The Robinson Family

:: new look ::

2012-02-19T22:04:00.001-08:00

Got a new look on my blog :) I like it! I was looking for St. Patrick's theme but didn't work. So the scoop in my life is Canada is done. Larry's job in PDX is done and is not sending him up there anymore and he does'nt like the job here and he has found a new job in Nevada! So will see what this brings! Super excited and no we are not moving yet but we are moving forward to keeping us all together and keeping us from unemployment which is nice. I see another debt being paid off in a few months too! Yeah! Super excited and we will get a new car too! Double super yeah! I just have to be patient and keep budgeting and doing what I do to pay off debt. But the future is up in the air with Larry's new job but I am very happy that he will be in the USA. I loved Canada don't get me wrong I would go back for a vacation anytime but to know Larry is in the states makes it all better. So here is to a new look on my blog and to Larry's new outlook in his job :)

:: the first loss ::

2012-02-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

Buddy and I went to see the Portland Winterhawks play last Saturday. I used a groupon and I have another one for later this month and we are going to try to take Grace to a game for the first time! Will see how it goes. If Larry is not home I am just going to not take her but if he is we are going to go for the first time the 4 of us! But back to the game this was the first time I went that I wasn't 100% feeling well and there was a Blazer game so the parking garages were full and I had to pay for street parking and we were late for the game we made it when they were singing the anthems. Then at the end of the game had a parking ticket because when I was trying to park in the hardest spot ever and everyone around me was yelling at each other I forgot to put my parking pass in the dash. Ugh. It was a good game but this was the first time they lost during a game we watched. In the last 40 seconds of a tie game the other team scored and Buddy was so bummed he cried and was so upset. It was a good learning experience for him but let me tell you as a parent it was embarrassing and with not feeling good on top of it I wasn't very sympathetic for him. But after awhile he was better. I took pictures of the game because Hunter wants a hockey birthday party and I was going to make cute postcards invitations from the pictures I took at this game but it didn't work out I should have taken my big ole camera but didn't want to carry it all around. In the end I just used Snapfish to make his invites and I still can't believe he will be 5 in less then a month. Time sure does fly. Grace had cute homemade birthday invite cards but for some reason it is easier to make them for her then Hunter; it must be because of all the pink. And my lovely Grace just amazes me with her vocabulary and her brain I think she will be smarter then her smart brother. She loves to do his Preschool books and I can't get her to slow down for anything when it comes to learning, memorizing, and soaking it all in.

:: lazy Sunday ::

2012-02-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

I have had a cold since Friday and it isn't going away. So for today I am making it a lazy Sunday. It is so beautiful and sunny outside but I haven't ventured out in it. Maybe after nap but my head is so full of sickness that the cold will make it go more. I will just enjoy my lazy Sunday indoors with the kiddos watching movies, reading books, cleaning, and folding laundry when I have the strength and want to. Going to make mac and cheese with little smokies for me and my kiddos and watch the Superbowl game tonight just us should be fun! Hope you are having a lazy Sunday too!

:: last year ::

2012-02-03T21:38:00.000-08:00

These are my kiddos last March! They have grown so much in one year! I didn't take many pictures last February so I jumped to the next folder which was March. I need to take a picture of my kiddos with my camera not my phone and show you what they look like now. Grace doesn't have bangs I am growing them out but they are at the stage where they get in her eyes and she is constantly moving them out of her face. Her hair is just a little longer in this picture but not much. She also is alot taller now! Buddy, he looks the same just much, much taller and has a scar on his right cheek. Amazing what one year can do!

:: the last one::

2012-02-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

I am so behind in blog world, house work, budget planning, and projects around the house. I am not sure why either. I have so much going on and not enough hours in the day. Larry was home for a week and is on possibly THE LAST ONE! Which means this might be his last month going to Canada and being gone. It is a great thing! It is a sad thing! I am so glad the kids and I get some Larry time but his job will be up in the air if he even has one when he comes back. Such a bummer let me tell you. The reason this might be the last time he goes up to Canada is because another company got the job for the job he has been doing for the last 3 years up there. But hopefully everything works out and Larry will find the job of his dreams if the company he works for lays him off it is all up in the air. Stressful let me tell you. So maybe that is why life has been crazy lately and I am not getting anything done. But I did get the kids closet redone thanks to Larry he put in new shelves and I finished gutting out their room and giving alot to Goodwill. I just have to work on our laundry room that has more of their toys and put my craft stuff in the cupboards that I had their toys in. Larry also got me a new desk that looks great in the kitchen where the old desk was at. Alot more room and doesn't take up alot of space. I took a picture of it with my camera but I am too lazy right now to upload it to my blog. Maybe tomorrow. I put 3 pieces of furniture that we replaced with new on my driveway today with free signs and they got taken. Love that! My pantry got more shelving because I put the kids bin organizer in there and can be more organized with stock piling my food. Still haven't finished Grace's book but hopefully this month. I am working on ideas for Hunter' birthday next month super excited for that! Dude is doing great in his skating lessons and I have to think of something for Grace to do that works around my crazy world because right now just keeping up with Hunter's Preschool and skating is keeping me hopping. Grace wants to do swimming but I have to wait for Larry on that since one of us has to go in the pool. SO there you go...this might be the last month of doing it on my own with the kiddos but it is all up in the air will see what March brings. :)

:: my fav's::

2012-01-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

Here again are my fav's for JanUarY :)

1. http://www.pioneerwoman.com/ seriously love her blog, love her cookbook (and I have her new one on Amazon to send to me when it comes out!), and I love her show on the Food Network. I have it recorded on my DVR! Last season it started at 10:00am now it starts at 6am, thank goodness for DVR!

2. Etsy and Pinterest. Love both of these! I have ordered jewelry on Etsy and it hasn't come yet but I hope it comes soon! I am trying to wear more inexpensive jewerly more now. I am growing my hair out long like Taylor Swift so I am trying to wear bigger, longer earrings :)

3. Trying to recycle more so my new website I like to look at and get inspired by is http://www.zerowastehome.blogspot.com/ I am so not to this ladies level of recycling and being better for the environment but she gives me good advise.

4. Fry boots. So love, love, love these boots but seriously cannot afford them! But my good friend, Jo, found me a used pair of Fry boots for $16.99 at a second hand store and I love, love, love them! These are boots that cost anywhere from $250-500 and I got them for $16.99! I will post a picture of them soon! She got them at Katelyn's Closet in Multnomah Village! Love, love that second hand store you gotta check it out!

So there you go! My fav's so far. :) I am still trying to go Organic and Perabin free and make my envionment good for my family. I just started a good earth once a month program that sends me a package every month with healthy good environment packages so will see how that goes and if I love it I will let you know all about it! Hugs for now and enjoy your weekend everyone! And if you want to me to know your fav's just let me know :)

Update...did I finish Grace's book of firsts? Nope, but I am really close! As soon as I am done I will post pictures! As soon as I get my earrings from Etsy I will post them too! Super, uber excited! Also, I asked Buddy what he wants to do for his birthday pary in March and I am so getting ready for that! So many projects on my plate and Larry is home for a little bit so I am going to enjoy my family life and then get back to my projects :)

:: preschool ::

2012-01-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of Hunter and his Preschool class. They are so cute! They sang two Christmas songs at a nursing home this last December. I am posting this picture because next year it will be Grace's turn to go to this Preschool which is very exciting! The stressful thing for me right now is trying to figure out what Kindergarden to put Buddy into. I really want him to go the schools in Canby that I grew up next to but it isn't looking that way. So I gotta figure out where he should go. Super stressful and super crazy and I hope I make the right decision for my buddy who is growing up too fast!

:: updated my blog ::

2012-01-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

Finally updated my blog's pictures and look! Was on my list of things to do! Still haven't finished Grace book of first's but hope to do it today or tomorrow. It snowed today and of course I took pictures with my phone so I hope to post them soon! My kids were so excited it snowed it was just a bummer that it snowed just a little bit. I might have to take them to the moutain tomorrow where it will make there day. Will see :) Hope you like my update look on my blog ;)

::Grace's 3 year old stats and my skinny beans::

2012-01-10T20:31:00.001-08:00

Grace had her 3 Year old check up today and this is her stats!
Weight: 29
Height: 37
DeOna said that she is a little thin but tall. And to feed her more. Not sure how that is going to happen when this girl wants a snack every half an hour to and hour, but ok. But she wasn't concerned. She said Hunter, who she also so today, was thin and tall too. She said to try to feed them more but not to stress. Thank goodness for that! They are picky eaters and hard to feed but I have been cracking down on feeding them more variety of different foods that they have to eat so that might be more issue with their thiness but I am not going to stop trying new foods. Here is a picture of my skinny beans taking last month. They are two peas in a pod with their skinniness and bruises. I also realized that if I take them both to an appt if Hunter goes first Grace will do everything Hunter does. Good to know and next time they are going seperate! DeOna checked Hunter's knee reflexes and he wouldn't raise his left foot when she tapped on his knee and guess what Grace had the same issue! I told DeOna that someone she copies and does what her brother does and it is crazy. She just smiled and understood so love that! I still can't believe my baby is 3 and I just let her answer all of DeOna's questions today and she answered her back along with Hunter. I felt like that odd person in the room since I wasn't doing all the talking but I am proud of my kids that they can listen to adults and answer their questions and if they can't they look at me for help but they are all about trying first and they can voice their issues. So crazy but I am so proud of both of them that they are not afraid of their doctor and they do what she says. I see so many kids letting their parents do everything and they don't get to talk and so I let mine talk and if I feel like I need to say something I do but they both did awesome today at their appts. :)

:: my girl is 3 ::

2012-01-08T20:43:00.002-08:00

My baby turns 3 today! She is such a big girl in so many ways. She loves animals and wanted a pink kitty cat party so we had one! Aunt Lindsey made her cake and it matched her kitty cat invitations purrfectly! :) I had found a cat sweater that was handed down to her that was a size too big for her but once we both found it in a bin we knew it was what she should wear for her party! She was so excited! I am still amazed that she is 3 and that we get to be blessed with having Grace in our lives. She is the icing on the cake! I love her to death and she makes me laugh and smile all the time and amazes me everyday! Happy Birthday Miss Grace!!!! I love you so, so, so much!

:: my hockey boy ::

2012-01-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

My favorite sport is hockey. When Larry and I dated he would take me to Winterhawks games and I loved them! My favorite player is the goalie. I like how the goalie scratches up his goal space and hunkers down for the game. Who would have known that Hunter would love hockey as much as me :) Him and I started watching hockey the end of last years season when the Boston Bruins played for the Stanley Cup with Vancouver Canucks. We were cheering for the Canucks cause Larry was in Canada so much and they seemed to be doing good. Grace was routing for Boston and stuck with them through the end and they won the Stanley Cup. Hunter would get so upset when the Canucks lost but now he is better when the team he picks loses. Now we are still fans of the Canucks they are the Canada team we cheer for and we love Boston Bruins and Tim Thomas, the goalie, is our fav both Hunter and I. We like the goalie Schneider better then Lingo or however you spell his name on the Canucks. We like Pittsburg Penguins cause they are my fav animal and they are yellow or were yellow and we like the goalie Fleury. But we are big, big fans of the Canucks we know alot of the teams guys names but Boston is so close to our fav just because of Tim Thomas and now Rase the other goalie. But back to my hockey boy. I used a couple of groupons and took Hunter to some Winterhawk games this last year and he loved them and now he is so into hockey it is crazy! He can tell you so much about each team and who is the Captain and he knows all the teams names and logo's. Seriously, he knows more then me! So of course he wants to be a hockey player! Yeah! I told him the first step is learning how to skate so we have put him in lessons and the first time he went he didn't listen very well because I had taken him to the skating rink just him and I and skated with him and told him all the stuff about hockey on the ice that he was all about telling his teachers about it and he didn't want to let go of the side of the rink. But after a couple of lessons he is doing awesome! He has fun, he smiles, he laughs, and falls all the time on the ice during his class but you can tell he is so wanting to be a hockey player and is enjoying learning how to skate! He has improved so much since his first lesson he listens to his teachers and does what they say and doesn't hold their hands at all! My mom and Wayne got him a Winterhawks jersey and some hockey sticks and he practices in the living room all the time! My poor walls they will be dented for sure! Here are pictures my mom took of him when she was watching him for me and he looks so grown up and so happy to be a hockey player :) Makes me so proud!

This picture makes me cry cause last week he told me he doesn't want to be the hockey player that makes goals cause that makes him tired but he wants to be a goalie! That would be awesome cause maybe he will not get hurt so much and will keep his teeth! But whatever he does I will be happy! And he doesn't have to play hockey either but I think that he will cause he loves, loves, loves it!

:: enjoy ::

2012-01-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

My word for January is Enjoy! I have alot to do this month with Grace's birthday and Hunter's skating lessons and doing most of it solo I have to remind and tell myself to enjoy it all and not take it for granted. I also have to enjoy cleaning the house, taking care of my other kids my animals, and taking time for myself and doing what I enjoy reading books and scrapbooking. Hope everyone ENJOY's this month too! :)

:: hello 2012 ::

2012-01-01T14:03:00.001-08:00

I can't believe another year has gone by! I also didn't get Grace's book of first done before the new year so now my 2nd goal on that is to have it done before her birthday which is in 7 days! In less than 3 months my kids will both be a year older and in 1 week I will have a 3 and a 4 year old for 3 months! That seems so crazy to me! Last year flew by and we started alot of new things! Hunter started Preschool and ice skating lessons. And this year it will be Grace's year to start new things! I got alot of debt out of the way and just figured out the debt for this year and it bums me out but it is the last of our credit card debt so once it is out of the way hopefully we can get out of this house and also get a van to haul the family around in. Having 2 small cars doesn't help get you places with sports and vacationing we learned that this year. So my new years resolution is to keep getting out of debt and try to do a 1/2 marathon or a run smaller than that but not sure that is going to work with how hected and crazy life is when Larry is in cold country but I am going to give it a try. My other goal is to try to see if we can get out of this house and into a bigger one but not sure how that is going to happen but it is on the burner to figure out. Also, on my list is to fix our pop up trailer it needs alot of love and it needs us to register it so will see how that goes. Just a few New Year goals will see how they all work out. :)

So happy 2012 everyone!

:: my new goal for December ::

2011-12-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

I find if I do not write it down I will not get things done. My goal for the month of December and the month is almost done is to finish Grace's my firsts book! It goes up to age 3 and since she turns 3 next month it is perfect to get it finished and all up to date. The only problem is I stopped writing in it after she turned 1 so I got a lot of pictures to download and a lot of writing to do but I think it is achievable! I already made her birthday cards and sent them out to family and put them in her book so I am way ahead on that! I will take pictures of it when I am done :)

:: cheesy ::

2011-12-12T19:31:00.001-08:00

My kids are cheesy. I was trying to get a good picture of BOTH of them together for our Christmas card and this is what I got!

So then I tried with just one kid at a time and started with Hunter and gave up and didn't get to Grace. They just weren't feeling it and I just used the cheesy picture for our Christmas card. And no Hunter doesn't have a bendy neck he is just goofy and Larry said this is so Hunter and he is right. We have one goofy boy. Sigh. :)

:: a new blog i love ::

2011-10-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Once again I am behind in blog world but I will try to get some good stuff on here and pictures to! Wanted to throw out a blog I love that I stole from Pioneer Woman's website. Enjoy!

http://theletteredcottage.net/

Until I blog again!

:: balance ::

2011-10-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

Balance. That is my new word for October. I feel like everyday I have changes in my life and I have to find the balance through the change and find a happiness through that change. Not fun, not easy. Everyday we get a call from Larry which is awesome but it always changes he is coming home he isn't, he has to stay 3 more weeks which would make it 1 and 1/2 months he would be gone, and then the next day he is coming home in a week. Seriously, it makes me crazy. I just want him home and I want balance in our lives for a week or more before he has to go back. The last change was he is coming home! Yeah! But I wish it was tomorrow cause I am ready to have balance in my life and have my family of four back and my man back. But I am going to San Fransico this weekend so when I leave he will (hopefully) be coming home!

One of the defintions for balance is harmony. Wow, love that. I try to make harmony in my life when it is just me and the kids but I will be honest I am not good at it. I need to be better my set back is I don't want it to be just me and the kids I want Larry here with us but I got to just make it balanced and harmonic when he is here or not.

My challenge of this month with the rain, halloween activities, Preschool, work, life, vacation, and having Larry home is to find a balance through it all. :)

:: the kitties ::

2011-09-27T21:17:00.001-07:00

After I took Misha's tired dog pics I went in search of the cats. Here are update pictures of the cats. I feel bad I don't take their picture much they usually are sleeping away the day.

Kramer
Lucy, she is my fav I had her before I married Larry and she is the oldest of the animals. She is queen cat in my book. :) Hi Lucy! Sorry about the floor I am pretty sure I vaccumed before I took these pictures :)
There you go the kitties. Not kittens anymore. Lucy is 10 and Kramer is 8 the way I remember is I got Lucy 1 year before I got married and we got Kramer 1 year after we were married. Pretty cool way to remember, huh!?

:: Hunter is a Preschooler! ::

2011-09-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

I am so behind in posting these pictures but my big boy is a Preschooler! I still can't believe he is in school! I should have put him in last year but under the circumstances didn't. But I think he is more ready this year then he would have been last year. He has a buddy named Logan that he sees 1 day a week at daycare that is in his class so he is thrilled! I took the morning off so Grace and I could take him to school! Here he is for his first day of school picture and sorry I took them with my cell phone. My bad!

He had to get a picture with his bunny cause when he is nervous or unsure of something bunny is there. So bunny went in the car to school but stayed in his carseat.Once he was at school he was SO excited! We got there when Logan did and Logan is on the left of him in this picture. I think these other boys are going to be some friends of his too! He is all smiles! Here he is once he got in his class he was all done with me and Grace he didn't even notice we were gone. He put his name stick in a pouch and told me mama I did it can I go into school and I said yes and he was gone into Preschool heaven. I just let him go in and do his thing I didn't go in and make sure he was ok and Grace and I went to Starbucks together to have some breakfast and then she went to daycare. Hunter and I had went the Friday before for the meet and greet at his Preschool which was nice cause we got to check everything out before the big day! It was so weird to be alone for the next hour and a half cause I knew my buddy was in the teacher's hands and I had no control of him and he wasn't with family. I was just hoping he was listening and obeying and going to the bathroom right just stressing over the little stuff. I know one of his teacher's cause she is a patient and I know some of his fellow students cause they are patients too! But still that first day was nerve racking! When I went to pick him up he was so excited to see me and I was so excited to see how his first big day was! I can't believe how much he has grown and that he is officially in school!

:: fish tank project almost complete ::

2011-09-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Before picture!After picture!

Here is my updated picture of the fish tank wall project like I promised! I am doing pretty good at blogging and taking pictures! So I need a plant for my white vase I got at Ikea super cheap and I wanted color but they were to much so white it is. I have to figure out what to put on top of the new cube shelving unit. Grace has taken so many books out of the top shelf so I am very glad that I didn't get bins for the top and decided to put books in them. The bins have all of the kids stuffed animals and I need to go through them and send some to Goodwill we have way to many that are baby kind and don't get touched. But for the moment I just put them in there for time. Then I moved the fish tank myself over just a bit to make it somewhat aligned. I also am thinking of getting a canvas print to put above the fish tank to fill it all up. There you have it weekend project is coming together! :)

:: misha's new look ::

2011-09-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

The last time we went to the beach I saw a dog that looked just like Misha but with no long fur and the dog was very cute! I asked the owners if their dog had long hair like mine and they said yes and that the fur would grow back. I was so on a mission to get Misha trimmed! She had been scratching off tuffs of her fur for almost a month and it wasn't fleas she just had to shed her fur for the season and it just had to land on my carpet daily! I couldn't find a place locally that would take her cause she had bad experiences in the past with getting shampooed and washed and I know that she needs to be muzzeled. I finally found out the Wilco in Canby was fine with muzzeling her and shaving her. I was so nervous about doing this it would be the shortest haircut ever and I hope she was ok with it! I took her in and Grace and my mom picked her up and when I saw Misha I was shocked she was shaved to almost her skin, but I knew she needed it. Then after a few minutes I warmed up to it and then I felt so bad that I did it to her but it took me a day to realize she was so much happy and she actually did look pretty cute. Now I think it has been over a month and I love, love, love her new cut! I will probably not have her grow her fur out long like it was before anymore she really likes to be scratched and petted and seems so much more happier. Before you could just scratch her through her long locks now you can rub her and scratch her. Here are pictures I took of her the other day she was so tired and just looked to cute!

If you look to the right you can see her before picture and then see her now!

I totally get the vibe that she doesn't want her picture taken...

Why are you on the floor, mom?

This is her saying thank you for my new look now let me sleep or rub my belly!

:: my fridge ::

2011-09-25T13:21:00.001-07:00

Life has been challenging for me lately with Hunter starting Preschool, keeping up with the house, working full time, being a mom, and doing all this with Larry gone. This time he will be gone a month or longer not sure when he comes home maybe in a couple of weeks but that might change. So I needed help and my fridge is my helper. Who knew, right? It helps me with Hunter's Preschool stuff the purple calendar has all the stuff that I need to remember for that month. Then I have my dry eraser board that tells me what I am going to cook for dinner cause when I get home I just don't want to try to figure out what to make and the energy starts draining out of me by this time. Then something new that I started today is the kids star chore chart! They have been difficult lately trying to get them to take their vitamins, take a bath and cleaning up after themselves so now they will get rewarded when they do. Hunter also needs to take allergy meds and he was so not wanting to until I made him get a star each time so life will be better regarding this and no meltdown! This will also help me with getting things done around the house and helping them learn daily duties and keeping themselves clean and feeding the animals. Their chores! They love that they get a star! I know Grace is probably too young for this but she wants to be and do things like her brother so she gets one to! Hunter is in charge of feeding the cats and Grace is in charge of feeding Misha.
They will get rewards for completing the week of chores based on what they are into at that time. I think my fridge is going to be a life saver and it all starts today! Yeah for organization and ways to make life easier. :)

:: projects ::

2011-09-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

The before picture of the fish tank wall project!
I have done a ton of house projects since my last post about updating the house and have taken so many before and after pictures of all my projects but it has been with my phone! So I will try to get caught up and blog about my past projects but here is a project I am doing this weekend.

It is the fish tank wall project...

It involves buying a new storage shelf for Grace and Hunter's stuffed animals on the left side of the fish tank. Mostly Grace's cause she loves her stuffed animals! And I am putting their books in it so they can grab them and read them on the floor, the table, or the couch and ottoman. Will see if that happens I think it will. So I just bought the shelving storage piece today at Ikea and I will attempt tomorrow to put it together. Cross my fingers it works. Then I am getting a plant to put in a planter on the right side of the fish tank that hopefully my cats don't eat. I got a vase at Ikea that hopefully will not scrape the hardwood floors. I found the perfect plant to put in it that isn't too high and will be lower then the picture frame on the wall but Grace wasn't tall enough to go in the playland at Ikea so she went shopping with me and didn't like the plant I loved cause she said it was to tall and had a fit when I tried to put it in the cart. Go figure! I was so excited to go to Ikea for the first time and put both kids in the playland cause Grace had to be potty trained in order to go so we were all excited cause she is and has been dry for weeks, but I forgot about the height rule and she was just 1/2 inch shy of it and they wouldn't let her go in. Bummer. Maybe next time. So I don't have a plant but I have a planter vase, yet!

Tomorrow will see how I do in construction world and I hope to have an after picture for you all!

:: my trip to Canada ::

2011-09-20T21:39:00.001-07:00

In August, I went to Calgary and visited Larry there for the first time. It was only me and the kids stayed home with the grandparents. I was gone for a weekend. I had a great time and it was nice just to be with Larry all by myself and see where he has been and what he does while he is away from us. I missed the kids alot, but it was nice to sleep in and to be an adult for 3 whole days and not have to cook, clean, or put kids down for a nap. It was a weekend of bliss, but to meet the kids at the airport to pick me up was priceless. Here are some pictures Larry took. We did so much in Calgary and I left my camera at the hotel and so we used our cell phones. We went the Rockies and stopped in a town had some food and beer and watched a bike race then headed to Banff where I went on a gandola for the first time, we hiked in Banff, touched cold water by a waterfall, drove to Lake Louise had some food and beers and hung out with Larry around Lake Lousie hotel and got to have some us time in a place that I needed to not be afraid of anymore. I am glad I went and could so visit again this time when it snows and with the kiddos, but I still don't like flying but I could do it now. The kids want to get their passports so they can see their Papa and Grace wants a pink passport so not sure how that will work out for her but we will see.

Canada is a beautiful place and the Rockies are breath taking. I could spend a whole weekend just exploring all the wonders of them and flying over them at night and during the day is awesome too! They just keep going and going of amazing mountains some with snow so without. It was a great vacation and an enjoyable time with Larry and to actually get away and see somewhere I have never been before and to travel by myself and use my passport for the first time was very rewarding. :)

:: pictures, finally! ::

2011-09-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

I have so much catching up to do it is CRAZY! So here are just a couple of pics from this Summer. I had a week of vacation since I have to take it the same time as the doctor I work for and so I filled it up with fun things with the kids and Larry was home for the week and took it off too! Here are just a couple pictures from Yurting at Champoeg! We have been back to the Yurt since and we have alot of fun and bike and just camp for a night and if something goes wrong or a kiddo is to grumpy we can just pack back up and go home, which we have not done yet!
Grace hanging out with her glow sticks that Larry got the kids in front of the yurt.

Hunter playing on the "family" Iphone hanging out on the entrance to the yurt. He looks like Larry so much in this picture! I love that he is in sweats and barefooted just hanging out in the fresh air! :)
These pictures are from August and I really need to post more but it is late so I better jet. More to come, promise! :)

gonna catch up soon!

2011-09-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, seriously it has been a long time since I have blogged, taken pictures with my camera not my phone, and downloaded my pictures. I am gonna try to catch up soon! Got projects to finish then I am going to TRY to make blogging a better priority cause alot going on with dude in Preschool now and Grace being potty trained I got tell you guys all about it! So let me get back to you all SOON! :)

...first I got to fold laundry, put away laundry, put my coupons away, finish studying for my continued education stuff, watch 2 Netflix movies, clean my house, play with kids and then I will blog :)

my new favorite's for this year

2011-07-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

1. My Keurig! I have had it for 2 weeks or so and love, love, love it! I got it for Larry for Father's day but he knew it was really for us and really for me since he isn't home all the time with him working in Canada. It has saved me big time in going to Starbucks. I still go once a week just for a treat :)

2. Groupon and Living Social! I have been using these for date nights, date stuff, or for special treats for me, the kids, or Larry. Larry and I are going kayaking our vacation week thanks to a Groupon :)

3. Amazon! Love Amazon cause I love getting packages at my door and I love that I don't have to drag the kids to the store.

4. Hopscout! http://www.hopscout.com/ Love this website! It is a website of toys or baby items that they send you a daily email about a new toy and there is NO shipping if you order anything! Jessica Biel started it and I have a friend from highschool, Jamie, who was just hired by them to rate toys and she is a stay at home mom!

5. SOS! http://www.sixoclockscramble/ It is called Six O'clock scramble. It is a menu planner website that you have to pay for for 3 months at a time they will send you an email every Wednesday with a weeks worth of dinner's and a grocery list with it so you can try new fresh ideas and not have to think of what to make for dinner.

I think that is about all I can think of at the moment. So much has happened since my last blog I just have been lazy! We got a new couch and I will have to post some pics of before and after on my blog.

Kids are doing great. They challenge me everyday but I think that we are getting better with each other and going through terrible two's and four's but I am ready for a vacation, soon! :)

a new leaf

2011-06-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

I changed my blog picture to leaves going on a new leaf is what I am calling it. Alot has been going on and I still haven't been taking pictures with my camera but alot with my phone. I got a new phone last month cause I dropped my old one and shattered the front of it and it was time for new phones anyways. I am still plugging away doing the same thing taking care of the kids, me, animals, and the house while Larry is away working in Canada and I think it is finally getting to me, honestly. But nothing I can do but just be thankful we both have jobs and keep plugging away here. The kids have been grumpy lately and trying me alot so I am trying to be strong and the disciplinarian but it isn't fun but I gotta do it. Hunter is getting so big and he is as high as the middle of my rib cage and keeps me on my toes. Grace talks me ear off and wants snacks all the time. Love them both but I crash when I go to bed let me tell you! Larry and I are doing good. Going to marriage counseling learning new stuff getting through the hard stuff but we are plugging away. We bought a couch for the living room and had fun going and looking at them and communicating in a way I don't think we have before so it was fun and a good learning experience for us. Now we both can't wait for it to get here! It is too big for our living room but since our living room looks like a bowling alley it will divide the living space into two different spaces. Super excited for it to come and we paid for it in cash which was even better. Got Larry on board with buying stuff when we can afford it and not putting it on cards like we used to. We are learning together! Yeah! My next post I will try to post pictures of my crazy whompers so you can see how much the have grown! But for now you can enjoy my new leaf...my new leaf look :)

paying off debt isn't fun...

2011-05-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

but in the long run it is totally worth it! I have myself on the $200 to $20 bucks plan. Aka the 200/20 plan. I am on week 3 of this plan and it seems to be working but I still don't like it but I am trying not to complain cause it is totally worth it. I am on my last "big" credit debt that I am trying to get rid of then I just owe one more thing to someone and then all I have is student loans and then I am good. I am not going to stress about the student loans though. So my plan consist of paying off $200 dollars a week on my last big debt until it is paid off and allowing myself $20 cash each week to spend on me for coffee and lunches or whatever comes my way for me or if I have to my kiddos. Yep, every week I am going to do this. Doesn't sound like much but it totally is. That is $800 toward debt a month for a 4 week month and $1000 for a 5 week month and that isn't money I can spend it is money I have to give to the debt I have made. Total sacrifice but worth it in the end I keep telling myself. I so want so much right now for me and the house but I know and have learned that getting out of debt is more important than my wants right now. If I look at what I have done a year ago today I have paid off 3 big debts that were over $5,000 and bought furniture for my bedroom with cash or gift cards, kids room is totally redone and paid for by cash, pantry room redone and stocking up on food with coupons. I would say that I can keep at my new goal and realize I am alot better now than I was a year ago :) My next venture is a new couch and recycliner for the living room. Gonna save and budget for that but super excited to get something the kids and Larry and I can lounge on and veg on and enjoy and know that it is something I picked out and not a hand me down I have had for 10 years that the kids have pucked on and the cats have ruined. Gonna be cool let me tell you when I figure out which ones to get :) So there you go my 200/20 plan. It will take me tell Christmas to finish my goal but well worth it. My kids and me will just have to wait for new toys and new fun stuff until I get out of debt but that is less than a year away :)

pantry pics

2011-05-09T22:10:00.001-07:00

Very embarrased to show these before pics but here goes! And remember this is where I would put everything at when I didn't want to go to the shed. The black shelving was holding my extra food and stuff. Very, very messy and not organized. So not me. But I did clean up and make room every once an awhile but not like I did this weekend.

The before pantry The new and improved and organized pantry! Yeah!
There you go! Tonight I cleaned out my laundry room had alot of what was in the first picture in the laundry room. Now I still have alot of it in my bedroom and carport and I hope to tackle it each night and finish it up and make my house all pretty again. But more organized and workable. Goodwill is going to love me this week!

my new project...the pantry

2011-05-08T21:55:00.001-07:00

I am working on my pantry, which needed alot of love. I did take a before picture with my camera but the card isn't reading it right now and I had taken the "still working on it" after pictures with my phone. Once my computer recognizes my card I will post before and after just believe me when I say the pantry looks 105 times better! I traded file cabinets with my mom. The one we had was a four door one that was wide and low to the ground and took up alot of space. The one my mom let me have is skinny and taller. I still haven't put one thing in it yet just got it today and started working on assembling the pantry today. Yesterday it was disassembling the pantry to get the file cabinet in and my new pantry cabinet the one to the right of the filing cabinet. I bought this cabinet at Fred Meyers and it is supposed to have doors on it but it was short screws for the whole other door so once I had it in the pantry I decided to just keep them off and after I talked to fam about whether I should put them on or not. I kinda like seeing what I have in food and stuff instead of having to open up a door. The rest of the furniture in the pantry is stuff I was using to shelf other stuff around the house but instead of buying anything else I am trying to use what I have. So far the pantry cabinet is all I have spent money on and it was just over $50. I have been watching Extreme Couponing and I have learned alot from the show. I would not say it is my favorite show but it does teach me a few things. But I honestly think the people are a little crazy with their shopping but I am amazed at how much the do save. So I guess my pantry is what you would call my stock pile that is what they call their massive amount of food. Mine is not going to be that extreme. I am going to try to coupon and stock up on a couple items and buy only what I need and use and not go crazy on stuff I do not need. My other goal for this pantry is to just make it a pantry for food, filing stuff, and a place to put hand me down clothes that I get or have to bundle up because the kids grew out of it, and cleaning supplies. That is all that goes in here! In the past, I usually just throw whatever in the pantry and it grew out of hand.
I hope to have this pantry finished by the end of the week and my house back to normal my bedroom and laundry room are a mess it looks like I just moved into the house with stuff everywhere. Hoping for sunny weather after I get off work so I can start putting stuff in the shed. :)

easter pictures :)

2011-04-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hunter would not smile so we told him to show us his guns and this is what he did.

I have no words for Hunter's look in this one! I was so trying to get a good picture with me and the kiddos!

It never failed one kid would look great the other would be blurry or move when we tried to get a cute picture with them.

Grace and Larry playing trains at my mom's house. Hunter wasn't really into the whole take pictures before leaving the house, but we powered through and did them. Grace's Easter outfit was all hand me down clothes I didn't have to buy a thing. I wanted to buy her a cute new dress and black shoes but we had what she needed so I didn't buy hers. :) Hunter's was handme downs and old stuff and I should have put a different shirt on him so he didn't match the red wall but oh well he probably would not have changed it anyways. Happy Easter everyone!

trying to be frugal and how I do it

2011-04-23T13:58:00.001-07:00

So I have been budgeting and paying off credit cards for over a year and a few months and I was going to share some of my secrets. Don't get me wrong there is so much that I want to buy and I do buy it but now it is hard for me buy stuff without knowing I have the money for it. It has been 2 years since I used my credit card and I have no credit card debt on the one and only card I have it is just for big emergencies that come our way but right now the balance is 0! I am working on a debt that we used from a past patient who gave us money when we bought the house and I have since then paid that person off and gave the title of our car back to the bank and now I am paying the bank. The cool part of doing it this way is I can see my balance and I can pay it anytime with as before I was only mailing this person a check of $100 each month and since I am paying off this debt each month with more than $100 I don't have to put alot of money in the mail hoping this person gets it each month. And we had a car loan with my bank and I paid it off last year and the loan now is $100 less a month than it was last year! Sweetness! All I have for my own personal debt is this loan and my student loan and then I am done. I honestly do not think I am going to work on my student loan as hard as these last debts hope to help someone out with his next. So my goal is to pay $200 a week to this loan at the bank until it is paid off and Larry is not working out in the field in Canada and working the long hours anymore which was bringing in alot of money so I am on to being frugal and budgeting. Since paying off the debts I have paid off already I saved $662.43 on monthly payments that we were making a month on our credit cards and car! That is sweetness! So here is how I have been trying to be frugal and budgeting...

-Go to Starbucks once a week. I would love to go everyday but that is spendy. I know I should cut it cold turkey but I can't yet I love my caffeine!
-Carry $20 cash and that is all I get to use for the week for special things like coffee, lunches out, and things I want to get. This isn't for the kids it is just for me. I had to use it for Misha 2 weeks ago to get her toes clipped but she needed to be pampered!
-When I get coffee or lunches out to spend less then $5 on my meal or try to not go to much over. It actually is easy if you get soup or half a sandwhich or a quiche or Taco Bell thinks like that :)
-Go to the store 2 times a week and try to only spend $50 each time or $100 each time depending if it is the beginning or end of the month. Stock up on items in your house. If there is a two for one I grap it but one in my kitchen cupboards and one in the pantry.
-Use coupons! But make sure you use only things you need. I have a big ole purse that has my coupon binder (a must!), wipes the cheapest ever they are the Target brand, snack for the kids and I make my grocery list on my phone or on post its.
-Get hand me down clothes. Find some friends who can help you with this it is so helpful and you can save so much!
-Realize that your kids do not need everything else that everyone else has. I buy my kids one thing a month and sometimes I don't even do that.
-Keep every promo discount card that you get in the mail you never know when you need to use it! Like yesterday I went to Victoria Secret cause I was given money and I had kept a discount card and a free panty card that I got maybe a month or 2 ago and knew I could not afford it or use it and I was given $75 and spent $62 by using the promo coupons! If you keep them and they expired oh well maybe the next one that comes to you you'll use.
-Get the weekend Oregonian. It has coupons and if you see something you like then put it up on your fridge and budget for it instead of going and buying it that day. I just started getting the paper as a promo for 6 weeks and I like it now that it comes only friday-Sunday. I like going out and getting it or having the kids get it and drinking my tea with it.
-I love fuffy coffee drinks and tea so I stock up on my tea bags and use those during the week for on my way to work and when I get low then I get more. Don't get more until you either used stuff up or are close to using up the stuff you use all the time. Right now I am craving cold chai's and so instead of buying them at Dutch Bros, who make the best, I bought a container of Tazo Chai at Target, super cheap there like under $3.50 for one, and just use 1/2 Chai and 1/2 milk over ice and my craving is cured. I am on my second drink from this one box and I think I can get 3 or 4 more drinks. So find clever ways to make your drinks at home and see if you can do them for alot cheaper.
-Keep leftovers! This is a must especially for kids. I reuse alot of food and if it isn't giving it to my kids an hour later cause they are hungry or putting it in my lunch for the next day it saves so much it is crazy!
-Every month I boil eggs and make egg salad sandwhiches and they can last me a whole week for lunch! That is when I am on a crunch and want to make sure I am not spending any money or going out to buy lunch. Tunafish sandwhiches can be used the same way make a couple cans and you have 4 or so lunches! Savings!
-Use up all your household product before you buy another especially if you want to try something new. I am really bad at wanting to try new things like dishsoap or body wash stuff and I am still working on this one. But use up all you have in your house then get new stuff. Total savings there.
-Put your holiday items in bins for the next year. If you have leftover Easter stuff put it in a bin and save it. If you have suntan lotions or little swimmers put them in a bin for next year so you can save a buck or two next year. I love organizing this way and then you don't have to go looking for this stuff and wonder where you put it the year before.
-Use up all your lotions and perfumes before you buy more. This one is so hard for me cause I just found a new perfume at VS that I love! But maybe a coupon promo thing will come my way ;) I have alot right now and need to just be happy with what I have and be more girly and put them on.
-Plan your meals for the month. Put it on your fridge on a erasable calendar. Look in your fridge and freezer for what you have and make meals on what you have and put them on the calendar. Then if you are short on days then go to the store and get the things you need. I have on every Wednesday pizza night I either will bake a frozen one, make one, or order one depending on what we have in the house. I have a left over day which is on Sunday and I use and make something up with the leftovers in the fridge and if I don't have any than I just use what I have. I have friday nights as take out night. I am pretty tired by friday so I either take the kids out to Burgerville or get take out so I do not have to cook. Bad I know but for my peace of mind I need the break from cooking and most the time my kids do not eat dinner very well so it is one night of peace from that.
-I love to read books. I try not to buy books at cost. I either get them at the library and if I buy them then I go to the used library book places where they cost $1-4 each. I have about 3 authors I really like right now so I have been reading that way. If there is one I want to buy like I bought a canning book on Amazon I go to either Amazon and try to use my free shipping Amazon mom on things. I try not to buy anything on Amazon where I have to pay for shipping. My kids are sometimes hard to get out the door to go to the store or mall so Amazon is my friend and I love getting packages at the door. If I go to Borders or Barnes and Nobles to get a book I do not go without a coupon. I can't pay regular anymore I have to have some type of discount even if it is only 10% off. I know it is all in my head but once you do it so much with coupons it is hard to pay full price at places like that.
-Use your environmental bags when you go to the grocery store or any store you can save 5-10 cents each and they are so easy to use and I keep mine in my car and use them everywhere. If I don't remember to bring them to the store I have been this last week just asking them to put it back in my cart. Crazy I know but I am trying to be more efficient and I just can't store all those paper bags all the time.
-Don't toss or get rid of any type of tupperware container or bins you never know when you need to use it for something else. This takes up alot of room if you have alot that you aren't using. But it will save you money down the line I reused 4 different types of bins this vacation weekend by reusing them for kids toys and a bin to put toys in on the porch. And I have been looking for a seat container holder for the porch and now I don't have to cause I reused a huge red round toy bin that was in the shed housing a fake ficus tree. Not to mention Grace loves the new bin cause it is red and she thinks I got it for her. Priceless, literally. Reuse is a big saver!
-Use your resources. I get free bread the 1st and 3rd wednesday of the week of Oroweat bread, muffins, and pizza dough. Sometimes there isn't alot to take but I take enough to keep in my fridge and it has worked out great.

That is all I can think of at the moment. Hope this helps you be frugal this spring! I am venturing to the canning world. My goal with canning is to have food that I have made in the pantry to eat all year or 1/2 a year and to also make items that will work for birthday, get well or holiday gifts for my friends and family. If you have any ideas to add or ways you do it I would love to hear them. :) I need more inspiration.

Happy Sunny day to you all! I finally got batteries in my camera and I am going to take pictures today the day before Easter! Whoo Hoo!

numbers

2011-03-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Last night, I realized that Hunter, my 4 year old, can write his numbers and add numbers! I knew he was smart but I didn't realize how much he knows. He has been doing alot of kids online learning games and his explorer has a game where he can write letters and numbers but I didn't realize he could do it on his own! He isn't perfect at it but he sure does pretty good for trying! I took a picture with my cell phone so I will try to download the picture so you can see his numbers her wrote. And he can add! He can add in his head and tell you and he can add by counting 2 sets of dots or figure it out in his head. I know he isn't perfect with this either but he did 8 +3 and wrote out 11 without me even telling him! I just enrolled him in preschool for fall and I think he is going to be pretty smart by the time he gets there and he can even write his name! My big boy is growing to fast pretty soon he will be in highschool!

HT's 4 year stat's

2011-03-11T21:43:00.003-08:00

Hunter had his 4 year well child check today and it is so different when your kids start talking to the doctor and they answer the doctors questions! DeOna was so cool with him and Hunter knew he was going to the doctor that mama worked for to have a check up cause he was 4. He was pretty excited about it. Grace came with us cause she puked in the car on the way to my mom's today the second time in 2 weeks but I am pretty sure it is her gag reflux so no more milk in the car! I was going to see if DeOna would look in her ears but forgot and thought if her ears hurt she would tell us. So Grace and I hung out with Hunter at his check up and he was such a little man! I let him do all the talking and prompted him a little but it was all him. I just couldn't believe that I was the quiet one while he was doing all the talking. It is an amazing transition let me tell you! He was more then happy to tell her whatever she asked of him. He was such a good boy but he didn't want her to shine the light in his eyes that was the downfall and he told me at the beginning he didn't want it done but we talked about it and he still wasn't a big fan of that part. DeOna says he will be tall and thin by they way his stat's are looking. She said the same about Grace at her 2 year check. He was awesome with his shots and I love that 4 of the shots are combined to 2 shots instead makes it easier for kids and mom's. He was a trooper and one of the best ever and I give shots everyday to kiddos! One of his arms is sore today/tonight and it is the one that bleed the most so I am just watching how he does. He didn't even want me to kiss it to make it better. He is getting so grown up :( So here is is stat's :)

Weight...40 lbs (81%)
Height...42.8 in (93%)

Both kids were awesome at the doctor's office and I was so proud of them the listened and obeyed and deserved their suckers that they had to earn! It is so weird and cool to give my kids suckers, stickers, and bandaids when I am the one that decides which ones to order for the kids that come in the clinic. Pretty cool, let me tell you! But I am very glad that I am not the one giving my kids their immunizations I will give any child one but mine.

Hunter turns 4!

2011-03-09T22:53:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday buddy! I can't believe my boy is 4 time flew so fast and now he is 4 almost 5. He says he can't wait to be 5. Great. I didn't take any pictures at his party but hope to have some up soon! He had a Diego Birthday Party with family and it was a good time he was super excited to have family time today and have a party. He told me this morning when I woke him up to take him to Nana's that he was so excited he was 4 today and he had no more sleeps cause he was 4. I love my buddy so much :)

another debt paid!

2011-03-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I did it! I paid off my Discover credit card! This was I believe my first credit card ever I had it before I met Larry and I spent alot of it on our wedding too. I finally paid off my part of our wedding and only 8.5 years later! That is pretty sad. So this is how I did it. I paid off my car last year and I started another loan at Onpoint and transferred my Discover card to Onpoint since my finance charge was 25%, with Discover card yep it was I don't even remember when it got that bad but it was. When I transferred it to Onpoint it was 7.9%! Major difference! I wrote in my debt notebook how much I would pay off each month and the only month I wasn't able to was Christmas cause I bought some presents. But the rest of the months I was able to keep my goal because I didn't buy my kids very many toys and I had friends handing me down clothes for the kids which helped a ton and I had friends hand me down clothes and shoes and family was helping with buying toys and clothes for the kids that I needed instead of me. I didn't buy much for me and I slowly budgeted for things around the house to make it look better and only bought coffee once during the week and sometimes on the weekend and made sure I always had my set amount of money left over at the end of the month to make a payment towards my credit card and it worked! I also carried cash. I never carried cash in the past but I would take out $50 every two weeks and use it on coffee, lunches, or things I wanted to buy. But it also helped big time that Larry worked in Canada throughout this time I am not going to lie. And that was my only saving grace for getting through the last year of having him leave each time knowing that him working the hours and being away I was working on our debt and the debt I had because he was gone. So there you have it how I did it. Hard work, budgeting, coupons, sacrificing not getting what I wanted and using my resources around me to help cloth me and my kids can really help out alot. And to except help and show people that you are seriously trying to make a difference in spending money because in the end there is a goal....paying off a debt that should have been paid off along time ago. So as of today... I have paid off over $15,000 of debt since 12/09! And I have less than that to go on my last debt. I am on the home stretch and it feels really, really good!

change

2011-03-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

CHANGE...I stole this word from another person's blog. I don't even know the person so I hope they do not mind. It is pretty much a word that defies the last year of my life. It also helps me with the new year of my life. Alot has changed for me and for my family and alot of change is to come I have a feeling. So I am going to take this word and run with it. Change is good, change is needed, change hurts, and change strengthens. My kids are growing and they are changing and getting older and testing me. My marriage is growing and is changing and is testing me. My growth as a person is changing, I am getting older and alot of things are testing me. So I am ready for this year of change. I might love it, I might not like it but I think that I have to come to terms with how the change happens with me and all that is around me. I am happy with the word change and that is my challenge this year to take things that change around me and work through it and take every change as a grain of salt and not a boulder. So I challenge you who read my blog to use the word change and make it a positive in your life as I am going to try to in mine. :)

my fav's

2011-03-01T21:14:00.000-08:00

I am bored so I wanted to just blog. So here are a few of my favorite things...

**hugging and kissing my kids and hearing them laugh
**my kids eyelashes they are so long
**decorating
**Rachael Ray dishes/pots
**couponing
**photography
**my animals, especially Misha she is my protector
**music
**reading novels
**reading Pioneer Woman's blog
**daffodils
**going on dates and eating big people food
**manicures
**a clean house
**drinking wine
**whoppers
**sleeping in (never happens but I love it)
**my girlfriends
**family

So there you go just a few things. I also can't believe my buddy will be 4 in 7 more sleeps. He is getting so big.

my bathroom

2011-02-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today was the only productive day that I had in a week! Larry was home last week and left today so I had alot of laundry and many projects in my head that I needed to start. I do projects around the house to keep me busy and make the time go by quicker when Larry is gone. Doing this all by myself isn't fun for me so I try to do things that make me feel like I accomplish things. Hence, our bathroom. It has been on my mind for a few weeks. I hate the cat litter box and I wanted a big rug and a change.

This is how the new bathroom went down. I went to Costco yesterday got a nice size rug for under $15 and I have been looking all over for a rug for weeks and they are alot more than Costco! I got a new litter box at Target (but it is too small for the cats so I have to get a new one!), I put up my old coconut shower curtain that we got as a wedding gift that I had in the small bathroom before we had the kids and moved the silver shower hooks that were in the kids bathroom to our bathroom, declutter the counter, had a candle going all afternoon because it has been windy! Never know when the power would go out. Bleached and cleaned as well as I could before I put the new litter box and rug down. All and all I love my new bathroom. It still needs work but after I get another cat litter box and budget for cabinets over the toilet to put my towels in than I think it will be a done project!

Here it is the new look! I took this with my phone and no I didn't get a before pic I was working with adrenaline cause Hunter didn't go down for his nap and I banned him to the couch. So I attacked the bathroom :)

And yes it is a green rug with blue tiles. I was so shocked at the price at Costco I just went with what I thought would go the closest and it looks alot better in person. I promise!

Did I also mention I like to home decorate? I think this is my new calling. Decorating on a budget and using what you have. Maybe it will start something :)

in the dog house

2011-02-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged in forever! I have been busy, lazy, and crazy. All at the same time. Life is just a blur right now. Grace survived having no sassy and they have all been removed! Thank goodness! The bad news is she keeps waking up at 5:30-5:45am since then. I even try keeping her up late but that doesn't work. So I have ordered the goodnite lite and I hope that works for her. I haven't taken one single picture from my camera I have been taking them on my phone so I am bringing out my camera today or this week. Hunter is going to be 4 in 10 days I can't believe it. I am planning his birthday party and super excited about it. Hope Larry is home for it but probably not. We are getting the kids bikes for their birthday's so we will get them later next month. I am so close to being done with another credit card debt! It is my Discover card that I had when I was single and living by myself. That was way to long ago and I should have paid it off years and decades ago. I transferred my Discover card to Onpoint so I can keep track of it better and the interest was way lower. So in the dog house with my past debt but feeling the relief a little bit with what I have left. I have one more debt to pay off and transfer to Onpoint and pay off some other stuff and then all I will have left is my student loans but I don't see myself paying that off until the kids are in college. So for the most part in the last year and a half I have paid off over $13,000! Yeah! We also are going to get a dishwasher soon! I thought we would order it this week but Larry wants to be home when it comes so we are on hold but that is ok I will just keep cleaning by hand and paying of this debt I am working on. So there you go my life in a nut shell. I will try to be better at blogging. But the house is calling my name to clean it. I have to take pics of my bedroom it is almost complete! Just need to get one more dresser and clean the closets and it is done! I am working on my bathroom at the moment but I have to clean and bleach the floors than the cats have a new litter box area and rugs go down! Then I have my laundry room project I have to move all my arts stuff and put all the kids toys in the shelves so it has been a slow work in progress. So these are just a few of my projects going on!

no more sassy!

2011-02-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

My big girl loves her sassy (pacifier). She asks for it when she doesn't have it and she asks for it with her long list of things she needs with her on the couch. Mama can you get my sassy, my kitty cat, my puppy dog, my pink blanket, my blue blanket and my Dora blanket. No lie she asks me this about 2-3 times a day and more on the weekends. So I wanted to eliminate one of the items from her big ole long list. Hunter tossed his in the trash at his Ma's house a couple weeks before he turned 3 so I am way ahead on Grace. The reason is she is too darn smart and if I don't take it away now she will have it until she is 10 I just know it. I was going to get rid of it before she turned one but the drama in my life wasn't going to happen then. She also is getting a big overbite and she has a big gap between her two teeth always has but seems to be getting bigger. And her dentist said that if she got rid of her pacifier her gap would get smaller and her overbite will to. So she has an appt soon so I better get cracking. She was twitterpatted yesterday to say the least when I told her it was gone. So much that I was about to just toss in the towel and give it to her. Which I did but I gave it to her after I cut the top off. I didn't poke holes in it I just wanted it totally destroyed. She wasn't happy with it and wanted the other piece put back together. By the afternoon she wanted to piece found still and we were in the car and I had told her that the other piece must have been eaten by Misha or Kramer. She kept saying that they had to give it back to her and that she would look in their mouths. Hunter kept telling her that was a no we don't put our hands in their mouths they could bite us. Totally got that from me! She didn't go down well at all for her nap but after an hour or longer she finally lost the battle and feel asleep on my bed. She went to bed great that night and woke up asking for her sassy with the long list of other items. I told her it was gone she had a mini breakdown and I got the broken sassy and she didn't want it and hasn't asked for it since. :)

Grace's 2 year old stats

2011-01-14T20:11:00.001-08:00

My big girl had her 2 year well child check today a week late just couldn't do it last week. Today, she got no shots and found out her cold is an ear infection. I had no clue I think this girl has great pain tolerance. Her first dose of Amoxicillin as a big girl is not her fav and I have to give it 3 times a day this should be fun. Thank goodness for M & M's. Anywho, here are her stats...

Weight~26 lbs (42%)
Height~35 inches (80%)

DeOna says she will probably be about 5'10" when she is older. Taller than Larry and I just like she says Hunter will be. Nice.

As for me, I am sick and have been since Sunday and I am been trying to power through with the kids, work, house, cooking, animals and everything else. But today DeOna sent me home by her order for the afternoon and I loved her for it cause I got to rest and sleep without kids for an hour or so. It was bliss. :)

Grace turns 2!

2011-01-08T13:40:00.001-08:00

My girl turns 2 today which is just crazy! She is such a big girl and I can't believe how fast time has flown :( but I am excited for her to see what this year brings for her. She is my little mouse and always will be even though she can talk, talk, talk.

This morning we went to Krispie Kreme's and she got a donut and ate the sprinkles. Her donut had yellow and green sprinkles on it go Ducks! No, we are not football fans but I gotta give my state my vote. Tonight is a Dora birthday party with the family at the house. So I better get to chopping the veggies. I love my baby girl so much and she is a joy to have in my life. I just can't believe my baby is 2!

Good dog!

2011-01-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

Happy 5th Birthday to Misha J. Ray Robinson!

You are such a good dog and I am proud to be your owner!

I can't believe your 5!

Love-your mom...aka the one who gives you treats, takes you potty, takes you for walks, takes you with us to the store so you don't stay home by yourself, and lets you sleep with her when she needs to have a foot warmer and feel safe.

new year's resolutions

2011-01-02T21:36:00.000-08:00

I am pretty bad at making New Year's resolution's but I thought of mine after New Year's. It is more than one. Drum roll please......

1. Listen to new music.
2. Get out of debt (minus student loans those I will have until I am gray) by Christmas.
3. Try, try, try to do my Wii fit.
4. Try not to hit the snooze button so much in the morning. And get up when my alarm goes off. (This will be a TOUGH one).

There you have it.
Will see where I am at in less than a year.

Happy New Year to all of you who read my blog.

Cheers.
~al

my dresser

2011-01-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures of my dresser. I love it. Sorry again I took them with my phone. I only have 4 pairs of clothes in them cause I haven't had anytime to work on putting my clothes in it due to cleaning out my laundry room where all the Christmas gifts went that I was trying to find a place for :) I do love my dresser. I love that I can put jewlery in it and it has more drawer space than I have clothes for.

Front view :)Side view :) Can you just see it all coming together?! All I have to do is get Larry's new black 8 drawer dresser and than were good with furniture! Than I get to tackle the walls while I wait and budget for his dresser. I will try to take pictures tomorrow of the before and after!

nightstand!

2010-12-31T14:18:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the nightstands and new lamps! I took it from my phone so it is not the best picture but I was taking it to show family cause they asked to see it. Today, my dresser is getting picked up at Ikea! Super excited we have never had furniture that matched in our room we have had handme down stuff (which was awesome) and stuff we bought and none of it matched. This go round everything is going to look great together!

Today is New Years eve and I am excited for 2011. I can put 2010 in the books it was one of the worst and rewarding years of my life. I learned alot about me and I am stronger, wiser, and growing in so many areas I am glad that my life is where it is now. :)

fast forward to almost a new year

2010-12-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas was fun and the kids had a great time. They got tons of presents and I am trying to figure out where to put them all! This year I did carrots and cookies for Santa and his reindeer and the kids and I had fun with that. They were so suprised what was left on their plates when they woke up. It was a very early morning for some reason Hunter woke up at 4:30am and wanted to know if it was Christmas and Larry said when we woke up at Christmas it didn't matter what time it was it was time to check to see if Santa had come. So we woke up Grace and went out in the living room. They had a few presents under the tree but just watching them experience it was fun to see.

We got a gift card to Ikea from my mom and Wayne so I bought new night stands and lamps for the bedroom and it is starting to look good! We just have to get two dressers and than it should be done! I have my eye on some at Ikea too. I love Ikea it is in my budget plan and my house is small so their stuff fits. I will post a picture of the night stands and lamps when I get home I am writing at work :)

Grace has been doing awesome in her big girl bed in her and Hunter's room. It was such an easy transition that I am very suprised on how well it went. She even sleeps the night through and sometimes sleeps in after 7:30am! This is usually my girl that wakes up at 5:30-6:00am! So I am getting some more sleep, finally!

I think that is about it. No New Years plans laying low I think and going to drink some wine :)

big girl bed

2010-12-20T21:25:00.000-08:00

It is official! Grace is in her big girl bed! She slept in it the night she got stitches and than I took her out at midnight for my piece of mind and she slept in it Saturday night and than I took down her crib on Sunday am and she took a nap in her big girl bed during the day for nap time and slept all night and I had to wake her up this am! Grace falls asleep before Hunter does cause she is exhausted but at least she can sleep through his talking and yelling. She actually stays in her bed and when she wants out she calls for me to ask if it is time to get up. My big girl is so good! I can't believe that my kids are sleeping in the same room! I have talked about doing this since March and now it is December and I did it! Whoo hoo! It is so nice to have a bedroom with no crib in it and now I can make it a bedroom instead of a master bedroom/kids room. All I have in it right now is my bed, Hunter's old dresser and the kids toy box. Once Christmas is done the toy box will come out and I have to put Hunter's old dresser in the shed and buy new matching night stands and dressers! Everything will match instead of not matching and hand me down furniture! So excited it is a work in progress! Maybe by Grace's birthday or Hunter's birthday the bedroom will be done :)
Here is the view going into the bedroom. I removed the toy shelf and now this is the toy box that will go out after Christmas where the tree is currently at.
This is the other side of the room. Grace's crib used to be right in front of the window where Lucy is at. And the white dresser on the left is Hunter's old one. This is what it looks like now and I hope to put white dressers with black drawer handles on them or get black dressers still unsure and the same with night stands either way. Super excited! This will be the first time that I have decorate my/our room and everything will be coordinated. Crazy! Exciting! Can't wait!
And than curtains! Not sure what color yet or what I am going to do but I would love to get the blinds out and have nice curtains that cat hair will not show on. :)

Stitches!

2010-12-17T13:45:00.001-08:00

I never would have thought it would be Grace who gets stitches first! Last night she got to get 5 stitches under her chin :( Both kids are getting snotty noses and when they had their bath I put in Eucalyptus oil to help open their sinuses, which we have done a lot the last couple of months. Well Hunter got out and was brushing his teeth and Grace was coming out but I didn't get to her quick enough cause I usually lift her out and she slipt on the tub and landed on her chin on the side of the porcelain tub before falling to the bottom. There was hardly any blood and she was more stunned I think than hurt. I put her pj's on and told her she had to go the hospital cause her cut was smiling at me so I wasn't sure if they could just glue her or if she needed stitches. She kept saying I gotta go to the hospital when we were in the car going up the hill. Then she was more twitter patted about her crocks not fitting over her footed pj's like I said it didn't even phase her that she cut her chin. My mom came and got Hunter and so it was just Grace and I. I thought it would go quick but it took us awhile because the doctor wanted to use lotion lidocaine and wait 30 minutes for it to work and than he wanted to have her drink some meds to make her loopy. Well I told him she has a gag reflex and I didn't realize how bad it was going to turn out for her. I gave her the meds and she instantly did not like the taste which made her puke and she said she didn't like it and then when she was done we forced the rest down her but it wasn't enough for the doctor and so we forced more down her and she was not happy at all and puked again. She did get some in her cause she was pretty loopy. I told the doctor to just do the stitches and get it over with. She was pretty fun on the way home she was herself but very loopy but in control of her environment and didn't want anything to change she had to watch a whole Dora and sit in her spot on the couch before she would go to bed. She didn't want to go in her crib she wanted in her big girl bed so I let her. That lasted a few hours and she tossed and turned so much that for my piece of mind I put her back in her crib. Today, she doesn't even remember her chin has an owie on it and I haven't reminded her cause I just know she is going to pick at it or mess with the stitches. My baby girl is one stubborn trooper she made me very proud for what she had to go through at the ER. She even said goodbye to the nurse and doctor. She is such a good girl. :)

"Ziploc" Art bags

2010-12-12T20:35:00.001-08:00

One thing I love to do is organize! The kids have two places where their crayons, paints, and paper are at. One is on the wall in their bedroom that I love and then one in an unorganized fashion in my bedroom. The bedroom one needed to get moved out cause I am trying not to have kids stuff in their with the new look. My plan was to use Ziploc big bags and put their art stuff in it, aka anything crayola and paper and whatever. I love these bags! But I got XL and L and they were too big and I kept looking for Mediums and I gave up well today I looked on the side of the Large box and they only come in Large, XL, XXL. No wonder I couldn't find Mediums! But I thought why not use the Large so I did and I used my Ziploc freezer bags that I have stalked up from Costco! So here is what I did! I am so excited and I hope it inspires you too!

My kids get one of almost everything it makes life easier for me or whoever watches them. So each child has the same thing or almost the same thing. You put all the items that are paper, pencils, crayons, pens, or paint and seperate them in the freezer ziploc bags.Then if you have more then one child, like me I put on the Ziploc big bag their name and I wrote art bag and put their initial on it so they would know which one was their's. This one is Hunter's.
Then you put all the stuff in the bag. Awesome, huh! Easy storage easy for them to get at and they get to choose what they want to do!

Pretty cool! I even have Grace's ponies in one and they are great for putting toys in. You just have to make sure they do not put them over their heads so I just watch my kids when they have them or just take the stuff out of the bag and put the bag up high and when the kids are done just have them put their stuff back in. :)

new bed pic

2010-12-12T14:43:00.001-08:00

Here is my new bed! I didn't make it up perfectly and it is a work in progress needs more pillows but you get the idea. Grace's crib is on the left and I think this next week I am going to transition her into her big girl bed. I have Thursday and Friday off so if I lose any sleep over it I don't have to go to work. I can't wait till her cribs out and Hunter's dresser is out than I can get nightstands next, then dressers that match and curtains! Alot more to do but it will take time but here what it looks like now!

Here is a picture of our bedroom with the old king size bed and we had to move Grace's crib over to the left for pictures to put on the flyers for when we tried to sell our house. This is the first time I have had a headboard since I was a teenager and had a waterbed. Super excited about the new bed!

Goodbye to old bedroom maybe in a few more months I will have a new bedroom to show you all!

my secret weapons...

2010-12-10T21:32:00.001-08:00

Here are my secret weapons for getting through this Canada time. Don't laugh! :)

1. Trader Jo's wine (why cause it is cheap)
2. Trader Jo's tamales (again cheap, easy to make and it isn't pasta)
3. Pretzel M & M's
4. Music
5. Candles
6. Books by Barbara Delinsky, Luanne Rice, or Jodi Picoult (at the moment)

So there you go. Crazy I know. I used to always get processed cheese in a jar when Larry would not be home for a day or so but my stomach doesn't like that anymore so these are my other vices that make me happy.

me and the present.

2010-12-09T21:49:00.000-08:00

Hello all. So here is a recap of what is going on with me in a nut shell...

**Larry and I are in marriage counseling.

**We are working on us. Rings are on so that is a plus :)
**He leaves tomorrow for Canada .

**Canada for me isn't my favorite I don't want to be a single mom, but I have to see the positives of it. I am paying off debts and get quality me time with the kids. Do I like it, nope. But is making Larry happy one of my goals, yep and this is what he needs to do right now so I do it. Will see how it all turns out. Do I have alot of issues with Canada? Yep, but I am working on them and dealing with them and communicating more. Am I a stronger and different person than last December? Yep, I am and watch out family and friends cause I am only getting stronger :) Mean that in the nicest way, I promise.
**Have I learned alot about myself? Yep, I realized that I didn't stand up for myself, I didn't take charge, I didn't learn how to fight, and I didn't communicate and learn and now I am. Am I sorry that I didn't? Yep, but I am not perfect nor will I ever be but I am learning. I have to figure it out so that I can teach my kids what I didn't do right and how they can learn from me and be a good example.
**So, that is the skinny on me. Watch out world I am just beginning to learn about me and I am getting stronger and fiestier if that is even a word. :) Also, I got alot of sleep in the last two days with my vacation that I feel like a new woman!

**I love music and can't get enough of it.

**I might be addicted to words with friends on my iphone but I am not that good like Larry and Corey! (I think they might be cheating). :)

**I am trying to use up all my old candles for new ones especially ones on timers love those and the ones that plug in. Love those!

**I think I found my new calling...home decorating. Love it!

**I love wine. There is something about it that just calms me. Is that bad? Probably.

**I am addicted to reading Pioneer Women and coupon blogs.

**I am so close to another debt being done that it is killing me these last couple of months. Darn the holidays! I mean that in a good way but it makes budgeting just a tiny bit harder but I love to get gifts and shop!

**I am back to my regular weight just in case you all were wondering. :)

**I wear makeup now when I get a good nights sleep and the kids aren't bears in the morning and if the animals let me sleep.

**I have tomorrow off!

**I get to go celebrate my Grandma Worthington's life tomorrow! She was a great woman and I wish that I took more time to get to know her but under the circumstances of life I didn't. She was a great Christian woman. She walked down the aisle for me with the other grandma's at my wedding and came to showers that I had. She had the meanest cat ever but she loved him. She had a great basement that all the grandkids would hang out at cause they were bored and older and didn't want to hang upstairs with the parents. Grandma Worthington, you will be missed but you left some pretty great people to take care of us. :)

Night everyone!

New bed

2010-12-08T14:31:00.000-08:00

I bought a new bed! I have to take a picture of it but I just sold the bed my mom was letting me use it was a twin bed and I was to long for it so I bought a bed at Ikea last weekend and I love it. Larry gave me some Christmas money to get it and selling my mom's twin bed on Craigslist today has helped pay for it. I love it but I have to take back the comforter cover and get a smaller size than I will take a picture of it! My bedroom is my next project to tackle. Once that is done I think that the house will finally look homey and not miss matchy. My goal is to have it semi-finished by Grace's birthday next month. The kids had fun with the box that came with the bed. Larry put it on their bed and they colored it, stickered it, painted it and put holes in it and toys in it. It is their fort spaceship and Grace's bed is the main part of the fort spaceship. She is still in her crib but maybe soon she will make it to her big girl bed. I have the rest of the week off so I want to make sure she gets naps so maybe this weekend will tackle her crib and take it down and get her in her big girl bed. I love vacations. I am getting things marked off my list!

Here the kids are painting over their stickers and coloring job.

Finished project!

I think that I might be addicted to selling items on Craigslist! I love doing it and getting cash to buy things we need! I also am loving buying items on Amazon! There is something cool about getting packages in the mail! I bought two Xmas items for the kids and another two for family. It is so much easier then dragging the kids out and standing in lines with them. I love online shopping!

been a long time since I posted...

2010-12-04T14:35:00.001-08:00

Sorry everyone I haven't posted in forever! New fresh look for the holiday's on my blog now. I have been very bad in taking pictures and have none for November and I am amazed that I didn't and alot when on in November like Hunter doing soccer! Bummer, I will just have to be better at taking pics I was mostly taking pictures on my phone that is why. The kids are huge and talking up a storm. Larry and I are working on fixing our marriage. Rings are back on which is awesome and communication is much better. Looks like he will be back in Canada next week so back to single mom until Christmas but I have done it this long I can do it some more. It was nice to have him be with us for longer than a month. I am working on my debt maybe in 2 months I will be done with another credit card debt. Can't wait for that! Trying to not spend alot on Christmas this year trying to budget for it but it is hard when I want so much and to get the kiddos so much but I keep telling myself they are good in the toy department. Grace is getting alot of hand me down toys for Christmas so that helps. Hunter, I am going to have to get a couple things but that is better than buying so much for two.

Here the kids are decorating their sugar cookies they had a blast and Grace ate more of the sprinkles and frosting than she put on the cookies. Hunter was a pro at frosting and decorating.
Here is one attempt at getting Hunter to pose for Christmas card pictures. I gave up cause both kids were not in it. But this one sorta came out. :)

So there you go. Just a little update on my blog. I will try to be better about blogging but we have been so busy just doing things here and there.

My little loves :)

2010-10-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

My buddy who has to wear sunglasses when the sun is out :( He got a "normal eye exam" but he still wears them. Must be a white boy with blue eyes thing. My ever curious Grace. She doesn't fear alot of things if I am around her. She will follow her brother anywhere and anytime.
My baby girl who will rarely let me put hair pretties in her hair.
My big boy who loves dirt and mud.

and trains with pumpkins on the front of them :)

My kids love animals. Grace would take a bunny rabbit home if she could.

Grace, who looks like me, talks up a storm and loves OJ.

Hunter, who looks like Larry, loves wii, playing on the computer, and laughing with anyone.

So this is what my little loves look like right now. They make me laugh, smile, scream, and cry but I know when I wake up in the morning they are with me. They give me hugs and kiss me and that means the world to me. :)

rest of the kiddos room pics

2010-10-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the kids bunkbeds and organizer on the laundry door. Here is the other side. Cluttered I know but it was the best I could do for a small room for two kiddos. Thanks Cammie for making Grace's name sign I finally was able to put it up! I was going to put up curtains to hide the toys in the wall closet but thought no the kids can get in easier without it.
Here are the new closets! Nice, huh?! I put baskets and bins above them to put their snow wear and bedding in but I couldn't reach it when I needed to put Grace's swimsuits in and that is why stuff is spilling out. And than Hunter has his baby memorialia on the wall :). This is the wall I need to put up their coat and hat hooks and then I am done!

Next I will try to blog Hunter's soccer game pictures and I took 205 pictures at the pumpkin patches we went to do today so I got to weed out some pics through that. But for the most part I think I am almost caught up on blogging!

a first

2010-10-17T13:28:00.003-07:00

This is probably the first time I put a picture of me up on my blog willingly. More pics to come :)

pics that i promised...

2010-10-16T21:47:00.001-07:00

Not the greatest picture but here is one part of the fish tank wall that is done. I still have to get a big art frame to put between this and the fish tank wall to fill up the wall. I hope to get the frame tomorrow at Kohl's with a coupon :) The shelf here is from IKEA a steal. The silver collage frame has already been changed to a picture of us (minus Grace she wasn't born) rafting with Hunter and Uncle Corey. I did the peacock feathers for something different and for height and it was cheap. They are sitting in a Starbucks frap jar and yes I cleaned it but I thought why not and the rocks are from the rocks outside. Super cheap. Used a gift card on the candle holders and candles (thanks Lindsey and Corey!) and I bought the frame of Multnomah Falls cause we took the kids there and they love falls so I wanted to give them something they new about. Hunter wanted the gourd on the shelf cause I had just bought them to put on the table. Again, not the greatest picture but I am still trying to figure out the lighting with my camera. Grace was getting mad at me cause I kept getting in her way of watching Wonder Pets, her favorite show it has replace Little Einsteins. Here is what one side of the kiddos room looks like with toys all organized in their bins. Love that. I wrote about the shelves later on in this post.
Kids reading books on Grace's bed.
Hunter sleeping in his bunk bed. Grace was put in her bunk bed after falling asleep in her crib. Lasted 2 hours than she woke up and I had to move her back to her crib. She hasn't been back in her big girl bed since.

Grace's baby memorabilia finally up on a wall! The white shelves were given to me for free!
Finally a picture of the computer/office aka the room off the kitchen. Lucy put a hole in the blinds. This is her second set. After the winter I am taking them off and keeping them off. Yes, I drink wine. Love wine. The wine on the wall is 2 buck chuck...Trader Jo's wine that is $2 and something and I love it and it is great with my budget. I really, really like this new space. I used a frame table I bought when I was single living in an apartment and it works perfect for the space. The part you can't see is the cool red rug :) Tried to use alot of colors since the kitchen has a green counter top and the kitchen is basically the same room as this little nook the fridge seperates them.

The two cute kids on my screen are Grace and Nate!
I realized I didn't take a picture yet of the kids closets! I think it is because I am still putting clothes in them. Right now I have 5 bins in the living room and a table of clothes to decided whether to keep or put in a bin of clothes that haven't even worn. They got a lot of hand me down clothes in the size they are in now and I feel very blessed about that. I will try to post pictures of Hunter's first soccer game tomorrow! And pumpkin patch pictures that we will be going to tomorrow. And I will take pictures of their closets and room. Their room is almost done I just have to get a coat rack up and it is done. :)

In other news around the house. I stopped giving Hunter milk in bed big huge deal and he wasn't happy for 1 night and 1 am and has been awesome ever since. He gets Club penguin game day Wii if he doesn't drink milk or wake me up for a week and if he does this he gets the game and yes he has to continue not having milk and stay asleep. He has a couple more days to go and he gets the Wii game :) so very proud of my little dude! This is huge because I haven't slept the night through in about a year because of one or both of the kids. Also, I tossed all of Grace's bottles yesterday evening. One because she really should have been stopped a long time ago but cause of the drama in my life I wasn't at that stage in mine or hers to do it. I also dislike washing Dr. Brown bottle pieces by hand they are a major pain. She had one meltdown that lasted less then ten minutes. Threw her sippy cup once and then came back to it and she has been drinking from it since. She does ask for her bottle but accepts it and says she doesn't like the milk in the sippy cup when she gets it but after awhile she starts drinking it. Can I just say that I am so proud of both kids they are suprising me so much in what they have done in regards to the changes I am doing to them in regards to drinking milk. They are troopers and I honestly thought they were going to be more, more stubborn about the whole process of not getting something they want and are used to. I love my babes!

been awhile...

2010-10-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in awhile. Been busy. With soccer and the kiddos closets and filling them up with clothes and I am almost done with that project. I will take pictures tonight or tomorrow and post them. I am still working on my fish tank wall got most of it done just have to find one more picture frame. I know what I want I just have to look for it and see if I can get it on sale. The kids are doing great. Grace talks so much. She can count to 15 and says thank you and your welcome and is starting to say it without being told to. She has this strut she does when she walks that is pretty cute. She loves stuffed animals and right now kitty cat and puppy dog are her favs and sleeps with her and sometimes has to go to daycare with her. Too cute. Hunter, my buddy love, is doing great. He is playing soccer and learning more each time he goes to practice and does the games. He is far from knowing what to do but I am so proud of him because he is learning to listen to others other then me, Larry, and family. He is the sweetest to this one girl on his team that doesn't play just comes to practices and watches. You can tell she wants to go out there but something is stopping her. My little buddy last practice sat on the ground next to her and asked her over and over if she wanted to play soccer. Super cute. He is showing a little side of me :) He has played two games and the first was crazy for him the second it rained on him and he was miserable cause he had an eye appt before the game but he played for a few minutes. We didn't give up. I think he is liking soccer he is still alittle young but for not knowing what soccer was just to be thrown in it he is doing pretty good. I have pictures but I have to download them. I have alot of projects going on but I am getting them checked off my list. I have to finish the kids clothes and the fish tank wall then I can work on the bedroom and hopefully sleep back in my bedroom in the next month or so! Yeah! My living room can turn back into a living room I just know it will with time! :) I am also training Hunter not to have milk anymore in his bed the first night was rough and last night was a dream so I hope it keeps continuing! Got alot of cool things for him if he stops drinking milk so I think that is helping persuading him. New wii game and a hermit crab! Wii game for not drinking any milk for 7 nights (which is what they say trains kids and than they forget about it) and a hermit crab if he is dry for 7 days. He gets to pick his hermit crab out and Grace gets one to. We might have new animals in our house in 7 days :)

Promise pictures soon!

fish tank wall

2010-09-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

I think I tackled the fish tank wall and it might be complete. It isn't my best but I used what I had and I bought some things for it and used some gift cards on it. I didn't have the greatest lighting to take a picture of it so I will try for it tomorrow, but I am still looking at it and seeing what I think. I like it but I am not sure if I love it. I think I might have to swap some pictures out of a frame and than I will love it. I still have one part of the wall to finish which is the section by the fish tank and the couch but I hope to get a new couch next year so I am working with that in my head and plans. Just wanted you to know I think I got it done as much as I am going to tackle with it!

I also made freezer jam today. I think this is the first time I have. I can't remember what kind we made in 4H but I made some cause I remember taking it to compete with at 4H during the fair. The kids helped me. They washed the strawberries. They were good helpers and only fought for a few minutes over the water. Gotta love them!

I got alot accomplished this weekend! I even put shoe organizers in my closet and nailed one to the wall since they didn't come with the hooks that went on the door. I had bought a shoe organizer to go over a door and it didn't have the metal hooks and I almost threw it in the trash because I was so frustrated that they forgot to put them in the package that I just improvised and put nails in the holes and nailed it to one side of my closet. It works perfect and looks great you can't even see it.

I read My sister's keeper and finished it a couple weeks ago and cried my eyes out. I netflixed the movie but I haven't watched it yet. Was going to this weekend but I know I will cry so I got another book by the author and I am 2 chapters in and I am sucked in. Thanks Tracy for the book I loved it.

Night everyone.

such a good feeling

2010-09-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

to finally get stuff done! My house is looking alot better! I have a bed with no toys on it! Praise God. I still have big toy items that I have to figure out how to store and what to do with them but for the most part all the toys are put away! The kids room looks great! All it needs is closets! Soon, I keep telling myself...just two more weeks. Argh. My laundry room looks like a very clean room. Hardly any clothes are in there except the basket with Hunter's close from his closets with the hangers still attached to the clothes. Went to Fred Meyers today and did not find the hanging pink toy organizer so hopefully we can go one more time to Target today and see if they have one. Hunter found his dryer ball and it has a whole in it and it wigged him out so I told him after nap time we could go to Target to get a new one. He was so down with that. Hope he is still down with it when he gets up cause that is my way of getting to Target! Sneaky I know but he is such a bear about going anywhere. I have one basket of clothes to fold and put away and than my projects will be done. Nice. Sweet. I think I will take a nap since my kids are crashed and enjoy my nice, clean house. I love that feeling!

oh my goodness...

2010-09-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

I got so much done today! Even with the kiddos and even with the rain. I had a laundry room full of clean clothes that needed folding and laundry that needed clean. Well, I got some of the laundry folded and all the laundry cleaned. Tomorrow I will have it all folded and put away! My bedroom, which I haven't slept in in months cause of noisy Grace, is getting cleaned up! I gutted Hunter's room (aka the new kids room) last Sunday and put all the toys in my room and on my bed and I have slowly been going through them putting them back in his room organized and giving alot to friends and goodwill. But today I tackled it the most I have an actually have a clean room and a few more toys left on my bed to figure out where to put and store. But all the kids bins have all the right toys in them that go together and their room is coming together! Today I asked Wayne to help put up some hand me down shelves for me to get Grace's baby stuff on the wall. I have two shelves with Hunter's you can see it in the previous picture with the dresser. Here is Grace's shelves with the bins all nice and organized and FULL of toys! I am still proud of myself that I didn't spend any money on this project I just used what I had and improvised with it. I am very happy that I got the shelves for free!
Tomorrow I am pretty sure that my house will look even better! I am going to finish the laundry and put it all away and declutter my laundry room from all the mess that I have made from doing the kids room. I am going to finish cleaning the toys off my bed. I will not know what to do with my bed once it is made up. The kids love to jump on it and play with toys, read, and get tickled on it so it will be nice to have it back. I am going to get another hanging toy holder for over the laundry door but in pink for Grace's stuff and to add more pink to the room. In a few more weeks we will hopefully get all the parts for the kids closets when Larry comes home and we will get those up and the room should be almost done! Right now since I took Hunter's hanging clothes out of his closet I have them in a laundry basket until we get his closet. I can handle that for two more weeks :) I also have been working on my fish tank wall. That is a work in progress. I have to be at the discretion of my kids since Hunter doesn't like to go anywhere and Grace isn't the best at stores so we just go when I am up for the challenge. But I will have pics up of that soon. I only have 1/4 of it done and the rest is in my head and I just have to buy the stuff!

work in progress

2010-09-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here are the after pics of the kiddos toys. I still have alot more to put back in the room but I am getting rid of alot! Starting to look good! Can't wait to show you what it looks like in the end. Here is the other side where the new shelf closets go.

So can't wait but I have to wait another 3 weeks but it should look great! I am moving this dresser into the bedroom and using it there. Not sure how but it should work out pretty good.

bunkbeds in the new kids room

2010-09-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

Project bunkbeds is done! Hunter sleeps great in them. Grace still sleeps in her crib. But she knows which one is hers even though she wants the top bunk. Not sure when she will make it into her brother's room to make it their room but maybe in the next month or two or next year. Will just see. Hunter wanted his bunkbed to be colored school bus yellow which I was so not for but than Larry said it was his room and what would be wrong with it? So after awhile I agreed and realized he was right and we went to the store to get the color and thank the good Lord in the end Hunter choose white. I wanted the natural oak color but white will work to! We went to go get their closets we picked out at Ikea but the base was out of stock and we need one for each child so we are on hold with that project. But I looked online today and they have them in stock. Go figure. The will look nice they are white and they will go great in their small room! Super excited.

I was bummed this am cause Larry leaves again for Canada and to make myself feel better I tackled the kids closet and it is looking great but my bedroom is not but I haven't slept in there in months so that is ok. I am trying to move Grace out so we can have a bedroom and work on that room after the kiddos, budget willing. I will post what I did today after the kids wake up but here are the before pics...
What I want you to notice in these two pics is the closet and the white toy shelf with the bins. And remember this is a work in progress. It is helping me get through the next weeks of being a super mom. Keeping me busy with projects :) No money was spent today on the change you will see when I take pictures of what I did. I should let you know that Hunter's clothes are hanging in the closet and his toys are in baskets and it is all not organized or in order.

testing out the bunkbeds before the paint

2010-09-12T13:41:00.001-07:00

Notice a pattern with these pictures?

Neither child went on the bottom bunk. Grace was all about the top and Hunter knew his bed was the top bunk. Happy, happy kiddos!

making the bunk beds

2010-09-12T13:36:00.003-07:00

I took alot of pictures but here is a few of Hunter helping Larry make his bunk bed. It took 2 days to make them. One day of assembly and one day of painting and drying, not to bad :)

Hunter was in Heaven. He loves tools and making things. Notice his butt is dirty...cause he had to sit down on the concrete like his Papa.

bunkbeds

2010-09-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

Larry hand made bunkbeds for the kids this weekend. He painted them today so hopefully we can take it apart later and put it in Hunter's room and see how it looks. Got to go to a bbq first and let it dry then hopefully get them in his room tonight or tomorrow. I can't wait until Hunter's room is finished and both kids are in it! I will not be sleeping on the couch/bed in the living room anymore. Whoo hoo! Maybe in a month or so it will happen. First we have to see how Hunter does on the top bunk and will see if Grace goes on the bottom bunk right away or in the next few months. We are going to hopefully assemble new closets for them this week. We went this weekend and they didn't have the major piece in stock at IKEA but might have it tomorrow! Pictures to follow soon!

photoshop class

2010-08-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

I hopefully signed up for a photoshop class in Canby through the Canby Community Education. I sent in my paperwork but they were closed this week so I will know if I am in on Monday. If I get in the class is in November 3rd and 4th from 6:30-9:30pm. If anyone wants to sign up with me let me know! I had a class with this instructor and he was very nice. It would be nice to know someone in the class but if no one is interested no worries. Just checking to see if anyone who reads my blog would like to learn more about photoshop. The class cost $100. Thanks to mom and Wayne for giving me this for a birthday present. I am super excited!

I love Sunflowers

2010-08-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

I got a special suprise at work on Friday. My mom and Hunter brought me Sunflowers. My mom said Hunter picked them out himself and he said I would love them and I do. Here are my first Sunflowers for the year! I put one of them by my sink. Just so I would have more Sunflowers all over.
Hunter saw me taking pictures of them so he wanted my phone to take pictures of the Sunflowers to. So he did he knows how. Smart kid.

This is him showing me the pictures on my phone that he took of the Sunflowers. He was pretty proud. Misha was impressed as you can tell. Then Lucy got on the table to sniff the Sunflowers and Misha was on alert.

I love Sunflowers! That means my favorite time of the year....Fall is almost here!

picture of my next wall project

2010-08-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my next project. The fish tank wall! I just sold a jumperoo on Craigslist for the price of a shelf I want to buy at IKEA so that will go above the couch. Super happy about that. Going to put pics of Mt. Hood on it since Hunter is a big fan of seeing Mt. Hood when we are driving. Also, I have up my sleeve getting a picture that Larry has taken of either Oregon or Canada and developing it at Costco doing the frame picture and doing a big one. Should be cool. Trying to stay away from putting pics of the kiddos on this shelf but will see. They are on each wall as it is. :) The other day I was trying to get rid of toys and clean out the toy bins and get ready for when Larry comes home and we make the Hunter's room into the both the kids room. It will be a slow transition but we have to cut down on toys and get more organized. So here are the kids enjoying playing on my bed with the toys that I had organized in nice piles. No more nice piles as you can see. :)

camera strap

2010-08-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

I ordered a new camera strap! Super excited. I found this website off of My Charming kids blog. I ordered the Agua leaves fabric with a lens cap holder. I wanted to show you what it looks like but I haven't learned the cut and paste part of blogging yet. So here is the website I ordered it from. Can't wait for it to come! http://sheyb.bigcartel.com//

Wanna know what I do...

2010-08-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

when I put Hunter in bed and Grace is asleep? It is an addiction of mine. I go to the computer and check out Pioneer Woman's blog. It is on my favorite's to see on my blog. I love her. I love how she writes, I love her pictures, I love how she shows how to take pictures, I love her way of showing how to cook things. Yep, I am addicted. If you haven't checked her website out you should! She posts something new everyday about her life, a new recipe, and new photography everyday or close to it. Maybe you can get addicted with me?! :)

I am going to work on my house projects tomorrow night going to hopefully finish up the touch ups on my red wall. I got so many ideas for the rest of the house but we are working on saving to make bunkbeds for the kiddos to have both kids be in Hunter's room and we are getting new closets for them so we are saving up for them this next month. Super excited about that project! Going to hopefully tackle making a bunkbed and assembling closets when Larry comes home in September. Should be fun and I will do before and after pics! But I still have plans to tackle my fish tank wall. I did take before pics so I have to post those soon. Maybe tomorrow. I will have some extra time on my hands tomorrow! :)

big girl pull ups

2010-08-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

My baby is potty training herself. I have no part in this. She all of a sudden wanted to go potty on the toliet and I have let her. She started this with me last Saturday and by the fourth time going to the bathroom and it was only 9am I had to go get pull ups for her. It was too much work taking her diaper off and putting it on. I also didn't believe that we were in the potty training time of her life. But we are. She went poo and pee in the toliet all day. Once she had her first pair of pull ups on she would not let me put a diaper on her she threw a fit. So I gave the rest of her diapers to daycare and we have pull ups and some big girl underware. But she is all about her big girl pull ups and she calls them that. The last two days she has been not so great at going potty in the toilet but I think she is just getting used to playing at daycare and realizing she has to go. On Sunday, I was making my way to the bathroom and she followed me and asked me "mama you go potty" and I told her yes so I started to go and she said "good girl mama". Precious, isn't it?! So we will see how this goes. I didn't believe it at first cause I wasn't ready for it but it doesn't seem to be in my hands she is on a mission to be like her brother and so I will just let her. My baby girl is getting to big :(

we are good

2010-08-20T22:10:00.001-07:00

No colds here. I did notice that Grace has two teeth coming in that might be why her nose has been running like a fawcet. She has been such a joy and telling me no mamma now. And she is the worst taking to the store she wants to walk and not be in the cart and hasn't learned or mastered the no touch rule. Baby steps we are working on it. Hunter has been not wanting to go anywhere but straight home after daycare but I had to learn the hard way and he had a fit on me yesterday and today he said the same thing he just wanted to go home so I took his word for it and we came home. I am learning and it is baby steps for me. No big plans for this weekend. My house is a mess and I am just going to plug away at cleaning it and tackle my new red wall and fix the sides and moldings. I dragged out the old paint for touch ups so I am getting closer to finishing the red wall project. Next is my long wall project, this one has the fish tank on it. My ultimate goal is to get a new L-shaped couch but that will take time. For some reason I am thinking I need a pop of green on this wall even if it is in a picture. Green is just stricking to me lately not sure why. I will try to get pics taken of my new wall project the fish tank/couch wall but I can't tackle it until for a few more weeks. I got to make another trip to IKEA to get a shelf I want and so I gotta wait on that. Got some new picture/frame ideas up my sleeve for my shelf idea and see what comes of it. I also got to work around hanging with my kiddos and cleaning. My normal weekend of fun. :) I feel the need to clean out alot of toys this weekend and taking alot to Goodwill :)

colds?

2010-08-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

We have possiblity of sickness going on in our house. Grace's nose has been flowing since the weekend and she has a cough off and on. I keep sneezing and blowing my nose. Hunter coughs and sounds all nasally. I just know that we all are going to get sick this weekend. Hoping for wellness. My kids have been pretty healthy since they were born and rarely get sick, thank goodness. Knock on wood. :)

monkey's

2010-08-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hunter is my Curious George. He loves to learn new things and remembers things really well. Grace is my monkey see monkey do. If she sees her brother, me, or her Papa doing something she has to do it to. My kids are my little monkey's cause they remind me of monkey's. Hence, Curious George is a monkey and monkey see monkey do. Crazy what I come up with, huh!?!

RED!

2010-08-15T21:24:00.001-07:00

I am not a patient person. I bought "barn red" paint yesterday and had to put it on today! I started right after I put the kiddos down for their naps and Grace crashed and Hunter was talking in his bed and went to sleep after about 10 minutes. I turned off the AC and opened up the doors and windows! This was probably not the right day to do this but I was getting ready to paint! I had to recruit my mom and wayne to help with the kiddos after they woke up and once mom and Wayne got here both kids amazingly woke up at the same time. Hunter wanted to stay home with me he gets in a funk and just doesn't want to go anywhere but Grace was all for leaving with them. So the wall took me about 3 hours or less to do! Pretty good for my first time painting all by myself! I chose the color, put up the tape...Wayne helped to.. and I painted it all. Yes I have to touch up all the sides and yes my pics still have the blue tape on the sides but I took it off tonight and now I have to take a few days to finish up the touch up. I love my new red wall! Larry likes it to I texted him a pic he went back to Canada today. Maybe that is why I wanted to get this project started it gave me something to do. (my next project is to get scratch protectors for the shoe rack and moving the rug out from under it so it just will have the wood shelf.)
Here it is! If you don't remember what it looked like before read the last post. The paint dryed up very quick because I had the doors and windows open cause of the smell and it was such a hot day. When Grace came back with my mom I closed up the house because it had gotten up to 85 degrees. The smell of the recycled paint wasn't too horrible, yes you could tell it wasn't the same ole paint smell but for only being a little over $10 it did a great job. Don't you love my floor cleaners? Yes, I still need to clean my floor but I keep looking at my new red wall. Love it. Anne gave me the idea to paint it cause my previous wall color was blending into my new white frames. So I came up with red for my wall color. Love, love, love it.

I have found I love to decorate walls and take pictures and make something out of them. Maybe I can put it to good use sometime :) I got projects in the works :)

next wall project

2010-08-15T09:19:00.001-07:00

This is my next project. I am painting this wall red. And put a welcome sign up on the left hand side wall. I bought paint yesterday and I am so excited about it! It is recycled paint that cost $10.70 a gallon! It is from paint that people drop off at the recycling center and they take it somewhere and make batches of 10 colors and than sell it. It was the only red they make and it is perfect! I took the last gallon but they can try to locate more if I need it but I don't think I do. If your interested in getting this kind of paint I got it at Miller's in OC. They said it smells like recycling the first few days but than it goes away. So if that is all that will be the downside I think I can handle it to save a few bucks! So hopefully soon I can paint this wall and show you all!

first wall done

2010-08-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

The look before.

My new curtains! The color is a red barn with gold designs. The first curtain attempt. I learned to buy longer curtain rods learned a lesson about that.
Went and bought longer ones with cute orange glass balls.The look after! Love it so much better. Yes, they aren't perfect the house got added on so one window is slightly higher than the other. But I don't care it looks worlds better!

wow!

2010-08-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

My 19 month old daughter has shown me today that she can pee and poo in the toilet! This is the first time for me and she did it for my mom one other time before this. At first I didn't want to take her to the bathroom when she said mama I go pee. I thought seriously are you just pulling my leg. So we all went in the bathroom and ten minutes later she did it! I can't believe she did it but she did! Than after nap she wanted to go pee again and she did it in the toilet! Where did my baby and little girl go?! So very, very proud of my Grace!

so much has gone on

2010-08-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start. I put my curtains up but I haven't posted a picture yet cause I am not 100 % in love with them yet. I got too short of curtain rods, I think and I just bought some more today that are wider than I think I will love them. But I got to get them up now. Maybe this weekend I will get them up and post a picture of them. It is crazy what curtains can do to a room. Right now they make the room alot darker cause of how much light is coming through the window hence that is why I have to put them further out on the wall so I can expose more window. But they do make the room look different and more homey. I also am going to find a red paint to paint one wall red and it should make a nice difference.

I celebrated my 34th birthday on Sunday. I went to the beach with Larry and the kids. It was a nice day. I also went and spent the day the Saturday before and went wine tasting for the first time with some of my girlfriends. I had a blast! I will post pics and more info about that soon. Life has to slow down in order for me to post stuff on my blog but it will be coming soon. Pictures will be posted soon too!

I might even update you on my life and tell you where I am at but not in this post.

new look

2010-08-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

I am obsessing about curtains! I got some today and I think they are going up later today! So excited! So here is my new look of the living room before the curtains!

Here is my new table. It used to be a big farm, square type table that seated 6 and I went and got a small round table. It actually works out better and the kids seem to like it cause they are right by you when you eat with them. The flowers are from our front yard. The rug underneath I took out of the house today. It was driving me crazy. We have had it for years and it gets so much animal hair on it and playdoh that when I vaccum it it takes forever. So it went out the door to the shed. Here is the room the way it looks right now minus the rug!
Here is another view of the room. I even mopped the floors today while the kids were sleeping. See Kramer on the chair? He likes it without the rug underneath :)
Here is a picture of the new computer area. The computer usually is on the right side of the table but when Larry skypes us we have to move it to the middle cause the cord is too small. The table is an old table of mine before I met Larry when I lived in my apartment. Love the purple curtains!

Here is a painting that my mom painted for me. I moved it to another wall. The shelf is a free item I got from Davies Clinic. They used it to put pamplets on it. Love it!

Here is my very curly hair girl! Aren't her curls so pretty?!

This is my new framed wall. I had it full of frames and took them down and puttyed the holes and put fresh paint on it with new frames from Ikea. They are so cheap and I love them! I am thinking of painting this one wall red so the white frames pop out more.

Here is my new star that I bought yesterday! So excited about it! It only cost $8.98! I got it at a store in the OC called Real Deals Home Decor. Love that store it was my first time in it and I loved it! But I had my kiddos with me and I learned they can't go with me there again. They wanted to touch everything and I about had a heart attack cause I didn't want them to break anything. The store is over by Home Depot and they have great things to put on your wall!

I love this! It is a shelf that I got for free at Dr. D's house. I got to go to his house during a week day on working hours and help Linda take stuff to a huge garage sale at Hope Village and she needed help taking stuff there. So I got to see what they were giving away and if I wanted it I could take it! So the shelf became mine. I am looking for some hanging words that say welcome on it to hang on the pegs and then I should be done. The candle holder was free got that from Annie and I put my fake candle that has a timer in it and it turns on at 7pm and I have no clue what time it turns off probably midnight. I bought the frame for cheap and put pics of the kids and Misha on it. The Ansel Adams pic is from when I lived in my apartment.

Kiddos checking out the flowers I had just put them on the table.I will post pics later of what the living room looks like with curtains if they go up!

Pete

2010-07-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

I have a new fish tank cleaner boy. His name is Pete and he is a Pleco fish. He should be a great help with cleaning the fish tanks algae problem. I hope. Welcome to the family, Pete! I would take a picture of him but he is hiding under a big bushy, algae infested plant and isn't ready to come out and clean yet.

hello my friends

2010-07-22T21:37:00.001-07:00

I am still here. My kiddos are both asleep and have been since 9:15pm! Love that! I am doing great. Loving life and things are looking up. Can't blog yet about it but my family might be staying together. Fun and exciting stuff is happening but it is my secret. :) I wanted you all to know I have added a couple new blogs on the right side of some of my favorite places to go to. Check them out! I love my new camera but I feel bad all I have done is turn it on and it asked me to do the date and I had to turn it off. Didn't want to break it yet. :) But I did get the camera case set and took all the products out of their not so cool plastic cases that didn't want to get off. So I think tonight I might turn on my camera again and see what I can do.

My Hunter has been so much better with this last trip with Larry leaving I think that we are on the home stretch. The only thing that has changed is he started being wet at nap time and bed time so minor adjustment. He also stopped eating but we are working on that one and he is getting better. He also has issues with sharing and hitting his sister on the head but we are working on that. Sigh. I love my buddy and he keeps me going. He also gives really great loves. And it is so heart wrenching when he says sorry mama for things he really doesn't need to be sorry for. My buddy and I are learning. Learning together. Grace is such a talker I can't even tell you what or how much she talks. She just talks and repeats everything you say and talks just like Hunter. She loves to sing and she can sing her ABC's fast and slow. She can sing almost a whole entire kids CD of songs by herself. She can count up to 12 she did that today. She can say so much I wish that my baby girl would stop growing up so fast.

Today Grace put on two little swimmers one on each foot and had a fit cause I didn't want her to have them on. So we compromised. I let her wear her pj's with one little swimmer on over her pj's. She wasn't happy with this at all she wanted two one on each leg but after ignoring her she settled down and wore her one little swimmer over her pj's and looked so funny but I loved it. Gotta love stubborness.

My Hunter LOVES Thomas the train. He got a train set the other day with some bday money that we had left over. That boy could play forever (if his sister doesn't come near the train set) and play and play with his train set.

I got a new...

2010-07-18T21:28:00.000-07:00

very nice camera for my birthday! It came to me early with everything included. A bag, a card, a battery charger, a cleaning kit, my very own card reader, a screen guard, a mini tripod! I also got photoshop! I also got money to go to a photograpy class! I am set! Thank you to my mom and Wayne for doing this for me! Better pictures are on there way once I figure out how to work this awesome camera I got!

18 months!

2010-07-17T13:55:00.001-07:00

OMG, I am so behind in blogging it is crazy! First thing first. My baby turned 18 months last week and she had her check up yesterday and here are her stats!

Weight~ 24 lbs (she wouldn't step on the scale not sure how true this weight is)
Height~ 32 inches

I didn't get a print out of her head circ. so I will check her chart but it isn't as big as it has been.

My big girl can talk, talk, talk. She wants to do everything herself even walk to the car to get in her car seat. She pretty much wants to do everything like Hunter does. She is such a joy and I am blessed to have her as my daughter. Now if she can just stop growing so fast that would great! Here she is with her Cousin Nate. I heard yesterday that she called him Nathan Arthur at daycare. Which is his name. She is such a goof. Nathan is almost 1 month older and they both keep us on our toes. They are too much fun.

my babies

2010-06-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

my babies are growing to fast for me. i love them to pieces. today i was reminded that they are my life and my life choices are for them and my life decisions are for them and i hope that in years to come that they will realize that i love them with my whole entire heart and soul. my big boy, hunter has been saying mama i love you and let me tell you i love it. my grace bell can count from 1-10 pretty good and she talks up a storm and repeats words very, very well, which makes me proud but makes me realize my baby is getting too big for me. makes me realize i will probably not have any more babies. my babies are getting so big and life is going by too fast. i love them to pieces and this is getting easier to handle cause of the age they are at. it is so much easier to have them both walk to the car and both talk to me and tell me what they want. it is easier for them to play together and hang out with each other and for me to play with them on the floor forever and just enjoy being in their presence and them in mine. i love my babies too pieces and i hope that i show them that everyday. they are my life. they make me smile and laugh. they keep me up and let me not get much sleep but i wouldn't trade them for the world. i love my hunter bear and my mouse so much that i hope they see that everyday in my face and i am so blessed to be there mother and to kiss them, hug them, talk to them, laugh with them, and go through all the not so fun drama of learning how to deal with life dramas through tears, screams, falls, and sadness. i love my two kiddos to death and i would do anything for them and i hope they someday will realize that and see that they are my world.

been awhile

2010-06-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. I am doing great. Life is still crappy but I am doing awesomely well thank you! I am excited about life excited about whatever happens and ready to take everyday as a good day. I think it must be the sun or keeping the plants alive around my house or just redecorating the house and learning more about me and just being excited about the unknown instead of dreading it. Bring it is my new motto again. I took the house of the market. Paid off a debt. Divorce hasn't started but I am moving forward with whatever life brings me. I am making changes in the house and it is looking nice but empty in some areas it will take time and budgeting to get it to what I have invisioned in my head. Kids are doing great. They weren't at the beginning of last week and we powered through that and we all learned new lessons and how to make it through it and we are still working on a few lessons on who is in charge and the word no and not to scream. I am also trying to learn to be more patient and give loves more and hug and kiss my kiddos like crazy. I need it and they need it so why not give them all the love I want to give. I haven't taken any pictures with my camera. I have been taking more with my phone it is hander and easier to send them out to family members by just clicking a button and not downloading all the time. I have to learn how to download them from my phone to the computer.

So that is what is going on. I am surviving and alive with life and ready to deal with whatever comes my way. Watch out world I am not the same person I was last year! I am super crazy and I will show you all that I know that I am a beautiful person and a great mother of two growing up to fast for me kiddos and I am learning everyday that I am sexy even if I don't get sleep and if I wear makeup or not. :) And my kids love me for me even when I am sad, mad, tired, or grumpy and I love them to pieces when they are that way to.

Hugs to everyone!

books

2010-06-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

The last few days driving in my car with the kids has been anything but fun. Hunter's new thing is not liking anything and doesn't like Grace doing anything. He doesn't want her happy music on he doesn't want her to be sleeping and so on. Enough to make me want to scream in the car. Today was the worst. So I don't know when I thought of it today but we have way too many books in the bookshelf and I took all the toys out of the car and stacked books in between the carseats alot of their favorites. Gave them each a book and it was Heaven going to Target tonight for milk. Both were reading and getting new books from between them even Hunter shared a book and gave it to Grace and Grace sang to her happy music while reading a book. It was very cute to hear them point and read their books and I would ask them if they see such a such since I have read every book to them I don't know how many times. Alittle bit of Heaven back in my car. I hope it lasts.

so many things i want

2010-06-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when you want so many wordly items that you know you want to have or can't afford? I certainly do! But I am going to budget and work towards buying the items I want after I am good with household items and things for the kiddos than I will set aside money for the items I want. My plan right now is to rearrange my kitchen/desk area. Very excited! I will start working on this area maybe tomorrow or next week. Gotta stop buying things and be a pack rat for a few days and then maybe I will do a major makeover of that area! Keep you posted! Going to try to only spend $175 on making it all different will see how I do. Before and after pics will certainly be taken!

coupon class

2010-06-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

I went to a free 1 hour coupon class tonight at the Canby Public Library. It was awesome. Learned alot and I am excited to start saving money on brand name products! The lady that taught the class was so real and excited and a mother of 4. Here is her website www.FrugalLivingNW.com and she posts coupon deals on there so you don't have to spend hours looking for good deals. This is what I learned from the class. To budget for your family do $100 per big/adult person in your family per month, $75 dollars on a child per month, and $50 on a baby per month. And this is for food and household items for them. The goal of couponing is to get name brand for equal or cheaper than Winco or Walmart. Those printable coupons you get at Fred Meyers or other stores you can use them at anyplace if they say Manufacture coupon on them even if it has Fred Meyers on the right hand side. Safeway especially will honor these! Stockpile your pantry with things you need in bulk with your coupon savings with double coupons and than you will be able to spend more on everyday items. Once a year buy the condiments and baking items cause they are on sale for very cheap once a year if you stock up on them at those sales than you should be good for a year. I learned so much more I would recommend going to her website and going to the classes section and seeing when her next class is it is worth it. You never know you might save alot at the register the next time you go to the store. If you do save alot let me know I would love to hear about your savings! If you save than you can spend on other things in your life like buying organic food or buying more clothes for you and your family.

I also got the book...Be thrifty. How to live better with less. Going to start reading that one soon. Can you tell that I am on budget, survive through this all and super momma mode? :)

lucy.

2010-06-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

My cat Lucy is my favorite cat. She was with me when I was dating Larry. I had two cats when I meet him and than I lost them and Lucy came in my life. She is 9 years old. I don't know when she was born I just know I got her and had her a year before I was married. So I just add a year and that is how I remember how old she is. She sleeps by my head alot of the time at night. I never hear her she doesn't purr like Kramer does and she is pretty quite. Why am I blogging about her? Cause I was reading blogs that I like to look at and she is sitting on the computer on the mouse wire with her chin on the upper part of the computer desk watching the computer screen. She is usually in the same room as me and I think as she gets older she gets closer to me and hangs out closer to me on the couch and hanging out at night and sleeping by. She has been the most healthiest of all the animals and I can't remember the last time we took her to the vet other than to get her fixed as a kitten. I hope she stays with me until she is too old to be a cat. And I never blog about her. She does wish she was an outside cat but I don't have the heart to let her have her wish cause that is how I lose my cats to the outdoors. No thanks I would like to keep my cats and if she is ok with hanging out with me and the kids than she is stuck inside!
Ok so I had to take her picture she looked to funny to me. Here she is hanging out with me. Notice my Photoshop books I borrowed from my mom in the background. I haven't opened them yet but will in time.

You crack me up Lucy!

music, music, music

2010-06-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

A coworker told me today that my obsession with music is a way for me to get away from what is going on. And you know what? She is right. I just got another Lady Antebellum album. Love it. Love the songs love the words. I want to be loved in that way if you know what I mean. Just want to be loved. Who is going to want a divorced, single mom of two in huge debt and working on her issues? Someone I hope cause that is the only thing that is keeping me going. I wish it was Larry but I have to take a big breathe and realize it probably isn't going to be so maybe in a few years I will be loved again. Until then I will listen to music because that is a way for me to escape and realize what I want. Maybe it will happen. Maybe it will not but I got my kids and music.

I lost Misha yesterday

2010-06-06T15:42:00.001-07:00

My heart dropped when I found out I lost her. I was at the Robinson's with the kids and Misha. I had put her collar on before we all loaded up in the car. I take her collar off everyday cause it is noisy and when the kids sleep and at night. I am 50/50 about putting it on when we go places. Yesterday, we hung outside in evening in the sun in the backyard and the pool pump was getting fixed. I don't really keep track of Misha she has been at this house for 4 years but today we weren't in the pool just fixing it and she must have got away between the pool shed cause she is small enough to. I now know. Larry got the call about her. He is in Canada and his number is on her collar. Corey took the call and went and picked her up where the people told Larry where she was at. I was moritifed. I didn't even know I lost her or that she was gone or how long she was gone. I am so thankful her collar was on. I am so thankful that Larry has his cell phone in Canada. I am so thankful she is back. She is my firstborne in my eyes cause she was the first little thing we brought up. I lost Misha yesterday but I am very thankful she is with us today.

music

2010-06-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

I love music! I love music alot more now than I did before. I listen to the words and just enjoy listening to it. I love to sit on my porch on nice nights and just listen to my phone and plug in my earphones. I love to hear my kids sing. I love to listen to Grace sing she is my singer of the two.

bored

2010-06-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

I am bored.

Thanks Jesse for the book recommendation my mom ordered it for me so I will see if it works. Tonight was a good night for me and the kids. No meltdowns no screaming no problems with listening. Thank goodness.

Grace is getting sick her nose is running and I woke up with the same stuff so I hope we both don't get sick this weekend it would not be fun. Grace does a pretty good job singing she can say words to Twinkle Twinkle and ABC's not all of the words but she will say a good portion. She says Mama, where are you? When she can't find me it is very cute and enduring. I seriously think her hair grew another curl or two just from this am. She seems older to me to and seems to be growing like a weed. It might be cause she talks so much that I think she is a big girl. She makes funny facial expressions to and she has a fake cry it is funny. She loves popcorn and has to have it everyday. She can sing some of the words to the Little Einstein shows. She will only wear her jelly shoes and will only wear a certain pink coat and will have a fit if she doesn't like what you put on her to wear. I know I am in big trouble. This isn't supposed to start until they are 2 or 3 but for some reason it has started already in my almost 17 month old. She has to have both her pink and blue blankies now just not one. She has to have her "happy" music on in the car. It is a kids CD that the first song is if your happy and you know it clap your hands and so on. She sings to every song a word or two it is pretty cute to watch and listen. Yes, I don't listen to my music anymore in the car when I have the kids there. It is very nice when it is just me in the car cause I can listen to whatever I want. Grace loves to sit on counters and just hang out there and watch whatever you do. She is the pets little keeper. She will tell the cats no and tell Misha to go potty and tell her not to bark when she barks. She is my little drill sergeant. But yesterday I had the longest cuddle session with her ever and it was wonderful it was for about 10 minutes and it was per bliss.

My Hunter has been my struggle but I think we both our struggling so I need to take a step back and just give him as much love as I have in me and not think of what is to come or what isn't in his life. I need to focus on him and not take it out on him and enjoy every moment I have on him and deal with him looking just like Larry and enjoy Hunter for who he is and who he is becoming. We had a good night we watched Ratatoullie and he liked it this time the last time he didn't like it and that was maybe 9 months ago but today I asked a coworker and my mom for some DVD's to borrow to see if he would like them for something new and since I didn't have plans for this weekend and it is raining wanted something new for him to watch and see if he liked. He is doing awesome at going potty! He is a rock star with it. We just have to conquer the night part and we are home free. I have to get a plastic cover for his big boy bed any suggestions on where to get one of those? His bed came from IKEA but I don't think the have the plastic sheet but wouldn't any do? The last three nights he hasn't woke up demanding milk or his door to be opened cause I keep telling him when he goes to bed if he wakes up and it is dark not to ask for milk cause Grace and I are sleeping and if he goes back to sleep and wakes up and it is sunny in his room than he can have an M&M with his Vitamin. I know sugar in the morning is bad but it has worked for the last 3 nights and he hasn't asked for the M&M in the am with his Vitamin and he says no when I ask if he wants it. Now I just have to get Grace figured out with her belly and why she keeps screaming and grunting and moving around about 4:30am and wakes up at 5am. I think I am going to try giving her soy milk at night before she goes to bed or put probiotics in her bottle before she goes to bed to see if that works. I also got her fluoride which I haven't tried with her yet cause Hunter's belly didn't like it at all he had diarrhea with it. So maybe it will make her more regular will start that tomorrow with her Vitamin. I know the Vitamin could be one of her causes for her belly but I got to keep doing it cause she sees Hunter get his and she wants one so I gotta do it for her health. I am actually going to go purchase something for the kids tomorrow! We are going to Target to see if we can find a Quasedilla maker and make those and peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches with it and omletes with it. A coworker suggested it so I thought I would get one and let Hunter help make stuff and see if he will eat better with it. He loves to cook so I thought why not.

I am going to a free 1 hour coupon class at the Canby Library in a couple of weeks I am pretty excited about it I hope I learn some new ways to save money and budget buying food better! I want to take a photography class but not sure when. My goal is to get the next class done that follows the one I went to and than take a Photoshop class before my birthday and maybe get the Photoshop program and treat myself for my birthday and than be set for awhile and start taking better pictures of the kiddos and photoshopping them on the computer. I got 2 more months to get to that point so I am saving for that and figuring out how to reach that goal on top of everything else going on.

I better jet Hunter isn't asleep yet but I either need to read a chapter or two in my Red Tent book or watch another episode of Food Revolution. Night to you all thanks for letting me ramble on. This friday night is almost done. I hope my baby Grace sleeps good with her snotty nose and that my Hunter Bear sleeps like a rock tonight and that me and the animals sleep through the whole night until 7 am. It is a nice dream but maybe it will happen tonight?!

listening

2010-06-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

First off a friend gave me a copy of Colbie Caillat CD! I love it! Thank you dear friend!

Second, I wore my new make up today and put it on in stages because of the kiddos. Put on my powder blush at home and at a stop light put on the light shade on my eyes and before I got into work I put the rest of the eye make up on. Felt very pretty. My poor hair didn't get alot of love cause I was trying to just do makeup. Baby steps and I got to get up early and try to figure out how to keep the kids from wanting my attention and getting them and myself ready in the 1/2 hour that I have. I didn't fall asleep until after midnight last night so I didn't want to get up.

Third, I need help with suggestions for teaching Hunter to listen and obey. I am having a big struggle with him with this. On top of everything that him and I are learning together with Grace watching I am just not doing this right. I tried time out I tried taking stuff away I tried spanking I tried spanking with a spoon (the worst I know) but I don't know what else to do. He has the worst temper and no patience and does not listen and wants it his way and I am so tired of him not listening to me and alot of things lately being a war even dinner at night even walking through the door cause he didn't want to go home yet. So since I don't know what I am doing I am so up for suggestions or books that anyone recommends. I have tried giving him quarters for being nice to Grace and Kramer and not screaming and that worked for a few days but not anymore. I have read Dare to Discipline and a parenting book by 2 authors but I can't remember the name but I am almost toast with the meltdowns Hunter has from just not listening and obeying and I know it is his age and what is going on around him and my emotions on top of it which I am getting better at hiding but I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions for me on how to get him to listen and obey? If I don't get him figured out his little sister is just around the corner and watching and I want to make sure I do this right.