The only video game allowed in our house...

...is the original, no longer cool to those video game junkies, NES.

I'm one of those super mean mother's who flat out refuse to get the new wave of video games (not to mention, I hardly think Courtney or Darren could play them).

But this is one video game that, in my opinion, will never go out of style!

Before you go asking me if Darren is wearing anything, the answer is NO. I can't get that boy to stay in his clothes for longer than a half hour.



Courtney's little feet. She's still figuring out how to work Mario Bros. It's fun to watch her play.



Oh Ikee, tearing up an apple and making a mess of it on the rug while laughing at me.

My Trip to Michigan (Again)

Of course I had to go back to Michigan! If it were up to me, I'd go there as often as I could.

Again, Loren stayed home with the kids (doesn't he ROCK?) and let me spend an awesome four day weekend with Sara and her family.

We had so much fun that we were rarely taking photos. I couldn't bring the camera that I have because we're borrowing it from a friend and with my luck it would break.

I also had some chocolate (since I've been off of it since April). Rob (Sara's hubby) brought some home from when we visited Germany, France, and Switzerland and so my first bite of chocolate was into a Swiss Chocolate bar. I about died it was so good!

And now that I'm home I'm back off chocolate until Christmas (I've lost 28 pounds so far!).

Anyways, here's some photos in the order they were taken.

This photo is of Miss Princess Kaylee. On Sunday we all went and took a walk around the neighborhood, looking at the beautiful houses Michigan has. If money was no issue, I would've totally snatched up...



THIS house. It's for sale and gorgeous!! We looked around the yard and inside the house through the windows. The floors are beautiful and I loved the kitchen. I just want it!



And here's pretty Sara.



Raef, Brady, and Kaylee. I couldn't get Brady to smile for the life of me. And I love how Kaylee's sticking out her tongue!

Yep, Sara and I got matching shirts. They were only five bucks! Both of our husbands thought we were super lame. Loren's response was, "It's not like it's the fourth of July or anything..." He's still a little sore about me forcing him to wear matching shirts.
I totally didn't notice Brady at the stairs until now! Haha! That little stinker!


Raef going Spiderman on the doorway.



Rob and Kaylee suggling. I just love when Daddies and kids snuggle.



I thought this was a cute, candid picture.



Here we are at the airport. Brady was refusing to give me kisses and Sara caught me giving him tons of kisses until he couldn't stand it. It was hard to say goodbye. But that's okay. We'll be visiting each other again soon.



Pretty Sara is sad that I'm gone. It's okay, I was sad to be gone too.


Loren told me twenty times today how happy he was that I was home (I'm happy to be home too--not so happy to go back to doing the chores around the house though). Soooo---guess where HE is? He's an hour away, with his buddy, stalking hogs. How come I'm not surprised?

At any rate, Michigan was a blast and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Loren and Courtney

Courtney is definitely Daddy's little girl. Loren was working on the computer when Courtney came over to sit on his lap. I had to take a picture of it.

Wednesday Weigh-In

Hey, today was the family weigh-in and though Loren lost 1.69% of his body weight, I lost nothing. I'll happily blame the Fourth of July and the Fifth of July (our 7 year anniversary! I love you Loren!) and my crazy bingeing.

But I'll hopefully do better this week...hopefully. Considering I'll be visiting Sara...

So though I haven't lost anymore (yet), I thought I'd post photos anyway.

And here I am being a dork, like I usually am about 90% of the day.

Fourth of July Fun.

This year for the fourth of July, Heather invited us to come to her house and watch the fireworks. Where they live you can see several different cities' fireworks! It's totally cool. They also have a ton of land for the kids to roam free and work out all their excitement. It was a ton of fun!

Here's some photos of the day! A month or so ago I purchased us all matching shirts. They boys wore red and the girls wore pink (Courtney's choice of course). Loren wasn't too thrilled to be matching that day. But since I've never made him do this before and it's only one time out of the freakin' year, he hesitantly complied.

Ikee LOVED running around Heather's yard. Heather has this huge tractor that he kept going to. He loves anything with wheels!



Pretty Courtney, striking a pose.



And here's little Michael. This is Heather's daughter's (Aria's) son. Isn't he precious! He's only a week old!



It was fun watching the little kids play on the trampoline. Darren loved it until I got on there and found that with Mommy jumping he do nothing by lie on the trampoline and complain until I got off!



Courtney climbing and striking another pretty pose. She really liked Heather's jungle gym. The slides were her favorite.



And here's their new dog. I think his name was Tex? I could be wrong. He was a super good dog! He freaked the pants off of Ikee when he first saw Tex, but he SLOWLY warmed up to him.



Loren and Heather's boy Johnny playing with those popper things that you throw on the ground and they snap.



My pretty, pretty princess! She was having the best time!



Here's the only picture of me as I was the one behind the camera the whole time. Ikee isn't too thrilled to be in this shot, as you can tell.



Another protesting Isaac.



Courtney loved the sparklers. They're the best!



Isaac scoping out the tricycle by going straight for the wheels.



And Darren showing Ikee how you ride it.



Finally, a decent photo of Ikee!




This was the pile that was going to be set on fire for the bonfire that was planned. But due to weather conditions, it was better we didn't. I wanted to post this shot as Heather told me she can never seem to get a good picture of the moon. Well of all the ones I took, this was the best and still, it's not that great.



What about this one?



Here's a teenager who's name I don't know, Loren, and Tom getting ready to start some fireworks.



Heather's son Joe is throwing a firework in the air with us all watching. I swear those boys are daredevils! The things they did with the fireworks...yikes!



And I love this photo. This is Izzy, Ton and Liz's little girl and right after the first loud firework that went off, she covered her ears. She's so pretty!



Here's Courtney, Heather, Dan, Dee, Mark, and a son from another family all gathered around the table.



Loren and Tom holding the babies.



I couldn't' believe I actually got a photo of the fireworks that turned out clearly!



And here's the yummy dessert we had: angel food cake, whipped cream, and fruit.

We got home around 10:30 that night and all the kids crashed! It was the best! And we hardly had to mess with traffic, which is always a plus.

Thanks Heather and Mark for inviting us! It was so much fun!

Six chairs for under $20?

While driving to church for breakfast, Loren and I noticed a lot of people having garage sales. So afterwards, after dropping off Loren to work I went looking at the garage sales for the sole purpose of getting some new dining chairs. The chairs we have now, well, they've seen better days. They've seen better YEARS. Loren bought the set of four of them before our marriage with this cute little table for $80. They were awesome and held strong--until we had kids, that is.

After looking at the yard sales and finding nothing (with $20 in my pocket; firm that I would pay no more), I told the kids that we were going to the thrift store. I go to the furniture section and see nothing there until I saw, right past the sign of "Employee's Only" a set of six wooden chairs and a worker inspecting them before putting them on the floor.

I ignored the sign and said, "Are these for sale?"

After checking them out to make sure they're sturdy and good enough to sell he said, "How about 18.18?"

"For all of them?" I asked. The only reason I ask is because I saw this 14x17 picture and frame going for that much (ummm, ripoff?)! I don't understand the whole 18cent thing. Why not $18 even? At any rate, I told him I'd take 'em!

So... it was "out with the old",

"and in with the new".

The chairs have been spray painted but that's okay, I'm going to paint them a nice, light color. Loren thought I should just paint the table this red color (which actually looks really pretty in this photo).


But it wouldn't match with the rest of the room's decorations. So yes, you'll be seeing photos of how they look after they're finished (and hopefully Loren will get some free time to finish sanding the table to I can tackle that project too!!).

They're a little banged up and the guy inspecting them was pointing out all the chewed parts of the chairs that I'm sure the previous owner's dog did. I just smiled and said it was perfect! I'm one hundred percent happy with imperfect furniture. I actually prefer it!



Proof of the price. Six chairs for $20. That makes what? $3.33 a chair? I'd prefer FREE, but since that's not an option, I thought I got a pretty good deal!

My painted Family Room

I'm still not completely satisfied with how this room looks and again, I don't have any

before pictures, but I thought it would be fun to show you the room with its fresh new coat of paint!

The wall on the right was one of those faux wood walls. That was the very first wall I tackled when I bought my paint! I hate faux wood walls! And the door you see behind the couch is the door to Loren's den. I want to paint all the doors white SO BAD, but I have yet to receive permission from the landlords (cross your fingers)!


Originally the TV and accesories were on an entertainment set and against the wood wall and the sectional was turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise. But I hated it because the couch would sit right in front of the entrance into the kitchen (to the right of this room) and I felt that it made this room much smaller than it already is. So yes, it's a tad tacky to have my TV on the darn fireplace, but it opens the room so much more than it did before! Laugh all you want--it's staying this way!



Errr...I'm not sure that I like the shelves with the small picture frames on it. I'm thinking of adding maybe one large frame on each with an accessory or two on the sides of it? What you do think? Rebecca, I need you! What do you think??



Again, another photo. Don't you love how the kids toys are stuffed to the corner of the room? Those are the only toys allowed in this room. The rest are tucked away in a cedar chest in another room. Too many toys = a very big mess = a Mommy who goes on a toy throwing away fest.

Are you trying to stress me out?

Yep, that sink and all the contents therein are ours.

I can't stand dirty sinks (if your sink's dirty, I don't care. It's when MY sink is dirty that I care). I immediately feel stress. I'd rather have the whole house a disaster than have the sink looking like this. Why is that? The world could come crashing down upon us and I'd still have the haunting thought of, "You haven't washed the dishes!"

It's clean now (phew). Now it's time to move onto the family room and the three tornadoes that thrashed it.

Shhh....Daddy's Sleeping

While cleaning up the kitchen and making dinner, I went to check on Loren who was taking a break from a long day.

He's just too stinkin' cute to not get a picture of!

Biggest Loser Before Pic

First off, before you see the picture of how I look today, I wanted to show you of my previous weight loss (starting with the day before I delivered Isaac, April 2008).

Only a select few know how much I weighed that day. Let's just say that Loren and I weighed the same. I may have weighed about five pounds more than him. So yes, it was sad and terribly depressing for me. How much weight did I gain with Ikee? Like 60 pounds. Did I look miserable? Yep, that's because I was.


Here I am in March of this year, eleven months after the above picture where I was about fifty pounds less.



And here I am today, 24 pounds less than that.
Those pants used to be TIGHT on me!! Now they're nearly two sizes too big!