SUMMERTIME!

OK, those that know me will not be floored by this- but otherwise hold on to your 90's mall bangs!

I saw the New Kids on the Block at the Mall of America last week:)

On a whim, Grace and I went to see the NKOTB perform and have "just girl time" at the MOA. It was soooooo fun!!! I was such a Blockhead back in the day. I think everyone should relive a little fun from their teen years now and then. What made it even more special was sharing the experience with Grace. She is just 7, so we haven't quite hit the boy crazy stage yet. But I know that in just a few years I may be driving her to a Jonas Bros. concert or whatever other hot group of teen boys is the latest craze by then. I can't wait!!



Here are a few pics, just in case there are a few closeted Blockheads out there somewhere:) ENJOY!!!

ps

We just got back from our summer vaca. After the next few days of reentry I will post some great pics of the kiddos!

Mama's got a new ride...

Hey guys!!! I'm sooo excited! After many years of driving my dear old friend "Superstar" aka-ugly green ford windstar, I am now sporting a sweet Ford Expedition! Now before you go all green on me- I know what kind of gas mileage I'm gonna get- HORRIBLE! But on the upside, I can transport my children and several friends safely...this is Very important to me. I have been a car seat technician for several years now and it has been driving me crazy that I can't get anywhere these days without putting some little innocent lives in danger. Now-problem solved...and mama's got power seats, cd changer, and auto start too!!!!

OK, enough about that, the summer continues to scoot by. We are anticipating a wonderful one week vaca starting this weekend. Nothing fancy, just laying around by the lake/pool for eight days!!! I even picked out a book today. It will be the first actual book I've read for enjoyment since Faith was born. It's so silly how excited I get about the simple things in life-like reading:)

Hope seems to have taken a step back and is now putting diapers on. I told her I was done changing diapers, so she puts them on herself! I hope that doesn't sound too mean, but the girl didn't have a single accident in over two weeks-and now she WANTS to wear diapers again. What a stinker!

Grace and RJ never want to go back to school. I have to admit that it's been great having them home, but they need to go back now:) I can only handle four kids 24/7 for a certain amount of time-three months is too long. Again, hopefully I don't sound like a horrible mother. I'm just the type that needs a little personal space once in a while to stay sane-and maybe a little Paxil!

Little Faith is still little! She is weighing in at a whopping 16# 12oz. The great news is that she is always making great progress in therapy. She's eating more solids and starting to make more sounds. She is signing for "more" and "bye bye" consistently. And just this week she started pulling herself up to standing~WooHoo~

I'll try to get a pic of my ride up soon...
Have a great week!

Where is my summer going????

I can't believe how fast life is flying by these days. It's so hard to live life in the moment when the moments are going by at light speed. Yesterday I sat down to finish balancing the checking account only to find that I started doing that job on July 7. How did that happen?

Everyone at our house is doing well. Faith is continues to make great progress. She is now making more vocal sounds and just started to sign for Bye Bye and More!!! We are soooo excited! She is also finally eating solids. We just had our first real meal with all six of us at the table. I never thought that I would be so blessed!

RJ and Grace are playing every minute they can with neighborhood friends. It's nice to be able to stay around home more and have happy kids. They are growing up so fast. I love that they enjoy taking care of Hope and Faith. Grace is a mommy at heart and always makes sure everyone is following the rules-even if she isn't:) And RJ has been practicing Guitar Hero in every spare minute. He can now beat me and Jay at many songs!!

And I'm super excited to announce that Hope potty trained herself this past week! I knew she would get it on her own. No one tells Hope what to do:) That is a personality trait that will come in handy someday, but can make life VERY complicated when she's 3. Most recently I had to carry her out of our local Subway kicking and screaming because she refused to contain her loud voice during lunch. Later when I asked her about the situation she just shrugged her shoulders, gave me puppydog eyes and said "That happens!".

Hope you are all having a fun and happy summer too!

PRICELESS...

I can't believe this will be our last 1st birthday. It really makes me realize that I need to treasure every moment. Time goes by way too quickly!!!

What a weekend...

My sweet little Faith is now officially a one year old!!! I can't believe it!

We had a huge holiday weekend full of celebrations. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with Jay and the kids, as well as many family members and friends. She enjoyed every minute of the festivities. I haven't had time to upload the cake pics yet, but she made a huge mess:) We attend the local parade on July 4th and fun was had by all. We missed out on all this fun last year because of Faith's birth. So I was just as excited as the kids to have a fun and sunny Fourth of July!!

This was the day...

Just one year ago I was still preggers with little Miss Faith. She was still snuggled safely inside, just waiting to come into this world. I was sooo relieved to be in labor after making it through the hardest of my four pregnancies! I was literally counting the minutes that I had left!!! Little did I know that I was on the cusp of a whole new normal. It's really interesting to examine the mindset that I had in the past, not knowing what was just hours into the future. Could I have possibly imagined what this year would be like? Tiny, nonbreastfeeding newborn, months of struggles with bottle feeding, endless dr appts, endless therapy sessions, four visits to the surgery center, two broken bones(Grace), the list could go on and on!

WOW!! That's all I can say!

Tonight I am taking a trip down memory lane with my dearest doula. She was with me last year as my contractions were steadily going nowhere. She drove me to Walmart "just to walk around". She was beside me as we pulled into the parking lot and my water broke! She gently helped me labor and bring Faith into the world a few hours later. Tonight we will walk the isles of Walmart (a store that I dispise the other 364 days of the yr!). I will probably look for a few toys to spoil my baby with. It will be nice to relive those moments and just focus on my sweet girl!

Thank You Doula Friend!!!

Joys and Sorrows...

This summer is certainly flying by!!! It seems like every minute we are going somewhere or anticipating another exciting event. Here are some of our recent highlights...

SHE'S CRAWLING!!! Faith has finally become mobile. She doesn't go very far yet, but she IS crawling and we are sooooo excited!!!!

Our sweet Gracie became an actress last week. She appeared in

a small production of Beauty and the Beast. As the youngest in the cast she was assigned a minor role as a Rose. But she took the job very seriously and loved every minute she spent on stage!! For those of you close enough to attend, she will be performing again in July:)

RJ is just enjoying summer one day at a time. He frequently bothers all of us with his strange humor and loves to be silly! He has also started gymnastics much to his father's dismay!! I tried to ease the topic by assigning RJ to a class with a male coach. This didn't work very well because Daddy picked RJ up on the second day of class and noticed that the coach wasn't the "man's man" that he had hoped for. He is more of the eyeliner and outstanding wardrobe type;) At least RJ is happy!

Hope is her own little challenging self these days. This is how we prefer to see her-sleeping(silent):) On this day she literally fell asleep with her snack in her mouth! We all had a good laugh when she woke up and saw this pic.

We also have endured some sorrow. Our Grandpa Francis passed away last week. He was a wise old man who taught us many things. The kids only knew him in his frailness. Hope had been scared of him lately because of the O2 tank he needed to travel with. This was the first experience with death that any of the kids had. RJ and Grace understood everything and really handled it well. Hope was endlessly confused and is still asking "Where is that Bampa in that box?" every day. She did provide us with some humor when we found her standing next to this is our living room soon after Grandpa's viewing. We hope Wendy(of Bob the Builder fame) will rest in peace!

Hope your summer is as fun and silly as ours has been!