NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Over spring break I went to New York with my Mom, Grandma and sister. We left on Tuesday and stayed until Saturday. We had the time of our lives!! I should mention that this was the first time that Shane has had the kids over night without me there. I was so excited for his new experience. Everything was going great while I was gone, then on Wed. I got a phone call that Mikey was sick. I felt bad but what do you do. Shane took great care of him and when I called the next day to check up on him Shane told me that Mikey was fine but that Swayz was now sick. She had thrown up twice. Hum.... I felt bad for not being there but I think it was really good for Shane. ( I love you sweety)
Back to New York; We stayed in a hotel in Time Square and were able to go do all of the touristy things. My favorite was attending the Broadway show Lion King. I lived in upstate New York about 7 years ago where I was a camp counselor. When I was there we were able to go into the city and I fell in love. I have always wanted to go back and was so grateful for the opportunity. New York is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. I love the rich culture, all of the history and the mixture of people. Thanks Mom for the trip I loved every second of it.

Happy Birthday to You... Mikey turned 1 !!!

I can’t believe I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and I am only 25! Time really does fly!! Michael turned one on April 17th and to celebrate we had a family birthday party for him. He really didn’t know what was going on but he seemed to like all of the attention and all of the people there.He really loved the food too, especially the cake. I made him a football cake and when the party was over Swayz decided to finish it off.
Mikey is learning to walk and is doing great. He is so fearless, we love it. He just goes for things and if it doesn’t work out he will get up and try it again. He has an aggressive personality (we think that is part because of Swayz, you know the whole survival of the fittest thing) but he has a very soft heart. He loves to growl and then snuggle. I love to watch him because he is so full of life and love. We feel so blessed to have him in our lives. He has added so much to our little family. It is amazing to watch the bond between Swayz and Mike too. Yes, they have had their differences but things have gotten a lot better and they just love to be together. She watches out for him and he looks for her where ever he is. It’s true, having kids is one of lives best blessings.

Princess Swayzee and the Chart of Good Choices

Having a little brother can be so much fun… most of the time. Swayzee has loved being a big sister and she does a great job but sometimes Mikey just drives her crazy. He loves to get into her room and mess up all of her toys and books. He also loves to find the remote and change the channel when she is watching one of her favorite shows. He doesn’t know what he is doing but Swayz is sure that it is on purpose.
Swayz decided that she needed to take action and when mike would bug her she would bug him right back. The only problem with this is that she is a lot stronger then he is and he would end up crying. Shane and I tried many different things to see if we could help them get a long better but nothing really worked. Finally we came up with a good behavior chart. We call it Princess Swayzee and the Chart of Good Choices. We use stickers and reward her good choices. She can earn “grab bags” or toys lunch at Mcdonalds and at the end she gets a date with just Mom and Dad.
After about a month of earning stickers and then losing stickers she finally made it to DATE NIGHT. The little grandma (my Mom) watched Mikey and Shane and I took Swayz out for a night on the town. We took her out to eat and then headed up to the Gateway to the Discovery Kid Zone. We had a blast and Swayz loved all the attention. When we were finally ready to go home she was excited to see Mikey and tell him about her night. She is now on her second Chart of Good Choices and we have really noticed a difference in her behavior. She recognizes good and bad choices and she and Mikey are getting a long so much better!!