Mom's Place

My 2 year old Princess

2010-04-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

Emily enjoying a nice afternoon on our front porch swing.

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Happy 40th Birthday Hubby!!!

2010-02-23T05:20:00.000-08:00

Luke did the edible designs....

Emily added the sprinkles...

They both sang Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Lifegroup boys!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Happy Valentine's Day~

2010-02-14T12:07:00.000-08:00

Mick took me out to breakfast this morning for Valentine's day! It was fun, the kids had a good time and we got to enjoy a nice breakfast before church. Funny thing tho...we walk into church and both kids ask for donuts!!! Um no! We just left Bob Evans!! LOL

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

No more cribs....

2010-01-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Emily in her big girl bed! We got a call today from my sister, that she and her fiance were buying a new bed and wanted to know if we would like their old one for Luke. Of course, we said YES! SOOOOO, we spent the afternoon re-arranging furniture and bedrooms. The crib is now in the attic (yes, I teared up while taking it apart) But, it was short lived, as little miss was soooooo excited for her new-to-her bed! She inherited Luke's old toddler bed, and Luke got a new full size bed!

The pics are out of order....this was her dressed up today....She was a dancing princess! LOVE IT! And, yes, Luke is still wearing his Scooby-Doo football shirt pretty much every day! LOL

Luke and Em in Luke's new bed. He will be getting new bedding, but since this was a surprise to us today, we had to make due with what we had on hand. So...he has a set of mommy and daddy's flannel sheets and a comforter that was mine before Mick and I met! He wants to paint the headboard and foot board this Spring, so I will probably stall on getting new bedding until he chooses his colors. Emily wants a Tinkerbell blanket and pillow for her bed, so I am watching for sales at Joanne's so I can make one for her little bed. FUN, FUN!! Let's see if anyone gets any sleep tonight!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Long time, no see

2010-01-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

Been awhile since I blogged anything. Sorry, Facebook pretty much took the place of my blog. But, as I was looking thru old posts today, I realized that I missed being able to look back at my life with a click of the mouse. So, here I am updating, and hoping to stay faithful to my blog once again.

We had a wonderful, family filled Christmas, and a quiet New Year's Eve. With the children, of course Christmas was a blast! Emily loved telling everyone that it was Baby Jesus' birthday. That made Mommy's heart melt the whole season. Luke had a great time, helping his sister with all of her new toys and playing with daddy building GeoTrax in the basement. We cleared out an area in the playroom in the basement and made it all GeoTrax, I will post a pic next time, so you can see it! It is awesome!! We got to spend alot of time with my brother and his fiance who were here for 2 weeks over Christmas, the kids had a great time with Uncle Mike and Aunt Kristen!

Em and Uncle Mike

Uncle Mike and Luke showing off their muscles!

Emily playing with her baby doll (new Christmas toys!!) She was putting make-up on her baby!

Luke, playing football with daddy. How big is he getting??!! I know. My 4 year old is amazing and fun and loves his daddy right now! Makes mommy jealous, but I know it makes daddy feel great!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Just a cute pic

2009-11-18T12:58:00.000-08:00

Found this adorable picture of my babies from a summer time trip to the zoo...I thought it was so cute that I would post it on here for all to see!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

A whole lot a nothing.....

2009-11-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

Emily at her cousin's birthday party tonight. Drew turned 3!!!!

Emily in her boots this morning...love this!!!!

Luke and Emily playing "sleigh rides" with an end table turned upside down...

Since we are back from "the sick", life is going better! After my last post, I ended up in the hospital for a few hours with breathing problems, and severe nausea. After I was all better, Emily came down with it and Mick got it again! It was a complete mess in my house for 2 weeks! It was the longest 2 weeks of my life!

The kids had a blast on Halloween, I will post those pics next. Emily was Minnie Mouse and Luke was Spiderman. They got tons of candy and were on sugar hi's for like 10 days! Life is back to normal here, I was back to Jazzercise this week, went to Beth Moore with my gal pals last weekend, had my mom's b-day party on Wednesday and then our nephew's party tonight. Mick and I teach Sunday school tomorrow, so that will be fun! Nothing too exciting, although we are in the midst of planning a super cool birthday party for a pretty neat 4 year old that lives here! ;0)

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

sick, sick and more sick....

2009-10-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

Our household has been sick for 6 days now! Luke came down with a fever on Friday and since then Mick, and I have also gotten sick! Emily is the only one that seems to be unaffected by all the acky germs in our house right now. She is also the only one that was able to get a flu shot a few weeks ago...coincidence? I don't think so!

Luke was the first to get sick, fever, chills, body aches, runny nose, lack of energy and appetite....my poor little boy! He was doing better on Monday, but seemed worse again on Tuesday, so I took him to the doc this morning as he still had a slight fever. Come to find out, he has an ear infection and fluid in his other ear. Hopefully, once he gets some doses of his antibiotic in him, he will be more himself!!

Mick and I were both in a wedding on Saturday night, so we had Mick's parent come to the house to watch the sick one and his little sister. Mick performed the ceremony and I was a bridesmaid. Beautiful wedding, but we left by 7pm to come home and help our sick little guy....Mick and I both started feeling sick about 8pm Saturday night. Body aches, runny nose, exhaustion...the list goes on and on..

Sunday 3 of us are sick, little Em is still good as can be tho! Mick is starting to feel a little bit better by Sunday night, but not 100% by far.

Monday Mick stayed home from work, I was sicker than Sunday and Luke seemed better. Mick was still coughing a ton and I was just wiped out. Luke seemed much better and his temp was back down to 99.5..that is good considering the 2 previous days it was 103.3!!

Tuesday I get up and feel okay, Mick goes to work and Luke seems pretty good too, Emily was fine as well. 10:30 AM and I get sick! Oh so sick, I cant walk, I cant eat, I need help..Mick comes home from work and I sleep the rest of the day away. By last night I was feeling alot better...not sure what happened to me, I am usually the healthiest one in my family! Guess Emily wins that prize now! LOL

Wednesday (today) Luke's fever is back this morning so I take him to the doc and learn about his ear infection and fluid on the other....get antibiotics, grab lunch and now Luke and Em are asleep. I am feeling much better, but still have this cough in my chest, it hurts, but I think it is better than yesterday and as long as I do not talk too much, it doesn't seem to bother me that much! Bet Mick is happy about that! And that is why I am blogging right now, rather than talking on the phone ;0)

Hopefully we are on the mend, Mick is doing good today, I feel good, and Luke has his meds now....Emily seems fine still!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

my loves

2009-10-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here are Mick, Luke and Em at a bonfire on Saturday night...how cute is this pic???

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

1/2 WAY THERE...

2009-10-09T04:50:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to announce that I am 1/2 way to my 30 before 30 goal now!! I got on the scale today and am officially down 15 lbs since I started on May 25th! It is coming off S.L.O.W.L.Y, but hey, its coming off!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Batman!

2009-10-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

We practiced our Halloween costumes this morning a bit-Luke made the decision (finally!!) to be Batman! Here he is...I think I will need some of the black face paint tho for his face mask....the black eye lines pencil is not quite dark enough....

I think he had the face down! LOL And he will be in black sweats, not blue firetruck jammies! ;0)

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Tent Fun

2009-10-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

We had fun making a tent this evening using the kitchen chairs, and spare blankets from around the house. The kids are having so much fun with it! Emily can stand up in her tent and LOVES it! Luke likes pretending to mow "his" lawn around the tent i.e. the hard wood floors.

Emily

Luke and Emily

Miss Emily

Luke with his new gun, aiming his darts into the kitchen. He loves it and did great aiming it thru the doorway!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

My week...

2009-10-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

We have had a rough week in our household to say the least!

Monday was good, I babysat, made some money and it was a beautiful day out!

Tuesday, started out good, I babysat again, made more $$ and was going along fine, until about noon. I started sneezing, and coughing and feeling sick, my nose was dripping none stop too (gross, I know!). By 3 pm I called Mick to reschedule something he had that night, so he could get home and help me out. I crashed in recliner at 6 and woke at 7 to move to our room and watched Biggest Loser, then crashed again until the next morning.

Wednesday, I had to cancel a play date I was having at our house, as we did not want to spread the lovely bug around town that I had. By noon on Wednesday I was feeling better and the day was going better! We had a pajama day at the house, until it was time to get Luke ready for AWANA. After we dropped Luke at AWANA, we stopped at Verizon to cancel my cell phone and drop the other one to the minimum amount of minutes for emergencies only. Earlier in the day Mick closed a credit card account for us, (we are attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and trying to get out of debt and stay out of debt) so that was exciting for us to take the first step and close the account! I dropped Mick and Emily off at home and went back to get Luke from AWANA and help out with MOPS set up for a bit. On the way home tho, Luke and I were hit by a drunk driver! The jerk sped off after he hit us too! It was 8:40 at night, so it was too dark to see him or his plates. We have a $500 deductible, so we are out that unless we find the guy! The good news, Luke and I are just fine, and the van is drivable! PTL!!! So, we will live with the damage for a but, until we get our $500 saved up and then fix it.

Thursday was good, considering all that had happened, we went to Financial Peace University that night, it was fun and educational as always.

Friday I had MOPS in the morning, but was called out about a 1/2 hour into our meeting...Emily has a fever of 100.9...oh boy...what a way to start a weekend! Lucky me.

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Wow!

2009-09-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

We had craft time this afternoon...now I remember why we do not do this very often...it gives me a headache looking at the mess!! But look at the concentration on Luke's face! That is totally awesome!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Candy Bouquet

2009-09-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Seriously, how cute is this??!! We made them at MOPS this morning and I am totally going to do this as the kids little party favors from now on at Birthday Parties for my babies! I love this, and it was super easy and it is actually pretty cheap to make! A lot cheaper than some of the previous gifts bags we have sent home from other parties we have thrown! What do you think?

Luke likes them!!!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Guess who just pee-peed in the potty????!!!

2009-09-15T16:58:00.001-07:00

THAT'S RIGHT!!! Little Miss Emily just peed on the potty for the first time!!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Our $42.00 shopping trip

2009-09-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

Here is what we did on our Friday night (lucky us, huh?). We went grocery shopping and some great deals at Krogers (2 boxes of free Ziploc Bags and Bounty Paper Towels for .50 cents each!). Wish I had a coupon for the Kroger brand diapers I had to get, but oh well....I can complain too much as my total was still less that the original price of the diapers!!)

Schnucks was attacked by the Dobra clan next! We bought everything that you see at Schnucks (minus the paper towels, diapers and Ziploc bags). The veggies were .50 cents each after coupons, the 2 small deodorants were FREE!!, the waffles were a buck a box, and the mac and cheese was .76 cents a box. The cereal was all on sale and I used a bunch of different coupons, but paid no more than $1.00 a box. We LOVE cereal in the house and eat is every morning for breakfast, so this will last awhile, which is nice! I did have to pay full price for the milk, bread and Mick's deodorant tho, that alone was over $10.00! My orginal total at Schnuck's was $51.31 and after coupons it was $34.81~I LOVE COUPONS!!!!!!!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

AWANA

2009-09-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

Luke started AWANA at Bethany Baptist on Wednesday night. They meet weekly on Wednesdays for about 2 hours. It is like a combination of Boy Scouts and Bible School. Luke absolutely LOVES it, and has his bible verse memorized already for next weeks class. They earn patches for their vest for memorization and attendance and a few other things. He was pretty excited when we picked him up as he was the teachers helper with the flag while the class said The Pledge on Wednesday night! It was odd dropping him off somewhere, away from family, and actually leaving the building for awhile! But he did excellent and loved every minute of it and can not wait to go back! And seriously, how cute does he look in his little uniform with his bag and all??!! Oh and check out my mad sewing skills: I had to sew on the troop # today during nap time "2312" and it only took me an hour and a 1/2 and that is with my sewing machine! Oh and he popped a button off his vest the other night, so I had to fix that too. Oh and the kicker about that troop number? I talked to a friend today and was mentioning how I sewed on his troop number, and she says: "Oh, we just iron ours on, don't they have the little sticky on the back??" Um, yea they did, but I did not know what that was! Oh well, live and learn! We are signed up to bring snacks next week to his class, talk about feeling like a "real" mom now!
So here is a picture of my little man in his uniform (the pirate patch is not part of the uniform ;0)

And- of course, this is Emily, being Emily!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Woo-Hoo!

2009-09-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

I have lost my 1st 10 pounds!!!! That means I am 1/3 of the way there for my 30 before 30 goal!! The first 10 have been hard to get rid of too. I have been doing Jazzercise since May 23, so about 3 1/2 months, I go 5 times a week (except this week! oops!) It is alot harder for me to get up at 5am to be there for class, so I prefer to take the kids with me to the 8 or 9:15 class. This week we had stuff going on and I am babysitting more often, so I needed to go to the 5:30am class M,W and Friday of this week. Made it Monday, but not today! GRRR! Hopefully I will have better luck on Friday morning ;0)

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Brown's zoo

2009-08-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to a zoo today in Smithfield, IL called Brown's Oakridge Zoo. We went with a playgroup that we are involved in. While there you are able to pet the tiger and lion cubs as long as they are under 12 weeks old. The cub in the middle picture on the left is the one that the kids got to pet, play with, and feed a bottle too! It was pretty amazing! We plan on going back in the spring when they have bear cubs to play with! Can't wait!!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Sol U Mel to the rescue!!!

2009-08-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

So far this week I have rescued 3 items and saved the day with Sol-U-Mel!

The first was on Monday morning, after Janelle and Matt's wedding. Apparently a child got ahold of the pen that was placed for people to sign a framed photo of Matt and Janelle. The picture was a beautiful, huge, black and white picture of Matt and Janelle holding hands while walking down a trail. Once the child(ren) got ahold of the pen tho, it made this beautiful picture look horrific! I was literally sick to my stomach when looking at it after the child(ren) drew all over Matt and Janelle's arms, faces, necks and legs with black ink. Janelle's mother was planning on calling the photographer to see about having them cut the picture from the border it was on and replacing it with a new picture (can you say big bucks???).

I asked them to bring the picture over and let us see what we could do with Sol-U-Mel and a few q-tips. Sure enough, the minute I applied the Sol-U-Mel covered q-tip to the picture, the ink started to fade!!! It was as if the Sol-U-Mel was sucking the ink from the photo! We were able to remove all of the ink marks! In fact, after we were done, I asked if there were any signatures they wanted removed, from people they were not too fond of! LOL (Of course they said NO!) I was at Janelle's house this afternoon and saw the picture and it looks absolutely wonderful, you can not even tell that it was covered in scribble marks at one point!

**disclaimer- I know for a 100% fact that it was not my child that scribbled on the picture*** ;0)

Learn more about healthy, environmentally safe, and awesome products like this!

Another wonderful Sol-U-Mel save.....yesterday afternoon I was sorting Luke's baby clothes for a friend to borrow and realized that all of my favorites were covered in yellow stains from when he was little pukie-Lukie! I soaked them overnight in a Sol-U-Mel mixture and sure enough today, they look brand new!

Finally- tonight for dessert I made chocolate pudding, as Luke was eating his in the living room on the beige area rug, the bowl spilled and the pudding ended up all over the rug. The dog, of course, licked up what he could (good 'ol Sarge!). And then I was left with a huge brown stain! After a few squirts of Sol-U-Mel and a few rubs with a paper towel and wash cloth, the carpet looks great and you can not tell anything was spilled there!

I LOVE SOL-U-MEL!!!

One more- sorry!! Yesterday after cleaning the baby clothes with the Sol-U-Mel, I left the squirt bottle sitting out on the table and my little monkey girl, Emily, climbed up and sprayed herself in the eyes with it. Of course, I was nervous and washed her eyes out, she seemed fine, but I wanted to be sure, so I called poison control, told them what happened and they informed me that she would be fine since there are no harsh chemicals in the cleaner! It is such a relief to not have to worry about her getting into something that is harmful to her! With my Melaleuca products, I know that my children, pets, carpet(!) and clothes(!) are safe!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Fun at the ball park

2009-08-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

We celebrated my grandpa's 84th or 85th (?) birthday tonight at the Chief's Game with my family. The kids had a blast playing with my uncles, their great-uncles and watching the mascots. Luke is really starting to gt into watching the games more and cheered so loud for the home runs! Here are the kiddos and me at the beginning of the night...

Luke and Em watching them get ready to life the rain cover off the field

Luke, Em and Uncle Mat...he was bouncing them on his knees and it was hilarious to see and hear them...

Homer the mascot!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

My day

2009-08-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

I was a bit nervous for today, as I was watching my nephew Jacob today. He is 6 months old and it is so funny how fast you forget the little things about that age. He is wobbly, tends to spill forward after sitting for a few minutes, so I had to remember to put soft toys all around him. He liked spinning himself in circles on the carpet..and getting up and rocking on all 4's..hate to tell you this Heather, but you will have a little mover on your hands pretty soon!! I also forgot how silly they are when they are learning to eat cereals and veggies and other yummy stuff! He barely opened his little mouth for the cereal and pretty much decided that the arm of Emily's hi-chair tasted better than his carrots his mommy sent! ;0) Luke was a great helped for the 1st 10 minutes, then lost interest....Emily, on the other hand, thought Aunt Heather had asked her to babysit, and I was just there to assist! Too funny how she mothered him all day long! I did have to remind her to not drink his bottle tho, and that we do not wake a sleeping baby! She kept walking to my bedroom during his afternoon nap, saying "Ake, Ake"...finally we checked on him and he was still snoozing, but I think Emily fixed that when she yelled at her brother about 10 minutes later! No one could sleep thru that!

Luke feeding Jake, right after I snapped this shot, Luke said "I'm done with him now mommy."

Emily and Jake playing with toys

Jake, Em and Luke chilling after nap time....

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Minocqua

2009-08-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to Wisconsin with my mom, my sis, her fiance, my aunt and uncle and my cousins. It was a fun, quick little trip...here are a few of the hi-lites!!

The ducks were uber-friendly, which of course the kids loved!!

Swimming in the lake was way fun and WAY cold!!!

I forgot Emily's hi-chair, so this is how she had to eat at the cabin...I think in this picture someone had asked her for a bite of her food and she was saying "no!!"

Luke caught 9 fish while we were there...Jamie is holding one of them in this pic, but it is hard to see....Luke basically refuses to stand nicely for a picture anymore, so that is why he is posing so funny!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Summer fun

2009-08-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

I love summer time and the kids and I had a blast this summer...some of my favorite things about summer are:

eating in just a diaper (Emily, not me!)

Silly faces we make on rainy summer days!

Snuggles from my kiddos and fun around the house!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Ravoli

2009-08-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

Does not happen too often in our house...and this is why....

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

TEST

2009-08-10T14:33:00.001-07:00

TEST

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

More PARTY pics!

2009-07-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Danell's Bachelorette Paaarrrttttyyyyy!

2009-07-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

The Awesome cake Jenny (AKA Martha Stewart with Boobs!) made ;0)

The Bachelorette in all her glory!

Stephanie, Kristi, Jenny, Danell and I at Howl at the Moon!

Danell and I singing and having a great time!

We arrived in Indy at 1:30 Saturday and headed to the hotel to change and get ready for some shopping! Jenny arrived about 2pm and we headed to the mall to "help the economy"! LOL First stop was Cinnabun (sp?) I had never had their cinnamon rolls before so we shared one as a snack before the crazy shopping extravaganza began! YUMMY!!!! The Circle Center is a 4 story mall with over 100 stores and we found some awesome deals! My kids ended up with new jammies and a decal for Luke's crocs. The shoe shopping experience was awesome (Thanks Joe!). We made our salesman, Joe, run his tail off at Nordstrom's, but it was well worth it for him. Jenny got some super cute RED dress shoes that she wore out Saturday night and a cute pair of "mom" shoes in Ohio State colors! Danell ended up with the same heels that Jen bought, but in brown! I was on "budget lock-down" so no new shoes for mommy! But it was fun watching my gals shop! Danell ended up with another pair of heels from Payless (that ended up on my feet Saturday night and left me with 4 nasty blisters!) but they were super cute and that is what is important for a Bachelorette weekend, right?! After 4 hours of shopping it was time to head back to the hotel to meet up with Kristi and Stephanie and get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at an awesome Italian restaurant, full of pasta, fun drinks and lots of dessert! There were 3 other Bachelorette parties there, so it was a fun evening at dinner. The cake for dessert was HUGE! The slice fed all 5 of us and we had some left over! Back to the hotel to retrieve my cell phone and call the boys at home to check in before heading to the dueling piano bar, Howl at the Moon!

The bar was awesome and packed and so much fun! There were at least 10 other Bachelorette parties there so that made for some fun attire and accessories on people! (Let me say that we were VERY nice to Danell and did not make her dress up like a complete idiot!) Tons of songs, dancing and drinks later it was 1:00am and time for our group of girls to head back to the hotel. Back at the hotel we shared the great cake Jenny made, toasted to Danell's last night of freedom with some campaign and had some girl talk and giggles before heading to bed about 2:30am!

Sunday greeted us (me) with headaches and tummy aches and very tired bodies! Showers helped, but breakfast at Le Peep helped even more. Then it was time to say our good-byes and head back to our real worlds. It seemed like a much longer drive coming home, but that may have been from my headache and stomach ache?? We were back in Peoria by 1:30. Bachelorette weekend behind us- we have 2 weeks to recover before the big wedding weekend!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Emily's pig tails!!

2009-07-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Seriously??!! How much fun is that??!! After haircuts we ran to Sally's to get the kind of rubberbands that will not pull her rip her hair. She sat very nicely while we did it and was pretty excited to see the result in the mirror!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Emily's 1st haircut

2009-07-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Emily had her 1st official hair cut this morning. She did great! She was super serious for it and sat so nicely for Alison. All we did was trim her bangs, as they were in her eyes. I think she enjoyed being a big girl and getting into the chair like big brother!

Before

During

After! All done!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

No new friends, ding-bats and pa-pot pie!

2009-07-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

Luke had quit the interesting array of verbage today. Yes- he used all of these words...here are the stories to delight you this evening:

No new friends is from this morning at church. I was informed by his teacher today that a new little boy joined his classroom for the 1st time this morning. His teacher asked Luke if he would come and play with the new little boy and be his friend. My sons response? Mind you, our focus since he was born has been to instill Christ like behavior in our little man. So I assume he will be super sweet and shepherd this little boy...but no!!!!!! Luke turns to his teacher and replies: "Um...no, I don't really want any new friends right now..." and proceeds to walk away. OMG!!! So much for all that hard work of training him to love others and have compassion for the new little guy in his class....gotta love 3 year olds tho!

"Ding-Bat" is the new term that Luke used this afternoon while shopping for a new baseball bat. He was at his older cousins baseball game a few weeks ago and since then has been saying he wants a big boy bat like Alex. Well, while shopping today he explained to Mick and I the he wanted a "ding-bat". We both laughed and asked "What??!!" He explained that he wanted a bat that would "ding" when it hit the ball. (A metal bat) So now Luke has his "ding-bat" and loved playing ball all afternoon with daddy!

Finally "pa-pot pies" is from dinner tonight. I made Chicken Pot Pie from scratch tonight (I know, me, right??!!) It turned out great and Luke even finished his off! Before he finished it tho he looked at me and said "Mommy, I like these pa-pot pies!" LOL!! We tried to correct him, but he stuck to calling it a "pa-pot pie". Good times in the Dobra household today!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

My little miss...

2009-07-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

Has hair long enough for piggies!!!!! I do not have any hair rubberbands for her, so I had to make do with little clips...not the greattest job, but still adorable! Let's just hope I get better with practice!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

A girl can never have too many outfits...

2009-07-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is Emily's 2nd Fourth of July outfit! And yes, she did need a long sleeve shirt under her dress, as the temp here today was 66 and rainy!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

HAPPY 4TH!

2009-07-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Say what?

2009-07-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

Luke stayed at my moms last night, so I had some free time once little Emily was in bed to catch up on my coupons that I have ignored for the last 2 weeks. I clipped and sorted and organized for about an hour and a half and matched up deals & sales with coupons and planned my trips for this morning. Emily was a good sport, even with a slight fever and runny nose (stupid allergies!). Kroger was the first stop, I was happy with what I got, but not all that proud of my deals, so I did not bother to call Mick and tell him about that stop. Off to Schnucks Emily and I went to get cereal, popcorn and plastic cups. I did call Mick after that stop to tell him that I got 20 bucks worth of cereal for 1.50/box! And to tell him a few of the other deals I had found there. Next stop...CVS....

Here is a picture of what I got at CVS today.....I will give you a minute to take it in and come up with a price of what you think I payed...........keep thinking..........

Yes- there are 3 gallons of milk, 4 shave gels, 2 band aid boxes, batteries, Cortaid, and a Benadryl to go spray...not pictured is the Dove candy bar that I bought for myself....ate it in the van on the way home.......anyway....my total was $37.00 something before my coupons and ECB's.....after everything I gave the woman one quarter, 1 nickel, and 3 pennies!!!!!!!!! Yes, that is right!!!! .33 cents!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously I called Mick to share and he was elated and could not believe that I got all that and even double checked my on my milk count! LOL I made another 8 in ECB's for next time too!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! Hope you have a wonderful weekend with you family celebrating our freedom that so many men and women all over the world are fighting to protect for us.

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Duckys and Dragons

2009-06-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

I had to blog this picture as it is just plain adorable of Emily in the bath the other night. Luke had the idea to fill up his ducky bath from when he was a baby and let Emily take a bath in it. I have to say, it is nice! It keeps her still and limits the amount of toys and water we have to use, looks like Ducky bath may be here to stay for awhile!

Here is Luke after getting his face painted at our church picnic this afternoon. The lady that did it was great and as you can see, did a wonderful job! Luke told everyone that he was "Draco the Dragon". If you know your constellations, then you Draco, if not, well, you don't! LOL....Seriously tho, Luke loves Draco right now, so he looks for him in the stars every night, we have yet to see him tho ;0(

Luke bustin' a Dragon move!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

4th of July activity

2009-06-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here is what the kids worked on today (well, Luke~ Emily worked on eating raisins in her highchair). Once the stars dry we are going to string them up with some blue ribbon and hang them from the ceiling.

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Finger paint and Play-dough

2009-06-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

Emily took a brief morning nap today, so Luke got to play with the finger paints! He loved it and made some awesome artwork...if you are a grandma be watching for it to arrive in the mail soon! ;0)

Once Em was awake, we pulled out the play-dough for the 1st time with her! She loved it! Of course, she tried to eat it, but after one bite, she decided it was much more fun to squish it between her fingers!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Messy playdate

2009-06-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

A friend offered to host a "messy play date" in backyard this morning (crazy, I know!) but the kids had a blast!

Emily in the pink swimsuit checking out the sand and water table, I mean, the applesauce and jello table!

Luke in blue checking out the pudding slide

The boys had a blast in the water!

We also had a pool with Cool Whip in it, the kids got to decorate their own cookies and we made some "corn-flour goop"! Talk about a FUN time!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Good Job Steve!

2009-06-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Mick took the day off work today to get some chores done around the house this morning, then we got all dolled up to head to Caterpillar in Mossville to celebrate my step-dad's 35 years of being with CAT! It was a nice little gathering they had for him at the office and then the family headed out to dinner with him to celebrate some more! Here are some fun pics...the first one is me! DUH! I keep hearing that I am never in any pictures (um, because I am always behind the camera!)

Luke waiting for everything to start...

My crazy kids are home getting ready to head off to see Grandpa!

Mick and Emily playing around...

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

The 2 cards I made- one for Mick's dad and one for my step-dad. We bought a separate one for Mick from each of the kids. I was not sure if I would have the time to make any this weekend, but during nap time today I was able to make these 2 pretty quickly. Hope you have a wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Can I just say that my kids are so blessed to have an awesome daddy that loves spending time with them any spare second that he has! Mick, you are in incredible father and husband and we hope you have a great weekend with us! ;0) I asked Luke what his favorite thing about daddy was and his answer was: "birthday cake (not sure where that came from), playing baseball with him and football!" I asked Emily, but all I got from her was: "dadadadadadada, puppy, dadadadadadada!" LOL Happy Father's Day Mick! We love you!

Love, Jessica, Luke and Emily!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Can you say Wedding Slideshow?

2009-06-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Here is cute little Emily eating mac and cheese the other night~a noodle got stuck on her nose and we laughed so hard. It was adorable because as soon as I grabbed the camera she started smiling so sweet and precious! She has no clue that I plan to use these 2 photos to embarrass the heck out of her one day! LOL

Now, this was this afternoon during lunch, as you can see she is much cleaner today, maybe she was tipped off as to the "evil" plan that mom and dad had! Darn! I love it when she kicks up her little piggies onto the table and relaxes as she snacks! Too bad big brother gets corrected when he tries to put his feet on the table, it is a good thing he does not know what "double standard" means!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

How is this legal?

2009-06-16T05:12:00.001-07:00

So I have been doing some more research to prepare for my 1st presentation this Thursday at 7:30 at my house on the wellness products Mick and I have started using. In doing so, I learned some pretty scary stuff!

Did you know that Lysol contains a cancer causing chemical? Seriously!

Or that Quaternium-15 is an illegal pesticide in the United States, yet I just found it on a bottle of Huggies Baby wash and also in Mr. Bubble Bubble bath!

If you would like to hear about a different, affordable option, let me know or come over this Thursday for a glass of wine and bit of info!

{ Different Affordable Healthy Home Options! }

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Wine, Women and Wellness...

2009-06-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

So you may have noticed my new banner "LiveTotalWellness". Well if you want more info you should come by my house on Thursday night June 18th at 7:30 so I can practice my presentation on you!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Emily

2009-06-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

I ordered Emily some new bows the other day and they arrived this afternoon. I love this brown and pink one!! Here is Emily modeling this new one. As you can tell, she is very camera shy! Ha!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

My $13.00 Kmart trip!!

2009-06-09T18:24:00.000-07:00

Oh yea, uh huh, I rock! (picture me doing a little dance as my hubby guesses how much I spent!) $13.00!!!!!!

2 boxes mac and cheese
4 containers WetOnes
1 box Tampax Pearl
1 pledge duster
1 pledge duster refill
2 Suave deo's
2 Sure deo's
7 pgk Crystal Light
2 Vaseline body lotions

Gotta love K-Mart double coupons up to $2.00 weeks!!!!!!

This was my 4th trip there this week and by far my best!!

******oh and for those of you keeping track, Saturday was my 2 week mark at Jazzercise, I weighed in and have lost 4 lbs total!! Only 26 more to go!! I have only missed 2 days since I joined and I feel amazing!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

33 Miles Concert

2009-06-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

After the farewell dinner for Mike and Kristen, we headed over to the 33 Miles concert, while walking in to find a seat, we ran into some friends that we hung out with alot last summer. In fact, earlier this week, while cleaning Luke's room, we found a toy similar to one that his friend Gabe has. Luke asked if we could see Gabe again soon and I told him sure....well guess who we ran into and ended up sitting with at the concert? Gabe and his mommy and daddy! Here are the kids enjoying the fun!

The boys were dancing fools and did not stop until the music stopped at 9:30! My kids slept well, just hope Gabe too! Have a great weekend!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Oh give me a home......

2009-06-06T05:38:00.001-07:00

Where the buffalo roam.......

(I think that song is about Texas) LOL....Last night was our farewell dinner for Mike and Kristin, as they hit the road this morning at 6am with the U-Haul, headed for Texas. I am sure we will see them again soon, just not sure when. Have fun guys, we will miss you, but enjoy your new adventure!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

It's like Christmas in June!

2009-06-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry to brag on my new stuff, but I am head over heels in love with my new bedroom furniture. We bought it from a friend who wanted something new for a new era in her life. Mick and I love it and it makes our bedroom feel so much more like a retreat, rather than a disaster! Before this, we had 2 mis-matched dressers (mine was from grade school!) and no headboard or foot board. We are looking for a nice pair of nightstands to replace the TV trays, but hey, they work for now!

I am looking for a nice little basket or holder thingy (nice term, huh?) to keep all of Mick's miscellaneous stuff he has on the dresser, it will look nicer soon!

I love our new bed set!! It is mission style and feels like a real adult bed, rather than just 2 mattresses on a metal frame!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Emily's trip to Grandma's House!

2009-05-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

Emily came home with a new pair of shoes....she likes them, I just wish they came in adult sizes!

A new necklace! Again, she loves it and walks around pushing her stroller, wearing her necklace and kissing her baby! She also likes to make daddy and mommy wear her necklace!

And pretty fingers! I can't believe they (Aunt Jamie and Grandma) were able to keep her still enough to paint them. I have thought about it many times, but never actually done it! She loved it and if you asked her to "show you her pretty fingers", she would spread her hand out flat for all to see! It was so cute!

They also taught her to show us "what she does at Aunt Jamie's wedding", which is take a handful of flower petals and toss them on the ground! So stinkin' cute! Glad she had a good time with everyone, since she had to miss out on the circus!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Circus part 4

2009-05-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

The elephants were amazing, I never realized how large they really are! They did all kinds of tricks and of course, when they laid down on their belly's one pooped and Luke LOVED it! I told Mick, it would be a pretty crappy job to clean up elephant poo! (Literally!)

This was the show closer....all the animals and performs came back out and did an awesome routine! We really had a wonderful time and I can not wait to go back to the circus next time they are in town!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Circus part 3

2009-05-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

Luke was way into the motorcycle show...here he is dancing and cheering!

Luke and his new circus sword...can you say $20 bucks?

Tigers were cool, Luke informed Grandma and Grandpa that they put up a cage for the tigers so they would not jump out and eat us!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Circus part 2

2009-05-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the motorcycle on the tight rope....it was petty neat, especially when they started leaning side to side and did a few complete flips!

This was one of Luke's favorites, and he grabbed his camera and took a few pics for Grandpa Steve of the Motorcycle ball! They had 7 motorcycles end up in there! It was insane, but Luke loved it!

Luke cheering for the motorcycles.

This was another big act they did with all the motorcycles!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

The circus...part 1

2009-05-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

So the circus was awesome!!!! I can not say that enough! We got there early and were able to go down onto the arena floor and look at all the activities close up, Luke was a bit unsure tho about what to expect, so he did seem overly thrilled. He liked seeing the elephant up close tho! We headed back to our seats (4th row!!) and Luke saw the snow cones for sale and wanted one. Mick came back with it and said "Hope it is good, it was $10 bucks!" LOL...it was HUGE tho and lasted him the entire 2 hour and 20 minute show! And then I had to dump some out as we were leaving!

The show opening was amazing and so full of color and movement! Luke was way into it and kept asking us if we had to leave yet. I reassured him that we still had lots to see and hear before we left.

These guys on the big tires things were great! They were bouncing up and down and flipping all over the place, it was great and looked really fun!

Luke loved the "knights" on the horses doing tricks, he was so excited to see some "real-life" knights!

More to come, but my blog only lets me use 4 pictures at a time!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Our date night with Luke....

2009-05-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

We took Luke to see the circus tonight and it was awesome! More about that next time tho!!

Luke got to choose where we went for dinner and he choose Maid-Rite. It was pretty cool and the atmosphere there is fun! He loves chocolate shakes, so that is why he picked Maid-Rite. He was super excited when we walked in and ran up to the counter and sat in one of the stools and asked of we could sit there. So we did and enjoyed a great meal and fun conversation with our little man.

Luke was excited as he had a special camera that was only allowed to open once we were at dinner. He took about 3 pictured and then informed us that he would save the rest for the circus, cant wait to see how those turned out. Sorry for the short post, but we are beat and it was a late night for us....I will tell you all about the circus next time (it was awesome btw!)

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

We're headed to the circus tonight!

2009-05-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

Luke and I just saw a commercial for the circus that we are going to tonight! I am really excited, maybe a bit too excited, for a mom! LOL Seriously tho, this is the first time that Luke gets to have a "date night" with mommy and daddy since Emily was born, so I think I am more excited about that! Emily gets to go to Grandma Chris' house for the night and according to facebook "stay up late, have ice cream and dove chocolates"...lol, maybe I will go to Grandma's instead!

I am super proud of myself, as I have made it to Jazzercise every day this week and I feel great! I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow and go to the 8:00 class, then time to get ready for the zoo opening of "Africa"!

Have a great weekend!! Oh and I weigh in tomorrow for my 1st official weigh-in after a week of working out....kinda funny, but I am super excited to step on the scale and see the numbers! Trust me, that is not normal for me!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Make that 28 before 30 !

2009-05-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

Yep, that is right! After starting Jazzercise on Saturday I weighed myself this morning (Wednesday) after my workout (yep, again at 5:30!) and I am down 2 lbs!! I cant wait to see what the scale says on Saturday when it will be one full week! Woo-hoo!

On a sad note tho, this morning at Jazzercise, I was informed that they are cancelling the Tuesday/Thursday 5:30 am class for the summer! Man! I was just getting my groove! Looks like I will have to take the kids with me on those mornings...what a budget buster!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

I did it!

2009-05-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

I did it!! I am home and showered from my work out and feel great!
(If you are confused, look at my last post!)
30 before 30 here I come!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

30 before 30...

2009-05-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

Mick and I had a great date night on Friday night, to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We went to Alexander's, ate way too much, and went for a walk around The Shoppes. We discussed alot at dinner and looked back over our last 5 years of marriage, 9 years if you include dating, and could not believe how fast these years are passing by. We talked about some goals for the next year of our marriage, and of course the usual came up; to be better with money, to be a better mommy, to lose weight, etc....And so to that end, I have decided to embrace one of them and really work on it. And to steal an idea from a super friend of mine, Kate, my goal for the next year is to lose 30 pounds before turning 30. (Plus, I wanna look super HOT for my surprise 30th birthday bash!) So, Saturday morning, I got up and went and signed up for Jazzercise. It had been exactly 5 years since my last class there (the day before our wedding!) and I was super nervous. They had a great deal going on, so that made it a bit easier too! I went did my first class that morning, and got my butt beat, but was also encouraged, as I remembered alot of the moves and it felt really good! Sunday we took the dog with us for a picnic at Detweiller park, and hiked up a trail that kicked my butt. Mick even took over carrying Emily for at the 1/2 way point, because I was huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf! I decided that counted as a work-out for Sunday. This morning I got up and was back at Jazzercise at 8:00! It was awesome again! I recognized aton of people that were still there from back in my skinny, hot, pre-married, pre-baby Jess days! But, I do not think they recognized me. (My face must be to puffy!) LOL....Anyway, so I was back there again and I have my clothes all laid out for my work out tomorrow morning at 5:30!! I am super excited, as that is that same time I did classes 5 years ago, and was hoping they still offered it. Plus, the kids will still in bed when I get home at 6:45, so I can shower before they get up. So wish me luck on my journey of 30 before 30, and do not worry, I will keep you posted on my progress!

In other exciting news, Mick wanted us to attend the Memorial Day services that were held downtown this morning. So I ran home from Jazzercise, showered and we headed out the door, in the rain, to the GateWay building, and sat down with all the other 80 year old people and waited for the services to begin. Once we adjusted to the scent of moth balls and Avon perfume that surrounded us, we got the kids settled in and waited for the ceremony to begin. The hour long event was slow going, but Emily and Luke liked the band and Emily eventually fell asleep in her stroller. Luke liked that he was able to stand up with daddy when they played the Navy song to honor the Navy boys in the crowd. Luke also really liked the Rifle Salute that was done at the end, Emily even slept thru it! (Seriously, she slept thru 3 rifles going off 3 times and some loud applause and music, but at home she wakes up when the phone rings??? Whatever.) It was nice tho, and I know my hubby really wanted us to go with him, and that is what is important.

In other exciting news: We are going to the circus this Friday night! Just Luke, mommy and daddy! Em is staying at Grandma's house for the night so we can make it a special Luke only night! Saturday we are meeting up with some friends at the new Zoo Africa opening for members only, so that should be fun too! Oh and on Thursday (I know, out of order, sorry!) we are heading to the Cherry Fest for the concert sponsored by WCIC! Fun filled summer week ahead of us!

{ Jessica Dobra, Independent Marketing Executive }

Happy 5 Year Anniversary!

2009-05-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that 5 years have come and gone since Mick and I stood up in front of our friends and family and declared our love for each other. Well, I pretty much sobbed the entire ceremony (tears of joy of course!). It was such a lovely day and the weather was perfect when it came time for pictures. I wanna go back in time and re-do it! It was so much fun and I have such awesome memories from that day! Here are a few pictures from that day....May 22, 2004...

Me, the lovely bride!

The happy couple!

Me, my Grandma Betty and my brother from another mother, Lee!

Grandma Betty danced the night away with us, until midnight, when the reception hall closed. She danced with everyone and even told Mick's brother Ben, that he was a cutie! I love you Grandma and miss you so very much! But, as my 3 year old just reminded me, you live in my heart and will always be with me!

Happy Anniversary Mick, I love you today, tomorrow and forever!

Tadpoles, chickens, cows and more!

2009-05-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I took our children to the Farm Park in East Peoria this morning. It was our first time there, and we really had a wonderful time. The kids loved feeding all the animals and Luke and Noah loved the big slide.

Luke and Em waiting for me to order lunch

Luke and his BFF Noah waiting on lunch

Emily checking out the horses

Emily in the back ground with Jameson looking at the big bunny, Luke headed to feed the baby cow.

Things you hate to say when baking....

2009-05-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

"Take you hand out of your pants while we are baking"
"Honey, we do not want to put the spoon in our mouth that we are using to stir the sugar with"
"OMG, Please cover your mouth when you sneeze!"

But, when you bake with a 3 year old, I am thinking those are pretty common....or at least hoping! And hey, 400 degrees for 9 minutes will kill anything, right?

Congratulations Mike and Kristen!!!

2009-05-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

My little brother got engaged this afternoon!!!! He was so sweet and completely surprised his girlfriend at the zoo with us! He lives in Texas and asked us to take her to the zoo, he flew in, without her knowing and called her on my phone and said "what are you doing?" and she said "At the zoo with your sister" and he said "Well, so am I"....They saw each other and he proposed!! It was so sweet and precious!!! Here are some pictures!!!

The bling!! Her ring is gorgeous!! I love it and I know she does too!!

The happy couple afterwards!

Mike yelling to us "She said YES!!"

Congratulations guys! We love you and are thrilled for your future!

My birthday presents.....

2009-05-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here is the basket of scrapping goodies my mom and sis got me! I must say, it is so awesome and all the paper inside is great! I was getting low, but this refilled me, just in time! There are tons of different ribbons and cute brads and other awesome goodies! I used some birthday money to buy another cartridge for my Cricut, this time I choose "Jasmine" and I am in LOVE with her! LOL Seriouly, the letters are beautiful and I can not wait to make some awesome pages for my little Emily's scrapbook!

Oh and my new necklace that Mick ordered me arrived yesterday. I love it and am wearing it in the pictures of Em and I below...I will post a close up soon!

Everybody run...Emily's got a gun!

2009-05-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Emily was quite excited to get her hands on Luke's rifle last night at Grandma Chris' house...she was torn between playing piano and having a shoot out!

Here she is with Grandma Chris!

Emily and Mommy with mommy's birthday cake!

She just could not resist the temptation...she is going to be like her mother!

Happy Birthday Mommy

2009-05-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

As soon as I got home from my glorious spa day, Mick jumped out of the house and started snapping pictures of my 29th birthday. My spa day was incredible, I received a 1 hour Peppermint-Seaweed Wrap that included a 20 minute scalp massage, a 1 hour back massage, a 1 hour facial, an eyebrow waxing, a make-up application and a bikini wax (which did not go well!! YIKES!!!!) It was so relaxing and enjoyable and the day flew by. I did start to miss my babies though once 3pm arrived and was itching to hug all over them when I got to my moms at 4:30!

Emily had a great day at Grandma Chris' with big brother. She was exhausted from a day of playing in the yard and passed out on the way home, which is why she is not in any pictures with me...but I will get a good one of her with my cake today!

Luke helped daddy pick out my cake, I guess Luke really wanted to get on that had a baseball theme, but Mick told him that Mommy would probably rather have one with flowers on it...they debated for a bit...but here are the results: Happy Birthday Mommy!

I washed my face as soon as I got home from the spa...I am sooooo not a makeup kinda girl, I wear a small amount, but Luke informed me that I looked like a clown! So here I am back to normal, just a nice, clean, pretty little face!

Oh and I got a super cool basket filled with scrapping supplies from my mom, step-dad and sister. It is so awesome!! I will post a pic of that later...think tons of papers and chip board and stamps (including a neat calendar one!) and this awesome little tool that when you pull the paper thru it, the paper comes out textured with either butterflies or stars! Love it! Mick and the kids got me a CRICUT cartridge and something else that is "in the mail"...so I will let you know what that is soon!! Have a great one!

My thoughts on turning 29 tomorrow

2009-05-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Since my b-day is tomorrow and I will be at the spa all day long being pampered like the Princess I am, I thought I would go ahead and post my thoughts about turning 29....here we go:
*I still consider myself young, as I will still be in my 20's for another year
*That being said, I am mommy to 2 lovely children and sometimes they make me feel VERY old and VERY tired...
*When I was a little girl I always thought that turning 27 would be super cool and the IT age and anything over that would just be freaky and old......let me just say, that I am still super cool and soooo not freaky and old and I will be 2 years past that "perfect" age tomorrow...
*My dear hubby has only 1 year left to plan my AMAZING, AWESOME, FANTASTIC, SUPER-COOL, ROCK STAR-ESQ 30th birthday bash, that is too be a complete surprise to me. He was warned about this when I turned 25, and has been reminded every year since.....it better be good!

My Mother's Day Weekend

2009-05-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

Started with some serious snuggling with my babies...

Ended with some serious snuggling with my baby girl....

Emily looks exhausted here...she was so tired, but did not nap real well over the weekend, plus we were on the go alot....poor thing! But, seriously, can it get any cuter??!!

My Mother's Day present.....

2009-05-06T05:39:00.000-07:00

Here is my little man and what he came home with last night from Wal-Mart for mommy. He walked in and was grinning from ear to ear, carrying the bouquet of flowers and exclaimed " Happy Moder's Day MMMMMMOOOOMMMMM!" I was not expecting it, as it was only Tuesday night! It was very sweet and Luke was very proud of his selection.

Emily was in bed before the boys left last night to go shopping, but they wrote her name on the card for her....

My creation!!

2009-05-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

I am super excited about the Mother's Day gifts I just finished for my mom and Kathy from the kiddos! They are soooo cute and I am a bit jealous and want one for myself! Unfortunately they both read my blog so I can not post a picture until they have received their gifts....but trust me...they are SUPER cute! Here is a hint: I made them with my Cricut and my new cartridge my hubby got me for my b-day "Black Letter"...LOVE THEM!!!! (And him!!)

Over the weekend I learned my sons true ambition in life right now is to grow up and work at.......McDonald's. I am such a proud mom right now. He told me he wants to work there so he can eat all the chickie-fries he wants and play with toys.....LOL....If only he knew...Anyway, I thought it was pretty cute and I had to share.

Props to my SIL Marci for taking on the coaching of her sons baseball team- seriously, I am not sure how she finds the time for all she does! Go Marci! Go Alex!

What makes a mommy cry?

2009-05-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

We had MOPS this morning and Luke and Em did great in their classes. I went to get Luke and then Emily and we went to the gym to help clean up a bit. With Emily safe in my arms and Luke right behind me, I started pushing a cart full of pitchers and coffee pots to the elevator. I turned around and saw Luke, and kept on going. I stopped about 5 feet later to wait for the elevator and turned to look for Luke....no Luke. No biggie, I thought as I walked into the gym full of other children playing....scanning, scanning, scanning.......no Luke. I went back to the cart that I was pushing, assuming he would be waiting there for me...no Luke....I looked at the closet that had been open a minute ago and now it was closed and locked....I knocked on the door and listened for a little man...no Luke. At this point I was getting a bit concerned as there were TONS of mommies and children leaving and heading out the parking lot...I thought maybe he followed the mommie outside....Stay calm, I tell myself.....we are in a church, full of moms, he is fine.......I head downstairs with my cart, thinking he made it downstairs and is waiting for me in the basement kitchen....no Luke. Obviously I was a bit upset at this point as about 10 minutes had gone by...I passes a friend and looked at me asked immediately what was wrong...a bit obvious, I guess....she heads up stairs to help look for him and I finish off my duty of putting away the coffee pots and water pitchers..hoping that I find him waiting for me in one of the rooms I have to be in....No Luke..... As I am heading back upstairs I am starting to get really nervous, my mind is racing and I am starting to sweat and tear up a bit...It has been about 15 minutes now...I run back into my friend coming down the stairs, she said someone found Luke wondering around downstairs looking for mommy, he is sitting on the couch upstairs and Mrs. Amy told him not to move! Good mommy Amy! Thank you! Come to find out, he was alone downstairs looking for me, another mom found him, who does now know me, and took him upstairs to track me down... My friend Amy saw them and she took over until she found me. As soon as I saw him started crying and hugged him so tight. I them told him to sit down in the corner and not to move and had a stern "mommy" talk with him about listening and saying with mommy and staying where mommy tells you, etc, etc.....

Once we made it outside and to the van I was still crying and Luke asked me why I was upset and sad. I told him that I thought I had lost him, and was very worried about him. I told him I was scared that he may have gone outside into the parking lot with out me, he interrupted me and said: "Mommy, I did not look in your eyes, so I can not go outside"...meaning, make eye contact with mom before you EVER go outside.....it was so sweet, so I asked him where he was and he tells me, he was looking for me by his classrooms.

I gave him a long hug, so long in fact, that he pulled back from me and told me he was sorry he made me sad. I tell ya, being a mom is tough, but having a piece of your heart walking around in this world all alone is even tougher. It is just a reminder of how much I love my babies and can not ever imagine having something happen to them. I love you Luke and Emily!

Sick baby & dinosaurs

2009-04-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Emily woke up this morning cranky and feeling a bit warm, she was cranky last night, but just had a new tooth pop thru, so I assumed it was teeth. Her fever was up to 102.5 this afternoon, after receiving Motrin! Poor girl just wanted to sit in my arms and rest her head on my shoulder all day long! ;0( She was not eating real well, until dinner tonight (when she had more Motrin in her) and is not wanting to drink much either...doc said to just keep an eye on her and call if she gets worse. Here she is after her bath, which she screamed thru! Yes, in this house, you must brush your teeth even if you are sick (and trust me, she NEEDED to brush them tonight, it was not good.)

Once Emily was in bed, Mick and Luke and I pulled out this puzzle to work on together. It was a $2.00 foam puzzle fro Hobby Lobby that I let Luke pick out the other day for being my helper. It was impossible to do, Luke and I only got about 4 pieces together this morning when we first tried it this morning, so I told Luke we would pull it out again after Em was in bed and dad was home to help. Here are the results.....

***And yes, I have a white bra on under my almost see thru shirt...intentional? No, I am just classy like that! LOL

MORE SCRAPPING

2009-04-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

Emily's 1st birthday

Emily's 1st b-day

Morning of Em's b-day and I love that Luke is kissing her!

Luke's 2nd b-day (not my favorite, I just could not get this one to work for me!!)

A look at my weekend....

2009-04-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

At the request of many here is what I got done this weekend while gone for my scrapping weekend! We started scrapping about 7:30 Friday night, took a break for the hot tub at 11pm, got out at midnight and scrapped until 2am! We were up and at it again the next morning about 8:30. I stayed until 11:30 Saturday morning, and had to head home to get ready for a baby shower that afternoon. Mick told me I could go back and scrap more after the baby shower, but he sounded a bit stressed when I called (Emily had played with dog poo and Luke had pulled his pants down and pee'd in the front yard for all the neighbors to see!) so I headed home to be with my main man and my babies (plus I missing them a ton after being gone all night!). So 8 pages is all I completed...actually as you can see my Christmas page is a bit blank, need to figure out one more embellishment for it! Any ideas?

A look at all I completed....

Christmas 2007

Mick's b-day 2007

Emily Dec 2008

***more in next post as i can not get the computer to allow me more than 4 pics in a post! GRRRR

My morning....

2009-04-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

I love, love, LOVE when my wood floors are all clean and shiny! I am sure that the shiny-ness cleaner is horrible for the environment, but I do not care! I love the look when they are sooooo shiny! It makes me smile. In fact, after Emily was born and was not able to clean them as frequently as before she arrived, I actually cried over them being dirty (I am sure hormones had a little role in that too) and Mick tried to make them shiny for me. I worked on my wood floors this morning for about an hour and then Emily woke up and I think she likes them too!

Baseball season is here!

2009-04-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to the Chief's game this afternoon and everyone had an awesome time! Emily enjoyed exploring outside and Luke loved watching the game and cheering for the Chief's to win the game! After the game all the kids got to go down and run the bases, Luke loved it, but was worn out afterwards! Welcome Summer time!

New clothes

2009-04-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love taking the tags off of new clothes and the way look on the kids for the first time (and me too, for that matter). Especially when it is a new season and you can see their little arms and legs for the first time in months! Here are the kids today in their new outfits they wore to MOPS this morning. I was so much fun getting them dressed! I love playing dress up with my kiddos!

Well, lucky me, I am headed off to a scrapping retreat weekend at a friends house this afternoon. She is hosting 4 of us, plus herself, her hubby took her kids out of town to visit grandparents for the weekend, so we will be cropping, chopping, stampin' and sewing so many things!! I can't wait!!! I am headed to start packing once I get off the darn computer! Of course, I will miss my babies, so probably will not stay the night both nights, but at least I get to scrap tonight for a very long time! Probably with a break to spend some time in her hot tub with glasses of wine!

Sad day in the Dobra house ;0(

2009-04-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is the shirt that Luke picked out today. He was very excited when I told him he could pick out his own t-shirt and he ran into his room and pulled this one out of his bottom drawer. He came running out and exclaimed "Look Mommy, it is just like my cousin Alex!!!" My heart sank as I realized that just because mommy is a Cubs fan, my dear son may not choose to follow that path. Here he is cheering for the Cardinals as I took some pics...

Maybe he was trying to hide the picture on the front in this one and had come to his senses???

Or....maybe not..

I have a feeling an influx of Cubs t-shirts will be arriving shortly in our household.

Family Field Trip

2009-04-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

Emily and I went with Daddy and Luke to their swim lesson class tonight. I think Luke liked having an audience, however, he told me that we can not come again, as he and daddy usually stop for ice cream afterwards, but since Em was with us we had to head straight home. He did a super job tho and it was really cute watching the 2 boys play and sing songs together!

Oh and in 3 more classes Luke "graduates" to the Voyager class that starts May 9th!

The Dollar Store??? What's that?

2009-04-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

I was moody this afternoon so I clipped and filed my coupons and headed off to Kroger to get some deals once the kids were in bed. While there I learned that K-Mart was doubling coupons up to $2.00 this week and since I was without kiddos I headed that way once I was done at Kroger. Here are my deals, it is unbelievable what I paid for all this!!

The one above is my trip to K-Mart. 4 boxes band aids $2.19 each, 2 pkg Halls $1.99 each, 3 Secret deo's 2.34 each and 2 Gillette shave gels $2.69 each. Subtotal before coupons was $25.72.....drum roll please.......................$4.40!!!! Can you believe it!? Without coupons that total would have been 1/4 of my grocery budget for the week, but with my coupons it was only about 5%!!! I know, I rock! ;0)

But seriously, anyone could totally rock it at K-Mart this week!

Here is my Kroger run......3 1/2 gallons Kroger milk $1.25 each, 2 Softsoaps $1.00 each, 4 Suave deo's $1.00 each, Cheerios $2.00, 2 boxes Fiber One bars $2.00 each, Blistex from clearance bin .99 and .49 Neo to go from clearance bin $1.29....Subtotal before coupons was $15.38 (Kroger deal this week buy 3 items for $6.00 and receive 3 1/2 gallons milk free), so the milk was free! After coupons tho and actually making .30 cents on one of the Blistex my total was $4.92!!!! Pretty awesome!!!!

So , it was a fun night in the Dobra household playing "Guess how much I spent" with Mick as I unpacked my deals and took pics for the bl0g...and my dear hubby has learned to guess higher than he thinks, otherwise I get my feelings hurt for doing better....but hey tonight I did better than one could do at the Dollar Store!

Penrod Visit

2009-04-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

Make way for the Penrods!!! They were here all weekend long and we had a fabulous time with them as always. Matt and Jenny arrived late Thursday afternoon and Jen headed off to a meeting until 8:00pm. We met up on Friday with the kids for lunch and again for dinner Friday night at Dick and Elaine's.
Lisa Hassinger, the hostess with the mostess, hosted a incredible party for them on Saturday night and everyone had a great time. We got together for one more meal before they hit the road this afternoon after church. Lisa had all of us over again for lunch today and the kids had a blast running all over and seeing each other. Jonathan Penrod came up to me after church and asked if Luke could come to his house and play today...so cute! Too bad they live about 7 hours away! Emily and Elaina are about 2 months apart and they played nicely together too. Allison is 2 1/2 and a little doll and such a great "mommy" to Elaina. Hope you guys have a safe trip home and we will see you again in August when the weddings are in full force! ;0)

The girls last night: Lenora, Jenny, Elaina, Allison, Gma Elaine, Janelle, Erin, Lisa and Me with Emily

Allison, Jenny, Elaina and Emily

Me and Allison, Janelle and Elaina and Jenny enjoying some girl talk!

Miss you guys so much!! We think you should really consider moving back home! (To Peoria that is!)

Not that exciting

2009-04-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Do you love my new design??!! It reminds me a scrapbook page that my friend Christy Sandberg would do. Our friends the Penrod's are here, so we will have fun this weekend, but other that that nothing too exciting going in our lives right now...what about yours?

My scrapping success

2009-04-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

I had a friend ask me to post more pictures of my scrapping pages for ideas. Here is my rendition of a page from a recent edition of "Scrapping Etc.". The idea was to use tools in a different way, to get more use out of them. I have to say I am so happy for this as I had a punch that I have never used, but spent big $$ on (at least for a punch!). I used it to create the 1/2 circle/flower borders on the edge of the picture and also around the circle with the word "for" in it. The punch actually creates an oval looking thing with a scalloped edge, I cut them in half and made my borders from them.

Not too bad for about an hours worth of free time I had tonight during swim lessons! ;0)

This weeks shopping trip...

2009-04-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here is what I got tonight with my shopping trip to CVS, Kroger and Schnucks (all 3 stops without kids in under 90 minutes!). My total before coupons was $59.67. My out of pocket was $36.29. And I received $8.00 in ECB's for my next trip to CVS! I was very happy to keep it under $40.00, which was my goal tonight.

Oh and in case you are wondering, we will be eating more than hotdogs and pineapple this week! LOL...but I have started following the rule, if it is on sale and I have a coupon, then stock up! Which is why I have got 10 boxes of cereal in my pantry and 3 other bottles of juice and now 8 cans of pineapple to join them! My pantry is starting to get low, so it was nice to stock up on some items and fill her up again.

I am off to watch 24 with my hubby now, and fill up my Jack Bauer meter!

**Oh and the flowers in the picture are not from my shopping trip, but rather a very sweet little 3 year old that told me I was beautiful and that he wanted to marry me so he could have another baby!

Easter and Drums!

2009-04-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Here is Emily ready to head to church this morning, as you can see she loved her outfit! She is such a girlie-girl. Shout out to the Espenschied's for loaning us this totally adorable Easter dress! Thank you so much!!

A semi-decent picture of us outside Mick's parents house.

Emily hunting for eggs at Aunt Mary's house.

Luke did not have to "hunt" for too long to find the drums. He loves going to Aunt Mary's house to play on Kyle's drums, it is so sweet of Kyle to let our little man have some serious LOUD fun!

Spaghetti and Swim lessons

2009-04-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

We let Emily feed herself spaghetti for the first time the other night...it was a bit messy, but she was so proud of herself using her spoon! It was adorable!

Here is Luke (too cool to let mommy take his picture) ready to leave for swim lessons. In talking to Mick, he was the only dad in the pool, the rest of the class was mommies! I was not too surprised tho, but I guess Luke is the oldest one in his class too, so picture Mick playing "Humpty Dumpty" in the pool with Luke, while all the other mommies played it with their 2 year olds! Makes you laugh, doesn't it? Oh well, they had fun and that is what counts! I have a super husband!

A little jealous...well no more...

2009-04-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

LOL...My SIL, Marci, has a super cool blog (check it on the right!) and I have been a bit jealous about how cute her background designs are. Well, not any longer! I learned how to change it up a bit and I am lovin' the new design! Thanks for finding this awesome site Marci! The backgrounds are free (some anyway) and are super cute!!

I had the time tonight to sit down and play around a bit with my blog, which is how I learned how EASY it was to change my background to this new format. The boys are at swim lessons for the next hour and Emily is in bed, so I was trying to find something to do. Kinda weird to be home and not have much to do! I must say that this next month with swim lessons every Tuesday and Thursday I will probably get pretty used to it!

Happy Birthday to an awesome little boy we know in Casper, WY today! Brennan, we hope you had a wonderful birthday and we miss you little man!! Have some cake for us!!

We are going to the chapel....

2009-04-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

for Danelle's wedding!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!! So excited and happy for my friend Danelle and her new fiance Bryson! Congratulations!!!! August 8th will be here before we know it! She has her dress ordered and we are ordering our bridesmaid dresses this month! Can't wait, I have never been in a wedding before, well other than mine! LOL....And I am in my sister's, but hers is still like a year and a half away!! Congratulations Danelle! We are soooooo happy for you!

Love you!!!

Luke at the dentist...

2009-04-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

I took Luke to this dentist this morning for the first time and he was wonderful! He knew he would have to open his mouth wide and let them clean and count all his little teeth. He did excellent and loved being able to spit in the little mini sink they have attached to the chair. He was a bit nervous when the dentist came in and started to count his teeth with the little sharp counter thingy (I am sure that is the correct term that the dentist uses for it too). So the dentist put that away and just looked with his mirror thingy and said that Luke has great teeth!

Luke was most excited about his new toothbrush and toothpaste he received from them and also his green dinosaur sticker! He told me on the way home tho that he still wanted to use his old toothbrush and his Thomas toothpaste. I said that was okay ;0) My baby is getting to big!

I'm a domestic diva....

2009-04-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

Ha! Yea right! Seriously tho, I did learn how to make curtains last week and I am happy to say that I made some for Emily's room all by myself last night with my new sewing machine! I only got 1 of the 2 panels done, but it took me like an hour and a half! By the time that one was finished, I was ready to head upstairs and watch NCIS with y hubby. Here is a pic of the curtains in Em's room now. I have to say I am pretty proud of myself. The second picture is the curtains in Luke's room. Those were the ones I assisted on. I still have 2 panels to make for Luke's room and then I want to make some new ones for our room, the living room and the back door and the back window....wow, I know what I will be doing this Spring while the kids are napping!

If you can't tell, Luke is in LOVE with Lignten' McQueen! LOL

"We don't go pee in the garbage can"

2009-03-31T14:47:00.000-07:00

I honestly NEVER thought I would have to say that to my 3 year old....or at least not until he was under the influence one night in high school! LOL...Seriously, I did some stupid things in high school, but never pee'd in the garbage can...Here is the conversation we just had:

Me: "Luke, did you go pee-pee in the garbage can?" completely bewildered and still trying to figure out exactly what the yellow liquid was in the bathroom garbage can.
Luke: "I don't want to tell you"
Me: Now, knowing for sure it is pee and it is his....."Why would you do that?" "What made you say hummmm, maybe I will pee in the garbage can today?"
Luke:"I didn't say hummmmm." "I don't know" (I have to remember he is 3, so rhetorical questions do not work well yet...)

So, yes he pee'd in the garbage can, still not sure why, but he does know that if he does it again he will be in trouble. Oh and he had to help me clean the garbage can and the floor-(since he is 3, he still missed probably 1/2 of it!)

It's like Christmas....

2009-03-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

In April~ Luke was so excited to wake up to snow this morning! This is the first time that was giddy with excitement to go out and play in the snow! It was adorable listening to him in his room peeking out his window and realizing it had poured down the white stuff! Mommy and daddy are just happy that it will not be sticking around too long, we are very ready for Spring!

Mick and Luke- the camera focused on the gutter (brown thing on right) rather than my 2 boys...

The boys and Sarge

Luke making snow balls!

Seriously.....

2009-03-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

Can there be anything cuter than this??!! OMG I love this little tiny baby girl sooooo much! She was totally striking a pose for the camera the minute I got it out!

Friday Favorite thing

2009-03-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

I love when my babies first wake up and they are all warm and snugglie and want their warm milk. They are so calm and quiet and trying to wake up and it is so nice to get to sit and watch them without them running around like crazy. So here is our morning routine. Get up, move to the couch, get warm milk for each baby and then watch a show. I love being able to stay home and enjoy this quiet time with my little ones.

Egg time!

2009-03-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Luke and his friend Jameson colored eggs this morning whiule Emily napped. It was super fun and the boys loved it! The funny thing is that I have more dye on my fingers than the boys! Jameson loved the yellow and orange dye and Luke loved the green dye~ The boys were very nice tho and even made some purple and pink ones for Emily!

Here is the result!

Finally my turn....

2009-03-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

Here is Emily in her cowgirl outfit. Sorry for the delay, the camera died after I took these 2 pics, so I had to charge the batteries so I could get them off the camera. Emily's pink boots are so much fun! I can not wait to see her walking around in them with a little skirt on! Her dress is a bit tight, so my bro's girlfriend is exchanging it for me when she goes to see my brother in about a week. I will post more pics of her with her new outfit on when we get it back!

Someone went to Texas

2009-03-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Grandma Chris, Aunt Jamie and Uncle Mat, went to visit Uncle Mike in Texas and here is what they came back for Luke! Too cute! I will post pics of Emily in her pink cowgirl boots and dress later!

Where is your mom?

2009-03-23T19:25:00.003-07:00

So the kids and I walked to the park in our neighborhood this afternoon about 3:30. I thought it would be packed with kids, so I assumed we would only stay about 15 minutes before I was ready to leave. When we arrived there were only 3 kids on the playground on this beautiful day. Luke rode his bike and I pushed the stroller with Emily in it. When we got close to a table I parked our stuff and we headed over to the swings. Before I knew it there were 3 young kids all over Luke's bike.

Now, I am all for sharing, but these kids just came up and assumed they could climb all over it! Luke was rather upset about it, but I kept re-assuring him it was nice to share his things with others. At one point there were 2 of them climbing on it (mind you, Luke is 3 and his bike is a little pre-schooler bike) so I told them it was only for 1 child. As I started looking around for these kids mom (they were siblings) I realized she was sitting in her parked car on the other side of the park! Now, these kids were probably 2, 4 and 5...maybe! Seriously, she was sitting in her car! I was looking around for her for a bit of help in handling in the situation...should I make Luke share everything or should I have let him decide? When we go to the park and Luke wants to play with something I tell him he needs to ask the owner of the said item. I was expecting their mom to do the same....

Mick says, I should have stood my ground to these kids and told them no, but then there is part of me that wants to teach my kids to share and be nice, but I also do not want my kids to feel they have to all the time....how do you teach a child to be nice and share, but not get walked all over?

Super Sweet Saturday

2009-03-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today was a great Saturday! The weather was awesome, sunny and upper 50's! We had a huge to do list of things to get done in our backyard, but before we started we had to make a quick run to Target. I broke my sunglasses last night and had to replace them before we spent the day outside. We were back home and ready for some serious yard work by 10am. Luke and Emily loved spending the day outside, getting dirty, and making a mess! Mick cut down 2 trees in the back yard, cleaned gutters, spread grass seed & mulch and planted new plants in the back and front. Luke had a great time searching for worms and digging big holes. Emily was so thrilled to be outside exploring, and climbing on her slide. I raked the yard and spread mulch and kept an eye on the kiddos (alot harder to do than it sounds!) Once we got both kids down for nap, we made some serious progress. After nap we cleaned up and went out for ice cream! Then we came home and cooked out on the grill, the kids had hotdogs and Mick and I had awesome steaks. Oh so yummy! Unfortunately after dinner Emily had a blow-out, so into the tub she went and Luke followed right behind. Before we knew it, it was 7pm and the kids were in bed and we were ready to relax! We are both exhausted, but so happy with how the yard looks, I can not wait to see what it will like next week once the tree removal is completed!