A Great Weekend!

What a weekend! Friday I got out of work at lunch time and met Jen and the kids over at California Pizza Kitchen and had a great lunch out on the patio. After lunch we headed to the shoe store and got Kylie and Josh new shoes. After that we headed over to the fountains. The kids played a little bit, but they were more interested in the huge train display they have there, so they watched the trains more than they played in the water. Ryan on the other hand, loved the water!

Friday night we went to a new Japanese restaurant that opened right by our house. We all had a lot of fun and the food was really good.

Saturday we went grocery shopping for 3 1/2 hours! We had so much to get...we got Kylie's school supplies, and we went to another store to get a baby gift for our neighbors that just had a little boy. We grabbed some lunch and everyone ate in the car, and then we ended up at the actual grocery store. The kids got to play in the play area at Giant Eagle, so all we had to do was keep a very tired Ry-Ry occupied for a while :) I gave that job to John while I got the groceries. 2 carts later we headed home and the kids headed outside to play.

I made a meal for our neighbor that just had her baby boy and took it over to her, and then we all sat down to eat our dinner (my mom and dad were there too). After dinner my parents took the kids and John and I went on a bike ride. We rode up to the center of town to Rita's, which has awesome Italian Ice. We sat outside on the step and enjoyed eating our dessert and people watching.

Sunday was church and then spending the entire day outside. It was super hot, so we got the baby pool out and the kids played in that as well as back on the swings and trampoline. Our neighbors came out (their kids were at their grandparents) and sat in the driveway with us for a few hours. Ryan took a super long nap so when he woke up he was ready to play! I put him in the pool for a while, which he loved. Then I soaked John with some of the pool water and he tried to pick me up and throw me in the pool. The kids (all three of them) went ballistic! I have never heard them scream so loud! You would have thought that I was going to be hurt or something. So John had to sit them down and explain that we were just playing, and that it was OK because I was playing too. Poor little Ry-Ry though...his little lip was out and he was not happy since the other ones were not happy!

The weekend ended with us actually eating dinner at dinner time (we usually eat so late on Sundays) and actually come in early and getting to bed at a decent time. The only bad thing was Ryan decided it was play time between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM. He was giggling and laughing at us while we were trying to sleep.

Kiddo Update...

Today I have a 1/2 day at work, and then I'm heading over to the local shopping place for lunch with the kids, shoe shopping for the kids (but not Ryan, 'cause he's no where near walking, but I'll get to that later), and then to play in the fountains. So I thought this would be a good time for a quick update on the kids.

Ryan:

-My little man (who is definitely not so little). He still shows no interest in moving. I was trying to work on crawling with him the other day, and he was kind of on all fours (but his butt was still touching the ground...lazy kid!), and he picked up his hand like he was going to move it, and then collapsed. He loves to sit. He is perfectly content sitting there playing with his toys. All he has to do is whine a little and someone gets him a toy that he has pushed away, or a new one if he's bored. He will stand if I hold his hands, but he will not hold on to something else and stand.

-He is a smart one though. He says "dada" and sometimes "momma." When he's in a super good mood he will try to immitate any word I try to get him to say. When he's playing with his toys and I ask him where his book is, he picks it up and holds it up to me.

-When I ask him where the fan is, he will look up, put his arm straight up in the air, poin his pointer finger, and swirl his arm around and say "woowoowoo."

-He gets super excited any time he sees John or Kylie or Josh. He loves them so much!

-He's so fat! I love it, but my arms do not (refer to point above about not wanting to move)

-He screams to communicate. I'm sure it's because he wants to be heard over Kylie and Josh, but often he will just let loose a super loud scream followed by some baby babble. I can only imagine he's saying something like "hey you people! Why on earth does no one listen to me! Ungrateful parents...I work hard at being so cute and you just stick me in this high chair/car seat/stroller all the time." Again, maybe if he understood the first point about not wanting to move he might be a little happier :)

Kylie:

-What a big girl she is now! I swear, every time I look at her she ages even more. She loves to wear her hair however I'm wearing mine, and she loves to have it flat ironed.

-For the second year in a row, she told me that she doesn't want a "kids backpack" i.e. a character one. My baby is gone.

-She's still have stomach issues that we're working through. Nothing super serious, but enough to annoy her.

-She loves to scrapbook with me. And she loves making paper dolls with my Cricut.

-She is an awesome reader. She can read pretty much anything I give her. My dad mailed her a letter the other day and she read the whole thing by herself.

-She's also fantastic at adding and subtracting. I heard her at gymnastics the other day asking another little girl "do you know what 40 plus 40 is? 80. Do you know what 100 plus 100 is? 200" all while jumping on the trampoline. Crazy girl!

-She is an awesome help with both of her brothers. She helps Joshie in the shower - telling him if he still has soap in his hair, etc. And she helps feed Ryan and helps entertain him. It's very obvious she truly loves them both.

Joshie:

-Baseball anyone? That's all this kid wants to play...every night. I'm so glad that we have a school in our front yard, because he loves going to the baseball fields that are literally 300 feet from our front yard.

-He loves Ryan...more and more as Ryan interacts more with him.

-He made the most honest comment the other day when Kylie was at the doctor's office for her stomach (mind you, this is just after we had our floors repaired and the workers were all hispanic):
Josh: Is Kylie getting her stomach cut open right now?
Jen: Oh no, she's just getting it looked at.
Josh: Oh good, because if they cut her stomach open, they might have to use dark skin to cover it up, and then I wouldn't be able to understand her.

Also, along those lines, Jen had been talking to the men doing our floors, and afterwards, Josh came running up to her and said "I could understand some of what they said! I can speak Spanish," and then Jen had to tell him that they were in fact, speaking English :)

-He has the biggest brown puppy dog eyes that just melt my heart!

-He can write any letter, and he can read a few words. He loves to color and make things...he's always making us tickets for his hockey games, and I have so many pictures from him at work! He also loves painting!

-He has taken a much bigger interest in riding his bike this year. I think we're even going to try without the training wheels before the summer is over.

-He wears his bike helmet all the time. He does it so he doesn't have to keep putting it on when he wants to ride his bike/scooter/skateboard. But he looks a little funn when he's swinging with it on :)

-He can pump on the swing! Not as high as he would like to go, but he came in last night so excited and telling me all about how now he can do it!

I think that's about it. I will have a fantastic recap of the weekend on Monday...hopefully with lots of pictures from the fountains!

Wednesday Night Recap...

Last night was a good night! While we were making dinner (grilled mini-cheeseburgers, hasbrowns, grilled peppers from the garden and fresh grape tomatoes from the garden) we sat outside and watched the kids play.

Kylie helped me open the box that my order from papertreyink.com came in, and we ooohhed and aaaahhhed over everything that came (I got some paper, ink pads, a stamp set and some ribbon). This made Kylie want to scrapbook, so I told her after dinner we could go and do that!

We ate outside, and then the kids went off to play while I fed Ryan and John and I just hung out. After a while I noticed how late it was, and I told Kylie that if she wanted to scrapbook, we had to go in and do it now. So she shockingly left her friends, I put Ryan on a blanket in the front yard with some toys so that he could watch the baseball game that was getting ready to start in the court, and Kylie and I headed inside.

Kylie and I started right in. She wanted to make a princess paper doll with my Cricut, and I started cleaning up my stuff, which still hadn't been put away from the crop I went to a few weeks ago. Luckily, my scraproom faces the front, so I opened the window so that I could hear if Ryan got too fussy. I peeked out and saw the little neighbor girl, who just turned 2, trading pacies with Ryan. Those two are so cute together and how happy would I be if they got married :) Anyway, the little girl's mom walked over towards them, and the little girl pointed her finger to her and said "I be good mom." And Ryan was loving it!

I also noticed that more boys had accumulated in the court for baseball...I had no idea who they were, but everyone seemed to be having fun! Kylie looked out and then looked at me and said "is it alright if we go out and play?" She didn't need to ask me twice!

So the kids played, and after a while we had to drag them all in for baths and bed. It was a fun night...I'm dreading the end of summer because of how much I love nights like that!

A Little Tuesday Night Detour...

Did you know that last night was "National Night Out Against Crime?" Neither did we...until our kids told us that there was something going on in town and they wanted to go to it.

Just by luck, my in-laws picked up Kylie and Josh and took them to the park and the splash pad. The splash pad is by the police station, so Kylie took them in and introduced them to Miss Patti, who is the super nice police dispatcher that gives Kylie and Josh candy. She told them that there were going to be activities that night in honor of National Night Out. So after Kylie's gymnastics, we headed over to the city building.

There was a fire truck out so the kids could look at it and touch things, two fireman ready to answer questions, two police cars out for the kids to play in (those are nothing special to our kids since the police seem to live at our house and let the kids play in the cars all the time), and a couple of tents set up with freebies. Josh got a new bike helmet (Kylie didn't want one), they got coloring books, story books, stickers, badges and poker chips, and they also had a band playing. We also got free Ritas Italian Ice (for those of you not local it's awesome ice cream-like yumminess!).

The funny thing about the whole thing was that it was not advertised at all, and the staff to guest ratio was about 3:1. But the kids had fun. I, however, was not enjoying the fact that we did not have a stroller for Ryan, and have I mentioned lately how fat and heavy he is?

It was a fun thing to do on an overcast, somewhat chilly August evening!

Birthday Weekend Recap

I had a great birthday weekend!

Since we filed our 10-Q on Friday, my boss let me have the rest of the day off, which was a great birthday surprise! So I went and had lunch with my great friend Sarah at a local hot dog joint that I love. She gave me a set of really nice margarita glasses and a bucket of margarita mix. I loved them!

Then I went home and found my house beautifully decorated by my kids! Jen had helped them hang streamers all over and they had made me a wonderful sign that said "Happy Birthday" and had each of their handprints, including Ryan's, as well as the date. It's such a special momento!

They had also hidden a ton of birthday notes! I still haven't found all of them. But Kylie has them all logged in a notebook, so if we forget about any of them, she can look them up :)

Friday night we headed over to Chick-Fil-A and had a fun dinner with friends. It was a different experience though because had linens (i.e. table cloth) and it was sit-down style with servers! I was very impressed! After dinner we headed over to our old neighborhood (because the party was in the city we used to live in) and got to visit with one of our former neighbors and good friend. It was so good to see her!

Saturday we got up and headed outside, and then out to pick up my cake and some miscellaneous items. I then went and got my hair done (actually got 2 inches cut off!) and then headed home ready for my party!

We ordered Chinese take-out. Taking the kids out to eat just isn't relaxing for me. Don't get me wrong, they are awesome and I can take them anywhere, but they are still kids, and especially Ryan, need to be kept occupied. So we got our food, and also made a run to the liquor store to pick up some tequila to go with my new margarita glasses and mix.

The food was fantastic...we sat outside in the driveway and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. After dinner the kids were able to go and play with the little boy that lives behind us, and I was able to sit and relax! I then opened my presents, which were:

-a new awesome shower head (from John and the kids)

-the plate that goes under my gravy boat in my china set (thanks to my parents)

-an awesome GHD flat iron that I have been wanting for forever! (thanks to John's parents)

-my gift certificate to Papertreyink.com (from John's sister)

-a family getaway in a cabin in the hills over Labor Day weekend with my whole family and either dinner out with john or zipline canopy tour (from my parents and my sisters)

After presents we had cake. I picked up a cake I've been dying to try. It's a strawberry cream cake from a local Asian bakery and it was so very good! And it was so nice because my sister cleaned up everything after dinner and got out the cake and cut it for everyone and cleaned it all up...she was a huge help!

After that we just hung around and relaxed until it was time to go to bed (I thought Aunt Cindy might be staying with us because the kids conned her into laying with them while they fell asleep!).

Sunday we went to church and then came home and I made a really good breakfast pizza. After that we went outside and didn't come back in! We played with the kids, and then our neighbors came over and hung out with us the rest of the afternoon (their kids play with our kids a lot, so we get some nice time to relax). We all ordered pizza and ate dinner out on the driveway. We finally dragged the kids in around 9:00 and got them bathed and into bed.

It really was a great birthday weekend! Then last night was Front Porch Monday, which I have changed to "Margarita Monday," and below is a picture of our wonderful drinks and the bowl of cake and ice cream I was having. And then there was this little boy that did not want to go to sleep, so he joined us for a little bit :)

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Today is a big day...I am officially no longer in my 20's. I am 30!

How I feel about this event in my life varies from minute to minute. One minute I'm depressed because I have always been the young one...and now "young" is moving farther and farther away. Then the next minute, I really don't care...I mean it's just a number, right?

My sister had a very uplifting thought last night - "look at everything you have accomplished and you're only 30! You have three wonderful kids, and great husband, a wonderful house and a job you love...and you're only 30!" She's so right and that's where my thoughts will lie today!

I had a DQ ice cream cake (per my request) for brunch today at work :) I will be heading out to lunch for the traditional gift lunch with my good friend Sarah from my old job, and then tonight, we're heading to Chick-fil-A for a party that my friend won. Tomorrow we will be celebrating with my family...but I'm still not sure what I want to do...I really just want to lay low and relax! Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous, so I'm hoping to get some great time outside.

I know the kids and our nanny are planning something special for me...I think it involves the hiding of notes that I do for their birthday (this fantastic woman gave me the idea), but we'll just have to wait until I get home to see what it is!

I am also filing our 10-Q today, so that's another great b-day present. I have been so super busy the last couple of weeks, it will be so nice to get that off of my plate!

I hope you all have a great weekend! I know I will!

Praying for Stellan

There's a little boy that I have been praying for and following the story of for a few months now. His name is Stellan. This little boy is just a little bit younger than Ryan, and to me, looks just like him. This little boy was not supposed to make it into this world. He was diagnosed with SVT (his heart beats too fast) in utero, and the doctor's told his parents that he would die in there. God had other plans. He was born and for four months he was perfect. At four months the SVT came back and he was hospitalized until he was six months, and then he hand an ablation that was not successful, but they thought they had found a drug regimine that would keep him out of SVT until he was 4, or weighed 20 kilos and could handle another ablation (they are typically not performed on infants).

However, now at 8 months, poor little Stellan is having major SVT problems, and they need to airlift him to Boston to have another ablation, because none of the drugs are working, and it will probably result in him needing a pacemaker for the rest of his life. Only at this point, his mom would much rather him have a pacemaker and be alive than anything else.

Please go to this site (http://www.mycharmingkids.net/) and read his history, and please pray for him. I swear every time I look at him I think of Ryan, and I can't even imagine how I would feel if it was my little boy in a hospital bed or looking so sick.

A Weekend Alone with Ryan!

So John and Kylie and Josh headed to the beach Tuesday. They drove about halfway and then stayed over night. They got into VBeach around lunch time on Wednesday. Here are the some of the pictures from their trip (John only took about 20 pictures...I am clearly photographer in the family...if I had gone, there would be hundreds of pictures!).

Ryan and I hung out every night. We would play, and then go to dinner with my mom, and then play a little more, and then bedtime for him while I worked. My mom and I had a blast trying new restaurants around town.

I have had a few revelations this past weekend. Revalation number 1, one child is sooo easy! However, you cannot appreciate how easy they are until you have more than one child. When I had one child, I didn't think it was too easy, but this past weekend was so pleasantly easy for me when I'm used to having three! Ryan did everything with me...we played, cleaned up, ran errands, ate...everything together! Which brings me to another revalation I had...kids are exhausting! With Ryan, I could plop him next to me and talk to him while I did work. I cleaned out my closet, organized every single item of clothing in the basement (put in bins, labled bins, etc.), did laundry, cleaned floors multiple times, did dishes, etc. and not once did I feel worn out! But when you try to do all that stuff with 2 1/2 little followers, that's what wears you out!

Revalation number 3 is that Ryan does not like to sleep anywhere but his crib. Now I have known this for the most part, but I really thought that he would love sleeping in my bed with me at night. Not so much. He would sleep for a couple of hours and then wake up, and I usually ended up taking him back to his crib where he would happily role over and go back to sleep.

Revalation number 4 is that Ryan will eat anything. When taking him out to eat we had to occupy him. A lot. I think he gets bored easily and while you might find a distraction for him for a moment, he's ready for something new within a few minutes. So we gave him food. All kids of food! Greek food, bread, dessert, Cheerios, fishies...you name it he ate it!

Revalation number 5 is that there are so many reminders of the kids all over the house. I would be cleaning something and see something that reminded me of Josh or Kylie and really miss them! It's funny how they have their "mark" all over the house!

John and the kids came home earlier than expected...they got in around 2:00 AM Sunday. We still got up and went to church and then came home and took a 2 hour nap! We had fun playing outside together!

Ryan With Leapfrog from Debbie on Vimeo.

Untitled from Debbie on Vimeo.

Untitled from Debbie on Vimeo.

Missing Out...

Yesterday, John loaded Kylie and Josh up in the car and headed out for a 10 hour drive to Virginia Beach. His family is on vacation there this week, and up until a few years ago, we would always go with them. But with my job change 3 years ago, there was just no way I could ever take this week off to go, so we stopped going. This year I really encouraged John to take the kids and have some relaxing time with his family.

So while I'm sad that 1.) my kids and hubby are gone for 5 whole days; and 2.) I'm not on the beach; I am SO EXCITED to have 5 WHOLE days with just Ryan. Already we have had so much fun! It's just so nice to play with him and not feel guilty that I'm not playing with the other two.

I had him sleep in my bed with me for a little bit last night, and I woke up to him babbling and laughing at the fan going around above us. He's so precious and the thought of so much time with him is so exciting!

But I am bummed out because John and the kids arrived at the beach just 2 hours ago and already I'm getting pictures sent to my phone of them on the beach in the ocean. But I am glad that they are having fun and that they will get some fun time in with their cousins!

My family having fun while I am hard at work:

Mom's Birthday

Sunday was my mom's birthday. Her request for the day was a BBQ (chicken, with a specific type of sauce) and chocolate cake (modified). Just giving you a hard time mom :)

It was a great day...the weather was beautiful and I got a nice long nap in! We had a great birthday dinner and the food and cake turned out fantastic!

Dinner Is Never Boring at Our House!

What an eventful dinner we had last night :)

But first some background: Yesterday, Jen, our nanny, took the kids to McDonald’s for lunch and to play in the play area. Apparently, some boy that Kylie was playing with gave her an Indian burn. She’d never had one before and didn’t know what they were, so Jen explained it to her and they were talking about them the rest of the day.

At dinner last night, Ryan was being fussy, so I took him upstairs to get him ready for bed. While I was up there, I heard John and the kids start yelling and Kylie start crying (her fake cry).

I went downstairs and found Joshie yelling at the top of his lungs “it did hurt her, she’s her own body.” John kept telling Joshie it didn’t hurt her – she was faking it. And Joshie kept repeating “she’s her own body.” I was cracking up! What Joshie was trying to tell him was that John can’t tell Kylie whether he hurt her or not, she knows what she feels…I wonder where he gets that from ;)

So apparently, John and Kylie had gotten into a little fist fight. They were going back and forth and Kylie really clobbered him, so he put both hands on her arm pretending he was going to give her an Indian burn. She didn’t want that, so she started her fake crying and telling him he hurt her.

Unfortunately by the time I got the video camera out the real fire had died down, but I desperately wanted to get Joshie fiercely defending his sister on video, so John was trying as hard as he could to egg him on, and it worked a little, but he never repeated “she’s her own body” which is what I really wanted to get (you can hear John trying to get him to say it).

Please note that by this time the real issue was over and done with (you will even hear and see Kylie laughing)…John is just trying to help me capture the moment on video. And take a look at the vein on Joshie’s neck that’s ready to pop when he’s getting really angry!

Untitled from Debbie on Vimeo.

Monday Night Recap...

What a night. I came home to an exceptionally sweet Kylie. She told me about all the things she had done for Josh that day (pushed him on the swing, played with him, etc.). She even told our nanny “I think I’m making Josh lazy because I keep doing things for him!”

She was in such a helping mood…she even went in to unload the dishwasher without telling us (to bad the dishes were dirty :) ). And Jen (our nanny) kept saying how sweet she has been for the past couple of weeks. That makes me so happy because she is at such a difficult age…I feel like so much of the time nothing makes her happy.

I fed Ryan while Josh and Kylie played together. It was nice…they were really playing well together and not bothering me about playing with them (they always bombard me just as I sit down to feed Ryan and I feel so bad telling them that I can’t play with them because he has to eat). After I fed him I started dinner, and again, the kids were just in such great moods! For dinner we had enchiladas, and Kylie would occasionally tell me they were spicy, and Joshie kept piping up with "I don't care if they're spicy, I just eat them."

After dinner we headed out on a bike ride. We left about 7:15, and my mom was so nice to stay at the house because Ryan was sleeping. I’m so amazed at how well Kylie rides her bike. She’s been on a two-wheeler for 2 years now, but this summer there has been a drastic improvement…I never worry about her falling! And she rides so fast! John rides in front pulling Joshie, then Kylie follows him, and I’m at the end. There were times that I couldn’t keep up with her!

We rode to the park and Kylie and I rolled down the hills together while Josh and John played basketball. Then we went into the Parks and Rec building where one of the ladies gave the kids candy and balloons (it’s so nice that our city is one of John’s clients!). John and Joshie played some more basketball while Kylie and I had races on the basketball courts. Let me tell you, that girl is fast! I was seriously running as fast as I could and I just barely beat her…that definitely put me to shame!

Finally at about 8:45 we headed home. And Ryan had stayed sleeping the whole time! We got the kids bathed and got the house ready for the cleaner (always involves a lot of de-cluttering) and finally headed out for our Monday-night-porch-sitting at 10:00. We only got an hour out there, but it was so nice (as was the bowl of ice cream I had while sitting out there :) ).

The only downside to the night was the fact that Ryan was up at 11:30 and then again at 3:30. I’m super tired today (and had to stop at Tim Horton’s for an Iced Cappuccino to wake me up).

Hopefully I’ll get to bed a little early tonight…yeah right!

A Weekend Full of Scrapbooking!

What a scrappin' fun weekend!

My friends and I arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon on Friday. We set up shop and then headed out for dinner at La Paloma. We love this restauarant...yummy filled sopapillas! After dinner we went back and scrapped.

Saturday morning we woke up and scrapped, and then around 1:00 we headed out for some shopping and some lunch. Afterwards we came back and scrapped some more. We headed out later for some DQ (thanks to my nagging), and then came back, scrapped, and then had a pizza delivered. After the pizza the other girls went down to scrap some more, and I stayed back to sleep (although I ended up watching a movie instead).

Sunday we scrapped some more and then went out and grabbed lunch. After lunch I headed home so that I could get in some play time with the kids. I got home around 4:00 and it was gorgeous outside! Ryan and I sat on a blanket outside and watched Joshie, Kylie and our neighbor friend Noah play baseball in the court with John and Noah's dad.

After baseball, we ate pizza and played some more inside and then got ready for bed. John and I hung out for a little bit and then crashed...scrapbooking takes a lot out of me :)

John took the kids down to Athens to surprise his dad for his birthday. He left Saturday morning and came home Saturday night. The only bad thing was that Ryan was a pistol! He only took a 45 minute nap during the 12 hours he was awake that day. Sunday he took all the kids to church and then came home and played with them. And thankfully Ryan did much better!

I love that I'm married to such a fantastic man that never gives a thought to me taking a weekend off. He even told me that he would get up with Ryan in the middle of the night from now on so I could sleep. I told him he didn't need to do that, and he told me that at least on the weekends he could...I just might take him up on that :)

Weekend Plans...

Today is a great day. In 8 hours I will be picking up a friend and heading to a nearby city for a weekend of scrapbooking. A Creative Memories consultant puts on a weekend crop twice a year. This will be my third time going – I had to miss the winter one since Ryan was such a pistol at that age and I felt bad leaving him with John when all he wanted was me…all the time. But anyway, Ryan is not a happy, easy baby, and my car is packed up and ready to go!

I especially love the summer one (the other one is in January) because we can walk to restaurants and it’s not as bad lugging all of our stuff in and out of the hotel since it’s warm.

We have our set restaurants that we go to, and we usually head out to some scrapbooking stores as well.

I will have a hard time missing the kids though…I have really enjoyed our summer weekends so this will be tough not being outside with them. But I will get home early enough on Sunday that I can still have some play time with all of them.

So have a great weekend and I’ll recap my trip on Monday :)

A Great Tuesday!

On Tuesday, the kids had a very eventful day. My mom went over and took them to a movie that morning, which they absolutely loved! Then that evening, my mom took Joshie to a Clippers game (our minor league baseball team). He loved batting practice the most and even got a ball from one of the players during it!

Kylie had gymnastics, so I took her alone so that John could have some fun time with Ryan. There was only one other girl in Kylie’s class, and they had the whole big gym to themselves (I love summer…the gym is so empty!). Afterwards, we went to the scrapbooking store where she got some American Flag stickers and some fireworks paper. After that we picked up some dinner and went home.

Kylie was excited because I was finally going to let her watch The Wizard of Oz. She has been dying to watch this for a couple of years now, but I know how the movie scared my sisters so much because they were so young when they watched it, so I’ve been holding off. But this past weekend, I heard the music come on TV and I taped it…just in case.

So I told Kylie that she could watch it, with me. And she really wasn’t that scared. It’s sad, I think shows have gotten so much worse these days and The Wizard of Oz is tame compared to some of the cartoons now! She did come into my room that night and said she had a bad dream, but I could tell it really wasn’t that bad because she went back to bed without any problems (when she has really bad dreams she cries and has a hard time going back to bed).

So it was a good Tuesday, and it was nice to have some one-on-one time with Kylie and Ryan!

July 4th, 2009

We had a great 4th of July weekend!

Thursday night we took Kylie to gymnastics and then went bowling. There is some kind of a program in place that lets kids bowl free during the summer, and for about $24, I was able to add John, my parents and me on to also bowl for the whole summer. So we got to the bowling alley around 7:30 and Kylie and Josh bowled two games together and John, my mom and I bowled two games together. The kids are getting a lot better!

Friday we slept in a little (John and I were both off work) and just took it easy. I still wasn’t feeling well, and it was overcast, and just an overall lazy day. John had a lunch meeting to go to, so my parents graciously offered to help out with the kids while I took a nap. It ended up working out great…I put all three kids down for a nap and then I went in and took at nice two-hour nap. And my mom went and did the grocery shopping for the weekend’s festivities, which was a huge relief!

Saturday was overcast again :( but we still had fun playing outside and getting ready for our cookout. Our neighbors behind us were having an all-day party, so the kids spent most of the day over there and John and I popped over there a few times throughout the day. Joshie scared us to death while he was over there…he was eating a starlite mint and came over to us holding his throat and telling us he accidentally swallowed the mint. I wasn’t too concerned because he was obviously OK since he was talking to us. But then he kept telling us that it felt like it was still in there, and he was crying. I called my sister who thankfully assured me that the mint, if it was still in there, was slowly melting and that he would be fine. And sure enough, a few minutes later he was back to playing!

Later Saturday the on-duty police officers came over and we ate dinner. I made some shrimp skewers and a watermelon/cucumber salad and mom made macaroni salad. It was a great meal! After that John took the kids to the neighbors for s’mores and I put Ryan to bed, scrapbooked a little, and climbed into bed to watch TV. The kids came in and took baths and John slept with Josh up in his room and Kylie slept with me in my bed.

Sunday morning I woke up with my ear in excruciating pain. I waited until 9:00 AM and Kylie and I went over to Urgent Care. It turns out I have an ear infection :( I got my prescription and headed home. John and I made up a huge breakfast and my parents came over to join us. It was such a relaxing Sunday morning!

After naps we headed over to the church picnic (since we were having the picnic, there was no morning service, which was a nice break). The picnic was at the farm of one of the families and they had a huge tent set up, a couple bouncy-things for the kids, and a TON of food! We ate and played, and then we all gathered inside the tent for the service. Kylie and Josh got to sing the National Anthem in front of everyone by themselves! They both did a fantastic job! John and I were so proud of them! Then Kylie and I got to be part of a mock-up of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” Patriotic edition. Let me tell you how dumb I felt! The other guy on our team knew all the answers for us (and he is still in school!). We won (thanks to him!) and got a nice basket full of all-American things – sparklers, an apply pie, a baseball and a matchbox Chevy truck.

The picnic finished up around 9:00 PM and we headed home. We got the kids into bed and watched a little TV before crashing ourselves.

It was a great weekend that of course, went by way too quickly!

Videos That Make Me Smile...

6 more hours of work and then it's off for a fantastic 3-day holiday weekend! I'm still feeling a little sick (although much better than I was two days ago!), so I'll leave you with a couple of videos:

This first one is Ryan taking a bath in the kitchen sink last night. Our sink is the perfect size for him right now because he can sit there pretty safely and I can do stuff around the kitchen while he's bathing. He loves it!

Ryan Taking a Bath in the Kitchen Sink from Debbie on Vimeo.

This second set is the difference in Kylie...the first video is me taking her to Olive Garden just over a year ago, and then the second one is us at Olive Garden just a month ago after she got her shot at her 6-year well-check. I can't believe how much she has grown up!

Mommy/Daughter Dinner Out from Debbie on Vimeo.

Kylie at Olive Garden After her 6-year Check-Up from Debbie on Vimeo.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 4th of July!

I'm sick :(

Ryan started with sneezing and a runny nose on Sunday. Monday I felt totally fine...even went outside and played baseball with all the kids that evening. But when I came in to give Ryan a bath and put him to bed, it all of a sudden hit me. John and I were still able to continue our Monday night tradition, but I felt horrible!

Yesterday getting through work was a struggle. I'm such a hoarder of PTO days, and it seems like such a waste to use one when I'm sick...I'd rather take a day off and play with the kids! And it doesn't help that Ryan is having problems sleeping since he's sick...which is a hard adjustment because he is such a good sleeper.

I was planning on going home this afternoon and sleeping...but I'm actually feeling a little better, so hopefully I will not have to waste any time-off for that! Plus it's a short week anyway with Friday off! And that's why I want to be better...I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend with John and the kids...I just want to play all weekend! So I hope I get better fast!