Countdown to VaCaTiOn!

We will be leaving for vacation one week from tomorrow! Our first stop is in our home town for a family reunion on Saturday afternoon. We will spend the night there and enjoy our Sunday with family. Then we are heading out after dinner to drive half way to Washington DC. We will stop and stay the night somewhere along the way in Virgina. Then we plan on getting up early on Monday and heading into DC for two days of sightseeing!!! We have a tour of the Washington Monument scheduled for Tuesday morning. I am still trying to talk myself into take the elevator as my fear is already setting in...:-( But I see the pictures from the top and it's an experience I don't want to miss out on so I might just have to pull up my bif girl panties and get over it! LOL I also tried to get tickets to tour the white house but I don't think that is going to happen. I have a high school friend working on getting those since the congressmans office couldn't obtain them for us. I guess the tours are very limited since 9/11. I won't let it ruin my trip if we can't go but I know that is something Aiden would love so trying everything in my power to get them!

After our 2 days and nights in DC we will drive up to Hershey, PA to go to Hershey park on Wednesday. I have never been there and always wanted to go so it made sense to make that part of our trip since it's only a few hours north of DC. We will stay the night there Wed then go on the Chocolate World tour on Thursday before heading back to my parents for the weekend. I am going to help my Mom with a garage sale and it's my Dad's Birthday weekend so we will enjoy some more family time before heading back home!

My goal is to try to just relax and enjoy our time as a family, I have a list of things I would like to do and see but, I am limiting myself on expectations!!!!!! As I know, setting any official schedule with two young children would just be foolish! ;-) Wish us luck!

**Seth is 6**

We spent last Saturday evening at Darby Creek Metro park. The Davis's invited us to a picnic to celebrate Seth's 6th Birthday. His actual birthday is the 4th of July but we both had busy schedules so we decided to celebrate a little later this year. We had such a nice time! The park was beautiful and so was the weather! Seth loved the OSU Jersey and watergun we got for him! He was even sooo polite and didn't need to be told to thank us! So sweet!!!

4th of July

Here are a few pictures from our 4th of July.

I love the one of Ava looking down the road at the parade. This was her very first parade. It didn't take her long to figure out if you want that candy they are throwing you have to go after it!!! She also did a great staying up for fireworks. We went to our normal spot for viewing and Aiden had fun playing with his friends and lighting smoke bombs! It's the simple things in life that excite him these days! Overall we had a wonderful holiday!

Epic-Fail

So...I haven't been doing really well at updating this blog. I'm not even sure anyone still follows but, I will continue to come and go and try to post some pictures when time allows. As you can see, time hasn't been allowing....therefore I am failing.....hence the title my new favorite term: "Epic-Fail"

We are having a great summer! Spending a ton of time at the pool!!

Aiden enjoying playing outside with his friends. He is also going on tons of field trips with daycare. They go to different parks, the police station, one day they went to a pizza shop and made their own pizza, today was library and the fire museum, yesterday was an animal hosptial...the list goes on and on...somedays I wish I could go to summercamp instead of work!

Ava loves being outside and taking walks. She is really enjoying her baby dolls and just loves Babies, so we take her dolls on walks, she makes it for a little while then I end up carrying the little stroller back home, or carrying the baby...but I love every second of it! She is talking up a storm, starting to ask things like "What you doing Mommy"- so cute!!! She loves to eat and will try almost anything we give her! She loves to draw and color. She is very independant as well! This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation.

We had a great 4th of July weekend! Ava had her first parade experience and loved it! Aiden also enjoyed catching all the candy and he saw a lof of his friends that were in the parade, of course now he wants to be in one... I told him I am sure someday he will get to participate! The fireworks were pretty great as well! I was surprised at how well Ava did given how late she stayed up to see them.

We are now looking forward to our vacation! Only 3 more weeks left! Soon after that it will be back to school! Aiden will be off to the second grade!

I am anxiously waiting for the gym near my office to open (this Saturday)! I really need to get into a workout routine. I plan on going a few times a week, either at lunch or after work on my way to get the kids. I have no excuse, I haven't lost the weight gain from my pregnancy with Ava. I really need ot focus on that and get back into shape! I am actually looking forward to it!

We just sold our changing table and crib on craigslist. Therefore, our family is officially complete. We now only have a pack n play left which I plan to keep incase we ever have company that needs to use it! *Bittersweet*

Sweet Summertime!

Summer is finally here!!! Aiden's last day of school was this past Friday and he started his summer camp through our daycare center yesterday. I can't believe he is going to be a second grader!

I obviously have been a complete slacker when it comes to posting on this blog! I've been extremely busy taking on some new projects at work. My time at home is most often spent, taking care of the kids or when they are in bed I am ready to CRASH!

Ava is also doing well. She was supposed to have her tonsils removed today but they called yesterday and cancelled the appointment. Apparently the outpatient surgery center will not operate on children under 3. They were not able to fit her in under the "regular" surgery center at the hospital so they were going to reschedule two weeks out. Then the doctor wasn't avaialbe and the fill in wasn't so we took that as as sign that maybe now isn't the right time. She has not been sick for several months. We have an ENT appt in August so we decided to hold off for now and we can discuss further in August. That will also give her time to get a little bigger and closer to the age the recommend the surgery. :-)

We are now going to move onto getting her to sleep in her big girl bed and potty training!

We are also in the process of planning a family vacation the first week of August to attend a family reunion then we will proceed onto Washington DC for some sightseeing. After that we plan on going to Hershey Park for a few days! The beach was not an option this year with Ava being so mobile, it just wouldn't be very relaxing!

We had a nice memorial day weekend visiting family and we spent the day in Pittsburgh. I will have ot post pictures when I find time to transfer them....

Thank You Easter Bunny!!!

You would think with Easter being a little later in the month this year that I would be more on top of things.....well, I'm not! But, it will all work out. I am learning that slowly....

We went to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny on Wednesday evening. Ava looked all excited walking into the little area then saw him and turned around and was ready to BOLT! She is not my character lover at all! Aiden never cared much, she on the other hand doesn't like anything in costume! So Daddy held her and wasn't going to make her sit...but Mommy was getting the picture no matter what, so I took her and put her down on the Bunnys lap...this was the best picture we got which isn't all that bad, she didn't cry she just looked down the entire time. I think she was concentrating on the many ways she was going to get me back for doing this to her and Dadd was sure to tell her, that he had not part in making this happen. Aiden could have cared less about anything, he was more interested in getting to eat pizza at the mall for dinner.

I did find time this week to gather all the Easter treats and candy and put their baskets together so I won't have that to worry about this weekend. I also filled all the plastic Easter eggs with way to much candy...we still have candy in the "grey bucket" on top of the fridge from Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day...we don't need ANY more candy! But, it's Easter and I figure I can secretly just dump the candy in a bag and bring it to work, no one will ever know! Seriously now that I think about it there were gum eggs in there from last Easter last time I looked....that's bad!

So our plans for this weekend are to attend early church services tomorrow, I loved that the offered Saturday services. We will then go to dinner and visit with Chris's Brother and his kids. Grandma is coming into town tonight(Chris's Mom). On Easter Sunday, we will just hang out at home. I am making a ham, cheesey potatoe cassarole, a broccoli cassarole, some green fluff (watergate salad) maybe some deviled eggs and Chris is supposed to make some type of pasta. We all are back to school and work come Monday :-( Hopefully the weather will be nice but, forecast looks pretty wet for the entire weekend....blah....then sunny and 80 early next week...it figures!

Happy Easter!

Beacon Fun Fair

This is the basket I made for the Beacon Fun Fair...it was auctioned for $73.00!

The fun fair is an annual fund raiser for Aiden's Elementary school. There is food games and raffles for baskets and all kinds of treats!

Aiden playing the pick the nose game at his fun fair...


This is the game Aiden helped me work for an hour :-)

Chuck E Cheese

The party!

ME and My Little Birthday Girl!

The Cake

Ava in her Birthday shirt enjoying her party!

Reading her cards

Mommy, Ava and Daddy

Opening presents



Playing chalk with Maddie

TwO YeaRs oLD

WOW!!!!!!

Ava is officially TWO years old!

Life has been extremely hectic the past few months! I haven't had much time for anything other than work, the kids and just keeping my head above water trying to keep up with everything that goes along with them! But we are all doing well!

Ava's Birthday was April 13th, we celebrated with a party at my parents with our family and friends. It was a wonderful party! Since her Birthday was on a Wednesday, we took her to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. She had a good time there as well! She is still singing the Happy Happy Birthday to you song from Sprout! She is talking soo much more the past couple weeks. She loves playing ring around the rosy! She enjoys Barney and Superwhy but most of all playing outside! She is just happy as can be when she can run around with the other kids and she gets right in there with them!

Aiden is starting spring flag football, this is a different league than he played in the past. He in on the cowboys. He would also spend all of his spare time outside if he could! We try to encourage him to play outside as much as possible. Last night was a battle trying to get him to come in for the night to do homework and get a bath. I guess that is better than playing video games non stop all day. He has been testing us with talking back, so that is a work in progress...I am really hoping this is just a testing phase and will pass.....soon....

I have been extra busy at work, I now work for Centurylink instead of Qwest. All the changes are keeping me extremely busy! I am looking forward to this summer. Ava needs to get her tonsils out in June :-( not looking forward to that but she has had a rough winter!

These pictures I had taken last weekend, she had just gotten up from napping and wasn't in the mood to smile but we got a few really cute pictures anyway...this one say's it all! It needs a caption saying "Really Mom, can't we just be done with all this?"

COCO Bean

We call COCO our little "COCO Bean" ...she is such a sweet little puppy. Housebreaking is a "work in progress." We keep in in the laundry room and she has a potty pad in there that she will use, which is good. I would rather her go outside all of the time but, if she is going to go in the house, I am glad she atleast "gets" that she needs to go on the pad. We do have some accidents but we are getting less and less. We re-invested in a new Bissel green machine which is awesome! ( I highly recommend this investment for anyone with pets or children!) We had one from years ago that no longer would squirt out the water so we got a new one since we are using it so much with COCO. At least I know we will be getting new carpet once she is fully housebroken! :-) She is also a bit spoiled already and would rather go potty on the deck instead of going out into the cold grass....so we have some work a head of us this spring! The kids LOVE her and she loves to lay on your lap when you are watching tv, I just LOVE that! She likes to chew on everything but all puppies do, so we have to be careful when she runs off with one of the kids toys instead of her own!

After this task....we will be working on potty training Ava!!!!!! Lord help me!

Jurrasic Adventure

Last Saturday we took the kids to the Jurassic Adventure Exhibit at the Ohio Expo Center. There were tons of replicas of dinosaurs for them to look and and touch. It was extremely busy and the line to get in was a mile long but....we waited and made the best of it! It wasn't the Smithsonian by any means but, we are in Ohio! After so many cold winter weekends you look for anything fun to do until spring!

Will you be my V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E?

Here is little Ms. Ava enjoying her snack at her first official Valentine's Day party at daycare! She received a ton of fun valentine's and treats from her friends, as did Aiden!

Overall it was a very nice Valentine's day. I told Chris I didn't want a card or really anything as we just got the puppy and I would rather spend money on doing something fun with each other. Of course he had to do something so he got our Wedding & Reception video transferred from VHS to DVD. It was a wonderful and thoughtful gift! It's been years since I have seen it since we haven't had a VHS player in years! We watched the ceremony on Valentine's night and Aiden also watched, he laughed a lot watching then once again, covered my eyes when it came to the kissing part of the ceremony! LOL, he is so silly!

This has been a busy week! Well, every week is busy but this one seems extra busy...we had our parent teacher conference with Aiden's teacher on Monday and he is doing very well at school. I am so proud of him. He is a very smart kid. We do have some attention/impulsitivity issues at times, so we hope to work on those however, overall he is doing great. I still cannot believe he is 7 years old. He have his 7 year check up scheduled for this Friday at the doctor. His student teacher from his 1st grade room came to see him play basketball this past weekend and it was such a sweet surprise! He was very excited! (so was his Dad since she is a cutie, but that's another story ;-)) We also signed him up for spring flag football that will start in April.

Then Monday afternoon, we had a follow up ENT appt with Ava. She still has an infection in her throat so he put her on another 10 days of a stronger antibiotic. She will more than likely need to get her tonsils out but he is not ready to do it and I am not ready for her to go through that just yet either. She is still just a little peanut. We are hoping this medicine clears everything up and with the weather changing hopefully we can keep her healthy for a while! I am starting to get all her plans together for her 2nd Birthday. We are having a small party at my parents house this year for her.

CoCo is doing great. She is super sweet. Her first vet appointment went well and she weighed in at 9 lbs 10 ounces. We are still working on potty training but she will get there...I had a few moments last week where I wasn't sure I could handle her but, we are adjusting. Casey is enjoying her company and they are really starting to play with one another. It's fun to watch! I think we might give her a bath tonight for the first time! This will be interesting!

This weekend Chris and I are going out on Saturday night and I am very much looking forward to it! We also took Monday off of work thinking we could spend the day all together but Aiden wants to go to daycare since they are going ice skating so I guess I will get some things done around the house and maybe catch an early afternoon movie or something! :-)

The weather is finally starting to warm up a little, I will take anything I can get at this point! I will be happy when I can finally vacuum out my car and get the garage cleaned out. Hopefully once the puppy is fully training we can get moving on some things I want done around the house like new paint and carpet! One day at a time I guess....

Our little CoCo puff!

We have officially lost our minds!!!!!

Last Saturday, Aiden had a basketball game at 8:20 AM. After the game we decided to go grab some brunch. We went to a place that just to happens to be in the same plaza as the petstore. We told the kids if they were good and ate well we would go see the puppies.

I have been discussing with Chris the reasons that I think now would be a good time to get a new puppy. Although it was not in the plans for this Saturday's pet store visit! Our Casey is now 13 years old and she is noticibly aging. My Mom told me the best thing she did was get her second dog when the first one was starting to get older. I also plan on re carpeting the house, so why not get the potty training done on the old carpet....these were a few of my selling points to Chris who was not going for it.....(at all may I add!)

Sooooo, we go see the puppies and the store just opened so the sales person asks if we went to play with any of them she will take one out. We pick out a cute little Lhasa Apso brown ball of fur, and her little roomate, a jack russel. The jack russel was a wild little thing and they were playing and acting crazy. The sales person mentioned that the little brown puff normally isn't wild, the jack russel is the one that is hyper so we take him away to play with just her....and a connection started. She also mentioned that she won't shed which was like the angels singing after dealing with Husky fur for 13 years! The kids enjoyed her, I enjoyed her and I think Chris even enjoyed her....so I gave Chris "the look" and he said "NO." I said well maybe we can talk about it. We left and I kept thinking about her and was trying to decide if I wanted to take on a puppy right now.

Chris and Aiden went to run errands later that day and Ava and I took a nap. When I got up, Aiden came walking in holding the dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was super surprised! Chris caved and went to get her. Apparently it was Aiden's idea to surprise me with her. He said we had 48 hours as we wanted to make sure that she and Casey were going to get a long. So far they are getting along just fine. Actaully, I think they are enjoying each other.

We named our puppy CoCo, she was born on Oct 2, 2009 so she is about 4 months old. We keep her in her kennel at night and she sleeps all night (something our kids still can't do for us!) and I decided to keep her in the laundry room while we are at work so she has a little more room to move around. So far she has been doing great. I just need to get over my guilt of leaving her during the day. I want to keep her out as much as possible to run around the house but until she is house broken I need to stick to keeping her in the laundry room unless she goes potty and I feel confident that she isn't going to go in the house. It's pretty cold right now so that part sucks! Although, I do like that the snow lets me know if she went or not because she is so small I can't tell if she is squatting or sitting! LOL!

The kids and I are taking her on her first vet visit tonight. :-)

Ice Ice Baby

Well, the past two days have been a bit of a challenge! We had a ice storm hit on Tuesday, which caused schools to close and then we lost power on Tuesday night. We woke up Wednesday and it was really cold in the house. School was cancelled again and I thought they would shut down daycare however they had power and were still open! So, I took the kids there for the day so they could be warm and I figured I should go to work anyway since I stayed home with them on Tuesday. It's still a skating rink in some areas, especially parking lots but the worst is now over! Our power did come back on yesterday afternoon so last night we were all able to rest much easier than the prior night!

Ava has had a cough for a few days now. I took her to the Dr. first thing this morning and they gave her a breathing treatment. Per the Dr. it seemed to help so he recommended that we continue 3-4 times a day as needed. This is going to be fun! She isn't at the age yet where she will really sit and watch tv or anything so I need to find something that will grab her attention for a few minutes while she sits with the little mask over her mouth. :-( I just hope it doesn't get any worse for her. I think I caught it before it got too bad so hoping for the best!

Aiden is back at school today, although he really is getting excited about having snow days. He has been playing basketball every Sat morning and seems to be really enjoying it this year. I finally see the competitiveness coming out, and it's not too aggressive but enough that he wants to do well and is trying more than he was last year! I want him to enjoy what ever he decides to play. I think he is going to play flag football again this spring. His current league goes to tackle at 7 but I am not comfortable with that yet so we might change leagues.

Work has been going well, so far I still have a job which is good. (we were purchased and are in the process of merging companies) My managers still have jobs so I assume I am safe however, you never know, I don't assume anything anymore! I started working out a few times a week and am trying to eat better. We also started attending church last week and one of my new years resolutions was to start going on a more regular basis. We were invited by a friend to a local church and I think Chris and I really enjoyed it. They have some wonderful programs and the facility is amazing! It's huge and the kids areas are all beautiful! Aiden loved it and even told me he needs a Bible because all the kids bring theirs. I thought that was really cute :-) Ava fussed a little but I think she just hasn't been feeling all that great and it was a new place for her so hopefully she will start doing better in the weeks to come.

Chris is currently working a ton, but keeping his options open to new opportunities. He just feels the company he is with doesn't provide him with a sense of security so, hopefully some thing will be coming his way that is more stable and hopefully more family friendly. The company he is with now doesn't really seem to understand or support a family life balance and with two young children, that is important.

All in all, we are doing well! We have some fun things planned for most every weekend this month and are just trying to make it through the rest of the winter season! Spring can't come soon enough!

Aiden's 7th

Aiden is officially a 7 year old! He had a wonderful birthday. His party was a lot of fun and almost every one of his friends came to celebrate with him! The party was a roller skating party with a Star Wars theme. I had a special guest come to visit him. My boss is a huge star wars fan so he came and dressed up in his storm trooper costume. Aiden was surprised and I tried to get all the kids pictures taken with him. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day even a lot of the adults that didn't plan on participating had skates on at the end. I look back at the past seven years and although I can't really remember life with out him, it seems like he was born just yesterday...such a strange feeling. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful son!

Is winter over yet??

Okay- Christmas has come and gone, I think that is the only time I don't mind winter. January and February just seem to drag and Ohio is just so ugly and gray this time of year.

I am looking forward to Spring!

Anyway...Christmas this year was wonderful!!!!!! The kids had a blast, we were able to spent time with family. I had the week after Christmas off from work which was really nice! We have been trying to keep the kids busy on the weekends doing some fun indoor activities. The weekend before last we went to Galaxy Games and Golf, which is an indoor play gym. Sure it's a breeding ground for tons of germs but, it gets them to let out some energy and they are getting germs from daycare anyway! Last weekend we went to CoCo Key indoor water resort. We got an overnight package which worked out great, we had a place to take Ava when she got tired and it felt like a little getaway and also took our nephew Evan with us, he and Aiden play very well together. We had a lot of fun!

Oh- We welcomed our new nephew/cousin to the family on December 31st. His name is Gavin! It is Chris's twin brothers little baby boy. He is just adorable! He wasn't due until Aiden's Birthday 1/19 so he was a little early but perfectly healthy!

Tomorrow is Aiden's 7th Birthday! I cannot believe it's been 7 years, Wow! His party is Saturday at the roller skating rink. We will celebrate tomorrow with is favorite, Pizza hut for dinner and I plan on getting him a little cake for us to eat tomorrow evening. I am so proud of him, he certainly has his moments as all children do...but overall he is a wonderful kid. He is the best big brother to his sister, he is sweet and generous and smart! I am just so blessed to have him in my life.