Smokey Mountains

Jared & I just got back from a little mini vacation to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee! We love our kids, but man we just needed to get away for a little bit. It's funny we spent most of the time while we were away talking about the kids....

It's been a while since we got away by ourselves and we are very grateful that our parents kept the kids for us, it was a lot of shuffling around but they made it work....Thank You!!

We were gone for 3 nights and 4 days, and if we had the kids with us we probably would have stayed longer because it was absolutely beautiful there. We rented a cabin out in the mountains, it was so peaceful and relaxing and we were the only ones at the resort for all 4 days, there were a lot of cabins around us but the only one rented out was ours!! We went at the right time before it got busy!! The cabin had a kitchen, bathroom, a loft bedroom, living area, back porch with a hot tub...pretty much anything that you would need it was there! It did rain everyday we were there, but stopped just at the right time everyday so we could get out and do some stuff.

We spent a day shopping, a day up in the mountains hiking & visiting Gatlinburg, a day 4 wheeling, and a day doing nothing!! It was the perfect trip! 4 wheeling was the most fun! We ate at some really good restaurants too!! We planned on golfing one day, but the rain wouldn't hold up for us, oh well, we can golf here, right?? So we played 3 rounds of mini-golf!! HAHA!!

Jared and I had so much fun together, but next time we will take the kids! Thanks again to our parents for helping us out....3 kids can be a handful!!

Cinco De Mayo

Jared & I have always celebrated Cinco De Mayo...no we are not Mexican, but we love Mexican food & MARGARITAS!!!! We usually go out to a restaurant and eat on this day, but again we decided to do something here at our house, and save money!!! Hey, those pitchers of margaritas starting adding up!!!

We had all of our parents over and Justin & Tatum as well! It was so much fun!! I made all the Mexican food tacos and a new recipe for Mexican pulled pork...DELICIOUS!! Cheese dip, salsa and bean dip, and homemade margaritas!!! It was just as good, if not better than eating out, I think!!

Well, we weren't very creative in decorating or dressing up, but Jared's parents did and let me just say "PRICELESS".....Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

Easter

On Easter we typically go to my mom and dad's house and they hide Easter eggs for the kids, then we pack up and head to Jared's parents and hunt Easter eggs there. This year we started a new family tradition....now that we have a lot more space we had Easter dinner here at our house, and it was a lot of fun!!

Jared & I prepared the kids baskets the night before and hid eggs, we were quite excited to see the kids faces in the morning.......well this is what we found when we woke up.......

Yep, that's right...the boys went through their basket as well as Kaylee's and then came and woke us up by saying "We're going outside mom & dad, there are eggs out there"!!! So we didn't get to see their faces, but they were ecstatic!!

After all the egg hunting, we got dressed and went to church before our parents came over. We got home from church to find the Easter Bunny had came again...aka Dad(D)!! LOL!! So we all ate a really great dinner and hunted more Easter eggs!! Such a fun day!!

Jordan's The Leader

Oh boy! It's been awhile since I updated this blog!! Lots to catch up on!

Well, in March it was Jordan's turn to be the class leader. I did not go, but Jared did, Jordan liked that alot!! Since I did not go I don't have alot of details about the day, but I have some pictures for everyone to see!!

He's such a big boy, and will be starting kindergarten in August.....he is way to excited about that!!! He is growing so fast, he helps me out alot around the house, he can count to 100, spell simple words like cat, dog, run, etc. and is even starting to read books to me!! I am so proud of him!!

And no little girlfriend like Aidan!!! HAHA!

Follow the leader....

Aidan had his leader day at school on Friday!! When it is your day to bring snack for class it is considered your leader day, Friday was Aidan's and he just had to bring oreo cakesters for everyone!! MESSY!!!! Imagine 19, 3 & 4 year olds eating 2 cakesters a piece.....I kept apologizing to the teacher cause there was little cake crumbs all over the floor!!

Anyway, I got to stay and see how Aidan acts in class. He really is such a good listener, I asked if it was because I was there and she said no he is good all the time, so that made me feel good!! And trust me there are some not so good listeners in his class!!

During class Aidan got to hold the flag for the pledge of allegiance, pick the songs they sang, lead the line to the bathroom, pick numbers out of the number bag when they counted, add the new day to the calender and pass out snack!! He was a busy guy!! It is so cute hearing 3 & 4 year olds say the pledge and sing Jesus loves me!! Before they start class they have playtime for about 25 minutes, this is the time they can get into anything they want, Aidan decided to play dress-up with the girls, haha, and this is what he wore.....

It was also his turn to do the 5 senses bucket...each day the teacher picks 3 students to give a bucket to and they have to bring it home and pick something that they can feel, see, hear, taste, or smell, to take back to school the next time. Aidan chose something you could hear...cymbals, definitely something that makes alot of noise!!!! I also got to meet Aidan's little girlfriend...she is so cute!! He talks about her all the time and she is the first person he looks for when he walks into the classroom!!

I had a lot of fun watching Aidan interact with his classmates, and left with the biggest headache ever, after listening to 3&4 years scream and play for 3 hours I guess that is expected! HAHA

St. Patrick's Day!!

What a fun day!! We love St. Patrick's Day....maybe cause Jared's Irish or maybe cause we like to drink....HAHAHA!!!

Well we started the day off with the Belleville St. Patrick's day parade! It was such a wonderful day for a parade!! Jared is joing the Shriner's and the Ainad Highlander's marching band along with his brother, Joss and now his dad...it's a family affair! Anyway, Jared and Joss marched in the parade...Jared's first time marching, he didn't do too bad!! I went with my brother Justin, Aidan & Kaylee, and Lampard, Justin's dog!! Jordan was sick, poor guy!! He was really bummed he had to miss the parade, I think it was mainly getting candy from the parade, but I still felt bad for him!! We all met up with Jared's parents, Joss & Sarah, and the rest of the band! After the parade, we went bar hopping.....woohoo, that's always fun! The guys went around to a couple of place and played there tunes for all the St. Patrick's day goers!!

Next was our St. Patrick's Day party/Game Night.....which might just have to be an annual thing now!!! We had a blast!!! There were 6 or 7 couples that came over for a night of fun!! We had everyone come in there green attire and bring a green side dish. There was so much yummy food! We even had a prize for the person that wore the most green!! The games were a blast....Pictionary & the Newlywed Game.....Hilarious!!!! We got everyone to participate, even Derrick!! HAHAHA Thanks everyone for such a great time & great pics!! We will definitely have to do this again soon!!

Married with 2 kids...and a Big Red Truck!!!

I haven't updated this in a while, Jordan of course had something very intelligent to say while we were driving a couple of weeks ago.....

We are driving down the road and Jordan says to me...Mom when I grow up I am going to drive, I am gonna buy me a Big Red Truck to drive, but not red like uncle Jossy's truck...bright red he says. I was like that will be so cool Jordan, he continues on to tell me yes and I am going to live far, far away from you and dad :( that made me sad, but I am smarter than that so I asked him do you think grandma & grandpa live far away....he said yea they live really far away in Glen Carbon...a 20 minute drive from us now, so in my head I am thinking not too far away buddy!! Well that's not it he continues to say....and I am going to be married like you and daddy and me & my wife are gonna have 2 kids and there names are gonna be Jordan & Jordan!!! HAHAHAHA! So Funny!

I couldn't resist writing this one!!

Trying something new!!

I have always been into taking pictures, but here recently I am getting into editing them. It's alot of fun to do different things to pictures. My favorite is to do black & white, don't know why just is. When spring comes and the flowers start blooming I want to start taking pictures of different flowers & possibly display some in the house!! Here are a couple of the kids I have done!!

Aidan's turn....Grouch!!!

Well, the past few days Aidan has been pretty sick. He's been running a high fever mainly, but has also been throwing up, not being able to eat that much & hardly drinking.....which is weird cause we all know Aidan has to have a drink every 5 minutes. Anyway, he is on an antibiotic now and is kinda starting to feel better, but man is he GROUCHY!! He has never been this grouchy. Aidan is a happy go lucky kinda little boy but the last 2 days everything bothers him and he is constantly whining or even getting mad at us for no reason. Well, today was a very nice day so I put jackets on the boys and took them outside. I needed to come in for a minute and about 5 minutes later Aidan's "new" attitude followed me....

Here's a visual:
He comes inside and walks around the corner with his hands on his hips and looks at me and says with a stomp....What the "HELL" are you doing in here???

Okay, so I tried not to laugh, but who wouldn't laugh at that. What makes it even more funny is he doesn't pronounce his L's very well, it's more of a he-wl! He was really mad, though!! Knowing that I had just said that the other day to one of the kids, I didn't get too mad about it, cause they're gonna say what you say!!! I told him not to say that anymore and that mommy & daddy shouldn't say it either, but it's been a pretty rough & stressful week of sick kids & no sleep so I guess it slipped!!

Even funnier, Ten minutes later Aidan picks up a picture Jordan just drew off the table and looks at it and says...."What the "HELL" is that?? Ok, were gonna have to fix this little attitude of his!!

Hopefully this little grouchy spell goes away QUICK!!

MONSTER JAM WEEKEND

Well last weekend Febuary 20th & 21st was all about monster trucks for us!! Monster Jam was at Edward Jones Dome Saturday Feb. 21st so we HAD to take the boys!! Grandma & Grandpa bought all of us tickets to go, and oh my, did they have a BLAST!!

Friday we went to Frieze Harley Davidson to see the Donkey Kong Monster Truck & the driver of the truck......plus the little added bonus that it was at Harley Davidson we got to check out motorcycles too. We all know Jared has a new found love for motorcycles! We met Derrick, Donnaka, Lil' D & Dache' there too and got some pictures with them! And it was cold!! Going to see Donkey Kong got us all really excited to go to Monster Jam the next day!!

So the next day.....
Of course Monster Jam wasn't until 7 o'clock in the evening, so all day the boys were asking is it time yet.......We also had a baby shower to go to at 4 that day for our good friends Chris & Laura...hope they get to go next year!! Finally it was time...we picked everyone up and headed downtown. Thanks to Dawnjulene's phone call about the traffic on the MLK bridge we were able to avoid it and go a different route. We found a parking garage and briskly walked, cause it was FREEZING!!

We got there right as it started. Up to the top we went....and the excitement began cause don't you know first things first Jordan had to fall on the escalator and bang up his shins....OUCH!!! So he's all better now, on to our seats. They boys were in awe!! After seeing the expressions on their faces I knew they were going to have a blast!! I have to admit at first I didn't think I would enjoy myself, but man was I wrong. It was really fun & thrilling not knowing "WHEN" a truck was gonna wreck, because they all did....it was just a matter of when & how they were going to. The looks & reactions of the boys faces were priceless. They have always been into monster trucks!!! We just wanted to wait until the right time to take them, because it is LOUD!!! We all had our huge earmuffs though and they helped alot with the noise! After about 2 1/2 hours of non-stop monster trucks it was all over and time to go home!!

Now getting to the truck and leaving the parking garage was a whole other story......we'll just say we sat in the parking garage without moving for a good 45 minutes!! We still had so much fun & will remember going until we go again next year!

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for the tickets......and thanks G.J. for watching Kaylee bug!!

Valetine's Day!

Valentine's Day was Saturday, and this year Jared & I spent our Valentine's Day with Justin & Tatum. We decided we were going to go skiing & stay the night at Westport plaza where we had dinner also!

We went to Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Wildwood, MO. It's about 10 minutes from Six Flags. They make their own snow there, because of course we never get that much snow here. It's amazing how they do that!! It was a great day for skiing. They had about 5 feet of snow and it was probably about 35 degrees, it was PERFECT!! Jared & Justin took snowboarding lessons while Me & Tatum took skiing lessons. Jared & Justin were pros on their snowboards by the end of the day. Tatum & I didn't do too bad either....except when we tried to attempt the big hill we tumbled down instead of skiing down....hahahaha! It was quite a sight!! We left around 4:30 for a total of about 6 hours of skiing, which was plenty of time.....my legs are still feeling it 3 days later!!!

We got to the hotel about 5:15. We stayed at the Sheraton Westport Chalet, the rooms were very nice! We all wanted to get a nap before dinner @ 7:30. We ate at Paul Mineo's.....oh my gosh....the food was awesome!!! Who can go wrong with Italian on Valentine's Day!! I think Justin, Tatum & I all had the chicken spedieni with salmon and Jared had the filet mignon and seabass. The meals were 3 courses and 2 glasses of wine a piece. The grand total for the 4 of us was $210.00 with tip!!! It was way worth it!! It was one of the best meals I have ever had & the most expensive!!!

We then went to the Trainwreck Saloon and listened to a band play. They were really fun to listen to. We sang, danced & drank til about 1 a.m., then headed back to the hotel. But not before we spotted a bar with karaoke, so of course we had to participate!! Too Fun!!!

The Weekend Was Great!!! Thanks mom & dad for watching the kiddos for us!!!

Kite Flying!

Tuesday was such a nice day!! Nice compared to all the snow we had and the cold weather. It was a little windy, but 70 degrees. BEAUTIFUL!!

Jared surprised us and took half a day off work so he could spend the day with us. It was a really nice surprise. We took the kids to feed the ducks, then came home and did some housework. I heard the boys laughing outside, so I looked to see what they were doing and they were trying to fly kites out in the back yard. Well our yard has trees in the back so they were in the way. Needless to say they were having trouble flying their kites. I told Jared we should take them to the park to fly the kites, so that's what we did. It was much easier to fly the kites there.

Of course once we got there they wanted to play on the playground instead of flying the kites, so they played while Jared & I flew the kites. It was a really fun day!!!