Goodrich Thanksgiving

We got to Jason and Christie's about 4 to celebrate with this side of the family. They have a great house for us all to gather and hang out. Presley and Piper found Ava and we really didn't see Presley much the rest of the night. Piper would play, come find the adults and eat, hang out and entertain us and then go find the girls again.

Piper and Aunt Roxanne

Our nephews Derek, Jake and neice, Devin

Gavin starting out the pool tournament

Piper.....being Piper.

Sarah kicked some butt in pool this year! I think she has been practicing!

Jason lost first round.

These girls were SO goofy and having so much fun that it was almost impossible to get a good serious picture with them.

and I have more where these came from! I just wanted ONE nice picture!

Matt and Christie

The only picture of me from this holiday....and Piper has her mouth full of food.

Steve won the family pool tournament for this holiday...I might have to get some practice in before Christmas. We can't let him win both!

Piper with her cousin Gavin. Too cute!

And by the time I even thought about the time....it was 10:40! Holy cow! We had to pry the kids out of the house, neither wanted to leave b/c they were having too much fun. We finally got home about 11:30, Piper had passed out on the way home but Presley was still going strong until about midnight!

Thankfully everyone slept in Sunday morning....I was the first one up at 8:30 and I won't even tell you what time the girls got up. :)

Our day was spent doing ALOT of nothing. Steve kept busy b/c he can't sit still, so he mowed the yard one last time, cleaned the garage, helped with cleaning and laundry. I worked out, did cleaning and such, blogged, played Phase 10 with Presley (she said she was bored about 25 times today!) and the girls and I cuddled and watched Little Rascals, which they loved!

We are all very bummed to go back to work and school....only 4 weeks until some more time off. ugh. We are all very thankful that we were able to spend time with all of our family members during this long weekend and getting some good family time with just the 4 of us!

Friday/Saturday

I was lucky enough to be able to take a day of pto to have Friday off and just enjoy another day with the family. I actually set and alarm for 8:30, just in case the girls slept late.....I was awake before then anyways....but went to get both girls up at 9 and both were laying in beds playing on the ipads! I love these kids! We had an appointment at 10 to get their passports!! So we did that and then decided to go next door and get some brunch at Hy-Vee!

We went home and just hung out....the girls can play SO good together sometimes and we just love it! We decided last minute to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Iowa game. We brought stuff to keep the kids occupied and they were so good! We were able to make it until half time before they were losing their patience with us and getting antsy, so we headed home!

The first thing they wanted to do when they got home was go dress up like 'mom's'. The found jewelry, put on some of my make-up, did their hair, found purses and my shoes and were the cutest little mom's ever!

 

That night we got some popcorn and watched The Grinch who Stole Christmas and Return of Frosty the Snowman together. Both girls were tired (I have no idea why) and Piper was asleep by 8 pm and Presley was asleep by 9.....and then Steve and I were in bed by 9:30! Our Friday nights have been pretty uneventful lately! But we aren't complaining!

 

Saturday morning we got the Christmas stuff out......The girls were so excited to get the tree up and put on the ornaments! Growing up, us girls got a new ornament every year so I have a lot of them to put up plus others that I have accumulated over the years. I have tried to get Steve one a year since we have been together also and my sister Holly has now made it a tradition to get our girls a new Christmas ornament every year as their gift. I love this! It's one less toy they get (and don't need) and one less thing I have to think about and buy!

(and yes, Presley slept in the outfit she had worn the day before.....#pickmybattles).

She posed like Clay Matthews when putting on my Clay Matthews ornament! :)

Such a poser!

After we got that all done, Steve made a trip to HyVee, I worked out, we did some laundry, the girls played some more and we got ready to head to Earlham for the Goodrich Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

I snuck out of work a little early on Wednesday (meaning 4:10 instead of 4:30) and met Steve and the girls at gymnastics. I stayed during Presley's class which was awesome b/c normally it is so busy that it is hard to watch her and of course, this night it was NOT busy so I could watch her! Steve took Piper home to get ready for the night. After class we ran home, picked up Steve and Piper headed to Reclaimed Rails in Bonderant. We met my sisters (husbands and kids) there to just hang out, listen to music and start a weekend with family!

 

Thursday morning Presley was up before 7.....what is going on with these kids lately? I've told her that if her clock shows before 8 am that she can't get out of bed yet....well we never set her clock back from daylight savings time, so her clock DID say 8:00. Bummer. She laid in bed with me a while (Steve had fallen asleep on the couch!) finally we got up and started moving. I worked out, Steve started getting food ready and the girls played, then we headed to my parents about noon.

Everyone took turns feeling Sam's belly....she was really thrilled about it, can you tell? We are ready for baby boy to get here!!!

We ate a fantastic dinner! Thank you mommy!!!! Presley ate SO much (including cranberry sauce!), it was nice to see her actually ate more than one plate of food!
Then we played Speak Out! OMG, SO FUNNY!!!!! I was crying from laughing so hard! Once we got the hang of it, we did pretty good but man, seriously hilarious!

We did some more hanging out, talking, eating and drinking. Presley, Mary and Boston play so good that we hardly see them. Piper is more of a loner and will hang out with us grown-ups!

Her mad face....which she is a PRO at!

The kids (minus Mary) before it was time to head home for the night!

Laying Low

Weekends with minimal plans are few and far between and I hate saying 'no' when getting asked to do things or attend get-togethers, but sometimes I just have to say no. I feel bad, I feel guilty but I just have to remember that I can't do everything and I shouldn't have to either......but I still feel bad.

So now that Piper is 4 we've had to change her gymnastics class and of course, they don't have a class available on Wednesday nights when Presley goes, so starting tomorrow she will go Monday's and Presley will go Wednesday's. It will not be fun making two trips there every week, but really, in the whole scheme of things our kids aren't really THAT involved in sports and activities like other kids are so we really shouldn't complain. Last Wednesday was her last class in the 3 year old room and I think she is ready to move up anyways.

Thursday Presley had an early out at school, she didn't really want to go to KTC so I had decided to leave work early and pick her up and then just work from home that afternoon. She is so good and mostly self-sufficient that it worked out pretty well!
That night I went to a jewelry party in Polk City at Lisa's house, I don't normally like attending these kind of parties but this stuff was pretty cool and I really liked it! I might have a party in a couple months when things aren't so busy. While I was at the party Steve watched the neighbor girls, Brynn and Bara so that Matt and Kari could go to Brynn's conferences...so he had 4 little girls ages 7 to 2 for about an hour, but they did so good and played so well that it wasn't too bad! :)

Friday we just hung out at home! The weather took a turn for the colder side, so we cuddled up and just laid low! I think Steve and I were even in bed before 10!

Saturday we had planned to have brunch with my parents, so we met them at Mullets. We had owed them dinner for Fathers Day (yes, Fathers Day) and then wanted to give my dad his birthday present that we just received (his birthday is in September)! It was nice to just go out with them, we don't get that time without other family around. Other than that, we didn't do much! Again, another nice day at home! Doing laundry, cleaning, organizing...fun stuff!
We did have swim lessons! I was nervous about Piper, but she walked right down, followed up teacher and did exactly what she was told. Afterwards she said 'That was fun! I want to do that again!' so I guess that is a good thing! And no worries...I'm sure there will be pictures to come!

Steve decided to go to the Boat House to get out of the house for a while and the girls and I hung out at home. We cuddled on the couch watching Toy Story, they played on the ipads and we had some treats. They went to bed pretty good for me too.

Today......we did some more hanging out. Steve made a trip to HyVee, I worked out and made a trip to Target (BY MYSELF!), we did more laundry (I hate putting away laundry, so normally I do alot of it on Saturday and then have to put it all away on Sunday!). We had swim lessons again and they both did great! Piper doesn't want to blow bubbles in the water?! She'll put her face in the water in the bathtub at home so I think once she gets more comfortable in the pool she'll do it!

Right now the girls are sleeping, Steve isn't feeling good so he is in bed too and the Packers are losing. My glass of wine is gone and I think it's time for me to log off and go to bed!

We are ready for a short week and looking forward to spending some time with our families!

Second grade conferences

Presley had her 2nd grade conferences last night. This was the first year that she has gone with us but her teacher Ms. Lynch requested that the kids come. Normally I like to see what the teacher has to say without Presley being right there but it went good! We were able to see a little hint of what Presley is like in school (since she is SO different at home vs. around other people vs. at school!!)

The one thing that Presley indicated that she needs to work on is being neat and taking her time. Ms. Lynch said she doesn't notice that but I think that is something that we had issues with in 1st grade and do at home when she hurries thru things.

Presley's reading score was 497 and they are supposed to be at 486 by the end of 2nd grade, so she is doing awesome with her reading!

Her math is doing pretty good also, but we need to work on subtraction. She does so good but she needs to be able to do 30 problems in 2 minutes and she hasn't got there yet. She loves practicing at home so we'll just keep doing more of that!

Ms. Lynch said that Presley is nice, polite, kind to others, is helpful and does a good job participating! (WHAT???) So that is awesome to hear that she is a good, respectful child at school even though she might not be all the time at home! HA!

We can tell that Presley is enjoying 2nd grade much more than 1st grade. She loves learning,  she gets excited about doing new or different things in school. It is such a great feeling to listen and watch your child thrive on learning!

Senior Luncheon

Every year Generation Next has a senior luncheon for the senior class. They have been learning all about manners and this is their chance to dress up fancy, have a candlelit lunch and use their manners! It's just super adorable!

 

and just another picture of her with some friends at school (courtesy of the Tadpoles app they use!)

Sunday Funday

Steve got home from the Iowa game about 2:45 Saturday morning. The game was amazing and what a great outcome! He had good seats and was able to rush the field at the end! I'm so glad he decided to go!

 

Needless to say he was tired Sunday morning, so I got up with the girls and we let him sleep until a little after 10. The girls and I made some brownies and then the 4 of us headed to Holly and Jerry's to not-watch the Packer game. Since the Packers aren't very good this year, they got bumped from being televised but we still got together anyway.

 

We left there about 3. I worked out, Steve 'winterized' the shed (taking in the TV and removing anything that didn't need to be in there all winter) and then I took Presley to her last swim lessons of this session. She has 3 things she needs to work on to pass this level but she did so awesome! In April the girl couldn't tread water at all and now she was able to do it for 30 seconds! I'm not sure I could do it for 30 seconds!! We start the next session of swim lessons this weekend so I'm excited to see how well she does and nervous to see if Piper even gets in the pool!  :)

 

After swim lessons, I helped the girls get settled in for the night and then headed out to meet Holly in Polk City to watch The Nadas again! :) It was held at the American Legion there in town and this was the first time I've been to a concert where the venue does the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star Spangled Banner beforehand....it was actually really cool!

The Nadas were great, the crowd was good and really fun! Overall a good night out with my sister!

Four day weekend o'fun!

Since I had Friday off for Veterans Day, I decided to take Thursday off to have a longer weekend! I helped the get the girls ready and Steve took them to school and I was on the treadmill at 7:15! WTH? After that I got ready and headed to the East Village Spa for a hot stone massage (using the gift card that Steve got me for my birthday....in February!). It was amazing!

Then I headed to Costco to pickup some canvas prints I ordered and ended up spending way too much money! Then I headed to Christian Photos to get my camera cleaned, which I learned that is not as easy as it sounds. Canon has a $250 minimum charge for any work done. Ummm....yeah I guess I'll just live with it the way it is until we buy a more updated one with wifi. After that I went to Hobby Lobby.....Hobby Lobby.....I am not crafty. I love this place and it is just a reminder of how uncrafty I really am.

 

I stopped by the post office and dropped off my Stitchfix and asked about passports for the kids! I got that scheduled and then headed home about 2. I did your normally crap around the house, picking up for the millionth time, doing laundry and blah, blah, blah. Steve picked up the girls from school and took them to dinner since I had plans to meet my sisters and mom for babysitter planning. We did dinner, drinks and talking....with about 20% baby shower talk. Oops!

 

THEN I had plans to pick up my friend Lisa and her neighbor Stacey to head to Madrid for The Nada's show! (and for some reason I don't have a picture of the 3 of us?!) but I did run into Danny and Missy who we met at the beer tour that we took a couple weeks ago! It was so good to see them again!

and of course, got a picture with the lead singer Mike, who we love (him and his family!)

 

By Friday morning, I was exhausted. I told Steve that I would take Piper to daycare whenever we got up and ready so I was able to sleep in a tiny little bit.....until like 7:30, which is better than 6:30 so  I guess I shouldn't complain. I dropped her off at daycare about 9, went and got an oil change in the car and then headed home. I tried and tried and tried to lay down for a nap...and talk myself into working out and neither worked. I left the house about 11:30 to pick up McD's for Presley since I was having lunch with her at school! (along with alot of other parents who didn't work on Veteran's Day!) We did lunch and then I spent way too much money at Target (but on the plus side, I did get alot of Christmas shopping done!) I got home about 2, worked out, made myself presentable to the public and then picked up the girls early at about 3:45 - 4. We hung out for a while and then got ready for Brittany, the babysitter, to come over. She got there about 5:45 and we headed on our way.

 

When I won the brewery tour tickets, we also won 2 tickets to the beer and wine festival ($35 a ticket!). This was pretty cool actually. SO many beer and wine and food vendors with free samples of everything and no limits. Of course, you could buy anything you wanted to take home also! Steve told me I should win tickets again next year! We saw alot of people that we know including Danny and Missy from the brewery tour! :)

We had bought tickets to see Damon Dotson and Towncrier at Wooly's that night (which was the original reason we had a sitter!) so we headed there and enjoyed the music. Both of us were exhausted and my feet were killing me so we hung out until about 10:30 and then headed closer to home.

Towncrier







Again we didn't get to sleep until way too late and Presley was up at 7 and Piper 7:45 (we can deal with 7:45, but 7?! No way!). Lucky me since it was my morning to sleep in!

Steve left for the Iowa game about 10:30 and the girls and I survived. I say that b/c Presley was incredibly tired and the whining, complaining and crying was so dumb. I wanted to have a good, fun girls day with them but I determined early on that was not going to happen. So we compromised, we cleaned the basement! Sounds fun huh???  We filled up this big box with toys they no longer wanted, it was a GREAT feeling! I kept telling them that we were going to give these toys to kids who didn't have toys! They were on board, more than I thought they would be! So, for a good hour we were in the basement going thru toys!

Then we got ready and headed out to the Urbandale Police department to drop off pictures they had drawn/colored for the officers who were killed.



We dropped off our pictures and I took in the unbelievable site of the car completely covered with flowers and balloons and pictures and messages. Unreal and totally amazing of our community. I did inform of them of the reason we were going and how they were expected to behave. I was going to take them to a park afterwards. Presley was not impressed and disrespectful while were we there, so I had to just take them home. We got home and they both had 45 minutes of quiet times in their rooms b/c I was DONE with it.

 

Then Presley had swim lessons......so we did that and then I might have had a momentary lapse in judgment......

I took them to Firetrucker Brewery in Ankeny to watch our friend Baird play. No worries people, I had supplies! Snacks, colors, papers and music to keep them happy!

They did so good for me! We were there from 6-7:30 and they didn't complain! (and for the record, these breweries are kid friendly and my kids were NOT the only ones there!)

 

 

We got home about 8, got comfy, ate some late dinner/snacks/fruit and watch a little Alvin and the Chipmunks and those girls were done and asleep by 9 o'clock easy! So I finally sat down, ate some dinner, watched the Iowa game (OMG! OMG!) and blogged (you are welcome!).

 

And you know what people? This weekend is NOT over! There is more to come!  I hope you are enjoying this wonderful November weekend as much as I am!