Hello my long-lost Xanga friends. No - I have not dropped off the face of the Earth, but I'm not a good "blogger". I don't have tons of interesting things going on in my life and quite frankly, this Fall/Winter has been a tough one. We've had every kind of sickness known to man (including Whooping Cough), a broken foot, health issues with my Dad, Holidays, Birthdays, Family in from out of state, etc. Just a lot of stuff. Anyway - I've been meaning to sit down and blog lately, and haven't made the time. So here I am... blogging for the first time in 3 1/2 months.

I need some advice... my daughter (who will be 2yrs old the end of March) is still in a crib and is quite frankly, a monster. I love her to pieces, but she's a difficult child. She's full of life and mischief. I plan to keep her in her crib until she's - ooh... 10yrs. Just kidding, but seriously - I wasn't thinking of moving her to a "big" girl bed until around 3yrs old or until she figured out how to get out of her crib (which will probably be sooner than later ). Anyway - she keeps sticking her (chubby) leg in between the rails of the crib and getting them stuck. I mean STUCK. She's crying, I'm freaking out, etc. I hvae a bumper pad in the crib, but it doesn't matter b/c she'll step on it and get her leg stuck more at the top of the crib rails. She has done this SEVERAL times and doesn't seem to learn her lesson. My little cherub doesn't tend to learn things the easy way. She can get a spanking for something, cry her little eyes out (did I mention that she's a drama queen?? ) and she will go right back to whatever she was doing and we start all over again. Seriously - it's an issue. Ayla and Elijah are SO night and day when it comes to discipline. Any advice on what I should do about this particular problem? I don't want to do a "big" girl bed, b/c I really don't think she will stay in her bed, let alone her bedroom. It's a battle that I don't think either of us are ready for.

Elijah is in preschool and loving it. He totally surpised me the other day when he wrote his name on his drawing. I about fell off my chair. He wrote out "ELIJAH". I was so happy. He's so smart. My huge thing with him right now is trying to decide where he will go next year. Age-wise, most people recommend pre-k. I was sold on sending him to Pre-K next year until I found out that MOST of his friends are NOT doing pre-k. They are all moving on to Kindergarden. I know that's a stupid way to base your decision, but I feel so torn. We were supposed to have parent/teacher conferences this past week, but they were cancelled due to the snow storm. He also HAS to have Kindergarden testing in March, so I know they'll give me a better indication of where he is at academically. I'm just worried they will look at his b-day and say pre-k regardless as to where he is academically. He knows his letters, he knows their sounds, he can write his name, he can count to 20, etc. With all that said, I'm 90% sure we'll send him to Pre-k. What can one extra year hurt??

This is the "Rood Family". This was taken around Christmas time.

 I can't believe my last entry was June 11th. Well... actually I can. I must not have an exciting life like all of my other friends. I don't have a whole lot to journal about.... not a whole lot is new at the Doyle house.

My kids are getting cuter (and naughtier - like Miss Ayla) everyday. Elijah is loving the cottage (my in-laws own a cottage on Big Star Lake) and even went skiing last weekend. Oooh!!! I know - we did just purchase a 4-wheeler. Talk about an out of the blue purchase. Elijah and Shane love it! Ayla loves the horn!!   I'll post some pictures of it.

As for me - I've ran a mile or so the past two nights. My entire body hurts. Why people run for enjoyment puzzles me! I'm hoping it will help me lose some weight though. I've been contemplating the whole Weight Watchers thing. I'd like to lose 20lbs... and a girlfriend of mine has been doing it for 4+ months now and has lost 24+ pounds! That sound pretty awesome... but as with anything - it takes commitment and I struggle with that. I'm usually gung-ho for a week or so and then I give up. That's why I'm still "contemplating" the idea of joining weight watchers. I don't really want to "throw" my money away if I'm not going to actually stick with the program.

Tomorrow night is girl's night out - and boy am I looking forward to it. I haven't seen my KCC friends in a long time. I'm also going scrapbooking all day Thursday... Aahhh.... it's going to be a little taste of Heaven that day! Ha ha ha  

Ayla sitting in her chair at her cousin Alexa's birthday

Elijah - just being cute!

I've been "reminded" recently that I have not updated my site for over a month now... I kept meaning to, but never found the time to sit down and do it. I do check for updates on all of YOUR sites though... so don't think I've completely forgotten about Xanga! 

Let's see... what's new with me.... not a whole lot. Ayla is busy walking around now. She walks with her arms up... I guess for balance or something. She's as cute as ever and is growing up SO quickly. Elijah is LOVING this warm weather and likes to spend all his time outside if possible. We're heading up north to my in-laws cottage this coming weekend and he is THRILLED about it. There's nothing like swimming in the lake and taking a boat ride for this three and a half year old.

Shane and I are about to embark on a new home project. For those of you who have seen the outside of our ugly house, will be excited about what we have in store. We're replacing the windows on the front of our house, ripping down the wood paneling (I don't actually know what it is - but it's not siding) and putting up vinyl shakes.We're also changing the color of our house (painting the rest of our house - which has aluminum siding) to match the new color the the shakes we're putting on the front. We had chosen this subtle deep grayish-green color, but now we're leaning towards a grayish-brown color. We have some brick on the front of our house that we're trying to work with. It has the appearance of having "pink" mortar in between the bricks, so we're trying to "fix" that. Anyway - we're both excited about the change and the FACE-LIFT it will give our home.

Other than that.... nothing is "new". I enjoyed seeing a lot of you at Sister Time this morning. It was so nice to catch up with everyone and visit with you again. I loved hearing Joni's story. We'll have to get together again. I'll have to pick a few dates this next year to "pop in" and say hello.

Enjoy this beautiful warm day!

Much Love....