Weekend fun!

Normally Saturdays Presley will sleep in and then she won't take a nap...which is fine b/c a lot of times we are busy so it's nice NOT to have to worry about her taking a nap...and if she doesn't take a nap she is normally in a pretty good mood anyway.
So we got home from the mall about 2:30, which is normally too late to try to put her down for a nap. We decided to pop in Monsters, Inc in hopes she would sit still for 90 minutes in place of her nap time.
About 4:30, after the movie was over she was purposely causing trouble. Throwing toys and hitting (which have become two new things for us!), I told her she was being naughty and asked if she wanted to lay in her crib for a while and she said yes! So her and 3 of her baby dolls laid down for a semi-time-out....and she fell asleep!
This is how we found her when we woke her up at 5! All the babies lined up in a row! So cute!
I went out for girls night! It had been a long time, there were 8 of us with 3 newbies! As always a lot of margaritas, cheese dip and laughs were had!

Today Steve went to Lazerfest with a friend and Presley and I had girls day! We hung out and played most of the morning. I laid her down for a nap (with her babies again) but I'm pretty sure she just sat in there and talked for 2 hours. So I decided we'd get out and go to the mall and try to spend some money.
We had some hitting, kicking, throwing things incidents...and I tried official time-outs on a dining room chair. The girl mocks me! She slides down off the chair and the minute I turn around to put her back up there...she races to get back on it and laughs! At one point tonight she threw the remote off the couch...knowing she isn't supposed to throw it and she looked at me said 'naughty?' and then pointed to the chair! Obviously we have some more work to do with this fun.

Locks Be Gone! Part II

Friday night friends and family (and even strangers) helped raise money for my sister, Samantha to shave her head for Cystic Fibrosis! The generosity of people is amazing and we are all so thankful to everyone who donated and came out to participate in this great event! We had a goal of $10k...we came up a little short but still raised $7200 in 6 weeks!
Sam's hair was long enough to donate to Locks of Love also, so they put 10 small ponytails in her hair and auctioned off chances to cut off a pony tail! I paid to be the first to cut one off!
Holly paid to be the first one to buzz her head!

And just like Holly was....Samantha is so beautiful bald! So adorable!

Andrea and Samantha hugging! Andrea is the reason we raise money for this great cause! They are so cute!

The three of us girls...all different hair! Five years ago we all had the same hair! (I should find a picture!)

Steve wasn't able to attend b/c all of our babysitters were either at Miss Kitty's with us or busy with other things but I think I took enough pictures to help him feel like he was there! ha!

It was a great night! Thank you Samantha for being so willing to do this and thank you to Susie for putting so much time and effort into making a great event like this come together! We love you!

Five Question Friday...is back again!

1. Tube socks, calf socks, crew, ankle, none?
I would say calf socks. I don't like to have cold ankles! ha!

2. Was your childs (children's) name a mutual decision or was it a debate? If you don't have children, do you plan on giving your spouse a say, or do you have a name you MUST have, regardless if your other half likes it or not?!
It was completely mutual! About 5 years ago we heard the name Presley on the show Extreme Makeover Home Edition and we both loved it and always talked about using that name. Of course, when you actually have to NAME A KID, you take it a little more seriously! We couldn't get away from it. Our problem was the middle name, not a lot of names sounded good with Presley. So we went with Grace, after Steve grandma!

3. What is your favorite type of weather? I would say 80 degrees. I'm usually cold, so the warmer the better! Jeans and flip-flops would be perfect.

4. If left to your own devices, what time would you wake up every day? Seems these days I can't sleep past 9 am. So I'd be happy with 9:30 at this point. It is nice to get up early and get stuff done but Steve and I are sleep lovers! We are happy that we finally have a kid who will sleep past 7 am! (crossing my fingers....feels like I'm jinxing us tonight!)

5. Have you bought your cemetery plots yet? No! It was hard enough to buy life insurance! My mom has mentioned that we should have a will...but it just doesn't seem like we should have to think about that yet!

More random blah

- So one of houses behind us was painted John Deere green about 5 years ago, then about two years ago the house went into foreclosure (or maybe the guy just died?!) and a little over a year ago it was bought and fixed up (no longer John Deere green!). The owners race pigeons. They have a little pigeon coop (is that what you would call it?) in the backyard and it isn't unusual to see these pigeons flying overhead. So I guess we get our own little personal pigeon racing show....don't be jealous!

- People amaze me! Everyone knows we are raising money for Locks Be Gone and it amazes me and shocks me the people that have donated! Most of the people I've rec'd money from at work, are people I don't even talk to that much...more co-workers, not close friends!

- I was determined to NOT turn on our air conditioning on Monday when it was 85 degrees (knowing Tuesday was supposed to be 92 and Wednesday 85), but as Presley was sitting on the couch with little beads of sweat on her tiny, cute nose....I just had to. Too bad I'm probably going to want to turn on the heat by Friday when the high temp is 60.

- A month ago Presley was not afraid of thunder....today she is. We have had rolling thunder almost all evening and she couldn't get close enough to me on the couch! It was cute, but I was really hoping we could've avoided this stage of childhood! :)

- I'm watching DVR'd Dr. Phil from a couple days ago....this 30 year old girl has 5 kids with 5 different dads, shouldn't there be a law/rule/requirement that you need to have a brain to have kids? Just saying.

- We love Presley's little personality. Though we are beginning to see a temper and a stubborn little thing! We always say 'I love you!' and 'I love you too'....the other day I told her she was cute and she said 'you cute too'! HA!

Nice weather brings busy days!

If the last 4 days are a sign of things to come when we have nice weather, we have busy days ahead!

Thursday night was the first night of the Valley Junction farmers market, so we headed out to look around and listen to some music. Friday night we went to Urbandale Friday Fest, which is great b/c they have a nice playground for the kids, pizza, beer, music and softball games to watch! Presley did a little dancing, ate a lollipop and enjoyed the swings!

Saturday we got up and drove west to Waukee for their city wide garage sales, we got some good stuff for P....then we drove an hour east to go to Pella for tulip time! Samantha, Jon and Boston followed us there to see pretty flowers and eat some Dutch letters!

The weather was perfect! Sunny and warm with a good breeze! Presley was SO good! Then we drove an hour and a half back west to Earlham for cousin Ava's 2nd birthday party. We thought for sure P would fall asleep for a quick nap on the way there....we were wrong. No nap for her.

She was SO good that whole day! She played with her cousin Ella, followed her around...without us having to go with her! It was awesome and such a change for us! Maybe we'll have some good babysitters this year at Okoboji! ;)

Mother's Day was perfect too. We met my family out for brunch at Mullets (yes, we are classy!) and then we walked over to Principal Park to watch the I-Cubs game! The weather was perfect, the beer was cold, the kids were good. Presley even got brave enough to play in the water fountain! It was a great mother's day!

We are all exhausted from our busy, busy weekend! And we have another busy weekend to come, so we'll just have to take it easy for a couple days!

Random randomness

- I'm reading Two Kisses for Maddy, a story about a man who lost his wife 27 hours after giving birth to their baby girl. Of course, it is a sad book. It makes me cry. I often read some of the passages to Steve, who says it is too sad and I shouldn't be reading stuff like that. But the humor included in the story is awesome too, but it makes me wonder why I want to read about sad stories like this. I think it makes me more grateful for what I have and I think we can all use a little of that every now and then.

- I think I mentioned our neighbors bought a nice playset for their backyard. We scored on this deal. They aren't home that much, so guess who takes advantage of the slide and swing? This family!

- Presley is stubborn. She wants to be outside as often as possible, but she will fight to put her shoes on! She is already losing on precious outdoor fun b/c she is unwilling to cooperate when it comes to wearing pants and shoes when going outside! Guess she'll learn!

- Our friends are getting married in the Dominican Republic next February, Steve will be going for sure b/c it is one of his best friends. I really want to go b/c I would hate to miss out on this opportunity to travel to a sunny beach in February and I love Nick and Sarah and we've been waiting for this deal for years! :) However.....I've already asked my mom to watch P. She will, but I'm not sure if she wants to. I haven't totally disregarded the idea of taking P with us. Am I totally crazy?

- Presley is a pig when it comes to food. I wish she would eat more of a variety of food, but I really can't complain. I'm not sure she ever gets full. She will devour fruit in seconds...literally seconds. I'm not sure she chews her food sometimes.
But of course, if we buy her a $5 meal at a restaurant she wants nothing to do with it (unless it's TGIFridays where she gets a huge bowl of mandarin oranges and she'll eat every last one of them).

- For the last two months we haven't been allowed a minute of overtime at work (after almost 2 years of having mandatory OT), now we get word that they are wanting us to work overtime in the next couple weeks with possible mandatory weekends. YOU ARE KIDDING ME? Right when the weather starts to get nice and every weekend is already busy, figures.

Vegas!

Well, I have pictures galore from Vegas last weekend.
We got there about 10 pm Thursday night and didn't do too much. We got something to eat and walked around mainly near our hotel. Steve tried to tell me that we were going to stay up for 3 days straight and warn me that I would not be going to bed at 10 pm, like he knew I would want to! :) That night we were in bed about 1:30...which was really 3:30 am Iowa time, so I was pretty proud of myself.
Steve had a list of about 30 things he wanted to do while we were there, and we actually did a pretty good job at crossing those things off the list.
Friday morning we ate at Mon Abi Gabi in our hotel (1st item off list), we did some shopping and walking around the south end of the strip.
Steve took this pic on the inside of the Miracle Mile Shopping mall.

New York, New York....and we did ride the roller coaster! (item #2 off the list) It was worth it! It has been so long since either one of us had been on a roller coaster ride and it was fun!

We ate at Dick's Last Resort inside Excalibur (#3 off the list)...where the employees basically treat you like crap and make fun of you the whole time. They usually make hats that say obnoxious things like, 'I choke the chicken for Justin Bieber' or 'Happy Ending $5'. We did not get hats, but I got called 'peroxide' and 'cougar'. It was a different experience but it was fun!

The art work and architecture in all of these hotels is just amazing! We took way too many pictures of everything!

Yes, I played the American Idol penny slot machine. No, I didn't win. (in fact, we didn't win anything in the 3 days we were there!)

We did miss our baby while we were gone. The Elvis Cirque shop gave us some reminders of her! :)

My favorite thing in all of Vegas...the fountains at the Bellagio!

That night we headed downtown to Fremont Street. We ate at the Chart House a seafood place in the Golden Nugget (#4 off the list). Downtown has tons of entertainment and music, you can even zipline over the street above everyone (one thing we did NOT do, but wish we would've)!

We did really good and were up until 3 am this night! and we got up too early Saturday morning and started walking up the north end of the strip.

The Beatles Cirque show was inside the Mirage.

We came across a rat-rod car show across the street from the Stratosphere, so of course, Steve wanted to check it out and the cars were pretty darn cool. Plus it gave us an excuse to spend some more time enjoying the 80 degree weather.

We made our way to the top of the Stratosphere. AMAZING view!!!!!!!

And we actually rode the Big Shot. The ride that shoots you straight up in the air....when you are already 109 stories in the air! (item #5 off the list) I will admit, I was freaked out! It was worth it but I was shaking when we got off!

The ceiling in the Venetian. Again, the art work is just amazing everywhere you go!

This is also on the inside! Even though it looks like it is outdoors and you can take a gondola ride!

Saturday night we were so exhausted! We went to bed early (10 pm!) but it was worth it! We spent two days just being on the go! My calf muscles hurt SO BAD from walking around for two days straight!

It was a great trip and we had fun! It was nice to get away but it is good to be home!