Long Time No Post!!

Let me start off by saying this.....we are all done teething in this house! HALLELUJAH!! Ever since Lo was born I've been looking forward to this day. It's a wonderful feeling. ((sigh)) So anyways. Lots of exciting things going on around here. I have my first wedding shoot 2 weeks ago. And yes, I'm still editing the pictures. Where do pros find the time?!?! Geesh. It was my bestfriend's wedding. She's 4 months pregnant and the happiest she's ever been. It's a beautiful thing. Here are some pictures I edited on the iPad using instagram......

Those are some of my favorites. :) I have soooo many more to edit. I'm just trying to fit everything into 24 hours and it's just not working. I need more hours, a maid and a Nanny. Or a Manny. A male Nanny would be nice. ;)

Lex is enrolled and all ready for Kindergarten!! Boy, how did that happen so fast?! I miss my little boy. :( It's so bittersweet. He's is super excited. He wants to take the bus to school, but I'll be damned!! HAH! There is no way I'm putting my baby on a bus!! :) Middle school? Sure! He's talking about maybe letting me cut his hair just a tiny bit. I seriously doubt that. :) I'm hopeful I'll get an inch off. It's sooooo long! He will make Locks Of Love very happy when he does cut it. 

My husband and I forgot our 10 year anniversary. How do you forget something like that?! We're dorks. I think we're going to go back to Gatlinburg in July for a mini family vacation. That will be our gift to each other. HAH! Kevin also committed us to a 5 day stay at a Hilton in Florida, which we have to book in the next few weeks. o_O The Hilton called and offered us a villa right outside of Disney for 5 days for o nly $175. Can't beat that price! It's a 3 bedroom villa which means I can cook all our meals and save on that at least! We're still planning it though. Worse case scenario is we lose the $175 if we decide we just can't do it. We're going to shoot for September. Lex and Raven will only lose 1 or 2 days of school and it's the beginning of the year. Not too bad. We already started saving for both vacations. We're insane. And we may be broke come October. HAH!!!! Oh well. ;)

That's about it. Nothing exciting. I haven't had the time or the heart for blogging lately. Hopefully I can keep up again real soon. 

Little Miss. Independent

For the past few weeks Lola has started informing me that she "can do this" or "can do that" all by her little 2 year old self. Needless to say.....I'm scared. I hate this phase almost as much as puberty. They think they can do things even when I know they can't. For example...I know she can't climb into her carseat without me helping. I just know this. She doesn't, she thinks she can do it and she gets very pissed off if I try and help her. So I let her try, stay close and catch her when she falls. She wants to pick out her own clothes, her own foods, her own shows to watch and she makes sure I know she can do it herself, she feels the need to remind me by saying..."I can do this all by myself, Mommy. Lola can!!". Yes, she speaks in the first person. It's hilarious. If you've been reading my blog for a while then you know that Lola was delayed in walking due to a high fever which triggered a febrile seizure which set her back almost 6 months. With Early Intervention and lots of patience and love she can walk, run, climb and all that other dangerous fun stuff. She is still very slow, more cautious with stairs, but we're working on that. So you can understand my anxiety about this phase. I'm nervous she's going to hurt herself. I'm afraid I won't be there is she is trying out her new found freedom. But I can't be afraid. She sure isn't! So, I'm stepping back. I'm letting her do things by herself. I'm not fighting it anymore. We've already needed 3 bandaids today, but that's ok!! Lola can do this and so can I!

What We've Been Doing.......

We've been celebrating.........

Torturing small animals........

And small children.........

 Playing with other peoples things while they're away.......

 Painting the teenager's room.......

Playing with bubbles OUTSIDE.......

Really enjoying being OUTSIDE..........

Flying kites.......

OUTSIDE..............

Sliding.......

Being sweet........

Being silly.........

Taking pictures of other peoples dogs........

Laughing..........

Giving Mom a heart attack..........

And being sporty...........

Fretting about our "pretties" (hair).........

And being silly some more........

Being fashionable.........

Sleeping better than I have in years......

Being goofy........

And loving the "SuperMoon"

In other words.....we've been very busy. :)

Wordfull Wednesday......Instagram

When we first got the iPod touch there were so many apps to choose from. When the games got old, I went searching for photography apps and found Instagram. It's easy and fun!! Here are a few pictures I've edited and shared using Instagram.....

And this one is currently my favorite.......

This hawk is always at our tree in our yard. It makes me a bit nervous since it's always eyeballin' my dachshund, Lucy. LOL!! But it's just so beautiful, I had to snap a few pictures of it and link it up to.....

ENJOY!!!!

15 & 5

I am now the proud Mother of a 15 year old daughter and a very grown up 5 year old boy. It's been a very crazy, hectic 2 months around here. So much to do and hardly any time to do it. Throw in all the sickness and well, you get NO TIME!!! I'm so ready for Spring. Anyway. The teenager got a new iPod touch, money and a new phone. She is now "just like all her friends". -_- I want her iPod. It has a camera in it!! Not that my camera isn't great, but just imagine all the social networking I could do with that thing. Yes, I am addicted to Twitter. Follow me. :D When I gave the teenager her phone I said...."With great technology comes great responsibility......be responsible. Please." It's a shame that in this day and age I have to even worry about my teenager sending inappropriate pictures, or sexting or cyber bullying. Ugh. It's just the way things are now. I have to hope she's learned from past mistakes and doesn't do something stupid. But then again, we are talking about teenagers......they don't think. They feel. They're so emotional. The important thing is this....she is happy, I can get in touch with her whenever I need to and I can stalk her online. LOL!!!

My son is now 5. He woke up on cloud 9 yesterday. Jumping around, telling me repeatedly that he is now 5 and is growing up and can do everything on his own. Except make pancakes. Because "only you can make the best pancakes, Mom. YOU MAKE THE BEST PANCAKES!! UHHH!!!" :D I'm proud to be the best pancake maker. We got him a new magic trick, a set of magnets and a science kit. He's in to science and magic. Interesting combination. :D He sat at the dining room table almost all day playing with his stuff. We made some glow in the dark goo and had a blast. If you're interested in the recipe here it is...

• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 30 ml water
• 2-3 drops of food coloring or choice

Add water slowing until mixed, then play!!! I never did that experiment in science class so I was AMAZED!! It's a liquid, NO, it's a solid!!! BAAAAAHAHAHAAA!!! It's the little things, people. :D So yeah, we had a blast!! I made him a cake and surprised him with it after dinner. He jumped up and down and squealed and laughed. I love seeing him so happy with simple things. He ate 2 pieces of my cake and declared that I was "the BEST pancake AND birthday cake maker. EVER!!" :D Today the hubs and I are taking him to see RANGO. He's so excited to see it, it's all he's been talking about for a month. He loves it when we take him to the movies. We've only been a few times, but he just loves it. It's nice that he can now sit through a whole movie. :) His birthday party is on Sunday. This is the first year we're doing it somewhere besides the house. I didn't want to have it here in case all 12 of the kids in his class show up. o_O Nooooo thank you!!! HAH! And plus, this places takes care of everything, I just bring the snacks and cake. Perfect. So my very grown up 5 year old boy will be very excited. :)

That's Lex all dressed up as Willy Wonka. HAH! I love him. :)

Are You A Wimpy American Mom? Or Are You A Tiger Mom?

A few weeks ago I went to the dentist to be tortured have my teeth cleaned. While I waited I grabbed TIME magazine to have something to read. On the cover was a picture of a pair of legs in a skirt standing over a little girl holding a violin. The title caught my eye...TIGER MOM. I began reading the story and was, at first, appalled at what I was reading. The story was about a woman named Amy Chua, who calls herself a "Tiger Mom". She's also the author of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The article in TIME magazine was all about her parenting skills, she uses Chinese "strict, Old World, uncompromising values". In short, she's strict, very strict. Going as far as to make her daughter practice the piano through the night until the girl got the piece right. She says Americans are weak, we don't raise our children strict enough, we don't push them hard enough...and so on. Crazy, right? They talk about a few other incidents that you can read about here if you like....READ HERE. I read the entire article and by the end of it I felt a bit better. She talked about regretting some of the things she did and said to her kids, she talked about compromising with her daughters now and how she was cocky and thought she could control her daughters when they were first born. We can all relate to that one!! Her parenting style may be a bit rough for some, but there are some aspects of it that I actually agree with. For example....I do not coddle my children, I do not praise every. single. thing. they. do, I push my teenager just a little bit more every time, I encourage my son write his name until he gets it right (with praise, of course) and I am not their friend, I am their Mother. Don't get me wrong, I cuddle with my kids, if they get hurt I comfort them and I do praise them when they do something well or good or on their own without me asking. I would never call my children names, make them do something into the wee hours of the night and I would never not except a homemade gift. My teenager is an honor student, all A's and one B. She pushes herself to do better every day, she studies all the time and she is really just a good kid. So I guess I'm doing something right. But am I a Tiger Mom? I don't know about that. I'm not out to raise perfect children, I just want to raise them well. And so far, so good. :)

A Death In The Family........The Feline Kind

Our cat, Mina, became very ill Sunday. Actually, I'm pretty sure it started Saturday, but she stayed in the basement all day and I was busy with the teenager's birthday party, so I didn't see her. But Sunday morning I went down to check on her because her food was untouched and sure enough, she was in the very same place she had been on Saturday morning. Poor thing went down hill very fast. Sunday morning I brought her upstairs, made her comfortable and just watched her. She slept all day. Sunday night she got up, went downstairs to use the litter box, came back up and promptly fell back to sleep. About an hour later the teenager is screaming for me to help Mina. I walked in on my cat having a seizure. It was painful to watch. :( I picked her up, wrapped her in a towel and that's when I noticed the blood. She was bleeding from her girly parts and her nose. By this time it was late and our vet wasn't open. I decided to put her in the kennel with lots of towels and blankets and let her rest there. Monday morning I took her to the vet's office and she purred the entire time. The vet took x-rays and sure enough.....Cancer. It was everywhere. She suspected that it had spread to the brain even though she couldn't see it on the x-ray, mainly because of the seizures and nose bleeds. It was time to let her go. She was ready, very ready....I, on the other hand, was not. I've had this cat for 12 years, I got her from a friend who asked me to keep her for 3 months while she got settled in California. She never came and got her, so I kept her. She became family. The vet gave me some time with her and I told her that she was the best cat in the entire world and we would miss her terribly. I kissed her, told her I loved her and then asked the vet to begin. Mina purred the entire time. Her last breath was a purr. It was peaceful and quick and most importantly, she was no longer in pain. I plan on having her cremated. I want her with us forever. Crazy, right? LOL!! I don't care. She deserves it. :) One more picture of my beautiful Mina......

Valentine's Day

For us, it's kind of just another day. We do sweet things for the kids, but we have stopped doing things for each other. We're over it. Well, I'm over it, that's for sure. I'd rather just go out and buy something for the house or the kids. :) But, like I said, I try to make it special for the kids. So today I made these.....

I got the idea from  CookingWithSugar.com. I have to admit, hers look better. LOL!! Didn't stop Lex and Lo from devouring them! 

Caution: the food coloring will turn your whole mouth and teeth red. :D Next up? St. Patrick's Day. I'll be making  four leaf clovers with green icing. FUN!!!

Is It Too Late To Trade My Teenager In For A Chihuahua?

My teenager came right out and asked me how long her and her boyfriend had to be together before he could spend the night. I could not believe what I was hearing. Had she hit her head? Gone insane? Grown a set when I wasn't looking? WTF was going on?! At first I thought she had to be joking. She knows the rules!! I'm strict!! So I kinda laughed out loud, then gave her the look. The "I'm dead serious" look. This is how the conversation went......

ME: "That would be a big fat never. I don't care how old you are, no boys sleeping over. Ever. Don't even ask."

CRAZY PERSON: "But XXXXX's Mom lets her boyfriend sleep over!!"

ME: "And XXXX's Mom has clearly lost her mind as well. Luckily I'm still sane, so that won't ever happen"

CRAZY PERSON: "What if I'm 18? You can't tell me what I can and can't do."

ME: "See, that's where you're wrong. If you're 18 and still living in MY house, the rules stay the same. No boys sleeping over. Ever. Feel free to get a job, your own place and then have as many boys sleep over YOUR place as you want....when you're 18, of course."

CRAZY PERSON: "I wasn't really asking if he could sleepover like tonight, I was just wondering if you'd ever let him"

ME: "Wonder no more....never gonna happen, kiddo."

I would like to know who in the Hell let's their 15 year old daughter's boyfriend sleep over?! And where does he sleep? Am I too old fashioned? Is this not something new? Because I can sit here and honestly say that I was shocked. So now all I keep thinking is......what's next?! I'm scared.

Breaking The Boredom

Since we've been snowed in we've played with just about every toy we have in this house. I was running out of ideas. Then I stumbled across a website called NoTimeForFlashCards.com. She has a cute site filled with arts and crafts and things to keep your kids from losing their minds. So I tried the iceberg painting. The kids loved it! We had to wear gloves because it was cold (duh!) but it was fun. It kept us busy for a few hours. :)

I highly recommend it. :)

Screw You Winter!!!

Caution: I plan on complaining a lot in this post. You've been warned.

We have so much snow and there's more coming. I'm watching it fall from the sky as I type this. My kids have missed so much school that I'm afraid they'll be in school till July at this point. Well, Lex won't be, but my teenager will be. They have missed so much school that I started thinking of ways to teach them from home. Then an idea hit me......why can't they do school via live video chat?! This is something I think would be great! But I seriously doubt all the kids would be willing to sit in front of the computer for school. Facebook yes, school, no. It's a good idea though, if you ask me. ;) My teenager asked me to never speak of it to anyone at the school. LOL!!!! What are you gonna do? They're thinking of doing Saturday classes, or skipping Spring vacation or just going all the way through till July. Ugh. Yes, it's snowed that much. There is no where to put it all!! It's almost to our windows. I have been out shoveling and the pathway I make for my dogs it past my hips. I was so excited when we had our first blizzard. Now I'm just over it. There is only so much baking, cooking, cleaning, snowman making a girl can do. I'm trying really hard to see the bright side of all this, but all I'm getting is white! WHITE everywhere. I'm way more than ready for Spring. I'm actually already looking for bulbs to plant, looking at raised containers for a vegetable/fruit garden. Some tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce.I want my gladiolas back, too. I want my yard to be filled with colors, scents and lots of sunshine. I'm done with Winter. I'm tired of putting on all these damn clothes. I'm sick of having my windows closed and not being able to air things out everyday. I actually just had to do that the other day because we're all been very sick. The kids were napping, so I covered them up real good like, turned the heat off and then opened the windows for 15 minutes. They slept through the cleansing and I felt  much better after finally doing it. My cat had a grand time sitting in the open window. Even she's ready for this crap to be over and done with.

So we will be snowed in again tomorrow. I'm running out of things to do with the kids! The kids are sick of the tv, sick of painting, sick of play-doh and there is no way in Hell I'm breaking out the Moon Dough. All set with that crap. I'd actually suck it up and not complain about the snow if my kids would just stay healthy. I'm hoping they've built up some immunities these past two illnesses. Because we all know how I feel about the fact that I can't give my 2 year old any kind of medicine other than Tylenol or ibuprofen. It's so frustrating. I had to take her in on Saturday because her fever spiked to 103.6 and I couldn't get it down even though I had just given her a dose of tylenol and  then 3 hours later a dose of ibuprofen. The doctor informed me that there is a very nasty virus going around and to keep a close eye on the little kids and if anyone starts sounding croupy to give her a call. So far so good! Lex and Lo have been sleeping a lot. They have been napping, which is unheard of, then going to bed early and sleeping later. Fine by me! I can't complain about sleeping babies. ;) I have been getting some pretty decent sleep since I've felt better. Last week was Hell though. No sleeping at all. So yeah, I'd deal with anything if my kids would just stay healthy. :)