Oh My it's Cold

I know many places in the US have been struck with crazy cold temperatures, and the state I live in is one of those. 

I saw a little blurb on Facebook yesterday that stated my state was currently colder than Mount Everest, Antartica and Siberia.  

Friends, it is cold here! 

My kids haven't had school yet this week  ~ 3 snow/too cold to go days so far and tomorrow is up in the air. Not that they are complaining!

And breaking news, I just got a phone alert that states we have now hit 57 degrees below zero wind chill. Brrrr......

Anyway, this past weekend my hubby's parents drove 4 1/2 hours to come visit and celebrate Jackson's 15th birthday (which was last week).  

While it wasn't quite as cold as today and yesterday have been, it was still quite cold, but we got out and had some fun anyway.

(chocolate cake on his actual birthday ~ his favorite since he was 7!)

(carrot cake to celebrate with Grandpa and Grandma)

They arrived Friday night and we spent some time catching up and playing cards.  I was completely unsuccessful in my quest to win and ended up being the biggest loser of the night.  Hopefully next time I will be able to turn my luck around!

Saturday morning after I made a yummy egg bake via this easy recipe I found on Pinterest, Hannah and I jumped in the car for a 40 minute drive to a softball photoshoot.  She was one of two players selected from her varsity softball team to be a "featured" player for a high school sports publication.

When we were finished with that we grabbed the rest of the family and headed to our local Top Golf facility to do a little golfing.  I'm not quite sure what the actual temperature was when we were there but since the high was only 10 degrees on Saturday, it was chilly. Sitting under the heat features did make it mostly comfortable.  

After that we warmed up at home, went to mass, out to dinner at Jackson's requested restaurant ~ Red Robin (that kid loves a good burger) then bowling.  I sat out of bowling as I tweaked my arch while working out and wasn't able to put a whole lot of pressure on it. It was fun watching a couple of good games of boys vs girls. Oh, and the girls won!

Sunday brought one more amazing breakfast bake via Pinterest. Biscuits and gravy casserole, another one of Jackson's favorites! Then off to watch Hannah play a couple of softball games in a sports dome. -9 degrees! So glad she was playing inside!

When those were over my in-laws headed for home and we had a nice, relaxing Sunday awaiting the snow and cold that was destine to come.

Hope you are staying warm and enjoying the one's you love!

~Wendy

Smiley's (aka....) School Year in Review

Last but never least is Smiley.

For a while now I think I could have switched up the nicknames and graced her with Hannah's ~ Sassy!

But instead, I will use her actual name, Alayna.

This kid is Sassy, Spunky and a bit Dramatic!

Alayna had a great school year.  She likes school for the most part.  

She does well academically and loves to be around her friends.

 (Alayna's first day of 2nd Grade)

(Alayna's last day of 2nd grade.  Notice the black eye?!  She was playing volleyball at a graduation party with 

some teenage boys and took a volleyball to the eye ~ YIKES!)

This kiddo is strong willed and typically has a lot of ideas going on in that head of hers, from what I should make for dinner, to how she could re-arrange her room and to planning parties with the neighbors that she forgets to tell me about.  

Last fall she was fascinated with mermaids (and still is).  She decided for her 8th birthday she wanted to have a mermaid themed party.  Before she was able to celebrate with friends, we were able to celebrate with family at my sister's house in another state.  My sister was sweet enough to get her a lovely mermaid cake!

When we were finally able to schedule a "friend" party she wanted to continue the mermaid theme.  

She went swimming with a few friends, then back to our house to celebrate "under the sea"  with food and fun.

Besides her fall birthday, she had a couple of other fun fall events:

Pheasant hunting with family (she walks alongside the hunters and tries to scare up birds)

and Halloween

However, much to her brothers dismay, she wanted to be like him and chose to be Robin Hoods Sister ~ HA!

This 2nd grade year was a big year for her at church.

She made two sacraments, Reconciliation and First Communion.

She had to learn a lot and was very proud of her accomplishments ~ as were we!

Alayna is spunky and definitely has some not so great moments with her siblings (and hubby and I if I'm being completely honest here).  

But she does love her family and is always cheering her siblings on

as long as we aren't in the volleyball gym for too long!

Like I said, she loves her family ~ once in awhile I'll wake up to notes like this one (her spelling has gotten better since this first one)

She loves spending time playing, laughing and simply just hanging out together

She is adventurous and full of life! I can't wait to see where she goes!

Action's (aka...) School Year in Review

Action finished his last day of 7th grade. Let me tell you, this school year wasn't without some struggles and frustrations both for him and Hubby and I.  Don't get me wrong, it was full of good, fun, laughs and happiness as well! 

Let's begin as I did with Hannah yesterday ~ Nicknames.  

Action.... Action got his nickname not only on this blog, but in real life as well.  We don't really use it anymore, but we use to.  Jackson is his actual name.  Action wasn't his only nickname either, Sodbuster was his other one.  Just as the busyness the name Action implies,  Sodbuster does as well.  Technically it means a farmer or worker who plows the land.  Jackson was busy and full of life.  Some of that constant moving and busyness has faded away, but he is still full of life.

Lets begin with September 2016

School started ~ 7th Grade

Football was in full swing.  Jackson had fun working hard and learning new positions.  It is definitely a proud parenting moment when you see your child work so hard.

Football Season ran right into hunting season.  Jackson took the hunter safety course required to get a  hunting license, meaning instead of just walking along, he was able to shoot.  This was an exciting first time for him and he couldn't wait to get out in the fields.

Of course right after that came Halloween.  I'm not sure Jackson has many more years of dressing up (and trick-or-treating anyway) ahead of him but this year he decided to dress up as Robin Hood (much to his dismay, his little sister dressed up as Robin Hood's Sister ~ as we called her anyway! Pics of that in my next post) This costume seemed to carryon the hunting theme ~ bow hunting instead

January was a busy month!

First, Jackson was able to travel with Smiley and I to meet his new cousin.  We thought we were heading on a 4 hour journey to attend a baby shower.  Baby shower turned into a birthday party when this little guy decided to arrive 3 weeks early!  A surprise for sure, but wonderful as we were all there to celebrate anyway!

The next weekend, he was able to head out of town with Dad, a buddy, and a few other guys for a fun  boys weekend.  They had a lot of fun hanging out and ice fishing.

Finally, we had a big day to celebrate.  Jackson's 13th Birthday!!! We didn't just have one celebration either.  (all the details are in this post)

One with just us as a family (with his favorite chocolate cake with chocolate frosting)

Another celebration with Grandpa and Grandma when they were able to come up for a visit.  This time he picked cheesecake as his celebration dessert.

Finally, he had a small party with a couple of friends.  First things first they went and worked up an appetite at a paint ball facility. They had a blast ~ literally and each of them had a few paint ball bruises to show for it!  Afterwards, they had a cupcake (or maybe a couple) to celebrate. Again ~ chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, just in cupcake form.

Once we got through January, things slowed down a bit.  The holidays were over, his birthday was celebrated. Time to focus on school and family.  Soon enough though, spring was creeping up on us.
Easter took us to Grandpa and Grandma's house where church, good food and lots of family were just what we needed.  Of course there was time to do a little four wheeler riding'

Baseball tryouts happened, and the team is practicing and gearing up for some fun baseball.  Jackson is playing with some buddies from previous years and is excited to play.

And just like that, 7th grade is over.
Jackson isn't very organized and finds himself playing catch up a lot of times when it comes to homework which hubby and I find completely frustrating.  However he had a good 7th grade year.  He made some fun memories and ended up with good grades.  We are definitely ready for summer though (and a haircut! Sheesh!)

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Another Teenager in the House!

Action has been talking about this day for 2 1/2 years.

I don't know why, but when Sassy turned 13, back in 2014, I thought it would be fun to get her 13 presents ~ a couple bigger items and a bunch of little items: lotions, nail polish, fun socks, you know 13 year old girly stuff.  

What I didn't realize was, I was creating a new tradition.  One that Action couldn't wait for.  Thirteen presents on your 13th birthday! Oh, the anticipation!

Fast forward to Sunday January 22nd.  Oooh the air was abuzz with excitement.  Action came down from his bedroom in the morning after a good nights sleep to see that there were indeed 13 presents lined up in front of the fireplace just waiting for him.  However, upon further counting, he was bummed to see there were actually only 12.  I had to explain to him that the headphones he "needed" a few days earlier because his older ones had broken were actually part of the 13 (*wink *wink ~ more to come later!) gifts.

No worries, he was still excited!

Now he just had to wait until his Dad and Sassy got home from softball practice........

When they finally got home, present opening began:

He received:
A Book Light
Nerf Gun Darts
Body Spray
Body Wash
Deodorant
Twix Candy
A DVD
A Duvet
A Duvet Cover (time to redo his room ~ an update the decor he'd had since he was 2)
A Book
New Wall Art
And
Sneakly I wrapped presents 12 and 13 together in a one, so it looked like he was only getting 12 presents!  #12 was his first cell phone and #13 was a case for his phone.

Needless to say he was excited!

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and when we got home it was time for CAKE!

True to form, he requested his favorite chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (RECIPE HERE ~ with update pictures!).

A week later Grandpa and Grandma were able to make the 4 1/2 hour drive to visit.  Sassy had a volleyball tournament, but we still found time to celebrate our newest 13 year old.  This time the requested dessert was cheesecake ~ yummy!

(I think 13yr old stayed up too late the night before ~ he looks a bit sleepy in this picture!)

But that wasn't all!  Just last weekend, Action had a couple of buddies over to celebrate as well!  They went to an indoor paintball facility for a few hours, came back to our house to have  ~ you guessed it ~ CAKE, chocolate cake (although in cupcake form), and spent the night.

I think this kid of mine had a good time celebrating his 13th birthday!

Puerto Vallarta ~ Part 1

The day of Sassy's birthday (March 28th) we landed in warm, sunny Puerto Vallarta.  Spring break was upon us.  We were all looking forward to a week of relaxing with each other as a family as well as the 6 other families who we were spending the week with ~ 14 adults and 16 kids in total!

We stayed at the Velas Vallarta in Puero Vallarta. It was a beautiful all inclusive resort (check out this link and see for yourself).

(the view from our balcony)

 (the view from the pool)

The first two days we spent at the pool and on the beach, and those two days just happened to be Sassy's 14th birthday (Saturday) and Hubby's Birthday (Sunday).  What a way to spend your birthday!  

(the ocean and the mountains ~ a beautiful combination)

(Hubby and Action ~ waiting for a wave)

Sunday night for dinner the resort put on a Mexican Fiesta complete with authentic 

Mexican foods, desserts and candies, as well as some dancing.  

During the Fiesta dinner, our friends had arranged to have a birthday "treat" delivered to Hubby. 

They brought out this yummy cake, complete with personalization!  

Smiley enjoyed a candied apple ~ although, she learned it was a little tough to eat with one tooth missing and another one very loose!

Monday we were scheduled to go zip-lining with 2 other families.  We got up and ate a yummy breakfast which included one of my favorites of the week ~ green juice (a recipe I have tried to recreate and I think I did a pretty good job ~ with the help of Google, of course!)  Once we were finished, we headed back to our room to get ready to go.  I took Action out to the balcony to apply sunscreen, standing there he got really dizzy and almost passed out.  He then felt nauseous, thankfully nothing came of that!  We decided he was probably suffering from a bit of sun poisoning ~ after spending the previous day in sun and not paying close attention to how much he was eating or drinking as well as I should have been ~ I think it was a combination of too much sun and not enough hydration.  Anyway, I decided that it would be best if he and I skipped the zip-line and spent the day in the shade, hydrating.  

We said our goodbyes to the girls and Hubby, told them to have fun and watched them go off on their adventure.  They had a BLAST!  After zip-lining the adults did a little tequila tasting, had some lunch and the kids did some swimming in the crystal clear river, complete with "waterslides".  If you go to Puerto Vallarta, I would definitely recommend the company we used ~ Los Veranos - Canopy Tours ~ they were great to work with.  While they wouldn't credit us for Action and I not attending, they did let us reschedule for later in the week (that will be in one of my next posts!) 

Tuesday was again spent at the pool and in the ocean ~ good drinks, good food, good friends, and lots of laughs.  

As well as time spent feeding the iguanas, which were found on the property.

a fabulous way to end a wonderful day ~ a walk on the beach as the sun was setting

To be continued......