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

First Day of Kindergarten

Can't believe my baby boy - whom I SWEAR I just brought home from the hospital as a little baby last week - started kindergarten this week!!! Eeeeeekkk!! He's such a big and sweet boy!! On Tuesday they had 'meet the teacher' day where we got to go in and meet his teacher and tour the school and stuff. Then Wednesday was the big first day!

Joey and Jonah (a little guy I babysit) waiting outside for meet-the-teacher day to begin!

Joey walked in and found his classroom and his hook - which is where he'll hang his book bag and coat all weekend.

This year Joey is in the primary kindergarten class, which essentially means he will get 2 years of kindergarten. Our district only has one of these classes, so I'm SO glad that Joey made it in! He is a VERY young 5 year old, just turned 5 in July so in doing the math, I knew that if i put him in regular kindergarten he would be graduating high school when he's 17!! However, in doing the p-kindergarten class, he will have an extra year of school and will graduate when he's 18. He will also be one of the oldest in his classes, which I think will work to his advantage, vs. him being the youngest if he jumped in to class. He academically knows everything he needed to know for regular kindergarten, but I am SO glad that he is getting the extra year to mature!! Pictured above is Joey with his little buddy Adam from church who is also in his p-kindergarten class with him!! He was so excited to already have a friend in class!

Here is Joey with his p-kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Krebs! Funny story - when I first told Joey his teacher's name, he giggled and said 'That's just like Mr. Crabs on Spongebob!!' And then he laughed and laughed and has brought it up a few times since then. I told him he is not aloud to call her that at school!! She seems super nice and energetic, so I think Joey will just love her!

Here is Joey waiting for the bus!!

Kris took the morning off so he could see Joey get on the bus. The bus is SUPPOSED to get here at 12:07. Kris had an appointment at 1:00 that he could NOT be late for, and unfortunately the bus was WAY late. :( Kris had to leave at 12:30 (mind you school is supposed to start at 12:25!!) I called the bus garage and they said that it's coming, but they got a late start and with it being the first day of kindergarten, it's taking a bit longer. *sigh* I considered driving the boys to school, but they said no! They wanted to ride the bus! Kris was really upset he couldn't be here to see Joey off. But alas, the bus FINALLY got here at 12:51!! Only 44 minutes late.... Hopefully this is not a trend!

Joey and Jonah all smiles waiting for the bus!!

Dude... where's the bus? Getting impatient!

Here it comes!!

Finally here!! Look how big he is....

Joey and Jonah getting on the big yellow limo!

And they're off!!! I must say I did get choked up, but I didn't cry. I think I only didn't cry because I was so releived that the bus was finally here!!! I mean, 50 minutes waiting in 90 degree heat with two 5 year olds I was happy to see them finally get on the bus and on the way to school!!

When Joey got home the bus was only 17 minutes late, not bad at all!! Joey said his favorite part of school was the bus ride - ha ha! Go figure. He also talked a bit about art class. But he's really not a chatty kid, so I really don't know what they did at school! I was trying to milk him for info, but the more I asked him the more he was just saying it was 'fine' or 'fun' but no details. Goofy boy! Just like his daddy.

So here starts a new era for my little man!! I can't wait to watch him grow, but in the same respect I just wanna hold on to him forever!!

Street Fair 2010

The street fair is a fond memory of mine! Every year it comes to pataskala and has since as long as I can remember. It's not a large fair, but it's so fun since it's close to home, and not so big it's hard to walk from one side to the other, and it has some fun rides and activities for the kiddos. But I always spend way too much money!

This year the first thing we did was I bought enoguht tickets for the kids to ride some rides. Then goofy Joey kept saying he didn't really want to ride any rides! Savanna, however, did, but was too small for alot of the rides. But Joey did ride the roller coaster and the slide, and went on the car and train rides with Savanna.

Joey on the roller coaster! He actually really liked this ride and still talks about it alot.

My cuties on the train

And on the cars!

Now Joey's FAVORITE thing to do was the 'bungee jumping'. No, it's not real bungee jumping!!! It's more like a glorified trampolene. He got to do it twice, he would have done it a million times if I let him, but since it was 5 dollars every time, I thought twice was enough!! He wasn't quite big enough to get it going real well, but he didn't care.

Getting hooked up!

Up!

Down!

Up!

I'm looking forward to next year! It's almost just like Christmas in the fact of the magic of it starts all over again watching the kiddos enjoy it!! They're so fun!

2010 Summer Bowling Camp

Last spring I was thinking I should get Joey into some kind of sport, but he didn't really sound real interested in much, except maybe soccer. But soccer just sounded too cliche for my taste for a 4 year old! ha ha! But then a friend of mine from church said something about a summer bowling league she was getting her sons in and I thought that's great! I asked Joey if he wanted to and he did! It was so fun - and a good deal I thought! Once a week it was only $7 for 2 games of bowling, shoes, lunch (pizza and soda), a bowling shirt to keep, and an end-of-the-year party w/ trophies for everyone.

Joey absolutely loved it! He was most excited the first couple weeks, but even once the newness of it wore off, he still enjoyed it. Their team name was the 'Sea Monsters'. They finished the league 7th place out of 12, so not bad at all for all new bowlers!

The one story is at the end of the season - everyone got a trophy. They had special trophies for top scores and such, but they had participation trophies for everyone else. Well they messed up and didn't have enough participation trophies. Guess who didn't get one?? The 3 boys on our team!! :( They were broken hearted. But the bowling alley ordered them and they got them just a few days later and Joey is convinced that he got the 'best' trophy and that's why it took longer to make it. ha ha!

Here is Joey with his team! From left to right is Aaron, Dallin, and Joey. Aaron and Dallin are his little buddies from church, and Joey loved being on their team!

My baby's birthdays!!

WOW!! My little boy is 5 now and my baby girl is 2??? Really? Seriously... how did this happen?? I always heard that kids grow up fast, but I never really understood that until I had kids of my own. I seriously feel like Joey was a baby in my arms just the other day... I can't believe he is preparing for kindergarten now!! Before I know it he'll be leaving me... But we won't think about that right now unless you want to see how truly unreasonably emotional I can be.

Anyway, Joey's birthday is July 16 and Savanna's is August 8. Since they are only 3 weeks apart, and Savanna is still so young, we decided to combine their birthdays this year. So as a combined birthday present for the two of them, we got them a new swing set!! I didn't take a picture of it though.... Anyway, the old one was just too small. Joey had certainly out grown it, and also with my babysitting it jsut wasn't enough for the kiddos I watch. So we got a nice big wood one that can swing 5 kids at a time and it has a gang plank, rock wall, and slide. I think I enjoy it as much as the kids do!!

For the kids parties we did kind of a party weekend. On Saturday we had a party for just Joey with all his little friends. The weather cooperated beautifully!! We had a pool...

A slip-n-slide...

A bounce house... (thanks Cheryl!!)

a pinata,

Ice cream cake...

(this is the kids patiently waiting for cake...)

And of course the new swing set! I think all the kids had a BLAST and Joey really loved his party!! This was the first 'friends' party I put on for him, so I was a little nervous, but it went really well!! For the record, the kids that came were Jack (one of my friend's sons), Reagan (who was Joey's little 'girlfriend' in preschool! lol!), Carlie (a girl I babysit), Kaili, Ethan, Jonah, Quinten, Caden, Evan and Nathan.

And then on Sunday we had a 'family' party for both Joey and Savanna combined. It was kind of nice to only have one party for the two of them! All the commotion done at once! Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner of hot dogs and homemade macaroni and cheese and I made some more ice cream cake for it! Plus we still had all the fun outside stuff.

Here is Joey blowing out his candle...

And Savanna...

Both of the kids got some seriously COOL presents and toys! I'm not including all those pictures, but they both loved everything they got and I had a huge project to organize them all! I swear these kids are sooo spoiled and loved by our families!! Here is one present picture I had to include. My sister got her this bug and Savanna just LOVED it!! She kept giving it kisses and wouldn't put it down, even to open her other presents! What a goof.

And here's my cutie hiding under the present table. She's thinking hmm.... If I look cute enough no one will notice me stealing the toys!

This is my sister Amanda, my mom, and my sister Julie. I don't think Julie meant to 'display' the hot dog, but there it is!! he he. I love these women.

This is my sister Julie with her boyfriend Shawn and his daughter Calysta.

This is Garrett, Kraig, Meemaw, and Linda - 4 of Joey's favorite people!!

Eclipse!

When the Twilight novels first started getting popular, I thought 'Really?? Vampires?? Woo hoo....' but then my sister Amanda read them and said they were great, but I still wasn't convinced enough to read them. However, then, my friend Laurie, who is an 8th grade English teacher, read them and loved them and said I just HAVE to read them. So I started in on Twilight with doubts but fell in LOVE in no time! They are WONDERFUL!! And then, I was ecstatic when they started making them into movies!! So far I have been to all 3 premier nights and I plan on being at the next 2 (I am VERY bummed they are breaking the last novel into 2 movies, just because I have to wait longer! but hopefully that will mean they will leave less out!) Anyway, On June 29, 2010, I headed out for a 'girls night' in the craziness of premier night! I must say the movie was GREAT!! I just cannot wait to see it again!! There were a few small parts that they left out that I didn't like, but such is life. I'm not the director!! I still seriously enjoyed it! Here are pics from the night (they were taken on my cell phone, so they are of seriously poor quality. I can never remember to take my camera!)

This is my sister-in-law, Kara. They were handing out vampire teeth while we were waiting in line! :)

Kara and Jacob Black (still hot, even in card board)

Ok... Maybe I'm team Jakeward!

Here's my group of girls!! From L to R: Lisa, Laurie, me, Kara, Amanda, and Amy

Lucky Lisa won an Edward cut out!!! And got to take him home with her! We were all so jealous.

We ended up sitting on one of the side rows so Lisa set Edward up beside her and they watched the movie together.

On Mommy Guilt

If you're a Mommy, then I'm certain at some point you have experienced mommy-guilt. If you're not a mommy and don't understand what mommy guilt is, it's when a no matter what a mommy does, she feels guilty about it!!

This is something I struggle with on a very regular basis. I beat myself up about almost everything I do!

Examples from today alone:

• I felt guilty for letting my kids watch lots of TV while I cleaned (this house is scuzzy and it was getting to me)
• I felt guilty for ignoring the kids while I cleaned
• I felt guilty for giving my kids ravioli for lunch, and then macaroni/beef casserole for dinner - I mean only a bad mom would give her kids redundant meals like that, right?
• I felt guilty that Joey threw a fit in his Sunday School class and I was not made aware by the teacher until I picked him up from primary (because that's my fault, right?)
  
• I felt guilty for not having exciting activities planned for the 4th of July, even though we've seen fireworks shows the past 2 nights in a row.
• I felt guilty for not taking the kids to see Kris ride on the fire truck in a parade but having them nap instead (they have been up LATE too much and needed a nap!)
• I felt guilty that I made dinner a tad late and the kids were STARVING (although miracle is the kids actually eat dinner when they're hungry for it!)
• I felt guilty that I had put savanna to bed, and then took Joey out front to watch the fireworks that neighbors were putting off. I mean, Savanna's not even 2 yet, but I felt bad she was missing out on the fun.
• I felt guilty they didn't have more out door play today
• I felt guilty we forgot to say a prayer at dinner
• I felt guilty we're almost out of groceries and had slim pickin's for fruit today.
  

This is seriously just a SMALL list of the things I feel guilty for on a regular basis. And it's not just passing guilt - it really bugs me. I mean, deep down I know I'm a good mom - my kids are healthy and happy, played with and cared for. But it's all this stuff on the surface that truly gets to me, but I swear, no matter WHAT I do, I find some way to feel guilty about it!

So this is a shout out to all you Mommas out there... how do you deal with your own mommy guilt?? It seems sometimes I can reason my way out of it because I know it's not rational, but sometimes I can't! So what to do. :) I'd love some advice from all the other moms! Or at least let me know I'm not alone in this!