Where Has The Time Gone?

So I have really been a slacker when it comes to blogging since we moved back to IL. It seems like we are always on the go. Jaiden started Kindergarten this year and she loves it! Jaiden was getting up all on her own and in a great mood every morning. She was upset the first few weekends we had because she didnt get to go to school. My dad kind of joked and said "do you think this will last for the next 13 years?" Let's just say now it is hard to get her up in the mornings but she still loves school once she gets up and going.




Our house in Iowa still hasn't sold and it is really getting old paying for a house that you don't even live in. We are so ready for it to sell.



Most of you probably already know, but we found out that we are expecting and due April 12th.


I know it is a little late at posting this but I have not had energy to do anything. As soon as we get home from running, I just want to go to sleep. Here is a picture of the little one.

Jaiden is so excited to be a big sister. She doesnt care if she gets a brother or a sister just as long as she gets to pick out the baby clothes to buy. She is a shopaholic!

Hopefully, I will be able to keep this blog going again. I really do enjoy posting and sharing with everyone :)

Another New Addition

Congrats to my brother Mark and sis-in-law Ashley. They had a baby girl Saturday July 25th.

Adalyn Marlee was born at 12:35 p.m. and weighed 6lbs 11 oz.

Jaiden is pretty excited to get 2 new cousins just 15 days apart. All are doing well.

Introducing Mr. Gavin

I want to introduce our new nephew to the blog world....Gavin Thomas Root. He was born yesterday July 10 weighing 7 lbs 8oz and 20 inches long. He is such a handsome little man. Congrats Kendall and Tonya!!!!!!

Here is Jaiden holding her first boy cousin...She thought he was pretty neat.

It's Been A While

I know it has been a while since I have blogged but really I don't have much going on. Jaiden is with Eric in Newton and so it is just me and the cat. Still trying to sell the house. Had an open house yesterday and today so hopefully someone is interested from that. I have been packing and cleaning and that is about it.

While I am sitting here waiting for people to show up, I captured Bat eating again. I have posted before that Bat is a pretty lazy cat. He usually lays down to eat but today, he was laying down and pawing his food out of his bowl onto the floor and then eating it. You would think that this would be more work? He has been keeping me pretty entertained!

It's Official

I know most of you have heard by now but we are moving back home. Our house officially went on the market today. Here is the link to our house listing.

http://www.iahomesforsale.com/listingdetail.asp?Listing=3288

So for everyone from Cedar Rapids area that reads my blog, tell all.... :)

Eric and Jaiden moved back June 1 so we are all hoping the house sells quick so I can move too!

Jaiden's Graduation

I know I am a little behind, but last Friday Jaiden graduated preschool. We were all so excited about it.
I think the cake was her favorite part.

Fun In The Sun

Well kinda... We drained our hot tub a couple of weekends ago to do some cleaning on it and Jaiden thought she was hot stuff posing in the empty tub. We don't really use it in the winter because 1) It is way to cold to go outside to get in the hot tub let alone get out of it and in the cold again when your done. 2) We really don't want to have to get our snowsuits on to shovel our way to the hot tub and then get our swimsuits on to get in it :) We do enjoy it from about May-Sept/Oct.

Sesame Street Live

Last week we went to Sesame Street Live. Jaiden loved it. I thought maybe she would have been a little old for it but she really did enjoy it. I think she liked it because it was something "new" for her. It is just weird that I grew up watching Sesame Street and didn't even think that she really didn't know what it was. When I told her about it she was "fake excited" and then said "mommy I really only know who Elmo is" and kind of turned her nose up. But we ended up going and she had a blast. (and I did too! :)


Our neighbors went with us and here is Jaiden and her buddy Austin

Our Newest Addition

Well, I said it would be a long time before we did this, but....... we got another dog. This time a lot smaller dog and only 1. We got a wiener dog. Her name is Macy and she is black and tan. She is soooooo in the puppy stage. I really hate that part of getting a new puppy. But I just keep telling myself that she will outgrow it. Hopefully! Her and the cat get along great. It is so much fun watching them play. Her is a few pics of her.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy mother's day to all! Jaiden gave me a lovely flower (not sure what it is, Krista maybe you can help me out with this one :) in a pot that she decorated at school. I love it and she was so excited to give it to me. She also made a card for me but I forgot to take a picture with her and the card but here is the beautiful mother's day present I got.

Wake Up Call...

So it is Saturday morning at 7 am and I am blogging. Why you might ask? Well my husband called me at 6:17 this morning. I know I have mentioned before that he is an early bird on the weekends. We were out of coffee this morning so he went to Wal-Mart to get some and took my small list of the usual- coffee, toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc. He called 4 times in 20 minutes asking what kinds of stuff we bought and then was wheeling and dealing with me on the phone about prices and the more for your money thing. At 6:17 in the morning I really don't care about anything so not real sure what I told him to get. So I am anxious to see what he brings home. Oh well it saves me a trip to the dreadful Wal-Mart on a Saturday :) Oh and make that 5 calls now. He called again while I was typing this. I wonder if that was his way of getting me out of bed early so we can get stuff done around the house today. Or I wonder if he wanted to get away by himself to get me a mothers day present? Nah, we know it's too soon to buy a mothers day present. He is a last minute shopper and mother's day is still a whole day away :)

What Are Commercials Teaching???

How to shake their butt! While we watch American Idol Jaiden always dances so she was already in dance mode and paying attention to commercials. So tonight the commercial for Burger King came on playing "I like square butts" so now Jaiden knows how to shake it.

Just Because...

Posting this picture just because I like it :)

She was being goofy yesterday and I got a quick shot in. She usually chickens out and gets embarrassed for the camera when she is being silly.

We Finally Did It!

Finally, Eric let me get Jaiden's haircut. He was the only one holding this up. Me and Jaiden both have been wanting to get her hair cut for at least a year now. She loves it! She really liked getting it done. She was grinning from ear to ear the whole time and there were a few times she let out a squeal. It is going to be so much easier to take care of.

Before:

During:

Ta-Da :

Here is her being silly and holding up her 9 inches that was cut off.

We are sending it to Locks of Love Monday.

Lazy Cat

So Bat is getting really lazy but this is a bit ridiculous. He now lays down to eat. He starts by eating all crouched down like a normal cat but after a few bites he sighs and flops over.\

My New Do

I have been wanting to get a cute new style for a while now but I cannot find anyone around here to do that. It seems like every time I go somewhere they never get it right. So I visited Jackie Judy at Bodystyles and she did a wonderful job. I love it! You can't see it in the picture but I also got some red lo-lites.

Better Late Than Never

I am a little late at posting Easter but it seems like the weekends we go home to Newton it takes me all week to catch up on everything. Here are a few pictures of Jaiden hunting the eggs.

Jaiden and Reagan comparing buckets of eggs. Reagan wasn't really into hunting the eggs this year. When we said ready set go, Jaiden took off and started filling up. Reagan said she was to tired :) Kevin started helping her out and then she started picking some up. She was too cute!

This hunt was at Grandma and Grandpa Root's house. Uncle Kendall had to help her out a little here. The Easter Bunny hid them a little better here since she didn't have any competition :)

Our Morning Routine

Me and Bat have a routine every morning. We/he wakes up to my alarm clock and then gets me up and we head to the kitchen to start the coffee. Then he waits outside the bathroom door while I shower,leaned up against it until I open the door and he "falls" in. Then while I am walking from bathroom to closet to Jaiden's room trying to wake her up, he hides under my bed and attacks my feet as I walk.

He's not so sneaky anymore. This is him waiting to make his move.

Then while I am getting ready in the bathroom his new favorite spot is in the tub watching me.

He has pretty much turned into a fat, lazy, laid back cat, which I LOVE!

The Easter Bunny Came!

Since we always go back to Newton for the holidays, we always celebrate it here the weekend before. That way she gets the feel of having the holiday at her own house. So the Easter bunny came Sunday morning. She got 6 new pet shops, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, Hannah Montana ball, tons of candy and some Easter pencils, erasers, and stickers. She didn't want her picture taken with her basket all put together so I took a picture of the basket without her :)

The Hunt

Saturday Eric started his softball playing. Since it was only about 40 degrees out,me and Jaiden decided to stay home and go to an Easter egg hunt. I really do hate Easter egg hunts because there is always that bully kid that gets tons of eggs and leaves a bunch of other kids bawling cause they have none. We didn't have anything else to do so we decided to give it a try. I tried to tell Jaiden that she would probably only get one egg because there were going to be so many other kids there. I thought she is 5 maybe she can handle it going in knowing that she will only get one. Well I was wrong. She got 3 eggs and when she came back to me, the sniffles started. She began crying softly and I told her that I was so proud that she got 3 eggs. It took the car ride home and when we got home she was much better. Needless to say we probably won't go to a hunt again.

Before the hunt started

There were probably 4 times the kids that are in this picture just in the 5 and 6 year old group. I honestly do not know if Jaiden is in this picture but it was the only one I got of them in action :)

And this one was taken after we got home and she had enough time to get in a good mood and show off her 3 eggs.

Idol-holic

Jaiden is soooooo into American Idol. It is crazy. Well last week she was obsessed with Adam. For those of you who don't really watch idol, Adam is a rocker with black painted nails, eye make-up, the whole nine yards. Well last week Adam came out with his hair all slicked, in a suit, no make-up or painted nails. Jaiden took one look at him and says "OH MY, I am gonna marry him." So he sings and they give out the number to call and she says " mom, did you get his number? I want to call him and ask him to marry me." So, tonight we watch Idol again, and Adam gets up there to sing. Again he didn't really have the rocker gear on and Jaiden says "he is hot! I am still gonna marry him." Let's just say that Eric is not liking the type Jaiden is picking out :) I think we are gonna be in trouble when she gets older :)

More Visitors

This past weekend Eric's mom and sister came up for a visit.

(By the way Eric is the one who took this picture and chopped his mom's head)

It always seems like the weekends go so much faster when we have visitors. They got a taste of the Iowa winter while they were here. I think we got about 6 inches of snow on Saturday, but the good thing was that by Monday it was completely gone.

While we were in the check out line at one of the many stores we visited this weekend :) Jaiden looked at me and whispered "mom there is money on the ground, can I pick it up"? She says "mom it's 5 dollars, I could buy a pet shop with that". I told her to pick it up and ask the couple in front of us if it was theirs. Of course she wouldn't do it, so I picked it up and asked them if it was theirs. They looked in their pockets and said they didn't know and the man handed the 5 dollars back to Jaiden. That made her day. We headed to Target and she got her pet shop.

Tara just signed up to sell Mary Kay and she has to do 30 facials in 30 days. So all 3 of us (yes even Eric) helped her out :)

While Tara was trying her stuff out on me we let Jaiden play in some of her own make-up. We let her do it all herself.

What do you think, a future Mary Kay consultant??

Lazy Days

The weekend Eric got his wisdom teeth out we stayed in all weekend. It was kind of nice. We got a lot done around the house and caught up on some sleep.

Jaiden and Bat took a 3 hour nap that day. I could not believe he didn't move the entire time. While they were napping me and Eric rearranged our basement. It seems like we had just had everything thrown down there without any order to it. So Eric had to re-run the cable and we arranged the furniture a little better.

Here is the finished product

Now we just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the basement space.

Who's The Easter Bunny??

A couple of weekends ago we went to see the Easter Bunny. Jaiden was all pumped about it... until we got there. I don't really know what she was expecting but as soon as we got there she says "that's not the Easter Bunny, someone is just in a costume". I ignored her and we got right in, she sat on his lap got her picture taken, and got to pick an egg. We left and later that afternoon she kept asking who was that Easter Bunny. I just told her that it was one of his helpers, just like Santa has helpers too. She didn't believe me at all.. she looks at me and says the Easter Bunny is not real. I told her he was and she argued back and forth with me. Then the neighbor girl came over and they were doing pixos and Jaiden was telling her about the Easter Bunny and that he was not real. The little girl says oh yes he is how else do you think we get a present at Easter? I thought oh great my kid is going to be the kid that all the parents cannot stand because she will be spoiling it for the rest them. So I went in there to break up their little conversation and when I walked in they both at the exact same time asks "is the Easter Bunny real?" Of course I said yes. Then the neighbor girl says Jaiden he has helpers just like Santa does. Jaiden believed her and hasn't said anything about it since. So why did she not believe her own momma when I was trying to tell her the exact same thing??

St Patty's Day Cat

On St. Patrick's day I forgot to dress Jaiden in green. Oops! I get Jaiden up in the mornings and either get her dressed or lay her clothes out for dress herself and then Eric takes her to preschool. On the way to school they both realized that she wasn't wearing green and Jaiden was very mad at her mommy. Eric came to the rescue and stopped at the gas station and got her a green candy necklace and some green candy to take to her class. They had a little party at school and all got a shamrock painted on their faces so when I picked her up I got the ear full! Then we get home and she decided that Bat (the cat) needed some green on so we found some green ponytail holders and put them in his ears.

Needless to say they didn't stay in long. As soon as Jaiden put him down one quick shake of the head and the flew off.

Last Weekend

So I am a little behind on blogging but time just seems to get away from me. Last weekend my family came up to see us. We had so much fun! Jaiden loved having her cousin Reagan to play with. I think their favorite thing to do was give papa a spa treatment. They did his hair and make-up and even put a little jewelry on him...

Doesn't he look so relaxed here?

Then on Saturday all the girls went to David's Bridal to pick out flower girl dresses and for me and Krista to get fitted for our bridesmaid dresses for Kent and Jessica's wedding. Jaiden and Reagan really enjoyed trying on the dresses and being princess's.

And they loved making faces and watching themselves in the big mirrors

Jaiden and the bride

Then that evening we went to Applebee's for supper. The service was awful but we all had a good time.

Me, Krista, and Jessica made breakfast casserole and french toast casserole that night for breakfast in the morning. Eric thought he needed to get a picture of me actually cooking :) HA HA he is so funny!
Everyone left Sunday around 11 and it was such a beautiful day outside that we were itching to get something done. So we fixed some landscape in our backyard that the dogs had tore up.

Before:

After: