We're officially ready for Halloween...

Now that OUR family is ready for Halloween, it may begin! Kids have costumes and we made a trip out to the pumpkin patch Monday night. Of course I forgot my camera, so no pics. But as you all know, I never post them anyway...ha! Mike and Jorden carved pumpkins last night and we are set. We won't be here Friday night, but we are lighting up the pumpkins, leaving candy by the door and we are off to our in-laws. We've kind of made it a tradition to trick or treat in their neighborhood, and then have dinner afterward. I'm excited that it's on Friday this year, so we won't have to rush home for work in the morning. Jorden will be Hannah Montana, Bella will be "Marie" the Aristocrat (J's old costume from when she was 2, so cute!), and boys will be a lion and a monkey. Not sure which one of them will be the lion, and which one will be the monkey. Mike and Jorden want me to dress them up, so they can try and guess who's who. Funny! Anyway, should be a good time....bring on the treats (or tricks)!!

Parties, parties and more parties!

So we had a surprise party for Mike's youngest brother on Saturday, who turned 30. Whatever, I hate young people! We just finished up the boys's 1st bday, planned Johnny's 30th and now are working on Bella's 3rd. It will be very small though, prob. just family at either Chuck E. Cheese's (Bella and Jorden's vote), or the Phoenix Zoo (mommy and daddy's vote). I'll let you guess who is going to win...

Jorden has parent-teacher conferences tmrw night. I'll get to meet the 8A team that I've heard so much about all year (well, the last two mos...ha!). Still waiting on her pic re-takes, to see how they turned out. She's moody like any other typical teenager, but we keep her in check. :) Braces going well, you can already see a huge difference!

Bella is wearing big girl panties now and absolutely loves them. Jordie and Ashley snagged some Mickey ones from Target that are really cute. I realized I couldn't survive with just 3 pair, so I found some more at Wal-mart the other day (My Little Pony) and she says "I want pink ponies to cover my privies (privates)", bless her heart!

Boys are just about walking and I'm searching Craigslist for TWO front-facing carseats and another Chicco feeding chair (already have one that was Bella's). They no longer want to sit in their Bumbos so feeding time is NOT fun! Cooper is actually crawling out of his chair at this very moment, as all of the food spills on the floor (dogs don't mind:)

Hubby (yes, he's still alive)...is enjoying football season and absolutely loves it when he comes home from a 12hr work day, to find out what I need him to do around here next! Oh life's little treasures...

The twins are now ONE!!

Man, did that go by fast or what? House is done, party is done, now I'm going to kick my feet up and relax....for a long time! House looks amazing, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I'll post some pics for you all to see. Have to download those and the party ones. Didn't get much of the party, was running around like a crazy woman. Hoping to get some from those of you that took them for me (hint, hint). Was a good turnout I guess, WAY too many people, WAY too many gifts, and WAY to hot!! I would've got the water slide bouncer, had I known it was going to be so hot and disgusting outside. I should've known when I was watching the news Thurs. night and they said there was a heat advisory for the wknd, that I had to do some 'quick thinking'. If my head was on straight all week, I probably would've had a plan B, however that didn't happen. Jorden's friends bailed on her last minute, so I didn't have any other willing teenagers to run the game stations for me. Just set everything up in hopes that the parents would show their children how to play them (ha!). So we decided to do a raffle for all the prizes. Wasn't very successful either, so Jordie ended up just handing out all of the prizes to whoever would take them (no problems there). Clown was actually really fun for the kids, and took their minds off of the heat for about an hour. Food was good, so I heard.

It's over now and no more big shin-digs for the Spiro kids. From now on it's Chuck E. Cheese's with just the family! That's the way to do it. Have somebody else cook and clean up after you. Even bigger than that, COLD A/C, no matter how many people are there!!!

Happy Birthday to my baby boys! They completely devoured their entire cupcakes. There wasn't a morsel left on their trays. If anyone got pics, please send....

It's finally here!

Jorden Michelle is FINALLY 13!! I kept hoping if I just ignored it, it would go away. Low and behold, Aug. 28th arrived. It was 13 LONG years ago, at 10:30am, that Jorden arrived. My first born is now a teenager, and I can deny it no longer! Man, where did the time go? I made her fave baked potato soup (thank you Guthries/Passeys). I think it actually tasted like it was supposed to this time...ha! After dinner, I took her to see Mamma Mia. We were supposed to see it a month ago, but things kept coming up. Although, I was enjoying the barrage of previews over the last few mos., as I'm a HUGE Abba fan! Have been since I was a little girl. Jorden thought it was a little cheesy. It was your typical musical, but I must say, I did like the play a lot better. I'll still buy it when it comes out, just because I love all of the songs, and I'm a big Meryl Streep fan, too. Oh yah, if you're a Pierce Brosnan fan, don't get your hopes up!

Mike picked Jorden up for lunch from school, and signed her out for the rest of the day. She was pretty stoked! My brother Shad also came over tonight with gifts from Abercrombie & Fitch, so she's really on Cloud 9 now! Plus, she has a slumber party at her dad's tmrw, so she's excited for that! I'll be trying to score her some Jonas Bros. tics in the next few wks, that's our gift to her. They have a concert in Oct. and I really hope I can find a good deal. I'm a Craigslist stalker though, so I'm not worried about it! Ask (or stalk) and you shall receive, that's my mantra!

Ok, off to bed. Quicker this day is over the better, as the depression/realization has set in!!

Wow....I'm old!!

So for those of you who know my age, good for you! For those of you who don't, good for you! I can't believe that Jorden is approaching 13! Wow! I realize I'm probably outing my age by announcing that, but oh well. I am still in shock that my baby is now a teenager...yikes! What joys will the upcoming years bring me, I ask? Do I even want to think about it? Am I ready for the sassy, back-talking years? I don't think I am! I was talking to my mom tonight (she's leaving for Aruba on Fri, lucky dog) and she said "I hope your guns are loaded", referring to the life ahead of me. Thanks mom, I appreciate the heads up! Honestly, I'm really not worried about Jordie causing me any trouble. She's a good kid. She definitely has her moments lately, but nothing compared to what most parents go through, I'm sure. I think she KNOWS she better tow the line...or else! That much I can say I'm responsible for...ha! Now Bella on the other hand, may send me over the edge! Let's cross that bridge at a later date....WAY later!

I'll have 3 teenagers at my house this wknd, for an early bday sleepover. I think I'll ship them off to the movies (half the battle is won). Then when they return, I'll order them some pizza and send them out to the pool (score again)!

I am getting up at the crack of dawn Sat. morning for a garage sale. Out with the old, in with the new! Everything that we've been replacing during our remodel, has been sitting in our garage. Time to be rid of it ALL, even if I have to give it away! Mike claims he's getting up with me at 5am, this is yet to be seen!

P.S. Thanks for all of the prayers for my niece Abigail. She doing well on her medication and to date is seizure free. I am now babysitting her two days a week so she doesn't have to be in daycare. I couldn't stand the thought of anything happening and her waking up around strangers. Granted they are CPR certified, but so am I. I just feel much more comfortable this way. She's a sweetie. I'll have to post pics of her and Bella playing together and bossing each other around...it's hilarious!

REmodeling....REthink it!!

our remodeling adventure was fun in the beginning, but has since been very frustrating and brought out the worst in us! we wanted to do it ourselves, #1 to save $ and #2 for the sake of saying we did it ourselves! don't get me wrong, i love to learn new things and i'd like to be a little 'renovation savvy' if you will, so when i really need to reference what i've learned, i will be able to w/out any problems. you never know when you'll need to fix something at the drop of a hat. WAY later on down the line, anyway! it is really nice to work hard and see the benefits, which is what we were experiencing in the beginning. now, we've seen the worst of things. it took us 3 full days (and by full i mean 16hr days), trying to put our french doors in! the "free" doors that we scored, actually cost us $200, miscellaneous parts we didn't think of. if you threw in labor, we'd be in the $1000's range! after that was squared away, we moved onto the kitchen sink/faucet. what you would think was pretty easy, right? WRONG!! we keep forgetting that our house is 22yrs old. every time we turn around, something is breaking and we have to replace it w/a newer part or something that should come off easily, even after using every tool in the book, is practically welded on because it's been in the same place for so long. no bueno! so after a long week of dealing w/a stinkin' sink, our kitchen is finally finished (minus the paint, of course)! oh yah, bought the sink from craigslist for $50 and ended up costing over $100 to put in!

so when they say "how strong is your marriage?", when you ask "how hard can it be to remodel a few things here and there"...that's what they mean!! it's been a struggle for mike and i because dealing w/everyday stress is hard enough, let alone throw in a bunch of dust, tools, drywall and paint chips EVERYWHERE, "let's do it this way, no, let's do it that way", you get the picture!!

nonetheless, we're movin' on to the bathrooms. hopefully they'll go a lot smoother...ha! keep in mind, we're still pulling for a september deadline...keep you posted.

I've seen it all....

Mike and I leave the house tonight and what do we see when we enter the Suburban?...wires hanging down from the roof of our car (all that was left of the movie screen that used to sit there). We looked at each other, sat there for a moment to absorb what actually happened, looked at each other again, picked our jaws up off the ground, looked at each other again, and just shook our heads in utter disappointment. Did somebody really break into our car, look around at the MANY car seats (3 to be exact), and proceed to steal our children's DVD player? Seriously? We will have to work THAT much harder to raise our kids in this type of world, in hopes they will never have to encounter something like this! I saw on the news that car thefts are at an all-time high, due to the ever-so-fast, sinking economy (thank you George W. Bush). People are taking any and everything they can get their hands on. Desperate times call for desperate measures, apparently! Very sad!

Instead of making our planned trip to Costco, we detour to Fry's Electronics and painfully purchase another movie screen. Thank you American Express! We just couldn't bear the thought of Bella's eyes when we tell her that there is no more Care Bears Big Wish! Although I don't think Jorden would mind if she never had to watch that again!

So we'll scrape off the thick layer of "violation" that we feel and move on. As Mike said, if he (or she, I won't be sexist) needed it to feed their family or something of that nature then God Bless. Otherwise, he hopes they rot in H E double toothpicks!