Twas the night

Twas the night before school started, and all through the house,
Not a child was sleeping, not even a mouse.
The backpacks were packed with a nice treat to a share,
In hopes that at snack time a surprise would be there.

School starts tomorrow. I am so excited for the kids to start school.  If a tear is shed tomorrow, it will be a tear of Joy (Does that make me a bad mom?).  We had our back to school feast tonight.  I had hopes to make something nice, but I new the kids wouldn't be as excited about it as I would,  and really the feast was celebrating Ethan and Cole so I figured it was only fair to let them choose the menu.  So we ate homemade pizza and ice cream and celebrated Ethan and Cole's new school adventures (and Liv because she didn't want to be left out).

After dinner I wanted the kids to set some goals for the upcoming school year.  My idea was to set goals for things to learn and do at school, but this is what they came up with.

Ethan's Goals:
1.  Go swimming at the Wisconsin Dells.
2.  Get 10 A's
3.  Start a diary

Cole's Goals:
1.  Go swimming in Las Vegas
2.  Get 8 A's
3.  Go to soccer camp

After dinner and dessert Shawn gave the boys each a father's blessing.  This is always one of my favorite times because I love the feeling of the priesthood being used in my home.  I couldn't help peaking a bit during the blessing to see the smiles spread across my boys faces as Shawn told them about how much we loved them and how proud of them were are.

So I guess we are all ready for the morning.  But, in all honesty I am a little worried about getting myself up and ready tomorrow.  We have been sleeping in until 8o'clock lately and the boys school starts at 8:18.  So, wish me luck.  Here's to another great school year!!

More pictures of the first day to come later!

Random Pics

I was a little nervous to go back to the Karate studio, considering what happened last time, but everything was good.  Ethan's having fun and the studio instructors are amazing.

Just a few random pictures from the past week.  I've had my camera out a lot lately.

For some reason whenever we go outside to do yardwork the kids go get on their swim suits.  I think they think they might get to run through the sprinklers.

Summer 2010

As the summer is winding down I wanted to put together a little video of our summer fun (minus moving across the country).  Living away from home keeps me motivated to post pictures and videos for all our family, so this is my attempt at a summer fun 2010 video.  I took all these clips with my camera, so it isn't the best at recording actual video, but it works.  Sorry, it's kind of long, but watch it and you'll get to see a glimpse of Liv dancing-she's WILD!

Also, I've been doing a little freelance work recently for a Graphic Design company.  They make adorable, super cute, fantastic scrapbooks and needed some pictures to fill the books.  So I took that as an excuse to take a few more pictures of my kids (like I didn't already have enough).  Here is one of my favorites of Liv that I took.

I've been having so much fun.  I always love an excuse to take pictures and it's been fun doing a little work.

Popsicles at 3am

Yes, we had popsicles at 3am Friday night.  The downside was that we were at the hospital.  Around 5:00 pm on Friday night I was getting ready to take Ethan to his first Karate class.  Liv said she felt sick and then threw up all over.  I thought maybe it was just a random thing because she had been fine all day.  So we got into the car.  While driving on the freeway Liv continued to threw up two more times, and when Cole proclaimed that his tummy hurt I thought he might just be seeking some attention also.  But, he followed in suit and threw up all over the car.  When we got to the Karate class, we had to stop outside for Cole to threw-up behind a dumpster.   You probably are wondering why I didn't just go home, well I should have, but Shawn was working and Ethan was so excited for his class and I didn't want him to miss it.  We spent the first ten minutes in the bathroom with Liv and Cole alternating and throwing up in the bathroom, only to discover that the toilets didn't work.  I sat for the next ten minutes with Cole and Liv each on one side throwing up into a blanket that I brought with me.  Finally, the man next to me offered to watch Ethan and bring him out to the van after class if I wanted to take my kids outside.  I was so relieved, I probably would not normally have a stranger help me out, but I was desperate.  Cole and Liv continued to throw up about every 10-15 minutes until midnight.  I finally called Shawn at the hospital and we decided to wait another hour and see if thing slowed down.  Well, they didn't and so around 1:30 I woke Ethan up and dragged three kids to the hospital.  Shawn was able to come down and see us for a minute, but he was in the middle of a delivery/sick baby so he couldn't stay.  The nurse that was checking us in thought Shawn was the just the ER resident because he was in scrubs and asked me if I had any idea who the father was of my kids.  When Shawn spoke up claiming his children she was so embarrassed, it was funny.  It was one of those nights that was so very horrible, I actually started to laugh (it was either that or cry).  As we were leaving the hospital the next morning Ethan said, "I now know what it is like to sleep at the hospital like dad.  It is boring."  Ethan was less than happy to be woken up in the middle of the night and dragged to the ER, but he was a good sport and even got  a popsicle.  By Saturday afternoon Cole and Liv were feeling much better, but by then Ethan had started throwing up.  Fortunately we already had some zofran on hand and saved ourselves a trip to the ER.  But the worst part happened Saturday night when I started throwing up.  Really, I HATE throwing up.  But now it is Monday morning and everyone is good.  Shawn has so far avoided this nasty bug, but he continues to wash his hands a million times and tries to avoid us like the plague :)  Now I just need to try a put my house back together after this crazy weekend.

Other happenings earlier in the week...

The boys went to the dentist.  They were so brave and had NO cavities.  It was the neatest pediatric dentist office I have ever seen.  The kids are already asking to go back :)

The Wisconsin State Fair was this past week.  It is held just a few minutes from our house so we had to go.  It was a hot, humid day and the kids used that as an excuse to down as much coke as they could. )

We ate lots of food.  A HUGE bucket of french fries.  Seriously it was the size of the big movie popcorn buckets.  Ethan has been asking for the past few weeks to try cotton candy, so he got his cotton candy.  And we had to try the cream puffs.  They are supposed to be delicious, but they were just a whole lot of cream on a puff.

The favorite by far was this huge slide.

We didn't got on many rides.  The opening night of the fair the sky glider stopped and people were stuck up in the air for an hour.  After watching that on the news Shawn informed me that I would never get him on that.  He is leary of amusement rides anyways, so that didn't help my cause.

Ethan finally lost his other big tooth the night before school pictures and we got to meet the new principal and the kids school teachers this week.  Can't wait for school to start in a few weeks :)

We got this bubble blower when Ethan was born and it is still one of the favorite things to play with.

My Little Dancer

Those of you who know me are probably shocked that I am excited about Liv taking ballet and tap.  To be honest, I am a little shocked myself.  But doesn't she look adorable?  I can't wait to see what she comes up with during her dance class (the girl has a mind of her own).  She will even have recitals so I'm sure you'll be seeing some of Liv's dance moves in the future.

Brewers Game

We went here this weekend.

Wow, I had no idea the level of seriousness these people take in their pre-game tailgating.  It was crazy!

We indulged and all had nasty, greasy hot dogs and corn-dogs.  

It was a fun night.
I had forgotten how many sweaty, stinky, drunk people like baseball :)

"The Beach"

Today we went to the beach.  We live really close to Lake Michigan, but apparently its not suitable for swimming(aka. sewer water), so this is the next best thing to a real beach.   It's a city park with a nice big pond in the middle of the forest with a sandy shore.

The boys took off as soon as we got there, but Liv patiently waited for a few minutes.

And, then she took off.

Can you see the white floating dock in the middle??  They have a swim test you can take and if you pass it you get to swim out to the dock and jump off.  It's pretty far and around 20 ft deep.  Ethan and his friend Kennedy tried the swim test.  They both did so good, but didn't quite pass.  Ethan is excited to try again next time.

We had a great day at the beach with lots of sand, sun and water.