Ruby Red Slippers and a Cow?

We had a Dorothy and a Cow for Halloween this year. Sami wanted to be Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and with the help of her Nana, we accomplished the task. She looked so cute! I wanted to dress Trevor up as one of the characters from Wizard of Oz as well but as always I procrastinated and when I decided to find an outfit for him, they were all "out of stock". So Trevor ended up being a cow. He didn't mind at all wearing the cute little outfit. He wore it well. If you're wondering where Tyler is in all this, well he's a teenager now and teenagers would rather be with their friends rather than their family, so he is absent in all the pictures. Sorry.


Friday night before Halloween, we went with our friends Mark and Jen to the Fall Festival at their church in St. Louis. There were games and stuff for the kids to do there and Sami and Trevor had a good time.


Cousin Amelia came by for pictures on Halloween. She was Glenda, the Good Witch, from Wizard of Oz.

We went to my mom's before all the trick or treating begun. Trevor is walking to the front door like a big boy! He's growing up TOO FAST!!!!

Scott took Sami and her friend Merecedes trick or treating down one street in my parents' subdivision. They ended up with a huge bag of candy in half an hour! After we left there, we met up with Mark and Jen. We took Trevor trick or treating, his first time, with his favorite girl, Kate. She was Dorothy too. Kate was a cutie!!!!! They had fun trick or treating for little ones. Trevor would hesitate at each house before going up to the doors but then he didn't want to leave their yards. He was having a great time! Sami went with Merecedes and her family trick or treating in the same neighborhood as us. Sami had fun doing that. She's growing up too!

At the end of the night, the kids ended up with way too much candy as usual. They were all smiles!

Another successful Halloween!!!!

Trevor's One!!!!!

I can't believe my baby is "ONE"!!!! Trevor turned one on August 7th! (The same day has his Nana's birthday.) The time went by so fast as did the other two.

For his birthday, we got him his own playhouse. He loves to go outside on our deck and play and watch the puppies in the yard, so we thought this would be great for him to have something to play in on the deck. He loves it. He goes in and out the door and stands up on the little seats inside, opens and closes the shutter doors, etc. And his big sister and brother love the playhouse too.....go figure!



We also bought him a picnic table his size to put on the deck also. That was a HUGE mistake. The kid climbs on top of it and stands.....ack!!! He has fallen off this thing twice now and has ended it up with big ole lumps on his head!!! He is prone to falling and getting bruises anyways and this didn't help the situation any.

One of Trevor's favorite birthday gifts was the "truck" books from our friends, the Schinks. They have wheels on them and he loves to push it around and go vroom!!!

Trevor LLOOOVVVVEEEEESSSSS ice cream. He chose to eat his ice cream over the cake. As you can see, he's doing a fine job feeding himself.....hee hee!

And Trevor hates to be "dirty"! He did not like the icing on his hands and he refused to touch his cake any more than he had to. He's holding his hand in the air to "get away" from the cake. He was quite happy when we took the cake away and gave him his ice cream instead as shown above.

Trevor had a wonderful birthday! We shared this special memory with our family and our great great friends the Roskowskes, Brauns, and Schinks! Trevor is so blessed to have such wonderful people in his life to share these events and so much more ahead!

Continuation of Day 4

This was our second to last day in Branson during our vacation in June. We spent the day at the Landing in Branson which is full of great stores and places to eat. We took a moment to rest from spending too much money and let the kids play in the fountain.

Tyler just got done creating his own race car of which he is thinking about taking it out here and checking his finished project out.

Sami's just chilling!!! The water was kind of cold too!!!

And here's Scott and Trevor...Scott is flicking water at Trevor to cool him down. Of which, Trevor liked.

Sorry it took me forever to post this. Our vacation to Branson was perfect and relaxing!! We needed it and the time we spent with the kids was wonderful!!!

Branson Vacation Day 3 & 4

Ok, so it's Saturday, July 4th, and I'm just now finding time to finish our Branson vacation update. This may take awhile to finish because I'm also watching "Sex and the City", the movie. Yeah, I know, I should focus on one thing or the other and I have a feeling I'm going to have to rewatch this movie because I've had to fast forward through some parts that are not PG related:)

So lets begin....

End of Day 3: no we did not make it to White Water. Baby did not wake up until 5ish and then we of course had to feed him and ourselves, so we went to eat at Uptown Cafe. This was the place that for some reason Sami wanted to make sure we were done eating and gone before the entertainment started. I guess she was worried that like at Hard Luck Diner, someone would come sing to her like they did the boys.

Then more shopping...We did do ALOT of shopping while in Branson, basically because we're limited to what we can do with a baby. Shows are out, too long for a baby to sit through and the tourist sites, my kids wouldn't be interested.

While at Tanger Outlet, yes, I went to the Coach Factory because Scott finally said yes, I can get a purse!!! Yay!! So I did get a purse and a wallet for half the price.

After that, we went back to the new hotel, the Radisson (the hotel with the sleep-by-number beds), and the kids wanted to go swimming so I took the top two swimming while Scott put Trevor down for bedtime. Apparently, all parents had the same idea. That pool was packed!!! Sami met a new friend there. She says her name was "Merate" from Texas, but I'm really not sure if that was the little girl's name or not. Anyways those two had a ball swimming and jumping and getting away from Tyler. Later, I had asked her what the little girl's dad asked her when she was introduced to him. She said the dad asked where she was from and Sami replies real seriously: "America." I had to giggle when she told me that, but she is telling the truth. So I guess he asked where in America of which then she told him "Union, MO." Sometimes Sami can be a character and I love listening to her talk about some things because she gets so serious.

Day 4:

We took it easy on Saturday. Went to breakfast at Golden Corral and then we went to Branson Landing a little bit later. I really like going there. They have done such a good job making it nice.

While there, we took Trevor to Build-A-Bear (Sami and Tyler built one a couple of years ago so we thought we would get Trevor one too). Sami and Tyler did help with Trevor's though. It was fun, we had the bear made and fluffed, added a sound and heart, and even picked out a "Harley Davidson" t-shirt for the bear. We made the bear's birth certificate and named it "Bubba" just like we call Trevor. Trevor loves his bear. He gives it kisses every now and then and also hugs it but then gets bored with it and throws it on the ground. Then there's a new store called Rides Maker and it's the same thing as Build-A-Bear but with cars/trucks. Tyler wanted to make a car so we let him. I have pictures of that with a big smile of when he was done creating it.

Branson Landing also has a nice fountain area of which we stopped for a few minutes to sit and let the kids put their hands in it and splash themselves to cool down.

Branson Vacation Day 3

This morning, we got to spend an hour with my great uncle Sonny. He took us out to breakfast. He's a super nice guy. He's the one who sent us tickets for Silver Dollar City and gave us tickets today for White Water. He is my grandpa's brother and reminds me so much of grandpa. I love being around him.

We were supposed to come home today, but we decided to stay two more nights. We had to wait to check in to a new hotel, so in the mean time, we went to the laudromat (that was boring but we needed clean clothes), then we ate some lunch and then went on a scenic drive around Table Rock Lake and Lake Taneycomo. Currently, we are in the hotel killing time while Trevor naps. Tyler and Scott rode the helicopter and went to the Toy Museum while Sami and I stayed back with Trevor. We want to go to White Water which closes at 7:00 but I don't know if we're going to make it or not. Trev's been asleep since 3:00!

We really have no other plans, just chilling and enjoying our time away and together.

Will update more later!!!!

Branson Vacation Day 2

Yes, I'm blogging a day late but oh well....



I have to finish Day 1, after I blogged, we went out to lunch at McFarlains Restaurant in the IMAX Theatre, then we came back to the hotel, (we're boring people, I know!) and we went swimming in the indoor waterpark there. Trevor loved the water and just wanted us to hold his hands and walk him around. He didn't want to sit and splash, he wanted to WALK! Scott and I took turns doing that with Trev. Sami and Tyler went on the big slide and we all went on the lazy river in there. I finally got Sami to get over her fear and ride the Tunnel Slide of which after she did, she kept doing it again and again and again. Yes, she ended up loving it. Scott and I both went on the Tunnel slide too. This thing is 4 floors high and twists and turns. And its DARK! Coming out at the end, you better hold on or you're going under! After swimming for a while, we cleaned up, took a little nap (love vacations!!!) and then we went shopping for a couple hours.

And Jen, they have a Coach Factory!!!! I haven't bought a purse yet but I think I've almost got Scott talked into letting me get one. For gosh sakes, they're half the price of the originals!!

Now Day 2:

We went to Silver Dollar City. We, I mean me, Sami, and Tyler. Yes, I was bummed that Scott and Trevor didn't join us, but it was way too hot for baby to be out in the heat. So, the top two and I went instead. We didn't stay very long because it was so hot and these kids are no fun! I don't mean to be a mean mom but seriously!!! Who doesn't want to ride on the water rides? My kids! Who doesn't want to ride any roller coasters? My kids. We rode three rides in the Grand Exposition area which is mostly for the kids who can't ride the big rides or are too chicken to in my case. After we did that, we ate some lunch there (which was really expensive, the whole park is). It was nice and relaxing. And then, the mean mom that I am, I made my kids ride Thunderation. Yes a roller coaster and yes Sami was scared until she rode it!!! I wanted to ride the American Plunge, didn't happen. I wanted to ride Fire In The Hole, didn't happen.....so after being there for 3 1/2 hours and because it was ungodly hot, we left. And as soon as we got back to the hotel, my kids wanted to go swimming at the indoor waterpark, so we all did including Scott and Trevor. We had dinner at the Hard Luck Diner which the waiters/waitresses sing. Tyler got serenaded to twice. Boy was he and embarrassed and I have pictures to prove it!!!! I'll post them up later. And Trevor was serenaded to also. He had the look of death on his face (a picture of that too). Afterwards, we went to The Track and Tyler, Sami and Scott rode go carts, then Tyler, Sami and I played miniature golf....and I won! But Sami got 2 hole in 1's! Then we crashed for the night.

Branson Vacation Day 1

So we made it to Branson, MO last night around 7:30 pm.

The drive up there with three kids wasn't too bad. Trevor did excellent! He only slept an hour on the road but even when he was awake, he was a trooper. And the added entertainment from Tyler helped out alot! The top two did awesome as well. We stopped once in Lebanon, MO to eat at Steak N Shake and feed Trevor. It was a good trip.

We found our hotel. The original room we had booked in the Atrium building of the hotel...hmm....it was okay but not comfortable (if you know me), SSOOO we upgraded to a better room in the Tower with bunk beds for the kids and 2 double beds. Much nicer!!! It took about 30-45 minutes for this transition. Once unpacked and settled, we just relaxed. Scott took Sami and Tyler to go ride go-carts up the road while I put Trevor to bed. (He only woke up once and I think that is because he got cold.) The rest of us ended up going to bed by 10:30 pm.

Today, we really have no set plans which is GREAT! We're just going with the flow. We ate at Dockers for breakfast this morning. Yum!!! While there, an older gentleman took a family photo of us which turned out awesome and I'm a sucker for family photos so I bought one. $15 for it but it came with a cute "negative" frame. Right now, I'm in the room with Trevor (he's napping) and Scott and the other two are down in the Indoor Waterpark of the hotel swimming and chillin' out. Later we may go to White Water or we might go shopping. Or both! Who knows. The heat is ungodly comfortable to be in outside so more than likely we'll be at the water park most of the day.

I'll try to keep you updated of the events that occur during our vacation, for now I'm closing the laptop and picking up my Harry Potter Book 4 and reading.......this is what I call a vacation! A chance to relax and read a bit.

He's Mobile!!!!

Trevor is now 8 months old and so close to crawling!!! He does the "downward facing dog" as I call it move then drops to his knees and somehow manages and "inch worm" position and has moved forward an inch!

It's so cute to watch! Trevor has now managed his way around the house without crawling. Before long tho, he will be crawling and we'll be shutting doors, checking rooms to find him, etc!!!

Love my kid!!!

13 is an age that involves alot of changes, maturity level, puberty, just to name a few (of course the most difficult of all changes). But I have to say that I love Tyler being 13. I actually enjoy spending time with him now. I know we have had some difficult moments with him but overall, he's a GREAT kid!!!

On Good Friday, I had the day off. So Tyler and Sami both helped me clean the house so that Tyler and I would be able to go to the movies. After the cleaning was done and we were all dressed and ready to go, Tyler and I headed to Chesterfield Bottoms to the Galaxy 14 Cinema (after of course, we dropped Sami and Trevor off at grandma's). We went to go see Monsters vs. Aliens 3D. It was a blast for us! Then after the movie we went to Target and Tyler helped pick out Easter gifts for Sami and Trevor (and himself!) We went spent the whole afternoon together, something we haven't done a for quite a while. He didn't talk much but that's to be expected. It was just nice being with him! (without the bottom 2)

So even tho, we are dealing with alot with him right now, I love him! And I wouldn't change him for the world!!!!!!

I've Been Gone Awhile

Currently, blogging is not my thing right now....why? Because I am too LAZY with all capitals mind you to upload pics for my blogs. I know, its not that big of a deal, it takes 2 seconds, right? Yeah, right! With our current laptop that seems to be really sick and slow, it takes FOREVER! Trust me, I will get back to blogging, just not at the moment or if I do, there may not be any pics to go with them. Sorry! I know, I'm no fun:(

My first attempt at "cooking"

I'm dedicating this post to Jen!

I have cooked before, in fact, I make grilled chicken, porksteaks, steaks, pork chops, all boxed sides, canned foods, frozen foods, boxed meals, etc. The problem with me cooking from scratch or not from boxed is that I tend to screw it up somehow or someway.

So I was at Jen's today watching her make Chicken Spaghetti and Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole, and she was getting ready to prepare a cobbler for some friends of ours who just had a baby. And on Jen's countertop is her best friend, Laptop. Why the laptop? Because Jen's gets some great recipes from The Pioneer Woman Cooks ( http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ ).

So after I left Jen's, I came home and decided to pull up the Pioneer woman website and what did I find when the website popped up? Those yummy cookies shown above. Well, I don't know what I was thinking but I decided to "make" those yummy cookies the pioneer woman calls "spreads". Believe it or not, they actually turned out. Okay, so they're kind of dry tasting because I used "butter" (because thats all I had) rather than "margarine" which is what the recipe called for.

Ta Da! They at least look edible!

Lets Check on My NY Resolutions

So, two things I wanted to accomplish for 2009: get back into shape and get organized.

The first one: I have been exercising for at least 4-5 days a week for the last 3 weeks, the results, I haven't seen a change yet. Probably because I love chocolate and sweets! And those are generally eaten close to bedtime and in the middle of the night and in large quantities (1 just never satisfies me:)). I know I am so bad!!! And it probably doesn't help that I'm not drinking enough or any water throughout the day; and every morning, I have to have a Latte from either McDonalds, Sonic or the Daily Oasis (Starbucks brands). And I mean with whip cream please! So with that, I guess I can see why I'm not seeing a change. Which leads to a new resolution: Eat/drink better. I wonder how that will go?!

My second one: Organization! A slow process I must say. Umm, still trying and we'll come back to that later!

Now we compete on Wii Fit!

As I mentioned in my previous blog that we LOVE Wii Fit, now we compete against each other to see who can get "first" in each category.....well, Tuesday, Tyler and I competed for first for the Ski Jump. Haha...I am in First!!!!! With 312 Meters!!! Yea for "Lil Mama" (thats my Mii name). So tonight, I am now in First for Hula Hoops. I caught all 5 hula hoops and got 304 spins in 70 seconds....Yea ME!!!!! And I also have first in boxing with 258 pts. Can you say competive?! I'm really not sure how many firsts any of us have but it's been a blast competing. And it has been great family time for us.

Here's another insight to our "Wii" fun...Scott started doing it Tuesday night and he did each of the Yoga poses and strength training moves and then some of the Balance games...but to see Scott do Yoga was the best. I'm sure you could only imagine!

We love Wii Fit!

Today was the first time we played Wii Fit and we love it!

I did 36 minutes total of running, yoga, basic step, hula hoop, and balancing! My heart rate really started increasing with Hula Hoop! Who would have thought a "game/workout" could be so much fun. I'm so glad we invested in getting it.

Even Sami was having a good time with it. She's beating me in Soccer Heading right now. Apparently she has much better balance than I do!

(Sami is doing the ski jump!)
(Like my socks?! LOL)
(This was one of the balance games.)


More to come later!

What Happened to Naps?

I remember when we brought Trevor home from the hospital and how he slept all the time......

I remember when Trevor would take nice long morning, afternoon and evening naps......

Now he CAT NAPS or doesn't nap at ALL! He does sleep all night but when he doesn't get a decent nap during the day, he's ready to go to bed for the night by 7:00 p.m. Then we lose more time to play and spend with him when he does that! The little stinker decided he was not going to take a nap this morning so he's up playing in his jumpy and kind of whiney....hmm maybe because he's tired......

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve. We went to our friends, Bill and Anne's, house. We saw friends there that we haven't seen in awhile. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. Of course, we all brought our kids which they had a good time.

The funny part of the night was when Andrew was playing the Wii Sports Baseball and he was "throwing" the ball on the game but really threw the Wii remote and it hit the TV stand and broke off a handle. Not funny for the furniture but pretty funny because this kid was really getting into the Wii. Guess you had to be there.

The sad part, the adults get tired earlier (you know the older you get the earlier you go to bed...LOL) and half us left before midnight. Pretty pathetic, huh? It's not like it used to be when we would stay up past two or three in morning partying and having a good time. Back then, we just hoped our kids would sleep in so we could get some more sleep or the kids were staying at grandma and grandpas'.

Trevor was a very good baby. He didn't fuss, he took a cat nap around 9:00 p.m. then woke up and just smiled and cooed until we left at 11:30 p.m., then he fell asleep in the carseat and was out for the night until 7:00 this morning.

I can't believe we are in 2009! 2008 was a great year for us with the addition of Trevor to our family in August. We love him to pieces and he has completed our family! We are so lucky to have three wonderful kids!

So with the new year beginning, I have 2 New Years resolutions: (1) Get back into shape and in the habit of exercising again, and (2) Get organized!!!! This is a big one because I am so unorganized at home its pathetic and it results into clutter! And I can't stand clutter so this is definitely a BIG ONE!

Happy New Year! May this coming year be as blessed as 2008 was for us.