To My Sassy Daphy

Oh my Sweet Pea, Happy 2nd birthday! So full of life, boundless amounts of sass, energy and character. Daddy thought we used all the good genetics up on Thing 1 and Thing 2, man did we prove him wrong. ;)
I will admit, that you had me so smitten and fooled as a baby, that I could not have imagined who you would be in these two short years.

You were so calm and sure of yourself, even as an infant. You slept well, ate VERY well and were generally, always happy, unless I was away and you couldn't eat. ;) We like our food in this family!

You started smiling at a couple weeks old and you have never seemed to stop.

With every passing day your lack of fear, the knowledge you have of yourself and your willingness to give it all you have, no matter the consequences makes me throw everything I "thought I knew" out the window.

Everything I said "I would never do", I'm pretty sure with and because of you, I've had to re-evaluate and deviate from. ;)

You are the fear in fearless, the wonder in wonderment and the joy in joyful. You live everyday, every moment to the fullest. Even in these short two years, I know that you will be someone to reckon with. And I am proud and honored to have the privilege to be your mother. You make me face myself like I never thought I would have to. I can't (and partially don't want to ;)) imagine what else you are going to teach me in the years to come.
We all love you and can't imagine our lives without you. Happy 2nd Birthday my Sassy Daphy!

Love,
Your Mom aka Da' Boss! ;) (hey come on now, I have to at least try ;))

School, how I love thee... let me count the ways

So school has started again... yea!! And for all of you moms out there who are like oh my poor babies are in school and I'm so sad, I want it to be summer all year long. I'm sorry, I'm not one of them ;). Don't get me wrong, summer was great, we had fun. Not to mention, see this face. I know right, she's adorable!

That doesn't mean however, that I don't understand the importance of her being with other adults, children her own age, and not me, all. day. long. This one especially, has a brain, that does not quit. And I admit, at home with her other siblings, I cannot fulfill those constant mental needs, which definitely affects my mental needs. Plus, I'm pretty sure she is smarter than me already and I'm doing a lot of research to answer most of her "questions". So number one on my count the ways, yea to her teacher, have fun with that ;).

It's also no secret that I raise some pretty independent women, which is completely shocking, I know.  This one, wouldn't even let me walk her into first grade. Bye mom, have a good day, don't cry, I'll be fine. I'm not crying, nope, I don't know what you are talking about, those are happy tears.  So that opinionated, independent spirit (also known as my Karma), yep, count the ways number two!

Then there's thing 2, starts PreK and I'll admit, being my little man, a bit more attached to this one not wanting to say goodbye. Running into class, like peace out, but have you seen all the women he is surrounded by? I'd be running too!! Reason number three, needs to be surrounded by other little boys.

In addition to being surrounded by girls, this one is more sensitive then both of my girls put together. See this face, it was followed by a tantrum because he didn't want to "smile" for anymore pictures. I took 3 people, 3 pictures! Not 300. I think it will be good for other adults to endure his crying phases... as in general, I have just started joining in and crying with him and I don't think that's very healthy. Reason number 4.

I know there are many more reasons, such as a good education, more structure (although if you ask others I'm a nut about structure, sooo), not to mention an objective perspective from teachers who aren't emotionally attached to your child's behavior, etc. 
But even with all those other reasons, sending your kids off to school is always a cross emotional period. You, okay or I, feel guilty, like I should want to be around them 24 hours a day. However, the truth is, I love my kids enough to know, being home with me all day, for the rest of their educational life, (because we have an out at 18 rule) will not produce healthy human beings. It also allows me to be extra grateful to the teachers who have my children, as I have been that teacher. So extra Starbucks and supplies all around!

So I guess the next thing I will be pondering is how to sneak this "Thing" into school early. Hmmmmm.... any takers ;)

Not a "dance mom" ...sigh!

I'm back!! Sorry folks, seems the summer got away from me. I thought it would be relaxing, it would feel never ending, and the "things" would be driving me nuts. Only one of those three things happened. Can you guess which one ;).

So July has been especially busy and one of our new adventures was putting Thing 1, aka Belle, into dance class. Let it be known, I am not a Dance Mom! I have no dancing skills, at all, and my father likes to tell stories of me glaring at him during the semester they made me take dance because my little sister wanted to. So needless to say, dropping her off and playing nice with other moms who have their kids in tutu's, hair perfectly in a bun, with all the dance gear, made me slightly uncomfortable. I was day dreaming of her dribbling a basketball down the court, her hair thrown up in a pony tail, buying athletic shoes...and POP! There she is as cute as a button in her little dance outfit.

Don't worry folks, it gets even better from here. So this happened to be the class where family got to come "watch". Every ten seconds my daughter would turn around and look at me, shrug, try to talk to me, holy cow child, pay attention and you might actually know what the teacher is trying to teach you. Not like I could ever be any help in this department. See that kid behind her... to sum it up, that was me ;).

Annnddd I should have pictures of her constantly talking to me, instead I deleted them. Bwhahaha, had to show I was getting my monies worth right? Prima Ballerina in the making!

She can be the ballet dancer and Thing 3, Daphne,  can do crunk and table dancing? Yes??

Oh help!!

Tickle me Tball

So t-ball season has started... yea!! Last year was crying and sitting in a field, with Daddy getting upset and telling Killian to "toughin up". It was seriously funny, because come on now, he was 3. And oh so stinking cute!!

He did and does love to hit, the best part of Baseball. I really just come for the cute stinking outfits!!

This year has been more of the same but since he's 4 whole years old now, the attention span has grown quite a bit (notice the large hints of sarcasm!).

This year is some serious business. That ball might make it to him. But if it did, he would probably be tackled by the other 4 and 5 year olds. Wish I could have gotten pictures of him throwing dirt in the air and catching it with his glove. That would represent this little superstar a little more. I mean come on... who can resist dirt!

Our favorite parts of the game are still when he is batting! Not just because he is actually focused on something beside dirt. But also because watching this kid run is the funniest thing ever! Pump those arms buddy. I can't wait to show his future wife videos of him skip running to the bases.

 Oh tickle me silly, I just LOVE little kids t-ball. Enjoying it while it's still not competitive; because if you know Jim and I at all, there will come a time when we are probably kicked out of one of our kids sporting events. ;)

My life began

Anabelle was born April 9th, 2007 by c-section. My stubborn little beauty was just shy of 10 lbs and was 21.5 inches long. And like her mother she came out her own way, turned around inside of me and pulled out feet first. Sometimes, I feel like we are still trying to pull her by her feet, but I wouldn't have her any other way.

 So far in Belle's short 6 years, I have learned more about my life and myself than I ever could have in the 25 years prior. She tests every fiber of my being. Her love of animals and people far exceed any compassion I have ever seen or known. She saves crickets, mice, spiders and anything else that needs her soft touch and sensitive heart. Meanwhile, I run into the other room screaming, or gagging at the smell.

Even as a toddler she was comforting other children when they were sad. She is the best sister and friend, I have never met anyone more forgiving. I guess that's a good thing with a first child, because I am definitely not a perfect mother and make mistakes daily. 

 

This doesn't mean she doesn't have a mind of her own. She's opinionated, sticks her foot in her mouth constantly, doesn't think before she speaks and questions anything and everything. She is my child after all. 

When I was little, I had all these dreams to be someone else: be kinder, not so defensive, more liked by others, be smarter, more beautiful, have blue eyes, love science, to still be girly and athletic, not be afraid to show how sensitive I really was. For years, I thought I needed to change myself and I couldn't understand why I couldn't be any of these things no matter how hard I tried. Then one day there she was, everything I wanted to be, wrapped up into one willful and wonderful little package.

I've heard many say cherish your wedding day, it's the happiest day of your life. But for me, the happiest day of my life was when I became a mother. She completes me, I was meant to be her mother and I know the world is better because I brought her into it. Life before she was born just doesn't seem to compare.

We love you Anabelle Margaret... Happy 6th Birthday!

31 is Awethome!

Well another birthday down and another wonderful year of living to go. Let's see what I can accomplish this year. Hopefully, my children are still misbehaving mostly under my roof alone, my health continues to be a product of the way I live, think and cook and the people in my life help me continue to be a better person.

That being said, the birthday week was some good stuff! My Mom was in town and we painted the town red, which included having an actually babysitter for dinner. If you live in KC, we went to a place called Louie's Wine Dive, definitely a recommender, it was FABULOUS! Here we are all "dressed up"

Look Shannen, you're famous!

On my birthday, my fantastic husband took a personal day to help us wrangle all the kids. We went bowling! It was chaotic, but lots of fun and the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves. Keeping tabs on Thing 3 alone was a one person job, so we rotated ;)

Then at night we all met up and went to dinner. Thing 2 has a particular affection for his oldest cousin Trent. Seriously, I could not even be alive to him when trent is around. Its so cute though, when we were leaving he's screaming out the window, "I LOVE YOU TRENT, DO YOU HEAR ME, I LOVE YOU!" My poor nephew. LOL!

Oh my gosh Trent, you are so cool, Awethome, juth AWETHOME!




Needless to say it was a good family fun time and I got everything I wanted for my birthday, family and food.
 And we all lived Happily, Ever .... THING 3, GET DOWN!