crazy week!

Wow! Since Mark and I went to St. Louis on Monday/Tuesday my whole week was thrown off. I kept thinking it was Monday on Wednesday, etc. We were busy - Lucas had his buddy Jackson over to play after gymnastics on Wednesday. I took a couple of pics that I will have to post later. I got to spend a couple of hours with my girlfriends on Thursday night for a thirty-one party. Friday was fun-filled with a trip to visit another preschool, playdate with Audrey, and then to a birthday party. Lucas had so much fun at the birthday party playing in the jump house and eating cake!! Saturday morning I attended the most fun tea party with a great group of young girls at our church. I got to visit with the young lady I will be mentoring for the rest of the school year. She is so cute and so much fun!! All of the mentors were given two rolls of toilet paper to use to "dress up" the young ladies to later model during their fashion show. It was so much fun!! I can't wait to spend more time with girls on Wednesday nights at church. I will conclude this post with the craziness of my morning. Simply getting the kids ready for church on Sunday mornings by myself (mark worked all night and wasn't home yet) is quite a task. We were actually on time (somewhat)for the 8:30 service! Both kids went to their rooms without any fussing or tears (I should note that Lucas has not done this in a long time - his tears come when we pick him up, hmmm...). Scooped up the kids to head to the mostaccioli dinner. thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa Milnes as well as Maryjane Moorman to help me with the kiddos so I could eat. Now I'm off to do some laundry and cleaning before we're off to meet our C2 group!! I can't wait - this mornings message was really good. Should be a great discussion tonight.

St. Louis trip with my man

Mark and I had such a great time on our trip to St. Louis. We got to do a little (a lot) of shopping and eat some good food! It was awesome to spend some quality time with my husband. We missed the kiddos, but they had so much fun with grandma and grandpa milnes.

Birthday party fun and cute new shirt!

My friend, Megan, in Texas made the most adorable shirts for my kids! Here is Lucas wearing his before church!! I will have pics of Kailyn later wearing hers (she is wearing one in the group shot, just hard to see). Thank you Megan!!!
We had a great time spending the afternoon with the Milnes family. Here a a couple of pictures of all the Milnes grandchildren and one with Grandma Lingle.

Visit with the girls (and Ethan)

Spent the afternoon with some great friends today. It was nice to play with the kiddos and catch up a bit. Thanks monica and megan for making the trip over to springfield with cali and cami.

Vegan Pizza - YUM

Thank you Millers for the wonderful meal we had last Thursday night. It was so nice to mix things up a bit and do the dinner swap. We LOVED the pizza, salad, and sorbet!!

Inspiration for Kailyn's 1st Bday Party

Kailyn is gaga over MONKEYS!! We of course have to have a monkey birthday party. This monkey is actually luke's, but she stands at his bed and cries for it. Luke is nice enough to let her snuggle with it sometimes. We have tried to buy Kailyn other stuffed animals, but nothing compares to this monkey.

My Little Shadow

It doesn't matter if I am cooking, cleaning, or yes even going to the bathroom, my little shadow is following me. Kailyn is going through that phase where she thinks she needs to be on my hip at all times. I'm sure Lucas was the same way at this age, but I don't remember him being quite this bad. When I am trying to get dinner ready she is literally attached to my leg and i just drag her around. We should probably try to capture this on video (I hope Lucas is good with a video camera).

Today was a good day - we had gymnastics which went really well and good play time. One of the best parts was that I don't have to fix dinner tonight!! I was tired of the old routine and asked some of our good friens to do a dinner swap. I made dinner for them last night and they are bringing ours tonight. It gives us each a night off which is always nice!! I hope we can do it again sometime - so fun!

Preschool

Mark and I visited a preschool today for Lucas. Is it really almost time for my baby to go to school? There will definitely be tears on that day! Lucas seemed to really like it and talked about the school on the way home. We were very pleased with the teachers and facilities.

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar!

Sugar is in EVERYTHING we eat!! I've recently started to pay more attention to labels and looking at all of the ingredients. This winter I have made a lot of soups and the canned foods are terrible about adding sugar or cane juice (same thing). I've started to buy more organic (when on sale) which usually doesn't have added sugar, but not always. You still need to read all of the ingredients!! Believe me, I can tell no diffence between a can of black beans with sugar and one without. Why do they add it!!

A Tad Psychotic

I have this weird obsession with having our kitchen countertops clear at all times. It drives me CRAZY to have papers, mail, etc. piling up in a place where i need to prepare food for our family. Mark says, "I think organization is the key here" and I say, "I think a bigger kitchen with more counter space is the solution!". Ladies are you with me on this one! I realize that we will be in the house for a few more years and I am content with that, but I will not give up my crazy obsession about the countertops. soo.. Mark just gets to hear about it from time to time (daily).

Mommy in the Potty!

ok, so lucas made up a new song and was singing it at the dinner table. apparently i had excused myself to use the restroom and lucas starting singing (somewhat like a rap) "mommy in the potty, mommy in the potty, what dat mommy doin in the potty!!" ah, gotta love two year olds. he was later again singing his new song while playing with his cars.

Fish Face

Kailyn is very into making funny faces right now. The fish face is one of her favorites as well as the "O" face.

New Hairstyles

It is always interested around the Milnes' house, but this am my children decided to...soak their heads with kailyn's bottle. lucas was shaking the bottle around so formula would fly out and splatter all of their heads - nice! I seriously can't turn my head for a second or else these two are getting into something TOGETHER!! I am so outnumbered until mark gets home. i know i should have taken pictures of their formula soaked heads (and later crusty - yes, very gross), but lucas and i were off to gymnastics. i'm sure you are excited for what tomorrow holds fo these two turkeys.

Avatar

Wow! mark and i actually got to go see a movie last night - avatar! it was so nice to get out with my honey and see such a great movie. it was unbelievable!! i could see it again! i hope to schedule more date nights for the two of us, but it is very difficult with the little ones. now we are planning an overnight away in st. louis - yay!! grandma and papa have graciously offered to keep the kids so mark and i can go out to eat and do some shopping. we are very excited about our quick getaway. who wouldn't love a little pf chang, galleria, st. louis mills mall, etc??

our little wrestler

when i hear kailyn's cries from the other room i will now have to wonder, was this lucas being malicious?? or simply defending himself?? here are some pictures of her favorite thing to do - wrestle with her big brother. she will just giggle hysterically!!! she will get thrown down, kicked in the head, and will keep going in for more.

turkey time

sooo...my first turkey didn't turn out as great as i had hoped. it was a little dry. i think it had been in my freezer a little too long (we won't mention how long). it made me a little nervous so we ended up just throwing it out. here is a picture of my work!! i will definitely try it again soon using a much more fresh turkey!!

getting organized

today is all about getting organized - cleaning out storage units in the basement and rearranging. i've been getting a lot done with mark working evening shift. the kids are getting lots of quality daddy time which they love!!! i'll post pics later.

P90X

As many of you know already Mark and I have taken on the challenge of P90X once already. We had some pretty amazing results! We have just started round two (I know crazy), but we need to stay fit to keep up with our little ones.

Day One

Here we go! I have been following a couple of blogs over the past year and have decided to start my own. Who wouldn't want to read all about the Milnes family and look at pictures of my kids?