Our summer started at the beach in California for my sisters wedding and it ended at the beach in Ocean City, Maryland with a million wonderful memories in between! I am so terrible at this blogging thing but to be honest I need to do this for my kids. Reading back over my old posts makes me smile even if I only sign in once ever six months, something is better then nothing. I am going to take the time to write a little letter to each of my babies!

Dear Trey,
How quickly you have grown from my sweet little baby to the coolest little boy! Your little brother looks up to you so much and when you’re not looking he watches everything you do and is taking mental notes. (Both the good and the bad things, by the way) Your little sister loves you so much that ever time she wakes up from her nap she says, “Where’s Trey?”, shrugging her shoulders with hands in the air and a curious look on her face. You started the summer on a real soccer team and it wasn’t your favorite sport but you stuck it out and got a medal at the end and I promise I won’t make you play soccer. The best activity we did every Tuesday was swimming lessons. You are such a fish that they didn’t have to teach you anything because you let them know that you “already know how to swim”. I’m a little embarrassed that my 4 year old swims better then me, maybe they have some adult swim classes. I think you have finally given up your thumb: your friend, your comfort, my enemy. I’m sorry that I gave you such a hard time about sucking your thumb; you are so tall and look so big until you sucked your thumb (all day long). I will forever miss the baby in you but I won’t miss your thumb, let’s pray that your sister won’t keep this terrible habit.
You are amazingly smart! I can’t teach you, show you, Google you enough information. You’re favorite TV shows are the history and the science channel and you love going to the library to check out hundreds of books about space, science experiments, and dinosaurs. I love watching you grow and learn, and seeing you teach your brother and sister so much. You are full of energy, love life, and are the best big brother in the world, I love you!!

Dear Evan,
My little artist and musician that I adore!! You have such a gift and passion already that is shocking! Today as you were coloring me a beautiful picture you said “Mommy, I am going to be an artist when I grow up” and I have no doubt that you will be. You also asked for a “real electric guitar for your birthday with a speaker (it must have strings and no buttons). Amazing!! You are so sweet that I’m not sure you have a mean bone in your body. You love making your sister laugh and love wrestling with your big brother. Trey might be bigger then you but when you guys wrestle you would never know it. You took piano lessons and loved it, you took swim lessons and just liked it but you are ready to be on a real soccer team as soon as you turn 4! You are the best helper and a great listener, if I need something you are the first one I ask, I love you!

Dear Taylor,
I still can’t believe you are a girl, and such a girl at that. Having two older brothers and playing with trucks since birth has not stopped you from caring for all your baby dolls as if you gave birth to them yourself. Today you took toilet paper and were wiping your one babies behind and saying “good job” like they just went on the potty. You have taught our family how to love someone more then we ever knew possible. You are sweet beyond words, you make us laugh all day long, and if we are honest you definitely run the house. Some of your highlights this summer was the knock knock joke your brothers taught you in the back seat of the car “knock knock”, “who’s there?” “Pizza”, “pizza who?”, “pizza butt” LOLOL…. I know you don’t get it but if you could hear your delivery it makes us all laugh every time even after the tenth time you’ve said it. You are also potty trained and when you have to go to the bathroom you come running saying, “I have to go potty, soooooooo bad!!!!“ You should hear the drama in your voice. We all adore you and love you so much!!

XOXOXO
Mommy

New Years Resolutions Already in the Toilet

#1 Eat healthy, and exercise……I’ve eaten ok until I made a huge lasagna this weekend and consumed at least 5 servings of a healthy cake which is still cake and eaten in large quantities is completely unhealthy. I try to exercise for 30 minutes, that is nothing yet I find it so hard to fit it into my day when I am drowning in dishes and laundry, but I’m still trying.
#2 Play more with my kids….I play and then I poop out. I have such good intentions when I start activities but I don’t know what happens. My body is playing but my mind is checking off my “to do list“. I wish I could throw the “to do list” out the window.
#3 Be a Better, More loving Wife… I was really good for about a week. I focused on the positives instead of harping on the negatives. I tried to be extra affectionate and he looked at me like I was an alien from Mars because that isn‘t my style. But I could still use some work.
Those are my top 3, I have many more areas in my life that need polishing but I am a work in progress. A new years resolution needs to be a daily dedication because each day brings it’s new challenges. I’m going to keep trying to be good but right now I really want more of that delicious, healthy cake!

It's amazing how much I love and adore my children after a couple of hours of me time. I got a haircut and did some work and enjoyed a little peace and quite!!! AHHH...I feel like a new mommy. When I got home tonight from all my running I hear a little voice yell down the stairs "mommy?" It was 10pm and my boys weren't sleeping. Normally they would be in big trouble but I ran up those stairs to give them the biggest hugs and kisses. I let them know how much I missed them and loved them and they layed down with huge smiles on their faces. After all the loving I changed into my pajama's and within about 5 minutes they were both already fast asleep. The comforting touch of a mommy.....until tomorrow.

Happy, Sad, Loving, Annoyed, Fun, Frustrated!?!?!

It is amazing how many emotions I go through in a day. This morning I woke up happy, I was ahead of schedule with getting everyone ready to run out the door to preschool. Suddenly, I was sad when I read the calender for my kids school to find out my oldest needs his library books and Thomas the Turkey?!? Thomas the Turkey, oh my word, I totally forgot and that makes me the worst mom. Thomas was this little cut out Turkey that all the kids in the class had to take home and put in a disguise and it was due today. We are supposed to leave in 10 minutes and I say to my oldest, "What in the world should we dress Thomas the Turkey as?" with that he says fireman and he glued and cut and we assembled together. Wow, made it in the car only a couple minutes behind schedule. They gave me big kisses goodbye and I thought, " Oh, I love these kids so much". Before I knew it, it was time to pick them up and once they were all in the car and I just got so annoyed. Trey was teasing his sister, Evan was crying because he dropped his school bag, Taylor started to scream because of Trey's teasing. I yelled, and just lost it. I'm sure I could have handled it better but I will make a mental note to try not to freak out again. Once we were home they played and everyone started to calm down but I hate that I can get so frustrated. I will try better tomorrow. We shall see.

Ahhh, I just love family time!

Two days of 100% family time! No work, no TV, no cooking, no cleaning, just wonderful family time. THE PLAN Leave our house at 1pm on Saturday, kids will take naps in the car, wake up fresh and ready to go at our first destination. THE REALITY Taylor (love her), napped almost the entire 2 hour car ride. Trey fought his eyes falling asleep the entire way and kept trying to keep his brother awake with him. Evan got 30 minutes of sleep despite his brothers attempts. THE PLAN Get to Dutch Wonderland, kids put on costumes for the Trick or Treat at the park, and just have lots of fun. THE REALITY Spent lots of time putting together the costumes for no one to want to wear them ( I new that would happen), instead we just had lots of fun!! One of the first rides the kids wanted to go on was the Twirling Turtles (Blaaaa). It didn't help that I was already a little carsick from turning around 300 times to keep telling Trey to stop teasing his brother and to pick up cheerios that dropped all over my back seat. After the Twirling Turtles I stuck to the simpler rides and had the kids go on the one's that said No Adults (Thank God). THE NEXT PLAN drive from Dutch Wonderland to The Hershey Hotel, the kids would fall asleep in the car and we could put them right to bed and my husband and I could watch some TV and relax. THE REALITY They did fall asleep in the car but once we got to the hotel it was like someone pumped their blood with caffeine! They were so excited that I feared they would never go to sleep. After running down the hall to the vending and ice machine, eating all the Hershey kisses on the pillows, telling stories, playing go fish, wrestling in the huge bed, we finally realized we had to shut everything off and just go to sleep ourselves. By 9:00 all lights were out, TV off, and everyone fell fast asleep.

The next day went very smooth. We went to Chocolate World and everyone loved the history of chocolate tour and the trolley ride. The 3-D movie didn't go over so well though. A bunch of chocolate popped out of a box and I think my boys thought it was going to hit them in the face. We had to quickly run out of the theatre with them in hysterics (maybe next year). The last part of this trip was Hershey Park. The park was huge and we saw maybe 20% of it but it didn't matter. We had so much fun seeing our kids having fun that we didn't have to go to every ride. They were so excited to be able to go on the same ride 10 times if they wanted to. Before making the 2 hour drive home we stopped for a quick dinner and my oldest, Trey who fought sleeping the entire trip, fell fast asleep before our food even got to the table. THE PLAN HOME We would feed them, drive home and they would all fall fast asleep. Once we got to our house we could put them straight to bed. THE REALITY It happened!!

Loving a quiet Sunday!

We woke up this morning and started the day like every other morning, Evan (our 2, almost 3 year old ) waking us saying "my bellies hurting!" He wakes up starving every day! Our Sunday morning "thing" is Strawberry Pancakes. I make the pancakes, my oldest son makes the syrup (1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of water, 1/2 a package of strawberry jello, and 2 Tbls. of cornstarch) which needs to be stirred over low heat for a long, long, long time until it thickens, and everyone else waits patiently! After inhaling our delicious breakfast with lots of sugar we decide it was time to take out pet turtle to a better home. (We found a turtle in our backyard about a week ago and have kept him a little bit longer then we should have.) So as a family we got out the stroller and the bikes and traveled about a mile in a half to a little lake to let the turtle go. My boys, so big, rode their bikes all the way there with a little huffing a puffing but no giving up! Once we got to the lake the little turtle ran and dove into the water and seemed very happy! Getting home was a little tougher as the boys were a bit more tired but we made it.

We played outside and I pruned our out of control tomato plants and then it was time for lunch. We ate some homemade pizza from the night before and some brownies for dessert, yes I know, don't make me feel guiltier then I already do. So to work off my atrocious day of food I decide to go for a run which turned into a walk as I almost threw up because of all the crap in my stomach. As I was walking a long and enjoying the beautiful day I began to appreciate everything. Appreciate the sun shining, being able to walk, and sing, and thinking of my beautiful family that I so truly adore and all I can be is thankful. When life gets you down, money is tight, things aren't easy, stop and take a look at all that you have and not what you don't and I know you will be like me......Thankful!

Hope you have a great day