Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!   We had such a nice christmas!!  It was a very successful christmas for the kids.  I think they got everything that they asked for.  WOW that Santa is awesome!!!  Logan got a battleship game, clothes, a Bakugon playing field, binoculars, a moon to hang in his room from dad, a popcorn bucket with m&ms from me, and of course, his X -box 360.  He was so happy he got all his things he wished for.  Kaitlyn took a long time opening her presents.  She was so excited about the candy that Santa left in her stocking.  We told her that Christmas is the only day of the year that you can have candy for breakfast!!  She got clothes, a camera, a puppy that swims in the bathtub, a kitchen, a stoller for all her babies from mommy, a dora doll, and a laughtop computer from daddy.  Santa also put big girl underwear in her stocking!!  I think Santa thinks that she is getting close to potty training!!!!!!!  I am not going to go into all the things that we got form grandparents and family, we could be here for a long time.  We had a nice time just the four of us.  It was a relaxing day where we all just hung out in our PJ and played with the new toys!!!

I hope everyone had  a great Christmas!!

Don't we look oh so nice.  "Kaitlyn, close your legs"

Logan hugging his battleship game!!
Kaitlyn opening up her very own kitchen set.  She will be a good cook, just like her mommy!!

"I's so pretty" 

Supermodel of the year !!

Christmas Celebration!!

This past Saturday night we had a nice Christmas with my parents.  It was just the 6 of us and the kids had a great time opening presents from grandma and grandpa.  Logan got his DS game that he has wanted since the summer and Kaitlyn got a baby that she fed, and put to bed many times last night (what a good mommy- i wonder where she gets that from?)

We did our normal dinner with snack food such as salmon, cheese and crackers, BBQ winners, lots of homemade candy and cookies and it would not be a party with out the drinks!!!  It was so relaxing and fun.  Those are the parties that we like, just relaxing and spending time with the ones you love!

Merry Christmas Everyone!! 

Ouch

Well, it has been one heck of a week.  Rob had minor surgery on Tuesday.  He has not been feeling good for the past 3 weeks, and then last THursday, woke up in  a lot of pain He finally went to the doctor on TUesday and they could not tell what was wrong so they set him up for exploratory surgery.  He went in and they found an abscess that they cut open and drained.  He is home and in  a lot of pain.  Thank god it was nothing too serious.

That same day, Logan's school called and said he was throwing up.  So I was put in a pickle.  I had a sick child and a husband that I needed to take in for surgery.  THank goodness for my dad, who took the afternoon off to watch Logan.  Now I am stuck taking care of Rob,which is not THAT bad, but it sure makes for a long day.  

At least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Kaitlyn's first hair cut

Well, I finally did it, I went and got Kaitlyn's haircut.  She is no longer the survey girl in town.  I went to my hair stylist and she did such a great job with getting Kaitlyn to sit and keep her occupied.  Kaitlyn got her bangs trimmed and her back and sides shaped up.  This was a big step for mommy.  I did not want to cut it, but I knew I needed to.  Doesn't she look pretty?  

Thanksgiving

Now that we are home from our traveling over the Holiday weekend, I can let everyone know what a nice Thanksgiving we had.  We went to Iowa to spend the day with Rob's Mom Sue.  I cooked a good (if I do say so myself) thanksgiving meal, with the help of my 2 sidekicks, Logan and Kaitlyn.  They helped make the pumpkin pie, which I think was the best thing at the table.  Logan had us all have hats to celebrate Thanksgiving, and we had a lot of fun making them.   I hope everyone had as great of a Thanksgiving as we did.  

Lets go shopping!!!

Tis the season to go SHOPPING!!!  Oh how I wait all year long for the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping.   This one magical day is the start of the holiday shopping season and one that nobody should miss.   The past couple of years I would get up early and go get the door buster sales with my mom, but this year, we were in Iowa, so I called upon my best friend Charleen to hit the stores and spend our money.  

The plan-shop in Des Moines until we drop, and that is exactly what we did.  Charleen and I started scoping out the ads Thursday night about 9:00, we looked at what we wanted/needed, wrote down the times the stores opened, and drew out our plans.  "Jordan Creek Mall opens at midnight"  Charleen said.  We both looked at each other and smiled.  "this is crazy" I said.  As we narrowed down our wants and needs, it was about 10:30, and we were both thinking the same thing.  "LET GO SHOPPING"!!  We went and washed our faces, changed our clothes and headed out. 

Our first stop- Wal-Mart.  Although we did not get door busters, we did have the whole store to ourselves at 11:30 pm to get the other sale items.  From there we headed over to Jordan Creek Mall.   At the clock winded down to midnight, people got closer and closer trying to get into the mall and get their shopping done.  They opened the doors and we inched our way into the mall.  Charleen and I clinging to each other so we would not get separated.  We got in the mall and the savings began.  

3 hours later we were done fighting the crowds- in the mall.  OFF we go to Kohls for the 4am opening.  " I am not going to get out and wait in line, it is freezing"  Charleen said.  We both agreed to wait until it 5 minutes before the doors open.  Kohls was a mad house.  We ran in and got what we needed, which took about 10 minutes, and then waited in line for 35 minutes.  "We are crazy" I said.  

It is now 4:45 and time to head over to Target which opened at 6:00. This is the place that had the best sale on the  Xbox 360,- the present that Rob wants to get Logan.  (he has finally admitted that he wants it for himself as well).  Logan has been wanting one for a really long time and has even cried because he wanted one soooooo bad.  

My wonderful friend Charleen put on her gloves and waited in line with me for 1 hour in the freezing cold weather so I can make Logan and Rob happy at Christmas.  

We were the 30th and 31 person in line.  We talked with people in line, which made the time go by just a little bit faster, and then the moment of truth, the doors opened and away we went in all directions.  I ran and got my xbox 360 and held it tight in my arms.  I was not going to let this go.  

After some walking around the store getting a few other hot items, we were ready to go.  Once we got done with the 20 minute wait to cash out, we headed to the car, where were both just sat there.  We were spent.  Neither of us felt like moving.  Keep in mind, neither of us had been to sleep at all that night and we were ready to hit the pillows.  

We headed back to Charleen's house and after 8 hours of shopping, we went to sleep.  

This was crazy.  I had never started shopping at midnight and then shopped the whole night.  Both Charleen and I had a great time, but do not know if we will be committed to shopping all night long next year.   

SHOPPING!!!

4 more days until the biggest shopping day of the year!!!  I cannot wait to get up at 4:00 am(or earlier) fight the crowds for those awesome bargins.  I cannot wait to go.  Rob says that I am stupid to go through all of that just to save a couple of dollars.  I told him it is more than savings, it is the thrill of being out there!!!  I hope EVERYONE will or wants to experience this once in a year thrill!!

Have fun shopping!!! 

A+ for Logan

We went to Logan's PT conference at school, and it was GREAT!!!  He is doing awesome!!!  His teacher said that he is reading great and has started him on Accelerated Reading books (where he reads and then takes a test to see what he is comprehending).  When he reads at home, it is hard to believe that he just started last year.  He reads soooo good.  We are soo proud of him.  All other ares of learning he is doing great and is where he should be.  What a smart cookie!!!

WAY TO GO LOGAN!!!

What a beautiful sight

The other night I was making supper and looked out our window and saw these two beautiful deer.  Yes, they were right outside our house!   There is an apple tree in between our house and our neighbors house and the deer like to come and eat the apples.  It was so amazing.  We showed Logan and Kaitlyn through the window, and Kaitlyn was amazed.  ROb quietly opened the door and we got to stand out on our deck.  Both kids did a very good job being very quiet while we took pictures.  The one looked right at us.  Katilyn started waving at the deer and started saying "hi"  and then the deer took off and Kaitlyn started crying.  It was really neat!! 

Logan and Kaitlyn

Just some pictures of the kiddies.  Enjoy!!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Extreme Makeover Home Edition came to the Peoria area this past week.  They were in a town Pekin, about 10 miles away from Peoria.  They started building the house on Thursday, and when mom, Logan and I went on Saturday morning, they had the house up and siding on the majority of the house.  It was quite amazing to see all the people there helping out.  The show will air sometime in January.  No, we did not see Ty Pennington, but we do think that the guy in the red shirt in the first picture is one of the designers.   

Darn Leaves

Here is it, the end of October and we are raking leaves.  This is the only part of fall that I HATE.  We have 10 trees in our yard, not to mention that all of our neighbors have about the same,so you can about imagine the amount of leaves we have.  We decided that this year we were going to try to keep up with the leaves.  When we have a bunch, we rake.  Well, we have already done 14 bags of leaves last weekend and 3 garbage cans full from the previous weeks.  This week we are setting out 12 bags and 1 garbage can out for the trash men.  We are tired of the leaves.  This is our second weekend devoted to raking, and as we look at the trees, there are 6-7 more BIG trees around our yard and the neighbors that the leaves are still green.   HELP

Logan was a great help opening up the leaf bags!!

Of course, you have to jump in the BIG pile of leaves

Logan earning his Boy Scouts bag- helping his family!!

Say a little prayer

We got a call yesterday from Rob's aunt Pat saying that Rob's grandpa had a stroke and is in the hospital.  The doctors are not optimistic for a recovery.  Please keep Rob's grandpa in your prayers along with the family as we are going through this difficult time.  

FALL

I think my favorite time of the year is fall.  The cool crisp air the changing colors of the trees.  Everything about fall, it great.  This morning, as I lie in bed at 6:30 I thought to myself, "I should get up and go for a walk".   I have not been walking religiously for a while now, and what better time to go when everyone is sleeping and I have an hour to myself.  By the time I got up and got ready it was about 7:15 and 37 degrees out.  I headed out without my MP3 player and went for a nice walk.  I noticed all the trees changing, the birds signing, our adopted chipmunk gathering his nuts for the winter, and a deer sitting across the road from our house!!  This is great!! As I walked my normal 2 1/2 mile walk I thought about fun things- no work.  It was nice to take this time for myself and realize how the simple times are so much more valuable then the planned hurry hurry activities.  

As I turned the corner to our house I saw all the leaves laying on the ground and right then I new that my relaxing thoughts were gone.  I started thinking about ALL the leaves we are going to have to rake, all the bags of leaves we are going to have to haul out on Tuesday garbage day, all the blisters on my hands from the raking.  And because of those thoughts, I have to go back on something I said at the beginning of this blog entry- "Everything about fall is great"!  I can no longer say that, because what is so great about hours of raking leaves?  I will let you know how many blisters I get from this round of raking.

Our weekend

What a weekend we had.  There was nothing dull about anything we did or that happened.  

* Rob's mom Sue cam from Iowa on Friday night and spent the weekend. with us. 

* Sue brought Chinese from Webster City (our favorite).  There are no good Chinese places here in Peoria.  

* We all went to an apple orchard on Saturday.  Logan and Kaitlyn picked out their own pumpkins in a pumpkin patch.  

* Both Logan and Kaitlyn rode ponies!!!

* Logan red Green Eggs and Ham to Grandma R. and then started the Cat in the Hat!!

* Kaitlyn put a cheese curl in her mouth with her toes.

* After months of complaining, I finally bought a new camera!!!

* My best friend from Iowa and her husband Jason were driving through Peoria on their way to Indiana.  Charleen dropped off

   a little tikes car for Kaitlyn to "drive"

* Kaitlyn got a little tikes car that she can "drive" She loves to get in and out and steer the wheel.  - Thanks Charleen.  

* I went to Barns and Noble and got an Educators Discount card.  Now I will be able to get special discounts on work and personal        items!!!

* I got all the Laundry done in one weekend!!!!!

Hope everyone has a great week!!!

More picts from the apple blossom

Kaitlyn kissing her new goatfriend

Crashing into Logan on the slide!!!  Watch Out!!!

Perfect apple for a perfect day!!

YUM YUM YUM

Best Friends Forever

Apple Blossom Farm

A couple of weekends ago we went to Apple Blossom Farms.  Our little family had such a good time playing, picking apples and just hanging out with each other.  It was such a simple afternoon, but will print a lasting memory in all of our lives.  

We started out the day going into the play area.  Both Logan and Kaitlyn loved playing in the big bouncing ballon.  I was surprised that Kaitlyn had a good time since just a couple of weeks ago she went into one and did not like it.  Her and Logan would bounce and then go down the little slide.  She screamed when we took her out to go on to the next thing.  At the apple farm they have a 80 ft. slide that you go down on potato sacks.  Logan remembers it from last year, so he was one his own, I took Kaitlyn up, and we came down and she LOVED it.  I could hear her laughing the whole way down.  We went up and down and up and down and up and down a dozen more times.  She thought it was funny when we would run into Logan at the bottom of the slide.  Once again, she screamed as we went onto the next thing.  We then went to feed the goats, which she tried to eat the food and kiss the goats- YUCK and then on a hayride.  We ended the day going into the orchard and picking our own apples.  We all had a good time with lots of laughs!!!

You are my Sunshine!!

SAY CHEESE

Don't I look good in yellow?  

         Look at my chompers 

Caterpillar

Tonight, as Kaitlyn and I were taking a walk in front of our house we found a caterpillar.  Not just any caterpillar, a great big fat caterpillar.  Kaitlyn was so excited about the "bug" she sat and looked at it for minutes, and if you know Kaitlyn, it takes  something pretty interesting to keep her sitting for that amount of time. We put it in  a jar and she watched as it rolled over and over.  She LOVED it!!!

Popcorn and M&Ms

The little things are so important.  Logan and I have a wonderful tradition.  We pop a bag of popcorn, put some m&ms in it and watch Friends!  The time that we share is priceless.  

Logan was introduced to the t.v show Friends, because mom was a big fan and I have all 10 seasons on DVD.  I cannot remember when we did not watch Friends.  I can honestly say that I know what happens in every show.  ( i know I am a looser).  

I remember when Logan was 2 years old and the song would come on and he would dance his heart out.  His hands would shake up and down, he would sway back and forth and bounce up and down!!!

Now, as we sit and watch Friends this is one of the times we cherish together.  My favorite part of our time is sitting on our love seat and spending time with him.  Logan's favorite part of course is the popcorn and m&ms.  

A little prayer

My mom called me today and told me that my grandma fell at her nursing home and they were calling the ambulance and taking her to the hospital.  She broke her shoulder and possibility her hip (x-ray have not come back yet).  They do not know if they will do surgery yet, depending on how bad it it.  Please keep her in your prayers in hopes everything goes well.

Too many hours

Last night my husband called me a name that I am not proud of and frankly it upsets me for it may be true- at least in the past couple of weeks.  You are probably asking yourself "what could he have called her"  And no, it is not the one he jokingly uses often (B**ch).  

 We just put the kids to bed and I came down stairs, grabbed my school bag and pulled out lesson plans from work.  As I sat down by the table, the phrase that I was not particularly happy to hear "Your a workaholic" came out of his mouth as he shakes his head.  I sat there and thought about it, and remembered how often I would be mad at my dad because he works so many hours in a day.  Are my kids thinking the same as I did as a child, or is my husband thinking "when is enough going to be enough"  I do admit that in the past couple of weeks I have put in way more hours than I should have.  Last week I worked 50 hours at work and then came home and did work at home.  The beginning of the school year is HELL.  

We have noticed that Kaitlyn has been so clingly to me lately, and I realize it is because I am never home, or when I am I am always working.  Tonight is the first night that I have not done work at home.  I left my bag in the car so I would not see it and think about all the things I have to do.  I really had a nice relaxing night, except for the dreaded supper time where Logan complain about what we are eating and Kaitlyn throws the food she does not like-pretty much everything.  Rob and I are starting to think that maybe we should feed them popcorn and Yo-Gos for supper, so we can eat in peace.  

Anyway, I want to thank Rob for bringing my work to my attention and to help me realize again that I have other things in life more important than work.  

Tomorrow is another day, and I will just keep plugging away, just not at home (hopefully).

Off to work

Well another school year has started for me.  I started teaching Pre-K again this year.  Today was the first day with the little kiddies, and it went really good.  I have two different classes and both are completely different, which keeps me on my toes.  I did not think I would feel this way, but I am really glad to be back in the classroom.  It has been a long time (1 month) since I have had the chance to play,I mean work with the children.  Rob always makes fun of me, because I will come home and say that I had such a busy day, and he will just laugh and "say how hard could it be to "play" with children all day."  Of course the one day that he came to visit me in my classroom he "caught" me sitting on the floor chatting with a child.  He says that my work looks really hard, and he has no sympathy for me since I get to sit and play with children all day.  I wish that is all I could do.  If you are a teacher, you know that we are over worked and under payed.  There is way more to what we do than what people see when they come into the room.  I don't want you to think that Rob is a cold hearted person when it come to my work.  He is really understanding when it come to helping me with getting things done for the room, or just listening to me complain about my day.  

You know, as I sit here typing this, I just think how blessed I am to have a wonderful family.  I know I complain about the kids, but for the most part they are wonderful and I am blessed to have both of them.  They are the light of my life and I thank God for them everyday.  Of course I do not want to forget about Rob.  You know, we have been married for 8 years but have been together for 12.  We have been through so much and have come A LONG way since our days at Pizza Hut.  We both are very proud of what we have  and what we have become, since we have worked so hard to get where we are.  I am going to leave with one last thought for the night:

Having somewhere to go is a home.  Having someone to love is a family.  Having both is a blessing!!

Logan's First day of 1st grade

Logan's first day of 1st grade was Great!!!

Logan is ready to start his school year!!!

                      Off he goes to school

I cannot believe that my baby is in 1st grade!!!  Logan went back to school on Tuesday August 26th.  He was pretty nervous, but made it through with flying colors.   This year, instead of taking him to daycare in the morning, he is staying at home until the bus picks him up right outside our front door.  It works out really well since Rob gets home at 7:30 a.m. and the bus does not come until 8:25.  I go to work with Kaitlyn and Rob puts Logan on the bus.  Logan rides on the bus for maybe 5 minutes and then he is at school.  Last year he was on the bus for about 30 min.  The first day we put him on the bus he was very nervous.  He walked very slow to the bus and just had that look of "i'm not sure about this" on his face.  We told him that we were going to met him at school to show him where he is going to line up.   We got there and got to his line and met his teacher, who seemed very nice.  I got teary eyed as the bus drove away from our house and also watching him walk in the building.  

That night when we asked him how school was, he said "good, really good!!!  My teacher is really nice, I like her"