Easter Break

My dear blog, how I have neglected you. I have been busy and for some reason my blog was not a priority, what is wrong with me?? :) I've had blog block or something. So here I go, finally updated on our Easter break and hopefully will be back into the swing of things with my blog.

The Thursday before Easter, our party planner, known as Drew, planned a fun Easter party for his brothers and cousins. We ate lunch, did a craft, hit at a pinata....everyone got a swing, from youngest to oldest and Noah knocked it down.

We enjoyed some cookies and treats. Ty loved those Marshmallow Peeps.

Drew set up an egg hunt for them and they played some games. He planned an awesome party and I think the kids had fun.

On the Saturday before Easter Matt and Beth had a party at their house. We could only go for a bit because the big Klauser family get together was that night. Noah was a little under the weather so he missed it.

They had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Drew may not believe, but that sure didn't keep him from finding eggs!

Aiden found one of the eggs with his name on it!

All the kiddos.

Todd took Drew and Aiden to the Klauser easter and I stayed home with Noah. He really could have gone though. He had a headache and leg ache that morning and had about a 100 degree fever. I gave him tylenol and he rested and woke up fine and his fever never came back. How was I to know?? I thought for sure he was getting sick. Maybe it was just from the headache?? To make up for him missing the fun, we got McDonalds for supper and rented a movie so we enjoyed some special time together. I'm glad he was fine so we could all spend Easter day together.

Cousins Carter, Aiden, Hunter (Connor in the background).

They were all "Hangin' Tough" (sorry, had to throw a NKOTB reference in there) They had so much fun together.

Easter Morning.

I had bought coordinating shirts for al 4 of my guys but Drew had just gotten the suit jacket of his dreams (seriously, that's all the kid wanted) so he and Daddy dressed up for Easter mass.

Handsome dudes.

The 6 Grandkids at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Seriously, love these 6 kids more than anything in the world!

My 3 again. I kept trying that day for a good picture but have a lot of mediocre ones.

My gorgeous "flowers" from Blake,Ty and Ellie. They were made with cutouts of their hands. Beth always has the cutest ideas. These are the best flowers ever and they will never die on me.....they have a special spot on my dining room table.

I even had time for a bit of craftiness. These were just a couple of the projects I tackled. Todd helped me with the lamp. Ours was brass and tarnished nastiness. After looking around, I realized not only are lamps expensive, but so are shades. So we spray painted it black, cleaned the shade, and I found a black and cream ribbon to tie around it and voila, new lamp. I love it.

I made this shirt for my niece Ellie for Easter. I found the idea here. It was so easy and I'm ready to make some more!! I was scared to try the stitching so I added the buttons instead for a little embellishment.

I wish I had some pictures from last night. The 5 of us were outside jumping rope!! We had a nice long one and took turns jumping. We even got Aiden jumping and he though he was so big. He was also an awesome rope twirler. I enjoyed flashing back to my childhood days jumping to all the silly rhymes but let me tell you......after about 45 seconds I thought I'd pass out. I'm seriously out of shape people. Drew and Noah recited some of the songs from when I was young and had some new ones of their own that were pretty funny. Aiden wanted to join in so when Noah and I started jumping together, he started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". That cracked me up. What a great way to end the day. (followed by American Idol of course.....Allison and Adam ROCKED!!!)

You Will NOT Believe This!!

I feel like a bad mom....I took a blogging break and then when I want to update on Easter activities, our internet was spotty so I couldn't upload pictures. I finally get a chance to sit down and blog and our Easter break post will have to wait until tomorrow. Why, you ask?? Because...

WE MET DAVID COOK LAST NIGHT!!!

My brother Matt, my sis in law Beth, and her sister Katie traveled up to Macomb IL last night to see David Cook in concert. He was absolutely awesome!! His opening act, Ryan Star, was pretty good too but David was incredible. It was a small venue....only 400 tickets were sold and we were in the Heritage Room at the University Union. There really wasn't a bad place in the house and we were pretty close to the stage. The show was shorter than we expected (of course they were $10 tickets so who could complain!). We hung around because David (yes, we're on a first name basis now) is known for coming out to meet with his fans. Dianna was keeping us up to date with information via his website and postings there. We found his tour buses and decided to hang out for awhile. After 2 hours of freezing our butts off and seeing everyone on the crew, opening acts, etc, David and his band came out! He was awesome and came over to the 35-40 stalkers, I mean dedicated fans, that waited around for him. He autographed my CD and Beth's ipod. We got some up close pictures, one that we are even passing off as one with us and him. (he was in a hurry and they were really rushing him through.) I even asked him if he would say hi to my best friend Dianna on my cell phone and he did!! How's that for an awesome gift from a friend Dianna?? :) It was an amazing night and sooo much fun. We laughed, ate good food, danced and had a great time. Ending the night with meeting David Cook was so worth getting no sleep and having a headache all day today!

Some pictures....................

The front of his tour bus....you could see the guys after they went inside.... Here he comes!!! He was looking for me, I know.

He had just signed my CD and was reading a poster that someone made for him.

Beth took this one, I think that may be my CD he's signing.

There's us trying to pose with him, notice Dianna still on the cell phone. She listened to the whole concert through my phone and we talked off and on all night. It was like she was there with us!!
One of David Cook's guitarists. Dianna had her picture taken with him when she saw them in concert in Biloxi, MS

My autographed CD.....his fingerprints are on there!!

Thanks to my mom for watching Matt and Beth's kids so they could go and to my dear sweet hubby for taking on the boys for the night while he was busy drinking 2 litres of nastiness for his colonoscopy today. In my defense, he chose to schedule it for weds. long after I had concert plans. I felt really bad leaving him last night. His procedure went smoothly today though and he was given the all clear. Whew!

The sound quality of my videos was horrible. Here's Light On from someone that was at the concert.

One Week From Today........

I'm going to see David Cook in concert!!!! I'm so excited.....he's been one of my favorite American Idols of all time. He had me at "Hello".

When he sang his version of "Hello" by Lionel Richie, I melted into a pile of goo. It was idol love. He's doing a concert tour right now but is doing smaller venues to make it more personal. Me, Matt, Beth, and Katie are going up to Macomb next Tuesday to see him. Only 400 tickets were sold and thanks to my friend Lorri who is a professor up there at the university, we were able to score some tickets. I hear he's good about coming out and talking with the crowd too. I think I just may bring something to autograph. I'm so excited, Dianna saw him in Biloxi on Valentine's Day and said it was awesome!! I will definitely be posting details next week.............

I Won! I Won!

I won a copy of Backyard Baseball 2010 for our Wii. Woohoo! I read Classy Chaos' blog faithfully. She's an awesome mom of 3 of the cutest kids you will ever see. She also happens to have a review blog where she reviews various products and has those products to giveaway. Who doesn't love giveaways??? I enter them every chance I get. I was very excited to win this today although I think my boys may be even more excited than me. Thanks OHMommy!!

The Gig Is Up

I knew the day was coming, in fact I suspected it was already here but it was being kept hush hush. It came out today. Drew told me there was no Easter Bunny. He also told me there was no Santa. He was also standing right in front of Aiden when he told me this revelation of his. Luckily Aiden was half asleep on the couch and wasn't processing anything Drew was talking about. I wasn't sure how to respond to it all especially since I had to be really careful of how and what I said about it in front of Aiden. I was kind of speechless actually. He went on his merry way, working on things for the Easter party he's throwing for us later in the week. He came back in later with a big grin on his face and repeated it to me. Since Aiden was gone, I asked him why he thought that. He told me that he went snooping around at Christmas time and found the Magnetix iCoaster in the spare bedroom closet. Damn, I had some suspicions that he saw that back then but Todd and I had a good white lie to cover that up if he said something. (Todd's mom had bought that for him too) He never said anything though. I thought I could explain it away when he said he also saw Noah's Magicarp (a pokemon figure) and Aiden's Planet Heroes. I was screwed, I had nothing. I asked him if he was disappointed and he said no. I then asked him to please not say a word about it in front of Aiden and Noah. In some ways, it will be nice because he often shops with me and it's a pain when I find xmas/easter things and can't buy them because he's with me. At the same time, it's just another sign of him growing up and losing some of that childhood innocence. So does this mean he doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy too?? We'll see what he says about that next time he loses a tooth! :)

Drew's Birthday in St Louis

Since 10 is a big birthday I asked Drew what he wanted to do to celebrate and we could do something a little bigger this year. He really wanted to go to St Louis for 2 big reasons.....to eat at Chuck E Cheese and to go up in the arch. He had just finished a book that talked about the arch in it and he was curious to visit. The 4 grandparents and the 5 of us headed to St Louis on Sunday. We started off at Toys R Us then headed to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. The boys had a blast there!

In this game Drew told me he was shooting down airplanes and other aircraft. Nice. So this is where they train you to be a terrorist.

Hang on Aiden, it's a wild ride!

Noah's playing one of my favorites....skee ball.

After lunch we headed for the Arch. After all the rain and snow Saturday at home, it shaped up to be a really nice day in downtown St Louis. It was about 50 and sunny, much nicer than we had anticipated. The arch was beautiful in the sunlight.

This is standing in the middle looking up. I still get dizzy just looking at this picture.

These little pods you ride in to get to the top can make you a bit clautrophobic...they put 5 people in there. I remember as a kid getting stuck in there for awhile....no fun!

Me, Todd, Aiden, and Grandma Paulette rode in this one.

Grandpa Ken, Grandma Tunie, Drew and Noah rode in the other one. Grandpa John decided to spend his time in the museum while we went up.

Here's a picture of Busch Stadium from the top of the arch. I'm amazed at how well the picture turned out considering how every window up there was covered in finger and nose prints!

Noah and Drew gazing out the window. It was neat but I was getting dizzy and queasy up there. It was a windy day and I was feeling it. Blech.

After the arch we headed to Target and to the Mills Mall. We did a little shopping, the males all rode the go-karts, we had a quick supper at Steak n Shake and headed home. It was a wonderful day, the boys behaved so well, and Drew was a very happy 10 year old.

Happy 10th Birthday Drew!!!

Well, you did it Drew. People only get to do this once in their lifetime, and you did it----you hit the double digits. I knew this birthday would hit me hard, you really are growing up. I see you starting to mature and want to do more grown up things and I alternate between wanting to shelter and overprotect you to wanting to let you have some of that independence. You are very responsible and mature for your age and that makes me proud. It doesn't always make it easier for me to step back and let you do your own thing though. I can't help but want to baby you, are ARE my baby after all, no matter how old you get. I want you to know I am always here for you and I want you to be comfortable talking to me but at the same time I don't want to be pushy and nagging. There's such a fine line. You make me so proud in so many ways. I think the one thing about you that makes me the most proud is that you are a leader, not a follower. You do what YOU want and you don't feel like you have to go with the crowd. The other kids look up to you and that makes me happy. It makes me feel more confident that you can avoid peer pressure and that you are confident in yourself and what you want. You are always willing to try new things, no matter what they may be or how scary they might be. I wish I had that quality myself. I've been trying really hard to let you have your space and your say in things a bit more lately.

You've had my heart from the day I saw that pregnancy test. It was about 6am in the morning and I rushed in to wake your dad. He instantly had tears in his eyes and we just hugged each other in excitement. I played hooky from work that day. I knew there was NO way I could sit at my desk all day and act like everything was normal. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Instead I had a quiet day at home by myself. I rushed out and bought What to Expect When You're Expecting and laid out on the hammock...one hand on my belly, the other holding my book. I daydreamed most of the day and let it all sink in. Your dad and I were going to wait until we got back from our vacation to tell the family but we just couldn't keep quiet. We had to share the news. I can remember it all like yesterday....the pregnancy, the 28 hour labor, seeing you for the first time. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since you were born. In that one moment my life was changed for the better and it got even better with the arrival of each of your brothers. I love you my Cuddlebug, my Drewdles, my Drewbie. (Thank you for not getting mad when I yell "Go Drewdles" on the soccer field....it just slips out) I know this is a special birthday for you and we will have so much fun this weekend. I hope it's everything you wanted and more.

I sat going through old photos and realized there were too many to pick from. I also already posted a lot of my favorites last year on your birthday. You were such a beautiful little guy and still are in my eyes. You and I are so much alike, it's scary sometimes and I love our special times together.

Just a week old. One of my favorites of you and Grandpa John.

One of my all time favorites. I could just eat you up here.

You with your Pooh Bear and rocking chair.1st Christmas 1999

My sweet, sweet Drew. When I had my Mary Kay Holiday Open House in December, you got all dressed up and wanted to help me. Here you had just set up my sale table for me and then you helped with the big display table and snacks and drinks. I was so proud of you and for being so grown up and so happy that you wanted to be with me and do this with me. You'll always be one of my best helpers around the house. You have such a big heart and love to do special things for others, even if it means using your own money or giving up your time. You are growing up, big guy. I love you and appreciate all the little things you like to do, like cook us special meals, do extra chores, etc. You are one special dude.

Gettin' My Craft On....Part 2

I'm starting Part 2 of this post with some creations from Drew and Noah. Recently we had to repaint their bathroom. 1. it needed it 2. it really needed it after Noah drew all over the wall with a blue highlighter. If only I had taken a picture of that artwork....it had a butt with poop coming out of it. I guess it's a fitting picture for a bathroom, but.........

So we had leftover khaki paint from our bedroom that would match their little half bath but we didn't realize how much darker it would appear in there. So I used that handy dandy 40% coupon for Hobby Lobby and got some 8x10 canvases and then let the boys pick out some bright colors. They painted these beauties to brighten up their bathroom. Noah did the top one and Drew did the bottom two. Cute aren't they??

They DO help to brighten up the walls.

The boys have had a blast with Wikki Stiks. Noah made these two creation....the left one was stuck right on his wall. The picture on the right scares me just a bit, if you have a sick mind like me, you can see the possibilities.

This is one of Drew's Wikki Stik creations. After this picture he also added a monkey. The cool thing is, this is the second picture he designed for me to hang up at my work. You can't even imagine how many wikki stiks we have sold....people ask what you can do with them, we point to Drew's examples and they say wow, that looks like fun. Maybe he should earn a commission....
This is another Klauser decoration. I got the plate for .80 at Big Lots. I didnt' like the white rub ons that I had so I gave my Love, Elsie rub ons a try and added a "family" rub on and a little bling. Cute and quirky.

Ok, I gave up trying to get this right side up. I promis it's normal on my computer software. Blogger just won't let me do certain pictures right side up. I was just playing around with some of my Unity stamps. (best stamps ever!!) I have a major weakness when it comes to them. Anyways, I made this little picture. A little corny but it makes me happy.

When we went to Todd's school for the mini golf day, I took one look at the poster of the boys hanging in his room that his dad had made and took it down. It was very outdated. I took the frame home and put some newer pictures in it for him to hang in his room. This thing was huge...those are 8x10 pictures! (are you sick of these pictures yet? I think I've done every possible project with them!! They are just too cute though) I took this picture at night in the kitchen lighting so the colors suck....it's a lot cuter in person. Todd has it hanging proudly in his room now. I used lots of numbers in the background and on the paper to go with the math teacher theme! ;)

This was an combination of a saying I saw on something at Hobby Lobby and a design I saw on a picture at Kohls. I tried to put the two together but it's still not what I had in my head. I wanted those to be ovals or circles but didn't have the right sizes to nest them. I'll have to tweak this at some point but I'm sure I'll ended up doing something else entirely so it's staying for now.

It says "Cherish Yesterday, Live Today, Dream Tomorrow" Such wise words.....

I spent all evening the other night reorganizing, rearranging, decluttering my craft room/ storage room. I am so excited with the results and now just want to hang out down there. I have some more projects I'm anxious to tackle. Let 's hope Aiden continues taking naps for a long time to come!!

Gettin' My Craft On...Part 1

I've been a busy girl lately making fun things for our house and for gifts. I'm pretty pleased with most of the results, some make me as giddy as a school girl! I just had to share a few recents ones that I am so excited about. Part 2 will be tomorrow.....some of those will include craftiness from my kiddos, they really amaze me sometimes!

This is hanging on my plate rack in my dining room. I've been seeing so many cool vinyl things on the internet and some on tiles but couldn't find exactly what I wanted and prices I was wanting to pay to just try something out. So I tried this little thrifty trick.....and it is awesome. It's basically a ceramic tile from Home Depot and rub-ons from Hobby Lobby (1/2 off of course). How easy is that?? I'm making quite a few for gifts so let's just pretend I've slaved for days over these ok?? wink wink

This was my procrastination project. Last summer when we went to visit Dianna and family in FL, we collected a lot of beautiful shells and sand from the beach. I was planning on making some sort of momento with it but wasn't sure of what. One day I saw these glass blocks at hobby lobby, inspiration struck, and this was born. The photo is of Drew and Todd walking along the beach. It was one of my favorite pictures and I wanted to do something with it so I thought this was perfect. There is a quote on the picture that I "borrowed" from Amy. (thanks girl) It is from a Jody Picoult book............ "A photo says, you were happy and I wanted to catch that. A photo says, you were so important to me that I put down everything to come watch." Throw on some stickers and rub ons.....piece of cake. It's just a beautiful reminder of all the fun and beauty of the beach and the memories we made there.

I FINALLY got around to matting some pictures of the boys to hang on my stairwell to the basement. I used the photos that my SIL took and just matted them with some scrapbook paper and added a touch of embellishment. I wanted to keep it simple and elegant but at the same time add some color. Our basement is all done in shades of gray and white so I use a lot of blues and greens as accent colors. Our stairwell is in dire need of some color, decoration, something!!! I've got more plans to spruce this area up too. More to come on that.....

I lined up the frames side by side on my ottoman for pictures so they aren't the greatest. I think you can even still see my socks in some of them!

Arrgh, I keep trying to post the picture of them hanging on the stairwell but the picture keeps uploading sideways even though it isn't that way on my computer. I give up!