A short story and pics to share

When we first got on the the ship we found Mimi and Gran J at the welcome aboard party. The boys were very excited about seeing all the characters dancing around!

The trip started off a little rough though. At first we had a 1 1/2 hour delay leaving Memphis and we were worried if we would be able to catch our connection in ATL. It all worked out well though and we arrived smoothly at the ship. I woke up with a sore throat and got steadily worse throughout the day. My sinuses were driving me crazy and I was feeling terribly! My dinner time I left our meal early and took the boys back to our room. We initially had the late 8:15pm dinner seating (which we were able to change to the early one) the boys were exhausted from the long day and I was so sick. I ended up having a 101.5 fever!! YUK!! Then the next day I was feeling a little better but D woke up and threw up. I don't know if it was the excitement, the ship, or a virus. But luckily after that he was fine and never had anymore problems. My sinuses still weren't back to normal but I felt much better the rest of the trip. Our first day we docked at the Bahamas. The boys went to the kids camp while Mike and I did a little walking around and sight seeing. We then took a taxi over to see the Atlantis Resort....WOW it was so beautiful!!

Shortly after we got back to the ship from sight seeing our pager went off that B wanted to be picked up from Kids' camp. I think he didn't like being separated from his big bro. So we decided to go hang out at the pool. B was too funny. He enjoyed the water, but it took him awhile to swim in the black Mickey ears of the pool. Then after he did it I found out why....he thought the water was black! It was hysterical...he was telling me that he wasn't afraid of the black water anymore!

We let B have a little one on one time at the pool with Mommy and Daddy and then we went and picked up D and let him join the fun at the pool. He really enjoyed the kids camp. But because of the age groups they couldn't be together.

The second day the ship stopped at Disney's own personal island Castaway Cay. It was beautiful!! Donald first greeted us when we stepped on shore at Disney's island. B is still a little afraid of the characters but did great overall. Although, he wanted to know why none of them talk!

The boys were so excited about seeing the Pirate Ship that is at Disney's island. But they kept asking where the pirates were.

We had plenty of photo ops with the characters. We never waited longer than 4 or 5 people ahead of us for a pic. It was wonderful.

I have more pics to share. We had a wonderful time!! Bye for now......must get back to my to do list!!

Yes we are back

We had a great trip with a few unexpected bumps along the way. But had a wonderful time!!! I'll be back to share all about it when I get a chance. We are adjusting back to being home and headed out to a birthday party tonight.

WE LOVED THE DISNEY CRUISE!!!!

Happy 1 yr to my niece!!

My beautiful niece turned 1 yr old today! Wow how time flies....she truly enjoyed her party!!

The best part of course was the cupcake and her Mimi tried to even give her a 2nd after she ate the first...hee hee.....mommy stopped that of course!! :o)

I just had to post a pic of this project of teeth that D did at school. I thought it was so cute!! Just mini marshmallows in a construction paper mouth!! Adorable!! The marshmallows hardened too so the teeth are hard like real teeth!

At last but not least.....BON VOYAGE!!!!!!

See you in about a week!!

Can you say......2 more days!!!! whoo hoo!

Tonight after dinner the boys enjoyed a fabulous dessert! Chocolate teddy grahams dipped in cool whip.....

The boys are getting really excited about the trip and are just as excited just about the part about flying on an airplane!! I am going to spend the evening after they go to bed tonight ironing their clothes and repacking the suitcase. I am going to attempt to pack mine also...that way I will be prepared ahead. Tomorrow after work I'm headed to get a manicure and pedicure just in time for the trip. I have been saving my birthday gift certificate from my sis just for this occasion. I am also really pleased with my Jergens tanning lotion that I have been using this week. I have to say it has given me a nice bronze glow so I won't be to pastey white walking around in my summer attire!

Saturday will be busy with my neice's 1 yr birthday party! Can you believe it! This year has flown by. Then Dev is invited to a birthday party that afternoon. So there won't be too much time for packing on Sat. Just last minutes items and then up early on Sun for a 630am flight..bon voyage!!

I might try to post a couple cute 1 yr birthday pics before I leave, but no promises!

A leisure day

This pic is actually from Sunday. B fought taking a nap and when I went in to check on him, thinking he was still awake, I found this. Gotta love the backpack on his back while napping!

Today D was out of school so both boys stayed home with me and we visited the park and fed the ducks and geese. The boys had a great time even though they were a little scared. We then played on the playground awhile and ran some errands. We had a great day with beautiful weather!

I am shocked myself to know that I have both boys and myself packed already for the cruise. Well, I have everything picked out. I just have to iron it all before I pack it up. I am so relieved to have most everything together. This week is going to go by so fast. I have to work tomorrow because my coworker has pink eye. They called and asked, and I agreed. The good part is that it is only a 1/2 day. Although, B just woke up and has a fever. So, might have to find another plan for tomorrow if he is still running the fever. Hopefully daddy can stay home with him tomorrow. We thought it was strange when he didn't want to eat his dinner! He always likes to eat!! I guess now we know why! :( He really hasn't had any other symptoms, so I'm not sure what to think just yet.

My neice turns 1 yr old on Saturday!! I can't believe how time has flown by!! I'm glad we get to go to her party before we go out of town.

The boys are counting down the days till our cruise and so are we.....yippee!!

The weekend is almost here

I bought this cute little book for D while I was away in STL. He really enjoys drawing so I thought this book would be good. It tells him what to draw on specific pages and you put the date so you can keep up with when he drew them.

This is an example:

I'm loving the facial hair even though Mike hasn't had any for awhile now..:-)

I'm not sure how this resembles our family car but it's too cute!! I wonder if it's him driving?

Our behavior ticket system is working very well. We had a few issues....B's school switched to a red, yellow, green light system and the 1st day B got a red and a yellow the second day. I had quite a few talks with the director because it all didn't add up and to make it short, the yellow day should of been green but their was miscomminication between the teachers...UGH!! I was furious because I didn't let him have a treat from the store for his tickets or get a lollipop that night and he really should have!!! But I think it's all getting settled now and the teachers are communicating better and they have a more standardized system...at least so far. B has now gotten 2 green lights in a row and I'm so happy. He even told me tonight that "we don't say bad words because it makes people sad" He is such my sweetie pie!!

So on Monday when D got to cash in some tickets at the store he actually used HIS ticketst to buy B a present. And then today when B cashed in his tickets he bought D a gift. Who would of thought they would work so hard for the tickets and then use them to buy each other something....it was so sweet!! Here is what they got each other!

I participated in a Pay it Forward from JJ's blog. She is paying it forward from a gift she received and now I am receiving a gift from her. I am going to continue the pay it forward from my blog once I decide on what I want to give.....I got my mail today!! :o)

Sorry for the bad lighting pics, but I got the greatest homemade note cards! I love them, especially knowing they were made for people that she didn't even know who would recieve them. I can't wait to use them!! They are truly special cards to me!

Strangely enough, I had someone else be especially kind to me today. This was before I knew I had received these cards in the mail. A coworker was helping me move a bed at work and we found a dime on the floor. He offered for me to have it and we discussed back and forth who could have it. So I then said I would take it home for my boys and that they love to get "coin" money. They haven't realized yet that the paper is actually worth more! Anyway I was saying I had two boys and then he reached in his pocket and gave me a quarter so that I would have a coin for each boy. It really touched my heart. It wasn't much, but it was so thoughtful and I felt so blessed. These days I think people overlook simple everyday kindness in the hustle of the world, it was a great day!

I am looking forward to the weekend, the weather is supposed to be really nice. The only downfall is that I need to go bathing suit shopping for our cruise in 10 days and that is NEVER fun in my world!! Same old shape and same old story.....hee hee. Oh well I will just keep picturing THIS!!!

Good times

Daddy did take the boys out in the snow while I was gone. You can see the two boys here (just barely...it's not mommy quality pics) but it is a pic of snow and the boys in the snow....;0)

I have tons of pics of the arch in STL but always feel I have to take a pic every time I am there.

We had a great time chatting and catching up on things. I am so glad that I got a chance to see some great friends while I was there!

Thanks to my great friends Crystal and Rodney also for allowing me to stay at their house one extra night unexpectedly due to the weather!

Lots of laundry to do today, grocery store trip and I need to start gathering clothes for our cruise in only two weeks!!! Busy, busy...it's supposed to be in the 70's the weekend! I know the boys will be happy to get back outside... I see a trip to the park in our future!! ;-)

I have returned

Yes, I am back home finally. My trip had an unexpected layover due to snow here at home. I decided to stay one more day in STL in fear that the roads would be too icy to travel. I am glad I did because even today on my way home there were some areas that were still really bad and really icy. Some parts of the interstate only had one lane open due to the ice, so I can only imagine what yesterday would of been like. I am so happy to be home and hug and kiss my baby boys!! I missed them so much and thanks to Granny for watching them last week. Of course they have the most wonderful Daddy in the world that took such great care of them while I was gone. I have pics to post...of course...but that will probably be tomorrow when I have more time. I really enjoyed my work conference and had a great time seeing my friends!! More later...

Going Going Gone....

All is well here on the home front. We started a new reward system with the boys and it seems to be working well. Of course better for D since he's older and understands better but nonetheless it is working well. Mike bought some tickets from an education store and the boys earn tickets for chores and for doing things they are supposed to like eat breakfast, get dressed for school, do well in school and eat a good dinner. They also earn extra tickets for cleaning up and being very polite. We picked prizes and assigned a ticket value to them. After the first week both boys decided to keep their tickets and try for a bigger prize this week. I think that's pretty cool that they decided that on their own. Of course, the bigger the prize the bigger the ticket value. Although, when they misbehave, don't do well in school or don't listen at home we take tickets away. Both have had a few tickets taken away but they are learning that there are consequences to not behaving correctly. I like the idea and so far it is going very well. They both count their tickets every night and are anxiously awaiting Fri evening to pick a prize :o)
I am leaving tomorrow for a five day trip to STL!! I started to pack earlier today and realized I needed to do a little shopping first for a few things, I'm glad there were some sales out there!! I will finish packing tonight. I am going to a work conference and I also get to see my friends in STL. I am very excited!! I am happy to get away for a little and relax in a hotel room like the hubs gets to! But at the same time I am already getting sad that I will be gone from my boys for such a long time. They get to stay with Granny one night and then hang out with Daddy for the rest. I know the boys will be fine.....I don't think I have ever been gone for this long away from them by myself. Sat night I"m having a girls night out and we are all going to meet at a Mexican resturaunt for great food and drinks!! I am so excited about that!!
Well that's my update for now...lots of things to prepare before I head out of town! TOODLES!

Not a dull moment

Thursday the daycare sent me these pics in my email. Bry decided to stick a girl's braid bead up his nose.....not sure why at all!! Luckily the director was able to remove it with tweezers so that we didn't have to make a trip to the ER!! It was great though because they took before and after pics...just what I need for a scrapbook page!!!!!! It's funny now but def wouldn't of been if we were driving to the ER to have it removed!!

We are heading out on a family road trip today to Cape Gir.. MO to visit with some friends for the day..I'm hoping we don't run into any snow though!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Some catching up to do.

We had a date night on Friday while the kids were at parents night out. We went to a nearby Japanese resturaunt and had a wonderful dinner. The atmosphere was really nice and the food was wonderful. The pricing wasn't bad and they gave you alot of food. We will definetely go back there!

Adorable "heart" art hanging in D's classroom.

D's class had a great party. The played pass the "hot valentine" kinda lot hot potato. It was funny because they didn't quite understand the concept of passing the heart but it was still fun. The kids also loved making their own ice cream sundaes.

They also made fruit loop necklaces.

And no he's not wearing lipstick, it's the red icing from the cupcakes...my little sweetheart!

The boys and I went on a morning hunt on Valentine's looking for some treats left by cupid.

They were happy to find that the Valentine cupid left some goodies for them. They really enjoyed the goodies and especially the foam swords..

My little cutie patootie!!

Friday I went out and bought some flowers, candy and a huge balloon to take to mom's house to suprise her for early Valentine's day. I also bought her a steak, potato and veggies with chocolate covered strawberries also for dessert. I left her a dinner plate out with fork and knife and a note that read "your dinner is in the refrigerator!" It was such a good plan and all worked out great EXCEPT that when I was unloading everything out of the car the GIANT and I mean GIANT balloon that I had bought her broke away from the string and flew off into the endless sky! I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs... @#@$#%#%%@??! I was so mad....although it wasn't going to bring the balloon back so I did leave her the string...hee hee and then explained later! What a bummer!

I've been waiting for the right time to show off my new tattoos...what do you think? :)

D had a great time trying to attach Rodney with his new sword.....it was too cute!

The guys were in charge of our Valentine dessert on Saturday night. They did a great job. We had NY cheesecake with a little Butter Pecan ice cream on top, caramel topping and a little apricot preserves...yum yum. Everything was low sugar or sugarfree except for the cheesecake. YOu must splurge somewhere!! It was delicious.....good idea guys!! We loved it!

Of course we played some Wii and the guys battled it out at boxing. I don't remember who won but I do know that by the end they were both dripping sweat! Great workout after dessert!

Sunday night we got lucky enough to have my mom babysit the boys and we took Crystal and Rodney to the great Japanese place we had just went on Friday for our own Valentine dinner. The food was wonderful and we didn't sit at a Hibachi table. They had never had Japanese or sat at Hibachi so we decided to take them there for dinner. What an adventure...it was so much fun! We even got Rodney to try sushi....a California roll...:) I don't think he'd ordered some for himself but at least he tried it! We all had such a great time!

Rodney attempted to catch a piece of flying food from the chef but was unsuccessful along with Mike and I. Although Crystal did catch hers...way to go girl!! Must of been the baby telling her not to miss one piece of food...hee hee!

That's about all for now, must go and finish some things before time to pick up boys. Toodles.