Golden birthday!

Presley will be 3 years old on the 3rd!! (Let's not mention the fact that Steve and I won't be here for it, b/c it makes me sad) She is so funny and she doesn't even realize it, it is amazing how fast 3 years can go by! We have her 3 year appt on the 10th but I think she has probably grown a couple inches but I don't think she has gained much weight in the last year...we'll see.

Presley at 3 years old:
- is wearing 3T pants and 4T shirts and almost size 8 shoes
- is semi-potty trained. The girls will not poop in the potty. She refuses. We try to make it fun, we bribe her with ice cream...it doesn't work. Oh well, I guess with all potty training it will happen when she is ready.
- loves books, puzzles and her baby dolls and having tea parties (with real 'tea'...or water, whatever, it's all the same to a 3 year old)
- is really beginning to like the princess Disney movies, though Monsters Inc and Toy Story are probably still her faves
- her speech is getting a little better, I think it's easier for outsiders to understand what she is saying but just in the last week we have started to notice her stuttering?! Maybe this is just something she will grow out of. She just seems like her brain is working so much faster than her mouth can keep up with.
- loves the song Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith, Mean by Taylor Swift and What is this Feeling from Wicked.
- my 2 favorite words that she says are orange and tomorrow...and unless you actually hear her say them, you won't understand....they almost sound like she has an accent or some sort!
- she loves, loves, loves being outside.....that is the Goodrich in her!
- has many nicknames including P (most common), P-ster (daddy), Peanut or Peanut Butter (mommy), Sweet P (pa) and Pia (Boston)
- and as much as she loves her mama and ga....there is just something special about daddy and pa that melts her heart! I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!

Some of the funny things she has said:
P - Daddy, I have a question for you.
Daddy - ok
P - Let's wrestle okay?
Then as they wrestle, which she is very serious about....she reaches out her hand toward me and says 'momma, saaavveee meee!' (she is a slight drama queen!)

Anytime you say "just a little bit", she says back to you 'a little bit, but not too much?'

She always says 'mama, you go this KINDA way', 'let's read this KINDA book', why we go this KINDA way?

If she wants to watch something on TV or listen to her music she says 'we watch something Presley likes?' or 'let's listen to Presley's song'...I guess she likes to refer to herself in the third person.

She'll say "I did it! All by myself!". It's awesome hearing how proud she is of herself!

Presley Grace you are AMAZING! You are adorable and funny and challenging. You are stubborn and so sweet (sometimes). I just love watching you play, imagine and interact with others. I love watching you grow, but it is going by too fast! :( We love you baby girl!

Random

1. Cancer sucks
2. Suicide sucks
3. I was walking into the mall yesterday and there were 2 teenage boys walking out...they walked out and the second one turned around and went back to the door to open it for me! Either he thought I was really old and couldn't do it myself........or I want to thank his parents for raising a polite young man!
4. We got our spray tan tonight, it's a little awkward standing there with minimal clothes on while a girl sprays you down....I always have to think "they've always seen worse", that helps me get over it.
5. We know a couple who just had twin girls, they also have a 2 year old and a 3 year old..both girls also. So they have 4 girls under the age of 4. Is that not insane? I feel anxiety for them!

Busy weekend fun!

Friday night I went out after work with some people b/c we have 4 people leaving from our department in the next 2 weeks so we had a small 'going away' party for them. It was fun...of course it was about 4 hours of bitching work talk! I was good and left early b/c I knew that we had a busy weekend and I really didn't want to be hungover or tired.

Saturday morning we got up and got ready for Presley's 3rd birthday party!

She did pretty good, she was shy and wanted to go downstairs and play while we were all upstairs talking but she opened her presents and smiled at everyone instead of saying thank you. She would take the box or bag and just throw everyone out of it, not looking at anything she touched. It was pretty funny how little she cared! She got lots of good stuff though, thank you to everyone who came and for all the presents!

A big wheel!

A backpack, she says it's for preschool.

And then it was Minnie Mouse birthday cake time, we prepared her that we would be singing happy birthday....she said she was a big girl now so she wasn't going to cry. I was almost convinced....until she threw herself on the floor (almost underneath the table) and started crying. CRYING!

After everyone had left, I hurried and got ready for my friend Aprils bachelorette party! It started at 3 but not everyone was gone from our house until after 3:30...so Cindy (who was riding with me) and I were fashionably late. It was so nice to see everyone, April, Andrea and Jen I hadn't see in months so it was nice to catch up! There were about 15 of us girls at Samurai Sushi for dinner and we actually ended up doing a little dancing that night too! Congrats to April and Ed who are getting married 02/29 in Vegas!

This morning the family met at Mama Laconas for my mom and my birthday brunch! They have a great buffet so we all stuffed our faces! Then we went back to my parents house for presents and cake...my jello cake! We have a family joke that my mom always messes up my cakes, either she doesn't have candles and uses the super long matches as candles instead, or the layers are sliding off of each other or she spells birthday wrong (last year it was birtday) and this year, she only had me being 32 (too bad I'm 33).

Steve and Presley went home and I went to get a pedicure (California Nails at Merle Hay Mall is my favorite, they are super nice!) for our trip!

The weather was nice enough that Presley was able to spend a little time on her big wheel. She likes it and she is able to pedal by herself! Tomorrow night we have our spray tanning and then Tuesday we have some major power packing to do!

Five Question Friday

1. Do you swim in the winter?
Like outside? No. Waterbabies or at a hotel for our annual mega-mall trip. Yes....well I get in the water. Not actual swimming....it's not like I'm doing the butterfly stroke across the pool.

2. Do you love or hate winter?
Hate. This winter has been amazing though, so I really can't complain. If every winter is like this, I would say that I can tolerate winter.

3. Do you put makeup/actual clothes on when you know you're going to be home all day with just family?
Heck NO! If I have no plans to leave my house, I don't put makeup on, have my hair in a ponytail all day and don't get out of my pajamas! I would consider this the perfect day!

4. How old were you when you had your first alcoholic beverage?
I'm going to blame my cousin Lee and my uncle Danny for this....from what I remember....at the beach house in Texas when I was probably 17 years old?! They gave us a cup of strawberry daiquiri and told us to take a walk down the beach. So that is what we did, hiding it from everyone. This whole memory could be wrong...I might have been 15 years old and it might have been a margarita....but I think you get the point.

5. How many ill calls in a 12 month period do you think are acceptable?
I can't remember the last time I called in sick for myself! I would guess that I've called in a couple times in the last 12 months for Presley (But I can't even remember these times for sure!) I would say 6 times a year for the average person wouldn't be so bad.

More Presley

So we tried to take some indoor pictures of Presley for her 3 year birthday....she was not nearly as excited or willing to smile as she was for her outdoor ones.

So we had very little to work with....but she is still cute.

Weekend Update

Friday we were able to spend a nice, quiet night at home. It was so cold I didn't want to leave the house. We got Moneyball from Redbox, which I once again STRUGGLED to stay awake during. From what I saw and remember it was a good movie!

Steve finished his project for over our couch in the basement. I think it looks pretty darn good. 36 different pictures from all different aspects of our lives.

Saturday we didn't do much. Steve actually left the house and tried to do some birthday present shopping for me and P and did our grocery store shopping for the week. Presley thought it was pretty funny that when she was going down for her nap that she was still in her pj's! She actually fell asleep about 3 and we let her sleep until 5 once we made plans to go over to a work friends house to hang out b/c I knew she was going to be up later than usual. Katie and Jay have a son, Jace who is about Presley's age and a 6 month old daughter, Taylor. There was another couple over there 2 with two daughters about the age of the kids at P's daycare. Once she warmed up, she was chasing the kids and playing and laughing so hard with them. It always makes us very happy when we get to see her social! We were over there way too late and didn't get home until 11:30. So we all slept pretty late this morning, which we are always fond of!

We actually went to 2 open houses today. Now, let's get this straight.....we don't even have our house up for sale so we are completely jumping the gun by looking at houses. At least this way we can see what we can get with our budget and have some time to look around. We are thinking once we get back from vacation we can work on getting our house prepared to possibly sell. We'll see, it could take months or years for our house to sell and we realize that. That's the way the real estate market works!

Five Question Friday

1. Where do you hide the reeeally good snacks?
I try NOT to have this stuff in my house, and if I did and was hiding them.....I'm not sure I would tell you.

2. Do u keep your vehicle clean or am I the only one who has things falling out of their van?
My car is not clean but not full of garbage either. Back when I had my convertible, it was clean...b/c I loved that car and when you have the top down on a car you can't have a messy car.

3. Have you ever been to Vegas?
Twice in the last 2 years with my hubby and we loved it. The first time we went we tried to see a little of everything. Last April when we went, we wanted to do as much as we could (roller coaster, space shot, ate at certain restaurants) and we were exhausted. So the next time we go....we are going to chill out by the pool and drink and relax!

4. Warm room light blankets or cold room warm snuggly blanket?
I prefer warm everything. I don't want to be cold and I always have blankets on. My mom thinks we keep our house too hot. To me, 72 degrees is not too hot and why should I have to be chilly or uncomfortable in my own house?

5. What is the worst airplane/flying experience you've ever had?
I would say coming back from training in Tempe, the flight itself wasn't bad but we went from Tempe to Minneapolis and only had minutes to cross the airport (literally running thru the airport) to catch our flight to DSM. We were the last ones on the plane....and then we sat there for 45 minutes before we took off b/c of the snow in DSM (they wouldn't have been able to land)?! Everything turned out fine in the end, but that is really the only stressful situation I've had so far.