A Happy Father's Day BBQ

We had a Father's Day fest today. I have told Schaun that this seems like a lot of work to do on his day. He seems to love it enough not to care about that. Yesterday he smoked a pork shoulder, and some sausage. Today he smoked ribs and grilled ears of corn, burgers, and some other chopped veggies. My family was all here and most of his family all came out. The kids had a great time playing in the pool. Bridget got in and didn't come out for hours. Becca got in for a short time, then she wanted her swim suit off. We went inside and got her clothes back on and then guess what? She went straight in the sprinkler and then climbed back in the pool fully dressed. Silly kid!That pic of the fire was under control. Don't be worried. Schaun cooks the veggies this way. Do you see how close his hand is to that huge fire? It only lasts for a couple seconds and then it is gone, but it scares me everytime.

Week in Review

Here are my favorite photos from this week. We went to NKC to Dagg Park and played with some Scrapbooker's Dream forum friends. The girls both got new things to ride. When I was a kid we called these big wheels. They are a big hit over here. That is our sweet little dog named Daisy. Then some photos from our backyard play time. It was a fun week. I was also selected to be a Star Scrapbooker at the Kansas Scrapbooker's Dream store. Very exciting for me! Today I took the girls to see Aunt Kristin. That is always a treat for them. Nice weather, fun things to keep us busy, no complaints from me.

If I won the lottery

If I won the lottery today the first thing I would do is pay off all our debt of course (along with all immediate family's). I would buy a house that was big enough, but not a mansion. I'm thinking white with a wrap around porch, very Victorian looking. More important than the house would be the stables for our new horses. I would be a riding fool. I am going to try and convince Stacy to come be our live in nanny. I need a cook--that would solve a lot of issues around here. A trainer for my riding. I hope the girls will grow to love horses too. But if not, we will find their thing. I think we need a pool too. That would be perfect.

Schaun will need a sound proof room in this house. Or we could just build him his own little place. He could go there and listen to music as loud as he wanted. Play video games and just have a good ol' boys place. I'm sure he will not even finish the day at his job when I tell him we won!

I would buy my mom a house. And we would probably need a place in London too. We could share that though. Basically whatever mom wanted she would have.

My in-laws have always talked of retiring at the Lake. So we would set them up with that.

I'm not sure what my sister would want. Some funny money to shop with for sure. A new car equipped with a driver. She hates to drive.

My brother wants to become a chef. So culinary school for him. Paris maybe?

Vacations will be so much better. Stay at the best places and have lots of help with everything.

Well, that is what I'd start with. That will keep me busy for while.

Mrs. Greenwood

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Mark Greenwood. The ceremony was sweet and perfect. The bride seemed a tiny bit nervous, but Mark vowed to "forgive" and that seemed to really please Kristin. After the ceremony we spent a couple hours outside at different locations taking beautiful photos. Then we were off to an awsome dinner. The bride and groom know the executive chef at Bravo. Let me tell you, that is a good man to know.

CONGRATULATIONS Mark and Kristin! I wish you all the happiness in the world!

Photos of the Day

I went to visit my Gramma today. She has a great yard for picture taking. These are my favorites of the day.

Around my neighborhood

I like to take the girls for a walk in the evenings. As we were walking the other day I started to notice some things that I don't think are typical. This picture doesn't show it as vivid as it is, but the top pic, that house is PINK. It is not pretty. I like that mailbox. I think it is interesting. Then there is the house that doesn't know where they live. This house looks like it is in the middle of a forest. They have a fence made out of logs along the front, overgrown pine trees, and it is not terribly messy looking. It just doesn't fit into a suburban neighborhood. Then there is the house without yard. They tore out all the grass and replaced it with rocks. A few shrubs and trees, but no mowing for them. Then of course I always see my girls. Becca likes to walk behind me. Whenever I turn to snap a photo, she yells at me to "go mommy walk!" and Bridget who weeds all the yards by picking all the dandelions.

TEN things that I'm thankful for

1. Schaun--for being a great husband, father, provider and that he likes to cook
2. Bridget--for keeping life exciting with her imagination and dramatics
3. Becca-- for making me be patience with her do-it-myselfness
4. My Mom- for instilling a need for my independence
5. Kristin-- for always seeing the other side of things
6. Stacy-- for being the best "babysitter" EVER
7. Oprah--for her work to educate children and empower women
8. books and magazines for endless inspiration and entertainment
9. chocolate
10. My camera and photos--my memory is not that good
a little extra.......
TiVo, callerID, cell phones, mini-vans, and the internet

Perfect Weather....finally

We have been waiting for a day like this. Sunny and warm. Finally!

This is where we went. I think this is a great playground. Since Bridget believes that she is a princess, she should play in a castle. There were a lot of kids there--as I expected on this perfect day. But the more the merrier. Bridget just joins in with them. She makes friends easy. Becca is not sure of the slides yet. She likes to go to the top and just hang out there. It makes me nervous that one of the bigger kids will knock her down. I only let her hand out up there for a while before I bring her back down. She is just as happy running off in the trees and grass alone. So it is hard to please them both. Once is all social and the other not so much. But when it is time to leave and they are both unhappy about that, then it seems to me they both had a good time.

Official second birthday photo

Today we had an appointment for Becca to have her "official" second birthday pictures taken. I always go to the same place, Portrait Innovations. They take wonderful pictures. And when I walked in today I was greeted by name from a couple of the photographers and several of them knew Bridget and Becca's names. I guess we have been there a few times. Becca is not hip to having her picture taken in this setting. She doesn't want to stand near the backdrop and she will not keep her hands out of her mouth. It is frustating. On the other hand, Bridget is a pro. I wasn't even going to have her pictures taken, but she got so sad about it, I let her. Bridget fell down last night. She was running, but other than that, there was no reason for her to fall. She hit the floor face first, and she hit hard. She split her bottom and top lip open. It was all swollen and looked really bad last night. I thought, wow, that is gonna look great in a picture. But she sat with ice on it for a long time and a lot of the swelling went down. So with a bit of lip gloss, I don't think you can even tell.

My sweet little baby turned TWO!

We had Becca's second birthday party on Sunday. Her actual birthday is Thursday, the 11th. It was a great party. We had a Mickey& Minnie Mouse theme. The super cute Minnie cake came from Aunt Kristin--she provides all our theme cakes. We had balloons galore and lots of great gifts. Schaun smoked some pork on Saturday, so we had some fantastic pulled pork sandwiches along with the brats, dogs, burgers, and chicken he grilled during the party. One of Becca's presents was a big crab shaped sand box (from Gramma Kathy). Once we went outside to take a look at it, all the kids were off and running. They sure do love the outdoors.

It is hard to believe that my tiny Becca is two. I am constantly amazed when she says complete, understandable sentences or when she listens, understands and (sometimes) follows directions. Just little reminders that she is getting big and smart really fast.

Pony Birthday Party

Gabrielle is one of the girls in Bridget's preschool class. She had a pony birthday party. When I say pony--I mean REAL ponies. There were three ponies there for the kids to ride. What a great idea. I mean, what little girl doesn't want a pony? The ponies didn't stay the whole party, but it was a great time. I wish that they would have let me ride.

I miss

I've been challenged to blog about someone that I miss. There is not one name that jumps at me, but you know what I really miss?

Jello pudding pops.

When I was a kid, I ate these all the time. They were the best treat. Cold and creamy, just perfect.

Jello does not make these any longer. I am not sure why. I didn't believe that they really stopped making them for a long time. I would search every grocery store I was in looking for them. No luck. At one point I contacted the company. I thought maybe I could order them. Maybe they were not available locally. That is when I learned the truth. They told me that pudding pops were not produced any longer. I think that is a crock of you know what. Everybody loves pudding pops, so why not make them?

This week

This week has seemed to just drag on and on. I think most of that feeling comes from the cloudy, rainy days. We did get to go have some real fun on Wed. We met some of my scrapbook forum friends at Loose Park. We had some food and stood in the cold while the kiddos played.

Lost and Found

About 4 weeks ago I took Bridget to the library. She randomly picked out this DVD titled "Hamilton Mattress". There was a muppetish looking anteater-like thing on the front, but I have no idea about this character. Well, she never watched it. A week later, when it was due I went to look for it with the other library stuff and it was gone.

It just disappeared.

I re-checked it as many times as I could while I continued to look for this movie. You know, under cushions, behind furniture, and any other nook and crany. Places that just seemed stupid to look. But I looked and looked.

I gave up the looking and went and admitted our crime to the library. My theory was that if I paid for it, then it would appear. It cost me $15.00 last Friday to purchase this lost item.

GUESS WHAT?

You got it. Bridget walked up to me and handed it to me today. "Mom, here is that lost movie".


I'm not sure where it was. She says she had it with the other movies, but it wasn't. But my theory was right.

Family pictures

This is me with my sister, Kristin and my brother, Kent. We had our pictures taken this weekend (along with our two cousins) because it is going to be a birthday gift for our gramma this year. I think they turned out very nice.














BUT.....this was the favorite of the day! Poor me--look at that bully. Trying to step on her older sister--I tell you what, she just has no respect. Hahaha

It's my Birthday!

Today I turned 34.
Schaun's loves to tease me on my birthday because for the next 18 days I will be two years older than him. The day started out a little uneventful. Then by lunch I had received two packages. I loved that, one was beautiful flowers. Then Schaun came home a little early and had presents. He gave me some new clothes and a ONE GB memory card for my camera. I can now take about 250 pictures!!!! That is so cool. Then, my biggest surprise was when my in-laws showed up at my door, a Tinkerbell cake appeared from nowhere and there was singing and cake all around.

Easter Weekend

We made quite a mess coloring the eggs this year, but they turned out nice. My theory of glitter making everything better, now applies to eggs too.


We had a great weekend. We had a yummy dinner of honey-baked ham. Lots and lots of playing outside for the girls. Schaun got the slide fixed on the swing set. The Easter bunny came and left fantastic baskets. And my favorite part was getting the girls dressed up in pretty dresses.

Easter Party

Wow! We had a busy, busy day Friday. Bridget had her four year old check up. No surprise, but she is great. She grew 3 inches and gained 6 pounds. She is in the 50% for her age--so totally average, that's good. Then we went to the pharmacy, the grocery store, home for lunch and then off to Stacy's for her Easter party.

Before we left for the party, Becca was so tired she told me "Beta tired, lay down". I told her we were going to Stacy's and she said "Stacy lay Beta down". And when we got there, she REALLY wanted to go lay down. She rested for about 15 minutes, then was ready for the fun. Stacy had baskets full of CANDY and toys for all the kids. She hid eggs in the backyard full of CANDY. Then we all came in for a much needed snack of chocolate cupcakes and cookies. But we all had a great time.

We don't say that

A couple days after Bridget's 4th birthday, she asked when will she be able to drive. I told her when she is 16 she can drive. So if you ask her she will tell you that she is 4 but next year she will be 16.

Today she asked me if she will be 16 next year. I told her no, that she will be 5. I proceeded to count to 16 for her to demonstrate how many years she will have to wait. Her response was.............. "Oh damn it!"

She said it VERY clear. No mistaking that maybe she said something else. So we had a little talk about things we say and I hope we cleared this up.

Ham it up

How cute are these two? If you really want to know, just ask them. Hahaha!

My sister, Kristin and my daughter, Bridget at Kameron's birthday party.

Happy Birthday Kameron

My nephew, Kameron, turned TWO today. I always like it when the birthday party is on the actual birthday. It just seems a little more special when that happens. It was a Nemo theme with lots of balloons, food, presents, and family. It was a beautiful day and the kiddos had lots of fun running outside and playing on the swingset.

Isn't he a cutie?



Becca spent most of the day enjoying herself in this swing.

Disney Desperate Housewives

Click to make larger. Made me laugh.

Do you ever have days...

When you know that as a mother you have done a great job. I had one of those days yesterday. There was no yelling at each other, no grabbing, just a tiny bit of drama crying. We went over the alphabet and Bridget went to ice skating. A good day.

But then, I wake up the next day and think that I don't want to do that again. I am a bit selfish with my life I guess. I think I should have time for me, so I take it. Usually on Thursdays. Bridget goes to preschool until 2 on Thurs. and I take Becca to Stacy. Then I do whatever I want. Sometimes I go home and clean a little and scrapbook, sometimes I go to an exercise class, sometimes (well, most times) I go shopping. I usually feel a bit guilty over this, but when I don't do this, I am so cranky over the week-end.

Tomorrow is Friday, and I actually didn't finish my shopping today. So the girls will come with me to finish tomorrow. I can't believe they are mine when it comes to shopping, they are really bad at it. I hope it is just their age.

Wow! Go take a peek at this.

Wow! I like to browse the 2 peas gallery. You never know what you will see. Last night I saw this...I promise it is worth your time to take a look......

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=827292


I can't imagine how long it took to do this. I can't imagine having the talent to do this.

I was all excited yesterday because I submitted my layout that is posted below to the Basic Grey on-line gallery and it was accepted. Okay, I am still excited today too!

Smile Run Play Laugh with Me

This page is really what Becca is all about. Smiling, running, playing, and laughing.... then add the serious stubborn streak, and that sums her up.

Today we went out for a two hour fiasco-oh, I meant a nice walk to the playground. Little Miss Stubborn got it in her head that she would rather walk the mile to the park than ride in the wagon. So I should have just went back home, but it was so nice out and we didn't have any other plans, so we just kept going--but at two year old Becca speed. Hence the two hour trip.

Company

Dressed Bridget in some normal clothes today. I guess that is normal by my standard, because hers always involves a dress or slippers of some sort. So the first chance she had, she went to her room, pulled out the dress she wore for her birthday and changed into it. Schaun was outside doing yard stuff and I went out to see what he was doing and out she came--all pink and sparkles.

I went and grabbed my camera and then she told me we were going for a walk. I didn't argue, it was beautiful out. So we are walking around the neighborhood and she (always having to be line leader) turned and said that she was happy that I could keep her company and that the birds were beautiful. Isn't that sweet!