A Peek at Presley's Scrapbook

I have been meaning to post some pics of some of the pages that I have done on Presley and Evie's scrapbooks. They turned 1 in November and of course, I waited to the last minute to start so I barely made a dent in the pictures that I have. I worked my butt off trying to even get this much done. Somehow though with working full time, being a mommy, and dealing with my husband's crazy hours, I got some done but I was one tired gal. In fact, I haven't scrapbooked since! I will start again though. I just reorganized all my things. So here is some of Presley's book.

Just one of life's lessons....

This new year has already taught me a very important lesson: some things are beyond our control. You hear about kids getting sick all the time, but when I was told of a child I know that has been recently diagnosed with a sickness, a sickness that has no causes, a sickness that requires great medical care and attention, my heart broke. I instantly pictured this sweet child's face and the pain that he had to undergo. I pictured his parents and thought about how their world just came crashing down around them. I thought of my own kids and said a prayer, thanking God that they are healthy. I can't even imagine what this family is going through. I can't even imagine the road that is ahead of them. And then suddenly all those small things that we complain about and think is unfair, don't even matter anymore. You can't help but wonder why? Why did this happen? Why to this child? All these unanswered questions seem unfair too. Some things are just beyond our control and all we can do is hope for the best. You have to put aside other things and just have faith. My thoughts are prayers go out to this family and I hope that the road that they are about to go down can be just a little easier with hope and faith. Please pray for sick kids everywhere. No one deserves to go through this kind of event, especially a child. Hug your kids tight and be thankful that they are healthy too. I know I will.

A New Year with New Changes

Happy New Year!

While 2010 was full of surprises and greatness, I am hoping that 2011 will bring even greater joy and happiness for my family and myself. Every year I set some goals and then think about them and say to myself "yeah, I'll start that soon." This year I need to take more action into getting things in place. I have lots of things I would like to accomplish or start but where to begin. Here are some things I think I might start with.

*Be Healthier.

Granted I just quit the gym because I can't find the time to go, there are other ways I can try to get into shape. There are plenty of exercise DVD's out there and some things you can buy for the Wii so that can get me started. I also can try to eat healthier too now that the holidays are over. But one thing I don't want to give up is the one morning a week I stop at Panera for breakfast because I don't have to take the kids to the sitters that day and I am in love with their breakfast sandwiches. Yum!

*Be Money Smart.

Sure, I have no problem spending money like it's going out of style but let's face it, I am not rich! There are always things that I can find to buy but I need to start sticking to the basics now that the holidays are over. I also need to clip and find more coupons and start using those. I have buy lots of generic brand items now, including diapers, so I figure that's a start. But sometimes when it comes to other things, I have champagne taste on a beer budget. And I know I really need to start saving for college for my kids. Putting 3 kids through college isn't going to be easy! Here's to winning the lottery!

*A Different Path?

In todays' economy, I am thankful I have a job, don't get me wrong....but is this what I want to do for the next 30 years? Some days I am not so sure. I like the fact that I have summers off and I work with some of the greatest people on earth but......I can also picture myself doing other things like scrapbooking or writing. We'll see. I've looked into some things but this will need some more consideration. Ideally, I would love to be home with my kids and do all that. I know that it would be hard too but there is so much more I could do with them like take them to storytime, drop Gracie off at school, and have playdates. Trouble is when you have younger kids as I do, most programs for this age group are offered during the day so it makes it hard to do these kinds of things with them. We'll see where this year takes me.

*Stay Organized

I already try to do this but it can be hard at times. I know I complain a lot about my little teeny-tiny home but unless you live it, it's hard. Making 2 bedrooms work for 5 people is harder than you would think. There is less room to put things like clothes so I have to be creative in that aspect. As far as toys and things, I try but more needs to be done. I need more bins to store stuff and shelving units wouldn't be a bad idea either but where should I put them is the problem. It is like my friends call my classroom, "an orgainzed mess." But it goes beyond storing things too. For example, I would like to have my pictures organized on my computer and order them every month and not wait until I have like 900 pictures to order and then have to pay a bajillion dollars.

*Decorate!

My house may be for sale but let's face it....no one's really lining up to see this place so I would like to make a few minor changes to it. For instance, the girls' room. The wallpaper from when Gracie was a baby is still up! It has abc's and animals on it but yet the girls have pretty flowery sheets and comforters. I want it to match more! Plus last year, my husband painted our room a neutral color but guess what? To me, it looks peach! Yuck! If I have to live in it, let's at least go with a tan then. I'm also working on turing the basement into a playroom. I have some things I would like to put on the wall to make it more kid-friendly.

***Sell this house and buy a new one!

So my house has been for sale for nearly a year and half now. I know.....sad right. How many showings have we had? Hmm, let's see...like 4. Granted our asking price is on the higher side for a townhome right now but that's because we want to stay somewhere where can break even. If we can save more money, we can hopefully lower the price. There have been a couple of foreclosures on our street so that doesn't help either. I have decided to take matters into my own hands and I have the names of some highly recommended realtors so I plan on calling them. I know the housing market isn't great but there's gotta be somebody out there destined to buy this baby. Sometimes I feel like I live in a college dorm room; it's cramped, cluttered, and I even have a roommate....my son! Poor Bubby. Someday he will hopefully have his own room!

So there you go. My list of things I plan to work on this year. Let's see if I can do it. Some things are more important than others but hopefully I can move in the right direction with some of things goals. Do they sound crazy to you? What are your New Year's resolutions?

Tangled at the Museum

If there's one thing I love most about this time of year, it's not only Christmas, but Christmas break. Ahh, 2 glorious weeks off of work. It's been fun spending more time with my kids and doing fun things adn going fun places. Apparently though, lots of other people have the same idea. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and it was crowded! Like way crowded! It got to the point that I just wanted to start running people over with my stroller. I know I have a double-wide stroller but c'mon people...watch where you are walking and if you see the double-wide coming, could you move over like a couple of inches or hold a door?

Anyways, despite the crowded museum, we still had fun.

Every year they have all these Christmas trees set up from around the world. It's really pretty.

And they have a big tree in the rotunda.

We went and saw the farm exhibit and the kids had fun sitting in the big wheel. And petting the cow.
And driving the big tractor.Then we went and saw the circus. We had fun looking at the model circus and making funny faces in those silly mirrors. We had fun clowning around. My animal-lover Gracie, liked the elephant best of all. Or maybe it was the tigers. We had fun looking at all the trains too. Evie and Presley had fun despite being stuck in the stroller. We would let Evie get out and wander around but you you had to be quick because that's exactly what she is. One turn away and that baby girl is gone! We went and saw the baby chicks too. One little chick came right over to Gracie to say hello. The kids snacked as we walked around. Evie could not get enough goldfish. In fact, she was trying to take her big sister's. One of the new exhibits they have is Muppets. Although we didn't go, because you had to buy extra tickets, they had cute posters hanging up promoting it like this one. Grandpa had fun with carrying Presley boy around and showing him all this new stuff! Thankfully my family came with to help. I can't go many places with these 3 by myself. I wanted to check out the weather storms exhibit. It was really neat as they simulated all kinds of weather including this tornado. And Gracie couldn't stop staring at the "Polar Express" train. This may have been her favorite part. Or it could have been pretending to be the conductor and engineer. After naps later, we took Gracie to see Tangled. It was such a cute movie and she didn really well sitting throught the whole thing. For her second time to the movies, she had fun munching on Teddy Grahams and M&M's. A fabulous day of family fun!

Dilly Dally at the Doc's

I decided to call the pediatration today because Presley has had a runny nose and a cough and then yesterday little Evie got a runny nose too. We got in and thankfully no one had any temp but the babies needed to strip down and get a weight check anyways. Presley weighed in at 23 pounds 12 ounces and Evie was 18 pounds 5 ounces. Both babies ended up only having some sort of virus going around and needed no antibiodic. So what do you think? Do you think these look like 2 little sick kiddos to you?

Zoo Lights!

Last night we journeyed to Brookfield Zoo for the Zoo Lights!

It was cold but the lights were very pretty. They really go all out.

They had all kinds of special hoilday activities like this train. The merry-go-round was open too. It's different to see everyone riding it all bundled up and usually when we go to the zoo, it's nice and everyone is dressed for hot weather. Oh well, Gracie still had fun despite being in her snow suit. She rode her favorite, the panda bear. Here's the gang all bundled up. It's a good thing the zoo was selling hot toddies! On our way to see the bears, we stopped to play in the sleigh.

The real polar bears were actually sleeping in the snow. The brown bears were inside a cozy hay-filled area sleeping. And then the usual photo spot, was all wintry with winter animals. Gracie had fun posing as a polar bear, a wolf, her favorite as of last night. I think it's due parital to the Polar Express movie but we did see the wolves out and about and even bought a mini one. She also pretended to be a bear. Then after seeing some animals, we went back to the merry-go-round to ride.....the new favorite animal of the day, the wolf! If you can brave the cold temps, the zoo really is neat to see with the lights. I think it goes on through this week. You can't see all the animals you normally would during the summer, but it is still a great family fun outing.