Amy's Graduation

It seems as if it has been forever since I have blogged so there will be several catch up's over the next few days. Our computer monitor is on the blitz so we have a loner from Danno's work...very temporarily. We may be offline for a while once I have to return it. I cannot believe how crazy I have been going without the computer. What did we ever do without them???

On the weekend of May 17th, my sweet baby niece, Amy, graduated from Santa Fe High School in Edmond, Oklahoma. It is so hard to believe that she is all grown up, planning for college and what she may want to do with her life. I know this sounds so cliche, but it seems like yesterday when we were playing dress up and beauty salon together. I know there is a picture somewhere of me with clip-on earrings all over my face, in my nose, and all kinds of bobbles in my hair. I think that one needs to be confiscated. Those times I miss greatly, but the shopping is our trade off. Oklahoma has awesome shopping and Amy Kay is always game to go hit the mall with us. I guess I'll take that trade.

Therefore we made the 2 hr trip to see the wondrous event and spend time celebrating with family. We had some mouthwatering bar-b-que and yummy chocolate cake to round out the momentous day. Jackson ate up this time because we allowed him to bring Mario Kart on Wii to play with cousin Alex and Uncle Mark. He amazes me how awesome he is with that game. It is fun to see how excited he gets once he beats someone or unlocks a new achievement. Fun times for everyone!!

Here comes the Spiderman

I could not help but post of a few of these pics of our friendly neighborhood Spiderman! He is most certainly our new obsession with everything having to with "Pider".

Little funny tidbit... Maddox and I were going down for nap and he started screaming "pa-ker, pa-ker!! Mommy pa-ker!!" Responding in the usual, "uh-huh and I see" he would not stop the yelling. (also a new favorite) So hence, I went to go see Pa-ker. Gooby was pointing to a large spider on our front window. Come on now, Parker, as in Peter Parker; The Spiderman. My sweet boy new what he was saying, "Pa-ker".

The pictures are of Maddox in Jackson's spiderman summer underwater swimming goggles. Didn't know they could double as a costume, huh?? I am going to have to search for a costume to complete the outfit. Shame on me for not thinking ahead and buying one the day after Halloween last year to add to our dress-up collection. I may have to pay full price...maybe.

Tiny little princess

Today was Ava's 9 month check-up at the doctor's office. She is still sitting comfortably in the 5th percentile weight at 15.5 pounds and in the 25th percentile height at 26 inches. She is crawling everywhere, leaving her sweet little knees red at the end of each day from following her brothers room to room. Last night Dan and I nearly passed out when she began to pull herself to her feet to be held by mama on the couch. She is moving way too fast for me. Can't she slow down and be my baby longer?? The boys never moved this quickly in their development so I am astounded at her growth in her tiny little frame and safety-pinned pants. The picture to the left fits her to an absolute tee, smiling and crinkling her nose each time someone looks her way and then erupting in sweet little giggles. She also seems to be a mommy's girl right now, never wanting me to leave her sight without wailing until I enter the room again. I cannot help but love that, just a little..

Day of unlimited kisses

A pretty low key Mother's day for us at the Shurtz home. Danno had to sing this weekend so we spent allot of time waiting for daddy. Saturday evening, we were telling Jackson what Sunday was...Mother's day, or as mommy declared it, Unlimited Kisses day. He kept saying, "Oh no. Not for me!!" You would not believe the fight that my sweet 5 year old gave me for kisses. I do miss the days when he wasn't squirming for a kiss from mommy. My baby Maddox and sweet princess were allowing me to kiss them all over face chins and bellies and then continued to ask for more. At on time I think Jackson said, "OK Mom, you can only give me 100 kisses right now!" After many a giggles and tickles and many chases and tackles, bubby gave in to my only wish for mother's day...unlimited, uncomplaining , undeniably sweet kisses from my kiddos.

Craziness

What a crazy week we had!! It began last Monday evening, watching my sweet baby Jackson preform for the final time as a preschooler. (boo hoo-video to come) We then concentrated most of our time getting ready for our big neighborhood garage sale. Pricing and organizing, finding enough tables and making sure that everything was in order was allot of work and not allot of time to spend time with my sweet kiddos. Daddy also had to work extra long last week, which left my biggest helper to be MIA. (Not to mention that we all missed him terribly.) Therefore, crankiness by everyone ensued. Who knows what we would have done without Nana and Papa there to help...go crazy or maybe crazier!!! Maddox did seem to be fascinated by the garage sale, always wanting to be out helping mommy with something. Jackson was a little more leery. He awoke Thursday morning seeing all the buyers in the garage and said to Nana with big serious eyes, "Is mommy going to sell our house??". The boys did make up a little fun game. I had taken a sackful of Mcdonalds and other happy meal toys and placed them in a free box for the sale. After getting cleaned out the first day, I came down to the toy room for another full sack, excited that I was getting rid of things . Ha!!! Jackson decided that he was going to buy all of his toys back after placing hands on hips and asking me where I was going with those. He took money from the cash box and kept bringing me his free toys to buy back. Maddox got in on the fun, also asking for coins , but then throwing them all over the garage. (We seem to be going through some kind of throwing phase) Needless to say, Mcdonalds toys are back in the toy room and Dad and I were picking up coins all morning yesterday.

Jackson also had a community helper day at preschool last week. The kids were told to dress up as a helper of their choice, (Dr., police officer, fire fighter, mommy, teacher, nurse, etc.) Of course Jackson picked the job that we did not have the costume for. Within all the garage sale stuff, mommy had to try and throw together a police officer outfit. I thought we did a pretty good job. He was truly the cutest officer I had ever seen.

This week I am hoping for a low key week. Maybe zoo time or a lunch at the park where I don't have to organize, negotiate or count back change. I wanna kiss my babies and have some fun!

Lil' crawler

Can you believe that our little princess is almost 9 months old?? It seems like yesterday that she was still in my tummy kicking up a storm. And to top things off, she has begun to crawl. Ava loves to be on the floor, finding all the little goodies that her brothers have discarded at play or at snacktime. We really have to watch the messy older rugrats, the other day sis was eyeing a fruit snack that had been lost from a sticky hand!!! She is absolutely so sweet and lovable, always wanting to snuggle in a lap or give a slobbery open mouthed kiss. She jabbers up a storm and lights up when her brothers walk into the room to give her attention and to make her giggle. She, along with her silly, sweet older brothers make my days so much brighter and more fun. There is always something to laugh and chuckle at and appreciate this time as a mommy.

Viva Las Vegas

This past weekend, Dan and I went to Las Vegas with friends to celebrate the union of our friends Jeff, "Heffy", and Jenn in holy Vegas matrimony. We had a blast!!! I think so much fun that all of us agreed that we should make it a yearly trip. And we should certainly go this time of year...it was beautiful.
Besides the wedding, highlights included, "Ka" by Cirque de Solei, a yummy dinner at Emeril's, VIP drinks and dancing (courtesy Farag) at Studio 54, awesome shopping at an outlet mall, winning $270 (then losing it ), KU to the finals, a $1 million ring at 40% off (what a bargain for $600,000 ), some random guy walking through he casino and puking then just walking on (crazy!!!), and lastly, spending time with friends and my wonderful sweet husband.
I came down with a bronchial infection and sinusitis while we were there and could not have asked for a sweeter more understanding man to take care of me. At 3:30 am, when I am hacking up a lung, he gets up and goes down to the lobby to find me way overpriced cough drops and DayQuil. I just love him so much I could squeeze him to pieces!
Thanks Vegas for so much fun!!!!!!!