A Very Special Day!

 

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

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

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!

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!