Catch up via Pictures

Delaney was all smiles this night at dinner time.  We've been enjoying a little down time here lately before the hustle and bustle of the holidays kick in!

Delaney and Daddy snuggling up on a lazy Sunday.  You can't see it all that well, but she picked her own ensemble this day.  It was pretty "creative"! 

Then, we came down with a tummy bug.  She fought it off and on for about a week, but the worst was about 10 days ago!  Poor peanut wasn't herself at all!

We all did a lot of napping while Delaney was sick.  Izzy of course naps all day every day, so she was grateful to have company!

Luckily, she snapped out of it and was back to her crazy self before too long!

Which was perfect timing because cousin Chase was coming for a visit!  We only have a short time for it to be "OK" for them to bath together, so we try to take advantage of it while we can!

Jess & Nick went to the Husker game, so we got some quality Chase time in while they were gone!  I love that little munchkin!

Delaney's newest trick is trying to dress herself, and she usually asks me to take her picture after she gets the shirt over her head.  Here's last night's edition!

We will be heading north for the Thanksgiving Holiday/Weekend for some much needed family time!  We have so many amazing blessings to be thankful this year!  We wish all of our a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Weekend with Chase

We started off the weekend Friday night with a 65th Wedding Anniversary celebration for Craig's grandparents!  I will have to get pictures from his mom, as I managed to not take any!  After the dinner, Craig headed back to Lincoln to prepare for his boys trip down to Kansas City for the Chiefs game.  If you are at all familiar with our household football preferences, you'll know we had a rough weekend!  The Huskers lost, the Chiefs lost, the Packers lost, and it looks like we'll both be losing our first week of fantasy football (I have a last chance to take the lead tonight in the San Diego vs. Oakland game...fingers crossed!)  It was a rough weekend for football fans like us!

Delaney and I stayed up North to spend some time with Chase (& his lovely parent) who came to Tekamah to meet us in the middle.  We hadn't seen them since Okoboji, which was almost 2 months ago!  Chase has changed so much!  He is full on toddler now, running and keeping up with Delaney as best he can!  The kids had a lot of fun playing, fighting, and getting spoiled by their doting grandparents.  It's going to be so much fun watching these two grow up together!  We're all still adjusting to them not living in Tekamah, but it is fun to all shack up under one roof for a couple nights!

After nap time on Saturday, we took the kids for a walk over to visit Grammy H!

We expected a lot of kicking and fighting, but they rode so nice together in the wagon!  It was so cute, Chase would point things out to Delaney along the way and she would respond as if he was giving her a grand tour of the city!

We rolled the wagon right on into Grammy's room and gave all the residents quite the parade!  She said she was bored that day, so we gave her a little excitement with the two little ones!

Then, Papa came home from work and both the kids were sooo excited to see them!  They have trouble sharing their grandparents...good thing Papa has a lap big enough for the two of them!

Okoboji 2012

A lakside family photo! 

Last week was our annual trip to Lake Okoboji, Iowa, for a week long family vacation with all of my immediate family!  The trip is a tradition, and shortly after arriving this year we discovered it was our 25th trip.  I'm 28, so we've only missed 3 years in my entire lifetime.  One year we went to Disney World, one year we did an extended weekend trip to Kansas City, and one year we got married!  I think it's pretty special to continue a tradition like this with all of us and now our own kids.  I hope we have another 25 years ahead of us!  All these pictures are from my phone...this week has gotten away from me, and I haven't gotten a chance to download the others on my camera!

All dressed up for dinner...the little diva was twirling!

As always, we make a big shopping trip on the first day to gather all the "necessities" for a week at the lake.  Now with the kids, it is easier & less-stressful for everyone to make more meals at the house versus fighting the heat and crowds at the local restaurants.  We still did a few meals out to give Mom a break and satisfy everyone's cravings for the Dry Dock breakfast (with Blood Mary's and beer chasers) and Tweeter's.  The rest of the time we ate at home having everything from BBQ Ribs to Filet Mignon to Honey BBQ Chicken Wings!  We ate better than anyone on that lake some nights!

A post-dinner sunset cruise!  Doesn't get much better than this!

We never know what to expect out of the kids, and this year was no exception!  Thankfully, we made it through without any major illnesses or trips to the ER.  Delaney's only major issue was not wanting to sleep.  We had to lay down in our bed next to hear for at least an hour at every naptime and bedtime just to get her to calm down enough to fall asleep.  She was also the family alarm clock every day, graciously waking EVERYONE up before 7 most days.  Chase was an early riser too, but he isn't nearly as vocal as Delaney in the mornings! 

The kid's first "lake swim"!

The kids both did great with the boat, water, and lake.  They tolerated their life jackets like champs in the suppressing heat!  I really don't remember either of them complaining about them at all.  Delaney loved the boat rides, she just had trouble understanding that she needed to stay in one spot when the boat was moving!  Chase loved the boat too, he got to dance with his Mommy and drive with his Daddy.  He even managed to squeeze in a few naps on the boat.  He looked some completely peaceful and uncomfortable passed out in his life jacket!  We even got the kids out in the lake for a little swim time.  Neither one of them liked to "free float" in their life jackets, but they both had a ball in the arms of Mommy & Daddy!

Chase needed a koozie for his drink, just like everyone else!  He thought he was pretty cool!

 It's hard to bring the entire family all under one roof for an entire week, so we really cherish this time.  This year was especially bittersweet since Jess & Nick are now officially living in Iowa.  The times when all of us can be together will probably be fewer and farther in between, so it was nice to spend some serious quality time with everyone!  Next year, Nick will have vacation and won't be commuting for vacation, so it will be even better!  Thanks Mom & Dad for starting & keeping the tradition alive, and thanks to my siblings for going with us!  We had a wonderful time and are already starting the countdown to next year's trip!

The kids had a lot of fun this night playing with Nick and a laundry basket!

Weekend Wrap-up

We had a good Memorial Day weekend full of friends, family, parties, & fun!  So much fun, in fact, that I didn't take ONE, single picture!  I'm getting pretty bad about that!  All of these pictures are of the last few weeks from my phone. 

Saturday night, Craig & I had our 10 year High School Reunion.  We had about half of our classmates show up, so it was fun to catch up with some of them.  It's pretty crazy to think how many of us live within about 100 miles of Tekamah, and we haven't seen some of them since the day we graduated.  Two of my favorite people on the planet conspired against me at the party, and I ended up having a little bit (WAY) too much fun!  I sure paid for it on Sunday!  In fact, I'm still exhausted and half a headache...

Sunday we celebrated Chase's 1st birthday with a Monster themed party!  In my hungover state, I didn't document it at all, but it was a lot of fun!  Lots of family, great food, and lots of laughs!  Delaney had a great time, and Chase hung in there pretty well for going on no nap!  He was pretty timid with his little Monster cake, and he got bored with his gifts after about two of them.  His favorite thing was the tissue paper in the gift bags!  He is a full-time walker now, and he's very curious so they will have a busy summer of chasing him around ahead of them.  Poor little guy had tubes put in his ears on Tuesday morning.  He made it in and out of surgery without any trouble, so let's hope he's done with those pesky ear infections! 

We made it back home late Sunday afternoon, and walked into the sauna that was our house.  When we got home it was 85 degrees in there, and the AC was running.  It didn't take Craig longer than about 20 seconds to realize we had a big problem.  Given that the AC unit is 13 years old, we figured it was toast and braced for the worse.  Since it was Sunday night of a holiday weekend, we had to tough it out for a couple days.  We all took cold showers before bedtime, ran every fan we had, and slept with as many windows open as we could.  When you have a freight train track in the backyard, this is a major challenge.  The good news is that it was just some small piece that was bad, and it was really dirty so after a few replacements and a good thorough cleaning we are back up & running!   A couple hours of work and $300 later we are comfortable once again!  (We were expecting to have to put in a whole new AC, which would have been around $3000 so to say we were thankful is a major understatement!)

Monday we tried to stay out of our house as much as we could as it was HOTT in there!  We had a picnic at the park, and D got in some serious playtime at the playground.  She settled in for a long nap Monday afternoon before we grilled some dinner with Uncle Chip & Aunt Lauren!  I did manage to get all our laundry done, so that was a success!

Delaney wanted a picture with her Elmo!  That girl LOVES Elmo!

A couple weeks ago we checked out Pioneers Park for a while.  Delaney got up close & personal with some geese!  Of course, she loved it!  I'm sure we'll be making another trip out there soon with proper geese-feeding supplies!

Little Miss D is becoming quite the challenging grocery shopping companion.  She doesn't like riding in the cart much anymore, and she likes to help with everything...including pushing the cart...

This is what a 3 1/2 hour nap does for Delaney!  One happy girl!

Delaney has developed an infatuation with watering plants.  She loves to help, even if she waters more mulch than plants!  Izzy makes a good supervisor!

She's very independent with pretty much everything these days.  She climbs up into the carseat by herself and buckles herself in.  After I tighten her up, she'll tell me if she wants to wear her sunglasses or if she wants her window or the moon roof open or closed.  Very bossy, this one! 

It is what it is...

It's been a little bit nutty around here, and honestly it's only going to get worse before it gets better.  My grandmother "Grammy H" isn't good.  She hasn't been for a while now, but it just seems to getting worse.  It's a long story, but the short version is that she's 80, she's stubborn, she's incredibly weak & can barely walk, she can hardly talk, she eats next to nothing, and her cognitive abilities are failing her.  She hasn't been diagnosed with anything, and there aren't any real answers as to why any of this is happening...it just is.  Last week, we were told she is likely a candidate for hospice care if the new medications didn't show any improvement.  So far, she's eating a little bit better, but nothing else has changed.  I haven't seen her since Easter, but it's so hard to "see" her like this.  I still remember that fiery lady telling us to get out of her kitchen at Christmas or giving me hell for dying my hair red.  She's my only remaining grandparent, and this whole situation just makes me sad.  Any spare prayers, would be greatly appreciated! 

We have also learned in the last week that my sister and her family (Nick & Chase) will be relocating to Storm Lake, Iowa, so that Nick can take a new job.  This is a great opportunity for Nick, but we are all sad to see them go.  This move will double the distance between us...boo!  They don't want to move, nobody wants them to leave, but it's what they need to do.  It is what it is...  The good news is that there are some potential teaching job openings for Jess, and Chase isn't old enough to realize too much what is going on around him.  I'm just going to have to get a lot better at "Skyping"!    Say a little prayer that they get their house sold quickly and Jess gets one of those open jobs, and are able to make a good fresh start over there! 

We have a lot of activities/outings/events coming in the next few months.  ALL of it will be fun, but the timing is slightly overwhelming for a Type-A person like me!  We will be coming & going a lot.  Poor Delaney will be shuffled between home, daycare, & grandparents.  I'm worrying a lot about all of it with regards to her sleeping, potty training, behavior, etc.  I'm preparing for the worst & hoping for the best.  Everyone says "kids adapt", so I'm hoping they are right!  We also were surprised with a trip to Vancouver in June through my work!  It was an incentive trip for our office and the boys had other trips planned at the same time, so it was offered to me!  Aside from some new clothes (which we honestly needed anyway), it's expense free for us!  Talk about luck...we couldn't have dreamed about a trip like this at this point in our lives, so we are beyond excited & grateful!  Aside from one meeting, it's a vacation full of fun activities (think deep sea Salmon Fishing (for Craig) and Sea Safaris) and fancy dinners.  Of course, if you know me at all you know I'm freaking out about leaving Delaney behind for 5 nights, the plane crashing, and all things of that nature.  That coupled with all the other stress in life right now is starting to catch up with me a bit. 

I'm typically not one to have trouble sleeping at night, but lately that has been awful!   I've never been one to handle stress well, but thankfully so far this hasn't triggered any migraine headaches (knock on wood!)  I'd take sleep deprivation over migraines any day of the week!  My mind gets the best of me in the wee hours, and I have a lot of trouble shutting it off.  My doctor gave me some "help" last week, so I'm starting to get caught up--although last night sucked!  I'm also trying to make a bigger effort to get to the gym, as that's supposed to help with stress too (not to mention, I'm still struggling to lose some of this weight, so something's gotta give!).  I am trying to get in the habit of going first thing in the morning at 6 a.m., so I can be home before Craig needs to leave.  It was getting harder and harder to go over lunch between conference calls & meetings.  This is also my only "kid-free" time to run errands, so it was hard to give that up.  I also have a lot of excuses of why not to go to the gym by 8 p.m. when Delaney goes to bed, so I'm hoping the mornings will work out.  Let's just hope I don't turn into a raging zombie!   

We have a lot on our plates, but we are hanging in! 

Stressful catch-up

We have been busy with a lot of stress here lately!  We have had everything from sickness, to lack of sleep, to horrible tax return news over the last few weeks!  Thankful, we have this little face to keep up focused on what's important in life...even if she's a little stinker!  With everything going on, I haven't taken many pictures lately.  These are all from my phone, so bear with me...





Delaney is still working the minor kinks out of potty training.  We are way past the point of no return, and she is still doing remarkably well considering she isn't even 2 yet!  If we could just get her more confident with the whole process, especially at daycare, and understanding the different levels of "needing to go" we'd be set!  She is still having her moments of "Terrible-Two-ness" too, but I think that's just the way it's going to be for a while!   Good thing we love her so much!






I mentioned we've been dealing with some sickness here lately.  Thankfully, the worst of it hasn't hit our household, although we've all been dealing with some symptoms that just don't seem to want to go away. Baby Chase has had RSV for a couple weeks and he's been teething, so he's been a pretty sick little boy.  Luckily, he's such a happy kid so it hasn't been completely unbearable for all of them.  It appears as though the worst is over for him, and he's on the road to recovery!  We went and visited him this weekend just to see for ourselves, and he's still the happy little cutie that we know and love!  The worst has been my grandmother.  Long story, short, she had emergency surgery last Tuesday to repair a bleeding ulcer and remover her gallbladder.  After months of virtually starving and dehydrating herself (because she's so stubborn and didn't want to burden anyone), the symptoms got bad enough to warrant a trip to the ER, which ultimately led to the surgery.  She is also hopefully past the worst of it, and on the long road to recovery!  We visited her at the hospital in Omaha Saturday morning, and she's was much better overall than I was expecting!  She's a tough old lady!














So after an exhausting and much needed trip home for the weekend to visit everyone and catch up, we are home and trying to get and stay healthy.  We are also gearing up for a big birthday coming up in two weeks!  It's hard to believe our little peanut is going to be 2!  More details to follow...

Christmas in Kansas City!

We celebrated an early Christmas in Kansas City this past weekend with the Bryant family!  It all started back when the 2011-2012 NFL schedule came out and we discovered that our two teams would meet head-to-head this season.  We gambled with the Midwest December weather and bought the tickets.  The trip then evolved into the Bryant family Christmas.  Jess & Nick were kind enough to volunteer for child duty, so the rest of us could go to the game.  (Thanks guys, we owe you one!)  I took full advantage of the opportunity to try out my new camera, so here are a few of our favorites...

We thought the kids looks cute in their matching blue PJs, but of course neither of them wanted their pictures taken.  They wanted to party!

 Saturday morning we decided to take the kids to see Santa Claus.  As you can tell, D wasn't too keen on the thought of sitting on Santa's lap, but Chase was pretty much in awe of him! 

 After some lunch, shopping, and naps the kids wanted to go swimming.  It was Chase's first time in a pool, and just like his Momma's he was a little fish.  Delaney even demonstrated a few of her swimming skills for the bunch!

 After a yummy dinner Saturday night, we opened a few gifts!  Of course, both the kiddos were spoiled!  Delaney didn't quite understand that some gifts were hers and some were Chase's.  We will still have to work on sharing!

 Waiting patiently for Daddy to open her new Elmo toy.  Coincidentally enough, we had just watched Sesame Street and Delaney fell in love with Elmo instantly and Papa showed up with a very special Sesame Street toy for Delaney.  What perfect timing!

 I love this face!  Isn't he so cute?!?  He looks so much like his Dad most of the time, but once in a while we can see Jess in there too!

 Obviously, the game didn't turned out like I hoped but it was a great time nonetheless!  We did a little last minute tailgating!  The weather was better than we could have hoped for!  It was mid-fifties by kickoff and sunny!

 Oh, I almost forgot...these two got engaged last Thursday!  They are planning a Spring 2014 wedding after they both graduate. 

 Aren't they cute!  Even though our team lost, I think we all agreed it was a good time!

 Here's my favorite "game" picture.  Mason Crosby warming up!  Gotta love the new zoom lens!

This picture was just for Craig...

 Great flyover!  This was a lucky shot.  I just tipped the camera up mid-national anthem into the sun and snapped this.  Not too shabby!

 This picture pretty much sums up the game...Craig's ecstatic...the rest of us...not so much!

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a great holiday weekend!  It was full of all my favorite things...family, food, and shopping!  Delaney was thoroughly spoiled by all of her grandparents & aunts & uncles.  We definitely had some reprogramming to do when we got home.  She had over her normal share of "time outs" on Sunday.  She was CRAZY!  Hilarious, but oh so naughty.  I didn't do the greatest job with pictures over the weekend, but here are a few to share! 

 We kicked off the long weekend right, and celebrated my baby brother Chip's 21st birthday.  His birthday was technically on Thanksgiving, so we took him to our hometown bar at 12:00A.M. Thursday morning. I'm getting too old for that, but it was a lot of fun to celebrate with him and see some old friends. 

 My baby sister had quite a bit of fun that night too.  Here she is with one of her long time friends, Abby!  Abby happens to be the little sister to my best friend Amanda!  It's so much fun when we can all get together like when we were kids.  I will apologize now for the hideous nostril self portrait...eww!)

 We did get so spend some quality time with our families over the weekend.  I promise we spent equal time with both sides, but I have no proof of the Menckes this weekend.  We had professional pictures take with them on Saturday. After pictures, I got schooled twice my our nieces Sydney & Jaiden in UNO.  I hadn't played in years, and it showed! 

 Papa was getting a little too cozy with cousin Chase, so Delaney strategically placed herself between Chase and "HER" Papa.  It was pretty cute.  Luckily, Chase didn't seem to mind sharing...

 Delaney is pretty cute with her baby cousin.  She was pretty infatuated with him,and has been talking about him nonstop since we got home.  It's going to be so fun watching these two grow up together.

 Isn't he adorable?!?  I swear this kid is always smiling.  Even when he's having a rough day, and not feeling the best he's still smiling!  I wish I could see him more often!

He had to model the new hat his Momma got for his upcoming 6 month pictures.  Isn't he cute!  I had my first little "miss the baby stage, let's have another one moment" after I fed Chase his bedtime bottle.  He finished in and nuzzled into my shoulder to cuddle.  I miss that soo much!  We won't be having another baby soon, but for the first time I missed having a little, little one.  Within the next year, we 'll talk about it!