Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Crafty Christmas

This year I decided to be quite crafty and whip up presents for everyone on my christmas list. I started back at the end of October and thought It'd be NO problem to make something heart felt for all those people on my christmas list. I made an aprons, DS cases, I made kleenex holders that attach to the sun visors, I sewed and sewed and then sewed some more.... Infact I think there should be a new disorder known as sewing neck/shoulder.It was definetly a labor of love.... But I just love some of the things I was able to figure out and make.... I wont post them all, because honestly I didnt even take pictures of them all!!! Here are a few of my favorites...

I made these cute little neck tie's for my adopted nephews.... I can't wait to see Duke McAlisters chubby little cheeks resting ontop of this little bowtie
Tutorial here: http://alemonsqueezyhome.blogspot.com/2010/04/bow-tie-tutorial.html
Leah, Ethan, and I made these adorable snowflakes out of popscicles sticks.... found the idea here http://www.squidoo.com/popsicle-christmas-crafts
I made this rocket pillow for Ethan, found the pattern/idea in the book "1 yard wonders" that I checked out from the library, and lucky for me my sister bought me my very own copy so I'll be able to make the rest of the cute ideas from this book!
I made something for everyone on out list, with only one exception.... I didnt make anything for Theo. I didnt even realize it until someone asked what I'd made for Theo.... opps!!! So to try and remedy that I decided to try and make our bathroom a little less Ugly!!!
I honestly believe that my bathroom belongs on the HGTV show bad bad baths, I decided some cute curtains might help it a bit and found this really simple but adroable tutorial to make curtains. The ribbon for a tab top design is ingenious!
http://7layerstudio.typepad.com/7_layer_studio/2009/05/tutorial-for-fully-lined-tabtop-drapes.html

Still trying to decide if I want to make another panel so there are curtains pulled to the side on both sides of the window.....what do ya think? but for now I just have to fix the toliet paper holder.
I've really loved learning how to sew and am a bit sad that I'm going to have to pack the sewing machine up for a few weeks, I'm suppose to start back to school January 3rd..... AHHHHHH




Tuesday, December 21, 2010

One Year of "Wedded Bliss"

Well Theo & I have officially survived an ENTIRE year of being married! how many people can say they exchanged vows with their spouse while doing .... 1.....2....3....Wheeeeeeeeee


I don't know if being married has been any different, than the previous 7 years together....but I know that I am more sure now, than I was 10 years ago, that marriage and family can be a good.... and a happy.... and a healthy.... thing. If you had asked me 10 years ago if I'd be married with kids and be happy I might have laughed in your face.... I really didn't think all this was for me....I didn't think that I'd be any "good" at it or that I'd ever find a guy that I'd actually want to spend the next 10 years.... let alone a LIFETIME with.
After I had Alex I was pretty content with the idea of it being me and Alex ... the dynamic duo..... taking the world by storm. When I met Theo, I didn't really think anything would come of it, between school, work and Alex I didn't really have the time for all that dating nonsense.... and I found out later Theo kinda thought the same thing....He was working 2 jobs and thinking about going back to school and all the girls he dated would get upset that he didn't have enough time for them. But somehow we found a night and went out on a date.... and I realized he was kinda funny..... and after a week or two.... we hung out again, and he thought... she's kinda cute..... and then, like a fungus, we kinda grew on each other..... There was no star crossed love... no big romantic moment.... after about a year of dating we were just sitting there one night folding laundry, and telling each other about our day and I realized that I was completely happy!
There's a poem I found when my sister got married that i really like, so if you'll bare with me a moment .... that part that i really like it this

I love you Not only for what you are,
But for what I am When I am with you.

I love you, Not only for what You have made of yourself,
But for what You are making of me.
I love you For the part of me

That you bring out;

I LOVE the Me that I am when I'm with Theo! So to properly enjoy that, Theo and i spent the weekend in a secluded cabin in the woods in Hocking Hills! We stayed at Old Man's haven a cozy little cabin with a huge fire place and Hot tub! We slept alot, cuddled on the couch in front of the fire. We ate cookies for dinner, and went hiking through the snow covered hills. It was beautiful! It was such a quiet weekend away from EVERYTHING... we didn't even have a phone in the cabin. CRAZY! Of course the pictures don't do the place justice....
Top Left working clockwise, A gorgeous fire, the cabin, a frozen Cedar Falls, Theo and I at the top of the never ending stair case, Theo holidng a Big 'ol icicle. and snow covered Old mans cave.






















Sunday, November 21, 2010

Where's your cape?

Sometimes having a Dad that is a firefighter is hard... Having him gone for 24 hours at a time is kind of a hard concept to wrap your brain around when your a kid. There are days when you don't feel good or when you had a hard day and you just want your Dad. Plus there are times when Daddy has to miss important things like trick or treat night or when the Easter bunny comes. In a perfect world all Daddy's would come home EVERY night and tuck their babes into bed. But there are Daddies all over the world that are out keeping us safe all night, either in a dessert in Afghanistan, or in a firehouse 20 minutes away.
So we try to remind ourselves that having a Dad that's a firefighter does have it's perks. Like having a smoke detector in EVERY room of your house, getting to go "play" on all the fire trucks and ambulances when ever you go to the fire house and being able to get Santa Clause to come a night early on the Christmases that Dad has to work .... and bringing your Daddy to show and tell is kind of cool too!
Theo was asked to come in and talk to Ethan's preschool class about being a firefighter, It was So cute! They watched a music video about fire safety. (And I swear a 7 year old Lindsay Lohan was in it.) Then Theo asked them questions like ...what do you do if you see matches? and stop drop and roll type stuff... they are mostly 3 and 4 year olds... Here Theo is with his assistant, Ethan, (notice the arm on his hips?) He was cracking me up.... every time Theo would ask a question, the other kids would raise their hand and answer and Ethan would say "yeah so you know .... don't hide....yeah so you know, don't play with matches.... I love this picture cause you can see how the kids were just mesmerized by Theo putting on all his gear and Ethan is standing up in the middle of them all with this HUGE smile on his face... he was so proud! Here Theo is in all his gear, Darth Vader sounding, getting the kids to come up and touch him so they wouldn't be afraid if a firefighter had to come in their house. Just out of this shot there is a little girl loosing her SH*T.... she was crying and screaming.... and the crazy part... guess what her Dad does for a living.... he's a firefighter!!! Go figure! Ethan got to give all his friend their own plastic fire helmet and coloring books and was talking about his Dad coming to talk to his class all week long. I sometimes forget that Theo is a real life hero...I usually hear the hilarious stories about the stupid things he sees or the stupid things people say and do! It's easy to forget that he runs INTO burning buildings when everyone else is running out.... he can find a person without a pulse... and bring them back to life.... he's delivered babies and held a dying person's hand and comforted a nervous mother... he really does do amazing things! I'd forgotten that, but luckily through Ethan's eye's I've been reminded he's a REAL life superhero... with a cape and everything!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

I have a new obession!

I can't even tell you how much I love to sew! Who knew it could be so much fun! I love turning scraps into these usable/wearable works of art. I've decided to try and sew all of my Christmas presents this year! I've got 2 down...... how many weeks until Christmas??? Ahhhhhh

First I made this little "party" skirt for Leah... first time I've made anything like this! I followed a step-by step tutorial on U-create!!! She was loving modeling this skirt! It cracked me up! And this little beauty is a Nintendo DS case, complete with a place to store your games! (how to people come up with this stuff!) I'm making one for two of my nieces and probably one for Alex if I can find some more "manly" material!
I found this tutorial at http://madquilter.blogspot.com/2009/02/nintendo-ds-pouch-tutorial.html

Friday, October 29, 2010

Utah 2010.... Follow and drop it....

Leah, Ethan, & I just got back from a 4 day, 5 night stay in beautiful Provo Utah at the luxurious Gibbs Bed & breakfast...

Our first day out there, we just happened to know a BYU professor who scored us tickets to the game versus Wyoming. It was actually Leah & Ethan's first college football game. Leah loved the cheerleaders, Ethan loved the band, and we did our best to learn the fight song.... rah rah.rah..... GO Cougars.... It was VERY cold so we bundled together and got some Hot Chocolate from the vendors in the stand. (I thought it was VERY funny to hear them hollering ... "get your Hot Coco here or Red Vines.. get your red vines... instead of " Get your Ice Cold Bud Light") Sunday we of course joined them at church where it just happened to be the children's turn to speak & sing. Abbey got to stand up and say "she could set the WHOLE table by herself" and Leah loved the singing and we heard her singing later in the day "follow and drop it... follow and drop it" (it's suppose to be "Follow the Prophet"... but what can I say her Daddy's a fire fighter and stop drop and roll is ingrained in her head) we got a good chuckle out of that. I also love seeing the kids all dressed up! On Monday we found ourselves at Kangaroo Zoo.... if you visit Utah, you have to check this place out! It's a Warehouse full of bounce houses and slides and decorated with ALL IKEA stuff! It was so fun! As you can imagine the kids worked up quite a sweat playing and bouncing so we threw them all in the tub together. I thought a bubble bath would be so fun, and then they found the button that turns on the whirlpool bath.... notice in the first picture how low the water & bubbles are.... well it didn't take long for there to be TONS of bubbles... up to their ears....they had so much fun! Even if that meant there was water & bubbles all over the bathroom! You can see Ethan showing off his bubble muscles! One Tuesday we celebrated Abbey's 5th birthday (Leah & I have been at Abbey's birthday party EVERY year! The theme was based on Abbey's favorite book "The Berenstain bears Old Hat/New Hat. First Danielle read the book, then they made NEW hats. The kids even had a chance to pin the flower on the hat. (is that cute or what?) It was a great party and we got to meet a bunch of Abbey's new friends! Can't believe Abbey & Leah are both 5 years old!!! I also had made the all 5 kids matching pajamas, here they are fresh out of the bathtub ready for bed on our last night! I love these kids SOOOOOO much! And this is of the newest members of the Gibbs family, Little Mariann. She was sick when we first got there so she slept alot the first few days. This was the first day she was feeling better and I get to see more of her little personality. She's a sweetheart, but a bit of a Momma's girl! She is going through the "I only want my Mom" stage. but as long as Mommy wasn't in sight she was quite happy with me!

We had the BEST time and are so thankful that we were able to come visit them! The kids played together non-stop and it was like it had been only days not months or actually more than a year since they'd been together last. We had some great talks after the kids went to bed and I'm relieved that when we all die we'll still get to sit together in the cafeteria (Ben's analogy for the Celestial kingdom)

I still wish they lived down the street, but.... I'm so glad that they are finally enjoying living in Utah and making friends! I was trying to put my friendship to Danielle into words, and ended up borrowing a line from the TV show Grey's anatomy If you watch the show you know about Christina & Meridith's friendship and in a recent episode one said to the other .... "Yes we have husbands that we love, but you and me, we're soul mates"

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

How is it the middle of October already?

I seriously can't believe it's October 19th already, this month is flying by! We've been busy with camping trips, visits from My Dad & Connie, a trip to Circle S to get pumpkins, and..... we leave Friday for our trip to visit the Gibbs! I guess that's partly why I'm surprised this month has gone by so fast, usually when your waiting for something your excited about it seems like forever while your waiting.


Up first our camping trip.

We somehow convinced My Mom and her husband, My sister and her husband to join the kids and I on a camping trip in Old Man's cave in Hocking Hills. This area of Ohio is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! when we went this past summer i thought that it would be twice as gorgeous in the fall with all the leaves turning colors. We were a bit early for the best fall foliage, and it didn't help that it rained ALL night long. It was cold and the grownups were kinda grouchy and just wanted to get warm and out of the rain so it wasn't exactly the camping trip I had hoped for, but the kids had a great time. Up next my Dad and his wife Connie and her daughter Hannah made a quick trip from Illinois. They have had a CRAZY busy fall so we were so glad they could squeeze in a quick trip. We took them to the Italian festival Saturday night. We were able to grab this quick group shot before they leftAnd my Dad loves profile shots, but I laughed when i saw this because we all look like..... well to steal a line from the movie up.....

SQUIRREL!!!! And I love this picture of my Dad with the kids! I wish we lived closer and he could swing by on his way home from somewhere and pop in a read the kids a book or help Alex with his homework. I miss him the most right after we get to see them. I just love my Dad! And then as is our fall family tradition, we took the kids to Circle S Farms to pick out the perfect pumpkins and eat the best donuts in the whole world!!! The kids get to go down slides into huge piles of straw, wander through bales of hay made into a maze go on a hay ride out to the field to pick their own pumpkins and then finish it off with the best pumpkin donuts. This is one of my favorite traditions! It amazing for me to see the pictures from just 2 years ago when Ethan was just a little baby! I asked Theo if he thought we'll be able to drag them to
Circle S farm in 10 years... he says no... but.... I hope we can!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Who's your woobie?

Remember that movie Mr. Mom? I loved that movie. When I was a kid I loved the parts that involved the wobbie... like when the vaccum cleaner "jaws" attacked or when his dad was trying to wash the little guys wobbie. The other night I realized that My kids had "Wobbies" of their own and wanted to document the name & faces of these special little creatures!
Leah has Gus-Gus the Elephant (he came before Gus our dog)
and a little puppy she's named Shiney Rose Ethan has the Pup... "Oh-No" Alex has this little snoopy dog that his pal Rick got for him a long time ago and it seems to be the only stuffed animal that's stayed around... even though he "doesnt use it" it somehow remains in the general vicinity of his bed.
At this 'ol guy was MY woobie as a kid. Funny that Alex and I both have a snoopy. This poor guy has survived about 100 moves and and about as many "surgeries" to reattach his nose. This was a well loved stuffed animal and after seeing the movie Toy Story 3 (and crying) I was so happy that I still have this guy around. Even if he's in the linen closet most of the time. I hope that I'm able to hang onto the kids special woobies until they get older too!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Life lessons... from Kohls???

So Leah had been asking for weeks and weeks if she could have a pair of Twinkle Toes shoes. They are a pair of ridiculously be-jeweled, glittery tennis shoes made by sketcher. She HAD to have them! They were SOOO pretty!!!

Luckily for her, she got a pair for her birthday from Grandma & Grandpa! She was so excited and kept saying she was going to wear them on her first day of school! So she wore her sparkly shoes with her sparkly skirt & sparkly shirt on her first day of school and when I went to pick her up, the first words out of her mouth were "MY FEET HURT"

She took the shoes off as soon as we got home and she refused to wear them again. So here we had what I would call ,"expensive" for a child, tennis shoes sitting UN-worn in the mud room. I just couldn't take it so I took the shoes back to Kohl's were Grandma had gotten them.
The lady behind the counter was so nice and as she was handing me the gift card she looked at Leah and said "Just because something looks cool on TV doesn't mean it's going to be cool for you! You have to do whats best for you Little Lady"
I thought that was pretty poetic for a pair of shoes..... so we went and tried on several pairs of shoes and found a comfy pair that were also quite "cool looking" and as were were walking out Leah says "I guess I found what was best for ME!"
I wish I could bottle that up!!!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

What are you thankful for?

So I realized today, that I was complaining ALOT!!! Theo has been out of work for 4 weeks because of an ankle injury. So he's been home... resting his ankle.. which looks alot like loafing in his recliner... and I've been running around like a crazy woman all week... so I realized i was getting a little ...uh....snotty... yeah lets go with that word.... snotty with him. I was down at my neighbors house when their next door neighbor pulled in wearing name tags for Children's hospital.. their 2 week old baby is at Children's hospital... heart problems.... but they were so happy and hopeful.... and I realized on my short walk home that I was in DESPERATE need of and attitude adjustment.

So today I'm thankful for
Doctors, nurses and physical therapists to speed Theo in his recovery
Great schools for my kids to go to
smart, funny, & healthy kids
dirty dishes because that means we didn't go hungry
a big slobbery dog that loves me unconditionally
a computer to stay in touch with people that are far, far away
my corny, story telling, dancing & singing father
a husband that forgives my bad moods and messy ways
friends that tell me their secrets and listen to mine
have I mentioned Chocolate
bed sheets that are soft and smooth like butter
calculators
the flowers that surround my front porch swing
I'm able to be myself and still have so many people that love me!
What could I possibly complain about now??? How about you? What are YOU thankful for?

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The never ending first day of school...

Well we've had a HUGE milestone happen in our house this year...all three of my babies are going to school! Its hard to believe that for a few precious hours every week I'll have the house ALL TO MYSELF! I really have NO idea how I'll spend the time. So while they are all going to school, none of them started on the same day!

Alex is in 4th grade and started on Wednesday. Leah who's in Kindergarten started the following Friday
(I think she looks like my sis in this one)Ethan started preschool a week and half later. E will only be going 2 mornings a week, so he and I'll get to have all kinds of fun while the older two are gone all day! It's going to be so werid having just one kid bopping around the house. I have a feeling he is going to get SO bored with just me to play with so we'll have to get ourselves out and about.

Can you believe my babies are soooo big???

Geesh! Oh and did I mention they all start school at 9 am but at 2 different places! Luckily Leah & ALex will be at the same school so I can drop them off together and then race over to the preschool. I told Ethan's teachers to just plan that we will ALWAYS be late. Ugh you know how I HATE to be late! It stresses me out so much, but I'm gonna work on it!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Hau`oli Lā Hānau



We celebrated the little girls 5th birthday this weekend up at Nanny & Ken's house. She wanted a Luau so we got a bunch of leis, grass skirts and even some fun Hawaiian hats. She also picked out some little umbrellas for our drinks, but I didnt make a frozen strawberry drink for her to put the umbrellas in so Daddy decided that a T-bone was as good a place as any to stick his umbrella!
As most of you know Leah is QUITE the girly girl so in the weeks leading up to her birthday when you asked her what she wanted for her birthday she'd say "twinkle toes"... which are sparkly tennis shoes by sketcher... So you can imagine her excitment when she opened her present for Papa & Grandma Ann and her sparkly shoes were inside!


She also was asking for the Barbie doll from Toy Story 3, and a few weeks ago our sweet neighbors brough over a little present and it was the barbie. Well as you may or may not know that Barbie is rocking the leg warmers and she made the comment that she wished she could have some too! Lucky for her she has an Aunt that can knit and whipped up a pair of pink leg warmers!!!

After a day of swiming and fishing and playing with her new toys, we ended the night with a game of taboo (like the game Catch phrase) Leah is AWESOME at that game!!! It was such a fun day!

So here's the Top Ten list to decribe Five Year old Leah Nicole


10. Her nickname is Mouth of the South because she talks ALL the time

9. She still has the same cry that she had as a baby

8. What she really wants for her birthday is to get her "Ears A pierced".

7.Loves to be read to and is always trying to read along

6. Walks around on her tip toes, especially when playing make believe

5. Still has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger

4. Can not wait to go to Kindergarten

3. Would put butter, salt, and Ranch dressing on anything if you'd let her.

2. Is currently trying to become the understudy for Stacey London from that show "what not to wear" on TLC. If it has pink, glitter, hearts, lace, sequence, or animal print, she loves and wants to wear it, have it, or hang it on her wall!

1. She is the most amazingly adorable, sweet, kind hearted, girly, smart, giggly, fiesty, 5 year old little girl that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Little George

I keep forgetting to write about this, and this is something I definitely want to remember 40 years from now. So Ethan is 3 right now, a few months ago he started to figure out that we can't see everything that he does or doesn't do. So he'd try to lie about stuff... whether or not he washed his hands... if he put his dirty clothes down the laundry shoot... if he was the one that got into the candy. It was innocent enough and we could sometimes tell if he was lying but I also noticed that he, at times, has a pretty good poker face. I was getting a little nervous that I was raising the next Baby face Nelson. But then he made a fatal error.... he created Little George.

Little George is Ethan's blue haired "friend." He has a blue motorcycle and a white house and he vacations in Hawaii. He also conveniently lives close enough that Ethan can duck out to his house so he doesn't have to do things at our house. If something is a mess or broken... Little George must have done it.... if he doesn't want to take a nap...its because he already took one at Little Georges house. Dinner looking a little suspicious... he's full Little George already made Chicken nuggets.

He even brings up little George when he's making up stories of place he's been. He and Little George went to Hawaii last week and I never noticed he was gone. They've been to the President's house, to a waterfall and even up in a Hot Air Balloon. Ethan has a great imagination and I love that he's created a little friend. Especially since his "real" friends have become a bit scarce lately with people moving out of town. He came up to me one day last week and with eyes full of tears he said "I think all mines friends are dead" And just started to bawl! Poor kid! I keep telling him he's going to make friends once Pre-school starts, but to a 3 year old Sept 7th is a life time away.
So for now, we've got Little George.... here is a video of him talking about little George, It's so stinking cute!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

What just happened

How did this... Turn into this???
It struck me last night how much Leah has grown... her little legs use to barely come to Theo's waist and now they stretch past his knees.

When did this happen??? How did she get to be so big?

She's almost 5... she'll be starting Kindergarten in 2 weeks.... weren't we just sitting on the couch with a bowl of Ice cream resting on my belly as we tried to decide on names for her???

Friday, July 30, 2010

The McAllister Boys!

Since I don't have any little nieces or nephew that live close by, I've adopted these two little dumplings! Will is the blonde with blue eyes... we use to call him Baby Will in my house and then he went and had a baby brother...Duke.

I don't think I've ever been so smitten with someone Else's kids before! They are both pretty easy going (most of the time) and are the best sleepers. I'm so jealous! Even at my house you just have to tell Will it's time to go to sleep, give him a Binky and a blanket and tell him good night and he..... goes to sleep.... it's such a novel thing for kids to just go to bed.

(I hate to think of how many hours I've spent trying to talk, cuddle, wrestle, demand, and bargain my kids into bed!)

Thanks Amy and Cort, for letting me kidnap your kids every once in awhile, get my baby fix and spoil them rotten! I take my "Aunt" duties pretty seriously (Just wait until Halloween)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Girly Girls Day!

Leah and I decided we deserved a day without the boys! When I asked her what she wanted to do she said, without hesitation I might add. " I wanna go shopping at the MALL!!!" oh OK.... so we dropped off the Boys at Nanny's house and headed to the extreme Mega Mall, Polaris Fashion Place!!! We went to several stores and tried on clothes, looked at jewelry, we even treated ourselves to a lunch at Brio. We made a very important purchase and got Leah's book bag for Kindergarten. I'd never seen anything like it, but leave it to Leah to find a pink, sparkly, leopard print book bag with matching lunch box! ( Leah took this picture of her new bag)
Leah's absolute favorite store was this place called Sweet and Sassy.... let me just paint you a little picture.... You walk in the door covered with pink swags of sparkly fabric... It smells like someone spilled a bottle of bubble bath, there are ruffles, and bows, and sparkles EVERYWHERE...after spending 45 minutes in the store looking and touching EVERYTHING, we decided on a lip gloss ensemble that lights up when you spin it. As we were checking out the sprayed her hair with glitter and put a pink glittery star on her cheek. She was in hog heaven!

Well you can imagine my surprise when my Mom offered to watch the boys not just for the afternoon, but ALL night too! Theo was at the Fire House, So Leah and I had the whole place to ourselves! So Leah decided we need to have a slumber party! We put on a chocolate face maskThen a bubble bath, and pulled out the blankets and pillows and piled on the couch to watch a movie. With popcorn of course. Half-way through the movie, Leah announced that we had to have a pillow fight. (where does she get this stuff) so we paused the movie and had a pillow fight. Gus even joined in! Leah said it was OK if Gus was in the fight even though he's a boy dog! Her big thing about the slumber party was that we HAD to stay up past midnight and would be yawning and asking is it midnight yet? So finally I said yes (she cant tell time) and we climbed into Mommy & Daddy's bed and went right to sleep!
It was such a great day! And not just because we got to go shopping (although that was fun) I loved that Leah held my hand as we walked from store to store. I usually make them hold my hand in parking lots and across streets but she was the one that took my hand. And that night she curled right up to me and fell asleep with a smile on her face!
I've always know that I love my kids, but even 9 1/2 years into parenthood in still blows me away at how intense and sometimes unexpected in can be when all that love and worry that you have toward your kids comes bubbling to the surface! But as I fell asleep I'm almost certain that I had a smile on my face too!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Gus The Gentle Giant!

This is Gus with our neighbors 8 week old puppy!

Gus is easily 100 lbs these days and about 5 times bigger than this little guy!

Warning... EXTREME cuteness ahead!!!

New summer time tradition??? I hope not!

Well It's July, so apparently that means that a family that we like has to move away! :(
Our dear friends The Laudie's are moving to Kansas this weekend! Boooooo!!! They were only in Columbus for a year, but we really enjoyed getting to know them all better! The Mom, Tara, is the kind of friend we wish we all could be! She's crafty, funny, a great cook, and she has adorable kids! Our kids played together so well and that allowed us to have so much fun making something crafty!
I wish we would've had more time together,
but we are so glad we got to be friends with such an amazing family!
Good Luck In Kansas!!! We'll miss you!
The Kids on their last play date!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Family Reunion

They're creepy and they're kooky,

Mysterious and spooky,

They're all together kooky,

The McCord Family.

You know how sometimes you go to a family function and you leave with stories about drunk uncle Fred, or giggle about the crazy cat lady that brought pictures to show you of her 15 cats that she has at home. Perhaps you roll your eyes about how wild so and so's children are!

Well unless I am one or ALL of the persons mentioned above or .....all the crazy people stayed home this year! What an awesome family reunion! My Mom and her husband played host again this year and we had 47 people come to the reunion! Families from Delaware, NY, PA, & WV. Some came up for the day, some from the weekend. We had RVs parked in the drive way, people sleeping in tents, blow up mattress & fold out couches. I was actually a little sad that I live so close because we had to come home each night! :)

It was so awesome to see everyone and thanks to the Internet, we've been able to keep up with one an other's lives over the past 2 years. So we already knew a lot about what had been happening and we were able to skip the awkward "so what have you been up to?" and dive right into, I saw the pictures from when Dani was Annie in her school play.... tell me more.... I just felt way more connected to everyone!

Thank You so much to everyone who came! This weekend reminded me of our visits to Smethport, PA and having 40 people crammed in Grandma & Grandpa McCords house (with one bathroom no less)!!! Wonderful memories and we definitely made a lot more this weekend! See ya in 2012!!!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Happy Fourth of July

This year I celebrated my independence from my tonsils! Having survived my tonsillectomy, I had hardly left the bed or couch for more than a week and was happy to get out and about, even if it was just down to the parking lot by the public safety building. Leah and Ethan were VERY excited about Red, White, and BOOMS!!! Alex had been in Canada with my Mom, so he missed the festivities. My little cuddle bug Ethan posing with Theo & I. The only decent shot of the fireworks. Who knew it would be so hard! This year I have to say I am very thankful for all the men & women who are away from their families for weeks and months at a time protecting not only America, but helping those in places all around the world that need someone to stand up for them. Sgt Mark Pulse the father of my nieces Hannah & Madison, is over in Afghanistan right now.
They have already sacrificed so much in their young lives and now they are being asked to be strong once again. I pray that the time he is gone goes quickly and that thanks to the Internet they are able to keep in close contact with one another!
One of my favorite patriotic sayings it
Home of the Free, Because of the Brave!
and to quote my friend Greg
"Happy 4th of July..... Suck it England! "

Friday, June 18, 2010

Keeping busy!

Well we've been busy so far this summer! My little project has been kind of fun! It's making us get out there are try new stuff. and so far I'm delighted out how fun all our little excursions have been! If you want to see what we've done so far.... www.columbus4kids@blogspot.com

We've had alot of rain the last few weeks so we've watched our fair share of movies and video games. We've also started to really watch what foods we eat and started a "mini-diet" of sorts. Theo has already lost 8lbs. (why do guys always loose it faster?) I honestly don't know if I've lost weight, but I feel better. I've been using Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook to sneak veggies into the stuff and am actually having fun trying to find stuff that is good for us and actually tastes good too! Who knew counting Calories really was NOT that hard?

Construction on the great wall of Cathie is almost complete. We get dirt tomorrow and we'll be able to plant the flowers and get things straightened up once and for all in the front of the house. The neighbors will be so glad!

Alex left Thursday morning for Canada with my Mom... he's gonna be gone for 2 whole weeks! AHHHHHH!!! Yes I've had one minor freak out about it, but I know he's gonna have a blast! And while he's gone I'm going to finally have my tonsils removed. Nothing like putting it off for 12 years! They told me back in 1998 when I lived in Chicago that I should have them removed. It took one 5 week long cold/sore throat back in March to finally push me over the edge. So while I am NOT looking forward to what is about to happen. Hopefully I'll be much healthier on the flip side. I just pray that the drugs are strong and Theo is at least a "little" sympathetic as my nurse. He definitely has the EMT bedside manner! They warned me I'd be down and out for about 10 days so.... don't be concerned if I'm actually quite until July!

As most of you are aware I am a bit of a worry wart and just in case something happens to me.... promise me that every time you see my kids you'll give them a hug for me and tell them a story about something stupid I did or more likely something stupid I said. and play "In my life " at my funeral! Bette Midler's version is my favorite!!! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0iVE3Sw4E0&playnext_from=TL&videos=7bQOSZlXPRg&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh%2Bdiv-1r-1-HM

Monday, June 7, 2010

Dinning alfresco

A few weeks ago our good friends who also happen to be our neighbors (Julie & Laura) gave us the best hand-me-down I've ever gotten in my entire life. A plastic picnic table.
I know, I know, I'm easy to please. I decided instead of putting it in the garage and dragging it out once in awhile... that I'd set it up on the front porch and leave it there all summer long.

And can I just say.....I LOVE.... love... LOVE having a table on the front porch.

The front of the house is in the shade so we dont have to battle the sun in our shade-less back yard and we have all the pretty flowers on the porch. For those of you who know me well, you know how much I adore having a swing on the front porch and have probably talked to every person I know from a porch swing at some point in my life (even if it was just me on the phone with you). There is just something about sitting and swinging and talking with your friends and family. so you can just imagine how much I enjoy having a table right next to my swing.

The kids were absolutly giddy at the idea of eating outside
But we dont just eat there, we go out there to color, watch a thunderstorm, read...you name it we are gonna try it at the "alfresco table" and the best part is that clean up is LITTERALLY squirting everything down with the hose!

Funny side note, everytime we eat out there I say "I just love dinning alfresco" and EVERY stinking time Alex asks me "what's Alfresco?" so on the 4th night out there, I knew before i said it that he would ask and had joked with Theo about it, so when I said it and he asked ...Theo and I got to giggling so hard that I thought one of us was gonna fall out of our seats! Darn kids! :)
(Next time you see Alex ask him what Alfresco means) hehehe

Monday, May 24, 2010

The Graduate

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 2010 Hilltop YMCA graduating class of 2010!


Thursday, May 20, 2010

A little Annoyed

So today there was FINALLY a break in the weather, it's been raining for a couple of days and we were more than ready to get out and enjoy the sun. After school the kids and I went up to upper Arlington to what Leah calls "The Fancy Park" known to the rest of the world as Fancy burg. It's a nice little park with fun playground equipment and we just discovered it a few weeks ago. So Alex decided that with all the trees and stuff it would be fun to play guns with some of the other little boys there. Leah went off and did her thing while Ethan followed Alex around trying to do what Alex did and "secure the fort".

Everything was going just fine and I'd started to zone out about when all of a sudden I hear a woman yell "OH MY GOD that boy has a gun"... well like everyone in the park I turned to see what she was talking about... she started pointing at Alex and said "who's child is this?"... and I mumbled "uh mine" ... she said "Do you know he has a gun?" .. I said " Yeah, he has a couple of toy guns here" and she said "You HAVE to take them away from him... it MUCH to dangerous... it'll scare all the other kids in the park... its just not safe to have weapons at the park" And I kinda sat there for a minute trying to process what was going on and wondering "is she serious?" AND THEN she stood there glaring at me until I hollered "Alex come here and bring your guns please... you didn't do anything wrong just get the guns from the other kids and come here.... he took the guns from 3 or 4 other kids who wall did the "ahhhhh man ... we were playing with them still"... I told him the guns were making some of the Mom nervous and that we need to find something else to play....

I still was trying to process everything when anther Mom walked up to me and said VERY LOUDLY...."That's a bunch of CRAP!!! I just burst out laughing!

I'm sorry but it ridiculous that our kids can't play make believe because ONE mom in the park is wound up a little TOO tightly and reads and believes all of the crap they write in Parent magazine. ALL of our kids are just moments away from dying because we microwave their mac and cheese, or in the blink of an eye a terrible disaster will strike at leave our son crippled for life or a certain kids eye make up will blind my daughter... it's stupid I'm sorry to say.

WHEN will we let our kids be kids again??? Instead of letting them explore their world and help them to appreciate things, we are teaching them to be scared and cynical. Yes bad things do happen EVERY DAY... and its heartbreaking..... but there are so many more wonderful things that happen that don't get nearly enough press or enough of our attention. We are gonna turn our kids into a bunch of wimpy nervous wrecks...... instead of adventurous happy people.

But the cherry on top of this story is about 5 minutes later The mom who had thrown the hissy fit, had her oldest boy handed her his Light saber and said "Mom I don't wanna play Kill 'em anymore" .... I picked up the guns and said "Here you go boys" and cheer rang out amongst the boys and the other mom left in a huff..... sorry lady... light sabers... guns... potato... potato.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Family Pictures

When Theo & I got married back in December I was trying to be frugal and have some friends take our pictures. They got some amazing pictures, but in the end I was sad that I didnt get a "great" picture of all 5 of us together... so I told Theo that when the weather got a little nicer and before the kids out grew their wedding clothes I really wanted us to get family pictures taken. I found this great photographer through my "morman network" and we had pictures taken back in April. They were so fun and we are definetly going to use her again! There are SOOO many great pictures that It's so hard to choose even just a few....

It was so fun to get dressed up again and these pictures remind me again that I'm so lucky to have such great kids and a wonderful "new" husband!