Gymnastics/Football Weekend...

Last weekend was a whirlwind of a weekend. On top of all the craziness, I was so sick and just felt miserable on Friday. But that night, John and I helped out at the school’s carnival at a picture booth. We were there for 3 hours and while we had a lot of fun, being sick was just horrible.

Saturday we woke up and took it easy for the beginning of the day. I cleaned out my scrap room and then we took a whole bunch of stuff to Goodwill. Ryan was over at my parents’ house, so we decided to leave Ky and Josh home by themselves while we dropped the stuff off (it’s 5 minutes down the road). At first they were scared and didn’t want to do it (which surprised us…we thought they would be so excited!). But then they decided to do it, and I talked to Kylie on the phone most of the time we were gone (which was a total of 10 minutes). It was such a neat feeling knowing that my kids are growing up , and there will be a day that John and I can leave the house without all of them in tow :)

Saturday night I had my friends over for a scrap night. John took the kids to the city bonfire, and we all had a great time. I’m working on my sister’s wedding present, a scrapbook of the whole wedding process, so it was good to make some progress on that.

Sunday we woke up to chaos. I had lost the e-mail that Kylie’s gym had sent about her meet (her first one was that day), and when I called to get the information, the info the girl gave me just didn’t sound right. So Sunday morning I called again and found out they were about to start warming up! I thought I still had another hour! So John took her over there and I quickly finished getting ready and took the boys over there. The meet was cute…they did an intersquad meet for their first one and Kylie did really well! The coaches were the judges and they gave out candy instead of ribbons. She was just so cute out there!

After the meet we went home and chilled for a little bit before Joshie’s football game. I still felt sick, so I laid down for a while and thankfully felt better after a little bit. I put a pot roast in the oven and off we went to the game. The weather was so gorgeous! The Bears won, and Joshie had an awesome, long touchdown run, as well as a touchdown catch!

When we got home we had a nice family dinner (my sister was in town so that was nice) and then just relaxed the rest of the day. I have been so busy and stressed at work that it was so nice to have some down time, especially since this past week has not been any better.



This is Ryan and the sister of one of the other players (who also happens to be good friends of ours). They are so cute together!

Weekend Recap...

Last Friday we headed down to Athens for OU Homecoming. It was such a whirlwind trip...we got to my parent's house and ate a late dinner and went to bed, got up early the next morning and went to the parade, then went to the football game, and then came home. I was exhausted!

We had two missions while we were down there: 1.) get a coming home outfit for the baby, and 2.) get the annual picture of the kids walking towards Baker Center. We got the picture, but when it came to the outfit (the thing I was most concerned about), I couldn't find anything! This is the first time I will have to buy a sleeper for the baby, as opposed to a onesie (since it is my first winter baby), and they had so many cute onesies, but only one sleeper and I thought it was ugly :( I guess I'll have to keep looking online and hope they come out with something in the next couple of months!

Sunday we went to church and then off to Joshie's football game. The weather was absolutely perfect! The Bears lost, but they played so well and played a really good team.

Here are the old pictures:






Here are the new ones (and yes, Ryan is wearing the jersey that Josh was wearing in the previous pictures):

Contest Winner...

Using a random number generator, the following comment who was made by "anonymous" was selected:

I am a teacher and this kit sounds like it would be perfect to use as part of a lesson before Halloween. To take the "scary" out of Halloween, our school has decided NO COSTUMES...it is wear orange and black day to celebrate instead.

If you could contact me with your mailing information (dstickel at mihomes dot com), I will have the kit sent out to you ASAP! If I don't hear from you by end of day Wednesday, I will select another winner.

Thanks!

A Contest!!!

I was asked to review Joy Berry’s Taking the Scary Out of Halloween Kit. I was sent a kit and received it a couple of days ago and it is really neat! The kit includes the Taking the Scary Out of Halloween book, 10 safety guides for Halloween, “make and do” activities for costumes and make-up, simple Halloween night recipes, glow-in-the-dark stickers, glow whistle, glow necklace and bracelet, and a flashlight with Halloween-themed interchangeable lenses.

My kids love the flashlight and the book has some really neat tips for kids on how to be polite while trick-or-treating and staying safe.

I have been given an extra kit to give as a giveaway, so leave a comment and I’ll randomly select a winner on Friday!

Another Great Weekend!

Last weekend was a really good weekend – the weather was warm, and the entire weekend wasn’t jammed packed with stuff to do.

Friday night we got home from work and hung out with the neighbors for a while. The weather was so nice and the kids had a ton of fun. We ended up going to BW3s for dinner with our one neighbor and kids which was a lot of fun.

Saturday morning Josh and John headed to football practice, and Kylie, Ryan and I headed to Yutzy’s and Dings and Dents. After that John loaded Kylie and Josh up and headed down to the OU game. So Ryan and I got to spend the whole day together! For the most part, we played outside with his little girlfriend and her mom and I sat outside and just watched them play. My dad also hung out with us for most of the day. That night was so calm…I fed Ryan, went and grabbed some food for me, and then John and the kids got home and we all just sat around for a little bit before everyone headed to bed.

Sunday was our busy day! We had church in the morning, immediately followed by football pictures and Josh’s game. It was so gorgeous outside! I was hot in my jeans, but I didn’t dare complain because it definitely beat the bitter cold weather we sat through the week before! The Bears ended up winning their game and Josh pulled three flags and caught a touchdown pass!

After the game we were so beat that we went home and just relaxed for an hour. Then we headed out to get the kids winter coats, Kylie some jeans, and to get the rest of the baby gifts for John’s sisters. We finally got home around 7:15, ate dinner, finished homework and then collapsed into bed :) It was such a busy Sunday, but definitely a lot of fun!

My Baby is Almost Gone...

John and I decided that it was time for Ryan to give up his pacis when he slept. The main reason for this is that we wanted to make sure he was over them before the new baby got here…we have vivid memories of Kylie trying to steal Josh’s pacis when we was first born because she had just given hers up. We’re hoping that if he has 3 months without them that he won’t try to sneak them when the baby comes home.

So Friday night we told Ryan that he was all done with pacis, and that if he slept without them, he would get a new toy the next day. He told us that he wanted a new Percy train. So we took him up to the crib and laid him down with his Elmo and Cookie pacis only. Now some history about these pacifiers – on the way to church one morning when Ryan was little, I realized that we had forgotten his pacifiers. I knew that they were vital because he was going through a really rough patch in the nursery, so we stopped at the drug store on the way and I went in to get him some new ones. Unfortunately, they didn’t have his kind, so I grabbed this pack that had an Elmo and a Cookie Monster pacifier in it, knowing how much he liked these characters, I thought they would work. When I got back to the car and put one in his mouth, he immediately spit it out. He hated the shape of these pacifiers! So it has been a long running joke with him…when I lay him down at night, I would say “Elmo in mouth?” and he would say “noooo” and then I would say “Cookie in mouth?” and he would say “nooo,” followed by either “green one” or “blue one” (his favorite pacis). So in conclusion, he hated these pacifiers in his mouth.

When I laid him down Friday night, he immediately started crying. After a few minutes, John went in and calmed him down and he fell asleep. John went in to check on him about an hour later and the little stinker had Elmo in his mouth! I felt horrible knowing that the kid was so desperate that he stuck his hated paci in his mouth, so I went in to switch it for him, but when I pulled it out, he was so tired that he didn’t even notice. So I left without giving him his good pacis.

The next morning we wake up realizing that he didn’t wake up at all and thought the night had turned out to be a success after all. I heard John go into his room when he woke up and say “why do you have Cookie in your mouth?” Ugghhh! What a stinker! So we went about our day and he napped in the car (he never has a paci in the car), so we were back at it Saturday night. This time there were NO pacis in the crib! We laid him down and he went right to sleep and slept through the whole night! Again he napped in the car during the afternoon, and then we went to get him his new toy. He ended up getting a little Thomas take-along track set that he loves!

We laid him down last night and he cried himself to sleep (about 5 minutes). He woke up twice in the middle of the night (John’s been getting him for me which is so nice!), but fairly easily went right back to sleep. We’ll see how he does during his nap for Danielle today :)

So outside of diapers, there are no more signs of a little baby in my house :( I’m so excited that he’s growing up and learning so many new things, but at the same time, it’s so sad for me. Thankfully I have another baby coming to fill the baby void…I don’t know what I’ll do when this one starts growing up and there’s no little baby after it…

A Busy Weekend!

Last weekend was such a blur, and yet so fun!

Friday night was the kids’ school’s night for a tailgate at the high school game. We went over there with our neighbors and had some bad food but good company :) After that was over, the husbands and the older kids stayed for the game, and my friend and I took the little ones home to play. They had so much fun playing together all night!

Saturday we went to Joshie’s football practice and I ran to the grocery store. Then we ran to Sam’s club to get snacks for 300 people :) That night, our church was bringing in David Pendleton, who is a well-known Christian ventriloquist. He, along with some people from church, were also coming over to the house for dinner, so I had a day full of cooking ahead of me!

We spent the rest of the day cooking and getting the house ready for all of the people (there were 18 in total). We had a great dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and applesauce (brought by one of the guests) and apple pie for dessert. While it was a lot of work and my feet really hurt afterwards, I had a lot of fun getting everything ready.

Then we headed out to the show and it was wonderful! He was so funny and I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. We helped get things cleaned up and didn’t end up leaving the church until around 10:00.

Sunday we went to church and then headed out to Joshie’s first football game. While we were super excited to watch him play, we were not excited about being outside…it was FREEZING! We got hot chocolates for everyone (our Tim Horton’s Sunday Football Tradition), but that wasn’t enough to keep us warm! The wind was blowing and Ryan kept crying and saying “it’swindy.” The hot chocolate at least helped take the edge off of his being cold, but he ended up spilling so much down the front of him that I’m still trying to get it out of his clothes!

The Bears (Joshie’s team) ended up winning, so at least there was one bright side to an otherwise miserable hour and a half :) After the game we stopped and got some tortilla soup from Max and Erma’s and headed home. John and I finished cleaning up from the night before, and Ryan played some more with Zora. I got to watch a movie with Kylie and then we worked on some homework with both of the kids. Other than doing laundry all day, it was a wonderfully lazy day!

This week has been pretty busy…and it’s still been pretty cold, so we haven’t been outside much at all. Starting today, and going through the beginning of next week, it’s supposed to really warm up and be nice…we might even get to 80 degrees this weekend! So hopefully we’ll get to spend a lot of time outside and the kids can see their friends again :)