Happy Birthday To Me, Happy Birthday To Me

I sing to myself often! Not necessarily happy birthday but I guess if the mood strikes then I go for it.

Well I have officially entered the 30's. Not that traumatic. It feels pretty good actually. I had a great birthday. Yesterday I went out for coffee with my friend Kari and Hayden's friend Will. Will is exactly 2 weeks younger then Hayden. She also has a son Charlie that is 2. They are the cutest boys. It was nice to chat and catch up. I totally use her as a resource to answer all of my parenting questions. She is such a good Mom.

Then it was over to Teresa's house for lunch. She made stuffed shells, salad, and garlic bread. Hayden had fun rolling around on her floor and playing with the elk racks and gazing at the stuffed antelope in the living room and the giant stuffed bear. It is like a museum over there. Her husband sells guns and hunting gear all over the country so he is a big hunter. Hayden loves it over there because they have a lot of room to roll around he likes to check out all of the non moving animals :)

Today we met Joey for lunch at the mall to get one of my favorite meals. A grilled cheese sandwich at Maid-Rite. They are sooooo yummy! After that Hayden and I wandered around the mall for a bit and we ran into a few old coworkers of mine and some friends. Everyone was at the mall today! Then we ran some errands and came back home right after the wind started picking up and it started to rain.

Ok I learned a great lesson today. When it is windy out a light stroller will travel VERY FAR. I set the stroller up and got Hayden out of the car and turned around to put his car seat in the stroller and .............. it literally was across the parking lot. I had to put Hayden back in the car and lock the doors (yes I had to run that far away from the car to retrieve the stroller) chase the still moving stroller and come back to try it again. This time with the wheel locks engaged. I alway wondered what the heck those things were for?!?!?

We went out to eat tonight and then came home and watched the end of American Idol. So all in all it was a great birthday. Good friend day yesterday and family day today.

We survived the Blizzard!!!

Well we got more of an ice storm than a blizzard. What an exciting day we have had. We woke up yesterday to a Blizzard Warning. So we promptly went to Wal-Mart and bought a few things. It was starting to rain and sleet when we went. By the time we left it was very icy! When we got home Joey went out to shovel some of the slush and was almost hit by a 10ft branch from out 80ft pine tree. So he promptly gave up on the shoveling and came in. We only lost a couple of branches. We did lose power Saturday evening at about 6 to midnight. Luckily we had the fireplace and the temperatures outside were only into the 20's. The whole city lost power. We were soooo lucky to get power back when we did. Everyone we knew were without power most of the day Sunday.

It was kind of neat to be in the dark. Scary at first because my first thought was what about heat. Luckily we had the fireplace and the temp in the house only dipped to 63. (Which was the temp we lived at last year pre-child). It was nice to sit in the house with candlelight and fireplace glow. It was nice and quiet minus the police scanner. :) Usually it gets on my nerves after hearing it on for hours but in this case it was nice to have. Hayden and Joey laid on the floor in front of the fireplace and I did sudoku by candlelight. Ok I would not be singing the praises about the quiet stillness of no power if we had lost power for longer than we did!!!!

When it was all said and done we had 3-4 inches of snow on top of 1 inch of ice. Which all turned to slush and muck Sunday. Let's hope the ice storm that they are predicting for Wednesday and Thursday does not bring the same fate.

Rain, Sleet, Snow, OH NO!!!

As I am sitting here typing I can hear the sleet hit the windows, the wind gusts whipping the mailbox outside and the thunder rumbling. What a strange weather evening we have had. I guess this weekend we are supposed to get the whole gamut. 1 Inch of ice tonight with wind gusts up to 50 mph (lets hope we don't loose power). Then Saturday and Sunday night we are supposed to get 3-9 inches of snow. We will see what we really end up with.

We are just going to hang out all weekend. Joey has his final this weekend so he will be busy with that. We were going to go to Des Moines this weekend but decided to stay here so Joey could focus on his exam and so we could avoid traveling with the nasty weather.

Hayden gets better at sitting every day. He is also exploring more and more by rolling and pivoting around on his belly. He has been making different sounds with his mouth. Most involve lots of slobber. He is also copying movements more. We were laying on the floor and I had my fuzzy slippers on and was rotating my ankle. He watched me for a bit and then started rotating his ankle. It is soooo neat seeing things click for him and to watch his learning process. You can just see it in his face. The way he focuses and concentrates. It is amazing.

Yippee for warm weather!

The last few days have been wonderful. The sun has been shining and the temperature reached 53 today. It has been nice to turn off the heat during the day and give the old furnace a break. I am ready to open the windows and air out the house. I am just going to pretend I didn't see the forecast for wintry weather this weekend and believe that this is the beginning of spring.

We have had a great week. Hayden and I have been hanging out an playing. He is sitting up totally unassisted now. Sometimes when he reaches for a toy it throws him off balance and he falls over. So far we haven't had any tears when he tips. Today he was feeling ambitious and daring and decided to roll off the blanket, over the rug, and on to the wood floor. Once he realized that the sound of his foot hitting the wood floor was loud and different he laid there for a while with the Paricka grin banging his foot over and over and over. He also has mastered the Jumperoo. We have enjoyed watching him. He really goes to town in that thing and can jump forever.

We have settled in some sort of a routine now. Hayden takes 2 2hour naps and sleeps from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. What a blessing! He sure like his sleep. It is funny the more sleep he gets during the day the better he sleeps at night. You would think it would be the opposite of that. I found my schedule that I was on when I was 6 months old and strangely enough it was basically the same. Like mother like son.

Talked to my sister today. She is doing well. Andrew came home a week early from his training. Ingrid is making friends left and right. I am so proud of her. She really steps out of her comfort zone to meet people and build quite a social life. Hope to see her sometime this year. Our friends Matt and Stacy found cheap tickets to go to Germany. Stacy's sister lives in the same town as Ingrid. I am jealous. They are going next month and have invited Ingrid to go around with them. It will be fun for them. Hopefully we can make it over there next year.

Fun Birthday Weekend

We had a great weekend with the Bellows family. Friday Joey left work a little early. We hung out at home and went to Sonic for his birthday meal.

Saturday Matt, Stacy, and Emma came at about noon. We hung out for a bit and Stacy, Hayden, and I went to Coralridge mall in Coraville. Matt, Joey, and Emma went on their ritual journey to Best Buy and then ran some errands. The day flew by and before we knew it 6:00 was upon us and it was time for dinner. We went to out favorite restaurant Las Glorious. Our friends Robby and Doug met us as well. It was a fun time. We had great Mexican food and lots of laughs. It is always a funny time when Robby is present!

When we got home we put the kids to bed and then Joey and Matt watched a movie and Stacy and I messed around on the computers. I downloaded Picassa for Stacy on her laptop and started a blog for her. I am excited to read about their adventures. There are always exciting things happening at the Bellows household.

Hayden and Emma had fun playing. Hayden liked to watch Emma play and was interested in her every move. It was great to celebrate our big birthdays with the Bellows family. It is so great to have such great old friends! It is fun reminiscing about what we have done and all been through over the years. We are getting to the stage when we can look back now and laugh at some of the crazy and not so smart things we have done in our younger days!!!!

Today Joey worked on his homework and we just relaxed.

Happy Valentine's Day

We arrived home from Wisconsin last night. We had to travel pretty slow on the way back because of the slick roads and blowing snow.

The trip went well. It was a sad time but it was also good to see family and the great turnout at the funeral home. It was neat to see all of the people that turned out to pay their respects. We were able to talk to some of Paul's good friends and hear stories. It was nice to hear funny stories and about Paul growing up.

Hayden fared well on the drive up. He slept terrible there, and by Tuesday was definitely ready to come home. He slept most of the way home and went to bed at 8 and slept the whole night through until 7. He usually wakes up once during the night to cry for his pacifier. He amazingly hopped right back on schedule today.

Our big Valentine's day consisted of Hy-Vee Chinese and rearranging our bedroom. Joey bought me a candle, Chinese food, and some wine. We have no groceries in our home. Hayden and I didn't make it to the store today because it is freezing. Highs in the single digits and negative windchils in the teens again. Hopefully it will get into the 20's for the weekend.

Our friends Matt, Stacy, and Emma are coming down from Rush City, MN to help Joey celebrate his 30th birthday on Saturday. We are looking forward to the visit!

Off to Wisconsin

Unfortunately this week Joey's uncle passed away during a heart transplant. We are headed up to Wisconsin today for the funeral on Monday.

6 Month Checkup

Hayden playing with one of his favorite toys still!

We had Hayden's 6 month checkup today. He is growing like a champ. 19 lbs. 27 3/4". His weight is in the 75% and his height is 90%. Dr Nau. said by the next visit he can be eating finger foods and we got the ok to feed him all fruits and vegies. I told him I needed to get a book because we have no clue what to feed him and start with solids. He said don't get a book because you will know. We will see....


Not much exciting this week. It has been freezing out and we got 3 inches of snow yesterday. Joey did homework all day Sunday so Hayden and I watched the Super Bowl. Hayden and I went to lunch with Shawna today at Panera and we came right home. Have to get a few things but will either do that when Joey gets home or he will do it on his way home.