One years difference

I was looking through some old pictures today after the kids went to school, i took there last day of school pictures and it made me sad of how fast their growing so i had to reminisce for a bit, sniff sniff, then i started looking at their first day of school pictures just from this school year and was blown away how much taller and more mature both kids look in the 9 months span from first to last day. I take their pictures in the same spot in front of the window each time.

Caidens beginning and end photos of 2nd grade, I cant believe his growth!!! His head was below the window pane in the 1st one and waaayy above in the 2nd.

Hailey's beginning and end photos of preschool...she looks so much more confident and sure of herself after her first school year. Because of the light you cant see the window panes but you can see where her shoulders come to below the window.

Fun For All Ages

Me and one of my friends Kristi took our kids to a play place close by called Journeys. It's kinda like a chucky cheese but alittle smaller and more fun (the parents were aloud to go on everything, even the jump houses). It was the perfect size for the kids and everything was in one area so I could watch both kids at once. The kids had a blast! We were afraid it would be alittle hectic with so many kids but they were all so good and played together perfect. The ages of the kids were 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10,16.

BTW-two kids were mine and 3 were hers the rest were her nephews. We had a small bus full of kids, including me and Kristi. We played for 4 hours and I think we played as much as the kids did. We can't wait to take them back.

The kids favorite thing to do was race us down the big slides.

Caiden playing glow in the dark put-put.

The boys all ran crazy in this dark room, lucky no one got hurt :)

Wordless Wednesday!

♥Love Them ♥ And Their Carzy Faces

Happy Anniversay (to us)

Today is mine and brad's 3 year anniversary. It seems much longer-in a good way, but we have been together 6 years now so maybe that's why it seems longer.

I am so thankful to be married to him, he is always there for me whenever I need him, he works so hard for our family to give us a great life so me and the kids never have to go without the things we need or want.

He is the type of husband who always lets me know when he thinks I'm beautiful and never forgets to tell me that he loves me. He is a wonderful father and husband and I couldn't ask for anything more.

Wordless Wednesday

They found me-Our favorite Game, Hide and go seek!

Helping mommy cook supper! See how interested they are in helping :)

Hair cut/P90X

I am so happy to say that after almost 2 full weeks of my kids being sick i am finally starting to see some improvment with them getting better! I took Caiden to the doctors last monday and they said he had croup, which if you do not know what this is it is a horrible barking cough and at night they have trouble breathing because it restricts the airway so it's pretty scary at first (espiecally for the child) Hailey 2 weeks ago had the flu virus but not the actual flu and then last week she actually got the flu, so i'm looking forward to getting sleep again at night now that there better!

For the past 5 years i have been growing my hair out, but lately i have gotten so sick of how long it is and the fact that with it being so long there isn't much i can do with it besides put it in a ponytail cause it's always in my way. So yesterday i went out and got 12 inches taken off!

I was kinda nervous at first but I really like it now and there is so much more that i can do with it, it's much more managable now!

I think that I really like my longer hair better but it was time for a change.

Well i'm off to do go shopping for Brad (our 3 year anniversary is tomorrow) and then to do plyometrics (P90X) this is my most dreaded day but it is getting easier with every week that passes, i'm now in my 5th week so i still have awhile to go. I think that once i get more into it and can really start to see the results i might post my before and after photos. I took my before photos and I just took my 30 day photos and there is some difference, but not enough yet that i want to show all. Well see how good my results are.

Sick Again:(

Poor Hailey has now been sick for 6 days. It has been really on and off though. All last weekend she was so sick she couldn't get off the couch, then this week she's been okay during the day and then sick again at night (which is of course when all children become sick and you have to stay up all night with them:) but she woke up this morning throwing up already.

I need to find her something to eat that she'll be able to keep down, so far nothing has worked. I feel so bad for her she keeps saying "mommy my belly hurt" and theres nothing i can do or give her to make it feel better.

I was told by her pediatrician to stick to the BRATY diet when they have the flu or a stomach virus which is...

B-banana's

R-rice

A-applesauce

T-toast

Y- yogurt

so i guess i need to run to the store and get some of these to see how she'll do.

Even though she is sick she's still got enough in her to let her silly personality show through

Wordless Wednesday

Hailey had to have all her hairclips in at once!

Mommy and Hailey:)

I'm back from being lazy!-Again

So here I said that i was going to keep up with my blog and stop being so lazy and then 5 months go by with no post. We've been keeping busy with work, school and playing.

Caiden loves kingergarden still and is doing so good. He is now able to read full sentences, very easy ones of course but we can't believe how fast he is catching on. He got his school pictures back awhile ago and every time i look at it I still can't believe that he is 6 years old already, he is looking so grown up now, no more baby look to him at all, he's such a handsome little man! :-)

I love that he has no front teeth in his school pictures!!!

The bad part about him going to school is that i miss our morning time to play and just lay around together. He goes from 8am to 3 pm (which i think is too long of a school day for kindergarden) and then by the time he gets home and gets a snack and does any home work there isn't much playtime until it's bath time and then time for bed. Not to mention the fact that wednesday, thursday and friday i have to leave for work at 4:30 pm so on those days i only get an hour and a half with him. We have all adjusted but it is still really hard some days. As soon as Hailey is old enough to go to school i am going to get a first shift job so i can be home with the kids all evening.

On the other hand Hailey is absolutely loving her alone time with mommy during the day. Since Caiden is at school and Brad sleeps till 3pm (cause he works 3rd shift) it is just me and her. She is such a little princess, she loves to play dress up and put makeup on, anything girly!

She is such a good little girl. even though she has her diva moments (many of them) she is so sweet. She always has to be sitting very close to me or on my lap and she has to rub my face at all times. I think that it is just a comfort thing for her. She used to do that whenever i nursed her and i nursed her for 14 months so thats something that has just stuck with her.

I'm off now to pick Caiden up from school and then to get ready for work.

~Wordless Wednesday~

Caiden has now lost 4 teeth, soon to be 5 when he finally lets me pull that one hanging in front!

Wow so it has been almost a whole year since I have been on here. Alot has happened and we've been keeping ourselves pretty busy.

Back in the spring about 6 months ago we had a huge flood in our town. We had water in our basement for about 6 weeks (which by the way 6 weeks of water sitting doesnt smell too nice) so we stayed where we were living for as long as we could and started looking for a house to buy. We found one pretty quick but while all the paper work was going through we stayed at Brad's parents and my parents on and off for about 3 weeks. We finally moved into our new home in the beginning of june and have kept busy fixing things up. So far we have painted almost every room and have recarpeted most of the house. Wetill have more work to do but were going to wait till next year to finish.

Hailey turned two in july and we had a cookout for her here at our new house. It has a huge fenced in back yard that we love!

"Hailey's 2nd birthday party"

Caiden started kindergarten this year, it's hard having him gone all day now especially since i work evenings, somedays i feel like i dont hardley see him at all. but i'm trying to work with my boss to get me on a set schedule that benefits my family a little more.

"First day of kindergarten"

So far he is doing great in school and really loves going. Hopefully he stays that way for awhile, i know its still new and exciting to him right now.

Well i have so much more catching up to do but I'll save it for next time.

Halloweekend!!!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love dressing up, taking the kids trick or treating and basically everything that has to do with it. As soon as stores start putting out there halloween decorations caiden and i go and try on all the masks and look for costumes. I think that because of the way i have always been he's not scared like other kids his age. He loves it all, even the scary bloody masks.

Last weekend Brad and I took Caiden to cedar point for halloweekend. He has been wanting to go ever since he saw the comerical on t.v. We went from 5 untill almost 11:00pm. Caiden rode some rides but he really wasn't as interested in them as he was the haunted houses and all the decorations that they put up everywhere. In some parts they made the walk way into haunted houses. They had fog machines and people dressed up jumping out to scare you.

Caiden loved it all. There was one haunted house we went through were one of the were wolves came and got right up in caidens face and really scared him but once we explained to him that underneath that mask was just a normal guy like Brad, he thought it was funny. I was a little surprised that that person got right up in his face like that. I know that usually when they see a younger kid they more try to make them laugh then cry.

It was really nice getting to spend the evening with just caiden. We haven't done that as much as we would like to since Hailey's been born and i could tell that he just loved being the center of attention again! After we left there we went and ate at Friendlys and didn't get home until almost 1:00am. I think Caiden was out before we pulled out of the resturant parking lot.

Throwback Thursday

I've been wanting to get Hailey's hair cut for a couple weeks now but wanted to wait until the right day. I was waiting until October 10th, the same day of Caidens first haircut. His was October 10th 2003 and hers was October 10th 2007, exactly 4 years apart! He was born with a headfull of hair and got his 1st haircut when he was 9 months old. Hailey's has taken alittle longer to grow in, she is now 15 months old. But ever since it started coming in it hasn't stopped. I can't stand my bangs or any hair to be in my eyes and Haileys were so long i was constantly pushing them back out of her eyes. (i think it bothered me more than her). Here is her before haircut picture





She was being such a doll posing for this picture. She was playing with my umbrella in the house (i know bad luck) and kept putting her face right infront of the camera smiling. Don't mind the dirty cheetohs face!

And here is her after haircut picture. By the way i cut her bangs myself so if they look alittle short or crooked, it's my fault. I don't understand how they get kids to sit still for haircuts.

It's weird how doing something as small as trimming her bangs changes her whoel looks.

Now heres Caiden 4 year ago on October 10th 2003. He got his first haircut at my grandpas barber shop.

Look at that ornery face! He loved playing in the bottom of my stove and throwing all my pots and pans everywhere. It really doesn't seem like 4 years has already passed.

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Our Little Diva!!!

Hailey has definatley got a personality of her own. She is very demanding with a horrible temper at times and absolutely an angel at other times. She is now 14 1/2 months old. I don't know where the time has went but she has filled everyday with excitement and new adventures.

She is walking so good now, getting into EVERYTHING!!! Of course she wants nothing to do with her toys just things she knows she can't have(her favorites are lamps, tv, candles all that good stuff) The other day she crawled behind the couch and got into my makeup. When i tried to take it from her she threw a fit so instead of taking it I put it on her. I gave her her first makeover!

I did as best as i could, I couldn't get her sit still too long!

She also loves getting into my kitchen cupboards. We have a lazy susan that she loves spinning around (although she always gets her fingers caught) We have had to remove all the food from there because she would get in there and dump it out on the floor. I still leave in her crackers and snacks and when she wants one she opens the door gets out the box and brings it to me saying "mom, mom" That is what she says when she wants something. She'll say it over and over until she gets it.

Heres Hailey sitting in her favorite chair eating her crackers. She looks so big in this picture. Her hair has grown so much in the past couple months. I love it! I can finally put it up in a ponytail or in pigtails without having it stick strait up on her head. I am actually going to be scheduling her first haircut next week to get her bangs out of her eyes.

She really is our little princess! We love our Hailey!!!

Throwback Thursday

Caiden started preschool 2 weeks ago. This is his second year going and he loves it so far. He is excited every morning to go. He has made lots of new friends and is always talking about what he did and who he played with. This year is alittle different from last year. To start with, he is going to a new school. This one is right down the road from our house so most of the time as long as it's nice out we walk in the morning to drop him off and then walk back up to pick him up. I let him ride his bike sometimes, it makes him feel like a big kid parking it in the bike rack next to all the other bikes. Last year he went 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours a day and this year he goes 4 days a week for 3 hours a day. He hasn't complained yet about going more and we thought it would be good for him seeing how next year he will go all day everyday. The other difference is that this year there are 15 girls and only 5 boys in his class. I wish there were more boys in there for him to play with but he seems to be doing good with all teh girls and has even made a "girlfriend:)" already. He is too cute. He told me that this little girl bailey is so pretty he just can't stop looking at her. It's funny how young this starts. This is the true meaning of "puppy love".


Last year on Caidens first day of school i took this picture.



Caidens first day of preschool September 6 2006

and this year i put him infront of the same tree on his first day of school to take his picture. I can't believe how much he has grown. His baby face is gone and now he is my hansome little man!

Caidens first day of preschool September 3 2007.

**See how much of a difference a good camera makes!

Job Update/ Bad News!

I started my new job this past Monday. I work at a country club, serving, bartending and doing banquet parties. So far it has went really well. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. I will only work in the evenings so i can have one of the grandmas watch the kids. I don't trust other people with them, just family. The kids seem to being adjusting well to it all. Caiden did cry today as i was getting ready to leave for work but only for a minute and then he was all better. I think he was just tired. It works out really nice, I leave at 3:15 and the kids stay home with Brad until he has to leave for work at 6:15. He takes them over to one of our parents house and then i pick them up around 9-9:30. So they really are only away from our house for about 3 hours. I'm really going to try and work only 3 days a week maybe 4, but no more than that. It's nice getting out and feeling like an adult again but I'm surprised at how much i miss the kids. I thought that since I am with them all day everyday it wouldn't be so bad but i think it only makes it worse.

Now for some bad news. We took Caiden to the doctors yesterday for his nose and they told us that it is too crooked to let it go and that it will only get worse as he gets older. So we have an appointment next Friday the 28th to see a specialist about an hour away and discuss what we are going to do about it. I'm not real sure yet what all our options are going to be but we are pretty sure that he needs some kind of cosmetic surgery to fix it. I am so scared for him. He is way too young to have to have surgery. I don't want him to have to go through that pain. We are hoping that maybe it can hold off a couple years until he's alittle older. We are afraid that if he gets it done now, what will happen if he hits his nose again. (he is a fearless little boy who plays very rough) It is way too painful and expensive to have it done twice. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Monday Memories

We took the kids to the zoo this weekend. We bought a pass earlier this summer and have only went 3 times so far so were going to try and take them more often. They both love going.

There favorite things to see are the seals, and the hippos! I think they are there favorite because there underwater and have the viewing window where the kids can watch them up close. They come right up to the window.

That was the biggest seal we have ever seen!

Caiden loves taking the train ride out in the "african safari" to see all the animals. The zoo really does have an area called Africa! While on the train Hailey threw her favorite shoe (shoe fetish) over the side and Brad about fell out trying to get it while the train was moving but he saved the day and got her shoe:)

While we were watching the hippos they started fighting. Caiden thought it was so cool. I should've gotten some pics of it but i was too busy holding the kids. It kinda scared Hailey alittle when they were splashing and biting each other.

I can't wait to take the kids this winter to the lights before christman display. They decorate the whole zoo for christmas and have santa there to get the kids pictures taken with. We did this a couple years ago with Caiden but this will be the first year for Hailey.

Wish me luck, I start my new job today. I'm excited but at the same time i don't want to be away from the kids. I will only be working about 3 days a week but it is really going to be hard because i'll be working in the evening. I have finally gotten both kids on a nightly routine of supper, playing, baths and bedtime and now i won't be getting home till about 10:oopm so i'll have to see how it goes. I'll post tommorrow on how everything went!

Slacking!!!

I have been the worst blogger lately. I don't really know why but i just dont feel like being on the computer lately. We have been keeping busy. The weather has been really nice, alittle cold but this is how i like it. It gets down to about 45 at night and up to about 65-75 throughout the day. So we have been spending alot of time outside.
Caiden loves to go out and play football. Brad has really got him into it this year. They watch Michigan together every saturday and the Browns together every sunday. They have even started there own season on playstation. I can't believe how good caiden is. I tried to play once with him and it lasted about 20 minutes before he kicked me off his game for not knowing how to play. I'll have to video them playing out in the yard next time just to show how much they get into it.
Hailey is teething her molars right now so shes been alittle extra cranky. I stopped nursing her 10 days ago (she was biting way too often from teething) but she is doing really good with it. I thought it would be so hard to wean her but she has already forgotten. The only downside to it is that she has always woke up between 5:45 and 6:30 to nurse and then would fall back to sleep well now that she doesn't nurse she doesn't fall back to sleep. Her normal time for waking up now is around 6:00. It's taken me awhile to get used to but now i get up easily at that time. It's funny how fast your body can adjust to things. I need to be up early anyways to get caiden to school. It starts at 8:30 so we leave here by 8:15. I'm going to do my throwback thursday this week on his school so i'll talk more about it then.
Well these were jsut a few updates from around here. I'll try and get on here everynight this week to keep up with everything. I'm off now to catch up on all of your blogs!

Wordless Wednesday

Caiden has learned how to do so much this summer all by himself!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Shoe Fetish

Isn't Hailey to young to have such an attitude about what she wears? She just turned one and already it's a fight to dress her. Her new thing is her white crocs. She loves them and won't wear anything else.

I have tried putting sandals or even tennis shoes on her but she takes them off and brings me her crocs. I have to admit, they look adorable on her!

She wears them all day long, i do take them off when she sleeps (most of the time, although right now she is napping with them on) but as soon as she's up there back on her feet. The cutest is when she is only wearing her diaper or just a tee-shirt. Hopefully this dosn't mean that this is what i have in store for me... a stubborn child! But i'm afraid it does.

She even wore them yesterday while she help (or helped make a mess) me and caiden make chocolate chip cookies. This is one of Caidens favorite things to do. I set all the ingredients on the floor, so he can reach without standing on a chair, then i measure everything out and he pours them into the bowls and stirs. He loves eating the dough. Hailey wanted to do everything her big brother was doing. She had her own little spoon and was helping stir. They got a ton of flour on the floor and Caiden thought it would be funny for him and Hailey to roll in it. I didn't really find the humor in it:)

Can you see all of Caidens mosiqute bites on his arm and leg? He has them everywhere. We can't even go outside they are so bad. I think that he may be alittle allergic to them. When he gets bit they swell up so big and get really hard. We have never seen the bugs this bad before.

Wordless Wednesday

I Can't Hear You!!!




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Long Night!!!

The evening started out so good. I met mom at her house and her and my sisters came to the ballpark with me and the kids . Last night was my last ballgame for the summer.

We got there early and caiden was having so much fun playing with all the kids his age. I was over by him and saw our team captain over at the field we were playing on so I went over to talk to her, thinking it would be okay to leave Caiden for a minute to play. We have done this many times this summer. I can see him from where we play so i just figure he's okay.

As i was standing over there talking i heard the most horrible scream ever. I didn't even realize what it was at first. I saw my cousin holding someone in her arms and this child was bleeding everywhere. Then i noticed the bright blue flipflops, it was caiden.

I ran over there and i seriously have never seen so much blood before. I have heard that head injuries bleed very bad...it's true. I carried him to the bathroom and by the time i got there we were both covered. We put an ice pack on him and went to the E.R.

All the kids were chasing each other around the picinic tables when they decided to climb on top of them and jump from table to table. My cousin was standing right there with them and she said she knew someone was gonna get hurt so she said "hey guys" but before she could finish caiden jumped. Well i guess he didn't jump far enough. He missed the table and hit his face strait on the bench. She said nothing stopped his fall but his face.

He bled for about 15 minutes. It finally stopped by the tiem we pulled into the hospital. We sat in teh E.R for about 3 1/2 hours, (i hate going to the ER, they always take forever. Thankfully we haven't been there often!) They took x-rays and looked him over. They finally told us that his nose was broken. I already knew it was from the looks of it. By that time alot of the swelling had went down, we had kept ice on it the whole time.

This was last night at around midnight when we finally got home. He was exhausted. He had to sleep on the couch so we could keep him elevated and wake him every 2-3 hours to check on him.

I took these pictures this morning. It really looks so much better already. I was so scared when it first happened. It was so swollen It didn't even look like a nose.

He was such a good boy the whole time. He was very patient at the hospital and didn't complain at all, even though i knew how much pain he was in. He said the sweetest thing to me as we were laying in the bed waiting for the doctor, he said "mom i'm sorry you had to miss your last game" I couldn't believe that after all that happened he was worried about me. I guess i must have done something right raising him for him to be such a sweet, caring little boy. Kids bounce back from these things so quick. He was dissapointed today when we wouldn't let him ride his scooter. Hopefully the swelling goes down and everything looks normal again.

Date Night-Finally!!!

Last Saturday Brad and I went on our first date in almost 13 months!!!

It was much overdue. We left Hailey with Brad's parents around 6:00 and headed to Fridays resturant to eat. It was so nice sitting there, having an adult conversation and not being interruppted. After that we went to Goofy Golf. We were going to go see a movie but decided we rent movies and watch them all the time, we wanted to try something new. We rode the go-karts 4 times and we were going go play put-put but ran out of time. We had so much fun (although i got 6 huge bruises on my back from a little boy thinking it was funny to hit everyone)
We went back to pick Hailey up at about 10:15 and she had already fallen asleep. So we went over to a friends house to watch the UFC fights. After they were over Hailey was still asleep so we decided to leave her there overnight! We have never left her for more than 5 hours before so we were both a little nervous about how she would do or what she would think if she woke up in the night. I was expecting a phone call around 5:00am, Hailey always wakes up then, but i didn't get one. When i woke up in the morning i rolled over and looked at the clock and it was 9:52! I couldn't believe it! I hurried and got dressed and practically ran over there.

She was playing outside with her grandma. She was fine and did so good. She did wake up around 5:00 ate a little bit of a poptart, played for about 30 minutes and fell back to sleep. I was so nervous only because i still breastfeed. I fed her saturday morning and was going to feed her when we got back saturday night but she was already asleep. So she went a full 24 hours without being nursed!

We had alot of 1st that night, 1st date night, 1st time leaving Hailey overnight, 1st time not nursing her. This is kind of exciting for me, i've realized i can go and do more things now and that she will be fine with someone else. Brad and I have decided we want to do this every couple weeks. We really needed that time together.

Slip-n-Slide

I realized that i haven't been on here in awhile, this week just flew by. For an update on my guilty feelings I am so much better. We all have those days that we feel down and out of it, i know that and it really did help me to hear that i am not the only mother who goes to bed worrying or feeling guilty. I have really concentrated on spending quality time with each child, I decided that Caiden can stay up an hour later than Hailey and that gives me and him time to play and cuddle before bed. He loves not going to bed at his normal bedtime. Too bad this can't last long though, school starts on the 4th and he's gonna have to go back to his bedtime then, but were enjoying it for now.

He is so excited about going to school. He is going to a new one this year. I liked his last preschool but it was very expensive and i felt that they didn't put enough time into each child. For example caiden can write his first and last name very good and i helped him everyday at school when i dropped him off for about the first half. For the second half i decided to let him go in by himself and let the teachers help him or even let him do it by himself. I saw at the end of the year that the whole second half he didn't write his name once, all he did was scribble. I know that there are more children that teachers but not one day did they sit down with him and help him. It was always the same with his art work too. If he didn't feel like doing anything they they didn't make him do it, most things came home just scribbled on. I feel that he is there to learn not play, he can do that at home...for free. So anyways we are going to try this new school and hopefully he likes it. He will be going Mon-Thurs 8:30-11:30. Last year he only went 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours a day so this will be a big adjustment for him, and me. It will be weird not having him here all day with me but i guess i better get used to it cause from here on out that is how it will be. My baby is growing up too fast.

We are enjoying the last days of summer. The weather was beautiful today and we spent the whole day outside. We started at my aunt pool and then went to Brad's parents house to let the kids play on the slip-n-slide. They both love it! We played out there on it for about 2 hours.

Caiden was surfing on his spider-man surf board, he was actually doing pretty good. He would run and put the surf board under his knees and make it from one end to the other!

I was surprised at how much Hailey liked it too. She can't walk on it by herself without slipping and falling down so she was getting alittle frustrated with that but she did find one good use for it...

The kids were completely wore out by bedtime, they were both asleep by 9:15 (which is very good for my kids). So i guess i should get to bed too, i should take advantage of their early bedtime.