March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month! Have you been screened lately? Think about!

Bob & I have officially registered for the 5k Run/Walk in Chicago, IL with the non-for-profit colon cancer coalition. I just love their campain slogan: "Get Your Rear In Gear"! (http://www.getyourrearingear.com/) Such good advise! So with that said, get yourself screened even if you think you are too young to worry about it! It can hit ya at any age!

If you would like to help raise awareness along with us, visit our donations page at: http://www.active.com/donate/gyrigchicago09/JenandBob

Your help is greatly appreciated! Love you all!

Trip to Michelle's

Christy & I had us a short vacation to Wildwood, MO. We went to see our cousin Michelle. It was a lot of fun and we had some really good laughs! It was so good to see Michelle and she was the perfect host! We watched more YouTube videos in that short weekend than I have ever watched in my whole life in one setting! LOL! Michelle's little guy, Ben, wanted to see videos of Decovin & Camden so I let them watch a bunch of those and for the adults we watched a lot of old SNL skits and other comedians that crack us up. It was good times!

I also got to see an old college roommate who happens to live 5 miles from Michelle. It was awesome to see her and her husband (he went to college there too)! They have a little boy that is only a couple of weeks older than Camden so I got to play with little Will while I was there also. They took me out to lunch and we got to catch up a little.

On our way home, Christy & I stopped in Hermann, MO to pick up some wine and cheese and whatever else we could find! It was really fun but I am EXHAUSTED! It is always good to be home but I miss Michelle already! If you are reading this Michelle, I hope you are feeling better and LAUGHING at something! ;-) Love you!

Misc

So Monday night I decided to take Decovin to a "trial" gymnastics class. Basically they let you take them to one class for free to see if they are suited to take the class yet. They have to listen and be able to follow simple directions, etc. Well, at first Decovin didn't want to do it but once he got going he had a blast! Especially when he got to jump on the BIG trampoline! So we are going to enroll him and he starts full time in two weeks. And by full time I mean once a week for half an hour. Haha! They figure that is about all that is necessary for tots! Right-O!

Last night was Bunco and I didn't win a darn thing...oh well, it was still fun. Christy was the host and it was "80's Night"...so we got to listen to 80's music and movies while we played...it was fun! I brought a macaroni & cheese bake and it was ever so popular, so I thought I would share the recipe in case you were interested...

INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 teaspoon seasoning salt (I didn't have seasoning salt so I just used some salt, garlic powder & onion salt)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and rinse with cold water.
In a bowl mix milk, eggs, sour cream, seasoning salt, and pepper. Layer macaroni, cheddar cheese, and milk mixture until pan is full. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and pour melted butter on top.
Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until milk mixture is done

St. Patty's Day fun!

We had a blast! We were going to go bowling but it took us about an hour just to get seated and so we decided to just stay at the restaurant and drink a couple of margaritas instead. Yum! Oh and the table next to us was quite entertaining to say the least...so we had fun!! LOTS of fun! Thanks for going out again ladies!

Don't it always seem to go???

I am scheduled to get my hair cut and colored this afternoon and this morning I went into the local coffee shop and the lady working is also our P.A.T. lady and she says to me: "Did you just get your hair cut? It's really really cute!"...DOH! Then I follow up my coffee visit to the doctor's office for my "yearly exam" (fun) and my doctor says the SAME THING!!! Don't it always seem to go that the day you plan to change something b/c you are tired of it, everyone else starts to notice your hair to then make you not want to change that something! LOL! Oh well. Still gonna do it...this will be the first time I have colored my hair in over a year! The last time was when all of us gals went right after Camden was born last year! We should do that again...I have another fun salon full of fun gals!

A fun visit!

My friend Lynn Gonzalez, whom I originally met in San Diego (we worked together at UOP), came to visit me this weekend! Her and her hubby now live in Texas and she was in Tulsa on buisness so she decided to rent a car and drive up to see us! It was so good to see her! I practically LIVED at their home(s) in San Diego when we lived there! We had some good times. We didn't do anything exciting, just hung out at home here mostly. I took her around town, which only took 5 minutes...ha! I cooked a lot and we chatted a TON! It was so fun and I was sad to see her go this morning! She did get to see the awesome Kansas weather in action though. When she arrived on Thursday morning it reached almost 70 degrees and when she left this morning it was snowing...OY! She loved it though, since she has only see it snow maybe one other time in her entire life! LOL! Anyway, that is all that is going on for now.

Camden's eye still looks gross but it is healing just fine. He is walking SOOOO good now too! It won't be long before he will be standing up on his own in the middle of the room without the assistance of a couch or table or chair!

Oh and Wednesday night I tried to slice off part of my thumb with the mandolin slicer...that was painful and altogether awful! It still hurts and looks disgusting but it is healing now too! That's all that's new for now.

Eye Doctor

So Decovin had his first eye doctor visit today. He was a very big boy and did everything the doctor asked and didn't complain at all! It was AWESOME! Totally unexpected. I forgot my camera but took a few with my cell phone...

The doctor said that he is a wee bit farsighted right now but that usually most kids are up until the age of 5 and then it evens out. He also said that if one parent is near sighted (me) then there is a 5 out of 10 chance our kids will be too! Oh well. There could be worse things.

I took another pic of Camden's eye today...day 3 after the incident and it now has that awesome "jaundice" yellow look to it. haha!

Right in the kisser!

Yesterday I went to my in-laws for my sister-in-laws bday dinner my M-I-L was making. Camden decided to trip over his own two feet and smacked RIGHT into their coffee table...his eye turned purple IMMEDIATELY and then it started swelling w/in a minute after that...it was pretty traumatic but he got some tylenol and some ice and he was fine. Left a nice little reminder though! YEEEEEOUCH!

Dentist

Well, Decovin & I went to the dentist this morning...this was supposed to be Decovin's first teeth cleaning but he didn't want to have anything to do with that...so he sat in the chair and let the hygenist look in his mouth and he used the "spit sucker" once (this really freaked him out before I showed him it was ok) and then he was virtually done. The dentist came in and looked in his mouth and said it looked ok and that they will try again in 6 months to do a cleaning. He suggested that anytime we are walking by to bring him into the office and let him cruise around the office so he gets used to the atmosphere...I thought that was nice of them. The dentist was super nice and VERY good with Decovin. He came out and showed him where the coloring book and colors were and put on a video for him, etc...chatted with him...it was real sweet. He was just scared of all the hoses and instruments I think...understandable...he doesn't eve like the vacuum cleaner! LOL! So we will try again in August. But I was able to sneak in a few pics....

Any ideas...

So according to my mother I am apparently not raising my children right because they refuse to eat vegetables. Sorry mom, didn't mean to throw you under the bus but that one cut below the belt a bit...ouch! Still recovering.

Camden will dabble but Decovin refuses. So, besides my current attempts of re-introducing the vegetables in different form, with butter, without butter, with brown sugar, without brown sugar, with salt & pepper, without salt & pepper, sometimes I will mash them up and put them in the foods but if Decovin even so much as sees a green spec of anything he refuses to eat it???? I'll take suggestions, willingly...shoot:

Oh, and my last pediatrician suggested I give them V8 Splash in the meantime...but that has a lot of sugar, etc...so i don't know what to do...

Squeaky clean house is no more...sad.

So the boys were gone with Amanda last weekend and we cleaned our house from top to bottom...it was SQUEAKY clean. They return home and that was done within the first 24 hours! Haha! Oh well, it was nice while it lasted! I think Amanda had fun too, but I think she was also ready for her free time again! LOL! Here are some pics she sent me while she had them in her custody...hehe!

They made Heart shaped cookies:

Decovin is all about cookies!!They went to the mall to play:
Apparently these kids wanted to play with Camden:
Breakfast of champions:

Huh?:

****************************************************************************

For Valentine's Day, Bob came home from work at 7:30am (cuz he was on night shift) and brought me these with a funny card. I had hid a card in his lunch box the night before...;-)

So other than that, not much has been shakin'! Love reading all your new updates! Keep 'em coming!

Camden Walked!!

My Kid-Free Weekend

So Amanda, my cousin, took our boys for us for a long weekend. We had our nieces bday party on Saturday (Bob's sisters little girl) and then after that we drove the boys up to her place and dropped them off. I won't pick them up until Tuesday!!! WHOA!!!

So far, we have gone to dinner, seen a movie, went geo-caching (http://www.geocaching.com/), out to lunch, out to dinner, rented movies, & it's only been a day and a half!!! WOW! Tomorrow we tackle house cleaning. *sigh*

It has been weird being in that "get up and go" attitude again but very invigorating. But secretly I miss my boys already! I want to snuggle and get kisses again. Weird! What is wrong with me?! haha!

Well, off to bed. I am pretty tired. Love reading all the updates! Thanks for keeping us posted!

Happy Birthday Camden!

Yesterday was Camden's 1st birthday! I can't believe I have a one year old and a 3 year old. Where did the time go. I feel like I JUST had him last week. Happy Bday big boy!

Check Up!

So I took both boys in today for their well-baby check up. Decovin is right at 50th percentile for his height (37 inches) and just under the 50th percentile for his weight (30.2 lbs.). :-) Everything was squeaky clean and the doctor did some estimator that they can do at age three to predict how tall they will be as adults...apparently Decovin is destined to be just under 5'10"...we'll see about that! ha!

Camden was 24.6lbs putting him in the 75th percentile (but right on track b/c they said at age one they should be 3 times the size from when they were born...he was 8lbs...so there you go)...and he was in the 90th percentile on height at 31 and 3/4 inches long! His head was 19 inches around also.

The doc checked his ears and his left one is still "plugged up" from all his ear infections he had over the past couple of months and so he did an "ear test" to see if he would turn to a sound and he didn't...soooooo...when he goes back in for his 15 month check up in April, he will look at it again and if it is still bad he will have to have tubes put in. Sigh...I hope not, but we will see. Poor baby. I wonder if this is why he hasn't really spoken any words yet other than mamamamamamamama???? Hmmmmm

And at this age he likes to have their blood drawn to check for anemia and lead levels...so we had to go to the lab and get baby C's blood taken. He didn't cry at first...the lady stuck him and then had to fish for his vein (he got his momma's veins...poor guy) and it wasn't until about 30 seconds of fishing that he finally got mad. They finally found it right at the last second and then it was over. No big deal.

So other than that...they are healthy little boys. Yay!

Steppin' up

I forgot to mention that on the day of the boys' bday bash (01/24/09) Camden took his first solo steps (2 steps)!! The best part was he did his first steps in a very similar fashion as Decovin...chasing after Katrina! :-) Thanks cousin Katrina for inspiring my boys to walk! Love you little girl!

Happy Birthday Boys!

Well the party was a success and including us, there were 36 people there! It was way fun and I think everyone got fed til they were full! Thanks for those of you who were able to make the trek...we really appreciated it!

Camden digging into his cake...he was much more aggressive than Decovin was with his first cake! It was super cute!

Yummy!!!
Decovin with his cake, he LOVED people singing to him! LOL!
Eating his beloved icing!

Happy Birthday Decovin!

My baby boy, who is not such a baby anymore is 3 today! I can't believe it! Where did the time go?!

The "before" and "after" pictures...

For those of you who said "You didn't have 60 pounds to lose!!!" Here you go...this was back in April...

This was the day I found out I made my goal weight!!

New Do