Its great to be 8

If it was hard to believe that my 2 year old turned two than it is crazy to think that my baby girl just turned 8. Ashley had a good birthday, although she was home sick we had a good day taking it easy and being together. She now gets to celebrate all week long, with a family party, cupcakes at school, and she'll finish it off with a party with friends. Ashley is such a blessing in my life. She is so smart, such a good helper, and so much fun to be around. I look forward to watching her grow and being one of my closest friends. We girls are going to have to stick together in this household of boys. She is anticipating her baptism everyday, and is full of questions about life. She is such an Angel in every since of the word.

When its quite

As a mom I have learned many things, but one of the biggest lessons I have learned throughout the years so far is that it being too quite when the kids are around is never a good thing, especially a 2 year old.

For no reason at all

You know you have it good when your husband who has been stressed out beyond belief with life and work, takes the time to notice how much he loves you and brings you flowers for no reason at all except to let you know that you matter. I am so blessed to have him!! It is the little things that count!

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

Every year since we have lived in the Carolinas we take the kids to the local amusement park Carowinds for their fall festival. The kids love picking a pumpkin and riding rides, but their favorite part has to be the bubbles. When else in you life will you be able to play in a big thing of bubbles and just be a kid. They love it, and we love watching them! Fun, Fun, Fun!

Fall Fun

I have always loved the fall, but now that I have kids it is definitley one of my favorite times of year. Especially here in the Carolinas where the air gets a little bit of a chill and the leaves begin to change on the trees. The kids loved decorating their little pumpkins and helping us carve the larger ones. The only sadness came when Jeremy rubbed some of the pumpkin "guts" on Ethans face,but Ethan was quick to get back at him with some of his own yucky hands. The kids got to go to 3 trunk or treats throughout the month and even did a little bit of trick or treating on Halloween. We now have enough candy to last us quite a while.

Swine Flu

A couple of weeks ago my Ethan came home from school sick, and we decided to take him to the doctor just in case, the diagnosis "Swine Flu". Just the words alone freaked me out, then they proceeded to prescribe medication for the two littler boys and myself since we are high risk, and already had coughs. I of course went to the internet to try and find out all that I needed to know, but quickly decided that it was better just to discover as I go than to read all of the info on the internet, because everything said something different. Jeremy was great through the entire weekend and needless to say my house was more sanatized than it has been in a long time. Lysol became our quick friend. As illness goes this one was pretty mild, I guess it can be bad, but in our case it was mild and way better than the stomach flu, strep throat, or any of the other yuck things my kids seem to bring home. The words "Swine Flu" still stress me out, but we are now vacinated so I feel a little more at ease, unless what some of the groups say about getting sick from the vacination is true, then we are all in for it. Oh well!!

Brice is 2

My baby boy recently turned 2.It is hard to believe that much time has passed since he has been in our lives. We celebrated with a family party with monkey cupcakes, since we call Brice our little monkey. All the kids loved the geo trax trains that the grandparents got for him, and play with them everyday. It was nice to keep it small and simple with just us, but I guess there are enough of us to make it quite the party. Brice is such a fun baby, and is all personality. He loves making people laugh and he knows just what to do to make his brothers and sister sqirm. You would think being the baby he would let them do whatever they want, but he is the one who runs the show and he knows it. He is such a sweet boy and loves to cuddle. It is amazing how you live life without each child, but then as soon as they are here you can't imagine life without them. I definitley could not imagine my life without my Brice, he makes me smile.

Butterfly Garden

A couple of weeks ago the two younger boys and I went on a bit of a fieldtrip with some friends of ours to a local Botanical Garden. The kids love running and playing and they really liked the butterfly garden. Brice wasn't too sure of the butterflies getting too close, but he enjoyed seeing them and Hayden loved getting as close to them as he could.

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers and more Diapers

I just wanted to express my apperciation to the inventor of the disposable diaper. I have been changing diapers for 8 years straight now, with I am sure another 2-3 years to go and I can not imagine if I had to use cloth diapers that I myself I had to clean out and take care of. Changing some about kill me when I am able to get rid of it right away into the trash can. So again a huge THANK YOU goes out to the disposable diaper man or woman, you are right up there with the chocolate man.

And it Begins!

I thought that with the end of summer I would be getting a little bit of a break with the 2 kids in school all day and 1 in preschool two days out of the week. I don't know who I was kidding because now is when the real fun begins of homework, and all of their extra activities. We put Ashley in Cheerleading, Ethan in Flag Football, and Hayden in a Beginner Soccer. Ashley and Ethan both started piano this year also. Although seperatly it doesn't seem like too much, when you put it all together I can not even keep my own name straight let alone the schedule of their games and practices. They all love what they are doing, and I love watching them!!! It is tons of fun to watch them grow and develop even if I feel like I have run miles by the time I am done getting them there and entertaining the others while we support the one who at the time is developing a talent. We only have a about a month of the sports season left, so I was telling Jeremy that it really isn't a big deal and we can make it work, when it dawned on me that this is just the begining. Imagine what is will be like when all 5 of the kids are involved in different things. I guess this is where divine intervention will come into play and it will all work out, so for now I will just take it day by day and enjoy watching them grow!