Coffey Life

New Kitchen!

2012-01-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

So I know I have a lot to catch up on blogging. But those posts about Christmas and Tess' birthday, etc. are going to have to wait for now, because I want to share some in progress pictures of my new kitchen!!

For those of you that don't know, my kitchen has white cabinets, white tile floors, and blue walls with a yellow accent wall and yellow trim (not my color scheme - the way it was when we bought it). For a long time I've wanted to paint my kitchen a green to show off the cabinets, etc. and it needed some serious painting to update it! My whole kitchen is dusty and grimy - literally, and gross. It is now the cleanest it has probably ever been!!

So for Christmas this year, my mother-in-law and husband gave me an awesome gift! They were going to pay for me to have a new kitchen, but not only that, they were going to do the work too! Verlyn, my father-in-law, is a handy man and can do many home improvement projects very well, and is great at painting, and so is my mother-in-law. They do lots of stuff to their house themselves all the time.

So we went to Menards and I picked out the green I wanted (after first picking out the green I really ended up hating, so good thing Menards returns paint already tinted). And I picked out tile for a backsplash that they were going to install also. So the painting is done, except the back door and the tile is up on one wall, minus the grout. But here are some before pictures (but after they started filling in holes) and some in progress pictures. The green IS a vibrant and bold green but it's not as bright as the pictures make it seem. Plus the paint was still fresh, so it wasn't darkened up like it is now. I LOVE it! Can't wait for them to finish it tomorrow.

Testing out the paint color - but this is the before picture of my window walls.

Before picture of looking down the stairs and the back door.

Before picture of my refrigerator and stove wall

Before picture of the counter and wall behind the counter and sink.

Before picture of behind the oven and counters

A HILARIOUS attempt at a picture of our gift giver and me. This picture CRACKS me up!

2nd attempt - again this picture CRACKS me up, cause I look like a giant and she a midget. ha ha.

There we go - 3rd times a charm. Me with my mother-in-law and gift giver, Holly.

The decorative glass tiles that will be mixed in with the other white tiles....you'll see.

My new green kitchen, now if you see it in person it is actually much darker than this, not as bright. I think it's my flash and the kitchen overhead light combo.

Hard at work.

Painting is done...tile can begin!! Don't you love it?!?!

Tile in progress.

New tile behind the sink!! Awesome! Still needs grout - but get that done tomorrow.

The first wall of tile done, minus grout! Beautiful! A whole new kitchen!

Done for tonight, but they were here working from 9:30 am until 8:30 pm. That's a long day of work. So they'll be back tomorrow to finish the tile and grout and any finishing touches, but I'm so excited about it!!

Christmas is coming

2011-11-29T17:32:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how fast time is flying. Halloween came and went, my sisters wedding is a blur, and now Thanksgiving has already come and gone. How can time go by so quickly? I feel myself aging everyday and I feel like time is going by so quickly that I can't get anything done.

This years Christmas is going to be smaller, for two reasons. First of all, we just don't have the money this year, but more importantly we want to teach the kids that it's ok to get a few things for Christmas, but the real reason of the season is to celebrate Jesus' birthday. They are very excited to start their Advent calendars this year. I'm having a hard time thinking of some good toy ideas for them, but am super excited to try and make Tess some bows for her hair to put in her stocking. She desperately needs some and I have all the supplies to make them, and found plenty of instructions online on how to make them. I am getting a sewing machine from my mom and dad for my gift this year (yes I already know because I ordered it online on Black Friday from Wal-Mart), and SOOOO excited to learn how to sew on it and make kids gifts for birthday's and Christmas' from now on.

Next weekend we will go cut down our tree from the tree farm, and it's predicted to be the coldest day of the year again so far...like it is every year on the day we choose. We will also decorate the house and tree next weekend. We always like to wait to do it the first weekend of December. I don't like to do it in Nov.

Anyways. We have a few gifts bought and a few more to go, but we will have a nice smaller Christmas this year. I am going to look into some volunteer opportunities that I can do with at least the two older boys.

I hope you are all enjoying this time of Christmas prepartion. Don't forget Jesus this season, he's the only reason we have this holiday to begin with! :)

Wedding Bells are Ringing!

2011-11-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

So I know it has been F-O-R-E-V-E-R (say it like Sandlot) since I have posted on here. To be honest, I almost forgot that I even had a blog, I've been so preoccupied and busy. Many things have happened, including lost teeth, Raymond's birthday, my birthday, Halloween, and more. But those things I am going to put on the back burner for now because the thing that has been happening for months that has led up to this final major event this past weekend, is my sisters wedding. Since it is still fresh, I have decided to post on this for now.

My oldest sister Kimberly just got married to Todd Kittel. They have been together for over two years now and Saturday they finally sealed their love in marriage. Kimberly has been planning this for a long time now and my mom has been working on it too. In fact we've all been working on it little bits here and there and my mind has been on the wedding for so long that it has taken precedence to many daily things in my life that I have not gotten done. Now that the wedding is over, I feel almost like a weight has been lifted in many ways. I am now free to concentrate on other things.

There were SO many details to her wedding that in the end were beautiful, but they were time consuming and I seriously thought that we all might die of a heart attack brought on by stress over the course of the weekend while we broke our necks trying to get it all done. We even ended up starting the wedding a few minutes late cause we were rushing, ha ha. But in the end it all came together, and was majorly the doing of 4 or 5 of her best friends from DC. They were awesome. But without going into too much detail the wedding was beautiful, so was my sister and I wish her and Todd the best. Below are a few pictures I took and most of them are ones that I stole from my cousins daughter, Amber Todd. So thanks Amber. We still have not seen the ones that her photographer took, but for now I hope you enjoy!! We were all a part of the wedding. The boys were SOOOO handsome in their white shirt, black pants, belts, dress shoes and gold ties. Each of them got a boutonniere from their Uncle Todd and they were technically junior ushers. Tess was a junior Bridesmaid, I was a bridesmaid and Tony was a groomsman.

Water Water Everywhere and my litter box drama.

2011-08-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

So the last few days we have had some much needed rain for the area. We've spent most of the summer wishing for rain because our poor grass is just dying away and brown from the heat the last couple of months. What I didn't want, however, was a summer's worth of rain in two days time...or rather a combined total of 2 hours in two days time!

Sunday we received 6 inches of rain in our neighborhood, plus hail in less than two hours. Of course, if any of you have been to my house we have a driveway that slopes down towards the garage and basement at a 45 degree angle. Because of the slope, we actually have a grated drain in front of the whole expanse of the front of the house that is connected to an underground drain that runs under the garage and to a sump pump in the garage to help prevent any flooding to our garage and basement. But, the problem arises when you get too much rain in too short amount of time that the poor little sump pump can't keep up with it and we end up having 6 inches of water standing in front of our garage and basement front door that it has no other choice but to start pouring under the doors and into the garage and basement living room.

We have lived in our house now for 6 years and we've had a bit of garage flooding in that time, so we've learned to keep things off the floor that can't get wet, etc. Who cares, it's a garage, right? Well we've also experienced mild flooding in the past where it comes through the garage into a linoleumd hallway and then drains in the floor drain in the concrete laundry room, or has come in the front basement walk out door and onto the entryway and an inch or so onto the carpet.

At 4am Monday morning, after laying awake for hours while 3 huge rain storms ripped through our area, I finally got up to see how bad the basement was. I almost broke down in tears, when I got to the steps to find that the entire basement (carpeting, couches, furniture, dogs, etc.) was under an inch or more of water...wall to wall. By far the worst flooding we've EVER had down there, and it was still pouring under the garage door that comes into the house and into the walk out door. In fact there was a stream of water flowing across the floor. Despite my wanting to rush around and fix it, all that Tony and I could do was move things off the floor onto the couches and coffee table and go back to bed. There was no way to fix it at that point in time. Needless to say I did not fall back asleep.

Next morning the carpet was a full sponge of water. It sloshed over your feet when we'd walk on it. Luckily my friend loaned me her carpet cleaner, so I got started sucking water out of the carpet. Later that night Tony's mom and husband came over and helped Tony move furniture out of the room and we sucked up more water. Then yesterday I sucked up more water, and we've had fans going on it since it first happened. It still is not dry. The carpet is damp, but I sliced a piece of carpet away from the wall and the padding is still soggy. I am not a carpet expert, and I don't know how to dry that before it molds or whatever, and that stresses me out.

Here is the other HORRIBLE dilemma. The previous owners of our house owned 3 cats which must have spent most of their time peeing on the floors all over the house. So every time we get the carpets cleaned, or they get wet at all, the whole house smells terrible like cat pee. You see where I'm going with this? I about vomit when I breathe in, my entire house smells like a saturated, pee filled litter box! It's so disgusting. I still have to work, so the kids and I have to be in this rank smelling house, but there is really nothing I can do - until the carpets dry completely. I tried shampooing them already, but it doesn't help, since the carpet pads are still so wet. I also called Stanley Steemer to get some prices, but they won't even come if the carpet is wet in any way. So we are stuck for the moment with the cat smell. I'd rather have wet carpet smell, but the cat smell is overwhelming. I have an automatic air freshener in our main floor living room that is set to go off every 9 minutes now, but it really makes no difference.

So I am currently at the bottom of the barrel of ideas. Ideally getting new carpet is the solution, but realistically we cannot afford that at all. Not even a penny of it, so we are stuck for the time being living in a litter box.

Cowboys

2011-08-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

During our recent family trip we stopped in Cheyenne for the Frontier Days Rodeo as I have previously stated in an earlier post. The boys were lucky enough to go behind the chutes with their Aunt Kimmy that works during the rodeo taking the Press around and all that jazz. So she decided to take them behind the chutes during the Bull riding event. She said that a couple guys made room for them at the fence and even put them up on the fence so they could get an up close view of the cowboy being thrown from the bull.

She took the cutest pictures of them and it makes me wish all the more that I lived in Wyoming and that we somehow owned a ranch and lived the Cowboy life. Ahhhh, dreams. Enjoy my future Rodeo stars....

It's that teary season...

2011-07-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

I dawned on me today, while I organized my kids' closets that in two weeks Owen will be starting 2nd grade, but more importantly Raymond will be starting Kindergarten and even more importantly Judd will be starting his first year of school ever, preschool. I am not stable when there are major events in my kids' lives. My eyes swell up with tears at the mere thought of it. So crap, I now have it stuck in my head and I've already started tearing up today. What a huge change in my life. Two of my kids gone full time to school, and #3 gone two mornings a week. They are leaving the nest, growing up, and leaving me. Boo-hoo. Of course it's mixed emotions because of course I am happy for their new experiences, but man two weeks from tomorrow I am going to be a mess. I better invest in some kleenex and water proof mascara today. Then on the 29th I'm going to be a mess all over again when Judd starts his first day.

It's my favorite season coming up, Fall, but it is also a time for tears, every year. I will keep you posted, cause as of now we still don't know for sure where Raymond will be starting Kindergarten, hopefully Owen's school. But I will also update you with first day of school pictures. Keep me in your prayers while I suffer through my rough first days of school, ha ha.

On the Road - Day 8 Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo

2011-07-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

The Daddy of them All! Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo! The dust, the horses, the smell of manure, the hot determination of those cowboys and cowgirls all packed into an arena full of anticipation. Oooh, it gives me chills. The rodeo. A place where men can show everyone how manly they are and where cowboys gets real meaning. I wanted to share this experience with my kids, who had never been to a rodeo before. I wanted them to get a taste of Wyoming and the wild west and one of the many reasons that I love this state. They LOVED it! After all the adventures we have had along this vacation, they were still excited to see this main event. Their Aunt Kimmie was there working and she bought them cowboy hats and took the boys behind the chutes during the bull riding event, which they were speechless about. They got to stand on the wooden fence watching the dust fly while the cowboys hang on for dear life on the back of the untamed bull, along side other cowboys. Ahhh, to be home in Wyoming and a part of history once again. These are our Rodeo pictures, the last leg of our journey, the end of this vacation chapter. Sad to leave Wyoming, my heart ached after the Rodeo when we loaded up in the car and drove across the border back to Nebraska. I felt like I was leaving my family, friends, and home all over again. But oh what a time we had! I hope you enjoy our pictures once again!

Future Bull rider?? Quiet meditative, watching his herd of cattle and horses through the fence.

Future bronc rider??

Future barrel racer?? Or Frontier Days Rodeo Queen??

Seriously?? Could you get any cuter?? What a cute cowboy!

Future Steer Wrestler I think.

Tess looks like she is sitting with the Rodeo Queen herself, but actually it's just one of my beautiful older sisters, Aunt Kimmy.

Tess' cowgirl boots. Pretty in pink.

A long day of being a cowboy. It's a tough life.

On the Road Days 5-8, Yellowstone National Park!! Yee-haw

2011-07-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

One big chunk of our family vacation was to meet up with Tony's mom and her family in Yellowstone to camp for three days for our family reunion. It turned out to be lots of fun (very cold nights, which I thought we were prepared for, but tent camping is colder than you think). We ate lots of great food, saw lots of beautiful scenery that you can't find anywhere else in the world, saw lots of wildlife like grizzly momma with two cubs, black bear, buffalo, lots of elk, a baby coyote and deer. It was an awesome trip, and the kids were awesome campers and awesome travelers for our entire week long vacation! I'm so impressed by them.

We got to hang out with our cool family and just simply have a wonderful time. We were told when we first checked into our campground that there are a couple of resident grizzly bears that frequent the campground, but have never been aggressive as of yet, but to just be aware and keep your food, etc. put away. Luckily we never saw the grizzlies that close and they never came through our campsite. Only some elk did and a family of moose came to the outskirts of the camp, but no grizzlies (though I stayed awake probably longer than everyone in the family listening for animal sounds outside our tent.)

Since there are so many pictures for this post, they basically tell the story of our adventures. The family got an awesome reunion t-shirt designed by Tony's Aunt Patty. So you'll see that too when everyone is wearing the same shirt. I'll add some little blurbs here and there to make a note of something, but otherwise, come along with us on our journey to Yellowstone National Park - most unique and beautiful place there is. :)

Judd was so excited to sit by his Great Uncle Gene, who sings and plays the guitar. He was amazed by him, cause he wants to be a singing cowboy too.

Gene and his daughters sing (the boys wanted to be right in the middle of it.)

North Yellowstone is beautiful mountains covered in every inch of wildflowers! You could smell them through your air vents.

The black bear we saw. Judd said it was Yogi

Mammoth Hot Springs

Our picnic in North West Yellowstone!

Our picnic friends, the ground squirrels, who were NOT shy.


Look closely and you can see the tail and butt of the baby coyote. He was laying down by a rock and hard to get a picture of his head.

She is my wilderness girl. Though none of us showered for 3 full days and nights, she was by far the filthiest of us all. She was rolling in the dirt and eating it. Definitely not afraid of the outdoors.

The first view of the Tetons as we left Yellowstone on our final day. SOOOO beautiful.


				Famous antler arch in Jackson, WY

As we left Yellowstone and Tetons, we made a detour pitstop in Rock Springs, WY (our first home) because we don't know when we will ever get back there and we wanted to show Owen where he was born and our first house, pictured above.

The Motel 8 that we used to run.

The hospital that Owen was born at. They have remodeled it.


And our old church that had just been built brand new before we left. We never got to go into the sanctuary because it wasn't finished by the time we left.

On the Road - day 3 and 4, Gillette, WY - Casper, WY

2011-07-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

After a good nights sleep in Gillette, WY, we decided to take our time and back track an hour to see Devil's Tower National Monument. We got there and the kids wanted to do the Junior Ranger program, where they get to take a booklet on the trails to find certain things and then turn it in when we are done and they get a badge and certificate. Of course once again as soon as we were about to walk the 1.3 mile trail around the base of the tower, Owen declared he had a bad headache again, so Tony ran back to the car to get some Children's Ibuprofen, but the first 1/4 of the hike, he whined about how horrible his head hurt. There were tons of rock climbers this day and that was really cool to see, but those people are a lot braver than me.

After our trek at Devils Tower, we ate another picnic lunch in Moorcroft and after two trains passed by right where we were, we discovered that Tess is afraid of trains. Afer our lunch, we drove almost three hours to end up in Casper, WY at my sister and her fiancee's house. The first thing we did was unload the truck so we could take it to a mechanic where they are as we speak replacing the rear brakes. We knew they were going to be replaced at some point, but after driving Needles highway and the Mountains in SD, we had no break pads left and they made a crunching noise as we would break.

But my sister made a great dinner of chicken and Elk kabobs and homemade french fries.

Today we rested up while Tony went to work with Todd (game warden) for a ride along. We took the kids to the playground, but basically just hung out. Tomorrow we will be getting up super early to head to Yellowstone!

Devil's Tower National Monument

My Junior Rangers (Todd said he needs to make them Junior Game Wardens instead cause I found out Rangers and Game Wardens are sort of rivals. lol)

My future rock climbers

She wishes she was a future rock climber.

He's pretending that he feels better

The view from a point on the trail.

Tess insisted on carrying the heavy water bottle that we took. This is why it took double the time it normally would have to walk this mile long trail.

Owen was walking about as slow as Tess, so Tony carried him awhile.

Good picture, despite the huge fat roll that you can see on my gut. The bench was not comfortable, but it works.

My Junior Rangers!

After a long day of hiking and eating, a nice snuggle (or wrestle) in bed with Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Todd.

This morning Aunt Kimmy made us all French Toast with berries. Yum.

The kids gobbled them up. And even after a fever of 102.3 last night for Owen, he has been fine all day.

I will post again on Sunday night with all my Yellowstone pictures. It will be nice and cool temps, which will be a relief and we will get to hang out with all of Tony's mom's family. Tonight is bath night and I need to finish up washing clothes, but all in all, we are ready for our Yellowstone adventure! See you all on the flip side!

On the Road Day 2 - Rapid City to Gillette, WY

2011-07-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

I know I said I wasn't going to blog until Tuesday because we were going to camp tonight around Mt. Rushmore, but due to 102 degree and 100 degree temps today and tomorrow and the chance of a thunderstorm, we opted to not camp and to visit Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park then head to Gillette, WY a day early. Tomorrow we will head to Casper, WY to visit with my sister Kimberly and her fiancee Todd, Tuesday and Wednesday and leave Thursday morning for Yellowstone.

So last night I left you with everyone tucked into their beds fast asleep. Tonight I start off the same way - but that's not how the day started off. We got up extra early, ate breakfast and got on the road to Mt. Rushmorw which is only about 25 miles from Rapid City, SD. You could feel the excitement from the boys cause they had been looking forward to seeing it in real life for awhile now. When we got there it was already hot and crowded, even though it had only been open for about 45 minutes. Owen is very light sensitive and bright lights can cause him to have instant migraine type headaches (me too), Tony swears he's read where people with blue eyes are more light sensitive, but I don't know that for sure. So he was hot and complaining that he felt like puking cause his head hurt so bad. We walked around and took pictures and went in the gift shop and bought each kid a keychain for a souvenier and ended up being there for about two hours. By the time we left, Owen was crippled with pain and I had a headache too, so we both took some headache medicine and drank a bunch of ice water.

As we came around the curve...Bam...there they are!

This was as we were entering the walkway.

The kids found the Nebraska flag and we wanted to take a picture.

I wish I was as photogenic as Mt. Rushmore is. There really is not too many bad angles for pictures.

Good pic, but not nearly as photogenic as those four studs.

Tony and the kids needed their picture in front too.

I am excited about this picture because mine and Tony's engagement photo was at Mt. Rushmore, so this

shows how far we've come in nine years!

My cutie patootie Judd. He was the happiest kid ALL day. Through the heat, hunger, potty breaks, and all the crowds and walking, he did not complain. When we got back in the car, he whispered to Raymond that mommy and daddy liked him best. Stinker.

This little stinker had us cracking up today. He followed in Owen's footsteps of not feeling well after we left Mt. Rushmore. First he threw tantrums in the gift shop because he wanted something else, something else, something else besides a key chain, then cried when I wouldn't give him the money to pay for it cause of all the crowds. I think his getting sick though was due to car sickness. He started complaining that he felt like throwing up when we were driving curvy mountain roads on Needles Highway through the Black Hills and Custer State park. He never threw up then, but on our way out of Custer State park, he threw up in one of my plastic mixing bowls that I had luckily brought for camping (3 of them in fact) and it was about a half gallon of vomit. We pulled over and got it all cleaned up out of the bowl and I got back in the car and he says, "Mommy, what's for dinner tonight?" Tony and I busted up. He's such a character. That was the only time he got sick and he ate every bite of dinner. ha ha.(Note to self and all parents...NEVER go on a road trip without a puke bucket of some sort, unless you enjoy cleaning up car seats and changing clothes, etc., which I don't) I never leave home without one!

This poor guy was crippled with a painful migraine headache the whole first half of the day. After we left Rushmore, he was then feeling sick in the car like migraines do and from the winding roads. Luckily we had a puke bucket for him too, though he only had a couple spit up type pukes. But he didn't want to eat lunch and I made him eat some of his sandwich and a few chips, and though I don't let my kids EVER drink soda, I let him have a good swig of my Diet Mt. Dew, because from migraine experience, caffeine can help. Even though he didn't eat much lunch, about 10 minutes after lunch and we were back in the car, he was playing with his brothers. So the combination of Children's Ibuprofen an hour earlier, a little food, and some caffeine finally kicked in and he's been fine the rest of the afternoon.

Finally this beauty queen diva is too funny also. she has been amazing for being a one year old on a long road trip full of hours of driving time. She has really only had her quick tantrums when she was acting like a "princess" of the family....like when she doesn't want to ride in her stroller at Mt. Rushmore but screams and pushes Judd out when we tell him he can.....or when she says drink and I hand her her sippy cup full of water and she screams because she wants a cup with no lid like her brothers, the list goes on. But she's so cute, her drama only adds to her cuteness....most of the time. Here she totally posed for the camera and said Cheese as loud and big as she could.

My fav. pres...Honest Abe

What a great family picture, if I do say so myself! Maybe 2011 Christmas card??

Some of the beautiful "needle" rocks on Needles Hwy in Custer State park. The scenery is so beautiful, my pictures in no way do it justice. Definitely a must see family trip!

Our picnic lunch in Custer State park. Great pit stop!

Hole in the Wall picnic area...that is where we ate our picnic lunch....

The kids literally standing in the Hole in the wall...ha ha.

We brought some cherries on our trip, and they must of been yummy if you can't tell by the red stain on Raymond's face...by the way, this is why when Raymond throws up later as I mentioned earlier, Judd yells out that Raymond threw up blood. ha ha.

And do be careful when walking around your picnic areas, you wouldn't want to accidentally step in this buffalo pie. At Wall Drug, they were selling frisbees, shaped like buffalo pies!! I almost bought one.

I made it!!! I'm finally home!!!

After we got to Gillette, I gave the family a tour of the entire town before we decided to eat dinner at Humphrey's Bar and Grill - a local restaurant that has since gone on to open a ton of Sandford's Grub and Pubs. The one in Gillette is named Humphrey's instead of Sanfords, because Gillette was it's starting point and Humphrey the camel is the High School mascot - hence the purple and gold (high school colors) and the camel in front. It was really good, but I was hoping to maybe recognize someone there but didn't.

Standing in front of my old family home...41 Edison Avenue, where we lived for almost 11 years. It is for sale, and looks like it's been vacant for awhile, cause sadly the paint it peeling and the yard is overgrown horribly. I walked around and looked in the windows, and the decks are falling apart. So sad. I want to buy it and fix it up and move there with my family. So they can experience Scream and Silver Bullet, Semi's, neighbors staring in the house from the hilltop...my sisters will understand, but really I miss that old house.

Driving back from my old house back into town, the sunset was a typical GORGEOUS Wyoming sunset. But unfortunately Tony couldn't get a good picture cause the hills kept popping up. One of the other many things I miss about our house in WY. You will almost never see as awesome of sunsets as the ones we used to see from our deck.

So we got back to the hotel and once again setteled in for the night....or at least the family is asleep without me again. I've discovered that posting on my blog from my laptop is not nearly as easy as it is from my home computer, because it will only let me upload 1 picture at a time, then add 1 picture at a time and it's very slow. I hope you appreciate my lost sleep over this...:)

Today we ran out of time after driving Custer State Park too, so we decided to skip Devil's Tower which was on our way to Gillette. Since we have no timeframe for being in Casper tomorrow at my sisters house, and she needs to work anyways, we decided we will get up and back track an hour to hike around Devil's Tower, then head on to Casper which is about 2 1/2 hours from Gillette. Once in Casper we will hang out with my oldest sister and fiancee for two days. So sometime in Casper, I will do one final post before heading to the dark side of the moon with no communication for three days while in Yellowstone. But don't go to far, because Sunday night I will be back in a Hampton Inn in Laramie, WY and will be excited to post our Yellowstone pictures for your enjoyment! Good night all. We are having an awesome time!

On the Road...Day 1 - Omaha to Rapid City

2011-07-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

We finally loaded up this morning, but not without making a huge mess packing at the house before we left! We are proud of ourselves because we actually stuck to our schedule, we pulled out of the driveway at 4:57am on our way across South Dakota and Wyoming for eight total days! Ah, vacation!

Even though it was 4:30am when the kids woke up they were excited and ready to go...despite one pit stop 10 minutes outside of town when I had to reach for a nearby bowl for Owen to throw up in. He's been fine since. Don't know about that...

Still excited...

Two minutes later I looked back and all 4 kids were fast asleep, not even an hour into the trip. phew. Then the sun started to come up, and it was a beautifl pink morning peaking up over the Iowa hills.

Then the sun came up and was a spectacular view. I'm always up before the sun, but am usually to busy to actually notice it's beauty.

As we trucked along, we had to first navigate through the flooded areas from the Missouri River and the roads were lined with these trap bags that were half as tall as the car. Please ignore the bug spatter already covering the windshield an hour into the trip. Darn flood brings darn bugs.

More trap bags set up on Interstate 29.

What would be a car trip without Tony's infamous bags of Hermans Sunflower seeds....yuck. This is the only thing that keeps him awake, and he tapped into them about an hour into the trip.

See? He already has a mouth full of sunflower seeds.

This is one of the flooded exits in Sioux City, IA. With the flooding it's amazing to see all the buildings underwater and the kids can't believe it either.

Past Sioux City, IA the sun was covered by the clouds and the kids and I commented on how pretty the sunbeams were and how they were God's fingers touching the Earth. It was a reassuring thought.

As we got a little closer to Sioux Falls, SD the famous Wall Drug signs started to pop up. Since we didn't allow the kids to bring their handheld video games this trip, we started a game that could occupy them for awhile. Counting Wall Drug signs! There are a ton paving our way to the large shopping drug store, what better way to entertain themselves, we thought. Well after our drive Tony and I counted 80 signs....the boys were too busy coloring in coloring books to care.

If you look closely there is a remnant of a rainbow in front of us!

Along the I90 path there are many places to stop, and one of them is in Mitchell, SD at the Corn Palace. We didn't go inside but thought it important enough to stop to take pictures. The entire building is decorated in corn silk, corn pieces, and other parts of corn. They change it every year and we though the boys would like it, especially since somewhere in Tony's family there is someone who is somehow involved in the starting of the Corn Palace. Family significance, even if we don't ourselves know the details.

After the Corn Palace, Tony decided it was my turn to start driving.

Ahhhh. The Badlands. No one in my family besides me has been here before, so it was a treat to show them, even if the temps were 102 degrees before the heat index and we had to try to eat our lunch in the car and sweated even in that air conditioning.

This freaked out Owen, but I had to assure him that it was even too hot for them to be out.

The kids and I posed for a picture. If it wouldn't have been so hot, we'd have gone exploring over some of the dunes.

Tony posed with the kids too.

Overlooking the badlands.

They were torn. They really wanted to go running over the rocky landscapes, skinning knees, and climbing with reckless abandon, but they were also melting in the heat.

Tony and Tess too.

My overheated raggamuffin.

So we decided to walk back to the air conditioned car.

It wasn't really this hot...but this is what our temp. gage read for outside temps when we started the car, from sitting in the sun. It felt this hot with the heat index, but it was a steady 102 before heat index.

Then off to Wall Drug.

For some good old fashioned fun...

and super melty ice cream.....

and Jackalope riding.....

and stagecoach driving.....

and the T-Rex that trys to eat you every 12 minutes that the boys have been looking forward to for weeks now!

Wouldn't be the west if we didn't wear our Davey Crocket hats.

or play with the buffalo!

or bring the chuckwagon dinner.

So greetings from the Black Hills - where we will be tomorrow!!!!

After a long day of driving and playing we finally wound up at our hotel in Rapid City, SD. Not too bad.

Then decided we needed to play some more at the Free Dinosaur Park where my sisters and I used to play.

Then to Downtown Rapid to the Fire House Brewery for some good eats and of course a Firemans hat!!!

Then back to the Hotel for a nice cool dip in the pool before passing out for the night.

Tomorrow our adventures take us to the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore and maybe Custer State Park. The temps are going to be 102 before heat index again so we are going to try and get up early, but we are camping tomorrow nigh, so it might be like camping in Hell. We shall see. Sooooo looking forward to the 60 degree temps in Yellowstone in a few days! My next post will be Tuesday night where I will update you on Days 2 and 3 of our trip!!!

"The Tale of the Unlucky Fisherwoman" (based on a true story)

2011-06-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a woman with four children. Her children had never caught a fish before and the woman had promised when they went to visit Grandpa and Grandma at their lake house in Missouri, they would get that chance because Grandpa had a pontoon and we were going to make a point to catch a fish.

So the woman and her four children set out on a Thursday afternoon to make the long drive. They brought enough supplies for four days of fun in the sun and their fishing poles that they would need for that big catch they were going to have. After arriving and a good nights sleep they were going to set out on the boat with Grandpa that Friday morning.

Friday came and they got up early and eagerly went to the boat, hungry to catch something that with luck they could cook up for dinner! All day they tried and tried with four different lines going and moving from spot to spot across the lake. At the end of the day they went back to the house without even so much as a bite on their lines.

Saturday came and they decided to sleep in a bit because Friday had been cold and rainy and they were exhausted. But they set out around noon to try their hand again. Once again with 4 different lines in the water at all times and working hard to catch their dinner. They decided to try a spot where the water had recently been a few feet higher and there was a lot of debri from the run off. Thinking that the fish might be hiding there, they decided to try after a small picnic on the boat. After eating they got their poles all ready and begin casting out to find that one fish that would satisfy their desires. The woman innocently sat at the front of the boat watching her two younger boys cast out their lines. One second was so peaceful and the next thing she knew her 5 year old threw his line back before casting it out and caught his barbed hook into his mom's bottom lip!!! The woman screamed for him to stop mid cast and grabbed the line, but the hook was already set. The woman called for her dad to help as blood starting gushing out everwhere. The dad cut the line and initally thought to push the hook on through the lip to cut off the barb before sliding it back out, but the hook was not through the inside part of her mouth, but lodged in the tissue on her chin just under the skin. Poor 5 year old boy was crying uncontrollably because he was worried about his mom that he just hooked. But the woman couldn't comfort him because she was occupied with the pain and panic of her face! Then to make matters worse, her 7 year old burst into tears cause he was scared for his mom and is a sensitive boy. To make matters worse, we were 7 miles by boat away from our dock where the cars were parked.

So after a quick contemplation that the woman's dad didn't think he could or should try and get the hook out, they put ice on it and started a rushed trek back across the lake making one stop at another marina where the game and fish warden had just docked his boat. The warden informed them that the EMT on site wouldn't be able to remove the hook, she'd have to go to the Urgent care or ER in a town 20 miles away. So they continued on their trek back to the dock. Once docked, they rushed to get off the boat. Grandma and Aunt taking the kids back to the house while the woman and her dad rushed to the town to get help. After a pit stop at the urgent care (for cheaper prices) they were informed that they were not equipped to remove it and she'd have to go the ER. After a $150 copay, the really nice ER Dr. and very good at removing hooks numbed up her mouth and removed it for her. A fat and bruised lip later, the woman survived the ordeal. The kids were happy that their mom was fine and the 5 year old son felt terrible for hooking his mom.

But this ordeal was not going to stop her and her kids from trying for another fish the next day. The winds were horrible on Sunday, but they found a cove where the wind was kept at bay. After trying for a long while without avail, they decided to grab lunch at a restaurant on the lake. The winds were SOOO bad that after lunch they decided they needed to dock the boat and fish off the dock. Again after trying, they had to walk away without another bite. What horrible luck this family was having! They wanted the kids to catch a fish so bad, but they were leaving on Monday around lunch time. So after walking away on Sunday dragging their feet and their hearts heavy, they decided that they would get up early on Monday and spend an hour or two on the lake to cast out their lines a few more times. So that's what they did, and once again they came back to the dock empty handed. Hearts heavy and disappointment high, as they arrived at the dock they witnessed in 30 minutes time a little Asian family catch 7 fish off the dock. The woman and her kids tried off the dock too, but again with nothing.

After this fishing folly, they decided that they were as unlucky as they come. She decided to nick name her dad's boat something like the Lady Unlucky, or as the boat is a Bass Buggy write a No in front of the name to say No Bass Buggy. The name is not set in stone, but it will need to be something along those lines cause as legend has it, her and her kids are not the only ones that haven't caught fish off this boat.

So the woman and her children walked away thinking of new boat nick names, heavy hearted, and the woman with a bruised fat lip and a couple more holes than she started with. On the other hand, we can now call the woman Captain Hook! Happy fishing. The lesson of the day...look behind you before you cast your line. From experience, it hurts.

From Baseball to Springtime Woes and everything in between...

2011-04-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Springtime has brought with it much to do! It's been cold and rainy and hard to find time to work in the yard (which looks like a tornado hit it...literally), but nonetheless I still try and find time to go out front for even five minutes with my little hand saw to cut away slowly at the ugly evergreen bushes that abundantly line our driveway. We've lived in our house for almost 6 years and they have been the bane of my existence since we moved in. They get overgrown so easily, making it difficult to walk between them and our cars parked in the driveway, our driveway acts as a vacuum and collects all the Falls leaves and garbage from neighbors and it all gets stuck in and under those dumb bushes, and they are a nesting ground for garter snakes and hornets. So as you can imagine I am finally fed up. There were a total of about 9 bushes on one side of our steps and 3 on the other side. I have cut out about 5 of them total, but with all the rain have failed to have time to clean up any of the debris. The pictures below depict the work that this involves. My goal is to cut them all down to stumps for this year, get the area all cleaned up and leave the stumps to rot until next year.

Then the other day our family experienced a disturbing loss. As we were leaving the house to pick up kids from school, Raymond exclaimed that there was a bird stuck in our front tree. I looked and saw a Robin hanging from our tree by a string, dead. Upon further inspection the string had acted just like a noose and was wrapped tightly around his neck and the string had gotten caught on a small branch in our tree. How this phenomenon happened, I don't know. I know that no one put it there, but think the string was from our front yard that we have wrapped around stakes to block off an area of our grass that has grass seed in it so people don't walk on it. The rain had recently weakened it and the birds snipped it, so maybe they thought it was a worm, or maybe he wanted to use it for a nest...nonetheless he should have just left it alone because it was his downfall. I still can't picture how in the world he got it around his neck and tightenend but freak things happen all the time. So when Tony got home from work, he shimmied up the tree and cut the string down with scissors and we disposed of the body. One of the daycare moms joked that Spring must have gotten the best of him and he ended it all. Not funny....but kinda.

Another sad note...one of my long term daycare kids has moved away. I took a couple of pictures of her on her last day.

Tess recently got some super cute cowgirl boots from her Grandpa Jerry and wife Lisa. She has been wearing them lately and I just thought we needed a cute picture of her in her boots. She's getting ready for her Wild West adventure trip in July.

Last night we were able to get 6 free tickets to the Creighton University vs. Southern Illinois University baseball game at the brand new stadium. It was super fun, I love going to baseball games, and the kids enjoyed it and the weather was actually perfect. So below are a few pictures from that and to end this post are just a couple other cute pictures of my kids. :)


My pitcher


Action shot!


After math of the Creighton baseball game. :)

Summer's -a-comin'!!

2011-04-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last 48 hours doing nothing but scouring the internet for all that my family will be doing this summer. I am so excited because we have so many places that we will be headed and so much the kids will get to see and do. It's a nice excitement because last summer we really went no where and did nothing all summer due to lack of finances. This summer we actually have a nice tax return, and will have a bunch of bills paid off so we are taking advantage of it.

First the kids and I will be headed to my mom and dad's lake cabin in Missouri for a Memorial day weekend 4 day excursion. It will be fun to be boating and hanging out in the outdoors and most importantly catching some fish with the boys (which they failed to do last summer and are super anxious to do). While there I hope to borrow a bunch of my dads camping supplies to add to our very small stockpile for our big trip in July...

Then the second weekend in June all 6 of us will be traveling to Fargo, ND and the Detroit Lakes area in MN to hang out with the entire Coffey clan for a fun-filled 6 day trip meeting and revisiting with Tony's dad and all of his family and Tony's cousins and all of their kids, which we have really never met but are all the same age as my own kids. So my kids will have lots of other kids to play with. We'll be staying at a hotel for the first couple of days, but hope to stay at Tony's Grandparents lake for at least a day to see them, which we might not otherwise see this summer until later...

Then in July it's the "Grand Daddy of them all!!" Our first super big family vacation! We will be leaving July 18 (Mon) and traveling up towards Rapid City, SD...taking a detour through the Badlands up to Wall, SD and Wall Drug and on to Rapid City where we will spend the night. Tue. morning we will wake up early and drive through the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Spearfish, etc. and work our way to Devils Tower in WY where we will end our day in my old home town, Gillette, WY. We will tour Gillette and show the kids my old stomping grounds while maybe running into some of my old friends...(wink wink). Then that Wednesday we will wake up and head towards Powell, WY where we will stay the night and stock up on all of our camping food and supplies before heading into Yellowstone Thurs. morning where we will be camping for 3 days with Tony's mom's side of the family and Grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc. EXCITING. So excited for this trip...can you tell?? :) After a fun-filled three days of hanging out in one of my favorite all tme places (Yellowstone and Grand Tetons...) we will head to Laramie, WY (with a pit stop in Rock Springs to show Owen where he was born...) where we will hopefully meet up with a bunch of our Laramie friends that Sunday night. Monday the 25th we will get up and head to Cheyenne where we will be going to the Frontier Days Rodeo and hanging with my oldest sister Kimberly, who will be working with the Press for the Rodeo, grabbing a bite of dinner with her before we head out Mon. evening to head back to Omaha. We'll see if we can make the super late night drive to Omaha or if we'll have to stop at some roadside hotel - but then that Tuesday the 26th we will have a day to rest, unpack, do laundry before we have to work again that Wed. Phew. Jealous yet??

I am so excited for our trip in July because this will be the first time I will have taken my kids back to where I grew up and I'm so excited for them to see how awesome WY is. I'm planning on bringing my computer with to update with pictures along the road. If you are going to be in any of these spots along the way, please come hang out with us!!! I'd love to see my old friends. So off to plan some more...happy planning!

"Take me out to the Ball Game..." PLAY BALL!

2011-04-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Plllllllaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy ball! This is the new phrase we hear almost nightly. It is officially that time of year when baseball is in full "swing". Owen started playing baseball at the YMCA when he was 3 and now plays for the Little League the last two years. Raymond started when he was 3, so this will be his 3rd year and now little Judd has entered into the world of baseball. As you can guess the minimum age to start playing ball of any kind and most extracurricular activities is 3. Tony has coached for the last 3 years. (I kind of feel like breaking into that School House Rocks song 'three is a magic number'. lol) This year he is coaching Owen and Raymond on the same team like last year. We figured that Judd would be too clingy to Tony if he coached his team, so we are letting another Coach teach Judd the ropes, which is good for him to have another authority figure to listen too.

As I always say, life is a whirlwind and constantly crazy. If we are not at church, then we are at baseball, or baseball practice, or soccer or swimming lessons, or meetings....the list goes on. This is without Tess being involved in anything yet. What will we do then?

Owen signed up for soccer for the first time ever with the YMCA. He was so excited because he had been playing it at recess with some of the other boys. He is pretty good when he applies himself, but he is timid and not a go getter after the ball. He is a little scared of being kicked I think and doesn't realize that he doesn't have to be polite about stealing the ball away. He'll get better though, for his first time EVER playing I think he does really well. The other kids have been playing for awhile now. He looks so cute with his shin guards and jersey though and he's trying super hard. Tuesday nights are his practices and Saturdays are his games.

Each boy is very talented at baseball. Surprisingly at times cause they never really play it at home much, so when I see Judd at his 2nd game only yesterday be able to pretty much throw the ball from the pitcher mound to first base, I was a little shocked! I love watching them play sports or do activities of any kinds. It makes me so proud to see them doing something that they like and are good at.

I love the way they look in their uniforms. Owen and Raymond are red and have black hats with a white B on it for Benson (our area of town), then Judd is forest green with the same hat. Owen and Raymond have long red baseball socks, but we opted to not worry about socks for Judd this year because the smallest size baseball pants they make go down past poor little Judd's shoes. They have to be pulled up and tucked under to make them not too long. He's so cute though, he looks like he's dressed up in his dad's clothes or something. The hat is over sized, the pants are over sized and the shirt is a bit big. The cutest image you will ever see is Judd running the bases wearing a HUGE helmet with his little legs, it makes him look like one of those bobble head dolls running the bases. ha ha. He likes it and I'm happy that he's trying something away from home. Each of them plays 2 -3 games a week, which means we are up at the ball fields about 4-5 times a week to watch games.


Owen and Raymond in the outfield.


Judd is the 3rd one from the left.


Judd getting his first hit.


Probably my absolute favorite baseball picture of the season! Judd made it to first base.


My 2nd favorite picture. The ONLY time that Owen and Raymond will play against Judd's team. Judd is on 2nd base chatting with his brothers in the outfield.


Tony as coach of Owen and Raymonds team in the dugout.


Raymond's first hit.


Owen's first hit.

So now that baseball is in full swing, we have soccer to go to twice a week, baseball 4-5 times a week, and Owen and Raymond are taking swimming lessons every Thursday night until the end of May. Busy as always but I kind of like it that way. So here's to busy nights and tired days, quick meals, and lots of sun! It's a great spring so far.

Is it Spring already?

2011-03-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

I know that I have been absent for over a month now and I always feel the need to explain why. This time I am going to assume that you all know that I have 4 kids, 10-13 kids including daycare kids, you know my van driving schedule and all the church activities we are involved in, etc. So there you have it. Life has been happening all around me.

Then we emerged from our Winter cocoons and stretched our white and cold worn bodies in the warm rays of the sun for a few weeks, just to be slapped in the face by Mother natures cruel sense of humor that is called Spring. We were blessed with more snow and more cold. I still see the light at the end of the tunnel though, as buds are popping out everywhere and green grass is daring to peek out of the ground. Somehow I believe that Spring is definitely coming and bringing it's old friend warm weather. Then I can kick the kids outside all day!

It looks like I left off on my life update with Tess' first birthday which was ages ago already! So now where to begin...I think I will just give a general update about everyone then include some of my favorite pictures from February and March.

Owen is getting closer to the end of his 1st grade year. I can't believe that he is getting so old! In just a couple months he will be 7 years old and that makes me feel super old. I can remember when I was 7! That was a long time ago. He has lost his bottom two front teeth back in Nov. and is working on losing his top two. He is doing awesome in school and can read like an advanced 2nd grader! Crazy to think that a year ago he was just learning how to read! Now he can read virtually anything. He just started playing soccer for the first time with the YMCA, is signed up for little league baseball and just started swimming lessons again. He is a busy boy. Last month he got lots of attention at school. He was chosen by a visiting author to be a guest at luncheon with only 5 other kids! Then he got to eat lunch with his teacher for passing a Math test, and then he got to be a Rockin' Roll Model (basically student of the month for first grade). He's doing very well. He's still getting sick about every 4-6 weeks though and we don't know why. He ends up complaining of a headache, which turns into a fever which turns into throwing up (but I think the throwing up is from his sinuses draining down his throat). The doctors can't find anything wrong with him other then saying he is getting frequent sinus infections. He has now had an MRI (which he did AWESOME at) and the results came back as nothing wrong with him. Then he got some blood work done to test for all sorts of stuff including allergies, and everything came back totally normal and that he had NO indoor or outdoor allergies (which surprised me). Then he got put on a 21 day very strong antibiotic to see if he just had a sinus infection that never really went away, but in the last four days of the dose he ended up with a fever and head ache. His headaches can be migrainish too, so that worries me. So now the doctors are supposed to be putting their heads together as to what to do next. We are all stumped.

Raymond is also doing well. He is ornery as ever! :) But too smart for his own good at times. His teachers love him and he has lots of friends at school, even though he says he doesn't. He's funny and crazy and busy all the time. He will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall and we've just had disappointing news about that. We had transferred Owen into a different neighborhood school when he started last year because we weren't fond of our neighborhood school. Now we tried to transfer Raymond into Owen's school and they say they are over capacity next year and Raymond will not be accepted! We just found that out on Friday - this is public school by the way - but we are now in limbo as to what to do with him for Kindergarten. Our choices are to put him in our neighborhood school where he is guaranteed a spot, but that means having two kids in two different public elementary schools, or putting him in a private church kindergarten, which means paying tuition. I don't know. We'll see what happens.

He is SO excited that it is baseball season. He has been sleeping with his glove and ball and bat periodically throughout the winter and asking incessantly when he can play baseball again. Now's the time. He is signed up for Little league with Owen, which Tony is coaching, and he just started swimming lessons with Owen too. Raymond is very good at baseball and lives for it. So I am excited to see him play this season. He loves school and is getting more into playing the computer and stuff. He also learned how to tie his shoes a few months ago and is about to lose his first tooth, ALREADY!!!

Judd has had a busy couple of months too! He turned 3 at the beginning of March and that still seems crazy to me! He is a funny, happy little boy. I swear he could be a stand up comedian. I wish that everyone could meet him and see his true funny side. He usually has me and Tony laughing hysterically. Or if that career doesn't work out for him, maybe he could be a singer. He sings no matter what he is doing. Non-stop, 24/7 you will find Judd singing. He sings real songs or makes them up. His made up songs are pretty funny too. He's very creative and good at remembering song lyrics too. He loves all things Scooby Doo (which was his 3rd birthday party) and all things Super heros. He loves playing with both. This year he is signed up for his first sports ever! He will be playing little league for the first time. He even got his first baseball glove for his birthday. He's very excited, even though daddy decided not to coach his team because he thought Judd would be too clingy if he was a coach and wouldn't get as much out of the experience. He is mister independent too. He doesn't want you to help him with anything, but he is also my very good helper. He likes to help do the dishes and other chores cause it makes him feel important. Next year he will be starting preschool which makes me feel old and sad. I know he'll love it. At the cost of sounding conceited or cocky - he truly might be a genius! He's so smart!!

Last but certainly not least is my most beautiful and darling little girl Tess. She is funny and strong, girlie and smart, loves to rough house with the boys but play dress up and have "pretty fingers" as we call them. She's versatile as I hoped my daughter would be. I wanted her to be girlie because I have all boys, but I wanted her to be able to get dirty with the boys and not care too, which she loves the dirt. So I got it pretty good. I think her hair is turning more red every day. I'm told alot that she looks just like me, which makes me happy since my boys don't look a lot like me. She is more like a two year old than a one year old and acts like a toddler all the time. She is opinionated and a screamer! But she is cuddly and loves to laugh and eat! She just got to spend a special weekend with just me, Grandma and Aunt Kimmy in CO wedding dress shopping for Aunt Kimmy. So that was fun. She got to be one of the girls. She gets into everything and climbs on everything and takes it as a personal offense when she is told no or gets something taken away from her. She pushy with her brothers and likes to get her way. We might have to break her of a few bad habits as she gets older like bossing her brothers around. I think she has them wrapped pretty tightly around her little finger (daddy too). She's learning to say new words every day and will be 15 months old on April 12. Time is flying by! Her hair is getting really long too, so we are trying out new hair-dos all the time, however she usually doesn't keep the rubber bands or clips in for very long - but soon she will I hope! She is working on her last four teeth, the I-teeth, and then she will be done. She's has all of her other teeth since before she turned one, not sure why these I-teeth are taking so long, but I'll be ready to be done with the teething stage for awhile! :)

So the group is doing well! We will hopefully be better at staying on top of what we are up too. The kids are growing like crazy!!

Tess' 1st Birthday!

2011-02-14T19:54:00.000-08:00

I know her birthday was a month ago, but I am finding that my time is slipping through my fingers faster and faster these days and it's becoming more of a struggle to get on my blog! I don't want to give it up because it is the best connection I have to family and friends. So here we are playing catch up once again. The biggest event that I have not posted about is my baby girls first birthday bash! It was awesome and totally different to decorate in pink. It was exciting this year to get her Christmas presents from other people and birthday presents because up until this point for the whole last year we still didn't have any girl toys in the house. Now her room is needing a book shelf of some sort to put all her new stuff on.

We had a birthday party at our house and invited all the daycare kids and families and my parents came and Tony's mom and husband came. Her party was a pink owl theme because I am dying to decorate her room with these really cool owl and bird and tree designs that I have seen. Plus I had a dress with the same type of design on it for her to wear.

I made BBQ pork sandwiches and then had a cake made for everyone else and a pale pink round smash cake with little white polka dots on it for her. She loved it. She started by picking off all the polka dots and eating them. She really was quite clean, to the disappointment to a group of kids anticipating a huge mess of cake everywhere. They got bored with it and wandered away one by one. None of my kids really were messy with their cakes - they were always too interested in actually eating it. :)

Then we proceeded to opening presents right before everyone left and she got a bunch of cute stuff. She was pretty into it too. Tess is NOT shy and she very much likes the attention. As she's sitting and eating her cake, surrounded by 20 plus people, she just ate calmly and waved every once in awhile to her adoring fans. She's too funny. I love everything about that girl (as I do the boys of course!).

So here are her first birthday bash pics. I hope you enjoyed!!

Where in the world are those Coffey's??

2011-01-27T23:05:00.000-08:00

Well...let me tell you it has been one whirlwind of a winter. I am trying to catch up on everything after working part time at Toys R Us through the holidays in addition to my full-time daycare job, full-time mother of 4 and wife job, teaching Midweek, attending church functions, and school functions and carting kids around to a hundred different schools each day....But I am here now. Attempting to update you all on our crazy life. This will solely be a post with updates on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hopefully this weekend I will update the blog with what is going on in the kids lives!

Let's see I left off right before Thanksgiving so I will try and start there. We stayed around Omaha and went to my mother-in-laws house and had a quiet time with just us. We ate a lot and did the usually Thanksgiving things. Pictures will tell the story...

Then we move along to Christmas...We stayed again at home due to crazy work hours and lack of money after shopping for 4 kids (we went overboard this year and so did Santa!;).

So that about sums up November and December! I will add my next post this weekend about what each kid is up to! Hope all is doing well!

A New Chapter...

2010-11-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

Well it officially happened tonight and if you know Owen, it was NOT without extreme drama. He lost his first tooth.

It's been loose for about 3 weeks now, and I have been wanting it to fall out all by itself, but tonight it was so loose I told him we should just pull it. So for an hour and a half after dinner he screamed that he was scared and didn't want us to pull it. He tried pulling it - this all after many tears and red swollen eyes. I wanted it to just be done so I tried bribing him with being able to play the Wii tonight which is normally a Friday night event. So that made the situation, er...better or worse. It made him want to have his tooth pulled more but it also made him more scared. Finally I told him I was going to pick up dinner dishes and then he started screaming because he knew it was his last chance to play the Wii tonight. So he said that he needed to numb it, so I got him an ice pack. He held it there for a few minutes and when I said it was time to pull it, he started freaking out again, so I said enough. I grabbed him threw him backwards on my knee and grabbed the tooth. It didn't give right away and it started bleeding before I got it out, which freaked him out (and me a little, being my first tooth to pull and all), so I yelled for Tony to come help me, but by the time he got there the tooth had popped out. It bled pretty good for about a minute. He washed out his mouth and was fine the rest of the night. He was all smiles after the fact! (Just like I knew he would be, which is why I didn't feel bad about being a bit forceful).

So tonight the Tooth Fairy will visit our house for the first of many trips! He was so cute and excited to put his little tooth in an envelope under his pillow. He was asking a million questions, like what she looked like and how she would take the tooth, etc. I told him that I didn't know for sure, because I only know how she took my teeth as a kid. At first he put the envelope as far under his pillow as possible and I got a little worried about that, but then he said that maybe he should slide it out some to help her out. Phew, that was nice of him! ha ha.

I was way more emotional about the whole situation than I thought I'd be. I thought I'd be a little sentimental, but I bawled like a baby and tear up even when I think about it now. He's officially not a baby anymore. He's growing up and will someday leave the nest and that elates me and breaks my heart all at the same time. And Owen being the sentimental and dramatic kid he is, god love him, he started crying because I was crying and said he didn't want to ever leave me. What a nice boy. :) I feel so emotional about the whole event. It felt almost as happy as the day he was born to be honest. It was this swell of love and happiness for him and thankfulness that he is in my life but a bit of sadness as well to know that I will love something so much and it will someday leave the nest as all babies do! It was probably as emotional, if not more so, than his first day of Kindergarten.

As Owen is losing teeth, which he will be losing another one in the next couple of weeks already, Tess is growing them like wild fire. She is 10 1/2 months old and has grown 6 new teeth since she turned 10 months old. She will be eating steak before we know it! Another odd teeth tidbit is Raymond this weekend said he had something in his mouth hurting him. I looked and lo and behold, he is getting his 6 year old molars (which Owen just got late summer!!!!) Raymond is catching up on Owen in the teething department. Which means Raymond will probably lose a tooth by the end of this year or this summer. Crazy!

Well here are a few pictures of my adorable kiddos. Enjoy! (actually I just tried to upload my photos and it's being weird and saying 'server rejected' whatever that means!) So I'll post them later.

Just a Few Thoughts

2010-11-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

Tess just turned 10 months on Friday the 12th. I can't believe she is so old already! I'm so excited for Christmas for her this year because she has literally NO girl toys thus far, so at Christmas and then two weeks later, her birthday, I am excited for her to get some girly things!

My entire house is fighting colds, allergies, and pink eye. Even my daycare kids have been in and out the last two weeks with fevers, tummy aches, goopy eyes, headaches, etc. My kids have been afflicted by the same illnesses.

I have been working part-time at Toys R Us for their seasonal rush and to my kids I am a celebrity because of it. I think it's funny that they drool over the thought of working with toys all day. I even went so far as to autograph a piece of paper for Raymond! ha ha. Raymond gets to cash in his birthday gift from Grandma Holly tomorrow night because she always takes them to Toys R Us to pick out a toy for their birthday. I have to work, so I am excited to see him at work!

Owen has two loose teeth and I keep vigorously wiggling them because one of them should be falling out any day now, and I am as excited about them falling out as I was when he got his first teeth! :) While Owen's loosing teeth, Tess is growing teeth like a crazy person. She has her bottom front four, her top front two for sure, but now is getting her other top front two to make the top four, and her top molars are coming through. That will give her a grand total of 10 teeth! That means she only will have 6 left. Crazy. Poor baby has goopy goopy eyes right now on top of the teething pain.

Raymond had his first playdate with a non-daycare kid today. I was so excited for him. His friend Will from preschool called last night to invite him over to his house after preschool today for lunch and some play time. He was very excited. He talks about Will all the time, and from what I hear Will talks about Raymond all the time. That makes me so happy, the kind of happy where you get teary eyed to know that Raymond has his first real friend. It gives me hope of him making friends next year at Kindergarten because he is shy kid when he's away from home, so I was a little concerned. His two years of previous preschool didn't result with any friends because he wouldn't talk to anyone. :( But this year when I get to his school early and they happen to be outside I hear all different kids yelling his name to come play with them. awwww.

Judd is not doing much at the moment. He's been potty trained since mid Sept, but is back in pull-ups because pooping in the potty suddenly is not consistent. Some days he tells me, other days he sneaks off to his bedroom upstairs and then comes down and tells me to change his pull-up. How aggravating! But the last couple of days has yielded no accidents, so maybe he's catching on. He used to poop in the potty, that's why it is so frustrating!

Anyways, that's a little snippet of what's going on with each kid. We will be spending Thanksgiving here in Omaha with Tony's mom. We were going to MO to visit my family, but with my new part time job at Toys R Us, I have to work black Friday (mandatory), and we can't afford to go out of town. Very sad about that.

Judd and Tess napping (they don't look like they are napping, do they?)

What every kid is doing these days, perusing the Toys R Us Big book Christmas catalog. (My house has 12 of them)

She looks like a toddler here!!!

Tess playing with a Strawberry Shortcake doll a daycare girl brought and shared with her. She really liked it.

She's so stinking cute!

My Tessie.

Do I even need to ask how cute she is??

Or him??

She says "Mom, I'm playing. Please stop taking pictures of my cute pig tails!"

Me as a dorky Toys R Us employee. :)

Kids playing in the snow we had last weekend in our neighbors front yard.

Well here are just a couple of cute pictures of a couple of my kids! Happy Thanksgiving all!

October Fun!

2010-10-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

So I'm sure I've told you all how October is by far my favorite month! The trees are awesome right now, the decorations are out - apples are everywhere and pumpkins! I LOVE it! So I thought I'd catch you up on what we've been up to.

There have been lots of things going on this month for the boys at school. Tony was invited to Raymond's preschool for a Father/student spaghetti dinner that they have every year. Owen has had off a few different times of school, the most recent being for Parent Teacher Conferences which he got outstandings on his report card!! Plus he is WAY above 1st grade reading level, which I am so excited about for him!! Judd is being such a big boy and looks and acts older every day. It amazes me the things that come out of his mouth constantly and how much he wants to be like his big brothers. Unfortunately I have noticed that he now shares his brothers allergies as well, only his might be asthma type symptoms during allergy season. I need to get all the boys into an allergist that our Pediatrician recommend to have them tested for triggers.

Speaking of doctors, Owen is scheduled to see a Dermatologist on the 4th of November to get a mole on his head looked at which concerned his doctor a bit. So please hold him in your prayers that it is nothing more than a mole that can possibly be removed.

Another Doctor update - Tess just had her 9 month check up and now weighs in at 19 lbs 5 oz and is 28 inches long. She is above age development for most of her skills. She now says momma, dada, nose, Judd, hello, and bye bye. She mimics most things we say to her and talks non-stop like her momma! :) She is "walking" with holding on to things and I hope she will be a walker very soon. She will stand for about 2 seconds by herself until she realizes that you have let go and then she falls forward towards you. She's getting so big so fast!

I also turned 30 last weekend. A little bit depressing when you think about it, so I try really hard not to think about that. Scary. But for my birthday my parents, oldest sister and best friend Sheila came to town to spend the day at Vala's pumpkin patch and then take me out to dinner that night at Upstream in downtown Old Market. Yum. It was a fun birthday weekend despite the missing the deadline on Friday to renew my drivers' license, and suffering from the WORST headache I've ever had in my life (it was, you can ask my sister, she saw the whole thing).

Tonight we carved the boys' pumpkins but still need to do mine, Tony's and Tess'. We will work on that on Friday before Halloween. We did the most elaborate ones we've ever done before. The boys requested certain things and Tony and I tried to accommodate them. So Owen's is a version of Frankenstein, Raymond's is Batman and Judd's is Sonic the Hedgehog.

Well I guess that's all for now. I will post my pictures now and will post my family pictures in the next post!!

Happy Halloween!

Raymond is 5!!

2010-10-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind! He actually turned 5 on Sept. 24. His party was Sept. 25 and I have not had a chance to update this blog since then!! So he had a Batman birthday party, which my boys are currently obsessed with in my house. It was great. We had it at a park and we invited all of his preschool class and all of the daycare and a few others. They all showed up and he got a load of new toys!

Then on his birthday he also went with Tony to the Minor League foot ball game, the Nighthawks, that are a new team to Omaha. The next week Owen went with Tony. This is going to be a blur of a post cause I want to share pictures with you all to catch you up!

Judd has been potty trained now for about a month and has worn underwear all the time. He too is obsessed with Batman and will be Robin for Halloween!

Tess goes to her 9 month check up next week but now has her top two teeth in addition to her bottom two and cruises everywhere and will stand for a few seconds without holding on to anything. She adores her brothers and can now say Hi and Bye, Nana (for momma) and Dada. She also sounds like she says Judd, but not sure.

I promise to do a better post next time, but without further ado - enjoy our pictures from Sept. and early Oct.!

My kids are artists!!!

2010-09-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

My kids love to draw and color. Lately they have been making "books", which consist of a construction piece of paper that they write a one sentence story and draw the pictures to correspond. They are more comic book style. They are SOOO awesome. I am so impressed by my children's talent. Even Judd who is a typical 2 1/2 year old drawer is exhibiting signs of being a great artist too and LOVES to draw.

Owen especially has always had a real knack for coloring and drawing. Teachers have commented on his coloring ability to be far exceeding that of other kids his age, and his drawings are out of this world and so stinking creative. I have to be cautious though in praising him around Raymond, because poor Raymond thinks he is the same age as Owen and doesn't understand why he can't draw like Owen, and I always reassure Raymond that Owen didn't draw like he does now when he was 4 almost 5 either. But Raymond is a great drawer too for being 4 almost 5! Owen has started drawing his people with bodies lately and Raymond is upset that he doesn't know how to do that and that he can only draw stick figures. I told him when he turns 6 he will be able to draw bodies too. :) They are so close in age that it's hard for him to understand that developmentally he is not capable of doing some things that Owen can do.

Owen's pictures crack me up though too. You'll see what I mean in a minute. During church, the boys usually draw pictures to stay quiet and keep occupied. It has become routine. In fact I usually bring little notebooks with me (which I will keep for all eternity!!!) so that they each have their own book from week to week. Owen thinks like a comic book creator or a video game creator or something. He very well might be some sort of artist in Hollywood someday, he's got that kind of brain. I LOVE it. He thinks so in depth about things and asks about a million questions a minute. (Annoying at times, but in a cute way). So below I have scanned some of their latest artwork onto the computer to share with you. They are so good and cool. I did NOT help them with any of it or even give them suggestions for their stories. One of Owens has drawings of Batman and Robin, simply because they are in love with Lego Batman game for the Wii that Grandma Sears got them last year. In fact Owen has commented more than once that he wishes the world was a Lego world (he once wished it was a world made out of candy too). He thinks in Lego Batman - he is a video game freak if I let him be. So without further ado - enjoy the unveiling of the three newest artists on the market!!! :)

Judd's portrait of Me (notice the red hair!)

I LOVE this one. This was the first one and it's hilarious and So creative. This is Owens. The title of the book on the front cover is called Snow Ball Fight.

This was hilarious too. You kind of have to follow the arrows to get the gist that the ghost scared Raymond and made him mad. The last picture Owen explains that the ghost ate Raymond. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Owen's book entitled Batman and Robin Fights Poison Ivy.

This is the first of two pictures that go together by Owen. This is a cannon shooting cannon balls........

Then the cannons go over Owen's head and hit Raymond. See the evil eyebrows on Owen?? Ha ha ha ha. Morbid I know, but so creative and original by a new 6 year old!!!

Raymond's awesome book entitled That's the Book. Then the story is a picture of Raymond on the left with a sword and his friend Megan on the right with a sword. The words say No Fly, Don't Come. The big flying thing is a monster size fly and Raymond was going to kill it with the sword but Megan kills it first. Seriously! How creative can a 4 almost 5 year old be??? I love it!!!

Awwwwwahahahaha Jungle Girls!!!!!!!!

2010-09-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

Nod your head if you know what I am talking about. I just thought a need to call the group was in order. :) Since our fearless leader hasn't done so...you know who you are!!:) I felt nostalgic tonight after reading my oldest sisters blog and wanted to pull something from my childhood too that was funny. I have to brag that my sisters and I are the most creative and funny people I know! Agree K and K?? We also patented the game Make Me Laugh that if anyone ever saw on t.v. a long time ago - they stole it from us. For those of you unaware, Jungle Girls is a game we used to play in Plainfield with our neighbors Karey and Adam. I can't remember all of our characters names off the top of my head, but I know that Kimberly was the leader of course and she would stand on the roof of the dog house and beckon us with her wild call "Awwwwwahahahaha Jungle Girls". Ah to be a kid again.

Anyways, since my post has absolutely NOTHING to do with being a Jungle Girl, I should probably move on before you all lose interest. I am not conceited or self absorbed by any stretch of the imagination. I just state facts and the fact is that my kids are the cutest in the world!! :) Each of these pictures makes me smile and I just remember how good it feels to hug and kiss and laugh with these kids every day. I was just looking at pictures of the boys from when Judd was a baby and it makes me sad how much they have grown over those two years! It's crazy.

For August, we stayed pretty busy and then school started for Owen. He is now a big first grader which makes me feel even older. His teacher is Mrs. Pratt this year and a lot of his friends are in his class, which is good. Raymond starts school on Sept. 7. He has two teachers, Mrs. Ory and Mrs. Hinrichs. Judd started Sunday School which he is very excited to be a part of. (on a side note, he has worn underwear the last two days until nap and bedtime or if we leave the house he goes back into diapers, but he now tells me when he has to pee!!!) Yay, almost down to one in diapers.

Now it's September already and I can't believe how fast time is going. Before I know it Tess will be 1! But I am very excited that it is the beginning of Fall because that is the time of year I am happiest. Today we went to September fest and in two weeks I am taking the boys to the Apple Festival in Nebraska City and we will see a parade, all things apples, and go pick our own apples at the orchard. It gives me happy chills just to think about. I LOVE FALL!!!

We have all been battling colds, pink eye and the general yuck around here. Tess and Judd are so phlegmy that I feel horrible for them and am not sure what to do for them cause I don't think it's Doctor worthy, but it also is not going away on it's own. Poor Judd when he goes for a walk with me in the evening or runs even the slightest he sounds all raspy and out of breathe. Tess coughs and sputters and chokes on her own phlegm. I think some of it might be allergies mixed with this cold thingy.

Tess is growing like a weed too. She crawls everywhere she wants, she pulls herself up onto anything, she cruises all the furniture and if I hold her hands she takes steps with me. I think she very well could be my walking by 9 months baby like the Pediatrician predicted. That'd be ok. She's had her bottom two front teeth since she was five months but next weekend she will be 8 months and she cut her top two front ones in today, but I can see about 4 more that are right under the surface, so she will have quite a few teeth before long I should think. She's the same as the boys were, they ALL had all their teeth by 12 months. She's been eating baby food sporatically for a month now, and eats cheerios too. She's a pro sippy cup drinker and has been drinking water from a sippy cup for a couple of months now. She says "Da da" to Tony, she says an 'O' sound for Owen and she calls me 'Na Na'. She waves hi and bye and even says hi and bye bye. She LOVES to growl and yell. Her favorite place to do this is at church too, where she is the ONLY baby so I can't blame it on anyone elses kids. However, the church is a lot of older people and it's very small, so they all LOVE the kids and her. She's got a TON of Grandma and Grandpa figures in her life that adore her and her brothers.
Ok on with the show!


My new 15 passenger van for daycare.

Owen and Raymond have been taking Karate for a month now.

"I can get into the kitchen now....ha ha!"

And into my brothers toys!! ha ha.

...but I'm so cute it's ok.

even karate playing, wrestle mania, superhero loving boys can play with Barbies!! They'll be good playmates for Tess!

Tess' new super cute old school awesome shoes!!! I love the green apple on top.

almost pulled up to the coffee table - now she's a pro at it and the boys' small toys are no longer safe there.

So enjoy my August and Sept. pictures.

July Summary

2010-08-17T05:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to type as much as I am going to post pictures. As you can all see I am very behind these days with finding time to get on the computer long enough to blog. However, it is my main means of sharing photos with friends and family of my beautiful kids and family.

So after our trip to MO, we spend a lot of time just doing random fun things around Omaha with the kids to make the end of summer fun. It wore me out, but it was fun. Then at the end of July we went camping for the first time with the kids with Tony's mom and husband. That was a blast, even with the heat and the relentless mosquitoes and biting flies. The kids loved it and Tess is most definitely an outdoors girl so far.

I also took some pictures of the kids bedrooms because I am finally getting organized in the boys' room and I have never taken pictures of Tess' room to share.


Owen holding a locust


My sister in law Amanda with my handsome nephew Blain.

My nephew Blain


The boys room in the corner (look at pictures clockwise to get a 360 view	)


the next corner of the boys' room by the front window

the next wall of boys' room the closet and to the left of the closet is the door to the room. Judd's bed.

Judd's bed and the other corner of the room by the bunk beds.

The other corner of the room. Owen on top and Raymond on bottom. Their room is eclectically decorated! :)


Another view of the bunk beds from the bedroom door. It's very hot upstairs so both kids' rooms have to have fans going all the time.

The boys new toy closet that Tony and his mom's husband built. LOVE IT!

Far right corner of Tess' room. Her pictures you have to look at counter clockwise.

Her bed, the big chair is to the right of this.

Under her window and to the left of her bed.

Under her window to the bedroom door. Right across the hall is the boys' room.

Judd decorated me as a clown with stickers. Tony thought it was funny. I even have a necktie and hat sticker on my head.

Tess' 6 month picture!

Her first baby food.

Judd and Tess with Uncle Todd.

So that about sums up July. I am going to post another post about August, the kids and the first day of school so look for that next. That will have a few more explanations of what we've been up to. Enjoy the pictures from July!

Where has Summer gone???

2010-07-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that is has already been since June 29th that I have posted about my family already! I am stressed to the max, let me just tell you, with the how fast summer is flying by. I have NEVER had a summer go by so fast. School starts for Owen exactly four weeks from this past Monday. How can that be? If you want to hear how stressed I am about it though, go read my other blog at coffeymom.blogspot.com (cause that one's all about me). However, this one is all about my beautiful and fabulously unorganized family! :)

Unorganized or not, we are enjoying our time together. My house may fall down around my ears, and stuff might pile up to the point of exploding out the windows, but I don't want to miss spending time with my kids. With how fast Summer is going by, it makes me realize how fast time flies in general and it makes me scared for the day my kids are gone from the nest. So I am trying to SOAK them in all summer like rays of sunshine. I want them to cuddle me, to play with me, to do everything with me. I want to take them on trips and have fun and new experiences, and I think we've done that. However, since summer is going by so fast, we have also missed out on a lot of things already. We had plans to go camping, and fishing, and put put golfing, and all those types of things and we are very quickly running out of time. So every weekend from now until school starts will be devoted to those things! Bike riding and swimming are MUSTS!

So let's reflect a bit on the past. We have gone to Illinois, which I posted about last, and then I took the kids to Missouri to my mom and dad's lake house all by myself over the 4th of July. We had a blast. We spent all the time we could on my parent's pontoon boat, tried to fish but failed miserably, the kids swam in a blowup pool in their back yard, we roasted weines over and open flame, we made smore's, and had a fun yet scary trip through the pitch black night driving the boat back to their dock after watching fireworks on the lake from the boat. Tess got her first two teeth this trip and I got to sip some wine with my dad. I ate way to much as an end of my eating whatever I want days and beginning of my dieting days. The kids rode their bikes and we just relaxed. There are pictures from that trip posted here too.

I can't believe that that was already two weeks ago!!! See what I mean? What are we up to now? Well, the boys (O and R) just started swimming lessons on Monday and are doing fabulous. I just took Tess swimming in the big pool for the first time last night with the whole family and she is a water baby through and through. She LOVED it. I couldn't take her out of the water. She is officially 6 months and sits up and gets on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth, and pushes herself backwards all around the room and ends up stuck in a corner or something.

Judd has started potty training. It's been in the works for a VERY long time, but he's known how to do it for a long time now, but is so decisive that he doesn't want to, I haven't pushed it. Now's the time though because I need him potty trained before school starts on Aug. 16, so now we are pushing the issue. So I've just thrown him into underwear every day this week with expectations of him peeing in them everytime, but with hopes that he will catch on quickly. He holds it. :( Tuesday for instance, he only went pee 3 times total cause he was trying hard NOT to pee in his underwear, but he also won't pee in the potty, so he'd hold it as long as he could until he'd pee in his underwear. BUT...the good news was that each time he peed in his underwear he'd gasp right before it'd happen like he recognized that it was going to happen. This means a lot in a potty training kids world!!! YAY! There is HOPE! :) I won't take a picture of Judd in underwear yet though until he's trained enough that he gets to go pick his own first package. Right now he is wearing all of Owen and Raymond's old ones for his size as practice ones, cause I know there will be plenty of accidents.

Next Tuesday is Tess' 6 month check up so I'll have to update you on her stats later. Raymond is getting pretty excited to start at Rainbow Factory 5 day a week preschool this year.

Anyways....lots to tell but too many words to tell them in, so this was a summary. I hope you enjoy the pictures and are enjoying your summer. I hope it's not going by as fast as mine!

Off to the Lake...

2010-06-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend the kids and I are leaving daddy and the Big O behind us and trucking it to Missouri to my mom and dad's lake house. We've never been there before but are Very excited. My parents have a bunch of fun stuff planned out including things like hanging out on the boat on the lake, fishing, making s'mores, watching fireworks from the boat on the 4th and more. I am bringing the boys' bicycles so they can practice riding around their house.

This trip will be Tess' first time on a boat and her second vacation. I will post pictures after we get back. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. When we get back O and R start swimming lessons for two weeks. I think they'll have fun.

On another note - my house STINKS! I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it is definitely coming from my garage that sits directly under my living room. I'm pretty sure it's the sump pump that has something rotten in it or a dead animal or something, but I can't get rid of it and I'm about to be sick about it. Guess what Tony gets to do tonight!!! I've already sprayed about a half a bottle of febreeze air freshener in the house but to no avail. Aaargh.

So off to the lake on Friday until Monday. Let my loving husband stay in the stinky house. :)

Is it Summer Already? Part 3 (Vacation - Indiana and conclusion)

2010-06-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

After the family reunion in Illinois we headed to Covington, IN where my Aunt Nadine and Uncle Dale live. All of my aunts and uncles houses are a special part of my childhood, but seeing as we used to only live an hour from Aunt N. and Uncle D. , it's easy to understand why we spent every other weekend there when I was growing up and why it's got an extra special place in my heart for childhood memories. So I was very excited to share this place with my kids.

At their house, it is always relaxed. They are both very funny people in my opinion and sitting up all night talking is usually a part of the experience. We spent a lot of time here as kids and there are so many things that we did that the boys automatically started doing too. There is a creek across the street that has a dam that we used to play at and find rocks, etc. Unfortunately it stormed so bad with tornadoes in the area that the rain raised the water too high at the dam for me to take the kids down there- next time. My batteries died on my camera, so I am hoping my mom will e-mail me the pictures she took of this part of the trip.

One place that was very memorable as a child was the Indianapolis Children's Museum - the largest in the world! So since we were so close I thought it only appropriate that we take the kids there to experience it too. After the museum, we ventured over to Plainfield, IN where I used to live and drove around all of our familiar spots and took the kids on a tour. It has been over 15 years since I have been back there so it was definitely a little weird to see how it has changed. We stopped by the park that we used to play at and took some pictures - which are on my moms camera too.When we were done with our tour, we got caught in a tornado and tornado warnings and had to venture back to the Applebees in Plainfield where we had to sit it out and wait for the tornadoes to pass before heading back to my Aunt and Uncles house, that was a little scary.

Once we got back we passed out and got up the next morning to head back to Omaha. Going back makes me really miss living near my aunts and uncles and cousins.

Upcoming we don't have much on our schedule, but I am taking the kids to my mom and dad's lake cabin over the 4th of July weekend and Owen and Raymond start swimming lessons from July 12 - 22 for two weeks. Other than that, my goal is to get alot of purging done around my house and catching up on paper work and getting organized for this Fall.

Is it Summer Already? Part 2 (Our Vacation-Illinois)

2010-06-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

We took our first vacation for the summer. It was a lot of driving, but it was fun. The kids were awesome and I couldn't have asked for better car behavior. I originally was going to go by myself with the kids but was so thankful that at the last minute Tony was able to come too. We left Sat. morning and drove to Petersburg, IL to go to my family reunion.

Sunday morning we got up early and went to New Salem State Park to the living history village where the reunion has always been held. We walked the village and after about melted headed to our picnic area to meet up with the rest of my aunts, uncles, cousins and family. It was a scorcher that day and we were all very hot and sweaty. But it was really good to go cause my dad and oldest sister and boyfriend were there this year and everyone got to meet Judd and Tess for the first time.

We hung out, ate too much and visited with all the family. It was so hot that when I went to feed Tess I had to take her and Judd to the suburban to sit in the air conditioning to cool off they were so over heated. They both passed out. After we were done with the reunion we loaded up and headed to Indiana with my mom and sister Kelly to visit at Aunt Nadine and Uncle Dale's house - that post to follow in part 3.So here are pictures of my family reunion.

Is it Summer already??? Part 1 (Owen's birthday)

2010-06-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

Read the headline with sarcasm because I am actually feeling like now that June is almost over so is summer! I know, call me crazy. There is still a month and a half left of summer before Owen starts school, but it seems like if June went by so fast, then so will July and the beginning of August. I know, I know...my blog has inherited a new theme "Never enough time" or "Always busy". But that is my life right now with four very active and busy children.

Let me see if I can catch you all up on what we've been up to. We've had a few adventures in June so far, but now the slate is clear for me to actually work on organizing my house, catching up on paperwork, and simply hanging out and enjoying my kids. Ahhhhh. (takes breath). I am going to do this in parts because otherwise it would be annoying to try and post all the pictures I want to share. I know I take way too many pictures, but can't help it. My kids are just so busy and so darn cute! ;)

I guess we should start back with Owen's birthday. He makes me feel old because I am now officially old enough to have a 6 year old/first grader. Crazy huh? I know, I thought I'd never be here, but I have now arrived. Let me tell you it is bitter sweet. Though he is still young, once they start school time really flies. Kindergarten for Owen was a blur so I can only imagine how the rest of the years will be, especially once all my kids start school.

Anyways...Owen's birthday party was held at Rosenblatt stadium, the minor league baseball team. It was kind of nice because it was the first party for any of our kids that we have had away from home and they plan the whole thing for you right down to the cake. He got to invite 7 friends plus his brothers and sister to watch the game, play at the kids fun zone area, and get some free gear. They sang happy birthday to him during the top of the 3rd inning and he got to go on the field. By pure luck Judd got to be on the big screen during the game!
So here are the pictures of Owen's birthday party. My big 6 year old.