Neigh.

We had a fun little venture out to the ISU horse barns with Savannah the other day.  Add that to your list of fun Free things to do with kids in Ames.  Plus we got some pretty cute pictures. 

Here Savannah is waiting for a horse to come smell her hand.  She really liked feeding them and the dumb horses just ate whatever hay we picked up off the ground.  Lucky for her!

So the horse with the blue eye in this picture only has one eye - the other one is all stitched up.  Travis noticed it first and was all grossed out by it.  I lovingly rebuked him and told him that he should relate to the horse since he had to wear an eye patch for most of his early years.  Too much?

When we were leaving Travis asked Savannah if she wanted a horse.  She said no.  I think she's going to be a realist like her mommy.  :)

TICLW Early Spring 2011

A friend recently suggested that it was time for another "things I can't live without" blog.  I think this friend was being sarcastic because it was the same friend that said my blog was Void of all pretense, but I decided he was right.  It certainly IS time!

Here are things I couldn't live with out in past posts.  Right here at your finger tips for easy reference. 

Spring 2009

Summer 2009

Spring 2010

Fall 2010

Now that you probably spent a good half of your free internet cruising around time looking at that, I bring you EARLY SPRING 2010 - Things I can't live without!

The Ninja
Have I told you about the Ninja?  I use it almost every day.  I keep promising to post specifically on the Ninja and all it does, but that will still have to wait.  Let me just say this now, it's like a Magic Bullet (which I WAS a huge fan of until it crapped out on me after 2 years of continual use), but it's a little bigger and WAY better.  The "through out" blade system makes it.  I use it to make smoothies A LOT.  And this thing can blend ice cubes like no ones business.  Also used it for Salsa, and to mix cupcake mix.  Just wait... there will be more to come. 

Melaleuca

I had the start of a sore throat one day and my friend Laura talked me into putting a couple drops of Melaleuca tea tree oil down my throat.  And guess what?  My throat got better!  So I ordered some and we've been using it on cuts, zits, sore throats, canker soars, dry skin and this weird bump/sore thing I've had on my arm for months - makes it all better!  And this was one sick sore.  It looked like a cigarette burn but it just never went away!  Gone!  

Homemade Granola Bars and This Blog

This was one thing I never pictured myself doing.  Making granola bars.  Who am I?  A freaking flower child??  No.  I'm not.  Don't be mislead by my post here - I still don't really care about organic, or recycling, or going green.  But boy, these are good!  And easy!  

Apple TV
We have had Netflix for a while.  Love. It.  But just recently we got this.  The short of it is that you hook it up to your tv and it picks up your wireless signal and puts netflix on your TV.  Then you just sit back and use the little remote to scan through every movie in the world from your couch.  Travis said it's like a virtual movie store - he LOVES it.  It's been really awesome to use lately since we've been hooked on LOST like no one's business. I still don't think we even know the full potential of we we could be able to do with this little guy. 

Starbucks Coffee Grounds
In an attempt to save some cash, I purchased some Walmart coffee grounds one day.  Bad choice.  I just started drinking coffee in the last year and let me tell you - there is definitely a difference between good and bad coffee... and when you're only brewing 3 cups a day, it's well worth the "splurge" to get good stuff.  I like the Itilian blend from Starbucks a lot.  And a bonus - take the empty bag in to Starbucks for a free cup of coffee!

Faces and Fitness

Savannah's new thing is "Mommy, take a picture of this".  

In other news, I've been working out at Surefire Fitness this week and it's KILLING ME. I have sore muscles where I didn't even know I had muscles. I think I'm probably the weakest and worst one in all of the 3 classes I've gone to, but it is fun and I feel "good" afterwards.   I actually really really like it, but there's only time in the day for one Pierce to be hooked on working out, and I don't have the drive for it to be me.  Probably more on this later. 

Eat You Heart Out

(Thanks to Clint and Miranda for getting this for Savannah last summer.  Hey- that's two shout outs in a row for you guys!)

Road Triiiiip

Travis was home for spring break last week so we took what has become our annual spring break trip - to the outlet mall by Iowa City.  I know, fancy, right?

They have pretty good deals there.  

Savannah did better this time than ever before.  She brought her own clothes in to dressing rooms and tried them on, and helped me pick some things.  And after we went to a few stores and she obeyed really well, we took her to Toys R Us.  Her first time in a Toy store.  She's getting really good at knowing she has to leave most of it behind in the store but it's fun to look.  Travis let her pick out a toy to buy this time though.  First time we've actually purchased a toy for her from a store that was more than $5.  I can't believe we made it this long off of hand me downs and gifts!  He gave her a choice between a Cinderella doll with tons of little pieces and a light saber - guess what she chose?  Yep, little pieces all over the living room right now.  

 I thought this was funny.  I was talking to someone in Old Navy and then looked over to see this - She fits right in.

 We also had the luck of having lunch at McDonalds with our friends Clint and Miranda Robinson.  We miss them.  I'm glad they could meet us.  I love that Savannah knows who they are even though they live almost 2 hours away now.  Here she is being sassy at Micky Ds.

Oh yea, and she was running in Gap and hit her head on the wall divider.  Pretty funny.  I always laugh first, then react with concern when she does stuff like that.  Is that okay?  Well, it's how I am.  She's fine.  It just bruised.  But she insisted on wearing this huge band aid for two days, now she's dealing with the rash the band aid caused.  Oh well - gotta love Savannah Sue.

TwinLawapolooza

Travis' twin brother, Greg, and his family came up to see us for a few days during Travis' spring break, which is this week.  Greg and his family are moving to India for 4 years in June, so it's good to soak in as much time with them as we can.  We were super thankful that they made the trip up here.  

Greg's a pretty funny guy.  You know he's funny when he still makes his wife of 8 years laugh at his stories.  

 Here's a pictures that perfectly describes how Savannah felt about sharing her new/hand me down swing set.  It was really tough, but for the most part she was good about it.  I don't have a lot of pictures of her crying face, but it's pretty precious.

 Here's all 3 girls in the tutu's that Grammy (Travis' mom) sent down for them.  The girls pretty much played and played and played non stop for 3 days.  It was cousin heaven.

Gown Upsy

 Travis and Wendy Pierce done gone and grown up a little bit!  Until today the most we've ever paid for a piece of furniture was 30 bucks.  Since we have people over all the time, and really love for people to feel welcome and comfortable in our home, we saw buying a new couch a worthy expense for this year's tax refund.  Ladies and Gentleman, I give you, the transformation.

 The sectional is from the Redeckers outlet store in Boone.  We actually paid for it a couple weeks ago and when we went to pick it up today we noticed they had jacked the price up.  It felt good to know we'd gotten the better deal.

I also got to pick out a couple new pillows for the couch.  For the record, Walmart.com has tons of pillows for pretty cheap and ways you can search through them without looking at every one.  And they do "sight to store" delivery so you don't have to pay shipping.  You just pay online, then go to the local Walmart to pick them up!

We're SO excited!