All she's missing is a nice glass of Chianti!

Our Weekend

What ended up being a wonderful and fun weekend started out with a scare. Joanne called me Friday night to tell me that she and her little peanut were at the emergency room. Miah Jane had a fever over 105!! They spent a few hours there and MJ was being poked and prodded and mommy and baby were both upset and bothered. Miah Jane was diagnosed with a viral infection and sent home. Poor thing had a high fever and was irritable all weekend. Until...we came to visit. Devin, Lexi and I went to Joanne's to check up on both mom and baby. MJ started fussing at one point and Devin sang her the ABC song which stopped her crying. It was so cute. By the end of the visit...this is how Miah Jane felt.

After a walk to and from the park she was so relaxed and calm. :) Isn't she so cute?!

Joanne and I pushed our strollers to a great, but well hidden, park in her neighborhood. The kids had so much fun; we'll be going back to this well kept secret place for sure!

Anything that looks or sounds like a car is Devin's favorite.

I think Devin was trying to rock Lexi out of the car!

Lexi swinging with her BFF...

On Saturday we were supposed to meet friends at the park but they had to cancel last minute. Their dog was sick and had to go to the vet. :( Good news is the dog is fine now but we were unable to keep our play date. So...I took the kids to our park that we always go to instead. As we stepped out of the car Devin started running towards the playground yelling, "Cliffords Back, Cliffords Back!!". Yes my friends our favorite red dog is back...it was taken from us many weeks ago but all is forgotten and forgiven. :)

My little peanut can't stay off of highly elevated playground equipment. She scares me half to death!! The only way I can calm myself is if I'm up high with her. I look like such a dork at the parks playing with my kids at the top of these giant structures. There's a reason it says 5 years and up on these things. 1 year olds have no business dancing and playing at the top of these. I am pretty sure the only way I got Lexi down in this picture is by bribing her with something! I couldn't watch Devin at one side of the park and Lexi at the top of this at the same time...being a parent is hard work. LOL

After naps and after daddy got home from work we turned the sprinklers on in the yard and filled the water table with...well...water. The kids had a blast right in our front yard. Mommy relaxed, caught some sun rays and had a nice cold one while the kids were enjoying the water play.

My little princess in her sun hat and bathing suit drawing with sidewalk chalk. A girl can only run through the sprinklers so long. Her brother on the other hand played in it forever and cried when we turned it off! LOL

We ended the weekend with a swim and dinner at Uncle Nate's and Miss Cristina's. We had a lovely time and are so lucky to have family so close. One thing that bothered me about this weekend is realizing our kids do not know how to swim yet. Andy and I both learned how to swim before or around the time we walked. I am making a promise and setting a goal right here and now that our kids will be swimming by summers-end. There are no excuses and it's dangerous for them not to know. Grandma Diane has even offered to help when she is on her short summer vacation to take them to lessons with Andy during the day. If anyone has suggestions or great experiences with any instructor or facility, please share!

Making Muffins with Mommy!

I think Devin ate more batter than actually helping but he had fun. :) He asked for blueberry muffins this morning and wasn't going to take no for an answer.

If I can do it...

One of the blogs I follow, I Heart Saving in Naples (see blogs I follow at the side), has taught me to LOVE shopping again!! I can't believe the deals you can get at Publix if you just take 10-15 minutes before you go and look for the BOGO and sale items. Melissa, the author of the blog, gives you a heads up on the coupons that are online to print that reduce these already sale priced items. I used to be the coupon queen back in the day. Ever since we had children it made it a little more challenging. Try taking two small children to the store and keep track of coupons and sales; I end up forgetting the coupons in the diaper bag or a child chews on it, etc. I end up spending way too much money and coming home with just a few bags. Well today ladies and gentlemen I got back in the game; the bargain hunting game that is! With two toddlers in the cart and plenty of goodies to hand out to keep them quiet and under control; I DID IT!!! Scroll down and see the savings.....

I SAVED $50.89!!!!

I spent $130 dollars and it looked like I shopped at Costco I had so much stuff. Plus I bought a TON of cleaning products, $10 was Swiffer Wet Jet stuff alone. (and no coupons for that) If you are interesting in saving a few dollars (or $50 like me!) the next time you go shopping; you have to check out the blog I'm speaking of. It's not fancy but it's amazing and put together by a mother for a mother/parent. Now go print some coupons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOUND!!! Naples Botanical Gardens rescued Lexi's teddy bear...yeah!

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Happy Earth Day!

Devin, Lexi and I had a wonderful day today at the Naples Botanical Gardens with some of our favorite friends. Joanne was able to talk our boss, a.k.a. her dad, M.J.'s Gpa, into giving us the afternoon off to head down to the gardens for an Earth Day celebration. I'm so blessed to work for a family that puts family first; thank you Vuko's!! We had such a fun day enjoying Mother Nature and all the things she provides.

This was a sign written on a chalkboard in the Children's Garden ...so cute!

Devin watering spinach plants.... Lexi watering...HERSELF!

Brennan, Lexi and Devin sweeping up the cottage. These kids love to clean!

It was very difficult getting a picture of all the kids looking...really difficult.

I love this picture because it looks like Miah Jane is pushing Lexi but she was really loving on her. Check out MJ's hat; such a lovely diva!

The tree house was so much fun! Brennan, Devin and Lexi ran around for quite some time. Maybe next year Miah Jane will be running around it too. :)

Teddy Bear in one hand, juice in the other.

Divaliscious!! Pretty in Pink, Miah Jane and mommy...a.k.a. Joanne

Playing in the sand; at one point I had to give Lexi her binky so she wouldn't eat the sand!

I believe they were writing their names in a heart together. Future love birds!

We ended the trip with a fun, refreshing soak in the fountains. I think we spent the majority of our time playing in the water.

My kids don't know how lucky they are to live in an area where you can enjoy the weather year round. Today was a beautiful warm, sunny day. I am so glad that I was able to be with them and take them to a beautiful place and enjoy nature, especially on Earth Day. Lexi got a little too close to nature and fell into a small pond. She is SO me when it comes to being a klutz...poor thing. She is perfectly fine and has a mark on her face and scratches on her leg to help tell the story.

We are so glad we got to spend our day with the Beckman girls and the Brewer boys. We had a wonderful day with wonderful friends. Happy Earth Day!!

0 for 2

0 for 2 is Mommy's count so far this week on the kids eating what I've made for dinner. I don't get home until 6:00 each evening and my kids are ready to eat the second I walk through the door. Andy is home all day with the kids so he's at work when I get home. When I walk in both kids fight for my attention and cry and whine until I scoop them up and kiss them and hold them. Just as I get things calmed down they both want to eat IMMEDIATELY. It's hard to make a good, healthy dinner in less 15 minutes. Just when I thought I had their favorites down pat and bought a week's worth of dinners for them they've decided they don't want to eat it anymore. And they're only 1 and 2...I've got so many more years of this. Tonight the only thing they both ate was applesauce. I only gave them the applesauce to hold them over while I was making dinner. I guess it was their appetizer. Well, that's all they wanted evidently. If it was up to Devin he'd eat breakfast bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner! The kid is addicted to those things. I guess I'm putting too much effort and worry into making their dinners. At the end of the night when I'm staring at all of the dirty dishes I get so upset because no one ate anything and I have a mess to clean up! If anyone has great, easy, and quick recipes for dinner PLEASE SHARE! I'm out of ideas and my kids are obviously sick of what I make.

I know the kids are healthy and phases like this are normal but it's no fun at all and of course it worries me. How they both have Buda bellies I have no idea because they both have been very picky eaters lately. Hopefully I can improve my score by the end of the week. Looks like I'll be serving breakfast bars and pizza! LOL

Here are a few pics of the kids playing together; it's not often they play without fighting or bickering but lately they have been playing nicely. It's so nice to watch them when they're like this.

Playing cars and reading Goodnight Moon together.





Playing with their new play-doh activity kit. Notice once again, a binky must be in Lexi's mouth or she'll eat the play-doh. Oh and I did hear Devin tell Lexi that she needed to share while they were playing. He told her to share and then immediately yelled, "That's mine!". It was hilarious!

Editors note: The spacing after punctuation was changed when I went back and forth from html and compose mode. I didn't feel like going through the whole post and fixing the spacing between sentences. Please don't think I don't know how to correctly space after ending a sentence! Any of my blogger friends, please let me know if you have experienced the same problems or how to fix it. Thanks!

Daddy Daycare - Playdate with Brennan & his dad Christian. Having a blast!!

Devin the Weather Man

Who needs to watch the local weather man on tv when all you need is a curly haired little boy to walk outside??? When his hair is straight that means it's a beautiful cool, non-humid day. Guess what the weather is like today?

It's extremely humid and muggy today. I knew that before I even opened the door to go outside, thanks to my son the weatherman. Cloudy and humid; a lovely spring day! On the bright side (no pun intended) it wasn't sunny which helped keep the temperature lower so we could play longer outside. The kids even shared a ride together....

Lexi doesn't go anywhere without her teddy bear these days. I think we wash it on a weekly basis now and only when she's not looking. The bear is starting to thin out and fade from the constant washings. I need to find her a replacement bear before this one goes and she has a fit. I can only find them on ebay and most of them are used?!?! Yuck! I will keep searching the internet until I find her the exact bear and make a switch behind her back. Wish me luck!

Funny update to our phone being turned off. We have a recording for 30 days that gives out Andy's cell phone number to anyone trying to reach our old home phone. Andy had SIX calls and voicemails from an irrate Cleveland Clinic patient!! Andy had to call him back and tell him he has the wrong number and to stop calling his cell phone. Oh, the day we stop getting calls and messages from angry patients will be so nice. I do feel sorry for the person who gets our old number; maybe I should let the Cleveland Clinic know it's available! :-)

Doing his chores like a good boy! He works for Goldfish if anyone needs their house cleaned. :)

Good Bye 348-4848

I have just a few random things to post this Friday morning. One Schaps Family update is we no longer have a house phone. We never used it, we didn't have long distance on it and the ringer was always turned off so it didn't wake the kids. So Andy and I have decided to just use our cell phones, which we basically did anyway. We had to say goodbye to 348-4848. It was a little sad as that was our first phone number when we moved into our house in 2000. I'm very sorry for the person who gets that catchy phone number; I'm sure they're going to get many phone calls for us. So many of our out of touch friends will dial us up when they come to Naples and its our easy phone number they always dial. Also this number is very close to the Cleveland Clinic's phone number and at least once a day we would have an older patient call to complain about something. We finally had to turn off our answering machine because we would have messages about a doctor not calling back with results or how their prescription was wrong, etc. How did they not here, "You've reached Kara and Andy..."?! Anyway, we'll miss the old snow birds calling us up and needing results from their blood work. LOL

As for our children; they are changing, developing and growing so quickly. Lexi now talks like she's really saying words only it's babble. And when we sing, she sings in her language too. She'll carry on a conversation with you and the only word I'll understand is mama. She wants to talk so badly; anything to be like Devin. I need to catch it on video because it really is funny. Devin amazes me everyday knowing new colors, shapes, words, etc. Everyday I learn he knows something new and I LOVE IT! I was coloring with him last night and he knew a few more colors, he pointed to the heart and said, that's "hawt" mommy. When it's cloudy outside he calls the clouds, thunder clouds. He also asks Lexi if she wants a time out when she's doing something that annoys him. He picks up on everything we say and do. Oh and the cutest (but sometimes annoying) thing he does right now is he wants to do EVERYTHING by himself with NO help from mommy or daddy. So he says, "No mommy do it, Devin do it!". The results are toothpaste all over the bathroom, urine on the toilet and sometimes floor or clothes, and spilled beverages. The OCD in me hates it but the mom in me thinks its awesome that he wants to do things on his own now.

Wishing everyone a happy Friday and a wonderful weekend. We have absolutely no plans made for this weekend and I couldn't be happier for a lay-low weekend. A little house cleaning (okay A LOT of house cleaning needs to be done), maybe a trip to the park, maybe even the beach...we'll see where the weekend takes us!

Easter

We had a very fun Easter and I think the kids received 4 baskets each. They were in heaven! Oh and out of all four baskets only one had candy and it was only a small egg full of jelly beans. Mary, Liam, and Meredith came over after church while our two kids were napping. They hid all of the eggs for our kids so when Daddy got home from work and they woke up from their naps we could do our easter egg hunt. Liam did a great job and we are still finding eggs when playing outside, that's what a good egg hider he is.

Sterling, a.k.a. Pookah, getting into the Easter spirit!!

We hope everyone had a great Easter and that the Easter Bunny was good to you too!

Kicked off the Playground

I was able to text this picture from the park and it uploaded right onto the blog.  I can't believe how easy it is to update this site!  Quick & funny story about our experience at the park on Saturday.  See the bags of mulch behind the swings?? Well we were only at the park for 10 minutes before a couple of police officers told us we had to leave.  They had the 'troubled' teenagers there to re-mulch the whole playground.  Well...both of my kids were very upset about this.  Probably not as upset as the teenagers who had to wear obvious 'I am in trouble' bright orange sherriff's dept. vests.  I got Lexi off the playground and onto a tricycle we brought to ride and Devin ran away from me and starting screaming.  I tried to keep my cool and not chase and yell at him in front of the whole sherriff's department.  I kneeled down and got to his level and said, "See all of these people?  They're here to make the playground better.  They have to work and we have to leave so they can work."  He seemed calm and I thought wow that was easy.  Then, Devin turned to one of the officers and started screaming, "No leave playground!!"..."No!"  And ran away from me again.  I really couldn't help but laugh.  I wasn't the one that wanted to leave.  This meant I had to bring two unhappy children home. I finally had to carry him off the playground and out to where Lexi had the tricycle and then she got off and ran onto the playground.  Finally I got her too and Devin and Lexi stood at the fence crying and yelling at the poor teenagers throwing bags of mulch to each other.  On a side note I would kind of like to know what those kids did that got them in trouble for a couple of reasons.  One, they were at a children's playground working so I hope it wasn't too bad.  And two, the officers were yelling at them and even at a young lady telling her she should be able to throw the mulch over the fence and she wasn't trying hard enough.  I was shocked they were so hard on the kids.  But this is Naples...they were probably caught trespassing at the mall or were having too much fun and being too loud in public somewhere.  LOL