TUBING!

I have always heard about people going 'Tubing' and it sounded kinda fun, but I was never motivated enough to actually go. I had NO clue how fun it would be!! Joey and I took a trip with my BFF Amy and her 3 kiddos. My sister Amanda was kind enough to keep Savanna. I did see kiddos Savanna's age there, but I'm glad I didnt' take her. #1 - it's $20-$25 per person, regardless of age, and #2 - there is NO way I would have been able to drag her tube and her up that hill every time! Even with a conveyor belt! Also, #3, I think she would have been too scared! Joey, on the other hand, LOVED it. Our first trip down, when i was petrified I turned around to check on him and he shouted 'THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!' LOL - goofy boy.

Here's Joey with his tube. :) Don't let him fool you - I drug his tube up that hill the other 200 times we went!

The cool conveyor belt that took us up! I just about fell the first couple times getting on, but then I got the hang of it. It's certainly not as easy as getting on an escalator!!

Joey and his tube. :)

A pic I snapped of our group going DOWN. It was FAST!!

Another DOWN!

Joey waiting to go down. :)

We went on New Years Eve. It was a HOT 60 degress!! Since we dressed for snow, we were all sweating like crazy. But hey - it was a good work out!! And I would take 60 degress over 0 degrees any day.

My BFF Amy and her little girl Alyssa. Brandon, Amy's 15 year old, is in the back.

Joey and his buddy Alyssa. It was SUCH a fun day and I can't wait to do it again! It was SO worth the $ and the drive!!

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas!! This year was a great year for us. I LOVE Christmas time. I do think it's over commercialized, and I get annoyed that they put Christmas stuff out at Halloween!! But once December hit, I was in the Christmas spirit!! :) I just think it's so fun to do with the kids. And just the spirit of the season is just so heart warming. :) Here are some pictures of our adventures this past Christmas season!

I made some 'melted snowman' cookies for Christmas. SO good and SO cute!! :) And fairly easy!

Joey asked for one thing consistently this year - a 'Cyclaws' RC car. He was SO excited to find it under the tree ready to go on Christmas!

It goes really fast!

Savanna in her Christmas Jammies!

This year we went to see Santa when he visited the fire station! They took some professional pictures which they are supposed to e-mail me of my kiddos with Santa, but I've yet to see those. :( Hopefully I get them soon because I didn't take any pictures of the kiddos with Santa since they had a professional there! I should have snapped some of my own because i'm losing faith I'll get them...

Joey LOVES playing on the big fire truck.

:) She's so cute.

Here's Santa!!

He actually came rolling in not on a sleigh with reindeer, but on a fire truck!! With lights and sirens going! It scared the kids at first, but then they thought it was pretty cool!!

This is all the kiddos that run through my hosue every day. We do a yearly 'christmas picture' with the group, and this was my group this year!! Love them! (You should try to organize 7 kids for a picture some time...)

Had to add this pic for good measure. Savanna cracks me up!!

Savanna was very intense when decorating her cupcakes.

This is the 'Christmas Countdown' we used this year. :) Joey LOVED taking out (and eating!) a candy cane each day!

This is our Christmas Ornament ICU... I can't even tell you how many ornaments Savanna broke this year!! Some were able to be saved by super glue. Others just had to be tossed. :( Such is Christmas with a 2 year old!!

Kid Chatter - Are you sweaty?

Joey after eating a candy cane:

• "If I am having trouble breathing, I just need to eat a candy cane!" That one seriously made me LOL!

I recently bought some new mary kay make up that has some sparkles in it (I love sparkly stuff). Today Joey was talking to me, and was pretty close when he stopped and looked closer, then said:

• 'Why do you have sparkles on your face? Are you sweaty?'

Joey was at my dad's house and my dad was getting a new printer out of the box. Joey asked him to play with the styrofome, to which my dad said no, because it would make a mess. Then, later in the evening he went to my mom and asked Grandma:

• "Grandma - are you the boss? Can I play with the styrofoam?"

This was a while ago, and I can't remember if I blogged it or not, so if I did, I'm blogging it again... I still jsut love it!! We have a little magnent board with magnent letters. One day Joey worked VERY hard on spelling out "I love mom" After he finished he looked at me and said:

• "I sended you a text message!!"

Now this is NOT so good, and we are working on it, but I love the little Mr. Attitude that's coming out in him... it's funny, but of course we're working on being respectful! Just the other day I gave him dinner and told him to start eating and he said:

• "HELLO? MOM! You never gave me a drink!!" He sounded more like a teenage girl than a 5 year old boy!! I told him to try again and he sheepishly said 'Please, mom, can you get me some milk?' ha ha!

Now little Savanna has REALLY started chattering ALOT lately. We took away her plug (pacifier) Thanksgiving weekend and ever since she has been talking a ton. And she's so funny! Her favorite things to say is

• When she fixes things: "There. All better"


• When I ask her where something is "Over there. Table." No matter where the specific object is, to her it's 'Over there. Table."


• She typically calls me mom, but because she's around kids I babysit all day, all who call me Sara or Miss Sara, when she's requesting something she ALWAYS calls me Sara. "Mook, Sara, Mook!" (Mook is savanna speak for milk) Or "Play, Sara, Play!" or "Food, Sara, Food!"


• She has quite the sense of humor and is always cracking her self up when she's talking, but I rarely understand what she's saying.


• She'll bring me the remote control and yell 'ROCKET!' (Savanna speak for Little Einsteins) or "KITTY" (Savanna speak for Tom and Jerry)

Love these goofy kids!!

Cute-ness

Daddy, Savanna, and 'baby' watching tv together!

Joey and Savanna at Rising Park in Lancaster. :)

Savanna at Pigeon Roost farms

Joey at Pigeon Roost farms.

LOVE this picture. :D

Halloween 2010

Pumpkins! I carved the doggy one (on the left) w/ the kids and Kara carved the one on the right.

Savanna getting into mommy's make up.

Savanna was "Tiny Might" the super hero for Halloween. Ever since she was about 3 months old my dad has called her Tiny Might - he says 'She's tiny but she's mighty!' Boy it has rung true!! This girl is all independent and attitude!

It's hard to get a good picture of her. But you get the idea. :) It was COLD so she had to wear her coat under the costume, but it was still cute. :)

And Joey was an 'Army Man'. He made a good one too! What a cutie. :)

On a boat

I've been struggling with some things recently, and I've had a hard time pin pointing what exactly it is I have been struggling with, but I have seen things slipping physically, spiritually, emotionally and so on since about.... March I'd say. Not seriously or anything, but just enough to make me struggle. Anyway, the other day I was talking to a dear friend of mine and they told me this story and I found it quite profound, and I feel if I begin living my life in this way I might be able to make some headway.

There was a ship wreck out at sea and 4 men got on a life raft. They are floating along and the waters get choppier. They see that they are headed for land, but that the land for which they are headed is a large cliff with jagged dangerous rocks. The men get on their knees and start praying - they pray and pray and pray with all their heart. But when they look up they see that they are even closer to the jagged rocks. They say one last quick prayer, jump out of the boat and start swimming. They are each responsible for their own way to land, each responsible to find their own way. They learn that they cannot fight the current and completely swim against it, yet they know that if they just allow them selves to go completely with the current they will be smashed against the rocks. They have to find the right way to swim to get safely to shore.

Now I know this may not make sense to most of you, but it hit me and since this is really the only journal I keep, I really wanted to record it so I can remember it. :)

As of lately

Hello! Ok - so I've been a horrible blogger! And that's probably not likely to change - I am so lazy some times when it comes to these things. It's SO much work to sit down, organize pictures, fight with computers, etc... LOL - I'm sure I could find more time to be better at it, but alas, here I am. I still go to my own blog daily to check on my friend's blogs - so many interesting things from bloggers so much better than I! Anyway - here's just a little update on everyone. Hopefully I'll be able to organize some pictures soon! And get some halloween pics up!

Kris and I got a mini vacation last weekend - sans kids! It... was... awesome. But it went too fast like I knew it would! We didn't go far - but just got a pish-posh hotel room at the hilton in Polaris - jacuzzi room at that *smile*. We went out to eat at yummy yummy restauraunts, had coldstone ice cream more than ones *again smile* and I got to do some fun shopping and got a pedicure!! I also got an eyebrow wax - usually when I get my eyebrows waxed at a salon it's just over the sink. Well this was at a spa and they took me in this dark back room with a table similar to a doctors table. It kind of freaked me out... all this privacy for just a brow wax?? Then it hit me what kind of waxing they *typically* do at a spa and why they would need a little dark back room with a table for waxing.... hmm.... HA HA HA! Anyway - it was soooo nice to get a much needed weekend away. I LOVE my kids, don't get me wrong, but it was nice to be able to sleep, eat, and shop without hearding kids like cattle! I was happy to get home to my babies though. :)

Joey is doing great at school!! He has had a couple behavior issues which I worry about, but I just tell myself he's still young and *thankfully* I got him in the primary kindergarten class, which means he gets a whole second year of kindergarten next year so we still have plenty of time to slowly work on behavior issues. He's such a sweet boy and he complains almost every day that he goes to school that he doesn't want to leave me. :) It makes me happy he loves me and sometimes I feel bad shoving him on the bus, but I know it's best for him! And I know he truly loves school once he gets there. I think the getting there part just stresses him out a bit. A little tidbit of some "Joey Chatter" - The other day I over heard him talking to his friend - they were talking about how they are going to be dads when they grow up. And Joey adamantly told him "After you are a missionary, then you can be a dad!" he he - I love it!

Savanna shows every day that she will grow to be an independant ornery woman someday!! She is the most independent and stubborn little girl I've seen. She certainly gives me a run for my money!! She is so funny - she's always making me laugh. Now that she's talking quite a bit I just LOVE listening to her and hearing little bits of how her brain works. She's always so jovial and happy-go-lucky. And she has NO fear - at - all! She just jumps right in with the 'big kids' no matter what their doing - even playing tackle foot ball or jumping a big pile of leaves! Also, she LOVES animals - especially horses. The other day she was helping me brush my horse and walked right under the horse! I mean like under the belly part! Then ran around behind the horse! Ugh! Thankfully my horse is pretty good and the odds of her hurting Savanna aren't great, but *most* horses would have kicked that girl into outer space... She also loves to sit on the horse forever - I put her up there and after a while I try to get her down and she says "NO! UP!" ha ha - that's my girl!! She tortures the dog and cats often, too, but just because she loves them!! I just can't wait to watch her grow and see what kind of woman she turns out to be! Oh - and just yesterday that little stinker started climbing out of her crib... days of containment are over! Boo! LOL

I'll try to post more and get some more recent pics up soon!! <3 Hey - I really need to get family pics done soon! Anyone have any suggestions of a good, yet somewhat affordable place to go?? :D