Race for the Cure and Birthday Preparations

Gabbie and I had a 'girls day' last Saturday and participated in the Komen Race for the Cure in Des Moines, followed by lunch and some shopping! Here are some pictures from the Race:

She was having difficulty understanding why the heck I pinned a piece of paper to her shirt!

Off we go! She did get last in her age group. I couldn't hear the instructions over the crowd, so I didn't get her to the start with the other kiddos, which would not have mattered anyway since 5 feet from the end of the race she stopped and started crying when she lost sight of me. We still got 3 free Happy Meal tickets for finishing!

I admire this huge crowd every year!

  

Random picture. Last week Gabbie and I helped a few afternoons with the piggies. Here is one roaming free...I told Brice that Gabbie let it out, ha ha.

My 'practice cake' for Gabbie's birthday...I was so proud of this and hope it turns out well this weekend for her actual birthday!

Gabbie and I always enjoy the leftover frosting :-) Yes, this was right before supper, but sometimes you just have to have dessert first!

The latest fun-a baby kitten. (sorry I can not figure out how to turn this picture the right direction). Gabbie hears the kitten in the garage and goes out to get it-she can open all the doors to the outside now-and brings it in the house. One night she was feeding it her supper with her fork, after she tried to strap it in her booster at the table! Poor kitten...however, it tolerates the playtime well and is extremely friendly!

 I've also been enjoying "a look back" as I've been searching for some pictures to use for Gabbie's birthday. It still amazes me how 2 years have flown by, but at the same time it feels like she has always been a part of us. Here's a few pictures I found:

9-10 weeks...I remember this day was the first I was able to catch her smile on camera!

6 months. She always loved chewing on that leaf!

9 months. Enjoying some summer fun!

1 year, after trick-or-treating

18 months-eating off other's plates as if we don't feed her!

Coming soon...2 years! We have survived each other so far. Today we are celebrating Brice's "half-birthday"! He thinks its silly, but I think its fun that in 6 months he will be 30! Which means I'll be 30 in 10 months! The extent of the celebration is his favorite muffins in the oven and a new package of socks. I'm sure he will be super excited :-)

Des Moines Half-Marathon and other October fun

We continue to enjoy the perfect fall weather that seems never-ending! Hopefully it continues all the way until December :-) Gabbie and I have been busy with yardwork, and even managed to clean out the garden shed yesterday. She's a fun helper! Especially lately as she has started saying more words- I need to keep reminding myself that she is repeating lots of what we say...

The only downers lately are Gabbie having a bad cough and runny nose and my having the flu. Gabbie's cough wakes her up often at night, and us as well. She seems to do better if I sleep in the recliner with her, which is fun for me to feel like I did when I used to rock her to sleep. As for myself, having the flu is an irritating inconvenience. I try hard to remember its temporary, and lots of sick people in this world would love to suffer just a couple days of the flu instead of a long term illness. But it just drives me crazy to lay on the couch on a beautiful day and feel worthless. Luckily I have an empathetic daughter who seemed to know that sitting with me on the couch at night was a better idea than the usual jumping and running around, and that going to bed without fuss was also a good idea. The only downside to our sweetie pie is she kept trying to give me kisses, which I obviously didn't want to share with anyone at the time! When I was feeling good enough to start tackling house chores I thanked Brice for his picking up my slack while I was sick. He said "I didn't do anything", I said "I know, typically dishes don't take me 45 minutes", to which he replied "maybe you should get sick when I'm not so busy". He's right; I think the whole time I was laying around I only saw him a handful of times. I think he's secretly jealous that I got a couple days to lay around and he did not....yeah, right.

Today we took a short family trip to Des Moines so I could participate in the Des Moines half marathon. I had been 'training' for this since August. I was proud during that time I have kept up with my early morning runs and early last week felt prepared to tackle the 13.1 miles. But the flu bug was a pretty big set-back, and even yesterday could not get too far from the bathroom. I had decided I was not going to go, but then Brice said he would come with me and if I did not make it he would give me a ride. He was great at encouraging me to at least go try since I had been so excited for it. I'll admit it was not the fun that it usually is. I spent the first 9 miles seeking out port-a-pots and feeling sick to my stomach. My mental state was "wow, the older I get the more the flu kicks my butt". I started feeling better and had a more comfortable last 4 miles. Usually I enjoy a "post run binge" of McDonalds and Dairy Queen, but instead we spent the drive home making pit stops at convenience store bathrooms. I hope my appetite returns soon and I'll enjoy some junk food later!

This coming Saturday Gabbie will participate in her first Kiddie Fun Run in Des Moines at Race for the Cure. I'm looking forward to this, and to walking in Race for the Cure myself with a couple of friends. Its always an amazing day to see all the participants and breast cancer survivors! Afterwards we have a little shopping to do for an upcoming birthday girl ;-) Until then, have a great week!

Harvest helper :-)

Jumping in leaves!

The roses still look good

Loving the watermelon that keeps coming in the garden!

Home with my girls after the half marathon! (Gypsy in the background)

October so far...

What a beautiful October! I don't think we could ask for better weather. All of the fall colors are perfect right now, harvest seems to be moving quickly, and we still have the windows open all day. As I continue to work on the photo albums, I came across pictures from October 2009. On this day last year I was outside cutting the roses back and I have Gabbie bundled up in a snowsuit, hat, and a blanket over top of her. Today we have been outside moving pigs, and Gabbie's cheeks are red enough that she'll need sunscreen on for us to continue working outdoors in the afternoon.

Still working in the garden! Gabbie with a bucket of tomatoes.

Best buddies...

On October 2nd Brice and I participated in Brandon and Amy's big day! It was the most beautiful wedding...good company, all of the colors and decorations were perfect, and the sun was shining all day.

Brice, Brandon, and Jon

I found the nicest looking best man to take to the wedding :-)

The beautiful bride and groom :-)

Best man and maid of honor

Time for vows...no turning back now...

Having fun at the dance!

Gabbie was quite the trooper at the dance...not sure she sat down through an entire song! So the next morning she was hungry. Hungry enough to eat her own plate clean, then go finish 2 other peoples plates for them.

We are having a couple of 'issues' with Gabbie lately...

1. The van we bought in July came with a DVD player. Not something we were looking for, although several people told us it would eventually come in handy (even though we don't even have a DVD player in our house). Anyway, it came in handy. During harvest it has been easy to have her watch DVD's while I am helping outside, as obviously we do not want her running around with tractors driving around. So now when we get in the car she points to the DVD player. I am searching for a way to tell her "no, that's only for when we are being neglectful and/or lazy parents".  I think she's starting to figure out the difference between a short trip to daycare and a long bout sitting in the car. I hope so anyway, or I'm really going to regret that I ever used it.

2. She's inherited my poor bowel function. I think she went almost 4 days at one point with no dirty diaper. We so far have stocked up on prunes, raisins, and MiraLax. So far so good...we think. It certainly put a damper on potty training.

If those are the biggest issues we have, then we definetly have no reason to complain. We are getting ready for her 2nd birthday with no ER trips so far. Hopefully we will start celebrating a little early with a trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

My evenings of working on the remodeling project upstairs are done; now its up to other people (electrician, plumber, etc). Its been nice to not have that to do when I get home and we can enjoy the outdoors more before Winter comes!

Finally, here is a video of our professional dancer. I love that kids can dance so carefree, no worries about what they look like!