Thursday, December 12, 2013

'Tis the Season...

I've been out of pocket for a while. Been busy livin'. Or just the normal hub-ub of the holidays :) With the colder weather we have been doing more and more activities inside but here's a sneak peak at our lives lately:

This is how Sunday night looks like in the girls' rooms: Outfit planning for the week. The top is Izzy (note her dresses and leggings every day and hung up) while the bottom is Laney (not so many dresses but she loves having it all laid out...undies and all!). I leave the house by 6:30 every morning so we have to be organized at home for Mike to ready the girls each day.
Board games. The girls are getting to the age where they know the rules and don't cheat. It's actually quite enjoyable now!
Sneak peak at our holiday cards:
Lots and lots of napping. It's winter. We hibernate.
Occasionally we do gymnastics. And by we, I do include myself. 
Both Mike and I got new jobs in the last 2 months. Mike is with a new bank doing the same thing while I am at the same company in a new role as Associate Buyer in Women's Running Shoes. We had a lunch date a few weeks back to celebrate. Lots of change going on in our house...for the good!
We've made great new friends in our neighborhood that we often hang out with. Instead of drinking in our driveways or in our basements while the kids sleep we actually went out for dinner! Was a fun night. Let's just say we ran home instead of taking a cab. Not the greatest idea in the world. But the memories are worth it! 
Another night out was with these beautiful ladies. Was a mini #PSMEX13 reunion that didn't disappoint!
Chilly walks to the park to play with friends...

Daddy got new glasses and the girls love trying them on. I will admit that Mikey looks quite handsome in his new specs!
A few weeks ago we had severe weather come through central Indiana. Tornadoes tore apart an entire town just 20 miles north of us. The start of the day weather was unseasonably mild so we took a walk while we waited for the impending weather. Just 30 minutes after this post we were all hunkered down in the closet under our basement stairs listening to tornado sirens go off all around us. Was truly quite scary.
Had to share this pic of the girls wearing their Badger gear. Broke my heart to cheat on IU but they discovered the uniforms in their closets and just had to wear them. All day. Notice Laney is cheering with loofas. Ha!
I'm still CrossFitting. Five days a week, just no two-a-days at this time. That was exhausting. A few weeks ago Meggie asked me on the fly to participate in a 2 person team competition to raise money for a local shelter. Duh. I was in. With 48 hours' notice. Meggie and I did really well, even made it to the finals against a pretty legit team from Bloomington. Had a fun day with my girls (Meghan competed, too, and did amazing!).
My team from Bracket Buster is competing this weekend in another 4 person team competition so we've been putting in extra hours training together. I've been going to a local box near my house on the weekend and am loving the extra coaching we're getting there.
For Thanksgiving this year my side of the family came in to town again. Love that tradition of ours, spending Thanksgiving together. We've done that for almost 10+ years! My Aunt Gail, Uncle Thomas and mom all flew in on the Monday of Thanksgiving and stayed the whole week. Very special. We started the festivities off with a "Feast" at Laney's school. I've never been able to go to these before as I've always been at work. But this year I took that whole week off to spend with my family and was fortunate enough to attend this Pre-K celebration.

And of course we hosted our 2nd annual Hops Trot Thanksgiving morning. Our crowd was much larger this year and the weather was much colder. I handed out hand warmers as party gifts before we took off so as to keep the crowd of friends and family happy.

Izzy rode 1 mile on her bike before ditching it to get a free ride from my mom and aunt in the jogger.
Falciones
Jaims
We ran out of my butter spiced cider so mom just decided to go right for the hard stuff :)
My sister and niece ran the 5k as well (ahem, it was 3.6 miles...whoops!).
Tradition with my family is games. Be it dominoes or Rummikub. If there is a dull moment we pop open a game. Whoever isn't in the kitchen cooking or taking a nap is playing. This year Izzy joined in on the games and actually did very well (Rummikub is a numbers game/analytical and her little mathematical brain just exploded with excitement).
Fun with cousin Dylan's hat
The whole family
Last weekend we got a few inches of snow and the girls were chomping at the bit to get outside to eat snow. And eat snow they did. A lot of it.

We have a small hill behind our house and the girls would slide down and run back up for another go at it. Over and over. Then Mike attached the dog leash (it's multi functional) to the sled and took off. Giggles ensued as they were pulled back and forth across the backyard. Not sure who had more fun :)


All the decorations are up at our house and I love coming home to the glow of Christmas tree lights in the front window. One more week of work and we're off for almost 2 weeks. Special time with family. The magic of Santa on Christmas morning. I can't wait!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

October Adventures...

Our girls are growing up. Fast. Here's proof:
In the last year the girls have grown about 2 inches each. Even though Izzy is about 4 inches taller than Laney, we still get asked daily if they are twins.

The summer session of gymnastics just ended...ribbons are the reward. However, Izzy has been enrolled for an entire year, which earned her a trophy. You'd have thought she had won the lottery. She was so excited and wanted to show (and tell) everyone. Izzy has been enrolled in 'invite only' classes the past year and has improved tremendously in 12 short months. Her focus has gotten a lot better (but it's to be noted she is still only 6 and likes to have fun/goof off a bit) and her flexibility and strength has improved as well. She has just 2 more 10 week sessions until the annual try-outs. At the rate she is going now, with continued focus, her coach (and my former cheer mate) thinks she has a good shot at making team. And team is big time. It means twice a week practice without parents watching. It means competing. In team leotards. Dude. Not sure who is more excited about the opportunity, Izzy or myself.
 We spend a lot of time outside; Mike tending to the yard and garage while the girls and I do a lot of playing and exploring. Last weekend I woke from a nap and came outside to see this:
 Izzy was pulling the wagon and push toy behind her Jeep. Around the neighborhood. Wagon was attached via cord ties...so I'm pretty sure this idea was engineered by their daddy. Leave it to Mike.

My dad and Anna paid us a visit last weekend to celebrate Izzy's birthday. 

 We carved pumpkins (and by we I mean dad and I did all the scooping and carving for the girls).




 Anna and I did a little shopping and returned home to an incredibly delicious meal made by Mikey. Then Izzy made a wish...
Dad and Anna left after breakfast and we had a great visit with them, per usual.
This past week was Fall Break for Izzy so Mike had the creative idea to take the train into Chicago, bring the girls to the Am.erican Girl store and stay overnight. We left early Friday morning and had a fun little adventure.

 The girls' first train ride was a hit!
We walked 1 mile from the train station to meet Jenny for lunch at our favorite Gio.rdano's Pizza. After lunch we checked into the J.ames Hotel (where Jenny works) and all of us took naps. Then it was time to hit up Michigan Avenue.
The girls got the doll rolling bags from my mom for their birthdays and they rolled these all over the city with pride. Never complained once. Arrived at the doll store and explored for a very long time. These dolls have been around since I was a child; however, it was only a magazine at that time, not a store. I had always wanted 'Molly' and coveted the magazine I got once a year. So when Izzy started getting the magazines a few years ago it was very nostalgic. Let's just say I enjoyed the store as much as the girls did. Mike? Well, he was a super trooper.

Here is Izzy standing in front of the doll she owns: Kit.
 And of course the gymnastics display was a hit.
Laney in front of the dolls she owns: Bit.ty Baby twins.
After a lot of persuasion, we settled on the gymnastics set for Izzy and a lovie for Laney's twins. Izzy originally wanted to get her doll's hair styled; however, we explained to her she'd be leaving the store without anything and that the doll's hair style options would be limited, since Kit has a short bob. As for Laney, well, she wanted to get the pet dog that was a seeing eye dog. No big deal. Besides the fact that we have 25 other small stuffed dogs at home that were identical. Jammies for her dolls? No. Settled on something that is near and dear to her heart (her own lovie goes everywhere with her, it's silk...we call it Silky or Silky Wilky or Wilky): a silky for her dolls. Perfect. Anddddd, we're out. But we got a lot of ideas for xmas presents :)

We then hit up the 3 story H&M for a few things for the girls (their children's section is ridic). They had to pose with their attitude faces for their nanny Natty. So stinkin'.
We dropped our purchases at the hotel and continued walking to dinner. Another famous Chicago joint: Portillo's. De-freaking-lish. Besides sitting next to a local gang (we didn't know when we sat down but people kept walking by and whispering to us to be careful) it was a hit. Famous hot dogs. Large beers. Amazing desserts. I was in heaven (and a little nervous about the gang next to us - but the beer helped take the idea out of my head that we'd be publicly attacked for sitting too close).
 It had been a long day and we were all exhausted. The girls played with their new doll accessories for a bit before we turned the lights out. Izzy was up most of the night coughing so we didn't get the best night's sleep. However, we loved the James and would stay there again in a heartbeat!
The girls loved the modern beads in our room
 We decided to sleep in, take the morning very slow and relaxed. After breakfast we walked another mile to Mill.enium Park. Michigan Avenue was full of people watching and the girls had lots of questions, as they saw a lot of homeless people (and families) and pan handlers. The girls kept trucking on, though, carrying their baby dolls along the way.
 Chicago River
Finally got to see the Bean...was quite the tourist attraction! Made for some fun pics...



 We skipped the museum and took an earlier train back home. The train station was right outside the entrance to the Ind.iana Dunes and we couldn't pass up the chance to see Lake Michigan. The girls giddily ran through the sand towards the water yelling, "Look, it the ocean!" Ha!



We collected some rocks, wrote our names in the sand then quickly got back to the car to load up on cold medicine. Was a quick trip but the perfect little getaway for our family.