Old Friends are the Best Friends

A family that we were very close with moved to Georgia last year. It was so sad to see them go! They have kids the same age as ours and we spent a lot of time together. They just drove in yesterday for a visit and how good it is to see them. And, boy how much the kids have grown! The cutest thing is to watch AKP play with her friend Anne Lauren. I will have to post a picture. They are only two months apart and Anne Lauren is almost a food taller then AKP. Anne Lauren is in the 90% for their age and AKP is in the 10% for their age. It is funny. AL spent the night at our house last night with AKP and the AAP stayed with the older kids at my friends house. This was AKP's first sleepover. I can't get over how cute it is to see the two playtogether. They walk around the house holding hands and talking. They have yet to fight over something! This is big for three year olds. I knew we missed seeing them, but I didn't realize how much I missed them until seeing the girls play together again!

Four Moms and 10 kids

This week is Spring Break for us. Three of my girlfriends and I headed down to the lake with our kiddos for a couple of days of fun. Now there were four of us and with all of our kids, which equaled 10, we had quite the crowd! We went to the grocery store when we first got there and got plenty of food so we wouldn't have to head to a restaurant with a group of 14 where we, the adults, were outnumbered. We went to Timber Falls, the indoor waterpark at Tan Tar A Resort. For $22.00 a pop it wasn't what I expected. I venture to say it was a high price to pay. The older kids loved it, but there really wasn't anywhere for the little kids to play. They had a really cool treehouse play area that had waterslides coming off of it. But, the problem was there was a HUGE bucket of water at the top of it that would fill up and then tip over crashing down gallons of water. This happened about every two minutes and it scared the little ones to death! After the waterpark we did get a little "mommy" time. We had two babysitters while we went shopping and to dinner. All in all the kids had a great time and it was good to get away...chaos and all!

Short Shorts

With the weather being so nice lately I decided to head out and do some Spring shopping for the kids and I. I was in search of some deals. I only wanted to get a couple of things, mainly a pair or two of shorts for each of us. This ended up being more challenging than I thought. I went to four stores and finally ended up with a pair each for the kids. I am not really thrilled with my purchase for AAP, but they will do. It seems as though the Spring clothes have been in the stores since December, so you would think that finding a pair of shorts wouldn't be that hard. Wrong! I did find some shorts at a couple of the stores, but I couldn't believe what I saw! They had some of the shortest shorts I had seen. Keep in mind I am shopping for a six year old and a three year old here. I am thinking, "Okay I will head to the mall and get some cute, denim shorts that the girls can play in and that will match most of their stuff...this can't take too long." Well, I didn't realize that everything I found was going to be something that Daisy Duke would wear. Come on, these are kids we are talking about. Who needs to see a 6 year olds butt cheeks? Noone! I was disgusted to say the least. After searching and digging I settled on a pair from Target. Good thing Bermuda shorts are in style, at least they keep things covered up!

Mom My Ride

I found this video absolutely hilarious! Hope you enjoy it too!

The Stones

Wednesday I was experiencing lower back and lower abdomen pain all day. Around 4:30 the pain got worse and I knew I had to get home. By the time I got home the pain was unbearable! I was having bad, constant pain with sharp pains that came frequently. I swore this was worse then contractions during birth. Disclaimer: I had an epidural with all three deliveries very early so my pain threshold is very low. :) After paging the Dr. they told me to go to the ER. At this point the pain was so bad that going to my parents to drop off the kids and then heading to the hospital was out of the question. So, my mom met us at the hospital to get the kids. We luckily only had to wait 45 minutes before going back to a room. After some tests and a CT scan the Dr. said I had a small kidney stone. I was given some pain meds through an IV and was sent home with a strainer to strain my urine in hopes of finding the stone. If I can find the stone the doctors can study the stone to find out what caused it to form. Pretty cool. All praises to God that I have had NO pain since Wed. night. I have yet to find the stone and we will see if I end up collecting it!

To see pictures of actual kidney stones
Click Here!

For some reason I can't get the link above to work so copy and paste:
http://www.herringlab.com/photos/

Kick it up a notch...Bam!

Lately my hubby has been kicking it up a notch around the house. He has always been a big help to me around the house and with the kids, but lately it has even gone to a new level...BAM! Last week I would find that the dishwasher was unloaded or after putting the kids to bed I would come down to a completely picked up kitchen from the after dinner chaos. Those felt like such treats to me. Then this weekend came. The girls and I were headed out of town for the day for a dance competition. We left at 9am and got home at 11:30pm. Hubby and bubby were home all day together just hanging out. Before I left I mentioned, "I was going to leave you a "honey do" list, but I decided to just let you hang out with your boy." I was smiling when I said this; it is not often I do leave him a list but we did have quite a lot of things to get done around the house. However, I skipped the temptation and decided to let him have the day off...or so I thought. While I was gone he did the following things:
1. Installed a new kitchen light fixture.
2. Installed new hardware on our cabinets.
3. Lowered bubby's crib.
4. Installed a crib toy.
5. Installed a new surround sound system.
6. Bought speaker stands. (These means venturing out with bubby to Best Buy, Radio Shack, and Circuit City while he has Rotavirus meaning he could mess his pants at any given moment to the point of needing to change outfits because he blows out his diaper.)
7. Fixed my favorite rocking chair which broke a couple weeks ago.

Then on Sunday to top it off he installed our new chandelier for our dining room. BAM! It looks great! We are slowly trying to remove the brass from our house. So a big KUDOS to hubby. What a stud!

Failure to Launch

While eating lunch today with my gal friends from Take TWO I alluded to the fact that my son was going to be the main character from Failure To Launch when he is older...by my choice. :) Because I had a son as our last child, not only is he mommy's boy, but he will always be the baby of the family. My fear with having a son is that he will go away to college, meet a girl, and we won't see him often. I guess this is because it seems like more often than not the male tends to be where the wife's family is, or closer to them because a woman is usually the "relationship" keeper. I don't think I am making any sense, but I do have this fear. While I am kidding, sort of, that he would live with us well into his 30's it is something I think about. I know a girl, usually, will always be close to her mom, but I am not sure how this plays out with a boy. I feel like when my girls grow up, get married, and have kids I will be an integral part of their life and their children's because it is a woman's innateness to have their mother around. However, when my son grows up, gets married, and has kids it will be his wife's mom who will have that with their children. I am not sure I will handle that very well. Time will tell!

Sunburn Anyone?

Like I said...I love the Spring weather and being outside with the kids. So, I took full advantage today and we headed to the park for lunch and playtime with friends. We were at the park for a little over two hours and when we got in the car I realized that my arms were pink. If that doesn't tell you how pale I am/was! It felt so good to be outside and feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and to feel the wind blow through my hair. Well, can it actually blow through my hair beings it is so short...oh well whatever you get the idea. I loved it. Of course AKP wasn't phased by the sun at all. She has the most beautiful olive skin, that she gets from my hubby, and I am envious! It was great to be outside, sunburn and all.

Let There Be Light!

I absolutely LOVE this time of year! I love when it stays lighter later at night, I love the smell of the fresh morning, I love to hear the birds singing at sunrise, I love the warmth of the sun, I love the spring showers, I love taking walks with the family, and I love watching the kids play outside!

Some Things Are Better Left Alone

While I was shopping at Hy Vee today I walked past the display for Krispy Kreme doughnuts and I noticed that they now have a whole wheat glazed doughnut. This struck me as extremely funny and almost ironic. Now, don't get me wrong here...my husband and I try to make good decisions when it comes to the food we eat and what we buy at the store. We do eat whole wheat bread, tortillas, pasta, crackers, etc. But come on...a whole wheat Krispy Kreme. That's just not right! I think this is a marketing scheme to totally get the consumer to feel better about their indulgence. I mean really, if you are going to have a Krispy Kreme you might as well have the real thing. So, I got curious as to whether or not the "whole wheat" really made this doughnut that much better for you compared to the original glazed doughnut. My conclusion is NO! I know whole wheat flour is healthier, but come on people we are talking about a Krispy Kreme doughnut here. If you are going to splurge go all the way.

Nutritional info:

Original Glazed - 200 calories, 12g fat, 3g sat. fat, 4g trans fat, 5 mg cholesterol,

22g carbs, 10g sugars

Whole Wheat Glazed - 180 calories, 11g fat, 3g sat. fat, 3.5g trans fat, 5 mg cholesterol,

19g carbs, 10g sugars

So, which one will you choose?

Wordless Wednesday

My hubby and my bubby!

Don't Blend In. Blend Out!

Oprah recently had a special on ABC introducing her new Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. It has been a long time dream of hers to open a leadership academy for underprivileged girls in Africa in order to help make a difference. I missed the show this week and was bummed, but then immediately excited to see they were airing an encore presentation on Sat. night. I entered it in my DVR and recorded it! I first watched it last night with my friend and then we watched it tonight as a family. It is a powerful hour of television!

During the program Oprah introduces you to her vision and the plans for the Academy. She also did feature sections on some of the young girls and shared a snippet of their life story. To see how bright and smiley these girls were despite their circumstances was inspiring. I learned from these little girls. Forgiveness, perseverance, courage, hope, love, faith, diligence, and work ethic were all things that we can learn from these girls! I encourage you to visit Oprah's website to learn more about the Leadership Academy, the girls, how to order the DVD, and how to get involved! This is a great thing to get your children involved in to help them see how fragile life is and how blessed they are!

Don't Blend In. Blend out!
~Lesego, student at The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls