Mama has a new toy!

Brady finally gave into all of my whining about not owning a point and shoot camera to take pictures of the kids and bought me a new little camera! I'm so very excited, and I already have more pictures than I can handle.... so I'll share a few with all of you!



Here's how we found the boys sleeping the other morning, it was so sweet.



My "two babies" as Vancey calls himself and Lilah. He loves her so much, but still misses being the baby!



Here she is! 5 months old already! It's unbelievable how quickly time flies by.



And last but not least, Vance giving a "funny face" for the camera. What a ham!

Laundry Troubles...

Let me begin this post by saying that I'm very tired lately. I don't know, however, if that is excuse enough for what I am about to confess.
Yesterday morning, as usual, I threw in a load of laundry when I awoke. I grabbed the basket of 'colors' and dumped the basket into the machine, threw in the soap and started the washer. I realized that Brady had put a throw blanket from the studio in the basket, but for some reason I didn't check the cleaning instructions on the tag. About 30 minutes later I went to switch the load to the dryer. The throw blanket had disintegrated. There were pieces of it on EVERY item of clothing in the load. It was full of fuzz from the blanket. What a mess!
You would think that after 15+ years of doing laundry on an almost daily basis I would be above such mistakes....

We're still alive

Our internet problem continues.... obvious by my lack of posting!
Don't worry, we're trying to figure out the best course of action and hopefully soon I'll be back to posting all the time. I know you all have been missing it immensely! *sigh*

Meanwhile... while I have internet for a moment.... I'll try to update everyone on our exciting life.
Let's see, on Father's day we had a fun day with daddy downtown, we walked the boardwalk, ate lunch in the park and generally had a wonderful time. We took some adorable pictures but I don't have them on my computer. I am so incredibly proud of "my baby's daddy" (ala Michelle Obama). He's a wonderful father and husband, who loves his family above anything else. We love you, hon!

Cristy had her wedding and all of the kids participated. They were awfully cute in their tuxes and dresses! It was a beautiful wedding, but VERY hot!





On the fourth of July we had a great time out at Shan's, playing lots of volleyball, eating lots of food and, of course, pie! We took the opportunity to take a photo of GG and Papa with all of their Great Grandkids. It was so sweet! We will be emailing it to everyone who wants it, leave a comment if you are one!



Okay, well I'm off to the races! We've had several late nights in a row and I'm afraid we're all tired and cranky, but house work never rests, so neither do I! :>P I'm finishing the kitchen and then laying my cranksters down for LONG naps.
Cheers!

This Just In!!!!

Males ages 10-19 and people over 80 are most at risk for Golf Cart accidents!

I swear, I just saw it on the news.

I guess that means that I'm still good for driving a golf cart......

Technical difficulties....

Internet..... spotty..... can't.... post......
Must....get...new internet......

lately our internet (which technically isn't ours, it belongs to whomever we can hook up to at any given time) has been really spotty. We can basically get on for about 2-5 minutes at a time, just enough time to check emails, which makes it virtually impossible for me to update my blog, or upload pictures. The preceding picture of Lilah took us several attempts, over two days to upload. However, we really can't justify paying for internet in our current financial state. So I'm really not sure what our solution will be. We use(d) the internet for EVERYTHING before it crapped out on us, Library, Banking, Google, Movies, TV shows (LOST, to be precise) so we are missing it's convenience, to say the least. And I'm really missing blogging!
Okay, time to see if I can update this thing.

Wanna see the cutest baby ever??

School's Out!

Our school year is officially over.  And not only did I survive, but it actually went pretty well. I was apprehensive about attempting school while taking care of a newborn, but it went better than expected, and amazingly, I'm already looking forward to next year! Our curriculum for next year looks like a lot of fun, and I'm planning on starting Ellie in 1st grade. A couple of months ago, I would have said she was no where near ready to start reading, but at the moment she's a little sponge, eager to learn and picking up everything she can on her own. She recognizes and writes all of her letters and many numbers, and has learned all of it with absolutely NO instruction from me. Her favorite activity at the moment is to sit down and write letters on paper. She asks me how to spell things, or writes the names of everyone she knows. She's really excited to learn to read- and although she'll still only be 4 years old, I'm a big believer in following your child's cues for learning, so she'll be starting school in the fall. 

Jaxson ended his 1st grade school year with a flourish. He's reading VERY well and has excellent penmanship. I'm so proud of him! He's done so well this year. He's very eager to be a 'big' second grader... and to be 7 years old so he can catch up to Alex! 

AND...... it's hopeless. My baby figured out how to find her thumb and now it's all over. She won't even take her binky anymore. Oh well, at least now she can self-sooth! 

A Mother's Day For the Books

I have such a wonderful husband and four wonderful children! Brady does such an amazing job making special occasions special. 

I got to sleep in on Mother's Day until 7:30 AM, which in and of itself is a wonderful thing, then I found a sweet note and a beautiful 16x20 on fine-art watercolor of Lilah's baby picture. Brady fixed me a yummy breakfast of fresh strawberries and danish, after which we dashed off to take Janelle her flowers and coffee. Then on to church at RLM, where we met my mom, grandma and grandpa. After church we went to my sister's house for dinner. It was a great day, full of hugs and back/foot rubs from the kids, and lot's of appreciation from my wonderful husband! I love  you guys so much, and I'm so proud to be your mommy! (and wifee)

This is a picture of the gift Brady gave me. It's handmade and has pictures of all of my babies. Isn't it beautiful? Now I have to try to outdo him for Father's Day.... I'm never as good at it as he is!  

Side One 

(sorry, it's a little blurry, cell phone pic)
Side Two

Waitin'

Jerry is coming tonight! 

I can't wait to see him, even if it is just for a couple of days. I haven't seen Jerry since he and Jess helped us move home. I can't wait for the day when we go help them move back....  :>P

This will probably be the last time I see Jerry before he becomes a father. The next time will probably be next Christmas and at that point he and Jessica will be the proud parents of a four month old baby boy. Amazing. I can't wait to see them as parents. 

Vancey got a haircut today! 

He really needed it, he was beginning to look shaggy. Or as he says, "shaddy", as in "The Shaddy Dog" which happens to be a favorite movie of his. Here he is in all of his handsomeness, showing off his muscles!

Baby Legs

Ok, so I think we all know that leggings went out with the 80's, but I couldn't resist these adorable little Baby Legs. Are they not the cutest things ever? 

In other happy news, spring has finally found our corner of the world!! Yahoo!

Makin' Banana Pancakes

Saturdays at our house are known as "Pancake Day". On all other days breakfast is pretty boring, but Pancake Day, now that's something different. That breakfast is so special, that the entire day is named after it! Here are the kids this morning enjoying their banana pancakes with chocolate chip smiley faces.
Not the kids, the pancakes.... although the kids soon had chocolate chip smiley faces as well....





The other day, Brady and Jax were playing a video game and Vance wanted to get in on the fun. He was a bit tired though.....



Lilah on her 2 month birthday! She's wearing what Brady calls her "ridiculous socks". I think they're cute! He just doesn't understand that when it comes to little girls, the more lace the better!




I'm without a husband again this weekend. He's in San Diego shooting a wedding. I'm jealous because not only does he get to see Jerry and Jess all weekend, but it's also about 80 degrees there! He called to let me know that he already has a suntan.... wasn't that nice of him?

There doesn't seem to be any other interesting news to share, so I guess I'll sign off for now.... cheers!

Newest Taste treats....

I need a direct line to the Poisen Control Center. Evidently I don't feed my kids enough. Today Vancey decided to tear the plastic wrap off of the raw chicken I had defrosting on the counter for dinner and eat a bite. I know, it's 'scusting as Vance would say. I found out about it just as I was leaving to take Lilah to her 2 month check up, so Brady quickly called Poisen control, and they said to give him lots of fluids and watch him for the next two days. They said if he doesn't get sick in that time period he'll be fine. They also said that if he's healthy and not taking any medication he only has a 50% chance of getting sick. Seriously, I realize it was almost lunch time, but he can't have been THAT hungry.... Quick, everyone tell me that I'm not a bad, neglectful mommy!!

As previously mentioned, today was Lilah's 2 month check up. Healthy as a horse (who came up with that saying, anyway?) and weighed in at 11 lbs, 7 oz. 4 pounds gained since birth 8 weeks ago!

Well, I'd better go fix dinner, or risk one of my children helping themselves to some raw meat again.....

This, That and the Other Thing.....

So I was inspired while reading my cousin Sarah's Blog . She had just gotten a new hair cut and mentioned the fact that she hadn't had it cut since last August. I laughed when I thought about it and realized that I hadn't had my hair cut for over THREE years (not counting me whacking at it). Then I thought that perhaps that wasn't quite so funny, and I quit laughing and promptly decided to go get a hair cut. And I really like it! So here are the pictures. Is it me?





Brady got some great smiling pictures of Lilah this weekend...she smiles at daddy all the time. All he has to do is talk to her and whistle and he get's the best grins!



Since Jerry is so bad at updating his blog (love you bro) and everyone is always asking me about Jess and how she's doing, I thought I would post this cute picture of Jess and Cohen that he sent me this weekend!



Here is a cute picture of the kids in the King Solomon crowns that we made in school today. Vance had just declared that he was NOT going to smile! The kids decided that they were King Peter, King Edmund and Queen Susan. (We are reading the Narnia books for our read-aloud right now)



Lilah is doing well, but is wildly unpredictable when it comes to sleeping at night. She can go to bed at 9 and sleep through the night, or go to bed at 9 and wake up in four hours, or decide to not go to bed until 12, or go to bed at 9 and wake up for two hours in the middle of the night..... and on it goes. Last night it was the last choice on the list. I got 2 hours of sleep, was up for two hours and then got 3 hours of sleep before it was time to get up. 5 hours interrupted is so NOT enough for me. It makes me crabby.

Our weekend weather was so lovely! It was about 75 degrees Sat and Sun. We worked outside all day Saturday and got the lawn thatched and raked. It looks so good now! On Sunday, Shan and Marcus came to church with us at RLM and then came over to play. We had dinner and took the kids to the park, the guys threw the baseball around and then we came home and played a game of Scrabble (of course!). I would have won, but with my last tile I set Brady up for the win. Dumb me! :>)
It was a fun day, and wore the kids (and parents) out completely.



AND THEN.... this morning we woke up to an inch of snow. And it has snowed and melted repeatedly all day. YUCK. Where is spring????? Rain I can handle. Snow is ridiculous. Come on spring.... we're waiting for you with baited breath! Come out, Come out wherever you are!

Here comes the sun

Well, Da, You'll be happy to know that I obviously jinxed myself with that last post.... I should have known better than to brag! :>) The last two nights have been terrible. I think I've gotten 5 and 6 hours of sleep respectively, and those were interrupted. It isn't that she's not sleeping once she's asleep.... it's getting her to sleep. All I can do now is hope and pray that this isn't the beginning of her "colicky" phase (all of my kids went through one). She has been such a good sleeper since the beginning that we were hoping that we had avoided that this time around.  

I think spring is finally here! According to the local news it's going to be 70 degrees by Sunday!  Wahoo! I'm really excited to have some warm weather. 

 Of course, that means that I have to go work on the lawn... we rented the house in January with tons of snow on the ground and unfortunately found out when the snow melted that the previous renters did NOT rake the grass before it snowed. It looks like there are the clippings of about 3 mowings now choking out the lawn. It's a mess.

 We also found out the the neighbor next door thinks that it's a good idea to let his dog use our front lawn as a bathroom-- that way he doesn't have to clean up after it! Grrr. I've actually caught him at it- with his dog on a leash no less. If Brady had been home I would had given him a piece of my mind, but unfortunately the guy quickly ducked intohis own garage and I wasn't brave enough to go after him without backup! :>)

Here's a picture of my big boy. I had to take this the other day when he was on his way outside to play because he's just starting to look so "grown up". I can't believe he's going to be 7 this summer! 

We want to give a quick congrats to Cristy and Nathaniel.... They're getting married!! Congratulations Cristy! He's a lucky guy. 

Okay, well I have to go wake Lilah up. She's obviously tired from the last couple of nights; she's been sleeping all day! 

 

Here's the proof. She smiles when she has nice dreams....

Talk to everyone soon....

Big news

Lilah slept through the night for the last 2 nights in a row!!!

She nursed at 8, laid down at 9 and slept until after 5 AM! 

It was great.... we hope she keeps it up!