I've been such a blogger-slacker!

Every single time I go to post on my blog, I am horrified that I have gone so many months without checking in at all. I'm so jealous of other women who have such beautiful, well-written blogs, because I can't often think of things to say. That's ok though, I'm going to blab anyways about my lovely babies and even if I'm the only one who reads it, that's OK!

My sweet Spencer was SO excited to be able to get out onto the swingset without a coat on and enjoy his slide! As you can see by the giant smile. :)


Above is the kids enjoying an unseasonably warm day at the Natural History Museum. The boys are SO in love with dinosaurs so they loved having a chance to ride on the stegosaurus tail. And we loved having a chance to meet with friends and enjoy a warm day out.


Miss Layla has been waiting all winter for a day warm enough to try out her monkey bars on the swingset. She feels that once she's 5, she can do the monkey bars alone. :) This is her prepping for her first try. She got onto the first one but her little arms got tired so I helped her.
She intends to work on it all summer. So cute!


My sweet, sweet Corby. My little man doesn't smile all the time, but when he does it's wonderful. He can light up the whole world with that little smile!

What A Great Birthday Week!

This was my birthday week, the big 28, and it has been a great one. This past Sunday, we went to my Grandma's house and my aunts, uncles and cousins came over to celebrate with me. I made a home-made Coca Cola-Chocolate Cake with home-made chocolate buttercream and an apple-cranberry cobbler. Grandma and my aunts made pasta, home-made sauce, garlic bread and salad. We had a great time!

On Monday, the kids and I went out to lunch with my Grandpa Frank and Grandma Mary. As we pulled into the parking lot of Macaroni Grill, Corbin threw up and completely blew up the contents of his stomach all over EVERYTHING. He had soaked through his entire coat, all the way through his shirt and all over his pants. Since we were 45 minutes from home, I had no choice but to get down and dirty and scrub him clean. After a half of a box of wipes, time for lunch. The lunch was fantastic and the kids were so well-behaved! After dinner, they brought out a piece of chocolate cake with a candle in it, how cute! And it was sooooo tasty!

For dinner, we tried the new restaurant, Melt. It's a restaurant that specializes in variations on grilled cheese sandwiches and it's one of THE most popular restaurants around right now. Since it was a weeknight, the wait was only 30-45 minutes. Unfortunately, that worked out to more than an hour by the time we sat down! It was a great dinner. I got a chorizo/potato/fried egg sandwich with fries and slaw. The boys shared some pierogies and grilled cheese. Layla ate fries and pickles. Not the best food choice for her, but what can you do?? I took home fried Twinkies for dessert. Something I would NEVER order unless it was my birthday!

In addition to the meals, I got lovely gifts too. A special mention that I got the coveted roll recipe from my Aunt Mary! Nobody gets the recipe for her rolls so it's an honor!!

Halloween Fun

On Halloween Day, we went to a big Halloween event held at Zion Lutheran Church. We were invited by Vicky and Jeremy. It was a whole lot of fun. Games, cupcake decorating, a maze and of course tons of candy! Above, the kids were posing for their photo!


There was even a bouncy castle! How fun!


Here shows the end of our Halloween Day. The boys were far too exhausted to finish up trick-or-treating, so they hitched a ride in the wagon for the remainder. :)

Layla loves Halloween so much. This year we tried to make sure she got to wear her costume as much as possible. We did a couple different library events and she got a chance to do Halloween MANY times! She is already talking about next year. Her plan is that she will be a princess and her brothers will be dragons!

Bragging About Shutterfly Photo Cards

It feels scandalous to brag about another card company, since my husband works for American Greetings, but it must be done. Every year, I order my photo cards/Christmas cards from Shutterfly. They have an amazing number of choices using anywhere from 1 to even 10 photos. I use them for thank-you cards, birthday invitations, and Christmas cards. The best part is that they are always running some type of great deal, whether it's free shipping or free cards or a great percentage off. You can even combine the deals. I recently got 300 free prints (from both a Pampers promotion and a new member promotion), a free 11x14 plus a free birthday card plus free shipping. I paid $14 for 300 pictures, an 11x14 collage, a greeting card, and 75 greeting cards.

Here are some of my favorite designs:

The picture tree (great for if you have multiple kids):

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/picture-tree-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93480&fe=4

The Gifted Tag Christmas (I love the simplicity of this one)

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/gifted-tag-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93480&fe=4

The Charming Holly Wreath (We used a variation for this year's Christmas card. If you are using a fall photo, it blends perfectly with the brown)

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/charming-holly-wreath-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&fa=2&storeNode=93480&fe=4

My Very First Auction!

One of our high-school classmates, Kim Walton, passed away in January of 2009. We wanted to honor her in some way and have her be a part of our 10-year reunion. We decided to do a Chinese auction in her honor, with all proceeds being donated to the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society.

I started contacting many local businesses and was shocked, amazed and thrilled with the wonderful response I received. We got so many wonderful donations.

This is the first auction I have ever "hosted" and I just wanted to show some pictures. I had a lot of help from my fellow party-planners and this gift below (in the middle) and all the gorgeous table cards were all put together be Jenn Komar. Thank you also to Vicky for helping me gather up donations. And to Brandt's for donating raffle tickets, a cash box, and ticket boxes.



Above are the first 3 auctions. We offered a great basket from Ladies & Gentlemen with two free haircuts (1 for men's cut, 1 for women's cut), along with great Aveda products. It came with a $10 certificate to Branding Iron. The second basket included a $25 Grotto gift card, a bracelet/necklace from Premier Jewelry, treats from Tastefully Simple and Pampered Chef Martini Glasses. The third basket was a $25 Partylite certificate with a great basket of Scentsy items as well as summer fun toys.

The first basket on the left included a free oil change from Monroe, assorted car wash items and 3 free value meals at Arby's. Chick Fil A gave us a cute bag with a cow, travel cup, a calendar and free meals. Brandt's Candies gave a yummy basket of treats and a gift certificate.

Tupperware gave us an awesome basket of items. A colander, a mixed set of bowls, a marinating container and a gravy shaker. We got a gift card, granola, jam, and fresh-baked bread from Great Harvest Bread.

We had several "non-baskets" as well that included $200 to Taco Bell, a free birthday cake from Cakes to You, a Toys R Us gift card, Fitworks passes, a TGI Fridays certificate and $25 to Winking Lizard. We had a basket of "romance" items (courtesy of Lion's Den "adult" superstore) and a gorgeous set of items from Mrs. Caroff (wine, bread, home-made designed wine holders, etc.).

All in all, the auction was AMAZING. We raised $300 to donate to the society, as well as $300 to donate to the Kim Walton Foundation. Kim's family has started this organization to help families dealing with cancer. They will financially support them when they can't work/have mounting bills, etc. We are excited and thrilled. Six HUNDRED dollars!! It was so stressful to do, but I am so glad we did it!

Finally, I'm Back!!

After many months of no computer (my hard drive fried completely), Brian has gotten my computer back to somewhat-functional shape. It has to be plugged into the wall and router at all times and has a permanent drive plugged in the side and a very basic barely-functional operating system. However, I can get online and that's all I need to do really. It has a basic word processing system too, so that about covers it all.

The summer has been fairly peaceful. We have spent lots of lazy, lovely days just relaxing, playing, and visiting with family. We've had a few zoo trips, a few trips to the pool and swimming lessons! We even took a day trip to Columbus to go to our absolute favorite zoo. Spencer, below, is showing off how incredibly hot it was (note sweaty head)

Layla has been spending her entire summer making great use of her new Barbie bike that she got for her birthday. We have graduated from tiny tricycles to a full-on bike with training wheels! She does great on it and she has some serious energy. That girl can ride the bike for 2 or 3 miles straight and still wants to do it again that night! Her bike also has a little Barbie backpack attached to the front, perfect for bringing a drink and snack. :)

Layla also had her 4-year doctor's appointment. Unfortunately, she is scared of strangers and terrified of doctors/nurses so it was tough. However, she got her shots and we got her info. She is 35 pounds and 40 inches. That's the 44th percentile for both. So she's a little under the average, but is "perfectly proportioned" according to the doc.

The boys have been growing in leaps and bounds. As for their size, they are now 30 pounds (Corbin, 50th percentile) and 27.5 pounds (Spencer, 25th percentile). As I write this, both are sick which always makes me so sad. I hate having to hear these poor, sick babies gasp and hack and cough. Poor things. They have croup and Spencer caught the worst end of things. Corbo is on steroids 1x day and Spencer is on steroids 1x day (a stronger dose than Corbin), Albuterol treatments 6x day and amoxicillin 2x day (He actually has an ear infection too). I am hoping in the next few days, they start to feel much better

Corbin, above, is chilling out in his highchair at Branding Iron Cookhouse. This summer, we have had Andrew and Evan with us when their mom (Aunt Sally) goes in to work at Brandt's. We have had an awesome time, going to restaurants and museums and then hanging out at my house. The kids love to play with them and they are a HUGE help to me with the kids. They are more like adults than kids. We have had so much fun!

We Miss Daddy!

I want to spend a lot more time here documenting the week and what's going on in our life, but I am playing Mommy and Daddy this week! The kids are having a very tough time with Daddy being out of town so they are not sleeping much at all and they are being very clingy. I am totally fine with that but it makes for less time to catch up.

See you soon. :)