Swimmers??

I know right? These awesome swimmers look like they are on their way to the Olympics. Well don't let their matching team swimsuits and fierce faces fool you. My kids are NOT professional swimmers, not even close. My swimming motto is "MY kids swim, to make your kids look good". And it's true.

I hope in the process of making them swim, I am teaching them that they don't have to be number 1 at everything they do. Sometimes their is nothing wrong with a participation ribbon.

 Here is Tommy all ready to go. Too bad he doesn't want to actually get in the water. I had to bribe him to race. But I will say that by the end of the year he was able to swim the full length without stopping and without looking like he was about to drown. He's my stud.

 Here is my Kelly. In the back in the pink. She practices everyday without complaining.

 Then there is Paige. I don't really know what to do with her. She just does it for the social part. She loves chatting and laughing with her friends, and doesn't really like when it is interupted with the whole swimming  a race thing.



Last Day of school

So it's kind of funny that for the first day of school we go through so much trouble to make the monsters look great. I curl hair, carefully pick out clothes, get out to the bus stop early.

But then the school year just kind of happens and before you know it it's the last day of school again.

Tommy survived Kindergarten

Paige loved First Grade

and Kelly learned a ton in Third.

So on the last day of school, they woke up late, through on clothes and let me snap a quick pick as they ran out to the school bus... with their breakfast in hand.

Kelly was still the fabulous student that she always is. Math is difficult for her, but she pushes through. Learning her mulitplication tables took a lot out of her, but because she put so much time into it, I think it made the success even sweeter.



 Paige is Paige. She loved her teacher and loved having some good friends in her class. Her reading improved and she loved going to school everyday. Paige makes my life flow easily.

Tommy made it to First Grade! Tommy's kindergarten year was an amazing learning experience for both of us. This was the first time I felt like I had to step up and fight for my child in the school. I knew going in that this would be a difficult year, but I really feel like I am a better parent after it.

Thank you Tommy for being you.

My Circus @ The Circus

So I know you sit at home at night and think. "Wow that Jen has it all. She is drop dead gorgeous, has a hot husband and my goodness could her kids get any cuter" "Could she be any more perfect?"

Well before Friday the answer could have been yes... I wasn't perfect. You see I had never taken my family to the CIRCUS!! But never fear, I saw the error of my ways and I have repented for my sins. We went, we saw, we conquered the Circus.

It was fabulous. The best part was the price of the tickets. I got them for $6.00 each. All of the other shows and times were $30.00 a ticket, but lucky me found the one time that was super cheap.

CHEESE!! Look at this super cute family. Thank heavens for my sister or I wouldn't have been in any of the pictures. The clowns were great. Kind and not overly clowny. Here are the monsters getting ready to ride an elephant. I think I was just as excited as they were. I took about 50 pics of them up on that Elephant.

Paige was excited to sit in the front. Kelly sat in the back and I made sure that Preston sat in front of her, just in case he suddenly decided to jump.

This was as close as I got to getting all 4 to look at me at the same time. Preston didn't cooperate, but at least Ellie the Elephant did.

So I paid more for them to ride this elephant than I did for my tickets. But It was worth it in the end. I mean they got a whole 1.5 minutes on an elephant. Can you get any cooler?

See I really did take like 50 pics of this.

I loved that Laney wasn't scared of the Clown. She just thought that he was the coolest thing. I think he reminds her of her mother...

After the elephants we went for the face painting. Kelly sat like a statue.

Same with Paige she was so excited to look like a tiger.

Now this poor clown deserves a raise. I think he wanted some duct tape for my son. Tommy was all over the place. There was no sitting still for this boy, not at the circus.

Paige was in Heaven. She was a sparkly tiger. She was the first one done, so she got a photo shoot with another clown.

I told them to make their best clown face, so the clown turned them all around... because HE was the best clown face! HAHA (well I thought it was funny)

Here they are with their faces all painted. Quite cute if you ask me. If you are wondering where Preston is, he opted out of the face painting (didn't ask why).

So once the show started this is what they looked like. They oohhed and ahhed. I was in heaven, besides the fact that I was holding a very tired Laney.

Here we are right before it started. I had to get a pic of Mel just for proof that she came with us.

Our seats were great too. Especially for 6 bucks each.

I think that's our Ellie. (No that is not her real name, I just took the liberty of naming her)

And of course our experience ended with a BANG! They shot this poor guy across the arena. Don't worry He was just fine. So that is our Friday. It is always great to do things as a family. I love watching the kids experience these things for the first time. These are the magical moments. The ones that get me through the throw up, potty accidents, fighting, sleepless nights, and just crappy days.

We all need some magical moments occasionally to remind us why we brought these monsters into the world.

Wehrmeister Girls take Chicago!

At the beginning of March I went on my first girls weekend!! (with my daughters). We did bring along the Nonnie, because she's always up for a good time. We drove out to Chicago to meet up with some good friends of ours. The Binns Girls (and James)

So on Friday morning, Kelly, Paige, Laney, Nonnie and I loaded up the Suburban and started on our drive. Besides Ms. Laneybird losing her lunch at the first rest stop, the drive went smoothly. There is nothing like singing along to Summer Magic (the Disney Movie) with my little girl monsters.

There was one stop before the hotel and that was IKEA. Adam says I'm good at spending a lot of money on nothing there. In past trips I have come back with $75.00 worth of odds and ends that don't really do much so I made an effort not to by the small stuff. Instead I went for a dresser! Hey what good is a Suburban if you aren't going to use it.

Well I will say that our trip to American Girl was magical. The girls were in heaven. Kelly was happy because she had her BFF Lindsay with her, and Paige just had those stars in her eyes that you usually only see on Christmas. She mentioned that this was more fun than Disney World.

We went for the whole American Girl experience. So we helped open the store at 8am by having Kelly and Lindsay go to a "How to Do your Doll's Hair" class. Then they got the dolls ears pierced, then we wondered the 2 levels of pure girl fun. Around 11 we went to our American Girl Lunch. The other Jen on the trip had arranged for them to celebrate all 3 of their birthday's. So they made the girls a cake, and had presents for them. Even the dolls had Birthday hats. It was probably their best unbirthday ever!

We finally checked out with all our American Girl Doll bling in the afternoon and walked back to our hotel. I had an American Girl Doll hangover, but besides that the weekend was amazing.

I missed my boys, but I really wish I could have videotaped their weekend. From what I got out of my 5 year old boy their was a bunch of movies, wii, eating out and plants vs zombies. (sounds like they were really living it up)

This is the Hair Class. Hopefully Samantha's hair will benefit from this.

There was some bed jumping that went on...

And some sister bonding.

Then there was some more bed jumping, and some synchronized bed jumping. Nonnie brought the bag of fun! Which included coloring books, snacks and a brand new game to play.

This is about the time when we perfected the bed jumping.

Kelly modeling her new matching pajamas and her doll holder. Paige's doll has a new yoga outfit for all those complicated yoga moves that Kit does.

Here they are bringing out the birthday cake. They also sang to the girls. They thought it was funny since it wasn't really their birthday.

And what cake wouldn't be complete without blowing out the candles.

All cake is cut and served along with ice cream in an adorable glass cone.

The un Birthday girls!

All the dolls got their own seats too.

Kelly and Samantha.

Laneybird didn't bring along her doll. Hers is locked up in the box until she turns 7.

Paige and Kit.

Kelly and Linds, they were so happy to see each other. Kelly has missed her so much and has been looking forward to this weekend for a long time.

Kelly learning how to correctly take care of doll hair. There are more rules than I knew. Maybe she will be a doll hairdresser when she grows up.

Those oranges are made out of jello. neat huh?

Happy Birthday my Monsters.

This little baby monster turned 1! Boy do I love that monster. Actually my oldest and youngest monsters had birthdays this month. So it was quite busy. Also, everyone and their Mother (really and me) was sick this month. So we ended up combining birthday celebrations just so we could fit them all in.

Okay is she not a super cute birthday girl? She didn't get to wear her birthday outfit on her actual birthday, because she was throwing up and I didn't want her to ruin it. Her and Preston were the first ones to get the stomach bug and it was awful. Laney (my baby who loves to sleep) would sleep while she threw up. I went into her room to find her fast asleep and she kept opening her mouth just a little to throw up. (I know gross, but come on how sad and pathetic is that?)

Here is Birthday girl number 2 with her Poppy. She has him trained. Whenever he tries to sit down she does this pathetic little whine and he immediatley jumps up. It also makes him her favorite. Here is my beautiful Birthday Girl #1. She is amazing and beautiful. This year for her birthday we did a makeover day of sorts. I took her and 2 of her friends to the local beauty school where they got their hair and nails done.

Then we went and they each got cupcakes, after that we went to the mall where they did this trampoline bungee jumping type thing, which they loved. And we finished it off where they each got to buy some accessories from Claires and a T-shirt from another store.

It was a good time for them and for me. Kelly looked beautiful. And she had a blast with her friends. Here is Kelly's present from her Grampy. It is beautiful. She is so blessed to have a present like this that she can keep forever.

Both of my Birthday Girls!

Here was Kelly's birthday present from us. She was so excited to have a matching dress to go with her new American girl Doll.

So this isn't the picture I meant to upload, but It shows Kelly's birthday morning. What you are not seeing is that Adam and I were really sick. We had finally gotten the throw-ups as well. I remember taking this picture thinking that we had to get through this for Kelly. I did not want to ruin her birthday with my sickness.

After this picture Nonnie and Poppy came over and told Adam and I to go to bed that they would watch the monsters. So we went to bed and slept till 2pm.

Here is Kelly after her hair and nails. She is such a doll. I love my little 9 year old.

I think she likes it!

She picked the nice classy colors of blue and silver. She had high class written all over her hands.

So Happy birthday to my beautiful girls. I adore you and am excited to see what this upcoming year has for us. Kelly, thank you for making me a mom and Delaney thank you for making me a better mom. I love having you girls in my life. You are my life. I have learned so much from both of you and have seen myself grow over the past 9 years of being a mother. Delaney, when you came into my life I thought I had it all covered as far as being a mom goes. You quickly taught me that I still have a long ways to go. But as long as I have my monsters in my life I am happy to learn anything that you want me to. Kelly, you are growing into a beautiful young lady. You are a kind and loving sister. The other monsters are so blessed to have you in their life.

So thank you monsters and Happy Birthday!!