Three fer One

Instead of doing three separate blogs for my last three pictures of 7 Days, I thought I would combine them all into one. A 3fer deal!

Day 5:
Today had a theme of spots. Here I am with my spotted iphone case and spots on my windshield. That works right?

Day 6:
It was kind of a nice morning. I was able to relax and do a little bit of 'me' time with Starbucks and my kindle.

Day 7:
This summer the boys each wanted to grow something by seed. Alex grew snapdraggons. Which didn't make it. Josh grew cacti. Which started to grow. We were all so excited and impressed. Then I set them outside in the hot sun and killed them all. Huh. You would thing HOT is what a cactus would want. Apparently not. And Zach wanted to grow peppers. And lookey here- we are actually getting some!! I am in awe everyday over that!

7 Days: Day 4

Lately, I have been helping my mom clean out her house. My parents want to move into a home that better fits their needs. Their current home has lots of steep stairs that are becoming a tad more difficult for them. My mom has been in this house for around 40 years so she has quite the collection of stuff going! :)

I have to admit I have kind of enjoyed it.  I love organizing stuff!! We have found lots of "treasures" that bring up great memories! Yesterday I found a ton of toys that I LOVED playing with. Lots of those playschool people and furniture that goes with them. We also found this gem (which is my 7days: day4 shot):

It was our family's very first answering machine!! If only it would have been in working order! It would have been awesome to hear what was on that TAPE!! Oh well! Still pretty cool to me!

A Day Off from School

Today the boys had a day off for teacher in-service. It was a beautiful day and I thought we needed to get outside and do something fun. I didn't want to waste the day watching TV or playing video games. Our neighbors/good friends had the exact same thought! So we put our heads together and decided to take our kids down to the pedestrian bridge.

Zach, Charlotte, Sam, Alex, & Josh

Of course it's always fun to be in both Iowa AND Nebraska at the same time!!




When we got to the other side of the bridge, there was a park not too far away for the kids to play at. As we were walking I turned around and saw the Omaha skyline. It looked cooler in real life.
After the bridge, we went to the big slides downtown. Here is my 7 Days: Day 3 shot:
We had so much fun zipping down those slides!!

 After awhile, the trains started!! CHOOOO CHOOOO!!

Us moms may have even participated in that fun!!

Laughing and giggling the whole way down!! We even did a big train with moms and kids- but no pictures of that as we were all busy sliding down the slide. :)

I feel SO lucky to have these two ladies in my life!!

After the slides we headed to ecreamery for a delicious ice cream!! All in all I would say it was a perfect day!! Well, minus Zach's flip flop breaking on the bridge. But that was nothing a little piggy back ride...ok a very long piggy back ride couldn't fix! :) It really was a great day!!!

Dirty Girl!!

I went completely race crazy this year! It was AWESOME!! I think I did 5 races in the past 5 months!! I did 2 Warrior Dashes, a Color Run, a Mini Mud Run and I ended the season with the Dirty Girl Mud Run! And what a way to end it!! Don't get me wrong- every race was SUPER fun!! But between you and me by this time I was a little burned out. My hips have been hurting- Complain, complain. Anyway- this race was the perfect way to end the season!!

We all met at my friend Amy's house and headed to Lincoln- ON GAME DAY- POOR POOR planning on someones part!! 
It was a race for women only and a race to support breast cancer- both survivors and awareness. The energy there was like no other! Everyone cheering each other on. There were all ages! I saw women my moms age to women younger than me. All supporting each other. There were awesome team names and t-shirts. I think my favorite t-shirt I saw said "Of course these are fake! The real ones tried to kill me!!"

The obstacles were more on the fun side. The first obstacle was a big bounce house type thing. You climbed up it and then slid/bounced down the other side- giggling all the way. Their obstacle names were pretty funny too like PMS (Pretty muddy stuff), Just Get Over It, H2OMG, Utopian Tube- which I may have gotten trapped in. My bobby pin got caught in the net part of it. It was hilarious- once I got freed! :)

Amy, Bell, me, Ricci & Annie

This race was the MUDDIEST I have ever been!! And I have been pretty muddy from both of the Warrior Dashes! It was mud pit after mud pit. Climbing in and out of mud. It was fabulous!!

I feel lucky to have been a part of this day- especially with some of my girlfriends!!

Amy, Ricci, Bell, Annie, and me

Ok- now all you ladies out there- go get a mammogram or do a breast check!! It's important!

Mini Mud Run

Back in August, the boys and I did a mini mud run in Lincoln. It was so much fun!! What made it even better is that we were able to do it with some good friends!!

All the kids

All us moms

The race was a one mile obstacle course. As we were waiting in line, I was telling the boys that when they get to mud feel free to play in it! Zach looked at me and said "Wait! You mean to tell me I can get REALLY muddy and rub mud on my face?!?" I said he could and he was completely flabbergasted! He looked at me like I was an alien or something! It was really funny!

The crowds were making Josh SUPER nervous. Almost to the point where he no longer wanted to do the race. But he did it and I am so proud of him for sticking with it and conquering his fear! The first obstacle was crawling through tubes while people squirted you with water guns. The second obstacle was a balance beam thing. None of the boys were uber impressed until we got to the mud. Here we are crawling over tires. I am wearing a bright blue shirt and my boys are probably around me.

Once we hit the mud the boys were in HEAVEN!! They didn't walk through the mud pits. Oh no! Not my kids! They SWAM through it!! They rolled around in it. They splashed in it! It was fantastic!


There was a large slide at the end that lead you into another mud pit. Which was a BLAST! However it was a little difficult to get out of it......


But we made it! And we were a glorious muddy mess!!
Here is a group picture of us after the race!
And some more fun pics....

Josh, Zach, Alex

Mud Zombies???

After the race, we hosed off and then all 25-30 of us went to lunch at Valentino's! Yum! I really hope they do something like this next year!! We would all love to do it again!!

7 Days: Day 2: Stripes

Boring title!! I know. Guess I used up all my creative juices on the pictures.Oh well.

This morning we went to my cousin Wade's son (Mitchell)'s baptism.

It was lovely.


After the service, Matt and I decided to take the boys out for breakfast. Here is my 7 days shot:


Today had a theme of stripes. Alex, Zach and Josh all happened to be wearing stripes!! Woot!

Right after I took the picture, the boys said "Now a goofy one!" Who am I to argue with that?!?!

Happy Fall and Happy 7 Days!!

It's Seven Days time again!! You know- where I take a picture of myself for seven days in a row! :) I haven't done this in almost a year. So I am a tad excited to do it again! Get some creative juices going.

Today was the first day of fall!! WOOT!! I love fall. The cooler weather. The beautiful trees. The layering of clothes!! And I am especially excited this year since the summer was unbearably hot!! Bring on the cooler weather!!

To celebrate the first day of fall we started a fire and roasted marshmallows and made some s'mores. It was great!!

Zach, Alex, Josh

As cute as that above picture is...hard to see my slipper in that shot so I chose this one instead. 7 Days: Day1:

 

Ohhhh...and after Matt and I put the kids to bed we hung out some more by the fire. Just enjoying the quiet. Our (I call it our...but really we have no ownership in it at all) owl swooped by Matt and landed on our neighbors house. We have seen him several times since we moved into our house. I think its a great horned owl. He is big and a little scary. :) So I thought we should name him. 

We named him Hooters! 

(This picture was taken last year....not a great picture but you get the idea of how magnificent s/he is)

The Start of our Second Grade Year

We made it through our first week of second grade. And I even got to sub for fifth grade one of those days!! Crazy! Anyway....

We were nervous to start a new school but we have felt nothing but completely welcomed!! It's been wonderful!! The principal, teachers and counselor have gone above and beyond to make this transition go smoothly!! They even had a little welcome party for all the new students this afternoon.

Here are my boys- super second graders!! (Zach, Alex & Josh)


Zach was a little nervous.


As was Josh.


Alex seemed nothing but excited. But he is mister social. He has never met a stranger!


We got a picture or two with our neighbors- just like we did last year. Got to keep that tradition going!! Although this year some of the neighbors have changed.


We got to school that morning.


And in this crazy mob of moms and dads tried to find our teachers. And this mob is just for first and second graders. It was nuts!


We found each of the teachers. Zach has Mrs. Seyl.


Josh has Mrs. Schaben.


Alex has Mrs. Bauer.


All three teachers seem fantastic and seem to really work together as a team. Which is a huge plus in my book!! And so far the boys have talked fondly of each of their teachers.


Of course the day got better when we found our good friends!!


How could it not?!?!


They were all smiles after school the first day and that couldn't have made my heart happier!! I feel like this is going to be a really great year!!