Baby Fever

Yesterday, one of our best friends jumped onto the "three-children-bandwagon"!! Of course, we ran up to the hospital as soon as we got the "OK" from the tired momma! It's been a while since I held a newborn. Boy, do they feel so nice. With their tiny smushed up faces, all bundled up, sleeping away in your arms, not a care in the world! I didn't want to give her up. She made Lillian seem so old, big, and heavy!!!

I couldn't help but miss it so bad and it really gave me baby fever. Trust me, I felt crazy too. I mean, I have three of 'em already! I'm open to more children but I'm just getting my body back. Well, kind of...as soon a 'little bit' is ready to give me up - and I'm totally ready if ya know what I mean. And I don't really like being pregnant. And I'm finally getting good sleep regularly again.

Luckily, I went to the zoo with my two preggers cousins. It helped a lot, needless to say! They are super positive girls, but the pregnancies are wearing on them already. Heartburn, swollen ankles, braxton hicks contractions, fatigue, can't bend over, etc. It quickly jerked me back into reality!

Does that feeling go away eventually? The baby fever??? When do you know your family is complete?



OMG.........I'm feeling it again just lookin' at that picture!!! Can I take her home....please?.... pretty please!?!?!

Kick Off To Summer

Well, school is out, the pools are open, and summer is officially in full swing!!! Most moms probably dread summertime knowing their kids are out of school. I sure I'll have my days. BUT, I've managed to find many (mostly free) activities and events to attend over the course of the summer. I also have many school books to go through with Olivia this summer that I'm really looking forward to!

But first off, we had a great Memorial Day!!! Full of cooking out and swimming!!!


Lillian chowin' down on hot dogs and watermelon!!! She wouldn't sit down.....silly girl.

Little bit of jumpin'!

Some summer lovin'! (Landon's eyes were hurting him so he wouldn't look at me directly!)



Some swimmin'!

And some ice cream sweets!!

She knew immediately when we handed out the ice cream sandwiches that she was missing out. So we gave her one, and of course, she loved it. Just part of the gang!! (the face she is making is her saying 'cheese'!!)


Then we kicked summer off with a birthday party and some park fun!!


Landon is "riding in the back with daddy" he said!!! Just chillin'!!


She loved the park...she was so excited she almost didn't know what to do!


Our summer is going to consist of a few vacation bible schools, free summer movies, summer reading (Olivia is especially excited about this), free library programs, and the LAKE and BEACH!!!

I hope everyone else's summers are shaping up as fun as ours!!!

I Had An Awesome Time

I'm sure you are all dying to know how my first weekend away went. Well, it was great. Here are a few highlights!!!

Lacey and I at the beach all day Saturday. It's amazing how easy it is to go to the beach without kids...all I had was my big beach bag and my chair. I kept thinking, "Am I missing something?!?" (yes, the beach toys, cooler, change of clothes, beach towels for everyone, umbrella, snacks, kids sunscreen, hats, juice cups, diapers, wipes, noodles, rings, the children....ok, you get the point)


My sis, Lacey, and I at dinner at Cosmos Saturday night! YUM...I got the blackened grouper!



Now, we're at the Florabama...or "Redneck Riviera" as they call themselves. This is the ring toss. Lacey and I are pretty good at this game since we've had it at the lake house since we were 7. It's a ring on a string that you swing to a hook! The less times you have to swing it, the better you are. We were hittin' it on the first or second try all night...... :-)


All the girls I was with all weekend!! We had SO much fun!!!


This is.........well..........it's the Florabama.......yes, those are bras strung on a string.......it's really a place you have to experience in person. Truly unique....in many ways. You see an amazingly broad range of interesting folks.

Last night there! We're leaving at a time I don't even want to admit! But hey....I wasn't going to have little bodies crawl in my bed at 6:30 am........... :-). Got to sleep in a little bit!


Oh, and Robert did outstanding. I came home to a clean house and kids that were asleep! He also had time to sand, stain, and polyurethane my bedside table that desperately needed some help! WOW! He also took them to the zoo on Saturday! Thanks babe for taking care of things while I was gone! Love You!

Can I Do This?

Whew...leaving is harder than I expected! I was putting the kids down today and saying goodbye to them, etc.

I got a little knot in my throat saying goodbye to Lillian! Of course, all she wanted to do was go sleep. Then I went to put Landon down. I told him that I would be gone when he woke up, that I was going to see Aunt Lacey. Also telling him he needs to be good for Daddy this weekend and take care of his sisters.

He says, "But Mom (with his arm around me like he could keep me from going), I don't want you to go!"

Me, "But I need to...because I love you!"

He says it again and I asked him, "Why?"

Landon says, "Because you're a great mom!!" ::heart melting:: My mind was saying, 'OK, I'll stay!'

But then I explained that Daddy would be home when he woke up. He quickly responded, "Ok then, go bye bye!"

Wow..that was fast. Glad I'll be missed. :-)


See you Monday!!

Pleasantly.....EXCITED!!!

I turned on my Tivo after the kids went to bed tonight and realized that one of my ALL time favorite shows season premiere was on!! YAY!

So, it's set up extremely similar to American Idol (format wise)...except it's for DANCIN'. But it's not like Dancing With The Stars (which I'm not in to btw) because it spans many dance genres. And it doesn't include celebrities....these are people who are genuinely talented and want to make a career out of dancing.

Anyway, check it out it's awesome!

Oh, and this is the absolute highlight from last season! It's kinda long, but I promise you'll be laughin' out loud by the end. I don't get tired of watching it!! Jamal gets challenged by the judges to expand his dancing to swing dancing - he says he can do it and they bring him back........and it's all laughs from there!!! I hope you take the time to enjoy this quick video...........THEN....to directly to your televisions and set it to record the brand new season of "So You Think You Can Dance"!!! You will not be disappointed!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, watch this hilarious video!!

What A Difference

What a difference a little TLC makes in a house. We've bought this house with the intention of doing a good bit of work to it. (I knew our first house wasn't going to be my "dream house" if you now what I mean!) We painted the inside and laid hardwoods before even moving in. But we waited to do other things that could be done while living in it. Like the yard, painting the outside of the house (yikes), and the basement (carpet and paint - it's already finished).

October 2006

May 2008

Recently we Robert put a little pine straw in the beds in front of the house and it makes such a huge difference. And it's such a cheap fix too!! I told him (amazed by the difference) "I wonder who thought of picking up the pine straw after it fell to the ground, gathered it up, and decided to use it in landscaping!"

There is still so much to do but it's been kind of a "as the $$ is available" thing. Really what we've done so far hasn't cost much. I mean, pulling up the "christmas tree" in the front yard was free - and it made a HUGE difference. And since Robert paints, painting the house cost $1,000's less than it would have to hire a painter! Just a little hard work on Saturdays has really paid off! Great job babe!

Lillian

She's a mess...literally.

First Oreo!!
Mmmmm..............
Playing in a bucket of water!
In the pack n play on the dock - she was a trooper!

Tea party on the board walk! I think she had more fun than all of us!

Is This For Real?!?

I have tentative plans for a girls only weekend in Orange Beach with my sister and friends this weekend. Me, by myself (no kids), not pregnant (key!!)....for 2 nights........

I'm not sure this has ever happened! Though when it came time to move forward with the plans, I started to get a little sad...knowing I'd be leaving my baby Lillian alone for the first time ever. Then nervous knowing I'd be leaving them ALL THREE with Robert for the first time ever. He's never braved Wally world, the mall, or the grocery store with all 3 of them by himself yet. He hasn't needed to. But still. It's different. I'm 100% positive he could handle it. But it can get pretty crazy, really fast.

I think I'm gettin' excited!! :-)

Good Times

A few highlights.........

Enjoyed baby Lillian's first boat ride/life jacket experience.....

Clearly, she loved it.....

Again, loving the beautiful day and wind in her hair hat....

Would have been cuter with the hair out of Landon's face...but I guess you can't help it when your flying across Parker's Creek.

Wow...one of the few family pics!! :-) Yay.

Sitting together while enjoying the mach 3 speeds of the boat!

Got a little relaxation in........

And a little work - Robert crawled under the house to wire outdoor speakers!!

Hung out with Uncle Walton!! :-)


And played a little Nintendo Wii - this is the new Mario cart.......very fun by the way. It has a new function where you can play people live all over the world. Pretty cool.

Everyone slept so well.....and played equally hard. I can't wait until the water is even warmer!

It was only a year ago I was 38 weeks waiting for out surprise baby to get here! It's so fun to be able to enjoy the lake with her now.

As Soon As We Can Walk Again.....

We had a TON of fun this weekend. But, we're a little sore. Robert tried to ski and slalom, but ironically, he was much better wakeboarding!







Now he has something to work on all summer at the lake! Mastering the wakeboard! He was great - but he's hobblin' around a little bit today. It's a great workout though! :-)

I wasn't planning on doing anything behind the boat. The water was pretty cool. Bearable but cool. But after two days, I was finally talked into it. I think more than anything I didn't want to embarrass myself by not getting up! It's been TWO YEARS since I've slalomed and I'm much more out of shape than two years ago. BUT......I knew I'd regret not at least trying.

So....on the third try (after we figured out not to gun it too fast with me in the water) I popped up just like old times! My forearms and quads were killing me after my 10 minute run! But I'm happy to report I'm not quite as sore as I thought I was going to be. Still sore, but not like I was expecting!


So here's my proof! I can still do it!

Finally Got It Right

My sourdough bread finally came out right. Don't get me wrong, all the "bad" loaves still tasted SO good. I just couldn't get a pretty rounded top on them. After much consultation from my mother and research on the internet, I realized that I was "killing" the yeast (most important ingredient) in my started when I was mixing the dough by putting salt into it. Now, this may be a "duh" moment for die hard bakers, but I didn't know the order meant so much. So....dry ingredients get mixed together first, and the started is the last liquid to go in!

Get ready friends, I'm going to be passin' out loaves like crazy. Actually, I already have! It's so fun!


Nice beautiful golden color, slightly crisp crust, not burned, and a rounded top! BEAUTIFUL! At least in my eyes! :-)

Also, I have 2 starters going now. I started another one because I thought I killed the first one. So.........if anyone wants some starter, I can give you the recipe and 1 cup of starter and you can begin your own baking journey!

Gotta Work On That....

I had a situation happen the other day that really opened my eyes to something I need to really work on with my children.

Ok, let's back up a little.

I had gotten a shower during nap time - it was a GOOD day! :-) Ok. Since we're going to the lake on Friday I thought I'd do the whole self tanner spray thing for this weekend - we don't want skin cancer now. (BTW, I'm really happy with the way L'oreal Sublime Glow turned out!!). The only thing with that is you have to let it dry for a bit. So I'm doing my hair and makeup giving the self tanner time to dry. (Also, I do have undergarments on!)

After finishing from the neck up, I run into the den and kitchen to check on everyone. Olivia and Landon were up by now. So, I'm in the kitchen prancing around in my undies doing somethin' when I hear a doorbell ring. ::panic racing through body::

The kids RUN to the door and OPEN it saying, "It's our neighbor!"

I'm thinking, are they male or female!!! I certainly can't waltz back through my den in front of whoever is at my door!! I tell Olivia to tell them that mommy can't come to the door right now! Then I faintly hear in a female voice ::thank God:: "Maam, I'm locked out of my house - could I please use your phone!?"

I yell back, "One second, I just got out of the shower!.........OLIVIA COME HERE!!"

I tell her to get me a towel and get the girl the phone!!!

Luckily it was my neighbor's daughter and I was actually able to help her in probably more ways than I realized. Once I got dressed, I let her in and asked her if there was anything I can do to help her. She needed a ride and I was more than happy to take her to where she needed to be going. I told her that's what neighbors were for and she could knock on my door any time!


BUT, back to the place where my kids ran and opened the door to someone they technically didn't know. AH!! I know we've been over this before once or twice, but we apparently need to reinforce the matter! We don't have tons of people come to our door, so it's not at the top of the list in my brain to work on that with them.


Lessoned learned - BIG TIME! I'm frankly a little embarrassed too. She totally figured out what was goin' on after a minute or two. ::sheepish grin:: I mean, I know I'm not the only one runnin' around their own house in their undies...am I?? Be honest.........

Walkin'

Lillian's walking!! She's been taking steps for a while now! But now it's all she wants to do. I went through some of Olivia's old bags of clothes to find shoes for her start wearing now. The shoes that Olivia first started walking in are WAY too big. So....I found some that she wore when was a newborn to 3 months - and they are actually a wee bit too big!!! Size ZERO are a wee to big for Lillian!!! She's so petite!! BUT...they are perfect for the summer. :-)





By the way, she's being distracted by the movie we rented last weekend - Alvin and the Chipmunks!! :-) The DVD case is what I was luring her to walk with! And then she falls and laughs!! HA!

She Wishes

Sometimes I feel so bad for Lillian. Olivia and Landon are old enough to be sent outside by themselves with frequent checking in. But I can't let Lillian outside by herself....yet. There are some times where I send the kids outside in order to get something accomplished inside the house. Like.......ironing!!! (i.e. the bain of my existence!)

I know she loves being outside but she just isn't old enough yet to be out there by herself!


Love those cute fat little legs!

BUT, when I do let her loose outside....she has a BLAST!



Like, trying to get into the barbie jeep all by herself!


Or.....being pushed in the car by her big sister! Or.........


Hammering away with her big brother!

She is so happy when she is outside!

Sweet girl!

We love you Lillian!! You're growing up so fast!

Recap

I think everyone needs a break from their blog once in a while. I guess I just didn't have much to say. We've also had some personal drama. :-)

We had a great Mother's Day. I loved all the drawings and gifts from my kiddos! It gets better every year.

We also had a great weekend. We did a TON some spring cleaning. We went room by room and cleaned out closets and dusted from top to bottom. As tired as I was, it felt good to get the whole house and yard cleaned up. And that's when we found the camera too! Very excited about that.

Lillian started walking. Well, she started taking steps a couple of weeks ago. Now she's really into it. She still falls a bunch but it so cute to see her walk on her tiny feet. Not to mention she's barely 2 feet tall! But she stands constantly! It's very sweet.

Landon has been staying dry in his bed overnight some nights. BIG plus. I'm ready to get him completely out of diapers. But sometimes we still put one on him.

Olivia's almost done with her first year of school. She's enjoyed it so much. So have I. :-) I'm looking forward to a fun summer. I'm checking out a bunch of summer programs for her. She's especially looking forward to going back to S.H.I.P (Summer Happiness In Play) this year. A cute summer program that I went to when I was a kid - and the teacher is still there!! She's old enough to do some VBS's. :-) I'm looking into that too.

Robert's been blessed with some very lucrative side jobs. The $ is tempting but I start to miss him after a while! But I know he's doing it for our well-being. He is an incredible provider!

He was a machine this weekend! Not only did he help me clean the ENTIRE house (and I was exhausted after that!), he cleaned out the entire garage, vacuumed out his truck and my car, and washed them both. Oh, and cut the front and back yard! We were very productive this weekend. Good thing we have a fun weekend at the lake this weekend! We need some play time!

Well, that's what has been going on here. Off to run errands!!

PRAISE THE LORD

What a crazy week. This camera thing had really been messing with my head. It's so frustrating and really got me down. Then to top it off, we lost one of Olivia's shoes under our noses. I tore apart the house, again, and couldn't find it. Friday, I really thought I was going to lose it. It just wasn't funny any more. I was feeling under attack from the enemy. I spent most of the day rebuking him and praying against any spirit that was in our home. I just wanted the peace of GOD back in our house.

I sent an SOS email to Robert just saying that I needed him and some help. I needed him home. He had been gone SO much the past two weeks I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water. SO, he promised me a work/organizing day Saturday (today). Yes! I needed some help and wanted our home to get refocused.

Laying in bed Saturday morning I was praying for this day. For our time to be used efficiently, to stay focused, to get as much done as we can. And of course, praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal where the camera and shoe were!

7:45 a.m. I go down to tell Robert I also want to spray for bugs today and help him load up his work trailer with stuff that is in our way in the garage.

7:48 a.m. I tell him I thought it would be a great idea to put the Bowflex in the trailer since it takes up so much space in the garage and isn't used often enough.

7:49 a.m. He walks over to it to measure how wide it is to see if it would fit.

7:49:30 a.m. He holds up my bright blue camera case!

I almost cried! It was sitting in plain sight - about shoulder level. I must have walked by it 1,000 times! We immediately came together in a THANKSGIVING prayer!

What an AWESOME way to start our day! With an answered prayer!

Now.............we're gonna find that shoe!! :-)

Not Yet

No camera yet. It's quite crazy. We can track it down until around 6:30 Friday night. And Saturday afternoon - we noticed it was gone!

You see, I've been trying this new thing out. COMPLETELY clean up the house (and vaccuumming) before going to bed! We put away anything that is out of place - the kids help out. That way, we wake up to a fairly clean house the next morning! Good idea, huh.

The thing is, I think that I've taken on this mindset SO seriously, that I'm apparently putting things away TOO well.

I'm sure I've shoved it into some inconspicuous place or the kids have "hid" it away in some toy I haven't come across yet.

I just hope it doesn't take moving to find the stinkin' thing!!! I should also mention that it's in a bright blue camera case - done on purpose so that it would be easy to find!

Thank goodness Robert won another digital camera at one of our fund raiser events we hit up not too long ago! It's a pretty nice camera. So at least we still have a way of documenting LIFE!!

I feel like I have turned over every piece of furniture we own. I even cleaned out and reorganized my armoir in my bedroom!! I've looked behind the washing machine and dryer! I've looked through the grass in the backyard! Who knows where it's going to turn up.

It's really messing with my head. I hope we find it soon.

Not Good

I've lost my camera. Actually, I'm not sure I would call it lost because it is somewhere on our property. We know we last saw it around 6:00 pm Friday night. Then Saturday afternoon, we couldn't find it. I mean, I have crawled around on my hands and knees around this house looking for it.

We're thinking that I pulled a stunt like this :


You know the one where you mindlessly put something up and it's in the TOTALLY wrong spot! That's where I put away my coffee creamer the other morning. Didn't find it until that afternoon when I was going to get a cup of water!! My mind is MUSH!

SO...we're praying and searching. Every day that goes by, it gets a little harder to remember the events of that night!! I mean, it's SOMEWHERE around here....

I've looked in the most inconspicuous places I can think of - the refrigerator, toy boxes, pantry, bathroom drawers, ANY room that I'm in, I've got my eyes peeled.

I can't concentrate on anything else but finding this camera! It's consuming me!

Well, I'm going to continue to search in the most random of places.

Say a little prayer for us!! :-)

Somebody Likes It

The sourdough bread, ,that is.