Take me out to the ballgame

Last night we went to our first baseball game of the season.

The kids & I anyway.

Creag had already been once this year.

Opening Day is his thang, & he never-ever misses one.

It was rainy & a little chilly last night, but that didn't stop us from using our tickets.

We got to the ballpark a little early.

We were planning on trying to catch batting practice, but it was cut short due to rain.

We improvised & checked out the new additions to the kids area instead.

They've really made some nice improvements.

And the kids enjoyed every minute of their playtime.

First they checked out the new slide that goes down to a lower level w/ an artificial turf playing area.

What we didn't know is that there was a tall gate that was locked because of the rain & the kids couldn't get back up to the level that we were on.

Skylar was the only one that actually went down the slide & she was locked down there for a few minutes until they could find the key to open the gate.

WHOOPS!

Skylar, finally free!!!

You can see the guy by the gate locking it back.

I'd say they should block the slide too dontcha think?!

Next, they headed over to the wiffle ball area.

They loved it!

Skylar was up first....

Then my man Hank.

That boy can hit!

I can't wait until he starts baseball in the spring.





And last but not least, WyWy

He's running for first....

He has the absolute cutest run right now!

He leans forward, & runs on his tippy toes:)

Adorable

After all of that excitement, we finally made it to our seats.

Out in the outfield, about 8 rows up.

Not to shabby.

And

Free too!!

 I won them in a drawing at work earlier in the week.



There weren't to many people fans there because of the weather.

It had rained before the game, but stopped in time for the first pitch.

Then, it started raining about 3 innings into the game.

We tried to be good sports & sit through it.

SELF PORTRAIT FAIL!

I KINDA LIKE IT THOUGH!

But eventually had to get up & move around.

This is the best picture I got of us....

Blurry, with Wyatt crying on my shoulder & Creag looking away from the camera.

TYPICAL!

All in all, we had lots of fun.

Hopefully the next time we catch a game it'll be on the River....

 from the boat!!

Bring on Firework Friday's!











Hank's 1st Vision Exam

In Kentucky, before the end of the Kindergarten school year it is state mandated that you have to get your child's vision tested by an Optometrist.  The vision screening that you get with your yearly school physical just doesn't cut it.  This really is something that I never considered doing with Skylar, Hank, or Wyatt.  I figured that if they weren't complaining then all must be OK.

Well after this appointment, I learned that I was wrong!

After much procrastination, I finally scheduled the appointment & took him to the Dr. last week.

First, they just took some routine pictures of his eyes.

He was very cooperative & held as still as possible throughout the whole process.

After that, they sent him to the patient room to wait for the Dr.

When the Dr. came in, she had him read a few lines off of the chart.  He didn't do too well getting the letters right, & I started to get a little concerned.  I actually started feeling guilty for not taking him sooner.  It's those moments when you feel like you haven't done enough to prevent this stuff from happening.  What if it was my fault.  Should I have caught it sooner?  If he needed glasses & has gone without, are his eyes even worse because I didn't catch it & have him in glasses?  This was the stuff that was running through my mind.  I guess I should've given myself a little credit for taking him, but I was feeling pretty bad that I hadn't taken him sooner at this point.

The Dr. asked me if it would be OK to dilate his eyes, & I agreed to let her.  She said that she could tell that he had a astigmatism & something else going on & dilating his eyes would help her identify exactly what it was.  Of course I agreed.  She put the drops in, & sent us back to the waiting room for about 15 minutes to give his eyes the time they needed to dilate.  When his eyes were finally dilated, she called us back & checked his eyes again.  She looked a lot closer at his eyes, did a 3D vision exam, & had him read a few more lines off of the chart.  Again he read half of them incorrect.  At this point, I was sure that we were going to walk out of there with glasses.  When the test was done, she told us that his eyes definitely aren't where they should be, but aren't bad enough for glasses yet.  WHAT A RELIEF!  She said he's farsighted, & has a astigmatism which causes blurriness-why he can't read the letters from far away. 

She said it'd be fine to have him come back in a year.  Before that, I'm going to get Skylar in & have her eyes checked.  I'm terrified to see how she'll do after this appointment.  Hopefully next year, his vision hasn't gotten any worse & they send him home in these again!

Pretty sweet shades right?!

He told me that I better not put this on FaceBook.  He said nothing about my blog;)







Our new train station-DIY

With Birthdays & Christmas last year, we've come to realize that we have so many large toys (train sets etc), & nowhere for the kids to really sit down & enjoy playing with them.  Now the ideal thing would be to buy one of those awesome train tables that you see in the book stores, or for sale at Toys R Us.  But who can afford to spend between 200.00 to 400.00 on a train table?!

Not us, that's for sure!  So Creag's question was, why not build one?

And that we did!

Creag built the table during the day, downstairs then after dinner we headed down to get to work on painting it.

Sammie & Hank getting started on the background color.

Wyatt & Skylar hard at work!

It's coming along very nicely!

Adding some grass

& other fun stuff!!

 It took one day to build it, paint it, & ruin four shirts haha!! 

We just used scrap wood from the garage, & leftover paint that we already had.

No out-of-pocket costs....winner!

It turned into a fun project for all of us to do together, made a home for some of the toys, & cleared out some garage space where the extra wood we used was just layin' around.

Pretty good idea if you ask me:)  

Easter Weekend

We had another great weekend. 

We were blessed with great company, beautiful weather, & delicious food!

The Easter Bunny also made a stop at our house. 

Major PLUS!

Friday night, we didn't have the kids so our evening was spent at home, doing yard work.  Our home builder did a horrible job on our yard, and we've had no luck getting our grass to look thick & green so Creag decided to till up the entire yard & start completely over!  I usually help out with yard work, but this project was not for me!  Much too physical for this chick.  So I decided I'd just get dinner ready while he worked in the yard.  Fair right?  Probably not, but oh well.

On my way home, I stopped at the store & picked up a 12 pack (what a good wifey I am) & a few things to make dinner.  We both wanted something healthy since we've been eating like moo cows since we left for vacation & this is what I came up with.

I cooked the shrimp in some Chardonney that my boss had given us for our wedding.  I also fried a few strips of bacon, added cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, & blue cheese crumbles.  It was pretty tasty!

Saturday, I went to pick up the kiddos from their Dad & we headed over to Creag's sisters house for Ellery's 2nd Birthday.  For the party, Mica & Tyler grilled out hamburgers & hotdogs which HIT.THE.SPOT!  I don't think I'd had a cheeseburger off of the grill yet this spring so it was a treat.  They also had all of the M&M's that a child could desire & my kids ate them up!!  While they were enjoying the M&M's, Creag & I were grubbing on this other dessert masterpiece.  Mica said it was all of her favorite stuff just laid out on the cookie sheet with chocolate poured over it.  Lemme tell ya, it was some good "stuff"!  Don't have a picture, but I WILL BE MAKING THIS AGAIN!  If I don't, I sure hope she does!!  It was a great party & we were glad to be a part of it.

It's been great to watch Ellery go from a newborn, to a smart, fun-loving toddler!
I can't wait to see her with her baby brother who is due in June.
I'm sure she'll be a great big sis:)

After the party we headed home so the kids could get ready for the Easter Bunny:)

Sitting out their baskets.

This was the first year that we actually sat the baskets out for the Bunny.  They wanted to do it like that this year, so I agreed.  I actually thought it went well, so I think we have ourselves a new tradition.

After they kids were in bed....

And while I'm writing this post, I'm going to go ahead & remind myself to not ever put real candy in my table centerpeice-ever again.  Yes, those are real jelly beans & I had to actually refill it because we couldn't stop eating them!!  Sweet-tart jelly beans are awesome!  On second thought, maybe I will:)

Easter Morning

Tootsie Rolls are ok for breakfast on Easter, right?

My boys think so!

After they were finished with their baskets & the few peices of candy I let them have I cooked a big breakfast, & then made this fancy schmancy cake....

Funny story. 

We took this cake to Creag's parents for Easter dinner & Creag dropped it! 

It ended up upside down, on the porch!  

It ended up a little better off than our wedding cake, thank God! 

What is it with us & damaged cakes? 

(you'll see the wedding cake & what I'm talking about soon!)

After breakfast, & baths the kids had an egg hunt in our back yard.

Ready-Set-Go!!!

On the hunt....

Treasure!!

These guys are my treasure:)

So blessed that God chose me to be their mother!

I am forever greatful & trying to soak in each moment as I know they pass by too fast. 

Happy Easter 2012

 "May the spirit of hope that Easter brings,
Help you find contentment in little things,
And restore your faith in the Lord above,
Who gave His life for the ones He loves."

Author Unknown

"Easter is a time to rejoice, be thankful, be assured that all is forgiven so life extends beyond the soil of earth."

Byron Pulsifer



"Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life."

S.D. Gordon

Randoms

Good morning. 

I'm sitting at my desk at work, a little bored so I thought I'd write down a few random things that are going on in our lives as of late.

Wyatt cried & cried this morning when I dropped him off at daycare.

I really, really dislike these type of mornings.

It makes me feel so guilty. 

I really wish I had more time with them, but my work shedule is 8-5 M-F and there's not really much I can do about that.

I just hope that they know when they're older that I worked & tried my best to provide for them when they were younger.

Skylar & Hank's spring break ends today.

Back to school they go.

Their spring pictures are today.

I didn't order the individual ones, just their class pictures only.

In my opinion fall & spring pictures at school are a little much.

I just don't feel like we need both.

I observed Hank last night at Skylar's gymnastics & believe that deep down, he wants to be a gymnast.   

He was running the floor, using all of the equipment, doing flips, & loved it!!

If I knew his Dad & Creag would NOT kill me, I'd consider signing him up.

We'll stick to tough boy sports for now.

Speaking of gymnastics, Skylar's really doing well in class.

She has her cartwheel just about mastered & is now being spotted on back handsprings.

She's just a tad bit clumbsy though. 

She bit like 5 holes in her tongue during class last night.  Not kidding.

Wyatt stayed home with Creag while we went to gymnastics & helped him with yard work.

He was so proud of himself, but so worn out.

About the yard, we have no grass right now.

Creag tore up the entire front yard, in hopes that it will grow in thicker & not as patchy.

Let's hope it works.

While tucking Hank into bed last night, he asked me to sing him the "Marshmallow Song"

This is what he called Rock a Bye Baby when he was a young toddler.

It melts my heart & takes me back to that time every time he says it.

Married life is great so far.

I just found out that I'll be heading to Chicago June 3rd-5th for work.

I'm taking the hubby with me.

2nd honeymoon? 

Oh yeah!

This year has blessed me in so many ways.

New job, Custody case ending in my favor, Engagement, then wedding.

I feel, & hope that it's only going to get better!

Never been happier.

The 5 days leading up to the wedding

We're back from New Orleans and are officially Mr. & Mrs. Adams!! 

 

The last few weeks have definitely been a whirlwind. 

This is what I consider my real life fairytale.

I have honestly, besides when my children were born have never been happier.

It was Sunday, March 25th.

It was just the two of us at home, watching the UK game.

The Cats were playing Bailor and were well on their way to the Final Four in New Orleans.

At this point, we'd been engaged a little over two months.

 We had been tossing around different ideas for our wedding. 

We knew right off that we didn't want a large traditional wedding.

We wanted something small & unique.

  A destination Wedding.

 We were still struggling on a location and a date though.

It honestly became a little frustrating.

We'd plan nights where we'd just look on the internet for ideas.

It'd get late & I'd fall asleep which just made Creag mad.

We began to joke a little here and there about running off to get married.

And that's exactly what we did.

Talk of it started on Sunday at home. 

Creag said, "If Kentucky wins this game, we should go to New Orleans to get married."

"We'll just go to the game while we're there"

I'm thinking to myself, yeah right. 

He can't be serious.

I'm thinking, Kentucky has quite the lead right now.

 I better take him up on this!

So I agreed. 

If they win, we're going!

 When he started googling New Orleans weddings I knew he was serious.

He showed me a picture of Jackson Square and I was sold.  It looked amazing.

At this point, I had my hopes up.

The score towards the end of the game was getting close and I was getting nervous.

I really, really wanted this and he did too.

I sat there on the edge of my seat, biting my nails until the buzzer sounded & Kentucky WON!

We were both giddy & over the moon excited!!

A few things I remember saying were....

"We're going to New Orleans!!"

"I have to call my parents!!"

And probably something along the lines of "we're crazy!!"

 We decided that we were going to invite our immediate family & closest friends. 

 If they could come, great.  If not, we were getting married anyway. 

We're both pretty spontaneous and our relationship has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride so this was perfect for us. 

 

I called my parents first and they said what I thought they would.  

"Of course we'll be there!" 

My brother also agreed to come. 

My best friend Amy, which was my Maid of Honor said that she wanted to be there but first had to check her work schedule.  Eventually, she worked things out & was able to say yes and that she was bringing Jacob! 

Creag's Mom & Step Dad along with his sister Mica & her husband Tyler couldn't commit right away either because they had a few things to figure out.

His Mom was the only one who was able to make it.  Dave just couldn't get off of work.

Mica, was pretty far along in her pregnancy & it just didn't seem like a great idea to travel to New Orleans.  We missed them all at the wedding, but completely understood.

  Michael was in right away.  He was the best man so he really had no choice.

After we knew who was coming with us, we decided that we'd leave on Thursday, March 29th after work. 

This gave us 5 days to prepare for our wedding!!  Oh let the madness begin.

SUNDAY:

Creag started looking for houses on Sunday night. 

An eight bedroom house to be exact. 

On Final Four weekend.

Checking in in less that a week. 

This sure wasn't going to be easy, or cheap. 

I think it took him until about Tuesday to find a place, but he did it.

Prime example of why I love him.  He knows how to get things done. 

He found us an 8 Bedroom, 4 Bathroom house right outside of the garden district. 

It was away from the city which we thought would be great considering we would have the kids with us.

After the house was taken care of, we found a minister online. 

Reverend Charles Cross. 

Pretty ironic seeing how we met online, eh. 

I'm a HUGE fan of the Internet:) 

We sent the minister an email & he agreed that he could marry us on Sunday, April 1st. 

I wasn't a husge fan of an APRIL FOOLS DAY wedding, but it grew on me.

I really had no other choice because the basketball game was on Saturday. 

Reverend Cross stated that he would take care of getting us a cake, & he knew of a photographer and offered to set that up as well. 

After we had that settled, we looked into the location. 

I had said earlier that we really liked Jackson Square, so we stuck with that.

Then, we left the house to do a little shopping.

We really did not have much time & I was antsy to buy stuff for the wedding.

We needed to find the kids something to wear for the ceremony & needed to get a few things for their Easter baskets anyway.   

We headed to Walmart & found matching dresses for the girls with white dress shoes. 

They were perfect. 

They were white & a pale yellow color. 

This led the way for me to decide on a white & yellow color scheme but thought I'd try to throw blue in there for UK. 

Walmart also had little boys Easter Suits that I liked.

They didn't have matching ones in the same color for their sizes so we decided to pass on them.

We figured we could check another store later in the week. 

We checked out & headed home with one more thing crossed off the list.

MONDAY:

Monday morning, on my way to work I called Jeri.

Jeri used to babysit the kids when we lived in Dayton & she's also a florist.

Jeri & I are pretty close.  She'd been waiting & waiting for the day Creag proposed.

I asked her if she would mind making me a boquet. 

Of course she obliged.  I had no doubt she would.

She is an amazing person to say the least.   

I told her that I wanted yellow & white flowers. 

Yellow calalilly's if she could find them. 

She did, and they were beautiful!! 

My bouquet

She not only made my boquet like I asked.

She also made flowers for Amy, Skylar & Sam, Yvonne, & my Mom.

Creag, Micael, Hank & Wyatt, & my Dad.

She really saved me on this. 

And only charged me what the flowers cost her.

Pretty amazing friend right there.



Skylar & Sammie's boquet's

Monday night after work, we also went to Jared so Creag could pick out his wedding band.

He picked out his band and then we took the kids out for pizza at Danato's.

After dinner, we dropped Skylar off at gymnastics & headed into Florence to go wedding dress shopping.  

Creag dropped me off at David's Bridal & then took the boys to find UK shirts.

I walked into David's Bridal with like 45 minutes to spare because we had to be back to get Skylar by 8:30. 

Oh my was I stressed & a little overwhelmed once I saw all of the gowns to choose from. 

I had an idea of what I wanted.  

Long, White, Simple, & Elegant. 

The girls at David's Bridal were amazing & very helpful.

I told them what I wanted, how little time that I had & they grabbed a few dresses for me to try on.

Off to the dressing room we went.

Here are my choices.

I ended up choosing dress #2.

I also chose a veil.

I really wasn't too sure about it, but in the end I'm glad I got it.

I knew that I wanted a pop of yellow in my jewelry to go with my flowers, so I picked out these shoes & had them dyed yellow.

All of this obviously took longer than expected.

I had to text Creag to ask him if he would go get Skylar from gymnastics and come back to get me. 

He said yes and it worked out great because by the time they got back, I was still being fitted for alterations and Skylar was able to see me in my dress. 

Her eyes lit up when she saw me. 

 You could tell she thought her Mama looked beautiful, and it made my heart swell to see her eyes light up like that.  

When we finally finished, I changed back into normal clothes & I paid for the dress (thank you David's Bridal financing!!) 

They told me the dress would be ready for pick-up Wednesday night at 8:30. 

 After we left there, we headed over to the Walmart in Florence to see what they had in the little boys suit department. 

We found this:))))

Is that not too friggin' cute!? 

My son is going to be such a ladies man;) 

We bought this suit for Hank, but they still didn't have one for Wyatt that matched. 

I asked the lady working if she'd call the Walmart by our house to see if they had a matching one in a 4T.  They didn't have a 4, but had a 5 so we asked them to hold it for us.

On our way home we stopped to buy the suit.  While I was there I got their dress shoes to match.

So the kids outfits were then completely taken care of. 

I surely didn't feel like mother of the year having them out at Walmart on a school night at 10:30pm but this stuff HAD to be done. 

We were so short on time it wasn't funny!!

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, we found out that we would not be able to get married at Jackson Square.
You need to apply for a permit 2 weeks in advance to have an event there, so we agreed that we would pick a location when we got to New Orleans.
After work, the girls & I went to get pedicures & manicures.
I got a french manicure on both my finger & toe nails.
Sammie chose french manicure on both fingers & toes as well. 
Skylar got a french manicure on her nails with glitter on top & yellow tootsies:)

My Weddin' Nails

I'm pretty sure the rest of Tuesday was spent at home packing & cleaning. 

I was also getting messages throughout the day/night from my Mom while she was dress shopping.

M.O.T.B.

 

She also found me this, which is exactly what I was looking for!!!

Thank God for her help!!  And Amy's! 

Amy found me this bracelet.

& these adorable flowers for the girls hair.

At this point I think jewelry was pretty much taken care of.

WEDNESDAY:

After work on Wednesday we met at home & had a quick dinner there.

 After dinner we headed out to wrap things up.

I had to pick up my dress and the boys needed haircuts. 

I also wanted to find a few miscellaneous things for the trip. 

I always feel like I'm short on clothes.

Especially when we go on vacation. 

We drove separately but first stopped at Great Clips so I could let them know how to cut Hank's hair. 

Then I let Creag take it from there. 

Michael was with them & after their haircuts, they were heading over to Men's Warehouse to pick up their suits. 

I wasn't allowed to know what his suit looked like btw. 

It was to be a total surprise. 

And this terrified me just a little bit. 

The fear worsened after Creag described the suit as "fly". 

I was litterally in my head picturing the blue suits in Dumb & Dumber. 

I had a little time in between the hair cut and my appointment at Davids Bridal so I decided to stop in Dots to see what they had.

I'm really glad I did because I found all kinds of goodies. 

Amy had been looking for a yellow cover-up to wear over her dress and yellow shoes & I found them both. 

Cute right?!

Their shoes were buy one, get one half off so I had to get myself some too!!

I finally made it back to the house so it was time to start packing.

And trying things on.

 

 

 We ended Wednesday night with a few beers at the house. 

Michael stayed late& his friend Bruce came by. 

I think/know they were TRYING to get him out for a bachelor party but failed!! 

THURSDAY:

Thursday is the day that we worked all day.

Met everyone at home afterward.

Loaded up, & headed to New Orleans where I would say I do to the man of my dreams.

To be continued...............