Stuff

I haven't forgotten about this blog :)  Thought I would post some random-ness:

Finley is developing more and more of an attitude, and although most of the time it is a hindrance, sometimes it makes us laugh.  Last night Levi told her to be quiet while he was putting shorts on (not sure why she needed to be quiet), but Finely broke out into one of her original songs (complete gibberish, but entertaining.)  She had a look on her face that was priceless and we just laughed at her shear defiance of Hopper's order that she be quiet.

Also last night, at dinner Levi looked very worried and declared his brain was dusty.  After a few probing questions we figured out he ate something spicy and his mouth was hot.

And Finley is also very opinionated when it comes to clothes, shoes, accessories...guess who picked out her own outfit and headband yesterday?

Mexico

In June the Vokts headed to Mexico the Moon Palace Resort for Sarah and Jason's wedding.  It was fun, exhausting and hot :)  The kids had a fantastic time and Levi learned to order strawberry daiquiris by himself.

 

Are you ready for one million pictures?

 

Our room had a balcony with a hammock that was used often.

Chase and Harrison were great helpers with Finley in the baby pool!

Finley and Steele

Whoa!  We're all wearing the same shirt?!

Chris may or may not be carrying Levi's pants that he had an accident in.  He's running because everyone was waiting to take a family picture.

And he ran so fast he was losing his shorts.

The lizards were everywhere

And then I forgot to blog.

Well, didn't so much forget as didn't make the time.  Awhile ago I read a really good article in the New York Times about being "too busy":  Are You As Busy As You Think?  It's all relative.  I really like the idea of substituting the phrase "it's not important" instead of "I'm too busy."  Puts a new perspective on it.

I have so many pictures to share - lots of happenings this summer:  Des Moines, Mexico, Las Vegas, Kansas City...  Moreover, lots of playing outside.  I was telling my Aunt Missy that there's tons of stuff we'd like to do around the house - decorating, projects, organizing...but we're too interested in playing outside with the kids, instead.  She pointed out that they'll remember playing outside on the park and playing baseball and soccer in the yard when they get older, not how their house was (or wasn't) decorated.  Point taken.

We did get caught up in Olympic fever at our house, though.  I love it from a kid's point of view.  Here's Levi's take on what happens when someone wins: 

If you get first place - YOU WIN! 
then what?
You get the golden medal...and flowers.
yep, they get a bouquet of flowers at the medal ceremony
And then they throw the flowers to their mom!
ok

Here are some good Olympic related links (clearly I make time for the internets):
Video of Aly Raisman's parents reacting to her bar routine.  Love it.
USA gymnastics leotards.  Everything about them - how they stay put, how much they cost - WOW.

A quick update on the kids:

Levi Hopper - will start pre school in September.  IS SO EXCITED.  He's going to Montessori Children's House 3 mornings a week.  One of his phrases that we like is "at the sun."  Meaning, tomorrow morning.  Can we go to the zoo at the sun?  I'm going to wear my soccer goalie shirt at the sun.  Current book obsession - anything dinosaur.

Finley Violet - is talking more and more.  Still has an ornery streak.  She's all too familiar with time out for biting or hitting.  She loves her babies (dolls) more and more.  She kisses them, feeds them, and takes them for walks in the stroller.  Current book obsession - Go Dog Go.

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend was jam-packed for us!  We started off on Friday night by going to see a Creighton baseball game downtown.  Levi was really excited about the game and brought his glove.  He was not so excited when the ballplayers wouldn't throw him the ball (during the game).




At TD Ameritrade ballpark

 

On Saturday we went to the Golden Spike monument in CB to see some Union Pacific trains that were on display for UP's 150th anniversary and CB's pride week.  We thought Levi would go crazy for the trains - but he was still on his baseball kick and all he wanted to was play catch.

In front of the 844



Levi could have stayed all day and played catch.




In front of the Golden Spike



For those of you not familiar with Council Bluffs/railroad history, the Golden Spike is a monument in honor of where the UP line met the Central Pacific line (in Utah, however - not in CB) but not far from the monument is the beginning of the Union Pacific line - mile post 0. 

...I digress.  Mother's Day was wonderful.  The kids gave me the fantastic present of sleeping in until 7:00 and then more presents of a beautiful ring and necklace.  We then went to brunch at Champion's Run with the Vokts and then headed to Des Moines for dinner with the Hoppers.  We spent some time at Grandma Cece and Pop's then went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  In addition to all the Hoppers, Melissa and Joey had just gotten to Des Moines, they are on vacation visiting from Nigeria.  We couldn't ask for better behaved kids that day.  They were good at both meals out, took a nap on the way to Des Moines and then slept all the way home to CB at bed time.  

Busy Spring

After Easter we started our busy spring.  Between work, planting trees (we now have 20 trees in our yard!), playing outside in the beautiful weather, birthday parties, first communions, baseball games....we've been busy.  At Berkshire our 1st quarter is over, and the annual meeting is past so it's slowed down a little bit at work at least.  The annual meeting was the first weekend in May, Chris and Grandma Rose brought the kids to the CenturyLink Center while I was working to visit.  Levi didn't get a picture with the GEICO gecko this year (he was too busy!) but they did stop by the Garanimals booth:



We also enjoyed some Dilly bars.  Don't worry - Finley was not without a Dilly bar - she had already helped Chris and Rose finish theirs and she was contemplating how she was going to get her hands on Hopper's.



Easter egg hunting

The weekend before Easter we went to Aksarben Village (the area where Chris' office is located) for their Easter egg hunt.  Us and about 10,000 other people.  We went early and had lunch then went to the hunt.  Levi had an advantage because we were in the 1 - 3 year old area making him one of the older hunters.  But the competitive advantage did not translate to extra eggs because he decided he only wanted to pick up blue eggs.  And there weren't many of those.  They got a few eggs a piece, and really that was plenty.





Before the hunt.  Levi was concerned that all the kids were going to get the eggs before him so he didn't want to take his eyes off the prize.

  

Once the hunt started she could care less about picking up any eggs.

 

Then on Easter weekend we headed to Des Moines.  We had lots of fun dyeing eggs and there was another Easter egg hunt in Pop and Grandma Cece's backyard!

Levi found a "girls egg", on his way to deliver it to either Lilah or Finley.



Finley participated more in this hunt, it was a little less intimidating than her first.


 



What are the fish biting?

The newest fisherman has materialized in the Vokt household.  Last Friday we ventured to Bass Pro Shop and Hopper picked out his first fishing pole.  It was a tough decision, first he chose the Lightening McQueen pole, but then we had to go back to the kid's section and switch, because he wanted the Star Wars one, instead.  It is pretty cool, it lights up when you push the trigger.

Then Saturday morning he and Daddy went to get bait, McDonald's breakfast, then headed to Lake Manawa. Chris kept the plastic fish that came with the pole on the end of Levi's rod and they practiced casting.  

Levi kept the plastic fish on his rod, but when Chris would catch a fish, Levi would reel it in.  Looks like he was doing a pretty good job!

Levi liked it so much I think they might go again this weekend.

Like a rolling stone

It's been an eventful past few weeks in our house.  I was planning to take a day or two off after our 10-K was filed just to do some stuff around the house, but my kidneys had other ideas.  On the afternoon of the 15th I was at work and started to get a terrible pain in my lower back, then the sweating started.  After two ineffective ibuprofen were taken I decided I should go home.  Driving home I thought I might pass out because the pain was so bad.  I got home and Chris and the kids were playing outside and I couldn't even stand to pick up Finley.  Chris took the kids to his parent's house so that I could lay down in quiet (at this time I thought it was cramps).  Around 7:30 after continued pain and throwing up twice due to it, I called Chris and told him I needed to go to urgent care.  On our way to urgent care (which is about 20 miles away) I decided the hospital emergency room sounded like a better idea.
Apparently every other person thought the emergency room sounded like a good idea, too.  It was about an hour and a half before we got in, but they pretty much knew it was a kidney stone right away given my symptoms.  To give us credit, Chris and I came up with the same diagnosis during our wait in the emergency room too (a few years before my friend Sara had a kidney stone, so we were familiar with the symptoms and aware that it can, in fact, happen to a younger woman - not just 80 year old men.)
I had a ct scan and yep - a 9mm kidney stone. I was told that there was no way this was coming out on it's own.  I took their word - I'm not very good with the metric system.  I stayed the night in the hospital and they gave me morphine.  For those who've had experiences in the hospital, nurses and doctors constantly have you "rate your pain."  I was familiar with this process after having the kids.  On a scale of 1 to 10, my pain at it worst was a 10 - for reals.  Chris went home to get my tooth brush and the iPad, you know, the essentials.  When he got back I was settled in my hospital room and he asked me how I was feeling.  I said, "Ask me what my pain level is!"  He obliged and I responded with, "ZERO!" and laughed.  The morphine was effective.  I was then instructed by my husband to go to bed.
Chris came back in the morning and we watched basketball games while waiting for the procedure to laser the stone and put a stint in.  At 3:30 they finally had time to get me in and off I went.  I really don't like to think about the details, but they broke up the stone, got most of it out and then put a stint in so that any fragments could come out easier.  Before going in, I informed the doctor that Iowa State played at 8:30 and I needed to be discharged before that so I could watch the game.  He obliged and Chris and I were home to watch most of ISU's first round game.
There was pain here and there for the next week, but then the next Friday I got the stint removed.  That was not fun.  I was hoping that I would be put under, like I was the first time, but no such luck.  I practiced Lamaze breathing and made it through a scope procedure and the stint removal.  Ugh.
Now I have to go back in a month for an ultrasound to make sure nothing crazy is going on in there and to review the results of the pathology report of the stone itself. 
The continual question during my hospital stay was, do you drink a lot of soda?  Um, no, besides one time in high school when I tried a Mountain Dew, I don't drink soda.  So...that doesn't explain this.  The doctor said the path lab might be able to provide some sort of explanation given the composition of the stone, but he didn't sound too hopeful.  Oh - and there were also many "geriatric" references to my condition.  Nice.

Month in Review?

Well, there goes that new year's resolution of blogging more :) Here are some pictures from February:

We made valentines for the kids at the babysitter's.  Levi was very interested in picking out the perfect stickers for everyone and putting them on their valentines.  If you notice below, each person has one type of sticker, he didn't allow any mixing of stickers.

Finley colored while Levi worked on the stickers.

One of Finley's favorite activities is to play dress up when we are trying to get her pajamas on.

Farewell, The French Cafe

In September, 2005 Chris and I went to The French Cafe in the Old Market for the first time before we went to see Ray LaMontagne play at the Scottish Rite Temple.  That afternoon we were talking about where to go to dinner and I seriously think we threw around Arby's but then Chris suggested The French Cafe since we had never been and we had talked about going there.  I remember my Aunt Marie saying it was the most romantic restaurant she'd ever been to.
It was busy that night (a Saturday) and there was great people watching.  We sat by a table of old(er) people, I think there were awesome hats and tweed jackets involved.  We talked about growing old together and how exciting that was (especially for Chris - an old soul to begin with.)  Chris pointed out that if we were going to grow old together and have a family we should probably get married.  He asked when that was going to happen and I said, when you ask me.  And with that he got down on one knee and pulled the ring out.  It was surreal, I couldn't believe what was happening and I just wanted to look at the ring but didn't know if that was rude, like I was inspecting it :)  Then we commented that the restaurant was so busy, we don't think that anyone noticed that we just had one of the most important events of our life occur!

Every year for our anniversary we have dinner at The French Cafe.  (All 5 years :)  Each time we went it was never as busy as it was that night, and my friend Angela had mentioned last year that when she went the food wasn't very good.  Last week, I read this article about The French Cafe closing.  They say hundreds, maybe thousands of people got engaged there.  It made me sad, we had always talked about going there every year.  Our babysitter, Janet, and her husband Don go to the same restaurant (Brother Sebastian's) every year for their anniversary - maybe we'll give that a try :)  We'll have to come up with an alternate plan I guess!

No pictures that I could find from our 1st anniversary.

2nd anniversary, outside The French Cafe (see the sign in the top left?)  Pregnant with Levi, holding leftovers in a tin foil swan.

3rd anniversary, see the swan on the table?

4th anniversary, pregnant with Finley, wearing the same dress as above!

5 year anniversary, before heading to The French Cafe



2 Weeks in Review - Hilton Magic Edition

Busy two weeks in the Vokt household.  It was Grandpa Denny's birthday on the 25th and then we headed to Des Moines on Friday the 27th for the weekend and the Iowa State/Kansas basketball game.

Finley Violet:  is talking more and more.  Most of her words are only ones that we can understand, though.  Her most distinguishable are:  bye, more, O (as in Cheerios), mine, and no no no (combined with a finger shake.)  She likes barking when she sees pictures of dogs, roaring when she sees pictures of tigers, lions, bears, dinosaurs, etc...She's still very loving and gives kisses and hugs freely...however, she's gaining a temper and has taken to hitting and even some biting when she gets angry or frustrated.  We're trying to curb that!  Luckly we haven't gotten any complaints from the babysitter, apparently she only gets mad at her immediate family :)

Levi Hopper:  loved going to Des Moines and the Cyclones basketball game.  Every day for the week leading up to our trip he would ask me if we were going to Grandma Cece's.  As expected he LOVED his first Hilton experience.  There was plenty of music to dance to and plenty of yelling for the Cy-col-ones.  He got a haircut this past Wednesday night.  The last time he got a haircut declared it a monkey haircut.  This time it's a rock and roll haircut.  They are essentially the same haircuts...

Tiff:  took a weekend off of work and I must say, the Cyclone victory over #5 Kansas was definitely more exciting than working on a cash flow statement.  Ryan got us tickets to the game as a Christmas present, and it was a great game to go to.  We went up with Lilah, Ryan and Pop while Finley stayed in Des Moines with Grandma Cece to go shopping.

Chris:  bucked the trend at Hickory Park for lunch before the game by getting a 2 meat combo.  Apparently the Hoppers get Saucy Southeners exclusively when we go to the park.  

At Hickory Park before the basketball game.  We all got barbecue and ice cream...except Pop who somehow managed to turn down ice cream!?

After the win against Kansas.  It was super fun to be there.  Later that night my cousin Elizabeth asked me if we stormed the court.  It would have taken us awhile to get down there given we were in the second row from the top :)  They were still great seats, though.