My first reward!! 7/09

When I decided I was going to start exercising and losing weight, I set up a rewards system to help keep me on track. When I met my first goal, I rewarded myself with a pedicure. I'd never had one before. It was wonderful!! Here's a picture of my pretty feet.

Summer 2009

I haven't posted anything since March, so I guess it's time for a little catching up.

April and May was spent at Abbey's track meets. She ran the 800 meter and the 4x200. She really enjoyed it and plans to participate again next year.

In June, Mike and I enjoyed a week of vacation home by ourselves. The kids all went to spend the week with family in Parsons. They had a great time and we had a week of relaxation!!

In July, we went to World's of Fun with Stacie, Bryson and my nephew, Jonathan to celebrate Eli's 7th birthday. We stayed in a hotel suite, swam in the pool, and went to play mini golf in Parkville with Mike's brother and his family.

At the end of July, we went to Parsons to celebrate Mallory's 2nd and Jamie's 32nd Birthday's.

There never seems to be enough time in the day to post pictures...especially since I've started working full time. So, I thought I'd journal a little about the time that's past since I posted last. I'll try to add pictures later...I've got LOTS of them!!

November: We spent Thanksgiving at home in Marion. I really missed my family...it never seems like a holiday without them.

December: Spent a lot of time at basketball games!! We also visited PK the weekend before Christmas, but spent the majority of our time at the hospital b/c Grandpa Don and Grandma Charlie were both very sick. We had a nice Christmas at home with the kids.

January: Abbey celebrated her 13th birthday on the 17th and Mikey, his 40th on the 18th. Abbey and I took a couple of her friends to Newton to go skating and to the movies to see "Bride Wars". We had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday to Grandma Lynn, Uncle Mark, Nana, Alex, Meri, Kaitlyn, Uncle Paul, and Rinna-Roo as well!!! Tori also got second place in the school spelling bee. She went on to the county spelling bee in February.

Februaury: On Valentine's Day, Abbey's boyfriend, Taylor, took her and a couple of friends to the movie theatre in Newton to see "Friday the 13th"...she was spooked for a week!!! We also went shopping this month. Mikey got a new laptop and the kids got a Wii. Nothing for mommy...boohoo!! (Guess I'll just have to go shopping alone!!)

March: Well, it looks like I'm all caught up!! I'll post more later (hopefully, with pictures!!).

Basketball...already!?!

We didn't have much of a breather. Volleyball season ended. Abbey had a week off, then basketball practice started! She is really enjoying her new position this year. She's always played post in the past, but this year the coach is playing her as a wing. Tonight she even played a few minutes as point guard (which made her VERY nervous...and excited...lol). Her first game was exciting. She even scored 6 points!

Volleyball

Abbey's team had a pretty good volleyball season. They had a winning season. She really improved over the course of the season and even made the paper a few times for her serving points.

Family Fun

We went to PK for Stacie's baby shower this weekend. Here are some pictures from our visit.
On Friday night, we went to LCHS to watch my cousin, Keaton, play football.

Saturday afternoon we went to Stacie's baby shower. She is very excited that it is almost time to see Miss Braylea...we can't wait!! By the way, this isn't a picture from the shower...she was all dressed up...I didn't bring a camera to the shower...lol!!

Miss Mallory is growing fast. Here is a picture of her rocking her baby to sleep. She was singing to her...SO SWEET!!

We spent some time outside with the kids. The weather was beautiful.

On Saturday night we pulled out the karaoke. We had a blast!!

Jamie and Uncle Paul singin' some karaoke...

Jamie and Travis...

Eli and Ethan posing for the camera.

I love this picture of the boys walking away from the camera.

Jonathan and Ethan hanging out with the family...and probably getting into a little trouble...lol!!

While we were in PK, Abbey decided to stop by and pick up her BFF, Edie. She spent a few hours with us before we headed back to Marion.

Since Tori's birthday is in a few weeks, Aunt Jay had a present there for her to open...a Hannah Montana wig. I think she looks good as a blonde...

Mallory too!!

July 4th!

We had some friends over to help us celebrate the 4th of July, as well as, my nephew Jonathan. We had a cookout with TONS of food and the guys put on quite the fireworks display for us!!

Friends!

Abbey had her friend Rhyder from PK come up to stay with us for a week this summer. They had a slumber party so that she could hang out with all of her friends from MK.

Swim Team

The girls had a great time as part of the Marion Swim Team this summer.

Relay for Life

We went back to PK to take part in "Relay for Life". Here are a few pictures to share from our night in the park.

Cheeley Family Reunion

It was so great to see the family again...even though the weather was a little damp and we had to leave early with a sick little boy. We miss you all!

Responsibility

The kids really want a dog and I never had pets growing up, so we made a deal. If they could prove to me that they were willing and able to take care of the neighbor's puppy, even when it wasn't so convenient, I'd consider getting a pet. So far...not so good, but they are working on it.

Cookout Surprise!

When we went to cookout for the first time this summer - this is what we found in our grill.

This is Tori and her best friend, Emily, singing at their spring concert.

This picture is from Eli's Spring Program "How Does Your Garden Grow". The kindergarteners were farmers, the first graders were flowers, and the second graders were weeds.

Field Trip

For Eli's kindergarten class trip we went to the zoo in Wichita last week. We had a great time. All of the animals were active, which made for a very enjoyable visit. Eli's favorite part of the day was watching the penguins diving into the water and swimming right past him. The bus trip back was very quiet. Just about every kid was asleep before we left town.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Hope all of you mothers had a very special day. I wish I could have been back in PK with mine, but we had a nice weekend here in Marion. I was surprised with a big basket of goodies from "Bath and Bodyworks" and Mike took the kids to the park for an hour by himself so I could have some alone time. It was a very nice day!

Guess who won?

Last night, Tori was bouncing a couple of balls and asking us to give her words to spell while she bounced them. It is an exercise she learned in the ba-la-visics program at school. Mike jokingly asked her to spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" and he would let her choose whatever she would like for dinner. We had pepperoni pizza, cheese breadsticks AND cinnamon sticks from Pizza Hut. By the way, Mike doesn't care for Pizza Hut. He!He!He!

Eli's Song

Last night Eli came up to me and said that he needed paper, a pen and a microphone. He was writing a song and he wanted to sing it to everyone when he was finished. He wrote his song, made copies for everyone and told us all to gather in the family room so he could sing it. When everyone was in the room he whispered in my ear "Mom, tell them to go away, I think I have stage fright". I had to fight to keep from laughing, it was so cute. Everyone cleared the room and I got my own private concert of Eli's song "Plees Dont Catch Me".

Girl's Night!

Tonight I was invited to a friend's house for a "girls night". We left the kids/husbands at home and watched "27 Dresses". We snacked and had a great time hanging out together. I would definitely recommend this movie. It was so sweet and funny. Also, it was nice to be able to watch a whole movie without needing to hit the pause button or rewind it b/c I missed something! We are planning to so it again soon.