I am torn......

This Friday in the NCAA tournament, the team I grew up loving and the team Aaron grew up loving are playing each other - Indiana University and The University of Kentucky, respectively. Because we are HUGE basketball fans, this is a big deal for our family. Now don't get me wrong, Aaron has gotten me to become a fan of Kentucky and they are a really good team this year. Indiana has really turned it around this year too. The last time they were in the Sweet 16 was 10 years ago. One top of it all, Kentucky has been ranked #1 for most of the season and one of their only two losses of the year was to Indiana.

So because of this, I will not be telling ANYONE who I am rooting for this Friday. If I say UK, my brother and family will hate me forever. If I say IU, my husband may never speak to me again (just kidding here, but he may not talk to me until the game is over).



New Room, Outside and Dinosaurs!

I feel like I am always playing catch-up with my blog. I guess it's never ending because I have a bunch of stuff to update today!

First is for our weekend. I finally had a chance to work on our basement. I have wanted to turn it into a play room for the kids for awhile, but I just haven't had time to do it. I was so excited to finally get the time to work on it this weekend when the kids were napping and when I was done with homework.

I knew to move all of their toys, I would need to sort through everything and get rid of a bunch of stuff. I am glad that I have been able to get a pretty big pile of toys to donate to someone who needs them. I was also able to organize their toys - at least initially organize them.

I didn't want to paint so I used wall stickers and framed educational posters to decorate the walls. There are still a few other things I want to do but since I was limited on time, I had to take go ahead and do what I could.

The kids LOVE it! They keep thinking they aren't allowed downstairs because they usually aren't allowed down there. Kylie kept telling us to come down and play with her. :)

We also got to enjoy the beautiful weather yesterday. Not sure we are going to be able to keep them inside this summer.

This is probably the only time it will ever be this clean. Yesterday when the kids were playing, they kept finding toys they hadn't seen in months since everything is all in one place now. Kylie kept telling us to come down and play!

One another note, the weather has been amazing lately. I took the first pictures of the kids playing outside yesterday on the play set. It is amazing how independent they both are playing on it. They were playing pirates and Blake was Captain Hook and Kylie was Izzy. It was pretty cute.

 

A few weeks ago when Kylie and I went to the Princess show, Aaron took Blake and went with Jeremy and Austin to a Dinosaur show. Blake LOVED it and the pictures show it. I wish I was able to be there because I would have loved to see how he reacted to the dinosaurs. Aaron said that he had a great time and Blake only had one minor meltdown.

Hope everyone has a great week!

He's Home!!

Yesterday was a very happy day for our family. My nephew John got to come home from the hospital! After a long 47 days, he was ready to come home. I am sure Emma and Nathan were SO ready to finally have him home as well. I can only imagine how hard the last month and half has been for them. Here are a few pictures from his one month pictures as well as two of the sweetest pictures of Emma and John at home.

A few weeks ago I had the honor to throw Emma, Nathan and John a baby shower. The turnout was great and I think everyone had a great time. I actually sent out the invitations the weekend before John was born and the theme was 'She's About to Pop'. Little did we know that the very next weekend Baby John was ready to come out and play!

I went ahead and went with the Pop themed shower. I got a lot of great ideas from Pinterest, which is another post in itself. We had Cake Pops, Oreo Pops, Rice Krispie Pops, 3 kinds of Popcorn Fruit Kabobs, Veggie Kabobs and Popcorn Chicken Salad. Below are some pictures from the shower. I loved how it turned out!

Welcome home, John!! Can't wait to hold you and for Kylie and Blake to meet their baby cousin!!

Almost a whole month....

...since I last posted. I have to apologize to all of my blog readers, but I have a good excuse. Life has been nonstop lately. Every week night and weekend we have been so busy with everything from school, work, kids, family, friends and the little things. When I have to choose between blogging or homework, yes I choose homework. Same with sleep. I should be sleeping now but I WANTED to update my blog about our family.

I decided to do one big post as well as carve a few of the special moments out into their own blog posts, so here goes.

First and foremost, yesterday many communities around us were very impacted by dangerous storms that came through the area. I think they confirmed around 20+ tornadoes touched down in my area and a few devastated 2 entire communities, just 15 from our house. At least 23 people have been confirmed dead and many people lost everything they owned. As I got on my computer this evening, the first story to pop up on Yahoo was THIS. Don't read it if you are vulnerable because I cried when I read the title of the article. This little girl's life was completely torn apart in one afternoon. If you don't want to read the story and just want an overview, this two year old little girl and her family of her mother, father, 3 year old brother and 2 month old baby sister were all found in a field about 10 miles from their house. All where pronounced dead except for the little 2 year old girl who is now at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville. Last I heard she was in critical condition on a ventilator. So, so sad. Here are a few pictures of the devastation that occurred.

Please pray for all of those impacted by the storms. Cherish every single minute you have with your family because you never know when something like this could happen to you.

One a much lighter note, Kylie is pretty much completely potty trained. She still wears a pull-up at nap time and at night, but there are many naps and nights that she wakes up completely dry. I am still not brave enough to put her in panties for bedtime but I would rather be safe than sorry. She is so proud of the fact that she is a big girl who goes to the potty and I love it. She is very independent and wants to do everything by herself now. I hate to say it but she is not a baby anymore. Makes me very sad but she loves it. On the other hand, Blake is still NOT interested in the potty AT ALL. Yes I know, Blake is older than Kylie and he should be potty trained, but I cannot force it to happen if he has no interest at all. Bribery doesn't work either - trust me I have tried everything. Maybe this summer he will become a little more interested.

We did celebrate two birthdays since I last blogged. My AWESOME nephew Austin turned 6th and my brother-in-law Jeremy turned 30 something :) I won't reveal his age on here but he still looks like he is 25.

We also celebrated Baby John's arrival with a shower for his momma. I am going to leave that to its own post since I have many pictures to share. I have also completed another class for school as well as my volunteer work I had to do for school. That takes a small weight off of my shoulders. Now just to get through this semester and one more summer session and I am finished!

Well that is it for now. I am still updating our pictures on my other One Frame a Day blog so feel free to catch us there as well. Look for more to come!