Girls Weekend!

A big thanks to my hubby for realizing I needed a little weekend away and sending me to West Palm Beach to visit one of my favorite girlfriends!  Amanda and I had a great visit! The girl talk, hang time, walks on the beach, spa day, shopping...I loved every minute!

So fun, right!!?
We spent HOURS like this one day.
And the best part of returning home?! Emerson is now sleeping through the night!

Em's First Day of School

This sweet little angel started preschool today.
I'm more than slightly excited.
I have visions of getting to fold laundry before a child dumps out the basket
and (sorry, TMI!) of getting to use the restroom without someone sitting
on my lap or hanging on my leg! =)
Yeeea Haaaa!

Here are the sweet kids from her class headed to music time.
Cousin Colin is in the back row, closest to the camera..the little guy smiling.
Em still isn't sure what to think about this! =)

Sumer Reading Spectacular Awards

Today the school had a program to acknowledge the kids for taking part in the Summer Reading Spectacular.
I brought Ry up to school (he's been home all week recovering) so he could attend the assembly and get his award.
Annie, Julia, Ry and Andrew proudly let me take a photo with their awards.

Ry's Bike Accident

This afternoon started off to be a fun family adventure to the library.  When we were almost back to our subdivision, Ry had a bike accident.  Thank God for helmets!  We didn't realize the extent of Ry's injuries at first.  There was a ton of blood, but I know that mouth injuries do come with lots of blood, and the rest of his scrapes/road rash seemed fairly superficial.  Our little guy was having a tough time with balance, so Jeff carried him home.  By the time we had him back in the house, it was evident this was way more serious than we'd imagined.  He kept saying, "Where am I?" and "What happened?"  We would tell him, "You're in the kitchen at our house. You just had a bike accident." And then he'd repeat those same questions all over again.  So Jeff put Ry in the car and headed for St. Louis Children's Hospital.  Our FANTASTIC pediatrician, Dr. Stahl, called to let them know we were on our way, and texted me nearly every hour we were at the hospital for updates.  Did I mention how much I adore her??!
Thanks also to my amazing dad who made it over to our house in under 10 minutes to stay with the girls so I could hop in the car and meet the boys at the hospital.  I even forgive you, Dad, for feeding them cookies for dinner. =)

Juls is super happy to have her brother home.
Gram (and so many others, but I have been terrible with taking pics lately!)
stopped by to give our little patient well wishes!
At the hospital we learned he lost a tooth through his lip in the accident, and due to the swelling in his mouth (and hanging lip...seriously, not sure how I didn't manage to get a pic of that!!) we had to feed him liquids through a syringe the first few days post-accident.

Ry was ordered to stay home from school for a week to let his brain recover.  No video games, no reading, no thinking, no tv.  I was totally running out of stuff to entertain him!  So, after he was feeling better, I loaded him and Emerson up in the double stroller and we'd blow some time walking the neighborhood.
As the week went on, the memories that Ry had lost slowly started coming back to him, which of course, was a TOTAL relief to us!  Dr. Stahl assured me he was "classic concussion case" and that he should all come back, although he probably would never remember the actual accident.  It was sooo tempting though when he would forget something to start "quizzing" him to make sure he knew other stuff.  For example, one day he told me like three times, "Oh, Mom! Emerson has her front teeth!" as if that was something that had just happened.  Or, "Oh look, a Halloween magazine. I want to be Captain Jack Sparrow!" as if he hadn't already told me that 30 minutes before. Freaky!
So. Glad. He's. Back.
Crazy boundless energy and all!!!

First Day Jitters

I miss my mom.
I cried a little sad.
But I love it.

Ryan, regarding the first day of school.
I was flooded with emotions when he came home with this note..especially because I assume he is such a "big" boy he doesn't need me and I was so consumed with Julia's first day of kindergarten that he was very much overlooked. Jeff and I didn't even stop by his classroom the morning we went to check in on Julia! Geesch!

First Day of School 2012

This is one of my all time favorite pics of my monkeys.
Captures their personalities so perfectly!

My big 2nd grader is all smiles when he hops off the bus at school.
(Yes, they rode the bus and we totally followed them in the car!)
The sweet girl behind him is Eman. You might remember her from a post last year where she sent a note home with him declaring that he is her "BFF" and he is "so funny!" Love her!

Juls hops off the bus looking a little nervous.

And now she spots us - horray!

Someone is pretty excited to have a locker for themselves!

We are soo excited to have Mrs. Kraus in our lives again.
We were lucky enough for Ry to have her, and now Jul.
 I'm holding my breath she doesn't retire in time for Emerson! =)

Why We Have No Milk

Dearest husband,

This morning, the carpool your wife managed to get the children to tennis camp a mere 5 minutes late.  Good thing they aren't a little older, or this would most likely equate to running 5 laps around the track. Which might have killed them, considering it was like 110 degrees out there.

Since the morning was so productive and all (does 5 minutes actually count as late even?), and everyone walked off the court alive (one missing water bottle didn't constitute failure in my book), I decided we should hit up our local Target to finish up shopping for school supplies.  How hard could it be -- we only had a few items left on the list.  Man. Was. I. Wrong.

Did you know there was a difference between sanitizer, disenfecting wipes, and cleansing wipes?!?? Well, I learn something new every day at this "mom gig".  I realize we just paid the school district $150 for book rental, but I think there has been some mistake.  You see, we ended up needing to purchase THIRTEEN containers of these sanitizing/disenfecting/cleansing type items.  I mean, I surely didn't mess up and register them for cleaning-lady-school or something, right??!  I didn't even end up ever finding the craziest thing on the list -- size medium plastic gloves.  What the?!!?  But after we had done about 3 laps around the store looking for these things, after we had visited the bathroom twice (seriously. wish. i. were. kidding...but Target seems to make our kids need to poo.), I couldn't take anymore...
After checking out $121 of cleaning supplies later, I didn't think I could handle the grocery store without losing all sanity.  I did, however, think the car wash was a good idea.  Simon said we needed to anyways...and you know how competitive I am. No way I was going to lose that one!

So we pull in the car wash line.
We sit patiently as the guys clean off the bugs and such from the windshield.
And then there is this like jerking and shaking and allover bad noise.
I look up, and the nice guy working is trying to get my attention. "Neutral, no brake."
"Oops, sorry!" I say and absentmindedly move the gear shift.
Into D.
Uhhuh. As. In. Drive.

Want to know what happened next??
The kids started screaming from the back.
I went into panic.
We were flying through the car wash with all the red phalangies slamming us all over the place so we couldn't see.  I hit the brake in the middle because I was sure we were going to ram into the car in front of us..was there one? I couldn't remember..but if there was, we would have smashed through it, I'm certain!
So then we are stuck.
In the middle of the car wash.
With those red flappy thingies slamming into us all over and we can't see a thing.
And then the little tire conveyer belt must have caught up with us, because then it's making that bad shaking raming noise all over again. 

This time, I didn't pass the "N" on the gear shift.

Fortunately, you will come home from work to find us all safe after this adventure.

But this, my dear husband, is why we have no milk.

XOXO
Your slightly insane loving wife.

Lake Summer Finale

We decided to get one last summer "harrah" in down at the lake.
I am in total denial that school starts in a mere two weeks!!?
My "baby" will be in kindergarten.
That's craziness, folks!!

It turned out to be an awesome weekend...and the weather was perfect!

We've finally (of course at the end of summer!) found an approved lifejacket that doesn't make Em scream.
She took her weekend naps just like this.  Which meant I actually got to sit back and relax and read on the boat this trip.
That's a winner!

sand!

The kids had a fun day today visiting Holiday Shore's beach and boating with our Fusion girls.

On another note, here is a funny convo I observed recently:
Ry: Julia, Jesus is everywhere, you know.
Julia: I know, Ry! He lives in my heart.Ry: But he just isn't in your heart, he is everywhere.Julia: Oh yeah. Well, I know what he looks like!! Kinda like a grandpa. He has like a mustache. I saw a picture of him once!

Six Flags 2012

When the youth group planned a trip to Six Flags, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get to bring Ryan along  for a special day. He was elated to  meet  the Scooby crew.

He asked me if this was the "real" Mystery Machine.  I wonder how much this cost to park...I'm still trying to get over the fact that they charged me a whopping $18 to park in the "cheap" lot.  Robbery, I tell ya!!! That and the $7 pretzel!

After observing Thunder River, and determining it wasn't too scary, he decided to give this one a shot.  It ended up being one of his favorites.  He loved never knowing who in the boat was going to get soaked, and laughed in delight when the water would pour in our boat.
I never was able to convince him to give The Log Flume a try.

Sherri, who I've been lucky enough to get to lead a small group with the last several years,
her son Josh and Megan survived the wet ride!

Ry was tall enough to do many of the rides without an adult.  We did these cars twice, the first time I insisted on going in his car, and he demanded I ride in the back seat.  After showing me he could make it around the track without my help, he wanted to drive all alone.  

And his favorite.  Not the best pic, but this is where we spent much of our day, so I needed to include it.  He probably rode this train at least 50 times.  Fortunately, the park wasn't very crowded, and the ride operator didn't have us hop off between each run.  Ry would pull the bell and shout "All aboard!" and other conductor-like talk.  I kept thinking he would tire of this, but that didn't happen!
We also rode the "big" train once, but I put the kabosh on that after the first time around the park because they stop midway in a woodedish area and hold you hostage make you sit on the tracks and watch a super boring show that left Ry and I plotting how to jump off and walk the tracks back to the nearest station!

Forever Mismatched and Tardy

Since Emerson's birth, I have found it especially challenging getting places on time.  It seems like such a huge production just to get everyone in clothes (forget even matching...my expectations have taken a nosedive!) and shoes and in the car.  As if the "real people" weren't enough, Jul's entourage has expanded to a baby whom she insists needs buckled into the car and a dog.  Arph!

Holiday World (without the baby!)

Saturday, we celebrated Great Grandpa Harriss' birthday with the family in Olney.  Then we headed on to Santa Claus, Indiana to have some fun at the famous HolidayWorld.  Gram and Papa watched Emerson.  It was our first night without our baby girl...I kept feeling like we were forgetting something!  It sure was nice though to not have to worry about her and get to do some "big kid" stuff! First up, the Mammoth which is the world's longest water coaster.  Julia screamed through the entire thing to let her off and that it was "the worst day ever!".  Her friend Jake says, "Wow, that was AWESOME."  Ryan was so in shock that he didn't even realize I was on the ride, although I was sitting NEXT to him in our six man round raft.  It was pretty cool. And wet.  Although seeing Julia in such distress did remind me of our trip to the Magic Kingdom where she got in a panic after Snow White's Scary Adventure (our first ride of that day also) and I couldn't help but think we are such (not) stellar parents!! Fortunately, it didn't freak her out for the remainder of the day, and she quickly warmed up and had a mega blast on the other (more kid-friendly) adventures!

Kitchen Reno

After 8 years in our house, we were very ready for a change in the kitchen.  This past year, we ripped out the terrible fake green marble laminate countertops that I despised since we moved in (Really, why did it take so long to get a move on that project!!? Indecisiveness is my huge downfall!).  When we were doing this project, we had the countertop on the island extended a little longer than the current one, to give us room to fit 3 barstools across the back side.

Handy Manny, er, Jeff decided he wanted to try and conquer this project himself.  So a few new tools later, and many hours in the garage sawing and sanding..viola!

Here is the work in progress...

You can clearly see in this picture where he has built an addition on to the old island to match up with the new countertop.  We also disliked that the back of the island wasn't "real" wood..it was just a laminate type of board that semi-matched the stain on the real wood cabinets..and matched it less and less as things seemed to fade around here.  Eww.

He is pretty amazing, huh?!  Not shabby work for a computer guy! =)
I'd wanted the island to look more like a piece of furniture, so he built out the kickboard too, and stained it all black.

He also took off all the cabinet doors, I cleaned them with a TSP solution (sadly, about my only real contribution to this project!) and then he rubbed a dark stain on the old cherry wood to make them a tad darker, and the stain to stick in the cracks...I think that it is called "tuxedo" staining or something like that. It's not too evident in pics, but is more obvious in real life.

Our barstools are in a sad, sad state.  I am waiting to buy new ones because as soon as Emerson is out of the high chair, we'll need a new kitchen table and I'm hoping to get it all to match/coordinate.  Look what the hubby whipped up in about an hour one afternoon with my sewing machine.  He made slipcovers and re-upholstered them!

I told him on our next date night I'd love for him to teach me to sew! ..And then we can end the night at Target, since that is where you end up on date night when you have children, right? Ha. 

Happy One!

Happy 1st Birthday, Colin!

Colin was born on July 11th, because Glammie was going to be out of town on the 14th, the day the Dr. wanted to induce.  The 14th is my birthday..so although it didn't quite work out, I will always think of him as my little birthday nephew. Krista, however, did luck out when Emerson made her debut on September 22nd, her birthday! Here we are with our birthday babes!

When Life Gives You Lemons...Or 105+ Temperatures

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade...
Or when life gives you temperatures in excess of 105 degrees, you make smores!

Enjoying the fruit (or chocolate!) of their work.

To my non-mom friends who wonder how I can possibly spend most of my day wiping down things and little people, here is Exhibit A.  This is the mess she made from eating exactly two s'mores.