Happy Birthday Josh!

Birthday parties are always so crazy when you are the host. Well, ALL parties are crazy when you are the host. Joshy had his party on Saturday and he seemed to love every minute of it. Unfortunately, I failed to get pics of all his birthday guests. It was mostly family with a few great friends. I didnt want to deal with the hassle of cake & ice cream so we did cupcakes & pizza. Can you read it? :)

Here is a cute pic of Josh. Can you see the defloated jump thing behind him? I guess it got a hole in it...(duh) anyway, his friend shows up a few seconds later freaking out that the jump thing was collapsing on him.

We are about to sing Happy Birthday ~

It took Josh a few tries to get all the candles out.

I thought this pic was fun. Josh is concentrating very hard on trying to read Grandma Georgia's cursive. He gave it a good effort and got most of the words.

Thanks to everyone that came to Joshy's party. I think he had a great birthday.

I cant believe my baby is 7!

One little funny from the party.... one of Joshy's friends who came to the party brought Josh's gift in a cute little birthday bag. Well, I guess the little boy went up to Jared, after Josh opened his gift, and asked if he could have his bag back so his Mom can use it for other birthday presents.

Happy Birthday to US!

Today was my baby's birthday along with mine. He was my birthday present 7 years ago and it has been one of my best gifts ever!

I will have more stuff up for Joshy's birthday, but I just wanted to say a little bit about my day today. I feel so lucky that I have such a great family and friends. I just love getting together with EVERYONE no matter where it is. It is so much fun and everyone gets along so well. I am so thankful that Bob & Katie can come and hang out with my family and feel just as a part of it. (or atleast they dont seem otherwise)

My brother called tonight from Japan and him and his wife made us super cute birthday cards. They even stayed up until 1:00 (maybe later?) just to wish us a happy birthday. (okay, maybe that wasn't the only reason, but hey, I can think whatever I want - right?)

My Mom took me shopping on Saturday and it was the funnest time EVER! I am so glad we were able to do that. We truly had not done that before and I hope we can do it more often!

My husband went out of his way to make sure my day was a great one and I just love him so much.

I really feel lucky to have so many special people in my life and getting to see them today made my day that much better!

I was bummin' last year for my 30th birthday. This birthday was much better!

I would show pics, but, unfortunately, I forgot my camera tonight - UGH!

Where has the time gone? (Revised about 10 different times)

I have been planning on posting pics from halloween since, well...halloween. I cant believe I am doing it after Thanksgiving!! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did! We went to my Dad's house with all the family. It was alot of fun!. I was going to take pics of the Thanksgiving football game goin' on, but I was too lazy. It was cute tho watching my kids have so much fun. They really enjoyed the football game.

I am on the computer tonight in an attempt to plan my sons 7th birthday party! My baby is growing up so quickly! The year has really snuck up on me. I usually have his birthday party planned in November - this year I am planning it the week before!

Now, back to the Halloween..... Halloween was a great day for us and we had alot of fun. I hope you had a happy halloween also! Earlier in the day I was in charge of an activity for Jake's class halloween party. Though I was super nervous, it turned out really well. I am planner and everything has to be just right. I only had 2 short days to plan this activity. By Thursday night I was doing a pretend setup on my kitchen counter following the pictures I drew in my notebook. I can be a bit crazy with the planning. Below are pictures of my "examples" I was going to show his class. They had the choice of a witch cupcake or a "dirt" cupcake.

For trick or treating we had Jareds parents over, my brother Robby & Zachary over, my other brother Brian, Lisa, Nate & Ty, and my Dad showed up for a minute. Matt & Teena decided to stay home and trick or treat in their neighborhood and my Mom had to work so she couldn't make it. (We missed you Mom, Dave and Matt, Teena, Bryce & Evie! )

These are pics of the boys before school. They were unknown phantoms...oooh, scary. (You see behind the boys there is an archway and then a doorway and then another doorway? Well, that is our closet and that is how the neighbor boy walked in our house the other day and saw Jared standing there naked...... I dont know if it should be....but it was pretty dang funny! )

This is Josh and Jared's Dad. Can you tell who is who? :)

The kids (& Jared) before trick or treating. The boys' black costumes blend in with each other. I cant tell if I have both kids in this pic or if I cut off Joshy's head.

This is what our trick or treaters got to see when they came to our door for candy. They had to get their loot from these good lookin' men. (In looking at this picture it makes me wonder if they are smiling for the camera under their masks? If they are that would be so funny! I am so easily amused. You did know those were masks right?!? )

There were only a few kids who were too scared to come up and get candy and I dont blame them!

That was a quick run down of our halloween and Thanksgiving.! As mentioned above, I hope that you all had a happy halloween and great thanksgiving!

Now, for everyone who always tells me I need to "update my blog" (Mom, Katie, Anjie....) Enjoy! I hope that I can get Joshy's birthday pics up before the end of the year! :)

Have a great day!

MOTHERS DAY~

Happy late mother's day to all you mother's out there.

I had a very nice Mother's Day. I woke up to Joshy giving me this:

Actually, I had to ask for it. I think he forgot about it since he made it in school and brought it home 2 weeks early, because they went off track, so he had to hide it. However, I couldnt wait to see what he made for me! Can you believe his penmanship!? Inside this envelope made with love was:

They are magnets. Josh is way into art and drawing roses. I now have a rose magnet and a Josh magnet. I love them!

We started the day with Jareds Mom, Cynthia. Cynthia is a FABULOUS Mom, Mother in Law and Grandma. We/I couldn't be luckier to have her around. We wanted to take her to breakfast for Mother's Day, but as usual, it was her treat. Thank you!

To top off the day I got to have my FABULOUS Mom over along with some other wonderful Mothers (L to R): Lisa, My Mom, me, Teena (evie), Angela and Katie. I love these girls to death and I am so glad that they were able to come over.

To my Mom: I think you are the best Mom and Grandma and I appreciate everything you do for us. My kids enjoy spending time with you. They had such a great time at lunch the other day! I miss seeing you on Mondays more than you will ever know. I am so glad I have got to see you the past 2 times I went to the post office. Hope to talk to you soon! Love, Barbi

Cynthia: You are also one of the best Moms and Grandma's around. You have shown Jared how to be such a great person and he is the best husband, and example, because of that. My kids love their grandma Cynthia. Thanks for everything you do for us!

Lisa, Teena, Katie, Krystal, Star & Amanda (sorry if I missed anyone - i dont think too many people read this): You are all wonderful moms in so many different ways. Some of you are way patient with your kids, some of you bring fun and laughter into your families, some of you are disciplined, some of you have religion but most of all, your kids know how much you love and adore them. I am lucky to have you as my friends.

I know Shirley will never read this, she doesnt even own a computer, but I cant forget her. Shirley you are a very special great grandma and I am so happy that my kids have gotten to know you and Tom. Most kids arent able to know their great grandparents like my kids do. You mean the world to them.

I love being a Mom. I was thrown into this motherhood thing at the young age of 20, and I have loved it so much. They are such sweet, mommas boys. I am so lucky.

the "trophy" is back..

As you know, Jared got himself a "trophy buck" last year. Well, we got it back from the taxidermist. Though I think it is gross Jared is very proud of his deer and would hang it in our front room if I let him. I think we will keep all his "trophies" in the basement.... though it would probably add some sort of character to our bare walls upstairs!

Jared the handyman!

Friday night I am attempting to get some laundry done. We were behind in laundry to the point that I was counting how many pant hangers we had to hang pants and how many racks we had to hang the shirts (since we air dry most of our laundry), and I had a "dryer only" pile. The sad part is, we were probably only behind 2 days. It is unbelievable how quickly the dirty laundry piles up. Though Jacobb changes his clothes atleast twice a day. If he spills water on his clothes he changes them, if he plays out in the dirt, he comes in and changes his socks because they have dirt in them, etc.

I am sure you know where this is going...I put the first load in and the washer is making a funny noise. The agitator is not agitating, which was really bad. I FREAKED OUT! I had 5 loads of laundry to do and my washer has just bit the dust. Also, we are trying to pay off our debt, so if I need a new washer I am now adding $700+ to our debt.

After looking at washers online, I am starting to convince myself I could use a new washer. We bought the washer/dryer set we have 8 years ago, used, for $300.


While running to the store Jared calls me. He thinks he knows what is wrong with our washer and can fix it for $6.00. I had mixed emotions. I was sort of getting excited for a new washer, yet I was glad that I didnt have to possibly buy one right now, since it is not a good time for us.
Anyway, here is the receipt. Jared was able to fix our washer for less than $10.00. Now that we didnt need a loan for! :)




Now it is known throughout my family, when Jared helps to "fix" / "repair" something, usually something else gets broken in the process, bless is always willing to help heart.... In this case, it was fixed PERFECTLY! And Jared did all the laundry as his reward for fixing the washer...

so~ What did you do this weekend?

We got to deal with a sick one all weekend. We finally took him to the doctor on Sunday and he had strep, which I think showed up quite quickly. The nurse had told us it would be about a 20-25 minute wait for the doctor. I asked her to take a swab of his throat before she left to save some time. A minute later I hear the doctor say "is that room 2?". He then came in checked Josh out told us he had strep and sent us on our way. We were at the doctors office a total of 20 minutes.

This is him tonight, 24 hours after being on meds. He is trying to eat his dinner. Poor thing has no appetite.

This is when it is the hardest being a working Mom. When my kids are sick, it really puts pressure on me. I want to stay home with them and nurture them like mothers should, but I also have a boss that depends on me to be there. My boss was very nice today, however, if Josh is still under the weather tomorrow, my boss will NOT BE HAPPY if I have to call in again. What to do !?!?!?

More on babysitting.

We got the opportunity to babysit both Bryce and Evie over the weekend. Evie loves to be fully dressed, including her shoes and jacket in this case! I attempted to lay her down for a nap and I thought I was getting her comfortable by taking her shoes, jacket and her shorts off ( I was changing her diaper). Well Matt calls, says I am on my way, I say take your time Evie is napping. After the conversation I go to check on Evie and she is not napping at all. The chain of events follow:

(Check, check, 123 - is the camera working!? ) This is Jacobb just chillin' on the couch. I am on way to get pics of Evie not napping.

These pictures are way blurry. I was trying to take them without her knowing so I shut off the flash. However, she still heard me and turned around. She is trying to put her shorts back on:

I walk in the room and she brings me her shorts:

And then her shoes:

And then her jacket:

Now she is happy! I layed her down a little while later fully dressed and she fell fast asleep.... lesson learned.
Matt and Kids.
Handsome Bryce posing with the slinky. You can barely see it.

Babysitting

We got to babysit Evie the other night. She is so funny. Here are a few pics:




I knew her Mom would love this picture. I was a little disappointed I couldnt get a better picture, but I am sure Teena will still treasure it. :)

Super Fun Neighbors!

We really enjoy our neighbors. They are all so nice, fun, funny, GENEROUS, etc.
Saturday was such a nice day, all the neighbors ended up outside with the kids, we were all enjoying the refreshing beverages...and before you know it pizza is on the way. I love the spontaneous gatherings, along with the planned gatherings, with our neighbors. The kids also get along so great. It makes it so much fun. Anyway, here a few random pics from the night....

Jared showed up with everyone at our house after a long day at the golf course. He was barely functioning...


I love my Dad. He always seems to make it to everything!!

When I bought my new camera, one of the questions I asked was, can I still take pictures of myself???

Pizza does something for Bob and Katie...it rekindles their affection for each other. Sometimes Jared and I make out over pizza too. :)