Happy 3rd Birthday Kiersten Gabriella!!!

Can't post pictures tonight for some reason........

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE PRINCESS (aka THE DIVA)

We have a load of activities this weekend, will upload new pictures when I can!

America's Next Top Model

I was taking pictures of stuff to sell on craigslist and Kiersten decided she wanted to pose for the camera. I, in no way, asked her to pose the way she did (except for the last picture) or have ever asked her to pose this way. I think I may have watched America's Next Top Model one too many times and she caught on~I can only watch so much Noggin~I guess Noggin is safer than cable TV. These are from yesterday, enjoy!

Peter's 6th Birthday Party

We had a bowling party for Peter last Saturday. He had 12 classmates come (we did invite the whol class of 20) and it was a good equal amount of girls and boys. Everyone had a ton of fun bowling, eating pizza and cake!
The Birthday Boy
A bunch of friends!
Kiersten 'replaced' an unexpected absence, one of the kids didn't make it. Kiersten had a great time playing with Daddy!
Dancing the afternoon away
Its a feeding frenzy! All the kids were great eaters!
Go Diego Go Cake! It was yummy and I love, love the whipped frosting (I always use whip over buttercream)
Making a Wish & Opening tons of presents!
ove right eye (see above). As we were entering the bowling alley, a couple was coming out and the door hit him in the face. It left him a pretty bruised eye.

Thanks to all of the family members who sent gifts, called, emailed Peter and wished him a Happy Birthday. Thanks to my family who came down and to all his friends and their parents! Peter had a great first big birthday party!

Some new pics

This was crazy hair day (he just had a haircut 2 weeks before & it was all I could do without spraypainting it weird colors) for Spirit Week at school about 3 weeks ago.
"Look at me!"

Face painting at our school carnival ~ my first one in years since I was in Elem.

Happy 6th Birthday Peter!!!!

New Pics!

We tried a new place called Portrait Innovations. For the price, it is a great value. For the record, Kiersten REFUSED to smile and made every effort to keep a frown on her face. These were the 2 least 'mad' faces of her. Peter, on the hand, did an awesome job and had a lot of great pictures, but I was there to buy a pose of them together! I'm going to try again next month for Kiersten's 3rd birthday.

Lots of exciting things going on (more details later) and keeping busy. The older the kids get, the more things to do between school, homework and extracurricular activities. Blogging is becoming more difficult! Plus I have been working a few days a month since Nov. and looking to work more and more.

Happy Spring & Easter!

It's been a whirlwind of crazy weather here. We're all doing well and keeping warm. Peter David had another AWESOME report card so he got rewarded for that, another Leapster game to add to his collection. We're very proud of him, even though he is in kindergarten, I have been working on 1st grade work with him b/c he has already achieved most of what he's expected to know by the end of the year already. Kiersten is growing up too quickly. She's almost 3 (Peter is almost 6-where has the time gone?), has a lot of personality. She is defintely a little 'diva' but also our sweet princess. I always realize how quickly they grow up when you are having full one on one conversations with them. She has continued to be 100% potty trained as well (how lucky we are that she potty trained at 29mths old!). Pete is still working through his skin issues poor guy. All this stress from school (he's finally almost done with his MBA after nearly 4 long years) and work has kept him with a constant cold/cough. He's going to see a dermatologist to see if they can help any. I'm doing okay... my endocrinologist wants to me to wait another 4 mths to see get more lab work done...by the time I see him again, it'll be nearly 2 years since I have been 'actively' dealing with this whole thyroid issue. I'm just truly tired of having to see doctors, wait for results, wait and wait and wait and see the doctor again just to be told to have to wait some more. It's very tiring.

Anyway, Peter David is off of school this whole week for mid winter break. Today is another bitter cold single digit day and we're holed up inside. I only venture outside to take Rocky out to use the bathroom. Pete's 31st b-day is tomorrow! We had his birthday lunch at one his favorite Mexican restaurants yesterday. I bought him a few items he wanted already, but I do have a small surprise gift for him. Other than that, my mom is in Laos enjoying herself. Its been hard to get a hold of her, but we've all spoken to her and she's doing well. The trip took a long time, nearly 2-3 days of travel due to time change, layovers and a long bus ride that kept breaking down. We're all going up to visit her when she gets back in town and it'll be fun to see the pictures and hear all of her stories. I still can't believe its been over 30yrs since she left Laos and that she wasn't able to see her family until now!

What else could happen??!!

After the sump pump mess, we had to get our furnaced 'fixed.' There has been some issue as to whether it was the thermostat or the furnance since the end of Oct. Long story short, we have not had consistent heat in this house since the end of Oct. The last straw was it took me 8hrs to get the heat back on at 2:30am and the house was freezing since the temps has been dropping. We had it fixed (luckily easy fix) & now we've been up & running for almost 2 weeks now with consistent heat.

Pete gave me a sore throat so I ended up at my doctors office & was diagnosed with strep throat about 2 weeks ago. Then I had to go see my endocrinologists only to find out I gained 4 more pounds since September. My test results come in tomorrow or beginning of next week. After I was diagnosed with strep throat 2 weeks ago, Pete broke out in his awful hideous rash that basically covers his whole body. He went his doctor who brushed him off with a 'its a viral thing, it'll go away.' It didn't go away and it got WORSE, but most rashes tend to get worse nefore it gets better! Imagine having to work and interview people with red spots all over your face, neck, hands, arms & not to mention it covers his entire torso, most of his back and spread to his feet & behind his knees. His doc barely looked at him & told him to just lotion up. Today, I sent Pete to my doctor who diagnosed him immediately with GUTTAKE Psoriasis which can be caused by the strep virus. Since I had strep throat & he probably had a strand of it (since he had the soret hroat before I did), this was the likely casue. He is finally on antibiotics which should help and hopefully he will clear up totally within a month. I have psoriasis (since I was 16yrs old) and I told him now he should understand what I go through. Sometimes I have very bad flareups and sometimes I have nothing. When you live with a condition like that, its hard to explain to others how it feels. Luckily, my flareups are in the normal places (elbows, some on my back & legs) and this GUTTAKE looks FAR worse. I dare anyone to take a look on Google, its pretty bad, I do feel so bad for him!

Other than that, busy with the kids schedule and trying to keep us all healthy!

Sump Pump Hell

Last night around 7pm, I noticed our sump pump sounded different. It has been going on like crazy with all the snow melting on top of all the rain we just had. We checked it & the motor was humming and starting to burn out which smelled really bad. It was still working, but on its way out. We turned it off while Pete ran to Home Depot to get a replacement. It took us a while to get started because we wanted the kids to get to bed, but we started and around 9:30pm, we realized that our original pipe was too large for the sump pump! We had been working among gross sludge so this wasn't a good thing! Pete made it back to Home Depot right when they closed, got someone to help him (apparently, they no longer carry what we needed, so we had to make a few adjustments) and finally made it back home around 10:30pm.

Finally, after cutting the pipe, cement gluing pieces etc...we finally got the pump back in the hole in the ground and turned it on! Took it quite a while to get the water to drain, but its been operating just fine! Last thing we need is another flooded basement ( : especially when we're trying to move. This has been the craziest winter ever, 10 inches just 10 days ago and 2 days a go, a pond in my backyard! Even this 40 degree weather is nice! I'm scared that winter may get prolonged into April or May. End of May 1996, I was flying back from Calgary & was stuck at O'Hare for 8hrs due to a blizzard in West Michigan (flying back to Traverse City).

Holidays are over.....

Peter was sick right before Christmas, through Christmas and for a few days after. He had a high fever and was just really lethargic. He recovered and is doing just fine. We had large plans for New Years, the first in about 7years, and we were excited. We were invited to go down to the Joe Louis Arena for dinner, see the Red Wings game, and back to the Olympia Room for drinks to ring in the New Year. I had a lot of trouble finding a dress (due to all my weight gain) and the thought of wearing heels in the winter was difficult to swallow since I didn't want to break an ankle. Anyway, I found the dress & one of my friends was going to keep both kids for us overnight. About 90mins before we were going to meet up with our friends, we had to cancel our plans since Kiersten's fever spiked up and she became very lethargic! Peter went on to spend the night at his friend's house as planned and we stayed home with Kiersten. It worked out well since we got the 10 inches of snow overnight!

Things happen! Pete was sick with a sore throat last week and I was diagnosed with strep throat yesterday, but we are all doing well despite a constant headache! I went and visited my parents with the kids last weekend since we didn't see them over the holidays and had a great time. My mom is going back to see her family in Laos for the first time in over 30years next month. I wish I could be there with her to see the reunion, but with Peter in school, I can't take off 4 weeks. She is super excited and will be gone for a month. She got all her 'vaccinations' done and her malaria pills ($188 for 27pills!) so she is ready to go!

Onward to getting the kids ready for bed! Good Night!

CONGRATS LSU! OSU SUCKS!!!!!

Let me explain further. First, it is only football and Second,we won our bowl game. Has anyone looked at OSU's schedule and some of the teams they played? Second in the nation based on an easy schedule is a giveaway. Gimme me a break, OSU is overrated. I'm not saying MI should be #1 or even in the top 10 based on how they did, but there are many other deserving teams that were better than OSU.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve & heading to 10pm Mass. Peter caught a virus/mild flu early Sat morning and was still recovering until this morning. He was really tired, but wanted to go to church.

Trying to stay awake! Its going to be a late night for 1 recovering sick kid and another who needed a nap, but didn't take one.
'Hanging out in her kitchen' I got the kitchen earlier this summer for $8 and the cart for $7 this month through craigslist.com, great deals!
After church, the kids fell alseep on the 5 minute ride home. We put them to bed and 'Santa' arrived and the presents were now under the tree ready for the morning! We put the vanity together so Kiersten could enjoy it the second she woke up instead of having to wait for it be assembled. Pete & I had to wake up the kids....it was 8:30am & they were both still sound asleep!
Rocky enjoying her presents and doggie cookie!

Kiersten is into Disney Princess, Barbie, kitchen stuff...basically all that girly stuff!
She has been wanting a vanity for months now. She loves her new talking disney princess vanity!
Peter's big gift was a Leapster system. He has been enjoying playing it & thinks its a 'gameboy'!


Merry Christmas to ALL! Happy New Year!

The Christmas Tree is up and its raining!

Rocky went to the vet last week & got groomed on Saturday. We went out to the tree farm and picked out our tree. While waiting for Rocky, we ran a lot of errands & took advantage of a cold, but sunny day! Both kids, this year, stayed awake and helped us pick out a tree and enjoyed some fresh doughnuts! I'm ahead of the game this year...all my cards went out, all my packages sent & received a week ago. I have all my shopping done except for 1 more gift (Pete) because I ran out of time & had to go pick up Peter from school. My online packages have all come it. Now its just finding time to get the kids out of the house to wrap! Best of all, I stayed in budget!!!!! And Pete picked out our 2008 Jeep Commander yesterday which came in just in time as the weather looks more and more ugly.

Some pics

A few weeks ago (Happy 1st Birthday George~offically middle aged sometime in Nov), George, our fat, but friendly hamster got stuck trying to get into his house. Instead of using his door, he went through the window. After laughing & taking some pictures, I helped him squeeze through. Cute little butt & tail I might say.
2 weeks ago, Peter's class had a field trip to a petting farm. Thank goodness it was colder out, because I'm not good with farm animal smells. Kiersten is in the pink to the left & Peter is in the red & black hat right in the middle of the picture. There were lots to see, most of the animals were rescues.
Betty & Barney
Feeding Goblin, he was so sweet.
This bunny basically slept through all the kids holding him.
Posing for that perfect christmas card photo. Needless to say...20 pics later and a very impatient girl, I got one (not shown) that I will be using. I let Kiersten put on some light pink lipstick & eyeshadow much to her daddy's dismay. She loves it when I get ready b/c she needs her hair blown dry, a little powder on the nose, a little lipstick (please mommy) and eye shadow. Its not an everyday occurance, trust me!
Here's Rocky!
CHEESE!

The first real snow!!!!!!