Swing Around

Check it out:

Both kids on a "big boy" swing.

And this one...

she can officially swing. all. by. herself!

Holy Blog, Batman!

Holy, Blog Batman.  Looks like we've been a total slacker!  There are many of reasons why I've been slacking.... (1) enjoying the kids, (2) new addiction to Fringe, (3) the ever so later and later kiddo bedtimes, (4) my own stubbornness toward the blog...feeling like w/ the blog people don't feel the need to call, write or message us b/c all our life is up here, (5) pure back-to-work-at-a-new-school busyness, (6)  trying to spend more time w/ the hubby and not w/ the computer.  But...we'll put all that aside

So since we've updated only 1 time the last month....and only a few times the month before...I've got lots to share.

Summer is over.  But man...was it a blast.  This lil' man was almost 100% potty trained. 
*yes, "was" the back-to-school routine has disrupted his progress*

We took our first ever family vacation. By first ever. I mean ever. Since Cory and I've been married. The kids had a blast!

We've been all over StL trying to hit some of the parks and events.  Here is the Bird Sanctuary and a few Dodo's they've locked up!

Perhaps one of the best picture of my two goobers.

B started Pre-K! She is doing great! Already has mastered her first memory verse and is totally rocking that school!  This is the Meet-the-Teacher night!

Our traditional First Day of School picture w/ a super cranky Owen.

Here she is at her first day of school!

So...I promise to be a better blogger. Really. The blog is more for me than anyone else. I love look back at old photos, thoughts and videos of the goobers...and just reminse. These two have gotten so big and I know one day I'll be looking back at when they were two and four years old thinking. "wow...that is when they were so little."

  I wish I could just freeze time and keep them this age forever {hold the tantrums, though}.   So for that very reason...this blogger is back!!!

Summer time...

Summer time means...

excursions out and about.

chillin' and playing games while staying out of the heat.

dressin' like a cow to get free food.

being adorable...

okay...so they can be adorable anytime of the year...but he certainly is adorable during the summertime, too!

Overdue Birthday Update

So June is close to being over and I still need to post a Bethany Birthday update. So here it goes:

Keeping up with my tradition of making birthday cakes, I made Bethany a Tinkerbell Cake. At first I attempted a Tangled Cake--with the tower and all. Yeah. That didn't work out for me. So when Bethany saw the pile of cake that was once a tower...she said, "That's ok Mama. You can make a Tinkerbell Cake instead." 

She got a kick out of eating Tinkerbell's head!

Then it was present time.  Which in our house is apparently universal present time and all person under the age of 12 get to open the presents.

And...apparently all persons gets to have equal opportunity to play with the said presents...

Even Daddies...

The kids even got these awesome couches/bed from their Grandma.  What a great gift idea. They love having their own seats.

This was the first year Bethany was able to have her own Birthday Party with her friends.  We decided to go with the classic venue of Chuck E. Cheese. Which, of course, brought back fond memories for Cory, as he used to be Chuck E. back in the day. 

The kiddos has a blast!

Even Owen had a couple friends there to play with!

Gorgeous Dancing Girl

Today is Bethany's 4th birthday.  She is been looking forward to her birthday since last August. Seriously. This girl has been waiting 10 long months just for one day to celebrate her!  I think it will be worth the wait!

Here are some gorgeous picture of our lil' 4 year old at her dance recital on Sunday. 
She has one great personality!

Dancing "Show Biz Kids" with her class.

Doing "A Ballet Lesson".  She's so graceful!

Twirling and Twirling!

Strike a Pose!

We are Floored!

It is just about a week into June.  Cory and I have been off for the summer for nearly 8 days now.  Ahh...the Perks of being a teacher.  Summers off!  So we have been sitting back, sipping our diet cokes (well, coke zero for me), and catching up on our Judge Judy episodes.

Yeah. Right.

We have been "floored" with how much work we've managed to squeeze into the first week off. I almost think we've been working harder that first week than we do while schools in session.

First cleared off the main level of the house. No more books, toys, movies, electronics or furniture.  Then, we ripped up all the 600-something squared-feet of carpet on the first level of the house. And the pad, too. Plus, we plucked up all those pesky staples holding it all down.   I hate those staples. What a pain in the tushie!  (Literally and Figuratively!) 

Here are two out of the three rooms w/out furniture and whatnots:



So bare...

Since our main living area was other wise occupied...I was on Kid-Duty.  I did a pretty darn good job keeping those two lil' boogers busy and out of the awesome carpenters' way. 

We hung out a lot in the Master bedroom watching shows, reading books and cuddling.  We learned to examine toys for leaking battery acid while we were playing on my new comforter.  We've googled solutions to this bad battery acid blunder...but we have yet had time to check out their effectiveness.

Being the Supermom that I am, I took the kids to Grant's Farm.  By Myself!  They were perfectly behave and loved every second of it.  

Owen loved the turtle.  He stared and talked at it for a good 4-5 minutes.  The turtle was surprisingly active, eating and walking around.

 We ate snow cones and pretzels and nachos.

Well, Owen didn't eat the snow cone. He wouldn't even try it.  But he sure did have a good time mushing it about and trying to feed me.

The kids loved the train ride and hunting for their animals.

 Another day we headed up to Strawberry pickin' with the neighbors.  Bethany loved it. Owen didn't. He couldn't stand that stinkin' straw in his shoes.

What a lovely girl! 

We even had time at Faust Park.  Which is perhaps my favorite park.

After 4 days of running around town; hanging out at parks, restaurants and grandmas--the floors were finished!

Then it was back to carrying all the furniture, books, games, china, etc back in the right spot. But not before installing lil' felt pads on the bottoms of things that could potentially scratch our awesome floors.

It is super nice to FINALLY have the house in order. We totally enjoy these new floors.  They were worth the money and inconveniences of waiting and running around.

Struggling

Man. Seems like I am struggling here. Struggling to update the blog. Struggling to find time to focus on the family. Struggling to get all my work for school completed. Just struggling....

It is so hard to be a working mama at times...with your attention divided between the kiddos, husband, house and job. Plus,throw in the mix being a pair of teachers. Yeah...so you can pretty much ensure our evenings are lost to papers and lessons and emails.  It is hard to find a balance.

Today I went with a few neighbors to a wake. Yeah. Sounds uplifting, right?  Well, it was. I love our neighbors. They are such a great group of people. Whenever something happens, these neighbors are on it. With Owen's surgery they were the most supportive people around.  When a baby is born sick, the neighbors rally around the family. When a neighbor's mother dies, they rally.  We are so blessed to have picked this neighborhood 5 years ago.  It is almost more like the neighborhood picked us--as this was the first house we looked at but it was a few thousand out of our price range. Then, a month later, we came back for our third viewing and the realtor announced it went down in price...to our limit!  How perfect.   The good thing about these folks is that we can support someone who is going through a hard time...and in the end it turned out be pretty therapeutic for all of us.  After the wake we took a long way home with a stop at Traders Joes (my first time ever...probably not my last!) and with an last-minute trip to the Cheesecake Factory! Yum!  And now I feel refreshed. These next 8 school days (I mean...who is counting) don't look so daunting now that I've had actual "Jo Ann Time". 

I gotta remember to take time out for myself between papers, dance practice, doctor appointments,  meetings and baking cakes.   Oh. Yeah. Baking Cakes...I forgot to show you how Owen's cake turned out. I have to admit. It rocked. Poor lil' booger loved it. Even though he had to wait until after dance practice to eat it!

The Dog.

Blowing out the candle.

Eating the Frog...after not realizing for a good 2 minutes that it was indeed edible.

He absolutely loved that Word World Cake.  Especially that Frog, "Ribbit" as he says. It was a great lil' day for him.   He is such a sweet lil' guy!  And even though I felt guilty leaving them this evening...I now feel like I have way more energy to keep up with their ever-lasting supply!