It has been a long time

Hello everybody. I have been in my own world. Sorry about that :). Life has been can we say kicking my booty ;). Being a single mom is a lot of hard work and when you add all of the other drama to it I find it to be overwhelming at times. I keep going though. I am grateful for the tender mercies of my Savior. He blesses me so much and when I think I can't go on anymore he picks up the slack for me. I am so very greatful for my blessings today.

I have been very blessed to have my mom coming to help with my kiddos this Summer. They are loving having Grandma take care of them. This has been so nice. She has been fixing things in my house and doing deep cleaning that I don't find myself having the motivation to do lately. She does fun projects with the kids and they love to go swimming at her house.

My kiddos grow and grow and continue to amaze me every day. They are truly a blessing in my life. Their smiles can light up my day. Logan gives me the sweetest hugs when I am down and he is such a goof ball that he makes me laugh and laugh. I try not to show my kids when I am down but sometimes it can't be helped. Katie is just funny. She makes me laugh all the time too. She loves to talk. Megan is my little cuddle bunny and loves to have me hold her.

Davyd'd deployment has been put on hold due to him breaking his foot. So hopefully he won't have to go until at least the Summer is over. I know it will be a huge impact on my kids and it kills me to think about. I hate to say it but I was praying that he wouldn't deploy until at least the summer is over and the kids are back in school and then he broke his foot? An answer to me prayer??? Who knows!!

I cut my hair in March and went on a trip to the Grand Canyon and to Prescott with my sweet sisters. Melissa, Lynnessa and I had a great time. Lynnessa moved out here last week and is staying with Melissa. It is truly a blessing to be able to bond with my little sister that I didn't get to grow up with. She is so much like Melissa and I despite having different mom's and not being raised together. It is amazing.

I am also so blessed to be in a ward that loves me and goes above and beyond to serve me and my kiddos. I love this ward. Hard to believe I have been here for 10 yrs now.

Wow this is getting long...I have many many other things I am grateful for. I will stop here though. Love to you all!!!!

Aunt Melanie is on Vacation and the kiddos are on Spring Break

It has been so long since I have blogged. Life has been crazy. I survived my kiddos going to Texas for a week with their Dad. It was hard but I kept myself busy.

My kiddos are on Spring Break right now and so I took the time off that I have them this week to be with them. We have gotten lots done and have been having so much fun. Cody is a huge helper and gets Logan motivated. We got the backyard cleaned up pretty good today! Thanks Bear! :)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the day....The kids loved their pizza time. Logan and Cody have enjoyed playing video games today. The girls all made lip gloss and face masks with Katelyn's Spa factory kit.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Rain Forest Cafe and the Zoo. We went last year for Saint Patrick's Day too. The kids are all excited. I will have to post pics of that later.

Love having time off to spend with my kiddos!!!!

Love to everyone....I am on facebook a lot so if you want to keep more updated with me get a facebook account and look me up. A lot of my relatives are on there as well. It has been lots of fun.

My baby isn't a baby anymore :(

Today was Megan's first day in Primary. I can't believe that she is so big and is no longer in nursery. She didn't cry or anything. She was so excited and had a great time. She loves to sing and was very happy to sing with all of the other children. I can't believe my baby is not a baby anymore. It sure goes by fast. Yet another reminder to savor every moment.

Happy New Year!!!!!

As you can tell we all had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year! Clint and Kimberly got there later on and we had a blast. Melissa ordered a sub and we had all kinds of chips and goodies. The kids all stayed up past midnight even. They so loved celebrating with their cousins. It was great to be surrounded by family to ring in the New Year and great to have John there with us!

My kiddos crashed as soon as we got home a little after 12:30. What a wonderful way to start the New Year!

We survived Christmas :)

Well Christmas has come and gone. I have to say it was wonderful to have 5 days off in a row and to be able to spend quality time just enjoying my kiddos for the last part of it. I survived being without them on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. They had a wonderful time with their dad. I kept myself rather busy with help from those who love me.

John invited me to his families Christmas Eve dinner. It was wonderful. I so enjoy being around his kiddos. I got to go to temple lights with them the week before too. They are truly great kids. After the dinner I went to visit with my mom for a bit because I was having a melt down without my own kids. Then it was off to my dear SASTER's (Melissa's) house. I helped her finish the blankets she was making. She was almost done by the time I got there. So I didn't do much. The kids all love their blankets that she made by the way. She is amazing. I took Michele for a little ride with me to get the Turkey from my house. I was being rather silly and she was shocked to see Aunt Melanie acting that way :) LOL....it was fun. John called to talk to me and that made me feel better too. Then Melissa and I did lots and lots of wrapping. We were delirious at that point and had lots of fun being dorks like we used to be together back in the day. It was wonderful. I miss being able to play around like that with my dear sister. By the time I got to bed it was 2 A.M. I spent the night there. Then it was time to get up before I knew it. I enjoyed watching Melissa's kiddos open their presents. Then it was time to get ready for Christmas dinner.

Before I knew it Davyd was calling and wanting to drop the kids off early before 2 pm. It was great. Then everyone showed up at Melissa's for dinner. It was wonderful to have our complete family together, minus Clint's girl friend Kimberly though. We missed her. John joined us. It was so awesome to have him there. It was raining out and so the kids had to stay inside. We had a great time. Then the kids begged to go home and they opened presents at my house. Davyd left Friday morning so I have had them all to myself other than having to go back to work today. It has been wonderful.

Yesterday was my baby's last day in nursery. She will be a Sunbeam next Sunday. She is so excited. I am excited for her but I am sad that my baby is so big. She really isn't a baby anymore as she will be 4 in March :(. Logan will be in Senior Primary too. My kids are growing up so fast right before my eyes. It has been a reality check to savor these times with them no matter how stressful day to day life is as a single mom. It will be over before I know it and these will be the times I look back on and treasure. I want to make sure have as few regrets as possible.

Well here I am up late again. Morning will come to soon and it is another work day. So I will end this. I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year. Love Love and more Love! Love ya mean it, Melanie

So I can't sleep

Well I am up with my Meggy right now. She is running a slight fever and woke up because I can't sleep and I'm on the computer. LOL.......she is curled up next to me in the chair right now. We just looked at Aunt Lissa's page and she keeps having me go back to it so that she can see "Bamwhip" Lol. I am over here hysterically laughing. I keep asking what's his name.......and she says "Bamwhip" Oh well I will let her believe his name is that instead of Bandit.

She cut her hair on Saturday so Mom had to fix it and add bangs. You will take note that her hair was pulled back yesterday before we cut in bangs. She told me she has Dora hair now. So cute. I will post pics of it later.

Poor Melissa had all my kiddos today while they are on Christmas break. She is a lifesaver. After I got off work mom had us all the come over so the kiddos could make Gingerbread men. She always tells the Gingerbread Man story on Christmas Eve and has the kids decorate gingerbread men. My kiddos will be with their dad this year on Christmas Eve so she did it tonight for famlily home evening. The kiddos had a huge blast like always. Mom made hot apple cider like she did for us growing up around Christmas time. I loved it and the kiddos did for sure. I hope Melissa posts pictures of it on her blog.

Ok well we will try to go to bed now.....I have to be up for work early. At least I won't have to work again until Monday :).... Merry Christmas to everyone. Sorry my cards will be going out late this year. Love you ALL!

Before and after pictures

Ok so I looked for the worst fatest picture of me of course it just happened to have Davyd in it. This picture was taken in September of '06. I weighed 164 then. The picture before that is of me in October of '06 the weekend after my 30th birthday. The new picture of me weighing 124 was taken in mid November of this year. So a 40 lb difference. Today I was 123.5. I am so excited!!!!!!