when you're on a roll...

why stop? :)

These two videos of LeaAnn are from Tuesday, January 1st... our first day back from our Ohio Christmas vacation. Here is, yet again, a HUGE thank you to Mimi & Pap for letting us take their red-car to Iowa... it continues to be a hit with all of the kids :D

LeaAnn at 22-months

Same day... dancing to the Wii. Chris had just got it hooked up (awesome Christmas gift to the girls from Donnie & Ashley)

And here was the last addition to our snow-day yesterday :)  They took this after I had left for Aurora. The girls have been playing this 'train-game' for a week now! They laugh at themselves hysterically everytime... and it is really funny. Ah... the little things :D  (Lauren 7-9mo, Lindsay 6-5mo & Lydia 3-2mo) And see! The red-car is in the middle of the action :)

snow day take 2...

Iowa doesn't 'do' one snow day... two at a time is how we like to roll... whatever BLERG!  Or in this case... I bet it's going to be three. Tomorrow there is a a high of THREE degrees, it will feel like -20 all day. On Friday morning it's going to feel like -30-degrees (actual temp -12)... good times :D

So ANYHOW... here we are on snow day #2 this week...

Started with dancing :)  how adorable is this... 

A few pics... it was really cute.

Love this one :)

Love this 'scene' from the morning... see LeaAnn in the chair?

Taking the videos then led me to realize that I have not touched my video camera in too long :(  nor have I looked at the videos I've taken, or put them on CD's... so I did :)  And when I started that process... I saved these frames from Christmas day of Lydia.

I was so ecstatic to find these... b/c this is when the Rapunzel tower (that has not been played with since Christmas ;) was coming out of the box... and I did not capture the 'face' on camera.

how priceless is this???

such a Lydia face...

Before they went upstairs to put on clothes they were 'hungry-again!' ;) so I toasted waffles and look who actually SAT for a movie for the first time ever!!! It was Baby E, and it did only last 15-minutes.. but still :)

I was working diligently on my videos... and those big girls... unbelievable. They completely entertained the younger two... first with the dancing and then with 'dress-up.' I had not heard them in a while, so I headed up the stairs and they said, "we're just getting Lydia & LeaAnn ready for the ball" :)  So they appeared as 'royal princesses' complete with eye-makeup, painted nails & tatoos ;)  

I fixed lunch, and then a highlight of the day... Dad came home :D  Here is LeaAnn (2nd round of lunch on Dad's lap... a complete given) saying "LeaAnn Beyer".... SO cute.

I then took this video of the wind... trying to capture the 'blizzard-like-conditions'... Since moving to Iowa, experiencing these winters & winds, I have always reverted back to thinking of the people who had no electricity, no water... no weather-forecasters to tell them what was coming. (We had almost 50-degree weather just yesterday!!!) What in the world did they DO?!  No snow plows to plow roads... drifts with just 5-inches of snow can be impassable.  I'm just in awe of the people that lived in Iowa when there were no modern-day amenities (or any flat-terrain area in the mid-west). There are no words for how confusing and frustrating Iowa can be...

And to end the day, my sweet husband calls and says, "I'll be home at 4, if you want to take my big-truck to Aurora you can make it."  And so I did :) I drove the big, 4-wheel drive truck ( I WANT a 4-wheel drive vehicle) to Maggie's house, picked her up, and headed to the Aurora Comet Center (Aurora Comet Center). Why, one must ask, would I head out on such terrible conditions... the answer, 1. b/c it keeps you sane to get out of the house and 2. b/c I was not above begging in order to meet my goal of running 100-miles in January. (I was only 5-miles away!!!)  And I had two days to do it in... and who in the world knows what tomorrow will bring ;)  And though at mile 3 on the treadmill (I'd much rather deal with frozen lashes and run outside in 3-degree weather) I wanted to quit, Maggie said, "you're almost there..." and that I was. Even though I left the lights on in the truck (grrr!!!) and we had to have a nice local man who was plowing roads jump start the truck before we could head back home... it was worth it! :D 100-miles in January.... DONE. Take that, old man winter...

Here's fingers crossed to us having school tomorrow!!!

Icy sunday...

Sunday, 1/27/13

Church was cancelled... so everything was cancelled :(  We were iced in.  Hoping we have school tomorrow!  Decided to finally bust out the paint that we received from Santa :) And the girls had a great time. The day was complete with an outing to Dolan's shop where they all the kids got to run around (hence the reason I'm caught up to. the. day. on blogs ;) So overall not a bad day ... just hoping we can return to normal quickly!!!

She ended up painting her face green :) it's still green after a bath... so we'll see what she looks like tomorrow ;)

Lauren did an awesome job painting her tea-set that she received from Aunt Jody for Christmas :)

Um... where did my 'little' Lauren go?!? Suddenly, she's gotten so big... sigh. :)

Cinderella at Gallagher Bluedorn

Our Christmas tradition continues, and we went to see Cinderella, the ballet, and Gallagher Bluedorn in Cedar Falls last night!  (Saturday, 1/26/13)  Grammy found it and we quickly decided it would be the performance to go and see.... We started the night out with dinner at Applebee's :)

We had really good food too!

Waiting for the ballet to start

During intermission... it was a fabulous ballet! Continually amazed at the strength & grace that all the ballerinas have. Can't thank Grammy enough for the amazing treat!

Aurora Comet Center

Friday, 1/25/13

Can I just say I'm secretly SO IMPRESSED with myself that TODAY is Sunday, 1/27 and I am blogging about FRIDAY, 1/25!!!???!!! Yup... has never happened before ;)  Maggie - I have finally kept up with you!!! ;)  ah-ha-ha-ha... 

Ok, Ok... enough with my smack-talk (I'm terrible at it ;) Here we are at the Aurora Comet Center on Friday, 1/25.  The place is a diamond in the rough... lots of room to run, balls of all sorts of shapes & sizes, a play-house, scooters, clean bathroom (and it's heated I might add ;)  all for $1/person.  Ridiculous it's so perfect. Doesn't matter how long it takes us to get there... it's our 'winter-park' ... we pack a lunch, and voila, it might as well be spring.  Ha... well, not so much...

Maggie was leaving for the Dells with her family. Long story short, it's impossible hard to pack with kids around :) so I took her 3 to the Comet Center to play with my two .... worked out perfectly.

Never leave home without it... :)

Poor Kael... hit his head on the fireplace :(

LOVE

They were playing super-heros :)

LeaAnn... sneaky as ever...

Notice anything?

 I edited out his owey!

They had a great time :) Here they are running back & forth across the gym... we ate lunch and everyone was happy ... including mom! :D

Hawkeye basketball game

Sunday, 1/20/13 (and now I'm only 1-week behind!! :D)

Hawkeye Women's basketball at Carver Arena! So much fun! Girls had a blast... again, all of these pictures are from a phone... Maggie's this time, super thankful for them! :)

Maggie & Kreighton, Maria & Peyton, the girls & myself and Shannon all went down on a Sunday afternoon.

It was packed! So our seats were a little far from the court... we walked down so they could see what it looked like/felt like up close.

Shannon bought the girls ice cream :)

trying to get a pic with my big-girls!

Maggie & Kreighton... I adore this pic!

Yup... and you see right... I'm in a Hawkeye shirt :D  Chris said, "I don't think that's necessary." But I did :) It's fun to root for a team, especially when they have a great win! (which they did ;)

It was actually the Hawk's coach, Coach Bluder (had to steal that from Maggie's blog ;), 600th win... pretty cool to see.

The night ended with dinner at Texas Roadhouse which was also super special :) girls were enamored with being able to throw peanut shells on the floor! They both said, "Mom! Wouldn't Pap love this place?!?"

time for a haircut

Saturday, 1/19/13

and a reason to see Leia! :D  Leia officially graduated, passed her boards (yeah Leia!) and is working at Visions Hair Studio in Cedar Falls - Visions Hair Studio.  I need to mention that all new pictures are courtesy of Leia's Iphone! Wasn't that so sweet of her to let me use her phone since I forgot my camera?? Not surprised ;)

Lydia opted to go first this year :) unlike last year....

She was pretty uncertain about getting her hair cut at all!  This was Lydia at 2-1mo (December 2011)

And last Decmeber was the last and only time Lydia's hair has been cut.  It's really long and I like it that way... easy to fix and I think it suits her ;)

2011 - Here she was in the chair

Adorable :)

Lindsay was up next

Lindsay wanted it short, but I told her we were going to keep growing it out for summer... she could chop it off for 1st grade if she wanted :)

December 2011

Lauren's hair needed some extra-special attenion b/c of a swim-party she attended. Leia was happy to help and deep conditioned her hair for me :)

I was having a little too much fun with the camera ;)

Can you see the fish mermaid braid Leia put in Lauren's pony-tail?  Super cute!

This was how we kept Lydia entertained this time... even though she still managed to get hair all over herself.  She was so uncomfortable we had to take her tights off before going home :)

super cute!

And a pic of all of them :D  thanks so much Leia!  We'll be back soon!