So, it's Monday again.

That was a fast weekend.. Anyway, let's start with a couple pictures. :)

Cameron has become quite the colorer these days.

He was so proud of his Captain America picture.

A tiny bit of cuddling while they watched Yo Gabba Gabba

Hannah's birthday is a little less than a week away (cry!), and it hit me pretty hard on Saturday that my last baby is growing up so fast. I was a little sad. Then Saturday night hit. Hannah has been sleeping (quite successfully, I might add) in her crib with the side taken off (tada! instant 'toddler bed') for a couple of months now. She has only fallen out a handful of times. Saturday night? Twice. I updated my facebook status at 3:40 in the morning. It said:

Let's talk about the last time I was wide awake at 3:40 in the morning. Um, can't remember. Probably when I was 19 and carefree. But 3:40 in the morning after you've listened to kids scream/fight/cry for more than 12 hours? And cleaned the house? And went out and about in the outrageous heat? I wanted to cry. Nothing we did calmed this girl down. She watched TV on the couch with daddy, she cuddled in bed with me and never showed the slightest sign that she was tired. Eventually, she got back into her own bed (around 4:30) and finally fell asleep. Thank god. 

But in other news, we are just about all set for a low-key birthday celebration for Hannah at her grandparents' house this weekend. Pizza and pool. Perfect for this little girl!

It's hot.

It's summertime! And you know what that means, warm temperatures. Here in Southwest Michigan, we are used to temps in the 80s and sometimes 90s. What we're not used to is the heat wave that has rolled through in the past week and sent our air conditioners into panic mode. We set a record in Kalamazoo yesterday. 103 degrees. Hasn't been that hot since 1988. Did Mother Nature forget that this is Michigan? Not Arizona? Here's what we're dealing with today..

Wow. Just, wow. Feels like 113 degrees? Tell that to the 3 year old that has been begging me to go to Target to buy fruit snacks all morning. I'm pretty sure peoples' skin starts melting on impact when they step out into that heat. There is no reason a person should sweat profusely just walking into their garage (which, by the way, is probably 20 degrees hotter than it is outside). And getting 2 kids in their carseats? Ha. Better be ready for a shower when you get done. 

Is it Sunday yet? I have a feeling we will be freezing cold around here when that day comes. And our air conditioner can FINALLY breathe a sigh of relief. Thanks for working so hard for us, old buddy. We sure do appreciate you. :)

Happy 4th of July!

We hope you and your families enjoyed the holiday! 

Happy Birthday, America!

Our weekend in review.

I'm back, trying to revive this blog!

It has been HOT here for the past week, as it has been all across the country. We have been trying to stay around home and out of the heat. This girl does not like to sweat, and the idea of sweating just sitting outside doing nothing? GROSS.

Friday night was spent at home. We ordered a pizza with this sweet deal, and all piled into Josh's car to go pick it up. But wait. The car won't start. He has been having problems with the hunka junk for a few weeks now. Awesome. So we switch cars and get into mine and go. We hung out and did next to nothing until bath and bedtime and called it a night.

Saturday morning was filled with poptarts and oatmeal and early morning cartoons. Josh got a much needed haircut and I took my wedding rings to the jewelry store to be inspected. For the next few days, I am a floozy (Josh's words), because a diamond fell out and needed to be replaced. Thank god for the lifetime protection plan! We had lunch and took off to Target and Toys R Us so we could find something for Hannah for her birthday. We came up empty handed. There is nothing out there that this sweet girl needs! We even thought about being impractical but still couldn't come up with anything. Add that to the guilt I feel about not throwing her a party, and this mama feels terrible. :(

Saturday night was date night! Josh and I had dinner together at Bdubs (um, yum) and set off for a double movie date with friends. The boys saw the Avengers and us girls saw Magic Mike. I am NOT a fan of Channing Tatum in everyday life. Dude is not cute, at all, and his acting makes me laugh. But in this movie, I was slightly swayed. Not enough to change my opinion though. :)

Sunday morning, we got to sleep in. Kids were with their grandparents for the night on Saturday. I woke up briefly around 7 and was sure I was up for the day. Nope. When I finally came around, it was 10. I don't remember the last time I slept that long. It was nice. We had lunch and headed over to pick up the kids. They are becoming water babies. Swam for awhile with the inlaws on Saturday night and were back in the pool Sunday morning. How cute is this little thing?

Someone was getting a little too adventurous and had to have floaties put on her arms. Time for a second puddle jumper!

It was a fantastic weekend. We are looking forward to a short work week and the 4th of July on Wednesday. It is easily one of my top 3 favorite holidays. Ready to bust out the red, white and blue outfits, because that's how this family rolls.

Summer Happenings.

Well, summer has officially started, and we have been awfully busy around these parts.

As you saw in this post, Cameron is getting ready to go to preschool in the fall. Under one condition. He has to be potty trained. When I enrolled him in April, he was nowhere near being potty trained. He thought the potty was the devil. Now, 2 months later, he is doing really well. Of course, he still has accidents, and we are still buying Pull-Ups by the truckloads to keep up with him, but he is doing much better than he was when we started. I think next month, I'm going to go cold turkey and only allow him to wear underwear. He has so many pairs that are just sitting in his dresser collecting dust. It's time to get serious. September is right around the corner.

What else is up? Well, Hannah is getting ready to turn 2! Um, what? How did that happen? The chubby girl who started out weighing 9.5 pounds is slowly turning into a little girl.

She is talking up a storm and lets you know when she wants something. As you can see from the picture on the right, she is FINALLY growing some hair, and it's long enough to put into a tiny ponytail on the top of her head. Unfortunately for me, she hates them and won't leave them in. Of course. 

As far as a birthday party for Hannah goes, I am a slacker. I don't have the funds or motivation to put together a super fun birthday party for her, and let's face it, about 8 people would show up anyway. So we will probably do something low key for her, perhaps a pool party at her grandparents' house and call it a day. Poor 2nd child, always getting the shaft. 

Since I am home this summer (took the semester off of school), I will try to make a conscious effort to keep up with this blog, among other things (ie- pictures). I know ya missed me, but I'm back now! :)

Coming this fall, to a preschool near you..

Cameron Heystek!

The time has come for my baby boy to head to preschool. I cannot believe that it could possibly be time for this, but it is.

Josh's mom and I took him in today to meet his preschool teacher and to get a look around his classroom. He instantly felt comfortable in the classroom and took off to discover. He found a bunch of different toys he liked and communicated well with the teacher. I teared up a little just seeing him int he classroom. It is so hard for me to believe that this time has already come. I thought I would be a mess for kindergarten, but never expected for this to happen for preschool!

Anyway, he will be joining a 4-year old class since he will be turning 4 in October. The only real issue for us to tackle is potty training. He absolutely must be potty trained if he wants to go to preschool. I'm hoping that this will be the motivation he needs to get it done. I plan on buckling down and working hard with him to get it done in the beginning of may, so we will have about 4 months to get rid of the diapers. If you have any super secret tips for us, please, let us know!

Struggling.

I'm sure you've noticed (if you're one of my 5 blog readers) that I haven't posted in awhile. I could sit here and make up a ton of excuses, but that's just not going to happen. Life has become quite overwhelming in the past couple of months and my blog (among other things) have been moved to the back burner until I get everything figured out.

I'm not sure I even want to let this all out here, being all public and exposed, but I think that if I don't let it out somewhere, it will continue to eat me up inside. If you don't want to read someone go on and on about the trivial things in their life, you should probably stop reading now.

I try to live my life without any regrets. I have done some stupid stuff in my life, but it is just easy to brush it under the rug and forget about it. The one thing I can't seem to forget about is the path I took immediately after high school. Instead of being smart and starting college right away like everyone else, I decided to chase a boy that wound up breaking my heart. I moved across the country to be near him, and everything fell apart. It is really hard to be thousands of miles away from the people you grew up with. Of course, there were a few great people near me in California, but nothing ever felt the same. I took a few college courses while I lived there, but only finished one. School just wasn't as important as experiencing everything California had to offer. So looking back, yes. I hate myself for making that decision.

Now, I'm a 26 year old mother of 2 that has to worry about maintaining good grades and doing loads of homework on top of taking care of kids. And a dog. And making sure the house is semi-presentable. It is hard. I am struggling. I have caught a little bit of flack for deciding to take the summer off from school, but I feel that it is necessary. My kid is 3.5 and is not potty trained. I just do not have the time, patience or will to do it while I have so much more to worry about. We have had our puppy for about a month and he continues to pee all over the house. It is so frustrating, but I am so tired and burnt out from my everyday life, I just don't have it in me to sit outside every half an hour to make sure he does his business outside.

I have posted quite frequently about my weight. I am struggling here too. I am lacking the will to push myself as hard as I can. I hate myself for continuing to slack and have had plenty of time to reach my goal by now. But instead, I get lazy. One cheeseburger turns into a week of eating like crap and I gain the same 5 pounds back. The gym has been neglected in the past few weeks, with at least one member of our family sick. I can tell that I have put a few pounds back on because I can't stand to look at myself in the mirror. The person I see disgusts me and since I have been so lazy, it doesn't seem this will end anytime soon.

I know what you're saying. Wow, terrible problems. Get a life. It could be so much worse. Yes, you're right. It could. But for me, this is feeding into the anxiety problems I already have, and it seems to have escalated. I am trying to figure out a way to motivate myself to feel better about the person that I am. Like to control myself around food, and to get myself out of bed and onto an elliptical machine. If you have any tips, leave them here.

There are a couple of exciting things in life right now that I hope will light a fire under me and get me back into the swing of things. My brother is finally wrapping up his 4-year stint in the Navy and should be home sometime in the next couple of weeks. It will be nice to have someone that is actually part of my family around. Ever since things have fallen apart with other members of my family, I have been pretty lost here.

Josh and I (along with another couple and their son) are taking Cameron to his first Tigers game in May. It might be a huge disaster, and I might want to cry after the first 4 innings, but it will be a fun experience for all 3 of us.

And lastly, we are planning a summer vacation with the same couple. We have decided to take a trip down to Florida in late August, which might be a crazy move considering the heat and humidity, but it will be nice to get away for awhile. We are considering a visit to Disney World, and according to several travel websites, the crowds at that time are pretty small. Sweet. Even if we don't get to go to Disney and wind up having to sit by the pool and lounge down the lazy river, so what? The idea of escaping Michigan for a week is fantastic and I can't wait for August to roll around. Now to work on that diet/exercise thing so I can rock a bathing suit while we're there...