On Easter Sunday Yuy and Ozzie came over for some delicious smoked Ham. Grandpa B even stopped by for a quick hello and to drop of margaritas! The girls had a great day with a visit at the park, egg decorating and the Easter egg hunt. In fact, the day was so filled with fun that Hailey crashed around 5:30pm tonight! She was fast asleep before I got to the end of her second bedtime story, which never happens!

The girls have been such troopers with all of the things going on with the move. Yesterday, we went to the new house to move our Koi fish into the pond and Hailey kept wanting to go play inside. When we got home from the new house and I was putting her down for her nap, she said in the sweetest voice “I just want to stay at the new house.” Pretty soon sweetie. A big thank you goes out to Yuy for coming to help out with the girls!

Only 3 days after we listed our house for sale, we hosted a birthday party for the girls. They were so excited to see everyone and enjoyed all of the wonderful gifts so much (and still are enjoying them). We loved seeing the girls celebrate their birthday’s together and were wondering if we would see either of them do the face plant that Hailey did for her first, but no such luck. Hailey delicately plucked the dots off of her cake and Kylie just looked at hers with as little interest as a little girl could. Poor Kylie though, it was her party and she wasn’t feeling well that day and had a 24 hour stomach flu, so she went to bed early. Happy Birthday our little sweet fairies. We can’t believe how fast this year has flown by.

P.S. We hope you’re feeling well Poppa! We love you!

I’ve been so terrible about keeping the blog posted. We’ve had so much going on, but all good stuff. We decided to put our house on the market, For Sale by Owner. We thought it would move quickly, but we never had any idea just how quickly. Before we could even ever put a sign in the yard, it sold. We accepted a contract 4 days just after we listed and every moment until we signed the contract, we were double and triple booked for showings! It was nice to have multiple offers start to come in on the 3rd day it was on the market. And, since we sold our home so quickly, we had to find a home too. One week after we accepted a contract on our home, we signed a contract on a new one. So now, Casa de MarKae is relocating to Lake Barrington. We’re very excited about our new home and now we’re on to packing. Only 5 weeks left until the big moving date!

As for the kids, they’ve enjoyed house hunting. I thought it was particularly cute that when we were on the way home after being gone all day due to showings, Hailey said to me “It will be okay. We’ll buy daddy a new home. We’ll return our old one to the store and pick up a new one.” And, indeed, it feels like that’s what we’ve done.

Here’s some photos from January of the kids playing around the house.

Last night, when we came to check on hailey in one last time before we went to bed, we found she had changed her PJs – into another matching set – put on ballet shoes, summer hat and fairy wings.

We laughed so hard. Is it bad that we took pictures, posted it on FB and our blog? Poor little girl .

Tonight, I found she had put on her gymnastics outfit (leotard and tutu) over her PJs… So hilarious!

She certainly is our sleeping beauty!

One of Hailey’s favorite treats about going to Minnesota is having homemade blueberry muffins with Grammie in the garden. In fact, when I made her homemade blueberry muffins this weekend, she commented that they didn’t taste like Grammie’s and then asked me if she could fly to Minnesota. When we visited over the holidays, the winter weather did not let the girls break their tradition. They still had Grammie’s blueberry muffins in the garden and as you can see, Hailey was all smiles. Kylie stayed warm inside with me, Poppa and Bob.

There’s also some photos of Holidazzle! Shelly was the snow queen and I was the snow flake. Hailey’s still talking about seeing us in the parade. It was truly a treat!

This holiday, we went up to Minnesota to spend it with Jim, Shelly, Tracie, David, Ava and Penelope. My dad and Nancy also came up with made for an extra special visit. Our weekend was full of activities and great times. Since we just got back home last night (on Christmas night), I’ve only had a chance to download and post some of the photos, so there’s many more to come. Hailey and Ava had so much fun running around, that it was hard to catch them being still and even harder to catch them both looking at the camera for a “cheese!” Thanks again mom and dad for opening up your homes to everyone and having such a warm and welcoming gathering place for all of us!

More photos to follow!

Even though Kylie is teething and running a fever, we decided to give holiday photos another try. Since it was wet and rainy outside, we kept this photo session indoors. Although we decided not to use any of the photos from today in our holiday card, we still got some cute shots. Kylie now has her upper 2 teeth popping out and looks like she may get her 2 front teeth just in time for Christmas.

It’s that time of year again that every time the weather is decent, I take the girls outside and try and take photos for this year’s holiday card. This year poses new challenges with trying to get 2 little girls to look at the camera and smile. Lucky for me, Hailey takes photo direction well .

This weekend, Hailey went to get her annual hair cut. I must admit that when Bob said he scheduled her an appointment, I was a little sad. Her hair was so long and flowy, but now that it’s cut, it’s so darn cute! I took plenty of before and plenty of after photos. Since she sat still so well while getting her hair cut, she got a cookie treat when we got home. And, yes, I took plenty of photos of that too.

Before we left, we had to wake up little Kylie to bring her along. Strange to say, but Bob and I hardly see her sound asleep. We both just went into her room and starred at her until her eyes popped open. And, yes, we took photos of that too. These girls inspire us to follow them around all weekend with camera in hand. We just adore them.

This weekend, Grammie and Poppa were in town for Thanksgiving. The girls had so much fun with them and Bob and I got out on a date to celebrate our 8 year dating anniversary! It was so nice to get a few hours of adult time with dinner and a movie!

We also had good times as a family, including getting our Christmas tree put up – and having our mantel fall down from the weight of the decorations, making Panakuken and watching Hailey dance and sing (which she does a lot of). Thanks again for coming to visit and being such great guests. Note to all, guests who bring food, cook, clean up and watch our kids are welcomed anytime.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Uncle Ray’s and Aunt Susan’s house. They do such a wonderful job hosting such a big family and we had fun bringing a turkey to deep fry, as well as some bear beef jerkey meat to appetize on. I can’t believe I condoned letting Bob bring bear meat, but if you know Bob, you know how he is about the Bears and football.

During dinner, while everyone was giving thanks, Hailey gave thanks “for the girls and all of you” as she heard commonly throughout the night. It was so cute. Both girls, as well as us had a great time. We feel so blessed to have such a warm and welcoming family on both sides that support us in all that we do.