I had a wonderful weekend! I went out with my friend Jamie and she introduced me to some of her friends. We went to dinner and then hit a few "bars"! I hadn't been out like that in a LONG time.. at least I haven't closed a bar in a very long time!! It was a great time to take a break from everyday "stuff"!! Thanks for inviting me Jamie!!!

On Saturday and Sunday we pretty much dedicated the days to shopping. Yes, believe it or not, there are times when my husband and my kids enjoy shopping! It usually is when they get to buy things!! Even my daughter who is 19 months old has already caught on! I can honestly say that everyone made out pretty well! We are pretty much set for our and trip and ready to face summer!! We are all tired.. Kayla went to bed pretty early, since her only nap today was for 15 minutes on top of Jim's shoulders (which is not the safest place!).. Shane has been waiting all day to just sit down with Jim and watch TV.. Jim worked in the yard from late afternoon till evening, and we ate dinner a 8:00pm!! Well.. finally at 8:50pm, Shane got his wish!!

I have a countdown clock on my desktop counting down the days (and hours!) to our trip to Disneyworld. It says 16 days! I can't believe it! We booked this trip in January and here it is. I was a little upset at how fast time was passing, since I love the anticipation of having to wait for something, and once we go, time seems to go by even faster, but now I am starting to get SUPER excited. Here is a picture of Shane when we took him to Disney 3 yrs ago.. he looks so little to me!! He had such a good time!!

Now I get in the "what do we need to take mood". One of the issues I run into going on vacation right as the weather gets nice, is that I haven't really gone through any of the kids summer clothes to see what fits and what doesn't.. I will start doing that soon.. so Jamie, you might get some more clothes for Ryan! My daughter is still such a tiny thing that she might fit into some of the clothes she had from last year.. we'll just have to see.

So Ryan came over to play for a little bit this afternoon after Shane had been playing over at his house for a while.. Well.... my house is known as the dancing house... here are the kids going to town!! Just look at Jozie just laying there watching them!

Man, it sure is hard to get back to a routine! It was time for grandpa to go home, so Jim took him to the airport this morning.. his plane left at 7:30sh, so they were up really early. And with that storm last night, its not like anyone slept well. Jim was dreading going back to work.. after almost a whole week at home, I can only imagine how hard it is. Both of my kids woke up looking for daddy and grandpa and I had to explain to them that grandpa had to go home and daddy had to go to work.. they were sad, and I had to quickly change the subject and tell them that we needed to get Shane to school. He stayed home most of last week from school, and I stayed home from the gym, so we needed to get things back on track.

My daughter was not a very good girl today. She has become obsessed with taking off her diaper and lets just say that it has not been pleasant cleaning after her... we'll just leave it at that, I don't need to gross any more people out!

So the fence is all done and it looks great. I have to admit that they did a wonderful job. It was so nice to just be able to let the kids and the dogs go outside to play while I ran the vaccum... my floors are still a muddy mess, but after all the mud the kids dragged in today, I think I am going to wait and clean it all tomorrow in hopes that the grass dries out and I can have clean floors for longer than a day!

We got home from the gym this evening and did a little family dancing! Video to come!

Gallagher Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Familytree - Blank family tree

Gallagher Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

We had such a beautiful day today that we spent almost all of it outside! Jim and Jack almost have the fence all done; and all there is left are the two front fences.
Shane and Kayla played all day long. It is such a blessing to have such great neighbours. Our children all get along so well. Shane loves going over to Ryan's to play.. when I walked over to talk to Jamie, Kayla saw everyone playing, and she just had to hop the fence and go play as well! She loved this tire swing.. the boys spun it around pretty fast! She was SO dizzy!
Our next door neighbours, Kelli and Kayla are wonderful with my little Kayla. They are like big sisters to her.
I can't wait for more beautiful and warm days like today. I enjoy seeing my children so happy and dirty!! We even got to eat some ice cream. :)
Oh, and by the way, Jozie jumped a whole 6ft 10in jump today at her competition!! Too bad I don't have a video of that!!

Entry for April 19th, 2008

Haven't had any time to just sit down and write what is going on! Ever since we got Chloe, it seems things have been going non-stop! I am constantly keeping my eyes on my kids and on my dogs! Jim's dad, Jack, came in from Ohio on Wednesday night and we went to the airport to pick him up. The kids were both so excited to see grandpa!! Jim has had this weekend planned out for a while now.. he took Wed, Thurs, Fri and Mon off work to work on building a fence for our backyard. Everytime Jack comes to visit, Jim has a project! They have been working on it and it is turning out great for two people who have never put up a fence before, and they have had to work around a crazy schedule too.

Our dog Jozie, has been training with Jim to become a dockdog. For those of you that don't know what that is, its when a dog jumps off a dock to retrieve a toy out of the water and then they measure how far out the jump is. Jozie had her first official event today. She did well, but needs much improvment. Here is a great video of what Jim faced when it was time for her to jump off! She did get much better after this one time! She is jumping tomorrow as well. Hopefully she will do better!

Entry for April 14, 2008

We picked up our new puppy from the Raytown Animal Hospital today. We were so happy to see her, and I think she was happy to see us too! We have decided to name her Chloe. After a run to Pet Smart for a new crate and a collar and a name tag, we were all set to bring her home. Her and Jozie get a long very well. As you can see, she fits right in!!

Entry for April 12, 2008

I woke up so tired this morning. Kayla slept terribly and therefore so did I! I think she is cutting her 2 yr molars and its just so painful.. her cheeks are really flushed and she keeps rubbing her gums with her fingers.

Jim went to work early again this morning. He had a tough day yesterday and didn't make it home till almost 7:30pm. He was a little down and out this morning... so when he got home we just had to get out of the house.. we went garage sale hunting and the weather was just terrible.. a mixture of ice and snow.. it was SO cold! We found a few little things, nothing special. Then Jim remembered that he heard on the news that Wayside Waifs (a pet shelter in KC), was having a 1/2 off adoption fee weekend.. so we went over there and played with a few dogs.. but none of them felt like they would fit into our family. The place we packed and I just felt so rushed in there. When we left there, Jim had a paper with a list of all the other shelters in the area, and there was one in Raytown, so we typed it in our GPS, and off we went. We walked into the shelter and they were the nicest people. They had SO many dogs there, I was very impressed! Out of all the shelters we have been to here, that was the nicest, cleanest one in my opinion. So.... we started walking around, looking at the dogs, when I came accross some puppies. Some people came in like 10 minutes before we did we dropped 3 puppies off. They were lab mixes and two were black and one was yellow. I hovered around the cage since the 2 black puppies were taken and there was a couple there looking at the last yellow puppy. I just kept on thinking, "if she is meant to be ours, then she will be ours". Sure enough, they picked a different puppy who had been there since yesterday!! We pick her up from the vet on Monday.. she is getting her shots and getting spayed. We are still deciding on a name. Here are our first pictures of her.

We think she will make a great companion to our precious Jozie, who by the way is jumping at the Dock Dogs competition at the Pet Expo next weekend!!! Here she is!

Entry for April 10, 2008

We had one of those busy days again.. we have been having a lot of those lately. I have found my peaceful place in the sauna at the gym. I try to go in there every morning after my workout to just relax and meditate. It might seem strange to some to pray in a sauna, but I feel very close to GOD in there! With the warmth of the air and my MP3 player playing my christian music, I feel at absolute peace. Its amazing how I can just block everything and everyone else for 15 minutes. I leave so rejuvinated. As I walked out today, the old man who was in there with me said, "you got to take a nap huh?".. I just nodded and walked out... But actually, no I didn't nap, but how weird would I have sound if I would have told him I was having a conversation with GOD in the sauna?! I think its a wonderful place for me to do more listening instead of asking!

Entry for April 09, 2008

Today my kids have been angels. With all the busy days we have been having, they have been a little restless, but today they have both surprised me. Shane fed the dog, picked up his toys and even put his shoes back on the shelf after he took them off after school instead of just kicking them off and leaving them in the kitchen. Kayla has been an extremely understanding little angel. Our schedule has changed a bit since we joined the gym and we don't get to play and "chat" for as long as we used to. I am very fortunate she enjoys going to play at the play area expecially because she gets to go out to play with other kids. Sometimes we go twice a day and on those days she is soooo tired and yet soooo understanding. All she wants to do when she gets home is cuddle with mommy, a blanket and her "Cocoa".

Here is the story with "Cocoa". Ever since I can remember, Shane has owned "Cow Cow" - A stuffed cow made by him and grandma at the Build a Bear store.

Shane LOVES this cow! He will not part with it under any circumstance. It has been on every trip, major event and bed time! Well.... a little someone here found Cow Cow and fell in love with it as well.. Shane was very understanding and shared Cow Cow under his conditions and time limits.... but we could tell that it was tough on him.. So, Jim and I decided that Kayla needed her own Cow Cow and we went to Build a Bear to get her one. Well, guess what?? They don't have the cow any more! Great! Now what?! We were so lucky! She saw this orange cat and started pointing at it and calling it Cow Cow.. so, we stuffed it and brought it home. I didn't want her calling the cat a cow, so I started calling it Cocoa and it seems close enough to Cow Cow, that its not too big of a name change for Kayla.

She is becoming just as attached to it as Shane is to his cow!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, my son the dancer!

Entry for April 07, 2008

So this is the first time I have ever really sat down to blog. I am going to try to do it more often. Lets see... what has been going on.. My life has changed quite a bit over the last 3 weeks since Jim and I joined 24-Hr Fitness. I have been going six days a week and sometimes twice a day when Jim gets home from work. I have to say that I feel absolutly wonderful! This is however after 2 weeks of feeling nothing but sore! I have been doing at least 45 minutes of cardio a day and doing some weights inbetween cardio workouts. I look at how diciplined I am now and I can not believe I was so lazy. I have so much more energy!! The kids have been doing great. Shane starts Kindergarten this year and I can't believe that we already took him to get enrolled. Makes me so sad to think that time is going by so fast. He is turning out to be an awesome soccer player and its a sport he really enjoys which is wonderful because my father played a lot of soccer in his days.. if he could only see Shane now!! Kayla is turning into such a big girl. She speaks more and more everyday and is all girl. She is becoming my little cuddle bug and she just loves to get a blanket and lay with me to watch some Barney! I LOVE IT! I have been truly blessed with my two children. And I am finding out just how different they really are from each other!

Jim has been working a lot.. weekdays.. weekends.. I try so hard to be understanding most of the time; but sometimes I just can't bite my tongue any longer and I will complain about how much time he spends at work lately, then I feel terrible since I know he does it all for us. Things are supposed to ease up for him soon.. we'll just have to wait and see. Till then I just pray for patience and understanding on both our parts!!