Celebrating 1 Year!

Today, September, 18, 2011... was Dave and my 1st wedding anniversary! Throughout the day today, I thought a lot about how much my life has changed in the last 3 years... it's almost unimaginable.

2008 - I graduated college, got my first real job at the AIDS Project of Central Iowa, met Dave AND found out I was pregnant

2009 - I moved in with Dave, became a home owner, got engaged, had Charlie AND got promoted from Case Manager at the Project to Care Services Supervisor

2010 - I got married.... which kind of sounds like a boring year, but it wasn't, believe me! Lots of planning :)

And now 2011... I got promoted, yet again to Wellness Services Manger at the Project & we are still just chugging along!

It's amazing how much life can change and how AMAZING life is! I feel so lucky to have Dave in my life... and even MORE lucky that I get to spend the rest of my life with him!

Tonight, to celebrate (we only 1/2 celebrated because Dave had drill.... he and I are going out next weekend just the two of us) I made fish tacos and we sat down to a family dinner. Charlie helped to set the table too! 



The fish taco's were amazing... when Dave got home he asked, "are you working from a recipe?" My response was "No" because I was kind of winging it and he said, "Oh, this should be interesting." But it was AMAZING! Below is a picture of the condiments  for our tacos... the two on the right are made by yours truly... the salsa is out of a jar (sorry not that ambitous)! 

The middle compartment is a spicy chipotle slaw... I made it with cole slaw mix, adobo sauce, cilantro and a little bit of lime juice... SPICY but delicious! Then on on the far right is a "fiesta salad" it is black beans, shoe peg corn, tomatoes, avacado, cilantro and a little lime juice to prevent browning! I then blackened the fish and used corn tortillas..... DELICIOUS! We will for sure be eating fish taco's more often.

We ended our anniversary with a trip to Dairy Queen... Charlie and Mommy love ice cream! All and all it was a nice day... laid back and a wonderful way to celebrate one year of marriage!

Elmo party

Elmo was the first character that Charlie loved. So we decided to have an Elmo party for his second birthday. It was perfect! We had it on Camp Dodge, at a great pavilion in the park. The security guard at the front gate passed out a map with Elmo leading guests to the park. Also, signs helped guests make it to the park. We grilled, sang, played games and visited with family and friends. It was great! And Charlie got so many great toys... he is one lucky boy!

One of the projects I decided to do was Elmo Cozies for guests to use, then take home as a party favor, seeing as  most of Charlie's guests were adults. Two days before the party I decided to do these... so I spent the day calling EVERY store in Des Moines that I thought may have them. I found 20... I needed 32. Hope picked up the last 12 in Iowa city on her way to visit. Below is a picture of them drying...

Thanks to Cece and Dave, they weren't too bad to put together... the cozies are foam & so are all of the other parts, so I bought foam glue, which worked out pretty well. We only had a couple of eyes fall off at the party. We just cut out eyeballs, pupils and noses :) The sticker on the back read:

I'm tickled you could

spend my 2nd birthday

with me!

Love, Charlie

How CUTE! Below is the basket they were held in... great idea from Cece! The sign read... "Elmo loves to keep your drink cold!"

They were a hit and I will defiantly do something fun like this again for Charlie's birthdays!

Charlie's Hair

I have gone back and forth about Charlie's hair, and I continue to debate what we should do with it. I love his blond locks and I love the idea of long baby hippie hair :) Every once in a while I find a cute hair do and decide it is time to cut it.... then thankfully Kaitlyn makes me think twice before making any rash decisions, and I always change my mind. By the way, Kaitlyn has stopped me from making A LOT of bad hair decisions! Below is a picture of Bruce and Charlie... with his growing hair :)

The problem we have had for months now, is that Charlie's hair is ALWAYS in his eyes. He is always tipping his head backwards so that he can see under his bangs. Below is a picture of Ryder, Kate Hudson's son. I would LOVE it if Charlie's hair could some day look like that!

I have been working on ways to keep his hair out of his eyes until it is long enough to tuck behind his ears. I have tried gel, which works (not all day) but for most of the day. However, at night, combing through it is NOT fun for me or Charlie. So this week I decided to go for it and put a clip in his hair. I went to Walgreens and bought black clips, so it is not like he is wearing pink sparkelie ones! But some of the looks/comment's I have gotten you would have thought I put the kid in a pink tutoo! Our pediatrition even said something! My thinking is, why do YOU care what MY kid's hair looks like? He isn't even 2, so its not like kids are making fun of him at school, they don't even know the difference between boys and girls! Plus, Charlie say's that he likes his hair. The minute he says he doesn't, we will cut it. Until then, I am going to enjoy my gorgeous little boy and his gorgeous hair! 

12 Month Healthy Habit Program

At the beginning of July, I decided to begin a 12 month Healthy Habit Program. Each month, I will focus on 1 healthy activity. The plan is that focusing on 1 activity per month will allow enough time to make it a habit. Then, the next month, I will add a new healthy goal to focus on. HOPEFULLY the previous goal will now be a habit, so I won't NEED to focus on it. Some of the goals that I want to focus on are:

1.       Increase fruit intake

2.       Increase veggie intake

3.       Cardio  

4.       Strength training

5.       Improve sleep

6.       Reduce stress

7.       Floss

8.       Increase healthy recipes

9.       Decrease sweets/make them more healthy

10.   Decrease T.V. time

11.   Decrease the amount of alcohol I drink

12.   Monthly breast exams

13.   Increase “lifestyle” activity level

14.   Decrease sodium intake

For July, I chose cardio. My goal is to do cardio 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes per time. And the odd part is, my July goal started while we are on vacation... and I still did well! And since then it has been going well too!

Another positive thing that came out of vacation is... Bruce & Kristi decided to start making healthy lifestyle changes! It makes me so happy that we as a family are talking about healthy eating and exercising! We will be happy & healthy together! 

Waterbabies!

Dave, Charlie and I signed up for a Waterbabies class at Fitness World West in West Des Moines. The first class Charlie and I decided to try it out on our own.... after 15 minutes of Charlie screaming his little head off we got out of the water & left class early. I then decided it might be better for Charlie if Dave  came with us.

 Something you probably didn't know about Dave... he does not like public pools :) it kind of cracks me up a little. He is this manly man and at the same time public pools gross him out - haha! But Dave being the good daddy that he is came with! Class was AMAZING, Charlie had such a good time! Great for me and Charlie, bad for Dave... that meant he had to come to EVERY class!

Each class we learned a new skill. By the third class we were going under water... Charlie (ear plugs in) LOVED to go under water, he was laughing like no other! However, that night Charlie was in pain :( poor baby. The only way he would sleep was sitting up in a chair rocking, so he and I sat in a chair all night and I rocked him. Needless to say, we did NOT go under water after that night!

All in all, it was a great experience, by far Charlie's favorite thing to do was to jump in and we are all very excited to make a lot of trips to the pool this summer!

Running

Each Sunday I set my goals for the week. I carry my little purple notebook with me everywhere... tracking my progress and to journal in. A few weeks ago I traded Barb (Dave's mom) my elliptical for her treadmill. I began to set goals around running, first it started with running 1 miles 3-4 times a week, then it went up to 1.25, and now 3 weeks into my running I am at 1.5 miles 3-4 times a week! I am never too sure how fast to increase my distance, but so far I feel like I'm doing OK.

So 3-4 times a week I get my butt out of bed at 5:15, make my way down to the basement to hop on the treadmill. I pop in my Ipod and jam out! Some days I get done and it seems like that was the easiest thing that I have ever done, some days 1/2 way through I want to die, and some days my legs feel like they weigh 100 pounds EACH! Whatever kind of day it is, I push through until I reach my goal (and sometimes even exceed it) and I feel like A MILLION BUCKS! It puts me in a great mood for the day, gets me energized (no need for coffee anymore) and I don't have to worry about working out the entire day!

If you haven't tried working out in the morning I highly recommend it... try it out and you will be hooked! Just like I am!!

Cougars, wolves and hedgehogs..... Oh MY!

One night last week Charlie, Dave and I decided to do something a little out of the norm. We went to go visit wildlife at the mall... I know it sounds absolutly crazy and white-trashy, which it kind of was, but it was so cool! Charlie got to pet the little baby cougar....

we also got to see 3 wolves and pet a hedgehog. The cougar was so cute, I could have brought him home! Charlie was WAY more interested in the dead animals (skins) than the live ones.... kind of weird. But we all had a great time. Channel 13 was there doing a story and I was interviewed... so cool! If you would like to see the video go to Channel 13's website and you can find it there! What a fun experience, and it was Charlie's T.V. debut. He is probably going to be a movie star some day, so we will have to remember this, his first minutes of fame!