We went to the Zoo!

We went to the zoo when Larry was home for Christmas and we went when I had New Year's week off.  It was a fun day and was so amazingly cold outside!  We were not ready for the cold and not a lot of animals where out either they must not have liked the cold!  But I had the yummiest hot cocoa ever at the zoo!  It was a great day to get out and enjoy the fresh air and we went during the week so not a lot of crowds where there.

 

Being silly

 

Got to see the baby elephant :)

 

What a picture of me and Larry?  Never happens and Hunter photo bombed it!

 

Grace looks cute in this picture in my opinion :)

Getting along and their hands were so cold!

 

Larry being silly.

These little guys are so cute all snuggled up in the sunny coldness.

These little guys too they looked so comfy I wanted to take them home.

 

 What 2 pictures taken of me on a trip?  Never!  But yes I was trying my best to get more pics of me since I don't have a lot.

 

It was a fun day and I am so glad we just decided to do it on the spur of the moment.  Next time will plan better for what clothes to wear and stay nice and toasty.

Grace turns 5!

 Grace turned 5 yesterday!

She wanted a family Chihuahua birthday party at her house.  She picked out her cake and was large and in charge. 

It was full of dog balloons!

Didn't I already say she was large and in charge?  Not sure what was happening here, but her brother wasn't doing what she wanted and Nate thinks they are so funny.  He told me last weekend they argue a lot.  I had to agree with him!

I still can't believe that she is 5 and yesterday went by so quick!  It was a fun time and yummy Mexican food and having family over was a treat!  I think she loved it and had smiles all around. 



She is 8!!!!

My Misha turned 8 yesterday!  It is so crazy how a dog can be as close as a child but my Misha is my first kid to me.  I have had a few cats but for some reason dogs are so much different then cats.  I love my Misha so much I have lost her to the outdoors about 4 times now and yes I freaked out each time but I got her back. She is my kid.  She goes with us in the car almost everywhere.  She goes to "daycare" my mom's everyday I work even if my kiddos are not there.  Since we moved to Canby and since she had to go through the separation drama she seems more in love with my kids and me and loves to have a schedule and if her schedule is out of sinc then she will tilt her head.  In the Canby house she sleeps in Grace's room now and it's fine with now that she moved out of my room and has become one of my kids and I check on her and my kiddos before I can go to bed.  I still can't believe she is 8 and that we had her one year before we had Hunter! 

I love my Misha dog so much and I would do anything for her and I love that she loves my kids and acts like a kid herself.  Happy birthday to my oldest big kid!  I love you to the moon and back Mish!

 

Tomorrow is another HUGE day!!!!

I will be a mom of 2 kids one 5 and one 6!! Eeek!

In one week and the first cookbook!

Did you know that this little polar bear is going to be 5 in one week!  Lord, help me!  Just to let you know that the last 48 hours after she got Barbie dolls and started watching the Barbie movies and cartoons she has turned into one sassy little thing and grew up in 48 hours right in front of my eyes.  In one week she will be 5 and Hunter will be 6 until March and Misha turns 7 on the 6th!  Everyone is getting big and not staying little at all!

 

My first cookbook that I am going to attack!  I already did one recipe and it was a fail but at least it was an attempt and it was healthy it just didn't taste good and no one tried to eat it but me.

 

My other cookbook is PW's I have already tried a soup last month and I hope to keep on going.  :)

Hello 2014!

I learned that to make an impossible New Years resolution doesn't benefit you at all.  So I make simple ones that in the end benefits me and makes me smile.  My favorite so far was to make sure I have flowers in my house at all times.  I have done this now for 2 years (I think) and not every month have I had flowers but I have been really close to always having flowers somewhere in my house.  They make me smile and make me feel like keeping my house clean with them in it. This year here are my New Year's Resolution and the word for the year...

1. Cook more meals!  Cook new recipes and try to go through at least one cookbook and try all the recipes that I like.  I am not a big cook and cooking scares me so this year is the year to face my cooking fears and just go for it.

2. Finish projects before doing another one.

Word of the Year

 

EMBRACE

 

I am loving this word cause I just need to embrace what I have in my life and realize that I need to do my best to make it the best.  I need to embrace my kids and husband and be thankful for them even when it is rough and stressful and I don't know what to do.  I need to embrace my family, friends, and the world around me.  I also need to embrace my dreams and wants and see what I can make of them.  :)

 

Happy New Year to you all and my it be a wonderful one for you all and embrace what comes your way be it good or not.



catching up on pic-o-rama's

I am really behind on my blog so here is a quick part 1 of pic-o-rama!  I will post more pics later too!

 

Report card was read and this big guy did amazing so far in 1st grade!  He got treated to Krispie Crème!  He tested in reading at a 275 and 300 is a 3rd grade reader!  So proud of him he has done it all on his own no help from us just him wanted to read and learn more!  When he was in Kindergarten at the same time he tested at a 1st grade winter term reader.  He is to smart and he makes me a proud mama with how he just soaks up what he learns. :)

 

Mexican dinner to celebrate Hunter's good grades!  Grace looks so grown up here she kills me with how much she has grown up and she needs to slow down!

 

Kids at school so I took Misha to the vet to check out a lump under her leg.  After taking a sample and checking it under the microscope no cancer is seen. :) and amazingly it has gotten smaller so we don't have to take her back at the moment.  She is not a fan of the vet they do things to her that she doesn't like.  So she was hiding under my legs for some much needed make her feel better about the whole situation pets.

 

Buddy's Mayflower!  And he drew so much more after this picture was taken.  He took it to school to show his teacher after Thanksgiving break cause he was so proud of it!

 

Gingerbread houses!  They wouldn't stay up so they made gingerbread cookies!

Painted toes and fingers in a pattern for Christmas...red, green, red, green.

 

Lucy did not like the really cold days we had!  The cups by her are a science project seeing how water would freeze in the really cold temperatures!

 

It snowed just a few flakes when it was just me and Grace when Hunter was at school.  We had to run out and see if we could catch some!

 

Well there you go...pic-o-rama and more to come!

before and after pics of GK's dresser

For those who asked :) here is what I did during my stay home vacation!  The cool thing is I have this week off also so will see what I get done during it!  Here is one of the projects was my kids changing table dresser.  When we put the kids in a buck bed we didn't have room for this dresser so it went to Larry's parents for a couple of years and I wanted to get a dresser for Grace and Larry suggested using this one again.  I wasn't super exited to because it was banged up and the knobs were chewed from Kramer and I wanted something cute for her.  But I listened and saved money by not buying a new dresser.  It hung out in her room for 2 weeks or so and I just couldn't take it anymore so I went and did a redo on it!  My vacation week was right when the kids were in school and one of them hates to shop (dude) and so I new I would be able to take as much time as I wanted at the store if I went when they were in school.  I am so happy with the end product of Grace's dresser!  Here is the before picture of the front...see on the left bottom drawer a chewed knob...argh!

before knobs







 

after knobs! 

Grace picked them out and they are lovely little pink glass knobs!

I am swooning with how fun the look!

So the other part of the dresser that isn't so cool is the top.  It was dirty and smeared so I love Mr. Clean cleaner erasers they work wonders!  Also, I accidently took off the paint one day I think when Grace was little from a picture with a sticky spot and the spot took the whole paint off the top.  Not cool.  And of course it was right in the middle of the dresser!  My idea was sticky paper on the top to make it all cute and if it got dirty we could just put another on later down the road cause Grace is going to have this dresser for awhile!  My mom helped me find the paper for the top since I looked and couldn't find any and I so wanted to get this done but I had the kiddos and they didn't want to venture to my fav store, Target!

before sticky paper

after sticky paper! 

I love it so!  It is a green lacey look and it goes amazing with it all!

finished product! 

 I think it looks so much better and goes so well with her walls and her bedding and making her room complete!  And now she can get her own clothes instead of me grabbing them for her she can take them out and that makes me happy!

 

Who knew pretty little knobs and sticky paper could make a mama so happy and make a dresser look so much better!  This was a fun project and I am glad it is finally done!

my new toy :)

 

I got a new computer from Larry for Christmas!!!  Happy dance!  I am super uber excited because the computer I have is a desktop that the kids use more then me and I have to wait and share it with them that I don't get to blog or do the things I want to do.  But with new little beauty I do!  I had the choice of a Ipad mini or a laptop and after a lot of consideration it was better for me with all I do and a maybe on a possible little side adventure job this was what I got!  I love that I can sit at the table with Hunter right now with it and blog while he chats away and organizes his new Lego set he is about to create!

vacation part two

Mid way through my 5 day vacation on Sunday we needed fresh air and I got new bread from my mom who made a Costco trip.  So old bread needed to get out of the house and we needed a break of being inside and I needed to get out of the house before I had to clean more things!  Eeek!

 

We went to the Canby Pond and feed birds are two leftover bread loafs we didn't eat.  See those 3 geese or swans or whatever they were they were like killers with orange feet!  They meant business and wanted bread.  Thank goodness we had the bread!

We took a nice walk around the Canby Pond and neither kiddo was listening the best and I kept yelling at Grace to not get to close to the pond  or walk on the beams close to the pond and then I thought why not take a picture after yelling at her to not do what she wanted to do.  So here is that picture she wasn't happy with me can you tell?!? But I love this picture cause it is so them.  You say lets get a picture of the both of you and guess what one of them will not want to get their picture taken guarantee!

 I got Hunter a key chain thing that has the temp and a compass on it so that is what he is checking out on his coat cause we put it on his zipper so he always has one. :)

 He said "mom get a pic of me sitting and laying on this" so I did!  For some reason I think he looks alot like his Papa in this picture.  But it just must be me.

 This girl loves to swing!  I love that she is full of color and sass but on this day she had a little to much sass going on!

Gotta love days of fresh air, feeding birds and crazy swans, playing in a park and getting dirty!  Next time we will wear gloves and bring more fun things to do but it was a good outing and bread was ate and energy was used.  Good day by all. :)

:::Vacation...Part One:::

 

Tonight is my last night of my 5 1/2 day vacation! It has been fun, stressful, projects done, house projects done, and alot of dishes were cleaned!  Today, it was a day of just me, Grace, and Misha hanging out waiting for Buddy to come home after dropping him off at school.  The above picure is me and her at Starbucks getting my much needed caffeine to make it through the morning.  I think that we all need a much needed break now from our stay vacation with each other!  Misha is like so ready to go back to my mom's each day when I am at work and my kiddos need a break from me cause I make them do stuff!  Hee Hee!

So I can't wait to show you all my projects and what I did this mini stay at home vacation!  I did the whole stay at home take your kids to school and pick up thing and that was fun and I went shopping way too much when both kids were in school but I got so much done with said shopping!  I think that I will try to blog during my lunch break cause will see how that goes since I live so close to work now!  Woot Woot!  Night everyone!

*** I am back ***

SO don't get all crazy and excited but I am back!  Not sure what I am going to do with my lovely little blog-o here but I decided to type on in tonight.  Got lots up my sleeve and mabye I will just put it down in my little ole blog that no one reads ;-)

SO this is what I got in store...

++++  projects around my new Canby abode!
++++  instragm pics since those are the only I seem to do right now
++++  guidance on how to raise my kiddos???

and maybe just maybe a little confidence to make me start with the whole Interior D. idea of my life. Probaby way to far fetch but so wanna do and will see maybe I can do it and make some extra cash o rama on the side. :)

SO yep I am back and I wrote on my blog :)

:: disappointments ::

It has been a rough weekend.  Last weekend, last week, and this weekend I have been working on the house to put it on the market to sell.  My mom, Wayne, and my friendly neighbor have helped me alot!  I so feel lucky to have them all!  My neighbor tonight knocked on my door to see if he could rota till my veggie beds that I gutted last weekend for the realtor this week. Since he was rota tilling his.  I was so happy!  I meet with the realtor on Thursday to get down to the real dirty business of selling my house.  This is the 3rd time I will try to sell this house.  The first time Larry and I tried to do it ourselves.  The second time I tried with a realtor that knew I couldn't sell it below a certain cost and we were in alot of debt.  This time I found a realtor and I/we will just have to deal with what comes our way.  I hope we sell it and don't make a loss I hope we don't have to short sell I hope we do not have to foreclose but this house will get sold if I have to go back into huge debt to sell it.  Last weekend I gutted my whole garden while my mom watch my kids for a couple of hours and last week put a ton of stuff out from the outside of my property for Canby garbage to pick up in front of my mom's house.  Garden cleaned and nothing other then the lawn mower and recycle bin around our shed.  Nice!  I decided to clean out our laundry room this weekend and all that is in there now is our washer and dryer.  Looks amazing and should have just had that in the first place but when you live in a small house toys have to go somewhere.  Did I mention the laundry room looks amazing...

Nothing in it!  Hoping people think it is amazing and just wanna buy my house!

 

Here is what I did this week.  Took everything away that was in front and the side of my house and my neighbor helped me start my mower after this picture and I mowed and it looks even better!  Now I just have to pressure wash the porch this week or this weekend and that will look better!

 

Here is the backyard.  Gutted.  Weeds gone!  And the neighbor tilled it tonight before I took this pictures 2 weekends ago and it looks amazing!

 

Things are moving along with getting this house ready.  It just sucks that I am doing it all alone right now but at least I have my mom and Wayne and my neighbor!  The neighbor and his wife don't want us to leave but he just wants to help me out.  Super cool.  I just have to get the little bathroom fixed asap (going to see if my dad can help with that) and do all that the realtor says and get this house sold!  Alot of work and alot of stress, but in the end if I can get it sold I will be so happy!  Even if it means going back into debt.  There was a reason we got out of credit card debt maybe it was to make sure that whatever debt we get in from the house we can still make it through. 

The disappointment part of my weekend is I found the perfect place for me and my crew in Canby but it was already rented.  I was and am still bummed that it didn't work out.  I just can't find anything right now for us and I just want to move and start fresh and give my whomps their own rooms and Misha a fenced yard to hang out in.  I keep trying to find this happiness that I keep hearing about but I keep getting denied.  Also, I am scared that I will not make the best decisions about my new future and it is so different it just being me that deciding what to do and I have to make these decisions alone and I just hope that I am making them right.  I am also disappointed in the decisions that other's have made around me.  I just don't get it and don't understand why but I just have to deal with it and move on.  It just sucks and I hope soon things will go my way and things start turning around for me and my little crew soon cause so far we are just doing what other's want and I want to be able to tell my kids guess what those rooms I promised you and that house I said I would get us will just come.  I know I am not that very patient but I just need my house to sell and a great deal on a house to come my way so we can move on from all these disappointments that seem to be burying me and my kids.



:: yes to carrots ::

I have found a new love...the beauty product from Yes to Carrots!  I love my Birchbox that I order each month only cost $10 and I get samples of some fun yummy stuff! And alot of it is organic and safe :)  Yesterday's box came!  Happy dance!  It had some fun stuff in it but 3 things I fell in love with were samples of Yes to Carrots products.  I have been eyeing this brand of stuff for awhile but never bought any but now I am in love!  In my box yesterday was a Yes to Carrots Lip Butter in mint.  Love this!  It is so soft and doesn't make my lips sting it is like butter.  Hee Hee, get it.  The other 2 were one time use samples of Yes to Grapefruit daily facial scrub and and Yes to Grapefruit dark spot correcting serum.  OMG!  I used it instead of my LA Fresh make up remover wipes to clean my face and didn't put any moisturizer on cause I didn't realize I was supposed to after and OMG my face was so soft and smooth this am and just soaked up my moisturizer and my face felt fresh!  I love the grapefruit line of Yes to Carrots line!  I checked out Fred Meyers for more and they had it there but I had just ordered more LA Fresh wipes that after I am done with them (30 wipes so one more month) I will probably switch to the Yes to Grapefruit stuff instead cause they have make up remover wipes too!  You all should check them out!  Yes, they are a little spendy but Paraben free and safe for your skin so so worth it!  I am so saying Yes to Grapefruit! :)

:: matter's of the heart ::

Today once again I was at Kaiser Hospital ICU cardiac unit with my dad.  He had an angiogram this last January and had 2 stents put in and now 2 more today.  I am amazed that he was back in the hospital again for chest pain but he didn't take as long to go in the hospital like in January.  This time it took him 2 days of having the symptoms not weeks. The first go round in January was scary cause I had no clue what would happen or how long angiograms would take.  This time I was more prepared.  Also, he had the same cardiologist and same anesthesiologist! That made me feel so much better cause they fixed him the first time and they were going to again.  And the anesthesiologist remembered me, too!  The cardiologist not so much.  My dad had the option this morning before I got to the hospital to increase his pills or do another angiogram and I am glad he choose to do the angiogram it pretty much increased his life span.  I am not the best daughter to my dad and I should be so much better.  He isn't my blood he adopted me and married my mom in the past.  So I am glad I am the one he calls first or second and if he doesn't call me first he calls his mom.  I realized today after going through this again with him that he is pretty darn proud of me. He loves to talk cause he is a lonely guy who lives by himself and like I said I am not the best daughter cause I don't call him alot.  So when he is around people especially nurses and doctor's he will talk and talk.  He is pretty smart and remembers alot.  He might not be school smart but he is pretty smart.  But you know what...he kept telling the nurses about me the whole time I was with him.  Nurses!  I am not a nurse I am just a medical assistant.  I went to school after being an MA to be a RN but stopped after I got married and never went back to school.  But my dad is so proud of me for what I know and do that he kept telling the RN's who know so much more then me and kept telling them I was a RN and I kept saying no I am a MA.  It is so encouraging to know that my dad thinks so highly of me when I don't when I am in the hospital setting around all the RN's.  But I wouldn't change what I am I am a MA and gonna stay one. :)   I am so glad that my dad thinks the world of me and believes in me and wants me to be the one in charge of what goes on in his life and the after.  It is a big commitment, but I would do it for him and if we have to keep doing more angiograms we got this.  He has a big heart and as I get older I am figuring that out.

:: easter ::

Pictures of my whomps and cousin Nate at Easter :)
 

 

 

They had a wonderful Easter and lots of Easter egg hunts.  We have enough candy and chocolate to last us until the Summer!