Teeth!

I just realized I never posted this - sorry~ 

We took Savannah to the dentist last week.  She did great.  We usually have her brush her teeth before bed, but it's been kind of a struggle sometimes.  A friend gave her an awesome tooth brush for her birthday that blinks for a minute so she knows how long to brush.  That's totally helped.  Anyway, she loved the dentist. 

 Here's the eating room.  We had to wait in there a while and then Savannah had to sit in the corner and watch me get my teeth X-rayed, cleaned, and checked over.  She did awesome waiting. 

They counted her teeth and then asked if she wanted to get her teeth polished like Momma and she said "YES".  She hopped right into the chair and did everything they asked. 

They gave her cool sunglasses so that their light didn't shine in her eyes.  You know she loved that!

Savannah was such a good girl.  She loved it and she did great.  Kept her mouth open while they cleaned and flossed each tooth!

Since her visit to the dentist Savannah has been loving brushing her teeth all the time.  It's great.  

Get outta my belly!

And we're light again!

My friend Leann couldn't stand to see my blog off the radar for too long so she graciously let me use her daughter's old camera - which happens to be fully functioning and exactly the same as my broken one.  THANK LEANN! (insert cheesy smile face)

Today our friend Katie volunteered to watch Savannah and two other friends so that I could take their very pregnant momma out to lunch!  So big thanks to Katie and big GOOD LUCK to Laura.  Her baby's due date was Saturday, so she's 4 days past today.  I hope this is the last photo op she has before this kid comes - I hope this kid comes today!  

But look how happy she is :) 

Butterfly Buddies

Savannah and I had been sick and cooped up in the house for a few days when Katie and Eisley invite us to hit up the butterfly garden!  It was a whopping $8 (for just me, kids are free) to get in but I think it might have been worth while to get out and have something to do that didn't involve running or getting your hands all over other kids toys.  

Savannah and Eisley both had fun figuring out how to use magna-fine  glasses.  

I took a picture of this because it was literally how Katie and I spent almost the entire time. 

"oh come on, look over here.  Please?"

Confession Session: This butterfly was actually dead and I told Savannah to hold it so we could take her picture holding a butterfly. 

Me: "Savannah, don't pick those flowers over there. "

Savannah: Runs away around the corner where I can't see her.

Me: "Savannah, what are you doing? Are you picking flowers?"

Savannah: See above picture. 

What do you think she was doing?

Love these girls.  Oh the things little Eisley will learn from Savannah. 

$8 worth of priceless photo ops - that's for sure!

Going Dark.

Please Pass the Pierces may be going dark for a little while.  

Today we took Savannah to the dentist for the first time and to reward her we took her to BK. While we were ordering food Savannah ran off and I found her sitting on the toilet in the bathroom.  She asked me to wipe her, so I did.  In the process my camera fell out of my purse and into the pee toilet at BK!  What are the chances?  Seriously.  

Yes, I reached in to get it out right away, but even though it's been sitting in rice all day, I'm not too hopeful that the camera will be salvaged.  

I have a few pictures of things that I haven't posted yet - but really, what's a blog without pictures.  So once I get those ones up we will be out of print until I can afford either an iPhone or a camera. So maybe this summer.... :) I don't know.  It's been good while it lasted.  

(maybe this is a little dramatic - but it's also a little true :) )

Ready.

  Sometimes I let her get ready all by herself. 

Appreciation

I know I've mentioned before some of the handmade things around our house.  Today I was just thinking again of how thankful I am of the gift and talents of others. 

Here's some patch work things I brought home from Panama.  My mom matted and framed them more me. 

Once I mentioned to my dad that we'd like a rack for our snowboards some day.  The next day I came home and this was on the wall. 

Then I started thinking about the rooms in our house.  We have really hardly purchased any furniture ever!  In our living room - one chair is from my parent's house, one from the Farner's.  Dinning room - Table from the Farner's, chairs from the curb and from the Iowa State sale.  Bed room - Bed from my uncle, table and dresser from my parent's house, chair from the curb, chest from Travis' grandparent's, and another dresser from a friend's mom.  I could go on.  Seriously.  I love it!  All we really own of our own is a couch, some lamps, and and end table!  Much Appreciation!

hackers

Savannah and I have been sickies the last couple days.  It seems like no matter what you do, you just can't avoid the crud.  Yesterday the poor girl had a fever, and today the two of us are just hanging around hacking all over each other.  I think she's on the up slope though.  

So what do we do on a sick day?  Well, lots of house cleaning and lots of TV watching.  Savannah asked this morning if she could go to Grandmas house today and I could come home and do chores alone.  :)  She doesn't love helping. 

At one point we sat down and worked on a  preschool work book I got for her.  I just really enjoyed the moment with her. 

Poor sick girl, still didn't get completely out of doing her part today!

Personality Profile on us: for all you labelers out there

I realized a few days ago that Savannah is old enough and has developed enough of her personality that I can put her in a box!  I love labeling and boxing people!  Part of that is because I am in ESTJ, and my strengths include stratigising and individualization.  I was thinking about Savannah's Myers Briggs type the other day and decided that I think my girl and my man are the exact same type.

ENFP: Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency.


Where is this amazing?  They both LOVE people and are full of life, joy, and helpful words.  They encourage me and build me up. They make me laugh and make days adventurous and fun!  


Where is this conflicting?  SJs tend to want things in order, where NPs don't mind so much if their surroundings are a little crazy.  Ts like to make decisions based on logic and what makes the most sense.  Fs like to go by what feels right.  You can probably see where my being out numbered might cause some issues in the future.....


Either way, they're mine.  I love them.  And I'm glad that the three of us Extroverts get to do life together! 

Here's my ENFP doing her favorite thing - watching TV. 

Car Costume

This is the best. 

On our way to the water park deal last weekend I let Savannah color in the back with some markers.  We don't really mess around with crayons.  I never liked them that much and come on, Crayola Markers wash off of everything, right? 

Right. 

She started with an orange mustache, then got some black side burns going, then a little blue on her teeth.  I couldn't help but just crack up laughing the entire time!  I was bored, she was bored, and what the heck!  Go for it! Savannah said it was a "costume".  I get that. 

I look super dumb in this picture, but that's just because I really was laughing super hard.  Love this girl.

Waterpark Hotel

We were blessed this weekend with a stay at King's Pointe - a water park hotel in Storm Lake, IA.  

We took the 2 hour drive through some of Iowa's best country side and landed here:

Savannah loves loves loves to swim.  Just like her momma :) So she was super duper excited.  Travis loves loves loves family time, so he was super duper excited too!

We have some water slides at the Ames pool, but Savannah is too short to go on any of the big ones.  Luckily this place had 2 of them that Savannah could ride down with us.  

This is pretty much how she spent the entire weekend.  We got to the Hotel on Friday night.  Swam for 2 hours, then had dinner in our room.  Then swam again from 11 - 5 Saturday.  The girl just bobbed and floated in the water almost the whole time.  We had to make her get out and eat ice cream just to make sure she was rested enough. 

Just gonna slip in a little Pinterest WIN here.  Put glow sticks in the bath tub and turn off the lights.  This was a super fun hotel activity.  Savannah loved it!

The room was pretty huge!  We had a queen suite - but it was still way bigger than I thought it would be.  Savannah doesn't do great in Hotel rooms, so it was good we only stayed one night.  Even after all that driving and swimming she was still up from 11pm - 2am just playing and crying and playing in bed.  

On Saturday the Saldanahs joined us!  

Katie and I were talking about the most special part of all of it was that Travis and Chris could go down water slides together since really the girls can swim in Ames and we can always talk in Ames.  But the dudes usually have to work and definitely don't have indoor water slides in Ames!

More bobbing around.  Just by herself.  Usually talking to herself too.  

Oh, and she does great with ear plugs.  Her tubes are still in as far as we know. She checks her ears about every 3 minutes to make sure the plugs are still secure. 

After a FULL day of indoor pooling around we had dinner at the Hotel restaurant.  Look at these tuckered out girls holding hands :) 

Also, I thought it was cool that I taught Savannah how to thumb wrestle while we waited for dinner, but I found out later that my dad had already done that with her.  Oh well.  She likes it and that's all that matters. 

Here's Eisley and Savannah after dinner waiting for their dad's to start the cars before we left.  

We're so blessed to have such a good family and such good friends to enjoy life with!

Our Crew

Savannah and I are pretty lucky - it just so happens that two of my greatest friends have kids that are Savannah's greatest friends!  It's a huge blessing to get to spend time with all of them.  And also a huge blessing that Savannah and I both get our relational needs met at the same time.  We all went out to eat the other day.  3 moms,  kids under 5, and 2 buns in the oven!  I don't know what we're going to do when Laura and Katie have babies toting along with them - but one thing's for sure, we'll figure it out. 

This picture doesn't even come close to capturing the chaos that goes into getting everyone's coats on and everyone out the door.  So many hugs.  So many good byes.  So much stalling!

Memory Monday #6

I wrote a title for this one: My Prayer to be a good friend.  This would have been written the summer after graduation.  I love that although my longing for true friendship had stuck with me - the answer to it had so changed!

7-23-00
Dear Abba,
Thank You Father for your love.  Thank You for holding my heart and loving and understanding me when no one else will.  I know that friends can't be perfect, Lord, but sometimes it feels like they don't even care.  My existence is meaningless to them and my presence no more than a flies.  Yet, I keep going back for more.  Keep loving and getting nothing.  You are my only real joy.  Thank You for letting me know that you hold me close to your heart, you long for our conversations, you listen and love it it seems no on else will.  Please don't let me treat those I care about the wrong way.  Help me to see other's needs and put them ahead of my own.  I love you Lord.  Thank You for Jesus who died and covered my debt.
Amen.  

Who hasn't felt this way?  Really? I look at this and hear the words of sooo many young girls that have confessed the same feelings of neglect to me about their own relationships.
  I wish I could say that this prayer had been completely answered.  I am thankful that even from the age of 18 God had been teaching me that He is the only one that will never ever let me down.  I am encouraged to see that he was speaking to the needs of my heart.  What a good and faithful God we have.  I am also encouraged that by no work of my own, He later provided me with amazing friends that let me know the value I hold to them and that I rarely have to go back to this place.

Fashionista.

Savannah was called a Fashionista 3 times in one day last week.  My her father, by her grandfather, and by some random check out person at the store.  The a couple days later she spend the first 30 minutes of her day crying because she'd tried on 5 dresses and didn't like any of them.

CRACK DOWN TIME. 

So I made this chart.  It has 3 dresses and pants and a shirt.  She can try on 3 different dresses in one day, then if she still doesn't like what she's wearing, or she complains, I put her in a shirt and pants that I choose.  

So far so good.  It's too early for all this stuff!  Last night she told Travis that she can't eat dinner because it will mess up her lip gloss!  Gah!