Where in the World has Shanna Been?

Honestly I will be surprised if anyone reads this!

I am sure for those that actually read my blog some they are wondering where in the world I went or what in the world happened!

Well……. LIFE Happened.

Having kids, working full time, taking care of the house, well you get it.

Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things because I miss blogging. Here is a little of what has been going on!

We went to a University of Arizona Football game!

Yes that is me on the left with Red Hair!

Love these girls! They hung in as long as possible on Black Friday!

Had fun on Halloween as a Pin-Up!

Stopped by the Movies to See Breaking Dawn Part 1

Yes, that is me with my new red hair!

I even took the kids to the pumpkin patch!

We have been having a lot of fun this Fall Season!

It’s been So busy but I am so blessed to have such an amazing life!

One on One

Organizing my time for each kid

Find time to spend with each kid individually can be difficult sometimes just because of time constraints and just life.

However, on this day I was super lucky and was able to spend some genuine one on one time with both the kiddos!

The hubby and I make an effort to occasionally (like once a year if we are lucky) to take each kid out by themselves and make it their special date. Our kids are so close in age neither one of them knows life without the other nor what it is like to get that individualized attention.

Haley and I hit up the nail salon to get some much needed wanted pedis. It was SO nice! I love hanging out with her chatting about girl stuff!

Who doesn’t just LOVE Denny’s! It was about 9:30 at night and Haley was at a sleepover and the hubby was out on a bear hunt and Cody said he had been crazy pancakes and he thought me and him should hit up Denny’s.

So I said SURE WHY NOT!?  He must have caught me at a moment of weakness.  I have to drive 25 minutes each way to get there and it was late, I was tired, but I didn’t hesitate!

Yup – there is my boy! All swagger like huh? We had the best time just the two of us chatting about the day and how dad’s hunt was going.  It was so nice to enjoy his company just together.

We try to make each kid feel special individually. Some days it is tough to carve out individual or special moments for each of them.  I like to hope that the moments we do have create a lasting impression and a great memory for down the road.

Is there anything you do for each kid? I would love to hear any ideas!



Out of Control!

It has really gotten out of control in my house!

It really is my fault - well seems to be since I am the slave, servant, maid, cook,  mom and wife.

I haven't had my cleaning fairy coming as often since we have had some birthdays, vacations, and vehicle repairs, well you get the idea so things have gotten out of control quickly!

I decided yesterday to tackle this massive problem with the help of my 2 adorable helpers!

You know these 2? They are awesome at cleaning!

It was a time to refill some of my Shaklee Cleaners. It is super easy and the product lasts forever!!! The Basic H Organic Cleaner makes an All Purpose Cleaner, the Window cleaner, and a Degreaser!

See that bottle? I have had that since February! I am telling you it lasts forever!!

Here is my Get Clean Caddy that I put all my cleaners in. It makes it so simple and easy when I am moving from room to room. I bought a bunch of the Basic H Spray Bottles they are super cheap and they are great quality. I had bought some at the dollar store and my sprayer kept breaking so I bought these and they come in a group of 3 bottles and they specifically what is in it and the bottles also has the instructions for making the solution. SO EASY!

GROSS Right? That is a hard water ring in my toilet (my hubs would probably die if he knew I posted this) but we have really hard water in AZ and it is SO hard to get off!

Thanks to my awesome cleaning fairy she introduced me to this really cool stone! I found this stone at ACE Hardware, I have searched everywhere for the name of it and can't find it but this stone is amazing! I used my Basic G that kills germs without making me cough from fumes.

Wowzers! See told ya that stuff really works!

Ewww again I know! Our bathroom sinks really taking hit between us and then our cat also thinks this is her bed.

Told ya she is crazy!

She also thinks the bathtub is her bed as well. But see that footprint to the left? Well I love to use my Basic H2 Degreaser and my Get Clean Scour Off to clean stubborn stains like this!

It turned out awesome! I just used some Basic H2 All Purpose cleaner and tada - done!

See no footprint (the pinkish color is from the flash I promise)! I finally felt so much better after I finally tackled the bathroom!

Basically the entire house had gotten out of control! I only showed you the bathroom here which was terrible enough!

The kids really helped we each tackled a bathroom each and then split up the rest of the stuff to be done. If one vacuumed upstairs the other vacuumed downstairs and I did the sweeping and mopping. If one did dishes the other did trash.  I was stuck doing the laundry!

TEAMWORK!

Check it out HERE !!

I am Here to Ruin Your Life!

Seriously?  I think my kids really think I am here to just ruin their lives some times!

I know it is constant for most parents and we have only just started the teen years!

I often think about these parents that I think honestly are lazy. They aren't involved, they aren't providing much guidance, the kids are just running around doing whatever they want to do. I wonder if this is nice for the parents?

Seriously, on one hand I know I would be miserable but to just ignore everything and pretend you don't hear things or see them doing things they shouldn't be doing.

Oh well, that isn't me or my hubby.

It does seem to be constant. For instance, my oldest wants to take whatever birthday money he gets to buy a new BMX bike. BECAUSE the one he got less than 2 years ago for Christmas isn't the kind that he wants now. Granted we did get it from a used sports store it is still a nice BMX DK bike.

What's the harm with wanting a new bike you might ask? $450.00 that is the problem. He is looking at bikes to the tune of $450.00! AND by me trying to ruin his life and not let him blow his money (even if he got even close to that amount) I am going to ruin his chances of EVER going pro and getting sponsored! I am a horrible mother apparently!

I totally understand wanting something new or more appropriate for what you want. I told him that regardless of how much money he gets (I wish I even thought I might get $450 for my birthday!) that he had to work within a budget and stay under $250.00 because he will want other things and he needs to have his own money to buy other stuff with.

Come to find out that his DK frame is a bit smaller than what he thought. So now he is on a mission to update his bike with new wheels, tires, and all this other bike stuff that I am clueless about. But one thing I do know is he is under budget on his wish list.

I may be a dream crusher.... but I guess I am doing my job?

But I am sure both my kiddos think I am here to ruin their lives.

Nickel and Diming Me to Death!

Well the last month has been crazy busy!

The kids started back to school and I feel completely FLAT BROKE!

I love these two little boogers more than anything! Who says kids aren't expensive!?

My kids are a hoot!

This year we have fees here fees there! And of course I have one kiddo that wants to do everything she possibly can at school - this makes me very exhausted and broke happy to see that she wants to be involved.

Fees for school:

Activity fee - $1.00

Band Fee - $20.00 (yes she says she is playing the drums - oh so now we also have to buy drum sticks)

Sports Fee - $75.00 for cheerleading - then $75.00 when she start soccer - $75.00 when she starts, well you get the idea

Yearbooks anyone?

School Shirts?

Drama - not sure if there is a fee for this yet - can't we get free drama at home? JK

School lunches - running around $120/month for both kids

DONATIONS DONATIONS DONATIONS - clearly because our school systems have NO money.

This is just for Middle School - one of my besties has a daughter in high school and their activity fee for band is... WAIT....... yep a whopping $120.00 for each activity!

Of course we are doing our best to foot the bill because we want to give our kids the most opportunities possible.

What kind of fees do you have to pay for school?

What was I Thinking?

What was I thinking?

Oh yeah, this is my first love and I wanted to spend time with the kids.

Something you didn't know about me - I was the 1988 Class IV TN State Champion on the floor exercise in gymnastics! I know I know, quit your clapping!

Well, I LOVED gymnastics! I was a crazy person!

Haley has started gymnastics a few times and she is moving up slowing and learning good skills and work ethic on how to achieve something that isn't so easy.

Check out a fun day with the kids! ( I still have a few moves).

He has ALWAYS been a monkey!

Love that girl!

I bet you didn't know that about me huh?

Sore you ask?

Not at all 

Maybe a little! Let's just say I can tell I have built some muscle!

More than anything I am so happy to spend some great quality time with the kids and we weren't sitting on the couch. I am not very active these days with the recovering Valley Fever stuff - this was more like do something, sit down, lol do another sit down. 

But all in all - what a great hour with the kids!

Simply Saturday

Simply Saturday



Tween Bathroom - Loving It!

We have been in our house for 3 1/2 years now and other than changing the shower curtain a few times the kids bathroom has been pretty much the same. One of the struggles we have is that both Cody and Haley share the same bathroom so it has to be a neutral type of theme. I try to get them to compromise but Cody finally said, "whatever Haley wants" I told him to quit giving me a classic man answer. Ended up he did let her have more her way but we still tried to incorporate colors he would like as well.

Before- I had bought the letters and we painted them. The pictures are pictures the kids painted on these canvas and I framed them with frames I already had and painted black.

Black, White, Red, and Gray

Pictures of our family that lives far away. We did the prints in black and white to add to the color scheme.

We started cleaning. Oh and by the way, I am using up the cleaning supplies I have because I think I am going to switch over to Shaklee. Never heard of it? Well I hadn't but check it out at my friend Erin's Blog.(and I have some great info on mine as well!) I am finding that I am loving it and I bought the Gold Premier but you can also just sign up to be a Member which right now with a $30.00 purchase the membership fee of $19.95  is waived with no minimum to ever buy again (but I know you will love these products!). You see that 409 in the background - it is NO more! As soon as I started using that stuff I started coughing again!

Yes, we can't help but join the bandwagon we do love the Zebra print!

The little things can really make the look. So we bought the lime green shower hooks. We went with lime green because Cody liked it and we wanted to try to compromise.

I bought the ribbon but decided on a DIY to transform the q-tip holder.

Changing up the red picture frame mat to be lime green. Haley worked on this project.

I am sure you are wondering what this is. Well seems my kids like millions so many others struggle to remember some basic hygiene tasks. So I used a white board marker to make a to-do list on the medicine cabinet mirror.

We used the same ribbon and glue gun to pretty up this candle (for appearances only).

Still working and figuring it all out.

We are getting there.

It's looking good and coming together (notice my cutie kitty!)

Daily items (the buckets are from the dollar bin at Target)

No more red!

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