House of Mirrors

It's bad enough that I had to wear a bathing suit on vacation, and forgot to bring a cover up, and had to leave the complimentary towels at the water park exit, but did they really need to have mirrored elevators to remind me of why I didn't want to be in a bathing suit in the first place? I should have mentioned this on my satisfaction survey. They could have at least put skinny mirrors on all the surfaces!

Have you heard about this?

What do you think about this? I have been thinking a lot about long term/permanent birth control lately. And as much as this sounds appealing, I am not ready for this kind of treatment. Which makes me understand the hesitation of so many males when it comes to the "V" word. So anyway, check out the link and leave a comment about what you read.

Wisconsin

We drove to Wisconsin on Wednesday for a somewhat planned (as in we knew we were going in June) but spontaneous family vacation (as in we had no reservations 5 days before we left and arrived at our resort with NO plans whatsoever). Mike's extended family is all there and it was so fun to get to know them better. I met them at our wedding, but it was brief and I was kinda distracted that day. The picture above was taken in Nebraska. And yes, we surely felt like we were in the land of nowhere for most of the drive.
We decided to go big with our trip. Or at least big for us. So we booked our stay at a Lake side resort with an indoor water park. Our room technically slept six, but I don't think that would be very comfortable. The girls had fun talking into the late hours of the night and Mike and I nearly went crazy trying to convince them it was time for bed! But it was still awesome and I am looking forward to more vacations like this in the years to come.
The highlight of the water park was the red slide. They landed in a foot and a half of water and were content to run up the stairs (even though I yelled "walk" every time) and fly back down. They had a blast!
There were four larger slides that Mike and I took a few rides down, but it was really about the red slide for the majority of the time we were there.
And even though we were plan-less, we managed to get plenty of family time in too. We were treated to a great "cook out" at Mike's cousin's house on Friday and spent most of Saturday and Sunday at Mike's aunt and uncle's house. Here we are on Father's Day with Mike's grandparents. It was so great to get to know his extended family better.

Celebration, Part 2

Again with the backwards downloading. Oh well, here's Aubrey's party in reverse! She had cupcakes (fun-fetti, with white frosting and pink sprinkles).
Mike lead a game of Princess, Princess, Queen. (Duck, Duck Goose). It was adorable to watch. They were so cute. You can see some of this kids wearing the tiaras and crowns they decorated.
I had a craft table set up with color sheets and stickers for their head wear. They all seemed to like it.
I also had a nail painting station that a few of the girls visited.
And I had rolled Aubrey's hair before the party to give her "princess" hair. We got some good body, but it didn't really curl. Story of my life, sorry AJ! We had a great time. It is a lot of work for a few hours, but a lot of fun too. I look forward to many more parties like this in the years ahead.

Celebration Part 1

Oops, I did these pictures in reverse order. Oh well. Since we were only celebrating with the four of us, I splurged and bought a cake from the store. It was a single layer, 5 inch in diameter cake, and we only ate half. I added the Cinderella Figurine since Aubrey wanted a princess cake. It took her about 20 attempts to blow out her candles. It was adorable.
Daddy brought her home a bouquet of roses to celebrate her special day. She was pretty excited and really felt loved.
He had her close her eyes and hold out her hands. You can see that the anticipation was killing her.
We opened her presents from my parents the previous day. Her favorite gift was a Barbie jeep. She loves to put her ladies in there and take them to the beach.
Oh yeah, and a week before I had a Birthday too. Mike surprised me with this beautiful bouquet. I had no idea that orchids were so fragrant. I think that they are my new favorite flower. We also had a family meal out together at Chili's. Aubrey was upset that I didn't have wrapped gifts so she wrapped up my Firm stool and gave it to me so I can exercise more. it was really sweet. We still have her party this weekend so the celebration continues.

Happy Birthday Aubrey Joy!

My little 2 year old

Managed to turn 3

which quickly became 4!

I wish I had earlier pictures of my little lady, but they are elsewhere... I am overwhelmed with the magnitude of my daughter turning four. FOUR. Even scarier, we have been in Colorado nearly that entire time. It is amazing to see the little baby that you gave birth to turn in to a real live kid. I remember her fitting perfectly in my lap when she was born and now she is feet upon feet tall. Wow, it is really overwhelming today. We have been celebrating all day and it has been wonderful. What a fun age!

Daddy's Rock

Things I have witnessed my husband doing in the last 20 minutes.
-dishes (I made a yummy dinner of lemon-dill salmon, brown rice, and blanched sugar snap peas).
- playing duck duck goose
- having some sort of wrestling match with the girls
- playing Memory with the girls
-pouring me wine
He really knows how to pack it in. It is so nice to watch the father/daughter interaction. It's simply one of a kind and I am so thankful for the opportunity to witness it.

I Love Being a Girl!

I painted the girls nails this week and they loved it. Why it took me four years to do this is beyond me, but I can tell it is the beginning of an era! Here's what it looks like when you take a picture of your daughter while she is facing the sun. I'm such a good mom...

The Fatal Flaw, Me.

So I have been a little out of my rhythm with my workout routine the last few weeks. We've had a lot of rain and I really like my lazy mornings and we've had nighttime obligations that make an evening workout difficult... Yeah, it's all a bunch of excuses, but that's what people do, right?

Last night I asked Mike to set the alarm for 6:15 so I could go for a run before he left for work at 7:00. Unfortunately I heard the pitter patter of little feet around 6am. By the time I had met Aubrey's very early morning needs Ainsley had woke up. I felt defeated. Another day without a workout. Ugh! I have plans with a friend tonight and I doubt that I will have time to workout and shower before I meet her. But then something occurred to me, it's 7:30am and I have already given up on the whole day. That's lame, but I do it all the time. Sure I wanted to run this morning, but just because that didn't happen doesn't mean there isn't an opportunity to do SOMETHING. How often do we give up on ourselves for no reason? So what if you ate a pastry that was at your office, It doesn't mean you need to eat 1000 more empty calories because you ate 300 earlier. Right?

New plan. I am going to do The Firm after I talk to my friend, Tammi, this morning (Thursday morning ritual), and then I am going to do something I hate to do. I am going to strap these kids in a stroller and go for a walk. I know what you are thinking, "You hate taking your kids for walks, what kind of mother are you?" Yes. Yes, I do. It is not fun. Feel free to try it out yourself if you don't believe me. It generally involves a lot of crying, pulling against the restraint, and putting feet down on the wheels to slow me down. But who knows, maybe today will be different. All of this to say that I need to think differently if I am going to stay on top of my workouts. It's hard "finding time." I would love to workout while the kids are napping, but I assume that it would be illegal to go for jog or bike ride while my children are unattended at home! For now, I am just going to do the best I can, even if it isn't the workout I wanted to do.

Too Cute

My sweet little girl made a friend at the park today. And I am talking about Ainsley. She made friends with a girl nearing 7, named Grace. I lost track of Ainsley for a moment only to find her on a teeter totter with a much bigger, little girl. Grace helped her down, held her hand all over the playground, pushed her on the swings, made a train to take her down a large slide, and helped her up a tall ladder. It was adorable and I was SO proud of her. Aubrey was a bit jealous and kept asking to go home. I am loving watching my little girl grow up. She is so outgoing and brave. It's pretty amazing.