Baseball, Birthday, Baptism and Easter

We had a fun crazy busy weekend. We started off on Friday out at the K for the Royals home opener against the Yankees. Boo Yankees!! Started off tailgating around 11 am with my good old friends Jeff & Cindy and the whole gang from B&McD. The renovations at the stadium are awesome. Nice big concourses, lots of women restrooms, variety of vendors.

We had a fun filled weekend in Iowa this past weekend as well. My niece Marissa turned 1 yr old on April 3rd but we celebrated her bday this past Saturday as well as her baptism.

Sunday we headed out to Carson, IA to my aunt's farm for Easter. As always, my mom hid the eggs around the farm. The goal is to find your personal egg with your name on it. Sometimes you don't always find yours. My dad never did find his this year.

New baby Brown

Congratulations to Mike and Margie on the birth of their son William on the 2nd. He is such a beautiful baby boy. Gigi and i met up with Coleen to see Margie at the hospital. It is always the best time when us girls get together. And Margie looked fabulous. i wish i could look that good after giving birth!!

Speaking of Gigi, she came into town on Friday to join me for a performance of Phantom of the Opera. This is my favorite musical. Yes, call me a sucker for a good love story. We had awesome seats, 8th row center. The performance was great and the music left me breathless as it always does. This was Gigi's first time seeing Phantom and she truly enjoyed it as well. I think it is still here this weekend so if you haven't seen it yet, GO!! It is well worth it.

Julia at 1 Year

Took Julia to her year appt with the pediatrician yesterday. She weighed in at 19lbs 9oz (30%) and 30.5" (90%). Nina was 21lbs at a year. Julia is lean and long which the Dr said was good. Only bad thing is she is not feeling well. Think she has more teeth coming in which is giving her a low grade fever and making her very cranky.

First Bday

Julia's first bday and bday cake. She loved it.

Nina and our neighbors Lexie, John and Zach

Before and Now: Happy 1st Bday Julia

Julia, March 27th, 2008

Julia, March 27th, 2009

Happy Birthday to Julia. I can't hardly believe that she is one year old today. She had a full day of playing, eating, napping, picture taking and of course riding her new buggy from Grandma and Papa Roth.

Bed head

Julia doesn't have much hair so when she gets bed head, we take pictures. :)

Me and the girls

This was taken on my bday at the Bristol for lunch.

Julia's New trick

Julia started the belly crawl over the weekend. She's also really starting to imitate what we do with waving and stretching. So much fun right now!!

Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's off to work i go....

You know you have a wonderful husband when you tell him that you have a huge deadline moved up on ya by two weeks and need to spend pretty much all my time at the office and he completely understands. Every night this past week I have worked late. Today is Saturday and I'm back here at the office. I will be coming in again tomorrow for most of the day and will be working late every night next week. March is usually like this for me but never has it been this bad. I've never had a client move up a deadline but when there's stimulus funds on the line, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Last year at this time, i was in the same boat. I had two projects that were due at the end of March. And lets see..... what else was due at the end of March last year..... :) of course, Julia was due at the same time. I remember signing & sealing plans on a Wed and having Julia the next day. Now a year later, I have another project due but this time Julia is here at the office with me.

In like a lion...

KC got some snow yesterday and not just a little bit. We got around 5-6" which is pretty big for us. Mark was out early shoveling and it was still snowing. Julia enjoyed the snow too but not as much as Nina. She went sledding and had a ball playing in the snow with the neighbor kids.

My parents came down last night too for my bday today. It was fun to have them here. I can't remember the last time i actually spent my bday with my parents. I got a Wii Fit which i can't wait to use. I certainly need it!! Mark got me some golf lessons at the golf club just outside our neighborhood. I'm anxious to use them too and learn how to play.

Where did this month go???

As always, we've been crazy busy these days. Both Mark and I have been traveling for work. Nina's basketball team just finished up their last game yesterday. We're looking forward to volleyball starting in a couple of weeks!!

Julia is full of energy these days and wanting to walk around holding onto our fingers. She can stand on her own if she doesn't realize she is doing it. Once she notices that we don't have her, she falls. She is also starting to eat more table food. Cheese is her favorite as are cheerios. Tonight was an experience with spaghetti noodles. She loved them but had a hard time getting the noodles in her mouth. We finally lowered her crib down too and the pic is from her standing in it for the first time lowered.

5th grade bball

Nina is in her 3rd year of playing bball. It's amazing how much she has improved these last 3 years. She can shoot the ball into the 10' goal with ease. Her first year, they had a 8' goal and she could barely get the ball to the rim. However, her team hasn't fared as well. They have won only one game this season. They are definitely improving as the season goes but so are the other teams. Pictures from Friday nights game.

Shrimp Bingo

It's that time of year again for the annual Shrimp Bingo night or as Mark calls it "Nerd Nite". Yes, it's a night for engineers to gather (approx 1200 of them) for a night of all you can eat shrimp, six games of bingo with prizes and of course, our favorite part, the open bar. The KC Engrs Club puts on this annual event as a fundraiser for scholarships. I cannot remember how many years I've been going but i lost count when i ran out of fingers... This year's event has to be the best though because for the first time in all these many years, I actually got BINGO!! Yes, i jumped from my seat, screamed as loud as i could BINGO to the crowd of 1200 engrs and clients. Ran up to the front of the room to have my card checked (god knows you don't want to NOT have a bingo, the shame....). Each games has 4 prizes so first come first serve. I was the second winner of game 3. So with the first prize already won (new 26" HDTV), i got a new blue ray disk player. I called Mark and said we need to go and buy some blue ray dvd's. So needless to say, i had a great time.

Party Arty

Last Sat night Mark and I went with our friends Steve and Beth to the 2009 Party Arty at the Nelson Atkins Museum. It's an annual fundraiser for the museum sponsered by young friends of the arts. The night featured a fashion show and music by the Nadas. The Nadas are a band from Iowa that plays at ISU frequently. Thus the main reason we went. We also got to look around at some of the exhibits in the new Bloch bldg. Of course the open bar was a big draw as well.

Rough morning

Julia fell asleep this morning in her highchair.

Just Chillin...

Nina and Julia hanging out.

Twilight

i haven't written in quite a while solely because i have become addicted to the Twilight Series. Have you read these books? They are written for high schoolers so it make them such an easy read that you can't put them down. Plus it's a very entertaining story. There are 4 books total that the storyline follows from page one of the first book straight thru the last page of the 4th book. So it is so hard to stop reading!! You just have to find out what happens next. Also some of my coworkers are reading the books as well so now we get together and talk about it. So addictive. :) I finished the last book last night so I thought i better up date the blog.

All is well and busy to start the year. Nina got all A's and B's on her 2nd quarter report card. yeah. She is doing very well in school. She also scored 97% on her MAPS test for math (that would be the basic skills test we all took many moons ago). So i couldn't be more prouder of that. I'm guessing she'll be in pre-algebra next year. Basketball season is in full swing now too. Her team is still learning and growing. They have won 1 out of 4 games this year so far. And that is already better than last season. Nina also went to vball camp over Christmas break and she is serving over hand already. Wow, I couldn't do that 'til about 8th grade.

Julia is just perfect. We're waiting for those two top teeth to break thru any day now. She sure is chewing on everything right now too. She is still stationary, content to sit and watch everyone and the pups. No signs of crawling or moving around but I'm sure our days are numbered. She does love to stand and hold our fingers. Just this week she has been holding on to us and taking steps. No balance yet but again, our days are numbered.....

Mark and I went to his holiday party last weekend. I like that they do this in Jan. Gives us something to look forward to. Plus his party is still small enough for an open bar. :) haha

That's about all for now. I'm crazy busy at work waiting on the economic stimulus plan to get passed. Our DOT clients all have big aspirations if this goes and of course it gives us quite a bit of work too.

Happy New Year

Wow what a great year 2008 was and I'm so excited for 2009. We celebrated New Year's Eve with a fabulous dinner at home with Mark's family. Nina was excited to be having her friend Lauren over for the night too. Mark's parents volunteered to babysit the girls for us while we went out for New Year's Eve, including getting up with Julia at the crack of dawn the next morning. Wow, a whole evening without kids to do whatever we want with no expectation of getting up early with Julia. Whatever should we do???? :) The wild crazy people we are, we partied 2minutes away at the neighbors house. Our friends Chris and Jane hosted the annual New Year's Eve party again this year. They have been busy this year finishing their basement and was all too happy to have us there last night to break it in.

Our hosts Chris and Jane

Neighbors and friends at the party

On New Year's Day we had brunch at our friends Mike and Margie's new home. We had so much fun spending time with our best friends and their kids on this day. Margie's home is just beautiful. With a little boy on the way, they will have many happy years together in their new house.

Julia and Skylar

Margie and Gretchen

Amelia and Gretchen

Our sad news of the new year is that the Vasko's are moving to Manhattan, KS. Yea, it's not that far away but still makes us sad to see them leave KC. Todd has taken a new job at Ft Riley developing homes for the troops and their families. They are very excited about this new opportunity. We wish them well and remind them that the spare bedroom is always open for them!!

Finally, i finished off the new year by going to see Annie at the Music Hall. Gigi and i have season tickets. Just odd that this show was New Year's Night. It was a very good production.