New Moon - part 2

Look out Bella - Nickie's here!!
Dylan made me promise I wouldn't post this. I couldn't resist. Don't tell!!
Staking claims.She's a happy woman.Decisions, decisions...
our little group (minus the fun guys in the back)
Yes Nickie, there is a Santa Clause.

Yes, it's another post about my obsession. The thing is, I didn't get any pictures of my mom & I with our "men" at the party so I HAD to take some good ones. We took the boys along with some other obsessed people who will remain nameless (Shavon & Holly) to see it again on Monday night. I packed our "men" over to mom's house to take some shots of Dylan & Brax with them and me & mom with them before the movie. I have to say that it was even better, if that's possible, the second time. Braxton got a little bored and only enjoyed the fighting scenes. Dylan sat between Shavon and Kayla, so...he was a little too influenced by female horomones. Braxton wants to see it again, Dylan is thinking he's good with Twilight. The theater had their own shrine to the movie, so I started clicking away again. AND THE LAST PICTURE - Santa left me 2 gifts under/to the side of the tree a little early this year. Can you hear me singing "All I want for Christmas is Jacob & Edward"? I had to have fun with them while I had them.

New Moon (part 1)

Oh, yeah - that would be some of our YW. Not so sure that we are the best leaders for them. They had a blast as well!!
table decor
the 3 master minds.
The first of guests to arrive.

To all of my readers and blog followers,
I need to let you all know now that this post and at least the next one are totally and completely about my LOVE of the Twilight Saga. So... if you have had enough of the hype, drama, and talk of it all - stop reading now. As for the rest of you, here you go. You all know how much I love the series. I am totally loyal, love all of the characters, and am a little coo-coo crazy about it. It's my one obsession. I have 2 loyal and coo-coo crazy friends - Shavon & Becca, that planned a pre-show party with me. We reserved the Art City Trolley to have the party. We had our two favorite guests there, Edward & Jacob. Becca made darling invitations, Shavon made the to die for menu and we all donated prizes and decorated the place to show our love of the movies. It was fabulous. Once the dinner was done we all headed over to the show. I have to say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED it. I was totally in awe of the transformation from Twilight to New Moon. It was a night to remember. Thanks to Becca and Shavon for being nuts right along with me!!I am taking the boys to see it tomorrow, so more Twilight Saga news to come.....

Enjoy the Journey

Braxton achieved his goal of bubble blowing, and now we are listening to him do it all day long. It's a cute thing. Go Brax!!




I had one of those moments the other morning that are crucial and good reminders. I was getting cleaned up one morning to head out for another day of craziness (non-craziness days are very few & far between these days) when I looked on the bed to see my two cuties with their silly glasses on. They both giggled and it turned into me grabbing the camera and having fun with them for a bit. I remember about 2 years ago when Brax was in preschool, Dylan was in school and Nati would take naps that I got to breath for about 2 hours on those day. It's amazing how 2 years can totally change. Now I have to fight to get even 15 minutes of breath time each day, I'm not sure which way is up or what I'm doing half the time, so it's times like these when I take a step back and remember that I need to enjoy my kids at every stage and have a little fun with them. They grow up so quickly and before I know it Natalie will be heading out with her friends. It comes back to a favorite quote of mine - "Enjoy the Journey."

Sweet Grandpa Ned

This is my sweet Grandpa Ned with Braxton when he was about 9 months old. It is one of my all time favorite pictures. Grandpa is a classic old farmer: works from before sunrise until after sunset, has farmer language:), and he loves his family. I spent many, many summers at my grandparents house growing up. He would take us for rides on the tractor as he was hauling hay, take us all to Harts for refills, and chase us around the house when we slept over. I have great memories of fun times with this man. He is 84 and when asked everyday how he's doing he replies, "I'm alive" - every single time without fail. He had a pretty bad stroke about 3 weeks ago. He is still in the rehab unit at UVRMC working hard (as always) to get walking again, feed himself and just get around again. He scared us pretty good but in true form he's not giving up and making progress everyday. When it happened I was pretty down wondering if this year could get any worse, but after seeing him and how hard he is working I know it can get a lot worse & I need to just be grateful for all that I have. He is still being a great example to us and we all love him so much.

Halloween & Battle of the Books

We've had an eventful week. We started off with the H1N1 virus making its first appearance at our house. Dylan was diagnosed with it and missed a week of school. He was a bit stressed, when he felt good enough to be stressed, because it was his first Battle of the Books at school and we didn't know if he would be able to go. He finally got feeling better and we had a last minute study group with his partners - one being Wyatt who was able to come, the other was Kaden who was home with H1N1 so we put him on speaker phone and they studied together. All of their hard work payed off - they took 2nd place!! It was a huge boost for Dylan who is still trying to get energy back. That flu is one nasty bug. Now Jason has it and we can only hope that the rest of us get skipped. I took the kids to see Harry Potter and shopping all day Friday in an attempt to keep my sanity from being quarantined for the week and in preparation for another week of it. It was a nice breather. The sanitizer is being used a ton and I've cleaned as much as I can clean, so time will tell.

Halloween was pretty normal. Kids got dressed up and we visited my parents, then came home and hit a few neighborhood houses with Braxton and Nati while Dylan went with some friends. All of our fun resulted in a major sugar rush today.

Natalie & Braxton at a neighbors house.

Braxton the vampire. I painted his face and then he took over with the "blood".
The nerd, vamp and princess.
My princess - you can't tell but she had makeup on and her hair all curled - so cute!!
Dylan and Wyatt with the 4 books.
Their notes.
Battle of the Books!!