Milestones and New Hobbies

A few days ago Gabby came home from school so excited... she had her first loose tooth. She has been patiently waiting for the first little signs of wiggle in those teeth. Most of her friends have lost at least one or two by now and she was getting worried she'd never lose one! I knew better! She didn't get her first tooth until she was almost 15 months old, so I was not at all surprised that she was a little later in loosing teeth as well. Her tooth was still pretty well attached when I sent her to school yesterday, but when I came to get her and Luke from school she had it in a little baggie. Apparently she had wiggled it ALL day until it came out... with a lot of blood. I think it would have held on a little longer, but she was DETERMINED to have that thing out NOW! It is so tiny! She is so proud and was even more excited when she found the tooth fairy had come during the night. (You see, Luke told her he heard from kids at school that the tooth fairy wasn't real, that is was just your parents. She was devastated. SO I did what any good parent would do and told her if Luke and his friend believed that then they wouldn't get ANYTHING from the tooth fairy ever again. That was all she needed, she was on board to believe again. I did have to tell Luke he was right, but I also told him to not tell his sisters when he discovered stuff like that. Just talk to me first. Ya, he still believes in Santa. I haven't had the heart to tear that belief away just yet... I bet he is going to be the ONLY 3rd grader in Cleveland to still believe. )

Last week my friend Elizabeth, who is super talented and crafty, showed me how to make these cute little chocolate suckers. I can't believe I never learned this before!!! I am hooked and think I found a fun new hobby!! (Not that I don't have enough of those already...) Now I just need to find people to give these to!!

Lily and Gabby

Sometimes I just love to sit and listen to my kids talk to each other. They say the funniest things sometimes!! Yesterday Gabby and Lily were getting ready to go outside to play. This is what I heard Lily- "Come on guys!" Gabby-"I'm not a guy! I'm a girl." Lily-"Come on guys-girl" Gabby-"I'm not a guy-girl. I am just a girl. Well I am a Gabby girl." Lily-"Oh, right." Gabby-"Do you even know what a Gabby-girl means??" Lily-"Yes!" Gabby-"What?!" Lily-"....I don't know...." Gabby-"It means 'talkie'. You know, I am a 'talkie' girl, cause I like to talk. That's why I am a Gabby-girl." Lily-"...Oh..." If only I had a tape recorder for all of the things they say, I am constantly entertained! (maybe that is just because they are my kids, but I think they are funny!!)

Ahhhhhh Spring!!!

On Friday Nate got off work early and the weather outside was so warm! We decided to take the kids to the park and have a picnic for dinner. (How's that for date night?! ;)) It was so nice and so much fun! We ran around the little pond there and of course the kids wanted to stop and have me take a picture of them on this bench! (What have a done to them?!) It amazes me how much kids LOVE parks! I mean I remember liking them, but I had no idea how handy they were for parents. Easy, cheap entertainment, perfect!

Nate being Nate couldn't just sit and enjoy the nice family time, he had to do a few sets of pull ups. Always looking for ways to exercise. (He tells me it is a good stress reliever, I'll take his word for it! ;)!)

Lily took off her shoes and practically rolled around in the dirt, but she loved it so how could I get frustrated?

We stayed until it started raining and then headed home, got the kids in bed and watched "Date Night" together. I love it when we get to have those days. They are few and far between, but when they happen they make everything else more bearable. I love my family and am so lucky to have them!!!

Soccer, Dentist and life

It is that time again. Time for indoor soccer. Luke had so much fun last year doing it and BEGGED to be able to do it again this year. We weren't going to let him, simply because of finances, but I decided I'd just make it work some how. And of course it wasn't fair to just let Luke do something, so we asked Gabby if she wanted to take a class at the YMCA too. They offered dance, cheer and a bunch of other things I thought she'd want to do, but she wanted to do soccer. So we signed them both up, and they ended up on the same team. I'm not sure how, but they did. Most of the other kids on the team at 8, Gabby is the smallest on the team by far, but she holds her own pretty well. They had their first game on Saturday that they won! Luke scored two goals and Gabby almost made one, but took an elbow to the side of her head and missed. I'll have to post video of the game later, but here is some pictures of practice.Here is Gabby in here pink shin guards, I can always find her that way. Luke is really good at getting in there and kicking the ball. He isn't so good at the rules yet, the coach was trying to get them to stay in their area, but Luke just follows the ball. But they have so much fun!

Lily feels super left out and wants to get out there with the kids, so I try to make it up to her by taking her to the park when the kids are at school. She is so cute!

I took all the kids to the dentist....for the first time. I know, I know, but I HATE the dentist so I just never took them. (That and we've never had dental insurance...) But I decided after both Luke and Gabby told me their teachers at school say they should go twice a year that I ought to at least take them once. I was nervous about their condition, but I am happy to report not a one of them has anything wrong with any of their teeth!! YAY!!! The best part of the whole experience is that our good friend Elizabeth got to be the one who cleaned their teeth!! She is great! In fact she is the one who final got me to take them all in... What are friends for!

I just wanted to say thanks to those who offered words of encouragement to me when I had my little public meltdown. I had no idea this whole process could be so frustrating and hard. We still haven't figured it out yet, but I am at least calmed down. I think my emotions just got a little out of whack. They still are, but we're working on that. I had my hysterosalpingogram done and now I guess we'll see what they want to do next. I can't be going through menopause already so lets hope they find out soon what is up with my stupid body, because I want one less thing to stress about as I try to find somewhere for us to live!! :)

My Treasure

After venting my frustrations I decided I didn't have to look very far to find my buried treasure. They were sitting at the table coloring. It was the first sunny day that we'd had in a long time, and it was actually almost warm, so I decided to take us all to the park. Boy, was that what I needed. Some fresh air and the delightful sounds of my happy children. It sure did a lot to calm me down. Now at least I have the calm I need to try and figure out my dilemma.

I have monkey's for children!

Lily was hiding from me in the tunnel!

Luke and Gabby we having a competition. Surprisingly, but maybe not so much, Gabby is stronger than Luke. Not that she can beat him up or anything, but she is able to pull herself up and do more push ups, pull ups and sit ups than he is. It was funny to watch them.

This picture of Luke makes me laugh so hard. Not so much because of the picture itself, but because of what he said. As soon as he got up there like that he says, "Hey mom! I'm in 'downward dog!!!'" Can you tell we do a little yoga in our house??

We stopped by the pond and were surprised to see two ducks. They decided to moon the kids which they thought was hilarious. I had to explain what they were really doing, but Luke thought it was funnier his way.

And to finish the afternoon off, we broke out the bubbles. I don't know about anyone else, but my kids LOVE bubbles. I mean they really love them. They were out there forever! But I didn't mind, we have been couped up inside for far to long. Bring on the spring weather!!!

I am so thankful for my family. I really don't know what I'd do without them!! And not just the ones I live with, my extended family too, I really am so blessed!!

Having a moment....

Ok let me start off by saying I don't often pour my frustrations out onto my blog. It just isn't me. But I am at the point that I am either going to start crying and never stop or start yelling and throwing things and I need an outlet. So be forewarned, if you don't want to hear a rant, just pass this one by. Secondly I want to say that I in no way think my problems are worse, bigger or more frustrating than anyone else's. I don't compare and I am not trying to. Just understand that I am super frustrated and I need to let off some steam. With that out of the way, let me begin. I am so excited that Nate got accepted into the program in Cleveland, I really am. I am not, however, looking forward to moving. I looked at housing up there, rent for a place the size we are in now is between 1200 to 1800. Well there is NO WAY I can afford that, or even close to that. So I look at buying. So many people have suggested buying, seeing as we will be there for at least 5 years. It sounded like a great idea. I got online and started looking at house prices, and lo and behold it's WAY more affordable than renting!! Yipee!!!! Now I have never bought a house, had no idea what the process was like or what went into it. I start calling around. Let's get pre- approved, fantastic. I make some calls, give info and wait to hear back. I realize that we have NO MONEY for a down payment and we are going to be so tight (seeing as now we have to pay for health insurance, all our food-don't judge me-, and a bunch of other things we hadn't been paying) that we can't afford a super high mortgage payment. I hear that it's no problem for a first time home buyer, and then I hear about this awesome Physicians Loan specifically for people in our situation who have no money. It says 100% financing and NO mortgage insurance!! Wahoo!! All seems to be going well until today. I get the call. "Ms. Tracey, your husbands credit score isn't high enough to qualify for the 100% financing, you need at least 5% down" Wait, why? Why is his credit score bad. Well it isn't bad, it is just 5 points lower than what is has to be at to qualify. WHY???? Because of all his student loans. Ummm, I thought that was why we went this route. Well all the loans have to be in deferment. Aren't they? Well some aren't. SO I call the student loan people and ask why they are reporting some of the loans as NOT in deferment? They say because they are "in school" status which is basically the same. Although the credit people don't see it that way. I keep getting the run around NO ONE WILL help me and I can't figure out what to do. We have NO late payments, our credit is STELLAR except that we have these student loans and Nate just opened a stupid Macy's department store card to get me a Valentine's present and the fact that we have had "too many inquiries" after our credit. Well I thought YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO SHOP AROUND FOR THE BEST RATES WHEN BUYING A HOME???!!!!??? I am so frustrated!! It looks like we can't get a loan unless we have a down payment and we have no money. So it looks like all 5 of us will be living in a two bedroom apt, that is if we lie and tell them it is just us and one kid. Because honestly, NO ONE WILL RENT A 2 BEDROOM APT TO A FAMILY OF 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO???? Sorry, I am so upset and I have no idea what to do. I have called all the people I can, talked to everyone the mortgage guy said to, and I am not any where closer to figuring out how to fix this. SO I guess I better start digging for buried treasure because let's face it, that seems more likely to yield results then what I am doing now.

Pine Wood Derby

This year was our FIRST Pine Wood Derby! I think Nate and I have been looking forward to this as much as Luke has!! Luke and Nate worked on the car together and made it according to Luke's specifications. The only thing we didn't know about was that everyone else was adding weights to their cars... so Luke had no chance of winning. But now we know for next year! We still had so much fun and Luke was proud of how his car turned out! Along with the car race they had a cake contest. The dad's and son's were suppose to make a cake together and decorate it. Luke, again, was very specific about how he wanted this cake made. I think it turned out great! (It got the "Best Dirt Track" award)

Here is Luke with two of his best buddies, Jaylon and Scott. (They are both a few years older, but they are still great friends!)

These are a few of the other cakes, any guesses as to which one won?!

And here is a video of the only race Luke won, but hey it's all about the experience right?!

It was a fun evening and we definitely learned some things for next year!!