Road trip with a friend

"Friends are siblings God forgot to give us." This is a quote that has always been dear to me. Growing up I had always wished I had a sister.  I am so thankful that Kasey and Tori will have each other, what a special relationship.

 One of the benefits of growing up with out a sister is that I have tried really really hard to value my relationships in my life, especially the ones with my girlfriends. The older I get, the tighter I hold on to these people in my life. The more I realize that although having a sister would have been great, having  close friends can be just as great!

Something I think everyone should do sometime with their girlfriends.... Take a road trip! Even if you don't have a certain place to go, get in the car, play your favorite music, talk about life, LAUGH A LOT & just drive.  This can be the best therapy in the world & give you some of the best memories.

I was fortunate enough to have just completed yet another road trip with a friend. A 13 hour (one way) trip to Nashville, TN to spend 3 nights in Music City and also to see the one and only, Mister Jon Bon Jovi. Yes, JBJ may be the "reason" for these trips and he is certainly the highlight of the trip, but it doesn't compare to the talks in car, getting lost on the way, stories that make you laugh til you cry & sharing the experience with someone who means a lot to you.

And.... I get to do it all over again next month with another friend to Iowa.  Get in the car & drive....

"As we grow up, we don't lose friends, we just learn who are real ones are."




                                   ~ It's My Life

Bittersweet days, yes another one

Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that my little 2 pounder was born. I knew she would change our lives, mine specifically.  I have had these last few years at home during the school year with just her. We do so much together, run errands, make lunch every day, play lalaloopsies and talk....A LOT. These are days I will always look back on and cherish. Absolutely cherish.

   

Today I registered Tori for Kindergarden. It was bittersweet. I am so excited for her, wait no I am not. I would keep her home again if I could. Let's try that again. I know it is inevitable and I know she will strive to do great things but I am just so not ready to let my little, innocent, sweet girl out into the big bad world of kindergarden. (haha)

I consider Tori and myself so so lucky this year. Tori has had such a great experience in her preK class and absolutely loves her teacher and her friends in the class. I love the environment, the school, the teacher, the kids and the kids parents. I mean does it get better than that? We can't even fit all the play dates in.... It is such a great group of Moms and kids. We are so lucky.

I know kindergarden will be okay, I really do. Today was just another reality check that time just keeps on ticking and that my babies are growing up. Bittersweet day.


Loving preK and not ready to move on yet.....

                                                              Tori's Class out to lunch

                                                       Adam, Tori and Willy having a playdate

                                                          Tori and her dear friend Jonas

                                                    Willy came to watch Tori's gymnastics

                                           Sydnee, Tori and Kenley having some girl time

                                                     Such good girlfriends, Tori & Kenley

                                               Tori, Kenley and Declan having a play date

                                               
                                                      ~It's My Life

Birthday tradition

Back in 2003 when I first found out that my due date was January 3rd, I remember hoping that Wylie would be born on my Dad's birthday, which is January 7th.  My Dad always said, "oh no we want him/her to have their "own" day." Neither planned worked. Wylie decided to join us a week after his due date and although he has a different birthday than my dad we still have decided that we want to celebrate them together, on the same day, which usually ends up being neither of their actual birthdays! This year was no different. We celebrated on January 11th with a taco bar & ice cream cake!

                                     Happy 9th Birthday Wylie & Happy 70th Birthday Grandpa!

                          
                                                    Some things Wylie got for his birthday: 

January 12th the fun continued as Wylie got another birthday party with his friends. This was his first "non" themed party per his request. He requested that some of his close buddies come over & sleepover. It was almost a perfect night. One of his best buds got the stomach flu and couldn't make it but we have a make up sleep over party for the two of them next weekend, so we are all good.  It was a fun night full of pizza, cupcakes, snacks, football playoffs, knee hockey games, slot car races and more. Lots of loud cheering & laughs through out the night!

                Nicholas, Tyler, Wylie and Erik (Jack not pictured and home sick..boo ) 

For me, it was an emotional week.  I was caught off guard at my emotions for both my Dad and Wylie's birthdays. I think I just feel so so fortunate and lucky to have my Dad around and healthy and mostly importantly such a big part of our lives and to share such a special time each year with Wylie. And well, I was emotional on Wylie's birthday because he is NINE. WHAT? Where is my little boy? Luckily, he still has a little boy heart and I will hold on to that as long as I can. It was just a great weekend celebrating two people I love very much! 

~It's My Life

5.4.3.2.1....Happy New Year

We hosted our 2nd annual New Year Eve Party and it was a great night! Why we didn't think of doing this party years ago is beyond me. I missed some of my friends who have their annual NYE plans but was happy that a lot of friends joined us! We truly are lucky to have such great people in our life & our kids life!

                                                           We are ready to party!! 

2012 Trivia game: Men vs Ladies  

Ladies Won . . . again!! 

Girls working on their arts & crafts!! 

Junior cup races & Grand Prix Race 

(this is some serious racing, no joke!) 

1st Movie showing 9:30pm~ Madagascar 3 

Dancing under the disco ball to "gangnam Style"

The kids that made it to Midnight!! 

New Year day tradition~ setting off a rocket

5.4.3.2.1..... Blast off

*you can see the smoke next to Kasey who is closest to Jacques and the rocket is almost to the top of the picture in red... Jack and Wylie (on right) are the rocket chasers.  It is a great New Years Day Tradition! 

Happy 2013! 

~It's My Life 

Family Traditions

I am so happy that we got another Christmas with all three kids still believing in all the magic. I am not going to lie, it is getting tougher and tougher to convince them of these magical happenings.  Christmas Eve day might have been one of the longest days, ever! The kids get so excited they can hardly stand it. And one of the best things is that they get equally excited for family time as they do the gifts, well okay maybe not totally equal but pretty close. They love traditions! My parents come over Christmas Eve and have dinner with us, the kids open their gifts they picked out for each other and my parents spend the night. After the kids, finally, fall asleep Jacques, myself, and my Mom and Dad watch Christmas Vacation together! Oh and I can't forget that "santa" prepping . . . It is just a great night!

Christmas  morning is here & the wait is over . . . "Can we go down yet?"

"Can't we just peek around the corner?" 

Finally, once Mom, Dad, Grandma & Grandpa all made it down stairs they ran to the living room. 

Santa brought jumbo pillow pets along with some fun stocking stuffers! 

We spent some time opening gifts, eating brunch and spending time as a family! We spent the afternoon playing with toys! Some of the kids favorites: 

                                                  Until next Christmas~ 2012 was good to us!

                                                                             ~It's My Life  

10 years

The Exuma Islands, a place we have dreamed about and talked about for over 10 years. We sat at Willow River State Park, drinking strawberry daquiries one hot summer day dreaming about sailing around the Exuma Islands. This was before we bought our sailboat and sailed for 2 months in the Florida Keys and realized that we were not ready for the cross ocean venture.... However, our 2 month sailing adventure on our teeny tiny sailboat made us both realize that we should spend the rest of our lives together. We knew we would get married near or on the ocean, a place we both love. So on Friday December 13th, 2002 we got married on the ocean pier at Sandals Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  It was the best decision and we loved every minute of it. I remember saying as we left the resort, "we will have to come back to Sandals on our 10 year anniversary!" 

December 13, 2012 we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary not only at a Sandals Resort but a new Sandals Resort that happened to be in the Exuma Islands, a place we have been talking about for 13 years. We knew this was the resort to be at.  

The anticipation of leaving about killed me. I literally did not sleep the whole week before we left. I had never been away from the kids for more than 3 nights and we were going to be gone 7 nights and 8 days....it was so difficult. I cried about it, worried about it, stressed about it.... there was no fun part of the anticipation of this trip.  We had a good plan, detailed notes, friends stepping in willing to help and Grandma so we knew the kids would be fine. 

Once we arrived at the resort and handed our glass of champagne I was able to relax. We had a few hitches early on in communicating with my mom and the kids back home but we got that figured out with in the first few days. We spend the majority of each day at the beautiful beaches & fabulous pool drinking dirty bananas.  Man, they were yummy! We loved all the different restaurants and tried a lot of different foods we wouldn't normally try. We also took many many walks up and down the beaches, a lot of the talks would either end up being about the kids or about how we need to buy a bigger sail boat and so another sailing trip someday. Both topics made me smile & feel happy! 

We took one excursion, a boat trip to some of the outer islands to snorkel, swim, feed the iguanas & pigs and mostly get a glimpse of the beauty of the cays of the Exuma Islands. The water was amazing! We saw Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's private island and home. Stopped at a lot of islands and got to swim, hike and look for shells. We (mostly Jacques) also got to feed the wild pigs and iguanas,  I took pictures. Although it was cool to see them on these uninhabited islands, they were kind of scary and I stayed my distance. We hiked to the top of this cliff where on one side it was the Atlantic Ocean and the other was the Caribbean Sea.  While the Atlantic Ocean looked so deep blue and rough, the  Caribbean Sea was calm, beautiful and peaceful.  This day trip was definitely the highlight of our trip! 

 We went to the french restaurant at the resort for our anniversary and had a wonderful dinner and dessert. It was definitely our favorite night of the trip. We talked a lot about how our life has changed in the past 10 years but really how much it has stayed the same. We may have built 3 houses, moved 3 times and had 3 kids but we still have the same dreams and goals. This makes my heart smile. 

The time came to say good bye to this beautiful week and amazing island. And even though we had full bellies from all the food and drinks, a tan from all the sun, we were feeling a little empty with out our three favorite people. We got home at 9pm and when we pulled into the garage and waved at them with the door open, there were tears of joy! It had never felt so good to hug our kids.  It was great to nurture our relationship and have some "us" time but it was good to be HOME! 

~It's My Life

Still believers

I don't know if you know this but this is my absolute favorite time of the year, Christmas time. I love the decorations, Christmas cards, gift buying, wrapping presents, the whole shebang but mostly I love  living the magic of the season through my kids' eyes. Each year, I wonder how many more Christmases until the magic dies down and when one of the kids tell me they know about "santa" or "elfie."I think my heart will break. This year I was starting to question Wylie's beliefs about Elfie, (our Elf), until yesterday . . .

Our Elfie comes to us on December 1st every year, well this is his 3rd year joining our family.  Our Elfie is a friendly Elf who sits in places that he can be seen the most and in places where we spend the most time because he just really wants to be part of our family this time of year! 

So yesterday, Elfie was sitting in the plant on the window ledge behind the kitchen sink. Last night, Wylie said, "mom come here." He was in the bathroom crying. I said, "What's the matter?" and he answered, "mom I accidentally touched Elfie." He was devastated. I was so relieved that HE STILL BELIEVES. I just quickly said, "if it were truly an accident Elfie will know that."

A few hours later I am getting ready for bed and doing my nightly Elfie duties, I noticed a letter sealed in an envelope for Elfie. So I opened it and this is what it said:

My heart just melted. It was then that I noticed  there was another letter on the counter also. The other letter said the following and was from Kasey: This letter also filled my heart with smiles.

Fast forward to this morning. Elfie was in our dining table center piece with a little note of his own for the kids.

                                       Dear kids, I got your notes, Thanks! Wylie, it's ok! Luv Elfie

Wylie woke up and was so happy that Elfie said it was "ok" and also laughed that Elfie spelled "luv" wrong. A few minutes later Kasey wakes up, reads the note and started crying. I asked her why she was so sad and she said through some serious tears, "That note I left was for when we see Santa tomorrow, Elfie wasn't suppose to give it to him, I was!" Oh boy, one kid elated, one kid devastated.  So I quickly tell her that if she asks Elfie really nicely maybe he can go through all of Santa's letter and get the letter from you tonight and bring it back to us tomorrow. She is convinced that there are way too many letters and that Elfie won't find it.  Who knows though, our Elfie is one good little Elf! Until tomorrow morning. . .

                                                                 ~It's My Life