Vacation - Day 1 to Day 3

Time for a vacation recap!!! This year we decided to travel down to Alabama with a stop in Bristol, TN and Gatlinburg, TN.

And here we go!!!

Day ONE - Friday

Today was the kids last day of school!!! YEAH!!!! (sorta..LOL)

The kids got home from school and we took off!! We left here about 345pm and had a very uneventful drive to Bristol, TN to my cousin, Joe's, house. We got there around 1015pm. We chit chatted, ate some Taco Bell (classy) and headed off to sleep.

Day TWO - Saturday

Today we headed to ALABAMA!!! We left Joe's house around 1045 and ended up at my cousin Kim's house around 3pm. Right after we got there we headed out for her kids birthday parties are a jumpy / gymnastics place. It was so much fun for everyone!!

After that we chilled at Kim and Dave's house where they showed us around the grounds and told us all about the really fun fire ants. I was pretty much terrified at this point to even go in the grass.

The rest of the night we just chilled with family and had some fun and let the kids play and play.

Day THREE - Sunday

Today we had the pleasure of going on a river boat on the Coosa River. My aunt and uncle reserved it for just our family. We packed some lunch and some drinks and headed on out!!

The family had a great time catching up. The little cousins had a great time playing. And the little cousins all got to drive the big boat.

After the boat ride we got all packed up and headed out swimming with a bunch of us. Again, the kids had an absolute blast.

Later that night we chowed on some AMAZING pulled pork that Dave had smoked earlier that day. It was beyond delicious!! I ate probably waaaaay to much. Oh well, as my friend Jordan would say "YOLO!!!!"

 

Chase also got his FIRST motorcycle ride today. After he was done Dave came over and said that Chase was whispering in his ear the whole time "this is awwwwesome"  It's great to see him so excited.

 

Well, that's it for today. I have a ton more pictures that I could put in here but I don't want to overload everyone. LOL Tomorrow Day 4 - 6!!!

 

Goodnight y'all......

So far for the month of May....

I am such a bad blogger. UGH. It's just like Facebook. There are days where I have so much to day or so much happens. Just like blogging, sometimes I can bust out post after post after post. And then there are times like this where I don't have really anything to say.

Ok, that's a lie. I actually have a ton to say, a ton of posts just sitting here. Ever since I made my blog "public", you know to my real life friends and church and family, there are just some things I want to post but can't. I have at least 15 posts just waiting to hit publish. I am so afraid of hurting or offending someone that reads it.

So I am just going to stick with generic posts for awhile. I still wrote everything down in my "diary" so at least it's off my chest. Just can't hit that stinking publish.

So now I'm just going to share what's been going on around here the past couple weeks.

 

Mother's Day - visiting my grandma at the nursing home. They had an entertainer who sang and we had some pretty yummy cake.

We also took my mom out for lunch / breakfast after church. We ate like pigs...LOL

 

This is the poison ivy / oak I got sometime last Saturday, like Saturday the 4th. UGH I have no idea where is cam from and it's apparently never ever ever going away (and yes, I need to shave, oh well)

 

My new skirt from Target I got for Mother's Day. I also got a pair of shoes, flowers, necklace holder thingy and an earring holder thingy. Oh, and Matt's is making me a fabric covered headboard!! WOOHOO!!!

 

The same day I got poison ivy/oak/whatever, I also got an ear infection. I went to urgent care on Sunday and got antibiotics. It took some of the pain away but by Friday I still had a lot of pressure, fluid and my ear was still all the way plugged. The lovely (sarcastic) ENT gave me some steroids and sent me on my way. Currently it is 9 days later and my ear is still plugged, little pressure and constant 24/7 ringing. Just great!

 

Here are my boys decorating me Mother's Day cakes at our local grocery store. Let's just call this the "before" picture.

 

And here is the "after" picture. Let me explain a little. We woke up Saturday and had some errands to run including the grocery store to decorate cakes. As we were running errands the boys were getting a little crazy and not listening. Fast forward to coming home..... we then had some housework to do including the boys cleaning up their rooms and the play room. The above picture is a result of them NOT DOING ANYTHING!! I got so upset. I did not yell. I did not cuss. I calmly told them to leave the room and proceeded to box up everything last fun thing my boys have. ALL OF IT. My boys have nothing. They are going to have to earn everything back little by little.

 

Yep, and that was this Saturday. The day before Mother's Day. I am pretty sure they still hate me and I am pretty sure I still feel horrible for taking away everything they own.

 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

#tbt - The Dreaded Hospital

 

I remember this week so clearly. Landon was about 9 weeks old and went into the hospital for a whole week with RSV.

 

 

 

This was about the scariest week of my life. I didn't leave Landon's side all week (except to shower one time). Matt had to leave to go to work a couple of those days.

 

(side note: Matt looks sooooo young!! He had just turned 20!!)

 

And what made things MUCH worse a local radio station was there doing their radio a thon. UGH. 24 hours a day for 48 hours. Did I mention UGH. It was incredibly hard to concentrate or sleep or pretty much do anything. They have since changed the formatting of the radio a thon to day time hours only. I bet they had MANY complaints from parents like me.

 

Just look at that face. He was so miserable. The doctors and nurses at the hospital were completely amazing throughout our stay.

 

We were in the hospital during the week of Valentine's Day. Needless to say we celebrated after Landon was out of the hospital and BAM, Chase was born 9 months later. Oops.

And yes, math was right. 2 kids within one year.

Landon was a new 11 months old when Chase was born.

It was crazy but we all survived!!!

Emma's 11th Birthday Bash...

All I have to say about this night is that I hope the parents will allow their children back at my house.

The party started at 3pm with the girls being dropped off at my house. We left here at 3:10 for Phase 1.

Phase 1 - Manicures
We took all the girls for professional manicures. We had Emma, her 4 friends, my sister in law, Sam, and our family friend, Jordan.

Phase 1 was pretty uneventful. We all got manicures and it was awesome. Some of the girls had to use the restroom right after so Jordan received the great duty of helping them with their pants....hahahaha.

 

Our nails totally rocked!!

Phase 2 - Steak N Shake
Next we took all of us for some burgers and milk shakes. This was also pretty uneventful. My phone was going dead but our server was pretty cute. Oh, and they were all out of cookie dough milkshake and of course that was what all the girls ordered.

 

Our VERY cute server, Jake.

 

Happy Birthday Emma ketchup creation made by the one and only Jordan.

Phase 2 1/2 - Target
Target trip was unplanned but we got done with dinner so early and Phase 3 didn't start until 730p. So we get to Target and since my phone was going dead I planned on plugging it in and leaving it in the car. Uh Oh, that was the plan but the plan had failed. We come back out of Target and my phone was gone. Like just gone. I thought I had locked the doors (like I do every single freakin time) but I guess somehow I didn't. We all did a quick search and realized it was really gone.

 

The "adults" at Target. Most likely taken somewhere around the time my phone was jacked.

Phase 2 3/4 - AT&T Store
Again, another unplanned portion of our evening. I drove straight from Target to the AT&T store which is like 2 minutes away. I was in and out in about 15 minutes which a new lovely plain phone and the other reported stolen and shut down. The girls were kind of frazzled but we got them all calmed down.
FYI - the new phone was great. The phone pretty much did not do anything but make phone calls but since I had no contacts I was very limited. And it did have texting BUT it was totally old school. It took me forever to send a simple text.

Phase 3 - Bowling
We finally made it to the bowling alley at 731pm! Only 1 minute late!! The alley was in the basement of a shopping center so we headed on down. Pretty neat looking place. Upon check in they told us that our lanes were not ready yet but they had a slide in the back the girls could play on for a few minutes. We headed back and the girls all did the slide. THEN 3 girls split the back of their pants. Luckily one was my kid so I only had to worry about the other 2's parents. After looking at the split pants it was decided we needed to go buy them pants (yes, they were really that bad). My sister in law ran next door and bought them all some black leggings. Apparently there was some kind of metal snag at the top of the slide, some girls avoided it, some girls didn't.

We start bowling and all is well until we decide to order some snacks. The lovely cashier seemed like to took part in the 4/20 activities. He could not add correctly (even with the calculator) and actually had to get help. I kid you not. Then he promptly forgot to make our food. Once I went up there and asked about it he finally remembered and we had our food within 10 minutes.

At this point I realized I had no service on my phone so I went upstairs to call Matt. Matt tells me that AT&T called him and a guy walked in and laid my phone down the demo phones. (umm, yeah, it was an iPhone 3 and I promptly had it shut down...duh). I was able to go in on Sunday and reactivate it!! YEAH!!

The girls received a tour of the back of the bowling alley which was really cool. We learned about how the machines work. Upon returning to our lanes, we noticed the lovely teenage girls next to us took some of our girls bowling balls. Whatever...wasn't that big of a deal.

Next the girls got to make their own cotton candy!! That was a pretty fun part!! And VERY yummy!!

 

The slide contraption that ripped 3 pairs of pants open.

 

Here's the girls!!

Phase 3.5 - Police
After the bowling alley, we started to head home. About 5 minutes down the road I get pulled over. Uh, oh. Luckily it was for my headlight which I already knew was out. NO TICKET!! I did the the officer that it was my kids birthday party and about the stolen phone and the split pants and so he decides to mess with them. His voice got somewhat loud and he says "ma'am, did you know your license is suspended? I am going to have to tow your car." Then he shines the flash light to the back of the van and says "Girls, do you know someone that can pick you up?" At this point some of the girls started getting scared and crying, but not me. I was laughing hysterically and so was my sister in law. It was the funniest thing of the whole night.

Phase 4 - Home
We finally made it home about 7 hours after our adventure started. The girls opened presents, ate cake, made popcorn and settled in for a movie. They were asleep by 12:30am!! WOOHOO!!!

Phase 5 - Everyone go HOME
This was a pretty interesting part of the birthday bash. This is where I had to explain the events of the evening to the parents. Luckily the parents took it really well and mostly laughed. THANK GOD! And I am happy to report all the girls are allowed back at my house!!

I can safely say that we all survived BIRTHDAY BASH 2013.....I am so thankful it's over!!!!

 

This is from Emma's family party which we had at noon the same freakin day (and yes, I know I was completely nuts for doing that).

The very final thing (dinner at Hibachi Japan) to closeout BIRTHDAY BASH 2013!!

Notes: I went and picked up my phone Sunday. On my way home from AT&T I get a call from them stating the man was back in the store, they called the police and could I come back!! Of course I did. When I got back the man had left and AT&T called the police and told them. I stuck around for a few minutes and sure enough the police roll up with dude in the back seat. The police interviewed me and they reviewed the security tapes. They interviewed me some more and said they were taking him and going to Target to review their tapes. They said if it was the same guy getting into my car  and the same guy in the AT&T video then they were going to charge him with theft. Crazy right??? Why steal a phone, then return it, THEN come back to the same store the next day??? I still can't wrap my head around it. Just crazy

My darling daughter....

Today my darling daughter turns 11!!!!

I have no idea where all this time has gone. She is flourishing into a wonderful young woman. She loves her family and she has a true love for God. Her love and understanding of Christ amazes me almost every day.

One day shortly after Christmas, one of the boys asked if Santa went to heaven when we die to bring us present (cause when your 6-7 that is VERY important). Emma said "I got this". She responded to the best answer I could ever think of. She said

"No boys, Heaven IS your gift."

 

Her answer just completely blew me away. I could not be more proud of who she is and who she is becoming. She amazes me daily with the way she loves and cares for pretty much everything.

 

So here is Emma's birthday pictures from her past 10 years of life. Enjoy!!!

 

Emma's 1st Birthday!!! (at the park, just a baby girly party)

 

Emma's 2nd Birthday!!! (umm, SpongeBob themed, yes, I already know what your thinking)

 

Emma's 4th Birthday!!! (we had a FIESTA!!!)

 

Emma's 5th Birthday!!! (Bowling Party!)

 

Emma's 6th Birthday!!! (sleepover / cheerleading party)

Emma's 7th Birthday!!! (I somehow cannot find ANY pictures :( I know that she celebrated her 7th birthday in Florida while visiting my brother. We ate at the T-Rex Restaurant in Downtown Disney)

 



 

Emma's 8th Birthday!!! (we just went out to a local Mexican restaurant, no parties, just some family)

 

Emma's 9th Birthday!!! (celebrated at home with just a girly theme)

 

 

Emma's 10th Birthday!!! (as you can see Justin Bieber came to her party...LOL, we had a huge big blowout for getting into double digits!!)

 

And her 11th Birthday will be spent having a family birthday lunch then some friends coming over. We are taking them for manicures, Steak N Shake and then bowling!!! Lord help us all.....

 



#tbt (only 6 days late!!!)

yeah yeah yeah, I know I am 6 days late...but we are just going to call it one day early for this week.

Whatever....

 

One of my favorite pictures of us ever. This was taken Easter 2006. Landon was a few months old and I was about 2 months pregnant with Chase. And my hair looks fabulous!!!!

 

#tbt (only one day early)

um, yeah, my wedding cake totally rocked!!!!

Matt and I were married May 28, 2005. We are so close to year #8. I still can't believe it.

We had a low key, causal wedding. And as you can see it was Hawaiian themed. We dressed very casual. My dress I bought at a store for $49.99 and Matt and his groomsmen bought the shirts at a department store for right around $20.00.

I think our whole entire wedding was around $2500.00. It was great. It was perfect.

And the cake was the best. A lady we know here in town makes them out of her house. Her cakes are baked fresh and she takes great pride in her work.. I just love her.

And that's it folks....throwback Thursday (well actually Wednesday) is done....see ya next week!!!