Week in Review 7.12.13

This week we tried to get things back to normal after being gone so much over the past few weeks.  We got back Sunday evening from our trip up to MN.  The week was relatively uneventful which was nice.  This is mainly an Elsie update with pictures. 

Elsie really wanted to help carry my lunch out to the car.  She though she could even handle both of my bags but she didn't make it far.  

We introduced corn on the cob to Elsie.  SHe loved it.  We did cut some off of the cob to begin with to make sure she actually got to eat some but she just loved eating it! She also ate some spinach that I sauteed which shocked me.  I think she actually enjoyed it :)

Elsie has shown a huge interest in drinking out of a cup vs. a sippy cup.  In fact, most days she would prefer to drink this way-me not so much :)

Thursday after taking Cinder to the vet (where we got the bad news about her arthritis) we went to a Mexican Restaraunt.  Elsie LOVED dipping the chips in the Salsa.  Last week I would have told you we had a picky eater...this week I would say she eats just about anything. 

Including her new favorite-mini bell peppers and cherry/grape tomatoes like she is eating here for snack. 

John, Elsie and I also went to the local pool on Wednesday evening.  Elsie LOVES the water and is a crazy girl!  She loves to try to sit down and doesn't care if that means she gets water on her face or she goes under.  Fearless I tell ya... 

Week in Review - 6.28.13

A good part of this week was spent gone, out of town.  John and I were off to a fun weekend with friends in Clear Lake and Elsie spent the weekend with Dale and Bev.  They brought her up to Clear Lake Sunday morning to meet us because we were taking off to MN.  My little brother was in town, finally and we were going up for a visit.  He was moving from Idaho to England.  We haven't seen him since Christmas so it was great to spend some time with him.  I have a whole post coming on this time together so I will save that for another day.  Here are some highlights from the week...

1.  Elsie adores Ole and Lena, my brothers dogs.  They actually chase the balls she throws haha.  Poor Cinder just doesn't have the energy anymore.  She shrills with delight as they chase around the yard.  It is so fun to watch her interact with them.  It is also adorable how she says their names so plainly.

2.  Elsie and her cousins with their Uncle Tony.

3.  I made a round of yummy mojitos.  They are definitely my new favorite drink! 

3.  Elsie just loves getting stuff in her hair and all over her face.  This particular morning we were eating breakfast before heading over to see Mel's new house and decided it was time to make a mess.  I guess she wanted a bath because that is what we had to do to get all the jelly out of her hair-which of course made us late :)

4.  We were all going out to eat for dinner with a big group of family and Allie wanted to ride with Elsie and me.  So...it wasn't too long after we got going and I looked back and she was looking pretty tired.  I asked her if she was tired, she shook her head no, and then maybe a minute later she was out.  (Don't worry I took this photo at a stop light :).  Elsie kept yelling "Allie" in her cute little voice trying to wake her up.  I even had a hard time getting her into the restaurant without carrying her.  

5.  Cousin Time!  These two play so well together.  Elsie idolizes Allie!  In the bath we have a heck of time getting Elsie's hair wet with the cup.  She doesn't really like it too much.  Well after watching Allie do it Elsie has no problem doing it.  In fact, she thinks its fun and does it in the pool with freezing cold water too.  

6.  Oh the Laundry Chute!  As kids we loved putting our clothes down the laundry chute.  It looks like the kiddos still enjoy it.  When I see this picture I see my sister and I when we were little doing the same thing.  

7.  I have to say that by the time we were ready to leave on Wednesday I was ready to get Elsie home, back to her routine and her normal bed. (That was the only reason I wanted to leave)  Putting her down was the most difficult it has ever been in regards to fit throwing.  Monday night was the worst and it took us over an hour to get her to sleep, with the help of family and Tuesday Grandpa was the one that eventually got her to calm down enough and fall asleep.  Poor girl just didn't want to miss out on the fun! 

Week in Review - 6.21.13

1.  The Weekend:
We had such a wonderful weekend!  Our original plan was to go down to Lake Rathbun for the whole weekend with Marc, Amber and their family but of course the weather was predicted to be bad so we hung back until Sunday.  

So Saturday we had a great family day.  In the morning we got up and made the decision to wait until Sunday to go south despite the fact the camper was ready and loaded.  So we headed to the local Farmer's Market, picked up a few things and went out to breakfast.  

Elsie stealing a strawberry from our little stash we got at the market

In the afternoon we laid low and grilled out for dinner.  

And biked to Dairy Queen for some yummy ice cream after dinner.

On Sunday we got up bright and early and headed down to Lake Rathbun to go out on the lake with some friends.  It was a beautiful day!  It was also Father's Day! 

So while the guys spent time with thier kids on the boat, Amber and I enjoyed a nice beverage while floating around the lake.  :)

Elsie absolutely LOVED the boat, especially when Marc would go fast across the lake.  

We left early in the afternoon to go out to dinner with John's family.  

Grandpa Dale and his girls...

Although not how we planned it turned out to be a great weekend!!

2.  During the week we had Elsie's first swim lessons.  They weren't much, the instructors pretty much just let us play in the water but it was fun to get Elsie in the water.  Also, the water was pretty cold.  Since it was so early in the season the water hadn't had too much time to warm up.   I doubt we will do them again next summer until there is actual instruction.  It was still fun though. 

3.  Elsie found a new play to relax and read a book :)

4.  We had Elsie's 18 month Doctor Appointment.  All went well.  Check it out here.

5.  The rest of the week was spend packing and getting ready for the weekend/following week. Lots of grocery shopping, laundry, and house cleaning.  We were taking off for a mini vacation for five days. 

6.  We were still using some disposable diapers and I was tired of all of Elsie's shorts falling off because they aren't quite as bulky as our cloth diapers so I dug out some shorts from last summer.  We found lots of shorts that still fit from last summer (size 6-9 months) but the shirts were a little short as you can see from the pic below.  haha  I just had to try it on.  

Week in Review-6.7.13

Well we are all back to feeling 100% and are ready for some summer fun!  I got to spend three whole days this week with Elsie because JoJo was off Wed-Fri!  I love every minute with her (I guess I could do without the little tantrums),

1.  Wonderful, Wonderful weekend!  Great dinner with friends on Friday night and then the Dam to Dam  event on Saturday morning.  I had so much fun with Elsie and her first little "race" complete with t-shirt and bib.  After the race we checked out a new camper...not what we wanted and then headed home to shower and change and head our for our monthly "date night".  This time it was during the day...more on this to come in a later post.  Wonderful day and a wonderful night out to dinner with friends.

2.  Sunday we headed out to Lowes to pick up some supplies for a few projects-the biggest being as sandbox John is making for Elsie.  It took up most of the day and is not quite done but it is turning out so nice!  I can't wait to show off his finished project :)

3.  I have been obsessed with a new salad these past few weeks and I thought I would share.  I follow the blog Iowa Girl Eats.  I enjoy reading her blog because it isn't all about food but she always includes a recipe.  And the ones I have tried are so yummy.  The salad is Triple Berry Summer Salad.  I have altered it a little by removing the avocado and basil and use a raspberry vinaigarette for the dressing.  YUM!  I eat it at least 3 times each week for the past two weeks.  Perfect for lunch.  I have also added roasted chicken to it also.  The other recipe I love is the Springtime Pasta Primavera.  I made it for dinner one night this week and Elsie ate every last thing.  I could have done without the tomatoes and I didn't add any asparagus because I didn't have any but added extra brocolli.  I even used our own basil we have growing out on our patio.  It was delicious! I definitely recommend both these recipes.  Easy and delcious!

4.  I have been eyeing this toy for the past few months and when I saw it on amazon.com for a five dollars off ($14.97) I had to finally buy it for Elsie and she LOVES it!  The good old Fisher Price Bubble Mower.  Everytime we walk outside she says "mow" and points to the garage where her mower is.

5.  We are so so so lucky that we have other girls in our family that are willing to pass their clothes down to Elsie.  On Wednesday I picked up pizza for dinner and headed over to Brandi and Todds to sort through some bins of clothes.  I ended up going home with 5 tubs of clothes and am only sending back 1.5 tubs-mainly because the girls are twins and there were quite a few duplicates.  Thank You Thank You Thank You!

6.  In addition to clothes, Elsie gets some toys from the girls too.  This time she got this really cute little camper and car.  She spent so much time on Thursday driving the little car around the house-the whole time going "vroom vroom".

7.  So the other morning Elsie and I were eating our cheerios and when she finished I looked over and she was drinking her milk our of her bowl...Silly girl!

I say this every week but it was another wonderful week! 

Week in Review - 5.31.13

Oh what a week this was.  Last week we dealt with Elsie being sick...this week both John and I came down with the virus-the achy, flu, fever, sore throat virus.  Yuk.  Luckily, I had it on Memorial Day so John could care for Elsie and John got it the next day when I was feeling better and could care for Elsie since JoJo was off on Tuesday.  It all ended up working out.  After we got over our sicknesses it was a nice, quiet week.  

1.  We had our staycation at home over the weekend.  Check out the posts for more info but the highlights were SCI and the zoo.  I think Elsie had a good (exhausting) time.  

2.  The weather has been so crappy...lots of rain and flooding.  Yuk!  We are ready for some sunshine!

3.  We gave Elsie her first little cup without a sippy cup valve.  It still has a lid but nothing to slow things down.  She loved it and did so good with it!  

4.  We finally got outside for a nice day towards the end of the week.  Nice enough for shorts, tank, barefeet and snacktime on the steps.

5.  Finally after almost 18 months I can get Elsie's hair in pigtails.  She sat pretty good for me while I did it.  She was so proud and couldn't wait to show Daddy when he got home.  

6.  The second picture above shows another real challenge we have been facing lately.  Elsie getting into the snack cabinet.  She is constantly looking for snack-crackers, goldfish, applesauce, cereal bars, anything.  Of course when we take them away from her a mini fit ensues but she will eventually get used to us saying "no" right?  

Week in Review-5.24.13

This week was a fantastic week if you don't count all the stupid sever weather we had and the fact the Elsie was sick!

1.  The weekend was super fun!  We had our first campfire and had John's family over.  See Post:  Saturday Evening BBQ and celebrated a birthday of a special little boy.  See Post:  Tailgating in Des Moines.  That evening we had our first batch of severe weather, complete with Tornado warnings and watches.  Book club was cancelled and postponed to Monday night.  Before the weather came in though we took Elsie out in the Burley for the first time and she loved it!!!

2.  Another round of severe weather came our way Monday night so we swept Elsie up out of her crib and headed back to Dale and Bev's.  After the storm passed we went home and say this beautiful complete double rainbow.  I then headed over to Amber's for a very small book club group.  There was just three of us.  This months book is our choice:  Whatever we want to read and then we will share what we read over the month.  

3.  I can't believe it but my niece Allie graduated from pre-school and will be a big kindergartner next year.  I can't believe how fast she is growing up! 

                                        

4.  Well we dealt with some sickness again in our house this past week. Elsie was diagnosed with an ear infection on Wednesday but no fever so the doctor recommended waiting on antibitoics to see if it would clear up on its own.  Well it didn't and by Thursday we were back in with a fever and she was put on antibiotics.  Well on Friday we were back in again because she was in so much pain, was so upset she was inconsolable when the ibuprofen was wearing off.  It just broke my heart.  She stopped eating and drinking and I was kind of concerned because it seemed like she was getting worse, not better.  So we called and they thought we should bring her in.  Well the doctor thought it was just her ears...I thought there was something else going on and later in the weekend I would end up finding out first hand how crappy she actually felt. 

Even when she is sick she can still be naughty :)

Of course, the minute we got home from the doctor she was feeling miraculously better and wanted to play outside-she looks happy to me. 

5.  One day I told Elsie to go get her hat so we could go play outside...well this is the hat she came back with and wanted to wear it outside.  

Week in Review- 5.17.13

Yes, I am behind on my Week In Reviews but here is my attempt to catch up :)

1.  The few nights prior to this were rough...Elsie was not sleeping well.  We were up at my parents house and she was up a bit in the night but the best part is she slept until 8:20!!! Something that has never happened!  So I just had to take a screen shot of it!

2.  That weekend we spent up in MN celebrating Mother's Day.  It was so good to see family!  Well Saturday night we went to visit some friends.  Elsie was fussy and a bit shy at first but after awhile (and some tylenol) she warmed up to Taylor and Greta!  We also found out that Randi was expecting!!!  Such great news!  

3.  Elsie loves playing with her MegaBlocks-she loves to take them all out and then sit in the little storage wagon.  This particular day she sorted out all the single blocks and stacked them all up as high as she could go!  I was impressed that she sorted them out.  

4.  I have been in a pretty good routine with running lately and I absolutely love getting out.  There are very few days I dread going out I just struggle to fit it in the schedule, especially since I want to run before dinner. Well on Monday 5/13 I ran by fastest 3 miles to date with an average pace of 8:48/mile.  Don't you just loves those days when the run just "feels right".  

5.  Also on Monday 5/13 after almost 15 years I finally got my permanent retainer removed!  Oh it feels so good to run my tongue along my bottom teeth and not feel metal!  

6.  Elsie and I had such a good Friday!  We set out for a walk early to do a little shopping downtown (which out downtown isn't very big.  I decided to treat her to a little ice cream treat and she loved it!!

After ice cream we went to a little park close to downtown to kill some time until John and Grandma Bev and Grandpa Sorem could meet us for lunch.  

Week in Review - 5.10.13

OUR WEEKEND:
After going back and forth whether we were going to travel up to Minnesota for a good friends 30th birthday brunch we did decided to stay home and go up for Mother's Day.  Such a tough decision though.  So at the last minute our weekend changed but ended up being really enjoyable.  Friday night we hung out at home and took it easy.  Saturday we woke up, went to the Cub Scout breakfast at the local church (so delicious),  This is our third year in a row going and I would have to saw it is the best community breakfast that we have gone to.  Also that morning Dierks Bentley tickets went on sale for the state fair and John and I were planning to get tickets for our anniversary.  I was hoping for good seats but never would have imagined that we would get front row center in the grandstand!  They are PERFECT.  I was so excited.  For a minute I thought it was too good to be true ha!  Then Elsie and I went to a First Birthday party for little miss Greta.  She was so adorable.  Unfortunately I did not get any photos from the party :(.  We got her the same matching chair that Elsie and Aubrey have so now all three girls will have the same little butterfly camp chair.

Later that evening some friends of mine were training for a 20k race so they had a 11 mile run planned.  They were going to start in our town and head out to a neighboring town's local bar for 11 total miles.  I was planning on going, cheering them along the way and then enjoying a beer with them when they were done.  Well the weather didn't cooperate so instead of running to the next town, they ran some loops through our town and ended up at the restaurant here.  I decided I should run to meet them so I headed out to the bar on my feet to meet them.  I only ended up running a total of two miles but by the time I left my block it had started to really rain.  Thankfully, I work my hat and rain jacket which kept me pretty dry.  The rain actually didn't really bother me while I was running, just when I was done.  A big huge way to go for the group that ran 11 miles in the rain, so impressive!  So we enjoyed some food and beer.

A view from my route to the bar...pavement soaked
and you can still see a few patches of snow from out
May snowstorm.  

The 11-milers and me (not sure why I am in this pic ha!)
They were smart and packed dry, clean clothes to change into.

Saturday Elsie had a rough night and was up quite a bit so John let me sleep in just a bit and then we headed out to run some errands to Theisen's and Target.  

At Theisen's.  Elsie loved this little go-cart and was
pretty upset to learn we were not going to get it
and she had to get out of it.  

At Target we wanted to get Elsie a treat so
she got to enjoy her first cake pop from Target.
She was pretty excited.  

After our errands we came home, put Elsie down for her afternoon nap and then when she woke up we headed out to the Spring Festival at the local county park.  You can read more about it here.     It was a great time and Elsie really enjoyed it!   

Olivia and Elsie enjoying the naturalist program.

After the park we went out to dinner and then headed home to get Elsie to bed and to relax a little before the start of the week.       

                              

OUR WEEK: 

Our week went pretty fast.  I worked four out of five days this week to make up for a missed day the week before.  The weather was finally getting better but we did get dumped on with rain late in the week with over two inches of rain.  We did get some outdoor time in though.  

1.  Elsie is so fascinated with the squirrels in the our front yard.  Although they are a nuisance to us, Elsie loves watching them play.

Elsie and Daddy checking out the squirrels.

2.  When at Target on Sunday we decided to get Elsie some play-doh tools.  Well we got them out on Wednesday and she played with them for at least 45 minutes.  She loves it!

3.  Also at Target, we picked up a booster seat for our dining room chairs for Elsie to sit in instead of a high chair.  We took it out after she went to bed and got it on the chair and the next morning she noticed it right away and wanted to sit in it.  We made her wait for dinner but now that is where she sits at lunch and dinner time.

Elsie in her big girl chair :)

4.  Elsie has had a really rough week in regards to sleep.  Two nights she was up for two hours each night in the middle of the night.  The next two nights she slept through the night without a peep (and one night without her paci at all, we never even gave it to her), towards the end of the week she was up again.  Ugh...hope this phase is a short one! 

5.  Happy 30th Birthday to my dear friend Erin!  She turned 30 on May 5th! Erin and I have been friends since like 5th or 6th grade when we were on the same softball team.  I feel so blessed to have her as a friend!