Toddler bed to Braces!!

So when I met Brandon I knew that I would be signing on for a "bonus" with him. In "bonus" I mean my wonderful step children. It is so cool to get to experience the baby stuff with Camdon but also all the school stuff with Dannikka & Hunter. HOWEVER. . .I have to prepare myself for everything. Like the CONSTANT bickering between D & H. So just this week i went from putting one little boy in his toddler bed another boy in braces.

I have to admit I have struggled with getting Camdon to stay in his bed all night and after a long day at work I do not have the energy to fight it on some nights. So I decided to try Camdon out in his crib converted to a toddler bed because I found it WAY easier to lay him down after he falls asleep in the chair with me. Well the 1st night was not successful because i walked in to find him screaming and standing all the way up in the bed. . . without the rail. So the next night we tried it again with the rail and a little more peace of mind.

Camdon did have a guest that wanted to join him in this adventure. . .although I dont think she remembers even being there.

Oh and of course Ace wanted to join in the "FUN".

Well just as the title says . . .we went from a Toddler bed for one boy to braces on the other boy. We were told by Hunter's dentist that he would have to have braces so the scheduled an appt about a month ago, and yesterday afternoon i spent an hour and a half at the orthodontist with him and this is how they turned out:

New Year: 2011

So I can for sure say I am ready to start out the new year with a bang. And we did by having a small get together at our house with close friends and the kids running wild.

Well I usually take this time to blog how all the kids are doing or what they have been up to, but I want to take a post to reflect on me (prolly a little selfish). I would like to see 2011 a better year for friendships, more family time, success in every aspect and just a little more relaxing for everyone. My one and only news year's resolution is to lose 30 lbs. . .I want to get back to my comfortable weight and like this:

I am the treasurer for the Belton Volunteer Fire Dept and this keeps me busy for the 1st Wednesday of every month and have been doing this for almost 5 years. Also, I recently became a board member for the Belton Youth Softball Association and am in charge of the Fundraising, Uniforms, Trophies, and Photography. I am excited to be involved in any way possible to make this a great season for Dannikka and all the girls involved. . .SOFTBALL will always be my passion! I of course battle with knowing I have a Bachelor's and am not able to use it around this area. . .but if God opens that door I want to go through it. Also, last year I decided it would be fun to sell Scentsy so I joined there. I will say I thought I would find time to be able to promote more and have not done as I would like. (might i add having a toddler boy has been WAY more then I EVER expected). So I hope to use this year to do better in sales, but also as a time for women to get together and hang out and get away from busy life. But 1st and foremost. . .I want to be a better wife to amazing husband who puts up with a lot from me.

I write all this blog about me with help that if my dear friends read this they will take time to help me with these goals!

Long Drive Home!

So my whole life I have spent EVERY single holiday at my Grammy & Papa's house. . .well this year things changed. I have been blessed to have ALL my outside family all within 200 miles of each other. Which is awesome because i have never had to do a lot of traveling and especially for holidays. When I married Brandon I had to begin "sharing" holidays with his family also. Which do not get me wrong but this is something new and hard for me. We did get the opportunity thanks to both of us having flexible jobs and the help of his mother, to take a trip to see his brother Jeff and family. So the Friday before Thanksgiving we packed up my Saturn Outlook and hit the road to North Carolina with Brandon, Me, Camdon, Hunter, Dannikka & Juanita.

All started out smooth. . .until we were in the car for 10 hours. . .then i think we were ALL ready to be there. It was so great to sit with Brandon and learn some new things from him about his time in the Marines to the drives he took to go get Hunter from NC. I learned that there are rest stops usually 10 miles before/after the state line. . .and it was neat to see all the different ones. First one in Lousiana!

It did take us 22 hours to make it to Jacksonville, NC around 10am on Saturday morning. . .but well worth it. We saw some amazing scenery of beautiful trees, lots of hills, and just a different view of the world. I got lots of time to catch up with Sherri and just gossip. Brandon enjoyed hanging out with his brother and even sat in the sauna at the gym for some bonding time LOL The cousins, I think, had the best time just running around together. Madison is 10, and her & Hunter played LOTS of video games, but they enjoyed that. Kevin is 4, and him & Dannikka ran all over the house together playing. And Camdon just followed all of them and annoyed as much as he could.

We were introduced to these pokey bouncy balls that were all over the Bartek house. Come to find out these are from CC's pizza, so we took the kids there one night to escape from having to cook.

A huge thanks goes out to Aunt Sherri. . .because "some how" we forgot to pack these bouncy balls from CC's (darn). . .well Aunt Sherri didnt want Camdon to be without (Although these balls broke two ornaments off her tree, thanks to C). . .she managed to send them in the mail back to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We enjoyed a DELICIOUS Thanksgiving dinner with Ham, Turkey, and Dressing. . .and thank goodness Juanita brought all her groceries with her for dressing because they were not on sale in NC. . .LOL love it! The kids enjoyed some 4-wheeling in the backyard, we played soccer and baseball. It was such a great trip and so nice to hang out with everything. The kids also exchaneged their Christmas gifts:

AND THEN IT WAS A LONG DRIVE HOME!!!!!!!

Catch up: July-October

OK. . . so this blog thing has kind of slipped away from me but i hope to get back into the hang of it. A quick rundown on the end of last year. July, August and September are busy months for us because the kids each of have a birthday. For the July birthday, Dannikka had an "American Idol" Slumber/Karaoke party and for the August birthday, Hunter got to go to a Round Rock Express game with his best friend.

Also, in August, Brandon and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary and since our 1 year was spent with me being 9 months pregnant we decided not to do anything thing that year. So we left town for the weekend and stayed in a hotel in Fredricksburg, did some shopping downtown, aand got to spend the weekend with some dear friends.

September was a sad but joyous occasion. . .Camdon turned 1!!!!!!!!!! We celebrated in style with a Cat in the Hat party at the house with some close family and friends!! And his 1 year pics were taken by Melody Clampet. . .a very dear softball friend.

The invitations by my best Friend Tiffany English and

his cake by Brandon's cousin Tammy Rose.

Of course October was Halloween, and we know how much i love dressing up & couldn't be alone so i asked our besties to join us:

A big thanks to Uncle Cody for his AWESOME makeup artist routine on Hunter. The kids enjoyed a small halloween party at the house with their friends, trick or treating around the neighborhood, and the haunted trail on Beal Street.

Mommyhood. . .late of course

I just want to start off saying being a MOMMY is AmAzInG!!!!!!! It is wonderful to be having a rough day and come home and get that "smile" from the kids. I will have to say this being my 1st "Official" Mother's Day. . .it was PERFECT. I got to spend the morning cleaning house. . .as oddly as that sounds, i just feel so much better when i have a clean house. I decided i wanted to host lunch at my house so my grammy could have a break, so the whole family came over for hamburgers and hot dogs. Can i just say the weather was absoulutly perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, and no rain. We enjoyed the day sitting outside. I received a willow tree angel from my MoM, a little girl willow tree angel from Dannikka, and the brothers willow tree from the boys. Also, Dannikka brought me a mini rose bush and this beautiful card! After everyone left I took full use of our recently remodeled sunroom (new carpet & bamboo blinds) with a siesta!

Camdon's Growing

I gotta share all the growth from Camdon. . .he is now officially 7 months old and already changed so much!! He was 20 lbs at his 6 month check up and in the 75% of his age group. I will have to say in the past month he has had two ear infections and a horrible cold, but thanks to some great medicine he is all better and back to his smiling self!!

Here are some pics of him now sitting on his own in his big boy "tub".

And now with him getting so big i cant just feed him in his bumbo. . .he has moved up to his big boy "chair" to which i might add i bought for $10 at a garage sale =)

AND FOR THE GRAND FIN ALLI: CAMDON OWEN IS CRAWLING!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy Time: 3 kids + sports

Ok. . .so this "blogging" hasn't been as easy i thought it might be. Well for some reason, i thought when Camdon went to bed every night around 8:00 or 8:30p i would have all this energy to get what i needed to get done. . .UMMMMMM, apparently that is not the case. It seems we are now gone with soccer and softball for the kids, softball for brandon, softball for work, one of us working late, or other random stuff we are not home until late. . .AND if we do manage to find a night to spend at home. . .after dinner, laundry, & cleaning I am too tired to get ANYTHING done. So with all that said. . .i am going to use this for a quick of update of the Bartek household and then i promise to start back to "blogging".

Around St. Patrick's Day the kids participated with me in a 5K walk/run for Children's Miracle Network. . .to which i learned (or was reminded) Dannikka does NOT like to walk long distances!!!

I did try to bribe with bounce house, some spider sandwiches LOL I did get to walk with my dear friend Kelly, so that helped pass time.

In March, we celebrated Brandon's 30th Bday. . .of course i talked myself out of doing anything big, but couldn't not help him remember this "special" day. . .so we had a luau at the house with some karaoke. I was excited to be the winning bid (thanks to Loretta) on a new golf bag and windbreaker. . .so brandon spent his bday golfing with his buddies Casey, Jimmy and brother Mike.

During March, we also celebrated the much needed RETIREMENT of my DaD!!!! I threw him a small surprise party at Where It's At bar & grill. We enjoyed some relaxtion and even some karaoke.

MUCH MORE TO COME. . .SOON! I promise!!