The Ketchledge Family

December

2012-01-19T14:45:00.000-05:00

I can't believe December has come and gone and we are already halfway through January! I know I'm late again but I wanted to try to catch up and get January done on time :)

As usual the month was really busy with school and work. The semester ended for me and Noah so we had papers to write and finals to take. We got our Christmas decorations up and started a new tradition with Charlie the Elf coming to visit our house. We had a great time hiding him all over the house and the kids loved waking up each morning to find him! I'm sure he'll be returning to our house for many years to come!

Our Elf on the Shelf - Izzy named him Charlie

Towards the middle of the month Noah and I went up to D.C. for the Redskins/Patriots game! We went with his sister Theresa and her boyfriend Peter and we had an amazing time. It was my first pro-game and I loved it even though it was freezing. We went up the night before and stayed with Humaira which was great. Then we got up and tailgated at the stadium. We ended up near some great people and had a blast. Our seats were in the end zone but only 6 rows up! The Patriots won, but it was a close game and we were nervous. To me, close games are way better anyway! This is definitely on our list to do every year!

I wrapped up work for the month early and started my holiday break with surgery on the 14th. The details are not important here, but I basically spent the last half of the month in the recliner with Noah and my parents doing pretty much everything. I am doing much better now and pretty much back to normal. I am super thankful for my family and my husband who took such great care of me!

We celebrated Christmas here with my parents and siblings. My parents spent the night so they could be here when the kids woke up. We went to Christmas Eve service and it was beautiful.

Not great but the best I could get in their Christmas outfits

The kids got to open their new Christmas jammies after they put reindeer food on the lawn and cookies and milk out for Santa. Santa had made an early delivery with Izabel's new bed! She looks like such a big girl sleeping in it and I know she loves. Both kids are super spoiled and got way too much. Noah and I both got watches and we all had a nice day hanging out together!

The view Christmas morning

Izzy's new bed!

She loves sleeping in it!

Daddy made a special Christmas breakfast


Again not the best pic but the best I could get in their Christmas shirts

The month ends with me hanging out with the kids and trying to get the house organized and clean. We are making our resolutions and working hard to have more family time before life gets crazy again! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Izzy hanging out with Baby Rowan

Baby Jackson born Christmas morning! Congrats JK and Jackie!!

***When I find the battery charger for my camera I will have to do a photo post - for now you will have to live with the pictures from my phone :)

November

2011-12-30T07:46:00.001-05:00

Obviously I am way behind since it is the end of December as I am writing this post, but I figured a month at a time was enough to catch up. I visited California for the first time at the beginning of November with a trip to Anaheim. I went with a group from work for the National Career Academy Coalition Conference. We had a pretty good time and got to go see the Hollywood sign, Walk of Fame and Chinese Theater along with Disneyland. More than likely I will be back there next year with students for a DECA conference so it was nice to scope it out and see what I could do with the kids.

ODU Basketball was in full swing and we try not to miss any games!

While I was in California my beautiful niece Rowan Olivia was born. I was devastated not to be here on her birthday, but my sister did great and I've spent lots of quality time with Rowan since! She is perfect and I love her so much. I am so excited to be an Auntie!!!

Introducing Rowan Olivia Myers born November 3, 2011

Izzy loves her cousin!

Another grand baby for grandma to play with!

The month was pretty busy with school and work and of course it ended with Thanksgiving. We had dinner with Auntie Ann, Theresa, and Laurie and then had our annual scavenger hunt. Everyone ended up back at my house for dessert and I was the judge of the contest. It was very stressful and I think next year I will play instead of judge!

An attempt at a family picture

Tanner fell asleep before dessert!

Just part of the desserts we shared :)

We spent the weekend with my family in Williamsburg and went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens to start out the holiday season! We even started our shopping at the outlets and got some great deals.

Izzy and Granddaddy waiting to see Santa

Penguins!

Listening to music and warming up!

October!

2011-11-17T08:07:00.000-05:00

IZABEL IS 4!!!

These are a few of her favorite things :)

We started off the month by heading to Disney's Princesses on Ice. Noah and I just took Izabel for a special night to start her birthday celebration. We met up with her friends Evie and Lily for dinner and then went over to the show. Izabel was feeling pretty yucky but she enjoyed the show a lot and we all had a great night.

Izabel, Evie and Lily at the Hampton Coliseum

Izzy and Daddy!

Izabel turned 4 and Tanner turned 2 1/2 on October 8th. Unfortunately they both had strep throat the whole week before so we ended up canceling the big party we had planned and only had a little get together at the house instead. We filled Izabel's room full of balloons the night before and they ended up being great decorations for the party and the rest of the weekend. Of course Izabel woke up in the middle of the night and said she wanted them out of her room!

So much fun!

Noah's Mom, Aunt, Cousin and Grandma were all in town and got to celebrate along with all of the local family and close friends. We had lemon cupcakes opened presents.

Izabel's new Leapster Explorer from Mommy and Daddy

Tanner got a little something too!

Strawberry Shortcake!!!

Busy coloring before bedtime

Mimi got Izzy and Tanner their very own bounce house so most of the party was spent outside jumping!

Jumping and Sliding

They had a blast and then we went to Izabel's favorite restaurant, Friendly's, for dinner. She got lots of great stuff and I'm pretty sure she had an amazing weekend surrounded by the people who love her the most! Thank you to everyone who came.

P.S. Thank you notes will be coming soon now that I'm done with mid terms :)

Finally a good picture of both of them together and it was taken at school!

In other news - Tanner had his speech evaluation this month. We've been waiting forever for CHKD to get to him so we finally went with the city's early intervention program and they have been fantastic. They brought a team of people to the house and tested Tanner in every area. They tested him at a 3 year old level and he passed every test with flying colors. He is doing a great job in everything except speech. He makes sounds, but not words. He definitely expresses himself and makes what he wants known, he just can't quite form the words that we do. A speech therapist will be coming to the house once a week now to work with him and hopefully I'll finally get to hear his sweet little voice soon!

Tanner at 2 and a half

At the end of the month both kids had their check ups with our new found favorite Dr. Carson! If you need a pediatrician in the Hampton Roads area she is absolutely fantastic and we couldn't love her anymore!!! Both kids are doing pretty well. Izabel is 34lbs (42nd percentile) and 39 inches (37th percentile) and Tanner is 35lbs (90th percentile) and 37 inches (75th percentile). We talked about Tanner's asthma and the fact that he is back to coughing all the time and using the inhaler. For right now he is on a one-a-day allergy medicine but I am thinking he will be going to the one-a-day asthma and allergy soon. Since it looks like he probably has asthma he couldn't have the flu mist so he ended up getting the one shot. Izabel is doing great other than her sleeping habits. We have great routines in place and bedtime always happens at the same time every night, but she will lay in her bed awake for so long that she ends up getting less than half of the recommended amount of sleep for age! It's obviously a problem for all of us so we brought it up and the Dr. recommended melatonin. It's a natural supplement to help her sleep and so far it's been working okay. She has started falling asleep a little earlier. Hopefully we will start seeing a change in her soon as she starts to catch up on some rest! For most kids this is the visit before starting kindergarten next fall so she ended up getting four shots. My drama queen was very unhappy and limped around the rest of the day!

Finally, the month ended with Halloween! I like to coordinate costumes which was hard this year because Izabel wanted to be a princess. Disney really needs to work on their selection of boy costumes! I finally figured it out and they were The Princess and the Frog for trick-or-treating. They had a blast and definitely did not want to come home even though they filled up their buckets numerous times :)

Izabel just wanted to get going - not take pictures :)

Our friends Evie and Lily came too

Roller Skating

2011-10-28T16:37:00.000-04:00

Izabel and Tanner went roller skating for the first time at Drew's birthday party a few weeks ago. I wasn't sure how it would go or if they would even skate, but they did and they loved it. The people at the skating rink tightened the wheels so they didn't roll very much. I got out there with them and we had a great time. Even during presents and cake Izabel kept asking to go back out and skate. I'm glad we have found something else that we can do as a family that we all enjoy!

Sorry for the terrible pictures...I only had my phone!

Picture Update

2011-10-02T09:31:00.000-04:00

A few recent pictures for you to enjoy!

Little Brother Big Sister love

Their new past time is reading to each other...I love it!

Not the best picture but the only one we got at Ryan and Melissa's wedding

Amy's Baby Shower

2011-10-02T09:23:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago (sorry for the delay) we had a baby shower for my sister Amy. Her little girl Rowan will be here early in November and we are so excited for her. They are going with a monkey themed nursery so I used that as the theme for the shower as well. We had a great time and she got lots of great stuff and really cute clothes. Rowan is a lucky girl!

Strawberry Banana Monkey Cupcakes made by Sweet Temptations!

Izabel is ready for a baby cousin!

First Day of School

2011-09-09T15:58:00.000-04:00

This week was the first week of school and Tanner's first experience as a preschooler! It's crazy that all four of us will be in school this year, but our family values education right!?!?

I was kind of sad about sending Tanner to school. It is so great for him and he loves it so much, but he is the baby and it's sad to see him looking so grown up. I couldn't stand it when we were walking to his classroom. I didn't cry, but I did get a little teary eyed and didn't get much accomplished at work that day. Both Izabel and Tanner are attending Greenbrier Manor. Izabel went their last year and we couldn't be happier with them.

All dressed up and ready to go!

Izzy and Tanner outside of the school

Eating breakfast with Ms Bridget (Izzy's teacher)

Tanner and Izabel both had a great first day of school and came home super excited to go back! I got home pretty late from my classes that night so I didn't get to hear a lot about it, but I've been getting nightly reports about their days and notes from their teachers. Tanner's teacher even sent home a picture of his first day at school! Here's to a great start for this school year and a foundation for a love of learning all throughout their lives!!!

Natural Disasters and Random Pictures

2011-08-28T13:41:00.001-04:00

So Virginia has gone through almost all of the natural disasters possible in the last week! We started with a very random 5.9 earthquake on Tuesday. Talk about scary! It was really not a big deal and the people from California got a big laugh over our craziness, but feeling the ground move underneath you in a place where it never does is scary. I don't need to feel that ever again! Then we all braced ourselves for hurricane Irene which hit last night. She started out looking very scary and did cause some damage to a big part of the area, but we were pretty luck and never even lost power. Out of Irene came a tornado at Sandbridge that did some pretty bad damage to the beautiful rental houses down there and threatened to come through our area. Through all of this we have been smelling the smoke from a wildfire in the great dismal swamp for a while now. Hopefully we won't have any tsunamis or blizzards in the near future because this area needs a break!!!

Now on to the pictures! I heard recently that I haven't been getting pictures up a lot and I know it's been pretty bad. I did warn you in my last post that as my life gets crazier this year I will be posting less and less! Here are some random pictures from the last couple weeks to hold you over for a while :)

Tanner bowling for the first time - he loved it!

The shoes went great with her outfit!

Love the hands on the hips!

Our anniversary dinner in Atlantic City - look closely!

6 years of marriage

Nothing like a bunch of purple chips to help us celebrate!!!

Izabel likes to read to Tanner

and play Angry Birds with Daddy :)

Finally Finished!

2011-07-29T08:21:00.000-04:00

I officially graduated from Virginia Tech with my Master of Science in Career and Technical Education on July 2, 2011 and my diploma came this week! I managed to keep straight As the entire time and graduate Summa Cum Laude. I am very excited to now have two degrees and be able to say I accomplished this goal. I treated myself to a new Coach bag, Noah is getting me the diploma frame I want from Tech, and my parents are getting me a new charm for my Pandora bracelet :)

It's official!

My new Coach bag...not quite as exciting as that piece of paper but still picture worthy :)

So what does the future hold for this graduate? Well after a ton of paperwork is done I will receive a new teaching license from the state and a new contract with my new pay scale from the city. On August 8th I start working on my National Boards which is a certification process for teachers. It takes a year and includes a huge portfolio with videos of me teaching and lots of writing, and then a written test. It's pretty intense, but I've heard it's really worthwhile and it comes with a great stipend when I get it.

Also, because I am evidently a crazy person, I will be starting my Ph.D. in Education on August 27th at ODU. For the fall semester I will be taking classes on Tuesday and Friday. I know Friday classes sound terrible, but I didn't have a choice. The classes I have to take each semester are chosen for me and they are only offered on one day! This degree is a process so I can't set an expected graduation date. I was told it takes a little over 2 years of course work and then however long it takes to complete the dissertation. It's a process and I'll complete it as quickly as I can, but it'll be a while. On a happier note, I am so thrilled to be back at ODU - I'm a Monarch and this is where I belong!

I have very mixed feelings about taking all this on while I already have so much going on in my professional life. I am the new instructional leader (department head) for my department at work and I am on the Board of Trustees for Virginia DECA. These are new roles in addition to being the DECA sponsor for Kecoughtan, hospitality chairperson, school store advisor, serving on the career academy committee and being the District 25 DECA advisor.

I tell you all this to explain why I might not be blogging very much in the coming months! My travel schedule alone already has me in various parts of Virginia 4 weekends this year, Chicago in November, New York in March and Salt Lake City in April. It's going to be a fun, crazy, exhausting, rewarding, successful year so bear with me and try not to get offended when I get super stressed out! It's going to be a good ride and all so worthwhile in the end :) Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive so far and all of you who will be there for me through these next challenges!

Gymnastics

2011-07-16T09:07:00.000-04:00

Izzy has been going to gymnastics for about 9 months now and she really enjoys it. She's come a long way and it's fun to watch her. It's definitely hard to get over to the gym each week since her class is right after work/naps but that's something we're going to have to get used to! It's hard for me to get pictures because the teams are usually all over the place so I was excited this week when the teams had the night off and I could snap a couple shots. Enjoy!

Lots of Updates!

2011-07-14T11:41:00.000-04:00

For the past 2 1/2 weeks Noah's dad (Grandpa) and his sister Maria have been staying with us. It has been nice spending time with them and watching the kids get to know them both. It has also been nice having an extra adult around for outings with the kids! Noah took them to a Tides baseball game their first week here and we went to Water Country and the beach several times. Izabel got her hair cut in a salon for the first time and we took both kids to see Cars 2 which was their first movie!

Such a big girl!

I know it's a bad picture but I only had my phone!

She looks so grown up now

Tanner likes to play memory

We all went out to dinner with my parents, Candace, Matt and Drew to celebrate my graduation last weekend and this week we went to the zoo with Michelle and Blair! We've had a great time and have no intentions of slowing down even after they leave tomorrow. Stay tuned for lots more updates and enjoy the pictures of some of our recent events :)

Such great friends

They love playing together

I think we might be in trouble!

Tanner, Izabel and Blair looking at the chickens

Michelle and Blair

On the Rhino!

Tanner loves trains!

Ready for a train ride :)

The Beach!

2011-07-05T19:16:00.000-04:00

Today we met up with my friend Ryan and her son Tripp at the beach. The kids had a great time playing in the sand (and throwing the sand) for most of the day! Unfortunately we all managed to get a sunburn but we had fun and it was so nice to catch up with a good friend :)

Izabel and Tripp were friends right away!

So cute!

Someone dug a big hole and left it for the kids to play in!

I'm pretty sure she was telling him that was her bucket :)

4th of July Flashback

2011-07-05T19:08:00.000-04:00

I realized yesterday as I was getting the kids dressed in their 4th of July outfits that we have taken a family picture in our red, white, and blue every year since Tanner was born and they are all pretty much the same, but side by side they show just how much the kids have grown and changed over the last 3 years. I thought I'd put them together and post them instead of a bunch of pictures from our holiday...which wasn't too exciting this year but still nice!

And a picture of Izabel for 4th of July 2008!

Sugar and Spice!

2011-06-22T09:40:00.000-04:00

It's official, I am going to have a niece! I am so excited for my sister Amy and brother-in-law Ray. They have been waiting so long to have a baby and they just found out they will be having a little girl. I already bought a little pink newborn outfit for her. I forgot just how little those things actually are! Baby Girl Myers will be joining our family sometime around November 9th (we are keeping our fingers crossed for the 11th) and we can't wait to meet her!!!

End of the School Year

2011-06-11T14:49:00.001-04:00

Remember when you were in school and you would count down the days until summer vacation and get really anxious and excited??? Well that is how every year feels when you are a teacher! We are just as excited for the summer as the students and we probably need the break more than them :) This year was super busy, stressful, exciting, and successful school year. Some of my closest students are graduating next week and I am excited for what is to come for them, but I am also going to miss them. We had a farewell dinner and our last class together. They all wrote wonderful essays about how DECA has changed their lives and what they plan to do in the future. One of my state officers wrote, "Thank you Mrs. Ketchledge for all that you have done for me, you do not even know how much of an impact you have had on my life." This means more to me than anything they could have given me, but of course my present was fun too. They got a me a Pandora bracelet!!! I've been wanting one for so long so I was super excited. They also got me a suitcase charm, which was perfect to represent all of our trips together. They told the underclassmen that they had to get me a new charm every year and keep the tradition going! I love them all and congratulations to the class of 2011 :)

JK and Jackie - June 4, 2011

2011-06-11T14:33:00.000-04:00

We were also very honored to be a part of the wedding of two of our closest friends, JK and Jackie. JK was in our wedding and is Izabel and Tanner's godfather. He fell in love with Jackie years ago and we love her too! We were quite the foursome until they moved to Hawaii almost three years ago. We were lucky enough to go visit them a few months back and now we are thrilled to have them moving back here in the fall! They got married in Nags Head, NC and announced they are expecting their first child already, due December 25th! We had an amazing time over the wedding weekend and it was great catching up with all of our old friends. Congratulations and we love you both very much!!!

I got to walk with my hubby!

We have an announcement to make!!!

Tanner loves JK

Grandma and Granddaddy came too!

Didn't know if I'd get the chance to take this picture but so happy I did!

Candace and Matt - May 28, 2011

2011-06-11T14:18:00.000-04:00

We were honored to be such a part of Candace and Matt's wedding on Saturday May 28, 2011. I was a bride's maid and Izabel was the flower girl! We had so much fun and we are so happy for the newlyweds!!!

Blackmail pictures of Izzy and Drew for future use!

They are so cute!

Sorry Drew but I love the pic of Izzy!

You may kiss the bride!

I got to dance with my hubby!

Izabel had a blast

What Happened?

2011-06-11T14:06:00.000-04:00

I think busy should be my middle name. For some reason there is never enough time to complete anything, especially upload pictures and I hate to post without pictures. Therefore, there has been a huge lack of blogging around here lately. There are lots of things to tell you about since I haven't posted since Easter. For Mother's Day we had Tanner's baby dedication at church. Then we were busy working on school and finishing out the school year. Wedding weekends hit us back to back and we had an amazing time (see next two posts) and we started preparing for company to come visit!

School is almost out which means lots of fun events coming for the summer. We got Busch Gardens and Water Country passes to go along with our zoo membership so we can stay nice and busy this summer! Also my new backpack beach chair makes me feel much more confident when it comes to getting both kids to the beach on my own - I can totally do it! I graduate June 30th with my Masters from Virginia Tech and it will be so nice to have a little break from school while I am home with the kids!!!

Tanner had his baby dedication at church on Mother's Day

He was a little shy with Pastor Kyle

Both of our families were there and it meant a lot!


It was the perfect Mother's Day!

Updated!

2011-04-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

I finally got some pictures added to all the post I've been meaning to finish this month. Scroll down from this to Tanner's Birthday party to catch up!!!

We are heading down to Orlando tomorrow for National DECA conference so hopefully I will have some exciting news to blog about when we return - but for now I wanted to share that yesterday I was elected to the VA DECA Board of Trustees! I am very excited and can't wait to start my three-year term this August :)

Easter Weekend!

2011-04-27T20:57:00.000-04:00

We are very thankful that we serve a God who not only died for our sins, but did not stay dead. Our God is alive and that exactly what we celebrate not only on Easter but all throughout the year.


Not the best pic, but the best one we got!

We went to church on Saturday night. The kids did great and went straight into their classes. Izabel got to move up to a bigger class and she loved it. The service was excellent and it is always nice to go to church with the whole family. Sunday morning we hosted Easter brunch and an Easter egg hunt. The kids got their Easter baskets with their new Disney movies, some books, a little bit of candy and some toys. Izabel's favorite item was orange glitter nail polish - she is such a girlie girl!

Yay for nail polish!

We love eating outside and the kids love their picnic table

Goofy kiddos

Izzy and "Dew"

Izabel got the most eggs!

Aunt Ann, Gram, Theresa, Mom, Dad, Josh, Amy, Matt, Candace, Matt and Drew all joined us for breakfast. We had a great meal and enjoyed each others company. After the egg hunt we took the kids down to the beach with Candace, Matt and Drew. We walked on the board walk and played at the park. When we got too hot we came home and enjoyed a great ham dinner cooked by my wonderful husband!!! It was a great weekend celebrating and spending time together and we can't wait for more beautiful weather weekends to get outside with the kids :)

Water table fun - they LOVED this! Thank you Aunt Amy :)

Circus Circus!

2011-04-27T20:40:00.000-04:00

We finally decided (on the last day it was in town) to take the kids to the circus! Actually, to be fair my parents bought the tickets for the kids and we all went together. Tanner wasn't all that interested in most of it. He was excited in the beginning and then quickly got bored, but Izabel LOVED it. She didn't take her eyes off of the excitement the entire time and her eyes were so wide. My favorite part was watching her during the tight rope walkers. She kept putting her hands over her eyes and watching through her fingers. It was so cute! When we got in the car I asked her what her favorite part is and she started naming things and then said "everything was my favorite part!" I love her!!!

The kids with Daddy and Granddaddy

Tanner was happiest while he was eating - and that is peanut butter and jelly not junk!

SO EXCITED!

Nervous about the tightrope walkers :)

Spring Break :)

2011-04-27T17:13:00.000-04:00

Our Spring Break in Hampton is always the first week in April in between the 3rd and 4th marking periods. This year we were the only ones in the area to go on Spring Break this week because Easter is not until the 24th and other school districts have Spring Break right before or after Easter.

As we have started to make our new tradition we headed up to Massanutten for a long weekend at the beginning of break. Since this was not a usual Spring Break week there were not that many people there and we had a really great time. My parents came up with us and the Ingrams joined us for a couple days as well. We went to the water park, the pool, the lake and the regular park and just enjoyed each others company. It's nice to get away and not have anything to do but be together.

We came home Tuesday night so we could make it to our Y-Change class and so Noah could go to poker. Wednesday and Thursday Izzy went to school and me and Tanner got to hang out in the mornings. We had a nice couple of days and then celebrated Tanner's 2nd birthday over the weekend! I love spring break, but now that it is over the countdown for summer is on!!!

Choo Choo, Tanner's Two!

2011-04-27T17:03:00.000-04:00

On Friday we celebrated Tanner's 2nd birthday!!! I can't believe my baby boy is two! He's so grown up and yet still my baby boy all at the same time. I got to spend the morning of his birthday with him while Izabel was out school. We did some shopping for his birthday present together and then we started some baking for his big party. My mom came over to cut his hair and then we were out the door to pick up Izzy and head to Tanner's 2 year well check!

He's still not really talking but Izabel didn't talk until she was almost 2 1/2 so we're not really worried about it. Everything else he is doing is completely age appropriate and he passed all his age 2 screenings. He weighs 32 lbs (90%) and is 34 inches long (82%). The only concern right now is this cough that will not go away. It seems to flare up at night, in the morning and when he gets really active. The doctor is concerned this could be asthma so they put him on an inhaler for a couple months and then he will be checked out again. He took his one shot like a champ and that was that. The ears are clear which is such a relief since an ear infection this time would have meant tubes. We are in love with the new doctor he saw this time (our usual one was out of the office this month for surgery and recovery), Dr. Laura Carson. She was so nice and friendly and patient! We'll be asking for her again for sure!!

After the doctor we had birthday and Easter pictures taken and they were so adorable. I'll post some as soon as I can scan them in! Then we met my parents for dinner at Friendly's which both kids love. Tanner got really shy and almost cried when they sang to him. Luckily the ice cream they brought saved the day! It was really cute.

Saturday we had a Choo Choo party to celebrate. Tanner's present from us was the GeoTrax train set which both kids are in LOVE with! It came with two trains so I thought we would be good, but of course they still manage to fight over it sometimes. We put up some decorations and of course blew up balloons! We had Choo Choo cupcakes and lots of yummy snacks and the kids played with the train set. Tanner got lots of great presents! He got a Handy Manny took box that plays music and the tools dance. He can't help but start moving his hips when the music comes on and it is so cute! He also got a super soft Thomas blanket that he will not go to sleep without! He got lots of toys for the bath tub, books, and super cute clothes. Everything was perfect and every time I tried to give him a new present to open he just wanted to keep playing with the last one. I think he was a little overwhelmed but it was great!

The rest of the weekend we were pretty lazy. I was feeling a little under the weather so Noah took the kids to the park a couple times and we did some homework and played with the new toys. Now Spring Break is over (post about that coming soon) and it's back to real life! Only 9 more weeks and we're on summer vacation which means I get to be a stay at home mommy for a while. I'm excited and I have lots of things that I am going to accomplish around here this summer and lots of fun things we will do with the kids. It's exciting!!!

A Very Special Day!

2011-03-25T12:51:00.000-04:00

Today is a big day and no it's not my birthday - yet! Today is my mom's 60th birthday!!! On top of the fact that it is a big birthday for her, it is a day to celebrate the fact that she is still alive.

The fact that she almost did not make it to this birthday is not lost on me and I have been a little teary all week thinking about it. My mind keeps going to back to those days in October and November when we didn't think she would make it to 60 years old.

I'm sure she's not thrilled with my blasting her age all over the internet, but I think it's amazing that she's made it to this milestone and still looks and acts so much younger! She's still taking care of the kids, does things around the house for us during the day and is always available to all of us if we ever need anything.

She really is an amazing mom and we're never been more thankful to celebrate her special day. She's a walking miracle and we pray that we will experience many more special birthdays with her!

Happy Birthday Mom!

We don't tell you enough but we love you so much and couldn't survive with you!!!

Weekends

2011-03-23T21:16:00.000-04:00

I love weekends! I mean who doesn't, but lately I just can't wait to be at home with the kids. I've been working really hard at keeping everything picked up each night so that I don't have to spend the whole weekend getting the house back in order from the week. It has given me so much more time to just relax and play!

Thursday is not really a weekend day, but since it was St. Patrick's Day I figured it could be included! Izabel had some fun activities at school with a sneaky leprechaun causing lots of chaos. He went potty and washed his hands in the sink leaving green all over the bathroom and messed up all the toys! Izabel thought it was so funny and has been blaming the leprechaun for everything ever since :)


Izzy and Drew at dinner for St Patrick's Day

I guess he wasn't having a good time :)

Friday I met Candace at David's Bridal and ordered the bridesmaid dress for her wedding, the one for Jackie's wedding and the sash for Izabel's dress! Thank goodness for tax returns :) Of course doing that after work meant I spent forever sitting in Friday afternoon traffic to get home. Noah and Matt took Izabel and Drew to the hockey game and me and Candace hung out with Tanner for the evening. Izabel and Drew are so cute together and we always try to get a few good blackmail pictures for the future! The kids had a great time and stayed up way too late, perfectly acceptable every once in a while!!!

Saturday morning the kids slept until 8 so I actually got a shower and a cup of coffee while the house was quiet. It was beautiful and I certainly enjoy this on the rare occasions that it occurs. We went for a walk/bike ride and then ran some errands. We were supposed to go to Trevor's birthday party but the yucky stuff coming out of Tanner's nose kept us home :( I'm so sick of these never ending colds!

Tanner enjoying his ride

I love my view on our walks :)

Izabel looks for the pink car everyday!

Miss Courtney came over to babysit so we could go to the hockey game Saturday night. We had a really great time sitting in the box and watching all the action up close and personal! Then we came home to watch the UFC fight, drink too much and stay up way too late!

Whipped cream vodka, orange soda and sherbet drinks - yum yum!

Sunday we played at home until Noah finally got out of bed! While he was sleeping I was working on a plan to turn the area off of our kitchen into a playroom. I want some organization and a place for the kids so I thought about bookshelves on the back wall, but I see our kids climbing up to the top and then us rushing to the ER. Needless to say I don't have a plan yet, but I'm open to suggestions! Feel free to comment :)

Once we were all ready to get going we finally went and joined the YMCA! I was so excited and we have already been twice since then. I'll do a separate post about this later. After we were finished we went to Best Buy to get my birthday present - a new wireless printer! I'm in love with it but having a few technical difficulties in getting it going on our home network. This is on the to-do list for next weekend!

We finished off our weekend the normal way around here - with homework! The kids snuggled up on the couch watching a movie and it was so cute seeing them snuggle :) Yay for weekends - let's get to the next one quickly please!!!

Snuggle time after the bath

A Family Weekend

2011-03-14T14:32:00.000-04:00

With our crazy busy schedule it is rare for all of us to get together all weekend. Noah has been working on Saturdays all year and I have been traveling a lot so it is easy to see why I would be so excited for a weekend at home. We started on Friday night with dinner at Silver Diner before running some errands. I had no idea they had made such huge changes to their menu. They have a lot of organic ingredients in their food and most of their food is fresh from local farms. It was amazing and we will be going back there real soon!

Check it out here

Saturday we worked on getting the house back together and organized. Things get crazy when we are gone for a while so we had a lot of work to do. Then we took the kids to get some spring clothes and new shoes. Izabel got light-up Princess shoes which she was so excited about! After naps and playing for a while Ms. Courtney came over to play with the kids so me and Noah could go to a show at the Funny Bone with Candace and Matt. Candace got tickets for the hypnotist show and we all had a great time. The kids even had fun playing with Ms. Courtney who they haven't seen in a while!

Daddy and Tanner got a nice nap in Saturday afternoon!

Sunday I got to sleep in a little bit and when I came out of my room Noah was on the floor in Izabel's rooming playing Chutes and Ladders with both kids. It was so cute and such a great way to start the day. We took the kids to the zoo and had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect and it wasn't too crowded. The kids would stop at each exhibit, look until they found the animal and move on. They couldn't wait to see what was next. I actually had to stop them quite a few times so me and Noah could look at some things! We rode the train which was a big hit and had lunch and then headed home for naps. While the kids were sleeping me and Noah cleaned out the garage. Who knew we had a pool table under all that junk?!?! We have a big pile of stuff for goodwill and we are excited to have our space back to normal! I got some homework time in and then Aunt Theresa and Peter came over for dinner and we had a great visit with them. All over it was a great weekend and we are looking forward to many more like this now that spring is starting to set in!

Cool dude checking out the animals

Me and Izzy on the train

Daddy with the kiddos on the train ride

Checking out the elephants

P.S. Noah signed the membership form for the YMCA so pretty soon we will be going to the Y several times a week! So excited!!! Click here if you are interested in joining...I need workout buddies!

Playing Catch Up!

2011-03-12T08:38:00.000-05:00

I'm two weekends behind with the updates so I thought I'd combine them into one post and get it up this morning before our weekend activities start again!

Two weekends ago we had a baby shower for my good friend Courtney. Her baby is due in May, but she lives in CT and was down here to visit so we got together to celebrate. Most of the gifts were shipped to her house, but she still got some cute things and we had a great time playing games and catching up.

Cupcakes from Sweet Temptations!

Outfit from Hawaii

We're pretty sure she is having a boy but just in case :)

The next day the weather was beautiful so we packed a lunch and took the kids to Mt. Trashmore (or as Izabel calls it - trash mountain)! They just opened a huge new playground near Kid's Cove and the kids love playing there. We also went to the top of the mountain and then down the other side so we could walk around the lake. We all had a great afternoon!

The following weekend I was away again for State DECA competition. I went over to Norfolk Wednesday night to stay with my state officers and Noah came over on Friday with the rest of my students. I worked non-stop helping in a variety of ways including running all three of the marketing representative events. I was exhausted and could barely walk by Sunday, but it was a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll do it all again next year! We didn't have any overall winners in competitive events, but we accomplished some great things as a chapter this year and we had quite a few finalists in different categories as well as a scholarship winner. I also won an Outstanding Advisor Award, which I am pretty proud of since I have worked so hard this year! One of my state officers is running for National DECA President so we are off to Orlando at the end of April to help him campaign. It will be the last trip of the year and hopefully we will be successful! Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Cassie and Campaign Manager Alicia

Cassie's Campaign Materials

Sydney's Campaign table with Emily as Campaign Manager

State Officers at Opening Session

Getting my Outstanding Advisor Award

Evan and Travis

2010-2011 Virginia DECA Officers

Kecoughtan DECA 2011

Even though we were completely exhausted Sunday night and all day at work on Monday, me and Noah and my Dad had to head up to Richmond Monday night to cheer on the ODU Men's basketball team in the CAA championship game against VCU! We really had no choice but to go since we are such big fans and VCU is our biggest rival :) We got there in time for the ODU alumni reception and then had a great time at the game. It was non-stop action which is so much fun and of course we won! Now we're onto the NCAA tournament! Let's go Monarchs!!!

Final Score ODU 70 - VCU 65

Students Rushing the Court

The rest of the week was pretty stressful with normal spring-time work stuff and planning to go to Nationals. I have also been looking into what I will do when I finish my Master's degree. I was really torn between a few different programs, but I think I have finally decided to apply to the OTS Ph.D. program at ODU! Fingers crossed again for me please as I get my packet together and wait for a decision! I'm pretty scared about starting this endeavor, but it has always been part of my overall plan for my career so the sooner I start the sooner I finish. My goal is to be Dr. Ketchledge by spring or summer of 2016. I know that sounds like a long way away, but it is a 3-5 year process! We'll see how I feel as I start applying, interviewing and getting more information in the coming months!

The weather is supposed to be beautiful again this weekend and Noah and I are both off Saturday and Sunday so we are looking forward to getting our house back together and spending time with the kids! We need this time to relax and be together since it doesn't happen very often! I hope everyone has a great week/weekend!

HAWAII

2011-03-01T22:25:00.000-05:00

One of the things on my bucket list is to get to all 50 states. I've actually done pretty well and I have been to 26 states in my first 26 years. One of the states I thought I would have the hardest time getting to was Hawaii because it is so expensive and so far away, but this year we found our opportunity! Two of our very close friends JK and Jackie are stationed in Hawaii with the navy and so is Noah's cousin Andy. They gave us a place to stay so we figured if we were ever going to go, this was our chance. We bought our tickets in October and on February 17th I landed in my 27th state.

The flights were really long and I am not a fan of flying anymore but it was worth it. We landed on Thursday morning in warm temperatures right as the sun was starting to come up. Jackie met us in the airport with leis and our vacation began.

We went home and showered and put our stuff away while we waited for JK to get off work. He worked a half day and then took the rest of our trip off so it was great. The first day we got in the car and did a lot of sight-seeing. We stopped at several pull-off spots to take pictures. We saw Rabbit Island, the Blow Hole, and the China Wall. Then we went to the Kona Brewery for lunch. Noah actually tried their beer, but he wasn't a fan! After lunch we stopped by the NEX for some essentials* and then we went to Kailua. We got shaved ice (which I wish I could have shipped here) from Island Snow and went to Lanikai Beach which was the prettiest beach we saw all week! We went home and cooked out for dinner since me and Noah both felt like we couldn't stay awake any longer!

JK and Noah at a lookout spot

The Blow Hole

China Wall

Lanikai Beach

Friday morning Noah and JK got up super early to go hike the Stairway to Heaven. It is 4000 steep narrow steps up to the top of a mountain so me and Jackie decided to stay home (although she has done it before). The stairway happens to be a little less than legal so you have to go early before the guard gets there. About an hour later they were back home, because they didn't beat the guard. They were mad but made plans to try again another day! We all got ready and headed to Boots and Kimos for breakfast. They serve fried rice with pancakes! Then we went to spend the day at Hanauma Bay. This was my favorite outing of the whole trip. Hanauma Bay is famous for the snorkeling so out we went. It was our first time but we caught on quickly and even though the current was especially strong we swam out past the rocks so we could see more fish and sea turtles. It was so beautiful and I could have spent everyday there.

Hunauma Bay

Let's Go Snorkeling!

Me and Jackie

Friday night we went out to Waikiki. We had dinner at Senor Frogs and then parted ways with the boys for some girl time. We did some shopping (at the Coach store) and then hung out at the bar at Hard Rock and sat on the beach.

We asked the waiter to take a picture of us...

Very large drinks!

And balloon hats!

Andy

Goldilocks

Saturday we all went for a hike up to Manunawili Falls. It was quite a hike and very muddy. We climbed over trees and rocks until we found the beautiful waterfall. Noah went swimming and jumped off the cliff, but I didn't have my bathing suit so I just got in up to my knees. I didn't want to hike back 2-3 miles in wet shorts! The sole of my shoe started breaking off on the way back and I was really worried it would fall off in the mud. It made it off the mountain and fell off right when we saw the car! Good thing we weren't planning any more hikes for this trip :)

Saturday night we went to the Luau at Paradise Cove. I thought it was just dinner while you watched the show but they had all kinds of things to do. We had a great time and they took a great picture of all four of us that I will have to scan sometime soon.

The Happy (Soon-to-be) Newlyweds!

Me and Jackie (kind of) doing the hula on stage!

We were closer to Tokyo than to home!

The USS Arizona Memorial

Part of the USS Arizona

Oil still leaking

Retail therapy helps when we're sad so we headed for some lunch and shopping at the swap meet! We bought tons of gifts and souveniors. We got lots of little sun dresses and shirts for the kids. They are going to be so cute this summer :) Andy meet us at the swap meet and then we went to everyone's favorite restaurant - Haleiwa Joes for dinner. Their food was excellent and we had a great time!

Monday morning the boys got up even earlier and tried again. They got right to the bottom of the stairs when the guard pulled up so Noah never got to do the hike. That was the only thing on our list that didn't get done. We headed to the other side of the island and went to the Dole Plantation. It was pretty cool seeing how pineapples grow and they have amazing pineapple sherbert.

Fresh pineapple sherbert, yum!

After that we headed down the North Shore and made a bunch of stops. We did some shopping and had lunch in Haleiwa town and then walked on the beach where the filmed Lost. We saw tons of sea turtles in the water but it was too rough for them to come over the rocks onto the sand. Then we saw Sharks Beach, Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach/Pipeline. We sat out and watched the surfers for a while and then headed home.

Andy, Noah and JK on "Lost Beach"

Sharks Cove

Tuesday was time to head home so we headed to the airport but made a stop for a plate lunch and one last shaved ice on the way! We were really sad to leave but we couldn't wait to get home to see the kids. We had an amazing time and we would love to go back one day, but there are so many other places we want to see. Maybe one day...

JK and Jackie - Thank you for everything! You are both amazing and we love you so much! We're both honored to be a part of your wedding and we can't wait until you move back here so we can spend lots of time together again!!!

Our Crazy Busy Life

2011-02-11T14:13:00.002-05:00

I know I keep saying I am going to blog more, but life gets in the way. When I say life, I mean this crazy busy running around thing that we do everyday! My life is insane and finding time to sit down and blog (with pictures) is a difficult task.

On February 2nd me and Noah took 15 of my students to Orlando for the Sports and Entertainment Conference. This trip is actually a lot of fun. We stay at a Disney resort, spend two days at Universal and one day at Disney. We have some pretty great speakers, we learn a lot, and we have a lot of fun. We were both excited to go this year, but it's a hard place to go without the kids because everywhere I look I am reminded of how much I miss them! My students thought it would be funny to tell every waiter that it was my birthday. I hate when they sing happy birthday to you in restaurants. I don't even like to be at the same table as someone on their birthday so this completely sucked for me. To make matters worse they did it a Margaritaville. There was a live singer and he called me up on stage and made me do some stupid Jimmy Buffet song with him. I hated it, but I was a good sport and my kids LOVED it! I checked all their cameras and phones for blackmail pictures before we left :) However, this year's trip was not without its difficulties. I managed to get the flu from one of my students (her mom taught her how to share). It started on Thursday and into Friday. By Saturday I literally could not move. I had a ridiculous fever and slept all day. Luckily my students were really good and Noah took them to Magic Kingdom with another school so I was able to sleep off the fever. I still feel like crap a week later but I'm alive so I'll be fine. I also managed to leave my phone in a locker at Universal. We went back but of course someone took it and decided they would not turn it in. Note to self - finders keepers is not a very nice motto! I just got a new phone two days ago and being without email, facebook and text messaging was brutal. We are WAY too addicted to our phones these days!

Tonight I have to go to Downtown Norfolk for a series director meeting for DECA. It's overnight and doesn't end until after dinner tomorrow. We spend the weekend preparing for our state DECA conference. Now before you feel too bad for me having to work all weekend I should tell you that I applied for this position. I really love being more involved in DECA stuff so I asked and I received. I'd be really excited for this if I didn't feel like crap right now...but I'll survive and hopefully I'll at least get a good night's sleep at the hotel (aka - no kids waking me up in the middle of the night with their colds).

All of the sickness and crappy feelings must disappear by Wednesday though because we are going to Hawaii!!!! We leave Wednesday night and we are getting super excited. We are there until the 22nd and then we come home for a weekend. I am throwing a baby shower that weekend and then the next week I am back in Norfolk for 5 days of state competition fun! Like I said, welcome to our crazy busy life!!!

Quick Updates

2011-01-15T07:27:00.005-05:00

We've been busy but I haven't had a lot to update about so I thought I'd share a few things today!

Last Friday was our DECA District Competition at work. I took the most students and had the most winners by more than twice the second place school! It was our best year yet and I am so proud of my students. Somewhere around 27 of them will be heading to State Competition with us in March and I am very excited!!

After the competition Noah and I headed up to D.C. for the weekend. I booked a hotel room and bought him tickets to a Capitals game for Christmas. We had a really nice time. We got to see Humaira on the way up and back, the hotel had an amazing complimentary breakfast everyday, we saw a movie and went to the game. It was nice to have some time for just the two of us.

Tanner is a very big boy now - no more binky! One night we just didn't give it to him. He had been doing really well before he got sick, but while he was sick he had the binky all the time. It was getting ridiculous so we just took them all away. He hasn't asked for it or had any problems at all! It's amazing that it was so easy to take it away from both of them. I'm wondering if it is the parents who have problems taking these kind of things away instead of the kids...who knows I'm just glad to be over them!

We've been so busy that we have to sleep whenever we can!

Izabel started the New Year off with a great week of school - only one time out all week! She kind of ruined that this week, but good days come with bad days so it's ok. She moved to a Wednesday night gymnastics class and there was some overlap so she's been going twice a week for a little while and she loves it! The teacher who does the before school care also teaches the four year old class. I was talking to her about registration for next year and she actually requested Izabel for her class - so Izabel must not be that bad :)

Mom seems to be doing well taking care of them all week. I know she was happy this week to have Wednesday off (Noah was home) and now have a three day weekend, but she's very happy to be with the kids again and we are happy to have her!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy New Year

2011-01-05T19:14:00.002-05:00

So it is now day 5 of 2011 and we're back into real life with our crazy busy schedules and hectic lives. I've only been back at work for 3 days and I already feel like I need a vacation because of how busy things are, but truth be told I love it when it's busy and I bring a lot of the extra work on myself! The extra things are the parts of my job that I love the most and the reason I keep teaching! I'm going to keep telling myself this over the next month and half as I move into what I like to call "DECA season!" DECA is the club I sponsor at my school and we're now the biggest club at Kecoughtan. We have two state officers this year, a national officer candidate, two state officer candidates, tons of students participating in competitive events and a school store to run. None of those things are requirements of my job, but they are the parts I like best so I do them anyway and complain when they stress me out :)

Noah's classes have started up again so he is at school on Monday nights and Izabel has gymnastics on Wednesday nights. Tuesday and Thursday nights I get home late and of course the weekends are always booked solid. I start my classes in another week so as you can see....busy just isn't the word.

But even though our lives are crazy, January seems to be the time that I handle the stress the best. I always make resolutions and I can manage to stick with them through January at least :) This year I will renew my resolution to have an empty sink every night before I go to bed. I made this one a couple years ago and have stuck to it almost completely since then. Now I can't imagine leaving dishes in the sink over night! I also gave up soda again. I've done this a few times unsuccessfully (as you can probably see in a post from this time last year) but I thought I'd try it again. I drink more water when I'm not drinking soda so it's good for me and I feel better.

Our biggest resolution is one Noah and I made together. We want to be more patient and interactive with the kids. It's hard to admit but in the afternoons/evenings when we get home after a long day at work we just want to chill out on the couch. Of course the kids want our attention and they are hungry and tired so everyone is cranky. We lose our patience much easier than we would like. Our goal is not to yell and to use time-out when necessary, but to get down and play with the kids more or let them help do whatever we are doing (i.e. making dinner or folding laundry) in order to avoid the unacceptable behavior. So far we've been doing well for the one night we were all home :) We all took down the Christmas decorations together. Our biggest challenge is bedtime when Izabel stalls for an hour and we are exhausted, but we're trying and in time I know evenings will be smoother and we'll all be happier!

So here's to New Year's Resolutions that we keep and those that we try to keep! Do you make resolutions??? Leave a comment and share them. I think putting them in writing and sharing with others will help keep us all more accountable! I'll keep you updated on how ours is going:)
Happy New Year!

What a Year!

2010-12-31T09:42:00.003-05:00

2010 has been quite a year for us. When I think about the year I only seem to focus on the trials of the last couple months, but this year was tough right from the get-go. I spent the first couple months of this year wondering if I would still have a job at the end of the school year. While I was thankful to find out I would have a job, I was sad and mad to find out that I would be taking an almost 10% pay cut. I spend countless hours at work and do so much more than so many of the teachers I work with, but unfortunately in education you do not get paid by merit only by years. Then the end of the summer and fall hit and I dealt with the devastating blow of thinking I was going to lose my mom. At 26 I like to think of myself as a grown up, and I got to deal with all the grown up parts of this situation, but I still need my mom and it was so hard to imagine a life without her.

While this year has had it's blows and I have shed too many tears to count, it has also had it's oh so wonderful and miraculous moments. My amazing little man turned one. I never knew why the relationship between my mom and my brother was so different until now. I love my girl more than anything in the world, but I love my boy in such a different way. It must be similar to how a daddy loves a daughter. I'm so thankful to have these two little loves in my life and they amaze me everyday!

We started taking family vacations this year which turned out to be a blast. In April we went to Massanutten and then in July we went to Vermont to visit Noah's family. In August Noah and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with a weekend at the beach. Then my first love started preschool! I can't believe how big she seems and how little she seems at the same time. She's doing great and even though she has more than her share of timeouts, she is everyone's friend and she is learning new things everyday! In October she turned 3. She comes up with the funniest things to say now and she is constantly making me stop what I am doing because I am laughing so hard.

During two of the hardest months of my life we took the kids trick-or-treating for the first time and celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving with another family vacation. By Thanksgiving we had the wonderful news that my mom was going to be ok and I've never celebrated a Thanksgiving with more to be thankful for than this year. God truly does listen to our prayers!

We just finished celebrating a wonderful holiday all together with more snow than most of us have ever seen. It was so nice to have my whole family here and to have mom (although tired) back to normal. She'll be here in a couple hours to watch the kids for the weekend and she'll be back keeping them full time on Monday!

Thank you to all of our friends and family and even those that I barely know for all of the kind thoughts, prayers and comments this year. You'll never know how you touched me and my family with a simple message or card and I can never say thank you enough because words don't do my feelings justice. I know that I am truly blessed and I am looking forward to 2011 because I know that I can handle whatever life throws at me and I have true friends who will always be there to help me!

Happy New Year everyone and I hope 2011 brings you everything you dream of!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

2010-12-28T08:43:00.007-05:00

I don't know where I live anymore but it certainly cannot be Virginia Beach! Christmas evening it started snowing and didn't stop until the next morning. The weathermen had predicted it, but I never would have believed them. We ended up getting over 14 inches which is unheard of here! It is the most snowfall we've had since 1980, which means this is the most snow I have ever seen in my entire life! It's also the third biggest snowfall this area has had in the last century.

Thankfully I married someone who
knows how to deal with this

Our icy walkway

Noah took Izabel out to play in the snow the first day and they had a blast! Her snowsuit from last year still fits (thankfully she doesn't seem to grow much and can still wear 24 months) so she was nice and warm out there. Noah told her they were going to make snow angels and she said no let's make "tummy angels" so that's what they did! It was really windy and obviously extremely cold so they didn't stay out long. Tanner has had a very severe case of RSV which is a respiratory infection that is very dangerous for babies. Since he has been so sick I stayed inside with him. The snow doesn't seem to be going anywhere so hopefully he can go outside and play a little today or tomorrow, but he doesn't have anything to wear! Don't be surprised if you see pictures of him in a pink snowsuit :)

All ready to go outside :)

Noah throwing snowballs at the windows :/
She could barely walk through all the snow!

It only takes an inch or two to shut this town down. We don't have snowplows or equipment and manpower to deal with this kind of weather because we never have to deal with it. Needless to say we have been snowed in for three days now. I literally cannot open my back door because of all the snow piled on the porch and the snow fell of the sides into the pool ripping a giant hole in my cover!

Thankfully all of the schools are on Christmas break or we would probably have to make up this whole week of school. Noah had to go into work for a few hours yesterday and it's back to normal today with a little delay. In order for me and the kids not to be stranded again we got up and drove Noah into work. I don't know why I thought it wouldn't be bad but it literally looks like you could go ice skating on the neighborhood roads. The main roads are only a little better and the interstates are pretty good. It took us about an hour round trip which doesn't sound bad until you realize that Noah only works about 10 minutes away! I'm thinking we're not going anywhere today, but at least we have the option.

Now it's back to playing with all of the new Christmas presents and watching new movies to occupy our time. Yesterday I got ambitious and made some major changes to our kitchen which I really liked! Unfortunately Noah did not like them and we ended up moving everything back last night :( Let's see what I get motivated to do today! If anyone is bored feel free to come over and play, we'd be more than happy to have some company!!!

Christmas

2010-12-27T15:31:00.007-05:00

We were entirely spoiled this Christmas! It seems like everyone went a little overboard, but after what we have been through the last few months of this year I guess it is ok. We woke up Christmas morning and I jumped in the shower since I knew I wouldn't have time later. Both kids got up and hung out in our bed for a while and then moved to the living room while we were waiting for Grandma and Granddaddy to here. When they finally arrived we took the kids in and started opening the presents! We took a break to have breakfast and then had two more rounds once Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith arrived later in the day.

This looks a little ridiculous and Santa hasn't been here yet!

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care

First seeing her new princess bike and his new basketball hoop

I must have been good because I got a Kitchen Aide mixer that I have been wanting for at least 5 years, a Keurig which I am in love with, an ODU flag for the porch, an epad lap desk for my laptop, some new pjs, some much needed chocolate, a new hair dryer, a blanket, and a game.

Noah got tickets to a Capital's hockey game with hotel reservations, a new coat, a shirt, a grooming kit, new headphones, a puzzle, some card games, and some pj pants.

Santa brought Izabel everything she asked for which includes a Princess Bike, a donut maker (I seriously have no idea where she got that idea from) and a doll house! She got so excited opening each thing but when she opened the doll house she actually hugged the box! She also got tons of clothes, books, a new baby, some art supplies and some games.

Santa brought Tanner a basketball hoop that is a little tall right now but will grow with him and last a long time. He was really excited and didn't want to open any gifts, he just wanted to keep playing basketball! Unfortunately the back board was cracked so I have to take it back to the store and get a new one when some of this snow melts (see next post). He also got a tower race track, clothes, books, puzzles, a baseball set, and a tool bench toy.

Mimi and Papa sent us some money to have someone come and help clean the house every once in a while. It is an amazing gift because the next couple of months are super busy at work and I will be traveling a lot. This gift gives me time to spend with my kids when I am home instead of cleaning the house!

After all the opening!

I'm sure I am forgetting things as we were so overwhelming blessed this year. Thank you to everyone for being so generous and for all of the help and prayers and gifts!

After presents we started preparing our big Christmas dinner. We had ham and turkey and all of the fixings! We played with all of the new toys in between cooking and Aunt Ann and Andy came over for dinner too. We ended up having 16 people for dinner and my kitchen was a mess by the end of the day, but it was worth it! We ended the day by playing Wii and trying to relax. We had an amazing day and we are so lucky and blessed! We hope everyone had an equally amazing Christmas!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-27T15:15:00.005-05:00

Since we had been so sick all week we hadn't been to see Santa yet. I figured we would never get a good picture since both kids were so grumpy, but it was worth a try and a tradition I didn't want to skip. We went to Greenbrier mall to see Santa and didn't have to wait too long. Luckily we got up to see Santa right before he went on his lunch break. We put the kids on Santa's lap and photographer snapped a picture before they had a chance to get scared or cry. The next thing I new I had a picture of both kids looking at the camera and smiling! It was amazing and of course I had to buy it, but I got a pretty good one from my camera too.

PLEASE tell Santa I've been good!

I still can't believe it!

Since the kids were still yucky and I wouldn't be able to leave them in the nursery or trust them in the service, we decided to stay home and read the Christmas story as a family. I made a huge lasagna and my parents, grandma and two of my brothers came over for dinner. We read some Christmas stories and then started getting ready for Santa. Izabel spread Reindeer food on the lawn so they could find our house and we put cookies and milk with the letters the kids wrote.

Ready to go spread the Reindeer food
I'm on Grandma's and Santa's Nice List
Santa "thinks" I'm nice!

So happy to have Grandma back!

Letters to Santa with cookies and milk!

Once the kids went to bed Santa did his work rather quickly and everyone was asleep before too long. Amazingly everyone slept through the night!

Christmas #1

2010-12-27T15:00:00.006-05:00

Since Noah's sister headed up to Vermont for Christmas, we had our Christmas with her, aunt Ann and cousin Andy before she left. The kids had a blast getting to open some presents since they had been trying to get into them for a few weeks. Theresa got the kids all kinds of cute clothes plus puzzles and blocks and gave us money towards our Ocean Breeze season passes. We also got a Home Depot gift card from Auntie and a gift card from Andy. Everyone was really thrilled with everything they got and we had a nice afternoon hanging out. Auntie made chicken cutlets for us with mashed potatoes and corn and it was wonderful as always! After we ate we decorated some Christmas cookies for dessert. It was a really nice day and a great preview of what was to come for the kids!

Photo Updates!

2010-12-27T10:19:00.004-05:00

I found my camera cord!!! It's so exciting to finally be able to post pictures again and get back to regular blogging. Of course it was hiding in a drawer that I've looked in a thousand times, but I have it now so that's all that matters. Here are some picture collages from the past couple months that I couldn't post until now. Christmas posts will be next! Enjoy!!!

Read a book, give a book!

2010-12-22T08:40:00.003-05:00

One of the blogs I read highlighted this great website today. It is called We Give Books and they donate a book to the charity you choose for every book you read online. They have a great selection and Izabel and Tanner have liked looking at the books so far. I definitely recommend you check it out and start reading!

Click here to go to the website

They have tons of great books for you to read

You can zoom in and out on each page and
save the books you like in your library

Since I'm sure we all read a ton of books to our kids I thought this was a great thing to pass on! HAPPY READING!!!

Updates (finally)!

2010-12-16T09:38:00.003-05:00

I know it's been a long time since I have posted anything...but I have some good excuses!

1) My mom has been in the hospital for 7 weeks (see next post for explanation if you don't already know) but she is home now and doing VERY well!

2) My job has kept me late at work and out of town a lot so there has been no time to blog!

3) Final exams - enough said!

4) I can't find the cord to download the pictures from my camera and I hate posts with no pictures. I've had three posts waiting to be published, but I didn't have any pictures to put in them :(

Anyway...excuses or not I figured it was time for some updates now that life seems to be getting better and I am sitting at home on a "snow" day (we're still waiting for it to start snowing). Hopefully I will find the camera cord soon and there will probably be a post of nothing but pictures to catch up, but for now I went ahead and published the posts that I've been saving. Make sure you scroll down through the next three or four posts and get caught up! More to come soon - I promise!

A Long 4 (Now 7) Weeks! - UPDATED

2010-11-20T07:05:00.005-05:00

Mom was discharged from the hospital on December 10th! She is home with very little assistance needed. She has a nurse stop by to do physical therapy with her and she sleeps downstairs. She cannot really leave the house for anything but doctors appointments, but she is moving around and she got to see the kids! She's getting back to normal very quickly and we couldn't be happier. I've never been so thankful to have a phone conversation or just be able to stop by and visit. I can't explain how thrilled we all are that we can have Christmas with our whole family...because without our mom it just wouldn't be Christmas!

I know I haven't been blogging lately. It's been a rough 4 weeks and I haven't felt like I had anything nice to say...and my mom always said not to say anything at all in those situations! I do have two posts waiting for pictures so hopefully those will show up in the next couple of days (probably under this one)! Those of you that know me already know this story but since it is a part our lives now I figured it should be on the blog!

On October 23rd we went to the ODU football game with my mom and dad. My mom wasn't feeling well but we didn't think anything of it as we all called it a night and headed for bed. Sunday morning my dad called after Noah had left for his golf tournament and I was home alone with the kids. He said he couldn't get my mom to wake up that morning and he was following the ambulance to the hospital. I couldn't breathe. I didn't know what to do and what does any younger sibling do when they don't know what to do - I called my big sister. Of course she panicked too but she didn't let on. She told me to get in the shower and be ready by the time she got here. She brought her husband to stay with the kids and was here to pick me up in no time. We headed up to the hospital and what I saw was not my mother. It was some kind of possessed person going crazy and having to be held down in a hospital bed so doctors could draw blood and start all kinds of IVs and try to figure out what was wrong with her. It took over four hours to get her sedated. Initially they told us she had overdosed on her medications. We didn't buy it.

After many hours of waiting the doctor finally came with some test results. She was extremely dehydrated, in kidney, liver and renal failure and in a lot of pain. She wasn't breathing well on her own so they had to put her on a ventilator and move her to the ICU. Once they got her settled me and Amy went home. Monday morning I headed back up to the hospital to find her completely sedated and getting 100% of her oxygen from a machine. They still had no answers as to why she was there and all we could do was sit around and wait. Any time they would bring down the sedation she would get extremely agitated and have to go back to sleep.

It wasn't until Wednesday that they found the pneumonia. Once this was discovered it all started to make more sense. She didn't overdose, the combination of pain meds, sleep meds and pneumonia all caused a lack of oxygen to her brain and she wasn't getting enough oxygen to wake up. That meant she went for a period of time with a lack of oxygen to her brain and there could be brain damage. They started asking us about the quality of life mom would want and how long she would want to be on the machines. It actually surprised me that I didn't cry more. I mean there were days when I cried so hard I couldn't breathe or see or think, but most days I was going through the motions telling everyone there was no change and secretly knowing this wasn't going to end well.

But I am so very thankful to say that this is going to end well (at least for now because I am still cautious and know there is a lot of recovery to be done). On Wednesday of this week they did the surgery to put in a trache and a feeding tube. This got all of the tubes out of her mouth and face and we were hoping it would help. On Thursday, day 25 at the hospital, I arrived to find mom sitting up and trying to communicate with dad. She actually smiled when I walked in the room and me and dad cried for a whole new reason and I loved crying those tears. She can't talk but she can mouth the words so we are trying very hard to read her lips. She seems to remember everything and answers questions correctly. We are still worried about some brain damage but at least we know my mom is in there. She has a long road to be home and fully recovered. She's going to need rehab and physical therapy but she's strong and she can do it.

We're going to get our mom back and where last week I wanted to skip Thanksgiving all together, now I have so very much to be thankful for! I've spent the last few weeks just wanting to talk to my mom so call your mom today and have a nice chat...you never know when it could be your last chance!

Report Card

2010-11-07T16:58:00.006-05:00

I took off work on Thursday so that I could go to Izabel's parent-teacher conference and try to get some errands run and the house back in order since I have been spending every afternoon in the hospital. It ended up being a very productive day and even the kids closets got cleaned out!

The conference was really cute. I was worried that Izabel's behavior had gone downhill because of all the stresses at home, but it is just the opposite. She is doing great and even though she still has some timeouts the number has drastically decreased. Her teacher, Ms. Michelle, made a little report card for each student along with pictures of Izzy in class. The report card had Izzy's hand prints on the front. They asked her for her address which she could tell them and her phone number which she could not.

Izzy was Princess for a day on her birthday!

For gross motor skills she has mastered running, hopping and the balance beam. She hasn't really gotten skipping yet but that is a tough one! For fine motor skills she is right handed :( and has mastered cutting, pasting, and writing straight and diagonal lines. Her speech was measured a few weeks ago and that is all age-appropriate.

For social development she got some of the time for cooperates with teachers and shares equipment with peers which of course we expected. She got most of the time for responds positively to correction (an improvement), follows simple directions and participates in group activities.

For academic development she is doing really well. She recognizes every color, shape and upper case letter on the list. She also identified quite a few lower case letters, numbers, and consonant sounds. She can identify and continue patterns with shapes, colors, and sizes and can understand every preposition except for below and beside. She can complete 2 scene sequences and some rhyming words and has good listening skills.

When asked who her favorite friends were she named off everyone in the class. On a fun note, every other kid in the class named Izabel when they were asked that question! Her favorite activites were playdough and playing with dolls. It makes her happy when she is the time keeper and line leader. When she grows up she wants to be a cow and we are going to make so much fun of her for this when she gets older! She likes to go on the farm and on hayrides with her family.

Her teachers said "Izabel is a very happy and friendly child. She is always happy to be at school and has many friends. Izabel enjoys doing individual work and being a helper in class. She has made significant progress with sharing and listening. Izabel is a joy to have in class!" Of course this is all great to hear and the school has been amazingly helpful and understanding with our present circumstances. We are very happy that Izabel is able to go to school here and we are so proud of her!!

Halloween Festivities!

2010-11-07T16:48:00.006-05:00

Halloween this year was a crazy time since my mom was not around for the festivities. We tried our best to celebrate anyway because we didn't want the kids to miss out. We started on Friday of Halloween weekend with Izabel's pumpkin patch parade and party at school. My Dad and Aunts went to watch but Noah and I had to work. my Dad video taped it with the camcorder instead of the camera so if I can figure out how to get that up here I will. That night we took a trip to the aquarium for their Halloween event. Candace, Matt and Drew came with us and even though Noah and I were way to exhausted we ended up having a great time! They had lots of activities along with mascots, radio disney, and a puppet show. The kids had a blast and everyone commented on Captain Hook's cute costume!

On Saturday I took the kids to Trevor's house for a Halloween party. She did a great job planning the party and we had a blast hanging out with some of Izzy and Tanner's little friends. They had snacks, a craft, spooky bowling and lots of fun! That evening me and the kids hung out at home while Noah took my Dad to a hockey game. it was a great distraction for both of them.

Halloween was the first time either of my kids had every really trick-or-treated. We have always done the event at the church, but they didn't have it this year so we just went around the neighborhood. Izabel had been practicing saying "trick-or-treat" all week and she knew exactly what to do. Tanner really didn't know what was going on but it only took him a couple houses to figure it out! Once they knew we could go to any houses with a light on they wouldn't let us skip a single one. We were ready to call it a night long before they were. I'm a bad mommy for not getting a picture of all the candy but we had a blast and got way more candy than we needed (don't worry Mom we are saving some of your favorites for you!)

I'm glad the kids were able to have a good time even though life has been hard. We're trying to keep their lives as normal as possible but of course that isn't easy. I hope everyone else had an awesome Halloween in whatever way you decided to celebrate!

P.S. Sorry for all the crappy pictures...I can't find my camera cord so I only have the ones from my phone :(

No Timeouts Today (Yesterday)!

2010-10-28T11:22:00.002-04:00

Izabel has been struggling with learning how to share and remember the rules at school. This is a new environment for her and she has never been in a structured setting with other kids. Her teacher has been very patient and has tried a lot of different techniques to help Izabel improve and she has improved a lot in the past couple weeks. Yesterday she came home with a big note on her book bag saying that she had no timeouts! This is a difficult time for all of us right now so we're celebrating whatever we can! Yay Izabel, we're so proud of you!!!

Birthday/Halloween Pictures

2010-10-22T12:40:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we had Izabel's 3 year, Tanner's 18 months and both of their Halloween pictures taken! Izabel was really cooperative and Tanner was a little more difficult, but we got some good shots. The new online picture system will not let me download anymore (which is a little upsetting but understandable) so you have to click this link if you want to see them! Enjoy!

A Very Fairy Birthday Party!

2010-10-12T07:54:00.011-04:00

Sunday we celebrated Izabel's 3rd birthday with lots of fairy fun! Tinkerbell invaded our house and my little fairy couldn't have been happier. She put on her Tinkerbell costume and danced around the living room pretending to fly. We had lots of friends and family come to help us celebrate.

The food spread included Pixie Punch, Stardust Sandwiches, Toadstools, Fairy Berries, Magic Wands, Tink's Garden and of course Fairy Cupcakes (unfortunately the wings fell off before the party)! Everything was very yummy and super cute if I do say so myself.

After eating we got to the business of opening presents. Izabel was a very lucky girl. She got tons of games and puzzles, a Tinkerbell blanket and pillow, cute clothes and jammies, a new movie, a computer game, dress up clothes and shoes, and some books. She also got three months worth of gymnastics lessons from Mommy and Daddy and she already loves it! Every gift was perfect for her and everyone knew her so well. Thank you so much for to everyone!

After presents Izabel blew out her candle all on her own and ate her cupcake before heading outside with the other kids to play. She had a great time and LOVED all the attention she got! She's already beat Daddy at Candy Land twice and she begs to play her new games from the moment she gets up in the morning to the moment she goes to bed at night!

Our fairy festival was quite a success or as Tinkerbell would say....flitterrific!

3 YEARS OLD and 18 MONTHS!

2010-10-08T10:23:00.009-04:00

My babies are not really babies anymore! I know in the long run they are still really little, but looking back over the last 3 years it's hard to even remember them being infants.

Izabel is THREE!!! I can't believe it. She seems so grown up now and so much more like a little girl than a baby/toddler. She's so tiny and still wears 18 month clothing. That is getting harder now since she needs pants and 18 month pants are too short so she is wearing a lot of leggings and boots!

Izzy started school this past month and has been loving it! She's spent plenty of time in time-out but she seems to be getting the picture that you have to share and be nice! Hopefully some of those lessons will rub off at home too :) Other than the sharing she has been doing amazing with her lessons. She is the head of the class when it comes to knowing all her shapes, colors, letters and numbers. She always has advanced work on the back of her worksheets because she finishes them before everyone else. I love that they keep teaching her new things instead of waiting for everyone else to catch up. Right now she is working on writing her name and she is so close! I'm sure we'll start seeing it soon. I started hanging up some of our favorite pictures in the kitchen and she loves coming in and showing us her art hanging on the wall. She is so proud and it's so cute to see!

Yesterday Izabel started gymnastics. I bought her a leotard and she liked it but when I tried to put it on her before class she started screaming that she didn't want to go. I thought it was going to be a really rough hour at the gym, but once we got there her attitude changed completely. She walked right in with all of the other kids and did everything the coach asked of her with ease. She was all smiles the whole time and it was so funny watching her because she is about half the size of all the other kids in her class! She will now go every Monday evening for the next three months and we'll see how much she likes it after that and decide if she wants to continue.

She has gotten so chatty and asks why about everything she can possibly think of! She also sings all the time whether it is something she learned in school or something she made up. She loves to play with her babies and color and she loves Tinkerbell (hence the Tinkerbell birthday party and costume for Halloween)! She also loves football and is a big ODU and Kecoughtan fan! We take her to most of the games and she cheers the whole time! She's doing real puzzles now and she loves to read stories. Her favorite books right now are Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat and the Hat. Her speech has really improved, but we are having that assessed next week just to be sure everything is good. For now she is doing amazingly and I couldn't be prouder to be her mom!

Izabel - You are getting so big so fast and we love how grown up you have become, but miss our little baby girl! You are so amazing and smart and we know you will grow up to be a wonderful and beautiful person! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL - MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tanner is 18 months old today! The beauty of having a scheduled c-section is that you get to pick the day so we had them on the same day 18 months apart. Tanner is of course a toddler now and he gets into everything. He also has a crazy temper that we're really going to have to work on. He's started to get really fed up with Izabel taking all of his toys so we break up a lot of fights. He loves that Izabel goes to school every morning and he gets all of the attention to himself half a day! I think it is going to be really good for him and I am happy that he is getting this time.

He is such a snuggler and I can't get enough of him! I literally just want to squeeze him when I walk in the door, he is so cute! He's started dancing and running which are both hilarious. His eating has really slowed down and he is still in between 12 and 18 month clothes, but I've been moving him to 18 months as the weather changes. He loves to go anywhere and still enjoys riding in the wagon for family walks. He watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs the other night and laughed out loud through most of it. We enjoyed watching him more than the movie!
He'll pretty much play with anything, but of course Izabel's toys are more appealing. He has also started doing the peg puzzles and is getting pretty good at them. He loves to be outside and play and pretty much go anywhere. He also loves reading books whenever he can read one without Izabel interrupting him!

Words can not express how cute and loveable this little boy is! We'll love you forever Tanner!!

First Day of School!

2010-09-07T20:10:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I am even typing this but today was Izabel's first day of preschool! This was the first time she has ever been away from one of us and in a structured school environment and she had a great time!

I took her to school this morning around 7:00am and walked her in. Of course we took some pictures (that I will add to this post soon) in front of the school first. I took her in and tried to get her to sit down and eat breakfast but she just wanted to cling to me. Then I tried to get her to play but she wasn't interested so I told her to sit down for a minute so I could go give her teachers her shot records. When I came back she was eating with a little girl named Sadie (love that name) and doing fine. I said goodbye and gave her a kiss and walked away. She never cried but I came pretty close! It's never been so hard to leave her before!

My mom and Tanner picked her up at 11:45am and I talked to her on the phone to hear about her day. She colored a great apple (staying in the lines), played with play dough, played outside, went potty, ate apples for snack, and made some friends but she couldn't remember their names. She said she is excited to go back tomorrow so I'm really happy it's going so well so far! Here's to hoping tomorrow goes well too! My little girl is so grown-up now!!!

*Question for the moms out there - Izabel came home with the schools fall fundraiser catalog. I don't mind buying something that I can actually use, but Noah has a big problem buying and selling stuff for a school that we pay a fortune in tuition for every month. What are your thoughts on fundraisers for expensive private schools?

Updates and Random Pics

2010-09-04T08:27:00.005-04:00

Sooo...I know I promised updates and pics but I don't know where the cord is to download the pics from my camera and I hate posting without pictures. I finally sat down and got a few posts up so scroll down when you are done with this one and check them out. We had a nice summer with lots of exciting happenings but at the same time we had a lot of laid back days. It was a nice balance.

Izabel is so grown up now and I can't believe she is starting preschool on Tuesday! I don't know who is more nervous but we are also excited. She's never been away from us, my mom or a close family member so it will be interested when I drop her off Tuesday morning and try to get to work on time! We went to her open house last Tuesday and it really helped me and Izzy feel better about this transition. For the longest time she kept saying "I don't want to go to school, I just want to stay home" and even on the way to the open house she was saying "you're going to stay with me right? you're not going to leave!" When we got there she was really shy and clingy but after we started showing her around she started playing. By the end of the evening she didn't want to leave and we had to practically drag her out of there. They have some really cute stuff planned and her class only has 9 kids and 2 teachers so I think she'll be just fine!

Izzy and Tanner...please excuse the outfit, she was insisting on not getting dressed!

Izzy loves reading and her favorite books right now are The Giving Tree and I'll Love You Forever. She can recite each one and pretty much reads them to us now. It's so funny listening to her read the exact words as we turn the pages! She is doing real jigsaw puzzles now and she has gotten really good at every color, shape, letter and number. she also loves to color or paint on her new easel. She's even started saying some things in Spanish. She drinks out of a big girl cup but still doesn't eat very well. She just picks at her food. I guess she's going to stay little, not that it's a bad thing! She loves Tanner but gets annoyed by him very quickly. She's been using the big potty for months but now we are working on making her go by herself. It's still a bit of a struggle because she wants help with her clothes or wipping but she's getting there. She is completely out of diapers and pull ups. She's been sleeping in undies for at least a month now and she's only had once accident. She even wakes up to go potty sometimes in the middle of the night. She's started dressing herself and she can be really helpful around the house. I think she's really ready for preschool and she's going to do great!

Our little artist...again please excuse the outfit!

Tanner is more and more of a toddler everyday. He can almost keep up with Izabel now and they are pretty much the same size (although Izzy's a few inches taller). He really enjoys having a few moments to play by himself since his sister takes everything away from him. He babbles all the time and says a few words. He's started answering yes and no questions although the answer is usually no. Izabel calls him "buddy boy" now which is really funny. He likes to climb and best of all he likes to snuggle! Izzy was never a snuggler so I really enjoy anytime I get to snuggle with Tanner. His appetite has slowed down a lot and he rarely finishes everything on his plate now. He's gotten busy and has better things to do once he's full! He's shown a little bit of interest in the potty so I think we'll pull the little potty back out soon just for him to start being introduced. We have no plans to potty train him for a while longer but the dream of having both of them out of diapers is so exciting!

Tanner snuggling with Daddy

Sleeping during lunch

The next few months are going to be crazy busy but there will be lots of exciting things happening. I will try really hard to stay updated with lots of pictures! Enjoy back-to-school and the beginning of fall!!

Our 5th Anniversary

2010-09-04T08:15:00.003-04:00

Noah and I celebrated our 5th anniversary weekend on August 20th. For our anniversary we were lucky enough to stay in the same condo at the beach as we stayed on our wedding night. My mom was planning on staying with the kids but she ended up being very sick. Luckily Theresa and Auntie Ann stepped in and saved our weekend so we could still go.

We headed down to the beach Friday afternoon and got settled in and then headed to the grocery store to get some snacks for the weekend. Then we got dressed and headed to the Melting Pot for dinner. It was my first time and I thought it was great. We had a really nice time. Then we headed back to the condo and turned on a movie.

The view from our condo!

We were both exhausted from a long week so it was nice to go to sleep and not get up until we wanted to. We turned a movie on in the morning and just lounged around for a while. We played games and sat out on the balcony people watching. Then we went swimming and water felt amazing. Saturday night our friends Candace and Matt and Candace's sister and her boyfriend came down to hang out. We went out to dinner and then out to Peabodys. I know what your thinking, I hadn't been to Peabodys since I was a teenager, but we actually had a really great time and it was nice to all be able to drink and not worry about someone driving home.

Noah people watching

Me and Candace at the club!

Sunday my mom was feeling better so my parents brought Izzy and Tanner down and Candace's parents brought Drew down. They played for a while and we went back in the water but it was cold from the overnight rain. Then Noah and I cleaned up and headed home. We had a great weekend and it was nice to relax and just be together. Thank you Mom, Dad, Theresa and Auntie for making it happen for us!

Princess Party

2010-09-04T08:11:00.004-04:00

Izzy's friend Evie celebrated her 4th birthday a few weeks and she had a princess party! Evie, Izabel and Evie all dressed up as Disney Princesses and Tanner even got to be a dragon. They decorated crowns and had yummy snacks. I think the girls and Tanner had a great time!

Back to School/Work

2010-08-25T21:22:00.003-04:00

I know I have been lacking a little in the blog department lately. I don't really have a good excuse since I have been at home all summer, but it's hard to sit and blog while the kids are busy having fun! Yesterday I started back at classes with Virginia Tech. This semester I actually have a class (through distance learning) that I have to attend every Tuesday night and another class that is all online. They are definitely going to be keeping me very busy. I also started back to work today. My job is super packed this year so my main goal is to not go insane. We'll see how it turns out come June :)

I promise to get some posts up soon about some of our summer fun! We've had lots of beach days and Noah and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary! I'll be back very soon!!

We did it, we did it, we did it! - Updated

2010-08-15T20:05:00.003-04:00

Update 8/17/10 - Both kids have slept all the way through the night for the past two nights! That's right, a whole 12 hours each. I know this is not the end of getting up in the middle of the night but I feel so much better today :)

I think we are finally diaper free when it comes to Izabel and it feels so good! Not that she's been using too many diapers the last few months, but now there are none sitting in her closet and she does not get one when she goes to bed! We finally let go of our own fear and sent her to bed in undies and she woke up dry. Then she did it again! I'm so excited for her because it must be so much more comfortable and she really feels like a big girl. She tells everyone she has super powers! Yay Izzy on meeting yet another milestone, we did it!

In other news, Tanner seems to be going through a poor sleeping phase. He's always been a pretty good sleeper and if he did wake up all we had to do was hand him a binky and he'd go right back to sleep. However, the past few weeks he has been waking up a lot and definitely not going right back to sleep. We've been letting him cry it out but sometimes (like last night) that doesn't even work. I know it's just a phase because we went through this with Izzy, but it still sucks. He's been really cranky during the day because he's not getting enough sleep! I think he is finally getting some more teeth. Any thoughts or suggestions for the sleepy people in my house?!?!

Aunt Theresa's Birthday!

2010-07-30T08:10:00.002-04:00

Tuesday was Aunt Theresa's 20th Birthday so we had a little get together to celebrate! Some of the family and Theresa's friends came over. We had lots of food and played cornhole in the front yard. We had a really great time and it was nice celebrating with Theresa! We hope you had a great birthday and we love you very much!!!

Even Izzy and Tanner wanted to play!

All About Izzy

2010-07-28T16:29:00.006-04:00

Well Izabel has been potty trained and wearing undies for months and months now, I'm sure if I went back through the archives I could find the exact time! She's been really good at using the potty at home and out and about for at least six months, but she's still been wearing a diaper at nap and bedtime. I think it was probably more us not being ready than her not being ready for the last couple months. I really didn't want to rush to wash her favorite blankets between nap and bedtime and I really didn't want to deal with accidents in the middle of the night! But for the last few weeks her diapers have always been dry so last week we started giving her rewards if her morning and after nap diapers were dry. She would wake up saying she was dry so she could get a snack. This week she has been taking her naps in her undies and so far so good! Maybe in the next couple weeks we'll get brave enough to let her try to go through the night. Since she shares diapers with Tanner it's not a big deal but it's coming soon!

Our sassy girl!

I can't believe how big our baby girl is! It really is amazing how much of a little person she is and how ready for preschool she is! She starts September 7th and other than some separation anxiety that I'm sure we'll have to deal with, she is going to love it so much! She knows all her letters and numbers up to 20. We are working on letter and number recognition now and association. She knows all her shapes, even crazy ones like crescent, pentagon, and hexagon and finds shapes everywhere! It amazes us when she calls out these crazy shapes and we have no idea where she learned them (thank you Team Umizoomi)! She loves to help me make things in the kitchen and take care of her babies. It's so funny when we hear her putting her babies to bed and telling them to sleep late! I wish she would take her own advice!

We are still dealing with some serious sibling rivalry. Whenever I have Tanner she runs over and wants me to hold her too. She'll push him out of the way and hit him when she gets mad or frustrated. Of course we're working hard to correct that behavior and she spends a lot of time in time out, but it's hard when we know she just wants some attention. We are trying to work harder at giving her one-on-one time with one or both of us a little more often.

Sometimes we catch her being nice and make a big deal of it!

She's still pretty picky with what she eats and some days she really doesn't eat anything. I'm working on some more sneaky recepies so that when she does eat at least she is getting lots of good stuff. She only weighs about 27/28 lbs with her clothes and shoes on but she's super healthy so it's fine. She loves watching her shows but I've been trying to limit the tv time and keep it off more often. She does learn a lot from the show she watches (i.e. shapes) but I don't want her sitting in front of the tv all day. We love to go on play dates and to Ocean Breeze. She also loves hanging out with Aunt Theresa and everyone she meets is instantly her friend!

She wants to be just like Aunt Theresa!

She is, always has been and always will be a blessing and an answer to prayer. We love her so much we feel like we could burst apart. Noah lays with her at night now and they read stories and she always says to both of us "I love you back to the moon and back". I love that she adds the extra back in there even when she says it first!

HOT HOT HOT! (Weekend Update)

2010-07-26T07:42:00.003-04:00

It has been so unbelievably hot here! I mean temps from 100 up to 109 degrees over the weekend. It's so hot the kids have been extra cranky and we're all exhausted. On Friday we headed to Ocean Breeze with Aunt Theresa, Candace and Drew hoping to keep cool. The water was nice and actually pretty cool but it was still way too hot and the pavement was burning our feet! Since it was so hot we didn't do much else the rest of the weekend but stay in the air conditioning.

Saturday me and the kids went to the grocery store which sounded like a good idea until I got home and realized I'd have to carry in all the loads of groceries by myself. Saturday night Noah and I went out to dinner and a movie with Candace and Matt. It was so nice to have a date night with them and we had a blast! We saw Inception on Imax and I definitely recommend it. I like movies that you have to think about and really work at understanding so this was right up my alley!

Sunday morning we went to church where Rebecca St. James was leading worship. I was so excited! I've been listening to her since I was in middle school and I used her devotional books in high school. It was a great service. We came home and ALL took naps and then just hung around the house the rest of the day. It seems like the temps are cooling down so hopefully we'll get outside some this week!
Happy Monday!!!

15 Months

2010-07-21T10:13:00.002-04:00

My handsome little man is 15 months old! He's really starting to show more and more of his personality and we absolutely love him, he is a complete joy!

I took Tanner to visit Dr. Scott on Monday. He is 26 lbs and 31 inches long putting him in the 75th percentile. He is a super healthy boy! Dr. Scott was impressed with his language skills; he says mama, dada, hi, bye, uh-oh, and now thank you. He was also impressed that Tanner still takes two naps a day. Tanner got three shots and he was really mad at the nurse.

Tanner has started to get more picky with his eating. Now that he is walking all the time he seems to have better things to do than eat. He loves to play but gets so mad when Izzy takes the toy he is playing with. The sibling rivalry around here is terrible, but sometimes they play really nicely together in one of their rooms. I'm looking forward to more and more of that!

When I say that Tanner is a complete joy, I am not exaggerating. He is such a blessing and we couldn't possibly love him anymore than we do!!!

More Vacay Pics!

2010-07-14T18:34:00.001-04:00

Here are some more pics from our vacation that I took on my phone! As you can see there were lots of good times :)

Vacation Week

2010-07-14T13:06:00.008-04:00

Throughout the rest of the week in Vermont we did a few outings but mostly relaxed! On Monday we took Noah's sister Maria and headed out to the Ben and Jerry's Factory. This is where Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream started out and is still made today. Since Monday was considered a holiday they weren't making ice cream but we still did the tour. It ends with a free sample of a new ice cream. This one was Boston Cream Pie! If you can find it you should buy enough to fill your freezer because it is SO good! Afterwards we were going to get some ice cream and play at the park but it was so hot and the line was really long. Instead we headed back to town and stopped by the Creeme Stand. We all had soft serve with rainbow sprinkles and although it wasn't Ben and Jerry's it was super good.

Tuesday Mimi went with us into Burlington and visited Echo Lake Science Center. It's a cute little aquarium and science center and they have lots of hands on activities. It was actually featured in Parents Magazine a few months back as one of the top places to visit this summer so we had to go. The kids had a great time playing at the water tables, digging for dinosaurs, and looking around the giant bug exhibit! Afterwards we had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and we were going to head to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory but the kids were pretty cranky. That will be one of our stops next year for sure!

On Wednesday we picked up Noah's Dad and took a road trip to Connecticut. When we got there we went to visit with Noah's Aunt Joyce. She made us a fabulous lunch and we played in the backyard for a while. It was nice catching up but super hot and nap time so we got back on the road. I took Noah and his Dad to Foxwoods Casino where they did some gambling and spent the night. Then me and the kids headed over to my friend Courtney's house for a visit. It was great getting to see her and the kids had a blast. We went to a nearby park to play before bed, had a nice bath and then got some rest. Everyone slept well with the air conditioning and Courtney made us some great food! We might have to go up there and visit her again soon!

Thursday we ran to Target (since they don't have one in Vermont) and then had lunch. After lunch it was time to pick up Noah and Grandpa and head back to Vermont. We got there right in time to have pizza for dinner and hang out with Mimi, Papa and Gigi!

On Friday we just hung around the house. Izabel colored and played Memory and Tanner was on his normal schedule with two naps. We played in the pool and during Tanner's afternoon nap Noah and I took Izabel into town for one more Creeme! I think she really enjoyed having both of us all to herself and we're going to have to find ways to do that more with both of them! We had a big ham dinner and the Eaton family came over to enjoy it with us. After dinner we played outside with some drinks and the pool. Cindy fell on the side of the pool and hurt her hip very badly. We had to call an ambulance which was pretty scary but Izabel held onto their dog and kept telling him it was going to be okay. It was so cute and thankfully Cindy ended up being just fine. Saturday we got up and got packing so we could head home right after lunch. It was a little easier on the kids that way but still a difficult trip. Now we're just trying to catch up on the all the sleep we lost from traveling but we're so glad we did it and we can't wait to go back again next year! Family time is so important and it's nice to get away from our busy schedules and really just spend time together :)

4th of July Party

2010-07-14T12:36:00.007-04:00

Noah's family always gets together for a big 4th of July party and we love when we get to be there for it! We got to see almost all of the family and friends all in one day and we had so much fun. There is lots of food and drinks plus pool volleyball, volleyball, bocci and horseshoes. Izabel and Tanner even had cousins there to play with in the boat pool and sand/water table and we got to meet the newest member of the family, Sebastian*. It was a blast!

Izzy pulled Tanner all over the backyard
Izzy and Cousin Meghan
Jenny, Amelia and Izzy opening Sebastian's present
Izzy and MadelynThe girls in the pool
Tanner and Aunt MariaColor time thanks to Grandma Elaine!
Swimming with Mimi

*Sebastian is not the official name the last I've heard so I'm not sure if this is the correct spelling!

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-14T12:19:00.005-04:00

Friday right after dinner we got in the car and headed to Vermont for our summer vacation! We were so excited for the trip but not excited about the 11-12 hour car ride! We thought the kids would sleep through the night, but of course we were so wrong! We got in around 5:00am and Noah and I went to sleep for a couple hours while the kids played with Mimi and Papa. Then we got up and headed into town for the 4th of July parade. It was hot but the kids really enjoyed it and we had a great time!

Both kids got to spend lots of great time with Mimi and Papa and Tanner got to meet his Grandpa (Noah's Dad)!

Even Gigi was there and we got to see her throughout the week!
The parade was great with lots of small town charm and
I think both kids loved their first parade!

After the parade we headed back to the house for lunch and some pool time!
Mimi and Papa have an old boat that works perfectly as a pool for the kids and they loved it!

Weekend Updates (Last Weekend In June)

2010-06-29T21:29:00.006-04:00

(Sorry for the delay on this post...I wrote it for the weekend before we went on vacation but did not get to upload pics until we got home from Vermont!)

It has been HOT HOT HOT! I mean daily temps from 95-104 all day everyday. It is so humid and pretty much miserable. So we've been trying to do whatever we can to keep cool while still getting things done and having fun.

Friday evening we headed over to Ocean Breeze for a few hours before bed. It was really nice to just hang out and not be so hot or worry about sun screen. My dad came with us and Izzy and Tanner both had a blast!

Saturday we had a giant yard sale. We cleaned out pretty much every room, closet and attic of this house! We've acquired a lot of stuff in the past 5 years and it was time for it all to go. That included most of the baby stuff. Since we're done having babies there is no need to hold on to all of the equipment. I started pulling stuff out at 7 am and people were already driving up. It was hot already and I was sweating before I was halfway done pulling the stuff out. My mom and Theresa came over to help with the kids. I worked really hard but we made about $350 which will help pay for our vacation! We still had quite a bit of stuff left so I took it all to my mom's house and she is going to have another yard sale in a couple of weeks. Saturday evening we headed back to Ocean Breeze with my mom and dad. Again we had a great time!

Sunday we did some shopping and stayed around the house. We cooked out at my mom's house so we could play in the pool and we had a nice time. Monday morning we were finally healthy and on our summer schedule. We headed to Candace's house to swim with her and "Dew". We had lunch and then headed home for naps. We had a great day and we are excited for many more to come!

We also took Tanner for his first Carousel ride at the mall and he loved it!!!

First Haircut, Sickies, and Some Random Pics

2010-06-24T12:55:00.018-04:00

On Tuesday Tanner finally got his first haircut! For a boy to go over 14 months before his first haircut is kind of crazy. We kept saying we needed to get it done but we just hadn't gotten there yet. My mom came over to see how the kids were doing and gave them both a haircut while she was here. Since I was holding Tanner and she was cutting we didn't get any pics, but I do have some after shots. He no longer has a mullet! Hooray!

Over Father's Day Weekend Izabel complained a lot about her mouth hurting. I thought maybe it was her teeth or something and kind of left it alone. By Sunday she had sores in her mouth and on her bottom. She was barely eating because her mouth hurt and she would scream every time she put something in her mouth. Monday morning I took her to the Dr. where they confirmed it was Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Who knows where she got it from but it's very contagious so we have been stuck at home all week. All that I can give her is Benedryl so we came home and she passed out on the couch.

Of course by the end of the day Tanner had it too so I gave him some Benedryl before bed thinking it would help both of them sleep. I was SO wrong. It has the opposite reaction on some kids and evidently Tanner is one of them. He was literally up ALL night. At about 4:30am I put him in his crib, shut my door and let him cry. He cried forever and then a little while later Izabel got up! Not the greatest day for me. The next night wasn't much better but now today they both seem much better and we are starting to get some sleep. Hopefully by the weekend all the sores will be gone and we can rejoin the world outside of our house!

And for some random pictures...

Izabel painted a birthday card for Mrs. Sherri...

she may have had a little help with the message :)

Izabel and Tanner hanging out at Ocean Breeze...I'm afraid this may have been where they picked up the virus, but of course they could have gotten it anywhere!

Father's Day

2010-06-24T12:36:00.005-04:00

For Father's day I got up with the kids and let Noah sleep in. After a while we couldn't wait any longer so we went in and woke him up. We gave him all his presents! I got a variety of little things that he had been wanting - a new flag for the front porch, two new movies (From Paris with Love and The Hangover) some new flip flops, a new ODU football t-shirt, and some of his favorite treats! We played for a while, all took naps, and then headed over to my mom's house for a cookout and pool party. We got my Dad an ODU football shirt as well and part of his Ocean Breeze season pass. He loves getting to go with us all the time and he is alway excited for any excuse to spend time with the kids! It was super hot so the pool felt great! Nana, Aunt Ann, Aunt Phyllis, Aunt Judy, Glen, Amy and Ray, Keith and Michelle and Tristan all joined us for the celebration. We also celebrated Matthew's graduation. It was a great time and I think Noah really enjoyed his relaxing day! Thank you for being such a great husband and daddy and for working so hard to take care of us! We love you to the moon and back!!!

A few of Daddy's favorite things
Time to get up Daddy!Having fun in the poolIzzy and Daddy hanging outMe, Tanner and Anddaddy! What a great way to end the day!

Matthew's High School Graduation

2010-06-24T09:15:00.003-04:00

My youngest brother Matthew graduated from Kempsville High School last Wednesday the 16th. We were all really excited that he made it and I'm sure my parents are happy to pretty much be done raising kids! We are all grown ups now and starting to live our own lives. Matthew has a summer job and is considering going into the Navy soon. We all agree that it is the best move for him and hopefully it turns into a great career. Congratulations Matthew - we're very proud of you!

Matt and Dad

Matt with Aunt Judy and Aunt Phyllis

Matt with me and Amy

Matt with Amy and their Uncle George

Matt with Mom and Dad

The end of the school year

2010-06-24T08:55:00.004-04:00

We'll start with the last two weeks of school. As I talked about in my last post, we lost one of our seniors about two weeks before graduation. Her name is Jessica Starr and she was in my class for the last three years. Since I teach an elective, if a kid likes the class I tend to keep them for most of their high school career. We travel and do lots of after school stuff so I get really close with these students. This particular student was in the fashion show and had spent a lot of time with me after school gathering supplies and preparing for the show. I took her passing very hard. I was completely exhausted and drained all week. I went to her viewing and then the funeral. It was so painful to not only say goodbye to her and watch her family grieve, but to watch all of my other students grieving knowing there was nothing I could do but be there for them. Just when I thought I couldn't cry about it anymore I'm sitting here in tears while I write this! The funeral was beautiful and it even had some students asking the preacher questions about God and being saved which is always a blessing, especially in hard times. The school excused my class that Jessica was in from taking their final exam. They could take it if they wanted to, but sitting in that room with her empty chair was just too distracting and we were certain poor exam grades would be the result. The last day of class my students were going through old projects and found Jessica's last one. It was a fashion forecast which she did a really good job on. They asked me what to do with it and I just couldn't tell them to throw it away so I let them hang it up. It's still there, her name is on the back so no one knows who it belongs to but me. Graduation was the last hurdle to go through before we could really put this death behind us and move on. Jessica's chair was left empty and her cap and gown were draped there. Everyone wore a silver star over their hearts in remembrance and her brother accepted her diploma. Other than that it was all about the students and it was thankfully not a sad event! I'm still sad about this, but now that summer is here and I'm not in the building anymore I can move on and so can the rest of the school! I'll always remember Jessica fondly and hopefully this is something I will never have to go through again in my career!

A Very Sad Day

2010-06-08T09:08:00.002-04:00

Yesterday one of the students that I've had for the past three years passed away on her way to the hospital. Little is known at this point, but the cause of death appears to be kidney failure. This was something she had been struggling with for the past couple of months, but very few people knew about it.

There is very little precedent for how to handle the death of a graduating senior two weeks before graduation. This student was very well known and her death is hitting a lot of students and teachers very hard, including myself. How do you comfort your students when you're hurting too? How do you explain how something so tragic could happen to someone who was so loved and had such a bright future?

It's hard to even know how to feel about this. It's not an elderly family member or some distant relative, this is someone who was barely 18 years old that I have seen everyday for the past 3 years. While we all have different ways of grieving, grieving as a part of a large group can be extremely difficult. I'm trying to pull myself together but everywhere I look there is a sad face of a student who has lost their friend and classmate. I see them cry and give them a hug and lose it all over again.

A teacher could go their whole career and never face this kind of tragedy, and yet here we are trying to figure out who can go to the funeral and who needs to be in the building. How do we honor this student who should be walking across the stage in her cap and gown next week? How do we tell a student they will never see their friend again? How do we give a diploma to a grieving mother? How do we grieve the death of one so young? Of course these questions don't have answers and time will help us heal, but it is a very sad day and it will be a very sad end to this otherwise successful school year.

Memorial Day Celebrations

2010-06-04T11:20:00.010-04:00

Since we did not go camping for Memorial Day weekend this year we tried to find some new ways to celebrate. Sunday morning we met up with Candace, Matt, Drew, my dad and my brother Matt to go to the Strawberry Festival in Pungo. There was a ton of food, carnival rides, entertainment, a petting zoo and a large military display. Izabel had a ball riding some of the kiddy rides with Drew but it was super hot so we did not stay too long!

Tanner was there too...he was too short to ride !
After the festival we headed over to Candace's house to hang out by the pool and have a cookout. We swam for a while and then ate dinner. The boys headed down to the dock to go fishing and Candace and I took the kids for a walk. Drew drove Izabel around in his Escalade power wheel which was really cute! I brought dessert which was Red, White, and Blue cupcakes! They were a little more complicated than I had anticipated but I think they came out pretty cute and I was really excited about them :)

Izabel can swim around with just her vest now!
Tanner is slowly starting to be ok in the water
Daddy got to play too!
Red, white and blue cupcakes!

Monday Noah had to go back to work, but me and the kids got up and took a long walk to the park! Once again it was super hot so we decided to pick up my Dad and head down to Ocean Breeze for a few hours. Izabel was really tired and had a bit of a meltdown so we ended up leaving after about an hour, but it was nice to cool off. After Noah got home we headed over to Angie and Jimmy's house for a cookout. The boys drank beer and played corn hole the whole time and the girls sat around and chatted. We had a nice evening and a it was a nice end to the long weekend!

Updated!

2010-05-29T21:19:00.003-04:00

I finally have gotten around to update the blog and post some new pictures. The delay was due to the new camera and my card reader at school not reading the new memory card. There are a few posts so make sure you scroll down and enjoy!

2nd Birthday Parties
First Steps
Weekend Update
New Camera

2nd Birthday Parties

2010-05-29T20:59:00.005-04:00

Today we celebrated two 2 year olds! This morning we went to the park to celebrate Lily's second birthday. Lily is Jess and Dan's daughter and we always have a great time hanging out with them. We were a little late because I got the time mixed up but we had nice time with them. The kids played and flew a kite out in the field. Then we stayed and had a picnic lunch while they went home for naps. Since we weren't there for very long I never managed to get any pictures :( but we had a great time! Happy Birthday Lily!

After our naps we went to Braydon's birthday party. Braydon is my friend Ashleigh's son and we always have a good time hanging out with her and her husband Brandon. They had his party in a club house and it was a barnyard theme. There was a ball pit and a bounce house and all sorts of fun animal themed decorations. Ashleigh really did a great job! The kids had a blast and wore themselves out! Happy Birthday Braydon!

Tanner spent most of his time in the ball pit and had a blast!

Izzy and Braydon

Braydon blew out the candle by himself

Yum Yum!

Blair "riding" the sheep...

and Izzy "riding" the pony

Time for presents!

First Steps

2010-05-29T20:50:00.001-04:00

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