Counting

One:
Two:
Three:
Four:
One:
Two:
I know what you're thinking... I can't wait to see their senior pictures...

One Year Ago

Now: (with Riley in the background :)
Then:

Reagan's Birthday Party

On Saturday we had a cook-out for Reagan's birthday! Reagan chose Strawberry Shortcake's cat, Custard to be the picture on her cake. I didn't take enough pictures, but here are a couple :)


Opening presents:


Aunt Sandy and Uncle Greg got Reagan some cake & brownie mixes for Reagan to make in her Easy Bake Oven... Reagan wanted to make the sprinkle birthday cake right away. The picture on the package showed it as a layered cake with creamy white frosting spread perfectly. After a valiant effort it turned out like this. To quote Sandy: "It's not easy cooking with a lightbulb!"

Thank you to all of you who were here and wanted to be here. I am so grateful that you love Reagan and think she's as special as I do :)

My New Favorite Picture

A Very Happy Birthday!

Reagan is 4!

We started the "weeklong celebration" last night with a slumber party. Reagan's cousin, Addy came over and after the Burger King Play Place, an hour at the library, Tinkerbell with some popcorn, the girls talked themselves to sleep (at 11:30pm!).

This is a picture of the girls playing "Mom and Sweet Pea". Grant always wants to do what the older kids are doing, so he sat nicely for the picture after begging for special shoes to match the girls'.
Tonight we took Reagan to Happy Joe's for supper -- who doesn't love it when the whole restaurant sings to you on your special day?

For her gifts, Reagan got an Easy Bake Oven and the "costume" to match. In case you're wondering, no - the lightbulb didn't work, and yes - that is what she wore (with the addition of pink glitter shoes) to Lowe's with Daddy to go buy a new lightbulb.
A close-up look at Reagan's cookie creation:
Part 2 of Reagan's birthday week is tomorrow... A 4-year-old check-up with a shot.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! We love you!!

Saturday Fun

On Saturday we took the kids to the VEISHEA parade. This was Grant's first parade in which he was able to pick up some of his own candy. It was about two-thirds of the way through the parade before he got it figured out, but once he did he got really excited.

Grant actually got so excited that towards the end, he jumped up, picked up the piece of candy and then sat back down with the family next to us. The little girl moved over to make room for Grant and the rest of the family just kept watching the parade while I took this picture of my extremely happy boy :)


Its become an annual tradition to go to the parade with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Greg and then to take a picture that documents Reagan's growth and the strange weather. Here's the picture from 2009 :)

(Here are the ones from 2007 and 2008 :)

A New Dress

Riley had her 2 month check-up today. Surprisingly, it went very smoothly and Reagan and Grant were sweet, quiet, and well-behaved. The nurses were charmed by my well-mannered older children who sat quietly on the floor eating fruit snacks and no one was more surprised than I was. :)

Riley was 55% for height, 25% for weight (11 lbs, 8oz.) and 50% for head size. The doctor wasn't concerned with her weight, but Riley is my first baby to be below 90% at this age, so it did leave me scratching my head a little.

My friend Heather and I meet for coffee once a month and last night was our night out. It is one of my favorite times and such a great way to spend an evening. :) Heather has a daughter that is 2 years older than Reagan and last night, Heather gave us a bag of Annica's outgrown clothes.

Now imagine that you are 4 years old and you wake up and find that there is a giant bag of clothes all for you. You dig though it and you find pink, glitter, slip-on shoes and a dress with a necklace that is attached to it. (!!) All of a sudden an average, boring day turns into a fantastic day. :) She insisted on taking a picture, wearing it to the clinic today (I made her put jeans on under it), and then begged me to wear it for her birthday next week... :)

I get the feeling you'll be seeing this dress in many more pictures this summer :)

Happy Easter!

Grant thinks he is holding Riley for this picture and he was very proud of himself :)

Reagan and Riley:

Reagan and cousin Jonah:

On Saturday the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt.

Before:
During:









After:
On Sunday, the Ridder Family gathered to celebrate Easter together.
The last Easter Egg Hunt:

Reagan and cousin Avery:

The Weather Outside is Frightful...

I am way behind on blog posts so this is an old one.

We had a snowstorm/April blizzard last Sunday, so we were all looking for something to keep us occupied.
First, Joel and the kids made pink and purple cupcakes with pink and purple frosting. When they were done, Reagan used a whole jar of assorted Easter sprinkles to decorate them. If you like crunchy cupcakes, you would have loved these.

After that, it was time to paint toenails. Grant wants to do whatever Reagan is doing. Poor Grant, this time I let him.

Photography

I call this one "They Grow Up Too Fast". What the picture doesn't tell you is that the ear buds are still too big for her ears and keep falling out and that she is listening to Jock Jams because she thinks it is the "Cyclone's Song".

I call this one "$40 Doesn't Buy What It Used To". (Imagine my surprise when I had to pay a $40 co-pay and opened this tiny box of eye drops.)

"Non-Traditional Toys" or "Sorry, Buddy - I Didn't Know Those Were Next To The Sink"

"Why the Kids Like to Cook With Me"

"Sisters" :)

Lastly, an 8-week old Side-By-Side:
Reagan & Riley

An Apology

This post is for other moms to whom I owe an apology. I've been humbled in the last couple of months and realized that there are people I judged unfairly. They probably aren't reading this, but here it goes anyway:

To several mothers who use my hometown library: Your children ripped and drew in the books and nearly destroyed the DVD collection. I was frustrated with you. I thought your kids were unsupervised. I thought you hadn't bothered to teach them about the value of books. I apologize. As it turns out, your children probably did that while you were trying to take a long-awaited shower or while you had your back turned fixing lunch. It happens and I'm sorry for judging you.

To the mothers of the children in Walmart who have dirty faces. Your child's clothes were dirty and his face was crusted with drool and food and I wondered: "How hard can it be to wash them?" I apologize. They were probably clean when you left the house and found chocolate animal crackers leftover in their carseat. You wouldn't have let your first child eat them, but the second one...? Or it could be that your child just learned to take the caps off of your 3-year-old's markers and now he tries to eat them... It could have been that your child figured out how to open the door to the fireplace and took out piles of ashes and then quietly played with them before you finished reading your emails. I'm just guessing. What I'm trying to say is that it is much harder to wash them (and keep them washed) than you would think and I'm sorry for judging you.

To the mom at Hy-Vee whose child threw a tantrum. I saw you several years ago and I thought your child was naughty and you needed to do something. Perhaps your child was frustrated that you wouldn't let him hold the pears, squash the bread, or eat the grapes in the back of the cart. As it turns out, it can happen to anyone - I'm sorry for judging you.

To the "Make-Up Moms" I saw at the kids' open gym time. You were wearing high-heeled boots, trendy jeans and holding your soy, grande, skinny, lattes from my favorite coffee shop. You weren't watching your kids - you were talking to each other and I had some mean thoughts about you. It isn't that I don't like you, it is mostly that I'm jealous of you. See - I didn't get a shower this morning, I have a nursing baby so I don't get as much caffeine as I need, and my kids wake me up in the night causing dark circles that make-up couldn't hide even if I had bothered to put any on. I don't have time or energy to shop for trendy clothes, and I can't chase my 18 month-old in high heels - he would escape for sure. You didn't see me or know about my covetous thoughts towards your latte, but I apologize just the same.

And finally, to the mom at the clinic carrying the pale little boy, a towel, and a barf bowl. I'm sorry this happened to you. I bet it has been days since you slept and I'm sure you understand why I treated you as if you had leprosy. We were there for a well-child check-up and I just couldn't let my children get near your's. As it turns out, mine have pink eye, so it worked out fine for both of us.