Pickles & Ice Cream Blog Hop

Welcome to the Pickles & Ice Cream Blog hop. You have arrived at my page where you can get yourself a frame cluster I created for all of you. I hope you guys like it because I had a great time making it. Daybreak Scraps and Girl Boy Girl Designs made an awesome pregnancy kit and it was amazingly easy to play with. So, click on the images to get linked up to the kit and to get your free download.

Pickles & Ice Cream Collab
by Daybreak Scraps and Girl Boy Girl Designs

This layout was fun to make. I also used Emily Powers' Expecting template...because, well.. how could I not??

Here is your freebie. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave a comment if you love it!!

There are many stops on this blog hop so check out some of the other girls on the team and see what they created for you. Thanks for stopping by.

Dawn - Daybreak Scraps (sign up for her newsletter while you are there)
Jenn - Girl Boy Girl Designs
NancyC
Rebecca
Andrea
Deanna
Gail
Anna
Jewel
Karen
Monica

Times they are a changin'

Well, we got some big news last week. The news we have been waitinf for but hoping not to get. I guess that is only half trus. I have been hoping for some type of change for awhile this just wasn't quite the way it played out in my head, but I guess it will do. So, last Wednesday I got a call from Derek with the news that we had orders to Ft. Bragg, NC. No offense to anybody from N. Carolina but that is not where we had hoped to live. My first thoughts were of panic and desperation, but I quickly started getting used to the idea and checked out some maps. Here's a map of where it is located on the East Coast. I checked on mapquest and found that it is a 10 hour drive from Cleveland, so we will be able to visit Derek's family much more often. It is 9 hours from Orlando, so we can plan on at least 1 family vacation down there. And if a friend of mine's daughter goes to Florida, like she's considering, for college she'd be pretty darn close to people she knows if she ever misses home and a quick fix will do. We will be 2-3 hours from the beach and are already considering joining a friend of mine on their already planned vacation to Myrtle Beach. I know a lot of people who have been there, are already there, or are going there so we have a wealth of information about the area. that makes me feel much better. So here are a couple of maps:So, on this map you can see where Ft. Bragg is in N. Carolina. If you look South of Raleigh you'll see fayetteville. Ft. Bragg is the brown area next to it. We've been told to live on the west side of the base. We've been thinking about sending Derek off ahead of time to scope things out. We'll see how that works out. Right now we are still waiting for some of the shock to wear off. the shock has affected him more than it has me.
My family has been awesome. They have all vowed to visit often even if we were to find nothing to do there. Ethan is not very happy about leaving his friends but we've been talking about it and me and him have voted that we should live in an apartment so that we can have a pool. I thought that was a pretty groovy idea myself. We'll see what we can find. I think right now the most stressful thing is finding someone to rent our house and make sure that we will be okay financially. there is a lower cost of living there which also mean a lower rate of pay. Fortunately I can file for unemployment. That will be a huge help for us.

Another issue we have had is figuring out what to do as far as schools go. I have not yet heard anything great about schools and have been seriously considering homeschooling. This will be a HUGE change for us, but one I think we can handle as long as we can figure out everything else. So, our report date is July 11. Not far off. I have so many emotions about this I never know which one to feel. So, I've been trying to stay positive and find the good aspects of moving. It has been hard since I hear about Ethan being sad and Derek has been fighting it so hard. It has put me in the position to be our family uplifter. My family has been amazing. They are not even a little bit thrilled but they have been amazingly supportive through all of this, especially Alisha. The poor girl found out when she was all doped up on pain killers the day after major foot surgery. Not a good combination. But she's been awesome.

So, if any of you have any great info about Ft. Bragg, please share it with us. I would appreciate it. Oh, and for my family who noticed that the date will throw some plans off...don't worry. We are going to do everything we cann to make the family reunion still. In my head it is still working out. Ih ope it stays that way.

Here are some pics of the kids that are kinda fun. Love you all!!

Addie had this ball and somehow it broke. But between the two of them and Uncle Jack they came up with a new use for it!!

Addie is watching a UFC fight. I couldn't get over how into it she was. She couldn't take her eyes off the TV!!

Here are the kids making some mashed potatoes and in picture 2 you just know Ethan has to cheese it up!!

Thanks for looking guys!!

Happy Monday - baby butt pic warning!!! :)

So, today was a good day. I woke up, even though I didn't get a lot of sleep, due to a big fat nap yesterday, and it was sunny out and I was just happy. I got a new computer at work and a giant monitor. That is awesome. I'm loving that. The scrapbook site I spend a lot of time at is having a birthday party this week, which means lots of free stuff and lots of sales. Yay!! That rocks. Then to top it off I have the greatest pics ever for posting on the blog today. I am going to do my bestest to blog at least on Mondays. So if I don't harass me about it.

This is going to be a short week. Ethan has conferences this week so he only has school for 3 days so my sister scheduled her foot surgery for Tuesday so that I could possibly help out if I could while she is not moving around real well. turns out I could, so Ethan and I will be headed up to her house on Wednesday night and he'll be hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and I'll be chilling with my sissy poo getting her pain meds and food for a couple of days, and I'm sure watching lots and lots of chick flicks. Good times!! I love it!!

Well, I won't put off the greatest pics ever. Addie has taken to traveling down the hall on the bouncy ball with the handle lately upstairs. Well, last night she was traveling from our room to her room to get ready for bed and for whatever reason she had no clothes on so she was bouncing naked. You can't beat that. So, I had to photograph her little butt bouncing down the hall. Oh, and get this...I have an amazing child. I went into her room earlier that day and she randomly decided she should clean her room. No real reason and nobody told her too. She just decided it should be cleaned. Along with the bathroom. Wow!! Amazing child. So, here are the pics...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

So, I have no exciting pics to share with you this week. I thought I would. Ethan was so excited this weekend to go and help his school plant a garden, but when Derek took out the camera there was no SD card. Now I do think there is a card in the bag, but I haven't looked and so there are no pictures nonetheless.

But I do have something for you that I think is pretty good. I have a story that Ethan wrote at school. When Derek saw the title he got very upset with Ethan and said it was very inappropriate but after reading the story changed his mind. It is actually very cute and funny. Ethan's assignment was to write a funny story. Ethan's teacher wrote this about his story "What a silly story! It is full of great voice, personality + fun words." I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I am copying everything just as he wrote it without any corrections, except maybe some capital letters.

How My Sister Peed Her Pants
by Ethan Riggle 2/18/2010

Ssssssss! That is the sound of my sister peeing her pants. One day me and my sister were haveing a tickle fight and I got to start tickling her. Then I won and seriously I won like a race car champion and she lost like a really bad singer and I yelled Addie peed her pants like a valcano eruppted but my friend Tristan was over there so it was worse because Tristan saw it. That is how my sister peed her itty bitty underware.

The End

Also, I have some pictures up of our cruise. If you would like to see the pictures i have some links on Facebook. You don't need facebook to see these pics supposedly, so check these links out.

Hanging Out on the Ship
Jamaica
Grand Cayman
Miami
Ethan's Trip to the Mayan Ruins
Cozumel

Let me know if they don't work.

Valentine's Day Events

So, as promised, here is my Monday blogpost. I will be trying very hard to post something every Monday from now on. Hold me to it. If you don't see something from me on Monday send me e-mails saying...where's our blogpost????

So, we had some fun Valentine's Dayheppenings around my house. I am not a Hallmark Valentine's Day type. I am also not a couple's Valentine's Day type. I hate that it is supposed to be a day to do to an over booked restaurant, get overpriced flowers and go to an overcrowded movie theater. Just not my thing. So, since I had kids I decided to start focusing Valentine's Day on them and making it a family event. Now to go with the whole non-Hallmark holiday, you'll never believe this, but I don't buy Valentine's cards either. Big shocker, right? LOL!! So, last year we made little treat bags and so when Ethan asked if we were making treat bags again I got online to see what we were going to do. I can't remember who, but somebody posted a website for these awesome little "Treat Transmitters" aka robot valentines online. As soon as I saw them I knew they were the thing this year. When I got home I showed them to Ethan and he agreed that they were the thing to do this year. So, I bought everything and got all the prep work done so that the night before we could get them all put together so that Ethan could take them to school for his Valentine party. It went flawlessly. Addie even got to help and we had an assembly line set up at our table to put them together and Derek and I weren't even up all night long putting them together. We got to bed on time that night and even watched some TV before bed. It was awesome. I did got to bed with dried glue all over my fingers, but that's the price you pay to send your kid to school with robot Valentine's I guess. They came out really cute though and I got a call from one Ethan's classmate's parents a couple of days later that Ethan's robots were the hit of the party and Ethan said he got at least 15 comments about them. he was pretty excited about it. So here are the pictures of us making them and our Robot Army in the kitchen.To make them we used Cardstock for the bodies, sticks of gum for the arms, life savers for the eyes and starbursts for the feet. The Ethan wrote Happy Valentine's Day! From: Ethan, on the back while I wrote things like Hug Me, U-R-A-*, B-MINE, etc on the fronts.

Our Robot Army

So, like I said on Valentine's Day I like to do something with my family, not just do something with Derek. So this year with Valentine's Day being on Sunday, I thought that sounded like a great day for a brunch. So, after sending out an initial text message invitation to a list of people that Ethan gave me, we started planning. It was awesome. The food was great, the company was awesome. My sister came the day before to help me get everything set up (and do a little cruise shopping). We stayed up waaaaaaaaay to late and came up with some really bad ideas like fake gangster tattoos. We failed miserably at looking gangster and really just look lame, but I thought I'd share the pics with you anyway...don't judge us...it was very late at night. We were a bit delirius.The next morning Alisha did put this gorgeous unhealthy looking cake together. Don't let her fool you. She has some tricks to make it much less fattening. Isn't it yummy looking??

Alisha decided that everybody must have a tattoo and put herself in charge and so Jack decided for a day he could have his very own tramp stamp. Isn't it cute?? Can you believe we got proof? Niki is the best sport when it comes to playing with Addie. More than anybody she gets down on her hands and knees to play with Addie. Not that nobody else plays with Addie, but I've never seen this before. Addie has an imaginary baby she plays with and likes to pretend that she's the mommy and she is taking care of her baby. Well, here instead Niki got to be the baby and when Addie turned around Niki got up and hid. So Addie decided Niki was in big trouble and put her in time out and was scolding her about staying in bed when it was her bedtime. Then Addie told her that she still loved her and she could get out of the corner. Oh dear!! What have we gotten ourselves into with this little girl?? Jack on the other hand thought it was a good idea to stay put and not move with the other babies in bed. So, that was our Valentine's Day. Thank you everyone who celebrated Valentine's Day with us and took time out of your day to hang out with us. I know there were 4-5 of you who I said would get an invitation to in the mail and they didn't come...well, I thought I sent them last week, but I came in to work today and guess what...they are still sitting my desk. Oooops!! I did have them for you. They are addressed and ready to go. :) Let me know if you still want them. Ethan decorated them and has a little hand written poem in them that he came up with himself. I was going to mail all of them but ended up seeing some a large portion of the people who came at our "cruise dinner" or just didn't think to give you your invitation because we see you everyday.

Well, I hope everyone has a fantastic President's Day. I had to work today, but Derek has it off and is spending the day with Addie and Ethan has it off along with Tuesday and is spending it with his grandparents in Snohomish. Enjoy your week. Ciao!!

apologies

Yes, I know!! My poor blog has been highly neglected. So, I need to fix that. So I am going to start changing that and post every Monday with a weekly post of what has gone for the past week. Great way to start the week, right? So that is my newest plan. Hold me to it. If I fail to post kick me in the rear and let me know I have failed miserably. I will also try and load pics. I have been a horrible picture taker. I have a beautiful camera with no pictures on it. I am going on a vacation in 14 days so I'll have lots of picture to upload from that very soon. Yay!! Okay, see you all Monday!!

Happy Halloween

So, for halloween Addie was dead set on being a rock star and Ethan wanted to something scary, so he chose an alien. I had some ideas for Addie's costume running through my head but nothing major. Nothing in her costume except the hair color had to be bought in the Halloween section so I wasn't in a hurry...until I got sick last week. I didn't leave my house until Saturday morning, although I had planned to go last week during lunch. So Saturday morning Addie and I headed off to Target to come up with an outfit for her "Rockstar" costume. Ethan had his several weeks in advance, so that was easy and he had a mask and everything. easy breazy. I was sick as a dog and was counting down the minutes to make a doctors appt. I didn't really think I needed one but my mom was worried and I knew some better cough syrup with a little codeine to calm my cough so I could get some sleep wouldn't hurt. So we went to Target got a mish mash of stuff then headed off to the doctor. The doctor told me I wasn't allowed to go trick'o'treating. Whah!! I love taking the kids out. I was pretty bummed. So we went home and took a nap, well I took a nap while Derek chased Addie around the house not taking a nap. When I woke up I got Addie ready with the help of my friend Paige, my parents and Derek. Ethan's costume was pretty simple although needed a little bit of work to sit the way it was supposed to. After the little bit of work i had to do I thought my head was going to start spinning so I threw the kids out along with Derek and they went to a friends house up north about 10 miles for a kid Halloween party and some t'o't-ing and I had a quiet house. You would think it would be restful but feeling as crappy as I did and missing the kids get to be so cute and fun it wasn't as restful as i'd have liked. Plus I was hungry and having had been sick for the past several days all the easy food was gone so i had to actually think about what food to eat. Lame. I am ready to be healthy. But it sounds like the kids had a great time...although the candy givers were a little chincey with their reese's this year...not that I would know...it's not like I went and got candy or anything. LOL. Here's the pics of the kids getting ready and in their costumes.

Paige was a super duper rockstar hair stylist. 2 gold stars for sure!!

Gotta have the rock star crimping going on!!

She's got diva primping under control

Ethan is putting the Earth under his spell

Let's roll and be as difficult as possible for mommy to get pics of us

Ready to rock and roll

She's got down that diva pout, dang it...I had hoped she would miss that part

Addie had to do some practicing to get those little fingers to move right

Addie LOVED her rockin costume

Rock on dudes from outerspace!!

Rock on Nanoo

The silly rocker aliens

Addie has got her bag and is almost ready to go...now she just needs to find some shoes.

Ethan and Gabriel getting ready to do some trick'o'treatin'

Ethan is leading the way

Apparently addie needed some makeup. I wasn't there so I am guessing sunglasses.

Not sure why...but this picture just freaks me out. A little too rocker gone, I don't know what...just not right.

As long as she can still rock I guess we're doing okay.

The Pumpkin Patch

Every year I try and plan a trip to th epumpkin patch. Some years we go to a pumpkin patch by my parents house and other years we go by our house. There is a nice pumpkin patch about 5 minutes from our house. this year we thought we would try someplace different and went about 20 minutes from home to a place I had heard about the maze a little further south. Alisha decided to join us on our adventures and showed up in the middle of the night the night before. A fun little last minute addition to our plans. We got down Rutledge Farms and no one was there. It was awesome. It was the weekend before Halloween so we expected it to be packed. I always have to come up with a million reasons why we can't go until the last minute so that Derek doesn't carve the pumpkins to early. Otherwise we end up with moldy Jack-o-Lanterns.

The maze was awesome. The ground was packed down perfectly. No big mud holes or pits in the ground. The maze was pretty easy to follow and although Addie started on Derek's shoulders she quickly joined in and was running through the maze with everyone else. We had a blast.

After the maze we had to catch a ride on a horse drawn hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Now the pumpkin patch was definately lacking as was the entire rest of the field aside from the maze, but we were still able to find some good pumpkins and Addie thought the chickens were cook even if they had no feathers on their butts. They were mean chickens that seemed to pick on each other and pull out each others feathers. So although we will never go back to that pumpkin patch again, we had a great time and while complaining about what it lacked got some ideas of some new ones to check out next year. So here are the pics...

Getting started

Here began Ethan's obsession with the corn

Alisha posing on the bridge

A family pic on the bridge

These 3 were hiding in the corn waiting to jump out and scare us. Don't tell them...but we knew we were there.

Always looking adorable

Ethan captured his sis

Punching out a marker at a checkpoint in the maze.

Ethan talking to Addie while walking through the maze

The boys on the bridge

All the corn

Addie hanging out on a bridge looking at all the corn

Ethan was obsessed with the corn through the entire maze. What is it with kids and caring about the least important thing in an event.

No Ethan...Mommy takes the pictures and you stand and look cute!!

Ethan is always so sweet to his sister (well, almost always)

Being silly waiting to head over to the pumpkin patch

A family pic while we are waiting for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch

We had to take a hayride to the pumpkin patch from the maze area

Derek and Ethan are working together to find the coolest pumpkins

Ethan is on a mission to find the best pumpkin EVER!!!

This one looks waaay toooooo big!!

It looks like it could be a nice pumpkin

Uh oh...it might be too heavy

Addie's last test to see if she could lift it up

Addie made her decision

Ethan was checking out all sorts of pumpkins but this was the one he was pretty sure was the one

Ethan's final pumpkin choice

Ethan decided to hitch a ride to weigh in the pumpkins