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!!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow. . .in Feb in TX

So it really is a HUGE deal for TX to see white stuff falling from the sky, and even more special if your a kid! We have had predicitions through the past few months about "snow" but we never saw anything here in Central Texas. Everyone from Ace our dog, to the newest addition in the family got to enjoy it. Well the meteoroligists were finally right, we did get hit with their 4-6 inches of snow. The kids woke and were in shock to see it "snowing" when they left for school:
But when i picked them up early from school at 11am, it had already came down a LOT. So we stopped off at Nonnie's so they could use up some of her snow before coming to our house:





































Now let me share with you what my husband was doing at work during this time:
















So when Brandon made it home from his "exhausting" day at work the kids spent literally ALL day coming in and going out, changing dry clothes, then putting snow clothes back on until about 8pm when they had had enough. They enjoyed LOTS of snow ball fights and only came out with minor injury's. It was fun to see them enjoy. . .me however, got to enjoy the day inside, warm & cozy, and even taking a little nap.

Oh and let me share you my little SNOW BABY! Of course i couldnt very well sit him up, but we did get a "snow angel" out of him & and smile!


So just as quick as it came it was gone again. The sun was back out today, and melted every bit of it. But this will go in the history books. Last the last time it snowed. . .April 2007. . . Brandon and I had only been dating a month and Easter weekend came a great snow. I know corny, but i had to share.

A Night at the Mall

Ok, so as a family we dont get out often and ESPECIALLY during the week. But last night we had a venture after Hunter's soccer meeting to hit the mall. After MUCH discussion on where dinner we be we decided with the mall because we could get chick-fil-a inside there. Well to our suprise it has shut down. . .and from what i hear it has been at least two months. SO we settled for pizza, and even shared with Camdon.

So i mainly just used this short blog to share the pics i took last night, but i must also tell you about our venture to Bath & Body Works. Brandon took off witht the boys so Hunter could use the bathroom so Dannikka and I travel B&BW. We did rounds and it was so cute cause Dannikka would smell everything right after I smelled it, and even the exact way I smelled them. Well i felt guilty like i should get them something BECAUSE we made it through dinner with NO fighting. .. which these days is a HUGE accomplishment. So i found these adorable hand sanitizer bottles that snap into this holder that they can clip to their backpack. Now I may have wrote this blog to early cause I cant say if they will have any left today when they get home but we will see. I did advise them to not share with EVERY one of their friends, but they are sweet kids LOL

Ok, one last pic to share. . .CAMDON IS NOW SITTING UP. . .kind of wably, but still it is a huge step =) I just love being a MOM!!

V-day is overrated! or so i thought

Well i was going to originally start this blog out with a grip session of how much i am beginning to dislike valentine's because I expected more, but i am going to just move past this and remember how much fun i had with the kids on this holiday. On the 13th, we baked cup cakes for Hunter's class and then the kids filled out their valentine's for their classes. I remember when i was growing up i would spend so much time picking out just the RIGHT v-day card for each person in my class. It seems like Hunter & Dannikka just picked cards, but i will say i did catch on that they picked out the 1st card for their "crushes". It was so cute to see their precious little innocent smiles when you talked about their "crushes" LOL

I am so blessed to have a new job that allows me the flexibility to take off and enjoy the kids events. I took an extra long lunch so i could go to Leon Heights and spend a little time at the kids valentine's parties. I showed up a little early to Dannikka's party and got to watch Charlie Brown's Valentine and she pulled up a chair beside. Here are their pictures from their parties so they aren't the best quality. . .oh yeah of course Camdon had to get dressed up to for this "holiday" so i took one of him LOL

Ok, let me back track to an AWESOME friend that i have, who called me a few weeks before valentine's and said, "Can i borrow your kids?". I tried to see if she wanted the papers on them, but no she just needed to get some pics for her portfolio. So i must share these amazing pics she took. And if your interested check out: http://www.kellyhoschphotography.com/ because she is amazing and has taken several pictures of our family. I just love her!!

So i guess all i can do is hope for next year to be better and learn from this LOL I still love my husband very much, and those of you that had to listen to me whine i am sorry!

Rain Rain Go Away. . . .wash these Winter Blues Away

So i am officially tired of rain. I love the sound of rain on the roof. . .BUT i want to be home to enjoy it!! However they are talking about ice tomorrow morning. . .and i could hand some of that. So the last week has been rough in the Bartek Household. I don't know if it is the winter blues that have all of us in a bad mood or just pure exhaustion. We seem to have had a come to heart amongst all of us so i think things will be much better. The kids just don't quite understand why they need to do chores, or homework, or even help out around the house, but funny when you mention they can be independent and do EVERYTHING on their own they appreciate us LOL

Camdon is growing so FAST. . .and now has the adorable fat rolls on his legs but he can still manage to get his cute little toes to his mouth to chew on me. . .to me it is just precious. . .to others that cant stand my feet prolly find it very yucky.

Oh yes and let me show off his newest "ride". We discovered recently that Camdon is not to fond of his bouncy seat because it lays him back to far (although he has NEVER liked to lay down), so we thought why not pull out the toys we do have and see how he does. I sent an Excersaucer to Nonnie & Grandpa's for one when they were keeping him and he loved it. So pulled this "ride" out too and he is loving that.

Well i do have to share that Dannikka made Star Student at Leon Heights for the 2nd year in a row and when she was fixing her poster to take back to school it asked what her favorite book was and she said "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish". Well Belton High was running a show this weekend of Cat in the Hat and because i decided that i needed a day to stay home and CLEAN, i had her go with a friend of mine. . .and she love it. Here is a picture:

So we have Hunter signed up for soccer and I am sure he will make sure you know too, but his first game is March 6 with two practices during the week. And Dannikka gets signed up for Coach Pitch this weekend ,but wont start games till April i believe. So we should be plenty busy for the next few months. . .but i look forward to it.

Why am I tired??

WoW. . .life is for sure crazy for me. I now have three kids to get ready in the mornings, 3 kids to get picked up between Brandon and I, and a FAMILY to feed each night. I will say i truly do love it, and espeically to see their smiling faces. I am still loving my new job. . .i can say i needed this change for the welfare of my family, my marriage, and my sanity. We have started a biggest loser competion at work and i have cut down my calories tremendously and even lost almost 10 lbs in two weeks =) But this next week i am going to bump up the working out to see if that helps any.
Gaining an extra child during the week has been a challenge but at the same time i love our big family we have. Hunter is still trying to adjust to his new medicine and being without any medicine in his system, but overall a HUGE change in him. Dannikka is adjusting to having her older brother around constantly so the bickering is pretty much non stop LOL They both do have a chore chart that complete in the mornings and night to get stars and money and this has helped a lot. Here is a picture of them when they could tollerate each other a few weekends ago.

Now a little about Camdon, he has mastered baby food, but not the cleanliness of it just yet. He is teething so we have his fussiness from time to time, but otherwise he is just a smiling & cheesing baby. Our little man had his 4 month check up and he is 17.3lbs and in the 90% for his age. Here is a picture from this weekend of his cute, chubby cheeks:
















Apparently i have an obsession with Aaron Watson (he sang our wedding song "Hearts are breaking across Texas tonight", that i dragged the kids along with me, Brandon, Kelly, Casey, Miranda, Jimmy, Caitlyn & Jared to HOT Coliseum last weekend to see him and Kevin Fowler for a free concert. The kids actually did very well considering neither of them could sit still, and moved seats about 20 times, but now they can say they have been to an actual concert.

Well, now that this blog has taken me four hours to complete and i am sure i am still missing stuff. . .i think i will call it a night. And this i guess just proves why i am tired.