No Brangelina!

We had a great time in Chicago living the high life for a day, but are sad to report that we did not have any Brangelina sightings (sorry Heather- no photos) although I didn't really expect to cross paths since we only went from our room to the pool and back and then to the lobby in the morning. The Pitt-Joley family is living on the 18th floor (in the same suit that Jennifer Aniston lived in while filming The Breakup-weird!) right now as Angelina films a movie. We were staying on the 15th, but I didn't have the nerve to go "wander" on the 18th. Gweneth must have already checked out too because we didn't see her either. I woke up at 5:30 this morning and I thought to my self , "I should get up and go swim my laps in the pool now because that is probably when Brad is swimming :)" ha! It wasn't likely enough to get me out of bed! I will admit though, after learning they were living there right now, on the drive to Chicago yesterday I kept running through scenarios in my head of how we might share an elevator and they need a diaper for one of their kids (how many kids do they have now, 10?) and I just happen to have one in my purse. Or that I could help the nanny while we are waiting in the lobby together and the kids are crying. And the silly scenarios went on and on the whole drive:) But then I really started thinking, and I probably wouldn't even recognize them if I saw them because I saw Brad on tv this morning and he looked sooo old. Well, though we had no sightings, it still added to the excitement and "poshness" of the trip. Thank you Sidley Austin Law Firm!

our mini ipoder

Nate's new favorite thing to do is listen to music on the ipod. He will even dance... a little.




You can really see in this picture that he is going to have Chris's square jaw, don't you think?

Chicago here we come!

Chris has a call back interview in Chicago Tuesday morning and so the firm booked him a schwag hotel on the Magnificent Mile called The Peninsula for Monday night and I get to go with! Chris says that it will be a long time before we can afford to stay at a hotel this nice so I better come with. Trudy (Chris' mom) is going to watch Nate so I consider this an extended Anniversary gift :) Check out the pool...

Best Buds

Saturday morning I had a long run so Chris got up with Nate as I was already out running. When I got home they were sitting on the couch watching Toy Story (Nate's fav) sharing a bowl of Fruit Loops. It was just too cute, so I grabbed the camera and told Nate to smile and he stuck out his tongue at me! What a stinker! Chris has a Fruit Loop in his mouth in case you were wondering what the heck he was doing. We are going to really miss Chris when he starts school next week. Oh yes, and that is Buzz Lightyear's arm in the edge of the photo. He was watching the movie with them.

A Very Happy Anniversary to me!

Anniversary #4

Last night we actually went on a date! This is a huge accomplishment for us because either I am too cheap or Chris doesn't feel good about leaving Nate- but we did it! We went to Joseph's Steak House downtown IC. It was soo good. Chris, of course, ordered a steak. It was delicious. I ordered their fettucini alfredo and whipped potatoes. The potatoes were amazing. Chris even liked them and he doesn't like potatoes unless they are fat fried or loaded with cheese. Chris's parent's watched Nate at their house while we went to dinner. He hardly even noticed us when we came back he was having so much fun. Thanks Grandma Trudy! Then we brought him home to put him to sleep (ha!) and went to a late show of Stardust while Trudy and Steve (Chris's parents) watched Nate here. The little rascal is completely off of his schedule from all of the travel so when we left for the movie at 9:30 he was still jabbering away in his crib. The only reason this bothered me was because he climbed out of his crib earlier in the week and so not I like to listen at his door until he's asleep to make sure we don't let the belly flop out of the crib happen again. He started crying as we left ( I swear he has a 6th sense and can tell when we are going to do something fun) and Grandma Trudy came to the rescue and rocked him to sleep. Stardust was very cute, happy ending, but lots of killing.
I am so grateful to have a sweet, romantic husband (Check out my necklace). He worked so hard in school this past year and I am so proud of all the sacrifices he makes for our little family.

Fun Uncle

Chris' s brother Jon LOVES Nate. It is so cute. All summer he has been trying to get pictures of him and Nate together. Multiple times he has made collages of pictures of Nate for the whole family to put as their desktop background on their computer. This is the latest one, not of only Nate like it typically is. I am so glad that my little guy is so loved! We will be sad when Jon and Dazi go back to Duke next week. I already know that Nate will run down the hall to Dazi's room to peek in and look for her and will be so sad when he can't find either her or Jon.

I'm it! I've been tagged by Heather!

7 Random Things About Me......

1) I have very few pairs of socks that do not have some sort of design on them. I liked to wear funky socks in junior high and my grandma would always buy me a pair whenever she was inspired to do so. Well, it has been a long time since I was in junior high, but she still buys me funky socks. My favorite pair are my Easter ones with Peeps on them. I probably have at least 10 pairs that are Christmas in nature, and I have been known to wear them year round. I can't wait for the weather to cool off so I can get them out again!

2) I love cookie dough, particularly chocolate chip. Often times when I buy/make cookie dough, I end up eating most of the dough before the oven ever gets turned on!

3) I love GoodWill, or GW as it is refered to in our house. I will admit it. Ever since I started garage sale-ing with my friends this spring, I have become a penny pincher. I have found so make good deals at GW. To name a few a pair of AG jeans ( just my size!), board books like Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You? a little Lacoste polo for Nate. I would have never shopped second hand stores like Stuff 5 years ago, let alone GW! I don't know if it is my cheap friends rubbing off on my (I love you guys!) or the student loan statement that comes every few months (yikes!) but I am a bargin shopper and I love it!

4) My favorite color is blue and since I shop for my husband and son, most of their clothes are blue too :)

5) I love breakfast food and would eat it every day for every meal. Any time Chris offers to cook dinner, instead of asking what I want, he asks if I want pancakes. Yummy!

6) I attended 4 different colleges and changed my major twice to get my bachelors degree!

7) Every night when I go up to brush my teeth Chris says, "Goodness. Let me know when you are done". That is because I take the "2 min rule" literally and I will walk around and put away laundry, load the dishwasher, etc. I know it's wierd, but every time I go to the dentist they comment on how clean my teeth are :)

I tag... I know you have done things similar- but do it anyway because it's fun to know random things about you!
1) Sarah Ross
2) Tricia
3) Stephanie Dix
4)Cheree

We did it!

Nate exceeded expectations! He was wonderful on both plane rides. He watched Toy Story 2 and Curious George on both trips, ate suckers and fruit snacks (thanks Heather) and read lots of books. The middle picture is of Nate on the floor of the plane with his head on my knee. He would play on the floor every now and then and I knew he just needed his space- not to be held. We sat Chris window, me middle, and Grandma Trudy aisle. He just climbed back and forth between us all. On the way there he started to get a little restless the last 20 min. so I let him play with the phone that is attached to the back of the seat that was infront of us. I figured he couldn't do any damage since you need a credit card to activate it. It did the trick and we made it there. Our new favorite place in Salt Lake is Liberty Park. It has a great splash park and a stream/pool playground too with lots of plastics balls that floated down the streams. So fun! We loved it!

Nate obsessively carried keys around the entire trip, mostly his grandma's keys to her car we left at the Chicago airport- I was so worried we were going to leave them in Utah! The wedding was beautiful. It was nice to have a reason to buy a new dress and get dolled up. We also got to visit with our good friends the Christians and Packhams. Our visit got cut short due to lack of sleep for Nater Tater, but we enjoyed seeing them even if it was only for a little while!

Here is a funny picture of Nate from last weekend... 2 weekends ago I guess, on our way to our family reunion. Nate was fussy so we stopped at Mc Donalds and bought a shake to share. You can see how much sharing happened!

Update

We successfully moved home Wednesday after a lot of drama with UHaul- be cautious if you use them, ask for details. Thursday we spent the day with Chris' family and unpacked. Friday and Saturday we were up to Waterloo for my family reunion where Chris won the Ott Coon Feed Family Reunion Golf Tournament- the trophee was complete with a coon on top! It is proudly sitting on top of our entertainment center! Now we are leaving our home again and heading out to Utah for Chris' cousin's wedding. Yikes. First time flying with Nate. Wish me luck. We are packing a fan for white noise, his high chair, car seat, snacks, toys. Is this really worth it?! We look forward to getting together with friends and family in a couple of days out in Utah, so I guess that makes it worth it!

Sleep like a baby?

I rock Nate to sleep every night at we sing songs, but last night he was particularly wiggly, so I put him in his pack-and-play to get his wiggles out and shut the door. Usually he will just talk to him self and roll around the crib for a while, then fall asleep. Many times Chris has tried to sneak in with a video camera to record his "whale songs" that he sings while he is rolling around in there. But every time he sneaks in the door, Nate see him and cries and wants to come out. Last night we heard this banging noise coming from his room. Some times he hits his binki or his water cup against the wall so I didn't think anything of it. Chris went to peak in and said he had a pole. I assumed that it was a hanger- his pack and play is by the closet door and I sometimes put hangers on the door knob. Chris wanted to go in, but I knew it would elicit cries, and since he was happy and safe, I said just leave him alone. After he was sound asleep we both went it and I immediately had to leave the room because I burst out in laughter. Our laundry sorter was in his bedroom- ya know, the ones that have 3 bags for different colors of clothes and a frame to hold up the bags. Well, I have no idea how, but Nate dismantled the frame and had the poles in his pack-and-play with him! That is what he was banging against the wall!I have no idea, no idea how he got the hamper close enough to the pack-and-play to dismantle it, let alone how he dismantled it!The things kids do! I am just glad that he didn't hurt himself! Silly mom, I guess I shouldn't underestimate this child.

Goodbye Zoo

We went to Family Night at the zoo on Friday for the last time. I saw my favorite teacher from high school in the parking lot as we were leaving- very random but good to see him. He knew Chris because we dated in high school. He said I was "all grown up". I never really think of myself that way, especially since when I got pregnant with Nate, Tammy from the gym thought that I was in high school. So it was nice for someone to say that I didn't look 14!
We are really going to miss Des Moines, but are very excited to get back to our home, our bed, our washer and dryer, and our FRIENDS! The next 3 days we will be frantically packing and trying to visit any places that we have not gone to thus far- mainly places we still want to eat at!

My celebrity look alikes

Cheree had this on her blog and I thought it looked like fun... although Cheree and I both have Christy Brinkley and Cheree and I look nothing alike! P.S. I finished Harry Potter- loved it!

Sugar Baby

Today on our way home from the pool, Nate and I stopped at this old school frozen custart shop that we pass on the way to church every week. Every week I would tell Chris, "We have to stop there before we move". Since we only have a week left, today was the day! Nate has never had an ice cream cone before and his eyes lit up with pure delight as I held it up for him to take his first lick. "Mmmm" he kept saying. It is so wonderful to share "firsts" with your little ones!


Nate kept pointing to the giant version of his cone on the sign saying "Mmmm" and yes, that is the entire cone stuffed into his mouth!

Bitter Sweet

Ahhhh! I am dying to read this but it seems the world is lined up against me trying to stop me from doing so! Okay, not the world just my family! Problem #1: Time! I can only read while Nate is napping because any time I try to do something "grown-up" while Nate is awake he immediately climbs on top of me and tries to get involved, i.e. emailing, reading, cooking, etc. #2 Husband! Last night we both wanted to read, but we only have one book! When book #6 came out we tried to read it together because we didn't want to take turns and that was a horrible. I gave in and said that he could finish it first. Right now he is holed up reading away while I am left to watch nothing better than golf on tv and complain about it on my blog! I do have to admit that I said that he could read right now because I will get to read tomorrow while Nate is napping and Chris is at work, but I am not sharing happily! #3: Responsibility. This is the first HP book that I have not been able to just dive in to and read from cover to cover. I have people to take care of , things I have to do that won't wait to find out if Harry dies. Is anyone else reading this or any other good books. I am dying because I am afraid that I am going to find out what happens before I get a chance to read it. My mother-in-law's friend read the last chapter before she started the book because she had to know what was going to happen. If only Nate was a little older and he would enjoy me reading it to him so that I could scratch that itch I have all day long! I have half the mind to go steal that book from my husband right now....

Birthday Bash

Here are a few pictures from Nate's birthday party. We are so grateful to live in Iowa close to family so that we could have them share this day with us. Nate loves his cousins and it made his day extra special that all of them could be there . We also had both grandmas, Grandpa Steve, Uncle Ben, Aunt Erica, Uncle Chris aka Bubba, Great Grandma Jo, Aunt Dazi and second cousin Elise.You can really see in some of these pictures how much Nate and Lauren love each other. So cute!I know some of the pictures are kinda small but if you click on the image you can view them in a larger format... at least I can on my computer.

Our Weekend

Nate is going through this thing where he likes to carry this blue bucket around with him all the time. When we go to the pool. He just walks around the pool with his bucket! Funny guy!
This is us this morning as we took dad to work. We were running a little late but Nate still insisted on walking to the car himself (and carrying his bucket of course). And p.s. that is a SJP Bitten original :)












We did it! I ran my first race! Lots of people were giving me a hard time about running a marathon without ever running any other race beforehand. So I ran a 5K last weekend. We went up to my parents Friday night for a family reunion that was later in the weekend. When we got there they told me my little brother was running in the morning. So I went with him at 6am Saturday and registered and ran it! Woo hoo! So there ya go guys! Now I have run a race before the marathon.

This is my "baby" (ha, he's a good 6" taller than me) brother and me after the race. I was rep-ing Gold's for my dad's gym.

HELP!

Is anyone familiar with the PAF program? I have a couple of questions. First, where do I input alternative spellings for a name? For example: Miller and Muller. Second, if the father's surname was misspelled and I correct it, do I have to individually correct each descendent's surname as well or is there a "trump" button that I can push to have it apply to all the last names in that family? If anyone can help that would be great. I would email you individually, but I don't know who is working with PAF right now, and who isn't and I figured this would cover a bunch of people. Thanks for your help!

Confession Time

Okay, I can give you a million excuses: Nate goes to bed at 8pm and we can't go anywhere after that, we don't have cable, etc. But the truth is.... I am hooked on Age of Love on NBC Monday nights. If you haven't seen it, it is a dating show where 1/2 of the women are in their 20's and 1/2 of the women are in their 40's and the bachelor is, I think, 31. I especially liked last weeks elimination because he just cut to the chase, he just walked into the girls' apartment and told 2 of them they were going home- much different than the 45 min of elimination on The Bachelor. I know there has got to be someone else who watches this... Cheree? If anyone does watch it, who is your favorite?


7-17-07
Okay, I am sorry if anyone watched it last night because I said it was entertaining... it wasn't so good last night. Drama, drama and long elimination... and next week looks like it will be even trashier. The first few episodes there was no kissing and he seemed like a stand up guy, but I guess things are changing. ..

SMITTEN WITH BITTEN

On Saturday my mom took me to the most amazing store at, you will never guess, WESTDALE MALL in CEDAR RAPIDS! The store is called Steve and Barry's. I guess it has been there for 2 years and we never knew about it (sorry Cheree, Hayley, Brooke and all others that have moved!) What makes it so amazing? Well, to start, my heart was racing as I filled my shopping cart with clothes- every thing is so cute and so cheap! Their shirts were all really long, so I don't have to wear a cami to extend the length. Shirts were 2 for $12. They had cute, cute shorts. Shorts and capris were 2 for $22. Earings were something like $1.50. Jeans were $12. Shoes were $10 or less. I could go on, but you have to check it out for yourself! These are not sale prices- sale prices were $2 or so. I will model a couple of outfits when Chris gets home from work tonight and post the pics. Oh and Sarah Jessica Parker's new line Bitten is exclusively carried here. I saw it on Oprah a few months ago. Click here to check it out. Her stuff was a little more expensive (shirts were $8 instead of $6) but there were a little more detailed and definitely cuter! I could have spent a fortune in there because the clothes were Target price for a Gap quality. I have been really pleases with my items so far. If any of them fall apart, I will post and put a disclaimer about them, but until then- go to their website and see if there is one near you! If not, don't worry, they are expanding rapidly. I think I read that they opened 100 stores or so last year alone! So keep watching. They are the fastest growing mall clothings store right now. They go into vacant department store lots in malls- so they are huge! 2 stories with kids clothes and outerwear and guys clothes- nice silk ties for $8! I think their clothes prices were the same as womens- so tops for 2 for $12, etc. Which is great because my husband is like a little boy- he is so hard on his clothes we are constantly patching them or throwing them out!
The picture in the top left corn is of the exterior of the store. It caught me off guard because it looks so blah- so keep your eyes open. If you are going to the one in CR coming off of Hwy. 30 it is the first store you come to. Across the street from Wendy's. Happy shopping!

SUPER NATE

True story. One night we went to good will to look for a steering wheel for Nate's stroller, or something with one that we could cut off and put on Nate's stroller when Chris spotted a Super Man costume. Immediately when Chris pulled it off the rack Nate started to laugh and was really hyper- the bright colors maybe? or he felt Chris' excitement? Who knows. But we rushed home because we couldn't wait to get it on him. He ran around like a crazy man and was laughing so hard he could hardly walk! It was the most entertainment I have ever got out of $1!