Happy 29th Birthday to me!

72 hour kits-- food for 3 days, change of clothes, flashlight, and first aide kit
lazy, big ole' dog. Most days she is seen doing exactly this for hours on end.
our visitor-- the mallard duck
I love strawberry shortcake. I got new clothes, pjs, and cash for my birthday!
Oh, and I got this cool new mop which uses steam to clean...great for my tile floors and hardwood stairs!

Yep, today is my birthday and despite being under the weather and having kids there too, I have to say being 29 isn't so bad! I have a great husband, 4 gorgeous kids and a big, beautiful house (yeah!) and a big ole' pretty good dog. Life couldn't be better (that is, I wish we lived closer to grandparents but right now this will do as it is an excellent job opportunity for Josh!). We celebrated today with french toast for breakfast and PF Changs for lunch. I am a big fan of Chinese and there is this little restaurant in my hometown that I grew up eating, Chopsticks, and seriously nothing can compare, but I do like PF Changs, a more contemporary Chinese cuisine, but man that candied shrimp is divine. You have to try it with some brown rice. We tried the wontons today too, and I love the plum sauce that comes along too..our kids even like Chinese so it was all good. I am not a big fan of making something else for dinner, so our kids get a lot of variety in their palate and by far they love seafood (esp crab) the best, but they eat mostly anything or at least try it. Once a week I do make a kid's dinner and we have fish sticks or mac 'n cheese.
We have had cold weather here, but before we miss spring all together, Josh has been busy planting in our garden, tomatoes to start and we treated the lawn and watched all our daffodils bloom. We also discovered we have a grape trellis (we need to finish) and a plum tree...A mallard duck even visited us one day and strolled around our yard. The big ole' dog mostly enjoys sun bathing and laying around, but she likes to run in circles and play with her toys too.
I caught the preparation bug, especially with the price of gas and food soaring and finished up our 72 hour kits the week. We each have a bag filled with the necessities. It feels great to be that prepared. We also taught the kids about fire safety for FHE and got these bright red stickers from the fire department to stick in their windows, "child finders" and we even got a "pet finder" one! We discovered we have the best fire alarms money can buy, they even have a built in carbon monoxide detector. Man, when it comes to this house, the builder did not skimp anywhere! We love finding out all the cool things our house has that we didn't even realize when we bought it. For instance, we have a "crumber", as seen on Oprah yesterday! I just sweep the crumbs up to the cabinet and flip it on with my foot and it sucks all my crumbs into the central vac system. I love it! Never will do without again! Have I mentioned how much I love this house! It couldn't be more perfect other than to be in California! Oh well, Iowa is good enough, we are very happy! Happy Birthday to me!

Well, it is true, I am boring to listen too....

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Sick again....

Darn, darn weather.... we have had like one day at 70 and the rest in the 40s. Rain non-stop and everything wet and cold. I already washed all the winter stuff and put it away and I am NOT getting it out again until next year! So, colds have been running rampant among us Iowans...Asher had snot leaking from every possible place (no joke!) finally his eyes were so bad I took him in and turns out he has a cold and an ear infection so now he is on an antibiotic for his eyes and a separate one for his ears. He is feeling better and now Mommy is feeling terribly: coughing, runny nose, sneezing and Mel, and Mara started the same today. If we could just get outside more. I know the dog would like it too. She is pretty good about being in the house and we only let her be downstairs, but she gets wound up and the kids do too and then it is a madhouse. Plus she whines at all meal times (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack...you get the picture), so I have to put her in the crate or force her outside when we eat. I would just like her to be outside anyway, but everything is wet and we don't have a dog house for her yet.
Josh has been a no show for two weeks..on medicine again. He is either working late or on call with no days off. Whoever in their right mind would want to be an Internist? Anyway, tomorrow is the last day and boy am I and the kids looking forward to seeing our Daddy again. I am beat entertaining myself and kids (and dog too) day in and day out for 14 days. I am practically a single parent! (I don't know how those women do it!) It is these times that I miss having family around to hang out with or go places. I am not a real chummy person and I have a hard time making friends, so I have them, and I love my friends, but I am so busy with my kids that I don't get around to being with my friends that often. Tuesday, our one nice day, Stef and Amy did come over with their kids and we enjoyed the sun and backyard together...I wish we could have more days like that. I did have some gals over for book club too. I must admit I love the extra space that we have and can have people over and enjoy it.
I broke down and cut Asher's hair finally. It was sticking to all the gunk in his eyes and I couldn't handle it. I love the long locks, but he needs to be a boy sometime. He looks all grown up now :o(

Home again...

new cuzzy: Peyton Christine Crown

Gabby and Melina at miniature golf

Stubblefield (Runyan) cousins

Price cousins

We are back home from our trip to California and settling in nicely. The weather though has not cooperated and we even got about 2 inches of snow yesterday! :o( I am desperately waiting for spring and more time outside with the kids. We enjoyed visiting our grandparents but sadly did not have a whole lot of time to spend with them. We would have loved to just do something with them and the kids, but it did not work out that way. We enjoyed playing with the Crown, Lyon and Runyan cousins. We had a awesome round of minature golf for FHE, ate way to much McDonalds and enjoyed a parade of movies. Dacia was a tropper and thoroughly enjoying her new home. She has fit right in and especially loves her giant backyard! We have also re-crate-trained her and she spends her nights in the crate and some days when the weather has been bad and we are not home. She loves the crate and goes right to it. (I guess all that work when she was a puppy paid off because she is not afraid or mad to go in the crate at all, in fact sometimes she just goes and lays in it).

Tax season is upon us and is much dreaded. We of course discovered just how much we owe the govt from Josh's moonlighting....dumb taxes! According to them we are rich, but we are far from rich, monetarily that is. We are blessed with a beautiful home, great job, 4 gorgeous children, and a family who loves us. What more can I ask for?

We are looking forward to family visiting us in June and a summer filled with warmer days a fun!

10 month comparisons