Spring Break!

So, we are all done with Spring Break 2011! After the snow days and trip to Colorado, we needed a break!



We didn't get too crazy over spring break. A friend took us to see the Amazing Pet Show! Which was, of course, amazing! The kids enjoy it, and the bonus of living in Branson is that there are a lot of shows and activities because it's a vacation town. (Downside, tourists!) Matt was busy all week, so we didn't really get much family time, but Silver Dollar City also opened during Spring Break. On Saturday we loaded up and drove the 1-2 miles to SDC and spent the afternoon! The kids had a great time, and were exhausted. It's such a blessing to have season passes, we can go for a couple hours or all day. If it's too busy, we will just try another day!


Bailee seems to have caught up at school. We are awaiting 3rd quarter grades, so I guess I will know soon! Her teacher emailed me last week and I thought I would share it because it blessed me, so here:



I just had to tell you the sweetest story about Bailee. She truly has such a great heart, and I am so glad I gave her the team leader award! She really possesses all of the character traits 100%! She came up to me to confess that she had brought her Littlest Pet Shop toys to school and showed another student in the class. I never knew that she had the toys; she never once disrupted class because of them. All I did was tell her not to bring them in to school since toys are not allowed. She is not in one bit of trouble here at school; I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate her honest heart! She is very special!



The team leader award is an award she got a couple of months ago. It means that she displayed all of their character traits consistently. Only a couple of students in each class receive the award, so it is kind of a big thing. We are very proud of her. She is such a good kid and we are blessed by her!



Gabriel is of course, as funny as ever. He is growing and learning and changing so much. I wish I could document every word and every face and every moment. How fleeting the moments are...



The weather is in full spring swing now. The kids are loving being outside every moment they can. One of the best things about this house is that the kids can just run free and I don't have to worry about cars or anything. They can just play play play!



Matt is staying busy, like always. We are glad to have him home from Texas. He was gone for his birthday, so we didn't really do too much celebrating. The kids decided daddy likes gum, so they bought him a bunch. He is in a fishing tournament in Arkansas next weekend with my mom, so we are all looking forward to that! Hopefully they catch the big one! The kids always have a good time fishing in the river and playing outside so they already have their bags packed and waiting!

I have 3 Tastefully Simple parties on my calendar for the spring so far. I'm expecting them to turn into more, so we are off to a good start. I have a lady under me here now, so I do have a little competition. There isn't really anyone else though, so it works out.



All in all, we are just plugging along. Spring makes me feel like making plans and getting organized, so we will just see about that! It was wonderful to be in Colorado and see everyone. I'm not sure why, but this trip home was the hardest one yet for me. Maybe because it had been so long, maybe because it didn't really feel like home anymore, maybe just because I love and miss you all! The kids had a blast and looking forward to summer plans of seeing everyone (here or there, however it may be!)

2011

Well, it's here. Too quickly 2010 slipped through my fingers. My babies will be 4 and 8 this year...how does that happen?
We have started the new year off. Matt has been kind of slow so far, but Branson pretty much shuts down for January and February. He should be getting busy again soon.
Bailee wasn't ready for Christmas vacation to be over, but none of us were! She is doing well in school. She was having a little trouble in math for awhile, but we spend some extra time on math and she is doing great. They do NWEA testing here 3 times throughout the year. Her scores from fall to December in math went up17 points, which is alot. She met her reading goals too, and is above average. She loves having her ears pierced. It makes her seem bigger somehow. She is doing more practicing on the new piano than she was before, so she is improving in that too. She weighs 45 lbs and is 42 inches tall. Gabriel is just growing, growing, growing! That kid is going to be as big as his sister soon! He weighs about 34 lbs I think. He is saying his ABC's and really trying to begin writing his letters. He is still into all things transportation, and he is enjoying building things now. Houses, boats, parking lots with legos and blocks.
I have 2 Tastefully Simple parties this month, which I am excited about. I am looking forward to growing my business this year. I have been working on getting things around here organized. I have made progress, but I have a long way to go. I have unpacked boxes that haven't seen the light of day in many moons, but there a still too many in the garage. The fact that Matt keeps mentioning that he needs to be able to use his garage seems to help motivate me! Plus I have some things I would like to focus on this year, and us all being organized will help. I have been trying to get rid of stuff too. We just have too much... we can let go of stuff. I am making responsibility charts this weekend for the kids. I have spent quite a bit of time coming up with ideas of ways to do this, and I am excited about the end result. We will see how that goes!
We actually have a little snow on the ground. Bailee missed 2 days this week for our 1/8-1/2 inch of snow. Its been very cold and now I'm ready for those 40's and 50's again. Someone blessed us with season passes to Silver Dollar City for the whole family for Christmas! We are thrilled! It opens back up during spring break, so we are all looking forward to spending a bunch of family time there this year. If anyone ever comes to visit it will be sooo much fun! We miss you all and look forward to seeing you in 2011!

August 2010

So August seems to be flying by without giving me a passing glance! Our summer has disappeared without asking me first. We have been kind of busy lately. We had some lazy summer days, and then some busy summer days as well. We got library cards and have been hitting the library every 10 days or so. We went to the Branson Rec Plex a couple of times. They have an amazing swimming pool with a great kids area, but they are now only open weekends and then close after Labor Day. Bailee is finishing up reading 1000 minutes over the summer, she only has 35 minutes left and 1 day to finish! Matt has been working hard talking to any and everyone. We have literally been dripping with sweat the last few weeks. It has been hitting over 100 degrees consistently, and that's without the humidity! SO HOT! We have NOT been playing outside too much. I started helping in the children's at church and I am really enjoying it. We also had our 2nd home fellowship night last night. It seems to being going well. Our group is a good size and includes our neighbors that have become our friends. And a new friend that is a hair stylist, so she cut the kids hair. Bailee got some cute layers for school, but kept her length. She wants it to grow to her feet!
We will have some changes coming up soon. Bailee will start school the 19th so that will change things up a little. We met her teacher today. She is young, this is her first year. There are pros and cons to that I think. She isn't burnt out and is very excited about teaching. Her classroom was also very organized, which I was very excited about. I am having a Tastefully Simple party here at my house and inviting the people I know to try and generate some interest. I am the only consultant here in Branson, so I should be able to make a go of it. We had decided to stay in this house through the spring, but we are now going to be moving. The house we put on offer on to buy in Oct. on 2008 is available to us again. We will be renting it, but then probably doing a lease purchase! How amazing is that? It is a little small, but it also has 3 acres with it that Matt can hunt on, burn things, and just generally do as he pleases! Only about 1/3-1/2 acre is grass and the rest is trees and forest! It does have 4 bedrooms so we will have an office area for Matt that he can use and be organized. Also, we will just be able to unpack, be settles, put holes in the wall (to hang pictures, lol! Matt won't let me in this rental) It is a quiet and pretty seclude area, but close to town too. (7 minutes from the strip) Bailee's 1st grade teacher will be our neighbor, so we already know someone:) I am sad to be moving away from our neighbors that have become our best friends here in Branson. I hope they will come across town to see us!
I am so sad that I wasn't there for it, but so happy that Casen has joined our family. Bailee is sooo excited and can't wait to hold her baby cousin! We are so happy for Jason and Kerry. The kids birthdays are fast approaching. I am amazed that I will have a 3 and 7 year old. How does that happen? We are going to see my mom and step-dad for Labor Day weekend. My mom is having a small party for the kids, and we haven't been there in a couple of years so I am really looking forward to it. I think I will try to have a small scale party for the kids the weekend after that. No big production like usual, unfortunately. I am feeling totally uninspired this year for some reason. I'll have to make up for it next year!
Bailee is still doing piano. She is learning quickly and doing well, and all without much practice. We don't have much structure in our routine, but I am realizing we need to do something. She is getting older and will be having more homework and activities so I am researching and brainstorming ideas for planning and scheduling. I think we will do a popsicle stick system for making sure things like homework, piano and chores are getting done. I also like the idea of writing on the mirror in her bathroom with dry erase markers. We will see what all I come up with! and what works/sticks!
All in all, it was a good summer. Too fast of course, but it always is. We still don't know when a CO trip will be something we can do, but as soon as we can, we will! Mexico in Nov is still up in the air, but we are hopeful in getting to go. Missouri is becoming our home and we are excited about what our lives here hold. We miss you all and hope to see you soon!

Hello again!

Ok, another month later..I know I know! At least we've seen you since then! We are spending our days being lazy for the most part and enjoying not having to get up and go. We cleaned up the basement a little and I actually got my scrapbooking stuff out. Bailee and I are going to try and get some quality time in with the scrapbooking. Bailee is still doing piano lessons. She is doing very well and starting to learn some harder stuff. Her teacher is very impressed with her. Gabriel is also still doing music class. When he does what the teacher wants, he does very well! He kind of likes to do his own thing something though. When we got home from Colorado, Bailee still had an ear infection. She went back and got more antibiotics and was feeling much better soon. I can't believe how quickly the summer is flying by. There will be a couple of baby boys joining us before we know it! The kids really had a great time seeing everyone. I think they got good time with everyone, which is what I really wanted. They were VERY worn out by the time we got home though. The time difference is only and hour, but it seems like they were up late most of the week! Our house in GJ is still on the market, and there seems to be quite a bit of interest in it, so we think it could sell soon! The pool is nice and pretty now. Jake and Domenica are taking care of it for us. Very nice of them! I hope everyone has fun plans for the 4th of July. This will be a hard holiday for me. We spend every year in the mountains with my Dad. This will be the first in quite awhile that we haven't done that, and the first in a long time with out my dad. The neighbors all do a BBQ that sound like a big party, so I think that's what we will be doing. Everyone is chipping in to buy a big supply of fireworks. I have heard Branson is crazy with tourists for the 4th, so I don't know if we will be adventurous enough to leave the house or not. Our lease in this house is up in September, so we are starting to weigh all of our options. We will most likely be moving, but we're just not sure where to. The owner want to sell this house, and we don't want to buy it, so it looks like we need to move on. We have a couple of options in mind, so we will see where God takes us! Matt is trying to dig in and meet new people. That and paperwork seem to keep him very busy. He does a lot of work from home so he is under my feet a lot...but we still love each other, so hey it's working out! I didn't get anything moving with Tastefully Simple for the last quarter. I had to get a Personal Sales Waiver, which you can only do once in 5 years. That "froze" my status so that I could continue for the next quarter with out becoming in-active. I actually have a recruit in CO that I would have lost, so it all worked out ok. I have a couple prospects for parties, and we seem to be meeting more people. Our church has a small groups thing called Home Fellowships that they just started. Matt and I will be hosting our own group for the first time in July. We finally had some people sign up under us and so we are going to meet some people! Woo hoo. I like to hear comments on here, so feel free. Let us know what's up in your worlds! The kids have birthdays coming up so I will try and overload you with ideas for what they would like, but you don't have to get them anything! Happy Summer to you all!
PS~the goldfish still lives!

oh my...

So, I guess time flies! When did May come and go? Sorry I have been slacking. Some laziness, some not feeling well. Matt, Gabe and I all had a run-in with some kind of cold. I finally went to the doctor on Monday and got some antibiotics, which has helped. The doctor was chatting with Gabe and asked him "Do you love your mommy?" Gabriel of course replied "No. I love my dad". Well, sadly, this is not new to me. If everyone loved Matt as much as Gabriel does, we would be rich! That kid loves his dad! He tells me I love Bailee. I guess that makes it fair in his mind. I have spent the last couple of days trying to find my house beneath all the stuff! Today I am getting ready and packing suit cases for Arkansas this weekend. Tomorrow Bailee has a 1/2 day, which is her last day of 1st grade, sadly for mom. I can't believe she is headed to 2nd grade! She is very excited of course! We have lots planned for the summer. Lots of art projects and playdo, swimming lessons, and playing with the neighbors. It will be over before I know it I am afraid. I am hoping to head to Colorado in September. I kind of think I would like to go over Labor Day weekend. If so, I would have a party for the kids there. What does everyone think? Then we could see the babies and celebrate the birthdays with family. I have had a couple people ask what the kids want for birthday presents, so I will try to list some ideas on here.
We had 2 new pets this week. Goldfish! But, alas, as I write this one has passed on to the sewer already. (which was more traumatizing than the death I think) The church has a huge celebration every year for their anniversary called Celebration Sunday. And I mean huge. Like 3,000 people came! People give stuff to the church the week before and they set up huge tents and people go through them and take stuff they want or need. The kids both got new toys. A Lego tractor for Gabriel that he LOVES, and a ceramic tea set for Bailee. They could have picked like 3 things, but they each only took one :) Matt got a printer that he can use when he needs to travel (like to CO next week!) They had everything from food and clothes to new vacuums and jewelry. The neighbor girl got a scooter she had been wanting for awhile. On top of that there was every kind of free fair-type food you could imagine, games, bump and jumps, all kinds of stuff. I unfortunately didn't feel very good that day so the kids didn't get to do as much as I would have liked. They did win gold fish though! We'll see how long the other one lasts!
Branson is starting to feel like home. People do have different ways of doing things, but it's neat to see it. The area is different as well. VERY hot, for sure! It rains a lot, and there seem to be turtles everywhere! We are starting to meet people. I have met a couple of moms, and our neighbors are very nice. I hope to spend more time with them this summer. Living in a rental is not quite home however. Our lease is up in September, but we aren't sure what to do then. The owners want to sell, but this isn't a house for us to buy. The house we originally liked may be an option. We are just waiting to decide on our next step! Well, kids need out of the tub and to get ready for bed! Good night all!

So here we are at the end of April. I am officially middle-aged :) My mom came for the weekend and Matt and I got a date night, woo hoo! It was fun, and it was nice to have family around. She even stayed an extra night and cooked me a special birthday dinner! I haven't done a very good job of writing, have you done a good job of reading? (just kidding) Everyone here is doing well. Bailee still has a VERY loose tooth. She has been so excited/nervous that she can't sleep at night. She is afraid it will fall out while she's sleeping and swallow it. I reassured her that this is not an issue, then found out that Matt is the one who gave her the thought in the first place! I should have know, lol. She has a field trip to College of the Ozarks tomorrow and Gabriel and I get to tag along. We are visiting a dairy farm, greenhouse, and jelly making something-or-other, and a couple of other things as well. I'll let you know how that goes. Gabriel is growing like a weed. He seems taller to me already. His vocabulary is growing even faster than he is. He talks non-stop these days. He told his music class teacher that he had money in his pocket (a dime) and when he showed it to her he told her that the guy on there was Jesus. It was too cute. He cracks me up! Piano is going ok. We had a rough week last week with it being a lot of work, but she decided she wanted to keep going. Matt is focused on work right now, which is good. His schedule is a little crazy because most people are available in the evenings, but we are managing ok. Oh, I forgot to tell everyone-Gabriel is no longer in diapers! I have mixed feelings about this. He hates wearing them, which is good. But I have to wake up in the middle of the night and take him to the potty, which is not good. Also, he doesn't sleep THAT great, so now I cannot bring him to our bed when I'm too lazy to deal with it. He is doing well, but still has accidents when he is asleep. We'll work it out, but he really is doing great with it. I have decided that in May I am going to push building my Tastefully Simple business. I think my neighbor will have a party and the headquarters referred someone local that was looking for a consultant. She works at Bailee's school, so maybe I can work that angle! We will see how it goes since Matt's schedule may make it difficult to have parties. I have lost a whole 2 pounds since getting my Wii (thank you everyone!) I am enjoying it, as is the whole family. I rented a Mario game from Blockbuster an Bailee is having fun with that. I am looking forward to May and all that it is bringing with it: warm weather, Bailee finishing up first grade, and fishing in Arkansas with Granny and Gdaddy. I hope spring time is being good to our loved ones and we miss you. Even though we chose to be far away, we still feel the effects of being here. It is great and awesome and definitely the right choice, but it can be sad too. Love to you all and happy spring!