Photo Dump Sunday

Oh Sunday Funday in a whole new aspect.  The girls slept until almost 8:30, we ate some breakfast and headed downstairs to play. There is more for Piper to play with, less to get into and Steve had a late night out so it would be quieter for him! He slept until 10 and then we just hung out! He is working on the shelves for his bar in the basement (will post pics soon!) so he got those up and got his lights installed. Then we had lunch! Piper loved her lunch meat, green beans, strawberries and blueberries!

Then Piper went down for a nap, Steve and Presley headed out to do some errands and I took advantage of my 'alone time'. I sat on the deck and read my magazine, did laundry, dusted, dry and wet swiffered the floor....it has been a productive weekend for me!

Once P and Steve got home, I woke Piper up from her nap (I know, shame on me!) and we headed to the pumpkin patch! We headed out to Patch's Pumpkins near Earlham, which is nice, it's not too big with a variety of stuff for kids to do!

Piper loved looking at the chickens and turkeys!



and horses!

Presley wouldn't ride the horse, but I'm sure in a year or two Piper will be willing to!

We almost lost Piper in the corn, she did pretty good playing in it...without trying to eat too much of it. And once we took her out, she tried to take a head dive right back in!

The bounce house didn't have anyone in it....just the way that P likes it! So Miss Piper joined her too!

 

The pumpkins were amazing! I think we usually wait to go later in the month when they are picked over, but there were so many good ones that it was quick and easy to find our pumpkins this year!

 

 Daddy and his girls

Mommy and Piper

The fam!

So many things to do, so little time.....

So Monday was my 10-7 shift at work for the month of September, which worked to my advantage since P had a dentist apt at 8:45. A year ago we tried the dentist and it was terrible. She wouldn't open her mouth and I couldn't bring myself to holding her down and forcing her mouth open.
We tried a new dentist, still a pediatric dentist but this one was much cooler and so fun! I think I want to go there! Presley still wasn't convinced. We still had to hold her down and basically force the teeth cleaning on her while she cried. It sucked, but I'm hoping in 6 months she won't be as scared since she'll kind of know what to expect.

Wednesday we picked up the kids and headed to the mall to try to figure out what the girls were going to wear for pictures on Saturday. We had some outfits but nothing fit quite right and Presley of course, refused to wear what we wanted. So we literally bought a little of everything in hopes that something would work.

Thursday I had my monthly work outing at El Bait Shop, which was fun since Holly and Jerry were there with some of their work people too! I was still home at a reasonable time and lucky enough that both kids were in bed!

Friday us girls went wedding dress shopping with Holly. I took Presley with me and she was very good. She was patient and good while Holly tried on dresses! Holly looked beautiful in the dresses, she is so tall and skinny that everything looked good but we found two dresses that stood out. We'll see if she decides to go back and decide on one! Then the 7 of us girls went to dinner at Monterrey, yummy cheese dip and margaritas! Presley was again good, I was prepared with snacks and colors to keep her occupied and she did great. Then she fell asleep on the way home! Yeah!
Once I got home, we still didn't have outfits for the girls for pictures the next morning! Stresses me out! Steve went to Target at 9:30 pm and then went to Walmart, in hopes of something....anything. He bought some more options. We spent $200 on clothes, none of which we thought would work!!!

Piper had a rough night but it worked out since she ended up sleeping until almost 8 and you know what? It was raining, it was almost a relief that we could cancel our pictures! Isn't that sad! So we all got ready, headed to the mall and returned 90% of the stuff we had bought! LOL! We then headed to another mall and still left with no clothes.
Piper took a nap, Presley played and Steve watched the Iowa game while I ran to the grocery store. Then Steve left to go watch his nephew fight (yes, fight....like MMA style fighting) and the girls and I hung out. It's so nice that they will actually 'play' together now. We had dinner, played, walked to the mailbox and both girls were asleep by 8:30!

Now I'm taking this time to do laundry, dishes, blog, pick up, and organize...at least a little bit....so that we don't have to do it all tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be great and the Packers don't play so hopefully we can spend some time outside! Goodnight all!

Six Years!

Funny how last year I mentioned that we always wanted to go back to Dreams Cancun where we had our honeymoon for our 5 year anniversary. (http://www.thegoodlife-jgo.blogspot.com/2012/09/blog-post.html) Now we are about 67 days away from making that happen for our 6 year anniversary!

A lot of marriages don't make it six years, kind of sad huh? Of course I'm not sure Sam's boyfriend Scotts' 4 marriages TOTAL 6 years! LOL! I'm funny, Scott thinks I'm funny, I'm not being a bitch here!

Anywhoo.......six years, 2 kids, 2 jobs, 3 cars, many fights, many laughs and lots of fun we are still going strong! I love you Stephen, thank you for putting up with my crazy! I'm sure it will only get better from here on out! LOVE YOU!

Weekend Update

All week P had been talking about going out to eat, she even mentioned it to her teachers! So Friday we gave in and headed to Applebees for a quick dinner. B/c who doesn't love paying $5 for Kraft mac and cheese? The only good thing is that now Miss Piper can eat it too so we are getting 2 meals for the price of 1!  After dinner Steve and P headed to watch cousin Derek play in the Earlham football game  and Piper and I headed home. She was asleep by 8 and I was in bed reading by 9! Oh yeah!

 

I actually went to work Saturday morning, I was there about 6 and I got so much done! It was nice they let me work since I knew that we have a busy week ahead and I wouldn't be able to get in extras hours. We thought about going to Creston for their Balloon Days fun but with busy week ahead and the stuff we needed to get done it just wasn't going to happen, so we stayed home. P and I headed to the mall and then her friend Allie came over to play. Allie started at Generation Next about the same time P did, so they both were the 'new kids', they get along good and she just happens to live 2 blocks away, so we were happy that she was able to come over and play.

Other than that we just hung out, which was good b/c both kids were irritating!!! Piper was crabby, which is just not like her but we realized that she cut her 3rd bottom tooth (which we didn't even know she was working on) and she is still working on her top ones! Presley was just whiny, crying, crabby, throwing fits, not listening. I was in tears at bedtime b/c I was just so tired of it all from her. It feels like we just yell at her 90% of the time and I don't want it to be like that! We all got to bed early in hopes for a better Sunday!

 

Today we had our 2nd annual Moeller get together at my parents house. It's nice to actually see the other Moellers since they live in DSM and we just rarely see everyone! SO much good food, so many laughs and many other people willing to watch Piper for a couple minutes! LOL! I've been trying to download some pics on FB and it isn't letting me!  So here are some pics of my babies!

I'm not liking this shaggy look on her, but I think she looks funny in baby barrettes and headbands!

Giving Boston kisses, which I don't think he loves.

So determined!

 Just chillin!

This reminds of the Presley's 'mean' look she used to give, however I think Piper might be pooping!

Random

- I love Josh Groban

- I thought tonight was going to be terrible considering the first 30 seconds after picking up Presley from preschool she was screaming, kicking, back arched, throwing a fit b/c she wanted to go out to dinner. Well Steve is working tonight, so that wasn't going to happen! But she didn't care, she continued her fit the whole way home and proceeded to yell at Piper for looking at her and then started hissing at her....yes, like some kind of animal! But as the night proceeded, she turned things around and was actually good! THANK GOD!

- When I picked Presley up from preschool yesterday I actually got to see one of her teachers! I asked how she was doing and she just raved that Presley is so sweet! And how nice it is to have her in class. At least she is good for them! Then as we were leaving she said 'Goodbye gorgeous' to Presley. Just what she needs is one more person telling her she is cute or pretty. Little Miss Diva for sure!

- 69 degrees today and 90 degrees tomorrow? Are you kidding me?

- We brought in our plastic slide from outside for Miss Piper and Presley to fight over play with when the weather gets colder. Miss Piper is in heaven.....head first. No fear.

- The movie Gravity with Sandra Bullock freaks me out. I hate the sound of silence (does that make any sense, what does silence sound like?) and they show her just floating out into space with nothing, no sound, no white noise, no nothing! Freak out.

- I have a new found love for Jimmy Johns. Do they have a frequent buyer punch card? I need one.

Weekend o'fun

Friday night we did nothing except get ready for our busy weekend. We had my 16 year high school reunion on Saturday afternoon. (yes, 16 year b/c no one planned a 15 year!) They had a family get together at a hotel banquet room which was nice! We got to see lots of people and all their kids! It's funny b/c Steve knows quite a few people I graduated with from before he ever met me! April (who did daycare for us) was there with her girls and P was so excited to see them! They kept her occupied so we just had to worry about chasing Piper around.

It's actually kind of sad that we had a class of about 225 and not even close to half of the people showed up. I didn't go to my 5 or 10 reunion, but now with Facebook I almost feel that I know these people better now than I ever did before. Even a lot of people who still live in DSM didn't come. Steve doesn't understand at all since he is still friends with most people he went to high school with. I really only talk to two people I graduated with Colleen and April. But it was still good to see the people who showed up even if we had never been close friends.

 

My mom had agreed to watch the girls overnight for us which worked out perfectly b/c it was the IA/IA State game and we attended the adult only reunion at Saints. It was good! More people came out for this part of the reunion and again, it was just good to see everyone! I am glad that we went!

Sunday we had the chance to join some people in our neighborhood to a road trip to a Kansas City Chiefs game and since my mom was already watching the girls, it kind of worked out perfectly! We got a pimp mobile! A $500k bus/motorhome that we rented for the day. It was awesome, it had everything you could ever want! Four TV's indoors with satellite, bathroom, sink, microwave, fridges, plenty of seating plus the owners wife buys décor for the bus for the occasion. So the bus was decked out with KC pillows and such when we got on!  Outdoors had an awning, an outdoor TV plus a great speaker system and a grill. It really was perfect for tailgating. Hopefully they decide to do this every year!

The whole gang, including friends who met us down there!

We didn't have tickets to the actual game, we tried to scalp some but the prices were just not worth it since neither one of us really liked either team playing. We stayed and watched the game, made friends with some people next to us and the 'bouncer' was nice enough to flip to the Green Bay game for me during the commercials! Yes, I said 'bouncer' b/c the driver has an assistant who helped us, made sure we had everything we needed, he even acted as our 'security'! Anthony even saw me walk over to use the portapotty at one point and he followed me to make sure I was safe since I had gone by myself!

Steve's high school friend Eric lives in KC and had tickets to the game, so they came over to say hi!

Steve's cousin Josh, who lives in KC came to tailgate with us too.

It was a great day to hang out with friends and get to know some of our neighbors a little more! We got back right about 9 pm and I think everyone was exhausted! My mom had the girls in bed for us when we got home and they both slept until 8 am! We took Presley to preschool a little late and then the 3 of us just hung out and took naps!

Eleven months

Oh Miss Piper, I will continue to tell you to stop growing...for the rest of your life. You are my sweet baby, STOP GROWING! It breaks my heart to think about you turning one. Yes, you are a pain in the ass in more ways than one but mostly b/c we spend most of our time trying to keep you out of trouble.

 

Miss Piper:

- is taking up to 4 steps by herself *sigh*

- can head bang when tell her to 'rock n roll' or 'rock on'. I have a video but can't get it to upload!

- does so-big, waves bye-bye....we are working on pat-a-cake and blowing kisses

- is basically wearing all 12 month clothes

- loves real food! We still give her baby food for fruits and veggies, she is down to less than 3 bottles a day and we'll probably work on getting that down to just her night time bottle in the next month or two.

- has NO fear of anything and it is exhausting. She'll climb all the way up our stairs (and of course wants to go back down head first!). She climbs on, under and in everything. The playground at the mall, she crawl over to strangers, she'll climb on other kids, she climb up the stairs and go down the slide head first, she'll climb UP the slide part. I didn't think there was any way she was going to be able to pull herself up that slide, but she sure did...over and over again. She doesn't care if there are kids bigger than her trying to come down right on top of her...she just smiles and continues on her mission

- is like a drug to Presley. Presley CANNOT leave her alone. She must pick her up and carry her, she must yell at her, she must say "Piper, no!"..."No, Piper!" at least 388 times a day! But Piper finds her very funny too!

- still only has her two bottom teeth. You know how last month we thought she was getting her top teeth, well they still aren't through....so we must have been wrong. But now her left top tooth is slowly poking through...I swear!

- growls and grunts all the time. Now we have been blessed with ear piercing screams....just for fun! Her and P will have screaming contests and you can't tell who is who b/c they sound identical. I know you are dying to hear/see a video of that...I'll work on it! 

Packer Sunday!

Well the NFL season has officially began! Miss Piper was willing to sport her new Packer outfit. Presley was a butt and not willing to where her cool pink Aaron Rodgers jersey....b/c it was pink and she wanted a green shirt like me. (Seriously?!) Whatever, not an argument I want to have.

A nice picture of the kiddos

then they wanted a funny picture

Miss Piper loves dogs. She is not scared (of really anything!) and Rocky did so good with her. She sat there and just touched him, on his ear, his face, his mouth...and he sat there.

The Packers lost. I knew it would be a hard game but it was  good game and we got to hang out with the family and eat some food and talk (and listen to couple of P's crying fits). Sunday Funday has begun!

Blah....

I feel like this week went by in a blur! Monday I booked our trip to Mexico for the end of November! We originally were going to go in February closer to our 35 birthdays but looking at prices it was cheaper to go NOT around spring break! And normally we don't like to fly out of Kansas City but this time it saved us $800 to NOT fly out of DSM! We had been looking at different places and different resorts and I just couldn't choose, so we are going back to where we had our honeymoon! It will be our 6th year anniversary this month! We always said we wanted to go back at 5 years but since this girl was 8 months pregnant last year.....that wasn't going to happen!

 

 

Steve had to work late a couple nights, which I don't like but hopefully it won't last long. Other than that, we did nothing! Friday night we met Lisa, Jared and their neighbors at the TCI Clubhouse for dinner. It wasn't busy (and with 7 kids we didn't have to worry about irritating anyone around us!), the food was good but the service was bad. I felt bad for the kid helping us but he did the best he could. All the kids were pretty good so it was good!

 

Saturday we had Lisa, Jared and their boys Colton and Jett over to watch the Iowa game! Colton and Presley play pretty good together (even though Presley cries about everything these days!) and Piper and Jett slept for a lot of the game. That afternoon I took Piper to the mall but other than that we just hung out and played at home...and I think we were all asleep very early!

Piper has this ball that she plays with...the yellow part moves back and forth so she pushes it thru, looks at the other side, it falls thru and she does it all over again. She did this for 10 minutes, just perplexed!

 

 

Piper.......

took one step by herself, three different times tonight.
That is all.
Sad face.

Labor Day weekend

I didn't leave the house Sunday (well besides a walk with Piper). Steve took P to Menards to get stuff to make his cabinets in the basement and Piper and I hung out. That afternoon she took her nap, Steve and his brother Matt built cabinets and I tried to get P to have some quiet time....that lasted about 20 minutes. The weather was finally bearable to enjoy outside so I did some reading while P played around with her Barbies. We watered the yard, played preschool, played party, colored, she did my hair. It was a good afternoon!

And now that I think about it, I did leave the house! We went to Chili's for dinner! We don't go out to dinner nearly as much as we used to, mainly b/c it is a pain in the ass with 2 kids and I kind of don't like spending the money on it anymore!

 But we got home put the kids to bed and then our neighbor Todd came over with a couple bottles of wine and we were able to enjoy our deck and the WONDERFUL night! You could see the stars and it was actually chilly but we enjoyed it! 

 

This morning Piper took Presley 'down to the ground' as we say in our house! Presley needs to learn to leave Piper alone b/c pretty soon she is going to start fighting back! Piper is like a drug, she can't leave her alone. I think a part of it she tries to be 'motherly' the other part...she is just bossy and has to be in control!

We had decided that Todd was going to come over and grill his steak and we would grill some salmon and chicken wings. I had some errands to run (since I hadn't done anything all weekend long!) so P and I went to Target, then Barnes and Noble and then Hy-Vee. Guess who didn't have chicken wings....guess which TWO Hy-Vee's didn't have chicken wings! Goodness! We were traveling all over the f'ing city looking for freaking wings! We finally ended up going to Wal-Mart for our last effort in finding wings and we did it!  and I want to give Presley props for being SO good! She listened for the most part, she was funny and cute in her ballerina outfit, she was good and I felt bad for dragging her all over trying to find dumb wings!

 

Todd, Holly and Jerry were able to come over for an early dinner and enjoy some of our Labor Day food! It was so good, we are so full and the company was great! I finally feel like we actually did something worthwhile over this long weekend! And of course, the house is a mess and laundry isn't done and I love it!

Hope you all had a nice, enjoyable, relaxing Labor Day!

Labor Day weekend

Oh Labor Day, the day that most people have off of work and no one really cares why. Friday night Holly invited me and P to have dinner with her and Mary at Zombie Burger. Goodness, I love that place! SO GOOD! Holly and I split a blue cheese/onion burger, after the first bite we really wanted to order another. We didn't. Instead we got two of their to-die-for shakes! Holly and Mary got the Rice Krispie Treat shake and P and I got the white wedding cake shake! Seriously, there really shouldn't be anything that good around me.

I got up Saturday morning with the monster. She is into everything. My mother will agree that she is just exhausting! You just can't leave her, you have to watch her all the time, she is into everything no matter what it is! So I stuck her in the toy bid...where she stayed (while doing SO BIG) until she tipped it over.



Other than that we wasted away the morning and went to Boston's 3rd birthday party! It was good! Samantha did a great job! She is so creative and artistic...makes me a little sick.

Here is the cake she made! Amazing huh?

Samantha enjoying one of Boston's birthday presents! LOL!

 Grandma and Pa with the grandkids! This is the best we could get with 4 kids under 6...not too bad! 

The girls were pretty good, Piper started to get tired and since she only took an hour nap in the morning, we were hoping she would fall asleep on the way home and stay that way....well she fell asleep about 5 minutes from home and woke up the minute the card stopped! UGH! oh well,  we did nothing the rest of the day so it didn't really matter!