THANK YOU!

We were worried about the weather on Sunday, but it turned out to be a beautiful day...sunny, a little on the cool side (about 50*F), but great for walking! No jackets needed!

After church, I headed down to the walk site to help get ready. I am a committee member so I needed to be there early. DH and the girls came later, along with the rest of the team. And can I just say a HUGE THANK YOU to all who came out to walk with us too: Mom, Sandy, Sherri, Renee, Darren, Kristy, Chelsea, Dylan and their friends, Lincoln, Grant and Harrison, Lisa, Steph, A, Alex, Jen, John, Ali and Josie, Shelly and Steph. It's so fun when we have family and friends together for this event!

I was also quite impressed with Lindsey and Sydney this year. This is the second year we didn't bring a stroller. However, this year, we did bring the bikes! GREAT idea! Lindsey walked half of the first loop (a loop is a mile) and then proceeded to ride the rest of the loop and ride two MORE loops! Holy buckets! That was three miles! Sydney was too far ahead the first loop so missed picking up her bike, but the rode another loop. Then she was done and headed to the playground!

Thanks also to Rochelle and all my other committe members! As always, it's great to work with you!

Again, we were Top Team and I was Top Walker for our walk location. We all work very hard and it's all because of our wonderful supporters!

I hope you enjoy my little montage of the day (turn up your volume):

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Next year... think about joining us, will you?

We need help in order to reach our goal!

This Sunday our family is walking in the annual March of Dimes March for Babies (formerly WalkAmerica), rain or shine, and it's looking like it's not going to be shining either.

You all know the story of my girls, born at 24 weeks, 114 days in the NICU. If you've just come across my blog, you can check out their Caring Bridge page listed in my sidebar by their pictures to read more of Lindsey and Sydney's story via my early journals. Our family is dedicated to giving back, raising money for the March of Dimes. It's been so neat seeing Lindsey and Sydney get more involved with our fundraising efforts. They help me spread the mission of the March of Dimes and this year, they signed every letter we sent out! They are SO EXCITED for the walk this Sunday! I am so very proud of what little ladies they are becoming!

This is the sixth year walking with our family team. Each year, I set a goal a little bit higher than the previous one, and we work very hard to raise more money than we did the year before. We are getting so close, but are still short of our goal. Please help if you can! Large or small, all donations make a difference! Click this banner to make a donation:


I will leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from five and half years ago...

Lindsey:





Sydney:



Going home, a very happy day!



Thank you for reading, for caring, for supporting...we greatly appreciate it!

When I Grow Up...

I LOVE seeing what comes home in their backpacks each day! It makes for some great conversations.

I thought I would also share this cute picture of Lindsey. They take spring pics at school. I don't usually get them (although I should, because they usually turn out better than the fall ones). I probably would've gotten these, but we had a little problem. I only got ones of Lindsey, because apparently, Sydney wasn't having a good day that day and refused to get her picture taken. A picture of a little girl crying and carrying on probably wouldn't have looked too good on the wall anyway.

But this one of Lindsey sure is cute, isn't it? (It's scanned, so pardon the poor quality and colors).


Happy Spring!

April Fool's!

Funny...every year I usually can get someone to fall for the ol', "WOW! It's really snowing outside!" on April Fool's Day. Not this year. I woke up to my cell phone text message beeping at 5:30 a.m. telling me that school was going to be two hours late!

Yes, indeedy, we got another, oh, I don't know...4-5 inches I guess. It had just all melted. I'm not surprised though. I know this is April and I know it's Minnesota, where it is quite common to have a little snowstorm in April. I know that I live in a fairly rural area with country roads, but come on, seriously? They had to close school again? Not that it affects me, mind you. My girl's won't be in Kindergarten until next year. This is just a taste of what's to come!

I went to get my hair cut, [whispering] colored and highlighted [end whispering] at 9 a.m. this morning and by the time I was done at 10:30 a.m., the roads were all clear, not a speck of snow on them. Then it proceeded to get up to the mid 40's and everything is melting and getting slushy and muddy again. I doubt we will have any of this left by Friday. And I really think the weather is a-changing...mid 50's! Yes!

I'm sure you've noticed I talk about the weather a lot. Tee-hee! Yes, that's what we do up north! Very common subject!

The other reason I was annoyed with the school closing was because today is the girl's dance class, and they always cancel when school closes. This would've been the fourth Tuesday, but the coach got the okay from the home office!

I should say this is Lindsey's class now, as we have withdrawn Sydney from the class. Long story, short, she was just not into it after the holiday break. We gave it a go, but she just has a lot of anxiety with people watching her and rather than make it worse, we just told her she didn't have to participate if she didn't want to. They have a great instructor, who even lets her sit in on the class watching the other girls, even though she has withdrawn. Their instructor, Coach T, said it was fine to let her withdraw, she's five and they have no expectations for them at this age. Actually, I'm quite surprised she made it this long and even participated in the Holiday show, performing in front of over 500 people! I would've been petrified!

Today we got the professional pics, so I'll end with those. They turned out cute. I got a little button to wear of the two of them together that I'm oh-so-proud of. Oh, and in the one picture, doesn't Sydney look SO much bigger than Lindsey? She's really not. She's only about 1/2" taller (looking like she has a bit better posture though, eh?).

The color didn't scan well, but they're still cute!

Without further ado...







I'm just so proud of them! They have come such a long way and have really blossomed this year. They are just growing and changing so much! I love you baby girls!