Happy 3rd Birthday , E!!

Today is your birthday, E! Your 3rd birthday!
















Three years ago today, I quite literally laughed you into the world. When the nurse said, "He's almost here, no laughing, no coughing, nothing else from you," it made me laugh...I thought she was joking. I laughed, and there you were! How wonderful a beginning for your life! You know what? You have continued to bring us laughter, lots and lots of laughter, everyday!

Baby Dedication Day

We always tell you to "put on your sunshine." Your response is to smile that wonderful smile of your's and open your great big eyes up even bigger. Your grin and your bright eye's just light up our world.











First Halloween - My Lil'Stinker


You love to dance. When you hear the music, the rhythm just gets you!!







Your favorite music to listen to are all the songs from Phineas and Ferb and the "Wha-oh" song from Hillsong Kids. You just have to bust a move when that song plays!

One Year Old

You love to be cuddled, to give neeners (nose rub kisses to the uninitiated), and to sit in my lap. I feel like those days are numbered, so I am making it a point to cherish every little love from you. Luckily, you have lots to share!

You are attending your first year of preschool this year, and you love your sweet teacher. You always tell her that she has CRAZY hair when you get to school...I don't know why you tell her that, but you do!












You love to play on the playground at school and do the "silly" puzzles. Your vocabulary is amazing, and you casually throw out words like awkward, nemesis, and delightful. Ahhh, a child after my own heart.

Two Years Old

You love to explore, and your sense of adventure and fun make the ordinary extraordinary!

















You tell me everyday that C is your very best friend. You don't know how much that thrills me.

We love seeing how much you two love each other. You always have so much fun together. C gives you good advice, and you almost always take it.











One of your favorite games is flashlight safari. You also love to play Don't Wake Daddy and to play with your Zippity.



















You like video games, especially the Wii. You're really good at it! You just reached the pro level on bowling!







E, we think that you are just INCREDIBLE!





















You're a super helper. You think that doing chores is fun when you're doing it with your family.


















You LOVE, and I mean LOVE, to play with balls. Soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs, bouncy balls. You name it. You love them!
















Three Years Old!


Happy, happy birthday my little Sunshine. You have completed our family in the most perfect way, and we are better for having you in our lives. We love you, Ethan. We love you, "Oh so much!"

Happy Birthday to My BIG Six-Year-Old!

After 21.5 hours of "Special" pain, you were born...and it was completely and utterly worth every moment. We loved you instantly. How could we not? Your smile and laugh lit up the room. We thought you were so amazing, and every day since has proven us right.

One Year Old

Today is your sixth birthday.

The years have quite literally flown by. I look at you, and the moment you were born is just as fresh in my mind as if it had happened yesterday.

Two Years Old

We love the way you make every moment an adventure.

We love your sweet heart that always wants to donate to

children less fortunate than you on your birthday.

Three Years Old

We love the way you care for your little brother and "teach him the ropes."





We love the way that you hold Christ in your life and use Him as the standard by which you make your decisions.


Four Years Old

Mexican food is your pick anytime you're given the choice (thank you for not choosing McDonalds or Chuck E. Cheese).You also love to play on the Wii and to jump on the trampoline.

Five Years Old

In case you forget down the road, you love school.

Phineas and Ferb is your very favorite TV show with Tom & Jerry pulling a close second.

You love to read and to be read to, and some of your favorite books are Green Eggs & Ham; When Dinosaurs Came with Everything; Snip, Snap, What's That?; and 10 Apples Up on Top.











Six Years Old Today

You love your family, and we love you back. We love you a "million billion infinity times twelve!"

Happy birthday my
sweet son!
God bless you today
and always!

Does a blogger cease to exist if she doesn't post anything?

Nah...just thought that I'd get all philosophical on you for a second. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I do still exist. It just turns out that the whole myth about having tons of free time once your children start school is a big bunch of cr whooie. Granted, choosing to be the room mom has been a large source of the free time vacuum in my life, but alas, I have no one to blame but myself. The shortening of naps has certainly played a part. The fact that blogging (when compared to playtime with my boys) is pretty low on my priority list plays a substantial role as well. C'est la vie! I'm here now, and that is what counts!

Now, you may ask, what is the oh-so-momentous occasion that has plucked me from obscurity and beckoned me back to the keyboard?? Not a rotten thing. I just felt a bit guilty. It is as pure and simple as that. So, I’m going to break all the blogging rules and load this one post with a million unrelated comments and pictures which will succinctly catch you up on our lives.

BEHOLD, the last few months in a rapid succession of 13 key points:

1. Mommy Money = maybe not perfect, but pretty good.

2. Fall is and always will be the very best time of year!


3. The Pumpkin patches yielded a huge harvest of good memories and pumpkins this year.




4. Halloween turned up a few tough characters who were ready for some action.


5. C had his starring debut as a rather spicy pepperoni in his first kindergarten musical.


6. E made his very first (of many, I'm sure) pilgrim hat for Thanksgiving.


7. Little fingerprints (and a tad of patience) created some memorable Thanksgiving place cards for Grandma's holiday tablescape.


8. More holiday crafting with some special friends (you can meet them over at Grasping for Objectivity) led to E finding his true love and "locking it in."


9. The kindergarten class Christmas Party consumed my life for several weeks but resulted in a pile of cozy snowman scarves, a small mountain of candy cane mice ornaments, a zillion decorated cookies, and a lot of smiles!


10. Since the holidays wouldn't be complete without a few more projects, the boys undertook some papier-mâché candy bowls as a surprise gift for their grandparents.


Complete with more fingerprints!


11. After all the kiddie crafting, I tried my hand at making a scarf that I had seen in a picture for Watoosa's Christmas present. The ruched ribbon flowers were super fun, and I can't wait to find other uses for them.


12. Christmas arrived with a bang...starting at B's parent's...


...moving on to Christmas morning at home...


...and wrapping up with enjoying presents from my parents.


13. The pièce de résistance of the gifting was a helter-skelter scavenger hunt on Christmas morning which led to the discovery of an unexpectedly HUGE trampoline in the backyard. B and his brother Santa's little elves spent a long, cold night putting it together, but it was SO worth it!!

That's pretty much what's been going on in a nutshell.
We're all still happy, healthy, and blessed to have each other
and all that God has given us.

Until next time...hopefully sooner than you think!

UPDATE - Mommy Money Day 1

Morning number 1 is over, what was the result?



OR



Did C eat all of his breakfast?
Did he get dressed?
Did he brush his teeth?
Did he fasten his seatbelt in the car?
Did he do all of this without whining?
Did he do all of this without being told to over and over AND over?

Drum roll please..............

YES!!

Did I fuss at him or get irritated with him this morning?

NOPE!!

Day 1 of Operation Mommy Money is a raging success!!



A side note into the heart of my sweet son - After earning his Mommy Money this morning, he asked if I could let E earn some Mommy Money too if he ate all of his breakfast. I told him that we could do that. C then told me, "I'm so glad. I want to share my Mommy Money with him so that we can shop in the Mommy Market together." I love their relationship. It makes my heart smile!

Mommy Money

Okay, so if I have one more morning like the one I had today (or yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that), I may lose it. My sweet, compliant, obedient son becomes a whiny, stubborn little critter on school mornings here lately. I start the morning as a calm, collected, super mom (that may be a slight exageration) who quickly spirals down into a frantic, ready-to-yell, hair puller (my own, not the boys). No matter what time we start or how much sleep C gets, he is just not a morning person. Now, I must confess that he comes by that naturally. Neither B nor I are morning people. Mom has some delightful little tales of my surliness and general morning grumptitude. BUT, we're not here to talk about me.

The current morning conversation with C has become pretty limited to, "You need to eat and get dressed, Baby. Sweetheart, you need to eat. It's time to get dressed, and you haven't finished eating. Please finish eating. Please eat. Eat. EAT YOUR BREAKFAST. No, you can't watch TV. Please get dressed. Please put your clothes on, Sweetheart. Baby, get your clothes on, please. Get dressed, please. Get dressed. PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON." This rhythm will move on to cover brushing his teeth and getting his seat belt buckled. As you can see. This is not what I would call scintillating conversation.

I have decided to try a little old-fashioned bribery to get the job down. Nothing wrong with a little commerce to oil the wheels of progress, right? I found a website that allows you to put your picture on the currency of your choice.

The site is www.festisite.com/money

Here is what I've created:

Looks nice, yes?

My plan is to pay C with Mommy Money for

• Eating his breakfast without being told
• Getting dressed by himself
• Brushing his teeth
• NOT being whiny

He'll be able to save up his Mommy Money and use it in the Mommy Market. I'm going to purchase some fun little items from the dollar store, as well as some bigger ticket items like Lego sets and privileges (staying up late, donuts for breakfast, extra PlayStation time, etc.). My hope is that Mommy Money will be an incentive to take on the responsibility of getting ready for school in a timely manner. It will allow for him to have a happier start to his day, and it will take some of the burden off of me for monitoring his morning. Another hope for this plan is that it will also foster in C a better understanding of money, saving, and wise spending. It is never to early to instill some budgeting sense into our little ones.

I'm going to tweak my plan over the weekend and launch the Mommy Money/Mommy Market on Monday. Wish me luck. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Cruisin'

I'm finally posting some pictures from our wonderful Caribbean Cruise! It was a fantastic way to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. Many, many, many naps were had! The water was breath-taking, and the beaches were gorgeous. We loved our cruise and had a blast!!

This is the awesome little boutique hotel we stayed at in Miami the night before the ship departed. Our room wasn't ready when we got there, so they bumped us up to a suite. It was very trendy, shabby-chic, and VERY South Beach. We loved it!!

This was our first port of call in Grand Turk. This was a tiny island covered in feral horses and donkeys. The population of the island is only 3,000, so it doubled when a ship was in port!

We went Snuba diving in Grand Turk, but we haven't gotten the underwater pictures developed yet. Snuba is like Scuba diving, except that the air tank stays on the surface of the water on a little raft. You're connected to it with a 20 foot long umbilical. So, you can stay underwater, but you can only go about 15-20 feet deep. This is a lot of fun and doesn't require all of the training that Scuba does.

Every night there was a different little animal made of towels on our bed. Luckily, I smooched this little frog and got my very own prince!

Our second port of call was Half Moon Cay (or Half Monkey as "Chet," our cruise director pronounced it.) I can't even tell you how beautiful and pristine this beach was. We could see the bottom of the ocean floor even when we were on the boat, and the sand was as finely grained and silky as powdered sugar. Ahhh...paradise.

There were hammocks hanging all down the beach that
allowed for a lot of happy reading time.

Our last port of call was in Nassau, Bahamas. This is the famous Atlantis Resort that you see on TV all the time. That arch that connects the two buildings on the right is known as the Bridge Suite. It costs $150,000 per night to stay there with a five night minimum!

This happy group is comprised of all the friends that sat at the tables near us for dinner each night and our two waiters Edy and Izzy. The two ladies to the right of me are Tonja and Christina. They were hysterical and made our cruise dining experience a blast each night! We're hoping to see them again someday.

Shrimp-tail nail tips. Just doing my part to reduce, reuse, recycle!

Troye and Chris are two of our very best friends. It was their 10th anniversary also, so they joined us on the cruise. We all had SO MUCH fun together. Blake and I must have said a hundred times how glad we were that they took the same cruise. Thanks for all the fun memories and laughter, C & T!!

Look, it's me and Blake!

and me and Troye.

This is a picture of our cruise director Brent who we immediately nicknamed Chet. If you can't just look at the picture and understand that, I don't know how to explain. He was such a Chet!! Laughing at him was one of the highlights of each day.

Tanya and Christina (the dining neighbors) quite literally dragged Troye and I onto the dance floor on Motown night. It was so very fun and more embarrassing than I can explain. Note my look of "Oh no you did not just take my picture!"

Oh look, it's yet another picture of me and Blake. This was "elegant dining" night.

AND just to round things off nicely, it's another picture of me and Blake. We are wrapping up the week here, rested, relaxed, and ready for the next ten years of our wonderful marriage!