Family Feud Auditions

Our family LOVES the Family Feud. We honestly watch it most every day & it's always on when we are together as a family. So you better believe that when we saw tryouts were coming to Kansas City that we were going to do whatever needed to get an audition.

We started thinking about ideas and planning our video out but it just kept getting pushed back because one thing after another kept coming up. It was down to the final weeks to submit and we needed to do something, we invited everyone over to the house & as Justin finished dinner, the rest of us had a few drinks and brainstormed a little. 

In the end, we came up with a 5 minute video where Janet introduced our family and then she played Fast Money--it was hilarious but unfortunately, it will not be shown to the masses. She may kill me.

So we submitted it with a little paragraph about our family & we waited. But not for long. Less than 36 hours later and we had received an invitation to their auditions and we just need to confirm a date and time. 

Now, we just needed to find sitters for the kids. We would have loved to take them but they couldn't go back with us and they said it could take up to three hours. Luckily, my mom was able to come up and keep the kids while we ran downtown & gave it our best shot. 

According to FoxNews, 6000 families sent in applications and around 700 made the audition so on Sunday at 11 we filed in 200ish other families looking to get noticed. 

We finally made it to the front of the line and we were given our official family application and told to proceed to Room B. We were one step closer. 

 Heading into the interview we had our order figured out---I would be the captain, then it would go Adam, Janet, Justin, and Becky would be our sudden death player. We made a game time decision to switch it up and Janet assumed the captain role followed by Justin, Becky, Adam and I would be the sudden death player---we later found out that if you make the show, they have the right to choose your order so it really didn't matter who was playing sudden death.

A show producer ran through the rules and tips for getting on the show. Two teams would go head to head, each team having the chance to "play" and then huddling up for the steal too. The first two players on the team would get to go head to head for "control" of the "board". Lasted 5 minutes, maybe.

So we took our seats in the room and waited for our family name to be called. We waited. And waited.

And finally it was called---and we actually were playing against a parent of one of Janet's former students, so bizarre. 

We don't have any pictures from our turn but we got two great questions:

Q. If teachers had eyes in the back of their head what would they see?

Janet rang in first---as she should have since she was a teacher---and said "talking"  NUMBER ONE answer & we controlled the board. 

We played through, Justin got on the board with cheating, Becky with passing notes, Adam with daydreaming---which I was going with sleeping so I had to change mine to fighting and that got us an X. Then Janet said bullying, X. Justin came through with _______ and then Becky couldn't come up with anything else, the rest of us couldn't either but you better believe we were clapping and yelling Good Answer the entire time. Control moved to the other team and they couldn't come up with anything either so we WON! and we did the infamous, jumping around in a circle hugging each other dance. 

Question 2--Justin was up: Name something a pirate would have to remove before going to bed? The other team rings in first, Wooden Leg--Number 3 answer. Justin goes with Eye Patch--Number ONE answer! In a real game we would have had control again but since this was just a mock round the other team go their chance, and we huddled up to steal. When it came over to us we started shouting answers to Janet--hat, parrot, hook…and she went with HOOK. Number 4 and we won again! 

Our time was up. 

We had noticed throughout the day that a few teams were given their applications back and directed to the front table and I watched as they were escorted off to the side, to another interview---we didn't get our application back but we still had sooooo much fun. We gave it our best. 

The boys are really hoping we get picked, although highly improbable, for the show---they love Steve as much as we do and really want to meet him. 

Here's to hoping someone sees our audition tapes and adds us to the active file even though we didn't move onto the second part of the interview. 

Kindergarten Round-up--Again.

Here we are again, at the end of February and heading to Kindergarten Round-Up and this time, for our  littlest guy, Logan. I was a little worried that I would be all emotional since our last little guy is getting ready to start school but I wasn't. I could only smile with pride because Logan was SOOOO excited and Kaden took him under his wing and told him all about his classroom and being a Kindergartener on the way to school. 

When we arrived we reminded Kaden that this is Logan's special day and that he needed to stay with his dad and I while we let Logan go in and meet the teachers. Logan might have been a little hesitant as he peeked around the corner but then he saw Ms. Timmerman and he was instantly as ease. 

It didn't take Justin and I as long to fill out our paperwork this time around but we tried stalling a little so that he could get nice and comfortable. As we peeked our head into the room we couldn't find him, where was Logan---the teachers all kind of looked around and then proclaimed he was on a school tour and about that time he walked back into the room. Waved good-bye to the teachers and off we went. 

He wouldn't stop talking about becoming a kindergartener and how Kaden was going to be in first grade and how he hoped he would get Ms. Timmerman too--it was like, in a matter for 30 minutes the kid grew up so much. 

I blinked and here we are. 

 

Love Day 2016

Valentines day falls only a few days after my birthday so lots of extra lovin' takes place during this week. Sadly, I wasn't able to attend Kaden's school party at school but we still had fun putting together his Valentine's Day box and his treats for his classmates. 

Thankfully I was able to sneak away from work for a short hour to make Logan's preschool party--it's his last preschool party, I can't even believe it! Grammy came too and actually stayed the entire time so that he had someone there wit him & if you can't tell, he was pretty stoked. 

We had decided a few weeks earlier that no matter what, we wanted sushi--so we would either make sushi like we had the year before at home or we would go out for it. We were good with either way but Janet offered to watch the kiddos so we made a dinner reservation at Drunkin Fish. We had never been there but had heard good things about it and we were excited to try it out. Our friends met us up there & we all agreed, it was delicious. And our company was awesome.

But our celebrations weren't over yet, we still had the LOVE Day, which fell on a Sunday this year. I believe we slept in and as Justin headed over to get the boys, I did a quick little photo session of some cuties. & then I threw my boys in front of the camera---after all, they are my favorite subjects.

It's getting harder and harder to get the boys to let me take their pictures but thankfully we had gotten them a couple Lego sets for Valentine's Day and I told them that I would sit down with them and watch as they put them together. Thank goodness for good old bribery.

When ended the day with a South family dinner, Pioneer Woman style & again, Justin knocked it out of the park. Lovely day with some of my favorite people.

34 With a High of 60

When I was born 34 years ago it was snowing, blizzard like. Today, as I turn 34, it's 60 out. 60 degrees--warm and sunny & probably a record high for February 10th. & So of course we had to make the most of this BIRTHday of mine. Kaden was out of school for the day and since Logan had pre-school in the morning I figured I would spend the morning with my biggest lil' man. No work & all play.

We started our little morning adventure with breakfast, donuts to be more specific & of course we couldn't go anywhere else but John's Space Age Donuts. If you live in KC and you haven't made it to John's, do yourself a favor and go, quickly---like right now. Everything is To. Die. For.

Since we had a few hours to kill before having to pick up Logan and since nothing "fun" was open, we decided to head to Target. Or I decided, we would head to Target and we would do a little window shopping. You know the kind where I take Kaden up and down, up and down, up and down toy isle after toy isle and tell him, "add it to your birthday or Christmas list".  A little mean, yes, but he was a trooper, we were spending time together and he was holding and sipping a hot chocolate as we made our way around the store. & it just happened to be his first Starbucks experience too--monster created.

This BIRTHday was starting off right--donuts, followed by Target, Starbucks---tea and hot chocolate, my lil man. We roamed up and down most isles. Picked up a few things here and there that we need or just had to have before we headed over to the Lego store. We built and raced Lego cars for awhile, checked out every single Lego set they had and even walked out with a couple of new alarm clocks. Batman for Logan. Superman for Kaden.

We wrapped up just in time to pick Logan up at pre-school dismissal & off to Brenda's they both went as I headed for my hair appointment. It's not a birthday without a little pampering...

Justin wanted to go out for a good dinner to celebrate but we had Kaden's parent teacher conference just before 7 so that limited our options. We settled, and I use that loosely because we love it, for Johnny's & then scurried over to meet with Kaden's teacher.

Kaden read his autobiography that he is working on to us & walked us through his favorite things about kindergarten. For the most part, it was a success parent teacher conference, we just have a few small things to work on---waiting for Ms. Timmerman to ask for his help & slowing down with his handwriting.

It was closing in on bedtime for the boys so we raced home, unwrapped the two cakes that were made for me and loaded them up with candles and snapped a quick family picture before the boys serenaded me with Happy Birthday & helped blow out my candles. Then it was game on---cake for all.

Birthday celebrations are very different from what they they use to be---good, bad, indifferent---but one thing never changes, I'm always surrounded by the people I love. & this picture reflects that perfectly--my three loves--who did the most amazing job of making me feel so special on my birthday. Cheers to 34--it's going to be a great year in so many ways.

Surpirse Visitors

This last week has brought a couple wonderful surprises---first my mom calls and asks if we would like a visitor on Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning but she wasn't saying who. At first I was thinking my dad and was about to say no---kidding dad, when she said she needed to come to KC to meet my aunts from Omaha for a little bit and she wasn't about to come to KC without seeing me and the boys--Justin included. I was probably more excited than the kids were because I hadn't been feeling well and I knew the kids would be all about her which would result in me getting a little more time to rest.

You see, Justin had been Mr. Mom on top of his daddy role since early Sunday morning already and prior to getting sick I told him to schedule some time with the guys, a night out or something. I wasn't about to take that away from him so Mom was coming up was such a blessing.

She made it to the house just in time to jump in the car as we headed out to Kaden's soccer game. Once it was over it was back to the house where Justin had the grill going---which was so much better than going out and eating. We played a game or two or a dozen of Hedbanz & then to the couch I went.

She even got up and went to church with us, the boys loved showing her around our church and when it came time to pick them up from their classes they ran to her, not me. We said good-bye shortly after coming home and I'm pretty there wasn't a single person that was happy about it.

A few days later, I got another call from my mom and she proceeded to ask me the same question--would we be up for an overnight visitor. Sure, the last one worked out perfectly & that's when she said that Dad was up at the Iowa/Missouri border and wasn't going to be able to make it home in his allotted drive time but he could make it to us. We didn't have any plans and the boys LOVE their Papa Tom so of course we said yes & we all hurried home after work to get as much time in with Papa as we could.

He helped Kaden with his homework which I loved watching but then he fed the kiddos nachos way after their bedtime---he's lucky I can't say no to him spoiling the kids.

It was early to bed for us all as we all had early starts to the morning, especially Papa Tom but both boys were up and giving him hugs goodbye. Somehow they managed to "charge" Papa for his stay and they both ended up with a couple extra dollars in their wallets.

An Ottoman Update

Maybe 5 years or so ago we got a new ottoman--it wasn't the prettiest thing but we weren't going for style, we were going for two things, functionality and most importantly, not subjecting our children to injury.

We failed on the first attempt at coffee tables and Kaden took the brunt of it, so this time around we looked passed the horrible fabric and went with what we needed.

When we purchased our current home we had more space and eventually the couch and the ottoman found their way to the basement as new furniture found it's way into our home. And after 5 years, it has really started to show some wear and tear. Not to mention, the fabric was still atrocious. But the functionality keeps me from kicking it to the curb--don't get me wrong, I've tried and Justin just keeps pulling it back in. 

Since we have started spending more time in the basement this winter and have started hanging a few things on the walls--a gallery wall down World Series memory lane, a 2014 & 2015 Royals WS autographed team jerseys--it was time to do something about that damn eyesore. 

I called the upholstery guy we use and gave him the dimensions and he gave me the price, or what he thought would be the price without seeing it--$75 or $80. WHAT? You are totally jacking with me right? I've been waiting this long for $75 bucks?!? Well, now at least you know, there is no reason to wait if you're considering a similar project. 

I immediately started searching for fabric. Looked at LS Fabric -- purchased the fabric for Logan's rocking chair from here but no luck this time around. Went to Pinterest, pinned and scrolled for a few minutes and then ran across this print from Tonic Living. 

I was worried it might be a little too busy so I copied the link and added a few other possibilities to it and sent it to my friend, Sarah. She's has an eye like no one else I know. Out of the links, she picked the same one, so I added it to my cart and a few days later it was in our mailbox.

Now, I haven't necessarily showed Justin and mainly because I was about 90% sure he wouldn't like the print of the fabric BUT he is also the kind of person that has a hard time envisioning what something will look like before it is actually done. This way I don't get bummed because he doesn't like it and he doesn't think, "what the hell is she thinking---she wants PINK to be the accent color?". It really is a win, win. 

So I dropped it off. I purchased an extra yard of fabric in hopes they could make a couple pillow cases for me to add to the couch, you know, tie it all together. 

Then came the wait. & I waited. & I got more anxious by the day. Finally, I got the call & I picked it up. & it was GORGEOUS.

It ended up being a little more than they originally quoted me because they relined the inside but I was perfectly fine with shelling out the extra for the outcome. Why oh why did I wait so long.