Life

I could not be more proud of Derek! This month, he earned 2 certifications for his job which now makes him very valuable to his employer! One of them he earned the week he was in Wisconsin. While there, he had 3 days of intense training, and on the 4th day he took an 8 hour test.... a test that he was told only 60% of people pass on their first try. He, of course, passed with flying colors! I knew he would, he's a smart guy, especially when he applies himself.
Unfortunately, in March he has to return to Wisconsin again for another week of training. :( And unfortunately it falls during a very bad time.... Jadon's birthday.

Avery started her gymnastics class last weekend, and she really enjoyed it. At first, she was timid and didnt want to do anything, but once she started having some fun and seeing that it wasnt so bad, she liked it. She especially liked when she got to do things on the bars. She loved hanging on the bar and swinging, she got to hang on the bar with her feet on the bar too and she liked that, and she also got to climb a ladder that was about 7 or 8 feet tall, and she liked that too.
Its a parent involved class, so the parents were all there working with each kid.... let me tell you, it was a workout! I was sweating! But it was alot of fun, and if it worn me out, id like to hope that it worked off at least a little of Averys energy! :)

If you've been following the weather for our area, we've had quite a week of weather! After having a BEAUTIFUL October, November and December.... quite rare for our area..... the typical Oregon winter weather came. The week started with possibilities over several days for snow... but of course, why would we get any snow??? We woke up to snow a few times, but it was just a dusting, almost like a very heavy frost, and it melted off by mid morning. And it snowed off an on for a couple days, but never really stuck.
Then later on in the week, the temps warmed up, and a series of rain/wind storms came through. It rained non stop for over a day. So, with the heavy rainfall, combined with the warmer temps melting the snow, we have some flooding, and theres no end in sight for the rain showers.

The other day I noticed how incredibly small the kids pajamas are looking, especially Jadon's. His shirts have seemingly overnight shrank into belly shirts. Pajamas that I just got him in early fall....size 5 pajamas.... are getting too small for him. Remember a couple weeks ago I was talking about him being hungry and wanting to eat constantly? I guess I know why now- he was having a growth spurt.
When I bought Jadon's jammies, I also got Avery some jammies as she had outgrown hers. I had bought her a pair of 2t footie jammies, and a couple pairs of 3t jammies that she could grow into. The 2t pair is too small all of the sudden.
So, the kids and I made a trip to Costco and got some more pj's while we were there. Sizes? Jadon- size 6. Avery- 3t. These kids are just growing too fast, I cant keep up. They are both getting so tall! (big surprise!)

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Derek finally comes home in the morning, and I could not be more excited to see him!!! I might not sleep tonight! I'm actually giddy, and its kindof nice to know that after over 12 years, he still makes my little old heart go pitter-patter and my stomach go flip-flop! :)

A new year

Its hard to believe its 2012! Derek and I met 12.5 years ago! And I have to say, I love him more and more every day! And since he's halfway across the country right now, i'm reminded of that phrase "Absense makes the heart grow fonder." Sure is true! I really miss my best friend. :(

2011 was an eye opener for me. I came to realize just how important family really is. And i'm not just talking about my husband and children because i've always felt that they were incredibly important, i'm talking about our immediate family. You know, that time in your life when you realize that your parents really arent stupid like you thought as a teenager. ;) I couldnt be more blessed to have such wonderful people as my family. I couldnt ask for a better set of parents and siblings. Of course, there's always black sheep in every family it seems, but hopefully someday those black sheep will come to their senses.
I'm also talking about Derek's family as well. I'm so very lucky to have gotten inlaws that I like! I've heard such horror stories of horrible inlaws.
I've also got two awesome sister-in-laws! I've heard horror stories of horrible sister-in-laws as well, and i'm soooooooooooo glad that my two sister in laws are normal... for the most part! ;) just kidding.
To my younger brothers: you had better marry nice girls as well, I dont want to break the chain!
My grandparents also are so amazing, and some of the most generous people I know!

So what is my new years resolution this year? Well, I plan to take more pictures of the kids. Not JUST pictures of the kids; in creating my 2011 slideshow, I came to realize that most of the pictures we have are just of the kids. We have very few pictures of Derek and I, and our families. So one goal is to take more pictures of family. This will be hard for me as I hate having my picture taken, so i'm going to just have to suck it up and do it.

Also, i'm going to keep my distance from drama that seems to always arise from the dumbest things. Whats the point in drama anyways? I have no idea, but its always the same people that cause it! I'm tired of drama. I'm not a dramatic person. I am washing my hands clean of all the petty drama that 2011 held!

Of course, almost everyone has a fitness or weight loss goal as a new years resolution. This year, I am starting off the year 40 pounds lighter than I was 2 years ago, and i'm pretty satisfied now. I'm a little shocked that I actually met my ultimate goal, as I first started out hoping that I could lose just ten. So this year, i'd just like to maintain my weight and continue exersizing for my health.

And speaking of weight, Jadon has been eating like a P-I-G! He's eating me out of house and home! I dont know if he's having a growth spurt, or if he's trying to make up for the weight he lost when he was sick. He's requesting to have a snack just 30-60 minutes after a meal. And its not like he's not eating much at mealtime.... he's been having seconds, and thirds, and eating more than I do! The boy can definitely put the food away! From what I hear, boys are pretty good at eating alot, but I always thought this was just teenagers, but apparently its boys of all ages!

Pizza

I'm so glad Jadon is feeling better, and its obvious. He was up and around more yesterday, but still petered out around 3 and laid down for awhile and watched a movie. For most of the day yesterday he didnt eat a whole lot, understandably, but he ate a really good dinner! And thats about the time he started talking about pizzza.

This morning when he got up, he came and got in bed with us like he does most mornings, and was singing the theme song from "Thomas and Friends"............ and talking about pizza. Eventually I told him he could go downstairs and turn the tv on. He went downstairs, but came back up a few minutes later with a "list" that he had written. The list was a grocery list of what we need to buy from the store today: yogurt, and pizza.

Later on, he was telling Derek that I had told Jadon that we were going to buy pizza from Ray's because on Friday's we eat pizza. He had also told me something similar about us eating pizza on fridays. (Just for the record, I never said we were going to buy pizza or that we eat pizza on fridays.)

So that brings us to the current. I asked Jadon a few minutes ago what he wanted to do today, and his response:

"Buy pizza."

I'm Stressed

I cant believe its already Dec. 29Th! I don't know where the last week went!

We had a very nice, relaxing Christmas eve with my family, and a very nice, relaxing Christmas day with Derek's family. Just how we like them to be! Drama free! And once again, our families spoiled us, and we are so grateful to everyone. Thank you!

So why am I stressed? Well, Christmas night Jadon came down with a stomach bug. And he was sick throwing up for over 24 hours. He couldn't keep much of anything down, even tiny sips of water, so I was scared of him getting dehydrated. It was horrible to watch him go downhill so quickly, and I'm so so so grateful to my wonderful husband for being here.
Jadon was finally able to keep some liquids down after more than 24 hours of vomiting, but on Tuesday he drank a grand total of 9 oz of liquid. I was so worried, his eyes were beginning to look sunk in, and he was so weak, and lightheaded and dizzy, and he complained that his head hurt also. Wednesday he was able to eat a few bites of things. When asked what sounded good to him, he said pickles. He desperately wanted a pickle. So i gave him a small piece of a baby pickle, and then a little while later another small piece.

He took a really good nap on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, and by Wednesday evening he said his head wasn't hurting anymore, and that seemed to help revive him a little. He also slept really well the last couple nights, thank goodness. Needless to say, the parents are totally exhausted.

Today, Thursday, he says he's still just a tiny bite dizzy, and still has a tiny appetite, but no headache, and he is up playing some with Avery today, and acting closer to his normal self.

Since he looks sooooooooooo skinny now, Derek weighed Jadon last night, and he weighed 36 pounds. To give you an idea, at his 4 year appointment back in April, he weighed 35 pounds, and I'm pretty sure he was close to the 40 pound mark before getting sick.

So again, why am I so stressed? Well aside from worrying about Jadon's health, and worrying that the rest of us might get sick (you know how much I loathe vomit), and being totally exhausted... Derek is leaving in a few days for Wisconsin for a week of training. It will be the longest we've been apart since probably since we met. We've never been apart for more than a couple days. Might sound silly to some that it will be so hard for us, but he's my best friend, and I look forward to him coming home from work every night. I never get tired of being around him, and as far as I know, the feeling is mutual.
So I'm worried about him getting Jadon's stomach bug while he's there, and I'm worried about his safety. And I'm worried about him being stressed out with work. Yes, I'm an extreme worrier

This week has felt so weird, since we've been home all week in our pj's, out of our normal schedule and routine, and so focused on Jadon's health.... Derek had already taken Mon/Tues/wed off this week, and today is his first day back. He spent his whole time off of work nursing a sick child... what bad timing. Things just feel strange. I feel like everything is out of whack. Like I cant remember how our schedule was before Jadon got sick. I have completely lost all track of time and routine.

On top of that, I haven't eaten well all week. My stomach has been in knots, and my mind has been full, so it makes eating difficult. I know my problems seem silly to probably everyone, but I strive on routine, continuity, schedules. Things like having a very sick child, or having my spouse leave for a week, totally throw my whole routine off. I don't like spontaneity or anything that strays from my normal routine, unless its something that I have plenty of time to prepare for. And as far as Dereks trip is concerned, I've had a month to prepare, but I have been unwilling to let it have any place in my mind until a week ago. Denial?

My new baby

For a long time now, i've been scoffing at the appearance of our kitchen sink. Its become quite an eye sore. Its a white porcelin sink that over the years has developed stains that I cannot remove with anything or any amount of scrubbing. It also has scratches all over it. The pictures actually do the sink justice as it looks terrible in real life. Our faucet is quite dated also, it was the faucet that the builders used, and not surprisingly, its bottom of the line.

Thats fine though. Over the years, i've gotten a chance to make the home more like a home, by getting new windows for the living room, doing painting throughout the house, changing lighting/fans, etc. There is still a TON of work that we want to do to the house while property values are down and we arent going to be selling.

With that said. Earlier in the month, we took advantage of some sales and free shipping offers, and bought a new sink and faucet for the kitchen! Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, nothing top of the line... but a NEW sink. A shiny new sink of stainless steel, and a more updated looking faucet. Again, nothing fancy, but its so much prettier than it was! The first time I used it, I promised the sink i'd take good care of it to keep it looking beautiful.

So, here is our old sink and faucet.

Really, the camera actually makes it look better than it was.

And now, without further ado, i'd like to introduce you to our new sink and faucet!

I know, nothing that exciting, but it sure is for me!!! Even Jadon says he likes the new sink. My wonderful husband knew that I wouldnt be able to wait until after christmas for this baby to be installed, so he spent his saturday putting it in. Thank you sweetie :)

Time to breathe

Last night I concluded a busy couple of weeks of making orders, today I made two deliveries, and tomorrow I make my last two deliveries! Such a relief! I intend to spend alot of time with the kids this week since they've gotten less attention from me in the past couple months. Jadon has the week off of school, and we have no lessons of any kind, so my calendar says "make christmas cookies" and "decorate christmas cookies" as my agenda for the week! Oh, and one night this week we will go drive around and look at christmas lights. But thats it! :)

Hard to believe the new year is just a couple weeks away! I signed Avery up for a gymnastics class at OSU starting in January for a couple months. And we're going to do something else with Jadon.... possibly soccer again, although the parks and rec offers a karate class that i'd like to put him in for a change and so he can try a variety of activities. As far as swimming, i decided to take a little time off from swimming, and then just take the kids myself to toddler time once a week or so, so they can play around and we can practice a little. Both kids seemed to really benefit from when we went a couple months ago.

Thats about it! I'm exhausted from a busy few months, as is Derek. Although i'm sure we will be sick for the next 5 months. We started off christmas break sick again. Last year Jadon got a stomach bug as soon as his break started, and from then on, someone in the house was always sick with something until around may. So far we are following the same trend. The kids both came down with a good head cold over the weekend..... better than the stomach stuff, so i cant complain too much! I just hope we arent sick for 5 months straight again!

Christmas program video!

So the song on the video is The 12 Days of Christmas, and each of the kids in Jadon's class had a solo. The boy who was supposed to be the "5 golden rings" (Jadon's little buddy) absolutely refused to stand up front and sing, so he sat out and one of the little girls took his part as well as her own. The reason i'm telling you this is that the teacher gets a little confused in the song since the new "5 Golden Rings"kid is standing in a different spot. So she had to stop Jadon the first time to get back on track. Jadon is the "6 geese-a-laying."

The child you hear singing loudest............ well thats Jadon. Who wouldve thought that he would be so comfortable up there? Preschool sure has brought him out of his shell, i'm so glad for that!

Christmas program

Jadon had his christmas program tonight, and he did AWESOME! He sang so loud we could hear him over the others. All the kids had a solo part also, and Jadon did fantastic on that too! So proud of him! He's really came out of his shell, and I thank his preschool and teachers for that. I will try to post the video of it soon, but its pretty long so we'll see if it works!

Acapella

Derek informed me today that I have turned him on to acapella music. This makes me happy because I am a sucker for good acapella groups! Perhaps its because I was in an acapella choir in high school? Actually, i'm pretty sure that is where I found a love for music! The human voice is incredible and can do amazing things that you would never think were coming from a voice!

So we've been watching The Sing Off for the last 3 years since it started. If you've never watched it, you need to! The season is over now so you'll have to wait until next fall when it starts again. Anyways, its a competition for acapella groups. Nothing like American Idol, which I got so sick of. The annoying drama from the judges who have no idea what they are talking about, the annoying drama they show from the contestants.... it just became too much for me so I quit watching a couple years ago. Thats why i like The Sing Off. Theres no annoying drama. The judges know music very well, and its just singing! I love it! The only downside is the host, who drives me nuts.

So today Derek sent me a message from work, telling me to go to the link he posted and click on a specific song. It was an acapella group, and these guys are amazing! So now i'm sharing it with you! Click here. Then go to song #7- The 12 days of christmas. Turn up your speakers loud so you can really hear it! Actually you could click on any of the songs, but #7 is really fun. Jadon loves it, he starts laughing. :) Hope you enjoy as much as we do!

Bazarre

Is it spelled Bazarre? Bizarre? I can never remember the spelling of that word. Anyways, doesnt matter, because mine over the weekend went GREAT!! For being my first one, I think I did pretty fantastic! My doll tutu's and wands were a HUGE hit, and I sold alot of childrens tutu's as well! Also, got several special custom orders booked at the show, and then finally had to stop telling people that I do custom orders because there's no way I can get them all done before Christmas! Lots of people took my business cards, and lots were super excited and interested, so I expect things to pick up some!

I had so much fun! It was alot of work, and exhausting, but totally worth it! It was also really hard sitting all day long- i'm used to being on my feet most of the day.

It was also a confidence booster. I was hesitant to see people face to face and see how they react to all my tutu's, but I had some of the nicest compliments from both family and friends, as well as strangers. One lady and her daughters came and bought 2 doll tutus, and after that I ran out, and she asked if I could make two more for her in the next hour. So I did. When she came back, she said she had walked around and seen several other booths with tutu's, but mine were by far the best. Very very sweet! A minute later, that same lady and daughters ran into a friend and her daughter, and THAT daughter came over and asked if I had a tutu just like one of the other girls that I had just made. I didn't have anymore, but the mom asked if I could make one, and I said yes it will be about a half hour though. They were fine with that, and when they came back, I had the doll tutu sitting at the front of my table waiting for the little girl, and her face just lit up and she smiled at the tutu. Totally made my day seeing her face light up!

I could not have pulled this craft fair off if I hadnt had the support of family.

-THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, to my wonderful husband, who sacrificed his weekend, and took 2 days off of work to be "mom" while I was gone. And for cutting tulle at home for me when I was having a shortage of doll tutu's. For bringing yourself and the kids in to see me.

-Thank you to my kids who endured 4 days without me ;)

-Thank you so much to my mom who spent most of her day helping me set up the booth, and helped make it adorable with her ideas. For coming to visit, offering help when needed, and for bringing me supplies. For helping clean up my booth and driving all the way out to my house just to pick up/drop off my grids.

-Thank you so much to my mother in law who took time off work on friday to sit with me all day and all weekend. We had a fun time and i'm grateful that I was not alone all weekend!

-And last but not least!! Thank you to the girl who decided to make knock offs of my doll tutu's on day 2. Because you did this, I now feel free to make matching hair accessories and have a facebook page, and basically "come out of the closet" with my business! No longer will I have to keep my business a secret from mutual friends for the sake of "keeping the peace."

And because of that, I am very thankful for the nice compliments from family that this brought about. From both my husband and sister in law- "Imitation is the best form of flattery" as well as all the other compliments! You all are awesome!

I look forward to next year, and possibly more in between!

Thanksgiving and more

Sorry, I know its been awhile! Didyou have a good thanksgiving? We did! We actually had 2 thanksgivings, one with Derek's family and one with my family.... and can I just say that this was the most enjoyable Thanksgiving all around! There was no family drama on either side (PRAISE THE LORD!), and it was wonderful getting to spend the days with the people who we care most about and who (hopefully) care about us too!

After it was all said and done, I had a great sense of thankfulness... grateful that we have 2 of the best families, and grateful that they are here in the same town with us! We are incredibly lucky.

Friday, we did not leave the house. We never do. We might get shot or pepper sprayed if we do since black friday seems to bring out the crazies! Instead we spent the day rearranging our livingroom furniture! And at first I didnt like the way it looks, but now, I REALLY like it! No longer do we have the tv in front of the window! yay! The only problem is, I have no idea where to put our christmas tree when we get it.

This weekend is the big craft fair!! I think i'm as prepared as I possibly could be. I've got 24 tutu's made, 6 doll tutus, and 2 vases full of wands! I'm really excited for this, but at the same time, i'm SO ready for it to be over with so I can concentrate on the christmas season and my family!

Well, I dont know if i will get a chance to post anymore before the big weekend, so wish me luck!!

Smile

I sat down the other day and started gathering pictures throughout the year for my end of the year slideshow. Its going to be hard to narrow it down.... i've got 8 minutes worth already, and still we have thanksgivings, jadons preschool christmas program, christmas eve and day, and of course all the other festivities involved in the holiday season... so i imagine i'll have at least another 2 minutes or so worth of pictures by years end. Somehow I need to try to keep it at no more than 8 minutes... or 2 songs worth.

I was watching what I have already, and seeing all the smiles on the faces of my kids is really heartwarming. They look so happy, and as a mom that is a WONDERFUL feeling! Its hard to not question myself on whether i'm doing a good job at this mom thing, but seeing all those smiles is a pretty good answer to me. They are healthy and they are happy and they are loved immensely, and I think it shows in the pictures. Watching it brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart.

Tonight right before dinner, Jadon was acting up and pushing all my buttons purposefully, and just being a little fart. A few minutes after we sat down to eat, he was quiet for a second, then said softly and earnestly "mommy, I need to talk to you for a minute." So I said "ok?" and he says "i'm sorry i'm being naughty today." Awww, my heart melted. :)

I hate trying to think of post titles

For all you parents of young kids, soon-to-be parents, and maybe even grandparents.... this is the funniest parenting blog ever! http://crappypictures.typepad.com/crappy-pictures/

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Well less than a month to go until the big craft show! Over the weekend I got out my display and set it up so I could get an idea of how it will look and how much room i'll have for all the tutus. Obviously it will look MUCH nicer than this for the real deal, but this gives me a great idea of how i'll want to set up!
Things are really coming together! I've still got plenty more to make, but at least now I have around 18 tutu's to sell. I wish I had time to do more shows, but right now I only have time for this one, but at least its a big one! Hopefully next year and throughout the year, i can do more.

Jadon is home from preschool today. His sore throat has turned into a full head cold, with plenty of snot, congestion and coughing. Today he's hacking alot, which is why he is home. I'm sure his teachers will appreciate that I kept him home! He's not real happy about the situation, and I cant say that i'm thrilled either.

Avery is still in bed sleeping this morning.... its 8:40am! Its only a matter of time until the rest of the family comes down with this cold, and based on her sleeping in so late leads me to believe she might be coming down with it already (she never sleeps late like this.) Sigh....

So changes are coming for Derek at work. He is moving to a new department. A brand new one. One that will be starting at the end of the month, and Derek will be on the new team. This will be good for him in the long run, but he is sad to leave his current position. He has a really great boss and coworkers that he gets along with really well, and is sad to leave that behind for the unknown. On top of that, he may have to fly to Wisconsin for a couple weeks of training. Please keep him in your prayers in the next few weeks! :)

2 year

Avery had her 2 year well-child check today and she's in the 50% for weight and 90% for height. A few weeks before the well-child check appointments, they mail you a survey to do about your child (to bring to the appointment), asking if they are doing certain things developmentally.... for example: " Does your child jump with both feet at the same time? Always, sometimes or not yet." or "Does your child say 2-3 word sentences- Always, sometimes, or not yet." Questions related to how they should be developmentally at each stage. They didnt have these when Jadon was little so its been kindof fun doing it with Avery. I'm pleased to say that she scored a 100% on her most recent "test".

I'm not surprised.... the girl learns a TON from her big brother, so verbally she can say everything, and she understands everything and is very quick. Physically she is a crazy person, dare devil. She's smart... however we've been working on colors, and she has no clue. Everything is either green or black. She'll get it eventually.

Only 1 shot today- her flu shot. She was so good the entire appointment (polar opposite of Jadon once again)...when the nurse poked her with the shot she said "owie, owie" and when she started pushing the medicine into her, then Avery started crying. She looked very hurt that someone would do such a thing to her..... if only she could understand how much more it hurts when she bites people!

Jadon is still in need of his flu shot, however for him at his age now, they give him the flu mist, which I personally think is worse than the shot. Yesterday he came down with a really bad sore throat (to which I spent all night worrying- hence, i didnt sleep well)... however his throat feels better today, but this morning he sounded like a man. He's getting plugged up and has a bit of a dry cough. I know i've said it before, but it hurts the parents so much more than the kids when they are sick. :(

Halloween

We carved our pumpkins on friday night......we opted not to use one of the kits with the fancy faces and pictures on them since the kids are little and have very short attention spans.... and the adults have very little time to dedicate to those intricate carvings.
We've noticed the Mr. Potato Head pumpkins around at some houses, and thought it was such a cute idea, so we did that too.

Halloween day, the stores down the road from us were doing trick-or-treating for the kids during daylight hours, so we did that. Derek and I were VERY safe in the presence of a handsome fireman and a beautiful little angel! ;)

We really lucked out with the weather! It had been raining off and on all day, even during the half hour before we left, but when we got there, the clouds opened up, and the sun shined on us the whole time!

My beautiful family- I am blessed! :)

Harvest Party

On friday, Derek and I had the privilage of being able to help out at Jadon's preschool Harvest Party. We helped out last year, and were the only parents who signed up to help.... we were pretty surprised by that. This year, only one other mom signed up other than Derek and I. Again, we were surprised. Who wouldnt want to help out???? 4 and 5 year olds are so funny and so fun, and they are little for such a short time... and we like to know what goes on at preschool, how Jadon interacts with his pals and how he behaves. (he's well behaved in case anyone was wondering)
They started the day off by doing their morning circle time, and sang a halloween-y type of song while the teacher used the feltboard to move characters around. Then they read(sang) a book called "The Wheels on the Spooky Bus".... of course it was sometime around then that the garbage truck came outside to pick up the garbage..... and everytime the garbage truck comes they have to stop class because Jadon gets so excited and has to run to the window to watch. Silly kid!

After that, the games began. There were 4 different games, the same games as last year. They had to try to bite a donut off of a string hanging from the ceiling without using their hands. There was pin the nose on the witch. Another game they had to toss a ball through a hula hoop hanging from the ceiling, and there was a game where they had to search through a big bin filled with dry rice to find things. And there was also a cupcake decorating. Jadon lasted about 1 minute decorating his cupcake. I took his picture, then went out in the hall to get a good picture of him from the other side, and he was already done.

After that, we went to the gym where there was a little kiddy pool filled with leaves and candy, and they had to search for all the candy in the leaves. And since they have awesome teachers, after they found all the candy, all the kids were instructed to grab arm fulls of leaves to toss at the teachers and helpers on the count of 3. I got that on video ;)

Then it was free play time, and it was fun watching the kids run around riding bikes, playing with balls, etc. Derek made a little friend after playing catch for a minute with one of the girls. We were amused to see how rowdy the boys are and how subdued the girls are.

When free play was over, it was snack time, so we got to sit at the little tables and eat muffins, apples and carmel dip, and chocolate milk with the kids, then it was time for us to go for a little bit. After we left, Jadon got to play m&m bingo.

It was such a fun day, and i'm so glad we got to participate in it, and i'm even more glad that Derek has a job that allows him to take time off to do things with the kids.

Jadon pinning the nose on the witchJadon decorating his cupcake....you can see a little bit of his classroom
Digging through the leaves for candy

Throwing the leaves around at each other.

We're still alive

Thought you might be getting a little worried that i havent posted in awhile. We are still alive. I've just been, you guessed it- busy! Hopefully after the holidays are over i'll have more time for blogging. In the meantime, i'm trying to whip up 1 tutu a day! I've got alot to make and I dont want to leave it for the last minute!
I had a very generous person purchase some gridwall panels for me, and after getting them in the mail last week, they will be PERFECT! So thank you again Generous Donor- you know who you are :)

I spent alot of the weekend catching up on house cleaning. I'm embarrased to say that my house cleaning has slacked quite a bit in the last several months... and considering what a neat freak/germ freak I am, you'd be surprised to learn how long i've let a few chores go... :( I'm going to make a great effort to get the whole house cleaned weekly again like I used to, and get back on that schedule. Wish me luck!

The kids are doing good. Jadon's been having a great time at preschool.... this week he has today off, wednesday he goes to the pumpkin patch (we'll all go with him), and on friday he has a harvest party. Still trying to come to grips with the fact that its going to be november in a little more than a week!

Jadon and Avery went to a birthday party this weekend. It was a halloween themed birthday party, so all the kids came dressed in costume. Luckily i had the kids halloween costumes ready to go! Jadon's a fireman and Avery an angel. So cute! Averys costume turned out better than I anticipated. I always have a picture in my head of how i want things to look and i'm always disappointed when they dont turn out as i had pictured.... but Avery's turned out good! I had a white tutu already made up, so she is wearing that... i bought her some white tights and shirt. I made her halo, and I was going to make her wings too, but decided i dont have time to do it, and i found a website where i got her wings cheaper (even after shipping) than if i had made them myself. Jadons costume is very authentic looking.... (i bought it at costco.) ;) Eventually you'll see a picture of them, if I can get a good one.

Firetruck and pizza

So anyone who ordered a pizza from Domino's in Albany (over a three day period) between 5:15pm and 7:15pm, could get a free pizza and a fireman in a firetruck delivering it to your house! They would then come into your house, check your smoke alarms, and if they were working then your pizza would be free thanks to the fire dept.
Of course, we decided to do this in hopes that we would be picked and Jadon could have a fireman in a firetruck come to his house! But the odds are never good for us to win things and such, so we were doubtful.

But we got lucky for once!!! Holy cow!!! They came to our house! Jadon got to go check out the firetruck (he opted out of sitting in the drivers seat though), they gave him and Avery play fireman hats and sticker badges. And when they left they turned on the lights for Jadon!

On top of that, we ALWAYS keep our smoke alarms loaded with new batteries, so of course, we got 2 large pizzas and an order of breadsticks free! The free pizza meant nothing to me though, I was so excited for Jadon! Things like this dont happen to us! Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures until they were leaving, and I only got one taken, and the flash went off so the picture was too dark to see. :(

Tomorrow we're going to a corn maze.... the first one for all 4 of us, so it should be fun and interesting! I'll remember to take pictures for that! ;)

I'm in!!

I've been accepted into a large craft bazaar in December! I'm so excited! I'm going to be a very busy bee until then, fullfilling tutu orders for Sunnypatch, orders from my website, as well as making lots of tutu's and things for the craft bazaar!
Its imperative that I stay organized, otherwise my sanity may leave me! I've already got a checklist made of what tutu colors i'm going to make, and the sizes, and the number of tutu's i'm making. I'm going to order some new, more professional looking business cards also!

I'm going to need lots of hangers with the clips on them.... i dont know what those are called.... so if anyone has any extras, i'll take them!

It will be good for me to stay really busy since fall has arrived and with it the typical Oregon rain. Already i'm terribly missing summer and sunshine.... it will be a very long fall/winter/spring this year.... a good reason to keep super busy!

After my last post about feeling overwhelmed trying to juggle a million different things, I came across a blog of a lady with young daughters, who irronically also is a stay-at-home mom and makes/sells tutus. She had posted a very similar post to mine about trying to juggle all the things a stay-at-home mom does, as well as her tutu business. Really made me feel better knowing that i'm not the only one feeling like i'm constantly being pulled in 50 different directions.

Avery's sleeping somewhat better the last few nights, although still waking up, and we have come to the conclusion that we think she has suddenly developed a fear of the dark. Last night at 1:30am when she woke up, I went to her and did the usual.... laid her back down, rubbed her tummy for a minute to sooth her, then quietly told her i was going back to bed and it was time for her to go back to sleep and that jadon was asleep in the room next to her, and mommy and daddy were just down the hall. As soon as I left her room she started wailing again. This time Derek went to her, and turned on her bedroom lamp and reassured her for a minute, and she was fine since he left the lamp on the rest of the night. Which brings us to the conclusion that she's scared of the dark.

We've also been having hitting issues. Not the parents. The kids. Both kids have been hitting each other alot lately. I know its their ages, but we never had this problem with Jadon when he was Avery's age.... probably because he didnt have a sibling to compete with and have to share toys with. But now, they are both offenders.
Jadons had a couple of rough weeks. We are thinking that its schedule related. This is how our typical weeks have been going- Starting with Saturday. Saturday he is usually a good boy. Sunday, he does a complete turn around and is a beast. Monday and tuesday are very similar to Sunday, but then wednesday through friday he is good again. So, we are thinking that since the weekend comes and messes up his routine a little, he gets bent out of shape, then by midweek he's out of that slump because we're back into a routine again. Makes complete sense to me. Kids thrive on predictability, routine. And i'm seeing this more and more with my kids. Its just sad when he has bad days because wed-friday he is the sweetest kid.... loving, obeying, enjoyable to be around, etc. But those bad days make both Derek and I want to rip our hair out. I thank God for those good days, and I hope that we will start seeing more and more of those good days as he gets older!!!!!!

The incredible balancing act

You know that part of the movie Dumbo, where at the circus, the women elephants are all balancing on each other, with the bottom elephant balancing on a ball?

I feel like that bottom elephant. I feel like i'm trying to balance a big load on my back and can never quite get my footing. Trying to balance between mom and wife, wife and maid, cook, chauffer, etc, etc, etc......; trying to get the kids up and ready and off to preschool, off to swimming lessons, and trying to promote my tutu business, and try to find a minute for me? My "me" minutes are now spent at exersize class (which by the way I am loving!)
But quite frankly, I feel like i'm failing at all of the balls i'm juggling. I have intentions.... lots of them! I have intentions to sit down with Jadon every day and help him learn something new, or do a craft, or play with him. Most days i'm lucky to get 15 minutes of uninterrupted time with him. Usually i'm having to jump up every couple minute to check on dinner thats in the oven, or switch loads of laundry.
Poor Avery rarely gets time alone with me doing nothing but playing. Now that Jadon's in preschool again, and we have 3 days alone together, I have intentions of sitting down and spending a good portion of that time devoted to her. But of course, my intentions are cut short, as usually thats the only time for me to run errands.

But its not just the kids....My role as a wife is lacking severely as well. Its hard to have a minute of free time for my husband. Even after the kids are in bed, seems like someone is always waking up needing something, or I have tutu's to make, or i'm so stinking tired I fall asleep on the couch watching our shows. Then I get annoyed when he gets annoyed that I dont have time for him.

My house has been less than appealing. Once again, my intentions are there.... to have a nice cleaning schedule every week. I cant keep up with the neverending laundry... sometimes its time to start the laundry again before I can get all the baskets that I just finished away. The bathrooms seem to accumulate a layer of scum overnight. The floors are never clean... as soon as I vacuum they are covered with grass or dirt, or crumbs, or tulle.

And then theres my business. I cant get a good chunk of uninterrupted time where I can focus on it. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier to NOT be a stay at home mom with a business, but instead have a job outside the house. Then I could focus on my job during the day, and when my shift is over, I could focus on my kids and husband.

I know i'm not the first mom to ever say that I feel like i'm being pulled in 50 different directions at any given moment, but sometimes it sure feels like i'm the only stay at home mom being pulled in 50 different directions at any given moment.

And why is it affecting me so badly this week? Because Avery hasnt been sleeping this week, and quite frankly, i'm exhausted. I dont know what her deal is, but she seems to be scared of the dark all of the sudden. Last night I went to her in the middle of the night when she woke up, stayed with her for a bit and tried to get her comfortable and settled in her bed again.... when I went to leave, she ripped my heart out by calling to me with big crocodile tears "mommy, dont leave me!" For the love of Nancy, how can I resist that?!?!
Needless to say, since I Havent been sleeping well, i've had alot of migraines this week.

And all the while i've been sitting here typing this, my son has been begging me to come play cars "mommy, its time to play." But I just had to get it out. I just had to.

While i'm sitting here....

....Eating my lunch, I thought i'd take a minute to blog! Its hard to believe we just concluded the second week of school already! I know, I think I say it in every blog post, but TIME IS GOING BY SOOOO FAST! I really cant keep up!

I've already got a fridge door full of Jadon's artwork from preschool! I found a picture on Pinterest (yes, my FAVORITE new site) of this: http://pinterest.com/pin/54982230/ And decided it was a fantastic way to showcase the kids artwork! I want to display their stuff proudly so that all can see it so they will know how much I love it, and how proud I am! So, I bought two 6 feet boards, had Derek cut them in half, spray painted them and added the hooks. Added a couple hangers to the back for hanging, and presto! A stylish way to show off their art! Our staircase has long been in need of something to fill the walls, but since the walls are two stories high, I've been at a loss for what to put there without it looking odd. Here is the finished results!

I still have to put clips on the top two, but you get the point.

I've become quite the DIY enthusiast! I've also refound my interest in clothes and shopping for them. I say "refound" because I used to love clothes and shopping, but then when you gain weight it loses its fun. Now that i've lost weight and dropped 2 sizes, i've found my love for clothes again! :)

Its that time of year when the holiday bazaars and craft fairs start popping up. I'm contemplating doing 2, but arguing with myself whether I can do those, and still keep Sunnypatch stocked, and still have plenty of time for the kids, the husband, the house, the blog, etc. I'd like to do both, but we'll see!

Next week starts picking up a busy schedule. I'm going to start an exersize class on mon/wed evenings! This is good, because then i will have more time for the kids during the day.
The following week, Jadon starts swimming on tues/thurs nights, and Avery on friday mornings. Also Avery's birthday is in just a few weeks! We arent planning a big party. She's only 2, she wont remember. I'm thinking that we'll do "big" parties for milestone birthdays- 1, 5, 10, 13, 16, etc. So Jadon's next birthday I'm planning on it being a big one, since my little guy will be turning 5! I'm excited for him, but sad at the same time. They grow up so fast.

This weekend we will be purchasing and planting a new tree in the backyard. The tree we currently have in the backyard is beginning to take over the yard, as well as the 3 neighboring yards. The tree was never meant to stay there forever because I knew it would grow into too full of a tree for that tiny space. I really wanted a tree there, however, so that we'd have a little shade in the backyard in the summer, and that tree fullfilled that purpose for us. But this year it grew like mad! So now I need to find a good tree that will grow tall enough for some shade, but wont become full.

And now i'm done with lunch, and I can hear Avery getting into something in the garage so I better go see what the damage is!

Hello Hello!

So if you havent already read on wordpress, i've decided to stick with blogger for my regular blogging for now until i can figure out why my space on wordpress is getting filled up so much faster. But dont delete my wordpress blog ! I'm planning a project for that one that I know you will like! I'll let you know when I start that! :)

We've been trying to take advantage of every second of "summer" that we have, and therefore we've been- you guessed it! B-U-S-Y! Seems like every time we might have free day or even half of a day, it gets filled up with something. Which isnt a bad thing since i'm sure we'll be stuck home most of the winter with illnesses again. >:[

We spent another day at the swimming pool with the kids... we all love it! We went to the Art and Air Festival and saw hot air balloons glowing. We've worked on house projects. We went on the paddle boats. We started preschool- year 2.

Hard to believe that summer break is done and over already... i am still reeling with the thought that Jadon started school already on wednesday. I did great though, no tears this time! Next year however is kindergarten... so i'm sure i'll be a sobbing dope again when that time comes.

I dont have anymore time, but i've got a bunch of pictures. They are pretty much in backwards order (courtesy of blogger) and its a huge pain trying to rearrange them. Sorry :(

The first few were on Wednesday of Avery throwing a fit. I have to say, it cracks me up with she throws fits sometimes. :)

Jadons first day of his 2nd year of preschool. Again, backwards order. Here he's playing with his friend Ronan. Almost all of the same kids in his class this year.... 1 of the girls didnt come back, and there are 2 new boys, so this year is 8 boys and 5 girls.

When I transfered this picture off of my camera and onto my computer, i saw it for the first time, and i just about cried. He looks so grown up. My baby isnt a baby anymore, in fact, he doesnt even look at all "babyish" anymore.

Beautiful sunrise on wednesday morning

And here is our garage that we've managed to clean out so well! Looks a little messy because toys are all out and strewn aobut the floor. Isnt it great though??? Hopefully the kids and i can use it as like an extra room this winter.

Another quick fix on the house- we took the "decorative" paynes (sp?) out of the garage windows. Another quick fix- we took the railing off of our porch... really opened up the porch!

Anohter house project- we paved the side walkway that used to be rocks. Jadon liked helping daddy.

Last day of summer soccer.

Art and Air festival

Getting ready to go on the paddle boats. I think this is such a cute picture of my little cuties! :) Love 'em to pieces!!!

Jadon has done ALOT of drawing with chalk this summer, and its really improved! Here is a picture he drew of himself. His people are all still just heads with arms and legs coming out of the head... they dont have bodies, but he has really improved still!

Another thing he likes drawing is spiders. And he figured out how to draw spiders all by himself. A few days ago he drew a daddy long leg spider, and it had relaly long legs. I think its cute how all his spiders have smiley faces :)

There you are!

Summer has finally showed up!  God mustve felt pitty on my last whiney post about summer being absent this year and He has sent us a little summer!  This weeks forecast: 89 today, tuesday-90, wednesday- 96, thursday-94, friday-92 =o)

I've been busy............. my typical excuse now for not blogging, but at least its true!  I have discovered a whole new world of DIY!  Pinterest has really given me a crafting bug (by the way, if you havent already signed up for Pinterest, you need to!)
Anyways, I have discovered sooooooooo many websites for tutorials on all kinds of things, but mostly i'm interested in the tutorials on sewing.  Yes, sewing.  I've never been a big fan of sewing.  I just dont have the patience to sit and cut out a pattern... or at least that was the case when I was young.  But now..... well, i've discovered all the things you can do with used clothes!  Repurposing them for use as other things! 
For example, this weekend I made 2 little skirts for Avery out of an old shirt of mine that I dont wear anymore and an old nightshirt that I bought for wearing in the hospital when I had Avery.  My next projects- make a cardigan of sorts out of a black sweater thing, and embellish some of my t-shirts (although i'll have to go buy some fabric for the t-shirt embellishment project.)

I'm not sure how the cardigan will turn out... i'm not very creative, so i've been scouring the internet looking for cute cardigans to copy.

I've also been organizing.  You'd think with as much as I organize, i'd have nothing left to organize, but i can ALWAYS find something to organize!  I love organizing! It gives me such pleasure!!!!  And once again, Pinterest has given me so many ideas for organizing!  Its pretty sad, but I lay in bed at night and in the morning thinking about what I want to organize...how i can move things around and put things differently to make the house appear, well, organized and clean and uncluttered.  My main goal is always to make things convenient for us, as well as uncluttered.  For example, we have had half our shoes downstairs (the ones we wear the most often) and the other half upstairs in our master bedroom closet.  I figured it would be much simpler and make more sense to have all the shoes in one place, therefore, I moved all the shoes from our closet into the closet downstairs in the entryway and organized them in there.  This gave me the opportunity to organize the downstairs closet, and freed up space in our bedroom closet!  Its a win-win situation!  Yay!!!

(have i mentioned how much I love organizing???)

Happy Labor Day by the way!  Derek will be spending the morning laying a little cement slab (where i'll have the kids put handprints in it) and i'll be working on cleaning up the landscaping in the backyard.  I started yesterday, and I just love yardwork!  Once again, i love decluttering things, and outside that means pulling all the weeds, trimming all the plants and bushes, edging the grass to make a nice straight edge.... etc. :)

Also, possibly a new blog project in the works for your picture viewing pleasure.... more on that to come later!

Winter, Spring, ,Fall.... where's Summer? Almost over!

I'm not ready for school to start and summer to end.  Jadon starts school next wednesday.... only one week away, and I am still trying to figure out how we got here so fast!

We havent really had much of a summer in terms of weather.  We've only had about 2 or 3 days of temperatures in the 90's, the rest has been 70's and 80's, which has been very pleasant, i'm certainly not complaining.... but at the same time it feels more like spring.  Our sunny, warm weather didnt even start until the end of July, and we've had several mornings of waking up to gray and clouds (like today.)   I'm told this is all because of La Nina    ??
I love the smell of a hot summer.  I know, sounds strange, but I do.  I'm a summer girl.  But i've only smelled summer a couple of days this year... the couple of days when we were in the 90's.

We have been so busy this summer also, seems like one thing after another.   Weddings, parties, gatherings, swimming lessons, etc.  Plus Derek has had to work ALOT of extra time this summer, and we've spent alot of our down time working on the house. 

I guess before summer started I was daydreaming of lazy, warm summer evenings spent outside, leisurely relaxing and sipping iced tea while the kids played in the pool..... and I was planning on lots of family walks in the evenings as well.  I had mental images of the kids and I playing outside in the morning before it would get too hot.... picking the strawberries that i planted and eating them fresh.....  :::::sigh::::::
Unfortunately, none of that has really happened.  We have only spent maybe 2 evenings, if that, in the backyard playing and the kids in the pool.  We've only had about 3, if that, evening walks.  And the mornings outside... well, we've been gone alot of mornings so that has not happened.  The strawberries that I planted ended up dying because I kept forgetting to attend to them and water them regularly.  So we got only a couple berries from them.  Very disappointing.

It hasnt been ALL disappointment though.  When I run errands, i try to take the kids to a new park each time so that they can have a little fun and run off energy.  We DID go to Enchanted Forest, Otter beach, paddle boats, Art and Air festival, the county fair,  and the coast one day.  We've had a few playdates with Jadon's preschool friends.  It sounds like we've done alot, but it sure doesnt seem like that. 

I lost 3 pounds at the beginning of the month (yay me!) But unfortunately have not been exersizing during nap time because i've been trying to catch up on other things around the house, and spending that time playing more with Jadon.  Plus Derek was off for a week for our anniversary, and I set aside my healthier eating habits, and i'm still trying to get back into the groove.  I hurt my back last week playing legos (dont laugh!  I think I was sitting on the floor in an awkward position) so i've been "trying" to take it easy to let my back heal.... Fortunately after 1 day of taking it easy, my back felt a heck of a lot better, and I went out and did some work in the backyard.... UNfortunately, that hurt my back all over again even worse.
Needless to say, I gained that 3 pounds back.  This just goes to show me how important good eating habits are as well as exersizing regularly!

So back to the beginning- next week starts a new "season" of life as we will fall into a new normal, a more consistent routine (hopefully.)  The kids will start swimming lessons again at the end of september (last week concluded their summer lessons.)  I recently read an article in a christian magazine about overscheduling, and i'll talk about that soon!  For now, my breakfast has been consumed and my coffee is gone, so its time for me to continue on with our day!

Oopsy....

Sorry, time got away from me again, and its been 11 days since my last post... Sorry Grandmother ;)

In my defense, we've been busy!  Derek has had this whole week off, so we've been trying to cram a few activities into our summer break and get a few things done around the house. 

Monday we went to Enchanted Forest and had a great time!  Jadon showed more interest in things than he has in the previous years.  Avery was too little to go on almost all the kiddy rides except 2, and she was very unhappy about that.  Jadon ended up having a nightmare that night about the log ride LOL!  The poor kid is so much like me.... such a worrier!  He says he doesnt want to go to Enchanted Forest again because he doesnt want to ride the log ride again.  Apparently it wasnt on his list of favorite rides. 

Tuesday we had a blast at Otter beach at the pool!  We went for toddler time, so we got to enjoy the pools and all the fun things before the bigger, more obnoxious kids were allowed in.  And they open up the big slide for the last half hour of toddler time.  Derek convinced Jadon to go on it with him... and told him that if he didnt like it, he didn't have to go on it again.  Of course he liked it and wanted to go on it again!   Avery went on it with me, and oooooooh boy she loved it!!  Of course she did, she's a fish! 
The water there is also shallow enough in large areas so that she doesnt have to stay attached to my arms, and can walk around without help, and she just LOVED that also!  There were a few times she fell face first into the water and couldnt get back up again, but thats the whole reason we are doing swimming lessons so that she can learn how to correct herself in those situations!
Derek also tried working with Jadon a little bit on his swimming, and Jadon did really well dunking his head, even attempting to do a front float with his face in the water!

Wednesday we (mostly Derek) spent the whooooole day prepping our side walkway for concrete to be poured. 

Thursday Jadon had a playdate with a friend from preschool, and that afternoon the concrete truck came to pour the sidewalk. 

Friday, swimming lessons for Avery in the morning, then paddle boats after lunch.  Derek went golfing at Par 3 with his buddies from work, and that evening we got together stuff for the neighborhood garage sale.

Which brings us to today, saturday.  We spent the morning and afternoon selling things at the neighborhood garagae sale. We were veryyyyyyyyy excited to get rid of our treadmill and a couple other large items that have been taking up space in the garage!  We also sold a few other smaller things. We didnt have a whole lot to sell since we had the garage sale last summer.   But, we price things very low.... so low that people are a little shocked.... afterall, we werent out to make a profit really, but just get rid of stuff that we no longer want. 
I took the kids in the wagon around to a few other garage sales and was appauled at the prices of things!!  One person wanted $5 for an old "Operation" game that he wasnt even sure if all the pieces were there.  We could get that game for close to that for brand new at the store, so I passed on that one!!!
At a different house, I came across a little vanity set almost exactly like this one, for Avery for just $3.  Everything is still there except for one makeup brush (no big deal), and the hairdryer even works still!  No broken parts or anything!  I had been looking at something very similar to that for Avery's birthday but decided against it because I didnt want to spend $30+ on it.  So anyways, both kids are enjoying that.  Jadon even did my hair, makeup and nail polish. ;)  

Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but its sad knowing that its Derek's last day off.  It feels like we need a vacation from our staycation!

Politics

I cringe when I hear that word.  I HATE HATE HATE politics!!!!  I hate everything about politics!  And mostly I hate when people are constantly whining, griping, complaining, bellyaching, bemoaning, bewailing, criticizing, defying, denouncing, deploring, deprecating, disagreeing, disapproving, freting, fussing, groaning, growling, grumbling, imputing, lamenting, nagging, objecting, opposing, protesting, refuting, sniveling, squawking, wailing, wimpering, yammering , kicking up a fuss, making noises about, raising a howl, raising a fuss, making a stink, moaning and groaning, airing a grievance, lodging a complaint, etc. etc. ETC.   And yes, I didnt feel that my few choices of words for "complaining" were adequate enough so I googled synonyms for the word "Complain."  YOUR COMPLAINING HELPS NOTHING.

We try not to use the word "hate" here at our house because we dont want Jadon running around saying he hates everything, but when it comes to politics, theres no other word that best describes just how much I INTENSELY HATE politics. 

So, the bottom line:  I dont care whose side your on, whether your democrat, republican, conservative, liberal, sane or insane, whether you love the president or hate him, whether you pee standing up or sitting down, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.... I DONT WANT TO HEAR YOUR political whining, griping, complaining, bellyaching, bemoaning, bewailing, criticizing, defying, denouncing, deploring, deprecating, disagreeing, disapproving, freting, fussing, groaning, growling, grumbling, imputing, lamenting, nagging, objecting, opposing, protesting, refuting, sniveling, squawking, wailing, wimpering, yammering , kicking up a fuss, making noises about, raising a howl, raising a fuss, making a stink, moaning and groaning, airing a grievance, lodging a complaint, etc. etc. ETC.... PERIOD!!!!

Phew!  I feel so much better!!!!  Sorry for such a rotten post, but i've reached my boiling point on this, and its better I write in here to all the world!  I'm sure some people will appreciate this post while others will be less than appreciative! :)

Sorry

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post!  I knew it had been a few days, but i didnt realize that it had been almost 2 weeks!  Yikes!

I've not really been in the mood to blog lately, actually, social networking in general is kindof annoying me lately.  Plus, now that we've finally had some decent weather and time, Derek and I have been trying to get some projects around the house done that we were wanting to do this summer.  Also, we recieved a flyer the other day that our neighborhood is having a garage sale in a few weeks, so we have been getting a few things together for that! 
We ended up taking the railing down on our front porch.   It was filthy dirty, and no amount of pressure washing or soap or magic eraser would remove the grim, so, instead of having to repaint it all, we decided to take it down.  So now we just have the beams.  It really opens up the porch!  It feels much bigger!  And, its much easier to sweep!
So, I spent the weekend doing some painting around the exteiror of the house, including the beams. 

Our next project will be a big one, and we are planning on starting that very soon!  We (Derek) will be laying a cement sidewalk on the side of our house where right now we have river rock.  This will make things a little easier for us, and will look nicer... cleaner. 

Next week, Derek and I will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary!  Hard to believe its been 8 years already, but its been a wonderful 8 years! 
Last week we went golfing together.  It was the first time i'd played at a "real" course, and I had more fun than I thought i would. Plus it was nice to get away from the kids for a few hours! We only played the first 9 holes, but it was enough to wear me out.  The good news- we didnt lose any balls! 

This past friday I took the kids and some beautiful hydrangeas from our yard to the cemetary where my dad is buried.  Jadon was asking me questions that I have no idea how to answer in a way that a 4 year old would understand. Plus, he usually starts zoning out when you're trying to explain things to him that dont really interest him.

After that, we went to a park.  I've been trying new parks around Corvallis when we are there so we dont get bored with the same parks over and over.  Jadon made a friend.  Of course, he's so social now!  He proceeded to ask the boy out of no where if he'd ever been to taco bell.  The boy answered yes, and asked if Jadon had.  Jadon said no, but we go to arby's.  It was really amusing listening to him having a conversation with another kid. 

After the park we went and got a treat at Yogurt Extreme... mmmmm.... yummy!  Its my new favorite place!  Not only is it oooooh so tasty, its also good for you!  Of course, I splurged and let Jadon pick some of his toppings... so he ended up with less healthy things on his- m&m's, chocolate chips, skittles, sprinkles, etc.  He did want blueberries on it though, so that was a healthy option! ;)

And finally- i've noticed lately that i'm beginning to look like the hunchback of notre dame.  My posture is terrible.  I slouch soooo badly when I'm standing and even worse when i'm sitting!  Its a very unattractive habit!  So, i've been trying to really stand up straighter.  It feels weird, but i've got to put an end to this before my back permanantly has a humpback if it already hasnt!

Swimming

Last night Jadon had swimming again.  We are not sure what level he is in.  He was signed up for level 2 (the same level he has been doing for 3 sessions now).  On tuesday evening, we thought they moved him back to level 1, but we are not so sure now. 

In order to move up to level 3, he has to be able to:  <children must be able to float unassisted on their front and their back for 5 seconds; they must also be able to float with assistance on each side for 5 seconds>  Jadon doesnt do any of that... he will barely stick his face in the water.

However, his new class is 2 older kids.... probably 7 year olds.... and they are doing more advanced things.  Jadon is supposed to do those things too, but the teacher assisted him to his "level" of confidence.  This teacher seems really nice and encouraging (I guess I should mention that every 5 weeks he gets a new teacher, which is terribly unfortunate since just as he is beginning to feel confortable with one, they change it on him again.)  Last night they worked in the deep end of the kiddy pool (which is 4.5 feet deep, and too deep for Jadon to touch the bottom.)  We were very encouraged by this new teacher, as she gentley made him do the things he was supposed to do (like dunking his head!)  He had to float on his tummy by himself on a pool noodle, and the teacher only held his hand, although he was panicking a little.  When he does his back floats, he typically will start panicking when the teachers try to let go of him.  This teacher somehow managed to let go of him for a second, and even though he panicked, it was progress.  He had to jump in the pool onto a noodle, unassisted by the teacher, and he did it!!! He even fell in the pool after losing his balance standing on the side, but he didnt freak out, although we could see on his face that he was bewildered and had we said anything to him he would have burst into tears.  Instead we sat there smiling big at him.  She seems to be pushing him more, which is exactly what he needs!!!!!!!!!!! 

I really hope he doesnt have to change teachers again this session (last session they switched the teacher halfway through the session, and this session he started out with a boy teacher then moved him.)   If he continues at this pace with this teacher, he may actually get somewhere instead of digressing. 

Avery... well, shes just a fish!  She had swimming this morning, and I feel like i'm just a big pain to her.  She doesnt want me to hold her, she just wants to go on her own!  She was full of energy and so happy in the pool!  She participated 100% in the class, had a blast jumping into the pool, and followed directions very well! 

I cant help but feel guilty for Jadon's fear of swimming.  I feel like if I had continued waterbabies and waterkids with him, he would also have been like Avery- loving the water and swimming, and not afraid.

An end and a beginning

We are concluding a very busy last few months, and it feels good!  Since April things have been really busy here.... as Derek said yesterday- its too busy and doesnt fit his lifestyle! :)

On Sunday we had the honor of watching Derek's baby sister get married....it was a beautiful wedding at Postlewaits Country Weddings.  The setting could not have been any more gorgeous!  Everything was carefully landscaped, complete with a waterfall and bridge, sunflowers dancing in the background, and a view of snow covered Mt. Hood in the distance.  It was breathtaking! 
The bride herself was also breathtaking! 

Derek and I had back stage passes for the event.... Derek was a groomsman, and I was Maid of Honor, which truly was an honor for me!  And it was probably the first and last wedding that i'll be in where wasnt a candle lighter!
Jadon got to sit in the front row aisle seat, and after the ceremony when the bride and groom were announced and walking back down the aisle to the song "Another one bites the dust," Jadon jumped up and started dancing!  This was just the beginning of his wild night!  (Pictures to follow soon!)

During the reception, he was tearin' up the dance floor!  He had alot of fun dancing the night away.... he was even dancing with the ladies! 
There were lots of little kids for him to play with, and he easily makes friends now with EVERYone.  One thing that I love about him!  He doesnt care who someone is or what they look like, he'll befriend them immediately!  I hope this is a character quality that he keeps through his life.

We just started a new session of swimming lessons last night for Jadon..... it didnt go well.  They dropped him back into level 1. Why?  Because he wont do his dunks.  He says it scares him to put his face in the water because he thinks he's going to sink.  But, when he was in level 1 several months ago, he did his dunks just fine.  But since he's been in level 2, they havent pushed him to complete his dunks, so he realized he can get away with barely sticking his face in and they count it.  Last night that finally backfired on him though. 
Its frustrating to Derek and I since we are paying for it, and we mentioned to each other last night that he might do better in a private lesson.  Something i might have to look into.  I think its important for him to learn how to swim.  I took swimming lessons off and on as a kid, and I know how to keep myself alive in the water if I needed to, but one thing that has always bothered me is that I have to plug my nose to go under water.  I hope that with consistent lessons both he and Avery will learn to swim for safety reasons, and so they will have more fun in the water.

Fashionless

Yup, thats me!  Fashionless!  Usually the fact that 90% of my shirts are t-shirts and tank tops doesnt bother me.  Every once in awhile it bothers me for a few minutes, then I get over it.  But this time i'm REALLY bothered by it.

Lots of people do cute things on their blog posts, like "Wordless Wednesday", or "Thankful Thursday", or they do 365 day challenges where they take a picture every day and post about it every day.  Lots of things like that, where the posts are centered around that theme for that day.

Anywho, I read a blog (yes, one of the many that I read weekly), of a mom who has two adopted kids... one is 2 I believe and the newest addition to their family is a newborn that they just adopted. 
So anyways, once you become a mom (particularly stay-at-home-moms), especially when the kids are younger, its so easy to get into a rut of not getting dressed and presentable every day.... sweat pants, not doing your hair, and no makeup become your daily attire.  Why?  because its easy, fast, and when you're just chasing kids around all day, you dont want to be stuck in uncomfortable clothes that dont let you move, and everything gets stained from dirty little fingers touching you, or when the toddler starts flinging food all over! 
So on her blog, this girl started doing "What I Wore Wednesday."  And what she does is take a picture of her outfit that she's wearing each day of the week, and then on the following Wednesday she posts those pictures of her in her outfit on her blog.  The point of this is to try to encourage her to look more presentable every day, instead of the sweatpants/t-shirt/no makeup/hair not done.

So where am I going with this?  Well, her outfits are so dang cute!  She is so much more stylish than me... in fact, it feels weird to even put "me" in the sentence with the word "stylish."  I have no fashion sense whatsoever.  Its sad. 

Typically the new styles that come out each year do not appeal to me until either a year or so down the road, or after seeing someone else where it.  I cannot imagine an outfit in my head when i'm shopping.  (Thats why mannequins are good for the fashionally challenged people like me ;) )

Another reason i'm fashionally challenged is because I cant fathom spending more than $10 on any one item.  However, these days the only thing you can find for that cheap are- you guessed it!- t-shirts and tank tops!

My hair also presents quite a challenge for me in a fashion sense.  Curly, thin, frizzy, flat... those are words that describe my hair.  I cant think of anything positive  about it.  Whenever i get my hair cut, the hairdressers always try to put some height on top by having me hang my head upside down while they dry.  It doesnt work for my hair. When they do this (or i've even tried doing it at home), the first 2 inches of hair from my scalp always create like a flat table topish nonsense, but then the rest poofs out in an unruly, frizzy mess.  And different cuts and layers do not help this... .so i'm doomed to having flat hair forever!

Also, the front of my hair, where bangs are when i have them, always hangs right into my face, hangs in my eyeballs, drives me nuts.... so i do what i've done pretty much every day for the last 4 years... pin the bangs back.  I'm soooooo sick of looking at this though!  Bangs arent an option for me.... its just too time consuming, and my bangs tend to have a mind of their own.

So, as you can see, I need help!  I would love to hear input from anyone about what styles they think would look good on me- hair and clothes!  Send links too if you want to help!  Visuals are always good! -TIA!!

Summer??? What's summer?

Summer apparently does not exist in the great northwest this year.  We had a whole week a week ago where it was nice and sunny, and in the 70's and low 80's... that was our summer.   We are back to clouds, rain, colder, and even fog!  And yes, I am complaining and whining!  You'd complain and whine too if the only 3 months out of the year that you get to see sunshine was instead filled with more clouds and rain!

Yesterday evening we were driving home and Jadon said "what's that smoke over there?"  Someone was using their fireplace.  IN JULY FOR PETE'S SAKE!!!  I mean seriously, it can't get much worse than this in July!  The weathermen have seriously screwed with us too.  Last week they predicted it to be partly to mostly sunny and 70's for temps.  They were completely wrong, and it has since changed to rain.  Of course.  Yesterday they were predicting that today, Monday, would be our nice day for the week- a lonely sunny 80+degree day smashed between 2 days of rain.  Last night when I went to bed, the weather widget on my computer was still saying that today was going to be sunny and 80 degrees.....woke up this morning to clouds, and the weather is now supposed to be thunderstorms. 

I read a blog of a girl who lives in Vancouver, WA, and they are having the same weather as us, and this is what she said (she puts it into words much better than I do!):
I wonder how much longer we are all going to be able to take this. It's getting pretty darn rough. Earlier this week we were told that the weather was going to be sunny and mid 70's today. It was a lie. I think it's just a conspiracy now to keep people from jumping off bridges and moving away. Luckily we knew that we could look forward to tomorrow's sunny 80 degree forecast. Wait. They've changed that too. More rain. Hopefully next weekend will be better... I mean really, it can't get much worse than pouring rain, roaring wind and pea soup thick fog. In July. And yes, I *did* just knock on wood after typing that!

I especially like the part where she said that the weathermen are just teasing us with promises of sunshine to keep people from moving away and jumping off bridges.  SO TRUE! 

Its also pretty sad that I can write an entire post based only on the crappy "summer" weather that we are having!  I feel like we are running out of time for summer!  Everyone in Oregon knows that once September hits, the rain starts coming back again... July and August are typically our most reliable summer months.

If I sound like i'm starting to go a little nuts, its probably because I am!  I was hoping to put my jeans and sweaters away for a couple months and give them a break. 

Dont get me wrong, i'm extremely glad its not in the 100's here like elsewhere in the country.... i'd even be happy with just 70 and sunny... but the raaaaaaain is really getting OLD!!!

Any guesses what the forecast for wednesday, thursday and friday is????  Sunny and 70's.  Anyone wanna bet that it will change????  OH!  And the funny thing is that the weather seems to be mocking me now!  As if on cue, it just started raining!

Randoms

I still havent decided yet whether to keep Blogger or Wordpress.  Supposedly with Wordpress I have quite a bit more space for storing pictures than I do with Blogger, however, after looking at the space i've used already with each, i'm quite confused. 

After 3.5 years on Blogger, i've only used 14% of the space.... with Wordpress i've already used more than 5% in just a month!  I'm trying to figure out why i've already used that much space up in Wordpress, and if I cant figure it out, then i'll be sticking with Blogger for sure, since a good point of me blogging is for the pictures anyways!

On a different subject, one of my friends on Facebook had mentioned this website that she was just loving, so I went and checked it out, and oh my goodness, I LOVE it!  Its called Pinterest, and bascially people just submit pictures of things that they find on the internet that they like that they share with the rest of the Pinterest users.  Sounds lame, but its sooo not!  I've found so many ideas for gifts, kids projects, and home decorating ideas, etc.  Things that I never would have found otherwise!  Its great! 
Take a peak!  Go to www.pinterest.com and browse the categories they have. I started by looking under the "kids" category, and it brings up everything from picture ideas, to craft ideas, to room ideas, (all kid related) etc. 
If you sign up for the website, you will have to first request an invite, and then you'll likely have to wait a few days or so to get accepted.  Or, i can send you an invite, just let me know!  I dont know if getting an invite from me would speed the process up or not?

On another different subject, another friend on Facebook was talking about how her stepdaughter had just lost a tooth, and how at the daughters biological mom's house, the daughter gets $20 from the tooth fairy everytime she looses a tooth, which I thought was completely RIDICULOUS!!!!  I think I remember getting like a quarter... and I dont know if that was even for every tooth, or just for the first few teeth.  I dont remember getting anything for losing teeth once I got a little older.  So I was curious, what do you think is an acceptable $$$ amount for losing a tooth?? 
My poor kids will certainly NOT be getting a $20 for each tooth!

Beach day

We had a really fun day at the beach with our friends and their son on Sunday!  We had a picnic lunch on the beach and stayed there for about 4 hours, then went to the Hatfield Marine Science Center, then to dinner and we really enjoyed the day!

Jadon and Joshua were so good, we barely heard a peep from them the whole time!  They are very similar in personalities... very laidback, easy going, timid in trying new things... so they just get along great!  They are like two peas in a pod!

Avery had a really good time "playing" frisbie... as did Derek and I!  It was nice relaxing in the sun too!  :) We couldnt have asked for better weather, it was perfect! 

We didnt get home until about 8pm, and both kids had passed out on the way home, they were EXHAUSTED.  Lucky for us, they got into bed about 9:30pm after we'd given them showers and did their usual bedtime routine, and they had no problems going to sleep! Phew!

The only glitch to the day was that Avery only got about a 15 minute nap after we left the beach, so she was not real pleasant at the restaurant. (not like she usually is anyways, but it was worse this time.)

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Poll results

Here are the results of the poll I posted a couple weeks back:

Give me some more time	2	33.33%
I'm indifferent	2	33.33%
The new one, hands down!	1	16.67%
Other answer...	1	16.67%
The old one	0	0%
Undecided	0	0%

The one that says "Other answer..." was from Derek, and it said: "i like the one that you like best"- typical answer from him! 

I havent yet decided which one i'm going to stick with yet.... on one hand, i hate to give up the old one because i've been blogging on it since before Jadon's first birthday.  But on the other hand, I like the change and have not been quite as annoyed with Wordpress so far as I get with Blogger. 

Blogger is extremely simple to use, whereas i'm still trying to figure Wordpress out.... i'm having to go through alot of the tutorials on Wordpress, something I didnt need to do on Blogger because it was so easy. 

One of the reasons I wanted to get away from Blogger was because its a pain to put pictures into the posts.  Wordpress has made that much easier!  However, i cant upload my videos into either, so thats annoying.  Not sure why my videos wont upload.

It seems that each has its pro's and con's, and i just have to decide which pro's are better, and which con's are more annoying!

Neighbors

Yesterday was quite a day.  We spent the morning out in the front yard, the kids played and I was doing some yard work/getting sunburned.  I didnt wear sunscreen because I was trying to get rid of the t-shirt suntan that I had gotten 2 days earlier.  I dont want any silly tan lines for my sister-in-laws wedding in 2.5 weeks!  However I ended up with a new tan line instead and sunburned shoulders instead.

So the kids were kindof being pains yesterday... they had gone to bed late late late the night before since they stayed up watching fireworks, so they were both a little out of sorts and testing my patience.  After lunch I set up the sprinkler in the front yard for them to play in, got myself settled in a lawn chair with my ice water and a crossword book... I was prepared to relax while the kids played in the sprinkler.  Neither one wanted to go in it though.  I dont know why Avery didn't want to go in, and Jadon didnt want to go in because Avery wasn't going in.  So, 10 minutes later we were heading back inside.  At that point, I called it a day and put Avery down for nap earlier and Jadon in quiet time, and I was completely exhausted so I also went and took a little 30 minute snooze.

Around 3:30pm, Jadon and I went back out in the front yard to play and clean up my mess from earlier.   Our neighbor a couple houses down came home and was hitching his boat to his truck, and I heard him make a noise that sounded like he'd hurt himself, looked up, and he was keeled over grabbing his hand.  He yelled over to me that he needed help, he had just gotten a really bad injury.  So I ran over, and sure enough, he's sliced his palm up BADLY.  He was dripping blood all over his driveway, but luckily he had applied pressure right away and the bleeding did stop.  I called 911 and asked them to send an ambulance for him, and grabbed a towel for him to wrap his hand in.  He said he didnt want to look at his hand because he was afraid he'd go into shock after looking at it.... I got a glimpse of it when he removed his hand to put the towel on it.... it was mangled. 

I had to stay there with him until the ambulance got there, while Jadon sat in our driveway watching at a distance.  I told him to stay there, not come over.  I didnt want him to see the hand for one thing... he's kindof a weenie when it comes to blood and injuries!

While we waited for the ambulance, the guy started saying things about how he needed to move his boat, then went over to try moving it with his good hand, to which i told him to stop because we didnt want anymore injuries.  Then he said his truck was in the road and it should be moved, and I said we'd just wait until the ambulance got there, it'd be fine until then.  (the paramedics did end up moving his boat and truck for him and closed up his garage.) Then he said that he could probably walk to the E.R. faster... he was not being sarcastic at this point, so I was afraid he was starting to lose it, so I said that the ambulance would be here any time now.  It did get there quickly, but for us waiting there it seemed like a year.  From the time I went over to assess the damage to the time the ambulance left his house couldnt have been more than 15 minutes.

I'm still curious to find out what the damage to his hand is..... if he broke any bones... he was certainly going to have to have lots of stitches, thats for sure!  So that was the second time so far this year that ive had to call 911 for one of our neighbors.  Do I just have really clumsy neighbors?  Or have I just been in the right place at the right time???

Anyways, hoping today is a better day!

Weekend festivities

We had a busy weekend, and it went too fast!  Just like Christmas, the 4th of July comes so fast packed with excitement, then before you blink its done and everyones tiredly crawling into the bed.

Saturday I spent a good portion of the day at Sunnypatch for the artisans boutique.  It was VERY slow, probably since it was  a holiday weekend, so I ended up leaving early, and didnt have any luck selling anything.  Pretty much all few people that came through didnt buy anything. 

Sunday we had friends over for the afternoon, so Jadon and their son Joshua spent the afternoon in our little pool, coloring on the porch with chalk, and throwing "Pop-its" that we had bought from the fireworks stand.

Someone threw quite a display of illegal fireworks at our neighborhood park last night.  It went on for a couple hours, and i'm not sure how they managed to not get caught.  It was pretty though, i'm just glad our house was a block down, and not one of the houses right across from the park!  Jadon really enjoyed the fireworks.  Its nice that he is getting older and can stay up for those special occasions like that.  Avery was very tired about halfway through doing our own fireworks, and by the time i took her inside to go to bed at about 10pm, she was just moaning with exhaustion.  It was hard for her to go to sleep with all the loud fireworks outside though.  She did manage to sleep until about 7:45 this morning, and Jadon slept until 8:45.  So far today she's pretty whiny, so i think she'll be going down for her nap a little early this afternoon!

And here are some pictures from the weekend:

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Artisan Boutique

Tonight and tomorrow (friday/saturday) i'll be at Sunnypatch selling my things!   I've been terribly busy trying to get things done in time, and while I have a few things, its not nearly enough as i had hoped to have done.

Here's a preview of some items... some need a little tweaking before i'll be satisfied with them, but you get the idea!  Sorry, the picture of Avery is crooked but i'm too lazy to go fix it right now!

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Breaking Point

I dont know how many of you have seen "Me, Myself, and Irene"... its a pretty vulgar movie. Its a comedy.  I dont know if i'd recommend it to anyone at this point.... in my younger days, that vulgarity (is that a word?) did not botherme, but it does now. 

Anyways, the movie is about a small town cop, who is a "nice guy," so nice that everyone takes advantage of him, and although he knows this, he turns the other cheek and doesnt say anything.  Until one day, he finds out that his wife is leaving him and their 3 kids for a midget that she has been cheating on him with.

After this, he reaches his breaking point, and after a few more incidents where people take advantage of him, he finally snaps. He suddenly develops a second personality, one that doesnt take being taken advantage of, and goes on a rampage getting people back when they do things to him. 

Anyways, sometimes I feel like i'm at my breaking point.  Some people in my life just make me want to scream profanity and put my head through the wall!  Instead, I keep my mouth shut.  I know lashing out at these people will not make the situation any better, even though i think it would feel sooooooooooo good to just go off on them!!!

James 1:2-4 says: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Then later in verse 12 it says: ^"12  Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. "

I cannot tell you how often I am reminding myself of this!  Its strange that the people who make me go the craziest are actually in my life to make me a better person.  Seems like a cruel joke, but then again, would I really be able to learn and grow in a perfect world?  Probably not. God knows what He's doing.

Lord, please help me to remember that these impossible people you have placed in my life have been hand picked by You to help me grow as a person and in my faith. Help me to learn from these situations and persevere, for a day will come when they will have to answer to You.   Amen.

Hair today; crazy mommy tomorrow!

Avery's hair keeps on growing, and fast.... but its not getting any longer.  Its just getting more curly and unruly.  (I have unfortunately passed along my annoying, curly hair gene.) Its so difficult to manage because its still so soft and fine, and not quite long enough to put it all in a ponytail.  Its always hanging down her face in her eyes and it drives me nuts, but she wont keep a clip in.  When i put it in little pigtails (which is a chore!  she wont sit still for nothin'!), when she's eating lunch or dinner, she'll play with them with her jelly covered hands.  Then it just turns into a mess of sticky snarls.
I've kindof given up.  I say kindof, because once in awhile it will drive me nuts to the point that i'll put it in pigtails. 

Then of course, when she wakes up in the morning, her hair is a mess, and will stay a mess until her next headwash.

Between her filthy, stained clothes from playing hard outside, and the mess on her head, people probably think she's either homeless, or not cared for very well!

Sometimes it feels like her hair is a completely separate kid that i have to take care of!  Ok, thats a little dramatic, but you get the point:  her hair is a lot of work!  I dont know if all little girls hair is this difficult to manage, but i sure hope its something that will eventually be easier to take care of!

Ouch....

Just found out that our house value has dropped to almost what we paid for it, so we definitely wont be selling for now.  Its depressing.... not the fact that we cant move, but the fact that the value of our house keeps dropping like a rock in the water. I really hate this economy.

Bottom line though, I feel very blessed to have our house, regardless.

Making a switch

So i've grown quite tired of blogger because of errors, or issues that are always going on. I tried to post my previous post with the dad video several times after i'd typed it up, and retyped it, and id get an error message when i'd try to publish. When i post pictures, i end up having to go through the whole post again to move the pictures where they need to be, and i can never upload my own videos, this is a problem that i've had forever. So, bottom line, it takes me much too long to do things- time that i dont have for things like that. So, i created a Wordpress blog that i'm going to try out for a bit to see if i like it any better. So far, its taken some getting used to, but posting pictures was simple and so much faster!
So, here's that address Loveless Family (click on Loveless Family)

I'll add a poll to see what you all 3 of you think. If you like that one better, then i'll probably stay with that from now on.... if you like this one better, then i might stay with this one. ;)

Jadon's 3rd Dentist appt.

Jadon had his 3rd dentist appointment today, and he did great!  He was super nervous, I felt bad for him.  If you remember back, his first appt was pretty much a bomb, he wouldnt even let the hygenist near him.  The second one, he actually got in the chair and let her look around in his mouth.  Today, he got all his teeth cleaned, looked at by the dentist, and even did the xrays!!

I dont know if i've mentioned it before, but one of Jadon's lower baby teeth never grew in, so the xrays were important so we could see if there was a baby tooth even in there, and if there was an adult tooth or not.  We got really good news from the xrays!  He has a perfect set of adult teeth in there, so when he loses his teeth, a new one will grow in where there is no baby tooth!  So, no missing teeth as an adult!  The doctor was REALLY pleased by this, and said only about 10% of the time is there an adult tooth there.  The dentist also said his teeth looked really really good and clean and no cavities, and told us to keep up the good work. :)  I'm happy to hear that!  We try hard to make sure his teeth are clean, we brush his teeth every night, and let him brush in the mornings so he can learn how to do it.  He drinks mostly water with the exception of milk and occasional juice or tea.  And we dont eat alot of candy, so thats not an issue.

So, overall, a good appointment all around!   Time to go vacuum the house before lunch![gallery]

Dad life

In honor of father’s day- Love this video!! Hilariously accurate!!

Derek mentioned a while back about how father’s day is a very insignificant holiday in comparison with mother’s day. I think the reason for it is because back in the day, fathers went to work and mothers stayed home and raised kids all day.
Time’s they are a-changin’ though! Today’s dad’s show much more involvement. Today, parents share equally the responsibility of parenting. I am so glad to live in THIS era where I get to share the parenting experience WITH my husband!
Speaking of his involvement in parenting…. My children are SO blessed, and I hope that when they are older they will see just how lucky they have it. Derek is such a great father! He is as involved at work as he possibly can be with the kids… taking time off to go watch them at swimming when work allows, or other events that they are involved in. When he works in Albany, he does everything he can to try to take Jadon to preschool and pick him up from preschool. He makes it a point to sit down and play with his kids frequently, and it’s obvious how much they enjoy this! One of his greatest joys is making his children laugh.
He works hard to provide for his family. Much of his hard earned income goes towards the children’s lessons, school, and events. He is very caring and loving when his children are sick. He comforts Jadon when he has bad dreams and night terrors. He changes Avery’s poopy diapers without me even asking him to, and doesn’t complain about it.
Wikipedia says this about a father: Involved fathers offer developmentally specific provisions to their sons and daughters throughout the life cycle and are impacted themselves by their doing so. Active father figures have a key role to play in reducing behavior problems in boys and psychological problems in young women. For example, children who experience significant father involvement tend to exhibit higher scores on assessments of cognitive development, enhanced social skills and fewer behavior problems. An increased amount of father–child involvement has also proven to increase a child's social stability, educational achievement, and even their potential to have a solid marriage as an adult. The children are also more curious about the world around them and develop greater problem solving skills.

My children and I are blessed to have such a wonderful man in our lives. Even though we don’t often get a chance to tell him or show him. Derek, you are the glue that holds this family together! Without you, mommy would lose her sanity! ;)
Happy Fathers day! We love you so much!