Yet Again...

Yet again the days pass and I am too busy, yet again I am behind on everything, and yet again I feel guilty and overwhelmed with the daily responsibilities of being an adult mother. I am about 2 months behind on posting so I will keep it sweet and to the point....

Continuing where I left off...

The beginning of October we were lucky enough to have Joe's parents come stay with us for a few days from North Carolina. The kids were very happy to see their GiGi and Grandad!
We Colored....
We went to Blake's farm for some fall fun.....
What a GORGEOUS day it was...

We watched and learned how apple cider is made...
We climbed trees...
We fed the farm animals...
Climbed up the mountain of hay...

And the GIANT tractor tires....
And of course couldn't resist jumping off...

We also went on a train ride and a hay ride, we jumped on a giant pumpkin air castle, Went through a haunted house....and we thoroughly enjoyed the day!!!!

Next major event I guess was Kaden's kindergarten Thanksgiving feast!!! They joined the two classes together...or I should say "tribes". Each tribe brought homemade goods contributing to the feast. Kaden's class made apple crisp, where they actually chopped all the apples and did all the work, except for baking, Mrs. Creech handled that. The other class made stone soup which they also made themselves. And they also had corn muffins to add to their bounty. The kids made both pilgrim and indian costumes and then got to decide which they wanted to be. Kaden chose an indian!!! His indian name was Wynono, which means first born. He had a handmade vest, necklace, and feathered hat!! It was a great time!!!

Waiting for the celebration to start

Let the feast begin!!

Also I can't forget about Thanksgiving!!!!!! We were so BLESSED to be able to spend it with my family who drove in from Texas!!! My mom, my dad, my two brothers Austin and Braden, and my aunt Traci....with the kids and Joe and I, we had one FULL house!!! It was so great though, we figured it out and it had been 10 years since we had had thanksgiving dinner together. Mom and I spent most of our time in the kitchen, the kids played in the snow, and the boys mainly watched football and played video games. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore...except for my poor husband, who had been looking forward to gorging himself for weeks, unfortunately wasn't feeling well, with some sort of stomach bug. So he didn't get to eat til 2 days later...he was very bummed...and so was I.... I was counting on him with his usual eating patterns to make it where we didn't have so many leftovers! I swear, we had 9 people and we definitely cooked for 29...it was ridiculous!!!
I am thankful for SO many things, but this year my family topped the list! I am so very thankful for a wonderful, warm, and loving families support!! I love y'all, I know the trip was hard (more driving than visiting) but it was so wonderful having you here!!!

The kids and Nana peeling potatoes

Snow fun in the backyard

They had a BLAST

We started a band...should be coming to a town near you soon! Dad on guitar, Braden on bass, Kara with the vocals, and Kaden on drums!!!

And last but not least our thanksgiving table, all ready to go

The kids and I made the table cloth out of craft paper and we also made the place cards...little turkeys with 4 feathers that each had something we were thankful for about that person. They were super cute, the kids did an awesome job!

My turkey..I was pretty proud of this little guy...well, I guess it wasn't exactly little...it was 26 pounds!!!...see I told you we cooked for 29! : )

Everyone around the table ready to eat..minus me (picture taker), my dad (turkey carver) and my poor sick husband Joe : ( Sorry baby!!!!

Catching up

Wow.....I have been a little M.I.A lately...pesky life, just gets in the way sometimes! You can have all the best intentions and still fall short, which sometimes (more like all the time) makes me feel guilty...does anyone else feel this way??? I wish I could feel accomplished in the things I DO get done rather than guilty about the things I DON'T!!! I constantly feel like life is whizzing by like a tornado and I am stuck in the eye...except all is NOT calm. Sometimes I think I create chaos because I don't know what to do when there is nothing to do. How do I not do this to myself??? How do I step back and enjoy the moment?? Because we all know the moments go by all too fast.

Well on the subject of moments I have more than a few to share although my camera battery died and I just replaced it today, so quite a few pics are from the camera phone...sooo not the best of quality!

One day I was on the computer and turned around to my daughter acting like a puppy. Kaden had her on a leash and everything....I turn my back for one second and who's knows what I will see when I turn back...case in point
Here are some gymnastics pics, I haven't put any on here yet because I hate the quality! The gym is completely closed and one wall is glass where all the parents sit and wait and watch...problem, you can't go in the gym and the glass is not the non-reflective kind which is not so conducive to picture taking! Sooooo, I had to turn my flash off and get as close as I could to the window, so they are not great to say the very least...

Kara's in the middle in pink

Kara doing an assisted hand stand and another little girl picking her nose....classic!!

Carrying the sign..which I think is her favorite part of the whole lesson...64 bucks a month and she likes to carry the sign!! : )

So, she has a christmas program coming up on the 21 of Dec where they get to do a whole show and get medals and all sorts of good things and we get to sit inside the gym, so I am hoping to get a ton of pics...until then this is all ya get...sorry!! ;)

On to the next adventure.....

Oooo, this was an exciting one...THE KIDS LEARNED TO RIDE "TWO WHEEL" BIKES!!!!!!!

Joe getting Kaden ready to roll

It didn't take long before he was a pro

Kara liked the "idea" of no training wheels a lot more than actually having none

It took some practice

But...before too long she had it!!

Next...... let's see, oh...Kara's first ever field trip!!!! It was to Spicer's orchard! The kids got to go on a hayride, pick pumpkins, pick apples, have cider mill donuts and apple cider, and play on the farm.

Kara found a good one

The good one's must be a the top....side note: Do you think it might be time to buy my kid a new sweatshirt!!!???? Hello belly! : ()

Enjoying the fruit of her labor, Haha!

That was one goooood donut

Riding on the tricycle track...we were here for A WHILE!!

I told you my daughter is a cheeeezzz ball

Do you need more proof???

Okay....now you get it huh

Now on to the fun but tragic part of the afternoon....

Kara absolutely LOVED this thing and could hold on all by herself the WHOLE way

This was the big hit of the day! When it was time to go I gave her the choice of just one more thing to do, and this is what she picked. The only thing.....this time in particular she came CRASHING to the ground...face first!!!! She had done it seriously at least 15 times, so I kinda let my guard down by not standing RIGHT next to her as I had the first few times, and it happened so fast there was nothing I could do. It was horrible, the whole side of her face was scraped to bits. I felt so terrible...of course we left right away..with her screaming, but I promise her face is fine and she must have selective memory cause all she talks about when remembering the trip is the good stuff!!! THANK GOODNESS!!!

Well.....I think I have probably lost anyone who started reading this and has fallen asleep by now, so I think I'll take a little break and continue this later!!! Stay tuned!!!!! There is a lot more...this may need to be a 3 part-er......see.... If I had only just kept up on it...story of my life!!!!

Hey! I have a great idea!....lets to go the park!!!

Is what I said to the kids Wednesday afternoon after they got home from school...and words that I would come to regret!!!

Well...as promised.....the day at the park from Hell story......

So we have this GREAT metropark about 6 or 7 miles from our house that is full of fun things to do...like this awesome playground, a splash park, a nature center, cross country skiing in the winter, sled hills, it even has a lake with the glass bottoms like a the zoo where you walk under and see whatever is in the water.....and it also has what we came for that day...an 8 mile biking, running, walking, rollerblading paved trail through the woods.
So Kaden brings his bike, Kara brings her scooter, and I decide to rollerblade with the dog. We get there about 1:30, its a sunny day one of the warmest we've had lately, but it feels good. We head out and I say how about we go 2 whole miles..the kids were like yeah! lets do it!! They were all excited and I figured Bella would love it, she's been to the dog park a couple times but other than that just our neighborhood, which full circle is only about a mile. I just knew she would love all the new new smells and seeing other people and animals. So we're trucking along. Everyone's doing great, we feel the breeze, the sun, we're laughing,....then Kaden starts complaining about his legs hurting (we've gone about .5 miles at this point) In his defense, there ARE lots of hills, ups and downs, twists and turns...you know! : ) So anyway, I get the kids to switch and have Kaden ride the scooter for awhile. We stopped at about a mile cause we saw all these huge trees that had fallen down and the kids said it looked just like a playground and wanted to go climb.

We continue on our journey, stopping for a snack and some water for us and the dog. Finally we MADE IT.....2 miles, it was fun, we should do this all the time I think...and even say it out loud to the kids. We sit down to rest, and this is when I realize we have to go BACK. You see its an 8 mile loop so if you don't go the whole way you have to go however far you want, but keeping in mind you have to go that far to get back. Something I wish I would have thought about prior!!!!
I felt fine, I knew I would be ok, I was slightly worried about the kids, the complaints increased as we sat on the bench and I filled them in on the fact we now had to go the whole way back, BUT they said they were ready..lets do it! they said again excited to go back and play on the playground. So we get up...well, all of us EXCEPT for Bella. I tug on her leash a little, doesn't budge. We all call her..come on girl, lets go Bella, ....the kids are trying to bribe her with treats...not a movement. I try for what feels like forever...she doesn't move. I freak out a little bit knowing we have the other 2 mile to go. I give her some more water, she is panting pretty hard. I poured the last of one of the 2 water bottles we brought on her skin to cools her off.....then I tried again...I'm pulling, I'm tugging, I'm PLEADING.....no good. So I call Joe....Hunny, what do I do??? I'm in the middle of the woods with the kids, 2 miles from where we need to be, with a dog that won't go!! He calmed me down and told me to sit with her for awhile give her more water and wait til she was ready...I agree to wait it out. So 20 minutes and a snake later....(yes...we saw a snake, it went right over the road and now Kara was totally freaking out)..... we give it another go....nothing...at this point I'm almost in tears..actually maybe I was, I don't know. I call my parents in Texas, who are 2000 miles away..like they are going to come rescue me or something. They try to offer up suggestions..nothing works. I start thinking we're never gonna get out of here, right as this thought floats across my mind, Kara says "Mommy, are we gonna have to sleep here?" This is when I decide the only way we are getting this dog back to the car is if I carry her....all 43 pounds of her....on rollerblades....and a backpack on my back....I know..this is crazy right, but I had NO choice!!! She's so cashed, she feels like dead weight, my back is killing me, ..BUT we're making progress to the car and getting the heck outta there. It felt the an eternity, by mile 3 the kids started really having a hard time....mom my legs are burning, Mom, I can't do it, Mom, I'm not gonna make it.......I had no sympathy at this point, I couldn't...I really wanted to be like ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME, .....there is a happy ending....we finally made it out....a total of 3 hours and 4 miles later, we were on our way driving safe and sound back home. The dog AND the kids proceeded to pass out!!! At least I can laugh about this now!!!! : )

Here's some pictures...mostly of the first 2 miles...after that my hands were a little tied up!!: )

Getting ready to go on the trail

ready to roll

Having fun

The overheated dog standing in a in puddle of water that was poured on her head

trying to "wait it out" Kara looks just a little bit happier than Kaden at this point

So thats my park story....I hope everyone found it amusing...cause I can guarantee I wasn't laughing as it was going on!!!!!: )