The one with an old friend reunion

Monday: Today was all about cleaning. I cleaned almost the entire house!! I hate leaving for a big trip with the house a mess!! So by bedtime tomorrow I will have a super clean house then the goal will be to keep it that way until we leave!! Shouldn't be too hard...but still gotta do some shopping, and packing before the long road trip!! 

Did my legs workout today, two weeks ago I did this same workout and thought I was going to die for real!! But today it was so much easier!! Getting stronger!! 

Tuesday: More cleaning today!! It's getting close to being done, all the tedious chores: dishes, laundry, trash etc are done. Just need to pick up the dining room table, the office, the kids rooms, and the bathrooms. Our room will have to be a project for after the trip, just too much to do in there and I don't have the desire to do it! Dustin claims he is going to help, we shall see. 

After dinner we headed out to the park to do our usual laps, and hopefully Darren will be in a good mood!! 

Wednesday: Today has been a super productive day and it's only 1. I woke up in a very inspired mood and made pancakes, eggs, and bacon!! It was awesome, if you know me I don't really do breakfast, I always end up messing up pancakes but somehow I made perfect ones today and was very impressed!! After breakfast the kids and I got dressed and ran errands to hobby lobby, dollar tree and target to get everything we needed for the long trip Friday!! Afterwards we rushed home so we would be here for lunch with Dustin who didn't end up showing up :( so we took naps, and finished house cleaning!! I am going to pack what I can after my workout and dinner tonight!!

Dinner was so amazing, it's awesome having friends who are so true that after years you can still pick up where you left off like nothing has ever happened. We really miss seeing Kyle all the time, but hopefully we will see him again soon!!

Thursday: We started the morning out with Kyra being sick so we have of course the night before the long trip been up since 4 am but no worries we will do great!!

We met up with Christa and the kids while the car got an oil change, so we could see them one more time before out trip!! We are getting so excited!

Got all the packing and cleaning done quickly!! Only a nap away from our trip!! The drive may be long and we may not get much sleep, but it's just as bad as the long flights from Germany were so I know we will survive!!

Friday: Okay so I am writing this Sunday morning so let's just say it took that long to recover. After being up since 4am Thursday morning with Kyra Dustin and I had intentions of going to bed a couple hours before midnight so we could have some sleep before we left. That idea was a failure so we finished loading the car and headed out without any sleep.

Less than 30 mins into the drive we started seeing deer, and lots of them. We literally saw over 100 in like 2 hours. So by the time we rolled into Lubbock after driving for 6 hours already we were exhausted and starving so we found an IHOP to grab some breakfast at!! During breakfast the sun started to come up and we got some good coffee, and we're ready to go for about another hour or two, just long enough to get to Amarillo by morning!! Haha!!

Dustin was exhausted, so he napped while I peed, walked the dog, nursed the baby and chilled so he could nap. After nap we ate at McDonald's before venturing onto the second half of the trip. After Amarillo all we wanted was to get out of Texas...I couldn't believe we had already been traveling around 12 hours and we're still in Texas. Finally we reached the border and went running into New Mexico!!

I ended up driving a lot of the way across New Mexico because Dustin was just too tired to go any further, so he napped again while I drove across New Mexico and into Colorado. Once we reached Trinidad the last 2 hours to My Grandmas house was an easy drive and we rolled into town just in time for dinner as planned. It was a long drive but I am so proud we stayed on track time wise the whole time.

We ate dinner and chatted a while before we couldn't possibly keep our eyes open another moment and passed out at the hotel!

Saturday: We got up way too early due to early bed, and the time difference. So the kids and I had A quick snack like breakfast and ended up falling back asleep a little while!! When we got back up we headed back over to Grandmas to have breakfast and went down to the river to play. Shade was scared of the water, and Kyra almost fell in, but it was fun!!

After lunch we headed out to Kami and Justin's!! We hit a little traffic but I was happy to have navigated to heir house no gps!! Kyra and the boys were so excited to play all evening!!

Sunday: We are heading to the park to play and picnic!! This morning before heading to see Beth and Dan!!

The one with another trip to the safari

Monday: We woke up had breakfast and started our week back on schedule, with school stuff!! Kyra wasn't very focused and started being crazy so it didn't last very long...and so her crazy naughty spell continues!! By the time she was supposed to take a nap I was exhausted and then of course Darren woke up from nap!! Kyra was in and out of her room being a brat the entire nap time and prompted mom to creat a behavior sticker chart. Now we are working on earning good stickers and not bad. Hoping it will cause her to work on behaving better!!  After Darren went back down for another nap, we  sat down and actually peacefully managed to do a couple cute crafts together!! Until half way through the naughty came back!! 

Finally Dustin came home and I was so happy to see him, I was about ready to run away!! We had dinner and I got my workout done!! And then I was sore and ready for bed.

Tuesday: I don't want to jinx it, but today Kyra seems to have woken up on the right side of the bed for a change!! We got up ate breakfast together and hug out until Darren woke up. When he woke up we decided to go in his room and play all morning until his first nap!! Everyone was so happy and had a good time playing!! 

Around lunch time we went out to check the mail and ran into our neighbors across the way for the first time really, and Kyra got to meet their grand daughter!! They are actually really nice people, and it's nice to actually know them finally!! 

The rest of the day was restful and Kyra was good the rest of the day. Even to the extent that she got to play at the park. And she left the park without complaint, and so she got ice cream too!! Hoping maybe she was just having a sick week and is back to her normal self!! Either that or the new sticker chart is actually working!!

Wednesday: We started out this morning early, got ready to go and headed out to go to the drive thru safari again with Christa and the kids!! It was nice and cool this time so all the animals were out, and hey hadn't done hay yet so we managed to have some animals that didn't show much interest in us the first time come see us. One of which was the camel. He was crazy. He put his entire head in the car, stole both bags of food paper bag and all, and we thought for a few mins that he had stolen one of Kyras monkeys too!! It was hilarious and hysterical all at once, needless to say that was enough action for us! 

Once we got home, we scarfed down lunch and took naps. And when Dustin got home we got groceries!! That was the gist of our day!!

Thursday: So the camel incident caused Kyra to be up every hour from like 2 on, and that mixed with an awful headache that I can't figure out the origin of had me up all night. Around 0530 I got up took a hot bath, Advil, and essential oils and was able to get a couple hours of sleep so the headache went away. But I was still exhausted, then just my luck Dustin bought me coffee, and accidently dropped it before I even got a sip...so it's gonna be a long day!! Just have chores to do and my taxes need to get done tonight!! 

Friday: Another day around the house, lots of playing with the kids, and little else got done. But I am pretty okay with that!! I seemed to have pulled a muscle during my workout Wednesday and it's sore, so I'm taking it easy until Monday and hopefully I'll be able to get right back to my workouts!! I feel so much happier and healthier when I can get a good workout in!! 

Saturday: Today is all about fall pictures, I have a little set up and am doing a couple cute pictures of my kids and Christas kids!! I don't have the best picture set up, but we wanted some done before I leave!! 

Sunday: It's been a long weekend with Dustin working the whole time, today we are just going to the park this morning, and that is all we have planned.

The one with national coffee day!

Monday: Good morning!! Fell asleep like a rock last night, thank you pm Tylenol!! After getting no sleep Saturday night and only an hour nap during the day Sunday I was exhausted but wanted to make sure my brain shut down so I could sleep. Hoping this week will bring us some information one way or another! By waking up off of sleep aids makes me cranky. Because I could have easily slept like 4 more hours!! And I really need to make coffee!

My house after being so busy is a mess, and I never sat down and got stuff ready for school today so I guess I will start this weeks school stuff tomorrow and be prepared for it!! Doing dishes all day is such a joy, that on top of Kyra not napping, Darren having a growth spurt again and wanting to nurse almost constantly. It has been such a Monday.

Dustin came home early much to my surprise!! And so I got to do my workout before dinner time!! It was so hard and I am not looking forward to getting up tomorrow I am going to be so sore!!

Tuesday: Woohoo!! It's national drink coffee day!! And boy does that make the day start great!! Dustin picked us up coffee for breakfast!! And it was amazing!! Also Kyra woke up so happy!! She came in cuddles for a few mins, then said okay mommy lets get up its a beautiful day! Who wouldn't wake up in a good mood from that? So we spent the morning cuddling and hanging out!! My kids are so sweet!!

My kids were super excited about a care package from grandma!! We have more ponies and trolls to play with now!! And mom is trying to think of a way to organize and display them in a more fun way than baskets now!! Plus she sent me some yummy smelling Chapstick, some stickers, and a magazine!! 

Kyra was terrible at nap ended up going with a spank and got a couple ponies taken away!! And in order to get them back I made her put away dishes!!

Tonight was cardio night as usual and lovely!! The sunset was pretty, and I felt like I had lots of energy!! 

Wednesday: I woke up this morning, dizzy, and really out of it, followed by a migraine!! Spent the morning in bed before slowly feeling better!! Not the best way to start my morning!! B by lunch I finally was able to keep something down and my head wasn't hurting as bad!!

After lunch I went to take another nap so I would have energy before grocery shopping. We got all our groceries and even picked up Kyras Halloween costume. And then our super amazing neighbors next door came by with a present, they are just too dang nice!! They just gave us a red wagon for the kids!! We are so blessed with fantastic neighbors!!

Thursday: Feeling much better now!! It only took forever, but happy we are back to a normal day!! Today was story time at the library and we read about Apples, and even got to taste a couple of them!!

After story time we went on a few errands which didn't result in much actually getting done except mommy being stressed out. Kyra has started being terrible in public, not sure what's causing the regression but it's exhausting. I am ready for vacation!!

The evening went by really fast with tacos for dinner and some playing with the kids before bed!! Darren is pro at saying daddy!!  And I got to workout so I feel ton better, I love working out!!!

Friday: We got up today and headed to the expo center to go to a just between friends and pick up some warmer clothes for the kids before our trip home. Kyra behaved so well at the sale unlike the past days that I decided we could go to McDonalds for lunch. She sat and ate lunch nice too. But then when it was time to leave the play ground all hell broke loose. And I mean all....she bit me, she spit at me, yelled at me, pretty much anything you name it she did it. And received timeout, when that didn't work she got spanked, and when that failed she got taken to the car kicking and screaming!! And I was so completely exhausted with her all I could do was survive until Dustin got home. Then I tied on my shoes to go for a run and get away from the house for a little bit while dinner cooked. Thank heaven it's Friday. 

Darren's first tooth finally broke through!! Oh and we ended up walking to Walmart and picked out a movie we were supposed to watch but someone got a bit into video games so I went and took a bath and went to bed. Have a quick shoot in the morning, and a baby shower tomorrow!!

Saturday: I started the morning out early because I was freezing, we had the window open and a fan going and I was right in front of it! So I layered up blankets and turned off the fan, but than the silence shade could hear every dog in the neighborhood, so I had to turn it back on and cuddle up to Dustin. But alas once I was back to sleep Kyra woke up and we were up for the day!! I went over and redid a couple pictures for a friend who during the first shoot her kids were not very happy, so today we got a few where they are smiling to finish a project for her grandma!!

After Dustin grabbed me coffee, I ran over and had lunch with a group of friends for Julie's babyshower!! We ate at Olive Garden which is always awesome because I can find something healthy to eat and it tastes yummy!!

We finished the day off with Hotel Transylvania and pizza night!! And I am currently trying to convince Dustin to buy me ice cream now that the kids are in bed.

Sunday: we are up bright and ready to go to the pumpkin patch!  I'll post pictures later this week!! And then we are coming home to spend the afternoon cleaning the house up, and eating dinner :) 

Darren is 8 months old

Nicknames: Dare bear, bubba, bumbles

Clothing Size: cruising into 24 months

Personality: still such a happy boy!! As of this week it seems we have hit a teething stage and so there has been a bit more fuss and neediness. But still over all very happy!!

Things I Could Do Without: you wanting to be carried around all the time, makes it hard for mom to get anything done!!

Item/Toy We Love The Most: standing table top so we can give you snacks 

Item/Toy You Love The Most: Moose, and any of Kyras toys you can get your hands on!

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: you learning to kind of talk and wave, it makes you seem so grown up!!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Chasing Kyra around, being fully mobile and going exploring other rooms. Also eating everything!!!