Sioux City birthday party 5.21.09

We had Gwen's 1st birthday party of the visit at my sister and brother-in-laws house (Deb and Dave) on her actual birthday - Thurs. May 21st, 2009. Deb and Dave are so amazing for hosting this ordeal and Gwen thanks them a thousand times over :)! A big reason we picked there was because it's like a fun house. Seriously, there is a fire pit for smores, a big deck with dogs, 4-wheelers and the BEST reason, horses! There was even pony rides offered that night. They used to have an above ground pool too but it was put away to get ready to build the underground pool, hummm....maybe next year it will be there again...OK, too ahead of myself!

So anyways, Gwen got to see her first horse and even sat on one with the help of Aunt Cissy and also pet the horseys face and hair with Jason! She loved them and I swear she remembers them because we have this book with a horse you can pet in it and she just lights up everytime she sees it...she actually gives it kisses!







My parents did most of the cooking while some other family members brought side dishes, pop, etc. It was so nice and helpful, they all really helped us out tremendously. The food was great, the cake was awesome and Gwen really dug right in! She got great gifts (so many clothes!) and all in all had a perfect time witout a melt down! She passed out about 100 feet from their driveway, too.




Her actual FIRST bite of birthday cake...it was ALL frosting and she LOVED it!















At the end of the night, within about 1 minute of each picture being taken she was out. The first pic was without the flash b/c she was still awake and the 2nd pic is with the flash b/c she was down for the count. :) A Great Birthday!!




Not to worry...the next morning she was up and running again not even phased! This might have even been the morning of "banana aebleskivers" (say ay-bla-skeever) that she chowed down on. She wanted her bike/car thingy grandma Judy and grandpa Steve got her out of the box asap!





She can finally wear her hair in bows too!! SO CUTE!



And this was heart breaking enough, leaving Sioux City, but seeing her so tired and upset here was both horrible and hilarious. :) We left at 5 am to make it to Des Moines in time to see Uncle Jimmy walk the stage at his graduation ceremony, she loves her Uncle Jimmy :)

Oh yea, and the new car seat is courtesy of my brother Tom and sister-in-law Kim. Saves us $100, hehe. It is a great one and she really loves being able to face front now too. Thanks Uncle Tom and Aunt Kim!!!

Sioux City Visit

I will post her birthday party in another posting...had to get the rest of the visit in first!

We had the BEST weather in Sioux City which was nice after the horrible diving weather the way there. We got in about 930 pm on Sunday night pretty exhausted. My dad took the whole week off from work so he could hang out with us alot and my mom took a few days off too. It was really one of the best trips home we have had. The first 4 days were 95+ and we were outdoors non stop. Fishing, baseball games, swimming, walking at the dog park, grilling out, going to the kids park...we just soaked it all up. Tuesday morning Jason and I went fishing with my dad while Gwen stayed with my mom. Jason caught the only fish, and it was "huge" hehe, meanwhile Gwen was at the park with my mom swinging on the swings and taking a big walk around our neighboorhood just kicking her little feet away in the stroller. Jason and my dad went fishing again just the two of them the next day too...bonding I suppose, lol. :) We also took advantage of a babysitter (gparents) and ended up going to Star Trek and Wolverine movies...although I hate to admit it, but I fell asleep in Star Trek b/c I was exhausted from life not because the movie was bad. Good for the parts I saw, lol. Oh yea, my parents did make Jason clean the pond and re submerge the plants for the summer...they always seem to keep the work they can't do (or don't want to do) for when we come back....hummmmm....very sneaky!









Gwen even got to open a present early!





We always see a ton of people at the ball parks and this time I got to see my old high school softball coach and her husband (and kids)who was my power lifting coach because her son plays on my nephews team! I remember when her son was born, crazy...he is old now! We also got to see her father, Jack. He is very dear to me as was his wife who died of Cancer after I graduated. I used to sit with her during her treatments when I worked at the Cancer Center. She was amazing and to see Jack again was wonderful...Gwen loved him!!







Dog Park pics...Gwen said the word "dog" because of Daphenie...it was so cute!








We went over and saw Ryan, Riley, Kim and Tom...and Sadie, the dog one night as well. Riley just loves Gwen and I can tell Gwen gets so excited when Riley is around. She also really enjoys Ryan's hat, lol....it was off and on for about 25 minutes!








Gwen even got mail from my Aunt Nancy in Minneapolis! Man, she was spoiled! Nancy MAKES the cards...seriously amazing.




A quick story for those who did not hear about it. The house behind my parents house caught fire one of the days we were in Sioux City. It is sad, but no one was hurt. The mom and kid got out in time and the dog was saved by a fireman...I know cliche, but true! Anyways, I thank God that the house burned down. Why? Well, we just laid Gwen down for a nap and Jason and I were going to go downstairs and relax a bit by the TV. My parents were in the kitchen and I heard my dad say something about "it not being regular smoke, something is on fire" and I heard him go through the sliding doors from their room which is close to where Gwen was sleeping. Jason and I instantly jumped up and ran to see. I thought to myself "I better put tennis shoes on in case I need to help" lol...I always get this hero thing when stuff like this happens...I think I should have been an EMT. Anywho the shoes are in the bedroom where Gwen is sleeping. I open the door and see Gwen sitting up in the crib sucking on PEANUT M&Ms!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? She had pulled my purse off the dresser (my fault I know) into the crib and had been eating them! She had chocolate all over her face, peanuts in her mouth...some in her hands. I was freaked out.
1st of all- babies are not suppossed to have nuts.
2nd of all- an M&M could easily be choked on
So basically after washing her mouth out and cleaning up her crib I came to the realization that 911 might have been called for her if I had not caught her at that time and all because of the house burning down. Seriously....it makes me sick to think of opening that door 1 hour later than I did and thinking about what I might have seen....ugh, I was sick to death of it for a while, but now I just believe things happen for a reason and that fire was one of them. I won't post all the pics I took, but this was from the back deck....so sad.

Leaving Jersey

It was a very gloomy and foggy day when we left Jersey. Not the normal gloom either, extraordinarily foggy and hard to see...like something out of a movie. Annoying to drive, too, lol. We all did fine though, except my need to pee every hour...you'd of thought I was pregnant again, HA! I am not so don't get excited. Besides the weather and the fact that every place we wanted to eat at either burned down or was out of business (absolutley too funny) the trip was pretty quiet and easy. Gwen did great on the way to Iowa. She was probably really excited about seeing all her family and friends because coming back to Jersey was a different story...but that is for another post, hehe.

Play date with Owen and a first kiss!

So I know I have not updated about her birthday or our trip back to Iowa yet, but this was just too cute that I have to post this now! Plus, it iws much easier to write about and upload a few pics....her birthday(S) were so crazy and so much...it's a longer process.

So I babysat a good friend of mine's little boy 2 Friday's ago. His name is Owen and he is 1 month to the day older than Gwen. He is walking A LOT too so it was good for Gwen to see and mimic. She now walks all the time and I think seeing him helped! They were honestly the funniest pair of kids I have ever seen. It was a good 6 hours and neither of them really napped so towards the end was tough for me, but still very fun!

Gwen and Owen kissed almost instantly, lol. They then kissed again 2 more times and I happen to catch one! You will see it at the end of the pics. They played house, drank their bottles together and even pushed around a cart like an old couple shopping at the market, lol. Enjoy the pics! Oh and Gwen totally needs a brother!!!










This is actually the 3rd kiss of the day but the only one I caught on camera. The 1st kiss was initiated by Owen, then Gwen came back with a 2nd....then half the day later after some hugs Gwen leaned in for another kiss and I caught it! :)