Memories

My Grandpa Moore (mom's dad) and My Uncle Greg (mom's brother)

We come from good old dirt poor farmers-Family Photo
(My Grandpa Moore is the on in the bibs with no shirt)

My Brother Jake and I (my grandma o. made this dress)

My mom (the little one) and her siblings

My Favorite Picture of My Grandma Dee (Mom's Mom) I love this woman

Jake and I

Taking a bath at Grandma Dee's House

My mom and me!! Isn't she pretty!!

My Grandma Dee, Jake and I at X-mas in Aroma Park

Jake and I

My Momma

Me-I love this picture and outfit

My Daddy and me Hiking-I love this picture of us

This is where it all went wrong-Now you know where the nudist side and I guess the nature side of me cam from. :) Dad and me in Virginia!!

I love this picture of me and my Grandpa O. (Dad's Dad) (I love this man) I was his little girl-his fav :) (Well that is until Taylor was born several years later)

Grandma O (Dad's mom) and me. I miss her so much.

My parents having a blast-can't you tell by dad's expression. :0)

My mom holding me while dad and Aunt Kathy look on

My Dad (hippy) :0)

My dad

While I was looking for a picture of my little brother for his B-Day, I came across a bunch of great old ones.

I hope you enjoy!!

Liz

Aug 23rd 2011

Jacob Michael Oliveira
28 years ago today!!
I love you Bookie Doo!!

Today is my little brothers 28th B-day. I wish I could tell him Happy Birthday but his is in Colorado hiking on a mountain top. So I hope he is having a great B-day with Dad and his buddy Matt up on a mountain top. :0)

Yesterday I worked super hard and cleaned my house (well all but the bedrooms ) and then had a few friends by last night to play cards. It was SO much fun and very much needed. Of course I didn't get to bed until about 2:30 this morning. I am too old for that. :0)

Today I decided to take off a day of cleaning since my good old pregger body can't handle two days in a row of intense work apparently, so I decided to start the boys scarfs. Well I got about 6 rows of Alex's scarf and then passed out for three hours....I was obviously very into my knitting. :0)

I don't know what I have planned for the rest of the day. I am going to make something for dinner, but I don't have a clue what. I have a picture I would like to load of little Kian Michael. I hope you enjoy it.



Until Later,

Liz

First day of School Aug. 18th 2011

Hello All

Well I know some of you must have thought I fell off the planet and too a point I did for a little while. :) FB was getting my attention (what little I gave to the computer). I did think I should update a little on what has happened since the last time I wrote. So here it goes......

Since Jim's job loss at the U of I last year he got a job working in Decatur at Decatur Electronics. He liked this job a lot and the hours were great. The only problem when they hired him they decided about 2 months later they were going to move the company to Arizona. So they left early this year. Jim then got a job working at Tate and Lyle in the tech department again and they are relocating the IT dept. to Poland in about 4 months so once again Jim will be moving on. The poor man has had three jobs in one year all because the businesses keep losing funding, or they relocate. So he is trying to keep his head up as much as possible.

Jack is now in second grade even though I didn't write anything about first grade because I haven't been on in a year. He joined Cub Scouts last year and LOVES it. He got third in Best Design for his Pinewood Derby Car. He got a trophy and a metal. He got to move on to Council. He also had Peanut League this past Spring and he loves b-ball. He also got to try his hand at golf and tennis. Both which he liked a lot. We had a great summer, but I know he was happy to start back at school today. He get's to take the bus this year and he is very excited. :)

Alex had a great last year of Pre-K at Faith Christian School. He started his first day of Kindergarten today. He was very brave even though I could see he wanted to cry. I did well myself, and I had a few tears well up in the car after but did good during. Alex got the play T-ball again this Spring and loved it. He got to be on his buddy Alaric's team. We had a great summer going to the pool, trying to stay cool.

The boys had there first stay over at my brothers this year as well. They LOVED it. They stayed up and played Lego's for hours!! Both boys also taught themselves to swim. They go under water now and they love their goggles. We went to our pool a lot this year as well as my folks pool. We went to the Lincoln Museum this year and to the Zoo's in the area. We are going to Lego Land on the 27th of Aug and I don't think Jack can wait that long. :)

As for me, nothing real new. I am still working at Hill. I did have another ankle surgery this Spring and I think we may finally have gotten the problem solved. We do have some big news. Our family is expecting another little boy into our family on Jan. 3rd 2012. His name is Kian Michael Mortland. We are excited and were a bit surprised. :0)

I am going to try to do better on updating this as I think it will help with a lot of aspects in my life right now to have a blog that I need to keep up on as much as possible. Of course FB may win out in the fight. :)

I will also try to get a few photos loaded up as well of some recent adventures. :)

Until Next Time.......

Liz

So..............

So we have been so crazy that as you can see I have not updated my blog in two months. I am SO sorry to anyone that actual reads this thing. I made this blog so I could have a sounding board and I never use it.

So what have we been up to for the past few months. Well Jim loses his job on Aug 15th with the U of I thanks to our state being corrupt and broke so thanks again IL for your crapiness (is that even a word?) So needless to say Jim has been looking since March and has had two interviews (that's it), so we are a little overwhelmed with that bit of news in our lives, but there is nothing we can do that we aren't already doing so I guess we will just keep on truckin.

We had a wonderful 7th wedding anniversary on June 7th. We had a night alone without the kids and watched movie all day and night and swam and hung out in our hot tub in our hotel room, it was wonderful and our tradition that we have done since our second anniversary. It was a nice release from real life.

We had a great 4th of July. We went to the German's 4th of July Party (our first year) and it was a BLAST. The kids had a great time and I know that Jim and my folks and myself did as well. It was laid back, and super fun celebrating with all our friends. I know we can't wait to do it again next year. Thanks German Family.

Let's see then we went up to Chicago and went to the LGBT Pride Parade. It was awesome and I have never felt so much happiness and love in one place. If I had to experience what the 60's and 70's would have been like with "free love" "no war" this would have been as close as I think I could have gotten. I truly have never seen a group of people so happy and proud and I tell you, if we were all a little more open minded we could be just as happy and proud of who we are and where we come from. I think the LGBT should run the country. :) It was a once in a lifetime event for us that I hope to make more than than and go every year.

Then we went for a mini vacation to Key Lime Cove and Six Flags in Gurnee IL. OMG it was SO much fun. Key Lime Cove was amazing. It is an indoor water park with some of the neatest water slides and water activities inside a hotel that I have ever seen. They had a lazy river with a wave pool, a hot tub, fours water slides, another type of water slide, and then the kids play area which is a giant jungle gym in the water. It was so cool. The had an arcade, and a place that little kids could go to do activities and feel somewhat normal in all the chaos of the trip.

Then we headed over to Six Flags and my kids got pictures with Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, and Porky Pig. They loved that part. Then we rode rides in the kids area, and my children rode an actually rollercoaster. I was SO impressed with them. They loved it. We also did the log flume and other bigger kid rides. It was a lot of fun, but we were very tired by the end of the day.

We also had VBS in July and it was so much fun. I did the crafts for the older kids at MUMC and it was a blast. I love doing art projects but I will admit that 2nd graders are the worse. :) J/K they listened worse than the 1st graders. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. I spent many hours preparing for all the crafts and then I would have 2 hours to have 150 kids do those crafts 20 mins each class-it was rewarding and fun but truly exhausting. :)

Alex had some tests done this month as well to make sure that his heart was happy and healthy and it is, however that makes it almost impossible to get a name for the joint disorder that we have (of course I would rather him be healthy than anything else). So we will just keep an eye on it as he gets older and deal with what we can in the hear and now. He will have to start doing some physical therapy and he will have to do leg work to make his tendons and muscles strong.

Other than that, we have had a pretty good summer. I will admit that I am SO ready for our children to go back to school and I am sure they feel the same way. We look forward to more pool days, zoo days, Curtis Orchard days, and Prairie Farm days until the summer ends.

I hope you all find your summer going great and I hope everyone has a safe fun rest of the summer.

Liz

P.S. I will try to get some new photos up as well. We have been really bad about that lately.

Mother's Day Pictures

We went to New Salem and Lincoln's Tomb for Mother's Day and it was WONDERFUL!!!!

Old Posts

So I wrote a past post about Jack and Kelton's Combo Party but I didn't have a chance to get any pictures up so here they are. Enjoy.



Jack and Kelton's Combo Party

The German's Bounce House

Brian Fulton our hero (thanks for taking Al)

Great Grandparents

Jack's Personal Assistant Emmie :)

Happy 6th Birthday Big Boy!

Jack and Paw-Paw (My Dad)

Me and My BFF Kathy :)

Jack's Star Wars Theme Party!

The Family

I hope Jack paid Emmie well for her help :)

Hello again

Alex, Peyton, and Jack all ready to camp. :)
















The boys being very nosy.














Alex Riding Koa


Sorry it's been a little while. I had some great stuff to post and my mind has already forgotten most of them. So I will write what few things I remember and wanted to share.

So about a month ago I was putting the kids in the car (we have the auto doors), well the kids know we have them, however for whatever reason when I had closed Jack's door from the other side of the car (with my key pad) he
thought I did it with magic. Now we aren't talking like he thought it was magic and then let it go. O know. He asked me if it was magic and I told him yes and that I have magical powers-he believed me. He is so typically not a gullible child, but he bought it. So much in fact that there have been a few other instances when I have performed "magical" things and he really thinks I have magic powers.

Now what is really cute about this is when he asks me randomly if my magic powers are "working right then" (I told him they only work ever so often, and that I can't really control them). So to have him ask me that and then to have him try to make "his powers" start to work is almost more than I can take. I mean it is SO cute. So yes, according to Jack I have "special powers".

So I don't know about any of you-or if anyone even really reads my blog other than my friends, but do any of you have that "one child" that tests you as a parent, heck even as a person?? My youngest, Alex, is so strong willed, but at the same time very emotional, and affectionate. He is also the clumsiest child I have ever met (well maybe Cole wins that one-but he is a champ at making close call recoveries). I love this child so much but he truly lacks the "don't do that" gene, like I think I could tell him the earth would blow up and he would be ok with that. So he either trust me enough to know I would never put him in harms way (which is why he calls my bluffs so often) or he really just doesn't care about the consequences.

I mean this is a sweet little boy that wants to be SO independent in so many ways, but then in others, acts like his life is going to end if I don't help him. It is exhausting, and it is everyday. So far today he has talked me into two snacks before lunch (because he was STARVING) and then he wanted some yogurt and I was ok with that, but he lacks patience more than any child I know. I was on the phone with Katie and I told him to hold on and I would get it in just a minute when I got off the phone, and then right in front of me he grabs the yogurt out of the fridge and then it slips through his fingers and explodes on the ground, carpet, and fridge. Thank God I was on the phone with Katie at the time and that distracted my brain if at least for a second so I didn't kill the sweet little thing. :) Then after that it has just continued with....I need.....I'm hungry......I want.....and it is driving me NUTS. I know we all have that child that if they weren't so cute they would have been a bath tub statistic a long time ago, but how do you get across patience without them thinking they are in trouble, or to encourage them to be independent about some things but not about others without confusing the poor things?? O the things they never prepare you for in baby classes-they need toddler, child, teenager and young adult classes. That way you have a handbook to look at to somewhat prepare yourself. :)

O well, that is my sweet nugget and I wouldn't trade him for anything.

On a much more exciting note, Jack has his first lose tooth. Yahoo!! He is 6 and has his first one. We are so excited and thank heavens he lost his before Alex lost any. :) Jack is SO excited and can't wait for the "Tooth Fairy" to come.

We also went camping this past weekend and I have attached some pictures of that fun outing, I have also put some other pictures of Mother's Day on here as well that I didn't have a chance to post last time. I hope you enjoy and I hope you are all well.

Liz


Jim and Natalie putting her and Peyton's tent up.


Everyone Hangin out the next morning.

Knitting

Well today I finished one sock/slipper for Alex. It is far from the most beautiful thing ever, but it actually fits and stays on his foot, so even though it is not something I would ever make for anyone else, my kids think they are pretty cool. Not to mention it takes forever to make-I don't know how Kristi does her's so fast. I take forever to knit.

So this morning at Kairos drop off. I heard the kid quote of the day. For those that don't know what kid quotes are, it is a phrase or word that is so cute it has to be shared. It can also be a sentence that you thought you would never hear in your life. Since my kids are only cute ever so often (at least to share with people) I thought I would take quotes from my friends kids as well.

So thanks to Cole S. this is the kid quote of the day: When asked what Cole did this past weekend, he told me that he "Milked Tina" I swear just like that plain as day he told me he milked Tina. So once the rest of the story was told I found that Tina was a cow that he milked and not some random woman. :) So thank you Cole for the kid quote of the day.

I hope you all have a great evening and try to stay dry.

Liz

Wow.............

Well so much has happened in the last month. I can't believe I haven't written on here since April. Sorry everyone that may care. :)

Well lets see what has happened in that time.......

Jack had his 6th Birthday on May 3rd and his Star Wars Party was on May 1st. He had a combo party with Kelton German. We were at the Forrest Preserve Park here in Monticello. It was a lot of fun and very laid back. The weather cooperated and it was a nice day.

We have also started Soccer Camp (for Jack) and T-Ball for Alex and Peanut League for Jack. So needless to say we have been pretty busy and I see it continuing for the next several months (if it ever really does end). It is a lot of fun though and I know the boys enjoy it.

For Mother's Day we went to Springfield (Petersburg) to New Salem and then to Lincolns Tomb. Then we had dinner at Apple Bees in Springfield. It was a wonderful Mother's Day.

I wish I had more to update and I do have some great new photos that when I get the chance I would love to put them on......I guess we will see when and if that happens anytime soon. :)

For now, I hope you are all well and getting ready for summer.

Liz