Party like it's 2009

I'm planning a super fun birthday party for the Queen Monkey. I'm getting a Moonwalk. I'm not telling the kids until they see it. QM won't really know, but KM will. It's a little more for him then her. His birthday is in February and he'll never get to have one at his birthday. Just ordered the invatations. They turned out pretty cute. Man alive do I love Shutterfly!



I love planning parties. I love having everyone over at our house. I love planning the menu. How much beer do we need? What kind of cake should we get? Decorations? Who to invite? Should we have a theme?

Love Your Love The Most.

Love Your Love The Most: Justin Moore

I Love Sleeping In On Saturdays

And I Love Vikings Football Games

I Love Not Acting My Age

And A Good Barbecue



Yeah I'm A Fan Of Bernstein Books

And Anything My Mama Cooks

Loud Mouth Kids Have Got Me Hooked

On Sunday Afternoon



Yes I Love Good Cold Beer

And Ketchup On My Fries

I Love A Good Loud Honky Tonk

That Rocks On Friday Night

And Hell Yes I Love My Truck

But I Want You To Know

Honey I Love Your Love The Most



Man I Love How Marlboro's Taste

And Damn I Love My Morning Race

Any Song Sung By George Strait

Is Country At It's Best



Yes I Love Good Cold Beer

And Ketchup On My Fries

I Love A Good Loud Honky Tonk

That Rocks On Friday Night

And Hell Yes I Love My Truck

But I Want You To Know

Honey I Love Your Love The Most



I Love



Yeah I Love Scuffed Up Working Boots

And Broke In Tore Up Jeans

A Four Wheel Drive

Eight Hundred Bucks

And Mint Chip Ice Cream

And Hell Yes I Love My Kids

And Captain In My Coke



But Honey I Love Your Love

Yeah I Love Your Love yeah

I Love Your Love The Most

This is my new favorite song.

This is kind of how I feel about the way I grew up. I feel like you couldn't ask for a better place to grow up then in a small town. This is part of the reason we decided to move back to where Husband and I grew up. We are living in a town, that is not a lot larger people wise, but much more metro then where we grew up.

This is why we put our house up for sale. We want our kids to grow up the way we grew up. We think it makes you a hard worker, teaches you the value of things. It's a different experience growing up in the country with chores to do and having to find your own fun. We want this for our own kids. We will do everything we can to show them what it looks like to grow up like mom and dad did. There's more room to run and ride bikes, to dig in the dirt and help mow the lawn.

Hopefully, they will bale hay and know what it feels like to put in a good hard days work. I'm sure you can accomplish this in the city, or even a suburb, but I didn't grow up like that and I don't know what that would look like. Going back to Where I Come From. ( I don't know any of the people in this video, but it feels like this where I come from.)

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

We had another whorl wind weekend out of town. We drove down Friday night and had a few beers on the way. And by a few I mean we had to stop 2 times. Auntie and Uncle CRat rode down with us. The 3 hour drive turned in to about a 5 1/2 hour drive. We had ourselves a really good time. The only problem is we didn't know we needed to be up and ready at 9 am to make it to the dairy breakfast. 7am came very early.


We got up and got ready. Didn't really think about the days events because Auntie and I wore flip flops to the farm. We are not that city. We did, after all, grow up on a farm. Lucky for us it was a nice day out and not muddy. We hit the diary breakfast, checked out the cows, looked around the farm and took a hay ride. Queen Monkey fell asleep before the hay ride and King Monkey nearly didn't go. He was getting bucky. After standing in line for far too long it was our turn and worth the wait. KM had lots of fun. It was beautiful day out. The sun was shining, there were hardly any clouds in the sky, more fresh air then we've had in a long time and all the family togetherness we could want. After the dairy breakfast we went over to Luan & Tony's house. They also have a large dairy farm. We spent some time with the new born calf's and feed the 3-6 month old calf's. KM was a very good helper. He had to count out 6 scoops then dump it, then 6 more scoops then dump. QM spent some time playing in the dirt while Auntie took some pictures. She ate a few handfuls. She played in the straw, in the grass, and let the cows lick her. We went for a ranger ride around the farm and saw most of the acreage he farms. It was just nice to be outside.

When we got back up by the house, we grabbed some water and played outside some more. KM wanted to golf so he hit some balls around the yard, but lucky for us it was far past nap time so it was really pleasant being near him. We kind of realized what time it was so we headed back in to town to get ready. But on the way we actually realized what time it was (Husband didn't read his watch correctly the first time) and we had about a hour more than we thought we had before we had to be to the reception. So we hit DQ for chili dogs and then went back to the hotel and took a little snooze. By the time we got up we were a little pressed for time. Thank goodness that we had extra hands to help get the kids ready for the reception. Man O' Man were they cute. I put them in their Easter outfits. Almost all of the people at the reception had not seen them yet (only the people that came with us had).

As soon as we got there it was time to eat (I said we were running behind). So we pretty much jumped in line. Got our food and sat down. Eating was very interesting. QM didn't want to stay put. She didn't want to sit on my lap and I didn't have anywhere else to put her. So I'd set her down on the floor for a while then chase her, pick her up, bring her back to the table, lather, rinse, repeat.

After eating, there was a little lull until the DJ started. A bunch of kids were on the dance floor playing together. KM wanted to join in but was being a little shy. He was watching them closely, but wouldn't venture out there on his own. We had a walker with us that must have come over on the Mayflower. It was mine and Uncle J's when we were little. (We had found it a month earlier when cleaning at Grandma's house.) So I set QM in the walker on the dance floor and before I knew it KM had pushed her in to the middle of the kids. Instant friends. They all played together. Eventually QM had had her fill of being couped up in the walker so I took her out and set her down to crawl. She crawled across the dance floor and by the time she got to the other side she had quite the following. It was like she was the Pied Piper. They all followed her where ever she crawled to, all around the dance floor. She was a great ice breaker for him. It was cute to see them exploring the new friends together as a team. Hopefully they will be this great team for years to come. Helping each other through the scary things in life.

Somewhere along the weekend I had almost completely lost my voice. We left for the reception on a Friday, but the Wednesday and Thursday prior I had to make a mad dash to Gillette, Wyoming to drop some stuff for work. I had spent 20.5 hours in a truck alone driving across South Dakota and back. What's a girl to do but sing out loud as loud as I could to myself to help pass the time. It was a fun trip but kind of long by yourself. So at the reception Husband asked me if I wanted to go and smoke. I told him no because my throat hurt a little and I figured they weren't helping much. My aunt heard me say no and said "most wife's would give anything to dance with their husbands, so when he asks you to dance, you should go." I told her he didn't ask me to dance, but to go smoke instead. She had a puzzled look on her face and wasn't about to tell me to go do that with him (she really doesn't like smoking). Plus when ever we went outside to smoke, I'd try to talk and it sounded like I had been smoking 3 packs a day for 150 years, and Husband would make fun of my voice.

KM was running low, he didn't have a nap all day. When Husband and I took a little snooze, he spent that time running back and forth between the rooms, not napping. He did pretty good considering, but had a few moments of total melt down. Eventually he just crawled into the stroller and fell asleep. QM was about the same. No real melt downs for her but as soon as she fell asleep we pretty much had to pack it in for the night. Which was okay. We had really out done ourselves the night before and I was totally ready for bed. QM had slept with Amma the night before so now it was my turn for her to sleep with me. That was super awesome until she fell out of bed at about 5 am. Mother instincts kicked in but a little late. I had scooped her up by the scruff of her jammies before she had even started crying, but she still hit the floor. REAL NICE MOM. I'll try harder next time. I'm not used to her sleeping with me and I was really tired so any moving around she did, I didn't feel.

We got up the next morning and packed up. Headed back out to Tony and Luan's for about an hour. We had to see the baby calf's one more time. It was another beautiful day out. So we walked the farm a bit more then headed for home. The kids went with Amma and Wendowin (as KM calls her). They had a made a bee line for the farm on the way down. Didn't stop to smell the roses like we did. So on the way back they decided to take the scenic route. They hit a couple scenic over looks. Stopped and got some strawberries, had a some sammiches in a park then headed for the hills.

Once they got back home, we cooked up some dinner, fed Amma and sent her on her way home. It had been a long weekend, but a really fun one. We had lots of good family fun. As they get older, it will only get better. Looking forward to the next road trip.

Things I Want

• a huge lilac bush in my yard


• a garden full of fresh fruits and vegitables


• to be skinnier -- actually to be in better shape, if skinnier comes with that, great. Mostly a flatter stomach.


• to write a book -- not really sure what about, I suppose kids or parenting.


• a lower mortgage payment


• a pedicure every month


• a hot tub


• a crafting room full of all the organizing things a girl could want. I have the room, but want the organizers.


• time to work on sewing, I'd like to sell some stuff, but haven't made the time to sew it.


• a completed scrap book


• to know it's okay to take time to do some of the things I want to do (i.e. scrapbooking, sewing, reading, writing...)


• a nap


• to watch all 10 seasons of Friends in one sitting (or maybe one weekend)


• to take more pictures and have more taken (by Auntie) of the kids.


• to have a wall of family pictures


• to travel to Washington (State and DC)

(You would think Time and Money would be on the list, but who doesn't want more of both so I'm skipping them.)

Yawn.

I'm in a very Blah kind of mood today. I think it's both the weather and the lack of rest from the weekend. We were at a wedding (I was also in the wedding) about 4 hours from home. Lots of beer (LOTS OF BEER) and little sleep make for a long weekend. I think I just needed a few more hours of sleep and then I'd be better.

Queen Monkey is getting cuter by the minute. Now when she talks and laughs and smiles you can see her 2 cute little teeth. They are poking out far enough to see them. King Monkey went with Auntie and Uncle C to see "UP" yesterday. They went to eat before the movie and he ate a lot. Then he needed pop-porn at the theatre. Then Uncle C spilled the pop-porn so they had to go and get more pop-porn and also a Ring Pop. He had a great time. Auntie said she cried at the children's movie. She's a mess. But we still love her.

So since I've had my fill of being awake today, I'm going to wrap this up and go crawl under my desk for a nap.

These Robeez were made for walking.

Last night Queen Monkey took some of her very first steps. She'd stepped back and forth from me to almost anyone. Those were only about one step then someone would catch her. But last night, she was taking a few steps between Husband and I. Oh the pride! I know almost every kid in the history of kids has done this, but last night I felt like those were the first steps taken EVER! They were so very magical. So calculated, and yet not. So tipsy, and falling forward, and looking to be caught by the other parent. Every time she would get to Husband, I would clap and cheer and hoot and holler. King Monkey was there helping, but got slightly discouraged when they bonked heads. We'd yell YEAH and then quickly spin her around to push her in the other direction.

I don't know why this time I'm in more of a hurry to get her to each next phase of life. Maybe because I know how much better each phase gets. I don't want her to hurry up and grow up, yet I so very much do. I want her to be my baby forever, but I know that doesn't happen. I guess I'm just going to have to savor every moment. Take more pictures and videos, I've been slacking a bit lately.

She makes my heart burst when I see her. And so does KM for that matter. When I get to daycare to pick them up, every day KM runs to me and jumps in to my arms. He misses me so much. And every day when I get there QM sits where ever she is and kicks her legs and smiles the biggest smile, sometimes squealing, sometimes talking until I pick her up, but she is always smiling. They are so happy to see me, and I am so very happy to see them.

QM makes noises like Bevis and Butthead. It's a grunting noise and she does it a lot. We laugh every time. She also likes to hit her chubby little paw on everything and talk to us. I like to call her Chub-A-Riffic.

KM's new saying is "You have a Situation that needs Imagination... Brain Storm!" I ask him quite frequently, "Are you having a situation?" Then he replies with the former.

Every day I look forward to the things they say and do, even if The Pink One was up all night long whining and crying for no apparent reason, after being fed and she was sleepy and given everything she could possibly want or need at 3 am. I still love them even in the dead of night, especially in the dead of night. Looking forward to another sleepless night, and I wouldn't want it any other way.