Remember Me?

Its been a looooong time since I’ve blogged, so long that I’ve almost forgotten how to do it! Everything here on WordPress looks a little different!

Back in January I started at a new salon which meant more hours. I decided that my free time should be spent with my kids not on the internet. Plus, until yesterday I hadn’t really stepped foot in my craft room. It became more of a “catch all” disaster area.

August marked the beginning of all 3 kids being in school full time! It was an adjustment for me, but I’ve seemed to manage!I decided to work on my time management skills, clean out my craft room and return to a hobby that I love. I can’t wait to bust out the sewing machine and paint brushes and start sharing some of my creations with you.

I’m not promising consistency, but hang in there with me!

Olivia

Off to Market

Ice Cream

I guess I should have thought twice about an ice cream/ beer run when it was 98 degrees outside!

Piper Ann yelled to Oliver, “hold it out the window!”

Thank goodness for leather seats!

Kung Zhu

I was asked to try out the newest thing in the Zhu Zhu Pets world.
Its called Kung Zhu and its geared more towards boys unlike the original Zhu Zhu Pets.
There is the Delta Force side and the Ninja side. After going through different training facilities, they meet up in the battle arena. Each hamster dons battle gear and they go head to head until one of them is defeated. Think UFC for hamsters.

We had a little party here to try out the Zhu Zhu pets. I’m glad I didn’t wait until last minute to put it together, because it took 2 hours to unpackage everything.

I made a regular 9×12 boxed cake with white frosting and sprinkles. Then I added chocolate covered raisins here and there, and told the kids that the hamsters got loose and pooped all over the cake! It was good for a laugh.

Haiti

Today was the first day I’ve been able to see the news and really absorb what’s going on in Haiti.

As I sit in my nice safe house I feel helpless.

To contribute, I will be donating 50% of all sales in my etsy shop to relief.
Donating isn’t stopping there in the 3 in under 3 house. Nathan, with no suggestions from me, decided to donate his toothfairy money to his friends Haiti fund. Ricardo and I will be matching it.

2009 Recap

Looking back at my year its been pretty eventful!

January

*I celebrated my 30th birthday
*We celebrated Oliver’s 3rd birthday.
* I had surgery

February
*Celebrated my Grandma’s Birthday
*Celebrated Valentines Day

March
*Celebrated Ricardo’s 36th Birthday
*Took the kids to Chicago for Spring Break

April
*Went camping for the first time.
*Celebrated my cousin’s daughters birthday.
*Celebrated Nathan’s 6th birthday.
*My mom and Mother in Law celebrated their birthdays too!
*Went to Mexico to celebrate 2 of my good friends and my 30th birthdays. It was the first time we ever left the kids. We had a great time but missed them of course.

May
*Wrapped up the school year.

June
*Started summer activities
*Finished my sister’s quilt
*Redid my bathroom

July
*Nathan busted open his chin!
*Spent the 4th in the country with our friends.

August
*Went to Mexico again with Ricardos mom, sister, brother-in-law, and niece.
*Nathan started first grade.
*Little kids went to preschool.

September
*Went camping again

October
*The salon I worked at closed.
*Oliver gave up binkys
*The inlaws came up for Halloween

November
*Had a great Thanksgiving with some friends
*Visited Chicago and the in laws

December
*Had a busy month
*Had a great Christmas with the extended family
*Got to spend some quality time with my youngest sis
*Rang in the new year with some old and new friends.

I hope everyone has a great 2010!

Mellowing

My friend Nicole just did a post on this today, so I thought I’d add to it…

Before I had kids I swore they would never wear clothes with characters on them.

I also swore they would never own shoes that light up. We’ve actually only crossed paths with one pair, but we now have shirts that light up.

Homemade Halloween costumes were also a musthave. I swore I would never buy the crappy, but expensive, kind from party stores. They have come a long way since I was a kid, though.

Of course all that has gone by the wayside. The more characters the better. Now my kids study the Halloween magazines that we get in the paper or the mail to decide what they’ll be this year. Luckily grandpa funded them!

Today I finally gave in to my last “I swear I would never…,”

I bought a blow up Halloween decoration for the yard.

Ricardo is going to take the kids for a night to the in-laws. When they get home, I’ll be surprising them with a blow up haunted house and gravestones in the garden! I’ll try and post pictures.

I still have one thing I will never give in to…the orange leafbags with jack-o-lantern faces on them. I especially hate them when they’re still out at Christmastime, because the yardwaste collection has either stopped or they won’t take leaves in plastic bags!

One of Those Days

Nathan and Oliver have been sick  at some time over the last week. I decided I would call the doctor this morning to have Nathan seen after he had spiked a high temp last night, of course this means he can’t go school.

This morning Piper Ann woke up with the sneezes and a runny nose. Great.

When we got to the doctors office, I just had them all checked out.  Nathan, although looking pathetic, was actually the healthiest one! Oliver ended up with an ear infection and PA had spiked a temp of 102.3 and tested positive for the flu.  There is nothing we can do for that. I guess I’ll have another kid home from school tomorrow and she only goes twice a week!

Pray that this goes away soon! I can’t take anymore whiny children.

Oh, funny story from the doctors office…She asked Nathan to tell her his symptoms. He said, ” I have a cough I can’t control, and I can’t control the whining either.”

Do you think I’ve been complaining about the whining a bit?

Footloose

We let the kids watch footloose this weekend.

It wasn’t until we were watching it that we realized how inappropriate it was for children. I had to answer some questions I wasn’t ready for…

“why is he naked in the woods?” During a post sex scene.

“why is she zipping up her pants? Did she pee in the woods?’ During the same sex scene.

“Why is he hitting her? Why does she have blood?” After watching a girl get beat up.

Luckily they haven’t dwelled on it too much. I did explain that boys do not hit girls!

My favorite part of the movie is when Willard is learning how to dance. They play “Lets Hear it for the Boy!”

Looking back one of the funniest parts is when Ren (Kevin Bacon) gets so mad, he throw his beer and has to dance. I love it!

Friday Night Fun

We are enjoying some warmer than normal weather here in The Lou, so we have been taking full advantage.

Friday we had some friends over and had a driveway party. Ricardo grilled up some steak sandwiches and we drank some Pomegrapefruit and vodka ( I made that up, but its delicious). The kids raised hell in the front yard. At one point we were listening to The Beastie Boys, “License to Ill” being played from Ricardo’s car with the bass turned up. There was quite the display of childrens break dancing! I have some video, but it needs to be edited.

We had a fire and let the kids roast marshmallows.

Here are some happy S’more faces …

I’m sure we didn’t score any points with the neighbors even though we were wrapped up by ten, but we had a great time!