75 and Sunny!

This past Monday we had a day of really beautiful weather-before we got a week of crappy weather. It was 75 Degrees and Sunny.  We felt we need to take advantage of the nice evening.  We had an early dinner and then took a walk to the park, the three of us.  It was so nice to go as a family.  I normally just take Elsie alone when I am home with her so it was fun to see John and her having fun together.  I enjoy watching her explore the playground equipment.  She is getting so much more brave.  I think about taking her to the park last fall and she really just crawled through the tube and went down the slide.  Now she is getting a little more daring, especially with the slides.  

Week in Review 4.5.13

1.  We have been hit hard with spring fever at our house.  It is finally getting nice outside and we have been spending a lot of time on walks and at the park.  We have been making a list of outdoor projects we want to do and we have also taken time this week to get the camper ready for the season.  John took out all the dishes, towels, sheets, and blankets out of the camper so I could wash them all, we cleaned the inside top to bottom, fixed things that needed to be fixed and replaced things that needed to be replaced.  We are ready to roll.

Everything clean and ready to go back in! 

Elsie having fun with Daddy on the bunk beds.  

2.The Easter Bunny brought Elsie some Play-Doh in her basket so I thought we would give it a whirl and see what she thought of it.  She really didn't know what to do with it and pretty much imitated everything I did with it.  I think I maybe need to get her some little Play-Doh tools.

3.  Monday we have a very special lunch date with my parents.  They were on vacation to Florida and they chose to fly in and out of Des Moines instead of Minneapolis because they were down here watching Elsie while we were in Puerto Rico.  So I picked Elsie up from daycare and we met them for lunch.  She was super excited to see them.  

4.  We had a wonderful Easter.  I had to add it in our Week of Review but I have already posted about them.  You can read about dying eggs and Easter Sunday.

5.  The kids had their first "picnic" of the season at daycare!!

6.  April 4th was my dear friend Randi's 30th Birthday!  I am lucky enough to been her friend long enough to celebrate more years together than not!  I can't wait to celebrate the big 3-0 with her!  Love you Randi!

I just had to post a pic of us when we were young and 24 haha

7. On Thursday I went for a run outside for the first time in two years (except when I did the Rosey Cheeks Run in Feb).  Oh my goodness!!! It is so much better to run outside than to run on the treadmill.  I aim when I run to go for about 30 minutes. which ends up being about 2.3-2.5 miles.  I am trying a program again and on the treadmill to avoid boredom I change speeds a lot and end up averaging about 13 minute miles.  Well yesterday I jutst went out and ran.  I started up the program but didn't follow it.  I ended up going for 2.5 miles but averaged 9.38 minute miles.  I couldn't believe it and the only time I walked was down my street at the beginning to warm up.  It felt so good.  And I loved listening to music.  On the treadmill I normally watch TV.  I need to make a workout playlist because I had to skip songs to find upbeat ones.  If you have any good tunes you reccomend let me know!

8.  John and I had a date night this week.  Our original plan was to go to a movie but when I looked to see what was showing there was nothing we were really wanting to see so we just went to dinner instead.  We went to my favorite place, The Cafe.  I do know John really enjoys it too.  We had a drink at the bar while we waiting for a table and then enjoyed yummy deviled eggs for an appetizer and of course thier bread.  John had Pasta Bolognese and I had the steak with roasted brussel sprouts.  I would have ordered whatever entree came with roasted brussel sprouts they are so yummy!  I love the cafe in that thier menu changes frequently.  It was also Tapas Night but the ones we wanted were sold out already! It was a very nice night.  

I hope everyone had a great week and enjoy your weekend!  I know we will!

Elsie Marie - 15 Months

We had such a great month, despite lots of snow we have started to venture out of the house more often which makes Elsie a lot more happy and make Mama a lot more happy too :)  She still amazes me with everything she is learning!  She is getting so big!  I know I know!  I say this every month but it is the truth!! Unfortunately life got busy and I am just getting around to taking her picture a couple of days ago but all the information is current from when she turned 15 months (two weeks ago).

GROWTH:  At her 15 month doctor appointment Elsie weighed 20.2 lbs and was 31" tall!  She is groving out of some of her 12-18 month clothes, especially her pants and I packed away her last pair of 12M pajamas.  The other day I put on a pair of her jeans and I couldn't even get them buttoned haha...which leads me to my next section-eating.

EATING:  Elsie is such a good eater.  There really isn't too many things she doesn't like.  One day I think she doesn't like something and the next she eats it all up!  We switched from YoBaby yogurt to Chobani Greek yogurt and that is somethign she doesn't like.  Especially when there is fruit mixed in.  One day when she was eating her yogurt she ate all the yogurt but on her tray was a little pile of blueberries that she sucked all the yogurt off of and then took them out of her mouth and put them on the tray.  Her favorites foods are cheerios, peanut butter toast, and goldfish.  She LOVES goldfish.  New foods this month were fish, peanut butter, and strawberries.  

SLEEP: Sleeping for Elsie hasn't been too bad this month.  She has cut down on the amount of times she wakes up for her paci at night but she is still getting up early (5:30-6:30 AM) and her naps have been inconsistent.  I think she is starting to cut out her morning nap for real this time.  This has been happening just in the past week so we will see.  I really don't like getting up at 5:30 but we are lucky in that she will fall back to sleep in our bed most of the time.  So we fall back to sleep for a little bit too.  She is still going to bed at 7:00ish each night.  Sometimes a little earlier.  She always goes to bed really well and always seems ready to go to sleep.  There have been a few times that she doesn't even want me to finish our routine and she wants to be laid down in her bed.  I know we are so lucky in that regard and hope this behavior follows through into her toddler years. Ha we'll see about that!

TEETH:  Well another molar made its appearance.  One thing I realized is how long these suckers are taking to come through.  I thought last month they were through but that was only one part of them.  The tops ones are taking FOREVER!!! Poor girl!  So this bring her to a total of 12 teeth.

DEVELOPMENT:  Oh my goodness I feel like she has reached so many new milestones this month. Besides all the new words she is saying, she is doing so many new things.  It is amazing what she is picking up from us doing things.  When she spills she finds a towel to wipe it up.  When she gets home she puts her hat away.  Before we leave I tell her to go find her hat and put it on.  She can find it, she can try to put it on but she isn't quite able to yet.  She will throw stuff away for us.  She puts her clothes in her hamper.  She helps pick up her toys.  She is just our little helper around the house. A couple of other things she can do iss scribble with a crayon and kick and throw a ball (those were things that we had to check off at her dr. appointment.  

PLAY:  She is still loving her books!  She just can't get enough of them. 'In fact now, she is picking out which books she wants to read and will push away books we pick out that she doesn't want to hear.  Her favorite books are: Happy Easter Mouse and Hooray for Fish.   She is still climbing all over the place.  Some of her favorite things are: her stuffed animals, her magnetic animals, my scarves,  looking out the widow and wave goodbye when people are leaving, push her lawn mower around, and carry heavy things around the house.  Her play kitchen also keeps her really busy and she got new play fruit and she loves to play with that.  

SPEECH: I can hardly keep up with all the words she is saying these days :)  To be honest, can't remember which words she has been saying in the last two weeks vs prior to her being "15 months".  I do know one word that she was attempting to say was "octopus" haha.  Next month I will list all the words I can think of up to this point.  But her speech is definitely developing.  At her dr. appointment he said that she has the vocabulary of an 18 month old.  

Although we definitely have some challenging days we are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives.  I am just in awe of how much she is growing up and how fast.  Slow down just a little bit please :).  

30 Years 30 Goals-March Update

Didn't Even Think About It: #5, #6, #8, #9, #11, #12, #13, #14, #19, #20, #21, #23, #29
Completed:  #4, #3

1. Run 5-5ks
No 5ks this month but I did register for two new ones...one in April and one in June.  I have also began running again after taking a short break to do the 30-day Shred. 

2.  Complete Outlander Series by Diana Galbadon.
No progress here...in fact I never even opened "Fiery Cross" this month.

3.  Get into a consistent routine of exercising at least three times a week.
Definitely did this during the month of March I am actually counting this as completed since I feel this has been pretty consistent over the past few months.  

7.  Lose at least 15 pounds
10 lbs down, 5 more to go!  Then I will set a new goal :)

10.  Plan and Carry Out a date night with John once a month
We had a "date vacation" this month.  Our five days away make up for missing it the past 3 months :) Check back soon for some photos from the trip.  

15.  Be up to date on photo books
Shutterfly sent me coupon code for a free book so it motivated me to do one on our trip to Omaha.

16.  Read 4 non-fiction books
I finally finished Healthy Tipping Point this month. I also started two new ones:  How to Talk so Your Kids Will Listen and Listen so Your Kids Will Talk  and The Happiness Project.

17.  Have an Elsie outing once a month
We went to a couple of library story times and the day before we left for our trip I had a day all about her.  We went to a storyteller put on by the library and spent some time at the park.  You can read about it here.

18.  Take the camper out 5 times this summer

Haven't taken it out yet but getting very anxious to do so.  I would like to take some time in the next week or so to get it ready for the summer.  

22.  Host a game night at our house.
Completed this goal this month and it was so much fun.  I hope to do it again!!  Maybe a summer game night or something like that.  You can read about the night here. 

25.  Find a cause I want to support and start a volunteer relationship.
I actually found a place I wanted to volunteer.  This is with the local county conservation department.  I saw in the paper they were looking for volunteers for their trails committee and I contacted them but havent' heard anything back yet.  

27.  Do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.
I completed the "Shred" this month.  I will have to say I didn't do it quite like the video or myself intended but life gets busy ya know.  My goal was to do it until we left for Puerto Rico which was last Wednesday, March 20th.  I did okay for level one and two but only did one level three the Saturday before we left.  You can check out my daily entries.  

28.  Make 5:30 my standard wake up time and 10:00 my standard bedtime.
I did not do so well with this goal this month.  I would say about half the nights I go to bed by 10:00 and half the mornings I am up by 5:30.

30.  Twice a month call a family member or friend to chat.
Yep

Week in Review-3.22.13

1.  Happy Birthday Brandi!  This past week on the 20th was Brandi's birthday.  We left that day for Puerto Rico but Elsie got to celebrate with her by meeting them for dinner along with Grandma Bev and Grandpa Dale!

2.  Happy Birthday Magda! On the 19th was another very special birthday!  It was Magda's birthday.  Of course we were unable to celebrate with her but thought about her throughout the day.

3.  A lot of time this week was spent preparing to leave our little girl while we went on a trip to Puerto Rico.  It was a little difficult for me to think about leaving her but I know she had so much fun playing with her Grandmas and Grandpas while we were gone.

4.  Well John and I took a little work trip to Puerto Rico.  It was really nice to get away and relax just the two of us.  It really gave me a bit of spring fever and I hope our spring gets here soon.

5.  We celebrated Aubrey's birthday on Saturday 3.16.13.  I can't believe she is one already!  This year has just flown by!  Happy Birthday Little Miss Aubrey!

6.  This past weekend my good friend Randi and her little girl Taylor came and stayed with us for a night.  They came down for Aubrey's birthday party.  It was so good to catch up with Randi and see Taylor and Elsie have so much fun together despite their age difference.  I wish we could see them more often!  Thanks for visiting!

7.  Photos of Elsie throughout the week:

I had packed up a bunch of her pacifiers for her when she went to stay with Grandma Bev and Grandpa Dale and put them in a bag.  Well she found them and looked up at me so excited as if she struck gold.  I had to distract her with food to get them all away from her without her throwing a fit!  

And of course, Elsie is still loving Cinder.  

Week in Review - 3.29.13

1.  This is how my week started.  Enjoying mojitos on the beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  It was beautiful and relaxing but it was great to get home and see our little Elsie Belsie.  

2.  I had book club Monday night.  Although I would have loved to stay home and catch up on laundry and relax at home after getting home on Sunday evening but I know how much I enjoy seeing all the girls and catching up.  It was a great night at Kara's!  We actually discussed the book a little this time around and talked about other books we are currently reading.  Last month's book was Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, which I read in one day while laying on the beach.  This month's book is Before I Go to Sleep.  Should be interesting and looking forward to reading it.

3.  Most of the week was spent catching up on stuff that we missed while we were gone.  Not a whole lot that was exciting.

4.  I started running again in preparation for my upcoming 5k-The SCAVMA Scamper on April 21st.  I mentioned to John that this race is one that he might consider coming and watching along with Elsie.  It is open to both runners and their dogs.  Elsie is in LOVE with dogs right now and gets so excited if she see one in a picture, on TV, or outside so I think she will enjoy watching all the dogs run by.

5.  Elsie and I did a little shopping this week.  She actually kept these bunny ears on longer than 5 minutes in the store.  haha.  On Friday I took her to the mall to see if she would take a picture with the Easter Bunny but that was a big fail.  I figured it would be but it thought I would give it a try.  She wouldn't even leave my arms.

6.  It was absolutely beautiful by the end of this week.  Friday we went for a walk with Lisa and Greta.  Somewhere along the way we lost Ducky (Elsie's little stuffed ducky animal).  So we retraced our steps all the way almost home and we found him.  Someone stuck him in a tree. :)

Happy Easter

We had such a great day!  Elsie slept in until 7:15!!! Which was so nice...in fact I started making the dinner rolls before I even went into her room to get her. After breakfast Elsie went searching for her Easter Basket.  

She found it! 

The Easter Bunny brought her lots of goodies:  some play-doh, finger paint and paper, some kitchen pots and pans and utensils for her play kitchen, and a book.  

We went to church which of course was always a challenge.  She did okay but by the end of the service she was ready to get out of there and move!  She was also getting really tired.  

After church we went to Dale and Bev's for dinner.  

After dinner Bev had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids.  Round one was for the two little kiddos.  Elsie really got into it.  I was pretty surprised how focused she was at finding those eggs and putting them in her basket.  

It was a great day with yummy food, good time with family, and a wonderful reason to celebrate this day.  We are truly blessed.