Mackenzie's 9th Birthday

We finally had Mackenzie's long awaited cooking party this weekend.  If you have never experienced a class or party at Dierbergs' School of Cooking, it is a must see.  The kitchen is amazing!  The granite topped bar alone seats 20!  There are two sets of double ovens, two dishwashers, two microwaves, two range tops, etc.  It's everything I could ever want, wrapped into a perfect little display kitchen.  But enough about the kitchen, on to my birthday girl! 

Mackenzie's menu consisted of fiesta chicken drumsticks, chopped vegetable salad, brownie mice, puppy chow, and root beer floats.  The kids each got to take a turn creating some portion of the meal.  They weren't too thrilled with having to touch the "slimy" chicken though. 

In the end, they had a blast!  They finished cooking, ate their meal and opened presents. 

I didn't take as many pictures of the party at our house, but here are a few. 

Mackenzie had two of her favorite cheer buddies spend the night on her actual birthday and they helped me make the cupcakes. 

Week 3 of the NEW ME!

I'm wrapping up week three of the new Steph.  I haven't really conquered the resolution to scrapbook, or keep from procrastinating, or even eating healthier for that matter but I'm ROCKING at working out!  Earlier this week I RAN ON THE TREADMILL!  This may not sound like a huge accomplishment, but I'm telling you, this is HUGE for me.  I'm not a small girl.  I used to be, and on the inside I still am, but the Steph that everyone else sees is overweight.  I want the outside to match what I feel like on the inside.  Running will help that.  I have always been too insecure to try and run on the treadmill because I didn't want anyone to see any parts of my body jiggling.  I want to be a runner though.  How many times do you see an overweight runner?  Not often, if at all.  Running is one of those things that I've never been able to do.  Even when I was in the best shape of my life, I still couldn't run.  Now, before I get carried away, it's not like I ran for 30 minutes.  I ran for a few minutes, and then had issues with my pants and had to resume walking.  The fact remains however, that I RAN!  I didn't even think about the person behind me.  It never even occurred to me.  I will admit, part of the reason I wasn't thinking of the person behind me was because my pants were headed south and I was trying to keep them pulled up and run at the same time.  It doesn't really leave much time to overthink the situation.  I have now purchased better pants, and will resume running tomorrow when we hit the gym again.  Tonight was elipticals and horrible, horrible torture devices that they call weight machines. 

Watch out world, skinny Steph is coming back...one sit up at a time!

New Year...New Resolutions

I love New Year's resolutions!  I love the thought of thinking ahead about all of the things you want to change about your life and actually doing something about it.  I have a very hectic life, sometimes too hectic, but having new goals for 2010 is something I was really looking forward to.  So here goes...my resolution list!

1.  I will start to manage our household's homework better.  I am the queen of procrastination and when I have a research paper due, I am constantly waiting until the last minute to write it!  The problem is, Mackenzie is following in her mother's footsteps.  I will NOT allow her to wait until the last minute to do her projects.  After almost a month of notice, we were still up late completing her Young Author's book the night before it was due.  I will not let my bad habits pass onto my children.

2.  I will discipline less and encourage more.  I love my children so much, but sometimes I feel like I don't show it.  I feel like I'm constantly telling them all of the things they're doing wrong, and not paying attention to their accomplishments. 

3.  I will work on my scrapbooks.  I keep adding to my scrapbook supply collection, but not one time in 2009 did I sit down to scrapbook!  How is that possible?  I take a million pictures, and have a million ideas for pages, but I can't seem to find time to sit down and put the pictures on paper.  The kids are both in school now, and I don't work on Fridays.  I WILL find time to scrapbook in 2010!!! 

4.  I will do more "family-centered" activities with the kids.  Whether it be family game night, cooking together, riding bikes, going to the park, or just watching movies together we WILL do more things as a family in 2010.  I'm only going to get one shot at spending as much time with my favorite girls at this age and I'm going to take advantage of every minute with them that I can get.  It won't be too long before they're wanting to head off to college and leave me with an empty house. 

5.  I will lose weight, eat right, and exercise in 2010.  Even though I feel like that's quite possibly the lamest resolution ever, I still feel like I need to include it.  I'm constantly creating excuses for why I don't have time to exercise or eat right.  The kids have practice every night, I have to work late one or two weeks a month, I'm tired, I'm crabby...the list goes on forever.  They're excuses and I know it.  I will no longer allow myself to wallow in self-pity.  The kids are always going to have after-school activities.  I have friends that have 4 kids in two activities each that still manage to cook dinner every night.  So why can't I?  One of my friends has 5 children and a husband that travels for work more than he's home, but she still finds time to run marathons!  What's my excuse for not hitting the gym when all I'm doing every night is sitting at the girls' cheerleading practice watching them practice? 

I'm sure I could add more, but right now that's all I could think of.  I've already started working out, and with the help of my own personal "Biggest Loser trainer" I will get back in shape. 

My dear Mackenzie...

As sparked by my BFF Chelle's post, I feel inclined to write about my amazing, newly 9 year old daughter. 

Oh Mackenzie...where has the time gone?  The simple fact that you are now 9 years old amazes me.  It seems like it was just yesterday (yes, I did say that) that I was rushing into the OR to have you via emergency C-section.  You were coming into the world feet first, and have been running around ever since.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about how lucky I am to have you in my life.  You're beautiful, inside and out, and even though I'm your mother and obviously biased, I know everyone else thinks so too.  I call you my love bug for a reason, you are the most loving person I know. 

With that being said...9?!?!?!?  Really!?!?!?!  Third grade has snuck up on me.  I can remember how excited I was for you to start preschool!  I was so excited to show everyone just how sweet and intelligent I already knew you were.  I cried like a baby on your first day (and coincidentally every first day of school since).  It killed me that you ran into the class and never looked back.  Not even to give me a hug!  You were the cutest kid in the class too (again, not that I'm biased) with your cute little jean skirt and huge book bag.  Everyone in the class was supposed to have a little canvas bag to carry.  You INSISTED on having a huge pink bookbag because it was SO much cooler than the canvas bag from Walmart.  I should have known then that you'd be my little fashionista.  It may not be pink bookbags and colored pencils anymore, but you are still a riot when it comes to knowing exactly what you want.  I love that you don't hesitate to wear something you saw on tv or in a magazine, even if no one else at school is wearing it, simply because you like it.  You're an individual, and I hope you stay that way forever.

You are everything to me, and even though I don't tell you enough...you are the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I love you so much honey and I'm so proud of the beautiful young lady you're turning into.  There is no doubt in my mind you can do anything you set your mind to, and I will support you regardless of what you choose to do. 

Let's just stay 9 though, okay...I am DEFINITELY not ready for double digits. 

Thanksgiving

As a general rule of thumb, I try not to be too cheesy. The girls will not hesitate to tell me if they think I'm being too sentimental or mushy. Unfortunately, this is one of those times that I will be mushy-gushy. With Thanksgiving approaching, I look at my life and think about the many things that I am thankful for. Out of everything that I am thankful for (family, friends, job, etc) I am most thankful for my adorable, healthy, children.

A family that we are very close to suffered a terrible loss earlier this year. A freak accident took the life of their 7 year old daughter. The accident has definitely given me a new prospective on life. I discipline less, watch my tone, hug and kiss the girls more, and make sure I never leave them without telling them how much I love them. The thought of losing one of my children is too much to bear and I pray every day that I will never have to cope with the type of loss our friends are currently dealing with. A few nights ago, they were on Fox 2 news sharing their story with the world. They have been so strong, but you can still see the grief in their faces as they talk about their adorable daughter that died more than 8 months ago.

The moral of my story...I am thankful. I'm thankful for my children. I love them more than anything and worry about them constantly. They drive me crazy. They make me laugh. They are beautiful inside and out. In my eyes, they are perfection. They are kind, and loving, and caring. They don't see imperfections when they look at me, they love me unconditionally as I do them. I thank God every day for the gift he has given me.

GO PRICELESS!!!

This weekend was awesome! We had a two day cheerleading competition and two of the three teams competing from our gym won 1st Place! Mackenzie's team name is Priceless and they did a fantastic job. They got 1st Place medals (even though they were the only Level 1 Youth team competing that day) and you would have thought they won the Olympics. I absolutely love seeing the girls out there competing and showing everyone how awesome they are. I couldn't be a prouder parent.

Maddie didn't compete this weekend. A normal five year old would have been dreaded sitting thru hour upon hour of watching other teams compete. Madison is not your typical five year old though. She is obsessed with cheerleading. She sat completely still (with the exception of the times she was cheering the teams on and yelling 'Go Pride') and watched every single team compete. She was perfect the entire time and kept being passed around from coach to coach and cheerleader to cheerleader. It's like she's the Pride mascot. They love stunting her because she's so little and she loves the attention.

March Madness

The year has just begun and it's already a hectic one! So much has happened, and will happen in 2009, it's sure to be a memorable time for all of us. My sister got engaged (woohoo) and is planning to get married next year, hopefully somewhere sunny and warm, the girls and I like to get our tans. : ) The girls and I are going to be in a wedding this September and couldn't be happier. (Love you Allie!!!) My BFF Chelle is giving birth TODAY!!! I can't wait to see little Conner. If Addy is any indication, he's going to be gorgeous!

This weekend Maddie had her first sleepover! She's had a friend spend the night before, but this was the first time she stayed over at a friend's house. It's hard to believe she's growing up. It was just last week that I had to, gasp, register her for Kindergarten. Just thinking about it makes me tear up, maybe I should schedule the entire first week off of work instead of just the first day?

I was lucky enough to spend part of this past Saturday with my adorable nephew Camden. He gets cuter every time I see him. He's crazy about Maddie, and I have a feeling it's because she's close to his size. LOL!

It seems like Spring has finally arrived so we took the opportunity to spend some time at the park yesterday. Mackenzie has decided to start rocking the side ponytail, wow, doesn't that bring back memories? It was a beautiful day, my goal for this year is to get outside more often with the girls. They love it, and it's very relaxing for me.