The Path Not Taken

.

One of my favorite sayings is, “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.” But I never thought that footprint would leave a scar. For some reason today I just need to write maybe it's the cards that I come across or the little things in each room that are reminders. It seems that all of those things leave me in bewilderment of the things that I believed in.

A long time ago a verse was read in a church, "and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." I always had these things faith, hope and love. Not only for the future but for my family and the life I thought was mine which was filled with love and fidelity. But instead now I'm left with a scar and sadness because even after everything I still have love.

Your told time heals all wounds and that things happen for a reason but then you wonder how that happens and pray that it will.

Today I hope that my boys and this sweet little girl with have faith, hope, and an open heart. I have to believe that through it all I can lead them on the right path and make it though each day with a little less pain.

My Sweet Silly Boys

Untitled from Kim Julian on Vimeo.

What in the World Have We Been Up Too!

We had a wonderful Christmas. My camera broke so we didn't have a chance to take pictures of all of the fun but we did have a lot of it! Grandma Sondra the photographer in the family bought a new camera for Christmas so she gave me her old one. Not that it's old, it's awesome, so hopefully I can get back on track with pictures!

Aidan is having tubes put in next Wednesday. He had 6 ear infections in a row this winter so I am praying that this will help him tremendously. I am worried but hopeful that he will feel so much better after it is done. We go in next Wednesday for the procedure so I'll let everyone know how he is doing. Being a Mommy is so hard but I know there are many Mommy's dealing with much harder issues with their children so I am thankful that there are ways to help him feel better quickly.

Alex is doing great! He is already working on being good so he can start his Santa Letter for next year.

I have another project I am working on that will roll out in a couple of weeks so it should be interesting to see how things go for us this year. STL Mommy is a full time job along with being a Stay at Home Mom but I've 'met' some wonderful people along the way and I'm having a great time in the process.

Aaron is doing great they are making some changes at work so he will be stressed, as always, but we are happy at home!

So that's about it! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Love to all,

Kim

Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

To our surprise Alex was the Little Drummer Boy yesterday in his Christmas Play. We were so proud of him as he marched all of the boys and girls into the program, playing his drum. I also shed a few tears in the knowledge of my little boy growing up.

I couldn't resist putting this picture up. Alex and Faith have become quite a pair. They are sweet to each other, really care about each others feelings, and are just great friends. They properly found spots next to one another during the second part of the play.

Here is a picture of all of the kids. They put the two 4 year old classes together and oh they were so sweet!

I must say that they are a cute little pair! :)

Love to all,

Kim

Mrs. Clause

Alex met Mrs. Clause this week at school. Can you believe she came in the sleigh all the way to Mustard Seed!

Here is his letter to Santa:

Dear Santa and Mrs. Clause,


My name is Alex Julian and I have been a very good boy this year. I like you Santa and I love Mrs. Clause. I would like the Bumble Bee Transformers car, a Jesus toy or book, or the Batman Castle with Robin. I would even like a Power Ranger or Scooby Doo movie in my stocking, plus I like dragons and knights.

I can't find the Green Goblin's head either. :(


I will have chocolate milk, cookies, and carrots for the Reindeer.


Love,

Alex


Mom, Dad, Aidan and Caesar



(I have a picture but of course my camera isn't working).

Aidan gave her a high five and then clung on to my leg for dear life!

Happy Thanksgiving

We'll no pictures again since I forgot to charge the camera. :(

I really do enjoy Thanksgiving. It is a day designed to allow you to really think about what you are thankful for instead of the daily worries that everyone owns. This year I have so much to be thankful for. Life has been very good to me this year and I truly can say that I am happy with (just about) everything. I am thankful to have a loving husband, beautiful little boys, and a happy family. I am thankful that we haven't had any losses this year and that we are lucky enough to have all of our needs met on a daily basis when others aren't always so fortunate.

This year I again asked everyone what they are thankful for:
Aaron- Me and the boys :)
Alex- "My Mom, Dad, dog, and baby brother."
Aidan- "Shoes, and it looks like Doritos."

Love to all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Hectic

Life has become a little more hectic for the Julian family. STL Mommy has taken off with a bang. Can you believe in 1 week I had 60,000 viewers. I am in awe of the comments that readers are leaving about how I have changed their lives when it comes to their finances. OK, now I don't know about changing lives but they are all very appreciative of the work I am doing on the site.

Believe it or not the story has been shown in Michigan twice on different stations and in Columbus Ohio. Jordan, the person who did the story with me said that more NBC stations can still pick it up. I think we will be working on another segment for Channel 5 soon! Due to chance I will be on with Y98's Phillips and Company tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will sound OK, I am much better over the phone than in person when it comes to talking about the site.

The boys have been great. I'm getting up early so things will be as normal as possible for them and they love all the goodies that we are getting. They both have been sick in the past few weeks. Aidan is on his 3rd ear infection and Alex has his normal fall allergy/cold symptoms. I actually have a reader coming to the house this weekend to do a family portrait, so I will finally have some good Christmas photo's for all of you!

Aaron also has been very supportive of the transition to working from home. I really appreciate all that he has done for me and his help with the things I really do not enjoy like the finances, spread sheets, and starting a business with the state.

We'll that's all for now. I will share Aidan's new love for washing dishes next time!

Love to all!

Happy Anniversary

Happy early Anniversary to the love of my life. I am so thankful and blessed to have found such a wonderful husband and father. I want to thank you for every moment that I have with you and for always being so supportive. I truly appreciate everything that you have done to make me happy.

I love you!

Kim

Whoo

Whoo, I need a moment to calm down. I started the website and have people already asking me to advertise and I have some really cool things going on with some businesses. I feel like I am high, not that I know how that feels, but with the normal stuff in life that goes on and the busyness of the boys nothing has stopped it's just moving ahead. I am so excited about the web site and the nice compliments I've been getting from readers. I really hope this turns into something big.

We had a wonderful time Halloween, as you can see by the candy! Aunt Teresa joined us on our adventure and we had so much fun this year. Alex was really into Halloween and Aidan was just trying to get into peoples homes.

We have had a busy week with Faith coming over twice, the election, and Alex had fun with Kyan so I could vote. THANK YOU Kim!

Today Alex had his first dentist appointment. NO cavities, and a wonderful report. I was so impressed with the office. They sent a book prior to the visit written to him they autographed it and took his picture. I will scan that later.

OK, I'm going to do something besides look at this computer. The boys are asleep!

Love to all!

More Halloween fun and my little blond terror!

We had a wonderful time at the Mustard Seed Halloween Party! Alex was thrilled with all of the fun games and crafts that the mom's put together for the party and he even won musical chairs. Aidan enjoyed the fun also while running around and checking everyone out. I love watching the kids having fun and talking to each other. I have no idea why that amazes me but I love watching their conversations.

We did our annual pumpkin painting. It's weird to see how big Alex has gotten and how much easier it is to have him paint a pumpkin. He did an awesome job as always. Here are some old pictures of our pumpkin painting. ~sniff

2006
2005

He really isn't a terror! This morning Aidan walked with me into the kitchen I turned and sprayed the counter and when I turned back he had stamped his face with Halloween stamps. Seriously, it took maybe 15 seconds for him to stamp his whole face. He didn't allow me to take a picture of painting the pumpkin so maybe this was his way to show off his messiness!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Fun

We had a fun Halloween filled weekend at my Mom's house. We went to the pumpkin farm as I like to call it. Aidan has been sick, I feel like I write that every post, but he finally got into the farm enough to pull around a wagon and once he found the slide it was over for me. I still have the dirt marks on my jeans to prove it!


Alex surprised me when he jumped on this swing zip line and went full speed ahead. He really enjoyed the farm especially since he had Daddy taking him around everywhere. Although, Daddy didn't do the tower of terror like I did last year! :) Alex didn't want to anyway, I think that thing burned a memory in his brain to last a lifetime.


We had fun at Grandma's Halloween Party at the Boulders. Aidan decided that he was too too little to put his head in and bob for apples but his hand worked perfectly.


Alex on the other hand did it! First try he got an apple. I must say I was a proud since my little guy got an apple and we didn't need a towel to drive him off.


It's a busy week, we have Alex's Halloween party at school. This year I opted to bring the drinks instead of doing the craft. I'm quite pleased with my choice!

I'll bring updates and pictures soon. It's funny how much you love Halloween when you have kids!

A new endeavor

I am thinking of starting something new. I have been using coupons with the help of Mommy blogs that I have listed on my blog roll. It has actually been fun finding the best bargains but I have found that in the STL area there isn't anyone doing anything for the stores surrounding us with the exception of the MILLION Walgreen's we have in the area. So I am going to start a blog of my own. Once it is up and running I will send you all the link so you can get started if you want a quick resource for coupons. I also plan to do reviews and giveaways so I'll keep you posted and have a link on the blog to my new site.

In doing this I have found a great rebate source for online shoppers-Mr. Rebates. I Hate the mall as many of you know so much of my shopping is through Ebay, and online stores or sales. During Christmas I do pretty much all of our shopping online because I really detest crowds. Anyway, at Mr. Rebates you just sign up and they give you a percentage back of what you purchased, but remember to go to their site, log in, then search for the place you want to shop. I bought a purse on Ebay this week and got cash back, HOW AWESOME IS THAT? With all of the Christmas shopping I may have enough to buy myself the book of Aidan on Shutterfly that's been sitting there for 6 months! :)

Anyway, check it out and I'll keep you posted on my new endeavor!

The Great Pumpkin

"What is that?"

" That's Gross!"

"Can I eat it?"

"It's taking too long, maybe I should beat on Daddy!"

"Any day now!"

It's almost done, this is hard work!"

The perfect "Mean Face" Pumpkin!

A sad story with a happy ending

Last week I went to pick up Alex from school and the teachers were frantic searching for the pumpkin that he had painted. They looked everywhere so we finally asked Alex if he painted a pumpkin during school and he told Mrs. Appleton that she never called his name. Mrs. Appleton got tears in her eyes and said, "Alex, I'm so sorry I guess your name tag was stuck to someone else's." She asked if he would like to paint one then, so he did. It was interesting to see his old teachers coming out wondering if they had run out of the materials and why he was painting after school had ended. Mrs. Appleton told them the story so Mrs. Goldecker and Mrs. Haight both told us that Alex is such a sweet boy and would never say anything while other kids would have been in their face telling them their error. (Although, I know he would have told me immediately while we walked down the stairs). I felt so sorry for the little guy but he seemed happy painting his pumpkin and told Mrs. Appleton he had more fun doing it with me there.

While there I kept looking at the easel and thinking that I wish I would have bought one 2 Christmas's ago when I thought about it but they were so expensive and I didn't know if he would really like it. When we got home I got on Craigslist and found one in High Ridge for $20.00- it's perfect no marks, stains or anything. (At least when we got it). So now we have an easel. They don't fight since it has a chalk side and dry eraser side and they LOVE it. I was telling Aaron that there are now 3 favorites in the Julian family. First is the Lego table that we bought for Alex's 1st birthday, second is the refrigerator toys, and now the easel! Even though the drive to High Ridge is the worst drive ever it was worth every moment!

Just in case your wondering they were working on their numbers while kids went out to paint their pumpkins.

A Phone!!! I have a Phone!

I am so excited!!! I have a phone, you can call me, I can call you, no more phone book or funny pieces of paper to remind me of your numbers!!! I have been playing with it since Aaron brought it home and it's pretty and it makes funny sounds like "say cheese" before it takes a picture!

"Aidan cried the minute he couldn't have it," but I have a phone!

On another note. Aidan had his check-up today. Can you believe the little guy almost weighs 31 pounds. Alex only weighs 38 pounds. No wonder my back hurts! He is in the 90th percentile for height and weight. I laughed when she asked me if he eats well. He is doing great despite my worry with his breathing issues which I think are allergy related. Hopefully I can get some answers soon since I've decided to take him to an allergist. Poor little guy had to get eye drops since his eyes are draining icky stuff.

Well that's all for tonight!

CALL ME!!! :)

GO ME!

I was just checking out my Ebay seller stats and in the last 31 days I have had $412.00 in sales. WOW, I'm impressed with myself! I also have $50.00 coming this weekend from my craigslist listing. Not bad for a stay-at-home mommy!

Family Fun!

We'll we have been busy. OK, busy is not the right word since I'm down here just trying to take a break but I guess that's what we will call it. This weekend we went to see the Backyardigans at the Fox Theatre. It was amazing. Grandma bought us excellent tickets so we were in the 11th row right in front of the stage and with all of the little heads in the crowd you could see everything. Alex had his eyes glued to the stage. Aidan was in awe of the theatre as you can tell from him looking up at the giant ball in the center and I think he did pretty good for a 85 minute production with a 20 minute intermission. Alex is continuing to sing "Were knights, that's right!"

I was bummed that we didn't get to take off on Sunday for our Key Largo trip but all is right with the world and we continued having a fun family day. I actually made a recipe that Aaron LOVED so you know it was a good day in our house.

This week has been a whirl wind and there is no stopping it. We had a wonderful day today playing with the Perry's. Thank God for Amy she is so wonderful with the boys and she is great to me. I got to go off for a Walmart adventure of my own which was less eventful then when the boys are around. They made art projects and played and Aidan didn't cry after I snuck away which made me a very happy Mom. Kyan came over this afternoon to give Kim a little while to rest. I was thinking today that they don't tell you how exhausting a new born is in the 'baby' manual, but they are so rewarding. Kingston is a beautiful baby. I am still dying to hold him but my 'big' baby didn't allow that when we took Kyan home. Ade- the big baby- has an appointment with his pediatrician tomorrow so maybe I can get some insight on what is going on with his allergies and his separation issues.

So the rest of the week we have school, Dr., a Mommy book party and play date, and Halloween party planning with the school Mom's. It should be fun. "Maybe my Mom will want to give us a night out?" Subtle huh?

Baby Kingston arrived!

Just a quick post to let everyone know my friend Kim next door had Kingston this morning and he is a healthy 8 pound 1 ounce baby boy. I am so excited to have a baby next door. I'm sure these 4 boys will have some fun!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers.

Amy's request

Me at 18 months

Me at 3 years. Seriously, Mom how many bangs did I need?

Aaron 3, Andy almost 5

How cute is that!