Week in Review-4.26.13

We had such a good week.  A nice weekend and a pretty busy week.

1.  As I posted about earlier, our weekend was filled with VEISHEA activities and the 5k run on Sunday morning.  In addition to that we also shampooed our carpets which meant a lot of furniture moving.  It felt good to vacuum and clean behind all our furniture.  Especially in our bedroom.  We also switched our two dressers around and doing just that little thing makes our small bedroom seem so much bigger.

2.  I had book club this week and it was at our house.  We had a great turnout!  The book I chose for this month is The Great Gatsby.  I read it in high school but I think it will be interesting to read it now when I am older.  I also thought it would be good to read before the Movie comes out May 10.

3.  It is finally starting to warm up.  We spent some time at the park this with with Lisa, Greta, and Park and Amber, Cayden and Aubrey.  Heidi and the boys stopped by for awhile too.  Elsie is doing so good going up the stairs and down the slide all by herself.  It is so fun to see how brave she is becoming...I love it!

4.  Last week Elsie really started to try to put her own shoes on and off.  This week she is trying so hard with her other clothes.  One night at dinner she took her shirt bib off and put it back on all by herself which was huge!  Then on Thursday she sat there for probably 15 minutes trying to out on her fleece pajama pants over her sweatpants.  She was so determined and finally got both legs through the leg holes (she didn't get them pulled.  The picture is her taking them back off.

5.  After weeks spent working on Elsie's First Year book I finallyg ot it done and ordered from Shutterfly on Wednesday night.  It feels so good to be done with that.  Now to start working on the other ones. 

6.  This week I went to my first Trails Advisory Committee Meeting for the local conservation board.  It was really interesting and it felt good to back around people who are so involved in outdoor recreation.  They have meetings every month and then do work projects once a month.  I am looking forward to getting involved in this group.

7.  A few little Elsie notes:  She went this week from calling me "Mama" to "Mommy" :(  I just need to work on getting her back to mama.  I think I have started a bad habit.  For the last two weeks after she wakes up from her nap in the afternoon we snuggle up in the chair together and turn on Barney. She absolutely loves it and gets so excited.  So I guess 2-4 times a week she watches about 20 minutes of TV.  I love it because I get a solid 20 minutes of snuggle time.  She just loves the songs and the dancing and especially if there are animals on the show.  Well this morning she woke up and I was carrying her into our room to snuggle in bed and she got excited and said her version of Barney which is more like a "B" and an "E" sound.  Oh no...not sure what I have started.  Also note she got her first haircut this week which I posted about earlier.  

Week in Review 4.19.13

We had a great weekend and a pretty low key week.  This is what we have been up to.

1.  Our week started out with a pretty good weekend.   We spent Saturday morning checking out a couple of campers.  We decided to try to trade in or sell our current one and get a fifth wheel.  John hates pulling our camper around and it keeps us from going very far because he hates it.  I like our camper but if John would rather pull a fifth wheel then we will try to find one that we like. I was planning on volunteering Saturday afternoon but didn't really know where to meet so I didn't get there.  Instead I went for a run.  It was a pretty decent day.  One of the first nice days the whole week.  Saturday night we had a birthday party for some friends who has birthdays in April.  It was a lot of fun!

2.  Elsie came down with another cold...seriously... she gets that lasts for 10-14 days it clear up and then two weeks later she comes down with another one.  Because of this the Nosefrida is our friend!  It is so awesome!  And what is even better, Elsie likes it...as you can see below.  

3.  Aubrey came over for a little bit one afternoon while Amber and Cayden ran Tanner to the vet.  This was the first time I have watched someone else along with Elsie.  I think they had fun together although they both wanted to be on the riding toys.  Luckily we have two of them.  

4.  Like everyone else, we are so ready for spring/summer around here.  We decided one day to pretend like it was summer and put on a skirt, t-shirt, flip flops, and sunglasses.  

5.  Elsie loves to help me clean.  I think I need to find a cleaning set for her so she clean along side with me.  

6.  Here are a few random pics of Elsie from the week.  

She was playing in her room and discovered the bin with all the "baby" toys.  She felt she needed to pull them all out one by one. 

Somebody was ready for nap time. 

I love when I am in the kitchen and peek into the living room to see what she is up to and this is what I find. 

Hope everyone else had a great week!  

Elsie's First Haircut

This morning I took Elsie for her first haircut.  Her hair wasn't that bad or hardly long but I wanted to get it evened out just a little bit.  In the back she had one of those old school "duck tails" going on haha.  So we got that taken care of.  At first she wasn't so sure about the place and she never really "warmed up" but she did do good sitting on the booster seat in the chair and sitting still for Angie.  I will be honest, I was a little concerned about that but she did great!  

VEISHEA 2013

This past weekend ISU had thier annual VEISHEA celebration.  From what I understand it is a I am not sure the whole history behind this but I do know it is a big deal.  They have a parade, lots of other events, and it sounds like a lot of partying :). 

Brandi asked if we wanted to join them at the parade this year and since we were around I figure why not.  Bill, Carol, and Daniel also joined us.  It was a fun morning! It was a little chilly but not too bad.  While some of the adults went to set up the chairs we stopped at the Animal Science building where they had some animals on display.  They had little animals like a snake, bunny, hamster and turtle that you could look at/pet and then also some larger/farm animals to pet and look at.  Elsie wasn't so sure at first with any of the animals  and just clung to usbut after spending enough time in the room she eventually warmed up to them and didn't want to leave.  

Petting the hamster.  

Emma and Olivia did a great job of showing Elsie the animals.

Daniel loved the animals! 

Finally getting excited!  

After killing some time with the animals, we stopped and got some delicious ice cream and found our way to the chairs.  Elsie did pretty good during the parade.  The first half she just sat contently in Daddy's lap in the chair and kept him warm :).  The she decided to get close to the action so we sat on the curb with the girls.  She really enjoyed anything with music the most.  Oh and the big floating balloons.  

Thanks for the invite Brandi and Todd!  We will have to do it again next year :)

SCAVMA Scamper 5k

Yesterday I participated in my second 5k of the season.  It was a chilly (like 45 degrees) overcast, windy morning.  The winds were around 20mph.  This race is put on by the vet med students at ISU.  You are encouraged to bring your dogs to run but of course Cinder wouldn't have made it a 1/2 miles so I ran by myself.  I asked John if he wanted to come and watch and bring Elsie.  She is absolutely in love with doggies these days and I thought she would enjoy seeing them.  I think she was a bit overwhelmed by how many there were.  Even in the pic below we couldn't get her to look at the camera because she kept looking all over at the dogs.  There were dogs of every size there!  It was fun!

The run went really well.  I had set a goal to run it under 10 min/miles and my mission was accomplished.  My reported results were 30 min 30 seconds so 9 min 50 sec/mile.  I am pleased with that.  My last 5k that I ran in February I ran it in 33:46.  So that is over a 3 minute improvement.   I am not sure if that is really as accurate as I think :).  I used my phone/Map My Run App.  I wanted to  know how far I ran/how far I had left to go because I was unfamiliar with my route.  I thought I started it when I cross the start line but didn't.  I looked at it a couple minutes in and realized I never hit the start button :(.  According to my phone for the 2.84 miles it recorded my pace was 9:36 min/miles.  My first mile was my fastest which I could tell because I was running down hill with the wind at my back 9:19 min/mile and my last mile was my worst at 9:41.  Normally when I run my second mile is my slowest because I totally kick in into gear the last .5 mile as I near the finish but yesterday the last .5 mile I was running directly into the wind at an incline.  Ugh I struggled.  So I figure if my worst mile was 9:41 my overall pace would have to be faster than 9:50.  So anyways....I think my pace was faster than the official time but that is okay.  We will go with 9:50 min/mile.

My next one that I am registered for is in June.  I think my goal will be to run it under 30 minutes.  Maybe that isn't ambitious enough.  Maybe I should go with under 29 minutes.  I am hoping to run outside more...I enjoy it way more than the treadmill.  This week is looking up so we shall see.  

Week in Review 4.12.13

1.  It was a hectic Friday and I was trying to get us all packed out and out of the house.  We were hoping to leave for MN around 2:00ish.  Well after we got home from lunch with Grandma and Grandpa we got home and I decided to see if she would sit and watch TV and for the first time she sat and watched a whole half hour of TV.  As you can see from the photo is was Barney.

2.  The week started out with our trip up to MN.  We had such a good weekend and got to see so many friends and family.  This picture below is Elsie.  She found this post it notes so John put them on her face haha.  She thought it was pretty funny.  

3.  Elsie got these sunglasses from her cousins and Aunt Tami and Uncle Derick.  Monday morning when we were getting ready to leave for the day Elsie saw me wearing my sunglasses and wanted to wear a pair of her own. She wore them all the way to JoJo's.  

4.  The weather was absolutely beautiful on Monday.  It was 75 degrees and sunny so we went and played at the park after work.  I wrote a whole post about it and you can read about it here.  The rest of the week though was not so nice out.  

5.  I registered Elsie for swim lessons this summer.  It was quite the ordeal.  I waited in line for an hour.  I had brought Elsie with me but after waiting a half an hour and hardly moving up in line I called for reinforcement and Bev came and walked with Elsie back to their house.  I am looking forward to doing the lessons this summer though.  

Weekend in MN-Piper's Baptism, Randi's Birthday Bash, and Baby Lennon

Two weekends ago we took a trip up to Minnesota to my parent's house.  We had a 30th birthday party for my good friend Randi on Saturday night and on Sunday we had my niece's baptism.  It was a great weekend and so good to see family and friends.  

We got to my parents Friday night.  We made pretty good time considering we stopped at BWW for dinner on the way up.  When we got there Elsie immediately went to the bears my mom has up.  She LOVES them!  She was determined to carry around all four of them at all times.  

Saturday we met both my Grandma's for lunch at Broadway Pizza.  I just love the pizza there!  

That night we had the birthday party.  We went to dinner at PF Changs and then went out to Toby Keith's.  It was so much fun and all six of us girls from high school made it to celebrate!  We drank and danced and had such a good time!  

Sunday morning we had Piper's baptism.  She looked so adorable in her little gown.

After the service we went back to my sister's house for lunch and cake.  

We left then to head to St. Paul to visit my friend Erin's new baby (I guess not so new as he was already a month old!).  Elsie was so excited to see the baby.  She did not like it though when I was holding him and he cried.  Also, I forget how little they are when they are so new :).  He is a cutie!

We ended up getting home later than normal, about 9:30 PM but it was a great weekend and we enjoy spending time with our family and friends.