

At work Jon heard about a drive-in movie theater in Fayetteville.  We looked it up online, and last Friday night they were showing the Chipmunk movie at 8pm, and 27 Dresses at 9:45pm.  Jon took the two back seats out of the van and filled it with blankets and pillows, we stuck the mp3 player and speakers in the car, loaded up with snacks and drinks, and we were off!  The girls were not terribly interested in Alvin, Simon, or Theodore, but they did love dancing to their music!  We all sat in the front seats of the van while we watched the movie and ate our snacks.  After the first movie, we changed into jammies and the girls and I snuggled in the way back of the van and read our routine "night-night books" and said our prayers.  Each girl had their special blankets (Dora for Norah and the Little Mermaid for Livi).  Jon turned on some soft sleepy music on the mp3 player (which was just loud enough to drowned out the sounds of the movie from the outdoor speakers), and I crawled up to the front seat.

Lo and behold...  THEY FELL ASLEEP WITHIN MINUTES!  It was amazing!  Jon and I sat and enjoyed our semi-new movie and more snacks.  When the movie was over, we cranked the heat in the van for a couple minutes, then ran to the back, grabbed the girls out and threw them in their carseats and took off.  Olivia never even woke up, and once we hit the interstate Norah was lulled back to sleep too.

We had a lot of fun for not a lot of money--only $11 per car!  Yay Jon for getting us out to try something new! 

 Happy Belated Easter!  We had a very fun time with lots of family!  The weekend started early with the Stoesz family arriving on Thursday, Steve and Tara arriving on Friday, and Joel, Courtney, Baby Avery and Kevin and Connie(Courtney's parents).  I'll let the pictures tell the story...

(waiting for the egg hunt to begin)

(Norah had a lot of fun, we are not exactly sure how much chocolate she ate!)

(everyone had fun!)

Some random pictures

(great family picture!)

Easter morning-finding the Easter baskets!

Easter Dinner

(baby Avery!!!)

(Chelsea's latest dessert, it was very yummy)

Steve and Tara

(practicing for the big day)

 This is the favorite picture of the household, sepia is cool!

We pray everyone has a good week!

-Jon

Jess and Chelsesa picked out the flower girl dresses this past week.  We decided to have them try them on and we took some pictures outside in our yard.  Chelsea is a great photographer!

As requested (or perhaps, promised?) here are some videos.  They actually all came out of one seven minute video I tried to upload, but the size was too big.  I apologize in advance for the jumpy picture.  I'm not sure why it does that, since our video camera is meant to do upload to the computer via USB.  Anyway, here you are!

First we have Norah, who actually can sing her ABCs all the way through, but chose not to in the seven minutes we were taping.  Instead I had her repeat one of her new phrases, which is a favorite of mine.  She first said it a couple days ago, after I said it to Livi about fake burping at the dinner table.  It's funny.

Next, we have Daddy trying to get Norah to sing, but she notices herself in the mirror...

Then, hoping to get in on the action, Olivia sings us a song from the popular Disney movie, The Little Mermaid.

Norah, telling about the swimming birthday part we went to.  This was too funny to leave out, even though it's short!

This one in entitled, "I Be One, You Be a Queen!"

And finally, Princess Eyes.

Last Saturday we visited one of the highest peaks in NW Arkansas, Whitney Mountain. 

It is located on Beaver Lake, a man-made reservoir that supplies all of Benton County with drinking water.  There was a lodge at the top and a housing development called the Lost Bridge Village.  There were speed boats and sail boats navigating the waters.  The temperature hit 75 degrees, but the water was not any where near that!!!  Enjoy the pictures--Jon

First, some inside the house shots of Norah and Olivia

Norah with a Ponytail.  When I first saw this picture, I thought it was an old picture of Livi--

What?  Smile?

Now to the outside shots--it is crazy how it will be 75 degrees one day and two days later all the schools are closed and we have four inches of snow!  At least it had all melted by the time I came home from work!!

Oh, how we love rocks, rocks are so cool!  

I believe Grampa John has a special name for them....leverites

For those who don't get it, it mean to "leave them right" where you found them!

Look Dad, it's in my tummy!

I think we could all agree that Livi is better at the unposed shots--

I think the girls were ready to head to the park.  See, I have that parental intuition.

There was a Corp of Engineers Park and Beach at the bottom of the Mountain.  There were only a handful of people there.  We decided to check out the beach, so we all took off our shoes and socks and rolled up our pants.  Now, the water was cold.  I felt like I was losing the feeling in my feet.  Olivia, on the other hand, didn't flinch.  One tiny scratch needs a bandage for a week, but icy cold water gets nothing---go figure.

Olivia kept trying to clean off her legs, but she kept managing to get something else dirty--notice the pants!

Sunglasses for the sun, no.  Sunglasses for the glare off our skin, yes

Okay, you may be wondering, "Where is Chelsea?".  While, I told her I would take some pictures and that it was her turn to go into the water.  It did not last long!

First shot:

Second shot(a few seconds later):

And that was it!

Luckily I had two shirts on, so my T-shirt became the towel and my shoe was the seat.

Notice Norah's balancing!

To the Park!

Olivia has developed the "No Fear" approach to playground equipment. 

I know, it makes me think of the scene from Tommy Boy..."Fat man in a little coat".  I did not break the slide!  Side note--I was on one of those health measuring devices at the store and it had a feature to measure your body fat.  It weighed me and asked for my height.  The return?  Obese.  I have to battle the desk job side effects!

These are so cool!

I'm not really sure what Livi was thinking, but she has been practicing her facial expressions lately.  She has the Disney Princess enamored eyes look down, I think she was working on dazed and confused in this picture.

Sorry it has been so long since we posted.  We hope everyone has a good weekend! 

We were in the car, heading to get groceries.  I was teasing the girls about not falling asleep, since it was just after lunch and I wanted them to rest when we got home.  Open scene...

Norah, "Mama, my sleeping!"

Me, "Oh, okay.  I'll be very quiet."

Norah, "No, Mama awake!"

Me, "I am awake, silly."

Norah, "No, meeeeeeeee."

Me, "Oh, okay...Norah wake up!!!"

Norah, "No!"

Me, "Why not?"

Norah, "'Cause that's why!"

End Scene 

Stolen from Rachel's blog--very fun!

Four things you may or may not know about me in no particular order.

*Four jobs I have had in my life*

1) temp worker for day cares

2) waitress

3) personal care attendant

4) receptionist/admin asst.

*Four movies I've seen more than once*

1) The Devil Wears Prada (I watch that one at least 2-3 times a month)

2) The Princess Diaries 2

3) The Little Mermaid (several times recently)

4) Return From Snowy River

*Four places I have lived*  Except I'm going to name all of them, just for fun.

1) Spearfish, SD

2) Custer, SD

3) Minneapolis, MN

4) Columbia Heights, MN

5) Roseville, MN

6) Waseca, MN

7) Elk River, MN

8) Eden Prairie, MN

9) Bella Vista, AR

*Four of my favorite TV shows*

1) Friends

2) er

3) What Not to Wear

4) America's Next Top Model

*Four places I have been*

1) Romania

2) Nogales, Mexico

3) Alaska

4) Washington, D.C.

*People who e-mail me regularly*

1) Elaine

2) Wal-Mart.com

3) Wells Fargo bill pay notification

4) my dad

*My favorite foods*

1) macaroni & cheese

2) hummus & carrots

3) Laughing Cow Cheese, with or without crackers

4) chocolate

*Four places I would rather be right now*

1) bed

2) the bathtub

3) Minnesota or South Dakota, to see family and friends...BUT not right now--TOO COLD!

4) at the spa, getting a massage and pedicure

*Four things I am looking forward to this coming year*

1) Seeing Jana & Mike!

2) Meeting Karly's baby girl!

3) Steve & Tara's wedding!

4) just spending days with my hubby and girls!