Summer Time!

So summer is officially here, okay not by the calender maybe but as far as I am concenrned when we can spend our days at the pool it is summer.....and that is just what the kids and I have been doing. It opened up last weekend but I knew it would be nuts so we didn't head there until yesterday and spent all morning there came home around 1 for lunch and then the kids went down for naps. Pretty much a perfect day huh. We headed back this morning around 9:30 and met up with my friend Al, and her little boy Tucker, we planned to bring our lunch with us today so after swimming we ate lunch at the park and went back for a little more swimming. We didn't leave until about 1:30 which had Owen at his breaking point. But since they had already eaten he went right to sleep.
Judy is on here way here for the night as she is headed to Indiana and is making a stop here to see the house and visit a little. I will be glad to see her and always have a great time when we visit. Tommorow we are off early to get the van's air conditioner fixed. It is right across from the mall so we will spend our time there while they are getting my air back. We had a fun weekend. Our cookout Monday was fun, although Preston, Shannon and their girls couldn't come since Kylie was really sick. Maggie missed having her there and hasn't gotten to see her this week since she is still pretty sick so hopefully this weekend they will be able to get together.

Here are some pictures of Maggie, Owen and Carson from last weekend. We brought back the kids little house that they had at Mom and Dad's last weekend so they all had fun playing in it.

Back Home

The kids and I spent all last week in West Virginia visiting Mom and Dad. Joe had to work in Alabama for the week so we headed there while he was gone. They came to visit us last weekend and we had a good time. Joe and Dad got to work out back clearing out some of the woods behind our house.















They did a great job and it looks really nice. Joe did his best attempt at Diego for the kids!
















Mom, Maggie and I enjoyed sitting out on the deck while they worked all afternoon and Owen slept. Saturday evening Joe and I headed out for a date night and went out to eat and to see a movie. On the way home we decided since we were free for the night to stop by Nick and neila's and visit with them awhile. We ended up not getting home until about midnight, I couldn't do that often but it was nice to have a full evening out kid free. Sunday we went to church and out to eat and then headed home to get packed up. Mom and Dad left when we got back and Maggie insisted on going home with them, when Owen saw her getting packed up with MiMi and Jaja he wasn't about to stay here with us, so they both packed up with mom and dad and went on ahead. I had a nice peaceful drive home and listened to the radio staion I wanted to the whole drive!

We had a fun week in Poca, although it was a little more hectic than usual. Mom and DAd are having their kitchen remodled, I mean TOTALLY gutted, walls knocked out and all. they are about halfway through but there is no kitchen at all aside from a fridge and the kitchen is right in the middle of the house so the construction zone is right in the pathway from TV to bathroom. (for those of you wanting to see the progress here you go.....














So we pretty much planned to be gone most of the mornings which isn't hard when I am home since there are a ton of people to visit. We slept at Jim and Patti K's Sunday night and the kids were glad to spend some time with Jim. They think he is so funny, and I think he is pretty fond of them too. :) We went to visit my friend Karri and her little boy Nicholas and also got to see her new baby Landon! (he is about 2 weeks old) but for some reason I forgot to take my camera and get pictures of the kids together. Her parents live on my parents street (we grew up together) so we got to see them a few times when they were out visiting as well) The kids had fun playing together and I always love getting to hang out with her. She is one of those friends that no matter how long it's been since I have seen her we just pick right up where we left off. We went out to visit my grandparents one morning and also went to see my Aunt Pat and Uncle Frank. The kids had so much fun there playing on the hill.


















They would run up and down it over and over and they also had fun with Aunt Pat playing ball. I am sure she slept good that night. They also loved making over Lucy, the dog (or "MUCY" as Owen called her). Owen was determined to feed her his bottle or some kind of snack before he left. I got down to Josh and Tab's to visit with Judy a few times which was nice and also got to see Emma quite a bit. She is so cute and has so much personality already. I wish I had thought to get a picture of the 3 of them, but I will have to remember next time(remind me Tab). Tab and I also got out for a girls night, we did miss Amanda being there as well, although we enjoyed our cokes and fries and not having to watch her eat salad and drink water. :)
Maggie and Owen had fun playing outside and Maggie got to play some with McKayla across the street which she alwasy enjoys. Without the kitchen we got to eat out every meal, which I don't mind. :) I got in all my favorites and the kids of course got their fair share of Dairy Queen. :) (Amanda...need I say it? BEAUTFUL) HAHA





















We got to spend a little time with Amanda before she left Tuesday for Canada. Maggie was sad she had to go and thought it would be a good idea if she just went with her. :) If I had obliged I am sure Amanda would have thought it was a good idea too. They got in plenty of quality time before she left and a few spoonfuls of cookie dough. I also took a little time to myself to get my hair done while we were in. I got it cut about chin length and really like it. I will get a picture on here sometime. Friday morning the kids, mom, and I ran a few places before we headed back home. The trip home was no where as easy as the trip in. About 30 minutes into the trip my airconditioner quit working. I left in the heat of day, about 1pm so it was so so hot. I rolled the windows down but then the kids couldn't hear their movie playing and Owen cried about the entire 3 hours home from being so hot and miserble. I stopped and got them a milkshake to cool them down but at some point Owen decided to dump his all over his lap, which meant he was hot and sticky now. Anyhow, we were glad to get home to our aircondioned house and to see Joe. We got home about the same time and decided to take the kids to the movies to see Shreck 3. Owen had never been to the movies before so we weren't sure what to expect but he did great aside from being pretty chatty at the beginning. He kept saying, "Daddy, I want to watch Cars" And then everything that showed up on the screen he would say, "Oooohhh, I like that." We thought it was pretty cute but got him some popcorn to hush him up since I am sure the others didn't think our little guy was as adorable as we did. Maggie loved the movie and the popcorn and snacks equally as well. I wasn't crazy about it for the kids and don't think we will be seeing it again, but I don't think Maggie liked it enough to ask to so that is good. We just hung out at the house yesterday and the kids played alot upstairs. At one point Joe and I heard Owen sining the clean up song and new that had to be bad news. He had dumped out a whole box of teddy puffs on the playroom floor. He was singing the song but as you can see he made no attempt to pick them up.










Today we went to church and Owen did super. He didn't cry at all after I dropped him off and played the entire time. So that was a huge step for him. After church we came home for lunch and Joe took Maggie fishing while Owen and I napped. Maggie caught 2 fish in about 5 minutes Joe said. After getting the fish so fast she was bored and didn't want to fish anymore. He took them to the park tonight while Neila and I walked. Tommorow we are having a cookout with Nick, Neila, Carson, Preston, Shannon and their girls, Bella and Kylie. Well, that is what has been going on with us. The pool is opened now so that is where we hope to start spending lots of our time.

Mothers Day weekend

We had a fun weekend. Friday evening we went to eat at the Cracker Barrel with Nick, Neila, and Carson. Joe's parents and brother came up for the weekend so they met up with us there as well. Saturday we didn't do alot, just went to the park some while Joe and Isaac fished and Debbie, Larry, and I took the kids to the park. We were going to eat at Claudia Saunders for dinner but by the time we got there it was packed, maggie was asleep, and the food doesn't exactly fit into my diet! So they all got carry out to take home and the kids and I headed back for a dinner of cereal! (which actually tasted just as good to me) That evening Joe and Isaac went fishing and I headed out to walk with some friends while Debbie and Larry got the kiddos ready for bed. Sunday we went to church and then came home and cooked out for Mothers Day dinner. I guess the 5 miles I walked the night before knocked me out because as soon as i put the kids down for their nap I took one as well. Joe's family headed back to Ohio after lunch and since Maggie didn't seem to be very tired she and Joe headed to Walmart. I woke and saw Joe unloading the car, and unloading is what he was doing. It seemed to me more like Christmas. Maggie got a new bike, whcih she did need since the one she was using was too small and her legs kept hitting the handles. She also got the princess helmet and gear to go with it.

















She was so excited and is actually really good at it. It only took her about 5 minutes to figure out how to get it going and now she can ride up and down the street like a pro. Owen didn't make the trip but somehow he wound up with a new F-150 hot wheel truck. (Joe thought you would like that dad).














It is so so cute but of course at this point Owen is scared of it and only likes to ride in the back with someone else driving it. Hopefully in time he will like it.
They also came home with fishing poles for the kids and life jackets for all of us since I am guessing Joe is planning on us spending quite a bit of time on the water this summer. ????

We then headed over to the Lake and rented out paddle boats for a half hour.












It was really fun and the kids loved it. We decided 30 minutes is enough with Owen since the entire time he wanted to jump out. Joe had to hold onto him to keep him in the boat. He kept saying, "Bo Bo swim." (he refers to himself as Bo Bo as well now) We saw lots of ducks, fish, and turtles which maggie loved.

BIG GIRL BED!!

So I tried to post this last week but blogger was messed up so I am trying again today. We got Maggie's mattress so switch her crib to a full bed last wednesday. I kept her in her crib one more night because once it was actually time to move her I got a little sad at her first step towards growing up and wanted one more night with her in the crib. I took a few pictures of her on Thursday morning in her baby bed, when I told her why she was really excited to get into her bed.












We didn't get an early start on it though, we headed to louisivlle with Neila and Carson to get Carson's 1 year pictures done and shop some. Carson did great and his pictures turned out adorable. We hit up gymboree and I got lots of great stuff for cheap thanks to the coupon mary sent me!(THANKS MARY!) We didn't get home until late in the afternoon so I got dinner ready adn put Owen down for a late nap. I started on Maggie's bed that evening and got it all ready for her first night in the big bed. The first thing she wanted to do of course was jump on it. After getting tucked in and explained the "rules" she went right to sleep without any problems. I thought it turned out really cute with her bedding.














So far since then we have only had a few times with her getting up but all in all the big girl bed switch over has been sucessful!

Weekend Fun

We had a fun weekend. Joe had been pretty busy at work last week so he didn't get to hang out with the kids alot. So friday afternoon he called while they were napping and suggested we meet at Chuck E. Cheese to let them play. The kids were so surprised and really excited. Maggie found a new game there she really liked, it was like a computerized coloring book.















So she spent the majority of her tokens right there. Owen we found out was taking his tokens and sliding them under all the games. haha.

I worked Saturday morning for a few hours. It was pretty slow so we were out by about 11 or so. Joe and the kids had spent the morning outside working in the yard and had then headed to Lowes to get some material for Joe to build a building out back to keep his lawn equipment in. He said that morning the kids had wanted him to take them on a wagon ride and he told them in just a minute. A minute later he looked up and said Maggie was pulling Owen up and down the sidewalk.




















They are playing really good together now (for the most part), which is nice. Owen is talking really well now and has been saying 5 and 6 word sentences even! His most famous all weekend was, "no mommy, I want my daddy." He is definetly a daddy's boy, which means he wants Joe to not only play with him, but also to change his diapers so I am not complaining. :) He is such a funny little guy, both houses beside us are for sale and he loves playing on the front porches and yards of them. I don't know what we'll do when someone moves in. Here are some pictures of him investigating some bugs or rocks he found in the grass.




















(By the way, it was time to go in and get bathed, I don't usually let him run around in a diaper but this was his 3rd outfit of the day!)

Yesterday we went to church and then headed to the Cracker Barrel for lunch but it was packed so since Owen was ready for a nap and we were running on overtime with him we grabbed quiznos and came home so the kids could nap. Joe and I finished up with the landscaping and it looks great so I will have to get some pictures. After naps I got them ready adn we headed to Shelbyville Lake to meet up with Joe and Nick who were there fishing. Maggie has been asking when she can go fishing with her daddy like "Little Bear" does. Maggie was pretty excited but Owen spent most of his time looking at the water and eating the snacks I brought them.


















He kept smiling at the water and saying, "Look mommy, i smile at the fish."

















He also spent a great deal of the time saying "shhhh" since Joe told him you have to be quiet when you are fishing.




















If you know my kids at all you know that would be quite a feat!
Maggie helped Joe bait his hook and held the fishing pole some.





























Luckily we didn't have to wait too long before they got a bite and Maggie thought that was so cool.
















As I was putting Maggie to bed last night we were saying prayers and we were talking about God and his angels. I told her she couldn't see them but if she's ever afraid to ask Jesus to send his angels and they will protect her. She asked me if God and Jesus knew each other and I told her that God was Jesus father. She then said, "good night mom, I am going to talk to Jesus and tell him I want to be his best friend. As I turned out the light I heard her say, "Jesus tell your angels to come down here. Then she giggled and said, "oh angels, this is going to be so much fun." Who knows what goes through that little head of hers. Tommorow we have MOPS in the morning, it is the last one for this year until the fall. No other big plans tommorow other than that...just probably playing with Kylie and Bella since that is Maggie and Owen's favorite thing to do now!

Nature vs Nurture

So I must say in most cases I side with nature. I have 2 wonderful children that Joe and I have raised the exact same way, yet one of them cringes at the sight of dirt on her finger and the other dives in the first mud puddle he see's. One of them could sit hour upon hour in front of the TV, the other can maybe catch one whole episode of little bear without getting bored. And the biggest difference in my 2 little ones is their eating habits! Both of my children had the same nutrional diet from day one: nothing but breastmilk for the first 7 months, then homemade baby food and homemade cereals. For those of you who remember the famous "super baby porridge" , you would swear maggie would eat anything if she'd eaten that her first 2 years of life. (for those of you unare of this wonderful breakfast for your little one, its a mixture of millet, brown rice, steel cut oats, hard boiled egg yolk, tahini, flax seed, and banana...sounds great huh) Well, this is not the case....Maggie hasn't touched a vegetable since about 2 and a half. At least not voluntarily. I don't remember when exactly she began to dub her once loved avacado and porridge as "yucky". But I know it was somewhere after the age of 2. She has never in her life drank a glass of milk, and her diet now consists of cottage cheese and pinapple, mango and yogurt, peanut butter, almost any fruit, potato soup, and spaghetti. So I am constantly trying to think of ways to sneak in her veggies to the foods she eats. A fool proof way is her potato soup, I puree up a bunch of carrots and mix them in her soup before she see's the "before color". We have this weekly so I know she can get some veggies in. I also have snuck a few pureed veggies in her spaghetti sauce, but she has noticed this a few times. Today she requested her soup for lunch so here she is lapping up a bowl of potato soup which actually has more carrots in it then potatos!














The only catch with her soup is you must mash up her potatos. I told her today that before long she must start eating her soup without mashing the potatos. She then told me she coudln't do that because "potatos are so yucky and she gets sick if she eats them." Apparently when you mash up the potatos they turn into something else???
Contrary to maggie, owen will lap up absolulty anything you put on his plate. And I mean anything. Yesterday I gave them both a cup of cookies to snack on and cut myself up some red and green peppers. Owen saw my snack and tossed his cookeis on the floor, reached for my plate saying, "mine mommy, mine." So he ate my peppers. (maggie ate his "floor" cookies)

Meet Wormy...

So my little Maggie brought home a new pet the other evening from her friend Kylie's house.









This is wormy.










Maggie was somewhat freaked out by the caterpillers at first, but after she saw her buddy holding them she got brave enough to pick one up and it turned quickly into love....at least on her part. Poor wormy was dropped at least a dozen times, I asked Joe what the life expectancy of these things are. Anyhow, wormy spent the majority of the day with us and last night when we finally came in for bed I told her he had to sleep outside. Well, she told me when I put her to sleep that she thought wormy was going to make a cocoon and turn into a beautiful butterfly today. :) Well, this morning we go out to find wormy and, of course, he is gone so she has decided he flew away. She is pretty anxious to get back to Kylie's just in case he decided to head back to his home though.

We have been spending all our time outdoors latley which has been great. Neila and I have been walking most every evening at the park and Joe takes the kids to play while we excercise. We went with our neighbors on Sunday afternoon to a huge farm here in Shelbyvile with tons of flowers and a petting zoo. The kids all had a blast running around and feeding all the animals and Shannon and I stocked up on flowers. Joe and I spent the rest of the evening planting and the outcome looks great We just have to get hangers to hang our 2 potted plants we got and our landscaping will be finished! The kids and I planted our rose bush today and then spent the rest of the morning washing the van. The van has looked cleaner after getting washed, but the kids had a blast which was the idea anyhow!

And then there were 2.....

So, the fish have met up to my expectations. We started out with 6 a little over a week ago and as you can see, there are only 2 who are belly down now. I thought fish floated to the top when they died, but this little guy died on the bottom and stayed there. 3 of the 4 died from natural causes, the other died at the hands of Joe. Not on purpose of course, he was cleaning out their bowl and put the fish in the sink filled with water while he changed the water. Well, the plug wasn't tight enough and one little guy just slipped right down the drain. The two we have left seem to be holding on, but if I don't get to Walmart soon they are gonna starve to death. Maggie and her buddies somehow "misplaced" the fish food and I have yet to find it so they haven't eaten in about...oh, 4 days. Joe tried to improvise last night, he found in the internet they eat red lettuce so he put some in the tank but it is still there today so I guess they aren't that hungry yet.

We have had fun this week, Tuesday we had "mommy and me" and had a picnic at the wildlife park in frankfort. It was alot of fun, there were bears, wildcats, snakes, turtles and other animals native to KY. Maggie and Owen really liked it and had fun with all the other kids. I was glad to find out about it since it's free it is a great place to have so close when you want to go do something cheap that the kids will like. We have hung out with our friends down the street quite a bit this week. They all play really well together. After they left the other day Maggie was telling me how Kylie could read things to her and I told her that is because Kylie is in school. Maggie said she wished she could get big and go to school. She told me it was taking her way to long to get big. My response was, "Oh sweetheart, it isn't taking nearly long enough." She just looked at me, clueless what I meant, and smiled. She is about to get her first little taste of independence though, we are about to move her into a big bed. (i know, i know, she will be 4 in october) She is perfectly happy in her crib still and it keeps her in bed without any fights though. But the past few weeks I have heard thuds in her bed at night and come to find out she is getting a bit big for her bed and when she turns she bumps the sides. So I have the frames to convert her to a full size, got her new beddding adn now we just need to get her mattress and she will be set. I thought she'd be more excited but she doesn't seem to care much about it.
Joe took the kids to chuck e cheese for lunch on monday while I was at the doctor. They had so much fun there and even got enought tickets to get a gumball machine, which they LOVE! Neila and I took the kids swimming at the FAC today. They all had so much fun and I can't wait until the outdoor pool opens so I can actually get some sun while playing with them. Everyone is napping now, there is a big storm on the way so I think i am gonna just relax while I can.

Thunder over Louisville

So we have found a new annual tradition we will be starting....Thunder over Louisville. We had such a great time yesterday and it made it even more fun that we were able to go with our friends, Johnny, Wendy, Annie and Tristan. Maggie has been asking all week when it will be Saturday becasue she was so excited to see Annie. She woke up yesterday and I said, "guess what today is." She said, "oh my gosh, is it really saturday?" They got to our house around 3 and we headed out to Louisville to have some fun. We found a place to park on a big lot where a guy was charging 5 bucks to park. We paid our 5 bucks but we are all pretty sure the guy just wondered upon the lot and had no claims to it whatsoever. It was a pretty good walk to Buckhead, which is where we had tickets to get into for the day. (If you have never been to this, you have to have tickets to get into somewhere right on the river...otherwise you are stuck with all the crazies out on the streets!) When we got into our area we found a seat under the tents since it was so sunny out and got some food to eat. Then Annie headed to the face painting tent and Maggie to the hat making tent.



















Wendy and I took the boys down to the grassy area by the river and found a place to let them run around. The river bank was pretty steep but the kids loved rolling down the hill all afternoon and we couldn't have had a better spot to see the fireworks. Maggie and Annie had a blast playing all afternoon, I think they made up their own drama where one of them was falling down the hill while the other rescued them.












They were both covered in grass and grass stains by the end of the night, but they had fun getting that way!




















Tristan joined in their rolling as well, but took time out each time the planes went by to check those out.












I caught this picture of him as a plane flew by and thought it was so cute. I think he and Owen could easily pass as brothers. Owen was totally into the planes all day and loved watching them fly by.

























(There are air shows all day long with these incredible planes, jets, and helicopters doing the coolest tricks) The helicopters came down at one point literally right in front of us and the wind was so strong from them it splashed water up on us on the bank.
















The boys loved this but as loud as it was I don't think Maggie or Annie looked up once they were so into their playing. Here are some pictures and I wasn't zooming at all, we were really that close!

















The kids played until the fireworks were about to begin and Wendy and I sent the guys to get us a funnel cake! I got my kids in their pajamas since I knew they would fall asleep on the way home. The fireworks weren't over until about 10 or so and we had been told it was going to be hours to get out of the traffic and back home. Being that Owen is a kid of consistency (just like my dad!) when 8 oclock came around he was ready to hit the sack.










I fixed him up his bottle and blanket and made him a bed out of his stoller, this worked for a short bit but he decided to rest on daddy until the fireworks began.

The fireworks were unlike any I have ever seen before, they lasted about 30 minutes and were let off of 2 huge barges and the bridge that goes from Ky to Indiana. The kids all loved them. Owen didn't take his eyes off of them for a second and the entire time kept saying, "WOW" and "Woahhh".

















It was the cutest thing. Maggie spent alot of the time dancing to the music they had going with the fireworks.

















She kept telling me "this is so cool mom." About halfway through I looked over at Trsitan and this is what he was doing.
















He spent the rest of the fireworks trying to figure out just how this braclet glows. I thought he looked so cute! (I think you guys may have a little engineer on your hands Wendy).

So as you can see we had a super fun day and to make it even better we got home in 1 hour! (we only live about 40 minutes away) We were all planning on it being a few hours to get home since everyone had told us the traffic would be crazy, and it was....but luckily we parked in a great place and got home by midnight. The kids all were asleep by the time we got home and Wendy and Johnny and the kids stayed here at our house since it was so late instead of driving the extra hour or so on home. We were glad they did since that meant we got to hang out with them more today! The kids all headed outside after they ate breakfast and spent most of the morning playing and letting Joe take them on bike rides in our german bike carrriage. Our neighbors, Shannon and Preston and their girls, were out walking so they came over too. Their little girl, Bella, and Owen had fun taking a ride on the bike together. I thought they looked adorable sitting there.










All the kids had fun playing and Maggie told me a million times this evening how she loved playing with all her friends today. She and Annie took a little time to dress up like princesses before they headed back home.









We had a blast with them and can't wait to get together again soon. This whole weekend was so much fun and I just have to say how happy I am to be back in the USA where we can do all these fun things with friends!

Joe and I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get the garage in order a bit and letting the kids play outside. I have a doctors appointment tommorow and Joe is going to meet me to take the kids while I am there. I think he has planned to take them to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch so they will be so excited about that.

Here are some more pictures from this weekend.