Happy Hauntings!

Backyard Campout

Pretty much this is what I call C-A-M-P-I-N-G! All of the luxuries of home yet you get to sleep in the wilderness. Hey, there are bugs and trees and stuff in the backyard! Our family celebrated Brooky-boo's 4th birthday with a campout and an outdoor movie! It was so much to sit, relax and crawl into a sleeping bag, then wake up the next morning and help make a delicious breakfast outside. Love summer.

What Would YOU Do?

Today my friend Kelli and I went to the park to let the kids play and have a picnic. Sounds nice right? It was, until this woman who was trying to get her little girl to leave the playground started crying because she didn't want to go yet. This lady was yelling for her to "come on, we're leaving now" to screaming at her to get into the car. This screaming was head turning and of course people are going to look because of how out of control she got from a 2 year olds tantrum. As the woman is putting her baby in the car seat she is SCREAMING at the girl to shut up and get in the car and soon comes around and grabs her extremely rough to put her in the car seat SCREAMING "Shut up! The world doesn't need to hear you cry!" It gets worse...she gets in the car and peels out and drives past Kelli and I and flips us off! Speeds off, erratically out of the parking lot. It was really shocking. Now my question is what would you have done? I am kicking myself because I really feel like I should have intervened on behalf of the child because of the way she was being treated for what was really a normal behavior for a kid that age, so what is going on in private if that was that lady's public display of discipline? Next, I should have gotten her license plate number for her erratic driving and endangering her two children all because she is upset that people were looking at her for her all sorts of crazy behavior. If you have ever watched Primetime:What would you do? They have actors to play out those type of situations to see what people would really do if they saw something abusive, neglectful or dangerous going on. I failed miserably. I was just waiting for the host to come out and ask, why didn't you step in and help? I just hope the little kids are ok and their mother may come to a realization that what she is doing is NOT at all acceptable.

BE ORGANIZED. BE PREPARED.

This is actually the second day of school, but she just looked so darn adorable.

Luke was excited for his sissy to go to school, so he could have Mommy all to himself. Not really, he asked about her all day long.

My perfect little princess. She picked her outfit out with Nana Bighouse all by herself and chose to wear it on the first day.

Be Organized. Be Prepared. Our family theme for this school year. Good advice for the Stander's, if you know us. I am starting by taking my own advice to keep up on the things that are important and should be important to me and my family. One is keeping up this blog for my memory sake because it seems as of late, it's just not what it used to be. So with that, here are a few pictures of my Meemers on her first day as a first grader...where has time gone?!

My boy's a champ!

My last entry I was excited for the possiblities of potty training, though not very opptimisic of how it would all turn out. I was ready for the accidents throughout the day, and night but to my complete satisfaction, my little boy--excuse me, my big kid is potty trained! Luke has not had ONE accident since the last entry and and successfully number two'd all by himself! I am amazed. That little stink has been holding out on me probably for months now. He even woke me up in the wee hours of the morn (3 a.m.) to inform me he went pee-pee in the toilet! That deserved the pee-pee song and dance. It goes something like this: "Pee-pee in the pot-tay, pee-pee in the pot-tay, pee-pee in the pot-tay YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!" And you must do a conga-line type dance while singing. He is filling that potty chart up with stickers and filling his belly with potty time treats. Good job son, a job well done!

Pee-Pee in the potty...FINALLY!

Luke turned 3 in March and I have been hoping that he would just kind of potty train himself...no luck. So last Saturday, Mia and Luke had a sleep over at Nana Bighouse's--(Beau's parents house) and we forgot to bring Mia some undies so Nana went to Walmart and bought her some, and when she came back and presented them to Meemers, Lukey-boy got very upset that he didn't get any and so Nana told Luke that if he went pee-pee in the potty that he could get some big-boy undies too. And wouldn't ya know he went, not once but twice! So I kept it going after hearing that spectacular news and he went for me too! A few times in the potty, a few times on the carpet, wood floor, and yes, even my kitchen counter to which Brooke (my niece) promptly came running to me yelling "Luke peeped!" After disinfecting my household and doing many loads of laundry we will continue to press forward--without anger or frustration of the next days, weeks and hopefully not months to come. For I desperately want this child in pre-school this coming school year for both of our sakes. So, if any of you who have gone through such trials as these, please comment of what worked, what didn't and what you would do different.

Side note: We do have a potty chart and he gets to put stickers on it everytime he successfully goes, and we have treaters for him.

Easter, soccer and dance..picture overload!

Fun, Fun, Easter! My little rag-a-muffins Easter morn so excited for what the Easter Bunny has brought... And through the magic of a bath, a little gel and a curling iron...waalaa two presentable children!

This is the best I could do to get the kids to take a picture together.

The second Easter egg hunt of the day! Little Luke the first out of the gate.

Again..the best I could do.

Mia has started soccer this year, and I think she likes it. She is definitely the fastest on the team.

Beau is one of 3 coaches for a 5 year old team...how many do they really need?:)

Great kick girlfriend!

Meemers and her bestie after the big game.

Competition season of Mia's dance class has started. She danced away to "Splish Splash" and was completely adorable.

She is waiting around with the other dancers for the awards.