Really.....I'm posting an update...yes....I.....am. I wanted to post a while back with pictures from Korben's b-day and a few others. Then Matt reformatted the computer and LOST a huge folder full of pictures. So needless to say I didn't feel like posting after that. So what has happened since April?! Lots. Some I don't have pictures of but I will try my best to update you all.

JUNE: The first full week of June we went on our annual beach vacation. We went to Ft. Morgan, Alabama again and stayed at a different beach house. Kids loved it, even the eagle's nest on top of the house. You could see the ocean PLUS the lagoon on the other side of the peninsula! By day 3 1/2 I was ready to get back to TN. I have a hard time really relaxing when I am watching two little ones going in and out of the water. No Jellyfish this year. Matt was happy about that!

After the beach for the week we headed up north to Mobile, Alabama to see the USS Alabama ship. It was massive and took most of the day to tour it. Kids had fun exploring and I was beat from carrying Trenton in the Mei Tie carrier most of the way.

The rest of June was spent catching up from vacation and visiting friends. I'm pretty sure Korben stayed at someones house at least every week.

July: Lets see, its hard to remember what aall went on. I guess I need to update at least once a month...haha. I know at the end of July Korben went to Ohio to visit family. Flew on Southwent Airlines by himself for the first time. I think I was more nervous than he was. He did want to pack a ton of stuff to take up there. He wasn't sure if he would have enough army stuff for his cousins to play with him. Of course he had plenty. While Korben was gone for that week, Matt and I was searching to get a van. We found one and got a Toyota Sienna. Its so nice now to have room for the kids to stretch their legs!

August: On August 7th Matt's youngest brother Christopher graduated from the Marines Corps. We left TN on a Wednesday morning we drove 10 hours all the way to Parris Island, SC. That was a long drive but having our new van helped the drive be less stressful. Thursday was Family Day. We woke up early to get on base. They had a small presentation and dismissed the recruits. We walked around the base and had lunch with Chris and caught up with him! It was a nice visit and the kids really enjoyed seeing everything there. We even brought backa few souvieners from the MPX. Everyone got a Marine t-shirt. I got my magnets but realized they got lost somewhere along the trip. The following day we went to Hilton Head, SC so the kids could recoop. They had fun but its deft. nothing compared to the white sands of the Gulf!

The day after we got back Korben had to register for school. He found out he got the 5th grade teacher he REALLY wanted AND his 3rd grade teacher would be his Social Studies teacher. She had left for a year to take care of her son who is was born in November 2008. She wanted to take the year off to take care of him and be a stay at home mom.

September: We have just been going through the daily grind. Focusing on school and taking care of one another. We are trying to avoid this flu that is going around like wild fire. Our neighbors behind us had it the other week. Luckly we have not had any symptoms of it. Julianna has had a little cough and a sore throat but I am pretty sure that has to do with the seasons changing slowly and allergy season picking up! Matt thought he would need surgery on his knee in the beginning of the month but got a second opinion. That Doctor (who has done surgery on tons of Nashville athletes) says he just needs physical therapy and meds for a bit. Thank God on that one! But just less than a week after hearing that great news, Matt hurt his shoulder will sprawling around with the High School wrestlers after his Pee Wee practice. Kid landed on his shoulder and pulled something. So..he is trying to nurse that back into health.

I hope the next few months are illness and injury free. Korben will be starting his wrestling season up pretty soon. Hope he begins to really enjoy it this year. He is hard to motivate sometimes!

At some point I want to put up a few 30 second clips of the kids, and most Trenton talking and acting silly. He is so much like the two other kids all rolled into one!

18 Month Old Stats Trenton: 25.2 lbs and 32.5 inches tall

You can read about our camping trip in my blog. I didn't want to rewrite everything but here are a few pictures that we took on our mini vacation.



This is one of 4 deer that we saw while at our campsite. Julianna wanted to go up and pet the deer. I don't know how many times I had to explain to her that it was wild and could bit.




This is before we left camp the morning of our hike. Kids all are ready to go, digging into the dirt and messing with rocks. lol



Halfway point on our snack break. Korben showing some brotherly love. I do have like 5 other pictures of him giving Julianna bunny ears.




Julianna showing us how Daddy stands. She was hysterical!




This is when we got to the Falls. Matt let Korben go exploring and we found him on top of this huge rock at the bottom. Matt had a good eye on him though.







This was the next day after we cleared camp. We went around the State Park and found this older playground. Kids had fun but Julianna was afraid to go down the slide without Korben by her.

Well I hear Trenton up from his nap, screaming.

I will explain the video of Julianna. She was watching Super Why on PBS yesterday and started singing the song that the Purple Princess sings "I love to spell, S-P-E-L-L!" Well Julianna was singing that song all day, wrong. lol She got the first part right but when it came to spelling 'Spell' she would say S-P-E-E-L or S-P-E-L. I didn't have the heart to correct her so I video taped her instead. =o) Eventually I would sing it with her and she realized she was singing it wrong. I should have taped her without her knowing because she was so much louder and herself. She got shy once I pulled out the camera and was taping her.

Trenton is now staring to really babble. HE is almost blowing raspberries and is doing the Mamamam and nananana and babababa. It is so cute and I was surprised I was able to get some on tape.

I felt bad for Korben because I didn't get him on tape. So I just went into his room and he was building with his Legos. The Legos that you see are only half of what he has.

I just realized after I was watching the video of Trenton that my kids are wearing opposite seasoned clothes. It was chilly that morning so I dressed Trenton correct. Julianna has been wanting to wear her flower dressed for the last couple days so I let her, in the house. She wants to dress up all the time.

The two kids are doing well. Korben is working hard at reading. He still struggles here and there but I think he is beginning to realize that reading CAN be fun. He has to practice on his handwriting. Half the time he can't even read it. Teacher told him he also needs to slow down. It seems that he is trying to be the first one done in school work.
He has taken on a sport now. Matt signed him up to be in a wrestling program sponsored through the Sheriff's Department. And no its not that WWF/WWE whatever crap. Its Greco-Roman style wrestling. He really seems to enjoy it. No complaints yet from him about going to practice so that is good.
He is still in Scouts. He is a Bear this year. He is about 3 Achievements away from getting his Bear badge. Which is awesome.

Julianna is ornery as ever. She turned 3 on Sunday. LOVED to sign happy birthday to everyone and tell them happy birthday. lol Loved her presents and all the attention. She also had her 3 year old check up on Monday. She is around 3 feet tall and 28 pounds. She is right in the middle of the percentile for both. No shots this time around. It helps not being in a day care setting. Those kids have to get a few extra because they are exposed to alot of viruses.

Today we are going to a playgroup Christmas Party. It is about 2 minutes from our house. I am glad I don't have to drive 30 minutes this time.




We put up our Christmas tree on Wednesday. Julianna was all excited and was wanting to open up presents already. lol We ran into a few problems. One set of lights half of them would light up. So we went through all the nonlit up lights and changed the fuses and nothing. lol Oh well.

Korben lost another tooth yesterday. I didn't even know it was that loose but he said he took 3 bites out of an apple and it loosened up pretty quick. The tooth fairy left him 50 cents and she let him keep the tooth. I told him that his 4 front teeth were worth more and that is why she took them last time.
We had registration for Korben today at his school. He will be going into 3rd grade this year! Can you believe that...3rd grade! I remember my 3rd grade year. That is when Mrs. Doutt got really sick and we had a sub for most of the year. I think she had some type of cancer because she wore wigs off and on in the beginning of the year. Anyways Korben has Mrs. Nichols this year. Same teacher his friend Marissa had last year. Mrs. Nichols is due with a baby on November 5th. So she will be gone that month and in December. She said once they return from Christmas break that she will return. Korben isn't too excited about school starting up. I tried to get him excited by taking only him to the store to get a few things for school, pick out supplies and a couple tshirts but nothing.

Its Korben's 8th Birthday today!! I made him blueberry muffins for breakfast and put a candle in it for him to blow out. He asked me to make them special today. =o)

I sent in Korben's picture to Fox 17 Tennessee Morning Show. His picture was put up and they announced his borthday. The video shows it on TV. Its hard to hear the audio with Julianna in the background though. They were laughing about his picture and said "I feel safe now." haha He was wearing his Uncle Josh's Army helmet.

Korben's brithday party is tomorrow afternoon at 2pm. So far we have 4 of his friends coming. I put a limit of 6 kids because seriously I couldn't handle a whole bunch at my house, especially if it storms like they say. I figure they can play a little bit of Nintendo Wii if it does rain.

Just messing around with Photoshop today. Figured I would share what I made.Oh and I am still learning the program, Matt is way better than me though.

Click on the car to see more!

Pinewood Derby 2007

The above is from Korben's Pinewood Derby on Sunday. He got 3rd place in his den. But there were only 2 other boys he raced. He was a bit disappointed but I told him we will have to try hard next year and work on it a week or two before the race.

Later on in the week or today I will have an album posted from our little winter snow storm from last week. The kids had fun but it was too cold for Julianna to go out in it. There is still a bit left on the ground. When we go out to the car she likes to step in the snow and hear it crunch.

Sorry I didn't continue the last entry. There wasn't that much to add.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY KORBEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Korben turns the big TWO tomorrow! =o) I can't believe it. It seems just like yesterday i was giving birth to him (ok maybe I really don't want to feel that kind of pain right now lol =o)). But it has flown by fast. We are having his Birthday Party for him on Saturday at the in-laws. Went to Sam's club to get all the party stuff..wrote a check for about 150.00 bucks! ouch. But my hubby wasn't with me so I got a few extras. We don't have a theme for his birthday this year though. No small cousins on hubby's side yet so no kids will be there. BUT I got him a Bear in the Big Blue House cake so he will love that. And Korben just got a package in the mail from his Uncle Eric and soon to be Aunt Amber from Ohio. They got him these Stackable cars. Even though he is a little old for them (package says 6 months and older) he fell asleep while playing with them..I guess thats a good sign that he likes them! =o) I hope everything turns out good on Saturday and that the weather holds up. The weatherman says its suppose to be in the 80's here in TN!! I hope so!

Sorry I haven't written in a while. My Dad and Nancy came down for the weekend to visit. They arrived Friday at 2am in the morning. It took them 10 hours all together to get here. So on Friday My Dad and I wen to Lowe's to get stuff to fix up this dump that we call home. He bought spray paint and caulking. He spray painted out heaters...they are old and are attached to the floor. But they look nice now. A lovely eggshell color. Then he removed the old moldy caulking that was around our tub..and he put new caulking on it. Now it looks nice to take a bath in. See our maintenance people here are BAD at painting and fixing the little things that need fixing. So my Dad comes over 500 miles away and does it for me! =o) I love him! =o) But our apartment looks better now. Puts me in a better mood.

So After Matt got home from school we went to Toys R Us and my parents bought Korben his first toy box (we were using the wagon taht my brother and sisterinlaw had bought him last year). They got him the Step 2 toy box and the lid goes inside the toy box which I thought was neat. Then we get home and I get all the toys out and put the wagon on Matt's side of the closet and put his shoes in it. I tell ya that man has more shoes than I do. Korben likes it though. Then after Toys R Us we went over to the fairgrounds on campus and they where Llamas there. They were shaving them and cleaning them up for competition for Saturday and Sunday. It was pretty neat. Korben didn't know what to think of them. One wanted to get closer to him but couldn't cuz the fence was in the way. Then we went into the cattle barn and saw a mama cow and her calf. I bet eh calf was about a week old. It was feeding. Korben of course hid his eyes. These cows were on the big side.

So we walk back home and we order pizza from Pizza Hut. Matt went to bed early and missed it though. He wasn't feeling good the whole week.

So on Saturday we decide to go to Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. We leave here after everyone got ready around 11am or so. We get there and there was no where to park so we had to park in the grass. We get in and the first things we see were the Gibbons. They are the cutest. One was hanging by his arm on the tree branch swinging back and forth. FASTFORWARD... So we see the animals and go to a walking petting zoo..where they have goats and two sheep. Korben was afraid of them also..holding on to my pant leg most of the time. We fed the goats feed and Korben went walking and picked up poop pellets thinking it was feed for the goats! =o) lol...made me laugh.

continue next entry..hubby needs computer! blah! =o)

I am sorry all for those who read this. I haven't updated in about 5 days. Sorry. =o( Well today was a good day. We went to Matt's Aunt's house and had Easter dinner there at 3pm. She is my Favorite aunt on his side. That whole family is awesome. I had to drive both ways. Matt had to finish up a book for tomorrow. He isn't done with it yet. But today was so Beautiful out. It was about 75 degrees or so. Matt's Uncle Tony had a kite and he let the string un thread off the spoil and MAN it was high! I mean I looked up at the sky and it looked like a small airplane it was that high. Sorry I know its not that amazing but I thought it was.

Anyways...Korben got a basket from the Easter Bunny this morning. He got an "Itsy Bitsy Spider" book, a Clifford beach ball, Plastic airplanes and cookies and cheese crackers. The Bunny thought it wouldn't be a good idea with candy yet. =o)

Well my hubby and I woke up this morning with Tornado Watch sirens going off. It was wild. We looked out the window and it looked like a hurricane outside. We had like 50 mph winds..with downpour rain and hail. but it didn't last that long which was good.

I had the BEST Lemon pie today. It was a jello and cool whip one..hand made of course. But it was so sweet and light. I should have eaten two instead!! =o)

Ok thats all for now. I want to check out the other diaries. I couldn't check them out yesterday because for some reason my computer wouldn't bring it up.Oh well!

I really don't know what to type tonight. I just figured I was behind in this and needed a new entry. Well Korben FINALLY got his toddler bed today. So far he has napped in it, jumped on it (which isn't good because it could break in two) and played cars on it. I think he likes it. And right now I can't stand our neighbors beside us. They are smoking and all the smoke seeps through the walls and the smell is so bad my son is even wrinkling up his nose. MAN I hope we get out of here soon OR my neighbors get out soon. I mean we went over there like last month and asked them if we could use their grill...which they haven't used and they said no because they don't want meat drippings on the grill..HAve they EVER heard of foil! geesh. These are the neighbors that are hermits..I have only seen them twice since august of 2000. Can I say PITAFULL. I like complaining about our neighbors. Almost everyone are hermits here though. Even on nice days korben adn I only see about 5 neigbors out. I mean this kid wants to make friends but no one ever comes out of their hole! I just hope it changes during the summer!

Why is it that my son has to be so addicted to juice. Its every hour "Juice, Juice, Juice, Juice..etc" man I go into the kitchen to put something up and I come out of the kitchen and he is crying on the floor because I didn't get him juice!! Man..sometimes I wish I could get my hands on the person who made JUICE! =o) In the morning when I open his bedroom door to let him out..he doesn't give me a good morning hug or kiss...he wants FREAKING JUICE!

ok thats all. In case you didn't know my son will be 2 on April! I had to get that out!