Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Peace, Love, Silpada...



Mommy has started a fun new business. I'm selling Silpada jewelry and already have 6 parties scheduled in the next 2 months!




I chose it because I love the jewelry myself, and it's a great advertisement when you wear it everyday! I've already sold some stuff, just because people want to buy what I'm wearing.




I'm hoping it will be a fun way to bring in even just a little extra income, or at least a way to pay for the jewelry I want to buy for myself.






My first shipment arrived last week and it was like Christmas morning opening all the boxes. Ella has already agreed to be my model... what girl doesn't love a little bling!?

Sleepovers


Ella recently had a full weekend with her BFF Sophia.
Friday night was spent at Sophia's house. Saturday, night, both girls stayed here.
They had a great time and snuggled up together in bed. I couldn't resist snapping a picture!

Stomach bug, road to recovery...

Poor Alex had a rough go of it and he's finally on the road to recovery. He had a nasty stomach bug in April. It lasted for 6 solid days. Puking, pooping water, you name it. They think it was retrovirus. He lost 9 pounds! That's a third of his little body weight!

He's back up to 25 pounds now, but that puts him in the 15th percentile for weight among kids his age, and the 85th percentile for height! Guess for now, he's our string bean, but we're working to fatten him back up.

Our growing girl...




I have to post a few recent photos of our girl.
Ella is growing up so quickly. She turns 4 in August, but she tells Troy she's going to be 14, and some days it sure seems like it!






She texts her friend Sophia and sometimes the call one another 3 or 4 times a day! She has play dates with 2 or 3 other friends in the coming weeks, and she just seems so happy.






Her teachers talked about what a great friend she's been to everyone in her class this year, and some of the girls even fight over who gets to be her friend. It makes Troy and I so proud to see her learning and growing every day. And we think she's a beautiful little girl too!



Alex is 2!




Our baby boy is officially a terrible two year-old. I can't believe it's been two years since he made his early arrival on Cinco De Mayo. I still want him to be my tiny, snuggly baby, but he's really becoming quite the little man.




He loves his cars, trains, buses, trucks, basically anything with 4 wheels get his interest. He likes "cycles", copters, even airplanes.




We had a "choo, choo, Alex is 2 party, and he invited 2 of his friends. Ella also had a friend, and one of our guests has a big brother, so we had 6 kids for a great little party!

I suck! I know! 4 months!

Okay, I know it's been MONTHS since I posted. Those of you who keep up with me on Facebook are still in the loop. But life has gotten busy, busier. How does that happen when the full-time job is gone? Who knows, but I never seem to have enough time to get everything done these days!!

I am now caring for an 18 month old little boy. He's a great playmate for Alex and it's been a really fun couple of months! He's here for 3 or 4 days every week and while the boys fight over toys and my attention, they also hug and giggle and play and really enjoy each other's company.

Miss Ella just wrapped up her first year of preschool last week. She'll be a pre-kindergartner in the fall! Her first dance recital is this coming weekend, and then we're free and clear for the summer. I'm already researching a gymnastics class, swim lessons, and VBS and summer camps, to keep her occupied and me sane!

Troy just spent a 5 day weekend here at home, and he's probably glad to be back at work! I had him doing manual labor for all but 1 day of his time away. We moved Alex into the bigger bedroom which was our guest room. He's almost ready for his big boy bed, instead of the crib, so we needed more space for him. We switched the guestroom into his old room, so both had to be re-painted, furniture moved and mounted to the walls in Alex's new room, curtains rods, re-hung, etc... Troy worked his butt off! But, both rooms really look fantastic!

Alex LOVES his new room and just dances around in the middle of the floor. We also had a visit from the binkie fairy the night we started prepping the room. She took all of Alex's binkies and even baby Elmo lost his binkie too! It was a rough day Friday for nap and bedtime, but since then, he's done just fine. He knows the binkies went to babies, who need them, now that he's a big boy in his big boy room.

It also looks like we're going to Florida this fall. We booked our timeshare for the week after Thanksgiving. Our plan is to fly into Tampa, drive to Troy's parents for a few days, and then caravan with them up to Orlando for a few days at Disney World!!! It will be the kids first Disney trip and Ella is already THRILLED! She'll never stop talking about going to the castle to see Cinderella, so it's going to be a long 6 months. We haven't booked our flights yet, but we're watching and should finalize our plans soon.

It's not something that seems too practical for us right now. But Troy parents are helping us out a lot, plus with the timeshare and some passes from Uncle James to get us into Disney World, we think we can make it work. Plus, it's on the "things to do before we die" list and since my brain tumor diagnosis, we take that seriously. We try not to put off things that are important to us as a family. We want to share special moments with the kids wherever we can, because you never know when you might not get another chance. This time, with all the help, it seemed like an opportunity we just couldn't pass up. So, wish us luck and we find bargains along the way and make this a fantastic trip, hopefully, the first of MANY to come.

I have so many more things to catch everyone up on. Rest assured, we're still here, still busy as ever, and still enjoying our wonderful life, when these two kids aren't driving us crazy! Keep checking back and I'll try to update next week with Ella's recital photos.