Gone to Nebraska!!!!

Well I leave with the kiddos for Nebraska in the morning. So I won't be blogging it up for awhile. I am sure I will have lots of stories when I get back! Say a prayer for us if you think of it. I am a little nervous as this is the first time for traveling with all three kids by myself for this long! Love to everyone!

TTFN!
Ivana

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

Keaton is blowing razzberries!!! I know, I know....exciting for me only! But gosh is it cute!

You may now return to your regularly scheduled internet surfing!

Kyndall the day before she turns two!!!

Kyndall is soooo many things right now.....chatty, exploring, ornery! I could go on and on but here are just a few things that stand out about my girl right now before she turns two!

*The girl loves to be naked! Most morning I come into her room to find her naked as a jaybird and laughing like a hyena about it!
*Cheerios, milk and "street-street" (sesame street) are her morning routine.
*She enjoys taking roll at random times during the day. She will name off everyone in the family and either check on their whereabouts or ask me where they are.
*Kyndall is busy all the time!! There is always something for her to be doing in her world!
*She is and always has been our good sleeper. At nap and bedtime she gets her silky bear and paci and heads to her room. Rarely is there a fuss about bed! Which is great!
*The girl loves to eat!! Always has, but her appetite has continued into toddlerhood which is nice.
*Books are her favorite things. It isn't uncommon for her to go into her room and just sit in a pile of books for the longest time looking at them!
*Her new skill is colors. She is learning them all and loves to tell you what color you have on.
*Ernie from Sesame Street is her man!
*She loves her Granmom....which she calls mom-mom. Their days together are fun for her!
*She is a great talker! We call her polly parrot because she can repeat anything!
*The two most surprising words she has learned lately are "osterich" and "ridiculous"!
*Kyndall is an animal lover. For a long time she has named off tons of animals and their sounds. Maybe she will be a zookeeper or farmer when she is big!
*She has always loved her daddy, but lately the attatchment is growing even stronger! She is definetely a daddy's girl!
*Her Weds. and Sunday afternoons are spent with Micca, Brian, Brittany and Jacob.
*Packing things around in boxes and baskets is something she does alot.
*We haven't started potty training yet.
*Kyndall is a dancing queen, sometimes it is just to the music in her head! But she loves to dance!

Kyndall and I have a lot of fun at home everyday. She is really a blast to be around at this age. I can't believe that she is turning two already it seems like she was just a baby! But I know I can't slow things down. I just have to hang on and enjoy each stage as it comes. I look forward to all the new things and accomplishments I will get to see in her future!

Keaton at 6 months 1 week and 6 days!!

Right now.....

*Keaton loves his blue silky dog.
*Chewing on his hands is a must!
*He is perfecting putting both hands in at once!
*Sometimes Keaton will roll from his back to his belly....but only if he feels like it!
*Keaton prefers to be held over being alone. He is very spoiled by me!
*Keaton outweighs his sissy by over a pound. But he is still the shortest in the family.
*Food is his friend, but he prefers a bottle to having to work at solid foods.
*Keaton loves to talk and be talked to. He could hold a conversation for hours!
*Laughing outloud is something he does often!

Overall Keaton is a jolly fella. He is just so spoiled by me! Jordan says he is a momma's boy, but I don't mind! He likes to hang out with me and I will take all of that I can get! :)

Claire at 6 months 1 week and 6 days old!

Here are some fun facts about Claire Elizabeth right now:

*She rolls from her belly to back, but gets mad after a little while and won't roll the other way!
*Blowing Razzberries is her full time job.
*The girl loves food! Especially rice cereal and bananas.
*Size 2 is what diapers she wears.
*Her favorite paci is blue and white.
*She is my fancy girl, dresses and bows just compliment her good looks!
*For someone who screamed for the first three months of her life she is now really a content baby!
*She likes to sit up and watch the world around her.
*She props her arms and crosses her feet all the time like in the picture above! That is sooo Claire.
*Claire is a whole inch longer than her brother but she weighs less than he does.
*She is a good sleeper at night but only catnaps thru the day.
*Unfortunately she is still allergic to milk and soy proteins. So she drinks a formula called Elecare
*Toys interest her and she has a great grip.
*If Kyndall is around Claire lights up

Overall Claire is just a sweet baby. For the most part she is easy going and she loves people. But she unlike Keaton play by herself and still be happy. She is far less high-maintenance than he! So funny that they are twins and sooo different!

New favorites

Kyndall is in love with this shape sorter that we picked up for her birthday. Of all the things she got, this seems to be the favorite!!!! Go figure that out of every gift she takes up with the toy that cost under 5 bucks! But she is getting really good at putting the shapes in. In just two days she has gone from somebody pointing to where they went, to doing it completely on her own. It is amazing to see young minds at work. Lately she has been really into putting things into baskets or boxes and packing them around the house. I guess to her this is just another way to do that. It is funny what little ones will go through spurts of doing! I never know what she will be doing next! :)

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Raabe!!!!

On Saturday Jordan and I went to my friend Erin's wedding at Fountain Square Park in Bowling Green. It was a beautiful setting. She was a stunning bride and all in all it was a perfect day! Erin is my oldest Bowling Green friend. When I first moved to BG and started managing the Buckle she was one of the first people I hired. Her mom and step-dad were like a second family to me before Jordan and I married. Erin was actually one of my bridesmaids and I consider her one of my oldest and best friends here in Kentucky. Though now with all my kids and life being busy we don't get to see each other as much as I would like. She still works in the mall, so whenever I am shopping I always look to see if she is in the jewelry store so that we can chat.

I never really have gotten emotional at weddings but I teared up when I saw her step out of the car, I teared up when they said their vows and I teared up during the toasts at the reception! I am getting to be such a sap in my old age!! I know! But I think every married couple should attend at least one wedding a year, it is a nice time to think back on your own day. A time for me to think of how I was feeling during my own wedding. It made me appreciate Jordan just a wee bit more. It is easy to get lost in day to day details of life. But watching a new couple committ themselves to each other just makes you want to do the same all over again! I enjoyed every minute of it.....and not just because I was kid free!

Erin was beautiful in her gorgeous dress. The long veil and the beaded overlay on the dress were to die for! The musicians at the wedding and the reception were a new group called blue-eyed grass. They were amazing! I have been meaning to look up their c.d. online. We got the pleasure of actually sitting at the same table with them for dinner and chatting. They were great! The reception was held at Brickyard Cafe' and was a nice sit down dinner. Jordan and i thouroughly enjoyed our night out without the kids! I am so happy for Erin and her new husband!

Well that is the last of my weekend update! I may not get to post again for awhile. I am going to be busy this week finishing up packing and prepping for our trip to Nebraska! Hooray! Since Jordan is working nights and going on a big hunting trip, I am packing up all the kids and heading to Nebraska for three weeks on Friday. I am soooo excited to see my family and for them to be able to meet Keaton and Claire. I am only driving by myself to St. Louis. My Aunt Amy is flying from Omaha to STL to meet me and get into my car for the rest of the trip. So I should be okay! Please keep my family in your prayers as we travel over the next few weeks! And please keep me on your list of a prayer for patience as I tackle getting all three kids to Nebraska without losing my mind! :) TTFN!

The aftermath!

Sweet new baby doll, and the stroller she loves from the Cosby family!

Her new tent, which her daddy and I thought would be soooo much smaller! I am giving this about a week in the middle of her room before it goes downstairs!

Granmom got her this pillow made with all her favorite farm animals! Super cute!

The magic tea set that I thought she must have.....note to self any toy over two pieces is too much to pick up from the floor on a daily basis!

She loves the car, even though she has yet to figure out how to make it go forward! :)

The slide will also get to stay in the living room for the rest of this week, then it can make a home in the basement too!

Not one but two Ernie's! The girl was in heaven. The one on the right even falls out in the floor laughing! It is hilarious! Thank you Lee family!




Just a few of the best gifts Kyndall thought she got. Which now this momma has to find room for in our ever shrinking house! Good thing she doesn't realize yet that if it makes noise, goes off at night by itself, or leaves marks on my walls it immediately gets to live in the basement! I dread the day she figures that out! :) J/K.....I will let her keep all of them in their own designated spot. I just have yet to figure out where exactly that is for all of them! Wish me luck! TTFN!

Down on the farm!

Not so thrilled with us singing "happy birthday" to her! :)

However she was more enthusiastic about the cake and ice cream!

Loving her new slide and doing it all while wearing her tutu! What a crazy girl!

Peeking out from inside the tent her bubby and sissy bought for her!

Cake and ice cream round #2...it is her day afterall!

With her cousin Madison (far left) and her bestie Ally.

Enjoying pizza with everyone! Yummy!

Her barnyard cup-cake-"Cake"...... We loved it! And she loved the little people toys it came with!

Her favorite Sesame character Ernie! She was soooo happy!

Testing out her new car complete with super big pink bow! Every girls dream!

Pin the tail on the cow, which in all the excitement of too many gifts we forgot to play! Oh well!

The table all set up for her big event.

We used her little people barn as a centerpiece! It was sooo cute!

The goody bags everyone took home. I made the tags and also made tags for the stick horses all the kiddos got.

Each of the cute place settings. It turned out nice and Kyndall loved all the animals on everything!


We had a super busy weekend which commenced on Sunday afternoon with Kyndall's "down on the farm" 2nd b-day extravaganza! The only way it would have been more fun is if her daddy had rented her a horse and not let the cow balloons fly away! Oh well, I kept telling myself they were just balloons but darn it they were mighty cute! :P Cindy kept joking that since it was so windy someone in allen county was going to look up and think a real cow had blown by!

We had a nice crowd despite the rain. It was mostly family and a few close friends. Kyndall for the first time in her life actually enjoyed the party. She understood more about things this year I think. Despite being a little wanderer during present opening, she was surprisingly excited about everything else. Of course she does love to eat so the pizza and cake and ice cream was a no-brainer. She had a blast playing with all her new stuff. Once she opened her tutu and crown and wand from daddy and I she wouldn't take it off the rest of the day. It was worth every penny! Of course she got more stuff than we had room for, but she loved it all. Overall it was a great day. All my work and stress over the planning all turned out fine and now I have a whole five and a half months to rest until the twins big first birthday! I better start planning now! Ha, ha, ha!

Another late night!

I am addicted to Etsy! I have been up for almost an hour now just searching the cool artist's and crafter's shops. I have gotten so much inspiration from all the magnificent stuff on there! If you don't know about Etsy....check it out at www.etsy.com But let me warn you if you are crafty or a lover of all things crafty and vintage watch out! You may never sleep again and your wallet may become significantly lighter! They have a neat feature called "pounce" and buddy I have been pouncing all night long. It takes you from store to store, showing you items that people have recently purchased. I think it is a fun way to navigate the site and get a great sampling of all the different items folks make that you might not look for otherwise. Well I am off to Etsy some more. Now if I could just figure out something to make and sell.....wonder how much specialty designed spit-up decorated t-shirts bring these days????? hhhmmm.... :)

Best buy ever!

Claire and Keaton lovin' the new seats!!Come on don't they look excited about them!



Big girl Claire!


Bubba Keaton Cheesin'



Well after much hard work getting my clothes and items ready for the little angels attic sale....it is finally behind me. Shew! I was quite pleased with all the stuff that I sold and I learned a few tricks that I am gonna use for the next sale. I spent less than I made so that made my hubby super happy. But I have to tell you that the bumbo seats that you see above were by far my best purchase! The babies are so cute in them and I actually got a brand new one in the box and the green seat for less than I would have spent on a new bumbo at toys-r-us. I am glad that I waited! I had been eyeing them in the stores for months, but kept hoping that I would get to them at the sale....I was lucky. After a mad dash into the church during the volunteer sale I was able to scoop up these seats, the Little Tikes Slide set I wanted for Kyndall and an exersaucer all in one trip! You should have seen me lugging it all around. I am sure I was quite a sight! I paid for my big stuff, drug it all to the car and came back in to shop for clothes and toys at a more relaxed pace. I was so excited that I got the top three things on my list and all for so cheap! I was able to take back the little tikes set we had gotten for Kyndall to toys-r-us and got all my big stuff just for the price I had paid for the slide. I love a deal!

So this week is going to continue to be crazy as I finish up the details of Kyndall's 2nd birthday party on Sunday. I made a flying trip to Greenwood mall yesterday to order Kyndall's b-day outfit. Which had not crossed my mind prior to yesterday! I guess I thought the child was gonna go naked! Which would actually be fine with her....lately she loves to take her clothes off. YIKES! While we were there Jordan and I both got new outfits to wear to Erin Cook's wedding on Saturday night. Then I realized that I needed to find somewhere that would blow balloons up on a Sunday. Lucky for me the people at the party one store here in Scottsville were nice enough to make special arrangements for me even though they are not usually open that day. So that was a lucky break. So if I make it to Sunday after 4 then the birthday stress will be over and I can start to focus on our trip to Nebraska which will only be four short days away after this weekend. So if I am not blogging much you can be sure I am here thinking of how I am going to fit three kids and myself's luggage, toys, bottles, clothes, diapers, boppy's, bumbo seats, etc, etc, etc into my tahoe! That should be fun. I love a good challenge!

That is all for now. Off to get Kyndall down for her nap! TTFN!

Seriously, I should be sleeping!

It is after 2. I am still awake. Not doing anything particularly productive, but I just can't seem to head to bed. I have been a night owl here lately. I just have trouble not utilizing the quiet of the nighttime to do some stuff for me! Tonight since Jordan was home I worked on a few layouts and finished up the tags for Kyndall's b-day goody bags. I also made the cutest little nametags for the stick-horses we are giving the kids. They are really sweet. She is having a farm birthday so we bought all the kiddos stick-horses to have along with their other treats. I just hope that we don't have a stick-horse fight on our hands before the party is over! YIKES! Well as you can tell by my random thoughts my mind is getting foggy and I guess that I am getting sleepy. So I will head that way! Have a fun weekend everyone! TTFN!

The never ending to-do!

So today I have been busy making a list of the few things that I will be able to get done tomorrow in between dropping off my little angels attic stuff and returning at 6 to shop the earlybird sale and I have realized that I could have from here to next tuesday filled with free time and still never get done. So now I am wondering if a list ever really has an end? I mean if you think about it, once you write down one task to complete doesn't it usually just lead to another? I am knee-deep in tying up loose ends for Kyndall's second birthday party and I realize that buying treats for goody bags just leads to me making the tags for them, which leads to me needing to find the right ribbon to tie them off with, which leads to a mad dash to walmart, which I am sure will lead to me seeing something for the party that I forgot I needed!! Shew I am tired just thinking of it. But don't let it seem like I am complaining......the excitement of the list is a good feeling to have. It is nice to mark through each task with a big fat pen mark and move on to the next item, even if that does lead to more tasks. I guess the day the list is done would really be more sad than happy and awfully boring too. So bring it on, I plan on keeping my to-do list as long as possible. You never know where it might lead me! :) I am off to add to my list..... ha, ha, ha!

Labor Day Festivities!

Hayden Grace and Kyndall beating the heat, redneck style! It was too hot to even wear swimsuits!

Besties for ever! These girls are soooo sweet and soooo funny too!

The daredevil, getting ready to slide! I think the girls diapers had soaked up half of the pool at this point!

Mid-way through the day and the babies were tuckered out! This was the first time Claire and Keaton had ever really hung out in public in just their diapers! Please don't call CPS on me! Ha, ha, ha!

Having fun in the pack and play. A nice breeze and a few toys and these guys were happy!

Keaton got to sit in a highchair for the first time today. Brandie brought it out onto the deck so he could check out all the action! He loved it!

All the "kids" getting ready to cruise. Ben technically is a teenager....but I still consider him a kid~They all had such a blast playing together.

Daddy and big Chunker. Hard to believe that this guy was 4 lbs 12 oz's when we brought him home from the NICU just 5 and 1/2 short months ago!

The last PG rated shot of the girls! Their diapers weighed more than they did so we let them run buck naked for the rest of the pool time! :)


We had such a fun Labor Day this year. Normally for us this is a holiday that goes by pretty quietly, but this year with all the kids we had a big time! We went over to our best buddies the Lee's and stayed all day grilling out, letting the kids get into the pool, and water balloon fighting. I have never seen our whole family play so hard in my whole life.

Despite the heat Kyndall and Hayden played non-stop from 12 until we left after 8 that night. And they were both soooo good! Sometimes Kyndall has a tendency to love her best buddy Hayden a little too hard and pull her hair, but she didn't have to have a time out all day long!

The big boys Jordan, Shane, Randy and Ben had a major water balloon battle on the golf carts. They ran around like they were 10 years old again. But as I sit here writing this Jordan is asleep face down on the couch so he is obviously paying for his fun today! Ha, ha! I swear both "teams" filled up water balloons for two hours and I am not exaggerating! Jordan has blisters on the top of his fingers from tying off all the ammunition! Maddie and Allie played along for awhile too, but the boys got too rough and they decided pool was a safer place to hang out!

It was nice to enjoy a day with family, good friends, and yummy food! We are sad to see summer ending but we are sending it out with a bang! Hope everyone else had as much fun as we did on their extra day off! :) TTFN!

My scrappin' mojo may be back!

As most of ya know since the twins have been born my "free" time has gone completely out the window. I am lucky to get a chance to go to the grocery alone much less get to play with all my cool scrappy stuff, well my blog readin' friends....times they are a changin'! This weekend on both Friday and Saturday nights after the kids were in bed I headed down to my basement studio and scrapped my little heart out. I stayed up way to late, turned my radio on and made some pages for Ms. Kyndall's album.

I must admit my pages now are not as detailed as they used to be. I focus more on getting it done than feeling like I have it just right. But the way I look at it each page I finish is one more for my family to look back at and enjoy one day when I am gone. And honestly I think they will care more about the stories I wrote in my journaling than they will the fact that I didn't measure the mat around my photo! I actually got two more layouts done besides these but they had elements that were waiting to dry and set so I couldn't photograph them.

So I have my fingers crossed that I will continue on the good path, not fall back into my scrappin' rut. I have enough inspiration and ideas floating around in this head of mine sometimes I think it will explode! I have a feeling that once Jordan gets back on the day shift and my nights are mine all week as well as the weekends, my studio is going to be seeing some serious me time! And I can't wait.....so stay tuned! :)

TTFN!

p.s. We had an absolutely lovely Labor Day Weekend and hope you all did too. I will post some fun photos tomorrow for all to see our adventures!