Oh, Me Lord!!!

definitely memorable: shotgunning beers before leaving! lol

best pic ever!!!! on back of elephant!!

we are now totes married

so maybe I was jersey turnpiking the soldier statue, lmao and doublefisting

great stance, but closed eyes wont make it happen lol

no wonder people were gawking at us! what a good lookin bunch!

We hollared "Sparta!" and got a pic with mr.sexy himself!

cute little furry talking should dragon friend

dirty talking small weinered mud wrestling men!

you get the point, laser light show in the woods= AMAZiNG!

Let me just start with WOW, what a fun-filled weekend!!! We had planned it all a couple weeks ago when we purchased our zoo membership, and recieved fourFREE tickets to the Rennisance Festival, and I am so pleased and shocked to say we went and LOVED every second of it! In fact, we were there roaming around in the dark,  and didn't leave until long after the second cannon that they shoot to make sure everyone knows its that time... So it was my hub and I, and his brother and my long time girl friend (who I have recently hooked up with my brother in law, making this a super wonderful time in our lives!!!) I am all too excited about that but much more to come seeing how neither of them read this, I can give you all the juicy details about this great romance I've been tending for the last few weekends. I don't even know where to start in describing some parts of the day. Did I mention that Lily's amazing grandpa kept her for the day, meaning yes we were downing footlong frozen drinks, a bottle of wine, and jello shots!!! Who knew they had those back in the day, but those gypsies can make anything happen ;o)!!!!!!! A gypsy was just the persona I took on for the day.. well a Jersey shore gypsy. I may have done the Jersey turnpike more than a few times around the fest...tehehe. And also on a Trojan soldier... :oD funniest part is that I have PICTURES of ALL OF IT!!! I really feel like these 138 pics deserve their very own photo album because they are truly priceless. I hope to make a little photosharing account so that just because I have left the world of facebook doesn't mean I can't share all of these fabulous pics!!! Bahaha okay so yeah.. I'll be nursing my sore hips and doing absolutely no more gypsy moves for a while! lol. well at least a few weeks... I think we are now planning another zoo trip for next weekend so we can have more tickets for the fest the following one to take the kids! I saw so many cute little costumes and wagons decorated as royal carriages..so clearly I have some prepping to do for that trip!! Over all a total total success and will absolutely be an annual trip that we do, possibly including some camping next year!!!!! Opa!!!!

lmao i so do not have the strength for archery. i look like a tipsyfairy  bahahah

as if that wasn't enough....
on saaaturday we took the bean BOWLING!!!!! omg. cutest thing ever. check out these cute little bowling shoes!

Pins down a good time!!!

We took the bean bowling today with her cousin and uncle, and let me say it was a big hit!! She loved waiting for her turn, and then getting all of the attention for her two shots at it! She could actually carry the ball herself, scared me to death, but it was much easier for her to just push it "granny style". We went to 300 lanes in Memorial, and it was nice, but we had to wait for an entire hour before the lanes were ready. Who knew they stop and do mid day cleaning on a busy saturday afternoon with a hall full of anxious bowlers, but yes we made it through, and had a great time!!! It was SO expensive though, 5 bowlers and shoes a hundred bucks! Needless to say this will be a special activity for us to do maybe two or three times a year!!!
p.s. toddler sized bowling shoes are just about the cutest thing ive ever ever seen! Pics to come soon!
p.p.s. TOMORROW i will be childless and going wild at the Renn fest and i can.not.wait! We are totally renting costumes and doing hair and accessories and makeup!! and funnest of all is its roman weekend and that means togas!!!!!!! yes, i am so so so excited!!!
for now i will go finish beauty and the beast with my little beau!!!! Happy snuggling guys!!

Halloween 2011 was a super success!

This year we went a little under the radar on Halloween, and although I would have like to have had more time to celebrate with friends, the fabulous family time is always welcome! We started out the night around our dinner table together (which we have been doing every single night lately, and I love it!) and then moved quickly into costumes. I had a mock trial the night before and dressed the bean in a tutu and tights and all and had her go out to eat in it. Needless to say, her grandparents thought it was just adorable, as did we. Until.... she pulled off the tutu standing the the middle of a crowded outdoor shopping/dining area, lol. That left her in a black turtleneck, black tights, and black shoes. She looked like mission impossible lily, too funny! That day we had gone to Zoo Boo with this set of grandparents and all of the kids there we in costume, but she had refused to wear the costume then. Now it was only lily in costume and she felt other peoples attention and she sported her petty skirt like nobody's business! So again on Halloween we put it all on but with no complaints! We hopped into the car, busted some lightsticks (fun!) and headed to our church for a trunk-or-treat. To me this idea was the best for her because it's a shorter distance on much more solid ground from trunk to trunk as opposed to house to house. Another bonus daddy caught on to quickly was that the church was handing out good brand name definitely good candy, so we loaded up! LOL! We are, of course, party animals and couldn't just stop there at merely 7:00, soo we headed over to her other grandpa's house to trick or treat some with her 10 year old aunt B! This was probably Lily's favorite part. She got to be pulled like a princess in her wagon, which she completely adores. I think I forgot to mention that we dressed her as a zebra this year! Well, I found a pettiskirt/top combo in a store and fell in love. At first, I was thinking to make her a cat when I got it. A good friend then suggested a zebra, and that just sealed the deal! I made some zebra ear bow clips, which ended up being too heavy and my little nitpicker plucked the right off her head after posing for 1.5 pictures lol! She never noticed her tail until when she was sitting with her aunt going through her loot and her 13 year old uncle came up and gave it a good yank! LOL  (memories like this are the reason I blog FYI) 

We tricked and treated until 9, and I knew it was time to go home. They'd knock and say their rhymes, and then my line was "I know it's late..." lol, then the lady at our last house replies "that's okay, that's what I'm here for" and I left the moment feeling renewed and thankful that she was in such high spirits, because honestly, at that point.. I was not! We got home, bathed the bean, and hit the hay! The orange pumpkin sat right where it was dropped, well tag-of-warred out of lily's little hands, and she made sure to go STRAIGHT to it the next morning. As ridiculous as it sounds I couldn't help but let her have that first Reece's her hands landed on and then moved on to eggs and fruit, the good stuff! Hope you all had such a memorable wonderful Hallow!een!!

Busiest times of my life!

Hey readers! So it's been like a month since I've blogged! I have just been SO SO busy lately! The month started with a family trip to Denver, CO.! It was soooo beautiful and very very cold there! Lily was acting very skiddish, and scared of many activities we were doing because every single thing around her was just completely different from where we're from! It had snowed the night before we landed, FIRST snow of the season, praise God for this because without the kids would have been greatly disappointed. They spent most of each day searching for new places to sled driving through tunnels, around and up mountains to find the fresh, deep snow. This ultimately meant "the Bean" would have to wear her snowsuit, and was not a fond thing for her. TOTALLY forgot to mention when I said "family trip" I mean my small three person family and my husband's father, stepmother and their two children, 11 & 14. The 11 year old is a girl, Becky, and she loves the bean almost as much as I do. When we take the bean to their house, Becky watches her the entire time, and even changes diapers! She's amazing with her and we are blessed that she helps us so much because otherwise grandpa would have a hard time helping and watching his granddaughter! She was able to stay in at the hotel while the hub and I enjoyed a nice few hours alone. Lets face it, vacay with baby is NOT a vacay for the rents! lol buuut we love showing our babybean the wonderful world God created for her to live in and love! It was amazing watching her gaze away at the mountains and scenery just in complete awe, and teaching her about the mountains, caves, and SNOW!!! We will definitely take a mommy and daddy trip back for some skiing for mommys birthday in January and I CAN.NOT.WAIT!!!


On to talking about the bean milestones for 26 mos.!
She is the most polite 2 year old I've ever seen, not even exaggerating. She says "Tankyou mama" for EVERYTHING! Juice, diaper changes, when I clean up her spills. Makes it all the more rewarding!!! I am also amazed that she brings her finished cups and plates to the sink when she's finished with them! She says all sorts of sentances. Can sing 50% of her A,B,C,'s clearly, and almost 90% on 1-10! She is just SO bright! Potty training has come full circle and is now at a standstill she is attatched to her "elmo" diapers. 
She loves her veggies just as much as ever, and is a pretty good eater! Her two's are going pretty smoothly so far, she has been very logical so to say and I've been able to negotiate with her very well lately! Fingers crossed maybe it was the 18 mos to 2 yrs old that was the hard part for her! 
She is a tomboy, and refuses to wear dresses most of the time, but mommy forces her into them from time to time...well negotiates ;o)
She loooves to sing and will break out with twinkle twinkle, old macdonald, the abcs, or some toddler opera that she makes up as she goes! 


We've spent the rest of the month at home catching up on cleaning and organizing and prepping for a garage sale we are planning on having in a couple weeks! My brother in law and myself cleaned my ENTIRE two car garage the other day and what a feeling of accomplishment I felt afterwards! I was going to take a picture of all of the wheelbarrow loads IIII single handedly pushed out and lined up down the curb, but driverbys stopped and have already taken over half of what was out there. Funny because in my eyes, it was COMPLETE and utter trash butttt whatevs!

Well I think that's plenty for now, it's halloween weekend and we will be very busy, I am so excited! Tomorrow afternoon I will be going to the children's museum as they will have haloween activities there, Friday I will be going to a carnival at the Elementary school that Lily's aunt attends. Saturday we areeee.... uh,   pumpkin patching and going to zoo boo with a ton of friends (SUPER duper excited for that one lol) annnnd sunday we will be at a halloween fest in the woodlands! Monday is super planned with a trunk or treat at church and then a friends' party! Gosh, I should just go to bed now just thinking about it lol! Later Tators!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN IF I DONT GET A CHANCE TO BLOG BEFORE!!! WIll POST PICS!! Be safe everyone!!!

Heaven is for Real!

    I will start by saying I am a devout Christian who was raised in the Methodist church. Growing up, I was extremely involved at church from Sunday School, to youth group, all the way to choir and childcare. I spent the majority of my weekends volunteering at different church affairs, with my best friend and the time who's father was the church maintenance man. I've been to huge conferences, brimming to the rim with youth that were on fire for God's love.   My faith has remained steady through my life, even after losing my mother far too soon  in a shockwave of events, I remained persistent, knowing that God wanted me to be stronger, and this was his plan.
   Now, with a two year old who doesn't like to be quiet, and absolutely refuses any type of childcare where I am not present, regularly attending church is just not an option for me right now. I suppose, although I hate to say it, I have put my faith, and God, on the backburner. It is so hard to admit, but true. The person who listens to my prayers, my struggles, and my frustrations 100% of the time, I have pushed to the back of the list. This changes here. It has to. He has blessed me with too much to not simply take the time to wake up early, struggle on a hard pew with a noncooperative toddler, and send him my praise.
   All of this is my response to reading a book written by a pastor, and a father to three well, four children. The story starts with the father reminiscing through a few health scares he had personally. Then it gears up to get emotional, and his four year old son's appendix bursts in his body, and doctors give the family the run around doing test after test to finally make this diagnosis, five days later. The boy is on the brink of death as he is wheeled in to emergency surgery where he "dies for 3 minutes and visits heaven". The book goes on to describe his trip in detail.
   I'll leave it at that for those of you who plan on reading it, which I strongly suggest you do. The little boy is eleven today, and going around teaching people God's word, which he was fortunate to hear from the lips of God himself. I am almost jealous. No, not jealous, because now I KNOW factually what Heaven is like, and that God will be waiting to take me home. Of course I have always believed that when we die we go to heaven, but somehow a then 4 year old's account of how it all works, makes it that much easier for me to grasp. I would love to meet the family, especially that little boy who said he "sat on the lap of Jesus".
   I look forward to teaching Lily more about the love that God has for her and that if she should need guidance in her faith, that she will be able to come to me and we can grow in God's love together.
To read a little more about the Burpo family go to www.heavenisforreal.net

also google : Akiane Kramarik who is a child prodigy, is to have believed to have also visited heaven and claims that she recieved the Holy Spirit and paints portraits of heavenly figures. She painted a portrait of Jesus  which Colton, the boy from the book, recognized as being what he remembered Jesus looking like as well. These stories are just so compelling and life changing that I had to share!! Hope you get a good ponder from it!

When you get the clutter out of your home, you will not have to struggle with the guilt of a messy house

     This thought is genious, and makes keeping the house straight practically effortless. I have struggled with piles of crap building up everywhere and a lack of organization, and have finally found a tool I can use to help me with that, and maybe you too!! She has made lists and lists of things that should be accomplished throughout the day, but in small spurts, and encourages breaks!!! WOW is this the way I need it to be lmao. Breaks are great, but the "breaks" are most useful to change the activity for the little hawk who's circling my clean floor (with freshly made chocolate covered strawberries in hand unfortanately!). LOL... It started with small steps each day adding something easy to do.. 1 is shine your sink.. really? thats it? DONE! and ill say, my kitchen looks twice as clean all the time by simply drying my sink after use. I'm not losing my mind I know I can not prevent messes. It's gunna happen, I'm gunna clean it, and that's how it's gunna be...thank God for FLYlady, at least I can now look at this as effortless(endless cleaning)! Go check her site out, www.Flylady.net!
   I made fudge last evening, the chocoholic of the group LOVED this activity and has been downing it be the spoonful!! Needless to say this is a once a year activity, and all I can do is hope she doesn't get chocolate fever...or a tummy ache from the stuff! I added too much marshmallow cream and it is more like icecream fudge than, hard, typical fudge...oops, still SUPER yummy and easy for strawberry dipping!!
    I've had to back out of playdates lately and I miss everyone of Lilys usual playgroupers and moms!!!!! Every single place that we go in the car she repeats her little friends names over and over hoping that will convince me to take her to them, its heartbreaking! Things just keep coming up and we havent made it to any in the last few days :o( I did however get Lily all up to date with the doc until next fall!!! We were in the room and Lily heard children being picked off one by one, and suddenly a new kid would start shrieking for dear life every minute or so. It was horrible. She had NO idea what was coming but could feel that it was going to be bad. She is getting to be too smart for me! She was also looking throughout the office for her friend that she looks for while we're in the car, it is true separation anxiety! I think she thought maybe the friend would come around the corner to save her lmao! So here's the stats for 2 yrs old:: 27lbs-(60th%)::34.5in. tall (75th%)To me doctors visits are a big deal.. I feel like the doctor is the only true "judge" of how I'm doing as a parent..and visits to him are like end of year finals... you know you're going to pass, you just don't know if you're going to get a curveball or exactly how well you'll do, just nervous! Luckily this "final" is a clear and obvious pass or fail... well to fail would be a tragic horrible fail... and yes well, clearly we passed with flying colors! lol. i just hate doctors. the end.
   I made a meatloaf today that was mushy like sloppy joes...that right there is a classic example of a tragic horrible fail...lol my husband ate a lone plate of instant mashed potatoes for dinner and skipped the slop!
Night girls!

stop whining and count your blessings

    Today there was a HUGE fire 10 miles from my house, and 2 from a dear friend's. I have to be honest, it lit the fear of god in me. To see a massive black cloud, bellowing from the groud, imagining the houses being devastated at it's base. Fortunately, the fire was a "wildfire" within a large park, in the city limits. These wildfires have been starting all around in the neighboring counties, and yes I've considered all of this before, but it becomes extremely real when it is all happening right in front of your eyes. So, tomorrow I will be going to the dollar store and buying hygiene items, and taking them to my local dropspot... and you should maybe consider taking a load yourself :o) 
    Also today, we hosted a playdate at our house! We did sliced fruit stamps, and it was a big hit with Lily! She has now been begging for apples all night. Daddy didnt understand why when she requested her apple, her true intention, and was dearly confused as to why she continued grunting after given the apple. Too funny to watch. I love them so much and am very lucky that I get to stay home every day and do these activities with her. 
    These are the blessings I speak of. My house has not been threatened, I live pretty comfortably (except the days that I've maxed out my credit card and carry quarters around and my friends sport my mcdonalds habbit lol thanks friends) my family is healthy and SO happy, and we have amazing friends and family who love and support us. So EVEN on a day when I've been on two playdates, cleaned house, and then make dinner while I shake a 2 year old off my leg, I really have NO reason to so frustrated with my husband.  There is no real situation besides my aching feet, and I need to appreciate all that he is doing behind the scenes to make it all possible. I watched my mom work SO hard her whole life, and I almost feel guilty for not having to work the long hours and tend to a child. She worked two jobs up to the day she had her heat attack. I was taught better. I will strive for better, and to be more like her. No more whining and complaining about getting on my hands and knees to scrub the spots out of the carpet, because that is MY job. It's not glamorous, but it is important, and it's mine!
    On a lighter note, Lily is saying new words EVERYDAY!!!! I need some new vocabulary building exercised for my lovechild if anyone has any good ones! We've been doing flashcards and she can now say all 90 plus other randoms! This is a huge improvement over just a month ago! The cutest of her new words were "pretty" which is a word every girl needs... and "football" which she learned from her uncle. Her uncle comes over every weekend and asks her daddy to "play football" and now every weekend she gets a new lesson in football from uncle dan. It is so cute to watch, and she LOVES every second of it! My girl is one tough cookie, just like her momma!