A little sunshine on a cloudy day.

No matter how sad I am, this face brings me a smile.
She loves wearing my shoes around the house! She is already a pro with the high heels!
She pooped in the bathtub again tonight. She was a little scared again, but it didn't bother me. I just wanted to comfort her. Those tiny little turds seemed so miniscule in the current events.
As I sat on the couch and cried, she kept handing me the towel to try to help wipe the tears from my face. That only made me want to cry more.

In a minute....

your life can change. One phone call can change everything. Everything that seemed important, no longer is. Everything that seems stressful and not worth dealing with, now seems meaningless. Everything we took for granted, now seems like I should take another second to love the moment for what it is.
One phone call. A friend of ours was killed today in a car accident. An ex-boyfriend of Holly's, who had become a wonderful friend to her over the years. Always funny, smiling and wanting to have a good time. Always honest and completely in love with my sister, even though he would never admit it to anyone. A good guy lost his life today...putting my life in perspective. I haven't been to a funeral in probably 10 years....for my ex-boyfriends great-grandfather.....and before that my grandparents back in the 80's. Three funerals (only 1 of which I remember) in 31 years. I've been extremely lucky when it comes to this part of life and death. I'm having a hard time dealing with this and probably mostly b/c I know Holly is devastated. I don't want to see my sister hurting and this is going to bring her so much sadness.
RIP Brendan. We will miss your smile and laugh and happiness you brought to those around you.

Random: part 2

Biggest loser final weigh in was today! I gained .6 pounds (which was expected), so I ended up 9.4 pounds down and in 5th place. The winner got almost $500 in winnings! We lost 182 pounds as a group! I think we are going to do another challenge in the next month or so!

I got my hairs cut and highlighted tonight. Another expensive trip to the salon, but I love how she cuts my hair! I now have thin, blond hair!

We are beginning to wonder what little person took over the body of our baby girl? The child that we have now is....crazy? weird? loud? hyper? She gets so loud and excited over EVERYTHING! The letter P....she screams P and laughs, like it is soooo funny!!! What does a cow say? MOOOOOOOO, hahahaha....so funny!
She is so girl in some ways, but a rough and tough girl (or sturdy, as my mom calls her!). She likes to wrestle on the ground and dance around the living room with dad. She likes to throw around the ball but carry her purse while 'talking' on her phone. She's got a beer gut and a ponytail. Basically, she's awesome!

Man vs Food. We are watching it right now and I just saw the most awesome place ever! Voodoo Donuts in Portland, Oregon. I need some of these donuts, if anyone has a way to get me these donuts let me know! This place is a little piece of heaven on earth for me. I could've cried seeing the amount of love and jelly that went into these donuts. I love donuts.

Random

- I don't like having a husband that works construction in the winter b/c that means our laundry doubles!
underwear
long underwear
jeans
socks...sometimes 2 pair depending on how cold it is and if he has to work outside
long sleeve shirt (sometimes over a wife-beater)
t-shirt
sweatshirt..........
Every day all of these items are worn. Now you are probably thinking like I do....do all of these clothes REALLY get dirty? Shouldn't he be able to wear them more than once? And like me, you would be wrong. Just ask him.

- Our friends Lane and Rachel are having their baby girl tomorrow. They have had a rough year but they are still going strong. We are so happy for them and can't wait to meet her!

- Two weeks from today we will be on our cruise ship drinking something with an umbrella in it. We are looking forward to getting away and enjoying ourselves but it is going to be so hard to leave Presley for one whole week! It was hard to leave her last January for 3 days when we went to Vegas and in February when I was in Tempe for work! :( We have so many things to do before then and we both have very busy work weeks ahead of us! So maybe I should get off the computer and do something useful!

- I think I married my father. They both like to watch too many car shows, like to spend time organizing their garages, spoil their daughters rotten and like to have 'things'. They talk about tools, cars and whatever other weird things they both know about. My daddy is a super good guy so I guess I'm pretty lucky to find a guy like him! :)

Merry Christmas!!!

So Friday I got up and went to work, despite the crappy weather the drive wasn't too bad b/c there weren't that many cars out since it was Christmas Eve. We had a breakfast potluck at work (full of cinnamon rolls, breakfast casseroles and donuts....my best dream and worst nightmare) and then they ordered pizza for lunch! I could feel the pounds coming back on with full force!
I did get to leave at 2:30 which was nice so we were able to get to Earlham for Steve's family Christmas about 4 pm. Presley got so many nice things and was able to play with all her cousins.
She even liked to play with the boy toys, including my least favorite WWE men.

Santa Claus came the next morning and brought Presley too many things including this kitchen set! She didn't want to open any other gifts, she just wanted to play with the pots and pans and open and shut the oven! It was so cute!

Grandma Becky has a piano that P loves to play, so Santa brought her a miniture version in the form of a keyboard! She was loving it!

After we had our Santa fun we headed over to my parents house for my family Christmas.

Look how cute Holly and Boston are! Boston loves smiling at his Aunt Holly!

Samantha was nice enough to play with P and read her some books!

It was a coincidence that all of us girls wore green but we got our picture taken together with the necklaces that my grandma made us! We took about 20 pictures and not one of them turned out good, this was the best we got.

We ate too much, exchanged lots of good presents (including a Bible Themed Word Search, don't ask!) and played some games. It was nice day to spend time with the family!

P got a table and chair set from Grandma and Grandpa....she loves it!

And of course she drags the chairs over to her kitchen to sit and play! She pretended to wash her hands in the sink and then ran to the real kitchen to grab a towel to dry her hands!

She took a plate of eggs and peas over to her table to eat, then went running into our kitchen saying 'for, for' and pointed at the dishwasher....she wanted a fork to eat with. I gave her one of her fake forks and she ran back to the table and tried to the fork the food! She doesn't quite get the meaning of pretend or make-believe yet, but it is cute to watch!

We've been hanging out, playing, cleaning and running errands all day, but the weekend has been so great! I hope everyone got to spend good, quality time with their families like we did with ours! Holidays need to happen more often so we can see everyone more! :)

Walking in a winter wonderland....

Well according to the forecast we will be tomorrow morning though it is 9:30 pm and it hasn't started snowing yet?!

Wednesday's biggest loser challenge was pretty good, lost .8 pounds which takes me to 10 lbs exactly lost. Still 5th place. Not too shabby.

Tonight we had a surprise 30th birthday party for our friend Jared. His wife Lisa, who is 8 and a half months pregnant kinda threw it together last minute a couple weeks ago but it worked out and he was surprised! It was nice to get together with everyone before the holidays and the baby arrives! Presley was friendly and 'talked' to everyone, it was good to see her be social!

Presley loves commercials! It seems the insurance commericals really catch her eye (Travelers insurance with the wild animals, the woodchuck Geico commerical and especially Flo with Progressive). I think if we had a TV station made up of only commercials, she would be set!

The Dilemma

So when Steve and Brock did their private investigating a couple weeks ago, they were sitting in their car talking about the kids. Steve mentioned that 'they don't talk about their kids in the movies like this. Do you think Martin Lawrence and Will Smith talked about their kids in the movie Bad Boys?'..............first of all....I thought it was funny they were taking their private investigating SO seriously AND that they were comparing themselves to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence!
I recently saw a movie premier for The Dilemma starring Kevin James and Vince Vaughn. Now when you look at the previews for this movie there is a little private investigating going on....so I'm thinking the comparison with Steve and Brock is definitely better with Kevin and Vince than it is with Will and Martin.....just saying! :)

Aluminum foil

So you might have noticed in the previous post that my parents cover the table in aluminum foil. This is normal, as my family has a slight obsession with foil. I would go so far, as to say we almost have a lifetime supply.
My dad gets the huge commercial size packages of aluminum foil, which equals about 88.8 miles worth of foil. We got a roll about 3 years ago....and we have many years left. So why not cover the table in foil, makes for easy clean up!

Busy Bees

Friday night I had my work Christmas party at West Glen Cab. It was fun, I knew I couldn't be hung over on Saturday so I didn't drink too much and I didn't get home until almost 1:30 am! The 25-year-old me would be sooo proud, the 31-year-old me just wanted to eat and sleep on Saturday!
Steve was working on my parents kitchen so I thought I could just nap when Presley did. I should've expected that this would be one of those days that she just talks in her crib for 3 hours, so neither one of us slept.
We had Holly's 30th birthday party at Raccoon River Brewery that night! It was great, there were so many friends and family that came out to share this day with her! It was wonderful to see everyone and be able to catch up with those friends that we hadn't seen in a while! I know Holly had a great time and appreciated everyone coming out especially during this busy time of year!
This license plate has been passed down through our family for years! My aunt had it and gave it to her son Lee when he turned 30 and then I got almost 2 years ago and now it's Holly's turn to pass it on to Samantha (in 4 years!).

Today we had Holly's birthday lunch at Johnny's Italian Steakhouse! YUMMY! One of our absolute favorites!!! Holly had a $100 gift certificate to help pay for our meals too! Seems odd that the birthday girl was in a sense, paying for our meals! :) Thanks Holly!
Then we went to my parents for presents and to decorate Christmas cookies!
Here's Mr Boston, looking cute and being good as always!


Presley loved helping decorate cookies. She loved putting sprinkles on and then licking them off.

Grandma gave Presley one of her Christmas presents early, an apron that has her name on it! It is so adorable! Despite her reaction, she really does love it too! :) and can't wait to wear it the next time she helps dad cook!

Tonight we had Christmas carolers come to the door! I've never had carolers come by! It was the Urbandale Baptist church not too far from our house and it helped put us in the holiday spirit! Another busy week ahead of us, but I think our Christmas shopping is done. except for each other but that's ok neither one of us really needs anything!

Five Question Friday...on Sunday

Obviously I'm not very good about posting on Fridays!

1. Do you regift... and if so, do you have a regifting horror story around it? I don't think I have, but I think I've rec'd some regifts. I won't name names but we actually really like it!

2. Do you know what you are getting for Christmas this year? No, and I've been terrible at giving ideas for what I want. So I won't be disappointed if I don't get what I want!

3. Who brings the most gifts in your family... you or Santa? Santa! And we still get gifts from Santa at my parents house. Steve always grew up getting one big present from Santa so he thinks we are weird. Most of our presents were from Santa except the boring stuff like socks and underwear!

4. What store do you love to buy jeans from? Probably Von Maur or any other place that sells Silver jeans. They can be a little pricey but Von Maur and that why their NO interest credit card comes in handy!

5. Christmas meal? Recently we've been doing mostly snacks and stuff which I love but then I always feel like crap for eating so much junk! I think we are beginning to realize that we don't need to have food for 20 people since there are only 8 of us!

Not much going on here

It seems like I have a list of things to get done, but I just don't have the willingness to get out and do it! I think it is a combination of the weather and not wanting to deal with people. Oh well, it will all get done eventually.

Our Biggest Loser weigh in was yesterday, I lost .4 pounds. It's not gaining so I can't complain. The final two weeks are ahead of us and both weekends are going to be full of food and drinks so I know that is a bad sign for me. I'm down a total of 9.2 pounds and am still hanging on to 5th place!

We missed our last waterbabies class last night. Recently P has been throwing fits when she has to change her clothes or get in the car, and both happened before we even got ready for swimming so we knew it was going to be a struggle. It took both of us to pin her down to change her diaper....like wrestling a small animal!....and by the time she was ready to allow us to change her...it was too late. It was fun while it lasted and we'll look to do it again in February or March so we can get Little-Miss-Busybody out of the house!

Five Question Friday...on Saturday!

1. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Growing up we always got to open one present on Christmas eve and the rest in the morning. Now we do Steve's family Christmas on Christmas eve and my parents Christmas day, it works out great. No fighting about holidays or having to travel to 2 places on the same day!

2. What is your favorite Christmas candy/cookie? There is no way I can just pick one thing! I always make puppy chow and the peanut butter cookies with the kisses in the middle around Christmas, but really I'll eat about everything. I'm not picky!

3. What is the worst Christmas gift you've ever recieved? I don't remember exactly, but I remember we'd alwasy dread opening presents from one of our aunts (no names will be mentioned!) You just knew you were going to get a really ugly sweater or something you would never, ever wear!

4. What Christmas song do you love? I definitely can't pick just one! Josh Groban singing any Christmas song has to be up there though!

5. How many trees do you put up? Just one (do people normally put up more than 1?) We bought a fake one a couple years ago. We both like the idea of the real trees, but honestly we are too lazy and it is too much work. Our tree was included in the items to get flooded in our basement this summer, so we weren't sure the lights would still work. But they do and it looks great! (especially since P leaves it alone!)

Countdown to Christmas

Thursday we had Steve's work Christmas party. Not holiday party, Christmas party! :) Holly watched Presley for us and Steve and I headed to West Glen Cab to have a few drinks before the party. It was nice to spend an hour just the two of us and we have no problem carrying on conversations NOT about Presley! :) The party was at the Holiday Inn with Johnny's Italian Steakhouse catering it. It was so nice, I love the people and we are so lucky he was able to get in with this company that has done well in these tough times (especially for a construction company!).
Last night Steve went and did some more Christmas shopping for us. Presley and I were going to go, but she was less than cooperative when trying to get her in the car seat. So we hung out at at home.
Today has been a lot of hanging out thanks to the weather! (and I want to take this time to thank November! November with no snow is greatly appreciated!) Laundry, cleaning, Presley and I in our pajamas all day. We did try to take Presley's picture by the christmas tree so we can send out christmas cards....again, she was less than cooperative. No sitting or standing still, no smiles, the exact reasons we aren't paying someone to take her picture!
Steve is out Brock tonight. They are playing private investigators. They are traking down a girl to see if she is cheating on her soon-to-be ex-husband. They were pumped! I heard something about Magnum PI, wearing a wire and how they weren't talking on secure phone lines.....they might be taking things a little too seriously! :) Of course, when you lose the suspect on the way to the destination, that can make things a little more complicated. Though I did just get a text from Steve that says he saw Shawn Johnson and she probably thinks he is stalking her b/c he's seen her 3 times now! Gotta love it!
Tomorrow I'm going with my mom and Holly to Centro for brunch and then to the Civic Center to see Mary Poppins! I'm super excited! I recently exposed Presley to Mary Poppins and she actually watched part of it! I wish she was old enough to go with me and enjoy it. I guess that day will come eventually!

Random favorites

I love watching The Sing-off! I love people that can sing and these groups do it sooo well with no instruments!

My sister Holly cracks me up. Her blog is a breath of fresh air some times. I wish she had more time to post more often. She is going to be 30 years old next week! My sister is going to be 30, that makes me....even older! YIKES!

My three favorite Christmas movies: Home Alone, Elf and The Santa Claus

Everyone should get to experience the feeling of picking up your little girl (or boy) from daycare and having them run to you and give you a big hug! After a long day at work, nothing else matters but that perfect moment of happiness! (until she throws a fit b/c its 20 degrees outside and you insist that she wears a coat!)

I lost another 2.4 pounds for the biggest loser challenge at work. I'm down 8.8 pounds in 5 weeks and am #5 in weight loss out of the group. I'm shocked. I never thought it was possible to get down to the weight I'm at now. I even got my pre-maternity pants out b/c my other ones were hanging off of me! I'm proud of myself, even though I don't feel that I've really worked hard enough for it! And I just finished off the puppy chow that I made last night. Good thing that is out of the house now!

A couple new firsts....

Saturday afternoon while Presley slept, Steve went to run errands and I had the afternoon to myself to do nothing! I laid on the couch and watched Sex in the City 2 that I had from Netflix, and did nothing. No laundry or cleaning and I enjoyed it! Normally when I get those couple hours I'm doing things or running errands!

Sunday morning I went to work and Steve took Presley to cousin Gavins wrestling match! Like normal she liked watching all the kids, but was good!
That afternoon Steve watched football while Presley napped and I went to Target BY MYSELF for the second weekend in a row!

Tonight? Presley had her first poop in the bathtub experience! Not pleasant. I went to get her out of the tub and looked down and.....that girls needs to chew her food more! haha! She looked down and FREAKED out! She got scared and started screaming and crying, I felt so bad! I guess it gave me a good reason to clean the bathtub though!

Bad parents?

Presley has had a cold and cough kinda off and on over the last 3 weeks. She has been acting fine and sleeping good so we never really thought about taking to the doctor. The last couple days she has been whiny around dinner time, but I just thought it was b/c she was hungry. Finally, today I took her to the walk in clinic just to make sure there was nothing wrong. There wasn't. She gave us an antibiotic to help kill any viruses she might have, but no ear infection, whooping cough or pneumonia. Though the doctor did state that three weeks was a little long for a cough.
We aren't the parents that rush her to the doctor for every cold, but are we bad parents for waiting three weeks to take her? Even though she is fine?

Five Question Friday!

1. What's on the top of your holiday wish list and why? I'm having a hard time trying to think of something good that I want! I guess our cruise can be considered a gift and all the stuff I'm buying for it! (new swimsuit, suitcase, suit for Steve, pedicure....you know, the essentials! :)

2. What is your favorite Christmas gift from the past? My parents put car starters in our cars 5 or so years ago, that was pretty awesome! and they got us a snowblower a couple years ago too!

3. If you had to do life over again, what would you be when you grow up? Hard question! I went thru a phase of wanting to be a criminal pyschologist and I still think that would be super interesting.

4. When do you put up your tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving if I can wait until then!

5. What is your favorite holiday? I really love them all! Christmas for the food, family and decorations. Halloween for the candy, costumes and decorations. New Years b/c of the memories of the good ole days. Easter b/c we still dye eggs and play 4-square! 4th of July b/c Urbandale is awesome for this holiday!

Another hump day gone by

Steve got to be in the water with P for waterbabies last night, however I didn't get any good pictures of them! Steve looks like he has a white T-shirt on b/c his arms are so tan and his chest is WHITE! Grandma Becky came to watch the intense action of the waterbabies class, so I did get this cute picture of them afterwards!
My Biggest Loser weigh in didn't go great but I expected that after the long, holiday weekend. I gained 1 pound and fell to #7 on this list. At least I know I'm going to have to work hard this weekend to be good! The holiday season is sooo hard b/c there is yummy food everywhere!

Before I met Steve I was a planner, but Steve is not. He doesn't worry about what time things happen, what we need to bring....he assumes things will work out! So I've learned to not be so worried if things aren't planned out all the time, months in advance! But last night I think I slowly worked myself into a panic attack worrying about all the things I (we) have to do in the next 2 months. EVERYTHING was running thru my head last night (b/c Holly's birthday is only 2 weeks away, Christmas 3 weeks away, our cruise 5 weeks away and then hell our baby will turn 2 years old shortly after that! So here I was at midnight worrying about February! WTF?), so this girl didn't fall asleep until after 1 am. I actually got out of bed at 11:45 and wrote down a list of the things I was thinking about, that way I could stop worrying about them....but I didn't. I rarely do this, but maybe it was a good thing b/c I actually got 4 of those things crossed off my list today!
I'm fighting a cold, Presley is still coughing but hopefully this weekend we can get some more items off that list!