"Mini Vacation" ... i think

Today was a very long, but productive day. I had the day off. I get to enjoy the long Labor Day weekend. I actually do not have to go back to work until Wed. A much needed "mini" vacation. Even if I don't go anywhere I will enjoy my time off. I have recently read a ton of good books. I just got done reading two books in two days. Yes my thoughts exactly. The author is Emily Griffin. (must be the first name) She's a great writer. The first book is called Something Borrowed. From the very first chapter it captures you and sucks you in. I couldn't put it down. My boss let me borrow it from her. I read it in one night. At the end of the book it gives you the first chapter and a half of the follow up book called Something Blue. Well after reading that I HAD to have it! So after work yesterday I marched to the Walden books in the mall and grabbed it. Went home and started to watch the Packer game, and then began to read it. Couldn't put it down. By 930 I almost had it done. I had about 2 chapters left, but I was exhausted. I went to bed. (Maybe I was tired since the night before I was up until almost 11 reading the first book) So this morning when I woke up, before Emilee, I finished the last two chapters. It was excellent. I have an issue when it comes to reading books. If its great I must keep reading, ignoring everyone around. It's bad but I cannot help it! Anyway yesterday was the Packer game, Emilee had her Brett jersey on and demanded her "hair band" ... so I took a few snap photos of her. She's just too cute at times. Today, the girls went and saw The Bunny House and said it was good. I was gonna go but opted to go to the gym instead and get some things done for Teresa's Birthday Party on Sunday. I ran around, had to exchange Andy's shorts, went to the grocery store twice. Did some laundry and then of course pick up the girls from the movie and then get my little Emilee. I got her early today so she was a little confused but excited.

I will be taking pictures of the party on Sunday, I hope everyone has a great labor day and great long weekend.

Thanks for checking in...

Cutest Nephews......

Yesterday Nathan & Reed turned 5, officially! They are my sister Jennifer's twin boys. Obviously they are not identical! Not only do they not look alike in any way shape or form, their personalities are complete opposites. That makes them both so very special. I miss them both so much. I cannot believe they are both 5 and that they are both in kindergarten. Time flies by so much.
When they were little Nathan was so laid back and so happy and would just smile. I enjoyed taking him. He was the boy I should have had.. lol.
Reed was a pistol, still is but there's nothing wrong with that. He is his mothers son! He likes to be like his big brother Connor and as you can tell in the picture below is a ham. And that makes me HAPPY!
These are not current pictures. The one of Nathan (blond) is from my visit back in April and the one of Reed (cheesy smile along w/his great pose) is from last summer. My sister has yet to send me some pictures of them (hint hint)

Anyway to the big 5 year old's, hope your birthday was great and your aunt in Wisconsin misses you and loves you.

Monday Mornings .....

We had a long weekend, well not really, it went by quick, but it was one of those weekends. Emilee didn't want to wake up this morning. The girls are starting to go to bed by nine and wake up by eight since school starts in a week, i think waking up past ten is not a good idea. Anyway this morning, Emilee wanted her headband in but was in such a mood. She kept taking it out saying "I do it mommy" " I do it!" Well alrighty then I said. I said can i take a picture? Well she just looked at me and this is what I got.

Thought I would share.. enjoy and have a great week!

Are you seriously taking my picture??

sure i will say cheese if you stop taking my picture! lol

TGIF

It was a long week. Kids being back, its been a long week :-) One more week and school will be starting. I had my camera with me and Bellevue Fire Department got a new Fire Truck and had the ladder extended as far up in the air as it goes and one fire fighter hung up a flag so I took a picture. As you can see it was an overcast day, pretty humid. Nothing to complain about but thank goodness its going away and the mid to high 70's with no humidity are coming back. That means fall will be starting. The girls are both at sleep-overs tonight. Jacqueline gone to her friends and Teresa is at a birthday party. Andy went to a truck pull after work w/the guys so it's just me and Emilee, well Wrigley too. I'm very tired and well she has ALL sorts of energy but at least she's in a good mood. Hopefully i got about 2 hours and then she'll go to bed. Then I will watch the Packer game and hope they look better than they did last week.

Have a good weekend and thanks for checking in...

Kickball anyone?

Had a good night, Andy and the girls played kickball with the neighbors. Well it was the 2 Adults (Paul & Andy) against the kids.. Before that The girls got ice cream from the ice cream truck and Emilee proceeded to take Jacqueline's from her. So we got Emilee her own popsicle.. I got some cute shots.

Anyway they played kickball and of course the 2 "adults" were acting like kids and well it was funny. Andy fell (don't worry he didn't get hurt) and then Paul fell, it was just funny, got a few shots. Good thing I had my camera! I don't understand why men in there 30's try to act like they have the energy of 10 year olds. :-) They will be feeling it tomorrow!

Emilee and Jake were running around all over and then Jake got mesmerized by my camera as you'll see in his photos.

Thanks for checking in and enjoy the pics!

Girls Night Out

Tonight Andy had to go to dinner with his work so that left me with the kids. So I decided I would take them out to eat somewhere. I decided to take them To Happy Joe's Pizza, I remember going there when I was a kid and I really enjoyed their pizza and always had fun, why I remember that I don't know but I did. Anyway, i just remember eating their pizza, I think i had a birthday there once or maybe I went to a birthday party and then eating ice cream, again childhood memories.. lol. So the girls and I went there and it was good, the pizza was yummy, i only had 2 slices.. lol but it was good. Emilee ate the salad bar cuz for some reason she still wont eat pizza unless she's starving. She's usually a good eater but pizza is not her favorite right now.

The girls liked it, and once they were done, off to play games. Little games, like they have at Chucky Cheese or whatever, nothing as big but fun no less.

All in all it was a good outing for us.

Emilee does not like to go on rides when it moves, she absolutely freaks out. So on the picture she was just sitting on the pretty horse but wouldn't let me put a quarter in it to move.. lol.

Thanks for checking in..

Another Arrival Complete

Sunday Teresa came home to make everything complete. She returned from Michigan, she had a good time. They went swimming alot, rode jet ski's, watched movies, hung out, did girl things I'm sure. I'm glad she had a good time. Of course now everyone is back and there is about two weeks left until school starts so we will start to plan for that.

Emilee was excited to see Teresa, I think she's just so happy to have both her sisters back home she doesn't know what to do. She is still her little turd self at times but gets there attention no less.

This picture below I just had to share, tells you that I don't think Emilee even knows what her problem is at times. It just was cute.. lol.

Thanks for checking in.

She's Back :-)

Yesterday I got my girl back. Yup, I left the house and headed to Milwaukee. Her flight was to arrive at 2:55pm. So i left the house about 12:45pm. Normally it takes about an hour and a half or so to get to the airport. Well everyone and their mother was out on the road. Traffic was awful. When I got into Milwaukee I swear no one knew how to drive. I arrived at the airport at 2:45pm, parked the car and ran downstairs to get my gate pass. Usually they are really quick and friendly but i guess since today I needed to be fast and prompt no one wanted to help.

When I was getting my pass my cell phone rang, it was Jacqueline! I answered the phone and she was like hello, my heart was pounding, of course she was fine, but I was in a panic. I told her to just stay there and I'll be up in a minute.. well a few minutes later of me running up there, waiting through a guy in security and of course her being the last gate I got her!! Gave her a big hug and there she was. Back where I needed her. My plan was to take a picture of her getting of the plane but of course that was out of the question. I took a picture of her in the car.

When we got home, Jacqueline saw Emilee and well Emilee was a little hesitant but then was very happy to see her and followed her all night until she went to bed. It was funny and cute.

So today Teresa will be home and everyone will be back...

Thanks for checking in...

She Likes It

Hello everyone, we had a pretty quiet, yet busy weekend. Andy had to work on Saturday. Emilee and I did some usual shopping and playing outside. It was absolutely gorgeous outside, both Saturday and Sunday. With her growing up (I do hate to admit) she is becoming her own little self. We went to Appleton on Saturday and walked around the mall and she was very persistant in wanting to walk herself and not hold our hands. Of course we made her or back in the stroller she went, which she's starting to NOT like at all.

Anyway, mommy got a new Cubs hat and we just looked around at things.

Sunday we played outside some more, we bumped into the grandparents at the grocery store, which is soo cool. Later I had to drop off some things to their house so I brought my grandma some Death By Chocolate frozen custard, her favorite... She in return gave us some tomatoes and cucumbers from their garden. Can't tell you how much I love being here.

Anyway next Saturday Jacqueline will be home and Teresa will be home on Sunday. So back to normal we will be, if thats what you want to call it.

Today we had corn on the cob and decided to give Emilee some for the first time. Here are a few photo's, she did a good job and liked it, she really liked it :-)

Hope everyone is doing well

Sad Day in Green Bay

This is going to be short and sweet, I'm still not awake... :-)

Well, most of the World by now knows that Brett was traded to the Jets. Very sad here, again. We had to go through this in March. I could handle that. He was done. Now he's back and NOT gonna be with the Packers! Are you KIDDING ME! OK, alot has been done, said ect in the last few weeks. I'm just glad it's done, I'm glad he will be happy. I'm GLAD he wont be w/the Bears or Vikings, and hey he still will be wearing green. I wish him the best and you betcha I'll be watching him routing him on. Maybe a nice trip to NY ... haa haa :-)

Have a good day!

Is there a Manual for this?? anyone......

I've learned that life has it's ups and life has it's downs. You go through life wondering whats next? You have good times and you never really think about anything you just live life. That's what I've always thought. I hate drama, I hate confrontation. I always tried to surround myself around people that are good for me. Of course family doesn't count because well lets face it, its family :-) Gotta love them for what they are. And I love all of them!

My youngest Emilee will be two in a few months, crazy to think, but nonetheless the truth!

You soon forget what those "terrible two's" are. I don't remember Jacqueline having them to this degree but then again that was awhile ago. Maybe because I'm older, I don't know. She's always been attached to me, pretty much from the beginning. She didn't take to Andy at first, well not for awhile. She does really well for the most part out and at other people's homes, but she is a PISTOL at home. Speaking to friends and other people it seems that is the case. I can ignore her screams, her tantrums, I want, I want.. ect. Andy on the other hand cannot. That sometimes gets under my skin. He knows that. He does do his best but sometimes I wonder about him :-). She's gone through this "mine" phase, everything his "mine", I'm sure all of you out there that have kids have gone through this before. Well welcome to my world for the past few weeks. She will scream, sometimes for ten, fifteen minutes straight. I have learned to just ignore her and she soon stops and in a blink of an eye she's smiling and playing. What the heck was that? Andy and I laugh and we are like "who's child is this"? It's very exhausting on days.

No one ever gave me a handbook for kids, life, marriage for that matter but I'm taking it day by day. Andy goes back to work full time on Monday... THANK GOD! lol.. love you but he even knows the last 6 weeks have been very LONG.

I'm not complaining, I love them all.. as my grandma would say, Julee this too shall pass.. lol.. I hear her LOUD and CLEAR...

Jacqueline comes home in 2 weeks from today. I thought I would just post some pictures of everyone today... Haven't taken too many new ones lately. I've enjoyed reading some books as of late for some much needed laughter.. Thanks for checking in...

Here's a pic from Last year's family night @ the Packers Stadium (don't they all look so cute and innocent.. lol.. Emilee couldn't even talk!)

See, she likes him, trying beat him up, but she likes him!