we made it...

First, we made it through January & February 2014 (THAT was a loooonnng & painful one) and second, we made it through Chris' first year with New Balance Commodities! Not only did he complete his first year, he is above their target for him, which is really not that surprising :) AND I must mention that his support staff made it too! (ie: the 5 girls that occupy the other 5% of his time ;)

And with that... we welcome March 1st, 2014... even though we're predicted to gain another 3-5 inches throughout the weekend and temps will continue to be a balmy 6-degrees ...WHAT?

ummm... at least we're one-week away from daylight savings time, right?!? RIGHT?!?

BUT we Iowans are all in this together... all 3-million of us. (I say 3-millions with sarcasm b/c Ohio has 11-million :) ANYHOW... this pic pretty much sums up my sanity level.... OH and on the 10-day forecast their is a 32-degree number for next Thursday... I'll believe it when I feel it. (fingers crossed, b/c I can't wait!)

On to happier subjects :)

March 1st, 2014 is also the day we are going to celebrate Ms. LeaAnn Claire's golden birthday this year, and she. is. PUMPED. So we do have a reason to smile and celebrate this weekend, despite the dreaded forecast. And before that happens, and I need to blog about that, I thought I should wrap up what I did  have on the books for February.

Last Wednesday, 2/19/14, the littles and myself went into Manchester to visit Lola's mom, Helen, who is at the Good Neighbor Nursing home now (previously in Dyersville but she had a stroke).  Lola (pseudo grandma) has been such a blessing to myself & the girls.. and she has always been the one to take care of her mom, but now it's extra stressful, as her other 3 sisters do not live near and are not helping to lighten the load... so we try and help Lola smile as much as possible. :) Which isn't too hard to do with those little girls...

It was hard for the girls to stay in the room, it was little and LeaAnn has never been one to just sit ;) So we visited the fish several times...

Lola found them ice-cream :)

But overall the girls did well, and Helen was very happy to see them.

Lydia really impressed me. Helen really wanted Lydia to sit on her lap, and she did it! I was shocked.

Notice LeaAnn's cooperation level?

She wanted to be pushed...

And of course Lola obliged :) there isn't too much she says no too.

Very happy we went, Lola was so appreciative... and I told her we will definitely go back again. Hopefully with all 4 of them :) (Helen had 4 girls too)

Sunday, 2/23/14
Dad had Sean Baragary's annual 500-tournament on Saturday night... and though he really wanted to come home at a normal hour, he just was having too much fun... and couldn't do it ;) But he did come home with some winnings this year! Woo-hoo!

I had toyed with the idea of going to Waterloo after Sunday School but wasn't for sure... but after he walked in the door that morning, I quickly grabbed some of his money and decided it was a shopping day for all of us girls!

After Sunday School we went to Target, subway and the mall... the girls did great. I used take Lauren & Lindsay everywhere when they were their ages... poor things get neglected  ;) The big girls were a super help and we'll definitely have to do it again. Thanks Dad for paying for new swimsuits, our lunch and carousel rides!!! :D

Drum roll please... THE. END. of February... hooorrayyy!

Valentine's Day and winter (more girl time ;)

Friday, Valentine's Day 2014
Like Lydia's hair? She did too until she took it out at night, then she decided there was WAY to many rubber bands ;)

She got all dolled up with her jewelry from Christmas... thanks Aunt Ashley!

They all looked so cute that morning... but I didn't have it together enough to take a picture then. Here they are after school and after they opened their Valentine's box from Mimi! They had on their Doc McStuffin's outfits on :) and swimsuits... NOT to forget the swimsuits ;) I was pretty proud of myself. I managed to get balloons to the school to surprise the girls :)

Saturday, 2/15/14
We went on a super cold run again! So much so that I thought my fingers were going to fall off, luckily, Maria remembered she had an extra pair of warm mittens in her truck. Made it 6-miles and felt great!

THIS is what we look like afterwards ;) But unfortunately, I fell sick that night... :( total bummer...

Recovered well enough to go through with our snowmobiling trip for the girls on Sunday. Prior to this last blast of winter, I had the mindset, let's enjoy the snow, can't beat it, join it! Lined up Chico for a trip, he said yes, Grammy agreed to watch the little girls, and I was so excited to be able to take the big girls on their first trip. Winthrop, Independence, Jesup, Brandon, Rowley and ended in Quasky.

It ended up being 90-miles! They did fantastic... and they want to do it again, so we must have done something right :) Sue & Heath Weber were also on the trip.. super-fun :)

And then it snowed... AGAIN. So much so we had to have a snow day :( THAT'S where it's gets to be tricky... it's hard to stay positive when summer keeps getting farther, and farther away. The week looked like this: Monday = snow day, Tuesday = late start, Wednesday = full day of school!, Thursday = early out b/c of snow, Friday = late start.
Yup, that sums it up.

Here we are Monday,  2/17 making pancakes. LeaAnn grabbed bear and said, "Mom! Bear wanna cheese too!"

We did a work-out video together... ALL of us ;) it was really cute. Lauren tried to take video as LeaAnn was really getting into it!

That afternoon after the girls got up from their nap, we all went outside to play in the snow that continued to fall... b/c it was WARM out.. like 20-degrees! With just a little wind... heavenly. And while we were outside, I thought, I should try and start the snowmobile. There was so much snow on the roads. I managed to get it started and finagle it out of the corner of the shed! I was so proud of myself ;) Lauren found the sleds, we hooked them up and I pulled them up to Wilgenbusch's... they had so much fun :) But by 5 o'clock, the wind had started to pick up and the wind, as always, is cold. So we headed home. But that inspired us for the rest of the week!

That night.. check out Lindsay's hair! The pic does not do it justice... it's SO thick, and so long... it will make a great donation in a month or so :)

Tuesday, 2/18/14
When I said inspired, I meant it. This was Tuesday after school and then we had the Peck's over and went again on Wednesday! We had 3 solid days of nice, winter-weather. It was glorious.

But then... the real Iowa winter roared it's ugly head again, and back to blizzard, below-freezing temps we went... blah, blah, blah. This video is PERFECT.
I don't know how to 'embed' one, (wish I did)... but Sally Hodge, one of mom's friends on FB shared this and I found it hysterical! Sums up exactly how everyone feels :)
breaking point

February... lotta girl time!

One would assume that with all this girl time in the month of February (aka: the tundra from hell) that Chris would be making great strides with his job... and it's the truth! He has been one crazy, busy man... and we're so proud of him for it. February started with a trip to the Nodaway, working the Iowa Beef Expo in Des Moines, and (dun, dun, dun...) finishing our commitment with pigs (hallelujah!). I found these quotes and sent them to him.

I loved them both...

But he especially loved this one. So much so, I had it made into a plaque of sorts to sit on his desk in Winthrop. I looked on pinterest to see if there was another 'verion' of this quote... but none of them did it justice. I think the finality of the black/white and how simple it is, plus what it actually says, seals the deal. It's perfect... we're not going back. And he is so determined... more so than I've ever seen him in my 13-years of knowing him...

Thursday, February 6th... He was not home yet from Nodaway, I was finishing up Lindsay in the shower, and Lauren started reading to the little girls... melt. my. heart.

Much like this post (Who would have thought...) and these pictures. 1/16/12 - Look at this little Wiam!!! She was 10-months, Lydia was 2-2months and Lauren 6-9months?!? Wow...

I was trying to get the picture with a non-glaring flash, but it's so hard to keep it still and not fuzzy...

So in the end I used the flash ;)

love...

still love... 1/16/12

Friday, February 7th... who is this kid??? She decided she loved the jacket. I pointed out that it had matching jeans and a shirt to go with it too..AND that her sister Lauren wore the exact same outfit years ago. She contemplated for a minute... then quickly put the outfit on. Score! ;) She looked so stinking cute!

I just so happened to find those pics ;) From the Ryan Easter Egg hunt, March 22, 2008! Lauren was 2-11mo & Lindsay 19-months. And Frankie Clare! Exact same age that LeaAnn is right now :)

Cuties!!!

Back to the present... I think they're sisters, don't you?!?

Not to forget Lydia... she also picked out her own outfit. We were heading out to grab a few things at McElroys and to Craig & Sharon's so mom could go on a run! LeaAnn 2-11mo & Lydia 3-2months.

It was cold... to say the least. You can't see our lashes, but they were white!

Came home... and what did they want to do? Put on swimsuits b/c they were so 'hot' and they wanted to play 'beach'... I was so happy I took those pics to prove to Chris that they actually did have on clothes at some point during the day ;)

I mean... can they get any cuter?!?

Ummm... I had to keep this :D  I sent this picture to Craig & Kris... just in case they were worried that LeaAnn had completely forgotten about her favorite Christmas present... b/c she hasn't! Half the time she still takes it to bed with her.

Saturday, 2/8/14
Snow-storm, check. Thought I was going to beat it, check. But we made it to the big town of Waterloo... and we ended up having a fabulous time shopping! They even  tried on clothes for me in Justice, shopped in Bath & Body Works, ate at Subway, a trip to Target, and ended with Kohls...

complete with new sunglasses from the clearance rack and all! Great day and the girls did great... I see lots more of these days in the near future :)

That night, watching the Olympics. This is the a perfect description of LeaAnn at age 3. Taking care of babies ;) it's the only thing she really 'plays' with.

Tuesday, 2/11/14
Dad left again today for the Iowa Beef Expo in Des Moines. The girls love to be trolls :) I love it too.. so Lauren helped me get a picture of it.

Also on  this day, a dumpster showed up?? The girls called me when they got home from school and I was not yet. They were a little worried... i told them not to be but that I had  no idea where it came from? To take a picture and email it to Dad... with their Ipods :) And this was the picture they took. So cute! Chris loved it, and sent it to me. It stayed here for a week, and ended up it was a mis-delivery, was supposed to go to Ed Saldon, one house down ;)

Wednesday, 2/13/14
I could eat. her. up! Oh she can be so cute sometimes... other times, not so much ;) Notice the swimsuit again...

Decided to use up the last of the Pizza Hut gift card after a trip to the library. "Jealous Dad?" was our tag line.. b/c we of course we ordered stuffed-crust pizza... only Chris Beyer's girls... ;)

Came home, and yes, still snowing. We had, oh... about 4 inches I guess.

Thursday, 2/13/14... went to work, came home from work, did the supper/bath thing... and guess who showed up? :D Whew! The girls did great, but it's really nice when he comes home...

Side note: And I feel super fortunate that he does come home... and that he's not gone for weeks at a time (Jill & Eric) or a year at a time (Laura, my cousin & Matt Day)... I can not imagine. Matt just happened to leave the same day that Chris did (deployed to Afghanistan)... only she's on a 365-day countdown, and we were on a 3-day... really puts things into perspective.