Birthday Bash!

So the kids had a wonderful birthday. Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who sent cards and thoughts their way. It was great to have our family & friends there to celebrate with us! So Friday I went over to my friend JaLayn's house so our kiddos could play while I decorated the cake. They wanted Mickey Mouse...so this is what we ended up with.

It wasn't perfect. And it definitely had flaws...but if your not looking super close ha ha...it turned out really good. And the kids were super excited. Not bad for my first attempt.

Friday was also Noah's birthday. HE's 2!! I can't believe it. That night I checked the weather and it said "chance of rain" "windy" etc...of course. So after making salads and cleaning my house, we stayed up until 2 a.m decorating the garage but it turned out cute. Adam put Mady's bike together and Noah's little car, while me and Jamie decorated. Thank goodness she came...Adam wouldn't have helped. lol.



Anyhow, the next morning was kind of crappy. So we ran our last minute errands and then about 45 min before the party the sun came up and it was super nice. figures. So we got pizza and everyone brought salads. It was a yummy lunch. The kids played outside and then we did the pinata, cake and presents. Our kids were super spoiled! It was tons of fun for them.






Mady was pooped out that night!


Just a funny picture of Noah. I posted it on facebook, but for those who missed it...
all I could think was...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON! J/K! HE HE!

Lots of preparation!

1st on the list- The kids birthday party! Trying to get everything done and ready for Saturday. Thanks to everyone whose let us know they are coming, I know they are just little kids, but it means a lot to have you guys make the effort and be there! We filled the pinata last night and the goody bags for the kids. Who in the heck has ever heard of a pull string pinata? Apparently that's what I bought. The kids take turns pulling the strings and one of the strings open a trap door. Weird. But Mady' REALLY wants mickey mouse, so I can't exactly take it back. Oh well. We filled it and taped up some parts, and cut the strings off so they can beat the crap out of it! ha ha. Mady is super excited.



2nd on my list- packing. UGH! SO not looking forward to it. We're only moving a couple blocks away, but it doesn't take away all the hard work. Hopefully we will be able to start moving some stuff next week and painting, even though we aren't set to close until the 15th. Lots of work ahead of us. Luckily we have quite a bit of family willing to help.

3rd- FACE BOOK!! not really preparation...but on my list of to-do's. I just started a page and wow. so confusing. so not like blogging. I'm still not sure I get the hang of it. But I do love my blog and I like making it cute and personal. I think a lot more people see face book though. I don't know...we will try it out and see how it works.

Well, my Grandma is here from Minnesota. We haven't seen her in 3 yrs! It's been way to long and it's great to have her here. Anyhow... hope all is well for everyone else!

Discouraged

I'm usually very up-beat with my postings, but for some reason tonight I feel pretty discouraged and almost sad. I feel like I have to get it out or something. But you know when your a kid and you dream about being a mom and having kids? Well, I guess I thought I was going to be this perfect mom. I remember taking mental notes of things my mom did and other moms. Some things I wanted to continue and some I didn't. I also thought I would have these well-behaved, well-spoken, respectful children. So how come today I've become a mom I'm not so proud of and my children hate each other? ok. I might be exaggerating. I don't always feel like a bad mom, but looking back on today I feel like I disciplined my children and lost my temper most of the day. 90% of the time it seems that my kids don't even like each other. They are just plain MEAN to each other. Tonight Mady was in the recliner and they were fighting. I didn't even say anything, I figured at some point they had to figure out how to resolve things without me playing referee all the time. He pushed Mady, so she poked his eye, screaming started, he pulled her hair, she pushed him off the chair and then he got up, took his shoe off and threw it at her head! It's NUTS! and so discouraging. Noah's even started hitting US when he gets mad, and Mady just screams at the top of her lungs. It's hard not to wander what I'm doing wrong. I do have a STRONG resolve to slow down, take a deep breath, pray, count to 10...just whatever it takes to find patience and be a better mom. I know when I don't have patience they seem to be WORSE. So that is my resolution at the end of this day. AHHH!
Anyhow... on a better note, everyone is doing well. I haven't blogged forever because we have been super busy! We are buying a house! YEA! Here in town, which is great that we get to keep Mady in this school district where she has made so much progress. Big selling point for us, however we won't close until the middle of June. Noah has started Toddler Lab and he loves it. I almost cried watching him. He is such a big boy. The speech therapist that used to work with Mady is in Toddler Lab working with another kid, but she remembered Noah. She came up to me and told me how well he talks and comprehends. She was shocked that he wasn't even 2 yet. She just said that he comes up with the craziest things, which is true. His biggest thing lately is, "Why?" to everything. And when you answer he says, "Oh really?" and he tells everyone, "I love your stinkin guts!". Even one of my co-workers that came over to my house to borrow a book. LOL. Well other then that I am working on their birthday party! I can't believe it. Oh and one other happy note! ECLIPSE is coming out. 3rd movie in my Twilight obsession. So excited. Midnight showing on June 29th!
Anyhow...just a couple cute pics of the kids to remind me that despite everything, they can look so innocent!
ONE nice day at the park, enjoyed it too, since it's suppose to be 45 degrees tomorrow.

SHE DID IT!!! YEA!!!

So on Saturday Mady had her final dance recital and she did AWESOME! After not dancing at ANY of her performances she did it all! There was even an entire gym full of people. She was so cute and we were so proud of her. It makes you feel all emotional over her progress. Adam even said, "I'm not going to lie. I was a little choked up afterwards when she ran up to me." She was also extremely excited to have everyone come see her. She told us afterwards, "Mom. My family come watch me dance!" So thanks to everyone who came!! It didn't go un-noticed. It was a long and fun day.

Mady had a dress rehearsal that morning and then that afternoon I took her to get her hair and nails done at the beauty college. She felt like a princess; which she is. :)



She looked so beautiful. We gave her a little shimmery blue eye shadow and some blush and sprayed her hair with glitter. She was adorable.



Daddy even brought her a rose, which she was so super excited about!
(And for those of you who can't tell, she's the second one in from the left)



I still can't believe how good she did. She didn't skip a beat. I think she decided she loved the attention and the clapping people did for her! :)

I'm just going to add on to this already long post. But last weekend was also my mom's 50th BIRTHDAY! Yea! We had so much fun. She had no idea what the plan was. We just drug her along. We went to Garcia's for dinner, where she got to wear the sombrero (sp?) and they sang to her. Hee hee! Then we went home and dropped my kids and Brigitte and Craig's kids with Adam's little sister and we all went bowling for a couple hours. It was way fun and I hope she had a great time too. I love you and Happy Birthday Mom!






And since Noah has been pretty well skipped over in this post, I will just include a cute picture of him. Usually he has both elbows behind is head though. He likes to get up at like 7:00 after Adam leaves and come climb in bed with me. And all this pic says to me is "like father, like son" This is exactly how Adam would sleep if I let him, but I don't appreciate the elbows in the head :) Noah's are just a little smaller. Lol

Adorable!! yep he is! It makes me want to kiss hims little cheeks!

When life gives you lemons....

MAKE LEMONADE!




So since we have all this crappy snow...we played in it! We got so much snow Monday night that there was several schools closed Tuesday morning. Why not one last snow day? The kids love it and have been sick so much this winter that we didn't go out very much. So we spent 1/2 an hour putting on all our snow clothes, and just a 1/2 hour playing before the kids wanted to go in and have "chocolate and marshmellows". It's funny how long it takes to get ready and how quickly they're done. Maybe as they get older it will last longer. We did get the sled out and Mady loved that, but Noah didn't want anything to do with it. Here's some pictures. They look cute all bundled up. I just want to squish Noah!




So it was fun while it lasted, but at this moment tonight, our yard is almost completely cleared. Idaho weather is crazy.

Another thing we did, I just gotta tell all the mommies out there...On Monday, Me and Brigitte took the kids and went to see "How To Train a Dragon". Such a cute movie! The kids loved it. Noah fell asleep though (it was nap time) so it's a good thing he was free! Lol, but it was an adorable movie. Long though, like 2 hrs. So we had some restless kids afterwards, so we went and got ice cream. It was tons of fun and Mady is still talking about the movie.

Happy, Happy, EASTER!

(WARNING: lots of pics :)
So we've been loving the clearing of the snow in our yard, the kids have loved playing on the trampoline and in the sand box while Adam would BBQ. Granted they still had to have warm coats, but it was progress! On Saturday we were suppose to have an Easter-egg hunt outside at my step-sisters church and we woke up to this....





It was pretty, but oh-so disappointing too. So the Easter-egg hunt was inside the church. It was fun and then we took the kids to McDonald's. That night Adam's sister Aubrey came and spent the night and helped me with the kids so I could cook and bake for Easter dinner at our house. She helped fill Easter eggs and then we all played the wii. It was fun. Easter morning the kids were so EXCITED about the Easter bunny coming.

Mady threw herself on the floor and screamed, "HUNGRY, HUNGRY HIPPOS!" It's so neat to see your kids get so excited.

Noah went straight for the baseball bat and ball. Of course.


Easter day was fun. We were going to go to Twin Falls to see Adam's mom but that didn't pan out so we had Easter at our house. Adam's Dad, Terri and the girls came over. So did my mom, John, Josh, my step-sister Brigitte, Craig and their kiddos and Adam's friend Scott came over too (his wife and adorable new baby girl haven't moved up from California yet, so he spent the day with us). It was fun. We had an Easter-egg hunt with the kids! They loved it of course.


We made 2 hams, Brigitte brought AMAZING home-made rolls and we had so much yummy food.



After we all picked our way-too-full selves up... Me and Brigitte colored Easter eggs with the kids.

We soon realized that 2 adults and 4 kids were going to be a MESS. So WE colored them and then let them paint and sticker them. That worked out tons better.

I also had to post a couple pictures of these bunnies that Brigitte got the kids. You put jelly beans in them, wind them up and then they walk and poop jelly beans! Ha ha! The kids loved it. They were a hit.


So we relaxed for awhile and everyone left but Craig and Brigitte, so we broke out the Wii and played some Guitar Hero. We made ham sandwiches and made the kids eat some fruit and corn dogs, since all they'd eaten most of the day was CANDY! Blah. It was fun. I'll tell you what, by the end of the day our kids were POOPED. Mady was out by 8:15. Brigitte said Kynden and Ashton were barely in jammies with teeth brushed before they were OUT. but overall it was such a fun day.
Mady and Kynden loved a chance at rockin' out to Guitar Hero! They were so cute.