The Birthday Weekend

Daniel turned the big 2-8 on saturday! Happy birthday baby!!! (why am I just now posting you may ask??? two reasons...i'm pretty slow in my now old age and also my camera decided to turn purple once again and so i had me sis-in-law e-mail me pics...she's not a blogger so thinks my obession with pics and documentation is slightly annoying...can't say i blame her) My crazy hubby decided there's nothing better to do on one's birthday than run a 5K. He won 1st place again (3rd year in a row) this time pushing the kiddos in the double. Then we went to his xc team's fundraiser and he road one of these babies...I forgot what they're called...oh no i really am old! He picked out some sweet shoes at Fleet Feet, took a fabulous nap,and then we went to Movie under the Stars here in the nieghorhood. We brought a pizza and enjoyed The Wizard of Oz on a blanket with the fam. The next day was my b-day. I went to church. Ha j/k. I really did go to church but then we had cake and ice cream with family. I have the fortunate blessing to have a b-day right in between my hubby and my bro-in-law. You'd think I couldn't celebrate my b-day early or late but I seem to find my way around these things. Yesterday daniel grilled some yummy steaks and he spoiled me with my favorite chocolate milk and candy. My real birthday present is another weekend get-a-way with a few friends to Time Out for Women in San Antonio this friday. Happy Birthday to me!

My Super (embarassing) Hero Night

Get ready...here is my novel, A few weeks ago I went to Chick-fil-a. I received a flyer that looks like this... I love getting free things so I was all over that "dress like a super hero and get a kids meal". I told Kolby all about it. He was so excited and helped me make these ghetto capes. Did I mention that I was sporting a pillow-case cape of my own? Perhaps I really should leave that detail out. I drove to Chick-fil-a down the street. I sat in the parking lot not seeing anyone else dressed up. OH well. I want free food. The teen behind the counter says, "oh cute..., what can I get you?" I soon find out that this particular Chick-fil-a is not participating in a free night. My pits are kinda sweaty. I quickly hide my head in shame and scurry off to the car. Kolby says, "oh we have to go to a different one? ok" Olivia screams her head off thinking "The food was right there! I could smell it! Why am I going back to the dreaded car seat?" I drive the 20 minutes to the other location. I remove my own cape because my pride can only handle so much in one night, and bring my 2 super heros inside. The teen once again says, "oh how cute... what can I get for you?" I say, "I got a flyer about a super hero night here." She says, "Sorry that was last week...today is the Balloon Lady and next week is dress like a princess" Needless to say....I was humilated, wasted gas money, paraded my children around in pillow cases, and ended up paying full price for our meals! When I called my hubby he laughed and said he was glad he wasn't with me. Oh well. My kids never knew the difference. They know their mom is a freak so if they gotta wear a cape to get some chicken nuggets they don't really care. I laughed really hard. I passed up so much time that it wasn't so bad being alone on the weekend:)

My little Punk'ns

My sis-in-law took these pics of the kiddos right here in my neighborhood. A local preschool had a pumpkin patch of sorts all set up:) Between the sweat, tears, and snot we somehow managed to get a few with the kids actually looking, holding still, and having a somewhat normal expression. Good thing I didn't have to pay a cent for this photo shoot or my kids would be in big trouble:) What you don't usually get to see...

Real life joys

Many thanks to all for commenting on my "woes" post:) I'm a little embarrassed as I was not fishing for compliments but everyone provided so many. I'm back in the swing of things with regular life like bike rides and yummy bbq in this beautiful fall weather. I loved all your words of encouragement. I've checked off my realistic to-do-list and am finding the joy in letting the already undone things wait til next week and begin the cycle once more:) At least I can say, one day my house was clean this week, one day i put my laundry away, and the rest of the time we played, learned, ate, and served. In bigger news...kolby inherited this awesome bike from a family in the ward, which he seemed to have mastered over night. I just love watching him ride!

The hairy beasts

Yes we finally did it! Kolby (aka samson) got his hair chopped off. I was worried he'd be freaking out but he was very still and told me he was having fun. I explained that my friend was going to make him look like a cool dude and he said, "a cool dude just like her?" I'm sure Daniel's gonna be more freaked out than Kolby, as he was the one who coveted kolby's long locks:) Now my baby is all grow up and has a big boy haircut to prove it! Now for the flipside.... Olivia's hair is growing! Hurray!!! Its finally long enough for her to be my little "Barbie doll" :) I have fun chasing her around the house with a comb trying to get thouse whispies out of her face:) Here's a few of the styles we've been trying this week. Warning: all shots were taken in a rush before the subject moved or took out the hairstyle all together. I couldn't find where i saved the pictures of her ponytail or bows so I had to do them all right in a row...i do change olivia's outfit during the week:)

Time Management Woes

I always look forward to conference weekend. Its so nice to hear such uplifting, deep, testimonies and council from the leaders of the Church. But today is Monday and as I reflect on the messages I'm feeling a little discouraged. Today as I scrubbed and scrubbed my house only to have those little dirty hand prints magically appear again I wasn't so sure I believed President Monson's words about "missing them". I want to find the time to: read my scriptures and study them, teach my children, keep a clean home, prepare healthy meals for my family, exercise, gain knowlege, develope talents, serve others, magnify my calling, share the gospel, and still have time to find "joy in the journey" and not be some uptight schedule nazi. I understand there is a time and a season for all things but what if I don't want to wait until my kids are grown to have time for all of these things? What if I want to live my life now? Even on a good day I think I might only check off two things from the above list. Is it really possible to accomplish it all? It certainly did not happen today. What do you do?

Lil' Coach

Being the amazing supportive wife that I am, Friday evening I took the kiddos to one of daniel's xc meets (xc means cross country...i know some of you may be wondering). Ok actually I've totally been slacking off this year and this was the first meet all season I attended. There's just something not so appealing about being on "display", trying to keep my kids behaved and out of the way just so i can wave "hi" to daniel from a distance. Luckily my sis-in-law was there with my niece since her hubby coaches as well. Hooray for Coaches widows! THe highlight was the whole 2 minutes that kolby got to ride the bus (sorry no photos as I'm sure it was illegal). The only thing that really makes it worth it though is to see kolby get so excited and try to be just like his daddy. Even if it does make me slighly jealous I can't help but adore this look he gets on his face when he sees daniel (as seen in next pic). But luckily he thinks his photo-happy mama is silly enough to deserve a smile too (as seen in last pic).

"I wanna play school"

After my preschool-major-sister came to visit I was feeling like a slacker mama. I just didn't feel like I had any structure as far as what I teach kolby. Kolby missed the cut off line for preschool this year but i thought it was time for maybe a pre-preschool:) I started looking for cute ideas and activities online to do with kolby and olivia. At first all I found were curriculums you had to buy or things that looked way too time consuming. Then I came across this baby... http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparatory.html and fell in love. Its so awesome! The kids and I have sooo much fun and it only takes about 20 minutes a day! Kolby is always telling me "I wanna play school". He sits in this little red chair and even raises his hand:) Since I graduated in elementary education, I truly couldn't be more pleased! I remember "playing school" with my sister when I was little and now years later I get to reenact my favorite childhood game:) Olivia even gets excited about the songs and books. You just teach one concept a day (vocab,shape/color, number, letter, poem) and read a book, sing a song, and do an activity that relates to the theme/concept. Its so short, simple, and sweet. Here's a few pics of our learning boards (minus friday's...). Check it out if you wanna play school too.