5 years...

Today marks 5 years since my Daddy passed away...I was going to say celebrates...but it's not really a celebration, is it? There's nothing joyful or happy about the loss of a parent.

People say it gets easier with time, but I call BS on that. You just find better ways to deal with the emotions. I still get sucker punched sometimes and find myself balling like a baby. I miss him so much. I've had a lot of family/friends die in my lifetime, I never knew that losing my Dad would have this effect on me, until he died.

I miss him so much, that sometimes it hurts. Riley was only 7 weeks old when he died. He doesn't know what a great, fun, quirky child he is. He never got to meet my AIslinn. I have pictures of him holding all my babies after they were born, except for her, and oh man is she so much like my Dad, temperament wise. Only Austin and Jaidan know and remember Granddaddy, but I am glad they have those memories.

My parents were married for 35 years when my Dad died, their Anniversary is in Feb. They loved each other so very much. My Mom is such a strong amazing woman. I wish I could be with her today, but she knows I am with her in spirit.

I love and miss you Daddy, RIP

1st day of Preschool

Today was my little man's 1st day of preschool.  It's amazing how quickly they grow up.

I'm sad that he isn't going to Kindergarten this year, because he misses the cut off for turning 5.  We looked into having him tested to go into Kindergarten, but the requirements were just way too high, which is really unfair in my opinion, I doubt even half the kindergarteners can accomplish what they expected him to be able to do.  On the bright side tho, we found a great preschool, that came recommenced to us by some friends, and then we found out our next door neighbor's also use the same preschool.  Riley is the same age as their oldest, and Aislinn is the same age as their twin daughters, so they will grow up next door to each other and going to school together in the same grades, which I love for them.

Riley is going to preschool 4 days a week (Mon-Thur) from 9-12.  He gets to take a snack and drink to school with him in his lunch box every day too.  This week they will be learning about the letter A.  When I told Riley that, he told me that he already knew what sound the letter A made, and then he made the sound for me *proud Momma moment*.  I can't wait to pick my little man up from school and hear all about his first day!

Summer Fun

June 1st...

Tho technically not the official first day of summer, it is considered the first day of summer by many. Most kids (tho not my own, they have 4 more days!) are out of school.

With 4 kids I want to make sure that we have fun this summer....but I also don't want to break the bank doing it!

I went to Dollar Tree today (only the best dollar store ever, they are a true dollar store where things are actually a dollar). I bought a TON of stuff for the kids for over the summer. I figure each week I will pull something new and exciting out for them to have. We have new bubbles, sidewalk chalk, puzzles, coloring books, and more.

I started today off by giving my two youngest some sun glasses to wear outside while playing on our swing set in the back yard. My older two are over at a friends house and staying for dinner. The friend is originally from Australia and this coming week when school gets out they are going with their Mom back to Australia for 2 months to see their family and friends back home.

For today tho, I pulled out some finger paint we already had in the house and I let my 2 toddlers have some finger painting fun, followed by a bubble bath. They had a ton of fun, painted some great pictures, and themselves (tho my 4 yr old told me he did not paint his leg...even tho I saw him do it LOL). They made sure to use every single last drop of paint I gave them too!

Here's to more summer fun and making more memories with my kids.

 Riley painting

 Aislinn painting

 Dirty hands....no Mommy, I didn't paint on my leg....LOL

They used ALL the paint I gave them lol

Crazy Little Thing Called Life

Sorry I have been MIA for the last month, but we moved from California to North Carolina!  We're still unpacking, organizing, and getting settled in, but we've made quite a bit of headway.

Let me tell you, driving cross country with 2 cars, 4 kids, and a dog is quite an adventure!  During the day we ate lunch at places where we could eat outside, so we could have Buddy with us (it was way to hot to leave him in the car!), then at night, we would eat after we got to the hotel, so we had a place to keep Buddy.  Luckily it got cooler as we drove across the country!

The first day (Monday) when we drove through Phoenix we stopped to see my Grandma Hook, so all the kids got to spend some time with their Great Grandma, then we headed on to my hometown in south eastern Arizona.  We spent the night there and got to spend time with my mom and my best friend Mel.

The next day we hit the road for New Mexico.  We lost an hour as we crossed into New Mexico, which combined with a late start to the day to make it a late day for us.  We stopped at the White Sands National Monument and let the kids run around and play on the dunes for a bit.  We got into Santa Rosa around 9pm, I think it was our latest day on the road.

The day after that was our drive through Texas....luckily we were just going across the top of it on the 40.  We had lunch in Amarillo, who by the way, has some of the most confusing on/off ramps to the interstate!  We stopped in Oklahoma City for dinner so I could see my friend Kristy and her 3 kids.  I hadn't seen Kristy since I left CT back in May 2001.  She was one of my closest friends when I was stationed in CT and was there with me for most of my pregnancy with Austin.  We spent about 2 hours over dinner catching up and letting all the kids play.  From there we pushed on to Henrietta to stop for the night.  I got all excited when I read their sign saying it was the home of Troy Aikman, only to find out, it's actually his grandmother's house, tho he spent some time there while growing up.

On our 4th day we had our drive through the dreaded state of Arkansas...I don't know what it is about that state, but it hates me and I hate it LOL.  The last time I drove cross country I had issues there and this time was no different.  The ONLY real traffic we hit was in Arkansas, really bad construction that stopped us and delayed us.  It's like the state KNEW I wanted to make it to Memphis in time to go to Graceland so it was doing everything in it's power to stop me LOL.  Despite Arkansas's attempt to thwart my plans we were able to check into a hotel and then make it to Graceland by 4pm, they close at 5!  I had completely forgotten that this year was the 35th anniversary of Elvis's death.  We were there about a week and a half after the anniversary.  Graceland was pretty cool and I'm glad we got to see it, it's pretty crazy seeing a place stuck in 1977, we've come a long way since then.

The day after that we were headed to the Chattanooga area to see Josh's Dad and family.  It had been almost 2 years since we made a trip out to see his family in TN so we wanted to make sure we got to see them on the drive.  Instead of taking us on the 40 to Nashville and then down the 24 it took us a weird round about way.  Good thing my cousin Laura Benton in KY had to work, since Susan (our GPS) took us the other way!  She is a teacher and if school wasn't in session we were going to drive to Nashville and then jump up to Franklin, KY to see her and her family.  The route Susan took us was from Tennessee into Mississippi and then into Alabama.  As we were driving along I saw a sign that said Florence 15 miles.  My friends Jason and Mel live in Florence AND it was just about lunch time!  I contacted them to see if they would be able to meet us up for lunch, and they could!  So we got to see them at Five Guys and had a nice lunch and visit before continuing on to Jasper, which was only about 2 hours away.

We spent that Friday and Saturday in Jasper with Josh's Dad and visiting family.  Of course, Josh had to catch the first UT game of the season, it was pretty cute watching him and his dad sit in rocking chairs in front of the computer because the game wasn't on a channel that his dad had.  Riley says that Grandpa lives in a forest, which is cute, because that's exactly what Austin said 5 years ago LOL.  The kids got to catch fireflies one night and had a blast doing it.

That Sunday we loaded up the car and headed to North Carolina.  We got in at a decent time and settles into our hotel room.  Later that night I got to see my friend Linda and her daughter Leia.  Linda worked at the hotel we were staying at.  She is another great friend from my time in CT like Kristy, who I also hadn't seen since May 2001 (well, I saw her when we were house hunting).  The 3 of us hung out together all the time (we just need Kristy to leave OKC for North Carolina now!).

The next few days were spent buying new living room furniture, canceling and reordering our new washer and dryer (long story HAHA) and.....closing on our house!!!  And, of course, registering the kids for school (which I could not do until after we closed on the house)  That's right the hubster and I are now officially 1st time home owners!  It's a very exciting time for us.  2 months ago before we came out here we were looking to rent, we had no clue that we would wind up having to buy a house, but when the time came everything just fell right into place for us.  I am a strong believer in everything happens for a reason, we were meant to come to North Carolina, for whatever reason, and we're here to stay lol.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of kids going to school, getting our household goods, setting up our phone/internet/cable, starting Jaidan in Ballet and tumbling, unpacking, organizing, and everything else that goes with moving.  Things are starting to settle down now, so hopefully I can get back into blogging more often too!

Sorry for the long rambling post, when I sat down to do the post I didn't know exactly where I was going to go with it, but here we are lol.

This is definitely a crazy life that we are living right now the last few months, but it's our life and it is so worth it!

The Sun is Up!

The sun is up....those are the words that woke me up at 5:59am this morning.  Yep, Riley has this thing with the sun being up.  If it's up, then he thinks that he should be up too.  He's been doing this for about 3 weeks now....ever since Daddy took the child lock off the inside of Riley's bedroom door.  Usually (on the weekends) Daddy is the one getting woken up....when school was still in, he usually timed it pretty good and Daddy was already up but still home, so Daddy would hook him up with breakfast and his shows.  This morning however, Daddy was downstairs eating breakfast, and Riley came straight to our room, so Mommy got woken up.

5:59 am wake up calls, during summer vacation just isn't gonna cut it with Mommy.  It's time to figure out how to get Riley to stay in bed longer, and not get up just because 'the sun is up'.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I'm sure Daddy would also appreciate not being woken up at 5:30 on the weekends too!

Home Sweet Home

Well, we are back home from our fabulous San Diego vacation.  I'm sorry I didn't post while I was gone.  I had every intention to try to post....but it seems I left the CORD for my tablet at home!  Go me, right?  I remembered the wall plug for it, and forgot the cord, so I couldn't charge my tablet.  Needless to say...all my games suffered too LOL.

I will do a longer post later and talk a bit about the vacation and what we did, and I'll include some pictures too (those are still on the camera!).  I just wanted to get a quick post in to let you know why I didn't post any while I was gone.

I am happy to say that we saved $367 on our vacation thanks to coupons!!  We belong to choice hotels, so by booking in advance, and paying in advance we got a lower hotel room rate.  Then we used coupons to save on our admissions to Seaworld, Legoland, the USS Midway, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Look for my posts about our vacation, and my May savings in the next few days!  We're getting ready to head out to my husband's works Spring Picnic, and that will take up the rest of the night.

Fun in the Sun in San Diego!!

I am so excited!  We are spending our family vacation in San Diego this year!  I use to live in San Diego many years ago...in fact, my daughter Jaidan was born at Balboa Medical Center.  For years she use to tell people she was born at the zoo LOL, since they are both located in Balboa Park.

We are heading out Sunday morning, and then coming back home Friday afternoon at some point.  Today marks 8 years since my husband and I started dating.  Our first date was at Joe's Crab Shack in Pacific Beach, and then watching the sunset over the ocean.  So this Sunday, when we first get to San Diego we are going to take the kids and eat dinner at Joe's Crab Shack <3.

We are going to take the kids to Legoland, Seaworld, and The Wild Animal Park...well, I guess now they call it the Safari park.  We have never been to Legoland, but it is someplace I have always wanted to take the kids, so I am excited to go there.  You just can't go to San Diego and not go to SeaWorld, it's one of my absolutely favorite places to visit.  My Mother's day present is being able to do the Dolphin Interaction that they have!  I am so excited to get in the water with the dolphins, it is a bucket list item for me!!!  For my hubby, for Father's day, he get's to do the Penguin Encounter, Penguin's are his second favorite animal, behind Otter's.  The last time I did the Wild Animal park, my 10 year old daughter was only a few months old, so we are heading back there to check it out again.  As much as I love the Zoo, we are skipping it (it's my favorite zoo ever!!).  I swear I went there 3 times the month before I left San Diego LOL.  We took the older kids there when we first moved back to California 3 years ago, so we decided to skip it this time, so we could do things we haven't done or they don't remember doing.

We'll also be hitting up the 2 hour harbor cruise.  The first hour will take us down by 32nd street Naval Base.  My older 2 kids dad, and I were both stationed there, so I thought it would be nice for them to see the ships.  The second hour goes up by Point Loma Sub Base, which is also where I was stationed.  Hoping they get to see a sub....even better if the ARCO has a sub in Drydock!!  the ARCO is where I spent my last 2 years in San Diego.  I am excited to grab some Carne Asada Fries from Santana's over in point Loma...best Carne Asada Fries EVER!!! LOL

We'll also hit up Mission Beach and spend some time in balboa Park.  We're going to go to Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, and the Botanical Gardens too.  there is just so much to see and do at balboa park.  I'm also going to show the kids around and show them where we use to live.

I am so excited to be going back to San Diego even if it's only for a few days.  It was my favorite place to live, and if it wasn't for cost of living, that is where I would love to live.

Are you going anywhere special on vacation this summer?

Ireland Bound!

First a bit of background.  When my husband and I got married I was looking at us going to Ireland for our honeymoon.  I did a TON of research and it wasn't really that much more expensive to go to Ireland over Hawaii, so why not?!  But after paying for the wedding we just couldn't afford it, so instead we had a phenomenal honeymoon in San Fransisco, a place we had both always wanted to go to.  Back then I told him that I would like to try to go to Ireland for our 5 year anniversary.

A few weeks ago I reminded my husband about wanting to go to Ireland next year for our 5 yr wedding anniversary.  October 13, 2012 will be 5 years.  He said I could look into it and start planning, but he wasn't making any promises.  I was totally fine with that, because if I could budget it well, I knew he'd say yes.  I've been researching, and bookmarking stuff.  I'm going to Arizona over Labor day weekend and was going to tell my best friend what I was planning.  I called her yesterday to chit chat and she asks me if my brother had said anything to me about the rave in Dublin the 2 of them are going to go on, which he hadn't.  So she drops the bomb that she is planning a family vacation to Ireland in the summer of 2013.  So of course I dropped my bomb about 2012.  Needless to say being best friends one thing led to another and we hung up with me saying I was going to talk to Josh about postponing our trip til 2013 and all of us going together.  Which of course he said yes to, how awesome is my husband?

So, here we are, my best friend and I planning family trips to Ireland in the summer of 2013 together!!  Her two teenagers and my older two will be going with us, so 8 of us in total.  My 2 toddlers and her toddler twins will stay with family.  Now I am even more excited about going to Arizona over Labor day weekend!!

When my husband and I got married, we had a traditional ceremony, but because I am Wiccan, we also had a handfasting, which my best friend performed for us.  When we go to Ireland, she is going to renew our vows for us!! I am SO excited!!  Plus....August of 2013 will be 20 years since we became best friends!!  What a phenomenal way to celebrate our friendship!  I can not wait!

Erin Go Bragh!

Updates!

I've updated a few things here on my blog. My 100+ book challenge is up to date. I've fallen behind a bit, but am hoping to catch back up, I am really hoping to hit that 100 book mark!

I've also updated my PartyLite tab. It has the current scent of the month, Halloween Night, Mmm! Plus the August host specials 8)

I've also updated my Superpoints post with 5 new, current links. The links are only good for 7 days before they expire, so I put all brand new ones up just now.

We bought Aislinn a new car seat this weekend. She now has a convertible car seat. She was just getting too heavy for me to carry around in her infant seat! We have her 9 month well baby check on the 23rd. Hopefully the drs will be happy with her weight. I really don't want to have to jump through more hoops with them!

Football and cheer practice is in full swing! Josh is an assistant coach this year. We should find out sometime this week which team Austin will be on (Division 1 or Division 2). Yesterday was their first day with all their gear on, so the first day they worked on hits. Jaidan is going to be the flyer for her cheer squad this year. She will be the person they pick up when they do stunts. Being small does have some perks 8) She is very excited!

Well, that's about it for now! Got a lot going on the next few weeks. Going to a Pampered Chef party this weekend, Hubbies birthday is next week, having a Tupperware party next week, then going to Arizona Labor day weekend to do a PartyLite show for my mom and to see my bestie and her twincredibles. Actually, I'm excited to see her whole family, plus I need some 'bestie' time with my bestie.

Are you ready for some football?!

Football season is rolling around again in our house. Today kicks off the first day of official practice. My oldest is playing Football, and my oldest daughter is doing Cheerleading. August is a busy month for football. It's 5 day a week practices! That's right, 5 days a week, Mon-Fri from 5:30-7:30. That's a lot of late night dinners! But I definitely get my monies worth out of my crock pot!

This year my hubby is going to be an assistant coach for Austin's team 8) He L-O-V-E-S football. Hopefully this means some good father-son bonding time for them. And just maybe, this year will teach Austin a bit of discipline....I can hope, right?

Of course, along with football season for the kids comes a cruel joke for mommy. I am a die hard Dallas Cowboys fan. I can NOT stand the Washington Redskins. So of course, my son's team is the Redskins. The PASS Redskins, but still the Redskins. So now I have to cheer for the Redskins and wear shirts that say Redskins on them. A sad time in deed LOL. But I will do it for my kiddos 8)

Are your kids involved in any sports, or anything athletic?

Upromise

Last night I signed up for Upromise. It's been around for YEARS, and I am sure I signed up for it at one point years ago, but I never really knew what to do, so I didn't do anything with it LOL. But I have done a bit of research and now I understand how it works, so I signed up again. Wish I had kept with it all those years ago, I think I originally signed up when they first started around 10 years ago.

Upromise helps you to save money for college, either for yourself or for your kids. Every little bit helps, right? College is already so expensive, and it's only going to continue to get worse before our kids are finally old enough to go.

The way Upromise works is you register your credit cards, debit cards, and grocery store cards with them. Then when you use those cards to shop at various restaurants, grocery stores, online stores, etc , depending on the store a certain % of your sales goes into your Upromise account.

Upromise is free to join, so it doesn't hurt to go check it out 8) There are 3 different things you can do with your money. You can have them invest it in a High Yield savings account through Sallie Mae, invest it in a 529 plan through Sallie Mae, or once a quarter you can request a check be sent to you as long as you have a minimum of $10 in your account. It's very customizable, and you can change how you want to save your money at any time too, so you don't get locked into one choice.

Another great thing about Upromise is you can have friends and family join YOUR account! So Grandma, or Aunt Sally, or whoever can also help you to save money for your kids for college. You can invite them to join your account, they register their cards, and when ever they shop at a participating place money goes into your account.

Go check it out and let me know what you think! At some point down the road I will update you and let you know how we are doing with it!

www.upromise.com

Harry Potter

Yes, I am a Harry Potter fan, my whole family is. With the final movie coming out on July 15th I am re-reading all the books, and planning a Harry Potter movie marathon with the family. I'm currently on book 4.
My 9 year old daughter Jaidan just started reading the books about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I think it is awesome that she is reading them at only 9 years old. I was somewhere not at home and my husband sent me a text message about how my 9 and 11 yr olds were discussing how the movie and book 4 were different from each other (they were both reading book 4 at the time). I must say, that made me one proud momma lol. Austin is reading the books for a 2nd time himself. Yesterday Jaidan finished book 7 and asked to read my Beedle the bard book, which of course I said yes to. Today she was curled up on the couch reading a different book and I asked her what she was reading. She was reading book 1...again, she has already decided to re-read the books LOL.
We have seen all the movies together in the theater starting with book 4. Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 years since book 4 came out in the theaters! I'm VERY excited to see the final movie, but at the same time very sad to see it end knowing there won't be any more movies.

Well, that's all for now, I just wanted to write about what I have been doing the last week 8)

I've been busy Lovin and Livin Life!!

Wow, I haven't blogged in a LONG time, and I am so sorry about that!! Life just kind of snuck up on me and things got a bit crazy around here! There is never a dull moment when you have 4 kids. I'll try to to just a quick recap of the last few months here, hopefully it won't be too long!

MARCH

Not much happened here since my last blog. The only big thing is we bought a brand new car! I am the proud new owner of a brand spanking new 2001 Chevy Traverse! I have been drooling over this car since last year when we first got pregnant with Aislinn. I'm so happy I was able to get the car that I wanted. I love it.

APRIL

This was a pretty hectic month. For starters Josh went out of town on business for a week in Temple, Texas. I must say, it sucks being away from my husband for a week, but it's his only business trip every year. I can't really complain about that. Being former military and having also been married to someone in the military I'll gladly take 1 week, once a year. At Aislinns weight check the week Josh was gone the dr said she wanted to admit Aislinn to the hospital. I got pretty hysterical on her, there was no way I could do that. I wasn't about to leave my baby at the hospital by herself all day and night, and I couldn't keep all the kids with me. She agreed to wait til the following week when Josh got back.
Even tho Aislinn had some pretty decent weight gain between her appts, the following week her dr still insisted on admitting her to the hospital. The Kaiser hospital is about a 30-45 min drive from our house. Josh met up with me for lunch by the hospital and then we headed in. We had to do a minimum 72 hour stay, and instead of breastfeeding I had to pump and give it to her in a bottle. They weighed her every morning and kept track of how much she ate at every single feeding. They did a bunch of blood work and even a chest X-ray to check the size of her heart because they heard a slight murmur. She was put on a 4 hour schedule, so I would feed her the bottle of breastmilk, then the 5oz's of formula (mixed to 24 calorie) and then I would pump. Needless to say, by day 3 I was one tired momma. Josh stayed home with the kids, got the older 2 off to school every day, brought Riley to visit me for lunch every day, and cooked dinner even at home for the kids, he was truly amazing. After 72 hours they let us take her home. Final result....she's just small, and needs extra calories for whatever reason.

While we were at the hospital my brand new car was parked in their parking garage. Didn't move for 3 days. Some rude idiot (i am being polite here LOL) hit my car, dented the door and scrapped the paint off. I was SO mad. Luckily our insurance fixed it for us, but we had to pay a $500 deductible, which sucked, but was better then paying the whole thing. We filed a report with Kaiser and a hit and run report with the Fontana police department.

MAY

Hmmm, trying to remember what went on here. Both kids had projects for school. Jaidan had an animal project, she picked the common bottle nose dolphin. Dolphins are my favorite animal, so it was kind of neat to see her pick that animal without any influence from me. She had already picked her animal by time I found out about the project. Austin had to do a wax museum project about a person who influenced our history. He picked William Clark the explorer, from the Lewis and Clark expedition. We are related to William Clark on my dad's side of the family. I am 8th generation, so my kids are 9th generation. It was kinda crazy, Austin was printing out a picture of him and I looked over and realized...I have William Clarks nose! It's not a great nose (believe me lol) but it was kinda crazy to see that, especially with the huge generational gap.
Both Riley and Aislinn came down with pneumonia. That was not fun at all, I also had an upper respiratory infection at the same time. 2 weeks after Aislinn had pneumonia we had her 6 month well baby check. She gained a pound in just those 2 weeks! She was up to 10lbs 13.6ozs at her appt. Finally her dr has decided no more weight checks and said to just bring her back for her 9 month well baby check. Aislinn also started solids. I made some homemade sweet potatoes and she loved them. I'll post later about my baby food making adventures 8)

JUNE

The first weekend of June I had a PartyLite booth at the Beaumont Cherry Festival with my friend Jenifer. The kids and Josh came out that Saturday and I got the older 2 the unlimited wristbands for the carnival rides. It was a pretty good weekend, but VERY tiring with all the hours we had to be there.
The kids were in school until June 9th. Jaidan will be going on to 4th grade, and Austin is now officially a middle school student. We went to his elementary school graduation, and I was a good girl, I didn't cry! Tho I did come very close a few times lol. I can't believe my baby boy is in middle school, it feels like just yesterday he was going to school for the first time.
The week after school got out, we told the kids we were going to go see our friend Jill in Irvine. Little did they know when we got up at the butt crack of dawn on Monday morning that we were actually headed to Disneyland! We surprised the kids with 4 day hopper tickets to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. We had a blast and had plenty of time to dedicate the last day to re-riding some of our favorite rides at both parks. It was also very tiring, but oh so worth it! I could really go on and on about Disney, maybe I will do a different post about it 8).
While we were at Disney a fire was raging outside of my hometown of Sierra Vista, AZ. Not sure how many of you have heard of it, it is the Monument Fire. It was very scary. I kept getting texts and calls from my mom and I was trying to follow it online. The friday after Disney my mom had to officially evacuate her home. Things got a bit crazy and a 2nd fire started on base and was heading into town, but they got that one contained. That Sunday, on Father's Day, the fire jumped the fire line and it went crazy. A very popular local restaurant was burned to the ground. At one point the fire jumped the highway. Before that it had been on the opposite side of the highway from my mom. The fire got within 1 block of my mom's house, but thanks to the wonderful firefighters they were able to stop the fire from jumping the road into her neighborhood. It was very heart wrenching to listen to the fire scanner and read online what was happening. Things died down after Sunday and have gotten much better in the last week, the last I heard the fire was 85% contained. So far I do have at least 1 friend who has lost their home.


Well there you have it, the last 3 months in a nutshell. I tried to keep it from getting too long. I hope to be blogging more now that summer is here and I should have a bit more time. I may not blog as much as before, but I will try very hard to stick around a bit more, I have missed blogging 8)

Sorry!

Sorry that I have been a bit MIA lately, but it's been another hectic week! Expect an influx of posts on Monday tho!! Jaidan's birthday was today, plus I had a mini conference for Partylite to go to. Tomorrow is Jaidan's birthday party, so I've also been busy prepping for that. Plus I got my first 2 cloth diapers in the mail, so I am excited to prep and try them! I'll catch up with my photo challenge on Monday too, just so much going on right now!!

Irish twins on Saint Patricks Day?!

My very best friend Mel just gave birth to her beautiful twin babies today on St Patrick's Day! She had boy/girl twins and both babies are doing great! They were in the room with them, not in NICU, so I am hoping this means the babies will go home with mommy and daddy. To make it even better, their last name is Irish! How fitting is it that they were born today 8) I am so happy for Mel and Brad and I can't wait to meet and hold my precious new Niece and Nephew!!

This n That ~

As you all know from my post about Aislinn, things have been pretty hectic around here lately. I just wanted to do a quick update about everything else 8)

Austin and Jaidan went to the dentist last week. More bad news...as usual. Austin had 2 Abscessed teeth, luckily they were baby teeth, so they got pulled. Jaidan had her first 2 cavities. We went back yesterday and Jaidan got her cavities filled. We did one with the metal filling, since it's a baby tooth, the other one we did a composite on (whatever that is LOL). She had 1 tooth that didn't quite form right, and it had a crack in it (it looked like) we were told last year. Well, she got a cavity in that tooth and the dentist was worried that if he drilled it for a filling that it might shatter apart. So they recommended the composite, it could be done without drilling, or numbing her, and since we had dual insurance, it was covered. Over the weekend (i believe) Austin also lost a loose tooth. So we are now 3 baby teeth closer to his braces.

Riley seems to have a new favorite movie...Cars. We have already watched it 3 times today, twice yesterday, twice on Sunday, and then I think we watched it once on Friday and on Saturday too LOL. For a while we were rotating between The Bee Movie, The Furious Five, and Kung Fu Panda, but now it's all about Cars.

Riley is also starting to learn more animals 8) The other day he pointed to a Giraffe and called it a Dinosaur. I told him it was a Giraffe and then showed him some more Giraffes, so he get's it right now. He loves to point out the Elephants on one of his blankets, and the Zebra's. Today I showed him the Flamingos. I guess I will see if he remembers the Flamingos later on today.

I got the kids report cards this week! Jaidan did pretty good, mostly 3's (yes our schools are super lame-o and don't use letter or percentage grades) She does still need to work on not talking, turning in her homework, using class time wisely, etc. We have an appt for her on March 23rd to be assessed for ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder...not to be confused with ADHD, my daughter is NOT hyper). Austin had all 3's and everything was satisfactory, including turning in his homework!! That is something we have struggled with for ever LOL. I think his new dr is on the right track with him. He was put back on Concerta in January and his grades have already improved! I am sad that his tics are back and not controlled by his meds right now, but his report card is proof that we made the right choice in treating his ADHD over his Tourette's. We are still in the process of changing up his meds, his dr wants to get him down onto only 2 meds (which I LOVE), so it's still a work in progress, but I am happy to be seeing results already. We go back to his dr on April 6th, at which point we will have removed 3 of his meds.

I am anxiously awaiting my first 2 cloth diapers!! We ordered a Kawaii to test out and see if we like it, and I won a free Fuzzi Bunz in a give-away. Hubby has already said that if I like the Kawaii I can go ahead and order a stash and get started with cloth diapering. If not, we'll try another brand. I am very excited to be trying out cloth diapering with Aislinn.

Jaidan's 9th birthday is coming up on the 19th. I am super excited. The presents from Grandma have already arrived, and our present we ordered on Amazon is on it's way. I paid for over half the present using my free gift cards for Amazon that I earned through Swagbucks. We already have her other presents. We are doing an ICarly theme, all the party supplies are in the mail too. We are going to surprise her and serve spaghetti tacos at her party. I can't wait to see her reaction!!

Well....I think that is all for now 8) I plan to be posting up a recipe or two in the next few days.

3 months old already?!

Wow....has it really been 3 months already? It's hard to believe that my baby girl is 3 months old today. It feels like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the birthing center.

They really do grow up so fast. I always try to cherish every moment, but even more so with Aislinn since she is my last baby. There will be no more after her. All of her first's are also a last. Despite our issues with the doctors and her weight she is a happy, healthy baby girl. She smiles and coo's, screeches, and is on the verge of laughing. You can tell she's trying to laugh when she does it...but it's not quite there yet. She has already rolled over from her tummy to her back several times for me, but she has yet to do it for daddy LOL. She is my first baby to be a thumb sucker. As much as I hate thumb sucking...I must say she looks pretty cute doing it. I just hope it is something that we can easily break as she get's older. We got her ears pierced on Friday. They are a cute little butterfly in Topaz, her birthstone.

Aislinn has been sleeping through the night now for probably close to 8 weeks. She started very early, which is kind of nice considering Riley was 14 months old before he slept through the night every night. Because of this we are moving Aislinn to her crib in her own room today. We kept Riley in our room in his bassinet until he was 6 months old. There's really no need to keep her in our room with her sleeping through the night consistently. The whole point of that was to make breastfeeding easier on all of us. So this weekend Josh and I finally finished putting up the last of her wall decorations. Her room is all ready for her, we just need to move our angel care monitor to her crib tonight. Below are the pictures of her decorations and a picture of my sweet baby girl at 3 months old.

Here is the wall over her crib and next to it



That's right..the butterfly is a nightlight!! Thank you Aunt Mel!


This is the wall over the changing table



A close up of the tea set...It was all hand stitched for us by someone Josh works with


My sweet baby girl, sucking her thumb while she sleeps

Random Ramblings

Just an update on things that have been going on in my life. I've uploaded some pictures to the Baked Pork Chops recipe. As I make the dishes I already have posted I will take pictures to add to them. I have a few more recipes I plan on adding in this week. They are recent recipes I made, so I made sure to take some pictures. Even tho I just recently started to blog, it has easily become a new addiction for me. I love blogging and I love reading what all my new blogging friends are writing. I may not always comment, but I am reading 8)

Riley and I have been invited to a Pull Up Potty Dance Party on March 5th. I'm super excited to take him to this. I will definitely be posting a blog and pictures about that after it happens. I can't wait. We are semi potty training with Riley at the moment. It's so frustrating because once he gets in the bathroom, he doesn't want to leave....ever. We have literally spent over an hour in the bathroom before we finally make him leave, which of course involves him screaming and crying because he doesn't want to put his pants back on, or leave the bathroom. None of my other kids did this, so this is all new to me. Maybe we can get some useful tips at the party.

Jaidan had her awards ceremony for making it to the district science fair on Weds. Then on Friday she brought home her 2nd place ribbon from the school science fair. She's spent all weekend in he room tho, since she can't ever seem to pick it up. One day she'll get her room clean and keep it that way.

Austin has been learning about the Revolutionary War in school. So on Friday he went on a field trip to Riley's Farm. He had a blast. He got to see a blacksmith making items, which was something he had already shown some interest in. He was explaining to me how the blacksmith was making the different items, he didn't really talk about much else, I think it was his favorite part lol. They are also an apple orchard and always have different things going on. I'd like to take a trip there this summer with all the kids. Austin was caught stealing my fudge that was hidden in my bedroom, so he's grounded now.

The kids have the ENTIRE week off of school next week. That's right the entire week, and no, it's not for spring break. Instead of getting President's day off, they get Presidents week. Then they still get spring break off at the end of march. The schools reason for giving them the week off? Because they start school early (in mid August) but they go until June (usually the 2nd week). Umm...ok, then why don't you skip Presidents week and let them out of school earlier for the year? It's bad enough that my kids already have a half day every single Weds. Ok, enough on my rant about the kids school.

Aislinn....well, we had a weight check for her on Friday. She's only 7lbs 12ozs. While it was a 4oz gain, they still don't like how little she weighs. We jumped through all these hoops and had 14 vials of blood drawn from Riley because of his weight. Now here we are going through it all over again with Aislinn. Same shit, different drs and different child. Her dr says they like to see a pound a month. Well, Riley only weighed 16lbs 4ozs at a YEAR old. Yes, I have friends who had babies the same time I had Aislinn who's babies now already weigh more then Riley did at a year old. What can I say? I have small babies. Look at their parents....at 20 I was 92lbs. I had to get a weight waiver to join the Navy because I was under weight. My husband was a scrawny little kid too in High School. He didn't start to 'fill out' until later in High School. My mom...she was 83lbs at age 30 when she married my dad! My Mother In Law...she's a small lady too...as is her mom. Who cares about your stupid charts...I know I don't. It's called genetics, they do play a part in your child's size. But because I breastfeed and she's not on their charts they are freaking out. We have an appointment with a GI specialist on March 1st. Her dr said she wouldn't do any testing and would leave it all up to the GI dr. If he wants to do testing, he'll explain to use why and we go from there. If he doesn't, then her dr won't either. If the GI dr comes back and says she is just a small baby, then her dr won't bug us about her weight anymore. So that is where we are with Aislinn. We won't see her pediatrician again until her 4 month well baby check.

Well, that's it for now 8) I have to run out to Wal-mart for a few things. Trying a new recipe tonight for Chicken Tortilla Soup! Mmm Mmm good!