Year in Reveiw

2012 is quickly approaching, here is what we did in 2011

I flew to Maryland

 We played soccer on the deck for St. Patty's Day

 Arabel turned 3!

 We hunted Easter eggs

 mom and I went to a Bob Seger concert

 Emma had her last day of school

 we got a swingset

 the girls were flower girls

 Rob and I watched the sunset on Lake Michigan

 We visited Marilyn in Chicago

 Emma and Arabel were pirates for Halloween

 Emma donated 16 inches of hair

 Emma turned 7!

 We celebrated Christmas!

We are very lucky to have had such a wonderful year! I hope that your family was as blessed as we were!!

And now she is 7!

Since the last post Emma has turned 7!!
Hard to believe that my little girl has gone from this:

to a little lady

We are on christmas break now and I couldn't be happier. We have been sleeping in and enjoying time off right now. 

I will be back with a christmas and year end round up post. I just wanted to take a special post for Em and her birthday. 

Here is what we have been up to.

Since the last update, here is what we have been up to.

Emma is in first grade now. This is her on the first day. She loves her teacher and is in the same class as her best friend.

Halloween came and went. Both of the girls were pirates. They asked that they be princessy type pirates, hence the tutus. Arabel wasn't feeling well and only made it to a couple house. Poor girl.

Emma decided to cut her hair and donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, an orginization that makes wigs for women with cancer. She decided to do it all on her own, I was just there to get the information for her and take the pictures. I am really proud of her. She decided to donate her hair in honor of a schoolmate that she lost a few weeks ago to cancer. 

The before:

 The cut:

The ponytail!! 16 inches to donate!!

The after!!!

She loves her new haircut! I am thrilled that we no longer need to spend 20 minutes washing her hair or 15 minutes combing it.

Home sweet home.

I love to travel. I love to be somewhere other than home. I also love to come home. After being gone for 6 days with both girls, the excitement I had to pull in our driveway was unexplainable.

Tuesday evening: We left to drive approximately 4 hours away to break up the 7 hour drive that was originally planned for Wednesday morning. I will say one thing... thank goodness we decided to. It turns out that the alternator on the car decided to die the very moment we pulled in the hotel parking lot. Had we waited to leave, we probably would have been left stranded on the side of the road. At least we were safe and sound. Rob dealt with all the car business and I wrangled the girls. We ended up getting it towed and fixed, we got a rental car for the next couple days.

Wednesday: We got to the hotel which was amazing. The girls had their own room complete with bunk beds and their own tv. We went to dinner and took the girls swimming. They couldn't have been happier.

Thursday: Rob worked most of the day. The girls and I took a walk and watched planes take off from the airport across the street. Swimming was the girls' favorite activity by far.

Friday: We headed back to pick up the car and return the rental. After playing switcheroo with all of our stuff for the trip, we were on our way to Chicago.
Arrived in Chicago and the girls were thrilled that we were so close to O'Hare. The number of planes that went by was crazy. We were also very close to an EL station, so they got to watch the train quite a bit as well. We ate some italian beef from Al's and weren't disappointed.

After getting settled in we decided to take the EL into the city and explore. We ended up at Millennium Park.

We even got to catch a concert in the park complete with a full orchestra and choir. After that, we decided to head back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday: We met up with Aunt Bev and Uncle Tom at Paradise Pup for lunch. They were featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. GO THERE. Hands down the best burger I have ever had. The girls loved eating out on the picnic tables and having fun with their aunt and uncle.

Since it was also our 7 year anniversary, we figured the city was calling our name once again. :) We headed back into the city and got caught in a down pour. The girls couldn't have been having more fun, we were out in the rain, on purpose. We went to the site of the controversial Marilyn Monroe statue. Emma giggled at the sight of her undies.
After a trip back to the hotel we got some dinner and called it a night.

Sunday was filled with driving back home.

We saw lots, did a ton of walking, lots and lots of driving and spent countless hours of family time together. Check out the rest of the pictures on the flickr link on the top of the blog. I can't wait to tell you about our next adventure. :)

On the road again

The Waldo-Horvath family will be on the road again. Wednesday morning we will leave to spend some time in Bloomington, Illinois. Rob has some work to do and when he is done we will be heading to Chicago. We plan on hitting up the pool and a couple children's museums. We will hopefully hit up Millenium Park and eat some delicious food. We will be meeting up with Aunt Bev for lunch and playing the weekend by ear.

Rob and I will be celebrating our 7 year anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been together that long. :)

Daddy won dad of the year by bringing home a pool for the girls. They have been bathing beauties all summer and are so tan!

Next time you check in, I should have some good pictures of our adventures. :)

Summer is flying by

Summer has been flying by. We have had a BBQ complete with friends and family to celebrate the fact that the girls have a swing set in the backyard now. :) (Hooray for living in a place with a backyard!) We owe a huge thanks to my aunt and uncle, they are the ones that hooked us up. We took a trip up north, went to a fabulously fun wedding. The girls were flower girls, and damn adorable ones at that. We came home, unpacked and I repacked the girls to spend the week with my parents camping. Rob and I decided to take a mini couple vacation while the kids were away. While they were camping and playing on the beach, we were hitting up breweries and exploring towns in Michigan that we have never been to. Everyone is home now, and it feels great to have us all home and under the same roof.

apologies and brags

I apologize about the severe lack of posts. I looked at the blog the other day and was kind of embarrassed that it had been so many months. Since it has been so long I have lots of fun updates and brags.

First about Emma. She has recently requested that she be called Emmy spelled E-M-M-Y because she likes having 4 letters. I am happy to oblige at least it was a decent nick name rather than something completely unrelated to her actual name. :) Emmy is officially a first grader!! She left kindergarten with a bang! I just opened her last report card to learn that the books she was reading at the end of the year are 2nd grade reading level. She met or exceeded all expectations and we couldn't be prouder of her fantastic work ethic and hard work this year. I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer in her classroom at least once a week, volunteer for school events, go on field trips & generally be there as a helping hand. We were very blessed with an amazing teacher, Mrs. Brace. I only hope that they are able to maintain a fantastic relationship as she grows older.

Emmy also lost her first tooth! The tooth fairy even let her keep her tooth & gave her $5! I hear that the tooth fairy gives more money for the first tooth these days. I remember getting $0.50!

Arabel is stubborn and hilarious. She is as smart as a whip. I think having an older sister has helped! She knows most of her letters and some of their sounds. She can definitely identify numbers up to ten. (Thanks Nick Jr. & Disney Jr.) Arabel has quite the artistic streak in her as well. She makes the greatest pictures. :) Now, if we could just master potty training I would be ecstatic! She has started speaking as if she were a ring master of a circus. Arabel starts sentences with a rousing "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN..." proceeds with whatever she is doing and then ends with a gigantic bow.

Never a dull moment.

Happy Birthday to Arabel!

Arabel is 3!
4/17/2008
11:42 am
8 pounds 8 ounces
21 1/4 inches

From this:

 to this!

 1!

2!

3!!

I couldn't be happier to have this wonderful little girl in my life. :)

spring break is here!

Emma is officially on spring break. :) We don't have plans to go anywhere, but we will be enjoying her time off. Unfortunately, on Thursday night she was messing around at bedtime and managed to bust her lip open. She got to start her spring break with a fat lip. Guess she will take me serious when she is told to not jump on the bed.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I know, I know... I am a day late. As an apology here are some pictures of my little gals wearing their green.

This was an impromptu game on soccer on the deck.

 Arabel being cheesy.

 Daddy with his girls

 my gals

 me and the little ladies

Dentist appointments

The girls had their first dentist appointment this afternoon. Emma is a nervous kid when it comes to things like that, so I was a little nervous for her. Arabel on the other hand is a fearless child, so something told me she would have zero problem. I have been talking to Emma about what was going to happen for a couple days, she was originally going to go first to show Arabel how easy it was. Getting there was a different story. Emma started getting really nervous, Arabel was showing no signs of being nervous so she went first instead. Arabel did wonderful. They said her teeth look great! She ended up getting an exam, cleaning and a fluoride treatment. The hygientist was awesome with both girls. She saw that Emma was really nervous and talked her through everything. Emma was brave enough to get an exam, cleaning, fluoride treatment AND x-rays! Her permanent teeth are just waiting for her baby teeth to fall out, the dentist guessed that it would be anytime now that she starts to get wiggles. Both girls ended up in the no cavities club!

All smiles in their new shades, courtesy of the Valley Dental Spa!