My baby is graduating!

Well, he is graduating from kindergarten. But he does get a cap and gown. I can't believe my baby is going to be in 1st grade! How and when did he grow up? I don't think I like it, not one little bit! He is such a smarty pants too! I guess I must not pay as much attention as I should, because I am amazed daily at the things he knows! He writes so well, he is an excellant reader, he can spell really well, (which I don't like so much, because now I can't spell things to people when we are talking because he knows what I say).

So tomororw night is his graduation. I couldn't get a shift trade at work, so I will be pushing it to get home, get ready, and have him there on time. I am so glad my mom and stepdad are coming in! That will be a HUGE help! If I am lucky they will have the kids ready by the time I get home. I might end up taking 2 hours of vacation time at the end of my shift so I can get ready in time. This is a special occasion, so I have to look ready and not stressed! I'll post pics when I get them developed. Someone needs to make me go digital! Argh!

Just the other day, he had the funniest conversation with me. I was rolling by the time he finished. It went like this... "Mommy, when you get paid and have money again, you can't waste it. You have to save the money. (here he has his hands in the air and is waving them up and down for emphasis as he talks) You have to save the money, mommy. Don't waste it, (long pause here) on groceries and stuff. Just use what we already have. If we save our money, and count by 10's, we will get to 100 faster than if we count by 1's and 5's and when we get to 100 I can get a Nintendo DS."

Nintendo Ds? What in the world?! Where did that come from? The funnies thing is he was sooooo serious when he was saying this! Because you know, a Nintendo is WAY more important than groceries and "stuff". It was so hard to keep a straight face while he was saying all of this. I didn't want to hurt his feelings because he was really serious. I had to leave the room and go call mom. Kids! Soooo funny!

Scattergories and Mother's Day

First off I want to say Happy Mothers Day to everyone!! Hope you all had a fabulous day!!

Our zoo trip Friday was awesome! We had SUCH a wonderful time! We got started a litle late, everyone didn't make it to the school on time, and yes, I did! Once we got started it was fun. 4 kids and 3 adults in one vehicle was not as bad as I thought. The kids were amazing! No arguing, not too loud, great!! We did take a wrong turn, or 2 ha ha! We did 2 U~turns on I270. Sooo funny! You haven't lived until you have done a u~turn in a minivan and screeched the tires, spinning out gravel! OMG it was hilarious! We finally got there and because of our wrong turns, the rest of the group beat us, so they had our tickets ready and we bypassed the entire group waiting in line. It was HUGE too! I bet there were 40 school busses there! Once we got in it was amazing! We saw flamingos, humboldt penguins, tigers, elephants, peacocks, manatees, rays, snakes.. We got to see the biggest snake in captivity in the whole world. It was a 33 foot long reticulated python. Ewwww! The kids loved it though! We also got to see the cutest little bats and those HUGE flying fox bats! Man those suckers, no pun intended, are HUGE!! I saw so many snakes I had the creeps for a while. Brett loved them. We also got to see the cutest little baby silver back gorilla. He was 1 year old. So stinkin' cute! The 3 year old gorilla baby was a little bit jealous and grabbed the littlest one by the foot dragging it from the room it was in to the next one, and let me tell you! Momma gorilla's are NOT to be messed with! Wow! She took off after the bigger one and it dropped the baby and took off. Soooo funny! Little man was ok and climbed up on mama's back and all was fine again in his world. There were baby goats no bigger than a pomeranian, 2 huge buffalo, some weird looking deer. Blake LOVED the aquarium the best. He was in awe of all the fish. I hope my pics turned out well! The kids rode the merry go round and we took a boat ride. Those were both fun. I took 6 rolls of pics, woo hoo! Now to get them developed! Oh yeah, we saw mountain lions, and Blake promptly broke into "meeeoooow meeeeooowwww" when he saw them. That was the cutest! I can't remember what else we saw, but we had a blast! On the way home we totally went the wrong way! Instead of going south we went east?! Needless to say, we drove about an hour before we figured it out! Got home around 1:30am and went straight to bed. I'll post pics when I get them back.

Brett had his soccer game yesterday at 4. His shirt conveniently found it's way home with mom last weekend, and she express mailed it to me on Thursday, however, she forgot to check the box that says I didn't have to sign for it, so when the mailman came yesterday, he didn't ring the doorbell, I didn't know he had been here, and I missed the freaking package. Arghhh! So I called and called the post office and noone would answer the blasted phone for 3 hours!! So we had no soccer shirt for the game. I called the coach and he said there were no extras, great! So he says any yellow shirt will do. I have NO yellow shirts that match the soccer shirt, and the only one close enough was one that belonged to the babysitter's daughter. So that is what he wore. A yellow shirt 2 shades lighter than the uniform one that said "Garner Baptist Church" on it. He sitll looked cute though. Thank goodness it wasn't picture week this week! No goals this week, we lost our game by 2. Brett ran the ball up the field several times though! He is such a great player! He got hurt on the last play of the game. He kept the other team from scoring because our goalie was sure not paying attention, but in doing so, he got kicked really hard in the ankle and had to be carried off the field crying. Scared me to death! OMG it was a horrible feeling thinking he had gotten really hurt! I ran over and we stripped his shin guard and sock off, thinking he had twisted his ankle, only to have him staring at me with huge teary eyes telling me the other kid "kicked me on purpose". The other kid didn't mean to kick him, he was trying to kick the ball in the goal, but my poor crying baby didn't want to hear that. He got over it about 20 minutes later and was fine again. We went home and he took a cool bath and felt much better. He was so hot. His face was blood red. Cool bath's are rockin'! That was finally the end of last nite!

So I saw this on another blog I read, and I thought it looked like fun.

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks!

Your Name: Valeri
1. Famous Singer/Band: Veruca Salt

2. 4 letter word: verb

4. Color: violet
3. Street: ventura avenue


5. Gifts/Presents: venice plane tickets
6. Vehicle: volkswagon bug
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: very pretty post cards(?)

8. Boy Name: Victor

9. Girl Name: Victoria

10. Movie Title: V the one about the lizard alien people
11. Drink: vodka collins

12. Occupation: violinist

13. Flower: violet
14. Celebrity: valerie bertanelli

15. Magazine: vanity fair
16. U.S. City: venice california
17. Pro Sports Teams: las vegas venom
18. Fruit: velvet apple

19. Reason for Being Late for Work: very late sleeping children
20. Something You Throw Away: very stinky diapers
21. Things You Shout: victory!
22. Cartoon Character: no idea at all!

Rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the
following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up!
If you can't think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the
person before you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the
boy/girl name question... Now Go!

I tag Lori, Rita, and Cami.. if you all read this ha ha!

So Tired

I just can't seem to get enough rest the last few days! I am so tired! I even came home from work early today and took a 3 hour nap! Yet here I am still dead tired! I am not sleeping well at night, the boys are both wiggle worms and I get squished into one position for the night. I have to get these boys in their own rooms and out of my bed! As much as I love to snuggle with them, I need my own space back! I have had a kid in my bed for 6 and a half years now. When the kids were at moms not to long ago I so enjoyed having my bed to myself again! Does that make me a selfish mommy? I love to sleep with them, and I love listening to the breathe so calmly when they are asleep, but I need some mommy space and mommy time. Mom spent a fortune on furniture for both of their rooms and neither one of them will sleep in them. Brett won't even go upstairs and get into my bed unless I go with him. He has to be right there with me at all times. I feel so smothered sometimes! Sooooo give me some of your motherly advice on how to either get them in their own rooms, or to get over this "needing my own space" feeling. Help!

My one and only layout

So here is the only layout I completely finished yesterday at the crop. I guess one is better than none, right?

Happy (late) National Scrapbook Day!

What did YOU do today? I went to a crop, the first one in years! I didn't get very much done, only a page and a half, but better than nothing! The one I did complete is for Diane's challenge #1


Brett had a soccer game this morning and he scored the only goal of the entire game! I was so proud!!! He came running down the field with both hands in fists, arms pumping up and down, and the biggest smile in the world! It was so awesome!! He was really glad because this weekend his Nonny and his Brookie came in, so he had 2 of his most important people there watching his game. After the game he had extra special treats. Brookie took him to see TMNT ane then to Baskin Robbins for a cookie dough shake, his fave. Then Mom and I took him to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner and he had the biggest icecream cake with hot fudge and whipped cream that I have ever seen. He had a fabulous day.

Hope your day was as awesome as ours!

Fun photos from a friend..

So MaryJo sent me these pics that she took of Blake and Brett. Some of them are so funny! I had to share.

Mom is coming in tomorrow. I am so excited! I can't wait to see her. I hate that she lives so far away! I wish she were closer to me. I left work early today to try and work on the house, but I think that the kids made a bigger mess than it was in before. Oh well, she will have to deal with it I guess. I could always let her take the boys for the evening and I can clean in peace... Er, maybe I could scrap some in peace as well? Fingers crossed on that one!

Anyhoo, here are the photos!

Brett was chillin' in this one!


Blake is going to be a plumber, I can see it coming!

He couldn't stay awake long enough to eat!

Please ignore the mommy in this one.. Focus on the cute face of the baby!

Elton John wanna be?

A better pic of the cute little face from above!

Sick baby and messy house...

So I had to take 4 hours of vacation time today so that I could take Blake to the dr. He has an upper respiratory infection and really bad allergies. So now we are on zithromax and zyrtec and robitussin dm.. So many meds for such a little tyke! He did gain a pound. He now weighs 22 pounds 10.5 ounces. Small for his age, but he is short too! Right now the sweet little thing is sound asleep on the couch with his "buh". They are so cute when they are sleeping! Not to mention quiet! Silence is golden!! I am sitting here playing and watching Crossing Jordan in peace! I love it! Well, commercials are off so here I go!

My only 2 layouts for the year!

I am an awful scrapper this year! I have altered more and made more cards than I have scrapped this year! I have only done 2 layouts! Arghh! On the upside, I am going to an all day crop on Saturday, you know it IS National Scrapbooking Day after all. I hope to get lots and lots of pages finished! My friend/babysitter, Amy and her daughter Faye are going to go with me. It will be lots of fun! I haven't had a girls day out forever! This will be such a blast! I love Amy and her girls both rock! They are the sweetest things! I can't wait til Saturday! So since Saturday is still a few days away, I thought I'd share my only 2 poor, lonely layouts of the year.

2 posts in one day!

We had the best weekend. Brett had a soccer game Saturday, bright and early at 9am (soooo NOT my choice of times for a Saturday). My baby did SO good! I was so proud! He ran the ball all the way down the field 4 times without scoring a goal. But the final play of the game... My baby ran down the field, he kicked, and he SCORED! The final goal of the game! That is my boy! He ran back down the field yelling "Momma did you see what I did?! Did you see? Did you, Momma?" He was so awesome!! I love how he is just so great at every sport he tries! He has tennis lessons this year as well, which he really enjoys, but it is nothing compared to his love of soccer and football.

On Sunday Brett spent the day with his most favorite uncle in the world. Sunday's are what we lovingly call "Uncle Steve day". Brett spends almost all day at Steve's house doing "manly" things, ha ha. This weekend Steve took the training wheels off of his bike and had Brett jump on. Well don't you know the child took right off?! Turning and standing up and not falling over! I totally was waiting for the whole 'go 4 feet and fall over sideways and get a big boo~boo on your knee' kind of first ride. But not my little man! He was so good! I have lots of pics of his bike riding but since I am not in the digital camera age yet, you will just have to wait til I get the film developed. Same with the soccer pics. I am so behind on my film! I have so many layouts planned but the film is sitting in a drawer in the kitchen. One day soon!!

So that sums up the "sporty" part of the weekend.

Blake's new things this weekend were learning words. He is FINALLY starting to talk some! He is almost 23 months old!! He says your normal baby words, momma, buh (Brett or Bubby), bye~bye, ni~ni (nite nite)... You know, baby words. But now he is saying "lelloooowwwwwwww" for hello. It is SO stinkin' funny to watch him! When he gets to the "o" he curls his tongue and the "o" sound keeps going. He drags it out for about 5 seconds. Too cute! He also learned how to say thank you. His version is "tay too" which just sounds so adorable!

I love these boys! Every dirt covered, sticky faced, lovable inch of them!

Little Joey is at peace...

Joey passed away 2 nights ago. I was so sorry to read this. Sorry for his mommy and daddy. How can one ready themselves to go through what they are at this time? I am glad that Joey is no longer in pain. I am so glad to know he is not suffering now. But my heart is aching for this family I have never met. This story touched me for some reason. If she never reads this, and chances are she never will, I wish them all the best and I wish speedy peace for the entire family, especially this mother who has lost a child so dear.