CLIMB IOWA

The boys and I enjoyed our first visit to Climb Iowa today!  We each had our first experience with rock climbing and we loved it!

We met Tory, Emery, and Bode there and spent a couple hours climbing up the rock walls.  It was a great experience and I can see us going back.  The boys (and I) had a great time!  The boys never showed any sign of fright and climbed their little hearts out!  Tyler even made it to the top in one area 4 different times!  And Brady made it up half the wall in that same spot!

Tyler up at the top.

Brady 1/2 way up!

Me up at the top.

Bode, Brady, Emery, and Tyler.

My boys and I on an adventure at Climb Iowa.

COUSINS

We drove to Cedar Falls on Sunday, February 15 to see Delaney, Josh, and Liz, and to give Delaney her Valentine’s day gift.  The boys adore their aunt and uncle and their little cousin Delaney, so it makes a trip to Cedar Falls so easy to do!

Love these three little ones so much!

VALENTINE’S 2015

Tyler with his Minecraft Valentine Box that he absolutely loved!

Tyler’s Big Hero 6 Tic Tac Valentine’s for his class.

And since Brady likes to be the class clown, I thought it would be appropriate for him to give the kiddos in his class some joke cards with a piece of candy.

 

Lee and I didn’t have any plans for Valentine’s Day.  That morning we decided that we would do something for the boys and take them to Sky Zone and then out to lunch.  We decided to see if the Woollums’ wanted to join us.  They decided to come along which made the made the day even more fun and special!  After our fun time at Sky Zone, jumping on the trampolines and playing dodge ball with the kids, we went to lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery, and then onto the Woollums’ house for the rest of the day.

For a day that started with NO plans at all, it turned out to be a fun and busy Valentine’s Day spent with some friends!

AWAKE AND READING

Both boys are wanting to stay up for a little while after we put them to bed to do some more reading under their flash lights.  I’m not going to tell them they can’t keep reading, but I do give them a time that they must shut their flash lights off by!  So proud of them!

KANSAS CITY GIRLS WEEKEND!

February 6-8 was spent on a wonderful girls weekend in Kansas City!

We all decided to go stay with Sarah for the weekend since Brian was out of town and we had such an amazing, unforgettable weekend!

Katie, Kelley, and I took that Friday off work and left in the morning to drive down.  We pulled into Sarah’s driveway with some old school hip hop and the weekend just kept getting better from there on!

After we got settled at Sarah’s we walked a few blocks to have some mid-day cocktails.  A perfect way to spend your Friday afternoon.

Cara arrived shortly after we walked back to Sarah’s and we then got ready to enjoy a dinner out.  We had some pretty incredible conversations….!

After dinner we went back to Sarah’s, changed into PJ’s, got a glass of wine, and played a GREAT game of Heads-Up.  SO many laughs!  Great, great, stuff!  Not sure our brains were working 100%…

Saturday was another beautiful day.  65 degrees feels pretty amazing in February!!!

We headed to the Plaza to do some shopping and have a 3 hour lunch outside with delicious food and happy margarita pitchers!

And just ONE of the highlights from our weekend was when Gavin Rossdale walked right past our table at lunch.  Of course I had to run to the corner and yell his name and invite him back for some margaritas!  He gave me a polite wave and continued on his way.  :)

I love this picture!  We are all so happy!

After shopping, lunch, and more shopping, we stopped to pick up dinner and head back to Sarah’s.  As we were waiting for our dinner, we went to have a drink next door.

Love these two!  They are both so amazing and have helped make me into the person that I am today.  Don’t know what I would do without them.

Must have a Boulevard while in KC.  And must Shop!

What an amazing girls weekend we had.  What amazing friends that I got to share my weekend with and share so many laughs with.  And thanks to FaceTime, I was still able to see my kids and Lee while I was away!

SNOW!

We went from no snow on January 31st to a foot of snow on February 1st!

It was beautiful and the kids had a blast playing outside in it!

Lee plowing the driveway while the snow is still coming down.

View from the front door.  Our tree looked beautiful!

The beginning of their fort.

Being the awesome dad that he is, Lee created a fort for the boys and the neighbor boys.  He ended up taking the snow plow around the fort and just blowing the snow up on the fort to make it higher and higher.  The finished product was pretty cool and the boys were in heaven!

Tyler sledding down our slide.

There was ZERO snow on the ground 24 hours before!  Crazy!

Our Winter Wonderland.

SO SWEET

Even though you have to read this message from the bottom to the top, it’s the sweetest message left, by Brady, on my board at school.  One day when we went out to school to work and play, he wrote this message for me.  He is the sweetest!

BACON FEST 2015

So I had this idea that I brought up to Lee…

When Bacon Fest tickets went on sale this year, Lee and I were deciding if we wanted to go again or not.  We weighed the pros and cons.  We had a great time last year!  It was fun being away for the day and to try all new foods with bacon.  We spent A LOT of money!

So, I brought up an idea to Lee.  I thought we could go ahead and throw our own Bacon Fest this year at our house!  We would have it the same date as the actual Bacon Fest in Des Moines, invite our friends and their kids, and have everyone bring a bacon item.

I sent out a message to our friends in December and the planning went from their!

We ended up with 15 adults and 18 kids in our house for the entire day on Saturday, January 31st.

We began the day at 9:00 AM.  I made Breakfast Pizza topped with bacon for breakfast, along with some bacon infused Bloody Mary’s.  There were also Bacon topped Donuts for breakfast that were delicious!

Tyler holding Maddie!  When we went to see her a couple weeks ago, he couldn’t hold her because he had a cold.  So, as soon as she came in the house, he wanted to sit down and hold her.

It was so nice to have our friends in our house, all together.  Even if they just met that day, they were all awesome to each other and everyone had a great day!  Our friends are the best!

Addie holding Maddie, while Bennett, Lindy, and Megan looked on.

Besides making Breakfast Pizza and Bloody Mary’s, I made grilled cheese with bacon for the kids’ lunch and bacon wrapped brats and a pasta salad for the adults for lunch and Lee made jalepeno poppers.  I’m sure we could have done without the actual meals.  Everyone brought SO much food!  They were all so generous and there was more food than we could have ever eaten!  But it was all so good!

Lunch Time!

Megan, Lindy, Heidi, Me, Katie, Chantelle, and Adrianne.  It was so good to have them all together!

Brian, Brett, Lee, Justin, Jason, Jarrod, and Wayne.  Oh Boy!

The 17 out of the 18 kids at the party!  Carter had been there, but had to leave early for another party.

 

I had planned for this party to go just ‘til afternoon, as it started at 9 AM and I had to take Tyler to basketball at 2:30.  However, they had other plans.  :)  I got back from basketball and we still had company.  Turns out it was a whole day party and our friends didn’t leave until 8 PM.  It was a great day, but long day.  They all left at 8:00 and Lee and I had the boys bathed and in bed by 8:30.  They were SO tired (and cranky!).

As I was the hostess, I felt like I was running around like a crazy woman for most of the day.  I felt like I didn’t ever really sit down and have a conversation with anyone.  I kind of felt like I threw this big party, but I wasn’t even really there to enjoy it.  I DID enjoy it, though, and I KNOW that everyone else did as well!

It really could not have been a better day spent with our friends and their kids!  We are very lucky to call these families friends!

So, until next year….