to recap this week I have had to get 4 shots of steroids in my foot, we gave up Maicey's bink completely and Sam had Thrush. Ill update in detail ASAP!!!

"Mom, stop asking me that..."

"Hey Sam, are you sure you want to go to Preschool already," Mommy says to her baby. "Mom, stop asking me that (rolled eyes and a sigh follows), " says Sam as he get's ready for his first day of "tool" as he calls it.

Friday was his big open house at preschool. I made Rob take the day off and go with me, and we took him in and met his teachers and watched him play. It was so neat to see him interact with other people, although I found myself having to step back and release control a bit. I'd be thinking, "man they are filling his cup up too full... he's going to have milk EVERYWHERE!" or "Why is that teacher not realizing that girl just took Sam's toy from him?!" And then I realized, that's what school is, it's teaching him to be a big boy and it will all be okay... It was the saddest day of my life as a mother... that is until this morning when I dropped him off at the door and had to go get in my car~ alone.

So I've had some time to reflect on it all this morning and I'm going to be okay I think. I'll be honest, I cried the whole way to work, but then I stopped, took a breath and realized that this is why we have kids~ to teach them to be good people that are self sufficient and leaders. I just wasn't ready so soon I guess. Okay, I'm crying again... that's all for now!

Help, my life is spinning out of control!

Okay, this title couldn't sum up the past few weeks of my life any better. It's been an insanely busy few weeks and I don't even know which way is up at times anymore. It all started about 3 weeks ago when my husband said, "hey honey, let's clean up the basement"...

So what he meant by that simple comment was that he wanted me to sort through the baby clothes and get rid of the things we would never want to pass on to anyone else and box up the ones that we would be sending to other little ones so that they could get some use out of them too. I knew I had a lot of clothes for my children because my mother in law, sister, and friends enjoyed buying adorable clothes and my mother goes a little extreme when it comes to dressing her grandchildren~ okay, lets face it, the woman has a serious problem... but hey who am I to stand in the way of a grandmother expressing her love?!?! So anyway, I did a very good job of cleaning out my kids' closets. Every time they outgrew a size it all was washed, folded neatly, and packed in a crate (along with a lot of my tears) with a little lable that said for example "Boy 9-12 month winter", and then stacked in our cellar. So when I went downstairs to begin this simple project, I decided it would be best to pull out all of the crates and divide up all the boy clothes then all the girl clothes. So I started pulling crates out~ and kept pulling them out~ and some more ~ and another ~ seriously there's more? ~ How's this possible? 17 crates later I was up to my head it red and blue rubbermade containers. I have to say I was almost embarressed. My children are 3 and 1 and I already have 17 containers of clothing that don't fit them anymore, that is just wrong.

So I sorted into piles, "things that I can get rid of", such as stained or ripped stuff, the not so cute play clothes and things that even I wouldn't put on another baby if I ever had one (which I won't, THANK YOU ROB...) "things other people should borrow", which were all the cute jeans and outfits and coats and expensive items I just couldn't get rid of. And the last pile I liked to call "things I will never allow anyone to borrow EVER but i can't get rid of them" such as their outfits they came home from the hospital in, the "I'm gonna be a big brother" shirts, and a few other random outfits I couldn't possibly part with. I started this process at about 5:00 one evening... and let me tell you, I don't think I cried so hard when my children were actually born as I did looking through these crates. I would pull out a shirt that Sam wore when he learned to walk and I would sob, and then I'd find the little dress we put on Maicey for her first set of pictures and I would have tears running down my face like a faucet. Then Rob and Sam came down to see how I was doing and I pulled out a little newborn onesie that he wore the first time I brought him to the studio to show him off, and Sam says, "mom is that Maicey's doll's clothes", that did it- I just burst into tears and cried like the baby he wasn't anymore. So Rob thought it would be best to take him back upstairs and leave me to weep over the tiny little clothes. Around 11:30 that night I was finally done. See what happens when you listen to your husband?

So this weekend were keeping a 26 year Munn tradition alive and were in Mt pleasant for the Old thrashers reunion. I'll post pictures as the weekend goes on!

"the beauty of being an artist is the art of sharing beauty"

I heard that quote today and it couldn't be more fitting to my world... I'm blessed to love my job

My baby...

The exciting news of the week... Miss Maicey got her first haircut! I woke up on Wednesday morning and looked at her rats nest of hair and called IMMEDIATELY to make her appointment. So for two days we'd say, "who's gonna go get her haircut on Friday?" and she'd smile really big and say "Mai Mai!" So Friday rolls around and we're getting ready to go to Cookie Cutters where we purchased the WAY overpriced "first haircut package" and Rob asks me "what are you going to have them do to it?" and Sam pipes up from the back seat and says, "I think we should BIC it to look like mine!". I couldn't help it, I laughed at the thought of my little, always in a big huge bow princess with a shaved head! So we arrive at Cookie Cutters still laughing at Sam and the hair cut begins... We learned a few things about Maicey during this twenty minute excursion:

1. She does not like to be sprayed with water~ she would screech every time the poor lady spritzed her hair.
2. She is taking after her Tante T with her OCD tendancies~ she dropped an entire basket full of barretts that the lady gave her to keep her occupied and would not allow the haircut to continue until every last one was picked up and placed back in the basket.
3. She hates hair driers~ I mean it she hates them. She was crying so hard and being the mean mom that I am all that I could think to do was get out the video camera... it was funny, I couldn't help it!

She looks so big and it makes me sad that she's growing up, but it's another milestone that I've passed without too many tears... yet another reminder to stop moving so quickly and just take a breath...

What it means to be a "Dettlaff"

yesterday, my dad's whole side of the family got together to have a little cook out and just spend time being together... it remined me of so many memories as a young girl and reminded me that although I took my husbands last name when I married him almost 4 years ago, I will always be a Dettlaff at heart. So I put together a top ten ways you know you're a Dettlaff...

10. You know the Dettlaff handshake
9. You've played baseball with your cousins outside with a broom and a bouncy ball
8. You love and adore Hummels
7. You're sad on any Sunday night that we don't have "family dinner"
6. Your favorite candy is Green leafs and Orange slices just because they were Oma's favorite
5. Your entire family knows a secret within 18 seconds
4. You leave Sunday dinners with more leftovers then one could possibly eat in a million years
3. You know what the words Oma, Opa, and Tante mean
2. Your sides hurt so bad when you're leaving any family function because you've laughed the entire time.

and the number 1 way you know you're a Dettlaff: You have an extended family of people that love and care for you every minute of every day. I am truly blessed to be part of this family and to raise my kids into this family of WONDERFUL role models. I couldn't ask for more...

Summer break is over... Thank the good Lord!

Okay, so I had every intention of blogging at least 7035 times this month... it just hasn't happened! It's been a crazy month, so I'll recap for you all:

First and most excitingly, my sister got engaged... FINALLY. So we have been crazy busy with planning, and dress shopping, and center piece shopping, and all of that fun stuff that goes on when you're planning the biggest event of your life. We lovingly call it "Our wedding"~ the whole family calls it that... CRACKS ME UP! So the date has been set for June 5th, 2010. My entire immediate family has been asked to be in the wedding (I'll be selling my organs on the black market to pay for all of the attire, but hey, your big sister only gets married once!) I'm super excited for her and can't wait to continue to update you on the excitement of the next 10 months.

Next order of business, I'm going to seriously murder whoever it was that invented FARMTOWN on facebook. It's the single most addicting thing I've ever been a part of... it's the most mindless activity on the planet and I LOVE IT. If you've never experienced it, I strongly suggest you do, but be advised it will suck you in.

Although most people look forward to summer vacation, I for one, do not. When the kids are out of school, it becomes my duty to keep them all busy, ALL summer long. I've been working between 40 and 70 hours per week all summer and it's making me a bit crazy. I've also done about 55 competition pieces this summer and my brain is literally fried. I love that the kids are back in school these next few weeks... it means i can get myself caught up on work, and blogging, and farmtown (damn farmtown).

We also had our first annual Murphy family reunion. My mom's side of the family is great... she is one of 5 children, and I am one of 14 grandchildren on that side. All 5 children are married, and all but 4 of the grandchildren are in committed relationships. Oh, and there's 13 great grandchildren too~ all under the age of 9. It was INSANE. It was super fun to hang out with my family, go on snipe hunts, and play flippy cup with your aunts and uncles... WEIRD, but fun. I will post pictures really soon.

And for the saddest news of the whole summer... my baby boy is starting pre school in less then a month. Correction, the saddest news of the summer is he's EXCITED about going to pre school. How is it possible that he is old enough to leave me for 3 entire mornings every week to go learn and play and grow up without me. I know it sounds super cliche, but it seems like just yesterday he was a tiny baby at home with me and now he's all ready to grow up... SAD!

Okay, so since we're back in a routine, I promise I'll update more often... until then, enjoy the ride and don't forget to stop and breathe in every moment you can!

So much to tell...

Okay this post is a million miles long, so I'm sorry up front, but since I've been trying to catch up on my life since vacation, I sort of forgot that you might be interested in my life happenings as well! Okay so maybe you haven't been dwelling on it, but I like to think you might be :)

So first and foremost, Maicey is finally giving up her Binky. I use the words "giving up" loosely because it's really more like we're ripping it away from her. I am not joking you, the girl acts like it's crack cocaine. Since the day she was born she has always felt the need to have it, and who was I to tell the princess no??? But now that she's able to talk with it still in her mouth, sneeze without loosing it, and find it while still sleeping in her mass of covers in bed at 2 A.M. we've decided it is time to give it a rest. So we're now going through withdrawls, and man are they ugly. We still give it to her while she sleeps (for selfish reasons like I don't feel the need to be up all night!), and in the car (again for selfish reasons like I don't want her screaming in my ear as we ride down the street), but other then that it's gone. So when it's not one of those designated times, she stands at the bowl that we've always kept the binks and she SCREAMS "BBBBBB". Continually. For hours. No joke. When I told my mother about this I mentioned that I thought she was stubborn (can't imagine where that comes from), and Mom said, "no honey, she's just persistant, and you'll love that about her when she's older". Wow I hope you're right, Mom.

Next order of business; seriously who said it was okay for it to rain on 4th of July?!?!? How am I supposed to do my normal 4th of July festivities in the pouring rain? Every year we go to the Bettendorf Parade (that's where Rob almost got arrested last year for having a water fight that got a bit out of hand... oops), and then to Mom and Dad's for a serious day of pool fun, then it's off to the fireworks for dinner and drinks and games with friends. Well since 2009 didn't want to cooperate, we instead went to Golden Corale for breakfast (the children wanted to make their own parade around the restaurant... hilarious), then we still went to Mom and Dad's and made the men swim with the children since it was literally 65 degrees outside and pouring cold rain. Then it did clear off a bit for fireworks, but we were all watching them in sweatshirts and blankets... Only in Iowa!

Next: How is it possible that my body that once worked so beautifully is now betraying me so badly? I'm in the middle of a 60 hour work week. It's called choreography week where we do all of our new dances for next season, and it's one of my favorite times in the studio because there's a new energy and it's so fun to see it all, but I'm not kidding, I couldn't even stand up this morning without cringing, and for anyone not keeping track, it's only Wednesday!

Lastly, I thought I would include some pictures from our vacation in today's post since I finally just got around to getting them off of my camera! These are just a few of the 450 I took on vacation... okay so I'm I bit over the top when it comes to preserving memories, so sue me :)


This is Sam and Emma on the train at Magic Kingdom... could they be any cuter, seriously?!?!

Emma's mom, Jenny and I are best friends... She was my dance teacher when I was a kid and we've stayed close ever since. She teaches at the studio now so we see each other or talk, literally daily. We loved being in Disney so much we're going back, I'm not kidding. We're going in December before Christmas and we are SO STINKING EXCITED!!! I should mention though that this is not unusual for Jenny's family... Miss Emma who is 6 years old has been to Disney 8 times, I'm not even exagerating this number people... she has a serious obsession with the mouse.

The two of them are like siblings, they get along perfectly one minute and the next they're yelling and screaming at each other... our joke is that they'll be married someday :)

Here's Miss Maicey being her sassy little self... She would leave these glasses on for literally 5 seconds and they'd she'd either scream or rip them off her face and throw them on the floor.

Here's the kids, Kaitlyn, Maicey, Aiden, Sam, and Emma in "jail" at the Buzz Lightyear ride.

They were all so happy to be in there, we SERIOUSLY considered leaving them in there for awhile :)

Here's my kids with Mickey... Maicey was a little scared at first and if Rob put her down, FORGET it, she was done.

We stood in line at Epcot for like 25 minutes and got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald... and it was air conditioned, who can go wrong there? Whoever invented that idea was brilliant.

This is at Aunt Sue and Uncle Paul's condo in Palm Coast. The kids were OBSESSED with the bed in this room! It was really fun to jump on apparently.

We just got to spend time with family and hang out in "PC" as we all call it. It was wonderful :)

Now you've all virtually been on vacation with us! Have a happy day and remember to slow down a little and just take a breath...

Family vacation

Hello again everyone! My goodness, the worst part about vacation is coming back to reality... between the laundry and finding homes for all of the new things we bought on our trip I feel as though I may need a vacation to get caught back up!

Our trip was awesome though, we headed down to Orlando and had 4 blissful days of family time with my mom and dad and the 4 of us. We played mini golf (which Sam thought was MINNIE golf and was FURIOUS to find out there was no disney characters in sight when we arrived), did some pool time, ate at some wonderful restaurants (including Salt Rock Grill in Redington Beach which is by far Rob's favorite restaurant on Earth), and got to just spend time reconnecting as a family. After those 4 days, my sister, her boyfriend, and his daughter came down and joined us... along with 200 of our closest friends from the dance studio :)

We as a studio were invited to perform in Disney World... how awesome is that? So we opened it up to all of our competitive dancers and 54 agreed to go, along with family and friends. It really was amazing to see our girls work hard enough to perform in front of people from literally all over the world.

It wasn't all work though, we had tons of time in the parks, and it was really great to see the kids enjoying their time in the most magical place on Earth. Although the magic was a bit hazy due to the heat index of 115... oh well, that's what water is for (although it cost $3 per bottle).

My kids got the chance to meet tons of characters, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Handy Manny, JoJo and Goliath, Buzz and Woody, and Sam's personal favorites, Lightning McQueen (which sounds more like Li-ning Mtween when Sam says it) and TowMater. Maicey was a bit nervous around them... I can't say I blame her :)

To round the trip out we headed over to Palm Coast to spend the last 3 days of our vacation hanging with some family in the beach and pool. One of my favorites moments happened in our time their...

My cousin, who we refer to as just that, Cousin, has a 9 month old little girl, Violet... so we come up with this brilliant plan to take some super cute pictures of the 3 kids together. So she buys them all matching outfits (that were ADORABLE), and we truck them down to the beach. Sam is apparently deathly affraid of the ocean (which we didn't know until that moment) he thought that a dolphin was going to jump out of the ocean and on to the beach, Maicey was being naughty (I know you're probably surprised at that one), and Violet ate literally a mouth full of sand... and that was after one picture. By the time we were done with the pictures, Cousin and I were so tired we just gave up and spent the rest of the day by the pool... oh well, better luck next time! The pictures really are cute, I'll post them as soon as I get them.

Then came the flight home... I can honestly tell you I would have rather been thrown in a pool of sharks then encounter this flight again. To start it all off, we were in the gate waiting to board and sam very calmly says, I don't feel- BARF! All over everything. Not to give you too many details, but nacho doritos don't lose their color on the way back up... so we finally get you all changed and then we board the plane. Maicey apparently wanted to stay in Florida, because she screamed the ENTIRE way home... not kidding, the whole way... Gotta love children!

Well, the purpose of family vacation is to grow closer to your family. I think we succeeded :)

Sorry for the break

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've updated you all! We're on the most marvelous vacation ever with my family! I will definitely update you more later, but in a nutshell we've spent the past 10 days in DISNEY WORLD with a 1 and a 3 year old in the heat of 110 degrees with the heat index... anyone feeling overwhelmed, I am!!! So, I'll update you on all of the details when I arrive back home on Thursday, but truly it has been a great vacation with my wonderful family!

My job~ wait let me rephrase that... my passion that I get paid for

As a little kid, I always wanted to be a dancer... a famous one in fact, but when I was young, my dance teacher needed help with a class of little kids and I fell in love with teaching. I taught a ton of classes through high school and at that point decided that I was certain I wanted to run a dance studio forever. My family was awesome enough to dive into that adventure with me and so it began, Above the Barre Dance Academy was born. I'll give you the short version of how we got to today...



We looked for a building, found one we loved, lost it due to noise restraints, TRY AGAIN~ so we did, and found another location and loved it just as much, ordered ten thousand dollars in floors (YIKES), picked out paint colors, got our scheduling together, sent out advertisements, got delayed in our open date by 2 months, FINALLY opened and started teaching. Since then we've grown to almost 300 students, 90 of which are competitive and traveling all over the country and I spend somewhere between 30 and 70 hours a week making sure that it all runs smoothly. People always say to me, "man it must be nice to write your own schedule", to which I respond, "Yes, I get to pick which 60 hours a week I work!!!" My wonderful family still helps out every day... Dad cleans and does all of our maitenance, Mom does all of our night time desk management plus all of the financial things, and my sister still teachs 3 nights a week. It's truly a family affair!



It was a long process, A VERY LONG PROCESS, but we made it. After tears, sweat, and lots of laughter it has become my passion that I get paid for... my students brighten my day (most of the time), and I get to pass on my love of the art every day.

There's not very many people in the world that get to go to a job every morning that they love... I'm certainly one of the lucky ones!

Ladies and Gemelan, It's Time for WRESTLE MANIA!!!

So, since Sam's been alive, it's been a father son Monday night tradition to watch Wrestle Mania... not my first choice, but let's be serious if I'm at work I really get no say. So, as last night was Monday, I came home to Sam (in his underware) announcing (in a VERY low voice), "Ladies and Gemalan, It's time for WRESTLE MAN-I-A! I about peed my pants I was laughing so hard.

This morning however, when I heard him announce it yet again, I come to find that he was wrestling Miss Princess Maicey on the porch. She came in with her little tattle tail walk screaming her brains out. When I asked Sam what happened to her, he replied with, "I poked her head with my tooth", I don't know about you, but I call that biting! So little Miss Princess has a big ole red mark in the middle of her forehead. I guess she'll eventually learn to stay away from Sam when he's in wrestle mode...

My children

I have the most beautiful children in the world... I guess I'm a little bias, but seriously they're cute.

Sam Michael just turned 3 and my goodness he's funny. He lights up a room with his smile and makes me laugh so hard sometimes I can't breathe. He LOVES to play soccer and baseball in the yard with Daddy and loves to sing and dance with me too. He just had his first dance recital, and I kid you not, he stood on stage and never moved a muscle, but he looked adorable doing it!

Maicey Kay is almost 17 months old and is the Princess of the family for sure. She can give looks that could kill (I have no clue where she gets that!) but when she wants something from you she'll cuddle until it happens :) She loves to dance around the house while Sam sings ridiculous songs and just wants to be with him playing. She's really precious and although Daddy hates it, she's beautiful too!

If you ask anyone that I knew when I was young, they'll tell you they always knew I'd be a mom. It's literally the best job in the world, and the most challenging. Although this happened a few months back, I wanted to share the most challenging parenting day I've been through so far... Hopefully you'll get a good laugh at it!

So my best friend, Jenny gave my children their Easter baskets one Wednesday afternoon at our weekly lunch date at Chili's. After an eventful lunch of spilled pop, yelling children, and multiple occasions of food being flung on the floor, I drag both very sleepy children to the car with their Easter baskets in tow. I put them both in their carseats and set the Easter baskets on the floor in front of Sam. As I'm driving, the backseat gets very quiet and I figure they'd both fallen asleep... boy was I wrong. When I pulled into my driveway and went to get my kids out of the car I swear it looked like a chocolate fountain had exploded in my car. The kids had eaten EVERY hershey's kiss out of the baskets- Maicey didn't even bother to unwrap hers... there was foil and chocolate from their heads to their toes and all over the car.

So I proceed to get them out and strip them naked and let them run around the house while I am cleaning the car out before my husband kills me. I'm so angry that as I storm back into my house, I pull the screen door open and the dang thing flies off my house~ I'm not kidding, the whole door was in my hand. Little sweet Maicey is standing there with 3 screws in her hand just smiling away at me... how does a 15 month old baby manage that?!?! No one can still figure that out. So here's my favorite part of the story... while all of this is going on, I forget that I have a furniture repair man coming to my house to fix my brand new couch. There's a knock on the door and I go let in the man. My then 2 year old son walks up to him and loud and clear as day says, "Hey you're a chocolate guy!!!" I swear to the good Lord I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. My wonderful father who spends a lot of time with my kids, was teaching him that the reason that President Obama looked different then him was only because his skin was a different color, sort of like ice cream is a different color... that totally back fired...

So needless to say, by the time they went down for a nap that afternoon I was ready to cry and completely give up on parenting, but as always, you stand tall, take a breath and move on, loving your kids more every day.

They truly are the light of my life and I love them more every single day.

Here We Go...

Okay, so I've finally caught the blogging bug... I got hooked on my sister's blog, but she updates hers like maybe once a decade, so I'm going to try to out shine her when it comes to blogging :)

A little back ground information... I grew up in a beautiful family with the most supportive parents in the world. They brought me into the world only 13 months after my sister was born (I know you're thinking, why in God's name would anyone do that, believe me, we all asked it too!), and she is my very best friend in the world. We grew up falling in love with the art of dance and performed all over the country as we grew. I knew from the time I was ten years old I wanted to own my own studio when I grew up. So I made a plan and followed through...

I went off to college, met my future husband, changed majors, opened my dance studio, received my Bachelor's degree in 3 years, got married, and found out I was pregnant with my first child all by the time I was 22 :) I wouldn't have done it any other way, but man that was a long few years!

Now my studio is booming, my children are growing, and I am just looking for an opportunity to slow down and take a breath...