Home school

I have been tossing the idea back and forth lately on homeschooling the kids. With everything that has been going on lately with all the school shootings and the school bus hostage and the bullying, it really scares me to put my kids into public or even private school. I was in public schools and I did fine but I also didn't have the option for home school nor did you hear a lot about those scary situations when I was in school. Also as a kid you are carefree and you don't think anything will ever happen to you. As a parent I know too well that "things happen". I am not an educator so it makes me nervous that I may not teach them the right way. I am good at being a mommy but I am not so sure about being a teacher. The questions that go through my head are...Will I be patient enough? Will I even understand what they are supposed to be learning? Will they like learning from home? Will they be socially awkward later on in life? Will they get what they need to be successful? That is just some of the questions I have! Since looking into this, I have found that homeschooling is pretty popular. There are even support groups that get together so the kids can interact and the parents can talk with each other. I want the best for my kids, as most parents do. I don't want to look back and think I should have done things different whether that be should have put them in public/private school or should have home schooled them. I have been researching and asking around on the homeschooling aspect. I am hoping with all the information and all the support that I get, it will help Kevin and I figure out what is best. We still have some time to decided. Wish me luck!

Swing, Swing, Swing On A Sunny Day

I remember before having kids hearing all these stories about other parents kids. I remember thinking, good god do these people have anything better to talk about. I mean how excited can you be about your child taking a crap or the fact that they ate all their food that night.Well, I am now "that mom". I now get excited over the littlest things and you know what?!?  I am proud of it!

Today was a beautiful day. Instead of spending it inside, we took the kids out in the backyard to play. We have a swing set that has the slide, a baby swing, a regular swing, and the handle bars to hang from. Kaden was hanging from the handle bars and swinging back and forth (which he loves to do a lot!). Karsyn saw him doing this and at that point she was interested in doing it. We have the bars set at Kaden's height which for Karsyn is a bit to high for her to reach without being lifted by one of us. Kevin lifted her to grab the bars and he held her there so she could see what it was like. She was hooked! We lowered the bars so she could reach them by herself. After watching Kaden ONE TIME, she already knew what to do. She picked her feet up off the ground and dangled there for several seconds until falling to the ground. She then got back up and did it again, this time hanging there for a little longer. The third time she did it, she started to swing a little bit. All this time, with a HUGE smile on her face! I think I know what she will be spending her time doing the next time we go outside. I know to some people this is probably silly but to ME it was a huge milestone. As I watched her doing this, I thought to myself "my baby girl is growing up so quickly". She is not the itty bitty baby I used to hold in my arms all day long. She is now a active little toddler. As sad as it may be saying goodbye to my little baby, I am excited to see her grow into such a fun, happy, silly little girl. Hanging from the handle bars of the swing set was just one of millions of things I will get excited about along the way of her growing up!

I did it!!

Happy Birthday Honey!

Yesterday was my husbands 29th birthday. This will be his last year in his 20's. We joke how next year he will be an old man because he is dreading the 30's. His work gives their employees the day off when it is their birthday. Yesterday we got to spend the whole day with our favorite guy! It was really nice. We started our day with a parent/teacher conference at Kaden's school. I wasn't expecting it to be bad and I was right. The teacher gave us a list of all the things that they work on during the year and how Kaden has done so far on them. There is a has not mastered, beginning to master, and has mastered sections. Kaden only had a few on the beginning to master and the rest were has mastered. She gave us a few pointers on what to work on with him at home. She said that he is a joy t have in class and he and the other kids get a long really well. It was good to hear. It always makes you feel like you are doing your job right when other people are actually enjoying being around your kid. After the conference we said our goodbyes to Kaden until pick up time and we went to my in laws house to hang out for a bit. I have been working on getting things ready for Karsyn's second birthday party which is in April. I am making her invitations so I wanted to get a head start on them. I worked on them a little over at my in laws house before having to go back out and pick up Kaden. After picking Kaden up with my MIL, we came back to eat lunch. The kids were getting tired and cranky so we brought them home to take naps and I ran a few errands while Kevin got some time to himself. When I got home, the kids were awake and ready to release some energy so we took them out in the back yard to play. Kaden has really shown an interest in baseball and he is actually quite good at it. Kevin loves practicing in the back yard with him. Luckily I didn't have to stop short of playing to start dinner because I had it cooking in the crock pot all day! I love crock pot meals!!! I made coca cola chicken. It is sooo yummy. The kids weren't too happy about coming inside for dinner but we were able to get them in without a huge fuss. After dinner, Kaden helped Kevin wipe down the table and then he went all by himself to clean up his room. Kevin and I were so proud when he came out to tell us how good he did and how excited he was to show us. I know I won't be able to keep it up every day but I was so excited for him that I gave him a dollar. Kevin made a comment to him about the toys he could buy at Hobby Town and Kaden took it as if they could go right then and there. He grabbed Kevin by the hand and started pulling him to the door. We couldn't help but giggle at him. The unfortunate part of the night was, Kaden did not want to go to bed. He put up a BIG fight. Typically Kevin reads to him, but last night he got that taken away for the way he was acting. Other then that meltdown Kevin had a good day with us. We will officially "celebrate" on Saturday with family and cake! We will have to make this year count since it is the last of his roaring twenties!

 

 

Tutu Cute!

Today was our first day back in dance class in over a month. We didn't go two weeks in a row because of illnesses. Then the studio was closed for winter break for two weeks and then we were in Disney the weekend after winter break was over.

Karsyn started her first class back in September. It is a mommy and me class, so we both take it together. She has been very quick to pick up on what they do in the class. She is in the class with 2-2.5 year old. After being out for so long I thought for sure she was going to act shy like she did in the beginning. After she saw her teacher, it was like she had been going this whole time. She picked right back up and actually did better then she had the last time we took class. I was so surprised at how well she did. Typically I do a lot of chasing her around. She is not usually fond of the floor exercise and she is obsessed with the barre. Today she sat pretty still through the floor routine and I maybe had to take her away from the barre once. I was one proud mama. The class is 45 minutes long. It starts out with walking in a circle around the room doing small movements with our arms and legs. Next the kids get bean bags and do some hand and feet coordination skills. Then they walk on a bean bag line and jump over the bean bags. Then they get to play with scarfs. Then we get to do freestyle "freeze" dancing. Then they get to run across the room and do a few arm and leg movements walking back to the other side. Today was an exciting day. We did a few of the first routines and in the last 20 minutes of the class the kids (more like the parents) got the recital costumes. I have been waiting for this day for a few months now. (I used to dance when I was little and I still have every single one of my dance costumes. I kept them just in case I had a little girl and she wanted to play dress up) I am so excited to start adding my little girls costumes to that collection. The theme of the recital is a Trip Through France. So the costumes are sort of a "french" look. The recital is set for May, I can hardly wait! The costume is a tad bit loose but nothing that a little tacking the shoulder straps in won't fix! Here is my sweet pea looking "tutu cute"!!!!

Where Dreams Come True

This past weekend, my mom and I took the kiddos to the most magical place on earth! DISNEY!!! It was kind of a spur of the moment trip. Kevin had a work retreat out of town and I do not like being home by ourselves without him. My mom mentioned going to Disney and we were totally game. We drove down Friday and stayed two nights. Saturday we did the Magic Kingdom. What we didn't realize was that the 1/2 marathon was going on that day. We were told not even to try to go anywhere near Downtown Disney or the Kingdom until after 11. We were kinda bummed because we were planning on getting to the park when it opened. It worked out though to be a little lazy that morning because I had the worst night the night before. My kids do not take well to change. We really don't do many vacations because Karsyn has a really hard time adjusting to the surroundings when going to bed. I brought the pack and play and tried putting her down in it. She just cried and cried. Kaden was also having a difficult time that night going to sleep on his own. I decided for the sake of all of us I would have them sleep in the bed with me. It was probably about 2am when I had to have my mom come and get Kaden and bring him in her room. Karsyn was ALL over the place in the bed and I didn't want her waking him up. It wasn't until 4am that I probably went to sleep. I ended up at that point switching rooms with my mom because Karsyn still had yet to really sleep for any long length of time. My mom was so awesome to let me sleep in a bit the next morning even though I wasn't really sleeping because I was too excited to go to the Kingdom. We left the condo a little after 10. I was expecting the park to be incredibly crowded. When we got there and parked, we realized that we were too close to the ticket booth that we didn't have the option to ride the tram. At that point we didn't think we were going to have to fight the crowds once inside the park. Kaden's all time favorite ride was the monorail. We ended up riding the resort monorail because the express was not up and running at the time. It worked out great because we got to stay on it longer which made for one happy little boy. He told my mom that he could ride the monorail forever. When we got into the Kingdom, our first ride was the train. Kaden kept asking and asking to ride the train. We had a little bit of technical difficulty getting on it with the strollers and my mom and I were slightly frustrated with each other but once we were off the train and we got the strollers under control our moods quickly shifted to excitement. Kaden saw an airplane roller coaster which was Goofy's Barnstormer ride. Karsyn was not tall enough to ride with a grown up so her and my mom strolled around Fantasyland while Kaden and I rode the ride. Kaden had a smile on his face the entire time. He was in awe of everything about Disney at this point. It literally brought tears to my eyes. After that we tried to ride all the rides that we could possibly ride. My goal was to get as many autographs and pictures with the characters as we could. We ended up seeing Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Marie from Arsitocats, The White Rabbit from Alice In Wonderland, Tinkerbell, and Periwinkle. There were a few others that would have been nice to get the pictures and autographs but I don't think waiting in line would have sit well with the kids. Karsyn got a little antsy waiting in some of the lines. Kaden did pretty good. He would usually find some little kid standing next to us and chat them up the whole time. Our wait time was great. I think the longest we waited in line was MAYBE 20 minutes. We did a few fast passes which got us into some of the bigger rides quicker. Once on the rides the kids were amazing! They were the best behaved kids. Both of them would either sit in our laps or sit next to us and just look at everything that was around them. They never once fussed or cried. They never tried to stand up on the ride or climb out. We even did the Haunted Mansion and they both were so brave! We were at the park for about 8 hours. We left shortly before the magical light parade so we could skip the crowd. By this time both kids and my mom and I were beat! From not having much sleep the night before and not taking naps it was probably best that we didn't stay for the fireworks. We ended up picking up pizza from Uno's and taking it back to the condo. From there we were able to watch the fireworks from our balcony. The kids and I slept really well that night. We left the next morning. Kevin was home by the time we got back and we all were happy to be together again!

Jesus Take The Wheel

As Karsyn and I were in the car waiting to pick up Kaden from school, I gave her a packet of fruit gummy snacks. She was getting a little antsy and we had a few more minutes to wait and I knew the gummies would hold her over until Kaden got in the car and we started driving again. Both of my kids are greedy eaters, they are picky and don't usually eat a lot but when they do eat, they eat as though they will never eat again. They shove everything into their mouth and basically just swallow. There is no chewing. When Kaden was younger, we used to have to keep an eye on him when he ate because he would swallow his food whole and then choke on it. We now have to do the same with Karsyn because she is just like her big brother. I gave her the gummies and I could her hear eating them and making noises so I turned around for a bit. As I turned back around to check and see if Kaden's class was walking out I saw that she had her hands in her mouth as if trying to grab something at the back of her throat. Her face was bright red and her lips were starting to turn purple. My immediate thought was to jump back in the backseat and help her. I could not get her out of her car seat quick enough. I think because I was so scared I got her out faster then I could blink. The person next to me probably was wondering what in the hell was going on inside my car. I was terrified, I didn't know if I should scream for help and what I should have done. I was trying to undo her car seat straps with one hand while I used the other hand to pat on her back to try to dislodge the gummy. Meanwhile she was still trying to grab at the gummy with her fingers. Poor thing, she was so brave. I think I panicked more then she did. She was so calm in the moment and went into survivor mode. I am actually pretty surprised at how well I coped with it. I stayed pretty calm. Typically Kevin is home with something happens (Nothing happens on my watch! Are you kidding, I'm SUPER mom) phessh!!! So typically Kevin is the rational one and I am the sobbing mess one asking over and over "Is everything okay, is he/she okay?" like a broken record. But today, I was alone. I had to think alone and act alone. I think I did pretty good. I think with her trying to grab the gummy with her fingers and me patting on her back helped the gummy dislodge and she basically coughed/gaged it up. My first instinct was to throw the packet of gummies out the window which then made her cry. She didn't cry because she had just had a close call with death but because I would not let her have the gummies back. Go figure! I gave her a binky and that helped calm her down. I then had to go get Kaden from the spot where his teacher brings them out. I left Karsyn in the car like I usually do. (car turned on of course). When Kaden and I returned a minute later, she was laughing and saying Hi to her bubba like nothing had happened. I think all of the excitement of the day made her a little wound up because she did not want to take a nap this afternoon which made for a not so pleasant evening. As I sit here tonight and type out the big event of the day I realize that no matter how unpleasant our evening was, I am so grateful that I got to spend this evening with my baby girl. "What if" that gummy had not come out of her throat? She may not be here tonight, sleeping like a little angel in her room. I thank God for letting me have another "unpleasant" evening with her!

No Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

As my husband was getting things ready for tomorrow morning he noticed that we are in need of groceries. I usually go shopping on Saturday's, but today was spent cleaning the house so I did not get the opportunity to go. He mentioned to me (as if saying, I needed to figure out something to do to fix the issue) that he didn't know what he was going to feed the kids for breakfast. Let me just mention that although my hubby needs for me to make decisions for him (okay, well he knows that my decision is the "right" decision, so that is why he needs me to make them for him.) but anyways, although I do that, he is the best husband ever. He lets me sleep in on the weekends. He gets up with the kids and does breakfast and plays with them so I can have a little extra shut eye. So tonight as he was getting things ready and blah, blah, blah we were looking for something to feed the kids. We are all out of bread and all out of waffles but I did remember we had oats in the pantry. I also remember that I had pinned a recipe for granola bars on Pinterest. The light bulb in my head came on and I quickly got to work on finding all the ingredients. After a few minutes of looking, Voila! I had all my ingredients. The recipe was so easy and quick to make. As I was making them I was thinking about all the fun and yummy things you could add to them. Because mine were a spur of the moment thing, I just did chocolate chip. You could add raisins, marshmallows, nuts, or whatever else you or your child might like. They took about 5 minutes to make and then another 2 hours to cool and harden. They are really good, better then store bought! Here is the recipe if you would like to try them. Oh and for those of you wondering, this is what my kids will be eating tomorrow morning along with some yogurt! Enjoy!!!

1/4 c. butter
1/4 c honey
1/3 packed brown sugar
2 c cooking oats (not rolled)
1 cup rice krispie cereal
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c chocolate chips (or whatever ingredient you would like to put in)

In a small saucepan, bring the butter, honey, and brown sugar to a boil. Lower the heat and let cook for 2 minutes. While this is going on, combine the oats and the rice krispies in a big bowl. When the brown sugar mixture is done, add in the vanilla an stir. Pour over the oats and rice krispies. Make sure you coat the oats and rice krispies evenly. Pour the mixture onto a lightly greased jelly roll pan 12x8x1 pan. If you have a bigger pan then just cover half or the pan. Make sure it is packed together tightly. You want them to stick together very well. Sprinkle your fun ingredients on top and press them down lightly. Let these sit for 2 hours or if you make these at night, let them sit until morning. Then enjoy!

Here is a link to the blog this recipe is from. No Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Dr. Mommy M.D.

Over the Christmas holidays both of my kids had the crud. I hate, hate, hate the crud. Did I mention how much I hate the crud? When one kids gets it, the whole family gets it. Kaden's came at an unfortunate time, Christmas Eve. Kevin and I had gone to the candlelight service at church and then out to eat with my dad and step mom. The kids stayed at the house with my mom and step dad. When we came home to pick them up to go open presents at my dad's house, my mom told us that Kaden felt as though he was running a temp and he had been complaining about his ear hurting. I took his temp and it was slightly elevated and his ear was a bright red color. I immediately called Urgent since it was still slightly early. They were not open and the nurse told me to call our on call doctor. Mean while we canceled presents with my dad for the time being. I decided not to call the on call doctor because I knew they were just going to tell me to take him to the ER if he was in serious pain or had a really high temp. I was NOT going to be spending Christmas Eve in the ER. We gave him some Tylenol and he perked up pretty quick. He was asking for Grandpa and his presents. So we had my dad and step mom bring the gifts to our house. As soon as the gifts were opened and played with for a few minutes, we started our Christmas Eve routine/traditions and then Kaden zonked OUT! The next morning he woke up as if nothing had happened the night before. His ear was miraculously better and he wasn't running a temp. Well Christmas was what?!? 3 weeks ago! It wasn't until two days ago that he started complaining about his ear again. At this point I thought for sure he has an ear infection. I called his doctor and they did not have any open appointment spot for us that day so they made one for us yesterday. Again he woke up that next morning feeling fine and nothing hurt. I still decided it was better to go and get checked out and have it be nothing especially if it turns out to be something, we could go ahead and start medication. We leave for Disney next weekend and I would HATE it if when we got there he was miserable the whole time. Sure enough, Kaden has an ear infection. I knew it! I am pretty sure this stems from Christmas Eve. So we were prescribed some antibiotics and sent home. Well today rolls around and guess what!!! Karsyn has been up since 4am screaming and crying. Hmmm, I wonder why?! Can you guess? Yupp, ear infection. Two days in a row I have spent at the doctors office. That's two days, two kids, two ear infections, TIRED mommy! Both kids are on the same antibiotics. Do you know what I hate almost as much as I hate the crud? I HATE giving my kids antibiotics! They refuse it, they spit it at us, and they make it so difficult to administer. Its awful! I know that the medication is really fast acting and will usually make them feel better almost instantaneously but sometimes I almost hope for just a virus that needs to run its coarse that way I save myself the trouble of having to give medication! I think at this point though, with all the times they have had ear infections they are becoming slightly immune to the smell and taste because it has gotten a little easier. Hopefully by the time we leave for Disney, everyone will be healthy and happy and ready to roll!!!

Lee #3 ??

Kevin and I have been tossing the idea of having another baby (in a few years that is) back and forth for a little while now. There are days when I am dead set on not having another baby. I am content with my family of 4. The two I have are enough for me. Then there are days when I have an overwhelming urge to have another baby. I see a pregnant mommy to be and I wish that was me. I see a newborn in a stroller and I long for that. It is so confusing going back and forth, back and forth. My family have their opinions about having another baby. Mainly they think we (or should I say "I") am crazy. They think that two is more then enough. They bring up the fact that I have my days with these two, just imagine what it would be like with another one. Which I understand. I will fully admit that I do have difficult days with the two I have now. They test me and push my buttons to no end! But, I LOVE being a mother. I think this is the job I was put on this earth to do. I never had the desire to go to college so I don't have the education for a highly successful job. I worked at the bank and credit union for several years and I liked it while I was there but I wasn't really happy. I'm glad I did work there because that is how I met my husband and then became a mommy. But this job, being a mother truly makes me happy. I love knowing that when I wake up in the morning I will see their smiling faces and all day long I get to look at those faces and teach them, nurture them, play with them, and love on them. I hope I don't hurt anyone or piss anyone off when I say this but I feel as though there are people who have kids just so they can check that off of their "life" list and then there are people who were actually meant to parent. I feel as though I am one of those who were meant to parent. I take pride in my job. My life is built around my children, not my children built around my life. With all of that said, having another child will only give me more purpose, and more love and that is not such a bad thing. It may be difficult but it's what I was meant to do.

Then I start having thoughts about how selfish I would be if I brought another human being into this world. This world so full of hate and crime. With everything that has been going on lately I am terrified for my children's well being. I already have two I have to worry about for...well the rest of their lives. Add a third into the mix, you might as well kill me now! Just because IIIII want another baby doesn't mean it would be the best thing to do. I know I can't spend my life worrying about the possibilities of something happening and for the most part I try not to. But I can't help but to have it in the back of my mind, "what if something did happen"? Plus look at the world these days. The price of gas is awful, the housing market is awful, people are awful. What kind of world is this for such sweet and innocent little kids. What will this world be when they are older. I don't even want to think about it. That is probably my biggest concern when it comes to having another baby. Not how will I deal with three or how difficult it will be with three.

For now I need to just focus on the kids I have now. I still have a few years before we will need to make a decision on whether or not we want to have another baby. I know at this time I am NOT ready. Hopefully when the time does come, the answer is clear as day. Until then we will just continue to pray about it!

January 1st 2013

We have entered another "new" year. It always feels like I should feel different with each new year but I never do. Even though it is a new year, it is still just your typical ordinary day. Other then the fact that my hubby was home with us today, it wasn't different then the day before. We did our usual stuff. We had breakfast, we played, we had lunch, we played, we took a nap, we played, we had dinner, we brushed our teeth, read some books, and said good night. Same ol stuff as the day before. I guess that is a good thing though. Although our days are pretty boring, they are still great days because we spend them together as a family. Today the one thing that we did that was "different" was, we taught Kaden how to ride his new bike he got for Christmas. He had a tricycle when he was younger but it was one of those that had the parent pole thingy that you can push from behind and then steer where they want to go. This bike is his BIG boy bike. It has training wheels but none the less it is a big boy bike. He was little timid at first but he got the hang of it pretty quickly. My husband is an awesome teacher when it comes to teaching him how to ride a bike or even driving. (we practice in the neighborhood with him on our laps) Kevin is very patient and knows how to instruct Kaden in a way that Kaden understands and picks up on. It was so cute seeing him riding his bike down the street. I had a proud mama moment!

2012 had its ups and downs, but what year doesn't? I had a pretty great last year. Even though it is a new year, I hope it doesn't change much from the last. Maybe just add in a few extra bonus things that we are hoping will happen this year! So all in all, I am okay feeling as though it was just another day!