Rainy Day Ramblings

This rainy day has finally slowed us down.  We have been busy busy the past few weeks.  We love living in Ames SO MUCH!!  Well, at least the kids and I do...can't speak for the hubs who was living his dream out in the woods.  It's so fun living somewhere with so much to do!  We have been trying out all of the parks in Ames...there's so many!!!  I think we have been to 9 so far...about 15 more to go!  We have a favorite and have been there a few times now...including a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa!  I love it because it reminds me of being in the country -- we even saw deer each time we went! 

I wanted to use this down time today to write a blog, but had a few different topics....so I have shortened them all into ramblings....

1.  Eggs and Raspberries
I don't do a whole lot in the kitchen, but 2 things really drive me crazy!!  First - eggs sticking to my pan....ggrrrr!!  I make scrambled eggs nearly every morning for my breakfast.  Not only are they delicious, put I eat them with peppers, onions, and spinach to get some veggies in right away.  BUT, I cannot stand scraping and scrubbing my pan afterwards each time.  I have tried different heat settings, different oils and sprays....I just don't get it.  We bought really nice expensive pans with wedding money and I would expect nothing to stick to them....but darn eggs!  At least I love them enough to deal with it. 

Raspberries...my kids LOVE them, but why the heck do they get moldy the day after I buy them??  I've tried washing them right away as well as not washing them until we eat them.  I've tried different types of containers....but nevertheless, I throw away half the container every single time. Any tried and true tips??

2.  Summer Nights
I got out of the house alone for an hour last night to run to the library.  On my way home I had the windows down and felt the wonderful summer night air.  I saw people out running, walking, biking, and couples holding hands.  I started to reminisce about summer nights before I had kids.  I miss being able to stay out in the summer night air as late as I wanted to.  Whether it was walking, sitting by a pond, listening to a live band somewhere.... there's just nothing like summer nights.  Remember being younger and staying out with your friends super late in the summers?? Now, we are home by 7ish and have kids in bed around 8 and can't go anywhere :(  I think I need to have "me time" from 7-9 a few nights a week, don't you?!?!

3.  School!
Last year we considered putting Wyatt into daycare and I checked some out that were (sort of) near us, but just wasn't impressed with them.  Plus, the drive to and from just didn't seem worth it.  Now that we live in town and there are more options I toured some daycare centers and fell in love with one in particular.  They call it a school rather than daycare, due to the curriculum and that the youngest age they enroll is 2.  We have Wyatt registered and he will start after he turns 2 later this month.  Yesterday we went there for a "play date", which we will do several times before he officially starts there.  We spent a little over an hour there yesterday, joining right in with the kids and I have to say I'm so excited for Wyatt and a little jealous that I don't get to go hang out there too...I loved his teachers a lot!!  I know the first couple weeks will be hard for both of us (and maybe Rylee too), but it will be a great thing for both of us too!  Being a boy, Wyatt just needs a little more than I can give him...he gets way too bored with me, regardless of how much fun stuff I take him to do.  It will just be part-time too. 

Rylee starts prek this fall and I'm super excited for her also!!  She too is ready for more than I can teach her.  I know she will love learning and I'm so excited to see what all she can do at the end of the year.  We have had a play date at her school as well-- on the playground -- to meet some friends who may be in her class this fall.  I know she is super nervous about school, but I guarantee she will be asking to go by day 3!

4.  Swimming Pool
We got the best gift ever from my dad -- a family pass to the aquatic center.  We have been there almost every day that the temp has been over 80.  I think I'm the tannest I've been since I was 13 and had nothing better to do in the summers than hang out at the pool.  The aquatic center has "tot time" from 11-1 and we have taken full advantage of it. I wasn't sure how Wyatt would do, since he has never been a fan of the water...but he's a little fish now!!  Yay!!!  Not gonna lie, I love being a "pool mom" :)

5.  Grandma and Grandpa
We LOVE having Grandma and Grandpa so close.  I'm trying not to take advantage of them, but it is so WONDERFUL having someone to watch the kiddos for me for an hour or two in the evenings.  James and I have even gotten away a couple of times without the kids to run errands.  I know Grandma really likes seeing the kids more too...and it's probably nice that it's in shorter amounts of time now so she doesn't get so worn out ;)

6. Happy Happy
Life is just grand!  I feel the happiest I've been in a long time.   I feel so at home, being back in an area I'm familiar with.  I love having things to do and not just sitting around the house because driving anywhere takes up half my day, like it used to.  Of course it also helps that it is summer time and the sun shines bright and the days are long.  I think I wrote a blog last summer stating that it is becoming my new favorite season -- I see why teachers love their jobs -- summer break ;) 

Touring Homes

We made the mistake of not touring any homes before we built our last house.  This time, and our advice to anyone building, we are touring as many homes as possible.  This past Sunday we toured 3 open houses in Ankeny/Polk City area and last night we attended the Parade of Homes in Ames, which was so much fun!!  It was quite the event and I wasn't expecting there to be so many people.  It was like trick-or-treating or something....sometimes we would see people at one house that we saw 2 or 3 houses ago.  There were 8 homes on the tour, 7 of which were newly constructed.  The purpose of the event was to showcase 8 different builders.  As we don't have a builder picked out yet, we were curious to see their quality.  James being a construction guy is super picky about who builds his house...needless to say, he wasn't impressed by or interested in any of the builders. 

We did see a lot of cool features/layouts that we liked...and that's the reason why we wanted to look at other houses.  I can look at floor plans and pictures all day long, but nothing gives you a good feel like walking into a house and seeing it in person.  One of our favorite things, which every house last night had, was a doorway from the master closet to the laundry room.  How clever!!  I don't know why we never thought to do that with our last house....our master closet was adjacent to the laundry room and we easily could have had a door connect the two.  We also saw a couple of laundry room features we really liked...like the ironing board in the wall. 

Something else we saw a lot of that we are thinking we may try is mixing white and dark wood.  The first time we saw it, I wasn't a fan...and didn't figure James would be at all since he is normally anti-white trim.  Most of the stair railings we saw had a mix of white and dark wood and it did look pretty classy.  Speaking of stairs...we both really liked a certain stair case type that a few of the houses had.  I think we at least have that part of our house picked out :)

I saw lots of light fixtures I liked, but I'm pretty sure James didn't like a single one of them that I did :(  It's tough to have a husband who actually appreciates design and has opinions on it.  I'm jealous of my friends who's husband's say "get whatever you want".  But....I'm not the best decorator, so it's probably good when James veto's my opinions sometimes. 

We also saw things we didn't like.  The first one that comes to mind is door-less showers....what?!?!  At least half of the houses last night had them.  All James and I could think of is that there would be water all over the bathroom!  Don't get me wrong....they look super cool and I kinda wanted to try one of them out, but just not practical in our opinion.  Another thing we saw a lot of and didn't like was no where to sit and take your shoes off at the front door.  It wasn't that the houses didn't offer a bench...there just physically wasn't room to put one...and some of those houses didn't even have coat closets for guests.  I guess neither of these things is a huge deal, but just something we noticed and didn't think we liked. 

I'm thinking I should have been a realtor, because I'm really loving going into all of these homes.  Maybe I will just become that creepy woman who shows up to all of the open houses with no intentions to buy :)  Hey, it's fun and it's free! 

After looking at houses last night we stopped at a restaurant we hadn't tried yet.  It was a great pick, because we found our new favorite pizza!!!  Joe's Pizza and Pasta.  Specifically, we got the philly cheese stake pizza.  YUMMY!!!!  And it was HUGE...like, one slice is equal to 2 large slices of a Casey's pizza.  I was pretty sure our leftover box was not going to fit in our fridge....it barely did. 

Tell me, what are you some of your favorite features in your or someone else's house and why?? 

Rylee 4 Year Pics

As I may have mentioned previously, I bought my DSLR camera last year with the intent of taking my own pictures of my children to save money.  My first try was Rylee's 3 year pictures last year, which really turned out much better than I could have expected!  One year later, Rylee and I headed out yesterday evening to take her 4 year old pictures and, as usual, I was a bit nervous.  I hadn't had my camera out much at all since last fall.  Would I remember how to use it??  I hadn't thought of any pose ideas or anything...just not prepared at all.  But, it was a nice day, she was freshly bathed and I was in the mood to give it a shot.

I got her dressed and we climbed into the van to head to campus, where I planned to take the photos.  Rylee said to me, "Mom?  Are you sure I look okay?  I don't feel very cute in this."  I assured her she looked super adorable and promised her a special treat if she did good. 

We arrived on campus and decided together to do our first shots in front of some pretty purple flowers.  I was SHOCKED to get this picture right out of the gate!! 

I considered calling it quits right after this since I didn't think I could possibly get any more good smiles out of her.  I showed her the picture and praised her for giving such a great smile!  Genuine smiles are VERY hard to get from her on command.  She asked if she could be done and get her special treat now....ha!  Sorry sister. 

 

Next, we tried a couple of other spots nearby that she was excited about....but didn't get much worth keeping.  Here's the best of those.



Added affects to this one

Then I decided to try out some shots on her blanket that I grabbed at the last minute as I was walking out the door.  We had her 3 month pictures taken with this blanket and with the pink in her dress and hair bow I thought it might work for some shots.  I think Rylee was a little uncomfortable, because these were the best smiles I got.

 

 

We then headed towards the campanile, where we found this little bench and decided to give it a shot.  Decent.  The bells of the campanile began to chime right after this and I completely lost her attention!

 

 

 

Our next stop near the campanile was a pink flowering bush. If she could only understand what was about to happen at the campanile, she would have given me a much better smile.....

So... there were red and white rose petals creating a walk way to the campanile....and inside the campanile were candles and flowers....and a photographer hiding...waiting for a couple to arrive who would be getting engaged in that spot.  Awwwwe, right?!?!?!  Yeah....I wanted to hang out and watch! 

 

Next we headed over to some stairs to try a few different things.  Rylee kept forgetting she was wearing a dress and I had to remind her so many times to cross her legs!!  I got a few decent pictures here.

About this point she started asking if she could take "sad face" pictures because "it's too hard to smile"  haha.  I knew I didn't have much time left for good pictures!

 

I thought we had gotten enough after this one and told her we were done.  I hugged her for cooperating and not complaining and said, "Let's go get your treat!  What do you want to get?"  As she was telling me about the cookies she wanted I spotted another potential picture spot..... 

"Uh, Rylee....can we take some pictures by these stairs on our way to the car, please?!?!"

 

She was a good sport and agreed.  She thought these stairs would be a "cute spot."  Thank goodness, because we got one of the best shots of the day here!

I was so proud of her, that I showed her these shots right away.  I told her "thank you" again and we headed towards the car.  Until....

 

"Rylee, wouldn't it be cool to sit in this tree for a picture?!!?"  She gave a big sigh and told me she wanted to be done with pictures.  I promised this could be the last one and we would do it really quick.  She reluctantly agreed, like a good sport, and after a couple minutes of shimmying, we finally got her into the tree.  She didn't feel very safe up there, and to be honest, I wasn't so sure she wouldn't fall out.......but.....anything for a good picture!! 

I was happy with these and put my camera away so we could both be sure that was the end of picture taking. 

 

 My favorite part of the evening came next, as we got into the van... 

Rylee said, "Mom, I love you!!  Even though I had to take pictures!"  :)  I smiled SO BIG!! 

Man, I love this girl!!!  We really had fun doing these photos together!

 

Rylee + Mommy = Best Friends FOREVER!!