Ladies Polker Night

Friday night Anthony and I headed over to Marnie's for a night of good food, laughter and cards. I missed the last one in July, so I had forgotten how to play Texas Hold 'em. It didn't take too long to remember. Anthony and Ryan got to hang out for awhile. Anthony enjoyed playing with Ryan's toys and the extra attention he received from the other ladies there.

We all brought appetizer to share. I wanted to make something different, like spring rolls or a taco cheesecake. However, time was not on my side, so I ended up bringing cut up veggies and dip. Marnie somehow found time to make homemade crab rangoon and an excellent pepperjack cheese dip. We also had fruit pizza, taco dip, pasta salad, beer bread, and cookies and brownies. Marnie also had a full bar. I indulged in one Bloody Mary and then switched to water.

The festivities kicked off at 6:30pm. We ate and socialized and then started playing cards around 7:30. By 8:20 both boys were yawning and ready to crash. Marnie and I told them to keep playing, but they just hung out and talked while we fed the boys. Marnie set up the pack and play in Ryan's room. Anthony was sawing logs by 9pm.

We did a lot more talking than card playing. At one point, one hand took us 30 minutes! By 12:00am I was still in with three others. At this point we raised the big blind to 40 chips, to help the game progress. I ended up losing all my chips by 12:15am. It was a good size pot of $40, since there was 8 of us. I had a great time, and didn't mind losing my $5. I am already looking forward to our next polker night!

Chase Goes to the Dentist

This morning Chase had his first visit to the dentist. For the last few days I have been telling him we were going. One day he was excited, the next he would say he didn't want to go. This morning he said he didn't want to go. I told him he didn't have a choice. The dentist Eric and I go to, don't see kids until they are 6. Well, the ADA recommends kids start seeing a dentist at 1 years old. I am a little behind. It just so happens that Cori, Delana's daughter is a hygentist at a pediatric dentist. So I called and made an appointment there.

Shannon, Delana's middle daughter also works there. We walked in this morning and the front receptionist had heard all about Chase and Anthony. She says, "You didn't bring the baby? I wanted to see him." I had dropped off Anthony before the appointment. Then Cori and Shannon come over to say hi to Chase. He was Mr. Popular. While we were waiting, Chase started crying and said his tummy hurt. I told him it was okay to be nervous. I would be with him the whole time. Cori was suppose to be Chase's hygentist, but she was asked to work on another patient. We ended with another nice lady.

At first Chase wouldn't get up in the chair. I finally had to bribe him. I told him if he would let the hygenist check him out, we would go to Target afterwards to get a Bob the Builder toy. That did the trick! He wanted to sit on my lap. So I laid in the chair and he sat in my lap. He did a great a job. She showed him the water, the suction tube and the tooth polisher. He got to pick out his toothpaste. She then flossed and put fluoride on his teeth. When the dentist came in, he hoped back into the chair all by himself. He let her count his teeth and check his tongue. His teeth look great she said.

Of course Chase did not forget about going to Target. So we ran over there to look for Travis the tractor, but they didn't have it. So he picked out a Buzz Light Year figurine. He was very excited about it and the whole way back to Delana's kept saying, "I just love my new Buzz Light Year Mommy, thank you." Then I was off to work.

Trying New Things

Eric and I decided to join a couples group at church. We get paired with 2 other couples, meet once a month, and then change every 3 months. Each month one couple is in charge of planning the get together. For our first go around we ended up with Pastor Doug and his wife Leigh, and Jennifer and Dave. We are the only one with young kids, so they wanted to work around us, which was very considerate. We decided to go out for lunch after church.

Chase knows Leigh, because she works in the nursery. It was the first time he had any interaction with our pastor. Chase warmed up to him right away. Pastor Doug found out he liked Spiderman, so they were pretending to spray their webs. Pretty soon Chase was play fighting with him and jumping into his lap. Dave and Jennifer have a daughter that is a junior in high school. Jasmine said she would babysit for the next month's gathering. It was nice to be able to sit down and visit outside of church.

Too Cold

Sometimes I have to wonder about us. Saturday it was below zero, but we had places we wanted to go. So we packed up the kids and braved the cold. We all were up early on Saturday, so we decided to go out for breakfast. We went to Old Country Buffet. I love that I can have a salad at 9 in the morning! Anthony is getting really quick at grabbing things. He tried to chew on several paper napkins and he tipped over Eric's soda glass, of course it was full!

After breakfast we headed to Menard's. Since Eric got to get new car parts, I am getting new flooring. Our friend Tom is going to install it for us. He has done several other floors, and they have all turned out great. Well, Menard's is no longer going to carry the brand Tom suggested we buy. So we bunddled up and headed out.

We then headed over to Home Depot. I found a color I liked, and it is made by Pergo, which has a 25 year warranty. Anthony fell asleep and Chase had fun running around and hiding behind stuff. We were going to buy the flooring, but thenI realized that I had left the stroller and pack and play in the back of the truck. So Eric will be going back later this week to get it.

We had one more stop after Home Depot. I wanted to find something to put on Elaine's grave. Lisa was going down to Garden City that night. It is hard to believe Saturday was 4 years already. We sure miss her a lot. Chase has started asking about her. He saw Elaine's picture on the table, and asked who it was. I told him it was Daddy's mommy. He wanted to know why we don't get to see her. I told him Grandma Elaine is in Heaven with God, and one day we will get to be with her again. Chase seemed to accept my explanation. Delana said Joann's had heart wreaths, so Chase and I went in. Unfortunately they were sold out. I did find a plastic heart wreath, and I had Chase pick out some silk flowers. He went with purple, white and yellow. I told Chase he choose well. Purple was his Grandma's favorite color. We then went home and stayed in for the rest of they day.

Pizza Palace

Saturday afternoon Chris, Justin and Kira came over. Dennis was taking Stephanie away for the night for her birthday and Valentine's Day. Stephanie let Chris use her car to drive to Des Moines. It is still hard to believe he is already driving. This is the first time we were going to get to spend time with Justin. After a year long court battle, Stephanie was finally granted custody of her 14 yr. old. He moved from South Carolina to Iowa three weeks ago.

Chase took to him right away. He played Candyland and Chutes and Ladders with him, and let Chase win! He knew how to get in good with Chase. Instead of buying Valentine Day gifts for the kids, we decided to take them all to Pizza Palace. We had never been there before, but thought we would try it out. They have video games, kid rides, duckpin bowling, laser tag and blacklight mini-golf is opening this weekend.

It turns out that they are more oriented towards older kids. There weren't a lot of kiddie rides for Chase. However, he enjoyed playing the racing games. Chris, Justin and Kira went and played laser tag, and had a blast. We stayed for 2 hours and then headed home.

One bonus of having the kids over, we had a babysitter for the night. I nursed Tony and got him in bed by 7:30. We then headed over to Melissa and Tom's. Our favorite restaurant; Crimmin's Cattle Company just recently re-opened. We were waiting until all four of us could go. We were also celebrating Valentine's Day. We arrived by 8:30pm and still had to wait 30 minutes. I really enjoyed my meal. They still have crab legs on their salad bar, which is my favorite. Tom wasn't happy with his prime rib, too much fat, but Eric and Mel loved their lemon pepper chicken. After dinner we went back to Mel and Tom's house and watched, "Airplane." A definite oldie but goodie. I have seen that movie at least 10 times, and I still cannot speak jive!

Eric is Becoming an Elk

Friday night we were invited to the Elks Lodge in Pleasant Hill. Eric's co-worker Terry invited us to dinner there. He has been a member for 18 years. They are looking for younger people, and wanted us to take a look. The club is downstairs, and a hall is upstairs. They serve dinner on Wednesday's and Friday's, and for a good price. I had shrimp, a filet mingon with onions and mushrooms, a baked potato and salad for $7.50! Beer is $2 a bottle.

The Elk's do a lot of fundraising for veterans and children charities. They have a lot of family functions as well. They have the Easter bunny and an egg hunt for the kids. In the summer, they show movies on the wall out back and bbq hot dogs and burgers. Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus come to te lodge for the kids to visit with. They have fish races too. People use a straw to blow on the fish, and help it swim up and back down the lane. That will be fun to see! Eric will get to be in a horseshoe tournament too. Membership dues are only $76 a year. I can be part of the Doe's, but I just don't have the time to put into that right now. The Doe's do their own fundraising and special events for members as well. Eric will be initiated on the 3rd Monday of March. I will let you know how that turns out.

Tony's 1st Kiss

It is a day before Valentine's, and Tony is already smooching the girls! This morning Dale had Anthony on one knee and Audrey on the other. I happened to look over and Anthony was leaning over to give Audrey a hug. Audrey then looked at him and leaned forward and they had a perfect kiss on the lips. Tony even turned his head a bit to the side! It was so cute to see. Delana and I were ohhing and ahhhing. I was so disappointed that I didn't have a camera on me. Anthony looks over to see what all the excitement is about, and gets a big grin on his face. It is like he knew. It was a precious moment, and I am thankful I was there to see it!

Brothers

Tony's 7 month Picture

Neighbors

The funniest thing happened last night. I answered the phone, and it was our neighbor to the east of us. She says, "I have company coming over in 30 minutes. I am in the middle of making corn bread, and I am out of sugar. Can I borrow a cup of sugar?" I hung up and Eric asked who it was. I told him what Ashli wanted and we both had to laugh. He says, "Do people really call to borrow a cup of sugar these days?" In our neighborhood, they still do!

Chase Goes to Sunday School

Chase has been so anxious to go to school, so we decided he could give Sunday school a try. It is suppose to be 4-5 year olds. I talked to the teacher, and she didn't have a problem with Chase joining them. I walked him down and then went back to the nursery. I had nursery duty during the Sunday school hour. I went down to get him and he had a great time. He learned a Bible verse. It is condensed, but I was really impressed. He says to me, "Jesus grew and became strong." He says he wants to go back.

Sleep Over

I am sorry that I am behind. I have had several projects at work that needed to be completed. I now have some downtime, which allows me to update my blog! Saturday morning we took the boys to JcPenny's, for their first of many professional portraits together! They did really well. We were in and out within 30 minutes, including picking out the pictures we wanted. I ordered Smiles by Wire, so I should have some pictures to post in the next few days.

We were then off to Kohl's. They were having huge sales. My Mom and Grandma & Grandpa had given us money for our anniversary, which we wanted to spend on a new comforter set. So we finally found one we liked, and went with the paint on the walls. It is eggplant and mauve. I will have to take a picture of it. Chase also spied some Spiderman coats. They were on sale, orginally$68 down to $24. He is all about Spiderman these days. He needed a new coat for next year. Chase did a lot of "Please, please, please. I love Spiderman." So we bought him a size 5. He immediately put it on, and wore it all over the store. He was very appreciative, and told us "thank you" several times. Of course he is wearing it now, and the sleeves are too long, but at least it covers his butt! Then Stephanie stopped by to visit, and she had bought him Spiderman snowboots. The boy was in seventh heaven. He said his boots were special boots that we would only wear in the house. He held true to his word. It snowed last night, and he put on his other boots this morning. He said, "My Spiderman boots can't get wet mama."

Chase had a really good week, as far as not having accidents or crying at the drop of a hat. So I decided to surprise him. I went to pick up his friend Jared, so they could have a sleepover. They had a great time playing. Several times Chase came to tell us how much fun they were having. Jared had never sleptover anywhere without his parents, so we weren't sure how things would unfold. I set up Chase's Sponge Bob playhut, and put sleeping bags in the tent. I started bedtime at 8pm. They were both finally asleep by 10pm. I took Jared home on the way to church Sunday morning.