My happy place

Whooo!  This week marks the official start of summer, and it really is my happy place!  I feel like I've really gotten a jump start on summer this year, since I have been able to do a few things that normally take me until end of June/early July to do when I have been wrapping up the school year in the past.  I was able to meet up with my work friends who were celebrating the end of the school year last week.  It was good to see them, and I am just as happy for them that the school year is over.  But, I can not believe it has been a full year since I have been off of work!  In some ways it feels like forever that I have been away from teaching, but a short time that I have been home with the kids, if that makes sense.  My new job is going good so far! Much different from the teaching world, but much easier and no stress!

A few weeks ago, my mom, sister, niece, me and the kids headed to Shipshewana Indiana, an adorable little Amish town.  We had a great little get-away filled with shopping, eating out, and a visit to a farm.  We were all piled in my dad's Tahoe with 3 car seats, stollers, pack-n-plays, diaper bags, suitcases, etc, so just getting in and out of the car was an adventure in itself!  The kids were really good, and we had fun staying overnight in the hotel together. 

I've been taking the kids to lots of local summer event these last few weeks, and we have already been to the farmer's market, a butterfly fesitval, lots of parks, and we are just staying really busy!  Ray and I took the kids to Great America for the first time for Father's Day.  It was really fun, and I was surprised at how many rides Kenley could go on!  I think she is going to be a daredevil like me because she had no fear, even on the bigger rides. She was able to go on the log ride, the big ship, the octopus, 2 smaller roller coasters, and a lot of other little rides.  Even Charlie got to go on a few, and he seemed to like it too.  It was a really nice family day, and it was fun for Ray and I to think back about when we went there as kids, and even took a little weekend trip there together before we were engaged.

It's been a great start to the summer, and I know we have some type of fun plans every week already!  I'm ready to soak up the sun, and the kids already have tans :)

Sandals & tank tops!!

Whoooo! It's Memorial Day weekend and we got gorgeous weather!! I could not be happier to be in sandals and tank tops, and I finally got to out away the kids winter wardrobes. After this winter, you won't hear me complain about hot weather.  We had a great weekend with a trip to the zoo, (Charlie's first) some yard work and shopping, a parade, and we are about to barbecue dinner.  The only mishap was that Kenley hurt herself on the swing set yesterday and took a trip to the E.R. I guess the x-rays didn't show much, so we're going back for a cat-scan tomorrow, but we're hoping for the best!

Miss Kenley had her ballet recital last week, and she did excellent. It was the most precious thing I had ever seen, and I wished I could have watched her 100 more times. You never know how your kid will react to being in front of a crowd and performing for the first time. As soon as she got on stage and found where we were sitting, she got a huge smile on her face, waved, and started giving shout-outs from the stage!  I was so proud of her and loved watching her dance. I'm happy she liked ballet so much, and she says she wants to sign up again. This is her last "official" week of pre-school, but she will still be going 1 morning a week for summer camp. Between that, swim lessons, sports camp, dance camp, and gymnastics, she is going to have a busy summer. I know we are going to have so much fun doing all our usual summer activities too.

Charlie totally turned a corner in the past few weeks and has mostly been sleeping through the night!!!! I can't add enough exclamation points to this statement. It took us a long 9 months to get to this point, and to say I am happy is an understatement.  Of course, each time I realize that it's early morning and I haven't heard from him I go check on him.  Then, as soon as I realize that he's fine, he's actually still sleeping, I get so excited that a few times it's almost been hard to fall back asleep (almost!) oh, sleep, how I've missed you!  He's also getting in crawling position, is sitting by himself, and rolls and scoots around everywhere. Many people have brought up his upcoming birthday, but I'm in denial. I don't want him to be 1. I want to freeze this exact time where we are in a good grove. Sleeping, easier to get out of the house, Kenley is pretty independent and a great helper, Charlie still a "baby", so basically, stop getting older kids!

Some news for me, I'm starting to work a little bit this week. I am going to be working on a very flexible as-needed basis for a company that helps older people downsizing their homes. He company does everything from helping people pack, organize, move, and hold estate sales. I'm pretty excited about it since it is something I've always been interested in, and it's perfect because it is so flexible.  I'll mostly be working 1day a week.  I am also going to be teaching 1 class at the community college starting in the fall. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to work a little bit, but mostly be home with the kids.

 Ray and I were invited to a charity event by our friends, Jim and Melissa the Four Seasons last weekend. It was fun to get all dressed up, and it was really cool being at the event and watching the live auction! It was a really nice night out.

Time to enjoy the last few hours of the weekend with the family.  Happy Memorial Day everyone!


I'm over a week on actually posting this because I had my first day of work, and I was super busy setting up and having our annual garage sale this week.
 Updates:  Kenley's arm is totally fine, and she didn't need the cat-scan after all!

Catch up

We had a great Easter weekend with the kids and our families. We woke up early, and Kenley and Charlie hunted Easter eggs in the backyard and found their baskets. Then, we headed off to meet up with Ray's family for brunch, and my family later in the day. It was a gorgeous day out, and the kids had so much fun and were exhausted by the end of the day.



The following weekend, we went to Grizzly Jacks water park resort. This was our 3rd year going, and it was so much fun. Katie, Greg, and Kayla came with this time, so we had all 3 kids, which was an adventure. We all had fun at he water park and the amusement park. Kenley was able to go on the trampoline, and Greg and I went on the zip line. It was a fun little get-away, and of course we took our annual family picture next to the bear.

A week and a half ago was my 1/2 marathon! Ray came with Kenley and Charlie, and my mom brought Kayla to cheer me on. It was hard, but I ran the whole time and finished around 2hrs and 17 min. I am proud of myself that I did it, and that I accomplished a goal on my "bucket list." I was so out of shape after having Charlie and not working out and eating whatever I wanted for 9 months, and now, almost exactly 9 months later I'm feeling really good and proud of my hard work. I don't think I'm going to keep up with the really long runs, but I know I will still be going to the gym about 5 days a week, and I'm planning on doing some shorter runs over the summer.

We also celebrated Mother's Day by going out to brunch at Ditka's with Ray's family, and then visited with my family at my mom's house.  I am so blessed to be a mom to my 2 beautiful babies, and I am very thankful for my mom and mother-in-law and all that they both do for our family.I am soooo excited that my sister finally announced her pregnancy to everyone, so now I can share!!  I am getting another niece or nephew in early November.  We are all excited to find out the gender of this baby in the next few weeks. 

We have lots of plans coming up over he next few months, and my calendar is filled with showers, weddings, graduation parties, birthdays, summer camps/activities for the kids, and just a lot of fun plans. We will definitely be keeping busy throughout the summer. Can't wait for that warmer weather!

Easter is on its way

The last few weeks we have been savoring glimpses so Spring in between bouts of the lingering Winter. Again, we were at the park in Spring jackets and a few days later on April 14th it snowed! This really has been he longest winter ever!! We took the kids to go see he Easter Bunny last week, and we were so happy we got a great picture of the kids with huge smiles on heir faces. Kenley also had a party at school this week, so we had an extra chance to see the Easter Bunny. We are looking forward to spending Easter with our families.

Charlie turned 8 months last week. I can't believe it, even though he looks easily as big as a 1 year old! (Already wearing 12-18 month clothes) I experimented with letting him cry it out a bit at night even though it broke my heart, and he really has been sleeping better these last 2weeks. By no means ALL the way through the night, but mostly waking up 2times a night, which is still a lot for an 8 mo old, but better than the 5-10 that it's been.  He is really developing a little personality, and it is so fun to listen to his babble, and to watch him and Kenley interact. He finds her hilarious, and she loves entertaining him. He gets frustrated because he wants to be mobile, but has quite figured out how to crawl yet. He's so strong and loves to be in he standing position with a little support that I think he might walk before he crawls.

Kenley Marie has been staying busy and keeping me busy between school, ballet, play dates, etc. everyday she asks me what we are going to do and where we are going to go. She gets upset on the rare days we don't have something planned and tells me I need to take her somewhere fun that kids can play. She's getting too old and too smart and has told Ray that he needs to, "download new aps for her on the I-pad" She has also picked up on some language that makes her sound like a teenager including OMG, and other things I know she learned from me.  (Oops!) but, I guess it could be much worse...I keep telling her that I have to squish her down so that she doesn't grow any bigger or older.

Here's to hoping the Easter Bunny brings warm weather!

Spring?

This week was the first day of spring and within 2days we had snow and then almost 60 degree weather.  I took the kids to the park for a little bit, and Charlie got to go on the swings for the first time. He loved it, and Kenley was so happy to be back at the park even though it was just for a few minutes since it was pretty windy.  We have been pretty busy the last 2weeks.  Both kids are finally over being sick, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed we are over trips to the doctor.

Kenley had a little St. Patricks day party at school last week, which I stopped by to help the kids pass their treats out. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the parade since it was so cold out, but Ray and I took the kids out to lunch instead. We've had a few play dates and gone out to a couple lunches and dinners with family and friends.

By far, my favorite moment this week was that it was parent viewing week for Kenley's ballet class.  I had the biggest smile on my face watching her and her friends in dance class. They were adorable doing all of heir stretches, barre warm-ups, leaps and turns. Their recital dance is "Beauty and the Beast," and it just so happens that I also performed to the same song in a recital back in the day. A few weeks ago, I dug out the old VHS at my moms and we watched it with Kenley. I can not wait for her recital, and I am so happy she's having fun in ballet.  She has made a couple new friends, and so have I!

Tomorrow, I am running an 8k that was supposed to be 2weeks ago, but it was postponed due to the cold temps. Ha, tomorrow it's supposed to be even colder than the regular scheduled day. I'll still be there all bundled up, and the 5 miles should be pretty easy since I have already gotten up to 10 miles for my 1/2 marathon training. It better be much warmer by May!

Tired

I'm tired of myself! Even though I try not to complain toooo much to others, I know the voice in my head has been complaining a lot. A little over a week ago Charlie suddenly started sprouting more teeth like crazy! I am pretty sure all 4 of his top teeth are coming through at once, which has probably been pretty painful for him. He's had ups and downs, but I feel bad that he's not happy, most likely because he's hurting. He's been waking up between 5:30-6:15 every morning, when combined with several night wake up calls makes one exhausted mama! Then, Kenley got some type of nasty stomach-flu bug. She had fevers up and down from Monday-Friday. I took her to the doctor on Thursday (our one time leaving the house) and she is finally on meds and on the mend.

I am really not a good "stay-at-home" mom because I hate being home :) It has been a long week staying home, and I'm sure the kids are feeling it too. Kenley has been begging to go back to preschool since she missed both days and ballet. She was even begging me to take her to the gym to play in the child care area. It seems like between all of us there has been someone sick for the last 3 months. I'll blame it on this terrible winter. We're sick of being sick! I know things could be much worse, but it has not been our best week.  I'm just praying for health for all of us, sleep, Spring to get here ASAP, and hopefully things will be all good.

On the positive end, it is official that I am taking another year off from my job!  I am so blessed that I have already had all of this time, and I am so thankful to be able to take another year off. I am also lucky that I would have the option to go back to my job in fall of 2015 if I need to. I have started looking into other part-time jobs  that may allow me to just work a few hours a week, but I am so happy to know that my focus will be on the kids. If anyone comes across this post that is hiring flexible, part-time workers, let me know!

Before our week of hibernation, my sister and I took our mom to the Lady Antebellum concert, which  was my mom's bday gift. It was an amazing concert, and we had great seats. It was a fun girls night out; very rare for the 3 of us to be together without the kids! We also celebrated my Grandpa's 80th birthday with the family, which was a fun time.

We are supposed to have a day of 50 degree weather this week, although it also might snow later in the week, but I'm going to try to be positive!  The weekend is already looking better since Ray and I are planning on going to dinner and Go-go is going to watch the kids.

Somewhere sunny and 75

We got back from Cancun on Saturday to another snowstorm and several more inches yesterday. As I was shoveling our driveway yesterday I couldn't help but think that maybe it was just a dream that 48 hours earlier I wore a bathing suit with my toes in the sand. It was an amazing trip and we spent most of it in the sun, at the pool/beach, drinks in our hands, nice dinners, you know, relaxing. Something neither one of us has had much of lately. It was awesome. We did get a little adventurous one day and went parasailing, something I've always wanted to do and Ray never wanted to do, especially since it was really windy the day we went. It was actually his idea, and I know he did it for me since he knew it is something on my bucket list. I also went in the aqua bubble, which was hilarious and really hard! My favorite part of the trip was that Ray and I got to spend it together, just the two of us.

Of course we missed the munchkins and called to talk to Kenley and check on Charlie every day. Thank-you Grandmas for taking such good care of them! I'm pretty sure Kenley had as much fun as we did. She had ballet, a valentine party at preschool, got to go to lunch with her aunt, uncle, and cousins, went shopping, and seems to have learned almost every word to the Frozen soundtrack. Charlie turned 6 months last week, and it sounds like he spent the week eating, playing, and sleeping.  Somehow, it seemed like they both aged a month in the 5 days we were gone.

We're back to our regular routine this week, but I guess that's what makes you appreciate a vacation even more. I am proud of myself that I went to the gym every day this week because I guess calories do count when your on vacation :( I am happy that I am wearing some of my old, regular jeans this week. Not my favorite skinny jeans, but at least a pair of jeans with a real zipper and button....it's about time! I'm less an 12 weeks away from my 1/2 marathon, so it's really time to kick it into high gear. I hope I can start running outside once this snow goes away for good, and I can't wait to use my double jogging stroller with the kids once it really warms up. Spring, please come soon!

Homebound

We have not had a very glamorous week, and for the most part we have been a home. Late last week I took Charlie to the doctor for what I thought was just a bad cold, but after a check up and chest x-rays we found out he had pneumonia. He started antibiotics, and then when I had to take him back to the doctor 2days later for a follow-up we were sent to the hospital. It was mostly precautionary since he is so little, and luckily it was only for 24 hours, but it wasn't fun for any of us. Poor guy had to have blood tests, an IV, more x-rays, breathing treatments, and lots of listening to his breathing, which didn't leave much time for any of us to get much sleep. Charlie was a trooper and actually pretty happy in between all of the check ups. We were happy to get him home on Sunday and have mostly just been home staying warm and getting healthy.

Between that and MORE snow, it doesn't look like we will be venturing out for at least another day or two. But, I might need to escape just to run an errand or two because I am getting cabin fever! I have tried to keep it fun staying in the house, but we have watched every cartoon on our DVR, decorated Valentines cards, read books, played with all our toys, etc... Hopefully we will be able to get out a bit this week.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I've mostly been in Pj's and sweatpants the majority of the week.

So, that's our exciting week. Hoping for a healthier, warmer week ahead!  Check out those baby blue eyes on the picture below!  Love this boy so much, even though he is still giving me a hard time, especially at night! I thought everyone said boys were easier.....Maybe that won't kick in until his teens!