Author: pazmeyer

beauty

It was a night of reading, playing beauty shop, and playing with the diner. The girls are so lucky to have such a wonderful daddy who is always willing to play again even if it means a few bows in the hair!

dancing

We pulled up to the house tonight and saw Gus’ car waiting for us. Annabelle told Gwyneth “GG, your Gus is here!”.  B made us dinner (delicious meatballs subs – Gwyneth ate 3 meatballs!) and then headed off with Gus to play darts and watch the Nuggets game. It has been a busy, busy week (and it’s only Wednesday) and I couldn’t have been happier to have some girl time with my babies.
There are few things better in this world than watching American Idol with the Meyer gals. Yes, I understand it’s a silly show, and yes, I understand that there may be far better things to do with your time, but if you’ve ever rocked out with Annabelle and Gwyneth  you know exactly where I’m coming from. We danced! We danced! We danced! Annabelle and I taught Gwyneth how to snap. We held hands and spun in circles and we laughed – we laughed, hard and loud – Annabelle actually snorted.  It really is the little things…. 
my baby
Annabelle posed herself – makes a momma proud
I set this up, but the girls thought it was hilarious!
I adore these girls. How did I get so lucky?

nuggets and vanilla ice

My dad and Melissa gave B tickets to the Nuggets game for Chistmas, so we got a sitter for the girls and headed off to the game. We still haven’t taken the girls to a game yet, unfortunately the games usually start around 7:00 or later and Miss GG’s bedtime is 7:30. Hopefully we’ll be able to stretch the bedtime a little and take them for a game soon, very soon. I know they’ll love it!

It was a great game. We were in Row 3 – fabulous seats – and the Nuggets beat the Pistons 107 – 102.   Imagine our surprise, when at half time they welcomed Vanilla Ice to center court and he busted out “Ice, Ice Baby”. It was 1990 in the Pepsi Center tonight!  It was slightly sad, slightly embarrassing but all around funny.  That said, I hope my girls get their dad’s sense of humor. I was fine to sit, point, and laugh, but the compassionate man that my husband is said “Oh man, I can’t watch. I’m going to get a beer”.

shout out

Gotta give a happy birthday shout out to my friends, Erica and Melissa! I didn’t get to celebrate with either one, but was thinking of you while tending to my sick little Annabelle. Hope you both had a great day!

I’m looking forward to finally seeing both of you in March!

piano men

I must begin by thanking my wonderful husband for sending me off with my pal Lisa to one of the absolute best concerts I’ve ever seen. 

Lisa and I had great seats – row 11 – for the Elton John & Billy Joel concert. It was absolutely amazing. No gimmicks, no nonsense – just 3 hours of good ol’ piano playing and singing great songs. They sang the songs I grew up on and love. They kept them true and the show rocked. They started the show playing “Your Song” and “Just the Way You Are” together and then Elton did his own solo portion of the show. Phenomenal! My favorites were “Tiny Dancer” (of course! y’all know this is my song!), “Levon”, “Rocket Man”, and “Daniel”.
That would have been a great concert by itself, but Billy Joel was still up! It really felt like we were treated to two amazing concerts in one evening.  Billy Joel was great and played so many of his classics “Don’t Ask Me Why”, “She’s Always a Woman”, and “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. Elton John joined him for another round of songs which included “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” “Uptown Girl,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Candle in the Wind” and “Piano Man.”. The highlight was the end of the show when they went silent and the crowd sang the chorus to “Piano Man”. Fabulous! 
I haven’t sang and danced like this in ages. I had an absolute blast!! It was well worth every penny and the tremendous exhaustion I endured trying to make it through the following hectic work day. Lisa and I don’t get to see each other often, but we surely make it well worth the wait when we go to shows like this!! Our poor husbands could not be more jealous, so we can only hope this concert tour will be around again sometime soon.
Very lucky girls – me and my pal, Lisa, ready for the show!

trinidad

What a weekend! Brandon & Kelly planned a getaway to Trinidad for the weekend and asked us to come along. We don’t get to hang out with them nearly as much as we’d like so we decided to go for it. B’s sister, Chriss offered to watch the girls for us for the night. Annabelle & Gwyneth were so excited to spend the night with their Auntie, Uncle, and cousins. We dropped them off early on Saturday and headed on down to Trinidad. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive.
Brandon did the electrical work on Cougar Canyon which is a Nicklaus designed golf couse. Unfortunately for the guys it was too cold to golf, but Brandon did give us a tour. We bowled, ate, and had a few drinks! It was a really nice little getwaway. We woke up early Sunday morning and headed back to get our girls. The roads were nice and slick but we made it back in one piece and were happy to be home. We received a very good report from Auntie Chriss & Uncle Paul. The girls were well behaved and Miss Gwyneth never stopped eating!
Good to be home with our girls.
Annabelle got right to work cleaning the fireplace – this is one of her favorite things to do.
Gwyneth making sure her monkey is swaddled properly.

messy

B was craving some ice cream so the girls got lucky and were treated to a little also. This was the first time they ever had chocolate ice cream and it was a big hit. I swear they actually ate some instead of just wearing it all on their little faces.
Such little girlies! Annabelle really likes to fix mine and Gwyneth’s hair.

valentine’s packages

The mail is here, the mail is here! What treasures await me….
oh, rather disappointing to say the least.
A much different story for Annabelle & Gwyneth. Check out their Valentine’s loot! It was certainly a good mail day for them.
The girls had a blast opening their many Valentine’s. They also received their St. Louis Zoo animals. Each year Poppy personally selects an animal for each of the girls to sponsor. This is Gwyneth’s second. She’s a proud zoo mama to a zebra and now a penguin. You can see, she’s thrilled.This is Annabelle’s 3rd Valentine’s animal. She has a penguin, a zebra and my favorite – a warthog!
Poppy sponsors a zoo animal for each of his grandaughters each year. The St. Louis zoo is free and in order to remain free to the public they require donations to keep the animals cared for and fed. He has been donating since Madison was born and keeps adding animals and granddaughters! My guess, is that he’s sponsoring about 21 animals now. Next time we’re back in St. Louis the girls will be able to visit their animals at the zoo, which may actually be called the Poppy Paz Zoo soon enough!

hair cut

What in the world should I do with this girls hair???? Miss Gwyneth’s hair grows so darn fast. She has gorgeous thick hair which um, has turned into a bit of an unruly mullet. I’ve tried pony tails, braids, pig tails….it’s just wild! I didn’t want to cut her hair, but knew it was time to at least take her in for a trim. The stylist gave it to me straight “There comes a time when every little girl must cut off her baby mullet. C’mon Mom, please do it for Gwyneth”. Hilarious! Ok, how could I refuse that desperate plea?
Before
After
I love Gwyneth’s new ‘do! She looks so stinkin’ cute and her little bob works perfect with those adorable chubby cheeks. My only regret is that it makes her look too darn grown up – I suppose that is inevitable though, *sigh*.
I’ve always heard from family and friends “She looks just like you”, but since getting her hair cut I’ve had strangers stop me to tell me too! I guess with the same haircut now it’s indisputable. Although YaYa is certain she’s a spitting image of “Baby Becky”.
Not to miss a beat, Miss Annabelle got her hair trimmed today also. As I was taking before and after shots of GG, Annabelle climbed in her rocker and said very loudly “oh, look at my pretty hair”. Nothing like a little sibling rivalry.

fishy friday

Friday night is Family Night at the Aquarium! We joined the Carlson’s for dinner and got our money’s worth on the kids eat for $1.99 deal. Annabelle and Jack were a bit anxious to go look at the fish, but Gwyneth and Ben devoured their meals!  Baby Ben gets so excited over his food – he even started dancing when they gave him a slice of bread. Poor B learned the hard way not to give up Gwyenth’s food too quickly. When B told the server she could take Gwyneth’s plate she was not pleased and started grabbing for everyone else’s. I guess Miss GG wasn’t done. Lesson learned! Don’t mess with the girls food!
After dinner we cruised through the aquarium. This was the first time we’ve had all 4 of them walking! It was great – they had so much energy and really enjoyed exploring. Annabelle and Jack are usually in the lead with Gwyneth at their heals and Ben following closely behind. Gwyneth is thrilled to have someone running with her trying to keep up with the big kids.
Gwyneth doing her “I LOVE the fish” dance. Yes, us Meyer’s have a dance for everything.
Jack staring up at the fish in amazement, Gwyneth in such awe that she had to sit down to take it all in, and……well, there goes Annabelle!
Loving the aquarium – I’m so glad we have a pass.
So much fun!This cracks me up – Miss GG just needed a little extra boost to get up on the bench. She wanted to keep up with the big kids, but every time she’d climb up they’d hop right down. That’s a lot of work for a little girl. Jack finally gave her a break and sat on the bench with her…not for long though….none of them could stay still for long….
Even Baby Ben ran around. This was a very popular spot at the aquarium and I think the kids could have stayed there all night.
Jack brought out a very brave side in my girls because they were eager to pet the stingrays for the first time ever. Now, they didn’t actually touch it, but they did stick their hands in the water as it swam by which is a big step from seeing it, screaming, and run in the opposite direction. Baby steps….