Devastated

I come here to post, to speak from my heart, our family is heartbroken...devastated.

You know when you hear on the news of an accident and your first thought is "so sad", followed by "I hope it isn't anyone we know".  Well those thoughts have never rang more true than they did Wednesday morning.  Hearing on the news about a child losing their life in an accident has never hurt more than it does right now. 

Our dear, dear friends were in an accident Tuesday afternoon and the result was the loss of their precious 21-month old baby girl.  Baby Ryan as she was known to all of us.   I can honestly say I have never cried so much, never.  I am so thankful for my husband, his incredibly huge heart and his ability to know where we needed to be yesterday, taking the rest of the day off of work.  I am also thankful for my children's grandparents and their willingness to drop everything to come and care for our children.  And I am thankful for the hours we were able to spend with our close friend, the grieving father, on the first of many days he needed to be surrounded by friends.  But most of all I am thankful for what I hold so dear to my heart ~ my family ~ my wonderful husband and the two angels I call my children.  Life is awfully short, take the time to hug those babies in your home and I pray that NOTHING like this ever happens to any of you. 

God bless you "prettiest angel ~ baby Ryan". 
You took the best...take care of her. 



What's New Around Here!

Well there have been a few small changes that have occured at the Kitchen house!  It all started with Mardi wanting a new hair cut....there is an adorable little girl in her class with an adorable hairdo that Mardi thought she would like.  I figured it was fine - her hair, she can do what she wants...however her Dad did not have the same outlook.  He eventually caved because he didn't have a leg to stand on - I wanted Mardi to do what she wanted and if worse came to worse and she didn't like the cut she could grow it out again.  Needless to say we all loved the cut and I think it is here to stay!

Then there is Jack!  The poor son of mine was in desperate need of eye glasses!  So those came in on Tuesday.  You have never seen such a smile on his face, not only was he so excited to be getting glasses but I think he can actually see now!  Poor thing - bad parents!  He has been the happiest kid the last two days and I am sure that is why!  So happy that he is so happy!



Summer is Officially Over!

Well the day Mardi has been waiting all summer for is finally here! 

She started the countdown of 63 days as soon as she got home from the last day of Grade One! 

Little did she know that she would eventually lose count and actually enjoy summer!

This morning our house was filled with one excited little girl and her not so excited brother as his first day isn't until tomorrow! 

Mardi was quick to get ready and into her carseat and off for her first day of Grade Two!

She had mentioned a few times how she wanted Mrs. King for her teacher this year, but I had no idea who Mrs. King was, until last week!  Once I met her I wanted Mardi to be in her class too! 

So I did a little behind the scenes work to ensure she would get her wish!

This morning as soon as Mrs. King got up to call her students Mardi said "I hope I am in her class". 

She waited quietly to hear her name and I think before Mrs. King finished saying "Kitchen" Mardi was across the gym!  No "goodbyes" for us she was so excited to be heading upstairs with her new

teacher and classmates!

I hope she is having a wonderful time so far! 

I can not wait to hear all the stories from her first day!

Let Grade Two begin!!!

Look What I Found!

I just uploaded all the pics from my camera on to the computer - and I haven't done so in a while!  Once I came across this one it made me giggle and wish we were gone camping again!  I was trying to take a great picture of Brian and Haley when out of the blue little Miss Kim popped in the photo!  What a wonderful weekend us crazy 4 moms, one poligimist dad and 10 kids had!  Can not wait to do it again!

Here are a few more of my favorite pics I took! Enjoy!

My Mother's Day Gift

OK besides my great kids...I got the perfect gift for Mother's Day!  Thanks to Kim for telling JD what I wanted and telling him to just let me go pick it out! 

After assembling it I realized that my scrapbooks only fit in a certain way...which leaves me to believe that I need another one in order to display them all.  Next time they are on sale I will just treat myself to its twin!

Thanks kids for making me a "mother" so I can milk one more gift from your father during the year!

Influenza House!

How can my kids go from this...(yesterday @ noon)

to this??? 

(Mardi's smile is deceiving, but her wet hair isn't from a shower...FEVER!)

She started to fall apart late afternoon yesterday...fever, chills...

then her brother started crying about a sore tummy at 9pm.

This started our whirlwind of a night!

Before I could pour the Tylenol in the cup he was

throwing up all over his bed.

This continued until now...8am he is finally sleeping peacefully.

Mardi was only up twice last night running to the bathroom -

she is so self sufficient!  LOVE HER!
 At least she was able to stomach
some medicine...and Jack well he was introduced to
suppositories! 
Thankfully I still had some kicking around - those things have a long shelf life! 

Once Dad woke this morning he headed to the convenience store

before heading off to work to stock us with

gingerale and movies!

And this is what I will be doing all day...

3 pukey bed changes of blankets!

Too bad Mothers Day is behind us...I am sure I could have milked

this for some diamonds! Heeheehee!

"A" Layout!

Here is one layout I accomplished this morning... and by doing this I realized the reasons I

DO NOT scrapbook at home with my kids!!!

1.  There is no way I can ignore them! Even though they play together so well

and have fun pretending they are dogs(?) or horses(?)

I find I can't concentrate enough on my layout...I am always wondering

which kid is going to get hurt first!

2. Interruptions!  I can not be a mom and focus on what I would like to do

at the same time!  Unfortuately you can't shut off the need for Mom to get something

or to help you...even if the door is 3/4 shut!

3. Too much noise.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE the constant chatter at a scrapbook

table with a bunch of friends but kids noise is too much to handle along with

my iTunes playing in the background!  Nothing seems to drown them out!!!

4.  The mess!  I am a messy scrapper and not only does my husband miss my desk

when I have my crap out ...but I do too.  Yes "Type A" personality affects hobbies too!

5. There is no one (Kim or Haley) to ask where I should put that embellishment,

or what I should title a layout....I am on my own! Not only that

but who do you scraplift from? Maybe these are the

MAIN reasons I only like to scrap with my girls!