Camping Trip

Every year Matt's stepmom's family has a tradition of going camping on Memorial Day weekend. Every year they go to the exact same spot and every year they go no matter what. The have even gone shortly after the death of family members and keep the tradition going. So each year we always know when we are going, where we are going and pretty much who will be there. It is something we all look forward to each year and can't wait to get there and enjoy the first camping trip of the season. We have gone when the weather was perfect anad we have been there with 6 inches of snow (okay maybe not that much, but it seemed like it!) This year Matt managed to get some vacation time and after he finished with his lawns on Thursday we headed out to Summit Creek. We got a little bit of a late start and didn't arrive until after 11 at night, just in time to get the kids into bed. Luckily this year we were able to take Matt's parents old camper and so we had something warm and dry to sleep in. It pretty much rained the entire night and next day, putting a damper on the plans for 4 wheeler rides, swimming in the spring, and enjoying sunshine. We still managed to have a good time and played plenty of card games and the kids watched some movies. The weather seemed to always have a break long enough to cook our meals and get a fire going. We all bundled up and stayed warm and most of us have learned to "over" pack clothed for all seasons. So I think everyone managed to stay warm and dry. The weather finally was nice on Sunday, the day we came home, but we still have a great time enjoying the outdoors and the great family time together. It is always great to get away and not have to worry about much. The kids both had a great time and Parker asked when we were going again. Now we are home, had ourselves a nice hot shower and I am trying to get the huge pile of wet, muddy, laundry under control. But it was all worth it!!!! Thank you Keller family for a great family tradtion and all the wonderful memories year after year. We are truly grateful for such a great family and the great company each year!!

Playing Catch Up

I have had good intentions to get on the computer and update the blog, but what I didn't plan on was our computer crashing. It has been super slow the last few weeks and hard to get onto the Internet. But this last weekend it froze up and we couldn't even turn it on. So we took it to a computer guy and he cleaned it all up and now it is as good as new. Luckily we didn't have to buy a new one. Along with the computer falling apart I had to get new brakes on the van last week. $400 later the van is running great and I can now drive it without being afraid that the brakes will give out on me. A few days after the brake repair my phone quit working. All the screen would show was a white screen. I couldn't do anything on it, I took it in and it is defective and just my luck they don't have a replacement phone in their store so I had to go about 5 days without a cell phone. I hope that this is the end of things falling apart and breaking for a while. We can't afford to replace anything else!! Oh and on top of all that, we have all been sick! So 2 co-pays and 11 prescriptions later we are on the mend. Hopefully this will be the last of the illness in our house for a while too!

On a good note, I was gone last weekend with my mom and sister for our semi annual scrapbook retreat! We had a great time and got a ton accomplished. I worked really hard to mentally prepare myself for the weekend so I was in a "scrapping" mood. I really wanted to get a lot done. This is one of the only times I am able to scrapbook without interruptions and to get caught up on all the pictures I have been taking. Luckily I was in the right mood and didn't have any major brain blocks and was able to get 50 pages done!! That is the most I have done at one time. I think that was the most that any one there did too. I had put my pictures together with paper that I wanted to use and things went together fairly smooth and I worked really hard to get that much done. I stayed up late and woke up early and kept getting page after page done. At the start of the weekend my goal was 30 pages. I had done about 25 in the past and was trying to out do myself. Well after the 2nd day I had reached that goal and exceeded it by 10 pages, so I changed my goal to 50 and I worked right until we had to pack up and leave. I felt really good about accomplishing so much and getting some what caught up on past events in our family. When I came home on Sunday and was showing the pages to Matt and the kids, Matt said to Big Brother "Aren't you glad mommy does this so we can remember all these good memories" I thought what a great husband!! Not only did he take time off work to watch the kids so I could go, but he fully supports what I do to capture the memories if our family. I love to scrapbook and I love love love to look back on the books I have done and reminisce over the great memories! I am so glad that my mom and sister and I all love to scrapbook so that we can spend time together and enjoy one another's company. It was just what I needed, to get away from the everyday routine and have to time to myself!! I look forward to the next retreat in about 6 months!

Just Like Dad

Matt was out working in the yard the other day and the kids love to be out there with him helping. They especially love it when he lets them play with the blower. They are just like their dad and love those power tools!

Mother's Day Surprise

Today after I brought Parker home from preschool I checked in his backpack, like I always do and I found a little something he had made for me at preschool (well I am sure he didn't do it all, but it was nice of his teachers to think of the Mothers) This is my first official mother's day gift from him. I was touched a little bit by it!

Lunch Time

Today after I picked up Parker from preschool, I had to run a few errands. He saw McDonalds and of course wanted to go and have chicken nuggets. Well we haven't eaten out for about a month, so I gave in to his suggestion. Then I don't have to make them lunch when we get home! Well he wanted to go inside to eat and to play on the toy. But as luck would have it was snowing here today and too cold to play on the outdoor play equipment. (secretly I was glad. I didn't really want to sit out there while they played for an hour. I wasn't in that kind of mood today) So we ordered them each a kids meal with fries and a chocolate milk (I know, not the best of choices. That little kids meal is over 600 calories!!!) They both sat at the booth and proceeded to eat all of their lunch!! (Paige didn' quite eat it all, but pretty close!) How this happened I don't know. Parker is the worst eater ever!! He hardly ever eats all his meals. And most of the time he is forced to eat with the threat of early bed or time out. We hate meal time at our house. It is a constant battle to get him to eat and some days it takes him and hour to eat. So I was very surprised today when he ate all of his lunch without me getting after him over and over. I was very grateful not to have to argue with him in public. So today that is what I am grateful for. I will take a good day like this any time. And after we were on our way home, he thanked me for lunch!! He never does that!! I was feeling good! I think today he thinks I am a good mom!! Love it!!

Bed Problem

We have a new sleeping problem here at our house and it involves Paige. Up until now she has been a really good sleeper. She slept well when she was a baby and started sleeping through the night fairly soon. I love that about her! Since she has turned "2" she isn't doing as well. One day I thought maybe she was big enough to sleep in a bed instead of a crib. So I changed her crib into a toddler bed and she played on it all day. When it came to nighttime, she would not stay in it. So I waited until she fell asleep and then put her in the bed. A few hours later I heard her bedroom door open (this is about midnight) and in she walks and climbs into our bed. Being the person that I am (and Matt as well) we let her sleep there. Both waking up with aches and pains. We don't want that to happen again. I was thinking it would take 3 nights for her to get used to the new situation. Well after the 2nd night being like the first I gave up and put the rail back on the crib and she slept in the crib the entire night the 3rd night. So maybe she isn't ready for a bed. Well that was about 3 weeks ago. She has slept good since, almost all night every night and I think that is great. Well a few days ago, in the middle of the night I once again heard her door open and wondered what was going on. In she walks and climbs into our bed. That little stinker climbed out of her crib!!!! How did she do that? Matt and I were both in shock! The next day during the day I was in her room and put her in the crib and said, "show me how you get out." She proceeded to throw her leg over the rail and then pull her other leg over until she touched the mattress from the other side. Then she dropped the last foot onto the ground. I couldn't believe it!! She can get out with hurting herself and she isn't afraid to do it in the pitch black of the night. So what do I do about this?? I DO NOT like her in our bed, we just got Parker out of there for Pete's sake, I DO NOT want another kid in there during the night. How do I get her to stay in there all night and not climb out? Anyone, please help!

Zoo Time

On the 17th my mom decided it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo. So we loaded everything up and made our way there. As we got there is started raining a little bit and neither my mom or I had brought jackets (what were we thinking?) Luckily I had jackets in the car for the kids and I happened to have a hooded sweatchirt in their too. So we decided we would wrap the kids in blankets and jackets and hope the weather would soon cooperate. Then is started really raining and I (having no coat or sweater) decided that maybe we should come back another day. Well Parker did not like that idea at all, so we decided to stay and within about 10 minutes the rain had stopped and we were in line to get into the zoo. It warmed up and the kids had a great time seeing the animals that were out. There were a lot of animals that were still being kept inside until it warmed up, so there were things that we didn't get to see. There were even some new baby animals to look at a baby zebra, and I think a baby goat. The kids really liked looking at them. We walked around for about and hour and took a few pictures and decided that we had seen it all. We will have to go back later this summer when all the animals are out to see. I know the kids would love to go again!