The Kinney Family

A New Year

2012-01-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

Wow!!! I am not doing too well with writing on here am I?!?!

I don't think that I will post a ton of pics from last April to now, If I do I won't write a lot about them. Things are going good and Donny started kindergarten in Septemeber....He loves it. I am working mornings so that I can be with him in the afternoons and I love it!!!! Never thought that I would be getting up at 5:30am to go to work, but hey I get to be with my boy!!!!

Hubby is working third shift still. But it works out perfectly, he can take Donny to school in the morning and then I get him after I get out of work. We have been doing a lot of things as a family again too!!! It is hard when he works third shift, especially on the weekends. But we make it work.

We are still huge into drag racing. We are even starting to travel to some races!!!! We went to a huge Mustang race in July, and Donny got 2nd place in his bracket!!!! It was awesome and he was featured in a national known magazine for the NMRA!!!! We of course had to get a few copies of it!!!!

We hope that the new year finds you well and I will hopefully post more soon!!! I will even be including some items on here to do with me learning to cook!!! With some great receipes!!!

Happy New Year!!

A year later

2011-04-17T17:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, it has been a year!! I need to get better at this. At some point I will get pictures up from May of last year up until now....It is just going to take awhile.

But while I am on here, I wanted to take a minute and talk about Listia. This is a site kind of like ebay, but it doesn't involve money. It involves credits. You are bidding on the item that you want with the credits that you have. I love it!!! And most of the time you can offer FREE SHIPPING, unless it is really heavy. Right now, I have one all of my auctions with Free shipping. I know that I will have to change that soon. But we shall see.

I have already had one auction end and that was a Playstation 2 game (Metal gear solid 2) and it went for just over 400 credits. So once I ship it, I will get my credits. I am sooo excited. I am hoping to get pacifiers for some of my sock babies!!!

So if you are interested in signing up under me, let me know and I will get you the link!!!

thanks

April 2010 Review

2011-02-19T17:23:00.000-05:00

April, a month to start thinking about being outside a lot and enjoying some sunshine. We had our Kinney Family get together this month and we were able to get all of the cousins together for a picture. It turned out alright, just nice to have them altogether. Little league started this month as well. We were able to go as a family and watch the kids play. My boys even played an imaginary game of their own. We also went over to Ann Arbor to the Hands on Museum with my friend Kim and her son Connor. Donny LOVED it. It was really fun and we cannot wait to go back! One thing that Donny had a lot of fun with this month was coloring Easter eggs. He is really getting into it. And of course a lot of them were orange!! The best thing of all that happened this month was that the race car came out of storage!!!! We were all super excited, as that meant our weekends at the race track were getting closer!!! We couldn't wait!!! And the car would soon be ready to go.

March 2010 in Review

2011-02-19T17:10:00.000-05:00

This month we had a lot of fun. We got to go to Grand Rapids and see Monster Jam. That is the big name monster trucks, including Grave Digger!!! It was awesome to see, but the venue is way too small. Maybe we will go and see them at Ford Field sometime! We also really started the potty training this month. And guess what, Donny has done awesome with it!!! And towards the end of the month, with his potty training, he got an awesome prize...A NEW BIKE!!!! He loves it..even took it over on a really nice day and played with Kylee. They are great friends and love to share their toys.

February 2010 Review

2011-02-13T23:27:00.000-05:00

Here we have a little boy that loves to do any type of crafts. We had a train kit that we had to make and then paint..he loved it. Also, this month we went up to Grand Rapids to the Auto Show...he loved it and he knew what every car was.

January 2010 Pictures

2011-02-13T23:23:00.000-05:00

This was a busy month, I got my 300 ring that my hubby ordered for me (yeah, I didn't bowl a 300). We went to see monster trucks at Wings stadium and we just got to relax a lot...My boy had a blast all month long though!!!

Where did last year go??

2011-01-20T22:40:00.002-05:00

Oh my goodness, where did the last year go? I don't believe that I missed a whole year.

We have been really busy and we have gone thru a lot. In March, my husband was let go from his job, but within 19 hours had another job lined up. So in April he started working at AST. He worked there when our son was born and I think that they were happy to have him back.

In May we started racing again. I was even going to race...but that didn't last long...I wasn't very good. But I knew with time, it would get better. I only raced three races and only had 9pts, but I had fun.

Don raced all year and finished in 3rd place again this year. My son and I didn't make it to the finals this year due to the weather, but we were able to see everything online and he was constintly calling me. He finished third place...but the last three were all from Martin. Really awesome!!! Next year we will do it!!!

Donny began Pre-school in the fall. Where has the last 4 years gone. How can my son be starting pre-school already??? He is loving it more and more. And he is learning so much. He knows a lot of bible memory verses...and he learns them on the first day of having it!!!

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year...it was very relaxing. And a great time with my boys!!! Christmas was also spent at home and it was wonderful!! I love having family time!

For New Year's we went to a friends house and played Euchre...I think that my husband and I are hooked. It was a lot of fun!!!

My next post will have pictures from this past year...I hope that you enjoy them!

card 2

2010-12-10T10:48:00.001-05:00

Confetti Flowers Christmas Card

Customize your Christmas cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Wonderful Shutterfly!

2010-11-24T21:37:00.003-05:00

I cannot believe how much I love using shutterfly for various photo projects. In the past year I have gotten three photo books and I have gotten many photo card projects through them.

I have loved designing every single on of my books that I have made. The one book that sticks out the most to me, is the book that I made for our trip to Florida. I was able to use enough pictures to make it seem like you are right there. And everyone that has looked at the book loves it. I have had a lot of people ask me where I have gotten it and I have referred them to Shutterfly! I will include some of the pictures that I used in the book.

If you are interested in making an awesome photo item, please check these out:
www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-photo-cards (christmas photo cards)
www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/birthday-invitations (birthday invitations)
www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary (photo cards)

As you can see I have included a lot of photo cards, I just love them!!!! They are great quality and they last a long time.

Monster Trucks!!!

2010-09-20T22:21:00.003-04:00

This was a great Friday night in January. I am just happy that I was able to get over the stomach flu in time to go with my boy. We were both very excited! We have been watching monster trucks on tv, and never thought that we would actually see them in person. Before the show we were able to go out and get some pit passes for the day of the show. And Donny loved it. As you can see in this picture below, we were able to be right up close to the trucks!! And they are HUGE!!!!

We were also able to get autographs from the drivers and take pictures. Donny was usure at first, but then loved it. This is the best picture I got and he always says, "Mama, that is your favorite driver..." he drove a corvette that was turned into a monster truck. SUPER COOL!!!!!

Here is just one picture of what we saw. I mean really, I took like 100. It was sooo cool. I would love to get Donny to Ford Field though...it would be really cool. But we saw this truck do a vertical wheelie. It was AWESOME!!!! And as you can tell in the next picture, Donny LOVED it as well!!!

Do you see this face???? You can't tell me that he didn't enjoy seeing those huge monster trucks!!

December 2009 Update

2010-06-09T08:56:00.010-04:00

Time to start thinking about Christmas already. How is that possible? Didn't we just do this? This year was going to be fun...Donny is old enough to understand what Christmas is and old enough to really let us know what he wants in way of presents. His list included a train, cars and a Grand Trunk Railroad....that isn't too much to ask for right? My hubby hasn't been working a lot out of town, so he has been home with Donny and they have been having a blast. Playing cars and getting ready for Christmas shopping. I am still working at the daycare and loving it. Love all of the time that I get off around Christmas as well.

December also brought some fun things to us to do. One of which being Home Depot again..and we made a wagon with our group of friends from church. Donny loved the wago, he was pulling it around...even though the cord is might short. But he loves it!!! We also started going to Lowe's kids workshops. He got another apron there and they give patches that need to be sewn onto the apron and a nice certificate. He loves going to these and I believe that we will be going to them all of the time.

This month also brought out the trains at the old schoolhouse here in Vicksburg. He loved watching the train. We stopped at the school twice this month. It is very neat to see...a train set up with a town all around it. He loved it and he kept telling me he wanted one. He also wanted the street to go with it and the cars...and the buildings. I didn't think that we would be able to do all of that, but I said we'll see. =)

Can you tell that he is just as happy as can be to be watching the train? This was a Saturday that Daddy couldn't be with us, but oh man did Donny tell him all about it. It was great to see his expressions when he talked about the train. He loves them!

We were also very busy this month with church. We had the children's Christmas program and we had the Christmas cafe. Donny was in both. He did awesome and I am so happy that he is involved with the children's program at church. Now that he is old enough he is going to have a lot of fun! For the children's program, the 2's and 3's performed Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. I had to actually teach Donny this song (as he had no idea what it was) and he did awesome!!! I think that he may have been the only one to do the motions!! We were so proud of him and he loved it...he didn't want to come off of the stage that night, as he kept asking when he got to go back up. He is going to be a little performer I bet..loves all of that attention for being so dog gone cute! At the Christmas Cafe, they did a song about Baby Jesus. Donny was more interested in making noise on the stage this time but he was still cute. He didn't want to hold the baby doll, as that is a girls toy...he didn't say that out loud there, but he would have at home. HaHa...but he did manage to wave at us and just be cute. He does so well with all of the kids in his class and I am so happy for that. He loves it and he talks about his friends from church quite often.

Now it is Christmas, how is it already Christmas? We just had Christmas didn't we? Well, all of the presents are wrapped and ready for the tree...we have visited Santa, so we will see how good Donny has been this year. To us, he has been awesome...he has his times, but he is 3 years old. We love him so much! He is the best thing that has happened to me and my hubby...we are so proud of him!

On Christmas Eve, he received his normal gift...a pair of new jammies from Mommy and Daddy. He loved them...he was hugging them and telling us how soft they were. He them proceeded to want to put them on, even though we were going to Bronson Park. I said ok and you will be warm. We then went to Bronson Park and walked around. Saw the nativity and everything else that is there. Even the big candy canes! When we got home, we got ready to go to bed...I think that he finally fell asleep around 11pm...he was so excited he couldn't contain himself.

So we finally got to bed and when we woke up, he was so excited to see that Santa had come and that the living room was full of presents! He was ready to get into them...we couldn't not let him...so he started to rip them open. He got a lot of awesome toys...everything that he said he wanted that. Just to list a few things, large sidewalk chalk, a lightning mcqueen toy, movies about trains and auto b good dvd's...and the best present of all that he got was his train...Santa brought him the Pennsylavania railroad...he wanted

to open that box up right in the living room...but we couldn't let him do that. He had to learn the rules to having a train first and then he got to go downstairs to help set it up. He was so excited as you can tell in the picture of him and one of the cars from the train set. I would say that he had a great Christmas and got everything that he wanted. Now he is ready for next Christmas because he gets more presents. I said but you have a birthday coming up in May and you get presents at your birthday party...so then he was excited for his birthday too.

Another thing that was marked this December was the passing of my dad...how has it been 10 years Daddy? I cannot believe that..10 years this month that you have been gone. I miss you more every day...I love you Daddy!

Picture's by Nicole Fall 2009

2010-06-09T08:28:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine is wanting to go into photography and I told her that I was willing to let her photograph Donny for practice sessions. Also, with these pictures she could use them in her portfolio. She had a blast doing this and so did Donny...he was awesome!! And we got some amazing pictures. This top picture is the photo that I used for our Christmas cards this year. I cannot wait to see Nicole again and have her take some more pictures!! Especially now that it is summer time!!

November 2009 Update

2010-06-08T21:52:00.013-04:00

November 2009

Where has the year gone? WOW....This month we started going to Home Depot on Saturday mornings. Donny loved it and was very excited that he made the item himself (with Daddy's help of course!) The first time that we went he made a trivet...it is awesome and will come in handy when we have our own place someday. Along with making the project, he even got a cute little Home Depot apron to put his name and project pins on. And guess what....it is ORANGE!!!!! And yes, we let him use the hammer, but only with our help of course. I love this picture of him though...he is like I can do this, really I can.

As the days were getting shorter, the evenings were getting cooler. We did have one evening though that was fairly warm and we decided to take a little road trip down to Centerville and to see the Covered Bridge. It is such an awesome sight in the fall...so pretty. We did stop at the Covered Bridge park and let Donny run around and throw some stones into the river. We even took Jumper with us...and he wasn't sure what to do with all of the leaves. Donny loved the leaves..kicking them and throwing them into the air. It was a great evening to be out with my boys. And yes, my son is wearing a Carhart...his Daddy bought him that jacket and HE LOVED IT!!!! The sad part is it won't fit him next fall and he will need a bigger one. And yes, mommy got a pink carhart to match!!! I love it as well.

Another road trip that we took this month was to a fun store in Benton Harbor, MI. And if you know my son at all, you know that he loves trains...and the name of the store says it all "I Love Toy Trains" store. And oh my goodness was Donny happy. He didn't want to leave the store. And he wanted to bring everything home of course, but I think that he ended up with maybe a wooden Thomas train. But Daddy and I had decided that it was time to get Donny a train of his own. And we had quite the talk with Santa about maybe bringing Donny a train for Christmas. So, we of course had to go back for a second and a third trip. But that was later on, I will get to that trip later. With this trip we went over onto the beach by the lake and it was beautiful!!! For a november day, it was awesome. There were a lot of people at the beach for a November day. Donny loved swinging on the beach and running in the sand. He was soo excited to be at the beach. A little kid after my own heart. I love the beach as well!! I told him that I couldn't wait for summer!

Over Thanksgiving we went to Chicago again. This time it was great, I was going to get to go shopping on Friday. I couldn't wait! We left Thanksgiving morning and we would be coming home on Saturday afternoon. Donny had a great time and we got to go swimming. That would be the best part for him. Other than mommy forgot to pack his swimming suit, so here we are in Chicago in November, trying to find a swimming suit. Not a great combo. But i did find a pair of Starter shorts and we got some swim diapers and he was all set to go swimming! He had his boat and was ready to go. He even got his Daddy to swim with him! That is the greatest thing to see...my boys swimming and having a great time.

And yes, I went shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. I went to Old Navy and got a bunch of stuff...and I even let my boy have a couple of items when I got back to the hotel. A train shirt and a pair of pants. I think that I may have gone to Wal-Mart and I am sure I went somewhere else, but I couldn't tell ya now where. (Wow, not good trying to write things down 7 months later). We had a great time though. And guess where we stopped on the way home...two very fun places. The bass pro shop in Indiana and we went back to the I love toy train store...and yes again, he wanted everything in the store. =)

How is it almost Christmas? I don't have any idea where this year went...my little boy is 3 and a half...and knows everything about cars and trains. He knows things that I don't even know and always has me in awe. I love this little kid and I am happy to say that he is mine. I am happy that we have an awesome family...a family that loves us and will do anything for us. And I am also thankful that we have our Jumper...I don't know where he would be if we didn't have him...he is our puppy and we love him!

Oct. 2009 Updates

2010-03-06T23:07:00.006-05:00

I am sooo behind, but I want to get these pictures and updates up...I don't not want to have this on here.

So here we are into October already. Where has the year gone? We are a very busy family, but we are having fun every minute.

This month brought Halloween and that meant that we needed to figure out what Donny was going to be. We got a catalog in the mail...and he picked the UPS man. I don't know why, but that is what he wanted. And of course only my son would say, well...I need a truck to drive too. We were going to make his wagon into a UPS truck..but that never happened...and he was ok with that.

But he was just stinkin adorable in his outfit...and everywhere that we went, he was the only UPS guy!!!! LOVED IT!

This month also brought the pumpkin patch...we just love going. The only thing is, this year we

went a little late and so the good pumpkins were very scarce. But we did manage to find a couple of good ones. And I still cannot believe how busy the pumpkin patch is every year we go. It seems like it gets busier every year...I am sure it does!

Here are my boys with the pumpkin that Donny picked out. I love this picture. My boys...I love them so much. And look at my little man, he is all grown up. Where has the time gone? Wasn't just yesterday that we brought our little baby to the pumpkin patch? Crazy how time flies when you are having fun!

This month also brought some nice weather for us. We got to play outside a lot of days before I went into work. And one day I decided to take the camera outside with us. We have a little boy on our hands that just loves to have his picture taken...and I

love that.

This picture was taken in our front yard and I then took it and made it black and white on our computer. I love that I am able to do this, as it makes pictures look AWESOME!!! I am hoping to do this again in the fall with some different colors. But that blue was great for him!

There are times that I don't get the best smile or he sticks his tongue out at me...but sometimes those are great pictures as well. That shows his personality. And he is one very silly little boy...he gets that from his Daddy. :-)

And we also had plenty of playdates with Donny's best friend Kylee....they are soooo cute together. And I love that they are best friends!!! Don't they make a cute couple??? They are growing up way too fast...I can't believe that next spring (2011) we will be registering Donny for kindergartin....that can't be possible....WOW is all that I can say to that.

October was a great month...let's hope that November is great as well...

Youdata.com

2010-02-21T09:52:00.000-05:00

Dear Friend,

I found something that I think you will like. The company's name is YouData (youdata.com). They are trying to convince consumers like us that we should be the ones controlling our own data and selling our own attention, not third parties like broadcasters, newspapers, and spammers. By creating a MeFile at YouData.com, I now control what ads I see and when I see them. Best part - I am selling my attention directly to interested advertisers, for real money. That's right, I get paid for giving them my attention. I can use the funds to buy music and video online, donate to charities, give to my favorite blogs and websites, or keep the change myself and do whatever I want with it.

It's real. They pay. You should check it out.

Click this link to sign up. My MeFile ID, smilin_sara, in the "Referral Code" will tell them I sent you.

http://www.youdata.com/join/smilin_sara

Take care,
Sara

A great Charity..thought I would pass it on

2010-01-08T19:06:00.001-05:00

I just rec'd this in an email and I thought that I would pass it on to all of you... it is called Charity: clear water.

I believe that people shouldn't have to walk miles to get good drinking water and this is going to help with that situation.

So please go and check it out and make a donation if you can.

www.mycharitywater.org/shespeaksup

Thanks

Our Update Aug.-Sept. 2009

2010-01-03T23:47:00.010-05:00

Here we go...after this, hopefully things will go better and I remember to come on here and write.

August 2009

The garden was about done and we were getting ready to harvest some green peppers. We had a great time with the garden, but we did figure out some things that we would have to change next summer. And we are ready for that. On the second weekend of August, Little Donny came down with a very bad flu bug. He was out the entire weekend too. I have never seen my little man so sick. He just laid on the floor and watched tv and slept. We thought that he was getting better and he ate lunch on Monday (hadn't gotten sick in over 24 hours). By the time that I got home Monday night, he started acting sick again. He feel asleep and woke up a very short time later, sick. We then took him into Bronson Vicksburg and had him checked out. My little man had to have blood drawn that night as well. Not very fun for me. But everything came back just fine and he just had a virus.

We continued going to the race track on the weekends that we could. Don was doing alright. At times we just couldn't get past first round. Not sure what was going on there, but we were still up in points. So that is good. We finished out the month in at least 6th place. So we knew that we needed to stay up there to get to finals at the end of September. Donny loves going to the races. I don't think that we will be able to keep him away from the track very easily now. He has it in his blood and he is so ready to do some racing of his very own!

All in all, August was a good month. We had some rough times, but we bounced back and had some great times.

September 2009

September marked the one year anniversary of my job. I am so happy to be working at the daycare. I truly can say that I love my job.

This month marked a lot of firsts for our family.

On Labor Day weekend we went and picked up our puppy that we picked out in July. He is a little papillon. His name is Jumper. And yes, we let Donny name him. His full papered name is Jump in the air. How he got his name. We aren't sure, he didn't hardly move when we picked him out. But Donny and Jumper are the best of friends. And Jumper is just plain adorable. We can't wait to watch Jumper grow and continue to learn.

We took Donny to the apple orchard for the first time. And he loved it!!! This is the first time for me in awhile as well, and I must go back. I now remember how much I loved going and picking apples every year. Donny wasn't sure about riding the wagon to the apple trees, but on the way back it was the coolest thing ever. He loved the tractors and wanted to just keep riding them.

Our next first would be going to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. I have been there, but Donny had not. And he loved it. And the best part about this museum is that it is FREE and we all love free! Donny really loved the race track in the hands on area. Go figure my son liking a race track. Who would have known? But Daddy also liked the race track. So that was perfect for the two of them. They played on that for at least half an hour. The other exhibit that Donny liked was the shaking sand table. He liked putting his hand in it and watching the sand just go over his hand automatically. He had a blast.

Lastly, we took our first trip to Jungle Joes. And oh man...what a fun place. The nice thing about Jungle Joes is that Donny can play on all of the jumpy things. At other places he wouldn't have been able to. Donny loved it. I did play as well. And I did have to carry him up a few of the slides. But all in all, it was so worth it. To see Donny's face light up when he went down the slide..amazing! I am just happy that Don was able to go and take pictures. Otherwise, I would not have been able to see his face ( or mine for that matter). Yes, I was very sore the next day, but again it was worth it! Can you tell how much Donny enjoyed it by the picture that I have inserted? This is priceless!

I am sure that we will be visiting Jungle Joe's many more times in the future. It is a great time for the entire family!

Wow, a new year already!

2010-01-02T16:45:00.001-05:00

Where did the time go? I guess I really need to get on here and do some updates. I know I have been bad. Things got busy and this kinda got left behind. I will try to get things around and have a great post for you to read in the next couple of days. I will include some new pictures of Donny as well...he is getting so big!! Almost 41 inches tall...holy cow!!!

Hope everyone is well and please keep watching for my updated post!

Garden Update pt 5

2009-07-31T23:26:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures of our garden....everything is looking great. I harvested my lettuce today!! I hope that it tastes good!! We will see tomorrow...

July 28, 2009

This one will be open any day now!!!!

And a really neat dragonfly that I found while outside!

Garden Update pt 3 & 4

2009-07-28T23:00:00.008-04:00

The garden is doing well...you will see in these pictures that I really need to weed....

The first set of pictures is from July 14 and the second set is from July 22

Lettuce is always pictured first...it is getting there..

Next is our first area of sunflowers...they are doing alright...hope they do better soon..

Third is our green peppers...they aren't doing the greatest. But we will see what happens in about a month...

Next is our celery..surprisingly this is looking really good...we will see in a month how it is doing...

And lastly our other sunflower garden..these are doing awesome...they are HUGE!!!!

Second set of pictures: July 22, 09

Things are looking awesome, a lot better than I thought that they would be. No explanations with these as you will be able to tell what they are!!!

Garden Update pt 2

2009-07-10T15:36:00.005-04:00

Here is our next update...

Everything is looking good...some of our sunflowers didn't make it.

So here are our pictures from this week!!

This is our lettuce patch...We have some sprouts!!!!

Some of our lettuce!

One of our sunflowers!!
another sunflower

our green peppers!

More peppers

The celery...don't know if it is going to work or not..but we are going to try

they do look alright though

Our sunflowers in the back of the yard...they are doing great

Look at how tall they are already!!!

Garden Update

2009-07-02T22:55:00.004-04:00

Our sunflowers are growing!!!! They aregetting pretty tall. We have lost a few, but that was expected I guess. But we are still going to have a good amount of them. I would say that they are a little over a foot tall. This is so very cool to watch! And Donny loves it!

I was also a little crazy this past Sunday and bought a 4-pack of celery. Why? I don't know. But I thought that I would give it a try. Why not..they were cheap. And they are still looking pretty good. We will see how they are this weekend.

This is what I originally went shopping for on Sunday. Green pepper plants. I got a pack of 9 of them for like $3. I was soooo happy. I can't wait to have peppers.

And lastly, this is our lettuce garden. Nothing is growing there yet...so hopefully this weekend we will see some sprouts!!! We will see...

Can't wait to see what these look like on Sunday. I will have the pictures up next week.

Our garden is growing!!!

2009-06-27T21:42:00.001-04:00

I have decided that I wanted to add to our garden...so I did today.

I went out and bought a packet of lettuce seeds. I am really hoping that they grow...would have to have fresh salad one day soon.

I will do the same thing with these...as they start growing I will watch their growth thru pictures. I think that it is a really neat thing to do.

Also, tomorrow I am going to go to the store and buy a green pepper plant. I really like green peppers and I would love to have my own!!! So we will be planting that tomorrow.

Will have all sorts of pictures tomorrow night!

Donny's Garden

2009-06-24T00:55:00.004-04:00

So a few weeks ago, we planted some sunflower seeds.

We are going to track there growth thru pictures. And it has only been about three weeks and they are growing like crazy!!!

The seeds that we planted are for the giant sunflowers. They can get to like 12 feet tall. How crazy is that going to be in our yard? Really crazy...

This first group of pictures is from week one. I did plant a few more seeds (I had some leftover) so those are included in this as well.

Week one

Week Two

We are getting taller and taller....all of the rain and sunshine that we have had is doing wonders on these flowers

Week three will be on Sunday. I will be out there taking pictures of them again and we will see how tall they are by then.

I know that Donny is enjoying watching them grow...and yes he picked them out himself at the store.

Heading Home

2009-06-23T23:58:00.003-04:00

Friday

April 17, 2009

Up early today...we are heading home.

It has been a great week and I am sad to be going home. But we now know that we can do these long trips. We are doing good, and Donny did great. He talks about everything that he did and how much he loved it!

We had a lot of fun...spent way too much money and we made a lot of memories that will last a lifetime.

On the way home we stopped in Kentucky at the original KFC. It was really neat as we have only drivin past it and never gone in. It is a meusum inside and everything is there that would have been there with the Col. Sanders. Very awesome to see! And the food was pretty good too.

I wanted to get a picture of Donny with Col. Sanders...and this turned out really cute. But it looks as though my son is moving away from him. He didn't understand that he was not real and that he wasn't going to get him.

On the road again. Seeing a lot of beautiful scenery. Not a terrible drive..really didn't get into any bad traffic jams this whole trip. That was kind of nice.

We got back into Michigan and stopped in Coldwater to eat at Ponderosa. That is where Donny wanted to eat. By 9:30 we were on the road towards home.

We got home around 10 pm and Donny was wide awake. Of course he had to show Grandma and Grandpa all of his new toys. I don't think that he went to sleep until after midnight.

This was a great trip and we can't wait for the next one.

We are already planning on going to Florida again in the spring and we can't wait!

Race Day

2009-06-23T22:53:00.006-04:00

Thursday

April 16, 2009

So today we are headed towards Atlanta Dragway. We decided that we would do this instead of doing something extra in Florida. It was a beautiful day and we couldn't wait. We didn't know what we were going to see, but we were ready.

We got up to a beautiful sunrise today. I couldn't help but take some pictures in front of our window of Downtown. It still amazes me...how high we were. I love our family picture. And yes, we all wore blue that day...but not on purpose.

We got to the dragway around 11:30am or so and we were there until about 3pm. It was soooo awesome! We finally got to this track that is in the middle of nowhere and there were quite a few people there. Today was only the non-pro's racing, but we could still walk thru the pits and see all of the cars and pick up all of the free pictures. Didn't see any pros, so no autographs this time. But we have already decided that we will be going to a race in the future and hopefully seeing some of the pros. I would love to meet the John Force racing team!!!

So we get inside and it was just awesome. To see everything with your own eyes that you would usually see on tv...that was just cool. So it ended up being a really warm day and we were all in jeans. So we know better now....check the weather before you leave.

So I am a bad mom and forgot to bring the ear muffs...oh wait not really. It wasn't planned, so that is why we didn't have them. We ended up having to pay 20 bucks to get Donny some new ones, but hey he wore them and that is all that mattered...

He had just as much fun as we did...and that is pretty good for a little boy that was a month away from turning 3.

So, all in all...it was a great day. We say a lot of cars and a lot of racing. I can't wait to go again. And I will take just as many pictures as I did this time. But hopefully I will have pictures with drivers!! I can't wait. We must start planning!

So, now we are heading north to Knoxville. I don't know about the drive, but the GPS told us it is going to take over 4 hours to get there...wow. I thought that it would only be like 2 maybe 2.5 hours.

But once we got going we figured out why it was going to take so long. We were going on these two lane roads thru the mountains. Not very fun...and luckily I don't get car sick. I could have on these roads.

These scenes are what we saw a lot of. I mean it is really pretty but oh man it gets boring after awhile.

We finally got into Tennessee and we got to our hotel. It is now time to go to bed, as it has been a long day. It has been a good day, but long. We are all ready for bed. Tomorrow we head home.

Headed North

2009-06-06T22:31:00.010-04:00

Wednesday

April 15, 2009

So, here we are. Heading north. I can't believe that our trip is almost over. Where did the time go? If only I hadn't gotten sick, then we would have had that one extra day. But that is ok, we have had a lot of fun. And we are going to make these last couple of days fun too.

We are heading towards Atlanta, Georgia. That is where my husband picked out a hotel with his flyer miles. The Westin, in downtown and it is like 70+ floors. And it is circular kinda crazy to think about.

But today has been good so far. As you can see I went a little nuts with the pictures. I took a lot of Donny and myself in the backseat. Just got a little bored. Finally took a picture of some palm

trees. How can you go to Florida and not get any of those? But other than that, we saw a lot of the same thing. Palm trees are a really neat sight to see.

We left our hotel around 9:30 am and we were planning on stopping just inside of Georgia. That was our plan. Well....things went really well and we only had to stop for gas and to use the restroom. Donny slept a lot and so did I. I also started the second book in the Twilight series. I read like 150 pages of it on vacation and since haven't read any of it....kinda sad.

So we had planned on stopping at Summit racing in Georigia. A very neat place. But you have to have an interest in cars and car parts. Otherwise it would be really boring to you. I loved it and so did my son. He got a new hat (for FREE). I also bought a pair of sunglasses there and he got a new pair in Florida and he finally put them on for me while on the way home. I think that he is adorable in them. They are Kung Fu Panda. I think that he just plan looks cool in them. And then you put the hat on and he jsut cracks up with it because it is just plain too big! But he loves it!

So we finally got to our hotel and it is right in the middle of downtown. Not really my favorite

part of town. Things just seem kinda creepy to me. So we got all checked in and we were

told that our bags would be right up to us in our room. And our room was number 4616...you got that right we were the 16th room on the 46th floor. That is the craziest feeling ever. To go and look out the window at the whole city is amazing.

Even Donny thought that it was really high up...Can't you tell by the look on his face? I still can't believe that I got this picture. It was perfect!! Donny thought that it was neat that our whole one wall was a window. I did like that too!

I still didn't know what to think of being on the 46th floor. The elevator was sooooo fast. We went from our floor to the 5th floor really fast. My ears popped it was so fast.

We did take a walk over by the pool and it was already closed, but I am sure that if Donny wanted to have swam, he could have. But we didn't.

We did have a couple of bad experiences though. We had asked for a microwave, twice, and we never got it...so our frozen food that we had bought for dinner...ruined. And then it took them an hour to get our luggage up to us. That is ridiculous!!! I don't think that we will ever stay there again. We will probably never stay at a Westin again! We liked our Sheraton that we stayed at on the way down...highly recommended compared to this!

So, it is off to bed that we go. We will be heading a little more north tomorrow. But we are also going to go and see some race cars. The pros...we can't wait. This is something that we didn't plan too, so that is even better!

Good night, hotlanta....

Rainy Morning

2009-05-26T23:54:00.005-04:00

Tuesday

April 14, 2009

Today we woke up to rain and storms. Not really something that we wanted to deal with again, but we did. We turned on the tv and just waited. We went thru another Tornado warning. I think that they were following us or something. Who has 4 tornado warnings while on vacation? I never have...and I really don't want to go thru that again.

So, yes we waited. We played cars, watched the radar and talked about what we wanted to do for the day. The original plan was to go over to the beach, but that didn't happen. It rained all day and that would have been a total waste of our time. But we will be going to the beach someday down there. Donny is still talking about that.

Around 11:30am we decided that we would go to the mall and then find the brazillian store that we liked. We can buy some of our favorite drink and maybe even some candy. And then we will decide what to do later...later. We just went to the smaller mall in Orlando. I had never walked around the whole thing, but it is a pretty nice place. Had a lot of nice stores. The main store that we went to was the Ron Jon Surf Shop. We all ended up getting something from there. And Donny managed to come out with a new truck...yes a Ron Jon Suef Shop truck...crazy kid!

At the entrance to the store from the mall is this really cool car. Or as my son would say...look at that really sweet car. LOL This picture isn't the greatest, but it did look pretty sweet!

We ate lunch right there at the mall. At Subway. It was an interesting meal as they were running out of bread. And that just isn't a good thing to do when it is lunch time and you seem to be really busy. But ya know...what do I know about that kind of stuff?? Not a whole lot...I just eat there. :-) Donny likes to eat there too...as long as it is a cheese sandwich. Nothing else...just cheese and bread. He LOVES it! And yes..he put a hole in his bread and he is looking at me thru the hole. I thought that it was pretty funny, as he has never done that before. And yes, he did manage to eat about half of the bread and all of the cheese.

After lunch we continued to walk around. We found a really cool John Deere tractor store...lots of little tractors that Donny would have loved to bring home. And we also found a store with a lot of the larger sized diecast cars in it. OH MY GOODNESS.....Donny wanted everything in that store. And yes he was naming the cars off one by one and I think that people were looking at him in amazement...like how does that little kid know what all of these cars are? I don't even know what all of the cars are....he still impresses me. And I hear it every day!

One of the larger stores in the mall is Outdoor World...Bass Pro Shops. Pretty neat store...with a very large aquarium in the center of the store. We have course had to go and check it out. I tried to get pictures of the fish....but they didn't turn out the greatest. I did get this one of an albino catfish.....and I still cannot believe how massive it was. All of the fish in this tank were massive. Kinda creepy.

We also managed to find a penny smashing machine in there too. Donny now has 3 books full of these smased pennys and I don't think that it will stop there. He loves to see them and hold them. So I make sure to go with plenty of quarters and pennys....just in case.

And outside of the store in the mall, there were these really big 4-wheelers. He wanted to sit on one and we let him. He just loved that. I think that he loved everything about this day so far. He even got to walk around the mall like a big boy...no stroller at all. As we didn't even really think that we were going to be walking around the whole mall.

He is turning into such a big boy...where did my baby go? I can't believe that in just over a month you are going to be three. That isn't even possible...is it? Where did the years go?

We love you big boy!

Our last stop before leaving the mall would have been a place called Monkey Joe's (or something like that). It was a room filled with all of these inflatable toys (kinda like our Jungle Joe's here in Kalamazoo). We didn't know if Donny would like it or not...but we figured we would give it a try. We didn't have anything else going on for the day and we really didn't want to go and sit in the hotel room with nothing to do. Not really a fun thing to do on vacation. But let me get back to telling you about the inflatable fun time.

Once Donny got used to it, he loved it. He even wanted to go on the inflatables that were for the older kids...we tried to convince him that he was too little for them. But that just didn't work out. We did let him try one, but he got stuck in it and he just didn't know what to do...Daddy was able to reach in and get him from the side though. He didn't go back to that jumper, but he did try to get to others that he wasn't supposed to be on.

I would have to say that his favorite was the on pictured here. It was the easiest for him to play with and not get hurt from larger kids. It had a boat and a whale and a seal that they could sit on and jump. And he loved to sit on the whale and jump so much...that he fell off....and guess what. He would get right back up on there and do the same thing over and over and over again! He loved it! And I loved hearing him have fun!
And he was a really tired boy after this fun event...so to make a kid tired go let them jump on the jumpy things at Jungle Joes or something. It works!!!

So after a fun day at the mall..we are headed back to the hotel. Donny ended up with his Ron Jon Surf Shop truck and he loves it!

We had a great family day together. And even if it did rain on us...we are not going to let that ruin our vacation. We will do something that is still fun.

So here is to another wonderful day ahead of us.

Good night Orlando!

Good Morning Orlando!

2009-05-17T23:10:00.005-04:00

April 13, 2009

Monday

Up around 8am. Got to eat breakfast and get going. We are going to the Magic Kingdom today! How cool is that? Hope we can see and do a lot of things. I know that I have been there before, but it always feels like the first time. Maybe it is because there are so many years in between the times that I have gone.
I would have to say that one of the best parts of the day is riding the monorail to the entrance of the Magic Kingdom and seeing the castle in the distance. To know that that is where we are going. Also, Donny talks about the monorail still. He loved it...and yes, we bought our own monorail. How can you go to Disney and not buy a monorail?
It was the perfect day outside...about 82*. We were with the crowd though. There were thousands of people there. We did manage to get Donny on a couple of the rides, but not too many. He went in the race cars with Daddy and he went on the little roller coaster with me. He loved both of them. (even though he will tell you that the roller coaster was way too fast for him...I think that he still loved it!) We didn't stand in any of the lines to see the characters as they were way too long. Donny wouldn't have been able to wait over an hour to see Mickey...we would have loved it, but definantly next time. We were really close to seeing Donald, but Donny tripped and he scrapped his knee...so he was done with that.
At 3pm we did watch the parade. Donny fell asleep which was a good thing as we knew that he was getting tired. The parade was really neat...and it was of course different then the two previous ones that I have seen.
After the parade we left. We decided to take the boat back to the parking lot. That was really neat. I had never done that, it was a heck of a lot easier to deal with too. We got to our vehicle and headed back to the hotel. Donny slept most of the way back...woke up once we got to the hotel.

We relaxed for a little bit and then decided to go to DownTown Disney. Before we went to DTD, we went swimming. It was kinda nice having the pool right outside of our room. It was very conveinient. The water was really nice also, we did have a little bit of a breeze, so the air was chilly..but as long as you stayind in the water it wasn't that bad. Also this was the first time that Donny got to try out his new boat. This boat is a toddler boat and man can he make that thing move! We left to go to DTD around 6pm. We had to eat dinner at the House of Blues. That is a must anytime we are near there. And I always get the cajun meatloaf. Still like it after all these years. We walked around for a bit and saw a lot of neat things. By 10pm we were headed back to the hotel to go to bed. It has been a long, fun day....and we loved every single minute of it!

Donny's new car collection from Florida!

So good night Orlando, we will see you in the morning!

Easter Sunday!

2009-05-17T22:19:00.004-04:00

April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

Woke up around 7:30am today. Wanted to get going as early as possible. So we packed everything up and we were on the road by 8:30 am. That is pretty good. We are finally headed to Florida! Can't wait. I think that we are going to Seaworld today and Magic Kingdom tomorrow. And hopefully the beach on Tuesday!

This drive isn't really all that bad. Pretty much a straight shot from Atlanta until you get to just outside of Orlando. It is like 7 hours though. But we are going to make it and we are having fun all along the way!
We drove into Florida about 1pm today. It was beautiful outside. Already like 83*...we loved it! We stopped at the rest area to take some pictures with the big Florida sign...then we were off to our hotel. Once we got there we are going to spend the evening at Seaworld. We can't wait! Really hoping that Donny likes it.

So, all along our drive to the hotel...we saw a bunch of orange trees.... I then decided that we were going to bring some Florida oranges home. And that we would do that before we left! I love oranges...but to have Florida oranges are the best! We arrived at our hotel just before 4pm. We had a nice room right beside the pool. And it was quite. I really liked that. By 5pm we were headed to Seaworld!!! Not even a 20 min. drive from the hotel. That was nice. We will stay at that hotel again, as it was in a great location.

Seaworld was awesome. We saw the dolphin show and we stayed and watched the Shamu show also. We walked around the whole park and saw a lot of awesome things. Donny really enjoyed it also. Headed back towards the hotel around 10pm. Stopped and got some food at McDonald's, as that is cheaper than buying food at the park. We were all sleeping by 11:30 pm.

We had a great day. Happy to be in warm, sunny Florida!!!

Can't wait for another fun day!

A little bit delayed

2009-04-19T21:13:00.005-04:00

Saturday

April 11, 2009

Not a good day at all. I was sick last night. And I don't think that it was the flu. My nerves went crazy and it just happened.

Here is my son...taking up the whole bed

So, I was in bed all day. My hubby and little boy did go to Wal-mart for me. Got me soup and crackers. They also got me some Sprite Zero, but I did have to share that. Little Donny loves it.

By afternoon, I was feeling a little better, but I let the boys go have fun. They were going to go to the aquarium, but they had weird rules. It was 2pm and you couldn't get in until 4pm. Whatever.

So, they got back and I took a nap. A 3 hour nap actually. And I felt good when I woke up. So we went to the mall that was right across the street. What an interesting place. Went back to the hotel and by 10pm we were all sleeping.

Hoping tomorrow will be better...

On our way!

2009-04-19T20:53:00.004-04:00

Friday

April 10, 2009

Up early to rain. And to the chance of more storms ahead. Just hoping to miss them.

So, we were on the road by 9am. We were up around 8 and packed the truck up. Stopped for a bite to ear at the free continental breakfast. Donny actually ate really well, a blueberry muffin and frosted flakes. Oh yeah, some apple juice too.

We got going and it was wer and chilly. By 10am, Little Donny was sleeping. By 11am, I was sleeping. Just driving along. Donny woke me up as we were starting to go up the mountain. It is such an awesome sight.

Once we got thru the mountains and into Georgia we stopped for lunch. At a Wendy's. It was good, but the place was dirty. We then continued on to our hotel. Got there around 4pm. Very cool. Something like 16 floors.

We were going to go out to dinner, but because of the chance of bad weather we didn't. So we stayed in the room and watched the tv. We had decided to order Pizza Hut for dinner. By 8:30pm we were under a tornado warning. Not exactly what we needed. So we continued to watch the tv and they talked about Murfreesboro, TN. We drove thru there at about 11am. They said that the storms hit around noon. And they were bad...like 14 homes destroyed...and something like 3 tornados. It was nasty. We were a little more lucky in Atlanta and had just rain. We did go thru two warnings..the second was down graded to a severe thunderstorm warning. The worst went north and south of us. But it still managed to get my nerves going and I didn't feel so great when I went to bed.

Our Journey Begins!

2009-04-14T21:56:00.003-04:00

Thursday

April 9, 2009

Our journey has begun a day early. There are storms set to hit the mountains and we really don't want to drive thru that. It wouldn't be good.

So we got going around 3:30 pm. Hoping to get to Nashville tonight. But we will see. Stopped to gas up in Vicksburg and then we were on our way. We have a long trip ahead of us, but we are so ready for this!

Stopped for lunch in Coldwater (of course at McDonald's) then onto the highway. Headed south. By 5:45 we were just south of Ft. Wayne. Potty break time. By 6pm we were back on the road. Pretty cloudy now. So I am sure we will see some rain at some point.

Got into Kentucky by 8:30 pm. Louisville is awesome. Can't wait to see more of it. Maybe even go and see a baseball game. =) Stopped for gas just outside of Louisville and by 10:30pm we were in our hotel room. Sleeping before 11:30pm

We are here

2009-04-14T19:25:00.001-04:00

We have been in Florida now for a couple days.

I will be posting more in the next couple of days, as I am going to kinda put a journal on here of what we did. So it will actually say the date that it was, but be posted like today.

I will also put pictures with my post, as I already have over 200...and that just keeps growing!

So I will be back to update you all later....

Florida = 5 Days!!!

2009-04-05T09:59:00.002-04:00

So we are on the homestretch to Florida!!

We have begun packing and we have been getting things around to take with us. Donny and I went shopping last weekend to buy things that we were need. And we had fun picking stuff out!! He got an orange bucket for the beach and some other beach toys.

I have also purchased snacks to take with us. We still need to get more though. We have pringles and fruit snacks. We need to get some small bags of chips, some bottled water...and whatever else we want to take.

We also still need to go and buy diapers so that we have those ready to go. And I think that I need to buy myself an outfit or two. I need some new shorts and I would like some new shirts. We will see though.

So as you can see we are pretty excited about our trip. I can't wait. It is supposed to be awesome weather as well....in the 80's!!!

We will be taking our computers with us so that we can post pictures and I can clear off my memory card ( i know that I will take a lot of pictures...that is normal for me) =)

Yes, I will keep you updated as well!

Kids Say The Cutest Things!!

2009-03-29T12:26:00.003-04:00

So this past week Donny has said some pretty funny stuff. He is just talking like crazy and he is saying things that a two year old shouldn't be saying.

Here are some of the things that he has been saying:

We are now going to Clearwater, Florida when we are on vacation. He is calling it Coldwater. So he told me that Daddy was going to Coldwater for work...I was like no Daddy is going to Spain for work and we are going to go to Clearwater for vacation...It was funny.

Then the other night we were at the mall and he told Daddy that he had found him the perfect suitcase. It was the perfect one...didn't matter that it was red, it was the perfect one.

He then told us that he needed the little suitcase for himself...and that he loved it. How cute...not cute enough though to spend $160.00 haha

On Saturday Donny told me that he wanted to call Daddy, so I said ok..you may. I gave him my phone and said push the green button and he was calling Daddy. Well he was trying to tell me that Daddy wasn't there and wanted me to take the phone. I go are you sure Daddy isn't there. He then started talking and said oh hi daddy I didn't have signal and couldn't hear you. Now that is not what a two year old should be saying...he has no idea what that is...lol

Lastly, we were in Target and he wanted to buy this car (that mommy wasn't giving in and buying, so we had a major meltdown) but he did tell me that he really loved it and that it was his most favorite in the world. Along with the michigan basketball that is in the backyard. His MOST favorite thing ever....

I am telling you...this kid cracks me up...he makes us laugh when we need a good laugh. I can't wait to see what he says this week!!!

Family Portraits

2009-03-21T17:40:00.004-04:00

Just a really quick post today. We went and had our pictures done today. Donny did awesome!!! And we got a great deal. We used Sears this time and I am very pleased with them!!! Thinking that I may use them for Donny's third b-day pics. We will see. I still love my Olan Mills pictures though.

Here is a sampling of what we had done:

I hope that you enjoy these!!! We did enjoy our photographer...she was great!!

Playhouse Disney Live!!! pictures

2009-03-16T22:33:00.003-04:00

So as you all know, we went to PlayHouse Disney Live! a couple of weekends ago. We did this more on the fact that we are going to Disney and wanted to see how Donny would do with it. He did awesome! And we all loved the show. It was cute and well worth it.

As you can see I have posted a lot of pics...please enjoy them and I will be back to write tomorrow!

Little Einsteins and Rocket

Handy Manny, the tools and Mr. Lopart

Donny with his drink

Donny with a very blue tongue

MMC Gang

Goofy

Now we really can't wait for Florida!!!

American Idol

2009-03-10T23:47:00.005-04:00

I am so into it this year...only because I really need to support someone from Kalamazoo. This doesn't happen every day, so I might as well be hooked to the tv two days a week...all because of Matt Giraud...an awesome piano player and singer.

I think that he is a great singer and that I can totally support him. I would love it if he made it all the way! that would be awesome for our town..for our state! I would totally buy his cd!

I am also really happy to see all of the support that he is getting from everyone. His family must be really proud of him.

I will be in front of the tv on Wednesday night hoping and praying that he made it thru to next week!

So, please everyone join in with me and support Matt!!!

Spring Fever!!

2009-03-06T20:05:00.003-05:00

After today, I am ready for spring. I knew that it was supposed to get warm today, but I didn't realize that it was going to be close to 70 degrees. It was so nice out. I went to work with a long sleeve shirt and no jacket. It was soooo great.

When I got home from work, my hubby had Donny out side playing. I believe that he was out there for over 2 hours!!!! That is awesome!! I wish I could have played with him outside. Next time I will. Also, I found out that Daddy is spoiling him tonight by taking him to McDonald's and letting him play there. What a great Daddy!

So this weekend it is supposed to be in the 50's but with rain. That is ok though as on Sunday we are going to go to Playhouse Disney Live! at Wings Stadium. I cannot wait, I really think that Donny is going to enjoy it. I just hope that he will sit thru it!

I think that he will like Handy Manny the best..I think that I will like them all! Funny

I will try to get some pictures and post them though, I don't know how well they will turn out though as we are in the stands and not close to the stage.

So spring please come to Michigan soon as we are ready for it!!

Bubbles...

2009-03-05T20:53:00.002-05:00

So our yellow lab cichlid has reappered...he was hiding in the stone that we have in the tank. All of sudden he was just there..

The only thing is now he hides a lot...I don't know what I am going to do.

Also, the catfish seems to think that he needs to chase everyone. I just hope he doesn't eat anymore of the big fish.

I will keep you all updated and I will post more pictures soon!

New Fish

2009-03-02T00:00:00.007-05:00

Well, we decided that it was time to get a new fish today. We have been trying to make my tank a cichlid tank..the only thing is, is that I have a 26 gallon tank. So I don't know what I am going to do with these fish once they are HUGE!! But I love them. They have great color and so far they have a great temperment. I know that that is just for now. So we bought this really neat looking blue fish. They said that when it is bigger, it will have these glowing spots on it. I can't wait!!

The only other thing with this new fish, is that he doesn't have a name yet. Donny has named all of our fish, and he just doesn't have one for him. We have given him a couple of suggestions, but he doesn't like them. I am sure we will figure something out soon enough for him.

We also have this Shovelnose Tiger Catfish. He is one crazy guy, let me tell you. All I see him do is just sit there. He does nothing. Well, today we bought some rosies for him, that way he doesn't have to eat my fish..which he tried to do yesterday! So we buy 20 of these fish..he has eaten about 10 of them and look at that belly of his. This is when you know he has eaten something, his belly gets huge! After a couple of days it will go back to normal, but still. It just makes him look funny. I am now hoping and praying that he didn't eat my yellow lab cichlid. He was a good sized fish and I really don't think that he did, but I can't find him. So we will see what happens.

Lastly, this is what happens when the little fish are still swimming around your tank and the catfish isn't hungry anymore. Your cichlids start to eat the catfishes food. It is crazy to think that I have fish that need to eat fish. I never thought that I would, but what can I do? I like these fish and I don't think that I am ever going to want to get rid of them.

So yes, this is Dadoo(a cichlid that we have had for awhile) and my husband walked by the tank and said hey that fish has a fish hanging out of his mouth. Then he told me to run and get my camera. How disgusting is that? I guess it was more of a look at this cool fish that I have and you don't moment. I guess I am going to have to get used to this now. But we learned this time, we will be buying guppies next time.

This is just an extra picture that I wanted to put on here. This is Bubbles (yellow lab in front) and Turbo (in back). I can't find Bubbles right now and it is making me really sad...he was finally starting to look really cool and I don't know where he is. The only thing that I can think of is that my husbands lovely catfish had himself a yellow breakfast. But I am really hoping not. That means that I would have to try and find a yellow lab that looks like him and I don't think that I would be able to. I really liked him!

So that is our fishtank. We have 4 cichlids (one is missing though), 1 catfish, 1 pleco, 2 buenos aires tetras, 2 other kind of tetra, 8 rosies...i had more but I did give my brother in law some fish and then one of my tetras died yesterday. But that is alright, I am guessing he was sick or something. When I get more pictures of them I will post them.

Can you believe it???

2009-02-19T13:19:00.002-05:00

I cannot believe that it is getting so close!!!

We are so excited and Donny keeps talking about it.

WOW!

Our Bowling Adventure

2009-02-15T13:43:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and we had planned on doing something as a family. That is the best thing to do and Donny was in Utah all last week, so it was perfect.

We had Matthew, our nephew, with us and he enjoyed it as well.

Matthew had an 84 and Donny had an 82 (that is with Mommy's help)

We also went and did a lot of shopping. I cannot believe that my son loves to shop as much as he does.

I am sure that we will go bowling more and I will have more adventures to tell you about!

Donny's haircut pictures

2009-02-15T13:39:00.003-05:00

I couldn't get the greatest pictures, so here is what I got of Donny. He likes to give me a really big cheezy grin...and of course never a decent picture.

Enjoy them!!

I am a Toddler!

2009-02-12T13:37:00.002-05:00

I am a Toddler.

If it's on, I must turn it off.

It it's off, I must turn it on.

It it's closed, it must be opened.

If it's full, it will be more interesting emptied.

It it's empty, it will be more interesting full.

It it has a flat surface, it must be banged upon.

It Mommy's hands are full, I must be carried.

If Mommy' is in a hurry and wants to carry me,

I must walk alone.

If it has buttons, they must be pushed.

If the volume is low, it must go high.

It it's toilet paper, it must be unrolled on the floor.

It it's a drawer, it must be pulled upon.

If you do it, I wanted to do it.

If you want me to do it, I want you to do it.

If it has a tail, I must yank it.

If Mommy wants me to come, I must run away.

If Mommy wants me to let go,

I must CLING ON FOR DEAR LIFE!

If it's stacked up, it must be knocked down.

If it's a rock, it must be picked up.

If it's a doll, it must not wear clothes.

It it's Mommy or Daddy,

They must be hugged and loved forever!

I am a Toddler!!!

Donny's Haircut

2009-02-09T11:14:00.002-05:00

We went this past Thursday and got Donny a haircut. I am so happy that my hubby was home, because it is a big ordeal when it comes to having our hair cut. Donny hates it. He screams and cries the whole time.

We did finally manage to get it cut and it is cute. If only we would have known that playing cars helped out, we would have done that to start with. Well, we know that for next time.

Now he looks like such a big boy. I can't believe that he is going to be 3 in three months. That just can't be possible.

But I don't think that it traumatized him too much as he is back to his happy self.

And the winner of Super Bowl 43 is....

2009-02-01T22:15:00.002-05:00

The Pittsburgh Steelers...

Congrats!!!

Our Vacation!!!

2009-02-01T01:13:00.006-05:00

I can't wait...as you have all seen on the bottom of my blog we are going to Disney! Our first trip as a "family". It is going to be so much fun!

So tonight we finally made our reservations for our hotel in Florida!!! I can't believe that it is already time to do this as it seems like we just started to talk about it. I am psyched!!!

We are going to be staying at Comfort Suites Maingate. It just looks cool and we are going to be using our points, so that is going to be helping out a lot!! This hotel is near everything that we are going to be doing. Disney, Seaworld and anything else that we decide to do while we are there. Plus, they have a kiddie pool!! How awesome is that?

So we are leaving very early the morning of April 10...that way we can get there Saturday night sometime. Right now my hubby is working on finding a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia that we can stay at Friday night. I have never been there either! This is going to be a great trip. I can't wait.

Tonight while we were talking about our trip we decided that we are going to go and stay a night on the ocean. So we will be leaving Orlando on Tuesday and we are going to go to Daytona Beach and stay the night. We can put our feet in the ocean. I have never stayed in a hotel on the ocean (at least not that I can remember). I feel like a little kid again...excited over a vacation. LOL :-)

I will be taking the computer with me and I will be putting pictures on here all thru out vacation, but that is still two months away. I know that I will talk more about it too before it actually happens. :-)

Iced Honey Bun

2009-01-30T18:26:00.003-05:00

Alright, this is going to be more of an "I can't believe this" post...but really I can't believe this.

I was at work and picked up this big Iced Honey Bun. It looked really good and I knew that I shouldn't eat it. Well, I put it aside and said I will eat this tomorrow.

I went and looked at the Nutrition chart...my eyes just about popped out of my head when I read the calorie content. I don't even want to tell you (especially because now I don't want to eat it)...it was.....958 calories. You read that right 958. And that is just the calories..nothing else. Alright, well, it had 102 grams of Carbs. I don't think that I need to eat this anymore. I think that it will sit in the cupboard for a long time. Or maybe I will make it last for 2-weeks and eat one bite every day. But I could not eat that in one day. NO WAY!!!

And yes, I will update with a picture later tonight or sometime this weekend so that you can see the proof of the chart.

Alright, I guess I am done ranting about this. But I just couldn't believe it.

Craigslist

2009-01-26T23:22:00.002-05:00

Tonight was my night of taking pictures and listing items on Craigslist. I am hoping to sell a lot before I have a garage sale in June. I just hate having to hold onto it for that long. And the items are way to nice to just take to goodwill. So we will see what happens.

Some of the things that I have listed are baby boy items, birthday items, a men's suit, some junior's clothes and I think that I am going to list a couple of throw pillows. But I am not sure.

I do know that I will be taking a trip to goodwill sometime this week. I have two boxes of VHS tapes that no one wants. I will keep a few and see if I can sell them. I would hate to see them just get pitched. But who knows??

So if you are looking for anything just let me know..I may just have what you are looking for!!!

I am in need of Newspapers!!

2009-01-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

Hello!

I am looking for Newspapers from this week so that I can have them for this historic presidential inauguration.

Not only do I want them for my son, I am going into teaching and would love to have them for my classroom when I have a teaching job.

Any and all would be appreciated.

I am mainly looking for Wednesday from everywhere and Monday thru wednesday in Kalamazoo.

Inauguration Day 2009

2009-01-20T12:41:00.003-05:00

Today is a day that a lot of us have been waiting for. We have been waiting for 8 years for this!!

I don't know where you have been today, but I have been watching the Inauguration...a piece of history. And I have recorded it for my son. For the day that we can say, this happened when you were 2 years old. I have also been keeping the newspapers leading up to this. As this is big...really big.

So I am happy to say that I can't wait to see what this next year brings us.

OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA

What must get done this week..

2009-01-19T23:31:00.002-05:00

Alright, so this week my husband had to go to work. He is somewhere in Wisconson..and working on some machine.

So while I am here in Michigan I am going to do some work of my own. I MUST get our bedroom cleaned. This is something that has needed to be done for a really long time and now is the time. I just need to figure out when I am going to get it all done. I would love to have it done before my hubby comes home, but I doubt that will happen.

I am going to be taking a lot of stuff to goodwill and trying to organize the stuff that I have for a June garage sale. Yes, I have stuff for a garage sale already. I am crazy, but I love to make a little bit of extra money.

I am sure that I will be posting a lot of new things on Craigslist as i have had some success with that in the past. I just need to get a lot of "stuff" out. And I want my hubby to be able to see that I have done it. And I want him to be proud of me.

Donny's Favorite Things

2009-01-18T23:19:00.013-05:00

I thought that I would do a post of things that Donny really likes right now. That way I have it and I will always remember it. I wish that I would have done this a long time ago and just kept updating it. But, I didn't, so I will just start it now.

Here we go:

1. Handy Manny Tool Kit.... He loves being able to help out wherever he can. Especially if it involves needing to use his tools. I would have to say his favorite tool is Pat the Hammer.

2. Handy Manny TV show. That is all that we watch on tv anymore. I must admit, it is a really good show and I love the fact that Donny is learning new things from it. I just wish that we could get some new shows out pretty soon!!!

3. Ford Mustangs...doesn't matter new or old...he loves them. He loves his "Knight Rider"..it goes fast and it can fly!!

4. Max the Dog from the Grinch who Stole Christmas. We bought this stuffed animal in Dec of 2006...we still have him and he still loves him. The only problem is that we only have one of them and I don't know what we are going to do if we lose him. That is going to be a very sad day.

5. Scooby Doo Fruit Snacks...oh my goodness...these are the best thing ever!! He loves them, but he only gets them on occasion!! But I do love when they are on sale!!

6. Books...he loves to read with his mommy and I love to read to him. He got a lot of books for Christmas and he loves them all!! Here are just a few that he likes a lot:

So, what I will do is in a couple of months I will do another list. That way I know what is his top toy all the time. And I can then print it off and have it for a scrapbook.

Where was blogger when I was pregnant and when I had a newborn? I would have loved to have done this for 2 years now. Oh well..what can I say..

Enjoy!!

Twilight

2009-01-17T22:42:00.003-05:00

Well, I have wanted to read this book, so I broke down and used my gift card at Barnes and Noble and bought it. I am really excited about reading this book.

I will go ahead and give you a review every so often and let you know what I think of the book. I am just hoping that I get into the book and can't put it down. I love books like that.

Another book that I bought tonight was by Nicholas Sparks:

I love reading a good Nicholas Sparks book also. So when I am done with Twilight, I will go to this. Then I will have to go back to the store and buy New Moon. That is the second in the Twilight series.

I love Barnes and Noble...but I love to read.
So if anyone has any good book suggestions for me..please let me know!!!

Another Video (or a few)

2009-01-10T21:37:00.003-05:00

This is for Father's Day 2007

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Don and Sara:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Donny from June to August 2006:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Looking back

2009-01-10T20:12:00.006-05:00

Ok, so as I sit here not feeling well and with not a whole lot to do, I thought that I would put some videos up of Donny when he was 'little". I would make these and then want to put them on DVD...well, I haven't done that yet. I am just happy that I can still view them.

You will want to turn the volume off on the playlist and listen to the videos.

This first one is from may 24, 2006 to June of 2006.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The New Potty Chair

2009-01-06T23:18:00.003-05:00

Wow...My little boy is growing up. How is that possible. He was just born yesterday, right? How is it that he is two and a half?

So we have been talking to him about going on the potty and telling him that he gets to wear big boy underware if he goes on the potty..well he got really excited about it. So we will see what happens.

He even got some new Handy Manny big boy pants!!! He already has some Thomas and Cars.

So I will keep you all updated on the potty training progress.

Please keep us in your thoughts

New Year...New Me

2009-01-04T00:56:00.002-05:00

Alright, so I have decided that I am going to exercise more this year. I did really well last summer with it, but I didn't stick to it. And now I am going too. With Florida just around the corner, I am going to get rid of this baby belly that I have left over and get to feeling better about myself also.

So as of right now, I walked one mile on Friday the 2nd and I used my exercise ball on Saturday the 3rd.

So that means that tomorrow I will be walking. I am going to try to do the exercise ball at least 2 to 3 times a week...and then walk every day.

My goal in to lose at least 15 lbs, that might change when I weigh myself in the morning. We will see.

So I will keep you all updated as to how this is going for me. If there is anyone that would like to join me, please let me know. I would love to have other people there to encourage me and push me along!!

2008 Review

2009-01-01T19:01:00.010-05:00

Wow!!

Where did 2008 go?? It by way too fast.

Many things happened this year to our family, some good...some not so good.

January was a good month. My husband got a new job..so this brought our family new opportunities. He was going to be traveling more, but we were ok with that.

February was a month that nothing good or bad happened. Don kept having to go to a customer up in Shelby, Mi and it was really cold. I was still working at the pet store and there was talk of me possibly quiting by summer to stay home with our son.

March...started out as a good month...ended as a not so good month. Don was still traveling and I was working full time. At this point I was beginning to train at work for a Management position. I was so excited for this. One Tuesday morning while I was bowling, I got a phone call saying that our store would be closing down in 10 days. I was devastated. I couldn't believe it. So as of March 28 SuperPetz was closed.

April...for the two weeks I was at work packing and emptying the store. It was so weird to be doing. After that, I did some job searching to come up with nothing. Don and I had decided that I could wait until fall to get a job and be a SAHM for the summer. What an awesome, awesome thing to do. Don was still traveling and there are now talks of him going to Spain. Crazy

May..A great month. Our son turned 2 this year. Where has the time gone?? He had a great Thomas the Train party and he got a big Thomas the Train bed...how cool is that. We also started our drag racing season back up. I am so happy that I was able to go to all of the races this month!!

June...Family vacation time. We went to Columbus, Ohio and to Ft. Wayne, Indiana for a week. We had a great week and Donny is such a good little traveler. He loves to go to hotels and he loves the pool!!! I am enjoying being a SAHM and I love being able to do whatever I want during the day!!

July...A tough month. Don was in Spain all month. With it being a six hour time difference (him being ahead of us) it was tough to know when we were going to talk to each other. We did have our web cams and that was good. We talked every day around 1pm (7pm Spain time)...I also ended up not falling asleep until about 2am...knowing that he was going to be online before he went to work..(between 6am and 8am) But we had a good month of going to the beach walking and being with friends.

August...Don came home and was home for a week before he had to go anywhere again. It was nice. Donny and I again had a great month going outside and playing. I must admit that we both got a pretty nice tan this year...thinking that we must try and keep it up and do that again next year!!! We had our racing this month too. Don did really well and we were sitting in the 5th or 6th spot by the end of the month. We only needed two really good races and we could be in 4th spot and able to go to finals!!!

September...Labor Day weekend we went to Grand Rapids and had a blast. We went to the zoo and tried to go to the beach. But we didn't want to park six miles away and have to walk. So we waited on that. We had a couple of races left and guess what?? DON MADE IT TO THE FINALS!!!! These were set for the last weekend in September and man was that a long weekend. Thursday thru Sunday. We didn't know how he was going to do seeing that he was going up with a car that he had never raced...his Mustang that he built the motor for...but hey go for it right?? We had a blast, spent all day up there and watched a lot of racing and did a lot of screaming!

And all of the screaming was worth it. My hubby finished 3rd!!!!! And truthfully, he finished 1st in the street class for Martin because he was the only street car left from our track!!!!

Way to go Don!!

September also brought me a new job. I am now a teachers assistant at our church's daycare. I am sooo happy to be back with children. I think that that is what I am supposed to be doing no matter what. And I love it.

October...Fall...It is getting colder and the days are getting shorter. Oh but wait a minute. Did I just hear that we are supposed to have 70 degree weather the second weekend of the month!?!?! That is so unbelieveable, but we will take it. And guess what we did, we went to the beach!!! Yes, we took Donny to see Lake Michigan for the first time. And he loved it. He loved sitting in the sand and playing with it. He loved seeing all of the big boats. And I loved being a family and having fun.

I am still at the day care part time and Don is still traveling, but everything is working out really well. We are getting our weekends together and that is awesome.

Halloween came along and Donny was our little bumble bee. I got the costume off of Craigslist and I was so happy that I did. It was free and it looks brand new!!! When we went Trick or Treating on Halloween, it was about 60 degrees out, it was awesome!!!

November...A time to be thankful. We are very thankful that we both have a job and that we have a family that is so willing to help us out when we need it. We are also thankful that we got to go to Chicago for Thanksgiving. That was such a nice little trip away for us and it was a nice time with family.

It was also my birthday...I turned 25 this year. Wow...25..that is half way to 50...AGHHHHHHH....LOL...No, I had a great birthday, even if my husband wasn't home. He did send me flowers though and that was the best present.

December...Already?? Where did the year go. It is now time to think about Christmas and all of the gifts that need to be bought and wrapped. And a time to be with family and celebrate the real reason for the Christmas season...the birth of Jesus.

It is also a very hard time of year for me also. December 8th marked that 9 year anniversary of my Daddy passing away. I cannot believe that it has been 9 years. Where has the time gone? And I still miss him like crazy, actually I miss him more and more every day. I am always thinking about how much he would have loved his little Grandson. And I know that he is watching over all of us every single day of the year....I LOVE YOU DADDY!!!!

And my year ended on a sad note for me. On Christmas Eve I found out that my kitty that I have had since I was 1o had passed away. I loved that cat so much. That was my Rufis. I will always have the memories though and I will never forget them. He was my cat and I don't think that any other cat can replace him. There will be a new cat at my mom's house someday which is a good thing, but it won't be Rufis. We will miss you Rufis and all of the silly things that you did.

I tried not to let anything ruin Christmas though. And everything turned out great. We all got what we wanted and then some. Donny loved everything and I must admit, Santa is one awesome guy. He knows my son way to well...Thanks Santa!!

But on a better note, we did go to an awesome party on New Year's Eve. We went to my Sister-in-laws house for a party. It was small, but that was ok. It was fun to get out. Thanks for a great time everyone!!
So here it is New Year's Day....And here is to hoping that this year is awesome and filled with many memories.

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Morning!!

2008-12-25T23:00:00.006-05:00

Well, we had a very nice Christmas....everything went very well. Donny got a lot of nice things and I must admit....Santa did a very good job on the presents that he got him. I got an exercise ball..I am sooo excited about that. I am going to start using that and hopefully get rid of this belly that I have. I would love to be back to my pre baby weight and I am going to do it!!! At least this time around. LOL... I also got some scrapbooking items. That just means that I need to get my butt in gear and get back to scrapbooking. I am a little behind, I haven't gotten past when Donny was 5 months old and he is now 2 and a half. That is a lot of pictures that need to be done.

So here are some pictures from Christmas morning:

Here is the tree after Santa had come. That is a lot of gifts, but that is also two families with gifts under that tree...so that could explain something.

Here is Donny opening his first present on Christmas morning. He just couldn't wait. He wanted to get at all of them as fast as he could. I really didn't have to help him at all unwrap any of his gifts, he acts like he has done this a time or two before....

So very excited over the wooden Thomas the Train set that we got him!!!!

Donny's second gift was a very large Mustang Shelby GT 500KR...that would be the exact car from the tv show Knight Rider...what an AWESOME Mustang!!!
As you can tell, he loved it!

My boy just being cute for me, plus he was excited about his new car!

Donny decided that he needed to put a show on for us and he took this gift bag and wrapped himself...then he proceded to sit down and then throw it off and yell peek a boo!!! It was adorable!!!!

Well, one gift that Donny asked Santa for was an orange bowling ball...well, guess what Santa has pulled thru again and Donny got an orange bowling ball. He also asked for the Handy Manny bowling set and he got that from Aunt Stacy. I didn't have the camera on him when he opened that, but it was priceless. He was jumping up and down because he got it!!!!

And the last thing that Santa brought was a lego Thomas kit. Donny loves it. And it is sooo easy to put away and be able to get it back out when he wants to play with it again.

We also got Don this..he just couldn't tell us anything that he wanted for Christmas so when Donny and I were out shopping one night we found a faceplate for his Guitar Hero guitar. It was a great deal and I just couldn't pass it up. I am glad that I bought it, he did tell me that he thought I would buy it, bit that he had no idea that it was under the tree!!! I did something that he didn't know about..that is the best present right there. But he did like it!!!

So, yes, I would have to say that this Christmas was a good one. Another neat thing that Donny got was a crayon box. Well, this was no normal crayon box, this was the crayon box that I had as a child. My mom took and repainted it and put Thomas all over it and Donny name. She also wrote a cute little poem up and put it on the bottom so that someday down that road Donny will know where his coloring box came from. It is awesome to see him with things that were mine. I love that!!

I hope that your Christmas was great too. And I hope that you enjoy everything that you got!!

Christmas Eve 2008

2008-12-25T14:42:00.008-05:00

Christmas Eve Already....where has the time gone? Crazy how time flies when you are having fun.

Tonight was our annual Bronson Park visit. A tradition that was started when I was a little kid and something that we are going to continue as a family. I love it. And this year was great because Donny loved the lights. So we were getting ready to leave and we had to take some pictures before we left. And of course we never got an open-eyed smile from Donny.

So who do you think that Donny looks like more? His Mommy or his Daddy? You be the judge....

I have always heard that he is my little twin and man do I believe it.

So we were on our way and oh man was it cold. Michigan weather is just crazy and today was one of those crazy days.
Rain one minute and then snow the next...with a lot of wind.

We finally made it down there and it is still just as pretty as I remember it. The only thing that is different is that you can't get right up next to the nativity. Way to many problems with it. But we did see it and we wished Baby Jesus a Happy Birthday!! One funny thing is that someone has put a pink hat on the angel above Jesus and Baby Jesus has two blankets on it. So someone went in and did that. We tried to get a picture of Donny by the nativity, but because it was so windy, he wouldn't look at the camera. So, maybe next year we will get that picture.

Out next stop was candy cane lane. And if it weren't for the ice on the sidewalk I think Donny would have walked down it. But with his first step, he was down. Luckily he had a lot of padding and I don't think that it really bothered him.

Out of all the pictures that we took by the candy canes, this was my favorite!! I love that we are looking at each other and laughing. It is an awesome picture. I must thank my wonderful hubby for it!! I am just glad that we got down there. This was such a special tradition to me as a child, that I want my son to know and hopefully continue the tradition someday. We have since added getting chinese food to the tradition. Seeing that that is all that is open by the time that we are on our way home. Also, Donny told us that he saw Santa fly by. I didn't even see him last night, so that is pretty good. We did tell him that he is fast and you have to watch carefully for him. I am so proud of this little boy. He amazes me more and more every day! We had some of Donny's lunch leftover from earlier and that is what he ate for his dinner.

Another tradition that we have continued on with our son, is that he gets a pair of pj's every Christmas Eve. I always got pj's and I loved being able to open that one gift before Christmas. This year he got a red pair of footed jammies from The Children's Place that had snowglobes all over it. He loved being able to open it. Then of course we had to put them on. And at first I thought that they were going to be too big, but they actually fit perfectly. And they are a size 3T...my little boy is getting way too big!! They are super soft and he looks adoreable in them.

Even if he does have a crazy look on his face, he is still adorable!!!

So we had a great Christmas Eve and we are hoping for an even better Christmas. We know that we have been really good this year, so Santa should be bringing plenty of good toys for us to play with. Who knows, maybe he will even bring us something that needs to be built or needs batteries. That is always the case, but guess what...we stocked up on batteries this year, so we shouldn't have any problems with that.

So we hope that you all have a great holiday and a very Merry Christmas...we hope that you get everything that you wanted and maybe even a few surprises.

From our house to yours....MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! FROM THE KINNEY FAMILY!!!!

Sad day

2008-12-24T11:47:00.002-05:00

Today is a sad day....my kitty passed away. Rufis P. Jones was almost 17 years old. He was my kitty and I loved him...

I found this poem and I believe that it is true...

The Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author Unknown

6 Years

2008-12-22T21:33:00.002-05:00

Wow, I cannot believe that it has been six years since we got married. Were did the time go??? It was 6 years ago yesterday that Donny and I got married....and we were off to Chicago. That is where we took our honeymoon.

And here we are...we have a beautiful family and we couldn't ask for more.

We are happier than ever and we are more in love than ever.

Sorry that this is so short...will write more tomorrow...

What a great find!!!

2008-12-14T10:49:00.004-05:00

I just found this awesome giveaway that is great for all you moms with kids. If your kids are anything like my son, a new movie is never out of the question....

At this site you can enter to win a DVD Bundle...how awesome is that???

So please go check it out and good luck to all of you!!!!

http://www.mommafindings.com/2008/11/christmas-dvd-bundle-giveaway.html

Usborne Books eShow

2008-12-13T22:21:00.001-05:00

This show is still going on to anyone that is interested!!!

You're Invited to Shop…
Hostess Sara Kinney's Usborne Books eShow
CLICK HERE TO START SHOPPING
Address: www.ubah.com/HOS132250

...and discover
TEN GREAT REASONS
to love Usborne Books

10
There’s something for everyone
From enchanting baby board books to puzzle books to a variety of interactive encyclopedias that stretch the imagination,
there is an Usborne book for every child
(including the child within us all).

9
Research Guides Usborne
Usborne books are designed with the latest child development research in mind.

8
Beautifully Illustrated
A high ratio of color and pictures to words, and beautiful illustrations and photography
draw even the most reluctant readers to reading!

7
Outstanding Quality
We proudly offer books that are unsurpassed in quality, content, illustrations and photography.
Usborne books are printed on acid free paper, so the pages will last forever!

6
Lifetime guarantee
Just in case your book is colored in, ripped, or even dropped in the toilet;
We offer lifetime replacement guarantee for 50% of replacement cost.

5
Great Value – Great Gifts!
80% of our titles are under $10.
You’ll find you’re getting a terrific value for your money.
(fun + reading + learning = priceless!)

4
Commercial Free
You won’t find the latest cartoon characters or movie titles in our books.
You’ll just find fascinating, interesting, and stimulating information, photos, and activities that your family will love!

3
Bring Reading to You Child’s Tech World
While Internet access is not required for Internet-linked books,
these links provide a TON of additional cool interactive activities on nearly every two-page spread.
Want to put a skeleton together or create an earthquake?
Just log into the quick links that are maintained by Usborne.
They are content appropriate, up-to-date, and a fantastic tool for school projects or just for fun!

2
Book Awards
Click here to read the accolades from educator and parent organizations around the world.
They are evidence of Usborne’s continued commitment to impact the lives of children.

!*** 1 ***!
Kids LOVE them, Teachers LOVE them,
and YOU will love them too
Once you put your hands on Usborne books, you'll see why these are the books kids return to time and time again.

So, grab a cup of coffee, kick back, and shop from the comfort of your own home!

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

2008-12-13T16:21:00.002-05:00

Wow...whoever thought that I would actually have a day to do NOTHING???

We didn't go and do anything today....Not exactly what I had planned on, but that is ok too. I need a day to do nothing. I do have bowling tonight, but that is something for me...and I enjoy that.

Now tomorrow on the other hand is going to be crazy. I have church and then I have to meet a friend to close out my jelwery party that I am having and then back to church. No rest for me tomorrow....

Well, my hubby had to go to Kentucky Thursday night. He will be home tomorrow night at like 9:30pm, but then has to leave Monday afternoon to go to Minnesota. But he will be home the weeks of Christmas and New Years. So I am thankful for that.

This is short for today...off to work on Christmas cards. Need to get those out ASAP!!!

This Crazy Michigan Weather!!

2008-12-09T11:52:00.009-05:00

"So this is what you were telling me mom!!! I love the snow!!"

Well, on Saturday we got a lot of snow. We had a Winter Storm Warning all day long and man did it snow.

I went to the craft show at Wings Stadium and it was snowy and cold when we went in. But it was really snowy and cold when we came out.

I was lucky enough to get Donny's snowpants about a week and a half ago...was I lucky or what. Now he loves to go outside and walk in the snow!! He even has Spiderman boots that light up. He picked those out himself. :-)

This was when we were leaving to go out for the evening. Donny wanted to walk in the snow so bad...so I let him and of course I had to take a picture of it. :-)

Later that evening we went to Meijers. We had to do a little Christmas shopping and plus we needed to get something for dinner. It was quite fun doing our shopping. I kept ditching my cart somewhere and my son kept wondering where it was. I finally got everything that I needed and went and checked out. I had to take all of the Christmas presents that I just bought to the truck. It was not snowing that bad so I thought that we were fine to go and get some dinner afterwards. I headed back inside, because we had to get milk and a few other groceries. We checked out and headed for the truck...OH MY GOODNESS!!! It was snowing soooo hard..it was crazy. I mean it was blowing and snowing and everything. We started to leave and it was white out conditions.

I took this picture of Donny as we were headed out to the truck. He was loving it. It was snowing on him. it was snowing so hard that I bet there was already an inch or so of snow on the truck. And I was just outside maybe 15 minutes before this.

It snowed like this for about two hours, if not a little longer. But it was very pretty. We love the snow. We can't wait to get out and play in it.

After we got home I decided that I would take some pictures of the snow.

So here is my husbands car buried in the snow. It has been sitting there now for about two weeks. And I am sure that it is going to be sitting there for a few more. I do know how to drive it (yes, I learned how to drive a stick shift vehicle) but, I am just not comfortable driving it in the winter. I hate driving it in the rain...I can just imagine that I would really hate driving it in the snow. So, it might just have to wait til Spring!!! I have the Tahoe to drive and I love it. I never thought that I could like such a big truck, but I do. Also, I may even be racing this little red car next year at Martin, so be prepared...I may just kick your butt!!

I have always liked taking pictures showing how deep the snow is. Well, my husband decided that he was going to help in the driveway by driving back and forth and packing the snow down. Well, he got everything, but he did leave a spot and I was able to show everyone how deep the snow was. I would say that by Saturday evening we had a good 10-12 inches of snow on the ground. And it all came sooo fast.
I love winter...It is very pretty. I just don't like driving on the icy roads.

So, we got up and went to church on Sunday and everything was covered in snow. It was beautiful. But the forecast was that it was going to start getting warmer and there was a chance of freezing rain. Another part of winter that I don't like.

On Sunday, we were able to go the whole day with no advisories, watches or warnings. But when I woke up Monday morning, we had a Freezing rain advisory. Just what I needed on a busy day. I had school, jazzercise, a drs appointment and our Christmas dinner for work last night. The whole day was going good and it started to snow around 3pm. Then it stopped. By last night when I had to go into Portage, it was already up to 32 degrees. And the roads were wet and it was starting to rain. :-( There goes all of our snow. Now here it is Tuesday, and it has been raining for most of the day. Not exactly what I wanted to see in December, but what can you do. We live in Michigan. And one day it could be 80 degrees and the next it could be snowing and 10 degrees.

So now we sit and wait. Wait to see when it will snow again. I don't think that it will be today. But when it does come, I can tell you that we are going to be going outside and playing in it. Donny can't wait. And to tell you the truth, neither can I.

Friday Night

2008-12-05T21:24:00.002-05:00

Where did this week go? This week just flew by. Even though I really felt like I was a day behind.

I have been sick all week and I think that today and yesterday were my two worst days with it. I really don't like cold season. Especially when your cold turns into a sinus infection. I was in sooo much pain today and finally my headache is gone. That was at like 6:30 tonight. That is crazy it took all day to go away. Now I just hope that it doesn't come back.

Well, tonight I am babysitting and it is so much fun. I not only have Sam...but I have his three cousins too. Taylor, Morgan and Lauren.

We had Hungry Howies pizza for dinner and we had cookies for dessert. We then played Wii Sports. That was a lot of fun. I bowled with them...twice..the first game I had a 148 and then I figured it out and got a 173. I think that I bowl better in real life to tell you the truth. :-)

Now we are relaxing and watching Liar Liar. What a Jim Carry classic. I forgot how funny it was.

I am hoping that the snow holds off until tomorrow because I really don't want to drive home in it tonight. That is never fun. But yes, we do have a Winter Storm Warning until noon or something on SUNDAY. Snow, snow, snow. I love it and all...but I hate the cold. Today when I got out of work it was 17 degrees. And the windchill is 1 degree. I don't like that.

Alright, I am off to finish watching Liar, Liar.

Our Thanksgiving weekend

2008-12-02T12:25:00.008-05:00

Well, we took a little vacation to Chicago to be with our family. It was great. We left Thursday morning and we were to Uncle Bill and Aunt Judy's house by 12:30 (1:30pm our time). The Detroit Lions were already on the tv...we did sit and watch them lose yet another game. How pathetic. But anyways, we were there and ready to relax and be with family.

We were kinda worried about Donny because he had thrown up two times on the way down there. We think now that it was just car sickness..or at least we are hoping that that is all it was. We did buy him a new portable DVD player and he was watching that and he was right next to the window..which is new to him. SO..we will see what happens on the next trip.

But we did get there and have a great time...Donny got to play with all of his cousins and he even found that Aunt Judy had vroom-vrooms. He was sooo happy. I think that the best on would be the shopping cart. That was just cool. :-) But other than that one..Donny liked them all. He likes whatever cars he can find to play with. He even had an old VHS tape rewinder that was a car that he played with. He liked that he knew how to open it up.

In this picture is my hubby playing cars with a few of the kids. Our son, our nephew Matthew, our niece Emily, and cousin Zayden.

This is what a foot stool is good for..a parking lot!!!

As for our dinner...it was great. And oh man was there a lot of food. Turkey, ham, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and I don't even know what else. For dessert we had like 6 or 8 pies to choose from. It was all sooo good. Donny did ok, but we knew that he was getting tired, as he didn't sleep a lot on the way down. So we ended up leaving around 7pm to go to the hotel. Donny was very happy. He LOVES going to hotels.

Here is Donny at the hotel ready to play cars on the big bed. So that is what we did. We thought that he would be going to sleep early, but he didn't end up falling asleep until about 10:30 (which would have been his normal time back at home..11:30pm) But he did sleep all night and I am guessing that he was the only one that got a good night sleep. I was very very sore when I woke up Friday morning. That bed was hard as a rock!!!

One thing that he was very disappointed about was that the hotel didn't have a pool. He loves swimming...but when there is no pool, that is kinda difficult. So we have promised him that the next time we go away that we will make sure there is a pool at the hotel.

After we woke up and went to breakfast, we went back to Uncle Bill's house. They had soo many neat things to see and do. They even had a dog!! How cool is that. His name was Kazz...and he liked to lick people. Donny got licked a few times. He thought that it was really funny. He has proceded to tell us that he wants a dog for Christmas. How funny, we go from a bowling ball to a dog. Uhmm wonder what he will get.

We were at Uncle Bill's until about 4:30 pm on Friday. We spent the day relaxing. After breakfast we did end up going to Wal-Mart. It wasn't that crazy, but crazy enough. I am glad that I didn't get up and go at 4am...that would have been even crazier. But we got some Christmas shopping done for Donny. He will like what we bought. We went back to the house and just veged. Donny took a two hour nap and I should have. But before Donny feel asleep, he played with this horse that was in the living room. He loved it. ------>

( I think that I may consider this photo for our Christmas card..what do you think?)

He even found a cute little blue chair that we are thinking of buying him for the livingroom at our house. We think that he would like his very own chair.

So, after he woke up and was around, we got going. Packed up the Tahoe and we were off. Headed back for Kalamazoo. I fell asleep on the way home, but Donny didn't. We got back into Michigan and decided that we needed something to eat. So we stopped at a Cracker Barrel. That was pretty nummy. And Donny wanted to go and look around in the shop. So we did and I bought some really cute ornaments. I can't wait to put them up.

Donny liked playing the peg game at the table while we were waiting for our food. I must admit, this little boy loves to travel and he does one awesome job when we are.

I think that our next big adventure will take us to Florida. We are trying to plan that for the spring of 2009. I can't wait to take Donny there. It is going to be soo much fun .

But we had a very relaxing Thanksgiving and we are thankful that we all got to be together. It was very nice.

Now it is time to think about our next holiday...Christmas. What a busy time of the year. Hope your holiday was great too.

Relaxing afternoon

2008-12-01T14:37:00.002-05:00

So, I am finally able to relax.

I had school this morning and I baby-sat at Jazzercise..then it was on towards home. I am really glad that I had nothing to do today. I just don't feel good today. I have a really bad headache.

My son is sleeping and my husband is in the livingroom working on his computer. So I sit here with Wonder Pets on (that is what my son was watching and I just haven't turned it off yet) thinking about what I should do next. I think that I am going to get some mail together to get out and then I think that I will be taking a tiny nap myself.

I know later tonight we will be going out to get my husband's rental car, as he is going to Cleveland tomorrow. He will be home on Wednesday evening. That is not too bad. We will miss him though. I also would like to stop at Hallmark. I need to buy an ornament for an exchange that I am doing. SO we will see.

I guess I am off to relax now. Maybe I will have something interesting to write about later. As the brain really doesn't want to work right now.

Oh, and I will get some more pictures up too.

Usborne Books eShow

2008-11-30T23:08:00.002-05:00

I am having an eShow for Usborne Books...these books are awesome. I am very happy with the books that I have bought my son.
This show that I am doing is open for a year and the books will change monthly..so please keep an eye out on it. You never know when something you like shows up. Also, this is all children's books...I know there are a lot of kids out there that love to read...so please check this out..

Starting a blog..an introduction

2008-11-30T22:07:00.000-05:00

This is all new to me, but I see so many people creating them, that I thought that I would give it a try. So, the first few may not be all that impressive, but I am hoping to get better with it.

So I guess I will let you know about my family. I am Sara...mama, wife and friend. My husband is Don and we have a 2 and a half year old little boy Donny. He is our pride and joy...we love him so much.

Don and I in South Haven in October '08

Donny on the beach in South Haven October '08

My husband works for a company called Bossar. He travels every week (for the most part) and is home on the weekends. It is tough but we are getting more used to it I guess. I used to work full-time at SuperPetz, but as of March, they closed down. I then became a SAHM and I love it. In September, I did go out and get a part-time job at our churches daycare and I am so happy that I did. I forgot how much I love working with kids. I am also going to school part-time. I only have one class right now and I am trying to get one class for next semester...so we will see. Sooner or later I will get my degree...and I will be the teacher that I always wanted to be.

Here we are with our little bumble bee

Donny is doing awesome. He talks about everything and he loves to play cars or trains. He especially loves Thomas the Train. Just this week he has really gotten into Christmas lights. So anytime we are out at night we must look for Christmas lights...it is sooo cute.

Donny our cute bumble bee!!!

I am hoping to keep this updated, as I would love for everyone to know what is going on.
Please keep checking back and please sign up to follow...we will always have something fun to read about.