Utter Chaos

Why January 2012 wasn't awesome and the rest of the year is going to ROCK.

2012-02-13T19:30:00.002-05:00

Okay, so catch up time. I may never post Christmas pictures. And I haven't taken that many pictures so far this year. A run down of the not-so-wonderful January we've had, in 100 words (I hope) or less:

My mom came for a visit, had to be admitted to the hospital next day with chest pains. No heart attack, but diabetes. No big shock, but hopefully motivation for a change for her.

It occurred to me (with some prompting from my best bud Allison) that things were not as they should be with Summer. Her sleep pattern was too erratic and she still wasn't potty trained--after some serious thinking, some time with the doctor and six vials of blood, and a two week test period of a gluten free diet, we reached the following conclusions: We needed to move up her bedtime, she DOESN'T have Celiac disease, but she does seem to have very strong gluten sensitivity. As in any form of gluten upsets her stomach so much that she complains of a tummy ache and then loses control of her bowels. Don't I feel like mother of the year for not picking up on THAT sooner.

So we've spent the first bit of February adjusting to the whole idea of having a child with food sensitivity in the house. Its so, so very weird for us--we usually eat well and clean, but we make a lot of our own baked goods and do eat a lot of wheat. So its been an adjustment. Its hard to eat gluten free on a budget, so we're adjusting there too. Summer has to adjust to not eating some of the things she loves, and we have to adjust by FINDING a way to substitute the things she loves with something similar.

We've been blessed with family coming to visit--first my mom, now Brad's grandparents, and my dad is coming on Saturday.

But here's a list of why the rest of the year is going to rock.
Now that we have a handle on her stuff, Summer is acting much more like the brilliant little girl we know she is and hopefully we REALLY WILL be done with potty training too.

I'm running my first half marathon on March 4th. Not only will my friend and neighbor Jess be joining me, but so will my long, long time internet bud Amanda. Amanda and I have known each other since my pre-kid days. We both have weims. She always let me pick her brain when I started running--she is a freaking amazing endurance athlete. So to have her down here for my first half makes me excited beyond words. She's been on my top 5 people-to-meet list for quite some time.

April includes a trip to Maryland to see my very best high school bud, Sandra. For a baby shower no less. We haven't seen each other in 5-ish years, but Sandra kept me sane through the disaster that was high school. I'm so excited for her to embark on the journey of motherhood, there aren't even words for it :-) On top of that little bundle, who's ETA is June, my best bud Allison has a bundle with an ETA of July. Babies, babies, everywhere! A summer-long trip to the Northeast may be in order . . .

May brings a surprise from Hubby--tickets to Nickelback's Here and Now Tour. They will be playing with Seether, My Darkest Days, and Bush. I had no clue Bush was still around, but the other 3 are absolutely off the hook rock bands that I love. And listen to on an almost daily basis while I work out. Then my big boy will be turning 6. And then the summer baby boom discussed above.

So, January was terribly stressful. But I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings. Probably less blogging from me, since time is always in short supply. But I'll still try to bring the highlights. HOPEFULLY!!

Sherry's Run

2012-02-12T22:12:00.002-05:00

Yes, I realize the entire month of January went by without me actually posting anything other than catch-ups from December. And that I STILL haven't posted pictures of Christmas Day. Suffice to say 2012 has been INSANE so far. I promise my very next post (which I am going to write and schedule) will closely follow this one. But yesterday I participated in something note-worthy and wanted to document it here.

Its no secret that since Summer was born, I have become a bonafied runner. I was never athletic, was called sloth in gym class in middle school, and used to watch people running as I drove in my car eating fast food thinking "I could NEVER run." But its grown into a part of life for me. I was recently discussing fitness/weightloss/etc. with a friend and dug up some old pictures of the "Old" me. I can't even really remember what drove that person--I wasn't a foodie, I didn't run, and I didn't have the same amazing circle of friends I do now. So I'll take the new me any day of the week. The me that thinks anything is possible. The me that is running a half marathon in 3 short weeks (SO excited!).

Anyway, one of the running blogs I follow is Shut Up and Run. SUAR blogged about her cousin, Sherry, who made national news after disappearing from her morning run in January. In addition to Sherry, many women step out their doors for run and never go home. Sometimes the what ifs can be terrifying. SUAR organized a virtual run in Sherry's memory, which I was glad to participate in on Saturday. It serves as a reminder that we can never be to careful when we step out the door each day, and that every day truly is a gift. Stop by Too Tall Fritz to read some great safety tips, in memory of Sherry and every other runner that didn't make it home.

Better late than never--last week of school through Christmas

2012-01-15T21:04:00.006-05:00

I had intended to be caught up with the blog by now. . . alas, LIFE. So here's a recap of the last week of school and leading up to Christmas. Christmas deserves its own post. Maybe I'll have THAT one written before Valentines day.

The Elf continued to be fun for all. Garrett told me more than once that he didn't want Christmas to come because he didn't want Jet Pack to leave.

Garrett's school had a PJ day on the last day of school. The two Kinder classes did a combined craft day which was a LOT of fun but also a lot of work. I volunteered in his class and a friend and I helped plan all of the crafts for Garrett's class. By the time it was over I was pretty much holiday-ed out but the kids had a blast.
Sugar high, anyone??

Festivities included a book exchange. Garrett got a fun reader about Cats, and we gave a Clifford 2-in-1 book.

We made teacher gifts for both of the K teachers with their students hand prints.

We made reindeer candy canes for friends
Summer is such a cheese ball

We went on a date to Brad's Christmas party for work on his birthday, but took no pictures. I got to hang with some of my favorite people who shared my birth month
My buddy Shelah

And my buddy Susan (at the winery for our birthdays--free admission and free wine, weee!)
We went on our first real family camping trip, to Flamingo in Everglades National Park. We've been before but Summer was too small to really enjoy it. It was a blast. We ended up going with some long time friends, which is what REALLY made it fun. Thanks Monica for the pictures!
No idea what the girls were discussing but check out Summer's feet!

The boys having fun doing boy things.The bugs were bad, but other than that the trip was AWESOME!!

Last, but not least, we allowed Garrett to open his tools from Grandma Becky a day early so he would have his own Garrett-sized items to work on a craft from Lowes, since we missed it to go camping.

Early December Wrap-Up

2012-01-03T06:11:00.007-05:00

Early December was a blur. Things were INSANE, and I'm still not sure why. I helped out a lot with things in Garrett's classroom. The last 2 weeks of school were JAM PACKED with craziness.

Highlights of the last 2 weeks of school/first couple of weeks of December

Garrett received a perfect attendance award for the first quarter:

They don't do honor role for kindergarteners, but he did well his first quarter and more importantly, he really has been enjoying school. He also received his 2nd quarter progress report and is doing wonderfully. Its been great to listen to the concept of sounding out words really click and watch him learn to read. He even read Green Eggs and Ham. Seriously, that is a LONG book!!

We did Christmas crafts and of course played with friends:

And Garrett just generally went nuts over the whole concept of Christmas
Of course we put up our tree. Both kids had a BLAST helping put on the decorations this year, and Garrett and Daddy put the star on together, which has become our tradition.
The highlight of the holiday season, at least in the kids' book, was the arrival of our Elf. Garrett named him Jet Pack. It was fun having the kids get up and look for him every day, express delight in his antics, and just generally see their excitement about the whole thing. The 5:30am wake-ups, however, I could have done without.

Our elf even made us breakfast one morning (Christmas tree danishes!)
We baked a lot too . . . Shelah and I worked a bake sale for This is the Dog, and I made cake pops. This is the Dog ended up shaping our holiday season a little more than we intended, but stay tuned for more on that, as well as the continued adventures of Jet Pack in a later post. For now, I leave you with the cake pops I made for the bake sale:

A very late November wrap-up

2012-01-02T12:00:00.002-05:00

I have no idea where November went. It flew by so very quickly and I didn't write a single post about it. And now its taken mWe were VERY busy at work, as my boss was preparing to go to Australia for 6 weeks, finishing up classes and had several reports due. Garrett was busy at school. Summer was. . . Summer.

So here's a rundown of what we were up to in November.

We went to the zoo with Summer's friends Ava and Alora (Thanks Leanne for the pic!)
Summer is obsessed with the pythons there. She tells me she wants to touch them. I tell her they will swallow her. It doesn't deter her though.

We routed for Oklahoma State A LOT. :-)

We did our Christmas card pictures. As always, this was a production in and of itself. In some ways, the out-takes are better than the final product. And certainly more entertaining!

We also attempted a family photo shoot over Thanksgiving. Neither the wind nor the lighting cooperated, but we got some decent ones. Although we didn't get a single one where everyone had a nice smile on their face. One of these days we'll take my friend Leanne up on of her offer of doing ours. But it wasn't in the cards this year.

Kids grins are super cheezy here but Brad and I look nice sooo, this is the one you get to see :-)
We camped in the back yard. The kids got sleeping bag/backpacks from Grandma Becky that they loved. The kids did great. The dogs, on the other hand, were totally upset that we left them alone in the house. They started howling so I used it as an excuse to go sleep in our bed with the pooches instead of on the hard ground :-)
For Thanksgiving we had our traditional "Florida Family" dinner at the Shumans house. It was lovely, as always, and as always, I completely failed to take pictures. Once Thanksgiving was over, the Christmas festivities began, including the arrival of our elf for the very first time. But that will come in the next post :-)

Goals, revisited and new

2012-01-01T22:56:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year! Last year I set goals for 2011 . . . some got done, some didn't.

-Blog more . . . since I don't keep a journal or scrap book, this is IT.
FAIL in the past 3 months, since I have only blogged twice since Halloween
-Make a book of blog posts in case blogger ever decides to die, for the same reasons listed above
FAIL, sort of forgot about this one.
-Run 600 miles and do a total of 1000 miles total in multisport (bike/swim/run)
FAIL, mileage totals were: 346.5 running, 22o bike, 3.6 swimming. And while I missed every goal, I can't complain. Hard year, lots of sickies, lots of missed weeks. I'll take it.
-200 hours of fitness
SO CLOSE, 190.3 hours. Again, sickies have totally messed me up.
-Do at least 1 triathlon, 1 actual 5K, a budget 5K, a budget 10K and a budget 13.1 at some point throughout the year. I have seven events on my wish list right now (5 are tris), but we'll see how that goes.
FAIL, I only managed a true 5K, and a budget 5K. Part of this was due to my realization that I wanted to spend a little more time with the kids and a little less time training. And again, the sickies, trouble working in training in our hectic schedule, etc. etc. etc. BUT I did sign up for the Miami Beach 13.1 in March, so really looking forward to that!
-Read/Listen to 20 books . . . I really am loving getting back into reading again
Total success--Brad bought me a Kindle for mothers Day and I read around 30+ books this year. Water For Elephants was among the favorites list. Harry Potters. And too many to list.

-Go on a mommy-cation to see Allison, or have her come see me
Not this year :-( Maybe in 2012??
-Take Garrett to Disney for his birthday
Done, had a blast!
-Read my bible more. Planning on doing the Bible In 90 Days program, just not ready to add that in to my New Year until we get into the swing of things.
Fail. But I did spend a lot of time working on my relationship with God and with myself, so I'll take it.
-Give myself 30 minutes of still, peaceful quiet once a week. As much as I love working out, that can not continue to be my only me time if I wish to stay sane.
Major fail. Thus my difficult year
-Unplug a bit more. I've spent entirely TOO much time on Facebook this year. Going to try to limit my internet time to quick email/FB checks in the AM and at lunch.
Eh, so so, there were goods and bads.
-Moonlight ride on Shark River Valley with hubs
-Daytime Shark River Valley ride with Garrett
Both fail, bugs were horrible this year :-(
-Take my kids camping
DONE, we had a blast, went to Flamingo in the Everglades in early December. Among the "catch up posts" I hope to do in the next few weeks
-See my Grandma if she makes it stateside this year.
Fail, fail, fail. She came, but we didn't go. Summer was so incredibly difficult to deal with during the time she was here, and we opted not to travel across 3 time zones with her. :-(

All in all, I'm glad 2011 is over--we had a hard-ish year here. Nothing major, but just not the easiest either. But lots of great memories, and plenty more greatness to come in 2012.

Looking forward . . .
I don't have a huge list of goals. Just vague but important hopes:
Live in the moment
Enjoy quality time with the kids
Run for the joy of it
Keep myself and my family healthy
Find peace with myself and KEEP IT
Find the happy balance in the Chaos, for the sake of my sanity.
And, last but not least, talk to family more--that one has sort of fallen by the wayside in the craziness.

Updates to come (HOPEFULLY!)

Artwork

2011-12-11T20:50:00.003-05:00

I have a big November wrap-up post planned--I've even gotten around to writing half of it but blogger did not cooperate with the picture uploads. I'll save that for another day, but for now I wanted to share some recent artwork Garrett has done.

We bought an awesome 130 piece art set for him at Michaels for $5. I remember receiving a similar art set from my Grandma and Grandpa when I was in second or 3rd grade and loving it. So when I saw this on special I wanted him to have it. We already have plenty of things under the Christmas tree and he has done so well at school, we decided to give it as a just-because gift. We hardly ever buy random things just because, and its actually nice because when we do, they are very much appreciated.

Here are some of the little works of art Garrett has created. He gave some as Christmas gifts and gave one to his teacher for her birthday. Always a thoughtful boy :-) He mostly did little abstract bits here. But he has also been drawing and making stories like crazy, which was the motivation for his Christmas gift (to be shared later) .. . .

More to come (hopefully).

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T08:02:00.007-05:00

We had a fun Halloween here. Things were a little crazy--Brad and Garrett went to Oklahoma for a mini-family reunion of sorts, and to go to Oklahoma State's homecoming game. They didn't get home till late Sunday night. Garrett's school had a dance and "Character day"--each student was supposed to be dressed as a character from a book. Garrett took his "Meet the Autobots" book from Grandma Sherry's summer reading program a few years ago.

Of course he was Optimus Prime. Grandma sent us an awesome mask, and I made the shirt with some duct tape and permanent markers. Since I hate sewing, this was a nice compromise and it turned out cute. Summer dressed as a lady bug. Its been rainy here, but the clouds broke long enough for us to go to the local Trunk or Treat event. There weren't many trunks to treat from because of the weather,

Garrett's action shots. This kid is so full of character. :-)

Summer was just all cute sweetness. But she did keep "Expecto Patronus"-ing her brother with the wand. Too much HP!!

The Great Pumpkin Fairy made her annual visit to the house and left the kids goodies. Garrett got a seek and find picture book and Summer got playdough. And Brad got LOTS AND LOTS of candy to take to work :-)

Busy Weekend-Halloween Prep and the Spooky Symphony

2011-10-24T11:00:00.001-05:00

I had a TON of work to do this weekend, but we still managed to squeeze in a bunch of fun things, as well as prep for Halloween.

We took the kids to Lowes on Saturday morning to build Monster Trucks. Our schedules haven't really allowed us to do their workshops in a while. It was CRAZY, we had to stand in line for 20 minutes to get them. We brought them home to build them, but the kids had such a good time. They were so proud of them that they were able to be nice to each other long enough for me to get this shot:

Since they cooperated, I indulged them with a silly face session. It looks like Summer is going to take a bite of Garrett's arm . . .

but these are always the funniest photos!

While at Lowes, we bought a pumpkin. After much debate we decided to just get one and make it family pumpkin. I suspect this is the last year that is going to work. Garrett drew the face ALL by himself. He drew it on paper then I cute it out and transferred it to the pumpkin.

We took turns cutting it out (Summer obviously needed a lot of help there)

and the kids had a BLAST scooping out the guts.

Finished product.
Why is it so much to ask for EVERYONE to have a nice face?? :-)

Brad took the kids to see a "giant" model airplane show, the three of them had a blast. The weather is absolutely glorious here, its nearly impossible to focus on anything because it was so beautiful outside. But alas, I stayed home and worked.

On Sunday, Garrett and I trekked downtown for the "Spooky Symphony" put on by the Greater Miami Youth Symphony. I love orchestral music and thought this might be something Garrett would enjoy. We met up with some old friends, Jon and Bryland, and had an excellent time. Here they are pretending to be a train on the way to the theater.

Hispanic Heritage Day

2011-10-22T19:42:00.006-05:00

This past Friday was Hispanic Heritage Day at Garrett's school. His classroom did Cuba, and it turned out to be quite a fun day. Leanne was awesome enough to take Summer for the day so that I could help out in his class. This was the first time I have been able to volunteer in his class, so it was nice to get to know some of his classmates.

(PS-family, please go support Leanne as she does Team In Training in support of the LSS. Great charity, great cause, and as a mom of two I know exactly how hard it is to do what she's doing. Please pop in and support her as she has helped me SO MUCH with the kiddos through the course of our friendship)

The parents and his teachers did a great job making decorations for the class.

And thanks to my friend Shelah, we even had some real sugar cane to display on our table!

The kids danced to Cuban music. It was HILARIOUS. They did a conga line too, but somehow I missed getting a shot of Garrett in it. Not at all sure how that happened.
They did portraits in "traditional' Cuban caricatures.

I learned quite a bit about Cuba in the process of gathering things for Garrett's class. PBS has a really amazing special available online about it that I would recommend watching, it was fascinating!

Why I love the Marble Jar

2011-10-06T11:49:00.007-05:00

A long while back, I read an article in family fun about using a marble jar to encourage your child to become involved in household chores. We've been using it for well over a year, and its STILL paying off. Not only because Garrett (and now Summer) get involved in the housekeeping, but also because they have SUCH fun with their rewards.

When Garrett filled up his jar last week, he got a bug collecting kit from the dollar store. Quite possibly the best dollar I've ever spent. We have spent COUNTLESS hours outside ever since hunting for (and occasionally catching) lizards, bugs and other creepy crawlies. Lizards are by far the favored critter to catch.

You can't beat a "special surprise" that gets you outside in the beautiful weather. Garrett loves to create a habitat, observe his catches and look at them through the magnifying glass on top of the container before we let them go.

The other reason I love this jar is because Garrett truly takes initiative to help at time. It gives him a tangible reward for helping me. Last night Brad had a meeting and Summer is to a point where she is very hard to put to bed (we just switched her to a Full Size bed). While I was putting her to bed, Garrett asked if he could do something to earn some marbles. I told him to clean whatever he wanted and then tell me how many marbles he thought he deserved. He decided he would earn 20 marbles. He wrote the numbers 1-20 and then would go find something to clean. As he did an item, he would cross off a number. By the time Summer was in bed, the horrendous amount of toys were put away, the dogs were fed, and the floors were vacuumed. He worked very hard for those 20 marbles, and I didn't have to stress about getting the house clean. It was great.

Other than that, we've been busy, but not doing anything terribly special. Football, school, family time. We switched the beds around this weekend are in the midst of a massive declutter. That will (eventually? hopefully?) get its own post. Summer did sign up for a tumbling class, but that only lasted a week before she got a nasty cold. We haven't been back since. Or rather, we have tried to go back, but she refused to participate. Maybe because she is still sick, but who knows. It was a fun (but apparently expensive) week.
She's very much into letters right now, so we're going slow and introducing a letter whenever the opportunity arises. She can identify O, L, and S so far and likes to find them WHEREVER we go. Potty training has been successful (knock on wood) and we've been slowly getting more adventurous in our outings. It even cooled down enough for a family trip to the zoo this past weekend.

Other than that, we've played with our food.

We've gotten the occasional sweet treat for working/playing hard.

Garrett has FINALLY started doing what I consider REAL school work--first spelling test is this week. Now that they have finally started doing sight and spelling words, Garrett is reading and writing even in his free time. He's also having tons of fun drawing too. Here are a few of his fun little "just because" projects.

Every day is crazy and chaotic and absurdly wonderful.

First Flag Football Practice

2011-09-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

Brad is a football person, through and through. He loves a lot of sports--basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis. But football is the end-all-be-all. He comes by it naturally, his parents are that way too. Garrett has been the same, he has always thought football sounded like a blast. I am nervous about the full contact nature of the sport, so when X and L signed up for flag football, we decided to give it a try to. And it was extra awesome because Grandma and Grandpa Compton were here to enjoy it too :-)

Garrett LOVED the first practice. Brad is coaching, and the kids range from 5-7 years of age on his team. They have a lot to learn, but it was so fun to watch!

Garrett takes Brad's approach to sports--serious, ready to roll at a moments notice. He actually told his Grandma the night before practice about how he was nervous about if he would be able to throw and catch, and that he hoped he would do a good job. He showed both his excitement and his game face regularly during practice.
And sometimes, it actually looked like he knew what he was doing.

Other times, it was just too fun to get to rip off Xander's flag, whether he was supposed to or not.

Summer had fun too--I should have signed her up for cheer leading (and I'm SO not a cheer person), because she was running up and down the sidelines continuously, just for the sake of running. Nutcase. She did slow down long enough to get super cute with Logan, though.
Conclusion: I almost wish it was more frequent than every Saturday. We may be adding soccer on too, at school, but will have to see how it pans out. I hope Garrett continues to enjoy it, because the rest of us certainly did! And Brad didn't even seem to mind that it was 95+ out, he did great with the kids.

Summer, Version 3.0

2011-09-18T13:54:00.007-05:00

It's seems impossible that Summer is three today!! It seems like just yesterday that she sped into our lives after 41 weeks of waiting.

Summer version 3.0 is a fun mix between girlie girl and wild child. She loves dresses, bows, and sparkly stuff, but will swing from the monkey bars and be involved in "gun fights" with the boys. She can be a total clown too. No matter what though, I high level of drama can be expected.

Summer version 3.0 has taken forever to potty train--shes 90% there, but also pretty much night trained. Definitely her own person, since Garrett was day trained at 2 but not night trained until 4. Its highly possible (please, please, please let it be so) that we won't be buying any more pullups once the ones we have are gone.

Summer version 3.0 is a total daddy's girl. I'm a second rate citizen when Daddy's around.

Summer version 3.0 worships her brother. Not that that's anything new. But the times when they play nicely together (versus fighting 100% of the time) are starting to come along more often.

Summer version 3.0 loves hanging with her friends. Especially the "boys", which includes Garrett, Xander, and Logan, our neighbor Jewel (who is 5 years older than her!) and her buddy Ava.
She loves Hello Kitty. Our house has been taken over by Hello Kitty. I don't really mind, ANYTHING is better than princesses!!

She's a trip, she always has something to say and is bossy as all get out. She's been a handful this past year, but I know the good days are just around the corner--all the "baby" things are almost over, once and for all, and there is so much fun around the corner.

Happy birthday baby girl!

Random pictures since school began

2011-09-15T10:00:00.002-05:00

I have been absolutely terrible about keeping up with the blog. No free time. Potty training (STILL). Work. Kids. House. Produce. Working out. Blah, blah, blah!

Daddy and Summer being silly and "napping" in the hall.
Garrett with one of his many creations
And a robot he wants to enter in the Lego Club Jr. Contest this month.
Being silly with the cute hat they made at school for Patriot's Day.
Dress up one day shortly before school started.

Other random bits:
So ready for the fall TV season lineup to start. We booted netflix for their price hike. On our lineup for the fall--Castle, Bones, Psych, Survivor.

I finished reading Harry Potter series. Brad's started the books too. Garrett's last book was Goblet of Fire, I want him to wait a while to read the last three because are so much darker and take on more grown-up stuff than the earlier books. We're watching them.

The new trailer for Breaking Dawn is out and I'm so excited in the worst nerdy way. Only 2 months left to wait! I think I'll be re-reading the books again.

I FINALLY entered my first half marathon. Will be running the Miami Beach 13.1 in April. So stoked, but have a long way to go since I haven't been running much because of the heat.

Garrett is entered in flag football, which starts on Saturday. It should be fun. Brad is coaching his team. It may be interesting--its 5 players for team and the age range is from 5-7 years. Garrett is by far the youngest on his team and the oldest player will be 8 (!!) in November.

Summer is THREE on Sunday, which I can't believe. Grandma and Grandpa Compton are coming this afternoon, so we're looking forward to that.

I'm going to start prepping for the GRE so that I can test sometime either this fall or in the spring. We have a great tuition remission program through school, so once both kids are in school I'm going to work on a Masters degree--something I've wanted to do for a long time but have had to put off for obvious reasons.

First Day of Kindergarten (Better late than never!)

2011-09-14T10:01:00.004-05:00

I have been meaning to post about Garrett's first day of Kindergarten for a while. I haven't for two reasons . . . One is time (I never seem to have any). The other is I am still just not sure how *I* feel about Kindergarten. I like his school, overall, and I like his teacher, but I'm not as in love with it all as I thought I would be. Things are going very slow, they are still reviewing letters, and I feel like Garrett is a little bored and definitely not picking up anything new. But whatever, review is necessary. We're just hanging in and hoping it will improve. He still misses his pre-K teacher. He loves his new teacher, though, and she really is great. Its just a little disheartening to me, I wanted him to LOVE school, but I guess its just the way it goes in the public school system. Suffice to say the jury is still out.

Even though this picture isn't that great, I had to include it because Garrett was super proud of the cute fishie he made for his teacher:

Best friends. They aren't in the same class, which is probably a good thing since they are together pretty much the rest of the time.My two favorite Kindergarteners.
Garrett at his desk.
And, like his father, he has limited patience for photographs. How did he learn to role his eyes so effectively at such an early age??? :-)

They did the most darling project associated with "The Kissing Hand". I received the most concise, complete summary ever given by a five year old of the book from Garrett, it was fabulous.

The diorama we did for "Library Lion"
And of course, Summer, who refused to be in the morning pictures, insisted "Take a picture of ME!"

How we've spent our summer vacation - Part 2

2011-07-31T22:00:00.009-05:00

Seriously, I can not believe August is here. It seems like it was just 4th of July weekend. Insanity. With a scant 3 weeks until school starts, it seems like summer is already over. We'll be spending the next few weeks getting on schedule and (gasp) prepping for Kindergarten. Insanity, I say!

A quick fly-by of the things we've been up to since last update.

We went to see Cars 2. It was cute, but not nearly as good as the original. Summer did amazingly well at it.

We've had sleepovers and hung out with friends.

We made homemade ice cream for the 4th of July

and made homemade ice cream sandwich pops.

Summer has been acting like such a big girl! We're STILL potty training, and while she was in a big girl bed for a while, we moved her back to a crib because she wasn't getting enough sleep, but she's doing so well in expressing her emotions and absolutely has a crazy fun imagination.

We went to see Bob the Builder at the Childrens Museum. It was the first time we've been in a while, and BOTH kids really enjoyed it all.

Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit

and took Garrett home with them for a week, where he did awesome things like drive a 4-wheeler. (Thanks Aunt Stephie for the picture!)

Summer and I enjoyed some girl time while he was gone, but we were glad to have him (and Grandma) back.

The best thing we did while they were gone, though, was go to the Seaquarium. I don't generally like that place, but we both got in for free and Summer was absolutely over the moon about the dolphins. I wish I had taken the camera on that trip to document how in awe she was of them.

Brad and I enjoyed a night at the Hard Rock in Hollywood while Grandma was here and THAT was fabulous. Its been almost a year since we had a night to ourselves, so it was long overdue. We stayed up until midnight listening to live music and just generally enjoying each other's company, then spent the morning soaking up sun by the pool. Absolutely priceless!

And we've crafted, created, and made stuff . . .
A cement stone for Grandma

Awesome butterflies from milk cartons, inspired by Filth Wizardry. Garrett's is on the right, Summer's is on the left.

And of course a model or two.

I've read a couple of books, the most notable of which was Water For Elephants. I wasn't really expecting much, but it was so good that I am really not sure I want to see the movie.

Brad and I have been watching Psych, after Brad's parents and sister told us how much they liked it. Love it!

And we had a really stinky life lesson when Garrett's turtle, Crusher, died while he was at Grandma's house. That one is going to get its own post though (hopefully)--too lengthy to write about on this already lengthy post.

Why Aspen is the Awesomest Dog Ever

2011-07-11T14:36:00.006-05:00

I always have a hard time explaining what Aspen means to us as a family. He's not only not-just-a-dog, he's such an integral part of this family it isn't even funny. His patience with the kids never ceases to amaze me . . .

He not only puts up with photo sessions

he puts up with fights that ensue over him

and STILL manages to give Garrett smooches, which makes Garrett smile bigger than anything else.
He is always in the thick of it, even when "it" is campout sleepovers with four kids.

And even though Summer tortures him in many ways, he never makes a single complaint.

This past week we had a house guest for a week. We fostered Lilo for This is The Dog while her usual foster mom was out of town, and he loved having someone big to play with. (Someone who wasn't 1/4 his size and always grumpy, anyway). He's just about the best, craziest, sweetest grey pup we could ask for, and I can't believe he's 7 this year.

Happy 4th!

2011-07-05T13:17:00.003-05:00

We had a wonderfully busy 4th of July weekend. We made ice cream and festive 4th of July ice cream pops, had a sleep over with our friends, and more. Here's a few pictures to tide everyone over until I get a chance for a real update. In the mean time, pictures from the entire weekend are on facebook.

Five

2011-06-30T06:28:00.008-05:00

I never did my nostalgic "I can't believe he's five" post for Garrett's birthday. I CAN'T believe he's five, but as previously mentioned, we've been too busy doing stuff to really sit back and reminisce. But for some reason, the birthdays of friends always make me more weepy than the birthdays of my own kids. Today is Garrett's best bud Xander's birthday. Its pretty awesome that these two boys have been friends since they were six months old. At first, it was the mommy friendship more than the boys, but now, its all of us.

This past year, the Shumans and the Compton families have boated, bar-b-qued, attended school events, and just generally hung out more than we have any year in the past. And that's saying something, since most of our major holidays have been spent with our "Florida family"

We have had a LOT of great friends come and go in the past few years. We've been so blessed to have such excellent friends. I grew up as an only child, so I love that not only will Garrett have his sister to play with, he also has his wonderful neighborhood friends to call on. Its pretty awesome to say you've been friends with someone your whole life.

And Jess and I were talking that even if they have their little falling outs as life goes on, they will have to make up because even if they don't want to hang out with each other, the families still will.
They've had so many "firsts" together in the past five years . . .
And goodness knows there will be plenty more.
Part of the reason I've been putting of the "five" post is because I haven't been too sure what to say. Garrett is amazing, he's reading and busy and incredibly adventurous. He can be mean to his sister, then incredibly sweet to her in the next breath. He loves his dogs. He loves to play. He's always busy. Its hard to summarize all the changes and amazing things in a few paragraphs. But if I ask him what he wants to do on any given day, his first responses is almost ALWAYS "Can Xander come play?" He declares to me on a daily basis "Xander and I are best friends!" He even asked if he could take Xander with him on the much anticipated trip to Grandma's house in a few weeks. So, I can't believe they are BOTH five. I'm really looking forward to watching them share the next five years of this wild, crazy ride together.

And, since I haven't given you any new pictures in this post, just a recap of the old ones, enjoy this one of Garrett going off the diving board at Xander's 5th birthday party!

How we've spent our summer vacation (SO FAR)

2011-06-25T06:41:00.001-05:00

I can't believe there are only 58 days left before Garrett starts Kindergarten. So far, this has been the BEST summer we've ever had. I know that it comes from the fact that this is our first summer since Garrett started school, and that I've been completely focused on being in the moment with the kids as much as possible. Garrett and I take turns calling the shots for the day--he'll pick something fun and when that's done, I'll pick something structured.

We've been reading a lot. We just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and began The Goblet of Fire. In addition, Garrett is working on reading his Bob books and a few very simple Level 1 readers on his own. Everything he reads on his own gets a link for his reading chain.

We're participating in the summer reading program at the library AND Garrett has his reading list for kindergarten, so we also started a reading journal for the books we read together. These are helping him get in handwriting practice, which he really isn't too keen on doing.

We're playing a LOT of games. Uno is by far our favorite. We had a party favor uno laying around with tiny little uno cards and its his favorite thing.

We swim on a daily basis. Thanks to Grandma Sherry, Garrett is signed up for private lessons. The kid is a fish, and we decided we'd see how much he could learn in the way of swimming stokes. He also couldn't really float, because he just can't be still for that long. He can now though. We both love his teacher.

We had decided not to sign Summer up for swimming lessons because she has been a little bit of a scaredy cat in terms of being on her own in the water. But yesterday at the Y she finally discovered she can swim on her own holding on to a noodle and now she loves swimming all over the pool. We'll probably sign her up for some group lessons at the Y once she turns 3, for both social interaction and to get her used to swimming without me. She loves the water.

We do lots of fun things in the back yard. For some reason the kids think hitting the bouganvilla with sticks is one of the most entertaining things ever.

Garrett has taken to climbing the huge oak tree in our back yard. He also likes to "look for dinosaur fossils" in the lake.

And of course we occassionally play in the front too. Summer likes to take Minnie and Mickey for walks in her stroller.
And we've been going to the park occassionally, although it is hot. They BOTH decided to be monkeys at Audubon the other day.

We've been building things with our legos. Here's an awesome boat he got from Ms. Leanne for his birthday.
We've played with our friends a lot. We've had friends over to swim, we've picked up the Shumans early from school to come over to play, we've gone to the zoo with the Davis clan.

Xander's birthday is coming up (in fact his party is today), so Garrett and I have spent some one-on-one time for that--he and I went shopping together for his gifts (which Garrett picked out). I HATE buying gift bags and/or wrapping paper, I think it is the most wasteful thing on the planet, so Garrett and I crafted this cute gift bag out of an up-cycled T-mobile bag. He had a blast putting the presents in once we were done.

And of course we had to make the card too.

We've gone to the free movies at flagship. We go for bike rides, usually to the pool or to the grocery store. We spend a lot of time at the library. We've done science experiments, learned about the phases of the moon, and talked about the diet of almost every animal imaginable. We've enjoyed having no real place to be at any set time. Most of all, we've just enjoyed each others company. It has truly been an excellent summer.

Catch-up : The end of school and the end of Grandma's visit

2011-06-24T06:00:00.006-05:00

Garrett finished his first year of school on June 9th. June has been/continues to be a total blur. The first 2 weeks of June were insane--Grandma left, work was absolutely out of control, and I had extra kids several days to help out our neighbors. INSANITY. Complete, UTTER insanity. Which is why I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.

We remembered to get a picture of Grandma with Brad and the kids while she was here:
Garrett was SO proud of himself on his last day of school. He told me "I'm ready to start Kindergarten TOMORROW". He loved loved LOVED the bear the school gave him.
And I will forever be greatful to his amazing teacher for giving him such a wonderful first year of school, which has set the tone for the rest of his education.

Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives. ~Andy Rooney

Kindergarten starts on 8/22, which is only **59** days away. I can't believe how fast summer is flying by. We're really happy with Garrett's intended school, and its finally a sure thing that Xander will be going there as well. X is actually going to come stay with us every day after school--which will make our neighbor's life easier since they won't have to make to seperate stops to pick up their kids from different schools, and will make MY life easier because all Garrett ever wants to do is have Xander over to play anyway. We're loving summer but I know its going to be over before we know it.

Next up: how we're spending our summer (so far)

First Flight

2011-06-23T12:13:00.004-05:00

Sorry updates have been few and far between. All I can say is that we've REALLY been enjoying our summer. I haven't even managed to do the "I can't believe he's 5" post I had planned in my head. I really can NOT believe he is 5, but as a function of trying to be in the moment with the kids, there really hasn't been that much time to dwell on it, and certainly no time at all to blog about it.

A few weeks ago, we had a REALLY awesome opportunity thanks to our neighbors, Julie and John. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times--we are BEYOND blessed when it comes to our extended family down here. John is a commercial pilot and we were surprised by a call from Julie a few Sundays ago -- John was at the airport getting checked out in a Cessna 172 and did we maybe want to come out to the airfield for a flight. We regularly go to the airport for picnic lunches just because all three of my favorite people are absolute airplane nuts. So I knew everyone was going to be beyond ecstatic! Brad loves flying, but hasn't been able to in just about forever.

All the kids enjoying the airfield:

Summer being a nut:

Luke, the cutest baby ever:

Garrett and Brady enjoying the Stomp Rocket X and Logan brought:

Summer getting smooches from Ms. Jess:

Getting ready to fly with Mr. John:

Seriously the cutest pilot ever (John let him fly the airplane most of the time we were in the air):

View of the airport from the plane:

Garrett loved the whole thing. Brad OF COURSE was in heaven. As for me, this was my first time in a small plane too, and I am SUCH a lightweight. It made me sick. I freaking always get sick. I've always loved being on the water and even THAT makes me sick. Even considering the nausea, we can't say thank you enough to Julie and John for such an awesome opportunity.

Monday Mayhem - Garrett's Birthday Weekend

2011-06-06T06:25:00.009-05:00

Garrett had a busy weekend for his 5th birthday last weekend. In addition to Friday being his graduation from Pre-K, we also did cupcakes with his class. He was very specific about what he wanted--Transformer chocolate cupcakes with ice cream. Ummm, sure. I had no idea how to fill that order. But then I found a recipe for ice cream cupcakes online. They were actually super easy and turned out extra yummy!! I ordered cupcake rings and Transformers cupcake liners from Amazon and ta da, Transformers chocolate ice cream cupcakes. These cupcakes will definitely be on our list of sweet treats for the summer!

I love these kids and am going to miss them all next year.
Digging in.
Summer really wishes she were old enough for Ms. Denise's class.
Saturday was Garrett's actual birthday. We didn't plan anything big this year because Garrett asked for a trip to Disney and got it at the end of March. We gave him a stamp set and paints for his birthday, which he spent the morning playing with.

Of course Summer had to get a few new paint things too. She loves art in all forms!

Then it was time to open Grandma's goodies.

He'd been wanting Lego Hero Factory guys for a while, so this was super exciting. Lego Jr. Magazine = excellent marketing strategy for the lego folks!
At this point I got lazy about taking pictures. Garrett, Daddy and Grandma went to see Pirates while I stayed home to craft the cake. Chocolate truffle torte cake-yum!
Almost finished
Next we went to the dive shop to pick Garrett out some snorkel gear--his present from Grandma Becky!

In the evening we had a bbq with our "Florida family," the Esters, Shumans, and Largents. All the littles: Grace, Summer, Brady, Xander, Logan and G
So proud of this cake!
G and Grandma (and the cake!)
He loved the characters from the top of the cake
Awesome ear protection from the Largent clan. Perfect for Monster Jam, the track and more :-)

Best buds-Xander, G and Brady
And the day ended with fire works and GIANT sparklers, courtesy of Jess's dad.

More fun to come--I still have to write about Memorial day and the last day of Grandma's visit!

Preschool Graduation

2011-06-04T20:44:00.005-05:00

I am so far behind on posting it isn't even remotely funny. Grandma Sherry came to visit last weekend for Garrett's 5th birthday. It just so happened that G's preschool decided to hold his graduation the Friday before his birthday, so she got to be here for that too! It made for a wild, crazy long holiday weekend.

Preparation for graduation festivities took up a lot of the last week of May. I somehow ended up in charge of teacher gifts for his class:

But I didn't mind at all because Garrett's teacher is the BEST and I love her dearly. Some fun little things from around the classroom:

G and I before Graduation
And with Grandma:

I had to bribe the posed pictures with the promise of silly face pictures, a fabulous idea from Jenn.

Garrett's best friend Xander was in Garrett's class this year, and as of right now they will be going to K in the same school too. This is probably the first of many graduations they will have together. It's just amazing to think that they have been buddies since they were infants :-)

I was so rapped up in making sure I got a picture with my little guy on his special day that I missed getting a picture of him with his Daddy. In fact, I failed in getting ANY pictures of daddy. Bad momma!

Getting his diploma. Or, rather, an empty role of paper :-)

The funniest part of the night was G's dancing skills--his teacher says he never would do the moves during practice, but he was OVER THE TOP during the show!

So proud of my big boy, but SO READY for school to be over for the Summer.

And, last but not least, Summer managed to charm a flower away from someone. She's such a cheese ball!!

Monday Mayhem - A day late and about a month behind

2011-05-24T03:16:00.005-05:00

I have NO idea where May went. It seems like just yesterday it was Easter, and WHAM, Garrett's 5th Birthday is in just a few days. May is almost over. 2011 is almost half over. Whoa.

A rundown of what's been going on around here
-I got a new phone and can finally text. New phone broke after two weeks and it took almost a week to get it replaced. Second phone is currently operating well, but I'm not so sure of the quality of the stupid thing.
-Brad crossed over to the dark side and got an IPhone for work. You must understand our doorway has never been darkened by something with an "I" in the name. We are PC people all the way. But now he has the silly thing glued to his nose 24/7. The other night I had the pleasure of being woken up by a freaking ESPN alert from the stupid thing (which Brad slept through of course).
-Kindle for mothers day. I'm hooked. Its both good and bad. Good because I always have something to read. Bad for the very same reason--why clean or work when I can read?? Its kind of silly because now we curl up in the hammock and read books on our gadgets. We really aren't gadget people.
-Things have been exceedingly busy at Garrett's school. We had a field trip, and I'm helping get teacher gifts together for graduation. I am going to miss Garrett's teacher terribly, she is such a wonderful spirit. His graduation is on FRIDAY, even though school doesn't end until the 2nd week in June. I am not one for pomp and circumstance, and at first thought PK graduation was stupid, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to cry like a little baby. It probably wouldn't be so bad if it weren't the same freaking weekend he was turning 5. FIVE!!
-VPK end of year evaluation was today with his teacher. He did fantastic of course, and was declared ready for kindergarten. I'm a little worried about him being challenged (because he is doing so wonderfully now), but we'll see how it goes. Right now we have our eyes on the summer and the fun things we'll be doing.
-We rejoined the Y. Brad's meeting schedule (a whole other story-who knew politics would get so crazy in our little community??) has been psycho and it was making it impossible for me to get much done workout wise, which immediately makes me go absolutely batty. So now we run all the time, to school, to the Y, to the park, etc. etc. Crazy, but good!
-Garrett got into a decent charter school down here. NOT the one right down the street from us, which is still a sore point, but at least he got in somewhere. Having a hard time letting go of the dream of riding our bikes to school every day though.
-We had the best weekend EVER a few weekends ago. It wasn't anything huge, just lots of relaxing, family time, and hanging out with friends. The highlight was a tossup between girl time at the pool with the fantastic kindle and a relaxing bbq with our neighbors.
-Summer is nuts. Nothing new. She talks all the time, adores her brother, her doggies, and jumping. ("Look, mama, I'm a JUMPING BEAN!!") Her imagination is crazy. She still immediately starts freaking out if she doesn't get her way. Its a good thing she's so darn cute, it makes it a little easier to deal with the drama. Still not 100% potty trained though, which is driving me NUTS. So much for girls and 2nd children being easier. Oh, and she LOVES to color. She got a Hello Kitty coloring book for Easter and nearly every single page is COVERED in coloring.
-Garrett is a FISH. We have spent a lot of time at the pool, and I'm flabbergasted by how well he can swim this season. Under water, above water, across the pool. You name it. I plan to let him spend a week in swim camp and maybe do swim lessons so he can start learning the different strokes. Too bad the swim team at the Y doesn't start until they are 8.
-There was a bubble spillage incident that messed up the little camera. It works, but not as well as it should. This is part of the reason I am so far behind on downloading pictures. But mostly the reason is that we're so busy living and doing I just haven't had time to blog, or download pictures, or anything else.
-Garrett's trip to Grandma and Grandpa Compton's for a week in July is a sure thing. He is so excited, he just keeps asking why July has to be "So far away". Grandma will be here TOMORROW for a whole week, which excites us all. Although everyone should know when we were talking about this yesterday, Summer started listing her Grandmas ("Grandma Becky, Grandma Nana, Grandma Sherry?") The Grandma Nana was especially funny :-)
-Garrett and I started reading Harry Potter and are now on the 3rd book. He LOVES it. I was worried some parts would be too scary, but he just tells me "Mom, I KNOW its not real!" I have intentionally waited to read them until he was old enough, so its really fun to experience them together. His comprehension of the story line has amazed me. And it has been SOOO awesome to hear him beg for more. He's a lot like his daddy, but I'm glad he got my love for reading.
-They had a Cars 2 event at the Children's Museum this week. I didn't know about it until the day of, but we rearranged our schedule to load up and go. So glad we did, the kids had a blast. This is the ONLY new picture I have on my computer at the moment, so it will have to tide you all over until I have time to upload the new ones.
That's a rundown of what's been new. Sorry its been so long! Stay tuned for the I Can't Believe He's 5 post, because you know its coming.

Easter catch-up

2011-04-28T22:04:00.004-05:00

We had so many things going on over the past few weeks. Italian dinner fundraiser for Garrett's school, school easter festivities, Easter playdate, etc. And of course work, work, and more work . . . Here are a few catch up pictures. I haven't had time to upload last weekend's pictures (egg coloring and a few other things) yet. I really didn't take that many. We spent Saturday night/Sunday morning dealing with a very miserable little girl who is teething and Sunday was very low-key as we all tried to recover from our lack of sleep.

Garrett and one of his fav gal pals, Alex, at the school fundraiser.

Summer loving on her Minnie and carebear. She likes to take them with us in the morning when we walk the dogs.
Easter cards at school
Cute butterfly craft the kids did.

Off the top of my head I can think of nothing else noteworthy. Things have been utterly insane lately. I'd like to say its almost over, but I really think its the new normal. But we're not just surviving, we're still managing to find time for enjoyment, which is nice.

Show Me the Mommy - The girls

2011-04-22T06:57:00.003-05:00

I always mean to participate in LauraC's Show Me the Mommy, but hardly ever have time on Fridays to post. But this week I really haven't had time to post at all, so I have a bunch of pictures sitting around requiring my attention, including this one of Summer and I from right before the Italian Dinner Fundraiser for Garrett's school. I am trying to get better about giving the camera to Brad and having him take pictures, but they don't always turn out well. This one, however, did.

Summer is all grins and personality these days. She is into shoes and fashion and is such a trip. Here she is putting "Shoes on Minnie Mouse!".
Yesterday Garrett and I went on a "Special Date" to see Rio. The last time I went to the theater was in June to see Eclipse, and holy COW, $15 for just Garrett and I. We won't be going to the theater again until Cars 2 is out in June, because that's just highway robbery. We both had a great time though, and the movie was so cute.

Balance = Found (Sort of)

2011-04-15T21:17:00.007-05:00

Coming off Mondays crazy post, this has been a pretty good week. INSANE, but good. The alarm has gone off at Oh-Dark-Hundred on a daily basis, and I, who love my sleep, have been up before Brad every day but one this week. 4am wake up = not fun, but being able to focus on the kids without freaking out about the obscene amount of work on my desk was worth it. I also planned for child care two days this week, just to make my life a little less insane. My friend Shelah's daughter, Rainee, came and hung out with the kids on Monday, and then Summer went to play with Ava on Wednesday while Garrett was at school (leaving me a little time to be productive when I wasn't dealing with the usual produce craziness).
Summer sure does love her "Ray-ray".

Not only did I get work done, but I didn't feel like I was losing my mind a single time all week. Added bonus, we had time for family time at the pool, I managed some quality time with Brad, and I've gotten in some decent enough workouts. So, all in all, not a bad week.

I also made some headway on the school dilemma for next year. I'm 90% sure that homeschool is the back-up plan of choice. Once I realized I could eliminate a lot of the planning stress by getting a curriculum, the stress of that choice seemed to wash away. I would still prefer he get in to one of the schools we applied for. But whatever happens will be exactly the direction we should go in.

Fun things we did this week:
Summer colored a lot, one of her favorite ways to pass the time:

And we broke out the paints Grandma Becky gave Summer for her birthday last year, along with some of our left over stocking stuffers from Christmas:

Friday was a MUCH anticipated movie night . . . we did Pita Pizzas for dinner, which the kids loved because they could each make their own.
And really, does it get any better than this?
The only time they were truly quiet though was when the popcorn was being consumed. You can see how long 7 children between the ages of 7 and 2.5 lasted :-)

I find the pairings in this picture hilarious--Garrett is hanging out with Angela, our neighbor who is 7. He's always wanting her to come play and hang out, she's one of his favorite people these days. Summer is with Xander, of course. She's ALL about Xander. And Logan is chilling with Brady and Gracie. We're pretty sure Logan and Gracie will get married some day, lol :-) I'm so thankful to have such great friends right in the neighborhood, which makes fun events like this a cinch to plan.

Monday Mayhem - Desperately Seeking Balance

2011-04-11T04:19:00.003-05:00

Disclaimer, this is mostly a me post, and very little on the kids. Just be forwarned, personal purge coming on.

I can't believe the first quarter of 2011 is already over, and that April is whizzing by as well. As much as it really stinks to say it, 2011 has been a little rough for me, personally, so far. Don't get me wrong, things have more or less been wonderful so far this year--the kids are healthy and growing, our marraige is strong, I could sit here all day and list positives. But *I* personally have not felt balanced or centered, at least not for a prolonged period of time, in a very long while. Working very hard to rectify that this week.

I've been keeping up with the house better, and I've been working out a ton. Work, overall, has been much busier in the past year or so than we have been in a while. The thing that I can't stand is I often look back at our day and realize I haven't been in the moment enough with my kids. The whole purpose of riding this crazy ride called life is the moments we make along the way, and I often feel like I spend more time fretting and fussing at them then sitting back and ENJOYING them.

I also feel like I'm backsliding in my body image issues. I'm not at all happy with myself again these days, and I don't know why that is. I think I've become a little manic when it comes to working out, so I'm taking a step back--focusing on my diet more and cutting back to maybe 30 minutes a day 4ish times a week working out. My weight has been stagnant in the same 10ish pound range or so for a while, and its frustrating because I'm still freaking classified "obese" by BMI. Which is why I hate BMI. But whatever . . . I don't think this is my major issue, just feeds in.

I've also been working, very very hard to alleviate the horrendous headaches that have plagued me off and on since I was a kid. I think that they are brought on by a combo of hormones and diet issues. I, milk loving person that I am, have cut WAY back on dairy. It has helped, but its been challenging because ICE CREAM is made with dairy and hello, I LOVE ice cream. But in the long run: might help with those stupid pesky body issues.

Add in additional stress factor, which may actually end up being my saving grace: Trying to get Garrett into a good school for Kindergarten. So far, he is wait listed on 2 of the 4 schools we applied for. The other 2 won't do their lottery for a while, so its not like a resolution is anywhere close. Not knowing drives me crazy. If he doesn't get in to one of these 4 schools, we have 3 options: #1) Send him to the incredibly crappy school we're districted out for (not really an option. #2) Put him in private school. #3) Homeschool.

Brad and I have spent a lot of time discussing options 2 and 3. We have lived very, very frugally for the past few years and we can afford to put Garrett in private school. Our neighbors have their kids in a nearby school that is both affordable and good. It will slow our plans to get out from under the debt we accumulated in those "young and stupid" days. We've also discussed homeschooling. We could homeschool Garrett until he gets in to one of the schools we like, hire a sitter several days a week on a regular basis for both kids, and STILL pay less than we will for private school. At first the concept of adding another unexpected year of doing it all made me panic, but then my friend Allison pointed out "Its kindergarten, its not like you can screw it up." Hmm, hadn't really thought about it THAT way. And as much as I like to him and haw that I'm not cut out for homeschooling, I sort of just might be. I certainly can do it for a year or two until we can get into a good school, if need be. And as anti-homeschooling as my husband seems to be? His concern is that Garrett will get too far AHEAD if we keep him at home.

Which brings me to pointing out how much Allison NOT being right down the street for the past year has contributed to my lack of balance. Its weird, because we have a lot of wonderful friends here, but after almost a year of her being out of Florida, I still totally find myself pining for a cup of coffee in her kitchen on a regular basis. Very few people can completely grasp the insanity of our lives, or understand the crap in MY head, but for some reason, she always did and still does. I'm not a person who makes truly good friends easily, so yeah, miss the balance, miss my friend. And miss having family closer than a 4 hour plane ride, too, while we're at it. Spending a few days with my mother-in-law, her complete confidence in my kids and lack of any type of criticism was SO refreshing. It's insane some of the freak show stories so many friends have of families who like to put down their parenting or lifestyle. Its nice that our families have always been so supportive, and I miss having that support system.

Anyway, long story short is that the whole school issue has really made me realize I need to improve my balancing act. After nearly 5 years of juggling ALL the balls (wife, mother, caretaker, employee, cook, housekeeper, myself), I still basically suck at it. Thus my prolonged basket case status so far this year. So in a way, thinking about this school dilemma helps. I'm focusing this week on getting my act together and seeing if I can balance things a little better to regain my sanity, before I add another item to it. So if my online presence is less, know it is because I'm either trying to get it all done or enjoying the moment with my wonderful family. Because when it comes right down to it? We-Brad and I-have a wonderful, amazing life going here. And we really, really need to enjoy every single second of it. Going to focus on THAT this week, and I suspect the answers to everything else will come on their own.

Fashion, art and chilling

2011-04-08T06:50:00.002-05:00

Its been a week of HIGH FASHION here.

Summer's combo of mommy's socks and mis-matched crocs:

And Garrett's "It's COLD outside!" (it was mid 60s and breezy) outfit:

Not much to report this week, we've been rather lazy because we're all recouperating from our Disney trip. We found an animated Iron Man series on Netflix so we spend out afternoons watching a couple of those because they are actually decent and we're all enjoying them. Add in work, cooking, and homework and our days are pretty much full. Summer and I went to the park and library while Garrett was at school yesterday-our effort to conserve gas includes not coming home after dropping him off 1-2x a week.

Garrett has been building various flying contraptions with the legos.
And Summer has enjoyed laying around on the couch while we watch TV.
Here is a picture Garrett drew last week--the fire truck is driving on a road. I love it, so original. He's getting sooo big.

Our major item of the week has been school stress--we're on the waiting list at 2 of the 4 schools we applied for. The other 2 haven't done their lotteries yet. I've done well about not freaking out about the school situation until this week, but reached maximum overload this week. We actually started looking at private school, just in case nothing else works out. Joy. The theme of this week is politics and government and the entire "system" just blows. But wherever we end up is where we were meant to be. Or so I keep telling myself.

Weekend will be more of the same (work) plus a baby shower for my friend Leanne. Girl time! :-)

Wordless Wednesday-Creativity ROCKS!

2011-04-06T06:00:00.003-05:00

Monday Mayhem - the Disney trip

2011-04-04T09:48:00.010-05:00

We have been scheming and planning for a while to surprise Garrett with a trip to Disney for his birthday. You must understand that Disney really isn't my idea of the perfect vacation spot--we don't really like crowds or lines or commercialized stuff. But Garrett has been asking for a trip to Disney for a while, especially for a birthday present. Even though his birthday isn't until May, we went this past weekend because A. It will be unbearably hot when his birthday roles around and B. Brad's parents could get the weekend off and were able to spend it with us.

This trip was a total surprise for Garrett. We told him on Monday (two months before his actual birthday) that a big surprise was coming and he would get a hint in two days. His first guesses included only material things (like a Transformer), so when I told him it wasn't something he would get but something he would DO he was stumped for a while. Then his guesses were limited to Chuck E. Cheese and Dandy Bear. On Wednesday we told him we wouldn't be back to school for the rest of the week, so he thought THAT was his special surprise. Silly boy. On Thursday morning we packed suitcases and the guesses included going to Grandma's, going to see Grandpa Hosein, going camping, and going camping on the beach. Then he started asking questions to narrow it down. "Are we driving a long way? Are we getting in an air plane?"

Once we hit the road he got out his leapster and basically stopped guessing for a while. It was until we were IN orlando that he started guessing where we were. And once he figured out it was Orlando, he assumed we were going to see Shamu. We picked Grandma and Grandpa up at the airport, and although he didn't know for sure who we were there to get, I think he knew it would be them, because while he was happy he didn't seem all that surprised.

We went to McDonalds and told Garrett that it was his special surprise. He actually was cool with that, acting all happy and then said "But why did we drive all this way to go to McDonalds?" We gave them each a Mickey and Mini and finally told them we were going to Mickeys house. :-)

It was yucky and rainy, so we spent the rest of the day chilling at the house that Brad's parents rented. Grandma loved reading to the kids all weekend long!

Summer enjoyed modeling her new "Kitty glasses"

Friday was Epcot.

Since Grandpa Lynn works for GM, we were able to get the VIP treatment for the Test Track, which he LOVED. He rode it twice and STILL asked for more.

Riding the test track with mommyGrandma and Summer being silly :-)

Brad, Garrett, Grandma and Grandpa at Epcot

Lightening McQueen! Cars 2 will be out in no time at all :-)

Summer drumming away from the Oh Snap.

Summer took a break from playing at the playground to bring Daddy a flower :-)

and she was in LOVE with the sea horse from Nemo at the Seas With Nemo and Friends.

Garrett loved all of the rides

Summer-not so muchBut everyone enjoyed the fish!

And we lucked out while we were leaving by catching Daisy with no wait.

We did movie night, watched Tangled, and otherwise just enjoyed each others company for the rest of the afternoon. Summer swam, but I didn't take any pictures.

Saturday was Magic Kingdom. I really didn't take that many pictures. We rode Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. Garrett really wanted to check out the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

We got our pictures taken with Goofy, but Garrett didn't want to do the Pirates of the Caribbean, which surprised me.

We went to the T-rex Cafe for dinner. Summer was too tired and completely scared to death of the dinosaurs. Garrett, on the other hand, loved it like always. He especially loved digging for dinosaur bones.

And on Sunday we took him back to build a dinosaur. He picked a saber tooth tiger that he has named "Tooth."

It was a super fun weekend that went by way too quickly. And this pretty much sums up how we all felt afterward!

Monday Mayhem - Continued Chaos

2011-03-28T09:26:00.005-05:00

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while. Things have been extremely chaotic around here, but not in any way that's noteworthy. Spring break was exhausting and returning to school was a bit of an adjustment too. Work is busy, and with gas prices like they are Summer and I have been playing around at parks and the library a lot so we don't have to drive home every day between dropping Garrett off and picking him up again. She loves both the library and the playground, so its pretty easy to spend 3 hours there.

We took Aspen to the vet for his annuals, which was a whole big to-do of course. We've been to the pool A LOT. The kids are still having a hard time with the time change, they are completely fried by 5pm but having a hard time getting to sleep before 8 or so, and are back up by 6-7.

Brad and I ran the Move It 2011 budget 5K on Saturday, which was a budget race for the miles challenge we're both participating in. We ran separately because of the kids, but he smoked me as always. He finished in 25:51, I finished in 31:41. I also biked the last 8 miles to work on Saturday due to the tennis tournament on the key. It was actually a fun ride, and it was nice to not sit in the car for nearly as long. Brad took the kids out with the neighbors on their boat on Saturday.

I have only taken ONE PICTURE this week, which is just ridiculous. On Tuesday the Shuman boys came home from school with us and we all went to the pool. I think we're going to have a repeat tomorrow. This is a short week for us-we're surprising Garrett with something fun on Thursday, which is going to be fun for ALL of us. AND I get to see my mother in law, who I've really been missing.

Happy St. Patty's Day

2011-03-17T22:02:00.006-05:00

Honestly, this isn't a holiday I particularly care about. But for once, I actually put the kids in the themed shirts my mother in law always sends for the holidays AND took a picture. I expect you to clap for me now of course :-)

And here is a sampling of the St. Patty's Day stuff they did at school last week:

We're on spring break this week. We haven't done much of anything. With gas prices as high as they are, our days have pretty much centered around NOT using our car. We did ride our bikes to a nearby park, which meant a 9 mile round trip ride. Garrett rode his own bike. That kids just loves to go!

We went to the zoo today with Leanne. I'd like to say we had a blast, but it was almost more work than it was worth. Summer was crabby as all get out, but the kids still had fun and it was nice catching up with Leanne.

Garrett filled his marble jar this morning and got a Superman book that I found at the dollar store. He keeps telling me how much he loves it, which is fabulous. Especially since he was helping me MOP THE FLOORS this morning in order to finish filling that jar. BEST IDEA EVER! This morning he was not interested in putting the book down during pictures, just as Summer was not interested in putting down "Bear" with his St. Patty's beads.

We've rounded off our week with a lot of time spent in the pool. Its getting warm here, and with the later sunsets, I've even been able to hit the pool twice for some laps, which has been nice and relaxing. Summer is just around the corner! Other than that, I'm re-reading the last few books in one of my favorite series in the anticipation of the newest book coming out on Monday. Rounding off the week with much needed adult time in the form of a dive trip with the neighbors and a drive to Fort Myers on Sunday for work.

The usual craziness

2011-03-10T15:46:00.005-05:00

Things have been insane, as usual, around here. What we've been up to, in pictures:

Xander and Logan have had family in town so the kids haven't seen much of each other. They hung out for a while on Sunday and had a great time:

Summer spent plenty of time jumping on the trampoline, crazy girl.
We did some fun little projects while Garrett was at school
(And MAN do I need to refinish my table in a nice DARK color!)
Garrett is doing great at school. Here is a picture of a house he drew.
And he's continuing to help out around the house alot . . . posing happily with his almost-full marble jar. (When its full, he'll get a "special surprise")
Summer happily toting around some goodies from a package. Such a girlie girl. :-)

A full week of fun

2011-03-04T06:00:00.005-05:00

This week has been chock full of stuff. I'm working hard on increasing my productivity AND maintaining this whole keeping-the-house-clean thing. And not planting the kids in front of the TV in the process. AND consolidating everything we need to do into the trips to and from taking Garrett to school, because at $3.40ish a gallon, I am NOT going out a second time. I made Brad replace the tire on my bike, which had a slow leak, because I know we'll be biking more with gas prices the way they are.

That said, we've had BEAUTIFUL weather this week. In the 80s. On Tuesday, we decided this warranted a trip to the pool.
How cute are they?

We had lots of fun at home of course.
Garrett, always the inventor, decided that since we don't own any guns for gun play, he would build one from his marble track. No shortness of creativity in that one.

Summer, always the girlie girl, took it upon herself to make sure we were well fed.
She asked me "Mommy, are you ready to eat?" and I looked down from my work to find this.

And later, we apparently all needed dessert (perhaps the 4th plate is for one of the dogs? Or maybe a dolly . . .)

Speaking of dogs, Aspen always amazes me with both his amazing patience and the level of devotion and responsibility he seems to instill in Garrett. Garrett loves giving Aspen any kind of love, making his tail wag, and giving him breakfast and dinner. I really didn't expect much in the way of responsible dog ownership this early, but Garrett takes caring for Aspen very seriously. But here is photo evidence of that never-ending patience.
Kisses
And the martyr look because I asked him to sit so I could take a picture of his accessory.
If there were a medal for doggy patience, he would surely earn it.

And, speaking of Garrett and responsibility . . . he has been a BIG HELP around the house. He's been willing to do small tasks without whining lately, which has resulted in us using our marble jar again (helping without whining = one marble toward a special surprise.) He has been consistently straitening his room on a daily basis every morning for a few weeks now. Being on blue all week at school + keeping his room clean = $1 for allowance on a weekly basis. But he amazed me this week by making his bed and informing me that he would "organize the kitchen." Here he proudly posing with his handy-work.
He's also getting the hang of reading, which is well, FREAKING AMAZING to watch. And a little sad. But mostly amazing. He also takes great joy in reminding us that he is "almost ready for Kindergarten." Time is flying by way to fast most of the time.

Gardening fun

2011-03-03T16:54:00.005-05:00

Several years back we had a very nice garden going in our small back yard. 2010 was NOT a good gardening year for us--chalk it up to poor planning or lack of attention, who knows. I've been planning (in my head, no further than that) what I would like to do this year--it includes installing a rain gutter and a barrell for rain water, and doing raised beds. Obviously, none of that has come to fruition yet. But my friend Shelah over at Our Wicked Ways posted about her herb garden, and I realized there was no reason I couldn't get THAT going at least. Garrett has always gotten a kick out of growing things too, so there was no reason not to.

We had met the owner of Redland Organic Herb Farm at the local farmers market a while back. I decided to give her a call--we probably spent more there than we would of at Lowes, but there is something to be said for supporting local growers. Summer and I dropped Garrett off at school and went to get some goodies! Our haul (and the bag of soil) are shown in the picture above.

When Summer went down for her nap, Garrett and I set to work on getting everything planted. He spent some time painting one of the planters. The planters were all left over from previous gardening attempts.

Painting with sponges Grandma Becky had sent for Christmas.Garrett was pretty thrilled about every aspect of this. Here he is filling the planters with dirt.
And carefully transporting the rosemary to the back yard. He's been asking for a bigger wheelbarrow, clearly its time :-)

The end result:

I rescued the table from a neighbor's bulk trash. I think it used to be a desk--it may not hold up well since the top and bottom are made of particle board, but it was free and would otherwise be headed to the landfill, so we'll call it a WIN :-) We opted to just paint the names of what we planted rather than trying to make little tabs. Also not pictured is the large container I put on the side of the house with some sad looking bibb lettuce she gave me for free. We'll have to see how that goes. Not a bad way to spend the day.

Monday Mayhem - What a weekend!

2011-02-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

We had an INTERESTING weekend, to say the least. Nothing really went as planned. We started out with an impromptu date night on Friday - rock climbing again, which was AWESOME. Big thanks to Leanne for watching the kids so we could get away. Saturday morning I had a long run, which was miserable and shorter than I would have liked. Then we went boating/camping with our neighbors. This is where it got interesting of course.

Summer doesn't like boat rides. No idea how this happened, I swear she can't be our kid. We talked about it towards the end of the week (That we were going on a boat, that she liked boats, and that she WOULD NOT CRY). She still cried of course. Something about a little 2.5 year old saying "No thank you! I want out" as we're motoring away from the dock is hilarious. Once we got out of the marina, she was happy enough looking at birds and such. But the minute we started speeding up, she hid her little face and cried. Between this and the whole diva thing, I swear she can't be mine. Except that I was there when she was born!
Garrett, on the other hand, was on cloud nine the whole time. Boating, camping and Xander = Garrett's most favorite things. I find it endlessly awesome that these boys are best friends.

We arrived and everyone set up camp . . .
While they worked, I took the kids to play in the water. Really, really tough job let me tell you.

During the day, it was FABULOUS. Everyone was so happy playing together.

And when we were done playing the water we came to camp for some leisure time.
Summer played in X and Logan's doggie tent.
And did girlie things with Miss Jess.
Meanwhile, the boys alternated between eating and playing (as demonstrated by G and Logan)

When the sun went down, the bugs started coming out and that's when things got a little less fun. We got eaten alive, but I don't think we realized the EXTENT until today.

The boys getting ready for an evening boat ride (Summer and I stayed at camp in hopes of getting her to fall asleep. What a joke on me that turned out to be).

Afterward, it was smores by the fire. My family is so crazy. This picture sums them up perfectly - Brad is humoring me, Summer is being a goof ball, and Garrett is acting like a mini-teenager. Gotta love them!

Up to this point, things were fun. Bed time is where it started to get out of control. Garrett went to sleep, but Summer refused to. At 11pm, after various attempts and efforts to get her to sleep, we finally gave in and just took her back home. I remember going though this with Garrett and knowing he would fall asleep . . . with Summer, I really don't know that she would have. She was totally exhausted and on her way to staying up all night long. In the end, we didn't miss out on that much-Brad went back to stay with Garrett and the Shumans, and as soon as everyone was awake they came home due to the bugs.

Sunday was AWESOME. Brad took a nap after they got back. I put away the gear in less than 20 minutes--I love this new organized thing, it was so easy to clean up and put things away. I took the kids and our new little neighbor to fly kites, and then we headed to the playground in our community for a little while.

Then, as if that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, we had an impromptu movie date with our little neighbors Brady and Gracie. They were all engrossed by The Ant Bully--it was actually pretty cute!

After an evening picnic outside, the kids went to bed and I went next door to squish on my neighbor's new baby girl. She is quite possibly the cutest little baby girl I have seen in ohhh, 2.5 years, I could just eat her up. So that was fun. Unfortunately Summer then had to go and be up half the night again. Lets hope this isn't a habit.

Happy Monday--I'm quite glad its almost over!

Random convo

2011-02-25T07:41:00.001-05:00

Trying to get Summer dressed this morning and pulled out a pair of plain underwear for her. She looks at them and then looks at me. "No, no, no, KITTY UNDERWEAR." She loves her Hello Kitty Underwear. "I get it," she declares. Well, okay then. As I'm putting them on, she says "So pretty." Again, WHERE does she get this from?? Certainly not me!

Monday Mayhem - Nana and Pawpaw's Visit

2011-02-22T16:01:00.006-05:00

Yes, I realize its Tuesday. Better late than never. We had a really, really fun weekend with Brad's granparents. They arrived Friday and left today. Garrett was off school Friday - Monday, so it was the PERFECT time for a visit! The boys started off the long weekend with a trip to the boat show on Thursday and had a great time. On Friday I went in to the office (Brad was home and we took advantage) before picking up Nana and Pawpaw at the airport.

We played outside a lot . . .
G is his hat (And Allison, he told Nana and Pawpaw all about how you bought him this hat when Neela ate the hat that they sent, lol!)
Summer in G's hat . . .
Summer being, well, Summer.
G and Nana playing soccer
Garrett wrote his name and drew a picture of Nana, Daddy, Mommy and Garrett.

We watched "How To Train Your Dragon" . . . Like me, Nana thought it was cute. The adult males were not impressed. Go figure. Kids loved it of course.We played with playdough.

We went to Classics By the Bay at Homestead Bayfront Park. Old cars make the men in this family go ga-ga. :-)
Summer was crabby and refused the photo op. I think pawpaw made a sour face because Summer was being so fussy (you can't see her but she's laying in front of them crying!)

Garrett had a "Campout with all his animals". He took this picture of his camping buddies all by himself the following morning.Garrett and Pawpaw had a jam session.
We went strawberry picking. The kids had SO MUCH FUN.

"Dis one?? I get it!" Silly Summie. Amazingly, she didn't eat any while we were picking.

And no trip to Knauss Berry is complete without climbing the tree.

Our haul.I gave a first-run try at making freezer jam without pectin. Its more of a fruit spread, as its runnier than jelly, but I prefer that to using pectin. Less is definitely more. We'll see how the kids like it and how well it keeps. We tried two recipes:
4 c strawberries + 1/2 cup sugar. Mash, blend, freeze
4 c strawberries + 1/2 cup honey. Mash, blend, freeze.
So far, the honey recipe has been the bigger hit. This morning they had it on their waffles instead of syrup, so that is a check in the win column for sure! We're making very good use of the chest freezer we bought with our Ch
Afterward we had a mini-picnic of sticky buns and milkshakes. YUM!

And we finished off the day with ice cream at Scoops. The kids were on cloud nine. Summer finally decided to cooperate and pose with Nana, sweetest picture ever!

Other fun stuff . . .
I'm hovering at the 100 mile mark for running so far this year. As of Sunday, I was at 99.92 miles. SO CLOSE! Did 10.25 on Saturday and a 2.6 miler on Sunday, so taking a few days off to recover. And I finally figured out how to sync my Garmin with Facebook using Daily Mile, so looking forward to utelizing that tool.
We have new neighbors that moved in earlier this month, and they are super sweet. On top of that, the neighbors on the other side are having a baby tomorrow. I'm totally going to get to love on a baby without the work :-)

How odd

2011-02-17T16:34:00.003-05:00

This is a strange feeling . . . we have family coming in tomorrow and I do not need to run around today like a chicken with my head cut off cleaning. Very weird. As previously mentioned, I am the WORST HOUSEKEEPER ever. I hate cleaning. I'd rather play with my kids. I'd rather run. I'd rather do almost ANYTHING than clean a bathroom. Its very bizarre to have less junk to worry about. After a month of using this Motivated Moms planner I've mentioned in several posts, the big clutter messes in my house are greatly reduced. Every now and then I find a project that needs tackling, but over all, its amazing how little big stuff needs to be done anymore. Its just nice. Less stress is always a good thing!

Enough on that. Boys are at the boat show today. So of course, there will be no pictures to share. Still can't believe Brad failed to take pictures of the monster trucks. Oh, wait, I take that back-Brad has sent me ONE picture from his phone from the boat show. Of the $919,000 boat he claims Garrett would like to bring home. Really not sure who the bigger dreamer is out of the two of them. No matter, I love them both anyway :-)

Valentines Day Fun

2011-02-15T00:38:00.007-05:00

It may be a more or less pointless holiday, but we sure had fun with it this year.

Silly Garrett landed yogurt on his shirt, which had to be cleaned off, thus the huge wet spot. Of course. Because I don't have that many pictures of them together. Going to have to get better about that. Grandma Compton sent the bears, which they LOVE because they make this cute little kissing noise.

We made a LOT of sweet treats in the past week. Cookies, Molded Wilton Chocolates, and cake balls for Garrett's school. Kids had loads of fun.

With the Wilton molds, I got a kit for $4.99 on clearance. At first I tried to actually do them as pictured (painting the details into the mold) but apparently I'm not that talented, so I let Garrett go to town and do them himself. He had fun, and they turned out looking cooler than the ones I did myself.

Cake Balls and goody bags for Garrett's school

The goody bags were fun to do--I tore out pages from our old coloring books and managed to both declutter a bit AND re-up some things that would otherwise have headed to the recycle bin.

We worked on our valentines for school all week. Garrett insisted on writing his name on about half of them before it got old (and he got tired of trying to fit his name on all of them-not enough space for his crazy handwriting). He also wrote half of his friends names too. He did insist on assembling EVERY SINGLE ONE all by himself though (tearing it, taping in the tattoo, folding and putting on the heart sticker.

I took a canvas, covered it in some cork board, Oklahoma State fabric, and ribbon to make Brad a fun little place to stick notes/pictures/etc at work. The kids made little cards for him that then got tacked to it. Garrett's was too cute for words-he wrote everything (Happy V-day and his name) all by himself, and made a picture of himself with daddy. He's getting SO BIG! Summer had to pose with the board, of course, because she's silly.

Brad wouldn't clue me in on our plans for Valentines day evening. Turns out he bought a fondue pot. So we spent 2 hours eating cheese fondue, a main course, and then dessert. YUM. Very good, but WAY too much food. He got super creative with the dessert though:

Garrett ended up with tons of candy (of course) from school, so we're reusing the Pumpkin Fairy idea from Halloween. Garrett selected 10 pieces to keep, and the rest went in a bag to give to the Valentines Fairy. In exchange, she is leaving him a book and an awesome Bumble Bee track I bought super cheap at Christmas time.

On top of the V-day prep this past weekend, we had a crazy busy weekend. Brad took Garrett to see Monster Jam along with a bunch of our neighbors. Garrett had a blast, but Brad got a parenting FAIL for not taking a single picture for me. I took one for the team and missed out to stay home with Summer and the neighbor's infant since her hubby was out of town. The best part was apparently not the actual monster trucks, however, but the remote control ones they saw during the "Party In the Pits". Silly boys!

Brad and I also went rock climbing this weekend for the first time in forever, as an "active" date day. The kids went and hung out with the Shumans while we went and climbed 30 foot walls for a few hours. Thanks to my mom for the awesome birthday present of rock climbing club for the semester! We followed it up with burgers from 5 Guys, so I get a healthy eating FAIL, but you know what, I don't even care. It was so yummy, and on the rare occasion we go there as a family, Summer and I split a burger. So I enjoyed having one all to myself :-)

More fun planned for this very short week. Brad is taking Thursday and Friday off. Thursday after school he and Garrett are going to the boat show. On Friday Garrett is off school and Brad's grandparents are coming for a short visit, which of course Garrett stoked about. Fun, fun, fun.

Who needs toys when you have boxes

2011-02-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

First produce day in February + 4 crazy kids = LOTS OF BOXES and lots of fun.

Shuman boys came to play after school the other day (we had soccer, but we skipped!). Great fun was had by all with the boxes. The were cars, trains, building blocks . . . you name it. It was so fun watching their imagination go crazy.
Summer is such a cheeseball these days.

"HAT!"

And our box clubhouse, which had survived since Christmas, went out with the bulk trash at the end of January. It was sad to see it go, but hopefully we'll make another one if/when Lowes ever decides to deliver the freezer we paid for.

Multicultural Day at Garrett's School (1.31.11)

2011-02-12T07:00:00.004-05:00

Garrett's school did a Multi-cultural day at the end of January. The kids had a ton of fun with it. Garrett's fabulous teacher let me help dig up materials and activities, which made me feel like I was contributing a little. It turned out great. Its fitting that Garrett's class did Australia. I have always been obsessed with that country since I was a little kid.
Garrett's is the 2nd one down, left hand side, under the word Australia
They got their cute little faces painted like aborigines . . .
and did aboriginal cave paintings . . .
and made boomerangs . . .
and made didgeridoos. It was pretty funny when Garrett came home and explained what they were to Brad--he didn't have a clue about what a didgeridoo was.

Yes, Garrett is the one with his pointing STRAIGHT in the air. He was also the loudest. By far. No surprise there.

And they said "Gooday, Mate" when their friends came to visit. They even made cute little passports that they got stamped.

Weekly lesson plan (fun to have to look back so we can remember what they were doing)

MLK day coloring (G's is 2nd row, 2nd from the right)

And last, but not least, Summer made herself right at home. She built a tower with the duplos and then said "Mommy, take a picture!" She's also saying CHEESE, of course. Clearly I take too many pictures.

Catching up . . .Zoo last Thursday

2011-02-11T00:37:00.006-05:00

I have NO IDEA where this week has gone. I haven't gotten that much work done. My house is clean, I THINK my kids have had fun, but I really can't remember details of this week without a considerable amount of effort. I've spent a lot of time cleaning . . . I am a HORRIBLE housekeeper. I'd rather play with my kids than clean. But as I mentioned a few posts back, I started this Motivated Moms thing that has helped me get my butt in gear in the cleaning department. So I GUESS that is where the week is gone. I know a lot of the week has passed with screaming, sitting on the ground tantrums on Summer's part. That certainly has contributed to my frazzled, exhausted state at this point.

Big weekend planned-making some sweet treats for Garrett's class on Monday for their Valentine's day party. Monster Jam for the boys (I am so very bummed not to be going). Hopefully a fun active date for Brad and I on Sunday morning. Since I'm terribly behind on posting pics, I am going to schedule some catch-up posts for the weekend . . .

These are from our trip to the zoo LAST Thursday. Thanks to Jennifer for taking the pictures, I forgot my camera. Its pretty fun to watch Summer's reaction to the animals now, she thinks they are all the coolest things ever. She looked at the huge python and said "Look, Mommy, Snake! I wanna hold it" The thing could EASILY have made a meal out of her, which made it pretty funny.
She likes doing dare-devilish things and demanding "LOOK! TAKE A PICTURE!" All of the bravery Garrett had at this age, and absolutely no sense of self-preservation. Oye.
Garrett with Abby and Gabby
And if THIS doesn't make me want to cry . . . I forget Garrett is only 4 sometimes, it feels like he is far bigger. We have some interesting conversations (example: One day this week we discussed, googled, and learned about the various things orcas eat. Completely random question on his part, and we both learned quite a bit).

Compare that to this one, from WAY back in Dec 2008.Feeding the giraffes was a hit, as always.

Garrett was obsessed with the baby one, for whatever reason.
HAPPY FRIDAY!

Super Sunday

2011-02-07T07:59:00.008-05:00

Super Bowl Sunday was awesome, but not because of the Super Bowl. In fact, I fell asleep after half time. It was awesome because we did something that is rare and wonderful-we spent the whole day as a family. The downside of our schedule arrangement with my work is that we very rarely get to have an ENTIRE day together. I usually work part or most of the weekends, and once Brad gets home in the evenings during the week the kids are headed to bed. Family time is rare and treasured.

The weather has been beautiful around here, so we headed to Key Biscayne to hit the beach. Rather than parking at the beach, we went to my office and parked there (I had to pick up some things anyway), then rode our bikes to Crandon Park. We've done this before, but both kids rode in the trailer. This time, Garrett rode his bike. Aside from one yucky place where you have to cross the main road, the bike trail between my office and Crandon park is peaceful and beautiful. Its also one of my favorite running routes, so I took pictures so you can see why its so easy to spend 2 hours on the pavement when I'm working weekends.

This is why I LOVE my truck and am so thankful we have it. How else would we pull this off?
As it turned out, we couldn't get in the water due to a large number of Man-O-War Jellies that had washed up onshore, but that didn't put a damper on our day. The kids played in the sand and at the playground and splashpad. Brad took a nice long nap while we played. We snacked, we hung out, and just had an all-around good time.

After all, you can play with boats in the sand too.
They even played nice.
Palm trees, sun and sand. In February. Days like this cancel out the rude people and crappy traffic.

Here's what the ride back to the car looked like. Again, this is one of my 2 running routes at work. You can see why it just isn't a chore to go.

Leaving Crandon park, entering Bear Cut Nature Preserve

Summer was totally out. She was so good!
Back to civilization-crossing the Bear Cut bridge. I was so proud of G, he had no problem riding up it. :-) Its not a big hill, but still . . .

Seriously, have I mentioned how much I love where I work? This is the view I can see with a 3 minute walk.A view of our campus from the bridge. And the boys pedaling merrily along.
Garrett ended up riding a total of 6 miles, with lots of playing in between. I'm so proud of him, and hope that we can schedule more fun rides like this in the future.

Race Report - Homestead Hearts and Soles 5K

2011-02-05T10:22:00.004-05:00

This year I promised myself some actual organized races to keep myself motivated. 2010 was marked by a TON of budget races, but no organized ones. Homestead holds its very own 5K every February, and this year Brad and I did it together. Two years ago, this was my first ever 5K. Its kind of fun to see how far I've come since then. Two years ago I finished in 36 minutes and was proud. This year I finished in 30:03 and was mildly annoyed with the time. I was really hoping for a personal best, and THAT was definitely not it. But oh well, exceedly fun all the same. And a huge improvement in my running from 2 years ago. Big thanks to our neighbor Julie for taking my kids at an early hour so Brad and I could enjoy doing this together.
Of course, when I say together, I use that term rather loosely. We started together. We left together. During the actual race, he smoked me. But after several years of running, I've accepted that he's just faster than me :-) Brad finished in 24 minutes. It drives me crazy how fast he is!! All in all, a fun and fabulous (if sweaty) way to spend some date time.

Next up on the race schedule is the Move It 2011 Budget 5K on 3/26!

Monday Mayhem - Bring on a new week

2011-01-31T07:00:00.003-05:00

This past week was insanity. I chalk it largely up to Brad having been gone for 4 days last week and then having 2 meetings in the first half of the week. Add in soccer practice and our produce day and it made for a very insane first half of the week.

Add in the following factors (AKA the bad stuff):
*Garrett hit a classmate at school on Wednesday. Grounded for the rest of the week. No TV, no friends, no fun to be had at all. As most moms tend to do, I took it personally that he would make such a bad choice. Sigh.
*I saw a dog get hit by a car on Wednesday during my run (you really have to know how much of a dog person I am to get why this would be so upsetting to me) . . . we stopped to help, and hopefully the poor thing is recovering well. Of course, I couldn't bear to let my dogs out of my sight for a couple days . . . logically, the entire thing shouldn't have affected me as much as it did, but I'm in this weird stage where I am terrified of losing my dogs and that really didn't help.
*Brad has been sick
*The boy refuses to sleep in his own bed after midnight, which means I haven't slept well in days.

The good stuff:

*Downloaded a chore chart from Motivated Moms on Monica's suggestion, hoping that will help me with the whole balance thing. Because if there is one thing I am TERRIBLE at its cleaning my house.
*Coffee and a nice chat with Shelah on Friday, because darn it, it had been that kind of week for us both.
*We had to break out a lot of the 3+ Discovery Toys this week for Summer. Little girl is getting big, which is both sad and super exciting. Here she is doing the Busy Bugs.
*My boys made me a wicked cool butcher block cutting board. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT (and Brad made the bread too!)
*Girls Night Out at the Winery. There was a lot of dancing involved, which made me a happy camper!!
*I managed a 20 mile week, and with all of the insanity, I can say that in the fitness department it was a REALLY good week. 2 short, relatively fast runs, yoga, a long bike ride, kickboxing, zumba, and two FABULOUS weekend runs on Key Biscayne.
*The weekend runs on KB get their own bullet point--14.5 miles in 2 days. A gorgeous sunset on Sunday to help me get all nice and centered for this week. Explored some of the trails in Crandon Park on Saturday, saw a spotted eagle ray jump out of the water, and just generally let go for a couple of hours. Absolutely beautiful weather. I honestly have NO CLUE how I remained sane before I became a runner. These two weekend runs have made me feel all nice and centered and ready to tackle whatever comes next.

I am so very glad to be starting a new week. I really hope it is better than the last one.

Zoo Fun

2011-01-21T18:19:00.005-05:00

We went to the zoo today and met up with friends Monica, Alora, and Corbin. Garrett and Corbin are good buddies, and we haven't seen each other since BEFORE our trip to St. John in September. Alora and Summer seem to be made of the same naughty-girl cloth, which made the excursion both refreshing (no, I am not the only one with a crazy little girl) and insane (where'd they go???)

This one pretty much sums up Summer's devil-may-care attitude. She is standing on top of an elephant. Insanity.

We went to the Members Only showing of the new "Scoop on Poop" exhibit. I found it to be crass. Picture videos of various animals pooping. Yeah. Really. And then there was this, which Garrett found hilarious:
But the outside part, which I assume was only for this one day, was pretty cool.

Identifying skulls (Garrett correctly guessed this one was a big cat).
There was a matching game involving containers of poop and pictures of animals. Although I did not watch this closely (chasing Summer down), Garrett must have done well because he got a little poster.

There was also a poop race--of course Garrett wanted to do that. You scooped poop and filled up your bucket. Garrett was the smallest AND slowest of course, but he took it very seriously and had a great time. Although at the end, he said "Pee-eww, I am never getting that close to poop again!" When I got home from my run this afternoon, we had a message that he won a $5 gift certificate to use at the zoo for his participation, which was nice.

Leaving the zoo resulted in a meltdown on Garrett's part, but at least he cried and threw a tantrum while walking back to the car. All in all, a decent day at the zoo. I was a little nervous about going, since Summer is such a handful and we haven't gone too many places since she was potty trained. I must say though, I am STRONGLY considering one of those little leash backpack things for her. I simply can't keep an eye on Garrett when she is around, because if I stop looking at her for one second, she will be off. AND she totally doesn't listen, which is not cool. Really, the word "brat" fits her well. Going to have to work on that.

Camera = found

2011-01-20T21:48:00.006-05:00

As suspected, it was in the soccer bag.

So, photo catch up.

First day of soccer:
(Thanks Carrie for the hand me downs, he wears them proudly to EVERY practice)
And Summer insisted on her own picture.
Warmups (crappy light!)

You can see how excited Summer is about it all--she really wishes she could play too :-)

And from today, making garbanzo bean and rapini pita pizzas-big hit.
Pardon the nakie girl. She's hard to keep clothed these days. 3 days on my own = tired of chasing her down and insisting she wear clothes.
Garrett got a black eye at school today. He says that one friend tripped over another and ran into him, he fell into another friend and hit his face. You can't see it very well, but he has quite a shiner. (And what a goofy face).
And last, but not least, Summer "swimming" in the bath tub. She loves the water.

No idea where the camera is

2011-01-18T19:50:00.002-05:00

I haven't seen my camera since last Monday (The little one. Thankfully the SLR is tucked safely away upstairs, I just never think to grab it lately). It is PROBABLY still in the soccer bag I took to our first day of soccer, but I haven't actually gotten around to looking for it. Things have been insane, but fun around here. Rundown of the highlights:

-Garrett LOVES soccer. Its his favorite thing.
-Summer also loves soccer, and is endlessly annoyed that she can't play. She has fun kicking the ball and screwing up the boys' practice though.
-We've been hanging with the neighbor kids A TON. Garrett just can't get enough of them, and neither can Summer. We've had lots of play dates lately.
-I've run 35 miles since the 1st, and finally splurged and got professionally fitted for shoes. I also nailed down my race schedule for this year:
2/5 - Hearts and Soles 5K
3/26 - MOVE IT 2011 Budget 5K-who's gonna join me?
5/1 - Budget Half Marathon
5/15 - Tri Miami Sprint Triathlon
9/18 - Key Biscayne Triathlon Trilogy International
11/20 - Muddy Buddy South Florida.
12/18 - Yippee, I'm 30 Budget Race (10K?)
I should be able to do the Tris for free if I volunteer at other events. Brad is going to do the Muddy Buddy with me, although I don't know if we will be team-mates or if I'll team up with my friend Queenie and let her hubs and Brad eat our dust. LOL!
At any rate, Brad's been running more too. He's done 2 4 milers this week, which for him is a lot. He usually says if he wants to go more than 3, he'll take his car.

-Brad is traveling for work AGAIN. We miss him. 'Nough said.
-Garrett was off Monday and is off again on Friday. It rained ALL DAY on Monday.
-My boss is out of the country until the end of February. Last week was a scramble to get things done. I'm looking forward to less chaos over the next 6 weeks, but still have a ton of stuff on my to-do list.
-Summer = insane. She's just a mess. Jumping on the bed, throwing herself on the ground when she doesn't get her way. I hate the 2s. Good thing she is so darn cute, or else I would have duct taped her to the walls long ago.
-Garrett's teacher asked me to help find some stuff for their study of the continents. It was nice to contribute to his class, and his teacher is my FAVORITE person these days. She's just fabulous :-)
-We're applying for Kindergarten. I can't believe it. And Garrett CAN NOT WAIT!
-We started grinding whole grains to add to all of our baked goods. Everyone loves it, and I think health-wise it has so much to offer.
-NBC 6 was here last weekend to film a piece on Annie's Buying Club. It aired yesterday!
-Garrett is really starting to focus on sight words at school. Insanity. He's getting big. He really enjoys all of it. We've had some very good days lately, which is so nice!

That about sums it up. Sorry for the lack of pictures, we'll try to do better this week!

Monday Mayhem

2011-01-10T15:33:00.004-05:00

Surprise, surprise. Things have been crazy around here. THERE'S something new and exciting. Work, a dead battery in my car, Lowe's craft, and general stuff that needed to be done around the house are included in the less exciting stuff we had to do this weekend.

Garrett's good friend Aiden, who we haven't seen in a while, had a birthday party this weekend. Garrett was stoked to get to spend some time with him.

On Sunday we went to the Beaux Arts Festival at UM. The kids did great, and we all had a good time.

Picnic snack

They had a fun little craft area where the kids could do projects.Garrett worked VERY hard on his mask.

Despite being on-the-go all weekend, Summer managed to not have an accident. She remedied that today, but she's doing so great!

Garrett had a busy day today-he went to school with the Shuman kids, then went to My Gym with his little friend Alex. He had blast, of course. I got a ton a ton of work done--my boss is leaving on Friday for 6 weeks so we're busy.

Garrett starts soccer tonight-he is SO very excited. In fact, he is putting on his gear as I write this post and getting a little upset that I'm not helping him put on his shoes.

Random fun from the past week

2011-01-04T10:49:00.006-05:00

So far the first week back to normalcy is going well . . . Garrett is happy to have his friends back and be back to school. I'm managing to make the most of my mornings and finish up what's left of my backlog for work.

Here's some pictures of the fun we've already had in 2011.

Trip to Biscayne National Park
All that Garrett wants to do when we go there now is climb one of the trees.

Experiment-Air has weight

Coloring our calendars for January

Fun with Bear (he needed to go potty!) Summer is so cute with him, she holds his hand and feeds him, asks to brush his teeth, etc.
Now, back to it!

Experiment - Air Takes Up Space!

2011-01-01T17:00:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of Christmas break, we picked up several science books from the library with loads of experiments. We did one at the beginning of break with an egg and vinegar that proved enlightening for ALL of us. Here is a quick photo account of our experiment earlier this week to demonstrate that air takes up space, even though you can not see it.

Garrett copied the date and title of our experiment in his book and drew pictures of his observations.
Cork floats.
Put cup over cork

Air in the cup displaces the water. Cork is not under water, but is at the bottom of the container. Science is cool :-)
And, just in case you were wondering, Summer ate berries and supervised while we did this

Goals for 2011

2011-01-01T00:10:00.002-05:00

Personal goals for 2011:

-Blog more . . . since I don't keep a journal or scrap book, this is IT.
-Make a book of blog posts in case blogger ever decides to die, for the same reasons listed above
-Run 600 miles and do a total of 1000 miles total in multisport (bike/swim/run)
-200 hours of fitness
-Do at least 1 triathlon, 1 actual 5K, a budget 5K, a budget 10K and a budget 13.1 at some point throughout the year. I have seven events on my wish list right now (5 are tris), but we'll see how that goes.
-Read/Listen to 20 books . . . I really am loving getting back into reading again
-Go on a mommy-cation to see Allison, or have her come see me
-Take Garrett to Disney for his birthday
-Read my bible more. Planning on doing the Bible In 90 Days program, just not ready to add that in to my New Year until we get into the swing of things.
-Give myself 30 minutes of still, peaceful quiet once a week. As much as I love working out, that can not continue to be my only me time if I wish to stay sane.
-Unplug a bit more. I've spent entirely TOO much time on Facebook this year. Going to try to limit my internet time to quick email/FB checks in the AM and at lunch.
-Moonlight ride on Shark River Valley with hubs
-Daytime Shark River Valley ride with Garrett
-Take my kids camping
-See my Grandma if she makes it stateside this year.

So very grateful for for my family and fabulous friends. Hello 2011!!!

2010 Year In Review

2010-12-31T10:50:00.005-05:00

2010 has been a crazy, exciting, amazing year . . .

January
Garrett, Summer and I went to the circus
My mom and Grandpa came to visit.

February
Garrett started T-ball and ran a kids race

March
I got my Nike + and new tennis shoes. I got REALLY got serious about running and started logging my miles. More on this in a sec!

We spent a day at the race track for Koni/Grand Am practice laps.

April
Garrett learned to ride his bike without training wheels
Garrett played his first T-ball game
The kids and I picked strawberries at the strawberry farm
We had a bit of a life lesson when some of our friends moved away

May
I ran a "budget" half marathon
Garrett turned 4
Summer, Garrett and I flew to Colorado to see my little brother graduate from high school
We drove to Ohio with 2 kids and 2 dogs for a family reunion

June
We drove BACK from Ohio with 2 kids and 2 dogs
Garrett had his end-of-season T-ball party
Summer got introduced to boating, something she's STILL getting used to

July
I read and fell in love with the Twilight series, which also really renewed my love for a good book
Garrett's obsession for listening to audiobooks in the car was in full swing
We went to the Childrens Museum to check out Dino Island

August
Garrett started preschool

September
Summer turned 2
Brad and I went ALONE to St. John for an entire blissful week. Still can't thank his folks enough for making that happen!
Brad and I actually got to go diving together for the first time in forever

October
My mom came for a visit
Halloween was so much fun for Garrett

November
Summer started potty training and life ground to a halt
Garrett participated in Ocean Kids at UM
Garrett started writing his name
Brad and I ran a budget 5K with friends
We spent Thanksgiving with our "Florida Family"

December
We spent most of the month working on our Christmas gifts
Brad was away twice for work
Garrett and I watched a full lunar eclipse on the summer solstice
We started a journal for all of our science experiements
Best Christmas Ever!
We celebrated our 8th anniversary
Brad turned 32 and I turned 29

My thoughts for the year:

2010 will always be the year I became a runner. I started running after Summer was born in 2008, but I truely fell in love with it in 2010. I put up 475 miles RUNNING this year since the end of March, when I started counting. It has helped me grow in ways I never imagined (and shrink in so many other ways!)

My son loves school and has learned so much. He's already looking forward to kindergarten. He can not only write his name but will copy anything you give him. He has a love for science and music . . . and pretty much everything. I can not wait to watch these things grow in him in the year to come.

Summer isn't a baby anymore. She started 2010 as as a little person who could walk, but didn't have much to say. Now she's playing constantly with Garrett, talking about anything and everything, and is fully potty trained during the day. She loves to bake, is always asking "What's that?" and is totally a Daddy's girl.

We have lived well this year . . . we have eaten organics for the entire year thanks to ABC. We have financially improved ourselves by not using our credit cards and paying off our debts. We have worked hard and played hard.

On 8 years of marraige:
This was a tough year for us in the marraige department. We butted heads a lot and didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. I know that my work load this year has been a lot heavier than in the past, and that factored in largely by placing me under more stress. The best things in life are never easy, so we work through our issues and keep going. And even though we've had our fair share of disagreements this year, we're still very much in love. What more can you ask for after 8 years?

I absolutely can not wait for what 2011 has to offer. I can not wait to turn 30 and get on with what are sure to be the funnest years of my life. My 20s have been about the things that define me--becoming a wife, mother, runner. My 30s are going to be about enjoying all of those things to the extreme.

Goodbye 2010, its been a great ride. I'm ready to welcome 2011! And I'll be starting it off at a run!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T15:16:00.011-05:00

This post is obviously going to be a little picture heavy.

First up - Christmas prep:
Basket for Garrett's teacher on the last day of school
Summer crushing candy canes to make peppermint cake ball pops:

Summer enjoying cake balls:

Finished product, which went to some of our friends :-)

Two days before Christmas, we FINALLY got a Wii (Thanks Grandma Becky!). Brad and I tested it out that night, and Garrett got to give it a try on Christmas Eve. Mario Kart = big hit!
Ginger bread house construction. I wasn't very good at this, and half of the roof fell off. Next time I think I'll use super glue!
But the kids sure had a fabulous time decorating:
Garrett selected goodies for Santa and dictated a letter, then signed his own name.

No wonder Santa is so fat!
After the kids were in bed, Santa's elves delivered the other big goodie:

We put the empty box in the living room and the actual car in the garage. I have a very cute video to upload of Garrett discovering what Santa had left, but I need to find MORE time to upload that.

Christmas morning
Garrett was up way before Summer was. No surprise there.
Happy boy got most of thing things from his Christmas list.

Summer got up and opened her goodies at her own pace. She is in love with the bear she got from my dad (wearing the hat from the Davis clan)

Kisses for "Bear"
Slowly unwrapping her gifts :-)

Giving Potato Head Jr. hugs (Thanks Aunt Stephie!)
Not sure I have taken a picture of the tree in all its glory!
Tea set = HUGE HIT! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa C!
How come my hubby looks handsome on Christmas morning and I look like THIS? Am I just a better photographer, or what? :-)

And then we spent lots of time outside enjoying the car :-)

For dinner, we had my friend Glori and her family over. The men hit it off, the kids had a blast, and the only picture I took was of the dessert tray.
Just a few more, almost done!! Lego fun and dressup.

And that, folks is Christmas 2010 in pictures, and a few sparse words. Absolutely the best Christmas ever.

Swamped . . .

2010-12-29T23:08:00.002-05:00

I wish I could say I've had time to download all of the Christmas pictures and write an accurate account of just how absolutely fabulous our weekend was. But I just haven't found it yet. I've been struggling with a very sticky cold that won't leave me alone, work has been crazy and when we I am feeling human and not working my butt off, I pretty much have just hung out with the family. Which is, of course, what the holidays are meant for. There is sooo much that has happened this past week worth writing about -- Christmas, our 8th wedding anniversary, and the fun things the kids have been up to. Hopefully I'll find time to put these last precious moments of 2010 down before 2011 rolls its way in. In the mean time, here's this year's family picture. Its the closest we got to a Christmas picture this year--first time since Garrett was born that we skipped the Christmas cards all together, in an attempt to limit the chaos.

Catching up . . .

2010-12-17T14:33:00.006-05:00

I'm so far behind I hardly know where to begin.

Yesterday I had 4 kiddos for a while. Ava stayed for the day, and Baby Luke (the littlest Largent) stayed for only a while. You'd think the older three had never seen a baby before, they were ALL over baby Luke.

Brad's birthday was Wed. Garrett had a BLAST decorating his cake. It was chocolate truffle torte, with M&Ms as Garrett's personal touch. Most horrendously, fatteningly delicious think I've made in just about forever. Death by chocolate :-) Brad got home at 8pm from his business trip, at which point Garrett and I sang happy birthday and Garrett immediately went to bed.
Grandma Becky's 12 days of Christmas started. Give my kids wands, they turn them into swords.
Ah, the Christmas tree decorating

Huge undecorated tree in my living room :-)

Garrett was sooo excited.
The boys putting on the star.

Decorating outside:

Lowes craft #2:

Show me the Mommy - the new do

2010-12-17T09:47:00.003-05:00

Craptastic picture because its from the webcam, but I chopped my hair off. Brad doesn't like it, but whatever. I'm turning 29 tomorrow and decided it was time for a change. Now everyone says Summer and I REALLY look alike :-)
c

Christmas Card Photos - Take 1.

2010-12-13T18:31:00.003-05:00

I am horrendously behind. AGAIN. Since I last updated, we had Garrett's Christmas program at school, and got the LARGEST TREE available at Lowes for our house. Then proceeded to rearrange our furniture downstairs. Because apparently moving a 10 foot tree into the house wasn't enough of a challenge. I worked most of the weekend, got knocked on my butt by a migraine, went to an awesome birthday party for one of Garrett's besties, finished most of the crafting/wrapping/packing of boxes to go to various family members. And I sooo have not even taken our Christmas pictures yet. Every year, I get the kids and the dogs together for this ONE thing. This is the only time all of my babies are ever in a picture together. Last year it took two (or was it three?) tries to get a winning picture. It is just not that easy to get all four of them to look at the camera and behave. I suppose it would be easier if we just did the kids, but the dogs are such a big part of the family I just can't bear to leave them out.

I've seriously considered not sending cards this year. I usually have my cards printed and out right after Thanksgiving, but have been so far behind this year with all the chaos. Even if I get the pictures done in the next few days, I'm not sure its realistic to print and mail them before hand. I'm considering just sticking it here and on FB and if anyone wants it, I'll send them a file. We'll see though-it just depends how long it takes me to get a decent picture.

I did these this evening, because that's as soon as we got to it. Everyone was relatively cooperative, the lighting just wasn't good. So we'll probably try again in the morning. Enjoy the outtakes!

Oh, side note: I started writing for Our Wicked Ways . . . check out the sidebar for the link. Most of the motivational/fitness/healthy living stuff will be blogged about there. And starting in January, I'll also be writing for 500 miles in 2011 (Not to late to sign up for the challenge!!)

My son, the clown. Too bad Summer wasn't looking at the camera.
This is totally reminiscent of the lip lock G laid on Lolly several years ago during our trip to Orlando. And to think I was just asking for a peck on the cheek--usually I can't even get G to that!!

I love their smiles here. Oh, and can you get a sense of how ENORMOUS my tree is based on these pictures????

Monday Mayhem . . . On a Thursday.

2010-12-09T23:01:00.003-05:00

Yes, it has been that kind of week. I am not even sure why. Potty training is my new excuse for the chaos. It throws a wrench in the already insane schedule we have going on. We're home more, and yet swamped. Oh, and it has been C-O-L-D here. Cold enough for me to want to go into hybernation. This morning it was cold AND rainy, which REALLY made it hard for me to bring myself to get out of the door.

What we've been up to . .

We put up Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Garrett had SO much fun helping Daddy with this. He then spent the rest of his time measuring bricks/beating on them with his little tools. Garrett and Daddy also did a craft at Lowes on Saturday.

We've baked a LOT of goodies. I was so behind on baking that I had a fridge full of veggies, so we've made muffins galore. Garrett took a huge container to share at school, and of course the container came home empty :-)

We've had the neighbors over a lot to play. Garrett is all about his buddy Xander here lately. They've fished together, hung out together after school, etc. etc. etc. My kids went to their house on Monday so I could go in a little early to work. Summer has gotten her play time with Ava too. Its so funny that they both have their little best buds now. Garrett also got to have a picnic at the park with his little friend Alex (who he has told me he is going to marry). Her birthday is Saturday and if you were to ask Garrett, it is going to be THE social event of the season :-)

Work is insane for all. My boss is on a cruise again which means I have to hold down the fort. Brad is traveling for business again next week. This has been a bit annoying for me, since I really wanted to go on our cruise for work this month and also because Brad is going to be gone over his birthday. Garrett has been talking for a MONTH about the cake he wants to make for his daddy, so I'm not sure when we're going to be doing that.

We went to Homestead's first Farmer's Market on Monday. It was small but fabulous. Garrett enjoyed picking out starfruit and tomatoes to devour. Kid loves his starfruit and tomatoes. You would think I would have told him he could buy all the candy in the candy store when I told him he could pick out his OWN tomatoes and fill a pint sized container.

Garrett has teased me a lot about his Christmas program for school, which is tomorrow. I can not WAIT, its going to be so cute!

We've shopped, we've wrapped, we've sewed, and my boxes are started for family. We've played Christmas music, and Garrett and Summer walk around the house singing Jingle Bells, which is pretty hilarious, especially when its Summer.

Eclipse came out on DVD, and of course I had to rent it and watch it once (okay, maybe a few times). Stupid addicting Twilight Saga. I was less annoyed with the parts they left out this time around, but I still was sitting there going over what they ACTUALLY said in the book during the whole movie. Clearly I've read the books way too many times. Or rather, listened to them at work. Whatever. So now I'm back to thinking the big-screen version of Breaking Dawn may not completely suck. I have 11 more months to change my mind on that.

I read an intriguing, yet incredibly disturbing book called "Wintergirls". Its a YA book about a teenager dealing with a self-destructive lifestyle. Like so many things I read (including Twilight), it was just something I pulled off our library's audiobook database. As I said, it was very disturbing and also sad, but a definite page turner. It was interesting to see the battle with food from such a very different perspective. I recommend this one for anyone looking for a good read.

And, last but not least, did I mention it has been cold?? Freezing cold, in my book. I am not sleeping well because its cold. Summer is not sleeping well either because SHE is cold, so I spend half of most nights in room rocking her huddled under blankets (where we both sleep better) while the boys enjoy the beds and the heated blankets. I HAVE been running in the cold. 14ish miles so far this week. But only because its the only thing keeping me sane. I've been exceptionally thankful for the heated seats in the Yukon. Otherwise I may not be able to convince myself to take Garrett to school in the mornings. Oh, and coffee. Coffee has REALLY been my friend this week. I realize I'm a baby and it gets so much colder elsewhere, but I'm just not meant for cold weather. Our house was in the low sixties today. Just not okay, lol. I'm over it.

Holy cow, now that I've written down what our week has been like, its no wonder I'm exhausted and grumpy and completely burnt out. On a daily basis, I have trouble remembering what I've accomplished in the previous days, so writing it all down (and jogging my memory) makes me realize HOW MUCH STUFF we've done this week.

I'll try to update in the AM with video and pictures. Just too tired to bother right now.

Frugal Friday . . . I can't say a single thing

2010-12-03T15:13:00.004-05:00

The holidays are such a HARD time to spend reasonably. I think we're doing nice gifts this year on a reasonable budget. I want the kids, and especially Garrett, to see what the spirit of the holidays are truly about--thoughtfulness, family, and giving. We're doing a lot of hand made (either by ourselves or others) gifts this year. And of course, I can't share a DARN THING on here about the fabulous deals or ideas we're using, because pretty much everyone we're doing stuff for reads this blog.

So here's your frugal Friday . . . Don't go crazy in your holiday shopping-just because something costs a lot doesn't mean its from the heart. In addition to gifts that Garrett had on his list, this year I'll be doing some things for him that he has asked for from time to time but I haven't had time to do--like sewing the patches on his Lowes Apron. I suspect that will go over just as well as buying him some expensive toy I will end up donating to Good Will in a year or two. And don't forget about Consignment shops. Buying second hand may have a horrible reputation, but we love doing it here for TWO reasons. Number one is I am cheap, and I hate spending money. Number two is that if something in perfectly good use isn't given away or sold to another person, where does it go? Yes, that's right, the landfill. Along with the box it came in. You get the idea.

Whoops! (Could also be titled random musings)

2010-12-02T23:24:00.005-05:00

I realized that in all the potty training chaos, I have completely skipped the obligatory "I can't believe its December, where has the year gone??!!" post. And really, I'm too tired to write one. Potty training, Compton style, is exhausting. There is nothing gradual about it when we decide to potty train. We just don't use diapers anymore during awake periods. In the past 2 days, we haven't even used diapers when we go out. Which means lots of planning, a bit of laundry, and nothing as indulgent as a ride in the jogging stroller so I can run right now. Which means I have to strong arm friends in to Summer-sitting so I can run. AND Brad has been out of town for the past 36 hours for work. I can count on one hand the number of times we've been apart in the eight (yes, it will be EIGHT!) years we've been married . . . and really, every time we do it I'm reminded how much I still love the man, even though he can drive me totally batty sometimes :-)

So, anyway-Potty training. Bought big girl undies today. Summer has the whole potty thing down, now we just need to work on it with clothes on. Summer also got her own marble jar this week-since she's acting so big, its time to start rewarding her for helping out. I think I may find her something smaller so she can get a few prizes to get the idea, but I think Garrett may take serious offense to this so I must think about that a little more before making a decision.

Garrett is obsessed with Super heros. He loves his Iron man and spider-man PJs. Its COLD here and none of his zip-up sweatshirts fit anymore, so I took him to Walmart (mostly to find tiny undies) and let him pick out a sweatshirt. He originally wanted Transformers, but as soon as he found Iron Man he was stoked. Picture of that will be forthcoming.
And, of course, there have been lots of fun creations this week.

I think this is a robot.

And this was a Bat-mobile. No idea where this whole super-hero obsession has come from. He's also obsessed with comics. Go figure.
Last, but not least, Summer trying to write while I was trying to work. This kid loves to write and color. Garrett never could stand to sit for it at this age.
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. Hoping for lots of fun, even though I do need to work too. I'm ready to go get the Christmas tree already!

Wellness Wednesday - Balance

2010-12-01T14:28:00.004-05:00

Balance.

What a loaded word. And I'm not talking about the ability to stand on a beam without falling off. I'm talking juggling all the crap in life. "Wellness" goes beyond the being physically fit. Part of being "well" is finding the balance in it. Daily balance for me, and probably every other mom on the planet, consists of work, keeping house, feeding my family, playing and educating my kids, being a wife, finding time to exercise, and still not losing sight of who I am beyond wife, mother, and all those other roles. Its a constant and never-ending struggle. Being a work-at-home mom just throws an extra kink in. When you go to the office, its relatively easy to set all the other stuff aside for your eight hours a day. When you work at home, its a little harder--the cleaning you need to do stares you in the face. And, in my case, the kids are pulling on your arm the entire time to do other things.

The holidays are an exceptionally hard time to find balance. Its so hard to do all the day to day things without throwing in shopping and all that fun jazz on top of it too. And in our house, daylight savings time is still wreaking havoc. Sometimes you have to re-prioritize. For example, this week I've taken 3 days in a row off running (unheard of for me) to both rest my body AND get other things in my life in order.

So, here's a few tips for balance. Take them at face value and keep in mind that for me, at least, it is a constant battle. I often feel that I hover on the edge of the loony bin, and sometimes I'm not good at ANY of the hats I wear. But as moms (and women), we just do our best. What more can anyone ask of us?

-Make a list.
Pick five or so things you MUST get done. Cross them off as you do them, and don't forget to give yourself at LEAST a little credit, if not a little reward, for doing the things on that list.

-Put yourself first
Its okay to do that. Just because you might have kids or a spouse doesn't mean you aren't permitted to be a tad selfish. I do this for my workouts--everyone knows I'm a basket case when I miss working out, so it keeps EVERYONE happy for me to get it done AND it keeps me out of that loony bin I mentioned earlier.

-Clear the clutter
Get rid of the junk in your life. It may be people, it may be toys your kids don't play with anymore, and it may be stuff you bought but never used. Whatever the case, if there's nothing positive about something (or someone), just let it go. Its pretty cathartic to clear out that clutter.

-Plan ahead
Whatever you have the hardest time with, plan ahead to make that ONE THING easier on yourself. I SUCK at meal planning and go through periods where I JUST. DON'T. WANT. TO. COOK. (Or, alternatively, am so busy with work I have NO TIME to cook). So whenever I can, I stock my freezer with dinners so that on those days, I don't have to do something I really don't want to do. I just reach in to my freezer and warm up some homemade goodness. My budget thanks me for this as well.

-In the end, it really isn't that important
Chances are, whatever happened that is throwing your life into chaos, the world WILL NOT END because of it. It might create an inconvenience for someone, somewhere. I have a hard time letting things go, and part of my challenge in finding the balance is just to take a deep breath when things happen, say OKAY, and move on. I find that this is the best thing about being a parent . . . At the end of the day, whatever may or may not have happened, my kids are still smiling. And they still think I'm the coolest mom around. So, the rest is just background noise.

Happy Wednesday!

Wait, when did this happen?

2010-11-30T22:00:00.003-05:00

In the past few days, I have gone from having a toddler to having a big girl. We knew that we'd put a few things off for a while that we wouldn't be able to put off much longer, but STILL! Summer decided this morning that she's got this whole potty thing under control. She used the potty pretty much all day long. If that wasn't enough, she put on her own pants. She tried to take her diaper off at nap because she had to go to the bathroom. She is a complete motor mouth and is just acting BIG!

Translation, we're full blown potty training. If it isn't absolutely required, we won't be going anywhere in the next week or so. We also took down Summer's crib rail and she is spending her first night in a toddler bed. Its like the switch was flipped-she's big now. No more baby. She's starting to show interest in all the 3 & Up Discovery Toys stuff I have laying around. Its just unfathomable to me. I knew it was coming, but it doesn't mean I was ready for it.

I'm an emotional wreck today--Brad is leaving for Maryland tomorrow until the end of Thursday (which was finalized at noon today). My boss is leaving on a cruise on Saturday (that I kind of wanted to go on too, but that's a whole other issue), which means work is hectic. And then there is this whole "holy cow my baby is growing up!" thing with BOTH kids (Garrett copied "Santa's Elf Shop" on to a project for Grandma Sherry. My kid can WRITE, when did that happen??) Add in the holidays, typical monthly hormones, and my tendancy to over-react to finances, no workout since SATURDAY and YUP, basket case. But we'll be taking it all in stride.

And here is a sampling of the things I've heard today:
Summer, to Garrett, Xander, and Logan as we were getting ready to head out to school:
"Come on boys" (while clapping her hands to hurry them along).

Me to Summer, who lost her pants somewhere: "Where are your pants?"
Summer: "I dunno!"

Garrett to Xander: "You've eaten at Red Lobster?? Mom, even XANDER has eaten at Red Lobster. We just HAVE to go there soon." (For some reason he's obsessed with eating at Red Lobster. No clue why, we hardly ever go out to eat)

Summer (in the car on the way to school--Xander is in the 3rd row with G and Logan is sitting next to her) . . . "Hiiiiii Xan-er!!!" (Waving frantically at Xander in the back row)
Logan: "Why is hers calling me Xan-er? I'm Logan!"
Summer: "Hiiiii Xan-er!" (Summer is OBSESSED WITH XANDER)

And after dropping them all off:
Summer: "I call Xan-er" (Dials on phone) "Hiiii Xan-er!" (Did I mention she was obsessed?)

Chaos, as always, reigns supreme around here!

Monday Mayhem - Thanksgiving Addition

2010-11-29T09:49:00.004-05:00

This weekend was EPIC. We had such a great time, and are so very thankful that we have such a great network of friends (our Florida Family!) to make Thanksgiving Weekend so very fun!

Our fun weekend started bright and early Thursday with a Budget 5K race hosted by Shelah. It was tons of fun. Budget races with friends are my new favorite thing. Brad smoked me as always. I was terribly sluggish and finished in 34 minutes, definitely not my best time for a 5K. Such a great way to start Turkey-Day!

Then Jess brought over my kids and her kids, and we had a kids race. Check out Garrett's game face. That kid is so flipping competitive it isn't even funny.Summer decided half way through she was done. She sat down and started crying. As soon as we made it to the finish, we discovered the problem. . .
"I wanna BUFFIN!!" (muffin)-the entire thing is crammed in her mouth in this one.

I made cute (or cheesy, depending on your sense of humor) turkey medals for the kids out of a cereal box. My ever-competitive son made me write #1 on his when we got home, because (and I'm quoting here): "I ran really fast and crossed the finish line first because my sketchers make me go FAST!!" He gets it from Daddy, what can I say.
Dinner at the Shumans.And Summer greatly enjoyed her blueberry pie afterward.
We had a BBQ at Biscayne National Park on Saturday. As soon as Garrett found out we were going, he said "I hope we can find some good trees to climb". Which, of course, he did.
Shocker-Summer, eating. Garnet and Miss Jess were both elevated WAY up on Summer's list of favorite people this weekend!

Best buds with their sticks. Silly boys! They've been OBSESSED with each other lately and always asking to play. Even Summer is obsessed now, everything is "Xan-er" this and "Xan-er" that.On top of those fun gatherings, we did the usual Thanksgiving weekend stuff too . . .

We watched Football (poor Aspen was pooped!). I wish I could post the picture of Summer imitating the refs signals, but since we are potty training, she was completely nakie at the time. It was super cute though! (And yes, the potty training is going well. I think if we would just STAY HOME for several days it would be a done deal, but its next to impossible).
I took some pictures of the Shumans (their first family photos since Xander was born!).
. . . and they took some of us. Summer was NOT cooperative, so it took 2 tries. Little stinker. She really can't be convinced to do anything she doesn't want to. This is the only peak you are getting though, until after Christmas!
And we got the Christmas stuff down from the attic. We decorated the banister, but the tree will wait a few more weeks since we're going to get a live one again this year. Garrett made his Christmas list:

In case you can't read Brad's chicken scratch, the opening line is "Happy Christmas to you Santa" :-) He also wanted us to add "Battle-gaun" after I took this (that would be Bakugans, which of course I had to look up how to spell!). I'm still so proud that he is writing his name.

And last, but not least, a video of Garrett singing his Harvest song from school. He rushed through it, probably because I've made him sing it about 1,000 times in the past few weeks. But at least the memory is preserved.

So, so very much to be thankful for this year. And we won't be forgetting, just because Thanksgiving is over.

Garrett's Thanksgiving Potluck at School

2010-11-23T10:14:00.005-05:00

Monday was Garrett's Thanksgiving Potluck at school. I volunteered for the day in the classroom. I love his teacher, she's fabulously wonderful. The other teacher in the class is leaving so I figured an extra set of hands would be very helpful indeed. The kids were SO FLIPPING CUTE, it wasn't even funny.

Classroom decorations

I set the tables while the kids were outside. Summer helped, of course. She was supposed to go to the 2 year old room but adamantly refused. She loves Garrett's school, she just doesn't like to be where he isn't.
Garrett and Xander in their Indian garb with another friend, Alejandro.
Soooo cute. G is the one scarfing the juice, of course.

Summer was so fried by the time noon rolled around. Daylight savings time is still giving us a hard time.
At dinner last night, during our usual prayer that Garrett leads, he tacked on a "and we are thankful for Mommy, Daddy, Summer and the rest of our family." Sigh, so sweet! He's just getting too big too fast.

Monday Mayhem

2010-11-22T13:59:00.004-05:00

Maybe I'll call our week-in-review Monday Mayhem. Because that pretty much sums up things around here. After another very busy week, we had a fabulous weekend. Garrett and I did a project at Lowes on Saturday. He some of his money to buy a pirate ship model there, which he and Daddy made when they got home. We went to the VERY cold pool so that he could test out the snorkel gear he got from the ocean kids event last weekend. We went down to the track, since it was championship weekend, even though we did not actually go to the race. And we had to go buy the boy a new pair of shoes because for some reason the little stinker won't stop growing! :-) Random pictures from this week:

We'd be lost without our produce!
Playdough provides endless sources of entertainment.
Kid loves doing his homework. Which is AWESOME.

Guess who can write his name, and is insulted now if you try to help him?After spending his money on the pirate ship, he wanted to see what he had left. This was his creation:

Monday was our thankgiving potluck at school. The kids made Indian vests and headbands. This will get its own post (pics are on FB already), but here's a preview.

Blue Puppy

2010-11-18T10:44:00.004-05:00

Blue Puppy is Garrett's bestest friend in the whole wide world. He's had this thing since he was an infant. It has gone almost everywhere (except in to school, more on that in a minute) and done almost everything with Garrett.

Blue Puppy has been lost for several weeks. Garrett had stopped asking for him, and I thought for sure he was practically forgotten, but when Garrett was making his "I am thankful for" craft, he included Blue Puppy. It made me want to cry.

Blue Puppy has been found! On top of (and behind) the kids' play kitchen. For those of you who haven't been at my house, the kitchen is next to our open staircase. For some reason, I am pretty sure GARRETT did not drop blue puppy back there. I suspect he was placed there by a much smaller and much more rotten little girl.

I can't wait to give him to Garrett when I go pick him up from school, he'll be stoked. SCHOOL, by the way, is the one place Blue Puppy has not been, much to my surprise. Garrett told Brad and I that he was worried all the kids would laugh at him "because I chewed Blue Puppy's nose off." I don't know, but if he doesn't want to share that part of himself with his classmates, that's fine. His relationship with blue puppy seems to be the last vestige of the little boy that he was.

A few pictures from the archives of the adventures of Blue Puppy. And also THIS POST for a trip down memory lane. Its amazing how much he has grown up. The other day he was talking all about how exciting Kindergarten is going to be. And I quote. "Its all because of the Miss Bindergarten books. Do you think when I get to Kindergarten, a dog will be my teacher?" (Miss Bidergarten is, of course, a dog!)

Wordless Wednesday - When I said "Not a good idea, Summer . . . "

2010-11-17T12:14:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving Poster

2010-11-16T15:07:00.002-05:00

Garrett gave his Thanksgiving presentation today. He had so much fun on the poster.

And an outtake from family photos on Sunday. Check out silly Summer! Poor baby, her teeth are bothering her.Happy Tuesday!