Jen's new job...

Thank you to all of my family and friends that congratulated me on my new position at Valley Bank. I am very excited to start. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow...Love Ya!!

Kaylee's 9th Birthday party

Here are some pictures of Kaylee's birthday party last Saturday. The party started at 2pm on Saturday and lasted until 11am on Sunday. Kaylee chose to go swimming for her activity. A HUGE thanks to Tad and Steph who offered their pool for all of the girls to swim in (their daughter Lexi was one of the birthday party attendees). Their pool is 18'X45' (that's right FOOT). The threatening thunderstorms and high winds did hold off though out their swimming.

After swimming we headed back to the house for the girls to play Rock Bank and Wii for awhile. I called in a couple of pizzas while they played and invited Tad and Steph over to eat with us as repayment for the use of their pool.

After everyone had pizza it was time for our craft. This year Kaylee came up with her own craft. She had picked out some flowers and Terracotta pots and she wanted all of her friends to go home with a potted flower. We set up a folding table on the back deck and let them go at it. They all thought it was necessary to decorate the pots before planting with some markers. They all turned out really cute. Great idea Kaylee!

After the potting of the flowers it was time for the cookie (birthday cookie from American Cookie Company). They all ate it in record time. Then they all went down to the basement where Kaylee opened her presents. She got a lot of really nice girly girl things (make-up, lip gloss, etc).

At 9pm I thought they should settle down in the upstairs family room, where they all decided to sleep, and start watching the movie Kaylee picked out; Alice in Wonderland. I thought the movie was weird.....the girls seemed to like it though.

After the movie it was time to say goodnight......so I thought. It was after 1am before any of the girls started to think about going to sleep. I heard things like, "but it's a birthday party, we're suppose to stay up all night". UGH!!!!

Everyone, eventually, fell asleep. However, they all were up at 7:30am asking to do sidewalk chalk out on the driveway. What the heck???? Needless to say I was glad to see everyone go home.

Happy Mother's Day 2010

I have a great husband and kids! I hope all mom's are having a wonderful Mother's Day!!!

The New Bay Window - before & after shots

Well....It was a huge chunk of change, but we finally bit the bullet and put in a bay window. I felt like I was deconstructing a little part of Grandpa though. But when G&G built this house they put in all wood windows. This was ok for them because G-pa would sand and refinish the sills every spring to help protect the wood from the condensation that built up over the winter. Well....we don't have either the time or the energy to be doing that. So, we paid for it....literally. Unfortunately ALL of the windows will have to be replaced. They simply are not holding up to the good old Iowa winters. We thought we would rip off the band-aid starting with the BIG window (a.k.a. most expensive). I really LOVE IT!!! Enjoy the pictures!!!!

Busy...Busy...Busy!!!!

Spring has sprung and so have all of Kaylee's sports. They seemed to have started simultaneously! Kaylee has soccer, volleyball and softball going on right now. Needless to say, I am meeting myself coming and going! So far she likes them all. We also snuck in a softball clinic for two days. One of the videos shows how, amoung other things, they taught the girls how to slide into home plate. There wasn't a kid that wasn't covered in water and mud!

Taylor has been busy with babysitting, practicing her clarinet for her upcoming spring band concert and practicing her saxophone for her upcoming jazz band tryouts for 8th grade next year. She also manages to maintain A's in all of her classes and will be honored, along with others in her class and all of their parents :0), at a "Leading Lancers" evening on Thursday, May 13th.