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.

Another busy week/weekend has passed.....

I seriously can't believe tomorrow is July 1st!  UGH! Where has the time and summer gone?

We spent Thursday and Friday nights getting ready for our brunch party on Saturday morning....grocery store, cleaning, prep cooking.

 

The party was great! So many friends and family came, it rained for about 5 minutes right away and then got nice! We got lucky! The food was good and drinks were flowing! We had a good turn out and so many kids, they all seemed to do a good job keeping occupied and getting along! We had kids in our house that I had never even met! LOL!

When you start a party at 11 am you never know how long people will stay, but I had talked my mom into taking Piper for the night! She offered to take Presley too but I knew she would be good and would want to hang around if there were kids still here.  Thank you everyone who came, I feel like I didn't get time to talk to everyone!

Presley some how became friends with Isabella, who is 7 yrs old and lives at the end of our street. Normally Bella plays with a couple of the other girls on the block but P has never really played with her until last night. P jumped in her Barbie Jeep with her and they were off having fun!

They played for a long time and we hung out and played bean bags with the remaining crowd. It was fun (and I'm sad to admit that it was nice NOT to have to worry about Piper for the night!) Presley and I came inside ate some snacks, cuddled on the couch and then eventually she went to bed with me while we watched a movie...we were both quickly asleep! Steve of course, pushed his limit and headed to the bar with one of the neighbors...finally getting home about 2 am.

The bonus about mom taking Piper for the night, we were able to sleep until 9 am! So nice! Steve was a hurting unit today! He is normally antsy to get out of the house, today all he wanted to do was sleep. I took P to pick up Piper from mom's, then once Piper went down for a nap (Steve was napping too) Presley and I hung outside. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! P then ditched me once she saw Bella coming down the street in her jeep again. They traveled up and down the block in that things over and over again! Presley would wave at me every time they drove by and I just keep seeing my future teenager driving away with her friend.

Overall it was a GREAT weekend! Presley impressed us and made us SO proud with all the socializing and playing and coming out of her shell, doing things we never expected her to do. It was great and we just hope it continues! Miss Piper is getting into everything, she is constantly up and down and under and over....I'm pretty sure she only fell and bonked her head or got stuck under something three different times today! She is going to be one tough cookie if she keeps this up!

Presley

I just love to document the girls growing and the things that they do since I'm obviously not very good at filling out their baby books, this acts as a baby book for me!
- She has been watching the movie Madagascar, however what she says sounds more like 'ghetto blaster'
- For crib she says care-ibe
- For bottom she says bot-jume
- For special she says sess-sel
- She told Steve he was coo-coo the other day! and today she said that I was cracking her up!
- If she doesn't wear a dress during the day, the first thing she does when she gets home is put on a dress. She is slightly obsessed!
- She LOVES being outside! Whether playing by herself, with the neighbors or just watching the boys next door play football. She will sit there and watch. Or she can make believe and play with her 'friends' too. As much as she wants to be included with other kids she is content being by herself too.
- She is very good about wearing sunblock and I love it!
- She has a bad habit when we take a walk at night to tell us her legs are too tired to walk. She sometimes ride her big wheel...and we end up carrying it home. It takes forever to walk anywhere b/c she stops and looks at everything and every driveway we stop for a 'red light'.
- She has attached herself to Miss Jessi at preschool, just as I thought she would. She's made a couple friends, sometimes takes naps, always cries when I drop her off but comes running for you when you come to pick her up. Time will tell how all this pans out!

Weekend Update

We had a good weekend! Saturday I got up nice and early and went to work for a couple hours, I hit up a couple garage sales on my way home. I got a couple things and realized that Johnston garage sales are not as cheap as they should be. But when I'm getting an outfit for $5 or $2 I still can't really complain. I got home and Steve has some errands to run, they had filled up the baby pool, P got her swimsuit on and we headed outside! She ran thru the sprinkler for a LONG time, it probably would've been longer if I could've stayed out there with her but there is only so long Piper will sit in the stroller and be content.

 

Saturday night we had over a family whose daughter went to preschool with Presley! We seemed to hit it off pretty good with Emerson's parents and we realized we actually had some mutual friends so we decided to have them over for dinner and let the kiddo play! It went so good, you never know how it is going to be when you get together with people you have never hung out with before. They were really easy to talk to and the kids got along great, it was a successful night!

Sunday Miss Piper didn't get up until 8 and Presley didn't get up until 9. Once Steve got up at 9:30, I went back to bed for an hour or so! Presley and I hit up the mall to do some shopping, she needed a new swimsuit and I need work clothes (since we are going back to business casual!). We had a good time, she was good and fun and we spent some money! We got home and Steve had some more errands to run so we got the sprinkler out again!

Layla got home and Presley ran down the street to tell her to get her swimsuit on! They have so much fun together!  They played outside with the neighbors for hours, I love it! Steve took the girls outside and for a walk so I could get some stuff done around the house, dinner, laundry and all that fun!