Life is good:)

This past weekend was so fun. Thursday night, My friend Karissa and I rented The Blind side, and enjoyed a few glasses of wine with the movie. Friday, during the day we went shopping and went to lunch. It was so relaxing. I didn't even buy very much... a new purse, sunglasses and a cute summer top. As a mom, it is certainly refreshing to be able to do a little shopping with out the little ones:)

Friday night we went out for dinner for my birthday and then headed down town to celebrate. It was fun, but Aaron and I were headed home by midnight ( we had to pick up Cecelia from my sisters house early in the morning because my niece had soccer practice).

Saturday was a relaxing do nothing type day.

Sunday was church and then we went to Kids Explore at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs. I have always wanted to take Cecelia there because the advertisements make it sound sooo fun for the kids...yeah totally over rated. Yes, there were some things for the kids to do there. They had pony rides, a petting zoo, the bounce house, face painting, balloons, and treats for the kiddos. Other than that though, it's pretty much a place to get parents on site, in order to sell them something. Every time I turned around, someone was wanting me to host a Tupperware, candle, or jewelry party. And if that wasn't happening, they were wanting me to sign my kid up for over priced swimming lessons (seriously like $180, for 10 weeks of lessons), I think we will stick with the red cross.

Speaking of swimming lessons, Cecelia is swimming on her own! Yes, on her own now. I can't even believe it. She can do the back stroke and free style by herself. The instructor is of course standing next to her in the pool just in case, or he is there to hold on to her so she can have a break, but I think she even surprised him as well with her skills.

I'm off topic again! Anyways, after I was completely exhausted from KidsExplore, I stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up some gardening supplies. Cecelia and I planted carrots, cucumbers and squash. This is my first year of trying out my "green thumb" so my fingers are crossed. My mom gave me some excellent tips and advice, so hopefully we will yield some results. We also planted a few pots of various flowers. Cecelia loves Marigolds so we of course had to include those in some of the pots. I love this weather and can't wait to see the buds pop up in the planters from all of the April showers.

Next week will be my last week of classes for the semester. I can't wait. I think I have "senioritis", and I just want to be done already!

I am getting really excited for my Florida vacation! We just got a few travel guide books last week and my friends and I are going to be sitting down and looking through them this weekend. Hopefully we can pin down a few of the places that we, for sure, cannot go without stopping at along the way:)

I'm officially old (25)!!!

I'm officially old-ugh! I'm not going to lie, this birthday was hard for me to swallow. Don't get me wrong, my actual birthday was awesome...my sisters all went in to give me cash, so that I could pick up a few new clothing items and accessories for my Florida trip, which is coming up in just 3 weeks (I'm going shopping this weekend, and can't wait! I don't get to go shopping for myself near enough!). My sisters also brought me over the most delicious cake I have ever had in my life! My best friend, Karissa, brought me flowers and a bottle of Moscato wine (my favorite). Then Aaron surprised me with a rose in my car, and took me out to dinner. He also got me the perfect brownie pan (the one you see on the info commercials, that comes with a divider to cut each brownie into perfect squares while baking). He got me this because every time Cecelia and I see the commercial on TV we comment on how cool it looks. No, that's not my only present from him. He is also sending me with shopping money for Florida when I go. Plus, I received more birthday wishes than I can count. And the celebrations not over yet. My girlfriends and I are going down town to eat on Friday night and then heading out to the bars for a night out. I rarely go out to the bars, maybe, maybe if I'm lucky, once every two months. Which is fine with me. I am way too busy and have too many important responsibilities (especially by daughter) to spend my precious free time and cash on getting drunk. But every once in a while a girl/mom/wife needs to get out of the house and let loose with her friends. Anyways ( I get to rambling)I have ambivilance about turning 25. On one hand, I'm happy that so many awesome things are going to be happening this year... graduating college, financial stability, looking and hopefully purchasing our first home, working on our next baby! But then on the other hand, I feel like I'm losing my youth:( O'well, I'm still a long way away from wrinkles and gray hair, right? Alright, I had my moment of self pity, I'm done, I'm over it, and I have a smile on my face :)

A few months ago, for my Mom's birthday, we bought her two tickets for the George Strait with Reba concert at the Qwest Center. Since I come from a family of six sisters, my mom had an obvious dilema as to who to invite to go to the concert with her. She didn't want to take my step dad because he doesn't like concerts because they are "so loud". Since she couldn't figure out the best way to make it fair, she decided that since the concert fell just two days before my birthday,that I should be the one to go with her to the concert. It was so much fun! We had amazing seats in the lower bowl. If I couldn't view the concert from a box seat, then my next choice would have been the seats we were sitting in. I feel so blessed that I was given the opportunity to see 3 country music legends. Leanne Wolmack sang first; I can remember listening to her songs as a little girls. Then Reba came on; she puts on such a good performance! And finally, George Strait came on. The concert was nearly 4 hours long! I didn't get home until well after midnight and I was absolutely exhausted the next day. Thankfully, Aaron took Cece to school and let me sleep in.

Just a few random pictures of the girls. I love the pictures of the girls in their jammies with towels on their heads after the bath one night. The pictures of the girls with drinks in front of them makes me laugh. We were out to eat one night and the kids thought that they should suck on lemons. The looks on their faces are priceless!

Heartland of America Park

These pictures are from the afternoon that we went downtown. We had lunch, then walked around the Heartland of America park. Then we headed up to the slides. The girls brought wax paper and thoroughly enjoyed going down the slides at accelerated speeds. To finish off the day, we went to Ted and Wally's for ice cream. We kept the girls pretty busy over spring break. If they weren't riding bikes, they were playing at the park or doing side walk chalk. Aaron took them roller skating one afternoon. Apparently, they were the only ones in the skating rink! We also took the kiddos to see Alice in Wonderland. They loved it, and I actually enjoyed it too.

Easter

Because Kiley wouldn't be with us on actual Easter Sunday, we celebrated with Aaron's family the weekend before. For dinner that night, Aaron's dad made the most amazing steaks! Steak is one of Cecelia and Kiley's favorite meals, so of course we had to appease them. On actual Easter Sunday, we went to church and then headed over to my sister Erika's house for brunch and an Easter egg hunt.

Swimming lessons

Cecelia has been doing great with swimming lessons. Watching her learn to swim is too stinkin cute!

I've been gone too long:(

I can't believe it has been almost a whole month since I've put up a post! In hindsight I probably haven't put up any posts because it has been so nice out and we have been so active the last couple of weeks, a far cry from just 2 months ago, when all we could do was hang out indoors because of freezing cold temperatures.We have been up to a lot lately, I don't know where to start.