Halloween!

This Halloween was one in which I thought I would still have some control over what Lila's costume would be, boy was I wrong!!  I originally had her convinced that she would be Audrey Hepburn circa Breakfast at Tiffany's, it was the most darling costume with a big tulle skirt, pearls, a little tiara, and don't forget the oversized black sunglasses!  I was getting ready to order the costume on Etsy and Lila was in the living room with me and I said, "okay, Mom is going to order your costume!"  That statement was met with a pouty lip and what could have turned into tears.  I of course asked her what was wrong and she said, "Mom, I want to be Belle for Halloween."  I was officially disappointed!  I am not sure what disappointed me more, the fact that she didn't want to wear this darling costume or the fact that she had an opinion and she is growing up?!  After she claimed she wanted to be Belle, she then said, "I will be Audrey Hepburn next year!"  Once that statement came out of her mouth, I almost felt guilty...she had no idea who Audrey Hepburn is, I needed to concede!  So, the quest for a new costume began.  We spent some time looking into Belle costumes, but we weren't finding much of anything, she then changed it up on me again and asked to be a ballerina.  DONE!  It couldn't get much easier than that!

 

So, that is just what we had!  A beautiful ballerina who couldn't have been happier in her costume!  In fact, she loved it so much she wore it for basically a week straight!  Thank goodness we had so many opportunities to show off our costume!  Our festivities started the Friday before Halloween at TrueNorth.  We picked up Celia after school and took her with us to trick or treat in the building and experience each of the areas and their themes.  There was a Wizard of Oz theme, Vintage Halloween, Candyland, Super hero, it was quite the party!

 

 

At the entrance of the Emerald City!

 

Kindermusik is Monday nights, so the class was encouraged to wear their costumes that evening to class!  All of the kids looked so cute!  What is normally a rowdy group was a bit shy with all their costumes on, it was kind of cute!



 

 

Tuesday had us packing her costume up to go to preschool with her!  She couldn't wait to show her teachers and classmates her dance moves!  And finally, it was the BIG day!  She had been so patient waiting for Halloween to roll around.  She kept telling her Daddy that he was the one going with her because he would hold her hand and accompany her as she goes to each door, of course Mike eats that up!

 

We got our little ballerina all ready and after a few pictures on the porch it was time to head out.  I was planning on staying back to hand out candy, but Mike and Lila convinced me to put the candy out on the porch, honor system style, and tag along.  So, off we went!

 



 

 

 

We made a quick stop at the Pfeiler house to trick-or-treat, but to also get a quick peek of Sloan in her darling outfit and get a picture of the two girls together!

 

Tu-tu Cute!

We were about 10 houses into our trick or treating when our neighbor told us that the power was completely out on our street.  What?!  Yes, out!  Which meant we were locked out of our house!!!  When we left the doors were all locked and we put the garage door down, we weren't getting in!  So, we spent some time hanging out on the front porch handing out candy to the kids who were willing to wander down the dark street! 

We're not afraid of the dark!

 

Our little girl was starting to get cold, so back to the Pfeiler's we went!  They welcomed us in so we could get warmed up, but it wasn't long before the kids were ready to go door to door again!  Quel had Sloan all bundled up in a wagon and Lila was thrilled she was willing to share her wheels! 

 



 

Racquel's cousins, Lexi & Tori, were along, too.  They are both such sweet girls and do so well with the little ones!  We all stopped by the Eddins house (the power was back on) to snap a picture on the front porch of all the girls together!

 

 

Even though our night didn't go quite as planned, we had a great time spending it with good friends!  Sometimes the impromptu get togethers are the ones that bring along the best memories!



Where did January go?!

How on earth is it almost February?  My blogging is almost therapeutic and in someways ends the week for me, something I generally do on Sundays, and I have been neglecting it.  The past few weeks have been super busy with all sorts of fun stuff, 2012 has definitely gotten off to a good start!

We finally had our first "big" snow of the winter season.  It was well after Christmas this year and quite frankly, I was bummed about it in December, but totally over it by the time it decided to show up.  I was just getting used to not having to have your coat, mittens, hat, boots and scarf with you wherever we went!

Bundled up for an outing!

I have to share that Lila has a pretty amazing Daddy!  She puts him through his paces.  At any given time she has him dancing around the room, playing on the floor, chasing her down the hallway, acting like a goof ball, singing songs, and the list goes on and on...he is a trooper and there isn't anything he won't do to put a smile on her sweet face!

Pretty face decorations - courtesy of Lila!

We spent some time over at Grandma and Grandpa Eddins' house this weekend and Lila was introduced to Grandma Elaine's famous chocolate malts!  The malt was a HIT!  However, after a full bowl of marshmallows, some Teddy Grahams and her chocolate malt she was BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS!!!!

We had to strip down to fully enjoy this malt!

Celia and Ruby both celebrate their birthday's in January.  Ruby turned 5 on the 17th and Celia turned 7 on the 26th.  It is hard to believe that these little girls are growing up.  To think that Ruby was younger than Lila is now when we welcomed Lila to the family is crazy to think about, and she seemed so big when Lila was born! 

The girls had their joint birthday party this weekend!  It was a brunch and a small gathering of family.  The girls are so sweet and enjoyed spending time with their family and opening all their gifts, of course!  They got a lot of great things, American Girl is big with them right now!  They got the girl of the year while in Chicago for their birthdays and were pleased to get a lot of the accessories that go with her!

The birthday girls!  Lauren turned 16 in January, too!

Board games are a hit with the girls!  So we couldn't help but get them the sequel to the game Headbandz that we got them for Christmas.  This version is Disney Headbandz, you can tell by the Mickey Mouse ears as an addition to the traditional head gear!  We had a blast playing, there were a lot of giggles as Grandma tried to guess her card -- she was Piglet! 

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you!"

Another special birthday in the month of January is Little Miss Henley's, she turned 2 earlier this month!  We were so excited to head to Center Point today to partake in a craft day with just the girls!  I can't share the craft just yet as it is a very special present for Baby Girl Pfeiler who isn't here yet, but we had A LOT of fun creating this special gift!  So much fun that Monica and I have decided we will get together once a month, if possible, to do some kind of fun, creative activity with the girls.  (Disclaimer: the girls basically ran around like mad women while the Mom's were engrossed in the craft!  Several times I found myself ignoring Lila due to my fixation...bad mom!)

Move over Elmo!  We're comin' in!

Darling little girls having loads of fun!

Another thing keeping me busy has been our new building at work.  When planning the new facility we had timelines that started back in January of 2010.  The final date on most of those timelines was January 19th, 2012 -- our open house and PM Exchange.  We would look at those timelines, crossing each bridge as we came to it, hitting milestones along the way, but none quite as fulfilling as our event on the 19th.  The Mayor of Cedar Rapids, Ron Corbett and Duane spoke to the whole TrueNorth staff and some of our clients, we hosted a ribbon cutting to help make it all feel official, and most importantly we celebrated -- we celebrated all that has been, all that is, and all that is yet to come for us as a business and our community!  

The 19th marked the end of the beginning, if you will. We are finally in the building, living and working and after we were able to share it/christen it with some of our clients, community and friends it feels like we can finally take a deep breath and in some ways, "get back to business."

No wonder January has gone so fast!

We've got spirit...and other things!

This weekend found Mike and I at the Iowa vs. Northwestern game!  The night games are always a favorite of mine, there is nothing like football under the stadium lights!  And I love that they have started the spirit tradition in which each section is broken up into black and gold attire, such a cool sight!  But to make things even more exciting this year they decided to do two card stunts -- one during the National Anthem and then another immediately following to showcase the America Needs Farmers program that Coach Hayden Fry endorsed so many years ago.  Take a look...amazing!

In other news...most of you know that we have been building a new building at TrueNorth for the past year.  This has been a very time consuming project and the time has now come for us to order boxes, contact the movers, make some last minute decisions and prepare to move into our new building.  The big move will happen November 18th!  It is a bit overwhelmng as we are all trying to manage our primary jobs while balancing everything that a move entails.  However, those of us on the design team couldn't be more proud of the progress and what we are anticipating as an amazing new location as the outcome of all the extra, hard work.  For a sneak peek of the progress so far visit watchtheprogress.com.