Matching PJ's

So my sister Liz is always finding the cutest matching PJ's for our girls! I love Gymboree and she does too! Now that Gymboree has the larger sizes we can probably dress our girls "matching" for MANY many years to come! :)

Here are the Halloween PJ's they wore this year! Can you tell Lainey loves her suckers? Oh and the best part... they glow in the dark!

Happy Halloween!

We had a lovely Halloween this year. Connor's 8th birthday was on the 16 so I talked him into having a "Halloween" Birthday Party this year. I thought it would cut out one party in October! So we had his party Halloween afternoon and then had family down to go trick-or-treating in the evening. As someone who never celebrated Halloween as a child I must say I LOVE it as an adult!

Here are some photos of the family:

Tori was Coraline - complete with button eyes!


Meaghan was Cleopatra in all her beauty



Nathaniel was a Vampire - thanks Uncle Nick for the GREAT makeup job!


Connor was a Ninja.


Kiera was Hannah Montana.


And Lainey and her mommy were Kitty's!

A Race of a Different Kind

This summer while in Peoria we picked up a flier for a glass fusing class. My mom remembered the place and planned for us to go there to make some pendants for my
40th birthday!

When I arrived at my sister's house I discovered that my other sister Becky had surprised me and come up to share the day with us as well. I was so excited to have everyone together. We could now to make our pendant and have a great dinner together.

After we made our pendants we stepped outside the door and my mom pulled out a poem to read to me. She is a beautiful poet and always write such lovely things but I knew I would probably cry so I asked her to please wait until we were sitting at the restaurant where I would make too much of a scene!

Well, my mom just went right on and started reading her emotional peom anyway. Then about 1/2 way through the poem it starts to mention something about an Amazing Race! I immediately started thinking all sorts of things and got totally excited! What they had planned for me was a "Race" around the outdoor mall. Now I LOVE LOVE the show the Amazing Race! I so want to be on it someday. I just love the idea of scavenger hunts and races with clues, etc. And a grown up version - how cool is that!

So my sister Liz handed me my first "clue" in a totally cool sealed envelope that opens just like the ones on the Amazing Race!!! What a neat touch! Oh and yes... they were ALL in on it! It had all been masterly planned. That in itself STILL amazes me. They gave me a mall gift card with so much money on my goal was to figure out the clues (which were NOT easy) and make my way to 8 different stores and purchase various things under sthe dollar amount on my gift card.

When I finished running around the entire mall back and forth - back and forth I might add! - I was rewarded with dinner at Flattop Grill!

I was TOTALLY shocked and it was SO much fun! A HUGE thanks and lots of LOVE to all of you who had a part in making my day such a special one! It was exactly what I needed to make my day one I will NEVER forget! And I am pretty sure the people I had to BEG $$ from with my bright red boa and cake headband won't forget me either!!

Body and Sole

So I decided after I ran my 5K that I would get serious and get some running shoes.
My friends got me gift cards to Body and Sole and so I could actually afford them!

I have been putting off going until I could go without kids. I just don't love shoe shopping, it really stresses me out. That and bra shopping are the WORST! Anyway... I was going to go Saturday while the kids were at a Birthday party but I conveniently got side-tracked cleaning the garage and putting out the Thanksgiving decorations. You know how much I all love to clean my garage. So on Sunday Darren says we are going to go right after Mass. I had run out of excuses so out we headed.

Body and Sole is a sports store extraordinaire. We go there to get the kids swim suits, goggles and swim stuff but that is about all I have ever done there. I heard though that this store was the place to go so off I went!

I arrived and a wonderful man helped me. He got me on their treadmill and videotaped my running. It showed how I over-pronate and so I should be wearing shoes that would help with this.

He measures my foot and then goes and pulls out 3 boxes of shoes. I almost laughed. Only 3 boxes? He obviously has never gone shoe shopping with ME!
I try the first pair on and they feel really good. They have me run outside on the sidewalk. I am amazed at how well they fit. Then I try on another pair and they feel boxey. Then the third pair is a winner - Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9. They feel good and they snuggle my feet.

And here is the best part after I used all of gift cards I only paid .55 cents for my $100 shoes!! I honestly have the best friends anyone could EVER ask for. I know God has more than blessed me and I am so thankful!

So... if you are in the need for a good pair of shoes - go to Body and Sole - you will be so happy!

Racing to 40

After the Illinois Marathon I had some friends ask me if I wanted to run in the Indianapolis Marathon in October. I laughed at them... me RUN? I am not sure that would be too pretty! But then I got to thinking... Darren started running a year or so ago and he worked his way up to running several miles at a time. I had 6 months to train and the Indy Race was October 17th - the day before I turned 40!!! So I thought well just maybe I could do a 5K by then maybe....

So I started walking and jogging. My friend Ashley agreed to do the 5K with me and we would run once in awhile together. Well, Ashley would run and I would try to keep up!

Then summer got the best of me and honestly I put running off more often than I would have liked. I also threw out my back a few times in there.

October then came and I knew I wouldn't be able to run the entire 5K (which was my goal) I almost didn't go but then I realized that I needed to do this for ME!

So October 16th I loaded in my friend Laura's car with two other friends, Erin and Christy and we headed to Indy!

We got up on the 17th and it was a balmy 33 degrees! I had to scrape the frost off of the car windows!! We put our layers on and headed to the race.

Erin and Christy are Super-Women and they ran the 1/2 Marathon and Laura and I did the 5K together. Now I really must say that Laura is a Super-Woman too - she is fighting breast cancer and here she was running along side me and encouraging me every step of the way!

I finished the race in 49:42.3 I realize this isn't a great time - or even a good time but I DID IT! It felt great and I cannot wait to run again! In fact I am going to run another 5K in November!

I want to thank everyone for supporting me and not calling me crazy when I told them I was going to run a 5K the day before my 40th Birthday!!!

Kiera's Ballet Class

Kiera started taking Ballet Classes this year! She couldn't wait to start taking classes but she got "scared" during her second class and has been timid about it every since. Poor dear. So for now Meaghan is taking the class with her! That seems to help her greatly! :)

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my sweetie - Darren!

On Saturday Darren and I celebrated our 17th Anniversary! We have known each other for 21 years now!

Darren and I met in a Microbiology Class. We ended up being lab partners and soon feel in love! Then I went to U of I and he went to ISU - yet we still stayed together. We dated for 2 years and then were engaged for 2 more. October 10th the year we got married was the most beautiful day EVER! The weather was perfect, sunny and just warm enough. It was the happiest day of my life! I love you sweetie!

Riding in my automobile...

Kiera finally got her own car!!! She had been wanting one for a LONG time and I finally found one at a garage sale for a reasonable price.

Meaghan "decorated" it all up for her and made it FANCY again! It is too cute!

Summer Sweeties!

How many of you had children and thought they were just about the cutest thing on EARTH??? Did you wonder if you would ever think other people's children were cute? I wasn't too sure until I met my nieces and nephews! They are simply adorable - and no I don't really think I am biased! :)

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this summer.


Ashton and Kiera - two smiling angels!



Could Ashton get any messier? or cuter?


Kiera and Lainy in their matching PJ's that say... Sassy Just Like Mommy! Too true! I think they are both going to grow up to be WAY sassy!


<I just love this photo of Kiera and Lainy loving on each other! Awww....

Summertime with the Scouts

As most of you know I stepped down as assistant to the Webelos Scouts and became the Tiger Scout leader last year for Connor and his friends. We had a fabulous year together and did lots of cool things. I just have to say that I love Cub Scouts. I really feel like it is an organization that is great for growing boys. It also is very strong in family values. Family is always welcomed at meetings, functions, events, etc. For someone who has both boys and girls I find this very helpful and it works great with our family.

Summertime is when a lot of the fun stuff in Scouts happen. We go camping, hiking, etc. Here is a photo of myself and all of the boys in my Den last year. They are showing their true personalities in this photo - I love it!


Here is a photo of Connor becoming a Wolf Scout.


Here is one of Nate becoming a 2nd Year Webelos Scout! This year in February he will become a BOY SCOUT!!! Wow!!! He is now working on his Arrow of Light requirements. One of them is to do an activity or campout with a Boy Scout Troop. So... Darren and Nate went camping last weekend and had a really good time! I cannot believe my little boy is growing up SO fast!


Cub Scout Adventure Camp is one of my favorite things to do during the summer. I love camping with my boys and hanging out with one of my best friends in the whole world- Tasha! This year I took almost NO photos though... :( Here is one however that someone took of the two of us! :) Yes, we are in our bathing suits because we ROCK and passed the Swim Test!!!

Back-to-School

Well it is Back-To-School time around here and so I hope to be a bit more organized (ha) and blog much more! I don't know why I just let it get away from me more and more during the summer. This summer we cut back on a lot of things and yet it still seemed to be our busiest yet. Maybe because we did our big vacation during the summer? We went to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore, among other things. It was a fabulous vacation and I hope to get some photos up here soon.

We "officially" started homeschooling this week. It always sounds funny to say that because honestly aren't we always learning? I sure hope so! I guess we are learning in a more "formal" way nowadays around here! Meaghan actually started her studies a few weeks ago. She is involved in the Challenge program through Classical Conversations and they started in early August. True to its namesake it is a Challenge for her. It is tough but in a good way. She (and I) are being challenged in ways I am not sure we would be if we did it all on our own. She meets with a tutor and classmates once a week and they have discussions, read their papers, are tutored on various subjects, play learning games, etc. Then the rest of the week at home she works on her subjects and prepares for the following week. It is similar to the Foundations program I do with the younger kids. The boys and Kiera started "school" this week and it has been going really well. Almost too smoothly to be honest... is the shoe about to fall?

So with all of this back-to-school stuff going on around here I must say I am STILL thrown by people's comments when they find out we home school. Mostly I feel that they need to defend their case for having their children in public school. I also think they say the craziest things - mostly children do this but I have had several adults too. I guess I just don't get it. I don't say negative things about public school to someone I know who is educating that way so why do they feel the need to do so in reverse. I often think of how rude it would be if I reversed their comment, question, etc. and said it back to them.

Let me see if I can give an example: Someone asks me "Who is your child's teacher" and you reply that we home school and they say... "Oh I could never stand to spend the day at home with my kids." Now... let's revers that. What if I asked them who their child's teacher was and then I said... Oh I could never stand to send my children to school all day. I think that would sound rude - right? And yet those are the types of comments I hear all the time. I guess I mark it up to people just not knowing what to say. Or maybe they are curious as to why I am doing it? If someone simply says - why are you homeschooling - I don't mind telling them. But I guess I feel awkward when it becomes an -our way is better than your way type of thing. Of course you feel your way is better for you - I hope so! I of course think my way is better for us. Let's listen and learn from each other with open hearts. I know I was NOT going to home school. NOT me! Yet look at me now!


I just had to share this lovely photo I have of a dear friend of mine who is in our Classical Conversations home school group. Here she is helping a child that isn't hers. It reminds me of why I have good support groups and dear families close to us. It is really important to me that my children learn and grow up in a supportive loving environment. I work at creating that daily and thank God for giving me the opportunities.