Curesearch Walk

On May 18th, the Curesearch walk was held at Principal Park. Camryn's team keeps getting bigger each year, so there were quite a few people walking for her and in hopes of raising awareness and money for childhood cancer.
At the beginning of the walk, there is always an extra emotional part when all the names of the kids who haven't won their battle are read. such a tear jerker. such an emotional walk to know where we've been, what we're going through and what could be.

After the walk, the kids and I headed over to my sister's house for a little cookout and kid play time. it was fun to actually not have to pay too much attention to my kids since they were playing with their cousins and a few more responsible older kids. 

christmas, a month later.

christmas day, we head to my parents' house for the day. this year my brother and his family were there, so all the grandkids were present, minus the oldest. it was a full house with everyone there, plus, my grandparents and aunts and uncles came for a while to join in the paper flinging fun of gift opening. 

we sit in families so we can assist our kids, which means we never get pictures of our own kids. i had a brilliant idea this year, that my sister and i should give each other our discs, and snap pictures of each others kids. when we swap discs back, we have our own kids opening gifts, and a few other snapshots. genius!!1

 momma got a kindle fire. 

 all the grandkids, minus the oldest. (22 months-19yrs)

the last five months-august

august was packed full of fun. we had to make sure we did all the last 'summer-ish' things before school started for flether and our days weren't so open. 

one day in early august, adam's dad was up doing some things to the house (we were still moving at this point) and he heard some music in the distance. when he caught sight of what it was, he came inside to see if the kids could have ice cream. this is a very rare occasion so all three of us joined him outside to get a treat. 

in the middle of the month, my parents had my niece and nephew (brother's kids) for a few weeks. they decided to make a trip to the omaha zoo and the kids and i were asked if we wanted to tag along. since adam was out of town (big surprise), we did. we were only gone for one 30 hours, but we were on the go. we headed to the air and space museum to check out all the old planes...four kids and two adult females were bored out of our minds, but my dad sure enjoyed it. 

when we left the museum, we drove next door to mahoney state park where we were staying at the lodge, checked in and then thought we would go to the water park for a bit. this was a major hit. 

checking out the map of the grounds. there is so much to do that they want to come back. 

the following morning, we got the crew ready for a day at the zoo. 

the iowa state fair starts the second thursday and goes for the next 10 days. it's kind of tradition for us to go and do certain things every year. the kids are getting older and having more fun seeing the animals and doing  some of the activities 

camping at camp pops and nana's

my grandpa's 89th birthday. we had a family party for him and all of his kids, grandkids and greats were in attendance. 

grandma and grandpa with the greats. seven kids, nine and under...oh, the joys. 

not your average birthday

i was dreading my birthday this year. ever since i turned 30, i've kinda hated my birthday. no real reason other than being another year older. people like to celebrated 'me' and i enjoy it, but then it all hits me that i'm  'getting old'. 

yesterday was one of those emotional days. i was getting 'old' and we were awaiting some news that had the possibility of not being happy. brynlee and i were at my mom and dad's house since the boys were hunting, so i was hoping i would be able to hold it together a bit better, but NO. brynlee has hit the terrible two stage a few months early and was being an absolute terror. adam was coming to deliver fletcher, take me out for lunch and then head out of town for the week on a work trip, so i would be doing some single parenting. oh, and we were waiting for 'the phone call'. 

adam and i enjoyed a nice lunch at applebee's and he got me a kindle fire, on top of the new laptop he had already given me. once we got back to the house, my mom and fletcher had made cupcakes while we were gone, which was a nice surprise. and she had a nice package wrapped, waiting for me...a magic bullet blender.  i said good-bye to adam and about 10 minutes later, my sister was calling. i could tell from the questions my mom was asking, that it wasn't good news. 

after kicking icky cancer's butt once, camryn was going to have to do it again. this time, the spots are small and her body is 'healthy' and strong. the team of doctors already have a plan set out for treatment, so she was admitted last night and began chemo. she tolerated it well and was doing great today and is going home to do the rest of the treatment at home. 

with all the attitude, spunk and strength this little girl has, i have no doubt she'll be whoopin' some ass once again. 

. 

so, with that news, the joy that i was allowing to fill the day, was drastically stomped to the floor. in 33 years, i've never celebrated a birthday so sad. a redo is in place for next year, where i will be celebrating 33 again, with only good news allowed. 

the last five months-june

i was looking forward to june. the sun. the trips to the pool and zoo. staying up late. grilling and having summertime beverages. weekend adventures. our summer started out great, but by the end of the month, our summer took a major turn from fun to stressful.

the beginning of the month, i wanted to get the kids pictures taken. and because i'm am 'tight' with my money (in certain areas), i decided to play photographer mommy. with the help of my helpful assistant (my mom), we headed to the neighbors backyard to try and get a few decent pictures. fletcher was a ham. brynlee, not so much. i did end up getting a headache, and few that were frame-able. 

back in april for fletcher's birthday, he received a fishing pole from his pops and nana. ever since, he has really been into fishing. adam took him a few times. they also went to uncle dave's pond and did some fishing. fletcher is very impatient (inherited trait), and not quiet, so there was little catching going on.

on june 23rd, adam played in the alumni football game again. this year, he was joined by his step-brother nate, his friend iffy, and the oldest player on the team, his dad. this years game was not enjoyable at all. after the first three minutes of play, it started pouring. so hard. there was no rain in the forecast, and for the games entirety, it rained. stopping right as the clock ticked to 00:00. i have a lot of pictures of the game, but it didn't really get to watch any of it. albia lost again this year, but it was closer during the whole game. he's already signed up to play next year.

 {fletcher and cousin kate}

after the game weekend, we stayed in albia until monday morning and then left from there for our family getaway to kansas city. we were headed to great wolf lodge for a few days to relax. we did a lot of swimming, arcade game playing and cub club crafting. one afternoon, we escaped to crown center and explored a bit. we went to fritz's, a dinosaur exhibit and the crayola store. 

     

                  

              

and this happened. this was a big decision for us to make. at the time, it was the right thing to do but as time went on, we realized that by moving away from everything we have and the things that were currently happening with our family, that we would stay put and deal with the consequences. at this point, things are going well with the final decision to stay. there may be more to share about this in the next few weeks. 

the past five months-may

i've blogged a bit since may, but not nearly enough to keep updated with all that we did or happened. i will {attempt} to get caught up. no promises this time, but i already have two scheduled, so i'm already making progress. i'll start with May and work my way to the current happenings in our lives.

MAY

fletcher had his last speech session of the 2011-2012 school year. we also found out that ms. diane2 would be leaving us and that we would be getting a new SLP. i did not do well with this info, and actually shed a few tears over the news. 

happy mother's day from the hubby and the kids. adam made me this garden box that i've been wanting for the last three years. 

my sister and i decided to take an eight hour (one way) trip to minnesota for our cousins graduation party, with five kids, 5 years and younger. we got some strange looks, but we had fun and the kids were pretty good, most of the time. 

the kids did a lot of playing. 

and one final thing to note, daycare boy had his last day here on may 17th. it was nice having him, but it's nice to just have my kids to worry about and be able to go and do what i want, when i want. 

May catch-up

Finally getting around to posting about things that happened two whole months ago. I really need to get back into this blogging thing. It seems to be my outlet for things, and I'm finding myself needing that outlet from the things that are going on in my life right now. Anyway, here's what happened in May:
My sister and I took five kids, five and under, on an eight hour weekend trip to northern Minnesota. It was crazy, but fun. We handled it like champs and we celebrated with a few drinks. We even went to Pizza Ranch with them all during dinner rush. That was probably the stupidest thing we could have done.
We said good-bye to daycare boy. He's going to go to a new sitter next school year, as I decided to get out of doing daycare. I'll be honest, I don't miss him one bit.
Fletcher had his last speech session for the 2011-2012 school year. At the end of our session, Ms. Diane told us that she had a new territory so we would be getting a new speech teacher in the fall. I'll be honest again, I cried. I liked Ms. Diane and will miss her. She did great things for my boy.
We celebrated Chase and Codi's second birthday with them at the zoo.
It was a fun day full of cousins bonding.
I signed up to be an independent sales consultant with Thirty-One. I'm enjoying it so far. It's nice to get out of the house without the kids and hang out with the ladies.
We got two big ash trees cut down in our front yard. This may not seem exciting, but the mess those trees made was awful. I've never been so happy to see a tree cut down.
Adam made me a garden box for mother's day. It's awesome. He did a great job building it and doing all the work to prepare me to plant in it. I will say that my veggies are growing nicely, just waiting for everything to get bigger so we can pick it.
Pictures may not be in order of what I wrote about, due to the blogger app on iphone, but you're all smart and I'm
sure you can figure out which picture goes with what. The end.