Finally!!

I FINALLY got my Odyssey back after three long weeks of waiting. But it looks like new and it was so fun to drive it again. I'm not sure I'll let Matt drive it for a while.

Katelynn's new room

So being home for two weeks without my Van inspired me to do a project. I found two beautiful furniture pieces at a yard sale (both for $80, my find of the year) and decided to refinish them for Katelynn's room. I also put up window treatments and rearranged everything. At breakfast this morning she randomly said "Mommy, thanks for fixing my room", it was really cute!

My little kitchen helper

Katelynn loves helping me in the kitchen. We have fun making things together. The other night we decided to make crepes and after putting everything in the blender, I let her turn it on forgetting to put the lid on. Well, you can see what happened next..... It was actually pretty funny and katelynn got this really scared look on her face and said "Sorry Mommy, sorry, sorry". I thought it was too cute to get mad :)

First Haircut

Brennon had his first haircut the other day and it was quite the experience. He screamed the whole time and was scared of the clippers. He is our sensitive one. But in the end, he looked a lot more clean cut. What a cutie!

Yeah Right!!

Monitoring my post.... whatever. The Los Angeles air was referring to all of the exhaust from the Jet Skis after they started and sped off toward the course.

As with the accident, yes, it was a bad day indeed. But Cherise will be getting the scrapes on the van fixed from when she backed into our other car a few months ago ;) (She prefers the 2 for one route, while when I do it, I go the distance.) Oh, and they will even fix the scratched on the other car too. I guess it's good to look on the bright side of things.


And.... we just received news that we closed on our home :o)

But more is yet to come for us whose lives always seem to have yet another new adventure around the corner.... stay tuned. Oh, and don't believe a word she says!

Oh what a week!

So Matt and I have had quite the week. Last week I found a great deal on tickets to Vegas, so I decided to head to Vegas while Matt was going out of town to Miami for work. That was the beginning of a crazy whirlwind of a week that still hasn't ended.

Have I told you all how much I love my Honda Odyssey? Let's just say it was the nicest car I have ever owned and I am completely in love with it. So Matt, on the way to the airport got in what he called a "fender bender" (look at the picture, not quite!) and crunched my beautiful minivan. He had to have it towed to a shop and it caused over $9,000 worth of damage. Thank goodness for insurance! That was supposed to be our ride home from the airport and of course my car for the week, so I am stuck at home with no vehicle. Oh, and when I got home, the battery on the car was dead. Now I am very grateful for modern transportation!

Did I say how much I love my Odyssey??? I couldn't even go look at it, I made Matt go take pictures.

To add to our accident we were supposed to close on our home in IL last friday and we were running around crazy trying to get everything worked out since I was in Vegas, Matt was in Miami, and the closing was in IL. We finally got everything signed and then we waited all day friday to hear it had closed. We were so excited to FINALLY sell it. Well, of all the bad luck, it found us again. The people who were buying from us had the last name Ali and when the money went through the federal reserve to be sent to us, it got flagged as a name that could possibly be associated with terrorists. So apparently they have to go through a background check now. It is now Wednesday and we still haven't closed. Our realtor says it's nothing to worry about, but we are still waiting....

Going to Vegas was actually the best part of the week, but it was crazy traveling by myself with two kids and adjusting to the 2 hour time difference. This was the only picture we could get of the four cousins. Brennon was trying to suck on Tanner's head and Kayla was screaming as usual, poor thing.

Melissa's twins hate the car seats. I felt so bad because my two lived in their car seats. I had to get a picture of them crying together. They are still adorable when crying.

P.S. - I guess I'll have to monitor Matt's posts from now on. Everyone says they were so confused by it. No, we didn't go to LA, it was a mix up. Anyway, I love him for trying.

Too Much of a Good Thing

I think my wife and family are absolutely the best things that have every happened to me... thus my dismay after scrolling down until the bottom of the post until I found my Hollywood handsome face and Matthew McCaughnahey-like body in any of the pictures (Yeah right! Cherise wishes). I figured I'd have to take matters into my own hands.

This is Katelynn's first time fishing. Albeit, it's a man made pool filled with bass, and there was no worm on the hook (It had been nibbled off by the fishies). I feel it was a good start. As you can see, we both had tootsie roll pops in our mouths. Mine lasted less than a lick. I love those tootsie roll centers... and there's something thoroughly enjoyable about being able to bite into them without breaking a tooth. Katelynn... well... she didn't know about the tootsie roll center yet. Another first :) We almost caught a fish... almost.

We had a blast as a family! There was a petting zoo. We won the water balloon toss. (All of the our competitors were young children) We couldn't help a little competition. And Katelynn's favorite was racing through the many inflatable courses a local church had set up. We even watched some of the jet skiing. Talk about something I would like to do. Cherise had to remind me that I married now and have a job... oh well. Maybe in my next life.


At the start we get a fresh breath of Los Angeles air. We all started feeling light headed and seeing colors and things. Nothing but exhaust from those 240+ horsepower beauties. [Tim Allen Grunt] (Cherise even had a flashback of pink and purple elephants on circus balls. Much like in the Dumbo movie). They were pretty fun to watch. They topped out at 80 mph on parts of the course.

Oh... and after reading this, Cherise says, "It's cute." Oh where has my masculinity gone!? She should've grunted her approval, or slapped my rear end or something. I'll settle for a make up kiss.

Trip to the Zoo

The kids and I headed out to an adventure at the zoo today. Katelynn has been asking me all week, and I finally gave in. We had so much fun and wore us all out. The Fort Worth zoo is one of the most beautiful zoo's I have ever been to and has soo many animals! What a great place to go.


Brennon is small for his age, but after 3 hours of carrying him I was starting to believe he has been eating too much lately!

We got to watch a baby kangaroo crawl into it's mommy's pouch. It was so cute.
Double trouble!

Finally playmates!

It is so fun to see the kids play together now. The column in our dining room has turned into
a hide and seek playplace.

Our little singer

Katelynn wanted to sing for the camera, but she got so nervous she combined songs. It was cute!

Lunch with the bunch

The little ones.....
The big ones....
I wanted Katelynn to get to know some kids her age so we had lunch at our house and we had kids everywhere. It was so fun to have all the kids running around and playing so well together.

Mommy and Me

Katelynn and I went to a party they had at a local gym. We had so much fun together playing, it made me feel like a kid again. She never ceases to amaze me by how brave she is. She was jumping into the huge pit and hanging from the gymnist bars all by herself.



Katelynn took this picture of me. I couldn't believe she actally got my whole head in the picture.

My first day of Preschool

Katelynn has been so excited to go to preschool. When we left Chicago, she asked Olivia, "Do you want to go to preschool with me?" It almost made me cry... But today was her first day and I was the proud Mommy who had to take a picture of her with her backpack. She loved it and wants to go back tomorrow.

Back to Chicago

We headed to Chicago for labor Day weekend. It was a long drive and weird to stay in our old house, but so much fun. We decided as long as we haven't sold our home yet, we might as well have a vacation home. Thanks everyone for a great weekend.

Sarah Ballenger is so adorable! I can't believe she has gotten so big. She's almost as long as Brennon already. Her dimples are my favorite.



Katelynn wanted to spend every second with Olivia. She misses her so much. They were so cute together!

A picnic at the park

Katelynn has had a cold for the last few days and we have had to stay home. We were all going stir crazy, so I decided we had to get out and go to the park for a picnic.

Brennon is crawling!

We went to play at a mall with Katelynn's friend Olivia and they all had fun
climbing on everything, even Brennon.


Brennon is now crawling. He started a couple days before we left for
Vegas and while we were there he kicked it into high gear and took off. Oh no!
Now that I'm home I am baby proofing like crazy.

One thing that I can't baby proof is Sierra. He has already found out
how fun it is to torture her. As always, she just takes it.

Baby week

My sister had twins two weeks ago and I went to Vegas to visit for the week. I took Brennon and we tried to survive with 3 babies. I called it musical babies. They were so adorable and so fun to hold. Tanner and Kayla Hardman.


We had to put all three babies in the back of her Elantra. It was a little tight!



Brennon wanted to play with Tanner so he pulled himself up and tried to steal his
blanket. It was so cute!

Summer fun

Matt and I have been running to the pool and then swimming
to get in shape. I thought it was too cute that Brennon fell asleep
on the way home.

They are starting to have fun playing together.

Katelynn and her best buddy.