We Are Off To The Cottage

Tomorrow Shawn is just going to work a couple hours in the morning so that we can get an early start to the cottage. Okay so our cottage is really a tent but it says on the package "The Swiss Gear Cottage" so that kind of makes it a cottage right? So tomorrow we we will pack up more than half of our house and head to Ledges State Park. I've never been there but have heard that its beautiful. We got online and reserved a campsite for Friday and Saturday night, but Shawn and I both agreed that we will play it by ear as to whether we will stay both nights. Sometimes the boys do really well, sometimes not. Cale is bummed that there is no fishing there, while Shawn is excited about this. He loves to fish but sometimes with a 7 and 2 year old it can be less than relaxing. We are camping close to some friends who also have kids close to Colby and Cale's ages so they will have a lot of fun playing together. The weather looks like it is supposed to be beautiful, so everyone pray that it stays that way, camping in a tent when it is raining is never a good time. I guess if you see me at church on Sunday you'll know how our weekend at the "cottage" went....

On A Quest...

As many of you know lately I have been on a quest to get a new vehicle, since my air conditioner had not been working. On Wednesday I finally got to pick up our new "ride". I'm pretty excited but not quite as excited as much as Colby and Cale. We got a Nissan Quest mini van, my third mini van, Shawn says the last but we'll see. The picture above isn't ours but looks very similar. Colby loves that you have to go up a step to sit in the third row and both of the boys love the DVD player, me I'm pretty partial to the AIR CONDITIONER! Go figure! Of course today was pretty mild so we probably could have gotten away with out having it but I am now ready for the scorching Iowa summers that we all love so much! If your looking for me I'll be driving around in the van where there is peace and quiet while both boys where headphones and enjoy a movie.....

Mom's Group Outing

Today for Mom's Group we met at Blank Park Zoo. So the picture on the top is of our group after we got done. The picture on the bottom is what the zoo does to four kids....tired. We had a good time, but boy was it ever hot out, there was a lot of people there today. We got to feed the animals in the petting zoo area, and got up close with a wallaby and Cale got super up close when an Emu almost trampled him. Mandy and Curtis +3, Angela +3, Dara +2, Angie +2, me +2 were all there. Angie's daughter Emma is Awnna's good friend from school, plus she has a little brother Carson who is 2. They were so cute, and Angie is very sweet. After the zoo we headed up the street to McDonald's playland for some lunch, the kids got to play some more and the mom's (and one dad) got to enjoy the air conditioning and talking with one another. After lunch we headed for home and around 3:00 Dara dropped Colin and Awnna off to play while she had a hair appointment. The kids had sooooo much fun, they built forts in the basement, watched a movie, ate snacks (according to Awnna 3 bowls of chocolate chips :) and played with water guns. When Dara got back all four of the kids were wearing different clothes. It was pretty funny. Dara suggested we head to Nick & Willies for pizza (thanks again Dara), the kids sat at a little counter area to watch them make pizzas and they got some pizza dough to play with, which kept them busy. It was nice Dara, Shawn and I got some time to just talk. It was a long day, and super fun --to quote Colby.

Father's Day~2007

On Fathers Day after church we headed over to Gary & Linda's for lunch (they are Shawn's sisters' in laws). Shawn, Colby, Cale, Sheila, Brad, Haley, Addy, Gary, Linda, Shorty, Barb, and I were all there. It was a great afternoon. They are needing to replace their roof so Shawn (being an ex-contractor) got up there to measure and fix a small leak for them. We had a cookout for lunch and definitely my favorite part was the fresh fruit basket. There is nothing better on a hot day than cold fruit. Shawn loved the cards the boys made for him a Mom's Group. We celebrated the day with some great Dad's. I cannot even begin to explain how blessed my boys and I are to have Shawn in our life. He truly is an amazing father. Of course as for my father, I feel that he is looking down from Heaven on us every day, and smiling at my wonderful family. I know I do.

Saturday the 16th....Oh what a day ..night!

We had quite a day last Saturday. It was packed full of events.... At 10:00 we started our day at Colin's 3rd birthday party, the boys had such fun, and the cake was so cute. I can't even imagine how long it took for Dara to put that together. We didn't get to stay long because at 12:00 we had to be in Orient (which is where I grew up and graduated from). It takes us right at one hour to get there. My Great Aunt Ruth turned 90 this month and we all gathered to celebrate the huge milestone. The picture of the two ladies above are Aunt Ruth and Aunt Barbara. They are my grandmothers sisters. It was a great time, my G Aunt Barbara and G Uncle Bob have 7 children all but one of them were able to make it. They are scattered across the US so it is a rarity to to see all of them. But once again we didn't get to stay long because we had a ballgame at 4 back in WDM. We rushed home to get changed for that and were at the ball field by 3:30. It was our last game of the season, so we had a little closing ceremonies event after the game. We had a fun season, and are planning to have a pizza party next week with our boys from the team and their families. Hopefully everyone will be able to make it. Since we had been gone the ENTIRE day my husband decided it would be great to have a small get together at our home, of course this had to be the night of a UFC pay per view event that absolutely could not be missed. I'm thinking Shawn may need to sign up for UFC anonymous. If anyone knows how to enroll a loved one let me know. The good news is we made it through the day and got to bed around 12:30....UGH!

The Boys of Summer

The boys and I finally got our pool pass last Wednesday and headed out to Valley View Aquatic Center. It was packed, mostly because Holiday was still closed because of the huge leak. Luckily I was in charge of the camera so I got to take the photos, instead of the reverse. I would have to say swimming suit season is one of my least favorite. We had fun, but got fried! I was pretty red and so was Cale. Colby of course was tan the next morning, which was me pre-kids. Oh the lovely ways our body changes when we become Mommies.

Helping Dad

A couple of weekends ago there was a huge trend throughout our neighborhood. About 10 different houses had trees trimmed or removed by a company that was working in the area.

Not my boys, they took to it like real men. The boys had such fun playing in the brush after it was all cut down. Of course it was the perfect camo hide for spying on others. They were so sad when we had the company come by and pick them up for chipping. I was always kind of a fun sponge.

Hello..hello.hello is anyone there

I have been so bad these past weeks with my blogging. It seems like just seems to slip away....I will try to be better.

Great Quote....

There has been a recent trend in some of the blogs I read regularly involving great quotes, so I had to add a funny one I heard today. I'm cleaning up in the living room this afternoon and Cale is going out the back door, he hollers at me "See you later, Gatorade" then corrects himself "See you later, Alligator". I think I prefer the new version. So for now--SEE YOU LATER GATORADE!

Mini Me....

This picture of Cale and Papa (Shorty is Shawn's Dad) was taken this last weekend at a graduation party for a cousin. Cale is soooooooooooo a mini me of his Papa.

Happy Last Day of 1st Grade!

I made a cute cake to celebrate the last day of 1st grade for Colby. Last week when I was reading the Family Fun magazine they had five super cute cake recipes and I thought this was a great chance to try one out. It turned out pretty nice, if I don't say so myself. :)

Wrestling Camp

Colby's first day of summer vacation was yesterday, and he started a week long wrestling camp at Valley High School. So today was the second day, he seems to be enjoying it, which his Uncle Brad is soooo excited about. I wasn't sure what he would think since he has never had any experience with it. It just lasts a couple of hours in the morning so its not too long that they lose interest, but long enough that Cale and I have been able to run errands here and there while he is at camp. Everybody is happy. Welcome to SUMMER!

HUGE Sale at Victoria's Secret!

My neighbor Michele called me this morning to alert me to a big sale at Victoria's Secret. All of the bath items (shower gels, lotions, body splashes, etc) are on sale 10 for $35.00. WOW! That is amazing. So I headed over there with Sheila and we got some great items. I picked up quite a few things for gifts for Colby's teachers, and some for myself since I had gotten the gift card to Jordan Creek for my birthday. I love that stuff and at that price who could pass it up. I guess they are doing a repackaging so they are trying to move out all of the old line, whatever the reason, I'm in!

I'm In Love...

I have been so taken by my newest love that I find it hard to find time to blog. Okay so its my new vacuum, sad I know..... I finally bit it and bought the Dyson that I have been wanting. I got the
DC14 Total Clean that is available through Sam's Club. When I got it home I took out the old vacuum, less than a year old, vacuumed the carpet, then vacuumed again with the Dyson. I was horrified. I couldn't believe what it picked up. So since last week when I got it I find myself vacuuming (ALOT), which is a necessity with two boys and a dog., and its still doing an amazing job. I am totally impressed and totally in love.