2016 Goals

1. Be able to run a 5k (this is the 3rd year in a row this has been on my list)
2. Open Piper a savings account (this is the 2nd year on my list)
3. Have Presley take swimming lessons until she can swim!
4. Organize our storage room, take things to Goodwill or have a garage sale. The stuff must go!
5. Give to others...whether it be giving baby clothes to a friend, donating stuff to a charity, sending a gift card randomly to someone who might need it, giving $ to a homeless person....anything, just to give back a little...plus I think it is good for my kids to see us doing these things also.
6. Get another car. Our Equinox is in needed of serious repairs. It was parked in the street for 4 months and now it is parked in our driveway. You have to jump it to get it started due to some electrical problem, the air doesn't work....but it's paid off which is why I don't want to get rid of it BUT I think I just need to give in. I think.

Random

- Bookbub...if you like reading check out this website. You pick what genre of books you like and then you get a daily email on what books are either free or really cheap for that day. My problem is that I come across so many books that sound good and they are free, so why wouldn't I download them? Well, I'm a little OCD with having books on my kindle that are unread. I think I have 8-10 books unread, just sitting there waiting for me to read them.....I better finish this post and get back to reading (I have read 3 books so far this week)
- Ben Carson's commercials....I like his new commercials with the hands, good marketing!
- Audio books....I can't do it. If I'm sitting here doing nothing, absolutely nothing then I can listen to them. Otherwise I can't focus on just that.
- The last place I would want to be on New Years Eve is Times Square in NYC. I always thought this would be fun however now I think it's a terrorists dream to have that many people in one place! No thanks.
- I caved and joined the Fitbit gang. I did not get the wrist one but found one that you just clip onto your belt loop or pocket, I think that will work better for me. Steve and I really need to try to get in shape this coming year and I think this will hold me accountable for my working out. I use My Fitness Pal to track my food and calories when trying to be healthier, it definitely makes you second guess what food you decide to eat when you see the calories staring back at you. (and then how much you would have to work out to burn those calories off! ugh!)

- ok back to reading.

Weekend Update

We had alot of time Saturday morning to play with new toys and hang out before heading to Earlham for the Goodrich christmas. The girls actually decided they liked each other for quite a bit of the day...it was a little weird, but very nice!

Presley got a super cool new clock radio for her bedroom...they played in there and listened to music for a long time! Then Presley wanted to play Phase 10 in her bed, listening to music...it was like hanging out with a teenager! ha!

The Goodrich christmas is always a lot of food and drinks and fun. The kids play good with cousin Ava and we don't see them most of the time! The white elephant gift exchange for the adults was full of good (and not so good) gifts! Steve fell in love with this Chevy jacket....he has a silver one just like it and just NEEDED to complete the set! He thinks he is cool.

I'm not sure if the Chevy jacket or this jacket is better? And Derek with his Christmas sweater....I swear, this isn't a white trash get together!

Derek with the hair and the sweater AND the jacket....look out girls, you can't find this type of guy just anywhere!

Presley, Ava and Ava's other cousin Nora.

Jason trying out the segway board. Steve got on it and did okay going very slowly. I did not get on b/c I didn't want to break a leg!

We had two family pool tournaments. Steve won both of them! I actually came in 2nd place in the first tournament, so I was impressed with myself! :)

Matt and Steve....this was probably after Matt lost and Steve was talking shit about it.

Miss Piper walks around like she owns the place.

She even got Sarah to make 'pancakes and waffles' with her for a bit!

We got home WAY too late and the girls didn't go to bed until almost midnight! Piper was so amped up (probably overly tired) but neither one of them fell asleep in the car on the 45 minute drive home! Of course I woke up this morning about 9:30, Steve 10:30, Presley 11 and Piper we woke up at 11:20.....she really likes about 12 hours of sleep (on the weekends when she doesn't take naps) but sleeping until noon for a 3 year old is just not necessary!

Today we have been cleaning, organizing the new toys, putting away christmas decorations, doing laundry, dishes, Steve took both girls to the grocery store with him and just getting ready for another shortened week. The girls had a very good Christmas weekend and are very lucky! Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas

We headed over to my parents about noon, Presley wanted to wear her new pj's....I was kind of jealous! I really wanted a family picture but the day just got away from us. I still got some cute ones of the kids though.

Grandma and Presley

Watching Steve and Pa open presents.

Penquin Elvis is so cute!

The three of us girls got my dad a Packers jacket, it's the military rememberance version that is only sold during November around Veterans Day...it has taken us 3 years to get this b/c it is ALWAYS sold out!! He was very excited!

Boston, Mary and Presley each got these super cool globes! They have a pen and it's all computerized, very cool! We have learned things from it already!

Piper got a baby doll. I think this might be one of the first dolls she has received! I think most of our dolls are Presley's or even my old babies!

Piper and Grandma

The white elephant gift exchange for the adults...always fun and you never know what you might just get! Steve ended up with a Santa cookie jar (which I'm excited to use next year!)

Scott opened jerseys that had been worn by Jerry back in college...Jerry even autographed them! Though my dad stole this from Scott (I think to make Holly happy!)

Jerry was the big winner, so he got the pot of $ and his choice of any of the wonderful gifts!

Samantha got a picture frame filled with pictures of me and Steve....she was thrilled!

Christmas

Well the week started off with me NOT wanting to work at all! I worked all of Monday, Tuesday I left 2 hours early to get some last minute stuff done, Wednesday I took 4 hours of PTO and picked Presley up from KTC early (she insisted that she didn't want to be there...yeah b/c having fun with 60 other kids or coming home and sitting on the couch with mom are very similar in 'fun'!). Thursday at work we played BINGO and the first 3 winners got to leave at noon...so my skills at bingo paid off!

Thursday night Piper the Elf left the girls a note with a box asking them to fill it with books and toys they no longer wanted that Piper and Santa could give to others! Presley was VERY excited to fill it up, my only regret...not leaving a bigger box for them to fill!

 

We decided to take both girls to a movie, together. We had yet to attempt this with Piper. My parents had taken the grandkids to see a movie a couple weeks ago and it didn't go too badly, so we tried.

$50 for all 4 of us to see a movie! Thirty minutes of previews for a kids movie is just NOT smart! I brought snacks for back up, but that was gone by the time the movie started. Piper and Steve missed the 2nd half of the movie b/c she would not sit still and would not be quiet. They ended up in the car while Presley and I finished the movie. He is such a good daddy and husband but now he has decided that we never need to see a movie in the theater again.

There is one part of the movie where they say 'Hello?' and then it's silence....well it would've been silent if Piper hadn't been there yelling 'Hello!' multiple times also!

We saw The Good Dinosaur, I really liked it! I think Presley liked it too though she did get nervous at some parts. Steve thought it was a litte slow but then again, he didn't see the main story line of the movie.

We got home, ate dinner and the girls threw out their reindeer food into the yard (which we had a bunch of deer tracks out there by morning!).

We gave them a Christmas Eve present with new pj's, a movie, popcorn and candy and the special treat of having a bubble bath in our whirlpool tub! Presley has been asking for this for months!

Then they opened their gifts to each other. Presley picked out this stuffed dog pillow for Piper but she REALLY wanted it for herself! It was so hard for her to part with it and let her sister have it! (little did she know, Uncle Matt bought her the same one!)

Then we went downstairs and watched their new movie The Polar Express and hung out until it was time for bed. Presley got the milk and cookies ready for Santa, left him a note and off to bed she went with no issues! :)

 

Unlike most kids, our still do not wake up early even on Christmas morning. It was about 8:30 when Piper walked into our room, she cuddled with me a while and then we woke Presley up about 9! Presley was VERY into it this year. She was worried that she never made a list for Santa so how would Santa know what he should bring her, but I think she was happy anyways! Unlike alot families, our Santa wraps everything but the big gift. I just like the anticipation of them unwrapping things and seeing their faces and this is how our Santa always did it growing up. We gave them their Christmas Eve gift and then a Boogie Board (it's kinda like a magna doodle only cooler and smaller and they each have their own so they don't have to fight over it). It's so funny to hear how different families do things with gifts and traditions!

 

Piper was not real into it. It took her forever to open anything and she didn't really care about any presents that she received, oh well! Then we hung out, we got ready to head to my parents house for hte afternoon and the girls played and fought over things. I think Santa was good to them despite not having any ideas on what to bring them!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm not crafty or creative. However, there are two simple, easy things I do for Christmas to help decorate.

That's it. Occasionally I have wrapped our picture frames in Christmas wrapping paper and hung them back up on the wall to look like wrapped presents, however that hasn't happened in a while.

 

Saturday Steve had tickets to the Big 4 basketball tournament. So he left about 1 and the girls and I hung out. Then we took the afternoon to make some Christmas cookies! I needed to find something to keep them busy and away from fighting with each other. I had lots of plans to make lots of different things and for the most part, we did all of them! Presley was super cooperative and very into it! Piper, not so much but at least she left Presley alone to help me! :) 

She made 3 cookies, in order, to say her name!

 She made three that said Piper, she made 4 that had I-O-W-A in chocolate chips on them too!

 And about 10 minutes after they were done with cookies they started fighting and the next 3 hours I spent trying to keep them apart.

Our final result. Which almost none of this will get eaten in this house, believe it or not!

 

Sunday we got ready for the Packer game and for Christmas cookies with the family. I think this is my first Packer picture this year with my girls! 

Holly had the best cookie...which was a snowman that she decorated as a duck and it looked really good!

 Sam took it very seriously, being the creative one. She had a lot of good cookies too!

 Scott did not have very many good cookies. I will let you determine what he decorated his candy cane as......#13yearold

 Overall the kids did about half the cookies and the adults did the other half. They played good and we hardly saw them!

 She might have loved the sprinkles as you can tell by the amount on the table in front of her!

 My daddy and Piper sat at the table by themselves for close to 1/2 hour decorating cookies by themselves. They were too cute and I'm so glad that my dad takes this time to help my baby!

Piper was having some stomach issues and just hadn't seemed herself over the last 3 days, then she curled up in my lap and did this! WTF? She hasn't done this since she was a baby!!! I loved it! She didn't have a fever or anything but she slept for a good 1/2 hour thru lots of yelling during the football games!

Cherish these moments!