Melts In Your Heart

I couldn't resist buying the boys some new shirts at M&M world in Vegas. And after seeing this. Can you really blame me? I just want to eat them up.

Other Vegas Fun

We had so much fun in Vegas before and after the Ceremony. Enjoy this slideshow of some of the sites and shows we saw. I want to go back again already. What a blast! (I apologize that some of the pictures are not oriented correctly. They are everywhere but when I load them to slide. Still trying to figure that one out.)

10 years Later

Mike and I had the best Anniversary in Vegas. We loved our Elvis and everything about the Ceremony. If you missed it you can go to www.youtube.com/elivschapel and search for our names. Enjoy the pics.

Rough Day

Caleb had such a rough day yesterday at Baseball. While he was warming up, he took a ball right to his face which split his lip and fattened it up. He looked pretty sad when I showed up at the field a little after them, but he decided that he wanted to play. Then while batting he got hit by the ball in mid swing not once, but twice on the same hand! After that he was pretty upset and his poor little hand sporting a nice bruise. He didn't want to play anymore for a while but we stayed to finish watching the game and cheering his team on. He decided the last inning to go back in and played well and was even brave enough to get back up to bat. He struck out, but at least he didn't get hit again. They ended up losing 10-9 but I was still pretty proud of my tough little man. He's growing up so fast.

Got Time?

Mike is a huge fan of all things clock, something he gets from his Grandpa. When we were in Roberts for our last project he spotted something like this and then of course we had to break out the Cricut and make our own. This is one huge clock. The best part of it was that he did most of the work himself. All I had to do was operate the Cricut. If you can't read the gold writing in the pics it says "Ouren Clock Co. est. 2000"

It was a fun little project this weekend. I think I am all out of projects for a bit. Any suggestions?

In Retrospect

Sometimes for me, it takes a couple of days to sort things out and look at things retrospectively to decide if they were a good or a bad thing. This year it was like that for Mother's Day. That morning I had really intended to sleep in and take advantage of it being "my day". But that all changed when my body had other plans and woke me at 4:30 am to not wanting to sleep any longer. I came downstairs and hung out quietly. When the boys finally started stirring a little after 6, they came downstairs and Caleb was so excited to give me a card he made at school. It was really cute, he was so proud of himself and then I was instructed to get back in bed so I could have some breakfast in bed. That made me smile so I went back to bed while Dad cooked some French Toast and bacon. They brought it up. Caleb and Zaric climbed up on the bed and ate theirs with me while we watched Spongebob cartoons and then Zaden joined us after he had eaten downstairs. It made me laugh and really take the time to savor that memory of "my" breakfast in bed which included 3 boys and Spongebob. And Caleb even offered that since it was Mother's Day and all, I was welcome to watch any of his movies, I would like. So sweet of him. But then it was time for the real day to begin. We went outside and did my traditional Mother's Day planting in the flower beds. That went pretty quickly which was nice and Caleb got to do something he's been dying to do, plant some food. We picked up some strawberry plants too. He was super excited to do that.

Pretty good day you are probably thinking. But this is all done before 10 am. Once we came inside I had really hoped just to spend the rest of my day relaxing and vegging, but the house said otherwise. The rest of the weekend was so busy, the chaos of the house had gotten a little out of control. So I spent most of the rest of the next few hours cleaning and picking up after the boys. Then we had to run a couple of errands and I was just thoroughly pooped by then and even feeling a little sorry for myself that I was doing all this cleaning on Mother's Day. I guess a Mother's work really never is done. It's not like I was angry at any one person or even the kids. I was just kinda grumpy about the situation and the day not going how I had envisioned so I tried my hardest to keep myself in check and not to lash out at anyone.

After errand running the boys got to Skype with some of the Braska family and they enjoyed that while I prepared dinner. After dinner, we took a nice family walk and as we were coming closer to home, I was starting to get excited thinking that I could finally go inside and relax when we noticed the temperature dropping and realized it was probably going to rain. This meant that Mike had no other options but to get our out of control grass mowed that night. It's supposed to rain several times this week plus I don't even get home until 8 pm anymore so it needed to get done that night. Which meant that once again and still I was on total Mom duty to keep the boys entertained while he did that since he can't mow and watch the boys at the same time. Luckily, I had the help of a bubble machine to keep them entertained for a while. Then I spent some time playing catch and doing some baseball practicing with Caleb.

I shouldn't complain, they were were angels pretty much the whole day besides a little normal stuff here and there. But by the time that was over, I had kinda had it and when Caleb asked me to stay out longer I told him, "This is supposed to be my day and I just want to relax" and we came inside. Once Mike changed out of his mowing clothes he gathered up the twins in the car and left. He wouldn't tell me where they were going and as I looked around I found yet more chores waiting. We had been washing bedding and things so the beds had to be made and the floors had yet to be vacuumed so back to work I went. No relaxing for me and I again started to get just a little cranky at the day itself. But when Mike came home, I came downstairs to my favorite dessert, carrot cake from the Cheesecake Factory. That's where him and the twins had run off to. I totally need it and this may sound funny but just that little gesture made me cry a little. He really understands me so well sometimes. Isn't he the best? After the kids went to bed, we ate dessert and finished a movie we'd been watching and he even treated me to a massage before bed. I think I'll keep him around.

When people have asked me how my day went I haven't really known what to tell them. It was like a roller coaster went bad, great, meh, bad and then ended great again. So it's hard to explain. This morning I am just going to look at it and add in some different perspective. So in retrospect a day that begins with breakfast in bed memories with my boys, sticking to traditions planting flowers and then ending with carrot cake and a massage at night really must have been a great day. All that "bad" stuff in between, well that can be forgotten. The rest, the "good" stuff, will not. Thanks boys!

Accomplishments

My GreaTest Accomplishments in LiFe call me MoM!

Happy Mother's Day!

We Heart Moms

Wow! Mother's Day has really snuck up on us this year. I barely got myself in gear last weekend and I am happy to say that we managed to make our gifts and get them shipped in time, even a little early. :)
When I came home from work on Thursday Caleb met me at the door with this heart he had made from pearler beads. He was excited that he had done it all by himself. He told me it was for Mother's Day. Of course I professed my undying love to it and added some magnetic backing and proudly have it displayed on the fridge.


Now that these have all been mailed and delivered, it's safe to show off what we ended up making. The boys made some art work for all the grandma's with their hand prints. We weren't sure how the twins would react to us painting their hands but they surprised us and loved it. I see a lot of finger painting in our future.

We love you Grandma's. Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there that read my little old blog. I hope you have a great day on Sunday and get spoiled rotten.

Dual Immersion

We got a call from the school district early last week notifying us that they were still accepting applications for Dual Immersion programs in our district. Huh? We didn't even know they offered them in our district. So I got online and checked it out. Apparently there was a parents meeting in December and apps were due in Feb. Oops! So I called around to a couple of the "select schools" to get a sense of what was going on. They both told me to fill out the application and we would be put on a waiting list. So the boys and I drove around on Friday and dropped off 2 applications, one to a Spanish program and one to a Chinese program. Caleb said he was excited for both but a little nervous to leave his friends which is totally natural. He told me he liked the school that taught Spanish, but after we left the school that taught Chinese he was all smiles and frankly I felt more comfortable there as well. So I was crossing my fingers for that program. Great news! We got a call today and they can get him into either program and asked which I prefer. He will be going to the Chinese program at the school we both liked. This will mean quite the drive for us every day back and forth but I think it will be beneficial for him to be taught in 2 languages. What a thrill and something they definitely didn't offer "back in my day".
Here's a link to some info on the program

I will be filling out more paperwork this week for him but we are excited. When I told him he got in he gave me the thumbs up and told me he was excited but said "Cool and maybe on Thursdays they'll teach Spanish". lol Yes Caleb, maybe they will. ;)

Garbage Man

This morning after I was done finally catching up on some purging and shredding, Zaric ran right over and took the sack and headed for the door. Luckily the camera was within reach. He's such a good helper. Here he is dragging my bag of shredding to the door. (Try to ignore the mess they made earlier trying on all the shoes in the shoe basket. )


Once I opened the door for him, he picked it up and headed out.

Here he is on his way to the trash can. What a big boy.

Whew! That's hard work. It calls for a break.

And a little of the two-year old ADD showing up. "I'm not easily distrac.... Look over there Mom!"

And back to the task.

We did make it to the can finally and Mom put the bag in. He was so proud of himself. I'll need to remember this when he's a teenager and it's a fight to get him to take the trash out. Hopefully I will still have these pics to prove that he once enjoyed it.

Calendar It!

In an effort to try to consolidate some of the chaos that often takes over our kitchen, I have been in the market for a new dry erase type board. Something to write notes, appointments, the weekly menu, honey do lists, and the like. While out shopping last weekend we came across this at Roberts and since we had a 50% off coupon, I decided to give it a go. I bought the "unfinished" version so I could make it more my own. So here it is in it's naked version.

We still have the leftover paint from our kitchen re-paint we did in January. So I painted it the same grey as our trim.

I had Mike drill some holes for me to add a little ribbon flair and cuteness. I chose some green gingham ribbon to match the John Deere decoration motif I have going on.

And of course, added some of my own pictures and broke out the Cricut for some vinyl lettering. I was deep in thought on what to write on it and was asking and searching for suggestions, when Allison suggested "Organized Chaos" just like my blog. DUH! Why didn't I think of that? As I passed that idea around to Mike and others that I had been asking they all like it, and it so fits to what this is.

On the last bow I hung a plastic sleeve to put things such as Caleb's pictures he has hanging all over the kitchen, important papers that correspond to calendar items, grocery items, appointment cards and things I want readily available. And I like the idea of it, but not sure I am sold on the sleeve. I may look for something else to hang and serve this purpose or a verticle hanging sleeve. Or I may scrap it all together and have it just be a good idea that didn't pan out. Opinions/suggestions on this section are welcome.

So this new board will serve as:

1. Monthly calendar (still haven't given up the regular calendar but this is a step closer to one less thing hanging in that area)

2. Note space (always needed)

3. Picture displays (or they may turn into more note space, still deciding)

4. Weekly menu on the calendar days (whoo hoo !I can trash the other dry erase board that floats around from place to place.)

5. Consolidated space for numerous papers, cards, art work etc. ( I think my fridge is jealous to have all the papers off of it)

I'm still not sure it's completed. But overall I like it. Onto the next project. Pictures to come!