Happy Birthday Austin Cooper!

Two years ago, little Austin Cooper joined our family.

He has provided lots of joy and laughter

and we can't wait to see what happens in the coming years.

We love you little buddy!

Vacation at Home

A few times a year, I take a week off of work and stay home with the kids. I get the opportuntity to do normal things with them that I miss each day while I'm working.

We've had lazy mornings in our jammies watching cartoons; a trip to the park to play; errands during the day when the stores aren't jam packed; Avery loves running out to get the mail right after the mailman has dropped it off; planning what to have for dinner prior to 6pm and not rushing to get it done; walks; picnics out on the deck; coloring on the family room floor; etc.

Monday will be a tough day. It's always hard dropping them off at their school when they've been out of school for an extended period of time. Austin also starts in a new class on Monday with the Two's.

It's been a great week. The next vacation can't come soon enough!

Exposed...

Rachael Ray has an article in each of her magazines that introduces you to a Celebrity's Refrigerator. Well, I'm not a celebrity, but I did spend the better part of an hour cleaning out my refrigerator today. I'm guessing that a refrigerator can tell you a lot about a family. I dare you to expose yours as well...

Here's what I think mine might tell you:

• I have an almost two year old that still drinks whole milk and as soon as the Dr. gives me the okay...I'm ready to cut down on the two different gallons of milk that we purchase


• It is the end of the month and we have exceeded our grocery budget for the month...the fridge will look much more full next week


• We must like salad...I think I have 6 or 7 bottles of salad dressing in use.


• I'm not that great at eating left overs.


• Summer is here. I'm anxious for fresh produce.


• I'm not a pie-baker. There is a box of ready made pie crust that has been sitting in my fridge for several months.

• Memorial Day weekend is always the kick off for summer. I love the smell of the grill and I feel that we eat more healthy in the summer. Lots of fruits and veges and chicken on the grill.

If nothing else gets accomplished today...at least I have a clean refrigerator.

Little Stinkers

I'm taking vacation from work this week and staying home with the kiddos. This morning we attempted to take Austin's 2 year pictures at Target and get some of the two of them together. This has been a bit of a challenge in the past and today was no exception. Avery did great, but Austin was very hesitant. We ended up with a few okay shots and probably left the photographer very thankful for her next appointment.

We're looking forward to spending quality time together this week...let's hope the weather warms up a little as the week goes on.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a great weekend and such beautiful weather.

On Saturday we spent the afternoon at the lake w/the cousins and then headed to my parents house for dinner w/Uncle Kevin and Aunt Heather.

On Sunday we celebrated Austin's 2nd birthday with our families.

It was a frog theme-can you tell?

Yesterday, we had a lazy morning and then ended the day with a picnic outside and smore's around the firepit.

We ate well all weekend, took pontoon, jet ski, and four-wheeler rides, watched the kids play and swim in the freezing water, and had great conversation.

It worked out pretty well that both of my kids have a birthday near a long-weekend holiday. One can be celebrated over Memorial Day and the other over Labor Day. That makes it better for aunts and uncles traveling from Chicago for the parties. We enjoyed having everyone together!

This Is How My Mind Works...

These are the random thoughts that I had while driving to and from Indianapolis yesterday for a meeting.

• First of all, every song on the radio reminds me of some point in my life and I love those "song memories" (roller skating parties, high school sports warm ups, Purdue days, lazy summers, working at the All Star Music Resort at Disney where they played old disco music all day, concerts, I could go on and on and on)
• I love to guess what radio station/genre all the drivers around me are listening to
• Do you suppose people that drive cars with the temporary plates drive more carefully than the rest of us? Trying to protect their new car? The one in front of me was driving really slowly.
• Do you suppose BLAMMO would play for free at our 15 year class reunion next summer?
• What color heels would you where with a wine colored suit (Brown, Black, or Cream)? I have all three in my car because I had hard time deciding.
• Motorcycles make me nervous
• Has it really been 10 years since I graduated from Purdue? Time flies, doesn't it.
• In the last year, Jon has called me out for singing the wrong words to a song that I typically sing with all my might. For 15 years + I've been singing the wrong words and never knew it. He thought it was really funny. I heard this song yesterday and was laughing in the car all by myself. (By the way...the words are "Dude, looks like a lady". I always thought it said "Do just like a lady").
• Can you guess how many McDonald's you pass between my house and downtown Indianapolis? At least 9, maybe 10. That's one every 15 miles.
• Thank goodness for cell phones...they make the time go by much more quickly.

6 hours of driving for 6 hours of meetings...it was a long day!

Boys Will Be Boys

It's season finale week....Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) and American Idol (AI). The whole family has enjoyed watching these programs together, but we're definitely ready to be done with shows for the summer. Yeah for David Cook!

Avery has rhythm. She loves to dance along during the show and pretend she's singing into a microphone. I'm thinking we should have enrolled her in a dance class versus playing soccer this spring.

Austin on the other hand, is all BOY! We frequently have to stop him from kicking the soccer ball on to her field during the games. He's content when he has a ball in his hand and often one in each hand.

One night this week, Avery was pretending to be on DWTS and wanted Austin to be her partner...he chose to play with the bouncy ball instead.

Boys will be Boys!

Patience Re-Load

I miss my family! I've been in Ft. Lauderdale since Monday training a new associate. I get home tomorrow night.

We had just returned home from a long weekend where we spent the better part of three days in the close quarters of a fairly small hotel room. My patience meter was getting a little low-nearly running on fumes.

Now, after tonight, I will have spent three nights in a large hotel suite all by myself several states away from my family.

What I miss:
Little voices
Hearing someone's breathing in the middle of the night
Avery dancing along to the show DWTS last night or pretending to be on American Idol
My good morning, welcome home, or good night kiss from my hubby
Splashing in the bathtub
Austin chasing his sister everywhere she goes and doing everything she does


What I gain:
A full tank of Patience and Gratitude for what I have at home waiting for me when I return!

Lucky Number 7

Jon completed his 7th running of the Indianapolis mini-marathon yesterday. Way to go - we're so proud of you! He trained harder this year and was able to shave 40 minutes off of his time from last year.

It's been a fun tradition for the last 7 years heading to Indy for a long weekend of activities. We were able to meet up with friends and celebrate birthdays, spend lots of time at the pool with the kids, do a little shopping, and just enjoy the city.

Let's Try Again

I have officially become addicted to reading blogs. So I suppose that if I am reading into other peoples' lives, then I should give them a glimpse of mine as well.
I hope that I'll have enough content to keep it afloat.

Here we go again...

MIssion Accomplished!

For the last few summers, I've been trying to convince Avery to take a jet ski ride with me. Finally, this was the weekend that she was brave enough to give it a whirl. I was so excited..probably more than she was.

She had a great time, but wanted me to stay "in this area", not too far from the house. We rode very gently, but did manage to get a couple of figure eights in as well-splashing her just a bit.

The highlight for her was trying to splash Grandpa standing at the end of the pier.

This is just the beginning...

What happened to the first half of 2007?

Many months have passed since the last post. We've had Easter, a first birthday, a vacation, the 4th of July, and many other great things to celebrate.

Perhaps I've been re-inspired to come back to the blogging world. We'll see what the next few weeks brings about. Stay tuned.....

The Life of a Working Mom

9 - days either working from home/taking the kids with me to work this year
8 - number of hours in a peaceful night's sleep--something I haven't had in a long while
7 - number of trips to the doctor's office since January 19, 2007
6 - number of prescriptions at Target Pharmacy
5 - number of ear infections between the two kids
4 - loads of laundry done after the effects of a virus this week
3 - number of grandparents that have taken time off to be with the kids
2 - hours spent dissinfecting all of the toys in our house on a Saturday afternoon
1 - very understanding boss that doesn't ask too many questions

Who Needs Toys

Austin has become very interested in our "tupperware" cabinet. He is content to sit there for quite a long while just pulling everything out of the cabinet. He even tried to climb into the cabinet. The only unfortunate thing for us is that he obviously doesn't know how to put everything back in.
Many fun days we have ahead of us now that he is mobile! I love this age.

Our First Baby

Isn't it funny how the pet that was once your "baby" suddenly gets put to the back burner because of your "real babies"? Our cat, Lofton, was once the apple of our eye. We threw her a birthday party when she turned 1. I remember when she would sleep on our heads when she was just a kitty. We used to buy her toys and Jon played hide and seek with her frequently. One winter we painted our family room and Lofton evidently enhaled too many paint fumes...she was on her deathbed. We took her to the Vet, left her there over the weekend and even visited her while she was there. A few tears and about $500 later she was home with us again.

Well, now unfortunately for Lofton, she doesn't get much love from us. Jon keeps her fed and watered, but other than that she mostly lives in the house on her own terms.

If anyone knows someone that needs to give out some extra love...I'm sure Lofton would appreciate it. To us, she's priceless! (That means she could go to a loving home for free)

Blame It On The Rain!

Okay, call me crazy! When I was in 8th Grade, these guys were my FAV!! I knew every word to their songs and had a poster of them in my room. I had their cassette tape, had piano sheet-music of their songs, I recorded them on my VCR when they performed on the sitcom "Sister Act" and then watched it over and over again trying to perfect their moves. I even made a head and shoulders ceramic in art class of Rob Morvan (the one on the right) - I think I still have that somewhere.

I was definitley bummed when I learned of their horrible deception - they were just a front. They were just the "pretty faces" and pretended to sing these songs.

Well, today on Music.Yahoo.com is states that there is a movie in the works about these guys. They sold 30 million records, but are now known as the biggest joke in pop music.

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/39926517

I doubt that the movie will ever really make it to the big screen, but if it does....I'll be the first one in line to watch.

SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!

Colts Win! What a great win for Peyton Manning and Coach Tony Dungy. They seem like such sincere, humble, likable guys. Certainly because the Bears are also close by, the game was especially fun to watch. We were definitely pleased with the outcome!

We have a little Colts cheerleading outfit that Avery has been wearing the last few months. She recently told her teacher at school that she wants to be a Cheerleader when she grows up. I don't have any knowledge in that area...so we can learn about it together. Go Team!

I Need New Tunes

I know so many children's songs from my childhood, church camp, cds, tv shows, etc. I can usually sing along to the song when I hear it-word for word. So why is it, then, that when I am actually singing songs to my kids at bedtime or while rocking them, I can only ever think of about 6-8 songs that I sing over and over again.

* My Favorite Things (Sound of Music)
* Hail, Purdue (fight song-they don't stand a chance liking any other school)
* Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Go Cubs)
* Amazing Grace
* Rock-A-Bye Baby
* Jesus Loves the Little Children
* Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or Baa Baa Black Sheep (Avery's requests)

The letter A, Dora's baby sister, and a Snoopy Truck

What do these three items have in common? They have all gone MIA at one time somewhere in the land of the missing toys. Thankfully, all of the aforementioned toys have been found and put back in their place.
This sort of thing really bothers some people and barely affects others. Some people stay awake at night thinking about the missing item. For me, it's mostly an annoyance...knowing that the stinking missing piece is somewhere in your home because you haven't taken the toy anywhere. So you spend minutes or hours looking all over the house for the piece until finally you find it somewhere you swear you've looked a hundred times. When the piece is finally found, it's such a relief. At least until the next piece goes missing and the hunt begins again.

Joy to the World!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!