Just catchin' up

Praise the Lord! We are all well! And we have been having the fun. I haven't been doing my "Where's Mommy in the picture" blog entries, so here I am. This should count for two or three weeks worth. Please note, I am aware that I am holding the camera out in all of these pictures of me. That's because there is no one else to take the picture. I am also aware that I have no makeup on. I'm choosing to think that I have a little tan and that it works for me in the summer. It's either that or get up earlier than the kids and that just isn't happening right now. Matthew's class had a petting zoo last week. This was the day after he was so sick, and I just took him for 15 minutes to go to the petting zoo. They have it every year and he talks about it all year. I knew if he missed it, he'd be crushed. Disclaimer: the doctor said it was fine to go. Also, not sure why he looks a little cross-eyed in this picture? Please ignore as he is most definitely NOT cross eyed.

Clearly not sure about the goat.

Clearly sure about the bunny rabbit.

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Now here we go. I haven't blogged about this because I have to admit, it's a little strange admitting that I went to the Jonas Bros. concert and I'm not a 12 year old girl. Odd, I know. BUT--my dad has a good friend who works for them and he gave us seats by the stage. I'm talking BY THE STAGE. I could touch it. This also happened to be the day that I got sick, but I sucked it up and went anyway because I wanted to see the new stadium so bad and when do you ever get front row tickets to anything?

Here he (Joe??) is clearly singing right to me. Now, I know that the picture quality is bad, but I just had my little point/shoot, so what you see is what you get.

Just a cool experience being this close and hearing 100,000 screaming teenagers behind you.

I made Mike go. He was a good sport. He obviously just went to see the stadium. I tried to get him to buy a t-shirt. Ha!

Hollie got to go and bring her daughter, so that made it even more fun.

Back to reality! Here's a little pic of Molly and I. Again, no makeup, point/shoot, etc. You would think I didn't just spend a small load of money on all new camera equipment. That's right! You heard me! All new camera stuff! Super excited about that, but that's for another day!

So that's about it. I plan on trying out the new camera tomorrow. I think I'm going to try to take Matthew and Molly's 2year old/5 year old pictures, but don't have any m&ms to bribe them with. I'll let you know how it goes!

A Day in My Life (and 4/52)

It was very, very early this morning when I was awakened by "Mom! Mommy! I need to tell you something! Come here!" That was at 6:11 am. By 6:17 am, this was the scene in our bed:

Molly has quite the fashion sense. She put together this little ensemble all by herself. Quite talented!
We watched cartoons for a few minutes, played a bit with Mike before he headed out the door, and then met my dad at Denny's for a special breakfast treat.

After Denny's we headed through the Lightening Car Wash (a family favorite)! The kids love it because they get to stay in the car while it goes through the wash.

Then off to Sports Clips (Matthew's new favorite hair cut place) for Matthew's hair cut. Here's the before picture:

And here's After (Mom, I want it spikey!)

We headed to Blockbuster, where Matthew rented Fire House Dog, and Molly picked a My Little Pony movie. Matthew watched his movie while Molly napped. This was about 11:30 this morning--and we'd already had a full day!

Or So I Thought! After napping/movie time, we met Matthew's friend, Preston, at the pool for a couple of hours of summer fun! Matthew got a new snorkle last week and has gotten way more than $5 worth of fun out of it already!

And look at sweet Molly! She's loving the goggles. Work it, baby!

Preston may be Matthew's friend, but Molly adores him, as you can see!

After our fun time at the pool, we went home, changed clothes, and headed for Matthew's T-Ball game. The kids are getting really good! I can't believe how much they have improved! Check out the look of determination on his face!

Another great thing about tonight's T-Ball game was that Uncle David and (soon-to-be) Aunt Jessica got to come! Matthew loved it!!!! And so did Miss Molly!

We ended up this super-busy day with Mexican food. This was the latest Molly had ever been out. It took both of the kids about 3 minutes to fall asleep tonight.

What a busy, wonderful day. I think this is what summer is all about--those great times with friends and family doing things you don't normally get to do. I can't believe we squeezed all this fun into one day. Maybe we'll get to sleep past 6:11 tomorrow!

2 of 52 and 8 things!

First off: the Mommy Challenge 2 of 52 ( a day late, but oh well). I knew I needed a picture for the challenge, so we were being silly. I had to do the hold-the-camera-out-with-one-arm trick but oh well. Yes, I know I have no makeup on. Again, oh well.


Matthew wanted to make silly faces, so we did. I love this picture because I think it's the first time that Molly actually "got" that we were taking silly pictures and what that meant. She looked at us both before we took the picture and I told her to look at the camera. I had no idea what she was doing--I actually thought she'd just be looking and not have a silly face. But she DID! She totally got it! I love this picture!!!

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8 Things

My blog friends, Alicia and Lindsey, tagged me to do this 8 things list, so what's a girl to do? Here ya go!

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1. Summer days at the pool

2. Spending this weekend with my family

3. Walking tomorrow morning with friends

4. Matthew's T Ball game

5. My BFF's Baby (due any day)

6. Going to bed

7. My Aunt (aka Gorgeous) coming into town next weekend

8. 4th of July with family/friends

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1. Laundry

2. Cleaning (really just picking stuff up)

3. Met Hollie at the mall for a play date

4. Had dinner with friends at Mi Cocina

5. Had a margarita (yum)!

6. Played with Matthew and Molly

7. Spent a little time with my mom

8. Caved in and got Matthew and Molly a chocolate milkshake because I just didn't want to hear them beg any more!

8 Things I Wish I Could Do

1. Get a massage

2. Sleep late (or even just until 8:00)!

3. Relax on the beach

4. Come home to a spotless house!

5. Go to my cousin's this weekend for her boys' birthday party (the twins are 4)!

6. Go shopping for just me and be frivolous!

7. Find a great hair stylist

8. Go to Chicago when BFF has her baby

8 Shows I Watch

1. Survivor

2. Days of Our Lives

3. Amazing Race

4. Biggest Loser

5. Deadliest Catch

6. The Office

7. Reruns of Seinfeld

8. The Weather Channel

8 People I Tag

1. Hollie (The Drama Mama)

2. Jill (SneakyMomma)

3. Shelly (My Little Men and Me)

4. Andrea (The Hughes Family)

5. Hilary (Lambie Blog)

6. Deb (The Waters 5)

7. Lucy (A Modern Day ...)

8. Ann (who says she doesn't blog anymore, but I know she reads, so we'll see)! (Griffith Family Life)

Mommy Challenge 1/52

Here it is! The first installment in my blog challenge. If you are missing from your pictures, you should go over to Carin's blog and check it out. I love the idea! We went to eat at Life's A Beach on Friday and had a blast! They have tables inside and outside on a giant patio that overlooks a HUGE sand pit that all the kids ( and lots of grownups) can play in. The kids LOVED it and it was so much fun. As you can tell, the pictures are unedited, and I must confess I just need to let it go! They're just pictures--not "photographs" if you know what I mean! I didn't flip the first picture over, so turn your head to see it.

Life's A Beach is a definite new family favorite. And I highly recommend it for dinner out with friends and kids. Everyone will have fun. Oh, and the food's good too. (Maybe I should be a restaurant reviewer?)

Alabama . . . A Blogathon

There have been so many things I want to post and I just haven't. So, I'm going back in time . . . but only 2 weeks. We went to Alabama to visit Mike's parents for Spring Break and there are sooo many pictures I could post. So what the heck? I'm going to post A LOT of them. Prepare yourself and get your scrolling finger ready.

So cute . . . Molly and Granddad.
We went out to Landmark Park for some big family fun they were having. Oh my . . . it was so fun! There was a petting zoo, tons of old-fashioned farm equipment, food, shows, crafts, it just went on and on.

One day, Mike and I took the kids to the beach. Grandmom (or "B-Mom" as Molly has named her) and Granddad live really close to the Florida beaches, so we HAVE to go everytime we go for a visit. Notice that Molly still won't actually touch the sand with any body parts. I think her little fingers on her left hand clutching her knee tell the whole story.

I love this picture (even if I didn't take it with my good camera) because you can see Mike and Matthew in the background. I may blow this one up and hang it in my bedroom.
I call this one "Head in Sand." I got the inspiration for the title from Andrea.

OK. Could there BE anything cuter? No. There couldn't. This is why I love my husband.

Big hugs from B-Mom.

This was amazing. We had a bag of goldfish and Matthew threw some to the seagulls. They started coming in really close to us and they would catch the goldfish in mid-air while they were flying. It was so cool! The kids loved it and so did we!

Now I want to point something out here. This was Day 2 at the beach. It was really windy and cold that day, but we had fun (it was the feeding the birds day). Well, notice that Little is walking in the sand with out shoes. Her actual feet are touching actual sand. She was so interested in the birds that she forgot about her hatred of the sand! It was priceless!

The night before we came home, we drove to Atlanta because we were flying back home from there. Mike has a cousin that lives there, so we met them for dinner. Matthew was so excited because he had cousins he'd never met before. He and Jonah were two peas in a pod.

Here's all the cousins.

I love this picture because it is just soooooo Matthew's personality.

My pictures are a little out of order here, but this is sweet. Mike took this of his mom and the kids while they were on a tour of the helicopter museum.

Back to Atlanta . . . Matthew has never, ever had his very own big dessert before. He was VERY serious about it. The boys thought they were SO cool.

This isn't the greatest picture by any means, but I had to put it in because it's the only one of me on the entire 8 day trip. I'm always the one with the camera. But this proves that I was there!
There is actually a long story that goes here. While we were in Atlanta Thursday night, we were staying in a hotel. Mike and Matthew went to the hot tub before bed, and Matthew ran all the way back to the room--he was totally fine. When he got back, I helped him get his jammies on and he went straight to bed. We were all in one room, and I was sleeping in a bed with Matthew. I noticed him kind of crying and moaning in the night and thought he was having a bad dream, but it went on for too long, so I woke him up. He said his foot was hurting. I couldn't tell anything in the dark and didn't think too much of it since I didn't remember him hurting it. The next morning when we got up, it was so swollen. He refused to walk on it at all (which was interesting going through the airport), so I took him straight to the doctor when we got home. We spent 3 or 4 hours at the doctor and then they E.R. because he had to have it x-rayed. They were pretty sure it was fractured, which, as it turns out, it was just a very bad sprain (still don't know how it happened). It wasn't getting any better, so now he is wearing an orthopedic boot for 4-6 weeks. I have to blog some pictures because it's pretty cute. I'm amazed at the fact that it doesn't seem to slow him down. He is still playing, doing t-ball (more pictures of that to come, as well), going to school, etc. He hasn't missed a beat. Including his Adventure Guides camp out with Mike.

Mike took these pictures with the point and shoot at the camp out and I'm so impressed. This one was Matthew riding on Mike's shoulders and Mike just held the camera up and snapped the picture. The A&M cap is on Mikes' head. (Please excuse the boogies in the nose--I'm too tired to photoshop tonight).

Mike took this one of their shadows against a wall with Matthew still on his shoulders. Way to be creative, love!

So that was our trip to Alabama (Florida and Georgia). Great memories for all of us!

San Diego, Part Dos

Wow! In the last 30 minutes, I've blogged more than in the last 30 days! Here are a few more pictures from our trip. Yes, that is Mike and Matthew at the tippie top of that water roller-coaster. I don't know who was more nervous/excited: Matthew, who was actually ON the ride, or Me, who was taking pictures of the roller coaster of death (not really, but I was a little freaked out that my child was doing THAT).

Matthew was worn. out. He fell asleep at the restaurant. For those of you who know Matthew, let me just say: Holy Moly. He was tired. That was a first for him. And then we ran across this weird sight on the way to the zoo.
Me and Molly on a ride that was much more comforting that the coaster of death. This was Elmo in Kiddie Land.



The view from our little bungalo. Matthew was in heaven that he could just walk right out to the beach. Molly--not so much. She didn't like getting her hands dirty. For that matter, she wouldn't even SIT in the sand unless I put a mat down first.

I know these pictures are out of order, but at this point, just be happy I'm blogging. Here's Matthew and Molly in the brig on the Aircraft carrier.
Matthew saluting the troops.
Molly playing in the ocean. Notice that Mike had to HOLD her while she dipped her fingers in the water so she wouldn't get sandy.
Matthew doing his dance of I'm-in-heaven-on-the-beach.

We had a great trip--it was so nice for us to get away and spend some family time together. This weekend, all the Teed's are coming for some more family time. I'm sure I'll have lots more to blog about that!