Disney On Ice

On Sunday, my mom, sister, Elliott, Zachary, and I went to one of the coolest live shows I have seen. Mom and Dad got the boys tickets to Disney on Ice for Easter. I did not tell Zachary about it until that day because of our episode that happened when we got tickets to Bob the Builder. Long story short this is what happened with Bob the Builder we got tickets, talked about it all the time, Zachary was pumped, two hours before the show I found out it was canceled. So Zachary was uber excited on Sunday when we told him we were going to see Disney on Ice. He was even more excited when he found out he was going to the show with Elliott. Man those boys are inseparable. They love each other so much. When they are not together they miss each other, when they are together they love it!

Enjoying the Popcorn before the show!

Watching the show on Aunt Rachel's LapElliott watching the PIRATES!



The Incredibles snowcone during intermission!

Rosalyn & Gary's Wedding

On Saturday, Kevin and I drove to a small, German town in Missouri to celebrate the marriage of Rosalyn & Gary. Rozzie was my roommate while I attended dental hygiene school. We did everything together in those two years that we lived together. We lived together, car-pooled to school together, sat next to each other in class, were in the same clinic pod together, worked side by side in the dental clinic...etc. You get my point. We were always together. I have always thanked God for my friendship with Roz. Roz always wanted to meet the man of her dreams. We would discuss what she wanted in a partner, what attributes she wanted a spouse to have, and all the characteristics she was looking for. I always knew that God had someone perfect for Rosalyn but I did not know when or where she was going to meet him. Well God answered Rozzies prayers 10 fold. Gary is everything Rosalyn always talked about, wanted, and prayed for. I was honored to be their guest book attendent at their wedding. Rosalyn was stunning in her beautiful wedding gown and she was glowing from the happiness she finally has. Congratulations Rozzie and Gary. Kevin and I are very happy for both of you. We love you!

Women of Joy!

This past weekend started with a wonderful Christian's women event. Women of Joy is a weekend conference to motivate, encourage, and bring women closer to Christ. This weekend books a year in advance because it is SO amazing. On Friday night the guest speaker was Kirk Cameron. You know Mike Siever from Growing Pains. He was also the lead actor in the new movie FIREPROOF. The entire auditorium of 300 women went nuts when he walked out on stage. He looks the same now as he did back in the 90's. Anyways he shared his personal testimony on how he used to be athiest until he found Jesus when he was on the scene of Growing Pains. He now is a man of God. He choses to put Christ 1st in his life and marriage. It was a wonderful night with my girlfriends from my church and wonderful praise music. I did not attend the Saturday and Sunday part of the conference because of my dear friend, Rosalyn's wedding. I would not have missed her wedding for the world. I heard the rest of the conference was AWESOME and I have booked my ticket for next year. If you are interested in this conference check out Women of Joy online.

Happy Birthday Karsen!

Today is my beautiful niece, Karsen Rebecca's sixth birthday. I can remember the day she was born just like it was yesterday. I was sitting in a clinical preparations class when my cell phone went off. I wanted to check the message SO bad that I pretended like I needed to go to the bathroom. I quietly snuck out of the lecture hall to check my voicemail. I was so excited to have another niece. I can't believe it has been 6 years. Karsen is such a caring, kind, compassionate little lady. She loves animals, her sister, and being outside. She is so good to her cousin, Zachary. She loves to play with him, read to him, and entertain him. Karsen we hope you have a WONDERFUL birthday. We love you and miss you.

I'm a BIG BOY now!

I have been waiting to write this blog for over a week now because I did not want to jinx myself. But Zachary is OFFICIALLY potty-trained. I have heard for the past year that it is super difficult to potty train a child...especially a boy. I think the reason that Zachary is potty trained at 2 1/2 years is because I did not care if he was or not. Sounds like I am a bad parent. To be honest....it is much easier for me to have him in diapers than to have the inconvenience of taking him to the potty all the time. So I have had a very laid back attitude about it. Z is the one that wanted to be potty trained. He pretty much did it all by himself with a little help from the ELMO video and I think seeing his friends at preschool being in big boy or girl underwear helped too. It also helps that his best friends, Elliott & Charley were going through potty training at the same time. So without further ado I introduce my son the "BIG BOY" doing his Happy Dance on his bed. He is happy because he is wearing big boy pants that have guitars on them. He is also happy that he does not wear diapers any more.




Now the only thing I need help with his how to better his aim. Any suggestions from those mommy's with little boys. I feel like I need to mop my bathroom floor all the time. Please discuss amongst yourselves.

Way Behind Easter 2009

As you can see I am almost 3 weeks behind on blogging our Easter Festivities. I am hoping to catch up on my photos so that I can get back on track. This year was a little different Easter that usual. First Rachel, Matthew, and Elliott were off on a vacation in Hawaii. Second, Kevin's brother, Jeff was in town for business. Even though we were not with my sister and family. We got to spend it with Kevin's brother. It was a treat to see Jeff. We celebrated Easter at my parents house after church with the Lemon's family, Kevins family, and a friend from my mom's school, DeCarla and her children Cosby & Cali. We missed her husband Jamar but we loved on his kids for him. Seriously Cosby and Cali are two of the cutest and best behaved children I have ever met. Zachary always enjoys spending time with Cos and we will miss them when they move in the next couple months.

Zachary picked out some pre-made cookies at Wal-mart. He could not wait to make them!


Dying Easter Eggs the night before

This photo shows PURE JOY! when Zachary found a Bob the Builder that was left by the Easter Bunny



Zachary finding eggs and a Bob the Builder from the Easter BunnyKevin's parents, brother, and us on Easter Sunday at our church
Cosby and Zachary playing Grammy's piano
Zachary and one of his best buddies, Cosby
Cosby, Zachary, and Cali posing on Grammy & Poppy's couch

One BUSY weekend

As usual I have overbooked our weekend. Everything that I have done has been a BLAST....I just wish that all the activities were not on the same weekend. I will be making several individual posts about each event with photos. But until I have the time to do that I will tell you how our weekend has played out. On Thursday night we had a dental society installation banquet. It was a nice night out with other dental professionals. Then on Friday I went to a Women of Joy conference. I booked this weekend conference a year ago. It is supposed to be a Friday night, Saturday day and night, and then Sunday morning. A bunch of wonderful women and friends from my church were headed to this event. Friday night was opening night with a wonderful worship minister, Charles Billingsley and the guest speaker was Kirk Cameron. Yes, I said Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains, and the new movie FIREPROOF. He was awesome. He shared how he became a Christian and how he lives his life daily trying to be like Jesus. Again it was a wonderful night. Because one of my best girlfriends, Roz, was getting married on Saturday I went home on Friday night after the conference instead of spending the night in the hotel. If I had to do it over again I would not have booked the conference last year but I had no idea what I would have on my calendar a year later. On Saturday Kevin and I left Z at my parents so that we could drive to Rosalyn & Gary's wedding. Rosalyn was my roomate while we were in Dental Hygiene school. She is honestly one of the most compassionate, loyal people I have ever met. Kevin and I have been praying and hoping for Roz to meet someone as special as she is for the past 6 years. Well God answered our prayers. Gary is PERFECT for Roz. Anyways, we spent Saturday in a beautiful part of our state. The wedding was beautiful. Rozzie was stunning and we had a wonderful time catching up with her family. I am so glad Rozzie included us in her special day. Because we got home late on Saturday and we were exhausted I opted not to head back to the Women of Joy conference. It was a hard decision to make but I was so tired and felt that I was being pulled in 100 different directions. Instead I went to church like usual with Kev and Z. After church, Z and I met my mom, sister, and Elliott for DISNEY ON ICE. Mom got us tickets for Easter. Zachary and Elliott were so EXCITED! I was priceless to hear their conversation on the way to the arena. We all enjoyed the show. It was very well done. So that is basically our weekend in a nutshell. Like I said I will post pictures and give more details about each event so check back later...if you are interested.

Basement Finale

I am sure you are probably tired about hearing about our basement but I wanted to post the final pictures of our furniture and decor. If you want to see the "BEFORE" click here. Basically this post is for my "Aunt" Steph because she helped me with my art work. The tough part of finishing our basement was the decorating. We had no furniture, no decorations, and no wall art. Kevin and I both agreed that we wanted the color scheme to be teal, brown, and lime green. Don't ask me how we came up with that combo but that is what we both thought of. So I started looking at area rugs. It was difficult to find what I had imagined in my head. I thought no such rug existed. Just when I started to think about changing our color scheme I found this rug online. It was perfect. Then came our furniture. We waited for approximately 6 weeks to get it.

Here's our rug and sectional Once it arrived we started piecing together the rest of the decorations. Kevin and I quickly realized we were OVER budget and out of money to spend on decorations so I started to brainstorm on how we can finish up this project. I started "shopping" in my decorations, and started making my own decorations out of my scrapbook supplies and craft closet. I will share more about these projects in another post but for now I have to brag on myself. Everything on our shelves was stuff that I have owned for years. I just reconfigured it or painted it to match our color scheme.


Here are the shelves with my "homemade" decor

Then came a great idea. I had HGTV on tv one afternoon and saw a home decor reveal from Verns Deserving Design. I was so bummed I missed the episode but I saw these awesome canvas' wall art. I did not know how Vern did them so I called my personal Art Teacher, my "Aunt" Steph. She helped me pick the right canvas, the right acrylic paint, and told me how to modge podge a photo on the canvas. I am so proud of our wall art.

Thank you "Aunt" Steph and HGTV for the wonderful wall art


Kevin and I made them ourselves, again with helpful tips from Steph, but we spent about 75% less than if we had someone do them or if we purchased generic wall art from Gordman's or Kirklands. Plus we put a personal touch on our walls.


Lastly, I have to show the other rooms that are finished in our basement.
Here is my new Scrapbook closet/Craft closet. I LOVE IT!

Here's the new guest room. It is ready for company. Please come and visit us!

Our Guest bathroom
As you can see our basement is ready for friends and family to come visit. You are welcome ANYTIME!

Pre-School Easter Program

Zachary is in the green, teal, and orange argyle sweater with his hands behind his back



Yesterday was Zachary's first on-stage performance. He had his Easter program at his preschool. We missed the Christmas program because he had a ruptured eardrum. So this was a first for us. Kevin and I were really looking forward to the program because we have been practicing the songs for the past two months. To be honest we were also a little nervous because we did not know what Zachary was going to sing or do. Zachary's class was supposed to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Died and Rose Again". "Jesus Died and Rose Again" is to the tune of "London Bridges" and it goes like this.

Jesus Died and Rose Again
Rose Again
Rose Again
Jesus Died and Rose Again
on Easter Sunday Morning

Kevin and I were a little nervous too because when Z sings this song at home he thinks it is all about my cousins dogs, Bubba and Rose*. This is what Zachary sings...

Jesus Died and Rose Again
Bubba and Rose
Bubba and Rose
Jesus Died and Rose Again
on Easter Sunday Morning

* Yes Jen we talk about Bubba and Rose ALL THE TIME.

Anyways, when Zachary's class got on stage. Z looked perplexed. He could not see anyone in the audience because of the bright lights. Immediately he noticed me and said HI MOM! HI MOM! I was shocked he was the only two year old that called out to their mom. The entire audience started to laugh. He started to walk off stage towards me. I just kept praying that he would not make a scene. His teacher lined him up again and when the music started he started to dance a little. He sang his songs with his heart, soul, and body. I must add I did not hear "Bubba and Rose" so I think he got it right. It was priceless. Kevin and I were so proud of our little guy. I can't imagine what we are going to be like when he gets older and participates in school stuff. We are going to be nervous wrecks and so proud. The preschool also had an art show in the hallway. Zachary's teachers selected a finger paint of Zachary's to be on display. He was so proud of it and he had to show it off to us.

Zachary standing by his artwork.


Zachary's Blot print

Happy Birthday Mom! (and Grammy)

Today is my mom's birthday. Without my mom I would not be the person I am today. She has always been a fun, creative, self-less mom that ALWAYS put her kids and now her grandsons first. She has the biggest heart. She is always trying to help someone. She is always finding doctors appointments, dental appointments, or clothing for her kids at school. If they can get to the appointments then she will find a way for them to get there even if that means picking them up or paying for a bus fare. She is always giving of her time and money. One of the best things about my mom is that she is an amazing Grandma. If my sister or I needed something she would be right at our house even if it was 3 am when a newborn (aka Zachary) would not nurse. She would go without free time to watch the boys so that we could have a night off or a date night. She is always doing something for each of us that she often forgets herself. One added bonus is that she is a nurse so if anyone is ever sick she is the first person we call. I have always considered my mom to be one of my very best friends...even when I was in high school and that was not the cool thing to do. I tell her everything...even if it is supposed to be a secret.

Mom we love you and hope that you have a wonderful birthday! You are a blessing to all of us.

Nellie Belle

A few weeks ago I mentioned my parents cat, Korona, died. It just so happens that my "Ruey" (aka grandmother) had a cat that had kittens. My mom selected one that resembled my favorite cat of all time, Lovable. Zachary talks about Grammy & Poppy's kitten all the time. Grams named the kitten, Nellie Belle. Here are some photos of Zachary & Elliott's kitten. Zachary LOVES her.


Meet Nellie


Zachary being gentle with Nellie Belle


Elliott and Pops with new kitten