FRIDAY!

I don't really have a big or major topic to write about - but I wanted to write, it's FRIDAY, the weekend is almost here and I'm super pumped about this weekend.

We've got a potential thing going on that I'm hoping will all work out and will provide some major fun and memories for our family over the next several years.

Plus, tomorrow and Sunday should be filled with some memory filling fun as well.  I'm excited.

I'm thrilled to be spending some quality time with these two hooligans as well..

Have a happy weekend folks! :)

A little Catsup errr Catch-up

Going through my endless phone pictures today – I realized that I didn’t post about the Indiana State Fair, our recent trip to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum or just about anything all summer, so today, I give you a little of our last couple of weeks.  Not too sure I’ll go back through the entire summer, but we’ll see….

We visited the Indiana State Fair on August 9^th.  Cooper loves him some farm animals.  He calls the fair the “zoo” because of his love for the animals I guess.  No matter how much I correct him, it’s still the zoo to him.  Sometimes that boy belongs in a zoo!  He got to pet a calf and ride on a pony.  He’s been talking about riding on the pony since last year’s fair when he was still too small, so we figured we’d better let him this year.  He did great and I think we need to find another place to take that boy for a horseback ride!  (Tim – I’m thinking a trip to Brown County is in order this fall!!)

Then there’s my girl.  She had the best time in her stroller that day.  Riding along people watching I guess.  She was all smiles most of the day.  This was the first day she got to sit up like a big girl in the stroller, without the use of the pumpkin seat attachment.  She did great!

Andrew went back to school on August 11^th.  This was him before he left – Cooper misses him like crazy already.  Katy was not having a good time during this photo, but we just had to snap a picture of big brother leaving for his SENIOR year of college!  Yay Bobo!!

The children’s museum was last Wednesday, the 14^th.  My mom brought my nephew Layne up and we took the boys to the museum.  They had a blast.  They loved riding the carousel, with the tractor, in the sand, with the lawn mowers, playing in a tree house, and anything else that was made for them.  These boys are so fun when they are together.  They’re definitely the best of friends!

Last week pictures of Kate.  Sitting in her bumbo smiling, sitting in the high chair smiling.  She’s just a happy baby and I kinda like that!

If anyone tries to tell me babies develop personalities as they grow, I’ll probably show them these pictures to prove them wrong.  They have personalities as soon as they are born!  This little girl can only sleep on her left side, in a bouncy seat, with her face half way dug into the seat with her pacifier in.  She falls right to sleep in this position.  I just hope the bouncy seat will hold her awhile longer, because I’m not ready to deal with the fight of moving her to her crib on her back quite yet…….  I took these pictures on Sunday night just so that I could show the babysitter how to get her to take a nap.

Last, but not least, these are my babies from last night.  They really are my heart!

Vacation: Leg #1 Camping

There will be three legs to this vacation.  And some legs may be broken up into different parts.  That I haven’t decided yet.  I’ll have to go through pictures before I can say for sure. 

We first went camping with my mom, her husband Shawn, and my brother and his family.  It was a good time.  It was very hot, so I was glad we got to go on the boat, because the water gave us much needed relief from the heat. 

The first day my brother’s fam wasn’t there except for my nephew Layne.  I was glad he was there so he and Cooper could play together.  The boys don’t get to do that nearly as often as we would like. 

But first, there was baseball playing with Nana.  Cooper is OBSESSED  with baseball.  From the moment he wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed at night, it’s baseball this, baseball that, so as soon as we got there, he decided it was time to play baseball with his Nana.  Layne sat back and watched the fun.

Once we got camp setup, we took the boys for a walk.  We didn’t quite know where we were headed we just wanted to walk, so off we went, and stumbled upon a beach.  The boys played in the water, splashed their Nana and had a good time.

The next two days after my brother arrived, we went boating and played and ate way too much.  It was a good time.  I haven’t been in a lake or an inner tube in a long time.  Great fun!  Cooper had a great time driving the boat.  One downside, when Mom, Larissa, Casey and I were out in the inner tube, we flipped it over and my Mom lost her glasses.  She got stuck wearing mine the rest of the trip.  On the bright side, she had just ordered those, and she didn’t really like them much, so she got to order new ones.  I guess the glass is half full.

Cornhole, beer, food, motorized cars, and Charlie Brown on the iPad.  What else could we all ask for?!? 

It was a great long weekend to start our vacation.  We headed home Saturday evening and had to get packed for vacation #2: STL.  I’ll start working on that post soon.  Have a lovely day!

Weekend Review

Happy Tuesday folks!  I’m wrapping up our weekend today, because it was such a good one, it took me a day to recover and get back to the blogging world.

Friday night we didn’t do a whole lot, which was nice.  Played with Cooper and hung around with Andrew some. 

Saturday morning we slept in a bit, then Cooper and I got ready to head south to visit with family.  The little man and me were going to a picnic with Dad, his ladyfriend Gwen and dad’s side of the family and Gwen’s family.  We got to see my grandpa and my Kieran (my step-grandma who is the only grandma I’ve ever known on my dad’s side of the family).  They are a hoot and I just treasure time with them.   It was a lot of fun.  Cooper and Layne played a lot – those boys are just too cute together.  We had lots of good food, fun and chasing after two little boys.  Here are several pictures.



Look at those cheeks,  he was pretty hot!




Layne loves his sunglasses!





My pretty niece, Larissa.




Cute Boys!





My Dad helping to balance out the teeter totter.



After the picnic, I took Layne, Larissa and Cooper to my Mom’s house.  We were all spending the night there – the kids had a great time playing together as usual.  They were really sweaty by the end of the night, so Layne and Cooper got in the bathtub together.  Nana always spoils them rotten.

Now these next couple of pictures crack me up.  Larissa and Layne sleep in the same bed while at Nana's and check them out.....  Notice anything???

My first question is.... Where Larissa?  Then.... why is Layne laying against the wall like that???  Well, we'll never know, but when we had decided to head to bed a couple of hours after the kids, we were checking in on these two and this is what we found.  I took the pictures with my phone, so they are crappy iphone flash quality, but goodness, these silly kids.

Sunday morning was Week 1: Day 3 of my couch to 5k.  I tried doing it on my mom’s treadmill, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t make it work well, so I hit the pavement.  The gravel pavement out in the boonies….  Did I mention the HILLY gravel pavement???  No, well it was, hilly.  But…. I made it, I survived and I was darn proud of myself.

After that, I was texting back and forth with Tim, so Cooper and I decided to send him a picture of us.  I curled my hair with my mom's skinny flat iron.  I got the idea from Mama Laughlin and had wanted to try it, but not spend the money on a smaller flat iron until I knew I would like it.....  Well, now I have something else to go buy, cause I loved it!

Sunday was my brother’s birthday, so we had a luncheon to celebrate.  My SIL’s birthday is the 24^th, so we celebrated her birthday too.  They shared one cake though, because they are both doing weight watchers and really wanted to not over-indulge.  We had a lot of fun.  Eating, kids playing, and then Craig and Shawn got their remote controlled trucks out.  It was pretty cool to see how much these trucks can handle; they were flipping them and crashing them like crazy.  They go superfast too.  Made me want one, lol…..  My grandma made it over for cake and ice cream too.  It was so good to see her.  I just love my grandparents so much.  I am so lucky to have them.

Here are more pictures of playing on Sunday, the birthdays and some poses... 

Me, Grandma and Mom

Craig with his car remote.

Shawn, Mom and Coop

Hope you enjoyed my weekend photos.  It was a good one, that is until I had to return home to laundry, cleaning and the dreaded work on Monday.... UGH.

It's almost humpday!  Yippie!! 

Progress Report: 2012 Goals

I posted at the beginning of the year about having goals for this year.  And since it’s nearly the 6^th month of the year, I want to do a check in on these goals.  So here goes….

{1}  Lose Weight & Get Healthy.  – The day I wrote that this was a goal for 2012, I had no idea what that would entail for me.  I knew I was starting Weight Watchers.  I knew I wanted to start exercising again.  But, I had no idea what that really meant at the time.  Now, I do.  I’ve lost 33.9 pounds since January 1, 2012.  I exercise at least 5 days per week, a lot of weeks I exercise 6 days.  I mostly just walk, around 4mph and I do it normally for an hour, but sometimes I do the elliptical and sometimes I bicycle and sometimes I jog.  I really miss days when I don’t exercise.  But I know my body needs rest, so I take some breaks.  Today, I will probably not exercise at all.  My foot is still hurting.  Same pain from before.  I’ve had 3 cortisone injections which didn’t work, and so now I’m having the nerve in my foot deadened.  This procedure is done with an alcohol based solution and I have injections done weekly for 7 weeks (to start) to deadened the nerve and stop my pain.  This week is week 2, injection #2 today.  So back to the goal.  I’m losing weight and I’m getting healthier.  I’m doing pretty good with this goal.

{2} Get Pregnant. – While this goal was not a goal just for 2012, it is still a goal.  I am still not pregnant, but I know this will come on God’s schedule, and his schedule is much better than mine.

{3} Get more involved in our church.  – I’ve done great with this goal so far too.  I’ve started working at the children’s welcome desk one Sunday per month.  This was a year commitment and I’m glad I signed up.  I still plan to get us into a membership class – hopefully the one that’s in July or August. 

{4} Read the Bible from cover to cover in 2012.  – Kiss this goal goodbye for another year.  I stopped reading daily back in late January.  Something came up one night while I was reading and I never finished.  Then I didn’t get back to it like I should have.  This is still something that I plan to do, just probably not in 2012.

I’m going to add one more in for 2012.

{5} Run a 5k race. – I have never done a race competitely – I’ve only done the Race for the Cure type races, and even though I won’t care about how well I do compared to others, I want to do one of these races.  I’m pretty sure I’ve talked Tim into doing one with me, and I’ve got my eye on this one.  I have a few more days to sign up for the early bird special and I plan on doing this.  I started the couch to 5k program last night, and I thought it was definitely do-able.  Since I’ve been walking and hour nearly every day, these 30 min couch to 5k days aren’t too bad.  The first time I did day 1 – back in 2011 – I thought I was going to die, and last night, I could have done a complete repeat of day 1 after I finished.  I feel good about that.

How are your 2012 goals/resolutions going?  I’d love to know if I’m the only one with 50% at this point in the year, lol.

Have a nice weekend folks!

Weekend Things

I wanted to write a post about this weekend, because this weekend was awesome.  I’m going to wrap up via pictures!!

Friday night, we dyed Easter eggs.  With Kool-aid.  I posted about it, and we did it.  Check those babies out.  Didn’t they turn out great?  So vibrant and pretty.  The best part, no stink, only fruity smells!  Picture round up, Steph and Ryan, Andrew, Cooper saying “tada!” Tim with his egg, our eggs, and me with mine. 


On Saturday, we went down to southern Indiana to visit the family for Layne’s birthday celebration.  Layne finally got his big blue truck..  He had been asking for this truck for a loooong time and when he finally got it, he was so excited.  Since we weren’t going to be down for Easter, my mom also hid some eggs for the kids to hunt together.

Top left.  Layne in his big blue Ford Raptor truck for the first time.    Middle, Little sweet Layne letting his cousin drive his car.  Top right & bottom left, Cooper hunting for the Easter eggs.  He had a great time gathering up almost 75 eggs.  Bottom right, Larissa driving the boys around in the truck.  These kids had an awesome time draining the battery on that truck.  So fun.

Sunday was great also.  Easter service at church is one of my favorites.  Then we had breakfast and got ready for Tim’s birthday celebration and Easter celebration.  Baking, cooking and just putting the last minute touches on everything is always a good time, ha.  When the guests arrived, we ate all of our goodies, had cake and ice cream and sang to the birthday boy then headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.  After visiting Layne for his birthday on Saturday, Cooper decided he was ready to drive his Mustang that we got him for Christmas.

Top left, the kids helping Cooper open his Easter gift, they were supposed to open theirs too, but Cooper often requires more attention….. Middle, Cooper driving his car, having fun. Top right, Steph and Ryan.  Middle left – if you click on the picture, you’ll notice there were about 10 of us in a big circle in our cul-de-sac making sure Cooper was safe in his car.  Middle, Tim with his cake.  Bottom left Steph and Andrew.  Bottom right is our latest family photo.  I think it turned out pretty great. 
That’s a wrap.  Have a great Tuesday!

Recent Pinterest Finds

I love Pinterest.  I spend too much time on it at night, instead of blogging, or housework, or anything else that I could do that would be much better for me.  After I get a good walk in for the evening, I plop on the couch and pin things until time for bed.  (in between scarfing down some ice cream that is.) 

Click the link below to follow me on Pinterest.

I thought it might be nice for me to share a some of my recent finds, things I’ve tried or things I plan on trying.  So here goes.  A light and easy Friday post for ya…  Click on the image to find the source of the pin.

This might be the neatest thing I’ve heard about in a long time.  No vinegar smell.  We’ll be trying this method tomorrow night…  Cooper’s first time dying Easter eggs.  It should be fun.

This isn’t very nice, but sometimes its true and that’s why I like it. 

This clock is awesome.  It lets a child know when they can get up in the morning, it shows them the stars at night time and when they are allowed to get up, it shows them the sunshine.  Love it!

I love this hairstyle!  I think it is so pretty!  I would have no idea how to do it, and the link actually goes to some website that tells how to shop for plus sized women's clothing, so that doesn’t teach me how to do this hair, but I’m telling you, I LOVE IT.

Wow, isn’t this hair awesome?  I want to try it, like now. Or yesterday.  Regardless, I will try it soon, it makes me happy just thinking about trying it. 

Single serving carrot cakes.  The entire thing above only has two weight watcher points.  Awesome huh?  I cannot wait to try it.

And last, but not least, this:

Isn’t this outfit adorable?  Green, grey, beautiful.  Just beautiful. 

And that is it for me today.  Those are my favorites for this week. 

We have a birthday party tomorrow for my nephew, Layne, then Sunday is Easter & Tim’s birthday. What a fun and eventful weekend!!!

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter!!!!