Cincinnati!!!--Day 1 and 2

I took my kids to Cincinnati last week for a little reunion with some of my friends from BYU-I. We haven't all been together in 7 years since; Tami lives in Washington state, D lives in Virgina, Cassie lives in Ohio, and I live in MO. Makes it hard for a get-together.
We started planning this trip like 6 months ago, and it seemed like it'd NEVER get here, but it DID...finally. We chose Cassie's house cause it was the most "central" location.
The drive there, not bad. Would have been impossible with out Nancyann though. It was about a 9 hour drive, 10 with stops.Everyone was already there when I got there (the longest part of the trip was that last hour) They were all across the street at the park eating White Castle...Tami LOVES white castle :) The park was a little chilly, but the kids didn't care. Lydia found her Best Friends Hallie and Kennie. (Cassie's kids) later that day we went for a walk, and went to the dairy bar by that point Danton was less then happy...I think we had ice cream EVERY day (my kind of vacation). We got the kids in bed when we got back and stayed up talking and laughing (we laughed a lot last week), oh and we played some rock band too.
DAY 2 (Wednesday)My kids and Cassie's kids are on the same sleep schedule. Which is basically getting up FREAKIN early. They were all up by 7 (6 my time) every morning. So we waited for Nancyann, Tami and Gavinn, and D to wake up. Poor Tami and Gavinn. Gavinn is a late sleeper, and on top of THAT, they were 3 hours ahead of home.
So Anyway, Jeremy (Cassie's husband) had to work that day, so it was just the girls and kids. We went shopping at IKEA---cool store. PLUS they babysat your (potty trained) kids for an hour while you shop!!! That hour went by FAST!
Dropping kids off to play while we shop
Danton and Gavinn
After we picked up the kids and we were headed to the check out.
Then we went to Jungle Jim's. It's a CRAZY grocery store. With CRAZY bathrooms. Check this out, this is the bathroom:
Yes, it's inside. And yes, that is actually the bathroom...well the ENTRY to the bathroom anyway. It's bigger on the inside then it looks. :) It just looks like a normal bathroom once you get inside, stalls sinks, changing table and everything. IT was funny though.

They also have this one, for pictures:
Tami and Gavinn on the fancy potty:
The place was huge and had a TON of different kids of food, and decorations.
This is just outside the exit. Tami, D and Kennie.
Then we went back to Cassie's for dinner. She made Skyline Chili. It's from Cincinnati, and it's SUPER good. Spaghetti, skyline, cheese, onions. Yummo.
I took too long getting Danton food, he had to fend for him self...

This is Zachie, he is Cassie's
Hallie and Lydia, instant best friends
AND Kennie
Danton after he was done eating...I think I actually gave him food and didnt' make him just eat a plate...but honestly I don't' remember.
After dinner we went on another walk. And then a ways into it Lydia announced that she had to go potty. Which wasn't a big deal cause we were heading to Cassie's sister's house. Well we got there and no one was home, by this time Hallie had to go potty too. Luckily they were distracted enough that everyone made it back with out peeing their pants.
This is Cassie being super mom, pushing one in the stroller, one riding on her shoulders, one just hanging on, and one "helping" push.
Kids were all sleepy when we got back.
Gavinn and Zach

We stayed up a little latter that night, till like 1 or 1:30. EESH. I haven't done that in a while. But we couldn't help it. It was so fun talking and joking and reminiscing with out the distraction of the kids.
...to be continued...

give me a day or so

I don't have time to post about Cincinnati this morning. I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow. got home Sunday, and basically went to bed, Danton didn't sleep great AND got up at 5:30, but I still managed to get my trip mess cleaned up and the Laundry mostly done, Yesterday Danton still didn't sleep great and STILL woke up at 5:30 ( I think he missed his Daddy) About the only think I got done yesterday was dinner, and I straightened up a bit.
Cincinnati was the funnest vacation I've had in a VERY long time. Stay up late talking, get up early with the kids, eat breakfast, pack the back pack, head out for several hours, lots of walking, little bit of shopping, lots of telling the kids to stay with us, and come back here, a little bit of "crap that car got in front of me, can you still see the van?" (speeding to catch up) get back, eat dinner, kids play out side, go for a walk, kids go to bed, Stay up late...ect.
I was slightly sleep deprived when I got back and I'm just starting to feel on top of everything again, and GUESS WHAT....I have an hour this morning to get ready, put some dinner in the crock pot, and drop the kids at a friends house for the day. (glad I got my house cleaned yesterday) Cause in about an hour and a half my Mom, Sister, Grandma, Aunt, and Cousin are going to pick me up and we are all going to World Fest at Silver Dollar City. I'm SOOOO excited. I"ve already been twice this year, but the weather was less then fun.
Mark is going to pick up the kids after work and I have no idea what time I"ll get home.
So I need to go through my pics, pick out some good ones to post. Between the 4 of us we took almost 600 pictures. Let me tell ya, we had some FUN. Cassie has an awesome town.
*deep breath* ok, I got to get moving. SDC today, Tap (with Nanc) tomorrow, Date this weekend. But in the mean time I should be able to find some time to tell you all about my awesome trip and make everyone jealous.

The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden

So that's what we'll do! ...or did.
I got brave this year. I have never had much success with plants, but I thought I'd give it a try this year. To be honest I was a little surprised when I started seeing little plants poke up out of the dirt. We have 3 kinds of tomatoes on the far left, in the red we have red onions, garlic, red peppers (which have not come up yet), in the short black ones we have 2 kinds of cucumbers, and more onions in the little pot.

Lydia also has her OWN watering can and she has her own baby plants that she waters every day.
We also started an herb garden. I had my seeds started in an egg carton. I decided to harden them and I took them out side. Well as I was watering my garden that day I noticed they were a little dry, so I watered them too. Well inside I usually water them with a little spray bottle, and the next morning I noticed that they didn't look so happy. I KILLED them. ALL of them!!! *sigh* so I have to start my herbs over.

In the front where it's cool I planted my spinach and lettuce.I had a little more room so I poked a few more red peppers in there too.
You probably can't see it from this picture, but I have 2 spinach plants in the right, and 5 in the left, nothing else has poked up.



And today I had some mending to do and Lydia wanted to help me sew. I told her when I was done I'd help her make something. Danton had some jeans with holes in the knees so I cut them off and made him shorts, and used the cut offs for Lydia and I helped her make a bag.
She sat on my lap, I put the pedal on a box and she pushed it with her foot and I guided the fabric. She thought it was pretty cool.
She also got a hair cut today. Isn't she CUTE!

My new chair

I've been wanting a nice recliner for a LONG time and I finally got one. It's not the "perfect" chair. I knew exactly what I wanted and I sat in MANY chairs, and none were "perfect" but I liked this one. Very comfy.
I picked it up on Friday in the truck. It was on the North side of town so I went around 65 instead of going through town. Well on the way back that 60-70 mph wind did not make the box happy, it ripped it open, and blew out the plastic, so I rerouted and went through town.
Getting it inside was a bit of a trick. but I did it, all by my self.
I backed the truck up as close to the door as I could. Opened the box and brought the back of the chair in first. Then I slid the box off the tail gate and set one end on the ground and had it propped up on the tail gate. I got it close enough that the side of the box on the ground was actually on the door step.
So then I tilted the box up and squeezed as much through the door as possible. running through the house, out the back door and around to the front and back again to push and pull the box....ok, it it might have been a little easier with two people, but I didn't want to wait.
The door got in the way so I still had about 6 to 8 inches of box sticking out the front door, so I crawled in the box and started shimmying the base of the chair out.
I think the whole process probably took about 15 mins. The back just clicked into the base and val-la! I have a chair!
Then I shoved the box inside for the kids to play in.
Lydia thought it was pretty awesome.

Danton didn't care for the big box as much as he did for the new cubby between the couches.
and this is the chair, TA-DA!

Now when I set it up and sat in it, the top portion was a little more plush then the floor model. I'm hoping it will squish down with wear. In the mean time I have to sit in it with a pillow behind my lower back. But I don't mind that. But I have been paying more attention to how messy Danton is when I let him out of his high chair.

messy eater

We had spaghetti last week, the kids LOVED it.
This picture I accidentally deleted off my camera, but Garry helped Mark retrieve it. Garry has MAD picture saving skills, best brother ever award goes to him. Thanks Garry.
And I can't take a picture of Danton with out taking one of Lydia too. :)


Danton LOVES oranges...in particularly the orange peel. He has pulled them out of the trash to eat them. I would say that is weird, but I use to like the peels too. Who knows, I still might, I haven't eaten one in years, but I'm pretty sure I'm over that. I don't care to see if I still like them or not.
ANYWAY, the kids love these little oranges. Danton helped him self to the bag that was on the counter.
He has two and he is eating them like apples.

Man! My kids are cute.

I love spring! I love being able to go out side, and let my kids go out side and play. They love it too. They spend a lot of the day out side, when ever it is nice enough to. Lydia knows the rules. Since we share a back yard with about 30 other units she is not aloud to just run around. We have "lines" she is not aloud to cross. And she doesn't. She is very obedient and stays with in the lines. The lines are basically as wide as our apartment and it goes back to the fence, which is really not that far, but it's enough grass for a 3 year old. Sometimes we go down to the swing set, but she has more fun on our back porch with her bike, slide, chalk, and imagination...oh and you can't forget the rocks. :)As you can tell, Danton is always thrilled to be out side as well. Can you see his little knee? Yeah, it's bleeding. Lydia tried to tell me he was bleeding but I didn't see where cause he was standing and his shorts were covering him, PLUS he never complained about it so I figured she just THOUGHT it was bleeding. But no. That boy has so many cuts and scrapes on his legs and feet, but he is tough, he never even winces. He does not however like stepping on rocks.

This was Danton's first bowl of cereal with milk and a spoon. Can you tell how much he LOVED it? He LOVES spoons. I've never poured him a bowl of cereal, I just give him the dry cereal cause he can't have milk. But DUH, (blond moment) he drinks soy milk, so I just put HIS milk on the cereal. He actually surprised me how many time he got cereal on the spoon. (I had to fix the spoon in his hand a couple times)

And Lydia needed her picture taken too. And why not when you have such a cute face?

Guess who Danton's FAVORITE person is...

And this is how Danton must sleep. He has his teddy bear (which is pretty close to HIS size) and he sleeps ON TOP of the bear. He likes to cuddle, so this way he can cuddle all he wants. That bear was a good find. I got it at a thrift store for $3...or $6, I don't remember now. But I wanted to get him a big animal cause he loves Lydia big monkey so much. This bear I think was probably really expensive when it was first bought. It's a very well made, soft, and durable bear. I put it through the wash and it came out looking like new. Every other toy I have f=put through the wash has needed some TLC when it was done.
But anyway, Danton is cute, and he loves his bear.

AWE!.........................

A pictureless Birthday

I have had a lot of birthdays, and they come at the same time every year. They have all been pretty good. Most have involved strawberries...and angel food cake. Some have coupled with April Fools jokes, but yesterday was one of my favorites so far. Maybe that's just cause I can remember it the best. I don't know, maybe it's just cause it was just that good. Sorry, though. I have no proof. We didn't take any pictures.
It started off great. On My happy Birthday Eve, we decided to get some good walking/water shoes for Silver Dollar City, and we got them both on sale. Oh yeah, love a good bargain.
I woke up to...nothing. No children climbing in my bed, no crying, no nothing. I didn't sleep as great as I'd have hoped, but the fact that I woke up on my own terms make me wake up happy. So as soon as Danton woke up we started getting ready to go. We took the kids over to Granny and Papa's house, and went out for breakfast (for the 2nd time in my life). Had to go to IHOP. I LOVES my pancakes.
When we were full fat and happy, we drove down to Branson. It was suppose to get up to 72 so we wore shorts...ummm it was cold. Well, the breeze was cold. Once we got into the park the hills and trees blocked all the wind so it was actually rather nice. Not nice enough for water rides....Oh no.
We went on rides we had never been on before, they were SO fun. It was fun just to enjoy the day and not worry about anything or any one but our selves. We even had time for a street show before we left. We left the Park early cause it was going to rain. But we got back to the truck before we got wet.
Came home, dropped off Mark to sleep off his motion sickness pills, and looked up some movies on red box, and then went back to get the kids. I printed up some birthday coupons for schlotzkys and papa murphys. On the way home I stopped and got some Andy's frozen custard for Mark and I, and got the movie. Put the kids in bed early and enjoyed a mediocre 2012 and some frozen custard.
Not to mention all the "happy birthday's" I got on the phone and on Face Book. It was a fun day.