1st Day of Kindergarten

Okay so it's been 6 months since my last post....sorry about that! Life's been busy, summer was fun! Not much else to say!

Anyway, Miles had his first day of kindergarten yesterday and he loved it! He had been anxiously awaiting September 8th and telling EVERYONE that he's going to kindergarten on that day. So the day finally arrived and he couldn't wait to get on the bus. We waited at the end our driveway until the bus came and he didn't even hesitate to get on. He pretty much ran onto the bus and didn't look back....not even a "later, Mom and Dad" or "Love you, Mom and Dad". I guess it's better than tears and I'm glad he was excited. I got a great picture of him once he was on the bus and he's got a great big smile on his face. It's crazy to think how the past 5 years have flown by! My "little" baby's a baby no more!

Here's our little stud all ready for the big day:

Finally the bus arrived!

And he's all smiles!

And he made it home safely so Mom's happy!

Maizy turns 3!

It was Maizy's birthday yesterday and we had a nice day celebrating her special day!  Maizy chose baked homemade mac and cheese with chicken for her birthday dinner and I made her a nice little cake for dessert.  We had Aaron and Heather and their kids and then Bill, Julie and Zac Heslip join us for dinner and cake and ice cream.  Unfortunately, Mike is still out of town for work, so he wasn't able to be there in person, but we Skyped with him while we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake.  (Sorry Mike, we did eat the ice cream you bought last time you were home and never got a chance to eat....how cruel are we?)  Anyway, it was a nice night and I think Maizy had a good birthday overall.  Now I'm just wondering if this means we are officially out of the "terrible twos"....I hope so!

Miles Bean!

So our good friends, the Walkers, have given their son Sammy the nickname "Bean" since he was, well,  still in the womb and about the size of a bean.  I think it came about when they told us they were pregnant and said they were going to "spill the beans" (or bean, I guess).  Anyway, the nickname stuck and I think it's adorable and so is he!  I'm not about to steal the nickname, but I do have an interesting reason to start calling my son "Miles Bean".  

Last Monday, as the sun was streaming in through our back windows, I noticed something in Miles' ear.  I grabbed a q-tip and attempted to get it out which pretty much caused Miles some serious pain.  So I called his doctor to see if I could get him to take a look at it.  Miles has always had issues with wax in his ears, so I just assumed that's what it was and figured it must be impacted or have caused an ear infection.  It did look rather smooth though and was harder than I thought wax should be, but still I thought it was wax and assumed he was smart enough not to stick anything in there!  Wrong!  We couldn't get into the doctor until Wednesday morning and when we finally got in, the doctor took a look at his ears and said there was some wax and they'd irrigate it out.  So the nurse comes it and luckily Miles cooperates with no problem.  As she's squirting the water in his ear, out pops out a little bean shaped thing and I say, "Well there's that bean looking thing I was talking about." And the nurse says, "Yeah, that's definitely not wax.  I'll have to take a look at that."  She steps out of the room and then what do you know?  Miles decides to fess up.  (Believe me, we had asked him about a million times if he had stuck anything in there and of course his response was "No")  He did stick a bean in his ear after all!  What a little stinker!  Apparently, they made little shakers at preschool on the day they learned about music and mardi gras.  And while he was at school he decided that would be a fun thing to do.....I couldn't believe it.  I know he wasn't the first kid to stick something in his ear and won't be the last, but it's still one of those things that I just have a hard time understanding.  I'm hoping he learned his lesson and that this isn't the beginning of a string of curious mishaps.  

Global warming in the eyes of a 4-year-old

One part of being a mom that I love the most is seeing the world from a kid's perspective.  Sometimes the things they say are so sweet and innocent and sometimes they are just downright hilarious.  For me, this is the stuff that keeps me going day after day after day.  Yesterday, we drove to Indiana from Wisconsin on our way back from visiting my family (about 9 hours in the car by myself with my two kids....fun times!)  We drove thru some crazy rush hour traffic in Chicago and then proceeded thru what I like to call the "armpit of the world", otherwise known as Gary, IN.  It just smells bad and there are factories and smog and smokestacks for miles around.  I'm pretty sure my chances of getting cancer double every time I drive through.  Anyway, as we were passing by all the smokestacks, Miles pipes up and asks "Mom, are those cloudmakers?".  I couldn't help but crack up.  It never occurred to me that he wouldn't know what they were...it was so cute.  I almost wish I would have lied to him and told him he was right, but I explained what they were and he seemed satisfied with my answer.  Wouldn't it be nice if they were just cloudmakers?  

I need to get a life

People who know me may think that I'm busy and I guess I am.  I'm not really one to sit around and relax during the day when I'm at home with the kids (unless I'm on vacation or have company at my house) cause there's always something to do.  I like to take my kids to playgroups and the library and whatever other free activities I can find in the area.  If we have nothing going on, I'm usually picking up around the house or paying the bills or checking email or whatever else on the computer.  I'll admit my night life could use a little pick me up....and here's how I know that.  Maizy likes to pack up all her purses and bags and baby stuff like she's a mommy that's getting ready to go somewhere.  When she's all ready, she says "Okay, I'm going to my meeting!"  Funny girl!  Then this evening, I was putting away the last of the snowman decorations that we have up around the house.  I have this set of three snowmen that are of varying sizes.  So Maizy was helping me put them away and she tells me the littlest one is the "baby smowman" and the medium one is the "kid snowman" and the biggest one is the "daddy snowman".  She proceeds to say that there isn't a mommy snowman so I ask her where she thinks the mommy snowman went and yep, you guessed it, she says "She went to a meeting".  Needless to say, I'm pretty sure she thinks this is the only time I get out of the house, which is mostly true I guess.  I'd love to get out more on the weeknights (and weekends for that matter) but seriously, how do you do that as a stay-at-home mom?  By the end of the day I'm exhausted, not to mention my husband travels so that leaves little opportunity to get out anyway.   I just thought it was a funny observation from my almost 3 year old daughter.  Maybe she's telling me I need to get a life!  Thanks Maiz!

I'm not meant to be a single mom

I'm in the middle of making dinner and just thinking about how grateful I am to have Mike home tonight.  This is the first weeknight that he's been home since January 8th so it's been a while since I've had some relief at the end of the day.  He was home thru the weekend and will head back to SD on Wednesday night.  I'll be heading to Wisconsin to visit my family and then he'll catch up with us there over the weekend.  Anyway, I was thinking about how you adapt so easily to changes in life.  Like, for instance, Mike leaving for work in the morning....when he kissed me and said good-bye this morning, it freaked me out for a second (I was in a deep sleep so that could have had something to do with it).  And then when he walked through the door this afternoon, it took me a second to realize that he was actually home.  The kids were really excited to see him home after work.  I think they figured if he was at work, then that must mean South Dakota.  I've realized over the past few weeks that I'm really not meant to be a single mom and I know why Heavenly Father designed marriage like he did.  I seriously don't know how single moms do it....I would be even crazier than I am!

I also had the opportunity to get away for the weekend with my wonderful sister-in-laws. Nina, Heather, Kate, Dana and I got together Friday night until Sunday to scrapbook and hang out.  We had such a great time together!  I'm so lucky to have a wonderful sister-in-laws!  It was so nice to have a completely stress-free kid-free weekend and to have the chance to just talk about our kids and husbands and life.  We are all married to brothers so we all understand what it's like to be married to an Aeschliman and we can all offer up advice or just vent our frustrations.  I love it!  Sometimes there can be drama with a big family, but fortunately, we have lucked out and all of us sister-in-laws get along great for the most part!  I'm looking forward to the next time we can all hang out! 

Week 4....and I'm just barely hanging on

I haven't posted anything in a while because, well, I just haven't had the time.  Mike is out of town for the 4th week in a row and I feel like I'm getting close to the end of my rope.  Luckily, he's been able to come home on the weekends, so I've had a little break so I can't complain too much.  The first week, the kids were really good, but since then they have definitely mastered the art of pushing my buttons.  Here are some of the things that I've had the joy of dealing with in the past few weeks:

• Maizy colored on the walls all the way up the stairs...thank goodness she used cheap dollar store markers that came off easily with rubbing alcohol.  Unfortunately, it brought to my attention the fact that my walls need a serious bath cause now there's a definite white streak through the middle.  Thanks Maiz, that's just wanted I wanted to do!
• Next day, Maizy colored on herself. This time it was with a dry erase marker....could have been a sharpie so I'm grateful it wasn't!
• I came downstairs to this:
• What may you ask is Maizy holding onto in this picture? Well, that would be our Macintosh computer! Isn't that fabulous?!   I was upstairs for like a minute changing the laundry or something and I walked downstairs to see the computer inches away from falling off the desk and Maizy crying and holding onto it for dear life.  And the kicker is, I didn't take this picture.  Miles was insightful enough to realize that I'd want to document our $1400 computer smashing into a million pieces, so instead of helping Maizy sit the computer back up, he grabs the camera and snaps not one, but three pictures.  When I came down, I helped Maizy get the computer upright and then a few days later discovered the photographic evidence.  The kids were in big trouble for this....let's just say they won't be making that mistake again! 
• Last Thursday, I met a friend of mine and her kids at Castaway Cafe in Howell so the kids could play and we could relax in their comfy chairs and talk.  Well, I don't know if you've ever been to one of those indoor jungle gym places, but there's not much relaxation going on for the parents (maybe for some, but not if your kids are like my kids).  First, they needed me to show them how to go down the slide after climbing up to the top of the tallest one and sitting there until I climbed up after them.  Then, my friend left her two year old with me for about 15 minutes so she could run to the outlet mall to exchange something.  I thought, sure, no big deal.  Here's what happened:  As she was walking out, I was scanning the jungle gym trying to spot my two kids and her little boy, Cooper.  I found mine but could not see Cooper anywhere  and I started to panic.  I climbed up to the big slide thinking maybe he was stuck at the top...no luck!  I was just about to go to the desk and ask them to help me look for him when I see him sitting in one of the party rooms they have on the side happy as can be playing with a pile of straws!  You little turkey!  Then about a minute later, I hear a blood curtling scream but I can't see where it's coming from but I think it's in the general direction of my kids.  So I climb up to find a little boy pretty much attacking Maizy and biting her arm.  Poor little thing!  I climbed down with her and as soon as she calms down, Cooper realizes his mom is gone and starts to freak out.  So I'm trying to tell him his mom will be right back but he heads for the bathroom thinking she might be in there.  He's walking toward the bathroom, looking back at me while I'm chasing him and BAM! walks right into a table and his mouth starts gushing blood.  Great!  I look like a terrible babysitter, but I swear I was watching them!  I think I just got confirmation that I shouldn't have any more kids! 
• Our cat, Rico, jumped up on my lap today and I noticed that his whiskers had been trimmed.  Not just a little bit either....he's got about 1 inch of whiskers on either side!  He's an outdoor cat so I thought maybe some kid grabbed him and cut his whiskers as a practical joke or something, but then I remembered my friend who watched my kids yesterday for a couple hours mentioned that Miles came down with a pair of scissors and said something about the cat.  When she told me that I figured it wasn't a big deal cause Rico's really fluffy and has fur to spare.  Now I realize what really happened.  Miles is at school right now, but you can bet we are going to have a little discussion when he gets home!....The cat's fine, but seriously what was he thinking? I'm grateful it wasn't Maizy's hair....I'd be crying if it was. 

Okay so can you maybe understand why I'm ready for Mike to be home?  I'm going scrapbooking with my sister-in-laws this weekend and, man, am I looking forward to it. It will be just the break I need! 

One week down...one to go!

Well, Mike has been out of town for a week now and the kids are still alive so that's a good sign.  Actually, they behaved amazingly well for me.....I'm starting to to think that they are turning into good, kind, and responsible little kids and that maybe we as their we parents aren't totally screwing them up.  Mike and I have a little agreement going that he puts the kids to bed every night.  To be honest, he really is better at that than me anyway....maybe it has something to do with the "night-night horse" that delivers the kids into their beds.  With him gone, I was really dreading having to do that for 8 nights straight with no help.  Does that make me a bad mom?  Well after taking care of their every need all day long, sometimes putting them to bed puts me over the edge so I'm really grateful for our little agreement when Mike is home.  It gives me a chance to relax for a moment while Mike is fulfilling all their silly bedtime requests....I need my transformer blanket, I don't want my Thomas blanket, can you get my flashlight, where's my omnitrix alien, can you spread the books out on my bed?, I need my purse, I need my babies, can you move the shopping cart closer to my bed?.........the list of requests could go on and on if we didn't nip it in the bud and tell them to GO TO SLEEP already!  Anyway, like I said I was really dreading this, but seriously they have been such good kids this week!  I haven't had any issues with the exception of coming home late one night and Maizy having to be woken up to get her jammies on.  She was not so happy about that!   I'm just really grateful that Heavenly Father answered a little prayer for me and made bedtime a cinch for me this week.  And I'm grateful for a husband who's whipped the kids into shape!

Mike will be home tomorrow night.....yeah!  The kids are super excited to see him.  I can't remember the last time he was gone for this long.  It may even have been before the kids came along.  We are looking forward to a nice weekend together before he heads back to South Dakota on Monday.  Then we have another week without Daddy.....bummer!  Definitely better than no job at all though!  I just hope next week goes as smoothly as this one did!

Miles and Maizy's Greatest Hits

Here are a couple funny videos of my kids singing....I'm thinking Maizy inherited my musical talents....or lack thereof.....

Maizy singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"

A song Miles learned at school....

Pure silliness!

This week I'm watching Zac and Julie Heslip for a few days while their mom is at work in the mornings.  They are Miles and Maizy's best friends that they have known since birth (they are just a month younger than Miles) and I have to say this may be the easiest babysitting job that I've ever had!  They haven't seen each other much in the last few months because they are all in preschool now, with the exception of Maizy, so I think they are just loving being around each other. I can tell because there has been some extreme silliness going on this morning.  The girls dressed up as princesses and Zac was their prince....that wasn't too silly but it was cute!

The boys decided they didn't want to play with girly things and put on the manly glasses and mustaches that we got in our stockings!  They thought they looked hilarious.....or "ilarious" as Miles would say. 

Then they started to play the "name game"...you know Miles Miles Bo Biles Banana Fanna Fo Files......they were cracking themselves up so much.  I love that they can entertain themselves and aren't sitting in front of the TV.  I only had a few times where I had to break up a fight over a toy or game or whatever, but they are all getting better at sharing and taking turns every time we get together.  We shall see how this week plays out.....hopefully they don't get sick of each other!

Getting back into the swing of things

Well, Mike's back to work so the holidays are officially over and we are just trying to get back to our normal routine.  I'm attempting to get the Christmas decorations put away and get the dust cleaned up that seems to be EVERYWHERE from working on the basement...okay, I'll admit there was probably a lot of dust that was there before all the sanding.  I HATE DUSTING!  The kids are busy playing "Mike and Katie" with Maizy's babies.  They crack me up.

We are also working on potty training Maizy since Santa gave her Little Mermaid and grandma gave her princess underwear for Christmas.  We had been prepping her for it for a while before Christmas telling her if Santa brought her underwear that she'd have to start wearing them instead of diapers.  She was pretty excited out opening up the underwear and I told her once we washed them she could start wearing them.  So we put her new undies on after my family left on Friday and she is doing GREAT so far!  She's only had a couple accidents (luckily no #2!) and has been really good about just going to the bathroom on her own and she doesn't require a bribe like candy or a sticker like I had to do with Miles.  I feel like with him I always had to remind him or he'd get too distracted.  She seems to have picked it up a little faster, so I'm hoping it will stick!  We've attempted twice before (once in the spring and once in the summer) but she didn't really go for it like I was hoping she would.  With the warm weather, the kids would be outside and she'd be distracted....who could blame her? So I'm hoping the third times the charm.  I've always heard of kids that potty train themselves and it seems as though I've lucked out this time with her.  I just needed to wait until she was ready, I guess.  It will be so nice to have kids out of diapers!

I am also gearing up for Mike going out of town for the next couple weeks.  He will be in Aberdeen, SD working on software for those big windmills that are popping up all over the country.  I'm so very grateful that he still has a job and still has work to do, but it's pretty much going to suck to have him gone for so long.  I guess the hotel he's staying at has a waterpark, so I wish we could go with him, but airplane tickets are about $1700 so I'm thinking that's out of the question.   Plus, Miles is in preschool so I wouldn't want to pull him out of school for too long.  He starts back up on Wednesday and as I'm sitting here listening to Maizy scream about him bugging her, I'm already getting excited for school to start again.  Sometimes they just need that break from each other.  Anyway, I guess I'm going to have to find some things to do while Mike's out of town to keep myself from going crazy!  I'm going to start right now with putting a crabby little girl down for a nap!

Christmas 2008

What a great Christmas we had!  We stuck around here for Christmas day which was a nice change from the usual traveling we do this time of year.  My entire family came to Michigan this year to celebrate.  We had a fabulous time and I'm sad it's over!  I also convinced my sister, Erin, to come a few days early and spend Christmas Day with us.  We had so much fun hanging out with the kids and shopping and going to the movies and working on crafts....my kids are so lucky to have an auntie that loves them so much!   I'm lucky too cause she helps me out so much when she's here!  It's like a little mini vacation when someone's here to help with the chaos to being home with two kids.  Anyway, we made some delicious steaks for Christmas Eve and had a nice quiet dinner with the kids.  Then Miles decided to crank up some Christmas tunes and sing and play the air guitar....well actually the wrapping paper tube guitar. What a funny kid!  

Then we put out cookies and milk for Santa and apples for the reindeer!

The kids were totally geeked about Santa coming when they went to sleep, but by the morning they were clueless.  I was a little afraid we'd wake up to a mound of wrapping paper and the kids in a sugar coma, but they slept in until 8:15am and hardly even remembered what day it was.  I asked them if they knew what day it was and they asked "Is it Saturday?" I asked if they knew who came last night and they were oblivious. Finally, I asked if they knew of anyone who wears a red suit and has a white beard and that seemed to trigger their memory....it was about time!  We ran downstairs and they opened their gifts. I was kind of afraid that the kids would be disappointed because we didn't go crazy this year on gifts, but they couldn't have been happier!  It was so much fun to see the looks on their cute little faces when they opened their gifts!  

After opening gifts, we went to Mike's parents for the day and had a great time hanging out and playing games with his family.  

On the 27th, we had our good friends Maggie Walker and Sammy Bean (Jordan had to work....bummer!) and Kate and Adrian Klemme over for lunch.  It was so great to see them and for Mike and Kate to reminisce about their high school days. We really enjoyed meeting Adrian for the first time and seeing Kate's cute little baby bump!

The rest of my family came into town on the 27th, which was great cause it felt like Christmas was stretched out for a few more days.  My sister, Jen, and her family hadn't been to our new house yet so it was nice to finally have them over in our neck of the woods.  All the cousins and the adults had a great time with each other!  We celebrated Christmas on Sunday with my mom's potato soup and then just enjoyed a nice relaxing week of scrumptious food and good quality family time!  We all gave my dad a Nintendo Wii for Christmas so we played that pretty much nonstop for the rest of the week when the girls weren't cooking or making crafts and the guys weren't working on mudding and taping our basement.  I had a Wii age of 73 the first day (yeah, I know....that sucks!) but improved to 36 by the next day after getting used to using the remote.  I didn't get around to testing my age the last few days because I was sucked into doing a 2000 piece puzzle with about 50 different snowmen on it and about a thousand different patterns of plaid that my mom brought along.  It was a beast but we finally finished it last night!  

For New Year's we had Mike parents and sisters, Tiff and Beth, over for prime rib. As always it was delicious and we had a blast playing the Wii, doing the puzzle and ringing in the New Year!  I'm so lucky to have two wonderful families that enjoy spending time together!  On New Year's Day, we celebrated my brother-in-law, Joel's, birthday (he's actually a Christmas baby!) by going out to lunch at BD's Mongolian BBQ....yum!   

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas!  My family left this morning and it seems like time just flew by too fast!  Why is vacation always like that?! Anyway, I'm so grateful for my family!  I'm so glad they could come and spend time with us here in Michigan!  I'm so blessed!

We have a blog....finally!

Welcome to our blog!  Mike has been trying for over a year now to get me to keep up on our Facebook page, but I just can't seem to get into that.  I think it has something to do with our account being linked to his email so I never get messages or know when there's new postings, etc. Anyway,  I know several friends that have blogs and I love reading their posts and seeing what's going on in their lives.  I love the cute little stories that people tell about their kids and the hilarious and precious things they say and do.  Those stories help me to reflect on my own life and help me to appreciate the little things that my family does everyday to make me smile. But, I was feeling a little like I'm spying in on peoples lives by reading their blogs and not having one of my own. So, I figured with the new year, I'd try something new.....I'm not really into New Year's resolutions, but I do hope to accomplish a few things with this blog.  

• I'm hoping to keep in touch with friends and family a little better this year
• To document things that make my happy in everyday life
• To appreciate my family more 
• To help me remember all the pictures and events I want to scrapbook throughout the year 
• And to share some stories about my kids....because I think they are freaking hilarious!

So here goes!  Hope you enjoy!