the nut house

thunk thurdays

2011-04-27T19:06:00.001-05:00

I am hoping to get better and at least do these every Thursday. Have fun and join along at Thunk Thursdays

1. Did you have a sugar overdose this past weekend?

I think I did really well this year. I even have a big peanut butter egg that I haven’t even cut into just yet. Maybe tomorrow.

2. What was the last thing you bought off of Ebay?

Good question, I am not the big Ebay person of the family, my hubby is.

3. Springtime means bare feet. At least around here. Think about the last long walk you took, on purpose or not, how far did you walk?

The last long walk that we (our kids, daycare kids, my cousin her kids and daycare kids. and us) went for about gosh want to say over a mile! We went to some trails and let them RUN! They got to see some frogs, fish, lots of trees, and more nature items, they loved it.

4. You pull into someone's driveway. Four large German Shepards come to your car. They are barking, but not in a "I'm going to tear your jugular out" kind of way. What do you do?

It depends~do I know these people? If I do I would get out chances are the dogs know me also. If I have never been to that person’s house I might call them and see if the dogs are friendly or just hope they told be before hand.

5. What do you own the most of?

Kids toys.lol. I don’t collect anything anymore since we have kids

6. Did you hear there is a Royal Wedding this week? What is the most obnoxious wedding you have attended? And we wanna know why it was so obnoxious. The word "obnoxious" is defined any way you want it to be... expensive, ugly dresses, stupid guests... whatever.

none really. Hey free food how much better can that get?

7. Which one of the dwarfs that Snow White hung around with is your favorite? Which one do you think you are most like?

Oh I love dopey, why I don’t know but I do. The one I am most like……sleepy with taking care of how many kids everyday, a husband, a house etc I am tired at the end of the day.

8. If I were to hand you an orange, how would you get the peel off?

sorry but I am not a big orange person so I would leave the peel on.'

9. Sometimes a person just doesn't think of these things - do you think Adam & Eve had a belly button?

well yes they were created in god’s eyes and so are we in a sense so yes.

10. Those little kittens lost their mittens. Why do kittens have mittens anyway?

cuz shoes would look just plain silly on cats.

we have new pets!!

2011-04-21T19:56:00.001-05:00

Tonight when I was getting the kids water cups ready for bed I looked out our kitchen window and noticed something in our backyard “pond”. I took a second look and noticed 2 ducks swimming around in the water!!!! so since it was after bedtime what do I do? Well just as any mom would do yell at the kids to come downstairs and look outside. Needless to say they were excited and we grabbed some frozen bread out of the freezer to feed our new pets. I wonder how long they stick around and if they will come back next year when our “pond” comes back.

Katey in her pj’s feeding the ducks.

The boys sharing the buns with the ducks.

If you look close you can see white specs its all the bread that we feed them.

product review~strider bikes

2011-02-27T19:07:00.001-06:00

I have been putting this review off for quiet sometime and in away I am happy that I did. Keep reading you will find out why. Sorry it has taken me so long to write this post.

Last year we bought our two older kids new bikes and poor Jacob was just going to use the hand me down bikes till he got bigger and was ready for a big boy bike. I was searching the internet and came across Strider bikes. I contacted them and for awhile I didn’t hear back from them so I at first thought they didn’t want to do a review with me. Yes I was bummed but also understood. Then I contacted them again and they said YES! Needless to say I was excited when I found out. The day the bike came Jacob and I were at the store and my mom was at our house. She called my phone and told me a box arrived, thinking it was something else I wasn’t very excited till she told me it was green. I wanted to grab Jacob run out of the store and leave what my mom needed at the store and hurry home. And of course on the way home Jacob fell asleep. While we were still at the store she put his bike together so it would be ready when we got home. She said it was very simple and even came with its own tool to help! I let him sleep for a bit then made him get up to play with his new bike. He was very excited to see it was green his favorite color, they have 7 different colors to choose from. At first he was a bit bewildered that it didn’t have any pedals and it was all his! Since its now winter time here and we can’t use our bike outside its small enough for Jacob to bring his bike inside and it doesn’t use up a lot of space.

Now some information about the strider bikes then I will tell you why I am glad I waited to write this review~

~designed for ages 1-5 yrs old up to 50lbs

~ you can buy a taller seat post for your growing child.

~no pedals or sprockets for your young rider to get caught in

~little assembly! just attach the handle bars, wheels and seat and ride! Loved that one

~ Light weight, just weighs 7lbs

~check out youtube.com and type in strider pre-bikes to see how easy it is for kids to learn how to ride.

The box his bike came in

Jacob’s bike all put together. The seat is in the lowest spot when mom put it together but it does go way higher

Jacob’s first ride, see we still have the seat too low.

He is trying to run the ball over.

See even in Michigan you can still ride in the winter.

Why I waited---Jacob has had many ear infections and this year he received his 3rd set of ear tubes. When he got his bike it was shortly after his tubes fell out, he did ride his bike but not much. Since he received these last set of ear tubes he has been riding his bike indoors all day long. On January 22 he received his tubes and today is February 27 and he is starting to pick his feet up off the ground for a few seconds! I can’t wait till spring comes around and we can go outside and ride more and see what he does. I don’t think he will have a hard time keeping up with his sister this year and he might get a big boy bike sooner than I think. I love this bike and would recommend this bike to everyone who is looking for a bike for their kids!

**Thanks to strider who gave me this great opportunity to review this bike**

We can hear We can hear!

2011-02-17T07:40:00.000-06:00

On January 21st, yeah I know I am way behind on blogging but I am trying to get caught up), Jacob went in for another set of tubes. His 3rd set if you lost count. He also has his tonsils and adenoids out the same time. His ENT really wanted to wait till he was 4 for his tonsils/adenoids but I really didn’t want to wait another 5 months to get it done. Since it was just Jacob and us the night before we let him stay up later. Needless to say the morning came way too early for him. I even made Jerry turn around because I forgot my camera this time. Last time I forgot the papers the hospital needed. oops good thing we live close. This time I think he was on to us, he knew he something was up. When the nurse’s would come in to ask questions he would run to sit on my lap, when they left he would head back to Jerry. He was NOT happy at all when they came to take him for his surgery either. Poor guy.

Jacob watching some kind of show before his surgery. Looks like Jerry stayed up too late also.

If they can find me, they can’t take me.

He feel asleep and I was hoping that he would’ve stayed sleeping till after they took him, but no such luck.

Jacobs first popsicle after surgery.

Dora was on TV so he was glued to the tv.

His lips were turning black from the popsicles that he was eating.

Day 2 and healing GREAT! I was surprised how fast he bounced back.

He enjoys making “sets” of his toys. He will clean the one toy shelf off to make a set. Since this new set of tubes I can tell his speech has improved big time. His teacher and speech teacher has even noticed a difference. The other day when he said “I not ‘tinky” I just wanted to jump up and down and cry. I called my parents and my dad answered the phone and made Jacob say it again and my dad was even able to understand what he said, that’s a huge thing! I am happy the he is starting to talk but then he's going to start telling other’s things we don’t want them to know. You see many times over I would take Jacob some where to get something and I could tell him not to tell someone, knowing that he wouldn’t or couldn’t, but know that he starting to talk I am afraid our secrets won’t be safe anymore.

wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T07:43:00.000-06:00

snow days

2011-02-15T19:14:00.001-06:00

The beginning of the month he had a snow storm. 12.2 inches in fact. I think this is the most snow I have seen at one time in a long time. So needless to say school was cancelled and what do you do when you have 3 kids and that much snow? Well you bundle up and head outside that’s what.

Look the snow is up to his knees in this spot!

The bad part is when all this snow melts it means our backyard floods!

She jumped off the roof of the playhouse.

Well that’s one way to clean off the slide.

For some reason I love her face in this picture.

Jacob crawling on the snow fort thing that gets built every year with the snow from the driveway.

our 12.2 inches of snow on our table outback

Right now we are warm weather, well ok warm for February, and that only melting snow which I am happy about but that means flooding also.

sledding fun…

2011-02-03T07:54:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we went to my parents house to let the kids sled. At mom and dad’s they have a nice little hill by there house and my dad was going out every night and adding water to the hill. So we headed over since the forecast was calling for warmer weather. The kids had a blast sledding and the best part is NO ONE asked for help to drag their sled back up the hill.

jacob first time down the hill.

Camron’s turn. Why he went down backwards I have no idea, but he liked it.

Katey is getting a bit braver this year. She started going down on her knee’s then I told her to stand up, and she did. Now she wants a snowboard!

She looks like a little pro at this. Look out winter Olympics here comes Katey!!

Grandpa’s turn! wheeee

Now that we are under a blizzard winter warning, They will get even more snow where they live so that just means more sledding!

happy belated birthday………………

2011-02-02T07:42:00.000-06:00

Well Katey turned 8! Yes I said 8 where did the time go?? This year she wanted a pool party since we celebrated the boys bday at great wolf. So I called a local hotel and we rented the banquet room for 4 hours and we got to use the pool area also. We got to the hotel, unloaded the cake, swim suits, food and more. Then off to the bathrooms to change, and then freeze! The heater in the pool room was broken that day and a few days before her party so I swear the pool had ice floating on top of the water. Needless to say us adults didn’t want to go in but the kids jumped right in. Since it was so dang cold we only stayed in for 2 hours. Katey was a bit disappointed but she got over it fast.

Jacob was the only smart kid, he didn’t go in at all.

Come on mom the water is “warm!”

BURRRRR

Katey is in love with I Carly!

Camron got the biggest chip ever! We were seeing who had the biggest chip- his is the white one in the back, while mine was the reddish one in the front.

Katey went back in for a little bit after lunch, but she never went all the way in.

Went home to eat our cake where it was warm.

These last 8 years have been a blast, I can’t wait to see what the next 8 will take us.

really need to get caught up!!

2011-01-21T07:37:00.003-06:00

Well I know I have been saying that i need to blog again and i know i do. so for today i will leave you all with a picture.

merry christmas

2010-12-24T19:56:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I know on Christmas is a busy day for everyone, so I just hope you all have a safe and fun day tomorrow. I can't wait to see every one's Christmas pictures, I hope to post some of my pictures also.

snow days….

2010-12-13T19:15:00.001-06:00

Well today was our first snow day. We were suppose to have rain and snow mix on Sunday but I don’t think we got all what they predicted which I was happy with. But then on Sunday the wind began got blow and it kept on snowing. Told Katey that if this kept up I bet you wouldn’t have school. Secretly I really hoped that school wasn’t canceled, because I really didn’t want to have 5 kids stuck in the house come Monday. The phone call came in at 9pm telling us that school was cancelled. Needless to say when the morning came the kids were all excited! I tell you who ever came up with the idea that all licensed daycare’s have to go outside on a daily basis never did daycare. I love going outside don’t get me wrong but in the winter it’s a pain in the butt. By the time you get everyone ready, get yourself ready go outside, come inside help all the kids undress, undress yourself , then I am ready for a nap. But the kids did have fun. They made snow angles, took the sleds down the slides, yes you read that right. Sleds down the slide! Now that all the kids are in bed I am enjoying the nice peace and quiet and smile because they will all be in school again tomorrow.

Jacob enjoying the snow.

Katey making her snow angel

Camron somehow got snow in his face. He doesn’t know how it happened.

Jacob waiting to make ice cream out of snow.

The kids loved the ice cream and want to make it again!

On Sunday Jerry and the kids went outside to play in the snow. They made a pile of snow and then buried her in the pile. I would prefer sand to the snow but who I am?

Thunk it Thursdays!!

2010-12-08T17:53:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the December 8th edition of Thursday Thunks!
(which we always seem to post on Wednesday)
Where we make you think a little bit before you blog!
We pick a subject, and your job is to interpret it anyway you want.
Write about it on your blog... simple as that.
Maybe you can interpret it as a picture - we don't care!
Please only leave a link if you have written a Thursday Thunks post.
Don't forget to go visit the other participants' blogs.
Read and comment about all their Thursday Thunks responses!
That's what all this is about after all, isn't it?
We'll have so much fun and become lifelong friends....

Thursday Thunks: Lost
The TT questions are brought to you by Bud, the color of an African split-toed frog and the number 369.

1. Did you ever get into a bar and drink before you were 21? If yes, how often?

OH yes I did, worst part was that I lived in a small town and some of my older cousin’s were in the bar also and all I got from them was “wow your 21?” HA wrong 19 or 20. Same thing at the beer tents.

2. After Obama, who do you think will be the next president?

Who knows. Can our government get any worse?

3. Do you believe places can really be haunted?

Sure why not. I think it would be neat to see a ghost but then on second thought it would probably scare me shitless.lol

4. Kimber is flying to Minnesota to finally meet Berleen. What do you think about space travel?

It would cost too much

5. What if had exactly one year to live. What are the three things you'd want to do before you died?
Spend as much time I could with my kids. Write in a journal to my kids telling them about me, and how much I love them. Take a major family vacation.

6. What if you could take one thing back. What would that one thing be? What is something you said, something you stole, something you did wrong?

Well I am sure I have done a lot of things that I do regret but if I went back to change just one thing I would be a totally different person than I am today

7. Other than emergencies, do you think the cell phone is more intrusive than convenient?

At times the cell phone does drive me nuts, but if I leave the house without my cell phone I go bonkers and I have turned around to go and get it.

8. You are stuck on an island forever due to a plane crash. Like Lost without Harley or andbody else.. But you find all the water, food and shelter you needed. What would be the three other things would you want with you?

Gosh that’s a hard one. Let’s see---oh Peanut Butter cups! yummmy!!Pictures of my kids, and hummm I am not sure. IS that bad I can’t really think of much?

9. We've decided you can change one thing about the world. What would that one thing be?

Well I have a few things that I would love to change. Enough food for everyone. and NO MORE BILLS. Man I am I tired of bills.

10.What if a million dollars fell off a back of a truck. Would you keep it?

I would. Granted it would very easy to keep it, but the guilt would just eat me alive, I can just hope who ever it belongs to they would give me a small reward.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T18:38:00.001-06:00

Wow where has this year gone? It feels like I blinked my eyes and now the year is almost over. This year we went to my parents house to eat. Needless to say we became every full with all the food. Turkey, green beans casserole, gravy, stuffing, coleslaw, some cherry pudding thing, broccoli and rice casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and rolls. And this was just for 10 people! After everyone ate and the girls cleaned up the kitchen while the guys went to watch TV, why does that always happened that the men leave when its time to clean up? The 4 grandkids put the ornaments on grandma and grandpa’s Christmas tree. Katey this year learned how to play spoons. For those of you who have never played the game you are missing out on a lot of fun. The object of the game is to collect 4 matching cars (all 4’s or K”s) When you have 4 matching cards you grab a spoon that is sitting in the middle. Since you have one less spoon than the number of people playing. For direction click here. Well since she was sitting next to grandma and just learning she was at first getting help but when she caught on she and grandma began to cheat by helping each other to win. At one point grandpa tried to cheat by keeping a card from the previous hand but he still lost. It was so much fun watching her learn how to play the game and watching her win. Needless to say I really think this is something that we will be playing at the get together’s from now.

Also our elf is back! The kids love trying to find “elfie” everyday. I love being able to say “remember elfie is watching” and that normally gets some better behavior out of the kids

i am here i am here

2010-11-15T09:23:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone just wanted to let you all know that I am still here and alive! I have been lazy about posting blogs. Not really sure how some of you can post every day if not twice a day all the time. I have tons of pictures to share and stories. I just need to get better at setting a time to blog and stick to it. I will take any ideas/suggestions on how to do that :) Now I must go and cook these kids some lunch before they wither away to skin and bones.

venting

2010-10-04T19:21:00.001-05:00

Ok this post is about me venting. If you don’t want to hear, well ok read about it, take your mouse and click on the red “x” and save yourself from my rants and raves tonight.

As the most of you know I am a licensed daycare provider. I try to help parents by being available when they need me. I will open earlier than I really want to and stay open later if I really need too, even if it does cut into our family time. But what drives me bonkers the most is when some parents are a no call/no show! You see today this little girl from down the street was suppose to start this morning at 5:30 AM so that would mean I was to get up around 5:15ish let her in, then I was going to lay her down until I needed to get myself up to get our kids and this little girl up for school. Help her get on the bus and get her off and then she would stay here until 3:30pm. So if she comes, I have to find someone to pick my kids up from school or else one of my kids would have to be in the front seat, which I really don’t want to do! I called her mom Sunday night and told her that I have some paperwork for her to fill out and to give me a phone call. Never said if the paperwork wasn’t filled out she can’t start until its done. When she came down earlier she told me she would be home all night and just to call her, so we can figure everything out. Well I didn’t hear from her Sunday night or Monday until 6:00pm! When she called she made up some excuse that she has been busy one of her daughters didn’t let the dog out so she had to clean dog poo up thru the house, etc, etc. Then she asked if she can come down sometime tonight to fill out the paperwork. I then told her since today was a no call/no show she already has one strike against her. Also asked her if she is accepted for DHS(state help for paying daycares) payments. Yes but she still has to get a hold of her case worker. Sorry but I have been stuck with no payments from other parents who are FIA payments (but I have also had a lot of great FIA parents!) so she would have to pay every two weeks until her FIA payments come thru then I will repay her back. Then she pretty much hung up on me. I am sorry but this is my job, watching kids,which I enjoy, this pays my bills. Lets see her go to work and do her job for 6 weeks with no payment. I also have bills that need to be paid, need money for food to feed her daughter. What is crazy is she smokes so I guess if she gave up on her cigs for a few days or even cut down she might have enough to pay me. I don’t understand why some people feel that daycare is one of last bills that need to be paid. I feel daycare should be just as important as your gas bill, water bill or whatever bill you make sure you pay. If you don’t pay your daycare then they won’t let your child in which mean you miss work, miss pay, and then you will fall behind or loose that ever so important bill, cable, cell phone etc. SO needless to say I will NOT be up at 5:15 AM tomorrow.

Ok I am down venting I hope the next post will be on a happier note.

Think it Thursdays

2010-09-30T18:55:00.001-05:00

101. When was the last time you went to the doctor? Do you like your doctor?

Sad to say it would’ve been back in 2007 when I had my last child, Yes I know I should go back but its a lot of working finding a sitter, hoping I will be back before I need to take my son to school and more. Some day soon I will make it. Did I like my OB"’so sure, they were all nice, but really who likes going to those apses??

201. My back is itching, will you scratch it for me?

Sure why not.

301. Do you have nice handwriting?

I would have to say no. But sometimes it seems “neater” than others.

401. We are sending you to either New Zealand or Canada, which one do you choose?

I would choose New Zealand. I have been to Canada when I was younger and plus Canada is maybe 5-6 hours away so If I really wanted to go it would be do able where New Zealand, I doubt I would ever get there.

501. Do you sing in the shower?

No, I like my quiet. Seems like I do my best thinking in the shower.

601. Have you ever been streaking? If so, how far did you streak and did anyone see you?

No!! I think I would scare everyone and they would go running the other way.

701. How soon is too soon for Christmas decorations and music playing in the stores?

Right now. I was in Hobby Lobby and they have their Christmas stuff out already.

801. If you celebrated Halloween as a kid what was the costume you wore at 5?

Man you really want me to remember that far?!?!!? Well maybe Strawberry Shortcake or Rainbow Brita, I do know that is when costumes were still plastic and when you put them over your coat they would rip.

901. How many cavities have you had in your life?

Who knows. Too many I guess

1001. Berlin and Bud come to Arizona to visit Limber. Who do you think will decide it's too hot here first?

Not sure

1101. Who do you think will ask TT questions next week?

Choose ME, Choose ME

school days

2010-09-27T19:16:00.001-05:00

Wow I can’t believe the kids have been in school for about 3 weeks and I am just getting around to this post! All 3 kids went to school this year. I took Katey to school first. She was excited to see all her friends, meet her new teacher, and see her new class room. Its crazy to sit back and think that I have a 2nd grader already! I still remember sitting down in the living room and watching her “cook” a bunch of potatoes.

Katey right before we left to go to school. I try to make the kids hold a sign every year so it would be easier for me to remember what grade they were in.

Katey and her best friend, Maddie. Katey at her desk

After getting back home from dropping off Katey it was time to load Jacob up. I can’t believe I sent my baby off to school this year also. If he wasn’t so delayed in his speech due to his ear infections I don’t think he would’ve gone to school this year. He was somewhat excited about staring school until he learned that I wasn’t going to stay. Since he is going to school for special education he gets to ride the bus this year.

all ready to go but not too happy either.

Look a bus!!

Jacob coming off the bus on his first day! He still get excited every day when he gets off the bus, I just love it!!

Since I drove him his first day, he got to ride the bus to and from school on his second day. Looking out the window waiting.

Come on ma, I think its coming!

Mom your coming also right?!?! waiting for the bus is cool until you realize he has to go alone.

Not a happy camper!! He has gotten a lot better about getting on the bus now.

Last but not least, we have Camron. He goes in the afternoon so I had a friend come over so I was able to take him. He now has a good buddy named Sam at school. He climbed into the van today and told he that he now has a girlfriend. I asked him how did he know that she is his girlfriend, “she asked me to play, and I said sure why not?” But he doesn’t remember what her name is or what she looks like! He better step it up if he wants to keep this girl.

I wanted a picture of all 3 of them together after they got home from school but this is all that I got.

Thunk it Thursdays.

2010-09-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday, September 9, 2010

You've Got Mail

Welcome to the September 9th edition of Thursday Thunks!

(which we always seem to post on Wednesday)
Where we make you think a little bit before you blog!
We pick a subject, and your job is to interpret it anyway you want.
Write about it on your blog... simple as that.
Maybe you can interpret it as a picture - we don't care!
Please only leave a link if you have written a Thursday Thunks post.
Don't forget to go visit the other participants' blogs.
Read and comment about all their Thursday Thunks responses!
That's what all this is about after all, isn't it?
We'll have so much fun and become lifelong friends....

Thursday Thunks: You've Got Mail

The TT questions are brought to you by Bud, the color of Meg Ryan's Blouse and the number 33.
1. From whom did you get your last e-mail?

lets see the last email was from biggby coffee sending my my weekly coupon. Some people might say I have an addiction but I don’t think so. Good thing no one can see the biggby cup next to my laptop. lol

2. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a theater?

I have to think really hard, ummmm it was something around Christmas time with the kids,shoot I don’t remember

3. Have you ever seen a ghost?

No but I always thought it would be neat to. That is as long as it was a friendly Ghost not some mean ghost seeking some revenge

4. Ever loved someone so much it made you cry?

My kids when my patience level is at 0

5. What are you most afraid of?

Dying before my kids are raised

6. What do you do when you are bored?

Bored who has time to be bored with 3 kids and a daycare full of kids?!?!

7. Other than the author of this mess of a meme, who blog are you most curious to see their answers?

EVERYONES blog. I love checking everyone's out.

8. Name three thing from your bucket list.

Well I would love to sky dive, why I am not sure why anyone would want to jump out a good working plane but it sounds fun :)

Learn how to Scuba Dive. I love water so I think it would be fun. Anyone want to pay for lessons for me?

Travel the world. But that would mean my kids are grown and maybe by then we would have money?

9. Who was the last person who complimented you on how you looked, that actually was a surprise?

My middle son, I was dressed up to go out with the girls and he looked at me and said “mama your beautiful” just made me want to cry.

10. Do you remember Berleen?

Sorry but I don't.

11. What was the last concert that you attended where the band was much better than you imagined?

I have never been to a concert. I know I never get out.

12. What’s the next band you’re either planning to see or want to?

I have plenty that I would love to go and see but don’t really have the money to go and see them. Some day right?

13. What were the last things do you imagine that Kimber threw off the roof?

Money? Who would want to throw that right??

slide on

2010-09-07T19:39:00.000-05:00

On Thursday my cousin called me and told me that Target had a water slide on major clearance. I talked to Jerry about it. Well ok I kind-a talked him into us getting the water slide. We have soo much shade that when we have had a blow up pool the water never gets warm, or it gets popped half way thru the summer. So I am really hoping this on will last a bit longer. Katey and I headed to Target as the boys stayed home. When we got to Target they had two left. When we got home we just left it in the back of the van since it was too late to blow it up then. Friday morning the kids helped me unload the slide in the backyard so they could use it. This thing was HEAVIER than I thought it was going to be. The begged to play in this darn thing since they got up that morning, I thought it was a bit too cold but what do I know? I think it was low 70’s but they loved it. Well ok Jacob wasn’t too big on this slide but I know he will grow into loving it.

This is the way the slide came all rolled up in the box. I called it the Cinnamon roll

Going up. Katey already has her swim suit on under her shirt.

All up and ready for water

A different angle of the slide

Camron’s first time down the slide

Jacob just taking a peek. He never when down

WHEEEEEEE!!

Jacob cleaning off his butt after playing in the sand box

I just hope we can get this slide dried out before we pack it up this year. I really don’t want it to mold. If anyone has any good idea’s how to keep it mold free thru the winter I will be happy to take the advice!!

t’was the night before school…

2010-09-06T19:23:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the kids first day of school tomorrow. Yes I wanted to do the whole rhyming thing but I am not a good at rhyming. So this year is gonna be a busy one I think. Katey is now in 2nd grade and she goes all day(8-3:10pm) SO Jerry will drop her off before he goes to work. Camron is in young 5’s. He will go from 11:50-3:30 pm. I will have to take him in. Jacob is in special education due to all those ear infections, so he is going for the extra help with his speech. He will go 8:35-11:25 But the bus will pick him up around 8:15am and drop him off, well I guess I am not really sure since the bus driver told me that she was going to drop him off at 11:25 but that is the time school gets out. So I am not sure what time its gonna be. I will have to see what time he gets home so I will know if I will be picking up Jacob before I take Camron to school or wait until he gets home and then quickly load everyone up in the van, since I still have to take the daycare kids with me when I drop off Camron and when I pick up Katey and Camron. I am excited for the kids first day of school but then also nervous for Jacob since he more attached to me than what the other two have been. I can’t wait to take all 3 pictures tomorrow before they leave and hope to get one of all three after school. I can’t wait to have the house a tad bit quieter, but yet miss the kids all day.

check out this great giveaway!

2010-09-04T19:06:00.002-05:00

Hey fellow bloggers I came across Seeryus Mamas blog, and she has a great giveaway of a Sunshine Radian XTSL! This the best seat. It will go from 5lbs all the way up to 80 lbs. I love the fact that you can keep your child rear facing for 45 lbs! So head on over to Seeryus Mama and enter for you chance to win. But hurry the contest ends TOMORROW Sept 5!!

thunk it Thursdays

2010-09-01T20:01:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to
KIMBER & BERLEEN!
at once a week...a great milestone
Welcome to the September 2nd edition of
Thursday Thunks!

Thursday Thunks: At the Zoo

The TT questions are brought to you by Bud, the color of my neighbor's wife's eyes and the number 33,333.

1. Would you rather have a pet hippo or a pet elephant?

I think i would want the elephant since you can ride them and use them to move things, but really I wouldn’t want to clean up after either of them.

2. Why do you think bananas are shaped the way they are?

Its easier for a monkey to hold?

3. In one word (OK, you can go three to four MAX) , what do most people describe you as?

kind i hope

4. Choice (stupid but a choice…): Loss of vision, ability to speak or hearing - which do you choose? (you have to choose one....) It's like a law. But we can't make you.

I would take speaking. If you can’t speak at least you can write down what you want to say. With the loss of vision no matter what you can’t see, with the loss of Hearing, no matter what you can’t hear either. so speaking.

5. Do you like lemons? Do you use them to clean with or just as a food source? Or are you saving them up for 2012?

Not a big lemon person. If I get them in my water my kids take them.

6. When you are feeling icky with that sickness feeling, what is your first choice for feel-better medicine?

No a big medicine taker so i will suffer.

7. You are starving. You have not had anything to eat for days. In front of you is poison ivy, a live hissing cockroach, and a rotten stinky piece of some sort of mystery meat to eat. Which would you pick and why?

I think I might keep starving until something better comes up. But if I had to choose one thing I guess I would choose…….maybe the cockroach at least you can kill the darn thing and they are suppose to be good in protein or something like that

8. Who was the last person you bought a present for? What was it? Will you buy Berleen one?

It would’ve been our boys. They had bdays in June and July. I don’t remember what it was, some toy I am sure. Well if I knew Berleen sure why not

9. Name 3 things you want your kids to learn before they grow up. (If you don't have kids, feel free to explain to the other players why you chose the “no kids“ choice. Yea. I know. (Those who have children will NEVER get it. And no, don‘t explain it…)

To respect yourself and others. 2) That mom does know more that what they think I do. lol 3) Money doesn’t grow on tree you have to work for it.

10. What was your favorite toy as a child? What happened to it?

I think they would be Barbie's. I have some upstairs in my daughters room that she has played with.

11. If you could paint your house ANY color you wanted and your friends, family & neighbors would love the color from the moment they saw it, what would it be?

I really want to paint the inside. I am tired of seeing the white/off white walls in here. The outside has siding and I love the color. Its a sagie gray color

12. If the Pillsbury Dough Boy got into a fight with Mrs. Butterworth who would win? And would anybody get hurt? And do we seem desperate even asking?

Well I think it would get sticky. I would have to say the Dough boy, every punch Mrs. Butterworth would throw would get absorbed, kind-a like punching a sponge.

13. What was the last thing you would guess that Kimber took a picture of? Oh. And consider the meme listed below. Click on it. It rocks.

Ok that was neat

to catch a little fishy

2010-08-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

My parents neighbors have a “home made” pond in there backyard that have fish, turtles, frogs and more in it. For sometime the kids have been bugging to go fishing. So a few weekends ago dad and I packed up the kids and took them to the pond. Jacob stayed behind to play with play-do with mom. Katey, dad and I had a fishing pole. Camron was happy just to play in the water. So dad “baited” our hooks with a plastic worm. We helped Katey cast out her line out left her on the dock and dad and I went on either side of her. Dad caught the first, second, third, and fourth fish. Katey and I both agreed it was because dad put a different color worm on his hook compared than ours. So us girls changed our worms. Still no fish on our hooks. So Katey and dad switched bobbers and still no luck. That is when Katey decided that fishing was boring and she was ready to leave. I don’t think she will be ready to go fishing any time soon.

I love this picture of the kids together.

Dad and Camron taking one of his many fish off his hook

Katey trying to catch a fish

Dad’s fish

Camron “helping” katey

Katey going to switch bobbers with grandpa

Jacob helping grandpa fish. He came down when Camron became bored. So we called grandma who picked up Camron and dropped off Jacob

where has summer gone??

2010-08-14T14:41:00.001-05:00

Wow its the middle of Aug already I have soo many pictures on this lap top and so many blogs needing to be typed up. I have 2 yes 2 products I still need to review. In a way I am ready for summer to come to an end so maybe just maybe I can get caught up on my blog. I am ready for the kids to go back to school, this whole I am bored nothing to do, I am hungry what can I eat(even though they just ate 10 mins earlier) is getting old. But then when they go back to school I will miss them. We have about 3 more weeks before school starts and in these 3 weeks we have a trip to Michigan Adventure planned and going to my grandma’s cottage for a few nights, and I am sure visiting more parks before school starts. So far now I have included a few pictures to get you thru until I can get myself back on track with this blog and get things caught up a little.

A few weeks ago my Aunt Rita came home to visit so on the Sunday before she left mom had everyone over so we and many other family members would get a chance to see her before she left. Just can’t believe how busy summer has gotten this year! Since it was warm day my dad made a homemade slip in slide that our kids always love.

Katey coming down on her butt.

Camron’s turn!

Jacob has a new love for cats. He loves to carry them around until they either scratch him or wiggle out of his arms.

The kids and I tie dyed shirts for them and also made one for Aunt Rita and cousin Sarah. Cousin Sarah will get hers when she comes out in Oct for a family wedding.

my baby is 3!

2010-07-11T19:10:00.003-05:00

Boy do I really need to get better at blogging again. Jacob my "baby" turned 3 on July 9th. Not really sure where the time has gone. It seems like it was just yesterday I gave birth to him and now he's 3. Jacob is this little ball of energy who makes the silliest of faces. He has been thru two sets of ear tubes and has been a trooper both times. Even though he can't talk much, due to his hearing with his tubes, he is a quiet child who will sit back and watch. But when he wants something he will figure out a way to let you know without yelling or a tantrum. He will go to school this year for special Ed, for his speech, in a way I am not ready for him to leave but I know it will do him good and he will have fun. I have posted a few pictures of Jaocb but for some odd reason I am having issues up load pictures tonight. Happy birthday buddy, I love you.

The birthday boy up at Great Wolf Lodge.

I hope to add more pictures soon.

Happy belated birthday buddy

2010-07-06T19:54:00.001-05:00

I has been so busy here that Camron’s birthday flew by with me posting some pictures about him. Camron turned 5 on June 24, well if you talked to him he didn’t turn 5 until this past Saturday. Why you ask, well he couldn’t turn 5 until he received all his gifts. So for the whole week after his birthday if someone asked him his age he proudly would answer 4! 5 years ago on the 24 I was suppose to go in and be induced in the morning, but Thursday night I went into labor by myself, I still can remember telling Jerry that I think I was in labor, His answer”well do you think you can wait until the game is over?” HAHA very funny, lets go. Camron is a funny, crabby, sweet, lovable, clown, sassy boy. He can be such a great helper then turn around and be so stubborn. He will figure things out so fast! The other day he was being silly so I called him a turkey and without missing a beat he called me a ham! This year for Christmas my parents bought us (my brother’s family and my parents also) a room, well ok between the 10 of us we had two rooms but it was our boys and us in one room, with the others a few doors down, at Great Wolf lodge, and since it was so close to Camron’s birthday we decided to have his and Jacob’s birthday there. Both boys received a t-shirt, 2 different wolfs, a cool hat, cake, pizza with pop, and arcade tokens. IF I wasn’t feeling so lazy tonight I would go upstairs and get a newborn picture of him but you all will have to wait for another day. SO I will leave you with some Great Wolf pictures.

The banner they put on our door for the boys, Camron on the floating snake in the middle of the one pool.

Camron with is hat and 2 wolf’s, Camron was watching the big bucket dump.

Ok so the slides weren’t all that bad to go down. He liked the blue slides better than the red one which was a bit faster.

The boys cake. Camron HAD to have the middle wolf, which he only ate maybe 3 bites and then he was done.

I love you buddy! You make me proud to be your mom. I have loved watching you grow these past 5 years and can’t wait to watch you grown these next 5 years.

I am still here

2010-06-17T20:07:00.001-05:00

Yes I know I really need to get better on this blogging thing this summer. So much has been happening, that by night I say forget it, I will blog tomorrow and guess what by the time the next day comes I say the same thing. So just hang in there I will get better at this some point. I have tons of pictures to post some day, I have to products to review yet and more. I know next week I won’t blog at all or maybe once. We are going on vacation!!!! And boy am I ready for just a break and have just our kids to take care of. Where are we going you might ask, well us 5, my parents, brother, his girlfriend, and their daughter we are all doing to Great Wolf Lodge for a few days. While we are there we are going to celebrate the boys birthdays. So needless to say I will have TONS of pictures to share then. So for no I will just post two pictures since I really need to lay down and rest my back since I pulled/sprained a muscle in my back. I just have my fingers crossed that by Sunday I will no longer need ice/heat and any pain meds. Please keep your fingers crossed also, please.

I was cooking dinner while the kids played/watched TV and the next thing I knew Jerry asked me if I knew Jacob fell asleep. Um, no, i am kind of busy. SO I stopped what I was doing to check on Jacob and found him hanging on the footstool sleeping. Jacob is our first child of 3 to ever fall sleep like this or even fall asleep while eating!!

This past weekend we were at my parents house and dad told me they found some bears on a back road. So the boys,dad and I jumped on to the ranger and went bear hunting. It was neat, this guy had maybe 4-5 bears carved out of old tree stumps along with an arrow that was sticking out of the ground like someone shot it. I wish i could've gotten a picture of it but it was too far away for my camera.

thunk it thursday

2010-06-03T19:22:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the June 3rd edition of Thursday Thunks!
(which we always seem to post on Wednesday)
Where we make you think a little bit before you blog!
We pick a subject, and your job is to interpret it anyway you want.
Write about it on your blog... simple as that.
Maybe you can interpret it as a picture - we don't care!
Please only leave a link if you have written a Thursday Thunks post.
Please mention us in your post, and link back to the blog here.
Don't forget to go visit the other participants' blogs.
Read and comment about all their Thursday Thunks responses!
That's what all this is about after all, isn't it?
We'll have so much fun and become lifelong friends....

Thursday Thunks: Never Agree in the First Place

The TT questions are brought to you by Bud, the color of Santa's Beard and the number 3333.

1. When was the last time that you made an excuse for not doing something that you shouldn't have agreed to do in the first place?

ummm. not sure I am sure I have but nothing is coming to mind

2. Without identifying the person, is there someone in your life that you'd like to shake some sense into?

My hubby. It feels like to me that work comes first then family. It should be the other way

3. Did you ever really care if Tiger Woods cheated on his wife?

Its his life. And everyone should stay out of it.
4. Did you watch the last episode of LOST? What did you think happened?

Yes I loved lost. I was sad to see it had to come to an end. I am still kinda “lost” about the ending.

5. If your dining room china was made in Mexico, why is it still called china?

Because that's what they named it

6. Tell us about your favorite movie of all time.

Lets see…….. I like a lot of movies but if I really have to pick a movie I love “the traveling pants of the sisterhood” and the one with Robin Williams where he became a doctor and worked for free, what was that name? All that comes to me is a clown nose and him making kids laugh in the peds floor. Crap whats the name of that darn movie??? If I wasn’t so lazy I would get up and look but I am not gonna, OR even Good Will Hunting.

7. Do you think it's fair to get thrown out of a meme?

Well since I have no idea what a meme is I am not sure. So either I am a looser, dork,not cool or whatever but that ok

8. Berleen lives in Minnesota and Kimber in Arizona. If they were to meet halfway, where would they meet?

At a restaurant to eat since they both would be hungry after traveling that far.

9. What do you think of heterosexual marriage?

I am in one

10. What would you change about your life if you had just one wish?

loose weight. Would love to be back into the shape that I was in before kids.

11. How pissed are you that we posted late?

Honestly I didn’t know you did. Normally I don’t see the new post until Thursday’s anyhow

12. Tell us about a recent great day.

Any day that you wake up is a great day right??

13. When was the last time that you juggled?

If you mean juggled balls,never well ok I can do 2 balls but not very often. I you mean juggle kids, everyone’s schedules everyday!

Thank you Kyle!!

2010-05-30T20:40:00.001-05:00

I really want to post this post this memorial weekend to honor Kyle Miller. Kyle gave his life to help save other children from going into booster seats too young. Thanks Kyle for everything that you have done for us and all the other families that you have touched!!! Rest in peace sweet boy.

Last year I was searching on the web for something and came across this video, about Kyle Miller who was killed when he was only 3 yrs old. After I watched the video I went to Kyle’s website, and began to look around it. I found a place where they donated higher weight seats to children who’s parents can’t normally afford these seats, which are well over $200.00 each. Our kids have outgrown their car seats at about 2- 2.5 yr old since they are so dang tall, so both Katey and Camron went into booster seat at that age. Jacob is still rear facing and he is 2 1/2 yrs old.(he’s in Graco’s My Ride 65) and he still has about 5-8 lbs before he really has to be forward facing, which by the way rear facing is 5x safer then forward facing! Something that I didn’t know before I began learning more about car seats. As I researched about extended harnessing I wanted my kids back into a 5pt harness, so I contacted Laura at Kyle David Miller. So we were placed on a waiting list. Finally our name came up and they shipped us 2 Britax car seats that hold up to 80 lbs. Angela, the Child Passenger Safety Instructor, and I met to install the seats. I have Jacob in the middle of the van in a bucket seat, and I planned on putting the new seats in the back together since at that point I had just one extra daycare baby who I would put behind me in the middle. We put one seat in and ran into a problem, these seats needed to be top tethered, the strap the wraps up behind the seat. I only had one anchor point and needed two. I do have 3 anchor points in my van, both buckets and the back middle, but since from time to time I do have to take some of the daycare kids with me it would be a pain to have lets say Katey and Camron in the middle bucket seats, Jacob who is still rear facing and the other daycare baby, who at the time was still rear facing in the back. Which would be a huge pain in the butt to load them two thru the back hatch. So Angela contacted Laura and explained our problem to her. I was thinking our kids were going to have to stay in their booster seats since most higher weight car seats require a top tether. Our name was placed back on a waiting list for a Sunshine Kids Radian seat. This seat also goes to 80 lbs, but it doesn’t require a top tether. The neat things about this seat is it folds up, once your child is on the top slot, the harness can be below their shoulders (most seats the harness has to be AT OR ABOVE the child’s shoulders), the seat is good for 5-80lbs, the seat is good for 8yrs, super comfy! My kids both have said these seats are more comfortable than their old boosters! I am just soo happy I found Kyle David Miller and I was able to make my kids safer in my van! Katey can buckle her self up, with me checking it every time, Camron needs just a little bit of help, but he can put his harness on and snap the chest clip but needs help with the other one. By the time Jacob out grows his car seat I am sure either Katey or Camron will be 80 lbs and he will be able to use this seat after them since this seat is good for 8yr from the time it was made. So we will get a lot of use out of our new seats. When Camron first sat in this seat he called it a baby seat, but i quickly told him that its a race car seat, all race car drivers sit in the same type of seat. And now he loves it!

Checking Camron for harness height before we put the seat into the van

Camron and Katey trying out their new seats. Yeah Katey don’t look too happy but it was HOT in the van that day. After the van cooled down she was much happier to sit in her seat. What is nice is since both Katey and Camron are on the same harness height they can sit in each others seat with no problem, which makes it nice for me.

Camron being a ham.

Since this seat folds up it has a little crease and the harness fits perfectly in it to hold it open for when they get into their seats its easier for them.

Thanks again Kyle, you will always have a special place in our family and hearts. I will continue to spread information to others about car seat safety.

Thanks to Angela for teaching me out to properly install these seats.

never use your name

2010-05-21T20:55:00.001-05:00

last weekend we went over to my parents house to visit. At some point Katey went inside for some reason and came back out. When mom went in to do her eye drops she somehow noticed that someone wrote their name in the dust. Needless to say it wasn’t hard to figure out who did the name writing. First of all Jacob can’t write his name yet, Camron can write his name but just chooses NOT to do it, so that just leaves Katey. Plus the evidence in the dust proves that she did it. Mom made her dust the area, and we all jokily told her next time she is suppose to write someone else name not her own.

Plugged

2010-05-10T11:41:00.000-05:00

For some time the toilet upstairs hasn’t been flushing all that great. I was thinking maybe the kids used too much toilet paper and plugged it up. So i began to plunge the darn toilet. Nothing really happened, water did go down but it went very slow. So I began plunging it every time the kids used it to “keep” clean water in the toilet. Then about a week of plunging Katey told me told me that she thinks that Jacob flushed a toy down the potty the other day and he flushed it before daddy was able to catch it. Man that bit of information would’ve been nice to know about a week earlier it would’ve saved me a lot of time. So I called some plumbers, so see how much it would be to rescue a dino in the toilet. I can’t believe how much it would’ve cost! One plumber did tell me how to do it so, thank goodness Jerry and my dad were able to go fishing a few day later. After they took the toilet off we could see the dino that was causing all the problems.

Can you see his tail?? While I went to get our camera Jacob shoved the dino up so all i was able to get his tail.

He’s OUT. Camron was upset to hear that this little guy had to go in the trash.

Now if our toilet is slow we know how to fix it, I just hope they have learned NOT to flush toys down the toilet.

Happy Mothers Day

2010-05-09T11:28:00.001-05:00

Moments like these make my heart melt. I hope everyone has a great Mothers Day.

Thunk it Thursday.

2010-05-05T16:30:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the May 6th version of Thursday Thunks!
(which we always seem to post on Wednesday)
Where we make you think a little bit before you blog!
We pick a subject, and your job is to interpret it anyway you want.
Write about it on your blog... simple as that.
Maybe you can interpret it as a picture - we don't care!
Please only leave a link if you have written a Thursday Thunks post.
Please mention us in your post, and link back to the blog here.
Don't forget to go visit the other participants' blogs.
Read and comment about all their Thursday Thunks responses!
That's what all this is about after all, isn't it?
We'll have so much fun and become lifelong friends....
The TT questions are brought to you by Kimber, the color of Wednesday's eyes and the number 5.

1. Have you ever performed the Heimlich Maneuver on someone or had it performed on you?

No I have never did it on a person, does a dummy count as I have taken CPR/First Aid?

2. Do you have a red room in your home? (Either painted red or red curtains etc.)

NO I don’t, I don’t like the color red at all

3. Have you ever felt like banging your head against the wall?

Umm Yes every single day. I have a house full of kids(daycare kids) and 3 kids also so yes!

4. Reports came out this week that Michael Jackson was gay. Are you shocked, don't believe it, don't care or felt he was all along?

I really don’t care. It was his choice but does it really shock me NO.

5. What's the dumbest thing you have done after a breakup with a S/O?

Nothing, never really had a serious relationship before I met my husband

6. If Berleen and Bud are standing on the roof of a one story building and decide to throw water balloons at Kimber walking down below on the sidewalk, what color balloon hits her first?

Blue, cuz thats my favorite color

7. What are the wildest, craziest pajamas you own?

No crazy pj’s, just normal ones.

8. Have you ever ridden in a sidecar on a motorcycle?

No but I have always wanted to. I think it would be fun

9. Do/did you go party on Cinco De Mayo, and if so what color was the bartender's shirt?

No, didn’t even know today was Cinco De Mayo

10. Why does a hat have a bill?

To keep the sun out of your eyes,

11. If you were a WWE professional wrestler, what would your stage name be?

NOT sure Don’t like wrestling.

12. How many keys do you have on your keyring?

I think maybe 6 but thats without getting up and counting

13. What is the oldest picture you currently have in your home? What year was it taken and who/what is the photo of?

I guess they are in the basement. They are from my senior year. The oldest that is upstairs in the living room is our family picture that was taken in Dec 2008! We really need to go in and get a new one taken really soon

On the road again………….

2010-04-30T20:35:00.001-05:00

Since mom had been off work for the last few weeks she has been taking Camron home on Thursday to spend the night. Well shortly after they got home dad pulled up in the semi. Mom and dad talked about Camron riding to work with grandpa in the semi the next day and of course Camron was excited about doing that. I guess half way thru the evening Camron asked if he could come home, but they reminded him if he went home them he couldn’t ride in the semi in the morning. “oh yeah that's right, I guess I will stay then” was his answer. Mom said when Camron heard grandpa get up he jumped out of his bed and was ready to roll. So the boys left first and mom followed them in their van 10 mins later. Come to find out grandpa and Camron even went garage sailing on the way to work. Now how many people do that??

Going up. He did great climbing up in the semi with no help!

Buckled up and lets go. He looks so small in the cab of the semi

You can see Camron in this first photo but in the second you can see his forehead and dad waving.

He had a blast!

Our beach

2010-04-28T20:09:00.001-05:00

A few years ago my dad came over to make Camron a new sandbox. Our first sandbox was a little tikes dinosaur that I found at a garage sale. That was a GREAT sandbox for a few years then Camron came around and then the daycare and that little dino became very small. Since the dino could only fit maybe 2 or 3 kids at its best we needed something BIGGER! So over came dad and he played with his power tool and built a sandbox. Again that sandbox was good for about maybe 2 years then we again outgrew that one. You see that sandbox was good for maybe 4 or maybe 5 kids, but in that sandbox they were getting into each others “areas” and fights would break out. So Jerry and I talked to dad again about making a bigger sandbox, and once again dad came over with his tools and they made a HUGE sandbox, now we can fit 8 boys in this beach with room for more! While the boys “played” my mom, Katey, Jacob and I went shopping while the other 3 boys went to work. When we came back with dinner they had the sandbox just about done. Needless to say our 3 kids were bugging to add the sand as soon as we got done eating dinner. They wanted to play and play they did. Come Monday morning the first thing out of Camron’s mouth was ,”do you want to go and play in our new sandbox?” Needless to say all the kids have enjoyed this “beach” of ours. We have even took a 5 gallon bucket and make sandcastles in this thing. The kids can fit trucks, buckets, shovels, super hero’s, and themselves in thing and still have elbow room. I just hope this one will last a few years longer than the last 2.

Here is dad cutting apart one side of the wall of the old sandbox to add the new part on. See how “small” it is?

Still cutting. Jerry is supervising right now, lol

Much bigger. It reminds me of the letter “L”

Katey just waiting for the guys to finish the new toy

This is just part of the amount of sand needed to fill this sucker! Jerry went and got 3 more truck loads of sand before we agreed that it was full enough.

We cut the bags tops and the kids tried to dump the bags. I can say Katey did a good job of dumping out the sand. The boys, well they just jumped on the bags.

The boys enjoying the new sand! Needless to say I think if I would keep all the sand that comes into our house on a daily basis I would have enough sand to make a new sandbox. But I am happy they enjoy their new “toy”

Daddy Daughter dance

2010-04-25T19:32:00.002-05:00

Last weekend at Katey’s school was the daddy daughter dance. Jerry wanted to just make a date with her and pass up on the dance part, but he still took her. Last year Katey went with grandpa and her daddy. They asked me if I wanted to make Jell-O and I jumped on that. I love making Jell-O, not sure why but I do. So I MADE Jell-O and tons of it! The theme of the dance was Tinker Bell. The school sent home invitations the week of the dance and they even sent home fairy dust so the girls would be able to fly to the second star to the right. The school goes way over the top when they decorate for parties. When Katey and Jerry came back home Katey was ready for bed. Cant’ wait to see what they do next year to the gym!

All my Jell-O. It was in a turkey pan from the dollar store and it was FULL. I guess the only flavor that was left was orange.

The table were decorated with Tinker Bell theme. All the stuff on the table everyone got to take home.

This was in the hall before you entered the gym. Each girl received fairy wings before the entered the gym.

Part of the food table. The cake was card board but looked so real!

Katey and Jerry before they left.

Katey with her wings

So cool that all the girls received that glow sticks and then they turned off the lights. I can just imagine the girls faces.

Kateys flower that she got from her daddy. LOVED the look on her face when he gave it to her. I just wish I had a picture of it.

Random thoughts

2010-04-22T18:22:00.001-05:00

Wow summer is coming so fast this year. Yes I am happy that the weather is getting nicer but then it also feels like my house gets left behind. During the cold winter months/days since we are stuck in the house I get a chance to clean/pick up things thru the day, but come summer we are outside almost the whole day. The only time we really come in is naps and lunches. The last few days the kids have been bugging to go out as soon as either they get up or when the other kids come in for the day. Here I am trying to potty train Jacob, and he does good IF we are inside all day but as soon as we go outside he will pee his pants. What a pain in the butt. With the other two kids they were potty trained in the winter months, or shortly after I gave birth to their younger siblings so we were “stuck’ in the house again. After lunch I try to clean up the house, well ok the kitchen, before we go back outside again but most days it doesn’t work that way. Another thing that gets left behind in the summer is my blog. By the time we come in, make dinner,clean up, baths, bedtime, I am ready for bed. I really need to get better with blogging in the summer. I still have a product to review. I really to get that done. Where do the kids spend most of summer, in the sandbox that we, well ok Jerry and my dad, expanded. As I sit here I think that next year I will have all 3 kids in school. Katey will be in 2nd grade, Camron will be in either young 5’s or kindergarten, and then Jacob will be in school half the day going to special education due to his speech delay from him having tubes in his ears. As I type this up Jacob is eating some beans and watching Dora, Katey is thinking of what to shoot with the Nerf gun, Camron is at grandma and grandpa’s, Well Dora just got shot by Katey. I guess I better get off this darn thing and get them both ready for bed so Jerry and I can watch Avatar before it gets too late. Sorry about all the ramblings I am sure the next post will have more of a direction to it.

thunk it Thursday

2010-04-21T19:05:00.001-05:00

You are walking down the road and the cops fly by you and stop at the house just a little ways down the street. It's the way you were going to go... do you take a detour to avoid it or do you just keep walking because, hey - you had the idea first! or do you walk by out of complete curiosity?

Keep going. Since that is the way I was going why not still go that way?

I drop a green crayon from the roof and Kimber drops a yellow one - which one will grow wings and fly before it hits the ground?

Neither, crayons can’t fly

What is the first section of the grocery store you go to? And I know that sentence doesn't sound right, but I don't care.

I guess it all depends on what store I go to and what I really need to get

Do you like questions that have a yes or no answer or do you like to actually think for yourself and come up with something original?

I try to come up with my own answer.

The wall directly in front of you... what's on it?

Umm the window with the blinds closed

Sea salt?

Umm sure on chips. Or even a sea salt foot scrub

420. You know what it is. It's a time, it's a day, it's a way of life. Did you celebrate yesterday?

umm NOPE. I didn’t even pay any attention to the day.’

Can you read a tape measure?

Yup I can. Can you?

The city/town/village that you live in... it's population is.....????

Well I don’t think I really want to let everyone know where I live, lots of crazy people out there. The population…..I really have no idea, too many some days

If a laptop fell out of the sky do you think you could catch it? And if you did, do you think it's Finders Keepers?

The main question would be do I REALLY want to catch something that is falling out of the sky. Since a lap top is what a few pounds or whatever the darn things weigh times the rate of fall, umm yeah too much math to figure out but you get the idea. If you can catch a laptop as it falls from the sky and live to tell about it, I say yes finders keepers.

Driving down the highway, driving down the interstate, driving down a dirt road that you are sure goes absolutely nowhere... whats the longest distance you have ever driven in one trip?

not sure never really paid attention

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

The world will never know…… I know if I eat one it never last long cuz I end up biting the darn thing.

Band-its

2010-04-05T09:04:00.001-05:00

Since Jacob just had his tube put back in recently, I knew I needed to find new ear plugs again. The last time he had his tubes put in we just went to the store and looked for ear plugs. I bought some, came home tried to put them into his ears.They were hard to put in. I pulled one pair in half, rolled them between my fingers in hoping to make them softer to make it easier to put them into his ears, no such luck. Back to the store again, found some that said “children and ladies” size. They were smaller and they came in different colors, cool I thought. Still the same problem they were hard to put into his ears. The package said “soft” but they were hard from soft. This time when he had his tube inserted I jumped to the internet and did a search for ear plugs and come across Earbandit.com. I contacted them about doing a review for them. I was thinking they were going to just send me one Band system (the band and one set of ear plugs) but instead they sent me 3 bands, plus 2 different color ear plugs, one for each of our kids!!! Needless to say I was waiting by our mailbox everyday when I seen the mail truck coming down the road. I was very impressed with customer service, by email. My emails were answered very fast! I contacted them on a Monday, they sent out our ear bands on Tues and by Friday we received them. Just in time, since Jacob had his ear tube put in on Friday. These are plug are very SOFT,they remind me of fresh soft playdo they are that soft, and easy to put into my kids ears. For all 3 of my kids I tear the plugs in half so they fit better. Jacob’s band is teal and he received 2 green plugs, Camron’s band is blue and he recieved orange and yellow plugs, Katey’s band is purple and her plugs are purple and pink, (magenta) All together they have 5 different color bands to choose from in 3 different sizes. 1-3 yrs, 4-9yrs and 10-adult. They also have 10 different colors to choose from in their ear plugs, and two types. One that floats then they fall out or should i say when your child pulls them out, much easier to find. The other type is still silicone but doesn’t float. I love the names to their ear plugs~Splash puppy (Blue), Tube Dwag(purple) and more. On Friday when I recieved them in the mail I brought them with me to my parents since I knew that day Jacob would be wanting a bath with his older siblings that night. Before we had a chance to use them in the tub we used them outside(,these are not advertised to be used outside while playing), He wanted to go outside but with them living out in the county it was windy and I didn’t want the wind in his ears, so we placed cotton balls in his ears, since it was time for his ear drops and put on his band. It worked great! Later after he came in he loved that he had the chance to wear his green, his favorite color, ear plugs. They were easy to put in and very very soft! After I put them in he ran around to show everyone his new ears. After Camron found out that he also has a band and ear plugs he wanted his in also. Now when ever he gets ready for a bath tub he asks for his band and plugs! Katey, with her being 7 she thinks she’s too cool for ear plugs when she’s in the bath tub. But this summer when we go to Great Wolf Lodge, I am sure she will change her mind about using them. I know for those few days we will get a lot of use out of these. I love the fact you can use the color side out or the black side out. The material reminds me of a wet suit since it does stretch when you put it on. They dry out very fast which makes it nice for after tubs at night or even I am sure this summer after playing in the water.

Jacob using his band while playing outside (Jayco does not advertised this band to be used outside to keep wind out of ears)

Even with only half of the putty in his ears you still have a lot of putty to fill his ears. He leaves them alone after you put them in. They do have some tackiness to them which helps them stay put. Again I love how SOFT they are!

Camron wearing his band and he loves it!

As you can see Katey did not want her picture taken today.

The back of the band. Even if you were in the pool you can still slide your water goggles over the band.

The 5 different colors that we recieved. Yellow, orange, green, purple, and pink. Its great having many colors to choose from you will have a better chance of your child wearing them if you let them pick out their color. If you have more than one person using the putty buddies you can color code everyone so no mixing up ear plugs!

Here are my kids bands. Camron has blue, Katey has purple and Jacob has teal. Each band does have a size tag attached so even if you have two of the same color its easy to tell the difference between them.

As you can see the difference between a small(the teal) and the med (purple).

The back of the band, you get “two” looks in one.

I really wish that I had these ear plugs the first time around because, I know if I did, I never would’ve battled Jacob to put his ear plugs in. I would recommend these to anyone who needs earplugs due to ear tubes or just want to keep water out, to make sure that they buy these ear plugs, they are everything and more. Check out earbandits.com also because they have more than just ear plugs and ear bands.

Jacob lovin’ his band and ear plugs in the tub!

thunk it thursdays

2010-04-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

Today is Thursday, which means one more day before the weekend! But its also time for another Thunk it Thursdays. So if your stuck and not sure what to blog about head on over to thunk it Thursday and answer some questions and meet some new blogger friends.

1. It's the first of April, do you play April Fool's jokes on anyone?

I like to try but it seems like my jokes never seems to work out.

2. Do you like to eat sardines?

Gosh NO WAY NO HOW!

3. Have you ever played racketball?

No I have not. Not a big sports person.

4. If eating at a fast food joint that has a dollar menu, do you order a bunch of different dollar items or just go ahead and get a regular meal?

Sometimes it all depends. If I am eating out the kids yeah, since I know they won’t eat all their food why not save myself a few dollars?

5. Have you ever taken a brand new pencil and sharpened it in an electric sharper until it was almost gone just because you were bored?

No but it does sound fun, and something my kids would love to do.’

6. Do you have any old broken computers still sitting around your home?

Yes we do. Our old computer is very slow so I would love to clean it out and have it for the kids stuff but I just haven’t done it yet. Anyone want to do it for me?

7. Ricky Martin came out this week stating he is gay. Were you shocked, had a feeling, "who?" or just didn't care?

Who cares? It doesn’t concern me one bit who’s gay or not. Its his life

8. If marijuana is legalized, do you think it should have a luxury tax added onto it?

Sure why not, IF everything else is getting taxed why not that?

9. What's the oddest thing you have sitting on your computer desk right now or where ever it is you may be sitting with a laptop (you could be sitting at a Starbucks with an alien from Mars for all we know)?

Yumm, paperwork on the table, a bottle of juice that my son is bugging me to open so he can have more, and him hanging on my arm.

10. Have you ever bumped into a former lover and found out they were now gay or straight depending on your relationship with them?

Nope

11. Have you ever held a tarantula?

yuck don’t like BIG spiders or snakes. Common household spiders I can squish don’t bother me but when they get big and hairy count me out.

12. Shower- curtain, door, walk-in, or do you just roll around in the dirt to get the stink off?

We have a shower curtain,

13. Which commercial is the most annoying to you on TV or radio?

Not really sure, don’t get much time to watch TV. Normally the kids channels are on.

Come on and join in the fun.

can you hear me now?

2010-03-19T13:01:00.001-05:00

Today we had to wake up super early to take Jacob in to have tubes put back into his ears. Last year my dad and I took him but this year Jerry got to come along with us. Katey was very excited to go to Uncle Bobby and Aunt Pats house to spend the night yesterday. Camron went to school today, so my mom arrived at our house at 4:45am! I basically just stepped out of the shower and she was in our driveway. Jerry, Jacob and I left our house at 5:10am to be at the hospital by 5:30am and surgery was to start by 7:30am. After we arrived at the hospital, and I went up to register and it hit me like a ton of bricks—I forgot some of the paperwork they told us to bring with us. CRAP! I told Jerry what I did, so he turned around and went back home. Thank goodness we live close. After I registered Jacob I called mom on her cell phone to ask her to find the paperwork so when Jerry got back home he didn’t have to find it. By the time he returned we were upstairs in the surgical waiting room. Jacob loved the fact that we were able to watch “Dora” while we waited. Thank goodness for lap tops!! After watching “Dora” for a little bit I turned her off, I can only handle her for a short time. Out came the other toys that Jacob packed into his bag. We took crayola wonder finger paint, which yeah I like but he like to DIP his finger in the paint instead of lightly dipping it in. And the most important super squad’s.

This is how I found the boys this morning. Yes they, the kids, have slept all 3 on the couch this way before. Don’t ask me why they don’t keep their butts in their beds for, cuz I don’t understand.

While we were waiting to register Jacob pulled out all his Super Squads and lined them all up.

Keeping busy painting. It was a battle to get him to put his gown on this time. Last year it was a breeze.

Gotta love little piggie pictures!! Just makes you wanna kiss them huh?

No I am NOT going to show you what I have MOM! He was laying on his dog Max.

Jacob and Camron’s Super Squad’s. If Camron knew he had these he would’ve been upset since some of them are his. His favorite thing to do with these guys are to line them all up.

Last time Jacob was 19 months when he had tubes in his ears and he had no problem when the nurse took him. This year being a year older and “smarter” and plus some days being attached to me at the hip. I knew he wouldn’t like it when the nurse’s took him. So I asked if they could give him something to help him be sleepy before they took him. SO they gave him some “apple juice”. It made him a little more relaxed as long as either Jerry or I held him. When I had to hand him over to the nurse he was one unhappy camper!! Even though ear tubes is an easy operation it doesn’t make it any easier when they take him back. Doctor Burg called us back maybe 20 mins later and said he did great, he did suck a lot of fluid out of both ears, but he should be able to hear much better now. So back to the waiting area until they called us again to go and see our “baby”. I think it took longer this time to go back and see him than last time. It was forever! But they finally called us back

When we opened the doors to where he was I could hear him calling out for me. Which to any mom, makes you want to drop everything for them and just scoop them up into your arms. They had a rocking chair all ready for us. The nurse said they had to work on getting him awake, well I wonder why 4:45am is early to wake up, and I am sure he was sleeping good also.

Here is Max the dog. Before he went in for his tubes we tried to dress Max up but Jacob wanted nothing to do with it! When we got back to see him they had him all dressed up. Jacob didn’t find the humor in it at all!! Jerry started to undress Max before he took the picture. Nope sorry redress the dog and take the picture since its was so cute.

One groggy baby. Poor little guy. The cotton balls in his ears was to catch the extra drainage that was still coming out.

Now its 2:00pm and the little stinker is still wide awake! If you didn’t know he had tubes just put into his ear’s you wouldn’t guess it. Now we have to go and pick up Camron and then go and get Katey. I guess we also will go and visit some family since we will be in Pewamo.

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So excited to be able to post two new product reviews very soon!! So stay tuned!

wordless Wednseday

2010-03-17T08:18:00.002-05:00

The kids after the circus. Hope to post about this soon!

wordless Wednseday

2010-03-17T08:18:00.000-05:00

The kids after the circus. Hope to post about this soon!

anyone have a boat to sell?

2010-03-12T20:07:00.001-06:00

Every year when the snow melts, our backyard FLOODS! We will be lucky if our backyard will dry by May. See our yard is the lowest of the three that are either behind us or next to us. It doesn’t help our flooding either when our neighbor blows his snow into our yard when he blow snow from their driveway. But at least the kids like playing in the water/mud that we have, that is when i don’t care if they get wet and muddy. The other day the weather was beautiful out and they asked if they could play outside, so heck why not. They put on their water boots and headed out to the “pond”. The good thing is this year I have a water proof camera this year, Last year I fell in the water taking pictures and killed our camera. Katey the little turkey said to me,”mom, you gonna drop your camera again this year?” HA very funny.

This picture in from the side of our backyard. The water is maybe 4 inches deep in the middle, its almost over Jacob’s water boots

This is standing in the backyard looking towards the road. That part will dry up fast then we are left with just MUD!

Jacob splashing away.

Well at least Camron was trying to get rid of the water maybe?

Katey didn't loose her touch. She loves these “onion rings” of hers. By the middle of summer she will have calloused hands.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the boys. Camron was taking Jacob to see how deep the water was.

Katey went for higher ground

The kids dumping water out of their boots. I did have better pictures but I somehow deleted them off my camera :( SO I don’t have any of katey this time. But don’t worry before this year is over I will have some.

Katey flipped this slide over and discovered that it would float. She then pushed the “boat” around our pond asking the boys if they wanted a ride.

thunk it Thursdays

2010-03-11T13:30:00.001-06:00

I was reading my friends blog last week and it was 13 or 14 different questions about her. I followed the link that she had and to took me to Thunk it Thursday. I found this very neat. What a cool way for everyone to get to know me better, or even people who know me to learn something new. LOL, The best part is you can also join and link your blog to theirs to meet new people! So here we gooooo

1. What is your favorite kind of cookie?

Really any kind, but peanut butter still tops my list, unless its a girl scout cookie then its the Soma,

2. If a birds wing falls asleep, does it hurt when it tries to flap it's wings or does that make it feel better?

Humm, why not I am sure the wings would fall asleep also.

3. Water - tab, bottle, filtered or....???

either really. At home I drink tap water but if we are out and about bottle water is fine.

4. Would you (or do you) have a stripper pole installed in your home?

Umm NO. Not sure how I would explain that to my kids or my daycare parents. LOL

5. Do you still have any Christmas decoration up?

At first I would say no but as I look on my stove I do have a snowman on my stove that hasn’t found his way back to the basement.

6. What brand of camera do you have?

We have an omplus camera that I love. The best part is its waterproof!!

7. Why do paint colors have weird names?

The same reason that crayons have goofy names.

8. Which toe is your favorite and which foot is it on?

Lets see, my favorite toe…….. which ever one i don’t hit on the door jam, high chair, bed, etc I think you get the point

9. What would you do if a celebrity sneezed in your face?

I think I would look at them funny just like I would anyone else, they are no better than me, they can cover their mouths also

10. If a stranger came to your door and asked for a glass of water, would you give it to them?

I have done this before! It was a really hot day and it was some door to door guy.

11. The government has asked that you pick the newest national holiday - what is it?
My birthday of course! HAHAHA

12. How many toothpicks could you fit into a beer can?

I have never been that drunk to find out. When you know, let me know how many can fit into the can,then find out how many licks it takes you to get to the center of a tootsie pop also,

13. What's the weirdest excuse you ever gave for missing school or work...or heck, even a social function, date, whatever?

I skipped a collage class before when I didn't want to attend but it all worked out good, I needed to do a paper on some stressful time in my live(some kind of health class) since I skipped the day it was due I wrote about my “cat” that was just hit by a bus on my way to class so I didn't attended that day because how stressful that accident was to me. I got an ‘A” on that paper! HA

14. Can we stop now?

Yes that is the end of the Q&A for this week.

very neat video

2010-03-10T11:31:00.002-06:00

My husbands uncle passed this video my way. In no way am I a big religious person, but I like the video. So enjoy and pass it on.

wordless Wednesday

2010-03-10T07:22:00.002-06:00

rahhhhhh.

snow days

2010-03-08T19:17:00.002-06:00

We have gotten a lot of snow this year. Ok maybe not as much as last year but I don’t remember how much we had last year. As we shoveled this year like every other year, we just pile it up in our front yard and then either it stays as a hill that the kids love to climb on or it gets dug out to become a cave. Either way the kids love it. Jacob likes being outside but not as much as the other two. I think Jacob takes after me in that regards, I like the winter months but also don’t love it either. I don’t like to shovel, the wet snowy clothes, the cold and etc, give me a nice warm summer day anytime.

What is a cold winter day without someone sticking their tongue to a metal surface? But don’t worry it was warm enough that day that his tongue didn’t stick.

It took me forever to roll this darn snowball and here Camron is trying to eat it.

Once Camron got done eating my snowball Katey and Jerry came up with the bright idea to roll it up our big hill and hope that it will stay put. Need less to say after Katey took her hands off the snowball it rolled down and covered one of the exit routes of the cave.

After going out for 2 days Jacob was comfortable enough to go into the cave.

I made 3 snowball chairs one day and of course Katey and Camron had to fight over who gets what chair even though 2 of them were the size. I really tried to get all 3 of them in one picture but it didn’t work at all.

Gotta love small kids all bundled up. It always reminds me of the “Christmas Story” movies

wordless Wednesday

2010-03-03T06:00:00.000-06:00

gone to play

2010-03-01T17:30:00.000-06:00

I found this really neat place to take the kids to, well ok I think my cousin told me about it. Its called Castaway Cafe. Now what is Castaway Cafe you ask. Well its kind-a like a McDonald’s play place but much much bigger and more fun. The place reminds me of an old hotel from the outside just the way the windows are. We walked in and my jaw dropped, it was huge, like at least 2 story’s high. And the best part is parents are free and we get to play also. Just Katey, Jacob, my mom and I went, Jerry wanted to stay home and so did Camron. Needless to say by the time we left I was ready for a nap.

Jacob coming out of one of the slides. If I remember right I didn’t like this side very well it was too bumpy for me, but the kids loved it! I can say its much easier to watch/see your kids at McDonalds than here since its so big.

Katey and Jacob climbing to the biggest slide of them all. These cargo nets were hard to climb thru, trust me I did it. See the hole thing above Katey’s head? Well you had climb thru like 6 of them to get to the top of the yellow slide.

The two still climbing up and up and up.

They came down together choo-choo style. I really tired to get a picture of them coming down but they just moved too fast for my camera that day.

I was standing underneath him while he was by the big ball that Katey is sitting on. Such a cheesy smile

Katey is queen of the ball. This is were Jacob was when I took the picture of him.

Jacob all the way on top. When we first walked in, I didn’t think he was going to play much since he glued himself to my leg, but after a few minutes he was gone and having a blast.

“Jacob can I try your drink, please?”

Come on buddy, I love watching the kids play especially when they hold hands or help each other out.

I can’t wait until the next time I take the kids to this place.

ice carvings

2010-02-28T19:42:00.000-06:00

I read in the paper that in downtown they were doing ice carving, games, and carriage rides a few Saturdays ago, and since our winters have been so mild, well until a few weeks ago more on that later, I bundled Katey and Jacob up and downtown we headed. Jerry and Camron chickened out they didn’t want to go. By the time we arrived all the ice carving was done, yeah I was bummed that we didn’t get to watch them carve the ice I think Katey would’ve thought it was neat how they do it. But this way we beat the crowds. I hope to go back next year and take Camron with us I think he would’ve had fun also

One of ice carvings was a piggy bank. Yes you see my sweet daughter trying to rob the bank. Talk about cold cash.

I tried to get their picture together but Jacob didn't want to sit still. Its amazing how much detail they can add to the ice.

The 3 of us on the carriage ride around the block. It was nice and warm since they gave us all blankets. I am sure the horse was tired by the time it left.

They had a “warming” tent sat up to “warm” you up. Not sure why they really had the tent since it wasn’t warm at all. But here the kids are Ice Fishing in a sled. After they caught the fish they received some candy. By the time we left Jacob had little ice hands since he took all the fish from the one sled and put them all into the other sled.

About half way thru Jacob ditched the gloves and stuck his hands into his pockets.

While we waited for the horse Katey played on the snow piles downtown.

you found me where?

2010-02-27T07:51:00.000-06:00

For awhile now its been a bedtime battle with Jacob. I think for the most part its just I get tired of taking him upstairs all the time while Jerry just sits and watches me go up the stairs for the 100th time, that yes I do give up and that is when my husband should step in but normally he just lets him stay up with him or lay in our bed until he falls asleep. But this one night when I headed back downstairs I went into the our bedroom expecting Jacob to be laying in our bed curled up under the blanket hiding from me. I could tell something was behind the door since it didn’t open all the way up, thinking it was a pack of diapers that fell or something else was blocking the door. To my surprise it was Jacob hiding behind the door and he fell asleep.

Gosh he looks so cute curled into his little ball. Almost didn’t want to move him.

strike!

2010-02-26T06:35:00.000-06:00

I read in the newspaper again a few weeks ago, see how far behind in blogging that I am? But at the local bowling alley they were going to have a mother/son bowling night. Since Camron has never been bowling I thought it would be a fun night for him and I. So I called my mom too see if she could take Katey and Jacob for the night, and then I called my cousin Becky to see if she and her boys wanted to tag alone with us. She said yes. Her two boys are about the same age as our boys. SO off to the bowling alley we went that night.

Here is Camron rolling his ball down the lane. When we left our house he was wearing boots so I didn’t notice how short his pants were until after he put on his bowling shoes. He reminded me of Steve Urkel.

In the next lane next to us we noticed they also had young kids bowling and they had balls that were getting stuck half way down the lane. Then about 2 frames later Camron rolled the ball so slowly down the lane that his ball got stuck..

Camron waiting between for his ball to come back.

Thought I was kinda neat that we had matching shoes, Camron wasn’t so impressed.

Camron’s cousins, Noah(the one looking at Camron) and Gavin after bowling.

Later on our way home I asked Camron if some day soon we should take Katey, Jacob and Daddy bowling. His reply was “NO its our secret”. I can’t wait until next year when I will take both boys with me.

anyone have any popcorn?

2010-02-25T11:14:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago the kids asked if they could watch a movie. I told them that would be fine but if they wanted to watch it in 3-D they had to watch it in the bedroom so it could be darker. I just love how the kids look with the 3-D glasses on. Needless to say they didn't watch the whole movie.

Camron looking ever so cute.

Smile Katey!

This is what I saw when I walked into the bedroom after I started the movie.

Gotta love the cheesy smile Jacob gives now when you say smile.

men,toys, and heat

2010-02-24T19:00:00.002-06:00

Lets see last week, maybe Sunday night I was sitting on the couch watching some of my DVR'ed shows while Jerry was in the bedroom watching sports. I started to smell a plastic smell, asked Jerry if he smelled the smell. I went into the kitchen thinking maybe it was something in the dishwasher, yes we have lost many sippy cup tops to the heating coil on the bottom. Nope dishwasher smelled good. Moved into the dinning room still could smell it, in to the living room, not as bad but still could smell this plastic smell. Jerry went sniffing, which reminded me of a sniffing dog, don't tell him. He smelled the basement, smell upstairs and he thought the smell was from the kitchen where I was thinking the dinning room. A few more minutes passed and the smell went away. Monday rolls around and the smell was no where's to be smelled. Thinking good what ever it was its gone. I make dinner, we clean up and Jerry and Katey sit down to do spelling words. Then about 20-30 mins later I smelled that smell again. Went hunting again still wasn't able to find the source of the smell. Thinking maybe it has to do with the light above the kitchen sink since that light was on the longest. Man I really hope not since we don't really have the extra money to go into fixing the light fixture. Tues morning I took Camron to school come home and the smell was Back! Jerry could smell it again also, now he was thinking it was the furnace. Man that would suck the furnace dying in the middle of winter would not be so good. I disagree since the smell is not all the time. It had to be elsewhere. All I get from him before he leaves for work, "I hope you find the smell" Gee thanks, here Jacob and I will burn up to due this plastic smell and he don't care. MEN! SO now its just Jacob and I to find this darn smell. I smell the kitchen again, yes can still smell it but stronger in the dining room. I look at the fan and think to myself maybe just maybe we have too many dead bugs in the light bulb thing? So I climb the chair and unscrew the little bowl thing that covers the light and what do I find???? Green Goblin stuck to the light bulb! I found our plastic burning smell!! Whooo hooooo!! Now my next question is how in the hell did it end up in the light. I know if the one of the kids threw him up their someone would've told me. When you have a household full of kids, either your own or daycare kids, some will always tattle on someone. So I pry off Green Goblin and call Jerry at work to tell him the Jacob and I will both live cuz I found our smell. He goes on to tell me that he forgot he put little ol' Green Goblin up on the fan and he must've fell in. oops. What?!?! Why?!?!!? I guess he put him up on the support frame to see if Camron would notice his toy up on the fan. "I guess he will learn a lesson" says my husband. "what lesson was that?" I asked "to take care of his toys" the hubby says. "what to keep his toys away from you?" I respond. Camron took the death of his Green Goblin much better than I thought he would. Needless to say I think Jerry learned a lesson....DON"T put things up on the fan light. Right now not really sure who is worse the kids or husbands

Green Goblin from the front.

See the little supports that is what Green Goblin WAS sitting on before he fell in. I wish I took a picture of him stuck to the light bulb he was stuck good.

The back of Green Goblin

i am back

2010-02-23T18:55:00.003-06:00

Well we now have a "new" used computer. Its nice to have a computer that don't freeze up on you so much in one day. I was still hoping out for a new laptop but this will do for now. So I have been busy cleaning out the new computer and now I have to clean out the old one since we still have a lot of pictures on it. My plans for the old computer is for the kids so they can use their fisher-price things on it. NO Internet. So when I have both computers working the way I would like them to be I will be one happy mama agian. So I was going to post why men, heat and plastic toys don't mix, but then I remembered that I still need to download our camera stuff into this new computer. Darn it! So while that is loading I thought I would just post this. SO I really hope tomorrow I can post the men, heat and toys, and keep up my blog like i used to. I do have some blog reviews in the works so I am excited about that very much. So I better let the camera stuff download and head downstairs since my show "lost" is on and I don't want to get "lost" in the show. LOL

computer worries

2010-02-08T10:13:00.002-06:00

well i have been MIA for awhile now. why cuz our computer is on the fritz. we got a virus about 2 weeks ago and still can't seem to find the darn virus. i have done everything possible, well everything that i know how. i am tempted to throw the darn thing out the 2nd story window to see it that will help "fix" it. so for right now i must check my email, blogs, and facebook at the library computer while my kids play. i wish we had the extra money to buy a new one, but we don't. the hard part is i need the computer for my daycare for billing and the food program and not to mention printing off items for the kids to color and what not. so if anyone out in blogger land is really good at computer and would love to throw me some idea's on fixing the darn thing i will take them. or even better you can come over and fix it for me :)

tea for two and two for tea

2010-01-27T18:46:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago Katey came home with a note about a Mommy and Me tea party invite from school. I read to to her and in the note it said the girl can bring her mom, grandma, aunt or any special friend. We talked about me going with her and grandma watching the boys. I was excited about going to the tea party with my little girl. But she thought about taking Grandma. Yes my heart was broken a tiny bit, but I was happy that she wanted to take Grandma instead. I am happy that she has a good relationship with my mom. As the week went on, and we all got sick then better, BUT then Grandma got sick on Thursday and her tea party was Saturday. With Grandma not knowing how she would be feeling we talked about Grandma staying with the boys and Katey and I go to her tea party. As Saturday came and dresses, her dresses not mine I dont' wear dresses, were picked out, Grandma said that yes she would sit with the boys while I go with Katey. SO that ment me finding something to wear. Off we go to our FIRST tea party that wasnt' at home eating oreos with our tea. Let me tell you how impressed I was with our tea party!! The tables had table clothes on them, we recieved Minnie Mouse tea cups, name placecards, little candy with Minnie's picture on them. They had about 5 or so different crafts set up for us all to do. I thought the crafts were just for the girls to do, nope us mom could do them too. The pipe cleaner flower ring....next to impossible is all I can say. They made Minnie Mouse cookies, snowman necklace(which was really Neat), magnets, scrapbook page with our picture on it, the flower pipe cleaner ring, and a paper purse. We had about 4 different tea's to choose from and Hot Chocolate. Cupcakes to eat along with carrots, celery and such. I am happy I was able to attend the tea party with Katey, and I can't wait for the next tea party with her.

Katey and her best friend Maddie. These girls have been friends since they have been babies.

Our fancy cupcakes.

Katey drinking out of her tea cup. See the Minnie Mouse ears?

How all the tables were sat up.

and the bowl goes to...........

2010-01-20T18:43:00.004-06:00

NOT FOR THE FAINT STOMACHS. You have been warned.

Starting Sunday about 4ish pm Jacob threw up. But acted normal so I thought maybe something didn't settle in his belly or maybe too much candy. Since he is potty training and if he pee's on the potty he get a sucker, so maybe too many suckers in one day?? Oh NO!! We cuddled after the 3rd puke, and he took a little nap. Then more vomit. All I can say is CRAP! After getting the other two kids to bed and putting a load of a laundry in the washer not to mention our bedsheets, yes he blessed our bed with his chunks, we put him on the couch to sleep. We went to bed hoping for a quiet night. Yeah right!! I woke up a few hours later having the same problem. ERRRRR. So yeah any mother knows how the rest of the night would go. Either I was up with Jacob or up with my own problems. Then about sometime early,ok maybe about 6am, Monday morning I got up to call my daycare parent to tell them that I AM CLOSED! Since Jacob woke up with me he wanted something to drink. I gave him a cup of kool-aid and off to bed we went again, only to be woken about 20 later to Jacob burping up the kool-aid, needless to say kool-aid at 6:30am is not the smell I wanted to smell. Off comes the bedsheets AGAIN, down goes towels and clean sheets again. So rest of the day Katey, Jacob and my super-hero for the day took care of us. Camron we to grandma and grandpas for the night. Camron can be a great helper but that day he just wanted to be a butt head, so out the door he went. Where was Jerry, well he had to work that day, where I am a mom and I can take the day off. LOL. So all day we just layed around watching tv and movies. Katey would get me some more water or whatever I needed. She is such a great helper. Did I ever mention that she can do, err help with the laundry, by running the washer and dryer?? SWEET! SO by the time we woke up from our naps we felt great. Jacob was much better also. We all went to bed, thinking it would be a good night. Oh so wrong. Katey comes down at 11, "i puked". "Go in the bathroom" up I get. Hubby just lays their in bed, "i think she got some on the floor, you can turn the light on if you need to." What?!?!? IF I need to?? I am thinking well get up and either pick your daughter or find the puke. So I clean up Katey get her on the couch then a puke hunting I go while my husband just lays like a bump on a log. Clean that mess up, while wanting to puke myself again. I settle back into bed just wanting to sleep. I hear Katey. Off goes super mom. She goes to sleep I go to sleep. Tues morning comes and of course she stays home from school. Trying to rest while all she wants to do is play. All day goes good, then lunch time comes. She eats some lunch and then it comes back. Darn. Kids jump in the tub later that night,"MOM Jacob puked". DRAT. more to clean, by this time I wanna run away. Put kids to bed normal time and Camron starts to whine that his bed is wet, his cup leaked, told him more or less to get over it and go to bed. Then all of a sudden his tummy hurts. I am thinking either A: his tummy really hurts OR he is using this as a reason to sleep on the couch. SO he heads downstairs to sit with Jerry after Camron and I talked about if he thinks hes gonna puke he better make it in the toilet or a bowl or some other bucket cuz I am done cleaning up puke. Maybe 15 mins later,"hes getting sick" Can I take CRY for a $1000 Pat? Clean more bowls and I crawl into bed,letting Jerry take care of his son. So now today is Wed, I think, Yeah it is and so far today everybody has held their own. I just hope this darn bug has left the house because if I find the darn thing I am gonna squash it and then flush it so it never comes back.

my baby is 7!

2010-01-06T18:44:00.004-06:00

My "baby" turned "7" on Jan 3rd. I have no idea where the time has gone. She is a loving, caring little girl. It is so much fun to see her grow from this little tiny baby to what she is today. i know the next 7 years will be as much fun as it has been so far. Love ya baby.

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When I put the kids to bed at night most nights they are still awake and they stay in bed with no problem, well ok, Katey and Camron do better then Jacob. I just keep thinking 2 more years and he should be going to bed without a fight like his siblings do. I have my fingers crossed!! lol. But last night after I was done on the computer, our computer is upstairs off Katey's room, Jacob was still awake. I tuned off the computer monitor so he wouldn't' just sit in here watching pictures all night. I headed downstairs and sent him back upstairs about a dozen times it felt like, and finally no more foot steps down the stairs. I went to bed after i was done watching TV. Fast forward 6:45am- pick the turkey up off the couch to place him in our bed, so he don't wake up when i get the older 2 up out of bed, but I noticed something on his forehead, at first I am thinking blood, maybe he picked his nose or something, OH no it was marker!!! Yes BLACK SHARPIE MARKER!A BLACK PERMANENT MARKER!!! You see my hubby used the marker the other day and left it on the computer desk! Me not really thinking, yes I saw the marker, but didn't think of hiding it again, So I went upstairs to wake Katey up and came into the computer room and seen that he also decorated the computer desk, which ok, no big deal can clean that, but also our DIGITAL camera!! yikes!! Thank goodness our camera is waterproof so I just used the magic eraser and it all came off. He is our only child to really color himself like he did. The other 2 just fingers when they were tracing their hands or such, but never color color themselves. SO his hands are now marker free, his face well some marker is still on his forehead by his eye brows, and somehow he also got a few scribbles on the back of his neck! Little turkey. I think from now on, besides locking up the darn markers I will be taping his little butt into his bed at night!!

Such pretty hands! Anyone have any idea's how to get the marker out of his pj's!

Gotta love that face

not me monday

2009-12-21T17:31:00.002-06:00

Time for me to do another NOT ME MONDAY"S. Yes I know I have been missing for awhile and again I have said I will get better but I just haven't done a good job of that yet.

I DO NOT pick clean clothes up off the floor or out of the clean laundry baskets that I am folding and just throw them into the dirty basket because I don't feel like putting them away. That would be nuts because that would make more work for me and I am already busy with 3 kids.

I DO NOT feel sorry for my husband who went to his Christmas party last night and who got in way too late, who is tired, and just wants to sleep. I guess he can't hang out with the young kids anymore.

I AM NOT ready for school to start already and the kids just got out Friday, what kind of mom would I be if I wanted them back in school already??

I AM not in love with the DVR that comcast now has. Man I really like pausing tv, and recording shows without using a VCR

I DO NOT get lazy with my blog and just leave it alone in hopes that it might post something for me. That would be just plain lazy, and lazy I AM NOT.

Well I am sure I have many more things that I just didn't do this week or even this month but my mind is just drawing a blank.

happy halloween

2009-12-02T18:41:00.003-06:00

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you got more treats than tricks. Yeah I know its Dec, but I am just a bit behind in blogging.

This year Jerry got to go with us again trick or treating and I know I enjoy the extra pair of hands and eyes while the kids enjoy daddy being with us. Last year we found a " haunted" house about 5 mins from our house. They do a GREAT job! The best part is its all free!!! This year they said they got some extra help so it was a bit bigger. The kids recieved about 6 or 7 piece's of candy if they make it all the way thru. Katey was all for this scary house, Camron was excited until he seen the house up close and Jacob NO WAY NO HOW was he going to go thru this darn house. So Jacob and daddy stayed on the sidewalk as I took the kids thru. You could hear Jacob crying for us to come back out, I guess he thought they were going to keep us. :) You started up the sidewalk thru a "black" tunnel, recieved candy, if you were lucky someone jumped at you. Walked in front of their house another piece of candy, thru the garage into the porch, more candy, out the backdoor, again more candy. Out to the back of the house, more yet. out into the front where you recieved a full size candy bar or chips. Needless to say we made Jacob go thru later that night. SO before the end of the night the kids, well ok Katey and Camron when thru this house about 3 or 4 times. Every time we drive by they will say"their is the haunted house. Can we go again next year." Yes we will.

This blow up was in front of the haunted house. Jacob was no pleased with it.

On our way to the haunted house. Katey was a spider witch, Camron was woliverine. and Little Jacob was a cow. Not sure why I didn't get all 3 of them in one picture this year but we didnt'.

Trick or Treat.

Jacob cow getting a lift from daddy. We took the stroller with us but when he seen the haunted house he wanted OUT! When we left the house he wanted to walk until some dumb sensor thing on a tree scared him, then he wanted a lift for a bit. Over all I think he enjoyed halloween, that is after he figured out that you hold up a bucket to a door and then someone gives you candy

All of our candy!! now this bowl is HUGE and it was over flowing with the sweet treats. And can you believe it when we got home NO ONE yes NO ONE bugged for candy?

That afternoon we went up to see my grandma before we went trick or treating, and as you can see the cow was tired.

car seat giveaway!!

2009-11-17T16:57:00.002-06:00

found a great give-away over at The shopping mama. she has tons of ways that you can win. its safety 1st new car seat that just came to the market. go head on over and test your luck!! good luck

rubbermaid REVIEW

2009-11-04T18:35:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago a box arrived at our doorstep and it felt like Christmas morning to me. Why you ask, well normally when a box comes is for my husband, but his one was FOR ME!! You see I contacted Rubbermaid about doing a review for them, and when they said YES I felt like a giddy little school girl, not only to I get to try a great new product out but I got to try it out for free. SO I opened my box and expected to find one canister, but what I found was 4 canisters! They sent me their new Lock-it Canisters with easy to find lids. Boy can I tell you I LOVE these! I love that they have many different sizes to choose from, I love the locking lids yes you can hear them lock so you know that they are on, I love the easy to find lids and so much more. Here is a brief description from Rubbermaid:

The Lock-Its canisters belong to a family of food storage containers with the Easy Find Lids feature. This means that the lids snap to the bottom of the containers and the containers nest together for easy storage. They can also be stacked together and the containers can snap onto the lid of the container below it. The canisters work together with Lock-Its food storage containers as one group.

Now you may be asking me what is the easy to find lids. Well if your anything like me you have your bowls and such in one cupboard and then the lids in a drawer, and the lids are just taking over that drawer and you can never find the right lid for your bowl. With the easy to find lid they snap onto each other so you can't really loose them. Makes your lid drawer much cleaner! Something else I love about the easy to find lids is, if you have a babysitter for the night or your hubby is watching the kids, you can make a meal put them into your Rubbermaid canisters with your easy to find lids and stack them in the fridge and you can lock the canisters together so they just have to grab on to one canister, so no more fishing in the fridge for items that together. These canisters are freezer proof, you can put them into the microwave, and even dishwasher safe, the recommend the top rack but at times ours have found their way to to bottom and did just fine. All of your canisters can nest into each other also cleaning up your "bowl" cupboard. Needless to say these canisters are here to stay! I want to go and buy more!! I give these a two thumbs up!

The lids snapped together.

My 4 canisters.

Thanks Rubbermaid!

If you want to check out other Rubbermaid products check out

Rubbermaid.com

Rubbermaid also has a blog

stellan need prayers....

2009-10-28T10:56:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading mckmama's facebook page and her blog. Stellan is stuggling with his SVT. He's only almost 1 yrs old. Please send some prayers and thoughts thier way, it will help them.

all i want for christmas..................

2009-10-22T19:12:00.004-05:00

Well blogger friends I am still here. I didn't go anywhere, I have been busy with school starting, and hoping to get better at blogging again! I have tons of pictures to share and a review comming up. So here we go..............

For a while now Katey's front teeth have been loose. Every so often I would ask her if I could wiggle them. She would let me. Then last Thursday when my mom and I picked her up from school, as soon as she got into the van she asked grandma to wiggle her tooth. Mom told her to wait until we got home and she would try to pull the one. We got home and mom wiggled her tooth and after one good tug her tooth came out!

Before she lost her tooth. Such a cute smile.

Grandma pulling out the one tooth. 1....2......3.....pull.........

Tooth fairy here we come..
After dinner I asked her if I could wiggle her other tooth, again the trusting daughter of mine agreed. Told her that tooth needs to come out tonight its very wiggly and I would hate to see the tooth fairy come back two nights in a row since she is such a busy fairy and all. She would let me try to pull her other tooth and just right before I could yank on the sucker she would pull her head back and pull my hand down, so I would loose my grip on the darn little thing. Then I told her if she let me try to pull it out and if I got it out then she could stay up 5 whole mins longer. Its amazing what 5 mins will do to a 6 yr old. lol! So one good yank on that sucker out it popped!!! whooohooo. Yes so that was 2 teeth in one night.

What a proud smile. if you look really close you can see one tooth already showing its little "head" The next day she was so excited to see tooth fairy dust all over her bed along with a note and some butterfly confetti in her tooth bag. She recieved $3.00 for both of her teeth, which she hasn't spent yet.

the boy VS the apple

2009-09-23T18:32:00.003-05:00

About a month ago, see told you I was way behind on blogging, Camron asked me if he could have an apple. I of course told him go for it. He for some odd reason he don't like the peel of the apple, which is fine, but at times I get tired of having to peel the apple, so the good mommy that I am I told him to go and grab a knife and peel it your self. So off he ran to the kitchen grabed the knife and then I told him to grab the brown tray to catch all the peels. I tell you these trays have come in handy at times. He did do a good job peeling this apple until it became to boring.

Working on those small motor skills.

He has gotten some of the peel off. I know what a good mommy letting their 4 yr play with knifes while you are taking pictures of your child.

No I don't let my kids lick knifes, do you think I would let such a thing happen at my house?? How careless do you guys think I am?

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Please pray for Stellan he needs some more prayers.

katey's first day at school.

2009-09-08T18:43:00.003-05:00

Today all the kids started back to school. Katey is now a first grader and she goes all day long. She got up kinda hard and she is NOT my morning person at all. So I am not looking forward to mornings with crabby. I took her to school to help her drop off her supplies and to find her classroom. She is loving her room, its full of girls! Yes you read that right, she is in a all girl class. The only down fall of today was she didn't remember to eat hot lunch today. She thought her snack was her lunch, so the teacher gave her a extra snack at snack time. Poor little thing was "Starving" by the time she got home. Yet she is ready to head back to school again tomorrow. For the most part I was alone today. All I had here at the house was Jacob and Nathan who is 10 months so it was really quiet. I wasn't really sure what to do with myself at nap time since Katey or Camron don't nap they are normally home with me so I got some extra computer time and laundry time in. Tomorrow Jerry will take her to school and the boys and I will pick her up, I just hope the carpool lanes will go by a bit faster since it took us 30 mins to pick her up! So maybe I will load the boy up sooner and maybe beat the "rush" to make it go by faster.

Katey all ready to walk out the door.

Katey and her best friend Maddie at school before we left.

Showing off her backpack she has this year.

wanna help a great cause??

2009-09-03T14:53:00.002-05:00

If you want to help get higher weight car seat to people who can afford them, check out this website. OR go here to Select the Kyle David Miller Foundation from the drop down list. They are in ranking #8 right now and that's for $10,000!! Just imagine how many car seats that would buy! So hurry and vote, one vote per email address. Thanks

dumb heads

2009-08-26T19:29:00.002-05:00

What a weird title for a post huh?? Well that's what Katey called them, I on the other hand picked out a different name but I will keep that one to myself. Now who is a dumb head you ask?? Well Katey and I were on our way home from her class tonight and I happened to look at the van next to mine, and what did I see?? A infant between the passengers LEGS. YES you read that right,I did a second look since I didn't believe my eyes to begin with. By the look of the baby's head I would say the baby was maybe 6months old. Then you could see that the had someone sitting behind the driver sitting backwards against the door. SO yeah the back seat riders were in no seat belts either!! WHAT THE HELL?? I called 911 in hopes to get this crazy driver off the road and maybe save the baby. Katey and I followed the driver until it turned and no cops were in sight, so I can hope that maybe the cop was going to meet them at their house since I gave the 911 driver the plate number also. I know car seats can be pricey but come on you can buy a nice car seat for 50.00. I will just hope and pray that these"dumb heads" get pulled over soon before they get into an accident!

camron school days

2009-08-24T19:06:00.003-05:00

My little, well ok my so NOT little man started school last week. He is in preschool and so far LOVING IT!! He stared last Monday where he went for 1.5 hours. On Monday I had to stay at the school. After I filled out the paperwork I went back into the classroom just to watch, when Camron asked me "what are you doing my school. This is my school you have to leave." Well yes I was a bit bummed but I was also happy that he felt comfortable enough for me to leave. On Tuesday he went for 3 hours. When it was time for me to leave I asked him if I get bye hugs and kisses, He replied" oh play do" and ran off. Wed he went for 6 hours, again no hugs and kisses for mom, I guess he thinks he's too "big" for them. Then on Thursday he went all day 8ish to about 5pm. He is loving school, I just hope this will carry on for the next 13 and plus years he will be going to school. Camron will be going to school on Tues and Thurs from 8ish to about 5. I will miss my little man but then it will be nice to have a few hours or so to myself again, that is If Jacob keeps napping.

All ready to go. He was a bit dissapointed that his Mario shirt was missplaced and he had to wear this shirt but he got over it quickly. I just love the cheesey smile he had on his face.

Walking into his school such a big boy.

up on a soap box-venting

2009-08-20T08:05:00.003-05:00

OK if you don't want to listen to me vent about car seat stop reading NOW! You have been warned.

I will say I am a car seat nerd. Why I am not sure but I am. I love seeing the new car seats that come to the market. I have taken two classes on car seats, I am not a car seat tech, so by no means I am I a car seat expert, I don't know everything about car seats, but I do know a lot. Some of my "education" on car seats have come from the classes that I have taken and also what I have learned from kyle david miller foundation and Out numbered by testosterone and just searching the web. So again I am no expert. Yes have I make a few mistakes with my kids and their car seats. YES I have. Which ones you ask. Well for starters when Katey and Camron were little I turned them around before they were one. At that point I didn't know what I know now. I am not sure if the information was out their, I am sure it was but I didn't know it, but with Jacob he is 2 and still rear facing. Does he care NOPE not one bit. Are his legs crunched no, he just hangs them over the edge or crosses them. When I see other babies/kids either buckled in wrong or the car seat not tight I will normally try to help and offer what I know, and its up to the the parent to make the choice if they follow my advice. Again I am not an expert. With me being a daycare provider I feel its my "job" to help the parents with not really raising their babies, but helping them along the way. I will offer my advice when they ask or if it looks like I can help out some other way. What I never understand is when you buy a new infant seat/car seat it comes with directions on how to use them. Most people don't even read these little books. WHY? Some people don't pay any attention to the height and weight requirements. WHY? They come with this information for a reason. You don't buy a new DVD player or a new game and just toss the directions away do you? NO you normally glance at them to figure out how to use the darn things. A car seat is no different than a new DVD player or a game. When you learn about car seats you can go crazy when you see someone with their seats wrong, harness too loose, forward facing too early, chest clip too low(people it DON"T belong down by their belly's) the baby sitting up on a pillow and more. IF you ask me, which no one ever does, before anyone is allowed to bring their newborn infants home they should have to take a car seat class on how to install them right. And when the child is ready for the next stage of seats they should have to again take a class on car seat safety. Yeah it seems like a lot but its OUR kids that we are keeping safe. Yeah you can over all your outlets in covers, put a padding around your coffee table, shoot even hire someone to come into your house to show you all the "hidden" dangers in your house but when it comes to your car seat most people are clueless! So for the ones who are still reading this, thank you. Now take the time out of your busy day and learn something about your car seat or take a class on car seat safety. If you know just something little about car seat safety share it with others. As parents we should help other parents when they need it. Its not just our kids that we are keeping safe its our kids classmates, friends, or maybe the next president.

jacob jamers

2009-08-18T19:12:00.003-05:00

Now its Jacob's turn for vacation pictures. He did great in the van for how long were were "trapped" in the van. I think he did better than the other two! He wasn't too big on the water park, he liked to stay in the shallow part or play on the outside slide. He was great just a few melt downs but nothing major. Now enjoy Jacob's vacation

The little snot figured out that he can climb out of his pack n play while we were gone. This was the night that he stayed up "late" and "read" the bible! He brought me the bible and said "book", I am sorry it was after 10pm I told him no and that he needed to go to sleep. He looked at me and then started to thumb thru the bible alone. I guess he got bored since their wasn't any pictures and went to sleep shortly after that in his pack n play.

Camron and I went to do the laundry the last night we were at the Great Wolf Lodge. He was a little upset that he didn't go with me. Mom said he stayed at the patio door and fussed until he fell asleep. Needless to say he didn't climb out of his pak n play that night.

The water slide outside that Jacob and Camron both loved. I wish they had one like this inside. HE loved it!

Jacob looking cute in grandma's arms in the pool.

We are thinking about going up next spring, I can't wait to see how different all 3 kids will be next time. I am sure they will be more brave and try new things out. All I can say was vacation went by way too fast!

Now school has started for Camron and Katey starts in a few weeks. I am not sure where summer has gone but I think I missed it somewhere!

Come on Katey its time to wake up!

kateys turn

2009-08-13T19:07:00.002-05:00

Well lets see we have been back from vaction for how long and I am now just getting to post about Katey? Yeah I have been lazy, but it has been busy here trying to squeeze as much as we can before school starts.

Ok so here we go, about Katey and how much fun the water bug had at The Great Wolf Lodge....... From the time we arrived at the Lodge she was ready for the water. Of our 3 kids she is the water bug. She will jump in, go under the water and more! I think the only time she came out of the water is when she was hungry or had to pee, other than that she was in the water.

They had this gaint snake floating in the water so you could climb on. By the look on her face she loved it. Granted she couldn't hop on it by herself, she still like being on it.

"MOM take my picture underwater." or "Mom take a video of me under the water" Is all I heard out of her while we were in the pool. All I can say is thank goodness for a waterproof digtal camera or we wouldn't have as many water pictures.

These lily pads were floating in the water with the cargo nets above. She would fly across these. I loved how she would swing across them. I did try but didn't make it across. Its harder than it looks.

This picture was taken at a hotel in the U.P.

Needless to say she had a blast in the water. Yes she is also ready to go back. Maybe next year.

more pictures and great news~

2009-07-19T19:34:00.003-05:00

Today I have decided to post some pictures of just Camron. Tomorrow will be someone different. So, here we go............ Camron when he seen a bear or anything that he could get his picture with he wanted it to be done.

This M&M Bear was in the ice cream shop by the pool. When you walked by it all you could smell is melted chocolate. YUMMM. I really wanted to get everyone picture on this but time ran out. We got this one done when Camron and I were doing laundry.

Every night at 8pm the clock behind the wolf and Camron would dance and tell a little story then someone else would read a bedtime story to the kids. After the story they were able to see the wolf up close. Katey and Jacob both said NO but not Camron. He went into the line and waited so good. When everyone moved up he just stayed put. Not sure why he didn't move when the line moved. But when it was his turn he was all smiles. He even tried to "pull" out a tooth or pull his head off not sure which one.

He was floating in the pool at the hotel in the U.P. He loves to "swim" in the baby floaty thing instead of using a life jacket.

Camron next to the big ice cream cone. Again something I wanted to have all 3 kids pictures with but it didn't work out. I have more pictures of Camron but they are on my mom's camera that I still have to download onto our computer.

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Look closely you will see NO TRAINING WHEELS!! At the start of the summer she wanted her training wheels off and she didn't have her balance yet. I talked her into putting them back on. When we put them back on I put them up and back a little bit so she could learn how to balance. Today after we took a bike ride, I told her lets move them up again and see how she does. Well needless to say we took them OFF! She is so excited about having no "strings" that we had to call a few friends and family members to tell them the good news. Now when we go for bike rides her bike is quiet and I don't' like it. Its hard to figure out where she really is. She is still a bit wobbly but I know over time the wobbliness will go away.

we are back

2009-07-18T19:50:00.003-05:00

We made it back on Thursday night. The kids LOVED the Great Wolf Lodge. We planned on staying only two nights but they offered us a 3rd night at half price so we stayed the 3rd night. Most of the time I was off with Katey going down the slides or being in the pool, while my mom was with the boys in the kiddie pool area. After becoming water logged at the Gread Wolf we took the kids over Mackinaw Bridge. The kids were really good in the van. Maybe the last hour or so is when mostly Katey became whiney and she was done riding. But all in all it was a fun time. I hope to post pictures all weekend/week for you all to see. Yeah Amanda it would've been funier comming to your house but maybe next year!!

This is the view as we entered the water park. The big bucket I do have pictures of this thing dumping that I will post at a later date.

Katey living under the water. She is such a little water bug.

The boys loved the kiddie pool. Mom said this water toy was thier favorite.

vacation with a change of plans

2009-07-11T18:31:00.002-05:00

I am on VACATION!!!! Can't tell that I am excited can you?? Well tomorrow we were suppose to be heading down to Neb to visit my friend Amanda, who I have never met and we have been friends for almost 6 years. How did we become friends since I live in Michigan and her in Nebraska? We met on Americanbaby.com. We would email each other and then we exchanged phone numbers and now we talk on the phone at least once a day. Well ok its more like 3-4 or more times a day. Our kids are back to back almost (4-6 weeks apart) each time. We talk about everything and anything. So my mom, myself and my kids were going to take the drive to visit her, but she was offered a full time job, so now we are heading in a different direction! Where are we going now?? Well we are now going up north. First to Traverse City to Great Wolf Lodge. We have never been their but I have been wanting to go. I know the kids will have a blast. After that we will hit the sand dunes and then to Mackinaw city so the kids can see the Mackinaw Bridge. What we will do after all that I have no idea. So I may or may not be posting this week depending on who has a computer. But I know I won't be posting any pictures until I get back then watch out!

Amanda way to go on your new job! I hope it will lead to another full time job when this one is over!! We will have to plan for next summer! I will be thinking of you all this week. I will have my cell phone so feel free to call, my mom might even answer!

happy birthday jacob

2009-07-09T19:07:00.003-05:00

We just celebrated another birthday in our household. Little Jacob James is now 2! Not sure where the last 2 years have gone. I still remember him being this little tiny squishy baby, but not he is this little boy who is becoming more and more independent every day. When we found out that he was going to be a boy Katey broke down crying she was so heartbroken that she was going to have yet another brother, but she has gotten over that fact that he is a boy and now loves him very much. Jacob is this sweet little boy who will still help mommy pick up with or without asking to. Today after I picked up the baby toys I guess I missed one he picked it up and looked at me, and put it where it went. What a good boy only if he didn't out grown that. He is busy keeping up with the other two kids, hes not afraid of doing what they are doing. But it scares me! He is just a little bundle of joy to be around. I have enjoyed these last 2 years and can't wait for the many more years to come.

Jacob talking to his sister for the first time. He don't look please at whatever she just said.

Jacob at his birthday party loving the blue frosting. Yes his shirt and hands and face came clean!!!

cup cakes anyone?!?!

2009-07-01T20:18:00.004-05:00

As you all know Camron had a birthday last week. Since it was HOT here last week we cheated and went to the store and bought him a cake, well ok cupcakes, he picked. It was 87 in the house all week since it took Jerry about 4 days before he decided that is was hot in the house before he put in the A/C, so no way was i firing up the oven. He picked out a alligator that held 24 cupcakes, so off to my mom's work to surprise her. We all had a cupcake, Now we have 20 left. Took them home and kids maybe ate 2 more of them so now down to what.........18. Fast forward to the next day.......... Both boys wanted a cupcake for breakfast, so fine, you know they are healthy they have eggs in them, they might be able to be considered breakfast food. I know you have fed your kids cookies or cupcakes for breakfast at time too. Now we are down to 16 cupcakes.I am trying to clean up the bathroom a little bit mainly toilet, you know boys, i swear it doesn't matter the age of the boy either, then I heard Camron," mommy you better come here."
ugh is all I could think. Go in to the kitchen and what do I see?? Jacob up on the stool crying, with a cupcake in his hand. I guess he wanted another one after I told him no, One cupcake is my limit for breakfast I swear! So yes the good mother I am I grab my camera to take pictures of him while he was shaking, crying, scared, and I was laughing all the time. Camron on the other hand was a little bummed that he lost all of his cupcakes.

You can see the cardboard alligator thing behind him on the floor. Under the cardboard was what 16 cupcakes, a red vacuum that got trashed I didn't feel like cleaning it up, and the stool that he stood on. It might look like he laughing but he was scared and crying.

He never let go of the cupcake that he was after either, see it in his hand?? Not sure but I think the cupcakes lost this battle.

Still upset that I am still taking pictures at this point and not tending to his needs. Still has cupcake in hand!

As I was taking off his diaper to put him in the tub I notice all the frosting that was under his arm. My guess is the cupcakes slid down his arm as he was trying to stop them from falling. I also threw the stool in the tub with him. So that dreadful day we lost 16 yummy cupcakes, and one red vacuum.

not me mondays

2009-06-29T20:14:00.002-05:00

Join mckmama and other fellow bloggers to a free therapy session.

happy birthday buddy

2009-06-24T19:31:00.002-05:00

Four short years ago I gave birth to my first son, Camron Michael. He came into this world weighing 8lbs 11oz and 21 inches. And today he is now a busy 4 yr old boy. Who likes to play in the sandbox that grandpa built. Camron is can be a little lover boy who will help you out in a heart beat or he can be this little devil and drive me nuts. But I still love him anyhow. I can't believe how fast these 4 years have gone by. Before I know it we will be driving a car, waving good bye to me as he drives off to collage. I wish I could figure out how to slow time down just for a bit and keep him little just for a tiny bit longer. Happy birthday buddy I love you!!

Grandma holding him for the first time.

Motorcycle guy! He will "fly" by driving this at grandma and grandpa's. He doesn't let any grass grow under is feet.

car seats.

2009-06-23T19:14:00.003-05:00

Today the kids and I went to our local splash pad. Its big sprinklers and buckets that dump water on kids heads. The only one not fond of the splash pad is poor little Jacob. Not really sure why, but he is just as happy to watch from the sidelines. So when we were leaving the splash pad and I was loading 6 kids into the van, yeah 6 kids. I know I am nuts at time for taking 6 kids out but its not all that hard. Now if it was raining and I needed to go to the store I would wait until 3 left and then take just my three if my hubby wasn't home. But to the splash pad its easy. A car pulled next to me and I noticed a little girl in her car seat with the harness WAY too loose. The chest clip was down by her belly and the harness was resting off her shoulder. When the grandma got out of the car and came over to the other side of the car, I mentioned to her that her granddaughters harness was way too loose. I was trying to to debate if I should say something to her, I didn't want to upset her, but then I didn't want this little girl to get hurt if they got into an accident either. So from talking to her, she told me she told her son that it was too loose and it should be tighter. He just didn't do it yet. When I was showing her how to tighten the harness, I noticed that the car seat was in way wrong. I asked her if i could fix it, and she was happy that I offered to help her. What was all wrong with her seat?? Well first of all her harness was below her shoulder and the baby was forward facing so the harness should be at or above the shoulders, we fixed that by moving the harness up. The other thing was the seat was WAY to loose. IF you wiggled this seat it almost tipped over. They did have the latch system on the car seat and the car had latch attachments also. So I showed her how to put the seat in using the latch. She was amazed how easy it was and how tight it was after that. The little girl was sitting on a pillow for some odd reason. I told her not to add anything to her seat unless it came with the car seat. We removed the pillow and also removed the blanket that was under the car seat. After the seat was put in right I had her buckle the baby in her seat and we fixed the harness to where you can't pinch the harness between your fingers. She was happy that I helped her with her seat. It just amazes me how many car seats are in wrong. Hop on over to the Kyle David Foundations to read about more tips on how to put your seat in right. Call your local fire dept or Police dept, or even AAA they normally have a car seat tech that will be more than happy to help you put in your car seat in safely.

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Hope on over to Among the mess for a great diaper giveaway. Good luck

not me mondays

2009-06-15T19:05:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Yeah I know I have not done any Not Me Monday's in awhile. Call me lazy I guess. But I have also included pictures this time! So here we go...............

~~I DID NOT tear up when my little girl graduated from kindergarten. Its a happy time, not a sad time. I wish she was just a little baby sometimes.

~~I DID NOT fall into a puddle of water while photographing my kids over the weekend and somehow it got all wet and now it doesn't work. I DID NOT go and buy a new one Sunday that is waterproof just in case it should ever happen again.

~~I DO NOT call my cousins everyday when my frogs/tadpole do something new (we all have tadpoles/frogs from the same spot). We DO NOT compare who's frog/tadpoles are doing better. They are NOT our kids after all. The kids are Just as bit as excited about our frogs/tadpoles as us, otherwise we would've gotten rid of them a long time ago. Why would we keep them just because we find it interesting. Yes the little black spot in the corner is a baby frog.

~~~Last but not least. When the kids and I got home today from the store, when I opened the front door I DID NOT see a squirrel run thru our house! I DID NOT tell Katey and the boys to go outside between our doors and stay their until it was safe to come in. I DID NOT bust the screen knobs off

of one of the screens before I noticed the darn squirrel was gone out of hole it made to get in. Darn pesky wildlife anyhow!! Who says squirrel's are cute??

I hope you like my not me monday's this week. I will try to keep up now, but man with nice weather who wants to be tied to the computer?? NOT ME

don't trim your trees!

2009-06-12T19:05:00.003-05:00

Well a few weeks ago, ok maybe a month or so ago, Jerry and my dad trimmed out trees out back and in front of the house. Its nice to have more sun in the back of the house instead of 90% shade if not more. Maybe now we can grow some grass. But a few days after they trimmed the trees the kids and I were outside and noticed a squirrel hanging from Kateys window screen. We watched the poor little thing for a few mins before I grabbed my camera. The pics the I took outside, I still have to fix them up before I can post them. But I also went into her room thinking that if I tapped on her window it would scare the darn thing off the screen. Nope he or she still was "stuck"! The squirrel was used to jumping from one of the branches that was cut, to the roof of the house, they would run to the back of the house and jump onto another branch into the tree. I feel sorry for the first squirrel who found out that branch was missing when it jumped from the house to the tree. Iam sure it was quite shocked!! lol. But this little on hung on for about 20 mins before he/she climbed down to the roof and jumped to the gound I swear like 5 feet from me.

Poor little thing. Iam sure it was very scared!

1st grade here I come!

2009-06-10T19:53:00.003-05:00

Well it has been a busy few days around here. Yesterday(tues) Katey and her class went to the Binder Park Zoo. The zoo was really neat I am hoping to blog about it later! Then today she had her kindergarten graduation! She was so happy to hear that she made it to first grade! Both days she was up before 7 am, and normally I have to keep bugging her to wake up. She hardly ate any breakfast all she knew was get dressed and lets GO. Jerry took her to school for the last time today so I could stay home and get the boys ready and feed my little daycare baby before we left. I got the camera's ready, got myself ready and 3 boys ready before 8:30. whooo whoo. Off to the school we went with my parents following. When we first go to the school all the kids were in the gym practicing their songs before the "show" began. Since she was only in half day program both am classes graduated together so it made 40 kids. It was a very cute program that they did. I loved the last song they sang. It was to the tune of "new york new york" I do believe. When all of the diploma's were handed out Mrs. Back(Kateys teacher) asked Katey to stand up. She was the only student to have perfect attendance thu the year!!! Way to go Katey!! After everything was done, we headed down to her room to collect a little gift bag that came from Mrs. Back. The teachers make each child a memory book of the year for them, which was very cute.

Katey with her diploma and her little trophy that says "wpca perfect attendance, Katey Stine 2009" She is soo very proud. All the kids had little blue hats with their hand prints on top

Katey and her teacher Mrs. Back. Katey has already told me that she will miss her in first grade. But rest assured she can visit anytime!

All ready to go to school for the last time. She has grown up soo fast. I wish I could just slow it down a bit.

All five of us after graduation.

Katey and her best buddy Maddie. These girls have know each other since Katey has been 6 months and Maddie was 9 months.

Hats off to you baby girl you did great!! I hope you have fun in first grade!! Love ya

water fun

2009-06-09T18:48:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, it was a warm day so since it was just my kids, I thought it would be nice to break out the sprinkler. So after Jacob's nap the kids put on their suits and we headed out. For some reason the kids are always excited about the idea about running in the sprinkler but when it comes down to it, all they do is run away from it and then avoid it.

Jacob peeking outside and spots the sprinkler. Notice the football in his hand. I swear this boy has balls in his hands all day!

Ok not too bad, but the water hasn't hit him yet either. Still has the football

Katey turned up the water to make the sprinkler go higher and sprayed Jacob. Needless to say he was not happy about it!
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Katey graduates kindergarten tomorrow. Its gonna be a sad day but also a happy day. She worked soo HARD to make it to first grade I am so proud of her.

tour your town

2009-05-30T19:43:00.002-05:00

Oh what a fun and BUSY day the kids and I had! Today was Be a Tourist In Your Own Town. They have this here every year and if I remember right this is the 15th year they have had this, but this was our 2nd year of going. What is this Tour your town think you may ask, well you buy a "passport" for a dollar and it will get you into certain things for free like the Zoo, some museums, tours of different business that don't normally have tours. Your ride the CATA bus, which is our public transportation for just 50 cents all day regardless how many times you get on the buses. I am not sure how much the bus would normally cost since I have never really rode them besides to be a tourist. But we had a fun busy busy day. The weather at first looked like it was going to rain all day, but then about 11:30ish or so the sun came out and it was great, not too hot or too cold. Jacob went to my moms to spend the night so I didn't have to deal with his stroller, diapers and such.

Here is Katey and Camron on our first ride of the day. Yeah I know they aren't looking but they were just too busy looking around! Some of the buses like the one we were on, the kids called it the catipiller bus, it was like two buses in one. It had an accordian style middle the turned when the bus turned.

We went to the ZOO today since it was FREE!! Gotta love that, it saved us over $20.00 just by going today! The zoo has a new bird house where you go in and they bird can fly around you. As you walk in they had two people glueing mullet to a tongue stick that the doctors use. They had parakeets and some other small bird in this "cage" You held out our stick and you would "catch" a bird or TWO! I also bought a stick of food and at one time I had 3 birds on my stick. I would be trying to pay attention to the kids and "forget" that I was holding this stick and then next thing I knew something landed on my arm. Or these darn things would dive bomb ya! The bird house was fun and scary all at the same time! I want to go back to the bird house soon! Maybe when L&L have their free ZOO days in June or July!

Kateys first bird of many.

Camron's bird.

They had baby chicks also hatching. SO the kids got to see some chicks trying to peck out of their shell, some that just came out, and ones, like the ones they are holding, that hatched earlier in the day. This is the first time they got to hold baby chicks! Camron didn't want to let the chick go.

I can't wait until next year! Maybe Jacob will be able to go and enjoy the fun with us. If anyone in blogger land is ever in Michigan in June next year you will have to become a Tourist, its fun

where did my baby girl go?

2009-05-27T18:47:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago Katey had a chance to go to a daddy/daughter date night at her school. I never said anything to her since Jerry isn't really the type to go to these things. But never less she found out about this date night thing and asked Jerry to go. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to make it due to his work hours. So Katey called grandpa and asked him out on a date. Grandpa said yes, of course. So we dug thru her closet to see what party dress she would like to wear. At about 2 pm that Saturday she kept bugging me "how much longer"
"katey honey you have 4 more hours before the dance begins" Off she would go and play some more. 30 mins later we would repeat the same thing again. About 4:30-5ish she called her date to see if he was getting ready. He was so she thought she needed to get ready also. Katey's date showed up and she was all in smiles!

Such a big girl dress. I love this dress on her, the only thing I didn't' like is it made her look too "old" But hey it only cost $3.00 at a garage sale a few weeks earlier!

Katey and Grandpa before their "date"

About an hour or so into her date with grandpa, Jerry showed up to surprise her! Never thought that he was going to show up. Now how many other girls can have two dates in the same night like this and get away with it?? But over all she had a great night! I wonder who she will take next year to the daddy/daughter date night !

need your help

2009-05-25T18:52:00.003-05:00

Well I want to bring a special post soon but I need someone's help. Who's help do I need you ask, well anyone who would like to help with this up comming post, a give away maybe or anything really. So if you would like to help contact me!! Thanks