just an update....

This month has been flying by! Here are some notable high lights:

- We are almost one month through another Iowa winter and Travis and I are both in okay spirits about the winter. Normally by this time in December we're moaning and groaning. We've each been snowboarding once, and Travis took Savannah sledding once. That probably helped.

- Our crazy Christmas party week is passed. We had 5 parties to go to in 14 days. 3 of them included white elephant gifts. Some things we came home with : The Everybody Poops book, a "Water Spider" pool toy (sorry Beth and Brian), The Emu doll, and a T-Rex tooth - along with some other treasures. We got to go to Perfect games for two of the parties and play lazer tag. I beat Travis at lazer tag, race car driving, and DDR at one of them. That was fun :)

- We got most of our Christmas shopping all done a week or more ago.

- We had our last Escape of the year, until January 13th. It will be nice to have a few weeks off.

Here are some pictures of Savannah ... that's why you're here... really. (Savannah updates at the bottom)

Yep, she's a keeper. Here's what she's up to now:

- Still taking 2 naps a day. One from 9 - 10:30 and one from 2 - 3:30. Then she goes to bed at 7:30pm and wakes up at 6:30am. I talked to her doctor about it because it seems like everyone is telling me that she should have dropped a nap but he said she's just so busy when she's awake that she probably needs the sleep.

- She weighs 27 pounds.

-She still drinks soy milk, but she loves Cheese. The cheese is easier on her then straight up milk (Travis and I have the same deal). She also loves cookies right now (thanks for everyone who gave us cookies and introduced them to her diet), and waffles. We're struggling right now to get fruit and especially veggies down. But we'll keep at it.

- She's having fun experimenting with things she can crawl under, jump off of, and run into. She also likes running around with things over her head so she can't see where she's going.

- She talks constantly! Not a ton of real words yet (although she does have some), but lots and lots and lots of babbling.

Snowed in.

Travis stayed home from school yesterday to go to the doctor. Then today he had a snow day! Even better, they have already canceled school for tomorrow too! They have 3 built in snow days so he wont have to make up for today or tomorrow.

Here's some pictures from today:

Travis spent 4 hours shoveling out us and our neighbors. Savannah just looked out the window at him a lot of that time until I finally suited her up and sent her out. She only lasted 10 minutes.

Look how pinky her cheeks are!

Morgan and Jasey spent the night last night. I like seeing their faces. I like having slumber parties with them. We (they) made Christmas cookies this afternoon. We pretty much just hung out in warm the house while Travis was outside all day.

CHEEEEEESE face

Savannah has picked up on what to do when I hold the camera and say "Say Cheese!"

It's the best.

She also picked up on Karaoke.

Second best.

S - NOOOOO-W

It snowed today. Not feeling so hot about that, literally. But Savannah didn't seem to mind all that much:I've been trying to have a better attitude about the seasons this year. I hate winter so much that I usually start dreading it as soon as the first leaves fall to the ground. Fall has always just been the intro to winter for me. I really did appreciate fall in a new light this year - we spent a lot of time outside (with coats on) and played in leaves. I'm even a little sad to see it go. My dad says winter is awesome because of sledding... right? I'm not a huge sledding fan, but I think I'm going to give snowboarding a shot this year. It's all an attempt to enjoy the seasons. So... here we go!

What we've been up to...

We've had a couple big weekends around here.

Last weekend Travis and I left Savannah with his parents at our house while we went to Minneapolis to celebrate our 7th anniversary. Savannah had a great weekend! She was totally exhausted by the time we got home!

Here's Travis eating at Global Market in Minneapolis. He went there on a missions trip and loved it. We ate at a place called "The Holy Land".

Heads up T Rav! We shopped around there in all the little shops from around the world. It was a pretty good time.

Here we are at the Mall. Pretty awesome! Actually, I only shop at Old Navy, Urban Outfitters and H&M. If you have a plan it's a lot less overwhelming. Trust me.

Yep. We went to see New Moon in Minneapolis. We walked out after hour 2 because it seemed like it would never end. Dumbest movie EVER!!!!!!!!

Here's Savannah Mid-week getting stuck under the table. It was only a matter of time until this happened.

On Tuesday we went to MLA (Travis' school) to eat lunch with students and their families. It was my first time to ever visit there and it was well worth the drive.

My dad made Savannah this Owl doll. She's totally into owls right now.

On Wednesday night we host #1 of 2 Thanksgiving dinners with international students. We had two students from China over along with a bunch of our friends. It was a great time! The best was when Travis made everyone play Guesstures.

Savannah had a total of 4 Thanksgiving dinners. The girl can eat!

All in all, busy week, good times, lots of friends, and I'm ready to get my Christmas on!

I need some help here!

Okay, I have a few problems. I'll layout the problems, and you hit me up on facebook or email me (wendysuepierce@gmail.com) with your advice - for some reason people can't comment on my blog... i dont know. But I really need help!

Problem #1 - I'll just say it. Savannah keeps pooping in the bath tub!!! 4 times in a little over a week. Actually, I think she's only had one bath in the last 2 weeks that she didn't do it. I just turn around for one minute, and when I look back - there's poop in the tub. I'm looking for ways to stop this (I keep telling her "no poo poo in the bath!" before and after it happens, but that's not working). I'm also looking for tips on cleaning it up......

Problem #2 - Travis and I will be hosting our annual Christmas Party of small groups present and past (with all our Escape small group kids) and I need some new game ideas! To tell you the truth, I don't think I can play silent pictionary and "the envelope game" one more time! Any good ideas on group party games would be appreciated!

Problem #3 - We decided to host TWO Thanksgiving dinners with international students this year. Last year we did one with a few students from China and it was a blast! So we are having one the day before Thanksgiving and one the day after. I'm not a cook. Does anyone have any really easy ideas for food/sides/dessert? HELP!

Okay - advise away!

Retreat recap

Last weekend was our High School retreat. It was pretty good.

Juuuust kidding! You get more of a story than that! A few high lights include:

- 3 students accepting Christ for the first time!

- Mark Arant's speaking (that guy will have you rolling with laughter one minute, and feeling passionately about living in the Kingdom of God the next).

- The honest confession of sin by students in their small groups. This is something we've been needing for a while. It's like we could feel that the group as a whole just needed to purge!

- Sleeping in a twin bed with one of my small group girls. What can I say, I'm a close sleeper.

- CAMP FOOD!

- A totally amped worship session on Saturday night!

- Experiencing brokeness and grace toward the girls in my small group out of the overflow of love God has given me for them.

Until next year. It will probably take me that long to catch up on sleep!

Weekend pictures

So here's what we did on the most wonderful November weekend you could ask for...

Travis and Jasey played a show at Ziek's. It went well. Savannah kept trying to run to the stage or stand in the back and yell "dada!"

Attempted an amateur family photo. The light and leaves were just right... the kiddo, not so much.

Took Savannah to her first Tailgate for my mom's birthday. Here my dad is trying to be a professional photographer. Maybe we should have asked him to take the family one in the leaves...

Savannah likes wearing this hat for some reason. I think it's the cutest.

And some more leaves.

2pm week days

I just discovered this today.

What stay at home mom couldn't use a relaxing hour watching people dressed up in dumb costumes win money? (click here to watch it online)

ps And Travis, you thought Wayne Bradey wasn't doing anything.....

I will not vote today...

First some pictures......

There aren't a lot of "perks" to being on staff at Cornerstone, so when the inflatables got set up at church a day early Pastor Troy let all the staff with kids come out for a private party the night before the big shindig on Saturday. Travis and Savannah had a BLAST playing their hearts out on the big slides and bouncy house alone!

If you know Savannah, you know she didn't even want us there. She was fine playing without Travis,but he loves her too much to let her have all the fun!

It's a little cold today, but we went to the library for story time anyway. We were the only ones there most of the time - people don't know what they're missing!

My mom works at all the elections. Here she is chasing Savannah down. She'll love this picture. But this leads me to my next point .....

I'm not voting today. Since my mom works at elections and my husband is actually fairly political, I feel kind of guilty. But which is worse, to vote in complete ignorance, or to not vote at all? I guess either way if I don't like the turn out, it's my own fault. Next time... next time.

Fall Filiies

Ames High was off from school yesterday so we had some fun with some of the girls!

Jasey raked leaves for Savannah to jump in. She more or less just ran through them and fell over.

We had a little pot luck lunch with the girls. Jourdan was nice enough to watch Elmo's world with Savannah.

Here's all the ladies together. Sav is at the end of the table - the food towers over her.

It was a fun day of fellowship and relaxation. Is this really my job? I love it.

What do I do?

I was recently asked " Wendy, what DO you do all day anyway?"

Here's the answer you've all been waiting for....

We get up between 6:30 and 7:30 most days. Sav drinks a bottle while I lay in bed and watch the Today show.

By 8:00 we're up and playing, but don't always have clothes on.

8:30, dressed, sometimes bathed, and then we play. Savannah spends about 40% of her waking hours on the stairs right now.

At some point we do all the typical morning stuff.

Around 9/9:30 she goes back down for a nap. I am left to clean up from the morning and the night before.

I also am committed to using this time for my morning time with God. I also try to write back to the girls from my small group in journals.

Since it's too cold out in the mornings to go walking these days, I started getting work out dvds from the library. This one's called "the firm". It's due back today. I liked it.

Sav wakes up by 11 and has lunch. I check facebook.

We head off to pick someone up for lunch at the high school. On this day we got stood up. It happens at least once a week.

Sorry Savannah. All dressed up and no where to go.... but

If we aren't having lunch with someone, sometimes we go out to the church to do some work for Escape. This is the desk I share with Clint and Chase.

This is how Savannah feels about working in the office.

But since we were stood up today I ran to the store. Savannah wanted to run IN the store so I popped her in the cart. SHe loved it.

But then we found halloween costumes.

When we got home we played again and she took a nap at 1:30. Then I have lunch and work on stuff like this, and

This....

And this.... (video I made for Escape)

Sometimes I make phone calls and do other random "taking care of business" type things.

Then Savannah gets up and we 1.Go to a park or 2. meet with some high schoolers or leaders or 3. BOTH!

OR sometimes I have meeting with these guys and we talk about Escape stuff for a couple hours while Jasey watches Sav.

After that I make dinner, then Travis comes home and we have Bible studies or Escape or whatever else happens to be up for the night. Hope you enjoyed my day!