Yep I am still here oh & lots has happened since my last visit

WOW I can't believe how long it's been since I posted here.  It's just I am pretty busy these days, with what you might ask? well this little cutie pie is just one of them :)

Nope I didn't hide anything from everyone.  He is not mine, but the next best thing.  He is the cure to my baby itch, I get to snuggle and cuddle him and smell his sweet baby shampoo head all day and then at 5:00 hand him back over to his mommy so I can sleep all night!! :) His big sister is pretty dang sweet & cute herself and is sure to keep me on my toes also.

We had a great Christmas, Jingles made sure they were on their best behavior and even made sure they were added to the "nice" list:

and thanks to this they got obscene amount of stuff! Shane and I did pretty good also, my favorite gift by far had to be the Tim/Kenny concert tickets for their concert here this June, I am pretty sure his favorite gift was a framed pic his dad got him of some great hunting pictures from the year.

The top is his huge deer he got in Illinois, the 2nd was just one of Wyatt's deer from this year, the 3rd was Wyatt & Jet with their ducks from one of their trips to Missouri, but it was the bottom one that got him.  Wyatt is maybe 2 1/2 and Shane is showing him how to hold and shoot a little gun, such a sweet moment I caught on camera.

We rang in the New Year with some good friends while the kids hung with Gram and then a few weeks later Abby had a fantastic birthday (I can't believe she is 6!!)

Since then we have had a boring no snow winter the kids are bummed because they seriously wanted some snow to play in.  Luckily this past weekend we were able to humor them with some for at least one day.  We along with my MIL met Shane's sis and her boys in Gatlinburg for a mini vacation.  It was SO much fun the kids had a blast hanging in the hot tub at the house, yes that is snow falling.  It started snowing Sunday night and they couldn't resist sitting out in it, we adults thought they were CRAZY but how do you convince 4 kids that it is TOO cold to go outside in your swimsuit?

We went up to Ober on Saturday & our main reason for going up was snow tubing but all the morning sessions were sold out so we used all the other stuff to keep us occupied while we waited for our turn.  We did all kinds of fun stuff like ice skating

Wyatt had obviously forgotten all that he learned from his ice skating lessons and hockey school and was out of control most of the time :) Abby was in heaven she had been wanting to go ice skating for a long time and did pretty good once she was brave enough to let go of the railing.  Shane of course was a natural (I guess he hasn't forgotten anything from his many years of playing hockey) we all hoped though he would wipe out since he was so smug and kept telling us how easy it was, unfortunately it never happened ;)

We also rode up the chair lift to the very top of the mountain the view was awesome, although it was weird not to see any snow at the tops of the mountains.

It was a gorgeous sunny day in the mid 50's but luckily there was plenty of man made snow.  All the kids (and adults) loved the snow tubing! I was nervous the kids would drive us nuts waiting for it but luckily we didn't have to threaten anyone with a beating and they all behaved waiting the LONG 5hr wait!

Monday morning we woke up to just enough snow to be pretty but not make it impossible to get down off the mountain where our cabin was.  Shane being the biggest kids of them all of course had to start a snow
ball fight

but we still managed to get the kids to sit still long enough to snap a good pic of them all together

 We had a great time with everyone and can't wait to see them again soon.

9!!

Wow he's NINE.

I could go on and on about how it just seems like yesterday he was itty bitty and brand new.




I could talk about how time has flown by and how my little boy is turning into a big guy before our eyes.


But really I what to talk about us, how we got to take him home with basically zero instructions. How no one even questioned us whether we had a clue as to what we were doing or made us promise not to break him. But we have done it, 9 years and we haven't messed him up! We have not broken him, lost him, or forgotten him. We have loved him, fed him and clothed him for 9 years and no one has congratulated us. I told him he needs to thank US and take us to dinner for helping him remain relatively unharmed over the last 9 years.





Happy Birthday Wyatt and congrats on surviving us! Thankyou for making us parents 9 years ago!

She turned 5

So I have slacked and haven't posted any about Abby's birthday I just finally uploaded some pics to my computer and saw all the stuff I needed to post about but figured I better get to her birthday first.

She started the day with some yummy heart shaped muffins made by mommy


That night we went to dinner at our favorite pizza place and enjoyed her lady bug cake.


Then a little over a week later she got to have a party with her friends at the local bouncy place. It was a huge hit with the kids and they had a blast running around like crazy people.

they had a huge throne for the Princess


Sharing the throne with her best bud


I decided to brave out making her cake again this year and with the help of hubs on the polka dots I think it turned out pretty good. She designed it herself, she wanted a pink Rapunzel cake :)

Turning 5!

Today is a special day, my baby is turning 5! I can't believe it has already been 5 years, it's been 5 drama filled years, but they have been great and I wouldn't change anything for the world!

When your a Princess you get to celebrate over and over again

After last night Abby's birthday week is officially over. On Wednesday afternoon she and I went to a cute little girly salon to get her hair cut and braided and then get her nails painted. She just loved the pampering. I told her we will go back when the weather is warmer and she and I will get pedicures, they have little girl chairs beside mommy sized pedicure chairs they are SO cute.



Then we came home and she helped me make homemade pizza for her birthday dinner. After dinner she was excited to finally get to open some presents and blow out her candles on her cake that Wyatt had picked out for her with daddy. She got a cute "a" shirt, an art smock, and a "cake oven" aka Easy Bake Oven. Yes we have already made us some cakes in the easy bake oven and they actually tasted pretty well.



On Saturday we had a party with her friends at the movie theater. We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and then ate cake and open presents afterwards.

She requested a Strawberry Shortcake cake. I was excited about that because I had also had a Strawberry shortcake party when I turned 3. I just think it is great how certain toys from my childhood are still around and are favorites of little kids today.

I was a bit crazy and decided I would take on the making of this cake. I studied cake pictures for weeks and came up with this little gem:

I mean how cute is that? I was quite proud that I was able to pull it off. Although Shane did have to step in and help out with the icing of the cake cause I was having some issues. The cakes were super yummy tasting thanks to Duncan Hines:) I did however make homemade buttercream icing though-which is SUPER easy to make and is SO worth it. I had two great helpers on Friday making the cakes and icing. Abby and the little girl I watch were especially good at licking the beaters:)

Yesterday afternoon my dad, my MIL and my step MIL came over to bring the princess her gifts.


Wow was that a week of fun for her. I still can't believe she is 4, although she reminds us daily of her age and new found abilities afterall she is 4 now and needs little help from me!

Hard to believe but it's been 4 years

Four years ago today our little Miss Abigail graced us with her presence. I should have known as quickly as she came into this world that we were in for the ride of our lives!

While pregnant with her everyone asked the million dollar question and I usually gave the politically correct answer of "it doesn't really matter." BUT deep down I knew I wanted a girl. Would I have not loved another son, of course not, but dang I wanted a girl. I had dreams of playing dress us, braiding her hair, painting her tiny nails, shoe shopping and all that is pink and sparkly. I also want to have a life long best friend in her. I want to be the mom that I don't have. I want to stay up late and talk about her first boyfriend and talk about all the mean girls at school and tell her how it is gonna be OK. I want to go wedding dress shopping and be the one to help her when she comes home with her first baby. I wanted all those mother/daughter things that are so special. and it didn't hurt that I knew I would seal my place by giving the grandparents a granddaughter after all those boys ;)

The last four years have been crazy with her around, don't get me wrong she was the BEST baby. Only surpassed in greatness by her brother. But Dang she is making up for her lost time in giving us hell. She is a ball of drama. At this age Wyatt had all but given up naps he didn't really need them. When she was born I decided it was time for mommy to reinstate nap time around here because I needed some time to breath & he was cool with it. But with her if you even think about saying the dreaded N word she freaks the freak out and if she hasn't had one you better watch your back cause someones going down if you mess with her.

She has earned her nickname "little evil" many times over. She will scream the most ungodly scream that hurts my throat to hear it over the littlest thing. She loves all things that is Princess and Daddy. She wants to do everything the boys are doing and gets very irritated if she thinks she is missing out on some fun. Daddy will be coaching her in tball come spring and all I have to say is those boys better watch it, cause they sure don't want no tiny blonde hair, blue eyed princess showing them up on the ball field.

We are loving every minute of being her parents (well maybe not EVERY minute) I couldn't ask for more. I am so glad God picked me to be her mom.

Look how much she has changed since way back on that first day of her life with us!

I'm outta here and Happy Birthday!!

While you are reading this I am in the car on my way to the BEACH!!

pray that I don't go crazy and neither of my children end up on the side of the road somewhere between here and Florida! It would be especially bad if I had to put my little man out seeing as it is his Birthday.

Today is great in two ways. I had planned a great tribute to my guy but here it is almost 10pm and I still need to jump in the bath and shave my legs! So short and sweet is what he will get.

I wrote a sweet post last year read it here







Over the last year he has changed so much and is really growing into a big boy. He blew thru first grade with awesome grades and beyond belief good behavior, he played some more ball and is really loving it still, he has had his first crush (but if you ask him she likes him not the other way around) and the best part-she was a 4th grader!! That's my boy:) and he has been an all around awesome son and big brother (well most of the time).

I can't wait to watch him grow into a man and see what the future holds for him.

Miss me while I am gone, I may jump on occasionally if we can get internet there.

The big party day

We had Abby's birthday party this past Saturday, much to hers and my relief see seems as though 3yr olds have a hard time understanding the whole birthday and party on different days thing. She asked everyday and more than once if it was her party day. When she was told "nope not today" she would come back with "it's taking forever!!"-this is her newest favorite thing to say, in her mind everything takes forever.

So we had a good turnout and she had lots of little friends to play with. The kids played and ate snacks.



Then it was time for the all important present opening.

Don't you love her shirt? My cousin just got a embroidery machine (which I am very jealous BTW) and she made it for her!

Then on to the cake-don't you love Frosty? I made him:)


Here's my little birthday girl who is quickly becoming my not so little girl.

Abby's big day

Well her big day went well, She started the day with her present from us-A new bike and some flowers from daddy.





She got her hair washed cut and blow dried and she loved it. The lady cut about 1 inch off but I can tell the difference in how it looks. She seemed to really like it all. She picked out purple polish and even though she messed them up they look(ed) cute.





You can kinda tell that it has been cut in this picture


We then went to lunch with our favorite guy-Daddy! We went to a burger/ice cream place and it was really yummy.



her after lunch treat-A strawberry milkshake it was so good- fresh ice cream and real strawberries; I was lucky and she shared it with me!



She got her other gift from us after daddy got home from work

Look at these cool rocker chic sunglasses; Pink with skulls!


Then after her dinner of pizza and cheese sticks! she got her birthday cookie