Blog feature!!!!!

I am SO proud to share that Sam's 2nd birthday party that I worked so hard on was featured on a popular party blog!!!!  I had way too much fun planning and setting up his party!  It took many deep thoughts, research and late nights but turned out great!!  I made most of the stuff myself but did have a little help from Etsy!  We chose Under the Sea because Sam had been so in love with the movie Finding Nemo!  I didn't really want to do the whole Disney/character theme so chose something more generic yet close enough!!  Turned out great if I must say so myself!  Check it out here!!!!!

http://www.chickabug.com/blog/2011/06/under-the-sea-party-sam-is-2.html

Dyl-Bug!

So it took me long enough but if I want to get in done anytime soon I need to do it now!  The recent and upcoming for our second son, Dylan!  Like with Jacob's post I don't really remember when or what the last post was with any updates on him so I will go back a little.  First off last November he turned FIVE!!! He had a Halloween/costume party at our Stevi B's and had friends from school come eat and play wih him in their costumes! This past school year Dylan completed Pre-K! He loved it and learned SO much!  He has grown so much over this past school year!  He was also involved in church but wasn't quite old enough for RA's like Jacob so he did Choir and Mission Friends!  He had a couple concerts and and a Hymn sing! A couple months ago he had minor surgery as a follow up from a surgery following birth!  Everything went well with that and he has fully healed and doing great!  He recently graduated from Pre-k in a small ceremony at his school!  He was so proud as were Jeremy and I!  He is really excited about Kindergarten and riding the school bus starting in August!  Also recently we took Dylan to the Rheumatologist (bone dr.) to have his legs checked out.  He complains a lot about leg pain after any walking or strenuous activity.  He is very flat footed and pronated (knock kneed) so we figured this could be the culprit but wanted to confirm it wasn't more and to find out a solution! As we thought he is severely pronated and will be getting inserts into his shoes to help lift the inner foot and straighten his knees!  We also found out that he has Hyper Mobility.  Nothing major and sounds fancier than it actually is... basically meaning he is super flexible!  HAHA!  He over extends his joints which can cause injury and pain!  He loves to swim and being outdoors! Dylan has a very strong personality and is the loudest in the family!  He has been the "middle" child for the last two years and has made his voice heard and his presence known!  He is so bright, imaginative, creative and loving!  He is so affectionate and expressive!  He fills our days with laughter and also some frustration.  He has Mommy's patience or lack there of :) He loves being a playmate and brother to Jake.  He looks up to him so much and loves him dearly. He also loves being a big brother to Sam and is really looking forward to Summer.  Everyday for the last few days he has asked me "Is Summer coming out today?  I am SO excited".  Below are some recent pics of Dylan!

Re-bloging another blog!

Read this on a fellow blog and wanted to share.....  So true!

Parents. It’s not cool to put down your kids. It’s not funny. And it certainly doesn’t improve your relationship with your kids or change any issues that are bothering you.

Yup. Parenting can be hard sometimes. It can be annoying to find an unflushed toilet for the umpteenth time or smelly socks left in the living room. Kids can be dirty and stinky. They can be sassy and irritable and challenging and ungrateful. It’s true.

And you know what? So can we!

Do you want someone to publicly complain about you?

Tell me what it accomplishes to get into mom groups and complain about our kids?

What does it accomplish to devote full blog posts that get published on popular mom sites that rant about the myriad of things that you detest about your kids? The token, “But I still love them and wouldn’t change a thing” thrown in at the end does not suddenly make it all OK that you just publicly ripped apart your kids.

Gotta be great to be a kid who has parents who talk about “surviving” parenthood and the hardships of raising kids. You think they laugh it off like you do believing deep down, “Mom and Dad love me and wouldn’t change a thing?”

I’ll admit that I’ve jokingly said to my husband, “These kids are crampin’ our style,” as we realize that our plans are complicated because of the kids.

I’ve talked about how my kids can drive me bonkers. I even wrote a post on how my 6-yr-old was possibly possessed by Zuul, servant of Gozer the Gozerian.

I’m not suggesting that we don’t share our struggles. We don’t need to pretend that we’re never bothered or irritated or tired.

We can laugh together and commiserate on occasion.

But let’s be honest. All the whining about our kids is really, ultimately, about us and our own selfishness.

Because they did this, I have to do that.

I can’t do such and such because of them.

They aren’t listening to me.

I’m disrespected by them.

They make life difficult for me.

Yeah, we can feel better about ourselves when we put down our kids to other parents. We can justify it as venting. We bond with each other sharing our perceived horror stories.

And then we wonder why we don’t experience the family bliss some purport is possible. When we focus on the negative the positive gets lost even if it’s there. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that children won’t be affected by what you say about them even if you try not to say those things when they’re around.

So cut it out!

I’m tired of reading blogs and tweets and Facebook posts about how terrible your kids are (ha ha) and thinking it funny and entertaining. Fix the things that aren’t working in your home. Get parenting help if you need it. Stop complaining and take action. Then acknowledge that a large part of the issue is actually YOU, not your kids. Let’s address that.

Instead, lets rave about our kids and how amazing they are. Let’s share with each other how to become better parents. Let’s support each other as we try to get over ourselves and learn to put others before us because I didn’t see the clause in the verse (Romans 12:10 if you’re interested) that said the words applied to everyone except our children.

And then don’t tolerate less from others. Including those people who think they’re giving you a secret handshake when they see you with your kids and say, “You’ve got your hands full.”

If we want kids to respect us and others, let’s show them some respect. Will you join me?

Family scare....

So before I move on to posting about Dylan & Sam I want to share an experience we had last night in our home!  It was pretty scary and by sharing I hope to convince those who don't have a detector in their home to get one asap!  A Carbon Monoxide detector that is....  Last night at about 3:30am our carbon monoxide detector alarm went off in the upstairs hallway.  After of course waking us up Jeremy got up to check our what it was.  After discovering it was the CO alarm we suspected it being faulty.  We changed the batteries and it was still telling us the levels were too high in the house.  We followed the instructions to place the detector outside in fresh air to see if it still alarms... obviously if it still alarms in fresh air its probably faulty. Well, it didn't.  The levels dropped to 0% and it stopped alarming.  Once brought back indoors the levels quickly rose again.  After this we called 911 and had the fire department out to check the levels with their machine.  About 10 minutes later they arrived and started scanning the house.  The scary part-YES we had a CO leak.  The levels were 20's-30's up where we were sleeping and were only getting higher all the way down to the garage where the levels reached the highest topping in the 70's.  High enough down there that the firemen told Jacob and I we couldn't even stand in the room.  They suspected the hot water tank.  They told me to get the kids out of the house asap and for Jeremy to completely open the house- all windows and to get all the fans we had and run them inside to air out the house!  By 5:00am the boys and I were at my parents while Jeremy stayed back to air out the house!  Needless to say if it were not for the alarm on our CO detector we may not have woken up in the morning.  Carbon monoxide poison is fatal and the thought of that is out right scary!  The Lord had His watch and protection over us and our home and we are forever grateful to Him!  And as of today are purchasing more than one more detector to spread through out the house!  I of course HIGHLY recommend if you do not have a carbon monoxide detector in your home you get on right away!  It could mean  life or death!