Joshua's sleepover

We've had fun during this break from school and "normal" life. Dusty has been home from work for a couple weeks and of course Joshua is on holiday break from school. My best girl friend, Tyrell is still on maternity leave so we've been having playdates galore! Tyrell's little girl is Joshua's best friend. They've been the best of friends for the past 3.5 years (or is it 4.5?)

I think I've already mentioned that Joshua and Kirstin thought they were married for awhile after Dusty and my wedding since they walked down the aisle together. Here are a couple pictures of them at the wedding..








Anyway, Kirstin stayed the night a couple nights ago and they had a blast. We picked her up and brought her here. They played their Nintendo DS's together and then settled in to watch the movie Hook.




Poor Kirstin woke up when the babies got up. joshua is used to the girls waking up early and it doesn't phase him any...

see...




I LOVE this picture of them! I hope they stay the best of friends for life. MAYBE.. just MAYBE, Kirstin will end up being my daughter-in-law!

We now have 2 walkers!

Samantha has been walking pretty well for about a week now. Addison had shown interest in walking first, a couple months ago, but has never really seemed comfortable with letting go. Today, she let go and walked about 4 steps. Within 5 minutes she was almost running from one side of the living room to the other!!

Both girls love the attention they get when they walk. We cheer them on all the way! Go baby girls!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful holiday. On Christmas Eve we went to Dusty's cousin's house, where the whole family gathers. We had a great time. I don't have pictures but I've been promised that some will be emailed to me. One of the cousins dressed as Santa and passed out some gifts to the kids and candy to the adults.

He didn't phase the girls one bit. They seemed so over the whole Santa thing =). Joshua, however, stared him up and down. He got his gift, hugged Santa and then came over and whispered to Dusty and I "that is NOT the real Santa" We asked how he could tell..."look at his shoes, those are real people shoes NOT boots"

oh my goodness..details... we just laughed and explained to him that Santa was already busy on the other side of the world delivering presents to children that are asleep right now so he had to send his helpers to visit people over here. He bought it.. for now anyway.

The kids made out like bandits there, thank you Pam, Tina and Nancy!

After there we headed to my dad's house for our traditional Christmas Eve get together. The kids were so well behaved all day. I'm so proud of them all. Here are some pictures to sum up our evening at Bampa's house.











Christmas morning was great too. Joshua was in AWE at the gifts Santa left. The girls didn't understand but they certainly enjoyed playing. Aunt Dena and cousin Arika stopped over to give the kids gifts too. It was nice to see them on Christmas. Thanks guys! Our living room was trashed!!

Guess what Dusty and I did today (the day AFTER Christmas) ? We took a trip to Target for toy organizers!

Santa Claus

We actually went to see him at Joshua's school about a week or so ago. I've had a hard time getting the picture to scan. It's terrible quality- not sure what is wrong with my scanner.

The reaction was pretty much what we expected. Addison was pretty much fine and Samantha wanted out of there!! Joshua doesn't look thrilled either but that's probably because he had to kneel down. After the picture, he was able to climb up on Santa's lap and ask for a remote control car... WHAT?! Why is this the first I'm hearing of THAT! Oh boy...scrambling around for a remote control car....wish me luck!

So much to catch up on...birthday parties, illness, waterparks..

Whew! It's been awhile.

This will be a quick run down of what has been happening here. Joshua turned 6 years old on November 26th! What a big boy! To celebrate, we took him to a local indoor water park. This year, we took along his best friend Kirstin. He lovingly refers to her as his wife.

See, when Dusty and I got married almost 2 years ago, Kirstin was the flower girl and Joshua was our ring bearer, so they walked down the aisle together. For awhile, they thought they were actually married to each other. Cute!

So anyway, Kirstin stayed the night with us the night before and we got up early and headed to the water park. It was an awesome time. For the first few hours, there were only about 10 people in the entire place. Even at it's busiest, there were maybe 30 people. Both kids had a blast. We bought a waterproof disposable camera. The shots came out TERRIBLE! I don't recommend them AT ALL. Save your money. At least I have some pictures on my cell phone that came out OK. We're having some problems with our computer right now, so I can't share any of those pictures.

A few days after we went to the water park, we had the girl's 1st birthday party. I have those pictures already uploaded so I can share some of them. The girls had a great time. I was afraid they might get overwhelmed but they didn't. They ate up the attention!















The following weekend was their actual birthday. The poor girls got sick almost immediately after their party. I believe the next day. They were puking and Addison had terrible diarrhea. It seemed to get better and then get worse again. Finally, on their birthday, I couldn't take it anymore. I called our doctor's after hours phone number. She called back almost immediately and said that Samantha needed to go to the ER due to excessive puking and lack of wet diapers. She said we might as well take Addison in too.

Addison threw up in the waiting room. Luckily they got us back pretty quickly. We waited for maybe 10-15 minutes. Samantha was running a 103.5 temp and Addison's was 99.6. They gave Samantha some motrin and then took us to their beds. Samantha didn't last long in her bed before a nurse came and moved her to her own room. She needed more attention. They were really concerned for her. She ended up getting a cath to check her urine, which came back negative. They also had to give her an IV. That was HORRIBLE!. They also did some bloodwork. Her white blood cell count was really high so they knew she had some sort of infection. Because the level was so high, they ended up doing a spinal tap. That, too, came back negative, thank God!

We were sent home about 7hrs later with a script for amoxicillian. Addison was released after about 2 hours. She was fine, just a virus that needed to work it's way out of her system. We had a follow up 3 days later with our doctor. The girls showed definite improvements but still weren't 100%. They both had lost a pound each. We go back in 2 weeks to complete their 1 year well baby exam.

Today, both girls seem to be 100%. They are back to their normal happy selves.

Heartbreaking week

Thursday, November 20, 2008.

I was having a play date with a friend. As I was packing up the girls, I received a call from my MIL (mother in law). I answered it, figuring it was one of the normal calls I get from her everyday. She was crying hysterically. She just said my name about 3 or 4 times. My heart dropped.

What happened.. she couldn't get the words out fast enough for me. I was panicking. She finally got the words out.

"Lisa was killed this morning. She was killed, Cynthia. She was in a car accident on the way home from dropping the kids off at school"

My stomach knotted up. I started shaking terribly. I could barely think straight. I told Diane that I would be home shortly and would help her in any way I could. She told me she was flying down to Mississippi with Lynne (her sister, Lisa's mother).

I immediately called Dusty. He hurried his work up and headed home.

This is unreal. It's so hard to really wrap my head around this.

Diane is my mother in law, Dusty's mom. She has 3 sisters and a brother. From my point of view, Diane is closest with Lynne. They seem to meet up at least once a week for breakfast and talk on the phone often. Probably every day. Lynne lives just minutes away. Lynne has 1 child. Lisa. Lisa has 2 children. Joey and Meghan. Lisa just moved to Mississippi with her kids last year. Her fiance was transferred through work.

Before they moved, we would get together for the kids birthday every year at Chuck E Cheese's. Joshua loved to play with them. It was always a small get together of close family members. I always enjoyed going and watching the kids have fun together. Last year, we celebrated Meghan's birthday and they moved shortly after that.

We didn't see Lisa and the kids again till this past July. They were excited to come meet the girls for the first time, and of course, play with Joshua too. I am so thankful we got pictures of Lisa and the girls. We will treasure them forever.

Here are a couple from that visit






The accident happened as Lisa was on her way home from dropping the kids off at school. Some one driving in the opposite direction swerved into Lisa's lane and hit her head on. Blunt force trauma to the chest. She died instantly. She was 39.

My heart aches. Lynne is without her only child. A daughter that was like a best friend. They talked every single day. Her poor babies are without their mother. Her fiance is without his love. Her family is without their niece and cousin. Her friends are without a friend that was full of energy, happiness and beauty. My heart just aches for all of them..and myself. But more importantly..them.

I can't shake the thoughts out of my head. I have thought about her and the kids, Craig, Lynne..everyone, for every second since this has happened. It makes no sense to me why things like this happen. What is the reason? Why should these kids grow up with out their mom? She was such a good mother. She was extremely involved in her kids lives, including her fiance's son. Apparently she was known as the "popcorn mom" at the kids school in Mississippi.

Watching all the events happen over this past week have really drained me. I am just so completely heart sick. Some of the stuff that has happened can only be described as a living nightmare. I can't even go into some of the details. But Joey and Meghan, please know that your family loves you so much. We are praying for you both.

To Craig, I can't even imagine the heart ache you are feeling. In a matter of seconds, his life was just torn apart as well. He lost his fiance and both of her kids. I cry just thinking of the silence in his house now.

To Lynne, you are going through something no parent should ever have to face. It's not right to have to bury your own child.

I cry for you, the kids, Craig and everyone affected by this.

I am scared of the same thing happening. I'm scared that my kids will lose me. Nobody should have to grow up with out their mom or their dad. Lisa was doing such a simple thing. Something I do every single day. Take the kids to school. It's scary. We just never know what will happen. In the blink of an eye, everything can change.

I just want to hold my family close and never let go.


p.s. just a note to those picture taking mommies and daddies..please make sure to jump into some photo shots too. especially with your loved ones. I have made sure and set my negative self-image aside and gotten into a few pictures of me and the kids this past week.

RIP laptop

My beloved laptop died today 11/11/08. It's a pretty sad day around here. I loved my laptop. It was only with us for a short time (6 months) but it had a special place in my house that made it convenient to surf the net, upload pictures, photoshop, IM with friends and most importantly again...surf the net.

Luckily, no information was lost because it gets backed up every night to our home server.

Dusty is currently trying to solve the problem and replace it at a minimal cost. Not the best time of year for this to happen. Joshua's b-day is in 2 weeks, the girls b-day is 2 weeks after that and Christmas is 2 weeks after that.

hmmm... I think my wish list needs to be updated.....

The Election

Dusty and I decided to get up extra early on election day. Diane came over to watch the girls and we took Joshua with us. We figured it would be good for him to be there while history was made. This election was definitely historical. Either the first woman vice president or the first black president.

Our polls opened at 7am and we were in line at 6:40a. Luckily, the wait wasn't long at all. We were out of there by 7:30a and we were voters # 37 and 38 in our precinct. It was so exciting!

Here was the line in front of us




and here was the line behind us



I'm so glad the election is over and behind us. Although nothing that Dusty and I voted for, won. It's still all good. I just look forward to American recovering (hopefully) from all the crap going on.

Congratulations President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden

Halloween

A little late...but I didn't want to skip over Halloween. I love Halloween. It's so fun to get the kids dressed up and go trick or treating.

Joshua had a Halloween parade and party at his school. We took the girls there at 1pm to watch brother in the parade. All the kids looked great!! We even got a class picture done.







The girls did so well. They watched all the kids walking by. Most of the kids stopped to comment on the girls. It was cute.



After the parade, we headed out to eat. After going to Applebees, we headed back to Joshua's school to pick him up. We then went to visit my mom at work. She works at a nursing home, so we walked around and let the residents see the kids.

We then went to my dad's house. It's tradition, for us, to trick or treat there. Their neighborhood is really nice (the people and the houses) We didn't even get 1/4 of the way around the neighborhood before heading back home. Joshua got a ton of candy. It was fun this year because there were more people out and about trick or treating. I think it was because it was so warm (for us in Michigan anyway)

Here are some more pictures of the kids.

Clippin' coupons, paying off

I'm in week, like..um, not sure..maybe 8 or 9 and it's really paying off. My weekly grocery bill is less than $50.00 which is awesome! I'm still stock piling on things that are great deals (free or nearly free) Today Kmart started their double coupons up to $2.00 deal again. We took a trip up there and used all of our Pamper coupons that were over $1.00 (they expire friday anyway) and then I went through all of my coupons that expire soon that were over $1.00 and we were able to score free shampoo, nearly free toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper and some other items.

I love saving so much money. It's nice to look in the pantry and see it fully stocked. We are set on laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, pretty much any cleaning supply, toilet paper, paper towels, frozen veggies, chicken breasts, sausage, campbell soups, cereal, and a bunch of health items (tylenol, dimetapp..etc)

I've got a system down now that works really well for me. I purchase a few Detroit Free Press newspaper and at least one Flint Journal every Sunday. The DFP has a TON more coupons than the FJ. I would say, at least double the amount. It's a strange thing. Coupons are very regional. You definitely want to grab the highest circulated newspaper for your area. I also get a few extra inserts from family/friends that don't use the coupons in their papers.

Anyway, I always thought cutting coupons was a bigger pain than it was worth and always thought that "buying coupons" (newspapers) was kind of defeating the purpose of saving money but I easily make up the cost of the newspapers for the entire month, during one shopping trip. My average savings is over 50%. It feels nice to save so much money!

Happy Birthday Dusty!

Just a quick little note to my sweetheart.

Happy 29th birthday Dusty!! Hope you've had a good one and here's to your upcoming weekend of celebrations and presents =)



Love,

Cynthia, Joshua, Addison and Samantha

Playdate

We had a playdate this weekend with a friend that has a little boy who is 3 months younger than the girls. This was the first time the kids have gotten together and I think they played very well for not knowing each other and being the age they are. The little boy's name is Graham.

Here are a couple pictures of the girls. They are a bit blurry but cute!


Poor Graham would cry every time Addison got upset. This happened a couple times. It was kind of cute because he seemed to either be irritated or sympathetic. I'm going with sympathetic!


Samantha seems to be thinking.."oh geez mom, get me away from these crying babies"



Our upset little sweethearts.


I don't want it to appear that Graham cried the entire time, because that's not the case at all. Here he is playing with Samantha.



Sweet baby face


Little man wore himself out!!

Pumpkin Pictures