Sand + 2 kids = big mess for Mom

We have been wanting to get the kids a sandbox for a while, and we finally found one that we liked. It was waiting for us when we got home yesterday, and so the kids and I headed over to Home Depot for some sand. The sand came in these 50 lb bags, and they were very deceiving. They didn't look that heavy because of the size of the bag, but those little suckers just about broke my back! I had to load them up in the car and then carry them into the house and out into the backyard. What a workout! The kids love their sandbox and they were out there getting good and dirty for over 2 hours. I propped open the back door, lifted up all of the blinds, cleaned up the kitchen, and made dinner while they played.
They also loved the big box that the sandbox came in, and this became their fort. I think from now on I am going to just buy big boxes for the kids to play with, they thought this was the coolest thing ever, and they did not want to come inside when dinner was ready. I has to drag them both upstairs for a quick shower before dinner though, and it was a good thing because they were covered from head to toe. It was great watching them play and have so much fun. Keslie kept saying "Thank you for my new sandbox". Your very welcome sweet girl!

Keslie was annoyed and did not want to stop playing long enough to take a picture. I am like the paparazzi to her!

Taking a break after a having so much fun. Aren't they the cutest?!

One week and counting....

Grey's starts one week from tonight! I have been waiting all summer for season 4 to start, and I am very excited. I really don't watch that much T.V. , but every Thursday you can find me planted on the couch finding out the latest happenings at Seattle Grace and talking to Brock during commercial breaks about the show. Everyone needs a guilty pleasure right?!

Congratulations Liz!!!!

I just read on the Creating Keepsakes website that Liz won Scrapbooker of the Year. This is HUGE in the scrapbooking world! Liz is an awesome scrapbooker and she totally deserved to win. She is so talented and all of her pages are amazing. Congrats Liz, can't wait to see more of your work. :)

Scrapbooking....

This 12 x 6 layout is for this months challenge at The Goodie Box. I haven't ever done any other sizes except for 12 x 12 pages. It was fun to try a different size, and of course it's always great to finish another layout. The second page was one I did while we were in Colorado. Jack loves to play Keslie's Leapster and he even plays it more than she does. What is is with boys and video games? I guess boys could probably say the same for girls and their love of shoes and bags right?!

Bootcamp....

My friend Brittany invited me to "bring a buddy to bootcamp day", so this is where I was very early on Saturday morning. It was lots of fun, and I got an awesome workout. They had us do lots of fun stuff like suicides, squats, frog jumps, sprints, push ups, and crunches. I woke up yesterday and today feeling pretty sore, but I'm not as sore as I thought. Walking down the stairs and washing my hair takes a little longer, but I had fun anyway. P.S. Let me know if any of you want to purchase tickets to the gun show.

I'm an Aunt again!

I now have 12 nieces and nephews (including Brandon's side), and my parents now have 12 grandchildren! My little sister Meredith had her twins on Tuesday. Aidan was 4 lbs. 10 oz. 17 in. and Alexander (Xander) was 3 lbs. 9 oz. 16 1/2 in. She did great and didn't have to have a C-section. I think all of the Kartchner girls are blessed with good genes because we all seem to have fairly easy labor and deliveries. They are both going to be in the hospital for a little while because they are so small, but so far they are doing great. I am planning on going out there to see them next month, and I can't wait to take some cute baby phots. (we all know how much I love to take photos!) A big congratulations to Meredith and J.R. on the new arrivals!

New look...

Thanks to my cousin's wife Julie, I have a very cute new look on my blog. She sent me the link to this great website that gives you free templates for your blog. There were lots of cute choices, and it was hard to pick one, so I will probably be changing it every few months. Thanks Julie for the great link, I love the new look!
The website is http://www.matiekay.blogspot.com/ so go check it out!

I also wanted to give a few "shout outs" to some of my peeps. :)

Bethany - Thanks for leaving a comment, let me know when you get your blog up and running. I can't wait to read it. Tell everyone hi for me.

Julie - I'm so glad you like reading our blog, it's great to hear from you. Do you have a blog? Let me know so I can stalk your blog too!

Brock - What's up yo? How's school going? Thanks for the comment, keep em coming.

Liz - Keslie is my "mini me" and she acts a lot like me too, scary! When do you go to Vegas for SOY? I hope you win, you deserve it. Tell Collin hi.

Alicia - I'm glad everything is going well with you. Jaide is getting so big! Spice Girls 4eva!

McKinley - I miss you and can't wait to see more pictures of your house. What's the weather like right now?

Charity - Everytime I read your blog I miss California so much. I didn't live there very long, but I would move back there in a heartbeat.

Brit - Hi! Can't wait till Bootcamp tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I love hearing from all of you and it's great to keep in touch with everyone. A big hi to everyone else that reads our blog too, we love you all and miss everyone! Have a great weekend.

Thanks Brit!

My fabulous friend Brit offered to take Jack for me today so I could have some "me" time after I dropped Keslie off at school. After I took Keslie to school, I headed over to the gym and did some cardio before taking an Abs class. After the gym I headed over to the scrapbook store where I hung out for a while trying to kill some time. The lady working at the scrapbook store thought I was 16 and skipping out on my classes. She was very surprised to hear that I am 26 and that I have 2 kids. It made me feel good to hear I looked so young, but I think she might need to get her eyes checked cause 16 is a little exaggerated! After the scrapbook store, I headed over to a home decor store where I bought a couple of yummy smelling candles. I have been kinda bummed for a while that summer is over already, but after looking at all of the cute Halloween and Christmas decorations I am getting excited for the upcoming holidays.

Keslie had a good day at school, Jack had lots of fun with his buddy Ethan, and I had a great day hanging out with no little kiddos. Thanks Brit, you are the best!

Preschool....

Keslie started school last week and she is loving it. She was so excited on her first day, that she didn't even want to eat breakfast. (sorry, don't know why there are 2 of the same picture). She kept saying "let's go mommy" so after we took a few pictures we headed off to school, and ended up being 15 minutes early.

When we went to her classroom, she met her teacher, then she washed her hands (great rule!) , and then she went straight back to the computer. I gave her a kiss and told her I would be back in little while to get her, but I really don't think she even heard me! She was having too much fun on the computer and meeting her new little friends. I am so glad she didn't even notice I was gone because it makes everything so much easier!

When I picked her up, I asked her lots of questions, but she didn't really say too much about it. She did say that she had fun and that her teacher was nice. I'm so glad she likes school and that I found a great school for her.

Food storage....

After we got back from Colorado, we headed over to Costco to get started on our food storage. We bought so much stuff, and it feels great to have so much food in our house. We bought lots of canned food, frozen food, and meat that we stored in the freezer. Thanks so much Mom and Dad for helping us get our food storage started!

Vacation day 7....

Saturday was our last day in Colorado, and I spent the day packing while Mimi and Papa took the kids swimming. After swimming my father in-law cooked some hot dogs and brats (yummy!) before we headed off to the airport. Jack was very sad to leave Papa and cried for about 10 minutes after we drove away. :( Keslie's favorite part of the whole trip is the bus drive we take after we dropped off the rental car and then get shuttled to the airport. She talked about it for days after we were home and she made sure to tell anyone who would listen about it.

Colorado was lots of fun, and just like always my in-laws treated us to lots of fun and lots of great food! Thanks Greg and Annette, we love you guys and miss you already!

Vacation day 6...

Ok , sorry it's taken over a week to finish our vacation post. We have been busy getting Keslie started in preschool and speech therapy which will be a post all in it's own.

My mother in-law took Keslie to get a manicure and a pedicure before school started. She had an "owie" on her foot so she wouldn't put her feet in the tub for the pedicure, and at first she didn't want them to paint her nails either. After a little time it think about it (and a little persuassion), she picked out the color she wanted and got her very first mani/pedi. She even got flowers painted on her nails too, and she was very careful to let her nails dry before she touched anything. She was so excited after it was over, she kept skipping around the room and giggling, it was so fun to watch her.

We all went to Beni Hana for dinner that night which was a lot of fun. The kids loved watching our food get cooked right in front of us, and we all loved watching the kids. Keslie just sat there and watched and would clap everytime our cook did something she liked. Jack loved the food and totally mastered the art of chopsticks. He ate an entire bowl of salad with chopsticks (he never eats salad at home!), and then he ate his noodles with chopsticks too. Everyone at our table got the biggest kick out of watching him eat. The lady sitting next to me told me she can't use chopsticks even when they put the paper and the rubber band on it for the kids. I think I should buy some chopsticks and try to get him to eat salad here at home! The food was great, but the entertainment was even better.

Day 5....

On Thursday Brandon went and had Lasik surgery on his eyes. He had really bad eye sight and it was such a pain for him to wear his contacts. The kids and I dropped him off and we headed over to the mall while we waited for him, but less than an hour later they called and said he was ready to get picked up. He said he could tell a difference right away, and he could already see better. He took it easy the rest of the day by resting and putting in lots of eye drops, but he siad it hardly hurt at all, and he was just so excited to be able to see so well.

More zoo pictures....

Day 4....

The weather was so nice on Wednesday, so we decided to take the kids to the Zoo. Keslie was our personal tour guide and directed us to the animals that were of interest to her. She made it very clear that she wanted to see only a select few animals and that was it. She was not at all interested in the other animals, and would become very agitated when we stopped to look at other animals. If we saw the zoo the way she wanted, we would be in and out in about 15 minutes! She only wanted to see the elephants, hippos, giraffes, lions, penguins, and of course Marty (zebras). She was happy when we rode the train, just not happy about waiting in line for the train. She also kept asking for "hot candy", and we finally figured out that she wanted "cotton candy". She picked out green "hot candy", and she was happy the rest to the day. Jack of course loved the train, and the penguins. He said "Happy Feet" when we went up to the penguin tank, and he was excite to see them swimming around in the water. His favorite part though was in the aquarium section. He loved going right up to the glass and looking at the fish and other animals. Both of the kids were very happy and excited to see a "Nemo and Dori" fish. Keslie even said, "mom take a picture!" My favorite picture is of Jack standing right in front of a Komodo Dragon. This HUGE lizard was sitting right next to the glass, and Jack just went right up to it and pressed his little face against the glass too. That kid is fearless!

Day 3....

Tuesday - We took the kiddos to this really great park that has water fountains for the kids to run through, a small wading pool, a pond, and a playground. The kids were a littel afriad at first and didn't want to run through the fountains, but they warmed up to it after they watched some other kids do it first. After the fountains we took them over to the wading pool and this seemd to be Jack's favorite part, because the water was just the right heighth for him. The water was pretty cold so Keslie only stayed in for a few minutes before she headed over to the playground. Jack would have stayed in the water all day, but I had to drag him out (literally) before his limbs sarted turning blue! This park was lots of fun, I only wish I could find something like this here in Texas.

Day 2....

On Monday we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. This was there first time ever and they both cried the whole time and begged us to take them home. Seriously I think they have been more times than I have ever been in my whole life. I really don't mind taking them because they love it so much, and I love seeing how excited they get. We just always make sure to never ever go on a Friday night, or anytime on a Saturday cause that would just be suicide!

Sorry no pictures, I figured I had already taken enough there.

Day 1 of Vacation....

Sunday we hung out around the house and took it easy. All of the grandkids love Mimi and Papa's bed and they always end up in there watching cartoons. Keslie loved this cowboy hat and wore it most of the time when we were at the house. Jack was just lounging around watching Dora.