Happy Memorial Day!

Matt is officially on vacation and we are up in the Dells at the Wilderness Resort water park hotel having a blast! My sister cam up with us to help with the kids, so Matt and I could have some fun too (the last two times we have been at water park hotels I was pregnant with each of the kids!).
Anyway here are some pictures from today!

Bye Bye Long Hair

Matt took Logan to get his hair cut today, something that usually involves much crying and freaking out, but not this time, he sat in the police car (usually he's on one of our laps) and watched Spongebob while the lady cut his hair, Matt said he got a little squirmy at the end, but she was even able to use the buzzer on his sides something we haven't been able to use on him since his first haircut at 12 months. Big step for him and we are proud, it's like the last of the sensory issues are starting to dissipate now, and we couldn't be happier! Or maybe it's because we never bribed him with a Happy Meal before, should have thought of that sooner I guess...

Bye Bye Long Hair

All Ready For Summer!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Arkansas!

My Grandma and Grandpa are up here from Arkansas for my sisters high school graduation so we headed over to my Mom's for dinner tonight so they could love on their Great-Grandkids, they haven't seen them since Ava's Baptism in November so they were excited I am sure. Logan calls them Grandma and Grandpa Arkansas, he has so many Grandparents and Great-Grandparents that we had to give some distinction to them all.

So Logan has
Grandma and Grandpa Katie (my Mom and Step-Dad, Katie because Aunt Katie lives here LOL)
Grandma and Grandpa Kuma (Matt's parents, Kuma is their dog)
Grandma and Grandpa Daisy (My paternal grandparents, Daisy is their dog)
Grandma Kois (my step-grandma, Kois because that's her last name)
Grandpa (my Dad, no nickname as he lives with us LOL)
then there are Matt's grandparents who live in Florida, if we see them it's only once a year, so they don't have a nickname.
Yes Logan is very lucky to have so many grandparents and great-grandparents, and I grew up with a very close relationship with my grandparents so I am glad Logan and Ava get to do the same.

Anyway, as usual Grandma Arkansas had some goodies for this kids, and Ava got his little number that says "My Heart Belongs To Arkansas" So cute!

TGIF!

Matt is home today, so I got to sleep in a bit and he took Logan to school. When he got back we went on a walk with Ava and hit a garage sale on the way. We got a big digger truck for Logan to play with in his sandbox and we also picked up a sled for next winter...Fun! Matt grabbed us some lunch from our favorite burger place that was featured on Triple D on FoodNetwork, I got my regular burger and tried the 3 way fries which was the Meeks Cheddar cheese, bacon and sour cream...oh my god so flippin good! In other news, Ava is starting to crawl forward a tiny bit, usually just one crawl then she moves to her butt. You can just tell she is so excited about her impending freedom to move! Here she is playing with Logan's old singing chair thing, she pulls up on EVERYTHING now!

and here is Mr. Logan who is due for a hair cut this weekend!

My Future Gymnast

Ava and I went with to Logan's gymnastics class tonight, Logan is doing so well, he moves up to the independent class now so that will interesting, hopefully he will do well there.

Here is Ms. Ava who was having a blast on the beam tonight, I would be lying if I didn't say I hope the gymnast blood runs in her!

Anybody Want Two Crabby Kids?

Logan and Ava were both big o' crabs today and now I am crabby from dealing with them. Logan is still recovering from his sleep over and Grandma's and didn't sleep in as late as I would think he should have this morning and Ava is teething like crazy again, she has at least 4 teeth popping through right now so she is fussy and sleeping like total crap. Just one of those days I guess. I just finished pumping and now have a good glass of wine in hand...ahh.

Ah yes the pumping, I am sad to say that Ava hasn't nursed in two days, she started biting me, and well that hurts like hell and she is just not patient enough to wait for my let down which at this point takes FOREVER. So I am now pumping 100%. I am happy to have made it to almost 8 months and still be nursing her, but I am sad that we don't start our day that way now, something we have done every morning since she was born :<( and well the pumping is just annoying, but I am keeping up at it so she can still get magic mama's milk. I am hell bent on making it to a year this time and it has been so hard, sometimes I really hate my body, but she is healthy and happy so I try not to worry about it to much.

I Really Need New Skates...

So I skated tonight for the first time since the shows (I took a little skating vacation) and it was painful. Spins were fine, good actually, jumps where terrible, timing was all off tonight and my feet were so cramped up in my skates they hurt so bad and now that it is warmer my skates fit even worse and they are just breaking down and now my heel is starting to hurt in them and my ankle is not supported the way it should be I don't want to get hurt. Starting to look into somewhere I can sell my sychro skates that were about $800 dollars with blades. I also have my first pair of competitive skates that I could sell as well, although I won't much for those. New SP-Terri's are going to run in the $400 range, luckily my blades are still in good shape otherwise that would be another $200...sucks huh?

I wish I could find a used pair, but I use SP-Terri's which is a boot used less (most people use Riedells), and I have super wide feet which makes it even harder to find a used pair. I am playing with the idea of going with a cheaper Riedell skate, but my last experience with them was very, very painful, they are so narrow and my wide feet don't appreciate that one bit. However, Riedell has redesigned their boots since I wore them so maybe I could wear one now, but that is a very expensive chance to take and I know I would be fine with a SP-Terri and I know my feet like them, it just the damn cost...boo!

I just want to be able to skate and not be in pain, I want to land my Axel and I need a boot that can support me in doing that. Time to get creative...

Bang.Bang.Bang.Crash.

The roofers finally got our roofs (house and garage) done today,they got behind when we had all the rain and we had all the materials sitting on our front lawn where we now have bunch of dead grass, but I digress...

Matt worked late today so he was home this morning and we headed out for a bit to get away from all the noise. Ava only slept of maybe an hour and a half all day because of the noise so that was no fun and we were stuck inside because of the mess outside. The banging caused our medicine cabinet upstairs to open and dump out a bunch of it's contents in the process breaking my new bathroom cup, and we had some pictures fall of the walls upstairs that luckily didn't break.

Logan was all excited for this sleepover at grandma's tonight so she came and picked up Logan when she got off of work so it's just been me and Ava and she's been asleep pretty much since Logan left at 7:30 so peace and quite for me until Matt gets home!

Ava crawled FORWARD today twice! Time is going way to fast...

Holy Hot Weather!

Man it was a hot day for a garage sale, we only did it for a couple of hours and we ended up making about $100 total for the weekend (a little less if you take away what I spent on clothes and what Logan spent...$1.50 on cars at the garage sale around the corner LOL!) Loving the warm weather though, Logan had fun playing with his water table today and Ava was just the cutest today wearing her Rufflebutts, ruffle tank top and another mommy made headband. So ready to hit the hay now it was a long weekend but very productive!

More Garage Sale & Cute Headbands!

We spent all day outside doing our garage sale, making a bit of cash so that is good. While Ava napped I cleaned out and organized the rest of the garage so I can now fit my new soccer mom mobile in the there (we haven't been able to fit either of our cars in there since winter of '08. I am exhausted now but glad that its done! Last night Matt and I were watching a movie and I made some headbands for Ava, I have a bunch of ideas for headbands and clips maybe I'll try to do an Etsy shop eventually, but I love making her fun girly stuff to wear. Here is Ms. Ava modeling one of her new headbands (lot of compliments on it during the garage sale today).

Garage Sale Score!

I found a garage sale today that had a TON of baby girl clothes and it was all in good shape and name brand stuff...so of course I had to partake in some deals! They had a whole table of just Gymboree stuff so I got some cute, cute stuff for Ava to wear this fall/winter and a couple of things to wear now. I love me some deals! Logan picked out a Leap Frog letter bus, and they both had fun playing with that, and hey for a buck it was worth it.

Here are my cute scores!
Gymboree Overall for 6-12 months so she can wear them now when we have cools days and should fit her into the fall. Price $1

Gymboree Overalls with cute lamb attached for fall/winter $3

Gymboree sweater & pant set for winter $3

Gymboree Shirt for fall/winter $1

Carter's Santa outfit marked .50 cents but he gave it to me for FREE!

Baby Gap sweater for the winter $2

Old Navy jeans for now $1

OshKosh Sweater for winter$1

OshKosh Sweater for winter $1

Vest & pant set for fall/winter $3

Ralph Lauren dress for fall/winter $2


I think it's safe to say that I scored a couple hundred dollars worth of clothes for a whopping $18! Love it!

Boys Are Just Wired To Be Gross...

So today after his typical two or three days of trying to avoid going poop, Logan finally pooped. Given the fact that he usually holds it in a few days, his poops are generally on the larger side and have been known to clog a potty or two....

Today I was playing with Ava in the living room and Logan runs into the bathroom makes his usual hilarious poop sounds and then I hear a very excited voice state. "I did it Mommy, Wow it's a snake!" Oh. My. God. I was cracking up so bad, it's so gross but so funny. I will never know how such a little human can produce such a large, large poop.

Logan spent the remainder of the day letting everyone know about his potty snake...boys.

Zoo Fun and Car Dreams...

We had a very fun day at the zoo with the kids and my mom, it was perfect weather and it wasn't too crowded, and Logan did great with using the potty while we were there, not that I thought it would be a problem but it was something new we haven't done since he was potty trained back in January, but he's a pro, so no problems there. We have a membership now to the zoo so I am sure we will be going a lot this summer. I think Logan is a good age to do the dolphin show, but they are redoing that area and it won't be open until the end of the month again, so I know once that is open we will check it out. It was Ava's second trip to the zoo, the first thought she was 2 months old and it was during Holiday Magic and she was all bundled up and covered up, so really this was the first time she got to see some animals and what not.







So we were all exhausted when we got home, we had dinner and then decided to go look at these two mini vans we saw on line and long, long story short we drove home in my new (to me, it's a 2006) Toyota Sienna XLE! We ended up trading in my Explorer, and while we probably should have sold it on our own, I am glad to just be done with it, I really hate car shopping, and it's even worse with two kids in tow, but the sales guy was actually very patient and accommodating while we tried to navigate buying this car with two crabby kids with us. I really wanted this particular van and it was in our price range and it was a year newer than most others in our price range and it was an XLE (all the bells and whistles) and it's still under warranty and only had one previous owner. Given all that we knew if we didn't go today we wouldn't be able to get down there (it was and hour from where we are, south of Chicago) until sometime next week and we were worried about losing it, so we just went with the kids. Other than Logan melting down when he realized we were not going to go home in mommy's old car, they were pretty good. we didn't get home until 11pm, but I got the car that I really wanted and now we can travel in comfort this summer and we now have a much safer ride for the kiddo's and that's the most important thing!
Here is my new ride!


I will have to read the manual on this puppy though, there are so many options and buttons on this car, the tried to go over them with me but again dealing with the kids I don't remember everything he told me LOL!

Birthday Dinner & NPH What Could Be Better?

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner tonight, Grandma made her yummy lasagna and we did an early birthday celebration for Grandpa's 81st birthday which is tomorrow, but they are heading up to WI tomorrow. We all had fun and Grandma made the best cake ever, it was so yummy! After stuffing ourselves we rushed home to get the kids in bed so we could watch Glee and record LOST. Can't wait for the LOST finale on Sunday!!!! As for Glee...hell ya for NPH (Neil Patrict Harris AKA Doogie ). Love hearing him sing and he is just all around awesome (and my first childhood crush might I add) loved the Dream On duet!

I am off to pack our bags and lunch's for the zoo tomorrow!

I Think She Might Just Stand Up...

and start walking, seriously she really wants to be on the move and today it looked like she was going to just take off...

Productive Weekend

We actually had nothing going on this weekend so we were able to get the yard finished up and get a jump on stuff for the garage sale next weekend, we might actually be able to fit one of our cars in the garage soon...yea it's bad. Once we got the kiddies to bed Matt and I sat outside and had a fire and just relaxed it was a nice cap off to the weekend. Now that the yard is all finished I am sure once the roofers make an appearance (they were suppose to start and then it rained so hopefully this week it will be done finally)

The other side of town had their garage sales this weekend and on Friday after I dropped Logan off at school, Ava and I hit a few of them and we scored a cute Step2 bird sled, which will be perfect this winter for Ava. We put Ava in it out in the yard and Logan had a blast pulling her around the yard and Ava was just giggling away, I'll have to get a picture next time we are outside.

Some One Can Sit Up All By Herself Now....

We were outside today working in the yard and getting stuff ready for our garage sale next weekend and Ava was inside napping (Grandpa was in the house with her) and we had the video monitor on and I went over to look at it when I heard her making noise and she was really close to the camera, Matt thought she was standing, but when I went up to get her I found her sitting like this just looking up at me all proud of herself!