Random

- Last Tuesday my car was rear-ending on the way home from work. It was 16 degrees out and here I am walking/standing on Martin Luther King going back and forth between my car and hers. Her car just stalled and she wasn't able to stop. She couldn't even get her car started. My car isn't that bad, but my back bumper will have to be replaced. It's just a pain to find time to go get an estimate and get it fixed. Not excited about it.
- I heard about two suicides at Urbandale Middle School in the last week. So sad! Then I heard it was 12 and 14 year old girls & it brought tears to my eyes! I just can't imagine what was SO bad, that this was their way out. Knowing that Presley overdramatizes EVERYTHING, just makes me hope that we can teach her differently. I just can't imagine.
- A girl from Ankeny is part of the top 24 on American Idol! Yes, it is the time of year and I'm still dedicated to watching it!
- The other show I love....Catfish on MTV. Watch it, love it!
- Steve found out that AC/DC is doing 7 concerts in the US, Chicago being one of them. He's been talking about seeing them again so we decided to make an anniversary trip to see them at Wrigley Field in September! We'll just be there for 3 nights and 2 full days and flying! It's an hour and 20 minutes flight vs a 6 hour drive, we decided the little extra cost was worth the extra time we could get in the windy city!
- Originally we had wanted to do a trip this spring but then we booked Chicago. We decided we couldn't wait until September to go somewhere, we had been thinking and wanting to go to Nashville, but it was so expensive! I just couldn't pull the trigger on that. So I just booked a trip to Vegas for April! We are SO ready! So our tax return money is now gone! HA!
- Presley has never really been the kid who asks 'why' over and over again as many kids do...she is just beginning to really ask questions about things to fully understand. I think this is coming from being in school, the teacher oftens says that especially when reading 'you should always ask questions'. And she is smart, so it's hard to answer her! I might just learn something from this 6 year old! HA!

This and That

Sunday Presley and I went to Target and the mall. There was this teal/sky blueish pleather polyester jacket that she saw months ago but it was $39, no way I was going to buy it. This time it was 50% off and they gave me another discount so it was only $13 & she looked so cute and trendy, so I gave in and bought it. Now she won't take it off. She has worn it the last 3 days to school and would really love to wear it to bed!
Piper seemed to be feeling a little better, sleeping a more but not 100%. I took her to Generation about 8:30 Monday morning, she was very clingy, didn't eat much breakfast but hadn't had a fever. By 10:30, they called and said her temp was 101 and she had just been laying around. Steve went and got her. And mom offered to watch her Tuesday.
Tuesday she seemed ok for mom, wanted to sleep, runny nose, not eating much but not TOO bad. So we figured she'd go back to Generation this morning. She woke up at 12:45 with a fever...UGH.

This morning, my alarm either didn't go off or I turned it off! After I was up with Piper at 12:45 it was almost 2:30 before I finally fell back asleep (my brain doesn't shut off these days!). And if mama doesn't get up, no one in the house gets up. So it was 6:50 when Steve realized that we were late, since that is normally the time we are leaving the house! OOPS!
So we scrambled, decided Piper couldn't go to Generation again. Thank goodness Steve didn't have anything pressing at work he needed to do so he stayed home with her and took her back to the doctor.
Her ear infection was still really bad. The medicine we had was a strong one but hadn't worked yet so they did some blood work to make sure there wasn't something else going on....nope. So we wait until the medicine has more time to work, hope the virus works it way out of her and if she is still sick next week...take her back. I mean really? I don't like this waiting game. She is so sweet, my baby. :(

Piper

I feel like we are losing the sickness battle with Piper. When my mom watched Presley at this age, it seemed that she was never sick....of course she didn't spend 5 days a week with other germ infested kids either. Now that Piper is at Generation and has her sister to bring germs home to her, she is always catching something.
This week she has not been eating very much and she actually cried every day at dropoff, which she NEVER does. Wednesday she had 4 bad diapers (all before 10 am, resulting in a change of clothing), Thursday daycare called about 3 saying that she had woken up from her nap with what looked like hives or a rash on her legs! They said she acted fine and by the time Steve got her home, they were basically gone.
Thursday night she started coughing so when I went in to wake her up Friday morning, I was not surprised to see her cheeks bright red and a 101 fever. Steve had taken that morning off from work so he stayed with her and then took her to my mom's about noon b/c he has some work meetings to attend. She was basically hot, tired and clingy....and with the rash that would come and go?!
My mom watched them that night so we could go watch a friend of ours, Baird, play guitar at a brewery in Ankeny. We had a good time, and were able to see a lot of people that we don't normally go out with and we were home by 11:30. Piper however, did NOT sleep well. She slept with Steve in our bed and I tried to sleep on the couch. And none of us slept very much.

She woke up and didn't seem too bad, played, laughed, talked...still didn't eat and when I went to lay her down for her nap....she whined, cried and woke up multiple times! So we decided to take her to urgent care......ear infection. So at least we have an answer but I still want the fever and cough to go away and would like her to sleep thru the night!

Lent

I'm not a good Catholic but I will admit I kinda look forward to this time of year when I give up FB. And you might be asking yourself...well why doesn't she just give it up all the time then?...B/c it is addicting I tell you! You know it! You know exactly what I mean. You know when you are sitting in a room full of people, sitting at dinner with a group and there are people on their phone checking FB....I mean really, if FB is THAT interesting, just go home and read it, don't waste my time and read it when you are with me!  You know if you are in line some where waiting, that is the first thing you bring up. I took FB off of my phone in August just to get out of that habit b/c it was driving me so crazy!

FB is addicting and honestly there is SO much repetition, there is so much advertisement, there is so much NEED for attention (let me take a selfie so people can tell me how cute I look!). There are so many times I type out a post or comment and then realize I'm going to come off as a total bitch and delete it!

So this is my time to 'cleanse' myself of the 'bad' vibes, the annoying posts. It lets me regroup and really realize the reason I do like FB. I like seeing engagements, weddings, baby announcments, funny off-the-wall comments but if you are posting more than 3 times a day (for no reason b/c you have nothing better to do), you might need to give up FB for a couple weeks also. Find a new hobby, spend more time with a loved one, read a book, come clean my house! LOL!

I might just updated on my blog more with my random ramblings of my baby girls!

Random Updates

- Steve was able to help Presley with her Valentines Day box...of course, he wanted to do something more extravagent, maybe next year! I thought it was perfect!

- So Monday Presley had her 6 yr check up. She is 44.5 inches tall (she grew 2.5 inches in the last yr, and is a little less than average at about 33.5%), and she is 46.5 pounds (she is about 4 lbs heavier and average at 57%). She was just happy there were no shots!

She doesn't seem like she has grown that much, I think her torso is getting longer b/c it seems like most of the shirts that fit her length have super long sleeves! She is wearing mostly 6's these days but seems like we'll be venturing into the next size up for summer.

 

- We got her winter assessment for school (which is mostly for letters, language, reading) and they want to them to score at least a 47 and she is at 57! So that is great! By the end of the year they should be at '60', so she appears to be right on pace!

 

- I have watched 3 movies in 9 days, this is a record for me in the last 7-10 yrs! Divergent (loved the book, loved the movie!), Gone Girl (loved the book, book was better than the movie), and We're the Millers (I thought it was actually pretty funny!)

 

- Steve and I started taking a weekend (after we got our tax return) and going to the Mall of America years ago....we took Presley with us for 2-3 years and then along came Piper and we haven't been since! We had tossed around going this year since Piper is a little older, but honestly it just seemed like too much work! HA! So we compromised, we got a room at the Ramada water park hotel and went there for a night! 3 miles from home, no 3 hour drive....a much better situation for us!



Here is Presley in 2012 getting ready to swim in MN.

 and here she was Friday night! How is this the same child?

We left work a little early Friday, came home packed some stuff, picked up the girls and headed to the hotel. We finally got to the pool about 5 and the first people we see, our friends Dustin and Sam, they just happened to book a room for the same night! Presley did great in the pool, went down some of the little slides, Piper on the other hand was very timid and scared. She did warm up after a while but never would venture too far in (which was fine with us!)

We ate a late dinner at the hotel restaurant about 7, and Piper was a mess. She would get mad about something and then take anything she could from the table and just throw it. Literally, her cup of water, a fork, didn't matter and she would launch it as far as she could (thankfully she didn't hit anyone, but I can't say that she didn't come close!) We had to take her out of the restaurant 3 different times to calm her down! So irritating!
We took them back to the room to get Piper ready for bed. Steve and P went back down by the pool, went to the arcade, played some cards and I tried for over an hour to get Piper to sleep (the downside of a pool side room, is that it is LOUD!)...finally about 9:45 she was snoring. By then, Presley was tired and they came back to the room. So we were all asleep by 10:30!

Saturday we woke up (Presley at 7:30!? and Piper about 8:30). I had every intention of getting them back in the pool but neither Steve or Piper seemed excited about it. We thought about going to get brunch instead but after the horrible dinner experience the night before we headed home instead!
We literally just hung out and played all day, Presley and I watched movies, I read and she played on the Ipad, Steve went to the store while Piper napped. It was a good relaxing day!
Steve made an AWESOME Parmesan shrimp risotto! OH MY! Then after the kids went to bed we hung out some more and watched We're the Millers (which was pretty funny!). It was nice Valentine's Day with the family!

This is one of our nightly backyard visitors. We have 3 that we see every night and last night there were 8 of them! Love it!

Today Presley was up again at 7:45 and Piper about 8. It was one of those mornings where it seemed to last forever! And we did nothing. Steve made french toast for me and Piper, I've been doing laundry and cleaning. The girls helped me pick up the basement and now we are just hanging out again. I can handle these cold weekends in a warm house!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Yesterday we had Presley's birthday party at Playground for Kids......13 girls and one boy, we had no idea how this would turn out. Would everyone get along (cousins, friends, neighbors, school friends)? Would P be nice? Would she cry if we sang happy birthday to her? I mean, really, should we have these worries for a 6 year old party?

While waiting the girls were goofy and cute!

Then the party started, the first 1/2 hour went pretty smooth!

The one boy....Boston, he didn't mind.

P and one of her bff's Dani

We got a group picture, which I did not think would happen b/c for about an hour of this party, the girls she went to school with fought with each other! OMG! It was SO catty and so GIRL! One girl was mad and she (might have) kicked or hit someone, so they were chasing her to talk to her but she didn't want to talk (blah, blah, blah), then another girl got hurt, then two were holding hands and the others were mad at both of them. Presley was crying, two girls didn't want to be in the picture, I mean it was f'ing ridiculous!

Finally once we did cake/cookies/presents they started to get along again. Thank goodness!!!

A couple of them actually helped lighten up the mood!

Overall I think they had fun and Presley had a good birthday! After the party, cousin Ava came home with us for an hour and they played some more, then she packed her overnight bag to have a sleepover at Grandma's house with Boston (busy day/night for P)! We dropped her off and then took Piper to El Mariachi for a quick dinner, man, things are easier when you only have one kid. She ate, she sat, we were actually able to talk to each other!

 

Today we've been hanging out, doing laundry, playing with P's new toys. Steve took P to Target and then to a birthday party at Pump It Up for a boy in her class and Piper is napping and I'm sitting here thinking that I need to pick up the house (but knowing the kids NEED to help me, so I'm not doing it!). So instead, I'm blogging and starting to read a new book!

The weekend is coming to an end and hopefully we can have a nice, normal, not-so-busy week ahead of us! :)

Where did the week go?

So Wednesday I actually had to go back to work....boooo, but on the up side I got to meet two of my girlies with February birthdays for dinner! We don't get together enough but seem to make time about once every 6 months.

Lisa and Lyndsi (both random readers on my blog!)

Thursday was our first 'normal' day, we went to work, picked up the kids, came home and just hung out! Until about midnight.....Piper woke up crying and not the normal whiny cry, like real cry. She was HOT, 102 temperature. Crap. Then she didn't want to sleep. UGH! She woke up in a good mood with a bloody nose and I knew we couldn't take her to daycare. Of course, this is the day that my mom/dad were leaving town and Holly was working in the morning, so I stayed home.

I did take Piper into work with me for about an hour to finish up two things that I had to get done and didn't want to leave until Monday. She was actually really good! She sat next to me, whispered and talked to people! I was pleasantly surprised with her! :)

We got home about 10:30 and she was just tired. I layed her down and she was out until 3 pm! I had the whole afternoon to myself! I actually watched one of my DVR'd movies, watched some Dr Phil, did some cleaning and it was SO awesome!

 

Presley and Steve got home and got ready for the Daddy/Daughter dance! This is the 3rd (?) year they have been, so hopefully they will have a good time!

 Duck Face

Birthday girls!

So Monday we had originally planned to go to the High Life for their Groundhog Day celebration, it's something we have always wanted to do and we had both taken the day off work anyway! Well we were exhausted from the Super Bowl party, the kids had stayed up late and then there was a 2 hour delay for school for P....so it was the perfect morning to sleep in a while.
Eventually we got up and ready, Steve took the kids the daycare/school and came home with some birthday donuts for my breakfast! :) We did a little cleaning and then headed to the mall to do some shopping with no kids! We actually didn't buy much, we weren't really in the shopping mood. We did stop for some lunch on the way home, sat and chatted for a while before going to pick up the kiddos!

It was nice, peaceful, no time constraints kind of day!

Tuesday was P's birthday! I think she was actually excited! She has been wanting us to come and have lunch with her at school and since I had this day off of work too, I went and enjoyed some chicken strips and mashed potatoes with her! It was fun to see the organization of it all and see what she does every day at lunch time, so cute!

She was able to take Oreos to share with her class, her teacher gave her a card and they all sang happy birthday to her!
After this lunch I met Holly, mom and my aunt Ann and aunt Cindy out for lunch at Chicago Speakeasy since this was their last day in town from Texas. It was nice to see everyone one last time and chat!
I got home about 1:30 and by 3:00 Generation called saying Piper had been coughing really badly and had a fever. UGH! So Steve got home and we both we to get them from school/daycare. She seemed and acted fine so who knows!
We got home and Presley wanted waffles for her birthday dinner! No problem, sounds like the perfect birthday dinner to me! :) Then we opened presents! We never know how she is going to respond but she was happy!

Frozen perfume and bubble bath (she's been wanting to wear MY perfume!)

 a jump rope, I guess they do this in gym class and she likes it so she wanted one!

 And her big gift....the Nabi Dreamtab...it's basically her own kid-friendly ipad! She was super pumped, there are so many games and puzzles and movies that she just can't get enough time with it right now! LOL!

Her birthday party is this weekend so I'll have more pictures then! Let's hope it goes well since we are inviting her cousins, neighbor kids and kids from school.....and the big question, will she let us sing happy birthday to her?

Random

- Presley got moved up in her reading group at school! She was in the D/E/F group (they want them to be reading F by the time they leave kindergarten) and her and two other girls got moved up to G! It just seems to come so easily to her and I know she listens to all the little helpful hints the teacher gives in helping to sound out words she might not know. We definitely need to get her some harder reading material!

- I've got back on the reading train! Trying to get away from my computer games and reading has taken it's place! Two books I've read in the last 3 weeks, Maybe Someday which was an easy reading, young reader romance...it was really good and took two turns I did not expect (hint, there is a CF connection!)
The other book I read was Still Alice, which I finished at 4:00 this morning b/c I couldn't sleep! I started it Saturday morning and couldn't put it down. It is about a mother with Alzheimers, this book totally hit home for me (b/c of my grandparents) and makes me worry about my own mother and self with this disease. It was very eye-opening, sad but so good! Read it!

- Piper is so bossy! We thought we had a bossy daughter with Presley, but man, this 2 yr old will say 'Mommy! Go that way!'.....'Presley Grace, be quiet!'.....'Daddy! Come here!'....I don't know why she thinks she is in charge! ;)

- Piper is learning so much at Generation....except how to be potty trained. We aren't pushing it at all and haven't even thought about trying. I feel bad b/c Generation does try, every day, and she has never gone once in the potty! Oh well, diapers are easier.....I don't need two kids wanting to see the bathroom at every public place we go to!

Sunday Funday!

Since we had family in town we decided a couple weeks ago that we would have a Super Bowl party to entertain and hang out with everyone a little more. We knew with the snow that we got that some people would opt out of coming, but that didn't stop the party from happening with a good size crowd of family and neighbors! Steve loves having people over and he went above and beyond with his food menu....wings, salmon, jalapeno poppers, a mashed potato bar (with all the fixin's!), a nacho bar, not to mention fruits, veggies, cheese and crackers and some desserts (the only thing I made!). Needless to say we all ate too much, but it was  good time and we had a good turn out and a good thing that both Steve and I had Monday off to recover and clean!
Thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed the evening with us!

P.S Most of us had our Packer gear on, still hoping they would show up to play and win! HA!

Surprise!

So Holly planned a 60th birthday party for my mom for Saturday night. My mom is hard to surprise, she is so in tune with things going on that we never thought we'd be able to pull over the best surprise EVER for her.........so we all got there, hung out......

 doing.....weird things?!

talkin.....

 Then.....her two sisters from Texas and brother from Colorado showed up for the party! SURPRISE! She had no idea! No one knew but us kids, not even my dad knew what we had planned!

 She was overcome with emotions...happy tears by all!!

 In typical Becky fashion, they wrote a song for her to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies.

 Shots were had, even my mom had one!

 My hubby and Nicola (my longest bff, I've known her since birth!)

 The girls

The weather had taken a turn for the worse and the snow was coming down. Everyone came out who said they would and it was SO nice to see everyone! Thank you to everyone, near and far who made the trip out to celebrate! Party success!

We left about 10, so that we could let our babysitter drive home before the weather got too terribly bad. And like a total mother, I asked her to text me when she got home! HA!

02/03/2009

Oh my word, how is it possible that you are six years old? I don't even know where to start with this email to you b/c of the awesome little person that you have become. You amaze us every day, good and bad. You stress us out, you challenge us, you are going to be great on a debate team someday!

You are sensative with occasional sweetness.
You are sassy and caring.
You are SO smart....too smart for your own good.
You are witty, goofy and a wonderful big sister (most of the time!)
You are beautiful, my gorgeous girl.
You are shy, stubborn and sometimes too emotional.
You are spoiled and a drama queen to the extreme.
You are determined and creative.

I love nothing more than seeing you smile, laugh and have fun! We are trying to get you to loosen up more. You are slowly coming out of your shell but I think you are a different kid when we aren't around. I'm pretty sure you think the world revolves around you, as it should! :)

We love you Presley Grace, never underestimate the power you have over us or the love that we have for you! :) Happy Birthday baby girl!

01/2012

02/2015

Catching up

Almost famous! You can check us out in the Juice website from a couple weeks ago! :)

These are pics from the last Packer party, I'm just a little delaying in getting them downloaded!

P is really too big to be driving the cozy coupe car these days!

Busy weekend

Last week seemed to last forever! I think b/c I was looking forward to our fun, long weekend! Tuesday I got my hairs cut! I love that two hours every four six months that I can sit and chat with Josie and read and drink my wine.....not to mention my blonder, thinner hair that she can get SO straight!
Work for me has been slow, Steve got done with his big job so he has been enjoying some slower days too. It worked out since he was able to get some shopping and grocery shopping done before the weekend.
Friday night I met my mom, my aunt Ellen from Wisconsin, Holly and Samantha after work at Americana for dinner. It was so good, the conversation was awesome, so many laughs, I was glad I was able to make it.
My dad watched Presley and Boston during this dinner and Steve took Piper to watch his nephew Sam in a wrestling tournament. Piper seemed to like the fact that the boys ran around with no shirts on, so she insisted to NOT wearing her shirt either. Awesome. I'm sure she looked like a little boy to most people at that point anyway!

My uncle Dave and Steph from Colorado came into town Friday night and stayed at our house, (this was part of the surprise for my mom's party on Saturday), so Saturday morning we got up and ready then headed to Mullets for brunch with them. There was a 30 minute wait but both girls were fairly good so it worked out.
The afternoon we spent doing more stuff around the house, getting ready for our Super Bowl party, getting ready for my mom's party and getting ready for the babysitter that afternoon! Pictures to come....