Yay for new hair do's!

After going 10 months without so much as a trim (hey life gets busy when you are a Mommy!) I went to go get my hair done! I was suppose to be leaving my house at 3:30. Patrick's work decided to make him work until 4, so he didn't get home until 4:30. I was an hour late to my appointment. I had a melt down and cried, Sam sitting in my lap crying. It's been a rough few weeks. But luckily, I was still able to go. So for 2 1/2 hours I got to chat with my girlfriend Shaundel and she put color in my hair and gave me a cut. Thank you Jesus for that break!!!

Here is an upclose shot of the blue it it. I have wanted to do blue for so long I can't even remember. I love it!!!

Here is the before and after shots. Just thought you would like to share in my joy of new hair :)

Gavin's World :)

Gavin is a fun kid! He has the biggest imagination! Plus, he is just like his Daddy, such a gear head! I walked into his room one day to find this:

He had taken two pieces from his Lincoln Logs set, and made a ramp into his night stand, and made a parking garage. Then I turn to my right...

and he has the front of his drawer pulled off and has made ramps into it. Crack me up!

G is also in soccer right now. It's so cute to watch. He has never even touched a soccer ball before I signed him up to play. At his first practice, he asked his coach what the net was for. I about fell out of my chair from laughing. But I guess if he doesn't ask he won't know! At games, he can be seen sitting/rolling in the grass, picking his nose, or maybe running with the cluster of children attempting to kick the ball :)

Here he is throwing the ball back in bounds. Oh, also at practice anytime they touch the ball then have to do 2 pushups. He got really good at doing them :)

I love being a soccer mom. When I thought of being a mom, that is what I knew I would love, taking the kids here and there, cheering them on and laughing (or groaning) at and with them. I'm coming into the season of parenting I've been waiting for for 5 years!!

Little Ballerina...and Wheelin'!

This summer Sam started taking ballet. Here she is being the cutest ballerina in the world!!

I could really just eat her up :) She loves it. My mom got her a ballerina back pack and she takes it everywhere with her. She looks forward to her Thursday night practice.

Next fun thing happening lately in our life was our Labor Day wheelin' trip. We went over to West Virginia. What a blast! We went White Water Rafting one day, one of the funnest days of my life!! I was terrified, b/c I have a fear of water and heights. Well I got over both that day, b/c not only did we do the WWR, we jumped off of a 20 foot cliff into the water! So glad I did it :)

We had a smaller group this time, only 4 rigs went down. Here they all are, lined up by an old shack we came across.

Yes, our Jeep is literally on it's side here. That was quite the adventure, to say the least :)

Here are the girlies of the group; Denise, me, Elise, and Shaundel.

And here is the guys of the group; Roger, Patrick, Ben, and Simeon.

I love that we have so many friends that love the same things we do, God knew what He was doing when He directed us to The Vineyard 4 years ago!

What were Gavin and Sam doing while we were gone for 6 glorious evenings? My amazing {and brave} parents took them. Yeah, we took them out to Red Lobster. It can't give them their sanity back, but it's the best we could do :)

*A shout out to my amazing friend Angie who helped me with the kickin' new template! I will get my pic slideshow back up, I just have to figure out how in the world I did it last time. Any advice on that, let me know!

I also told her that if she helped me with it, I would blog at least once a week...well she did it. That means I can't be a slacker anymore :) Blogging world here I come!

1st Day of School!

Gavin had his first day of Kindergarden!! Here he is in front of his classroom:
Standing in front of school:

In front of the house, getting ready for me to take him to school (all the pictures got put in opposite order):

Cute boy!!

I did his hair all up :)

I can't believe he is in school!!! Thought you would enjoy sharing in his first day of school :)

My baby girl is 3!!

I seriously can't even believe it. My sweet Sami is 3. As I was laying in bed this morning, thinking about that, I had a thought that was crazy to me. When we moved to Syracuse, Gavin had just turned 3. That just doesn't seem right, that she is the age he was when we moved here. Time is just going so stinkin' fast. I remember living at the cottage, waiting for our house to be finished, and calling around trying to find Gavin a preschool, and being thankful that Sam couldn't crawl b/c of the fire stove in the cottage. Time flies!!!!!!!!!

Thought I would share some sweet facts about my Sami-cakes, along with some cute pics of her as a babe :)

*She is in LOVE with Hello Kitty and Princesses. Her room is Hello Kitty, and half her clothing, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair accessories, shoes, purse, wallet......Then everything else is princess :) Ariel is her favorite right now, but also really likes Sleeping Beauty and Belle at times.

*She still loves her bunny. If she has a bunny, she has her cork in :)

*She is GIRLY!! And I am not. So she has brought out the inner pink in me. Becky and I took the girls shopping to spend Sam's b-day money. She comes home with a Hello Kitty beanie hat, Hello Kitty shirt (both pink), a baby doll and accesories (all pink), a pink laptop, a My Little Pony set, (the pink is her favorite, of course), and stuff from the "Princess" aka Disney Store. Anyone that know me, knows pink is not the color for me. Her favorite colors? Pink and purple. Thank heavens she also really likes turquoise :) I told Pat I have played dolls more in the last few months with her than I ever did my whole life!

*She is smart. It always blows me away. I pray that she stays that way all through school. Patrick is very smart, so I think we know where she inheritated that one from :) School was way more a social thing for me.

*She loves her Mommy. We are two peas in a pod. Both always bruised, running into something, saying "ouch" at least a few times a day :) I always feel so loved from this little girl. Love shopping together. I get an ear full anytime she finds out I went grocery shopping without her, which has happened like 2 times in the past year.

For her birthday we had just a small birthday party with our families and two of Sam's friends. My Mom made her a Hello Kitty cake. Seriously, check out how amazing this thing is!!!

Thanks for celebrating Sam's life with me :)

May in Review

Well, May came and went in the blink of an eye! Lots of fun events took place this month. We went down to Indy the first weekend to the Mini Marathon. We went down with Ben and Elise. All I wanted to do was survive the race and not have my knee hurt in the process, and succeeded!! While us girls were running the race, Pat and Ben cooked up a feast by the finish line. They had all the stuff they needed to grill up a breakfast. Crack me up! After the race we went back to the hotel, took naps, then headed out for a night on the town. What a much needed break!!

Here we are, looking quite sleepy :)

That evening we went to go see Fast and Furious 4 (great movie!!) then went to eat at PF Changs. Oh how I love their lettuce wraps, seriously. Anyone up for a trip to Indy or Chicago??

We stayed at the Union Station while we were down there. Tons of great places for pictures. If you want to see them all, get a facebook and go look at my albums :)

For Mother's Day we went to Flat Top Grill with my Mom and Day. I orginally was on a mission to get a Vera Bradley purse. I couldn't find one I liked, (shocking I know) and stumbled across something I wanted way more!!

Thanks to my friend Natalie, I have become quite addicted to the Twilight series. As soon as I was done with the books, I had to buy the movie, and am now counting down the days to the 2nd movie comes out :)

Another adventure I have started is Weight Watchers. I started May 4th, and have lost 5 pounds and some inches. I am pretty good at exercising. I actually took the month off to focus soley on eating. Then June 1st I signed up at the Y in North Webster, where they have free child care from 9-12. I am excited to see what pairing eating right and exercise will do!!!

God has blessed me with tons of friends that have girls. TONS. Thanks to MOTTTS, I have made friends with some girls that have boys! One is Natalie, the one I would like to put another shout out there for my new reading addiction :) Her boys and Gav have a good Thomas addiction of their own. In Shipshewana is this amazing Thomas the Train store. So once a month we have been going up there with the kidlets. Of course while we are there, we stop and get a JoJo's pretzel, yummy and amazing!!

Here they are playing with the Thomas train tracks at the store.

Here are the brave momma's, taking 4 kiddos somewhere :)


Aww, yes. Then one of the two most anticipated events of the year. Memorial Day weekend. Our wheelin' trip!! This time we went to Wellsville, Ohio. We had a wonderful time being care free for 6 whole days without the kiddos :) They stayed with our parents, oh the blessing of grandparents!! We shared a tent with Ben and Elise, so there was always lots to laugh about. We just seriously had an amazing time, and now I am on Patrick to get our Jeep more trail worthy before Labor Day, which means I need to be ready for him to be in the garage more. But hey, it's summer, I can handle it!!

Here is a fun little water fall we drove up.

Me and the hunky hubby.

I am LOVING summer finally being here. Many days already spent at the park and playing outside. I've been working on pulling back from many obligations in my life, and focusing on the kids. It's amazing, and I love it!! The house is defiantly lacking b/c of being outside, but who cares!! In 4 months it will be cold and nasty again and I will have plenty of time to clean :)

Enjoy your June, hopefully I will write before August!!

Living in Fast Forward

I am telling you what, life is beyond nuts! Patrick is back at work 5 days a week on top of working on his bumper business, and Tastefully Simple is taking off like a rocket! I hit Team Manager this month!! That is a huge accomplishment for me. I have 6 amazing girls on my team who are working hard, and it's just awesome. I love doing it. I have 10 parties this month. 10 parties plus 6 women to work with equals me learning to juggle a lot of things :)

The kids are awesome, defiantly antsy for summer to get here! They are talking about the beach, park, and the zoo quite often. I must admit, I am ready for that too!!

This past week I was a part of the Wakarusa Resale. It was just the most amazing thing to be a part of! We had over 2000 people come, and make $62000 in sales! Here is a video on it: http://www.fox28.com/Global/story.asp?S=10088167

Check out the goodies I got! I sold 280 and spent 215, we made some money :)
Yesterday I did something I've never done before, spent the whole day with my kiddos out and about and loved every second of it!! God is doing amazing work in my life :) We headed up to MOTTTS, then to UP mall with my friend Dre'. We ate at Chick-Fil-A (which I hope there is in heaven, hehe), played at the little play area, and went to the Disney Store. We spent quite a bit of time there. Gavin got a Lightening McQueen that you can take the tires off, and came with two extra sets to put on. He was the happiest boy, it was so sweet. He also picked out Lightning flip flops. Sam got an Eeyore (as if she doesn't have enough stuffed animals), Princess sunglasses and phone. She is in love with Princess stuff right now. Oh boy :) She will turn me into a girly girl yet. Or hopefully someday I can pursuade her to the tomboy way of life....Yeah, pry not. Then we got Auntie Anne pretzels for the car ride home,and hit not one but two banks on the way home, which means not one sticky sucker but two. It was really such a great day.

Here is the model with her sunglasses:

Here's G with his new Car:

Talking me through how to change a tire:

And the Princess phone:

Okay I need to stop procrasinating and clean the house, run, laundry, get ready for a TS party and leadership meeting tonight...oh yeah and start supper and get in the shower, all before 4:30.....hahahahahaha it's 2:16pm.

I am really going to try to do this more than once a month ;)