Thanksgiving is tomorow.

I have to make a cake tonight :) We're going to Brooksville to my Grandfather's house. My Aunt Linda, Uncle Bryan (and his family), my parents, and the Blair family will be there. We may stop by my Pawpaw's house in the morning to see everyone if we get an early enough start. I'll bring the camera for pics and hopefully some time or other I'll actually get around to posting some.

I have to take the kids Christmas photos yet, and I need Logan's shoes to do it. We have everything else (I have to make sure Raegan's panty-hose fit). I really need to get started on my Christmas cards and this year I'm includng a letter...top 10 from the year. I'm trying to do it from the Cat's persepctive to make it interesting. We shall see :)

I probably won't be posting anything tomorrow, and the weekend is up in the air. I know we're going to be decorating like crazy, I'm SO excited!!!

Raegan went to the doctor today

She's ok :) I thought she might have a UTI, but she's ok thankfully! Now we just have to get her eating well again...doc thinks it could take time because of the whole system trauma with the stomach bug.

We are done with the kids Christmas! Yay!! Now we just have to save enough for the Chicago trip and Disney and we'll be good to go :)

I don't feel much like typing, so that's all for today.

Man am I tired!

It's Monday...that's tiring enough I guess. Last night my little man got up 3 times, makes me tiredto have broken sleep like that. Raegan I think is sick again, only this time I think it may be a UTI. She has no appetite, she's tired all the time, slight fever...and a few other symptoms. I'm calling the ped. in the morning to get her in. I'm so sick of sick!
I'm working on a Christmas letter! This will be a first, but I'm thinking it could be fun :) We'll see! We have the kids Christmas outfits, so I'm hoping to get their photos soon.
I've been working out now 5 days a week, starting last week. I, of coarse, haven't noticed a difference, but I'm going to make myself continue. Wish me luck :)

Friday, Saturday, Sunday...I'm not so good at keeping up!

I never got around to posting Halloween pics...how sad is that? I have been working on Photoshop and the learning curve is ridiculous and I'm having some issues learning it! So, just wait and I'll get some evenutally!

Friday, nada mucho going on...Saturday we had a babysitter!! We ordered the kids pizza, went out to dinner, and then went Christmas shopping! We are almost completely done with the kids :) Yay!! We have one large and one small gift to buy Raegan and a few stocking stuffers. So, that's a first for us! We are usually scraping just before the big day.

We also went through a bunch of boxes and threw out a bunch of stuff, cleaned out the office, and cleaned the carpet in the office and living room. It looks fantastic, but took me forever. We had a bad odor in the office from Minny (the cat pee smell that we tried to get rid of more than once). It seems to be gone.

Sunday we didn't do much, just a little grocery shopping and tonight we did some vacation planning. We're cutting the funds pretty close because we are planning Disney as part of it. We're totally excited about it, but I'm a bit nervous about the money. I hope it works out!

I feel a little bad, but w won't be able to do much in the way of gifts for everyone again this year, but I'm totally hoping to get creative and make something for people...ideas are welcome :)

Thursday's almost over

Well, it's been a really crappy couple of weeks here. Sick husband, sick son, and now sick daughter, and sick Gramma. It's neverending I tell ya! Not a whole lot has been going on given that nobody can seem to feel well for longer than a day or two. It's pretty much sucky, but I'm hoping there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm sure as hell hoping I don't get it! Right now, not much to report I guess. I'm tired and ready for the weekend, hopefully a nice relaxing one (yeah right, someone remind me that I have 2-3 year olds!). Ciao for now!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday...where'd the time go?

Man, I feel like time is just flying by these days! We have a lot going on with the sickies and trying to plan for vacation. We're going to Chicago for Christmas so we're trying to finalize our plans and stash the dough to do it. So that's a little stressful, but I think we can do it ;) So here's what's been going on for the last few days:
Over the weekend we went to Downtown Disney to pick up our ornament for Christmas (our family one) and the kids had a ton of fun. They went on the Merry-go-round and the train again, and we also went on the ferry boat. It was a really nice day :) Sunday we stayed home and cleaned up.
Today, Monday, was a little stressful. Logan hadn't gone 'poop' for nearly a week, so I was back in touch with the pediatrician. Thank God, before the ped called back he finally went. He was getting sick though, lethargic, lifeless, cold sweats...after he went he was a-ok. So now, we just have to hope he stays regular. Very scary stuff right there. He ate a little better tonight too...his appetite has been completely awful lately, but I'm hopeful it's on the upswing now. Fingers crossed!

Wasn't today a special adventure *eyeroll*

4:30 am ~ Logan joins me in bed (Chuck leaves for work aroun 3:45)
6:30 am ~ Logan vomits all over my bed, some pillows, comforter, and even me (lucky girl)
7:15 am ~ Logan has showered with me, is comfortable watching T.V. on couch
7:20 am ~ Check on Raegan, discover she peed her pants at some point during the night
8:00 am ~ I leave for work (I start at 8am)
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, busy at work....came home for lunch, kids are a bit on the quiet subdued side (for them)
Come home from work, go to the mall to pick up Ratatouille (we pre-purchased), get a pretzel from Auntie Annies for everyone's dinner (nice dinner,heh?). Come home, clean up, put jammies on kids, everyone is to bed by 8:30...clean up some more, print out some worksheets for the kids during the day to do....type this post, and the rest is history.

The Sickies!!

Well, my 'ugly' reference on last nights post unfortunately came true! Logan threw up everywhere last night, and I mean everywhere! The worst of it was he kept right on sleeping and if I hadn't heard his abnormal cough, I wouldn't have even checked on him. He seems fine today, but you never can tell. Chuck is better too, but not 100%. Raegan has exhibited no signs of sickness, knock on wood. However, last night she took a dive into dads thumb (she was jumping towards him with her mouth open and he had his hands out) inside her mouth and took a chunk out of the roof of her mouth...bled, cried, and still hurts some today. Ouch!

Today has been alright, a little more busy at work, but nothing catastrophic. Right this minute I'm the only one in the office, so it's pretty quiet. Tonight I have got to do laundry in the worst way, and clean up. So we'll see how the rest of the day goes and hopefully I'll make some progress on that.

Can you believe the year is almost over...again??? Daylight savings time is messing with my head...it's nearly dark when I leave work and I feel like the day is gone...how sad :(

Tuesday, glorious Tuesday

The Good: Today at work was pretty slow actually. I spent a lot of time designing a logo-type thing for the company letter-head. I actually enjoyed that :) Then from 3-4, Janet and I prepared some platters for a board meeting....I washed the grapes, cut up the cheese and salami, and arranged it on a platter. It came out nice :) Boss loved it!

The Bad: Chuck called around 11am and asked how I was feeling...fine I told him. Apparently he's caught a nasty virus and has been having issues holding anything in :( When I got home at 5 he was in bed, his temp was 102.4 and he wasn't able to hold much in. I gave him tylenol, checked him an hour later, down to 101.5, and gave him some Advil (alternating trick like with kids). So he's home sleeping and I have the kids at my parents' house.

The Ugly: What if we all get it??? YIKES!

Well, time to administer baths to the wild natives and start them winding down for the night! Peace Out!!!

3 days since the last update, so here we go...

Saturday ~ What a fun, wonderful day! The weather turned cooler FINALLY and we wanted to stay outdoors as much as wek could. We went to Orlando to Downtown Disney to just walk around. It's bascially a giant outdoor Disney mall. The kids love it, there is a merry-go-round and a train for little ones...of coarse they rode on it. We also decided to take the ferry boat to one of the resorts and have a look around. It's one we've wanted to stay at, so what better way to see if it's worth it! The kids totally loved the boat ride, and the resort looks like something we are all about staying at (Port Orleans). We also bought our family Christmas ornament for this year, I'll post a pic of it when we get it (it's being personalized and won't be ready til Tuesday...so we're going back Saturday to pick that up. After all that, we had a bite to eat at "Earl of Sandwich" (fantastic Quizno-type subs) and headed home (about 2 hour drive). The kids slept the whole way, they were completely exhausted. We were home by 10:30, and in bed by 11...not bad!
Sunday ~ Also a beautiful day, we went out to the mall, didn't buy anything, decided to leave and go eat at Applebee's. It was pretty good. The kids have been giving us absolute fits about eating their meals, so that's never fun, but otherwise it went ok (despite the fact that it was freezing in the restaurant and we had no jackets for the kids). So home we went and that ended the weekend...it went by as quickly as I typed this update!
Monday ~ Yay, another stinky Monday. It went ok, my boss had a little meltdown...but otherwise it was ok (he didn't melt down on me or anything, just in general...loudly). Not too much going on, we had some yummy pork chops and green beans for dinner, everyone was in bed by 8pm (except me obviously), and I worked out on the Gazelle for 30 minutes. I am going to try and commit to more excercise. So we'll see :) Tuesday is just around the corner, so stay tuned!

Friday at last :)

Well, Friday is here finally and I'm ready for the weekend...although I know as usual it will just fly right by :( Tonight we went to the mall, bought the kids a couple of long sleeved shirts from the Disney Store (stocking up for the trip back home)...went to Walden Books and got a book about Chicago for $10, it has some lovely photos in it. The kiddos each got a book (My Little Pony and Berenstein Bears). Pizza, Subway, and Chinese for dinner (the kids had Pizza, I had Chinese, Chuck had Subway), and all three are sleeping soundly now. I thought I'd hop and post my Friday post. I should have pics soon, I'm working on it (Halloween). Tomorrow I'm hoping to take the kids to see "Bee Movie", but since we went to the Disney Store and the book store we may not have the spare $ to do it. Maybe next week :) We'll see! Don't forget this weekend is daylight savings time!

Halloween & Thursday...

Halloween was pretty good for us this year. We had, as you probably know, Spiderman and Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). They had a ton of fun dressing up and Logan didn't even mind wearing the mask. Of coarse we got rained out, elected to take them to the pit (aka Mall), and they got not-so-much stuff there. I have pics, but I'm working on figuring out how to edit them in a new system I have...so it could be a few days before the debut. When we got home from the mall the rain had stopped so I took them for a walk around the block. They were diggin' it ;)

Today, Thursday, nothing too special. They went to the library as usual and got some new books....we read every single one of them before bed lol. Chuck took them for a walk when he got home (his hours are 4a-2p ish). Well they got a good distance away and the skies opened up and poured rain on them. I thought it was quite funny...he didn't see the humor LOL. Oh well, they seemed to have had fun though.

The kids have been doing pretty well with clean-up and their little list of chores. They get a sticker daily if they complete 'most' of the tasks on the list. We put in 'clean up music' and they go to it! Logan takes a little more encouragement, but he gets there. I have discovered though that they truly need a break from one another. They are starting to fight and get on each others nerves more and more lately. So, maybe it's time to seperate them for a day (daddy/Raegan and mommy/Logan this time). We'll see :)

Tuesday!

I put the exclamation point after it to make it seem more interesting....but really nothing interesting happened today. Just went for a walk with the kiddos, they watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" before bed tonight and I hung up their Halloween Mobiles (I'll get a picture soon), they're cute and the kids love them. They cut out Halloween shapes (cats, ghosts, pumpkins, etc.) from card stock, coated in glue and glitter, we let them dry over night and then I hung them all on a mobile. They are hanging from the fan chains in their bedroom...they love it! Other than that, we're ready for Halloween tomorrow...if it rains, we'll go to the mall and trick or treat...if not we'll do it at home. Don't worry there will be pics!

Saturday & Sunday...

So, I obviously didn't keep track over the weekend so here's what we were up to...


Saturday ~ We just went to the mall, bought a few Christmas gifts for the kids, nothing real big...it got a little stressful because the kids got tired cranky (tired) and that's never good for the parents if you know what I mean. They fell asleep on the way home, then woke up a little later, and then to bed. Wasn't the best day, but it was alright. We got some great deals on The Disney Store toys, but thats the only store we got to because of the temper tantrums.


Sunday ~ We cleaned house for the first part of the day and then it became pumpkin carving day :) See the photos below...we saved the seeds and baked them. They came out great :) We also saved the 'guts' for pie making. The kids thought it was cool, and they loved the way they turned out. After pumpkin carving, Daddy went to bed (starting work at midnight on Sunday), and I took the kids to the local church's 'Trick or Trunk" event. They went in the bounce house, got a lot of candy, and had corndogs and soda for dinner. They thought it was a great time. Afterwards we went grocery shopping, they were pretty good, and then home and to bed. Very busy afernoon/evening!

Monday ~ Today we (the kids and I) made the pumpkin pies!! We haven't sampled them...we were able to make 2 pies out of what we saved. So Raegan helped with the first pie and Logan helped with the 2nd. We made them at my moms house because Chuck's still on the odd hour shift and we didn't want to wake him up. The 2nd pie was still baking when I brought the kids home to put them to bed. The first was still to warm to cut, but it looks and smells delicious! I'll have to update on that tomorrow. It's my first try making homemade pies (the crust is store bought though). The kids were pretty good, they are going through a 'listening impaired' phase right now and it's driving me CRAZY! I have to yell to get them to listen anymore, I just can't stand all the yelling. I can tell you I don't want them remembering me as a screaming parent, but I'm just slam out of ideas to get them to listen to me on the first try...and believe me I have tried SO many things! Feel free to leave a comment or any suggestions. Oh and another thing, they have been 'visiting' my bed at night (mostly Logan), at first I didn't care much, but the longer it's been going on the more sleep I'm losing. It sounds ridiculous but because they wake me up when they get in bed I'm getting interrupted sleep almost every night. Not cool...at first I would get up and take them right back to bed, but I'm so tired I just don't have the energy to do it. Last night I did, and I suppose I'll have to continue doing that if I want them to get the idea. So, here's to a hopeful good nights sleep!

A pretty rainy day.

Today went by quickly at work, paydays always do because I process the payroll. We were going to go out to dinner tonight, but when I got home at 5 Chuck was asleep in the recliner and I couldn't wake him up. So I took the kids out for Pizza and then we drove around looking for 'Halloween" as they said (looking for lights/decorations). We found quite a few houses with decorations and they thought it was really cool. Not sure what the plan is tomorrow, but for now I have to go because it's past their bedtime and the are going nuts! Check back soon for more :)

The Halloween Party!

The kids had so much fun at their Halloween party today! They were adorable, the cutest there if I do say so :) They played some games, had some candy, got a little activity and that was it. I was glad I was able to take off work and go up there. I got some cute photos of them in their little costumes. Raegan was so funny, she had a little crush on Batman and kept holding his hand and giving him googly eyes....it was adorable! I'm sure daddy won't think so ;)

Tomorrow is Friday, yay! I don't know what we're doing this weekend, I have to do my weekly cleaning as usual, and I'd prefer to cut the grass Sunday-ish so I don't have to worry about it during the week. We are going to carve the pumpkins too, that should be fun!

Aunt Bit came by for dinner tonight!

We had a nice time. She made Raegan a cute little bracelet. I made an anklet with a little help, but it came out nice. It was pretty fun actually, relaxing. The kids were pretty good, just a little wirey. Raegan didn't nap, Logan did so he was really wired! OH and poor Raegan, she was playing around and ran and jumped on the couch...then right as she jumped on the couch she landed with her eye on a Barbie doll foot...poor thing cried so hard :( I'm concerned now that she's going to wake up with quite the shiner. I hope not, but her eye was a little swollen and she kept grabbing at it...guess we'll see. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving work at 9:45 to go to library day with the kids because they have a Halloween party there....they are going to be Sleeping Beauty and Spiderman :) I'll take pics!!

It's a little hard to keep up with anything!

I am trying to remember everything day to day that I need to do. I started back to work full time about 2.5 weeks ago and my brain is in a constant frenzy! So, here's a summary of the last, ummm, week?

During the day the kids stay with my mom while I'm at work. I try to make sure I leave some 'assignments' for the kids to do that I print off the computer. I've slacked off this week so far, but I'm going to get back to it. They are doing well with her, I'm sure she's stressed out though...I know 2 3-year olds can take a toll on anyone. They're doing pretty well though, getting smarter every day. Gamma does what she can to contribute to their learning while I'm away. So the days go like that, some learning, some TV, some clean up time, etc. etc.

Monday 10/15 ~ Not a whole lot going on here, got home from work, made dinner, after dinner Raegan decided it would be cool to dress Daddy as Sleeping Beauty! What fun for everyone that was. Shortly after that Logan comes prancing out wearing Mommy's bra! Oh so exciting for Dad to see that one!
Tuesday 10/16 ~ Again, nothing too special going on. Same drill coming home...highlight of the evening would be the concert the kids gave us in the living room. They LOVE music and Raegan busted her moves on the 'drums' (tupperware turned over and wooden spoons) and Logan showed his stuff on the 'guitar' (aka spatula). They were quite entertaining :)

Wednesday 10/17 ~ Regular work day. I like my job, I just don't like that I have a job. Make sense? My job is relatively low on the stress scale, easy people to work with, very close to home. It's good, but it's work and I'm away from the kids. Anyhow, this evening was very special! Uncle Donovan was in town tonight because his job brought him here. He was only here on Wednesday evening and left early Thursday morning. We had a lovely Roast for dinner...mashed potatoes and carrots. My mom cooked and we had a big family dinner. The kids LOVE their Uncle D and had a ton of fun with him. They are still asking "Where's Uncle D?" It was a nice night, was good to see my brother, and the kids really enjoyed themselves :) A couple of other misc. pics from that night...kids being kids, check out Logan's shoes LOL!

Thursday 10/18 ~ Today is library day for the kids, my mom takes them from about 10-11am. They really love it, it's very interactive and varied in activities in comparison with any other library time they've had. I was able to go to one of them before I started back to work and I was totally pleased with how well it's run and how many activities the kids get to do. So they did that today and checked out some new books (all of which we HAD to read at bedtime...again).


Friday 10/19 ~ Thank Goodness!! Tonight we went to Wal-Mart, well you read the story on that one, lol...what an adventure! I'll have the photos up soon for all of these adventures :)

Saturday 10/20 ~ Today we went to Sea World, the Halloween Spooktacular Event! How much FUN was that??? The kids got to dress up (Tinker Bell & Peter Pan) and trick or treat in Sea World. There were special events/performances also. The childrens music band "AudraRox" was there, Raegan totally loved it...she was jamming out! All the kids got to go up on the stage area and dance, we now call Rae "Rock star Raegan". Just as the show started Logan stumbled off his seat and did a face plant into the railing...I completely thought he broke his nose. He was hysterical :( He cried so hard that he ended up just falling asleep. He slept through the whole concert, so no dancing photos of him :( When he woke up he was alright though and he doesn't even have a bruise! After Sea World we drove about another 45 minutes North and went to a night time pumpkin patch! There was a hay ride, hay maze, and creepy crawly barn with snakes an stuff in it for the kids to look at...and pet if they wanted. It was really neat. Each child chose a small pumpkin and we bought one large one. Good time! They did well traveling and slept all the way home. Mommy and Daddy were so tired we almost stopped at a hotel but we managed to stick it out for the 3 hour drive home! Fun fun fun!!

Sunday 10/21 ~ Nothing too special, I spent the day cleaning house, the kids took a nap, woke up and went to the store with Daddy while I finished cleaning. Since they woke up late from their naps (5pm!) they were up late. Chuck's schedule at work changed and for 2 weeks he'll be starting at midnight, then after that he'll start at 4am and work til about 1:30pm (indefinately). So because of this, Chuck had to go to bed very early. So I had to stay up with the kidlets a little later than desired. We watched a movie, "Casper Meets Wendy", and after that I put them to bed (10pm)...well they were up til about 11 talking and I finally gave up and just went to bed...I was way too tired to wait for them. They ended up falling asleep and staying in bed after I went to bed. That was CRAZY.

Monday 10/22 ~ Nada mucho to report, first day/night of Chuck working odd hours. Kind of hard to adjust to, but we'll make it work. Logan has taken to coming into our bed in the middle of the night. I don't let the kids sleep with us, but I haven't been noticing his arrival and by the time I notice it's a waste of time to bother taking him back...so that's that. We hang out at my mom's house in the evening so it's not overly loud for Daddy to sleep.

Tuesday 10/23 ~ Same ole same ole. Work was busy for me today which made the day go quickly. I have taken to staying up later than I should...I guess I'm getting used to these new hours too. I figure if I stay up long enough that I'm exhausted, I'll fall asleep easier. So that's the approach. It works, except I'm having a little struggle waking up in the morning (go figure). I'm sure I'll grow tired of being tired and just go to bed. So, that's that I guess. Tomorrow's another day!

Photos to come :)

Wal-mart, a disaster in the making!

Last night we decided, since we haven't in a couple of weeks, that it was time to go shopping. Neither of us are particularly fond of this venture, but it is alas, unavoidable. We thought that we'd be adventurous and find a way to make it more bearable on the kids as well. They had a nap in the daytime, had eaten before we left, and were excited to be going 'bye-bye', so we packed them up along with their little toy shopping carts and headed off. Things were going ok and they thought it was pretty cool to have little shopping carts. Then Logans' wheels started acting up and he proceeded to lift the cart off the floor and slam it down on the wheels to fix it. Yeah, you can imagine how well that worked out. So Chuck looked at it to see if he could figure out what was wrong with it...no dice. We tried to convince Logan to just ignore the problem, but that didn't work out so well, either. He ran it into walls trying to 'fix' it when finally we took it and threw it in the big cart. Raegan's worked fine, then she thought it might be a good idea to lean all of her weight on it at which point we hear 'CRRRRACK', she nearly busted the thing. It still rolled though (thank God....we had no room to haul it around in the big cart). So for the whole of it we have:
~2 little shopping carts, 1 broken, 1 nearly
~2 unruly children, tired and frustrated
~2 annoyed parents, trying to complete 1 daunting task
~a few photos to document this great fun adventure
~an incomplete shopping list
~a bill for $180.00
~and a promise for many more God-awful trips to the hell we've come to know as "Wal-mart"
Glad that trip is over, photos to come ;)

The Beginning...

I've been meaning to get around to starting a family blog, it's just been so hectic around here these days. Right now my goals are fairly simple with this blog:
1. Try to keep family and friends updated on our lives.
2. Have a journal-type record of the kids milestones and general day-to-day family fun.
3. Have an outlet to write what's going on in my crazy crazy head!
The photo to the left is the kiddos first day of preschool. They did fairly well, they totally love school. We've had to temporarily pull them out, but we anticipate their return sometime in November. They miss it and occasionally ask about going, but they are champs at adjusting to whatever is thrown in their direction. I'll be trying to go back in time and recall events and memories, so stay tuned for some interesting posts :)