Dawn Disbro Burke Photography

Another Miss L. who has just turned 1!

2012-01-16T17:01:00.001-05:00

She was the sweetest little thing, precious in so many ways... Thank you so much T. for inviting me over to play with your sweet babies. I had a fabulous time. I hope that you'll be happy with what we captured today. :)

Miss L is ONE!

2012-01-02T18:28:00.004-05:00

This baby is sooooo stinking cute...........

couple for J!!

2011-12-06T21:00:00.002-05:00

It was great seeing you all this evening. The girls are getting SO big and they are sweet as sugar. :) I can't BELIEVE how big V. has gotten.. Such cuties...

the R family!!!!

2011-11-20T16:42:00.002-05:00

a few for J & D...

2011-11-06T19:04:00.001-05:00

Had a great time with you guys!!!

little preview for J & M...

2011-11-05T20:15:00.004-04:00

It was great meeting you all this afternoon. We sure had a beautiful day!!

My little trick or treaters!!

2011-10-31T18:01:00.002-04:00

a couple for the G. family...

2011-10-30T17:52:00.000-04:00

little peek for A & J !!

2011-10-29T21:00:00.001-04:00

You picked a beautiful spot!! I very much enjoyed seeing your sweet family today.. I hope you like your preview.

sneak peek for J & G!

2011-10-29T20:58:00.003-04:00

After starting my day out with a speeding ticket, I wondered how the morning would be... Clearly my worries were unfounded. I had a fabulous time with you and your sweet little boys...

Z ~ 2012 EC SeNiOr !!

2011-10-28T21:17:00.001-04:00

Had a great time at HVL with Z & his momma. We found some gorgeous colors...

K is a senior too!!

2011-10-23T19:48:00.003-04:00

Had a great time with you gals. :) Hope you like the sneak peek!

sneak peek for G!!

2011-10-23T19:19:00.002-04:00

It was great seeing you and your lovely horse today. Your granddad has a neato place to shoot!! I may need to adopt him! LOL

Mr. E. is a senior!!

2011-10-23T19:18:00.002-04:00

Had a FABULOUS time seeing MJ and E!!!

M is an EC senior!

2011-10-21T19:37:00.001-04:00

I had a fabulous time with you and your family today. What fun locations you had!!! :)

sneak peek of Mr. H..

2011-10-18T20:14:00.001-04:00

It was lovely meeting H, his Momma and S this evening. We were doing soooo great, until Mr. H. decided he'd had enough of us.. :p In spite of our session being cut short, we got several cute shots. How could we not? He's precious!!!

had to share this one...

2011-10-16T17:32:00.001-04:00

because I LOVE it!! :)

Nana, Poppa & the best grandchildren, E.V.E.R. !!

2011-10-16T16:52:00.003-04:00

HAHAHA... Had a great time with you all, as always. :) Thanks Daddy D for sharing the Coke cooler with us. I think it added a nice touch! Good job Mommy D on styling the fam! You rocked it!

sweet family from today...

2011-10-15T20:04:00.002-04:00

It was a gloriously beautiful day and I had a wonderful walk on the trail with your family. I hope you like your sneak peek!!

Wade as "Uncle Bud"..

2011-10-12T17:34:00.001-04:00

Heehee.. Wade decided this year that he wanted to be Uncle Bud for Halloween.... I figured, well, ok. I ordered some camo cargo pants & a tan tee from Target, and dug out Dad's Army shirt, complete with Disbro on it. Now I need to track down some dog tags, boots & a cap. I think he looks pretty darned good. :)

Quick peek for my pal J & her husband S!

2011-10-09T19:38:00.002-04:00

Goodness J, it was sooooo good seeing you again. You haven't changed a bit. Your husband is sweet and your children are adorable. We'll have to keep little Miss O in touch with my Wade. He's definitely a good boy, perfect for your good girl! Heehee...

HaPpY 1st BiRtHdAy Mr. B. !!

2011-10-09T13:05:00.002-04:00

It was wonderful meeting all of you this brisk morning. Thanks so much for all the help you provided me, not to mention the precious model... I had a great time. Hope you all like the sneak peek. Drive safely home N's parents... :)

cuties!

2011-10-08T20:47:00.002-04:00

Had a wonderful evening with S & her dynamic duo. :) Enjoyed the hot dogs & the hayride too!

boys, boys, and boys!!

2011-10-08T20:44:00.001-04:00

Had a great time with you boys & your lovely momma... and the sweet doggies too! :) Hope you like your sneak peek.

my handsome boys got new haircuts

2011-09-26T18:42:00.001-04:00

and they look AWESOME! I adore Wade's cut. He looks like a new kid. I think he's the perfect mix of our Dads... :) Wil's looks so cute too and the flippy things on the sides of his remind me SO much of when David had his hair long waaaay back when... I think Mommy D needs to dig out some photos to show him...

EC 2012 ~ J.

2011-09-25T18:59:00.005-04:00

J is an EC senior this year! I hope he's still game for giving Wil guitar lessons... Yikes... :)

a few of the handsome fellas from today..

2011-09-18T16:33:00.002-04:00

It sure brought back the memories for me when I saw two darling little BOYS in the studio today. I'm always happy to find Mommas who also LOVE dressing their boys alike... :) Hope you like your sneak peek!!

a family reunion...

2011-09-18T16:27:00.002-04:00

Spent the better part of the afternoon on the banks of the Ohio River with the M. family. I took lots of small group pictures, but thought I'd post one of the whole gang..

Portrait Party 2011 is on! Check it out!

2011-09-10T07:47:00.001-04:00

Sweet Miss. L. is 9 months old!

2011-09-05T13:03:00.002-04:00

I had the bestest time this morning with little Miss. L. and her family. She's the happiest little gal I think I've ever worked with. I actually laughed out loud going through the photos we captured.. It's gonna be hard for me to narrow down her gallery!

Just when I promised to keep up blogging..

2011-08-21T17:06:00.003-04:00

and then I freaking disappear for another week plus. LOL Sorry, but I can explain, really. First of all Kellyn came home from school last week perfectly fine. When we headed for soccer that evening though, things went quickly downhill... :( Needless to say we spent W-F with the big "D", vomiting and a little fever sprinkled on for good measure. WOOHOO, not. The only thing I was happy dancing about was the simple fact that ONLY Kellyn got whatever horrid bug she had. Whew... She was in pretty good shape by late day Saturday and by Sunday, she and her biggest brother were back to battling it out 24/7. Gah....

We spent last week just trying to regain some kind of groove with getting up, ready and out the door for school and work. We also did Open House, dance, soccer, guitar and piano. It was crazy, but it's our new Fall "normal". I'll get used to it, right?

In an effort to simpify a little bit, I sat down with my recipe books, paper and pen and made a calendar of our dinner meals for the next two weeks. I'm over coming home and trying to plan something. It's been going pretty well. It helps with the grocery lists & the butcher shop orders. I also feel like I'm feeding them better than I was, ya know? I mean, I know I am. Having a nicely planned meal is a million times better than throwing something together each day. :)

I've also been working hard on the kid's school wardrobes AND our Christmas card photo outfits. Trust me, it makes me crazy and I get so one sighted about it. I can hardly think about anything else when I get the bug for this stuff. LOL I managed to get all the kids jeans purchased last week. Nothing like filling your shopping cart with FIFTEEN pair of blue jeans. Thankfully, I shop the sales, so I got them all for $9.99 a pair. Go ME! Wil and Wade are officially the same size. Last year, I bought them the same shirt sizes, and this year, I'm also getting them jeans in the same size. Wade could technically wear the smaller size, but the length isn't going to last him very long. I also picked out AND ordered the Christmas outfits. WOW, they're cool, if I do say so myself. I've made plans to exchange photos with a good pal of mine, so we're doing our pictures the first weekend in October up in Dayton at an apple orchard. FUN stuff and I cannot wait!

This Saturday was Wade's first soccer game. I'm very proud of how well he did. I didn't know what to expect, but he was right in there and ran his little legs off, in spite of the awful heat. It was actually really fun to watch him go at it. He was really pretty focused.

Today, I've been doing a whole lot of nothing. I was supposed to do some pictures this afternoon, but the rain/storms made that impossible. Thankfully, we were able to reschedule to Friday late afternoon. I can't believe tomorrow is already Monday. I'm not sure I'm ready to start back to work again! I guess that doesn't matter, huh?

First day of school for my Trio..

2011-08-10T19:25:00.004-04:00

and it was tough, on me. I knew it would probably be bad. I mean, I cry EVERY year, but this year, this year I was sending everyone to "big" school. It's officially the end of the "babies". All my kids are now, "school age". I was doing REALLY well until they got on the bus and the bus driver said, "how are you doing?". I quickly said, "fine" and hid behind my camera. I needed those driving away pictures, you know? LOL I cried, then I cried really hard and then, about 10, I stopped crying. I dried all the tears, took a few deep breaths and settled myself. I had to get ready to pick up my girl after all.... After school, she and I went out for a first day of school lunch at Frisch's. We came home & made some cookies and then I did a nice dinner. I thought it was nice anyway... None of the kids ate it, but at least I tried something new. :) We went to soccer and KC ended up in the bathroom 5-6 times with the big "d". Then she started crying because all of the pooping made her hiney hurt. :( We came home & soaked her booty in the tub. She seems ok now, I hope she's ok tomorrow....

Everyone had great days and nice teachers. Wade has a new friend named Drew. Wil's class added 3 or 4 new students. Kellyn said it was the "best day" of her life. LOL Ahhh, she's so young... I hope tomorrow goes just as smoothly as today. It's going to be hard to get back into the swing of waking/feeding/dressing/getting out the door dropping of at the sitters routine, but we'll get there...

For now, my crying is over and I can re-focus on rejoicing in watching them learn and grow.

Miss R is TWO!!

2011-08-07T14:20:00.004-04:00

I can't BELIEVE how quickly these two years have gone. It seems like yesterday we were doing her newborn pictures... She's a little smartie and had all kinds of opinions to share with us. :) So fun!!!

Kit cut for the Kellzone..

2011-08-04T19:44:00.003-04:00

Last night Kellyn had soccer and tonight Wade did. Kellyn also had her last dance class with the 4&5 year old group. They'll take next week off and then she'll be with the 5-6 year olds beginning the following Monday. Wade had his last practice before his 1st soccer scrimmage on Saturday. Tim said that they're playing agains the 7 year old girls team. Should be interesting. I think I saw rain in the forecast, but you just never know...

Anyway, Kellyn has been talking about getting her hair cut for some time. We got it cut back in April/May and she really wanted it shorter, but I wasn't sure that I did. LOL I liked it a scootch longer, so we could still do a quickie pony tail, but she's been pretty much constantly talking about getting it cut shorter... We got the recent American Girl catalog and she officially decided that she wanted her hair to look like Kit Kittredge. Kit's adorable, so I finally said yes. We decided that we'd do it after dance class tonight. As luck would have it, the salon next door to dance didn't have any openings. She and I were both a little bummed. Thankfully, I mentioned our dilemma to my good pal and she suggested that we could go to "her" salon. I didn't even know that it was there, but we went, and they cut, and it's ADORABLE! Cutest kindergartener, EVER! :) Bummer that she looks about three years older, where's that baby I just brought home from the hospital???

two more cute baby girls!!

2011-08-02T20:34:00.001-04:00

I'm so lucky because I get the cutest kids in the whole world to photograph, including my own. Heehee... :) Don't you just want to eat up these two???

I miss blogging... :(

2011-08-01T18:38:00.003-04:00

I just haven't had the time, or energy. I finally decided to sit down tonight and catch up a little bit while we waited for our homemade pudding to cool, but that ended in world war three, complete with bickering, screaming, VERY dramatic crying and even some punching. Serenity now I say.... O.M.Gosh.................................... I feel like a failure. How could a fun Mommy/kid kind of thing in a knock down, drag out??!!! Oh well, at least the pudding is good. :)

So, what has kept me so busy you might be wondering? Well, after my 41st (sigh) birthday, we had a Wednesday-Friday practice schedule for the play and then the next week was tech week, so we were at the high school auditorium from 5-10ish, every.single.night... O.M.Gosh... Oh wait, before tech week though, I had a MAJOR migraine on Friday the 10th. It was my last day before starting my week of vacation, so I tried to limp through the day. It was horrible and thankfully, I have the BESTEST boss in the universe, because she sent me home. :) I got home just in time for the vomiting to start. YAY... not... Anyway, Saturday I still had the stupid headache for most of the day, but recovered in time for our day at King's Island. Nana came with us, praise the Lord! LOL It was one of the hottest days, but it wasn't too awful at KI. Best of all, there was hardly anybody in the park besides us, so we didn't wait much at all. My kids will go into shock when we go back and they have to actually wait for rides... It was great. I hadn't been on a roller coaster in probably close to 20 years and truly, they aren't as fun as I remembered them being. Go figure? The kids loved them and I sort of did, well, until I woke up the next day feeling like I'd been hit by a truck... Thankfully, it wasn't more than a couple of doses of advil couldn't handle. :D

After our busy day at King's Island on Sunday, we started the tech week stuff... It was grueling to say the least. Kellyn hung in like a champ and slept later that week than she has EVER slept in her whole life, ever. I was pooped too... Kellyn was thrilled that Uncle David was able to come because we'd thought he wouldn't make it. She was even more excited at all of the other people who were able to see the play and showed it by waving to all of them, from the stage, during the production... LOL Good thing she's cute... My in-laws were even able to pop down for an overnight to see our budding star! Nana & Poppa took my w-squared for a few nights during tech night, which was truly a blessing. Poor kids knew most of the words/dialogue to the Wizard of Oz too. LOL

The days since the play have been mostly a blur. Dance is still going strong, and soccer has started. Wade has been playing on Tuesdays, but this week (and through late October) we add a Thursday practice & a Saturday game. Kellyn is practicing & playing on Wednesdays. I've been kind of busy with pictures. The heat has been keeping us from doing much else truthfully. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make time to blog again. I miss it. It's a good place to vent and feel a kind of release. :) Crossing my fingers...

met 2 sweet little girlies today!

2011-07-30T16:22:00.004-04:00

and their parents. I'm always reminded what a small world it is when I get a call from a person and discover it's my NEIGHBOR! Heehee! Fun stuff!!!

Slideshow of WoO !!

2011-07-23T17:35:00.000-04:00

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

best 41st birthday, ever!

2011-07-05T05:30:00.005-04:00

YAY for a great birthday day... :) We spent the day out in lovely Dillsboro will some of my most favorite people. We ate lots of yummy stuff, including s'mores, played slip'n'slide, wrote/painted on the driveway, blew & spun to make bubbles and then watched Poppa's firework display... WHEW. It's making me wish I'd taken today off, but I'm off next week, so I just need to make it through these FOUR short (right?) days. :D I can do it, I'm 41. LOL

Fought my children on Saturday for ONE picture to sort of replace the current one above the mantle. It isn't EXACTLY what I wanted, but it's close enough... We also took the wagon a street over on Sunday and watched the fireworks here at Hidden Valley.

We had a fabulous 4th and a fabulous Independence Day Weekend!!! YAAY!

so, we skipped dance class...

2011-06-30T20:40:00.003-04:00

and I feel slightly guilty about it. I'm trying not to feel bad, but I do. LOL I had several errands that I thought I needed to get done tonight, so we decided to do that instead. At first Kellyn was not on board with the plan, but once she realized that SHE would be getting her new tap & ballet shoes. Of course, then she couldn't WAIT to skip dance class. Heehee...

We first ran to the bank to finish setting up an account that I'd started setting up on Saturday. Unfortunately they were have some technical difficulties, so it didn't happen fully. The manager called me on Monday, but I couldn't get there. I was supposed to go on Tuesday, but I forgot. Wednesday, they were closed. Tonight I finally got there. It took a long time, but we did manage to be out of there just before 6.

After that, we hit Walmart. I needed some sparkly (cheap) jewely type something for Kellyn to wear with her snowflake costume. Naturally, they had nothing really to speak of. We hit the craft/bead stuff and I found some clear sparkly beads that I figured would suffice. I've never done beading, but I found some elasticy kind of cording that I could use too. Who knew jewelry making could be such a PITA (pain in the arse), but the necklace is done, as is the bracelet that she begged me to make. LOL I'm such a sap. Gah... It only took me about an hour to get it together and I realized that this is NOT a craft for people who don't see well. Those little holes in the beads are HARD to see. Sheesh...

After that, we went to Payless. We found tap and ballet shoes. Wonderful enough, too, the ballet shoes were WHITE. That's what she'd been asking me for, so that was a good thing. :)

We hit the McDonald's & Arby's drive thru and then made it to the fireworks place. It was the first time I'd gone to this particular store. The folks were nice but the prices seemed high.. It wasn't so bad once I realized that everything in the store was buy one get one free. YAY! Gotta love a deal. We got plenty of stuff for Poppa to shoot off I'm sure.

Now, the ALL the kids are crabby, I'm tired and tired of it, and I think it's time to head upstairs. At least we can chill and watch a little bit of tv.

HEY, isn't tomorrow Friday and isn't it a long weekend??? YIPPEE!

WHEW, busy few weeks there...

2011-06-29T18:46:00.004-04:00

but things might just be slowing down just a fraction of a hair in our little world. YAY! All of the baseball pictures are done. All of my weddings/regular bookings are done and now I'm going to kind of take in the next few weeks, and TRY to get a few new pictures of my own trio. I pre-bought a couple of canvases, so all I need is a PHOTO to use. I want to update the one over my mantle. I hope they cooperate.

The next two weeks will be crazy with Wizard of Oz practice. We go Friday for the "costume parade" then next week it's W-F and the following week it's at least T,W practice and Thursday full dress practice show, then Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the "real" shows. Kellyn is excited! I am too, honestly. They did a full show run through on Monday and it's really taking shape. :) If anyone reading wants tickets let me or Mom/Dad know and we'll get them for you OR you can buy them at the door.

I took vacation time the week of the show and I'm hoping to get the kiddos to Kings Island. I need to call AAA because it looks like I can use our membership and get WAY cheaper pricing on them than at the door or even on the KI website. I love my AAA. :)

Speaking of travel, I'm doing some HEAVY research on the trip... In case you didn't get it yet, I had a brochure sent to you Aunt Joan. :) I've gotten information on several trips, but am really likeing one in particular. I do plan to touch base with my AAA travel people to see if they can help too. I'm getting VERY excited about the prospect of traveling to Europe. I get misty eyed just thinking about it... I've been hoping to get there for several years and it seems like it might just be happening!! Yippee!!!

Not much else shaking really, well other than dance class, play practice, guitar & piano lessons, work, the dog, etc... LOL

I'm off for now. I've got a gallery to upload and pictures to order. :) Later...

Sweet Miss V..

2011-06-25T13:49:00.001-04:00

Thank you J. for inviting me over to do a few shots of Miss V. She's adorable and sweet and squishy and precious and.... and so are your other little ladies. :) It was good chatting with you and your Mom. It's been too long! Hope you like the sneak peek!

Wendy & Mike's Wedding 2011.06.03

2011-06-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

This slideshow design created with Smilebox

dance recital!!

2011-06-12T20:35:00.001-04:00

It's been a really busy week, big shock.. LOL This weekend Kellyn had her dance recital. They tapped to Singing in the Rain and then did It's my Party in their ballet shoes. For the grand finale, they danced to Celebration. It was darling, of course. :) I'd post more, but there is work to be done.. Surely I'll be able to blog again, someday?!

adding just one more of sweet baby A...

2011-06-05T17:53:00.001-04:00

sweet baby A...

2011-06-05T15:11:00.002-04:00

He's absolutely perfect J & D... What a cooperative little fellow too! Thank for letting me come over today and snap a few pictures..... :)

beautiful wedding, beautiful family..

2011-06-05T15:07:00.002-04:00

Had the best time on Friday.. Congratulations to you both!!

long time no blog...

2011-05-31T20:43:00.002-04:00

it's been BUSY, busy these last few days... Kellyn got a part, well three parts, in the Wizard of Oz, so we've been doing lots of practicing. I've been busy with baseball pictures AND regular pictures. This is, by far, my busiest Spring picture season, EVER. I'm not complaining, just saying. :) Also, Wade & Kellyn have been busy with baseball & make up baseball, while Wil is continuing with guitar lessons. We've got him lined up to do PIANO too, so I'm psyched about that. I did photos on Saturday & Sunday, but managed to also hit JoAnn's fabric, to get stuff for Kellyn's munchkin costume. I worked Monday to make her outfit. I think it's adorable. I'll get a snap of it ASAP. We hit the Memorial Day parade in Lawrenceburg and made a quickie run to Manchester to check out the baseball fields and also the playground. LOL It was a crazy three day weekend, but I'll take it... This week is just as nuts. Baseball x 2 tonight, guitar lesson, baseball tomorrow, dance Thursday/pictures Thursday and then I'm shooting a wedding on Friday & Kellyn has dance pictures & Wizard of Oz rehearsal.. Whew, I'm already tired...

cute babies on a hot day!!

2011-05-29T19:04:00.001-04:00

they sure gave me a run for my money.. LOL

3 pretty ladies...

2011-05-28T20:01:00.003-04:00

I had the best time with these gals today. We scoped out a new park and founds lots of neat spots. :)

a few for the T family..

2011-05-22T19:07:00.002-04:00

Got to shoot in one of my favorite spots today with a very sweet family... :)

Miss L. had her "haffa" birthday!

2011-05-22T19:04:00.002-04:00

She's soooo cute and sooooo animated. Loved all of her smiles and sweet chubby baby rolls... :) Thanks for bringing her back K.

sneak peek for the H family!

2011-05-16T20:32:00.002-04:00

Sorry I didn't get to put this up until now. I've had some major computer issues. Thankfully, nothing a brand new computer wouldn't fix... OY... I had a great time with you guys and I hope you enjoy your photos! :)

Oh my gosh, I'm exhausted & it's Monday!

2011-05-09T19:59:00.002-04:00

Holy WOW, what a day, what a weekend...... Today I spent the day with the first grade class at the aquarium. It was awesome, but I had six kids, six. I must've counted to 6 about 798 times today just to be sure that my whole group was with me. It was really fun and it was Wade's first time at there. Only two of the six in my group had ever been to the aquarium and only one of them actually remembered being there! Hee hee... We had a lot of fun, but 45 minutes to see all of the cool stuff that that place has to offer was not even close to enough time to really see or enjoy anything. We did get to "pet" the starfish & the sharks, which was way cool. Did you know sharks feel kind of like sandpaper? Me neither... Cool... After checking out the aquarium, we had lunch at the Hoffbrauhaus (if that's even how you spell it?). There was a fellow playing accordian and singing. We did the chicken dance, twice. Woohoo! I lost count of the number of times we hit the restrooms too... LOL We were back at school by 2:15, then we had popsicles and the kids hit the playground. Once the day was over, I snatched up Wil and brought both of my boys home.

Then I sat and freaked out for just over an hour before I did the last of the baseball pictures here at HVL. This was a tough night and I'm sure that Mom can attest to that fact. We did all of the little kids and well, they're little and they have no idea what's going on and I don't have my usual "time" to warm them up. I had 15 minutes for each team and we WORKED hard for Every. Single. Shot... O.M.Gosh...................... My entire body aches. and my feet hurt and my back, omgosh, my back hurts so bad.... Heehee... Just in time for the beginning of Dillsboro's baseball league. I'll be good to go by Wednesday. :) Aunt Joan, you on board to help? LOL really... :)

really weepy today...

2011-05-04T14:30:00.003-04:00

I took the day off of work today so that I could join my lovely, sassy, daughter at her Mom's Day breakfast at preschool. Due to work responsibilities I'm gonna have to miss her preschool graduation, so there was no way I was going to miss this.

As soon as I walked into her classroom, I felt that lump in my throat. I don't even know why really. Maybe it's because it seemed more real to me that she is within a couple of weeks of being done with preschool? I don't know, but I could hardly keep my emotions in check. Her teacher started off with a devotional reading, about moms.. Then she said she'd asked the kids to finish a sentance using the words "my Mom"... I listened to all the other ones, my mom likes to help me with crafts, my mom makes cupcakes, my mom does whatever. When she got to Kellyn's, hers said "I love my mom."... I nearly burst into tears, but I didn't. I kept it together until I got to the car. I let myself cry all the way to Meier. Go me! LOL

Kellyn made me the most darling little vase ever.... :)

After breakfast, I ran errands and ate lunch alone. It gave me more time to think about just how quickly these years are passing by. It seems like yesterday they were babies and I was worrying about potty training, teething and starting preschool. Soon, all of my "babies" are going to be in school... "Letting" them grow up is much harder than I thought it would be. I like their independence & that they're becoming real people now, but I'd be lying if I didn't miss those tiny baby cuddles....

I picked Kellyn up from preschool and we went directly to the beauty shop to get her hair cut. She's been thinking about getting it cut for a while, but today, we did it. :) It looks precious and she's as beautiful as ever... She's so excited. She keeps twirling and admiring herself in the mirror. More than once I've heard her say, "I look adorable!" and she does....

Kellyn gets her ears pierced - Saturday, April 16

2011-05-01T18:36:00.006-04:00

Sorry for the delay, it turned into a VERY busy week and and even busier weekend! Sheesh!!

So, our Saturday adventures in Chicago included getting Kellyn's ears pierced. She'd been asking to have it done for almost a year. I was pretty ok with it, but Tim wasn't a fan of the idea. We didn't push him. :) After getting Julie's ears pierced and planning to get her new Girl's ears pierced, I asked Daddy one last time if he cared. He said we could. I do not believe he thought that K would follow through. LOL She was giddy with excitement when I told her. Anyway, we got up early on Saturday again and headed back to the AG Store to get Laina's ears done. After we did them, we perused the store for a bit and asked Kellyn if she still wanted her ears pierced. She immediately replied with a resounding "No!".. We didn't push it, because I wanted her to do it because SHE wanted to. I'd explained to her that it would hurt, for a little bit, not terribly, but there would be pain involved. I told her that her ears would feel hot & be red for a while and then it would be over. We'd have to spin and clean them for several weeks and then she could change them. :D Anyway, when she said no, we headed out to check out the Vera Bradley store and then we went into Justice. It was closing, so there was stuff everywhere. Nana found a cute pair of shorts that she was buying and Kellyn was checking out the colorful earrings. She asked me what they were, and I told her. She asked me then if we could still get her ears pierced. I said yes and we headed to Claire's to make it happen.

She picked out a sparkly pair of CZ ones, naturally... She was giddy, but nervous as she waited for the girls at the store to get all ready for her. I asked kind of last minute if we could have them both done at the same time since there were two girls in the store. She hadn't planned to do it that way, but agreed that it was probably a good idea, and I'm SO glad she did... Kells was very brave and sat very still while the girls shot her with the earring guns. When it was done, she simply covered her face and cried very quietly.. LOL We tried to distract her & finally I carried her out into the mall and we sat down. Nana mentioned Cheesecake Factory, and Kellyn came back to life and jumped and skipped to go see her new earrings back in the Claire's store. Heehee...

We had cheesecake & ice cream and chilled out back in the room for a while. I'd awakened that morning with a nasty migraine, so I was exhausted & the emotional morning had been draining for Kellyn as well. We decided to take a nap in lieu of heading to the Aquarium.

For dinner we ran to Mike Ditka's place. All I can say is it was the BEST burger I'd ever had in my entire life! OMGosh, YUMMY!! Our waiter LOVED Kellyn and brought her an excellent chocolate cake/chocolate ice cream dessert for nothing! What a guy. A great time was had by all!! Kellyn looks awesome with her new earrings too. So far, so good on the cleaning/turning also. I worried that she might not follow through with that, but truthfully, she keeps ME on track! :D

on Friday in Chiago..

2011-04-25T19:15:00.005-04:00

we did our "day" at the store. Kellyn was up very early and she waited pretty patiently for us big girls to get ready. First on the agenda, was a new hair style & earrings for Julie and a bath for Bitty. It's a lot like D.isney at the AGstore, in that the kids & the dolls are the absolute center of attention. All of the store people make over the kids & the dolls.

After the dolls had their beauty treatments, we had our Ameican Girl brunch. The dining room was a little girl's dream! Pink and black and flowers and dolls and..... The dolls had their own chairs & tea cups. Our food was pretty ok too, but we all especially loved the dessert, of cake, cookie & flower pot of mousse. YUMMY!

Once we were full, we picked out the souviner t-shirts for Kellyn & her dolls, then had her picture done & placed on an AG magazine cover. :) While we waited for our picture to be printed, we shopped and shopped and shopped. Kellyn spent her gift card and other birthday/Christmas money on many, many outifts for her Girl. Kellyn picked out a new American Girl doll as her birthday gift from Nana & Poppa!

We were heading back to the hotel around 2:30, so that we could chill out & Kellyn could dress her dolls in their new duds.. She was good for a while, but then she collapsed and slept for about 4 hours, got up for a while & went back to bed...

Spending several hours at AG is exhausting for little girls and for big girls!

the Bee-Day cake..

2011-04-21T21:00:00.003-04:00

OMGosh, my whole body is aching... I've been icing since about 6:15 and I'm just now finishing. I think it turned out cute.... Here's hoping the royal icing antenne & stinger harden overnight..... I'm off to bed. I'll update more on the Windy City trip this weekend. :)

Chicago Girls Only Trip, Thursday...

2011-04-18T19:17:00.003-04:00

I didn't have time to update last night, so I figured I'd get started today! We had a FABULOUS time and I can't wait to do it again!

Kellyn packed her own bag... LOL Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzle, Julie's scarf & ninja pants (aka, white pants), teddy for Julie, iPod Shuffle, baby pampers for Bitty

Thursday morning, I got up relatively early. I needed to finish packing and I promised the boys that I'd take them to school. I had been bad, and didn't get the AAA maps like I'd wanted to do, so after dropping the guys, Kellyn and I came home to kill some time before AAA opened at 9. We popped in and the very friendly lady gave us all that we needed, and we were outta there in a flash!!! From there we headed to Dillsboro to get Nana... When we got there she was already loading up the truck! YIPPEE!! We got all of our stuff packed into the back & back seat, stopped at the mailbox, the bank, the water department and we were OFF to Cracker Barrel in Shelbyville. CB is Kellyn's new most favorite place in the whole world to eat. I like it too & so does Nana, so we agreed. :) After filling our bellies, we were OFF to the Windy City!

Truthfully, the trip went quickly and we didn't have any trouble at all. It was a bit nerve wracking once we got near town, because the traffic was a little more than we're used to seeing. We missed a street, but our "lovely" GPS lady got us back on track. We found our hotel, got the truck parked & car unloaded and headed for the AG Store!!!

I wish I'd had a camera showing Kellyn's face when she first laid eyes on the store. She was giddy and giggling and jumping... It was priceless. The store was absolutely everything I'd imagined and MORE, way more... The first day, we were only there for a little while. Kellyn picked a new outfit for her Bitty Baby, checked out her AG Julie's display, watched a couple of dolls get their hair done and talked about ALL of the stuff she wanted to buy!

We snagged 3 catalogs when we left that first evening. When we got back to the hotel, we laid a plan about what Kellyn wanted to buy. We went through the magazine page by page, ripping out all of the outfits that she wanted. Once we did that, we let her rank them and determined how many she could buy...

We had our first evening dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was so good and we were so full, no one even ate dessert, but we promised our server we'd be back to have cheesecake later, and we made good on our word...

Monday...

2011-04-11T19:47:00.002-04:00

Mercy, another busy week & weekend have come and gone. Again. I swear, I really don't know where the time goes. The last post was about our cake class. Our teacher was VERY proud of Wil for the quality of his decorating and for his "stick-to-it-ness". :) I was proud too. Not only was it fun to look at, but it was also yummy! Thursday, I ran Kells (and the boys came too) to dance class. We got home and did some homework, baths and headed for bed. I don't even recall what we did on Friday? Hmmm... Saturday was a very busy day, in spite of the fact that it hadn't been planned that way. When we got up, the only thing I wanted to do is put together the new treadclimber. We were meeting on Sunday for Gaga's birthday brunch, and Wil asked if we could make her a cake. He wanted to do it. I agreed. I put the cakes together while he played. As they baked, I dragged three very heavy boxes filled with treadclimber pieces from the garage into the basement. I made a spot and then came upstairs to find my cooled cakes ready to ice. I thought Wil wanted to put the decorations on the cake, but turns out he wanted to ice them. Since I had done that, all of the "fun stuff" was done. Needless to say, I decorated a flowery/girly cake while he watched tv... Grr... After that was finished, I went back to the basement to assemble the treadclimber. It really wasn't too terribly bad. It was hard, cause the pieces were heavy, but it wasn't awful. The directions said to do it with 2 people, but I managed to get it together all by my lonesome. :) Go me! By the time it was together, I was pooped, obviously, so I decided I'd skip the first workout. LOL Sunday, we did Gaga's party and then Kells and I went to her BFF S's birthday tea party. It was so very, very sweet. Everyone had a great time. We didn't get home unti it was pushing 4:30. Everyone was still full from the buffet/tea party, so I tested out the treadclimber and it won. Hee hee... It kicks tail and that's a face. I was sweating buckets at minute 15... Thankfully, I was able to get out of bed this morning without much issue... I did another workout this evening, after I baked this weeks cake class cakes. Tomorrow I need to make & color some icing to decorate with in class, and get the cakes iced. I'm going to try to go head to head with the treadclimber again too... :D

Today, I did something that I swore I wouldn't do. Someone from work asked me to bake a cake for them, and I agreed... Why can't I say no?? LOL

Our homework cakes..

2011-04-05T20:25:00.003-04:00

So last night, I baked our homework cakes and made all of the icings. Today, I decorated my Mickey Mouse while Wil did his 2nd guitar lesson. I was STILL decorating when Wil was done with guitar. He started on his around 6:15. He did a fabulous job if I do say so myself... He got a little frustrated at times, but I think that was mostly because it's hard for him to decorate. His hands are so tiny and he needs to use both hands to squeeze his bag, which kind of affects his control. He'd stop and start and stop and get going again. I did the sides of his bear, because he was OVER it. I think it looks awesome and I know our teacher will be very proud of him too. Just call him Bud the Boss, the up and coming Cake Boss of Indiana. LOL

I love you HI-Tech guys!!

2011-04-04T19:25:00.003-04:00

Because I have my beloved computer back!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!! As you can see, it's back to it's old self. They had it done today and I was able to pick it up on my way home! WHEW. You don't realize all of the things that you use your computer for until you can't use it anymore. I'm SO happy it's back. I'm also happy because I can continue to edit the pictures from Saturday's session.. Also sneaking in a picture of the new vanity in the bathroom! YAY!

couple of handsome fellas...

2011-04-03T15:32:00.002-04:00

from yesterday. I had a great time with you guys! Hope you like your sneak peek!! :)

are you kidding me??

2011-03-31T19:57:00.002-04:00

Seriously, is this really how this day is ending??? Gah... So, I got home from work and all was well. I mean the boys were acting like wild indians, but that's not too much different from any other day... I was kind of feeling very overwhelmed... :( Yep, got a little much on the plate and I'm facing a little anxiety. LOL I'll be fine, but... So, Dad & Mom are coming over on Saturday to "help" me install the new vanity in the foyer bathroom. I think I mentioned it but I had to take down the wallpaper before the vanity got installed. I spent a whole DAY in there not too long ago picking it off the walls. I was EXHAUSTED, not to mention my wrist and shoulder were in agony, and I still didn't have it all down. Well, somehow, I've managed to procrastinate on finishing the rest of the tear down project until now. I HAVE to have it down to start on Saturday. I was supposed to have dance tonight with Kellyn. Tomorrow I need to prepare for my pictures first thing on Saturday morning. Dad & Mom are coming immediately following the photos... SO, basically, I had tonight & tomorrow night to finish the wallpaper tear down... I think Tim sensed a little of my angst, so he took Kells to dance while I tore down wallpaper. As I was tearing down wallpaper, the boys were acting like fools, running and screaming upstairs. Wade's latest phase of "baby talk" has been on my VERY last nerve... That's all I could hear as I was scraping, and of course, the running... Then I heard that word that NO mother ever wants to hear from the mouth of her child and I became FURIOUS...... I stormed upstairs and filled the tongue of the offender with hand soap, and put his naughty hiney directly into his bedroom... Grrrr....... After I punished him, I was left with a whole lot of attitude. Double GRRRR!!! After that, I came to pull down more of the subborn paper.... Just as I was finished the last of what I can reach without removing the mirror/sink, Kellyn says, "what's wrong with the computer?" Huh?? I came over thinking it was surely something simple, and surely it's not. It has no power. I switched out the power cord, changed it into different outlets, checked the fuse thingy downstairs and still have nothin'... :( I'm on the old computer at the moment, in case you were wondering. If that weren't bad enough, while checking cords, unplugging and re-plugging, I hit the bed of my nail hard against the corner of my filing cabinet. AGONY city... There was blood and I even cried. It hurt so bad. It's now puffy, bruised and awkward. Dang.... :( I took my bath and I'm down here updating, but so help me, I think I just heard another word that I don't want to hear from my child! AHHHHHHHHHHH........... It is SO bedtime... I'm gonna go grab my tylenol first... Tomorrow is Friday, right?? LOL

the guitar lesson...

2011-03-29T19:04:00.002-04:00

Wil mentioned a few months ago that he'd like to learn to play guitar. My summer sitter (and darling girl) suggested that I ask her boyfriend to teach him. It got put off due to basketball and stuff. I ordered his guitar probably a month ago and Wil had his first lesson this evening. It was so neat hearing the sound of his guitar (and his teacher's guitar too) flowing through the house. I've always liked the sound of the guitar, but I think it sounded much sweeter at the hands of the boy who made me a Mommy... :) I've never "heard" Wil so quiet. I'd hear J. telling him things and Wil silently listening. On que, I'd hear Wil doing what J. had just taught him... It was so neat... Now I hope he doesn't lose interest.... Anyway, couldn't resist taking a picture.... LOL

Tonight is also Wade's first baseball practice. He seemed pretty anxious to go. He's been asking "how much longer" since I got home from work. It's a shame that it's so cold out. We kept putting more layers on him. I hope he didn't look too much like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story".

Tomorrow is Kellyn's first practice. She had a meltdown when I told her she had "baseball" practice. She cried because she doesn't want to play BASEBALL, she wants to play COACH PITCH.. Ohhh, ok... OMGosh... Unfortunately, I don't think she's going to make it. She's been feverish & sleepy for the last two days. BOO on viruses. She seems to be a little spunkier this evening than she was last, so perhaps she's on the mend. We'll see how it goes tonight...

WilBug and his new glasses...

2011-03-26T18:30:00.002-04:00

We got Wil his new glasses on Thursday night. He looks handsome, no? :D

Happy 90th Birthday Uncle Bud!

2011-03-25T20:23:00.002-04:00

I wanted to blog yesterday, but was too busy with Wil's eye appointment and then us waiting while his eyeglasses were made. Yesterday March 24, was the 66th anniversary of his death. To "celebrate", I spent my lunch hour today & yesterday searching online for things I didn't know about the battle he was killed. I also spent a good deal of time trying to find the town of Waterer, Germany on the map. The newspaper article that speaks of his death says it happened near Waterer. My guess is that it's a very small little town and possibly not map worthy? Not sure, but I plan to keep looking. I found a cool link, well I thought it was cool, that talked about the US crossing of the Rhine river and sent it to Dad. :) As I was googling information, I also stumbled upon a couple of books that I felt as though I couldn't live without. The first is called "The Last Offensive WW2". It is actually out of print, and honestly, pretty old. I felt lucky to find it at a good price. :D I'm very excited to read the other two that I purchased. One is called "Roll Me Over, An Infantryman's WW2" and the other is "If You Survive, From Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to the end of WW2". I can't WAIT to start reading. I love reading the personal stories of people who were there. I guess it makes me feel "closer" to my Uncle hearing what he faced. I dunno... Anyway, if you're interested Pop, I'll send'em your way when I'm done.

In other news, I'm really leaning toward a WW2 "history" tour of Europe next summer. I sent for some information last July and I keep going back to the website for more tour information. I'm starting to collect prices and see if I can really fit a two week trip into our budget. I'm hoping to sock a little away after some of these baseball pictures and possibly seal the deal.. Are you sure you won't go with me Daddy D?? Pretty please, with sugar on top??? :)

I'll close for now and put my babies, who are safe on this day thanks to the brave sacrifices of my Uncle, my Dad and everyone else who has ever been in the military. Happy birthday Uncle, we think of you often...

Our first cakes!

2011-03-23T20:13:00.002-04:00

Wil and I baked cakes yesterday when I was off and then we iced them & colored some frosting to decorate at class tonight. Wil did an awesome job, if I do say so myself. I think G was impressed with how well he did. My boy! :)

I had fun too and felt a more comfortable doing it this time around. I like our fishy cakes!

LOVE that I caught a part of his face in the corner of the photo. LOL

Mickie is ONE!

2011-03-22T19:51:00.002-04:00

:) and she's as cute as EVER!!! We had a fabulous time in Cleveland visiting with family & taking pictures of Miss Michaela! Happy Birthday Mickie!

quick photo of the living room..

2011-03-13T19:39:00.001-04:00

I finished the green paint in a frenzy today. Suffice to say, I LOVE it. It's really better than I expected it to be. Looking forward to getting it all put back together!

Wade loses tooth number TWO!

2011-03-13T19:35:00.002-04:00

That thing has been hanging on for forever... Sheesh. If this were Wil's loose tooth, it'd have been pulled out about a month ago. Wade, Mr. Patient himself, wouldn't think of actually pulling a tooth out. He messes with them a little, but mostly waits for them to simply FALL out on their own. LOL He's very proud, and thankfully, the Tooth Fairy, has singles...

oh, yes I did...

2011-03-07T19:58:00.001-05:00

I DID send the trio to bed at 7:18. I was sooooooooooooooooooooo mad...... Goodness. ALL, and I do mean ALL they have done since I walked in the door at 4:15 is bicker and fight with one another. Seriously.... I was so over it, I marched them all three up to bed and made them lay down. I got some resitance, but they knew that I meant business. Of course, Wil now has every ailment under the sun. Lil' stinker is trying to win some sympathy back I think. I'm not budging. I've threatened them with NOT going to the school carnival on Friday, so let's hope they know how serious I am... Grrr.... NOT a good way to begin the week. AARGH!

they've worn me out...

2011-03-06T18:07:00.003-05:00

seriously, I surrender... My children have been absolutely nuts today. Running, jumping, screaming, fighting, bickering, crying, and plain old disobeying. I'm tired, or did I already say that???

Yesterday, I decided to do the kitchen. At first I wasn't entirely sure that I liked it even a little bit, and now I really love it. I need to get some things to get it warmed back up and put back together, ie. Mom needs to make me some stuff for the walls. LOL ;) The blue is a colder color than I usually choose but it looks exactly how I wanted it to look. I LOVE how the pie cupboard pops against that pale wall... Love it. I was kind of planning to paint the kitchen chairs/table, but the navy doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. We'll see if they get a coat of paint or not... Once again, though, my body is in high protest. My thighs are aching and so is my shoulder and back. I kind of wanted to go ahead and do the green in the living room today, but I just didn't. I think I was afraid of how much additional agony that would cause. Next weekend will be soon enough... LOL

Today, I took Wade & Kellys to Florence to exchange a few items. I swear, I wish I'd gone alone... It was all good until we got there and G.A.P. didn't have the hot pink skirt in the right size. The one I'd ordered was WAY big. We looked high and low, as did the sales lady, to no avail. Kellyn had a melt down, and THEN if that weren't enough, she walked into the corner of the shelf. Dang.... more tears and more drama.... We did settle on the cutest ever denim overall jumper/dress. Honestly, I love it more than the hot pink skirt, and it's probably more practical. She can wear it over her bathing suit, in the winter with leggings & a turtleneck, with tights or she can wear it all summer with flip flops & a t-shirt. It's darling! It's got braided denim straps & pin tucks in the front, cute.as.a.button! She loves it now and hasn't taken it off since we got home. Go figure, with all the tears & drama and such.. Gah...

As if that drama weren't enough for an aching old momma, Wade had a meltdown in the car. Gah.. I wanted to hit Home Goods & look for a scatter rug for the "new" kitchen, but there was no way I was going with TWO fit throwers. Sheesh... Suddenly he was starving and he wanted McD's now, noW, NOW... No way was I stopping. We'd been eating out every day this weekend and Florence was soooo close to home. I'm a meanie and I made him wait... He was mad and there were a lot of tears. Poor kid, he got home & begged for popcorn, which he made. Darned if it didn't have enough of the "yellow kind" (buttery ones) that he loves the most, so he cried again, real tears....

It's 6:36 and I'm pooped. I'm ready for bed..... Serenity now I say...

Oh and did I mention that my favorite country clock is broken?! Boo...

metal print

2011-03-03T05:21:00.002-05:00

So, I've been wanting to get a print on METAL for some time. I haven't done it because I wasn't sure what I wanted to get put on it. Last night I got that, "I have to do it NOW" feeling come over me. I decided to do a collage and mess around with our family pictures from OBX. I came up with the above and ordered it in a 20x20 size... I forgot to have them drill hanging holes, so I'm going to email now and see if they still can... :)

It feels so nice outside...

2011-03-01T18:41:00.004-05:00

We went out to enjoy a little bit of fresh air and check out the fallen tree in the backyard. I found out that the light is REALLY nice out there around 6 in the evening... Must keep that in the back of my mind... Anyway, the tree is really tall and it broke off right at ground level..

We played a while with Grady. Our invisible fence hasn't been working & we've neglected to call about it. Grady is starting to stray farther & farther away from the house. Tim has promised to call the fence guy tomorrow because the last thing we need is prozac puppy running in the creek and in the woods.. Sheesh, I don't have enough time to pick all the prickly things out of his fur...

Wil played a little with his light saber. Wade walked the plank.. and Kellyn mostly posed for me.. They're good kids...

For now, I'm going to take my dirty kids up to the tub and hopefully we blew a little energy away and bedtime will be a snap!

Has it REALLY been a week since I've been here?

2011-02-28T19:14:00.002-05:00

Goodness.. Time flies past. I need to just commit to a picture a day again and then I'll shame myself into writing something every single day. Last week, as the previous few, was filled with basketball, dance, pictures, kids, dog, & work.

Wil's guitar arrived early on in the week, so we're ready for lessons once our teacher says the word. :) I'm kind of happy for this week's reprieve, with ONLY dance. Yay!

I ordered a new vanity for the foyer bathroom. We have a pedestal sink there and I hate it. There's no storage AND my 3 little monkies hang in it when they brush their teeth or sneak a drink, so it's no longer caulked to the wall. It's wobbly & unstable and a hot mess. I found a dandy one at Home Depot and ordered it on Sunday. In 7-10 lovely days, I'll have a new one in the house, just need to get it installed... Oh Poppa D.... Ha!

I also FINALLY got to Lowes to buy the paint that I've been wanting for a YEAR. Goodness, it's never taken me that long to get a painting project going, but this one, oy... I dragged Kells out with me on Sunday and we got all three colors; Cowboy Boots brown, Porch Swing blue and Olive Martini green. I didn't get the motivation (or time) to go to pick it up until later morning on Sunday, so by the time we got home it was after noon. I decided that I HAD to get something done, so I did the Cowboy Boots. It's covering the red that was in the foyer and I did an accent wall in the living room. I love it so far... :) My body is protesting though, it aches everywhere.

Wade & Kellyn's baseball shoes arrived today from Dick's. WOOHOO... Tim also got Wade some little batting gloves. He's so proud of them and he looks so stinking cute. I'll absolutely get some photos. LOL Kells is a little disappointed in her shoes, because, well, they aren't pink. Boo, huh? Well, seems her feet are too small to get all the cool colored stuff. She's going to have to settle for black & white Nikes, and I've sworn on my life that I'll get her some pink shoe strings. Surely I can find those, right? Gah...

Wil's doing ISTEP testing today & tomorrow. I asked him how his first day went and he told me it was "boring" and he seems a little worried about the math part. I'm not worried, math is one of his strengths, so I'm sure he's A-OK.

The storms had me up multiple times last night. I thought that I'd heard something fall, but I left when it was still dark, so I didn't realize until I got home that a GIANT tree in the back fell, into the yard. Thankfully, it was a dead one, so there were few branches and still no leaves... It will make all of my sunsets from this day forward altered though... :( Aww.. LOL

Not much else shaking. I'm hoping to take it a little bit easy this week. My pal's sister had her baby on Thursday, so I might get to do me some newborn pictures this weekend.. Man, they smell soooo good and they're so cuddly and squishy and.... Can't wait!

George Washington was a Pirate, and other ramblings..

2011-02-21T18:32:00.002-05:00

So, once again, I've let the blogging slide. What is my deal anyway? I can't believe I'm not taking that 5-10 minutes each night to say something about the days we've been having. We've had a lot of good stuff happening, and I hope I won't forget most of it...

Last week was the usual busy. I took the day off on Friday to go to lunch with the w-squared in the cafeteria. I was thrilled to spend some time with them, but not looking forward to the grilled cheese sandwich lunch. :( I decided I'd just pack, and I did. It was supposed to be a Momma and boys only kind of thing, but Tim picked up a couple of extra shifts over the weekend and he really needed to sleep instead of keep track of Kellyn so I took her along. She was thrilled, but the boys, not so much... I explained to them that morning that she'd probably be joining us and the were reluctant, but understood. Wil said he hoped she wouldn't embarrass him... (not likely.. LOL)

Thursday night, when we were headed to dance, our van wouldn't start. The battery was dead. I took the boys & dropped them at basketball and then went to dance. Anyway, Friday morning, it was my task to get the car going again. I called AAA, the guy came, he jumped it, told me to keep it running for half an hour and I should be good to go. Wouldn't you know that by the time basketball at 8 came along, it wouldn't start.. BOO... Anyway, Kells & I took care of the car in the morning & then set off to join Wade for lunch at 10:45. We both packed our lunches and arrived in the office to sign in. Kellyn explained to the ladies in the office that she had been worried that they'd think she should be a student, but she wasn't, yet. She turned five on January 27, and she would be in kindergarten next year, oh and by the way, when could she sign up for school.... LOL At her age, I wouldn't have said poo, if I'd had a mouth full of it, but not my dear Kells... That girl sometimes has no fear at all... We met Wade in the first grade pod & headed for the cafeteria. I shoved food into Wade & Kellyn while I chatted with Wade & his pals. It was fun and now I've seen first hand why he brings much of his lunch back home. Those kids just don't have the time to eat, seriously?! Sheesh, in and out they move those kiddos. I'm sure it's out of necessity, but wow... Kells & I joined Wade for a bit of his lunch recess. He hung with us and played with Kellyn. :) He's such a great little guy... We couldn't stay with him for the entire recess because we had to do lunch again, with Wil at 11:30.

Wil was happy to see us, but I felt like he didn't want to seem overly excited. I suppose it's not as cool to have Mom at lunch when you're 9.. :( LOL As I ate, & chatted with Wil & his friends, Kellyn fiddled with my phone & was taking photos of Wil & his friends. It was then that I saw Wil's pal C lean over to him and I distinctly heard him say, "Wil, your sister is really weird." To which Wil replied, "yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell you!"... I nearly choked on my food! Hahaha.... Thankfully she either didn't hear or didn't care... Ha! We then joined Wil at his recess. Much different than with Wade. Wil ran off, his friends following close behind, and came over to me to check in routinely. Kellyn was in her absolute glory. She ran freely all over the playground, playing with no one in particular. By the end of recess though, Wil & his friends were chasing her... Heehee... We left the school and headed back for home around 12:30 I guess. It was fun and I was definitely glad I'd taken the day off. Once we got home, I edited photos and waited for the bus to get home. I made us some parmesean chickend for dinner and headed back to school for Wade's 8 p.m. game...

Saturday Wil played basketball at 9:50. The kids, never ones to sleep late, were up by 7. I was still tired, naturally... Since the battery had died again Friday evening, I called AAA again, this time I requested that they change our battery. The fellow came out, but by the time he got here and finished, I'd missed Wil's game. BOO!! We do have a shiny new car battery though... At the game, Wil jammed his finger. It looks nasty, he's complaining quite a bit when it's on his mind, but I think he'll be ok. I did get a call from the school nurse today. She scolded me and told me that I needed to take him for an x-ray. Do you know she even wrote a note in his binder repeating her demands for the x-ray. She told me that jammed fingers don't bruise. Hmm, I thought they did, but.... He's moving it ok. It is swollen and I'm sure it does smart, but I still don't think it's broken... I'm going to give it a little more time.

I got a little side tracked there, but after the guys came home on Saturday, I edited more sessions and then they talked me into going to the EC games. I did, reluctantly.. In the meantime, the team photos from the previous weekend had come, so I sorted all of those out. I dropped Wil off at his pal G's house and we all went to the basketball game. Sometime during the game, I got talked into a sleepover, so when the game was over, we rushed home, packed Wil's a bag and dropped him back at G's house.

Sunday, I was just tired and feeling very, VERY lazy. I didn't want to do anything at all, and quite honestly, I didn't do much more than the bare minimum. :) I regret it now, but.. All I thought about all day was how tired I was. I complained to myself & whined all day long. Do you know though, that when it came time to go to bed, I couldn't sleep, at all... I think the last time I looked at the clock it was past midnight. Not cool...

The alarm sounded way earlier than I wanted it to today. :( Work went well. At dinner we were discussing President's Day and Wade's project to find a photo online of the current president. We taked about George Washington & Abraham Lincoln too. According to Kellyn, Mrs. M. taught her today that George Washington was a PIRATE.. LOL I asked her if she was sure that she didn't mean PATRIOT, she told me she was SURE it wasn't that. Hee hee... She cracks me up...

and Wade loses a tooth, on Saturday..

2011-02-15T19:45:00.002-05:00

so sorry for my delay in reporting the news! I've just been struggling to find a single moment to SIT down at this computer and just blog about what's going on. My life has been a chaotic mess. WOW! The weeks have been a big fat blur since last Friday night & the PTO basketball photos. It's always emotionally, and quite honestly physically, draining to do pictures after a full day at work. I was still on that stress/high roller coaster from Friday and planning to do Saturday photos for the EC league to boot. While it was going to be good to have it all done in one weekend, it was also going to make me a ball of nerves. Saturday came & we had that ice event, so pictures were cancelled. It gave me the time to regroup and get the PTO league edited & ordered.

I had a VERY stressful week of work & we had the Wil sleep issues, which, by the way seem to be a lot better since we started using our borrowed noise machine. Thanks to E the babysitter for letting us test drive hers. Happy to report that is is helping, he's by far not cured of his fears, but it's helped him stay asleep & not hear EVERY single noise at the house. Anyway, the week was stressful. Friday night, Wade had his basketball game, at 8 p.m. While this doesn't seem all together that late, it is. I'm usually gathering blankets & children to lay down at this time normally. Before we left for the game, there was fighting between the kids and it just wore me down... LOL Wade played, Nana & Poppa came, Tim went to work and I got up bright and early on Saturday to head to EC for those league photos. I ALWAYS stress out when I work for David. I want to do a good job and I pressure myself to make that happen. We were stressed for time due to the boys varsity game happening at 1 p.m. and I had to get myself back home and reset up the studio because I had already scheduled Miss L.'s pictures for Saturday afternoon. I kept a calm look on the outside, but I was seriously a ball of stress on the inside. I couldn't breathe easy until I was back home & totally ready for my 2 p.m. session. :) Thankfully, it went fine. Nice Momma, beautiful Babe... Whew... Tim brought home Chinese for dinner that evening after the varsity game (and with my sweet Wade minus a tooth) & I edited and worked most of Saturday evening. Sunday I had a rescheduled family session with a very fun family. It went well, but by the time I was done, I was completely done. I was emotionally & physically spent, still, again, whatever. LOL Sunday evening, I finished up editing the bball pictures from Saturday & got my order together. I did some Miss L. editing and some fun family editing. Bedtime couldn't have come soon enough.

Monday was here before I knew it & another busy week is nearly half done. Yesterday was haircut, today was basketball practice. I chilled with Kells while Tim took the w-squared. Tomorrow has nothing but work on the agenda, but Thursday brings dance & basketball. Friday is Wade's basketball game & Saturday is Wil's game... Busy, busy, busy...... Whew...

In other news, Kellyn ADORES her Uncle David. Tim & the boys went to that varsity game on Saturday. They brought home a program and it had several photos of good old U.D. in it. Kellyn carried that thing around ALL evening last night, pointing to all the pictures of Dave & telling me how important he was. She then begged me to take the program to preschool with her tomorrow, or rather "tomodow" as she says... LOL I'm not entirely sure she remembered her plan, because I haven't heard her singing his praises tonight, yet... We'll see. Hee hee...

Hmmm, I think that's all I have to report at this moment. I see it's 8, so I better start herding the troops toward bed. I'm not sure about them, but I'm tired. LOL

a few for today's fun family..

2011-02-13T18:49:00.000-05:00

a couple of lil' Miss L...

2011-02-12T18:28:00.000-05:00

isn't she the cutest little gal, ever???

sigh

2011-02-08T18:14:00.002-05:00

Goodness, where to begin on the weeks goings on. Suffice to say, I'm exhausted, times 1000. LOL I spent Friday evening doing the kids basketball pictures at Bright Elementary. It went great & it was very profitable to boot. Saturday's photos were postponed due to the mornings icy conditions... Saturday, I just felt drained, completely and totally without any energy at all... Tim had to go into work at 7 p.m. Everything was well when he left, but then Kellyn had a meltdown... I chalked it up to a busy Friday night.. Around 1, she got up in the night crying. She was hot, very hot.. I made an emergency call to Dillsboro for ideas. We decided to just strip her down & hit her with Tylenol. She made it through the rest of the night without awakening. Of course, the dog had me up half a dozen times.. Before you say, "just put him in his cage", let me say that in spite of him being a complete and total pain in the arse, he really does give me some sense of security being alone in the nights with the kiddos... LOL Anyway, he had me up, so I got up tired. Sunday, I worked on editing Friday's photos & just hanging out. Kellyn was still hot, but not as much. She did a lot of laying around, but she never really napped. She ate very little, and hardly left my side (although that's not much different than any other day, but..)... That evening, I took Kells up to lay down while the boys stayed downstairs to watch the Super Bowl. They were up until the bitter end. Of course, then they had to be up early on Monday for school. They were somewhat difficult to get moving first thing, & we kept Kells home from preschool. T said she slept from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. and awakened feeling fabulous... :) Yaay for that.... My Monday blew, plain and simple. Work is over the top stressful and I was spent when I got home... We went to bed at a relatively good time. Kellyn had me up once, the dog 3 times and then there was Wil. Gah.... He startled awake around 3 and I couldn't get him settled back down and sleeping until nearly 5. :( I hope tonight is better. I'm tired, he's tired and I really, really hope that there is a good sleep in store for ALL of us. In addition to all of that, we had "issues" this morning trying to get out the door for work/babysitter. Suffice to say, I got a little peeved and I did some yelling and I felt horrible about it (even thought it WAS justified! LOL) and then I had another stressful & problem solving + time crunch kind of day... To say that I'm drained is putting it mildly. LOL Surely tomorrow will be better, right?

Quick week... and busy weekend coming!

2011-02-03T18:53:00.002-05:00

I honestly don't know what happened to this week. It honestly flew right past me. Monday went quickly. I had a stressful, but productive day at work. Tuesday, I stayed home after the ice storm and worked from here. As I said, I could REALLY get used to doing that, but I digress.. LOL Wednesday was another busy, busy day at work. Oh, and did I mention that it was stressful too? It was. Tuesday I had one of those kinds of days. You know the kind, right? Just not so great. The kids fought, work was tough, etc., etc., etc. Last night we went down to the community center to sign up for Geneva's cake classes again. I say we because Wil is joining me this year! YAY! I hope he can do it.

While I was home on Tuesday, I baked Kells a birthday cake. We're kind of planning an all girls trip to Chicago to the American Girl store, but I think Kells reallys wanted a cake of her own, now. I didn't have enough powdered sugar to make new icing, so I had to use the leftover green from the preschool frog cupcakes. LOL She didn't care. :) I know I've said it before, but can you believe that she's FIVE???

Let's see, what else?? Oh, tomorrow I'm doing PTO basketball pictures and then Saturday is David's basketball league.. Can't WAIT!!!

and we had a party for Wade Timothy..

2011-01-31T19:28:00.002-05:00

YES!! On Saturday morning we headed out to do some Lazer Tagging at Lazer Kraze in Florence. Seriously, I can't say enough good things about the place & the folks there. It's a dream spot for a party. We had a great time at Wil's party back in December and this party was even better. We lucked into having scheduled a party at a slow time. We were the only party there (there were some other folks, but the most we tagged with were 17 & 9 were us) so we practically had the place to ourselves. We had a giant party room with a wall of windows, plenty of room and a super great gal helping us. The party package included 10 lazer taggers, and we had two not show, so I got to play and so did Poppa. I'm almost embarassed to say how fun it was. LOL It was awesome. My only complaint was that the vest was hot & I wished I'd worn gym shoes instead of my penny loafer mules (can you say nerd??). I think Poppa had fun too... The kids LOVED it and it was even better when we got to go play four rounds of tag instead of the promised three.. Yaay!! We had cookie cake & Wade got some neato stuff and some money to spend. Off topic, but he got a little more than a $100 and ironically, today was the 100th day at school. He came home from school with a paper that said, "if I had $100, I would.." Wade filled in the blank with "buy a bike". LOL I was so excited by this because I wanted very badly to buy him a bike at Christmas, but didn't.. I said to him, Wade, you HAVE $100, do you want to get a bike with it? He said, "nah, I just wrote that cause I couldn't think of anything else.".... Oh, ok... HAHAHA.. Anyway, he got goodies of all kinds and we all had a blast.

Unfortunately, as we were leaving the lazer tag place, my head started to pound. At first, it was kind of dull, but by the time we got home it was full on thumping, and then I started puking... Eww. Misery.... Blah...... I was feeling pretty good by 7ish, just in time for the promised sleep over with Wil's friend G. I ordered some pizza, G arrived and the boys happily played the rest of the evening. I was so pleased and shocked and surprised that they even let Wade join them. I mean, there wasn't any fighting at all. Wade even camped out in Wil's bedroom with the big boys. Neat.. They did stay up a little past midnight, which is rough on someone like me who rarely sees a time past 9 p.m. LOL

I figured it was a sleep over, so I tried to be patient & go with it, assuming that they'd sleep in, right? Um, no. They were up just after 6:30.... Gah................ I spent the bulk of Sunday trying to regain my bearings and chill... I did cook dinner (Go ME!) and get the two PTO teams proofed.... I stayed up too late watching a show about the Kennedy's. They had advertised it as home movies, so I thought it was probably something I hadn't seen prior, but I was wrong. There was very little footage that I hadn't already seen. I have sucker written all over my face. I was up past 11. The dog had me up, three times. Twice, he ran for the front door, I let him out and he LAID down on the front porch?! OMGosh.............................. Stupid freaking dog!!!!!! Needless to say, today, I'm beyond tired and at 7:35, I hope I can make it to 9. LOL

This evening Tim signed Kellyn up for coach pitch AND... drum roll please.... WADE up for machine pitch!!! He says he wants to play and I'm hoping that he will. I know he enjoys it and I reminded him that when he finally DID play basketball, it was his "best day ever"... :) We'll see...

HaPpY FIFTH BiRtHdAy KELLYN CAMPBELL!!

2011-01-27T05:21:00.003-05:00

I can't believe it's been five years... Love that little girl!

a night without the Princess.

2011-01-26T19:57:00.001-05:00

It's been so quiet here, well up until the last about 15 minutes. The boys say it's because Kellyn causes all of the chaos here, but I think it's because Wade's birthday game came in the mail & they've both been engrossed in it..... Hmmmm.....

Not much else shaking, but thought I'd put up a picture of the pups.. He IS cute...

Froggie cupcakes..

2011-01-25T18:43:00.002-05:00

So, I had BIG plans to make Miss Kellyn's FIFTH birthday cupcakes tonight. They were a little more tedious that I'd thought they'd be and I was CRAZY for buying that ready made frosting in the tube with the tip attached. I'd thought I'd save myself the hassle of having to color icing & dirty a tip, but I should have just done it. The tube of icing was runny and just plain icky.. I may as well have just used my Hershey's syrup.. Gah.. I had to switch gears and use a dab of icing on chocolate chips to make the eyes.. I guess they'll work. She likes them and that's what REALLY matters, right? LOL

BTW, can you believe that she's going to be FIVE???

Monday, monday...

2011-01-24T18:18:00.002-05:00

Omgosh, working a full day really took the wind out of my sails. I'm exhausted and I'm not even kidding. I'm hoping to stay up until 9, GASP, so that I can watch the finale of the Next Great Baker show, but who knows. It's only 6:15 and my eyes are tired...

Not much shaking today. Wil finally went back to school. Wade got to have his birthday treat, a few days late & Kellyn got to go back to her beloved preschool. She's in her GLORY because Wednesday is "grandfriends luncheon" day and Nana & Poppa and maybe even Ga-ga will be joining her. :) It's also the day she'll get to bring her 5th birthday treat to share with her friends at school. She's requested a "Princess & the Frog" cake, but I think she's going to settle for Frog cupcakes. I'm making chocolate cupcakes, frosting them in green and using spearment candies with a chocolate dot on them to make the eyes. I'm going to use some of that Twizzlers red string licorice, if I can find it, for mouths. I'm going to bake them tomorrow. She was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to find Princess & Frog cupcake wrappers. I did find shiny silver foil ones, so I think she's over it.. I hope. Tomorrow's post will hopefully be photos of the Frog 5th birthday cupcakes!! Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

an unintentional long weekend coming to a close..

2011-01-23T19:05:00.003-05:00

so, I had the holiday on Monday, I was at work on Tuesday & Wednesday & then I worked from home on Thursday and Friday. It was soooo nice working from here and I feel like it's something I could really get used to doing! Haha! Nothing like coffee, jammies & work right at my very own computer.. :)

Thursday, I spent the bulk of the day working & making sure my sick children were feeling ok. Wade, by this point was pretty much ok. He'd gone to school on Wednesday & was only coughing really. Kellyn & Wil were still feverish on Thursday. Wil laid around most of the day, Wade played his DS, and Kells just flitted around doing whatever. (as usual) Kellyn & I made a batch of Rice Krispie treats & also a little brownie cake for Wade's birthday on the 21st. Friday, Wil was still a little feverish in the a.m., but that was gone by late afternoon. He's been left with a nasty cough though. I got up early and was working by 5 a.m. (nice to not have to waste time commuting!) We had a game day with the kids and we played Clue, that Santa brought, and a little Monopoly. Tim cleared the driveway and was able to get the car out in the late afternoon. We headed out to get Wade his birthday gift at GameStop. We'd planned to shop on Thursday, but the snow changed everything. LOL Anyway, Wade seemed to understand, so we headed out to GameStop to get the games he'd been wanting. Unfortunately, they didn't have what he was looking for. He did get a Batman game that he'd wanted, but they didn't have the Star Wars one. We promised to order it online when we got home, and did. We went to Larosa's for a little birthday dinner & brownie/ice cream/singing, but were disappointed when he only got a dish of vanilla ice cream.. Boo... What happened to the free brownie sundae??? Anyway, we were all stuffed to the gills & came home. Wade played his game all evening & the rest of us just chilled out. Saturday we were supposed to go to Wil's basketball game, but we decided that running and his cough just weren't going to mix, so we basically did zippo all day. :) That felt gooooood... Tim did go to the grocery and I've been on a bit of a cooking binge, so we had a yummy pork tenderloin dinner, complete with Nana's recipe homemade bbq sauce... Mmmm... Today, once again, we've done nothing at all, zip. It's been a nice relaxing kind of weekend. I think I'm ready to face the week..... I think..

HaPpY SEVENTH BiRtHdAy WaDe TiMoThY !!

2011-01-21T07:05:00.001-05:00

Can you believe my sweet Wade is SEVEN today? Seems like yesterday, seems like a million years.... Love him to pieces...

My DAD is a freaking mechanical GENIUS!!!

2011-01-19T19:32:00.003-05:00

WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! He fixed my dishwasher and my smoke detectors... Did I mention that the alarms went off, in unison, again? Yep...

Anyway, I'm gonna go get the kiddos to bed and try to fix my Excel so that I'm able to work from home tomorrow & Friday if necessary!

o.m.sickness

2011-01-18T18:15:00.002-05:00

ahhhh.......... So we ended up canceling the Mom's only day on Monday, due to sickness. I was bummed, but what can you do? I was up most of the night Sunday into Monday because of all the coughing, congestion and overall icky feelings around here... I'd get one kid settled back to sleep, start to doze off and another one would be up. I guess, in this case, I should be thankful that I ONLY have three, and of course the dog... (gah, story for another day there...) I actually had my 2nd alarm set so that I could at least wake up, take inventory of the kids/fevers/symptoms & remind myself to call the kids into school. To my shock, I was awakened by Tim calling to see how everyone was. I mean, I already knew that I wasn't sending anyone to school, but I HATE it when I'm not awakened by my alarm & I wanted to be. Sheesh.....

Monday, we just laid around and did absolutely nothing. I got up a million times to give various OTC cold remedies to the guys, but do you know that I couldn't convince ANY of them to sleep, not even for a half hour... Sheesh, did I mention that I was up most of the night, and that I'm too old for stuff like that?? Gah.... Anyway, as I said, we did ZERO all day and we even ordered pizza for dinner, because honestly, I was too lazy to cook. HA! Wouldn't you know that shortly after dinner, around 6, Kellyn fell asleep, for the night... Wil & I watched the marathon of "Next Great Baker". He said his eyes were sore & that he was going to bed just after nine...

This morning, we decided to swap the kids at work and keep them home again today. Wade was only slightly warm, but was still stuffy & coughing. Kellyn was hot, not hot, hot, but hotter than warm. (hahaha) Wil on the other hand was HOT and whiney. He was complaining about his throat & I immediately figured he had strep or some other such awful ailment.. I'm an accountant, you know, so I got the flashlight & made him open his mouth, because I'm an accountant and surely I'd be able to tell if he had strep, right? Hahaha... His throat looked like I'd remembered it looking, and he was only complaining that it hurt when he was coughing, so I diagnosed him as NOT having strep, and well, of couse I'd know... BWAHAHAHAHA...

He fell asleep and cried most of the way to work & then fell asleep on the floor behind my chair for the 15 minutes before Tim got there... Tim said he was pretty puny all day, while thankfully the other two seem to be on the upward swing. :) When I got home, Wil was HOT, I'm talking (as an old friend used to say) "hot as the devil's crotch" kind of HOT... Scary hot truthfully... We got him into the tub and cooled off. He's had some sherbet, gatorade & seems to be feeling a little better... I don't think he's going to last much longer tonight. He looks exhausted. I'm heading up there in a sec...

I wish he felt better... :( I had to take down the garage "studio" so that we can get the cars in before the white death comes again, so I didn't get to do any pictures of him... Waaah... I'll just have to set it up again... Anyway, I'm off.

busy weekend ends with sick kiddos...

2011-01-16T12:00:00.003-05:00

So, as I metioned, Friday was basketball game day, but not until 8 p.m... I was pooped when I got home from work and honestly, I wasn't looking forward to going back out in the cold. As we waited for the hours to tick by, Kellyn fell asleep on my lap. She was exhausted. I decided that I'd stay home with her and send the boys off to ball. I hated not going, but I hated to go too. I knew Kells would hang on me the entire night, and that plus sitting on the hard bleachers did not sound fun. I promised Wade I'd go next week. Of course, nearly as soon as the van pulled out of the driveway, Kellyn found her second wind & then I couldn't get her to settle down again.. *sigh* Wade was so excited that he'd scored a basket!! I felt guilty that I'd missed it... :(

Saturday was Wil's 9 a.m. game at ECHS. He was excited and I was too, in spite of having to drag 2 of my 3 children from bed and light fires under their hineys to get them moving and out the door.. Wil did a great job on offense at his game, in spite of the fact that he was the smallest kid on the floor... Surely, he'll not be THE smallest one soon, right? Anyway, while we were watching the game Kellyn ran around the fieldhouse 10 times, so while I sat and watched she jogged/ran 2.5 miles... No wonder she was exhausted by the time we left the game.. Hee hee.. Wade, my sweet Wade, was tired from his later than usual night, so he walked into the fieldhouse with his basketball AND Pooh blanket in hand. Soooo stinking cute for words...

After basketball Wil went to play at his friend G's house, so the house seemed quieter than normal with only TWO kids. Piece of cake, I thought.. Around 3:30, Wade's pal C called and asked him to come play. He wanted to go, of course, so I spent the afternoon with my favorite little girl in the world, but not before we set up the garage studio for pictures that were supposed to happen today. I'm really happy with what I got. I wanted to get Wil out there today, but not sure that will happen since now the kids are sick. Boo... I even canceled my official photo shoot for today, due to vomit and fevers.... :( Not how I had hoped to end my weekend, but it is what it is... Maybe I'll leave the garage studio set up for a few more days... LOL

Anyway, Wil ended up spending the night at G's house & Wade didn't get home until 8ish. We went to bed almost immediately after that. We were all tired and Wade had started coughing pretty seriously. He sounds almost croupy.. Boo.. Kellyn had me up in the middle of the night coughing and feverish. Wade started puking almost first thing this morning. That seems better now, but... Wil came home feverish & nauseated... Kellyn is still just feverish & coughing. She's playing but I think that's because she's drugged... I hope they're good by tomorrow. I'm off, they're not. I'd planned on a needed Mom/daughter get together.... Cross those fingers...

Can't believe it's been another week again..

2011-01-13T19:41:00.002-05:00

Gah, what a freaking week........... aargh..... I'm so over the snow, I hardly have words. LOL We all had a snow day on Tuesday and I think I'm still trying to get over having two Mondays in a single week. It's exhausting...

For the snow day, we did absolutely nothing. I hardly left the couch. I kept thinking that I was going to get back to my organizing/purging projects, but the thoughts never materialized... Hee hee... Lazy was the word of the day.. It felt kind of nice.... Grady LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the snow.. I lost count of the number of times he went in and out of the door....

At work I've been messing with our costing database again. It's a challenge, so I'm spent before I even get home. This was the first week of the busy winter schedule too, so it was nutso! Tonight I took Kells to dance class & Tim took Wil to basketball. The girls are getting ready for the recital already! We're supposed to see costumes at the end of this month & be ordering them the beginning of next month. The recital is June 12, I think. It's a Sunday. Wade has a game tomorrow night & Wil plays Saturday morning...

basketball, migraines, "those" kinds of talks & smoke alarms beeping...

2011-01-09T18:45:00.003-05:00

What a weekend... WHEW... I'm tired and it's not even bedtime, officially, yet..

So, we jump started the weekend with Wade's first basketball practice & game. If you recall, last year, we signed him up for Uncle David's camp and he refused to play, at all... :( It's so sad, because he obviously enjoys doing it. He played nearly every day after school in the driveway on our goal until we emptied the water and put it beside the house. He was getting better at it too. He said he'd play the PTO ball, but only if Daddy coached. I don't think Daddy wanted to very badly, but could see that Wade really wanted to play... so, they both signed up & Friday was their first time on the court. His team is made up of 1st & 2nd grade boys and girls. One of his best friends is on his team too! Wil helped with the drills in the beginning, which was very nice. Wade was very focused from the time his little feet hit the court. You could just see his joy. When the game was over he told us that his belly had hurt a little before they started, but once the game began, he felt great AND it had been his best day ever! He sprinted up and down that court like nobody's business. I was surprised and proud all at the same time...

Saturday, I woke up with a nasty migraine. We'd planned to go to the Lego store to spend the boy's Christmas gift cards, but feeling like I felt, there was no way I wanted to go anywhere.. I promised them we'd go on Sunday instead. Since we didn't go out, I mostly sat on the couch watching tv. Wil came in and out, while both boys played with their DS, the computer & Kellyn played with her babies. Wil & I were engrossed in a show about the secret service. When it was over another show came on. It was one of those kind of who done it shows & I probably would have changed the channel, but we both kind of got caught up in the first few moments of the show. Wil is VERY interested in crimes, clues & how the police solve them. This show was about a serial killer who was picking up & murdering prostitutes. At some point while we were watching Wade wandered into the room. Naturally, it was about the time they mentioned that the killer was having sex before & after he'd kill these poor ladies. Anyway, Wade asked what "sex" was. Wil giggled loudly and said, "it's when people take their clothes off and rub their bodies all over each other"... Then the both laughed loudly & asked me if that was true... Not knowing how much to say, I've always read, to give them just enough and not too much, soooo.. I said yes, sort of... We had a mini discussion (with lots of laughter and ewwwws) about sperms & eggs and Wade deduced that THIS was the reason people had to be naked. LOL OMGosh, can you see my cheeks flushing??? AARGH.. Anyway, one of the funniest discussions was when Wade asked if Nana had been scared when this guy was on the loose. I assured him that NO, Nana had not been frightened because the people being killed were PROSTITUTES... Ahhh, I knew that would open another can of worms, so I gave just enough info & then sealed up that can... Good grief, that was not what I'd planned to talk about this weekend.... LOL

Today, we were going to the Lego store at Kenwood & hitting Dick's for some basketball shoes, but that plan was sort of derailed early when ALL of the smoke detectors in the house started going off all at once... O.M.G.... What a nightmare... We looked and smelled everywhere & didn't find smoke, nor fire. Tim unhooked them all and hung out here while I ran to Lowes to get replacement batteries for all of them, oh and a new element for the water heater, which is half broken. Gah... Oh and did I mention that the dishwasher isn't working now either?? Yeah, don't even get me started... Goodness.... Anyway, back to the smoke detectors. I ran to Lowes & got new batteries and we replaced all of them. So far, no more alarms sounding. Whew...

After the detector drama, I ran to Kenwood & Dicks with the boys. They managed to spend their gift cards & got lots of good stuff. We also found basketball shoes for both fellas. Wil starts his practices on Tuesday/Thursday this week. We only know at the moment that he plays games on Saturdays, just not sure if we'll play this weekend already or not? We'll find out... I have the guitar lessons arranged, but I'm thinking I may not start those until basketball is over. I can't fathom being committed five of seven days... Nah...

I'm pooped and it's only just the beginning..

2011-01-06T18:50:00.002-05:00

Good grief, I didn't think I'd survive this FIVE day work week. It was a little TOO easy for me to get used to teh 3 or 4 day work weeks... LOL

So, I sat down with the calendar and realized that Wil has basketball on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. Wade has basketball on Friday & Kellyn dances on Thursdays. I'm working on a guitar lesson plan for Wil... Winter is looking a lot busier than I'd imagined it to be... Kind of depressing and kind of exciting all at the same time. I think I should just embrace it and realize that this will be my life for a while. My three children are going to have me packing myself and them all over the place. :) It's a sign that they really are getting bigger and finding things that interest them and that I need to be supportive & help them find their own niche in life. Fun stuff I say... I kind of wish the price wasn't so high, and going higher though..

Speaking of gas, I should say that we're officially buying our little blue Civic tomorrow! :) It took forever, but we finally settled on buying it for now. We decided that we would buy it for now, & trade it soon. YAY!

Ok, I'd planned an actual nice post, unfortunately, the boy who made me a MOM is trying EVERY ounce of my patience at the moment and I need to go and make sure he remembers that I am still in charge... grrr...

Tooth Fairy drama...

2011-01-05T19:41:00.002-05:00

So, Wil lost that tooth on Monday while I was at work. I know because he called to tell me that he had twisted it so that the back of the tooth was in the front and it was hurting. LOL I told him to hang up, pull it out and call me back. He did. Hee hee... I love that boy!

Anyway, during the chaos that was our Monday evening, Wil forgot to put the tooth under his pillow. I was ready for it, if you know what I mean, but I couldn't do it without the tooth being under the pillow... *sigh* LOL

When I got up for work on Tuesday, I saw the tooth just where he'd left it Monday night. It was in it's ziplock on the kitchen counter. At bedtime last night, we were frantically searching for the tooth because it was missing... O.M.Gosh, I think I was freaking out more than Wil was... I searched and searched and searched and I never found it.... Wil took charge and said he'd write the Tooth Fairy a note. He did. He found a scrap of paper and a loose random crayon. He went to town on his note. Of course I was DYING to know what he'd written... so I'm sharing and you'll be happy to know that the Fairy left $3 for him, in spite of the missing tooth...

In case you can't read the note it says, "Dear ToothFairy, I lost my tooth but I will find it. can I still get $.00?" HAHAHAHA.....

Why, whY, WHY??

2011-01-04T18:54:00.002-05:00

Why do I do it to myself?? I got behind on the blog book. Remember last year, when I was going nuts trying to get it caught up by the end of the year? Remember when I said that I was going to do the blog & the book for 2010 at the same time, so they'd be in sync?? Remember that? I do. I wish I'd followed my own advice though. I didn't. I'm going NUTS again this year, only I'm still behind, trying to get the 2010 blog book published. I'll get it done for sure, but it's taking some time. Tonight I spent most of my allotted computer time uploading all of my blog photos into the book software. I just finished copying and pasting all of the entries from April, yes April, I'm ashamed, but it is what it is. I got busy... LOL Anyway, I'm about to give up for the night, but at least I've gotten a step closer, another month closer to getting 2010 uploaded. :) Baby steps, I say... Hee hee...

I had a very productive day at work too, so I'm going to give myself snaps for that. YAY! My little men went back to school today and they're already back to the grind. I figured they'd be pooped tonight, but they still seem very full of energy. We've gone over this weeks spelling words & all of that good stuff. Kellyn has her first day back tomorrow. She's excited, but you know, she hasn't even mentioned what she's going to wear. That's usually high on her agenda, but... LOL

I've decided that I'm winning the HGTV dream house too, in case you wondered. Vermont looks lovely and it has a bunk house that sleeps like 8, so I'm sure my posse, me & my favorite family/friends would be very comfortable there... Hee hee...

Not much else shaking at the moment. I'm tired, but that's my own fault. If I'd just chill out from time to time instead of sitting, thinking about what I should be doing, getting up, doing it, sitting, thinking, getting up... you get the picture.. If I could just relax, oh and it didn't help that I had to stay up until, GASP, 10 o'clock to watch The Next Great Baker (or whatever the heck it's called). OF course, then Grady got me up, a kid had me up, blah, blah, blah... LOL Anyway, I'm pooped, so I'm gonna head for the showers very, very soon... well, AFTER I go put this entry in the 2011 blog book software.. :)

Happy 2011!

2011-01-03T18:55:00.002-05:00

We had another fabulous long weekend!! :) I was off on Friday. Wade went to play at his pal C's house. While he was gone, KC, Wil & I went off to Blockbuster to gather some movies & games. I also popped into Kroger & picked up some fixin's for some homemade pizza! :D

We spend Friday doing nothing but playing games & watching TV. We picked many good titles... I had Inception & Remember Me, Kellyn picked Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue & The Princess and the Frog. Wil had a Star Wars game & Eragon. Since Wade wasn't there, I chose Karate Kid & Shrek the Final Chaper for him. We had great fun watching & snacking and laughing. I HIGHLY recommend Remember Me but only watch if you're in the mood for crying... Yikes.. Of the kid's movies, Karate Kid was probably my favorite. I liked it in spite of the fact that it wasn't the same as the original one. I may have to rent that one for the kids next time... Kellyn & Wade were asleep on the couch at around 7:30 & 9ish. Wil made it to 10:30 & I was up until around 11:30, but was awakened by barking prozac puppy (he hates fireworks) & various firework displays in the neighborhood.

Wil was up WAY early on Saturday, but thankfully, I convinced him to go back to bed. Unfortunately, after Wil went back down, Wade & Grady were up.. I miss sleep, really, I do. Gah... Anyway, I decided to begin the basement reorg/clean & I did. I'm pretty happy actually with the dent I made. Now, it's making me WISH we could afford to get it finished, right now! LOL I'm looking very forward to having a craft room where I can spread out all of my "junk" and leave it there. I need to hit Lowes to get some shelving & bins for my stuff. I love the desk & the rolling chair that I have! I found a bunch of stuff that I haven't seen in years, tossed a lot (again) and put some of the permanent basement stuff under the steps. I still have lots more to do, but it's encouraging to actually be able to SEE the floor again! Hee hee...

Sunday was BUSY too. Kellyn was invited to a birthday party for her pal O. They had it down at the cinema. It was really great. We got down there at noon for the party & then the movie was at 1:50. We saw Tangled and it was typical Disney great. I loved it and laughed out loud more than once. At first the boys weren't crazy about going because it was a "girl" movie, but they quickly found out that it was as good for girls as it was for boys... :) Very cute...

Today was back to work. :( BOO!! Driving to work was kind of depressing. I always get like this after the holidays. It's so much work and all of the lead up, and then, it's just over... Kind of sad... But I know it'll roll back around before I know it. I think a part of me is extra sad this year too because I really believe it was our last Christmas with all the magic & wonder of Mr. Claus. There are some serious doubts floating around this house and it just makes me face the reality that my babies aren't actually babies at all... LOL

I also ended up with a bit of a migraine today. UGH. I hate headaches... It started around lunchtime and it just got progressively worse throughout the afternoon. I snuck out about 15 minutes early because I just couldn't handle it any more. I came home and laid down for about 20 minutes and thankfully the thumping dulled. The headache was and still is still around but it's not as intense as it was.

In biggest news of the day, Wil lost another tooth!! YAY!!

a year in sessions ~ 2010

2010-12-29T19:26:00.001-05:00

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Our family photos in OBX

2010-12-28T20:14:00.001-05:00

I kept meaning to do a slideshow of our photos that were taken by Kirsten Lewis (who is AWESOME btw) but never sat down and made the time. I did tonight! :) GO me!!!

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