Lilly Is Two!



TWO!!!  I cannot believe my baby girl is TWO!  We decided this year that we would be the worst parents in the world and not have a party for Lilly.  We celebrated really small with family, and I still feel bad about that, but what can you do?!?  We'll do it big next year! :)

 

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year, and since they would not see her for her actual birthday, she was able to open her gifts from them then.  This is such a fun age for presents!  It was so funny to watch her try to figure this whole thing out.  She would take one little piece of paper off and go hand it to my dad, then she'd walk back and do it again.  She did this over and over until we finally had Lainey help her, ha!  Christmas ought to be fun!

 

 

On her birthday we tried to snap a few pictures at 6:30 in the morning before I left for school.  They are blurry and awful, but this is life right now! 

And of course I had to get one of sis too looking so stinking cute! 

That night we celebrated with opening presents and having cake and ice cream.  Since it was a Tuesday and family couldn't travel, we had to Facetime Jake & Megan in to sing Happy Birthday. 

 

 

She is weighing in at 29 pounds and is still a little shorty!  She is in the 75th pecentile for weight and the 45th for height--what in the world?!?!  Her doctor said she is completely average...words we never heard with Lainey and are getting used to, ha!  She is perfect in her own little way, and she is living up to that two year old mentality daily.  She is a fiesty one, and I know we have quite the adventure ahead of us this year!

Santa Visit 2013





We are in love with our Santa here.  He is the most authentic looking one I have ever seen!  Not to mention the fact that he is SO good with each child!  He is definitely pricey, but well worth the extra money.  We were able to sneak in a quick visit before Lilly's two year old check up, and the girls cooperated well.  Jovan and I have decided that Santa cannot retire until the girls are beyond the "Santa stage".  We have also decided after I saw a post on Facebook that our girls will take their picture with Santa every single year until they just absolutely won't do it anymore.  There was a post about these two brothers that obviously had to take their picture with Santa when they were younger and then continued this tradition into their adult lives.  This year's picture was with the two brothers and their own kids--so sweet!!  It got me, and I will now make my girls do this, ha!

And just for kicks and giggles, here is last year's picture of these two baby girls!


Merry Christmas!

 

Date Night

We were fortunate enough to have a few days all to ourselves this past weekend.  My brother and sister-in-law took the girls for the weekend so we could have a little alone time and get some things done around the house.  They want to spend as much time as possible with the girls before Baby Hudson arrives in February, so of course we're supportive of that! 

 

Friday night I was able to have a little girl time with some Mexican food and margaritas.  Always a good time with my Zumba girls!

Saturday we were able to sleep in a little bit and then go our separate ways to get some errands done.  We met up for lunch, ran some more errands, and then headed out for a date night.  Our good friends, Jason and Dawn, were celebrating their 11th anniversary and for some reason wanted to hang out with us, ha!  Guess that's what happens when you've been married as long as we all have! ;) 

We went out to dinner and then headed to the rinky dink casinos across the river in Iowa.  It's always good for a little people watching and penny slots!

 

Jason & Dawn
Clearly I was having difficulty taking this picture as it was so dang blurry!

Us :)

 

After losing $4 at the casinos, we decided it was time to move on.  I know...we're such risk takers!   So what did we do next???  Well go to Bass Pro Shop, of course!  We actually had a lot of fun there, and I was ready to go back today! :)  We played the shooting games, did a little shopping for the zombie apocalypse, and looked at the fish.  Good times! 

 

 

 

Love those Duck Dynasty boys!

 

Such a fun night!  So thankful for good friends to share our date nights with, and so thankful to have family so close who is willing to take our kids for a bit!  Ready for the next date night!!!

Happy Halloween!



Lainey has started a new hobby this fall.  She is taking pom, tumbling, and baton lessons.  For their Halloween week classes, they gave a little performance for the parents of what they have been working on.  They were supposed to wear costumes, so we just let her pick one out of the dress up clothes so to not mess up her "real" one! :)  Here's Lainey before her pom appearance and after the baton one. 

 

Lilly had a party at school with her friends.  They were to wear costumes also, so we didn't want to mess up her "real" costume either, so we busted out Lainey's old monster costume.  Such a cute little monster!!!

 

Thursday night we got home, ate a little dinner, got dressed and ready to go!  The weather was absolutely perfect for trick or treating!  It was definitely chilly, but it was the kind of weather you imagine Halloween is supposed to be like, ya know?!  We loaded up the wagon and did our first round around our circle.  We decided this year that we did not want to go around with our neighbor kids.  Lainey is the youngest, and we spent last Halloween trying to keep up with them and not get terribly frustrated with the "big kids" running around like crazy children and what not, so we decided to just make it a family thing this year.  It worked out very well for us, and we all had a great time!

I made Lilly's costume the night before...NEVER AGAIN!!!

 

I was SO mad this was blurry!!!  This is definitely my favorite picture of the night!  Sweet girls!

And this was my Halloween costume this year. :)  I made it for our Halloween Zumbathon.  I want to be Wonder Woman when I grow up, so it was only right that I had this be my costume this year.  I also wore it to school and promptly told my kids that I must really love them because I have never dressed up for any other class before! ;)

All in all, we had a great Halloween and I am quite ready to bust out the Christmas decor now!!!!!!!

Weekend Fun

The month of September is easily going down in the books as the busiest month of our lives.  We have been going NONSTOP this entire month, and there have been days when I didn't even know how in the world we made it through and made it to all the places we needed to.  That being said, this last weekend was no different. 

It all started with a birthday party for my friend Dawn.  Dawn is my Zumba instructor and one of my very close friends.  She has this magnetic personality, and everyone is immediately drawn to her.  She is a BIG part of why I look the way I do now, and Jovan thanks her for it all the time, ha!  She has impacted so many people's lives as a fitness instructor, and therefore, when it was time to celebrate her birthday, a big party was only fitting!  She invited like a million people from class, and we just had a fun night of eating ourselves silly (because afterall, we knew we'd be in the gym the next day to work it off! ;) ).  I love these ladies, and I am so grateful to have them in my life!

LOVE LOVE LOVE these women! 

The spread of completely "healthy" food

 

Me and the birthday girl

The next night we headed out of town to Wisner for the weekend.  We had the pleasure of watching my brother coach a little football Friday night.  The outcome was less than favorable, but the girls had a blast anyway!

Lainey and Laney
They were not happy that I made them stop playing for a minute to snap a picture

The girls and their Crunkle

Saturday we headed to Wayne America for the WSC Homecoming game.  I really do love it in Wayne, and we will be perfectly happy if our girls decide to go there for college.  My brother and sis-in-law had such a great time there, and the small campus atmosphere is great!  We watched some more football and then spent the night celebrating Lainey's birthday with family.

No clue?!?

As always, I am reminded of how nice it is to have family this close.  We are completely within a day trip to see my parents and brother.  So nice to have them around so much, especially now with the addition of a cousin!

It's A...

For some reason, I have decided that I need to live my life vicariously through my brother and sister-in-law.  I always wanted a Husker wedding...they got one.  I wanted to do a gender reveal...they got one.  And of course, I was there every step of the way to help with the planning and live out all my ideas through them, ha! 

When we found out that my sis-in-law was preggers, I think I immediately started planning a gender reveal!  I am the type who could not realistically have this party for myself because when I am being honest, I can honestly say that I definitely knew what sex I wanted, and it would have been AWFUL to find out the "wrong" information in front of all your family and friends.  But when the news of an impending niece or nephew hit, I knew they would not be the same crazy person as me and a party would be perfect for them!

We decided to go very low key with this one.  They invited our family who lives nearby and their close friends to their house for the reveal.  We went with a football theme since that's the season we're in and a large part of their lives.  They decided they wanted to do the reveal with balloons.  NO ONE found out about it until they opened the box of balloons...it was great!  We all had our guesses, and then came the final reveal.  It was a perfect afternoon with perfect results! 

Team Pink vs. Team Blue

You can obviously see that majority rules

So excited to have a boy cousin!

The whole crew, obviously more BLUE fans!

We can't wait to meet you, Hudson Jacob!!!