Mostly Pictures

Addie and Lainey came over to decorate Halloween cookies...and for some general good food and good company. These are the resulting pictures - suprisingly the girls stayed mostly clean. Not a single one of them picked up a cookie to eat it....who needs cookies when you have tubes of frosting on hand!!!

I promise to post costume pictures...but not until we get back. We're off to Texas for almost a week!

MY new favorite You Tube!!!!!!!!

Ella's New Favorite YouTube

De Car! De Car!

I'm an official lessee of a metallic black Chrysler Pacifica with light tan leather interior. LOVE IT! It's so much more than I thought I'd be getting and I love every bit of it. The kids seem to like it too. Ella is much appreciative of the DVD player, although the small ones were good enough for her, they were a pain in the neck for mom and dad to hold/move/not lose/etc. And Mia just likes the way her seat sits....or so I think.

We babysat Delainey again today, our prayers continue to go out to the Bargfreded family. Lainey and Ella played great, we spent some time outside, some time inside and even some time over at Grandma Terri's on the trampoline. Ella's indoor slide and little trampoline made the trip up the stairs and outside again for the girls to play with outside. I much appreciate time they spend NOT in my house. :)

I did some gardening over the weekend...I put a few hostas around our house and planted a handful of tulip and dafodil bulbs. Ella helped me put a few hostas in front of our neighbors porch, and we transplanted a Yew Evergreen bush for him too. I plan to add some bulbs tomorrow or maybe Wednesday. The gentleman who lives there lost his wife and daughter in a car accident well before we moved to Webster City - he has one son, a 12 year old, whom Ella adores. He's an excellent father, and between running the 12-year old to various sporting events has not been able to find the time to finish up his landscapping....we were glad to help out. I just hope everything lives and it doesn't look like trash in the spring!!! :)

Saturday was Pre-school Trick-or-Treat day at the local rec center. The girls were the cutest rascals in the place. Ella was a skunk, Mia a hot pepper. Very cute. We're excited for "real" trick-or-treating on Wednesday....should be fun.

Speaking of Wednesday...Only Two more days until we leave for Texas! It will be a much welcomed vacation. Chris is fishing all weekend, and the girls and I will be hanging at the Breeze ranch. Sunday will, of course, be a trip highlight as we set foot in the new Joshua's Crossing building for the first time. I can't wait!

Quote of the week (not verbatim, but pretty damn close): "The state of this (Tennessee) football program is worse than Nebraska." - Phil Fulmer. Nebraska is apparantly so bad that to be worse is unthinkable.

Someday My Car Will Come

Or so they tell me. My long trek to a new car continues. When our dealer showed up to pick it up at the lot in Council Bluffs for the swap they discovered damage of some sort to the fender or bumper or I really don't care. What matters is that they are fixing it and I'm not getting my Pacifica until Friday at least. Oh well.
Nearly 30 years after arriving on the Earth scene I am officially an adult. By which I mean there is adult furniture (furniture store style, not Target self assembly style) in EVERY room of our house!!!! Our living room set arrived today and I love it. It has completely transformed our house. We've rearranged two rooms and completed our quarterly toy purge...our house is now free of all fast food toys and other broken objects! We also tossed anything that is small enough for Mia to choke on.
Speaking of Mia, Heidi came over Monday morning and we painted her (Mia's) room. Ella got sent to Miss Patty's day care with Addie for the morning and it was a win-win situation for everyone. Especially considering that Patty told me that having met Ella she is willing to take her as a drop in if I need her. Maybe someday I'll take her up on it!
Chris is hosting Fantasy Football tonight, so there's plenty of testosterone in our house. I love entertaining, and I'm glad to be able to show off my newly furnished house!

Spending Money

It's been a big spending week around here. We've known for quite a while that we're up against selling my truck as it has nealry 85,000 miles on it. As much as we want to let it go before it loses too much value the realization that we will have to be making a car payment for the first time in our marriage has been hard to swallow. Funnily enough, as we draw nearer to making said payment I'm more nad more excited about getting my new car.
Here's how the story of this past week goes...On the eve of our first car shopping trip I spied a living room set that I kind of liked and thought would fit our needs. More importantly it was decently affordable...much more so than we were thinking we'd have to spend. Chris and I decided, in the interest of being good stewards of what we've been given, not to make hte impulse buy and to look around a little first. So we took off for Fort Dodge to check out some cars on Thursday and discovered a HUGE rebate on the Pacifica. Huge enough, in fact to bring it into our price range. The Pacifica was originally the car we were wanting, but thought it was too expensive....funny how God provides in His own way....Instead of providing the cash flow to afford a purchase, He simply took away from the cost of said purchase. Amen.
So with ambitions of a nicer car than we'd imagined we took our kids and the money we were saving due to a larger than expected trade-in value on the Trailblazer and went furniture shopping. We bought a sofa, loveseat, and chair w/ ottoman. Soon enough this house will look like adults actually live here....not just the kids.
On Friday Chris went ot eh local car dealership to see if they could offer us something int eh same price range that we were looking at on our Pacifica....they couldn't but sent us to another dealer in their family - where we went today. After an hour plus drive to Algona, IA we discovered that the dealership had no internet access, and thusly couldn't find us what we were looking for. Before I completely freaked out the salesman took it upon himself to use a friends home computer and make some phone calls in order to track down some options for us. The hope is that on Monday morning they will call Chris and be able to finalize things, so as to be able to go pick up my new Pacifica (black w/ leather interior....wow!!!) in COuncil Bluffs and transport it back to Algona, where the girls and I will at some point go get it. Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!! It's been a long trek, but I am faithful it will all work out really well. I am amzed at the Lord's provision and how He makes it available.

The girls have been great as of late. Chris took Thursday and Friday off and we've spent lots of time playing together and playing with friends. We spent most all of Tuesday evening at the Tesdahl's, Heidi and Addie came over here Wednesday evening, Thursday was a trip to the Bargfrede's so the girls could entertain each other whilst we zoned out on Grey's (still going strong if you ask me). And last night ws quiet before all three girls, Heidi, Jim and Meredith came over tonight for Chili, toys and baths. The girls were great and Ella is wiped. Mia, however is happy to watch the Michigan game with daddy. I'd much rather she watched that....the Husker's, it turns out, are horrible.

Go Huskers! Yeah right...

Another One Down...

Surviving Monday following a weekend trip is always tough, but we've made it. The girls were the cutest sisters to be found in downtown Lincoln Saturday. We searched high and low Friday for the perfect outfits and I think we found them. Chris and DeEtte are quite happy I went looking cause the default was going to be cheerleading outfits and they were none to happy about that. Ella and Bergen took the Children's museum by storm after Frost's pre-slaughter party, but the festivities were cut short by a puddle of pee curtsey of Ella.

Indoor Playground has been opened again, and Ella had the chance to run around with some buddies this morning, which is always good. And mom likes that it isn't at her house. I've decided to institute a new option at indoor playground whereby at 10:30 someone gets to leave their children under the care of whoever else is there and make a coffee run. I'm brilliant right?

As it is Monday we took the girls swimming - Mia seems ot be taking to the water quite well....didn't even have to work through the tears this time. The post-swim shower in the locker room is not her favorite however. She's chugging along though, has a beaming smile, and looks anxious to start exhibiting control over her muscles.

Vera did great - she flew through surgery with flying colors. We all know the tough part is yet to come, given rehab and all, but we'll be pulling for her every step of the way.

Concerning the firing of Steve Peterson: I say don't let the door hit you... Ella would say "See you later aligator!"

For my parting thoughts: I hijacked a few songs from the playlists E and some of her friends were so kind as to share. Among them is "My Humps"...turns out it's a great workout song, although it sort of makes me want to move it which always ends up making me laugh cause my humps have no business on the dance floor. :)

Go Get 'Em Old Grandma!!!

Our good friend Vera Seale is having hip replacement surgery today. She's 88 years old. How increadible is she? I say go get 'em Old Grandma!

Did you ever wake up and realize it's a week later? And no one asked you if it was alright that time kept moving? That's how I feel. All of a sudden Ella's two, Mia's 9 weeks old, the OSU game is already here and were three full episodes into the new season of Grey's.

We had an awesome week to follow up our visit from Granny and Grandpa. Monday night is family swim night at the local rec center and we took the girls for the second week in a row. After forgetting the camera for Mia's first dip we documented her second experience in the pool. It took a little bit, but she wound up enjoying the relaxing waters.

On Tuesday morning Addie and Laney brought their little brothers over, along with Trey and Bailey, to decorate pumpkins to take to the Senior Center in town. The girls were so good at the senior center and the residents loved adoring the babies, and some of them even held the little ones.

Grandma Terri and I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch where Chris and I are desperately trying to win Monopoly. I figure we've got a leg up on the lottery w/ Monopoly as our ridiculous attempts to win at least leave us full despite the poor nurishment.

In the afternoon we dropped L with Laney and the crew to take Mia to her 2 month well check. She's growing just fine (13lbs 2 oz) and seems quite healthy. She was not so fond of the shots, but is adjusting alright and didn't seem to have any major reactions.

After Mia's visit we picked L up and went to Nick's football game. Nick is our 7th grade neighbor and Ella's FAVORITE babysitter. He's also the starting quarterback....it's like living next to royalty! Tuesday evening was the first meeting of girl's night, which we hosted. Heidi brought food and a bunch of our friends all brought good converstaion and NO KIDS!!! Turns out that for many of us it was the first time we'd allowed ourselves the indulgence of just hanging out with other ladies for no good reason except the company. We've decided to get together bi-weekly so as to maintain our sanity.

Nana came Wednesday night to haul us back to Lincoln, where we are currently posting from. Ella has already played with Bergen and Mia is content to be dragged along. The weekend proves to be plenty exciting with the Smith Barney Pre-Game party Saturday morning. The game starts at 11:15am, so the whole of Lincoln will be setting the alarm clocks so as to be properly "hydrated" for kick-off!

And to close...my new favorite picture of the girls...thanks to Granny for the matching comfies!!!

Outside fun and the adorable smiling Mia

Granny and Grandpa

We had an awesome weekend with Granny and Grandpa...They arrived mid-day Friday and stayed for a few fully crazy days before leaving Sunday afternoon. Ella was as excited as can be to wake up from her nap on Friday to find they had come to visit. We hung out Friday at home, letting Ella reconnect with them and allowing them to check out how much Miss Mia is growing and changing.

On Saturday we played outside a while and though we tried to go to the Saloon (closed due to family wedding) wound up having dinner at Lomita's (HUGE margaritas) where Ella successfully scaled a booth about four feet high before letting go to whack her head on the table. She's fine - I only wish I could blame the crazy on the fall.

On Sunday morning we got up early and went into the Dodger for breakfast at Village Inn (Ella got the smiley face pancakes - Still just mom for Mia....no silly faces for her) and we trekked out to Community Apple Orchard for "Apple Fest" which means Ella got to play a bunch of games, which included dad catching her a balloon:

Dad helping her throw a ball at a "floating" pumpkin"

And, of course, participating in what dad calls "the most exciting 30 seconds in television!!!":

Ella, Dad, Granny and Grandpa also braved "the black hole" (Mia and I opted out for not knowing if I'd be able to maneuver through with a baby strapped to me). Ella held a dead rat:

and bones:

Oh the experiences of a two-year old.
According to the growth chart at Community Apple Orchard Ella is currently roughly 35 inches tall:

We'll have to see if she's grown next year.

We tried to get a pic of the girls with their faces in a photo cut out. This is how it went down:

Maybe there's something in there that looks reasonable!

Miss Mia had her share of fun too, and was even generous enough to help carry Ella's prizes.

The would be pumpkin picking was curtailed by rain that made for a huge mess, and given that we're headed back out at some point with Delaney and Addie we skipped it for the day. But all in all it goes down in our list of great weekends.

Oh yeah, we've also decided to try and go (pale) green. Which really means we're working on making sure we turn off the lights when we leave the room, unplugging the monitor when not in use, unplugging cell phone chargers, etc. Nothing major, but I've heard a lot lately about the simple things we can all do to make a difference. So we're trying to do our part. Wish us luck.

Light Fixtures and Lotion

Lots to report from the Hansen camp. This week has been crazy and it's so hard to believe it's already Thursday! The Hansen's come either tomorrow night or Friday morning, it seemed like it would be forever before that got here! We're excited for them to see the girls....Ella's just gaining craziness by the day, but Mia is changing so much!!!

Our week started with a bang....quite literally. We woke up to discover the hall/laundry room breaker tripped and upon resetting it blew out the fixture. Truth is I probably had bulbs that exceeded the recommended wattage in the fixture and burnt it out. But at this point we had to be concerned about an electrical fire and if it is possibly smoldering in the attic. So trek next door to the neighbors to get a ladder and Chris checks the attic....no fire. Remove the fixture and into the shower so we can get to the two building supply stores in town before lunch, because if they don't have anything we need/want we have to go to Fort Dodge at some point. As soon as L and I got out of the shower Mia started crying. Ella's bed was stripped, there were clothes/blankets/dolls/etc. peppered all over her room and the living room cause I had to ignore her once Mia started wailing. Ella's was naked for about an hour and a half, I just got back in the clothes I wore Sunday, and Mia was in a diaper wrapped in a blanket. After a little less than two hours of chaos Mia stopped crying to crap for about 60 straight seconds....only to break for a minute and do so again! I'd cry too baby girl. The day actually wound up pretty good...we got to make banana bread at Grandma Terri's again and the girls played well into the afternoon.

My only complaint about the day and subsequent morning is that in 24 hours I changed Ella's sheets three times. After taking herself to the bathroom at Laney's every hour or so she came home, climbed on her bed, and peed. Then she leaked through her diaper Tuesday morning....I guess that's what I get for buying cheap ass Hy-Vee brand diapers eh? Things have been uphill since then. Tuesday is library day and we had a great time....it fell on a perfect day as it stormed all day. This morning we finally made the trip to Fort Dodge to replace the light fixture. We did that, as well as spent a few hours playing in the playplace at McDonald's. We had a very welcomed surprise while we were there as Chris was making a few calls in town and was able to have lunch with us! Yeah daddy!!!

Mia is doing amazing things, at least as far as her mother is concerned. Her little personality is developing so much, she's such a smiler!!! She's ticklish too, and loves it. She's started supporting her weight on her legs when we hold her up and is even pushing up quite a bit when she's into it. I love all this first year, so much development, so much change!

Chris is at his fantasy football league trade night tonight so I gave the girls a bath...tons of fun, but this is what happens when there's only one parent available and Ella takes herself downstairs after her bath while I got Mia in pjs:

That's right, you're seeing lotion ALL OVER my child, including in her hair. Aye aye aye child!

Thank God Mia was content to do this:

What a little angel!

All in all we're doing well, Hansen's this week, Oklahoma State game next week, then we're off until we make the trip to Texas at the beginning of November. With so much going on we approach it like any good athlete would....don't overlook this week for next. So for now we're focused on our visit form Granny and Grandpa - can't wait!!!

Should I Be Worried???