Time Flies!!!!

Wow! I can't believe it has almost been 2 months since my last blog. Time flies when you're having fun, right? November started out kind of rocky. I had to have my gall bladder removed the first part of the month. I woke up at midnight, a couple of days before Halloween, in terrible pain. I thought it was a bad case of heart burn. Turns out I had an attack. I ended up going in for surgery on the 3rd. Everything went just fine. I was pretty out of it the first day but by the next day, I was feeling better. I was back up and running a week after.

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We went back to see all the family, including my Aunt and Uncle who drove from Ohio. It was really nice. We came back home on Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the weekend decorating for Christmas. The kids are getting so excited for Santa. I thought I spotted Santa several nights ago with one of his reindeer outside my kitchen window. The kids were not acting the best and as soon as they heard me say that, all was calm and good!!! I just love Santa!!! He has the magic touch.

Katie's last day of school is tomorrow and Brian's is on Friday. Katie has her Christmas program and Brian will have a party on Friday. Then we will be done until after the first of the year.

It will be nice to have a break from running everyone around. I feel like that's all I get done doing everyday. I also take a couple of my daycare kids to preschool as well. It's been working out just fine, but the break is defnitiely nice!!!

Well, I gotta go for now. The munchkins are running rampid! Take care to all of you and hopefully, I will keep up better on my posting duties!!

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth!!!

As you can see Brian has lost a lot of teeth within the past month or so. In fact, he lost 2 this week! He's like his mom. If he finds one that is even remotely loose, he will sit in the bathroom and work with it until it is out. I told him he better slow down or I am going to have to get the blender out for all his meals.

He has been walking around singing that wonderful Christmas tune, All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth! This picture was taken by his teacher. There are several other kids with missing teeth and she put them on her class site.

Brian has been just thriving as a first grader this year. We have seen such a difference between Kindergarten to now. He's excited about learning and will come home and give you a complete recap of the days events. I'm soaking it up now, because I know in a few years, this will most likely not happen.

We are so proud of him!

GO HAWKS GO!!!!!

Tomorrow morning is the big day for all of us Hawkeye fans around here. Tomorrow we will finally show the Iowa State Cyclones just how good we really are. In keeping with this topic, I wanted to share the best story about God I have ever heard...

Gene Chizek (Iowa State Coach), after living a full life, died. When he got to heaven, God was showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded Cyclones flag in the window. "This house is yours for eternity, Gene," said God. "This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here." Gene felt special, indeed, and walked up to his house. On his way up the porch, he noticed another house just around the corner. It was a 3-story mansion with a Black and Gold sidewalk, a 50 foot tall flagpole with an enormous Hawkeye flag, and in every window, a Hawkeye symbol. Gene looked at God and said "God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a question. I was a good coach, I went to three consecutive bowl games, and I turned around Iowa State's entire program." God said "So what do you want to know, Gene?" "Well, why does Kirk Ferentz (Iowa Coach) get a better house than me?"
God chuckled, and said "Gene, that's not Kirk's house, it's mine."

GO HAWKS GO!!!!!!!!!!!

God Bless the USA!!!

I'm not one to get too involved in the political arena; however, after listening to Governor Sarah Palin tonight I can't help but be so proud to be a woman in America! She is an amazing woman with such a vibrant personality. I am so glad Senator John McCain chose her for his Vice President. She will carry this ticket far and I look forward to officially being able to call her Vice President Palin!!!!

Our Boy!!!

Our big boy is a 1st grader now! Brian started school last Thursday. He is so grown up and I could tell that when I brought the camera to his first day of school he seemed a little embarassed by the pictures I was taking. He is even walking home from school now with some neighbor boys. Apparantely having your mom pick you up from school is not cool anymore. We are so proud of him and he has such a good heart! The girls greet him everyday with a big hug, followed by moments of screaming and fighting, but at least I get a glimpse of the sweet sides of them all. Here are some pictures from Brian's 1st day!

Our Girls!!!

I just wanted to update my blog with some updated pictures of the girls. These are Katie's 4 year pictures and Emily's 18 month pictures. They are both very much princesses and divas all wrapped into one!!! Katie starts Preschool tomorrow going every day in the afternoon for about 2 1/2 hours. Emily is growing by leaps and bounds and is starting to talk more. Katie has been taking a tap class with our city's park and rec department. She is doing very well and even had her picture in the paper.

My Big Girl is 4!!!

I can hardly believe that Katie turned 4 in June. Her birthday was on the 16th; however, we didn't celebrate it until this past weekend with our families. It was a lot of fun! We have found a wonderful lady who makes the best looking and tasting cakes. Katie had a Strawberry Shortcake theme this year. She received many new dresses to add to her already abundant collection, some fun card games, a princess patio table set, Cinderella Hair styling toy and the big one was her Barbie Jeep. She has wanted one for a long time now and Damon and I finally caved in. We figure both girls will be able to ride it someday; however, Brian is enjoying driving his sister around too. Katie was absolutely excited. According to her "It is what I've wanted for my whole life!" (All 4 years of it...ha, ha!)

A Vacation to Remember!

Hey everyone! I can't believe it has been 3 months since my last entry. Time sure flies when you are having fun. So much has happened since my last entry. My "oldest" baby finished Kindergarten! I can't believe it. This year just flew by so quickly. He did very well and Damon and I couldn't be more proud. Katie finished her first year of Preschool and is anxious to get back to it again this fall. Emily is growing by leaps and bounds and her vocabulary is increasing everyday, thanks to all the wonderful attention she gets from her brother and sister.

We took a vacation 3 weeks ago to Gatlinburg, TN. My mom, dad and Jason along with my mom's brother and his family met us all there and we spent a week there just having fun. We took the kids to Dollywood, which unfortunately ended a little early due to a thunderstorm that set in for most of the later afternoon and evening. The kids had fun though. We camped at Jellystone Campground in Gatlinburg and had a blast. It was by far the best campground we have ever been too. Brian made a friend named Chaz who was from Tennessee. They spent every available minute catching water creatures from the babbling creek that our camp site backed up to. Katie enjoyed tagging along and Emily seemed to go with the flow, as usual.

It was a really good vacation, that is, until we left to come home. Our day started out at 5am, we had about a 16 hour drive ahead of. We were going to try and get home instead of stopping. We were about 6 hours into our trip and then we got into an accident. We were driving along and all of a sudden the camper started swaying a little more than usual and the next thing you know we were "surfing" with a 10,000 lb. camper behind us down the interstate. The camper fell off the hitch and flipped onto its side. Some how Damon was able to keep the Expedition right side up.

To explain how smooth our part of the ride was, Emily was sound asleep for the entire ordeal. We were all fine, just a little shaken up to say the least. My parents just happened to have passed us and unfortunately saw the whole thing. We weren't even planning on driving the same way back as them, we made the decision last minute. I think it was worse for them to watch it than for us to live it. This was about a 5 hour detour and so our hopes of making it back to Ankeny were pretty much non-existing. We settled for stopping at 10:30pm in Canton, MO. This just happened to be Damon's college town and when we got up the next morning, he took the kids around the campus. We then had about a 3 1/2 hour drive left. My mom, dad and brother ended up getting back home around midnight. Damon and I are so thankful for all the help. They went to the lot where the tow truck pulled the camper and helped us load as much as we could in our Expedition and put what they could in their car. We still had to leave quite a bit behind, which was sad.

As you can tell from the pictures, the camper was a total loss. The Expedition had some cosmetic damage, which was fixed this week. We are all sad that we lost the camper though, but overjoyed for the fact that we are all home safe and sound. The kids seem to be doing just fine. We have decided not to get another camper, at least not until next summer and maybe not even until the following year. We are not sure we want to even get another travel trailer, let alone get another camper again. Time will only tell. As Damon said, it is not worth putting our family's life at risk.

We are now finishing up with our insurance. I have to say it has been quite a smooth process. A lot easier than I expected. We are hoping to continue making some fun summer memories to help put this one behind us.

Brian had Vacation Bible School last week at church. He finished up his baseball games last Saturday. Katie and I have been attending a music class for the past 4 weeks and her and Brian just finished up a 2 week stint of swimming lessons. Slowly but surely we are moving forward.

This weekend we are celebrating Katie's 4th birthday with the family. She actually turned 4 on the 16th, but this was the only time to get all of the family together. After this weekend, I will try and get some more pictures up with the kids. Katie is getting a Barbie Jeep tomorrow and she is going to be so excited. She has wanted one for a long time. I can't wait to see her face! Until next time...

Carribean Vacation for Two!!!!

Well, it has been two weeks since we went on our cruise and I am just now getting myself back to reality. It's amazing how fast you get used to someone waiting on you hand and foot. Needless to say, we had a blast. Damon and I drove to Kansas City and went to our favorite place for Barbecue. KC MASTERPIECE!!! After pushing ourselves with our exercising and eating we definitely enjoyed splurging on our favorite foods!!!! We got to New Orleans on Sunday and had a lot of fun. We went bar hopping and especially enjoyed Pat O'Brian's (dueling piano bar)!

Our ship left on Monday. We had a day at sea on Tuesday. It was pretty rough sailing only because there was really windy. Wednesday we went to the Mayan Ruins and a beach party in Progresso. The Ruins were really cool; however the beach party was kind of a disappointment. We still had fun though. Thursday was our favorite day ever. COZUMEL!!! We enjoyed a day at Passion Island and it was just that. The sand was a beautiful white color and very smooth. I collected lots o shells, sponges and other neat rocks to create a neat collection and happy to say they all made it home safely with none of them breaking. They had great drinks and great food as well! We didn't want to leave. Friday was our last day at sea and boy it was even more rough than Tuesday. We woke up to thunder, lightening and lots of rain. Neither one of us got sick, thank goodness, because there was a lot of people who were.


I did have several moments while aboard the cruise ship where I felt like Rose from the titanic. That's why I just had to get our picture taken in front of the Titanic background. I did hear someone shout on the top deck "I'm the King of the world!" We all kind of chuckled.


Our waitress (Ivana) and busboy (Ferry) were awesome. They did everything for you including putting your napkin in your lap. The only thing you had to do was pick up your utensil and eat. They sang with all of the other wait staff for us on a nightly basis and were fun to watch. Bodee (short for a very very very long Philippine name) was our cabin steward and he made sure that our room was cleaned up at least 3 times a day with fresh towels, trash emptied, etc. At night we came back to the room with our bed turned down, 2 mints on the pillow and a cute towel animal (a different one every night). My favorite one was the monkey he made and had it pinned to the curtains on the window. It was so cute. I'll have to attach that picture later.


Besides the weather on those two days, it was a wonderful trip and I would highly recommend a cruise to anyone! It was several vacations wrapped up into one. We can't wait to go back. We are going to try and go in 2-3 years. It was very relaxing and it was nice to get away and have some alone time with Damon.


We missed the kids and were glad to be back! They had fun while we were gone as well. We are still detoxing them from having grandma and grandpa all week, but we wouldn't have changed anything!

MEXICO here we come!!!

Well, so much for blogging on a weekly basis. I have had a busy month with the kids. Brian finished up his basketball games and has been busy at school. Katie has been busy at school where she was preparing for her Dad's day celebration. She sang songs, played games and had snack with Damon. It was a wonderful day had by all! Emily has finally mastered walking!!!!!!! YEAH!!!! It took her long enough but she is finally there. Although, she chooses to crawl some still. She knows she can get somewhere faster.

Damon and I have been busy on the weekends preparing for our 10 year anniversary trip. We leave next Saturday and are flying from KC, MO down to New Orleans and from there will be going on a cruise to the Western Caribbean. We are going to be visiting The Ruins in Yucatan, Progresso and the beach in Cozumel, Mexico. Damon's mom and dad will be taking over the reigns while we are gone, shuttling everyone to their school and other activities.

Our anniversary is not until August 8th; however, we have to go when all the schedule align!! I am so excited and Damon and I have been working very hard on our pretans and bodies before we go. We have both lost a combined total of over 45 pounds now and still going strong. We are not only losing weight to look good on the cruise but also to feel better and to be able to keep up with our kids and demanding schedules.

We feel so good and so healthy. The energy level is amazing when you are in shape. I am so proud of the both of us. I will get some more pictures downloaded as soon as I can. I am waiting to get some new batteries for the camera so I can get them onto my computer. That is this weekends job.

We are all doing well as you can see, but we are really looking forward to the SPRING!!! The weather here as been so frigidly cold and I am so tired of SNOW!!! Mexico will be a nice break for us.

Favrever and Ever!!!

Damon and I just got done watching the Packer game tonight and I have to say I am so disappointed! We were so close to going to the Super Bowl, I had thoughts of my menu in my head for a big Packer party. Just wasn't meant to be. Oh well! Maybe next year. My hat goes off to all those players freezing their tails off tonight. I'm just glad I wasn't there sitting in the cold.

I Did It!!!

Well, I have finally dug into the world of blogging! My goal is to give a weekly update on our family life. With 3 kids, I'm sure I will be able to find plenty to write about. Within the past year, I have been able to stay up-to-date with some close friends and I find it is so great to be able to do this, when they live too far away to visit.

To start this off, I will give an update as to how the month of January has gone for us so far. The New Year was great. We had some friends of ours over and they stayed the night with their kids and we rang in the New Year together, watched football games New Years Day and ate lots of great food.

We took Brian to the Science center last Saturday for his 6th Birthday party with 4 of his close friends. He had a blast! Katie got to bring a friend of hers along as well. Emily just enjoyed an afternoon riding in the stroller looking at all the amazing things and watching all the kids running around. Damon and I were exhausted when it was all said and done. Mom and dad came for a visit last weekend as well. It was nice to see them, but like always goes way too fast.

We started off this week with Brian getting Strep Throat. He thought it was fun to miss a day of school, until he learned that he had to stay in his bed the entire day. Then he decided that he missed school. Katie then woke up with a high fever and complained of her throat hurting on Tuesday, so we were back at the doctor's office for the second day in a row. Her test came out negative and she was able to go back to preschool on Thursday.

Emily, at least so far, has seemed to have escaped this round of illness in our house. She is working on her walking skills, though she would much rather crawl. She has learned how to crawl up the stairs very well, but will wait for you to come get her when she makes it to the top.

Brian is playing Basketball for the next 6 weeks. He had his first game last Saturday, scoring 4 points and having 2 steals. His next game is today. I didn't have a chance to go to the last one since the girls and I were running around town doing last minute errands before his party, so we are going to go today!

Well, I will try to keep my posts shorter than this, but I just wanted to get everyone caught up. Once I figure out how, I will start posting pictures as well. Talk to you all soon!