So yesterday my friend (Kelley) and I participated in Girls with Gears. It's a fundraiser event to raise money and awareness for women's heart disease... and they do this by sponsoring walking, running, and biking events. Yesterday was their largest event, which was a biking event. You could choose from 10, 25, 40 and 62 mile long bike ride... through rural Montgomery county (in Pa). We did the 40 mile... and only got lost once... so it was great. The weather was beautiful and it was a GREAT day. We definately did NOT set any landspeed records, but finished in just under 3 hours and had a great time throughout the ride. Here are some pics of our fun....

A Reedell Easter... LOTS of fun!!!

wow... what a whirlwind of fun we've had over the last few days!!! Our weekend start on friday when we spent the day shopping with my MIL. Each season she takes the girls to the local outlet mall and she outfits them in everything they could need for the upcoming season. Then we go out to lunch, and it's always a GREAT day!! And now the kiddos look even cuter than usual in their "new duds"...My aunt, uncle, and cousin (who's 8 years old) came in from State College (Pa) and stayed at a local hotel from friday till monday morning. We met up with them to go roller skating on monday morning, and the girls were sooo cute skating together!! And Elyse now can skate on her own... for a little bit. Those little legs just don't quit. And Angela... she's getting really good. She was gaining speed and just doing GREAT!!! Then we came back for a nap (the girls of course) and then when we woke up we met my aunt, uncle, and katie at the pool for some swimming. Of course that also made the girls smile ALOT!!! Then we came back to our house for dinner and egg dying. We dyed 9.5 dozen eggs... and amazingly it wasn't much of a mess. Elyse did drop a few eggs into the dye from too far... but it was a fun night. Finally the girls were in bed around 9:15pm... it was a LONG and FUN day for all!!!

Then it was Easter morning (sunday). We put their "presents together" (they got a yard swing, pj's, sidewalk chaulk, a set of clothes each, and bubbles). The girls got up and were VERY excited to see what the easter bunny brought to them. They loved all the "goodies"... and were VERY excited to get all dressed up and head to church. The girls brought MANY smiles to all of the church goers, then we had breakfast there, then came home. The girls played with some of their "stuff" and then had a light lunch, then off for a nap before everyone arrived for the easter festivities. Everyone got to our house around 2pm and we ate around 3:30 or so. We ate ALOT (there were 22 people at our house), then did the annual easter egg hunt, then ate dessert, and then finally the house cleared out around 7:30 or so. HUGE thanks to everyone who made it a GREAT easter. It was REALLY nice to get the whole family together (both sides for the first time in a LONG time....) It was another LONG and FUN day... whew we were pooped.....

And the girls FAVORITE present was Ollie the Bunny!!! My sister got him a few months ago and worked all this time to house train him and get him used to other pets (we have cats...)... and now he's here, and GREAT. He's sooo huggable. The girls are enjoying helping to take care of him... I think he'll make a wonderful addition to our family!!!! So, it was a fun and exciting weekend... hope you all had a GREAT one... and a GREAT week!!!

So, while it did take a while to assemble, we are ALL sooo happy with the finished product !! I think it took between 10 and 12 hours to complete... but we LOVE it. The girls actually had 8 friends over yesterday and they had a BLAST!!! And now we even have a sandbox set up under the "fort area"... so their playarea is complete!!

Now we are just looking forward to some nice weather to enjoy it even more!!!

Happy Easter from the Reedell Chicks!!

Wishing you and your family

the happiest of Easter Holidays!!!!

Brandywine Valley Duathlon...

April 5th officially was the start of our race season (for Scott and I of course). We participated in the Brandywine Duathlon, held at Hibernia Park (in Coatesville, Pa). We did this race last year and it was a tough but good first race of the season. At least this year it was NOT raining like the last, but it was still nice and chilly to start off the race (at 8:00am). But we are happy to report that both Scott and myself did GREAT. Scott bettered last years time and he was happy how he felt when he crossed the finish line. Me on the other hand, was just about the same as last year... but the BEST part was that I won second place in my division!!! For the FIRST time ever I was on the medal podium!!! So, overall, the race was GREAT... and now we will be starting training for our "big race", an olympic distance triathlon this summer (with MANY other races before and after it of course...). And EXTRA special thanks goes out to "aunt Erin" for spending the day with "the gals"... so that mommy and daddy could go do their race!!!!

The Riding Reedells

With these two active little girls do you think they'll be running and biking with mommy and daddy soon??? So, now both of the gals LOVE riding a two wheeled bike (of course with training wheels...). Elyse hopped on Angela's bike last week and just rode off. She was finally tall enough to reach the pedals... and did VERY well. She has to work on the steering while riding, but can push those pedals better than any little legs I've seen!!!!

It's sooo funny when Angela says, "mommy, I can't clean up I'm training for my triathlon"... of course this is while she's running circles around the house... tooo cute for words!!! We are looking forward to when Angela is age 7, and then she'll be able to compete in the "kids triathlons"... if she wants to of course!!! So, until then they'll just have to hang with mommy and daddy!!!

The swingset is up....

... not quite finished yet, but at least now the girls can get out and play on it. The swingset was delivered last wednesday and it came in about a million pieces... The HUGE and HEAVY boxes were in the garage, which is good and bad. Good because it's cedar so our garage smells fabulous... bad because Scott had to park in the driveway... But now we are making ALOT of progress... and "all" that is left is to put the roof on, build the picnic table, install the "windows" and chimney.... and stake the whole thing down. So, we are more than half way done and it fits PERFECTLY in the only "sort of flat" space in our backyard... so here's a pic of the swingset, from piles of wood to what is done as of last evening (sunday, april 5th)....

March 31st is CDH Awarenss Day!!

Since today is CDH Awareness Day, please be sure to wear turquoise and spread awareness of congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Today we celebrate all of our shining stars who have fought through this defect, and won. We also celebrate those who grew wings and became angels. All of these children will FOREVER be in ALL of our hearts... and with your help we'll be able to make the whole world know what CDH is all about. For more information, please visit http://www.chdawareness.com/ . Thank you from all the CDH familes!!!

This is an explination of what CDH is from the Breath of Hope website....
There are 3 types of congenital diaphragmatic hernias: Bochdalek hernia, Morgagni hernia, and bilateral diaphragmatic hernia. The Bochdalek hernia or left-sided is the most common, occurring in approximately 85% of cases. Left-sided hernias allow the small and large bowel and intra-abdominal solid organs to herniate into the thoracic cavity. In Morgagni or right-sided hernias, only the liver and a portion of the large bowel tend to herniate. Bilateral hernias are uncommon and usually fatal.Statistically, a congenital diaphragmatic hernia birth defect occurs in every 1 in 2,000 live births in the United States and accounts for 8% of all major congenital anomalies. This figure translates to approximately 1,800 live babies born with the congenital diaphragmatic hernia birth defect every year. In comparison, cystic fibrosis occurs in every 1 in 3,000 live births in the United States, and spina bifida has an occurrence of every 1 in 1,478 live births. Congenital diaphragmatic hernias occur just as often as cystic fibrosis and spina bifida, but congenital diaphragmatic hernias often have fatal results.Each child who has congenital diaphragmatic hernia is different, no two children respond to treatment the same way. Nobody can accurately predict the outcome.

We were VERY fortunate that Angela had the Bochdalek hernia... and today she is a VERY healthy and happy almost 4 year old. Until that fateful day at Univeristy of Pennsylvania, we had NEVER heard anything about CDH. Since then, we've met MANY children who have faced the same challenges and are doing GREAT today!! So, please join us in a day of awareness...
Thanks Again!!!

Firt day of Spring...

So, the calendar says "spring"... but this is what it looked like when we woke up this morning...

Sesame Street Live

We had the opportunity to join Angela and her school on a field trip to see Sesame Street Live. It was called "ELMO makes Music"... and everyone had a GREAT time. Both Angela and Elyse enjoyed danced and took in every second of the fun!!!

A weekend of fun with mom mom and pop pop!!

The girls were VERY fortunate to have another fun filled weekend with mom mom and pop pop. Pop pop picked them up on friday afternoon (along with their great grandpop too!) and they had lots of fun visiting with Sammie (their next door neighbor's little girl who is about Elyse's age), went to a few parks, playing with all the "different fun toys" at the house, went to church, ate lunch at the "very best weiner shop"... and of course let us not forget... playing with Aunt Erin. The girls had a blast... and here are a few pics of the "in action"... enjoy!!!

the girls at play...

just a few candid shots of the girls being "themselves" and enjoying a nice day of playing in the sun room....

sleeping children='s happy mommy!!

Just a quick collage of the girls sleeping... too cute NOT to share!!

She's a BIG girl now...

I had imagined that Elyse would be staying in her crib for a LONG time... but she decided "it was time". It was crazy, she was sleeping GREAT (at least a two hour nap in the afternoon and at least 12 hours straight at night) and showed NO signs of wanting a "change" until that fateful night. Of course it made it even more fun because Scott was traveling, and lets just say it was a TERRIBLE night!! She figured out how to crawl out of her crib, then I'd put her back in, she'd do it again, then I dropped the mattress to the lowest point, then finally I asked "what do you want". She said "anya bed"... which in Elyse's words means... "Angela's bed". So, since I had the tools out, we took her crib apart and turned it into a "big girl bed". As soon as I had it all made up, she jumped in and went to sleep for the rest of the night. And since that night she's done GREAT. She jumps in bed for naps and bedtime and she calls us in the morning... at her normal time. So, I suppose she was "just ready"... uggg... where has my "little girl" gone? Oh yeah, and in light of this new step for Elyse, she'll be getting a new FULL sized bed for her 2nd birthday... she'll LOVE it...

Our March Nor'easter....

So, a few days ago it was in the 50's or 60's and we were enjoying the "feel of spring". Then mother nature was VERY mean and gave us a dose of reality!!! The snow started on sunday around dinner time and continued VERY heavily throughout the night. The winds picked up and the snow kept coming down!! I'm not totally sure how much we got, but it was the MOST of this season (and hopefully last... we are ready for spring....). But the girls LOVED it, it was beautiful, and we spent ALOT of time outside playing...

here are some pics of the house and surrounding areas in the newly fallen snow...

and here are pics of our "snowbunnies"... amazingly eventhough the windchills were in the teens, they wanted to stay out...

Best Friends Forever!!!

Elyse had a GREAT time playing with Victoria at our house!!! They played with Jake, played with nearly EVERY toy in the house, we went for a walk around the neighborhood, and just had a great time. I can see it now, Elyse and Victoria will be Best Friends Forever!!!! Here are the cutie pies....

Rolling Princesses...

We had a GREAT time with Bridget and Miss Jen over last week!! The fun continued after lunch into the basement, where the skates were laced up and off they went!! Of course Angela and Bridget had to wear princess dresses while they were rollerblading... it was tooo cute!!!!

Our Speed Demon...

Elyse was given a pair of "training rollerblades"... and she took off on them!! She really does GREAT for not even being 2 years old. And the coolest part (she must get this from mommy) is that she is the HAPPIEST when she's going REALLY fast!!! And here's the future speed champion as a toddler....

playing the day away with "Aunt Dawn" and Avery

Thanks goes out to "aunt Dawn" and Avery for a GREAT time last week!! Although the day wasn't as nice (weather wise) as anticipated, everyone had a GREAT time together... and sorry again for the "toddler tornadoes" and the Thomas train table!!!!

Here are the "three musketeers"....

Our "kitchen helpers"...

Cooking was always "fun" to me... but this is a "new adventure in cooking" with two "little helpers"... but they listen fairly well and are cute in the process....