Happy New Years!

It is hard to believe that it is New Years Eve already. So much has happened in the past year and I am ready for a new year. We had a nice Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Eric's family, the guys made dinner (yummy) the kids played and it was nice. There was an undertone of sadness, especially when we opened up the ornaments that Judy had bought for everyone before she passed away. I am glad that we kept with the tradidition of spending Christmas Eve together though.

Eric had to work until 11am on Christmas Day so it was just me and the girls until he got home. They played with their gifts from Santa (which took "Santa" 2 hours to put together) and opened stockings while we waited for Daddy. After nap time (for everyone) we went over to my parent's house for more gifts and dinner.  The girls passed out presents (with help from Grandma and Aunt Kendra) and we all had a nice day.

The decorations are now all put away (early for me, I know) and I am ready for a fresh new year to begin. Starting with a get together at Mom and Dad's tonight. Billy is bringing over the Karaoke setup (he does professional Karaoke at a couple of bars in town) and there will be a ton of food. I am sure that there will be pictures taken as well. Have a safe and happy New Years!

Day 3

We are on Day 3 of no power. We are blessed that both my parents and Eric's Dad do have power so we have had someplace warm to sleep. Amanda and Billy, my grandparents, and Sarah and Monty all lost power as well. I know that grandma and grandpa's came back on Tuesday night, and Sarah and Monty had power yesterday. I am not sure about Amanda and Billy, but they have a generator so they are set. So please pray to the Westar powers that be that we get power today. I am extremely grateful that we have family willing to share their homes with us, but I really need to sleep in my own bed tonight!

So that is the update from Kansas. We are all safe and warm, but ready to go home.

Breakfast with Santa

We had breakfast with Santa yesterday at church, and the girls did pretty good. Megan had no problem sitting on Santa's lap. She asked for a Barbie house and a Barbie car, and told Santa that Lauren wanted a chair of her own. A couple of years ago Santa brought Megan her own chair (PBKids Anywhere Chair) and she is tired of sharing it with Lauren. All on her own, Megan decided that Lauren needed to ask Santa to bring her her own chair. As you can see in the picture, Lauren was not thrilled to sit on Santa's lap. There are a couple more pictures of the girls with Santa in the December photo album. Yes, I actually updated pictures!

Not a happy Thanksgiving

I am sorry that I have not posted in here this month. The first week of the month I was out of town on business. Shortly after I returned Eric's Mom had a heart attack and went into the hospital. After a week in and out of ICU she passed away on Friday, November 23. We buried her this past Wednesday and are trying to get some sense of normalcy back. I did not realize just how hard it was to say goodbye to a loved one, but we are all doing ok. The kids are young enough not to understand, however this is both a good thing and a bad thing. I am glad that they are not experiencing the pain and sadness that the adults are, but because they are so young they will not remember how much their grandmother loved them. Of course we will tell them about her, and we have pictures of her as well. I just wish that I had sat down with her and asked her questions so that I could tell her story (or at least a small part of it) in our family scrapbooks. Sarah, Eric and Dwayne may be able to fill in some of the gaps, but it will not be the same. This does encourage me to sit down with my Grandparents and parents to get their story down. You just never know when you will lose someone that you love.

Ok, hopefully my next post will have happy stuff in it. I have some pictures from my weekend visiting Mary, and some cute pictures of the girls that I need to get off of my camera.

New Pictures

There is a new folder of pictures on the right. October 2007 pics have been resized and updated.

We had a decent weekend. Eric and the girls found a kitten down at the park, so we now have a new family member. She still does not have a name though!  She is between 6 and 8 weeks old and is very sweet and playful. She gets along great with Scout, but Shadow still isn't so sure about this intruder.

We carved pumpkins this week and almost all of Mom's grandkids were there. Scott and Gabby came over, and so did Emily and Justin. The only ones missing were Ariana, Avery and Aiden. They may be coming up for Thanksgiving though so that will be nice.

Ok, gotta get back to work!

The countdown is on!!!

Only 2 more months until Christmas! I know.. I am one of THOSE people. You know, the ones who start listening to holiday music on Nov 1st, who already have started their Christmas shopping/ planning, and who can't wait until the day after Thanksgiving... not to shop, but to put out the Christmas decorations!

Ok, enough Christmas talk for now. I have some pictures to post, but have been super busy and still need to resize them. I will get them up soon, I promise!

Digital Scrapbooking

I was playing around with Adobe Photoshop Elements (Trial version... I want the full one!) and made my first digital layout! I like it, but I am not ready to give up my paper supplies yet.

It was actually pretty easy, but I can see how buying the digital elements can add up just as much as the paper supplies! These were free from twopeasinabucket.com by Rhonda Farrer. I love the green!

In other news, Marin Rose was baptised on Sunday. I have pictures but haven't downloaded them off of the camera yet. Lunch is almost over... gotta get back to work!

I'm going pink

Last week was super busy, so I did not have time to post... but I had a nice birthday. Dinner at Mom and Dad's on Sunday was nice, but we got home to find that Megan had aquired chicken pox. Luckily it was a pretty mild case and she is all better now. We still are not sure if Lauren actually got the chicken pox, she only had 2 spots that looked like the pox, and neither was on her torso. Eric took the week off to stay home with the girls and overall they had a nice week. Eric made me yummy chicken marsala on my birthday, and then on Saturday we celebrated at Dwayne and Judy's house.

This weekend is Marin's baptism, but other than that I think that we will just hang out at home. I want to get working on some Christmas gifts (yeah I know... a little early but I love the holidays!) I need to get my craft room cleaned up and get started... I have so many projects in mind!

I have changed the blog colors to reflect Breast Cancer Awareness Month... any excuse to use pink!!

5 years ago today...

Today Eric and I have been married for 5 years. Sometimes it feels like so much longer (in a good way though), and at the same time I can't believe that it has been that long! I am lucky though. I married my best friend, and he is an amazing father. We get along with each other's families, and these have truely been the best five years of my life.

So tonight we will  have dinner at The Raphael, where we had dinner on our wedding night and where we have celebrated every anniversary since.

We will take a walk around the plaza and enjoy a kid free evening (Thank you Judy!!!)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Pink!

As most everyone knows, my most favorite color is pink. This is one of the reasons that I love October so much! October is breast cancer awareness month, so lots of retailers sell pink stuff with some of the proceeds going to various cancer related charities.

So of course when I saw this I was in love! I would totally vacuum more if I had a pink vacuum cleaner! Too bad it is $400... and I do not think that Dave (Ramsey) would consider a vacuum cleaner an emergency (especially since there is nothing wrong with the one we have now... except that I really don't like it!). Do you think that Eric would mind a pink vacuum cleaner?

Isn't it adorable?!?!

Another quiet weekend

I was travelling for work last week and got in on Saturday, so we had a quiet weekend. Did some grocery shopping, some cleaning, completed Baby Step #1 (Dave Ramsey Plan). I finished another Master's course with an A. Next is Marketing which starts on 1 Oct. Only another year and a half to go until I will have my masters! We should finish Baby Step #2 (Dave Ramsey Plan) around the same time as I complete my MBA. Talk about a party!

Megan changed herself after an accident, and decided that the capelet should be worn as a skirt instead.

Then Lauren wanted her picture taken too! There are a couple more pictures in the Sept Album.Today is Amanda's Birthday, so we are having yummy enchiladas for dinner at Mom and Dad's. There is nothing else really planned for the week. We live such a boring life sometimes! 

September already???

I don't know about everyone else, but I can not believe that it is September already! I love fall. I love the colors, the weather, the decorations that I put up... but I still can't believe that fall is right around the corner!

We had a nice visit with Jen last week. I am so glad that she was able to come to Kansas for a visit before having the baby. Probably the last time she gets to come out for a long while. We threw a mini baby shower for her, I just need to get the pictures off of my camera!

If you haven't read it yet, you need to read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. This book has completely changed the way that Eric and I view our finances, and because of this book (and Dave's radio show that you can listen to online) we are on our way to becoming debt free. I have added the XML feed from Dave's site to my blog (bottom item in the column to the right). I am trying to figure out how to add one of his graphics as well to link to the site. You can order the book on his website, or just read what he has up there for free. Our local library had his book as well. www.DaveRamsey.com

Megan's Birthday Party

Megan had an amazing birthday party. She received a ton of gifts, and was surrounded by friends and family. The best part of her birthday (for me atleast) was the cake. My Mom and Amanda (little sister) made Megan a beautiful cake.  A castle cake fit for a princess.

The kids played on the playset, we went swimming, and then when Papa got home from work we did cake and presents. The weather was perfect and the rain from the previous day cooled the pool off enough for it to be comfortable.

The kids were all very well behaved and everyone enjoyed themselves.

I can't believe that she is 3 already!!!

My baby is almost 3...

  I decided to post some of my favorite pictures of Megan in honor of her birthday on Saturday. I can not believe how fast she is growing up!!

It's a Boy!!!

My oldest friend Jennifer (not chronologically oldest, but the one that I have known the longest) is having a boy!!! She has always wanted boys, for as long as I can remember she wanted all boys. I am so happy for her. I am even happier that I get to see her this weekend. She is coming to visit me, Kelly and Karen, and my family of course.

This will be a busy weekend. Megan will be 3 on Saturday (still hard to believe that my baby girl is almost 3!) and Jen comes in Saturday night. Laurie is supposed to be in town with her fiancee Chris, who I have not yet met, so that will be fun too!

I just got done reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Man is this guy smart. I highly recommend this book to everyone. Eric and I have talked about it and we are going to follow his program, so no more expensive dinners out for a while (except for our anniversary of course).

Oh, and I have officially lost 30 lbs! Last week I got under 150, and today I was at 149 which is 30 lbs less than I started at. It feels wonderful, I have not been this small since my wedding. What is amusing is when I look back 5 years (the last time I was this size) I hated my body and thought that I was fat. Now I am so thrilled with my body. Yes, it could be tons (well, 20 lbs) smaller, but compared to where I was a year ago this is fabulous!

Ok, I think that is all that I have to update. We had an unremarkable weekend and I did not even take my camera out of it's case so I don't have any new pictures to share. I will make up for it next weekend with birthday pictures I am sure!

Megan "snoring"

This is a cute video clip of Megan pretending to sleep/ snore.

Megan's new glasses..

Don't you hate it when you have something all typed out and then you close the wrong window??? Ok, let me start over!

   We picked up Megan's new glasses on Saturday. She has done great with them so far, only trying to take them off a couple of times.

I am so glad that we have had her wear sunglasses for so long now, it really made the whole process easier for all of us. Now if we can only get Lauren to not pull on Megan's glasses!

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. We had the last Starlight show of the season on Saturday. I really think that they could have ended the season on a more positive note than West Side Story. It was good, but if we didn't have season tickets I would not have gone.

Yesterday we took the girls swimming before lunch, and that is definitly the time to go. Before it gets real hot outside and before naps. Sarah brought Alana over to swim as well, and she is getting real good! We need to get Megan into some swim lessons next year.

Yesterday was also Grandma G's birthday. Megan and I went over after dinner to help celebrate (it was past Eric and Lauren's bedtime) and I am glad that we went. I love seeing my children interact with my parents and grandparents. Everyone got to see her new glasses, and she even got to help Grandma blow out her candles!

Well, before I go I have to post a picture of Lauren. Dad, I finally got a good pic of the scrunched up smile!

I have such cute kids!

School Supplies

I never realized that so many parents resent having to buy school supplies until reading a couple of threads on a message board about it. Now, my kids are not old enough for me to worry about this yet, but I opened the thread anyways to see what the big deal was. I was completely in shock. If Megan were sent home with a school supply list, I may raise an eyebrow at the amount of items to be bought, but I would not think to question it or to not buy it. Apparently there are some parents who know better than their kids teachers what supplies will be used throughout the school year and just choose not to buy the items.

One poster had the best response. These teachers are being entrusted with our most prized possessions for 8 hrs a day. Wouldn't you want to make their job as easy as possible? Teachers do not get paid enough as it is, and already purchase supplies out of pocket to cover what the school board does not cover. Just buy the supplies that they ask for, and give them a gift card to an office supply store for Christmas. They really do not need another "apple" themed gift.

Ok.. I just had to get that out!

Our Weekend

We had a nice, but busy, weekend. Saturday we spent the morning running errands.  Megan was in big girl panties all day with NO accidents... I think we are almost potty trained!

When we were at the mall she looked at me and said "The mall makes me so happy" with this big grin on her face. Lord are we in trouble!

Saturday night Amanda and Billy had their housewarming. I decorated a wine bottle holder (Creative Imaginations) but forgot to take a picture! It was cute though. Their party was a success, and their house is coming along great.

Sunday we had a birthday party for Gabrielle. Of course I forgot my camera so there are no pictures. Everyone swam, ate cake, and had a good time. I can not believe that Gabby is 9 already! That means Scott is almost 11. Considering that they are my younger brothers kids... I feel old!

Sunday evening I cleaned the basement. For those that have been in my house lately know what a task that was. It still needs shampooed, but at least you can walk through it now without stepping over something. The back of the pathfinder is full of stuff for the DAV, and I have a bag of clothes for Marin and another for Amanda.  I even vacuumed the stairs!

Megan and the eye doctor

Megan had her first eye appt today, and she needs glasses. The doc said that she has a form of lazy eye, caused by being far sighted. So we are going to get glasses and she will have to wear them all day, every day, no exeptions.  Since she is used to wearing sunglasses we are hoping that she will be ok with the glasses.

Ok, I think that I am getting the hang of this. To make a comment click on the word "comments" under the relevant post and it will bring up a text box.

Albums

I am going to try and get some of the recent albums loaded up here, but probably not all of them. So be patient Dad and Eric!

I have a new blog!

I have decided, after months of reading other people's blogs and the hassle of dealing with my website that is only viewed by family, that I was going to switch from my own website to a typepad blog. So here I am! I will still post family pictures, my scrapbooking, and other tidbits about my family. I hope that by using this it will be easier for me to update, and therefore be kept up to date. I guess we will see how that goes!

For the random person who may find this blog, here is a little about me. My name is Kelly, and I am a 30 yr old Mom, Wife, Consultant, Scrapbooker, Sister, Daughter and Friend. My goal is to use this blog to keep in touch with friends, and keep everyone up to date on family news. I am not a great or inspiring writer, but I take lots of pictures!

Here is our latest family picture.