Halfway through December already!?

So, it's been awhile. A lot has happened this month. I left my twenties, we've had two snow days already. Darius had his Christmas program. I have been working on my Christmas card list, but still haven't gotten them in the mail. Ewan completed his second to last semester. :) The list goes on....

But, all in all, things are good, and I am getting anxious about Christmas. This will be our very first Christmas in our new house, as a family. The four of us. Before we were at my Mom's, we were in the apartment and Sofia wasn't born yet, so we can't wait to wake up Christmas morning here at the new Auguste household! :)

I am pretty much done with my shopping, and have been feeling the spirit of Christmas. I want to buy presents for everyone...although that is not possible right now. I can't help it. I want to buy for the mailman, the bus driver, you name it. I think the holiday really needs to hurry up before I buy out all of the store's.

In the end, I am still able to clearly remember that Jesus is the reason for the season. :) Happy December. Merry Christmas!!!

Flu Bug don't bother me!

Well, I am sure Darius had the Happiest Birthday ever yesterday! I was at work, and and pretty much glued to my phone. I don't receive calls at work, and I hadn't looked at my cell phone. Apparently, West Indianola was trying to get ahold of me because poor Darius was throwing up in the bathroom! Luckily, they reached Ewan, who took him to Sunflower Prompt Care. I could have told him that they wouldn't do anything for him, but at least he tried. Sure enough, they just sent him home and said lots of liquids. He was running a fever all night, and is home again today.

Around 8:15am, Sofia woke up throwing up all over her pillow. So, now I have two sick babies! Well, my oldest baby turned 7 yesterday!

Hopefully I can keep this flu at arm's length and it won't bother me. Just like everyone says, I don't have time to be sick! The house is still a wreck from the chaotic party!

Flu bug... don't bother me!!!

Party Pooper

Wow! The party is done and over, and, it was a little stressful. I hope the kids had fun, 'cause I sure felt like I was yelling a lot. It was Sooooooo noisy. The poor girls at the party kept nicely asking if I could quiet down the boys. My response? I would LOVE to!!! I knew the party would get out of control, because Dad let's Darius invite the whole world. I wanted to be able to include everyone that Darius wanted...girls, boys, Tiger Cubs, and soccer buddies, but we had a packed house! It actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. They were all just super excited. I told them that I wouldn't bring up talking sticks since they weren't at school! I am sure they were all thankful for that. :)

The little vampires were running all around. We decked them out with capes, teeth, vampire bites, white streaks in their hair. Pictures to follow.

They played Halloween pictionary. It was cute to see them concentrate on their drawings. They did a great job!

Today is another super busy day....soccer game, after soccer pizza party, then wedding reception! I am looking forward to a day when I can regroup and relax!!! When will that be?

Busy Week...Birthday party planning.

Well, things are in full swing at the Auguste household. Tiger Cubs, dance class, soccer practice, soccer games, birthday parties.... not many moments to rest around here lately.

Well, we all know from the last post that Darius was pretty pumped about skating, and had the fantastic idea to have a skating rink birthday party. We had quite the party planned... Costume Skating party for his birthday, and his guest list was at almost 40 kids. Things were getting a little out of control, but we thought it might be fun. He wanted to invite girls, boys, Tiger cubs, soccer buddies, etc... He was super excited. So, when we finally made the executive decision to go ahead with the party, it was booked already! I called over a month ahead, but someone else already snagged the date that we needed.

So, we almost nixed the party altogether, and in fact, Ewan and I decided that we would just let time go by and not bring up a party again. When I sort of told Darius that he wasn't going to have a birthday party, he was pretty distraught. So, I cooked up the Vampire Party.

We have an unfinished basement, so it's not like it's the funnest places to hang out. It's kind of dark and creepy, so the Halloween/Vampire/Bat theme is good. So, since the party is going to be at our house, I limited him to 12 BOYS. I wanted him to be able to invite girls, but he already wanted a bunch of boys, so it was just easier to leave girls out.

Anyway, tonight after some more discussion, he thought he had invited a few girls, and I told him that we hadn't. So, I promised him that I would get the invites out to them tomorrow.

Sorry to the soccer buddies that he wanted to invite! We're going to have to rent a wedding reception hall for his party next year! The boy loves a party, and doesn't want to leave anyone out!

Skating Party, Fall Down Party...whatever you wanna call it.

Can you believe it? A real post, by me!

Wow. I knew that people were busy with kids, and I really did avoid putting my kids in activities when they were very little, because I knew my time would come. And it's here. Being home in the evenings is a thing of the past, and boy do I miss it!

I was about to take another another activity for myself, but I just don't think I can do it.

At least I can say that I enjoy the activities, and as long as my kids are having fun, I guess I'm having fun!

The latest was the West Indianola skate party. Of course, I always debate whether or not to skate myself, and Sofia usually makes that decision for me. Not this time. About an hour into the party, I decided to go put on my skates. Once I got going, I wanted to keep skating. I didn't realize how hard it is to skate slow, but I was trying to help Darius. You can't really be much help when both of you are on wheels, and when one goes down, the other will too.

Ewan kept giving me flack because two little kids skated up to Darius and I and asked if they could join our group. I said "Sure." and somehow, everyone played musical skating people and I ended up holding the hand of everyone else, but my son. Darius went crying off to the side, left the rink and went to cry on someone's shoulder. (Yes, he's very dramatic.) I couldn't turn around and skate in the wrong flow of traffic to go tell him that the kids wouldn't let go of my hand. Seriously, this little boy was hanging on for dear life. I finally had to shake my hand on the second go around to get him to let go. I felt horrible, but Ewan was sitting on the side shaking his head at me.

I skated off, and asked him what in the world I was supposed to do. He kept shaking his head, telling me that he can't believe I would skate with those other kids and not my own son. He's not letting me live this down.

Anyway, it was not on purpose, but I went and got Darius and we finished off the night. We were the last ones on the rink, due to Darius pulling me down, and me landing on top of his crossed legs. I was sure that I could have easily snapped his leg in half, and I had to drag him off. He ended up with no broken bones, but now has decided he wants to have a Skating Party birthday bash extraordinare. (Current list looks like about 40 kids, which is why I wanted to avoid the whole shindig altogether.) We'll see about this.

O Happy Day.

I used to post about how nothing new had happened since my last post. Well, things are a little different lately. Things are changing, and crazy busy!

But, the future is bright. :) That's a good thing. I know that Ewan enjoyed his days of coaching, but things happen for a reason, and we are now able to move forward with our life. I am so thankful that I am married to a person that is so hard working and family always comes first. We are one lucky family! The kids are enjoying Dad being home right after 5pm and home ALL WEEKEND LONG! Those coaching days were hard on us, since he was up Saturday morning, already out the door for shootaround, and then back home, and then back to the game that night. Or, on the road recruiting.

Yeah for computer programming. Next step will be for him to finish that MBA. Only a few short months, and he will be a Master of something!

I would like to give my husband a shout out, and say Happy Belated Father's Day. I hope you had a fantastic day. I know I had fun shopping in Nebraska Furniture Mart all day! :) You are one amazing Father, husband and all around great person, and I am so very proud to be your wife, and more than anything, proud of YOU! Thanks for all of your love, support and encouragement through these past 8 years. I can't believe it has been that long, but am happy to be able to say that I truly love you more with each day that goes by and look forward to catching up to you with the gray hairs! I love you. I love you . I love you!

Get a Move on!

Well, it's been awhile since my last post, but a lot has happened. We have wanted to buy a house for quite some time, but the timing has never been right. Well, we definitely didn't want to miss out on the first time home buyer's tax credit, so we had a small window to find what we wanted. We looked at this house posted above first, really liked it, but were willing to spend more, so we kept looking, and waiting.... We wanted to keep Darius in the West Indianola school district, so we just kept trying to be patient.

We went back and forth many times, and had pretty much decided to build. I wasn't sure if I was up for that right now. It sounds like so much work, and I am having a hard time waiting on the closing date, let alone, 4 months to build a house!!! Maybe next time around.

Anyway, we are set to close on July 6th and I am getting anxious to get back in! We love this little house, and it will be so perfect for our family. Especially for our first home. A lot has happened over the past few months, and we have been so blessed. God has given us the grace to get through the tough times, and mostly helped me to be patient, waiting on answers.

We will finally have a house of our own. Our 6 year anniversary will be July 3rd, and I just found out that I get that day of pd. and I don't work on Thursdays, so I will have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday off to prepare for the move! It's going to be a lot of work, but I am very much looking forward to this time with my family!

The house is 2 years old, with one previous owner. A singled lady who looks like she barely lived in it! And, we got a FANTASTIC deal on it. That's the best part. We feel really good about the decision, and happy that Darius doesn't have to change schools!

Tornado Sirens...

I am listening to the sound of a tornado siren, and I have to say, it would probably be the # 1 sound that I hate the most. The sound of it just makes me visualize a dark, green sky and the tornado falling out of it. When I was walking to my car the other day, someone revved up their engine, and the initial sound, sounded just like when the tornado siren starts to sound and it literally made my heart stop, and I think it was beating about 3 times faster then it was just 5 seconds before. It's amazing what the sights, sounds and smells around you can do. That's one sound I can't stand hearing, and I am pretty much guaranteed to hear it once a week. That's a bummer.

Can I have my money now?

I knew there was something I was going to share. Yesterday, my Mom and the kids and I went to Arby's. They each had kid's meals, and when we were done eating, Sofia stood up next to me, and said, "Mom, can I have my money now? I had no idea what she was talking about and where this came from. The lady next to us about choked on her food. I mean, a 3 year old, so seriously asking a question like that. Like it was time for me to pass it out. It took me a minute, and then I figured out that they had coins in their kid's meals! They were colored coins that you could stick together. At least we got a giggle out of it! I definitely don't go around passing out money to my kids!

The Ant Farm

So, Target had Ant Farms for $1 each. They were tiny little containers with colored gel in them. Apparently, the ants can eat that gel, and it is their source of food and water. They eventually start making tunnels.



Capturing the ants is another story. Those things are fast, and do not want to crawl on what you put in front of them. We managed to catch 4 for each container. They all look a little stunned with their new surroundings. The instructions said to make sure that you had ants of the same species in the container, because they may have an "Ant War." Everytime I would go after an ant, Darius would gasp, "No. No. No. They are from a different species and they will fight each other and bite, bite bite." This made me laugh because he was just so serious about it. It says it will take about 24 hours for them to start making the tunnels.

We'll see if we accomplish another successful experiment at the Auguste household!