Girls Night!

Matt went out tonight to do "man things" with his friends, so E and I had a girls night. We watched a "Say Yes to the Dress" marathon, and then E had her bottle and bath and went down for the night. This was the first time in months that I've gotten to give her her bedtime bottle, but luckily she didn't seem to mind that it was me instead of her dad. She went on a bit of a hunger strike today, so maybe that was why she didn't protest. She took her bottle at 6:45 am with no problem, but she refused to eat again until 4:00! So she's had three bottles today instead of her usual five. I would be worried about her waking at night, except A.) Matt didn't get to put her to bed with me, so he really, really wants her to wake up, and B.)Matt does all of the night feedings anyway, so I get to sleep no matter what!

Speaking of waking up at night, guess who hasn't been? That's right, the Nans appears to be sleeping through the night! It's been a whole week now. I'm sure I'm jinxing it by making this announcement, so we shall see what happens tonight. Fingers crossed!

Cutest outfit ever

We bought this dress for E over a year ago, just after we found out she was a girl. She wore it for the first time today, and it is so, so cute! She got lots of compliments in it when we went to the store today. She got compliments unrelated to the dress too. The man stocking yogurt at WalMart says she's very healthy, so I know you're all relieved to hear that. The women in the bakery at HyVee have concluded that she is crazy smart, but I'm not sure what their reasoning is for that. From what I could make out, I think it's because she can sit up in the shopping cart without tipping over. If only it were that easy for all of us to be geniuses.

Best. Quote. Ever.

I just heard the greatest quote on a commercial for Dr. Phil:

"Did she put Viagra in your mashed potatoes?"

For Katie

I've never posted pictures of just myself here, but my friend Katie requested a picture of the new jeans, so here you go. Sorry for the awful quality, but it's hard to take a good picture in the mirror.

They are from Gap, the Real Straight style.




An amusing anecdote from today: I was on my way to do some errands with E and stopped for gas. I stuck my keys in the pocket of my jacket while I got out to pump. When I got back in the car, I reached for my keys and felt something strange by the pocket of my new fleece. I looked down and discovered that it was a plastic security tag.

The worst part of this is not that I have to go back to the store- without a reciept, I might add- and get the tag taken off. It's that for the past three days, I've been walking around looking like a shoplifter.

Lately I have been thinking of a lot of things that I am really excited for. This always happens to me when the seasons change, but fall brings about an especially bad case of it. If I wrote a separate post about every single thing I've been getting worked up over lately my computer would probably crash, so I'll just list them here (in no particular order).

1. CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! Yes, I am yelling. I'm that excited. It's going to be Elliot's first Christmas! She's going to have an adorable Christmas dress, and she'll go sit on Santa's lap, and she'll open her first Christmas presents wearing her Christmas pajamas. And she'll "help" decorate her first Christmas tree (read: She will attempt to eat ornaments and generally do everything in her power to make the process take 3 times longer than it should), and we'll hang up her Christmas stocking, and she'll get her very first Christmas ornament. If I don't explode before December 25th, that is.

2. Uggs- Yes, I know they are ugly. I agree wholeheartedly. But if you've ever worn them, you realize that they are so effing comfy that you simply won't care what they look like. When Matt was laughing at mine, I made him try them on (well, stick his giant foot in as far as it would go). His reaction? "Oh, Sweet Jesus!"

3. Coats, Jackets, and Outerwear of any kind- Much to Matt's disappointment/worry/gripping fear of bankruptcy, my love of coat shopping continues.

4. Hot Chocolate- Do I really need to explain this one? Hot chocolate is delicious!

5. Pumpkin bread- See explanation for #4.

6. Art Projects- Being a former preschool teacher, I have a huge catalogue of holiday art projects stored in my brain. I hope you all like reindeer footprints, because they will be made, photographed, and posted.

7. Heated Seats- I always thought heated seats in a car were a giant waste of money. Then, the car I bought just happened to have them. "Whatever," I thought. "I will probably never use them." Oh, how wrong I was. They are a delight.

8. Elliot's 1st Thanksgiving- As far as the actual Thanksgiving dinner goes, she'll probably eat mostly boring regular food, with maybe a few bites of mashed potatoes and possibly a tiny bit of pumpkin pie. I'm mostly excited for myself. Too bad I gave away all my maternity clothes, because those jeans would have made great Thanksgiving pants.

9. Elliot's 1st birthday party- Yes, it is still 4.5 months away, but I've been planning it for about a year now. I've already planned the cake, her outfit, and the invitations. I've also started trying to convince Matt that she needs to have a pony party for a later birthday celebration. I figure it I start working on him now, he'll be totally talked into it by the time she's 5.

Never Say Never

Yesterday I did something that I swore I would never do. We all have certain ideals that we'd like to live up to, and things usually don't go as planned. This one particular issue, though, was one I was determined to stay strong on. But I failed. I am weak. I gave in. I did it.





I bought skinny jeans.



And I love them.



A lot.



A whole, whole lot.



They're just so cute! And contrary to what I expected, they do not make my hips look 39309438 miles wide! And I can wear my favorite boots with them! And the sizing runs weird, so I got to buy them in a smaller size than usual! And in 5 years, when they are totally out of style, I can wear them to pick my kid up from school and embarrass the crap out of her!



Speaking of the kid, I found another cute picture from the pumpkin patch to share. We don't have that many pictures of all three of us together, so I really, really love this one.

Pumpkins and Ponies!!!

Today we took our sweet little stinker to the pumpkin patch at the lake. It's at the stables, so not only did she pick out her first Halloween pumpkin, she saw horses for the first time! I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and they are all too cute not to share, so this is going to be a long one.

First reaction to the horses

Giddyup!