Family pics

I got the flash drive for the family pics that we took back in September! There are some cute ones.

I just love these kids!

 P looks goofy here but it's cute

 She doesn't like showing her teeth right now!

 But we got one! (She had such good teeth 12 months ago!)

 Love my daddy looking at my mommy here!

LOVE THEM!

Parenting

I have many friends who are having babies (some first kids, some 2nd or 3rd kids) and some who haven't decided if they want to have kids yet. SO this is my parenting advice b/c I obviously have a wealth of knowledge and years of education on the topic! HA! So here is what I have learned in the last 8.5 years.....

Being a parent is the hardest thing I have EVER had to do. It is not easy. It will test every ounce of patience you have. It will break you and you will get back up and keep on trying b/c you have a child who depends on you. You will ALWAYS question yourself and your choices. You will never think you are doing things 100% right.

You will compare your child to others and you have to realize that what they do (or don't do) at 6 months old DOESN'T matter.  You will understand why some parents co-sleep and you will no longer judge them. You will understand why some parents spank and not judge them b/c you will probably do it too.
Hopefully parenting will allow you to loosen up....to realize the house will be a mess, the kids will get dirty (and have fun doing it).
But it will make you tighten up too...realizing how innocent they are, how everything affects them, you want to put them in a bubble and protect them....but there is only so much you can do and that is frustrating!

However, being a parent is the best and be most rewarding thing you will EVER do too.
There is NOTHING better than coming home and having your child run up to you, saying momma! and give you a hug.
There is nothing that breaks your heart more than seeing your child cry or suffer and there is nothing you can do to make it better.
There is nothing that will make you laugh more than hearing your child laugh, or act goofy, or say things you never thought would come out of their mouths
You will want to keep every piece of paper they color, until they are bringing home 10 pieces of 'art work' a day. You will think you child is brilliant and the cutest thing EVER.

Basically none of us know what we are doing and we just all hope for the best. Enjoy it! As everyone will always say, 'it goes too fast'......it really does. IT GOES TOO FAST!

Photo Dump....Birthday party and volleyball!

We finally had Piper's birthday party....the weekends were just busy and this was the first free weekend we had....and then when the invites went out, another girl in her class was having her party on the same day, same time. The other girls mom was worried about it and the girls having to choose which party to go to, but it was one of those things.....neither one of us could change the party, we had about 10 other kids invited (other than the 6 from the school) so I just couldn't worry about it. It worked out, we had 14 kids and that was plenty! I hope the other girl had a good party too!

We had her party at Sapphire gymnastics and they seemed to have fun! They do everything for you there so we didn't have to worry about anything. We also get a SD card with pictures that they take during the party, so half of these are theirs and half our mine!

Theirs

 Mine

 OMG! The faces this kid makes are so f'ing cute and hilarious! 

After the successful birthday party we went home for a couple hours. Both girls did some time in their rooms b/c of shitty attitudes and we got ready for Brittany to come babysit for the night.

We went to downtown to Quinton's for dinner, which was good.....but the waitress was STRUGGLING the second half of our visit!!! Once we begged for our check and then begged for our card back, it was pouring down rain outside. SO we sat at the bar for a drink and then once things let up, we made a run for it (me with half of my shirt over my head! Straight hair CANNOT get wet!!)

Eventually we made it to Wooly's for The Nada's show! We were able to see some friends there, it was a good show and a great time, as always!

  My girls Sarah and Jamie

We were home by midnight and I was exhausted!  I was snoring within 5 minutes! :)

Sunday morning we slept in and hung out! Steve went golfing with nephew Jordan and the girls and I headed to my parents for the Packer game! 

We left about 2:15 to get to Presley's last volleyball practice/game. She does so good at serving but definitely doesn't MOVE closer to the ball. But she is more willing to hit it now if it comes to her! :)

 

 

We are so proud of her! We know it is scary to try new things, she started out this volleyball camp with her friend Maris, but after the weeks she didn't end up finishing out....but still Presley went with little complaints. I'm not sure if she will do it again next year but at least she knows what to expect in the future if volleyball comes up again! :)

And now, Sunday night, typical crap....dinner, baths, cleaning, laundry and early bedtimes (even though it is almost 11 and I'm still up doing this and watching Catfish)! GOODNIGHT!

Soccer Saturday!

A 9 o'clock game in Waukee means we have to be up by 7:30 at the very latest....and we don't like that. BUT...the cool, crisp fall morning air woke us up quickly! The girls played well! They won (even though they don't technically keep score) and our goalies were awesome! I'm so happy we have girls that want to play goalie...and Presley is NOT one of them!

I'm not sure how I got this picture and neither of her feet are on the ground!?

She does a lot of kicking the ball down field and getting it away of a big group of girls, but not a lot of dribbling or following the ball down field herself.....this was the one time that she did it! Proud parent moment!

I think we may have spring soccer in our future! I'm so happy that she likes it and has progressively become more confident and aggressive when playing! 

Another week gone by.....

I just don't know where time goes. I can't believe it is the end of October! How did that happen?

Our week was fairly normal...Monday's are our 'day off', we have nothing in the evenings so it is nice. Presley did have test on crayfish and she did study for it and it paid off b/c she got 100%! She needs these small confidence boosters!

Tuesday I had my yearly dermatology appointment and nothing looked abnormal this year so that is good!  Then I took Presley to gymnastics. Her gymnastics are from 6-7:30, it makes for a long night!

Wednesday Steve took the girls to Piper's gymnastics class and I got my hair cut and highlighted, it's two hours to myself....with my hairdresser Josie, wine and my book! I'm blonder and thinner now! (well my hair is thinner!) and then I was able to meet Sarah out for a drink afterwards. She has been stressed and was looking for a good hour to just sit and vent so I was more than willing to help out!

Thursday Presley had her cheer camp performance! She was excited and we were anxious to see if she opened her mouth, since she didn't last year b/c she had just lost a tooth. It is so cute to see all these little girls have fun like this and I'm glad that I made her do it again!

 What is awesome about this picture is that all 4 of these girls live in our neighborhood!

Dani, Presley, Lydia and Bella

That was over at 6 and then she had soccer practice from 6-7 pm. I had originally told her that if the cheer thing went too late that she would probably just miss soccer practice....and she DIDN'T want to miss it! WHAT??? So Steve took her to that and I went home and got a lot of stuff done in that 45 minutes before they got home! Since I had been gone the previous 2 nights, it's like some things just don't get done around the house. So I emptied the dishwasher and filled it, cleaned the kitchen, put a load of laundry in, put in a frozen pizza for dinner, emptied out the backpacks and organized that crap and gave Piper a bath!

Friday we were able to go over to our neighbors Wendy and Jason's house for dinner and drinks with the other neighbors, Sarah and Kyle. All the kids ate good, they played really good, we were all able to talk and such. We did leave about 9:30 since we had to get up for soccer in the morning! Thank you Wendy and Jason for hosting!