Lately

Here's just some pictures from my phone.  

Savannah has been having fun scrolling through the Christmas / Holiday isles at the stores.  She's in the mood for Christmas.  Shopping with her (especially during week day mornings) is pretty fun because we both just kind of space off into the isles and look at all the pretty things.  Of course, sometimes she gets going on a project while I shop - like this one - hanging candy cans on each other. 

I took a bath at a friends house the other day.  I remembered that they had a great big tub with Jacuzzi jets in it so I just went ahead and asked.  It was so warm, and so relaxing!  Needless to say, I'm going back.  :)  It's a little weird, and humbling to beg to use someone else's bathtub, but well worth it at this point in pregnancy.  Fortunately for them, they live on the other side of Ames and the 15 minute drive is enough to keep me from coming back every single day.  

Our friends that moved to Des Moines earlier this year bought a new house, so while Savannah had some time off of school last week, she and I went to visit them.  They have a daughter that's 2 1/2.  Savannah loves playing playing with her!  

Just watching TV at home.  It's whatever. 

Our annual Escape22 Fall retreat was a couple weekends ago.  I wasn't sure how'd i'd weather it this year being so big and tired and uncomfortable, but one way I managed was by driving myself around camp everywhere.  Which also meant fitting as many girls in my car as I could all weekend.  You can't see them all, but if we include the two babies that are inside my and Samantha's bodies in this picture, there are 14 people crammed into my car.  It was only a 4 minute drive. 

Sawyer

Savannah and I have been spending some extra time at Travis' school, Sawyer Elementary, lately. 

Last week a bunch of the teachers he works with blessed us (and another one of their pregnant co-workers) with a little baby shower.  

They were so generous and they even thought to make sure that Savannah got some gifts as well.  I can't believe how many people love this baby so much already.  

Here's Mr Pierce at work.  To get an idea of how big his "room" is - I'm standing in the middle of the room taking a picture, and you can see the walls on the sides of the room.  

One of Travis' students wanted to read a book to Savannah.  We made arrangements and went in at a time when she could come in.  They had cheese balls and juice together.  It was really fun.  This is the other end of Travis' room.  :)  Needless to say, we're glad he took the job in Ames for several reasons, but the easy access that our family has to each other now can't be replaced.  

Events of last weekish or more

I found a bunch of pictures on my phone - I think mostly pictures that I took to text to people.  But they describe some life events so I'm sharin them. 

I lost one of the diamonds from my engagement ring.  Tomorrow we celebrate 10 strong years of being married.  Luckily it's not hugely expensive to get it replaced so we'll probably do that sometime.  Still a little sad.  

Savannah has been sleeping in our bed about an hour every morning.  Sometimes (much) more, sometimes less.  I don't love it - but at the same time I'm really trying to cherish every moment we have left with our only child.  

I had a flat tire a couple weeks ago - did I post this already?  I just thought it was funny that I got three fully capable men to come to my rescue.  The cold weather and the 8 month old child in my stomach probably helped. 

Did we mention that Travis got a motorcycle?  A lady who he works with just stopped by one night and randomly dropped it off for him!  He's pretty pumped. 

And then a whole bunch of woman that I love had a surprise baby shower for us.  And THEY gave us a motorcycle too!  (complements of LeeAnn Farner)  It was a really fun time.  And we super appreciate all the love and gifts.  We may just be ready for another baby after all ...well....idk about that. 

Heart jar celebration

When the kids at Savannah's school do something kind or good or right, they get hearts for their heart jar.  Once the jar is full they get to have a celebration!  Savannah's class has had two celebrations now - and the entire school and one big celebration.  

The class voted for what theme they wanted this time and since Halloween was right around the corner, they had a costume celebration.  Out comes BATGIRL again!

Parents were invited to this one, so I got to go and take part in the party. 

Here is Savannah getting wrapped in toilet paper by her friend.  She was having a pretty good time with it - I just didn't get a good picture of them. 

Here they are all singing silly songs. 

And eating silly smile snacks. 

They also bowled with pumpkins, and they even got to open up a special pumpkin that was covered in glitter and full of candy!  Savannah said it was a party pumpkin.  This is just one of the many things we love about Savannah's school and her teachers.  She's doing great there!

Dont Make Me Sing

This is seriously one of my favorite SNL skits ever.  Did you know that it's hard to find SNL skits on youtube?  I had to go to straight to NBC for this one.




We've all been there.... come on.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na batgirl

I just realized that I haven't posted our Halloween pictures yet.

We had tons of fun Trick or Treating in the morning on Main Street.  The older these kids get the crazier it gets!

Savannah made this "ghost" on our tree.  Some of our neighbors put out Halloween decorations - guess she wanted to be part of the fun. 

Travis let Savannah "fly" by riding in the car with her head out the sun roof.  She thought it was a little scary, but she also was laughing the entire time.  We drove slow and it was mostly in the alley.  

Here's Savannah with part of her score - busted. 

In the evening we went Trick or Treating with some other friends.  Its more fun for Savannah to go with other kids that run to the doors with her.  

Of course you always have to run with you Trick or Treat. 

This is one of our neighbor's houses.  They had a special bag just for Savannah with her name on it and everything! They kinda go all out!

And the funnest part - Savannah has dressed up at batgirl at home at least 4 out of the last 5 days!  

Minneapolis is our Bro

I think that most couples have their city.  Or at least their place.  You know, the one that is their go to - the place where they know what's up - where they always feel good about going to.  Some of our friends really like going to Kansas City, some of them like Chicago.  For my parents I think it's probably Okaboji.  To each his own.  But we are Minneapolis people.  Always have been!  Before Savannah was born we would head up there a couple times a year for shows and to shop.  It's been a while, so Travis and I decided to spend a couple days there to celebrate our upcoming 10 year anniversary.  We considered planning some new activities this time, but as it came closer to our trip we decided that we probably always just do the same things up there because those are the things we like.

We stayed at a Courtyard Hotel that I found online.  I used our credit card points to pay for it so even though it was only $65 a night, it was actually FREE!  It was one of the nicest cheap end hotels I've ever stayed at for sure.  And I realized as we were passing hotels on the way there that Travis knows what company owns every hotel out there.  I guess it's a hidden talent he has.  Marriot owns Courtyards I guess.  His years of touring with Spoken gave him some valuable life experience :)

We took it pretty easy.  Went to bed early Friday night, after we watched King of Queens for an hour.  Saturday we ate breakfast at IHop, shopped around Uptown, ate lunch at Global Market, got 15 minute massages at the Mall.  Then we went back to our Hotel to watch the OU game.  We got some chips and salsa and beer - and since the Dish wasn't working in our room we ended up taking it all down to the lobby to watch it on the TV down there.  It wasn't very classy.  Whateves - it's not like we care.  Sunday we did a flash through at IKEA in just under two hours - that includes eating a 99 cent breakfast and eating lunch.  I feel pretty accomplished in that.
Here's the few pictures I took: