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...

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.