Mother's Day/ Birthday

I had a nice weekend with both my birthday and Mother's Day (although the hot dog dinner on Mother's Day wasn't the most impressive thing, especially since we didn't have buns AND we had company!) I call it the white trash Mother's Day dinner! :) Maybe I should of taken over, especially since the company said, "wow I haven't had hot dogs in 30 years!" (haha) but it was Mother's Day and dang it I wanted a true day off. Looking back I think I should have postponed Mother's Day for a week! Oh well, I didn't have to cook dinner! I feel like I can't complain really because I have felt really blessed to have Jay. Not to get sappy here, BUT we had company on Sunday and they are staying all week. Talking with them has made me appreciate Jay and ALL that he does for our family, even the bunless hot dogs on Mother's Day!

I don't love my birthday or Mother's Day anymore, I feel a lot of loss on those days and I can't explain why. I know Sarah wants me to be happy, but for some reason I really struggle with being happy on those days. I was just talking to Jay the morning of my birthday and saying that I can't believe it's been so long since I've cried....well the facets were turned on all day! In a way I feel sorry for myself, I haven't worked it all out in my head on why (well besides the obvious), but why I pick my special days to feel that way. Maybe because it is more focused on me and that's were my mind goes??? I must say though there is nothing like a good cry! It actually made me feel better getting it all out!

Here are just cute pictures of the kids! Aren't they sweet!!

Cuddly Sarah! I miss you baby doll!!

Aaron taking PB Bear out to ice-cream. PB Bear is the preschool class bear that got to come home with Aaron for a couple of days.

Sweet Janie! This is actually a couple months old, Janie now doesn't have any front teeth!

My little Janie is growing up!

Janie celebrated her birthday last Saturday with a fun all girl TEA PARTY. She had such a good time, her favorite part was when they all did their own make-up and hair. So cute! I can't believe Janie is 7. Jay and I have been married for 12.5 years. I think to myself, what did we do those first 5.5 years of marriage?? We've had so much go on these last 7 years!

Here are some cute pictures of her party.

Janie before her party. Like her dress? She put it together herself. It's a princess dress with a separate skirt pulled up to her chest. Pretty cute, huh?

So excited waiting for her friends!

Janie and her friends having "tea" (really Mango Peach juice, yummmm) and small tea sandwiches!

Janie and her friends with their hair done and make-up on!

Janie is still a sweet heart with a little dash of sass! I love it. She is so concerned about others and making sure Aaron is included in things (except her all girl party!), but she also is really good about not forgetting about herself. I think there is a fine line between selfishness and losing who you are. I hope at this young age she continues to see how important she really is!

Vacations all I ever wanted!!

I am a little late in finally writing this but life has been a little crazy ("as if" isn't a joke, but I am determined to do this!

So we went to Palm Springs a couple weeks ago. We were told by locals here in Minnesota that we needed to plan a trip to some place sunny in Feb/March. That's when winter starts feeling really long. We listened and picked Palm Springs. It's southern CA with a lot to do and it helps that Jay's aunt and uncle live there and are great hosts!

We had a fabulous time! We went to a miniature golf place that had, of course mini putt putt, go Karts, boats and an arcade. We did it all and had a blast, I just wished someone could have beat Jay at air hockey!

John, Tom and Jay playing mini golf!

Lonni and Janie on Go Karts!

John and Aaron speeding around the track!

We also had plenty of time to relax, lay out and read. The kids were so good and so self entertained while we were there! It was great and gave Jay and I some much needed down time!

While in So. CA we also went to Joshua Tree. All I knew about Joshua Tree was that U2 has an album named after it, arguably one of the best albums ever! Joshua Tree like the album was incredible. It is actually a huge desert, well two deserts the Colorado desert and the Mojave desert with of course a ton of Joshua trees all over. It was so beautiful and really an amazing place. We hiked around with the kids while they did things to earn their Junior Ranger badges. They had to identify plants, draw pictures of them, identify reptiles and animals, thankfully the only of those that we saw were lizards. I didn't want to see any snakes and certainly not any tarantulas. Seeing a roadrunner would have been cool (beep beep)! Although where there is a roadrunner isn't their a wily coyote near by setting up an ACME bomb of some sort??? It was great climbing the rock formations and exploring with the kids. In the end they did earn their badges and I think had a great time doing it! I would highly recommend visiting Joshua Tree, you can even camp there! What a sight it would be at night with all the starts!

All around it was a GREAT vaca! Fun times with family, relaxation, great food (Donna Chicago dogs are the best!) and nice warm weather!!

It was the getting home to reality part that was hardest!!

Here are some random pictures for the vacation!

Janie painting Donna's nails.

White man can jump!? ; )

Muscle man Aaron!

Janie went in the water even though it was 70 degrees! burrr