Rah ah, ooh la la

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my dad’s family. My dad cooked and sent us home with lots of leftover, which we managed to make last through most of the weekend. I did not remember to take pictures until the very end, but I did get one of Romelie sitting on my bed reading some books and one of Chase, my cousin Brandon’s son, toddling around. He just turned one around the same time Romelie turned two, but he’s walking like a pro.

My dad kept Romelie overnight on Thanksgiving (thanks again, Dad!), so I got to sleep in and then head to Target and Best Buy for some awesome Black Friday deals without the crazy 5 am rush line. I got a bag of Legolos for Romelie for $10, a cheapie DVD player for upstairs, and a fancy, brand-spankin’ new phone. It’s a Samsung Instinct, basically Sprint’s equivalent of an iPhone, and it’s awesome. And because of Black Friday (and me renewing my contract for another 2 years, which I would have done anyway), I got this $600 phone for free, plus some other random accessories that I will never use – such as a Bluetooth. I have since downloaded “Wheel of Fortune,” “Carmen Sandiego,” and “Oregon Trail.” Who picks nerdy apps for her fancy phone? This gal. But Crystal told me about a website (phonezoo.com) where you can create awesome ringtones from mp3 files, so I now get to hear the opening of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” when anyone calls me. For those who haven’t heard the song, it goes something like this:

Rah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Roma Roma-ma
GaGa ooh la la
Want your bad romance

Trust me…it’s awesome.

Finally, yesterday at morning church Romelie and Linus, a boy a few months older than her, were the only two kids in the daycare for the first hour or so. They were playing really well together and laughing, and then Romelie went over to the pack-and-play we have and wanted to (pretend to) go night-night. After I put her in, Linus came over and wanted to (pretend to) go night-night, too. The crib isn’t super big, and Romelie has a tendency to cry when kids at the daycare breathe too close to her, let alone share an enclosed space. But I scootched her over and laid Linus down…and they just hung out in there for about 5 minutes. They would fake snore, then one would make a funny noises to “wake” the other, and then they’d both giggle their heads off. It was adorable.

Go Vikes! 10-1-0, baby. Suck it, Packers.

Romelie is two years old!

Happy birthday, kiddo! Okay, so her actual birthday was last week, but still worth a big bloggy celebration, don’t you think?

For Romelie’s birthday, we went to the Mall of America. Romelie has only been there once before, and it was to get her picture taken with Santa. I figured we could get that taken care of before Thanksgiving and it wouldn’t be so crazy busy. And I was right. Check out the super duper cuteness.

After pictures, Chason, my mom and I took Romelie to dinner at Bubba Gumps (it was convenient) and then down to Nickelodeon Universe. Apparently if you go on your birthday, you can get an unlimited ride wristband for free. Which is what we did. It was not crowded at all, being a Monday night, but it was pretty late, so we only went on three rides. Romelie rode on the merry go round with me, on a train ride with Gramma Carol, and then on her first (kiddie) roller coaster with her dad! She thought it was great the first three times around the track…then cried the last 4. Ah, well. She half-enjoyed it.

We also visited the doctor on her birthday for her 2-year well-kid check up. She’s healthy, growth is right on target (38” tall!!!), and no red flags. In light of her turning two and no longer needing to drink as much milk, we have also officially said bye-bye to the bottle. It’s all sippy cups from here. Romelie had already stopped using bottles at day care, so the transition didn’t seem to disrupt her too much. And because she’s drinking less milk, we’re letting her eat more yogurt and cottage cheese, which she loves but didn’t really need before. Everyone wins.

In other news…we had a big rake-a-thon a couple weekends ago. Romelie helped. The weather has been relatively warm the last week, so we’ve been able to play outside, which has been a relief for everyone.

Also, I made Romelie a t-shirt! There isn’t a lot of Yo Gabba Gabba merchandise out there, and she love the show so much, I wanted to get her a shirt to wear. So I bought some fabric markers and a plain white long sleeved shirt, and I did some old fashioned tracing and coloring. She seemed excited about her shirt, and I wanted to take a bunch of pictures of her wearing it before I wash it. It’s supposed to be water-proof, but just in case…

Going to my dad’s for Thanksgiving this year, and then he’s keeping Romelie for the night so I can (possibly) check out some Black Friday sales. Wish me luck!

We love you, Houston!

I love comments on my blog. It's nice to know that people read it and it makes me smile to hear nice things said about my family. But seriously...viagra spam? On my tiny little family blog that 10 people read? Give me a break. Since I can't delete the stupid spam (check my last blog entry if you have no idea what I'm talking about), I have changed my settings. Now I will have to approve all comments before they can post. So friends, please don't think I'm trying to filter you - you I love! Say what you like!

Happy Halloween, everyone! I know, it's been a while. I didn't take too many pics of Romelie in her duck costume, but I know my mom took a ton the previous weekend so I'll post some of those when I see her next and steal her camera. We had a low-key evening. We decided to surprise my grandparents (my mom's folks and my dad's mom) and spent a little time hanging out at each of their homes, and then we put on some aluminum foil hats and headed over to Chipotle for some free burritos. Best free promo ever.

Volleyball season has ended. We came in 6th place out of 30 teams, so I'm pretty proud of the players. The girls gave me a volleyball-themed blanket with all their names and numbers embroidered which was very thoughtful and is super warm, and now I'm just enjoying having my afternoons with my family. Granted, I start coaching speech at BSM on Tuesday. It's a short break...

And we're back from Texas! We had a nice, relaxing time in Houston. We spent most of Friday with Chason's mom and with Bronwyn and her family. There was a fall festival at Torin's school, so we went there and had snowcones and got balloons and tattoos, then headed to Bronwyn's for dinner. The kids played pretty well together, and I rocked out on Torin's "Rock Star" game. Because I'm awesome.

Saturday we had a birthday party for Romelie at the Dancers' home. Romelie got to see her family, play with some kids, eat some cake, open presents, play with balloons, and get lots of hugs and attention. It was a really nice way to celebrate her birthday. Thank you so much to everyone who was able to be there, and thanks especially to Angel and Steve for hosting and putting so much thought into making the day special for Romelie.

Chason and I got to see a movie on Sunday night, "The Men Who Stare at Goats." Not bad. First movie I've seen in a theater since "Twilight," so I enjoyed the night out!! Sunday we relaxed at home, and Monday we visited with our friend Trisha and her daughter during the day and then we saw Aunt Crystal in the evening. It was so wonderful to spend time with our friends, and unfortunately I'm a total schmo and didn't take any pictures. Boo. But we love them and can't wait to see them again when I will take hundreds of pictures to make up for my slacking.

By the way, Crystal completed The Breast Cancer 3-Day in Dallas/Ft. Worth while we were in Houston! She walked 60 miles in three days to raise money for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust. I'm so proud of her accomplishment, but she's not done yet. She still needs to finish up her fundraising to reach her (required) goal of $2300. If she doesn't reach this goal, she pays the difference herself out of pocket! She's already done so much good, so if you can help her out, you'd be giving to a wonderful cause as well as congratulating an amazing accomplishment. Click on this link: http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/DallasFtWorthEvent2009?px=2145147&pg=personal&fr_id=1295 Give $5, give $100, give whatever you can afford; any amount will help. And yay Crystal.

Finally, we saw Cinderella last night at The Children's Theatre. As some of you know, this is my favorite play/production of all time, and it's the reason I purchased season tickets to CTC this year. The production hasn't been done in 10 years (due in part, I'm sure, to the fact that Wendy Lehr, who has always played the role of Pearl, one of the stepsisters, is no longer with the company), and I wasn't sure what sort of changes they were going to make. I won't go into too much detail (mostly because I'm sure I care about it way more than anyone else would), but although I was disappointed with a couple of the changes, overall it was a wonderful show. I dragged Chason along, and both he and Romelie managed to sit through the entire performance - a big achievement for both of them, I promise. ;)

Romelie turns two on Monday!! I'll tell you all about it next week. Meanwhile, here's more pictures from her birthday party.