Part 4

Thursday we made our way to Arnolds Park to do a little shopping and see if P wanted to ride anything. It was only $10 for her to ride and she loved it!

Riding the ferris wheel with daddy!

She likes the little kid rides, but she is almost bored with them. After riding the tilt-a-whirl at the Green Days carnival she is up for more adventurous rides! Adventureland should be interesting this year!

Of course, her favorite thing was the free playground, jungle gym area. Steve went with her the first time and then she was off by herself!

Cousins (Part 3)

Steve told them to laugh at each other....I think they slightly overreacted! Drama queens!

Part 2

 Blowing bubbles, (yes we buy small wedding bubbles b/c they are cheap and small and when they get knocked over....at least you have more!)

Ella did a little knee-boarding

Even the kids played a little beanbags

Presley didn't talk to anyone on Saturday, finally when Ava got there on Sunday afternoon she opened up. Her and Ava fought like sisters every night. 'You're not my best friend anymore', 'You aren't being nice!' It was rather funny!

Wednesday we made our way to the Barefoot Bar, it's a nice place to relax, drink and have fun. We put Piper down for her afternoon nap, letting Grandma Kathy 'watch' her for us (hoping she would sleep the whole time we were gone. She didn't and she wasn't happy)

The older kids took advantage of the water slide!

Presley enjoyed her first (virgin) strawberry daiquiri and loved it!

Spirit Lake 2013 (get ready for a picture dump)

Some of the best sunsets!

Along with fishing, the kids caught some frogs too. Piper was interested!

Jordan and Derek in a serious bean bag game.

Presley loved following Gavin around.

Smiley girl!

Happy Fourth of July!

 

So we got up and went to the Urbandale 4th of July Parade! I must say I do miss living in Urbandale this this time of year but we parked near our old house and found a spot to sit. I knew exactly how Presley would react, she would be hesitant to get candy and then would be upset that she didn't have any candy. That is exactly how it started! Finally, she sat on my lap and made ME wave for HER. She finally got brave enough to get candy, but not if another kid was going after it too....I guess she is only aggressive with us! LOL! But overall she did good and got a lot of candy! Miss Piper did awesome just sitting in her stroller the whole time and ended up falling asleep.

 

We had been invited to three parties that afternoon, our neighborhood party, Sam's party in Bondurant and a friends party in Norwalk. We never made it out of our neighborhood (sorry Sam!). It was so nice to meet so many neighbors, we had met a lot of people near our house but this helped to meet so many more people! We joked that we needed name tags with our name and address b/c that is how everyone related to everyone else (I'm Jessica, we live on the end of Moonlight.)!

The house that hosted the party was gorgeous! A huge, nice lot with a pool and so much open yard (including a pond). Presley LOVED the pool (as most of the kids did)! Piper did awesome again by sitting in her stroller playing, talking, eating cheerios.



Look at this happy girl!

 

I took Piper home about 8:30, we have begun to realize that if she doesn't sleep much throughout the day she usually doesn't sleep well at night and she hadn't slept since 1 pm. Steve stayed a while longer with Presley, even she started to get tired. We were able to watch Hyperions' fireworks from our back deck....they were a little far away, but better than nothing and Presley liked it!

 

Friday we both took off of work to get ready for vacation, originally we were going to take Presley to daycare for the morning (since it was on my way when taking Piper to the doctor) but when I left the house at 8:30 she was still sleeping so we decided just to keep her home. We got a lot done and started packing!

9 months

Oh Miss Piper, you are so happy and sweet. You are nosy and determined. You are so laid back and you do not like to go to sleep (we need to work on that!) Your smile is freakin adorable and you seem to love your sister, even when she is dragging you around by your feet or wrestling you to the ground (she doesn't seem to remember that she weighs 20 pounds more than you?!)

 

Miss Piper is :

- 18.5 pounds (~ 56%) and 27 inches (38%)....just a little smaller than P was at 9 months

- wearing 6-9 month clothes, size 3 diapers and still only has her two bottom teeth

- has been sleeping like a champ until this last week! This early morning stuff is not working for us.

- can go from sitting to crawling and sit back up again.

- still crawling like she is swimming, though in the last 3 days she has been getting up on her knees a little more...so she might actually CRAWL after all!

- is standing up to everything! Will walk along the edge of the couch or anything else she can pull herself up to!

- is into EVERYTHING! We never had to really worry about outlet covers, stairs or holding the cabinets closed with Presley. Piper on the other hand, will find every outlets, vent cover...she will crawl under tables, over toys...she is going to be the one we really have to watch or our keys will end up in the toilet.

She always seems to amaze me.

So we have been living in this house since October, Presley has become friends with the kids next door....as long as they come into our yard to play. She would sit in our driveway and watch them until they came over, she would play on our swing set and watch them on theirs until they came over. She refused to cross the line into 'their yard'. I think she is comfortable on her own territory. Even Charla, the neighbor noticed that P wouldn't play over there.
Finally, last Thursday something clicked.
She wanted to try their scooter, so she did! She rode one of their bikes. She went (with Steve) onto their swing set (SHOCKER!)....and now she travels over to their yard like she's been doing it for ever! She talks to the other kids! Tonight she went to go play with the kids and asked how many minutes she had to play. I told her a lot of minutes! She runs down there and we heard her say to them 'guys, I have a lot of minutes to play, ok?' So funny!
Even with Isabella on Sunday, they traveled down to her house. I didn't see them for a good 10 minutes, so I walked up there to see what they were doing. Of course, she was fine and good and just hanging out. I feel like I'm a mom, checking up on her teenager. I'm just not used to her traveling out of our sight!

Yesterday when I picked her up from preschool Miss Jessica said that P is really starting to come out of her shell. P told me that she wasn't going to cry this morning at drop off and she didn't! She gave me an extra big hug and kiss, I told her I loved her, she said she loved me and I was off. Miss Heidi gave her a hug when I left saying how proud she was of her! I'm not positive this is going to be a continual thing but I'll take whatever I can get from her!

Two things for sure that need to happen in this house....1) we need black out shades for the girls rooms, b/c their rooms face west, so when the sun sets it shines right into their rooms which makes it hard for them to fall asleep. 2) Bedtime for Piper HAS to start earlier, I think she can get overly tired and then it's just a pain and she doesn't sleep good so something has to change.