I wanna know

You know what I want to know? I want to know why a package of oreo's are cheaper than a package of strawberries? Serisouly. And oreo's are exaclty cheap, but I find it so hard to accept why the healthier alternative to eat is SO much more expensive than the junk? This bugs me.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to the Best Father I have ever had. No, in all seriousness, I am so grateful for my dad. I never doubted in all my life his great love and dedication for and towards me. I always felt so grateful for him growing up and still to this day. In grade school I remember kids making fun of me by saying, "you think your dad is better than everyone else's", and I did. I didn't know any better. I knew he loved me and did so much for us, so to me he was better than anyone else's.

He has always been one of my biggest cheerleaders. He has always supported me. Whether is was playing the French Horn for years, the piano and singing, playing softball and other sports and theatre, he loved it all. He supported it all and I always knew he cared by always being there for every activity, performance or game. I feel so lucky to have had that.

Still to this day he shows me he loves me. I know that although I am not winning any games or singing on Broadway, he is still proud of me and loves the things I have accomplished. He loves my children and my husband and I am grateful for that.

Thanks dad for being a good one, and happy birthday, may you get everything your heart desires!

Oh Jadeyn, How do I Love Thee

Can I just say how much I love this girl. I mean seriously having her in my life just makes me so happy.

She is so fun. She is 110% ALL girl. She is the mama of our family, the care taker. She has to tuck everyone is. The second someone is crying she is running to their rescue. She loves baby dolls, she loves getting her hair done, she loves babies, she loves pink and princesses. I would say though her number one love is books. There is not a time during the day that she does not have a book in her hand, and if she doesn't you can be sure she is on her way to the book shelf to find one. She sits and "reads" for hours. I love that about her. She also has a new smile for the camera which is shown below. She always wants to see the picture after it is taken too and she will say "Yay, for JJ"! She is also in the anti-eating phase too. She has no problem eating snacks at anytime, but put her in the chair to eat and she will not take one bite. I remember this being the age, the magical I am two and I do not eat, stage, so I am not too worried about it.

Along with being our only little girl she is also so compassionate. If I have not gotten at least 50 hugs and kisses randomly from her it is an off day for her. And when she comes to give you one of her loves she runs to you like it has been days since she has seen you. I love it. Another funny thing they do is when I give them a snack or a drink whoever is in the kitchen takes one to the other two. It is endearing. She can also throw and mean fit when she wants to. That, not so much endearing.

I love this girl and I am glad that if I only get one at least it is this one!

My BFF from high school came to town for a visit. It was great to see her and great for Jadeyn Caroline to spend a little time with her namesake. To me she is Carrie, but her name is Caroline.

The Fearsome Fivesome

These five have so much fun together. Cousin Natalie makes many appearances at our house and the kids love it. Every morning the kids wake up they ask for Grandma and Natalie.

911

Okay, seriously am I raising a bunch of dare devils? Their personalities really do not fit this fearless stunt, yet here they are. Luckily this was a few months ago and it has been a no-go ever since.

Going back in time

I have been a real slacker lately getting my pictures downloaded. It doesn't help that everytime I try, something goes wrong, but finally here I am, posting pictures. The only problem is I am going back to Valentines Day, backtracking a little bit.

We had a fun Valentines day. I made a fun dinner, a little more fancy than normal, cute name cards and little treats for everyone. Grandma and Grandpa B and G came over to give the kids little treats from them as well. We all had fun.

Right after our dinner we loaded the kids up and went up/over state for a conference Andy. We took Cherise with us to help out and she babysat one night for us to go out to dinner which was a real treat. You would think with so much family around we would go out regularly, but honeslty I can count on one had how many times we have been out since we have been here. That is just plain sad. Anyway, we all had fun at the hotel, swimming, someone else making breakfast for two days, shopping. It was a lot of fun.

Cortland kept saying, "ooh look at this" one of his favorite things to say.

It is hard to tell in the picture but they did manage many many "tastes" of the strawberry cheesecake before we even sat down.

The table and my beautiful flowers from Andy.

The place setting's, I wish I would have gotten a picture of all of us together, but we were all anxious to get out of town!

We found success...

Say good bye to the mini van and hello to the gas guzzler.
No more hours spent on craiglist and autotrader

...what will I do with my time?

Oh yeah, we got a Nissan Aramada LE.

It is huge.

It fits 8 comfortably.

It has the three things I really wanted, leather, DVD, and seats 8.

And many many more fun things, like adjustable pedals, a navi, a large trunk and a rear camera.

Nice.

We love it and feel very grateful for our find!

Pictures may come...if I ever get around to it!

Oh. Brother.

So Andy and I are in the "market" for a new vehicle. Our van has many many issues. MANY. It is almost embarrassing. I was just thinking the other day how excited we were when we got it. We only had one child, needed a new car and knew we wanted more kiddos so we went for it. A mini van. I honestly felt so cool. I know people hate mini vans and their is such a stigma to them, but I always knew when I needed a mini van that meant I was big time. I was a parent, a mom, doing what I had always wanted to do.

So when we got the mini van it was awesome. I remember thinking I never wanted to get rid of it. Here is what helped with the cool factor. Not only did it have a huge screened DVD player, but BUILT IN CAR SEATS! Does it get better than that. It is so nice not having those huge car seats take up all your space and when you don't have the kids you close them up and VOILA no more care seats. See, nice huh?

So for 6 months basically I have checked craigslist or autotrader nearly everyday. What we really need and would like is WAY to pricey to buy brand new so we are looking for a 2006/2007 GREAT deal. There are a few problems. Since I have been looking for so long, I am getting more and more picky as we go. I will not buy anything with out the DVD system, there is no way I will go back to no entertainment system in our car. I would really prefer leather, because our van looks horrible and how nice would it be to wipe off the seats?, and we need there to be a bench seat in the middle giving us more seating. If we are going bigger, why no GO BIGGER. Plus I am not having fun reaching Maddox over the other two to get him in the back. I would love to have a three seater right behind me.

So all this being said. We thought we found the perfect car last week and no such luck. It was a Denali that I loved from the pictures. IT even had adjustable pedals which we all know I for sure would need. AND a back up camera which could really be helpful. It sold minutes before we got there. Skip to tonight we drove into West County to see what we hoped to be our future car and again no such luck. I know this is very stereotypical, but man car salesman are relentless, annoying and pushy. I probably could have just gone with pushy right? Well they are. He kept showing us things over and over and every single one of them had two captain seats in the middle. PA-LEASE Already. He did show us a Suburban that was ok, but I don't really love those unless they are a certain type and this was not the type. The poor guy must have really been hurting for a sale because he offered over 4 cars for us to drive home with us and decide from there. He kept showing us an Envoy that seats 7, we already have a 7 seater that is costing us nothing. Anyway, he was not happy that we walked away without being new car owners. Believe me I was too. But looking for 6 months, there is no way I am going to settle for something that is ok, I want something we love that will be great for our family.

I am sure I have lost many of you by now, but if any of you have a great vehicle that you love, please share the info with us. Thank you! And now I must go repent for being so mean about the "salesman".

What's for Dinner?

I hate this question. And I have noticed on a few different blogs and talks with friends that this is a common question many people do not like.

Why is it so hard to feed my family. I actually do not think it is hard to feed them necessarily, but I find it hard to feed them a healthy balanced meal. Breakfast is easy. No problems there. Lunch isn't too bad, but by the time dinner rolls around I feel guilty like I am not creating this healthy good meal. I hate the guilt. I am tired of the same ole same ole.

Now I know how talented and amazing all of my blogger friends are so if you have any suggestions hit me. Or perhaps you would like to create my meal plan for the week?