hAlLoWeEn 2011

We have been celebrating Halloween for almost a week now!  I'll sum up our festivities with pictures as they are far more fun than my mindless rambling...

We started off with a date with Parker to Boo at the Zoo last week!  Delaney wasn't feeling the greatest that night (nasty head cold), so she was pretty content to ride along in the stroller and munch on Goldfish crackers!

Friday night we carved pumpkins...with, power tools.  Actually I should say, Craig carved pumpkins and Delaney & I watched.  I think they turned out very cool, and they only took about 5 minutes each! 

Saturday night, Craig's brother & sister-in-law hosted an Adult's Only Halloween Bash.  Can you guess who we went as...your favorite cousin's from Christmas Vacation...Eddie & Catherine.  (Of course, I don't have a decent picture of the two of us, so this will have to do!)   Brent started out as Don King type character, but ended the night like a crazy Elvis...

Tonight we went Trick or Treating around the neighborhood with some of our neighbors.  I fully expected Delaney to ride in her wagon, munch on some crackers, and look at everyone like we were crazy!  No...this girl wanted to join the fun!  She ran from house to house through most of the neighborhood.  She kept up with the big kids pretty good, and gave Mommy & Daddy a workout!  She did take a few wagon breaks, so I was able to get a few picture of her!  She was a busy girl tonight, and had tons of fun!

 

We ended the night with some yummy cheesecake and ice cream across the street!  Delaney thoroughly enjoyed that as well!  Hope you all had a fun  Halloween!  (Oh, and Delaney supposed to be a bumble bee if you couldn't tell!)

Harvest is Here!

I got an excited phone call from Craig last Thursday afternoon..."They are starting to pick corn!  Let's so home this weekend!"  He was like a kid on Christmas morning...you can take the boy off the farm, but you'll never get the farm out of the boy!  Anyway, like any good wife would do, I said "Sure, honey, we can do that!"  Then, I went home from work, did all the laundry, packed our bags, and we took off after work on Friday.  The girls (Izzy counts) and I traveled separately, as Craig went straight up from Omaha after work. 

I'm a total failure, so this is the only picture I managed to take all weekend!  Oops!  I've got to do better!  Anyway, we spent the weekend visiting with all of Delaney's grandparents!  She was spoiled rotten all weekend, of course!  We even got in a little quality time with her cousin Chase!  I managed to slip away for a shopping excursion to Omaha with my mom and sister on Saturday.  It was so nice to get away!  Delaney got to spend some quality time at the farm with her Grandma Jaccie while I was gone!  I didn't realize how much I needed to get out of town, but I did.  It was so nice to leave all of it behind and hit the road.  I got a little R&R and enjoyed some yummy food that I didn't have to cook!  It was a great change of pace! 

Delaney learned at least one new word on the trip "tractor".  She initially thought the combine was a train a.k.a "Choo-Choo", but that was after dark when she first saw the combine from a distance.  She loved to sit and watch them go back & forth.  I'm sure next year, she'll need a ride in the big rig...but thankfully she was content to watch from afar this year!  I'm afraid that girl has a lot of "farm girl" in her!

One Month Later...

One month ago today Craig started his new job.  I think that over the last month he has adjusted fairly well.  He has complained about the commute far less than I expected, and he seems genuinely excited about going to work.  His hours obviously changed with the job move;  it's a little longer, with a lot more driving thrown in.  We have since discovered that he was replaced with 3 new additions in his old department.  It's pretty crazy that they needed 3 new guys to fill his shoes.  Let's just say his head was a little bigger after that little update!  He/we/everyone is completely at peace with his decision to move on, and it appears that his picked a quite opportune time to get out!

The adjustment period for me is still on-going.  I knew he'd be gone more, but I never took into consideration all the little things that would be up to me now.  The biggest of these is making dinner.  I know this sounds completely trivial in the grand scheme of things, but for the previous 5ish years Craig made dinner almost every night.  It was almost always in progress if not done by the time I walked in the door.  Boy, did I take this for granted!  Now, it's on me, which if you know us at all you know this is a problem.  Craig HATES my cooking, and because of that I have no confidence in my cooking abilities.  I love to bake, and will attempt most baking tasks but sometimes cooking freaks me out!  I have since implemented a weekly meal plan/grocery trip to help keep me sane.  This has definitely helped, but I still have to execute it on a daily basis.  I have also started making an effort to take full advantage of my crock pot...it's the perfect time of year for that thankfully!

Another issue with this new task of mine is that the dinner prep hour-ish is Delaney's toughest time of day!  She is super clingy during this time, which isn't good when I'm working at a hot stove.  She's starving and demands snacks as soon as we walk in the door.  (I think I've mentioned that we have created a snacking monster...yep...still having that issue!  I have the cabinet latches, we just need to get them installed so she can't help herself so much!)  If she's not singing her "Up, Mama, UP, UP, UP!" song, she's tormenting the dog, who is also at my feet trying to catch any little morsel of food that drops.  Craig can't understand why I'm so crabby when he walks in the door...I'm working on patience!  This hour of the day makes me wish (as horrible as it sounds) that Delaney had some interest in TV.  She won't sit and color or read a book for more than a minute or to, but to be able to sit her down to watch a video while I got dinner ready sounds like heaven.  I may need to figure out a way to rig the laptop up with a Baby Einstein so she can see it but not touch it.  She shows little to no interest in TV any of the time, so I don't know if this would even be worth the trouble.  I digress...

I'm trying to adjust, but it's a lot harder than I expected.  I think I was so worried about what this change would do to Craig, and I didn't think about what it actually meant for me.  Nevertheless, he's taking it all in stride and I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water some days.  Don't get me wrong, this job change is exactly what we needed to do right now.  Sure different circumstances would make it easier, but it is what it is and for now we have to learn to deal with it.  We still get reminders almost every day that this was the right move for us!  Now, it I could just get those "SuperMom" powers that I keep dreaming about...we'll be set!

Delaney's First Battle Wound

Yesterday when I picked Delaney up from Holly's with a report I hadn't ever gotten from Holly..."Delaney got hurt today."  Sure she's had some minor scrapes and bruises, but this is definitely the first real "accident".  In typically Delaney style, she was running around being silly and fell (possibly tripped over a toy) and crashed into the corner of one of Holly's walls.  Her face took the brunt of the fall as you can see.  The picture isn't the greatest, as it was with my phone and she was so wound up when I tried to take it.  Holly said that Delaney barely cried, which is exactly what we would expect out of hour indestructible little brute.  Today her eye was a little puffy and the redness is changing over to a nice purple bruise when she woke up.  Her eyelid is a little black.  I'd say considering how rough and tough Delaney is, we're pretty lucky this is her first "injury"...and a totally minor one at that!  I think we may have to do some touch up work on Holly's wall since D's head is pretty hard! 

In other Delaney news, she has been spending a lot of time in "time out" at home.  Her ornery streak is shining brightly these days.  She has also figured out that she must say she's sorry (in the form of a hug) after time out, so how she will try to stand up immediately and give me hug to avoid a timeout.  She's too smart for her own good!  I have a hard time not laughing at her sometimes when she's being naughty!  Holly and I have decided that Delaney is starting the "Terrible 2s" a little early as her ornery behavior is becoming more of the norm.  Lord give me patience as I have a feeling this is going to get worse before it gets better! 

She is also having some more "flukes" with the big girl potty.  She has had success probably over a handful of times now.  I'm still not convinced she really gets it, but she does seem to talk about "potty" & "poop" more now, and has even asked to go potty and gone on at least one occasion!  We are still not pushing the issue as she is so young, but she gets the opportunity to go every night before bath and any other time she asks which isn't all that often right now.  Could we be so lucky that she will potty train herself before the age of 2?  We shall see...

Too Much Weekend

I think Delaney had a little too much weekend!  She got run down, and has now gotten sick!  This is something that I used to do when I was a kid (actually, I still tend to get sick when I get run down.)  Nothing serious, but still no fun!  I'm hoping it's just a cold that she got because she was so tired & run down.  I also think her teeth may be bothering her!  I'm just hoping now that all this drainage doesn't turn into an ear infection again!  I stayed home with her yesterday, so she could get in some extra rest and down time.  She seemed a little more spunky this morning, but she still has that nasty cough!  I hope this doesn't linger too long.  Last night was the first night she hasn't woken up in the middle of the night in almost a week! 

Craig and I are still trying to get caught up from the weekend too.  We must be getting old because it's Thursday, and we are still exhausted!  Having a sick kiddo doesn't help!  Here's hoping a low-key weekend at home this weekend, gives us all a chance to get some rest.  My parents are coming to town to go to the Husker game, so Craig and I might actually get a Date Night and some extra help with D.  Should be a win/win for everyone! 

A Busy Fall Weekend of Fun!

We decided to take advantage of the wonderful fall weather we've been having and plan a jam-packed weekend of fun things for Miss D!  We started off by heading out to Roca Berry Farm Pumpkin Patch in Roca (a small town south of Lincoln).  I had taken Delaney last year with her daycare, so this is becoming an annual tradition.  This year we went just the three of us, and we couldn't have had a better time!  We took a tun of pictures, so here are a few of my favorites!

 I think D was a little overwhelmed when we got there.  She was very serious, and just kinda took it all in for a while!  She did think the pumpkins were pretty cool though!

 Delaney rode around the pumpkin patch in style with her brand new wagon!

 Daddy and Delaney then got up close & personal with some animals, sheep specifically!  Delaney was a little unsure, and quote hesitant with the sheep and goats.  She did talk some  D sass to the chickens, which was pretty funny!

 Daddy & D then had some fun on the huge jumping pillows!  I stood on the sidelines due to my recent injury, but it was a lot of fun to watch them bounce!  I honestly think Craig had more fun than Delaney!

 Of course, we had to go for a spin on the "choo-choo"!

D enjoyed all the slides around the farm!  This was a little one she went down multiple times!  She even went down one of the big ones a couple time!  Such a big girl!

 Then, Daddy & D played on some hay bales!  D thought it was worthy of a round of applause!

 On our way to the hayrack ride, Delaney hopped through the Candy Land!

 Somehow I managed to not take any pictures in the actual pumpkin patch!  Ha!  Obviously, Delaney loves her prize pumpkin Daddy found for her!  She gave it kisses!

The morning was a huge success!  We all had a great time, and we had one tired little girl!  Here she is with all her pumpkins ready to go home!

Last night, we went up to visit the Reinhart Family and watch some Husker football!  We all know how that game turned out, but the kiddos had fun playing, and we had fun hanging out with old friends!  We put D down in Reed's pack-n-play at halftime, and she was out like a light.  After the game, we loaded her up and headed over to spend the night at Brent & Buffye's.   Obviously, this woke Delaney up!  We thought that we'd be able to get over there and put her back to bed.  Delaney had other plans!  After two hours of screaming, tears, and no sleep, Craig made the executive decision to head back to Lincoln!  So at 1:30 a.m. we were on the road!  Yikes!  That little stinker was awake until we were 2 miles from home, and then she crashed!  She officially got to bed at 2:30 a.m. and was wide awake this morning at 8!  Not cool!

We had made plans to go to the Omaha zoo today with Craig's entire family to celebrate his mom's birthday (which is later this week)!  Obviously, with our late night (or early morning) adventure we weren't going to make it to the Omaha zoo today.  We had no idea what kind of shape Delaney would be in, so we asked everyone to come to Lincoln instead!  They were all great and graciously agreed to come down here!  Delaney held up all day, and we were able to enjoy lunch at Famous Daves (YUM!) and a fun afternoon at the Lincoln Children's Zoo!  We ended the day with some birthday cake and put D down for a much needed nap!  A perfect way to end a fun weekend!  Here are some pictures from today...

 Delaney & Daddy fed the goats!  Delaney saw a lot of goats this weekend!

 She backed away and just laughed and laughed at them! 

 Then, D & Papa Farm checked out the penguins! 

 Auntie Buffye (or as D recently called her "FuFu"), D, & Cousin Sydney checked out some cute little guys hanging out with the wallaby.

 We attempted to get a picture of all 4 kiddos on the caterpillar...this is the best I got!  I think Grandma managed to get one!

 Tyler as a tree frog!

 Jaiden as a beautiful butterfly!

 Sydney as a very hungry caterpillar!

 Delaney was fascinated by the flamingos.  She kept running back over there to watch them!

 Delaney, Grandma Farm, & Sydney thought the pretty fishies were pretty cool!

We ended the trip by checking out the penguin show!  Delaney got a bird's eye view thanks to Daddy!

Now, it's time for bed!  Hope you had a fun weekend too!