He's 10

We had Spencer's birthday party last Saturday

I still can't believe he's 10

It seem like just yesterday, he was 2 

Pretty soon he is going to be taller than me

(Mama and her birthday boy)

We LOVE hanging out with family, having parties and eating good food

Aren't these just ADORABLE

When Spencer decided he wanted a football birthday party,

he picked out a Snicker ice cream cake

I knew it wouldn't feed everyone so I sent my Mom a picture of some cupcakes

and 

Waaaa Laaaa

She worked her magic and they were SO YUMMY

Parker just likes the frosting

and thinks he should be able to eat 4 to make up for not eating the cake part

Spencer was spoiled rotten

Gifts, Gifts and More Gifts

        He is enjoying all of his gift cards, catching gear, gummi worms and clothes

                   

Make a wish buddy

May the next 10 years be as great as the first

DOUBLE DIGITS (Happy Birthday Spencer)

I can't believe it's been 10 years

On February 22, 2002 at 2:47PM

Our lives changed more than we could have ever imagined

This little guy made his debut

He was born looking a little rough

Cone shaped head

Scratched from the internal monitor

and

A BIG bruise on the back of his head
but he was PERFECT

We should have known that this boy was going to be a bruiser

He was brought into this world looking a bit beat up

Looking through his baby pictures brought back a lot of sweet memories

I had to laugh when I found many pictures that look a lot like these

And he still can't seem to stay off his face

There is NEVER a dull moment with this guy
but we wouldn't trade him for the world

Happy Birthday Spencer Michael

We love you to pieces!

Top 10 (Feb. 13 - Feb. 19)

Another week of memories

1. The boys enjoyed their first late start of the school year

I didn't really think the roads were that bad but it gave us a little more time to enjoy our heart shaped cinnamon rolls and Valentine gifts

2. On Tuesday the kids celebrated Valentines Day at school

Parker had a regular party (you know with the little cards and WAY to much sugar)

Spencer's teacher made the class pancakes for lunch

3. Spencer and Daddy have been working on a science project

4. Parker is STILL hacking

We thought we were going to be heading to urgent care

this weekend but so far so good

5. The boys FINALLY got haircuts

6. The boys had Read With The One You Love this week at school
Daddy went with Parker
Grandma went with Spencer

 

7. On Friday night we went to Davenport and took the kids to

 the Cracker Barrel for the first time

8. Saturday night we celebrated Spencer's birthday with family

Again, we didn't have 10 highlights this week
We are SO READY for some warmer temperatures and FUN activities

Full of mischief

This little girl

 has been full of mischief this week

She knows she is NOT supposed to be on the table and guess where she was

I counted over 2,000 Campbell's Labels this week for school

and Amelia wanted to help

She also decided since the weather is a little warmer,

she would help take the plastic off of the sliding glass doors

She loves to stick her head in the plastic

I tried to tell her she would suffocate

She must not care

The boys LOVE Amelia

but she's like having a 2 year old in the house

She REALLY is like having a baby

She eats, sleeps and poops

and when she's not doing that

She's in trouble

But we love her to death

Worry Worry Worry

Why didn't anyone tell me that as a Mom I would worry 24/7

I sent this sweet little guy to school today

 and ALL I have done is worry

Parker has had a BAD cold this week

I'm praying every moment that we make it through it with out an ear infection

So between all of the coughing,

we are all a little sleep deprived

Last night Parker had a nightmare

He has been having quite a few lately

I'm not sure what's going on

Last night when Chip asked what the nightmare was about

Parker said he didn't even want to talk about it (POOR BABY)

And then he was up at 6:00AM with a bloody nose

(Is it weird that only the left nostril bleeds?)

He laid in our bed with his box of tissues and watched cartoons

 until it was time to get ready for school

Getting him ready for school is always a challenge 

but it's worse when he's tired and doesn't feel good 

I bribed him with cherry cheese cake for breakfast

(It was better than sending him with no breakfast at all)

Then while he was brushing his teeth,

he sneezed and bit his tongue

We had blood EVERY WHERE

It was coming out of his nose

Out of his mouth

I had it all over me as I had tried to cover his mouth so tooth paste wouldn't go flying

It was a VERY ROUGH morning

I hope his day has improved

I can't wait to go get the boys from school!

We Are Heartless - Happy Valentines Day!

It's Valentines Day and we are HEARTLESS

I have absolutely NO Valentine decor out

No hearts

No red and pink

NOTHING

Before I had kids, I decorated for EVERY holiday
I have no interest now
Maybe because I'm slaving over cute Valentine snacks that take all of my energy
I made 50 of these yesterday

When Spencer came home from school yesterday,
he informed me that he couldn't take his
His class isn't having a Valentine party with candy and goodies
They are having a special pancake lunch

I gave the boys their Valentine gifts this morning

They loved their Axe body spray, books, chocolate and big league gum

I also made them a special Valentine breakfast
Yes, I stole the idea from Pinterest

YUMMY

Parker thought they needed some pink frosting

Grandma brought Valentines over yesterday
If you haven't had my Mom's sugar cookies, you are missing out


Amelia was happy with her gift (tissue paper)

To be honest,
I think Valentines Day is totally overrated
It shouldn't take a holiday to tell someone how much they mean to you
You should do things on a daily basis to show your love for them

I might feel different if I had married a romantic
but I didn't

 Happy Valentines Day!

Top 10 (Feb 6 - Feb 12)

I skipped Top 10 last week

Its been a boring winter and we just haven't been doing much

I'm going to regret saying this in about 3 months but I'm going to say it anyway

BRING ON SUMMER

We are CRAZY busy in the summer

So many FUN things going on

Days spent at the pool

Evenings spent at the ball field

I'm missing that right now

Any way, back to the Top 10

1. We are getting ready to celebrate a birthday in our house

The party will be this Saturday :)

2. Tuesday was career day at school

Spencer was dressed like a Cubs catcher

Parker was dressed like a police officer

3. The boys are both meeting with a girl at school

I'm trying to understand WHY and from the sounds of it,

these girls are working with kids to see if they would like to teach someday

The boys were excited when Friday came around so they could meet with their girls

4. Parker is doing FABULOUS on his sight words

5. The boys had a field trip today

YAY for field trips

They went to Central Middle School to see Fun With Physics

6. Saturday night the boys had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpas

7. Parker was sick this past weekend
Fever, cough, nasty nose, sore throat.....

8. The boys are looking forward to their Valentine parties this week

9. Has anyone seen my boys lately?
They are in dire need of haircuts

And last but not least
We can't forget about our sweet little girl (Amelia)

10. Amelia has been SUPER lazy this week
She has found a new spot to sleep especially when the sun is shining

Picture of the week

Out of all the comfortable places to sleep,
she chooses to sleep with her face smashed up agianst the chair

SICK and tired

We had a VERY LONG weekend

Cough Cough Cough

I think that's all I've heard this weekend

I must have said COVER YOUR MOUTH a million times

I jinx it every time

Parker has an allergy appointment next month

and I had just said, he has been doing SO GOOD

BAM

Just like that

The poor little guy comes home from school with a sore throat

and within an hour his nose is running like a faucet

He had a low grade fever all weekend and couldn't sleep because of the cough

When HE doesn't sleep; WE don't sleep

Last night, I had to chuckle

We were in bed and all of a sudden I heard Parker's cough through the baby monitor

I thought I had been asleep for hours

I looked at the clock

11:00PM

The hubby got out of bed and turned the monitor down
He had drill this weekend and didn't want his sleep interrupted

What does a Mom do?

I got up, gave Parker some water, an inhaler treatment and more cold medicine

Then I rubbed his back for a half hour and told him that if I could,

I would make him better

He whispered, I know Mama

It breaks my heart when my babies are sick

I'm embarrassed to say, I'm still in my pjs
Not feeling so hot myself

I think this is on the menu again tonight

Ahhh Yes, homemade chicken noodle soup

Things could always be worse

Trust me, I know

I have come across some heart breaking blogs this week

I know things could always be worse

We REALLY have more than we could ever ask for

and trust me I thank God every day for the blessings he has given us

BUT

As humans, we always want more

We want more money

I don't know about you but I am TIRED of paying bills

I feel like between our 4 jobs, there should be plenty of money

but it just never seems to be enough

We don't smoke or drink
I don't pay to have my hair and nails done, although I would LOVE to
I shop at Goodwill as much as I can
We don't go out on the weekends. In fact I can't tell you when our last date night was
We rarely eat out and when we do, it's McDonalds (Yuck)
We live a pretty simple life style

After examining our bills in January to see where we could cut back,

 I came up with very little

We are going to check into refinancing our house

and will hopefully find lower insurance premiums

I SERIOUSLY want to know how people make it on 1 income

I SERIOUSLY want to know how people survive on minimum wage

I SERIOUSLY want to know why I'm working 4 nights a week plus day time hours

and

It's still not enough

We need a new deck on the house (it has waited for 4 years - It's BAD!)

The fridge is old and I'm just waiting for it to go out

The furnace is OLD and I pray every year that it makes it 1 more year

All 3 of the cars need work -1 doesn't even run

The dentist has already mentioned braces for Spencer

I could just SCREAM!

The hubby has applied for jobs but they would be swing shift

I'm not sure the money would be worth it the time spent away from family

but we need better benefits

We pay over $400.00 a month in health insurance premiums

and we have a $4,000.00 family deductible

We have NO dental or vision insurance

So when one of us needs glasses or a dental exam,

we can plan on spending at least $200.00 a visit

add that up - we are up to another $2,000.00

I guess we just need to be THANKFUL that we have our family and our health

So while I'm making a budget,

I sit here and wonder how our country got so deep in debt

If we can pay our bills, they should be able to also

Top Ten (Jan 23-Jan 29)

Another week of memories

This week has been pretty boring around our place

#1- My kids were dragging this week

I think they are ready for Spring break

#2- Will these children ever like a new recipe?

This was the week of- I'm not eating that!

Oh yes you are if you don't want to go to bed hungry!

#3- Spencer made this Mama SO PROUD

He stuck up for a boy that was being bullied

#4- Saturday Spencer raced his pinewood derby car for Cub Scouts

Spencer was an awesome sport and his Dad and I were so proud of him

#4- Grandma came home from St. Louis and the boys are so glad to have her back

#5- Saturday night we enjoyed homemade pizza (Daddy style) and some wii

#6- On Sunday, Parker ventured out and went to Kidz City at church

Yeah! Huge step for him!

#7- Amelia has been enjoying all of the sunshine

and sneaking out when she can

Picture of the week-

Spencer at the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby

He doesn't look thrilled to be there, does he?