Sea World

On Friday my friend Danielle and I took the kids to Sea World. We surprised Maddie and Shelby by taking them out of school early then telling them we were off to Sea World.

Maddie, River, Morgan, Shelby, and June

June loved the Beluga Whales. She just stood glued to the glass and watched them swim by. They were fun to watch because this one would keep swimming by then turn around and come right back.

The kids loved the star fish. Shelby did not like to touch them but River on the other hand, I thought he was going to go swimming with them. He was pretty much diving in to get them, he wanted to hold every one.


June thought the Shamu show was fantastic. She laughed out loud and clapped the whole time.

She had a long day and did not take any naps but at the end she was still smiling! We all had a fun time and we get the rest of the year for free so we will be going back often!

Catching Up

A couple of weeks ago Shelby and Jacob went to her schools "Daddy/Daughter dance". They had so much fun it was a 50's sock hop. Jacob came home the winner of the hula hooping contest!

Shelby had a whole different attitude with this poddle skirt on, I have never seen a 5 year old shake her hips so much every time she walked!

Shelby taking a picture with the hula hoop champ!

After the 50's dance Shelby has found a new love... her hula hoop. I have never seen her practice so hard and after only 2 days she got it down! She hula hoops all day. She can now hula hoop for several minutes at a time, double hula hoop, walking hula hoop, and now running hula hooping!



River and Jacob when we were out at dinner one night, he looks so much older to me lately.

When my camera was out at dinner River asked for me to take his picture of his "pout" face. He wanted to see what he looked liked while he was pouting, so this picture was him posing for his bad mood look.

Shelby's fake "pout". My kids sure are talented being able to pout on demand, and Shelby can even cry on demand too. I think maybe its all the practicing they do.

This has been my hair color for some time now. So this is before...

and this is after.

Baby June is growing so fast. She has such an attitude lately, she knows what she wants and when she wants it! She likes to do everything on her own, she wont even let me feed her at all anymore. She thinks its so fun to play with Shelby and River and tries so hard to keep up with them. It's funny to watch her and River roll on the floor together because, no joke, she is almost the same size as him. I'm not kidding, June is 10 months 20lbs, River is 27lbs at 3 1/2 years.

Just new pictures of the kids!

Baby June is every where! She crawls all over the place and pulls herself up on anything. She is nine months old, has two teeth with two more on the way, her hair is getting more and more red everyday and her little personality is getting bigger and bigger everyday too. She is a happy baby, most the time and as long as I am still in the room with her, and she is starting to know what she wants and if you don't give it to her she will let you know with a yell and she will attempt to bite you if she can!


River is my little dare devil lately. He likes to jump off the stairs, from the top step all the way to the bottom! I'm just waiting till we go to the ER for a broken bone. River is doing so well in preschool. He wants to learn to read just like Shelby. And of course you wont see him anywhere with out his sword in his hand, or a stick, gun, or lately Shelby's wand because it does magic!


Shelby is doing great in kindergarten. She is so kind to all the kids, her teacher tells me so many great things about her and how friendly she is to everyone. She is reading really well and loves to write letters and cards to her friends. She is a super sweet little girl but her sassy side still comes out from time to time!

Shelby's first wobbly tooth

When I picked Shelby up from school the other day I noticed her bottom tooth looked a little funny. Sure enough it was very wobbly, so much in fact that it took only a couple of hours until that tooth was out! She sat in the mirror for a while and wiggled it until it was ready. I told her I was just going to "feel" it... I really meant pull it! It only took one pull with a little twist and it was out... I love pulling teeth, it is just fun. Her tooth right next to it is pretty wobbly, just a couple more days until I "feel" that one too.



Shelby and River sat examining the tooth for ever.

Walking in the Rain

Shelby and River think it is so fun to go outside in the rain. Usually I don't allow them to play outside while it is raining, mostly because they get sick so often, but today it was not too cold out so we went for a walk. They thought it was so much fun carrying their own umbrellas and skipping down the street in the rain. I forget sometimes that the simple things, like playing in the rain, brings them so much joy. Just one more thing for me to learn from my kids. I thought I was supposed to be teaching them but they prove over and over I have so much to learn. I love having kids, they make me such a better person, most days anyway.

Project #2

I love January. I always feel inspired to organize my house and make things better than before. I get extra "crafty" this time of year because I have no projects I have to get done for the holidays and usually I don't have much I have to do for others. I know how selfish of me to love the time of year I only do things for myself! Anyway I have been making a list of things I have wanted to re due around my house and I'm doing them, finally! So project #2 was to make my plain curtains that hang in my family room look better. I started with plain tan curtains I got at Ikea some time ago. I would have really liked to just buy new ones that I liked (Target has a ton of really cute ones for a okay price) the problem is I need them 96" long and most places have 84", or something like that. I know the longer ones are out there but I am also, what I like to call "thrifty", others may call cheap and I don't want to spend 80-some dollars on each panel. So here is what I did: I started with these...

Then I got some cute material and sewed it right to the right side of the panel. I also added some brown pipping to make it look not so "homemade."

I also added the same color brown bias tape at the bottom to finish it instead of a seam.

And here is the end result... cute "custom" curtains for really cheap! I also like that they are not all print, I think having only the bottom 1/4 of them printed makes them not to busy. I also want to state that I'm not posting my project for the "look how great I am" result. I am posting them in case you want to do it yourself and posting them makes me not only finish what I started but it gets me excited for what to do next.

River's long over due hair cut

It has been a long time since I gave River a hair cut so the other day I got to it. Everything went well until at the end I combed it the wrong way according to him and then it was sudden tears and crying. I quickly combed it back and then he was fine with it. He is very picky about his hair and clothes, if it is not what he wants he lets you know.