Smithereens!

This is one of Sugie's favorite words! It's so funny to hear her use it in everyday conversation. She knows the definition and always uses it correctly when speaking. She's such a smart little cookie!

Memorial Day

Buddy grabbed this hat when we were walking out the door & insisted on wearing it!!


We had a stormy start to our Memorial Day, so we cleaned up the play room! What fun! Then, Mims took Sugie to a birthday party for most of the afternoon. (That is her 6th or 7th party in 8 weeks!) The hubby went to the funeral home and Buddy took an almost 3 hour nap. So, I actually had a couple hours of ALONE time!!! I got several items crossed off of my to-do list and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Later in the afternoon, we all went to the cemetery to pay our respects to my hubby’s dad. The kids each picked a flower and put it on his grave. It didn’t matter that they were dandelions, which Sugie thinks are beautiful flowers. It was the sweet gesture that counts!

Buddy

It's been the Sugie-show for the last month, so here's some footage of our chubby Buddy saying some family member's names.  He's such a chatter box these days!  What a handsome little guy!

New Swingset

New Playset!!
Old play stuff

I know that I've mentioned this before, but we've been soooo busy lately!! That's why I haven't posted in awhile! Besides all of the extra dance rehearsals, preschool graduation, Mother's Day, and dance recital, the hubby and I have stayed extra busy constructing a gigantic new playset for the kids. We sold off all of their old play equipment (climbing tower w/ playhouse, swingset, and sand/water table) and expanded their existing playground area. Who knew that kids play equipment would sell like hotcakes?!? My phone rang off the hook with interested buyers!

With all of that out of the way, we had plenty of room to build the new clubhouse. The instruction manual said that it would take 2 moderately skilled workers 24 hours to get this constructed. Nice! My job was to get all of the wood pieces and hardware ready while the hubby did the actual assembly. We worked really well together and I actually had a good time doing this project. We spent every extra weekend minute outside and stayed out until 8:30 each night working on this. We didn't keep track of the amount of time we worked on this, but I'd guess it was close to 28 hours.

It was totally worth the effort! The kids LOVE it! Buddy isn't afraid to climbs the ladders or go down the super fast slide. Madison thinks of it as her stage and performs song and dance routines for us.

Our Yankee Doodle Dandy

There is only one word that can describe my little angel's dance recital - precious!!  Sugie nailed her routine and looked adorable doing it!  She loves dancing on the "big stage", having curly hair and wearing makeup.  By the way, the girl has some killer eyelashes that look miles long with mascara!  Thank you to everyone who came to the recital to support our Sugie and especially to my sweet niece for sitting through the 3 1/2 hour show with me!!!  Sugie is on the far right - she's the tiniest!  We're so proud of her! Enjoy!!!

Our Graduate

It’s hard to believe that my little princess is old enough to graduate from preschool! The kids looked so precious last night at the ceremony and did a terrific job on their songs!!! Sugie had me, her daddy, Buddy, two aunts, an Auntie, Grandma, and Mimi there to cheer her on! Before the ceremony, I told Auntie that I wasn’t going to cry! But, I did. I’ll admit it. I was just so proud of her!! The school threw a great party for kids after the ceremony. Sugie was off socializing during most of the party!! Probably showing off her new sandals!! Buddy’s goal for the evening was to score a balloon – which he did, thanks to Auntie!!! Congratulations Sugie! We’re so proud of you!

(Sugie is the shortest one in the middle of the front row!)

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother’s Day didn’t start off very well. I woke up at 3 am with an allergy attack. (My skin gets really itchy!) Then, I awoke at 4:30 am to what I thought was the house being blown down. It was just a lot of wind and rain. At 5:30, Buddy decided to wake up - I’m guessing to wish me Happy Mother’s Day! Of course, he (and I) didn’t go back to sleep. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time we went out to lunch with our mothers and grandma. The kids were super good at lunch despite the 1 hour wait to get our food. We were all in shock as we watched Buddy devour a huge helping of spaghetti!! The weather was cold, very windy, and rainy, so we were stuck indoors all day. I got plenty of hugs and cuddles throughout the day and the family surprised me with some great gifts!

Bad Things Update

I’ve got one more thing to add to the list – our DVR!! Last week, I was looking forward to watching some saved programs, but everything had been erased! I was so bummed! A technician came out on Saturday to look at it. His first question was, “Have you had any power issues?” Aaauugghh!!! That bad power line is going to haunt me forever! At least this issue didn’t cost me anything!

Bad Things Come in Threes, Right?

If that is the case, hopefully we’re done for awhile!! Back in March, we started experiencing power issues. We’d come home and notice the clocks blinking. This happened several times. One night while making dinner, the power went out – but not completely. Thankfully, the stove and microwave still worked, but the TVs and most of the lights were out. It turned out that we had a bad power line leading to the house. So, three enormous trucks & several men in lighted hardhats came to our house at 10:30 pm to hook us up to a generator. They came back a few days later to fix the line. No harm, no foul – or so we thought!

A few weeks later, the hubby noticed that the refrigerator wasn’t cooling properly. We adjusted every switch and knob, but nothing seemed to work. Apparently, the defroster in the freezer had gone out. While we didn’t have to buy a new refrigerator, we paid nicely for a tiny part to get everything working again. The guy said that the power surges could have had something to do with this.

A few days later, we had our annual air conditioner check. When the guy turned it on, it sounded like it was working. But, of course, there was a problem – no cool air! Nice! We got to purchase a new air compressor for the unit. Yet another pricey problem most likely caused by the power surges.

The third (or is the fourth) problem was not caused by the power surges, but it may as well have been. I took my car in for an oil change and they found a leak in the air conditioning hose. I don’t want to drive my kids around in 100 degree weather this summer with no air, so we got to purchase a pricey new hose for my car. Of course, hoses are not covered under the extended warranty.

What’s next? Damage from the earthquake? At least I have the Economic Stimulus payment to look forward to!

Sugie-isms

Sugie had some good Sugie-isms this morning on the way to school. She was listening to her iPod and singing along. All I heard was:

“Rise & Shine & kick off the glory, glory!” (It’s supposed to be “give God the glory, glory”!) She was even kicking her leg out while she was singing!

Then, she told me she was listening to the words about the flag. I didn't understand what song/verse she was trying to tell me about, so she tried to explain it better. "You know, mom, the Pleasure Legions." Ah, the Pledge of Allegiance. Sugie is too darn cute!!

Another busy weekend!!

Wow, it's been soooo busy lately! On Saturday, we had Sugie's T-ball game in the morning. She hit one out into the grass! All of the moms were cheering, "Girl Power!" Then, mom and my sweet niece came over for our third scrapbooking event. Her book looks great and it's been fun spending time with her. She's a really great kid/young adult/teenager despite all of the yuck in her life. After that, we took Sugie to another birthday party (I knew that more invites were coming!) at Acros. Buddy and I were going to drop off Sugie and the hubby, but little Buddy wasn't going to have that! He LOVED running (and falling) down the trampoline and jumping into the foam pit. He wasn't scared at all to jump right in! It was so precious to watch. Then, we got Buddy's fat little piggies measured. He now wears the same size shoe as his sister. That must be why he loves putting on her shoes - they actually fit! The hubby and I ended the night with a Wii tournament in Mario Kart. I lost, as usual, but had fun spending one on one time with the hubby.

Sunday was just as crazy as the day before! After church, we ate lunch at mom's house with the kids. I loved the conversation, but mostly enjoyed our creative prayer!! We raced home from mom's so that the hubby could get outside to mow the grass and expand our existing playground. (That's a different story!) Two of my girlfriends came over with their 3 kids. The kids played rather well together while we caught up and passed around the baby, who is such a sweet little angel!! The hubby left to spend some time with the guys later that afternoon. We were both exhausted by Sunday evening. I was actually anxious to go back to work to get some rest!!!

This week has started off hectic, too. Last night, I raced Sugie to the dance studio for pictures. Tonight, the hubby and Sugie were babysitting for a friend who had surgery. Tomorrow brings an extra long dance rehearsal. Augh!

Spring has arrived!

I love spring! The weather has been very nice and the flowers and trees are so colorful!! All of our flower buds were killed last year by frost, so it’s nice seeing all of our shrubs in full glorious bloom!! The kids really enjoy being outdoors. I love taking nightly strolls around the neighborhood with the family. Buddy fell asleep on the last walk despite Sugie complaining about almost everything!