Summer Time Trips

This summer will actually be a very fun and eventful summer. Between all the camps, swim lessons and trips we have planned, September will be here before we know it.

I'm leaving this weekend for an extended weekend to South Padre. Then the end of June we are going to San Antonio via Fredericksburg for an extended weekend. Then in August we are going to Destin, Florida with the Brugge family and maybe a few other families, I'm not planning that trip, just going!

In between camps, lessons and vacation trips we'll be headed to the farm a few times and I have a long list of activities the kids and I are going to do.

The Allen and Plano Library, museums, water parks, zoos and a few other places Michelle and I are going to take the kids. We are going to have one packed summer schedule. I'll be ready for school to start so things will slow down.

Packing and Loving It!!

I'm packing today for my girls trip to South Padre. We leave on Saturday morning and we'll return on Tuesday night. We are driving down, about a 10 hour drive. I'm not crazy about that, but I won't have 2 kids in the back to mess with. So it will be just fine. Patti's friend Kristi is going with us, she's flying down Saturday night and will drive back with us. Patti's mother in law may come home with us too, but she changes her mind sometimes so she may not. I checked the weather and it's not looking pretty, but I don't even care. Being away from my responsibilities for a few days, even if its in the rain, will be so nice. I'm finally getting that well deserved time away from my kids and husband. I don't have to answer to anyone and boy am I going to like that.

I'm sure I will miss my kids like nothing before. This past Sunday night they stayed with my mom and dad and I almost cried I missed Cooper so much. But we watch a sad movie and that didn't help.

Oh, just think of all the sleeping I'll be able to get. I can't stop dreaming.... back to reality! Gotta pack.

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

This song had been going through my head for days now. I don't have a yellow polka dot one, it's a pretty paisley, but it is itsy bitsy. I feel very confident in my bikini for this season. Even though I asked Brian how I looked in it, he said I didn't see you. UM, huh? I had one kid, you had the other, how did you not see me. So I guess it wasn't god awful, or he would have seen me! Right?

I'll have to download this song so I can sing along with it.

Family Fun At The....

Well, we started out this afternoon headed to the Dallas Zoo, when we were directed to the overflow parking, because the main parking lots were full. EEK, we knew it wasn't going to be pretty. So after 'sitting' in line for about 15 minutes, Brian and I decided to skip the Zoo and head to the Dallas World Aquarium. We figured Bella wouldn't mind if we took her somewhere to see animals. So, off we went to the Aquarium. We had a pretty good time. Bella loved seeing all kinds of animals and Cooper even saw a few things that made his face light up. He loved the birds, he would say 'tweet, tweet' like the birds. Very cute!

Side note: I dressed Isabella and Cooper in orange shirts because I wanted to be able to find Bella if she ran away at the zoo. When Brian walked out of the bedroom, it was funny, he was in orange too. I felt a bit left out, but that was ok. Pink was fine!

looking at the tiny monkey and birds

Me and my sunshine! Gosh, I love her!

(I had to offer her a treat to get her to smile, but it was worth it!)Here fishy, fishy!

Spaceship Park

This is my Tuesday. Brian works from home on Tuesday's and we try to take the kids to the neighborhood park after we pick Bella up from school.

This is the greatest park and I'm so happy it's just down the road!!

This is how Cooper slides. He slides down on his tummy and crawls right back up.

I Think I Can!!

taking a break

this is how Cooper crawls on the hard wood chips, ouch!

Handsome Daddy

Silly Daddy

Chillin'The giant tube slide...let's just go up...
Catch me if you can...
Monkey Girl

Bella taking photos of mommy

Some unusual shots... mommy's belly

Bella's Belly... very cute belly button!!

Mad Bella...

Silly face

Sweet face

I was laying on the ground watching the clouds and this was one of the photos, I like it!

Sweet daddy taking a quick nap in Bella's lap. So sweet!

Bikini - WooHoo

So today I went to Old Navy to get a new swimsuit. I am so jazzed, I got a bikini! It's really cute and I look decent in it. Not like I did 7 years ago, but after having 2 kids, I look damn good in my opinion. I tried it on for Brian and he liked it. I think he was shocked at how good I actually did look in my string piece bikini. I'm so happy I found a really cute bikini! Patti and I and maybe a few other girls (Shelly and Kristi) are going to South Padre in just a few weeks. I needed a suit to go to the beach in. YahWhoo!!!

Women's Paisley String Bikinis
http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=48059&vid=1&pid=653944&scid=653944012

Scentsy

I'm not sure if you have heard of these wickless candles. They are awesome. An acquaintance turned me on to them. I have since bought quite a few. When I was at the scrapbook retreat a few weekends ago, Heather was selling them. So I jumped to the chance to order some more. I have about 8 scents and warmers everywhere (but I could always use some more!!). We put on in Cooper's room/bathroom to cover up the diaper smell that soaks into the walls. It works wonders. So I got one for Bella's room. She LOVES it and I got a really pretty smell for her room and now her room smells like a field of flowers, which matches her room perfectly. I have one in the kitchen, master, guest bath downstairs, both kids bath vanity's and I love them. If you are interested, you can click the link and find someone in your area to order from. Tiffany and Heather are two of the ladies I have ordered from and I love to give them as gifts. A nice surprise and unique gift. They ship it directly to your door in a matter of days, so it's a great way to make your home smell really good and look fashionable able doing it. Who doesn't love that!

BTW, you can leave them plugged in all day long and not worry about your house burning down. Or do like me and forget to turn it off at night and it become a nice night light when you go to get a bottle for the baby at 3am. I'm so bad about blowing candles out, so this is peace of mind for me!

http://www.scentsy.net/

I Love My Kids!!

Yesterday we were running around town taking stuff to others. I am doing my part to clean out the garage and I'm taking back or giving away all the baby stuff that has piled up in the garage. We took a butt load of Cooper's clothes to a sweet new mom Hollie. She is a newly wed, with a new baby. And she is very young. She doesn't have 'things' that I had when Isabella and Cooper came along. So I wanted to give her Cooper's clothes. She was more than grateful! That made 'my heart so happy' as Isabella says it!

While we were running around, Bella and Cooper were watching Cinderella on the DVD player. Isabella was singing the song and Cooper was bouncing around and shaking his groove thing. It was absolutely adorable. Cooper was laughing so hard he was making the cutest sounds. I love his laugh. Then Bella started dancing, the two of them and me dancing made the car shake. We had a great time dancing and singing. I love my kids!!

We went to bible study yesterday morning. I will miss this bible study over the summer. These ladies really inspire me and give me the encouragement I need. I just wish it was every Monday. I sure need God's influence in my life more, especially with the love of other mothers who are walking the same shoes I am. It's a wonderful support system. The little group I am with will be getting together a few time this summer. I love talking to them and sharing stories. LOADS of wisdom! God has sure blessed me with wonderful friends.

Stevie...

We have a new babysitter named Stevie. She is a neighbor, lives on the same block and she is as sweet as can be. Stevie has come over a few times and last night she came over so Brian and I could go out for our Friday night date. She came over about 7pm and I had put Cooper down an hour earlier, he never woke up for her. So she only had Isabella to play with. They had a blast! Stevie is really good with Isabella, she reminds me of myself when I babysat. I loved to babysit! I loved playing with children and pretending I was the mommy. So, tonight Stevie is coming back over so Brian and I can go meet some more neighbors at the adult night out in our 'hood. We won't be going far and it's byob!! I picked up a soft side cooler for Brian and I to take some yummy beverages to James and Sherry's house. It's going to be so nice to just stay in the 'hood and not have to drive. Cooper just woke up from his over 3.5 hour nap, so he'll probably go down early again tonight, so Stevie will only have Isabella again tonight. Fun times at the Corr's!

Spectacles

Spectacles, that's my new favorite word. I went in to the eye doctor the other day. I haven't been able to read text messages or even my books lately, so I knew something was going wrong and fast! So, I'm now a full time spectacle! But you already knew that, right? HA! Sounds funny. I have to wear glasses full time now. The muscles in my eyes were spasming and by the middle/end of the day I just couldn't see/focus. I'm glad it's something simple. I do have another eye issue, but I'm not sure how to explain it, something about my eye could burst?!? Not 'really' but that's how she kind of explained it to me. I have to go see a different eye doctor to have that looked at. They are not able to dilate my eyes because of the 'condition" I have. They may have to laser them to get the fluids to flow better. UGH, always something, right?

So I ordered two new pair of glasses. Yes, two. If I'm going to 'have' to wear the glasses 24.7 I want to look CUTE! Especially with my new cute mommy haircut!! I should get my new glasses by Friday. I'll have Brian take some photos of me with my new hair and new glasses. I'm wearing my reading glasses full time now, they are not as strong as the new ones I'm getting, but they will help my eyes in the mean time. Looking forward to it!!

These are my reading glasses I've had for a year now. Cute!

These are my pinkish ones. Cute too!

These are my browner ones. Again, Cute!

I have to admit something now. Um, I had no idea what brand of glasses I was buying. You all know I'm not really a label whore. So today when I went to pick them up the case was kinds familiar. Um, the two new pairs are Coach. Yes, I said Coach. No wonder they cost an arm and a leg. AHHH! The ones I've had for a year, the 'reading' glasses are JLo. Yes, Jennifer Lopez. I guess I have really good taste. Silly me!

Cutest Mommy On The Block!!

That's me! I haven't taken any pictures with my new hair cut, but I'm going to have to. I LOVE it!! I look like such a cute mom. And that is exactly what I wanted. (I'm stroking my ego at the moment!). I have had so MANY complements on my new mommy cut. And I feel it! I was getting tired of the pony-tail life I was stuck in and I have time to 'fix' my hair these days, so I wanted to cut it off and play for a while. It's the perfect cut for me, especially since I've had the same cut before. Very easy to manage and fix. And I can throw on a hat if I don't want to fix it. What's better than that? (Amberly, if you read this, I'd love a hat from the Peens!) It seems that my weight loss is very apparent and visible! LOVE IT! I had to buy some new clothes a few weeks ago, because the size 12's were falling off without unbuttoning them. And now my 10's, in just a few short weeks are nice and loose!! I could have gone down to an 8 when I bought the 10's, but I DON'T like tight clothes, even if I can get away with it. So, look at me now! I am on my way to feeling and looking so much better than I did even 3 months ago. I keep reading nutritional books and keep my mind on what I'm putting in my mouth at all times. I know when I cheat and when I'm doing well and it's a nice balance.

My goal weight is 125 and a size 6. I know crazy, but do-able. I'm at 145 now, from 157 when I started this whole process in August. The weight loss isn't much, but the muscle gain is tremendous! I have nice, delicious legs. One of my favorite parts of my body!! If I can just keep them from bruising like I'm a 3 year old or learn how to shave my legs without nicking them. But that's a different story.

Gymnastics Tryouts!

Today we took Bella to gymnastics team try-outs! Now, let me start by saying I was not looking forward to telling Brian how much team gymnastics cost. The leotards alone cost more than her tuition to church MDO (at least a few months, roughly $500). For a 3 year old, not sure I want that expense. So we just went in, to play gymnastics. I didn't tell Bella anything except we were going to gymnastics school to play with friends. I don't want to take this whole gymnastics thing too serious, like some of the moms I know (you know who you are!! HA!).

So Bella went with 4 other girls (she was the youngest, by far) and she did everything Ms. Tabitha told her to do. Ms. Tabitha loves her as it is and is very excited to have her on team; but only after she has had a few months of Advanced Tumble Bears. **Sigh of relief!** Brian was with me to watch the whole thing and she's going to love gymnastics! So, Ms. (oh crap, I forgot her name), teaches advanced tumble bears and Bella got a chance to participate in an advanced tumble bears class. Ms. 'Oh Crap', only had two little girls, Bella happened to be the oldest. She did pretty good, it was an hour long and you could tell she was in her 'element'. She did what Ms. Oh Crap asked her to do. She did misbehave a few times, but for her first class she did really good. Ms. Oh Crap, told me after class that she would love for Bella to be in her class and she has great potential. She said that she is "VERY strong". Yea, I know!
So, now it's decision time. The class is $60 a month for once a week. And I don't want to do more than once a week. She's only 3 for crying out loud!! But I want her to go to summer camp at 'nastics school and that cost $125 for 2 times a week for two weeks. EEK. I have no desire to spend crazy amounts of money for a 3 year old in this economy. Brian and I have to talk about it. Thankfully we have a few weeks to decide. I'll keep you posted!!

Happy 6th Anniversary To US!!

Yesterday, Brian and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. It was very uneventful, since I had already planned and paid for a scrapbook retreat, I went to my scrapping thing. Brian stayed home with the kids (which he needed, since he had been gone all weekend).

But today, we were running around town and went by Wolf Camera. The store was closing and Brian just wanted to take a look to see if we needed anything. The kids and I stayed in the car (Bella was eating an ice cream cone). Brian came back to the car with a new lens for my camera he bought me for Christmas!!! I'm so excited. It will zoom in so close. It's not a good name brand, but it will be good for me to learn on and it wasn't 'wow expensive'. We Brian got back to the car he said "happy anniversary". Too funny! Gotta love that man!

Change of Plans Part II

So, with baby Major in the hospital until Sunday afternoon. Brian came home Saturday night about 9pm. I had the kids still up so they could see their daddy and he helped me put them to bed. We were just about to turn off lights and I was in the middle of giving Cooper his bottle and rocking him. When all of a sudden a major storm came thought and the lights we OFF. Now, this has never happened when Bella was awake. So she was a tiny bit scared. But we all put on head lamps and headed down stairs to the master. We lit candles and played in the bed for a bit. I slowly blew out the candles and we tried our hardest to get Cooper and Bella to go to sleep. But, since Cooper is a crib only baby, he wasn't much into laying down and going to sleep. And Bella was in heaven, in mom and dads bed with Cooper. She would not leave Cooper alone. So about 30 minutes later, Cooper was real tired and Bella would not take her hands off him, so Cooper and I went to the guest bedroom. After about 15 minutes, he finally fell asleep. It was SO quite and if you know me, you know I can not sleep in the quite. I have to have some sort of noise maker on all night. And I have raised my kids with noise makers on at all times. So I was glad when Cooper was finally asleep. I took him to his crib, in his very dark, quite room. When I placed him in his bed, he woke up. I let him cry it out for a few 'seconds' and I went to Bella's bed. I knew when the lights came back on that alot of lights would flash on and it could be very bright. And about 1230 or 100, the lights finally did come on and it was very bright in Bella's room. I quickly went to Cooper's room and turned off the lamp and down stairs to turn off all the lights that were on and finally I crawled into the guest bed. Ohhh, finally time to sleep. Cooper woke up for his 3am bottle and then slept until Isabella woke us up.
Since Sunday was our anniversary, Brian had flowers and a card waiting for me and Isabella couldn't wait to tell me! Brian was making pancakes (our usual Sunday breakfast). We had breakfast, I got ready for the day and was out the door by 10:45. Woohoo! I was off to my first scrapbooking retreat.
Flo and I met at Michael's (she works for corporate, so she gets a discount!!) She loaded my arms up with must haves and we were out the door. Hilton here I come. The ladies at the retreat were all shocked that I have never even bought a single thing much less done anything scrapbook wise. I was in for a real treat. Let me tell you, these people are wild and crazy over scrapbooks. They can put 20 buck worth of 'stuff' on ONE page. OMG! What have I gotten myself into. I took a big tub of Bella's things and I organized it and got a few things to scrap. In the tub, I happened to have some photographs of our Walt Disney World trip when Bella was 8+ months old and the photos when Cooper was first born they take at the hospital. So I started out with Cooper's pictures, since I didn't LOVE those photos and I had a MILLION copies, I started playing with those. It was a OK looking page for my first one. Then I moved on to the Disney photos. I bought some Mickey stickers and the such and I really think they are cute. I'm not going to be one of those that put tons of time/money into a page. I just want it all recorded with dates and ages. So I think I may enjoy this scrapping thing after all. I'll just have to wait until I have complete dedicated time to do it. It takes a lot of thinking and preparing. So that will be my challenge!
So I got home Sunday night and Brian went to get dinner at Olive Garden. Not our favorite, but it will do. Nothing excited happed on our anniversary, which is pretty typical...and I'm not complaining.

Pitch Black in the house, head lamp on.

Cooper's banged up upper lip. When he fell off the bed.

Change Of Plans

As you can tell from the below post, I was so happy and jazzed about my alone time I was going to get this weekend. But baby Major has been sick for a few days and his doctor told Michelle to take him to Children's Hospital of Plano to see what was wrong with him. The doctor couldn't figure out why he had such a high fever for so long. So, she took him in early afternoon and they ran a battery of test and still couldn't come up with a good reason, so they admitted him this evening. So, Michelle has been up with Major for the last 2 nights, if not longer and she is exhausted. Now her baby is in the hospital. So, on my way to my parents house around 5pm, I called and asked mom if she would rather me not bring the kids so she could help Michelle out at the hospital. And once he is released from the hospital, I'm not sure Michelle will want to take him back to their home or to moms to recuperate. (side note: Mark and Michelle's house flooded about 2-3 months ago and they still haven't got the new hardwoods down, so their house is still turned UP SIDE DOWN!!) So mom and dad will probably have the boys and Michelle and the baby down there for the weekend. That would be just too selfish of me to expect mom to take care of my children and leave Michelle hanging at the hospital. So, I'm glad I called before going all the way to Corinth, not that my kids wouldn't have liked to visit with Micheal and Mavrick and Poppy. But that would be too much going on there and I just need to be home with my kids. So I cancelled my spa treatments and called Flo to let her know I just may not make it on Sunday and my friends for dinner tomorrow night. I'm glad I didn't rent that movie I really wanted to watch. So, as bummed as I am, I'm very worried about Major. I wish I could be there with Michelle, but I have two kiddos that need their mother too. So I'll just pray for Major and Michelle.