ack!

i'm feeling super overwhelmed and lazy right now...
but we did have a wonderful staycation. a perfect combo of busy and not busy! pictures someday....

have tons to do before we leave for cedar point on wednesday.
why did every trip have to come in a one month time span?! pure chaos.

have the photo challenge almost completed. not sure that's gonna happen. had a hard time remembering what was on the list and somehow deleted the list on my iphone.... might have 15 of the 20 if i'm lucky. might post what i did do after the deadline.  just not sure what i can get done in the next 40 hours. well, not 40. we leave in 40. minus the 18 of work. minus like 14 for sleep. sigh. so i should stop blogging to get some random things done so i can blog more tomorrow!!

reason number 48 why i love ellen.

some how we missed the sytycd finale. oh well. just sad that i missed this....
so thankful for ellen's website for sharing!

wip 8.21.10

trying to catch up!!

friday:
nick's first official day of vacation. we got up early and ran some errands. and had breakfast at the scrambled diner!
then it was our grown up trip to st. louis. yay roadtrips. yay trivia to pass the time. yay for new cars.
the ride went well. we left a bit later than planned. nick lost his keys. and he finally found them in the most bizarre place. on the salt bag in the garage. i can see in the fridge or a drawer in the kitchen....
anywho.

got to st. louis and headed to outback to spend some time with irwin {jay's cousin}.
no lying... nelly came on the radio as soon as we made it to the city. {my iphone pic is better but i haven't uploaded that yet...}

jason enjoying his two potatoes with a side of meat.

the boys were thrilled with our sleeping arrangements. i mean what grown boy doesn't want a basketball game in their bedroom? tom, nick, and jason were in heaven. i believe there is video of tom and jay acting very, very mature.

3 couples in one bedroom. nick and i took the floor for the first night... yay for free lodging.

saturday:
the volleyball tournament.
oy. we are so old. well at least i felt ancient. we played fourteen games. in about 7 hours. and it was all you can drink/eat. came in second place. and we are totally okay with that. the team who got first plays and wins in some semi-pro tournaments.

cheese. imagine chris with her eyes open. no crazy good pictures. was just concentrating on not dying.

i told you those boys were in love with that thing...

we found a local mexican restaurant for dinner. 3 margaritas. was delcious. and no we didn't eat all of it! 

sunday:
i wanted to stop at a place i saw on man vs. food. totally did not disappoint. crown candy kitchen.
got their early, luckily. apparently a line forms before it opens and it's at least a 30 minute wait for the rest of the day!

thank you nice lady who offered to take our picture.

jas enjoying his strawberry shake.

hello butterscotch malt. i love you.

nick enjoyed his chili cheese dog and cholate malt.

and chris got a chocolate marshmallow shake {tasty!} and a cobb salad {huge!}. would definitely recommend checking it out if you are in the area.

and a parting shot of the arch. i always try to snap some photos whenever we drive past... you would think i would be better at it by now!

ben at 17 months.

is so much fun!
let's see if i can come up with a list....

- still doesn't walk. ;-(
- is talking more and more. a few of the most used: up, thank you, please, cheese, momma, dadda, kitty, ball, chip, book, this/that. {i'm drawing a blank. there is more i'm sure...}
- knows that a kitty says meow, a cow says moo, a monkey says what ...{how the heck do you type that?} and a lion says roar.
- we are working on where his ears, mouth, and eyes are. kinda knows his nose and feet. well, he eats his feet when you ask.
- has graduated to the toddler room at daycare. {he's the youngest and the only non walker}
- knows how to shake his bootay and prefers classic rock over pop!
- takes a 2 to 2 1/2 hour nap at daycare, then one at home in the evening for about an hour. sometimes he is good for a mid morning one too. 
- loves wipeout and wheel of fortune.
- can pet the kitty nicely. ;-)
- cannot get enough outside time {walks, slides, anything}
- will roll like a madman all over the family room and now crawls in reverse.
- loves bedtime stories. his two favorites: goodnight moon and i love you through and through.
- and for his 17 month present. a pony ride at the zoo today! ;-) {more on that later!}

wip 8.14.10

finally. {and vacation is going well. finding some time tonight to load a few posts for the week!}
friday:
st. john corn roast. it was HOT.  and the corn was only okay. but the meats were yummy. gotta love stop n shop!
ben's first balloon popped so he ended up with this uber manly pink one!

then he got some beads from the hair cut place. totally coincidental that they matched his outfit!

i love mommy. <3

the lions club was giving all the kiddos free flavor ices. so nice. 

and mr. crazy pants loves being upside. see... he's clapping!

saturday:
was noah's birthday party. ben enjoyed playing with everyone and all of noah's new toys!

climbing on uncle john. beaners loves climbing on everyone and everything.

i love aunt michelle!

oooh... noah's new guitar from gigi.

the fun new play tunnel. wish the tag wasn't in the way! 

the three cousins playing with the new train set.

cousin megan is so fun, she flips me upside down!

sunday:
saturday was a late night. gotta love campfires and smores. so i was a bit slow on the picture taking sunday. we went to the farmers market... again. got some more cheese! then nick played softball but ben and i missed it because of his nap. headed over to grandma and grandpa's for some pool time...

vacation.

it's been soooo long since nick and i have gone on vacation. and it will continue to be a while longer before we travel on our vacation.... well, sorta.
tomorrow starts our week long vacation. yay!

it's starting off with a friend trip to st. louis. can't wait. we always have such a good time. hoping the humidity isn't too terrible. it's to play sand volleyball all day long! hoping the rain stays away too!

we're coming home sunday and then have a week with mr. bean.  don't have anything set in stone for the week. just some ideas of what to do: ft. wayne zoo, bellaboos, the aquarium, a splash pad, hiking/biking, drive in. so many options! looking forward to just taking it one day at a time and doing whatever we want whenever we want!

cannot wait to spend some quality time with my two loves.
will try to post {gotta love the scheduled post feature} but no promises! ;-)
and i haven't forgotten about last weekends picture post. maybe tomorrow before we leave.... maybe.

the first

big purchase that we put in the flex....
ben's new car!
if daddy got one why shouldn't ben?
seriously, ben loves it. rode around in it at the store when we were trying it out saying, 'woooh, wooh'. so cute.
can't wait for him to try it out outside tomorrow!
yay new car{s}! ;-)

meet mr. flex.

he/she doesn't have a name yet.
soon. maybe we'll decide his/her name this weekend on our trip to st. louis. maybe it'll just come to us.
anywho.

a bit of the details: mediterranean blue, six seater, luggage rack, auto close trunk, fun sync features, captains chairs in the second row. and i think that's all i know.  we just couldn't do a bench in the middle row. nor did we think we could fit three adults comfortably in the rear seat.

nick did so much of the research for this decision. but he's extremely happy with the purchase which is so great. i hate buyers remorse. especially on something so expensive. 

i've only been in it once since we've owned it! nick is trying to convince me that we should drive it everywhere. however, it's not that fuel efficient, so the deal was that we would use lil miss hybrid for our typical day to day stuff. working on it. i'm sure it'll be easier once the newness wears off!

and maybe if i wasn't too lazy to upload my pics from this weekend, i would share a real picture of nick's car. but i love that the picture i could find online, that was closest to nick's, had nelly in it! the difference is that nick's isn't two toned. the car/roof is all one color.

he's getting closer...

to walking!
ben that is. ;-)
he took quite a few steps between nick and i this evening after dinner.
ben was sooo proud of himself. and then decided it was more fun to fall over.
i'm really thinking that walking will be his preferred method of travel soon!

and i lied on the ben update. thinking i'll just do a 17 mos one next week. and i suck because i missed the 16 mos one. but i'm sure there's not much i missed. he's kinda been doing the same things but the last week or so he's really making some changes... again, i'll update next week! {if i don't get into a vacation funk!}

interesting fact{s} for the day.

- 17 years ago nick and i officially started dating! {it too was a friday the 13th.}
- if we hadn't planned our wedding in a little more than six months, our wedding date would have been 8.13 {friday}. {i think the year was 2005}
- we were really hoping that our date would have been 6.13.03 {also a friday but settled for 6.6}
- i don't think friday the 13ths are so bad.  ;-)

12 on the 12. august 2010 edition.

- i'm not sure the photo hunt is gonna happen. i've been a super slacker. i think most pictures that i've posted as of late have been taken by nick!
- pretty sure the hunt for nick's car will be complete at the time of this posting. once we have it, it'll get it's own post.
- we finally have cable {only had a tv with dvd player previously} in our bedroom. it's only been 7 years. i think this will severely cut down on my kindle time.
- this was absolutely tasty as heck. was our breakfast all last week. i served it on toast. yum.
- thinks emily post would be disappointed with the lack of thank you cards nowadays.
- must scrap soon. my stock of cards {birthdays and thank yous} are almost non existent!
- feeling extremely grateful for family, friends, life...
- am on the hunt for a printable grocery list that works for me.
- not really excited for tonight's sytycd finale. normally i have someone that i'm cheering for. i honestly like them all this time.
- looking forward to some upcoming getaways but knowing i'm gonna miss the heck out of beaners.
- need to post a ben update. next week....
- officially started christmas shopping!

wip 8.7.10

don't want to let this one get away from me and forget what we did!

friday.
ben and i were busy while nick worked. ran a boatload of errands and were pretty darn productive. then we had a playdate in the afternoon with kara. nice to sit and chat. then i went to girls night.

saturday.
hit up lake county fair. the parking is ridiculous. ridiculous. i mean seriously. they need to do something about it. it took us forever to get into the grounds. i thought for sure it would be crazy crowded but thankfully it was not.

they had this crazy cup that you could refill with some tasty pop. nick decided that ben should try the creme soda....

 ben loved the animals. we were able to get him to moo at the cows this time! he couldn't get enough of the billy goats or the petting zoo.

went to the 'subdivision celebration' in the evening. was really nice! looking forward to next year's.
ben enjoyed the dancing. first with mommy and then with wynn. ;-)

sunday.
nick played softball. we went and watched for a bit. ben liked playing in the rocks.

then it was the august birthday festivites at our house. my lil bro turns 26 and my mom 62. thought that was pretty neat! ben kept trying to steal the presents. christmas should be fun this year!

this one just cracks me up.

and giving grandma birthday kisses.

ballet flats.

i have looked for a cute pair that were comfy for what seems like ages.
friday was girls night with nick's mom and aunt. after dinner we were going to go to the movies but just couldn't decide on what we wanted to see so we just went shopping instead!
bought these super cute shoes at dsw.
they are sooooo comfortable.  thinking that they might make not being able to wear flips a little more tolerable this fall. ;-)

also found a wallet that i love. had been looking for a while and i'm glad i didn't settle. holds a lot and not too bulky. and it's purple!

wip 7.31.10

k. hopefully, i can get this blogging back on schedule....
i feel like we've been going nonstop. i think i can remember what we did last weekend!

friday.
i have no clue. think it was just a lazy day.

saturday.
porter county fair. it was our first time. really nice.
ben really enjoyed the horses. however, he kept calling them kitties!

he loved the slide.
and beans was too short for the rides. next year!

the obligatory family self portrait.

asked the balloon guy for a football. he made this crazy huge thing that was not fun to carry all over the fairgrounds. you can kinda see it hanging off the stroller in this picture... so we gave ben this itty bitty balloon and he loved it. 

came home and crashed. and watched some movies. finally finished sherlock holmes. i love robert downey jr. and book of eli. not sure what i was expecting. it was alright....

sunday:
change of plans. nick was supposed to play softball... that was a no go. so we decided to hit the farmer's market and check out the local splash pad.

they had a cheese booth at the farmer's market. delicious!

from the park at the splash pad.

and his preferred method of using the slide.

went home and just chilled. i think we all took naps!
ben enjoying the water/sand box.

then we pulled out the splash pad.
was a little chilly. so ben didn't really get into the water. he kinda just skirted around the outside and chased his ball.

k. i hope i got it all. i need to take notes! ;-P

me likey.

we should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.
-e.b. white

nothing terribly insightful or entertaining this post. sorry! i haven't even uploaded my pics from this past weekend.... so not like me!

usually

i like shopping. some may say i have a problem... but not today.
why?
we were car shopping.
so not a fan of car shopping. i hate that it's so hard for that sales person to just give you a number. really, i just want to know how much. and your financing options. i don't want you to tell me that my trade in value is this and we offer this rebate so you're looking at this... um, that's not a deal and we never said that we had a trade in. sigh.
and why must honda make my life difficult. if the pilot had captain's chairs we would have our car. but no, only bench. blech.
thinking it's between the flex and the traverse. nick is in love with the flex. i think it's kinda funny looking but hey, it's technically going to be his car. and as long as the price is right and it isn't stick i'm fine with it! ;-P

photo challenge. take 2.

gonna give it a go again.
was fun and different and challenging. why not? hoping i can find em all. there are some tricky ones!
here's the info for this month.
anyone gonna join me??
and lora, if by chance you read this... thanks for playing with me last time! ;-)