Hustle & Bustle

First of all, the title of my entry doesn't look like it's spelled right to me but I looked it up and it is! I guess I don't use those words too often!! Anyway, we have survived the 'Hustle & Bustle' of Christmas and I'll be honest that I'm glad all the activities are over. Of course there is still New Year's Eve and the Husker bowl game but at least there isn't a lot of preparation for those activities. The kids were totally spoiled over the holiday but I think they had a blast so it's all worth it! We've also had some sickness running through our house so that has been added on top of everything. I'm really the only one who has remained healthy so I'm thankful for that! We went to my parents house on Christmas Eve and it didn't take Larkin long to catch on to the fact that the wrapped gifts were for tearing into and underneath were some pretty cool things!! Everything was "mine" to her! Christmas morning Santa made his stop and bless her heart, Carmen was the first one up in the house at 9:45am! I still can't believe they slept that long when they were so darn excited for him to come. She called Dave at work and he said he'd be home as soon as he could to watch them open their gifts...she was so patient! This picture of her is while she is waiting for him to come home and waiting to wake Triston & Larkin up! Now if Triston would of been awake first there would of been no waiting for anyone!

Christmas Day was nice as we had no place to go so the kids took over the living room with all their toys and we spent the day assembling and playing and just being plain lazy!! Saturday we had Christmas on my mom's side & went to my parent's again for the day and spent it with family. It was also Larkin's birthday so we combined and had two activities for the day...and of course she raked in the toys and clothes all over again! Thanks to Grandma she had a cute snowman cake and she wanted to blow the candles out over and over! "One more time" is what she kept saying! Everyone was too stuffed to even eat cake & ice cream so we still have a lot left over but I don't think Larkin minds at all!

Sunday we made the trip to Geneva and spent the day with Dave's dad and step mom and his Grandma. We hadn't seen his Grandma in a year which I didn't realize it had been that long. It's so sad that we get so busy with every day activities that we don't take the time to travel an hour 1/2 to visit loved ones! This picture turned out perfect and totally was not posed so that makes it even better!!

It was a great weekend with family but we were all pretty wore out by the end of it all!!

We hope that everyone had a great Christmas and we wish you a very Happy New Year!!

Seeing Santa!

Our little snow people!!

Larkin sat on Santa's lap but after the initial 'look' at him she just stared and wouldn't move a muscle! She did tell say "Good-bye Santa" with a wave and has been talking about him since!

Christmas Tree

We got our tree up last weekend! I was so excited to get all the decorations out until it came right down to it and I lost all my motivation...not sure why! Maybe because I tried to do it after all the hub bub of Thanksgiving weekend and I needed a little more rest...but we have it up and it's all decorated in everything we've been collecting over the years. Larkin is in awe of it and she is loving everyone's lights on the outside of the houses. We pulled up to my mom's house this morning and she just screamed "Wow"... and it was light out so the excitement of the lights being on wasn't even there! I love how kids get so excited over Christmas. As soon as we had the tree decorated the kids pulled some of their toys out and had to play 'under' the tree laying there looking through it with all the lights! If I could fit under there comfortably I would probably do that too!!! ha ha! Somehow though I keep finding ornaments in different spots on the tree---they seem to mainly end up on the very bottom branches...hmmm...I think that might one of the short people in our house having something to do with that?
It's a new weekend and hopefully I'll have the ambition to get the rest of my decorations up and make our home as festive as I can! Have a great weekend!!

Wish I could sleep like this!

We got a new laptop last week so I'm playing tonite...as I'm doing this I notice that Larkin who is watching 'Oswald' is very quiet all of a sudden. She's out like a light! Monday home with Daddy must of wore her out!! My laptop is so cool -- all I have to do is insert my card from my camera and it brings up my pics! I'm having fun with it!! Nothing else is getting done around the house though!!

Husker Volleyball

I got the opportunity this weekend to go the Nebraska Volleyball game...well actually the kicker was that my two friends Keri & Lisa had tickets and were going and they got wind that Dave took the weekend off so they asked if I wanted to go and try and get tickets at the game. I thought what the heck, how often do I get a chance to go out of town so I said I would go. I kind of convinced myself that I wouldn't actually be able to get tickets--last home game & senior night! Dave posted a question on his Nebraska Rivals message boards and asked what people thought about my chances--the response he got was from someone who had been looking for tickets for a few weeks and wasn't having any luck. So I figured I'd be doing some shopping while the game was going on...and I was okay with that--I would of been disappointed of course but I knew the trip would still be fun! We leave town about three and stop and eat in the Old Market beforehand and head over to the collisium about 6 or so. As we are walking towards the building we keep seeing more and more people with their fingers in the air looking for tickets...there were quite a few people looking...yeah, I'm not getting any! So we walk in by the entrance and decide to make one more walk along the sidewalk and if there wasn't anyone selling I was going to have the others girls just go in and I'd figure it out--no need for all of us to be standing out in the cold! Keri catches wind of someone with a ticket but there are about 5 people all around him -- she asks if he has a ticket and that we only needed one. He hands her a ticket and starts to walk away! We're trying to ask him if he wants anything for it as he's walking but he says no!! Man that was easy---and a free ticket to top it off!! So I got in--we were so excited!! Lisa & Keri's tickets were on the West side and mine on the East side and we could see each other across the court! The man who gave me the ticket was in the seat next to me of course and he was just the nicest man ever!! When I sat down he handed me a program that he bought for me also! His name was Stan and his wife passed away 2 years ago but he kept his season tickets and always finds someone to use the other one or gives it to someone who looks like they really want to watch the game (that was us!!). He totally reminded me of the scientist guy from Jurassic Park! We talked throughout the game about my kids and his grandkids and he was a wealth of knowledge about the players stats too! It was great fun and I'm so glad I ended up going!! I'm a little under the weather today though as we hit a few bars on the way home and stayed up entirely too late!! Did you know there is a little town called Touhy?? We always see the sign so we checked it out on the way home...yep pretty much just a bar, a church and a few houses!! But the people there were very nice also!! It was a great little trip and on top of it the Huskers won in 3 sets!!

Turning 6!

Barbie & the Diamond Castle took over our lives this past weekend as Carmen celebrated her 6th birthday. It was a coming of age for her as she was able to take treats to school and had her very 1st ‘Friend’ party. On Thursday she started running a temp but she managed to muscle a little energy out to go to the store to pick out her treats—Barbie fruit snacks, a pack of gum and a sucker! Friday was her ‘real’ birthday and she woke up fine and all excited to go to school to celebrate. Well about 1:30 I get a call from school saying she’s running a fever and needs to be picked up. What a bummer—we felt horrible for her to get sick on her birthday! And she was miserable too…she came home and pretty much laid in bed or on the couch most of the night. We had big plans to attend a movie at school but we all skipped that and watched the Barbie movie at home and let her open gifts from family. One neat thing is is that when Triston came home from school he came running in the house trying to find her…he finds her in bed…she’s sleeping…he comes back and he is in tears! He is so upset that she is sick on her birthday and how is she going to have a good time and do all the stuff we had planned!! You see the two of them are true brother & sister! They fight ALL the time & act like they totally hate the other so it’s neat to see those moments where their true feelings come out about each other. On Saturday we were to go to Omaha to pick up a girlfriend of Carmen’s and bring her for the weekend. To make a long story short, she wasn’t running a fever in the morning when we left for Omaha but by the time we got back it was up to 103 and she was miserable all over again. There were also about 10 other kids at our house when we returned (Husker party being held without us there) so our house was quite chaotic to say the least. When her fever wouldn’t go away I began having the guilty mom feelings like I should have postponed her birthday weekend all together and what if she has something more serious and is getting all these other kids sick! So we made a hospital run and had the lab do a throat swab—which came back negative for Strep and it was just a viral infection. That was a stress off my shoulders! It seemed like once we left the hospital she was a different kid- running, jumping, playing! All was well…we had her friend party at the bowling alley the next day with her girlfriends, some cake, presents, face painting and little Barbie Bingo. My mom made her a beautiful Barbie cake which cost her under $5 where Hy-Vee wanted $44! My sister-in-law Natalie did some awesome face painting. What a talented family I have! So Carmen is finally 6 and the weekend is over…we were all exhausted!

Now the kicker to all of this is that on Tuesday I get a call from the Doctor’s office telling me NOW that Carmen’s swab tested positive for Strep Throat! It would have been nice to know that it was still a possibility. I talked to the nurse I work with and she said sometimes that happens as the initial test they do is just a quick test & then they let the culture grow for a few days and it comes out as a positive. So she is now on antibiotics and feeling normal and I had to go apologize to the mom’s of all the girls in hope that they don’t get it now! Geesh!!!

By the way…Happy Halloween!!

Memory Loss Meme

I've been tagged by Natalie for the Memory Loss Meme! Here's what you have to do. You need to open your sixth photo folder, and open the sixth photo, and you need to post it. And you need to hope that you remember what it is!!!! So here goes...

So this isn't the greatest picture but it brings back memories of a fun evening out with the girls! This is my friend Gina's bachelorette party. Larkin was only about 2 months old when we did this so my nights out were precious to me at the time. This picture is Gina (in the veil of course) and Trish determining the winner of he game we had just played - Pin the ____ on Gary (keeping it clean here). I'll post a few other pictures from my sixth folder - which is entitled 2007-Gina & Gary's Wedding...which by the way I just organized my pictures last week in preparation for the Scrapbook weekend (11 days and counting)! I had a great time being part of all the 'happenings' with their wedding and am so happy they found each other!!

I love this picture - Triston has cherished his little sister from the start! Gosh they both look so darn young in this picture!

Early Halloween

We had an exciting weekend traveling to our friends' house in Omaha for the 5th Annual Boo-sker's Bash...once again it was a great time had by all!! Dave & I went as Dog the Bounty Hunter and beautiful wife Beth (ha ha) - we pretty much totally despise the show but the costumes were a hit at the party!

Triston stole the show with his 'Chucky' outfit but the small kids at the party didn't think much of it at all--he looks totally freaky in the mask! Trick or Treating will be interesting this year. I got his mask on eBay for under 1/2 the price they wanted for it at Nobbies so I'm pretty happy about it. All in all it was great to have this party so early in October this year as now the stress of finding the perfect Halloween costumes for everyone is already done and we're ready for the rest of the month now!

Here are a few other costumes that I thought were great! People have such great ideas!

Nice Fall Weekend!

Dave has started his Monday night bowling league so as long as I can get all the kids to bed on time this might be my best time to post and have a little of my own time on the computer!!
I love fall! Spring always used to be my favorite season...that's the main reason why we chose to get married in the month of April I guess...but I realize now that Fall is my favorite--not sure why I've changed but I love the cool days, crisp nights and all the beautiful late blooming flowers. It was so beautiful out on Friday we just had to sit out back & enjoy it. I think the neighbors were all thinking the same thing as we invited a few over by yelling across the yard! One of the couples brought their three kids over so we had 3 boys & 3 girls ruling the house! The boys (not Triston of course) cleaned our kids' rooms because they couldn't believe how messy they were--why couldn't I be blessed with children like that? While the 3 girls had a tea party at the kitchen table with princess dresses on! True girls! All the while us adults solved the world's problems over a bonfire & some caramel marshmallows (these are to die for...Keri's farmer's market find) in the back yard. It was a nice evening.

Saturday we watched Triston play his 4th week of flag football. He was a little out of sorts for some reason so he wasn't enjoying himself or putting forth the effort as much as usual. It's really fun to watch him play (that is when the girls allow me to actually see what's going on). I sure get that proud mama feeling when he gets a touchdown, catches a pass, grabs a flag...pretty much any little thing! I can't wait until next year when he can play Midget FB - he's going to need to toughen up a little I think but he has a whole year to get ready for it. And speaking of FB...okay...never mind we won't talk about the Huskers! We'll see how the next game goes I guess!! But hey, how about Husker Volleyball - now they are great!!

Sunday we headed to Norfolk to Poppy's Pumpkin Patch and out to eat. The kids all had an awesome time! We opted to skip trying out Vala's (which is near Omaha) as I knew Poppy's is perfect for the younger kids. I thought maybe Triston would be a little old but he had great time too. Maybe in a year or two we'll go to Vala's because I hear from everyone that it is awesome and well worth a trip. Someone was having a birthday party in the little diner they have at Poppy's...now how fun would that be? The kids' favorite activities were: Triston- Feeding the Goats & Pony Rides (he now wants a goat as a pet); Carmen- Feeding the Goats & the Slides; and even though Larkin couldn't tell us we know that it would be the Train Ride & Feeding the Goats for her! All in all it was a nice 'fall' weekend...and as a bonus I did get some laundry and house cleaning done also!!

Popcorn Sales - Can You Help?

Triston is in Cub Scouts again this year...he is moving up and is working toward his Bear Cub merit badge this year! Yeah!! I am encouraging him to stick with it through this year yet as I think it teaches him some great life skills and the type of things we want him to learn about - things that we might never think of. It also encourages family activities - while we seem to be together a lot we are not actually doing things 'as a family'.
He is selling the yummy popcorn products again this year. The boys may not have the famous girl scout cookies under their belt but I'm learning that people love the popcorn just as much...and if you get the healthier kind--that's way better for you then a cookie anyway!! Proceeds from the sale go towards helping the boys with activities throughout the year and they can earn the priveledge to go to camps in the summer. With the wonders of technology you can now see what popcorn items are offered online at the following address: http://www.orderpopcorn.com/. Shop without a key and select NE and Omaha-Mid America as the council. They tack a lot of shipping on to the items so if you are interested in anything just let me know and Triston can order what you want and deliver it to you instead of doing it online.

Girl's Lunch

We had our girls lunch today at good ole' KFC. What is Girl's Lunch you ask? Well about 10 or so years ago a group of friends (I think we all played softball together) decided we should go out for lunch every month so we could keep in touch between seasons...well, we are still hanging on to that tradition! We’ve been through several babies, marriages, divorces, etc. There have been a few that have moved away or just dropped out of coming and we’ve added people as our lives have changed, but we have a core group of about 7 of us that are still attending after all these years. We have such fun when we all get together. It's the fastest 45 minutes of chowing down our food and getting in as much conversation as we can!! We also have at least two set parties a year--one in the summer where we all try to take an afternoon off and hang out at a pool or a lake somewhere in town and the other is going out in December for our Christmas Party, we exchange gifts going by numbers and can steal them from others if we want. Needless to say we have fun no matter what we do!! It is really something to cherish to have such a great group of girlfriends! I think in the hub bub of our lives that everyone needs to take time away from their family to keep sanity and to relax a little without someone always needing something from you! My girls are that out for me and I hope that I always have that!
It is a sad time though and you could totally tell that at lunch today, as one of my good friend's and part of this great group of girls is moving away to the metropolis of Omaha to live with her wonderful man, get married and live happily ever after!! And even though I know we vow to keep in touch and she’s not that far away, I also know how you loose touch with people so easily. We’ve had a lot of great times together over the years and I will miss her greatly! My picture here is from the going away party we had for Trish a few weeks ago--man we had fun!!

Hero Award!

Today Carmen received the "Centennial Stars Hero" award at a school assembly. They give awards to Scholars, Achievers & Heros every quarter and they make a big deal out of it--it is really neat. They get a medal with a star on it and a certificate. We were notified about a week beforehand but the students are not aware that they are receiving an award until their name is called (or they see their parents sitting in the back of the gym)--so it's a surprise to them. The principal presents the award and says a small blurb about why that student deserves it. Triston received the Scholar award last year in 2nd grade as he did exceptionally well on his MAPS testing towards the end of the year. And now, Carmen received it today because according to her teacher she is always willing to help out the other kids at her table, is respectful, responsible, and a great role model. Exactly what every parent wants to hear!!! We're 2 for 2 so we're boasting with pride!!

First Post!

Hello guests... I thought maybe since this is kind of the newest 'in' thing to do maybe I'd try my hand (or more like my keyboard) at it! I have always wanted to make a family website but just never took the time to construct one...so here it is! This was actually almost to easy to get going!! We have most of our relatives who live out of town and this way I can put forth a better effort to keep everyone up with what we are doing! I know I love to read up on what others are up to--makes me realize our family isn't as strange and out of control as I thought! And of course, this is right up my alley since I'm the computer geek in the family--I should of had one of these a long time ago!
Things are busy as usual in our household now that our summer vacations are over and school is in full swing. It's amazing to me the amount of homework a 3rd grader has! Triston is in 3rd grade, Carmen in Kindergarten and Larkin gets her special time with Daddy, Grandma or Lori during the week while the kids are away at school. I will try to post some recent pictures and I hope that I can keep up the current information about all of us on our official family website here! Welcome Everyone!!