Enchanted Forest

Family photo of BEFORE the trip! Just in case the rest of the pictures were a disaster! At least we started out with the right spirit ;)

LOL, so Jeff printed out the direction from MapQuest instead of taking the directions from the brochure! He wanted to save mileage...and if you know Jeff that's something HE ALWAYS SAYS!!! It's his obsession or something XD

Well we're driving and following the directions and GUESS WHAT!?!?!?! We turned onto a road and (hahahahahaha) the bridge was out! Did I happen to say that I was the one driving!? No, well I was and from that point on we got sooooo incredibly lost that we had no idea what road we were even on because of the lack of signs! UGH, so I'm TRYING to remain calm, knowing this wasn't HIS fault but not having a map or GPS I was quickly feeling my blood boil! We twisted and turned on roads with NO idea if that road wouldn't lead us down horrid back roads with NO cell signal (which happened frequently)! Finally we saw LIFE, well a person, and asked here in the heck we were...we had made it to some small town outside of ROME! YAY, so finally we knew where we were and made it to the McDonald's in Rome where some wonderful people pointed us in the right direction! We ended up postponing our arrival and HOUR AND A HALF but it was well worth the experience we had :)

This is the first picture we took :)

Thank heavens we did all the dry rides first because after the water it was pretty much over from there.

Annabel is such a little poser. In every picture I took she positioned in the funniest of ways...but...the Water Safari had this whole nursery rhyme theme! It was cute, we saw Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Humpty Dumpty, Peter Cottontail, you name any child's nursery rhyme and we saw it!

This one is from Hansel and Gretal! The kids got the biggest kick out of the giant cupcakes and ice ream sundaes !!


They also had this huge farm with all these animals...you walking into this cage (HUGE CAGE) and the animals were roaming free.


Here are the kids in Peter Cottontails egg :) So CUTE <3


Annabel and Nathans FIRST ferries wheel ride!


They were extremely well behaved. We even saw a circus show that was amazing and the ONLY time we had ANY problems was in the gift shop! I think it's pretty self explanatory as to why ;)


The train ride!! Nathan was THRILLED there was a train. It goes from one end of the park to the other.


The AMAZON

This ride was awesome we all could go...so we have this HUGE tube and have to ROLL it up this HUGE hill. I was petrified because I didn't know if we all could be in the same tube with Jeff and I both being bigger...but we made it :) Nathan almost cried all the way down, he was petrified!

CRAZIEST thing EVER!!

This ride scared the living daylights out of me! A single cable...suspended over the entire park, moves so slowly that you could feel every shake...all I could think was that I was going to fall and die! Oh man...! Jeff snapped this (not very good) picture of Annabel and I as I was freakin' out!

Last but not least :)

Our last thing we did before we left was have another family photo taken with Paul Bunyan...lol...we couldn't have asked for a better trip!

I am happy to report that we didn't get lost coming home and NEXT time I'll know EXACTLY how to get there!

Out of the mouth of BABES

So I've decided to start this new project (it's still a secret I will share soon) and therefore have been preoccupied with that. Jeff is on vacation this week and has a to-do list a mile and a half long...I think the kids were a bit restless and that as you can imagine equals disaster.

After a long dragged out temper tantrum by the lovely Annabel I sent her to her room for some quiet time. Much to my surprise there wasn't much resistance as there usually is. I took that as a sigh of relief and resumed work on my project.

Well before I know it she comes down stairs life resumes to it's regularly scheduled program and before I know it bedtime has arrived. Jeff and I walk the kids upstairs and Annabel is shoving this drawing in my face...I brushed it off quickly but she refused thus READING ME her letter she wrote while she was in her room for quiet time!

"and Jeau's told me to weepent today mom. Annabel weepented and I said praer today."

Isn't that the CUTEST THING EVER! I'm posting pictures because this is too cute to miss <3


So this is a self-portrait <3


The figure to the left is Jesus XD
I personally LOVE his hair!


Annabel's REPENTING heart!

How super cute...I guess she does listen...my MOST favorite part is the "weepent" spelling! After she read this to me I picked her up and held her in my arms and told her how much I love her <3

Summer lovin'

I'm totally loving summer time...well...mostly! I could do with the kids going back to school but I love that I don't have any set schedules (with the exception of church) and so far the weather's been fairly consistent.

With summertime comes barbecues, pools/beach/swimming, family vacations, relaxation, play dates, girls night, the drive inn, fire works, fairs, sundresses, picnics, water parks, and BONFIRES <3

There is one thing, call it the downside of summer, that puts a damper on all those wonderful summer activities. Can you guess what it is? Come on...take a guess! Waiting...waiting...did you guess a dirty house!?!?!?! If you did you're right! I for the LIFE of me cannot keep my house clean! It always seems like we're running in to grab stuff and running back out! Which would leave one to believe that because we're never home in the summer that the house would stay clean! HAHAHA, NOT! Instead I find that when we get home the clothes, dishes, random items get dumped in the first available 'bare' spot and I'm too tired or busy to deal with it! Then it builds up...until, I SWEAR, it will take me a few days of hustle to make it presentable again. However, lol, usually I clean my house when I feel inspiration hit but lately it's been whose coming over and WHEN!!!

To all the parents out there I'm sure you can relate...but summer also brings constant complaints of I'm bored, It's hot, Can I go...(you pick the destination), Mom, Nathans being mean to me...Mom, Annabel's breathing my air...MOM!!! Can any of you empathize with me?

However, despite the few (chuckles to myself) complaints of summer it totally makes it worth all of the time one gets to spend with family and friends! I just have to invent a solution to the dirty house syndrome and summer would be close to perfect!

Partially blond!

The last few weeks I had the privilege to work at Rice Creek Field Station with a program called Exploring Nature! It's 100% Science all day every day! It's awesome! After a my two weeks of hard work I rewarded myself by getting my hair done!

I got it highlighted and when I first looked in the mirror I was in complete and total shock! I didn't have words enough...it grew on me and now I LOVE it! It even has this way of making me look more tanned!
Everyone seems to love it EXCEPT...you guessed it...my husband! The one person whose suppose to love it no matter what, right!?!?! HAHAHAHA, I guess he doesn't think blonds have more fun...

Here are some pics, excuse the bathing suit :)


Nice view of the back, what's really great though is about a year a go I had red highlights put in and NOW with the blond you can finally see them!! HAHAHAHA


me :)


I love this one even though the my hair is wind blown!

Spring 2010

Mother's Day Tea with Nate <3



Fallbrooke <3
Shen, Annabel, and Nate





Nate's Graduation (I swear he looks EXACTLY like his father)

Oh Man How Time FLIES!!!

LOL, I was looking at my FB profile for the um-tenth time this evening BORED out of my ever loving mind and realized ah...duh...I have a blog and I haven't even looked at it in MONTHS!!

I'm NOT writing EVERYTHING that's happened the last however many months but I'll quickly recap and try (being the operative word)to be more diligent in my writing.

Wow, School's out for summer! I'm...egh...about 25 percent excited about this! Summer means fun, sun, swimming, lazy mornings, camp, vacations and everything else summer brings. But at my house, and I'm pretty sure most other places SUMMER brings whiny children, long HOT afternoons (with no AC), No money, and I also LOSE a large part of my mind in the process!

Ya know it's funny people always ask me: "how are you doing" and I ALWAYS respond (those people who know me can attest to this) "CRAZY!!!"

Shanendowa just finished her orientation for college! YAY! Graduated 6th in her class and is genuinely the best teenager I know!

Annabel just finished up the 1st grade! With much appreciation to her amazing teacher...she passed :)

Nathan has made the MOST changes in this short period of time! Pre-k graduation (sniffle) and he's riding a two-wheeler bicycle now! My baby is no longer a baby and I'm having moments where it saddens me BUT I remind myself he will always love me no matter how big he gets!

Jeff and I are still working hard, maintaining our careers (mines still revolves around raising my family, mostly, but it's hard work!) raising the kids and trying to find our way takes constant effort.

I have put applications in everywhere! Unfortunately, in this day and age teaching positions are few and far between...I often feel like it doesn't matter how GOOD you are it's about the people you know; and being a girl with virtually no connections I fear I'll be looking for a job for the rest of my life...but I KNOW without a SHADOW OF A DOUBT I'm suppose to teach!! Hopefully somebody will realize how incredible I am in the classroom! I can even prove it...given the opportunity!!! So please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Oh...last but not least...my high school ten year reunion is this Saturday! I honestly have no stinkin' idea how and where the time went! Hopefully it'll be fun!

I've got a few pics...

Peeved about Playdough!

So earlier in the week I was talking to a bunch of moms at Bug's school and we were talking about playdough. Most of the mom's use it and it's monitored and whatever. So me feeling like the bad mom for not letting playdough in my house was doing some DEEP cleaning and came across a old "new" package of playdough (dust and everything)! Well I decided maybe playdough isn't that bad and let my kids play with it...AND THIS IS WHAT I GET!!





You know I tried to monitor...I said it only could be played with at the table...playdough time is over. Next thing I know I'm cooking dinner and playdough smushed up all over my house, in the carpet, on a tablecloth, on my couch! Yeah well guess what?!?!? EVERY ounce I could scrap out of my carpet is NOW IN THE GARBAGE! I will NEVER allow playdough in here again!