my DOODLES love each other

a few changes in our lives

Well i've been putting this blog post off for quite sometime now but I think i'm finally ready to get it over with.

We've had a few changes in our lives lately.

the biggest change.......Matt and I have decided to get a divorce. We separated in July and our divorce was final the end of November. It has been a very amicable separation and I am so thankful for that. We are doing everything that is BEST for our doodles. We were able to do the divorce ourselves which has saved us lots of moola!!!! The doodles have done pretty good with the change and we are very thankful for that. I cannot be more thankful for the relationship that Matt and I are able to maintain for the kiddos.

Thank you to everyone for your words of support and prayers during the whole process. I know we will both be happier and we both have our kiddos at the forefront of all we do so I know that our kiddos will be just fine!!!! They are pretty amazing!!!!

another big change.....

JACK IS 6 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT?!?!?! How did that happen?? My little 15 ouncer is 6 years old and is doing AWESOME!!!! He is in kindergarden now and LOVES it. He is reading at the level of first grader and I couldn't be more proud!!! He also just started his second year of basketball is doing great! He can actually shoot this year and he gets so excited.

Brooke will be 2 in February and she is very SASSY!!!!!! Her and Jack fight like brother and sister but she is MEAN and he is typically the sweetheart!!!! :-) She is getting a little interested in the potty so we will see how that pans out shortly! We call her our princess tomboy! She will be the softball player out on the field in a tutu!!! She loves her tutus and a purse, but in her purse are racecars!!!!! haha!!! She had her first big 'ouchie". She fell into the entertainment center and had to get 'glued' (instead of stiches). She will be our broken bones girl for sure!!! We also have a new addition to our family. I got the kiddos a kitten in August. She is a giant pain in my BOOTY and I'm not a fan but the kiddos LOVE HER TO PIECES!!!!! Her name is Zulu and luckily she is super cute!!!!!!

As for me....I'm doing pretty good! I'm staying busy with work at the hospital and teaching THREE classes at ivytech. I will also be participating in the 2012 Leadership Initiative at the hospital and I'm super excited to gain leadership skills to aid in my job at the hospital!!! Also recently I have lost 50 lbs!!!!!! I feel AWESOME and I hope to lose about 30 more lbs. I LOVE going to the gym (call me crazy) but it makes me feel better and is a great stress reliever. I don't get there as much as I'd like with everything else going on.....but hopefully the new year will bring some let hectic schedules and I will be able to get there more often.

We are getting excited about Christmas (the kiddos for sure) and I'm getting excited about the new year!!! BRING ON 2012!!!! NEW BEGINNINGS!!!!

I will try to do a better job at updating now!!!

Thanks again for all the support and prayers!

love,

Lindsay, Jack and B

p.s. new email address for you all that didnt' get the memo....lrbowling2@gmail.com

Hoppy Easter and other shenanigans

Hope you all had a HAPPY Easter!!!! This Easter was a lot of fun for Brooke and Jack. This is the first Easter Brooke took an interest and Jack was excited about that. After the first easter egg hunt at mimi's, she knew just what do to at our house easter morning and at great Aunt Cindy's easter afternoon. She liked Jack's eggs much better because they had jelly beans and made noise...her's were gerber puffs and didn't make any noise. LOL

Jack was excited for "Easter" to come to his house this year. After class one night I went to "Easter's" house (aka Target) for some easter shopping. He was very excited that I got to go there to tell "easter" what kind of candy he wanted and what little surprise. After I got home he asked me about it and I told him that when I got there, all the bunny helpers were making jelly beans. He believes everything I tell him. LOL I LOVE it!!!!

Jack got some cars, jump rope, puppy, etc....but most importantly....NERDS!!! That's his all time favorite Easter candy. So funny!!!!

ALL OF US ready for Easter service

my mini-me

our little DIVA

OUR handsome guy

We had our first trip to a new doctor. A new specialty for us even. Brooke went to an allergist today. she has been having some skin issues and while it is exzema, there is a reason for it and the dr thinks it's food related. So after an extensive background history on her birth and eating, she got some bloodwork done to test for the top 10 food allergies. In 3 weeks we will get the results back and we will go from there. This is new territory for me, so any advice will be welcomed!!!!

Jack continues to amaze us everyday. He is so SMART!!!! He is a reading machine and he is SO excited for kindergarden. I think I need to start a calendar for him with a countdown....me on the other hand....I could cry just thinking about it. I never thought I would be like that since he has been at daycare full time since he could be. But I hate sending him into the unknown....AHHHHH!!!!!

Matt is doing great too. He is still with Red Bull distributing product around fort wayne and really loves it. He is coaching Jack's tball team and so far so good.

I am doing good too. Still at the hospital and teaching 2 classes at Ivytech. Started working out 4-5 days a week and so far I have lost 2 inches and about 10lbs!!!!! I am feeling amazing!!!!

I think that is about it from us today!

Have a great week!!!!!

I have a tballer and a princess

Jack signed up for tball tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is so excited!!! He is going to be BLUE.....and team BOB EVANS (his favorite) and he is going to be #5 (and he's five.....) and he just thinks it's so amazing....AND daddy is going to be a coach on his team and he LOVES that. He has been running around singing a song about daddy being is coach and how awesome it is. LOL.

Brooke is Brooke.....a rough and tumble PRINCESS!!!! Ornerier than cat dirt and can throw a fit just like a little diva......She is HELL ON WHEELS!!!!! But I wouldn't have her any other way!!!!!

2 posts in 2 days......WHAT?!?!?

I thought I'd give you a little update on the kiddos, since that's who we all care about anyway...hahaha! Jack: He has been AMAZINGLY healthy all winter and so far this spring. We started new allergy meds and it seems to be working. We also signed him up for kindergarten......WHAT?!?! He is SUPER excited and can't wait to learn!!!!! He is doing great in school/daycare right now. His teacher has a pre-K cirriculum and he is up to 45 sight words he can read and he is doing great sounding words out. You never realize how silly the english language is until you teach a kid to read. He is into writing, drawing, reading, and spelling and that's about all we do in the evenings. So thankful it's getting nice outside so we can start playing outside. Jack did basketball for the first time this winter and really enjoyed it. He did great socially but didn't really like to touch the ball. He just liked to run. The last game the ref picked him up and he dunked the ball. It was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was so proud and right afterward he ran straight to daddy!!!!!!!!!! This spring/summer he will be doing tball for the first time, so we are looking forward to that! Brooke: He has NOT been amazingly healthy this winter. She has had a few bouts of bronchiolitis and ended up in the hospital at the beginning of march with pneumonia. She has had numerous ear infections, got tubes in january and has done a little better since then. She is doing a better job fighting the infections off on her own. She is a WALKER now and gets into a LOT of trouble. She doesn't care about the word "No" and she doesn't care about getting her hand smacked and she doesn't care about getting her butt tapped......she doesn't like you to take her away from what she is doing wrong....she would rather run away when you get up to go get her and laugh. She is CRAZY!!!! She loves outside!!!! She loves to play with Jack and ALL OF JACK'S toys!!!! She loves to play with his cars but she still likes to love on her baby dollls too!! We are all looking forward to the warmer weather and playing outside!!! Pics to come!!! We are going to our first baseball game of the season today. GO TIN CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Hobby!!!

I have started a new hobby.....

making hair clippies!!!!

I know....I know...like I have time for that right?!?!

being a mommy

a wife

work full time

teach 2 classes at ivy tech

trying to go back to school

ummmm......

and making hair clippies!!!

It just started as a simple cost effective way to make some for Brooke and it turned into this obsession.

So I started a little store on facebook. It's called:

CLIPP-O-POTAMUS

(thanks to my cousin Laura for thinking of the cute name!!!)

So.....log on facebook and check out the page..........PLEASE!!!!

HERE IS A FEW PICS OF CLIPS THAT I HAVE MADE!

the sickies

Our little doodle princess has been very sick. She just got released from the hospital last night after spending 4 days there. She had pneumonia! :-( She started getting sick last Saturday, ended up taking her to the ER on Wednesday and they just sent up home with steroids. Then Friday I took her to her regular ped for a check up and they admitted her from there. She was not sating good and was on 3 L of O2 at one point. Pretty yucky!!!!

But I am VERY happy to say we are back home and she is SUPER excited to be back home and back on the move. It was hard for her to move with the IV in her FOOT and then the oxygen tubing.

It was very de ja vu for me because we were in the same place with Jack almost "exactly" 2 years prior......in the hospital....for 4 days.....with pneumonia! BLECK!!!!!

Us and our kiddos with icky lungs. She will probably now have to be on a daily neb of steroids which will NOT be fun at all!!!!!

and guess what else we are doing????????????

JACK GETS TO SIGN UP FOR KINDERGARTEN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WA-HOOOOO :-)

Bo-HOOOOOO!!!!! :-(

Very bittersweet!!!!

That's all for now!

sorry, No pictures this time!

BIRTHDAY GIRL

our Cuppycakes

Just a little update on our little cuppycakes....

JACK

* 5 years old
* loves school

*participating in Upward basketball

*loves the running part of bball but doesn't want to touch the ball...he even told the ref that during a game

*LOVES his sister

*no sickies since he got his tonsils out in August (LOVE IT)

*very excited about going to kindergarten in the fall

* 44 inches

*49 lbs (first time I heard that Jack is gaining weight too fast.......WHAT?!?!)

*getting that mouthy 5 year old attitude

*loves to spell, write and color

*had his first kid/friend birthday party

BROOKE

* 11.5 months old (how did that happen?)

* just got her first set of tubes (ears) today

* has been sick a lot this winter

* LOVES her big brother

* loves her popsy

*loves sitting on daddy's shoulder

*can sign "more" and "please"

* can say "dad-dad"

*weighs 23lbs

*finally sleeping thru the night and is awesome at it!!!

*still only has 2 teeth

*on whole milk

*only 1 bottle a day

Here comes Santa Claus

This year has been a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. I think this is the first year Jack has really gotten into it and has really understook. He wrote a letter to Santa the other week and recieved one back just the other day in the mail and he was SOOOOOOOO excited. Jack thought it was so awesome that Santa knew that him and his daddy liked Michigan football and that he was obsessed with Toy Story 3 AND that he was a big brother to Brooke.

This year Jack and Brooke want to leave Santa some chicken nuggets, cookies and carrots. And maybe some lemonade. I will see if he will go for a glass of wine too in case Mrs. Claus comes along for the ride!! ;-)

Updates on the kiddos:

Well about 3 weeks ago we all had the stomach bug. Brooke and I never puked but the boys did. It was NOT fun. It was Jack's first experience EVER with the stomach flu and he was certainly traumatized by it. He wanted his "puke bucket" around for about a week after. Then that all turned into the upper respiratory stuff. I think Brooke and I had it the worst. Guess that's what we get for not puking huh?!!? Brooke ended up at the dr 3 times in one week. First time for ear and pink eye. Then 2 days later back because she was not getting better and wheezing. Diagnosed with bronchiolitis (RSV basically) and then back the next day because she is allergic to the meds they put her on. Then finally on Friday we tried out the chiropractor with her. Then last week I got it. Needless to say it sounds like a TB ward at our house with all the left over coughing going on!!!!!!!!

Brooke is now about 22lbs and Jack is 44 lbs. It's so crazy how they grow so fast.

New things that Brooke is doing: CRAWLING fast everywhere. Pulling to stand. Cruising the couches. Eating everything in sight. Pulling Christmas ornaments off the tree and dancing.

New things that Jack is doing: Writing ALL his letters...upper and lowercase, all numbers, spelling 3 letter words and some 4 letter words. He is WAY into art stuff right now and toy story. LOVES LOVES LOVES to dance and is learning lots of new Christmas songs everyday. He sat with my mom's pastor at their church the other day and together they were singing "jingle bells, batman smells......." Gotta love em'!!!!

That's about it for now!!!!!

love

from the BOWLING'S

What have our kiddos been up to????

Do these faces say it all??!?!?!

WOW!!!! Brooke was one busy chica this weekend.

First she started crawling on all fours on Friday and by Sunday she figured out that there were different rooms in the house she could get too all on her own

Saturday she figured out how to stand up in her bed (we had to lower the mattress)

Sunday she learned how to stand up at the fireplace (good things is a little padded on the corners)

Sunday....she FINALLY cut a tooth....just a teeny tiny part of it!!!

She will be 9 months old this coming weekend. HOW DID THE HAPPEN?!?!!?

(She was 21 lbs at her dr appt last week for an ear infection.)

JACK WAS 21 lbs at 20 months old. CRAZY!!!!!!!!

And speaking of Jack...he is one smart cookie.

He is SOOOO into spelling and writing and reading right now it's nutso. He can spell so many things:

Lindsay, Matt, Mimi, Dad, Mom, Brooke, Bowling, water, dog, cat, hat, van, toy story, klein, Jaime, Eva, Ava, Raj, Zoey, Kira (all the kids in his class at school).

He can read words in books like dog, cat, hat, car.

He is just so awesome. He loves to play school and we do it often. I am afraid kindergarden will be borning to him. Too bad he couldn't have gone this past fall. And speaking of fall..........he is going to be 5 in 3 weeks. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?!?

HOLY COW!!! TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM SPIDEY AND LIL' SKUNKER!!!

More Jack

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jack Matthew

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Brooke Elizabeth

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

HAIR CRISIS

DO YOU SEE ANY SIMILARITIES????!!!!!

6 months old and 4 months til 5

I am not sure where the summer has gone....but we are certainly ready for it to be. The weather this summer has been miserable and has NOT been conducive to playing outside much for Jack!!!! But we have had fun nonetheless.

The kiddos and I had a chance to head to Lake Erie in July to visit with my very best friend from elementary and we had such a great time. It was nice to get away from the Fort and of course awesome to see her and her hubby as well. The kids were AWESOME in the car, except for the 1 time that Jack undid his seat belt while I was on the toll road and I freaked and missed my exit and had to go about 20 miles before I could exit again. Brooke slept the whole way, both ways!!!!!!

We also attended the annual NICU birthday party. It was at our local zoo and lots of fun. Jack loved the bounce house and giraffes. They have a baby giraffe at the zoo now and she is a big hit!!!!

Brooke has just done a lot of growing this summer. She is about 17.5lbs and I have no idea how that happened!!!!! She is rolling over....and over and over and is very close to sitting up. She is also getting ready to work on the army crawl too I think. We also think she is in the process of getting a tooth or 2 but we have thought that for a while now so we shall see!! She started Physical Therapy last week to help with her neck muscles and so far she seems to be doing a great job. She will meet with her PT every week or every other week (whichever our schedules allow) and just get her back on track for a 6 month old.

I cannot believe that our little peanut Jack will be 5 in a few months. He is now 42 lbs and 42 inches. All the way from 15 ounces and 11.5 inches. Does that seem possible??? He will be starting pre-K at the end of August and is more excited about it than I ever thought he'd be. He loves the structure and learning!!! He is my little Einstein!! We have been working on getting his tonsils out since February and so this week is our next try. The first try got cancelled due to Brooke being born. The 2nd try got cancelled because he was wheezing and coughing and now our next try is schedule for Aug 19....3rd times a charm right?!?!?!

Daddy update??? He started a new job this past week and so far he really loves it. He is an account manager for Power Distributing (Red Bull distribution) and he gets to travel around all day. It's long hours and we need to get used to that but he really likes it and that is all the matters!!

I am still at the hospital and will be teaching again at Ivy Tech. This will be my 4 semester. Its a good little break from the hospital and a pretty good deal for 1 night a week.

Well, I think that's all for now. I can't believe my kids are growing up so fast. Does that mean we are old?!?!?!?!

Where have I been??? Once again

Once again I have no idea where we have been but we are busy!!!!

I can't believe Brooke will be 5 months old in in 2 days and Jack is 4 1/2. Where in the world has time gone. I just had to switch out all of Brooke's 3-6 month sleepers and get the 6-9 month ones out. That makes me so sad!!!!

We traveled to South Haven Michigan about a month ago with my mom's side of the family and like always, had a GREAT time. Love spending time with the whole family and spending time in the sand. Brooke wasn't a big fan of all the wind on the lake but Jack couldn't get enough. We stayed at a hotel with an indoor water park and Jack thought that was awesome. MUST HAVE SWIM LESSONS SOON!!!! He thought he could do it all, all by himself!!!

Brooke has remained healthy thus far. Just a few days here in there with some boogers that REALLY make her mad.

Jack has had some issues with the weather. Wheezing, coughing, goopy nose and ears. We tried to get his tonsils out on Thursday and we were shot down. Went in at 9am (surgery scheduled for 11am) and once the nurse listened, respiratory therapist came down to give him a breathing treatment and then the surgeon and anesthesiologist nixed the idea. They didn't want to risk any more problems (ie; not coming off the vent afterwards, etc) So we will have to reschedule. We have such a small window of "healthy" during the summer time so I am not sure when it will happen. Hopefully by the end of the year. That's my goal! HAHAH!!!

And speaking of Jack. He has gotten SO big!!! 42 lbs and 42 inches!!!!!!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??? July 2006= 12 lbs. July 2007= 21 lbs July 2008=24 lbs July 2009= 28lbs July 2010= 42 lbs. WHAT A GAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am guessing Brooke to be about 16 lbs. She doesn't go to the dr. until 6 months so we will have to wait. Jack wasn't 16 lbs until he was 11 months old. Isn't that crazy!!!???

Enjoy the pictures!!!!!!

4 months old

Can you believe it has been 4 months already?!?!! Our baby girl is 4 months old!!! She is doing awesome!!!! She had her well baby check on Monday and Dr. C is very impressed with her growth. She weighed 13 lbs 7 oz and was almost 25 inches long. That is 50% for her weight and 70% for her height.........for a 4 month old....not a 2 month old (adjusted!!) Jack didn't get on the charts for his real age until he was like 2 years old!!!!

I just looked up Jack weight and such and when he was actually 4 months old, he weighed 6 lbs 1 oz. When he was 4 months old adjusted....he weighed the EXACT same as Brooke does no!!! CRAZY HUH?!?!

I have attached 2 pictures below of Jack. One at "adjusted" 4 months, one at "actual" 4 months and then 2 of Brooke at 4 months!!!!

Look alike?!?!?

I need to get some baby pictures of myself and Matt scanned in so we can take a better look at who looks like who.....DON'T CHA THINK?!?!?!