My puppies are HOME!

I know you all are SOOO worried about my puppies=) But just wanted to share they are home!!! Oscar struggled with eating this week while we were gone, I made them weigh him before we left and today, he had gained 6 lbs when I dropped him off and lost 4 of it while we were gone=( I knew that was probably going to be the case, so we are gonna work on fattening him up this week. I am also convinced the prozac is NOT working, so after this script is gone I am not gonna continue it. There are too many heart risks to continue it if its not working. From now on I'll take him with me or one of us need to stay home with him.

I took them to pick up the girls at school and the girls were so excited!!

I spent the day cleaning the house and doing laundry. The girls didn't think it was neccessary to help me by keeping their stuff picked up so I gave them free range of one of their bedrooms and that was it.

I have schoolwork tonight, SO FUN!!! Just keeping in mind I have about 9 months left till I'm done!

Back from An AMAZING TRIP!!!

After a rather comical experience at the Owensboro, KY airport including filing out an envelope to pay for parking, the ticket counter dude WRITING down our credit card number to pay for our checked baggage and it being the size of a McDonalds, (no exaggeration), we were off to Florida!!!! I "met" Kathleen online about 4 1/2 years ago on a mommy message board, before Addison was born. Over the years we knew we'd be good friends since we are both very opinionated, tell it like it is people. I read about, chatted about and waited through their infertility issues and the adoption of miss Whitney! I cried the night I watched the video of them bringing Whitney home from the hospital and the whole story of the miracle on her blog. When we went to Orlando in August we decided to have dinner!! We all hit it off so well, we promised then that we'd be back!!! They were so gracious to invite us to stay at their house and invade their lives for 5 wonderful days!

Here is me and Kathleen and Bailey dog too=) (does this look like Oscar a little? A human like dog)
Jas and Eric were able to steal the laptops (and Bailey) from us for a bit! SOOOO glad they got along as well as Kat and I do!!

Addison was SOOO in love with Whitney, calls Whit her best friend and all wants us to move in together=)

Here's the three girls in their tutu's (whit so graciously shared a couple of her 20 with the girls)

We were so very lucky to be able to visit Disney AGAIN!!!! Kathleen and Eric have a great friend who works at Disney that was able to score us some tickets for one day park hopper! So we did Epcot, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios!! It was also the nicest day of the week, highs in the mid 60's and sun!!!

We happened to call another one of our message board mommies Alison and her little boy Charlie (who live near Tampa) to meet us at the parks for the day!! Here's the kiddos all waiting for the "dream" parade to start

Here is me and my girls, Kathleen and Whitney, Alison and Charlie!! So glad to have met Alison and Charlie!

Girls loving Disney again!!

Of course we had to stop by and say hi to the MICK while we were there!

Charlie, Addison, and Alivia on the Mickey Bus heading to Magic Kingdom!

Whit's first AWAKE Playhouse Disney show, she LOVED it!!! And daddy Eric seemed pretty proud too!

The whole group minus Jas who took the pic

I was so glad they still had some of the Christmas stuff up, this is one memory of Disney at Christmas that I had from my childhood!

And Minnie of course, you can see how excited Addie was!!

At night we enjoyed some drinks and chilled out!!! Eric says we look like we need some cheetos=)

Addie's photography!

This looks like Addie just pushed Whitney over, but I promise that wasn't the case!

NEW SMYRNA BEACH

It was a balmy 42degrees at the beach that day, but we HAD to visit the beach!

Searching for seashells, one of the girls favorite things to do! We are diehard beach people if we were out in those temps!

Us four on the beach, some local took this for us when he said "I knew you were tourists, cause none of us would be out here today" =)

There is truely nothing better than a day at the beach, even when its cold!

This beach reminded us of Cocoa Beach, FL where we visited in August!

This is Lake Jesup, the highest alligator populated lake in all of Florida. They do airboat rides, but you wouldnt catch me dead on one of those things in a lake that's only about 5 foot deep and full of gators!!

Miss Whitney and Kathleen, Whit was dressed like a rockstar all week long with coordinating shoes and bows=)

The Girls at Lake Jesup standing next to a palm tree!

The only Alligator I'd let him take their picture with. Behind a cage is close enough for me.

Random Gator Facts:

Longest Recorded length: 19ft 2 in.

Lifespan: 70-100 years (longer in captivity)

Running speed: 35mph (so don't think you're gonna outrun one of those suckers)

So since I'm all about trying new things and having new experiences, I had to order the "Monterrey Gator" sandwich, breaded gator with bacon and cheddar cheese. This sandwich was JINORMOUS!

The girls had to try it too, ate the whole darn appetizer basket!
Not sure that Liv could taste it since she was bathing it in ketchup!
Sitting on the "Gator"
Ms.Whit tells me, she's gonna try Gator next time we visit, once mommy stops feeding her that boring baby food=)
We had an early flight from Orlando- Sanford leaving at 7:35 am. We left eric and Kathleen's house about 5:45 am, got to the airport about six. Now flying with allegiant may have brought us cheap deals, but their service SUCKS!! They only allow online check in if you want to prepay for your seats, since there is NO way i will pay for seat assignments I didn't do that. We check the rental car in and lug 2 carseats, stroller, kids, and luggage only to see the line of 40 people checking in, (evidently everyone else thought the prepay seat assignments were B.S. too) so after 40 minutes of standing in line (they only had ONE lady at the desk) we were headed up to security, a super fun task with 2 children who are half asleep and still in jammies. ONE line of security is all that is open, ONE! By the time we got through security, it was 7:10, the plane had already started boarding, we knew we were okay since half of the people behind us were boarding our plane also. Finally up up and away, we were bummed to be leaving! Back on the ground in the huge airport of Owensboro, we were a little nervous as we got closer to the ground and noticed the runway looking like this, I said to Jas, there is no way this is gonna turn out well.

As you can see we are getting off the plane, and walking down a ramp to go into the airport, ground covered in snow and ice, rather comical and a wonderful 8 degrees.

So after getting inside there is the flood of 150 people trying to pick up their luggage from a 10 foot long conveyor belt(geesh), I decided i'll take the girls out to the car and get it warmed up. Got the door unlocked and as I tried to start the car realized the damn battery was dead!! Freaking wonderful right!?! So I call jas quick and say guess what????? I then found the closest person and asked them for a jump, now mind you its 8 degrees, my gloves are in the trunk (which can't be opened since the battery is dead), its snowing a bit and the girls are cold. Finally got it jumped after about 15 miunutes and we were ready for the 3 hour drive home. We made it back to the wonderful town of Terre Haute about 2:30 and immeadiately needed a nap! We are really missing our puppies, can't pick them up till tomorrow morning so I'll be dropping the girls off, going to tan, then picking them up. I'm hoping Oscar will be okay!

So after a wonderful week, with some amazing friends we are feeling pretty lucky today!! We have friends all over the country, but not many that would put up with us for a whole week straight!! We can't wait to plan the next trip, hopefully once its warmer they'll come visit us (wink, wink) Thanks to the BASS FAM!!!!

Are ya ready!!!!

We sure are! Florida is just 3 days away and it looks like its gonna be an amazing little vacation. Our friends the Basses have hooked us up with some passes to Disney for one day, (super excited), I haven't really mentioned it to the girls yet. They think they are gonna be hanging with Whit all week. Addison has this idea that Kat and Eric have a triple bunk bed in their house and whit can sleep on the way top, she can sleep in the middle bunk and Liv on the bottom. Strange things that child comes up with. The weather is supposed to be mid 60's which i'm bummed about, but definately an improvement of the 7 degrees it was here this morning.


I should blog a ton about christmas but really It would be forever. We did Santa presents on Christmas Eve morning, the girls were so stoked when they walked down the stairs, most of the morning is caught on video! We let them play for a bit while we both got ready and headed out noon Christmas eve.The weather was a huge scare the days before leaving for Iowa. It turned out to be all rain on the way. Once we got to mom's I mixed myself a drink while we waited for Aunt courtney to get there from missouri, the kids immeadiately started whining about opening presents of course after they saw the sprawl across the living room upstairs. Bed time was super late that night of course. We woke up, had breakfast and started our christmas rush right away that morning. Ya know, god forbid we arrive in Iowa and be able to chill out for more than 12 hours. Later that afternoon it started snowing!! We did a small christmas between just us and my sisters and grandma and mom had some friends out that evening that we hadn't seen since before moving to texas.

Saturday morning we had family pics, ALL of us. My cousin Angie has her own photography business (www.ahfotography.com)so she fit us in while we were all home, which is a rarity! If you go to her website and click on gallery, then scroll down to Tami Jaeger family.

That afternoon we had another gift opening at mom's, followed by a nice nap. The girls had Arielle, their step cousin spend the night at grandmas and spent the night making forts and eating popcorn and conning grandma into staying up till after midnight watching movies. Hence making sunday a wonderful morning with 2 tired girls that don't understand, if you are up later, sleep later!!!!!

We spent a couple hours sledding in the snow as a whole family. The guys were attempting snow boarding down mom's hill and looked as if they were filming an episode of jackass. I of course put my camera and video away before they started the craziness. Sunday afternoon, my cousin Ashley and baby drake came to visit and exchange gifts. The roads were a little hairy that morning so we're glad they could end up making it. We then rushed rushed rushed again for yet another Christmas with Jason's parents. I somehow acquired the worst headache I've had in a long time, it started at the top of my head and felt like it was blinding me. The minute we got back to mom's, I laid down while jas started packing our stuff up and doing laundry. I NEVER let him do all that, NEVER, which he knew meant it was really bad. I'm assuming it was brought on my having about 6 consecutive days of 5 or less hours of sleep, since i haven't been sleeping well again.

Monday morning we woke up and loaded the car, had lunch with my friend misty, said goodbye to Jeff (sis Kas's bf), stopped and told Kasey goodbye at work. Then headed to grandma sandy's to tell them goodbye. They left wednesday to go to Texas for 2 months, which totally depresses me since they are staying about a half hour from Corpus Christi, but I am glad someone close to me is experiencing it. Finally we were headed home!!! The car was SOOO packed and even had to send some of our gifts with Jim to bring out on new years.

We got all unpacked, which is nothing less than a tornado hitting my living room with kids going through presents and getting EVERYONE spread out everywhere. We got to spend then Tuesday cleaning up and doing laundry. Wednesday we headed to St Louis about 2 1/2 hours away to meet my mom and sister (who was having a doc appt for her shoulder). Mom had gone home with court on sunday and was coming back with us to spend a few days at our house before she went back to work.

We had a pretty uneventful new year's eve. We had the opportunity to go out but were almost too tired to do so, so we decided to go have a couple drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings and come home for the ball drop. New Year's isn't a big holiday for us as a couple, we have never really gone out and celebrated it. Not that we wouldn't if we had a great opportunity to, but seems like either no sitter, live too far away or just don't feel like it. Maybe next year we can get all fancy and go out. New Year's day, me and mom made a fast trip to walmart to hit their 75% off christmas, and we really loaded up! Love saving money like that!!!

Today mom and jim took off, Jas went to work and I did NOTHING!!! And I feel okay about that for once. But tomorrow lots need to be done, packing for florida, cleaning up a bit and laundry of course. Maybe even some wii sports resort!!

Here's the link to my facebook album for some other christmas pics!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=352707&id=640130093&l=9197d84332

Tuesday blahs!

Well I am happy to say, all gifts are wrapped and ready to load up, minus Santa gifts of course. I am officially on break from school till January 5, which just happens to be the day we leave for Florida, but it is totally manageable to do while i'm gone! We are all very ready for Christmas and seeing everyone....

That is if the crappy weather allows us to get there. Forecast says mixture of rain/freezing rain/sleet and SNOW everyday throught Christmas. Really WHY does that have to come this week? My sister is driving up from Springfield, MO an 8 hour drive and we are driving in also from 5 hours away. Not fun in the bad weather. Please pray we all make it safely and by Christmas.

We've been teased by the snow here, an inch here and there but its melted by noon=( the girls have been pretty disappointed it isn't sticking around. But as always, Indiana sucks!

Off to start packing, and trying to figure out how to get all this in my car. Beverly Hillbillies won't have anything on us!

Whew....busy week last week and another one ahead

All these Christmas Activities have us worn out. Last week started with the girls tumbling christmas party where they got to do crafts, have snack time, do the big parachute(the girls favorite), and obstacle course and of course Santa came to visit. I was a little nervous about Alivia's reaction since she was a butt at Disney and wouldn't go up to any of the characters. The tumbling owner called both girls up together and this may have been the key, Addie of course runs and jumps on his lap. They both tell them their ages and he then asks what they want for christmas, Alivia goes first telling him she wants a new doll. Then addie goes into this long drawn out version of how she wants an American Doll just like Liv's, cause Livvy got one for her bday and she didn't. She then proceeded to tell him, they had a plan on switching on christmas morning, cause she loves Livvy's american doll. Addison of course again has the whole place cracking up as Santa is clearly trying to move her along to let the other kids have a turn.

I had to finish up teacher presents on wednesday, running to get wrapping supplies again, strangely mine keeps "disappearing" into the girls' room. I had a pretty big project due for school on Friday and thank goodness i decided NOT to procrastinate on this one, It was the most involved one I've done so far. I made a couple trips to the grocery store this week too. Friday was the girls last day of preschool and the family christmas party. Jas was able to sneak up to Terre Haute for a couple hours and go to both of the girls' classrooms for crafts, snacks and a little singing.

We had a crazy week at the vet last week AGAIN! Lilly had to go in for her suture's to be removed, she had a little fluid that had to be drained but seemed okay. I also had to take Oscar to have his nails groomed and to weigh him. Not sure if I went into that fiasco earlier, but Oscar's anxiety has gotten quite a bit worse the last 4 months, he starts to shake the minute I even look like i might be going somewhere. Well he's broken out of 2 steel kennel doors, tore all the weatherstripping off the backdoor twice and went after 2 rugs in the garage. The vet ran bloodwork and perscribed him prozac (how freaking wonderful), it will take about 30 days to go in effect. If this doesn't work the vet wants to send us to a specialist at Purdue (yeah right). His weight is a huge issue with this extreme anxiety. In september at his checkup he was 45 lbs, the vet said he was okay but didn't want him losing anymore weight, when I took him then 2 weeks ago he was 43.8lbs, not good. I had him weighed then on Thursday and he was down again, to 41.1lbs. I am pretty worried. The vet said push as much high protein food to him as possible and add in wet canned dogfood, he HAS to gain weight. But everytime he gets worked up he burns all the calories he's taken in. So for awhile i am going to try and take him as much as possible with me so he doesn't have that anxiety. Fast forward to last night with Lilly, the fluid she'd had from surgery around her incision has filled up again (ewww gross) I called the vet immeadiately, he assures me it isnt a HUGE deal, but she needs to rest in order for it to go down, even if that means kenneling her. Well this dog is CRAZY, she's the dog that will at 6:30 in the morning be running hot laps around my bed chasing her tail. So this is gonna be interesting to figure out how to get her to rest. Another saga in our dog world!

We had a lazy weekend. We knew how busy this week was going to be with Christmas and traveling and trying to finish a class, so we made a quick trip to walmart yesterday and have done nothing else all weekend, minus a few things around the house.

Our plans are as follows but are subject to change at the drop of a hat, so don't hold me to it.

We are hoping to do Santa presents Christmas Eve afternoon, Jas is working till noon that day (soooo happy about that=( ) then having santa leave a letter that he knew we'd be leaving to go to iowa. We are hoping (depending on the weather, i hear snow is in the forecast) to leave maybe 6 or 7 christmas eve, so we can be there for christmas morning. Not the agenda I had hoped for, but what can ya do when parts of my family are also traveling in. We then have family pics, ALL OF US. Mom, Jim, Kas, Court, and US, we've never had a family pic taken with the girls in it. And actually haven't had one for maybe 5 years before that.

That's it from me for now, I could go on and on about the lovely whining that has been going on here lately, but I'll spare ya'll the wonderful details.

Merry Christmas to all of you if I'm not able to get back on here this week!

Sharing a pic!

The girls had their Tumbling Christmas Party tonight, they were awesome with santa!!!

Brrrr---

Yep I'm gonna complain about the cold flipping weather right now. I know that's what many of you hear all the time, about how much I miss Texas, but sorry I just do, can't get over it.

Today we are sporting a wonderful NEGATIVE 9 degrees with the windchill. Sounds pleasant huh. I honestly miss the darn snow, but not this crappy coldness that accompanies it. Can't it be like 30 degrees with a little snow and move right back onto summer? I've decided a will be a home body most of the winter and won't be leaving unless I HAVE to. I was never a girl to bundle up when it was cold, never wear socks around the house or to bed, will since moving back all that is out the door, even jas has been sleeping in sweats which is SOOO out of character he's usually sweating in mesh shorts!

The house is all decorated for christmas inside and out(lights outside are nicely frozen to the garland).I have almost everything done for shopping minus a couple small things for the girls' teachers. We also decided to get the girls involved with the Angel tree this year. I picked 2 little girls that are 2 and 4 and talked to the girls about buying and helping for others that aren't as lucky and blessed as we are. They had a fun time going through the toys and clothes at Kohls and really I think they "get" it. I also have picked up a few things to drop off for toys for tots.

Thanksgiving was a crazy mess when we were in Iowa, non stop for 4 days straight. We got family pics done which you can see here:
www.ahfotography.com go to gallery then scroll to Jason and Brittani

As you'll see Addie was being a pain that day refusing to smile, which was polar opposite of what she did when her pics were taken this summer, just one of her days!
They are so excited for Christmas and have hardly been able to contain themselves. This is the first year they both understand the "idea" of Christmas, its gonna be a fun christmas.

Have to share a funny story about Alivia-

She's been ultra mouthy lately and has had some close encounters with the Dawn dish soap. Last night I was trying to lotion them up after bath since its gotten dry here, she was beebopping (as I call it)just driving me bonkers. I said Liv, I need to put lotion on you, she turns around and puts her butt in my face and says "here mom, put lotion on this" (Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do) I said Alivia knock it off, then she gives me that "mom you're crazy look" and says "I'm really not trying to be a pain" Ugggg its gonna be a long 13 years till she's 18 huh.


Miss Lilly got fixed this week too. I guess I wasnt aware what fixing a female dog entailed, that it was basically a complete hysterectomy. She seems to be doing okay and will be going back in 8 days to remove the sutures in her incision. Explaining this to the girls was interesting. I said that Lilly needed to go to the puppy doctor to get her baby making parts taken out ( I know probably bad wording), so Addie tells her preschool teacher that Lilly was going to have surgery to take her baby making parts out and that Lilly could come home later but the vet was keeping the babies! OH my, imagine the look on my face as her teacher is relaying this story to me yesterday. Guess some clarification needs to be made to my 3 year old that there were NO babies in Lilly's tummy.

Off for now... I know I suck at updating this, maybe that's a good new year's resolution??=)