A Fun Wednesday Night...

Last night was a great family night!

I took Kylie to gymnastics, and when I got home, we got the boys ready to go to the park. I had to go in and get Colton up from his late nap and then we were ready to go!

When we got to the park, I put Colton in his stroller and gave him some crackers (since he slept through dinner) and his water and then John and I played basketball with the older two boys. It was a great workout for me! Ryan got bored after a little bit, so I took him and Colton over to the playground. We played there for a while, and then Ryan wanted to go and see the pool (this park is attached to the Powell pool). It was exciting looking at it because we have decided to get a membership this year, so I can’t wait to spend days in the sun and water! But we haven’t told the kids yet :) I just can’t believe that we still have two months until it opens! This weather is messing with me – I feel like it should be opening in a couple of weeks!

We played at the park until about 8:00 and then headed over to the gym to get Ky. Ryan and I walked in and watched her until she finished up at 8:30 and then headed home. My dad came up early this week, so he came over and chatted with us and Ryan went back to his house with him to spend the night. My parents switched with Miss G and are watching the kids today instead of Friday.

After we got the kids to bed (super late I might add), John and I worked on the songs and slides for our New Kids’ Bloc that we are kicking off tomorrow night. It’s a big Eggstravaganza! We’re having a big carnival kick-off event and then every-other week we’re going to have the kids come in for a small group type thing. It’s for kids ages 2 to 5th grade – it should be fun!

Weekend Recap...

Last weekend was another fabulous one!

John and Josh left for St. Louis at 4:00 AM on Thursday morning. The other kids and I got through Thursday evening with nothing much going on outside of Kylie’s gymnastics. That night Ryan slept with me in my bed because Kylie had gone over to my dad’s (since it was spring break) and I really didn’t have a good reason why he couldn’t sleep with me.

Friday after work I came home and Dad and I loaded the kids up and headed downtown to the CBJ game. My brother-in-law won tickets and a suite for the night, so he invited us, his family, and some friends. The kids were super excited! It was Colton’s first game and he was glued to the ice for the first 10 minutes – he loved it! Then he had a blast walking around the suite and eating my food :) There was another family there that had boys Ryan and Colton’s age, so that was great! We also had the Bobcat game on the TV so we got to watch the OU game and the CBJ game :)

We left the arena with about 6 minutes left in the hockey game and 15 minutes left in the OU game. We rushed home and pulled in the driveway just as the Bobcats went into overtime. We carried Ryan and Colton up to bed (who had fallen asleep right away) and watched as the poor Bobcats couldn’t hang on :( Dad left to go home, I finished cleaning up the house, and Kylie slept in my bed with me that night. At 12:30 AM I heard my text message ding and sleepily went downstairs to see who it was. This was the message from John:

We are coming home now…don’t set the alarm…let me know you got this.

Crazy guy! So I told him I got it and went back to sleep. Sure enough, at 7:00 AM, John and Josh came in and promptly put themselves to bed :) The slept in a while and then we all had a great day catching up with each other once they woke up. It turns out they were able to sell their Sunday game tickets for $100 bucks each!

Saturday night John and I went out with some friends for dinner and to see The Hunger Games. I had been looking forward to this for so long! I was planning on going by myself once I got John his tickets, but I was super excited that he was able to go with me after all!

We met our group at a Mexican restaurant where we had a fabulous dinner and our friends got John and shot and dessert for his birthday. Seeing him with a huge sombrero was quite funny :) After dinner we rushed over to the theater and got ready to watch the movie!

I loved the movie! John watched the OSU basketball game on his phone while he watched the movie, so I’m not sure how much he actually saw (he wasn’t giving it a fair chance anyway – he had his mind made up before we went in there). And twice he phone shouted out “it’s March madness” in the quiet theater – I was not happy! :)

Sunday we went to church and then came home and relaxed. John ran an errand to get some stuff to get the mower ready and I took a tiny nap. We played with the kids and just had a relaxing, great day!

Warm Weather, Tornado Warnings and a Birthday...

Wow…this week has really been flying by! Part of the reason is because I have taken on a new responsibility at work for a few weeks that has just been eating all of my time and my days are flying by!

So last weekend was gorgeous! We were all outside most of the days and just enjoying the beautiful, above normal temperatures for this time of year. Late Sunday afternoon, we headed over to the mall to get the kids some shoes and Kylie some clothes. We were in the mall for about two hours, and when we came out, it was very dark and stormy-looking outside. We also heard the tornado sirens going off. So John quickly pulled up the radar on his phone and told us to get in the car quickly as the rain was about to let loose!

We got in the car, and our original plan was to stay put until the storm passed, but as the sirens were going off and the warnings were coming through the radio, we realized that we needed to get into a building. So we headed over to Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is where Joshie had been dying to go the whole time so he could get his new basketball. So we pull in the parking lot and in the pouring rain, I grab Ryan and Josh and Kylie follow me running while John grabs Colton. Once inside the store we shake off the water and start looking around. The kids were scared and I felt bad that no matter what I said to comfort them, they were still scared. Kylie was scared that the car was going to blow away with all of her new clothes in it :)

After a little bit, someone came over the intercom and said that anyone that wanted to was welcome to go back in their break room, so we headed back there to ride out the storm. We grabbed some snacks from the vending machine and sat and watched the news for storm updates. We were probably on in there 10 minutes before everything had passed and we could buy Joshie’s basketball and leave.

That night we watched the OU game and Dad got us all some KFC. It was a great ending to a wonderful weekend!

This whole week the kids have been on spring break. And better yet, my dad has been on spring break, and for the first time ever he has been up here the whole time! The kids have been spending the night over at his house each night and he has been hanging out with them each night. He has been having dinner with us each night and it has really been super nice having him around so much!

Another great thing about this week has been the weather! We have had record highs for three days this week and it has been absolutely gorgeous! Who would have ever thought it would have been 85 degrees during the middle of March??? It’s awesome!

Yesterday was John’s birthday. He’s not a big birthday person, which really annoys me because I am :) So every time I would ask him what he wanted to do, he would say “I don’t care.” So for his dinner, he picked Taco Bell (yes, you read that right), and then we headed to Rita’s for first day of spring free Italian Ice’s. We actually celebrated his birthday on Tuesday because he had a church meeting last night, and also, because I had to give him his present as soon as possible :) The kids and I and my parents got him a ticket to see the Bobcats play in the Sweet 16 tournament in St. Louis! I also got Josh a ticket. The two of them were picked up at 4:00 AM this morning by our brother-in-law and John’s brother. Joshie texted me at 7:00 saying they were in Indy. I have never seen two people more excited! John’s dad is already down there with the team.

So it’s been a crazy busy week, but a great one! It makes me really excited about this summer…I know it’s going to be full of activities and tons of fun…I love warm weather!!!

A GORGEOUS Day!

Today I had a meeting with the principal at the kids' school. I would like to get a crossing guard in our neighborhood, so we walked out there so I could show her the area and where kids come from when they walk to school.

After we were done, I hurried into the cafeteria just as Josh's class was leaving. I waited and saw Kylie waiting in the hallway to come in to eat and went and talked with her and her friends. Kylie was excited to see me and gave me a big hug! I sat with them for about half of their lunch time and then headed out to the playground to see Joshie.

Now normally, one might be worried about finding their child amongst tons and tons of little kids over a large area of playground. But not me. I knew right where my little boy would be...the basketball hoops :) And after he was done shooting and looked over and saw I was there, he ran up and gave me a huge hug. He kind of hung around for a while and I urged him to keep playing and not miss his recess and that I would stand there and watch him. I could not have picked a better day to be there...March 14th and it is perfectly clear and sunny and 75 degrees...I was in heaven!!!

So I watched him play for 15 minutes, and then the whistle blew and the kids made their way over to the fence to line up to head back to class. Joshie walked with me, and when he got to the line, I hugged him good-bye and started to walk through the kids to leave. All of a sudden Joshie was back in front of me giving me another hug. Talk about melting my heart! I love that little cutie so much! And it makes me sad to think that someday soon he won't be caught dead hugging his mom, so for now, I will cherish each and every hug and beg for me to come to lunch with him :)

The Last "First Steps"....

We had another exciting event happen this past weekend…Colton really started taking his first steps! He’s been leading up to this – it’s been a slow and gradual process! And at 14 months now, it's about time...my arm is really starting to hurt from carrying him around everywhere! And I’m so thankful for our kids’ technology because I wasn’t even there to see it! We were at Kylie’s meet and Joshie took the video for me with his iPod!

My little baby is really growing up :)

Colton's First Steps from Debbie on Vimeo.

Joshie Finally Lost His First Tooth!

Saturday was a big day in our house…Joshie finally lost his first tooth! It has been wiggly for a while, and the two big teeth were already up behind it. It had been painful for him for a while, and we were sure we were going to have to take him to have it pulled. But finally, Saturday night, as we were all getting ready for bed, John was able to pull the tooth out of his mouth!

The Toothfairy came and gave him $5, along with a note that said since it was his first tooth, he could keep it. So now I have two first-baby-tooth-losts in my nightstand :)

Another Fun Night...

Another fun night last night!

It was gorgeous outside, so I fed the kids a quick dinner and just as they were finishing, there was a knock at the door from the neighbors. They went out and played for a few minutes before we had to take Kylie to gymnastics. After we dropped her off, we were off to get Joshie a new bat.

Joshie is going to try out for coach-pitch Little League this year. Based on his age, he’s still supposed to be in t-ball (what a joke), but they can try out to move up. The kid is so far beyond t-ball that there is no way I could sit through a season of that! But he needed a new bat…all he had was his t-ball bat. And of course, with our new money-saving thought process, it was killing us to have to go and buy a bat. So John and the idea to check out Play It Again Sports (which was right on the way anyway). I agreed…the bat is going to get used and scuffed up anyway, who cares if we don’t get it brand new?

Ryan, Colton and I stayed in the car while they ran in, and about 10 minutes later they came out with a brand new bat that only cost $19.99!!! I guess it was last year’s model or something, but either way, it was perfect for Josh!

So we headed to the indoor batting cages to get him some practice. He is so good! His new bat worked out really well and he was doing such a great job hitting! I threw Ryan some pitches with his whiffle bat and ball and Colton was so good sitting in the stroller watching.

After Josh was done, we headed to Giant Eagle to grab a few things and then headed home. We got the little ones ready for bed and then John went back out to get Kylie. Then it was bedtime for everyone, and John and I got to watch a show together in between him running up to the computer while he was working on some things for a client. It was a great night :)

A Good Evening...

Last night was another out-of-the-ordinary night for our family :)

I was told yesterday at work that for the first time in over two years I was getting a raise. It’s very small, but hey, I’m not complaining! With that piece of good news, plus the fact that I had planned on pulling something out of the freezer (i.e. fish sticks or corn dogs) for dinner, and the cleaners had come that day and I didn’t feel like messing the kitchen up so soon, we decided to go out to dinner.

What’s funny, is with our new money-saving attitude, going out to dinner still meant that we were using a gift card and a coupon from the paper :) We headed over to O’Charlie’s (it was just the boys and us…Kylie was at Rachel’s) and had a great dinner. I got a really good drink (my celebration) and Colton cracked me up with his yelling “Dadda” at everyone that walked by and giving cheesy grins to the server.

After dinner we headed over to Ulta for me to pick up some foundation. It’s funny, again with this money-saving mentality, I have been thinking about this foundation for a week now. Before, I would have bought it the minute I wanted it, but now, I went to Ulta last week and tried it on. I wore it the rest of the day and then thought about it for a week and had finally decided that I wanted it. What a change! But when I looked at how much money I was spending on make-up it was sickening! So now I’m going through all of the stuff I already have and coming up with new looks (thanks to youtube!).

After that we picked Kylie up and once we got home, everyone got ready for bed. It was a good night that didn’t involve any cooking or clean-up :)

A "Movie" Night...

Last night was a hoot!

I came home and Colton was sleeping, which I love because it lets me cook dinner without 1.) having to worry about holding him and 2.) without having to feed him before dinner’s ready. So I made dinner (sausage and rice casserole that was fantastic!) and got to talk to John and then our neighbor came over to pick her kids up, so I got to chat with her for a little bit. Then Colton woke up and we all had a great dinner.

John had his last football game last night (we thought last week was going to be the last one, but they made it to the championships), so he started getting ready for that while I played with the kids in the playroom. Colton was all over the place, Kylie was giving Ryan a makeover (not sure about that one…) and Josh was playing with the video camera that John’s parents had given him for Christmas.

I took Colton up and fed him and put him to bed, and then the older kids and I made a movie! Josh was the narrator and camera guy; Ryan was the dad that had been shrunk down and was half big person and half kid; Kylie was the teenage daughter that was trying to figure out how to get her dad big again; and I was the mom, who gets turned into a kid when Kylie’s formula doesn’t work. We had so much fun taping and then watching it!

Then it was bedtime for everyone, which of course was met with some resistance. But by 9:00 I was able to paint my nails and watch one of my shows, which was a nice ending to the day!

Another Weekend Recap...

The weekend went by way too quickly! We didn’t even really have anything going on, and yet it seemed to fly by!

Friday night we just hung out around the house. Kylie started working on her webpages for her Invention Convention project (www.yappout.com), and the boys and I played. Then later, all the kids (except for Colton of course) headed over to my parents’ house to spend the night. John and I got to watch one of our shows we had DVRd (an episode of The Mentalist…our favorite show together) and then crashed.

Saturday morning we woke up fairly early and started making breakfast in a nice, quiet house :) Kylie came over around 8:15, followed by the other kids shortly after, and then Colton woke up around 9:00. We had a great breakfast of French toast and John’s potatoes that everyone loves! Then we made our bi-weekly trip out to Yutzy’s and then came home and just hung out around the house. John and Josh had lots of Streak for the Cash games going on (they are so funny with that!) and Kylie was working on her project. I played Cars 2 Monopoly with Ryan (his way of course) and watched lots of his hockey games. Kylie went over to Rachel’s house around 6:00 to spend the night. Then we had a great dinner of steak and chicken, and then the boys headed over to my parents’ again. I felt kind of motivated and did some major re-organizing and cleaning up in our owner’s retreat and then watched some TV.

Sunday was church and our weekly trip to Giant Eagle after church. Kylie went in with me (and Ryan) because she wanted to buy some lottery tickets. She and her friends each put in $2 and truly believe they are going to win the lottery so that they can start their own little town. It’s cute to hear her and Josh talk about what they would buy if they won the lottery (smartboards, X-Box, games).

After that it was lunch at home and another day of hanging out. I got to play with Colton a ton and got some cute pictures of him. Kylie worked (and stressed) on her project some more, and the boys played at my parents’. Sundays are kind of hard with Colton right now because he misses his morning nap at church, which throws his whole day off. No matter how hard I try to get him back on schedule, it never works and it ends up making the late afternoon/evening kind of miserable. But I know this phase will pass, and honestly, I will be sad when it does because he will definitely no longer be a baby when it does :(

We had a good dinner and then all watched America’s Funniest Home Videos and Shrek 2 before bed. We also turned on some college gymnastics which was fun for Kylie and I to watch. John and I finished watching that after the kids were in bed and then crashed ourselves.

Onto a new week… :)

Misc. Thoughts and Updates...

I know it’s the cliché statement of 2012, but what is going on with this weather??? We still have not had a snowfall that would make us even contemplate the possibility of shoveling the driveway, and Wednesday of this week (that’s right, February 29th) my car said 69 degrees when I was coming home from work! That night I rushed home and the kids and I spent as long as we could outside playing. And then today, a high of 65 degrees.

People are saying that we’re going to get slammed with a huge snowfall, but at this point, I don’t care…because it’s March, and even if it snows, it will melt quickly and spring is just around the corner, so we see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have learned two things this winter…1.) don’t listen to “predictors;” we were supposed to have this super horrible winter…that’s all I heard last summer and fall, and guess what? WRONG! And 2.) Punxsutawney Phil was wrong! I don’t think we’ve had a day of winter since that little booger told us that we would have six more weeks of it!

Anywhoo, the point of all of this is to say that for this cold-hating girl, this past winter has been an absolute dream! Even more proof that I belong down south!

As for the family, everyone is doing great…the kids are doing fantastic in school and Ryan continues to amaze us with how smart he is. And Colton is growing like a weed and letting us get some sleep :) He sleeps through the night now, but about every couple nights he wakes up and whines and either I’ll just turn on the music (love that I can do that from our end of the monitor) or John will go up and put his paci back in. Even our nightly before-bed nursing sessions are wrapping up…while he likes the comfort of them, he seems to get bored quickly, so I’m not sure how much longer those will continue.

I’m excited for the weekend…it will be cold (crazy weather…65 degrees one day, 50 the next, and then back to 60 degrees) and we have nothing going on. I’m looking forward to getting some stuff done around the house and just relaxing with the kids!