Rudy Family Rukus~Parenting tips and humor meet in one big "rukus"

I have so much to share with you all but I am too exhausted to blog about education and speakers so I will share a little video with you.  My friend Emi and I were lucky enough to be able to perform with Mindy Gledhill tonight.  And by perform I mean we stood behind her and clapped while she sang this amazing song.  She wore the glasses and she is adorable!

I am going to the Casual Bloggers Conference this weekend.  It starts off with a Girls Night Out tonight and then for Friday and Saturday I will be immersed in all things blogging.  I am a little nervous but so excited I can hardly contain myself.  I don't have a laptop but I will have my blackberry with me furiously tweeting and facebooking all that I am learning.  If any of you have tips for me or special notes you would like me to take let me know!  I will be back on Sunday with a post all about what has been happening. Anyone else going to be there.  Let me know! Have you been to a blogging conference and if not would you ever go to one?

She turned three and I tried not to be sad because after all turning three is so very exciting. There are older siblings offering birthday wishes and hugs and LOTS of presents to open. Then you get to go to lunch with your sister and mom.  And then go to a giant warehouse full of bounce houses and inflatable slides (where you will loose both of your cute flowers from your hair)! Then you must play with all of the presents that you opened After all these activities you would think a three year old might get exhausted (which she did) but then you must celebrate with daddy.  And what better way than an exciting bowling game! The day ended with dinner out and then home for cake and ice cream and a wonderful rendition of "Happy Birthday". I really didn't cry but pretty sure my baby is no longer a baby anymore.

My husband and I stayed up late last night watching the series finale of "Lost".  It was a good ending to a six year series.  I was a little disappointed but what was even more disappointing was hearing the news of snowy weather this morning.  The weather person said snow in the mountains and possibly on the valley floor which almost always means WE will get snow.   This is what I saw when I came downstairs to fix breakfast If I was more organized they would be planted and getting snowed on, but now if they die at least I can take them back for a refund.   I sent my children to school the last week of May in their heavy winter coats.  Good thing I am not organized or they would have been packed away somewhere and made my morning difficult. My daughter said she didn't want to go to school today.  Really can you blame her?  I made her go anyway.  Does that make me a bad mom? I am going to sit on the couch and snuggle my baby on her last day of being 2 and wait for the

I mentioned this yesterday but don't forget I am doing my first official give-away over here .  Check it out.   Have a fantastic weekend.

My girls had their dance concert last Friday.  The theme was "All Creatures Great and Small".  It was a fantastic concert.  I was lucky enough to have my friend Wendy join us.  She brought her camera and took these fantastic pictures for us. I know they look like little burglars but they are really groundhogs.  The whole dance was their impressions of groundhogs.  They imitated the digging and in this part they are showing how they pop up out of their holes. Next came the penguins.  They stole the show of course don't the littlest ones always steal the show? I love this dance for my girls because there is no competition.  It is interpretive/creative dance for young girls.  Miss Diane dances with the youngest classes so they are not scared.  She encourages them to be themselves and helps them to gain a positive body image.  There is no weight limit or dieting.  I LOVE that as this is what I am trying to teach my girls each day. The next dance was the Eyeore or Donkey

Another lovely little surprise arrived on my doorstep yesterday.  It was just one more little simple joy that helps me to remember what I am really thankful for. I won these from commenting in the Alice.Com BlogFrog new community launch.  This is why I LOVE blogfrog well one reason!  If you aren't involved with BlogFrog now would be a great time to join.  It is simple and free.  I know I have said that before.  I have made so many great friends and won some really cool stuff just by having discussions and meeting new people. Flowers are one of my favorite things.  I love the vibrant colors, the fantastic aroma, and the smiles they bring to everyone's face.  I am thankful for their simplicity and what they represent. What things are you thankful for?

It is the little things that make my life NOT so crazy.  Are you sensing a theme this week?  It is completely unintentional I am not that organized!  My daughters and I went for a walk yesterday morning and enjoyed the sunshine and the warm weather.  We went to the park and they played and I visited with a neighbor I don't know very well.  It was nice to relax and make a new friend.  I have no pictures of that adventure.  When I arrived home I did find this on my doorstep Remember I posted all these cleaning posts ?  I entered them over at the Mom Loop BlogFrog Community  and I won this lovely Scrubbing Bubbles gift basket.  I was so excited.  I already tried out the cleaner and I love it!  My favorite part was the Aqua Notes.  It is a note pad and pencil you put in the shower so when you have ideas or remember something in the shower you can write it down.  How genius is that?  So what little things help you slow down and enjoy your crazy life?

Last week seemed like it was 6 years long.  It started with my husband leaving town on Sunday and then ended with my dad going home from the hospital, a dance recital, a flag football game and a photo shoot.  I was thinking I could have crammed a few more things in but I thought I would save them for this week.   These were fun to shoot.  It was a great game and the team played really  well.  I of course only made it after half time.  I was gathering supplies for the photo shoot.  This is one of many great pictures. See more fantastic shots here .  My amazing friend/babysitter Wendy did an awesome job as usual.  She also took pictures at the dance recital when I have those I will post. It was a joy to watch.  My youngest daughters class stole the show!  I was so very proud; as a mother should be. We ended the day yesterday enjoying the beautiful weather and watching the kids enjoy the trampoline. Thank goodness we had one day of rest so as to gear up for another crazy week!  D

First of all just want to say sorry I have been absent this week.  If you tweet and saw my tweets you know why otherwise just know it has been a crazy week around here.  But I am back and ready to blog and visit blogs and show comment love to you all.  On to Five Question Friday joining up with Mama M. from My Little Life. 1.  Take your pick.... date night, girls night out, or night out alone?  I really have to say date night as long as I don't have to pay a sitter.  There is just nothing like having that one on one time with my husband. 2.Can you touch your nose with your tongue?   Nope 3.  What is your favorite flower and why? I love roses.  Not any specific reason I just think they are beautiful. 4. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?   I am going to do another post on this for Janae at Pink Moss.  More about that later but the short version.  "Don't worry so much.  It is all going to work out.  Maybe not exactly how you planne

Well only if they are good surprises.  I worked last week and while my babysitter was here she snapped some pictures with my camera.  She is a photographer and I love when I turn on my camera and find lovely little surprises like this. Wouldn't you love those kind of surprises too?  How lucky am I? What to see more of her work go to her photo blog here Photo's by Wendy G . Happily linked with Angie at Seven Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday.

We met this new little baby for the first time on Saturday. She is my newest niece.  She is pretty amazing.  I held her for a really long time and then decided I wanted a picture of her.  I discovered it is really difficult to photograph babies.   I love little tiny babies they are just perfect.  They only need a few things and lots of love and that is so easy to give. These guys thought she was pretty neat stuff too. We love new babies.  Thanks to my brother and his wife for sharing this sweet beautiful little baby with us for the day.  We can't wait to see her (and her siblings) again soon.

I was reading blogs the other night and my new friend Motherboard from Crazyland shared this inspirational video and asked that if we liked it to share it on our own blogs.  I wanted to share something more spiritual today and this video couldn't be more perfect!  Hope you  enjoy it as much as I did.  And if you enjoy it please share it on your blog as well.

My mom has many names.  She is a daughter, a child of God, a wife,  a sister, a mother, and a grandmother.  She is also a councilor, a therapist, a referee, a cheerleader, a babysitter, nurse, substitute teacher..... The list goes on.  You get the idea.  She is also a great example of unconditional love and forgiveness.  I only hope that one day my children will admire my work as a mother as much as I admire my own mother. Want to know a secret though.  I am pretty sure her favorite name or JOB is Grandma.... These are only three of her 9 grandchildren. She has two more on the way.  And she is just as excited about 10 and 11 as she was the first.  She is a fantastic grandma!  Love you mom hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day.  I wish  I could spend it with you!  I will be there in spirit.

If you have been reading my blog this week you know I have been on a mission.  A cleaning mission.  It ended slightly sooner than I wanted due to the fact that I worked last night and I will be working again tonight.  Needless to say I have had a great week of cleaning.  It started in the kitchen and spread through out my house.  I also noticed it spread to many of you.   As promised here is the link for you to all link up and show me what you have accomplished this week.  I hope you were as inspired as I was.

Yesterday was clean the bathrooms day.  ALL three of them.  That is about 3 too many.  Oh wait we do need at least one right?  So  when we first moved into our house I was a little surprised that there were no towel racks or toilet paper holders NOTHING.  So 5 (yes 5) years later I am still trying to find the right towel racks and trying to make my bathrooms look nice.  So not only did I clean I did some make overs too.  This one just got cleaned and it is so small it was hard to photograph and really I wanted to show that it SMELLS better.  Because really that is the trick of cleaning the bathroom right? This one got a new towel rack with towels that match.  Now it seems more complete to me.  This is my kids bathroom and it is always a disaster! This one is still getting a makeover.  I bought all the towels and rugs last night. I am in the process of painting it a light gray (Dolphin Fin).  I also want to put in new floors and a backsplash around my giant jetted tub but that hasn&#

Joining up with Cass over at The World Through My Eyes again for Caption this! So how would you caption this picture??

Day two of mission clean the Rukus house.   07:00 am  Up kids in shower  07:30 am Every one dressed and downstairs for breakfast (in a clean kitchen) 07:45 am Scripture study 08:00 am Waiting for bus 08:15 am Kids out the door to school 08:30 am Mom and youngest ready to go to school to help in classrooms 09:00 am Out the door to school 11:00 am Back home quickly vacuum living room for company 11:30 am Peyton home from school friends arrive 12:00 pm  Lunch (lots of good conversation and fun) 1:00 pm decorating of cupcakes 02:00 pm friends leaving for one year old nap time 3 year old did not want to leave so she stayed and watched Princess and the Frog 02:30 pm  Realize I have not done my daily cleaning to post find a really messy spot and photograph it 03:00 pm frantically start cleaning messy area and sorting  03:45 pm Dalton home from school encourage him to quickly eat snack and get started on homework 04:00 pm start searching for friends shoes and socks so we can