The Week After

As week's after go this one wasn't too bad. Sometimes coming back from vacation is more painful than not going at all, but we've had a good week. Chris took off Wednesday before we left to help me get everyone ready to go and Monday after we got back to settle in again. It helped so much!

Our trip to Racine went great...the girls traveled well both ways and we had lots of fun while we were there. L had a bit of a set-back with the potty and peed her pants five times in a day and a half once we got to Granny and Grandpa's. I was beside myself. But a trip to ChuckECheese prompted a change when she chose to pee through her pants and onto the floor of the bathroom instead of actually going in the toilet. The wet pants required leaving for a while for clean clothes and she seemed to figure out that peeing in your pants is not such a good idea. From that point on we've been back to using the potty. Thank God. On Saturday we trekked up to the Children's Museum in Milwaukee and Ella had a great time. There are lots of cool exhibits and there were plenty of things Ella could get into. Loved it. All around. LOVED IT!

Heather brought home a Jumperoo from the daycare and both girls loved playing in it, even though L is quite a bit too big.

We hit up IHOP for pancakes and "hotdogs" (sausage) before hitting the road.

Thanks to Granny, Grandpa, Scott and Heather for sharing their home and to Heather for ceding her room to our little family. We had a great time and are looking forward to our trip back over Christmas.

It turns out we'd missed Addie enough that upon our arrival in Webster City we called them up and took her for bath and movie for the night!

Since returning we've been plenty busy. Monday Mia and I went to Ames to check out her 3 month proofs (which should be on-line soon for everyone's viewing pleasure) and a trip to Target. On Tuesday Peanut had a playdate with some friends while I power cleaned the house. I got most of the house clean and was able to (finally) get the Halloween decorations down in the afternoon. Ella wasn't a huge help, but it was fun trying to match the houses to the boxes. And by fun I mean Ella destroyed more than one box. :) Ella spent the day at Miss Patty's today so Mia and I could have some time together, but mostly so I could catch up on some housekeeping duties. It's always nice to have some bonding time with Mia, but when I pick her up I'm reminded of how grateful I am that I get to stay home with my babies and don't have to send them to a babysitters daily.

I am cashing in on the best Christmas gift Chris could ever give me this Sunday - he's watching both girls while I spend the day shopping with Leah in Minneapolis. I can't wait! We're planning on wasting the day at the Mall of America and doing more people watching and chatting than actual shopping! We also have dinner plans with Jess and Nic at the Japanese Steakhouse in the cities. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Chris will, I'm sure, enjoy being King of his Castle. His only assignment is to get Ella to her full dress rehersal for the Christmas program at Church. Which, but the way she will be performing in on both Wednesday the 5th and Sunday the 9th. So exciting! My little girl's in the Christmas program - I'm so proud...yes, every kid is in the program...the 2 year olds have little lamb outfits and someone herds them onto the tage for one song before they're herded off before they have a chance to destroy too much of the set.

That's about it for us. Currently the girls are sleeping and Chris is at Fantasy Football. I'm blogging and watching Project Runway. I've dubbed Bravo and TLC my Guilty Pleasure channels.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've made it to the Hansen's in Wisconsin and have had our fill of Turkey - we thusly have much to be thankful for. Safe travel, good food, family, and of course - mom's completion of the Webster City Turkey Trot! It was great fun. Chris brought the girls out in the 20 some degree weather to watch mom waddle through her first race in roughly 10 years. There was a time in my life when I strove for gold medals and course records....might I suggest that I am more thankful than anything that God has provided me with such blessings that those motivations seem increadibly trivial. While I am well aware that my youth made me who I am today, and while I do not mean to imply that those years were spent unwisely - my memories couldn't be any stronger or better - the thought of my babies at the finish line was a stronger motivation than any gold medal. Which is also not to suggest that I am as fast today as I was then...on the contrary - I'm quite slow.

Thank you Chris for supporting me and for withstanding the cold with the girls - you are the greatest blessing God could have given me. I love you every day, and each day a little more.

Our Week w/o Chris

We Made It!!!

The Bible tells us that each of us has been given a gift. Some have the gift of teaching, some of prophecy, etc. etc. etc. I'm now convinced there is one gift that has some how been mistakenly omitted: The gift of being a single mom. Holy crap. I feel as if I ran the half marathon with E last weekend. I'm exhausted. And I only had to do this by myself for four days. I did, however, manage to sustain life in both girls, the cat, the dog and suprisingly myself. Chris is due home any minute. The girls are both in bed (although I'm not quite sure Ella's actually sleeping), and the house is, again suprisingly, pseudo clean. At least picked up if not cleaned and I'm watching "Numbers" and anxiously awaiting "House." Sadly Friday night TV is the highlight of my week. I'm a loser.

Our week was mostly good. Chris took off Tuesday morning - we did the library thing in the morning and went over to play with Lainey, Carson and Grandma Terri for a while after that. Ella passed out on our bed watching "Your Backyard Friends" (aka the backyardigans) and Mia was compliant enough to sleep at the same time. And so did I. There's nothing quite like curling up next to your toddler for a nap. Wednesday was indoor park and Ella was a TERROR. I love her, but she was naughty. She's gotten into this "don't play with me, leave me alone, no one can play with anything I like" thing. So we went home and she put her comfies back on for the rest of the day. Fine by me. We made banana bread and took it easy. Our evenings were calm, I turned the tv on at about 6 or so and we'd hang out in the tv room. We ordered pizza, drank sodies, and had our dinner downstairs. It was loads of fun. We dressed all of Ella's babies who had been previously naked...which was every single one...and lined them up on the couch. For the record - we DO NOT need anymore dolls. Can you find Ella??? Ella brought her trampoline from the playroom into the tv room and entertained us all.

All in all we had a good time. I enjoyed my girls and am grateful I have mostly good kids. Mia slept with me most nights after 1 am or so....and on Wednesday morning I woke up to find myself wacking her in the head with my elbow. Oops...sorry princess. It was nice being vegetables for a while, but I am much anticipating Christopher's return. Ella missed him too. She even wore his socks for a while in order to be close to him!

I'm less than a week away from my race! The Webster City Turkey Trot 5K is on Thanksgiving and will this year feature none other than myself. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

My profound musings for the evening are as such: I know everyone hates Disney cause they're taking over the world, and everyone hates Baby Einstein - mostly because they themselves weren't brilliant enough to decide to make B grade films for dirt cheap and sell them for billions of dollars to every parent out there who is desperate for their kid to be the smartest two year old on the block (sorry...my kid wins!), but I hate Disney and Baby Einstein for what I honeslty believe is a warranted reason: The freaking previews!!! What kind of company can feel good about themselves knowing they put like 30 minutes of previews on a film a baby is watching!!!

She Rolls!

Maybe it was a two-time thing, and maybe she'll take a break for a few months but the increadible Miss Mia rolled over. Belly to back. And unlike Ella's first roll I got to witness this one. So precious!

We've been decently busy, but I must confess I've been horrible with the camera since Halloween so I have no pictures to share. We spent the past weekend in the cities for Nikie's wedding. Gorgeous. Nikie was a princess....or so Ella thought. We all agree Ella. Nic did look like a princess. You should have seen L inspect Nic's dress...she wanted to take in every inch of it. It was priceless. We had a great time. It's always good to see old friends. Leah and Tom your little Emma is adorable. We really do need to do a better job of seeing each other now that we're so close.

I purged our sippy cup cabinet this morning. And by purged I mean threw away every single sippy we own and replaced them. They were gross and I couldn't handle it anymore. I figure the girls can have new cups every two years right? :)

We had Mia's three month pictures taken today. Some with dad and some with Big Missy for the Christmas card. Mom avoided any snapshots this time aroudn. 6 Month shots may include a family pic. We'll see. I can't wait to see the pictures...and to share them with you all.

Mad props to E who ran the half marathon on Sunday. You rock.

Chris is headed out of town this week for a Merck conference of some sort. Aye aye aye. God Bless the single mom. I'm sure not good at it!

Promised Costume Pics

We're back from Texas and settled back in. Halloween was awesome. Heidi, Meredith and I took the girls downtown for "Merchant Trick-or-Treat" in the afternoon. The girls did great and quickly picked up on how to best fill your bucket! Then it was the boys' turn to herd the kiddos and Chris met up with Corey and Jim to take the kids around the neighborhood. They were awesome! We had expected an hour or so but it was more than two hours before Chris and the girls got back. We had lots of kids come by the house and Ella came back with a bucket full of candy. Ella was a skunk; Mia a jalapeno pepper.





Try and see how full the buckets are in this picture!!!

As soon as Chris got back for good with Ella we put the girls in comfies, and loaded them up in the car. We got on the road at about 8 and made it to Joplin, MO before 2 am. We had a smooth transition to sleep in the hotel and were up and on the road again on Thursday before 10. We made it to Texas at about 3:30. We made a quick stop at the clinic to say hey to our good friend (and hostess for the weekend). Upon her removal from her car seat we discovered Mia had crapped ALL OVER herself. It was her first real blow out. Good timing Miss Mia. After we spent a little while with Jill at the clinic we took the car (yes the new car) to the Chrysler Dealership cause the freaking cruise didn't work. You try and drive from Iowa to Texas w/o cruise control and NOT get a ticket. Let me assure you it was not the easiest thing I've ever done. Chris and I sat through an ENTIRE adult league soccer game Thursday night with the girls. After that it was mostly hanging at the Breeze ranch for me and the girls, and fishing for Chris. Highlights of the trip included Chris dropping Shane's truck key in the lake, and my discovering Mia had an ear infection. Aye aye aye. Tragedies aside we both had a great time.

The ranch is such a great place for the girls. Mia doesn't know it yet, but Ella does. There are horses, a goose (two geese now actually...we were a part of acquiring a pal for squeaky), lots of dogs, and we even got to watch the tractor cut down the hay. Good times. We caught an art festival on Saturday and got to go to Church on Sunday. I love that Church. It's a breath of fresh air to be in a church where there are all kinds of people, and each one of them knows they are loved exactly as they are. No one is asking them to change...they just want them to know that since Jesus loves them as they are, then we will too.

Ella caught a small stomach bug upon our return to Iowa, but that's all cleared up now and we're moving on full steam ahead. Mom and dad are coming up to visit at some point this week/weekend and some combination of the six of us will be at Nikie's wedding. I can't wait!

On a more somber note, we have good friends - Cory and Meredith Bargfrede (Lainey's parents) who are going through some family adversity. Corey's grandfather suffered a massive stroke recently and is struggling to recover. If you have room in your prayer list please consider them. And if you don't have room in your prayer list may I pass on a bit of wisdom Linsey shared with me: Never be too busy to sit at the feet of Jesus.