Caleb's Birthday & 11 Year Interview!

**Caleb at age 11**


Clothes Size- 12/14

Shoe size- 5

Going into Grade: 6th (Middle School!)

Party theme this year: Defy Trampoline Park and Dinner

Birthday Gift: New Mountain Bike!!

Favorite Color: orange

Favorite Toy: Stuffed Animal "Hammy"

Favorite Animal: Hampsters

Favorite Food: Hamburgers

Favorite Drink: Sweet Tea

Favorite Snack- sunchips

Favorite Dessert- cookies

Favorite Season: summer

Favorite Holiday: christmas

Favorite Restaurant: Olive Garden or Five Guys

Favorite Tv Show- Video Game High School 

Favorite Movie: Black Panther

Favorite Book- The I Survived Series

Favorite Thing to do: play video games

Favorite Thing to do outside: ride bike

Favorite part of school: Reading Class

Favorite Thing to Wear: athletic shorts and tshirts 

Best Friend: Ryan

What are you afraid of? Wasps

What do you want to be when you grow up? Engineer

What do you want for Christmas this year? A Nintendo Switch

What do you want to be for Halloween this year? Nothing (he hates Halloween)

What do you sleep with everynight? Nothing anymore






***If I had to pick words to describe Caleb, they would be:
sensitive, animal lover, rule follower, detail-oriented, prefers routine, very caring!

Caleb had a pretty great birthday. For his birthday we surprised him with a brand new mountain bike! He had outgrown his old bike, and had been asking for a new one. So we picked out the red and black one. He really liked it, and when we brought him into the living room to surprise him, he ran up and hugged his dad who was near him, then came over to me. I asked him what he thought and he said "awesome!" It has lots of speeds and after Arnold lowered the seat a little bit, it was a perfect fit. I am glad we got him something that will help him get motivated to get outside more and get exercise! 

The weekend before his birthday we went out to dinner at OCharleys with his grandparents. They gave him some cash as a present, and he picked out some new games for his Xbox. 

On the actual day of his birthday, we went out to eat at his favorite place-- Five Guys! That place is expensive and we don't go alot. but it was fun. Then we took him to the new trampoline park to bounce around for an hour. I didn't go into work until the afternoon so I got to do all this stuff with them! Arnold took the day off, too. 

Life Lately: July Edition!

Arnie and I went to the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on the night before my birthday! That was his bday gift to me this year. This was there farewell tour, and the last time they would ever be in Charlotte :( They are my favorite band ever and I have been to 10 of their shows... several of them even while I was pregnant! That night was HOT and I was sweating and grumpy.. and we spent $20 on overpriced water bottles, but we still ended up having a good time. I got a little emotional during some of the songs and teared up a little.. I just feel like this is the end of an era... my dad took me to my first concert 17 years ago, and now Arnold took me to my last Skynyrd concert! 

Just like every year, Mom had us over the night of my birthday and made me her famous homemade lasanga! I ask for it every year and every year she makes it.. except last year when she had recently had hip replacement surgery, and my DAD stepped up and made it-- and that was the sweetest thing ever! 

I got some awesome birthday gifts.. some cute clothes, a few new books I had been wanting to read, and some new pioneer woman stuff for the kitchen (utensil holder and paper towel holder.) I hope to eventually have a Pioneer woman kitchen! I love her rugs, towels, bakeware, and everything she has! 

We celebrated the 4th of July with some swimming and  cooking out at Mom and Dad's! Everyone but me had ribs... we even took Sheldon with us! 

The kids had their dentist checkup.. and it went pretty well. Caleb continues his almost 11-year streak of NO cavities! He lucked out and got teeth like mine. The dentist always says they look great. Brooke didn't have any this time, thank goodness. And Rachel has a small one that she has to go get filled in August. That night we went out to Mellow Mushroom and the balloon lady was there! So the kids picked out a turtle, cat, and dog. 

The kids occasionally spend the night with my parents, if Arnold and I want to go on a date or something, and this is how they look afterwards, haha! But really though, they have been staying up waaay too late here lately. They are going to hate getting back into a school routine soon.

I havent been reading hardly at all lately! But after getting those 2 new books at my birthday, I read BOTH of them in the span of a week or so. I forgot how much I LOVE holding a real book. I just can't get on board with doing all my reading on a kindle! I've tried, believe me! Anyway, Sheldon likes to sit in the recliner with me and he gets jealous when I read because he'd rather I pet him! ;)

Brooke has GROWN lately, and I don't know how the time got away from me! She is already wearing women size shoes, she is almost into junior sized clothes exclusively, and she has started wearing a little bit of makeup. One day I found all my makeup in my drawer missing and later I found out she took it and put it on herself and was embarrassed to tell me. I really don't mind a LITTLE bit. But man is she looking older lately! She will be going into the 7th grade next month, and turning 12 the day before that! 

Rachel still occasionally hops into bed with me at night and stays there all night! Its usually on nights Arnold falls asleep in the living room or doesn't come to bed until late and she steals his spot! Ha! But I love it because I know she won't do this for much longer! This is the scene I woke up to the other day.. her right beside me in the bed and Sheldon over on Arnold's pillow! ;) 

We took the kids last weekend to the movies to see Hotel Transylvania 3! Rachel absolutely loved the first 2 movies and has always watched them over and over so she was looking forward to this one. It was pretty funny! Especially the scenes with the big green blob, haha. 

The living room floors are finally finished! I am so thankful for Arnold and Father-in-law for all their hard work! The floors look GREAT and I am very happy with the color we picked. It really made over the room. The room looks a little bare right now, but we hope to have new furniture in there soon. I have looked on pinterest and found all these ideas for cute "sitting area" arrangements and I'm excited to have the room come together! It may be awhile before we get around to redoing our kitchen floors but that is next on our list of home remodel stuff! 

33 Facts for 33 Years

1. I was adopted at 1 month old. I've never met my biological parents.

2. I have never had a cavity. No clue how that happened!

3. I have been to 28 states and traveled to 3 countries outside the US.

4. I am double jointed. I can move my feet and legs and arms all kinds of ways.

5. I have worked at Bath&Body Works, Babies R Us, Chick Fila, Target, Christ Church, and 2 different preschools.

6. I had braces, glasses, and a very short haircut in middle school. I was a dork for real!

7. I played the clarinet when I was younger but I couldn't now if I tried!

8. When I was younger and imagined my future, I wanted to live at the lake, have 6 kids, and a Golden Retriever :D

9. I don't like orange juice, tomatoes, onions, or meat on the bone.

10. I have had anxiety since I was a young child. Started medicine for it in 2009.

11. I am a HUGE homebody. I will end up crying on any trip I go on because I'm so homesick.

12. My parents are still married! They have been married almost 46 years.

13. I am a big-time animal lover. Right now I have 3 dogs. Including my dachshund who is deaf.

14. I have had 3 surgeries. My wisdom teeth, my gallbladder out, and my c-section with Rachel.

15. My fears are of public speaking, tight spaces, spiders and most other bugs, and getting lost in the middle of nowhere.

16. My dream trip would be to one day visit Italy.

17. My husband and I met online! We have married 12 years now.

18. I birthed Brooke all natural! (not really by choice-- haha-- she came too quickly.)

19. I have big feet! My shoe size is a 10 or 11.

20. My favorite shows on tv now are Grey's Anatomy and Big Bang Theory. My all-time fave shows include Friends, The Office, Will & Grace and The Golden Girls.

21. I have been to see Lynyrd Skynyrd 10 times. I went for my first concert 17 years ago.

22. I don't have any tattoos. Too chicken to get one!

23. I often remember my dreams. They are usually crazy with lots of details.

24. I have one living grandparent left. He is 86.

25. I don't like to cook!!!!! It makes my mother sad but oh well!

26. I was baptized in 2011!

27. I broke my tailbone rollerblading when I was in middle school.

28. I skipped dissection day in honors biology when I was a senior.

29. I haven't had an alcoholic drink in over 9 years.

30. I have never done any drugs.

31. My mom makes me her famous homemade lasagna every year for my birthday.

32. I volunteered at the Pregnancy Care center for 5 years. I am a big pro-life supporter.

33. In 2009 after having Rachel I developed a dangerous pulmonary embolism and ended up in ICU for 9 days. I am so thankful to be alive. Arnold got "fixed" after that as they didn't advise me being pregnant again.

Birthday Celebration with Friends!

Every year for my birthday, for probably the last 10 years or so, I've had a dinner with friends to celebrate my birthday. Every year its at Ocharleys-- its just become a tradition! I LOVE having girls night, and of course cake, so it's perfect. I did it a week early this year because arnold is taking me to a concert next week for my bday! Anyway, I had several friends show up and I had an awesome time, and we ended up doing some unexpected things as the night went on....... so read on.....

And yet ANOTHER Publix cake ;) Perfect with the palm trees and flip flops (I Love them!) and the green writing (my favorite color!) It was delicious and I MAY have broke Kim of her Keto diet again this week! :) But cheat days are totally ok! Speaking of cheat days-- one of the waiters/hostess guys overheard us talking about diets and totally spent 700 minutes telling us EXACTLY how he lost 110 lbs! I mean, good job for the guy, seriously. But I just wanted to break into my delicious UN diet-friendly dinner and cake, so it was a buzz kill! haha! 

Here is the whole group! I love these ladies so much! They are all different in their own amazing ways but they all have shown that they are loyal and fun to be around and I couldn't ask for better friends. A mix of old and new friends alike! 

These are my fellow chesterbrook girls! We work together every day.. well at least KIM and I do.. we both work with the infants. But I see all of them throughout the day. I really am liking this job because even though theres stressful days and gossip and drama sometimes like at every job, I've found some friends I think I can truly talk to and count on. And it makes going to work more bearable! 

OK! So after dinner we headed to the mall. I have been talking about getting a nose stud FOREVER but have been too chicken. Well my BFF Joanne said shed go with me. When everyone else found out about it, they wanted to turn it into more birthday fun. So everyone followed me to the mall and we first went by the Tattoo place but they weren't working anymore that night. SO we ended up at Piercing Pagoda. Joanne ended up getting it done with me! And this is the girls hanging out on the couch before we found out the news about the tattoo place closing for the night!! 

Erika got a hold of my phone and was documenting this whole thing, and she decided to take lots of selfies of herself and friends while I was doing this! And some more pics that didn't make it on here.. haha! 

The lady pierced my nose with the little gun and at first I was scared and scrunching up my nose and she said stop! And did it real quick and it HURT for a minute, like really sore, but it felt ok after that. And today I hardly even notice it in. 

Bffs after we had our noses done! We have been in moms groups together, gone to concerts together, thrown parties together, and even WORKED together... so what comes next?! This I guess! I love that she supported me though! And she even let me go first.. how sweet of her... haha ;)

PS-- I know a lot of people say this is TOTALLY unlike me and I agree. But I am turning 33 and I feel so old lately! I have wanted to do something a little "edgy" lately and saw a nose stud on a friend and it looked so cute! I have NO tattoos and I don't drink or anything.. so Im a pretty boring person. But this makes me feel a "little" cool, HA! And if I decide I don't like it, I can always take it out and it will close up pretty quicky and that's that! Although my preteen daughter made fun of me and said it looked like a sparkly bugger. Oh well! Everyone has their opinions I guess! ;)

After all that, the mall was ALMOST closed but Scottie wanted to hit up the sale at Bath and Body works so we ran over there and everyone dug thru the bins to find some goodies! I wanted to buy stuff but I just spent a lot of money spontaneously that night so I thought I'd better not.... haha.....

I think the cashier girls were ready for us to get out of there! They started closing the gate before my friend Ashley even got out of the store! She came running out of the store before it closed down! haha!

My Friend Joanne got me this cute bracelet! I can't wait to wear it! I dont have any pictures of the other gifts I got but they were all so thoughtful! Pineapple stuff, candy, barnes and noble giftcard, a personalized cup with my name on it, and Kim bought my dinner! Thanks guys! You are too kind. 

Rachel’s 9-yr Birthday and Interview!!

***Rachel at Age 9***

Clothes Size- 10/12

Shoe size- 3/4

Going into Grade: 4th

Party theme this year: Unicorns

Favorite Color: red

Favorite Toy: Baby dolls 

Favorite Animal: elephants 

Favorite Food: spaghetti 

Favorite Drink: coke

Favorite Snack- popcorn

Favorite Dessert- chocolate icecream

Favorite Season: summer

Favorite Holiday: christmas

Favorite Restaurant: mcdonalds 

Favorite Tv Show- Barbie 

Favorite Movie: Incredibles 2

Favorite Book- boxcar children 

Favorite Flower: roses

Favorite Thing to do: watch youtube

Favorite Thing to do outside: ride bike

Favorite part of school: math 

Favorite Thing to Wear: shorts and shirts 

Best Friend: Emily 

What are you afraid of? The dark 

What do you want to be when you grow up? Teacher

What do you want for Christmas this year? Doll stuff 

What do you want to be for Halloween this year? Not sure yet 

What do you sleep with everynight? Build a bear bunny from Florida




















Rachel had a wonderful birthday!!! We celebrated a few days before and she had a party at a local painting place. I go there sometimes with friends and she had been begging me to go. It was a girls-only party so no Caleb or daddy this year! But it was a lot of fun.

Rachel is really into unicorns right now so she wanted a shirt to match her party. My friend at work, Kristin, made her this one! We were real impressed with her work, it looked like from a store! 

She also had a unicorn cake from Publix! Their cakes are SO delicious!  A little pricy, but yummy. They even put icing inside the cake to match the outside. When I was in line buying the cake, the guy said "what is that, a rainbow cat?!" Needless to say the unicorn horn hadn't been added yet, but still..... lol 

At the party we had Rachel, Brooke, my niece Bekah, Rachels bff Emily, and my friend Kim and her daughter. We all painted a piece to take home and it was the perfect party because we had to do no decorating or anything, just show up and have fun! 

Kim and Ally found Rachel this adorable unicorn bank for her bday! 

I decided to paint a popsicle this time, and make it patriotic colors! I love it and its hanging on our door now. I just need to go back and make a Fall piece next time! 

We met both sets of Grandparents after the party for lunch! We had a great time and Rachel was so hyped up on sugar and crazy. The waiters came out and sang to her and she was turning SO red, it was so cute. I got it on video. I didn't  know they were going to do that! 

That afternoon we took the kids to see the new Incredibles movie! Im glad we bought the tickets earlier that day because the place was packed! The first movie came out when I was a senior in highschool and I think I was more ready to see it then the kids. We all liked it... especially the Jack Jack scenes-- hilarious!!!!!! There WERE 2 bad words in the movie, if that bothers anyone. And it was a TAD long for a kids' movie but id still recommend it! 

Rachel got a cute beach towel with her name on it! 

This kid cannot save money! She spent the money her grandparents gave her that very day. She bought all kinds of stuff for her American girl dolls. Shes really into dolls right now and Im SO glad because that is how I used to be.. and I dont want her to grow up too fast! 

On Monday, her actual birthday, I went to work but Arnold took the kids to the new trampoline park for an hour! They love it there but are always so sweaty and tired afterwards! Arnold says they need 30 min increment options lol. 

And after work I met the kids at Texas Roadhouse for her birthday dinner. SHe wore her Childrens Place birthday shirt and new headband with ears her Aunt got her from Great Wolf Lodge. We had a great time celebrating our girl!!!!!

What We've Been Up To: Spring Edition

Arnold and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary back in January! 

Caleb got to take his special trip with mom and dad! When the kids turn 10, my parents take the kids on a special trip to celebrate. Caleb got to go on his first plane ride. They went to Kansas City. He went to Lego Land and went swimming and did other fun things, just him and my parents. 

Kim and I dressed up as Pete the Cat for book character week at the preschool! I just love her, she has become a great friend to me. The long days are more bearable with her around! ;)

This Spring we went on a big family trip to Florida! My parents gifted us a week down there with their timeshare. Easter Sunday we went to Cocoa Beach and it was INSANELY packed, but we figured that it might be with Spring break. Our view outside our condo was gorgeous, I loved all the palm trees. And their was an all-night pool that the kids loved swimming at. They even made some friends while there that week! And while there we went to DISNEY WORLD! We visited the Magic Kingdom. Id like to say it was a magical time, but with the crowds, waits in line, outrageous pricing on food and the heat, we were pretty tired by that afternoon and ready to go back to the condo. But all in all the trip was wonderful and we made some great memories together. 

After waiting 12 years, we finally were able to look for new floors for our house! Arnold and I went and picked out what we liked at Lowes and bought it. Arnold ripped up all the carpet in the living room and hallway, and him and his dad put the floors down. It took way longer and was way harder than we had imagined, but the floors look great! We also have plans to do the kitchen but it may be awhile after seeing what it took to do the living room/hall! Poor Arnold has been so sore and tired! He's used to working at a desk all day, he says he about died doing all that manual labor, ha! I will take pics when we have everything finished. I am saving up for a new couch and a couple new pieces of furniture to make the living room complete! 

Arnold's company he works for had a big family day! They had games set up for the kids to play, prizes to win, the Science Center came and did demonstrations, they had snocones and popcorn, and they catered in BBQ for lunch. We had a great time. They did tours of their new building also, and the kids and i got to go look around the place. Arnold was proud of showing us where we works every day ;)

Another big thing we did recently was BUY A NEW CAR!! I had originally wanted a Nissan, but we found a Toyota Corolla that I really liked. I had wanted a black or blue car, and something that was nice with newer features inside. I have a backup camera (which im having to get used to!) and bluetooth and I can listen to any music I have on my phone, which I love! I really love the car so far and am glad to have given up the minivan after driving it since Caleb was a baby! As a matter of fact, I spilled tea on the floor the week before we got the car and I was like oh well! Not even worried! haha. 

Brooke had her first trip ever to Carowinds! She went with her 6th grade class. She is our fearless child and will try anything. She even rode the Fury. She sent me this picture through text. 

We also had Brooke's spring band concert to attend. The band did a great job and they have really improved since Christmas.They even played the Star Wars theme! Brooke has really loved playing trumpet this year and has talent, and I hope she sticks with it and does marching band one day like I did! 

Sadly I have to mention that our sweet chiweenie Charlie, passed away. He was only 2 years old. He had an accident and sadly he did not make it. I plan to write a blog soon honoring his memory and sharing some pictures of him. We miss you so much buddy!! 

The kids just finished up their EOGs! This was Rachel's first year of taking them, and apparently shes a natural! She made a 4 on both math and reading! I was so proud of her! 

We attended Arnold's "niece's" graduation party! I can't believe its already time for her to graduate! She was so little when Arnold and I got married! Anyway, I don't wear dresses a lot so I decided to go out and buy one for that occasion. I actually ended up loving it... wore it and curled my hair and everything. I even took a pic and sent it to my mom since I knew she'd be happy I had made an effort, haha! ;)