Sleep comas

OK, it has been a million years since I posted something. To be quite honest, I have been in a "sleep-coma" and am just finally beginning to wake up.

I have been in one of these "sleep-comas" before and it was about 7 years ago. So, just in case anyone actually reads this and doesn't know yet...

I AM PREGNANT!!!

We are so excited and cannot wait. It is going to be a long a wait though because I am not due until April. But at least I skipped the 100+ degree summer weather. I am 11 weeks now and am starting to feel "fat".

The other morning I was getting dressed and I said to Miss Caitlin--- I feel so fat! She immediately responded with squeals of joy and yelled "My mommy's fat- yeah!!!!"

***I know if her little 6 year old head being "fat" means the baby is growing but to me it just made me a little blue.

My friend Kari.

This is one of my saved drafts that was never published. After reading it, I have no clue why it wasn't.

Today I am thankful for one of my dearest friends. She is a "Professional Super Hero" in my eyes. She is a single mom to one of the smartest kiddos I know. My husband does not understand how we can just go to each others houses and sit and talk all night long. He is not a woman so he does not understand how the female mind works but one of the main reasons I can be around her so much is Kari always makes me laugh.

Here are a few examples. BTW- she is not intentionally doing things to make me laugh, she just has a different way of doing things that I happen to think are crazy :)

Kari's fly catcher

Kari's Iron

Kari driving

Her part time job---Dinosaur wrangler

Did I forget to mention that she is also a Captain?

Just looking at these pictures makes me literally laugh out loud!!!

Long lost friends

Just recently my family has been blessed to reconnect with some of our old friends the Dorts. Aaron and I used to be inseparable from Craig and Mandy. We used to have game nights, go bowling, go to the races, late night swims, movies, etc. I have looked back through some of our old pics and we all noticed one thing... we always had a drink in our hands. But, this was all before we had kids. This was before we had someone else in our lives that we had to put first. It was the carefree days of just doing something because you wanted to and you didn't need to think about bed times, getting a little one to take a shower, nap time (oh how I miss nap time), and going to a kid friendly restaurant.

Anyways back to what I was talking about... we were inseparable until they had to move away because of Craig's job. Then it happened, Mandy got pregnant and about 6 months later I got pregnant. Our lives would be changed forever (and for the better).

Fast forward about 6 years (add a trip to Andy's Frozen Custard) and  tada- we are best friends again. The girls act like they have know each their entire lives and Caitlin just adores their son Sam. I am so glad Aaron finally has a boy-friend to hang out with again.

Now if I could just figure out how to be a SAHM like Mandy I would be in heaven.

Relaxing is SOOO overated.

I have been avoiding writing a post. Actually I have 11 drafts saved on my blog but never posted any of them. For some reason I told myself that those didn't fit into the "theme of my blog" but then I realized... my theme is all about MY life. So, all those drafts technically do go with my theme.

I have been in a rut and feeling out of sorts for the last few months.  I thought summer was the time of the year for relaxing but I have never had a child in grade school until this year. We have had so many school events to attend and then Caitlin has gymnastics every Monday night so by the time we do everything--- our entire week is over. It is true what everyone always says... Time flys by and before you know it your kids are all grown up. ***I know Caitlin is only 6 but I can't believe how fast these last few years have literally flown by.

Over the last few months I have come to realize that my mom and grandma (Mama) are not crazy they are just moms/wives/sisters/friends. I have grown up trying to tell them to just relax every once in awhile but they never seem to slow down. They are always worried about everyone else's needs. Both my Mom and Mama are natural caretakers. They take care of everyone in their lives and do it without hesitating. I must have been born with that gene because I have found that I do the same thing. I know my husband hates that part of me but I hope he secretly loves it too. The thing is... I know it stresses me out worrying about every ones needs and feelings but I don't think I will change, I don't even realize that I am doing it until afterwards. I believe I inherited one of the best things a person could ask for from my Mom and Mama. The ability to put other peoples needs first (Don't think I am perfect and always do this, but I often do it)

Besides if I always relaxed and didn't try to help out my friends and family I would have missed out on several of my Girls Nights Out/In with my Kari. A few months ago we go to enjoy an entire night at the ER due to her food allergy and we laughed all night long. (Even if some of our laughter was due to lack of sleep).

So, this post is dedicated to my Kari... may we continue to have more nights like this (minus the ER visit of course)


I had posted this picture on my facebook page and this is the caption we came up with around 3am

GIRL'S NIGHT OUT:
Hospital room complete with rolling bed... $2000
Kari's drug cocktail... $300
Getting to spend the WHOLE night with hot male nurses... PRICELESS

My Two Dads...

No I am not talking about the show from the 80s... (Man I can still picture the amazing 80s loft they lived in)

 

I am talking about my actual life.  I am one of the lucky ones that has 2 dads. I have my father and I have also been blessed to have my stepfather in my life for 21 years. I am very close to both of them and cannot imagine my life without them. With the help of my mom and my siblings they have helped to make me the woman I am today.

We all live such busy lives that we tend to forget that fathers should be celebrated every day and not just on fathers day. (same for moms/mothers day)

Sometimes people amaze you without even trying. I am very proud to say that my hubby is a fantastic father. He knows the way to make my little girl happy (and me happy).

So this is dedicated to all the dads (dad, Jim, my hubby, brother, and bro in laws) in my life- you are all amazing and I love you!!

Kindergarten field trip to the farm

We are lucky enough to have a farm that is owned by our city park board that is open for all to come visit. Caitlin's school got to go (in early May) to the farm for most of the day.

Of course one of Caitlin's favorite parts was the fact that she go to ride on a school bus there. I don't know what the fascination is of school buses but I remember how disappointed she was when she found out that we live too close to the school to ride one so I guess I can see how exciting this would be.
 Lining up. 

 My kiddos that I was responsible for (since I was a chaperon). I just love the look on Dale's face (he is the one on the right). He was TOTALLY not going to hold a girl's hand for a photo.

 We saw all kinds of animals at the farm...

 My little cowgirl.

 And some genius (I am not joking-someone is truly a genius for coming up with this part of the farm) decided to throw a bunch of hay bails in a fenced in area and let kids climb all over them. This was free entertainment for at least an hour.

 They had classroom time (I didn't really get any good pics in there) that was actually pretty entertaining. Mr Nick (which just happens to be Caitlin's teacher's hubby) taught the kids the importance of all of the different types of animals on the farm and why they actually serve a purpose and not just to petting zoo.


They also had lots of tractors to play on. I just love this old John Deere.

 Lunch time.

Caitlin always begs for me to come to her school and eat lunch with her so I was very excited to finally get to share a lunch with her!! That morning Caitlin even helped me pack our lunches with all kinds of goodies. When it got to be lunch time she pulled out a sack lunch that she had purchased from the school (because she forgot about our lunches we made). She also refused to sit by me and only wanted her friends and teacher to be in her area so I was shunned to the end of the table to fend for myself. I ended up having a good time with all of the other castoffs (other moms) and shared my 2 lunches with all of them.

 The last thing they did was play on the huge playground. This thing has 6 or 7 slides and a million things to climb on.

I would consider this to be the BEST FIELD TRIP EVER. I had so much fun with all the kiddos.

The day she turned 2,191 days old...

Caitlin has had a big month!! As of her birthday (which was May 7th)---She was officially 2191 days old (I think we have only had one leap day since she was born) or in other words 6 YEARS OLD! I cannot believe it has already been six years. Time really does fly when you are having fun.

My friend Kari helped me with her birthday cake (actually 2 cakes) the evening before the party. I baked all 6 of the cakes (you will see pics of the inside of the cake on the party post and you will see why I baked 6 different cakes) on Thursday so all we had to do Friday evening was to stack the layers and ice the cakes. Kari is a perfectionist and what I thought would take 1 hour turned into a very very late evening.

Kari makes me laugh because she made about enough icing that night to cover a football field and it was just for 2 round layered cakes. She would put icing on and then pretty much scrape it off because she was not happy with the look. :)

Here is Miss Kari several hours into the icing epidemic...

 Here I am just wanting to get the cakes over with, I am not a perfectionist and thought my handwriting on the cake was just fantastic (even if it was off-centered).

Dots ALWAYS make everything look better

This is the cleanest the counter looked all night. This picture makes it look like we are very neat when we bake but that is definitely not the case.

 We were feeling a bit goofy by this point in time.

You would never notice the "Happy" was off-centered because I put a smiley face on the cake. ***See Kari, to correct icing mistakes just put a smiley face and everything looks great. :)

Here is the perfect cake- this is the one we showed off at the party.

The girls were helping us at the beginning and crashed... so we decided to have a sleep over.

After we spent 5 hours decorating her cake(s) for her birthday party she decided she wanted to go out for a big breakfast. Following in Kate Middleton's footsteps she decided she wanted needed to wear her princess crown, earrings, and fabulous necklace to breakfast. Everyone oohed and aahhed over her jewels at the restaurant.

They always know how to take a good picture...

When we got home the mailbox was literally bursting at the seams with presents and cards for Miss Caitlin

Caitlin's cousin Jonah (he is 2) made this card all by himself.

He also picked out the jewelry and a zooble

Jackpot!!

She had an awesome day! I will do another post with the birthday party on it- it was a blast.