Happy Memorial Day

We had a nice long weekend. It was busy, but not too busy. Kory's dad and his wife Bernita came to visit too which was really nice. We hadn't seen them since November. We had absolutely fantastic weather! I can't believe it. Here's a few pics we took lately:

Kory and his Dad-

Emme and Bernita playing-

Emme posing for a pic with Papa-

My attempt at creative shots-

Emme and Papa on the carousel at Brat Fest-

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Thanks to our soldiers and their families for the ultimate sacrifice so the we can all live in a country of freedom.

Hayward Trip

We went up north last week for Mother's Day. We had a great time. The trip up was a little stressful with Emme. I worked until 11 and then Kory picked me up at work. He had the whole truck packed and Emme all ready to go! It was fantastic. The problem was that she played for 2 entire hours and then screamed for a full hour before finally passing out. So she slept the last hour and a half - guess we can't complain too much.

It snowed on our way up north...in May!! We even woke up Saturday morning to a fresh blanket of snow. Crazy! We did still got some outside playtime though. I just love being in Hayward. I have so many memories as a child hanging out up there with my family and I hope we can give Emily the same wonderful memories!!

Here's a pic of her after nappy time. I love those kissable rosy red cheeks:


We were able to take Emily fishing for the first time. Thanks Z-pants for letting us borrow the life jacket. Let us know when you need it back! Check out those rock star sunglasses...I'm pretty sure her outfit was loud enough to scare fish away! LOL!

Here is Grammy holding on to the "oh sh**" handle on the life jacket - that's what it's for, right??? Em thought fishing was a contest of who can reel their empty lure in the fastest!! She was sooooo funny. Mom was trying to get her to leave her lure in the water a little longer so maybe a fish could grab it, but nope - Emily is VERY bossy and would yell at Grammy. It was so funny.

Thank you cousin Mikaiya for letting me borrow your barbie fishing pole - I don't have my own one yet :)

Here's a fish that daddy caught - Em loved it!!!!! She was helping to reel it in. Look out - I think we have a fisherman on our hands.

The last day there Grandpa let us take the Ranger out for the spin. Thanks Dad! Emme LOVES the Ranger. The whole family went for a ride. It was super fun.

Thanks to mom & dad for letting us come visit more often this summer. Happy Mother's Day to two of the most beautiful, loving and kind women in the world - Mom and Bonnie. You are the most fantastic "mom's" I could have and I look forward to many more Mother's Day's with both of you.

New Playset

We bought Emily a new playset a few weeks ago and finally got a few nice days to put it up. Kory did all the work! It looks fantastic!!

Here is a cute video of Kory hammering in the anchors and Emily was saying "oh dada" each time he hit it. You have to listen closely to hear her.

Indiana Trip

Sorry it's been so long since we last blogged. The weather has been georgous, so we've been outside in all our free time.
Last weekend we took a road trip to Indiana to visit Kory's grandparents. We took 2 cars - boys in 1 car (Tom, Tony, Kory and Zander) and girls in the other car (Bonnie, Kacey, Teresa and Emily). It was super fun! Emily is potty training right now, so our car made the most "pit stops". LOL! Thanks to Kacey and Bonnie for their patience, and Emme did fantastic! Didn't have a single accident all weekend.

Here we are playing at Grandma Marion's house - she found all these old toys that Kory and Kacey remember playing with when they were kids:



We spent a whole afternoon outside at the farm. Kory was anxious to show Emily all the tractors and combines. Here they are - Em's first time in a combine:



Grandpa Randy had fun with both Zander and Emily in the combine. Too bad Emily wouldn't sit still long enough for us to get a good picture!! She was adamant that we close the door for some reason:



This was me being creative in my picture taking. It's Emme, Randy, Kacey and Kory looking out at the farm field:



Here is Daddy showing Emily something very important about that piece of dirt:

Grandpa even got the go cart out- so Emme and Daddy took a few laps around the house. Too bad it wasn't warmer, but we still had a great time:

This is at Grandma & Grandpa Miiller's house. Emily was happily blowing bubbles:

I can't believe everyone was looking!! Here's a fantastic picture of Grandma & Grandpa Miiller with Emme and Zander:

We had a really nice time and are glad we were able to go visit. We don't get down there as often as we should.

Easter Weekend

This year Easter was much more enjoyable since Em was able to get more involved.
We took a lot of pictures, of course!

This first batch is from Saturday in IL at my parents "apartment".

Here is Em in her beautiful Easter dress:

Opening her Easter basket from Grammy & Grampa:

Love this one of Daddy and Emme:

Emme loves giving Uncle Mike noonies. I am so happy I got an action shot:

Emme's Auntie CeCe:

Change of clothes for the first attempt at coloring Easter eggs:

CeCe helped her the whole time, so I could take pics. Thanks Casey!



After it stopped raining, we walked over to Harms Farm (my aunt and uncle's place) and checked out their pond. Emme was frog hunting!

This batch of pics is from Sunday at Bonnie & Tom's house.

We tried really hard to get a nice pic of Em in her Easter dress and Zander in his handsome outfit, but neither of them were too interested:

Here is Em opening her Easter present from her godfather Nathan:

Here is Z loving his Superman bouncy ball thingy:

Here is Em doing her Easter Egg hunt with Grandma:

Now she's organizing all of her treats and money:

We had a fantastic weekend. Thanks to both sets of Grandparents for making it so memorable. We really had a great time!

#1 Grandkids

There has been some discussion lately amongst the Marion kids about who the favorite grandkids are - I just wanted to post a picture that will give us all a final answer.

Hayward Vacation

Mom, Emily and I took last week off and headed up north to my parents house in Hayward, WI. We had a BLAST! It was quite the busy week, but we still got lots of relaxation time in.

One of the most exciting parts of our whole trip was finding the missing bean bags coffee can....we have been looking for this can for the last 2 years up north! LOL! It is too funny because we all blamed each other on who lost the bean bags for the bean bags game. Casey and Mom ended up sewing some new ones last year so we could play. Well mom and I were driving out one day and saw something red in the trees. We had to stop and see if it was the missing can...and sure enough...it was! We came to find out that the coffee can has definite teeth marks in it - so something grabbed it and ran with it! I only found one of the four bean bags and it had been torn open and all the corn was gone. Too funny. Well at least we now know we aren't all losing our minds! We could not figure out what happened to them.

We got a lot of playing outside time even though it was March in Hayward. We totally lucked out on weather. Yay! Here are a few videos of Em playing with her toys. We're pretty sure she's the athlete in the family!!!

Here's Em out playing on her tricycle.

Here's my smiling sweetheart:

Here she is sitting in Gee's end table with Dora:

We even went to the park one day. Here she is out playing:

...and swinging:

...and getting ready to go down the 'wee' (a.k.a slide):

We even took a day and went to Duluth/Superior. We took Em to the Duluth Children's Museum. I wouldn't recommend it...it was pretty lame. Madison's is MUCH better!!!

Here she is playing with the train table at the museum:

Here she is fishing at the museum:

Then we took a stop at the mall. This was just prior to Em's major meltdown!!!!

And my favorite pic....Emme and Gee looking out over lake Superior. Duluth was soooo georgous!