What's Up.....

So lets see..... where to begin.....

I just became an aunt again 2 Thursday's ago.... I found a sitter to watch my kids while I anxiously waited at the hospital anticipating Baby Gerwatowski. I was pretty sure it was going to be a girl. Just a gut feeling... Here are Brad and Laura before she was prepped for surgery. I wonder if anyone has told them what they are in for.... Do they know this kid will not come with an instruction manual? And although Brad is an engineer and good at figuring things out... he may be a little perplexed when it comes to parenthood...


While Laura was in surgery I hung with the rest of the family... These photos were taken about 10:45 p.m. We were all anxious and joking around and guessing the sex of the baby.... and oh yeah there was something interesting in the paper.... Why are you reading at a time like this?


I mean there was some REALLY interesting stuff in the paper. Look at the future Grampa's... they can't tear themselves away.....

I'm getting a little slap happy. It is 11 :30 p.m. We haven't heard anything yet....

Mr. Griffin is done with the article... I think we can go see Laura and Brad and the baby... can I get a woo hoo!!!

It is now 12:05 a.m. Let me introduce my new nephew Tyler Bradley Gerwatowski. I was 100% wrong. What a cute little boy!

We came back to visit Laura and the baby on Friday.....

Awwwww.......... He is perfect.


I wonder if Brad will still be smiling when his son dyes his hair blue and gets an eyebrow ring?

In the meantime we have had a lot of end-of-the-year festivities. Amanda had a reflections ceremony, Nick had a field trip to the zoo, field day came and went, the soccer season is winding down, and today was the last Brownie meeting. YES!! Now we have kindergarten graduation, bridging for Brownies, the end of soccer and tennis, and the 2nd grade picnic these next 2 weeks. I can't wait until summer vacation. We all need some down time and no more homework.

Here I'm reading with Nick

Here is Gabby's new favorite activity.... It is climbing the stairs over and over and over. I'm tired of bringing her down over and over and over. On the bright side I'm getting a little more exercise!

As soon as she sees you coming to get her.... she makes a run for it and races up the stairs.....

This picture was taken at about 11:30 at night last week... Nicholas absolutely hates making his bed in the morning.... so do you see what he did.... he took off his PJs...... and got ready for school .......and made his bed before falling back asleep....

Can you see him sweating? He put on long pants and a long sleeve shirt and the weather has been in the 80s and humid. Steve and I undressed him and put him under the covers. We had to take a picture first because it was too funny.

Such a cutie.... always on the move.... always trying to get my camera away from me

I need to take more photos like this one!

What has Gabby so mesmerized? Her dad mowing the lawn of course. (At least she is not climbing the stairs.)

I invited Justin over for dinner. I tried a new kabob recipe. It was great and I'll have to post the recipe. We skyped Mo after dinner.

Steve took the kids to 7-11 because Amanda was begging him too. Nicholas got a slurpee. It was sour. Why would you consume something that makes you go like this.......

Oh no not another sip.... UGH.... Does that actually taste good?

Amanda conned her Dad into buying her these silly bands instead of a slurpee. They are the latest craze in elementary schools across the country. They are bracelets that are silly shapes. What will they come up with next?

Well, I have got to go to bed. Until later...........

A Few New Photos....

It is unusual that I have time on a Monday afternoon to do some blogging. Amanda is reading, Nick is drawing, Gabby is napping (she is still sick), and I have a turkey breast coming out of the oven in 10 minutes. I uploaded some pictures the other day so let me share them with you.....


Here is what I found on Mother's Day morning when I was pleasantly woken up at 6:00. It was a holiday after all and that was very EXCITING! (especially for little kids that have grandiose plans.) By 6:30 Amanda was begging me to come downstairs for my surprise. So first I was greeted with these decorations...... Why all the masking tape?... Well one day Amanda went through 4 dispensers of transparent tape decorating the basement and I told her she was no longer allowed to use the clear tape...... so she used masking tape this morning.... she is always thinking.... and she didn't get in trouble.

Check out the cool streamers! When the kids have birthday parties I usually hang streamers in this same pattern throughout the kitchen..... the only problem is I stand on the counter and I usually have Steve help me because I can't reach the ceiling. It wasn't a problem Nicholas informed me. Amanda just climbed on top of the REFRIGERATOR! (Can you believe it?)


This was my chair..... labeled MOM and adhered with more masking tape

and.... the big Ta-Da... my Mother's Day breakfast... Amanda zapped the pancakes in the microwave, she made me waffles in the toaster, cut up fruit, and Nick made coffee in my one-cup coffee maker. It looked scrumptious and I think they thought I would be ravenous. It was super cute and thoughtful, if I ignored all the potential dangers it took to accomplish this breakfast feat. I told them I loved it, but was very concerned about climbing on the fridge, making hot coffee, using a knife unsupervised, etc.

Here are several photos from the afternoon at Mo's new house. It has a great fenced in backyard and the kids had a fun time running around together.


Amanda can't get away from her Dad fast enough when he asked for a kiss.

Lots of Moms and a Mom-to-be on Thursday..... I can't wait for my new niece or nephew to be born

Brad looks comfortable with Gabby... she is happy and smiling... this is good practice for the upcoming baby

It was hard to get the cousins to stand still for a picture... they were too busy running inside and outside....

A few more cute shots.....

and finally.... I was eating one of those Drumstick ice cream cones.... it was chocolate with cookies and cream ice cream.... Gabby was eyeing it..... she wanted a taste..... so of course I gave in...this was her reaction.... it was cracking me up... it was hard to take the picture with my ice cream in one hand and the camera in the other, laughing, and trying to keep everything away from Gabby, she kept coming back for more.... I think it was the cold that kept shocking her as opposed to the taste... Too funny!

Well, that is it for now. It is 4 hours later since I began this post... I'm off to relax. Until later.....

That's My Boy!

The weather has been rotten (what is up with all the rain?), Gabby is feeling rotten with a 103 degree temp, Nicholas has another cough, and I'm feeling a little cranky today. I need a vacation, I need school to end, I need activities to end, I need to sleep, I need no one to be sick, I need to spend some time with my family relaxing and doing fun stuff together. I hope the weekend gets better.

Anyway, here is the highlight of my week. Yes...... that is Nicholas front and center. I deleted a bunch of the video to make it small enough to upload to my blog. Wait until you see the dance moves at the end of the video :) Hope this makes you laugh. Until later.........

Remember to turn off the music player at the bottom of my blog or you won't be able to hear the video.......

What a week.......

Soooooo, it's Saturday afternoon, and I'm all thawed out after watching Amanda's soccer game in the 42 degree weather. It was raining, sprinkling and then pouring and windy. I kept Nick in the car watching Finding Nemo and Gabriella was content for awhile before falling asleep. I ran from the field to the car about 15 times, sprinting to keep warm, and then warming up inside. There were no goals by Amanda this week, but she did have a good time.

I'm trying to get up the energy to go to the grocery store with 3 kids who DO NOT want to go. It might be disastrous.... therefor, I've decided to give them an hour to play and then I will try again. So here we are now:

Amanda is reading on the couch. You know she is desperate not to go grocery shopping when you actually catch her reading a book. Recently, she has picked up these Diary of a Wimpy Kid books which she seems to enjoy. Anything that encourages her to do more reading is fantastic. Amanda tells me they are about a boy who writes in a journal because he is nervous to go to middle school.

Nick is busy drawing a T Rex. When I asked what he was doing he said, "making a picture for not "daughter's day" the other one, "Dad's Day."

This is Gabby at the moment..... getting away from the camera.

She looks like she might be ready to go shopping. I might have one kid on board to go to the grocery store yet.

Here I am getting ready to blog. The picture is compliments of Amanda. Can you tell I was out in the rain? That hair is awful.

As for this past week......... It has been busy once again. I'm starting to think that every week has been too busy lately. Anyway......I got an early Mother's Day present..... check out my latest toy. On Monday, Steve came home and asked me if my phone was working. Yes, I had just spoken to him 20 minutes earlier. He told me to try my phone because his was not working. Anyway... I try and make a call with no success. He tells me he has some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that he has been delinquent on our phone bill and Sprint has cut off our service. Unbelievable, I'm thinking. That is not good. Steve is so responsible. However, the good news is he bought me this goodie....... Now I have AT & T service and a brand spankin' new Iphone. Ta Da! I love it! (It was Amanda's idea. She can't wait to get her hands on it.) I'm just trying to figure out all the cool things the phone can do.

Here is Amanda and her friend Hailey right before they performed at the talent show last night. The third girl was not there so I don't have a picture of the three of them all dolled up. She did a fantastic job shaking it on stage, dancing around, and twirling her ribbon. I have the whole thing on video and I tried to upload it last night. This morning it was still loading.... I now realize the file was too big for this blog. I don't know how to resize the video easily without compressing files so you will have to watch it at our house one day. Blogger doesn't let you upload anything larger than 100 mb. Bummer! It was really cute. (Even when they yelled "peace out" at the end of their number.)

It happened to be teacher appreciation week for Nicholas and Amanda's schools. Friday, the students were suppose to bring flowers to their teacher. Here are some flowers I made for Amanda's teacher. The rest were for soccer. It was our turn to supply snacks for after the game.

The kids at soccer were so funny. They ooed and ahhed over the cookies and brownies I baked. I think the treats were a hit.

Nicholas at his Goofy best!

Gabby's favorite game to play recently.... PEEK-A-Boo. She loves to cover her ears instead of her eyes. It is so funny!

I had to bring a dessert on Wednesday for teacher appreciation week.... I volunteered to make yummy Oreo truffles. They are so easy and so delicious! You need some Oreos, cream cheese, and chocolate to dunk them in. I'm glad I brought them to school or else I would have gained a few lbs. this week.

They taste just like oreo cheesecake! (I feel like I did a lot of baking this week.... cookies, brownies, and truffles.)

This is Gabby's favorite new spot... under the kitchen table.... she loves to try and stand up to see what you are eating or reading or typing... then she bonks her head... and she still does it time after time after time.... when will this girl learn!
A few final thoughts:

1. I made homemade croutons with our chicken Caesar salad on Monday. They were so easy and so delicious. I will not be buying them from the store very often. You should give them a try.

2. I parked next to a Cadillac Escalade Hybrid at Bed Bath Beyond. Isn't a hybrid Escalade an oxymoron? Come on.

3. On accident, I shop lifted Diet Coke from Target. It was on the bottom of my cart. I was racing to get out of the store and relieve the babysitter. I paid my bill and when I got to the car I found the Diet Coke on the bottom of the shopping cart. Nothing beeped when I left the store and security did not taser me in the parking lot, I was running late.... and I drove home. I spend ALOT of money at Target so that is how I justified the Diet Coke.

Well, that is it for now. This post has taken a loooonnnnggg time to write. Steve is on his way home with dinner. I will then head to the grocery store kid-free. Until later.................