Sorry

Sorry it has been so long. We have had a very busy time the last couple of weeks. Tyler is feeling better now. He still has a little cough and a runny nose which has been passed to Taylor. We had a wonderful Easter weekend.
On Saturday we went to Wayne and Debbie's for a Easter/Birthday get together. The kids were very excited to see Grandpa's new boat. They had an Easter Egg hunt also. Buster got to come along for this trip and he actually didn't do to bad. He enjoyed sitting in the way back with the girls. On Sunday we went to my mom and dad's for Easter. We had a huge meal and then an Easter Egg hunt. The kids had a great time with all of their cousins. It was great to see all of the family.
The next week was extremely busy. On Monday we had a staff meeting and then had to go get Tay from her dad's. We didn't get home until 8:30. (The kids didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday so their stepmom watched Taylor on Monday and Tuesday.) On Tuesday the kids had dentist appointments in the morning. I took them their and then Tay went back to her dad's and Tyler and I went to work. After work I babysat so they met me at the daycare and then we went to go pick Tay back up. We then babysat until 8:30ish and came home. At this point I don't remember what we did on Wednesday or Thursday night. Friday the kids went to their dad's and they went camping for the weekend. On Saturday, Jason and I went to a Conference all day. I am really glad I am no longer in school. Narcolepsy set in and I had a really hard time staying awake. On Sunday we did NOTHING!!! I did go and get the kids from their dad's that evening. Mom and Lexi both celebrated their birthday's on Sunday and it was Travis and Heather's first anniversary.
The next week started off just as busy. On Monday night I got a phone call that my mom was going into surgery for her Gall Bladder. This was a little bit of a shock for me. I feed the kids and ate supper with them and Jason and then I headed to Pontiac. Mom's surgery went well and we got to see her just before 11pm. I visited with her for a few minutes and then headed back home. I got back home a little after 12:30am and it took about 45 minutes for me to fall asleep. Some time between 3:30 and 4:00 Tyler started waking up for unknown reasons. He got up about 6 times. At 5:15 my alarm started going off. I was not ready for this. Tuesday was a little rough at work. Tuesday night we went to bed early and slept all night. Wednesday night is when I started writing this. I got a phone call from a dear friend and we were catching up on our busy lives and sick children. Then Jason beeped in. He had a double header softball game that night. He called to let me know he was going to the E.R. He thought that he might have broken his hand. He had a ball hit at him and when he went to catch it, it hit his glove in a bad spot. He didn't go to the E.R. though because there were people waiting and he didn't want to have to wait all night. So on Thursday I got him to go to Convenient Care. At first they told him it wasn't broken and to just wrap it and take Ibuprofen. Then he got a call a couple hours later saying they found a fracture. He had to go back and get a splint put on. He has an appointment on Monday with orthopedics. Softball is on hold right now. Tonight we were trying to get a head start on packing things up. Okay Jason was. We are getting things ready for garage sales and hopefully moving soon. I am so tired tonight that I can't get motivated to do all of this tonight. Tomorrow we are going to take Buster to the big dog park and then come back to pack up boxes. Yeah. I hope everyone is doing well. I will try to get more pictures on here this weekend. The weather is going to be absolutely wonderful this weekend so I hope everyone enjoys. Talk to you later.

Here are the Pictures

The kids showing off their new cowboy boots from Nana Donna. Unfortantely we are at the doctor's office. Tyler turned 5 and sick all in one day. Just a Virus though. Tyler is the sick one but Taylor need a place to play her DS
Tyler's Birthday Cupcakes

That's right. Firemen and Lizards.

Tyler picked them out.

No one saw this=)

Tyler's Birthday Cake
Once again, We have fireman and lizards. He went a little crazy with the red sprinkles, it was the fire.

Tyler is now 5

Well today my baby turned 5. He had a party last week at CAOS and today he had one at daycare. This past weekend he had one at his dad's house and he got a new pair of John Deere cowboy boots and a black cowboy hat from his Nana Donna in Texas. He was so excited. I just can't believe how fast the past 5 years have gone by. I am going to get the pictures on here of his parties. Just so everyone knows he picked out the cake, frosting, and decorations. The cake and cupcakes are definitely interesting but he loved them. The little red guys are firemen.
Jason and I went to St.Louis this past weekend. We left on Sunday and came back on Tuesday. We went to see the Cardinals Opening Day Game. We had a blast but it was pretty cold. The kids stayed with a Co-worker and his fiance that used to work at the daycare. The kids had a blast also. They went to a movie, musuem, dog class, and still had time for school. They even got to paint a canvas at their house. Our co-worker is quite an artist and he has a painting room. He picked up a canvas for both of the kids to pain. They loved it and by the sounds of it they wore a lot of the paint also. I will take some pictures of their paintings and but them on here.
This weekend we are very busy. We are going to Tuscola on Saturday to celebrate the kids birthdays and Easter. One Sunday we are going to Pontiac to celebrate Easter. I hope that everyone has a great Easter. I can't find my USB cord right now so that I can download pictures so hopefully tomorrow night I can get them downloaded and put on here. Sorry.

More Pictures

All the kids on the big yellow slide. Tyler by the fire place, he loved turning it on and off
Just Relaxing

All the kids trying to get Grandpa up to go swimming

Still trying.

Grandpa's Reading material. Grandma forgot to bring him a book

High hopes that Grandpa was coming swimming.

Unfortunately, he didn't come.

Poor Maddie. Can't dress herself. Her mean mommy

got her some cubbie pants and made her a shirt that

said Cardinals Stink on the front and Go Cubs on the back.

For the first time I heard Maddie scream. She was very unhappy

about this outfit. She really liked my Cardinal outfits.

You should have seen her smile and laugh.

Maddie supervizing at the waterpark

The girls being funny!!

The nice surprise that we woke up to on Sunday

Aren't they cute!!!

Taylor and her new goggles

Angel and her new goggles

The girls on the big yellow slide

A Great Weekend

Well we had another great weekend. This weekend we went to Grand Bear Lodge for the grand kids Christmas gift from my mom and dad. On Friday, we left right after work and went to Monticello to get Angel and then headed on our way. The kids did great in the van. They each had their own game system and headphones. I have found that headphones are my new best friend. I didn't hear any complaining about someone's game being to loud or that they couldn't hear their own. Tyler even watched a movie with Headphones. Did I mention that I love the headphones. It only took us about 2 hours to get there. We were the first ones there, other than mom and Nicole who went early to get everything set up. Everyone else came shortly after. Once everyone got there we had to figure out sleeping arrangements. Travis and Heather got the room upstairs with Lexi and Keagan and of course Maddie. Mom and Dad had the room with two beds and dad slept with Patrick and mom got a bed all to herself. Taylor, Angel, Tyler, Nicole, Trevor, and I got the room with the bunkbeds. Taylor and Angel got the top bunks. Tyler and I shared a full size bed and Trevor and Nicole got the other full size bed. Friday night I could of sworn I was sharing a room with 5 children. Trevor and Nicole were having a lot of fun with the kids.

On Friday night, after supper, mom and I took the kids to the waterpark. The resort had a shuttle that would pick us up at our cabin and take us to where we wanted to go. The kids really liked the shuttle and enjoyed the waterpark. Lexi wasn't feeling well, so her and Maddie stayed back to keep an eye on the other adults. They did a really great job. Saturday morning came very early. The kids all got up early and were ready to go back to the waterpark. The problem was it didn't open until 10am. Tyler started to try to get up at 6:15 and by 6:45 I had lost the battle of him going back to sleep. Instead of going to the waterpark though we went to the amusement park and then the arcade. They all had a great time. We then came back for lunch and then the kids were ready to go to the waterpark. We tried to get dad to go but he had different plans. The kids all tried to jump on him. It didn't work. After a few hours there we got the kids to go back to the cabin and have supper. And then guess were the kids wanted to go again. Yes the waterpark. Travis, Heather, and I took the kids back to the waterpark hoping to wear them out. Maddie even came to supervise. When we got back it was showers and snacks. I also had one of the biggest shocks of my life. Taylor asked if she could go to bed because she was so tired. Of course the answer was YES!! It didn't take long for any of them to fall asleep. On Sunday morning we were in for another surprise. SNOW!!! And lots of it. We all ended up leaving early because of the snow. Dad and the boys were worried that they needed to plow when they got home, which they were right, and since I had a longer drive and couldn't follow them I decided we should head back too. The roads weren't the best up north but the further south we got it was better. By the time we got to Champaign county there was no snow on the ground.

The kids all had a great time.

THANK YOU GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!! WE ALL HAD A GREAT TIME!!!!

Tyler and his new goggles

Maddie enjoying the pool.

This slide was a favorite for my kids.

Taylor enjoying Nana's Famous Sugar Cookies. Maddie enjoying the water. Isn't she cute?

I am going to post more pictures of our weekend but it is going to have to wait until tomorrow night. I need to go to bed now. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I will be back tomorrow to put more pictures on. Good Night.

A Very Busy Weekend

Well, we had a very busy weekend. On Friday, Jason and I went to a co-worker and his fiance's house. We took Buster with us for his Buster play date. The dogs had a great time together. Unfortunately we couldn't get them both to lay down at the same time unless they were still trying to chew on each other. Both the dogs spent Saturday resting up. The humans had a great time also. We watched Basketball and played cards.

We finally got both of them to sit still long enough to get a picture.










On Saturday, Jason and I went to the class 3A Basketball Championship game in Peoria. Centennial was playing. A friend of ours brother plays for the team and Jason graduated from there. Centennial won the game. It was a very close and good game.


On Sunday, the kids and I met mom and Patrick and we went to see High School Musical on Ice. Here are the kids with mom in front of the Assembly Hall. The kids had a great time.
Thank You Nana!!!!









The kids enjoying there treats from Nana during the show.

Here they are again. I think the sugar might have kicked in a little here.













The after affects of their drinks from the show.



















Our own little gangster. Of course Taylor was in the background working off more of the sugar.
















After the show, Nana and Patrick went back home and we went to Tuscola to Grandma and Grandpa McAfee's to see their new little niece. The kids all posed for pictures.

















Angel was the calmest child around. She didn't drink very much of her drink during the show so that probably helped. She is usually the calm child though. She had a great time at the show.

Tyler showing another one of his tricks and Taylor making sure he is doing it right.

Tyler hanging from the tree.

We hope everyone has a great week. Next weekend is going to be another busy one. We are going with my family to Grand Bear Lodge. It should be a lot of fun. The kids are all really excited.

Hello Again

Okay, I am having a really good time taking pictures and downloading them to put on the blog. It is so easy. So today I had my camera at work and got to see Taylor in P.E. This is the great thing about her school being right across the alley from work. In these pictures she is trying to jump rope. She never fell, but in the pictures it looks like she is eating the fence.

These are pictures of me with the crazy girls that I work with. We were enjoying the beautiful weather with the babies outside and decided to pose with our Paris Hilton sunglasses on.

I hope everyone is having a great week.