Rliey Rogers joins the family

We gave Logan and Kaitlyn their christmas present today. We finally got them a cat!!! Logan has been asking for on since I can remember. He was so excited when he opened the present and the cat jumped out. Riley is adjusting well to the Rogers zoo.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our Thanksgiving trip

Well, I FINALLY got this up for everyone to see. We had a great time in Arizona for Thanksgiving. My parents and us went to see my brother and sister -in-law. This was our christmas present from my parents, which was the best gift they could have given us. We all needed a vacation, and it came at a great time!. We had a wonderful thanksgiving meal, and although the weather was nice, it was not nice enough to go swimming, which broke Logan's heart. We went walking at a dessert and saw lots of cati. We then went to the Red Rocks of Sedona, where it was a little colder than what it was in Phoenix. We went on a jeep ride up the red rocks at sunset, which was a crazy bumpy ride. We had a great time looking at the rocks and flopping up and down in our seats!! We then traveled up to the Grand Canyon and ran into a snow storm. It was not great for seeing the view. Thankfully, by midmorning, the snow stopped and we were able to see the huge hole in the earth. We are so glad we bared the winter weather to see this remarkable site. Of course, it would have been a lot better if we all had winter clothes on. Not thinking that we were up in the mountains,nobody brought winter clothes, so needless to say, we were FREEZING. Had a great time- thanks Travis and Keiko.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Feeling pretty good

I can say that I am happy. I like my job, I love my house and I LOVE my family. I am so blessed to have everyone in my life-even the ones that annoy me (you know who you are) lol.

"I don't feel good"

Well, this past week has been one of those weeks that I am ready to forget. It started with Kailtyn running a fever of 102, and waking up in the middle of the night screaming her ear hurt. Needless to say, we did not get any sleep that night. I had 1 1/2 hours of sleep and then had to go to a training that had nothing to do with my position. I tell you what, I sure did go to sleep early that night. But of course, the medicine that we got Kaitlyn's ear had not fully kicked in, so, we did not get much sleep that night either. Well, by Thursday she was feeling better, and that night I was thinking that this family was heading in the right healthy direction. WRONG I woke Logan up on Friday and he said that he did not feel good. I took his temp and it was normal. Except, he was not fine, because I got a call around 10:00 from school telling me that he has a temp and we need to pick him up. Poor boy. I get home that night and find him laying in bed with Rob who is also saying that he is not feeling good either. OMG is this going to stop????? WEll, as of Sunday night, Logan's temp is still present and Rob is not complaining of a soar throat. Maybe those two boys will be staying home in bed tomorrow together. I just hope these germs leave the house without taking me down.

Why can't I sleep

It has been countless nights that I wake up early in the morning because I hear Kaitlyn cry. I go into her room and put her blanket on her, and return to bed. This is where my problem comes. I cannot get back to sleep. I think about all the things that need to be done at work, at home, everywhere. What I really should do it get up and go do something around the house, but the bed always feels to good. So, I just lay there trying to convenience myself that by just laying there will give me enough energy to get me through the day. After about t30-40 minutes of laying there, I finally fall asleep, only to be woke up by the alarm 15 minutes later. I go through the day trying to stay awake, so the little buggers at work do not kill each other. When I get home, Rob and I do the normal parenting things at night- homework with Logan, playing with Katie, and on the special nights bath time. Then we take the next 45 minutes to put to bed Logan and Kaitlyn. Finally, the kids are in bed, and all is quiet. I think to myself how tired I am, but find myself glues to either the t.v or facebook. Why don't I just go to bed????? Here I am at 9:30 typing on my blog wishing I could go to bed. What is stopping me? Why don't I just walk up stairs and lay in the bed that feel oh so good in the morning. I really cannot answer those questions, for if I could, then I would not be here right now.

BFF

well, after a week of sulking in his house, spike has a new friend. While we were over at Cub Foods (right next to Pet Smart) Rob had an idea of getting spike a friend so maybe he would not be soo lonely. Of course, he said it right in the ear of Logan, so now we were committed to getting a second gerbil. I agreed, as long as Rob and I got to name to gerbil. And so, Cosmo Petree Rogers was adopted and is fitting in remarkably with spike.

Its all because of the frog

On Labor Day, I was outside mowing the lawn and found a frog. I called to Logan and he came out and picked it up. The next thing I know, Rob and Logan were planning on going to Pet Smart to buy things for this frog to live in Logan's room. I was not in favor of this because-well, it a frog living in my house. Anyway, I went along with it, since Rob already suggested to Logan about keeping the frog. So, we are at Pet Smart talking with the salesman, and he is telling us the things we should get for the frog. As the list of things gets longer and I see dollar signs flashing before my eyes, All I can think about is "this damn thing will be dead in a week. There is no way we are going to keep it alive and then we will have all this FROG stuff, and no money". Well, after chit chatting with Rob, we decided to talk Logan out of the frog thing. As we were explaining to Logan that the frog will probably die if we do not let it go, and there are other things we could spend the money on, tears started forming in his eyes. My heart broke, and I thought about the time when I was a preteen, crying to my dad so I could keep a stray cat we found. I now understand how my dad felt, and why he decided to let me keep the cat.
Well, with a little talk with Logan, we won the battle with him regarding the frog- The frog is going to be set free!!!.
Now, that is not the end of the story. When we were talking to Logan about the frog, Rob mentioned that he had a hamster when he was young, and asked Logan if he wanted to look at them. Logan happily agreed, and we headed over to the section of Pet Smart. We were looking at them and found that hamsters are active at night, but gerbals are active during the day, we all agreed that a gerbil would be the better option. And at that moment, Spike Logan "Cosmo" Rogers joined the family!!! yeah i am soo excited-not
We got all the supplies for this thing and headed home. I cannot believe we bought a gerbil today. This all started with the damn frog. THis will be the last time I ever tell Logan I found something outside. And, I WILL be talking to Rob about keeping his mouth shut about keeping live animals in the house without talking to me about it first. lol
All in all, Logan is very happy. Spike is living in his room, and he said he will be taking care of it, but as my parents know, when a child tells you this, the parents better plan on taking care of the new family pet.

Logan carrying the gerbil home- very carefully

Logan's first day of 2nd grade!

Wow, I cannot believe that he is in 2nd grade. Where has the time gone? Logan was very nervous about starting school this year. He fought me all morning long. First he did not want to get out of bed, then he argued about his new uniform he has to wear, and then it was about having to wear shoes and socks- OMG i did not know how much more I could take that morning. Luckily, we only had to go through that the first day, because he had a great time his first day. He loves his teacher, and realizes that everyone had to wear the uniforms. I am hoping we are going to have a great year!!!

Summer Vacation 09

OUr summer vacation is officially over. It is sad, but I am anxious to get back to work. We really did not go on a big vacation like to Florida, California, etc, but we sure had fun doing a lot of different little things around here. Sometimes those memories are the ones that stay with you more. Check out our fun we had this summer.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My job is safe

Well, After a long summer of rallying, and calls to legislators, Illinois finally passed a budget that does not do too much harm to Social Services and Childcare. One thing that happened with the budget cuts, is that education was cut (of all places to cut ) When the Illinois State Board of Education met a couple of weeks ago, they decided to cut Early CHildhood Programs by 33%. My boss did tell us that things were looking good for the program, we just will not have all the money to spend on the fun stuff to decorate our class. I am okay with that, as long as I still have my job!!!

Kaitlyn's big girl bed!!

On Saturday, July 25th Kaitlyn slept in her OWN big girl bed for the first time. She graduated from her toddler bed to her big girl bed with ease. She LOVES it!!! SHe has slept in it for 3 nights now and has not fallen out yet. We have it up against a wall, so she does sleep close to the wall, which is good. If she is anything like Logan, she will be moving around that bed in days (Logan is such a bed hog). Check out the Cabbage Patch Kid she is sleeping with, that was mine when I was young!!!

Popcorn is all gone (kinda)

Well, Logan made it four days with his popcorn diet. Rob asked him on day 5 if he wanted popcorn for breakfast, and Logan sighed. He did not eat any for breakfast. Then for lunch, Rob asked if he wanted a corn dog, and Logan said "YES" and there ended the diet. He has been a little better at meal times, with eating his food. SO, i think it was a good thing we did!! He does still ask for popcorn as a snack daily.

POPCORN EATER

If you know Logan, you will know that he loves popcorn, i mean LOVES popcorn. If you also know Logan, you know that he does not like to eat meals without complaining about something we are eating. Well, ROb and I have had it, so while I was teaching at school I read this book called Bread and Jam for Francis. It was about a girl who loved bread and jam. Her parents decided that that is what she was going to eat for every meal until she got sick of it. Can you see were I am going with this story about Logan ??
On July 13th, we started Logan on a POPCORN diet. He eats popcorn for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and he even chooses to have it for snacks as well. He is on day four and has put away 15 bags of microwave popcorn. There are some moments where Rob and I look at each other when Logan is eating and think "man, he is getting sick of it" and then 2 hours later, he is putting away another bag. This boy will never stop.
ROb and I made a bet. I said Logan will do it for 7 days before he stops and Rob says he is going to last 21 days. We will see who wins. Never the less, Logan is loving his "diet" I do have to say, meal time is mush more enjoyable since we do not have to listen to him complain about the food he has to eat, and it is much easier making breakfast, lunch, and dinner for him.

Lego Land

This past Wednesday, it was raining, and we were sitting there thinking "what are we going to do today" I suggested we go to lego land near Chicago. We decided to travel the 3 hours to Lego Land. When we got there, Logan was so excited he could not stand still. We saw the city of Chicago made of Legos, busses, people, churches, and buildings. It was awesome. The next thing we did was go into the jungle (this was my favorite). We saw all different animals made out of legos. It was amazing!!! We went to a 4-D movie, a mock lego factory where we saw how to make legos, and played, played, played with legos. It was a lot of fun!!! THis was a spur of the moment trip, but one that was great!! We even got stuck in the Chicago rush hour traffic on our way home!!!
Hope you enjoy the pictures- they are small, but if you click on them, you can see them bigger.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Farm Park

THis past week we went to a farm park in East Peoria. The kids had fun feeding the farm animals and sliding down the silo slide. Check out our cool pictures of the day at the farm

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The day of FIRSTS

On Wednesday, both Logan and Kaitlyn had a first. Logan and I took Kaitlyn to her FIRST movie at the movie theater. It was a free movie that they have for children in the morning, so I thought it was a good time to see if she would/could sit through the movie. Well, I think she would have sat for most of the movie if I kept shoving m&ms in her mouth. She was quiet when she was eating them, but when I ran out of the snack pack, she was up moving around and talking. Then, when I opened another snack pack, she was fine. She was not as bad as I thought she was going to be. We actually made it through the whole movie. THank goodness nobody had to pay for the movie, since the people in front of us probably heard more of Kaitlyn than the movie.

Now for Logan, Wednesday night he went on his FIRST friend sleep over. He stayed at his friends Isaac's house. Rob and I were waiting for a call at night for me to come and get him, but he did great and did not call. He had no problems. He even ate Maria's hamburgers (he complains at our house about hamburgers). He said he had a great time. Our little boy is growing up!!!

Opening Night of Transformers

On June 23rd Rob and Logan headed for the movie theatre to watch the new Transformers movie on opening night. They left the house at 11:30pm to find themselves in line with hundreds of fans for the opening night /morning. Logan and Rob wnet to the 12:00am movie. They both said it was awesome and had a great time. They came home around 3:30 and Logan did not get up until 11:00 that morning. Going to the movies is one things that Rob and Logan love doing together.


Getting ready to go to the movie

Outside the movie theatre at 12:00am

Daddy and Logan time!!!

Doing what Logan likes best- eating popcorn

Summer vacation 09

Rob was laid off for a week again, so we decided to go to Twin Lakes in Northern Iowa for 3 days. Grandma Rogers works there, so she put us up in a beautiful cabin. Although the weather was not the greatest, we did find time to go to the lake and do some swimming and boating. We also took our bikes, so we could ride the 7 mile bike ride around the lake. It was a lot of fun. On our way home, we stopped at Grandpa Rogers to have dinner with him. The kids like to play with their dogs and to pet the horses. It was a nice get a way from the same ol' same ol'

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Garage sale

I cannot believe how much stuff we have accumulated over the past 7 years. I am going through all of Logan's clothes, and thinking-OMG why did we get all of this stuff. And then I remember Oh, that was soo cute, and of course I was a first time mom. THen I started going through Kaitlyn's stuff and thinking why did we get all of this stuff and then I think to myself, because she is soo cute and I was a second time mom that needed to keep up with what I bought for Logan, so Kaitlyn would not feel left out.
Now, and I sit and look at all of this stuff, I think-man, i better get a load of money off of this garage sale.

Rock Island trail

It has been a long time since I have been blogging, but the Rogers have been very busy. I was finishing up the end of my school year, and Logan is finishing up the end of his school year, so it has been one thing after another here. This past weekend we thought we would take a break from all the stressful things we have been doing the past month and go for a bike ride on the Rock Island Trails. Now that Logan is an experienced bike rider, we were able to pack the bike on the trailer and head out. It was a beautiful day, even though we got caught in a little rain storm. Thank goodness there were soo many trees that helped shield us from the rain. It was nice to spend the afternoon with the family, but I do tell you, once we were done with our SIX mile bike rides, our legs and butts were a hurtin'

The start of our journey


Stopping at the really high bridge to take a break


Logan coming at me


Half way there


Kaitlyn is "Chillaxing"


Logan could not wait until we got home. He loves to peeee outside

Logan's Spring Concert

Charter Oak had their spring concert tonight. ALl the children grades K-4 sand songs together, so the pictures I got of him were not that great, since it was soo hard to get to him. Anyway, we did see his mouth open, however, we do not know if he was singing or talking to the boy next to him. Rob and I were very proud of his dancing to the songs as he was to be singing, his can get down!!! He did good. He has come a long way in the past couple of years. Who would have thought that the shy shy boy, who cried at his preschool graduation, who would not get out in front of people at his soccer games, who sat on mommy;s lap at his pre-school concerts, would be getting up in front of hundreds of people and singing with his friends. We are so proud of him!!!

The Monday from Hell

Okay, so Monday's are never good, but this one tops the cake. To start the day, Rob went down to our basement and stepped into about an inch of water. After a few choice words, he realized that the water heater had broke. So after many more choice words, he got it all cleaned up and then had to go and spend our precious money to buy a new water heater. Why are they so expensive?????. So once he got that all cleaned up, he went to go get Logan so they can get ready for Logan's first baseball game (which was the only good things that happened today). One my way to the game, I rolled down the window on Kaitlyn's side, and she decided it would be funny to throw her show out the window. Her right shoe is somewhere on University between Dixions Seafood and the Post Office. To make matters worse, she laughed about it, because I think she knew she was going to get new shoes. Then, to end the day off, on the way home from Logan's great baseball game, Rob called me and told me to meet him at the Car shop, because something was wrong with his car and did not know if he was going to make it. Luckily, he made it, but was telling me that it was making the same sound as his other car did that just took a crap about a month ago, so now we might be faced with getting a new car. I guess we should be happy that nobody got hurt today, and it was all just material things. I am going to be the optimistic and say, at least we will have hot water tomorrow!!

Logan's 7th birthday

Logan has been pestering me about making one of these picture books for him. I finally got around to it, so Logan, I hope you like it. Happy Birthday (a month late)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Signs of Spring

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Potty Training

So Tuesday night after Kaitlyn's bath, she found some Dora big girl underwear. Of course I knew I was in trouble right when she said DORA and pointed to the underwear and then started taking her pants off. After trying to fight her about putting Dora on, I gave in and put on the underwear, but that was not good enough. She had to have 2 pairs of Dora underwear on. As we were putting on both pairs, I told her that Dora needs to stay dry, and if she has to go potty, she needs to go in the big girl potty. We went down and played for a little bit and then she said "go potty", so we ran upstairs in hopes this would be the time she actually goes potty in the potty. Kaitlyn pulled down her Dora underwear and sat on the potty for about 30 seconds, "all done!" she gets up and pulls her pants up. Then right when she get them up, she says "go potty mommy" so she pulls down her pants and sits on the potty for another couple of seconds. She stands up, pulls up her pants and then does the whole thing over again. We sat up in the bathroom for close to 25 minutes pulling down her pants, sitting on the potty and then pulling up her pants. I think I counted 10 times that she did this. What makes for a depressing story, is that not one of those times she sat on the potty, did she go potty. We sand songs, tickled each other, I even tried the squirting water down there, but that just made her scream. She has the interest, but not the knowing of what to do. We would really appreciate her being in underwear, it would be great on the checkbook!!

Rob's lay off

Well, the economy has finally caught up to us. Rob has been laid off for this next week. The whole plant shut down, leaving tons of people including Rob out of work for the week. Along with this bad news, came the WARN paper that is required by law to let people know that they may be laid off in 90 days. This is not saying that he will be laid off, but there is a good chance that it could happen. We will know the first of June whether we will have to move in with my parents, or if we will be able to make our mortgage payments. Keep us in your prayers that things will work out for us. I hope everyone is hanging in there with their jobs. This is not a easy time, and I hope that our new president have the knowledge to get us out of this slump that our previous presidents put us in.
Keep strong in this tough time.

Finally!!!!

About a week agao, we finally finished our plans for our Kitchen. Our old microwave, the one I had when I went off to college in 1996 finally died. That pushed us to go to Lowes and buy our stainless steel over the range microwave. We could not waste time, since we had no microwave to supply Logan with his microwave popcorn. Not the time we wanted to get it, since the US is in a recession, I guess we helped out the workers at Lowes, so then I feel a little bit better about spending money right now. Anyway, after having to take out some cabinets, we got it in and it looks great!! We are very happy with it. I was worried about taking the cabinets out, I was not sure where to put the alcohol that was up there. It turned out really good, because it made me reorganize the other cabinets and found ALOT of space!!! I am so lucky to have Rob, who is able to do these handyman things!!!
I LOVE YOU ROB!!!


Our new microwave!!!



What a mess

Bee Hive

Last fall when all of the leaves feel from our tree we found a bee hive in one of our trees. I told Rob I wanted it so I could take it to school. He said that when it got warmer, he would get it for me. Well, this past Saturday, we went out and spent the morning cleaning up our back yard (more leaves to rake), and Rob cut down the bee hive. Logan and Kailtyn thought it was really cool. We even found a dead bee that Logan thought was alive and was startled when we pulled the combs back. It was pretty cool!!!

Logan's Student Showcase

Last Thursday night Logan took part at a Student Showcase at school. During the showcase he displayed his Bakugans that he has collected over the past 9 months. He had to man his table and when people came to ask questions, he answered them with ease and confidents. He did a great job. Of course, Mom had to "man" the table for 1/2 of the night when he went off with his friends to look at other tables. I hope I correctly explained the concept. Logan is very serious about his Bakugans!!

Kaitlyn's BIG girl bed

LAst weekend we took the side off of Kailtyn's crib making it a big girl bed. We wondered how she would do, hoping for the best. For the most part, she is doing good. It has been a week and she has not fallen out of the bed yet, and has only stuck out of her room (before we got the gate up) 2 nights. This morning was the first time that she did not wake up in the morning and cry by the door gate. She stayed in her room and was playing with her toys!!! She likes that she can get up in it at anytime and jump on the bed. When she is jumping she signs one of her favorite songs "No more Monkeys Jumping on The bed" What a big girl!!

Kaitlyn's birthday

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Pinewood Derby!!

This past Sunday, Logan had his first Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby race.  Dad and Logan spent the last month working on his car.  Cutting, sanding, painting, and assembling to have his car meet specific criteria.  Rob did the cutting, Logan did the sanding and painting (doesn't it look good) and Rob put it together, along with adding weights to make it heavier.   We carried the car as if it were a crystal ball up to the weigh in station.  When we put it on the scale, we were .8 oz off.  So, Rob being the wonderful troubleshooter that he is, came up with drilling out some of the wood.  After running out of wood to drill out, he had to go into his weights.  That finally did it.  The weight was right on.  

Logan's group was first.  Logan won his heat, and to make a long story somewhat short, it came down to Logan and his friend Chris. They raced and won back and forth.  It finally came to a sudden death race, where unfortunately, Logan came in second.   He was very excited and proud of what he and his dad did.  Logan even said that he got teary eyed when he was handed his trophy!!  It wouldn't surprise me if dad got teary eyed when Logan got the trophy.  I am so proud of both of them!!

Way to go Guys!!! 

Happy Days are Here Again!!

What a nice day!!  This was the first day it was nice enough for the kids to play outside in a long time.  The temp was in the 60s with a gust of wind that made it fun for Kaitlyn with her hair blowing in her face!!!  Logan got to go out and play with his friends, but it seemed that they spent a lot of time indoors playing the X-box 360 and then running over to his friends to play Wii.  I guess they got some exercise running back and forth.  

All Right Logan

Logan was the speaker for the color guard at Boy Scouts this past Pack Meeting.  I was soo proud of him, because if anyone knows Logan, you know that he is shy (at first) and does not like to be in front of people, especially speaking.  He volunteered to do this job and then when he went up there, he did GREAT!!!  He spoke so loud and clear in front of about 40-50 people.  He is sure coming out of his shell. (about time!!)

                                                             Logan is getting his Bobcat badge!!