1000

Just realized that my MOM post...was my 1000th post!!!!

Here is where it all started February 2009
http://www.thegoodlife-jgo.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog.html

Mom

So as all of you probably know, my mother has been the world's best daycare provider to us (and others) over the last 5.5 years. She has been flexible, cheap and best of all loved my babies like no other daycare provider could!
I'm used to going to my parents house almost every day to pick up one, if not both of my babies! And now, neither one of them are with her! It's bitter sweet. I know my mom is ready for Piper to move on and I think Piper is loving being social with other kids and adults at this point.
As I have said before and will continue to say forever, we have been SO lucky to have this option for our girls! I would not have had it any other way!
So now instead of seeing my mom every day and venting, chatting or pissing her off....I call her every day on my way home from work just to make sure she isn't missing me as well! :)

Thank you mom for 5 and a half years of the best care we could've asked for. Even if you spoiled them rotten, that is what grandparents are for! :)

Love, Jessica, Steve, Presley and Piper

Ferguson

So I might start an argument with some, but it is my blog and so I'll say what I want. I totally don't want to be mean or narrow minded but I just want to vent. I will admit I don't have all the facts with the Ferguson issue that is ALL over television ALL of the time right now but.......
For arguments sake, let's keep it simple and say it's murder. There is no status issue of cop vs. teen, there is no racial issue of white vs. black. Got it?
Murders happen every day (I'm pretty sure that is a fact that I'm right about!). Murders happen to guilty, innocent, with intent, on accident, out of revenge, hatred or just for the fun of it (unfortunately it happens). Why does this murder get national attention from everyone? B/c we have made it a white vs. black issue? B/c it was a cop? B/c the people of Ferguson have made themselves look like jackasses with the looting and rioting?
People get murdered every day and their families don't get to talk to the attorney general, they don't get a moment of silence on the VMA's.
I do feel sorry for all the families involved in this case. I feel bad b/c it isn't just about losing the life of a teen but we have made it a racial and status issue. I feel sorry for every other murdered victim and their families over the last couple weeks who have rec'd NO attention for the lost of their loved ones

End rant.

Sunday Funday

We had Boston's 4th birthday party on Sunday! Ninja Turtles is his current obsession! Of course Sam made these (with all these fun creative birthday parties, we might need to step it up a notch for Piper's birthday party!)

Cheese!

B playing with his turtles!

Then we hung out at home and Piper napped. Presley wanted to play outside SO badly, you know, on one of the hottest days of the year. Steve got out the baby pool, the sprinkler and of course, the water balloon launcher! Seems like all the kids in the neighborhood we wanting to play outside! I watched from inside!

Flashback!

2 years ago

 

 This year!

2 years ago! Baby faces!!

This year!

Adventureland

We finally got to use our tickets for this year! Sam, Scott and Boston were able to go with us, which was great b/c the kids and the adults got along! HA! The kids had someone to rides with and so did Scott and Steve, since Sam and I are old and wimpy when it comes to rides now!

I'm so mad this picture is blurry, it was so humid the lens fogged over! But their smiles are so cute!

Presley has no fear! I think she likes to prove that she isn't afraid of any rides (she is only afraid of talking to people!) We rode the Gallion right away!

She rode the airplanes with Boston, love their smiles! They got along SO good!

Me, Steve, Presley and Sam rode the log ride, Presley's favorite ride! She wanted to ride in the front seat with Sam and she got SOAKED!!!

Steve and Scott rode this thing, the new ride out there!

The lines were long, but we were all patient! We were lucky that it stayed cloudy for most of the day to keep the heat away. We got there right at 10, and went to the waterpark from about 2-4. They loved it! They went down the kid waterslide at least 50 times each. It was busy too but didn't really bother any of us too much, good people watching!

After the waterpark Presley decided to try her first real rollercoaster (she went on the Underground rollercoaster earlier in the day, but said it was not fun!).  I thought the Outlaw rollercoaster ride would be way too fast for her so I was very nervous!

Steve said she smiled and laughed SO hard the whole time! I'm sure out of nervousness, but she said she liked it and would ride it again! UGH!

One last ride before leaving the park about 6 pm. There were so many more rides we wanted to get on but time was just not on our side!  It was a great day, everyone was in good spirits, we all had patience and had fun!

Thanks to mom for watching Piper so we could enjoy our day with a little less chaos and thanks to Sam, Scott and Boston for going with us!

OH MAN

Conversations with Presley.....

P : Mom, can we do math?
Me : Math?
P : Yeah! Like my flash cards?
Me *excited* : Of course we can do flash cards!  (she is my child!)

Me having Presley smell my cider beer that has maple syrup in it (parent of the year right here!)
Me : Presley, what does this smell like?
P smells it : Vodka?
WHAT????????????

Presley emptying out our cabinets with games/toys/colors
Me : Presley! What are you doing??
P : Organizing!!!
Me : Oh ok, go for it!

P : Daddy let's play Candyland
Dad : No, not right now
P : I just want to play something!
Dad : Like what?
P : Can we play organizing?

Updates

So Sunday we slept in AGAIN, 10 am AGAIN for all 4 of us! We had Mary's 7th birthday party at a park in Ankeny. Frozen! (and Princess Elsa did not show up, even though Presley insisted she would!). It is always nice to see all the family and friends get together for Miss Mary!

Isn't this cake awesome!

11 month old Emersyn was so cute and Piper has a total crush on him!

We decided that Piper didn't need to nap since we needed her tired so she would go to bed early since we needed to wake her up for her first day in her new room at Generation Next!

 

Presley has done much better since last week, every day has been a little better and she seems to be in good spirits when Steve picks her up. She has alot to talk about and I think she actually likes it! The organization and learning...sigh of relief from mom and dad!

I actually Miss Coleen from Generation when I dropped Piper off and she asked about Presley, I told her about P's first day....Coleen looked like she was about to cry and said that it broke her heart to hear how hard it was for her!

 

Piper started full time on Monday in the toddler room (up from the pre-tot room). I got to meet one of her teachers Heather, who I already love! Of course, Piper cried but Heather was very nice and asked questions. This morning when I dropped her off there were no tears! She went right to Heather with no issues! She said that she was surprised at how much Piper talks (though I'm sure no one understands her but us!) and she said "Honestly, she is my little buddy!". As a mother, you love hearing that from someone who is around your child every day!

 

It was hard for me to go back to work on Monday too. I prefer to just get paid for not working!

It wasn't too bad going back, it's nice to get back into a routine and honestly it was time for me to have some time away from the kids! LOL! I have a couple long weekends coming up so I'll just look forward to those!

Princess Party

Saturday both girls didn't get up until about 10 am.....then we hung out, played outside and just enjoyed being home. Piper took a late nap, Steve went to Target and then we all headed to Ava's 5th birthday party. Princess themed of course! Even Brock and Jackie dressed up for the occasion! Piper was willing to put on a princess dress like the rest of the girls there, Presley refused (shocker).

And Rapunzel and Tinkerbell showed up for the party! They were really good and great with the girls!

Piper was not impressed but I was going to get at least ONE of my kids pictures taken with them! I wish Presley would loosen up and have fun in these situations but she plays shy and sad instead.

Firsts

The first day of kindergarten. I wish I had a cute picture or story to tell. I don't. She was nervous, I knew right away when I woke her up. The questions started, mostly she was concerned that Piper was getting to stay home with me and she couldn't. Steve was nice enough to leave work and come to take Presley, so I wouldn't have to lug her and Piper into the madness of the school.

 

School starts at 8:40, by 8:50 I still hadn't heard from Steve. He called and said it coudn't have gone any worse. Lovely. She was fighting, screaming, crying.....the teacher had to call the principal to come get her. The principal, vice-principal and Mrs. Goodrich (who lives in our neighorhood and has a daughter named Piper! Spooky!) had to come get her, take her to the office so that Steve could leave and she would calm down.

 

So of course I called the school about 10 to see how things were going. The principal and I are almost BFF's at this point (pretty good for the first day of school at a brand new school!) she was very nice and understanding and said that Presley had calmed down, helped her run some errands around the school and then was able to go to class and seemed fine. We actually got an email from the teacher later that afternoon that also confirmed that Presley was doing fine and listening well.

 

After school she went to KTC (kids/teen connection), the 3 of us went to go pick her up and she was out playing and seemed to be doing ok. So fingers crossed she'll adjust sooner rather than later.

 

Since I didn't get a first day picture before school, I tried to get one when she got home. This is what she gave me.

 

Friday I took Piper to get her first haircut at Sheer Madness (where I had taken Presley the week before) The mullet was just a little much and the bangs were ALWAYS in her eyes. They have a first haircut package where they take a before and after picture and give her a certificate and scrapbook page. Except they took the WORST pictures of her, good thing I had my camera so that she actually looked like the daughter I know!

She had total bed head when we got there.

She loved the car, she hated the cape and the blow dryer

The back is so nicely trimmed up. The front will still need a barette but at least we got rid of the wispy, baby hair. She did pretty good for her first time!

Goodbye Rocky Mountain High

We took off about 1, our flight wasn't until 7 but with the delays we had on the way there we didn't want to take chances on the way home. The drive is about 2.5 hours to the airport, we stopped at the top of the mountain to stretch our legs and take some more pictures (b/c obviously I hadn't taken enough yet)!

I just love the view! It's just so beautiful and huge and nothing like Iowa! Anyway, we headed on our way...hoping the girls would nap (no such luck), we did get stuck in traffic and really didn't have that much time to spare by the time we dropped off the rental car, checked in and got thru security. We met Holly, Jerry and Mary at the airport, Mary was flying back with us so that she could go to school Thursday morning too! This whole time Piper was a bear! She didn't want to be held, but she would take off running if we put her down, so that wasn't a great option either! She screamed, she made all the people in line near us pray that they wouldn't be on our flight.

The flight was less than wonderful. Piper was tired, she wouldn't sleep, she didn't want any snacks we had, she didn't want any toys we had, she wanted down, she wanted to scream, she wanted to make the whole plane hear her. She did. I want to say she was good and quiet, maybe a total of 30 minutes of the 1.5 hour flight. Presley had her breakdowns too, it's always fun when both kids are throwing a fit on a plane! You wonder if the people around us are just irritated or feeling sorry for us....or maybe a little of both. It was a long flight for everyone....on the positive side, Mary was perfect on the flight!

 

We got in about 9:30-10....it took FOREVER to get our luggage, the girls had SO much energy and just ran around the airport like crazy kids. I was sweating, exhausted and ready to get home! Finally we had the 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 suitcases, 2 carseats and 3 carry-ons that we started with and headed home.

 

Overall it was a great trip, not super relaxing but that's what happens with two kids! Presley was still quiet and did very little talking and Piper was loud, ran around and talked to everyone! It was so nice seeing everyone but we are so happy to be home with the weekend ahead of us!



Wednesday :(

Our last day, we got up, packed and cleaned the cabin and then mom watched Piper so that we could take Presley on a hike before we left for the drive to the airport.

Uncle Danny and Aunt Debbie

We saw some deer, this little baby deer was so cute!

The hike was mostly uphill towards Adam Falls, beautiful water rolling over rocks and boulders between the mountains.

Uncle Roger and Uncle Danny near the bottom as we kept hiking up

Aunt Debbie and Aunt Ellen taking in the view

Awwwwwwww

P was tired of walking, but was mad when we didn't keep walking further with Boston?! So we headed back to the car

but this moose decided he would block the walking path.

We, along with many others stood off to the side, watching, taking pictures, waiting for him to pass. Eventually he moved on, a sheriff showed up to make sure that no one was getting close to him. There were two other moose near this one, but we didn't stick around to see them!

Day 4 Part 2

After dinner we had a nice little party for Samantha and my cousin Sarah's 30th birthdays! My Uncle Danny made one of his famous cards for them

Aunt Ellen and Aunt Ann

Then we filed outside so the kids could use the water balloon launcher, Presley had been asking all week to use it so she was excited that she had to show the other kids how to use it!

 Cousin Luke tried to catch one.

Then the adults did the water balloon toss for the Olympics, I was paired up with Uncle Roger and we won! WOOHOO!!!

Presley was not impressed and a little pissed that her turn was over.

Samantha and I had to play our beanbag game against cousins Chris and Luke (which Sam and I won!), so dad watched Piper for me since Steve and Presley (who still wasn't 100% feeling good) went back to the cabin.

She sat next to him and copied everything he did! It was the cutest and funniest thing!

 

 

Miss Personality, such facial expressions all the time!