March 2014: Spring Break Week(s)...

First of all, before I get to what we've been up to the past couple of weeks, I had to share this hilarious picture! Adelyn became obsessed with this headband for a few days and literally wouldn't take it off. She got mad when I wouldn't let her wear it in the tub one night, and so immediately after her bath, she put it back on and didn't take it off for the rest of the night and the next two days. Yep, she even slept with it on....too funny. 

Anyway, the past 2 weeks, we have had some visitors and have been on "break" mode a bit while the youth Michael works with were on spring break, and then some family were on spring break and came up and stayed with us. The first week, my cousin's Sarah and Rachel came up for almost a week and stayed with us and hung out for the week! I didn't get any good pics, but we sure did have a great time with them up here!! They even managed to build our first snowman in our yard with the girls one day!! So fun!!

And the day after they left, my nephew Brady came up to stay with us for 5 days during his spring break. We had a great time with "cousin B" here! We took Addi bowling for the first time (notice the headband obsession is still going on...)

And while Addi was learning to bowl, we couldn't help but do some cousin/aunt/nephew selfies with Olivya! 

And we made homemade pizza's one night (yum!!)

And we hung out and played a lot with the girls...(dress up was the play of choice this day - Brady was trying to dodge a picture with a doll hat on, but I have proof that he played dress up too!)

And we also were able to go to a waterpark in Brainerd one day, which everyone LOVED!! (I was too busy going down the "red waterside" with Adelyn 100+ times to stop and take a picture...so take my word, we had a great time!). And we spent lots of time hanging out, being silly, and having a good time just being together. 

When it was time for Brady to head home, we loaded up the girls at bedtime (our choice time of traveling to the cities) and stayed in the cities for a few days to celebrate my mom's birthday for the weekend (happy Birthday mom!!!!!!). We spent out weekend visiting with GG...

And we spent a wonderful day at the MOA doing some birthday shopping...

(and we can't make a trip to MOA without squeezing in a few rides while we are there...)

And a ride with the birthday girl on the Ferris Wheel (LOVE this selfie...I think it is right up there with the famous selfie that Ellen took at the Oscars with all the celebrities. ha.)

We ended the birthday celebrations that night with a family dinner out at Ruby Redeye's...holy yum!!! It was a great weekend celebrating my amazing mom! 

Unfortunately, the rest of our week was not quite as enjoyable. While we were in the cities, Olivya got sick with another ear infection. She was put on antibiotics, and 3 days later when she was still beyond miserable (and Michael and I were too, as we were averaging 2 hours of sleep a night between taking turns to try to comfort her) we took her to another doctor here in Aitkin. Long story short...ear drums almost exploded, we changed her medicine, she was given a shot to prevent explosion, two days later we brought her into the ER after what appeared to be blood in her diaper...turns out it was a side affect of her medicine (not blood at all), and we are still slooowwwwly recovering almost a week later (but we've all gotten sleep the last couple of nights which is HUGE progress!). Oh - and we have an appointment to talk about tubes, as this is her 6th ear infection in her short 11 months of life. :( Poor girl. 

So for now, I'll enjoy the cuddles and the clingyness while I can, and continue to pray that the recovery continues. Even with this setback, I can't help but to think about what a great few weeks it has been hanging out with family and friends!