Turkeys

What do you do with leftover marshmallows, apples, candy corn and chocolate chips?

MAKE APPLE TURKEYS!

Kids make the holidays so fun.

Someday

Someday I will be able to shower in peace and quiet without worrying what's going on in the other room.

Someday my garage will not smell like poopy diapers.

Someday any given room will stay clean for longer than 10 minutes.

Someday I will not have to put things up so high that I forget where they are.

Someday I will not have to swim through a sea of toys to get to my bed.

Someday I won't have to stand out in the cold at the bus stop.


Someday they'll out-grow toys.

Someday they won't always run to me for help.

Someday he won't need/want me to wait at the bus stop.

Someday I'll have a perfectly clean home because...

Someday they will leave.


Today I'll trip over the toys to go play with them.

Today I'll put off cleaning to be with them.

Today I'll try to remember "someday."

I miss them already.

We make our own fun

We opted out of the church trunk or treat and the elementary school festival to make our own, simple fun with friends: face paint, limbo, balloons and a movie. What more could a kid want?




Scary faces during the movie

Mummy (or daddy) wrap

Who can unwrap the fastest?

The big day: Awesome Indiana. cute kitty, pretty witch

I wore heels today

I see them all the time; cute moms with perfect hair and makeup wearing heels around Target. Their kids' clothes coordinate and not a hair is out of place.

I only "do" my hair a couple times a week. Most of the time it's pulled back in my famous bun/knot. I try to wear makeup, but my eyelashes are so short that the mascara quickly ends up under my eyes and the powder fades just as fast. As far as footwear, tennies are my number one. I'm a mommy, you know and I do mommy things like chase a toddler, go grocery shopping and run up and down the stairs a gazillion times a day looking for (insert lost thing here).

Last week I bought "going out" shoes (only because they were half off with purchase of my new tennies); chocolate brown ankle boots with a heel. Today, I spotted them in my closet. If you were at Target , I was the one with my hair in the bun/knot, zero makeup and an adorable little girl who dresses herself and likes to do her own hair....I also had on chocolate brown ankle boots.
Instant makeover. For an hour I caught a glimpse of what it might be like to be one of those cute, classy moms.

Man, my feet hurt.

Goin' all out for October

October is slipping right on by, so we had a marathon "fall stuff" day...




Pumpkins

Licking the bowl from making pumpkin pie and eating seeds

yummy!

"Punkin pie weddy!"

So yummy I can't make a normal face.

Ek-squeeze me? baking powder?

It had already been a long day and Justin called to say he would be more than two hours late. It was a great night to take advantage of half off happy meals, but since the kids didn't have quite enough in their piggy banks, they had to make up the difference with jobs around the house. While we all cleaned up downstairs, I was spent and grouchy and then came this comment:

Trey: (under his breath) "You're wasting all of my play time."
Mom: Ek-scuuuse me? What did you just say?

The next 30 seconds were followed by me giving a full on lecture to my six year old about how all the crap (yes, I said crap. yes, it's a bad word in our house) I clean up doesn't belong to me and I'd much rather be playing too and you'd better never talk to me that way again. I was mad. really mad.

Okay, not my best moment. I think I may have over-reacted, but I'll bet he doesn't say that again (at least not for a few months).

I don't know what possessed me

I must have been feeling brave. I was tired and hadn't prepared dinner. I've done well sticking to my budget this month and I had a coupon. We should go to Applebee's I thought...

Yeah. It was about like that. Actually, the kids weren't "bad," just busy. I really don't know what I was thinking. What a waste of money! Next time we're just going to McDonalds.

I confess...

I cannot keep a perfectly clean home, or even a semi-clean home for that matter! I stress about my house ALL THE TIME, and for what?! I’m not really sure.

I do love how it feels to have a clean home, but I despise the feeling of anxiety I get to try and keep it that way. I’ve tried so many different “expert methods,” but when it comes right down to it…I get tired and even if I've decided to scrub toilets each Friday, sometimes I just don't have the energy to scrub toilets! I also have three kids and a house that’s way too big (Oh to be back in the day of our cute SMALL apartments, cleaning was so easy).

Does it sound like I’m trying to justify? Well, I am! Do I need to? Probably not, I’m sure you all understand and don’t expect me to have a pristine clean home. Which brings me to my next issue…If stressing about my house weren’t enough, I also stress about what others would think. So not healthy, I know. In a book I read called Contentment, the author, Maria Covey Cole warns about comparing calling it one of the “five metastasizing cancers” of life (the other four are competing, criticizing, complaining and complacency). I even think about what so and so would think if she walked in my house right now, even though so and so lives nowhere near me! It just seems that I’m the only one who can’t keep up. The keyword there is seems. It is only my messed up perception. Why do I care so much about their perception of me? Human nature, I’m sure, but something I need to get past, nonetheless.

So is this just a ranting post about my issues? Nope. It does have a purpose. I’M DONE! I’m done stressing, I’m done killing myself to try and keep up the façade. I will still do my best to keep a decent home. I will continue to teach my children (and husband) to clean up after themselves. The difference will be that if someone stops by (which they probably won’t, so even more reason for me to not worry about the people who don’t come by), I will kindly clear a path for them to the couch and will not ask forgiveness for paying more attention to my family than to my house. It will be tough. But I am seriously done! To prove it, I will do something absolutely horrifying…scroll down to see pictures of my house at this very moment. Wish me luck!

First Day of First Grade

My first day started off so well; after a blessing from daddy last night, I was excited and ready....

Mom made my fave, sunny side up eggs with toast

I was armed with light up skechers that make me run "super fast!"

Brooklyn will miss me, but I'm a big first grader now!

Oops! I was a bit too excited and ran like the wind to the bus stop before tripping and scraping my knuckles and...

a good scrape on my knee. I didn't even cry!

My first day was awesome! We had a scavenger hunt, ate watermelon and had THREE recesses! When I got home, mom and Brooklyn had made me welcome home signs.

I had a great day, but my family is still the best!

Love, Treygan

acrobatics, swim, sand and missing teeth

Sounds like a mishap at the beach, right? Nah, just what the Prices have been up to....







Look mom, no hands! Taylee's latest trick

Swim lessons: Trey venturing to the deep end

Did he do it? Of course he did!

Did she?

Sort of. The instructor dropped her in

My awesome hubby's latest project...

Beach fun in our own backyard!

Trey finally lost a couple teeth this summer and he's getting mad that the teeth are already growing in because he wants his friends at school to see his missing teeth.

Happy birthday Taylee!

I really cannot believe my baby turned two! Taylee is definitely the funny one, always making funny faces and even talking in silly voices to make us laugh. She screams A LOT just like her sister, but I like to tell myself it will eventually turn into a good quality, like she stands up for herself or something like that :) We sure love our Taylee girl! Be sure to watch the video below...so cute!

3 months old
one year old
beautiful girl
That's my Taylee!

Michigan/ Mackinac trip

We recently returned from my favorite trip to Michigan so far! My mom planned a trip to Mackinac Island in northern Michigan with my siblings and our families, complete with "Hardie Party" tee-shirts. We stayed in a hotel in St. Ignace, MI where we enjoyed lots of yummy food, games together,swimming, campfire, chasing seagulls and more! As always we were sad to leave, but this is the first time my kids were really sad. Brooklyn cried two days before we left in anticipation of the goodbyes and continues to miss her grandparents each day! That's okay, we'll be back soon!!

Fort Mackinac was an army fort in the 1800's and has been preserved as such and open to tourists to travel back to a simpler time...

Isn't it beautiful!

Amandine, Brook, Trey and Sofia

Brooklyn taking care of her baby cousin Scarlett

Ahh, wouldn't it be nice if this is what my girls did all day?

Peek-a-boo Taylee

Soldiers: Chris, Justin and Treygan

The girls loved dressing up in period clothing

All the cousins dressed up

We're lucky we even got this picture!

Treygan in jail....he loved this and the cannon and gun demo

Trey and Fia wanted to ride on the upper deck of the ferry boat. Little did we realize it would be so windy we couldn't even blink! We only lasted a couple minutes.

It was a bit chilly for Taylee at the beach.

When the babies let one of the floaty toys go in the lake, Trey was still eating his lunch and upon discovering the wandering toy, he jumped up and ripped off his shirt, kicked off his shoes and tried with all of his might to rescue it.....the rescue mission failed, but we all got a good laugh!

Thierry and Scarlett

Grandma and Grandpa led the kids in a few games of Uno

The day after our Mackinac trip, we traveled to Cedar Point, here the kids are waiting anxiously for a ride. If you haven't heard of Cedar Point, look it up....it's the best!

My kiddos with Grandpa before bed.

We finished off our vacation with a trip to the Dairy Park in good ol' HP. Say ice cream!

Thanks mom and dad for a very memorable trip!